//------------------------------//
// The Fifth Remove 
// Story: Welcome Home 
// by Trick Question 
//------------------------------//



You are Star Swirl the Bearded.



At the moment, you occupy the Void between worlds—not to be confused with Limbo, which is a place you'd rather not visit again. As an older iteration of Star Swirl than the one who returned to Equestria in 1004 Anno Solequus, this plane of existence has become your usual haunt: casually surveying all dimensions tangentially related to ponykind. You note that "surveying" does not mean "seeing". None of your five senses are sufficient for comprehending the Infinite about you. You exist as a part of everything, and you feel the probabilities. It's similar to what young Ruby Pinch was learning to do with her magic sense (which you remember quite clearly), except that it doesn't require a horn. Or a physical body, if one must be entirely accurate.

One specific version of Princess Luna just now sent you quite a tall order, and you're not immediately certain whether her suggestion is a good idea. There are dozens of other tasks upon your withers of far greater import. Nonetheless, you decide you shall grant her request. As luck would have it, you already have business at that particular time and in that particular dimension.

But of course, this is hyperbole. There is no such thing as "luck". It is the magic of friendship that would have things one way or the other, and it is your only master. That, and perhaps a piping hot cup of oolong tea, now and again (well, when you have a body to drink it with).

A brilliant white aura illuminates your zone, and just like that, you're physically there. You've appeared in the middle of a crowd of mournful onlookers. Twilight Sparkle is with them, weeping over a pile of stones. She looks up and sees you, and she leaps to her feet, wide-eyed.

"Star Swirl?!" she shouts. "Please—"

With a deft application of prohibere tempus, you cut her off mid-plea. This is less rude than it appears: you're going to minimize the probability of this thread anyway.

You could begin the laborious process of rewinding time right now, but you might as well wait a few minutes for your guest to show up. She should be in Ponyville today, so she's bound to stop by sooner or later. This is where the largest crowd is gathered, and she'll probably wish to investigate why time itself has frozen all around her.

You don't want to disturb your guest more than necessary, but you know she is a capable mare and you'd like to observe how she responds to a crisis. (You can't remember this particular part of your past. You previously blocked the event from your memory so you could have a more natural conversation with her half of yourself without creating paradoxes.) So, you hide behind the overturned cart. Every motion of your body makes soft jingling sounds due to the silly bells that line your wizard's hat and cape, so you'll need to keep perfectly still for a while. At least breezes won't be a problem.

You peek through a crack in the wood, and wait. After several minutes, you begin to wonder if you'll need to go fetch her, but then you hear a cantering in the distance. Somepony is approaching.

An alicorn mare rapidly canters around the corner of the building, then freezes. She gasps at the sight of blood. "Oh dear Celestia, no! Oh... oh, no. Big Macintosh, you poor thing," she whispers, holding a hoof over her mouth. Then she turns and sees the remains of the foal, and her eyes fill with tears.

After the first few tears fall, Starlight Glimmer shuts her eyelids tight, takes a deep breath, and wipes her eyes with a fetlock. "No. I can't let emotion get in the way of my judgment," she says to herself, and puts on a resolute frown. "Ponyville needs me right now."

Eyes now closed, the princess takes several long, meditative breaths, and most of the tension leaves her muzzle. You can't help but enjoy a brief moment of personal pride. She lacks the discipline and insight of her friend Sunburst, but she's come such a long way from foalhood. (Hence the wings.)

Starlight opens her eyes and exhales slowly. She walks up to a frozen Twilight Sparkle and scrutinizes her, waving a hoof in front of her face. "Weird. Aside from myself and possibly Pinkie, you should be the only pony in the vicinity powerful enough to stop time. But you're clearly in no condition to cast spells, and your horn would be radiating magic if you were the source," she says.

Her lips purse in thought for a moment, and she stares skyward at a motionless cloud. "Maybe you reacted out of raw emotion, and this was the result of a magical backfire. Given the circumstances, that seems plausible. But then why wouldn't I be affected along with the rest of Ponyville?" She turns and follows Twilight's gaze toward the crowd. "Now... what were you staring at?"

You wrinkle your nose at an itch, and the bells on your oversized hat jingle in response. The sound is muffled due to the nature of the time spell, but still audible.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" Starlight shouts, as her wings snap open and her horn lights up like the Sun. Her fiery aura is so bright it's painful to stare directly at it. The color is seafoam green, just like your aura used to be back in the early Pre-Classical Era, before fading to white. Your innate magical prowess comes from her side of the union, after all.

You step out from behind the broken cart and clear your throat. "You know," you announce, "talking to yourself is often the first sure sign of mental illness." You walk forward to a comfortable speaking distance, then stroke your beard with a hoof. You try to gauge her reaction. She seems to have missed the subtle joke, probably due to the stress. Alas.

Starlight breathes a sigh of relief. "Oh thank goodness! You're here to fix this," she concludes, and her eyebrows wrinkle together fearfully. "That's why you're here, right? Please tell me you're here to fix this, Star Swirl..."

"You tell me," you say. You step forward with a grin, lift a hoof to her face, then thrust it forward so that it...

*BOOPS*