//------------------------------// // Regret, Part 2 // Story: Remembering Harmony // by milesprower06 //------------------------------// "So, forgive me if I seem naive, Princess, but how exactly are we going to help each other? I mean, not even Princess Starlight could help." Glitter told her as the pair of ponies walked down the north forest path towards the collapsed cave. "Exactly. As the Princess of the Night, Starlight has immense influence over the Dream Realm. But one thing she is near powerless against is something called a tantabus. A creature of the dream realm that is so deeply entrenched in the personal nature of the dreamer that there is very little she can do to ward it off; it's up to the pony it inhabits. I've got one, and she thinks you do too." Twilight explained. "Ah. I get it, um, I think." "There's a bit more. There's a possibility that her spirit may not be at rest; because a collapsed cave isn't exactly a proper burial. You are one of her oldest friends, and if I can manage it, I'm going to leave it to you to decide what to do with what remains. But we have our demons to confront first." The Princess told her. The two mares slowly came up to what remained of the old mining cave, as well as the countess tons of pulverized limestone that littered what remained of the entrance. Twilight lit her horn up, and a glowing sphere expanded out to envelop both of them. "Stay close." Twilight told Glitter, and began to step slowly towards the cave, with Glitter just a step behind. When the sphere that surrounded them reached the rubble, Glitter was surprised to see that they were passing through it. It warped and shifted, but not as displaced as she thought it would be, like pushing your hoof into a bucket of sand. Twilight's gait was slow and methodical, as she wasn't absolutely sure there was enough room to push all the way through. Glitter started taking deeper breaths as the natural light from the sky above vanished, and the only light source came from Twilight's spell, as she looked around and saw nothing but crumbled limestone on all sides of them as they made their way into the cave. They heard the shifting of rocks with every inch the magical sphere moved forward. "Don't worry," Twilight assured her companion. "I can teleport both of us out of here in an instant if anything goes wrong." Glitter was concerned that if anything went wrong, an instant would pretty much be all they would have. With rubble surrounding the sphere at every angle, it was considerably difficult to judge how far they had come into the cave. Glitter kept a very careful watch on the ground in front of her, and let out a soft gasp when the sphere pushed forward with their steps, and a black metallic hoof object appeared through the pebbles and dust; a hoof guard. Another step revealed the skeletal remains of the hoof and leg that wore it. With that, Twilight came to a halt. Part of her was shocked that even bones remained, instead of being atomized by the aetherial explosion that had collapsed the mountain on top of her. "I hope you're ready. Take a deep breath." She said, both pairs of eyes locked on what they had just uncovered. "Vultus interius." Twilight commanded, the glow from her horn increasing tenfold. Glitter breathed in, briefly closing her eyes. When she opened them again, she found that the caved-in rubble was gone, and the cave looked just as it had before the collapse. She drew in another gasping breath when she saw there, in front of them, was Fizzlepop, breathing weakly, broken horn sparking uselessly, as she couldn't tell if her oldest friend was even conscious. "Fizzlepop?" She asked. The orchid mare's eyes slowly opened, but otherwise didn't respond, as an enraged roar from deeper inside the cave pulled the duo's attention away from her as they gazed into the blackness. Glitter almost didn't hear the springing sound of rubber colliding with the cave floor, getting closer, and she nearly screamed when she felt something roll into her back left leg. Her head whipped back to look, and saw a yellow rubber ball come to rest just behind her. "No... No...!" She whispered with dread as she saw the silhouette of a unicorn filly gallop in from the blinding daylight. She turned back to see that Twilight had vanished, and her heart crept up her throat. It was up to her. Twilight steeled herself to confront what had to be an ursa; the roar was unmistakable. A quick glance to her left revealed that Glitter had vanished. She had hoped that the spell that put them into a meditative trance and thrust them into the dream realm would have kept them in one place, but perhaps they were destined to do this separately, at the same time. After the initial roar, there was nothing. No thundering approaching steps, no growls. Her eyes scanned the darkness of the chamber in front of her for any sort of movement. She heard a soft crackle, then a spark through the pitch black, before an offensive spell surged forth, not aimed directly at her, but rather at the prone unicorn at her hooves. She jumped into the path of the bolt of magical energy and cast a shield spell. The attack hit, the shield shattered, but she was physically unharmed, and Tempest behind her went untouched. Finally, piercing the black in front of her wasn't a towering ursa, but a glowing, sparkling image of herself. The features were minimal; the entire coat was translucent, and sparkled like the night sky. The eyes were a fiery red. But she recognized the armor the figure wore as the elemental armor Starswirl had bestowed upon her. It was her tantabus. "After what she did, you defend her?" It asked, the voice a distorted and warped version of her own. Twilight channeled energy into her horn, ready to cast another spell at a moment's notice. "Yes." The glowing pony took another step forward, and in that step, its form morphed to another familiar face. Tempest. "As you cling hopelessly to all the things that could have been?" Blinding blue light surged forth from the form's broken horn, and Twilight instinctively cast another shield spell. But a blow never came. Instead, the darkness of the cave surrendered to the sickeningly stormy skies of Canterlot during the Storm King's attack. She saw herself, off to the side, exhausted. She saw Tempest bend her knee to the Storm King. This was when he shared the alicorn magic with her... But it was different this time. The Storm King cackled. "Ha! Who cares about your dinky little unicorn horn?" "But we... We had an agreement!" Tempest objected. "Get with the program! I used you! It's kinda what I do." The Storm King lashed out with a blast from the Staff of Sacanas, which Tempest swifty sidestepped and responded in kind with a magical volley of her own, blasting both of them off of their feet, and her nearly off of the balcony, clinging to the railing as the cyclone threatened to pull her in. Twilight watched herself get to her feet, glance at both the Staff and the struggling Tempest, before lunging for her hoof just as it lost its grip on the railing. "Hang on!" "Why are you saving me?" "Because this is what friends do." Glitter turned swiftly on her front hooves and shot out with her rear ones in an attempt to buck the ball out of the cave in the direction it came, only to slump to the ground when her hooves passed right through the ball. Her mind began to go into a panic as she got back to her hooves and saw the filly Fizzlepop continue to close in on what she had come in here after. "No! Turn back, it's not worth it!" She screamed, to no avail as she heard another growl of discontent behind her in the cave. As the glow of the ursa began to illuminate the cave, the single thought that came to Glitter's mind was the single spell that she remembered from her semester at the school of magic. She took a deep breath and did her best to focus her mind, for this had nothing to do with the horn, but rather the voice. "Fus!" The ancient tongue produced a shockwave that expanded outward from her lips and impacted with all sides of the cavern, as well as rushing forward, pushing the ball towards the entrance, stopping the filly in her tracks and nearly knocking her off her hooves. Chunks of rock fell to the floor around her, and she turned just in time to see the ursa minor swipe a paw down at her, having passed her prone fillyhood friend. She heard a sharp crack and fell to the floor of the cave, feeling warmth running down her head. The ursa roared defiantly, but the rocks falling from the ceiling and hitting him was enough deterrence to make him back off from his prey and retreat back into the blackness of the cavern depths, leaving Glitter and the silent Fizzlepop laying together on the cold ground. Glitter turned and watched as the distant filly grabbed the ball with her magic, and ran out into the daylight to rejoin her friends. "Better... Better me than you..." She said, turning her head to the adult mare laying silently a few feet from her. Twilight couldn't find the words to break her silent stupor as the alternate futures played out in front of her. She watched as she saved Tempest from being pulled into the storm, then she in turn shielded them the Storm King's final attack. Blinking, the scene changed. The Friendship Festival resumed, Tempest had accepted her offer of friendship. Twilight fiercely defended her from Celestia's judgement. After that, the locale changed; the unicorn resumed her wanderings, journeying up to the Crystal Empire to reunite with Glitter Drops, before returning to beyond Equestria, spreading the word of the Storm King's defeat. She blinked again, and she stayed in Ponyville, accepting Twilight's offer of tutelage, and even went a step further; she became a royal guard for her castle. Blinking again, she saw her selflessly defend Mount Aris from a Storm Guard raiding party. Again, and her horn was miraculously healed. Again, putting on a spectacular fireworks show for Hearth's Warming Eve. Again, and she saw her growing old, still in that polished, immaculately maintained armor. "ENOUGH!!!" Twilight screamed, tears streaming down her face, and her surroundings rippled and darkened, returning her to the cavern with the Tempest-Tantabus standing in front of her, with Fizzlepop laying silently between them. "Of course there were endless possibilities for her. But none of them matter, because none of them will come to pass. I made a choice. Every time we make a choice, one path is decided and countless others vanish. It's part of who we are. Alternate futures don't matter. You don't matter." The Princess stated with an air of finality. With that, the Tantabus shifted, shrunk, and melted into the shapeless mass, before floating over and passing into Twilight's barrel. The Princess of Friendship looked down at the orchid mare laying silently in front of her. "You did matter." Twilight began, whimpering. "You took everything from me, and maybe to some that's a good excuse for ignoring your pleas for mercy. But not to me. Not anymore. I should have helped you open up your eyes. There was no telling what the possibilities for you could have been. Because of my choice, I'll never know. And I'll have to live with that for the rest of my life. I'm sorry, Fizzlepop. I'm sorry." Still silent, the unicorn managed a small smile up at the Princess, while her horn began to glow an intense, fiery orange, as she bent down, and touched the tip of her horn to the unicorn's forehead, before there was a blinding white flash. There was a flash of light, and with a gasp, Glitter found herself standing in front of the collapsed cave out in the daylight, with Princess Twilight standing in front of her. She was holding a sparkling, glowing urn. Twilight turned and looked for a moment at the grave marker that read 'Fizzlepop Berrytwist'. "Did we do it?" Glitter asked, taking a deep breath. "I think we did." Twilight replied, glancing down at the urn she held. "Glitter, I can't guarantee what you've done here will last. I can't promise that angry survivors won't find where she rests and deface it." Twilight stepped forward, and offered her the urn. "So please, accept this with my sincerest apologies and condolences."