The Timepony’s Journal

Radiance struggled to keep control of her TARDIS as it crashed through several temporal barriers. Everything atom of the interior was vibrating and reverberating to the point that it threatened their stability. She took a deep sigh of relief once the commotion stopped. She thought that was the cloister bells ringing but it wasn’t. It sounded like the loud chime of a grandfather clock in reverse, booming five times before it stopped. More than almost anywhere else in all of time and space she was not meant to be here. After taking a step out of her ship it was hard to see anything. Every bit of light refracted and distorted into multiple colors all around her. The sky was the same, looking like an oil spill with the way it shone a vast array of unnatural hues. It was as if every surface were a prism and it made Radiance sick.

Down the hill was what looked to be a city, but on closer inspection it was only the illusion of one. There were only three unique buildings repeated in a number of positions and orientations with roads often leading to nowhere. Spatial distortion to the nth degree. Every inch of this place made Radiance’s skin crawl. Swallowing the urge to vomit she continued forwards into the distortion. This was where she’d end up at some point, or maybe now she never would. This was where the coordinates from one of the largest libraries in the universe had taken her. She was looking for her own grave and here it was, a place lost in her past life’s remaining memories.

Once entering the vast corridors she attempted to find her way. Her hoofsteps echoed as the hallways warped around her. Whispers echoed around her as the room went cold. It was hard to tell if it was in her imagination or insanity until she saw it, or rather her. It wasn’t quite clear as the figure was hard to look at. Radiance didn’t believe in ghosts though there was one standing in front of her.

She was standing in front of a sign written in Gallophreyan with a Ponish translation beneath. The figure was a temporal spectre, a result of the local distortion. It was worse than she thought, the distortion was not only of space but also of time. Getting closer, Radiance could hear it mumbling to itself, its voice crackling like through an old speaker.

“You can do this, you can do this, you can do this. Just…tell her. It’s just a very,very,very…a few more verys dangerous gift. It’ll be fine.” the spectre said, mimicking opening a door as it walked through the wall.

Radiance took in several deep breaths as her hearts raced. On closer inspection the wall was vibrating, the sign too. With a laboured breath she forced her way through the semi-existent entryway. The other side of the door flickered between two different parts of the wall. This whole facility was two potentials eternally duking it out in this one corner of space and time. Radiance was drenched in sweat, passing through the potentials like that was somewhat fatal for time sensitive beings such as herself.

“Look, we’ve been travelling together for like, two years now and I just…you’re my best friend in all of creation. Just tell her that, okay?”

Looking up the spectre was standing in front of some kind of desk, most of it warped and rotten away. The room was spinning, Radiance couldn’t be here. She just had to know what happened here, what happened to her and her best friend. She grunted and got up, making sure she wasn’t dead already. Her left heart was a little fast but otherwise she was unscathed. Another spectre almost walked right through her to join with the other. The two of them were becoming clearer, more familiar.

“Oh my Sparkle. It’s the most beautifamaztastical thing I’ve ever seen.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not a real word.”

“Is too. Why doesn’t it look like an amiibo?”

A bright ball of energy about twenty feet wide was the center of the distortion. It shone in colors not even perceptible to any living being. This room was her workshop, the facility wrapped around this chunk of cauterised time. It was the scar tissue left behind when two or more timelines touched, the echo of a battle between realities. Radiance found herself slowly being dragged towards it as she tried to approach the dilapidated workbench. Her own history was seeking her out, trying to reabsorb her into the competing continuities. Soo there was nothing, then everything as the distortion swallowed her whole.

“You can do this, you can do this, you can do this.” Hedley repeated to herself, attempting to boost her confidence.

“Just…tell her how you feel. All you’re doing is giving her potentially the most dangerous gift in the universe, no problem. It’s all going to be fine.”

Hedley quickly turned around when she thought she heard some kind of voice. She felt her blood run cold for a fraction of a second, passing as quickly as it came. Shrugging it off she looked back up at the sign to her workshop.

“I’m talking to myself again. They do say it’s the first sign of madness.”

Hedley sighed, walking through the door. She started organising her tools as that often kept her mind busy. Prism could be waiting for her outside any minute. She went over the maths, double checked the blueprints and her sums just to make sure everything was right. Something was missing, something that was staring her right in the face but she couldn’t see it. Opening a drawer she pulled out a hollo-graph frame with her and Prism in it, propping it up on the desk.

“Look…we’ve been travelling for like, two years now? It’s just…when we met I was still so full of myself, all high and regal like all TimePonies are. But you changed me, helped me see that there were more important things to life than the laws that my people imposed on me. I’ve become a better person, and I have you to thank for that. You’re my best friend in all of creation. Just… tell her that to her face.”

“Should I uh, leave you two alone?” asked Prism.

“RASSILON! W- h-how did you get in here? There’s like, I can’t even list how many security protocols there are.”

“You forget, I still got yo house keys.” Prism giggled while fanning out several key cards.

“You…after all this time you still frighten me.”

“Awww, you flatter me so. So, what’s the tea, the juice, the big cheese?”

“Huh?”

“The surprise, dummy. You had a whole speech about it didn’t you?”

“Right…since you already heard all that, I might as well just show you: this.”

Hedley slid back a curtain surrounding the surprise. It was a large hexagonal room about twenty feet in width, the exterior white and teal like Prism’s ice cream cart. Prism’s eyes sparkled as she walked around it.

“Woah, it’s the most beautifamazetastical thing I’ve ever seen. What is it?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not a word, and this is your very own kinda-Tardis.”

“I’m pretty sure it is, and just…wow. It doesn’t even look like an amiibo.”

“Gazebo”

“Gesundheit.”

There it was again, that voice in the background. The faint sound of a grandfather clock chiming combined with the chill down her spine. Hedley was starting to have second thoughts about this, maybe this was a warning. Somepony stepped on her grave and it was getting harder and harder to shake the feeling off.

“You alright?” Prism asked while tilting her head in concern.

“Yeah, just feeling a bit cold. Wanna take it for a spin?”

“You’re joking. Now?”

“No time like the present. Just thought that since y’know, you’ve been asking me to teach how to fly mine. Also I’ve always wanted to build one from scratch, even though there’s no dimensional seal on the outer shell, and the vortex buffers are very uh… how about I just let you in.”

Hedley stopped rambling, just gesturing to the doors as they opened automatically. Without a word Prism hugged her tightly. She never wanted to let her go, make this moment last for all of eternity, but she couldn’t. Prism went inside and looked around the cobbled together console room. The walls were the same as the exterior, the only difference being the lavender and violet roundels indenting them. A massive hexagonal lamp hung at an awkward angle above the pearl white and pink console.

“Careful what you touch, don’t want to explode on our first drive.”

“Well excuuuuuuse me, like you don’t throw yours through every star on the way down.”

“Which one of us is Tardis certified?”

“Not just you if you hurry up and teach me.”

“Alright, alright, we’ll just go to the moon and back for a simple test run. I can’t use any controls for this first flight as it needs to be synced to you first.”

“Oki, which one closes the doors?”

While helping her with the preflight checks she heard that sound again. It was clearer than ever before, as if it were coming from right next to her. Hedley just froze, terrified but not knowing why. The sound of the new ship’s dematerialization echoed through the small chamber. She had to stop it, she had to abort the test flight. The time rotor was jamming, a massive influx of energy threatening to tear them part.

“What’s going on? I just touched it, I swear!”

“It’s not you, it’s my fault. Stupid, stupid me! We’re in a non secluded time stream. I thought I could compensate for the creation of new potentials but it’s more than it can handle. We’re turning ripples into tidal waves, new probabilities it can’t handle!”

“Then make it stop! Hit it with something!”

“I’m trying! I’m so sorry, this is all my-!”

Then there was nothing, and then there was everything. Months of planning and she didn’t think about the obvious. Maybe she knew deep down this would happen but just didn’t care. The white void irritated her eyes, closing them not even making a difference due to the brightness. The void faded to black. Maybe she was dying, or maybe it was worse. For all she knew she no longer existed, erased by the mangled timelines. Tears rolled down her face as all she felt was guilt. She only wanted to leave something behind for the pony she cared about the most.

Then she woke up in her TARDIS, or so she thought. It was older, the pristine white walls now a more marbled grey. New furniture, new controls on the console, and a new mare inside of it. The mare was unconscious too, her body monochrome except for the strand of pink in her mane. She awoke as Hedley helped her up, the mare’s eyes widening as she regained consciousness. Hedley didn’t know why she was scared, but something deep in the pit of her stomach suggested that this was wrong.

Radiance quickly backed away, forcing herself out of her former self’s hooves. The first law of time was one of the most sacred laws of the TimePonies. To meet yourself could cause an unfathomable amount of potential paradoxes that threatened the Web of Time.

“Hey, hey, I’m not gonna hurt you. I just want to get back to my ship and…Prism? Find Prism, add that to the list.”

“You still call it a ship.”

“What?”

“Your Tardis, you still call it a ship.”

“Well, uh, of course? It’s a craft that traverses the time vortex, of course it’s a ship. Who are you exactly?”

“Oh c’mon, you know it in your hearts already. I’m in just as much shock as you are, laws of time and all that.”

“But…how are you…I…we here?”

“Well uh, long story short, I lost most of our memory. I remember everything you’ve done up to this point, but trying to remember the rest is uh… complicated. Retracing my steps speeds up the process. As such it’s led me here. Both of us and our Tardises being so close to the anomaly caused them to temporarily converge. In here all of space and time is flattened because of the near infinite amount of timelines.”

“Oh…it’s really that bad, isn’t it?”

“Yep. And look, I know what you’re thinking, kinda, but it’s okay. You had good intentions.”

“The road to Tartarus is paved with good intentions. Don’t lie to me. I thought I could compensate by keeping the first flight short, but the mere possibility of me going anywhere else brought me here. I practically created a fixed point of time that was never meant to be. All of this because-”

“All because you cared about your best friend, your first friend off of Gallophrey. You and I both know what happens next. The TimePonies will relegate the moment of overload outside of the natural space-time continuum. They’ve already cut off the branches of time before it can grow.”

Hedley started to break down in tears. Radiance wasn’t sure what to say or do. Hedley’s hearts were broken, but they would one day be her hearts too. She awkwardly held Hedley, letting her cry into her shoulder. The console dinged and some of Radiance’s furniture was fading in and out. The TARDISes were separating, the two time zones unable to coexist together for much longer.

“Do you…do you know if Prism will be okay? I don’t even know if she’ll be allowed to remember me.”

“She is, and she will. I might not be able to remember much but I can feel it. I’m sorry you won’t remember that though.”

“I know, best not to cause too many paradoxes. States of grace and timeline stuff. What about you, though? You fell into a crack in time. I guess I know that I survived this but what about you?”

“Oh don’t worry about it.”

“It’s hard not to. You’re my future, and whatever I did or didn’t do leads you here. You said your memory was complicated…what happened to us?”

“It’s…painful, that’s most of what I know. I didn’t regenerate properly, I’m still a work in progress. I’ve been getting better though, much more than when I started. If there’s one thing you should remember then it’s this: tell her how you feel. Completely.”

“Will do, if I remember. See you later then?”

“Be you later, you mean.”

The two of them laughed as they faded away, each returning to their respective place and time. In the past, Hedley’s TARDIS had been returned to Gallophrey where she awaited trial for her past actions. In the present, Radiance was lost. Her TARDIS was still stuck in the anomaly, desperately trying to find her way back into the natural flow of time. In a way the both of them had run out of time, but they were both ready to face the consequences of their decisions.

Hedley awoke in her much cleaner and emptier TARDIS. She moved over to the scanner controls, hesitating to look outside. Instead she pulled the door lever, leaving her ship without checking any readings. She had a feeling that Prism was safe, though ponies weren’t allowed on Gallophrey. Aside from the silver lining of the landing bay the entire room was completely black. Ahead of her were three stallions in long black and white robes. One her judge, the other the jury, the third the court recorder. While the court was small, the three were all that were needed. Each stood in front of their respective podiums on a round platform. Hedley nervously gulped, their stares digging deep into her soul. She approached the stand and looked up at the members of the court.

“Hedleo-”

“Just Hedley, please.”

The judge nodded to the recorder to add that to the record.

“Hedley of the Arcalian chapter, you’ve been charged with crimes against the laws of continuity. We’ll give you a brief moment to select your attorney of defence before we proceed.”

“Actually, I think I’ll be fine defending myself.”

“Very well. This court is now in session. First: the law of interference. You left your TT capsule after a test flight to the planet Provia, sixth extraterrestrial colony of the planet Equus. You were given a formal reprimand and your capsule confiscated. Yet despite your supervisor’s generosity for a first infraction, you stole the deregistered capsule from the disposal bay. Is this correct?”

“Well yes, but-”

“You then directly returned to Provia and interacted with the local populus. After one week’s passing you directly prevented the testing of the Galaxion Four pulse cannon on the population below. The subsequent attack was meant to result in the militarization of Provia and the creation of the first interplanetary battalion for the Equus empire. Is this correct?”

“Yes but-”

“How do you plead?”

“Not guilty, your honour.”

“You may begin your defence.”

“Well, how many Provian colonists were meant to die in that tragedy?”

“Approximately two thousand as the city you resided in was the only one under attack.”

“Would you stand by and personally let a thousand potentially innocent ponies die?”

“To protect the infinite number of lives dictated by the recorded continuity stored within the Matrix is the duty of all TimePonies.”

“So you would. In fact that’s what we’ve always done, just sit by and allow unnecessary deaths. I’d also like to add that the event I prevented still occurred. Consult with the records stored in the Matrix if you don’t believe me. Twenty ponies still died that day, I attended every funeral. Despite the reduced count of fatalities, is the greater causal nexus still in place?”

There were a few murmurs between the court recorder and the jury. The recorder pulled up the subsequent records from a terminal in his podium, presenting the results to the judge and jury.

“No. The Provian militia is still formed, even with significantly reduced fatalities.”

“Precisely, the death count isn’t a fixed point in time. Very little changes other than those that are allowed to live their smaller lives. While yes, I made a difference, that difference did not interfere with the greater continuity. Therefore I did not interfere with historical events, and thus didn’t break the law of non-interference.”

More silence as the recorder continued his work and the others thought over her words.

“Very well. All of your other travels fall under this justification, therefore we will be moving on to your other crime: instating an unstable time vessel within the continuity. How do you plead?”

“I…guilty, your honour.”

“You may begin your defence.”

“I wanted to let a friend keep travelling without me. I knew that my crimes would catch up with me and you’d come to collect me eventually. Violet Scatter Prism was the first pony I met on Provia, she opened my eyes to what’s out there. She wants to protect everyone she can, just like us. I wanted to grant her the same privileges that we do in the citadel to continue spreading that good throughout the universe. We can’t just stay out of the fight and observe like we always have. We can’t sacrifice the innocent in fear of harming more. That is all.”

Hedley didn’t expect any sympathy from the small court council. It was hard to believe that at one point she was exactly the same as them, watching over all with little concern for those other than herself. There were quick whispers between the judge and jury as they discussed her verdict. The judge looked to the jury, then the recorder before returning to the podium.

“You are hereby declared guilty for the crime of releasing an unstable vessel and near creation of eternal temporal compression. We’ve taken your statement into consideration and you will be allowed to remain on Provia. However you will be placed on probation and barred from Gallophrey for further notice as punishment. You will be stripped of your name, rank and all titles. Finally you will be forced to forget all knowledge on time capsule construction, maintenance and flight through an enforced regenerative process. This concludes our session.”

The exile she could deal with, but losing everything that made her herself hurt beyond belief. Hedley was shaking in both anger and fear. She couldn’t fight the most powerful race in the universe. All that would be left of her was Prism and her home. The room was already spinning, fading in and out of darkness. She could feel herself falling, a part of the teleportation back into her ship. Back inside the console room was complete chaos as the council established control. The normal whirrs of the engines were closer to nails scratching on a chalkboard. Just as easily as she was swept away she was being sent back.

“Please…I’m not ready. Please just let me say goodbye.”

The TARDIS stopped somewhere on Provia. Hedley’s body started to be enveloped by a golden glow as the process of regeneration started. She unravelled the sherbert colored scarf from around her neck and dropped it onto the floor. The silky white robes she wore started to singe as the glow intensified into a dull flame. One step at a time Hedley made her way out of her ship for the last time. The field around the gazebo was beautiful, sparse but dotted with the same flowers she always loved. Maybe this was the first place she visited, it would be poetic if she came full circle like that.

Hedley was dying, every cell in her body burning as she was being forced to change. She knew that regeneration hurt but holding it back only exacerbated the pain. The sky was mostly clear with the sun setting in the distance. One of Provia’s moons was gone, only one visible as dusk continued to pass. A tear rolled down her cheek as she watched the sunset with her last breaths. She smiled, no longer able to hold it back. The dull flame erupted into a massive burst of golden fire while she collapsed to the ground. Hedley was so tired, barely able to watch the final sliver of the sun dip beneath the horizon.

“Prism… I love you.”

Radiance remembered it all. She felt more whole than ever before, yet so empty at the same time. Tears streamed down her face as the memory link faded away. Parts of the console room were starting to be eaten away by some kind of white mist. Quickly wiping her tears she went to the controls, desperately trying to expel the temporal energy out of her ship. As the misty void touched different objects they warped and changed appearance. The time distortion was still trying to incorporate her and her TARDIS into some form of continuity.

The only problem was that the TARDIS existed outside of space and time, it had no continuity to anchor it to. Her ship was struggling to keep itself together despite Radiance’s efforts. Realising that there was only one course of action, Radiance quickly sent a distress signal back to the Doctor’s TARDIS. With any luck Twilight or one of the Doctors would receive it and hopefully come to her rescue. Then there was nothing, and then there was everything. Radiance was stuck in the void as it did its work. All the while the only thing she could hear was the grandfather clock chiming in reverse.