Revisions of Past Mistakes

by SC_Orion

Meanwhile, In Griffonstone...

Three cutie marks circled the spire that was Griffonstone, a cloud with a rainbow colored lightning bolt, three balloons of different colors, and a purple, six pointed star, surrounded by five smaller white stars. Twilight looked at Griffonstone with glee, "This is so exciting! The map is summoning us to Griffonstone, the heart of the Griffon kingdom!" Twilight levitated a book over to her, "I don't know if any of you-" Twilight was cut off by the door opening. Eclipse trotted in, her cutie mark was pulsing. Twilight lifted a wing and looked at her own cutie mark, it wasn't glowing. She folded her wing back and sighed as she lowered her head with annoyance.

Eclipse slowed down and walked over to the map, she frowned as she looked at the spire atop a mountain with three cutie marks circling it, "I should know what that place is."

"That's Griffonstone!" Pinkie exclaimed.

"Oh... Right, this... Except this time..." Eclipse looked at Twilight, "Sorry, I don't know why it's calling me." Eclipse frowned, "I didn't realize it would be capable of calling me..."

"What do you mean?" Twilight inquired.

"The first time around, it only called Pinkie and Rainbow to Griffonstone. Probably a good thing too, because of the state it was in..."

"What do you mean the state it was in?"

Eclipse quickly replied, "Not important..." Eclipse walked over to the map, "My presence has altered the timeline already, the map seems to be more intelligent than I realized... It's connected to the elements of harmony... I need to examine this further."

Twilight began again, "Right, well, I know Eclipse has read Bygons, Griffons, and Greatness, but griffons were known to be-"

Rainbow cut her off, "Rude, insensitive bullies?"

"You mean Gilda?" Twilight asked.

"What other griffon would I be talking about? Gustov?"

"Rainbow," Eclipse spoke softly, "everypony deserves a second chance..."

"Why would-"

"What about Luna? She turned into Nightmare Moon. We gave her a second chance, didn't we?"

"Well-"

"And Discord?"

"He betrayed-"

"He was tricked." Eclipse answered firmly. Eclipse took a softer tone, "I know the value of second chances."

Rainbow mumbled something inaudible.

"Anyway, we should get started, we'll need to bring a small fortune with us..." Eclipse looked to Twilight, "That book is outdated by the way." Twilight frowned as she pondered what Eclipse meant.

"I wish the map would've summoned me there anyway..." Twilight sighed.

Eclipse smiled weakly, "Trust me, it's better this way."

---

"Isn't this just great?" Pinkie happily asked. "What're you reading Rainbow?"

"Twilight literally wrote a book on what we need to do..." Rainbow moaned.

"You do realize that, despite my name, and my age, I'm still Twilight, right?" Eclipse frowned towards her. Her inner feelings were however happy about seeing Rainbow being so... Rainbow.

"Hehe... Sorry, Eclipse."

Eclipse smiled, "It's fine. I'm just glad you're being you." Rainbow frowned. "What's wrong Rainbow?"

"I know you said I should give Gilda a second chance, but it's hard. She was a jerk to all my friends, especially Pinkie."

"That's not all that's bothering you is it." Eclipse stated.

"Yeah..."

"It's me, isn't it? I make you uncomfortable."

"No... It's... Well yeah, kinda. I mean, you're from the future, you know more about us than we know about us. You already know how everything will turn out!"

"No, I don't. Things are already deviating significantly, I just hope I don't cause more harm than good..."

"Still! You already know how this goes, and what happens to each of us!" Eclipse looked pained for a brief moment. "Eclipse, you alright?"

"I... I'm much older than all of you, despite still looking like I'm in my twenties, I'm over one thousand years old. My height is the only thing that gives reason to suspect my age. Well, that and the full power of my magic." Eclipse paused to think about what to say next, "A good friend is one of the most valuable things you can have, if not the most valuable thing you can have. I... I outlived all of you, it was... Hard. To say the least..." Eclipse shook her head.

"That's... I don't know how you could do it..." Rainbow replied.

Pinkie jumped over to Eclipse and hugged her, "Better?"

Eclipse smiled, "Yes, thank you." Pinkie broke the hug and returned to her seat. "To tell the truth, Discord became my best friend after a while."

Rainbow shouted "What?"

"He was one of the few ponies who had a life expectancy to rival my own. The only others were dragons, Celestia, Luna, and Cadence. Spike eventually grew up, I had a falling out with Luna, Cadence went evil-"

Pinkie spit out the piece of candy she had been sucking on, she and Rainbow spoke in unison, "Wait, what?"

"The princess of love... Take a guess as to why she went evil."

Rainbow spoke softly, she was thankful they had the train car to themselves, "Shining Armor..."

Eclipse spoke more coldly than she intended, "Celestia should have seen it coming, really. She should have seen a lot of things coming..." Eclipse sighed, "Maybe she did..."

Rainbow spoke comfortingly, "Twilight... Er, Eclipse... It's fine, okay? We'll fix everything."

"You can call me Twilight until we get back, if it would make you feel better."

"Okay then... Twilight."

"I know we really haven't talked since I spoke about that Hearth's Warming party... Sorry about embarrassing you, I shouldn't have done that."

Rainbow lifted a hoof to her chest, "What? Me, embarrassed? Pfft, yeah right!"

---

Rainbow, Pinkie, and Eclipse stopped in front of the gates to the rundown city of Griffonstone. "Wow. This place is a dump." Rainbow deadpanned.

"Yep!" Pinkie exclaimed as she started bouncing into the city.

"I find myself thinking that it was this simple fact that the map chose not to send me here the first time." Eclipse spoke to no one in particular as she started walking into the city gates.

Every way the looked, the city was rundown, buildings had collapsed or had roofs caved in, windows falling out, dead trees with limbs falling off as griffons perched on them.

"This is Griffonstone right?" Pinkie asked a nearby griffon who was walking by, she didn't get a response, so she stood in his path. The griffon walked into her, then picked her up in a claw and put her down out of his way.

"Yes, Pinkie." Twilight answered.

"So we should head to the palace and find the king then?"

A grumpy voice answered, "We don't have a king."

Rainbow sighed, Eclipse prodded her with a wing. Rainbow took a step forwards, and spoke without malice, "Hello Gilda."

Gilda's expression turned from one of disgust to one of surprise, "I'm surprised to see you again, Rainbow. Whose the pegasus beside you? Your marefriend?"

"Hey, I- w.. What?" Rainbow stuttered.

"Actually, I'm an alicorn, Gilda." Eclipse motioned a wing to her horn, "And no."

Gilda took a moment to process the fact she was now speaking with an alicorn, "What are you doing here?"

"We're here to help Griffonstone!" Pinkie exclaimed.

Gilda scoffed, "Help it with what?"

"Well-"

Eclipse cut her off, "A friendship problem."

Gilda huffed, "We don't have any friendship here. It's everygriffon for themselves."

Eclipse smiled weakly, "That's the problem Gilda."

"I thought the problem was with their missing idol?" Rainbow asked in confusion.

"Missing idol? Hah! Only a fool would believe in that tale."

A elderly voice called from a nearby doorway, "You better believe it!" He coughed and fell down. A second later he flapped back up to the perch and then down to the ground. "The idol was the best thing to ever happen to us!"

Gilda spoke with frustration, "Great, now you have Grandpa Gruff started!"

The elderly griffon walked forwards to the three ponies, "I'll tell you the whole tragic story... For some bits."

"Thank you, but that won't be necessary," Eclipse levitated five bits out of a bag, "but you can have some bits anyway." Rainbow shot Eclipse a glare.

"It's your loss then." The elderly griffon bit one of gold coins with his beak and then flew back to his house.

"Aw, I wanted to hear his story..." Pinkie said dejectedly.

"Anyway, the idol is in the Abysmal Abyss." Eclipse said nonchalantly.

"So we go get the idol and fix this problem then?" Rainbow asked.

"Ha, here we go, typical pony hero complex. Thinking they always have to be in control."

Eclipse ignored Gilda, "Not exactly..." Eclipse started planning, "Do you trust me?" Eclipse looked between Rainbow and Pinkie.

"Of course silly!"

"Yeah?"

"Good. Pinkie, you help Gilda, Rainbow and I will go get the Idol."

"Hey, I don't need any help!" Gilda shouted.

Rainbow took to the sky, followed shortly by Eclipse. They flew to the nearest supply store, Rainbow rushed through the doors and took a heroic pose, "We're here to find your idol an-" Eclipse tugged on Rainbow's tail with her magic, breaking Rainbow's concentration. "What?" Rainbow asked.

"Trust me on this." Eclipse walked up to the counter. The griffon running the shop was lying against the counter, with depression plastered on her face. Eclipse levitated out a bag of bits from her saddle bag, "We'll need some rope, a grappling hook, and a guide to take us to the Abysmal Abyss."

"And I'll need-" Eclipse dropped the bag of bits on the counter and opened it with her magic.

---

Pinkie Pie bounced after Gilda, who was towing a cart behind her. Gilda detached the cart from her and put the harness on a rock. Pinkie watched as two griffons walked into each other and scowled as they walked passed each other. "Oh, I know what Griffonstone needs!"

"Fewer ponies?" Gilda asked as she dropped what appeared to be a rock onto her cart.

"No, silly. A song! I've got a song-"

Gilda closed Pinkie's mouth with a claw, with her other claw she pointed at a sign, "Can't sign here."

"What about a party? Nothing cheers ponies up like a party! Where's your party supply store?"

Gilda blinked.

"No party supply store? What about cake? Surely you have cake!"

Gilda groaned.

"No signing, no party store, no cake! What is this place!" Pinkie shouted with exasperation.

"You're welcome to GET LOST AT ANY TIME!" Gilda shouted back. The force of the shout threw Pinkie back, she impacted a wall leaving a perfect silhouette impact of her body and mane.

Pinkie fell out of her crater, "Well that just takes the cake! Wait, it can't take the cake since there's no cake or muffins! Or griffon scones!"

"We have griffon scones, they're my talent." Gilda stepped back and raised a claw pointing at her cart and the 'scones' on it.

Pinkie rushed over to Gilda, "I'll buy one!"

Gilda picked up a scone and held it out for Pinkie. Pinkie went in to bite it but Gilda pulled it back, "Bits first." She held out a claw.

Pinkie tugged on her mane with a hoof and a bit flew out and landed in Gilda's claw. Gilda shoved the griffon scone into Pinkie's mouth. Pinkie chewed the scone, it was as hard as a rock. Pinkie swallowed.

"Well what do you think?"

"It's good but rock hard. And not in the good way like rock candy but in the bad way like actually as hard as a rock and not melting in your mouth."

"Whatever, I don't even care. I just want to sell enough of these to get out of this dump."

"I can help with that!" Pinkie beamed.

---

Rainbow Dash looked over the edge of the ravine and into the Abysmal Abyss. The wind was gusting out of control, and blew her mane back despite the helmet she wore. Eclipse walked over to her and tightened the strap on her helmet with her magic. "Thanks."

Eclipse looked down into the Abyss. "How deep is the Abysmal Abyss anyway?"

The griffon answered in an even voice, "How deep are your pockets?"

Eclipse blinked.

---

"Your recipe is good, but it's missing one important ingredient-"

"Don't tell me, friendship?" Gilda sarcastically waved her claws around in the air.

"No, baking powder silly." Pinkie smiled, "Lucky for you I never leave home without it!" She reached into her mane and pulled out a jar of baking powder. Pinkie added baking powder to the next batch of griffon scones Gilda was preparing to cook, and put them in the oven. "Now you just bake them and they'll be worth their weight in gold!" Gilda raised an eyebrow.

A griffon flying over the oven paused when she smelt the scones, she sniffed the air and smiled at the aroma. Her smile was soon replaced by a scowl as another griffon collided with her and knocked her out of the sky. She hit the ground with a thud. Gilda turned towards the thud, "Greta!" She reached down and helped the griffon up with a claw.

Once the griffon was back up, she forced Gilda's arm away and scowled at her. "Ah ha!" Pinkie exclaimed as she walked away. Gilda turned to look at Pinkie. "I saw that Gilda! You may act like a meanie pants, but inside you're nice!"

"What are you talking about?" Gilda asked with venom.

"You just helped your friend up when she got knocked down!" Pinkie cheerfully explained.

"What? Her? Greta's just some griffon I've met before." Gilda scowled. "We don't have friends here." Gilda sighed, "I did have a friend once, but you saw how that turned out."

A sudden realization hit Pinkie, her pupils shrank, "Oh my gosh! I gotta go find Rainbow!"

Pinkie took off running for the Abysmal Abyss, "See you later looser." Gilda called after her.

---

"You sure we can't just fly down?" Rainbow asked. She prepared to jump into the air, but Eclipse held her tail in her mouth.

"Rainbow, even you have your limits. It's too windy for either of us to safely fly down there." Eclipse answered. Eclipse picked up one of the ropes with her magic and tied one end around a rock, and the other end into a harness for Rainbow.

"Why aren't you doing this?" Rainbow asked.

"Because this has to happen." Eclipse replied flatly.

Rainbow sighed and walked over to the edge of the ravine and slowly stepped over the edge to begin her descent. She started slowly, but increased her pace as she began to get more comfortable with rappelling. The wind seemed to become more fierce as she descended further, her mane and tail were blown about carelessly by the strong air currents. "Just have to find that golden idol and get out of this place." she monologued.

She rappelled past a sharp rock outcropping, as she continued past it and hit the cliff face the rope was rubbed against the rock. As she pushed off again, the rock tore into the rope and severed it. Rainbow screamed as she started falling into the ravine. Eclipse felt the sudden reduction in weight and knew what had happened, however she couldn't do anything about it yet.

Eventually, the force of the wind became enough to throw her about, and it threw her back up and onto a outcropping. Rainbow hit the outcropping hard, landing awkwardly on a hoof. She cried out in pain as her leg broke. She held her leg protectively and fought through the pain and called out to Eclipse, "Twilight! Help! Throw me another rope! I think I broke my leg!"

Eclipse frowned back down towards her, she felt bad for the pain Rainbow was in. She would heal her leg when she got the chance, however it would have to wait. "Rainbow, pulling you up with a broken leg from this height would be dangerous! Don't worry, help is on the way!" Eclipse bit her lip, the last time Pinkie had showed up to get help for Rainbow. She didn't know if that would be the case this time.

Rainbow began wrapping her leg in a bandage, she wrapped it tightly to help immobilize the limb, but not tight enough to cut off blood flow. After finishing, she started flapping her wings, slowly she lifted off the ground and into the air. The wind fought against her wings, and soon overpowered them. She was thrown back against the cliff wall, and fell back down to the outcropping. Eclipse winced.

"Eclipse?" Pinkie asked from behind her. Eclipse jumped slightly in surprise.

"Pinkie? Good, now you're here. I need you to go get Gilda, Rainbow's in trouble."

Pinkie's eyes widen, she peered over the edge of the ravine and looked at Rainbow, "Don't go anywhere! I'll be right back with help!" Pinkie immediately took off back towards Griffonstone to find Gilda.

"Where am I going to-" the rock outcropping Rainbow was lying on started to crumble beneath her weight, she barely managed to push herself against the cliff in time to prevent her from being sent into a free fall again.

---

Gilda pulled out the pan of freshly baked griffon scones and put it on a rack to cool. After a few seconds, she took a scone and popped it into her beak. Her eyes widened as she chewed the delicious scone.

"Gilda!" Pinkie called out as she galloped to Gilda, "Rainbow is stuck on a ledge in the Abysmal Abyss and we need your help to save her!"

"Not my problem!" Gilda swiftly replied.

"But it is your problem! She's your friend!"

"Used to be." Gilda corrected.

"Can't you remember when she was?" Pinkie asked.

"Yeah, of course..." Gilda thought back to their days at the Junior Speedsters Flight Camp. The memory of first meeting Rainbow Dash played through her mind, she soon found her eye was tearing up. She flicked the tear away with a claw. "Fine." she relented. "I'll help her." Gilda got up in Pinkie face, "But that doesn't make me her friend."

Pinkie smiled, and spoke in a sing-song voice, "Except it does!" Gilda rolled her eyes and walked passed Pinkie.

---

Even more of the rock outcropping crumbled beneath Rainbow's forehooves. She looked fearfully between the ravine below her and Eclipse standing at the top of the ravine.

"They're back!" Eclipse called down to Rainbow.

Gilda put a harness around her body and Eclipse tied the other end of the rope around a rock. After the rope was secured, Gilda ran to the edge of the cliff and dived into the ravine. She accelerated downwards, and the wind fought against her, soon battering her and pushing her against the cliff wall. She dug into the rock with her claws, and fought against the wind to maintain her grip.

The rock beneath Rainbow shattered completely, and Rainbow was sent into a free fall. Pinkie saw it happen and ran over to the rock and put the end tied to the rock around her body and jumped into the ravine.

Eclipse clenched her jaw as she watched the scene unfold before her, she knew the map had called her for a reason, but she also knew that Gilda had to save Rainbow, or they would fail to rekindle their friendship. As the trio fell through the ravine, Eclipse made a mental calculation. Pinkie wouldn't catch up to Rainbow in time. Her heart skipped a beat. 'What do I do... What do I do...'

Eclipse was running in place, before Pinkie had caught Rainbow and Gilda had pulled them to safety as she climbed out of the Abyss. Gilda hit the ledge, Pinkie hadn't caught Rainbow. Eclipse looked around for something that could help. Her eyes settled on her horn and she grimaced. "Here goes nothing..."

Eclipse lit her horn, channeling magic for a couple of spells. One, she would cancel Rainbow's downward momentum. Two, she would create a barrier around Rainbow to block out the dangerous wind. Three, she would levitate Rainbow back up to the ledge and set her down.

She fired the first two spells successfully, but she didn't have enough magic for the third and final spell that would save Rainbow. She just didn't have the magic to lift Rainbow long enough to cover the distance required. She grimaced as she considered her options.

None of her normal spells would fix this problem, only a certain spell would solve it. A spell of dark magic. It would convert a certain amount of her life force into magic. It would shorten her lifespan, but provide her with the magic she needed to save Rainbow. She frowned, but lit her horn with dark magic and began casting the spell. She ran through some calculations as to how much she would need, factoring in the wind, and maintaining the barrier.

It would only cost her two years of life. Nothing compared to the life span of a normal alicorn. She could have done it more efficiently, she knew it for a fact. But she didn't have time. She grimaced and cast the spell.

Dark magic coursed through her, converting some of her life into magic, giving her just enough to levitate Rainbow back up to the other ledge. Eclipse collapsed from exhaustion.

---

Rainbow was set down on the ledge which the idol was on, she picked it up with her mouth and then leaped over to the ledge Gilda was on. Gilda motioned for Rainbow to climb onto her back, Rainbow obliged. Pinkie popped up onto the ledge next, having climbed up the rope.

"Think that alicorn of yours can lift us back up there? I'm not looking forward to carrying you both up there."

Rainbow looked up to the top of the ravine, but didn't see Eclipse anywhere. She shook her heard no, "I don't see her..."

"Of course not... So much for your marefriend bailing us out."

"Gilda, please..." The rock ledge they were on started to crack. Everyone looked down to see the cracking, "Climb now!" Rainbow shouted.

Gilda jumped onto the cliff and started climbing up the rock face.

---

"Rainbow! Look!" Pinkie shouted as she pointed towards Eclipse.

Rainbow dropped the idol from her mouth, "Eclipse!" Rainbow quickly flew over to the fallen alicorn. She landed beside her despite her broken leg. She winced as her hoof touched the ground. She put a hoof on Eclipse and shook her.

Eclipse stirred awake, and bolted upright. She dry-heaved a couple times before standing up. "Ugh... I hate dark magic..."

"What?" Rainbow asked.

"It's not important right now..." Eclipse lifted a hoof up to her horn and gently rubbed it. Eclipse spoke slightly bitterly, "I hope the map is happy now..."

"Sorry about how I treated your friends last time, Rainbow. Pinkie, thanks for showing me that I was wrong... Eclipse is it?" Eclipse nodded, "I... I have no clue who you are."

Eclipse smiled lightly, "I'm from the future. I'm Twilight Sparkle."

Gilda raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Huh..."

Twilight looked passed Gilda, "Is that... The idol?"

"Sure is!" Rainbow boasted, "I managed to save it since you put me down on the ledge it had fallen onto." Eclipse's jaw was agape.

"I take it that didn't happen the first time around?" Rainbow asked.

"No..."

"Well, between the idol and you showing me the value of friendship, I think I can fix Griffonstone." Gilda walked over to Rainbow and hugged her. "Keep an eye on your marefriend, I wouldn't trust ponies from the future. For all you know she could have started a pony war or something."

"She's not... Ugh."

---

Eclipse watched Rainbow return the hug, even if it was brief. She felt she had made a difference, no, she knew she made a difference. But now she had questions that needed answers, such as how the map was able to call her, and why she collapsed. She frowned briefly at Gilda's joking accusation.

Eclipse went over the events of what happened today in her mind, one thing was certain, she needed her magic back. And fast. The map had called her for a reason, and had she not been there Rainbow would have died. Had she not known how to convert her life energy into magic, Rainbow would have died.

Rainbow limped over to Pinkie Pie. Eclipse soon joined them. "Here, let me help you with that." Eclipse pointed her horn towards Rainbow's leg. She cast a spell, healing her broken bone. "It seems I still have some magic left over from that..." 'Good. I'm going to need it.'

Author's Note:

Hope you enjoyed.

Theorize below. Or discuss. Or whatever.

Comments

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

Gilda closed Pinkie's mouth with a claw, with her other claw she pointed at a sign, "Can't sign here."

you probably mean "sing"

"No signing, no party store, no cake! What is this place!" Pinkie shouted with exasperation.

Pinkie took off running for the Abysmal Abyss, "See you later looser." (loser) Gilda called after her.