Seems my cutie-mark has changed. There are now two white spots on it, the reflection of the glass. That means the pain that I had to deal with for so long has finally been lifted off me, the creature is no longer after me; it has served its purpose. It is now all up to Dr. Minuette.
This is exactly what I wanted to avoid! I am such a fool! This is all my fault!
I was back in my clinic again, with my memories gone. This time was going to be the last. I didn’t write down anything that I learned in the previous future; I only wrote two simple sentences instead. “Get Twilight’s memory spell. Don’t tell anypony anything.” I even signed it with my name. Of course, I didn’t remember why I had the scroll and why I set myself those two objectives, but I wasn’t going to question myself.
As soon as I could, I went to the restricted section of the magic library. Even though Twilight’s spell is a benign one, its full capabilities haven’t been tested yet. And untested spells need to be kept in the restricted section. Thankfully, I was allowed access once I graduated from Celestia’s school and got my permit to do research on these untested spells.
I ran into Moondancer on my way. I told her that I just needed to look into something. She wanted to come with me, but I didn’t let her. I told her to get to the girls at Joe’s and I’ll get back in about an hour or so. She could tell something was off, but she trusted me and done as I said.
Getting into the restricted section was easy, but actually finding Twilight’s spell was difficult. I just had no idea where to look. Eventually, I found it, laying on a table, almost as if somepony copied it in a hurry and didn’t bother putting it back into its place. One of the library pencils was next to it and it had teeth marks on it, which means a non-unicorn has been using it at some point.
There was no way to cast the spell on myself, since the spell requires a focus item, in some way connected to the target of the spell. That’s how Twilight used it as well, to fix her friends’ cutie-marks and revert the memories of who they are. Unfortunately, I don’t have an element of harmony and I don’t remember projecting my essence onto any object. But I had an idea. I focused the memory spell into the scroll with the time reversal spell. I figured, I have probably used it already and that’s why it was with me. This would mean, I tore it from its natural place in time and space, in which case it is very much connected to me. I thought it was worth a shot anyway.
Once I imbued the scroll with the memory spell, I touched it. The re-emergence of lost memories was overwhelming. The memories of all the alternate futures zipped through my mind and I had to watch my friends get devoured by the monster again. But most importantly, I remembered who I am, what the monster was and most of all, that it is my duty to destroy it. When the flood of memories ended and I was back in the library, I found myself being stared at by my friends and Doctor Hooves.
“What happened?” Lemon asked me.
“Are you okay?” Moondancer helped me up.
Doctor Hooves stepped forward to me and in a stern voice he asked: “Do you remember now?”
“I do.” I answered. “And I know exactly what I need to do.”
“Remember what?” Lemon questioned further.
“Wait, since when did you know each-other?” Lyra added.
I remembered back to what Lyra said in that alternate future. “I need salt,” I stated, “lots of salt!”
“Are we eating something?” Lyra joked.
“But Minuette,” Hooves got concerned, “we have already tried that and it didn’t work.”
“Insides don’t grow back.” I repeated Lyra’s wisdom.
Nopony understood what we were talking about, but I assured them that I’d explain it later, so they went with it. Soon we all gathered at my house, everypony with bags of salt stacked into large piles.
“Would you tell us already what you need all this salt for?” Lemon glared at me impatiently.
I didn’t actually want to explain it to them. The whole story is a lot to take in and I wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible.
“I want to destroy something.” I gave a vague answer.
“Destroy what?” Lemon prodded further. “A river’s ecosystem?”
“But you can’t!” Hooves tried to talk me out of it. “We have already tried and it didn’t work!”
“I know what to do and I know how to do it.” I asserted.
“What the hay are you two talking about?!” Lemon swung her hoof in the air in frustration.
“Don’t worry about it.” I withheld my answer with a melancholic smile. I grabbed all the bags of salt with my magic and turned to the others. “We’ll meet at the Crystal Cave’s entrance. If I’m not there in... Three hours, then consider me dead.”
Of course, that last statement concerned them greatly, but I didn’t wait for their reaction. I teleported inside the caves under Canterlot; I remembered glimpses of it, from back when I was under the changeling Queen’s spell. As a doctor, I was taught ways to resist mind spells, so she had to take some extra effort to fully put me under her control. Who would have thought, that I’d have to fight another monster in the same spot?
I prepared to cast veritatem revelandam once more. But before I did, I cut open one bag of salt and poured its contents onto the ground. I closed my eyes and casted the spell. I looked around me and the monster slowly revealed itself to me. It was much larger than the last time I have come face to face with it. I could see it swirling above me like a supercell, the odious sound of its bubbling eyeballs, like laughter at my inevitable doom.
“Bring it!” I taunted the creature.
As expected, it latched itself onto my horn and soon covered my entire head. As its physical body began to form and slowly overwhelm me with its size, I threw myself face-first into the puddle of salt I prepared.
It let go of my face, its slimy body fizzed as it writhed away in its pain. But soon, the rest of its body erupted from the dried wound and its full size materialized in front of me. Then its shell emerged, with all eye stalks fixated on me, as if it was saying “You’ll pay for that.”
I stared it down and waited for its next attack. Its body expanded like an enormous mouth and loomed over me. It grabbed me and then wrestled me inwards. I’ve come face to face with its noxious radula. A small tentacle-like appendage emerged from the side and stabbed me, injecting a paralyzing poison into me. But before it could take over me, I teleported one bag of salt into my hooves and pushed it straight into its feeding hole. Its radula pulled the bag inside, the rows of teeth sliced the bag open and the salt poured right down its esophagus.
A torrent of salinated saliva erupted into my face and the creature spat me out against the cave’s walls. It retreated, gurgling in agony, leaving behind a trail of foam. Its bubbling eyestalk retracted into its shell, the pupils inside vibrating in painful confusion. It tried to buy some time, as the poison took control of my body. But before the paralysis could fully set in, I sliced open several other bags of salt and I levitated all of it behind me, like tall menacing snakes ready to strike. I hobbled towards it, faster than it could crawl away and in a last surge of strength I forced its mouth open and directed the streams of salt straight at its wounded radula.
It gurgled, as the salt poured down into its body, crumpling up its insides. A putrid mix of slimy blood, salt and gastric acid exploded out from its esophagus. The burning flood threw me on the ground, as the paralyzing poison finally took over. I lied in the growing puddle of acid, covered in chunks of dried up organs. I could do nothing but watch as the once fearsome monster squirmed in agony, as its body slowly shrivelled up, its eyes no longer forming, only unforming. The horrid gurgling echoed through the caves.
With time, the monster’s suffering ended and it was nothing but a formless unrecognizable mess, leaning against the cave’s wall. The acidic solution that used to be its internal anatomy made a fizzing lake, of which I was lying in the middle. I could feel the acid dissolve my fur and burn at my skin. The last thing I could hear was the echoes of Lyra’s voice screaming my name over and over.
...