Empty walls in empty halls. Empty rooms that were devoid of sound. The Castle was all empty. Not even the Sun’s Light was able to reach every single crevice within the Castle. In the castle, no one was inside. The Castle was devoid of tapestries and stained glass, and it was devoid of life. All the castle was lifeless, except for a Tower. A Tower at the rear of the Castle. From the Tower, came Light. There, an alicorn worked.
The alicorn was hidden. Very well hidden. The Castle, while once built in the middle of a bustling city filled with people and ponies, now stood as a monument to what could happen if one was not careful with their actions. He was by himself. He was in the Blasted Lands.
The alicorn sat in the middle of a room, his horn aglow with a light grey aura surrounding it. His mane, a royal blue one, seemed to disobey the rules of gravity, floating in every which direction. Around the alicorn, what seemed to be strands of yarn surrounded him. His eyes, while normally colored dark emerald green, were glowing white, and his head jerked around. He was looking.
What was he looking at? Everything. He looked at everything, every time, anywhere. He knew what would happen and what had come to pass. He knew of alternate timelines and those lost to time. He knew the destinies of every single creature that existed, and he knew the destinies of every creature that will exist.
He was what ponies called, ‘Fate’. Except he has no say in what individuals do. All he knew was what they were going to do. He knew everything, yet did nothing with his knowledge. What could he do anyway? If he told the foolish equines of their futures, he would be destroyed. If he brought them to the future… disaster.
If he were to try and forcefully change a timeline himself, he would be destroyed. That was the one that particularly hurt him. He wanted to change timelines, to change events to make things the way that he wanted, but he couldn’t.
As with the case of the former residents of the Chrono Castle (those residents being Queen Mille and King Chronos), he was able to exist in multiple timelines at once. With a flash of his horn, he could completely appear in a specific timeline. He could control which timelines to travel to, and he could choose which ones he could focus on studying the most. He had to have an anchor, however, so there was always a timeline that was marked as ‘Alpha’.
However, as with the case of the former residents of Chrono Castle, he could not peer into his own future. Not by written rule, but by an unspoken law that was shared between the three monarchs. All three knew that if they had dared to peer into the future, they would never die.
All three monarchs followed the unwritten law, but eventually, curiosity overcame them. They would peer into their future, hoping to see what would happen to them in the next second, next hour, next century. To counteract this, they were all met with the same thing. Emptiness. They were surrounded by the Dark. The Dark clouded their vision and forced them back to the present- or wherever they were before they looked into the future.
None of the rulers knew what the Dark was. Queen Mille assumed that it was a barrier of sorts. Something that could be broken and shattered to allow her to see her own future. She was proven wrong shortly after her successor, King Chronos, came into power. He took her theory and put it to the test, and just barely escaped the Dark’s overpowering embrace. From then on, King Chronos assumed the Dark was alive, intentionally blocking him from his future as a way to spite him.
Lightning’s theory was different. Instead of a barrier that could be broken, or a creature that could be slain, it was a punishment. It was his punishment for his foolish actions when he was younger. The Dark was punishing him by keeping him from seeing his future. Nevertheless, all these theories were just that- theories. They weren’t right, yet there was nothing to suggest that was wrong (besides the barrier theory, which was disproved by King Chronos in the one hundred and thirtieth year of his rule).
Lightning’s thoughts drifted towards his mentor and previous Ruler of Time, King Chronos. He vaguely remembered a story that the former ruler had told him; he had tried to peer into the future of one of his own personal guards to see if disaster would strike. Chronos could see the life the guard would live.
One long thread that ponies called, ‘Life.’ He would see the guard’s ‘Life’ unravel before him, desperately trying to seek his own figure- but alas, he could not. Even when he would be in full view of the guard, his body would be covered in the Dark. This made Chronos frustrated, and he had spent the rest of the week trying everything just to be able to see himself in the thread of his guard. That week turned into the next month.
Chronos finally gave up the following year, mainly due to the guard’s retirement.
Lightning was always amused by King Chronos’ stories, his concentration breaking as he let out a loud exhale from his nose; a sign that he was slightly amused by his memories of that failure of a mentor. He thought back on how much he had despised the previous ruler, and how much he would have to thank him for when it was his turn to pass.
Lightning snapped himself free from his thoughts. No need to be thinking about the past when he had more important things to do. He was The King, so of course, he had important things to do!
Right..?
He trotted around the room he was in- his personal chambers. Unlike most other royal chambers his was in a tower instead of the main castle, and instead of the decor being splattered around the place like some five-year-old filly’s birthday party, it was as barren as the lands that surrounded Chrono Castle.
There was a small window at the wall away from the door that led into the room. It was dusty and cracked, surprisingly still standing after Faust knows how many years of enduring powerful spells from all three rulers. The walls were grey and weak, and all Lightning had to do was give it a good kick and a brick or two would pop out. A tiny mattress was shoved into the corner of the room without care. It didn’t even look big enough to fit an adolescent mare- much less a grown stallion such as Lightning, yet he kept it. A frail, thin wool blanket lay crumbled on top of the mattress with holes and tears covering the sad excuse of a blanket.
It wasn’t the best that the castle had to offer as the actual Royal Chamber was within the main part of the castle. Lightning simply refused the luxuries of royalty in exchange for having more time to himself. He would be by himself anyways- no one worked inside the castle anyway, so the only other creatures that would even dare to enter those chambers would be the bugs and rats that plagued the Blasted Lands.
He never really liked the luxuries that the Royal Chambers offered him, however. He personally believed that he didn’t have a right to them. He was completely in the wrong, of course, but that never really stopped him from thinking it.
He had to admit- being by himself was tough. Memories of the friends he had made in the past haunted his nightmares and waking hours. He would walk into a separate room of the tower and see their faces for just a second. Even though he missed them dearly, he dared not look back in time to remember them. He couldn’t face them one more time. He couldn’t, even if he tried.
He was starting to forget their voices.
He was starting to forget their names.
He was forgetting everything.
He was frustrated at himself for this. He was forgetting everything about his past, even… even his family.
He gritted his teeth. He felt frustrated whenever he saw somepony’s face as he walked into a room, not being able to figure out who they were. He was sick of hearing chopped up and jumbled voices in his head and never being able to pinpoint who they belonged to. He was confident in his ability to remember those who had passed. He had let himself down once again.
Lightning looked towards some shattered picture frames on one of the walls. They were empty, and the glass that once acted as a barrier for whatever picture would be placed inside was not covering the floor beneath them. He never remembered when he got the frames, but he could faintly remember that he obtained them for some specific reason. He just didn’t know what.
As he looked at the frames, he began to feel something in his chest. It felt as if someone had started to gouge out his heart, heaving it nothing but a hollow, useless lump of meat. He looked at the picture frames with a pained expression. He remembered why he had gotten the frames.
Ponies should have been there. His friends should have been there.
His foals were supposed to be in those picture frames. Faust above- how could he forget his foals? He placed a shivering hoof onto one of the picture frames. He felt something trickle down his cheek. Was he crying? He lifted his hoof from the picture frames and placed it on his cheek. He could feel it get a tad bit moist.
He couldn’t believe it. Why was he crying? He didn’t have a reason to cry- he didn’t! He just forgot about some stupid pictures. It’s not like he missed seeing the faces of the ponies he loved and cared for years!
He felt the tears fall faster. His breaths became quicker. His shivering became trembling, and soon enough, he felt the strength in his hooves leave him. He fell onto the ground, the sounds of his cries filling the room within the Tower. His forehooves covered his eyes, trying their best to block out the tears that now flowed at an alarming rate. His cries were loud, yet they were heard by nocreature.
He hadn’t just disappointed himself- he had outright failed in doing such a simple task. Taking a picture of a single pony- it was so easy! It was the simplest task and he managed to fuck it up, like everything else he reminded himself of.
Lightning struggled to lift himself back up. He needed to do something about this. He needed to get their pictures- or something he could remember them by. There was really only one question that prevented him from just dashing into the nearest town and hopping into the nearest Thread. How was he supposed to take pictures of ponies he couldn’t even remember?
Of course- he could just take pictures of any random pony on the streets of the nearest city and call them his friends, but that would be too easy. It wouldn’t feel right. He needed to have them in the pictures. He still remembered what they looked like, yes, but even so, he couldn’t just carelessly take a picture of them.
‘That’ll be a problem for Future Lightning to take care of,’ he voiced in his head. ‘Plans come later. For now, we go.’
He hovered the blanket to him with the aid of his magic, wrapping it tightly around his body. ‘Need to find a proper cloak later,’ he noted. He looked back at the room he was about to leave and gulped.
He really didn’t want to go back and face them, but he knew it was the right thing to do.
At least, that’s what his heart told him.
Author's Note
Hello! This is going to be my first story here, I hope you all enjoy it!
Yes, it involves an Alicorn, and yes, there’s a bit (a lot) of time travel involved, but trust me- it’s going to be good.
Well- I hope it does at least.
If you spot any mistakes, grammar/spelling issues, or have any issues with the story in general, please leave a comment. It helps me make the story a bit more readable.
