//------------------------------// // 17 The Beggining of the End // Story: Twilight's 1000th Birthday Blowout // by Cyndaquil //------------------------------// The dry leaves which sat on the ground, or occasionally fluttered in the wind, began to dance. It started with two leaves, circling one another like partners in a tango. A few more joined in. Soon countless leaves followed. Even the clouds above couldn’t help but partake in the strange festival. They spread out as they moved in their spirals and soon the center of the circle was clear. Light descended from the sky, kissing the ground, and in that spot Twilight and Spike appeared. Now they were both standing together in the middle of the Everfree Forrest, in front of Zecora’s cabin. Twilight held a party invitation in her muzzle. “Zecora!” Twilight called, her voice muffled by the letter. “Zecora!” Spike called in a more deep and clear voice. There was no answer. Twilight pranced forward, and knocked upon the door with her hoof. “Hey Zecora! We’re here to invite you to a party. Zecora, where are you?” Spike looked back and forth, then turned to his companion. “I don’t think she’s here Twi.” Spike checked his pocket-watch, a useless habit considering they just traveled through time. It was such a pain having to reset it after every trip, especially considering that there were no other timepieces to use as a reference back home. “We can try inviting her yesterday.” “I’d rather not. You know how much energy these trips take. She’s probably gathering herbs. You check the Forrest, and I’ll wait here incase she comes back.” Spike nodded and took off. Twilight noted that his manner was a bit off. Normally he’d either voice his approval or voice his complaints. She watched for a minute or two to make sure he was gone. Breathing a sigh of relief, she took a key from under Zecora’s mat, and opened the door. One of the strange advantages of her disorganized memory is that sometimes Twilight remembered things from long ago, like where that key was; not that she couldn’t just poof herself through the door anyway. She had to open the window blinds for light. Idly she tried to remember if electricity was discovered in this time. It was a well ventilated hut, some would call it draughty, yet the odours of various potion ingredients lingered in the air. Some ponies thought Zecora lived out here because she was different, because other ponies would not accept her amongst them. It was nothing so melodramatic. Out here she had easy access to every potion ingredient imaginable, and to be unnecessarily honest some of her concoctions were a hazard to the olfactory sense. A black cauldron sat in the center of the room, and over to the side was a book stand. The book stand was a few hooves high, eye level for Zecora, and currently had a cook book sitting on top. It looked like Zecora planned to have a woodsy mushroom soup for dinner. Twilight closed the cook book and placed it back on the shelf. In its place she took out another book, and opened it to a page near the end. Once sitting on the stand Twilight eyed the book from a distance, wanting to know that the placement was right. The princess thought back to how she had found the book on this very page. It was around the time her friends had disappeared. After what seemed to be a hopeless search, Twilight found this book open to the very page. Twilight believed that Zecora had left it there, her friend and sometimes cryptic spiritual guide, had left her a clue to find the missing ponies. Boy was she wrong. It was the Alicorn Vision spell. Mixed properly it gave her visions of the past. Mixed improperly, it did something… she wasn’t entirely sure what. She took two more steps backward, wanting to make sure the books placement was just right. As she moved closer to the door, she stepped into the shadow of a tall dragon. Spike crossed his arms and tapped his foot. “What are you doing Twilight?” Twilight squeaked and jumped in surprise, yet quickly regained her composure. “Just checking the place out, I was feeling a little nostalgic. I haven’t seen this place in so long.” She laughed awkwardly. “You don’t get nostalgic, a thousand years ago, or yesterday, it’s all the same to you.” The dragon bent downward. He was already a little bent just to get through the door, and now he wanted to face Twilight eye to eye. “I thought it was strange that you wanted to invite Zecora personally. You didn’t even invite the other elements of harmony personally, or that sock pony you actually noticed was gone!” His voice rose, louder the more he spoke. “I didn’t want you to have to see this.” Twilight told him. “You put the book there! You caused your own accident! What are you thinking!” Spike was yelling now. What he said was true, more or less. If they didn’t find the Alicorn Vision spell at the time they did, then she might have tried it eventually but the conditions would have been different. Maybe it would have been safer, less rushed, and she’d have known to dilute it with a little bit of goats milk. “I’m completing the loop. We know the book was there. That means somepony put it there. If I did it, then it wasn’t Chrysalis or Sombra or the Pony of Shadows or a Xenomorph.” She put her hoof on the dragons shoulder. “I know you’ve been preparing for a fight, I know you’ve been expecting some enemy to appear for a long time. We don’t need one Spike. As long as we complete the loop, it doesn’t have to be that way.” “You told me, you told me at least a million times, if our friends choose to go home then we will fight to get them there. We will fight the loop.” “If they choose! This is what I’m choosing for myself.” “You want this!” He didn’t say it like he was angry, he said it like he had just realized something. “All the times I felt sorry for you…” “I never asked you to.” “You like it, don’t you. Only keeping your good memories, having ponies literally move the stars just because they feel sorry for you.” “Most of the ponies I know were born after the accident. They saw a member of the Wonderbolts, the scientist that crafted smart robots, the mage who made zap apples grow year round, a fashionista, or the pony that keeps saving them from monsters; even though every time that happens it’s like I never faced fear like that before. Celestia wanted to give me the kingdom despite the way I am. Have you really just been feeling sorry for me all this time.” Spike grunted, smoke shooting from his nostrils. “No! Do you really just want to,” he shrugged, and faced the book, “help it happen.” Twilight looked towards the book. Spike could see she was looking not just at some musty old spellbook, she was looking at what might have been, the life she could have led instead. The problem was, she actually didn’t want her life to be some shadow, falsehood, or rejected alternate timeline. “It already happened.” The two saw Zecora, trotting back from picking mushrooms. They straightened their faces as quickly as they could, then rushed to meet her, as though nothing was wrong. Twilight held out an invite, and smiled in a genuine manner. In the back of her mind Twilight wondered how to frame this event. She felt it was an important moment in her and Spikes relationship. However, it wasn’t a very happy memory. Since her mind does not retain truly bad memories, she needed a spin a way to frame this so it wasn’t truly a bad memory. What did they learn? If she were writing to Princess Celestia, what would go into her letter. Spike took one look back. He considered ripping out the page, or burning it with his fire. A few moments later, there was another dancing of the leaves. Alone Spike entered Zecora’s hut. He didn’t bother with keys under the mat, opting instead to kick down the door. Immediately he engulfed the spell book in fire. After all this time Spike, did want a fight, he would be satisfied with nothing less. If their paths were truly predestined then somehow doing this didn’t even matter. He understood the spells well enough to know that should be the case. Never-the-less, he screamed to the Monsters of their world, “Bring It On.” Nothing really dramatic happened, unless you count a burnt book repairing itself over a period of thirteen hours. Over time Twilight had to restore many of her more beloved books and letters, so she developed certain protection spells and restoration spells. A few burn marks were left in the hut. Twilight new that another version of her would see the kicked in door and the burn marks and think she had her first real clue. She would believe Zecora left the spell for her to find, and act on this immediately. Twilights ‘accident’ would surely occur just as it was meant to happen. “Alright ponies,” Applejack called out, “are you ready for the ha-aaa-unted ca-aa-stle.” Twilight took stock of their current group. There was Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and herself. She briefly wondered where Fluttershy was, then remembered she doesn’t like Nightmare Night type activities. If she had bothered to mention her, the others would have pointed out that her wedding was just last night. “We should have a sixth,” said Twilight. “Ponies go in pairs on the spooky coaster.” “Don’t worry about it Darling. I invited our friend Minty.” “Minty!” Twilight sounded surprised. She’d considered inviting Screwball, though more time with Minty was also a good thing. “Yes, she’ll meet us there.” “Minty-Minty-Minty; Applejack thought. Our gift baskets from the wedding, the gifts had a tag that read ‘designed by Twilight Sparkle and Minty Mare.’” “Didn’t we all get socks?” “Don’t you like socks?” Twilight asked, her voice sounded almost dejected. Why do so few ponies appreciate socks? “Each pair was custom made for the pony it was addressed to,” said Pinkie. “Mine were sky blue knee highs which turned pink at the hooves and had pink ribbons on top.” “Mine were practical socks, and still the coziest pair I ever wore.” Said Applejack. “Rainbow stripped, of course. I guess they were a pretty cool gift.” Twilight seemed relieved. The haunted castle’s exterior was based heavily on the castle of the two sisters, which they encountered in the Everfree Forrest. Inside even Twilight wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Though it keeps the secret passages and pipe organ central control system, she ordered the park robots to be ‘creative’ with the roller coaster which loops through the structure, the haunted maze, and the wax museum. The ponies made their way through the wax museum. Its first sculpture was a timber wolf with something that could have been angel bunny broken and bleeding in its jaw. ‘Probably better we didn’t bring Fluttershy,’ Twilight thought. Next there was the olden pony, then the umbrum sealed away, their poses capturing how they were struggling to get out. One scene depicted Ponyville. there was a wax Rainbow Dash running in terror from zombie ponies with Rainbow stained muzzles. “One thousand years and I still haven’t lived down that prank.” Rainbow Dash complained. They passed a changeling hive. “These ones look kinda fake,” Pinkie commented. Just then a changeling jumped out and snarled at her. She leaped backward and found herself hiding behind a sculpture of Nightmare Moon. “It’s okay Pinkie,” said Applejack, “they’re just real changelings.” “Not helping!” Pinkie cried. While the others were laughing and chatting, Rainbow Dash approached Twilight. “Twilight, when are you going to tell them.” “Tell them what?” Rainbow Dash made derped eyes at her. “About the predestination paradox, about your condition, about how we may never go home again. Just little things like that.” She spoke sarcastically. “Oh right,” Twilight sounded as though she really was just remembering that stuff. “You know because you have Daisy’s memories, right.” “Yeah!” “Then do Applejack and Rarity know? They have Roselucks and Lily’s memories respectively.” “I haven’t asked them.” “Oh.” “I should probably tell them, but let’s not do it while they’re having fun.” “Everything in this park is fun Twilight.” “Thank you!” They made their way to the entrance of the coaster. At the end of the line, eight ponies waited inside a small fence, because that’s how many the coaster would seat at a time. There were six in Twilights group, and to her surprise it was Screwball and Flurry Heart that joined them. Flurry looked to be a pre-teen, though relatively speaking she was almost as old as Twilight. She was known for being the headmistress of the Celestia school in Celestia’s long absence. Screwball was a friendship school dropout, phd in astrophysics possible overcompensating for dropping out of friendship school, duck enthusiast, general troublemaker, and somehow Twilights daughter. Flurry greeted Twilight, noting that they had not gotten to spend much time together yet. Twilight made quick introductions to everyone else. The girls weren’t quite sure how to talk to somepony who had been a baby when last they saw her; it was even more awkward then the eight foot tall Spike. Probably the height of awkwardness was when Applejack asked if she liked the antique crib she gave her at the Crystalling celebration. She did like it though. The room when dark, then there was a strobe light as the coaster came screeching into the station, a disembodied maniacal laugh could be heard as it entered. The coaster had eight seats total, divided into pairs of two, and a head shaped like a pony skull with antlers. The head was a little cheesy. Starting from the front, Applejack sat left of Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash left of Flurry Heart, Twilight Sparkle left of Minty, and finally Rarity left of Screwball. There were a few whoo-hoos, as the train started to make it’s way up a ramp. “I guess you’ve already tested out this coaster, huh Twilight.” “Nope, I left it up to the robots. Whatever happens will be a surprise for me.” On the way up the ramp, laughing Umbrum, and changelings popped out at them. They all looked fake, and Rainbow Dash complained that this was going to be lame. Moments after complaining, they teetered at the edge of what looked like a massive drop. The coaster hovered back and forth for an instant, as though meant to build tension, then they descended, quickly approaching terminal velocity. One after another, the ponies screamed. They screamed not from the fall, rather from what came at the end. There was a buzz saw in the center of the tracks. It was like the saw you would see split logs in a lumber mill. The disk blade soon began to cut the cheesy skull shaped head of the roller coaster. Sparks flew at the terrified ponies. Applejack and Pinkie were holding each other. When the blade made it to their cart, they moved apart to let it slice the middle of their seat without cutting them. Rainbow Dash and Flurry heart did the same. “Hey Twilight,” Rainbow called, “you should talk to your robots about safety.” Minty was the most terrified of all, and wouldn’t stop holding on to Twilight. Twilight held her right back. At the very last moment, when the blade was coming at them, Minty herself pushed Twilight away, so neither were cut. Screwball still figured this was all part of the ride, though Rarity was extremely frightened as the blade passed through their seat. One train was now two trains. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, and Rarity went off in one direction, while Pinkie Pie, Flurry Heart, Minty, and Screwball left in another direction. Minty held out her hoof, and Twilight tried to reach for her, even though they were both strapped into their carts. The carts turned upside down, did a few loops, and they were chased by Flutterbat. Again Twilight thought it was best they didn’t bring Fluttershy. Everything stopped and they were engulfed in darkness. “That was too much. I’m going to have to have a talk with my robots.” Twilight complained. “Minty must be so scared. I should get out of here and go find her.” Elsewhere, Pinkie and Flurry Heart slapped hooves. “Best coaster yet,” the two declared in unison. Screwball took a sip of her soda, unimpressed. Nopony knew how she smuggled that onboard. “That was scary!” Minty proclaimed. “Youse think so? I guess it was okay.” “Say what were you girls thinking when that blade was coming at you.” “I thought the park was having another one of those robot uprisings.” Pinkie declared. “I thought the sparks from the blade were going to blind me.” Flurry Heart answered herself. “I knew it was all fake!” Screwball declared. “No you didn’t.” Flurry chastised. “Hey Minty, how about you? What did you think when the blade was coming at you?” “I thought…” Minty felt a warmth in her cheeks. She turned her head, wanting to hide-it if she was blushing. “There’s something I want to ask Twilight, but I’ve never had the nerve to do it. I was thinking that now I’d never get to ask her.” Screwball stopped drinking her soda. Now she was curious. “So what was youse gonna ask?” “Well, in my time, I have two tickets to the waterpark, and I want to ask Twilight to go with me.” “What’s so scary about asking her that? I bet she’d be delighted.” Flurry commented. “Yeah, go for it. Why would she say no?” “That’s it! Minty my goil, the way yer blushing, I thought youse was gonna ask Mom to move in with ya or somethin’ like that.” Later that night, Twilight settled down to brush her hair in front of her favourite mirror. It was her favourite because of all the special moments immortalized as photographs hanging around the corners and sides. There were so many photos she could barely see her own refection. It occurred to her that Minty had never joined her mane six friends on any of her outings before. Why was that again? As she thought about this, her eyes darted back and forth between pictures with Minty and pictures with the girls: Rarity christening her Canterlot boutique, Minty and Twilight highlighting their hearths warming socks in a fashion magazine. Rainbow Dash in her first Wonderbolts show, Minty and Twilight… at the waterpark. For a moment Twilight’s eyes turned pure white, the pupils and iris’s disappearing. They glowed brightly. “Glimmer!” Twilight yelled. “Starlight Glimmer!” She tore two photographs off the mirror. Immediately Twilight regretted doing this. She examined the photos to make sure they weren’t ripped or wrinkled, still she called out: “Glimmer!” “Twilight, what is it? What’s wrong?” “These pictures, look at them.” She held them in front of a flower. “Yes, you’ve shown me these before. Can I please get back to patrolling the park? Something has been creating blindspots in my vision…” “This is more important, believe me.” “Okay,” Glimmer spoke calmly in contrast to Twilights excitement. “Why is this more important?” “Because they didn’t exist before. I remember everything on that mirror like it was yesterday, yet a moment ago I didn’t recognize these photos.” “How could you forget? You loved living in that little cottage with Minty, you used to say it was cozy as a sock.” The flower’s leaves danced around, which for Starlight Glimmer was the equivalent of talking with her hooves. “Personally I never understood why she didn’t just move into your castle.” “That’s just it, I do remember, but I also remember not living with her.” I have two sets of memories, at least two with respect to things that happened with Minty.” The blinds to the room closed. Glimmer looked around, trying to confirm they were in private. It was surreal to see a flower act this way. “Listen Twilight, this changes everything. You can’t alter history in a predestination paradox.” “I’m telling you history did change.” “I know. What I’m saying is the only way that’s possible is if somepony has found a way outside of the loop.” “The loop!” “Yes, the loop, we can’t change our past with time travel because everything we dopart of that same timeline we exist in. We’re caught in a pre-destination loop. But… If any pony is outside the loop, then whatever that pony does can have a butterfly effect and alter this history that we’re trapped in.” Twilight scratched a hoof against her ear. “So one pony can change our destiny, we just don’t know who that pony is.” Glimmer thought for a moment. This of course had huge implications. The park was full of ponies from different time periods throughout a thousand years of history. This pony, who was outside the loop, would have countless opportunities to alter the course of their destinies. Yes, this gave her a chance to help her friends, but perhaps the greater concern was to preserve the world they live in. This time, though far from perfect, was certainly not one of the apocalyptic dystopia’s that careless use of time travel had a tendency to create. For all there fretting about the destiny they were trapped in, nopony really wanted to endanger their existence, or that of the countless ponies that lived out entire lifetimes within this particular existence. Should they be trying to enlist this pony or stop her? Either way, they need to know who she is. “We need to find this pony, who is outside of the temporal loop.” ”Well, who are our most likely suspects?” They both brainstormed that idea. There was Twilight herself. The alicorn vision potion, which actually caused her condition, was originally meant to let her see visions of events from other times. Now Twilight is aware of multiple timelines, while other ponies memories are simply rewritten. Does this mean she might have been outside the loop all along; or is that just wishful thinking? The biggest problem there is that she could think of nothing she actually did that could have caused the changes. Minty was the one who actually changed an existing timeline. By all indications, she was a normal mare, it was more likely that she was caught in the butterfly effect, her destiny mildly influenced by another ponies words or actions. Was that really the case? What about Screwball? Twilights adoptive daughter is always a wildcard. Who better to defy a seemingly inescapable destiny then a spirit of chaos. Perhaps temporal causality is just another of the natural laws to which a draconequus is exempt. If being outside the loop is not a result of Discord being her father, then there was always the matter of her mother. Flurry Heart, the only pony she knew ever to be born an Alicorn. Surely there were many special things about her yet to be discovered. Pinkie, her whole schtick is breaking the fourth wall, though this one might be a bit much for her. So there you have it. The main suspects are: Twilight Sparkle, Minty, Screwball, Flurry Heart, and Pinkie Pie.