Mistakes and Eternal Silenceby MajikkstarChaptersThe SpellHomeRoutine and EffortRecordingsThe SpellOutside the door leading into Flurry Heart's nursery, Spike groaned loudly in exasperation after waiting nearly twenty minutes. "Twilight, what's the hold-up? We're gonna miss the train back to Ponyville and I've got stuff to do." Twilight babbled in babytalk in what he took as a reply, to which he planted his forehead into the wall beside the open door and groaned again. “Spike, I’m almost done, we’re just finishing up.” “You said that fourteen minutes ago,” he replied. “Uh-huh, that’s great. Have fun.” Another quiet smack echoed down the hall as he replaced his head to the wall. “Hey, Spike, Twilight’s still-” she was interrupted by girlish laughter and babbling. “That answers that,” Starlight giggled and Spike glared at her. “Oh, c’mon Spike, we’re not leaving on time and you know it. Let’s go do something, I found the library so-” Spike stood tall, threw his arms up, and groaned. “I’m gonna get some ice cream!” Starlight followed him for several paces before stopping and smirking as he stormed away like a petulant child. She rolled her eyes and turned back the way she came at a more leisurely pace passing several guards and other ponies, descending two flights of stairs, a small tour group exploring the approved areas of the castle, and a cat with eyes that sparkled and caused her to look into its eyes and realize that even the animals were enchanted to change to crystal. She picked up her pace to make up for the lost steps as she rounded yet another arched corner. “Heh, only four more miles to go,” she mused. “Why’s the castle even laid out like this? Maybe it made sense a thousand years ago, but… Spike?” “Oh, hey, Starlight. You on your way to the kitchen, too?” “Uh, no, Spike. Library, remember?” “Oh… oh. I’m lost,” he kicked the floor and blushed faintly. “The library’s back there, want me to take you?” “I could sure use the company,” she offered and walked with him side by side. “So, no ice cream yet?” He looked at her and made a questioning face. “Uh, no? I just told you.” “You’re two floors lower than where you started and one above the kitchens, Spike,” she giggled again, “you really are lost. C’mon, you can help me find some ancient documents or scrolls, it’ll be more fun than getting sweets.” Spike relented without admitting he actually liked being a helper. He led her to the library and without the typical gasp he’d grown used to from Twilight, waited at the threshold for a second, then moved to catch up. “Okay, so, what’re you looking for?” “Anything old and magical, Spike.” He raised an eyebrow and motioned around. “You’re in a magic castle, in a magic land, surrounded by magic ponies that turn to crystal.” She laughed sarcastically with a roll of her eyes. ”Books and scrolls, Spike. Maybe some magically enchanted ones or some items that nopony knows what they do,” she tapped a forehoof to her chin as she smiled and Spike walked off to begin the search, “or perhaps an enchanted book that leads to an enchanted item,” she gasped in excitement, “or a map that leads to an enchanted book that leads to an enchanted item. Or-” … With a quiet thud, Spike planted the last of five books on the reading desk she was using. “Here, Starlight, I asked the librarian and she got me three more. Find anything yet?” “Yes, Spike. There’s a ton of new magic and spells in here,” she grinned as her eyes roved over each line. “Teleportation, gravity manipulation; long-term, the creation of matter from the aether, even one of my specialties; crystal creation, management, and purposes. I’m reading the last one right now,” she blinked and looked over at the dragon. “So, is it a good read at least, or should I get some more?” “No, this’ fine, Spike,” she said lighting her horn, "are you recording this?" She asked him and he showed her his empty hands. “Wait here, Twilight’s got paper and quills all over the place." “Wait, Spike, I’ve got this. It’s a spell I learned a few weeks ago,” she pulled a gem from her mane and set it on the table. With a short spell cast on it, she moved it aside and set it at the center of the table. “It’s a recording crystal, impressed?” “Not really, what’s it do?” She rolled her eyes. “Records audio logs. I made it because I don’t have a number one assistant,” she rubbed his head, “and don’t want to focus on writing everything as it happens when I can just record what happens and transcribe it later.” “Ohhh, wish I had that forever ago.” She snickered into her right forehoof. “It’s recording and will until I stop it or about eight hours pass. Now, watch this,” she said as she created a small dark gem and let it fall to the tabletop. “Interesting,” she scrutinized it. “It didn’t make a sound when it fell. Weird.” “Heh, I like it,” she picked it up with her magic and examined the perfectly polished and edged gem, “these look so sharp they’d cut into a pony’s hoof,” she said and passed it to Spike. He sniffed it and scrunched his face. “Eyuck, I wouldn’t eat that if it was the last gem on earth.” “I never thought I’d hear you say that,” Starlight snarked. “There’s something familiar about it, and I don’t like it. Maybe you shouldn’t be casting spells without Twilight here.” She rolled her eyes and took the gem from his hands and dropped it silently again. “Oh, Spike, I’m just as good at magic as she is and she knows it. There’s so many applications to a spell like this, too. Imagine if I use it against something like Tirek that’s trying to take over the world? Just seal him in one until he gets to Tartarus?” “Back there again, you mean. And he can’t escape again, can he?” “That was an example, Spike. Let’s see what happens when I try it on a book,” she didn’t wait and cast the spell on the stack of books Spike had collected and stumbled back. “What happened?” “Starlight?! You’re awake, finally. You cast the spell and fell over, I was about to get help. You were just staring at nothing on the floor.” “What? Really? I don’t feel any different, did the spell work?” “Yeah, it sure did.” He helped her up and she gawked at the library and how several books were now encased in dark crystal, hovering out of their shelves. “What happened? I didn’t cast it everywhere, did I?” “No, just at the books on the desk, and then some others flashed, then you fell over. Are you sure you’re okay? I’m gonna get Twilight.” “No, Spike, I’ve got this. I’m fine and can fix this, I just have to read the counterspell.” Spike frowned as she moved back to the book. “You cast a spell without knowing how to stop or undo it? What if it went wrong somehow?” “It didn’t go wrong, Spike, I just don’t know why it encased certain books that way and not others. I need something else to try it on,” she tapped her hoof on the floor as she looked around. Her gaze landed on Spike but he snorted a small flicker of fire and she passed on him. “Oh, I know,” she turned to a chair at the opposite side of her table and began to focus the spell, “just another experiment. No pony’s going to be hurt because it’s just a chair, Spike.” “I should get Twilight, this doesn’t feel right. What book is that, anyway?” She began to release the spell when Twilight appeared in the path of her beam, grinning. “I’m ready to-” She gasped and inhaled a breath as Spike leaped towards her, smacking into a black crystal holding a silhouette of her shape. “Twilight?!” He turned to Starlight, “get her out of there!” The mare fell over and her eyes flashed black and green for an instant, then her horn sparked several times and glowed the color of dark magic being cast. A sphere enveloped her and expanded to cover her body as dark electricity crackled, then it stopped and she fell to the floor. … “Starlight?” She grumbled to herself through a mild headache as Spike shook her violently. “Wake up, this’ serious! You’ve gotta unfreeze her, or ungem her… get up already!” She opened her eyes and everything changed from a green hue to normal, then she rolled to her haunches. “What happened?” “You cast that spell on Twilight, hurry and undo it before she gets mad.” “Mad? Twilight’s not gonna get mad, I just cast a spell, it’s no big deal,” she stood and grimaced at the hovering gem containing her mentor. “Ehh, she might be a little upset. Okay, let me see the spellbook,” she looked at the table. She reached for it with her magic but dropped it when a pang of pain struck her right through her horn, her brain, and along her spine to her tail. She placed a forehoof against her chest as the book thumped to the floor. “Starlight?! That's a book from the restricted section! How'd you get it?” She grimaced at the shout. “Quiet, Spike. I got it by teleporting past those wards for foals. I thought it was just a test to see if-” ”This is Sombra’ s spellbook! It says right on the cover, do you have any idea how bad this is?!” She placed her hooves on the floor after waving him off. “No big deal, he was-” “The dark magic using ruler of this empire that brought war and destruction to a timeline you dumped me and Twilight in,” he fumed. It didn't help when she patted his head patronizingly. “Look, is a spell book, so there's a counterspell. Sombra might have been evil, but he's not stupid. Er, wasn't. Once I free twilight, this book will be secured, I'll get in a little trouble, then it's back to normal. “Now, step back, Spike, I'm gonna crack that gem.” “Starlight, aren't you gonna use the book?” “Book, schmook.” Her horn glowed brightly, then she blasted a beam of light blue magic into the bottom of the gem. She stopped suddenly when another sharp spike of pain coursed through her head, this one from a different source. Spike kept his hand held high, ready to strike her horn again, tears welling in his eyes. “Stop hurting Twilight.” “Spike, I'm not hurting her, I'm,” she looked at the encased alicorn and gulped. She couldn't hear it, but Twilight's shadowy form inside seemed to be writhing in pain. He shoved the book from his other hand into her chest forcefully. “Fix this, Starlight, please.” She looked down at him and nodded. Get me some water, please, Spike.” She watched at the shadow stilled and then as Spike left, looking intently at the dark gem. She opened the book to where she was and barely read the first sentence before the padding and clack of Spikes feet returned. “Starlight! The other ponies, in the hall, something's wrong!” “Spike, you just left. What's wrong?” “Come look, they're… I don't know!” She got to her hooves again and galloped to the doorway, seeing nothing. He pointed down the hall he'd met her in less than an hour ago and she took the lead, stopping when she saw a crystal guard standing at attention. “Spike, this isn't the time for jokes,” she began to turn when a quiet moan twitched her ear. She looked back and around, only seeing the guard. “Sir, have you seen anything odd recently?” He stood still and silent. “You're doing a great job, but I would like an answer.” She waved her forehoof in front of his muzzle and he made a quiet moan that intrigued her. “Are you pranking me?” She asked hoping for an answer. When none came she turned back to the library and cantered past Spike, Twilight, to the book and read intently. … “Twilight, it's Spike. I'm doing everything I can, but it's not easy watching Flurry Heart when she's petrified. Starlight Glimmer found out how the spell works and is trying to reverse engineer it, but it's going slow. “It's only been a couple hours… I sure hope time is the same for us. Hey, Starlight?” Spike shouted across the massive library, waiting for an echo to answer his. “What, Spike? I'm kinda busy here.” “Time is still normal for Twilight, right?” “Yes. This spell is supposed to control a tribe of ponies. You can't control them if the original pony dies of old age or dies from metabolic shock. Why?” “I'm just talking to Twilight.” There wasn't a response. “So, yeah. Flurry Heart is like everypony else I've come across, petrified in place, wherever they were. Starlight's working really hard, doing her best. I caught her crying while learning how the spell works, but she teleported away saying she had to use the bathroom. “Regardless, we're trying our best, Twilight. Just, hang in there, okay?” … “Starlight?! Starlight? Starlight, there you are, wake up!” Spike breathed loudly as he approached the dozing mare. She looked at him, suddenly awake. “What now?” She looked into his eyes and her heart nearly broke at the pain she saw. “Flurry Heart, she can't eat or drink. She can't blink or cry. All she's been doing is making that noise for almost an hour and I can't help her. What do I do? What do we do?!” “Has Princess Celestia answered you yet?” He shook his head. “No pony has. I've sent a dozen scrolls and haven't even rolled most of them, so anypony can read them… what if this is affecting more than the Empire?” “It can't be, Spike. We're fine and we haven't checked the whole city. There are plenty of non-crystal ponies that are probably just as confused as we are, only we have the answer,” she yawned loudly. “It's nine at night,” Spike offered before her yawn was done. “Crap, this is taking more out of me than it should be,” she rubbed her head and tapped her horn. “At least it didn't hurt right now. Spike? What was that look for?” “Um, nothing, really. I think you should focus on fixing the spell.” “That's the thing, Spike,” she groaned, “the spell is working exactly as it should be. Try and get some food and water into Flurry Heart while I get ready to start experimenting.” “Start experimenting? On what?” “Well, we’ve got plenty of inanimate objects around, so you worry about feeding and I’ll worry about the spell.” “Sheesh, you don’t need to get snippy,” Spike said as he looked at her in the way Twilight had looked at him hundreds of times in the past. “I’m sorry, Spike, this is a lot to have happening in such a short time. It’s not like the other times, this feels different, wrong.” “Maybe because you used a black magic spell from-” “See you later, Spike,” she forced a smile and teleported him to the nursery. “Finally. Okay, this isn’t that hard. I can do this, it’s just like when I brainwashed a village or my friends, or that time with my parents, the princesses, the delegates,” she slouched and groaned. “I’m not very good at being a good pony,” she perked up, “but I’m learning and better than I was.” She began reading the spell she’d modified from a separate sheet of paper and beginning her experiment. … “Starlight? Are you in here?!” Spike’s voice echoed through the library as he plodded around, his toe talons clicking rhythmically as he rushed down the center of the large room. “Twilight’s missing, where are you?” He held hope that she didn’t do something wrong, again, and make matters worse. He finally reached the area she was working at and glanced at dozens of black gems around the area holding unknown and untold items. “Great, the classic note on the desk. Lemme guess, she’s run away and never coming back,” he rolled his shoulders and reached over the table and took the note. “I was close,” he snorted fire and incinerated the note, “maybe I can learn to drive a train back home,” he turned and marched his way out of the room. “She could’ve at least taken Flurry Heart, now I’ve gotta carry her with me… at least I can get her to eat now, sorta.” HomeSpike saw Ponyville just as he crested a hill, tears swelled in his eyes, his breath hitched in a hiccup, and he swallowed loudly. He shrugged the backpack higher onto his back and scanned the streets, hoping for motion. For activity, for anything to show life where he lived. He hung his head and began walking again, back to Ponyville, back home. He reached the main street choking back sobs as he walked the silent way to the castle, looming in the distance. “It’s like midnight during winter,” he mumbled as he looked up, the sun still in the sky from six days ago when all this began. Feral clouds thankfully had begun to colese into large natural formations that drizzled or shaded anything they passed. He was sure nature was happy about that, because no night was bad enough, then to add on fires or whatever else was going to happen. He stopped thinking about that as best he could, realizing that the Princesses were probably… He looked aside at Sugarcube Corner’s smoking remains and tripped, falling to his knees when his eyes locked on the burnt support beams and finally the dam broke as he imagined everypony in the shop, frozen in place as they burned alive. His claws dug into the dry crumbling dirt and he groaned in pain as thoughts of what each of his and Twilight’s friends had been through, only to die frozen and alone. Half an hour later he’s stopped bawling enough to stand and return to his march towards the castle. “Maybe Twilight will be there, freaking out over all this and how to go back in time to fix it. She’s done it before, a warning about this and it’s back to normal. Heck, maybe it’s already happened and we’re in an alternate timeline that isn’t a living nightmare.” He kept his gaze traveling between windows in empty houses as he walked his own pace. The sign of a fire was obvious by billowing smoke behind several houses. He wondered whose house and whether or not they were inside when it started or not. “They’re dead anyway, what can hoping do?” He opened the door to the castle and listened to the echo of squeaking doors created by his action. “Well, anypony home?” he called. A flash of light that made him wince brought Starlight, eyes bloodshot and red, tears stained and matted her face from all angles out of her eyes; she was ragged. Her voice rasped harshly. “Sp-spike! I can fix this, it’s almost ready, Twilight’s here and waiting in her prison, because it’s a prison spike, one so advanced that even Sombra wasn’t going to use it. It wasn’t a journal of what he was planning to do, it was a book of forbidden spells he’d never use and have to ban when he took over the world, and gained immortality, and I cast it, Spike, I cast it,” she growled to herself and bore her teeth at the reflection in the floor. “Starlight, show me Twilight please,” he managed as he watched the unicorn crying hatefully at her reflection. She looked at him, showing full well her issues. “Yes, Twilight, she’s waiting for me to fix this. Waiting and waiting, waiting for me to fix my mistake all by myself. Silly Celestia is punishing me, too, for when I swapped her cutie mark with Luna’s. No night, Spike. No sleep until I fix this, a reminder, Spike, of what I did and how I have to fix it. It’s my mistake to fix… Twilight, yes! Come, come, Spike, I’m gonna get her out, just wait,” she charged her magic and teleported them to the castle throne room. Spike expected something to stand out, instead all he noticed different was that the chairs no longer had the cutie mark’s belonging to their respective previous owners. His eyes lingered at Rarity’s for a few seconds before noticing Twilight’s was missing as well. Starlight was still rambling through a ragged voice when he noticed a side door open and Twilight’s gem inside. “Twilight!” he cried and ran across the room where so many good memories had been made. He opened the door enough to walk in and looked around, stopping his rush. Tools such as saws, hammers, chisels, and axes were strewn around the base of the gleaming and still polished gem. “Oh no, Twilight,” he moved to the gem and fell to his knees, looking at her shadowed form inside. He could tell she was different, was dead. He could feel it in his heart that the person he cared most for was gone, just as was everypony else. He cried quietly to himself at Twilight’s prison as Starlight called various spell names out between sobs of her own. … “Starlight, what was the spell? You said it was bad, why?” She looked him with crazed eyes. “The first page, Spike. The first page! I skipped the first page of all of them and skipped more and more until I found a spell I thought would be helpful. I killed everypony, Spike, because I missed a page,” she barked a laugh and cackled at the roots of the Golden Oaks Library. Her eyes spilled tears as she looked at the memories in the gems and she laughed. Her senses came back to her with a shock to her system as Spike hugged her barrel. For that moment, she wasn’t alone. She wasn’t the cause of genocide. She was sane again and had a problem to solve. “Spike, the first page explained that every spell he wrote in the book was tested in a pocket dimension made by black magic. “When I cast it in the real world it had full unfettered access to the aether we use, instead of the limited amount he did when he tested,” she hugged him back and shuddered, “there are no counterspells, Spike. This spell was one of his biggest fears, and the reason he never tested on unicorns.” “Why?” Spike asked before she could continue, frustrating her just a little. “Because, Spike, he’d have earth ponies and captured Equestrian pegasi to test his spells on, and after a dozen tests he concluded that anyone he cast the spell on would have their link to the aether corrupted and it would link to the next nearest member of the tribe. There was no way to block it, so he canceled the research and put it in the book as a warning,” she chuckled darkly. “The Book of Magic: X. I thought it was a title number, but it’s how they marked banned books in the empire under his rule. Of all his faults, he hoarded knowledge and wouldn’t let a single book be damaged. He cast spells and had his unicorn slaves-” Spike took a step back and looked at her chest fur and the smudges his tears had left. “So, Starlight, it sounds like if he cast it on earth ponies they’d all be affected everywhere?” She wrung her forehooves around each other and shook her head. “No, there was a limit to the distance based on the ability of the next pony in the chain. Earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns could only affect a limited area relative to their race. If he cast this spell on a pony in the empire, or even in a city, it would only affect those within the city, at worst. But on an alicorn? “A pony with the power to control the sun, or moon, or the feelings of everypony without their knowledge. Or a certain one that had her special talent specifically in magic; one that had a connection to the very source of magic that we all draw from to live our normal lives,” her voice fell flat as Spike watched her stare into nothingness, “all but one who was casting the spell that had darkness in her heart. “The caster would be protected by the final part of the spell, so he would always live by being the focal point of the spell. Spike,” she looked down at him, but through him as though she were speaking to nothing and he was in the way, “I’m immortal. I can’t die, ever. When I cast the spell I sealed time around me, a physical barrier made of magic that’s always flowing through me held within it,” she blinked and stood, looking at Twilight’s gem. “I tried, Spike. Two days ago, when I buried every pony in Ponyville. Every single one,” she gnashed her teeth, “infants, foals, stallions, mares… Fluttershy, Applejack and her family, Berry Punch, Ditzy Doo, Time Turner,” she began rocking on her hooves, front and back reciting names. Spike listened as she spoke, rambled through the names. Everypony he knew, loved, cared for were gone. “I never found Rainbow Dash, but she was probably in training and fell to earth, squish. Maybe she was napping on a cloud and woke up, Spike, what if she woke up frozen with her eyes closed for every last minute of her life? Alone on a cloud or in her house where I didn’t look,” she blinked and flinched when she noticed him. “Where’s Flurry Heart? Shining Ar-” she was silenced by a claw to her lips. She was wrapped in a hug again that she didn’t return. “I, I killed them all. Everyone. Every one. All of them, are on my horn. I can’t cut it off, spike. I tried three days ago, when the last pony in town died. At least, I’m pretty sure she died, I couldn’t really check. No, she didn’t die, I didn’t die. I’m still here, aren’t I? Yes, forever. I’m here forever, as a reminder of what evil can truly be, and how it has to be punished.” “Starlight, it’s not your fault. You didn’t know and we can fix this, right?” He couldn’t hold on as she began to wander the side room and write notes in a new book on a far desk. He didn’t care, instead leaving the room and lying in Twilight’s chair to take a well deserved nap. Routine and EffortSpike snorted awake, silence his only friend again. “Ugh,” he reached above his head to Twilight’s throne and scratched a mark into the back. “Sixteen days, I think. Time to start another still day.” He rolled from the throne and walked around the table, still working and showing Equestria slowing crumbling. Fires burnt in cities, cloud homes fell from the sky in pieces, yet no pony cared. He glanced as a dust storm tore across the southern deserts unhindered, Thorax had arrived and left when Starlight was going through a manic episode and lost control of her powers, or so she said and opened a rift to someplace else. Spike had looked into the void and felt nothing short of terror. Thorax, who had been standing in the middle of the circle, barely escaped by changing into a whale. Spike shook his head at the thought and nonsense it was that a creature slightly larger than Twilight could turn into a creature the size of her castle, including the weight. “Thorax is gone, Ember is still a no show,” he rolled his shoulders, “but with no way to contact her she’s probably trying to stop the dragons from burning Equestria to a cinder,” he looked at sporadic fires wondering how many were dragon caused. “Gryphons probably just realized we’re all gone and they won’t come here first, it’d be Canterlot, at best.” He yawned and opened the throne room door and entered the silent hall, the scent of burning bread tickled his nose and he faceclawed, turning to the kitchens. “Starlight,” he groaned as he opened the kitchen door and saw her wearing a toque and spraying flour across the room as she stirred four bowls with magic and one more with her forelegs. “She can do it, so can I. I can do it if she did it. Spike, if I figure out Pinkie I can fix everything. That’s the secret I missed, right? Right! She doesn’t make sense, and the spell doesn’t make sense. But she does make sense,” Starlight snickered and snorted flour from her snout and nose, “and so will it. Pinkie baked a thousand treats in five minutes, if I can figure that out I can figure her out. “Oh! Itchy back, gotta snack,” she opened a drawer by the sink and pulled out a small cylindrical brick. “Come to mama,” she opened her mouth as it moved quickly toward her. Spike stopped it as it crossed the room and looked at it. “Another cake? Starlight, you have to stop doing this. It’s not your fault,” he said looking at the cylinder of dough and herbs that were tightly packed and shaped like they came from a grocery market can. “They’re everywhere, Spike. I’ve hid them everywhere, just like Pinkie. I have an itchy back, Spike, I need a snack. Back and snack, snack on back… Snack on back,” she screamed and all her magic faded creating a mess on top of a dozen other messes. Spike gulped at her sudden epiphany. “Starlight?” She cackled. “If I keep snacks on my back I won’t have to hide them, I can just put them in my mane and pull them when I need them. Stay there, I’m gonna duck down here and then give you a party with all the ponies I didn’t kill, and we’re going to eat and drink punch,” she suddenly began to sob, tears forming into clumps as they mixed with the flour on her face. Spike placed the cake on the counter and moved around to her, took her foreleg in his hand, and led her out of the kitchen. “Spike, I can move the sun if I try hard enough, right? I’m not going to kill the other side of the planet, right? I can fix this if I figure out Pinkie, right? I can go back in time and kill myself before I do this, right? I can go so far back I can kill myself when Sunburst left, right?! “Sweet Celestia, Sunburst. He’s gone. Mom and dad. Miss Cheerilee. The cutie mark crusaders. All the foals, even the ones I never had... are gone. I was going to name my colts and my fillies and my grand foals and birthdays, Hearths Warming. Spike, will you be my special somepony? I need to be with foal,” she spent a moment blubbering as Spike led her into the shower and turned on the water. “I’ll see you later, Starlight,” he said soberly and left her to cry in the warm water. He returned to Twilight’s research laboratory and opened his notes to where he’d left off. “Okay, I can figure this out. It’s just like Twilight showed me a hundred times, it’s just math and practical logic with words, sometimes.” He took a quill in his grasp and dipped it into an empty inkwell. His eye twitched and he stood carefully, moved to the cupboard, took a full one to the desk, then really began. … Spike sneered as Starlight’s voice echoed through the halls as she approached. He mimicked her mockingly in a nasal tone. “They’re gone, I can fix this. A month and no sleep, no crying, no laughing… blah, blah, blah,” he used his claws to mimic her rambling rant. He took a page of his notes, one of the final drafts of this run, to Starlight. “Try to cast this and it’ll make everything better, Starlight. You won’t be alone anymore if you do, everything will be fixed,” he chirped happily. Her eyes focused on the page and she scanned it, her horn lit, and she cast the spell against the wall behind Spike. She galloped desperately towards it and into the portal she’d opened with a giggle. A split second later she fell from the ceiling as the portal closed, she was curled holding her tail and stroking it while mumbling incoherently. “Starlight?” Spike asked placing a claw on her flank. He spent the next three hours trying to stay unharmed and alive from her various attacks. Luckily he was small enough to hide in many places she couldn’t easily find. That didn’t stop her from tearing a tower off the castle before she suffered magic burnout. Spike carried her to her bed and tucked her in, lay next to her, and cried himself to sleep after the worst four hours awake he’d ever had. … “Day one hundred-ish. Nature is back to being completely feral and it seems to be working in a way. The sun has moved slightly in the sky so I think it has started moving on its own. Starlight made hundreds of recording gems and the spell changed so only when they record sound will they use time, so I have enough gems to last a while. “They taste terrible so I won’t be eating them. I’m making headway on the spells I’m writing, heh. A dragon writing spells for a unicorn. A crazy unicorn, but the only one that can help make this better. If I can get her to cast a spell that she doesn’t use or change or cancel, then I think I’ll be in a better place. “I don’t know if it was covered in my earlier report, but Sombra’s spell affected a tribe of ponies, alicorns are all tribes so they were all affected. The math says that if it had been Luna or Celestia, it wouldn’t have been that bad, but Twilight and Cadence control either the ponies directly or through the connection to the aether. “Discord is part pony, so I imagine he’s loving this, being frozen wherever he is. Maybe he’s not affected or maybe only the pony part of him is and he doesn’t really want to help us. Too many variables. Dragons don’t go insane, so as long as Starlight doesn’t kill me I’m the most sane creature in the city of Ponyville. “I’m recording these for posterity. Indexing them by date, topics covered, and importance. Routine is a good thing, I learned that from Twilight and I can’t wait to see her again. I may not be able to let her know about any of these for a few centuries. Heh, it’ll be nice to know something she doesn’t for a while. It’ll be better to hug her again. I might never let her go then.” … “The sun set, the moon rose, and there was wind. I spent time with Starlight Glimmer today, we walked through what’s left of the park. She sat on a hill and watched the clouds moving in the wind and mumbled about how Rainbow Dash would fix all the weather in a minute. I chuckled at that and she gave a real laugh, too. “Ha-ha, heh… I think we’re going to start spending time together, quality time, so she can help me on her good days with these spells. I’m not a unicorn and that’s not a joke, I’m just in a good mood. There’s just some things a horn can do that rugged good looks, immunity to fire, and wit as sharp as my talons can’t. Or can, er… I confused myself. Dang, I wish I could erase that. RecordingsSo, here I am again. Turns out every single gem Starlight made has about an hour of her rambling at the beginning. They're all the same so you can skip the first fifty six minutes and twenty eight seconds. Or not, whatever. Day 1, let's say. Starlight lowered the sun and rose the moon, or so I told her. The day and night cycle is on its own. The sun and moon were even in the sky at the same time, kinda crazy to see, but not the worst. I watched Canterlot burn the other day... maybe a couple weeks ago by normal time. There are clocks, but when I spent the second week sleeping constantly I didn't know morning from night time and I stopped looking at them all together a long time ago. I never thought time would get boring while I was so young, but here I am. I found out why - Ugh, I'm back. Just a little smokey but a little electricity won't kill me, just rolls off my scales. Where was I? Whatever, I'm eating all the gems I want and seeing results like I hadn't before. Without Twilight to stop me, I've started to get my dragon scales. Not the normal ones, these new ones are hard for me to eat when they fall off, and I think they're magic resistant, to a point. Starlight's been spending a lot of time sleeping, finally. I told her to start a calendar to keep time but that's after she wakes up. It's daylight out, but she's going to be the one starting the calendar because Spike the Brave and Glorious is going to save ponykind. Back again, and I'm making progress. Turns out that Starlight remembers what happened that one time forever ago when she cast that one spell and tried to kill me. She spent years floating in some kind of middle space watching the lives of creatures all over Equestria from birth to death. It gave her hope at first, then she went crazy and did some bad things. Well, she tried to, anyway. Kind of hard to affect some alternate reality from outside of it, I guess. She says she was almost through to another world where ponies still existed when she fell out of it and that's all she remembers, she was very sorry to see what happened to the castle and what she tried to do to me. Regardless, I've read another magic tome. Twilight would be proud of me... I'm not crying anymore. She's in the gem, just over there. I feel like she's watching me, helping me look at the right books or do this math when I'm- Hey, Spike. I'm sorry if I'm disturbing you. No, it's fine. I'm just doing more magic stuff. Can I help? I know you're not a magic user and I'm feeling okay tonight. Er, today. If you think you can, Starlight. I mean, I know you can, but if you're up to it. I wouldn't have offered if I wasn't. Let me see what you've got so far? Hmph. You're still such a novice, Spike. Hey, don't laugh at me. At least I'm doing something about all this and not sleeping all the time. Ugh! Look, I'm sorry. This' been a rough couple days and I'm learning to do something I never thought I'd have to actually do. It's okay, Spike. I understand, oh hey! Is that one of my recording gems? Heh, glad you noticed. I figured out how to use them, a little dragon's breath and they're on. Another kiss of my awesome fire and it's off. Watch. That's pretty cool, Spike. Thanks, I know I am. Still have your ego, I see. Hey, you're not the last dragon in the kingdom, are you? Sorry again, I'm not thinking before I talk and keep putting my foot in my mouth. It's okay, Spike. Let me see if I can open a time portal for you, maybe it'll work this time. Yeah, if you don't try to go through it before me or short it out. That's not gonna happen, I'm in a good place right now. I did the breathing exercised you taught me before and after I woke up. Well then, get casting, I wanna hug my friends again! Friends? Hugs. Love. I can cast the spell, but they're gone. Oh no... not again. Starlight, breathe with me. In, out. In, out. In- and she's gone with my notes. Well, I've got nothing to report now so I'll just sign out until later. Ugh, this is the most awkward recording yet. Estrus just started and I'm locked in the kitchen hiding in an oven because without any stallions around, marefriends to help, her agoraphobia, and Twilight's refusal to have any reproductive assistant aids in the castle; that leaves me to scratch her itch. That's what she's calling it but I know what it means, Twilight was pretty bad when she was younger until she learned a spell for it. Starlight can't focus enough to cast it on herself. I can't cast it. No other unicorns are around to cast it. So here I am, hiding in an oven so she won't find me. The fire's going full blast so she won't see me, and if she does the fire might deter her. How long can this last, a couple days at most, right? I'll sneak out when I can to eat some of the castle walls or something. "I... she... we. Uhm, she found me and, wow. Just, wow. She's so pretty when she sleeps, I could watch her all night. Hrmm, I can think of something else to do while you watch me. I think I'm gonna like this time of the year. Who says it only has to happen during my seasons? Ss-s-seasons? Spring and autumn, but for my Spikey? She's been waking up crying in the middle of the night and begging me for our personal time. I don't think it's about what it was, I think she's using me for a distraction. I've grown to almost as tall as she is standing lately so that's a thing. My voice is deeper, too. As long as I don't turn into a giant and stampede again, I think I'll be okay. Spike? Where are you? I woke up and you weren't there when I needed you, please don't leave me, too. Oh no, I didn't make you vanish again, did I? Please, where are you?! Starlight, I'm here, right here. Oof. It's okay to cry, let it out. Let it out. I'm here for yo-ugk. Wait, let me turn off the gem! Let the future hear, I don't care at all. Spiiike! Yes, yes! Rarity! Uh, I mean Starlight. I don't care, don't stop! Well, the future's gonna blush when they hear that. Heh heh. At least there'll be a future, Spike. I'm ready to get back to the spells, let's go. Aww, but I need a nap. No naps, we have work to do. Spike! Wake up. Gah! I'm awake, I'm awake, let it go, owowow. Sheesh, how'd you even get it out? A mare has her ways. Author's Note More to come soon, maybe. If I feel like it.
The SpellOutside the door leading into Flurry Heart's nursery, Spike groaned loudly in exasperation after waiting nearly twenty minutes. "Twilight, what's the hold-up? We're gonna miss the train back to Ponyville and I've got stuff to do." Twilight babbled in babytalk in what he took as a reply, to which he planted his forehead into the wall beside the open door and groaned again. “Spike, I’m almost done, we’re just finishing up.” “You said that fourteen minutes ago,” he replied. “Uh-huh, that’s great. Have fun.” Another quiet smack echoed down the hall as he replaced his head to the wall. “Hey, Spike, Twilight’s still-” she was interrupted by girlish laughter and babbling. “That answers that,” Starlight giggled and Spike glared at her. “Oh, c’mon Spike, we’re not leaving on time and you know it. Let’s go do something, I found the library so-” Spike stood tall, threw his arms up, and groaned. “I’m gonna get some ice cream!” Starlight followed him for several paces before stopping and smirking as he stormed away like a petulant child. She rolled her eyes and turned back the way she came at a more leisurely pace passing several guards and other ponies, descending two flights of stairs, a small tour group exploring the approved areas of the castle, and a cat with eyes that sparkled and caused her to look into its eyes and realize that even the animals were enchanted to change to crystal. She picked up her pace to make up for the lost steps as she rounded yet another arched corner. “Heh, only four more miles to go,” she mused. “Why’s the castle even laid out like this? Maybe it made sense a thousand years ago, but… Spike?” “Oh, hey, Starlight. You on your way to the kitchen, too?” “Uh, no, Spike. Library, remember?” “Oh… oh. I’m lost,” he kicked the floor and blushed faintly. “The library’s back there, want me to take you?” “I could sure use the company,” she offered and walked with him side by side. “So, no ice cream yet?” He looked at her and made a questioning face. “Uh, no? I just told you.” “You’re two floors lower than where you started and one above the kitchens, Spike,” she giggled again, “you really are lost. C’mon, you can help me find some ancient documents or scrolls, it’ll be more fun than getting sweets.” Spike relented without admitting he actually liked being a helper. He led her to the library and without the typical gasp he’d grown used to from Twilight, waited at the threshold for a second, then moved to catch up. “Okay, so, what’re you looking for?” “Anything old and magical, Spike.” He raised an eyebrow and motioned around. “You’re in a magic castle, in a magic land, surrounded by magic ponies that turn to crystal.” She laughed sarcastically with a roll of her eyes. ”Books and scrolls, Spike. Maybe some magically enchanted ones or some items that nopony knows what they do,” she tapped a forehoof to her chin as she smiled and Spike walked off to begin the search, “or perhaps an enchanted book that leads to an enchanted item,” she gasped in excitement, “or a map that leads to an enchanted book that leads to an enchanted item. Or-” … With a quiet thud, Spike planted the last of five books on the reading desk she was using. “Here, Starlight, I asked the librarian and she got me three more. Find anything yet?” “Yes, Spike. There’s a ton of new magic and spells in here,” she grinned as her eyes roved over each line. “Teleportation, gravity manipulation; long-term, the creation of matter from the aether, even one of my specialties; crystal creation, management, and purposes. I’m reading the last one right now,” she blinked and looked over at the dragon. “So, is it a good read at least, or should I get some more?” “No, this’ fine, Spike,” she said lighting her horn, "are you recording this?" She asked him and he showed her his empty hands. “Wait here, Twilight’s got paper and quills all over the place." “Wait, Spike, I’ve got this. It’s a spell I learned a few weeks ago,” she pulled a gem from her mane and set it on the table. With a short spell cast on it, she moved it aside and set it at the center of the table. “It’s a recording crystal, impressed?” “Not really, what’s it do?” She rolled her eyes. “Records audio logs. I made it because I don’t have a number one assistant,” she rubbed his head, “and don’t want to focus on writing everything as it happens when I can just record what happens and transcribe it later.” “Ohhh, wish I had that forever ago.” She snickered into her right forehoof. “It’s recording and will until I stop it or about eight hours pass. Now, watch this,” she said as she created a small dark gem and let it fall to the tabletop. “Interesting,” she scrutinized it. “It didn’t make a sound when it fell. Weird.” “Heh, I like it,” she picked it up with her magic and examined the perfectly polished and edged gem, “these look so sharp they’d cut into a pony’s hoof,” she said and passed it to Spike. He sniffed it and scrunched his face. “Eyuck, I wouldn’t eat that if it was the last gem on earth.” “I never thought I’d hear you say that,” Starlight snarked. “There’s something familiar about it, and I don’t like it. Maybe you shouldn’t be casting spells without Twilight here.” She rolled her eyes and took the gem from his hands and dropped it silently again. “Oh, Spike, I’m just as good at magic as she is and she knows it. There’s so many applications to a spell like this, too. Imagine if I use it against something like Tirek that’s trying to take over the world? Just seal him in one until he gets to Tartarus?” “Back there again, you mean. And he can’t escape again, can he?” “That was an example, Spike. Let’s see what happens when I try it on a book,” she didn’t wait and cast the spell on the stack of books Spike had collected and stumbled back. “What happened?” “Starlight?! You’re awake, finally. You cast the spell and fell over, I was about to get help. You were just staring at nothing on the floor.” “What? Really? I don’t feel any different, did the spell work?” “Yeah, it sure did.” He helped her up and she gawked at the library and how several books were now encased in dark crystal, hovering out of their shelves. “What happened? I didn’t cast it everywhere, did I?” “No, just at the books on the desk, and then some others flashed, then you fell over. Are you sure you’re okay? I’m gonna get Twilight.” “No, Spike, I’ve got this. I’m fine and can fix this, I just have to read the counterspell.” Spike frowned as she moved back to the book. “You cast a spell without knowing how to stop or undo it? What if it went wrong somehow?” “It didn’t go wrong, Spike, I just don’t know why it encased certain books that way and not others. I need something else to try it on,” she tapped her hoof on the floor as she looked around. Her gaze landed on Spike but he snorted a small flicker of fire and she passed on him. “Oh, I know,” she turned to a chair at the opposite side of her table and began to focus the spell, “just another experiment. No pony’s going to be hurt because it’s just a chair, Spike.” “I should get Twilight, this doesn’t feel right. What book is that, anyway?” She began to release the spell when Twilight appeared in the path of her beam, grinning. “I’m ready to-” She gasped and inhaled a breath as Spike leaped towards her, smacking into a black crystal holding a silhouette of her shape. “Twilight?!” He turned to Starlight, “get her out of there!” The mare fell over and her eyes flashed black and green for an instant, then her horn sparked several times and glowed the color of dark magic being cast. A sphere enveloped her and expanded to cover her body as dark electricity crackled, then it stopped and she fell to the floor. … “Starlight?” She grumbled to herself through a mild headache as Spike shook her violently. “Wake up, this’ serious! You’ve gotta unfreeze her, or ungem her… get up already!” She opened her eyes and everything changed from a green hue to normal, then she rolled to her haunches. “What happened?” “You cast that spell on Twilight, hurry and undo it before she gets mad.” “Mad? Twilight’s not gonna get mad, I just cast a spell, it’s no big deal,” she stood and grimaced at the hovering gem containing her mentor. “Ehh, she might be a little upset. Okay, let me see the spellbook,” she looked at the table. She reached for it with her magic but dropped it when a pang of pain struck her right through her horn, her brain, and along her spine to her tail. She placed a forehoof against her chest as the book thumped to the floor. “Starlight?! That's a book from the restricted section! How'd you get it?” She grimaced at the shout. “Quiet, Spike. I got it by teleporting past those wards for foals. I thought it was just a test to see if-” ”This is Sombra’ s spellbook! It says right on the cover, do you have any idea how bad this is?!” She placed her hooves on the floor after waving him off. “No big deal, he was-” “The dark magic using ruler of this empire that brought war and destruction to a timeline you dumped me and Twilight in,” he fumed. It didn't help when she patted his head patronizingly. “Look, is a spell book, so there's a counterspell. Sombra might have been evil, but he's not stupid. Er, wasn't. Once I free twilight, this book will be secured, I'll get in a little trouble, then it's back to normal. “Now, step back, Spike, I'm gonna crack that gem.” “Starlight, aren't you gonna use the book?” “Book, schmook.” Her horn glowed brightly, then she blasted a beam of light blue magic into the bottom of the gem. She stopped suddenly when another sharp spike of pain coursed through her head, this one from a different source. Spike kept his hand held high, ready to strike her horn again, tears welling in his eyes. “Stop hurting Twilight.” “Spike, I'm not hurting her, I'm,” she looked at the encased alicorn and gulped. She couldn't hear it, but Twilight's shadowy form inside seemed to be writhing in pain. He shoved the book from his other hand into her chest forcefully. “Fix this, Starlight, please.” She looked down at him and nodded. Get me some water, please, Spike.” She watched at the shadow stilled and then as Spike left, looking intently at the dark gem. She opened the book to where she was and barely read the first sentence before the padding and clack of Spikes feet returned. “Starlight! The other ponies, in the hall, something's wrong!” “Spike, you just left. What's wrong?” “Come look, they're… I don't know!” She got to her hooves again and galloped to the doorway, seeing nothing. He pointed down the hall he'd met her in less than an hour ago and she took the lead, stopping when she saw a crystal guard standing at attention. “Spike, this isn't the time for jokes,” she began to turn when a quiet moan twitched her ear. She looked back and around, only seeing the guard. “Sir, have you seen anything odd recently?” He stood still and silent. “You're doing a great job, but I would like an answer.” She waved her forehoof in front of his muzzle and he made a quiet moan that intrigued her. “Are you pranking me?” She asked hoping for an answer. When none came she turned back to the library and cantered past Spike, Twilight, to the book and read intently. … “Twilight, it's Spike. I'm doing everything I can, but it's not easy watching Flurry Heart when she's petrified. Starlight Glimmer found out how the spell works and is trying to reverse engineer it, but it's going slow. “It's only been a couple hours… I sure hope time is the same for us. Hey, Starlight?” Spike shouted across the massive library, waiting for an echo to answer his. “What, Spike? I'm kinda busy here.” “Time is still normal for Twilight, right?” “Yes. This spell is supposed to control a tribe of ponies. You can't control them if the original pony dies of old age or dies from metabolic shock. Why?” “I'm just talking to Twilight.” There wasn't a response. “So, yeah. Flurry Heart is like everypony else I've come across, petrified in place, wherever they were. Starlight's working really hard, doing her best. I caught her crying while learning how the spell works, but she teleported away saying she had to use the bathroom. “Regardless, we're trying our best, Twilight. Just, hang in there, okay?” … “Starlight?! Starlight? Starlight, there you are, wake up!” Spike breathed loudly as he approached the dozing mare. She looked at him, suddenly awake. “What now?” She looked into his eyes and her heart nearly broke at the pain she saw. “Flurry Heart, she can't eat or drink. She can't blink or cry. All she's been doing is making that noise for almost an hour and I can't help her. What do I do? What do we do?!” “Has Princess Celestia answered you yet?” He shook his head. “No pony has. I've sent a dozen scrolls and haven't even rolled most of them, so anypony can read them… what if this is affecting more than the Empire?” “It can't be, Spike. We're fine and we haven't checked the whole city. There are plenty of non-crystal ponies that are probably just as confused as we are, only we have the answer,” she yawned loudly. “It's nine at night,” Spike offered before her yawn was done. “Crap, this is taking more out of me than it should be,” she rubbed her head and tapped her horn. “At least it didn't hurt right now. Spike? What was that look for?” “Um, nothing, really. I think you should focus on fixing the spell.” “That's the thing, Spike,” she groaned, “the spell is working exactly as it should be. Try and get some food and water into Flurry Heart while I get ready to start experimenting.” “Start experimenting? On what?” “Well, we’ve got plenty of inanimate objects around, so you worry about feeding and I’ll worry about the spell.” “Sheesh, you don’t need to get snippy,” Spike said as he looked at her in the way Twilight had looked at him hundreds of times in the past. “I’m sorry, Spike, this is a lot to have happening in such a short time. It’s not like the other times, this feels different, wrong.” “Maybe because you used a black magic spell from-” “See you later, Spike,” she forced a smile and teleported him to the nursery. “Finally. Okay, this isn’t that hard. I can do this, it’s just like when I brainwashed a village or my friends, or that time with my parents, the princesses, the delegates,” she slouched and groaned. “I’m not very good at being a good pony,” she perked up, “but I’m learning and better than I was.” She began reading the spell she’d modified from a separate sheet of paper and beginning her experiment. … “Starlight? Are you in here?!” Spike’s voice echoed through the library as he plodded around, his toe talons clicking rhythmically as he rushed down the center of the large room. “Twilight’s missing, where are you?” He held hope that she didn’t do something wrong, again, and make matters worse. He finally reached the area she was working at and glanced at dozens of black gems around the area holding unknown and untold items. “Great, the classic note on the desk. Lemme guess, she’s run away and never coming back,” he rolled his shoulders and reached over the table and took the note. “I was close,” he snorted fire and incinerated the note, “maybe I can learn to drive a train back home,” he turned and marched his way out of the room. “She could’ve at least taken Flurry Heart, now I’ve gotta carry her with me… at least I can get her to eat now, sorta.”
HomeSpike saw Ponyville just as he crested a hill, tears swelled in his eyes, his breath hitched in a hiccup, and he swallowed loudly. He shrugged the backpack higher onto his back and scanned the streets, hoping for motion. For activity, for anything to show life where he lived. He hung his head and began walking again, back to Ponyville, back home. He reached the main street choking back sobs as he walked the silent way to the castle, looming in the distance. “It’s like midnight during winter,” he mumbled as he looked up, the sun still in the sky from six days ago when all this began. Feral clouds thankfully had begun to colese into large natural formations that drizzled or shaded anything they passed. He was sure nature was happy about that, because no night was bad enough, then to add on fires or whatever else was going to happen. He stopped thinking about that as best he could, realizing that the Princesses were probably… He looked aside at Sugarcube Corner’s smoking remains and tripped, falling to his knees when his eyes locked on the burnt support beams and finally the dam broke as he imagined everypony in the shop, frozen in place as they burned alive. His claws dug into the dry crumbling dirt and he groaned in pain as thoughts of what each of his and Twilight’s friends had been through, only to die frozen and alone. Half an hour later he’s stopped bawling enough to stand and return to his march towards the castle. “Maybe Twilight will be there, freaking out over all this and how to go back in time to fix it. She’s done it before, a warning about this and it’s back to normal. Heck, maybe it’s already happened and we’re in an alternate timeline that isn’t a living nightmare.” He kept his gaze traveling between windows in empty houses as he walked his own pace. The sign of a fire was obvious by billowing smoke behind several houses. He wondered whose house and whether or not they were inside when it started or not. “They’re dead anyway, what can hoping do?” He opened the door to the castle and listened to the echo of squeaking doors created by his action. “Well, anypony home?” he called. A flash of light that made him wince brought Starlight, eyes bloodshot and red, tears stained and matted her face from all angles out of her eyes; she was ragged. Her voice rasped harshly. “Sp-spike! I can fix this, it’s almost ready, Twilight’s here and waiting in her prison, because it’s a prison spike, one so advanced that even Sombra wasn’t going to use it. It wasn’t a journal of what he was planning to do, it was a book of forbidden spells he’d never use and have to ban when he took over the world, and gained immortality, and I cast it, Spike, I cast it,” she growled to herself and bore her teeth at the reflection in the floor. “Starlight, show me Twilight please,” he managed as he watched the unicorn crying hatefully at her reflection. She looked at him, showing full well her issues. “Yes, Twilight, she’s waiting for me to fix this. Waiting and waiting, waiting for me to fix my mistake all by myself. Silly Celestia is punishing me, too, for when I swapped her cutie mark with Luna’s. No night, Spike. No sleep until I fix this, a reminder, Spike, of what I did and how I have to fix it. It’s my mistake to fix… Twilight, yes! Come, come, Spike, I’m gonna get her out, just wait,” she charged her magic and teleported them to the castle throne room. Spike expected something to stand out, instead all he noticed different was that the chairs no longer had the cutie mark’s belonging to their respective previous owners. His eyes lingered at Rarity’s for a few seconds before noticing Twilight’s was missing as well. Starlight was still rambling through a ragged voice when he noticed a side door open and Twilight’s gem inside. “Twilight!” he cried and ran across the room where so many good memories had been made. He opened the door enough to walk in and looked around, stopping his rush. Tools such as saws, hammers, chisels, and axes were strewn around the base of the gleaming and still polished gem. “Oh no, Twilight,” he moved to the gem and fell to his knees, looking at her shadowed form inside. He could tell she was different, was dead. He could feel it in his heart that the person he cared most for was gone, just as was everypony else. He cried quietly to himself at Twilight’s prison as Starlight called various spell names out between sobs of her own. … “Starlight, what was the spell? You said it was bad, why?” She looked him with crazed eyes. “The first page, Spike. The first page! I skipped the first page of all of them and skipped more and more until I found a spell I thought would be helpful. I killed everypony, Spike, because I missed a page,” she barked a laugh and cackled at the roots of the Golden Oaks Library. Her eyes spilled tears as she looked at the memories in the gems and she laughed. Her senses came back to her with a shock to her system as Spike hugged her barrel. For that moment, she wasn’t alone. She wasn’t the cause of genocide. She was sane again and had a problem to solve. “Spike, the first page explained that every spell he wrote in the book was tested in a pocket dimension made by black magic. “When I cast it in the real world it had full unfettered access to the aether we use, instead of the limited amount he did when he tested,” she hugged him back and shuddered, “there are no counterspells, Spike. This spell was one of his biggest fears, and the reason he never tested on unicorns.” “Why?” Spike asked before she could continue, frustrating her just a little. “Because, Spike, he’d have earth ponies and captured Equestrian pegasi to test his spells on, and after a dozen tests he concluded that anyone he cast the spell on would have their link to the aether corrupted and it would link to the next nearest member of the tribe. There was no way to block it, so he canceled the research and put it in the book as a warning,” she chuckled darkly. “The Book of Magic: X. I thought it was a title number, but it’s how they marked banned books in the empire under his rule. Of all his faults, he hoarded knowledge and wouldn’t let a single book be damaged. He cast spells and had his unicorn slaves-” Spike took a step back and looked at her chest fur and the smudges his tears had left. “So, Starlight, it sounds like if he cast it on earth ponies they’d all be affected everywhere?” She wrung her forehooves around each other and shook her head. “No, there was a limit to the distance based on the ability of the next pony in the chain. Earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns could only affect a limited area relative to their race. If he cast this spell on a pony in the empire, or even in a city, it would only affect those within the city, at worst. But on an alicorn? “A pony with the power to control the sun, or moon, or the feelings of everypony without their knowledge. Or a certain one that had her special talent specifically in magic; one that had a connection to the very source of magic that we all draw from to live our normal lives,” her voice fell flat as Spike watched her stare into nothingness, “all but one who was casting the spell that had darkness in her heart. “The caster would be protected by the final part of the spell, so he would always live by being the focal point of the spell. Spike,” she looked down at him, but through him as though she were speaking to nothing and he was in the way, “I’m immortal. I can’t die, ever. When I cast the spell I sealed time around me, a physical barrier made of magic that’s always flowing through me held within it,” she blinked and stood, looking at Twilight’s gem. “I tried, Spike. Two days ago, when I buried every pony in Ponyville. Every single one,” she gnashed her teeth, “infants, foals, stallions, mares… Fluttershy, Applejack and her family, Berry Punch, Ditzy Doo, Time Turner,” she began rocking on her hooves, front and back reciting names. Spike listened as she spoke, rambled through the names. Everypony he knew, loved, cared for were gone. “I never found Rainbow Dash, but she was probably in training and fell to earth, squish. Maybe she was napping on a cloud and woke up, Spike, what if she woke up frozen with her eyes closed for every last minute of her life? Alone on a cloud or in her house where I didn’t look,” she blinked and flinched when she noticed him. “Where’s Flurry Heart? Shining Ar-” she was silenced by a claw to her lips. She was wrapped in a hug again that she didn’t return. “I, I killed them all. Everyone. Every one. All of them, are on my horn. I can’t cut it off, spike. I tried three days ago, when the last pony in town died. At least, I’m pretty sure she died, I couldn’t really check. No, she didn’t die, I didn’t die. I’m still here, aren’t I? Yes, forever. I’m here forever, as a reminder of what evil can truly be, and how it has to be punished.” “Starlight, it’s not your fault. You didn’t know and we can fix this, right?” He couldn’t hold on as she began to wander the side room and write notes in a new book on a far desk. He didn’t care, instead leaving the room and lying in Twilight’s chair to take a well deserved nap.
Routine and EffortSpike snorted awake, silence his only friend again. “Ugh,” he reached above his head to Twilight’s throne and scratched a mark into the back. “Sixteen days, I think. Time to start another still day.” He rolled from the throne and walked around the table, still working and showing Equestria slowing crumbling. Fires burnt in cities, cloud homes fell from the sky in pieces, yet no pony cared. He glanced as a dust storm tore across the southern deserts unhindered, Thorax had arrived and left when Starlight was going through a manic episode and lost control of her powers, or so she said and opened a rift to someplace else. Spike had looked into the void and felt nothing short of terror. Thorax, who had been standing in the middle of the circle, barely escaped by changing into a whale. Spike shook his head at the thought and nonsense it was that a creature slightly larger than Twilight could turn into a creature the size of her castle, including the weight. “Thorax is gone, Ember is still a no show,” he rolled his shoulders, “but with no way to contact her she’s probably trying to stop the dragons from burning Equestria to a cinder,” he looked at sporadic fires wondering how many were dragon caused. “Gryphons probably just realized we’re all gone and they won’t come here first, it’d be Canterlot, at best.” He yawned and opened the throne room door and entered the silent hall, the scent of burning bread tickled his nose and he faceclawed, turning to the kitchens. “Starlight,” he groaned as he opened the kitchen door and saw her wearing a toque and spraying flour across the room as she stirred four bowls with magic and one more with her forelegs. “She can do it, so can I. I can do it if she did it. Spike, if I figure out Pinkie I can fix everything. That’s the secret I missed, right? Right! She doesn’t make sense, and the spell doesn’t make sense. But she does make sense,” Starlight snickered and snorted flour from her snout and nose, “and so will it. Pinkie baked a thousand treats in five minutes, if I can figure that out I can figure her out. “Oh! Itchy back, gotta snack,” she opened a drawer by the sink and pulled out a small cylindrical brick. “Come to mama,” she opened her mouth as it moved quickly toward her. Spike stopped it as it crossed the room and looked at it. “Another cake? Starlight, you have to stop doing this. It’s not your fault,” he said looking at the cylinder of dough and herbs that were tightly packed and shaped like they came from a grocery market can. “They’re everywhere, Spike. I’ve hid them everywhere, just like Pinkie. I have an itchy back, Spike, I need a snack. Back and snack, snack on back… Snack on back,” she screamed and all her magic faded creating a mess on top of a dozen other messes. Spike gulped at her sudden epiphany. “Starlight?” She cackled. “If I keep snacks on my back I won’t have to hide them, I can just put them in my mane and pull them when I need them. Stay there, I’m gonna duck down here and then give you a party with all the ponies I didn’t kill, and we’re going to eat and drink punch,” she suddenly began to sob, tears forming into clumps as they mixed with the flour on her face. Spike placed the cake on the counter and moved around to her, took her foreleg in his hand, and led her out of the kitchen. “Spike, I can move the sun if I try hard enough, right? I’m not going to kill the other side of the planet, right? I can fix this if I figure out Pinkie, right? I can go back in time and kill myself before I do this, right? I can go so far back I can kill myself when Sunburst left, right?! “Sweet Celestia, Sunburst. He’s gone. Mom and dad. Miss Cheerilee. The cutie mark crusaders. All the foals, even the ones I never had... are gone. I was going to name my colts and my fillies and my grand foals and birthdays, Hearths Warming. Spike, will you be my special somepony? I need to be with foal,” she spent a moment blubbering as Spike led her into the shower and turned on the water. “I’ll see you later, Starlight,” he said soberly and left her to cry in the warm water. He returned to Twilight’s research laboratory and opened his notes to where he’d left off. “Okay, I can figure this out. It’s just like Twilight showed me a hundred times, it’s just math and practical logic with words, sometimes.” He took a quill in his grasp and dipped it into an empty inkwell. His eye twitched and he stood carefully, moved to the cupboard, took a full one to the desk, then really began. … Spike sneered as Starlight’s voice echoed through the halls as she approached. He mimicked her mockingly in a nasal tone. “They’re gone, I can fix this. A month and no sleep, no crying, no laughing… blah, blah, blah,” he used his claws to mimic her rambling rant. He took a page of his notes, one of the final drafts of this run, to Starlight. “Try to cast this and it’ll make everything better, Starlight. You won’t be alone anymore if you do, everything will be fixed,” he chirped happily. Her eyes focused on the page and she scanned it, her horn lit, and she cast the spell against the wall behind Spike. She galloped desperately towards it and into the portal she’d opened with a giggle. A split second later she fell from the ceiling as the portal closed, she was curled holding her tail and stroking it while mumbling incoherently. “Starlight?” Spike asked placing a claw on her flank. He spent the next three hours trying to stay unharmed and alive from her various attacks. Luckily he was small enough to hide in many places she couldn’t easily find. That didn’t stop her from tearing a tower off the castle before she suffered magic burnout. Spike carried her to her bed and tucked her in, lay next to her, and cried himself to sleep after the worst four hours awake he’d ever had. … “Day one hundred-ish. Nature is back to being completely feral and it seems to be working in a way. The sun has moved slightly in the sky so I think it has started moving on its own. Starlight made hundreds of recording gems and the spell changed so only when they record sound will they use time, so I have enough gems to last a while. “They taste terrible so I won’t be eating them. I’m making headway on the spells I’m writing, heh. A dragon writing spells for a unicorn. A crazy unicorn, but the only one that can help make this better. If I can get her to cast a spell that she doesn’t use or change or cancel, then I think I’ll be in a better place. “I don’t know if it was covered in my earlier report, but Sombra’s spell affected a tribe of ponies, alicorns are all tribes so they were all affected. The math says that if it had been Luna or Celestia, it wouldn’t have been that bad, but Twilight and Cadence control either the ponies directly or through the connection to the aether. “Discord is part pony, so I imagine he’s loving this, being frozen wherever he is. Maybe he’s not affected or maybe only the pony part of him is and he doesn’t really want to help us. Too many variables. Dragons don’t go insane, so as long as Starlight doesn’t kill me I’m the most sane creature in the city of Ponyville. “I’m recording these for posterity. Indexing them by date, topics covered, and importance. Routine is a good thing, I learned that from Twilight and I can’t wait to see her again. I may not be able to let her know about any of these for a few centuries. Heh, it’ll be nice to know something she doesn’t for a while. It’ll be better to hug her again. I might never let her go then.” … “The sun set, the moon rose, and there was wind. I spent time with Starlight Glimmer today, we walked through what’s left of the park. She sat on a hill and watched the clouds moving in the wind and mumbled about how Rainbow Dash would fix all the weather in a minute. I chuckled at that and she gave a real laugh, too. “Ha-ha, heh… I think we’re going to start spending time together, quality time, so she can help me on her good days with these spells. I’m not a unicorn and that’s not a joke, I’m just in a good mood. There’s just some things a horn can do that rugged good looks, immunity to fire, and wit as sharp as my talons can’t. Or can, er… I confused myself. Dang, I wish I could erase that.
RecordingsSo, here I am again. Turns out every single gem Starlight made has about an hour of her rambling at the beginning. They're all the same so you can skip the first fifty six minutes and twenty eight seconds. Or not, whatever. Day 1, let's say. Starlight lowered the sun and rose the moon, or so I told her. The day and night cycle is on its own. The sun and moon were even in the sky at the same time, kinda crazy to see, but not the worst. I watched Canterlot burn the other day... maybe a couple weeks ago by normal time. There are clocks, but when I spent the second week sleeping constantly I didn't know morning from night time and I stopped looking at them all together a long time ago. I never thought time would get boring while I was so young, but here I am. I found out why - Ugh, I'm back. Just a little smokey but a little electricity won't kill me, just rolls off my scales. Where was I? Whatever, I'm eating all the gems I want and seeing results like I hadn't before. Without Twilight to stop me, I've started to get my dragon scales. Not the normal ones, these new ones are hard for me to eat when they fall off, and I think they're magic resistant, to a point. Starlight's been spending a lot of time sleeping, finally. I told her to start a calendar to keep time but that's after she wakes up. It's daylight out, but she's going to be the one starting the calendar because Spike the Brave and Glorious is going to save ponykind. Back again, and I'm making progress. Turns out that Starlight remembers what happened that one time forever ago when she cast that one spell and tried to kill me. She spent years floating in some kind of middle space watching the lives of creatures all over Equestria from birth to death. It gave her hope at first, then she went crazy and did some bad things. Well, she tried to, anyway. Kind of hard to affect some alternate reality from outside of it, I guess. She says she was almost through to another world where ponies still existed when she fell out of it and that's all she remembers, she was very sorry to see what happened to the castle and what she tried to do to me. Regardless, I've read another magic tome. Twilight would be proud of me... I'm not crying anymore. She's in the gem, just over there. I feel like she's watching me, helping me look at the right books or do this math when I'm- Hey, Spike. I'm sorry if I'm disturbing you. No, it's fine. I'm just doing more magic stuff. Can I help? I know you're not a magic user and I'm feeling okay tonight. Er, today. If you think you can, Starlight. I mean, I know you can, but if you're up to it. I wouldn't have offered if I wasn't. Let me see what you've got so far? Hmph. You're still such a novice, Spike. Hey, don't laugh at me. At least I'm doing something about all this and not sleeping all the time. Ugh! Look, I'm sorry. This' been a rough couple days and I'm learning to do something I never thought I'd have to actually do. It's okay, Spike. I understand, oh hey! Is that one of my recording gems? Heh, glad you noticed. I figured out how to use them, a little dragon's breath and they're on. Another kiss of my awesome fire and it's off. Watch. That's pretty cool, Spike. Thanks, I know I am. Still have your ego, I see. Hey, you're not the last dragon in the kingdom, are you? Sorry again, I'm not thinking before I talk and keep putting my foot in my mouth. It's okay, Spike. Let me see if I can open a time portal for you, maybe it'll work this time. Yeah, if you don't try to go through it before me or short it out. That's not gonna happen, I'm in a good place right now. I did the breathing exercised you taught me before and after I woke up. Well then, get casting, I wanna hug my friends again! Friends? Hugs. Love. I can cast the spell, but they're gone. Oh no... not again. Starlight, breathe with me. In, out. In, out. In- and she's gone with my notes. Well, I've got nothing to report now so I'll just sign out until later. Ugh, this is the most awkward recording yet. Estrus just started and I'm locked in the kitchen hiding in an oven because without any stallions around, marefriends to help, her agoraphobia, and Twilight's refusal to have any reproductive assistant aids in the castle; that leaves me to scratch her itch. That's what she's calling it but I know what it means, Twilight was pretty bad when she was younger until she learned a spell for it. Starlight can't focus enough to cast it on herself. I can't cast it. No other unicorns are around to cast it. So here I am, hiding in an oven so she won't find me. The fire's going full blast so she won't see me, and if she does the fire might deter her. How long can this last, a couple days at most, right? I'll sneak out when I can to eat some of the castle walls or something. "I... she... we. Uhm, she found me and, wow. Just, wow. She's so pretty when she sleeps, I could watch her all night. Hrmm, I can think of something else to do while you watch me. I think I'm gonna like this time of the year. Who says it only has to happen during my seasons? Ss-s-seasons? Spring and autumn, but for my Spikey? She's been waking up crying in the middle of the night and begging me for our personal time. I don't think it's about what it was, I think she's using me for a distraction. I've grown to almost as tall as she is standing lately so that's a thing. My voice is deeper, too. As long as I don't turn into a giant and stampede again, I think I'll be okay. Spike? Where are you? I woke up and you weren't there when I needed you, please don't leave me, too. Oh no, I didn't make you vanish again, did I? Please, where are you?! Starlight, I'm here, right here. Oof. It's okay to cry, let it out. Let it out. I'm here for yo-ugk. Wait, let me turn off the gem! Let the future hear, I don't care at all. Spiiike! Yes, yes! Rarity! Uh, I mean Starlight. I don't care, don't stop! Well, the future's gonna blush when they hear that. Heh heh. At least there'll be a future, Spike. I'm ready to get back to the spells, let's go. Aww, but I need a nap. No naps, we have work to do. Spike! Wake up. Gah! I'm awake, I'm awake, let it go, owowow. Sheesh, how'd you even get it out? A mare has her ways. Author's Note More to come soon, maybe. If I feel like it.
