//------------------------------// // Epilogue: Round and Back Again // Story: Sharing Beat Up Stories // by Graglithan The Greater //------------------------------// To say the Friendship Games had been eventful would have been an understatement. Not only was the statue in the courtyard destroyed, but a lot of students had almost ended up falling out of their home dimension and into a world full of ponies. Lyra probably would have jumped through one if it hadn’t been a thousand-foot drop to the nearest piece of land, but that was a different issue she was seeing a psychiatrist about. For a group of six that had just become seven not too long ago, they were busy having a picnic in front of the plinth the Canterlot Wondercolt had formerly been standing upon. It was a modest affair, compared to their usual shenanigans, and in Sunset’s opinion, it was a nice change of pace. Pinkie was resting on the top of the statue’s base, juice box in hand, idly counting clouds with a smile on her face. Fluttershy and Twilight were playing with Spike, much to the puppy’s delight. Rarity was messing with Rainbow’s hair, much to the soccer star’s annoyance. Applejack was calmly drinking some apple juice, watching it all in amusement. Finally, Sunset herself was busy munching on a sandwich, staring at Rainbow and Rarity with tiredness that could only be produced by a friend. And then the portal opened, and Twilight rushed out. “I’m so sorry I didn’t get here sooner. I didn’t get your messages until now cause I got caught in this time-travel loop and honestly it was the strangest thing to ever happen to me!” The princess finished with a small gasp for air, smiling for an instant, before shaking her head and staring dumbly at the person in front of her. Namely, herself. The two Twilights stared at each other, occasionally blinking in surprise, with the rest of the group staring as well. Pinkie’s slurping of the remains of her juice box could be heard, even as some snickering escaped Rainbow and Applejack. Sunset herself was busy looking at the two with an amused smirk. The lavender princess smiled nervously at her counterpart and pointed her finger at her. “Make that, second strangest.” Before much else could be said, someone else joined in on the picnic, bringing with her a basket holding extra food. “Hey, I got the rest of the sandwich--.” Starlight’s words caught in her throat for a moment, before she shook her head and stared at the two Twilights. “Uh, hey Princess... what brings you here?” The lavender princess beamed as she walked over and hugged her old friend. “Starlight! It’s so good to see you again!” Twilight shook her head, eye beginning to twitch. “Wait, again!?” Turning to the Rainbooms, she pointed at her doppelganger. “I thought Sunset was the only one from the other side of the mirror.” Sunset chuckled a bit and scratched her cheek. “It’s kind of a long story. Let’s just say that yeah, that’s this world’s Starlight Glimmer, and there were some interesting developments over the past month.” “Well, that’s a way to put it.” Applejack laughed as she got up. “The long and short of it, Twilight, is that the girls and ah all done screwed up so badly at being Sunset’s friends at Christmas, that our counterparts from her world personally came here to smack some sense into us on principle.” “So... that’s why I saw duplicates that day.” Twilight adjusted her glasses in thought. “I thought I was going crazy from sleep deprivation.” Rarity tittered nervously for a moment. “Well, we did have a quick meeting with our Equestrian selves a few weeks before the Friendship Games.” Twilight stared blankly at them for a moment, before she found her voice again. “I-I see." She had to take a deep breath before she continued. "Wow, this is a lot to take in. I mean, I’ve pretty much been forced to accept that magic exists, so it can’t be any crazier than that, right?” There was a hair popping out of place on Twilight’s head, and it was quickly being joined by a few more. Starlight gave an uneasy grin as she rubbed the back of her head. “On top of that, I had been experimenting with some sort of energy that was radiating off of the school, and accidentally ripped a hole in reality that left me stranded in their world.” A chuckle escaped the group at Twilight’s increasingly confused face. “Though I have to say, running around on all fours wasn’t as bad as you’d think.” The bespeckled young woman took it all as best she could, by which the information was being processed logically while her emotions took a coffee break to keep her from suffering a meltdown. There was one tidbit, however, that brought her back into focus. “Wait, you were researching the energy too!?” Starlight blinked in surprise. “Um... yes? I even built a teleporter that ran on it.” She frowned and looked at the portal for a second. “Though, I guess calling it an interdimensional gate would be better at this point.” Twilight’s eyes were twinkling with excitement as she walked a little bit closer to Starlight. “Can I see it?” The group all laughed at the young lavender girl’s excitement. None more so than her counterpart. When Princess Twilight finally stopped her laughter, she had to wipe away a tear. “Oh wow, so this is how my friends felt when you all talked it out.” Sunset chuckled along with them. “Yeah, though I would have thought that the ‘holes in reality’ part would have stuck with her more.” Twilight’s eyebrow raised as she smiled at Sunset with a hint of confusion. “Why would that be?” Silence caught the group as the younger of the two lavender women froze and paled a bit. “Um...” Princess Twilight stared for a second before her gaze slowly turned to disbelief. “No.” Twilight looked down in shame, wringing her hands. “I-I made a device that was supposed to track the energy I’d been detecting coming from the school. Only, when my old school, Crystal Prep, came here for the friendship games, it started collecting the magic instead.” She deflated slowly as she kept going. “When the other students thought the girls were actively using the magic to cheat, they pressured me to unleash what I’d collected.” “And it turned you into something dark, didn’t it?” The princess finished somberly, as a few tears started to escape her counterpart. Getting up, Twilight walked over to her counterpart. “It’s okay. I can tell this story has a happy ending. You’re right here after all.” She gave her younger self a hug and was quickly followed by the Rainbooms. When their skin came into contact, there was a small shock between the two lavender girls. “Ow!” The two Twilights looked at each other in confusion, before snickering at each other. “I guess there was more static than I thought.” “As for that happy ending,” Sunset added in, “After she was turned into what we’ve decided to call ‘Midnight Sparkle’, and started ripping holes in the fabric of reality to get to Equestria and learn everything there was to know about magic, I was able to help calm her down with some magic of our own.” Starlight waved a hand and broke from the hug, slowly being followed by the others. “But seriously, enough about that. I’m already kinda peeved I missed it all.” She looked at the princess and smiled. “Now, you were saying something about a time loop? How’d that happen?” Now it was the princess’s turn to look nervous. Letting out a laugh a little too forced, she glanced to the side and was sweating a touch. “Uh, so you know how we were wondering where your counterpart ran off to, and how we thought you were her?” “Are you implying that your world’s version of me broke time itself?” Starlight’s eyes narrowed as she stared incredulously. “That’s just-- I don’t-- Has she never read any science fiction stories? For what conceivable reason would breaking time even look like a valid idea!? Screwing around with time is never a good idea!” “She was going back in time to prevent Rainbow from performing a Sonic Rainboom that ultimately helped shape me and my friend’s destinies and brought us together in the first place because she wanted to destroy our friendship?” The lavender princess was doing her best to hide between her shoulders as she leaned back from the increasingly irritated young woman. “To be fair, when she realized the potential damages she was inadvertently causing after I pulled her into one of those alternate futures, Starlight stopped and explained why she didn’t like my friends or me.” As Twilight finished, Starlight just stood there and stared ahead blankly. The group all stared at Starlight in worry. “Twilight.” The pink girl finally turned her head and stared directly into the princess’s eyes. “I completely understand why your friends ran over here after the Anon-a-Miss incident.” The group all blinked. “What?” Before anyone could stop her, Starlight let out a war cry and charged through the portal. Despite being across a dimensional barrier, the group could still hear her. “WHERE AM I!? I NEED TO KICK THE STUPID OUT OF MY HEAD, AND NO ONE CAN STOP ME!” At the dropped jaws of all present, Spike finally spoke up after he rolled onto his belly. “Wow, and you all say I’m weird cause I can talk.” Twilight, the princess one, sighed and stood up. “I better go grab her and keep her from breaking anything.” She gave Sunset a quick hug and smiled. “It’s been good to see you again, and even better to know everything worked out over here.” “Same. Now go save Starlight from herself.” Sunset and the girls waved Twilight off, before turning back to their picnic. The Twilight who remained shook her head and held it in her hands as she sat back down. “Just how crazy is this school?” Rainbow shrugged. “Eh, that’s pretty much par for the course this year.” Twiddling her fingers, Twilight looked at Sunset. “Do you think she’d like to share notes? You girls are awesome, but I kinda want to see what she accomplished with her research and if my own notes can help improve it.” Sunset started to go back to eating her sandwich with a smile. “I’ll see what I can arrange.” “Hey Sunset, do you think we’ll ever run into this world’s you?” Pinkie asked as she hopped back onto her place on the former statue’s plinth. Sunset found herself frowning a bit, before shaking her head. “A topic for another day, Pinkie. I’m not sure where she is, but I’m sure she’s out there. For now, I got to figure out what to get Celestia for her birthday.” “It’s the principal’s birthday!?” Pinkie leaned down, face hanging upturned before Sunset. Sunset just laughed and gave a small nod. “In a few weeks.” Pinkie flipped back down off the plinth and pulled out the mini cannon she got as a gift. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner!? Now I can test out this bad girl and see what she can do!” They all laughed at Pinkie’s antics and enjoyed their picnic as they waited for Starlight to get punted back across the portal.