I woke up the next morning alone in another mare's bed. Normally, this wouldn't bother me. Normally though, I wouldn't be on a mission to fix a planet wide apocalypse. Deciding not to waste any more of my admittedly infinite time ruminating, I decided to see where Fluttershy scurried off to. To my pleasant surprise, I found her lounging on her threadbare sofa nursing a mug of tea while a second steaming mug was resting on the kitchen counter. Deciding to play along, I levitated what I assumed to be my cup over while I made myself comfortable on the opposite end of the sofa.

Fluttershy took a quick sip of her tea before finally breaking the silence. "The alicorns told me you're a time traveler, is that true?"

"Yes," I replied curtly.

"So, what all do you know?" Fluttershy asked the moment I started sipping my tea. "For that matter, who exactly are you, and why are you here?" More than the abrupt interrogation, it was her eyes that took me off guard, filled as they were with the resentment of a lifetime of unimaginable suffering.

After taking a moment to gather my thoughts as to not offend the fragile, yet terrifying mare in front of me, I started explaining. "Well, in order, I basically know next to nothing. On my way here from Ponyville, I helped a caravan fight some big scorpions, I had a brief conversation with a pegasus filly named Bunny Kicker, I freaked out at the sun and moon being in the sky at the same time, and after trying to save a group of ponies in bondage gear from giant bat monsters, they tried eating me. Suffice it to say, it hasn’t been a fun time.” I took a deep breathe and shook my head to reorient my thoughts before continuing.

"Anyways, then I met Berry. They read my mind and then brought me to meet you here. That's all I know for sure, but if I had to guess, I'd say it's been about a decade or two since the world ended, and ponies are just now starting to fix things up a bit."

Though I tried to give my best reassuring smile, Fluttershy’s pointed gaze still betrayed suspicion. “You still haven’t told me who you are, or why you’re here.” She pointed out.

"Right, well like I told you yesterday, my name is Starlight Glimmer, and this might sound crazy, but I'm actually the princess of time. At least, that's the title I was given. I was sent here by the elements of harmony of my timeline to fix whatever went wrong in this timeline, and it specifically sent me to you. I'm not sure why it wouldn't send me to anypony else, but I'm just glad you aren't some kind of mass murderer… or…" I trailed off as I noticed Fluttershy wincing as if I had struck her.

"Well I guess I'm not as far off from the mark as you might think," she mumbled just above a whisper. "I'm not sure how you're here or how you knew how to calm me down last night, but I'd have to believe you have some kind of time manipulation magic. Otherwise, you'd already know the world ended two hundred years ago, and that it was all my fault."

"Celestia damnit... didn't see that one coming.” Rather than let the fragile mare see my bitter reaction to this news, I quickly demanifested back to the astral plane to let the universe know exactly what I thought of its sick games, as well as several creative activities it could do with its mother. Once I finally got the rage out of my system, I remanifested back to Fluttershy's couch one second after I had left. "My apologies, I had an important matter to deal with," I rasped out after having abused my own vocal cords for over an hour. "Please continue," I said as I took another sip of my tea.

To my surprise, Fluttershy narrowed her eyes at me angrily in response.. "What, do I need to admit all my sins to you before you'll help? Just go back in time or something and stop the war!"

I recoiled in shock that Fluttershy of all ponies would speak so callously. ...you must remember she isn't the mare you think she is. Be gentle and patient with her… Remembering Berry’s words from last night, My ears splayed back and I tried to shrink back into the sofa. "I'm sorry, Fluttershy. I know this must be hard. But any information you can give me might be critical to helping me stop the war. I just need to know why the war happened, and when, so I can do my best to fix it."

Seeing me mimic her usual body language must have gotten through to her. Soon she mirrored my meek posture. "No, it’s not your fault. I'm sorry for lashing out, I really do want to help you. I guess I'm on edge from my therapy sessions. If you can stop the war, you'd save countless lives, that’s more important than my feelings. I just wish I could tell you what actually started it," she admitted sheepishly.

That got me to sit up in surprise. "Wait, you don’t know? weren't you a top ranking member of the government?"

Fluttershy shrank back even further and her voice grew pained. "Starlight, I was conscious for the last two centuries. On top of that, I don't think anypony really knew the reason. But what I can tell you is what made everything worse and led to Celestia stepping down."

My ears pointed forward, all my attention was on her. "And what might that be?"

"The Littlehorn Massacre." Fluttershy peaked out from her mane to see me sitting in rapt attention. "Before the war started, Celestia commissioned the construction of a school for Luna to run. It was meant as a gesture, to show Celestia thought of her sister as an equal. When the war started, the security at the school was increased due to its close proximity to the Zebrican border."

As Fluttershy spoke, her voice took on an increasingly hard edge. "One day a small caravan of zebra refugees came within shooting distance, so the school security opened fire," she spat in clear contempt. "In retaliation, a zebra snuck into the school and planted some sort of chemical bomb. There was only one survivor, the one pony who didn't deserve to live."

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. "What?"

Fluttershy just snorted in derision. "Forget I mentioned it," she muttered darkly. "In any case, seeing so many foals killed in cold blood like that broke something in Celestia. Everything just spiraled downward from there. The ministries, the escalating arms race, the megaspells." At the mention of the last, Fluttershy flinched as if I was about to strike her.

As gently as I could, I spoke in her usual volume. "What's a megaspell?"

With a defeated sigh, she began studying her hooves before answering. "It's a means to amplify a regular spell to one million times its regular strength. My ministry made the first one, a healing megaspell."

My left eyebrow took an unplanned trip north. "That doesn't sound so bad, what happened?"

She finally looked up to meet my gaze. "During the first field test, my team and I set it off in the middle of a brutal battle. After we set it off, every creature on the brink of death was fully revived. The entire battle field was transformed into a vibrant meadow of flowers and wild grass."

"I fail to see how that could be considered a bad thing by anypony," I said, a hint of incredulity in my voice.

"I thought so too... but then, I was informed that instead of stopping the battle, the soldiers were ordered to keep fighting. On the other side, zebras were also advancing once again. I didn't stop the bloodshed, I just kept it going," she cried out, burying her muzzle in my mane. "After that disaster, I was ordered to give all the research notes on megaspells to the other ministries. Twilight's ministry created countless variations. One that creates a giant whirlpool to destroy zebra battle ships, one to compress a cubic mile of mass into a single point, and of course, the more generic destruction megaspells."

"So, Equestria had all these weapons of mass destruction. But surely Luna would only target the zebras with them, so how did Equestria end up destroyed, too?" Something wasn't adding up in her story.

"Because of my hubris. I thought that if I gave the zebras the notes on my healing megaspells, then both sides would have to settle for peace talks. If both sides could revive their soldiers without end, there wouldn’t be any point to the war! But instead, they used what I showed them to create new megaspells! Baelfire bombs, pink cloud, living storms! It just goes to show what I know! This is what I get for believing in the equinity of others! The end of the bucking world!" Fluttershy's outburst was punctuated with a hoof stomp on the floor that caused a few cracks to form.

Well, that wasn’t nearly as bad as I feared. At least she’s not grinding her friends down into cupcakes. I thought before I decided to try to calm down my friend. "I don't blame you 'shy. You may have played a part in it, but the apocalypse wasn't your fault," I insisted as I gently placed my hoof on hers. She gave me the ghost of a smile.

"Thanks Starlight, you're a really good pony. I'm glad I was able to meet you."

"Same here. You and your friends kinda saved me from destroying my original timeline, so I don't know how good of a pony I can really be." I rubbed the back of my head with a sheepish grin.

"Well, look at you now,doing what you can to save other ponies. I think if you really can prevent the war, it'll make up for any bad thing you did in the past." Her smile finally reached her eyes.

"Oh, one last question before I go, why didn't you guys use the elements of harmony to end the war? I mean, from what I've seen, they're practically a megaspell in their own right."

"Well, there wasn't exactly a single pony or creature to shoot rainbow lasers at," Fluttershy deadpanned. "War isn't like fighting Nightmare Moon or Discord."

Hopping off the couch, I gave my limbs a good stretch before turning back to my friend. "Well, I guess that's all I really need. If all goes according to plan, I'll see you in another life." With a quick salute, and a flash of my horn, I was back in my astral plane with this universe's timeline in front of me. "Next stop, Littlehorn Valley."

Not wanting to mess with any events before the timeline diverged, I located a point about five years after the thousandth summer sun celebration and manifested... in the middle of a construction zone. "Shit!" After I swerved out of the way of a steel beam on a collision course with my face, I decided to just fly up until I was out of danger. Meanwhile, I could hear quite a few creative swears from the construction ponies reacting to a random pony seemingly teleporting into their project.

Once I finally managed to find a cloud to rest on, I took a good look at my surroundings. I was relieved to see a lack of cloud islands in the sky, but I could tell just looking below to the bustling city, something still felt off. Taking to the skies once again, I started scanning the land beneath me. No sign of those towers, here’s hoping I went far back enough. Orienting myself towards the border of the zebra lands, I took off for Littlehorn.

I was still too late. "Luna damn it!" By the time I arrived at Littlehorn valley, it was clear something terrible happened. Ignoring all the bio-hazard signs, there were dozens of corpses laying half melted in pools of some sort of smoking pink liquid. "When Fluttershy said they used a chemical weapon, I thought they just meant chlorine. This is some next level magic bullshit."

Opting to preemptively get out of the way of any possible construction crews, I flew back up to find a comfortable cloud to land on. Once again, I returned to my astral plane to make another jump. "Fluttershy mentioned discord, so let's try year one thousand and two." With another flash, I was hovering above an empty valley. No pools of pink goop, no school either. "Well, that's progress I guess. Now let's go stop the end of the world!"

The flight to Canterlot was fairly uneventful, but once I actually arrived at the mountainside metropolis, I was met with the familiar sight of the palace, thankfully fully intact. Landing in front of the entrance, I was also greeted by the familiar palace guards pointing their spears in my face. "Halt! Who goes there!"

Rolling my eyes, I gave what had started to feel like a worn down sales pitch. "Starlight Glimmer, alicorn princess of time. I have an urgent message for Celestia. How soon can I see her?"

While the guards were taken aback by the sight of an unknown alicorn, their training managed to kick in when their mental faculties failed them. "If you come with me, I shall escort you to the throne room. I'm sure her highness would be eager to learn of a new alicorn."

Making our way through the palace halls, I noticed a few tiny differences. No one thing that really stood out, but just a lot of subtle oddities that made the whole place feel wrong somehow. Sure enough, while the throne room doors were just as big as ever, they were in a completely different hallway. As the posted guards opened the door for us, my chaperone announced our arrival. "My apologies for the intrusion, your majesty. An…” The pony paused as the surreality of what he was about to announce set in. “...Alicorn is here to see you.”

I casually waved up at the princess. "Hi Celestia! I’m Starlight Glimmer, You don't know me in this timeline, but I'm here with a message from the future." Even Celestia momentarily lost her composure at the sight of me, quickly lighting her horn to use some kind of analysis spell which cloaked me in a golden glow and warm, tingling feeling.

“By Starswirl’s beard…” The regal princess before me muttered as the glow faded from myself and her horn, her eyes widened in shock before her face returned to her usual enigmatic mask. "Allow me to wake my sister, she should be present for this." With a flash of light, I was teleported to a massive ornate room. I had to say, I appreciated the princesses forthrightness, constantly explaining who I was and what I was up to had gotten old a while ago.

Polished marble made up the floor and walls, a few red velvet rugs with gold trim covered the former while various book shelves and oil paintings covered the later. To the left, set into the wall was an intricately carved fireplace with various pillows set in front of it. To the right was a princess sized round red mattress with white silk sheets made perfectly. However, before I could explore the diarch's bathroom, there was a pop and flash before a groggy and annoyed Luna was standing in front of me with her more awake sister beside her.

"So… Starlight.” Celestia paused at the unfamiliar name for a moment before continuing. “What exactly is this message from the future?" Celestia was looking a bit more irritable than the last time I saw her. Perhaps her sister had something to do with that.

Taking a breath, I gathered my thoughts. "Well for starters, are you currently, and or about to be at war with the Zebras?"

"The conflict with the zebras has escalated, but I wouldn't call it a war as of yet," Celestia admitted.

"Well, if you can't immediately make peace with them, and war breaks out, I got some advice. Ignore it at the risk of me coming back here to kick your flanks!"

That got Luna's attention. "Art thou threatening us?"

"Only if you don't listen," I shot back. We held each other's glares for just a moment before Celestia put a wing over her sister and gave her a squeeze to calm down.

"We shall heed any warning you give. Please continue," Celestia insisted.

Focusing back on the solar diarch, I did just that. "Stay away from Littlehorn, if you need to build a new school, put it somewhere safer like Ponyville. There's actually a great location for one near the outskirts at the base of a mountain." Wait, but where would Twilight put her school? Ugh, whatever, not the priority now.

I shook my head to clear out the cobwebs. "Anyway, second bit of advice. Don't kill zebra refugees on sight. Lastly, the only megaspells that should be made are healing megaspells. If you want to know what a megaspell is, figure it out yourselves. But don't you dare make them an offensive weapon, or so help me I will come back and shove your heads up each other's asses."

Luna balked. "Must you be so vulgar?"

I fixed her with a glare. "Fuck yes I do. The things I've seen from the world you create would make your stomach churn. Giant scorpion monsters, giant blood sucking bat monsters, and gangs of cannibal murderers was just the tip of the iceberg!”

Luna stepped back in shock for a moment before lowering her gaze. "I see," she muttered softly, her ears drooping.

Looking back to my flank to see if I was done here, I was surprised to see it wasn't flashing. "Well, I guess I'll check to see if this works." Looking back I reiterated my points. "Remember, no Littlehorn Valley, ask questions first, shoot second, and no megaspells of death!" With that, I was gone, teleporting outside the castle I glided down to Ponyville where I spotted the cutie map. Landing on a cloud above it, I vanished to my astral plane and traveled back to two centuries in the future.

As I caught myself in mid flight, I took a look around and saw... a desolate wasteland. Where Ponyville used to be was a massive crater. While the sky wasn't full of cloud islands, and there weren't any giant spires dotting the landscape, I couldn't help but notice directly above me was a sign of the apocalypse.

A giant burning ring surrounded a black hole in the sky where the sun should be. Twilight once told me what an eclipse was... this wasn't that. There was no moon or sun in the sky, just that thing, an arc of glowing light streaking around it but otherwise blacker than the deepest night. The more I looked at it, the more I felt an odd sensation of it pulling me towards it.

Just as I was about to succumb to the vaguely ominous feeling in my gut and fly upwards, I heard the sound of thunder. No, not thunder, that was the sound of a gun. Snapping out of my trance I noticed a fight going on beneath me. "Well shit, they fucked up again." Letting out a sound that was some combination of a sigh and a groan, I zipped back to the past, one minute after I left. "I guess we'll try this again."

Footnote: Maximum Level Reached

Author's Note

Most authors appreciate feedback.

Huge thanks to my cousin for editing this