//------------------------------// // 327. The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 4 // Story: Blaze the Pony Tale // by Wolven5 //------------------------------// This cycle repeated several more new presents, and in some of them Midnight had a close call or two. Such as nearly being incinerated by Lord Tirek, almost being made into a living marionette by Discord, and narrowly avoiding being crushed by heavy machinery operated by the FlimFlam Brothers. A couple times he managed to glimpse Twilight and Spike but they always vanished before he could get close to them. Other new presents included an Equestria where everypony was rude and loud courtesy of the famed life coach, Iron Will, many places scorched and hunted by dragons, ponies enslaved as diggers and beasts of burden by Diamond Dog packs to mine for gems, one where Equestria had been frozen over by Windigoes and the tribes had once again been divided by anger and hate, tribes from the Forbidden Jungle spreading curses and diseases under the sway of Ahuizotl, and even one where everypony was oppressed by the Shadowbolts who seemed to have some unmatched power over the weather. Midnight was growing more and more weary and afraid, fearing that unless this was resolved and soon, then there may come a point of no return. Stepping out of his Alicorn Dimension (Again...!), Midnight stepped out and found himself in a clearing surrounded by natural forests, but the strangest thing was that this time, instead of daylight, he was bared down upon by a night sky! "What the...?" All the times he'd avoided the Time Waves and returned to a new present, the sun had still been out. "Did I come to a different time-" His train of thought was interrupted by the sound of nearby howls, and he recognized them as the howls of Timberwolves on the hunt! He took flight, rising up out of the woods and gasped to see a familiar castle not too far ahead, except... "The Castle of the Two Sisters?" he whispered in confusion, seeing how it looked rather different. Restored with a dark and eldritch architecture, glowing like phosphorous fungi, with an appeal like that of forbidden fruit. But then, his lunar pony eyes caught movement and he looked down and gasped to see, Twilight! And Spike! I finally caught up with them! He flew their way but he saw they were headed for the Castle with haste. They must have encountered the Timberwolves earlier and were running for shelter. "Twilight! Spike!" he shouted after them, but they'd already reached the castle doors and gone in, forcing him to slow down to avoid crashing into the door. Landing, he suddenly had a very bad feeling about this castle, And whoever lives here... they're no friend to us! Sinking into his shadow, Midnight slipped under the door crack, and up a wall, and was able to see... the interior of the Castle of the Two Sisters was now as different as its exterior. The place was clean, no sign of ruin or decay, the walls were furnished and wall-mounted torches lit up with blue fires, casting an eerie light, and then he noticed the tapestries and what symbol they glorified. Uh-oh... Midnight thought in his shadow form but noticed Twilight and Spike venturing further in. I wanna see them, but perhaps I should hang back in case they need backup. He moved along the walls, watching Twilight and Spike closely as they walked up some stairs, the dragon commenting, "This place is a lot cleaner than I remember." That's when they all noticed a tapestry levitate up and saw Rarity! However, she wore some kind of uniform of nightly blue colors, her mane and tail tied into tightly woven buns, and she carried herself with a stony disposition as she hung the tapestry up. "Rarity?" Twilight uttered with a smile, Spike smiling too, but from his hiding place, Midnight knew this wasn't the Rarity they knew. She made that evident when she threw them an unwelcoming look, "The castle isn't open for viewings today. The tapestries all need changing... again." "Rarity!" Spike hurried up to her, smiling, "It's me!" "I don't socialize with dragons," Rarity snubbed while turning away from him, "I don't know anypony who would." Those hurtful words made Spike begin to tear up while Twilight hurried over to Rarity's front, exclaiming, "Rarity, you have to listen to me. The future of Equestria is at stake!" "I don't know how you know my name," Rarity scoffed and ignored her, "but I am far too busy to entertain some tourist's ridiculous fantasies." "But I have to get back to the map so I can stop Starlight from changing the past because every present I come to is worse than the last!" Twilight insisted. "Time travel, you say...?" Twilight flinched at the sound of that voice and turned to look to the end of the grand hall where she saw a throne, hidden in the shadows, the figure sitting in it barely perceivable... when finally Twilight and Spike took a better look at the decor. Her image was displayed on tapestries, stained-glass windows, and even the top of the throne bore her cutie-mark in all its nocturnal glory, and they realized whose castle this was! "Now that's something I would like to see...!" sneered Nightmare Moon, displaying her fangs as she leaned into the light with a menacing look in her eyes! Then one and then two and then six lunar ponies more stole in from left and from right, each clad in nightmarish armor with helmets that covered their faces with a sharp beak-like mouth plate, Nightmare moon cackling all the while until finally she stopped and came forward. "Tell me how you came by this magic to travel through time." Twilight furrowed her brows and held her tongue- "The princess asked you a question!" Twilight and Spike looked back to see two guards remove their helmets and gasped to see they were Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane! "And unless you want to end up in the dungeon, you'll tell her what she wants to know!" threatened Thunderlane. Gulping to see more of her friends like this, Twilight looked up at Nightmare Moon, who spoke in a low deliberate tone, "Nopony in my kingdom but me should possess a magic powerful enough to change time." "Your kingdom?!" Spike blurted out, earning him an elbow-jab from Twilight to be quiet. "Who else?!" snapped Nightmare Moon. "Um, Celestia, of course," Spike smiled fearfully, which caused some of the guards to share a nervous look... until Nightmare Moon threw her head back in laughter that was amused, boasting, and mocking all at once. "My sister has been imprisoned in the moon for years!" she pointed to the window and Twilight and Spike gasped to see an image on it they hadn't seen for a while. The Mare in the Moon. Only this time, they realized the Mare was Celestia! "But it is no less a fate than she sentenced me to," Nightmare Moon added bitterly before demanding, "Now... reveal to me the source of this time magic!" "...Alright," Twilight responded. "Twilight, no!" Spike protested. "We have no choice, Spike," Twilight looked to Nightmare moon, "I can take you to it, but you'll have to get past the Timberwolves." "I am the ruler of all of Equestria! Do you think I can't deal with Timberwolves?" scoffed Nightmare Moon, sounding almost insulted but more amused. "No, I know you can..." Twilight responded in a submissive voice. "And if you think of trying to escape..." Nightmare Moon's horn lit up and she took Spike in her magic before putting him in chains and quietly threatening, "it would be very unfortunate for your friend." Twilight bit her lip with worry, hoping this would work out. Walking through the woods, Timberwolves were blasted left and right into splinters as Nightmare Moon and Twilight led the party in, four guards escorting the hostage Spike behind them. "How does it work?" Nightmare Moon demanded in a snatchy tone as they neared the Map. "A pony from my time used a spell to travel back and change the past," Twilight answered while pointing to the Map. "And now you will give this spell to me!" Nightmare Moon relished the power she was about to grasp as she gazed down upon the Map, displaying the whole of her kingdom, "With it, I shall ensure that the Elements of Harmony are never found, and my reign lasts forever!" "I don't think so!" "What?! Who said that?!" Nightmare Moon looked around while Twilight gasped, having heard that voice as well. Could it be...? She didn't dare hope. "In our world, our friends and I found the Elements and used them to defeat you! And there is nothing I won't do to insure that world is brought back and that this one never comes to pass!" A blast of magic struck the guards, blowing them away while a telekinetic aura safely moved Spike out of harm's way and over to Twilight. "WHAT?! Who's there?! Show yourself, you coward!" Nightmare Moon shrieked as she prepared a spell to burn this whole forest down- *SHUNK* -only for her magic to short out, as Nightmare Moon struggled to breathe, excruciating agony spreading from her stomach, and something began to drip. She felt something yank itself out, a sound of viscous liquid (and other things) splishing upon the dirt beneath her... and her shadow extended towards Twilight and Spike, and from it rose a cloaked figure she'd never seen before! He lowered his hood and Twilight and Spike both yelled in surprise, "MIDNIGHT!!" Midnight smiled, so happy to pull his wife and littlest friend into a wing-hug, saying, "Twily! Spike! I've been looking all over for ya!" "What...?!" Nightmare Moon uttered weakly as she fell to her knees, her blood pooling around her, "You- You are... one of my... Children of the Night! You... dare to betray... your princess?!" "I would never betray my princess, and she's right here," Midnight responded before giving his Twilight a nuzzle and then glaring at the fallen princess with contempt, "You are but the flawed product of a sad and jealous little filly infected by the darkness of a thousand delusional fools. You may have conquered Equestria in this time, but we will insure that night and day will always bless the world." "Tu veru, in faciem meam ad hoc proditione. Non es dignus dono ego ita pridem," Nightmare Moon hissed weakly as she finally fell to her side, all the light in her eyes of madness dulling as her mane withered into a wisp as flimsy and thin as cobwebs, and with her final breath, she cursed, "Fututus et mori in igni..." ... ... ... For a long and dreary moment, the three of them said nothing as they stared at Nightmare Moon's corpse... until Twilight uttered, "You killed her... you kill Lu-" "This isn't Luna, Twilight," Midnight interrupted with a heavy tone before sighing, "She hasn't been Luna for over a thousand years." "Speaking of ponies not being who they're supposed to be, Midnight!" Spike exclaimed dramatically, "Are you really the Midnight we know? Or are you the Midnight of this different time?" "No, Spike, it's really me," Midnight assured before looking his Twily in the eye, "and I can't tell you how relieved I am to see you both again." "Midnight..." Twilight pulled her husband into a hug, finding comfort in his embrace, and pulling Spike in when he hugged them both, the three of them just enjoying that warm moment in the night. Finally, they parted and Twilight asked, "How is this possible? Every time we tried to stop Starlight, we came back to a different present where everything is different! Even our friends become different ponies! But... you're really the Midnight I know and love and married?" "I am, and let me explain to you how I'm here," Midnight explained about how he always saw the Time Waves whenever he assumed Twilight and Spike went back in time and didn't succeed in stopping Starlight. To avoid the Time Waves, he safely hid in his Alicorn Dimension, which existed apart from their native dimension, allowing Midnight to avoid being affected by the changes in history, "...I've been trying to find you both this whole time, and figure out what it is in the past that Starlight has changed." "The Sonic Rainboom," sighed Twilight woefully. "Midnight, she was there! During my lecture, and so she heard about how Rainbow Dash's first Sonic Rainboom, one way or another, led to me and the girls all getting our cutie-marks!" "She says it's her revenge for ruining her village and turning her friends against her," Spike added, "by destroying the girls' friendship simply by preventing the event that finally led to them all becoming friends!" "Starlight truly is depraved..." Midnight growled, "She has to be stopped, whatever it takes! But why haven't you been able to stop her, Twilight? Don't you have her time-travel spell?" "I do," Twilight pulled it out from her saddlebag, and Midnight quickly recognized it to be the work of Star Swirl the Bearded, "Starlight used this time-travel spell invented by Star Swirl as the basis for one even more advanced, and keyed it to the Map to enable her to travel back to prevent the Sonic Rainboom from happening. The problem is, even though we can use it to do the same thing, Starlight worked the spell so that every time it's used, it pulls her to the same time we travel back to just a little earlier, so she's always there, ready and waiting for us! "I've tried so many things! I tried freezing her in crystal, shooting her with Magic Arrow spells, but she always manages to turn my actions around and work them to her advantage, allowing her to stop Rainbow Dash from doing the Sonic Rainboom!" "I hate to admit, but she's thought this out. We can't risk altering the spell to take away that advantage from her," Midnight considered, "That's probably why she stunned me when we first saw her in the castle. She didn't want me to help you interfere with her plans and assumed I'd wind up being changed along with history." "But you weren't!" Spike smiled, "You used your Alicorn Dimension to avoid being changed as well, which is why the you we know still exists!" "I think that also explains why I haven't encountered alternate versions of us," Midnight brought up, "I've experienced so many alternate presents, I kept seeing different versions of our friends but I never saw another version of myself, or either of you!" "Because none of us have been changed along with history," Twilight agreed before giving Midnight another deep hug. "Oh Midnight, I am so glad to see you, and working together I'm certain we can stop Starlight this time!" "Well, come on then! What're we waiting for?" Midnight smirked, ready for some more action. "Starlight will be expecting me and Twilight," Spike pointed out, "but she won't be expecting you, Midnight!" "Right, so Midnight, can you make yourself invisible?" asked Twilight. "I don't think I can maintain invisibility through a time portal," Midnight responded before summoning his cloak around himself, "but my cloak has all kinds of enchantments and wards, such as a Selective Aversion Ward and a Distracter Spell. Starlight might notice me for a moment after we appear, but she'll quickly lose interest in me. So you can draw her attention while I come up from behind and incapacitate her." "Sounds like a plan," Twilight held up the spell and looked to the Map, "Are you ready, boys?" "As we'll ever be," Midnight replied. "Let's do this..." Spike clenched his fists and furrowed his brows. Twilight nodded as she raised the spell and channeled her mana... The time portal opened and out flew Twilight with Spike on her back, followed by Midnight garbed in his cloak. Wasting no time, Twilight cast a spell and it struck, Starlight, who'd been coming her way, only to be encased within a purple crystal, the lavender princess flying up to her, declaring, "Now more than ever, I know how important it is to stop you!" From within the crystal, Starlight furrowed her brows and her horn lit up, a pulse of magic breaking her free as she mocked, "Well, good luck!" "TO YOU!!" "What?!" Starlight turned around and just barely teleported away, avoiding what would have been her horn getting cut off and was stunned to see it was, "Midnight Blaze?! Impossible!! You should have been changed with history!" Throwing off his hood, Midnight raised his sword, pointing it at Starlight, "Starlight, this has to stop! Whatever grudge you bare against us, it's no excuse to endanger all of Equestria!" "You just tried to kill me and now you dare lecture me!?!" Starlight shrieked with a disturbing look on her face, the way her eye twitched. She zoomed away, using her own telekinesis upon herself to simulate flight, and Midnight and Twilight chased after her. They shot Magic Arrow spells at her, trying to stun her, but she continued to counter them with a shield spell, and began lobbing Magic Arrow spells of her own at them. Midnight and Twilight came together to combine a shield spell, and as they held off the attack, Midnight said, "We have to end this as soon as we can! Every second we waste fighting her only increases the chances she's going to succeed somehow." "Did you really just try and kill her?!" Twilight gaped at him in shock. "What?! No! I was trying to cut off her horn! "Midnight corrected, but apparently that wasn't all that much better in Twilight's eyes. "Twily... she has proven time and time again that she's dangerous, that she can't be trusted with her magic! It's an old punishment but it still exists, and it's within my right as an Arbiter to punish her that way. When this is all over, she is going to face the consequences of her actions. "Now cover your ears, you two!" "What?" Twilight asked. "Just do it!!" Midnight snapped, and when Twilight and Spike did, Midnight lowered the shield while taking a deep breath... and SCREAMED!!!! The power and force of the Sonic Scream blew away Starlight's Magic Arrows, and she barely managed to maintain her self-levitation as she covered her ears and struggled to withstand the power of the scream. But while this had temporarily halted Starlight, it became apparent this had been a mistake. The clouds and nearby cloud structures were affected as well, either being blown away or destroyed, and a certain rainbow-maned filly flew away to escape that awful loud scream. Midnight stopped and realized what he'd done, "No...!" "Yes... and now that we're done here, I would prefer this stayed between just us girls!" Starlight rubbed her ears before she teleported. "Where'd she go?!" Spike worried as the three of them looked around. That's when Midnight felt something strike him in the shoulder, and then a time portal opened not too far in front of him and he felt it suck him away. "NO!!!" He looked back and saw Twilight and Spike trying to reach him, but he shook no, "Don't, or you'll get taken too!" Then past them, he saw the victorious sneer of Starlight, and realized what she'd done... just before he vanished through the portal. The portal dropped him painfully onto the map, which he rolled off of... and then punched the ground, yelling, "DAMMIT!! That smug bitch! Ugh, who am I kidding...?" He'd messed up! He'd gotten so wrapped up in trying to stop Starlight, he'd forgotten about Rainbow Dash and the Sonic Rainboom! His Sonic Scream obviously drove her away during her race, preventing her from performing the Rainboom. "No wonder Twilight and Spike have been having trouble..." he sighed, when he felt a familiar power and looked to the distance and saw a Time Wave! It made sense, he'd just failed spectacularly, so he quickly took shelter in his Alicorn Dimension, and began considering the situation. Now that Starlight knew he was still around, she'd be expecting him and no doubt be all the more dead-set in fighting him, Twilight, and Spike to make sure they didn't stop her from preventing the Sonic Rainboom. She'd likely take even more drastic measures, and so they couldn't afford to keep playing this game over and over again. "We have to stop her now!" he said as he walked through the snowy forest of his dimension. "But I never got the time-travel spell from Twilight- Damn it! Why didn't I make a copy?!" Sighing, he accepted what was done was done. He'd have to think of another way. Looking around, finding little comfort in his own piece of paradise.... a thought rose up in his head, as he remembered how many times he'd come here after many of his missions in the Brotherhood. Not only did Celestia teach Midnight how to access his Alicorn Dimension, she'd taught him how to use it to contact her within her own! He could recall the time he'd asked her if she'd ever tried to contact her sister during her millennia-long banishment to the moon. Celestia had responded she had indeed once. But it didn't help... But could it help me out here? Midnight wondered. He couldn't call upon Celestia to help him out this time, but perhaps, just maybe... maybe I could contact Twilight! The only snag was, Twilight had never entered her own Alicorn Dimension. He'd shown her his, but looking back he'd never taught her how to access hers. But just because she'd never entered it, didn't mean it didn't exist. Every Alicorn gained access to their own pocket dimension, whether they were born or ascended, Celestia had taught him that. A place beyond space and time to be their own special sanctuary in the universe. Beyond space and time... Midnight thought before he said it aloud, "Beyond space and time!" An idea formed in his head, a crazy idea, but given the desperate situation he knew this could be the only real shot he had. He'd linked his dimension with Celestia's before, she'd talked him how to do it on his own. Now, sitting down, and concentrating, he willed his being and the being of his Alicorn Dimension to combine and reach out through the void beyond it. He focused upon his Twilight. Everything about her. Her voice, her touch, even her smell. The way her eyes sparkled whenever she learned something new, the way she scrunched her nose just a little whenever she got into writing a research report, how serene and happy she looked whenever she was just enjoying a good book. What was that...? It was just perceivable through the void beyond his realm, a... a sparkle! Opening his eyes, which radiated with the universal energies around him, he saw it. A star sparkling with a familiar magenta light! He reached out toward it with his power, a pony-shaped figure giving off a turquoise light, its hoof reaching out to that sparkling magenta star... and all of a sudden he felt as though a hook behind his navel jerked him backwards as he felt himself hurtling through a starry void, unable to scream or resist, fearing he might have made a mistake...! ... ... ... Only to cry out in alarm as he fell into a pile of... books? Shaking off the adrenaline, Midnight looked around and found himself in awe. It was a forest, not so different from the forest of his own Alicorn Dimension, but the trees of this forest... they looked very familiar, until he realized, They're just like Twilight's old library tree! Indeed they were, each tree was a hollowed out building, each filled with shelves and piles and stacks of books, tomes, novels, scrolls, writing utensils, parchments, quills and ink, research tools like globes, compasses, sextants, telescopes of many sizes, scales, astronomical clocks, sundials, orrery models of celestial bodies, metronomes, and when he took a more careful look he realized each tree had a sign that read what sort of subject matter it contained. There was 'History of Equestria', 'Biographies of Obscure Unicorns', 'Science', 'Pony Genealogy', 'Advanced Sorcery 101', 'Beginner's Magic for Unicorn Foals', 'Advanced Enchantments', 'Mathematics', 'Quantum Physics', 'Science Fiction', 'Historical Fiction', 'Children's Books', 'Foreign Culinary Arts', 'World Histories', 'Diplomacy', 'Alchemy', 'Chemistry', 'Biology', and so much more. It was a true marvel, a whole forest of knowledge! The ground beneath him was a gentle soft carpet of cool green grass, the sky above through the leafy canopy, it was a twilight sky of dawn or dusk, he wasn't sure which, but even in the twilit heavens above he could see stars and constellations with translucent images adding detail and faces to those constellations, and the feeling in the air! Warm, inviting, somehow mentally invigorating, a strong sense of curiosity, an urge to cozy up with a good book, Midnight knew without a doubt! "This is definitely Twilight's Alicorn Dimension!" He'd done it! He'd made it into Twilight's Alicorn Dimension, but would he be able to get out of it, that was the next big step. Apart from his own, he had no power here. This was Twilight's world and as far as he knew, she'd never even been here herself. Alicorns can bring others into their Alicorn Dimensions to visit, but the visitors had no power over the Alicorn's dimension themselves. They were just guests. In addition, whenever an alicorn leaves his Alicorn Dimension they come out in the same spot in the real world where they first entered. If I can even get out of here, will I just go back to the present? Midnight wondered, Or will I show up where or whenever Twilight is right now? At that moment, however, the world around him seemed to take on a dismal glow, and he gazed up at the sky and saw the twilight radiance turn red. He didn't know what it meant, but somehow he was certain, Twilight's in trouble! There was no time for second guesses, his Twily needed him! Channeling his power, taking a deep breath, he steeled himself for what was next as he lowered his horn and then... he pierced at the veil that separated this dimension from the real world. Almost immediately, it resisted, like two magnets repelling each other, and then Midnight felt as though an electrical current was flowing painfully through his body. Conflicting magicks began to crackle, the smell of burning ozone filled the air, as the dimension did not recognize him as its master, and its power was acting like a negative feedback. Then... he felt something dragging at him, as though a force was trying to pull him away. He fought against it, trying to ward it off with flaps of his wings. It slowed it, but it began to feel as though it were trying to peel his skin off! Was Twilight's Alicorn Dimension trying to eject him somehow? If it was, he didn't think it would send him somewhere he wanted to be. He forced his magic to spread across his body, and immediately felt the force release its hold on him even though he was becoming increasingly tired from how much magic he was expending. He felt the pain intensify with every surge, his teeth clenching with every pulse, but this was the only way. His only chance! Driven by his goal to find and protect his wife and their friend Spike, to save Equestria from the insanity of a self-righteous narcissist, he pressed onward, channeling as much of his power into the tear as he could, screaming all the while until...! He burst free, and immediately saw he was back in Cloudsdale. He immediately sensed Twilight and Spike behind him, and though he wanted to turn around and hug them, he quickly took notice of her! Standing on a cloud, Starlight, looking deeply distressed, held what had to be the scroll with the time-travel spell in her magic, and there was a tear in it! "STARLIIIIIIIIGHHTTT!!!!" Midnight screamed in furious desperation as he launched himself at her. "MIDNIGHT, DON'T!!! Seeing the angry sapphire alicorn zooming her way, just before he crashed into her, Starlight panicked and tore the spell completely in half- *KRA-KOOM....* A crack of lightning struck through Cloudsdale, causing every pony, including Rainbow Dash, to pause in shock of the strange phenomena, and then a cold wind picked up. The nearby pegasi cried out in alarm and flew off to find safety as the wind swirled faster and faster, centering around the four time-travelers, dark clouds forming above them like a hurricane when they rankled with purple, blue, and green electricity... as the eye of the storm burst with bone-chilling power, revealing the opening of a time portal, and they felt it. The tug of the spell pulling at them. They struggled to resist, even Starlight as she began to panic and fear what was happening, the pegasi around them watching in uncertain horror as history was changed and now time was beginning to reset itself in response. Tendrils of lightning-like mana whipped out of the time portal, and immediately ensnared Midnight, Starlight, Twilight, and Spike, dragging them into the time portal as they screamed as they were pulled into the abyss... ...and dumped out, onto what remained of the Map. Disentangling themselves from the pony pile, the four of them gazed up and felt their hearts sink at what they saw around them. Nothing. No grass, no trees, no rivers, no Ponyville, not even a Canterlot on what remained of Mount Canterhorn, nor a sunny sky. There was only a wasteland, barren, lifeless, a dreary expanse of dust-covered ground stretching as far as the eye could see. What few plants there were, were only just sparse dried weeds dotting the landscape and long-dead trees withered and bare. The sky was completely covered with ashes and dust, and the air smelled stale and rank like an old attic even though they were outside. A lonely wind blew actual tumbleweeds, the only signs of movement across this empty land. No animals, no birds, nopony... No signs of life anywhere. This wasn't Equestria. Equestria was long dead...