The Eye of Destiny

by derpyland

Chapter 5: The Dark Future

The moment Twilight activated the Eye, the room around her vanished. She found herself standing in what appeared to be the black void of space.

A moment later the black space around her was filled with a thousand glowing yellow lines. All of the lines converged right where Twilight was standing, and a single line stretched into the darkness behind her. Ahead of her, though, the lines branched into thousands of different paths – and then each path divided itself into more paths, and even more paths, until an infinite series of lines stretched off into the distance.

When Twilight looked at a line she was startled to see it suddenly become much bigger. The line’s larger size allowed her to realize what she was really looking at: each strand appeared to contain time itself. As Twilight peered into one line she saw the pillar of fire head straight toward Ponyville. She watched Rainbow Dash soar high into the sky and hurl down toward it, attempting to create a sonic rainboom. Rainbow was evidently hoping that the shockwave would tear the fire golem apart.

But moments before she hit the speed required to ignite the rainboom, the column of fire blasted a bolt directly at her. Rainbow tried to dodge the attack, but she wasn’t fast enough. The fire instantly vaporized her. Rainbow’s ghost appeared just long enough to fly up to the fire and stick its tongue out.

“Aah!” Twilight screamed. “Ok, so that’s one way not to fight it. Let’s try another timeline.”

Twilight zoomed out of that future and picked another one. This time Rainbow Dash enlisted the help of dozens of other pegasi to create a giant water funnel. After sucking up the contents of a nearby lake, Dash carefully guided the funnel in the direction of the fire. She seemed to be hoping that a giant deluge of water would drown the pillar and put it out.

But as soon as the creature saw what Dash was doing, it shot out a volley of firebolts. The bolts struck the ponies in the funnel and instantly vaporized them. The funnel lost its integrity and collapsed. In the resulting chaos, Rainbow Dash was hurtled to the ground (in a spectacular fashion) and met her untimely demise. Once again, her ghost found it necessary to insult the fire golem before making its way into the afterlife.

“Ok, so that’s not going to work either,” Twilight muttered. “What else have we got?”

In the third future, Twilight and her friends united and attempted to use the magic of friendship to destroy the fire golem. But as soon as the ponies began to glow, the creature saw what they were doing. It shot out a volley of bolts directly at them. Everyone was able to dodge them – except for Twilight, who was incinerated on the spot. When Twilight’s ghost appeared it immediately made its way to the Canterlot library, where it began researching life as a ghost and compiling ghostly checklists. When Twilight glanced further down the timeline she saw that her ghost spent years haunting that library, lost in its books. The ghost even became the assistant librarian – the first dead librarian that Equestria ever had.

“I guess there could be worse fates,” Twilight said thoughtfully. “But that’s not really what I’m going for. If we can’t fight the fire with friendship then what are we supposed to do?”

Twilight checked timeline after timeline. In each timeline the fire won and at least one of her friends died (usually Rainbow Dash, who just would not leave that fire alone). Ponyville was burned to the ground every single time, and the Ponyville Insurance Company was put out of business by the rash of resulting claims. It appeared that the fire simply could not be defeated.

Twilight grew frantic. “I refuse to accept the idea that the fire has to win. There has to be a way! There is always a way!”

She zoomed out and looked at all of the timelines. “How is it possible that every single thing I try ends in total disaster? That doesn’t make any sense at all! It’s almost like–”

Twilight then gasped. She suddenly realized what was going on. “That’s it! The Eye is–”

But she was interrupted by a noise behind her. Puzzled, Twilight turned around. That’s when she realized that the single timeline that stretched off behind her did not stretch off infinitely into space. Instead it stretched back to a certain beginning point – and there was a pony standing there.

A pony who had noticed Twilight, and who was galloping toward her.

Twilight froze. She suddenly remembered something important: the notes had told her that the Eye only had one view of time. Anyone who used the Eye was put into the same void – no matter when they used it. That pony must be the one from a thousand years ago who created the Eye in the first place! This is bad – oh, this is very bad. What am I going to do now?

* * * * *

Crimson Star was running for his life. He heard a giggly voice shouting behind him, but he didn’t care. All he knew was that the Everfree Forest was on fire and he wanted to get as far away from that fire as quickly as possible.

Ahead, in the distance, was Ponyville. Ponyville represented civilization and safety. Surely somepony in Ponyville would have a way to defeat that fire guardian. Then, once it was defeated, he could go and retrieve the Eye. It wasn’t exactly according to plan, but he was willing to improvise.

He heard a voice shout out behind him again, but he ignored it. His personal safety was all that mattered. If other people are having problems then they’ll have to tend to them on their own! Can’t they see I’m busy?

A second later a large metal object whacked him on the side of the head. For a brief moment Crimson Star felt intense pain – and then he then fell to the ground, unconscious.

Pinkie Pie looked down at him. The pink party pony was holding a bright pink frying pan in her front right hoof. “Well, I warned him to stop, and he didn’t stop! He really should have stopped.”

Applejack finally caught up to Pinkie. The apple farmer was completely out of breath. “How in Equestria can you run so fast?”

“I can convert candy to energy! And I eat a lot of candy!”

“But it doesn’t work that way,” Applejack pointed out.

“It does for me,” Pinkie replied.

Rarity called out to them. “It sounds like you two are having a simply delightful conversation, but don’t you think we should do something about the fire?”

Applejack and Pinkie looked behind them. Even though Crimson Star was now unconscious, the pillar of fire had not stopped advancing toward Ponyville. It continued its march toward the helpless, very combustible city.

Applejack sighed. “I was really hopin’ that once villain pony was unconscious, the fire would realize its job was done and it would go back home. Apparently that ain’t what it’s after.”

“Apparently not,” Rarity agreed. “On the bright side, at least the pegasi are getting the forest fires under control. So there’s that. But I do think we’re going to need Twilight’s help in order to save our fair city. Where is she, anyway? Shouldn’t she be here by now?”

Pinkie spoke up. “Oh, Twilight is time traveling right now. She’ll be along later, after she’s done being traumatized.”

“Time travelin’!” Applejack exclaimed. “But why would – that is, how could you even know–”

“It’s all in the candy,” Pinkie replied. With a quick move she suddenly produced a handful of rock candy out of thin air. “Here – want some?”

* * * * *

Twilight Sparkle nervously stood her ground and waited as the pony who made the Eye approached her. As it grew larger, Twilight realized that the pony was white. Then she noticed that it had wings and a horn – and a blue and pink tail that shimmered like the sun.

“Celestia?” Twilight exclaimed, astonished. “You made the Eye?”

Celestia ran up and grabbed Twilight with her front hooves. “You’re from the future, aren’t you, purple pony? Tell me – is my sister safe? Was I able to save her? Is she alive?”

“Your sister Luna? Yes, she’s perfectly fine. There’s nothing to worry about. After the thousand years were over, she escaped the moon and tried to take over Equestria. That’s when my friends and I used the Elements of Harmony to free her from the darkness that once consumed her. She’s been ruling at your side ever since. In fact, I spoke with her earlier today. Everything is fine.”

Twilight suddenly noticed that Celestia was a mess. Her coat was matted and her mane was ragged and falling out. Celestia’s eyes were bloodshot. She had a desperate look in her eye, and she had obviously not bathed in days.

When Celestia heard that her sister was safe, she looked at Twilight warily. “You’re not lying to me, are you? Surely you would not dare to lie to the Princess of the Sun! Do not deceive me, little one!”

“I’m telling the truth!” Twilight insisted. “Besides, I would never lie to you. You’re my mentor and teacher! We’ve been close friends for years. Why in Equestria would I lie to you?”

“I just can’t believe what you’re saying is true,” Celestia said wearily. She let Twilight go. “I’ve been in here for days, trying to find a path through time that would save my sister. Ever since I was forced to banish her to the moon I have been obsessed with finding a way to rescue her. I want her back so badly, purple pony. I miss her more than you can possibly know.”

“My name is Twilight,” the purple pony said. “And I do know how much you have missed her – you’ve told me. In the future. After she got back.”

“I just don’t see how that’s possible. Every future I’ve seen in here only leads to disaster! There are no futures that end in success. There is only abject despair.”

“Of course! What were you expecting? After all, you created this place with dark magic. All the Eye can do is show you disasters! It has no ability to show you what is really going to happen. The Eye is completely useless. What in Equestria were you thinking, anyway? Don’t you realize how bad it is to be dabbling in dark magic in the first place?”

“But I was desperate,” Celestia protested. “I had to do it! How else could I ensure Luna’s safe return?”

Twilight sighed. “But don’t you see? I saw what happened when you were forced to banish Luna. She–”

Celestia interrupted. “What do you mean, you saw it? You’re from the future! How could you possibly have seen it?”

“Oh, well, it’s a long story. See, at the time you and Luna had disappeared, and I was trying to find out what happened to you. Discord told me that Zecora–”

“Discord?” Celestia exclaimed. “But Luna and I turned him to stone! Did he escape?”

“No, he didn’t. Well, he did at first, and then we imprisoned him again. But then you told us to let him go so we could try to reform him.”

“That sounds… rather hazardous,” Celestia remarked. “Were you able to reform him?”

Twilight thought about the Tirek incident. “Let’s not go there. The point is, the reason your sister became Nightmare Moon in the first place is because the darkness consumed her. So why in Equestria did you think that you could use more darkness to get her back? How was that ever going to work?”

“I see,” Celestia replied slowly. “Then I have made a fool of myself, and created this cursed thing for nothing. Thank you for showing me the truth. I’ll lock this away so no one else will be led astray by it.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t work out so well,” Twilight muttered.

Celestia suddenly noticed that Twilight was an alicorn. “So are you my daughter?”

“What? Oh, right – the wings. No, I’m just your student. Or I was your student, until I ascended and became a princess.”

“So you became a princess? You weren’t born one?”

“No, I was born a unicorn. I became an alicorn by finishing Starswirl the Bearded’s unfinished masterpiece.”

“Really? But Starswirl doesn’t have an unfinished masterpiece.”

“Ah,” Twilight said. “Um, then I guess he will have one. One day.”

“Why wasn’t he able to finish it?”

Twilight frowned. “Should we even be having this conversation?”

“I’m just a bit concerned, that’s all,” Celestia explained. “Did Starswirl die while he was writing it? Am I about to lose another good friend?”

“Oh! No, that’s not it. He wasn’t able to finish it because he didn’t know as much about friendship as I do. My knowledge of–”

“But Starswirl has lots of friends,” Celestia replied. “I’m his friend. Luna was his friend. So was Clover the Clever. Do you think he was some kind of recluse or something?”

“Um, well, of course not! But that’s what you told me. You’re the one who wanted me to study friendship! In fact, I sent you friendship reports every week!”

“You sent me friendship reports?” Celestia echoed. “Did I actually read them, purple pony?”

“Of course you did!” Twilight said, stamping her hoof. “You loved them! I was your best student! And my name is Twilight!”

“The future sounds very strange,” Celestia remarked.

The timelines around them suddenly started to shake. “What’s that?” Twilight asked.

“The Eye is becoming unstable. In your time it must be very old. I believe it is about to collapse.”

“Is that why you told me not to use it?”

“How should I know? How could I possibly know why I did something that I won’t do for centuries? Perhaps–” Celestia then gasped. “The Eye is collapsing! We haven’t much time. You must tell me: how do I save my sister? What do I need to do?”

Twilight smiled. “It’s easy, actually. One day, not too many years before the time that your sister will escape from the moon, you’ll have a young purple unicorn as a student. You’ll teach her all sorts of things and she will spend all her time reading. When Luna’s imprisonment is over and it’s time for her to escape, you’ll tell that unicorn to stop reading her books and go to Ponyville to make some friends. She’ll handle the rest from there.”

“Got it,” Celestia said. “And thank you, purple pony. You have no idea what this means to me.”

“The name is Twilight,” she replied. “But wait – I still have a problem! I don’t know how to save my friends.”

“I saw that. My advice to you is to use the power of Carrot Top. She can handle it.”

“What?” Twilight exclaimed. “But she’s just an earth pony! She can’t possibly–”

But it was too late. With a thunderous noise, the Eye collapsed. Twilight was thrown out of the void and found herself back in the hidden tower. The Eye was still in the pillar – but it was now a dull black color and had a large crack in it. The Eye was dead.

Outside, Twilight saw the fire golem get ever closer to Ponyville. The lives of many ponies were in jeopardy, and Twilight had to find a way to save them – and now she realized she would have to do it without foreknowledge of the future.

“This is sure going to make for one whacked-out letter to Celestia,” Twilight muttered.

Comments

[Number_2]

Wonder how an ornery CT is gonna lay down the smack.

Great job so far btw.