//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 (edited) // Story: Ancient Twilight // by demonbaker //------------------------------// Watching the three pony tribes learn to work to together or perish was always fascinating, and filled Time's chest with a pulsing warmth. She walked among the ponies as they discovered the method to banish the wendigos. Alicorns have a rather imposing presence, and have a reputation for being the center of attention. Memories of how Celestia dominated a room simply by showing up flashed in Time’s mind. Good thing she took precautions. A simple ‘notice me not’ enchantment worked wonders. Though, Time could’ve sworn Clover the Clever looked her way a few times. And, surprisingly, chancellor Puddinghead seemed to be aware of her presence as well. Stranger and stranger… this hadn't happened before either. Time had to make a supreme effort not to document the differences in this version of history. The small changes were starting to add up. No. You're on vacation. Stop worrying, just relax. As Time wandered around the area, memories of her putting on a play at Hearth's Warming filled her mind. Smiling, she finally relaxed with the memories of her friends. Shame she missed their passing the first time. A goodbye would have been nice. Shaking herself out of her reverie, she decided she wanted some conversation. Slipping through the timestream, she disappeared from her location and reappeared above Celestia's sun. This wasn't teleportation, it's faster. She simply stopped existing in her previous location and reappeared elsewhere. That had taken while to master. The heat didn't phase her in the slightest as she looked down at the glowing orb beneath her.  Celestia and Luna had yet to return to Equestria after finishing up the planet. Making an entire planet was tiring, especially when you worked so hard to make it beautiful. I still think mathematical perfection is better. And far less effort. Time began prodding a sleepy Celestia with her magic to get her to wake up. It took a while, but eventually a white Alicorn wreathed in flames appeared on the surface of the sun. Her mane and tail were red like molten metal, her wings more fire than feather, spread out as she gave a mighty yawn. "Hmm?" Slowly, her body cooled down, becoming less of her true form and more the familiar white Alicorn with pink hair that Time saw a few centuries ago. Blinking the sleep out of her eyes, Celestia smiled."Now, isn't this an unexpected visit. What can I do for you, Time?" Returning the soft smile, Time gestured toward the planet some distance away. "I was observing the mortals and needed someone to speak to. You did an efficient job with Equestria." "A compliment from the one who sees all potential outcomes? That is high praise indeed." Time looked away rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. "Not exactly. Every decision we make splits the timeline into a fork, the river running equally down each of its new paths. I've just gone down each path enough times to know the most likely ones that will occur. Time decided not to inform Celestia about the many times she'd destroyed civilizations to see how it affected the timestream. Like her last experiment, which went so very very wrong. Celestia nodded. "I do say, this might be the most anyone's ever gotten out of you—you're usually quite tight-lipped about your domain." Horseapples. Leave it to Celestia to notice something like that. Time sighed. "Yes, because talking about what may happen affects the decisions that are made afterward. Not every decision is world-altering, but a select few beings can completely change the world with a few small changes.” Male laughter echoed around them, a very familiar voice interrupting the two. “I don’t suppose I could get a list of those beings, Time? I know you keep it somewhere. In the desk on the thirteenth story, perhaps?" Both Celestia and Time groaned. "No, Chaos, I'm not going to give you a list of chess-pieces you can manipulate to cause the most chaos." The being of good and the being of neutrality both turned to a familiar draconequus as he appeared on a lawn chair with sunglasses. "Spoilsport, you wound me." He held his hands over his heart and promptly caught fire. "Oh, wait...that's the sun that's wounding me, false alarm." Time's eyes narrowed at his choice of seating; those wouldn't be invented for millennia... His chair also burned to ashes a moment later, leaving Time to wonder how he’d thought of something so specific. No, bad Alicorn. You're on— "Vacation?" Startled, Time looked at Chaos, who's offering her a brochure on Equestria's best vacation spots. The title read, ‘The best places for the being in charge of all time to unwind.’ "How did..." Discord gave Time a smirk, and Celestia a wink. "Now that would be telling!" He promptly burst into confetti, which of course also caught fire, before he reappeared leaning against Time's body, reading a book. This wouldn't normally be an issue. But only if you ignored the small fact that Time cannot be touched by beings inside time. There was also the fact that the book looked an awful lot like a Grimoire. "Chaos is such a funny thing, don't you agree?" Time's mind was buzzing with so many different conflicting thoughts she was almost frozen as her mind frantically tried to rein itself in. As with all things, a checklist was the answer. First, Discord was touching her: that shouldn't have been possible. Grabbing Chaos with her hoof, they seemed to implode as she pulled them both out of time. They appeared in a nearly completely white void. The only notable features were a large tower that floated almost ominously nearby. Purple with stripes of red. A single door at the bottom granted entry, and no windows or other adornments besides the color graced its sides. Time always was very spartan when it came to designing things. The second feature dominated the space above them—some distance away, the timestream flowed endlessly. On the left was what appeared to be a single river of rainbow colors. As it moved across the zone it split into infinite branches and side paths, each technically a parallel universe. Most were very similar to the original, but several came from significant changes. Twilight's flare in the school for gifted unicorns was a particular focus for diverging timelines. The whole thing resembled a rainbow-colored tree if viewed from the proper perspective. The second item on the checklist: Chaos was holding a Grimoire. Specifically, he was holding Disharmony and the Magic of Strife and Conflict. Splitting herself into three versions of herself with a simple decision, Time tried to solve these problems. She sent one copy into the nearby tower to check the bookshelves. She sent the other copy to grab the book Chaos was holding. The original glared at Chaos and almost growled. "Explain yourself!" Chaos simply laughed and snapped his claw, the Grimoire turning into a cooked fish before Time Beta could lay her hooves on it. "No, you've had quite enough fun, dear. It’s my turn now to spice things up." Time Gamma returned and confirmed that the book was indeed missing from her tower. "Give it back, Chaos." The three copies of Time simply merged together, Time Beta sparing the effort to incinerate the cooked fish in exasperation before she rejoined the original. Chaos's grin grew wider than should’ve been possible as he laughed in Time’s face, his body bursting into multiple smaller copies of himself that run around the void outside time. The tiny versions of Chaos spoke in unison. Which was far more creepy than it should’ve been. "I waited a long time for you to get distracted enough to lower the protection on those books you covet so much. Reset after reset after reset. Experiment after experiment. Watching you toy with existence itself simply to see what would happen." Chaos slowly reformed from his countless tiny versions into one large one, looming over Time like a dragon over a chicken. "No, my dear, its high time you took the back seat for once. I'm going to be doing my own experiments. And trust me, they are much more interesting than observing a tree for a thousand years.” Chaos gave one final laugh and snapped his fingers. A cloud of grey mist poured from his body, flowing up into the timestream above. The changes set in almost instantly, entire sections of the vibrant rainbow color dulling to grey and monochrome. With a final sardonic laugh, Chaos himself dissolved into mist and flowed upward, rejoining the timestream without the aid of Time's magic. Again, that shouldn't have been possible, but that list was growing by the moment. Floating in the void outside of time, the only thing she could do was mutter a long string of flavorful curses. So much for being on vacation.