Reconnection

Pinkie Pie

Pinkie Pie yawned. She was very tired. Spike's party had lasted much longer than even she thought it would. But Spike deserved it. He'd been right about Twilight after all.

It was strange she had forgotten, but as soon as she actually saw Spike again she remembered. He had warned her about Twilight. And she had brushed him off, thinking he was just taking a joke too far. Shuddering, Pinkie hoped Rainbow Dash wouldn't do the same thing.

But Pinkie didn't want to worry about the past. Or was it the future? Well, whatever it was she wasn't going to worry about it.

There were other things to worry about right now, like how to take back her old job at Sugarcube Corner without the Cake's thinking she was strange. And how to make it up to the Cake's for not missing a day of work.

As she arrived, the Cake's simply said their normal hello's and told her what needed baking or mixing or displaying. Normal work stuff. Neither of them said anything about the day before, and Pinkie tried to work super duper extra hard even though they hadn't chastised her. She even left all the goodies alone, instead of eating half of them like she normally did. For some reason, it was easier to hold back than she remembered it being.

"Pinkie!" said Mr. Cake suddenly. Pinkie Pie was currently mixing cake batter and was slightly annoyed at being interrupted, wanting to finish and get started on a new batch of cookies soon. She looked up.

"Why are you crying?" he asked. "Is something wrong?"

Pinkie dropped what she was doing and lifted a hoof to rub against her cheek. Sure enough, there were tears. She was crying and she hadn't even noticed.

Quickly, Pinkie rubbed the tears away. She didn't say anything as she went back to mixing. As she mixed however, she saw drops of water fall into the batter. Pinkie stopped what she was doing to rub the tears away again. She didn't know why this was happening.

"Pinkie if you need another day off -" began Mr. Cake but he was cut off with an emphatic "No!" from Pinkie Pie.

"I can't take another day off Mr. Cake, I need to make up for yesterday!"

Pinkie didn't wait for a reply before going back to work. Only a few moments passed however before she could feel her crying intensify. She looked around. Now she understood.

Awkwardly, Mr. Cake stepped forward and patted Pinkie on the shoulder. He was trying to comfort her, but there was nothing he could do to help. Sugercube Corner, her place of work for years, the place she used to send her foals when she needed somebody else to look after them, had also been the last thing she saw before dying. And the place where her kids and Mr. And Mrs. Cake had died. Suddenly, she didn't want to be here anymore. She couldn't put it off anymore with thoughts of planning or throwing herself at her work. She just wanted to be alone and cry.

Applejack

Getting back into the swing of things hadn't been as hard as Applejack thought it'd be. She supposed it was really all because of Big Macintosh's help. He'd told her again what needed to be done around the farm, reminded her that some things hadn't happened yet and covered for her when she was confused about some random event from "a few weeks back" was being mentioned that she'd forgotten.

Really, she was surprised at how good she felt, considering everything that had happened. She no longer cried herself to sleep every night, or broke down in the middle of moving apples to the barn. Not to say she didn't still feel sad whenever she thought about dying and her foal she never got to meet and never got a chance to live. No, she thought to herself. Thinking about that was just asking for a relapse.

"Hey A.J.," said Big Macintosh, pulling a cartful of apples with him. You feeling alright to go into town and do some selling?"

Applejack shrugged. "If that's what needs to be done big brother, then I sure as shootin' gonna do it."

Big Mac's eyes looked at the ground beneath Applejack's feet before going back up to meet her eyes.

"You want me to come with you? It's no problem if you still need -"

"No just hold on right there Big Macintosh, you can quit your fussing! I'm alright." She paused. "Well, as alright as I'm going to be for a while anyway. I appreciate your concern but I'm okay enough to do something so simple as selling apples."

"If you're sure A.J."

She was.

Getting everything together was easy. It was like all those months of taking time off due to pregnancy hadn't happened. She'd been doing this sort of things for years after all, it was all second nature.

Once she was into town, she did her best to attract customers and sell her product. Judging by the number of ponies who came in to buy apples, both regular customers and some ponies who were only passing by, she was doing a good job.

And then something unexpected happened. Something that really, Applejack should have seen coming. She shouldn't have agreed to come and stand here for hours while just any local pony could walk by. Because walking towards her right now was a pony Applejack didn't want to see again, for fear of breaking down into tears again. Walking towards her right now was Peanut Rush. All young and happy, having never met her before in his life.

Applejack wanted to run, applecart and money be damned. Anything to get out of there.

Applejack steeled herself. She'd done enough running. For once she was going to confront a ghost of her future head on.
She stood perfectly still as the brown colt came up to the cart and inspected some of her apples. Finally, picking out six of them, he asked her, "How much?"

Applejack looked down and had to think.

"Uh, just take them. Free of charge." She tried to smile but worried it was coming out as more of a grimace.

Her worries were unfounded as he smiled brightly back at her. Applejack's heart broke in her chest.

"Well thanks! That's quite nice of you to offer, but I couldn't possibly agree to that!" He dropped a couple of coins in front of her, took his apples and turned around.

"Say," yelled Applejack before she could stop herself. He turned back around to face her. She tried to smile again. "You look familiar," she began. "Do you play Hoofball by any chance?"

He looked at her oddly for a moment.

"No, can't say that I do. I've never been into sports much."

Applejack's mind turned blank. That was impossible. Peanut said something but for some reason Applejack couldn't hear it.

Peanut had always been a big Hoofball player, even before they had met. And this was most assuredly Peanut Rush. Applejack could never in a million years confuse him with somepony else.

Peanut looked at her strangely and then turned back to leave. Applejack could only watch, still as a statue as he left. It was just another thing that was happening differently than she and Pinkie Pie remembered it. She would have to tell Pinkie and Big Mac as soon as possible. But in the meantime, she had apples to sell.

Applejack didn't attract many customers for the rest of the day. Probably something to do with her complete silence. But silence was better than another breakdown.

Rainbow Dash

Rainbow Dash was spending her week doing something she never in a million years thought she would do.

Every day she's get up as early as possible to finish her weather work as quickly as she could. The other Pegasus ponies had finally stopped making side glances at here and talking behind her back. Obviously they thought she was just tired before and had finally gotten the rest she needed to act normally. Even so, Rainbow Dash was happy they were leaving her alone again.

After she was done with her weather tasks, Rainbow Dash would forego practicing aerial tricks, napping, or hanging out with friends, to instead spy on either Pinkie Pie or Twilight. Rainbow Dash had decided to alternate days. One day she'd spend all day watching Pinkie, and all night Twilight. The next, the reverse. It got boring every now and then, but something told her she wasn't wasting her time.

So far, Rainbow Dash had learned the following.

Something bad had happened to Pinkie Pie. It was clear when the morning after Spike's going away party she had just collapsed into tears. Rainbow Dash had never seen Pinkie do anything like it before, and it took all her strength to keep from flying in and trying to comfort the poor pony. Pinkie stayed home the next few days at the Cake's insistence, and she continued to do a lot of crying. And writing. Rainbow Dash had never taken Pinkie Pie for a writer, but she'd never spied on her constantly either. She hadn't yet managed to get a look at what Pinkie Pie was writing, but it was only a matter of time.

Twilight also liked to write. It seemed that pony did nothing else. She wasn't even reading and taking notes, she just wrote all the time, filling up notebook after notebook, and drew large complicated diagrams on the sometimes visible chalkboard that was in the library. Rainbow Dash couldn't make heads or tails of what Twilight was working on, but whatever it was it looked really complicated.

This particular evening however, Twilight was not writing. Instead, she looked like she was packing all her work away to take it somewhere. Her eyes darted to the window and Rainbow Dash flashed out of sight. So far, nopony had ever given the slightest indication that they knew she was watching. She hoped she was fast enough to keep that up.

As soon as she thought it was safe, Rainbow Dash looked into the window again. Twilight was wearing her saddlebags, which were obviously full of notebooks and papers and whatever. And suddenly, a bright flash. Rainbow Dash blinked.

Twilight was gone.

Rainbow Dash grumbled to herself that Twilight had teleported away to who knows where and wasn't there to spy on anymore.

Collecting her thoughts, she decided that since there was no more Twilight she'd have to watch Pinkie again.

Pinkie finally, wasn't spending her night crying or writing. Instead, she just seemed to lay by herself on her bed. Rainbow Dash thought then she must be wasting her time, and decided for the first time since she began spying to cut the night short and head home.

At her house, Rainbow Dash found a letter addressed to her. Opening it up, her face brightened slightly as she saw it was from Spike. They really were going to keep in touch. Setting herself on her bed, Rainbow Dash began to read.

Twilight Sparkle

"Your Majesty," said Twilight Sparkle, bowing.

Princess Celestia didn't look happy, but did look curious. That was something at least.

"Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student, why did you need to see me again so soon?"

Twilight unstrapped her bags and let them fall to the floor, but she didn't open them quite yet.

"I've been doing a lot of research lately, and I think I've stumbled across something very important."

"Go on," said the Princess.

Twilight didn't know how to begin, but her theory had become irrefutable despite its complete unorthodoxy. She would just have to begin at the beginning. Well, as much of the beginning that she wanted Celestia to know.

"Your Majesty," she began. "After you gave me the task of gathering all the elements, I of course did as much research as I could into how this was done, even after you explained it to me. But something felt wrong about the whole thing."

"Are you saying you have moral objections to completing this very important task?"

Twilight maintained her composure. "That's not what I mean. Believe me when I say I have absolutely no reservations whatsoever about this task. Some things just have to be done. This is one of them."

"Then what's the problem exactly?"

"The problem is I do not believe the method you, and various other sources, describe actually severs elements."

Now it was time to open her bags. She dug through the notebooks and found a large diagram she had made just for this occasion, to help show she hadn't gone completely crazy. She unfolded it and laid it out on the ground facing the princess. Celestia looked over the diagram, the interest on her face visibly increasing.

"If I am correct," resumed Twilight, "what is done through this method is a transferring of life force and magical power from one pony to another. Holders of elements have their magical power augmented greatly by virtue of holding the elements, hence apotheosis is truly possible through this method."

"Why does this augmentation occur?" Celestia sounded less curious now, and more as if she were trying to decide if Twilight should be struck down or not.

Twilight dug through her bags again looking for a specific notebook. After finding it, she dropped it next to the diagram.
"My notes and proofs on that subject are in there, but it's my theory that without such augmentation, a pony would die from holding an element. After much study, I've come to the conclusion the elements themselves are partially alive, or at least somehow aware of things, and so want to make sure their hosts can actually hold them."

"Do you have any notes on that subject?"

Twilight nodded, but just pointed back to her bag.

"There's more. Given all this and considering my task was to sever the elements, I've come to the conclusion that if I am to complete this task, I will have to find the way to properly do it. A way that isn't what you've described to me. That is, unless gaining the elements is not the important part, and apotheosis is. What should I do, your majesty?"

She was ready to continue on either which way Celestia chose. The princess looked at her, hard, but then her eyes fell back to the diagram. She then magically levitated her notebook and began to look through it. Twilight was patient as the princess read, and inside Twilight was both amused and prideful at the princess, who's eyes were widening in shock more and more as she read.

Finally she slammed the notebook shut and let it fall to the ground. Twilight suddenly became fearful, but tried not to let it show. Celestia could be mean when she was angry.

"Are you sure about those power estimates?"

"Which ones?" asked Twilight Sparkle.

"You suggest that a successful severing of all the elements would produce an increase in magical power around ten times that of using the, ahem, established method."

"Yes, your majesty. It wouldn't be for each one however, the final power increase is due to a synergistic affect from having all the elements. Just having four or five would not be enough for apotheosis."

The princess nodded. "Yes, I read that too. Still, you ask if your task is to sever the elements, or to gain apotheosis. The answer is both. Preferably, you should have the elements. But if you cannot figure out a way to get them, don't waste your time on it. It will take a long, long time to reach your goal even with the established methods. I suggest if you do not have a plan to properly take the elements in a year, you abandon the idea and go with the orthodox opinions on the subject."

Twilight nodded. "Of course, your majesty."

Rarity

Rarity felt herself fall. It hurt, but it was absolutely nothing compared to the pain she had become familiar with in the past few days. She thought she would go absolutely insane from it.

She opened her eyes, and gasped. She got up immediately and looked at herself. She was standing in front of her mirror, here in her boutique in Ponyville. And she was young! As young and beautiful as she had ever remembered herself being. She looked around. Various costumes and outfits were being shown off, as if the place had never been left alone for all those years.

Rarity didn't need to think on it. Somehow, she knew without a doubt what happened. She had died of those burns, without telling Fluttershy of Twilight's plans, and somehow she was back here in her old body. She always had an eye for detail, and taking one look around the place told her that she had gone far into the past, and if she knew Twilight yet, it hadn't known her for very long.

Twilight. At the very thought of that pony, Rarity quivered in Rage. She looked outside a window. It was night. She would end this right now.

She ran out of her boutique, and didn't stop to close the door behind her. As she arrived at Twilight's house, she saw the lights were indeed on. Somebody did live here, and nobody had ever lived here but Twilight.

She was just about to kick down the door when she stopped.

She could feel the adrenaline leaving her system. She began to think more clearly, and an inescapable fact made itself known. If Twilight was awake now, and Rarity attempted to kill her, Rarity would fail. Twilight had always been better at magic, even stupid young Twilight from all those years ago could beat her. She would have to come up with something else, something to take Twilight by surprise. She would have to find a way to get around Twilight's magical ability. A wicked grin split Rarity's face.

And while she was at it, she'd come up with some absolutely marvellous torture methods. Rarity knew she was the paragon of generosity. So when it came time to get rid of Twilight, she wouldn't hold back on showing the foal every ounce of pain Rarity herself had ever felt. And then some.

Rarity silently turned back around, and made her way back to her boutique. She stopped for a moment as she heard some rustling in Twilight's tree, but as there was no further sound, she continue back on her way.