Cadance appeared in a crater.

The reality warping was getting a bit less physically jarring, or she was simply becoming accustomed to it. She was in the Crystal Empire again, only this time, the sky was dark. There was no snow, no shield, no Spire rising up to try and grab the horizon. Only ash, dust, the subtle smell of decay gone cold, and lightless chunks of crystal littering the landscape.

The wind was intense, from the major lack of anything blocking it. It looked like the world had burned down to the bedrock. Even the soil was ash, barely solid enough for Cadance to stand on.

Unlike the other times, Cadance didn't have an immediate solution to the question, 'what to do?'

It was an empty, barren wasteland, and if Cadance had learned anything from this sub-thirty minute exercise, it was that all the parallel worlds she visited were absolute. No villain winning didn't touch the entirety of Equestria, so not only was there already no point due to the world constantly changing around her, but by vision alone, she could tell that even if she flew for hours...

She probably wouldn't find anything interesting.

So...

"Huh." She huffed.

As interesting as it was basically materialize into a world devoid of life, it was only interesting because it wasn't permanent. That being said, after the last few heart pounding versions of Equestria, fighting three individual tyrants to a standstill, Cadance flomped backwards onto her flanks and took a load off.

She sat.

There wasn't much to look at, only the occasional flash of blue sky under the ash and smoke blanketing the world.

So she breathed in the air.

She looked at the sky.

She sat and just... was.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

She wasn't thinking about anything.

There were plenty of worries in the back of her mind, vying for her mental attention. Sure, she could spend this time planning, thinking about everything and everyone and all the time and actions she'd have to take or avoid or this and that. She didn't want to.

If she was going to be in a totally empty world, all by herself, for the first time in so long... well... Cadance didn't like being alone, call it force of habit, but everything had gone by so fast, and in this particular moments (mostly for obvious reasons) Cadance decided that it was time to stop.

Time for a breather.

A rest.

Some sort of acceptance of everything changing, but All of it staying the same.

'Cause that was life, wasn't it?

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Cadance chuckled.

"Needlessly poetic."

She didn't say it directed towards herself. It was a deeply subconscious irony. All this time she'd been told it wasn't a story, but it was just as much of a game as anything else. At least the narrative in her head made sense.

It used to, a least.

Cadance shrugged, smiling and shaking her head. Trying to get the over analysis of moments in her life out of her mind.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

"Well."

Cadance could feel the light coming.

This one was different, clearly. She could feel the Harmony in it.

Another deep breath.

"Oomph"

Oh, that's better.

Despite the discomfort of being pregnant, at least it was her own body again. Each of the other Cadance's she was during the...

"Oh- Ew." Cadance raised her leg.

She'd hoped she would have gotten over the physical ripping of reality twisting over itself. Her first go involved vomiting, and embarrassingly, it seemed the last 'jump' between timelines led her to soil herself. She frowned and contemplated using a spell or walking through the castle to her bathroom to clean up. Figuring she'd have to stand for either, she tried to.

aaand was promptly explained to, by her body, that no, that was, in fact, not urine.

Cadance doubled over from both the gut-buck and the realization of what was happening as the gears in her head clanked to a stop.

"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Author's Note

Merry Christmas everypony!