//------------------------------//
// The Time Turner 
// Story: The Requiem 
// by Onyxian 
//------------------------------//

	They said that no matter the cost or difficulty there was in achieving a goal, it was always about the journey and sacrifices it took to get there in the first place. Twilight was not sure if this was really the case, as she herself had not given much to achieve her goal in becoming royalty among the people of Equestria. Then again, her friends were indeed factors in giving her a future and a personality as a whole. They looked after her and taught her wonderful things about nature, friendship, and life itself. Things that kept her alive and working, sweating and earning, bearing chains of misfortune and accepting keys of redemption. Were they really worth her effort, if and only if she had made any effort at all to reach her goal? Did she deserve to keep them?
SPINELESS FUCK.
When she was a filly, her lack of friends had not depressed her since she had a brother. He gave her hope and happiness in a world without hospitality or warmth, without milk or remorse. She remembered that one night, of all nights, he was all alone in his room with Cadence. The two had been dating for months on end. They always kissed and nuzzled and kept each other company. They loved each other passionately and whenever she looked at them they were always staring into their partner’s drooping eyes. That one night the two were making absurd noises; Twilight thought the two were being attacked or hurt, and she attempted to open his door. It was locked. She knocked on the door. “Is everything okay in there?” she asked. The sounds continued. Nothing ceased after her statement lingered in the musky air around her.
PERVERTED WHORE.
Back then she would not know love or friendship the way Shining Armor did, or how her future friends did. They lived, she was lonely and dark of face, all alone in the shine of the night, the night of darkness and decay and death. She loathed the cold, brisk air and it’s feeling along her coat whilst she trotted among the black houses of Canterlot. Her brother was out, again, with Cadence. She had known her since her earliest days; she was her foal sitter, her protector as her mind and body grew to adolescence. Thus she was useless to her. Evidently this time away from her led to their meeting once again, under rather distasteful circumstances. Along with Shining Armor, she reacquainted herself with her childhood life, the life she led before Ponyville and before Nightmare Moon. Before Discord or Sombra or Chrysalis. Before she became a hero. A hero of Equestria, and a princess of the world.
YOU LEFT THEM FOR DEAD.
The blinding light of reality burned into her head, and she could not understand how. Isn’t the life of a Princess reality? The answer was no. Light was all that shone. Light was all that remained of her reality and her truth, of all she knew and respected and understood and completed. It was replaced, or destroyed, or ruined, by the light. The light of the truth, of the universe, of the descendance of matter and light and life itself. She cringed with unsatisfactory hatred for the blinding force that greeted her. She wanted to go back, to see what laid beyond the threshold that she so willingly passed upon entering the portal.
The Portal.
The Portal of Requiem and of Death itself.
Her friends, Shining Armor, and Edward, they had been pulled into the planet itself, into some blinding force, some light of truth and universal meaning, of mystery. She awaited death on the other side, to meet her parents and her other friends, if they had met with unfortunate circumstances as well. She had hoped to be at peace and not to be exposed to such alien atmosphere and omnipotence, to breath for once and not take in the horror of change. Where had they gone? Could the Sun know, or maybe the moon? What new light awaited them? Was there light at all? Where would life roam or cease to roam? Were they the last of all life?
Questions.

She woke on a cold, metal platform in a patient’s ward. The first object of all to focus into her mind was the ceiling above her. It was still and calm, unlike anything she had ever experienced or seen in her life. Straight and metallic pieces of steel were applied across the entire ceiling. It radiated a cold and inhuman feeling into her open, pale skin. She had then remembered: she was no longer an Equestrian, she was some variety of scaleless and fur-deprived mammal, which she had never seen beforehand. And to see almost all of her closest friends, as well as herself, mysteriously become this strange new species, was a marvel she had not yet fully grasped in her mind.
The hall itself was empty though. No one else was resting or recovering like she was. It was without care or maintenance, a hollowed piece of steel and aluminum. Almost useless, if it weren’t for the sudden appearance of the Equestrian princess upon one of the hall’s numerous recovery platforms. Although the didn’t know it, the light that bled through from behind her was from the lights lining the windows. They faced inwards, and the beds themselves were all positioned on the same wall as the long windows, which looked out upon the universe and it’s luck in creating beauty.
Her back; her wings were gone, and so as her tail. All she had was her purple and black hair. Her bangs were messed up and untidy, and they were spontaneously scattered across her forehead. The cold sting of the metal platform ran through her body into her brain, and she slightly cringed at it’s uncomfortable feel. She hated the sting. She laid down, facing upwards at the ceiling, without moving at all, and felt as if she was confined to that stance, even though the slightest movement of her legs or arms could contradict that reality.
Without hesitation or warning she sat up on the steel table, and took a look around at where she was. She saw the hallway that was the patient’s ward; empty, unmanaged, alien, and cold. It was no better than laying down. She didn’t know why she even bothered to sit up in the first place after feeling the cold air sting her body for a second time. Where am I? she asked herself reluctantly. The area to which she awoke was unfamiliar and unknown to her. Before, she was dragged into a mysterious light emitting from her own homeworld, Equestria. Now, she was here, with no sound or person to greet her upon waking. An even more uncomfortable feeling of doubt and fear came over her. What was to happen next? How long would she remain alone for? Most of all, where was she?
She then remembered the last time she felt like this. It was when she first met Edward on the bridge of the ship. The uncomfortable silence, the awe of what laid beyond, and his sudden appearance. The truth was revealed, the sun and the moon, and Equestria, from orbit. They were so small but so significant. Everything she knew was wrong. Was she prepared to be dumbfounded once more, or was she finally admitting to her own arrogance, if she even was arrogant in the least?
Questions.
A door opened on the far left side of the room. A figure’s silhouette was visible, with another blinding light filling the space behind the shape. The unknown pony began to walk down the aisle that the ward followed. Their shape resembled that of what Edward looked like, minus the short height. They had round glasses, with spikey brown hair, and wore what looked like a red coat with their street clothes tucked underneath. They casually walked down the hall until they began to near Twilight even more, then they began to slow down, and eventually stop in front of her recovery table. The light had shone more of him to Twilight; he was a middle-aged colt with blue eyes, and had his hands in his pockets. He stared attentively at Twilight, as if he waited for her to respond or talk first.
Nevertheless, without a response or salutation from Twilight, the figure took his glasses with his right hand and began to clean them with his red coat. He then began to speak afterwards. He possessed a noticeable Canterlot accent. “So...” he began, still cleaning his glasses. He looked back up to her. “It’s been quite a while, hasn’t it?” Twilight looked at him with curiosity and confusion written across her face. He finished cleaning his glasses and put them back onto his face. Looking more attentively now, he took his hands out of his pockets and continued to speak. “Oh,” he looked down to his red coat. “This. Ah, well, it used to be black, and that didn’t work out specifically because it was so hard just to take a walk in it on sunny days, and then I switched to blue, but it turned out that was...” he scratched the back of his head. “...patented. But! I switched to red, and now there’s no problem whatsoever. So that explains the whole...coat...ordeal.” he had finished, and still looked to Twilight for a response. He was being especially homely to her, since the two had never met according to her knowledge.
“Who...” she trailed off, taking her hand and pushing her bangs out of her eyes. “...are you, exactly?”
The figure looked at her with a serious look on his face. “The Time Turner.” he began. “...we met in the Solara mountains?...I had a clumsy sidekick?” he tried jogging her memory with events that she did not remember or know. He continued, “The scheme to control the universe? Caradas? How about the Siege of Elysium City? Death of Sola? Coronation of Solaris and Luna?”
“Luna?” she asked, as if it were suddenly important.
“Yes!” he said. “Luna, the Queen’s sister. She married her own brother, remember?”
“Luna didn’t have a brother.” she commented.
Dumbstruck, he continued. “Y-Yes she did. Solaris. Sola’s big brother? Remember him? He saved us before Sola could turn on the Precursor artifact. He had blonde hair and...he was the king of Elysium! How can you not remember this?” Just as he continued, she continued to ‘contradict’ him with her knowledge.
“Luna’s sister was called Celestia, and they didn’t have a brother.”
“Tara, her name was Queen Sola, and she...said she controlled the sun! That’s right! Do you remember that?”
“Well, yeah, of course she said it. She’s a god after all, so it was probably the truth...wait, did you just call me Tara?” she asked suddenly.
“Yes, your name is Tara Waters, and I think you have a brain hemorrhage.”
“My name is Twilight Sparkle, not Tara Waters.”
Silence. His expression changed from wonder and interest to sudden disgust and fear. As if her name was a bombshell, he quickly backed away with wide eyes and a terrified look. Stuttering, he kept looking at her face, which showed concern for the situation, and without any hesitation, he proceeded to pace to the nearest station of medical equipment, and hit it violently with his right hand, fisted in anger and hatred. He yelled, “That white-haired BASTARD!” and began to look off through the window. He breathed heavily, without stopping, and paid no mind to Twilight, who sat patiently at the recovery table just a few yards away.
“Umm...” she began, awkward as it is. “...Sorry?”
“Don’t be. Caradas brainwashed you.”
“Huh?!” she blurted out with confusion.
“Nevermind.” he said, returning to the recovery table, sitting down with an unsure look on his concerned face. His hands pressed together as if he were nervous and looked down at the marble floor. He had nothing direct or explanative to say to the lost soul of Twilight Sparkle or Tara Waters. He could only contribute an apprehensive silence to both. Without saying anything, Twilight looked out the window on her right.
She saw a world much like Equestria. It was green and blue, white and black, brown and purple, a colorful marvel of the universe. They were much closer than Edward’s ship for sure. Twilight herself was not sure if she had even left the mysterious ball of oceans and landscapes that was her homeworld. The resemblance was shockingly similar between both her world and the new world she somehow knew to be entirely different. Perhaps it was that feeling she always got in her gut that told right from wrong, up from down, and good from evil. Maybe all those moments alone on the ship’s bridge made her feel more secure of her place in the universe and allowed her to investigate and analyze the landscapes of Equestria.
At that moment, she could not tell.
The Time Turner began to speak. “To you this all may seem unnecessarily awkward. You don’t know where you are or why you’re even bothering to answer my questions or pay attention to my constant talking. You’re scared, right? I kind of am as well. We’re all bound together right now in fear. Fear that our worst nightmares may become a reality in just a few short hours. In those few hours, a darkness will be emerging from the very same portal we found you and your friends coming through. No one had used that since the Incendium Wars, when Kaneda and Ashley brought hell to SAGA’s front doorstep. Listen to me; you don’t even know what I’m talking about, with SAGA and the Portal and whatnot. Well, Twilight, listen to me when I say this: It does not matter who or what you think you are or were. All that matters is what you do now. Because right now is when your choices and decisions matter the most. Without them, we could sure as hell die in a ponderous fire among the ashes of Earth’s remains.
“Your friends are waiting for you in the Rec room. They have some bruised marks on their bodies, but they were okay in the end. One of them said that they were worried about you. They would go on about how important you were to them and how you were all they had left. His parents were most likely dead, his friends, and even his wife, they were all either dead or missing, and he couldn’t do anything to change that. He loved you, and I like to see such relationship between two people so strong, even if the people I knew before were in no way related. But that’s not what’s at hand right now. We’re facing an indescribable evil, one that the universe has forgiven many times, only to bear witness to it’s own destruction. This evil, Caradas, he wants nothing more than for everyone to die. He demands nothing, only death and suffering. It’s what he lives for. We don’t know if we can stop him, but we do know that he can be beaten. It’s just a matter of choice over fighting or hiding.
“So what will you do, Tara Waters? Fight, or hide?” he finished without once looking at the outraged Equestrian sitting tables away. She stared with disgust at him, as if he were some selfish and arrogant fool, with a single intention to control others. It waned her into aggression, to the point where she stood up on the cold marble floor. A third sting, the third sting, tingled through her body. The anger and outrage within her blood fueled a warmth that radiated outwards from her heart. You alien fool.
“What in Equestria have you people turned me into!?” she demanded him to answer. “Why do we look like you; what are you?” her voice echoed in the frozen halls, and he refrained from turning to her. His view still cast upon the blue and green marble in the blackish night, he responded to her argument.
“We had nothing to do with your body at all. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it hadn’t changed at all since the last time we met. You look exactly the same, only with different clothes.”
“Enough, you pompous imposter! Why are you holding me prisoner here?”
“For Christ’s sake, stop treating me like the villain. I’m here to help you-”
She stepped back as he looked to her. “That’s the same thing Discord said to me when he nearly destroyed Ponyville. What kind of alliances do you have with that thing?! I thought he turned good after spending-”
He didn’t bother responding to her. He glared at the Equestrian as if she were a nuisance, and then he sighed through his nostrils, only to turn to the door to which he came, and began walking. “Are you coming or not; your friends are waiting for you.” he tempted her into walking once more, this time towards a destination she did not know or understand. His neutral stance confused her. Isn’t he supposed to be the bad guy? He’s obviously holding me prisoner. Why else would he have told me all those ridiculous things about my real name, and my species, and my friends...He’s toying with me for sure. And why is he the same species as I am? I’m absolutely sure I heard a Canterlot accent while he spoke.
Questions.
She hesitated to follow, inevitably doing so, without any further doubts from the Time Turner or from her. The two proceeded down the hallways of Station Forty-Two, the seventh remaining orbital defense station above the human homeworld, Earth.

Twilight met with her friends, who sat patiently at the Rec room, including Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Shining Armor. When she had asked where Edward had gone, the station’s guards had said that he went to investigate the wreckage of the escape pod, and to see if the ship that he had previously commanded was anywhere near the orbital station, the portal, or the planet itself. She hoped to never see that metallic hulk of science ever again; it was a dark and depressing ship. Four weeks of total solace and only six friends to bring comfort, this was the situation she was forced upon. Of course, if she had not awakened the remaining friends, she would have only had Edward. She attempted to imagine what sort of life it would have been, just the two of them, in that giant piece of metal, alone.
It scared her.
“So does anypony remember anything past the bright light?” Twilight started.
“Ah remember us fallin’ into the planet, an’ then ah blacked out.” Applejack responded.
“Well, I don’t really know how to say this, but I saw everypony else go unconscious while I stayed alert of what was happening. It was like time stopped or something of the sort, and the light kept on coming through the windows of the spacecraft. I could hear the noises outside, of the ship we came from hurtling towards the ground. I could hear metal ripping away and explosions all around. But the escape craft was completely still, like it was some ghostly form in all the chaos around it. I cringed when I heard somepony scream bloody murder, and that’s when everything suddenly faded to black, like I was hit over the head.” Rarity commented as if she were telling a scary story to a group of children.
“Somepony screamed?” Twilight asked.
“Yes, it was awful. They sounded so scared...aw, I hope whoever it was gets some solace in knowing that it’s not the end of the world, or the end of them in anyway. We’re safe here in the care of...whoever these things are, and I’m sure they don’t desire any hostile relations with us at all. They’ve done a very good job in patching me up, I was sure I had broken some bones when I woke up in the infirmary.” Fluttershy was too busy looking at the guards and the room in it’s entirety to bother paying attention to Rarity’s side of the story, even if it was kind of obvious that she was the one who had screamed when the group had entered the mysterious portal. “Did nopony hear it?” she asked everypony there. They all shook their heads, all but Fluttershy, whose attention trailed off into space.
Rainbow Dash grasped her hands as she looked around at all her friends. They were all sitting in a circle; three-fourths of them sat on a semi-circled couch, Fluttershy and Twilight sat on stools to complete the shape. They all saw each other look around at their faces, waiting for an indication of embarrassment or awkwardness, or some phrase to break the silence. “Well,” Dash began, looking at the guards she said, “I’m bored. What do they got here? Cafeteria? Games room? What?”
The guard looked back to her. “This is the Rec Room. It’s the entertainment center of the entire station. If you don’t like it, then you’ll just have to wait until you get to Earth.”
“Uh-huh, and when do we go to ‘Earth’?”
“When the Time Turner deems necessary.”
She crossed her arms and started to do the same thing as Fluttershy.
“So brother, are you okay after crashing like that?” Twilight asked Shing Armor.
“Yeah,” he moved a strand of hair that was in his eye and moved it up into his bangs. “A few scratches, but overall, I’m fine. What about you?”
“I feel sore all over. I still don’t know why that creep put me in an empty infirmary instead of with you guys. I mean, we’re best friends, and we came in the same pod. So why did he take me somewhere else?” She heard a murmur in the hallway; it had nothing to do with her or her friends. It was two people discussing some experiment in Laboratory 8V.
“Aren’t you technically the most important pony out of all of us?” Fluttershy asked. “I mean, Rainbow Dash is great and all, but, you’re a student of Celestia herself. And putting that aside, you’re the one who single-handedly defeated Discord, remember?”
“Yeah, but he kept going on about how my name isn’t actually Twilight Sparkle, that it was Tara Water, or something. He also said things about our history that isn’t true; like how Celestia and Luna had a brother named Solaris, and that Celestia’s real name was Sola, and how she died at his hand in the Siege of Canterlot.” Rarity looked at her with confusion. “See what I mean? These things don’t make any sense at all, and it’s odd he would come up that set of ideas so quickly, unless he knew something about a different race and mixed us up, or he just translated an Equestrian manuscript wrong.” she balanced her chin on her hand as her elbow stood firmly on her knee. “Either way, he’s still not worth trusting.”
Rarity intervened. “I think he’s a dandy old fellow. He helped us recover...well, not physically, but he comforted us when we got on our feet and started walking around the station. Oh, it’s massive, Twilight. They’ve got the grandest of harbors for incoming ships. And the officers are such gentlecolts, they treat us like royalty-”
“Wait...you trust the Time Turner?”
“Well of course I do. Why wouldn’t I trust him? He’s nice, he’s considerate, and he’s one of those ponies that you love to be around when you have something to say and something to hear in return. Other than that, he adores us like we’re his old friends. I haven’t been hearing him talk to us like he talked to you, though. I wonder if he’s mentally unstable...maybe he’s just being kind to you. Oh, maybe it’s a joke, Twilight!”
“I don’t care if it’s a joke or not. I wake up in a strange place, I meet someone who calls me something I’m not, and I’m led to my friends, all the while I’m supposed to believe that everything is okay? Rarity, it’s so obvious that he’s a minion of Discord, or maybe Sombra, or Chrysalis! He’s holding us hostage so that Equestria is defenseless against the forces of evil, and this whole story of how an even worse evil thats coming it’s way is complete baloney!”
“Baloney my ass.” A masculine voice behind Twilight emerged suddenly, without warning, and with the tone of voice and accent, it was a sure indication that it was the Time Turner. He had heard the whole thing. How he had remained hidden before he had walked in on Twilight was a mystery in itself. The purple-haired Equestrian was too embarrassed to even concentrate on responding to his cursing remark. She had heard such foul language from people in the streets of Ponyville at night. Sometime she heard those words when Shining and Cadence were locked away in her brother’s room. “So.” he looked down on the circle of friends, his hands in his red coat’s pockets. “You still don’t trust me, huh? After all I’ve done for you, your friends, and your stowaway Edward? Come to think of it,” he looked off into the hallway to which he came from, then looked back to them, “I don’t remember an Edward-looking fellow at all when I last visited Elysium. Is he your son or something?” he asked Twilight.
“N-No!” she almost yelled in absurdity.
“Good, because if he dies, it would be horrible if he was your son. Or you relative.”
A cruel silence echoed in the room.
He began to chuckle. “I’m kidding! Learn to take a joke, Tara.”
“My name is Twilight Sparkle.”
“Okay, sure, whatever, erm...are you guys interested in seeing something in the database? It has something to do with the whole...Caradas...thing, remember? Infinite darkness? Death at hand? Fight or Hide? Any of that catch on with you?”
Fluttershy, with wide eyes, raised her hand.
“Sorry about this rushed process, pals. We just don’t have enough time to establish formalities or relationships or truths, whatever, come with me then.” he said, gesturing to himself as he began to walk into the adjacent hallway. The other five friends followed him. Twilight hesitated, still glaring at the Time Turner, blushing face and all, sat up and began to walk with her friends down the lit hallway, with windows showing the surface and atmosphere of Earth to the left. The beauty of the blue marble calmed Twilight from the current situation. How is it possible to be so embarrassed and so angry at the same time? I haven’t felt this way since I gave that faulty presentation in Magic Kindergarten. 
Then something concerning happened. Her memory of presenting, of the laughter and the awkward insecurity, of the teacher’s absence and the substitute's lack of discipline, was hollow. The fact of it’s occurrence, or of it’s intentional existence, was there; but the whole of it, the images and emotions that radiated with intensity from that moment, was gone. Huh? Why can’t I remember that moment? She did not try as often to remember her moments of shame, but now she was scrambling thoughts and emotions together to try and simulate that moment. She failed. The memory was gone, although the fact of it’s time and nature still existed, the part that mattered was dead to her.
Oh no.