Iteration

by 6-D Pegasus

Rating: everyone
Tags: Science Fiction, My Little Pony: A New Generation, Tragedy, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Sunny Starscout
Length: 3465

Sunny fails to stop the crystals from devouring the land and learns a horrifying truth about her world.

Sunny fails to prevent the crystals from consuming the land in void, and she learns a horrible truth about her world.

Written for the Science Fiction Contest II, where it also won a judge prize!

Intriguing premise that came up from discussion about what G5 is, and I couldn't resist giving it a write^^

Published 2023-04-02 23:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2023-04-02 23:20:01 UTC

Failure

Dark. Darkness everywhere. Her whole body aching, Sunny reached up with a hoof to rub the top of her head. After a few seconds of massaging and pained groaning, she finally opened her eyes to glance at her surroundings.

The darkness persisted.

Sunny's eyes shot open in panic, and she began to flail around in the pitch black void. Wha- what's going on?! Am I blind?!

As if to answer her question, a mysterious source of light manifested somewhere above her, bathing her entire body in a fierce, white glow. Her mind was washed with relief as her eyes caught the familiar sight of her apricot orange muzzle in front of her. She glanced down and the last of her initial fears were dispelled upon seeing her rump and two hooves resting upon... nothing?

Tilting her head in confusion, Sunny lifted a foreleg and slammed it down hard. She definitely felt the impact, but she simply could not comprehend the feeling. She knew her hoof hit something, but there was no texture, no feeling, just a force halting the further movement of her hoof accompanied by the brief sound of impact of her hoofstep. There wasn't even a hint of echo. She leaned further down and narrowed her eyes, trying to catch even the slightest hint of a reflection or surface, but could spot nothing but unending void, the same void that stretched endlessly around her.

"H- hello? Is anypony there?" She turned her gaze upwards to try to discern the source of her mysterious spotlight, but was shocked to once again find nothing but unending darkness. What... How... She glanced back down at her body to reaffirm that she was being lit up by something from above.

"Helloooooo? Where am I?" Sunny scrambled to all four legs, trying her best to ignore the strange absence of the sight and feel of tangible ground under her hooves. She spun about in all directions, trying to discern any minute detail in the endless black surrounding her. There was nothing for her eyes to latch on to; every square inch of her sight ahead was assaulted with the same, unchanging, unrelenting shade of pure black.

After a few seconds, she picked a random direction and began furiously galloping, hoping to bring about some change in her surroundings. Minutes went by with no such change in sight. Was it minutes? It could've been hours; without even a single other object to use as a reference, Sunny realized she no longer had any way of telling how much time was passing. Her thoughts felt pretty normal speed, but like a musician lost in their song without a conductor or metronome, she would have no means of knowing whether her perception of time was speeding up or slowing down.

"Please! Somepony! Anypony! I- I don't understand, just please... somepony... say something..." She called out pleadingly into the void and was met with nothing but deafening silence. As soon as she felt the slightest of aches in her hooves, Sunny skidded to a stop before collapsing to the unseen, unfeeling surface that served as her only company. In the void of noise, she became acutely aware of every single sound around her; every breath she took, every shift of her limb, even the now racing beat of her heart became a cacophony of chaos to her ears, which folded down tightly against the sides of her head.

The first tear was barely beginning to fall from her eyes when a blinding flash of violet light exploded from ahead of her. Sunny gasped and Instinctively squeezed her eyes shut, but sheer brightness of the light penetrated mercilessly through her eyelids, forcing her to bring both forelegs up to shield her face. She felt a wave of heat race over her fur as she started to scramble away from the source in fear. Wha- what is this? Is this it for me? Is this the light at the end of the tunnel?

Gradually, the light began to dim, and eventually she found the light weak enough for her to lower her forelegs and open her eyes. In front of her remained a blinding, violet light, almost as if she were looking at the a slightly dimmer sun, that seemed to float ever closer to her as it got dimmer and dimmer. Soon, the light had become just dim enough for her to discern the source: a tall, majestic unicorn radiating with a warm, violet glow, her long, purple mane billowing behind her in an unseen wind. Her eyes glowed a fierce white, and a golden crown rested atop her head. Wait, no, Sunny thought as the glare around it faded further, allowing her to spot the fully unfurled wings on either side of its form.

An alicorn...

The alicorn stopped in front of her, towering above her at nearly twice her height. The glow in her eye receded, revealing a set of soft, lavender irises. She looked down at Sunny for a few seconds, an unreadable expression on her face, before making a clicking sound with her tongue.

"Tsk, well that didn't work."

As Sunny stared at her in awe, a spark of recognition flashed through her eye. Keeping her eye trained with the alicorn's, she tilted her head to bring the alicorn's flank within view, then flickered her gaze briefly towards it.

An all too familiar cutie mark of a purple star surrounded by five white stars rested on her flank. Sunny's eyes widened as years and years of glancing towards the wooden figurines of six particular ponies beside her bed flooded her mind.

"Twi- Twilight? Twilight Sparkle?"

The purple alicorn chuckled softly. "Ah, I'm glad to hear the memory of my name has lasted long enough this time."

Sunny tilted her head in confusion. "Lasted long enough this time? Twilight, what are you talking about?" She looked around in fear at the darkness surrounding her. "And where am I? How did I get here?"

Twilight looked at her with a frown. "Hm. So looks like your memory is also fading faster than the last iteration... I'll have to undo that last change then next ti-"

"Twilight, please! Where are my friends?! Where is everypony?!" Tears were beginning to form in Sunny's eyes once more when she felt a hoof under her chin gently lift her drooping head. She looked back up to the alicorn towering before, who now wore a gentle smile.

"Do not worry about them, little one. For now though, I can restore your short-term memories of this run if it helps."

"This run? What are you-" Before Sunny could get another word out, Twilight lowered her horn and pressed it gently against her forehead. It glowed with a brilliant, purple aura, and like one feels when drawing back the curtain on a sunny morning, her mind was nearly blinded by the sudden influx of memories.

"Posey! Windy!"

Sunny watched in horror as the growing pit of darkness swallowed the earth pony and pegasus that had been caught too close to its edge. She steeled herself before turning to Izzy, whose frightened expression mirrored her own. "I'm going in after them."

"Wait!" Sunny froze as she felt a hoof on her shoulder. She turned around to see her remodeled lantern floating in Izzy's magic. "It's too dark in there, this should help you find them!"

Sunny smiled gently to her friend. "Thanks, Izzy. I'll bring them back!" She grabbed the lantern in her mouth before turning around and galloping towards the void. Her heart raced in her chest as she spared a few glances around her. The ground was littered with the remains of the festival's many stands, streamers, and banners, ripped apart and thrown about by the fierce winds and panic of ponies.

"I can do this." Sunny muttered to herself as she dived into the growing, dark pit, shivering as the cold within embraced her. She paid it no heed and kept her eyes locked on the distant pink and yellow points of light in the distance, their screams carrying faintly to her ears.

She reached deep within herself and tapped into the swirling stream of golden magic spiraling inside, allowing it to manifest around her in the form of a horn and pair of wings. After taking a second to readjust to her new limbs, she oriented herself downwards and gave her wings a powerful flap, propelling herself rapidly towards the falling pair of ponies.

Their cries became louder as she zoomed closer, their flailing forms becoming more and more clear as she closed the distance. In a few seconds, she would be within throwing distance of them, but she knew she didn't have the strength to carry two full grown ponies, alicorn magic or not. She racked her mind for solutions before remembering her horn: she didn't just have magic now; she could actively use it too.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she envisioned a giant, golden bubble surrounding her form. She could feel the magic radiate from within, and judging by the growing glow through her eyelids, her plan was working.

Finally, she imagined this bubble shooting towards Windy and Posey, wrapping them both in telekinetic energy. Once she had the vision held in her mind, she reached out and-

Tzzzt

Sunny's eyes shot open as she felt something within her die. It was if something has reached deep inside her and ripped out a crucial part of her being, her soul. All around her, the golden glow of magic sputtered and faded, the bubble she had been growing dissipating into the nothing.

"What?! Nononono!" In a panic, she tried to put her energy into another flap of her wings, only to feel... nothing. She spared a quick glance behind her and saw her glowing wings also vanishing into a splash of golden sparkles.

"This can't be happening right now, please!" Sunny closed her eyes once more and tried to reach for the well of magic inside her, only to find a void as dark and empty as the one surrounding her. She searched and searched, but found the same result. Just aa the void had sucked away the land and light of her world, it had also drained her magic, leaving her completely and utterly helpless as she continued her downwards dive.

She looked ahead and caught Posey's gaze in the distance. The two ponies she was supposed to save had seen her magic leave her form and had stopped screaming, as if they knew that was it. Posey's pleading eyes locked with hers one final time, her mouth moving to mouth the words "I'm sorry."

It was the last Sunny saw of her as her and Windy's bodies dissolved into nothing, becoming one with the endless dark around her.

Her eyes widened in horror and she began flailing desperately, trying to reach for something, anything, that could save her, but it was no use. As she felt her body and mind become undone, she tilted her head up and stared into the distant shrinking light and thought of her friends, her father, the mother she never knew. One final thought left her mind as it held those memories close

"I'm sorry too..."

And then she became nothing, and nothing became her.

Sunny's eyes shot open and she gasped in shock, backpedalling away from Twilight's horn. She patted herself down with her hooves, making sure she was still all here. Her heart pounded in her chest, her mind racing to handle the rush of memories. Suddenly, reality hit her like a brick to the face and she slowly looked back to Twilight, who only stared at her solemnly.

"I... died. Didn't I?"

Twilight lifted a hoof to her chin. "Hmmm yes and no."

Sunny blinked. "What? How can I both be dead and not be dead?"

Twilight inhaled sharply. "You died in this reality, but this reality also never existed."

Sunny froze, her mouth open. "I-... what?"

Twilight looked away and sighed. "Everything you've known, everything you've experienced, all of it... it never truly happe-."

"I heard you the first time!" Sunny snapped back, her cheeks flushed red in anger. "What does that mean?! I remember everything! I remember traveling to Zephyr Heights, to Bridlewood. I remember meeting Pipp, Zipp, Izzy, Hitch, Sprout." Tears began to well in her eyes. "I remember all the stories my dad would tell me, all the crafts and treats we would make together." The tears were flowing freely now. "I remember sitting beside him in bed as disease stole him from me, and I remember sitting in front of his grave, promising to carry on his work and reunite the three tribes of ponies!"

She stomped a hoof down furiously. "I remember all of it, so distant and yet so clearly! You can't tell me none of that ever happened!"

Twilight only shook her head sadly. "All of that did happen for you, and it IS real to you. But to my reality, it never happened. At least, not yet."

Sunny fell to her rump, her head spinning and throbbing. She closed her eyes and reached a hoof up to rub the top of her head, groaning in exasperation. "But what does that mean?!"

Twilight followed suit and sat on her haunches, though continued to dwarf her in height. She took a deep breath. "Before he passed, a great wizard from my time named Starswirl the Bearded spoke of a coming disaster. Something relating to the magic of Equestria that would put the entire world in danger. Something that I, not even with my friends, could prevent. But we could prepare Equestria to recover after it."

Sunny's ears perked up."What sort of disaster?"

"I... don't know. I still don't know. Whatever it is starts about a hundred years from my time, and the future around it is clouded in a way that no spell to date, even with my magic, is able to pierce the fog of the future to see it. But I've figured out a way to shoot past it."

"Woah wait, spells? I thought those were a thing in stories? The only thing unicorns have been able to do with their magic are lift objects and-"

"Oh, Sunny..." Twilight chuckled and shook her head. "Magic has been gone from your timeline for so many generations, the art of spellcrafting has been long since lost to time among the surviving unicorns. But forgive me, I don't wanna ramble on and on again like last time."

"Last time?"

Twilight took another deep breath. "A close friend of mine has spent decades researching into time magic, and I mastered a certain spell that allows me to visualize different what-if scenarios that I once used for more... paranoid reasons. She combined a mix of spells with my own to allow me to view different alternate timelines based on different ways by which I try to fight the coming disaster. I can't view the timeline at or around the actual event, but I can see centuries ahead to view what the ultimate outcome of my decision. I'm then able to experience and view the entirety of this alternate timeline within a short period of time, allowing me to do this over and over until I can finally find the set of decisions and actions that would eventually lead to securing Equestria's future without us. This... this has been going on for quite some time now..."

"You can see-" Sunny's widened as realization dawned on her. "So... this is-"

"Yes, Sunny." Twilight nodded, a weak smile plastering her muzzle. "I'm sorry, but you're at the end of one of many simulated timelines, one in which my decision to split the magic of Equestria across three crystals resulted first in an eventual, temporary reunion of the three races, followed shortly by their end as a result of an overreaction by the crystals in response to disharmony."

Sunny thought back to the events leading to what was supposed to be a celebration for the reunification of the tribes. While there had certainly been several upsets along the way, they were relatively tame compared to what could've caused a split between the raced for generations. Regardless of how small the discourse was, the crystals would glitch out, causing temporary magic outages. "The crystals... weren't supposed to act that way?"

"I designed the crystals to hold and then disperse the magic throughout the remaining ponies of the populace once they detected a return of harmony to the natural ambient magic field. I am... quite surprised that they gave you a pseudo-alicorn form, but that might be my fault as I had set the parameters on the crystals much more loosely. I'll have to get that right next time."

"Ne- next time?! Wait, what are you-"

Twilight's horn flashed briefly, and she looked up. "My time in this iteration has ended, Sunny." She climbed to her hooves and gave a guilty look at Sunny. "It doesn't hurt any less each time I have to say this. Sometimes, it's not even you who I see at the end of each timeline, but you've by far been the most frequent." She offered a final, gentle smile before turning away and walking into the distance. "Goodbye, Sunny. I'll see you again soon."

Sunny's eyes widened as the majestic alicorn started to leave. She lifted a hoof to reach out to her. "Wait, don't go! I-"

Whatever words she planned to say died inside her as she saw the hoof in front of her slowly dissolve, followed by the rest of her body.

"Please... what did I do wrong... what... why-"

The dissolution reached her mouth, and Sunny found she could no longer speak. Twilight turned around one final time, and offered one last, teary-eyed smile.

"This was never supposed to be your battle to fight, Sunny."

Her eyes followed her body into nothingness, plunging her into the darkness in which she first awoke.

"But I'll make sure you never have to fight it ever again."

Her ears followed, then her mind as everything Sunny knew and remembered became...

Nothing.

Twilight's eyes shot open as she tumbled to the floor, the magic from her spell no longer supporting her. She let out a huge breath she didn't realize her body had been holding in.

"Twilight! Are you alright?"

Twilight glanced up to see a familiar, light lilac-coated unicorn with a twirled, purple and teal mane. Several streaks of gray cut through her colored stripes, and dark circles rested beneath her tired, iris blue eyes, which scanned her concerningly. "Yes, I'm fine, thanks Starlight."

"Are you sure, Twilight? We can rest now if you wa-"

"No, I- I can't rest, Starlight... not until I figure this out. Equestria is counting on me. Spike!"

In the distance, a tall, purple dragon with spikey, green spines perked up. "Oh, you're finally back, Twi? That was way longer than the last one."

"Was it? Well, record the new time along with the following observations: as observed in all prior iterations, the three tribes split up sometime between 100 to 500 years from now. 782 years after present time, Earth pony 212C unites again with ponies 482B, 421B, 215C, and 118A. The three tribes are reuinified for a total of three weeks before the crystals malfunction and take drastic measures against even the smallest of conflicts, resulting in the end of the world... again.

Spike winced as he finished jotting down the note. "Owch, again?"

Twilight nodded. "Granted, this timeline lasted far longer than the others since I made sure to place the earth pony crystal in the hooves of a descendant of pony 212C, or Sunny. I've got a good feeling about her, though I'd still prefer to know why exactly no records of the disaster exist in the far future."

Spike only shrugged. "You want to try again? The girls are supposed to come over in about an hour, so that can be the last iteration for today before we wrap things up until tomorrow."

Twilight nodded. "... you know what? That sounds good. You ready, Starlight?"

"Oh yeah, you know it." Starlight closed her eyes and her horn glowed with a brilliant, teal glow. From it streamed a whisp of teal energy that flowed into the spell sigil surrounding Twilight, causing it to glow brightly. Twilight felt the spell matrix take form in her mind as she began to float in its power, and she closed her eyes to focus on its parameters.

"Take a note, Spike. Next iteration. Experiment #1849..."

"...let's try six crystals this time."

Author's Note

My first time writing something dark! Hope you enjoyed! Feel free to leave comments as feedback.