“And then she said that our visitor would be leaving soon, so I just had to return and meet her before she left. It's not every day one gets to meet a genuine ‘antique’ pony!” Rarity enthused as she walked alongside Applejack, her purple and white-fur-trimmed cape flowing behind her as they trotted down Canterlot Castle’s central corridor.
“Ah just don't understand how Pinkie Pie could have possibly known all that. She knew more than me, and Ah was here!”
“You should know by now not to question Pinkie Pie’s uncanny intuition, darling. Best not to put too much thought into it.”
The earth pony sighed, shaking her head. Some things were just beyond a simple country mare’s understanding.
“So what about yer thing in Las Pegasus with Flim and Flam? Don’t they need ya there?”
“Oh please, that barely took a day,” she exclaimed with a chuckle. “Truthfully, I just wanted an excuse to check in on Pistachio. He's doing a fantastic job running the Las Pegasus Carousel—you wouldn't believe the daring and bold choices he's made for his Autumn collection. And to think that I never would have met such a bright, young talent if it weren't for a delivery snafu.”
“Funny how things work out like that, huh? Ah wonder how Derpy’s doin’ these days. Ain’t seen her in the post office for some time now.”
“Oh, you don’t know? Twilight asked her to become the Equestria-wide liaison for differently-abled creatures. She goes around ensuring that every town has sufficient education, employment opportunities, and amenities—ramps, brayal books, school bullying seminars, things like that.”
“Well ain’t that somethin’.”
Finally reaching and ascending the stairs at the end of the long red carpet, Applejack tipped her hat to the assigned guards as they opened the two huge doors leading to the throne room.
“Rarity, you're back!” Twilight exclaimed with joy, standing from her throne to meet her guests halfway. “I was surprised to hear you were coming back to Canterlot so soon.”
Rarity lowered herself into a courteous bow, making the Princess blush.
“After hearing about your new special guest from Pinkie Pie, I couldn’t possibly allow myself to miss out on some first-hoof insight into Pre-Classical fashion. One must always be cognisant of the past's styles to design those of the future, I always say.”
“Ya do?” AJ asked wryly.
“But of course! Studying past seasons’ styles is paramount to evolving trends and learning from past missteps. Why, last summer’s hemmed lace debacle was-”
“Alright, alright, I believe ya.”
Twilight looked confused. “I… I don’t recall telling Pinkie when she was from.”
Applejack shook her head with closed eyes, warning her to not even ask. Heeding this age-old advice, the Princess moved on.
“Sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t think she’s exactly the ‘fashion’ type.”
“Nonsense! What creature doesn’t recognise the fashion of their time? Even Applejack understands the importance of the correct accessory, regardless of how woefully practical it is.”
AJ huffed in contempt as Rarity continued undeterred.
“Even a laycreature’s eye for texture, fabric, colours, and popular looks of the time could be invaluable, both for modern fashion and historic preservation. Goodness knows there’s a disturbing lack of information on the era.”
“You can say that again,” Twilight grumbled, recalling her tireless hours of work in the royal library and specialist archives across Equestria. “Still, I’m not sure she’ll be all that receptive to your questions. It was hard enough learning her name, let alone era-specific widths of pleats.”
“Never joke about the impact pleat width has had on the shape and flow of a garment, darling. You know, I thought for the longest time that Big Mac was a fashion cul-de-sac without a stylish bone in his body, but then he started wearing that jaunty waistcoat combo, and what a difference it makes to his outward persona! Of course, that could well be all Sugar Belle’s doing. Yes, it’s quite plain, and earth tones are so four seasons ago, but it’s infinitely better than lugging that hideous yoke around all day, don’t you think?”
She turned to get AJ’s opinion, who was staring at the wall in a haze, far from interested in her brother’s fashion choices. Rarity continued.
“If he can revitalise his look, there’s hope for you yet, Applejack. You could do with running a comb through your hair once in a while you know, dear; but that neckerchief is trés chic. Thrifting is very 'in' this year.”
Applejack blinked in stunned silence before turning to the white unicorn with a fierce glare.
“This were Granny Smith’s neckerchief, y’know.”
“And I’m sure she would be proud of how well you pull it off, darling.”
Grunting in frustration, Applejack turned her attention back to Twilight.
“That aside, we're here now. What was it you wanted us for?”
The Princess wrestled down her wry smile, having missed the presence of this banter in her daily life. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
“Well, we’ve been having a little difficulty managing Shooting Star’s behaviour since she arrived—thank you again for searching for her last night, by the way—”
“T’weren’t nothin', Princess. Ah’m just glad she turned up safe in the end.”
“—and I was wondering if you two might have any insight into-”
As she spoke, the door to her throne room began to swing open again, this time revealing a familiar pegasus, her back straight and to attention.
“LIEUTENANT SHOOTING STAR OF THE VALKYRIE DIVISION, REPORTING FOR DUTY, MA’AM!” she boomed, causing the two visitors to flinch before looking back in bewilderment.
Twilight sighed, sliding a hoof down her face. “And now there’s this.”
Rarity cleared her throat and straightened her posture, trotting back to the door to meet the guest of honour with refined purpose.
“You must be Shooting Star.” She chuckled. “Well of course you are, after such an… arresting entrance. My name is Rarity. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
Despite her award-winning smile and an offered hoof, the rainbow-maned pegasus remained statuesque, as though she didn’t exist—the worst thing one could inflict upon Rarity—leaving her confidence broken and her lip quivering.
“Oh, um—” Twilight mumbled to herself, putting her hoof to her chin for a moment before calling out: “At ease, Lieutenant.”
The pegasus’ hyper-tensed muscles relaxed once she heard those words, adjusting to a more comfortable stance before nodding to Rarity in acknowledgement, who remained frozen in mortification.
“This is the pony that ran away twice and caused all that fuss?” AJ asked with a raised eyebrow.
“It’s a long story, sort of.” Twilight sighed. “I’m not entirely sure what’s going on with her myself, to be honest. She’s already spoken with Rainbow Dash—and Fluttershy and Discord, apparently—but I was wondering if your down-to-earth approach might get some sense out of her.”
“And Rarity?”
“Rarity is… doing her own thing.”
Composing herself and adjusting the clasp of her cape, the white unicorn sidled beside the pegasus and draped a leg over her already re-tensing back. This pony had information she wanted, and was willing to smooth-talk to get it.
“Tell me what you know about pleats.”
Shooting Star raised a confused eyebrow as she was encouraged to turn back toward the door and walk out with the fashionista. Applejack sighed, adjusting her hat.
“Guess that’s my cue. Been some while since Ah’ve had to save somecreature from Rarity’s ways.”
Twilight smiled as she watched the three ponies leave her throne room, finding herself alone once more as the giant doors were slowly pulled closed. Coloured light dappled her purple coat as rays of morning sun shone bright behind the stained glass windows that flanked her. Today was the day, she thought. Today she would fulfil her duty of care to Shooting Star and return her home. The puzzle pieces were all here somewhere, she just needed to slot them together to see the full picture of what happened to her two-thousand moons ago.
Rainbow Dash was issuing orders to her aides beside the Academy’s runway when she noticed their attention had shifted. Turning back from her clipboard, she discovered the Princess of Friendship standing a short distance down the field, patiently waiting for an opportunity to approach while failing to remain inconspicuous.
“Vapor Trail, you give out the rest of the assignments,” Captain Dash announced, passing the papers over to her.
“Y-Yes, Captain,” Vapor stammered as she flipped the board over, tucking it under her foreleg to give a small wave to her old royal acquaintance, who returned the gesture.
“Something I can help you with, Princess?” Rainbow Dash asked as she walked over, raising her sunglasses to sit in her mane.
“Sorry to interrupt you, I know you prefer these visits to be scheduled.”
“No worries, I’m always down for a little spontaneity; just not when it comes to my cadets. I’M LOOKING AT YOU, BARREL ROLL.”
Despite not looking back, a cadet currently doing cartwheels far behind her suddenly tumbled over and quickly ran back to whatever his morning duties were, seeming quite embarrassed.
“Wow, you’ve really got this place under hoof, huh?” Twilight remarked, impressed.
“Yeah, I’m pretty good at what I do. So, what’s on your mind?”
“Right. Well, I was wondering if you could describe to me what a sonic rainboom feels like.”
“That’s what you came here for? You know they did all those tests when I was added to the Hall of Fame. That stuff’s more accurate than anything I could describe.”
“I’ve already read the data and done the calculations, but I want to know how it ‘feels’; straight from the horse’s mouth, so to say.”
“How a sonic rainboom feels, huh?” She frowned, taking to her wings as she crossed her forelegs. “This is about that kid, isn’t it. I told you, I was the first to do a sonic rainboom, nocreature else.”
“Be that as it may—and I’m not refuting that you weren’t, there’s no evidence to say otherwise, but it is a fact that the legend of the sonic rainboom existed long before you did. You know as well as anycreature that you didn’t come up with the name.”
Dash grumbled through her clenched jaw, unable to deny that. The sonic rainboom had been an old mare’s tale within the Academy for as long as she had been here, even as a Junior Speedster. Even her parents knew about it from the first time she announced that she would be the first to pull it off. With a defeated grunt, Rainbow returned to her hooves.
“How it feels, huh? Well, it’s been a while since I’ve done one, but it’s sort of like… Uh…” She rubbed her chin, never needing to put it into words before. “It’s kinda like, at the point you’re flying so fast that your eyes start burning, you feel this barrier, like a solid wall of air. Anycreature can fly at that speed with training, but pushing through that barrier, that’s what a Sonic Rainboom is. Once you’re through it, though, it’s like you’re gliding on a calm day, except the world is a blur and it feels like your skin’s about to be blown off.”
“Ew. That’s interesting, though; that’s almost exactly what Shooting Star told me she experienced too.”
“What’s next, you wanna give her my wings too?” Rainbow flicked the medal on her chest.
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Rainbow Dash, please. If she had performed a Sonic Rainboom—or perhaps just a Sonic Rainboom—you would have experienced time-travel too. You’ve done it enough times for the occurrence to be more than a statistical improbability.”
She snorted. “I guess.”
“Well, have you experienced any strange behaviour during one of your Sonic Rainbooms?” she replied sarcastically.
Rainbow Dash visibly paused. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Twilight blinked, taken aback. “What do you mean ‘you don’t want to talk about it’? Talk about what?”
The Wonderbolt looked away, almost seeming embarrassed. Chalking it up to her competitive demeanour toward Shooting Star, Twilight sighed and chose to ignore the ambiguous statement.
“So, in your expert opinion, what do you think could have modified her manoeuvre in such a way as to cause time-travel?”
“Time-travel is more your area of expertise, Twilight, not mine. The whole story sounds ridiculous to me. Flying so fast that you skip two-thousand moons? Come on,” she huffed. “If it were possible, I would have done it already.”
Twilight sighed, thinking aloud on the data she had sourced from the Wonderbolts’ archive. “Breaking the sonic barrier creates a shock wave that separates gas molecules, which then react with the atmosphere to produce the polychromatic iris effect—”
“Way to make it sound lame.”
“—so, what if that shock wave reacted with something else; some unique molecule, or something that we no longer have in our time? That would explain why it’s never happened to you.”
“You said she appeared just outside the castle, right? I don’t see what could be so different about Canterlot between then and now. I mean, that castle’s been there for thousands of moons!”
“Technically that castle is only one-thousand moons old, since Celestia and Luna ruled from The Castle of the Two Sisters for a thousand years before it was built over the ruins of-” She shook her head. “But that’s beside the point. Honestly, I’m grasping at straws here. Perhaps foreign materials were used in the Valkyrie armour she wore when she appeared? Hopefully that’s something Rarity will ask her about. It might be worth running a scientific analysis on it anyway, to see if there’s any notable residue…”
“How do we even know her speed was even the cause of it?” Rainbow Dash took to her wings again as she crossed her legs, becoming restless from standing around. “She was fighting Discord, right? Maybe he did it and just doesn’t remember. Sounds like something he would do.”
“Discord might be powerful, but he’s never shown that level of quantum manipulation before. Though his presence alone is an unknown variable…”
“You know, I really thought you ponies had outgrown all this gossiping of creatures behind their backs,” a familiar voice chastised out of nowhere. “Honestly, I’m running out of spare ears.”
Twilight recoiled as she turned to find Discord looming beside her, once again snuffing out the literal fire on his ears with a miniature extinguisher this time.
“What do you want, Discord?” Rainbow Dash groaned.
“So prickly today! Come now, after all these allegations, you expect me not to make an appearance? I have a reputation to uphold! Besides, I feel the need to set the record straight about all this time-travel nonsense.”
“You remember what happened?!” Twilight asked excitedly, her eyes twinkling.
“Oh no, not in the slightest. No, this is a little lesson in chaos magic.”
With an iconic snap of his fingers, the trio switched places. Discord was now standing in front of a large, scrawled chalkboard, wearing a dark-grey suit jacket and green bow-tie. Twilight and Rainbow Dash found themselves sitting at stereotypical school desk-chairs, with Dashie now wearing a small, rainbow propeller-hat, which she quickly threw off, folding her forelegs with a fierce scowl.
“Now class, listen up,” Discord announced, extending his index finger like a pointer towards illustrations of the Elements of Harmony. “Chaos and order exist in much the same way as harmony and disharmony, yes? Just like those little accessories you oh-so loved to point at innocent creatures such as myself.” He noticed Twilight raise an unimpressed eyebrow. “Yes, well- As you likely know, your precious Elements held the power to neutralise magic—‘restore harmony’, as it were—but there was little they could do beyond the status quo. No flying Applejacks or fields of gold.” He teleported behind the alicorn, whispering an aside; “Though I did hear about Rarity’s valiant attempt in that regard. Shame I wasn’t around to see that one.”
“That’s it, I’m done here. I’ve got a class to run.” Rainbow Dash lifted the desk-arm and struggled to her hooves, only to be levitated into the air against her will.
“Ah-ba-ba. Class is still in session, Ms. Dash.” Already back in front of the board, Discord lowered the struggling pegasus back into her chair, this time strapping her in with seatbelts. “You may have those unsightly wrinkles, but I’m still your senior by a few thousand moons, y’know.”
“Discord, is this really necessary?” Twilight asked in an increasingly authoritative tone.
“You’ve had your time in the spotlight, ma chère Princesse. Time for this speculation to end.” He cleared his throat, spinning the chalkboard to its opposite side and pointing his finger toward a wall of incomprehensible scientific equations. “Much in the same way that harmony magic can only return things to normal, chaos magic can only distort the normal. Yes I can give life to an apple or create a flying pig from thin-air—” demonstrating both without even moving “—but these are all things you can find in your normal little world, just a little… rearranged. I take what already is and add a little flare to it. Everycreature loves dramatic irony; but the true irony here is that time-travel is a perversion of order reserved entirely by the likes of you.” Discord turned to Twilight and flicked her horn with his elongated finger, causing it to vibrate back and forth like a door-stop. “Well, pre-merchandise you, anyway; back when you were interesting. Unicorns really have a thing for time-travel, now that I think about it.”
“So that was just the long way of confirming that you weren’t involved?” she stated after the unpleasant sensation had passed. No longer finding humour in this situation, she used her magic to dispel her chair and teleport herself, now standing in defiance of Discord’s antics.
“What, don’t like being on the receiving end of one of your own legendarily tedious lectures?”
Dash smirked at this comment from her chair, while Twilight gave a royal pout.
“Indeed, all the time-travel that I’m aware of has been perpetrated by yourself, Starlight Glimmer, and by extension Starswirl the Bearded. And don’t even get me started on all that interdimensional-travel. If I had that kind of power, do you really think I would have allowed myself to become part of Canterlot’s rock garden for over a thousand moons? To be bested by your band of merry mares? To be manipulated by Tirek? I may be all-powerful, but even that has its limits.” He paused, floating into a reclined position with his legs crossed. “Time is a constant, mon amies; forever flowing forward. The only one with unnatural magic here is you.”
“If time is some invisible force you can’t mess with, how come you can mess with gravity?” Rainbow Dash asked in a moment of surprising insight.
“Well that’s- That’s different, isn’t it?” he answered with some fluster. “I add chaos to improve the natural world, so gravity is as easy as just… turning it. I don’t know, I didn’t take a degree in chaosology.” He looked down at his lecturer costume and flashed it away. “If I were to reverse time like I reverse gravity, I too would be reversed, andthus undo the reverse. It’s all very complicated, I wouldn’t expect your bird-brain to understand.”
“What did you call me?” she snapped, leaning forward angrily.
“And while we’re at it, do you really want to accuse me of defying the laws of gravity, with puny wings like those? You ponies make about as much sense as I do.”
Twilight sighed, ignoring the bickering. “So we’re back to square one… ‘Square one’… ‘Forward’… Discord, if you’re capable of making the natural unusual, would it be possible for you to send something forward in time?”
Discord levitated in silence, momentarily dumbfounded as Rainbow Dash struggled against her chair’s straps.
“I suppose I’ve never thought to try,” he stated honestly. “Who goes forward in time?”
“Here, try this.” Twilight teleported the recently born apple back between them, leaving it to flail helplessly against her levitation. “Try sending this a few seconds into the future.”
“Just like that, hm?” He stroked his chin-hair thoughtfully before lowering himself to the floor. “I suppose it’s worth a shot.”
Exhaling, Discord stared at the high-pitched, screaming apple and raised his taloned hand toward it, snapped his fingers with concerted purpose—the first time Twilight had ever seen him try to cast magic. An awkward silence fell as the apple continued to vehemently complain, Wonderbolt cadets soared overhead, and Rainbow Dash accidentality tipped her chair backwards while trying to free herself. He snapped again with a frown. Still nothing.
“P-Perhaps your magic is interfering with mine. Put it down.”
Twilight lowered the writhing fruit to the floor, which proceeded to flee as Discord snapped after it again and again. Letting out a huff of frustration as the limbed ball disappeared into a Wonderbolt changing room, causing a wave of screams and panic within, the draconequus rested his palms on his hips.
“Seems your theory was for naught, Princess.”
“Little help here?” Rainbow asked from the floor.
“Perhaps not,” she answered Discord, seemingly not hearing the plea.
Twilight walked to the chalkboard and flipped it over, the original Elements diagram having been replaced by a crude doodle of Discord and Fluttershy having tea. Using her magic to wipe it clean with the nearby eraser, she began to sketch out her own calculations in chalk as she talked.
“If we can take this as evidence that chaos magic is incompatible with time magic like you say, perhaps kinetic energy could have triggered the ambient chaos particles to give the interaction transitive properties, transcending space-time. Are you aware of your own magical aura?”
“I’m sorry, what?” he asked, unimpressed and frankly annoyed by her scientific techno-babble.
“Passive energy emissions, are you aware of them?”
“That’s not-” He sighed, shaking his head as he tried to keep up. “Yes, I am aware that all creatures with magic give off a certain… ‘aura’; myself included, of course.”
“Exactly. Starswirl himself noted that ‘ponies are not containers’—outdated phrasing aside—and that magic is always ‘leaking’ from creatures that produce it. For most creatures this wouldn’t be an issue, with elemental creatures radiating said element, and unicorns producing a cupcake smell, I’m told. In fact, it’s because of this residual energy that pegasi are able to funnel water up to Cloudsdale, as it creates a barrier between the individual fliers; right, Rainbow Dash?”
“Sure,” she grumbled from the ground, having accepted her fate at this point.
“But you,” Twilight continued, still scratching out equations on the blackboard. “You radiate chaos magic, which could have disastrous side-effects. Frankly I’m amazed that it’s never come up before. So while chaos magic might be incapable of casting time spells, the chaos particles you emit may have interacted with the kinetic energy produced by Shooting Star’s speed.”
“Really now, discussing someone’s ‘emissions’ in front of them is a little gauche, don’t you think?”
The Princess leaned in, furiously scribbling as flecks of chalk spat in random directions. “This is fascinating; I had never considered this before. Rainbow, what was the measured velocity of your Sonic Rainboom again?”
“Not until you get me out of this freakin’ chair!”
“Discord?” Twilight asked with clear intent, not turning from her work.
He rolled his eyes, snarling: “Fine. They’ve got me doing tricks on command now. How far the Prince of Chaos has fallen.”
Snapping his fingers, the chair disappeared and Rainbow Dash was back on her hooves, though visibly dishevelled with grass sticking out of her unkempt mane. After brushing herself off and grunting at the draconequus, she answered the Princess.
“Uh, something like one-twenty wing-power.”
“Puh-lease, with these scrawny things?” Discord mocked, lifting her wing with pinched fingers. “Besides, I’ve seen Pinkie Pie move twice as fast as you do, perhaps we should be asking her?”
“Oh yeah? Well why don’t we time just how long it takes for my hoof to reach your face?”
“Everycreature, please, I’m trying to hypothesise this interaction,” Twilight snapped. “Hm. Mmhm. Ah-hah! Got it!” She stepped back from the board proudly, turning to face her audience. “This is all theoretical, of course, but it is entirely possible that the frictive waves of a Sonic Rainboom—or equivalent,” she added, eyeing Rainbow Dash, “—could have agitated the ambient chaos particles around Discord, causing a magical reaction that transubstantiated speed into time. You described chaos magic as ‘rearranging what already exists’, and speed and time are often seen as two sides of the same bit, at least in popular theoretical physics papers.”
“Define ‘popular’,” Rainbow quipped, a remark not even heard by the Princess in her fervour.
“By an almost chemical reaction at the moment of impact, Shooting Star’s speed was re-equated into time by the ambient chaos particles of Discord’s aura, sending her forward in time at an equivalent rate to her speed, while remaining locked to the same geosynchronous location in space-time! To her, those two-thousand moons would have passed in the blink of an eye! Do you have any idea what this means for the future of science and our understanding of time magic?!”
Twilight beamed as she waited for one of them to congratulate her, or at least comment on her momentous breakthrough. A moment of silence lapsed as the ambient sounds of the airfield continued, with a distant “Caught it!” punctuating the pause.
“What?” Rainbow asked flatly.
“Let’s be honest, Twilight, how many of those words did you just make up?” Discord added, folding his arms with an unimpressed eyebrow.
“None of them! I don’t think. Anyway, I should get back to the castle and run some proper simulations to make sure this theory is safe for trial. Wouldn’t want you getting slammed into at mach one!” she giggled, completely disconnected from the moment. “Thanks for your help, you two, I couldn’t have done it without you!”
Without waiting for a reply, the Princess disappeared in a purple flash, leaving her companions in stunned silence.
“What was that about getting ‘slammed into at mach one’?” Discord asked the void where the alicorn had been.
Dash shook her head in silence.
“Well, whatever that was, it was certainly very Twilight.”
“You can say that again. Now if you don’t mind, would you mind getting you and your stuff off my green?”
“Of course. A pleasure as always, Rainbow Dash, see you at Fluttershy’s next soiree—I’ll be bringing the chess sandwiches.”
“Don’t you mean ‘cress’ sandwiches?”
Chuckling, Discord pushed his blackboard into an invisible slice in space, and him with it. The Wonderbolt Captain rubbed her forehead as she appreciated some sorely earned silence just as another scream erupted from the changing room, followed by an “Oops”.
“And take your freaky apple-thing too!”
“Truly fascinating. I had no idea that piercings were such a popular fashion statement as far back as the Pre-Classical Era!” Rarity enthused, jotting down copious notes with her horn-piloted, voluminous purple quill. “To think of all of the commoners’ wooden jewellery that must have perished before we could document and preserve them! Ah, this knowledge is both a blessing and a curse!”
“Yeah, I guess,” Shooting Star mumbled, utterly lost in the pointlessness of the conversation. Why had the Princess wanted her to talk to this pony? And why had they taken her all the way to this ‘Ponyville’ to do it?
“Now do tell me, were the everyday robes you mentioned typically ankle-length, a little higher on the leg, or dare I even say it, floor-length?”
“Alright, Rarity, Ah think our guest has had enough of yer questions for one day—” Applejack interrupted, stepping between the pair, muttering “—if not a lifetime.”
“Yes, yes, very well,” the white unicorn sighed, too caught up in her own thoughts to object. “I’ll set to with these sketches while my imagination’s fresh. Do be available later to check their accuracy, won’t you, darling?” She scribbled furiously in her journal as she blindly walked away. “I must ensure they are entirely authentic for this new Pre-Retro-Chic li—I mean Twilight’s research, of course,” she called back, fooling nopony.
Applejack shook her head as she ushered Shooting Star away from the quaint cafe’s seating area and over to a fence, beyond which stretched one of Sweet Apple Acres’ many crop fields.
“Sorry about Rarity, she can get a little… enthusiastic when it comes to clothes.”
“No, that’s… fine. I don’t think I’ve talked so much about clothing my entire life. I don’t even wear clothes, besides my armour, and that’s not exactly made for comfort.”
AJ chuckled, tugging at the brim of her hat. “Ah’m sure Rarity would say ‘it ain’t what ya wear, but how ya wear it’, but for me, it all comes down to meanin’.” Her hoof slid down to her antique-looking shawl with a melancholy filling her eyes. The moment lingered before she seemed to snap back to the present and her hospitable self. “Ah sometimes wonder if half the creatures in town would even wear clothes if it weren’t for her Carousel, haha.”
“She certainly is passionate.”
“Ah bet a lot of creatures see her as a one trick pony, but those of us who really know her know that she can apply that passion to just about anythin’. It’s amazin’ how far she’s come, from makin’ everything with her own four hooves to having a chain across Equestria and beyond! Guess you’ve come pretty far too, huh?” She chuckled, leaning more on the fence. “Never imagined it were possible to meet a pony older than Princess Celestia or Princess Luna, but then we met the Pillars, and now you! Time-travel is a heck of a thing.”
“‘The Pillars’?”
“Oh, uh, right. Maybe forget Ah said that.”
Star sighed, shaking her head as she too leaned into the fence. “I don’t know why I bother asking questions any more.”
“You know it’s for a good reason, Sugarcube. The less you know about now, the better. Wouldn’t want history to be rewritten because you decide to open yer own chain of Carousel Boutiques.”
Applejack laughed, eliciting a weak smile from the pegasus.
“No risk of that, I think.”
A comfortable silence fell as the two ponies looked across the gently swaying leaves of the apple orchard. The breeze was cool, but kept temperate by a gentle sun half-obscured by a fluffy white cloud. The smell of cinnamon hung in the air, wafting from the cafe behind them, no doubt having just baked a new batch of pastries. The sounds of laughter and chatting were almost inescapable anywhere near Ponyville as ponies and other creatures went about their comfortable lives. A far cry from the tense atmosphere of Shooting Star’s Canterlot Palace and the Valkyrie barracks. She might catch glimpses of her squad-mates joking around and being boisterous, but it always seemed to die out when they noticed her presence. Here, though, it was like these ponies didn’t have a care in the world… and maybe they didn’t. The more time she spent in this place, the more she realised just how stark her own time was in comparison. Fear and conflict was ever-present where—or when—she was from, that’s just how life was and nopony knew any different. But seeing that this was their future… the strife started to mean something. This is what they were fighting for all along; not just survival, but to thrive.
“It’s all starting to feel so distant now,” she thought aloud, looking down at the soft dirt and verdant grass behind the fence. “I know I’ve only been here a few days, but my home… the fight… It’s starting to feel like my entire life up to this point was a dream, and I’ve only just woken to reality.”
“This is reality, Sugarcube, but that don’t stop your home from bein’ real too. It ain’t so easy to forget yer roots, trust me. Big Mac, mah brother, moved out some time ago, but he still thinks of the farm every day and writes more than you’d think for a pony of so few words. Or maybe he saves them all up for his letters,” she chuckled, before shifting to a more thoughtful tone. “Where yer from is just as much as part of what made you you as the choices you make, for better or worse. We’re all made of a lot of things, like a giant quilt that’s yer life, even the bad parts. Always growin’, always learnin’. Ya can’t ever lose that.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” She sighed, turning around and leaning back on the fence as she watched creatures pass the gap between the buildings. “I’m more concerned about the ponies I left behind than myself. They were counting on me to turn the fight around, or at least give them a chance to escape. What if me not being there is the difference between Discord destroying Equestria and this future?”
“Ah ain’t the one to talk to about all that time-travel mumbo-jumbo, yer best off going to Twilight for that, and Ah think Fluttershy would defend Discord in that regard, but Ah reckon all yer worries will be answered as soon as ya get home. Princess Twilight ain’t never been one to let a creature down; she always comes through in the end.”
“I hope so. I don’t think I could live with the guilt of not knowing what happened to my squadron and all those we lost up to that point… If I was supposed to lose that day and end up like the rest of them…” She closed her eyes, seeing the agonised faces of those Discord had turned to stone in front of her. “I want to face my destiny. I couldn’t care less about the things I’ve seen here. No offence.”
Applejack huffed with a smile. “Ah get ya, Sugarcube. Don’t need to tell me the importance of family.”
“Family? I wouldn’t- … They’re not- …”
“Family is more than blood, young’n. The bonds Ah’ve made with Twilight, Rarity, and the others taught me that. It’s about knowin’ they’ve always got yer back. Even if ya don’t get on sometimes, working together—saving Equestria together—forms a bond that ain’t easily broken. Ya said they relied on ya, right? Well that don’t come without trust, and ya can’t trust somecreature ya don’t like.”
Shooting Star snorted dismissively, looking up at the picturesque blue sky. Was there something to what she was saying? Despite not socialising with her colleagues, they still listened to her orders. Could you call that ‘family’? That word had been dead to her for years, but perhaps it wasn’t something she could run away from—perhaps it wasn’t something she should run away from. Did her squad spite her for abandoning the fight after she had convinced them to stay? Were they mourning her assumed death? Were any of them even left to feel those things? She obviously hadn’t so much as grazed Discord if he was still here in this far-future, not so much as remembering their fight.
Star turned back and lay her forehead directly on the wood, crossing her forelegs around it.
“Oh, hey now, Ah didn’t mean to go getting all serious on ya and upset ya or nothin’.” The country pony gently rested her hoof on the Valkyrie’s back. “Things can’t have turned out all that bad, or we wouldn’t be here now, would we? We’ll get ya home and everything’ll be fine, Ah’m sure of it.”
She huffed, her voice muffled. “Thanks.”
“Applejack, darling, are you done hogging our esteemed guest?” Rarity called out from the corner of the cafe, waving her hoof. “I’ve sketched some concepts and patterns I’d just love her to peruse for period accuracy.”
Shooting Star let out a groan only audible to the earth pony.
“You get used to it, Sugarcube,” the orange pony smirked, patting her back. “Ah promise I won’t let her talk yer ear off again.”
The two pushed themselves off the fence and began back to the eagerly awaiting unicorn.
“By the way, what was all that ‘reportin’ for duty’ stuff before with Twilight?” AJ asked as they walked. “Is that how y’all talked back in your time?”
“Oh, well, not usually. I guess when I started taking the Princess seriously it brought back a lot of memories of my time with the King.”
“The King?”
“Yes, King Cosmos. You don’t seem to have kings and queens now, do you.”
“Nah, it’s been princesses for at least as long as Ponyville’s been around.” She leaned in, whispering “And that’s a long time.”
“I didn’t see the King much—nopony did, especially recently, and now…” She shook her head, trying not to think about the black alert; getting home came first. “But being around him, you knew how powerful he was. His presence demanded authority and commanded respect. I never got that feeling from your Princess, though. I guess that’s why it took me so long to show her the respect she deserves—that and thinking this was a torture-dream concocted by Discord.
Applejack chuckled, shaking her head. “Twilight’s never ‘demanded respect’ from anycreature. What she has, she’s earned through listenin’ and doing her best to help creatures all across Equestria. As much as she admired Princess Celestia, she was never gonna be the same kind of leader as her—that’s just not who she is; kind, honest, and generous to a fault. Not to say that the previous Princesses weren’t, but they had a certain… aloofness to them, don’t ya think?” She barked out a laugh, forgetting who she was talking to. “Sorry, guess ya don’t. Still hard for me to imagine a time without them.”
The pair stopped at the corner as Rarity patiently waited for them to finish their conversation.
“Actually, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were fillies in my time. Princess Twilight mentioned them before… I don’t suppose you can answer, but what happened to them; are they alright?”
“I’m sure they’re fine,” Rarity answered, “though nocreature has seen them for some time now; only Twilight receives the odd scroll. They’ve certainly earned their retirement after so many moons watching over us, though, so I don’t blame them. Equestria couldn’t be in safer hooves, after all.”
“So they are safe… That’s good to hear.” Star looked down with a faint smile, glad to know that at least some had survived the onslaught. Perhaps there was hope for her fr- … her friends, too.
“I ordered some fresh-baked cinnamon-apple muffins, I hope you don’t mind.” Rarity gestured to the laid table with a scattered stack of freshly sketched designs.
“You always know the right thing to say, Rarity,” AJ joked.
“You don’t get what you want in life without greasing a few hooves, darling,” she smiled back, escorting the group to their seats.
“This is fascinating, Spike,” Twilight Sparkle gushed as she peered down her magic microscope at the standard-issue Valkyrie collar plate.
“What is?” the muscular dragon asked half-heartedly as he struggled to assemble the rest of the Valkyrie armour on a mannequin behind her. It had been a long time since he had aided Twilight in one of her experiments, but his frustration was quickly overpowering the nostalgia of the situation.
“Based on the data I’ve gathered from Discord over the years, this armour does have trace residue on it!”
“So? Didn’t he mess with her yesterday?” he asked, only half-listening as he struggled with a pleather strap. “Why couldn’t Rarity be doing this?” he grumbled to himself as his fingers fumbled with the iron buckle.
“All things decay over time, Spike, even magic, and this plate shows… Well, I don’t know exactly what it shows, but this is chaos magic without a doubt, and it’s not fresh.” She twisted the magnification dial with her magic, focusing on the greying Discord-shaped particle. “What’s confusing are the subtle differences between this and what I’d expect to see from Discord’s magic.”
“So it wasn’t him?”
“Don’t be ridiculous! Who else could use chaos magic?!” she snapped, before sighing. “No, this has to be Discord’s magic… Perhaps time-travel did something to its chemical makeup? Either way, if I’m right, this could be a major breakthrough in time magic theory!” She looked up, a somewhat maniacal smile on her face. “I’m a genius!”
“Uh-huh.” Delicately placing the buckled strap on the mannequin’s flank, the whole structure shook threateningly before every piece fell to the floor in an avalanche of metal, eliciting a pained groan. “Isn’t armour supposed to be easy to put on? Why couldn’t they have something like Wonderbolt uniforms?”
Twilight turned to her friend as he faithfully reprised his role as assistant. “They didn’t have the resources for polyether-polyurea copolymer in the Pre-Classical era, obviously. But never mind that, don’t you know what this means?!”
“I’m sure you’ll tell me,” he grumbled, scratching his head before picking up a fallen spaulder.
“This is our first good lead! Of course it does offer more questions than answers.” She paced the floor of her private study, designed to evoke the look of the Golden Oak Library’s basement, tapping her chin as she thought. “If Discord truly was involved, why does he not remember the events Shooting Star described? I can understand him forgetting a specific pony, but nocreature would forget attacking the capital and turning ponies to stone… Does this mean that she is from a parallel dimension that just happens to be two-thousand moons behind ours? No, that’s too much of a coincidence for the consistency she shares with the surviving records. And what if there was an external influence for this time-travel beyond Shooting Star’s speed and Discord’s magic? Perhaps that accounts for the oddities in his magical residue?”
Spike stuck his tongue out in concentration as he carefully stacked the armour plates and pleather straps into a pyramid, having given up on assembling them correctly. “Why don’t you run a test and see?” he answered almost sarcastically.
“‘Run a test’? As in recreate the incident? Do you have any idea how dangerous that could be if I’m wrong?! Even if Discord could shake off an impact like that, how do you think Shooting Star would fare? What if she’s transported another thousand moons into the future?!”
“Then I guess you’ll get another chance to do it right.”
“Spike! This is a real pony we’re talking about, not some thought experiment!”
She huffed in frustration before trotting back to the microscope. The fresher Discord-shaped particles could be seen backstroking between the metallic atoms, while the older particle resembled an aged Discord, just… floating there. As she stared at it under the microscope, its eyes suddenly snapped open, staring directly into the lens. Twilight gasped, stepping back from the equipment as her blood ran cold.
“What’s wrong?!” Spike asked, jumping to her side.
“N-Nothing, I just- I thought I saw- … Sorry, I must just be tired, it’s nothing.”
“You sure? You have been burning the midnight oil, Twily, perhaps you should take a nap.”
“No, I’m fine, thank you, Spike.” She exhaled, shaking the haunting image from her mind. She wished she could brush it off as a ghost of exhaustion, but for that split second they had made eye-contact she was overcome with a malevolent intent the likes of which she had not felt since Tirek. Discord had never possessed magic so evil, so malicious… Could this be why Shooting Star’s account had seemed so uncharacteristic of the Discord they knew? Whatever this meant, it shouldn’t get in the way of sending the Valkyrie back to her own time, not unless she let it. The mystery of this Other Discord would have to remain just that; she had a promise to keep, and a new friend to send home.