//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 | Memories 
// Story: A Different World: The Future and Fate of Equestria 
// by Riclo 
//------------------------------//

Twilight Sparkle's POV

The day had gone by without any sign of Klade. Rainbow Dash seemed to be deeply concerned, which was understandable-- we didn't know if he was really still on our side or if he had been killed just like Duston was, and I knew that Rainbow had a close partnership with him. We wanted answers, and we weren't getting any, much to Rainbow's annoyance. I had sent a letter to the princesses telling them of Klade's unknown whereabouts, hoping that maybe they'd be able to find any traces of him. For the moment, however, everything seemed uncertain.

It was currently the morning of the next day, and I had just said my goodbye to Fluttershy after having left her cabin. It was nice of her to let me stay there for the time being while my library was being rebuilt, and I was definitely thankful for her kindness, so I made sure to try and help her in any way that she would let me. I had decided to visit Duston's house being how I had never actually gotten around to doing it before, and I was currently on my way there-- or at least, where I thought it was. The trip there was mostly uneventful, and before long I came across a building that looked similar to Klade's house.

'This must be the place.'

Walking up to the front door, I opened it and stepped inside. The first thing I noticed was another one of those large and thin black rectangles-- the same thing I had seen at Klade's house-- so I assumed it probably wasn't dangerous if Duston had one too. Despite thinking that, I still decided not to take a closer look, and instead made my way further into the house. I spent my time looking around, examining the furniture and any strange objects that were inside. The interior of the house was pretty barren though, almost as if it was incomplete. One thing that had stood out was a black shirt with red letters fabricated on that very distinctly looked like Rarity's doing, which stated 'You mess with the boss, you get PWNED', whatever that was supposed to mean. The back of the shirt had a red outline of a fist, and I couldn't remember ever actually seeing Duston wear this particular bit of clothing.

Soon enough I found myself walking into his bedroom, and I approached the bed, gazing down at it before slowly crawling on. I could immediately tell it was the bed he slept on from the scent, and I breathed in deeply, laying down on my back and pressing myself against the covers. Just smelling him again was causing me to be flooded with all sorts of memories, and for a brief moment I felt happiness as I gazed up at the ceiling. A smile grew on my face as I remembered when I first saw him and how I had somehow brought him into this world-- I still didn't know what on Equestria I did to make such a mistake, but I was ever-so thankful for it.

'I don't know what I could've possibly done to screw up a simple teleportation spell that badly! I mean, transporting something from a different world, or a different dimension even-- that's gotta take alot of magic, and all I was  trying to do was teleport a rock from one place to another that was only like twelve inches away. I should really, really do more research into this type of thing whenever I have the chance.'

My thoughts soon moved on through the times, and how I was at first so curious about him and his world once I learned that he wasn't dangerous. He wasn't very good at explaining things though, so I mostly had to make guesses so that I could clarify them in my mind. This only lasted for maybe just a day or two though before things started happening-- word had come out that Discord may have been planning things again based off an increase of chaotic magic surrounding his stone prison, and thus I was required to gather up the Elements of Harmony and then head to Canterlot with my friends to deal with the situation. It unfortunately didn't go very well though, and as it turned out, Discord had somehow managed to use the power that the Elements of Harmony put out to his own advantage, to which he then used that power to free himself.

What surprised me, though, is how Duston happened to be there-- something I still had no idea how he could've possibly done on his own when he was supposed to be staying behind at the library, which was all the way back at Ponyville-- yet another thing that I would never have the answer to now that he was dead. Discord was about to attack us and do who-knows-what when Duston had shot him with one of his 'guns' he said they were called-- something that must've been in that backpack of his that was on him when I had brought him into this world. He had saved us from great potential danger, all while being asked to do otherwise--  this nice-spirited gesture had really stood out to me. He didn't need to do what he did, but he did it anyway, and I began to smile again at that thought. That was definitely one of the memories that stood out to me the most.

'I don't think I ever thanked him properly for that either...'

My thoughts went on, and I rolled over in the bed as I went over the events that happened afterwards. Once Discord had been freed, me and Duston had spent alot of time doing magic lessons to get him to use magic proficiently and effectively. I was surprised at first when I found out, or rather, Klade-- Duston's younger brother-- found out that humans could do magic. They didn't have horns like unicorns did! Klade's theory was that humans were always able to do magic, but weren't able to back on their world because their world didn't have something that Equestria did-- something that would allow magic to work. I was never able to confirm if this was true, but way later on we did briefly visit their world and we weren't able to use magic despite being unicorns. Me and Duston would spend hours almost every day together learning spells, and it was during this time that I had found myself really thinking about him alot. We had gone to get cupcakes at Sugarcube Corner so many times that I lost count, and time seemed to go by really fast during those days. When I thought back to it, it seemed like I was the happiest during those days. It was so much fun to have my own personal student to teach to, and I did definitely overwork him at times, but I couldn't help myself because I just got so excited. I smiled wider at the memories, but then winced as the brutal reality of what had happened set in for a moment.

'Duston... No no, don't think about that. Don't.'

I pressed my cheek against his pillow and closed my eyes, continuing to think on through the events. It was around that time that his brother Klade had learned a spell that could create anything out of nothing, and from there things started getting really crazy. He had brought a magic book over from the Canterlot Library that me and Duston studied, but all of the spells there were of magic that pony unicorns such as myself couldn't do, which was something that had really bothered me because there was alot of great spells in there. It was the spell that could create anything out of nothing, though, that pretty much ended our magic lessons because it mostly out-classed all the other spells. With that spell Duston was able to create weapons from his world that could kill in mere seconds, something that made me wonder if his world was any violent at all-- I never did ask him that. Despite that, there were still a few times where we went over more magic spells even though it wasn't entirely necessary. Now that I thought back to it, though, those last study sessions were started by Duston instead of me, which was now making me wonder if he had noticed how disappointed I was that they were ending and decided to keep doing it for awhile longer. If that was actually true...

I opened my eyes backed up and stared blankly at the wall to my side as I thought on. A whole bunch of stuff had happened, all of which was just normal things that would happen in Ponyville-- there was always something happening in this place. It wasn't until awhile later did we hear anything about Discord, and when we did it was a shocker-- the princesses had been captured! I distinctly remembered running to Duston's house that chilly early morning to tell him to meet me at the library, where I had gathered up all of my friends as well as Klade to tell them about what had happened. From there we had all teleported to Canterlot, where we were forced to endure Discord's treacherous games if we hoped to free the princesses. Although we did succeed, and Discord was loyal enough to stick to the rules of his game and release the princesses, we soon found out that he had trapped us inside all of Canterlot with a huge magical barrier-- we had been duped. It was here that Klade had helped us escape through an underground tunnel that he had created with his magic much earlier before this all had even happened, and it was through this tunnel that we arrived at yet another one of Klade's magical creations-- an entire base constructed within the insides of a mountain. He always was pretty  obsessed with doing stuff with magic, as I remembered him telling me once that he had "backup plans to backup plans and then backup plans to those backup plans". From there we had planned our next moves, and soon enough we had liberated Canterlot, as well as Ponyville which had also been Discordified.

It was after this that things toned down as Discord seemingly disappeared for the time being. I remembered feeling strangely eager to spend as much time with Duston as possible, to which I had done just that, having spent almost every living moment in his presence. I felt my heart begin to beat faster as my mind immediately trailed off to something very particular and special that had happened during this brief little break. I rolled over again and rubbed my body against his bed as I recalled going on my first date with him, where certain feelings were shared for the first time. I stretched my body  upwards and stared in-front of me with wide eyes as I thought back to all the little details that were cemented in my mind from that date, and I exhaled slowly, rolling over onto my back and rubbing the back of his head against his pillow.

'It was really nice...' A short bittersweet smile grew on my face, and I tried to control my breathing as I stared upwards. After that day everything pretty much became a blur it was all going by so fast, and it was hard for me to think straight most of the time-- I was feeling so many strange things I had never experienced before with such intensity. It definitely hadn't been a long enough break by the time Discord showed himself once more and we had to go deal with the problem. We thought we had killed him; we thought it was all over; we all partied and had fun with the most care-free minds afterwards. All I could think about was doing all sorts of things with Duston, but then he... he...

Chills spread through my body as my memories and recollections caught up with recent events, and tears began to well up in my eyes.

'He... D...Di...'

I couldn't say it, and I turned around, pressing my face hard against his pillow as I began to cry. Whether it was Discord or actually Klade himself who had killed him, I didn't care right now. I felt rage begin boiling up inside of me this time, unlike the previous times I had broken down crying. I was determined to find out who had murdered him, and I was going to bring revenge upon him in any.. way.. possible.

My hooves gripped his pillow tightly as I sobbed into it, letting myself think through events over and over despite what it did to me-- I just couldn't stop. Tears flowed down my cheeks and soaked into the pillow, and it wasn't until several minutes later that my crying finally began to slow down. I moved over to my side and opened my eyes back up, staring blankly at the open door-way in-front of me. I didn't want to move or get up though, so I remained laying on the bed as the minutes continued to tick by. Soon I closed my eyes, and I found myself drifting off into a short sleep on his bed.

'Duston...'





I woke up groggily some time later, and I groaned, rolling over onto my back. I had just woken up from a really nice dream about Duston where I was doing all sorts of fun things with him one after another, as they all seemed to merge together and last much longer than they really did in my dream-scape. I was saddened to have woken up, but I did definitely feel much better after having slept. I stretched on the bed, extending my limbs and then rolling over to the edge. I stayed on the edge for a few minutes in silence before I finally got off the bed, and I took one last look of the room before stepping out of it. I wandered through the house once again, taking another look at everything inside before heading over to the front door.

'I wonder what's going to happen to this house now that he's gone.' I thought to myself as I opened the front door and stepped outside. It was bright and sunny out, and based on where the sun was I guessed it was probably a little before noon. I walked out quite a ways in-front of me before turning around, taking a look at the front of the house and taking note of the differences between it and the normal Ponyvillian house. What eventually caught my eye though was something placed to the left of the house, and upon closer inspection, I recognized it as one of the things Duston had created back when he had first learned the creation spell.

'I think he said this thing was called a golf cart.' I walked to the side of the large object as I examined it. I remembered  him using this thing as a means of transportation, and I was curious to just how it worked as I approached it and sat down on what appeared to be the seat-- something that definitely wasn't designed for ponies. I looked over the black steering wheel which was something I knew was used to control boats and ships-- an interesting correlation between an invention in his world and ours. I looked down towards the floor to see two black pedals, and I pressed my hooves against them only to find that nothing happened.

'I'm pretty sure there was a way he turned this thing on-- but how?' I examined near the steering wheel to see a key sticking out of something, and my head immediately perked up at that. 'That must open something up that turns it on!' I turned the key, which unexpectedly caused the engine to roar and caught me off guard as the golf cart was suddenly turned on. 'Oh! That works too actually.' I gripped the steering wheel with my hooves and pressed, turning it in different directions, but nothing was causing it to move.

'Hmm... Usually with boats they have something in the back or down under-deck that causes it to move.' I got out of the cart and layed down on the grass, looking underneath the contraption and then using my horn to brighten the area up for visibility. I couldn't recognize or see anything that would cause it to start moving though, so I pulled out and stood back up, making my way towards the back. I opened up the trunk expecting some type of device or means that could get it moving, but instead found that it was seemingly only used for storage, and that there was a bunch of metal-looking objects layed down inside-- something I recognized as guns that Duston probably created with his magic. I knew they were dangerous and didn't know how they worked, so I quickly closed the lid before I made any mistakes.

'What on Equestria gets this thing moving?' I made my way back into the cart and on the seat, examining near the steering wheel to see if there was anything else I might've missed. I couldn't spot anything, but after awhile I noticed the two pedals once again. Kneeling down towards them again, I pressed my fore-hoof against the one on the left down to the floor. Nothing still happened however, so I repeated the same thing with the next pedal without much expectations, only for the vehicle to suddenly jerk forward.

"Ahhh!" My eyes went wide as my body was propelled backwards, and I quickly brought my head up, only to bang it against the steering wheel. "Ow!" I gripped my head with my hooves and then looked forward, only to see that I was now going down a hill. "Oh no no no no!" I death gripped the steering wheel with my hooves and stared ahead tense as fuck as I made extreme care not to lose control or run into anything. His house was pretty far away from most of Ponyville though, so I only had to look out for occasional trees as the cart lightly bounced down the short hill.  Soon enough it stopped, and I let go of the steering wheel as I relaxed and caught my breath.

"So that's how it moves!" I exclaimed to nobody in particular as I looked back down towards the pedals. "But how am I supposed to move this thing and control it at the same time?" I leaned down and tried to grip the steering wheel with one  fore-hoof while the other rested on the pedal, putting me in an awkward position where I couldn't even see in-front of me. I poked my head out the side of the cart to look ahead from there, and I very softly began to press down the pedal. The cart slowly moved forward, but I quickly lost my balance and found myself jumping out of the cart in an effort to avoid pressing my weight down onto the pedal. I rolled on the grass   couple times before getting back up and re-seating myself.

'I wonder if I could use both my hind-hooves and my fore-hooves...' I looked down towards the pedals and scooted forward as far as the seat would let me, stretching out one of my hind-legs towards them as I grabbed the steering wheel with my two fore-hooves. I was just barely able to press down on the pedal and look ahead of the cart, and I slowly began to drive it forwards in the grass. 'This seems to be working so far!' A smile began to grow on my face as I found myself driving the golf cart through the outskirts of Ponyville, and it was actually pretty fun. 'I definitely need to find out what makes this thing work!' I turned the wheel and maneuvered the vehicle past different obstacles, and before long I heard a familiar high-pitched voice call out.

"Woah Twilight that looks like fun!" I turned my head to see Pinkie bouncing towards me from the side, and I brought my hoof off the gas pedal, only for me to realize that wouldn't stop the vehicle.

"Wait.. How do I stop this thing?" I asked mostly to myself as I looked down at the dashboard for anything that might answer that question. I couldn't find anything, but it soon didn't matter anyway as the cart eventually slowed down to a stop on its own. A pink blur filled up my peripheral vision, and I turned my head to see that Pinkie was right there beside the cart. "Pinkie! I was just figuring out how this works."

"Oooh can I try? Pretty pretty please? That looks like it's gotta be so much fun! Isn't that Duston's?"

I nodded lightly. "Well.. yeah. You can sit next to me for now if you'd like; I'm still getting used to the controls and all."

"Okay!" Pinkie jumped right over me and landed on the seat to the right of me with a thud. "How fast does it go?"

"I don't know yet, I haven't tried." I responded. "It's already gone pretty fast though-- faster than most ponies can run even!"

"Wow really? I doubt it can outrun me. Rainbow Dash knows that especially!" Pinkie giggled. "I should get out and try to race it! Who do you think'll win? I bet I would!"

"Not right now Pinkie. I want to make sure I can control this thing optimally before I do anything like that-- I wouldn't want to bump into you!"

"Aww, okay." Pinkie seemed a little disappointed, but that was quickly replaced when I began to press down on the pedal again. Her head perked up as the cart began to move forward, and a wide smile grew on her face. "Hey look, we're moving!"

I smiled a little back at her, and I steered our way through the grass and across a few small and slanted hills. Eventually I was starting to leave Ponyville, so I turned around, which is when Pinkie spoke up.

"Hey can you let me try it now?" Pinkie asked, leaning her head close to me and looking like an excited foal. I was hesitant at first, but I reluctantly agreed after awhile.

"Okay... But just be careful Pinkie!" I replied. Pinkie squeed and seated herself in-front of the steering wheel as soon as she was able to, squirming back and forth and grabbing the wheel. "The pedal on the right will cause it to mov--woah!" I was interrupted by Pinkie slamming her hind-hoof on the pedal, and in an instant we were pushed back against the seat as we sped forward. "I said be careful!!"

"I am Twilight-- there's nothing in-front of me!" Pinkie smiled widely as we zoomed across the grassy fields with wind blowing against us, and I nervously held onto the seat as we went faster and faster. "What does  the other pedal do?" Pinkie asked.

"I don't kno--" I was cut off once again as Pinkie slammed her other hoof on the pedal, which sent us both flying out of cart as it abruptly stopped in place.

"Ahhhh Pinkie!!!!" I flew through the air in-front of the cart for several feet before barreling down onto the grass. Once I stopped tumbling on the ground, I got up, seeing Pinkie giggling and laughing next to me.

"Oh my gosh Twilight that was AMAZING! Let's do that again!" She exclaimed with a wide grin before bolting off towards the golf cart.

"Pinkie you might break it!" I responded as I hurriedly caught up with her and got back onto the seat.

"Oh come on Twilight it's not gonna break. Why else would that pedal be there anyway? That's what it's supposed to do!" Pinkie slammed her hind-hoof down on the pedal again, and I bit my lip nervously as we sped off once more.

"Just be careful Pinkie..." I watched her, not feeling very confident about the wide-eyed grin she had as she looked in-front of her.

"Come on-- faster faster faster!!! We're gonna go flying so far!" The cart gradually built up speed, and I could feel the wind beginning to push against us with increased resistance. I eventually noticed a large rock almost hidden in the grass in-front of us though, and my eyes went wide when I saw it.

"Pinkie look out!!!" I yelled at her, to which she glanced at me in confusion.

"Look out for what Twilight? There's nothing ther-oh!" Pinkie had noticed the rock, but I knew it was already too late at that point. Despite that, Pinkie jerked on the steering wheel, causing the entire cart to flip over as we were both sent flying out the moment it made contact with the rock. Both of us-- including the cart-- went flying through the air before eventually landing with crashes and thuds. I managed to get up shortly afterwards, checking myself over to make sure I wasn't hurt  before quickly making my way over to Pinkie Pie.

"Pinkie are you okay??" I spoke up as I approached her. She got up afterwards, appearing to be okay as she looked at me.

"I'm fine Twilight!" She replied, giggling a little to herself before looking over at the cart. "Um... sorry."

I gasped when I noticed the broken mess the cart had turned into, and I quickly ran over to it to examine the damage. "Pinkie!!" I exclaimed with a harsh tone of voice as I slowly levitated the deformed cart right-side up. "I told you to be careful!"

"I'm sorry.." Pinkie muttered as her ears flopped back against her head. Normally something like this wouldn't bother me so much-- it happened all the time with Pinkie-- but this was something that belonged to Duston. I tried to start the engine again, only to hear weird noises that definitely didn't sound right. My heart sank at this, and after failing to start it, I turned and glared at Pinkie.

"No-- this is what happens when you DON'T LISTEN!!!!" I yelled at her, causing her to back away slightly. "I told you to be careful with it multiple times and NOW look at what you've done! I don't know how to fix this thing!! And this was Duston's and now he's gone a-and..." I trailed off as I started to look downwards at the grass, hiding my face from Pinkie's view.

"Twilight..." Pinkie replied softly. "I said I'm sorry..."

I stared down at the ground for several seconds, not bothering to say anything else. I glanced at the broken cart and then turned around shortly afterwards, making my way back towards Ponyville and leaving Pinkie there by herself. I knew that really wasn't what I should've done, but at that moment I really didn't care enough.

Before long I found myself approaching Ponyville, and I sighed, staring down towards the rock streets. 'I don't know why I lashed out at her like that... Usually I don't do that.' I shook my head slightly and looked back up in-front of me. 'I shouldn't have let her try it anyway because I knew she was going to screw something up. It's also my fault because of that.'

As I gazed ahead of myself, I noticed something that caught my eye-- a bunch of ponies surrounding the remnants of my library. My attention perked up at this as I quickly made my way over there, and as I got closer I realized that they were the ponies who were reconstructing my library.

"Hey!" I called out to them as I approached. "Is there anything you need my help for?"

One of the stallions turned to look at me before smiling. "You're Twilight Sparkle, aren't you? Princess Celestia sent us to rebuild your library!" He paused for a second and then continued. "No, not really. Right now we're just getting rid of all the leftover debris, and then we're going to set up for the tree." He pointed towards a pile of assorted stuff that was off to the side. "You should probably look through there though-- that's where we're putting all the stuff that didn't get totally destroyed."

I nodded at him, making my way towards the pile and examining it. Most of it was just piles of books that weren't touched or at the very least not badly damaged by the huge explosion I had done, while others were personal belongings and furniture. Everything was pretty disorganized though, so I took it upon myself to fix that.

Once I had finished with that and looked through everything around fifteen minutes later, I noticed that all of the debris were gone by now and all that was left was just barren ground where my library once was. I watched in curiosity as a unicorn mare approached, and her horn began to glow as she began digging a hole in the middle with her magic. It took a  few minutes and the hole was really deep before she levitated a seed down into it and covered it back up with dirt. She brought some water over to it, and then everyone proceeded to back away from the clearing while the mare's horn remained glowing. After only a few seconds the seed rapidly began to sprout from the ground, and I watched with a surprised expression as a tree rapidly began to grow from there. After only about a minute it was fully-grown and looked almost identical to my previous library, and the unicorn proceeded to smile as her horn stopped glowing.

"All done!" She exclaimed, looking at me to which her head then perked up. "Oh, Twilight Sparkle! How long have you been  standing there? I didn't even notice you."

"Since about twenty minutes ago I think-- I've just been going through all my stuff." I replied. "When Celestia said she was going to rebuild my library, I wasn't expecting it to be an exact replica!"

The mare giggled slightly before responding. "Now you don't have to go get used to a whole new home! Well, I mean it technically is new, but you know what I mean." She paused for a second and then continued. "Our job here is pretty much done though-- we were supposed to leave a note saying some things but I guess I can just tell you them since you're right here. You have to send Celestia a list of all the books that you currently have that weren't destroyed, and then after that she'll send you all of the other ones that you should've had before." I nodded lightly to which she then replied. "Great! We'll all be on our way then."

I watched as the group of ponies began to walk off towards a distant carriage, and after waving them off I turned to look at my pile of stuff. 'I really need to make this up to Celestia somehow. Alot of those books were no doubt rare and expensive... I hope she doesn't think less of me because of this!' Levitating as much stuff as I could, I made my way into the barren interior of the library. 'Well, time to get to work.'

I spent the next few hours organizing my library and getting everything set up. The basement had been mostly untouched from the explosion, and during my cleaning spree I had decided to re-organize and re-discover all of the stuff that lurked in my basement, which was something I had been putting off for more than I would've liked to admit. As I was finishing up, however, a sudden knock on my door caught my attention.

'Oh that's probably Pinkie Pie! I really need to apologize to her as soon as I can-- I shouldn't put that off forever.' I quickly made my way over to the door and opened it, only for it to reveal Rainbow Dash instead.

"Hey Twilight." She spoke up, without the enthusiastic and vibrant tone that her voice usually had. "Have you heard from Celestia yet? Have they found any signs of Klade?"

I shook my head in response. "No, not yet Rainbow, I'm sorry." I replied. "I'll make sure to let you know as soon as I find out though, because I'm really curious about what's going on too."

"Damnit! I've literally searched practically all day today in every possible place I could think of but I can't find anything. It's like he vanished!" Rainbow frowned, showing clear signs of being upset. "I mean, at least show me a damn body or something so at least then I'll know what happened to him! I've even looked up in the mountains and the forest where all of his 'hidden base' stuff is, but I still couldn't find him there."

"Rainbow.." I spoke as my ears flopped back against my head. "I know this must be hard on you, but... well..." I looked downwards. Normally I would just tell her that everything would be fine, but everything clearly wasn't fine considering Duston had died. Before I could continue, though, Rainbow began talking again.

"There's no way he's dead-- he'd never let that happen-- and I've seen the crazy awesome stuff that he has. He's probably planning something big against Discord, just you wait and see. I bet you that's what he's doing."

I perked my head back up as I listened to the positive direction Rainbow's conversation was going, so I decided to reinforce that mindset. "You're probably right Rainbow, just don't give up hope. Not yet at least..."

"Yeah." Rainbow stayed quiet for a few seconds before continuing. "Anyway, that's all I really came here to ask you about, so I'm gonna head off now."

I nodded lightly as I watched Rainbow fly back outside, and I stood there in the library as I began thinking to myself. 'I  really hope Rainbow doesn't end up having to go through the same thing I'm going through... She doesn't deserve that. I hope she's right too-- Maybe Klade is still alive and hasn't turned on us either and is planning something against Discord. I guess only time will tell.' Looking back at the inside of the library, I decided to put off the last few things that I needed to do for now. 'I need to go see Pinkie, and besides, I'm hungry too so I should get something to eat while I'm at it.' Opening the front door, I stepped outside, closing it behind me and walking off towards Sugarcube Corner.

The sun was setting and illuminating the town with a deep orange glow as I made my way towards the giant gingerbread-house building, and soon enough I arrived. I perked my head up and looked around upon entering the building, and it didn't take long before I saw Pinkie serving a few ponies at their table. I waited until she was done before quickly making  my way over to her.

"Pinkie!" I exclaimed, catching her attention and causing her to look at me.

"Oh hey Twilight." She replied. "I'm sorry I-"

"I'm sorry about what-- oh." I stopped myself when I caught notice of what she was saying, but then I quickly continued. "No no, I should be the one who's sorry. I had no reason to lash out at you like that."

"But... you totally did Twilight! I was being way too careless and I really should've listened to you." Pinkie stepped closer to me. "You don't have to apologize Twilight, especially with what you're going through right now. I was totally in the wrong there and I'm sorry."

I exhaled slowly as I listened to the pink-haired pony's words. "Pinkie..." I stayed silent for a few seconds before continuing. "How about we just put this all behind us, okay?"

"Sure-- I was almost gonna say the same thing!" Pinkie started to smile. "I'll bake you something extra special right now too to make up for it! Well, some of it at least."

My first instinct was to deny her offer, but considering I had already gone over that I wanted to eat something, I nodded my head. "Thank you,  Pinkie."

"No, thank you for being understanding! I'll be right back." Pinkie proceeded to enthusiastically zoom off into the kitchen, and I felt a little more relieved as I made my way over to a table and sat down.

'I'm glad that's resolved.'





It was thirty-seven minutes later by the time I had finished eating, and I was currently saying my goodbye to Pinkie as I exited the building. The evening was approaching, so I decided to wrap things up for the day and head back to Fluttershy's house to let her know that I had a place to stay, and to also bring Spike along with me. I had eventually arrived, and I walked up to the cabin, knocking on the front door and revealing Fluttershy a short while later.

"Hello Twilight." Fluttershy greeted in her usual soft voice. "Have you been feeling okay?"

"I've been fine Fluttershy." I replied. "Is Spike here?"

"Oh he just came back from Rarity's place not too long ago. He's been quite concerned about you, and I've been too."

"I'll be fine. I'm really grateful that you've been letting me stay here, but I don't need to anymore since my library's been rebuilt."

"Already?" Fluttershy asked with a surprised expression.

"It's much faster than I was expecting too, but I'm not complaining or anything. It's still going to be a little while longer until all the books that I'm missing arrive, but I'm definitely not going to complain about that because Celestia is being really generous. I've gotta make it up to her somehow."

"I'm sure Celestia will understand. You shouldn't be too harsh on yourself."

"I'm really not to be honest, Fluttershy.."

"Twilight!" I recognized the voice that called out immediately, and I looked behind Fluttershy to see Spike quickly making his way over here.

"Hey Spike." I responded with a small smile. "Our library is rebuilt, so we can go home now."

"Wait, already? But it hasn't even been a day yet! How'd they patch it up so fast?"

"I'll tell you on the way there." I proceeded to look back at Fluttershy. "If you ever need a place to stay, you're always welcome to stay with me. I mean, not like you weren't able to before or anything-- but I just thought I'd make it clear."

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind." Fluttershy smiled back. "If you ever need somepony to talk to, I'd love to listen."

I nodded lightly at her and levitated Spike up onto my back. We said our goodbyes to Fluttershy, and then I began to make our way back towards the library, explaining and answering any questions that Spike had. The moon was just starting to rise by the time we had reached our home-- or new home, technically, even though it was still the same thing-- and I walked inside.

"What do you suppose Discord will do next?" Spike asked as I closed the door behind us.

"Die, hopefully." I replied, catching Spike off-guard with the unexpected bluntness and violent nature of my answer.

"I.. well, that's one way of putting it." He replied. "I hope he dies too!"

We both smiled as I set Spike down from my back, and I walked forward as I began to busy myself with the last few things that I had wanted to do earlier. I finished rather quickly, and I noticed that Spike was pretty tired by now, so I worked on getting him ready for bed. It was a little past 8 PM by the time he was asleep, and I was currently alone with my thoughts as I trotted towards my bed.

'Duston...'

It all still didn't feel completely real. Was I just dreaming? Had the day already gone by? Everything seemed like it had gone by so fast now that I looked back on it, and I frowned as I slowly got on my bed. Part of me felt like I would just go to sleep, wake up, and Duston would be there as if nothing ever even happened. I really wanted to believe that, but I couldn't get myself to because I knew it wasn't true and that it wouldn't happen. He was dead.

I felt my throat begin to close up as I layed down and got under the covers, and I sighed, rolling my eyes and closing them. I couldn't fathom how something like this could bother me so much-- it logically felt like it made sense to not be sad because it felt horrible, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't do it. I was devastated, and nothing I did seemed to help with that fact. I felt rage begin to boil within me as I thought about how Discord had taken away so much from my life-- memories and events that I'll now never be able to experience. He took that all away like it was nothing, that cold, heartless demon from Tartarus. I'll never be able to have any new memories with Duston again.

Tears welled up in my eyes as I rolled over, rubbing my body against the bed and feeling a bit restless. I was still tired though, and after dealing with more relentless thoughts going through my head, they slowly began to melt away as I got more and more sleepy. I lulled off into sleep, with tears in my eyes and a body that wouldn't completely relax, all while being completely unaware of what was currently happening in Baltimare...