//------------------------------// // 6 - Collapse // Story: Reflections // by RQK //------------------------------// More and more guards descended into the plaza. Twilight Sparkle watched them congregate as she simultaneously scanned the rest of Ponyville for any signs of remaining fires. A few sweeps revealed nothing, and a knot in her chest loosened at that point. She flew back into the plaza and touched down amongst her friends. A few guards, all non-pegasi, silently loitered around them. Her friends, meanwhile, remained largely quiet, content to nurse their wounds and aches. Princess Celestia conversed with one of her guards a few meters away. Another guard flew in from above, landed in front of her, spoke a few words, and then saluted. Celestia dismissed the two and trotted back toward Twilight. “I don’t see any more fires,” Twilight said. “Excellent,” Celestia replied. “And my guards tell me that, as far as they can tell, anyway, the worst anypony has had through this whole crisis were a few burns and cuts. Otherwise, everypony is alive and safe.” Twilight felt her entire body loosen up. “That’s a relief.” “Indeed it is. This could have all gone very badly.” Probably, Twilight thought. Celestia craned her neck. “All we need now is for Crystal Faire to return with Miasmus so that we can put him away for good.” Twilight scanned the skies again. “I agree.” Her expression remained colorless. “I’m glad to hear that everypony is alright, but still… The damage to Ponyville…” “It is substantial, indeed.” “This is even worse than the parasprites.” “They’ll be insured by the crown,” Celestia said. “I can guarantee that much.” Twilight smiled. “I’m glad to hear that. I just hope we’ll have Ponyville rebuilt by the time we wrap up winter,” Twilight said. “I know that’s still a month away. But, even then…” Celestia chuckled, wrapped a wing around Twilight, and pulled her in. “I have confidence that it will happen. You always pull through, Twilight.” “Thanks.” Nearby, Rainbow Dash rolled over and groaned out loud. The others, who lay with her, winced in response. Celestia hummed and trotted in their direction. Twilight followed closely behind. “Don’t you worry, everypony,” Twilight said. “I’m sure we can have Zecora whip something up that’ll make you feel better, at least.” “That sounds lovely, darling,” Rarity murmured. “We should keep these six under tight security until we’re sure that Ponyville has the story straight,” Celestia said, addressing the captain of the guard in particular. “Yes, Your Highness,” she replied, saluting. “Just hang in there, alright?” Twilight said. Her friends smiled weakly before returning to their dozing states. Twilight turned her attention back toward the sky, keeping her eyes peeled for Crystal to return. A minute later, she heard a low rumble and felt the ground shake beneath her hooves. At first, she chalked it up as shivering in the cold, but then she noticed some of the guards glancing at the ground. Celestia frowned. “Was… that a tremor that I felt?” “Did... everypony else feel that?” Twilight asked. At that moment, Crystal Faire appeared in a flash of white light. The glass box containing Miasmus’ blobby form floated within her magic. Her hooves touched snow, but the box remained in her magical grasp. Her cloak flapped in the low breeze that swept through the town. And her eyes darted about every direction, sweat drops clung to her brow, and her whole body fidgeted. She practically ran up to the guards and proclaimed, “I am back.” Celestia strolled over. “There you are. May we take Miasmus off of your hooves, now?” Crystal nodded and dropped the box in place. “Here he is.” Twilight trotted up. “Crystal?” Crystal didn’t even look over. “Twilight, I’m leaving for the Crystal Empire right now. I’ve brought Miasmus back. Take him.” Celestia lit her horn and scooted the box closer to herself. “We have him. Thank you.” Crystal spread her wings and shot into the air, flying northward. She didn’t even look back at them, even when Miasmus rattled the box. “Somepony is in a hurry,” Pinkie Pie mumbled. Applejack frowned. “She did say she wanted to go back up there.” Twilight intently watched as Crystal departed. She thought about her behavior immediately before, and about how Crystal had arrived, she assumed, by teleportation. And now Crystal was flying away. Twilight could practically see the red flags. “I know, but something is wrong,” Twilight muttered, stroking her chin. She whirled around to face Celestia. “I need to go after her.” Celestia nodded. “Then do so, Twilight. We will be right here.” Starlight rolled over and nodded. “Don’t worry about us.” Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy smiled. Rainbow Dash waved. Applejack tipped her stetson. Twilight smiled back and then lit her horn, disappearing in a bright flash of light. * * * Twilight eventually reappeared above her own castle and shook her head. And then she looked down and saw a familiar figure standing on the castle roof, and she gasped. She lit her horn and teleported to the same spot. “Crystal!” “This isn’t right,” Crystal muttered, her gaze fixed on the horizon. “I could tell!” Twilight exclaimed, storming up. “I could see it. You have to tell me what’s going on.” Crystal swallowed. “I’m trying to get to the Crystal Empire.” Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you teleport here all the way from the Crystal Empire?” Crystal nodded. “I did.” Twilight shook her head. “Then just teleport back. You’re obviously carrying the magic needed to jump that whole distance.” Crystal zipped over, grabbed Twilight, and held her up. “That’s just it! I tried to teleport back there, but I can’t! The spell is failing!” “Failing?” Crystal nearly came muzzle to muzzle. “It’s shorting out! It’s not working! It’s like I’m trying to teleport to someplace I can’t actually go to.” Crystal dropped Twilight and crept back toward the edge of the roof to stare at the horizon again. “And I don’t—” “I don’t understand,” Twilight interrupted. “What is going on?” Crystal remained silent for a few moments, especially as Twilight trotted up alongside her to look out as well. The earth far below rumbled again, and the castle beneath them shuddered. “You know how, when we were up there, we were looking at that hole?” Crystal asked. “Right? And I told you… that I could see just about everything… except for that hole?” Twilight felt a shudder run down her spine. “Oh… Crystal…” She swallowed. “Did… Can you see the Crystal Empire? Right now?” The color drained from Crystal’s face and she turned to face Twilight in full. “I can’t see anything north of Galloping Gorge.” Twilight felt her heart stop. No! Cadance! Shining! Flurry! The two whirled when a large black dot appeared on the horizon. Said dot lay partly obscured by the horizon, but it still appeared like the size of the moon. “By the stars…” Crystal mumbled. The earth rumbled and roared. The tremors shook the castle and the shaking, in turn, nearly threw them off their hooves. Around where Twilight had flown over the deep well, the entire earth caved in on itself and the land immediately around it jumped and got torn apart by, evidently, gale-force winds. A short distance away, the ground heaved and spewed large chunks of earth into the air. The chunks slowed in their ascent but never stopped. Some chunks bounced off each other and went in opposite directions, horizontally and vertically, like gravity did not exist there. Twilight’s mouth hung open but she could not find the strength to speak. Crystal, as well, bore a similarly horrified expression. The dot on the horizon suddenly grew to twice its size, and then a second hole appeared just above it. The two expanded and eventually met and merged. The entire effect looked like film burning bit by bit. Several smaller holes appeared in irregular intervals across the plains and began expanding. Above, the once stationary cloud layer raced across the sky. A loud crack pierced the entire landscape as, in the distance, several chunks of earth underneath Canterlot gave way and fell down the mountainside. Canterlot, in turn, cracked and crumbled and then started sliding off the mountainside. Towers crumbled and collapsed and parts of the city snapped in two before entire segments broke away and fell. “Noooooooo!” Twilight cried, futilely reaching out. Then, with a thunderous roar, the entire city toppled off the mountainside and smashed against the base of the mountain. The land shook from the force of the impact. Even more debris sailed high, shrouding the air with dust. Twilight whirled. “Crystal!” she screamed. Crystal remained catatonic, watching it all in silence. Behind them, all of Ponyville heaved and then collapsed downward. The castle below them teetered and sank a few meters. The earth all around them jumped over itself, rumbling and tumbling and roaring all the while. Ahead, what had once been singular patches of black now covered the entire sky. And the blackness expanded, now covering the ground less than a few kilometers away. And it raced in their direction. Hole after hole appeared, combined together, and ate more of the scenery. Harsh winds stripped the plains of entire slabs of land. The entirety of the Canterlotian mountain range broke into several city-sized chunks which flew upward directly into an awaiting black patch which ate them wholesale. Twilight screamed and latched onto Crystal. That, in turn, broke Crystal out of her stupor and she screamed as well. The holes crept toward them and they watched as time and space ripped apart even at the hills leading into Ponyville. Finally, Crystal Faire shifted. Twilight’s world folded together. All her senses collapsed into a single point, and then, for a moment, Twilight herself did not exist. Reality folded back out again, and her senses returned all at once; dank and rotting smells and the bite of chilled air hit her like a carriage. What she did not feel, however, was something underneath her hooves. Both Twilight and Crystal then fell out of the sky. Twilight pushed herself away and tried to get her wings to open. Both mares screamed on the way down but they erratically flapped their wings all the same, enough to slow them down but not enough to stop them from crashing into the ground. Twilight’s heart pounded and she flailed about, half-convinced that she had to run. Her eyes stung but she forced them open, afraid that something would expand toward her and swallow her whole. But she saw a complete landscape. Her mind couldn’t process anything other than that, but the lack of holes in reality served to mitigate some of the chaos. Crystal scrambled to her hooves and stumbled about. The last of her terrified screams left her before her expression curled into an angry snarl and she belted out several unsavory words in quick succession. Twilight rolled over and tried to stand up. Everything about the soil underneath her hooves felt wrong. It felt tainted, poisoned. She teetered about, recoiling from the wrong sensations. “Crystal! What the hay just happened!?” Crystal whirled, going wide-eyed on making eye contact with Twilight. She then turned away, swearing again. “I didn’t even know that I could—” “Crystal!” Crystal felt at the cloak that she wore and shook her head. “No. I shouldn’t be surprised…” Twilight snorted and went to step forward but backpedaled when she felt something hard underhoof. She used her magic to lift—several objects it turned out—them to examine what they were. They looked like bottle caps, each bearing a different logo. One read Sunrise Sarsaparilla and another Sparkle-Cola. Twilight lifted her head and actually looked around. Messy and irregular clouds, much like those she knew existed over the Everfree, covered the entire land. They carried a sickly green tint to them. Blackened trees, bent in odd shapes, occasionally dotted the landscape. She could see pink clouds hanging over Canterlot in the distance. The sight made her shiver. She hurled the bottle caps away and turned. “Crystal! Look at me! You need to tell me what happened!” Twilight yelled. “I… What happened!? Where are we!?” Crystal trembled. “I… brought you along. I didn’t—” “Crystal!” “I… We’re in another reality, Twilight. This is another timeline.” “So? What? We… traveled?” Twilight whirled around, surveying the landscape again. “This is an alternate timeline?” “This… I guess I also jumped two hundred years into the future.” Crystal scratched the back of her mane. “Which… it’s one of those timelines.” “This looks awful!” “Yeah, well, it takes everything going wrong to get here. This is worst-case scenario. I didn’t mean to bring us here.” Twilight resisted the urge to hurl. She turned back to Crystal. “So, why did you!?” Crystal’s stare was full of fire. “I panicked! Okay!? The timeline… it was collapsing, and I needed a way out, so I picked this at random—” “Wait. Wait!” Twilight held up a hoof and narrowed her eyes. She said, venomously, “Say that again.” “The timeline… was collapsing, and…” Twilight stared with such intensity that whatever words would have left Crystal’s mouth next died at her lips. A cold wind blew through the area, whispering in their ears. The words passed through Twilight’s lips: “Collapsing…?” She started shaking. “You… knew. You knew what was going on.” Crystal sighed. “Well… I mean…” Twilight broke into a sprint and barreled headlong right into Crystal. The two tumbled across the ground, traveling several meters only for them to end up with Crystal in the dirt and Twilight standing over her. “You knew!?” Twilight shouted. “You knew what was happening!?” “I had ideas!” Crystal shouted back, her face turning red. “I was hoping it wasn’t that!” “Hoping!?” Twilight stamped the ground next to Crystal’s ear. “Didn’t you tell me that you traveled the entire multiverse? You know what… Celestia above, whatever it means when a timeline collapses. How did you not know what all that was!?” Crystal squirmed. “I’ve seen collapsed timelines before, yes! But I’ve… I’ve never actually seen one in the process of collapsing, never mind actually been in one!” “I thought you could see the future! How did you not see all that was happening when you got here!?” “I’m not omniscient!” Crystal yelled back, visibly sweating. “I can see it if I’m looking at it, but I can’t look everywhere at once.” Twilight stared at Crystal but held her words back. “Twilight, look. I really had no idea that the timeline was in the process of collapsing when I got there.” Crystal swallowed. “I didn’t even know they could collapse. I just thought that was the state of the multiverse. I swear on everything that is good, Twilight!” Twilight continued staring down at Crystal, her expression still a stern frown. Crystal pressed herself against the ground and as far away from Twilight as possible. Twilight straightened up, and her expression softened but still remained stern. “Fine. Well. You need to take me back,” she said. “You need to take me back right now.” Crystal swallowed. “I can’t.” Twilight’s expression hardened again. “Don’t you give me that! Take me back! Now!” “I can’t! I told you; it’s collapsed! It… it doesn’t exist anymore!” Twilight’s heart skipped a beat. She tilted her head, running those words through her mind again. “Doesn’t… exist? I-I don’t understand.” “That’s what it means for a timeline to be collapsed,” Crystal answered. “It doesn’t exist anymore.” The world around Twilight grew cold. “Doesn’t exist? So… Equestria?” “Doesn’t exist.” Twilight backpedaled. “My… My friends? What—” “They don’t exist, Twilight. They have been erased. Everypony has been erased. Everypony, and everything…” Twilight continued backpedaling, far enough for Crystal to roll over. “No…” Twilight gasped, her face turning wet. “No…” Crystal stood up and looked back at Twilight. She frowned but remained silent. “No… No…” Tears started falling down Twilight’s muzzle and her breathing intensified. “No no no! No!” Her legs gave out underneath her and she collapsed. “No… I don’t believe it.” Crystal’s frown deepened. The wind whistled through the area, bringing new but equally rotten smells. She turned and saw some figures on a nearby hill. She scowled and lit her horn, simultaneously throwing an intense stare. The figures quickly disappeared behind the lip in response. Crystal snorted. “Raiders,” she muttered. “My… friends,” Twilight whimpered. “Princess Celestia. Cadance… Shining Armor.” She glanced up at Crystal. “Flurry Heart.” Crystal frowned. “Breathe, Twilight. Breathe. I am sure that this is a lot to process. Take a second here.” She knelt down and cradled Twilight. Twilight broke down into sobs. She spent a good few minutes sitting there, letting her tears fall and letting her cries carry across the barren landscape. Crystal stayed with her all the while, caressing Twilight like a mother holding a crying baby. Eventually, Twilight sniffed and her crying subsided. She looked up at Crystal and blinked. “Oh, goodness…” “Feeling better?” Crystal asked. Twilight shook her head. “No!” she croaked. Crystal sighed. “Just breathe it out, Twilight. Okay?” “Oh by the stars… Oh stars!” Crystal patted Twilight on the back while keeping her gaze on a swivel. “Breathe… breathe…” Twilight stared up at Crystal for the longest time and then furrowed her brow. “You’re… I… You’re so calm about this. Crystal…?” “Sure.” “I don’t… They’re gone, Crystal. Shining… Cadance… you.” “I know. But,” Crystal said, “it is what it is. I’ll just be more aware next time, I guess.” Twilight snorted, rolled out of Crystal’s grasp and stood up. “…You’re not bothered by this?” Crystal’s frown deepened. “Not particularly. Somewhat, but not greatly.” “…You don’t feel anything for them,” Twilight croaked. “It’s hard to feel for anypony when everypony you meet is a ghost of somepony you once knew,” Crystal said. “What does that even mean?” Crystal went to speak but then paused. “Twilight… I’ve been to several timelines around the block. I know thousands of Shining Armors and Mi Amore Cadenzas, and thousands of you. I mean, okay, I admit it, this was a big loss.” She shrugged. “But it’s not like there aren’t infinitely many others exactly like them. What’s one less?” “Even still!” Twilight exclaimed, “that was my Cadence! My big brother! I’ve known them my whole life! They were special to me.” “And I recognize that! I really do. You have every right to feel the way that you do right now. But you have to understand that it’s not like that for me.” Crystal’s expression grew solemn and she turned her gaze to the ground. “Not anymore,” she murmured. “Anymore?” Crystal continued staring at the irradiated dirt. She kicked at it and then sighed. “This thing… This thing where your timeline died, your home timeline…” Crystal looked up. “You aren’t the only one who has gone through that. I can promise you that.” Twilight paused to consider Crystal in full. Several moments passed between them as those last words sank into Twilight’s mind. “Either way,” Crystal said, standing straight, “there’s still the matter of where to take you from here. You sure wouldn’t want to live in this forsaken place.” Twilight shook her head. “N-no. I... don’t think I would.” Crystal strode over to Twilight. “Gather close,” she instructed. “I’d rather not spend a moment longer here.” Once Twilight did so, Crystal nodded and closed her eyes. Her horn remained unlit. Nonetheless, Twilight’s world folded together again into a single point. Some indeterminable amount of time later, it folded out again and Twilight landed on a solid surface. Gone were the gag-inducing smells and the corrupted dirt. As more senses returned, Twilight glanced up and spotted crystalline walls and high ceilings. Several small thrones orbited her position, with all but one bearing familiar symbols. Twilight looked down and saw a map of Equestria projecting from the surface she stood on like a hologram. She recognized it as the Cutie Map. And that meant she now stood in her castle. Her fully intact, not-destroyed castle. “We’re… back?” “This is not precisely your timeline, but… more or less,” Crystal said. Twilight looked around the room, almost afraid that she would find something out of place. Everything looked okay at first, but then Twilight looked up and noticed something missing; the tree roots which had once hung in this throne room. Those tree roots which her friends had brought over from the Golden Oak Library. From its remains, anyway. Twilight swallowed. “And… where am I in this timeline?” Crystal, after a long and pregnant moment, smiled slyly. “I wouldn’t worry about it.” The double doors at the end of the room creaked open.  A unicorn mare, her coat a heliotrope color and her mane and tail a purple accented by grayish aquamarine highlights, stepped through the doorway, eyeing them with surprise. “T-Twilight?” Twilight gasped. “Starlight Glimmer!” “What are you doing here? What is going on? I heard a loud noise, and…” Starlight narrowed her eyes. “Twilight… didn’t you say you were going to the Everfree today?” Crystal cut Twilight off before the latter could respond. “Starlight Glimmer, could you be a dear and give us a few minutes?” Starlight frowned. “Who are you?” Crystal chuckled. “Nopony you need to worry about.” Twilight remained silent for several moments and contemplated Starlight’s presence. She felt a compulsion to ask, in return, if Starlight was supposed to be in Ponyville recovering from Miasmus. That was certainly not the case, and yet Starlight stood before her unharmed. Starlight stood before her very much alive and okay. Twilight swallowed and nodded. “It’s okay, Starlight. Wait outside, okay?” “Are you sure?” Starlight asked, frowning. Twilight nodded and feigned a smile. Starlight took one last look at Crystal then turned and trotted back toward the doors. She grabbed them with her magic and pulled them shut behind her. Twilight kept staring for long moments and then turned. “Starlight… she’s okay.” “So is everypony else,” Crystal replied. “Here, they are.” “My friends are okay. Everypony… Cadance and Shining… Flurry Heart?” Crystal stared into space for a moment, nodding her head from side to side. “…Yes. I can confirm. Flurry Heart is okay.” Twilight sighed in relief. “I see.” “Most everything is how you know it.” She shrugged. “But I can’t really, readily, tell what’s different. I suppose you’ll have to find out on your own.” The words went in through one ear and out the other. Nonetheless, Twilight stepped off the Map. She looked back up at Crystal, still unsure of whether or not she wanted to smile, or if she was even capable. Crystal blushed and she kicked the table in shame. “I would suppose that this is goodbye.” Twilight paused. “So… that’s it? You’re leaving? You’re… just going to leave me here?” “That I am. This is the best that I can do for you.” Crystal shrugged. “I suspect this will take some getting used to, and I don’t know what it will be worth, but… you’ll be able to return to your life here.” “After what just happened!?” Twilight shuddered. “I-I don’t know if I can!” “You can, and you will.” Crystal snorted and averted her gaze. “And regardless, there isn’t anything more that I can do for you. This is the best that I can manage.” “And so, what?” Twilight felt her insides growing hot and she channeled that into powering her own voice. “You’re going to leave and go who knows where?” “That is exactly what I am going to do. I have to press on and continue my work.” Crystal looked down her nose at Twilight. “I doubt that you and I will see each other again.” “I don’t even know if I want to! You show up, you let Ponyville destroyed, you let that happen to my friends…” Twilight’s voice lost some of its power and she croaked, “And then you allowed all that to happen.” “I never said that I was perfect.” “I expected more.” Crystal furrowed her brow. “Then tell me whatever it is that you want.” Twilight stared deep into Crystal’s eyes and said, “I want to go home.” Crystal opened her mouth to speak but ended up averting her gaze and swallowing whatever words she might have been thinking of instead. Eventually, she turned away with only a token “I’m sorry.” Twilight stood there and said nothing. Crystal sighed and stood up to her full height again. “Farewell, Twilight Sparkle.” And with a bang, Crystal Faire disappeared. Twilight stared at the spot with her heart twisted into a knot. She didn’t know what to think. She had no thoughts. Was this all real? She wasn’t sure. Her legs gave way and she fell on her haunches. Her eyes drew over the room like she was drinking it in for the first time. It was off. Everything was off. The doors behind her creaked open and Starlight and Spike stood in the doorway. Their eyes immediately found her. Spike had his claws folded together and the both of them waited in silence. Twilight glanced back long enough to register their presence and then returned to scanning the room. She sat in silence for the longest time. Finally, she stood up, turned, and went to them.