Chapter 9: Conditioning
“Dude,” Gilda just stared at Helios, ‘You’re lookin’ good man, and I don’t say that often about guys.”
“It’s you!” Pinkie suddenly leapt in front of the group, hoof pointing forward.
“I am! And it is!” Helios smiled, clearly trying to look friendly again, “How nice of you to remember me, looks like your brain is working fine, that’s always good news, not to mention getting flirted with by a griffon... not entirely sure how I feel about that.”
“I think,” Twilight Wish took a step back, “The pink one is pointing at me. Anyway, hello, I’m Twilight Wish.”
“That’s a weird coincidence,” Ditzy scratched her head with one hoof, “Hey is this an alternate universe?”
“No, that would be silly,” Helios grunted, “I think it’s just a common name or something. Anyway let’s…” but no one was listening to him now it seemed, and he trailed off when he realized as much.
“Now Pinkie,” Inkie stepped in front of Pinkie, holding her with both fore-hooves before she leapt at Twilight, “We should not be too hasty. He has yet to do anything to deserve a pose down; as far as I can tell she has not either. That, and to be honest I am not entirely sure we can pull off the whole friendship cannon thing yet.”
“Friendship wave cannon, it can’t hurt to try!” Ditzy called from the back, flapping her wings to rise in the air and begin rolling again, "It wouldn't hurt nice things, right?"
“No you don’t understand!” Pinkie exclaimed, “This is exactly the time for the pose down; we’re in ancient ruins and everything!”
“Is that important?” Blinkie looked around at the ruins around them, arching an eyebrow, “Being in ruins?”
“Do not listen to the Cat-Butted One, Your Majesty,” Trixie made the assumption that alicorns in general could be referred to as royalty, moving ahead of Pinkie Pie and casually pushing her out of the way in the process, “Clearly a stallion of your caliber needs a real unicorn as a companion, one such as the Great and Powerful Trixie. Do not forget your promise to train her and promote her to alicorn!”
“Hey it was just a comment,” Gilda defended, “No need to take it all seriously!”
“Who are they?” Twilight raised an eyebrow, moving slowly behind Helios, unsure of these new individuals.
“I think he was just saying that so we’d let him go,” Ditzy suggested, only to get a glare from Trixie.
“That is a possibility,” Helios confirmed, “I mean if you were in my position, you’d have said a lot of things too, but it’s not completely out of the question that I could train somepony, so it wasn't exactly a lie. Anyway, now that that’s out of the way let’s-”
“Hey I have an idea,” Blinkie cut him off with her own suggestion, pulling a stick of dynamite from her saddlebag and casually offering it up to Helios, “Would you mind stuffing this into your mouth? I’d like to try something.”
Helios shrugged, and moved to try and take the explosive into his muzzle like a large cigar, mumbling around it, “Sure if it means we can get moving.”
“Is ANYONE listening to me?!” Pinkie exclaimed, but apparently no one was.
“It will not be necessary to blow His Majesty’s head off,” Trixie grabbed for the dynamite herself, snatching it out of the alicorn's mouth with her magic, “The Great and Powerful Trixie has found the coordinates His Majesty needs, so once the others are sent back, we can be ‘together’.” Trixie ended her sentence waggling her eyebrows at Helios.
The suggestive tone with which Trixie spoke left Helios open-mouthed, obviously unsure how to respond to such an implication.
“Hey I found those!” Ditzy hovered next to Trixie, looking at her upside down and poking at her horn with a hoof, “Me and the nice birdie!”
“The name’s Gilda,” Gilda huffed, “And that goes for both of you. Anyway I only did that so we could get out of here." Yet she added in a quieter voice, as if not wanting it to be heard, "Thanks Der… Ditz'.”
“Ok this is it,” Inkie spoke with her normal, even voice, but reached up to snatch the floating dynamite, “I’m confiscating this.”
“It’s not like I don’t have twenty more on me,” Blinkie grunted, giving her sister a glare before rolling her eyes and seating herself on her haunches as if bored.
Helios took a step back, almost trampling Twilight in the process; she was still hiding behind him for protection from all the psychos that had suddenly emerged from the long-sealed depths. “Hey everypony!” he spoke finally, obviously faking a gleeful tone of voice as he started to stride forward again, trusting that they'd move out of his way as he trotted towards the door, “I have a great idea! Let’s pretend this conversation never happened and go inside, then I’ll send you all home and we'll be happy again, or at least at peace.”
“Everyone home, except for Trixie,” Trixie corrected, but did move out of his way.
The rest of the group also parted for the massive alicorn as he moved forward, allowing him through, along with Twilight who moved from hiding behind him to hiding in front of him. She clearly wanted to maintain the comfort of having her prince between herself and the others.
“These ponies are crazy!” Twilight murmured up to him, hoping the others didn’t hear her, “You’re actually going to let them go? There’s no telling what they’ll do!”
“Now, now, Twilight,” Helios smiled gently down at her, “We have to be civil. Most of them are just bystanders, no matter how crazy they might be. We only need the pink one; the others don’t even need to know.”
“And how do we do that?” Twilight whispered back up to him.
“We’ll I’d just snatch her off the pad,” Helios shrugged back, “but I’ll be busy at the controls. So just tackle her off of it right before it activates so her friends go without her. As long as we send her to the same time and place that they are sent to, they’ll just assume something went wrong during the transfer.”
“And what are you plotting about?” Blinkie caught up with the two as they arrived at the top of the stairs, ready to go back down them.
“Oh you know, how we’re going to betray you at the last moment,” answered Helios, making Twilight’s eyes go wide at his simple admission.
“Come on now,” Inkie moved up to put a hoof in front of her sister, “Like I said; we should not be hasty. No need to get snippy with each other.”
It was clear that none of the group trusted him, but Helios’s words were ironically the least suspicious thing he could have said, since none of the others expected him to joke about something he’d actually be doing. Helios simply smiled kindly back at them, lighting up his horn to shine a wave of bright sunlight through the entire cavern system, the magic seeming to even light around corners so that the entire structure was now ablaze. His powers had certainly grown compared to when he was first released, given how effortlessly he did so.
They continued down the stairs once again, not taking any sort of break as it was much easier going down. Ditzy went ahead of the others, actually choosing to roll down the stairs, waiting every floor for the others to catch up with her as they walked. Aside from her, Helios walked in front, Twilight close by his side, huddled against him as if she expected to be slaughtered by maniacs the moment she dared to move more than a few steps away. Trixie walked by his other side, head raised proudly, her own horn still shining, even if it had been more than outshone by the alicorn. The Pie sisters were behind them, Blinkie glaring suspiciously at Helios, Pinkie glaring suspiciously at Twilight, and Inkie having her hooves full, having to periodically hold one or both of them back from trying to shove the targets of their hatred down the stairs. Gilda walked furthest behind the others, staying at least ten feet behind the sisters. She stayed silent as she walked down after them, looking depressed as her thoughts turned inward once again.
Once they reached the bottom of the stairs, Ditzy hung back closer to Helios, flew up, and landed directly upon his back. At first this made him arch an eyebrow, but eventually he extended his wings slightly so that she had a place to lie as she curled up there, looking much like a kitten.
“Are you okay?” Helios asked the nestling pegasus carefully, “I guess I should have asked you that while you were falling down the stairs, but I figured it was some new tradition from your world. Right, anyway! Still alive, this is good. So how about those coordinates you mentioned?”
“I’m fine!” Ditzy assured him, “We found coordinates that Twilight Sparkle was teleported to when she was pony-napped, so all we have to do is teleport there! Cause they would have taken her to the spot that teleports off-world probably.”
“Yeah here it is, dude,” Gilda spoke as she moved forward, pulling the appropriate paper from her saddlebag, which was grasped magically by the alicorn.
“Interesting,” Helios grinned, looking over the paper in front of him, “And they still use the same date system as us. Take a look at this, Twilight.”
Twilight blinked as the paper was hovered in front of her, then creased her forehead as she started to speak, “But that’s a month from n-“
Helios cut off Twilight’s words, clamping her mouth shut with his magic, then moved the paper back to himself, “Don’t be silly, now is now. So how many days after the date of this paper should I be sending you? Don’t want to be creating any paradoxes.”
“I don’t know, those can be pretty fun!” Ditzy smiled from atop Helios’s back.
“You don’t know?” Gilda arched an eyebrow in response to Helios’s words, “Well it was about a week I guess.”
The group entered the long hall at the bottom of the staircase again, moving more quickly now as Helios seemed to have increased his stride, not stopping to think that the others probably didn’t have his energy. He seemed as if he was getting quite eager, though if it was just to be rid of them or for some other reason was unclear.
He didn’t stop until he arrived at the room at the far end of the compound where the group had initially arrived. Once he was at the blue platform, Helios leaned down, his horn glowing as dials and buttons along the very corner came alight with activity, responding with beeping noises.
“Come on then,” Helios stated, “Everyone on the pad! Except you, Twilight.”
“Of course,” Twilight looked nervous, moving behind the portal, taking a deep breath as she looked tense.
“I thought you said she was here to help,” Pinkie pointed out to Helios about Twilight.
“She’s mostly emotional support for me, really,” Helios claimed, honestly enough, “And one other thing. You’ll see.”
“Except Trixie as well,” Trixie glared to Helios, even as her friends moved up to the platform.
“Now, now, Sele- I mean Trixie.” Helios smiled to her, “Trust me, Trixie. I’ll be back for you after all this is over, so long as you don’t hate me for what happens in between. I give you my word.”
Trixie peered at him for a moment longer, taken out of her seemingly trance-like stare only when Gilda reached out a talon, yanking at the unicorn’s horn to pull her up onto the platform.
“Trixie did not say you could touch her horn!” Trixie complained, mortified, but all the same was up on the platform with the others.
“It’s for your own good. I think,” Gilda huffed.
The group looked down at Helios, who stared back up at them, his trademark smile on his face. They all looked more than a bit nervous, but none as nervous as Twilight, who slowly moved behind them to get a good line of sight with Pinkie.
“Now,” reiterated Helios, “I’m going to count to three, and then activate. I have to power it myself, since there’s no working power sources left that are strong enough for the job, at least not until I take a few days off to fix one. Anyway, that means I’ll be distracted, which means you be ready. One. Two. Three!”
Helios’s eyes shifted to Twilight as he counted, who nodded slowly, unseen by the others. His horn glowed, power surging through the device, causing it to glow more strongly than the last time they had seen it used. The air above it seemed to heat up, snapping into a vortex of colors as an explosion of light shone out and upward.
Twilight lunged forward, leaping towards Pinkie, her own horn glowing with power as she used both magic and what little physical strength she had to shove the earth pony off the platform and to the other side. The two landed on the floor, Pinkie slamming into it with a crack, cushioning Twilight’s fall in turn.
Pinkie’s friends saw nothing but sharp movement before they left, but it was too late for them to worry about what it was; they were pulled into the vortex and were gone.
Pinkie took a few moments to realize what had happened, her head spinning after being slammed into the stone floor. When she looked up and saw Twilight’s face, she immediately shouted, "I knew you were a meanie wicked evil-pants!"
As random as it was, Twilight was still so stunned by such an accusation being leveled at her that she drew a complete blank for a few moments. Somepony called her evil? No one had ever done that; it just wasn't something she would ever expect a villain to say. Taking advantage of Twilight's shock, Pinkie kicked her hind legs as hard as she could, pushing Twilight off of her and earning a squeal. Clearly the unicorn was completely unused to violence.
Pinkie wasn’t the strongest, but she was still stronger than most unicorns, at least, due to her general tendency to run around and the stronger nature of earth ponies. Twilight flew off of her, slamming into the platform and cracking her back against the edge as she let out a yelp of surprise and pain. Before she knew what was happening, she was watching Pinkie turn tail and run down the hall.
Twilight’s horned glowed, lifting Pinkie up off the ground, holding her by her belly with her magic so that the pink pony’s hooves now scrambled in midair. Much to her surprise, however, this didn’t cause Pinkie to give in. Instead, Pinkie reached into the saddlebag still on her side and yanked out her cupcake cannon once again, already loaded with somewhat stale cupcakes, and fired it directly at the unicorn’s face.
Twilight was too stunned at the method of attack to respond, the once-delicious goods smacking her in the face and actually sending her back against the platform again in the same fashion as before. She squealed in the same fashion as before as well, kicking her legs in frustration at the difficulty the pony was giving her.
Pinkie felt herself drop to the floor again, giggling happily as she turned to go, running as fast as she could. For a moment, she thought she was going to make it.
However, upon arriving in the large chamber in which Helios had been imprisoned once again, she found a rather large object suddenly form in front of her, which she slammed into at full speed. The object didn’t budge as she bounced back from it, landing on her bottom, knocked back as if the energy around it alone had forced her backward. Upon looking up, said object appeared to be the teleported Helios. She had trouble recovering, feeling as if she had just slammed into a brick wall.
“Y-you won’t get me!” Pinkie claimed, trying to aim her cupcake cannon at his face now, even as she felt herself rising back off of the floor.
“Well at least I didn’t teleport into you,” Helios chuckled, “I mean imagine how messy that would have been!”
Pinkie fired the weapon again, but predictably the same force that had felt like a brick wall to her expelled the projectile back away to splatter against the floor and roll several feet away. She felt his energy yank her cannon away, another stream of energy pulling her saddlebags off, separating her from all of her items. She tried to speak or scream out, but her muzzle felt as if it were clamped shut.
“A pastry cannon in a hammerspace bag,” Helios laughed again, having trouble containing himself, “Okay, that has to be the most entertaining weapon I’ve ever had pointed at me, I will give you credit for that.”
“Master!” Twilight came running up the hallway, “Oh goodness, I’m so sorry!” She looked quite goofy, limping with her hurt back and face covered in cupcake icing.
This only made Helios laugh more, “Oh don’t worry about it, Twilight. You were HILARIOUS!” He threw his head back, laughing hysterically, no longer containing himself for a moment before speaking to Twilight once again, “Go on to that big room right at the other end of the hall; let’s prepare one of those tables for this one. There should be an extraction machine just inside there, which I’ll probably have to do some fixing on.”
“Extraction machine?” Twilight panted, cleaning her face off with her magic and placing the excess icing atop where the other cupcake had landed.
“Well,” Helios started, beginning to float the bound and magically gagged pink pony down the hall, “Not a technical term, and not technically what the machine is for. It’s actually what they used to drain me of enough power to keep me bound. Isn’t that interesting though? Learned something new, didn’t you.”
“And,” Twilight asked, “What are we using it for?”
“To extract her Element!” he grinned, “Don’t worry about what those are, it’s not important yet, and we’ll have around a month to talk about it before you find the others. Trust me on this one, Twilight, having the Elements of Harmony will save our world.”
Twilight sighed, following along behind the alicorn, her mind unable to keep from thinking about how he told the others to trust him even as she watched him manipulate them. On the other hand, he hadn’t really lied to them that she had heard. She asked quietly, “Do we really have to kill her?”
“Yes,” Helios spoke back, calmly, “I’m going to be honest with you, Twilight; we’re going to have to do some pretty bad things to save what’s left of this world.” He thought to himself, then paused, turning back to look at her again, “Twilight. I let go the ones that we didn’t need; I could have just killed them, too. Please trust me, I’m causing as little damage as possible, I swear.”
“I trust you,” Twilight spoke in return, even as she looked at the helpless pink pony, struggling silently against her bonds and likely able to hear their conversation even as they discussed killing her. Twilight felt a tear trickling down her face.
-------------------------------
Pinkie found herself waking up again, unaware for a moment where she was. She had passed out from the simple pressure that the alicorn’s magic had put against her head as he had held her muzzle shut. She moved her jaws to verify that they were no longer clamped shut, slowly opening her eyes.
She was cold, laying against one of the metal tables in the medical room now, her back hurting against the steel as she tried to wriggle up. She found herself unable to, all fours strapped uncomfortably to the table, more straps holding her around her belly. As she struggled, the straps glowed with energy, magic holding them in place even had she been strong enough to break them. What’s more, she felt like she had been laying there for days, every joint in her body feeling stiff.
“Oh goodness, you’re awake,” Twilight Wish’s voice spoke, “I had hoped you would stay asleep for this, at least.”
Above her, surely enough, was Helios’s right-hoof filly, Twilight Wish. She had a grimace on her face, her horn aglow with power, and had just been using her magic to move the sinister looking helmet of the extraction machine to Pinkie’s head; Pinkie recognized it as the same machine that had been in here before. It was the one Trixie had examined, though Pinkie hadn't seen her do so, and it now appeared to have had significant repairs. It wasn’t exactly shaped for Pinkie’s head, but it seemed as if they were making it work well enough.
“Where is he?” Pinkie stammered out, her eyes darting around and not finding Helios.
“He’s gone to the surface to gather energy,” Twilight responded, “Powering the vortex all by himself took a lot out of him, then he powered it up again for the next time it’s needed, then he spent several days tending to the needs of the ponies in Undervale between attempts to get this machine working. He was very tired.”
“Y-you could let me go,” Pinkie continued on, her voice lacking its normal happiness.
“No, I can’t,” Twilight responded, “I’m sorry, but all I can promise is that I will make this hurt as little as possible, and that it will save the lives of a great many ponies.”
The helmet was fitted snugly, Twilight’s horn glowing again to open up a nearby bag. It had apparently been brought here in the meantime, and Pinkie started to wonder exactly how long she had been there. Out from the bag came what looked like a syringe filled with a clear blue fluid, which floated towards Pinkie’s right foreleg.
“You’ve been here about a week,” Twilight answered, apparently having seen the question in her eyes, “I tried to keep you under while we repaired the machine, but I ran out of the herbs I needed. They are a little scarce nowadays. Still, I brought this in case you woke up early; it will dull the pain. Please don’t struggle, okay?”
Pinkie shook her head, clenching her teeth at the feel of the needle diving under her skin, panting as the drug filled her, dulling her senses. She looked up into Twilight’s eyes, staring deeply into them. The two ponies looked at each other, and at the tears rolling down each other’s faces. Twilight shook her head back at Pinkie, pulling her eyes away before slowly moving a hoof to switch the machine on.
Pinkie screeched out as the pain coursed through her, making Twilight cringe visibly; it was as if the pain killer had made barely any difference at all. Twilight watched as the pink pony arched her back and screamed herself hoarse within seconds, her words dissolving into a series of drooling noises from which nothing could be gained. For a few moments, Twilight just stared in terror at what she was doing, before her eyes shifted towards the machine.
She waited for as long as she could stand, the unicorn finally backing away from the table, covering her ears with both hooves, tears streaming down her face at the horrifying noise that the draining pink pony was making. Her eyes shifted back to the gauge on the machine after several minutes of this, watching the energy gauge, which registered it as full.
It was full? Could she pull the plug now? But Helios had told her that it had to run until the subject was gone or else it wouldn’t take. Her eyes shifted back and forth. Could Helios be wrong? Perhaps he didn’t know how the machine worked? It had been made to torment him, after all. Surely his tormentors wouldn't have explained to him how it worked.
“No, that’s absurd,” Twilight spoke to herself, slowly approaching the screaming pony, watching her thrash about, Pinkie’s eyes wide as saliva spattered from the edge of her muzzle. Twilight couldn’t take this, “Oh Helios, what am I doing? I can’t do this… Wait. Wait! I have an idea.”
Twilight moved fully over to the table, gritting her teeth as she watched Pinkie struggle. She propped herself up onto the table, then climbed up completely onto it, settling herself to lay chest to chest with the other pony, trying hard to hold the thrashing pony still. It was far easier than it should have been; a clear sign that Pinkie had terribly little left.
“No,” Twilight trailed off, “I wish… I wish… I wish…”
Twilight closed her eyes, a purple mist surrounding her and the earth pony beneath her. The mist started to swirl, each particle moving back and forth between the unicorn and the earth pony. Twilight focused her power, allowing her own life to seep from herself into Pinkie. If she could just feed enough into her to keep her alive until the process was done, Twilight thought, then perhaps she could follow her master’s order without having to kill somepony she didn’t even know.
What seemed like forever passed, Twilight locking her concentration into the process. With a burst of release, she suddenly felt the drain shut off, her own energy ebbing to a halt just short of driving her unconscious. She trembled, looking down into Pinkie’s eyes and searching for life there. Pinkie was staring blankly upwards, her mouth agape, but was still breathing.
The machine itself was fizzling, smoke pouring out of it as if it had only stopped because it had overloaded. With a shiver, Twilight realized that it would have continued to drain them both until they were both dead had it not malfunctioned.
“Oh Helios, forgive me,” Twilight murmured.
Twilight pushed her nose forward to tip the headpiece back off of Pinkie’s head, then went through the painful process of unstrapping the pony; painful because her head was ringing and every bit of her body had to strain to work her magic at this point. Finally the straps were free, and she pulled herself off from atop of Pinkie.
She realized that she would never be able to carry the earth pony to the portal, so instead moved to push the rolling table across the stone floor. Even this was no easy task, but she eventually made her way to the portal itself.
“Right,” Twilight panted, quietly talking to herself, attempting to justify her actions in her own mind, “I don’t think he’s reconfigured this, so it should send you right to your friends. It’s not that big of a disobedience; after all, he did say he was going to send you back when we were done, right?”
Twilight tilted the table, dumping Pinkie onto the platform in roughly the same location where she had been standing before, cringing at the noise that the limp earth pony made as she fell onto the hard surface. She moved over to her, weakly, to check if Pinkie was still breathing.
She wasn’t.
Twilight gasped. She didn’t have enough energy to start up her life giving spell again, and had no idea how to help a pony that was this hurt through conventional means only. Only having a few seconds to consider, she hit the activation button on the portal. The portal opened up, sucking the pink pony within it and sending her on her way, leaving Twilight behind.
“I hope they can help you when you arrive,” Twilight trailed off, collapsing suddenly onto the floor as her own energy gave out.
“Oh my,” the voice behind her made her shiver, heavy hoofsteps bearing down on her from behind, “Twilight, Twilight, Twilight, you have been very naughty. The machine smells broken, and I can only assume that since I hadn’t told you to send her back, you’ve let the Element bearer go.”
“No,” Twilight gasped, trying hard to stay awake, terrified that if she were to fall into unconsciousness before explaining herself that he would never allow her to wake up again, “The machine got it, I just fed life into her so that she didn’t die in the process, then sent her back.”
“Twilight, Twilight, you got the Element imprint but broke the machine,” Helios gently moved to loom over her, laying himself down against her, much as she had done to Pinkie before, “It’s only made to hold one life force at a time, then I have to change the crystals. Containing yours as well would have fried it, possibly beyond repair. I see now that it's too dangerous to use it for the Elements; we'll have to find a new way to extract those while I repair the machine for its proper purpose.”
“I’m sorry,” Twilight stared up into his eyes, beginning to hyperventilate now, certain that he was about to punish her horribly, and not blaming him even in the slightest. She tried to think of other words to say, but her brain seemed washed of all sensible thought. Here she was, having waited for Him to return for years, and now that he was here she had almost immediately failed him. Was he going to beat her? Violate her? Kill her? She stared up into his bottomless eyes, great cavities in his head with glowing balls at the end, completely unable to read him.
“And besides that, Twilight, we wanted her dead, didn’t we?” Helios tsk'ed at her again, shaking his head as his voice literally echoed in her mind, “She is a symbol of our defeat and a direct minion of Celestia, not some innocent bystander; we can’t let her live.”
“But I’ve- I’ve never killed somepony before,” Twilight trailed off, her eyes still fixed on the gleaming, angry eyes of her master, having to force each word out, “I don’t think I can. I’m sorry; I just can’t bring myself to. I understand if- if you- if you-”
“I see now that it’s going to take something more than polite requests to make you serve me,” Helios’s face slowly moved into a grin once more, even though his eyes still glared at her angrily, “I was going to just let you do what you should, but no, it looks like those that work directly for me are going to need… an extra measure of conditioning. Aren’t they, Twilight? Trust me though, this will hurt me more than it does you...”
Even had she the will to struggle, Twilight already felt exhaustion beginning to steal consciousness away and, perhaps blessedly, the view of the grinning, chuckling face of her master dominating her vision. She only had to feel guilty about the sudden appeal of unconsciousness for a moment, however. There was a touch, the sensation of magic penetrating her mind like tendrils of pain to drag her agonizingly back to wakefulness, and then a new darkness blotted out the room leaving nothing but the awareness of her looming prince and the stone against her back.
Despite the agony, she did not even attempt to resist. If she could save her friends back in Undervale by sacrificing her own mind, she would without question.
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And the time loop takes a full circle and folds back around! Yes, there was a bit of a cliffhanger at the end of this chapter, so I'll say pre-emptively to not fret
Next chapter will deal with the immediate aftermath of the battle in the square. I've left poor Celestia hanging off the cliff for too many chapters
DID Pinkie really died
. No SHE CAN'T DIE NOW she will come back and save her friends I just have to believe in Pinkie.
Okay now; it's gotten to the point where Helios has turned from screwed-up jerk to antihero. I mean, it would never occur to the stupid clod to simply ASK his sister if he and his friends can migrate to Equestria. All he'd do is offer a helping hoof to those wanting to survive when THEIR world goes kablooie. On that note, we've just been hit with something called the Prisoner's Dilemma.
15505
She'll be fine, wings and all. I wanna know what happens after this!
And so the time loop ends. Will whatever Helios do to the G1's be cleared up with his demise?
Dayum
wtf
O.o
Trevor awaits the next chapter eagerly, and on baited breath.
~ Magical Trevor, Minstrel of Equestria
I desire more.
I had the misfortune of reading through chapter 2 a week ago and then having to go to work right after, spending about 5 hours to wonder what is going to happen to the ponies in the fic. It was torture... and you made it torture. In other words I really liked your story, and I'm glad I caught this update before bed
Yay full circle!
Now let's see how pinkie pie turns everything on itself and remakes equestria!
Keep writing... please!
15537 I did things that way for a really good reason, suffice to say; it will turn out well, and maybe even amusing
15542 It's more fun to conquer than to migrate into.
15543 15546 15556 15605 15612 The last chapters are being really hard to write, partly because a lot of characters will be interacting all at once in parts, though I do know exactly what's going to happen. I just want to make them good. Everything will come together in the end
15616 No!
Aw okay, I will keep writing 
15542>>15619
As I understand it, Helios doesn't trust `Tia on the grounds that she had gotten his lunar counterpart killed during the origional Nightmare Moon fiasco. In short, his world is dead, he needs to move his people somewere else, Equestria is VERY MUCH alive, and he wants to avenge his (sister?)'s death by making Princess `Tia suffer. Taking over Equestria is a good mix of Business and Pleasure from his point of view. Practical, yet Vengeful.
...and Luna is going to need a VERY STIFF DRINK once she finds out that there is even MORE fallout over the Nightmare Moon issue. At least Nightmare Night is airing this weekend, so we can FINALLY see Luna's Canon "One Year Later" mental state.
Liking the story so far. I don't think I've ever read or seen anything quite like it...
**SPOILER**
So it seems that, as far as she knew, Twilight Wish was telling Twilight Sparkle the truth when she said that Pinkie was already dead... I actually suspected something like that when Pinkie went back in time. Of course, Pinkie has be alive now to go back in time in the first place... I like using ellipses...
15619 Hey thanks that makes me fell alot better
. But I'm a little confused on where and when Helios send them back I read it again and I still can't tell.
15690 The idea of an alcoholic Luna is funnier than it should be. At this point, Helios doesn't even realize that Luna is around, so he'll be in for a surprise at some point. His actual plan, however, is slightly more complicated than taking over Equestria.
15723 15810 Helios sent them forward in time in the last chapter to a point shortly after they left. Pinkie stayed behind longer, but still got sent to the same point in the future, so she'll still arrive back at the same time as her friends.
15849 Ok got it and thanks blayzekohime
I DON'T WANT PINKIE TO DIE!!!!!!! WWWWHHHHAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At first I was pulling my hair in confusion with the time travel but it all makes sense now. So I'm going to assume everything is going to pick off where our heroes return a while after Trixie's grand teleporation, where Celestia is captured, and where Pinkie is... possibly... dead...
...
I want Helios' self-regenerating head!
Helios, you're a dick. I can only hope that Discord somehow whoops Helios' ass. 'Cause that would be amazing and hilarious.
15940 That's good
15949 Trololololo?
15965 Well at least I know that cliffhanger had an effect; we'll see what comes of it when they all re-appear together.
16121 Aw, everyone be hatin' on Helios.
16158 Discord is wonderful and hilarious, but at the same time it would be hard to keep the two groups fighting to a resolution if a stronger more awesome enemy shows up.
Will we ever be seeing other G1 ponies by the Mane 6's counterparts?
WHY DO I KEEP READING SUCH AMAZING UNFINISHED STORIES, THE WAIT IS UNBEARABLE!!!!
I am a bit confused with Chapters 7 and 8. Does Helios meet the same G1 Twilight that helped to kidnap the Mane 6? If so, what's with her change in attitude?
16351 I will be using a few other G1 ponies in later chapters, though not in big parts.
16916 I'm working as fast as I can
Don't worry, I have no intention of abandoning it, and even have thoughts about possible spin-off stories.
17115 Because of the time loop, chapters 7 and 8 occur before chapter 1 (in Twilight Wish's and Helios' timelines, at least). Basically, chapters 7 and 8 occured before she was 'conditioned' by Helios, while the early chapters (and chapters 10 to the end) occur afterward. I hope that makes sense.
17156 But Trixie, Glida, Derpy and Pinkie's sisters are with Pinkie during chapter 8. And they meet up with each other after the events of chapter 1
17251 Yes crossing timelines can have that effect.
Basically, for Pinkie and her group, the events occur in the order that the chapters occur. However, the group travels back in time at the end of chapter three and back forward to the time they left at the end of chapter 9. So they ended up meeting the villains a month before the initial attacks during those 'back in time' chapters. The order of events is different from the point of view of Helios and Twilight Wish than it is for Pinkie and the heroes.
17419 So will this change the events of what happens in the first three chapters? I mean, Helios wasn't actually freed by Pinkie's group, right?
There you go, proof that Helios is just doing what he has to. If he doesn't send a psychotic posse after the Mane Six, he causes a paradox. If he doesn't take the Elements by force, he runs the risk that the Mane Six will be disinclined to voluntarily help their kidnappers, and he can't afford that with a world on the line.
Oh, hey, the Annoying one is dead, what a pity.