Night Patrol 2 Chapter 49
By Foxgear
Saying you were going to continue to party despite a long-lost friend showing up and then crying was one thing. To do it was another. That was what impressed Dusk the most. Even though they all had burning questions. Rightly deserved ones. Luna, Celestia, Kira, Sixes, and Fury all ignored her moment of weakness and proceeded to enjoy themselves.
Best of all, she was included in the fun. For Dusk, it was like it was back in the castle of her youth.
“I guess you’re old enough to drink now, huh Dusk?” Said Sixes offering her tenth bottle of sake. “How old you now?”
Dusk pleasantly smiled, laughing off the question with the patented ‘You don’t ask a lady her age.’ deflect. They passed it off with good humor, but she knew things couldn’t keep on like this. She just really, really didn’t want to end the fun.
“Lady Dusk?”
Sake, the loyal subordinate she recruited for this period and still tied up on the floor.
“Right, here you go.” With a flick of her horn, Sake was freed, upright, cleaned, and dressed. She did look queasy though like she had morning sickness.
“Thank you,” Squeaked Sake, holding her stomach, her voice strained as she ran off to the bathroom to relieve her stomach.
Which left Dusk to awkwardly say your welcome while having all eyes on her. She sighed. They tried, but this was too awkward. The party was over. It was time for her to work.
(I don’t have much time to spare either, but… this might be the last time I can indulge like this.)
“Right. I suppose thirty minutes is enough. Thanks for trying, everypony.” Dusk chugged down the remains of her bottle. Enjoying the mild burning in her throat. For a brief second, she could feel the effects of alcohol flood her system, and then disappear. The anti-tox artifact affixed to her yoke dispelled the toxins.
“Is that Abundantia’s broch?” Daring started off what was sure to intense interrogation, with a relatively irrelevant question. Though Dusk enjoyed the sparkle of joy in her goddaughter’s gaze. “I’ve been looking for that for years! And you have Hypno’s Jewel of Never Night, and…”
She chuckled at Daring’s stutter. There was little doubt she had searched every tomb and came up empty. Too bad all these artifacts were critical in her mission.
“Your mother, Tomb Raider, better known as Doctor Tombina Raider to the public, helped me acquire them. Many, many years ago. When you were still a baby sucking on her teat.” A healthy red blush adorned Dusk’s cheek. “Sometimes mine as well. That was rather embarrassing.”
Celestia “You knew Tombina? Since when?”
Of course, bringing up Tombina, Celestia's former agent, would raise the Princess’s interest. Luna and the others seemed content to piece things together. As if the order of questioning was already set decided. Dusk was merely content; she wasn’t being barraged in an ear-splitting shouting match of confusion. Counting her blessings, and she answered.
“It was… hmm, what was the date again? I can’t remember off the top of my head. It was the day I gave her Daring and lost Rainbow Dash, right after going through that portal in the factory.” At the sound of her name, Rainbow Dash jumped up from her seat, looking very offended.
“What are you talking about? I was born and raised in Cloudsdale! My dad has rainbow hair for Celestia’s sake!”
Dusk took the Pegasus’s righteous anger in stride. Feeling more grateful, she ended up with loving and caring parents. Even if by accident. It pained her to even think about destroying that reality, but that ship had already sailed.
“It’s called hair dye. I won’t criticize your parents for never telling you were adopted, but have you ever wondered why you don’t have any siblings? Beside Daring, of course, but that’s… well, we’ll get to that soon enough.”
Her question seemed to puzzle Rainbow Dash, the blue Pegasus frowned, deep in thought. “They said they had a hard time conceiving,” Dash admitted, looking embarrassed. “When I asked them if I could have a little brother or sister, that’s what they told me at least.”
“Right, let me check for you.” Closing her eyes, Dusk sure she gave them all a show flickering out of exitance for second and returned with Rainbow Dash’s parents’ medical files. “Ouch, your parents really struck out. Dad’s got low sperm count, possibly sterile from the notes here, and your mother has had several…”
She trailed off, letting the documents vanish from her possession. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have pried like that into personal affairs. It’s a bad habit I picked up over the years.”
“So, if I’m adopted, and Daring is my twin sister, who are our parents?”
Dusk closed her eyes, they flashed silver under her lids, and she smiled. “Ah, you two already talked. But not about what I expected. Were you truly not interested in the color swapped version of yourself, Daring? Only your strange transformation?”
“I was, but somethings take precedence. So, I’ll ask the more important question, what are we?” Daring gestured to herself and Dash. “We’re not normal. We… I don’t know, it’s all fuzzy, but from the reports, we were like pseudo alicorns or something. For the lack of a better term.”
“Well, I suppose now’s as good as time as any. Sixes, Fierce Fury, would like to break the news to them? About what you saw that day?”
The two rinin looked beside themselves. Sixes speaking first, “Are they really the two foals?”
“Who else could they be?” Dusk coyly replied.
“So, they’re like us. You two are experiments.”
“Yes,” Dusk confirmed softly. “One of the side projects, Model 70, Series 3, Subject 1, and 2. I guess to put simply, experiments 7031 and 7032. If I remember correctly, it was a series of experiments on ordinary pony evolution. I reviewed your development phase and learned your code commands. You two were far removed from the original rinin projects, such as Sixes. He’s Model 66 Series 6 Subject 6.”
“You know what the numbers mean?”
“Yes.” She rasped, clenching her teeth. “I know. The model number is what they were trying to create, the series was the specific formula of creatures used. In blocks of ten. The subject is pretty self-explanatory. Kira knew too, she found some notes after the Maredor War.”
All eyes turned to the Nippon Queen, who shrugged off the questioning stares with a simple, “It’s not like I was keeping it secret. We found some of Hoofenstien’s notes after the battle. Finding out our numbers were just serial numbers was… depressing. That said, the notes did contain some interesting personal information. Like what and who they used to create who us and the portions of every creature. That was depressing too. They were very detailed notes.”
“Do you have any pony relevant?” Fury asked her.
“If you mean any of us, yes, I do. Mine and yours. Of the three books, I found in ruins, only one was readable. Only barely. The others were half burned. The one was intact because it was in some water, so it’s a little damaged. Do you want to read it? It’s back home in my castle, but I’d be happy to loan it to you, Fury.”
“I could get it easily right now.” Dusk offered. “It will only take a second.”
“It’s fine,” Dismissed Fury. “There’s no point in trying to find a past that doesn’t matter. Let’s get back on topic. What happened to you, Dusk? How did you become an Alicorn?”
She was afraid that the question would be brought up sooner than later. It was unavoidable.
“So, what are you, the princess of?” Asked one of Twilight’s friends. Dusk had only been half paying attention to them, so she didn’t know which one asked. She was betting Rarity or Pinkie. No Pinkie was more likely.
“I’m not a princess of anything. I’m the Alicorn of Time, just as Celestia is the officially the Alicorn of Day, and Luna is the Alicorn of Night. Not every Alicorn is a princess. In the past, back before the time of Celestia and Luna, there was an Alicorn for just about everything. As expected of the race that was essentially the gods of the world. Until they started killing each other and wiped themselves out.”
The royal sisters, particularly Celestia, looked solemn. “Luna was barely a filly, probably only eight years old at the time.” She began. “Mother and Father awoke me one night and gave me Luna wrapped in a blanket. They told me to run. Symphony and others around my age and younger were escorted below the city. Deep in the crystal catacombs under Canterlot and sealed inside.”
The Sun Princess began to tear up. “I knew that was the last time I’d see my parents. I was right, of course. I knew there was a war between our kind. A war started by pettiness and greed. The Alicorn of Magic, Minerva, mother of Unicorns. Tempest Alicorn of the Sky, Mother of all Pegasi. Were embroiled in a war with the Alicorn of the Earth, Gaia, mother of all Earth ponies. They treated the earth ponies like slaves. Even though they were created first by Gaia. Displeased by the treatment of her children, Gaia fought them, their allies, and everypony else.”
“Why?” Asked Applejack. “Wouldn’t Gaia have allies?”
“Not at first. The creation of wingless and hornless ponies, many of my kind saw them as defective. After all, why create something so inferior? Ironically, despite their weaknesses, the Ancient Earth ponies were blessed with magic, unlike any other. It was magic they developed to fight beside their mother. The magic of alchemy. The same magic used to create to the rinin.”
“Interesting, but I think we’re missing the point here,” Spoke Kira, directing everyponies attention back onto Dusk, who was contently sipping anther bottle of Sake. “How did you become the Alicorn of Time, Dusk?”
Dusk set the bottle down, looked everypony in the eye, and said, “No idea.”
Kira was very unamused, “What?”
“I fell through that portal and appeared in a free-falling sky. At the time, I didn’t even realize I had wings. I lost Rainbow Dash flying through her parents’ yard, and then I crashed into Tomb Raider’s roof. I laid low there, trying to find my bearings.”
“Why didn’t you come to me for help? I was right there.” There was a hint of hurt in Celestia’s tone.
For her part, Dusk looked ashamed by what she said next. “When Tombina told me, she didn’t know who Luna was, but had her helmet, I was wary. I remind you this was before I understood my new powers, so when I started researching, I heard the story of Nightmare Moon and…”
“And?” Celestia pressed.”
“Well, one of Luna’s lessons was the victor writes the history. I thought you, Celestia had turned evil, stole Luna’s magic, and was ruling behind a mask of kindness.”
“WHAT!” That was Twilight.
Celestia brushed it off with a chuckle, though a humorless one. “Your imagination is impressive. Wait… roughly eighteen years ago… You tried to assassinate me!”
“You’re alive!”
“You filled my bathroom with fine dust when there was a lit candle inside! You blew up my private bathroom!”
“And I said, you’re alive!”
“You’re the reason I can’t have scented candles in the bathroom anymore!”
She sucked in a breath staring down Celestia. “I’m not apologizing.”
“Yes! You should! Wait… are you the one that…”
“NOPE!” Dusk answered quickly, averting her eyes.
“That was you wasn’t it!”
“No idea what you are talking about!”
“You baked that poisoned cake!”
“It was supposed to kill you not give you diarrhea-”
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence!” Barked Celestia.
Clearing her throat, Dusk pushed past the awkward spat. “So after finally realizing Celestia wasn’t evil. I tried to figure out what to do next. Naturally, I wanted to go back to my original time and see my dad. I was crashing at Tombina’s. You were three at this time, Daring when something strange happened.”
“What happened, Dusk?” Gently pressed Luna.
“Well, I went to bed one night, and when I woke up, Tomb was screaming at me!” Dusk touched her heart, the memory fresh in her mind even to this day. “I didn’t know what she was saying because I was groggy. It took some effort to calm her down, but when I did, she told me I had been gone for two weeks! Imagine that?” She tried to play it off with a laugh, but it fell flat. “Right, so we scratched our heads about it, and we came up with a plan for Tombina to watch me sleep.”
It had actually taken a week of Tombina watching Dusk before they discovered what happened. On the seventh night, when the sand pony almost pulled Tomb Raider into his realm, she snapped awake! In the nick of time too, Dusk had flickered away, her horn activating on its own. Dusk was still asleep at the time.
“When I woke up, Tomb told me two months passed,” Dusk reported grimly. “I didn’t know what was going on. I was terrified of falling asleep. I stayed up for three days straight, practically dripping concentrated coffee through an I.V. We both knew I couldn’t go on like that.”
To find a solution, Tomb told Dusk to sleep and that when she came back, she’d have an answer. Once again, Dusk disappeared.
After delivering Daring to her mother’s, Tomb Raider would go on her first treasure hunt in months. Her target, Hypno’s Jewel of Never Night, its power was derived from its name. It allowed the user to stay awake twenty-four seven.
“I returned seven months later.” Dusk reminisced sadly. “Once I had Hypno’s jewel, I didn’t have to sleep, so I stopped disappearing. Of course, not being able to sleep, really, really, sucked! It stills sucks! That said, it gave me a lot of time to experiment with my new powers and understand them. After an oh, two years, I grasped I could control Time and Space. Well, control isn’t the right word. Adjust is more akin to what I do.”
“Please define adjust, Dusk.”
At Luna's question, Dusk found herself stumped on how to explain things in laymen’s terms. “I have limited control of time and space, but it comes with limits. Especially when I’m outside the astral realm. Because of my presence, I can cause distortions in the period I’m visiting if I’m not careful. I usually get around this by astral projecting from Cosmic Plane. Unfortunately, when I was still figuring out my powers in my younger days, I caused more than a few mishaps. Daring being one of them.”
“What do you mean?”
Dusk sighed, “How old are you, Daring?”
“I’m twenty-nine.” She answered flatly. “Is there a point…” Daring stopped short, staring at Rainbow Dash and then shot Dusk a sharp look. For her part, Dusk looked sheepish. “Rainbow Dash is barely eighteen, how can there be eleven years between us?”
“Hahaha… yeah, funny story. I accidentally sped up your growth when you were a baby. You know all your memories of your childhood that take place from three to eleven?”
“Yeah?”
“That all happened in a week.”
“What!”
“It was an accident! And it’s kind of worked out. Tombina was in her forties, pushing fifty when she adopted you. If you had grown up normally, she would have died before you were old enough to take care of yourself.” Dusk let out a loud groan at Daring angry glare. “I tried to change you back! But well, you didn’t seem to notice or care, and Tombina was happy not to change diapers anymore, so… yeah. Sorry.”
Daring sat back down, looking stunned, and who could blame her? “Why don’t I remember you?”
Dusk took a sip of sake. “I can use time and space magic; memory magic isn’t hard in comparison. Not that I wanted to run away from my godmother responsibilities, but after your mom died, I just kind of shut myself off. Even if you two weren’t related by blood, you were so similar, it was hard to look at you. I did promise to help you if you were ever in true danger. Thanks for nearly giving me a heart attack too!”
For her part, Daring did look embarrassed. “Well, I had to but my mom’s guardian angel theory to the test. I guess I did get reckless about it. Speaking of that, what’s with the making me sick whenever you do that teleport thing now? It never happened in the past!”
She seethed, giving her goddaughter a withering glare. “Listen, Daring, I’m not teleporting you, I’m removing you from existence and then sending you a few seconds into the future. The think about mundane unicorn teleportation as a grappling hook that pulls the caster to their intended target. Think of it less as hopping dimensions, but moving really, really fast.”
Twilight suddenly gasped, looking super excited! “That proves Hadlock’s theory!”
“Had-what now?” Inquired Applejack, speaking what the rest of the click was wondering.
“Oh, this is exciting! Hadlock was a famous magician who theorized if the teleport spell was truly teleporting, then there shouldn’t be any difference in the speed traveled. To prove this, he had ten mages of similar power teleport the same distance. He recorded the results and concluded that even though they all had the same level of magic, there was a difference in their time from moving from point A to point B. As several of the participants appeared earlier or later. He then had them run a sprint and found that the ones that ran faster also teleported faster. So rather than teleporting spell being a Teleport Spell, it’s actually a speed enhancement spell that makes it look like your teleporting!”
Twilight blinked at everyponies stares and Celestia’s proud and bemused smile. “At least that’s what he thought, there were some counter theories that were more popular at the time. His thesis was rejected by the Mage Association of the time. The reasons weren’t recorded.”
“That was because the Magic Record Society didn’t want to update the books. They would have been embarrassed if they couldn’t figure out the Teleportation spell was actually a speed enhancement spell.” Dusk shrugged disinterestedly, “That’s politics and invested interests for you.”
“Agreed, I remember that trial.” Celestia nodded. “Shame Hadlock was never vindicated for his findings. It seems he was right.”
“Let’s get back on track, so when I ‘teleport’ you or any pony for that matter, Daring, through time-space. It is not moving fast or anything like that. I’m sending you into the future. Think of a hard jump cut in a film. When a character suddenly moves from one place to another without in-between action. Accept you can’t breathe; your organs stop working, and your blood stops pumping throughout your body, and then suddenly, it all starts again! Your brain also thinks you just died and doesn’t know what’s going on. Once or twice is easy to recover after a month or more. Back to back uses in a day? I would start looking for organ donors within the next ten years. Don’t bother donating yours. They are FUBAR.”
“And you still did that to Topaz and me!”
Dusk took a long, long, long, calming sip from her sake cup. Leveling a dead-eyed glare at her goddaughter. “Weighed against your immediate demise, the consequences outplayed the risks. I told you not to push your luck in that temple. I’ll admit during the fight with Schatten, I was acting frantically. Unfortunately, my options are limited when I teleport a pony forward in time.”
“Care to give specifics?” Twilight asked with interest, though Luna and Celestia were equally invested in the answer.
“That’s a lot of math and quantum theory. Laymen’s version is I can only send you a few seconds in the possible future. If I had been in a calmer state of mind, I would have just brought you two to Limbo and kept you there. Dealing with the fallout of doing that later.”
“Nice to know you care so much,” Daring all but spat. “Why not just send us to the past?”
If Dusk took offense to the slight, she didn’t show it. She did scoff in a way that would put pompous Canterlot nobles to shame. “You can’t be that stupid. Going to the past, the fabric of reality isn’t a clock; you can just whine backward! Oh, but every century some stupid ponies try to go back in time! Gotta go stop some war, plague, or get rich! And other retarded reasons!”
“This seems like a touchy subject,” Fury said, pouring Dusk another cup.
“Thank you, Fury. And yes, it is. Ponies don’t understand the past can’t be changed. Sure, it is possible to go back in time and change the past, but it makes things unstable. Time does not like to bend. Depending on when they go, there’s a lot of personal timelines that the universe has to set straight.”
Dusk buried her head in her hooves. Her eyes landed right on Twilight. “Tell me Twilight, if history was changed, would you notice?”
“Probably not? Right?” She answered uncertainly.
“Correct, you wouldn’t know. Now answer me this, what happens to the pony that goes back in time to change the past? Not after they travel back in time, but before, their entire life up to a point. What happens?”
“I don’t know.”
“Believe it or not, that’s a good answer. It creates a paradox. If Pony A goes back in time to change the past, they risk changing their own future. If the future where they go back in time doesn’t exist anymore, they technically no longer exist. They become a Schrodinger’s cat. And it just messes up everything and creates a headache for me. So, I kill them before they go back in time.”
“What?”
“It’s part of my duties as the Alicorn of Time. My job to ensure the past remains the past. Before you say anything, I yes, I did try talking to them. It never works. A pony that’s given up on the living for the future is not rational. No matter their reasons, I can’t let them take the timeline behind the woodshed and bend it over for hard romping.”
“Don’t even say it,” Sixes said as Celestia looked at him across the room.
“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Celestia said hotly.
“Oh, the fuck you weren’t! I hardly spent any time with her before she disappeared! You can’t blame me for this!”
“And yet, she sounds like every new recruit you ever trained.”
Dusk threw her hooves up in the air, “For Solaris’s sake! This is why your marriage didn’t last two years!”
Both Sixes and Celestia went tight-lipped instantly.
Luna stared blankly between her sister and Sixes. “Pardon?”
Dusk let out a long-exasperated sigh, “In 6 ANM, these two tried their hooves at marriage. It was kind of pushed by Crusader, in an innocent, but a destructive act of trying to create a happy family for himself. Celestia was guilty over your banishment, and Sixes was even more self-hating and irritated then he is now. It was a foundation as sturdy as sand, but to their credit, they did try for the first six months. And then really started hating each other.”
“I never hated him!”
“I kind of did. Probably the worse two years of my life. Having to pretend to be happy all the time in public. I had to show up for the fucking public events! I basically marry her on paper as a favor to our son, and all the sudden ponies are fitting me for a crown and asking about more offspring! I didn’t sign up for that!”
“You technically did!”
“Oh, don’t you start this again!”
“I’m not, I’m acting perfectly mature about it! I didn’t ask for a divorce and then freeze myself in stone!”
“That was the top ten one of my best decisions of that decade!”
Meanwhile, Luna looked like deer in headlights, mumbling, “Oh my gods, you two really were married. That’s why your fighting bothered me so much!”
To their credit, both Sixes and Celestia had the sense to look ashamed by their behavior. Which they were. Picking at old wounds wasn’t healthy. That said, their irritation about their dirty laundry being aired lasered in on Dusk, who was very unabashed about it.
The Alicorn of Time shrugged, “What? It had to be said at some point. You haven’t even told Sixes about his granddaughter yet.”
“I have what?”
“Stop pretending you can’t hear me,” Dusk grumbled.
Celestia cleared her throat, pulling on all her grace and authority, “That is a personal matter. One in which we’d like to discuss IN PRIVATE among family members. So, rather than continue to distract us, Dusk, what is it that brings you here. Is there some matter regarding a pony messing with the past that you need our help on?”
Dusk cocked an eyebrow at the Sun Princess, “Seriously, do you guys listen to me when I talk? OR do you just selectively edit what you hear? The past can’t be changed! It practically fixes itself. No, I came here today to give you all a warning. Just like with the Crystal Empire, another event like it is drawing near.”
“So, what, the apocalypse is happening?” Retorted Fury with disbelief.
She snorted, “No, no, the world will be fine. It’s just everypony I care about will be dead. As long as you avoid the worse possible future, it should be fine. That said, it was dangerously close with the Crystal Empire’s Return. Congrats on the bronze medal for the third worse outcome.”
That brought the room to an uncomfortable silence.
“See, well, I can’t touch the past, I can see/travel to any future, so long as the possibility of it existing is there. I’ve quite enjoyed meeting your descendants and befriending them. I do this by setting a waypoint in my personal timeline. Allowing me to travel from my present, Point A, to Future B through Z. Because the future is never set in stone, it doesn’t matter what I do there. So long as I have a present to go back to and resume. That said, if I forget to set my waypoint, I can no longer return the present. Complicated, I know, but that’s the basic outline.”
“Wait, wait, that was the third worse possible outcome?” Croaked Luna, her cup clattering to the table. “Dare I ask was the first and second were?”
“Um, let’s see, it’s easier just show you.” A sphere of light shot from Dusk’s horn. Inside the globe, what looked like a film began to play inside.
A scenic view of the destroyed Crystal Empire panned int eh view glass. The elemental titans of Skaggi and Vulcan rampaged over the hellscape with no Equestrian insight. The spot that they knew the base should be was a lake of lava.
From the sky came two black spheres that slammed into the titans. From the orbs of magic emerged, Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker. The two dark alicorns engaged in a battle of wills with the titans.
Dusk narrated as epic battle ragged, “In this future Nippon never arrives and the Equestrian army and Night Patrol is wiped out. In grief and desperation, Celestia and Luna give themselves to darkness. They will win the battle, but they will forever be in these dark forms. When they return to their thrones. For a short time, they manage to play the role of good princesses. Still, the corruption inside them festers, and in less then ten years, they’ve divided Equestria between themselves and started an all-out civil war between the Solar Empire and Lunar Domain. Soon the other world powers attack, and they join forces once more. Egged on by the foreign attack, the two dark queens amuse themselves by challenging each other to see who can conquer the world first. Billions of lives are lost in the conflict, which is only ended by a certain sleeping Queen, who manages to overcome the dark Queens thanks to them tiring themselves out fighting the rest of the world.”
The event described by Dusk played out before the everypony. Ending with Kira killing a battered Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker by cutting off their heads. Not all is well though, the scene lingered, focusing on the Future Kira, short of breath. She begins to cry, doing nothing to treat the wounds inflicted on her. The goddess of Nippon sways and falls over. The scene fades away, returning to black.
“Well, that was depressing. What was number two?” Kira asked with forced levity.
“Same thing, but you lived in the end.” Answered Dusk. “Now as much fun as it is to view possible and not so possible futures. There is a reason I’ve revealed myself to you all, and yes, it involves events yet to come.”
“So what future event do we need to look out for? A war? Return of an old foe?” Inquired Celestia. “What can we expect?”
“Well, that’s the tricky part. You remember how I told you guys you got the third worse timeline? Well, your all hugging the bloodier and more depressing lines, tight. At this point, the bloodless timelines have fallen to only a 20% chance of happening. I’m sorry to say, it’s not even one thing, the futures are so chaotic I can’t even tell how they happened. I can view the past and future, but if I don’t have the creature's name, it’s like looking for a book in a library without an index. The best advice I can give you try not to start any wars and all those sealed foes from the past? You better start offing them now.”
“I thought you said you can view the past as it truly happened, why is the future so different?” That was Daring.
Dusk growled frustratedly at the question, “Because the future includes every possible choice of every creature spread out to every variable. It’s why the future where Nightmare Moon and Nightmare Sixes rule Equestria still exists! There are so many variables to track down to get to the conclusion it’s impossible. FYI, don’t worry about that future. It’s has a less than 10% chance of happening.”
“How do you know that?” That was Rainbow Dash, sounding very skeptical.
“UGH! It’s part of my skill set! Ok! I can just tell how likely a future is to happen! That’s not the point! I’ve been nudging you towards the better future, with as little interference as possible, and know I’m pushing you. Because as it stands right now, a future where every pony in this room is alive in twenty years doesn’t happen! Here let me give you a glimpse!”
Activating the view glass once more, everypony leaned in close in awe. In the floating sphere was Twilight Sparkle.
A very haggard, battle-hardened Twilight Sparkle. The future Twilight wore an eye patch over her left eye, her hair cropped short, her left foreleg prosthetic. Numerous scars covered her body. Interestingly two long parallel scars traveled down her back.
Future Twilight fired a massive magical missile that would put even the most legendary mages to shame. She cartwheeled and dodged attacks from a mysterious foe that appeared all in shadow. Nothing could discern her foes identity, but they could identify it as an alicorn. The landscape was a mountain covered in ruins. The location was most likely Canterlot.
A voice shouted, “Stay back!” Another pony, this one a golden yellow unicorn, with red and yellow hair like fire pushed Twilight out of danger. The view shifted again, revealing the newcomer to be Alicorn as well.
While everyone was glued to the epic battle, Dusk glanced at Celestia, who covered her mouth with shock and was crying silently. Muttering, “She returned, and she… I can’t believe it.” No one else seemed to hear the Princess.
That was fine.
Dusk closed the viewing orb, less she shows too much. “That is only one of the possible outcomes. Keep in mind that of the ponies here, Twilight is the only still alive. Fighting an unknown threat in a futile fight.”
Twilight gulped, yet she looked oddly excited. “That spell casting and power, it only took a second! Is that really me?”
“One possible version of you.” Dusk clarified. “That was future twenty-five of two hundred, so don’t get too attached. Keep in mind you have to put in the effort for that Twilight to exist.”
“Right!”
“Who was the other pony, the alicorn?” Luna asked, feeling a strange familiarity about golden Alicorn.
“Unfortunately, depending on your choices, she may or may not factor in. So, keep an open mind.” Dusk let out a sigh. “I hate repeating myself, but the future isn’t carved in stone, it’s like sand. Easily rewritten. Just know that for every choice you make, the possible futures narrow. My best advice, just live your lives as you have, but keep an eye out for strange coincidences.”
Dusk flickered.
“Ah, my time draws short. Sake, my loyal servant, and friend, I suggest you go patch things with your family.” She smiled kindly, ruffling the Runaway Princess’s mane. “I probably won’t be calling on you again in this lifetime.”
“Lady Dusk… please, I can still be useful in your mission!”
“No,” Dusk said gently. “No, you’ve done enough. I’ve left you with everything you’ll need. It’s time for you to go home, Sake.”
Luna looked pained as the Tawny Alicorn began to flicker more and more, “Dusk! Will… will we see you again?”
She smiled genuinely at Luna. “Maybe one day in a century or more. I should have conserved my strength, this was my last chance to warn you, but my hourglass has run out for now… goodbye, Luna, Celestia, Sixes, Fury, Kira. Thank you for everything. It was fun, just like the old days.”
As suddenly as she appeared, Dusk disappeared. Sake sobbing at her departure.
“She can’t come back again. She can only spend so much time outside Cosmic Plane, and she used it all up. Now she’s trapped there, all alone, forced to watch history play out until the hourglass is refilled. It takes a century in our time to recharge.”
“So, that’s what she meant,” Luna muttered gloomily but smiled none the less. “Well, for those of us that are long-lived, we’ll just have to survive this coming disaster and greet her in a hundred years.”
“So, what do we do?”
“She was pretty vague.”
“Well,” Kira began. “I have a few suggestions.”