Midnight at the Crystal Library

by Ninjadeadbeard

Rating: everyone
Tags: Drama, Starswirl the Bearded, Adventure, Equestria Girls, Tempest Shadow, Midnight Sparkle, Main 7 (EqG), My Little Pony: The Movie, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Main 6
Length: 26156

While on a study-vacation in the Crystal Empire, Sunset, Sci-Twi, Starswirl, and Starlight will have to literally confront their past mistakes if Equestria is to survive.

The Library of the Crystal Empire vanished for 1,000 years with the city itself, taking (and ironically preserving) ancient tomes of magic long thought lost to Equestria. Now, in order to protect their own world from Equestrian magic, Sunset Shimmer and the human Twilight Sparkle will plumb the library's depths, accompanied by Starlight Glimmer, Sunburst, and the Great and Powerful Trixie, in order to find the answers they seek.

But soon they are swept up in an experiment conducted by none other than Starswirl the Bearded, who seeks to aid a friend of Equestria, the infamous Tempest Shadow (Fizzlepop Berrytwist) in restoring her broken horn.

One magical ritual, a dose of dimensional-duplicate-insecurities, and a mountain of existential crises later, and... well. Let's just say that Starlight might finally have some company in the "I destroyed Equestria" club.

Part of the Anarchyverse

Published 2019-08-19 04:00:02 UTC
Last updated 2019-08-19 04:00:02 UTC

Chapter 1 - 3:10 to Equestria

A colorful train rumbled across the vast northern plains between the heartlands of Equestria and the border of the Crystal Empire, steam billowing out behind as it went on. Snow lay soft upon the grass, a sign of the growing cold, but the sun held out against the typical chill of this far northern realm.

Thankfully, the train compartments were well-heated and comfortable for its largely pony passengers. Although in the case of one cart in particular, this was not quite an accurate assessment. Of the four ponies who occupied the front seat benches, one was still adjusting to having hooves.

Twilight Sparkle carefully balanced her glasses in between her hooves, fogged the lenses with her breath, and gently rubbed them against her scarf. The fact that her newfound appendages seemed almost perfectly designed to destroy her glasses was not lost on her.

“I still don’t know how you survive without fingers,” she said to her companions. The unicorn to her left, whose mane was a mass of brilliant red and gold, used her horn’s magic to lift the delicate glasses up and settle back onto her companion’s face.

“We manage, somehow,” said Sunset Shimmer. She exchanged a soft smile with her normally human friend. “I’m glad you decided to come with me. I was kinda afraid I’d be stuck doing this research alone… again.”

The light blue unicorn sitting across from Twilight snorted. “Well, that’s rude! You would still have had the Great and POWERFUL Trixie as a companion if this mini-Twilight didn’t want to come.”

Trixie’s own seat-neighbor, a purple unicorn with an aquamarine streak in her mane, nudged her in annoyance.

“Oh,” Trixie allowed a shadow of shame to cross her features, “Sorry. You would also have the Great and Powerful Trixie’s Great and Powerful Assistant, Starlight!”

Starlight rubbed the bridge of her nose with one hoof. Somedays, friendship was such a pain.

“It’s alright,” Twilight said to Starlight, “I get a lot of that. I guess it’s a bit of an ask to not be compared to someone when I’m basically a clone of the person.”

“Minus the wings,” Trixie said.

“What Trixie means,” Starlight said with a snarl and a pointed look, “is that while somepony could make superficial comparisons, you’re clearly your own pony. And it is unfair for others to make those comparisons. Right?” This was directed squarely at Trixie, who finally seemed to feel at least a little uneasy about what she’d said.

“I don’t mind much,” said Twilight, reaching for her saddlebag, “not really. I mean, she’s a magical Princess! It’s probably an honor for people to mistake me for her, right?” She tried to grasp the clasp of her bag with one hoof, then two. Then she reached down and tried to clutch the thing in her teeth.

Trixie smiled, at least a little happy to see Twilight, or a close facsimile, struggle with something so simple. She knew it was petty, but for a moment she didn’t care. It simply worked for her.

Starlight, on the other hoof, used her own magic to open the clasp with a simple telekinetic spell.

“Oh, thanks,” Twilight pulled out an apple, this time with her horn’s magic, and began happily munching away.

Starlight turned to Sunset. “So, what are you hoping to find in the Crystal Empire? I figured the libraries at Ponyville and Canterlot had just about every book on magic ever written.”

“Well,” Sunset gave a stern look towards Trixie that knocked the smile off her face, “the Crystal Empire has its own extensive library system, one that hasn’t really been properly checked out since it came back.”

“This place disappeared for a thousand years, right?”

“Yeah Twilight, and it took all its knowledge and magical secrets with it. Hopefully, there will be something there that can help us stop Equestrian magic from leaking into your world and causing trouble.”

As the four discussed the implications of such important research, on the benches just behind them, a very different sort of discussion was playing out between an orange unicorn stallion in blue robes, and a dog-turned-purple-dragon.

“So… I’m some sort of legendary hero in the Crystal Empire?”

Suburst gave a quizzical look to his small, strangely familiar companion. “Um… kind of? I mean, the other Spike is.”

Spike, enjoying the novelty of standing on his hind legs, responded, “But I am Spike!”

“Not the right…” Sunburst sighed. This was by far the fourth strangest conversation he’d ever been a part of. “Spike the Dragon is wildly beloved by the Crystal Ponies. He’s saved the Empire at least two or three times in as many years, and he’s been instrumental to the city’s general safety and wellbeing just about every time he’s visited. Just… don’t take advantage of that, please.”

Spike nodded, “Don’t worry. I’m only expecting some head-scratches and belly-rubs.” Then, noticing the slightly horrified look on Sunburst’s face, “um… you feeling okay?”

“Just stick with me,” Sunburst said finally, “I’ve been called in for my Crystaller duties, so you’ll get the run of the palace while we’re visiting.”

“Oh, neat,” said Spike, “But, what’s a Crystaller?”

Sunset turned around in her seat, “It’s like a Godparent, Spike. Sunburst is expected to occasionally show up and help with the royal filly, Princess Flurry Heart.”

“That sounds like a lot of responsibility,” Twilight said solemnly, polishing off her apple and re-checking her saddlebag’s clasp.

Trixie laughed. “Well, you’d know!”

“What? What do you mean?” Twilight scrunched her nose in confusion.

A heavy silence filled the compartment.

Starlight said with concern, “N-no pony told you?”

“Told me what- is that…?” She pointed one hoof out the window, and the others followed her gesture with their eyes.

The train rolled into the Crystal Empire’s station with a squeal of brakes and a rush of steam clouds. The cold had finally settled in nicely, with a cozy blanket of snow covering the landscape, while leaving the sky a cloudless blue. The city was just out of view, but the station itself was a vibrant reminder of the city’s style.

It did not escape anypony’s notice that there was a sizeable crowd waiting for them. And as the ponies got off the train, none of them failed to notice who Twilight had pointed to. The whole station was stuffed with Crystal Royal Guards, and at the center of their formation stood the royal couple.

Twilight stepped forward first, utter confusion and awe apparent in her face. “Sh-Shining Armor? Is that you!?”

The powerful white stallion, dressed in his royal uniform, rushed forward to give his little sister a hug. “Twili! Ha! It’s been a while!” As he put her down, Shining blinked, “Did… when did you start wearing glasses?”

Realization dawned for Twilight. “Oh! No, I- “

“Your wings!” Princess Cadence gasped in something like horror, “What’s happened Twilight!?”

Twilight’s eyes snapped back and forth between these two sudden surprises. “Principal Cadenza? And my brother…?”

Sunset and Starlight rushed forward, before this could get out of hoof. “Princess Cadence!” Sunset bowed her head, “Forgive me, but I thought Twilight had sent word about us?”

“Twilight hadn’t mentioned…” Cadence seemed to finally note Sunset’s presence, and for a moment was lost in thought.

“What’s going on here Twilight?” Shining Armor took on an impressively royal tone. “This is all kinds of fishy, and I want to know if something’s wrong.”

“Dear,” Cadence nodded to her husband, then pointed with her horn, “I believe this is Sunset Shimmer. Which would mean that this is not our Twilight Sparkle.”

Shining’s eyes took on a blank look. “What?”

“Sunset was Princess Celestia’s old student,” she added, “who disappeared into a strange, alternate reality, where we all seem to exist as some other sort of creature called a… human? Did I get that right?”

Sunset nodded, while Shining turned back towards the pony who resembled his sister. His eyes roamed up and down the frightfully familiar mare, taking in a dozen tiny differences he was just now seeing.

“So… you’re not Twilight?”

Twilight lowered her head, “N-no. I am Twilight Sparkle, just not your Twilight Sparkle.” Shining Armor nodded, then stepped back to his wife’s side. But for just a moment, Twilight could almost swear she’d seen something in his eyes. Was that recognition? Was it disappointment? Anger?

Well, whatever it was, it didn’t feel all that great.

A flash of green flame burst above their heads, and a scrap of rolled parchment dropped straight onto Cadence’s horn. She quickly pulled it off, opened it, and scanned the contents.

“I see,” she said, her solemn tone betrayed by the whisper of a giggle, “It would seem Twilight fell asleep on the chariot ride to the diplomatic summit and forgot to tell us about your visit.”

The train emptied, with Sunburst and Spike finally joining the others. Guards immediately began filing onto the train, first checking the compartments, then boarding them properly.

“Sunburst!” Shining said with a bit more joy, “and Spike, the Brave and Glorious! Welcome back!”

“I’m a dog!” said Spike, with the sort of joyous exuberance that even Pinkie Pie would be proud of.

“That’s… okay,” Shining decided to just ignore that, and glanced over to Trixie, “Please tell me you’re the real, um, Stacy?”

“Trixie,” she replied in a monotone.

Sunburst bowed to Cadence and Shining Armor. “I came as soon as I received your summons. A diplomatic summit?”

“Yes,” Cadence said, “All of the Princesses are required, but I couldn’t very well drag Flurry Heart all the way to Saddle Arabia. Not with the cold she’s got.”

Starlight looked up, “Nothing serious?”

Cadence smiled, “No, nothing like that. She’s just got the sniffles, and I thought she’d do well staying home. And since our usual foalsitter is unavailable, we decided we couldn’t trust anypony more than you, Sunburst.”

“Well, I’m honored to be so trusted, your Highness.”

“If I might ask,” Starlight said, “what happened to the usual foalsitter?”

Cadence laughed, “Well, she’d hate being called that, but our usual… defender, is with Starswirl the Bearded, in the library. She has a very personal task she’s carrying out now, and the great wizard himself promised to help.”

“Starswirl?” Twilight raised an eyebrow at the name, “He’s real? He’s alive?”

Shining Armor actually smirked slightly, “Okay, you’re definitely not Twilight.”

Sunburst nearly jumped out of his robe, “Oh! Starswirl is here? That’s great!”

“You’re right!” Sunset said excitedly, “He’s the one who created the original portals, and the mirror! If anypony could help us fix the leak, it’s him!”

“Well, it would seem all is ready for you here,” Cadence said with a soft smile, “even if we didn’t exactly mean to. Good luck with your research.”

With that, the Prince and Princess entered the train themselves. Guards parted to allow them in, and the entire remaining retinue emptied from the station seemingly instantly. The train blew its whistle, and began to roll back out of the station. Only a single Pegasus, clad in shining golden armor, remained alongside a small carriage.

“Flash Sentry, at your service!” he saluted sharply.

Sunset and Twilight shared a quick look of surprise. Sunset managed to hold in a giggle, but Twilight didn’t so much as blink.

“Everything alright?” Sunset asked.

Twilight sighed, “Yeah, I just have to wrap my mind around the fact that my old Principal is married to my brother in this world.”

“Oh, yeah. I guess that could be a weird experience.”

As the ponies approached Flash and the filly carriage, Twilight continued in a whispered conversation with Sunset, “I mean, we know there’s some sort of time-dilation between our realities, so does this mean that I know about my brother’s marriage before he does? Am I about to meet my niece before she’s actually born!?” She started breathing in shallow, panicked gasps.

“Twilight!” Sunset stopped and placed a hoof on her friend’s shoulder, “Twilight, don’t worry about it. We’re going to meet Starswirl! If anyone knows how this portal business works, it’ll be him.”

Twilight managed to get her breathing under control, and a bit calmer she said, “Thanks Sunset. I guess this didn’t turn out to be the ideal study-vacation I thought it would be.”

Soft cooing from the carriage drew her attention suddenly. Twilight approached, and laid eyes on Flurry Heart for the first time. The other ponies each watched as Twilight’s worries and concerns seemed to melt off her features. Even Trixie couldn’t bring herself to ruin the moment.

Flurry Heart stared up with her glistening eyes, and for a moment she became concerned. Her face creased, and she seemed to pull back from Twilight.

In a flash, Sunset used her magic to grab Twilight’s glasses and pulled them straight off her head. As she did so, Flurry immediately blinked, and smiled. She reached out her wings and flapped up and into Twilight’s face, giving her aunt a loving hug and a little filly-kiss on the nose.

“That,” Sunburst said quietly, “is the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.”

Spike snorted. “Huh. I do that and you send me outside…”

Author's Note

I always liked the idea of Sci-Twi and Sunset coming back to Equestria for longer than a few minutes. Hopefully, they'll have some fun while they're here.

Commentary:
I always felt that the Equestria Girls series had a ton of potential that they never seemed to tap into. Due to the weird time dilation and alternate universe aspects, I thought it only natural for characters to compare themselves with their mirror-universe counterparts. But the show never went there, and so I thought, “How would Sci-Twi handle being a (supposedly) inferior version of another person?”

So, Twilight here is starting to deal with the fact that everyone seems to compare her to her royal counterpart. Sunset and Starlight are sympathetic, but there’s only so much you can reassure someone before they either accept what you’re saying or never will. And Trixie is just… just the best. As always.

Just adding these notes and commentaries for my own process of deconstructing how I think. Hopefully they’ll entertain a few of you out there.

Chapter 2 - Tempest's Best Day Ever

The Crystal Empire was beautiful today, as it always was, according to Sunburst and Starlight. Twilight felt like her head was on a swivel their entire walk through its wide streets and past gleaming buildings. The shops brimmed with vibrant faces and wondrous goods, and everypony they encountered seemed to have a friendly word or a cheery smile to share.

Though most of that was aimed directly at Spike, who walked alongside Twilight, Sunburst, and Flurry’s carriage.

“And, and did you see that statue!?” he beamed. “It was huge!”

Sunburst sighed and continued pushing the royal princess, “Just remember you’re NOT the creature everypony here thinks you are.”

“Yeah, yeah,” said Spike, waving down Sunburst’s concern with his claws. “But I’m a dog. What can I say? People love me!”

Twilight hardly noticed their passive bickering. She was far too absorbed in her… Princess Twilight’s niece. “You are just too cute!”

“She may seem that way,” Sunburst smiled, “but she can be a real handful. She nearly destroyed the Crystal Empire once.”

“Oh no!” Twilight reached into the carriage and began tickling the young princess her hoof, “There’s no way someone this cute could- “

Flurry Heart’s face twisted up, and then with a sudden flash of lightning she let out a wild sneeze that left a tiny scorch mark on the carriage wall.

“Oh… well alright then…”

Just ahead of them, Trixie and Starlight were also in conversation. As they passed crystal ponies, Trixie would pause to make, in her own words, mysterious and powerful faces towards her fans.

“You’ve performed here before then?” asked Starlight.

Trixie shrugged, “Once or twice, but anypony that sees my show becomes a fan. So why not give everypony the fan-treatment before that?”

Starlight laughed at that. “Well, in any case, I’m glad you came as well.”

“Why?” Trixie said, tossing her mane back, “I may be the Great and Powerful, but you and I both know I’m not the best at this research business.”

“Do I really need an excuse to hang out with my best friend?” Starlight smiled.

“Well,” said Trixie, smirking, “I suppose that’s true. And do you know what best friends do?” she asked with a mischievous glance aside.

Starlight returned a suspicious look she constantly found herself making in these situations. Mostly with Trixie. In fact, always with Trixie.

“Share gossip!” Trixie finished with a wink. “Like, what’s the deal with Sunset and mini-Twilight whenever that guard pony comes up?”

“Oh!” Starlight leaned in close, “There is some juicy gossip there…”

Flash Sentry strode at the head of this motley band, head high and with a certain internal sense of pride and honor that honestly threw Sunset Shimmer for a loop the longer she considered the Pegasus. Where was the gangly, awkward teenager she’d… manipulated into dating her?

“You are definitely not the same Flash I know,” she whispered to herself.

“Excuse me?” Flash said, turning his helmet to look over his shoulder at his charge. “Did you say something?”

“Nothing!” Sunset snapped her mouth shut. Then, thinking better on it, “Um, say… how much about all this were you told?”

“Not sure what you mean, ma’am.” His head swiveled forward again, and he continued as though nothing had happened.

“You know,” she trotted up to his pace, “me and the… different Twilight back there?”

A look came over Flash’s face, though Sunset couldn’t be sure, what with the helmet.

He spared her a sideways glance, “I am aware that she is from another dimension, and that while you’re technically from this one, you’ve been living in her world for many moons. Am I correct?”

“That’s about it.”

“Well,” he returned his eyes to straight ahead, “it’s above my paygrade. I know it happened, and that you were once a priority target on the ‘Known Threats’ list in the barracks.”

His eyes suddenly narrowed, and his head swiveled back in that military fashion he held. He grinned and said in a low snarl, “You know? They never did take down the bounty on you!” Sunset’s face must have been something to behold, a mix of sudden fear and shock, because Flash Sentry almost burst into a fit of laughter at the sight of it.

“You jerk!” she tried to be angry, but in seconds was reduced to fits herself. “Alright, alright. You’re definitely different than my Flash Sentry.”

Regaining composure, Flash said, “Well, thank you ma’am. But there’s no point in comparing yourself to another pony. Even if it’s your alternate universe duplicate.”

Sunset let Flash take the lead again, then quietly threw a thought back to her friend taking up the rear of their column. “I hope Twilight figures that out too.”

Finally reaching the Crystal Empire Library, Twilight tore herself away from playing aunt and trotted up the steps to catch up with Sunset and Flash. The whole group entered together, and with the exception of Flash and Sunburst, all stopped to stare in complete awe at the sheer size of the place. Multiple levels, reached by stairs and ramps, all seemed to blend together into a sight that had Twilight as jittery as Pinkie Pie on a sugar rush.

“This… this is…” she struggled to find the words, “I’ve never… how…?”

“Breathe,” Sunset counseled her.

“How can anyone breathe at a time like this!?” Twilight threw her head back and forth, trying to take in the entire library at once. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen! Like if someone dumped an entire database into one building!”

Trixie walked past the hyperventilating unicorn. “I’m sure that makes sense in your world,” she said as she began perusing some of the books on a low shelf.

Starlight placed a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder, “Calm down Twilight. Remember why we’re here?”

Twilight shook her head, then returned with a chagrined smile. “Right, sorry. I… I’ve always been excitable about knowledge, and magic is such a new field to study…”

“We get it Twilight,” Sunset offered, “and no one blames you.”

A new face suddenly appeared at the top of the nearby stairs, a pink and purple pony of advanced age. She seemed to fly down the steps to the new arrivals.

“I’m sorry!” she said, shaking her head, “but the library is closed!”

Twilight blinked, blinked again, and just before her head exploded, Sunset stepped in front of her friend.

“Sorry,” she called up to the pony, “but we were told by the Princess that we could use the library today!”

The librarian reached the group, “Well, I don’t know about that! We’ve already got some old wizard-type claiming he’s Starswirl up on the third floor with a writ from the Princess, and I’d like to keep everypony away from that mess until he’s gone!”

She stopped, and with one hoof adjusted her spectacles. “Oh my,” she said, “is that Princess Twilight?”

Twilight, cringing, was about to step back when Flash Sentry stepped forward.

“Miss Amethyst Maresbury!” he said with a voice of pure authority, “The Princess Twilight Sparkle has come to aid the Library in its hour of need! Please vacate the premises, for like, an hour or two.”

Amethyst beamed. “Oh, well why didn’t you say so! I’m so glad we have somepony here to keep the peace with that wizard.” She nodded to Twilight, winked, and said, “Nice spectacles, by the way.”

As the librarian shuffled away, Sunset nudged the armor-clad stallion. “Nice work there, Flash.”

“Clearing civilians out of a dangerous area is half my job description. And any place with a wizard and this many spellcasting ponies definitely qualifies.”

Trixie, already sitting at a table and reading, called out, “I like him. Good taste, Sunset!”

A red flush coming over her, Sunset laughed nervously, “Ha ha! Funny, good one Trixie!” she looked back at the other ponies, “Flash, why don’t you, Spike, and Trixie wait here with Flurry Heart while we check with Starswirl?”

Spike and Flash gave suitable salutes as Sunset, Sunburst, Starlight, and Twilight made their way deeper into the library.

Trixie, once they had gone, looked up from her reading.

“Hey, Flash? Did you know this library has its own copies of the latest Daring Do?” She held up the book she had picked.

Flash Sentry stood motionless. Not a muscle moved. Except for the goofiest smile creeping its way across his face.

As the four ponies reached the stairs that would take them up to the third level, the library began to take on a strange vibe. To Twilight, it seemed like the very floor beneath their hooves was vibrating. Even the air took on a coppery flavor, like a storm was just passing overhead. But the sky had been clear, and they were inside besides.

An answer to her musings suddenly came, as coruscating lightning lit up the library’s vaulted ceiling, coming down in a crashing calamity just above their heads. Lightning of blue and green hues tore through the air, only to bank back towards the clear epicenter of magical power; the third floor.

“Something’s going on up there!” Sunset cried through the thunderous blasts of wind and sound.

Sunburst called out, “Everypony stay down! This doesn’t look like any magic I’ve seen!”

Starlight shielded her eyes, but a curious expression slowly took over her face. “I have,” she said to herself. And without a word she bolted for the stairs.

“Starlight!” Twilight charged after her. Within seconds, Sunset and Sunburst followed, all four keeping their heads down as they ran.

At the head of the stairs, Starlight hunkered down to watch as her friends joined her.

The library’s third floor was much like the others, a grand room of impeccable design, filled floor to roof and wall to wall by shelves of tomes and texts, and topped with a vaulted ceiling far overhead. But in this space, all eyes were drawn to the continuous explosion of lightning which roared out of a circle in the middle of the floor. On the closest side of the pillar of magical power, there stood a pale-yellow unicorn with a purple and red-striped mane holding up a gleaming potion with her magic. On the furthest, a tall, imposing grey figure adorned with a peaked hat and robes glittering with golden stars and bells.

Starswirl the Bearded overflowed with magical energies, all directed by his horn into the pillar of light, where the silhouette of another pony could be seen… writhing in agony. As the figure flailed in the air, Starswirl seemed on the verge of collapse himself.

Twilight reached the top of the stairs. She could see the pony being cast upon. “Stop! You’re hurting her!”

“Moondancer!” he managed through gritted teeth, “Now!”

The pale-yellow pony, Moondancer, threw back the potion, downing its contents. Rosy red light flowed from her in an instant, and with a flick of her horn she sent a bolt of light streaming straight into the center of the magical maelstrom. The resulting flash of light enveloped the whole library, filling every nook and cranny, and blinding everypony within.

Twilight ducked her head down and held it there as the light and a wave of rumbling force washed over her. She held on for what felt like a minute straight, before silence returned. When she finally lifted her eyes, she found the light had faded back to the normal library gloom, and that the three ponies at the heart of that magical explosion remained.

As she ran over to see the pony Moondancer, Sunset and Sunburst rushed towards Starswirl. Both lay prone upon the cold crystal floor. Starlight took her time, slowly approaching with the sort of slow, steady steps one might take when walking towards someplace like the Everfree Forest, or the Ghastly Gorge, not a library.

Moondancer slowly came around, and through the fog that enshrouded her head she could just make out the pony who stood over her. “Twilight? Is that you?”

Twilight helped her to her feet, saying, “Uh, not exactly. Wait, not Princess? You know me?”

“Seriously?” Moondancer looked incredulous as she readjusted her spectacles, “you’re really thinking of your title now? What’s going… why are you wearing glasses? Are you mocking me!?”

Before Twilight could say a word, a rustling sound drew their attention to the magic circle. A pile of black clothing lay in the center, a small mound shuffling beneath their mass. Twilight and Moondancer walked towards it cautiously. Sunset and Sunburst had managed to get Starswirl up by this time, but he had no time for platitudes, instead rushing right over to the others. They all met a few feet from one another near the magic circle.

Out from under the clothing, a small, magenta unicorn with a vibrant red mane and a broken horn crawled forward. The filly couldn’t have been much bigger than Flurry Heart, and definitely a touch younger than even the Cutie Mark Crusaders back in Ponyville. She stood, crossed her brilliant green eyes to stare at her horn-stump, and then quickly furrowed her brows in consternation.

“It didn’t work,” she spoke softly, disappointment dripping with every word despite her high-pitched voice. She repeated, “It didn’t work.”

The little filly then seemed to notice something. Not the circle of ponies suddenly appearing around her, but rather something far closer to home.

She shrieked, “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?”

Starswirl merely brushed his beard with one hoof. “Apologies, Tempest. But I did warn you this line of spells carried certain costs.”

Tempest Shadow snarled with a high-pitched crack, “I don’t CARE! Fix it! I’m barely older than Flurry Heart at this point!” Blue lightning crackled from her broken horn, and despite her air of authority and power, even Twilight could see that the emotional vulnerability of a child, a filly in this case, was welling up behind her eyes.

“You will be fine,” Starswirl maintained a calm and cool tone of voice, “you’ll be yourself again in… oh, an hour at most.”

“An hour,” she repeated back, heavy breaths showing how hard she was trying to maintain even a modicum of adult composure. “An hour. Fine. As long as no one sees me like…”

Tempest turned her head sharply, taking in the four newcomers who stood around her. She gaped, and sputtered in abject embarrassment. “How… how did you all… Twilight?” Her eyes lit up, and for a moment, Tempest was a filly again at heart, sheer excitement overwhelmed her.

“Twilight!” she shrieked in pleasure, then instantly retreated back into her aura of adulthood. “I mean, Twilight. Good to... see you?” Little Tempest began scanning the pony before her up and down with a measured, military focus.

Twilight sighed. “I will be so glad when I don’t have to keep correcting people on this. I am not Princess Twilight.”

“It’s true,” Sunset said, stepping forward, “She is Twilight Sparkle, but from another dimension. We came here hoping to do research relating to Equestrian magic causing damage to her world.”

Starswirl’s eyes widened suddenly, “Another dimension? Then… that would make you Sunset Shimmer, if I don’t miss my guess?”

Sunset bowed, “Yes, oh mighty Starswirl the Bearded.”

“No need for that,” he said, raising a hoof, “It’s just Starswirl. Please.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, “It’s just that you’re sort of a big deal.”

A look came over Starswirl, like someone had just poked him in the eye. “I understand. But more importantly, I think I can help you with your problem. Just as soon…”

“As soon,” Tempest grumbled, forelegs crossed petulantly across her chest, “as you help me with MINE.”

A pop, and a short burst of golden light above their heads, heralded a tiny alicorn filly as she swooped down and wrapped Tempest up in a tight and clearly loving hug.

Tempest’s eyes narrowed to mere specks, and her face became as red as a ripe apple. “This,” she gritted, “is the worst day of my life.”

Her apparent, child-like rage went unnoticed by Twilight or Trixe (having just reached the top of the stairs herself in pursuit of Flurry Heart), who seemingly melted at the sight. “So cute!” they both sighed.

Sunburst caught Starswirl’s attention, “Actually, I think I can help with both problems, if what’s going on here is what I think it is.”

As he and Starswirl began to discuss the current goings-on with their research, Starlight kept her peace. She continued to watch the magic circle with a singular focus, her only thoughts being dark and foreboding. For she could only see, even as she gazed at those remarkably familiar runes that ringed the circle, a flat expanse of windswept desert where Equestria should be.

While the hour passed, the ponies broke into their separate clicks. Twilight, Spike, and Moondancer kept watch over Flurry Heart and the slowly growing Tempest, who was now about the size of one of the school-age fillies back in Ponyville, according to Starlight. Starlight herself joined Sunburst, Sunset, and Starswirl in their magical conference by the great stainglass windows. Trixie and Flash Sentry, for their part, were sent to fetch lunch.

Moondancer sat on a beanbag chair procured from the library basement, watching Flurry Heart chase her once-foalsitter around the room with cheers of joy, at least on Flurry’s part. Tempest just seemed to scowl through the whole ordeal.

“And so, when Starswirl the Bearded came asking for an assistant with research experience, I was apparently Celestia’s first choice,” Moondancer was saying, “Um, no offense… oh, I guess that wouldn’t matter to you though.”

Twilight, seated beside Moondancer and similarly watching the fillies play, shook her head. “It’s really okay. I’m not the Princess. I’m… just me.”

Moondancer spent several minutes quietly watching this new Twilight Sparkle. It really was uncanny. Besides the glasses, and the lack of wings, and… maybe something about her mane? She could have been Twilight’s little sister.

“So,” she said slowly, “you’re not Twilight Sparkle, or at least not Princess Twilight Sparkle. You’re a… what again?”

“I’m what’s called a human,” Twilight answered without much effort or tiredness. At least she didn’t have to defend herself again. “It’s hard to explain, but whenever someone takes a trip through the portal that connects our worlds, we seem to change shape to fit.”

Moondancer adjusted her glasses, “Huh, I’ve never heard of that type of phenomenon. I’m… surprised Twilight didn’t share any of that information with me.”

“Are you friends?”

“Heh, you’d think,” Moondancer snorted, then seemed to better of that, “actually, that’s unfair. I was her friend back when she went to Celestia’s Magic School. She kind of forgot about me after she left for Ponyville, but we reconnected a few years back.” She seemed to look Twilight up and down, “It’s weird, by the way, to have this conversation.”

Twilight nodded, “Oh, I get it. I guess I do look an awful lot like her.”

“No,” Moondancer shook her head, “No, I mean, you do, but I guess what I meant to say was that you remind me so much of young Twilight Sparkle. Like, before she left for Ponyville, at least intellectually.”

“What?”

“You got a big brain,” she said, playfully poking Twilight’s forehead with her hoof, “you’re smart, and apparently driven, considering you’ve been dimension-hopping to find answers to your problem.”

Twilight blushed, “Well, thanks.”

“But you’re also different,” Moondancer said.

“Different?” Twilight started, “like, no wings?”

“Well that!” Moondancer laughed, “but… I don’t know. You look and sound like the Twilight I knew before, but the Twilight I used to know didn’t have a clue about real friendship. But when I see you and Flurry, or you and your friend there, it’s like I can just feel it.”

“Huh… I guess I never thought of that,” Twilight said, one hoof on her chin, “I only ever met her twice, and not for very long in either case. She always seemed in control of things. She was so… amazing. Princess-like.”

Moondancer nodded, “Yeah, because she was the Princess of Friendship when you met her. But she took a long path to get there. You, on the other hoof, are a lot further along that road than she was when she was your age.”

Twilight let her mind float along after a few notions. She was so lost in thought that she hardly noticed as Tempest reached her teen years and turned the game around on Flurry Heart and began chasing the filly. Was she on the same path as this world’s Twilight? How could she? They might be similar in so many ways, but their experiences were so different.

Princess Twilight, she reasoned, probably hadn’t become a monster at any point.

As Twilight pondered, so too was Starswirl considering what he’d just heard from Sunset Shimmer.

He sighed heavily. “And once again, my failures come back to haunt me.”

Sunset and Sunburst practically fell over themselves to deny any fault on Starswirl’s part.

“You’re not responsible for the actions of others,” Sunburst said. “You did what you could!”

Sunset followed with, “You couldn’t have known!”

“But that’s just it,” Starswirl said, anger rising in his voice, “I was Starswirl! The great and powerful!” Starlight snickered at this. “I was the wisest, and most powerful wizard in Equestria! It was my job to know better! To be responsible!”

He turned to Sunset directly, “It was I who banished the Sirens to this other world you’ve been living in. All the pain, and misery they caused there is my fault, because I carelessly tossed them through a portal, as if out of sight, out of mind!”

Sunset winced, “Well, if it helps, at least one of the major crisis’s we dealt with was Clover the Clever’s fault for leaving an artifact in our world.”

“Using the spells I taught him,” sighed Starswirl, seeming to sink a bit lower. “With my mirrors and portals, I’ve caused trouble for so many other worlds. And my arrogance was to blame,” he indicated Starlight with a nod, “which I’ve tried working on, thanks to you, Starlight. But even after trying to understand the power and magic of Friendship, I just keep running into failure after failure.”

Starlight, only seeming to hear Starswirl as he nodded to her, finally spoke up. “Starswirl, what exactly were you trying to do with Tempest over there?”

“Oh,” he said, turning to watch a younger Tempest tickling Flurry Heart, “as you may be aware, Fizzlepop, or Tempest, lost her horn to an Ursa Minor as a filly. As a favor to her for helping the crystal ponies these many moons since that whole Storm King business, it was the least I could do to try and help her regain her horn.”

“It looked to me,” Starlight said with some level of trepidation, “like you might have been using Time magic to bring it back.”

Starswirl turned towards Starlight, and gave her a penetrating stare. “Yes, actually. How did you know?”

Starlight held her breath a moment, and then let is out slowly. “It probably didn’t come up at the time, but did Princess Twilight ever tell you why she picked me to be her protégé?” At a glance from Sunset, she hastily added, “Her second one, anyway?”

When Starswirl did not answer, Starlight knew she’d have to explain. And so, she took another deep breath, and began relating her greatest shame, once again.

Tempest was nearing her true age when Starlight finished her tale. Trixe and Flash had returned with hayburgers for all, and while Flurry Heart took her nap, it quickly became a working lunch around a large research table.

“Astonishing,” Starswirl mused, “Truly, astonishing. I could never get that spell to work properly. And you figured it out!”

“Not that I’m particularly proud of that,” she added sadly.

“Be proud!” Starswirl countered with a wave of his hoof. “At least… for the academic side of it all. The petty vengeance is water under the bridge, I think, but the technical accomplishment should still be praised!”

Sunburst was equally impressed. “Wow! I had no idea you knew how that spell worked. And that you could recognize Starswirl’s temporal spells by sight alone? That’s perfect!”

Everypony turned to look at Sunburst as he said this. “Starlight, if you could remember the formula of that completed time spell, I think it could help Starswirl finish his task here!”

Tempest, fully grown and back in her combat gear, gave Sunburst an appraising look. “You… you think you know how to give me back my horn?”

“I think so,” Sunburst took a moment to clean his glasses, “if I’m right, you were using a Temporal Revision Spell in conjunction with Hope’s Disjunction?”

Starswirl nodded, “Correct.”

Sunburst smiled, “Well, if we combine that with the Time Travel spell Starlight fixed as an energy neutralizer, and throw in Clover’s Affiliation Charm, I think- “

“Oh!” Twilight nearly jumped out of her seat, “You’re using Starlight’s spell to counter the inherent instabilities of the Disjunction, and then recreate Tempest’s horn by using Clover’s Charm to copy and attach the original from just after it was lost!”

The whole table, Starswirl especially, stared at the suddenly energetic purple pony.

“I read up on Equestrian magic the night before we took the train,” she explained, not losing a mote of excitement, “it’s a fascinating subject.”

Sunburst coughed, “Um, yes. That’s actually exactly what I was going to do.”

Starswirl considered this for a moment, and then nodded. “It’s a good idea, and not one I would have likely considered. Great job Sunburst. And Twilight?” She smiled and looked straight at the wizard.

“You may just be a princess yourself one day, well done.”

As the rest of the party finished their meal and began excitedly planning out their next step, Twilight sat quietly by herself. She was lost in thought, not knowing what she was feeling at that exact moment, and almost not wanting to know.

Only Starlight noticed her friend withdrawing into herself. Once this business with Tempest was concluded, they needed another talk. But the whole time Starlight chatted with Sunburst and Starswirl about the ritual, she couldn’t help but feel a knot in the pit of her stomach. Time magic wasn’t something she enjoyed thinking about anymore.

Author's Note

As I said before, I like the idea of Sci-Twi and Sunset in Equestria, but I couldn't help but wonder at how Sci-Twi would handle being compared to her alternate self. So expect more of that.

Starlight and Trixie are also fun to write for.

Commentary: So, if this were a real episode, all this is right after the theme song plays (har har). I think the thing I love most about MLP is seeing the various characters interacting with each other. The characters are so well-defined that it's immediately gripping to see them have to hold conversations with one another. So, this chapter was my chance to really try out having such different, conflicting characters hold a conversation.

Things I was really invested in writing: Flash Sentry. For someone/pony who shows up as frequently as he does, they never really did anything with him. The vibe I always got from his teenage, human self was that he was an overall nice guy with a few secret nerdisms. And since the MLP crew appear to be... well, something like a decade or so ahead of their EqG counterparts in most cases, it felt natural to make him older and more confident in himself. This isn't an insecure teenager, but an accomplished adult, and one who gets to wear a different armor color as well.

Trixie. She's just so much fun to write, and having her interact with others is so much fun. She's that reformed villain who never got the hint that she needed to keep heading towards redemption. She's not trying to hurt anyone anymore, and she's okay with that level of progression.

Starlight... oh boy. Starlight and Sunset are my favorite characters simply because of their baggage. And you don't get much more baggage than by almost/successfully murdering the universe. She may very well have a good reason to worry about her meddling with Time.

Filly Tempest: I apologize for nothing.

Chapter 3 - 12 Ponies

The late afternoon sun beamed through the library windows, mixing with the natural crystal walls and structures to create a cozy, warm glow throughout the building. The ponies had cleared a wide area for their next spell attempt, and a large circle had been drawn. Starlight hadn’t said anything yet about her misgivings, but that knot in her stomach was still there.

Twilight and Sunburst organized the spell itself, pouring over several tomes at once while Starlight reluctantly fed them the equations she’d worked out back in her bad old days. Moondancer drew the magic circle while Sunset, Tempest, and Starswirl discussed the casting. Trixie, naturally, sat off to one side to watch while Flash and Spike kept Flurry Heart entertained.

Finally, the moment arrived. It was decided that the four most powerful unicorns would undertake the ritual, which naturally meant that Starswirl, Sunset Shimmer, Starlight Glimmer, and Twilight Sparkle would take up the task. Sunburst nodded his agreement, not really being a great spellcaster himself, but Moondancer took the news with a bit of a huff.

“But, Starswirl,” she said, “I’ve been with you this entire project. Why can’t I help?”

Starswirl placed a sympathetic hoof on her shoulder, “I am not sending you away, Moondancer. It’s just that Starlight is needed to cover her part of the magical equation, and Sunset and Twilight each have a greater reservoir of magical energy we will need for this.” He leaned down to her eye level, then motioned towards the ponies around Flurry Heart. “And I need somepony I trust to protect the others while the spell is active.”

Reassured, Moondancer finally agreed, before moving into position and raising a shield spell to cover Trixie, Flash, Spike, Sunburst, and Flurry.

Starlight knew it was now or never. She couldn’t put into words what she was feeling, but she knew she had to try once more. She approached Starswirl while the others mentally prepped.

“Are you sure about this?” she asked, trying not to let a pleading tone enter her voice. Concern could be shown, but pleading would hurt her cause.

Tempest stepped into the circle, and said with some emotional strain, “Sure as I’ll ever be.”

“As am I,” Starswirl agreed, “your calculations and additions were inspired! Starlight, I can honestly say I trust nopony in all of Equestria with this particular spell.”

She sighed, “Alright. But I want it on record that I have a bad feeling about this.”

Tempest took up a fighting stance. “Noted. Now fire it up!”

Starswirl took up his position under the high windows. Twilight and Sunset took up opposite positions on the left and rightmost sides of the circle. And Starlight, last of all, took up her place across from Starswirl.

“Now,” Starswirl intoned while igniting his horn in brilliant white energy, “Concentrate!”

Starlight, beneath her breath, whispered, “Here goes nothing.”

Starswirl’s white magic burst as it hit the magic circle, creating an aura around Tempest, to which she added her own frenzied and chaotic lighting-like magic from her broken horn. Twilight and Sunset hurled bolts of their own magic, violet and crimson respectively. These filled the white aura with ribbons of new light, causing it to grow in size like a balloon given air. Tempest clearly felt the strain of the magic flow through her, with only a grunt of discomfort breaking her otherwise stoic visage.

Finally, Starlight drew up her own magic, burning a brilliant turquoise. She focused on the time travel spell, with modifications, and allowed her magic aura to shift to a far greener color. She waited, watching as Tempest began to rise in the air. She waited until the orb-like aura of coruscating magic left the library floor, and then launched a truly mighty blast of magical energies directly at Tempest.

Moondancer could feel the weight of all this magic begin to push hard on her shield, as though she were trying to hold up a growing sea. Sunburst, not a particularly gifted mage, threw some of his own magic into the shield, strengthening it just a little bit. Moondancer was happy for the added power, but she still wasn’t sure this would work.

All four unicorns focused their energies on the airborne Tempest, the whirlwind of magic building and building, then collapsing. Slowly, the power focused down to Tempest’s horn, which seemed to burn with the raw power of the sun itself.

“I… I can feel it!” Tempest cried, her voice amplified and echoing through the magic, “It’s… wait… something’s wrong! Stop the ritual!”

Starswirl dropped onto his fore-knees, visible strain contorting his face. “I… I can’t! It’s draining my… magic…” he managed before collapsing entirely, his alabaster magical energy leaving him entirely.

Starlight saw this, and tried to break off her own spell. Nothing happened. Her horn still fired a steady stream of green magical energy into Tempest’s aura.

“No!” she cried, “I knew something would happen!”

Sunset collapsed next, an exasperated cry escaping her as she fell. Twilight held on a few moments longer, before she suddenly broke her connection and hurtled backwards into Moondancer’s shield.

Stop this, Starlight thought desperately, I have to stop this!

She tried shifting the spell, changing targets, forgetting the formula. Nothing stopped it. Nothing could. She knew this was her fault, it had to be!

Tempest gave one final scream of pain, as an explosion of light ripped through the library.

Slowly, through the dull haze of an aching head, she returned to reality. Sound came back first, a low rumbling noise that rippled through her entire frame. Did she fall asleep next to the machines again? Then sight returned, slowly, as she opened her eyes to an alien sight. Instead of the factory floor, or even the depressingly industrialized farmland she knew, she lay on the floor of some sort of… library? A smoky one, to be sure, but a library nonetheless.

“Con-sarn-it,” Applejack muttered as she stood up on shaky legs, “What in tarnation is going on here?” As her head stopped ringing, she noted the smoke in the air was actually dust, still swirling as though a dust-devil had blown through. Visibility was low, but she could make out the other shapes around her, other ponies.

Someone just a few feet away was hacking up a lung, from the sound of it.

“Hey!” she called to the pony silhouette that slowly emerged, “you okay? What the sam hill happened?”

She came nose to nose with the pony, a unicorn.

In a crisp voice, the newcomer snapped, “Who gave you permission to speak to your betters?”

That voice… “Rarity?” Applejack couldn’t believe it! “Is… is that you?”

“Who are you?” Rarity asked, brushing dust from her black dress uniform, “And how do you know my name? Where is your supervisor?”

“Who am… supervisor? Rarity, it’s me! Applejack!” she slapped her chest with a hoof, sending up a small cloud of dust from her overalls, “I know it’s been a while, but ye can’t have forgotten me already!”

A rush of wind whipped up the dust again, and a black-armored Pegasus stepped in between Rarity and Applejack. She removed her helm to reveal a head of rainbow hair buzzed down into a military cut.

“Step back peasant!” she snapped in an authoritative voice, “Earth ponies are not permitted to speak to unicorns unless spoken to!”

“Since when is that a rule!?” Applejack shouted.

“Since for-EVER!” the soldier barked, then snarled, “If you have something to do with this, then the Princess will have your head!”

“Commander Rainbow Dash!” Rarity commanded, “What’s going on here? Report!”

“No idea ma’am,” she reported with a short, crisp salute, “But I’ll figure…” Rainbow Dash paused. Two more figures emerged from the dust cloud as it began to lessen. One was an obnoxiously pink pony covered in some sort of green paint. Odd, but not worthy of too much attention.

The other though, Rainbow Dash hadn’t thought about in years…

“Fl-Fluttershy? Is… is that you?” her eyes visibly glistened.

Rarity and Applejack turned to see the pink pony and her pink-haired Pegasus companion approach, spears at their side, and green body paint covering their forms.

Fluttershy’s eyes narrowed on Rainbow Dash, “Yeah? And who wants to know, CHANGELING?”

“Changeling?” Rarity scoffed, “Darling, there hasn’t been a changeling since Nightmare Moon destroyed their hive, and that was years ago!”

Pinkie Pie thrust a spear into the unicorn’s face. “Which is exactly what a changeling would say! Where’s Zecora? Where did you take us!?”

Applejack finally stepped forward, “Wait, wait! What’s going on here? Where’d…”

Suddenly, the dust cleared as a blast of wind roared through the library. The wind came from a pair of ponies… no, Applejack noted, Alicorns, whose wings drove the dust cloud away. But perhaps, she thought, the dust would have cleared anyway from the terrible, malicious roars of laughter that accompanied them.

The bright red alicorn, whose eyes were a crystal blue in a sea of darkness, and whose wings were black and red batwings, swept her fiery gold and red mane back as she cackled in delight. “Oh, yes!” she grinned from ear to ear, “I can feel it! I’m back in Equestria! But, how?”

The other alicorn reared and laughed, “Ah! Equestria? The source of all that wonderful magic!? This is too perfect- AHHHHHH!” She screamed, staring at her hooves in utter horror. “PONY THINGS!”

“Really?” the red alicorn snorted, “That’s the most disturbing thing you can think of right now? Hang on,” she squinted her demonic eyes at this potential rival, “Twilight Sparkle?”

The purple alicorn settled onto her front hooves, giving Applejack and the others a clear look at her. She was as tall as the red one, but there the similarities ended. This second alicorn was deep-violet in color, with a flair of red and pink in her mane, and black feathery wings of impressive span and size. A burning electric-blue flame crackled around her, creating the image of a pair of glasses over her glowing eyes.

Neither alicorn was particularly friendly looking, thought Applejack.

“That weakling?” the purple alicorn snarled, “I am Midnight Sparkle! The True Princess of Magic!”

“Midnight, eh?” the red alicorn smiled wickedly, “Well, I’m Sunset Shimmer, the future Princess of Equestria. If you think I’m going to stand aside while somepony tries to take my rightful throne, you’ve got another thing coming!”

Rainbow Dash, landing next to Applejack whispered, “Um… does anypony have a clue what’s going on?”

Fluttershy stepped forward, “I… don’t think even Changelings are this elaborate. Something fishy is going on.”

“Hey, guys?” Pinkie Pie pointed past the scowling alicorns to a purple pony with a light green streak in her mane, “does she look like she’s freaking out too?”

This is bad. This is bad. This is the worst thing possible. No, this was worse than the worst thing Starlight had even thought remotely possible!

Starlight quickly rose, trying to draw upon any reserve of strength she had to do so. She swept her eyes about, trying to figure out just what happened. Moondancer’s shield held, and those hiding within it watched the ensuing chaos in shocked horror. At the very least, no one within the shield had been hurt. Small mercies.

She looked for the other ponies that had been part of the ritual. Starswirl lay beneath the windows where he’d begun the casting, and Tempest lay beside him, a light waft of smoke rising from her armor. Both looked… alive. Starlight sighed in relief, at least mentally. To her left and right, Twilight and Sunset both began to get back up as well.

Good. This was good. She could still fix this.

“Contain them!” Starlight cried out to her friends, “We can’t let them leave!”

As the first magical blast hurtled towards the confused and lost ponies, Midnight Sparkle instinctively slapped the blast aside with her own horn, which burned electric blue. The redirected shot struck the floor and sent shards of crystal scattering about the confused ponies.

“Commander Dash!” Rarity cried, “Defend me! I am a servant of Nightmare Moon!”

Military training took over instantly, and Dash threw herself fully through the air towards the attacking unicorn. Starlight managed to throw up a magical shield in time to blunt the hit, but it still pushed her back as Rainbow Dash flew up into the air to recover.

The alicorns turned to one another.

“Truce?” said Sunset.

“For now,” agreed Midnight, and each took off into the air. Midnight threw an undulating blast of magical might towards the unicorn Sunset Shimmer, shattering the floor in a geyser of crystal shards.

Sunset Shimmer, protected by her own shield spell, could only look on in horror. “No,” she whispered, “not again!”

The alicorn Sunset drove at Twilight, throwing gouts of magical energy at the pony. “What’s wrong?” she cackled, “Princess lost her wings!?”

Twilight could do little but leap aside and dodge each blast. She eventually grabbed one of the beanbag chairs she’d sat in before and used her magic to hurl it back at the demonic pony that pursued her. It hit and slowed the monster down, and while it burned to ash, Twilight took the opportunity to concentrate on charging her magic.

Flash Sentry, looking on as the battle ensued, barked at Moondancer, “Lower the shield!”

She complied after only a moment’s hesitation, allowing the armored Pegasus to launch himself at the alicorn Sunset. But as he neared her, and he picked up to a flying ram speed, a rainbow bolt crashed hard into him, sending the Pegasus into a bookshelf that collapsed as he hit.

Flash’s helmet flew off his head, and he was dazed for a moment, but that wouldn’t keep him down. He stood, only to find himself squaring off with a familiar face.

“R-rainbow Dash?” he took in the strange sight of the famous Wonderbolt clad in black military gear.

“Flash Sentry,” she smirked, “funny meeting you again.”

“Rainbow,” Flash held up a hoof to stall a fight he knew would happen. He saw the look of violence in her eyes, “We’re on the same side here…”

She continued to smile, “Yeah, you said that last time. And just like last time,” she cracked her neck and shoulders, “I’m gonna enjoy killing you.”

The other ponies began to join the fray, with Sunburst and Moondancer throwing smaller blasts of magic into the melee. They weren’t really fighters, but buying Sunset, Starlight, and Twilight any amount of distraction was better than nothing. Starlight was now turning her magic against Midnight as well, forcing the dark alicorn to focus on both her and Sunset.

Spike, for his part, dragged Flurry Heart as much as he could away from the fight, trying to get them both behind a bookshelf. Flurry, either enamored of the light show or wanting to join herself, gave him one heck of a time doing just that.

The only conscious pony who had no idea what she was supposed to be doing was, of course, the great and powerful Trixie. From the word ‘go’ she’d been juking and dodging the wild blasts ripping through the library, and with every passing second, she began piling up regrets in her mind. Mostly how she wished she’d never come here, or how she wished she’d paid more attention in magic school, and occasionally that she’d picked a sturdier table to hide behind as she kept leaping from cover to cover.

She skid along the floor as one of alicorn Sunset’s attacks shattered her latest cover, forelegs covering her head and wizard hat. As she came to a halt, Trixie peaked upward at the pony whose hooves she landed at.

“Oh, Pinkie!” she beamed, “It’s you! Help me get out of here!”

But the normally friendly, bubbly Pinkie Pie was not here. Here was a Pinkie covered in paint, with limp, straight hair, and a venomous look in her eyes. She glared down at the magician-pony and said, “Nice try, Changeling! But I saw Trixie get taken away the last time you came after the Resistance. And she was my FRIEND!”

Pinkie raised up her spear, and thrust it hard down at the “changeling”. A blast of blue smoke answered her, blinding Pinkie for a moment. As it cleared, Pinkie coughed and stared at the cracked crystal floor where her spear was embedded, but no Trixie.

“Huh,” she said, “that was pretty good. You do parties?”

Trixie yelled over her shoulder, already a fair distance away, “Trixie has reasonable rates!” She had little enough time to discuss them, however, as Trixie nearly ran directly into a far less friendly-looking-than-she-remembered Fluttershy.

“Please,” she pleaded, “Please tell me you’re not crazy- “

As a hard back-hoof connected with Trixie’s nose and sent the magician soaring backwards into insensate darkness, her last thought before unconsciousness took her was, “Did Fluttershy just HIT ME!?”

An errant blast of magic rocketed towards Applejack, faster than she could counter. She braced for the hit, but it never came. She opened her eyes, and saw a bright light in front of her. A glowing diamond-shaped shield had stopped the blast.

She glanced to her left at the unicorn who’d clearly saved her, “R-rarity, you saved me?”

The purple-maned mare scoffed. “Well, that unicorn seemed to be roping us all together when she said to contain us. Besides,” she watched the battle with a practiced eye, “if you do know me, you clearly have good taste, Darling.”

Applejack took in the fight as well, noting how the alicorn calling herself Sunset was struggling to catch the little purple unicorn, and how Midnight was holding her own against two unicorns at once.

“Whelp,” she said, pulling on her hairnet, “in fer a penny…”

The hardy Earthpony tore across the library floor. She slid up to a desk that had been knocked over, and let her back-hooves give it a solid smack, sending it hurtling up into the air. The desk crashed just above the purple unicorn’s head, dropping a pile of books down on her.

The alicorn Sunset turned and snarled, “I was just about- “

“Go help that Midnight gal, ya idjit!” Applejack shouted back, “I got the filly!”

Sunset sputtered in indignation, but then flew back towards the larger battle brewing behind her. Applejack, meanwhile, trotted up to the unicorn just pulling herself out of the book pile.

“Please,” the unicorn seemed on the verge of tears, “Applejack, please don’t do this. We’re friends! You have to believe me!”

Applejack scowled. “Yeah? You look a lot like an alicorn named Twilight Spackle, or Sparkle, whatever. And you know what?” She advanced, something about all this crystal architecture inspiring a tiny flame of anger in her country heart, “She said the same thing. But I don’t know you, and I find it mighty suspicious that just after she tried to sell me that load of lemons, I get dragged to wherever this is!”

Applejack threw a mighty kick that missed Twilight by inches, shattering the entire bookshelf she’d been standing beside. Wooden splinters and dust were all that remained, raining down on both of them, Applejack standing in fury above her foe.

“No more guff! Tell me what you know!” she growled. But for an instant after she said it, Applejack lost every trace of rage and pain she’d saved up in her heart. All those years of anger at the world, a world at war, fell away as she met Twilight’s eyes… and saw somepony looking back she did not recognize.

For just a moment, as tears streamed down Twilight’s face, Applejack wondered just who she really was.

And this moment ended instantly, as Tempest’s hoof collided with Applejack’s face, sending her hurtling head over hooves across the library floor.

“Come on Twilight!” Tempest’s blood was hot, and a look of warrior frenzy was upon her, “We got this!”

Midnight Sparkle, flying besides the alicorn Sunset, and battling the other Sunset, Moonbeam, Sunburst, and an actually competent wizard in Starlight, stopped consciously fighting back. She let other processes take over, relying on her raw magical might to hold them at bay. She wasn’t just magic-personified; Midnight had all the brain-power as that weak child Twilight Sparkle, and then some.

She began doing math. She began doing a lot of things, and very quickly. She started by calculating the amount of magic she personally had access to, as well as rough guesstimates on alicorn Sunset’s probable power, and whatever limited force she could get out of the other ponies that had appeared alongside herself.

Then, Midnight Sparkle started putting that up against the power arrayed against her. The results… were becoming unfavorable. As titanic lightning-like blasts began crashing against her shields, she recognized that the broken-horn unicorn was a serious factor she’d missed. Adding her power? And what of the old stallion? He was starting to get up himself.

Starswirl, though clearly exhausted, froze Pinkie Pie with a simple spell, just as she was about to crash into him at full speed. With a simple flick of his horn, he sent her spiraling through the air, only to be caught by Rainbow Dash as she flew past. Flash Sentry followed, harrying her, even though it looked like he was on the verge of physical collapse. Rarity had fallen back, giving Fluttershy a shield, but unable to strike back as the unicorns cornered their party.

The math panned out. This was a losing fight. Midnight hadn’t come so far, stolen so much power from those fools at Canterlot High to give up now. There had to be a play here, a winning move, if she could only find the right equation…

Through the din and thunder of combat, a sound reached Midnight’s senses. The sound of a baby laughing.

“No!” Spike struggled to keep Flurry Heart down behind the ruins of a bookshelf, “Come on little baby! Stay down! This isn’t a good place anymore!”

That was it, the answer to Midnight’s problem. With a blast of neon light, Midnight Sparkle closed the distance instantly, reappearing next to the little dragonling and the tiny, baby alicorn.

“This battle is over!” she cried, holding Flurry aloft in a bubble of her power. “One more move, and I can’t promise what will happen to the baby!”

Everypony stopped dead in their tracks. The alicorn Sunset landed besides her allied ponies, quickly gathering in the center of the room. The other ponies held their ground, but their faces were masks of fear and anger. Most deliciously, for Midnight at least, was the look on Twilight Sparkle’s. Pure and impotent fury, mixed with utter despair.

She began walking towards her allies, the child held close. “If anyone wants to bring harm to this baby,” she laughed, “by all means, attack me.”

Nopony moved a muscle as she reached her allies. And with a triumphant cackle, she allowed a wave of magic to rush out from her. Midnight Sparkle, the alicorn Sunset, and the five ponies they’d appeared with, vanished in a flash of light.

Author's Note

Alternative Title: Time and Time Again.

Do. Not. Mess. With. Time Magic.

Okay. Cards on the table: I was so worried about writing a battle scene. I'm happy with how it turned out, but it was a nerve-wracking experience to plan, stage, and execute. Battles are, by their nature, a bit chaotic. And so trying to logically describe an event that takes seconds to resolve but can cover so much information is daunting!

I wanted to know what happened to those lost timelines, you understand? It never sat well with me that they simply vanished, and so getting to dredge up the true extent of Starlight's greatest mistake was a major driving force. Not to mention, my favorite part of any time-travel or dimension-traveling adventure story is the part where characters have to explain themselves to each other, so having a time-displaced Mane 7 was like a wonderful dream come true!

Finally, Midnight Sparkle. HOO BOY! She's a piece of work, ain't she? Like a dinosaur-killing asteroid, she showed up very briefly and left a huge impact in EqG. An Evil Twilight Sparkle should be a pretty terrifying thing, considering how ridiculously powerful our favorite purple princess can be when she decides to stop holding herself back. And Midnight was seconds away from being a true multiversal apocalypse back in her canon premier, with a direct, obsessive connection to Magic itself. I just wish we got to see her cut loose sometime.

Oh... I guess there's a few more chapters...

Chapter 4 - The Midnight Sparkle Affair

Trixie slowly picked her head off the cold floor where Fluttershy had left it, the imagery of spinning stars still swimming in her vision. She felt like her head had been pulled from a Manticore’s jaws… again. As sounds began to sound like sounds again, instead of piercing needles in her brain, Trixie tried her best to listen to them.

“What!? What was that!?” Sunburst screamed, panic practically coming off him in waves. Starlight was muttering something like, “My fault, my fault,” over and over again. The hornless unicorn (Trixie liked her a lot) was also yelling something at Starbeard, or Swirlybee.

Trixie was beginning to think she wasn’t doing so well. She started looking for a soft beanbag chair to drop into.

While Trixie staggered around like Rainbow Dash after a keg of cider, the other ponies were indeed in a bind. More than that, they were falling apart at the seams. Spike sat in the rubble of the bookshelf he’d tried hiding behind, his eyes spilling tears into his claws without sound. Starlight stood still, eyes just watching the spot from which the intruders had left. Sunset was helping Twilight stay up, providing physical and emotional support to the, she often forgot, younger mare.

Moondancer was busy patching up Flash Sentry, while Sunburst’s previous outburst was clearly being directed at Starswirl himself.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Starswirl stated matter-of-factly.

Tempest nearly jumped at him as he said that, “You’re the big-time wizard here! Isn’t this your job!?” She took a deep breath and tried to turn away, but ended up with her face back in his. “And what about Flurry Heart!?”

Sunset stepped in, “That was clearly a teleportation spell. Those things don’t have an incredible range, so she’s most likely still in the Crystal Empire.”

“Oh, fantastic!” Tempest wheeled around to the other pony, “So she’s just somewhere lost in a huge city with a half dozen or so crazy psychopaths! Great. Also, WHAT WAS THAT!?”

Starlight finally shook the haze that had crept over her since the princess vanished. She sighed, then walked towards the middle of the group of arguing ponies.

“Guys, it’s my fault,” she said softly, and without energy. The ponies stopped talking and turned their attention to Starlight, who continued, “I knew something like this would happen. Time doesn’t like it when we mess with it. It’s like a tree branch you pull back; once you let go, it snaps.”

Sunburst adjusted his glasses, “But… that doesn’t make sense. Time’s just a force, isn’t it? It can’t want things. It can’t desire anything, much less revenge!”

“No,” Starswirl said, looking straight at Starlight, “I see what you mean. You’re thinking that your previous… experience with time magic might have affected our spell?”

“Time sticks to us,” Starlight said, “it… it felt like when I cast my part of the spell that all the extra ‘Time’ I had built up snapped back and… I don’t know. Dragged some of my past experiences back up with it.”

Tempest snorted, “Extra time?”

“My original spell,” Starlight explained, a touch more animated as the subject changed to theoretical spellwork, “it was meant to drag me back to the same moment whenever Twilight Sparkle tried to reverse my changes. I think we must have done that over a dozen times…”

“A dozen!?” Starswirl blanched. “You made over a dozen trips through time? I myself only ever attempted it twice!”

Sunbrust shook his head, “What, really?”

The elderly wizard nodded and stroked his chin. “My beard used to be black, you know. Hmmm…” he began to pace around the former location of the magic circle, “So much chronological inertia would certainly… but then the Affiliation spell… Aha!”

He spun in place to face the ponies. “Because of your repeated timeline-splitting, Starlight, when you added your magic to the spell, it must have dragged some of those loose threads along with our own! Those ponies, were the Elements of Harmony from the timelines you created!”

She hung her head again, “I was afraid of that. They all looked like how Twilight described her friends in those other timelines I created. But, Midnight Sparkle? That… demonic Sunset Shimmer? I’ve never seen those before!”

It was Sunset’s turn to sigh. “Ah, that might be because of us.”

“When I first met Sunset and my other friends at Canterlot High,” Twilight said, sitting down as she did so, “I… more or less stole all their magic and transformed into… that. A magic-hungry monster.”

“And,” Sunset hesitated, “back when I wanted to topple Celestia and rule Equestria, I might have stolen Twilight’s crown and used its magic to become that… thing.” She gave an embarrassed, and ultimately half-hearted, chuckle. Nopony else laughed.

Moondancer and Flash Sentry approached, with Moondancer asking, “So the spell restored ponies from erased timelines and from your two personal pasts? Then, what did it take from Starswirl?”

“My part of the spell created the bridge in the first place,” he said with a tiredness that hadn’t been there before, “so, we are all to blame in our own ways.”

Trixie finally stood back up. “Tho,” she said through a mouth with a noticeable chipped tooth, “to thummarithe, a bunch of copieth of Twilight, Thunthet, and their friendth are running around, and they’ve fillynapped the Printhethth?”

Twilight shook her head, “It’th- I mean, it’s not that simple. There’s a delicate balance between dimensions. My being here is fine because we’ve been careful to keep our own dimensional travel relatively rare, but I’ve done calculations on this sort of thing, and I’m not sure how many such travelers this world can take before it starts to break down!”

Everypony, save for Starswirl, gasped at this.

In the audible silence of this pronouncement, Flash Sentry turned to look at Twilight. “Well, then what do we do?”

Twilight stared back for a moment, then swung her head over to Sunset, who was also staring. And then to Starlight, then Starswirl, and finally over to Trixie. All were staring right at her.

“Why are you all staring at me like that?”

“Becauthe,” said the great and powerful Trixie, “whenever thomething like thith happenth, we alwayth go to Twilight to fix it. Even a dithcount Twilight ith better than no Twilight!”

And at that moment, Starlight deeply regretted bringing Trixie along for this vacation.

All the attention. All the stares. The hope in their eyes was the most concerning thing about the stares. Well, no, Twilight thought. It was the calculation. The invisible one plus one and two plus two she could almost see going on behind their eyes.

She wasn’t the princess. Surely, they could see that? Surely, they didn’t think that she, Twilight Sparkle, had all the answers? All the time? But they did. They always looked at her and wondered why couldn’t she measure up. Her, or rather the Princess’ brother, then the Princess Cadence, Starswirl…

Starlight had said time was like a tree branch. Twilight knew better. She was the tree branch, and Trixie, the great and powerful Trixie, was the final, overfed sparrow that made the branch SNAP.

“I…” Twilight breathed through her nose, “am NOT! PRINCESS! TWILIGHT SPARKLE!”

The sudden explosion of pent up rage took everypony aback.

“Why does EVERYONE think that just because I look like her, I can possibly measure up to the PERFECT AND WONDERFUL TWILIGHT SPARKLE!? Well, I’M NOT HER! If I was, this would never have happened!

“If Twilight Sparkle, the REAL TWILIGHT SPARKLE, was here, she would have noticed the problem with the spell before we cast it! Or she would have had the power, and the cool, and THE CALM! To stop those ponies from KIDNAPPING HER NIECE!”

Sunset, tears beginning to well up in her eyes, said softly, “Twi, hey, it’s okay…”

“NO!” Twilight snapped back, tears streaming down her face like a fountain, “It’s NOT OKAY! Because if Twilight Sparkle were here, there wouldn’t have BEEN a Midnight Sparkle to kidnap her niece or destroy the library or HURT HER FRIENDS! Because Twilight Sparkle doesn’t make mistakes! She’s never become a MONSTER! And she’s NEVER HURT HER FRIENDS!”

She hit the floor hard, sobs wracking her, hooves covering her face from the shame. As she lay there, nopony could form the words to say anything. What could be said?

But in those heavy seconds, as the silence of the library reigned, a single pony finally found the words, or the next best thing. With sharp, echoing steps from her hard, military boots, Tempest strode forward. All eyes were on her as she stood before the crumbling Twilight, standing like a lightning rod, an unshakeable pillar.

Tempest sat down. She reached out her forelegs, and with almost motherlike care she scooped Twilight up into a hard, deep hug. The younger mare wrapped her forelegs around the elder, and pressed her face into the welcoming shoulder. After a few silent, intimate moments, Tempest stood up, and pulled Twilight Sparkle up with her.

Tempest gave Twilight an appraising look and said, “You are not Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight just stared up at her.

“But neither am I,” Tempest smiled, “and neither is anypony else. No one should ever have to compare themselves to another, especially not the princess.”

“I don’t understand,” Twilight said, almost at a whisper.

“Do you really think,” said Tempest, leaning in conspiratorially, “that you’re the only one here, especially in this room, who keeps comparing themselves to Twilight? And comes up wanting?”

Sunset stepped forward. “Twilight, before we met, I was… completely evil,” a smile crossed both their faces at that, “I wanted to overthrow the only motherfigure I ever had because I felt like she owed it to me. And I enslaved a school full of children to try and pull it off!”

“And… she forgave you,” said Twilight, rubbing away a tear from her cheek.

“Well, yeah,” said Sunset, “after she beat me down.”

Tempest nodded. “I conquered her homeland, turned her sister-in-law and both her teachers to stone, and handed over her magic to a psychotic satyr. She still forgave me,” she chuckled, like remembering a schoolyard prank gone wrong, “She even recommended me to her sister-in-law as a guard.”

“And, not that I really need to lay out my shame again today,” Starlight averted her eyes as she said this, “but I did actually succeed in destroying not just Twilight’s friendships, but also Equestria itself… which I regret!” she added, helpfully.

Trixie grinned, revealing her chipped tooth again, “Well, when you put it that way, the wortht I ever did was kick her butt in a magic contetht and maybe getting carried away talking about how awthome I am.”

Finally, Starswirl spoke. “Twilight Sparkle, I think what we are trying to say is, we’re sorry,” he bowed, flourishing his hat as he did so. “I should have made it clear: we were never comparing you to the Princess. She’s a force of nature! All of us compare ourselves to her brilliance and to her unending capacity for love and forgiveness.

“But,” he lifted the mare’s chin with one hoof and looked down with kindness, “that doesn’t mean we think less of you.”

Twilight stepped back, and turned away from the assembled ponies. She walked over to the last spot Midnight had stood mere minutes ago. The others could see her wipe away the last of her tears, and then lift her glasses from her face with a soft, purple light of her magic. She quickly cleaned the lenses, and set them back.

“Well, that’s a good thing,” she said, and spun around to face her friends, “because I do in fact have an idea!”

Deep in the darkness below the Crystal Empire, a network of caverns long, long forgotten by the ponies above played host to a motley crew. After the initial flare of electric blue fire, the two alicorns and Rarity were the only ponies providing light with their horns.

“Oh dear,” Rarity bemoaned as she glanced about the dirt-swept cavern walls, “where in Equestria are we now!?”

Pinkie Pie glanced about. “Looks like a lava tunnel. My sister told me all about them. You can tell by the speleothems. This was probably formed before even Sombra- “

“Enough!” Midnight Sparkle shouted, her magically infused voice echoing in the depths. “I don’t care about what made the caves, just that no one else knows about them!”

“Oh,” Pinkie frowned, “Yeah, I don’t think anyone’s been around here in a loooong time.”

Sunset Shimmer, not about to let some new girl take her place, rounded on the alicorn. “So how exactly did you know these were here?”

Midnight sniffed, “Because, I could sense it.” She glanced back to Flurry Heart, still drifting behind her. “You could do it too, if you were as magically attuned as I am.”

“Know what?” Sunset snarled, “I think our truce is over. So how about we settle this now?”

Before the alicorns decided to turn the entire tunnel system into their personal rumble cage, Applejack knew she had to say something.

“Uh, but don’t either of you think it’s weird us all being brought here? Like, what could have done that?”

Both gave the earth pony narrowed looks, alternating between anger at the interruption, and curiosity at their predicament. Still, it was worth consideration, and so both alicorns stepped away from one another.

Midnight Sparkle took a moment to pace. Sunset just scrunched her eyes up and seemed to be having an attack of some sort. Applejack considered herself a good reader of ponies, and she could tell that Sunset was definitely not a thinker. But that Midnight… well, she was worried about how quick that gal was probably crunching numbers in her head. Power and intelligence sounded like a scary combination. Like Big Mac and a bushel of snakes, sort of scary.

After another moment, Midnight turned, and announced, “I have it!” She flattened a… whatever that Pinkie girl called them, the pointy rocks, with a casual wave of her horn, and leapt atop it like a stage.

She continued, “From my incredible magical insight I can deduce that we have each been torn from our own worlds and deposited here by a magic spell!”

A moment of quiet followed the pronouncement.

Fluttershy frowned. “Well, that was obvious.”

Midnight glared, and said slowly, “The spellcasting pony back up there was trying to ‘contain’ us. She was messing with Time itself, and it seems we were unmoored from our timelines by her experimentation!”

Sunset raised an eyebrow, “You could tell all this? From the, what, minute or so we had before they started attacking us?”

“Of course,” the imperious alicorn raised her chin up, “I’m good at what I do.”

“Well,” Rainbow Dash said, uncomfortably sitting atop a rock, “we can’t stay in this world! And I don’t like the way that pony said ‘contain’. I need to report back to my Princess.”

“And you shall!” Midnight filled the cavern with light from her horn. “These tunnels… I can feel them and where they go. We can follow them out and reach the city above. And from there…”

“Yes?” Sunset wasn’t about to lose the initiative to this one, no matter how smart she might be, “And then what? We’re trapped in a world that’s not our own, in a land that none of us know. What’s your plan?”

Midnight chuckled softly, covering her mouth with a hoof. She seemed… somewhat taken aback to see her own hoof, but recovered quickly.

“My dear Sunset, it’s so simple! Can’t you feel that? The sheer weight of magic that lays at the city’s center?”

Something in Applejack’s memory jumped, like Midnight’s words bit it.

“Wait,” she said slowly, “are you talking about the Crystal Heart?”

“Is that what they call it?” Midnight’s face was terrifying, like a hungry beast hearing a dinner bell.

Applejack pieced the memory together, slowly letting it out as she did. “The… the Crystal Heart was always a rumor… a legend. In my world, they said it was a black magic crystal, and the source of King Sombra’s powers.”

“Darling,” Rarity laughed, “The Crystal Heart is a magical artifact, but it isn’t evil. It’s supposed to be quite lovely.”

“And how do you know that?”

Rainbow Dash said with smug satisfaction, “When Sombra surrendered to Nightmare Moon, who do you think helped drag it to her palace and lock it up?”

“Regardless!” Midnight snapped, “It is an artifact of incredible power! With such magical might under my command, I could send you all back to your homes. Perhaps, I could even help each of you with your problems.”

Rarity took her turn to raise an eyebrow. “And… what problem do you think we have?”

Midnight shrugged, “Well, I offered. Take my help or not, but since I am the only way you’re getting home, I suggest you fall in line!”

The five regular ponies exchanged glances. None of them were happy with the situation. But if it meant going home…

Fluttershy broke the contemplative moment. “So, how do you plan on stealing such an important artifact out from under these crystal ponies’ noses? It’s probably as well-guarded as Queen Chrysalis’s own crown.”

“They have what we want,” Sunset stepped up to the yellow pegasus and glared down at her, “and we have what they want.” She pointed back to Flurry Heart, still floating, still cooing gently.

Nopony said a word, but one by one they nodded assent to Midnight, even Sunset, who was the only pony to smile amongst them.

Midnight laughed a low and terrible laugh. “Very well then. Let us go! Oh, and Pink one?”

“Yeah?”

“Hold onto this for us,” Midnight said as she used her magic to toss the baby at Pinkie. With quick reflexes, she caught the filly, and shot a look at Midnight she hoped conveyed how annoyed she was.

Midnight led the way, with Sunset following close, and the rest bringing up the rear. At the very back of the train of ponies, Pinkie trailed with Flurry.

“Alright kid,” she began, giving Flurry Heart her best impression of Fluttershy’s ‘stare’. “I want you to know there’ll be no funny business. No goofing off. I’m your warden, not your foalsitter. And you… are…”

Flurry Heart’s own stare was… strange. It was almost like the little filly recognized Pinkie. And she simply beamed raw love and understanding from her deep, pool-like eyes. It was like falling into an ocean of cuteness and… and…

Pinkie Pie, a pony who had lived for the past decade on the run from shapeshifting monsters, a pony who’d seen friends and… family stolen and replaced, who had been fighting a guerrilla war her entire life, who never had time for fun, or joy, or love…

Found it.

And as the convoy continued down the tunnels towards their rendezvous with destiny, Pinkie Pie found her hair sticking up and frizzing out like it never had before, and a certain spring to her step she’d never before experienced… but liked anyway!

“So, we know the plan?” Twilight finished with a triumphant flourish.

All the ponies around her nodded. Each knew what was to be expected of them.

Twilight continued, “Midnight Sparkle will be drawn to the Crystal Heart. She… when I was her, I was obsessed with magic. Finding it, learning about it, consuming it. She can’t resist.”

“And once they reveal themselves,” Starswirl said, “Sunburst and I will cast our counterspell to send them back through the portal to their own worlds.”

Sunburst added, helpfully, “Once we… create the counterspell.”

Spike hopped up onto Twilight’s back. “And the rest of us will buy you that time!”

Flash Sentry, helmet back on and wings prepped, said, “I’ll round up whatever guard units are still in the city! Can’t let the empire get conquered again without a fight!” and took off with gusto.

Tempest smiled, ruefully, “This place could do with a few siege walls.”

“We got this Twilight,” Sunset Shimmer held out a hoof. Each of the remaining ponies, and Spike, placed theirs into the circle. And with a cry, they threw their hooves into the air, and set about their paths towards destiny.

“To the Heart!”

Author's Note

Boy, is Pinkie's hair expressive or what? You can always tell what's going on with her by how frizzy her hair is. Just check out The Cutie Re-Mark bits where she shows up in the bad timelines. Straight hair. Wonderful!

Aaaand here it is. The emotional drop after the action-packed battle. The calm before the storm. Gotta say, I was really worried about getting Twilight's crisis just right. She's felt like an impostor in her own life for a while now, having to walk in the Princess's shadow. And, to be fair, she hasn't measured up. Whereas Princess Twilight has saved the world nearly a dozen times by this point, Sci-Twi has actually been the world-ending threat on one occasion. She's spent the majority of this story thus far trying to match a force of nature, and it finally got to her.

Good thing she's got all these other ponies around her who know how she feels. I think it's often a subtle thing in the show itself just how amazing Twilight is, considering what she's gone up against, what she's accomplished, and how she did it. It makes so much sense to see a bunch of her former rivals and enemies come together and admit, "Yeah, I thought I was cool. But then Twilight Sparkle not only beat me up, but she made me better." Twilight has this odd, Season 1 Celestia quality, where ponies just believe in her completely, and I wanted to see how the characters of this story handled that relationship.

Chapter 5 - Showdown at the Crystal Heart

At the very edge of the Crystal Empire, just after leaving the city and just before reaching the edge of arctic winter, many of the Crystal Ponies had taken up a bit of horticulture. Small gardens littered the ground, filling the landscape with a dazzling display of beautiful flowers and vibrant vegetables. But even some standbys and more ordinary fare could be found here, such as at the humble cabbage patch of one Jam Sea.

The older, light-brown earth stallion was wiping his forehead with his favorite green rag as the sun was beginning to lower in the sky. A long, hard day of weeding had left his cabbage garden looking absolutely stunning. He smiled with the tired, fulfilling sensation of a job well done, when he began to feel a rumble from beneath his hooves.

“Earthquake?” he mused to himself. He’d never felt one in the Crystal Empire before.

Jam did not have time to muse at all, as the earth around his garden began to jump and heave. He looked about in a panic as the cabbage patch began to bowl out and up, and then with a sudden explosive force the entire garden rocketed itself into the air. Bits of cabbage and dirt clods rained down around the hapless pony.

“My cabbages!” he cried out, falling to his knees.

But a new sight, just as surprising and unwelcome, emerged from the gaping hole that was once Jam’s prize cabbage garden. A pair of truly terrifying… alicorns? Oh my, alicorns, marched straight out of the hole and stomped through the ruins of Jam’s garden. And following them appeared to be the Elements of Harmony themselves, though a bit more disheveled since the last time they’d visited the empire. The last of them, the pink party one, bounced out of the hole carrying what almost looked like the princess Flurry Heart.

As the strange group passed him by, Jam sighed.

“Oh,” he said more to himself than anypony else, “We’re being invaded again.”

When they stopped to get their bearings at the top of a low hill, and adjust to the sunlight, two ponies in particular were taking in the sight of something other than the moon hanging in the sky.

“It’s…” Rainbow Dash was searching for the right words, “it’s so weird to see the sun again. After so long.”

Rarity nodded, she also drinking in the sight of a world beneath a sun, even a setting sun. “It really is as gorgeous as I remember. The sun, I mean. I’ve never seen the Crystal Empire…” her gaze lowered to the city itself. The way the spires caught the setting sun, the way the colors blended into one another without clashing, the way the great tower rose over all like a beacon of beauty in a cold world…

“It’s so… beautiful,” she whispered.

That wasn’t how Applejack would describe it. As she looked out over the city, she began constructing a mental image. Over there, where the confectionary shops stood, would make an ideal supply depot. One of those public parks was probably also good for military drills. Far away, at the base of Sombra’s palace, Applejack began measuring how many solid kicks would it take to break one of those support beams. Would probably need a whole siege unit to make a dent.

“It is beautiful,” she agreed. And it was. Crystal ponies were sharing cupcakes and treats at that confection store. She could see fillies playing in the park. There wasn’t a lick of Sombra’s foul presence anywhere, and it made ignoring the memory of that Twilight alicorn even harder.

Midnight Sparkle, on the other hand, had apparently decided enough was enough. “Come,” she said, “Our destiny, and your homes, await!”

The alicorns took the lead, followed by Applejack and Rarity, with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy scouting above, and Pinkie bringing up the baby princess from behind.

As they marched down the boulevards and crystalline streets, Sunset Shimmer kept pace with Midnight.

“So,” she said at just above a whisper, “I take it you don’t know how to send these… ponies back to their homes?”

“Not yet,” answered Midnight, her eyes never leaving the horizon, “but then, should I care?” She stopped a moment, just long enough to blow back an armored earth pony charging out of an alleyway towards them. He went tumbling backwards, encased in fiery blue magic, through a wall, and did not rise again.

Sunset chuckled, “No, not really. This is where I wanted to go anyway, or just about.” She threw her demonic grin about as the group began passing by scared and panicking crystal ponies, “And I don’t care much for pawns.”

Midnight glanced to her companion, “Then we are of one mind?”

“I’ll help you take this Crystal Heart,” said Sunset, “and then you help me destroy Celestia.”

“I have no idea who that is.”

Sunset nodded, “Another alicorn princess. One who owns an entire library of secret magic.”

This, definitely, had Midnight’s attention. “Oh really? And… what happens then? When I have all the magic I want, and you have your throne?”

“Well,” Sunset paused to launch a bolt of magic up into the air, striking down three armored pegasi who had taken that moment to divebomb the approaching party, “it’s always been an Equestrian tradition to have two alicorn princesses ruling the land.” Three armored pegasi crumpled as they hit the street.

“I do enjoy a good partnership…”

Applejack couldn’t quite make out what the alicorns were saying to each other, but she didn’t like the vibe she was getting from them. She was reminded of the story about a pony who carried a snake across a river. Stories never ended well, she figured.

“So,” Rarity said with an unfamiliar amount of doubt in her voice, “you say your name is Applejack?”

Applejack looked to the pony at her side. “Yeah? You suddenly remember me?”

Rarity didn’t meet her eyes. “No, of course not! But…” she casually threw up one of her diamond shields just in time to block a bit of rubble thrown up by the alicorns’ blasting, “but I seem to recall, back in my filly days, knowing a few of the earth ponies in town. One of them may have been from that Apple ranch or farm, or whatever.”

“Oh, well I’m glad some version of you‘n me apparently bumped into each other once.” The mild annoyance in Applejack’s response was clear.

The unicorn seemed, shocked? Maybe just surprised that one of the ‘lower orders’ dared talk back to her?

“That’s not… darling, what is that thing on your head?”

“What thing?” Applejack felt the top of her head. “My hairnet? I gotta wear it in the factory.”

“But we’re not in the factory,” Rarity kept looking at the top of Applejack’s mane like it was going to bite her, “And besides, what happened to your hat?”

“I haven’t worn a hat in… HA!” Applejack pointed triumphantly in Rarity’s face, “You DO know an Applejack!”

“Oh fine!” she huffed, “I used to know a pony just like you. But under Nightmare Moon, fraternizing between different groups of ponies is forbidden, so I haven’t actually seen my Applejack in years.”

Applejack frowned, “Well, that’s just silly! If there’s one thing the war against Sombra’s taught me, it’s that everypony working together is better than any one of us working apart!”

“That’s the point, darling. If everypony joined together against Nightmare Moon, we might actually stand a chance against her… oh, to hay with this!”

Applejack was completely blindsided by a sudden barrage of combs and brushes. “What the- hey! What’re you-?”

“Just hold still!” Rarity swept her mane tools about via her magic with the practiced eye of a professional, “and… there! Done!”

Applejack opened her eyes, and started shaking her head. She naturally couldn’t see her own head, but just what she could see astonished her. Her hairnet was gone, replaced with a golden mane she’d nearly forgotten about. It was tied back in a poofy tail that swung around her neck like it was always meant to be. It was almost like back when she was a filly…

“Oh, wow!” was all she could manage, “it’s… it’s just like before…”

Rarity let the pride shine from her face. “I always did want to get into styling, darling. Maybe open a boutique… it was a dream I had as a filly.” She leveled a smirk at her old friend, “Besides, if you’re going to overthrow a government, you might as well look fabulous while doing so!”

Up above the procession of violence, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy maintained their scouting flight, despite the fact that anything and everypony who came in range of those alicorns were getting smacked down long before either Pegasus could have reasonably intercepted. It left a lot of time to talk.

Which Dash was blowing.

“So…” she began, “Fluttershy…”

“Yes, that’s my name,” the pink-haired Pegasus replied without inflection or emotion.

Dash winced. What was up with this Fluttershy? “Um… how’ve things been going with you?”

Fluttershy maintained her flight path like a pro while she turned her eyes, eyes devoid of the kindness and timidity Rainbow remembered being there, right upon her fellow flyer. “How have things been going? Well, last week I saw Roseluck getting dragged into the undergrowth by changelings. And the week before that, I trained a strike force of bunnies and owls to infiltrate a changeling compound to retrieve prisoners.” She turned her eyes forward again, “Almost none of them came back. As usual.”

What could you say to something like that? Rainbow Dash had nothing. She’d lived under an oppressive dictatorship for years, but she could hardly imagine the sort of total war this Fluttershy seemed to be terrifyingly familiar with.

She tried something else. “I… I really missed you, Fluttershy. In my world, we sort of grew up together back in Cloudsdale.”

“I remember,” Fluttershy took a moment to respond, “It’s just that, last time I saw you, you were a changeling infiltrator. So, sorry if I’m not giving you a big old hug right now.”

How was she screwing this up so badly? Only the composure of a military background kept Rainbow Dash together now, even as her eyes began to water.

“Fluttershy… I haven’t seen you in years. Not since,” she bit her tongue, “not for a long time. I… just didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”

They flew on in silence. In Rainbow’s mind, she begged and begged for Fluttershy to say something. Anything. It didn’t matter. She could tell Rainbow she never wanted to see her again. At least that would be closure.

“Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said, again without emotion, “What happened to me?”

“What?”

“What. Happened. To. Me.” She turned back towards Dash, staring at her with a look of pure condemnation. “In my reality, you’re basically gone. And I’m not crying. But every time you look at me, I think you might.”

Rainbow Dash almost dropped out of the air as she said this, but kept flying in silence. Silent, but without breaking eye contact.

Fluttershy continued, “I see… that’s the difference between you and me, Dash. When something bad happened to me, and those I loved, I decided to try and fix it. You decided to join the bad thing, it would seem.”

Closure, Rainbow Dash was realizing with enormous regret, was overrated.

Finally, at the rear of the group, Pinkie hopped along with springing steps.

“Oh! We should try some of those!” Pinkie said as they passed by the cupcake shop. Her tongue lashed out and grabbed two cupcakes off the windowsill, and she helpfully handed one to Flurry Heart, who snacked greedily on the confection.

“Why did no one tell me cupcakes were so good!” Pinkie said through a mouthful of frosting, “I can’t believe I wasted so much time on rock soup and rock bread! Boy I feel silly. Is this how Pinkie Pies are supposed to feel?”

Flurry didn’t say anything. She just smiled.

Pinkie smiled back. “I gotta throw you a party once this whole thing’s over. It’s you and me, kid! You and me!”

Under the crystal palace itself, a true military force had assembled. Crystal unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies in crystal armor set themselves into rows and ranks, readied for the clash they knew was coming. At the head, Flash Sentry stood at attention. He watched as Twilight Sparkle and Spike the… dog… gently took down the Crystal Heart and placed it into a satchel.

Twilight threw the bag around her body, then turned to her companions. “Remember, we only need to buy time for Starswirl and Sunburst to finish the spell.”

Tempest stepped forward. “But remember, Flurry Heart is our top priority. No harm is to come to the princess.” The Crystal Guard saluted at this declaration. Then, Tempest said more quietly to Twilight, “I should be the one to make the hand-off though. It could get messy.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Twilight said, a sly smile showing, “I have another idea to buy time…”

Midnight Sparkle and her allies finally met the main road to the center of the city. The haphazard attacks had stopped, which told Midnight that the guards were probably done slowing them down, and would be waiting for her at the palace. The fact they stopped also told her that they probably had a plan. She would need to be careful here, or at least be economical with how she sacrificed the pawns with her.

And soon, her suspicions were confirmed as they came within sight of the tower’s base. Dozens of guards stood ready to face them, with those ponies from the library at the forefront. Well, except for the old stallion and one of the weaker unicorns. It was too likely they were lying in wait to try some sort of counterspell.

“Keep a lookout for the old one,” she commanded her pegasi. They didn’t seem to complain, out loud.

“Midnight Sparkle!” a voice rang out from the assembled crowd. If Midnight didn’t know any better, it might have been Twilight herself. “Hand over Flurry Heart! This can all end peacefully!”

Midnight guffawed at this, and shook her head in pity. “Oh Twilight! Foolish girl. This was never going to end peacefully! Hand over the Crystal Heart, and I may allow you all to live!”

There was no response.

“I do indeed have the brat,” Midnight motioned for Pinkie to join her, which the… oddly exuberant pony did. “We would seem to be at an impasse. I have what you want, and you have what I want. The only difference is…” she motioned her horn towards little Flurry Heart, and allowed a pale blue crackle of energy to come dangerously close to the filly, “… I can destroy what I have, while you can’t lose either.”

Another voice, the broken-horn, cried out, “Don’t you touch her!”

“Then give me the Heart!”

From here, she could see Twilight Sparkle. So small, so insignificant. Midnight could only pity such a creature, even as a mote of that foolish girl struggled vainly inside her own mind. But there was something else there… yes! The satchel Twilight wore! The magical energies Midnight was so attuned to seemed to flow out of there!

“It seems I shall have to be the reasonable party then,” she called back to the heart’s defenders, “Bring the heart halfway to me, and I shall send the child halfway to you. We switch there!”

The ponies seemed to consider it, looking back and forth amongst each other. But as Twilight began to shoulder the satchel which contained the heart, Midnight raised a hoof.

“No,” she said in as regal a voice as she could, “not you. Her!” with a gesture she pointed to the one pony she knew could never be a threat.

Moondancer looked shocked. She glanced left and right, and then pointed at herself with incredulity.

“Yes, her!” Midnight shouted, “I want the weakest among you to make the exchange! It seems only fair, after all.”

Several tense moments followed. Nopony spoke, but they all seemed to gesture and silently debate the wisdom of this choice. Midnight knew they had no alternative, and in short order they proved her correct yet again. Moondancer hefted the bag, adjusted her glasses once more, and began to walk forward. With a modicum of control and solemnity, Pinkie did likewise with the filly.

Midnight turned her head slightly towards her chief pawn, Sunset Shimmer, “These ponies are so easy to manipulate. Why again did you have so much trouble?”

Sunset gritted her teeth, but kept quiet. Good, thought Midnight, she knows her place.

The walk was slow, and agonizingly tense. Everypony on each side watch with baited breath as Pinkie and Moondancer approached one another. Though fear was evidently in the forefront of Moondancer’s mind, and clearly displayed on her face, she kept a brave pace and did not waver as she walked towards the monster on the other side.

Pinkie… well, as solemn as her pace began, the long walk started to go a little funny. Midnight watched with growing trepidation as Pinkie’s steps began looking more and more like skips, and a certain… springing sound began to grow from the princess filly’s captor.

Something was wrong… and Midnight began doing math again.

Moondancer and Pinkie Pie met directly in between the two groups, and stood only a few paces apart. The sun finally settled below the horizon, and the last warm rays of light faded as the cool evening gloom took over, and the streetlights began to flare to life.

Moondancer glanced towards Flurry Heart, and a flash of joy swept across her features. She clamped down though, and hard.

“Flurry Heart for the Crystal,” she said in a somber tone of formality.

“Hmmm,” Pinkie Pie narrowed her eyes and began looking Moondancer up and down. “Well, I would…”

Panic sparked behind Moondancer’s eyes, “But, we agreed!”

“Well, yeah. Buuuut…” Pinkie hopped up and spun around, and then with a wave of a hoof she laughed back at the two alicorns, “I don’t work for you! So there!” and with another hop and a skip Pinkie bolted for the crystal palace, Flurry Heart cheering on her back, leaving a suddenly sputtering Midnight in their wake.

“BETRAYAL!” It was inconceivable! Unbelievable! Where did that pink fool get the gall!?

“Gee,” Sunset said with dripping fake compassion, “I guess these ponies aren’t so easy to manipulate, are they?”

“SHUT UP!” Another plan was needed. Another angle, another play. The Crystal Guard were charging, unicorns throwing bursts of magical energy hurtling towards them. She needed a plan. She needed a plan.

Sunset smirked, and decided to pat herself on the back, “Well, looks like there’s only one Queen in Equestria after all.”

Midnight didn’t scream or yell or… anything. She turned to face Sunset slowly. And it was only at the last possible moment that Sunset realized she should already have been running as fast and as far as she possibly could.

“I concur,” Midnight whispered, and unleashed a whirlwind of magical energy. The oncoming pegasi pulled aside as they approached, nearly blinded by the surge of light. The unicorns and earth ponies halted in their tracks just as they reached Moondancer, still halfway between the two camps.

The light pulsed and surged. It illuminated Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy as they looked on in horror.

A moment later, and a normal, if disheveled, Sunset Shimmer dropped from the rapidly condensing magical light. She hit the ground and crumpled immediately. She could barely raise her head.

“H-help…” her voice was almost a whisper, “help me…” tears streamed down her face.

The light faded, and in the air hovered a terrible sight. Midnight Sparkle, wreathed in electric blue fire which now replaced even her mane, rose slowly into the air, a mirthless cackle tearing from her throat as she surged with magical might.

“Now,” Midnight grinned wickedly, her voice empowered just like the royal Canterlot voice, “Where was I? Oh, yes…”

Pegasi fell down upon the dark alicorn, slamming her with every ounce of strength they could muster. A bubble of magic whirled around her, taking the hits like they were mere raindrops falling on an umbrella, until with another cackle she swept a dozen at once from the sky with a blast of her magic.

She descended, similarly blocking and redirecting dozens of energy blasts from the assembled unicorn guards. A concentrated burst roared up at her as she neared the ground, but with another wave of her horn she froze the magical attacks in place, and then threw them back tenfold. And as she landed, her shield itself swept forward, tossing guards aside like leaves in a windstorm.

All save Moondancer, who now found herself enveloped in Midnight’s shield.

“Child,” the alicorn pitied her latest victim, “Did you really think I’d forgotten about the heart? I think it’s time you handed it over!”

Moondancer gazed up at Midnight in… triumph? There wasn’t a mote of fear in her eyes at all. In fact, it was almost like…

“YOU!” Midnight roared in fury as the illusion fell away and Twilight Sparkle fired a monumental blast of magical energy directly into Midnight’s face. The blast carried the alicorn several yards backward before she suddenly absorbed it into her.

“Oh, I know you didn’t forget!” Twilight shouted back as her own Sunset, Tempest, and Starlight leaped to her side and began to charge their horns. “In fact, I WAS COUNTING ON IT!”

The renewed attack exploded around Midnight, who darted here and there, casting waves and sheets of electric flame about. She knocked aside guards and shrugged off blasts from the three unicorns who led the attack. She wasn’t going down, even as Tempest joined her thunderous magic to the fray, but she was on the defense.

Rainbow Dash could only watch in awe all the while, at least until a familiar face suddenly floated over to her.

“Alright Dash!” Flash Sentry called out to her, “It’s time for Round 2!”

Rainbow stared at the flying stallion for a moment, then turned and flew away.

Flash was surprised, to say the least. “Um… did I win?”

Rainbow landed besides Rarity and Applejack. Fluttershy stood nearby, but seemed to give all of them a wide berth.

“Okay,” she said, dropping her usual authoritative tone, “this is messed up, right?”

“Absolutely,” Applejack agreed wholeheartedly, “This is plum dunked in sour milk if’n you ask me.”

Pinkie approached, dragging a barely conscious Sunset Shimmer with her. She set the exhausted and drained mare down, and sat down with her.

Sunset gazed up at the five, eyes filled with tears and regret. “I… I have no excuse,” she nearly sobbed, “having all that power… I knew it was wrong but I couldn’t help myself. I couldn’t see past- “

Applejack laid a hoof on her shoulder, and gave Sunset the closest thing she could to a gentle smile. “Hey there, sugarcube,” she said, “it’s all right. From what all I’ve seen today, everypony’s got something like this going on. It’s no shame unless you refuse to apologize for it, and try’n make amends.”

Fluttershy drew closer as Applejack said this, though none of the others noticed at first. She’d learned to be stealthy a long time ago.

“How can you forgive her so easily?” Rarity asked, not so much angry as perplexed, “I mean, I know we were all guilty of working with her, but she did seem quite villainous back there in the library, and in the caverns.”

“Yeah, I know,” Applejack sighed, “But seeing this world, and how much better everything is in it… it’s got me thinking that maybe they have the right idea around these parts. They’ve got another Sunset Shimmer over yonder, and she seems to be good friends with all themfolks! So, I’m thinking,” she reached down and hauled Sunset up to her hooves, “why not give it a whirl? Can’t be any worse that what we’ve been trying so far.”

Sunset Shimmer, for the first time in her life thus far, stood amidst another group of ponies, and saw them genuinely smiling back at her. She reached out and gave Applejack a hug, which got Rarity smiling, and Pinkie grinning ear to ear.

As Sunset stood back on her own hooves, she glanced towards Pinkie and finally noticed something.

“Uh, Pinkie? Where’s the baby?”

Pinkie scoffed and gave them all a smug smile. “What are you gals crazy!? I’m not bringing a baby to a battlefield! I left her back in the castle.”

Rainbow Dash stamped her hoof, “Well, regardless, we have to do something! They’re not beating that thing alone!” She pointed a wing at the blazing comet of dark magic that tore about the palace grounds, bouncing between banks of unicorns hemming it in with magical blasts, pegasi dropping rocks down upon it to keep its attention, and the small core of spellcasting unicorns from the library who continued to rain blows of magic energy at her. Midnight was clearly not slowing down, but every few moments another guard dropped from exhaustion or an errant hit. Flash Sentry had rejoined the ranks himself, seeing Rainbow Dash staying out of the fight.

Dash continued, “I know what it’s like to just give up and fall in line! I’m not gonna let that happen again!” She finally noticed Fluttershy at her side. The pink-haired Pegasus stared back at her friend, and allowed herself a soft, gentle smile. Something she’d almost forgotten how to do.

“Well that’s all good darling,” Rarity said, “But what can we do? None of us are a match for that thing!”

A gruff voice rang out away from the fighting, “Maybe you won’t have to!” and a tall grey stallion in robes of blue and a beard of silver and white strode into view, accompanied by an orange-maned unicorn who held up a scroll with his own magic, and the red-maned mare from the library who now carried a stack of similar scrolls with her.

Starswirl the Bearded glanced towards his companions, “Are you ready?”

Sunburst nodded, and then unrolled the first scroll while Moondancer began unrolling the next.

Calculations, calculations, Midnight thought as she whipped her power about in a frenzy. I need more calculations!

Earth ponies charged at her whenever she neared the ground. If they weren’t flinging rocks and spears, they were trying to kick her. Fools, of course, as each one who dared took a blast fully to the face and went sailing through the air. She was cutting down their numbers steadily enough, but the pegasi were keeping their distance, and many of them were excellent fliers, able to avoid her direct attacks. It was only whenever she let off a wave of energy that she seemed to hit any of the blasted things.

The unicorn guards were easy enough to handle. They mostly seemed concerned with hemming in her movements with their shields. She could land and scatter them about, but too many recovered too quickly for that to be a viable strategy.

And of course, Midnight couldn’t let her mind slip from the most important theater. Twilight Sparkle, Tempest, Starlight, and that other Sunset Shimmer were the big guns around here, she could tell. Despite Twilight’s childish nature, Midnight thought, she could still hit like a sledgehammer, and so could her friends. Tempest alone was such a dire threat that Midnight kept deliberately aiming for her, but the meddlesome creature was as fast and as durable as an Earth Pony. That just wasn’t fair!

The equation wasn’t looking good. Attrition would win the day, but she didn’t need that. She didn’t want that. How could the Princess of Magic fail to destroy such bothersome foes with ease!? She needed more magic. She needed that blasted heart!

But all her calculations were suddenly cast aside, thrown out in an instant, as Midnight Sparkle felt the magical energies shift around her. At her back, a yawning void tore open in the air, a void filled with darkness, green flames, and the ticking of a terrible clock.

“No!” she cried and attempted to fly away. She could feel Starswirl again, burning like a torch in her mind’s eye. This was his doing! But at that moment, the entirety of the unicorns arrayed against her pressed forward, magical beams uniting against her shield.

“Don’t let up!” Twilight Sparkle shouted, “Now is our chance! Push her back!”

Midnight threw her magical might against theirs, and flapped her wings with all the power she could muster. But it was no use, she was slowly inching her way back into the portal. A portal, no doubt, to send her back to where she came from. To the moment when…

“No,” she growled, “No… I am Midnight Sparkle! I will not lose! Not! To! YOU!” She opened her eyes despite the strain, and glared down hatefully at the little pony who led this assault. She focused right on that all-too-familiar face, those glasses, that look of defiance, that bag-

The bag.

With a final wrench of her magic, Midnight telekinetically gripped the stonework beneath Twilight Sparkle’s hooves and PULLED. The ground gave way, Twilight’s concentration cut and her magical blast suspended. But more importantly, as she tumbled forward, the Crystal Heart fell free from her bag. It skipped along the ground once, and then lit up with Midnight’s magical aura.

The heart flew up into the open arms of the Princess of Magic, and vanished in another blaze of light, and darkness.

The attack faltered. Gasps and cries joined the sound of battle. The portal remained open, as Starswirl still held his own concentration upon it, but the form of Midnight Sparkle no longer drifted closer to it.

Midnight Sparkle howled with triumph now. Nearly twice as tall as Starswirl or any of the real Princesses, her mane and tail were blazing fire, her wings like the darkness of the night sky, filled with stars. She reveled in her newfound power, absolutely enraptured with it and with herself. She set her hooves firmly to the ground, and towered over the guards who faced her.

Applejack snorted. “Well, I guess that’s that. It’s now, or never!”

“But what can we do darling?” Rarity asked, panic no longer in her voice, instead replaced with a slowly growing sense of the inevitable.

“We shove her in!” Rainbow Dash slapped her hooves together, “And we drag her back to wherever she came from!”

Pinkie frowned deeply, “But… if we go through that portal with her, will we remember any of this?”

Sunburst, still with the five girls, shook his head. “We made sure that with this spell, none of you would remember your time outside of your own reality.”

Moondancer cast her eyes at the ground. “I’m… sorry, but it was the only way to keep Midnight or… Sunset from messing with their own timeline once they were sent back.”

Each of the ponies stopped. Applejack looked to her friends, and each one looked back. In each of their eyes they saw something they had lost. Applejack and Rarity silently replayed the last time the sat in Cheerilee’s classroom together. Rainbow and Fluttershy saw one another as fillies in flight school, for a moment.

Pinkie and Sunset looked on. Sunset could only see the harm she’d caused these friends in another world. She wondered if she would be able to earn their forgiveness again, even if she couldn’t remember why she wanted it so badly. Pinkie saw, for perhaps the first time, the greatest party she could ever throw, and all the friends… she wouldn’t be able to invite once they did this.

One by one, they nodded to one another. There really wasn’t an option. Even if there was, these six friends knew what they would do.

There was nothing like it! Magic didn’t just flow through her veins, it filled Midnight Sparkle’s very senses! It was her body, her soul, her everything! She could feel the sun and the moon and the stars quail in terror as she howled with laughter.

“At last!” She cried out, “It’s mine! ALL MINE!!!”

The towering alicorn looked down with utter contempt and pity towards those who had defied her. They were nothing, not even ants in the grand scheme of things. At least, not her grand scheme.

“What should I do first, I wonder?” she laughed aloud, “Perhaps I should turn you all into fish? Or dogs? How about dogs!?”

A tiny, insignificant voice called up from the assembled fools, “Twilight! Stop this!”

Midnight glanced down towards the voice, and found… the little dragon? He almost looked familiar, but then, when you’re about to take ownership of the cosmos, the little people do tend to blend together.

“Ah,” she said, a human hand forming out of her blazing magical aura, “a volunteer!” And with a snap she commanded the magic of the world to transform the hapless little dragon into an even more hapless little dog. How wonderful! How exhilarating! How-

She paused, “Spike!?”

Spike the dog stared down at himself, and quickly fell back onto his haunches. “Well, so much for walking upright,” he sighed. But a dog was man’s, or in this case, high school girl’s best friend. He needed to do something!

“Twilight, please,” he begged, “Remember who were! Who you are! I’ve seen you beat Midnight Sparkle before, and you can do it again!”

For a moment, Midnight braced herself. That inkling of the old Twilight was… silent? She was definitely still there, deep within Midnight’s mind. But with all this magical power flowing through her, Midnight saw that she had completely suppressed the simpering schoolgirl.

“Tragically,” she laughed, “your Twilight cannot come out and play. Which is fine, because now I have to decide which of you will be destroyed first for defying me!”

From out of the crowd, a single, crystal orb hurtled through the air and struck Midnight Sparkle on the nose. A burst of blue smoke encased her head instantly.

Trixie, standing at the side of Starlight, Sunset, Tempest, and Twilight, punched the air with glee, “Yeth! Bulltheye!”

The smoke cleared, and Midnight Sparkle hadn’t even flinched. She turned her burning blue eyes to Trixie, and her mane began to spark and flare.

“On second thought,” her voice deepened with wrath, “I think I’ll destroy that one first. Then Twilight Sparkle. And then the ENTIRE CITY!”

Everypony braced for the impact, unicorns lighting up their horns, pegasi readying their wings, and earth ponies stamping their hooves. Even Trixie stood alongside her friends, fear replaced with a sense of friendship and unshakeable comradery.

But the blast never came. Midnight Sparkle had turned her attention elsewhere. She looked now upon six ponies who stood defiantly at her side.

“Are you still here?” she asked tiredly, “I thought you all got the message by now. I don’t care enough to send you back to your worlds. Unless you’re here to pledge eternal servitude to your Queen?”

All five of the time-displaced ponies stood in a line. Applejack took the central position alongside Sunset Shimmer, with Pinkie and Rainbow to one side, Fluttershy and Rarity on the other.

Applejack spoke first. “Nah yer highness, it ain’t like that.”

“Oh?” the mighty alicorn snarled, “Then what is it like?”

Sunset Shimmer raised her head, “We’ve made mistakes.”

“We’ve forgotten beauty,” Rarity loosed her hair and let it wave once more.

“And loyalty to others!” Rainbow Dash added.

Pinkie stepped forward, “We lost the joy in our lives.”

“And we gave up on kindness,” Fluttershy said next.

Applejack nodded once, and all six began to advance slowly. “We turned out backs on the truth.”

Midnight Sparkle could hardly contain her own pitiless laughter, “And what truth is that!? That Friendship will save you from being turned into salt?”

“Nope,” Applejack smiled like she’d caught a varmint red-hooved, “but thanks to you, and thanks to seeing all this and figuring out what we’ve been missing, we’ve re-learned what the real truth even is!”

The six ponies began to… to glow! Midnight had never seen such a thing. Was there yet more magic here? Did Sunset have something to do with this? These six ponies began to blaze with light, and color, creating a rainbow-aura about themselves.

What was going on? Calculations, Midnight needed calculations. She needed data. She-

“Light her up!” came a cry from the crowd, and instantly every unicorn in the entire courtyard reared back and let loose with all they had. Waves of magic smashed into Midnight, her shields only snapping into being at the last possible moment. Coruscating power ripped away at her, but to no avail! She would not fall this day!

But she was distracted, even if only for a moment.

The six leapt upon Midnight, Applejack getting a hold around her shoulders, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy her back hooves. Rarity and Pinkie had her forelegs in an instant, and Sunset a vice-like grip about her middle.

“Release me!” Midnight cried out, lashing them with magical fire. But it did not burn them. The crystal floor bubbled and melted, but the ponies were unharmed. And they were moving, pushed inch by inch, towards the portal.

“NOOO!”

Applejack gave a whoop like she hadn’t since bucking as a filly, “That’s it! We got her!”

“What are you doing!?” Midnight screamed. Her power did nothing to them. “How are you doing this!? WHY!? Don’t you know you’ll be throwing away your memories too! Your worlds are still doomed!!!”

“Maybe!” Applejack shouted with resolve in her voice, “But if it means protecting this world, and making sure that at least one place goes alright, it’ll be worth it!”

Rainbow Dash said as well, “We can fix our own problems! Even if we don’t remember this, our friendships endure!”

Midnight roared in defiance, “How are you doing this!? I am MIDNIGHT SPARKLE! I AM THE PRINCESS OF MAGIC!”

“And like we told ya, ya blasted varmint,” Applejack laughed, “Friendship is Magic! That was the truth all along! And if that means giving up our memories for our friends…”

All six ponies turned their eyes towards the others standing in the courtyard. They locked gazes with Twilight, with Starlight, Sunburst, the other Sunset, Spike and Trixe, Flash Sentry, Moondancer, Tempest, even old Starswirl, still concentrating on the spell, but now with something else holding him up. Perhaps it was pride, or perhaps it was something else he’d only just now realized was there.

The unicorns, seeing the friends they hadn’t known until now, took on an air of grim determination, and let loose with one final burst of magic.

The portal’s horizon approached. Midnight could feel the weight, the inertia of time itself pulling at her. These ponies, these confounded ponies were now blazing with light, a rainbow wrapping around all seven of them. She could feel it close like a vice on her magic, squeezing and squeezing until…

She began to shrink, magical energy sloughing off of her with every inch lost to the portal. The shifting rainbow lights finally snapped hold of her, and in an instant tore from her such power. Midnight could only watch as the Crystal Heart materialized before her, and drifted through the air, back to its place at the heart of the city.

It was all going away, all the magic, all the power. Midnight… Twilight could feel herself being stripped back down to what she was; a pathetic, friendless girl who’d just done something unforgiveable. Midnight’s impotent screams fell away into the background of her mind, and for the first time in a long while, tears streamed down her face.

Sunset reached up, and caught a tear with her hoof. “Twilight,” she said, “why are you crying?”

Twilight looked down at… these ponies as they passed into the portal.

“I… I hurt you. I hurt all of you… I did so many terrible things- “

“Yeah, and?” Pinkie smiled, “so what?”

“I told you, er, your worser half anyway,” Applejack said, “Friendship is Magic.”

Fluttershy smiled up at her, “And we think you’re pretty magical!”

“Darling,” Rarity managed as the portal entrance closed and the lights dimmed, “when you meet the... “us” of your world, I know they’re going to love you.”

“She’s right,” Rainbow said as the darkness crept in, “Because… well, if you’re the princess of magic, then you’re definitely the princess of friendship in our eyes!”

And for one, singular, infinitesimal moment as the sound of clocks ran down, the only light in existence was the rainbow light emanating from seven friends. And for just that moment, as they held on as tightly to their memories as possible, Twilight Sparkle hugged her friends, and hoped to see them again soon.

Author's Note

More fanfics should end in sappy friendship hugs. Fact.

Nothing much to add. Just wish I could have added a cool villain song.

Epilogue - All Good Things

Two days later found Flash Sentry and Tempest Shadow standing attention at the Crystal Empire train station. One of Flash’s wing was in a cast, but Tempest had returned to her daily routine like nothing was amiss. The only indication that she’d been at the forefront of a major battle in the past few days was the way she seemed to jump at the slightest sound or sight that might even remotely trigger her honed combat senses.

“I’m just saying,” she was explaining to the commander, “it could have been Midnight Sparkle.”

“It was a cupcake,” Flash didn’t break his at-attention stance, but his voice strained to keep that composure, “It was an apple-vanilla cupcake, and I was sharing some with you.”

Tempest hid her embarrassed blush well. “Um… I did say I was sorry?”

“You did,” he said, “after you pulled me out of the rubble. That you made, when you put me there.”

“Alright, alright,” she said conciliatorily, “no party next time we survive an invasion.”

Flash coughed, “Well… I wouldn’t go that far…”

A whistling wind blew over the cold landscape, punctuating the utterly empty, still silence with the one sound that could make that silence feel more empty, more silent. Besides the wind, and the snow still on the ground, it was over all a nice day.

Tempest still shivered. “Is it eleven yet? When’s that train supposed to arrive?”

“Message said eleven o’clock arrival time. It’s still a half hour out.”

She blew warm air onto her hooves, and silently thanked Moondancer for the scarf. “So, you wanna talk about something? While we wait?”

Flash shrugged almost imperceptibly beneath his armor. “Okay… did you think Sunset Shimmer was staring at me when- “

The platform suddenly lit up as a wave of blue light swept over it, and a thunderous clap struck the air. Tempest was already dropping into a combat stance, her broken horn guttering with magical energy, while Flash took up a ready-stance as well, though several feet further away from Tempest.

Both paused, then snapped to attention however, as the Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Prince Shining Armor had appeared on the platform.

“At ease,” said Shining, waving them down as he and his wife appeared.

“Sir!” Flash saluted, “We were expecting you by train, as your message indicated.”

Tempest cleared her throat, “Did… did something happen with the train?”

Princess Cadence chuckled unconvincingly. “Oh no! We just… wanted to slip in unannounced. It was a long trip and the train was delayed- “

The train took that moment to pull into the station. In seconds, a host of Crystal Guards poured into the station and around it, forming a secure location within moments. This seemed to be second nature, for once the guards noticed their charges had teleported ahead, no one could quite make eye contact for a while afterward.

Under Tempest’s casual look of ‘oh-really’, Cadence cracked. “Alright… so we might have been a little anxious to get home and make sure everything was in one piece.”

Shining scratched the back of his head, “Yeah, your letter made it sound like things got… heated.”

“Catastrophic, sir,” Flash Sentry offered, “Twilight described it as catastrophic.”

The royals stared with wide eyes at this remark. Flash, noticing their concern, helpfully added, “Oh, I mean, the other universe’s Twilight, sir.”

“Twilight,” Tempest stepped in, “may have been reacting emotionally to… a strenuous experience. It wasn’t a total catastrophe. Uh, I mean…”

Cadence held up a hoof this time. “Can… can we just move onto the part where we see how bad the damages are?”

“Or,” Shining Armor said, “perhaps you can tell us how Flurry Heart is doing?”

Tempest nodded. “Yes, of course. Right this way.” She and Flash led the royals and their guards back into the city, walking side-by-side.

“You didn’t hipcheck the Prince into a wall,” Flash whispered, “So I guess you’re doing better.”

She whispered back, “Just remember Flash, I can always break the other wing.”

The base of the crystal palace was seemingly crawling with workponies, hanging warning signs and scaffolds and tape everywhere. The city itself was mostly unharmed, despite the complaints of a particularly pushy cabbage farmer, but the palace would be under reconstruction for a while. Sections of crystal floor were little more than melted slag, and huge chunks had been ripped from the support legs of the palace itself.

There was no danger to the structure, Tempest reported, but the palace would look like a warzone for a little while.

“Seems appropriate,” Cadence said as they walked past a crew of unicorns and pegasi trying to lift a wagon-sized shard of crystal out of somepony’s second-story room. “How bad were the other damages? Was anyone…?”

“I will never not be astonished at the Crystal Guard’s ability to take a hit on the chin and keep going,” Tempest actually said with clear admiration, “We didn’t lose a single guard, all told, though the number of injuries we’ve been dealing with was through the roof.”

Flash, in a moment of levity, chuckled and said, “Considering how often we’re invaded, it pays to learn to roll with the punches.” His mirth turned to a worried look instantly as he realized he was still escorting the Royals.

Shining Armor, however, slapped him on the back and laughed right along with the guard. “That’s the spirit!” he said.

Cadence smiled, “Well, I’m sorry that you didn’t find an answer to your own quest, Tempest. But I am relieved that everypony is doing alright.”

“Speaking of which,” Shining turned to Tempest, “Did… Twilight and her friends get any headway done on their own research?”

Tempest and Flash shared a quick look, and a momentary glance towards the library.

“Um, no,” Tempest finally said, “Or, they might have. They’ve been using the palace library since the battle… since the city one is also… under reconstruction.”

“And…” Flash added slowly, “since Mrs. Maresbury banned… everypony from the library.”

“I don’t suppose,” Cadence said slowly, “that you actually know the definition of a ‘catastrophe’, do you?”

Inside the palace things seemed far calmer. Damage was limited to a few cracks here and there, and the most catastrophic damages were from tables and chairs being knocked about during the most titanic moments of fighting days ago. No, physical damage was not the immediate concern within the palace, but physical healing. Injured guards filled the main hall, recuperating through entertainment.

The crowd cheered as yet another trick went off without a hitch on the impromptu stage thrown up for the occasion. Cadence and Shining Armor’s small retinue arrived just as the show ended, with the Great and Powerful Trixie and her Great and Powerful Assistant Starlight standing hoof-in-hoof before the cheering guards.

Shining Armor and Cadence’s presence seemed to lift the wounded ponies’ spirits immediately, even though the magic show had already set that bar high. Moving through the crowd of guards was slow-going, considering the amount of them that wanted to welcome their sovereigns home, or alternatively make sure Shining saw their injuries and knew they’d given their all.

Once they’d gotten past the guards and moved into the quieter living quarters, Starlight and Trixie were there to welcome them.

“Did you see the show?” Trixie asked as she bowed, “Blown away by the amazing mystical prowess of the Great and Powerful Trixie? Of course you were. I also do birthdays.”

Starlight gently elbowed her friend as she stepped up, “So… how was the trip? Diplomatic Summit go well?”

“The Yaks will hold off going to war another year,” Shining laughed, “if that’s what you were worried about.”

Starlight laughed along, meekly, “I… wasn’t until now.”

“Honestly,” said Cadence, who began walking past the duo towards the staircase up to the rest of the tower, “these summits are basically an excuse for rulers to have a vacation with other rulers.”

“Now,” Shining turned an eye on the retinue of Flash, Tempest, Starlight, and Trixie as they followed Princess Cadence, “Who wants to tell me the whole story about what happened here?”

The Royal Library of the Crystal Empire, to be completely honest, was at best subpar. It did not even begin to compare with the libraries back in Canterlot or even Ponyville, much less the city’s own library. If the researchers hadn’t been permitted to grab whatever books they could carry, Sunset Shimmer thought, this collating session would be worse than useless.

She sat at a table piled high with tomes and scrolls in the middle of a crystal-themed study on the third story of the palace. Sunburst and Moondancer scrambled here and there, making notations on scrolls they assured her would let her quickly and easily find any work on the magic of portals available.

So, something had come out of this waste of a vacation, she thought.

Starswirl sat nearby, scribbling notes and thoughtfully stroking his beard. He hadn’t said much in the past few days, instead burying himself in work of some sort.

“Hey Starswirl,” Sunset said playfully, “working hard? Or hardly working?”

He seemed to snap out of a trance. “I beg your pardon?”

“Oh, no… it’s…” what was the point? “Nevermind. What are you working on there?”

He glanced down at his notes, then took on a serious expression. “I promised I would help you with your Equestrian magic problem, and I believe with this I can make amends for causing it in the first place.”

Sunset tried to comfort the old stallion, “No one blames you for- “

“I do,” he said firmly, standing up and holding the scroll with his magic, “and while I have been exploring many avenues of new magical research this little adventure has conjured up, I made doubly sure to leave you with something worthwhile.”

The scroll rolled itself up, and a blue and gold ribbon fastened tight about its middle.

“This,” he presented the scroll to Sunset, “needs to be cast upon the mirror to your world. It will encrypt the passage, and prevent any more errant magic from entering your new home.”

Sunset stared at the scroll. This was it? This little thing? She took it, gratefully, but she almost couldn’t comprehend it.

But Starswirl was not done yet. “Be warned, Sunset Shimmer,” he said in a grave tone, “the magic already within your world is still active, and I do not know how you might rid it of Equestrian magic entirely. Even destroying the portal wouldn’t help now. I fear you may have a long, long road ahead of you.”

Sunset could only nod, slowly. Then, scroll set aside, she reached out and gave Starswirl a deep hug. The old wizard was taken completely by surprise… but it was not an unwelcome one. He returned the gesture, gratefully.

Voices echoing down the corridor suddenly grew louder as the library doors opened.

“…so, while Tempest grew up again, we agreed to combine our efforts to- oh!” Starlight gasped, “Why Starswirl! I forgot that you wanted to speak to me just now!” Starlight threw every ounce of her acting talent behind that stiff bit of dialogue. Even Trixie seemed embarrassed for her.

Luckily, Starswirl didn’t need to be a good actor to know a bad one. “Actually, I do want to talk with you Starlight, if you can spare a minute.”

Starlight turned to the royals, “I’m sure Tempest can complete the tale from here.”

Princess Cadence nodded, and then continued on her way, husband, Flash, and Tempest in tow. Tempest spared a single, chilling look Starlight’s way before she moved on.

Trixie winced. “You’ll pay for that one. She’s craaaazy.” Then, sniffing the air, the Great and Powerful Trixie smiled. “Think I’ll raid the kitchen for whatever grub they can spare. Work out these new chompers you magic’d up for me. Trixie will graciously bring something back for you.”

Sunburst looked up from a pile of scrolls, “Why, thank you Trixie. That’s very- “

“Trixie was talking to Starlight,” Trixie said, already walking out the door.

Sunburst and Moondancer shared a glance that conveyed their respective, annoyed feelings towards the magician. Sunset, for her part, noticed the way Trixie smirked on her way out, and had an idea that food might just be on the way. Starlight and Starswirl moved out into the corridor as well, for whatever talk they needed to have.

Sunset Shimmer sighed contentedly. She finally felt like the words would come to her. She picked up her quill with her magic, and went back to the blank book pages before her.

“Dear Princess Twilight…”

“Thanks for getting me out of that,” Starlight was saying, and she meant it, “I did not want to have to explain everything all over again.”

Starswirl said nothing. He let the silence between them speak for him.

Starlight held onto the hope that he wouldn’t expect her to say anything. She held onto it for several long, long seconds. But as he didn’t say anything himself, she knew she had to.

“I… guess you actually did want to talk about something?”

He nodded. He seemed to be picky about what words he would use, “Starlight… what are your thoughts today about the incident?”

“What part are you referring to?” she asked, still hoping he maybe just wanted to talk about magical theory.

“The alternate timelines.”

“Oh… hayseeds,” she muttered. “I was actually kind of hoping not to think about them just yet…”

“It’s a serious thing to consider,” Starswirl intoned like a judge handing down a verdict, “those worlds, and all the ponies now living in their doomed timelines, owe their existence, and perhaps their fates to actions you took while concerned only for spiteful revenge. I can only imagine what you must be feeling.”

Starlight’s eyes widened and her mouth hung open. That was… to the quick. Starswirl clearly did not want to bandy about on this. And… he was right. It was her fault, after all.

She lowered her head. “I… I’ve already said how awful my actions back then were. But I took small comfort from the idea that those timelines had been fixed. That they didn’t exist anymore.” Tears began to build in her eyes, “I ruined so many ponies’ lives, in so many worlds.”

“You had no way of knowing,” Starswirl placed a hoof on her shoulder, “and you have tried to make amends wherever you could. I don’t think you could have done more.”

“But what about them!” an edge of anger slipped into her voice, “Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy! The ones from those worlds are back now, without any of their memories of saving our world! Or of each other. Or of the friendships they might have otherwise had!”

Starswirl let Starlight yell, and stand before him and silently weep.

He said, “Starlight? Did you, or anyone else, convince those time-displaced ponies to leap at Midnight Sparkle?”

She looked up into his eyes, eyes that reflected back nothing but kindness now. “No,” she whispered.

“Those ponies came from ruined worlds,” he said softly, “Worlds where endless war, monsters, and demons run rampant and tear down all that is good in this life.” He leaned in close to Starlight, and smiled. “And yet, ponies so damaged by an unforgiving world were able to cast aside that darkness and allow friendship into their hearts.”

Starswirl wiped a single tear off of Starlight’s cheek. “If they could do it once, they can do it again. I think they can still turn their worlds’ around.”

“Thank you,” Starlight said, just a touch of happiness returning to her face, “I think they can do it too.”

“Naturally,” Starswirl spun back towards the library, “I will continue to do some research on this subject. It was still my spell that started this whole mess. And, who knows?” he turned to smile back at Starlight as he opened the door, “perhaps one day you and I will cast a spell to make this all worth it.”

Starlight couldn’t help but beam a little bit with pride. Starswirl had addressed her as… not an assistant, but as an equal! And if he wasn’t willing to give up on those other timelines, then neither would she!

She stood in the hall, practically glowing for several seconds while Trixie struggled to drag a cart filled with pudding up the last step of the staircase.

Finally, as Tempest finished relaying the events of the previous few days to the royals, who had picked up their pace steadily as the tale was told, Princess Cadence and Shining Armor reached the royal nursery where Flurry Heart was supposed to be sleeping.

In truth, the alicorn princess was cooing and gurgling happily in the air when her parents entered the chamber. She seemed content to fly in small circles while holding onto a small, pink stuffed bear. And as soon as she caught sight of them, Flurry flew into their open embrace.

“Awww,” Cadence sighed with parental relief, “How’s my sweet filly doing?”

Shining Armor shushed his wife. Then, when she threw him a look that eerily reminded him of their first wedding, he quickly pointed with his hoof towards another sight. In the corner of the room, Twilight Sparkle slept peacefully in a chair. She was curled up, snoring softly, and seemingly at gentle rest. Spike (the dog, Shining reminded himself), slept curled up beneath the chair itself, also equally at peace.

Cadence smiled. “She reminds me of Twilight, when I used to foalsit.”

Shining ruffled the young pony’s hair lightly with his hoof. “You did good, kid,” he said with genuine warmth. “You did good.”

The royal couple, Flurry in hoof, turned and quietly exited the room to let their guest enjoy her nap. Flash Sentry followed in their wake, but Tempest held back. She stayed a moment longer, just long enough to grab a small blanket and throw it over the sleeping pony.

Twilight stirred, “Tempest?”

“Yeah,” she whispered, “get some rest kid. You earned it.”

But Twilight, though clearly groggy, would not so easily submit. She pointed by jabbing her horn towards a nearby desk. “Made you,” she yawned, “something…”

Tempest, a bit confused, walked over to the small desk normally used for changing Flurry Heart… and saw something lying atop it.

“What… what is this?” she could only just get out.

Twilight yawned, “I thought I’d spend a few hours last night trying some things out. Figured… figured that if magic wasn’t doing you any good… science might…”

Tempest slowly lifted up the tiny apparatus. It wasn’t much, but it was also something she’d never seen before. It was a sliver of crystal; deeply colored magenta like her. It was suspended in a copper wireframe that… well it almost…

She placed it over her broken horn, and found a small piece that spun in place. She tightened it, and tightened it. Tempest nearly sprinted over to the mirror on the wall. She had to see it. She just had to-

“It’s perfect.” There was no other way to say it. The crystal didn’t look exactly like her old horn… it was better. It was like having a horn again! She could even, faintly, feel it! She looked about, and then reached out with her magic towards a rattle lying in Flurry’s crib.

Up! Down! Up! Down! The toy followed her directions, it flew up and down with her thoughts and with her magic! It worked! It worked!

Tempest turned to jump and cheer… but saw Twilight fast asleep again. With careful, silent precision, Tempest walked up to the sleeping pony. She lowered her face, and simply settled her forehead to Twilight’s.

With the barest whisper, hardly above silence itself, Tempest thanked her friend. “Don’t you dare ever let somepony compare you the Princess. You’re every bit as wonderful, and more.”

She quietly left the room, and turned out the lights.

That night, under the blackness of a moonless sky, four figures slipped out of the crystal palace and moved to the latest military structure of the Crystal Empire. Fort Cabbage, built within hours of a sinkhole appearing over the remains of a cabbage patch, was guarded by a lone sentry who allowed the hooded figures in without a word.

Starswirl the Bearded, Flash Sentry, Moondancer, and Tempest Shadow each removed their hoods and made their way down into the tunnels beneath the city. Starswirl led the way, he and Flash consulting a small map as they went along. Moondancer carried with her a small pile of scrolls, all while hiding a grin as Tempest simply picked up and dropped smaller rocks with her horn.

The four entered an enlarged chamber where several crystal earth ponies were finishing their work. Support beams were in place, and the chamber walls and floor were properly leveled. A set of three towering mirrors stood in the middle of the room, set in just such a way so that a pony standing before them could see each one fully.

Into this spot, all four settled. Before them, many ponies stared back from those mirrors.

“Boy,” Applejack’s voice came in clear from the leftmost mirror, “I can’t believe this is happening!” She stood in what looked to have once been a barn, now turned into an industrial farm. Around her stood ponies in similar workclothes, including a Fluttershy and Rarity, as well as a Pinkie and Rainbow Dash in military fatigues. They even had a Twilight Sparkle, a bookish unicorn standing awkwardly amongst these ponies she did not know, yet.

Behind them towered Princess Celestia, who looked on in awe at this most welcome sight. “I… Starswirl! I didn’t think I would ever see you again.” Her mane was a touch more frayed, her voice filled with more worry, but it was still the Celestia Starswirl knew.

He nodded to his old student, and turned to the central mirror, whose reflection held a Zebra mare covered in green paint, flanked by a Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy who seemed… far less angry than they had before. And behind them stood, a bit worse for wear, a ragged band made up of their own Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Twilight.

“Ooh!” Pinkie Pie nearly hit the mirror as she leaned forward, “did ya bring the baby? Look! We got our friends back from the changelings! Isn’t this great!?”

Zecora, speaking over the sudden wash of confetti cannons, said, “So I see it is you, at times so late, come with bright news to deliver our fate?”

The rightmost mirror reflected back not only an armored Rainbow Dash and Rarity, but a host of similarly armed and armored pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies. Starswirl thought he even saw another Twilight mixed into this group as well.

“Reporting in!” Rainbow Dash saluted, “Resistance HQ is ready for instruction!”

The elder stallion, for a moment, felt a stirring of fate in his heart. “As soon as I realized,” he began, “that the Elements of Harmony had protected your memories from my spell, I knew there was a chance. A chance at not only redeeming myself for past mistakes, but redeeming the lives you were all denied by the quirks of fate, chance, and anger.”

The scrolls Moondancer had brought sparkled with Starswirl’s magic. They drifted up into the air and melted into the mirrors, appearing in the worlds on the other side.

He continued, “These scrolls possess the spells necessary to track down the Elements in your own worlds. However, without knowing how to use the Elements, they will be useless to you.”

Moondancer and Tempest retrieved a large pile of books the work ponies had dragged down into this chamber beforehoof. Each book was purple, etched in gold, and emblazoned with a familiar set of symbols. The two began feeding the books directly into the mirrors.

As they did this, Starswirl continued with his speech, “These books were written by a group of very, very special friends. They contain the greatest magic I have ever experienced; the magic of Friendship. Read these well, take their lessons to heart, and they will allow you to use the Elements of Harmony for their grand purpose.”

Each of the ponies in each of the other worlds marveled at the scrolls and the books that appeared before them. Eager hooves grabbed at the books in particular, and began to drink in the knowledge within. It nearly brought Starswirl to tears as he watched the hope begin to be rekindled within each of them.

“My little ponies,” he said, “these mirrors shall remain open if you need to speak with us again. I hope to hear from each of you soon, and to hear of your success.”

The Rarity from the rightmost mirror, the world of eternal night, scoffed. “Darling! I promise you’ll hear from us first thing at dawn!”

Applejack, from the left-mirror, whooped at that, “Now that’s the Rarity I know!”

“Good luck everypony,” the Fluttershy from the central mirror said, “and farewell!”

The mirrors faded as each of the groups turned and headed out on their way. And in the stillness that followed, Starswirl turned to the three who’d followed him down to this room.

“We will have to keep our eyes on here,” he said, “and to be ready for anything.”

Moondancer sighed, “Why didn’t you tell Starlight what you were working on? I’d think she’d be excited to know about this plan of yours.”

He nodded, “When there’s something to report, I will make sure she is the first to know. But right now, I think she needs to process things in her own time.”

Tempest sat at attention in front of the mirrors. “Well, regardless, it’s time for everypony to be asleep. Flash and I will take first watch. You two head on back.”

Moondancer and Starswirl nodded their thanks, and after checking with the workponies and the few guards assigned to the fort, went on to their beds. As Flash sat down next to Tempest to begin their watch, he smiled and began to rummage through his satchel.

“Now, don’t be alarmed,” he said, chuckling, “but I brought a couple of cupcakes along…”

Author's Note

Finale.

Sequel Hook. Natch. Got two in the works; one dealing with Sunset and Sci-Twi heading back home. The other... well, Starswirl was serious about doing something about those doomed timelines. Guess we'll see what that entails.

Thanks for reading ya'll!