Twilight's Time Traveling Troubles

by LordBrony2040

Rating: teen
Tags: Alternate Universe, Twilight Sparkle, Drama, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Spike, Adventure, Tempest Shadow, Queen Chrysalis, Profanity, Princess Celestia
Length: 37314

After failing to locate Starlight Glimmer during her last trip to Cloudsdale, Twilight appears in a time that seems too good to be true, yet much too different to be possible.

The last time Twilight saw Starlight Glimmer, she threatened to kill Rainbow Dash when she was just a filly and ruin Twilight's life by going back in time. Only, when she failed to find Starlight in the past and returned home, Equestria wasn't a ruined wasteland, Ponyville was a lot bigger than she remembered, and all these new ponies in the castle were talking about some big pony they call Empress.

Published 2018-08-13 01:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2018-09-26 23:01:14 UTC

Chapter 1: A New Old Friend

“This is going to be horrible!”

“Absolutely, completely horrible!”

“The most horribly horrible thing that’s ever been in the history of all things horrible!”

Although he completely agreed with Twilight’s ramblings as they flew through the space where time had no meaning, Spike tried to keep his mood positive, or at least navigate his caretaker towards a less than apocalyptic viewpoint. “Come on Twilight,” he said to get her attention. “The last world we were at was a complete wasteland, devoid of all life. How can the world we’re going to be worse?”

Twilight spun around to face Spike, getting right in his face. “How can it be worse? It’s guaranteed to be worse! Every world we went to has been worse than the last!” she said before standing back up and looking at the time travel bubble they were in with wide eyes. “And Rainbow Dash, she knew who I was. How could she know who I was Spike? IT DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE!”

“Well…” the little dragon said before he thought on that question for a few minutes. “Uh, we did stop in Starlight’s village. Maybe that changed something important.”

Twilight got back down in Spike’s face with a frown. “Starlight’s childhood village is just some podunk little nowhere town!”

“So is Ponyville,” Spike pointed out. “And, Starlight was screaming a lot. Plus, you know, you are an alicorn. Ponies tend to take notice when you do stuff, Twilight." Except when she tried to wave down a cab, then everypony tended to ignore her for some reason. "Maybe somepony saw something, and it changed something important.”

After thinking it over for a second, Twilight shook her head. “That can’t be right. The whole town ran off with Sunburst to celebrate his cutie mark. They were all being too loud to hear us.”

Spike blinked as he remembered one pony that wasn’t all too happy about the event. “Except Starlight,” he pointed out. “Maybe she heard us.”

“No,” Twilight said before she shook her head. “She went back inside the house and uh...started crying. I heard her. My hearing has really improved since becoming an alicorn.”

With his last theory shot down, Spike gave up on trying to figure out why things had changed so much, not that it mattered at the moment. If every single world they had been to up until now had taught him anything, it was that they needed to be ready for anything when they landed.

Especially considering how worn down Twilight was getting.

While the time with Nightmare Moon and Starlight had given the purple pony a breather, they had been jumping around for well over a day, and that spell Twilight was casting to travel through time didn’t look easy. For some reason, Starlight seemed to be plenty rested whenever they pulled her back to the past, but Twilight was just getting more and more tired. If Twilight didn’t get some rest, and soon, Spike was afraid they would run into something that would end their adventure...permanently.

The time bubble began to destabilize, and Twilight let out a whine before she crouched down and covered her eyes. “Oh! I can’t look!”

Spike wanted to chastise the purple pony, but thought it was better to spend his time getting on her back. He didn’t want to consider the possibility that Twilight was right and things really could be worse, but just in case they ended up in an asteroid field that had once been the planet Equis, Spike didn’t want to be separated from Twilight.

Like every time before, the floor fell out from under them, and the two time traveler’s fell to the ground, one on top of the other.

“I don’t want to see!” Twilight said. “Tell me Spike, where are we? What’s gone wrong this time?”

With Twilight being...Twilight, Spike opened his eyes to see…

“We’re...home,” he managed despite the impossibility of the sight before him.

“What?” Twilight cried out as she stood up, with the dragon still on her back. “That’s impossible Spi-ke?”

Twilight was barely able to finish his name as she opened her eyes, joining Spike in stunned silence as the two of them looked around at the throne room of Twilight’s crystal castle from their place on top of the Cutie Map. Walls made of crystal surrounded them and gave the dragon a much needed feeling of familiarity that had him looking to the half-a-dozen chairs that surrounded the map, with the familiar symbols on them.

“We…” Spike said before something in the air must have made his allergies react, because he started tearing up. “We’re home.”

It was a sentiment Twilight quickly put an end to. “Wait!” she said before turning Spike’s attention up towards the bare ceiling with a pointed hoof. “Where’s the chandelier my friends made for me?”

Spike couldn’t help but scoff at the question. “Seriously?” he asked as any hope of being understanding was washed away in a fit of angry disbelief. “We finally arrive somewhere that isn’t a world on the edge of collapse, and you want to start complaining?”

“But it’s not-” Twight said before the rumble of hooves from beyond the throne room door drew their attention.

A second later, the door banged open to reveal a large mare with a dark red-purple coat that Spike almost mistook for a stallion when she was still upright from rearing up to kick the door, as well as a pair of armored pegasi charged into the room. “Intruders!” the mare in the lead shouted. “Surrender or be-oh! Twily...uh...what’re you doing here?”

Twilight uncovered her eyes and put her ears back up to give the mystery mare a confused look. “Huh?”

“We detected an unauthorized teleport into the castle and...who’s that on your back?” the large mare asked with a little frown as she moved closer along with the two other ponies.

As the ponies got closer, Spike noticed a few oddities about them. The dark purple armor the pegasi were wearing was made of crystal and included a pair of thick foreleg guards that he he had never seen other ponies wear before. The big mare had on a suit of thin metal armor that was so dark it was almost black, with Twilight’s cutie mark on the front of the chest. But that was the least weird thing about her.

When she got up close, Spike finally got a real sense of the mystery mare’s size. She was big, not just tall. Some mares in Canterlot were tall, taller than Twilight in fact, but they were also extremely skinny. The pony in front of Spike had both height and a full frame that was usually only found on shorter mares. Three gashes marked her right eye and a mane that looked like she had been in a fight with a pair of electric clippers made him wince. Although, the weirdest thing about the mare was her horn. The upper half of it actually seemed to be made of the same crystal as the armor the pegasi guards were wearing. It matched the color of her horn and coat, somewhat, but close inspection made it clear the top half of her horn wasn't natural.

With her scar and size, the dragon thought she looked pretty bucking intimidating.

“Um...this is...Spike,” Twilight said after looking back to the dragon for a moment, then back to the big mare before freezing up with the other half of the introduction.

“...uh...Captain?” she finally finished.

Once again, Spike had to fight to keep his usual reactions under control, especially with Twilight making her last statement sound more like a question than an actual introduction. Spike knew that his caretaker was horrible when it came to improvising on the fly, especially when she was under stress, but Twilight was quickly approaching a new low in that regard as she just stood on the map, nervously doing nothing.

The other mare gave Twilight a confused look. “Yes...um...Princess?” she asked before glancing back to Spike. “What’s going on? Why is there a dragon on your back, and what’s up with the table? Not that I’m complaining, you girls have really needed something there since your castle grew. But, the dragon...I’ve got to ask, what’s going on?”

Both Spike and Twilight shared an uneasy look. “Uh…” the purple princess said. “Well, that’s um…”

“Uh-Oh,” the mystery mare mumbled before she motioned for the other guards to leave.

Twilight tensed and looked back at her with a nervous expression. “What, uh-oh?” she asked. “Why’re you uh-ohing me?”

After taking a moment to dismiss the other two ponies, the dark red-purple pony turned her attention back to Twilight. “Twily,” the mystery mare began with half-lidded eyes. “The last time you got this nervous about something, it was because your mom found out you had another Cutie Mark Coin hidden under your bed.”

When Twilight tilted her head in confusion, Spike could almost see the gears turning in her head that would lead to the obvious question she would just have to ask, thus blowing what little cover they had in this world. So, Spike beat her to it. “What’s a Cutie Mark Coin?”

The crystal-horned unicorn reached up to rub her temple. “They’re these magical artifacts that resemble gold coins with symbols on them. Although they don’t actually use dark magic to function, they’re still considered illegal and highly dangerous because the key component is a pony’s life force,” she explained before frowning. “The last time Twilight actually made a wish on one, she turned herself into a newborn foal for three weeks before Celestia could gather the ingredients needed to reverse the magic.”

Spike looked over to Twilight in surprise. “Really?”

“That’s not something I remember,” Twilight had the sense to say. Spike quickly translated it into ‘that didn’t happen to me in the real timeline’.

A snort came from the big mare in front of them. “Well yeah, you were a baby,” she said before looking back to Spike. Her eyes narrowed and Spike hunkered down on Twilight as he prepared for the worst. “So, what’s with the dragon?”

“I um...I found him and he...followed me home?” Twilight asked nervously.

The big mystery mare frowned looked over to the purple alicorn. “So, are you not going to the convention, then?”

“Um…”

With Twilight freezing up again, Spike looked over to the crystal-horned mare. “What convention?”

“The Daring Do fan convention,” Mystery Mare told him before looking back to Twilight. “You and Rainbow were looking forward to it for weeks. Hey, you’re going to have to deal with her learning about this when she gets to the hotel and you’re not there, got it?”

Once again, Twilight latched onto what the big mare had said. “Wait, Rainbow Dash?” she asked before getting in the other pony’s face. “Is Rainbow Dash here?”

Mystery Mare didn’t even blink at Twilight’s reaction. “Maybe. She was going to leave after the evening news broadcast and catch up to you on the way there.”

While Spike blinked at the unfamiliar phrase, Twilight became even more excited, dancing in place for a few seconds and letting out a tiny tiny cheer. “Let’s go see her!”

The mystery mare backed up a step at that. “Um...okay,” she said, actually giving Twilight a hesitant look for a moment. “I’d...better come too. You know, since you’re lying to me about the dragon and all.”

Then, Twilight was in his face. “Did you hear that, Spike?” she asked. “We’re going to go see Rainbow Dash!”

“Oh...goodie,” Spike said before jumping onto Twilight’s back after she climbed down from the table. The young mare let out a sharp hiss when he landed. “Uh...Twilight?”

Before he could get another question, or Twilight could ask what Spike wanted, Mystery Mare spun around and looked at the two of them. “What was that?”

Twilight slowly picked herself back upright. “Nothing. It’s nothing. I’m okay. Great, even. The perfect picture of health,” Twilight said before she raised a hoof. “Let’s go see Rainbow-”

“I didn’t ask about your health,” the mystery mare said as she stepped forward to confirm what Spike had up until now only assumed about her height and loom over Twilight, making the purple pony cower a bit. “Now, why’re you telling me you are alright?”

Twilight gulped and actually lowered herself a bit. “Ummm...I don’t think this is how a royal guard captain is supposed to act.”

If anything, Twilight’s words only seemed to make Mystery Mare all that more intimidating. She frowned at the little purple pony. “You come home with a dragon that looks like he can’t be more than fifteen and I’m the one that’s acting strange?” she asked before poking Twilight in the chest. “Twily you-!”

Once again, Twilight winced. “Ow!”

Mystery Mare’s eyes widened. “What the? Twilight, what’s going on?” she asked in a much more concerned tone than before.

Spike jumped off Twilight’s back and poked her in the side, getting another wince from the purple princess. It didn’t take much for him to figure out what was wrong. “Twilight, you’re hurt!” he exclaimed. “All that fighting and the magic blasts you took-”

“WHAT? Fighting? What the buck you mean fight-” the mystery mare shouted before she quickly regained control of herself. “Alright, Twilight. Come on, we’re going to the infirmary. You can tell me what happened there.”

As far as Spike knew, they didn’t have an infirmary. The mention of a new room in the castle distracted Spike for a moment as he wondered what else was different. When he looked back to Twilight, the purple pony was hesitating again. She was looking back at the table, obviously thinking about just jumping through time. “Ummm…”

Mystery Mare cleared her throat and looked down at the purple pony’s legs. “Twily, I don’t know what’s going on, but you’re coming with me,” she said before looking at Twilight in the eye. “Don’t argue with me. Your legs are shaking, your mane is barely holding its shape, and I’m guessing the adrenaline is what’s keeping you from feeling those bruises on your ribs. Now, you’re either going to come with me, or I will get your Mom. Then, when she wakes up, you can tell her why it looks like you rolled down a mountain. And then introduce her to your new friend over here.”

“Oh,” Spike said as he winced at the threat. Whatever Mystery Mare’s new past with Twilight was, it seemed that she had no problems going straight to the most drastic of options. “That’s harsh.”

The threat had its effect, Twilight immediately lowered herself to the floor in surrender. “...I’ll be good,” she squeaked before getting off her belly. “So uh...lead the way...Captain.”

Mystery Mare turned around and started marching forward with a purpose. “Follow me, Princess,” she said without bothering to look back. Not that she needed to, ponies weren’t the most stealthy creatures when it came to walking on hard surfaces.

As they got to the exit of the throne room, Spike took one last look back and frowned at the six pony-sized seats around the map. “Where’s my chair?” he mumbled.

“Hm?” Mystery Mare asked as she looked back with a frown. “What was that?”

The look stopped Spike in his tracks. “I...um..uh…”

Although she was injured, Twilight trotted forward to frown at the guard. “Hey! Leave Spike alone!”

Mystery Mare blinked at the other mare. “Oh, I...uh...sorry,” she said before kneeling down until she was on equal level with Spike. “Sorry there little guy. I know I’m pretty intimidating. I guess I’ve just been surrounded by ponies who’ve known me for so long that I take it for granted. Guess introductions are in order. And since I already know who you are, Spike. My name is Fizzlepop Berrytwist. My friends call me Fizzy.”

Despite the oddity of the situation, Spike couldn’t stop himself from smirking at...that...name, and letting out a sound before he could close his lips. “Pffft!”

Fizzlepop smiled back at him. “Yeah, it’s something you should have expected from a party pony. And if everything in my life had gone as it should have, I’d probably be one right now,” she said before reaching up and tapping her partially crystal horn. “But when I was just a foal, an ursa broke off my horn and nearly got my eye.”

The information sent a chill down Spike’s spine. Being Twilight’s assistant, he had been around to hear all of the horror stories revolving around what happened to a unicorn who suffered that kind of injury. A unicorn’s horn acted as a funnel for their magic. Although every unicorn had a good deal of magic inside of them, they could only release a small amount of it through their horn, making it controllable. If a horn broke halfway like it had with Fizzlepop’s, she would have been capable of a great deal of magical output, but have absolutely no control.

There was also the other side affect of a broken horn: the uncontrolled release of magical energy put an incredible strain on the unicorn’s body as it tried to compensate for the excess release of power. While it looked like Fizzlepop had tried to compensate with a great deal of exercise that buffed her up quite a bit, even she would wear down decades earlier than a normal pony would have. In other words, she probably wouldn’t live past her mid thirties.

Except, Fizzlepop had a horn.

Sort of.

Unable to stop himself, Spike asked the question that was begging to be let out. “Is that why you have a crystal horn?”

“Oh, this?” she asked after reaching up to tap the crystal spike and smiling. “Yeah, sort of. It’s a long story. But after I got it, I was so grateful that I hung around Canterlot and joined the military, signing up for training to be a member of the Red Guard.”

Another unfamiliar term only confused Spike more. “The...Red...Guard?”

“Don’t worry, we’re not the bloodthirsty meat eaters that the Empress makes us out to be,” Fizzlepop told him.

“Em...Empress?” Twilight slowly stuttered.

The words made Fizzlepop look up to Twilight with wide eyes. “Oh buck, what am I doing?” the crystal-horned unicorn said. “Your mom would stone me if she heard I was just standing around while you were hurt. Can you still trot, or do I need to call Star and have her gallop up here?”

“I...I can still trot,” Twilight told the mare after shaking off her shock. “And what do you mean with that...stoning comment, and...the...Empress?”

Fizzlepop gave Twilight a tired expression. “Okay, I know the Empress isn’t going to actually turn me to stone,” she said before sighing. “But, your mom is pretty bucking frightening when she’s angry.”

“The...Empress...my mom,” Twilight replied in a stunned voice.

After a few seconds of silence, Fizzlepop groaned. “Come on, let’s go before you get any worse. Up on me little guy,” she told Spike as she lowered herself so the baby dragon could climb aboard. Once he did, Fizzlepop circled around behind Twilight and nudged her along. “Okay Twily, let’s get going.”

Chapter 2: The Mare You Thought You Used To Know

Twilight didn’t know what to think. In that one brief instant when she had looked around and seen her castle, she had thought that she had managed to get home. Logically, it didn’t make any sense. Rainbow Dash had recognized her as a filly, something that should have been impossible. Even if Starlight had gone back in time to a point before they arrived, Twilight hadn’t.

Then there were all the other differences. The mention of this Empress was a big one. Plus, the big unicorn had talked about Princess Celestia, but without the title, showing a lack of respect Twilight would never have allowed from a guard. Plus, the more she trotted around, the more Twilight realized that her castle was different.

While the materials used in the construction, the design of the doors and everything else when it came to aesthetics was the same, the layout was different. Doors were in the wrong place and there were hallways where there shouldn’t be.

Something had gone wrong and Twilight needed to go back to fix it.

But, judging by how this Fizzlepop pony was acting more like a babysitter than a guard captain, Twilight wasn’t sure that she would let the purple pony just walk away. On the other hoof, it didn’t seem to Twilight that she was being led to a dungeon either. “So uh...where’re we going?” she asked hesitantly as Fizzlepop passed her.

“The infirmary,” Fizzlepop told her simply.

I’M NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE AN INFIRMARY, Twilight mentally screamed before her body took that as a cue to point out that it needed one. A spike of pain that ran from her bruised muzzle, through her cracked ribs and to her pounded plot made Twilight stumble and let out a squeak of displeasure.

“Hm?” Fizzlepop said as she turned around and looked back to the alicorn. “Twily? Are you alright?”

Twilight took a moment to compose herself the best that she could. “I-I’m fine,” she lied.

For once, the mystery mare didn’t act like a nanny and turned around to keep taking Twilight where she needed to go. As soon as she did, Twilight turned her attention back onto herself. Okay, she’s not looking. Time for me to get going, she thought as they continued to slowly trot down the hallway.

I just need to gallop back to the throne room, Twilight told herself as each of her legs began to ache.

Then cast the spell to send us back in time, she thought between the growing throbs of pain from her horn.

Teleport back to Cloudsdale, the purple princess reasoned as her wings let go of some damaged feathers that were barely hanging onto.

“We’ll just get you into a bed and I’ll go get Spangled,” Fizzlepop told her as she opened a door that was supposed to lead to an unused storage room.

Twilight stumbled forward and barely avoided running into the too tall mare. “B-Bed?” Twilight asked.

The dark mulberry pony looked back at Twilight with a tight frown. “Yes, you’re getting off your hooves,” she told the shorter pony. “Now come on, I’ll lecture you after you’ve been taken care of.”

Twilight knew what she had to do. She understood the gravity of her situation and the momentous task in front of her.

But...for the first time in what had to be over a day, there were no changelings, no chaos spirits, no zombies, giant robots, vampire bat ponies, or anything else trying to capture her. She was in an imperfect replica of her castle and beginning to feel safe. She...she could just...lay down and…

And what? Twilight asked herself.

Unlike the last few times, her friends weren’t in danger or living hopeless lives under the constant threat of annihilation. Twilight wasn’t being attacked by some evil they had defeated in the past, either. If she didn’t gallop back to the table as fast as she could...she wouldn’t be able to…

She wouldn’t…

Well…

She wouldn’t get the rest her body was so desperately crying out for.

“Okay,” she agreed before there was a loud boom from outside that shook everything around her. In her heightened state of barely holding on, Twilight let out a cry of surprise before her wings flared out and reminded her that they weren’t in the best shape either, causing her to wince.

“Gah! Damnit Rainbow!” Fizzlepop exclaimed before she galloped off down the hall before darting into a room on the right.

Alone for the moment, Twilight cast a spacial spell on her right wing and slid the scroll with the time travel spell into the fold to hide it. If a doctor was going to be poking around, she didn’t want to have to explain its presence.

Without much else to do, Twilight limped after the stranger as quickly as she was able. She opened the door and went inside, only to stop and gawk at what she saw. All around the large room with its multiple tables were beakers, test tubes, several of Bun Son’s patented heating apparatuses, a thumatic measuring scope, and a few pieces of alchemical equipment that Twilight hadn’t even seen before. It’s a lab, she realized before taking a few dazed trots inside the room.

Twilight didn’t have a lab in her castle. She didn’t experiment with alchemy and the other sciences anymore. She stopped a year after she became a princess because...well...she had become a princess. Princesses didn’t work in labs.

But upon seeing what was in front of her, it was as if somepony had just walked out and pointed to a big hole inside of her that Twilight hadn’t even been consciously aware of.

“I swear, that mare is an idiot!” Twilight heard the big pony’s voice call out from a pair of double doors on the other end of the room before the dark pony came back inside with an angry trot to her step. Spike was with her, staring back out the door until Fizzlepop kicked it closed with a back leg. “I don’t care if she throws me in jail. When Dash gets back, I’m gonna throw her down on my hind legs, and give her a spanking!”

Realization dawned in Twilight’s mind. “That sound, it was...a Rainboom?”

Fizzlepop snorted. “Of course! But does she even think about how that’s going to affect the crystal tower? No, of course not, she’s all, ‘squeeeee Daring Do’s gonna sign my convention book’ and crap! Why the two of you are so into her, I’ll never know.”

Despite the angry pony’s current temperament, Twilight felt she needed to defend her foalhood hero. “Well, um...she does go on a lot of adventures,” she said before noticing Spike was still looking back towards the doors as he rode on the crystal-horned pony’s back. “Is everything okay, Spike?”

“Uh...yeah,” he said to Twilight, clearly dazed. “I just...Fizzlepop showed me the...factory that Ponyville is famous for.”

Twilight’s body went rigid. “F-Factory?” she asked before images of the Ponyville she landed at where this whole thing started. Equestria had been at war with the Crystal Empire, which had been taken over by King Sombra. If there was a factory in Ponyville, that meant that things were all that great and ponies were fighting for their lives at this very moment! “What about the Crystal Empire?!”

The question got a raised eyebrow from Fizzlepop. “Well, they manufacture crystal batteries too. Not to mention all the other crystal stuff. But outside of the Empire, Ponyville is the only municipality allowed to produce them. Twily, are you feeling okay?”

What’s a crystal battery? With Fizzlepop’s nonsensical information going right over Twilight’s head, the purple pony slumped. “I...I need to go lie down,” she said before sparing a look at the lab she had been denied in her real life. How is this even here?

When Fizzlepop went back to trotting down the hallway, Twilight followed her, completely drained. The unease that Spike was showing didn’t matter to her. Whatever changes had happened to Equestria would be fixed when they went back and confronted Starlight Glimmer. But, she couldn’t shake the image of the alchemical laboratory this Twilight had somehow been allowed to have when the real Twilight didn’t get anything like that in her life.

It wasn’t fair that a fake should have something that the real pony did not.

She also didn’t get a doctor, or guard captain, not that she really needed the last one. But...Twilight felt her heart ache when she thought back to the first few weeks she had been in her castle and how lonely it had been. Her friends had helped remind Twilight that she would always carry them in her heart, but that didn’t actually make the castle any less empty.

The swishing sound of a broom brought Twilight out of her thoughts and she looked up to see a rather gruff pony with an extremely bushy mustache sweeping the hallway in a multi-colored version of Celestia’s palace livery.

“Scruffy,” Fizzlepop greeted as she stopped in front of the older mare.

“Fizzy,” the gruff pony replied with a voice that matched his demeanor before looking over to Twilight and giving a slight nod of his head. “Princess. Er, dragon-looking-creature.”

Spike raised a cautious claw. “Hello. Uh, who’re you?”

“Scruffy, the head janitor,” he told the dragon. “I clean and manage the pipes that connect to the toilets, the boiler, and that one boiling toilet.”

Fizzlepop frowned and looked around with a frown. “Where’s your...assistant?” she asked after glancing Spike’s way for a moment, obviously using some restraint on that last word.

“Which-oh! You mean-err, not too sure,” Scruffy replied. “I’d better go find him then.”

As soon as the stallion was gone around the corner, Fizzy looked back at Twilight. “I’m going to start having a guard assigned to watch that idiot twenty-four-seven,” she said.

Twilight blinked before assuming that was what passed for asking permission when it came to this pony. “The...janitor?” she asked. Why would guards need to watch a janitor?

“Not him, Discord,” Fizzlepop replied with a disgruntled frown before softening a little and sighing.

Once again Twilight and Spike shared a look. Spike picked up on the hint and poked the mare he was riding on the side of the neck. “Uh, Discord? Like, the chaos guy, Discord? Why would he be here?”

“Because he tried to wipe out our species!” Fizzlepop snapped, making both Twilight and Spike wince. Fizzy quickly calmed down and sighed. “Sorry. Touchy subject for me.”

Spike gulped. “He...did...what? How did that happen?”

The mare took a look at Twilight before she turned and began walking again. “About two years ago, Celestia convinced the Empress to give Discord another chance and freed him from stone. For a while, he actually behaved himself. Then, when the Empress went into her annual hibernation, a centaur named Tirek started causing trouble and Celestia thought we should let Discord show his loyalty by capturing the bastard,” she explained. “Instead, he turned on us and helped Tirek absorb the magic of several ponies in the span of three days. Celestia decided to wake the Empress up early, but Discord cut her off and helped Tirek drain her dry. If it wasn’t for Twilight and her friends, a lot more than just a few dozen ponies would have died.”

Twilight felt as if she had been kicked in the gut and stumbled. That hadn’t been the way things went in the real Equestria. “Wait, what?” she asked.

“Sorry,” Fizzlepop told Twilight. “I know you don’t like being reminded of all that.”

Despite the recovery she had managed after seeing this Twilight’s lab, the purple pony felt as if she fell deeper into confusion than ever before. Discord never...killed anypony…

...right? Twilight asked herself.

Celestia wouldn’t have forgiven him if that was the case.

This all has to be some kind of mistake, Twilight told herself.

Something different obviously occurred in this timeline.

That was it. Even though Twilight and her friends had pulled through, it must have been extra hard or something.

“H-How did he, I mean...um…” Spike said uneasily.

The expression on Fizzlepop’s face tightened. “He drained ponies of the magic to the point where they couldn’t even move, then left them to starve to death,” she said. “Most of the ponies, we managed to save before problems like dehydration set in, but some of his first victims, and other ponies that were carrying foals, they didn’t survive.”

Twilight’s mind couldn’t help pointing out that three days was the same amount of time that Discord and Tirek had run around in the real world too. If they had done more than just...leave ponies on the ground to starve to death…

No, Twilight told herself. Celestia wouldn’t just let him say he’s sorry and that be that if his actions had gotten ponies killed. So, something different must have happened in this timeline. Discord obviously hadn’t had his change of heart after being captured by Tirek and...made Twilight feel as if her friends had abandoned her just a few months after she took steps to save him from the centaur. Besides, that was my friendship test. I wouldn’t have this castle if I didn’t pass-I mean, this Twilight wouldn’t have a castle if she didn’t pass her friendship test.

So, that was the end of it.

The Discord she knew wasn’t evil.

He was just...mean and petty, and didn’t care about anypony that got hurt because of his actions…

Like, ponies that died of thirst three days after he left them lying on the ground.

Twilight shook her head again to clear it. I’ve got to stop thinking about this, she told herself. She had to get some rest, then go back in time again to find Starlight Glimmer before she...did whatever she did to change things from the way they should be.

Hearing some new voices, Twilight’s ears perked up as she focused on what was going on rather than the disturbing places her mind was going. “Well, everything I see tells me everything’s going fine. Just try to scale back your physical activity for the next four months and your hooves won’t bother you as much,” an new unknown voice said.

“Thanks Star,” another voice that tickled the back of Twilight’s memory replied. But, there wasn’t enough familiarity to place it.

So, Twilight walked in and froze when her eyes fell on the two mares in the room. Both of them were blue, although the shades couldn’t be more different. The mare Twilight didn’t recognize had a dark blue coat that clashed with her red mane and a set of stars as her cutie mark. The mare that Twilight did recognize, unfortunately, was a very light blue with a silvery mane. “T-Trixie?” she asked before taking a step back in shock.

What in the wide world of Equestria was Trixie doing in her castle?!

Discord, she could understand. But Trixie? Under no sane circumstances could Twilight ever see her allowing that mare within ten yards of any place of residence that she called home! Trixie was the very antithesis of everything Twilight stood for!

“Twily?” Trixie said before she glanced behind herself and slowly rolled around to reveal a rather bloated belly. The familiar name that only her brother was supposed to use threw Twilight for a loop as she heard it coming from that mare while the doctor helped her down from the examination bed. She slowly trotted over to give Twilight a once over before frowning in what the purple princess would have called concern if it were anypony else. “You look awful.”

The impossibility of the situation made Twilight’s mind struggle to work correctly. “You look...fat,” the purple pony said with some difficulty in her dazed state.

It seemed that was the wrong choice of words, as the mare reared her head back just a little before frowning and getting right in Twilight’s face. “Trixie is pregnant!”

Unable to withstand the verbal onslaught, Twilight stumbled back a couple of steps before falling on her rump. Something that was also somewhat damaged, judging by the spike of pain that came from her rear end. However, her tired, overworked body and overloaded brain barely registered the fact in lieu of the mare in front of her. “Wha-what’re you...doing here?” she asked in a daze.

Trixie rolled her eyes. “Getting my check-up, obvious-uh, Twily?” the pregnant mare said before her expression became twisted into something approaching concern again and she trotted over to look at Twilight closely again. “Are you okay? Please tell me you didn’t try to copy anything Dash has been doing in the air. I told you that stuff is dangerous. I don’t care if you are a real princess now, you should still listen to your senpai!”

I...how did… Twilight tried to wrap her mind around what her eyes saw to figure out just why Trixie was in her castle and going to a princess’s private physician rather than the Ponyville town doctor. Not to mention the fact that she was calling Twilight by a name only her Mom, Dad and Shiny had any right to call her. Fizzlepop was one thing, she was a complete mystery and thus unquantifiable, but Twilight had no idea why a mare like Trixie would call her by a name only close family would.

Or what the buck a senpai was.

Finally giving up on it, Twilight slumped forward and moaned in distress as all the aches and bruises the guard pony said she had came flooding in full force. And the throbbing ache became a constant pain that made her skull feel like it was going to split open. “My head hurts.”

“What?” Trixie breathed before getting close to the purple mare. “Alright, come on Twily. Up you go, come on. Star, get out here! Something happened to Twily!”

The purple alicorn was dimly aware of Trixie and the badly colored pony helping her into a chair with their magic as gently as was possible. The Fizzy pony shared a few words with the doctor pony, who was nice enough to share a few of her own.

The world spun around a few times, it made Twilight feel dizzy.

“...ly? Twily?” the blue mare with the stars on her flank said as she knocked her hooves together in front of Twilight a few times. “Hey, Twily? Twily? Can you hear me?”

Twilight did her best to focus on that mare, she had an important question to ask. “Why’re you calling me, Twily?” She didn’t know this doctor. It should be Princess Twily!

Or...Princess Twilight.

Twily was a name only her family used.

The blue mare got really mad and looked over to the dark mulberry mare with a frown. “You said she was hurt. Did you check for a concussion?”

“That’s why I brought her to you!” the pony that looked like she could have been Cheerilee’s big meaner sister said. “Do something already!”

Spike looked around with a worried look on his face...that looked worried. “W-What’s going on? Is Twilight going to be okay?”

“What is a dragon doing here? Did he do this to her?” Trixie demanded. “Did you do this to her, dragon?”

Twilight wished that Trixie would just go away.

It didn’t work.

“Judging by the lack of burn damage and claw marks, I’m pretty sure we can rule out the baby dragon, Trixie,” Cheerilee’s big sister said.

Somepony turned down the lights around the edges of Twilight’s vision. It was annoying.

The dark blue pony’s horn lit up and the world changed to a nice light pink. Then she had to go and ruin it by talking. “Three cracked ribs, mild concussion, cracked hooves, minor optical damage, horn strain, stressed wing muscles, not to mention a few others, shin splints in three of your legs, mana exhaustion, high blood pressure, although I suppose that’s normal for you,” she said before the magic faded. “Okay Twily, just give me a minute and we’ll get you fixed up.”

“Stop,” Twilight ordered weakly, which was ignored by the doctor as she pulled something out of her cabinet as well as several pads of varying sizes. Only Shiny called her Twily anymore. “Hey, where is Shiny?”

If a pony like Trixie was in Twilight’s castle, then Shiny needed to be too. It only made sense that he would.

“Shiny?” Star Flank the blue mare asked as she looked up from the task of applying some kind of goo to the big patches of cloth she had laid out. “He’s in the Crystal Empire, Twily. Do you want to talk to him?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes!” she decreed before instantly regretting it when her head started hurting. “Ugh...head hurts.”

Star Flank, or Dr Star Flank, since it was only right for Princess Twily to use her title, nodded before several bandages floated up into her magic. “Okay Twily, we’ll get in touch with Shining Armor as soon as you’re up to talking with him,” she said before trotting over and laying one of the bandages on her head. A strange smell that was like peppermint and bananas filled Twilight’s nose before Dr Star Flank also put a sticky on her side that was hurting and wrapped her legs in bandages after slathering some of the good onto her hooves. “Now lay back.”

The effect was almost immediate. Twilight felt a surge of pressure as her bones knit and hooves sealed. The fog that had made it so hard to think cleared and Twilight found herself feeling embarrassed as the doctor set another cloth over her eyes, one without any of the unknown substance. “W-What is that stuff?”

“Just the usual rejuvenation cream,” the doctor explained as Twilight felt a spell she didn’t have any experience with touch her eyes. With it already being too late to do anything about it, Twilight did her best to remain still as the pony finished her work. The eyes were a delicate organ, interfering with her work could have dire consequences.

A minute later, the cloth was removed and the doctor smiled down at her. “There we go, all done. How’re you feeling, Twily?”

Twilight blinked at the question She opened her mouth to tell the doctor that she was tired, but didn’t say anything before her stomach to rumbled. “I um...I’m-”

The door burst open before she could tell them, making Twilight’s heart leap in joy when she saw the big white pony come into the room with a look of worry on her face that was framed by her wonderfully multi-colored mane. “Twilight? Is Twilight okay?” Princess Celestia asked in a worry.

“Celestia?” Fizzlepop said with an arched eyebrow as the medical room began to get crowded. “What’re you doing here?”

“I heard Twilight was hurt, obviously,” she said before trotting over. Twilight blinked at the complete lack of regalia, but...she had probably heard about her most devoted student getting hurt when she was in the bath and came rushing over as fast as possible...somehow.

“Yeah, but...how? The tower is down,” Fizzlepop asked before her confusion became annoyance. “Dash knocked it out on her way out of town, again.”

“Really?” a new voice that Twilight didn’t recognize said before she looked over to see another extremely tall mare standing behind Celestia with an oddly curved horn that didn’t have the usual spiral formation that all unicorn’s possessed and butterfly wings. “The call we got from Wedge saying that Twilight teleported into the castle came through just fine.”

Twilight blinked at the...creature. If not for the white coloring, lack of holes, straight horn and butterfly wings, Twilight would have called the creature standing behind Princess Celestia a changeling. It was definitely an insectoid equine, but other than that, Twilight was’t sure.

The mystery of who, or even what, the unknown quadruped was got put on hold when Fizzy spoke up. “So, one of your spies in the castle called you.”

Unknown Quadruped shrugged. “Eh, it’s what they were born for.”

“Cut that out you two,” Princess Celestia said before she moved to block Twilight’s view of the pair. She cast her own diagnoses spell before doing a visual examination and reaching over with a leg to stroke the back of Twilight’s neck with her fetlock. “Are you alright, Twily?”

For one brief second, Twilight felt like shouting at Princess Celestia that she shouldn’t be calling her that, but the concerned look on Princess Celestia’s face, the intimate touch that the Princess rarely gave anypony, the decreasing level of adrenaline in her system, all of these things added up to destroy Twilight’s precarious hold on her emotions.

The world blurred as a rush of fear, exhaustion, shame, and a million other feelings crashed down on her. “I-I’m sorry, Princess!” Twilight cried. “I tried to stop her! I-I’m still trying! But it’s so hard and she’s so mean!”

All of the ponies shared an uneasy look before Princess Celestia pulled Twilight into a hug. “It’s okay, Twilight.”

“No it’s not,” Twilight told her as the tears continued to fall. “I can’t fix it, And n-now Rainbow a-and all my friends are gone!”

Princess Celestia continued to run a fetlock along the back of Twilight’s neck as she sobbed. “Shhh, they’ll be back.”

But Twilight knew that wasn’t true.

It would never be true!

Her friends were gone and they were never coming back!

Princess Celestia looked up to the blue pony. “Do you think it’s a good idea to take Twilight to her private room?”

“As long as you keep her head elevated, make sure she stays calm and stay with her, it should be fine,” the doctor told Princess Celestia. “I’ve already applied some healing gel, but that doesn’t mean something can’t still go wrong.”

“You mean like how she’s referring to Celly as-”

Princess Celestia cleared her throat. “Twilight is still a little dazed and confused from the remains of a concussion I detected, dear. I’ll see to her, you take care of that dragon down there.”

Both Twilight and Spike got wide eyes at Celestia’s command. “What? No! Twilight, tell them to let me stay with you!”

“Umm, I-I need Spike to-” Twilight said before Princess Celestia gently shushed her.

“Shhhh. It’ll be okay, Twily,” Princess Celestia said. “ We’ll take care of your little friend while you get some rest.”

The not-changeling stepped forward to put a hoof on Spike’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Twily. I’ll look after him myself,” she said before looking down to the dragon. “Don’t eat the walls.”

What is it with everypony calling me Twily? Twilight asked herself as she looked around. While Spike didn’t seem that at ease at the prospect of being separated, the fact that Princess Celestia had vouched for the creature was enough for Twilight. While they had seen a lot of weird things since this adventure started, the fact that Princess Celestia was always right remained a constant. There was nothing that Starlight Glimmer could do to ever change that. “It’ll be fine, Spike. You’re right, I need to get some rest. So you go with, uh...her,” Twilight told the dragon before everypony in the room shared another worried look. “And I’ll go with Princess Celestia.”

“Are you nervous, little one?” the insectoid pony asked. A second later, she took a step back and was consumed by a green flame that replaced her with the figure of a green dragon a head taller than Spike was. “This better?”

Twilight went rigid and grabbed onto Princess Celestia for all she was worth. The changeling transformation stirred Twilight’s memory of the familiar voice that had been tickling the back of her mind, letting her connect it to the memory of its owner a second later. The creature in front of her, it was Queen Chrysalis!

Fear made Twilight’s blood run cold as her muscles locked up. She wanted to scream in terror, but her mouth wouldn’t move.

Princess Celestia gave the changeling a tiny smirk. “Don’t frighten the poor boy, Chrysalis,” she said as she admonished the disguises evil monster in a friendly manner before looking down at Spike. “Don’t worry. She doesn’t bite…too hard.”

“I’m going to be leaving teeth marks on you tonight for that, Celly,” the not-dragon said before taking Spike by the claw with one of her own. “Come on little guy. We’ll raid Rarity’s gem stash to get some grub for you.”

“Twilight?” Spike asked in a hopeless confusion as Chrysalis led him out of the room without any other resistance.

Debilitating fright slowly gave way to tired confusion as the seconds passed. Twilight tried to wrap her mind around what she had just seen, but couldn’t do it. Chrysalis was...good now? “I don’t understand,” she told Princess Celestia in a lifeless tone.

Princess Celestia gently but firmly removed Twilight’s hooves from around her neck, making the purple pony want to whine in protest. She didn’t want to let go of Princess Celestia. Princess Celestia was safe.

“Twilight, I know you’re very confused right now, but-um,” Princess Celestia looked over to the blue pony. “Spangled, I know concussions can cause a great deal of disorientation and a slew of other problems with the thought process, but...is she supposed to be this confused? She acted like this was the first time she saw Chrysalis. You saw the way she jumped when Chryssy transformed.”

Star Spangled gave Twilight another visual once over before looking back to the supreme ruler of Equestria. “The healing is done, but her brain is still probably sorting through all the information that got jumbled around with the swelling,” the doctor explained evenly. “And it was the transformation that frightened her. Twilight being frightened of Chrysalis makes about as much sense as Dash not kissing Cadance’s big pink plot.”

Which it didn’t. Neither of those things did. If Twilight wasn’t so tired and hurt and hungry, she would have told them that!

“Alright then,” Princess Celestia said before Twilight found herself up in her mentor’s magic before she was placed on Princess Celestia’s back. “Don’t worry Twily, we’ll get you to your room and-”

Twilight’s stomach rumbled, cutting Princess Celestia off before she could finish.

“And I’ll see who’s pulling kitchen duty today,” Fizzlepop added.

Despite everything that was going on, the confusion and pain, the worry about what was going to happen to Spike, all Twilight could go was think, I just want to lay down.

Spike looked over to the fake dragon and gulped. Alone. He was alone, with Chrysalis. “Uh, you don’t have to look like that. I know what you are, y-you know.”

The changeling gave Spike an odd look before shrugging, and then she turned back into the fuzzy bug form he had seen from before. “Happy?” she asked in a tone that didn’t sound quite as nice as a moment ago, but still better than the usual Spike had heard from her.

After a few seconds, the bug-pony knelt down and motioned to her back. Spike blinked before carefully getting on Chrysalis, placing his legs behind where her wings met her body. It wasn’t as if he could say no. That would be like an insult. And insulting Chrysalis was probably a good way to end up in trouble.

Chrysalis trotted along in silence, leaving it to Spike to fill the gap. He didn’t want to, but there was the really big obvious question that was just begging for an answer. “So um...you’re...reformed,” Spike said. “I thought were supposed to be evil, or something.”

The question got Chrysalis to look back at him with a frown. “Have you been living under a rock for your whole life?” she asked in a way that made her seem much more like the changeling Spike remembered.

“Sorry!” the dragon apologized before the monster could get even angrier. “I just, you know...uh, everypony I met said changelings are bad...and stuff.”

Chrysalis grave him a frown. “Everypony?” She asked in a questioning way. “The only dragon I’ve heard use that term is the Empress’s little pet. Where are you from, boy?”

Put on the spot as he was, Spike gulped. All of a sudden, Chrysalis didn’t look so nice and inviting. “Um, well...you see, I uh...I was raised by ponies!” he half-lied. “Yeah, after my dragon parents tossed me out for being too small. It was in this little bitty town out in the middle of nowhere called, ah…” Wracking his brain to try and come up with something before the changeling did something like throw him out a window, Spike did his best to come up with the best pony-sounding name he could. “Gravity...Falls?”

“Oh,” Chrysalis snorted before she turned back around and trotted along with Spike on her back. “That figures. Lots of little towns out there are still suspicious of changelings. Nevermind everything I’ve done for this stupid country over the years.”

Spike felt a pang of sympathy for his mount of the moment. “So um, what was it that made you turn from bad to good?”

After a few seconds of trotting down the hallway, Chrysalis snorted. “Oh please, there isn’t a creature alive that has a sudden course correction in personality. Any of them that do are just lying to themselves and everyone else around them. Change takes time, little lizard, and I should know a few things about change.”

With the previous talk of the reformed villain still fresh in his mind, Spike thought back to his last encounter with Discord. While Twilight had been shelving books, he had played with all of her friends. Spike had thought that it was proof he had finally changed, but it had all just been a trick to make Twilight feel left out. Fluttershy had tried to excuse it by saying he was just being his usual harmless self, or trying to teach Twilight some lesson, or some other such thing, but the fact that he was the one to keep the others from including Twilight and never came back just to hang with all the girls again told Spike something was up.

“So then, uh…” Spike wasn’t sure how to ask the question.

Chrysalis stopped and looked back at Spike with a thoughtful expression on her face. “But, if you want me to oversimplify years of my personal, life changing experiences so your little brain can wrap its head around an answer, well...I guess if I had to chalk it up to one big thing, I’d have to go with...respect,” she said before her expression hardened. “Cadance showed me she was worth my respect. And if she was worth that, then she was worth listening to and even changing for, in time.”

The revelation had Spike thinking. “When did this happen, when you um...foalnapped her?” he asked, thinking back to the royal wedding.

“You mean when she went with me willingly and talked Sun-er.” Chrysalis suddenly paused and a worried look crossed her face for a moment. Then she cleared her throat and went on as if nothing had happened. “The Empress out of wiping out my species for escorting her on a diplomatic mission to the changeling hive to bring us into Equestria?” the bug-pony asked in a deadpan tone before raising an eyebrow.

Spike froze. “Uh...right,” he said. “Um, why did you do that?”

“Do what?” Chrysalis asked, her face becoming more confused.

“You were gonna say a name, then you stopped and just said Empress,” he pointed out.

“Because I didn’t want to wake her up,” Chrysalis told Spike, knocking him off her back before whirling around to glare at the little dragon. “Didn’t anypony tell you in your podunk little town what might happened if you called out to the Empress during her hibernation?”

With Chrysalis giving him such a look, Spike felt his own stomach begin to churn with anxiety. What would happen if he said the name of Twilight’s mom? “Oh...uh, right. Sorry,” he apologized before picking himself up. He also wondered what this whole hibernation business was about, but thought best not to ask too many questions that it seemed everypony in Equestria knew.

Chrysalis snorted. “It’s not as if I care about the life of one measly dragon. But Twilight seems to have some fondness for you, and seeing her in any more distress is not something I wish. So, don’t call out to the Empress, and she won’t accidentally crush you with an uncontrolled surge of power because she’s too groggy to properly rein in her magic when she focuses on the creature she thinks is calling out for help wakes her up far too soon. The week just began, after all.”

“Right,” Spike agreed as he did his best not to show how much Chrysalis outright saying that Spike dying right in front of her wouldn’t be anything for her to cry over. “So uh, that Empress. Crazy how she’s like that, right? Knowing when anypony says her name.”

Another snort came from the bug-pony before she turned around and began trotting again. As Spike fought to keep up with her, Chrysalis began talking again. “Don’t be stupid. That’s the least of what she can do. The Empress is linked with a magical object which connects her to all of Equestria. If anything should fall out of Harmony, she knows about it in an instant and can correct the problem herself or send a pony that can.”

Spike blinked. That sounded an awful lot like the map.

“And we’re getting off topic,” Chrysalis said before she went back to trotting down the hallway. “But, yeah. I may have had a healthy fear of the Empress, but it was Cadance that got me to join Equestria as a princess.”

Twilight found herself in an unfamiliar hallway as Princess Celestia continued to carry the purple pony on her back. Despite how much she wanted to enjoy the attention that the big white pony had never visited upon her before, it was just so different from everything Twilight had ever experienced with Princess Celestia before that she just couldn’t. “Princess, I...I can walk, really.”

“You really shouldn’t undermine your attempts to make me think you’re okay with the first word that comes out of your mouth, Twilight,” Princess Celestia told her before they turned the corner.

Not understanding what Princess Celestia was getting at, Twilight turned her head away from the perfect mare’s beautiful face and flowing mane to the path ahead and...blinked. The hallway they had entered wasn’t the longest in the castle, but it was definitely a contender before it came to an abrupt end when it met some double doors decorated with the six cutie marks of Twilight and her friends, arranged into a pair of columns. Six other doors also dotted the hallway with a good amount of space between one and the next, each one displaying one of the six cutie marks alone.

There hadn’t been anything of the like in Twilight’s real castle.

The sheer level of such a discrepancy made Twilight’s head spin in confusion. “Wha-What is this?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

“This is…” Princess Celestia stopped and turned her head around. The look on her face was reserved, but it had a tightness to it that Twilight couldn’t remember seeing in her mentor before. “Twilight, do you not know who these quarters belong to?”

Twilight blinked. “Of course I do,” she said, still confused before pointing out a hoof to the door with the three apples. “That’s Applejack’s and there’s Rainbow Dash’s, and that one belongs to Pinkie Pie.” Twilight slowly finished naming off her friends as she pointed to each one, then came to the large double doors. “And that’s umm…” Unable to come up with the answer, Twilight blushed.

“Yes, well…” Princess Celestia paused and the muscles on her face visibly relaxed. “I think your private quarters would be a better place to recover than the one you share with the others.”

Once again, Twilight blinked as she failed to work out what Princess Celestia assumed she already knew. A quarters that Twilight shared with the others? Did she mean that it was some sort of living room where they all hung out?

The layout of the hallway also confused Twilight. From the looks of things, she had been put on equal footing with all of her friends. But that didn’t make any sense. She was the princess, not them. This was her castle, they were just… Twilight blinked as she considered an impossible oddity thanks to Princess Celestia’s description of the situation.

Were her friends...living with her?

That wasn’t possible.

Back when she got her castle, Twilight had let the size of the place get to her. But with some help from her friends, she had come to realize it didn’t matter how big, empty, lonely, and cold everything was. As long as she had her friends…

Well…

The fact was, princesses lived in castles, and Twilight was a princess, so that meant she lived in a castle.

End of story.

The thought of inviting them to come share the big empty piece of real estate she had been granted after saving Equestria from Tirek didn’t make sense. They had their own homes, their own lives. Forcing them to just abandon everything they had worked so hard for because Twilight didn’t want to live by herself in a big empty castle didn’t seem right to her.

Which made Twilight wonder…

Every different timeline they had been to in the past...present...whatever… Every other Equestria had been a horrible ‘what if?’ scenario. What if this time wasn’t any different? But, what if instead of some great evil beating everypony and rising up to destroy the world, what if it was Twilight that had become evil?

“Is there something wrong?”

Princess Celestia’s voice cut into Twilight’s thought, making the purple pony jump a bit. A slight soreness in her muscles made Twilight regret the action a moment later. She put on a fake smile and gave a nervous laugh. “Oh, it’s nothing. I just...you know, still have a hard time believing all my friends are living with me, now.”

The tightness appeared on Princess Celestia’s face before she took a step away from Twilight’s door, despite opening it while Twilight had been distracted. “Your...friends,” Princess Celestia repeated slowly.

“That’s right,” Twilight told her. What wasn’t hard to believe about five ponies, many of whom had their own lodgings, decided to just up and move in with her? In fact, the more she thought about the subject, the more Twilight was sure that this timeline’s Twilight must have used some dark and evil magic to force them into moving in with her. It was the only thing that made sense. “Do you think I...forced them to, or something?”

Would Princess Celestia know if the evil Twilight really was evil?

Princess Celestia studied Twilight for a few moments before she stuck her head into the room while keeping Twilight outside of it at an angle she couldn’t see past the doorway. There was a brief golden glow from her horn, then the Princess brought her in. When she did, Twilight found her room...odd.

There was definitely a Twilight-ness about the place. All of the walls in the living room had a bookshelf or two, perfectly organized in the manner Twilight had perfected a few months ago, before she came up with a whole new system during that three-day weekend when Discord had tricked her friends into liking him. But there were some oddities, like the mirrors. There were mirrors everywhere, tiny ones that she could hold with her a hoof and big ones that could reflect her whole body if Twilight stood far enough away from them, all in odd places.

However, when Princess Celestia stuck her head in Twilight’s bedroom to repeat the same spell from before, she caught onto why there was so many of them instead of what Twilight knew should have been present. “Princess Celestia, why are you turning all of my pictures into mirrors?”

“Because I don’t know if showing and telling you things that will probably upset you is a good idea with the state you’re in,” Princess Celestia explained in a vague manner before she brought Twilight to the bed covered in white sheets.

Twilight looked around the other Twilight’s bedroom and blinked. The mirror holding all of the pictures she had taken with her friends over the years was gone. There were other mirrors, but judging by their size, they had also been pictures. In fact, the only real mirror Twilight could see in the room was the oddly positioned fifty-two inch one hanging on the wall to her right, on the opposite side of the room from her bed. “How would a bunch of pictures upset me?”

Magic enveloped Twilight to set her on the bed after Celestia pulled the sheets aside, but left the purple pony’s coat open to the air. “Twilight, I hate to tell you this, but it’s obvious to me that there is something wrong beyond a little confusion caused by a simple bump on the head.”

The idea that Princess Celestia might find her out made Twilight pull in on herself as the worst of possibilities entered into her head. What if Princess Celestia tried to stop her from changing things back to how they should be?

Twilight gulped. “W-What do you mean?”

“Twilight...can you tell me who your brother is married to?” Princess Celestia asked.

At first, Twilight opened her mouth to give the obvious answer, but the encounter with Chrysalis just moments before stopped her. What if something happened and her brother ended up marrying Chrysalis? How was something like that even possible?

What happened to Cadance?

Twilight forced herself to stop before her imagination ran away from her completely.

Just because Chrysalis was in the castle didn’t mean that she had somehow replaced Twilight’s real sister-in-law.

“P-Princess Cadance,” Twilight said nervously. When Princess Celestia simply stood there looking at her, Twilight took that as her cue to keep going. “She’s the ruler of the Crystal Empire. It came back after a thousand years of being banished by King Sombra, or...because of King Sombra, you uh, were never really clear on that part.”

Princess Celestia waited for another second before she nodded. “And?”

Twilight froze again. What did the Princess mean, ‘and?’. Was there something else about Cadance that Twilight needed to tell her?

Then, she remembered that other little thing about the couple. “Oh! And Cadance is pregnant with their first foal.”

Surprise appeared on Princess Celestia’s face. “She’s pregnant? Really? Since when?”

“A few months now,” Twilight said. “You...didn’t know?”

Princess Celestia frowned a little. “I didn’t hear anything about...well, that’s not important right now. Okay then, what can you tell me about...the Empress?”

Once again, Twilight tensed. “You mean, um….” Fear of being found out kept her mind from working for several seconds. Then, she remembered a little bit of information that had been learned earlier. “You mean...um, my...mom?”

“That’s right,” Princess Celestia told her with caution evident in her voice. “Tell me about your mother.”

With the pressure mounting, Twilight looked around nervously. The idea of her mother somehow taking over Equestria seemed absolutely ludicrous. But without any clues to go on from the missing pictures all around her room and the small bookshelf being nothing but books with dates on them that looked suspiciously like journals that dated back before she was even in magic school, Twilight decided to keep to the bare minimum of information so she wouldn’t make a grievous error that outed her as some kind of intruder instead of just the fake version of Twilight with a little brain damage. “W-Well, my mom, the uh, Empress, who’s also my mom, Twilight Velvet, she uh...she looks like me, but with um, a different colored coat, a-and her cutie mark is three purple stars.”

The look on Princess Celestia’s face became very worried. “Your mother...Twilight Velvet.”

Twilight nodded as her worry increased. Had she said something wrong? She couldn’t see how. There was no way that Twilight Velvet wouldn’t be her mother. No matter what Starlight did, nothing would change that. “T-That’s right.”

As Celestia continued to look down at her, Twilight became more and more nervous. I...I said something wrong. Something big. Really big. But how? What did I say that was wrong? Twilight asked herself.

Princess Celestia’s cautious look disappeared a few moments later to be replaced by something that was much more calm, but also...sad. She reached down and gently ran a hoof over Twilight’s bangs before leaning down to kiss the purple pony on her forehead. “It’s okay, Twily. I’m sorry I made you nervous. Come on, let’s relax a bit like the good old days, shall we?”

While Twilight wondered what the good old days entailed, Princess Celestia’s horn lit up to the point where Twilight had to cover her eyes. When the light of the solar alicorn’s magic faded, Twilight blinked at what she saw. Instead of the majestic and regal Princess Celestia that towered over everypony, what stood in her stead was a pony of average height and slightly better than average figure with a long pink mane wearing Celestia’s cutie mark.

“Bwa?” Twilight asked.

The youthanized Princess Celestia worked a crick out of her neck. “Yeah, been awhile since we had a fillies be free day, and Chryssy will probably lecture me about mixed messages and junk, but I’m thinking you could use some relaxing,” she said before scooting Twilight over with her magic, then hopping into the bed next to the bewildered purple pony to put a wing under her back. Once Twilight was lowered back onto the bed and sever pillows used to prop her head up, Celestia kissed her on the cheek. “Okay so, the tower being down means we can’t connect to the main library. What do we got in storage for-”

A knock on the door made Celestia stop talking and look over in the direction of the sound. “Come in.”

The door opened to admit an earth pony Twilight didn’t recognize, but...there was something about her that tickled Twilight’s memory. As if she had met the creamy-yellow mare with the curly orange mane before, but not in any deep way. Maybe she was just a pony that lived in Ponyville that Twilight had seen on the street, but never talked to. The town may have been small, but that didn’t mean Twilight knew all three-hundred-plus residents by sight.

“Hello, Pear Butter,” Princess Celestia greeted her. “You working kitchens today?”

“Afternoon, Tia. And Ah wouldn’t have to if the girls could keep a cook for longer than a week,” she said with a little smile. “So Ah see you two are having another one of yer filly days. Ah ain’t gonna have ta tan yer hide again, am Ah?”

Twilight’s eyes went wide. What?

Princess Celestia rolled her eyes in a good-natured way. “I burn down one little orchard, and nopony ever lets me forget it,” she said.

“Forgivin’ and forgettin’ are two entirely different things, little missy,” the earth pony joked. “Sides, it was mighty funny, watchin’ Granny Smith gawk at’cha havin’ to make it all up with yer community service. Yer applebuckin’ left a bit to be desired, but nopony could get the crop in as fast, or collect the eggs as easy as you. Plus, them gutters ain’t never been as clean as when you were doin’ em. If you ever get tired of teachin’ we would sure appreciate yer help on the farm again.”

Disbelief flooded Twilight’s mind before she looked to the pony laying beside her. “You...worked on-wait, just who are you?” she asked, turning her attention to the mare standing beside her bed. Twilight knew all the farmers in Ponyville, especially the apple farmers, all four of them! This mare sure as hay wasn’t on the Apple Family list!

Pear Butter blinked in confusion before frowning. “Twilight? Ah’m yer-”

“Applejack’s mother!” Princess Celestia quickly interjected as she lifted her head to block Twilight’s view of Pear Butter. “You remember, right Twily? This is your friend Applejack’s mother who you met and have known for years.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide as recognition ignited in her brain. She had seen the mare standing beside her before. But, she hadn’t met her. Because the only place Pear Butter existed, although Twilight thought Buttercup was the name Applejack used, was in a family photograph in the Apple Family household. “You...you’re alive,” she mumbled in confusion.

“Say wut now?” the older mare asked as she pulled her head back.

Before the ensuing silence could become very awkward, Princess Celestia cleared her throat. “I’m afraid Twilight was attacked recently and the effects on her memory may be a bit more serious than I originally thought. But she is hungry right now, could you please make us something to comfort her?”

Pear Butter looked back and forth between the two ponies, moving her eyes to do so. “Of-of course. I-I’ll be right back, Twily,” before she quickly turned to gallop out of the room.

For her part, Twilight could only stare blankly at the place where the mare had been a moment ago. “Applejack’s mother is...alive?” she asked nopony in particular as she simply voiced her thoughts. “But...I don’t...how?”

Princess Celestia pulled Twilight into another hug and gave the purple pony a kiss on the side of her head again. “Shhh. It’s okay, Twily. Everything’s going to be okay. We’re going to fix this, you’ll see.”

“Right,” Twilight agreed, her tone empty as her mind drifted a million miles away. If Applejack’s mother was still alive in this world…

She couldn’t complete the thought.

She couldn’t allow herself to.

She had to fix things.

She had to get her friends back!

Besides, Twilight told herself. This world isn’t real. This isn’t the way things should be. I’ve got to make things the way they should be.

Celestia’s horn lit up, which was followed by the mirror that took up the majority of the room’s far wall becoming white. A list was displayed instead of their reflections, which made Twilight blink. Are those the titles of plays? she wondered.

“Well, we still have local storage, so...um…oh! Here’s that educational show you did with Pinkie, you remember that, right?” Princess Celestia asked.

Caught between telling Princess Celestia a lie and getting closer to exposing her true identity, Twilight was unable to form a full answer. “Well, I...um...sort...of? Everything’s a little fuzzy, to be honest.”

Princess Celestia looked back to the mirror, that seemed very reminiscent of a human device Twilight had encountered now that she thought about it. “Well, let’s see if we can jog your memory,” she said before sending a strand of magic into the mirror. “You and Pinkie had so much fun together doing this.”

“Pinkie had fun with something educational?” Twilight asked herself more than Princess Celestia as the image in the mirror changed and sound began to play.

A barely lit room slowly illuminated to reveal a pair of ponies sitting at a long wooden desk. The one on the left was a purple unicorn, while a pink earthy pony with an even pinker poofy mane sat on the right.

“Hello everypony,” the unicorn Twilight greeted with a little nod. “As well as every other creature joining us today.”

Pinkie stood up a little bit and waved in the direction she was face. “I’m Professor Pinkie, and that is Princess Sparklebutt!”

Twilight’s eyes went wide and her head cocked to the side ever so slightly before she spoke. “W-What?”

“Sparklebutt!” Pinkie immediately exclaimed happily.

After taking a deep breath, Twilight looked over to the other pony. “Pinkie, my name is Twilight. And you know I hate it when ponies use my title! I’m just a normal little unicorn.”

As Twilight wondered three things at once that just got jumbled up in a mess of confusion, Princess Celestia giggled. The device, it was like one of those human devices, but done with magic. “I don’t think normal has ever been the right way to describe you, my darling little Twilight,” she said before snuggling closer to the purple pony.

“Look Twilight, I talked to your E-mom about it, and it’s called a persona,” the mirror Pinkie explained. She said more things, but Twilight found herself unable to focus on them in lue of being so physically close to Princess Celestia.

The words of concern, the nickname, she had written them off as some sort of time fluke like her chandelier. It was obvious that Princess Celestia was much closer to her emotionally in this world than in Twilight’s original one.

Were she and the Princess...more than just teacher and student?

More than just...friends?

Twilight gulped nervously for just thinking such a thing, a thought left over from the days when she was a silly little filly experiencing her first heat. Princess Celestia had been on her mind all the time during those days and every single hot experience afterwards. Just thinking about all those nights spent alone in sweltering need with nothing but the Princess on her mind made Twilight bite her lip.

What if, instead of nervously retreating to her room to fight through the need, she had asked Princess Celestia for the relief so many other ponies received from their friends during heated days? With the exception of Twilight, of course, if Princess Celestia didn’t need to seek out a pony to help cool down, she didn’t ever even look like she needed a pony for that, so Twilight would forever follow her shining example.

But, what if the Princess had been asked and...asked Twilight to help her in return?

She had been fourteen at the time, but...Princess Celestia was so much older than everypony else, what did a few years matter when it came to silly things like the usual acceptable age for consent?

It was Princess Celestia! Everything she did was acceptable!

Especially if it happened to be Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight nervously licked her lips. With as affectionate as Princess Celestia had been to her, surely it was okay if Twilight...returned the kisses, right?

“Um, P-Princess C-Celestia?” Twilight asked as she tried to get the mare’s attention. It would just be a quick peck on the lips. One little fantasy fulfilled, that was all.

But, such plans were put on hold when the door opened to the reveal Pear Butter gain, pulling a small cart of pies and other treats behind her. “Hello girls. Ah know, reheated pies aren’t quite as good as fresh, but sometimes, expediency outweighs quality.”

Princess Celestia looked over to the mare, “Thanks P.B.,” she said before floating some treats for her and Twilight to enjoy before looking back to the mirror. “Oh, Twilight, here it comes. This is always my favorite part of the premier.”

“So, what’s our first Question, Pinkie?” Twilight asked as a glass tube descended from the ceiling to deposit a rolled up scroll.

Pinkie took the scroll from the delivery system and opened it up. “Well, let’s see here,” she said before she began reading the letter just loud enough for the words to be picked up. “Dear Princess Twilight and Pinkie Pie, hey that’s me! I’ve always been fascinated by the way weather works in Equestria. So different than in my home country, especially with how pegasi make it. Okay, so more and more flattery, yada yada yada, mentions rules of physics violations and-ah! Here’s the question!”

From her seat beside Pinkie, Twilight wore a fake smile for one...two...three....four...five seconds before she glanced over at the earth pony while still keeping her toothy smile up. “Well?”

Pinkie looked over Twilight. “What?”

“Pinkie, aren’t you going to read the question?” Twilight asked in an obviously forced happy tone.

The pink pony blinked. “I did read the question,” she said before giggling. “ I wouldn’t say here’s the question and just stop reading, that would be silly!”

Twilight’s eye twitched as her happy smile became even more forced. “So, don’t you think you should tell everypony what the question for today is?”

“Oh! Okay,” Pinkie said before sitting up straighter and clearing her throat to speak in a cheerful voice. “Does Princess Celestia fart rainbows?”

Twilight’s eyes went wide as her pupils shrunk to pinpricks.

…

…

…

“Wut?”

Princess Twilight’s eyes mirrored those of her wingless counterpart in the mirror as Princess Celestia fell into a fit of giggles while Pear Butter rolled her eyes and left the room. “Wha...What the hay kind of question is that?!” both the reflected and real Twilight said at the exact same time. “How? How could anypony ask something like that?”

The distressed demands brought an abrupt halt to Celestia’s laughter. “Um, Twily? Are you alright?” she asked.

“Alright? How can I be alright? Did you hear What somepony just asked about you?” Twilight demanded as she got to her hooves in anger. “A...a pony like that, they...they need to be thrown in the palace dungeon! Or banished! Or thrown in a dungeon of wherever it was that you banish them to!”

Princess Celestia frowned at the same-sized alicorn. “Twily, you don’t remember broadcasting this?”

Twilight tensed. “Umm, well I, um...I just don’t remember who wrote that letter.”

“Really?” Princess Celestia asked evenly before she looked over to the mirror. “Skip to guest star.”

Wondering what was going on, Twilight looked back to the mirror. Hundreds, if not thousands of images sped by at a rapid pace, making it seem as if the Twilight in the mirror was moving at super speed. Then, seemingly as suddenly as it began, time resumed its normal flow.

“To help us answer this rainbow related question. Let’s bring out our good friend, who’s also a weather expert,” the mirror Pinkie said before throwing out her hooves to the side. “Doctor Dashie!”

There was a great deal of applause from somewhere as Rainbow Dash came trotting into view. “Hey everypony!”

“Hey Doctor Dash!” dozens of ponies said from somewhere Twilight couldn’t see through the mirror.

The Twilight in the mirror frowned. “You’re not a doctor.”

After she finished waving to some unseen crowd, Rainbow turned to face Twilight. “I’m totally a doctor, Twi. It’s in my name, Rainbow, totally a doctor, Dash.”

Mirror-Twilight’s eye twitched once...then twice, then she slammed her head into the table. “Ugh, fine. Whatever, just answer the question so we can get in with it.”

“Dashie, being a weather pony, we’d like to know if you fart rainbows.”

Rainbows face became a tiny frown. “Pinkie, you know I don’t fart rainbows, I make them.”

Mirror-Twilight raised her head in time to groan and slam it back against the table. “Seriously, Dash?” she asked without removing her head from the wood.

“Princess...did Rainbow Dash write the letter?” Twilight asked the mini-Celestia next to her. Considering all of her previous pranks, Twilight wouldn’t put it past her.

After a few seconds of giggling at the antics being displayed. Princess Celestia looked over to Twilight and sighed. “No, I just forgot that she came in before me,” she said before her horn lit up again. “Fast forward to the last five minutes of the program.”

Twilight looked back to the screen as the ponies began to move at a super fast pace again. From the looks of things, Rainbow actually took the time to explain just how rainbows were made, complete with diagrams she pulled out from somewhere Twilight couldn’t quite see. Then, after a great deal of talking that made it look like the Twilight in the mirror was becoming more and more exasperated, Princess Celestia trotted into view. There was another three seconds of talking, then everything slowed down to normal speed.

“-so, no,” Celestia said as she finished what had to have been an extremely long explanation in an amused tone. “I do not fart rainbows.”

“So now the question is, can you be made to fart rainbows?” Pinkie asked.

With her face still down on the desk, the Twilight in the mirror groaned. “Oh, shimmering sun,” she said before looking up and grabbing the scroll that Pinkie had set aside in her magic to unroll it in front of her face. “Just who in the buck wrote this question, anyway?”

The Princess Celestia in the image put on a big smile and turned her attention to Pinkie. “Well, I’d best be going now girls. I must say, I had a really fun time and would love to stay-”

“SUNNY SKIES?” Twilight shrieked before she gave a death glare to the big white pony in the mirror.

“But the Empress won’t advise herself!” Princess Celestia said before she turned around and trotted off at a hurried pace. “Toodles girls!”

“YOU GET BACK HERE!” Mirror-Twilight yelled before she chased Celestia beyond the edge of the mirror, much to the real Twilight’s confusion.

Left alone in the mirror, Pinkie looked out towards the real Twilight. “Well, that’s our show for the day. Join us next time when we have the Empress on stage to answer questions directly from our audience!”

“YOU ARE SUCH A TROLL!”

Twilight blinked in confusion at her double’s final words before the reflection went back to normal. “Okay...Sunny Skies,” she said, keeping her mind on task. If she didn’t, Twilight knew that she would have been begging for Princess Celestia’s forgiveness because of her double’s actions. And the fact that she had reacted in such a way, yelling at Princess Celestia, it proved to Twilight that this world was just as wrong and evil as all the others. But in this one, it was Twilight who had become the villain! “When I get back home, I’ll deal with her!”

“Um, Twily? You are home,” Princess Celestia said, drawing the purple alicorn’s attention back to the seemingly-young mare that was laying belly up on the bed. “And what do you mean, deal with Sunny Skies? Are you seriously telling me that you don’t know who that is?”

Caught red-hooved, Twilight froze. “Um, I...um,” she said as she wracked her brain for a response while the expression on Princess Celestia’s face became more and more concerned. “A...pony that you threw into Tartarus for asking such an insulting question about you?”

When she didn’t respond, nervousness began to creep into Twilight’s mind, followed by a small throbbing pain. “I’m sorry, Princess. My head is starting to hurt again. Maybe that’s why I don’t remember.”

Silence filled the room for several seconds as Princess Celestia just stared at Twilight before guiding the purple alicorn back down into bed and into a wonderful embrace with her magic. “Have you seen the latest Solar Battles, Twily?” Celestia asked. “And I mean, seen all of it.”

After looking away from the mirror that had changed back to displaying a list of plays and to the pony laying beside her, Twilight blinked. “I have,” she said. Rainbow Dash and Applejack had dragged her to watch it the week before in Canterlot.

“Good!” Celestia told her before the mirror’s image changed to a deep black.

Long ago, in a land that is far, far away…

Walking through the streets of the changed Ponyville was a very interesting experience for Spike. Everything was the same, but...not. The grass streets remained the same, although a telltale rock inscribed with a plant growth rune explained how the ground remained green despite the increase in hoof traffic. Spike recognized all the buildings of Ponyville as well, there were just more of them, and bigger ones in the background, outside of the Ponyville he had spent the last several years in. It was as if a pony had come in and decided that everything of the original Ponyville would be preserved as it was and more would just have to be added on as the population increased.

And whomever had decided it also decided that the small town aesthetic was mandatory. Despite the increase of population and size, all the buildings aside from a big crystal tower near the center of town, the large square factory on the far end of town, and a few minor details like the electric light posts that didn’t belong outside of Canterlot, Ponyville was still mostly comprised of buildings with straw roofs and other country town things. Even the town market looked the same, if a tiny bit more crowded than it had been before.

Most of the ponies, Spike knew as well. Bonbon was out and about with Lyra, that crazy brown stallion with the tie Derpy always talked to trotted past them after giving Spike an odd look, Raindrops, Carrot Top, the flower ponies, they were all still in Ponyville and going on as they normally did. Even the stallion from Quills and Sofas was still there.

And then, they got to Rarity’s Carousel Boutique...which looked the same.

Seeing it made Spike’s heart ache. There was no panic, like the first time he had seen an alternate version of the building, all boarded up. The only feeling he experienced was how much he missed Rarity. His Rarity, not the Rarity in the castle with Nightmare Moon. That had been depressing.

But, there was nothing like that in this world. In fact, if Twilight went back again, Spike was afraid they would come across a timeline that was far worse than the one they were in now. With that being the case, tired as he was, Spike had to wonder if staying in this world...would be really be so bad?

It wasn’t their home, but it looked like everypony was still in Ponyville and happy. This might be as close to the original world as they were going to get.

“Okay, so...let’s see,” Chrysalis said before she took a moment to inspect the lock and, winced when another pony shouted her name.

“Chrysalis!” somepony called out from behind Spike in a rage that sent a shiver of fearful recognition up Spike’s spine. The changeling sighed and turned around, making Spike do the same. What he saw made him quickly hide behind Chrysalis’s forelegs for protection.

Starlight Glimmer looked slightly different than the last time Spike had seen her. The mare’s mane had changed to a more wavy style, combed over to one side of her face rather than what she had used before. However, the angry scowl on the lilac pony’s face was all too familiar. “What the hell is going on?” she demanded. “I get an intruder alert at the castle and come galloping back, just for Fizzy to tell me that Twily’s hurt and in bed recovering from a fucking assault. And I can’t even take the time to check on her, because Dash decided to break everything again! Which I have to go fix instead of looking in on Twily.”

“Well you summed everything up nicely, Glimmy,” Chrysalis replied with a tiny smirk. “So why’re you asking me something you already know the answer to?”

After a moment of simply standing there, Starlight Glimmer let out a tiny groan and slumped just a bit. “Because I’m angry that Twilight’s hurt, my cock is out of town and Sunlight is in one of his little moods, which Trixie doesn’t want to deal with because she’s got one of her own on the way,” she grumbled. “There are times I wish I had just followed the Glorious Empress’s shining example and held off on foals.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes before she sighed and reached up to put a hoof on Starlight’s shoulder. “Then the second passes and you get all weepy over just considering the thought of not having your son,” she said to the angry pony, making Starlight’s expression fall. “So, let’s just skip to the part where I give you the comforting words you came to get from me, okay? Twilight’s recovering, Sunburst will be back in a few days, and I told you to hold off on that sun worship crap when I’m around.” Then Chrysalis looked down at Spike and stepped aside, exposing him to Starlight. “Oh, and watch your mouth, there are younglings present.”

“This the dragon Fizzy told me about?” Starlight asked evenly as she raised a hoof to point at Spike.

A snort came from Chrysalis. “No, this is a different purple dragon that appeared in the castle alongside Twilight when she teleported home who also happens to be named Spike.”

Spike nervously raised a claw and moved his fingers in a greeting as Starlight Glimmer frowned down at him. “H-Hello.”

The frown didn’t disappear in a show of friendliness either. “Hello Spike, I’m Starlight Glimmer,” she said evenly. “As Ponyville’s magus and assistant to the Royal Council of Friendship, I’ll be conducting your interrogation along with Captain Fizzlepop Berrytwist.”

“Because interrogating baby dragons needs two intimidating mares,” Chrysalis said evenly.

Starlight glared at Chrysalis for a few moments before slumping with a groan. “Look, I got repairs to assess and do, if we even have the proper crystals. You do whatever to need to then go...concubine for the Mother Celestia, or something.”

As the lilac unicorn trotted away, Chrysalis rolled her eyes and shot Starlight a few words. “You know she hates that title!” the changeling yelled at the departing pony before switching to a grumble. “Sun worshipers.”

The explanation only made Spike more confused. “That was...Starlight...Glimmer,” he said as Chrysalis turned her attention back to the boutique’s door.

“The one and only,” Chrysalis said before there was a click and the boutique’s door opened to a push of the changeling’s hoof. “Don’t worry, she’s...uh, okay yeah. She’s just as loud, violent, rash, and stupid as everypony says. Wait, I know she ends up in the local paper a lot, but how do you know about her?”

Spike tensed. “Uh, well...that time, you know, when she made national news for um, you know, blowing up that thing...or did she burn it down?” he asked, trying to sound as vague as possible. In no version of the timeline could Spike see Starlight being anything but a violent maniac.

“...you have no idea how little that narrows things down, do you?” Chrysalis asked before trotting inside. “Now come on, Rarity’s stash is upstairs.”

After taking a single step forward, but not going into the building, Spike blinked. “Wait, Rarity’s not here?”

“She and Pinkie Pie are spending the week in Baltimare,” Chrysalis told him before sticking her head out to look at him. “Don’t worry, I doubt the High Lady of Generosity would mind losing a few shiny rocks to feed a hungry child.”

Spike blinked several times at the title before Rarity’s name. Rarity hadn’t been a noble in the previous timeline, even if she deserved to be, and the way Chrysalis said it sounded more like it was some kind of insult rather than a show of respect. “What do you mean by-” Spike stopped mid-sentence as he walked into the boutique.

Although the building was the same on the outside, the interior was extremely different. All of the clothes that Rarity put out on racks for ponies to pick from had completely disappeared, along with her bargain bin for hats. Instead, it looked like the entire showroom floor had been changed into an oversized mix of Rarity’s inspiration and sewing rooms. “Where’s all the clothes?”

“Hm?” Chrysalis asked.

Spike rephrased his question as he continued to slowly look around. “Rarity, doesn’t she uh, make dresses and stuff?” he asked before coming across a small painting that definitely didn’t belong and had Spike wondering if he was seeing things.

As he moved closer to get a better view, Chrysalis snorted. “Oh please, Rarity hasn’t made anything in a year-okay, well there’s been favors to friends and stuff, I don’t think she could survive without being able to use the girls like her little living dolls, but the closest Rarity’s come to making commercial clothes is a few collaborations with a unicorn in Canterlot and-hey, where’re you going?”

The painting that had transfixed Spike so much was one featuring Rarity and Fluttershy. The two of them were laying in a meadow, snuggled up side to side, with Fluttershy’s wing laid across Rarity’s back. But the most disturbing part of the painting was how they were looking at each other, with half-lidded eyes that seemed to be in a kind of daze. That wasn’t how friends were supposed to look at each other!

“I was-” Spike said before he turned his head and froze when his eyes saw another painting. In it, Rarity was laid out across Applejack’s back as the larger pony trotted down the road. The unicorn’s forelegs were wrapped around the farmer’s neck in a hug while she whispered in a blushing Applejack’s ear. “I was just-”

Then came the painting of Pinkie Pie and Rarity. They were at a party of some sort, judging by all the balloons that were being on display. Rarity had her back on the floor while Pinkie laid on top of her, giving the unicorn the same look that friends weren’t supposed to use. “What is-”

Once again, Spike turned to see what were probably the two most important pictures in the room when it came to how drastically different this new timeline was on opposite sides of the door. In the left one, Rainbow Dash held Rarity in her legs as she held the blushing unicorn up from behind while biting her ear, something only a very special somepony did when they were feeling playful. But the one to the right of the door was far worse. In it, a unicorn Twilight that had been wrapped in a simple but elegant white dress was opposite a Rarity wearing red.

AND THEY WERE KISSING!

K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

Unable to stop himself, Spike screamed. The confused haze he had been in since seeing a good Chrysalis, compounded by Starlight Glimmer’s presence, finally cleared away into one of outright panic. Whereas before, he had been wondering if it was possible to stay in the one good world that they had stumbled across since it seemed that every other instance of Twilight traveling back in time, things just kept getting worse and worse, he now knew that such a thing wasn’t possible and they had to fix things as soon as they could.

“What? What is it?” Chrysalis asked she trotted over and looked around wildly.

Spike pointed to the picture. “That!” he said. “W-What’re they doing?”

After looking to the painting, Chrysalis looked back down to Spike. “Kissing. It’s what ponies do when they’re married. Geeze, boy, just how much of a backwater town were you from?”

“M-M-Married?” Spike repeated in absolute horrified shock. But I’m supposed to marry Rarity!

Chrysalis rolled her eyes and picked Spike up in her magic before she trotted deeper into the evil monument to the things that should never have come to pass. “Ugh, this is why I gave up on raising my offspring,” she grumbled. “Now come on, with the way Rarity organizes everything, it’s going to take forever to find you some food.”

Chapter 3: Revisionist History

Spike did his best not to freak out completely as Chrysalis continued to dig through a rather large number of old boxes in an attempt to find the gems she said Rarity used to collect. Meaning, she didn’t do it anymore. More proof that things had gone so horribly wrong. But, it was nothing compared to the world shattering revelation that had come about earlier. Something he still had trouble even comprehending. “H-How could Twilight and Rarity get married?” he asked in a mass of confusion.

Chrysalis set aside the box she was holding in her magic and looked back to Spike. “You’re kidding, right?” she asked. “It was the biggest wedding in Equestria, you actually didn’t know your little purple savior was hitched?”

The question made the train of thought Spike had chugging along in his mind derail. Chrysalis thought he was upset because Twilight got married? That was just...ew.

But, as his mind began to clear a little from the distracting thought, Spike saw the wisdom in letting her think that. If he started getting interested in Rarity, it might raise a few red flags to the bug...princess? He really wasn’t sure how to think of the changeling in front of him. “Uh...n-not really? How’d it...happen?”

“Same way most filly friends hook up, I suppose,” Chrysalis said before she went back to rooting around the storage room. “When Twilight experienced her first heat, she went to her oldest friends to ask for help. Then, as they all got older, physical need was replaced by desire, which eventually turned into an actual relationship. Then, one thing led to another and boom, they all got hitched.”

Spike blinked at the wording. “All?”

A second later, Chrysalis stepped away from the pile and actually knelt down closer to Spike before she let out a little sigh. “”Look, Spike. Twilight probably did something amazing and saved you from something and all that, but I’m going to do you a huge favor and nip this in the bud. I’ve seen where these kinds of things go, Tartarus, I’ve caused more of them any anypony likes to admit, so...in the time that you’ve known her, has Twilight ever shown any interest in you romantically, whatsoever?”

In Spike’s mind, he couldn’t help but replace the word Twilight with Rarity. “Well, um...she’s been, n-nice to me. Nicer than a lot of other ponies, actually.”

“Ponies that probably thought of you as, what? A servant? A pet? Something to just do chores around town and start the fire for cooking?” Chrysalis asked.

That wasn’t how other ponies saw him, was it? Spike stared at Chrysalis for several seconds as her words sunk in, all the while, the dragon running through all the memories he had of Ponyville to prove her wrong. While there were plenty of moments that he could use as fuel for an argument, most of his memories...fell in line with her questions. “It’s pretty disturbing how you’re able to say something like that with any accuracy after just talking to me for less than an hour,” he said in a toneless voice.

Not to mention how wrong it was. Ponies...didn’t think of him...like that.

Well, not Twilight and her friends, at least.

Or the ponies of the Crystal Empire!

Who didn’t really know him half as well as every other pony in Ponyville…

“Look, this may be harsh and all, but it’s better to put the stinging ointment on than let the wound fester,” Chrysalis told him in a way that actually made it sound she had some sympathy for the dragon. “That ointment being the truth. And the truth is, she is a mare nearly twice your age that is already more than interested in a slew of other ponies. It doesn’t mean she won’t be your friend if given half the chance, but...well, friendship is as far as it’s gonna go. So you can either accept that and take what you can get, or you can throw it aside in favor of, I dunno...being all sad and resentful. Ugh, Cadance is way better at this stuff than me.”

Spike stared ahead blankly as everything the bug queen had just said played through his mind along with several of the moments he and Rarity had been together. While there were several times Rarity had been very friendly a a little...enticing when it came to things like asking to help out with carrying things, she had never really done anything more than that. But...it was Rarity, she had to have known about his crush on her after being together for so long.

“Why didn’t she just…” Spike said, unable to finish the thought.

“What?” Chrysalis asked. “Tell some creature she just met not to go gaga over her? Spike, Twily is hardly the pony to notice stuff like that. Now, let’s find ah-ha!”

But Rarity would, Spike told himself. In fact, Rarity did. She just...remained quiet about it. Why would she do something like that? Spike asked himself as the world began to blur and Chrysalis floated a chest out of the junk pile.

“Okay, so we’ve got some rubies, sapphires, I think this is a dia-no, zirconia,” the changeling said before she looked down to Spike. “H-Hey, are you crying? Crap, you’re crying. Ugh, this is why I left the hive. No idea how to deal with-um, I think Rarity’s got some ice cream in her old fridge downstairs. You want some ice cream with your gems? Rarity downs the stuff like crazy when she’s sad.”

That just made Spike feel worse.

Twilight had to admit, seeing something that at least looked somewhat familiar to her original world, even if it was bad theater, did help calm her down a little. The changeling actors that trotted around as the storm troopers unnerved her a little, but them being on a mirror meant they was no actual danger.

Sky Walker stood in front of Mary Sue, his long gray mane blowing in the breeze as he frowned at the pegasus that could use the mystical Force. “What did you think was going to happen? That I would take on the remnants of the Empire with a light sword?”

There was a bright flash that filled the screen. When it disappeared a second later, Cadance stood between Sky Walker and Mary Sue. Decked out in magical jewelry, the crystal alicorn towered over both the old and new hero, needing to bend her legs and lower her head to shout in his face. “YES! That is EXACTLY what we expected to happen!”

“P-Prin-I mean, ah,” the pony playing Sky Walker stuttered as he showed his professional acting skills by getting himself under control in record time and clearing his throat. “Wh-Who are you, stranger?”

Cadance smiled down at the pony while Merry just stood, completely flabbergasted. “I am Princess Cadance, a pony...from the future!” she announced to the audience before spinning back around to look at Sky Walker. “I’ve come back to prevent you from making a terrible mistake. Come with me, and we shall defeat your nephew in battle and turn him from the dark side.”

Sky Walker looked out towards the direction of the audience. “Well, that is tempting, but…I’ve...given up,” he said with a great deal of difficulty, as if just saying the words was like ripping something out of his very soul.

“Jedi never give up!” Cadance exclaimed before stepping forward to lay on her belly as she took his hooves in hers. “Help me, Brave Sky Walker, you’re my only hope.”

The old Jedi stood frozen for a moment. Then, he looked down to take in a deep breath before meeting Cadance’s eyes. “You know what? Buck it, your solution sounds way cooler than the original plan.”

Mary Sue stepped forward. “But, what about me?”

“Oh!” Cadance said before she tapped her chin in thought for a moment. “Well, you need to stay here and train some more.”

To which Sky Walker quickly added, “There’s some moldy old books inside that big dead tree you passed on your way here. Study them for about five years. Then, after the war’s over, I’ll come back to teach you in pony.”

As the two older ponies trotted off together Sky Walker looked over to Cadance. “So, uh...are you gonna need a light saber or-”

Several bits of crystal flew out from underneath Cadance’s wings before they each lit up and created a dazzling display of short, pink energy beams. “I brought twelve of my own, plus spares if you need one.”

“A-Are those real?”

Cadance giggled before she and Sky came to the first mate yak standing by the legendary ship, making the pegasus raise his hoof in greeting. “Hey, Chewie.”

“Hrmmm, tempered by defeat and risen from the ashes to mentor new generation. Now hero is...perfect,” the large hairy quadruped replied.

The last of the pie fell from Twilight’s mouth as the watched the scene end. Ever so slowly, her brain started to work again after the display of sheer wrongness that Twilight had just witnessed disappeared from her view. “That...that was…”

Celestia giggled. “Amazing, right?” she asked rhetorically as she hugged Twilight a little. “I’ve read the original script, and to be honest, I much prefer this version. Thank the stars Cadance was attending the recording and decided to intervene.”

Unable to hold back her emotions at such a discrepancy as what had been displayed, Twilight jumped up and spun on the little Celestia. “Cadance was seven feet tall!” Which wasn’t the only change to her big sister-in-law, but the extremely bright and shiny coat alongside her transparent flowing mane weren’t as glaringly obvious. “She-she’s bigger than you!”

Plus, they didn’t seem to put her above the real ruler of Equestria, who was currently a lot shorter than she should be.

A tiny, concerned frown appeared on Celestia’s face. “Of course she was.”

“But...t-that’s not...HOW?” Twilight demanded.

Celestia’s frown deepened. “Twilight, you told me that you saw this movie.”

“I did, but it didn’t have have a giant big sister that look down her nose at you in it,” Twilight said as all the stress the little bit of familiarity the movie let her work out quickly began to rush back in. “So how in the hay did something like that happen?”

As the story continued on behind Twilight, Celestia sat silent. For a good three seconds, at any rate. “Cadance bound herself to the Crystal Heart. It gave her more power and her body adapted by increasing in size and taking on new characteristics, just like it is with every alicorn.”

Twilight tried to factor in the new information and use it to figure out how such a thing was possible, but came up short. “But, why would she do something like that?”

“To defeat King Sombra,” Celestia explained simply. “When the Crystal Empire reappeared, I sent Cadance and your brother to deal with the evil I knew would return with it.”

The discrepancy only added to Twilight’s confusion. “B-But that’s not how it happened!”

Silence filled the room for several seconds before Princess Celestia took a deep breath. She Rolled onto her belly and stood up. “Okay, I’ve been trying to get you to relax and rest before we dealt with this, but...Twily, something is very wrong with you right now.”

“No!” Twilight shouted back at the not-Celestia. “You’re wrong! Cadance is wrong! The whole bucking world is wrong! And I have to fix it. I have to fix everything. B-But every time I try, every time I...it’s not...I, I can’t…”

With her blurry vision, Twilight could just make out Celestia hopping off the bed before there was a bright flash, and Twilight was looking at the Princess Celestia she used to know.

Before she could think of what it was that she did wrong to make Princess Celestia change back, the big alicorn wrapped her up in another hug. “Okay, Twily,” she said gently before she picked Twilight up in her forelegs and spun around to place herself on the bed, with Twilight on her belly. “Okay then, how about you tell me everything that’s wrong?”

The question made Twilights panic slowly slide into a depression as she focused in on the most immediate error of this world. “You’re not supposed to call me Twily.”

It hurt to say. Hearing Princess Celestia speak of her with such affection was more than anything Twilight had ever hoped to hear from her. But, it wasn’t real, and Twilight had to face that fact.

Princess Celestia just gave her a gentle laugh. “Well, What else am I supposed to call my grandfoal?”

“Um...what?” Twilight asked as Princess Celestia’s words rattled around in her head. “G-Granfoal? You mean, we’re not...um...s-special...someponies?”

The look on Princess Celestia’s face went from a smile to an expression that most ponies made when they saw a very gross thing that they had stepped in. “Okay, first and foremost...ew,” she replied before shivering in revulsion. “And second off, I think you need to tell me everything that you think is different than it should be.”

Seeing Celestia’s revulsion at the idea of her and Twilight together gave the purple pony a kick in the gut, but...it wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be. It seemed that the dreams of a filly were still nothing more than that, simple flights of fancy that were quickly done away with for a mare of her age. But, Twilight felt her nervousness begin to return even more after Celestia’s question. “W-Why?”

“Because, it’s obvious to me that something has caused your memories to be altered from what they should be,” Princess Celestia told her. “Magic like this works in a very particular way. Whenever a memory is altered or erased, a pony’s mind works to...fill in the gap. If somepony had simply wiped an hour of your memory, you’d just have a blank, a small block of time that you couldn’t remember because you think you passed out. But what’s happened to you seems something far more sinister than a simple amnesia spell. Something much more important to your life was altered or taken out of your mind, and this...false history that you remember incorrectly is the result of your brilliant mind trying to explain its absence.”

Twilight felt like arguing with Princess Celestia, she felt the desire to tell her what was really going on, that somepony had altered things, and it was in fact Twilight who remembered things correctly, not Princess Celestia. But, if she explained that to her…

Twilight shook her head fiercely before she could complete the thought. She couldn’t waste time explaining things to Princess Celestia, it would just mean more fuel for her growing headache. What Princess Celestia was suggesting was something Twilight needed to do anyway. She needed to understand how Starlight Glimmer had altered things. Twilight hadn’t seen the mare in Cloudsdale, she hadn’t seen what Starlight had done. But with Princess Celestia’s help, she knew that she could figure it out.

“Okay,” Twilight agreed slowly. “Umm, where should we start?”

After a few seconds of thinking, Princess Celestia nodded to herself. “Well, since we’re already on the topic, let’s start with Cadance. Now, why were you so surprised that she had absorbed the power of the Crystal Heart?”

Twilight remembered seeing her old foalsitter standing in the mirror, wielding as much, if not more power than Princess Celestia and didn’t bother to hide her nervousness. “B-Because it didn’t happen.”

“She didn’t use its power to defeat Sombra?” Celestia asked.

After starting to shake her head, Twilight paused. “Well, uh, she did, it just um...h-how do you remember it happening, Princess?” she asked.

Princess Celestia pressed her lips together for a moment. “Well, I wasn’t there, mind you. But, from what I was told, Shining Armor and Cadance found that the Empire had returned along with Sombra. While Cadance battled with him at the edge of the Empire, Shining Armor overcame several defenses made of dark magic and found the Crystal Heart. He delivered it to Cadance and held off the shadow unicorn for a few seconds while Cadance forged a link with the artifact. It didn’t have that much power because the ponies were still under the remains of Sombra’s curse, but it did give her enough energy to finish him off for good. Then, as the crystal ponies recovered and filled their hearts with love, empowering the Crystal Heart, so too did Cadance’s power increase,” she explained before frowning. “How do you remember things, Twily?”

“Well, Shiny and Cadance did go to the Crystal Empire,” Twilight told Princess Celestia. “That part’s the same. But...they couldn’t save it on their own, so you sent me and my friends to help them. It was a test to see if I was ready for bigger things. To fulfill my destiny.”

After a few seconds, Princess Celestia frowned. “I sent you there?”

Feeling a little nervous, Twilight nodded slowly. “Yes.”

“After Shining Armor and Cadance failed at their task,” Princess Celestia went on.

Twilight nodded again, slightly more confident than before. “Well, sort of. Shiny...got hurt protecting me and my friends from Sombra after we showed up, so he couldn’t use his magic. So, we had to look for the heart.”

“And thus, we find the problem with your story,” Princess Celestia told her.

“...what?” Twilight replied as her mind derailed a bit.

Celestia shuffled around a little underneath the purple mare before putting a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Twily, think about it. Cadance’s destiny revolves around the Crystal Empire. Saving it, ruling it...everything-ing it.”

The odd phrase got a little giggle from Twilight, which made Princess Celestia smile. “Nice to see you can still laugh,” she said before continuing. “The idea that I would mess with the fulfillment of her destiny, to use it as some kind of test, or even supplant her completely by having another mare do anything to it, the very thought of that is horrifying to me.”

Twilight felt the tiny bit of mirth she had gained from Princess Celestia’s obviously intention verbal stumble die. “W-What?” she stammered.

“To have the moment she was born for snatched away by some other pony,” Princess Celestia went on. “I can’t even imagine how badly that would have crushed her. A-And you say, I was supposed to have done that to her? Twilight, I...that...really hurts, Twilight.”

As Princess Celestia’s expression fell, the purple pony’s brain went into overdrive to try and fix things. “B-But that’s not how it happened!” Twilight exclaimed. “I-I couldn’t fix things either! I needed help too!”

Princess Celestia went back to frowning. “From Ss-er,” she said before pausing. “I mean, the Empress? Ugh, I really hate it when she’s asleep. Anyway, so...the Empress came and defeated Sombra? She could have done that from the beginning, she could have crushed him like a bug. If that’s what happened in your memories, then wouldn’t it have made sense for her to have done it before?”

The odd comment made Twilight’s mind stumble. “Um...b-because it would have ruined Cadance’s...destiny?” she asked more than answered.

“You see what I mean, Twily?” Celestia asked. “When put under examination, the story doesn’t hold up. Chrysalis and your mother understood that Cadance needed to fulfill her destiny and willingly stood aside so that Cadance and Shining Armor could do what they needed to do. They grumbled and fretted every second and barely stopped from teleporting over when Cadance got put up against the ropes, but...to do otherwise would have been almost as bad as letting Sombra win.”

Twilight’s mind could only comprehend half of Princess Celestia’s explanation. There was one glaring word that just didn’t make sense. “What does Chrysalis have to do with anything?”

“She’s Cadance’s best friend,” Princess Celestia said after a slight pause.

The nonsensical explanation made Twilight stare blankly at Princess Celestia. “...that’s not possible.”

After a few uneasy seconds where she broke eye contact Princess Celestia took in a breath and spoke again. “Maybe it’s best if we avoid that subject altogether.”

Twilight thought about it for a moment, then nodded. Whatever Starlight had changed, it had happened long before the royal wedding. “Okay,” she agreed. “So, where do we start?”

“Well, I suppose the most logical thing to do is work our way backwards from a certain point to see just how much your memory has been affected,” Princess Celestia said. “Although I’d say that to do a through analysis, we should start from yesterday, your Crystal Empire story has me wanting to start there.”

Twilight hesitated. She knew it was wasting time. The change that Starlight had introduced had to have come earlier than that, but...the discussion she and Spike had back in Starlight’s home village came to the forefront of her mind. From what she could deduce, Starlight kept changing things even after Twilight left for the present. She needed to catalog all the changes if she was going to have any hope of storing the monster that had ruined her life.

“Well,” Twilight said. “I guess the biggest event before the Crystal Empire was the Royal Wedding.”

Princess Celestia smiled down at her as if Twilight had gotten a hard answer right in a test. “That’s right.”

A nervous began to creep across Twilight’s spine. “But...um, did Chrysalis invade Canterlot and foalnap Cadance?”

Princess Celestia let out a musical laugh. “Okay, this I’ve got to hear. Just why did the groom foalnap her best mare?”

“Uh...come again?” Twilight asked as she tried to make sense of Princess Celestia’s statement.

After a few more seconds of giggling, Princess Celestia spoke again. “I’m trying to figure out just how your mind worked to invent the idea of how the groom could foalnap her best mare at our wedding.”

Twilight stared at Princess Celestia for several seconds. “You’re...wadja...huggaba...youja…” she stuttered as her brain tried to process what her mentor had just said. “Wait...CHRYSALIS IS YOUR WIFE?” The little purple pony shouted as she jumper to her hooves to try and back away, only to stumble and fall onto her back while Celestia giggled again and used magic to set her right back onto the bigger pony’s belly.

“Oh-Hohohohoho, no Twilight, Chrysalis is my husband,” Celestia corrected her. “Despite sounding female and having the ability to produce offspring, changelings are asexual. They don’t really have a set gender like ponies. We just call her that because, well, she sounds like a mare and her base form doesn’t have any obvious stallion parts. Plus, the whole asexual reproduction when it comes to her making more changelings. But I can assure you, Chrysalis is fully capable of producing all the correct body parts to interact with me like a very large stallion should. She’s done so many, many times.”

For a moment, Twilight found herself wondering what Princess Celestia was talking about. Then, she wished she hadn’t wondered, because that led to her realizing that stallions did certain things with mares, and ‘very large’ didn’t refer to Chrysalis’s height. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Twilight screamed as she as she tried to get to her hooves again, as best she could, anyway. She needed her forelegs to hold her head on the sides and keep it from exploding. “There are things my mind's eye can’t unsee!”

Properly positioned on Rarity’s couch, Chrysalis laid on his side as Spike’s mouth hung open for several seconds at the sight of the male changeling that easily dwarfed even Celestia in size. He was being polite, but...Spike had played the through the Palace of Pleasure scenario with Big Mac. He knew what a horse the size of Chrysalis was probably carrying.

“Whoa,” Spike said a moment before Chrysalis turned back into his, or...could it even be called her normal form if she really wasn’t a guy or girl? The confusing thought made Spike scratch his head. “So, you’re really like, a...guy?”

“Ugh, explaining this sort of thing to a two gender species creatures is always so annoying,” Chrysalis as the changeling rolled his, her, or its pair of eyes. “I’ll give you the basic version that ponies can follow. I’m a princess, so I’m female...most of the time. It’s just when I’m in private with Celestia or hanging out with Shining Armor that I’m male. But, we’re getting off topic. Like I was saying, I do know a thing or two about romance. I’m married to Celestia, and best friends with both Cadance and Shining Armor. Which means I have to listen to two sides of their relationship troubles, rare as they are. So, I can guarantee that my expertise trumps that of a little dragon that became smitten with a pony he doesn’t even know because she looks cool.”

Spike stared at at the changeling for several seconds as the words he had spoken in anger repeated in his head. “WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW ABOUT ANYTHING? YOU’RE JUST A STUPID CHANGELING!”

The minutes-old memory made Spike sink in on himself and moan. “I’m sorry I yelled at you,” he apologized.

“Wow, an apologetic dragon. You really were raised by ponies,” the changeling said before nodding. “It’s fine. I understand that you’re young and stupid.”

Spike winced. “Gee...thanks for the compliment.”

A little smirk appeared on Chrysalis’s face. “Would you rather I lead you on?”

With the way the changeling phrased the question, Spike found himself wanting to ask her another. “Hey, Chrysalis, could you...help me with something?”

“Not until I know what it is I’m agreeing to,” the big bug pony told him.

Spike wrung is claws at the reminder that he really was talking to a changeling, not a pony. One of his friends would have just agreed. “It’s not just, uh...Twilight, I had feelings for,” the dragon half-explained. “B-Back in my home town, there was this other pony, a mare. And she was really into fashion.”

“That explains how you know Rarity, then,” the big bug mumbled. “And...oh, I get it. You’re into this hometown mare. Then why did you freak out about...you know what? Nevermind. Just...continue.”

“Anyway, she uh...well, I really liked her too. Like, really, really liked her. And she like me, uh...sort of,” Spike admitted, both to himself and the changeling. “She would let me help her with her work and uh, g-give me these looks every now and then, w-whenever I did stuff for her.”

Chrysalis studied him for a moment. “Before or after?”

The question made Spike blink. “Eh?”

“Did she give you these looks before, or after you completed the task?” the changeling asked.

Spike had to think about it for a moment. “B-Before...mostly,” he said before quickly adding more in Rarity’s defense. “But she also gave me a few gems whenever I helped her out. Uh, sometimes. Every now and then.” For some reason, the situation started to look worse and worse the more he talked about it.

“Ever go on a date?” Chrysalis asked.

“N-No,” Spike admitted.

“Did you ever ask her out? the changeling went on.

His shoulders slumped as the idea that he might never get the chance rolled around in his mind. “No.”

“Did she ever show interest in another stallion in front of you, or another mare?” Chrysalis went on.

Spike felt his heart contract a little. “Oh...yeah. Definitely.”

The questions stopped for several seconds. “And how does she feel about your species?” the changeling finally asked after the pause.

“She-” Spike stopped himself.

“I despise dragons!” the memory of Nightmare Moon’s Rarity said.

“You’re not like any of those awful brutes, Spikey-wikey,” Rarity told him during the dragon migration.

Spike blinked as a very unsettling thought entered his mind. “I don’t think she likes dragons.”

“But she does like you?” Chrysalis asked.

“Yes!” Spike said, a little too desperate than he meant to.

“As a friend?” the changeling went on.

That question was easy to answer. “Yes.”

“As a lover?”

Spikes eyes went wide and his cheeks turned red. “I-I...um...t-that’s…” Unable to continue, he just gulped.

By some silent cue, Chrysalis’s face turned almost predatory. “Oh? Don’t tell me you’ve never thought about it,” she asked before practically slithering off the couch she was resting on to move around him with a dexterity no pony could ever have. “Ponies have their breeding cycles, after all. When mares become overcome with the overwhelming urge to find something to cool the inner fires. She’s never asked you to...help her out when it happens?”

Despite his age, Spike knew exactly what Chrysalis was talking about. “I-I usually get sent away...f-for a week,” he confessed. Twilight was so embarrassed by her heat, Spike usually found himself visiting her parents in Canterlot or Shining Armor in the Crystal Empire while she did something to keep herself busy, like completely rearrange everything in the library, both tree and castle ones.

Chrysalis blinked, then quickly stood up tall and straight. The air of seduction disappeared as if it had never existed. “Oh, well in that case, she likes you, but only as something akin to a little brother. More than likely, this whole cat’s paw thing she’s playing is just her milking your affection while she can before you grow out of it. Big sisters are a little mean like that.”

“W-What?” Spike asked, completely confused by the sudden change in atmosphere.

“Don’t be too mad at her for not setting you straight,” Chrysalis said with a shrug. “Ponies are a prey species. Their instincts tell them to run away rather than confront uncomfortable things head on. She probably just doesn’t want to hurt you. But, you’re not really serious about her either, so...it’ll all work out. Think of her more like a big sister, you’ll be happier.”

Finally able to shake off the confusion over what had just happened, Spike ran up to the changeling. “W-What’s that supposed to mean? I love Rar-Ra…” he finished lamely, barely able to keep himself from mentioning Rarity’s real name.

Chrysalis floated Spike up onto her back. “No you don’t.”

“How would you know anything about-”

“I believe we already covered that subject when I mentioned my wife,” Chrysalis told him. “But all the pheromones I released had nothing to do with love, that was all about desire. And, after giving you enough to get a rise out of an elephant, then talk about the time in a mare’s life where most stallions would sell one of their left everything to be in the same room as the mare they desired.

“And what did you do?” she asked. “You talked about how the ponies sent you away from town. Not what you wanted to do. You couldn’t even lie about it and tell me you wanted to lay with her. You talked about how you were completely removed from the equation. If you can’t follow through with everything a relationship entails, then you need to wake up and call it quits. Because love isn’t a game, it’s not something you play around at, just hoping to score something.”

Unable to argue with the changeling queen, Spike found himself frowning at the oddity of somepony like Chrysalis telling him that. “You really are Cadance’s best friend, aren’t you?”

Chrysalis giggled. “Eh, I picked up a little here and there,” she said before offering her back for Spike to hop up on again.

As Spike rode Chrysalis through the door and out around town, the little dragon looking around again. But, unlike before, he didn’t just mentally note down the changes of yet another timeline that wasn’t right. He watched the pony foals playing like they always did.

“Let’s go, Sea Horse!”

“I’ll take you down this time, Game King!”

Spike blinked and looked over to the pair of foals with some odd crystal trays attached to their necks that held several cards on them.

“I summon, Imperial Flame Princess!” the first foal shouted before he took a card from his tray and slapped it down. A second later, a gigantic alicorn that was larger than even Celestia by a good margin with a golden coat that glowed in the sun and a mane that danced around like fire appeared in front of the colt with the extremely spiky mane. “And, she gains one-thousand attack points for every pony in my deck!”

“She’s no match for my Dark Princess of the Night!” the colt wearing an outlandish outfit that even Rarity would have called over the top threw down a card to bring forth a magical projection of another alicorn with a raven black coat and starry mane before he began speaking again. “And my Dark Princess’s special ability activates, placing your pony into a deep slumber! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

“OH NO!” Game King cried out in horror.

“And it looks like they’ve got some new games, too,” Spike mumbled as they walked out of view of the overly emotional display. He wondered if anypony in town still played Card Wars.

But, the thought was short lived as another one began to quickly form thanks to all of the smiling faces he saw trotting around town. The Cakes were walking down the road with their foals. Time Turner was doing maintenance on the clock tower. Lyra was sitting on her usual bench next to Bonbon...who was wearing a business suit and dark glasses like some Equestrian Secret Service member?

Unlike every other world that he and Twilight went to, this one wasn’t an Equestria on the brink of collapse, or a desolate wasteland already devoid of life. Ponies were happily living their lives, just like they had been in the old Equestria.

“Hello, Chrysalis,” a familiar voice that sent a chill down Spike’s spine, bringing his thoughts to a halt. He looked back to see Starlight Glimmer trotting up with a scowl on her face.

The changeling stopped and turned around. “No luck, huh?”

Starlight let out a groan. “Of course not. Keeping that the tower running smoothly so close to the Everfree for more than a week is something we can barely manage. Never mind when Dash decides to break it.”

After a few seconds, she took in a breath. “So, the dragon confess yet?” Starlight asked as she looked up at Spike.

The lilac unicorn’s glare made Spike shiver before Chrysalis moved to put her head between the two. “Didn’t your glorious Empress teach you something about not jumping to conclusions? And manners?”

Starlight’s eyes widened for a moment before she let out a long sigh. “Okay,” she said before her face became a lot less frightening and she bowed her head slightly. “I apologize for thinking that you did something bad to Twilight before I found any evidence.”

“Um..." Spike replied, unsure of how to respond. “That’s...okay?” It felt strange talking to Starlight like she wasn’t a homicidal maniac that got her kicks from watching the world burn.

Before an awkward silence could set in, or Starlight could get all crazy again, Chrysalis cleared her throat. “Great. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, don’t you have a sun to go worship or...something?”

Starlight groaned before frowning a little at Chrysalis. “Funny, I thought that was your job.”

Not following what they were going on about at all, except for the growing tenseness of the situation, Spike raised a claw. “Um, excuse me. What’s going on?

“Oh, just just having a little discussion about theology with my sun cult friend here, right Starlight?” Chrysalis asked.

The answer, at least to the part that was addressed to Spike, made him blink. “You’re a member of a cult?” he asked the lilac mare. Which...made a certain amount of sense when Spike thought about it. Although he had been anywhere near Starlight’s freaky town back when this whole mess really began, the stories he had heard from the girls had said the place had been run with a single mindedness that bordered on fanaticism.

Starlight glared at Chrysalis. “It’s not a cult!” she insisted vehemently. “We are an official religion, recognized by the crown! And even then, that’s just legalities.”

Although he knew it was probably be best to just keep his mouth shut and hopefully move on, Spike couldn’t help himself. He had spent his entire life with Twilight, after all. “So, uh, you...worship...Celestia? How does that work?” Spike had heard rumors of such a thing, but Twilight had always seemed hesitant to talk about the subject when they lived in Canterlot. Afterwards, it just hadn’t seemed important.

The question drew Starlight’s attention, and Spike felt like clinging to Chrysalis a little harder. Because instead of the dark frown on her face that he was used to, Starlight gave Spike a gleeful smile. “Oh, so you’ve heard of us then?” she asked excitedly. “Or at least our parent religion, I mean. We are the Order of the New Sun, totally different than those old guys that are so into Celestia. Which we still give homage to, of course. But for the most part, we follow the teachings of the Empress!”

“Oh, uh...r-right,” Spike stuttered before raising his claw nervously. “Uh, Praise the Sun?”

“Praise the Sun, Spike!” Starlight said happily. “Oh, before I begin, I am legally and ethically bound to ask, do you want to hear more about the glory of the Empress? If you don’t, or you don’t have time right now, I do run a meeting at the Golden Oaks every Sunday. We kick it off when the sun goes down, of course.”

Spike blinked at the mention of his old home. “T-the library?” he asked.

After giving a quick nod, Starlight raised her hoof. “That’s right, it’s over-well, okay, you can’t really see most of it because the town hall is in the way. But, yeah. Since Twilight isn’t living there anymore, we use it for meetings.”

He couldn’t believe it. The library, it was...back. The factory and the tower, not to mention all the other new stuff around town, Spike had been so fascinated by them that he hadn’t even noticed it. “Okay, well uh…” the dragon paused as he slowly regained his senses.

Since everypony obviously knew who this Empress was, asking basic questions about her would no doubt start raising a ton of red flags. But if Spike asked questions in the right way regarding Glimmer’s new...path in life, he might be able to pick something up. “You know what? I think I would like to talk to you about, uh, you know, how great the Empress is, and stuff.”

Starlight’s eyes brightened. “That’s great!” she exclaimed before looking back to Chrysalis. “Hey, I’ll escort him back to the castle. You go check on Twily, I know you’re worried about her.”

There was a moment of indecision from Chrysalis, then the bug horse shook her head. “No way.”

The expression on Starlight’s face became half-lidded. “You’re still sore about your application being denied, huh?”

“If you’re going to be kissing Celestia’s ass, then mine needs some attention too,” Chrysalis told her before she started moving in the direction of the castle.

As soon as Chrysalis began trotting again, Starlight looked up to smile at Spike. “So, what is it do you want to know about us?” Starlight asked. “I run the Ponyville chapter of the club so, I’m the mare to ask if you’ve got questions.”

“Club? I thought it was you know, something like a church,” he said in confusion before the pony started leading Spiked back towards the castle at a slower pace.

Starlight pressed her lips together in a tight light and made a little groan of annoyance. “Well, legally we are considered a religion, we’re more of a fan club than anything else,” she explained. “Yeah, we thank the Empress and the Mother for every day, and take time to admire the night sky, but it’s pretty hard to have a religion when your head deity outright tells you not to worship her. But She does want everypony to follow Her teachings, so as long as we’re not forcing anypony into anything and are always open to dissenting views, She says it’s okay to have an organization dedicated to letting everypony know how amazing all the alicorns are.”

“And the Mother is...Celestia?” Spike asked to confirm that particular theory.

The question got a happy nod. “Mmmhmm. She may not be a princess anymore, but we still give the Mother the respect and admiration she is due,” Starlight told him.

Spike stumbled before looking over to the pony in surprise. “W-What?”

“Do you have a problem with that?” Starlight asked as her eyes narrowed. “Yes, Celestia made the mistake of giving Discord another chance, and ponies died because of that. But I’m not going to let you bad mouth her. She kept Equestria running for a thousand years despite the loss of her family. I’d like to see anypony, even the Empress accomplish something like that half as well as she did!”

In an attempt to placate the irritable unicorn, Spike help up his claws. “No! No, I’m good,” he said before realizing something else. “So uh, what about Cadance?”

Starlight frowned a little. “Princess Cadance’s official position is Matron,” she explained. “Although, we try not to use it because she says it makes her sound old. And, of course we follow her teachings to love one another with all our hearts.”

Although he was tempted to ask more about Cadance, not to mention how Luna fit into this different direction of crazy Starlight had latched onto, Spike fought to stay on topic. “So uh...have you ever met the Empress?”

Starlight brightened. “Are you kidding?” she asked excitedly. “I was practically raised by her!”

“That’s funny,” Chrysalis cut in. “I was under the impression she was your teacher at Celestia’s school back when you were an at risk foal. Must have missed the part where you were adopted.”

After a few seconds, Starlight took in a breath. “Okay, I’ll admit, I’m embellishing quite a bit there,” she admitted. “The Empress was a my teacher for a time, and...well, I lost my mom when I was very young and she was always there for me. And yes, I know, there’s a huge difference between a mother and a teacher, which the Empress made clear to me on several occasions, in pony. Still, she was there for me when no other adult was and did more for me than either of my real parents, even the one that’s still around. So, not an official mom, but a mentor. Happy?”

Chrysalis nodded. “Just keeping the facts straight.”

Spike looked back up to the tower. “So, uh...did the Empress make that?”

“You don’t know about the crystal network?” Starlight asked, both confused and surprised.

The dragon cleared his throat. “M-Middle of nowhere town, remember?”

The excuse seemed to work, as Starlight nodded to herself a second later. “Yeah, guess that makes sense. Those things are a pain to build and keep going,” she said. “And you’re half right. The crystal network is more a mix of the Mother, the Empress and the Matron’s efforts. They were mostly just something the Empress copied from a foreign land she visited while on a quest back when she was a princess and adapted to work with magic. But, there wasn’t enough building material for anything more than a few proof of concept inventions that nopony outside of an alicorn could power with any reliability until the Crystal Empire reemerged. Since then, Equestria’s undergone a reneighssance of invention and artistry! Playwrights are cranking out new works every month, ponies in Manehattan can talk to ponies in Van Hoover in an instant. It’s only been a few years, but we’ve already seen new mechanical, medical, magical and military developments at ten times the speed that Equestria was experiencing previously. Of course, the alicorns make sure that we’re moving in the right direction.”

Spike nodded. “Like Twilight.”

There was a slight stumble before Starlight looked back to Spike and gave him a little smile. “T-That’s right. Just like Twilight and her friends.”

“Say,” Chrysalis chimed in a little too happily. “I bet Spike here would like to know what you guys do when it comes to honor Twilight.”

An uncomfortable expression crossed Starlight’s face. “Chrysalis, you know that’s not exactly something, we’ve, uh...been privy to. Yet.”

“You mean it’s not something you like to talk about,” the changeling corrected Starlight almost too happily. “Because now, that little filly you used to take care of is you have to bow in reverence to, and you’re both having a hard time coming to grips with that. Hmm, I wonder if your entire religion is just a bunch of ponies that got too caught up in admiring a pony from afar, and now that you’ve got some ponies you actually know as ponies, you can’t do that so easily anymore.”

Starlight gulped and looked around wildly before she locked onto something. “Oh look! Big Mac is having another one of his meltdowns. Let me go take care of this, okay?”

Watching Starlight quickly trot off for a second, Spike followed her intended path and found the big stallion glaring down at a much smaller female pony with a look of panicked rage. “Don’t lie ta me! I saw what you were doin’!”

“I was just-”

“STOP TRYIN’ TA MARESPLAIN THINGS TA ME!” the big stallion shrieked before Starlight arrived and separated them with her magic.

Chrysalis groaned and turned away from the scene. “Ugh. They need to stop letting him out in public.”

As the big red stallion cried out in rage and flailed about in Starlight’s magic as if he was on fire, Spike did his best to wrap his head around what he had just seen from a pony who showed less emotion in a week than what had just been displayed inside of five seconds. “W-What happened to him?” Spike asked.

“Love potion,” Chrysalis explained simply before they turned a corner to take Big Mac completely out of sight.

When it didn’t look like he was going to get anything else from the changeling, he tapped the bug with a claw to get her attention. “Are there more than three syllables to that story?”

Chrysalis sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine. A few years ago, somepony slipped a love potion into the drinks of the pony you just saw and the local school teacher, a mare named Cheerilee. The two of them didn’t do much more than kiss and shop for wedding dresses before the spell was broken, but you know how it is when something like this happens,” she said with a grumble. “Big Mac was the poor, innocent stallion with ties to the town’s biggest farm, and Cheerilee was a mare. It didn’t matter that she was proven innocent of using a love potion under magically binding testimony, nopony wanted their fillies going to a school where the evil teacher that they had already convinced on rumor, so they petitioned Twilight to find a new teacher and Cheerilee didn’t fight getting run out of town in the interest of preserving the peace. Now, she’s working at Celestia’s school in Canterlot and Big Mac thinks any mare who smiles at him is plotting to enthrall his mind or something and only drinks unopened bottles of water. Which, okay, yeah, means he suffered so major trauma, but...I liked Cheerilee.”

Guess it’s not all good news, then, Spike told himself before blinking at his own thoughts.

He didn’t think this world was a good place?

Did he?

Rarity...this Rarity is married to Twilight, he thought. If that was the case, then she would never…

...what?

Boss him around again? Flirt with him to get a free helping claw?

Spike reached up to rub his head, remembering what he and Chrysalis had talked about just moments before. If even a tiny grain of what the changeling said was true...Spike’s feelings for Rarity would never be returned.

I...I’ve got to stop thinking about this, Spike told himself as he tried to focus on other things.

But there was nothing else to focus on. They were almost back to the castle, and that place looked more or less the same as when he and Twilight had left it. Which meant he would meet up with Twilight and now that she was rested, they would go back to the map to leave so they could fix things.

And leave this world behind.

Which made Spike wonder as Chrysalis brought him back into the castle, what happens to all of this when we leave?

Did everything stick around?

Or would they...disappear?

Spike gulped as the last thought crossed his mind.

No, he told himself. That’s not...how things happen...right?

The question remained unanswered as he tried to think things through. He was Twilight’s number one assistant after all. He could figure something like this out.

Possibility one, Spike thought when they got to a door he didn’t recognize that turned out to be an elevator. Every time, we go back in time, everything stays the same. They were still around after Starlight Glimmer did it the first time, after all. If she really had gone back in time, then wouldn’t he and Twilight been altered along with everything else?

Except...it takes time to travel through time, and Starlight set all this up to torture Twilight, Spike told himself. The time it probably took Starlight to set things up so that she could go back in time, or whatever it was, Spike had grabbed the scroll and activated it.

There had been what Zecora had told them about how she was the one who shouldn’t be, but...she was a zebra that lived in a forest that nopony who wasn’t crazy went anywhere near, in a world on the edge of annihilation. It probably wasn’t a good idea to take her word as gospel.

So, every time we go back in time, a new world get created and...

The elevator dinged and the doors opened on what had to be the castle’s fourth floor. The sound also signaled an epiphany for Spike. Wait, if we go back in time, change things so it creates new world, then we get sent to that world’s current timeline, he reasoned. So...does that mean, even if Twilight does everything absolutely perfect and makes everything happen the way it did before...we’ll just be stuck in a world that looks just like our own, but...isn’t?

Everything would be the same, look and sound the same, except...it wouldn’t be home. It would just be a copy.

And if the worlds they left still existed when they were done, that meant that somewhere out there, the real Equestria, the one where all of Spike’s real friends were...was forever out of their reach.

“Hey, you alright?”

Spike looked up as Chrysalis. Queen Chrysalis, was looking at him in concern. She wasn't evil and seemed just as happy as most other ponies. If the other theory, where the world was unmade, did they have any right to erase everything that she was to replace it with something worse just because it had been around earlier? “I just...realized...something,” Spike said in a tone as empty as he felt.

A sympathetic smile appeared on the changeling’s face. “Decided to let her go, huh?”

“Huh?” Spike asked.

“That Ra-Ra pony you told me about,” Chrysalis reminded him. “I figured if you were being so quiet, it had to be about something like that. Looks like you made a decision.”

Spike slunk in on himself a little. With the possibilities of destroying worlds or just getting trapped on one where everyone he knew just looked exactly like his friends, he hadn’t thought much of Rarity at all. “C-Can I go talk to Twilight now?”

“That’s where we’re headed,” she said before turning back around before a nearby door opened. Chrysalis’s body tensed and she groaned. “Ugh. Discord, what’re you doing here?”

The sudden change in attitude made Spike look back around to see the draconequus coming out of a room, pulling a cart full of brooms and mops behind him that looked like it had been heavily modified to work with his frame.

He looked a little different than what Spike remembered, though. There was a black rock that looked far too dark to be natural right in the middle of his forehead and another where Discord’s neck met his body. “Chrysalis, I’m just, you know, just doing my...well, I can’t really call it my job, since this is slave labor, but...” he said before turning his head towards Spike. “Oh my, what’s this?”

“Serving the community is a light sentence for a creature that ended the lives of so many ponies,” the changeling told him in a testy tone.

Discord rolled his eyes. “Oh please, I didn’t do anything to them. Tirek was the one that sucked away their magic and technically it was the starvation that caused them all to pass. Hmm, settle this old argument for us, you. Can something die before it’s even been born?”

The odd, morbid question made Spike frown. “Say what?” he asked while trying to figure out what Discord had just said. Was it some kind of weird riddle?

“A foal dying in it mother’s womb still counts,” Chrysalis growled.

Spike tensed. “Foals?” he asked. “Tirek killed...foals?”

“See? He said Tirek, not Discord.”

While Discord went back to looking at Spike thoughtfully again, as if he was trying to puzzle something out that had an answer just out of reach, Chrysalis snorted. “A good number of mares that Tirek drained of their magic with Discord’s help were pregnant. The strain of carrying an unborn foal while lying motionless, without enough energy to move for three days caused several miscarriages and dozens of mares dying simply because their bodies didn’t have the nutrients or liquids to survive,” Chrysalis explained harshly to Spike before turning her attention to Discord. “Now get out of my way before I beat that smirk off your face. And by that, I mean, shatter your jaw.”

Twilight swallowed the last bite of the pie right before Princess Celestia floated a napkin over to wipe her mouth. If she was lucky, this piece would manage to stay down.

“My Twilight, I’ve heard that thinking about what their grandmare’s do in the bedroom makes some fillies sick, but I’ve never actually seen it before,” she said with a giggle.

A little whine came from the purple pony. “Please stop talking about those sorts of things,” she begged. “We don’t have any pie left.”

Princess Celestia pulled Twilight in close to kiss her on the cheek. But it wasn’t the kind of kiss Twilight had dreamed about getting from Celestia when she had been younger and obviously very stupid. It was the kiss of a grandparent, just like all of her older kisses had been. It made getting them seem even worse than never feeling a single moment of such closeness with Princess Celestia.

At least then, Twilight had still possessed a little filly’s foolish dream.

“So, since we’re working our way back, what happened before the wedding?” Princess Celestia asked.

Glad to get her mind working on anything else, Twilight thought about it for a moment. “Well, I guess the incident prior to that was this little mystery we had on the Friendship Express. There was this cake and um...somepony took a bite out of it before it got to Canterlot to be judged.”

Princess Celestia let out another giggle. “Yep. That Sunny Skies, sneaking a bite of all the treats on the way over after helping you and Pinkie to load the cake. Shame on her,” she said with one of those smiles Twilight had seen her use when she was up to something.

“Well, then there was…” Twilight said as she tried to keep her mind focused. She would deal with Sunny Skies when she put everything right, but at the moment, there was more important things to do. “Oh, there was the time Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo-”

“Right, the newspaper incident,” Princess Celestia cut in with a curt tone. “I’d rather not talk about how I had to talk your mother into not stripping a disabled filly’s harness as punishment for what she wrote about the royal family in a gossip column.”

Twilight blinked and looked over to Celestia. “Filly’s...Harness?”

Once again, Princess Celestia’s face became concerned. “You know, the magical harness you made for Scootaloo that lessens the pull of gravity and allows her to fly like a normal pegasus? Or...like a changeling, considering how fast she has to beat her wings.”

While the thought of such an invention intrigued Twilight for a moment, the greater ramifications of her doing such a thing made her wings twitch. “Oh, right...that harness,” she said while trying to imagine how she could have changed in such a way that would mad made her think something of the like was a good idea.

Or that Princess Celestia didn’t stop her.

Scootaloo was one of those rare ponies that had been born prematurely, as thus, somewhat undeveloped when it came to her tribal features. As such, her wings were unable to generate enough lift to get her off the ground. She didn’t need a magical solution that enabled her to fly. She needed to accept her limitations and live within them.

It reminded Twilight of moments ago, when she had seen that lab the fake Twilight had made in the castle. The other Twilight was trying to hold onto something that she shouldn’t. The former unicorn was an alicorn, a princess, and that meant she couldn’t do any of those things she had dreamed about before. She couldn’t be an alchemist, she couldn’t be the next Starswirl. She had to follow her destiny.

“So you don’t remember the harness, either,” Princess Celestia said evenly. “That’s...interesting.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “What? No, no! I remember, I um…” she said before trying to think of an excuse to tell Princess Celestia as to why she had just forgotten this thing that the other her had invented, despite how wrong its existence was. “But, uh...l-let’s get back to what we were talking about before. So, um, before that was...oh, right! Tornado Day in Ponyville. When I helped Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy test the wing power of all the pegasi.”

After giving Twilight a long, calculating look, Princess Celestia nodded. “That’s right. They even broke the record for most powerful tornado, I believe.”

Twilight blinked. That...wasn’t the way that it was supposed to have gone. “R-Right,” she said uneasily. “And before that was the time I met my-” The door opened, cutting Twilight off as Spike ran in with...Chrysalis not far behind. Which was really, really disturbing for Twilight to see.

Chrysalis wasn’t supposed to be there! She wasn’t supposed to be smiling, and good, and...MARRIED TO CELESTIA!

“Twilight!” Spike said before rushing up to hug her. “Are you okay?”

Princess Celestia let out a small laugh. “She’s getting there. Hm...Spike, wasn’t it?”

As Spike raised a claw to give an unsure wave to Princess Celestia, Twilight looked over to the dragon. “Did you have a nice walk around Ponyville, Spike? See anything interesting?” she asked.

“Uh…” the dragon looked back to Princess Celestia for a moment, then over to Twilight again. “You and Rarity are married.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide. “...wut?” she asked incorrectly as her brain tried unsuccessfully to process what she had just heard. Rarity was a great friend, beautiful, smart, successful, talented, generous, loving and a whole bunch of other things that had tempted Twilight to become too distracted with her rather than focus on studying friendship when she first moved to Ponyville, but if she had tried something, it would have meant they were no longer friends.

Which meant that the fake Twilight of this world must have failed in that as well.

Princess Celestia let out a sigh that sounded more like a groan. “I was trying to keep this under wraps, considering your current mental state, but yes. One of the things your failing to remember correctly in relationship to your friends, is well...your relationship with them. Two years ago, you and Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie finally stopped messing around and officially got married.”

“Most redundant wedding ever,” Chrysalis comment with a roll of her eyes.

A second later, Princess Celestia looked back to the changeling. “Don’t let Cadance hear you say that. You know she made them actually address the stallion question they had all been avoiding for years. Getting married was a way to put it all to rest,” she said before smirking. “You’re just mad they had a bigger ceremony than us.”

Twilight scrambled to her hooves in a panic. Time to think on the issue hadn’t helped. While each and every one of her friends were perfect in different ways, the idea of becoming romantic with any of them, much less all of them, was just wrong! “But that’s not...I can’t...how did...but they’re my friends!”

The declaration got a confused frown from Chrysalis. “Well I’d hope so. Not liking the pony you're banging makes for a bad relationship.”
e

“But...I don’t...it...how?” Twilight stammered as she continued to try and get her mind working again.

Chrysalis gave her a sly smile. “Well, I imagine that…” she said before her face turned sour. “Wait, I just imagined my grandfoals having sex...ew.”

A tiny laugh came from Celestia. “It’s nice to see you’re still growing.”

Unfortunately, Chrysalis’s comment about what she was thinking about made Twilight think about how Chrysalis could get turned away by thought of intercourse between Twilight and her friends, which in turn let to Twilight thinking about...something she shouldn’t have. “AHHHHHHHHH!”

“I hear screaming!” a familiar voice said before Discord popped his head into the room through the door, rather than just...popping it in his usual way. “Is Twilight upset? Please tell me that Twilight’s upset!”

After turning her head to look at the newcomer, Princess Celestia frowned. “Now is not the time, Discord. Get out.”

“Wait a minute,” Discord said as he slithered past Princess Celestia and put to Twilight to examine her and Spike. “I’ve seen this somewhere before.”

Princess Celestia let out a disgruntled rumble. “Discord. I’m not in the mood. So, I will give you one minute to leave, then I’ll be throwing you out a window. And this time, I won’t stop them from using torches and pitchforks when you’re caught outside the castle.”

After looking back and forth between the two for a second, Twilight focus on Discord. “Well of course you’ve seen me before Discord. I uh...live here.”

“Oh no, not you. This,” he said as he threw his mismatched hands out in a wide gesture towards Twilight and Spike before taking a step back. “Now, let me think. Where was it…”

Chrysalis’s eyes narrowed. “That’s thirty seconds, get to stepping or you won’t make it.”

At Chrysalis’s threat, Discord grumbled a little and headed towards the bedroom door.

Celestia looked back at Twilight. “Now, let’s get back to what we were talking about before,” she said. “What else can you remember?”

Despite the revelation about how the wrong-Twilight had somehow married all five of the ponies who were supposed to be her friends, the Twilight Sparkle that was supposed to be knew it was a moot point. She was going to be fixing things back to the way they were supposed to be. Which meant no marriages and everypony would be friends again.

And Princess Celestia would like Discord again.

And...let him...get away with...anything…

Not to mention Chrysalis would be...evil...again…

Before her mind could dwell on such things, Twilight rapidly shook her head to clear it. She needed to figure out where the divergence was. “Well, before Tornado Day there was...oh!” Twilight said as she put more effort into focusing on her memories rather than how weird this Equestria was getting. “There was the time I got worried over nothing because I met a me from the future because of a time travel spell that-”

“THAT’S WHERE I’VE SEEN YOU TWO BEFORE!” Discord shouted before he stuck his head back in the door.

Twilight’s eyes went wide. “What?”

“Huh?” Celestia said as she looked around towards the draconequus.

“Oh no,” Spike mumbled.

“Ten seconds and counting,” Chrysalis grumbled.

The big white pony looked at Twilight for a moment with one of her considering stares. “Give him a moment, my love,” Celestia said before she turned to frown at Discord. “What are you talking about?”

Discord gave a delighted laugh as he walked around Twilight’s bed to stand on the side opposite to Celestia and Chrysalis. “Well, back when I was spending all my time just totally stoned,” the amalgamated creature said in a strange accent. “I liked to watch the goings on in Equestria. All the crazy happenings and whatnot. Like, a couple of weeks before your darling little girl showed up in your vanity room, Starlight Glimmer and Twilight, who was carrying this dragon along with her, just popped out of a temporal disturbance Sire’s Hollow and just went on and on about a bunch of boring things like how she got mad because Sunburst got his cutie mark and went on about how she tracked the pony down and killed him for it when she was a foal.”

Celestia’s expression deepened. “What?”

Twilight felt a tug on her foreleg. “Twilight,” Spike said in a voice she could just barely make out. “We need to talk.”

“Just a minute, Spike,” she said before pulling her leg away from him and looking over to Discord. “You saw that?”

Twilight’s mind boggled at the possibilities. If Discord was aware of her traveling through time, which he apparently was since he was still aware of the happenings in Equestria despite being petrified, that changed everything! It must have been one of the reasons everything was different every time she came back to the present. Twilight had thought it was Starlight Glimmer’s doing, but if Discord decided to alter his behavior as well because he saw an alicorn trotting around that was just like a unicorn he had met or was going to meet previously…

Twilight didn’t get a chance to finish considering the ramifications as Discord stood up a little straighter. “I sure did! Ponies talking about murder and the like, it was so out of the ordinary that I just had to remember it after you used that big crystal map thing to travel through time again,” he said with glee before going on. “Then, a few years later, I felt the familiar twinges and looked over to Cloudsdale to see Starlight Glimmer just appear and go on about how she was going to kill Rainbow Dash. Of course, we all know what happened to her!”

“Um...I-I don’t” Twilight mumbled as an uneasy feeling made itself known in her gut.

“And how Princess Lovey-Dovey and Princess Sunny Disposition kept an eye on Glimglam for years because of that, not letting her become little Twily’s mentor because you all thought that she might be in some way connected to the temporal disturbance and picking that talent-less Trixie instead.”

Twilight blinked in absolute confusion. “M-Mentor?” she squeaked as horrible visions of a life as Trixie’s stage assistant ran through her head while Spike continued to tug fiercely on her hoof.

“But what nopony saw at the time, other than that idiot Rainbow Dash who promptly forgot about the whole thing because of her cutie mark, was that this Twilight here also appeared,” Discord went on happily as he sucked up everypony’s attention as Spike's tugs became more and more frantic. “But all she did was talk about how different Cloudsdale looked before getting sucked back up by some more temporal magic, just like Starlight did at the same time.”

Spike got close enough to mumble something at her. “Twilight, we need to go, now!”

“You know the big temporal discrepancy all of you have been investigating for the past twelve years? The reason why her big, fat, furious rageness showed up when she did instead of when she said she was supposed to? Well, this is the reason!” Discord asked before he grabbed Twilight and lifted her into the air with a grunt of effort as Princess Celestia’s eyes started to slowly widen and the room became somewhat uncomfortable in terms of temperature. “And remember the Princess Twilight that made you and Cadance so angry that you practically swore never-ending vengeance against her should she ever cross your path? Well, here she is!”

Gotta Get Back

Since meeting Discord, Spike had figured out a number of things. The chief among them being: if noise was coming out of Discord’s mouth, make it stop! He had tried to tell Twilight, tried to get her away before whatever plan caused the draconequus to put on his grin came to fruition, but she had just ignored him in favor of...listening to Discord?

Twilight really was out of it if she had decided to throw away Spike advice in favor of the draconequus’s.

There was a rise in temperature and Spike looked back at Celestia. The mare’s coat take on a slightly golden hue as her mane began to go from a multitude of color to a single blazing orange. “You?” Celestia asked in a voice that made Spike’s entire skull vibrate despite the fact it was still the same volume as what she usually used. There was just more power behind the words. “All this time, we’ve waited with baited breath, for YOU?”

Twilight pulled in on herself as her look of confusion became one of fear. “W-What? W-What’s going on? P-Princess? I don’t understand. H-How do you know about me traveling through time?”

Chrysalis put on a frown as she pulled her head back a little. “Oh, that’s what this is,” she grumbled before looking over to the blazing alicorn. “Okay Tia, you’ve frightened the foal, now you can calm down-”

“HURRY UP AND GO, TWILIGHT!” Discord shouted at the top of his lungs before he hefted the purple pony as high as he could and tossed her over the heads of both quadrupeds. “I’LL COVER YOU!” With that, he jumped at both horned equines with his arms outstretched to grab onto their horns.

Then, the entire erupted in a conflagration that filled Spike’s vision with fire. The dragon heard Chrysalis shoot off several curses attached to Celestia’s name before the buzzing of her wings told him she had flown up to the ceiling. Not one to waste an opportunity, Spike quickly dashed through the flames and out into the living room, where Twilight was shaking off the dizzy spell caused by Discord’s throw.

With one last shake of her head, Twilight looked back to the dragon. “Come on Spike, let’s go!”

As he jumped onto the alicorn’s back, which didn’t make her wince in pain this time, Spike looked back into Twilight’s bedroom to see Discord going through the window, his body covered in flames, and laughing at something Spike just didn’t understand. “W-What’re we doing?” he asked as Twilight reared up in preparation for a swift gallop.

“We gotta get back, Spike! Back to the past!” she shouted as they went through the door and into the hallway.

Spike tried to wrap his head around the sudden change in Twilight’s thinking, but came up short. “What happened to resting, getting something to eat and some sleep!”

“Two out of three!” Twilight shouted as she galloped along.

“TWILIGHT SPARKLE! YOU GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW YOUNG LADY!”

With Celestia’s voice shaking the very foundations of Twilight’s castle and actually making the purple alicorn’s legs skid to a halt, Spike held onto the pony’s back for all he was worth before before the sheer strangeness of what he had just heard made him speak. “Uh, Twilight? Did Celestia just yell at you like she was your mom?”

The question snapped Twilight out of whatever autonomic response that had caused her to stop moving and looked back at Spike in a panic. “Princess Celestia is evil!” she exclaimed.

“Twilight, I think you need to take a deep breath and calm down,” he told her. “What makes you think that Celestia could be-”

“She’s evil Spike! And so am I!” the purple pony exclaimed before she frowned and looked down at herself. “I think. It makes sense. If Princess Celestia is evil, then I’d be evil too. The other I...me, whatever! That’s the only reason Trixie would be living here and my menor-how do I even have a mentor? I had a teacher, Princess Celestia, and that was all I ever needed.”

Oh no, Spike thought as he hopped off of Twilight’s back so he could look her in the eyes. She had a harder time ignoring things that were right in front front of her face. And with the purple pony quickly getting trapped in a logic loop of her own making, Spike needed all the help he could get to snap her out of it. “I think Trixie’s more annoying than evil, Twilight,” he told her. “And now that I think about it, I think I might have seen her back when you were in magic school. Maybe the two of you became friends back then this time around.”

Twilight’ panicked expression slowly twisted into one that had Spike worrying that she might lose her lunch for a few seconds before she frowned at Spike’s suggestion. “I could never be friends with Trixie!” she said before straightening up. “Which means I would have to be evil. Ergo, Princess Celestia would have to be evil! Didn’t you see what she did in the fake Twilight’s bedroom?”

“Didn’t you do something like that once before?” Spike pointed out.

Twilight rolled her eyes angrily at the reminder. “That’s just because I’m one-sixteenth kirin on my mother’s side, Spike. But this, this is different! This is big. Really Big! Princess Celestia, s-she, what if she went evil like Luna and-”

“Hey, where is Luna?” Spike asked as he realized they hadn’t heard anything about the moon princess at all in the some thirty minutes they had been in this Equestria.

“This isn’t about Luna, Spike!” Twilight snapped frantically as the dragon saw the panic in her eyes continue to build as her breaths became more frantic. “This-this isn’t, this isn’t...we have to get back home!”

As much as the instincts he had developed over the years of dealing with Twilight told him to just step aside and let the purple pony wear herself out until she was too tired to argue with him, Spike couldn’t bring himself to do so just yet. Because he didn’t know what kind of damage it would cause to literally everypony’s lives. “Can we?”

Spike had to admit that while he probably would have agreed with Twilight's single-minded approach to things before, after talking to Chrysalis and having his worldview broken in regards to Rarity, maybe they did need to stop and think for a second, or sixty.

Twilight’s frown changed from one of anger to confusion. “What? Of course I can, we still have the scroll with the spell on it.”

Ignoring the bad feeling in his gut he got just from thinking about it, Spike brought up the question he had asked himself earlier. “Twilight, what happens to the world when we go back in time?”

“Huh?” Twilight asked turned a little sour at the question. “What do you mean, what happens to the world? We go back in time! It makes everything earlier.”

“Wha?-No, that’s not-” Spike tried to think of a better way to phrase the question of what happens to the ponies they leave behind...if they even continue to exist. At least, in a more gentle way so that the alicorn’s already frayed mind didn’t snap completely. “Twilight, just stop and think for a second-”

“There’s no time to think, Spike. We have to get away from the evil Celestia!” Twilight exclaimed.

When the familiar tickle of Twilight’s magic lifted him off the ground, Spike struggled against it in vain. “Celestia’s not evil!”

Twilight glared back at the dragon as Spike floated upside down in her magic. “Yes she is, Spike. Every Equestria has been worse than the one before it. And you know what’s worse than an Equestrian wasteland? An evil Princess Celestia!”

After slapping Spike across her back, Twilight went back to running, down the hallway and looking around wildly for another route or something. “She was just angry, not evil!” he said before thinking back to the conversation from earlier. “Probably about you time traveling!”

“She was evil, Spike. I know Princess Celestia, and that Celestia was evil! She was married to Chrysalis!” Twilight argued.

Spike groaned. “Then this is the happiest tyranny I’ve ever heard of,” he grumbled before thinking of a way to maybe present Twilight with some factual evidence that would break her out of her self-feeding thought process. “What about that guard we met?”

“She looked evil!” Twilight shot back as they found the stairs.

“Yeah, but, she acted really nice, right?” Spike told her.

Twilight snorted. “Plenty of evil ponies act nice when you meet them!”

“Okay, let’s go find your friends, Rainbow Dash is in, uh, Vanhoover, or Baltimare, right?” Spike said. “Let’s find and ask them if Princess Celestia is evil.”

“They’re not my friends, Spike,” the alicorn told him. “They’re that other Twilight’s. I’m trying to get my friends back!”

And what happens when we do manage to fix everything just the way it was, and find another Twilight standing next to them, wondering who this Twilight is? Spike asked himself. Although, if they made everything exactly like the way it had been, then wouldn’t the new Twilight and Starlight just repeat the process. Which meant...if going back in time erased the present…

“Oh pony feathers,” Spike mumbled as that particular scenario played out in his mind. “Twilight, we really need to quit while we’re ahead.”

Twilight got to the bottom of the end floor stairs and stopped, then spun around so fast Spike fell off of her back and onto the floor before she reached out with both hooves to pull his face up to hers. “No, Spike. It’s hard, I know. I’m just a breath from collapsing myself. But we have to keep going. Next time. Next time, things will be better. Y-You’ll see.”

As he looked up at Twilight, her nervous eyes much too wide and her hooves quivering, something occurred to Spike. “You’ve already realized that it’s hopeless, haven’t you?” he asked. All the times they went back and forth, doing it over and over again, fighting Starlight with things getting worse and worse, then the one time where Starlight doesn’t appear for some reason Spike didn’t understand, Twilight ends up in a world where Princess Celestia almost roasted her. After their last trip, Starlight had done something to change the rules and now, Twilight couldn’t do anything to stop her.

Tears began to swell in Twilight’s eyes. “N-No. It’s not...I can still...w-we can still fix things. I-I can still...”

“Twilight, it’s over,” Spike told her sadly. “You know that. I...I think you’ve known that for awhile, now. Haven’t you?” It must have been eating at her since they arrived. Starlight didn’t even show up in Cloudsdale and things still didn’t work out right.

“Starlight didn’t show last time, and we did everything right, a-and this happened,” Twilight said before she sat down and started to cry. “It’s not fair. I did everything I was supposed to. I tried my best. I...I...but she still, she still wouldn’t listen. And now we’re trapped in this evil Equestria!”

Spike moved in close to give Twilight a hug and something to lean on. After letting her have a good three minutes to just let everything out, Spike stepped back. “It’ll be okay, Twilight. This place different, but, it’s not that bad. We can hang tight here for a bit longer and…” Spike stopped unable to think of what to say next. He knew he couldn’t just pop back in time again, but telling that to Twilight now would only cause more problems.

After drying her tears, Twilight shook her head. “No, Spike. You saw Princess Celestia, she-”

“Twilight, I also saw all of Ponyville,” Spike told her as the sound of hooves began coming up the stairs next to them. “There’s plenty of good, kind ponied all around us. Just talk to one of them about Princess Celestia. I’ll bet the next pony you meet-”

“There you are!” a voice that was, unfortunately, becoming more and more familiar to Spike said as the clip clopping on the stairs stopped.

In the spirit of this new world they found themselves in, Spike decided to use one of the words he had learned while on the streets of Ponyville to make this rather impossibly bad turn of luck. “Ah, damnit.”

“Annie Twiliy!” a squeaky voice cried out before an orange and red blur rushed past Spike to attach itself to Twilight’s leg. The little unicorn colt with the orange coat and red mane looked up at the purple princess with sparkling blue eyes. “Are you okay, Annie Twily?”

Twilight looked up from the foal that looked, at the most, half the age of the CMC and over to the lilac unicorn that had just come up the stairs. “No,” she whined before she pulled away from the little colt and backed away. “No. No, no, no, no, no.”

Oblivious to the other history between them, Starlight Glimmer trotted over to Twilight with a confused but worried look as she pushed the tiny colt away. “Twilight, what’s wrong?” she asked. “I heard Celestia yelling, and Princess Chrysalis is leading the guards to search the town for you and there’s that weird table thing in the center of the meeting room giving off a lot of power, and here I find you crying. Twily, what is it? I haven’t seen you like this in years.”

“Why’re you here?” Twilight asked as she reached up and rubbed her head with a hoof before looking down at the floor.

Starlight smiled at her. “Because of you, silly. Twily, you’re my best friend. Now, let’s go-”

“No,” Twilight mumbled before her hooves stopped trembling. “No.”

The response made Starlight blink. “Twily-”

Spike winced as he saw something snap in Twilight’s expression. “STOP CALLING ME TWILY!” Twilight screeched at Starlight before a beam from the purple alicorn’s horn struck the other pony and sent her flying into the wall next to the stairs to cause an audible impact. “We are not friends! We were NEVER friends! I hate you! YOU RUINED MY LIFE!”

“M-Mommy!” the little colt cried out before he rushed over to the unconscious mare.

Ignoring the foal, Twilight looked over to the dragon as she pointed to the unconscious mare on the ground with the worried colt trying to shake her away. “See, Spike? EVIL!” she shouted before the dragon was snatched up by Twilight’s magic as the alicorn quickly moved down the stairs.

“Yeah, I’m really starting to wonder that about you,” Spike deadpanned.

Twilight looked back to the floating dragon with a frown as she moved down the stairs as fast as a purple pony possibly could, apparently having gotten a second wind from Starlight’s sudden declaration of friendship. “What?”

“Twilight, you just blasted a mom who was trying to comfort you in front of her foal,” Spike told her.

“That doesn’t matter, Spike!” Twilight told him right as they reached the bottom of the stairs and run forward to kick the door open to the throne room.

Spike frowned as Twilight looked left and right, to the sides of the doors. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“We’re going back again, so what I do here doesn’t matter!” Twilight told him as she finished her inspection or...whatever it was.

“I think it does, Twilight! What happened to realizing this is all hopeless and giving up?” he asked Twilight as she brought them to the center of the room, right before the table and looked around in a rush.

Spike’s question made Twilight spin around and frown at him with uncertainty. “I, well...I-I had a moment of doubt! I can have those. But princesses never give up!”

As Twilight’s words ran in his head, Spike couldn’t help but think back to the time when she just stopped fighting after her friends became discordred, let Spike save everyone after Twilight got trapped, just went home when Twilight’s friends told her to go after Discord’s seeds began choking the tree of Harmony, and then there was the time Twilight surrendered to Tirek because he had hostages. “Actually, you tend to give up when the chips are down by a rather lopsided amount.” It was rather surprising she had been fighting Starlight for so long, actually. “What really just happened back there?” All Spike could see was that Twilight had just snapped after Starlight started acting nice to her.

“...w-well, I’m not giving up this time! One more time, I’ll go back one more time and beat Starlight and fix things for everypony!” Twilight declared as she pulled the scroll out from under her wing. “And if that doesn’t work this time, I’ll just do it again, and again until it does! Now let’s go!”

Twilight’s horn lit up and she jumped onto the table before placing Spike on her back. Then fired off a blast of magic at the scroll…only to watch in horror as a bright, golden glow of magic surrounded the scroll to deflect the activation spell.

“You know, one of the signs of insanity is doing something the same way over and over again, expecting different results,” Celestia’s voice echoed throughout the throne room before she just casually walked out of thin air, the space she had been occupying obviously wrapped in some sort of concealment spell. The big princess pulled the scroll away in her magic before her expression became much more sympathetic. “Oh Twily, what did I do to you?”

Spike tensed. “Princess Celestia, wh-what’re you doing here?”

“Well, after learning that you and Twilight appeared in this room, right on top of this table, I had Starlight run an analysis on it and we detected the temporal magic clinging to the harmonic energy. It’s amazing that this thing is still working, considering how badly you’ve been twisting its use,” she said. “So, it was only logical that you two would return here, eventually.”

Despite the fact that she as no longer on fire, the appearance of Princess Celestia had Twilight down on her belly with shaking knees. “P-Princess Celestia, please, I...I need that spell. I need to fix everything.”

A sigh came out of the big princess before she took in a deep breath. “Twilight, are you even listening to yourself? Are you even thinking about what you’re doing?” she asked. “What the consequences are?”

Twilight winced, as if Celestia was using a lash instead of soft words. “Please. I...I have to save my friends,” she cried softly.

“And how many times have you done this? How many failures have you had?” Princess Celestia asked gently despite a small tick in her eye. It as like she was forcing herself to keep a friendly face and calm demeanor. “What makes you think this time around is going to be any different? Twilight, I can see you’re hurting and even with everything you’ve done to my family, it isn’t a pleasant sight to me. So come down here and let me help you.”

There was a long silence in which Spike heard the light creaking of a door opening on the far end of the room opening as Twilight looked over to Celestia, her expression brightening a little. “Help...me?” she asked.

Celestia smiled at her. “Yes, despite everything that you have done, you are still one of my little ponies. Although trying to take the blame for seeing you like this would be quite hypocritical, I can’t help but feel in some small way, guilty for what has happened to you,” she said before her face hardened a little. “What she did to you.”

“That’s it!” Twilight exclaimed happily. “You can help me!”

That bad feeling in his gut started to return, and Spike took a step towards the purple pony. “Uh, Twilight, I don’t think you and Celestia are talking about the same thing here.”

Completely ignoring the dragon, Twilight took a step forward as if she was a drowning mare, reaching out for a lifeline. “You can come back with me. I know we can defeat Starlight with you helping us, Princess! Then, all we have to do is go back again without you, and everything will be right again!”

Celestia’s gentle demeanor evaporated in an instant, the small smile replaced by an angry frown. “You did not just ask me to help you to undo countless lives for your own selfish desires,” she said before a ball of flame appeared underneath the scroll holding the time travel spell. “I can see now that trying to reason with you is the height of foolishness. At the end of the week, I will lay you at the hooves of my daughter and ask for forgiveness for the wounds I’m about to inflict on top of whatever happens to you in the dungeons over the next few days.”

“NOOOOOOOO!” Twilight screamed in desperation as flames threatened to touch the scroll.

Spike found himself wondering that maybe, just maybe...all of this was for the best. Twilight had obviously been pushed far past her limits, with the last ten minutes turning her into an absolute wreck of a mare that couldn’t even think in a straight line. Well, Starlight’s still around, good-Starlight, I mean. Maybe once Twilight’s had some sleep, they can really talk and try to figure something out, he thought to himself. Celestia didn’t seem to want to hurt Twilight, she was just really angry about something.

And what was all that stuff about a daughter?

As the flames of Celestia’s magic touched the bottom of the scroll-“HERE I COME TO WRECK THE DAAAAAAAAAY!”

Spike blinked as Discord suddenly crashed into Celestia, sending both of them out of his field of view momentarily as the flames and Celestia’s magic. A second later, Twilight was on the ground, stomping on the singed scroll. “Don’tburn!Don’tburn!Don’tburn!” she begged in a rush.

There was an enraged shierk from Celestia. “GAAAAH! GET OFF OF ME YOU FOOL! OR I’LL DO MORE THAN DROP YOU OUT A WINDOW THIS TIME” the Princess yelled as she flailed about with Discord on top of her.

“What’s wrong Tia? All these changeling throne pieces your boyfriend put in me make it hard for your magic to work?” he said with a laugh before looking over to Twilight. “I’ve been waiting for this! UNDO IT, TWILIGHT! UNDO IT ALL HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Twilight leaped back onto the table and fired her magic at the scroll. “Come on Spike, we’re going!”

The temporal bubble appeared over Spike’s head as one of the crystal chairs flew back fast enough to give Rainbow Dash a run for her money and slammed into Discord. “NO!” Celestia shouted she got free and glared up at Twilight. “YOU FOOL! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU’RE DOING?!”

“I’m saving my friends!” Twilight cried out as they were pulled upward.

Celestia frowned back at her before the big mare’s horn lit up with an intensity Spike had never seen before. “I will not let you destroy Equestria!” she shouted back at them as her horn pointed right at them.

Spike grabbed onto Twilight in fear. Princess Celestia...she wasn’t about to...do what...he thought she was going to do...was she? Oh buck, she’s really gonna kill us.

Another second ticked by as Celestia stood there, her horn ablaze with enough power that had Spike wondering if being a dragon would be able to protect him at all. Twilight gripped onto him tightly, probably thinking the same thing. They floated closer to the bubble and the rage on Celestia’s face twitched ever so slightly.

When Twilight and Spike were nearly inside, Celestia let out a cry of pure rage and pointed her horn away from Twilight.

Until it was aimed at something right in front of her. A beam of devastating energy short forth from her horn, striking the cutie map.

Spike could do nothing but watch as the crystal artifact shattered into a million pieces from the impact of Celestia’s force beam. “She...she broke the map,” he said in a dull tone.

The force fulling him and Twilight upwards came to a sudden stop.

“No,” Twilight breathed as the magical white sphere that surrounded them began to flicker. “Nononononono!”

Panting heavily, Celestia looked up at the purple alicorn as she grabbed Spike to keep him from falling and began to frantically beat her wings. “It’s over, Twilight.”

“NO!” Twilight screamed before she lit up her horn. The bright light of Starlight’s spell turned to a light purple as Twilight fed her magic into it. “Destination’s still programmed. Magic is still in place. It just needs power. Just needs power!” With one last yank of her head, and a panicked cry from Celestia, Twilight touched her horn to the top of the spell.

And the world around them disappeared.

“W-What just happened?” Spike asked as he looked around the timestream.

“I don’t know, Spike!”

“T-Twilight, what’s going on?”

“I...I’m holding...the spell together w-with, my magic,” Twilight said as she strained under the weight.

Spike pulled in on himself as the bubble around them began to constrict. “Uh, T-Twilight?”

“I need to concentrate!” she said as the bubble closed in around them until Spike could barely move and Twilight continued to talk to herself. “Just one more time. Just one more time. Please, just one more time.”

Floating in the void, Starlight Glimmer wished that she had brought some cards.

Or magazines.

Something to pass the time, at least.

All Starlight had been able to do was think while Twilight was taking her sweet time, and sitting around with just herself and a crystal magic syphon on her head that gave the unicorn a shock whenever Starlight tried to touch it wasn’t a good place to think.

She knew what was coming.

She was ready for it, too.

When Starlight was taken to Cloudsdale again, she would just fall from the sky and hit the ground. It was a fall from a height that would end her life.

She...looked forward to it.

Because she knew that she deserved it.

Back when Starlight had broken into the Canterlot Archives to look for a way of getting back at Twilight Sparkle, she hadn’t even thought about using the time spell she found to save Sunburst. All she had wanted to do was ruin six lives because they disagreed with her on a subject she didn’t really believe in herself.

Starlight snorted at the thought. Equality, what a joke, the unicorn thought to herself. Her philosophy had been nothing more than a catchy word that she used to hide her need to control everyone around her, to keep them under her hoof. Just like she had with Sunburst.

She missed Sunburst.

She...k-killed Sunburst.

And instead of admitting she was wrong, Starlight had kept doubling-down on her bad decisions and twisted thought process. It hadn’t been her fault. He made her do it. It was always somepony else’s fault. Nothing she did was ever wrong! The whole thought process made her feel sick to her stomach.

She laid out on her belly. “Just let me die, already.”

The barrier around her began to flicker, catching Starlight’s attention and jolting the unicorn out of her dulled state. “What the?” she asked as the magic around her continued to destabilize. “Oh no.”

Starlight didn’t understand. The magic for her barrier came from Twilight’s stupid table-map thingy. It was the most powerful artifact that she had ever seen, an unlimited font of magical power. There was no way it could go out!

But if it did...if Starlight tossed out into the temporal void without its protections...she...she would…

Actually, Starlight realized as she failed to construct a scenario from the lack of data. I’m not sure just what would happen to me.

She did know who to blame, though. “Twilight, what did you do?” Starlight asked as the spell continued to fade. Despite how futile it was, Starlight tried to press magic into the spell through her horn. If she could reinforce the magic, there was a chance she might be able to…

A dozen little sparks fly out without any effect. “Well...buck me.”

Once Starlight had realized the way her life had gone, she had been ready to call it quits. The Sunburst that was out there was alive. She didn’t know how, and she didn’t care. All that mattered was that he was okay. But being thrown out into the timestream without a protective barrier or ability to navigate, she...didn’t know what was going to happen to her.

And as the last bit of the magic left in the spell disappeared, all Starlight could do was hope that maybe, just maybe, she would catch a glimpse of Sunburst’s life. And it would be happy.

Author's Note

And that's the end of Twilight's little side story in our timey wimey twisted tale.

For all of you wondering just why this is put here and not 2-3 fics down the timeline. 2 reasons, the first of which is that part of time travel fiction is knowing the general direction of where thing are going to go, but not having a road map to the destination, or even knowing if what you see is what is fixed in stone.

The second reason being, I needed a break from the sunshine dance for a fic and needed to get this done, so here it is. The next fic will be taking a look back on the guy who's surrounded by girls but only has a two members in his harem.

Prologue: A Glimmer of Rage

Starlight Glimmer flew through chrono space, intent on her mission. After taking Twilight Sparkle back to her home village and showing her a recreation of the horrible past where she lost her best friend because of his own stupidity, Starlight Glimmer understood what she had to do. She had to show Twilight something that would break her spirit, take away her will to fight and just leave her a mess of a mare that wouldn't ever be able to focus on casting magic again. She had to be shown the death of her best friend.

Or, one of them, at least.

Once she had been brought forward from her home village to the proper time and place, Starlight Glimmer quickly wrapped herself in her magic before gravity could assert itself over her and darted into a nearby cloud to wait for her target. With as many times as she had done this dance, the lilac pony had no need to look around. She knew exactly where the foal that was the focal pin to Twilight Sparkle’s perfect life was going to fly into view.

Just thinking of that stupid royal pony made Starlight grit her teeth in anger. Some high and mighty princess had the nerve to tell her what to do? So what if she had a stupid crown? She didn’t have the right to boss Starlight Glimmer around! Horrible future my flank! That idiot Twilight just took her to the middle of nowhere to try and trick Starlight into giving up because she was too weak to make her! It was the very definition of pathetic!

Once she got Rainbow Dash in her magic and killed her, preferably in front of Twilight right before the princess was sent back to where she started, Starlight knew she wouldn’t stop there. The act would finally break the princess from traveling into the past, she would sink into despair and Starlight could get started on the second stage of her plan when she was recalled back into the chrono space. She would go to her starting point and reform her village without any meddling princesses to RUIN EVERYTHING!

Then, she would track down Double Diamond, Party Favor, and all those other traitors, and teach them the error of their ways! Their beaten and bloody bodies would hang outside her village to show all the other ponies what happened when they disobeyed her!

There would be daily lessons in OBEDIENCE!

The pony she judged less than PERFECTLY EQUAL would be BEATEN IN FRONT OF EVERYPONY!

And Twilight Sparkle...she...she would…

Starlight Glimmer’s eyes widened as she thought of the perfect way to make Twilight pay for what she did!

A smile graced Starlight’s lips. “After, after I’m done with Rainbow, I’ll find you, I’ll find you Twilight Sparkle,” she told the pony she HATED. “And then, I’ll make you pay! I’ll make you scream! Every day. Every night. For the rest of your life, Twilight. After I kill Rainbow, after I kill this stupid little...um...” Starlight frowned as the sky she was looking at remained empty of Rainbow Dash.

Empty of Rainbow Dash for much too long.

“Where are you?” she asked before looking around a bit. “Where are you? Where are you, Rainbow Dash? Come here so I can kill you already!”

“Yeah, that’s not happening. Ever,” a authoritative voice from behind the unicorn said.

A bolt of fear ran down Starlight’s back before she spun herself around to see a pair of pink legs standing on a cloud just a bit above her. Pink legs wearing clear crystal horseshoes that covered the whole hoof and left Starlight wondering who they belonged to.

“What do you want?” Starlight demanded as she looked up and became even more confused. Because, she recognized the pony in question. At least, she thought she did. “Princess...Cadance?”

“Since Auntie Tia’s been riding my ass about it lately, I’m giving you one chance,” she said with a frown. “Surrender, now. Submit to a horn restraint, and we can go to Canterlot so you can answer all my questions, truthfully. I won’t be giving you this offer again.”

Starlight blinked as her brain tried to process what her eyes were seeing. Like everypony in Equestria, she knew about Princess Cadance. She had seen picture after picture of her in the newspapers over the years, and even got a good look at her after traveling to the Crystal Empire to spread the message of Equality in the hopes of attracting some of the crystal ponies.

The Cadance that Starlight had seen stood as tall as a stallion. While she didn’t have the same flowing mane as Celestia, the pink princess’s hair nearly reached her hooves before it curled up at the end. Otherwise, she was...normal. The only thing that stood about about her was how pretty she was. Prettier than anypony had a right to be. Sickeningly pretty, even.

That Cadance looked very different than the one that stood in front of Starlight now.

The Cadance in front of Starlight had her mane done up in a braid that barely came down past her shoulders, with a crystal heart decoration on its end. She wore a gold tiara inlaid with gems that dipped under her horn to cover her forehead instead of a crown. A pair of large earrings dangled from her ears an inch and a half, and her chest was covered by a stunning necklace that was a web of silver containing different colored crystals taking up the space between. While she was just as tall as the pony Starlight remembered, her physique had undergone a major change. Every inch of her body was toned to the level that only Wonderbolts could hope to approach, while still retaining the slender frame that pegasi were known for.

Starlight stared at the princess for several seconds. What was she supposed to do? Candace wasn’t supposed to be in Cloudsdale! SHE WAS GOING TO RUIN EVERYTHING!

Except...Twilight hadn’t been able to stop Starlight.

So, it stood to reason that Cadance wouldn’t be able to either!

“Shut up!” Starlight told the stupid princess as she concentrated on how much she hated being told what to do. About how much she hated those stupid princesses, the height of inequality! “I beat Twilight, and I’ll beat you too!” ABOUT HOW MUCH SHE HATED TWILIGHT SPARKLE!

Starlight let all of her emotions build up in her horn and unleashed her hated towards the princess standing in front of her. It would blow her stupid head off! And then-!

Cadance forcefully turned her head to the left, throwing her braid into the path of Starlight’s force beam. The magic connected with the heart-shaped bobble at the end of her braid and Starlight watched as her attack was absorbed by the pink pony’s lovely jewelry.

Without missing a single beat, and while Starlight’s magic was still being sucked into the crystal heart, Cadance pointed her horn at Starlight. “Bad move little girl,” she said as her horn fired a pink ray that struck Starlight in the chest. A crystal rock materialized around her, encasing everything beneath Starlight’s chin.

The unicorn’s magical field was absorbed by the crystal, and Starlight found herself falling from Cloudsdale. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

Cadance was matching her trajectory a moment later. “Now, let me tell you how this is going to work,” she said evenly. “Either you tell me everything I want to know, or I watch you hit the ground.”

“SHUT UP!” Starlight screamed at the stupid princess. Since breaking free by shattering the prison would take far too much magic, she quickly came up with the most brilliant of plans. The light purple pony sucked in a breath and teleported the minimum distance possible, less than a millimeter. She disappeared and reappeared at nearly the exact same spot...half a second after the crystal boulder had fallen down below.

Before gravity could kick in, Starlight wrapped herself in her levitation spell again and gave Princess Cadance a triumphantly evil smile. “Ha! Now I’m going to-”

Cadance didn’t bother replying before she threw her wings out as wide as they would go and lit her horn up again. Starlight saw a dozen little lights sparkle as tiny crystals that had been hidden among the pink princess feathers flared to life. Cadance zoomed out of the unicorn’s field of vision so fast that Starlight was left following a trail of pink, yellow, and purple that circled around to her right and-Starlight felt a sharp tug on her left foreleg an instant before that entire side of her body exploded in pain.

The concentration Starlight needed to maintain her levitation vanished, and she was dimly aware of Cadance blasting her again when a pink energy ray impacted her head to blind Starlight for several seconds before another beam hit her in the chest. Then, she found herself on the back of a floating slab of an amber-colored crystal, her hooves encased and held down, but her legs were mostly free.

“Okay, let’s try this again,” Cadance said she she floated around to hover over Starlight in an upright position, the magic of the crystals hidden in her feathers making it so she didn’t even need to flap her wings to stay aloft, she just held them in an extended position as she crossed her forelegs.

Starlight struggled for a second, then let out a cry of pain as her side reminded her how damaged it was.

When the pain subsided enough so that Starlight was aware of her surroundings again, Cadance let out a snort. “My horseshoes have a level five force amplification spell matrix built into them,” she explained as Starlight lay still on her floating crystal slab. “In other words, I just tore your left foreleg out of its socket, and shattered every rib on that side of your body. Oh, I’d also advise not-”

Starlight didn’t bother listening. She was going to make that stupid pink pony PAY FOR WHAT SHE HAD DONE!

The angry unicorn magic into her horn and glared at Princess Cadance before she threw everything she could quickly dredge up from within her, willing the pony in front of her to die! There was a pressure that built up around the horn that quickly turned to a scalding heat. Starlight cried out in pain before she looked up at her horn to see what was wrong and gasped. Her horn, her perfectly beautiful horn that could put even a princess in her place was covered in a sickeningly pink patch of crystal that was absorbed her magic and releasing it as a shower of harmless sparks.

“I wouldn’t recommend trying to overpower my crystal siphon. The only pony I’ve seen able to force her way out of it is my wife. And since you’re not nearly as hard headed as her, if that crystal does explode, most of the shards will be going into your eyes and brain,” Cadance told her without much emotion in her voice. “At best, you’ll spend the rest of your life as a blind vegetable.”

Starlight moved again, prompting her body to cry out in pain. “NO!” she cried out to the sky as the reality of the situation . “It’s not fair! It’s not fair, it’s not fair, it’s not faaaaaaaaaaaair!"

Another beam shot from Cadance’s horn, this time at Starlight’s crystal restraints. She felt the mineral creep up her legs once again encasing her body until only her face was let to the open air. “Now, let’s get you away from the kids before one of them decides to do a low-atmo flight and spots us,” Cadance said before she carried Starlight through the air away from Cloudsdale at her magically enhanced speed.

Once the cloud city looked like just another white splotch on the horizon, Cadance took them down the ground to set Starlight down. She reached up and taped on of her earrings, creating a resounding chime in the air as crystal horseshoe struck it. “Mirror,” the princess ordered before a green ray of light came forth from the green gem in her gold tiara to conjure a full-body mirror in the middle of the field. “Connect me to Princess Sunset in Canterlot.”

The reflection on the mirror was replaced by a swirling mass of colors, and and Cadance tapped her hoof for several seconds. “Come on, answer already,” she said before the colors formed into the giant face of a pony with a yellowish coat that Starlight didn’t recognize. “Finally! Listen-”

“Cadance?” the unknown pony asked. “Where the buck are you?”

The pink princess gave the other pony a frown. “Are you on your compact again? I’m in Cloudsdale. Fluttershy’s letters said she and Rainbow were being bullied, remember? I had a word with the counselors yesterday to see what was going on, and today I was going to hide until I caught the ponies doing it in the act, but-”

“You’re missing Twilight’s entrance exam!” Amber exclaimed.

The comment got a frown from Starlight. They couldn’t be talking about Twilight Sparkle, could they?

Cadance’s eyes went wide. “Wait, what? I thought that was tomorrow!”

“No, it was tomorrow when you left, which was yesterday, making the exam today!” Amber stressed.

The announcement made Cadance wince. “Oh, buck!” she said before getting panicky. “You’re recording it, right? Let me talk to her. Let me wish her good luck! No wait, freeze Canterlot’s time! I’ll drop my prisoner off fly over, and we can all support her, together.”

“You know such a thing isn’t possible,” a new voice, one much more mature and regal, sounded from the mirror. The image changed as another pony’s face came into view and Starlight sucked in a sharp breath upon seeing Princess Celestia’s face.

It only made Starlight more angry. Of course, stupid Princess Twilight and her privileged life knew Princess bucking Celestia since she was a filly! The big pony had probably changed Twilight’s diapers and...done...other filly things.

“We can’t show favoritism, even to Twilight. The only reason Sunset is even being allowed to watch is because she agreed to stand behind a privacy spell.”

Cadance glared at the bigger princess’s image. “So she’s all by herself? Sunset...do something!”

“Look,”the alicorn Starlight didn’t know said. “It’s just the noble test. It’s nice and easy and-” Sunset looked up with a frown. “And she’s panicking, and...oh, jeez, now she’s waving her hooves around like they were hands. Okay, maybe she does need-”

BOOM!

Starlight’s eyes widened as the sky became a rainbow of color. “Noooo!” she cried out in horror upon seeing her failure.

“What the hell was that?” the amber alicorn cried out from the other side of the mirror while Cadance spun around to stare at the magical phenomenon as it spread throughout all of Equestria. “Cadance? You there, can you hear me? Can-what? Oh, shit. Cadance...uh, we’ll be right back, Twilight just turned the judges into plants. That counts as a pass, right Mom?”

After both of the other princess disappeared from view, Cadance dematerialized the mirror before she looked back to Starlight. “Well, looks like your interrogation can wait,” she said before her horn lit up.

Starlight’s eyes widened in fear as she felt the crystal begin to creep up her body. “What? No! You can’t do this to me! I’m supposed to-” was all she managed to say before the crystal covered her mouth, but stopped at the end of her nose and didn’t touch her eyes or horn. She found herself able to breathe and hear, but unable to move at all.

“I’ll be back for you in a bit. Don’t go anywhere now,” Cadance told the trapped unicorn before she zoomed off at speeds Starlight had seen from from that stupid pegasus friend of Twilight Sparkle.

Minutes passed…

Which made Starlight become very worried. Like Twilight, she had an automatic recall to her spell that would engage an hour after she arrived, just in case something went wrong. If Cadance didn’t come back before then, she would be sucked back up into the space outside of time.

Trapped in the crystal as she was, Starlight didn’t want to know what would happen to her.

Would she starve to death?

And what if Twilight decided that whatever future she had gone back to wasn’t good enough?

If that happened...Starlight’s eyes widened in horror.

Since having to pinpoint the place Twilight ended up might be problematic if she fell asleep or became distracted, Starlight had programed the spell to drop her off at a point ten minutes before Twilight arrived. If Twilight traveled back to Cloudsdale again, with Starlight trapped as she was and unable to levitate herself…

I’ll drop...like a stone, she thought as a bead of sweat traveled down her brow.

Starlight looked up at the crystals encasing her horn with worry. Princess Cadance had said that the blowback from freeing herself would be lethal, but...what other choice did she have? The rainboom had happened, which meant that Twilight Sparkle’s stupid, perfect little world was back. And if she did cast her magic again, it would be even worse!

It was strange what a pony’s mind thought up when they couldn’t move.

And really needed to pee.

Oooooh, I wish I hadn’t thought of that, Starlight told herself.

“Cadance, are you sure she’s around here?”

Starlight blinked at the voice of the amber alicorn she had seen on the mirror reached her ears, followed by the sound of hooves on grass.

The voice of Princess Cadance reached her a moment later, coming from the same direction. “Yes, I’m sure, Sunset. I forgot to drop the marker until I was halfway back to Cloudsdale, but I remember these rocks. She’s just...around here somewhere”

“Somepony might have come and broken her out.”

Cadance snorted. “After she broke out the first time, I put her in amber restraints.”

“...is that all you did to her?” Sunset asked after a second.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Cadance asked evenly.

“Well, you got this loud, angry, apparently very powerful, unicorn that you’re tying up with the same spell you made to hold me down,” Sunset asked. “I’m just wondering if you’ve found a new pony to get all lovey-dovey with is all. Want to relive your lost youth, before we had kids and responsibilities tying us down.”

Cadance was silent for several seconds as Starlight heard the crunch of grass coming from behind her. “Don’t even joke about that,” she said in a tone that dared Sunset to continue. Then, Starlight caught sight of the glow coming from Cadance’s horn as she rounded the boulder standing behind Glimmer. She looked back behind her. “And I found her.”

There was more grass being crushed before the other alicorn appeared. “Okay, sorry, Cadance, I…” Sunset stopped for a moment when she came into Starlight’s view, making Starlight suck in a breath. Princess Sunset Shimmer was absolutely massive. Easily topping the life-sized statues Starlight had seen of Princess Celestia by a head or more, the giant alicorn was big enough to step on Starlight, with thick hooves that could have covered up the entire lilac unicorn’s head.

The big alicorn tilted her head to the side, her eyes giving Starlight a quick once over before she spoke. “Glimmy?”

“Eh?” Cadance said, mirroring what Starlight wanted to say herself. “You...know this pony?”

Sunset bent down to look at Starlight eye to eye, then went lower to examine her cutie mark for a moment before picking herself back up and looking over to Cadance. “I...think so,” the giant alicorn said. “She looks like one of the at-risk foals I’m giving special lessons to. Starlight Glimmer, I was even thinking about making her Twily’s mentor at the school. Don't tell me you idiots were messing with age magic again.”

Once again, Cadance seemed to take the words right out of Starlight’s mouth. “Say what?”

“Well, her mane was more of a wavy style, but-”

“Not that! You’re planning to put our little filly in the hooves of an at-risk pony?” Cadance demanded evenly.

Sunset gave the smaller alicorn a little frown. “Well, maybe if I had been shown a little faith and given some responsibility when I was younger, I wouldn’t have ended up like I did.”

Cadance’s expression turned to a half-lidded stare. “You mean a giant alicorn goddess with enough magic to match every pony in Equestria combined?” she asked. “Oh, what a cruel fate.”

“You know what I mean,” Sunset replied.

The pink alicorn sighed. “Yeah, I know what you’re really saying, and I trust you, I do...it’s just...this is Twily were talking about here, Sunset. If you want to give her to one of your special cases, then what about...Trixie! Oh, or maybe that Sunburst colt! He’s smart, right? I’m pretty sure you said he’s smart.”

The conversation faded from Starlight’s attention at the mention of Sunburst’s name, and the impossibility of its existence. From Starlight’s knowledge of when she lost her best friend to his cutie mark, she had traveled a good eight months into the future. Which meant Sunburst had been killed the previous school year for acting too stupid and getting Starlight mad.

But, the ponies in front of Starlight were talking like he was very much alive.

Amidst the confusion, Starlight felt something...stir inside of her. The world started to become blurry, and…

“Uh, Cadance, is she...crying?” Sunset asked.

The other pony looked over with wide eyes. “Oh! Oh buck, her injuries. I totally forgot about the bones I broke,” the pink princess exclaimed.

“WHAT?” Sunset shouted before she stepped in front of the pink pony that was starting to panic.

“Well, there was the Rainboom, and then I saw Dashie’s cutie mark, and we had to go find Fluttershy, and she had her cutie mark, and then I flew back to Canterlot and Twily had hers and-look, I’m sorry if I forgot about some stupid assassin I’m pretty sure I heard was gloating about killing Rainbow Dash!” Cadance exclaimed. “I thought she was sent by Nightmare Moon or something!”

Starlight felt her bones mend on their own, despite being trapped in a magic-sucking prison. The orange crystal around her just...melted, leaving Starlight sprawled out on the ground. Despite being freed and no longer in pain, her mind went back to her memories of a golden colt.

“You know she’s not that stupid!” Sunset exclaimed. before looking down at Starlight. “Hey, Glimmy. Glimmy! Come on, snap out of it. You there? Can you hear me? Please tell me you’re not in shock or something.”

“Sunburst...he’s...alive?” she asked, barely able to form words through all the confusing emotions she felt.

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Uh...yeah? Why wouldn’t he be? Uh, are you okay?” she asked before her horn lit up and an intense diagnostic spell began to look Starlight over.

Starlight found herself feeling glad at the news, of all things. It didn’t make sense. Sunburst had abandoned Starlight for that Trixie filly, but...Glimmer found herself wanting to know more. “Are he and I...friends?”

“Uh...yeah,” Sunset told her cautiously. “Starlight, why’re you asking me this? Did something happen between the two of you?”

“But...our cutie marks are different,” the mare on the ground said as she grabbed ahold of the reason for all of her pain and suffering since she was a foal.

Sunset blinked at Starlight, then gave her a half-lidded stare. “You’re not seriously giving that stupid argument again, are you?”

As Starlight looked at the alicorn that she had no knowledge of, something occurred to her. In that brief moment when they had gone back to her home village, something must have changed. Something had changed to the point that Starlight hadn’t killed her friend when they were foals.

My...friend, Starlight repeated in her mind.

To think of Sunburst in such a way again, realizing that somehow, he was still alive...it made Starlight smile. A weight that had been on her back for so long that she didn’t even know it was there anymore felt like it had been lifted and...she couldn’t help but smile.

And...maybe giggle, a little. “Eh hehe, hahahaha.”

“Uh...is she okay?” Cadance asked.

And then, a lot. “heheHE! Ah-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Sunset tensed. “I’m guessing no. Insane cackling is usually not a good sign.”

“No...no, don’t you see?” Starlight said as she looked up at the sky. The beautiful blue sky that promised Starlight a wonderful future. “I...I can...fix it. This time, I...I can be friends with Sunburst. I can-I don’t have to be alone anymore!”

It might be a little weird, living with her younger self at first, but little Starlight was a tough filly, she would learn to deal with it. And Sunburst! She could teach Sunburst about magic, and watch the younger her and him grow up together, and who knew what else? It would be like being her own big sister. “I always wanted a big sister,” Starlight whispered to herself.

Both of the alicorns gave each other an uneasy look.

“This time?” Sunset mumbled before she looked over to the smaller alicorn. “Cadance, how exactly did you find this mare, again?”

The pink pony pointed to her left earing. “I detected the presence of high-level unicorn magic in Cloudsdale and went to check it out.”

Sunset’s face became serious. “What color was your earing glowing when it detected the surge of magic?”

“Uh...pink,” Cadance replied. “Why? What’s that got to do with anything?”

And because the rainboom happened, I don’t have to worry about Twilight going back again and overwriting any-Above Starlight, a temporal bubble bloomed into existence above her. She quickly channeled her magic to dispel it and….blinked when only sparks came out of the crystal covering her horn. “No...”

“No-nononononono!” Starlight screamed in horror. “I DON’T WANNA GO BACK!”

Sunset’s eyes widened at the magic above them before looking over to the pink pony. She leaped towards Starlight, but missed grabbing the little unicorn as she was sucked up into the sky. “Cadance! Conjure an anti-magic spear! Pop that bubble, NOW!”

“What?” Cadance asked in confusion. “Sunset, what’s going on? What is that thing?”

“I WANNA BE WITH SUNBURST!” Starlight cried out as she was sucked back up into the spell before being pulled out of the timeline.

And then, she found herself floating alone in the timeless void.

"But...I...want to be with Sunburst," she whimpered as tears began to roll down her face.