Chapter 1
Rarity’s Divided Destiny
3 years ago - Day of the summer sun celebration in Ponyville.
Nightmare Moon had just escaped from her prison on the moon. For a thousand years she had planned what she would do this day and now she was going to set it in motion. She wafted into the vault underneath Canterlot Castle as a dark blue cloud of malevolent essence. She had put the guards to sleep as she moved and ensured they would not wake up until long after she completed her task. The cloud spread over statues and relics as it searched like a snake for its prey. The vault housed a great many dangerous and powerful artifacts the princesses had collected over the centuries as well as statues of great enemies turned to stone. Finally, the cloud found what it was looking for and materialized at the base of the statue of Discord. Nightmare Moon needed powerful allies if she was to secure her power base against Princess Celestia and Discord was just the demigod for the job.
“You will do nicely.” She said to it.
‘It would be so fitting that today on the summer sun celebration in Ponyville Celestia is defeated by her two greatest foes.’ Nightmare Moon thought to herself.
She lit her horn and focused her energies. Streams, cords and ribbons of power flowed around the statue and applied the counterspell to undo the magic that imprisoned Discord. As they reached a climax, cracks started to appear in the stone, but in a flash the spell fizzled and shorted out. Nightmare Moon blinked a few times to see a smoking statue still defiantly solid. Confused, she examined it very closely and prodded it a few times with her horn while probing the inner structure with her magic. It became painfully clear this was not Discord turned to stone, it was just a stone statue of Discord.
“Where is the actual Discord!?” Nightmare Moon hissed to no pony in particular. “No matter, I can still handle Celestia myself.”
Nightmare Moon dissolved into a dark blue cloud and wafted off to Ponyville.
Several minutes passed and a sigh of relief could be heard from the corner of the vault. Rarity thought her racing heartbeat would give her away but she got lucky. She readjusted her dark cloak and ventured out from her hiding place behind a large mirror. Standing at the base of the fake statue, she could still barely believe her deception had worked.
“I hope it was worth it. Switching you with your fake sculpture in the Canterlot Sculpture Gardens took all the magic I had.” The cloaked Rarity said to the fake statue.
For a moment she was worried the real Discord statue now in the Canterlot Sculpture Gardens would one day awaken, but she hoped at that time Twilight and the Princess would be able to handle him.
From her cloak she levitated a picture in front of her of two foals and a stallion. “Mommy’s coming home.” She whispered.
She tucked the picture away and levitated out an artifact, a crystal hourglass that glowed an unearthly blue light. She shook it a few times to check the contents, the sparkling blue sand brightened.
‘One charge left, that’s all I need.” She thought.
She turned over the hourglass and let the sand fall as she lit her horn and focused her thoughts on where she wanted to go. Blue sparkles erupted from the hourglass and circled around her. In a blue flash the vault was once again empty.
Present day.
With a brilliant blue flash the cloaked Rarity reappeared in Ponyville. She squinted as the brilliant sunlight assaulted her eyes. Tearing up from the sting, she darted into the shade of the Golden Oaks Library. Her eyes slowly adjusted and although the world was still too bright she forced herself to see it.
“It worked!” She exclaimed as she looked around at Ponyville.
Like a timid foal seeing the world for the first time she gingerly stepped closer to the light. She extended a hoof from the shadows and touched the lit ground, quickly retracting as if touching a hot stove. Certain she was not hallucinating, she stepped out into the sun. Even through her cloak the rays were warm and friendly, just like she remembered them. It had been so long since she saw the sun.
“Oh hi Rarity! Nice cloak you’re wearing! New look you want to show us at the picnic?” Pinkie pie asked.
Cloak-Rarity spun around to see Pinkie Pie holding a large picnic basket between her teeth, prominently wearing her frizzled mane and broad smile that could light even the darkest night. A pink rain cloud of cotton candy was floating about two meters above and behind her and was tied by a rope to her waist. Throwing restraint to the wind, Cloak-Rarity jumped forward and gave Pinkie a hug.
“Pinkie! It’s been so long since I saw you smile like that!” Cloak-Rarity said.
“Oh you want SMILES?!?!” Pinkie put down her basket and contorted her face into the biggest, most alarmingly bright smile she could muster.
The doors of the Golden Oaks Library opened and Rainbow Dash was trotting out with saddle bags filled with books. Twilight Sparkle followed closely behind.
“Thanks Twilight! I hope this new story arc ‘Daring Doo and Mary Sue’ is as good as the last one with the Iron Stallion. Don’t spoil anyth --- Rarity! You’re here early, where is Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash asked.
Without even bothering to trot the few steps it would take, Cloak-Rarity teleported herself between them and tightly hugged them both.
“Rarity! It’s good to see you too.. let go... please?” Rainbow Dash nearly choked.
“Ack! That’s was a remarkably accurate teleportation spell. When did you practice that without telling me?” Twilight asked while trying to wiggle her way out of Cloak-Rarity’s embrace.
Cloak-Rarity released her death grip, but still had her forelegs around their shoulders. “I’m so glad you’re both alive!”
“Alive? We’re not that late are we?” Twilight glanced at the sun to get a rough estimation of the time.
Rainbow Dash pointed to the pink cloud of cotton candy: “Pinkie Pie, really? Are you going to drag around Discord’s chocolate rain cloud on every picnic?”
“DISCORD?” Cloak-Rarity panicked. “Did he force you to drag around that cloud?”
Cloak-Rarity tried to untie the rope around Pinkie with her magic.
“I asked him for the cloud and he gave it to me! He’s too much fun!” Pinkie explained. She tugged on the rope and unleashed a brief downpour of chocolate milk. Pinkie opened her mouth wide and swallowed several gulps of the sweet beverage before the flow stopped. “Don’t you remember, Rarity? You were there!”
“I was where darling?” A familiar voice called out.
The group turned to see Fluttershy and another Rarity. Their freshly styled manes and cleaned coats indicated they had just returned from their usual weekly spa visit. Heads swiveled back and forth several times as the other ponies tried to reconcile seeing two Raritys; one with a cloak and one without.
Pinkie Pie finally broke the silence: “Well this is new!”
Cloaked-Rarity felt a jab in her side followed by a light electrical jolt: “Ouch!”
Twilight Sparkle straightened up having just poked Cloaked-Rarity with her lit horn: “You’re not a changeling.”
Before Rarity could react Twilight Sparkle teleported beside her and zapped her with the same changeling-reveal spell.
“Ouch! Darling, give some warning before you do that!” Rarity complained.
“Wait, how can they both not be changelings? Did one of you go through the mirror pool or something?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“I think I can explain.” Cloak-Rarity said.
“You better start darling.” Rarity said sternly.
Cloak-Rarity continued: “I’m from another timeline. I went back in time to stop Discord from being released so Nightmare Moon wouldn’t have an ally. Twilight, were you able to fight her? Did you find the Elements of Harmony?”
“Yes, we did, and we turned Nightmare Moon back into Luna. But wait, you left out a lot here. If you used time travel then you need to tell us what event you altered and how did your timeline go before you altered it.” Twilight explained.
“You turned Nightmare Moon back? That’s wonderful! But yes, I went back to the day of the Summer Sun celebration here in Ponyville, although I physically went to Canterlot. In my timeline you came to oversee preparations and you were telling me all about Canterlot when you ran off to oversee the others. That day Nightmare Moon and Discord came and said they had banished Celestia to the sun. You tried to get to the Elements of Harmony but Discord replaced them with jelly donuts. For the next year you tried very hard to defeat Nightmare Moon and Discord but they were too powerful. They ruled all of Equestria, oppressing everypony and keeping it in perpetual night and chaos. You had just finished the temporal hourglass when Nightmare Moon killed you and Rainbow Dash...” Cloak-Rarity explained.
Rainbow Dash interrupted: “Wait, we’re DEAD? Did I at least go down fighting?”
“You did Rainbow Dash. If it weren’t for you Nightmare Moon would have gotten the hourglass and there would have been no hope.” Rarity levitated the crystal hourglass from her cloak to show them. “It still took me another two years to be ready to use it and many other things happened, but eventually I went back in time and used teleportation to switch the statue of Discord in the Canterlot sculpture garden with the actual petrified Discord in Canterlot Vault. I thought that if I could just stop Discord from being freed, you’d be able to fight Nightmare Moon... I’m glad I was right.”
Twilight thought for a moment: “Well that explains why there are two of you now.”
“It does?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Open-Cycle Temporal Duplication. If a change in the timeline does not induce the original time traveller to make the journey back in time, then when the active time traveller returns to the present, they will encounter themselves who never made the journey. Our Rarity never needed to go back in time to save us, that’s why she’s still here.” Twilight explained.
“You were never duplicated when you went back in time.” Rainbow Dash observed.
“I didn’t stop myself from making the journey, in fact I caused myself to make the trip, so that’s closed-cycle time travel.” Twilight replied.
Fluttershy finally spoke up: “Did we...umm.. did we all still become friends in your world?”
Cloak-Rarity smiled: “We did.”
“So what are you going to do now dear?” Rarity asked. ”We’re both here and I just can’t give you everything of mine. But you can stay at the boutique until we work this all out.”
Cloak-Rarity looked around Ponyville for a moment before answering: “I really hadn’t thought that far ahead when I went back in time. But it’s enough for me that everything is better now, I can raise my foals in peace.”
Rarity raised an eyebrow, “Your... what?”
Cloak-Rarity’s eyes widened as the enormous realization hit her like a train and her reality came crashing down. The other ponies could almost hear the crack as her sanity received its first strike.
“No...” Cloak-Rarity mouthed before teleporting away.
Twilight pointed at the space Cloak-Rarity formerly occupied: “Honestly, when did she learn how to do that?”
Applejack arrived with a picnic basket in her teeth: “What did I miss?”
Meanwhile at the Carousel Boutique, Sweetie Belle was packing her bags for another day of fun with her friends when the wind in the room picked up and a bright flash deposited Cloak-Rarity. Cloak-Rarity was stunned to see her little sister for a few moments before embracing her in big hug.
“Sweetie Belle! You’re alive!... and you’re so big!” Cloak-Rarity exclaimed.
“Rarity! What’s wrong?” asked Sweetie Belle from the tangle mess of hooves.
“Nothing... everything... Tell me, what do I do here? Did I have a husband? Did I have any foals? Do you have any nieces? Do you know anypony named Sweetie Sparkle and Emerald Dash?” Cloak-Rarity interrogated.
“What? No! You’ve been working the Carousel Boutique for several years now. You never had a special somepony... Are you alright?” Sweetie Belle explained.
Cloak-Rarity clenched her teeth trying to hold back tears. Without a word she let go of Sweetie Belle and began searching through each and every room of the boutique. As she opened each door she kept expecting to see familiar faces, but all she got were the usual rooms of dressmaking supplies and bedrooms. As each door confirmed her worst fears her eyes started to water just a little more. Finally in some last ditch effort of hope she threw open the cabinet doors under the sink, only to find cleaning supplies. Cloak-Rarity recoiled in horror as the truth of this world became all too real. In a flash she teleported away leaving a bewildered Sweetie Belle and a mess of a boutique.
In front of the Golden Oaks Library a gust of wind and brilliant display of sparkles coalesced into Cloak-Rarity.
“Well I’ll be, she really does look exactly like Rarity.” Applejack commented.
The ponies stopped their discussion of her when Cloak-Rarity approached them, “Where is Twilight? I need to see her!”
Applejack pointed to the open door of the Golden Oaks Library. Cloak-Rarity darted inside to find Twilight reading a book on time-travel with a page turned to the temporal hourglass. The other ponies followed her inside.
“Twilight! Where is your brother? Is he here? Is he alright? I need to see him!” Cloak-Rarity frantically demanded.
“He’s fine, he’s up ruling the crystal empire with his wife Cadence.” Twilight explained.
“Cadence?” Cloak-Rarity asked.
Twilight levitated a framed wedding photo with Shining Armor, Cadence, the princesses and the rest of her friends. Cloak-Rarity held the photo with her magic and stared at it for a few moments with creepy intensity. Her face contorted into the most terrifying mixture of happiness and jealously any of them had ever seen. As the seconds ticked by she began to shake harder and harder. Her legs could no longer support her and she collapsed into a puddle of despair. The final shard of her sanity was struck as she dropped the wedding photo and the glass frame shattered into a thousand pieces. A stream of tears began to flow across the wooden floor as the normally strong and confident fashionista realized she no longer had any support to stand on.
“What’s wrong? What did Shining Armor do?” Fluttershy asked.
Between sobs Cloak-Rarity pulled a picture from her cloak and handed it to Fluttershy. The ponies crowded around to see Shining Armor holding two very young foals. Their features were a mix of Shining Armor’s and Rarity’s.
“You married Shining Armor?!” Rarity shouted.
Cloak-Rarity nodded: “Cadence was the only other alicorn that could oppose Nightmare Moon so she was banished to the sun as well. Shining Armor and Twilight worked together to lead the resistance and that’s when we met. When Twilight died he and I became... very close. Discord killed him eight months ago.”
Cloak-Rarity stopped sobbing as she recalled her husband: “He told me to keep going no matter what happened. When Sweetie Belle died, he told me I had to keep learning teleportation so I could use the hourglass and stop anymore deaths. He never let me give up...”
Cloak-Rarity stood up and straightened herself out. New resolve began returning to her eyes as she formulated a plan.
“Twilight? You made the temporal hourglass, can you refill the charges? I need to go back.” Cloak-Rarity explained as she levitated the empty hourglass.
“Go back? Go back where? Your timeline was erased when you altered the past.” Twilight replied.
“I’m going to stop that, I’m going to put the statues back, and let my foals get born.” Rarity explained.
“Wait! We’re DEAD in your timeline. I’m not going to let you get us killed!” Rainbow Dash retorted.
Before Cloak-Rarity could react Rainbow Dash swooped down and grabbed the hourglass. Cloak-Rarity tried to telekinetically pull it out of her grasp but Rainbow Dash held it tightly.
“No! I’m going to fix everything! Once I have my foals I’ll figure out a way to bring you all back! I won’t let anypony die!” Cloak-Rarity tugged at the hourglass even harder.
“How are you going to do that? From what you’re saying you became close to Shining Armor because we died. There are too many variables to consider.” Twilight analyzed.
“Somehow I’ll do it. Please! I just can’t let my foals cease to exist!” Cloak-Rarity pleaded.
“You don’t have a proper plan, I’m not going to let you take that chance!” Rainbow Dash argued.
“GIVE IT TO ME NOW!” Cloak-Rarity demanded.
“NO!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she threw the hourglass into floor.
The hourglass shattered into several pieces as it hit. Cloak-Rarity stood speechless for a few moments as the shards bounced past her hooves. Her last possible hope lay in ruin around her. She turned to Rainbow Dash as her rage exploded and her eyes turned red with unmitigated fury. She grabbed Rainbow Dash telekinetically and started pulling the pegasus apart with all the magic she could muster. Rainbow Dash let out an agonizing scream as her bones began to crack. Before it could proceed further Cloak-Rarity saw an orange blur and everything went black.
1 day earlier - Original Timeline
Cloak-Rarity cleared her throat as she stood on the podium in the center of Ponyville. The moon was behind her and neatly framed her figure as she stood before the mass of townsponies before her. Amongst the crowd were numerous flickers of lamps, candles and lit horns as they assembled into neat rows. Cloak-Rarity levitated a book from her cloak and held it open to the moonlight to get a better read, “This cycle we give our thanks to Queen Nightmare Moon and Lord Discord for overthrowing the solar tyrant and giving us this glorious eternal night…”
“Praise the Queen!” the townsponies chanted in unison.
“…We embrace the night, for we have seen the dark and our eyes are opened!” she continued.
“Praise the Queen!”
“We show our thanks with our tribute and give ourselves completely to the Queen of the Night!” she preached.
“Praise the Queen!”
The townsponies dropped their tribute of gold coins into a chest that two lunar guards had brought. Cloak-Rarity closed her small book of sermons and made her way down from the podium. It was the bare minimum weekly ceremony the lunar guard would accept or the executions would begin again.
One of the lunar guard turned to her: “That was an excellent sermon Priestess Rarity.” he commented.
Cloak-Rarity forced a smile: “Why thank you. After you executed Sweetie Belle I saw the dark and needed to devote my life to Nightmare Moon.”
“THAT’S QUEEN!” he shouted.
Cloak-Rarity was unfazed but pretended to look apologetic: “My apologies… Queen Nightmare Moon.”
Cloak-Rarity nodded politely and made her way home. The Carousel Boutique had been boarded up and its rich adornments were all stripped away. The job as priestess to the one pony she hated beyond all others did not pay well, but she desperately needed the income. She questioned why she had to sink that low but her answer came as soon as she opened the door.
“Marity!” a tiny voice called out.
A little white filly with a blue mane and green eyes jumped out of her crib and galloped as fast as her little legs could take her. Cloak-Rarity barely had time to closed the door before the filly jumped up to hug her and hang off her neck.
“Emerald Dash! Were you being a good little filly to Auntie Pinkie Pie?” asked Cloak-Rarity.
Pinkie Pie waved from a rocking chair as she cradled another sleeping filly. Emerald Dash furiously nodded her head as she tried to climb onto her mother’s back. Cloak-Rarity carefully levitated the filly up and sat on a pillow beside Pinkie.
“I fed them at noon like you asked for Rarity,” said Pinkie Pie.
Pinkie pie seemed a tiny bit more perkier today. While she still did not smile and her mane was straight and hung lifelessly from her head, her voice was just a tiny bit faster than her usual subdued mood. They have been living in darkness for three years now and Pinkie Pie had stopped laughing at anything since last year.
“Thank you so much for foalsitting them Pinkie.” Cloak-Rarity smiled the most deep and sincere smile she could muster hoping to get Pinkie to reflect even a tiny crack in her lips, but again, like everyday for the past year, Pinkie just nodded and went back to rocking the sleeping filly in her hooves.
“How was Sweetie Sparkle?” Cloak-Rarity asked, pointing to the sleeping white filly with a purple mane in Pinkie Pie’s forelegs.
“She’s been... good... changed her diaper and she didn’t cry.” Pinkie replied matter-of-factly.
Emerald Dash fell off Cloak-Rarity’s back, the fall was not far and she was not injured but she started to cry nonetheless.
“Oh, oh, don’t cry!” Pinkie called out as she handed the sleeping Sweetie Sparkle to Cloak-Rarity.
Pinkie leaned forward and picked up Emerald Dash and gently rocked her back and forth. She blew into Emerald's stomach making a cacophony of weird noises. The little filly stopped crying and erupted in a chorus of laughter as Pinkie continued. Cloak-Rarity watched with bated breath, the corner of Pinkie’s mouth started to curl ever so slightly upward. Would this be the day her close friend would fully return? Her hopes for a smile were dashed when Pinkie sat back in the rocking chair with her usual subdued expression, but a single pink hair curled up into a spiral on her head. Cloak-Rarity took what she could get and called this a victory.
‘I promise I’ll save you.’ Cloak-Rarity thought.
Sweetie Sparkle started stirring as the laughter from her sister brought her out of her dreams. Big blue eyes greeted Cloak-Rarity as they fluttered open.
“Momla!” Sweetie Sparkle called out extending her tiny hooves in a hug.
Without really knowing what she was doing Sweetie Sparkle’s horn lit. For a moment both Pinkie and Cloak-Rarity were frozen with anxiety as they mentally prepared for another magic surge. However instead of something hugely destructive Cloak-Rarity felt her mane being tugged at. She glanced around to see her mane flailing about in a pink aura.
“You can do telekinesis!” Cloak-Rarity exclaimed proudly.
Cloak-Rarity let her daughter play with her mane as they giggled and laughed together.
‘You and Sweetie Belle would have been such good friends,’ Cloak-Rarity thought.
The magic exertion tired out Sweetie Sparkle and she fell back asleep as Cloak-Rarity’s mane met gravity once again. It was horribly tangled and messy but she did not mind.
A quiet knock at the door reminded Cloak-Rarity of their plans for this lunar cycle. Cloak-Rarity glanced at Pinkie Pie, she returned a long blink to acknowledge what they were thinking. The knock came again.
“Please come in Fluttershy!” Cloak-Rarity called out.
The door creaked open to reveal Fluttershy with two filled saddlebags.
“Do you have it?” Cloak-Rarity asked.
Fluttershy nodded and emptied out both saddlebags onto the floor. Hundreds upon hundreds of identical hourglasses poured out.
“Hiding it in Time Turner’s shop right under the noses of the Lunar Guard was a good idea. He made sure he would never sell it accidentally, but he had to lose it into one of the storage boxes so it wouldn’t stand out.” Fluttershy explained.
“It’s alright Fluttershy, I can still find it.”
Cloak-Rarity handed Sweetie Sparkle to Pinkie and proceeded to probe the pile of hourglasses with her magic.
Fluttershy leaned into Cloak-Rarity while looking at Pinkie, “Is she doing a bit better?”
Cloak-Rarity glanced at Pinkie before going back to the pile, “Yes, taking care of my foals has started to bring her back, she’s not as numb as she was last year.”
Finally, the hourglass they were looking for pulsed with an unearthly blue glow. Rarity levitated it and beheld its perfect construction and beautiful design: “Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash died to make sure the Lunar Guard never got it. Let’s hope we can use it properly.”
“Are you ready?” asked Fluttershy.
Cloak-Rarity packed the hourglass into her cloak: “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
She headed for the door but stopped just before reaching it. Turning around to her friends and her family, she took in the scene for what might be the last time.
“Pinkie, Fluttershy. You know what I’m going to do. I don’t know if it’s going to work, and I especially don’t know if I'll make it back alive. If I don’t... if I don’t....” Cloak-Rarity could not bring herself to finish the sentence.
“We’ll take care of them.” Pinkie said, gently rocking the two foals.
There was a conviction and finality in Pinkie’s voice that assured Cloak-Rarity Pinkie would carry out that duty to the end of time. Fluttershy nodded in agreement. Cloak-Rarity turned to the door but her hooves shook before reaching the handle. She turned around and went over to her two foals and kissed them both one last time.
“Be strong for mommy,” she whispered, “and be good to Auntie Pinkie Pie and Auntie Fluttershy.”
Before the pain could tear her heart out she quickly went out the door and closed it behind her.
She made her way to a cemetery to pay her respects one last time. She trotted past the graves of Applebloom and Big Macintosh. She missed their apples and their simple life. She hoped wherever they were, they were at peace.
She stood in front of Sweetie Belle’s grave and cleaned off some of the moss that had grown on her tombstone.
“Hello again sister. Your nieces are doing well, they don’t remember you but I think they would have liked you. They’re so happy just being alive like you were. I think they would have made wonderful Cutie Mark Crusaders.” Cloak-Rarity took a deep breath, “I’m going to try something that Twilight Sparkle planned. I’m going to change it a bit though, if it works, you’ll be back, if it doesn’t, I'll join you. But either way little sister, we’ll be together again.”
Cloak-Rarity stepped away from the tombstone and approached another. Shining Armor’s grave was small and unlabeled. There was a just a rock with a crudely chipped symbol of a shield. She wanted a proper tombstone but Fluttershy warned that if the Lunar Guard knew he was buried here and that Cloak-Rarity was visiting, suspicion might be cast on her. Cloak-Rarity had to protect her foals and let this meager grave be all that remained of her husband.
“Hello my love. Your daughters are wonderful. They miss you, they don’t say it anymore but they do miss you. They miss your laugh, your strong forelegs holding them up, they miss you playing with them. I miss you so much. I miss how you would always tell me that as long as we hope, our cause can never die. I miss your cooking. I miss everything... I know it was hard when Twilight was killed. I only knew her for a short while but I think I got to know her better when I was with you, you always talked about her. I’m going to carry out the plan she set in motion, but I'm going to go back even further, I'm going to stop this all from ever happening. I don’t think simply finding and bringing the elements of harmony to the present will work. We need her, not just some rocks. She was so strong, so smart, so powerful, if she just had to face one of them, Nightmare Moon or Discord, but not both at once, I think she would have won. I’ll see you soon, in life, or in death, but I'll see you. I love you.”
She wanted to visit Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash but they had been so thoroughly obliterated by Nightmare Moon that they were mere smears of dried blood across the streets of Ponyville. There was nothing even remotely substantial enough to be buried. Nonetheless she trotted across those same streets and mumbled to the pavement in the pale moonlight.
“Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle. It’s going to be now. I’m going to do it. I’ve trained myself all manner of teleportation and I think I'm as good as you Twilight. I’ll bring you both back, or die trying. I promise not to complain about the weather anymore Rainbow Dash, anything is better than this eternal night.”
After trotting quite some time, she passed through the orchard of Sweet Apple Acres to come upon a ruined barn. The orchard had not been maintained and was now a dead forest as wild as the mind of the pony she was visiting.
“Come in Rarity! I was expecting you!” Applejack called out from a broken window.
Cloak-Rarity opened the door to find it hanging off the hinges. Dust, cobwebs and rats littered the creaking wooden floors as the stench of decay assaulted Cloak-Rarity’s senses.
“I’m in the dining room!” Applejack called out.
Rarity stepped over broken tables, and cabinets, clearly thrown about in an act of blind rage. Broken dishes, cups and cutlery were strewn about the dining room. Applejack was sitting by the window on a stool with a crate of oranges beside her. Her mane was long and messy, her stetson was thoroughly ruined by moths, her coat had bald spots as poor nutrition began to take its toll.
“Did Sweetie Belle come home today?” Applejack asked.
“No, she did not.” Cloak-Rarity replied.
“I’m waiting for Applebloom to come home from school. I’m thinking she might be hanging out with Sweetie Belle.” Applejack explained.
“They might be.” Cloak-Rarity had stopped trying to reach Applejack long ago. The lie seemed to be more comforting than the reality.
Applejack looked out the window to Ponyville: “I sent out Big Mac to look for her. Hopefully they’ll come back soon. I made Applebloom her favourite apple pie.”
Cloak-Rarity glanced at the one good table still standing. On it was a neatly arranged pie dish and cutlery along with a glass of juice. The meal had not been touched for over a year. The dish now had a small nest of rats in a dead patch of mold and webs. Dead insects and rat droppings littered the table. The glass of juice had dried out and there was a dead rat in it. It may have been an actual edible meal once, but it was now just a memory.
“Once Big Mac tells her I made her favourite pie, you think Applebloom will come home sooner?” Applejack asked.
“I’m sure she will.”
Applejack reached into the crate and pulled out an orange. Without peeling or cutting she bit into it and ate it whole.
“These apples you had Fluttershy bring are wonderful! Best thing I’ve ever tasted. Want one?” Applejack pulled out another orange and offered it to her. Cloak-Rarity politely refused so Applejack began eating that orange as well. “These apples are just so good. Tomorrow, when the sun rises again, I’ll start planting these apples on the eastern side... Oh that reminds me, Twilight Sparkle has a new plan. Let me get her.”
Applejack jumped off her stool and went to another room: “Twilight! Where are you sugar cube? Rarity is here!.... I know right?..... Okay, come over here..... she’s in the dining room.”
Applejack returned with Twilight’s Smarty Pants toy. It was dyed purple and had a stick pushed into its head resembling a unicorn horn.
Applejack held out the doll to Cloak-Rarity: “Go on Twilight, tell her about the new plan!”
The doll remained silent as Applejack overheard the wondrous new plan it was relaying: “See Rarity? Twilight is so smart. So next time you see Rainbow Dash tell her bring a thundercloud, two gallons of oil and a hammer. I’d do it myself but I have to stay here and wait for Applebloom to come home.”
Applejack sat back on her stool and looked out the window, completely lost in her own reality where all her friends and family were still alive. Cloak-Rarity went over, kissed the oblivious Applejack on the forehead and quietly left.
She found a small clearing in the orchard outside the barn and went through her plan one more time in her head. She pulled out the temporal hourglass and focused a teleportation spell. Channeling it through the hourglass it would teleport her through time rather than space.
“Canterlot vault... Canterlot vault...” she reminded herself.
In blue flash, she was gone.
Present Day - Alternate Timeline
Cloak-Rarity awoke in a hospital bed with a horseshoe shaped bruise on her face and a crack in her horn. Her horn would take several days to heal and she knew this effectively nullified her magic. Rainbow Dash was in the opposite hospital bed all bandaged up and unconscious. Beside Rainbow Dash was all her friends except Applejack who was staring down Cloak-Rarity beside her bed.
“Sorry about that sugarcube, but considering what you were about to do I went really easy on ya when I bucked ya in the face.” Applejack explained. “I was about to take your horn clean off when Fluttershy and our Rarity stopped me.”
Cloak-Rarity glanced over at Rainbow Dash: “Will she be okay?”
“You really did a number on her, she ain’t going to wake up for a while.” Applejack paused for a moment to let the gravity of the situation sink in. “But she’ll make a full recovery.”
Cloak-Rarity brightened up a bit, but was still terribly ashamed of having just tried to kill her good
friend that she had spent the better part of two years training herself to save.
“I got a half a mind to let you rot in a Stalliongrad prison for what you tried to do.” Applejack continued. “But if I had the chance to bring back my parents and family, and then lost it, I think I’d lose it too. Still, you gotta promise me you’re not going to do that again. If there is a next time I will take out your horn.” said Applejack firmly.
Cloak-Rarity nodded in understanding. Applejack smiled and went over to Rainbow Dash’s bed. The other ponies all glanced over at Cloak-Rarity with mixture of concern and loathing in their faces. Twilight, Fluttershy and Rarity went over to Cloak-Rarity’s bed while Pinkie Pie and Applejack stayed with Rainbow Dash.
The silence was more painful than Applejack’s reproach.
“I’m sorry everypony.” Cloak-Rarity hung her head in shame.
The silence continued.
“There is no way I’ll ever see my foals again will I?” Cloak-Rarity asked.
Twilight thought for a moment, “Not from what I understand. Time travel is extremely dangerous and difficult to handle. Not even the Princesses use it to any effective degree. From what you’re telling me of your timeline the events of us living versus your foals being born are mutually exclusive. There is no easy way to get both... Surely my other self from your timeline must have told you something like that.”
“You did actually, when you were making the temporal hourglass I asked if we could simply stop Nightmare Moon from ever coming. You said we could, but that we would have to accept whatever good things we had after her arrival might be gone. I didn’t realize what you meant until now, I didn’t think there was anything good after she came. But it turns out I met your brother exactly because we joined up to fight Nightmare Moon... I should have listened to you and never made the trip... But so many died, Sweetie Belle, Shining Armor, Rainbow Dash, you... I couldn’t let it go. Somehow I thought it would all work out,” confessed Cloak-Rarity.
“Darling, you essentially saved them all, you even brought back Cadence, Celestia, stopped Nightmare Moon and even set in motion Discord’s reform. You saved Equestria! That seems like a tremendous amount of good against one life dear.” Rarity tried to assure her.
“But it was MY life.” Cloak-Rarity countered, a tear rolling down her face.
An awkward silence passed before Fluttershy tried to change the atmosphere: “What were your foals like?”
Cloak-Rarity smiled for a bit as she thought back to her time with them, “I named Sweetie Sparkle after Sweetie Belle and Twilight Sparkle. She was so adorable and kept trying to perform magic. One time during a magic surge she turned her crib into oatmeal. We named Emerald Dash after Rainbow Dash. She had these big green eyes and had almost too much energy. She ran around everywhere and never slowed down.”
Cloak-Rarity cradled an invisible foal in her forelegs as she continued her story. “One day she hit her head on a cabinet and she wouldn’t stop crying... She just wouldn’t stop. I was angry because she kept crying. Pinkie had to help calm her down.”
Cloak-Rarity started to tear up as she remembered, she rocked the invisible foal in her forelegs. “I was angry... because... she... I want to hear her crying again, why can’t I hear her cry?” Cloak-Rarity pleaded.
Cloak-Rarity was inconsolable. She instinctively tried to teleport away but an electrical burst from her horn painfully reminded her of her current disability.
“I’d like some fresh air, am I fit to be discharged?” Cloak-Rarity asked.
“You can leave at anytime.” Twilight replied.
She got out of bed and made her way to the door. As the other ponies followed her she turned around, “I’d like to go alone, collect my thoughts.”
Seeing as how without magic she would not be a serious danger to other ponies, Twilight let her go. They returned to Rainbow Dash who was still unconscious. However the conversation was centered on Cloak-Rarity.
“She really lost it there. Will she be okay?” Applejack asked.
“Maybe she just needs some cheering up! I can go and give her my best song!” Pinkie pie offered.
“Might I remind you that she got off real easy for attempted murder? I’m worried about her but I’m not going to forget what she did to Rainbow Dash.” Applejack reminded.
“Where is Rarity?” Fluttershy asked.
The ponies looked around to find neither Rarity was with them.
“I said I wanted to be alone.” Cloak-Rarity asserted as she strolled through Ponyville.
“Darling, did you think you could get away from yourself?” Rarity replied while trailing behind her.
“If I could teleport I would.” scowled Cloak-Rarity.
“But darling, where would you go?”
“Away, anywhere... I don’t know... I have nowhere to go...” Cloak-Rarity reached into her cloak to retrieve the picture of Shining Armor and her foals. “I want to get back to them, but I can’t now.”
“Shining Armor is alive.” Rarity reminded her.
“But he’s with Cadence, and he wouldn’t remember me. I’m happy he’s alive but he’s with another mare. I can’t just drop into his life and tell him to give her up.” Cloak-Rarity explained.
“Are you regretting saving them, Shining Armor and the rest, as opposed to your foals?”
“Yes.... No.... Yes... I don’t know!!! I just wish I could do something.”
“Darling, do you honestly think you could make the choice between them if you had the chance? Even if you had a thousand chances do you think you could make it all perfect? Twilight Sparkle said our timelines were mutually exclusive.”
“Am I just supposed to accept that I've killed my own family? Am I supposed to just brush it off and forget them?”
“No, you’re supposed to grieve, remember them, keep them with you and build a new life with the love that drove you to try and make the world better for them.”
Cloak-Rarity sat down on the dirt road trying to compose herself. “I promised I would protect them. I promised I would make the world better and I was prepared to die for that! But I’m alive and they’re not! It’s not fair! I was their mother and I failed them!” Cloak-Rarity nearly broke down. “I don’t deserve to be alive when they’re not...”
“You’re not seriously thinking of--”
Cloak-Rarity interrupted: “And why not? I’m a horrible pony! I don’t deserve to be here.”
“But what about all our friends?” asked Rarity.
“They’re not my friends! They’re yours. I’m not even really supposed to be here because you’re here. I’m a duplicate, or you are, it doesn’t matter really.” Cloak-Rarity paused to think for a moment, ”and you know what? I think I'm okay with that. I’m happy knowing that you’re happy and you have all your friends. I don’t deserve to be here, I'm not supposed to be here, and I don’t even need to be here because you’re here.”
“Darling, you can still build a new life. You can be the twin sister I never had. Three years ago, before the summer sun celebration, we were the same pony. What were we doing?” asked Rarity.
“Making dresses.” replied Cloak-Rarity.
“That’s right dear, making dresses. We can still do that together. You might not have a place here, but you can still make one. I want to help you with that.”
Cloak-Rarity looked at her, “Why are you like that? Why are you so generous?”
Rarity smiled. “Darling, I can’t imagine how my life would have turned out without Sweetie Belle or my friends. I’m so much better for knowing them all. I want to share that with you.”
Cloak-Rarity looked at Ponyville. “I don’t know what to do anymore.”
“The future is like that darling.”