Burning Heart of Justice
Chapter 25 - The Burning Flames of Justice
Court progressed more or less as it did every other day. The pure normality of the proceedings lulled her into a state of semi-automated decision making. The higher portions of her brain that handled problem solving still analyzed and assessed the issues brought before her, but the portion that was Twilight sat back without a peep. She suspected that she would fall asleep if it were not for the regular judgments she gave and questions she asked.
Off to the side somepony was playing a stringed instrument, a harp she thought. Some time ago some of the lords suggested having music during court might be a nice change of pace. Twilight was not particularly fond of it, but neither had she objected. Today the melody was particularly soothing.
The Princess of Equestria most certainly did not almost nod off while two ponies debated in front of her.
However, all of these conditions simply led to a greater shock when the court attendants at the door squawked in indignation as a group of ponies cut to the front of the line. Twilight watched in surprise as magic shoved the two bickering ponies out of the way of the new group. She recognized the relatively powerful magic as belonging to Justice’s wife Star Streamer.
“Justice? What brings you here to court?” Twilight asked while looking at the group of six ponies that now stood before her.
She snaked her magic senses around the room. Many of the gathered nobility seemed tense and confused. She could make out a dozen conversations springing up. However, she noted that a few seemed calm and collected in their silence. It was almost as if they expected this intrusion into the court.
“Princess Twilight Sparkle. My friends and I stand here before you as representatives of Equestria First. We are a group of like minded ponies who feel that Equestria has struggled under the burden of your yoke for too long.”
“Justice…” There was an edge to her voice. She made sure he heard it and was glad to see a shiver go down her nephew’s spine.
“We have here a list of grievances and demands.” Star Streamer pulled out two scrolls in her own magic as she spoke.
“You are not happy with the way I have been ruling Equestria?”
“Many ponies are unhappy.” Gold Standard, one of Justice’s friends spoke. “We plan on addressing each grievance in detail, but it all boils down to the fact that we do not believe your will reflects the will of Equestria. Life in Canterlot is - it is much better than else where. We wish to see all ponies in Equestria get a fair chance.”
“And your demands?” asked Twilight.
“Fair ones your highness. We request a public election to see if ponies wish to remove the monarchy,” replied Justice.
Muttered whispers ran through the room. Twilight was careful to maintain her calm demeanor.
“The Dragon Kin once tried to do away with their monarchy and adopted a republic. From what we can tell from the ruins, it ended quite horribly,” said Twilight.
“You once told me, Princess, that the possibility of failure is not a reason to not make an attempt.”
“Justice. I’m sure things are not as bad as you truly think. I think this would be best dealt with-”
“Between the two of us? Behind closed doors where you can sweep it all away? I- I tried to talk to you about this, I really did. But you ignored me, just as you have ignored the cries of Equestria. But I’m not the only pony who is upset. Even though I have only recently realized the need for action, I’ve been talking with others for months now. Princess, do the right thing. It is time for the end of tyranny.”
Twilight could easily make out the startled gasps throughout the room, and then suddenly there was silence.
Equestria was at a crossroads. At this moment, time splintered and frayed in millions of different directions. Twilight could feel it in her gut.
Time stopped.
The great orrery ground to a halt and Twilight knew that the sun would be motionless in the sky.
She looked around the room. Lord High Money’s mouth was frozen open in shock. The muffin he had dropped was still in midair. Twilight rose from her throne and circled the ponies who had come before her.
“At least I have time to think things over.”
Twilight walked by the nobles who had been silent throughout the proceedings. They had known what was going to happen. Even if they did not fully support Diamond Justice and this “Equestria First” movement, they had not brought it to her attention. She wondered how Silver Heart had failed to notice this.
Disloyalty or incompetence. I’m not sure which is worse.
She supposed it was also possible that her head of magical intelligence was spread too thin. His new budget was hardly comprehensive while his new duties were quite broad. It was something she would need to think about later.
Twilight stepped up to Star Streamer and grabbed one of the two scrolls and unrolled it. Halfway through the act realized that she had no way of reading it.
“Not knowing what is on this list is going to make it a lot harder to figure out what to do.”
For a brief moment Twilight considered a mind delve. It could certainly give her the information she needed, but there was a large variable she could not account for.
What happens if I go into the mind of a pony frozen in time?
She shook her head. That option would not work.
Suddenly inspiration struck. Twilight laid the scroll on the floor and flattened it out with her magic. Earlier in the month she was practicing a new spell, one that manipulated size. Weaving the magic, the scroll spread across the floor, rolling over ponies, and taking up most of her court. Finally, she stopped its growth before it lost stability.
Twilight walked across the scroll which had increased along every dimension. The ink had grown in thickness and she could feel the texture difference between the paper with and without ink. Slowly she traced out words, but it seemed she had as much time as she needed.
“Just details about what this public vote would look like. This won’t help me defuse this.”
Twilight shrunk the scroll back down and repeated the process with the other one. It would be the list of grievances. Her hooves trembled as she transversed the scroll.
The food rationing was a necessity. She did not know how they expected her to feed her ponies without it. Yes they she had imposed limitations on the right to assembly, but only to prevent riots. Ponies were still allowed to voice their opinion. Restriction of religious freedom was simply ridiculous. Those ponies in Manehatten had been nothing more than a cult stirring up trouble.
She felt her blood beginning to boil as she continued down the list.
Of course she quartered her troops in private homes. If barracks were not available did ponies expect the guard to sleep outside. They gave their lives to protect Equestria. There was nothing illegal about the taxation of imports from the griffon territories. It was a perfectly reasonable diplomatic move to apply the right amount of pressure. She had most certainly not filled the Magisterium with all of her friends. Rarity and Stone Edge were both Diamond Justice’s parents for goodness sake.
However, Twilight did have to give them a few of their points.
There had been a massive spending on crystals and gems for use in the palace. They were for a good reason, but they did not know that. She could not simply tell them about Celly. She had also lied about the moon, though she had no idea how they had discovered that. However, suppressing the Cloudsdale Ice Age report hardly counted as suppression of the press as their list made it seem to be.
Finally, Twilight gave an exasperated sigh when she got to the final item. The Solar Guard were not storm trotters, a personal army, or anything of the sort. They were a way for Celly to help her protect Equestria.
Twilight shrunk the list and returned it to its proper place. It was ridiculous, was what it was. She considered simply agreeing with their vote. There was no way ponies would go along with it.
But then Twilight turned her head towards the six ponies who had disturbed her court. Several of them were very influential ponies. She had no idea just how much support they had.
This was a difficult problem and as such demanded the proper problem solving techniques.
The most important thing when dealing with a tricky dilemma was a check list. She conjured her note crystal.
She needed to find the right words to dissuade the perturbed ponies before her. The fact that time seemed to be frozen meant she had as much time as she needed to craft the perfect speech. The first thing she needed to do was figure out what she knew about the ponies presenting their grievances so that she could best tailor her words.
First there was Diamond Justice, of course. Even though it seemed their relationship had recently soured he had always looked up to her, and she was proud of the stallion he had become. She knew there were jokes about “honest lawyers,” but Justice was known not only for his ability in the courtroom, but the fact that he won his cases without compromising his morals. He was honest to the core and would appreciate the same from her. She could not simply sweep things under the rug with him. That took several options off of the table.
Twilight added honesty to her list.
Then there was his wife Star Streamer. She had important connections amongst the nobility and was talented with magic. Twilight knew that she was also a logical pony. It would be important to explain her reasoning.
And then there is…
Twilight heard her crystal hit the ground with tinkering clatter as the checklist projection winked out. Next to Star Streamer was Gold Standard, a pony famed for his philanthropy. He would want to make sure things were fair for everypony. He wanted to share the luxuries of Canterlot with all of Equestria. Besides him was Fleet Hooves, a former member of her guard and a pony who had been injured pulling his comrades to safety. He wouldn’t stand for anything that he saw as betraying the ponies he had come to represent.
She looked at the next pony.
I think that one’s name was Popper?
The pegasus had hardly stopped laughing and smiling throughout the wedding reception. The pegasus had wanted to play games with her princess and had made her a card. She then looked at the final pony. Twilight did not know if she had ever learned the other pegasus’s name, but remembered very clearly that she had been the last one to leave Twilight at the wedding. She had apologized and thanked Twilight and at the time she had thought her very kind.
Twilight looked at the six friends before her.
It has to be a coincidence.
Twilight could not help to suppress a shudder that ran from horn to tail.
And Twilight turned, but she did not turn. She looked sideways, but not the same sideways she was used to all of her life. This was a different sideways, and when she looked she saw time itself with her blind eyes. In all their infinity, the threads splayed in every direction away from whatever decision she would make today.
+++
She dismissed the ponies and had them removed from her court. However, they did not stop and they ensured their view was heard. Within a decade, her precious Equestria was in the midst of a civil war.
Twilight stood on top of a tower listening to the sound of battle below. Most of her loyalist forces were elsewhere in Equestria helping to protect her ponies from the dark nights. She had not thought it would come to this. She had thought Canterlot safe.
She had erred badly.
Still, all she could do was watch. Despite all the blood shed by the rebels, she could not move herself to bring her hoof against them. It would make her the monster they claimed. She would not kill her own ponies.
Twilight tracked a rainbow blur flanked by solar guards darting through the air battling the rebels. She knew what was coming. It was only a matter of time. Already Dash was slowing down.
A dark streak rose from the ground. It was too far and too fast for her to act against. She watched as the streak and the blur met, and then the rainbow blur plummeted beyond her sight. Twilight choked back a sob.
Twilight walked down the steps. She would wait for the end in her throne room.
Time passed.
The vast hall was empty as she sat on her throne. She had ordered the palace staff to evacuate. There was no sense in them getting caught up in the violence. It had been two days since she had lost her Captain Commander, and in the distance she could still hear the sound of fighting. It seemed the Solar Guard were holding their ground at the main gates.
Suddenly there was a sickening lurch and all of Canterlot trembled. Bits of stonework and masonry tumbled. Twilight lowered her head and felt a tear making its way down her cheek. Running far beyond her limits to defend her Princess, Celly had finally surcomed to the stress. The Solar Guard was gone.
She knew that almost all of her flesh and bone guards were either dead or captured. The rebels would flow through the palace without resistance until they reached her. She could hear the pounding of hooves outside of the chamber.
Suddenly there was the sound of fighting outside of the door. She heard a voice yell, “For the Princess!” It was old Ironhooves.
Twilight did not know how long the fighting lasted, but then there was only silence. As she sat alone in the throne room, she wished for anything, even the sound of ponies dying to let her know that something was still happening.
And then the doors shook.
And then they shook again.
Twilight knew that the doors would hold, at least for awhile. Over the centuries that Canterlot had stood, layers and layers of protective magic had been woven into them. She could last indefinitely in her throne room. Flights of pegasi would arrive as reinforcements from Cloudsdale. Manehatten would teleport response teams to Canterlot. They had certainly received word of what had happened.
But that would mean more ponies would die. She would end things now. Twilight allowed the doors to open as another impact hit.
As the doors burst wide she could just make out the rust colored coat of her now dead commander of Infantry laying on the floor.
Several former members of her Guard rushed into the room. Their armor was painted with the black of the rebellion, and black bands of cloth were wrapped around their forelegs. Twilight wondered if they realized that they looked like they were in mourning.
Perhaps they were.
Cloud Dancer, her one time chief of the royal air force, led the former guard. She had not seen that betrayal coming, and that made it sting all the more. But then Twilight’s attention was drawn to the ponies behind them.
Diamond Justice was there with his five friends.
“Princess Twilight. We are here to present you the terms of your surrender. You will be allowed to continue controlling your sun and-”
The idea that an instigator such as Justice should live while so many other good ponies had died filled her with rage.
“Could you take it from me? If you wanted I mean?”
There was silence in response. “I thought not,” she said.
“Princess,” the voice was less steady now, “you will continue maintaining your sun, but you will hand over your crown. You will let the voice of Equestria be heard.”
The rage boiled over.
They had killed so many...
They had killed Rainbow Dash…
They had killed Celly...
“You are but gnats.”
“What?”
“Are you lacking ears as well as a brain? I said you are gnats. You are flies buzzing in my ears. Insects waiting for me to swat with my tail. The voice of Equestria? Don’t make me laugh. How could insects such as you be the voice of Equestria? Do you want to hear the true voice of Equestria?”
Twilight felt the silken bandage around her eyes smouldering, and it broke into pieces carried away by an ethereal wind. Twilight looked up for the first time since they had entered, and she knew. When they saw her eyes ablaze, they realized that it had been they who had erred.
She was Equestria, and she willingly embraced the Nightmare. Twilight let its strength flow into her, allowing her to do what she was never able to bring herself to do.
“Die.”
The rebellion ended as all was fire and ash.
Twilight shuddered at that possibility. That had been no gradual descent into madness, only a cold surrender to its clutches.
There were other threads, other possibilities. She would work this out.
The rebellion raged and all around her Equestria crumbled. She was the student of Princess Celestia. She was Princess Twilight Sparkle. She would save Equestria.
Twilight watched from her tower as her guard fought a battle in the main courtyards. A traitor had allowed the rebels to breach the main gates and the palace was no longer secure. There was no time to evacuate the staff and innocent ponies were being caught up in the fight.
Her magic spread out across the city and could feel the heat of flames. She sensed Rainbow Dash leading a wing of pegasi as they attempted to defend the city from within while mitigating the damage. There was only so much they could do.
Canterlot needed its princess. She had to act.
Twilight spread her wings and leapt from her tower.
As she smashed down in the courtyard, the pavement cracked underneath her weight. The fighting stopped as both sides stared at her in shock.
“Foals!” The wind rushed deep from her lungs knocking over a group of guard ponies in black. “You dishonor Equestria. You dishonor the sacrifice of those who have died before you with your pathetic rebellion.”
If only it was a fight that could be won with words.
And then Twilight remembered. The Empress had shown her the true power of the Royal Canterlot voice. Perhaps it had been for this moment.
“You disgust me… Die.”
All around her rebels raised their weapons and took their own lives in obedience. Twilight walked forward deeper into the fray weaving death as she went. Ponies that approached her simply ceased to be.
The battle was won.
But as Twilight turned around, her ponies were not celebrating their victory. They trembled in fear at the goddess of death that had descended from on high.
“Twilight, what did you do?”
She glanced down at her hooves where the group of rebels trying to surrender still remained motionless. Some of them were hardly older than colts.
“I will do what it takes to protect Equestria.”
She felt a power welling deep within her.
“None shall know the dark again.”
Canterlot was transformed into an inferno.
Twilight shook her head. Certainly she could fight in the battle without going crazy. There were an infinite dozen of other threads with rebellion in them, but perhaps she would explore the others first. She needed to consider all the possibilities.
”The actions of you six are nothing less than traitorous. I am afraid there is only one punishment for such a crime. Hence forth, you are all banished from Equestria.”
And still rebellion came. Only this time six ponies came from the west with allies from beyond Equestrian soil.
Twilight brought her sun to bear on the army before her. The world burned.
“Come on. Think Twilight. You never really intended to ignore them or send them away. What happened to planning a big moving speech. Let’s try looking for kinder options.”
Equestria had its election, and Twilight was vindicated. Equestria believed in its princess. Diamond Justice apologized, but thanked her for giving the vote a chance.
But, still Twilight could not help to look at the numbers. How had so many ponies voted against her?
She stepped down from her throne. Justice had been right all along. Equestria was only beginning to awaken to her failures. Her ponies were simply too forgiving.
It made sense, really. Ruling the kingdom was a tremendous drain, and putting it in the capable hooves of other ponies would allow her to focus on the things that only she could do.
The sun grew brighter.
It should have been relaxing.
She spent her days with Celly and her other friends. She still had ceremonial functions and was occasionally consulted by the new government on important issues. All in all, it was like a retirement.
But around her, she began to see a new decay. Equestria was surviving, but it seemed a darkness was spreading over it. She sensed a corruption running deep.
In her heart she felt guilty for not being more active in the protection of Equestria.
The corruption and guilt wormed their way deeper and deeper. One day she returned to her little cottage only to find Celly was not there. The Nightmare stood where she should be.
It did not kill Twilight, though that would have been preferable. Impaled to the side of the Canterhorn mountain with eyesight magically restored, she had no choice but to watch as the creature brought Equestria to ruin.
It took everything from her.
Even death was denied her.
Twilight was not sure which of the threads was the worst so far. She turned and followed another one.
”The actions of you six are nothing less than traitorous. I believe it is time for us to institute the griffon form of punishment for such things."
Twilight stopped following that thread. She would not sentence a pony to death. She would not turn into the tyrant that they claimed.
The paths in which she attempted to talk things out all seemed to lead to a gradual decline.
Every path in which she resisted ended in fire. But among those, the six before her always seemed to play a critical role.
Twilight finally admitted to what she was looking at, what she had known even before picking up the strands of time.
The six ponies before her were all potential bearers of the Elements of Harmony. She wondered for a moment if the elements could be turned against her, one who had used the Element of Magic on multiple occasions. Then she remembered the Elements being used against Luna and that Luna had once used them against Discord.
Did Discord ever use the elements? Is this the fate of those who wield harmony?
She shook her head. She was leaping to conclusions. Being the Element of Magic alone would not protect her, but that did not mean they could use the Elements against her. After all, as far as she knew, they had only ever successfully been used against bad ponies who sought to spread chaos, disharmony, and suffering.
She was a good pony.
Quickly her mind followed dozens of potential threads that she had previously overlooked. They were sheathed in a bright rainbow glow. All futures revealed themselves to her.
Twilight summoned the Elements of Harmony from their vault where they had been dormant for over fifty years.
“Justice. These are the Elements of Harmony. I give them to you. If you truly believe what you have said, turn them against me. If you speak true, their power will activate as Equestria’s greatest weapon. But I know my heart. I know that I serve Equestria in my every action. The Elements will not turn on their greatest Champion.”
She watched as the Elements harmonized with the friends. Their form shifted to represent the cutie marks of their new bearers. Still Twilight was not concerned. She had spoken the truth.
A rainbow barrage of colors began to swirl around the six ponies. A beam of light shot forth from where they were gathered.
Twilight was not concerned. Harmony would wash over her and leave her unscathed.
The world lurched as the light hit her form. She was somewhere else.
Banished to the heart of her star. The Elements had transformed her into fuel within its core. Her sun flared, becoming as bright as Celestia’s sun once was thanks to its new alicorn power source. She was trapped, burning for a thousand years.
Alone, isolated, in pain, she did not understand.
She was a good pony.
In her prison, Twilight Sparkle ceased to be. In the end there was only nightmare.
Watching the vision unfold Twilight thought she finally understood the Elements. She suspected she knew why Celestia could only banish Luna and not heal her with the Elements. Good and bad were not binary states, but a spectrum. A pony was a mix of both. The Elements could not purge the one without damaging the other.
But while banished, far away from anypony for a thousand years, a pony would inevitably surcomb to madness. Their nightmares and fear would rise to the surface. The bad would consume them, while the core of their being, all that was good in them, would be buried deep below.
When Luna had broken free, her heart was buried safe beneath layers and layers of nightmare. The pain no longer laced through her hearts because they no longer needed her hearts. They had their own form of expression. But it meant that Elements had an opportunity to save her. They could burn away all those outer layers of hatred until only the solid core of good as left glittering in the ashes.
The Elements were designed to be a two step process.
Or maybe she was just justifying the madness.
From her prison she learned to watch what happened below her. She saw Equestria burning in the flames of war.
Eventually she made her escape. Empress Twilight Flare would bathe the world in fire.
Only there was nopony left. Harmony had died in her absence. Nopony was there to trigger the second stage of the Elements.
There were variants. Different intonations and words and timings leading to different outcomes, but all with a central theme. Her imprisonment and then freedom.
She returns to Equestria in glorious flames. The Elements of Harmony had been forgotten during her thousand year exile and all knew her wrath.
She returns to find Equestria empty save for Celly who had been the only pony to wait for her. She finds that the isolation had driven the construct insane.
She returns to find an empty and dead Equestria. However, deep in the vaults beneath Canterlot, she finds a dormant Celly. She wakes her up. The construct tries to fight her. “You’re not Twilight. You’re not my student. You’re not my Princess.”
In all of them, sooner or later, the world is bathed in flames upon her return.
The nightmare always took control during her imprisonment.
But she was aware of the rainbow threads now. There were others that did not end in flame.
Finally free from a thousands years burning in the sun, Empress Twilight was looking forward to fanning her flames as far as she could see. Only there were six ponies waiting for her. She did not recognize them, but she recognized the jewelry that they were wearing.
She brings the entire fury of her sun against them. There is no way they could survive, yet they do. Soon she is facing a rainbow beam again.
Then the thread ends.
The shock of it was enough to jar Twilight out of her trance.
“What happened there at the end? They should have purged the nightmare. Why does it all just end? Why doesn’t it work? Why is there nothing after?”
Curious she delved back into the threads of time.
Twilight sent Justice away, but arranged for him to find the Elements. She ends imprisoned and returning a thousand years later in wrath.
Twilight imprisons Justice. Somehow he discovers the Elements and gets ahold of them. Equestria burns at her return.
Twilight is imprisoned by the Elements wielded by an elderly Justice. When Empress Twilight Flare returns she is confronted by six ponies upon her return.
The thread ends, terminating abruptly.
She shook her head again.
How can the threads themselves end?
The Elements still deserved further investigation.
“Perhaps a different angle. Obviously there is enough conflict in my hearts that the Elements can be used against me. I may have a unity of spirit, but I still lack proper conviction.”
If she was earnest enough in her desire to change, if she truly committed herself to improving, perhaps it would not be necessary to draw the nightmare out first.
Twilight dismisses Justice.
Dozens of threads all get him and his friends out of the room. Ultimately how does not matter.
She gathers her own friends and explains the problem to them. Honesty is a prerequisite. Twilight passes out the Elements of Harmony. She explains her plan.
Somepony always raises a problem.
“What about Laughter.”
Celly steps into the room, and puts on the sixth Element.
“Is it going to work with you wearing the Element of Magic and using it on yourself?”
“It will work. Being part of this, it will work even better. I’m trying to accept harmony.”
Twilight puts on the Element of Magic. They gather in a circle. Rainbow light shoots into the air and arches back down towards them.
The thread ends.
“How does the thread end? Even if I die, it should keep going… What am I missing?”
Twilight cocked her head.
“I just don’t see it. What’s the solution here. All the threads with the Elements of Harmony either have Equestria ending in flames, or the thread itself just disappears.”
She tapped her hoof as she circled the ponies.
“I don’t like it but I think I need to drop the Elements. Worth investigating later to see if I can use them to maintain my center and moral compass though.”
She chuckled at the idea of using the Elements as a physical compass to tell her what the right thing to do was.
“It would save me a lot of sleep worrying over tough decisions… Maybe I need to look at the bigger picture.”
Her mind had followed more possibilities than she could count. None of them had the feel of the future, only that each one of them was a future. She had not yet found the path. But she stopped considering them on an individual level and starting looking at them as a whole.
The pattern was beautiful. Possibilities wove around one another through something greater than space or time. The weave encompassed everything that could and would be. It was the tapestry of reality.
But every thread had the end of Equestria.
She would not tolerate that.
“Justice, what have you done? By bringing us to this point, have you doomed Equestria?”
She remembered the feeling of being at a crossroad. There had to be a way.
Every thread saw the death of Equestria.
Her dream was impossible. In the weave of the possible, her hopes were nowhere to be found. Twilight thought about what she wanted: her ponies all alive and safe, peace and harmony alive and well, and an Equestria strong and whole. Her dream was an eternal Equestria. She wanted to be able to guide Equestria to prosperity, she wanted a reign that lasted millenia.
It was impossible.
She could even feel where it was missing in the weave.
Twilight’s eyes opened wide. The impossible was defined by the possible. There were gaps between the threads of time that marked what could not be. They framed that which existed outside of the pattern.
Now that she was aware of the gaps, Twilight could not imagine that she had not noticed them before. All of many diverging possible paths were interwoven with all of the impossible. She started at her destination and found possibility cradling it and realized that she could see the thread that was not there. It was the path she needed to take. It was the path that would save Equestria.
She traced the missing thread back. Dozens of realities twisted around it guiding it towards the present. Twilight had nearly reached the here and now when something stopped her.
She understood why the future she desired was an impossibility.
For every thread woven in the tapestry, another thread could never be. The gaps formed when other threads became too densely packed that no other path could find its way in. There was a single thread blocking time from flowing down the gap to prosperity. She felt the thread.
It was familiar. A tear trickled down her cheek.
“Oh, Diamond Justice…”
Twilight remembered when she had sentenced Night Walker. She had nearly cast a spell. She not truly understood it at the time, but she could cast that spell now.
“You have betrayed your parents. You have betrayed me, and you have betrayed Equestria. The punishment for treason is exile. But I can’t banish you from this place. Your influence has caused, and will cause, too many ripples… But I can banish you from time.”
She made her decision. Hopefully it would not be as bad as killing a pony.
“I had been your Aunt Twilight when you were younger… To me, it wasn’t just a name.”
She began gathering the magic in her horn.
“You have given many ponies many happy memories. But your actions here today will have tainted all of those memories. There will be only bitterness and pain. This is for the best. I have to do this. It is the only way to save Equestria.”
The spell began to form.
“Your parents won’t miss you. Your wife will not miss you… They will have never known you. But I… I will miss you.”
She released the spell and burned Diamond Justice from time.
“I’m so sorry.”
The flame followed the thread of his life back year after year, all the way back to the moment of conception.
Diamond Justice was no more. He had never been.
She was wrong. It was far worse than killing a pony.
Twilight fell to her knees in pain as new memories crowded into her mind. Her past was updated, and she remembered two different histories.
Rarity never had a child before she was stricken with a fever that left her barren. Her and Stone Edge were still living in Canterlot and happy, after a fashion. Their lives were just a little more empty.
Rarity had encouraged Fluttershy to move to Canterlot years ago.
Rainbow Dash had a slight limp from some battle.
After their breakup Soarin had died in an accident.
The Royal Theater on Mane Street had never opened. The Theater of the Two Sisters had never burned down.
Thousands of other details were different. A single pony had an impact on hundreds of lives. She staggered backwards as one particular memory updated, a case that Justice had been involved in.
Moon Dreamer’s killer had never been found. Twilight would need to take care of that. She was sure that Silver Heart could track down Night Walker if she gave him the name and description.
Why would she want to do that? Everything was a jumble.
She heard some ponies cry in alarm and looked up to see that she was in the middle of a party. Lady Star Streamer and her husband Lord Gold Standard were hosting a benefit for the orphans of Equestria. Twilight was in attendance of course.
Twilight waved off the circle of ponies around her. It was just a bout of dizziness from overexertion. She was fine. She used her leg to wipe away her nosebleed and hoped that nopony noticed.
“Excuse me, I think I’m going to retire for the evening. Thank you again for the invite.”
As she left the party, she passed Stone Edge. He was standing outside of the bathrooms holding his wife’s hat and purse. Twilight would find a way to make it up to him and Rarity. She would restore their happiness.
Once outside, Twilight regretted not stopping in the bathroom as the full ramifications of what she had done hits her. She vomited into a bush.
Unfortunately, at the moment there were bigger things on her mind. Every thread she looked at had one thing in common. There was a darkness over them. They were all in the shadow of war.
After arriving back at the palace she entered her study, leaving her guards outside the door.
Twilight felt a hoof slam into her face and hit the ground hard.
“That’s what she meant by ‘Duck.’” She mumbled as the realization came to her.
From the floor she froze as her magic identified her attacker.
“You impudent foal, believing that you understand things far beyond your comprehension.”
“What?” Twilight tried to suppress the terror.
“Do you have any idea what you did today?” asked Empress Twilight.
“I, I saved Equestria.”
“If you see a mistitch in a tapestery what do you you do?”
“Remove it?
“Yes. But you choose to accomplish this by setting it on fire. It is like standing in a library and deciding the best way to clean a book is with flame.”
“I’m sorry.” The apology was reflexive.
“To repair the sin of Our past, your past, We have been weaving a pattern of unimaginable complexity for longer than you can imagine. What you did today could have put it all in jeopardy. It is hard to stitch when somepony is moving the fabric from underneath you.”
“How long have you been working at it?”
“Too long?”
The older Twilight sat down and for the first time Twilight sensed a weakness behind this Twilight.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized for real that time.
Empress Twilight laughed. “We do not need your pity, just your obedience. What you did today, was acceptable because it had already happened. But you must never do it again. It could set the entire tapestry ablaze.”
“So… we can destroy time.” It was something she had wondered since things had begun.
“Yes.”
“So are our time jaunts safe?”
“Yes, you only need to fear destroying the fabric with the spell you cast today.” The Empress waved a hoof in the air. “That is not to say that our loops cannot be dangerous. If you are not careful, you may cause threads to snarl or come loose and dangle.”
“A snarl?”
“You should avoid paradoxes.”
“But, isn’t this a paradox?”
“Don’t be impudent. It does not become your royal ponyhood. You know that this is a stable self causing paradox. We believe when We were your age, we called them paradox type A in your notes.”
“What about type B?” asked Twilight.
“That can cause a snarl. An event contradicting itself, phasing in and out of existence. Being woven and unwoven.”
“Can it be fixed?”
“Yes, at a point before its origin. If you know that a pony is going to travel back in time to kill her own grandmare before she is born, what would you do?”
“I… I don’t know. If she does that, then she is never born, and then she never kills her grandmare, but then she is born, and-”
“Yes, yes, a type B. But what would you do to fix it?”
“Convince her not to do it?”
“In the loop?” Older Twilight scoffed. “Think harder.”
“Why would it… Oh, if she doesn’t do it, then I never would have had a reason to talk to her, so then I wouldn’t, which means that she does do it…”
“Resolve the paradox.”
“I would need to do something to get everything to collapse to a stable equilibrium.”
“And?” The Empress tapped a hoof impatiently.
“I’m sorry. I can’t think of anything.”
“You create your own paradox, but a type A. A non-contradictory time loop will eventually settle into an equilibrium state.”
“How do you do that?”
“Beat the paradox to the punch. The instigating cause of the problem is the traveler being in the past. The traveler has a goal. Complete that goal for them. Kill their grandmare yourself.”
“What?” Twilight stepped back in shock.
“Go back and kill their gradmare before their loop even begin.”
“But then… If they never looped, then why would I go back? Isn’t it just replacing one B paradox with another?”
“You go back because you understand that what happened must happen. You must develop the right mentality. You go back because you know you had gone back. By committing one atrocity you prevent a far worse one.”
“I don’t- Would that even work?”
“As long as you somehow create a stable time loop that prevents the unstable one it will work. There are other ways to achieve such a goal, manipulation and brainwashing, but-”
“That’s… That’s ridiculous,” blurted Twilight.
“You hopped after breaking the vase didn’t you?”
“That was different.”
Empress Twilight slowly shook her head. “Once you can unbreak the vase, then you will be ready.”
“Do you ever have to remove type A paradoxes?”
“That is much easier, especially if you set it up in the first place. You traveling back will be the instigating cause. Later, you appearing in the past will cause you go into the past. If you remove future you from the loop before future you has a chance to cause past you to loop…”
“Huh?”
“You can cut off the whole time loop. The thread will drift off into the neverwas.”
“Neverwas? So… Have you had to fix paradox’s a lot?”
“Not… as such,” admitted the Empress. “Our understanding of this is more theoretical.”
“What, but if you understand how to change time, why not fix things?”
“We are not yet ready to unbreak the vase. There are still more threads to stitch.”
“Why are you telling me all of this?”
The older Twilight simply shook her head. “We do not know.”
Twilight noticed the version of her from the far future sit up straighter and her body become more tense.
“Are you alright?” she asked.
“We are eternal. The point of all this is simply that you must avoid meddling in time until you understand things better. The visions you saw today barely revealed a thousandth of the nature of reality. There are seams and angles that, if you were to see, your mind would break. You are not ready yet.”
“OK OK, I get it. Don’t use time magic until you tell me,” Twilight grumbled.
“Very good. You can learn. We will reward you by offering you a boon. We will allow you to travel to last week.”
Twilight remembered the traveler.
“To give myself a warning.”
“Yes… You do not trust Us.”
“Not at all. As far as I can tell there is a good chance that we are in a type A stable time loop right now that starts with you going crazy and going back to kill Celestia, Luna, and Pinkie Pie.”
The Empress laughed louder than Twilight had heard. “We had been worried about that at one time, no? We can promise you that is not the case.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because We are you? No you need more assurance than that. Some time ago you performed a geass spell on Rainbow Dash to ensure that she would comply with a command you gave her.”
Twilight felt a twinge of guilt. “The dagger… It wasn’t… I did it because it’s important that she does her duty. That I don’t end up like you. It’s forbidden magic.”
“Do you think you could interpret a geass rune and the command embedded within?”
“Yes…”
The Empress expanded and seems to fill the room. Twilight realized she was getting smaller. At first she was confused about what her magic was feeling until she realized that she was sensing each cell of her future self. As she continued to get smaller, the patterns became more complex: Cells to molecules, molecules to atoms. She could sense the fundamental building blocks of the pony’s being.
“That…” Twilight was in awe. In all of the infinite complexity, one pattern repeated itself adinfinitum.
“Yes, We have inscribed that rune on every atom of Our eternal being. One commandment above all others. Thou shalt not kill Celestia.”
Twilight shook her head. “How is that possible? How did you get so strong?”
She was returned to her proper size.
“Time. Too much time. But you see. It is impossible for Us, as We are now to have killed Celestia. Yet she is still dead.”
“So a younger version of you did it.”
“A younger version of you as well. You know this. It is a version of us unaware of the nightmare.”
“But… I didn’t mean to. I never wanted to-”
“Hush now child. Save your tears for the hardships to come. We will save Celestia. As I told you last time, She is with Us in the future.”
“So I’m going back a week, huh?”
“Yes. A week that you will not have the sun. You should plan to use it wisely.”
“You seem to have something in mind.”
“We do. We also know how you spend the time.”
“What do you suggest?” Twilight did not know if she would listen to the Empress, but the pony’s opinion would be a valuable data point.
“Begin weaving the geass now. Layer the magic in your mind until it is so thick, every thought must filter through it.”
“You might not remember, but I had a bad experience with modifying my mind with magic.”
“You had asked for Our opinion. If you are too much of a coward and still do not trust Us, reenvision your mind. We know that is what you do.”
“I don’t like you. And I don’t care about any tampering you have done with your own mind. No matter how many layers of geass and commands you layer across your body, I don’t think I can trust you.”
“We only do as we must, as we have always done.”
“I still don’t like you.”
“And We do not like you. We have that in common.”
“So are you going to send me back?”
“We suppose it is time. One last thing. You do know that We are you, correct?”
“I know. I want you to be some sort of imposter or something… but I know.”
“Good. Then hand your sun over to me. I will make sure you get it back.”
There was no force of command, and this time Twilight did not resist.
“Can you give me any hints at all about the future. Normally I’m pretty obtuse when I go back in the past.”
“We suppose We can tell you something to make up for what is about to happen.”
“What is about to happen?”
“In due time. Do you want to know or not?”
“Fine, just tell me.”
“The Shade Dragons. They are… Not from around here. What you have seen is just the shadow that they cast on this reality as they begin to bleed through. They think this world is lost and that nopony will mind if they move in. Celestia apparently knew how to communicate with them. They are nothing to worry about, however. You will take care of them eventually.”
“The Shade Dragons? What do you mean-”
“Now as for what is to happen. We are afraid We cast a spell on you the moment you burned Justice from time. It has been holding your mind together just long enough for us to have this conversation. It is time for Us to release the spell and for you to go back.”
Twilight felt a spell dissipate and her mind shatter.
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*looks at chapter dates*
From March 3rd 2012 to January 2nd 2015.
Well damn!
125096 A doctor or the doctor, because we both know there is a major difference between the two.
But Preferably the doctor because Who Knows the Hooveian Might Just Have A Phd.
P.S. Scilence Will Fall
I really admire your courage to continue your work. This story has stayed in the back of my mind since the 2012 release. I can't wait for more.
There are several missing words like to, it, ect, and words like here that should be her throughout the whole story. There very minor and can only be spotted while intensive reading.
Ah cool. the story has started coming back together.
Your new stuff didn't really feel like it fit into the weave of the rest of the story, but this chapter does.
I am looking forward to seeing where this goes, this is definitely one of my favorite stories on here. (Easily top ten)
Yeah. Dam'. If I could, I would have favorited again after this chapter.
You're really messing with time right now, and yet we don't know everything which there is to know.
It continues to feel like Twilight slowly is loosing herself, though. Here she eradicated a pony from time without much second thought. Sure, I guess she really was looking through possible timelines to reach that conclusion, it's just- her thoughts seem to be getting progressively darker.
Pastebin
Twilight needs to take a good hard look at exactly how she is getting these visions and how reliable they are, and if there is any way to test them. Of course, she may be afraid of the answer, but what sort of scientist lets that stop her?
Darn, this is good - I can't wait to read more!
This is getting pretty crazy. Twilight is going to have so start picking routes and running with it. Burning ponies out of time is a foolish thing and is no better than killing them. It seems to me that entrusting the elements to them is the best of undesirable outcomes. If they are truly harmonious against her then she may be too damaged to fix anything herself. -- It is interesting that this story is a little different than the standard tyrant, because Twilight knows so many things about reality that they do not.
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I don't know if she has enough time. Also, even her observations may be suspect at this point.
Empress Twilight is still the biggest jerk around.
If our Twilight turns into her you have to be a ace at writing to avoid the flames. But given how good of a writer you are you just might avoid getting burned on a stake...
But all this time babbling and stable time loops is making this story become stale.
Also I foresee a loop B coming at some point in the future.
The threads that end, is simply because she cant see past her own death she can only see her own threads in the tapestry.
mrwgifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/I-Like-It-Another-Thor-Reaction-Gif.gif
5510475 ugh, either way i wish the doctor were here, if only to simplify the confusion this time traveling has caused me. its not that i can't tell whats going on but well...time travel, you know? its complicated
5513800 I feel there is no need to simplify what can be chalked up to "Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey" but it would help if he were there
It's a bit of a crazy idea, but what if the tapestry of time that Twilight's seeing is actually fake? I doubt the Elements of Harmony would kill Twilight or end time itself, so maybe the tapestry is an artificial construct of time magic. The Elements might just be dissolving Twilight's connection to the tapestry.
Also, nice job with the title.
Oh Twilight...Twilight...what have you done?
Just...please...stop meddling with time in general. It only makes things worse every time you do it.
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I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a fake, but I definitely agree that Harmony itself has something to do with it. Maybe not a cut, but definitely some sort of massive change. Maybe something on a grander scale that Twilight can't possibly view right now? I'd say by this point, it's just Twilight's misinterpretation of what the gaps mean. Her mental state is definitely questionable now. And when it comes down to it, she's just listening to herself talk.
I almost wish this wasn't so good so I could eject from the confusion. But damn it, it's too good. In the words of a gay cowboy, I just can't quit you.
This is likely the best line in the entire story: it sums itself up neatly, thereby creating a sort of paradox.
I'm impressed with your ability to so far keep track of your own timeline jumbling. The whole story is fascinating, really.
Keep it up; it was, is and will be highly appreciated.
Major spoiler alert about this entire post, but I think I have figured out the plot.
I'd like to mention my context though, I read all that is of the story at once, so most things are still fresh in my mind, and I'm also kind of analytical in nature. Anyway, here's my theory:
The very first thing we are told in this story, and the thing that has the most impact, is that Celestia is dead. This is the entire conundrum of the story, and it's what caused Twilight to be who she is at this point and why she delved into time magic in the first place. The first plot twist of the story, and which had quite a bit of build-up, was the fact that Twilight was probably also Celestias killer in the first place!
Now, this was problematic, since why would Twilight kill Celestia and cause these events in the first place? We are then introduced to two new plot elements that could explain this: The shadow creature that is a construct of everything Twilight could not deal with (Which kind of hints toward the state Luna was in!) as well as a Twilight from far far into the future, who seem to have gone quite mad over the years.
However, after this latest chapter, I know that none of the killed Celestia. In fact, Twilight made it so that she can't kill Celestia herself, and the killer could not have possibly been the shadow creature, since the Twilight who killed Celestia apologised for her actions, saying that she was sorry for what she did.
But there are several interesting twists here, that leads to the stunning revelation. First of all, since we know what happens when a pony is unmade, it's unlikely that the Twilight who watched Celestia die actually unmade the one from the future who killed Celestia, the reason for this is that it would have profound impact on the universe, and it would have changed events significantly!
This means that Celestia's killer is still out there, probably with her own agenda, but it also can't be Empress Twilight, since she had still not gone back to that time, and she had still not figured out how to un-ruin the vase.
But since it's established that Twilight isn't the killer, we have to look at who else it could be. It would have to be someone who not only have the power to perform time travel, but also someone who knows how! Currently, in the present point of time in the fic, there is only one such actor, which is Twilight. And baring new characters, we can assume that in that in the future there is only one possible actor beside Twilight who would fill both of those requirements. That being, Celly.
But why would Celly want to kill Celestia? (Which is something that Twilight also question.) There would not be a motive. One could make the argument of self preservation, if Celestia never dies, she herself would never exist. However, she is based of Celestia, and would probably not opt for that route, in fact, she probably care too much about Twilight to cause her all that grief and hardship. But it's been startlingly obvious for quite some time now, that Celly have feelings for Twilight, which would also be the argument for why she does it.
She knows she is not Celestia, which is why she can have such a fundamentally different relationship to Twilight than the one her real mentor had. The question is, if Twilight would accept those feelings. But ultimately, all things said, it seems unlikely that Celly would travel back in time and kill Celestia, which leaves us without a killer. This is an unsolvable problem.
The reason for this is that the facts must be wrong, and ultimately, it was not hard to figure it out. The fact that is wrong and that would solve the logical problem is this: Celestia never actually died!
Twilight from the future killed Celestia... But she can't, therefore we solve that the real Twilight was indeed the one that travelled back in time to the day the sun died out, as it what would make the most sense.
But there is a bunch of other problems with this idea that Celestia never died:
1. The sun did in fact die, which is unlikely if Celestia was alive.
2. The events after Celestias death still happened even though she survived.
3. Celestia was obviously killed by future Twilight, as seen by those events from the Twilight who witnessed the killing.
Luckily, these matters are much easier to solve for:
1. It's very likely that if the future Twilight kidnapped Celestia to the future if she did not kill her, as her goal was to save her all along. This would naturally mean that there was no one there to care for her sun.
Question two and three have the same answer... Tell me, how would Twilight unbreak the vase? By replacing the original with a copy right before the original one would be destroyed. The Celestia Twilight witnessed dying was never Celestia, it was Celly all along!
There was something key, key to this story that we as readers were never given, since if we did, we would figure it out. But it was important, since so much focus was put on it: Celestia's dying words. It's because of them that I figured it out! See, those words are very special to Twilight, they had a great impact on her, they fundamentally changed how she viewed her mentor in some way. It's also those very words that she does not think Celly deserve to have. (Which ends up being kind of ironic.)
I think the reasons we as a reader were never told them, (And if we were, I must have missed it somewhere in there and must look like a blood moron right now!) were that if we did know them going forward, we would have drawn the connection to Celly decently fast, as we have an outside perspective. But it's obvious from Twilights perspective that she did not draw that conclusion.
This theory is further reinforced by the fact that Twilight could find no hints in what Celestia wanted to say with her dying words in any her journal or any other text, since Celestia never thought those things at all.
This also explains why Twilight apologises when "killing" Celestia, she is sorry that she must sacrifice Celly to save Celestia, and she is sorry for Twilight who will have to live through it all. I'm also willing to go out on a limp here and make the guess that Celly's last words are something along the line of "I love you" or similar.
TL;DR: Steins;Gate and Chrono Trigger have pretty good stories mate!
There are a few things I did not cover or answer here, but I'll leave those for other minds out there to figure out! ^.^
Furthermore, there some other theories I have about other aspect of the fic as well, but same goes there, really.
Ooooohh... I get it. It's not so much "kill their grandmare yourself" as it is "make the traveler think they've killed their grandmare".
Twilight could go back in time and stop the nightmare. But if there was no nightmare she wouldn't have a reason to go back in time. Paradox. So, to have her cake and eat it she'd go back in time, stop the nightmare*, disguise herself as the nightmare and take it's place, pretend to kill Celestia and co, but actually kidnap them and keep them hidden and in stasis. When her past self has gone back in time, the loop will be complete and it will be safe to let them out.
* Might not actually be necessary. It's possible there never was a real nightmare.
Twilight could improve the loop further. Save more ponies by staging their deaths. Perhaps it's safe to let them live undercover instead of being completely imprisoned? Perhaps Celestia, or future Twilight, can help maintain the sun without past Twilight knowing? Perhaps she can get herself go back in time earlier, making the loop smaller? So long as all past Twilight's are kept in the dark, anything is possible.
The ultimate solution would be to go far back in time to when she was a filly and put her past self in a perfect simulation of her own life. Past Twilight will be living under a rock, her whole life a lie, until she's ready to go back in time. Basically shrink the loop until the only thing it contains is past Twilight. Future Twilight could do pretty much anything in the outside world. This would be extremely difficult to pull off, though.
5532369
Very interesting theory... I had also believed that Celestia never did die, instead being kidnapped to the future.
The Celly-Celestia relations are going to be problematic. But there is no concrete reason they both can't exist simultaneously! Or even merge minds into a single pony, which has been shown to be possible.
An important point: Empress Twilight is near-godlike. Celestia likely lived for even longer. *If she died, she knew that it was inevitable that she was going to die.*
Also, remember that Twilight-Celestia romance has been hinted at.
Twilight's future trapped in the stars ended her life in the vision; why wouldn't Luna's imprisonment do the same?.
So, here's my theory. (Read: wild stab in the dark guess).
*Celestia doesn't have a sister!* Many millennia ago, Celestia gradually discovered time magic over the duration of her rule. Seeing the future is possible, as is seeing the past and travelling through time.
Discovery of some arcane magic comes.
Celestia realises that the only way to bring true harmony is to have two alicorns immensely benevolent to the populace, who love each other to provide mutual support.
Other ponies, who aren't immortal, create long-lasting harmony with friendship, but this disappears after death. But she has nobody capable of loving, or alike her in any way, who is immortal.
The only is to wait for an appropriate pony.
Twilight comes along; she senses that this is *the* pony to bring full harmony to Equestria. The only way to control Twilight onto the right path is creation of an alter-ego, Luna, and fabrication of a backstory to sufficiently motivate Twilight into lone success.
Celestia must go in order to give Twilight ruling experience.
Celestia picks the strand in which she is apparently murdered, actually abducted, by Empress Twilight.
She is taken to a cave twenty years into the future. There she takes the place of Twilight's construct (non-sentient! - sentient runes are impossible in this theory - remember that Twilight didn't understand Celly's leap to sentience!), able to help and comfort, but remain subservient to Twilight in Twilight's mind.
Eventually, Twilight is wise enough to know the truth. Celestia reveals herself to Twilight, and they fall in love, both as friends and more. This ultimate power allows them to access Elysium and contact the lost souls from all times. Massive reunion! <3
Why did Future Twilight refer to herself as Empress? It's a mask designed to motivate Twilight in regards to what not to be.
5534052
I'm not going to say what (in order to avoid spoilers), but there is one aspect of your theory that I find incredibly satisfying and almost wished I had used.
5534052 5532449 5532369
Man, these types of posts get me so pumped.
Back when I used to DM, it was always listening to my players hypothesis about what sort of crap I was pulling that got me into it.
I can't help but think that those timelines that Twilight cannot follow are the path that she actually wants to take, but the question is: why can't she follow them?
I can only speculate two options that make sense to me.
1: When she gets hit by the second stage of the EoH, she dies. Perhaps not in body, something changes in her that means that she would no longer exist fully as herself, meaning she no longer existed in that timeline, making it impossible for her to see into it. (I didn't notice any timeline that she followed that actually went past her own death.)
2: When the Elements of Harmony fully activate, they stabilize the timeline; making alternate paths invalid. If they are successfully used, then the timeline they are in becomes the only one. So because Twilight is in a point where she has multiple options, she cannot see down a path that negates all others.
As to the overall problem of Celestia's death... I really can't tell what's happening at this point. I have several clues that may be important, or they may not.
1: Celestia's killer said she was doing this because it had been done. This cannot be the root cause, for obvious reasons. This does lend the possibility that Celestia was killed to establish a stable time loop in order to prevent an even worse unstable loop.
2: Celestia's killer was not recognized as Twilight. No one spoke her name or mentioned that they looked alike.
3: The killer was smaller than Celestia. In it's final attack, it passed entirely through her body. I'm not sure of the relevance here, but it implies that this is not some insanely old version of Twilight, as she would grow larger over time.
4: The killer perfectly matches the Nightmare that Twilight fights earlier in the story. The one that appears to have been born from her repressed emotions.
5: The killer was absorbing Celestia and Luna's magic. I really have no idea what this is about, but it seems important.
On an unrelated note, I like the balefire reference.
5541176
I don't remember which parts of this story (it was too long ago), but some parts came from an involved discussion I had with someone about what excessive use of balefire would look like.
Regular time-travel is already confusing enough; introducing metatime-travel just makes everything 100x worse
5541176
I think you're on to something with the Nightmare Twilight, think about the shade dragons, " They are… Not from around here. What you have seen is just the shadow that they cast on this reality as they begin to bleed through." The way I see it, what happens when a time line dies? Well the quote suggests that these creature come from a place where the world has died, what if an alternate time line Twilight thought that she had to kill Celestia, it would explain the appearance and similarities with the wound Spike received, both decay life and are somewhat 'extraplanar. My biggest concern right now is that Celestia exists in the end. If Celestia gets saved through snipping off a timeline, then how could Celestia ever exist before they make room for her not to exist? Does Twilight want to cut away every time line where Celestia dies even if there are some where she survives? So much needs to be explained, readily awaiting the next chapter.
Side note, that carpal tunnel still bothering you?
5554976
For the most part no. I got myself a nice keyboard and a lap desk thingy that seems to help. I also try to break my writing up into smaller chunks (I had been doing potomotus, though I've stopped that recently). There are still certain computer related activities that will trigger it (scrolling while reading a long fic for example - I've increased my font size for my eyes and can read fast, so its basically just a long constant scroll). I probably need a new mouse, since it is mousey things that send the pain shooting down my hand. This has greatly limited my PC gaming (but not console gaming nearly as much).
All I can think is that getting old sucks and will really suck when I am actually getting old.
Hoo boy. Shit is truly getting real now.
Erasing a pony from time itself? The pony having never existed?
You know, I've often wondered what it would be like to wield such power. The burden on one's mind of using such power though... it must be absolutely staggering.