Chapter 21
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The portal opens, dropping us back in Cloudsdale, Twilight grabbing Spike in her magic as we all hover in the air.
“All we have to do now is find Starlight and—”
I quickly raise a shield, blocking the spell that was fired at us. The moment we’d dropped out of the portal, I scanned the area and noticed the faintest hint of a magical aura glow at the edge of a nearby cloud, cluing me in that Starlight was hiding.
“Well, finding her will be easy!” the unicorn in question says, floating up from her hiding spot. “But stopping her’s gonna be harder than… you… think?” She stares at us in surprise, specifically the barrier around us and the glare I’m aiming her way. “What? How were you able to prep a shield in time? You couldn’t have possibly known I was here.”
I sneer. “Sorry to disappoint you, but we know you created that spell to send yourself back in time. So even when we cast it, you still got sent back here. You can thank yourself for informing us about that.”
Starlight cocks her head in bewilderment. “Huh?”
I take advantage of her confusion, shooting forward and pinning her to the clouds. “Now, why did you do all this?!”
She stares stunned for moment, before smirking up at me. “It wasn’t difficult to change Star Swirl’s spell. He’d already done the hard part.” She teleports, now floating above us and fires another spell, which I block with a shield. “But figuring out I could use the map to go to any time or place and pull you along with me?” She gives a short laugh. “I even impressed myself with that.”
I nod to Twilight, who teleports out from the shield and dive bombs Starlight, but she moves out of the way and then kicks Twilight back, causing her to slam into my shield.
“I knew you’d try to stop me,” Starlight smirks, before deadpanning. “You’re so predictable.” She smirks again. “Why else would I leave the scroll behind? Touching it triggered The Map to whisk you here and watch me erase the one thing that linked you with your friends!”
“Did you not even see what your last altering of the past did?” I snarl up at her, helping Twilight up.
She looks annoyed, folding her forelegs. “No. The one thing I didn’t realize is that I can’t use the spell without the scroll. After I sent you three back to the present, I was stuck in the past for seven months. SEVEN! Do you know how hard it was to not interfere with time any further for a full seven months?”
Twilight and I both shoot into the air, manoeuvring around to try getting her from both sides, but she manages to weave passed us both.
“Then why are you doing this?!” Twilight demands, pain and anger in her voice. She’s no doubt remembering what happened in the other timeline and wondering just why Starlight would want that to happen. “What’s the point of all this in the first place?”
Starlight fires ten consecutive blasts at us and we do our best to maneuverer around them. “My village was a sanctuary of equality, where nopony’s Cutie Mark allowed them to feel superior! It was a special place, and you and your friends took it away!”
I glare down at her. “Nopony felt superior? Says the mare who dictated every action of those living there, forced any who visited to join regardless of whether they wanted to our not, not evening considering if they had friends and family outside the village they’d miss and then forced any who didn’t follow exactly how you wanted them to act into a room for possibly days at a time until they were compliant with your orders.”
Starlight lands on a nearby cloud, Twilight and myself landing on one adjacent.
She shakes her head. “You’re just trying to defend your actions because you know what you did was wrong! But now it’s my turn to take something special from you! Without the Rainboom, you and your friends will never form your special Cutie Mark bonds!” She fires a blast, which I block with another shield. “Cutie Marks for Cutie Marks! Sounds like a fair trade to me!”
I just glare at her. “How, in any rational sense of logic, is that the least bit fair? You think dooming Equestria is a fair trade for us stopping you from being Pony Hitler?”
Starlight cocks her head in confusion. “Pony who?”
“Whoa!”
We all look behind Twilight and myself, only for my eyes to widen with worry.
Rainbow Dash and the bullies she was racing, not to mention a large number of Pegasus fillies and colts, have all stopped the race and are now watching us, Rainbow currently chewing on what I’m guessing is popcorn from the box she’s holding.
Twilight Sparkle rushes towards her. “What are you doing? You have to finish your race!”
Young Rainbow Dash just waves a hoof. “No way! This is way more exciting!”
No. Not good.
“See?” I look back over my shoulder as Starlight walks towards us, looking slightly dishevelled. “You can’t stop me no matter what you do.”
Her horn glows and I realize she’s casting the spell again. I rush to Spike, grabbing him, before blinking and smirk as we’re quickly yanked.
“Good luck without the scroll!”
Regardless of the fact we’re going back to that horrible war timeline, the look of shock and frustration on Starlight’s face as the portal closes gives me some semblance of joy.
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We all drop out of the portal, landing and bouncing off The Map with heavy thuds, groaning.
“That’s strange,” Spike remarks as I help Twilight back up.
“Well, you obviously don’t mean us falling, because that’s becoming pretty routine,” Twilight grumbles with a fair bit of snark.
“This is only the second time, Twilight,” I say, before sighing, my heart heavy. “But… we have to go through all that again? After just escaping that war, we’re right back into it.”
“Well, I just meant that the last time we came back, it was day!” Spike says, drawing our attention to him, before he points up. “But look!”
Twilight and I follow his direction and… huh. It’s night-time?
Twilight cocks her head, looking to me. “Why would the map bring us back to a different time of day than when we left?”
I cock an eyebrow at her. “You’re asking me? Twilight, until Starlight broke into our house and used that spell, I wasn’t even aware Time Travel was even possible for us ponies. And it’s not like the other Starlight told us anything specific that would clue me in.”
I hear branches cracking, but pay it no mind, frowning up at the sky suddenly. For a second I thought… I thought I felt like something had reached out to me. It was brief, lasting less than a second, but I felt it.
“Um, maybe we should figure it out later!” Spike cries in fear.
Looking to him and noticing he’s looking behind us, I turn to see two large Timberwolves growling near The Map, one leaping atop it, both sniffing around.
Suddenly, they turn to us, their eyes glowing and they howl loudly, before lunging at us.
Glaring, I rise up, forming a magical axe over my right foreleg and slice through the first one, causing the other to skid to a halt, stopping within hooveslengh of me.
I slice several times through the wooden mass I’d already hit, until it’s nothing but splinters on the ground. We wait a few moments in silence. It doesn’t reform.
The other Timberwolf looks to me and whimpers like a scared puppy as I glare coldly at it, lifting my axe to my face. “Leave. Now.”
It yelps, hightailing it away from us, whimpering loudly as it can, likely warning any nearby to not come this way.
I let my axe dissipate and return to the ground, Twilight and Spike looking at me in both shock and a little nervously.
“Wow, Ken,” Spike says, grinning anxiously. “You can be really scary, ya know that?”
I blink, before sighing and shake my head. “Let’s just get out of here. We’ll find Celestia and Luna so we can get started on ending this timeline’s war too.”
Twilight looks sadly at me, hearing the exhaustion in my voice and wraps a wing around me. “Well, maybe we can do this quicker this time, since we know how and what we need to do more so this time around.”
I give her a weak smile. She’s trying. I can’t ask for anything more than that.
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“Okay, I know the Everfree was not this dense the last time we came to this timeline,” Spike grumbles as he fire breathes away another mass of foliage.
We’ve been walking for at least half an hour, but we’re not really sure where we are in the Everfree, which is indeed where The Map brought us when the portal dropped us back in this timeline.
“I don’t get it either, Spike,” Twilight shakes her head, looking around. “Back when we had to stop those impatient griffons who went against the others to get the Elements, thinking we could stop them with them, the Everfree was nowhere near this thick.”
“Why exactly couldn’t you have used them, by the way?” Spike asks, glancing to me in particular. “Wouldn’t the Elements have made things all the easier?”
I shake my head. “It’s not that simple, Spike. The Elements were only in the Tree because it was from our timeline. It needed the Elements to maintain its link to our own timeline. Had we removed the Elements, either the Tree could’ve died or our link to the original timeline would’ve vanished and we’d have been stuck in that timeline forever.”
“Besides which, the me from that timeline never became friends with that timeline’s versions of our friends,” Twilight says, looking briefly like she confused herself for a second, before continuing on. “We didn’t have a connection to the Elements like we do in our timeline. Ken and I somehow managed to access the Rainbow Power form, as Pinkie likes to call it, but I don’t think we had the same connection as before to it while there. Celestia and Luna were likely the ones still connected to them, if anypony was connected to them at all.”
“Either way, we couldn’t risk anything happening to… Twilight, what’s wrong?” I ask.
Twilight has stopped as we exit through some brush and gasps. “What the…? The Castle of the Two Sisters?”
Spike and I follow her gaze, both becoming very confused.
It… it is where the Castle of the Two Sisters should be, I’d visited it enough times to know this location… but the castle isn’t run down anymore. In fact, it looks… pristine, as if somepony had it rebuilt… with a night motif, for some reason.
“That’s… not how it looked last time, did it?” Spike asks, looking to us.
I shake my head. “It wasn’t perfect, but it was still way more rundown than this. What in Equestria is going on around here?”
“How did Starlight stopping the Rainboom again result in the castle looking, well, like ponies are still using it?” Spike asks, scratching his head.
I blink, before facehoofing. “Ken, for a former human who watched so many TV shows and movies where time travel was a thing and explained in great detail, you are so stupid!”
The other two look to me in confusion.
I sigh, looking to them. “Okay, the theory of time travel is any small changes you make in the past can drastically change the future. In this case, before we ended up in that timeline with the war going on, Starlight zapped Rainbow Dash just a second before the Rainboom would’ve happened, holding her in place mid-air. Whatever events followed that led to the war. But in the past we just left…”
“That never happened,” Twilight follows, putting a hoof to her chin. “So this timeline didn’t follow things the same. In this one, Dash didn’t get stopped from doing the Rainboom, she just didn’t do it because she chose to stop the race... because she thought watching us fighting Starlight out in the open was more exciting,” she finishes with a sheepish grin.
I pace back and forth. “Somehow, Rainbow forcefully being stopped from doing the Rainboom led to Cadance and Shining being stopped by Sombra and thus leading into the war. This time round, Dash giving up on the race and therefore not even getting close to doing the Rainboom resulted in that not happening. There’s a chance the war never happened in this timeline at all.”
“So… what’s so bad about this timeline then?” Spike shrugs. “If the war didn’t happen, things must be fine, right?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know, Spike.” I turn, looking firmly at the castle. “But I think we’ll get some answers in that castle.”
We walk across the bridge, which is now made of stone instead of wood, which I guess makes sense if ponies are living here.
We get to the castle and I open the doors with my magic, Twilight and Spike following me in before I close them quietly.
I don’t know what’s going on, but we might not want to be noticed too suddenly.
As we walk through the foyer, I look around, noticing a night theme is present throughout each hall we walk through… and something in the back of my mind is telling me this isn’t a good thing, but I can’t remember why.
“This place looks a lot cleaner than I remember,” Spike remarks as we ascent a flight of stairs, before our path is briefly blocked by a tapestry laying on the ground that I thought was a carpet being lifted up by a magical aura as our view is occupied by a white mare… who looks very familiar.
“Rarity?” Twilight cries in joy.
The mare turns around… and I frown, looking Rarity over. Yeesh. Did the changes to the timeline ruin her sense of fashion? That black suit or whatever it is really doesn’t look all that good on her. Though, that could just be because it’s combined with her having put her tail and mane in a bun.
That is not a very good look for her.
“The castle isn’t open for viewings today,” she says in a very brisk tone that reminds me of some of the Canterlot Elites… which is not a good start to this timeline. “The tapestries all need changing.” She looks very annoyed. “Again.”
Spike runs up and stands in front of her, his arms wide. “Rarity, it’s me!”
Rarity looks at him, before her face scrunches like… like somepony disgusted. “I don’t socialize with dragons. I don’t know anypony who would.”
At once, Spike’s face falls and he whimpers, tears in his eyes.
I wrap a wing around him comfortingly, while Twilight runs in front of the mare.
“Rarity, you have to listen to me! The future of Equestria’s at stake!” Twilight says anxiously.
Rarity gives her an indifferent look, before turning around. “I don’t know how you know my name, but I am far too busy to entertain some tourist’s ridiculous fantasies.”
I glare at her. “Okay, first, you insulted our son, so fuck you! Second, has your somehow losing your fashion skills left you blind?” I punctuate my last words by opening my wings.
Rarity looks aghast at my swearing at her (likely about her fashion), but her face blanks the moment I open my wings.
A few seconds pass, before horror enters her face and she practically throws herself and my hooves. “I’m sorry, Princess! I-I was unaware Her Majesty had any other Alicorn relatives, let alone that you’d be visiting tonight!” She flops her face forward, wailing in a way more familiar to the Rarity I know, her voice muffled by the carpet. “Please forgive me-hee-hee-hee!”
I glance down at Spike, then to Twilight, both whom share my uncertain expression.
“Um… right,” I say, before clearing my throat and trying to sound more like I’m of authority. Come on, mare, you were a freaking boss when you were leading during the war last timeline, mare up already. This shouldn’t be so hard. “Just… don’t let it happen again. Oh, and apologize to Spike.”
Rarity looks up, confused, before I use my eyes to nod to the little drake held against me.
“Oh, um, yes. I… I apologize… Master Spike?” she says and I see a look pass over Spike’s face that shows he’s not sure how to react to being referred to as “Master Spike”. “I was unaware any dragon was on good terms with the royal family.”
“Well, now you do,” I say, looking to Twilight, begging her to do something. This is so bloody awkward.
Twilight clears her throat and Rarity turns around to look at her, confusion passing over her face and looking back between the two of us, clearly only just no noticing we look near identical. “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!”
I frown. I would ask if there’s anything wrong with this timeline first, but I guess Twi just wants to leave now she knows the war with the Crystal Empire didn’t happen in this timeline.
“Time travel, you say?” Another voice says, making us jump.
We all turn to see we were so focused on Rarity we never realized we’re in the throne room, decorated in a night time aesthetic like the rest of the castle… and sitting atop the throne, which reminds me heavily of those from vampire games and movies, is a black mare with a billowing star-filled mane.
She leans forward, revealing herself completely. leering. “Now that’s something I would like to see.”
“Nightmare Moon?” Spike gasps, clutching onto my leg tighter… but I can’t focus on that.
The sight of that black mare, the moment I saw her, something has rooted me in place. I feel something. It’s billowing up inside me. Hot, angry. I have no idea what it is, but it’s keeping me from reacting. It’s like I’m literally frozen in place.
The mare atop the throne laughs sinisterly, as a group of guards dressed in armour, some bat ponies, others pegasi with clear illusion charms on their armour to merely make their wings looked batlike.
They all move forward, surrounding us. Rarity is walking off, looking uncertain, but clearly doesn’t want to question anything, so instead is just leaving us.
The mare on the throne leaps down, landing before Twilight, her expression firm. “Tell me how you came by this magic to travel through time.”
A second passes, before a raspy voice that sounds familiar speaks from next to me. “The princess asked you a question!” Glancing as best I can behind me, I see the pony who spoke remove their helmet to reveal… Rainbow Dash?! “And unless you wanna end up in the dungeon, you’ll tell her what she wants to know!”
Our attention is returned to the taller mare. “Nopony in my kingdom but me should possess a magic powerful enough to change time.”
Spike peeks out from around my leg. “Your kingdom?”
The mare gives him a cold look. “Who else?”
Spike gulps. “Um... Celestia, of course!”
There’s a beat of silence, where the idea of mentioning the other princess’s name is clearly implied to be dangerous, the guards all looking fearful, before the taller mare starts laughing.
“My sister has been imprisoned in the moon for years!” she points behind us and I do my best to glance behind me and see an image like the Mare in the Moon from that book I read a few months after first arriving in Equestria. “But it is no less a fate than she’d sentence me to!”
What is this feeling?
I’m struggling to even move, let alone trying holding back this unexplained maelstrom of emotions running through me at lightning speed. Anger, disappointment, sadness, regret, disappear, blind fury. All are waring inside me for top billing and I have no bloody idea why.
“I am the ruler of all of Equestria,” Nightmare Moon’s saying. Did I miss part of the conversation? “Do you really think I cannot handle Timberwolves?”
Twilight stands firm next to me, seeming oblivious to what’s going on with me. “No. I know you can.”
Nightmare Moon frowns. “And if you were thinking of trying to escape…” she lights her horn, levitating Spike to her and forms magical chains around, him and locking them tight, “it would be very unfortunate for you friend.” She gives a sinister sneer.
Something snaps.
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“MOON DREAM, PUT YOUR LITTLE BROTHER DOWN RIGHT THIS SECOND!”
Twilight flinched, her ears ringing.
Shaking her head, she turned to Ken, only for her eyes to widen.
Ken’s irises were pinpricks and her face was filled with rage.
The guards had all backed up, looking both stunned and uncomfortable to have been in such close proximity to the Royal Canterlot Voice.
Nightmare Moon’s reaction, however, was the more interesting. Her eyes had widened in shock, causing her to lose focus on Spike and dropping him, the magic chains dissolving, allowing the little guy to run to Twilight.
“None… none alive but my sister know that name,” she said, stunned, before her expression became a scowl. “You assume that just because you somehow know that name and have clearly used dyes and changed your mane style to look like her, you can speak to your princess in such a manner?” she said, taking a step forward.
“Oh, don’t you try that “high and mighty” act with me, little missy!” Ken retorted back, causing the dark Alicorn to pause in surprise. Ken started walking forward. “I give up everything for you and your sister and this is what you do with the chance I gave you?!”
Spike looked to Twilight, confused and worried. “Twilight, what’s Ken talking about? If she keeps egging Nightmare Moon on like that, there’s no telling what that mare will do to her!”
Twilight just stared, open mouthed.
The look in Ken’s eyes, there was both anger and hurt. What was going on?
Nightmare looked like she was about to speak, but then Ken stepped forward and instead, the taller Alicorn took a step back.
“I’m not using any dyes and this has been my mane style for longer than you’ve been raising the moon, missy!” Ken snapped, her expression one of extreme disapproval. Almost like…
Twilight blinked. Wait. That didn’t make any sense. Ken was yelling at Nightmare Moon, not Spike. Why would she…?
Nightmare Moon’s expression soured before she stood up straight, looming over the smaller Alicorn. “You dare to use your similarities to my mother to try intimidating me?” She snorted. “Not likely.”
Twilight’s eyes widened. What did Nightmare just say?!
Instead of backing down, Ken’s eyes narrowed.
Nightmare glared back at her for several moments, the two never breaking eye contact… before something happened that nopony or dragon in the room would have ever expected.
Nightmare faltered.
Ken didn’t flinch at bit under the taller Alicorn’s gaze, but, within moments of staring into Ken’s eyes, Nightmare glanced the tiniest fraction away, her expression slipping that small bit.
“You… No,” she shook her head, glaring back at Ken. “You cannot be her. I watched her perish myself!” She faltered again as Ken didn’t move, didn’t even blink. “You… you can’t be.”
“And yet, here I am!” Ken shot back, her voice dripping with cold anger that made all in the room shiver. “I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but I am, Luna! Now,” she stepped forward and Nightmare actually took a step backwards, causing the eyes of all those onlooking to widen, before Ken pointed out the window, “release your sister from the moon at once!”
For several long moments, Ken just kept her gaze with Nightmare Moon’s, the latter finding herself unable to look away. The expression in those eyes, the anger and disappointment, they were awakening something within her.
“I… n-no!” the dark mare managed to stuttered out, her eyes flickering. “I-I am the ruler of all Equestria. My sister—”
“Your sister is at no more fault than you!” Ken shot back, lighting her horn.
The magic surrounded Nightmare Moon’s right ear, yanking it down, hard, Nightmare Moon being unable to stop herself from whimpering, “Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!”
“I’ll be speaking with her, make no mistake about that. Now, do as you are told, little miss moonshine!” Ken snarled at the taller me. “Just because you’re over eleven hundred years old does not mean you’re too old to be put over my knee, little filly! Now, do it!”
There were several moments of silence, where all eyes were on Nightmare Moon, who was looking at the smaller Alicorn with… fear?
After what felt like an eternity, Nightmare Moon bit her lip, before nodding slowly, closing her eyes, making whimpering sounds like a foal that just got spanked by their mother.
Nightmare Moon lit her horn, and all turned to look at the image on the moon, which flashed, before disappearing. Less than a second later, the room was filled with a blazing white light.
When it faded, standing by the window was a taller white mare within a flowing pink mane and tail, wings and a horn and a sun for a Cutie Mark.
The mare sighed. “Oh, thank goodness. I was struggling to hold on and…” she blinked, confusion evident on her face, before her eyes widened at the sight of the small lavender mare standing before Nightmare Moon.
“M… M…” she stammered, tears welling in her eyes.
The lavender mare glared at her, causing the newcomer to wilt. “Oh, I’ll be speaking with you as well, little filly. Don’t think you’re getting off scot free in all this.” She sighed, still looking frustrated, before she released her hold on Nightmare Moon’s ear and looked between the two of them, a small warm smile on her face. “Hello, Tia. Lulu. It’s been a…while…”
She collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
“KEN!” Twilight and Spike cried out.
“MOTHER!” Nightmare Moon and Celestia cried at the exact same moment, the latter’s eyes changing from turquoise with dragonic slitted eyes to those Twilight was more familiar with.
The conscious lavender mare and dragon paused, before snapping their heads to the other two Alicorns, their eyes wide. “Wait, WHAT?!”
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I’m wandering through a thick white fog. Where…? Where am I?
I frown, trying to remember what happened… but I’, drawing a blank. I can’t remember what I was doing last.
I need to remember or my name isn’t… isn’t…
I stop, blinking. Who am I again?
Somepony who finally is remembering what she can.
I turn to see a tall being before me, her form faded and see through, as if she’s a ghost, flickering in and out of focus every couple seconds.
Quickly looking myself over, I see she’s like a taller version of myself, though her mane and tail have an ethereal glow to them that flow slightly.
Who…? Who are you? I ask. Who am I?
She looks sadly at me. It will come to you.
I stare at her for several moments, before it clicks, everything rushing back to me in an instant.
Twilight! Spike! They’re both facing off against Nightmare Moon and… and Nightmare Moon has Spike! I have to save them!
The other mare puts a hoof on me, stopping me. They are fine. Everything is fine now. You are ready to remember.
I look to her, angry. Fine? How in the wide world of Equestria can they be fine? We’re stuck in a timeline where Nightmare Moon took over Equestria and she’s kidnapped my son! Wait, since he’s a dragon would that be dragonnapped. I shake my head. Whatever, doesn’t matter. I need to go save him!
She just smiles warmly at me. You already have… as have you saved many lives.
I snarl at her. Are you going to try making any sense?!
She closing her eyes, that smile never failing. You gave up everything. I am all that remains. I am but fragments. I have done my best to gather what remains. I am sorry it isn’t more.
She starts moving towards me.
Hey, wait. What’re you doing? I say in worry, taking a step back.
She steps in front of me, then through me, disappearing.
At once, my eyes widen.
No… no way.
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“Ken? Ken! Please, wake up, Ken! Please!”
“Mom, come on! This isn’t funny anymore. Open your eyes, please.”
“This is all your fault!”
“My fault! I’m not the one who locked my own sister in the moon!”
“You literally did! Sure, it wasn’t for a thousand years, but you did!”
I stir, slowly opening my eyes and lifting my head, my sight bleary.
I can just make out Twilight and Spike in front of me. They both gasp, before hugging me tightly.
I give a small smile, before turning to the other pair of Alicorns in the room… both of who are bickering with each other, clearly just avoiding going RCV.
I push myself up, grunting as I do so.
The sound causes the two mares to quit bickering, both turning to look at me, their eyes wide.
Before I can do anything, the two run at me and pull me into a strong, warm hug.
I return it, letting myself melt into their warm fur.
“Um… okay, would somepony mind explaining just what the hay is going on around here?” a raspy voice says.
At once, I’m brought out of the moment and glare, lighting my horn.
“Ow, ow, ow, ow-ow!” the two Alicorns cry out, backing away, revealing both their right ears being held painfully in my magic.
I look sternly between the two of them. “You both have some serious explaining to do.” I look to the black mare. “Eternal night and overthrowing your sister to take the throne for yourself? Is that the mare you’ve grown into? Seriously?”
“But I—”
“No buts!” I cut her off, before turning my attention to the pink maned mare, who also wilts. “And you, Celetstial Light, ignoring your sister to the point she feels her night is completely unappreciated and forcing her to take such drastic action just to get your attention? You’re supposed to be the big sister, fucking act like it!”
The pink maned mare lowers her head in shame.
“Now,” I look to the black mare, “you’re going to undo the obvious mind suggestions you put into the ponies of Equestria this minute, young filly. Am I clear? That is not what your powers are meant for. Now, clean up this mess, or else!”
She nods meekly, her horn glowing, before a wave of magic burst from her like a shockwave, flowing outwards beyond our sight, going all across Equestria.
I nod, before growling, causing the two of them to whimper. “I gave up everything for the two of you. Everything. I expected you to rule Equestria in peace after I left and this is how things went?” My eyes sadden and I let go of their ears. “Were my final wishes really so meaningless to the both of you?”
Both of them stand up, their eyes wide.
“Never!” Celestia shakes her head furiously. “After I had to banish Luna, I did my best to rule Equestria as you taught us to, with kindness and compassion.”
“More kindness and compassion than you certainly showed your own flesh and blood,” her sister snorts.
“How was I supposed to realize you couldn’t see that—?”
“ENOUGH!” the two go silent as I glare between the two of them. I sigh, rubbing my forehead. “Why can’t I have everything back? It would make this so much easier.”
The black mare cocks an eyebrow. “All of what back?”
I look to her, before sighing. “My memories.”
Celestia blinks, before taking a tentative step forward. “What…? What do you mean?”
I look to them both sadly. “I do not remember why, but I know I had to give them up to save you both all those centuries ago. What I have left are fragments. Tiny echoes of what once was.”
“Is somepony going to actually start making sense around here?!”
The three of us turn to see Twilight, Spike and the guards all looking to us in bewilderment, Spike standing in front, his arms folded.
“Wait. You said he was…” Celestia’s sister looks to her, me, then back to Spike, before her head sags. “You aren’t of this timeline. Your are not ours, are you?”
I sigh, rubbing my cheek against hers. “No, honey. I’m sorry. She is truly gone. I cannot change that. Nopony can.”
“Seriously, I’m with the little dragon here,” Rainbow Dash steps forward, glaring at the mare I’m comforting. “We just got all our memories back. What is going on?”
I sigh, looking to Twilight. “Seems that spell did more than just drain my magic to the point I couldn’t move.” I step forward, before indicating to the two mares behind me. “Twilight, meet my daughters. Spike, meet your big sisters.”
There’s a long silence.
“Wait. But, you… WHAT?” Twilight’s eyes widen and she’s staring at me like I’m a madmare. “Daughters? Ken, those are Princess Celestia and… do I say Nightmare Moon or Luna here?” She glances at the mare in question.
She looks down, her face filled with shame. “Luna will do fine… um, who is she?” she murmurs to me.
I nod, putting a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Yeah, they’re the princesses… but they’re also my daughters. And, if you being Spike’s mother make me his mother as well, Celestia and Luna being my daughters…”
Twilight stares, before her irises slowly turn to pinpricks. “I’m… their mother… too? I’m the mother of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.”
She just stands still for several seconds, before her eyes roll into the back of her head and she collapses.
___________________________________________________________
“This… is really going to take some getting used to,” Spike says as we push through the brush to the clearing where The Map is. Five guards are standing around it… though instead of stoic expressions, they just look thoroughly uncertain.
“Can’t we convince you to stay?” Luna begs as I hug her and Celestia.
I pull away, giving her a firm look. “Luna, you know I cannot do that. I am not your version of me. She left this world a long time ago. Honour her memory and heed her wishes.” I look to Celestia. “Both of you.”
“It’s only been three weeks,” Celestia says, looking desperate. “Can’t you stay longer?”
I shake my head. “We cannot. Every second we spend is this timeline, Starlight Glimmer is in the past, having to do everything she can to avoid altering the timeline more than she already has. We have to finish what we started.”
“But…” I put a hoof over Luna’s black mouth. Her form is still that off Nightmare Moon, only her eyes are back to my Luna’s.
I shake my head. “Keep each other safe. Watch out for each other. Remember that you will always both love each other. Never forget that.” I frown. “Or I swear, I’ll get our timeline’s Discord to bring me back so I can tan both those backsides. Understood?”
Both mares go stiff, before nodding meekly.
I sigh, before looking to Rainbow Dash, whom volunteered to escort us to The Map herself. “Be sure to not be too hard on your world’s Starlight. If what she says is true about her past, ours is the same.”
She nods, saluting. “You can count on me, First Princess of Equestria.”
“This is still so hard to believe,” Spike says, looking between us four Alicorns. “Til Ken arrived, I wasn’t sure if I had a parent or not in Twilight. Then I got two mothers and then days later I end up having two older sisters, too.” He grins, putting his hands behind his head. “And my sisters are the princesses.”
“How are you taking this so casually?” Twilight asks weakly, seeming dazed.
It seems even three weeks wasn’t enough time for her to fully grasp the scope of our family’s situation.
“I’m the mother of my mentor,” she says, seeming out of it as she says it. “And I’m the mother of Luna… whom if not for turning into Nightmare Moon, I never would’ve met my friends and…”
“I think we’d better go before you mother’s brain goes into shutdown,” I chuckle, moving over and putting a wing over her. “We do still have to take care of Starlight and stop her from creating more altered timelines, after all.”
Twilight blinks, before shaking her head furious, her expression firm. “Right. Right. Stopping Starlight. I’m going to focus on that.” She hesitates for a moment. “I’ll have my mental breakdown at the realization I’m the mother of the two oldest living ponies and rulers of the land who were both my mentor and enemy after that.”
Spike and I look to each other, blinking, before chuckling and lead Twilight onto The Map.
I look to Celestia and Luna, giving them warm smiles. “I’m glad I got to be with you both. Please, be well.”
The two look to each other with a little uncertainty, before sighing and wrapping a wing around each other and looking to me, nodding.
“We are happy to have been with you again, even if only for a short while,” Celestia says, tears in her eyes.
Luna nods, sniffling. “Take care, Mother. Be good to your Celestia and Luna.”
I close my eyes, before opening them again and nodding, my smile warm as can be.
Twilight casts the spell, the portal opening above us and my expression firms.
No more, Starlight Glimmer. This ends now.