Day turned into night, and the sky was lit up by about a thousand metaphorical diamonds which sparkled in the deep purple sky. I say about because nopony could manually count every star visible and I didn’t have my star maps with me, so instead I just lay back and admired their beauty.
The trouble is that once you’ve actually been out there and seen what’s beyond those stars, you can never just look at them anymore.
Especially if you’re me. I found myself trying to identify the different colours of stars – so far I had found twelve blue, five orange, ten white, eight red and fifteen yellow – and trying to pick out other phenomena as well.
But I hadn’t found anything. It was just stars.
Still, Luna probably wouldn’t want to make her sky too complicated, and stars can be beautiful all on their own. You can try to pick out pictures in them. So far I’ve found innumerable triangles and squares, plus a potato.
I know, right?
Anyway, I digress. As I was saying, if you’ve been out there like I have, you start wondering how many of those stars act as suns to the planets that may be orbiting them. And how many of those planets have life on them. You start searching for their spacecrafts and your imagination gets carried away to the point where the slightest blink of light could be a UFO.
“Hey, Hex.”
I looked around at the sound of the boyish yet feminine voice and saw Rainbow Dash standing in the doorway.
“I forgot to tell you,” she said, walking over and lying on the cold stone next to me, “it’s really good to see you again.”
“Good to see you too,” I replied. “I was wondering how you were while I was in City 17. It’s good to see you’re okay.”
“You shouldn’t have worried,” Dash said, sounding a lot more like her old smug self, “Somepony as awesome as me was bound to be okay! Besides, I… I kinda had help fighting.”
“I noticed,” I said. “You and Soarin’ seem closer than ever. I guess war isn’t as bad as-”
“As what?”
Her tone suggested that I might be digging myself into a hole, so I decided to climb out by saying “Nothing.”
We stared up at the sky together. The moon hung overhead like a great white ghost.
I once heard about a guy who called the police saying that there was an unidentified flying object over his house, that it was hovering rather low and was very, very bright.
It was the moon.
“Hex?”
“Yeah?”
“You wanna tell me what happened?”
I looked over at her.
“What do you mean?” I asked. “A lot’s happened in my life, so do you think you could be a little more specific?”
“What happened to you?” she asked. “Way back in the beginning. You just… vanished. Like you’d never even existed in the first place. You should have seen Twilight, she was really upset! She stayed in her room for days after you’d gone!”
I explained to her about the G-Colt taking me and putting me in stasis, and then everything that had happened after I was returned and put in City 17. I swear she was the best audience I’ve had in a long time. She actually cheered when I told her about taking down Trixie!
“…and then we got to this place, and then it was now, and I have no idea what’s going to happen next so I’m going to finish,” I finished.
“That was AWESOME!” Dash cried joyfully. “I can’t believe you actually killed Trixie, I’ve wanted to do that for years but you actually did it! And you saved Twilight and the Doctor and you probably saved the entire population of City 17 by delaying the reactor meltdown. Do you have any idea how cool that is?”
“Very cool,” I said in agreement. “I’m well aware of that.”
“It sure will be a cool story to tell your kids someday.”
Uh…
“What?”
“Oh, come on!” said Dash, nudging me with her hoof. “You two would make awesome parents. You’d probably have the smartest foals in the history of Equestria – no bad guys would be safe!”
“Rainbow Dash, this isn’t exactly a world safe for bringing up foals,” I stated. “I wouldn’t want to have my kids growing up only knowing a world where they have to fight just for the right to breathe. I’m amazed that Lightning Strike turned out so normal.”
It was at this that she seemed to calm down considerably. I had expected her to leap up in rage since what I said could be interpreted as me questioning her parenting skills.
“Well, we did our best,” she told me. “Soarin’ and I kept him out of combat for as long as possible. We wanted to give him a normal life, away from all the fighting and bloodshed. He deserved so much better than to grow up surrounded by soldiers and guns. It wasn’t easy-”
“-but you seem to have managed it,” I finished for her.
“I guess,” she said. “He didn’t get interested in the war until he was thirteen and we decided it was time to teach him some self-defence. He caught on pretty quickly, but he was always better at keeping others safe rather than himself. I think if the Combine hadn’t invaded, he would have been a brilliant cop. He’s even got the cutie mark to match.”
“I was going to say,” I said, “it is one smegging cool cutie mark.”
She smiled, and I couldn’t help but smile back.
“What about you?” I asked. “How have you been?”
“I’ve been okay,” said Dash. “Apart from, you know, fighting and stuff. You probably heard I got captured by Commabies when Lightning was five. It was hell, but you know: what doesn’t kill you, huh? Though I suppose I should consider myself lucky that I lived to see you again.”
She pulled me into another hug.
“I really am glad to see you,” she said. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything to help.”
“Don’t be,” I said. “You already had enough on your plate, what with being a mother and all.”
I couldn’t see, but I could tell she was smiling.
“Hey Mom! Hex!”
We broke apart and looked to the doorway to see the aforementioned teenager, now wearing Overwatch armour with no mask, standing in the doorway.
“You might want to come in,” he said. “We’ve started discussing our plan of attack.”
The two of us obediently stood up and followed him downstairs to the second floor where Shine, Soarin’ and Twilight were lying in front of a roaring fireplace with several maps and blueprints spread on the ground before them, apparently in the middle of a discussion. Lightning laid himself on the floorboards between his parents and I settled down next to Twilight, who nuzzled me affectionately on the cheek.
“Okay,” said Shine, “so far we’ve determined that the Archives are pretty heavily guarded. There are four shifts of guards which patrol for six hours each day and take around fifteen seconds to change.”
“Fifteen seconds?” I said. “That’s pretty quick even by Combine standards.”
“Yeah, but that’s our only window of opportunity,” Soarin’ pointed out. “The entire building is coated in steel plating except for the main entrance. It’s the only way in, and it only opens to allow the outside guard to change. We’ll have to use that time to get in.”
“You do know this plan is incredibly dangerous?” said Twilight. “A fifteen second window of opportunity isn’t really very much time to get six ponies inside that building. And where are the time spells kept?”
“Unless they were moved, they’re in the Star Swirl the Beared wing,” Shine explained. “I think the Combine know better than to touch such magically powerful artefacts, so unless the entire section was walled off we won’t have much trouble.”
“Say it is walled off,” Dash suggested, “and there’s no way to get inside. What do we do then, just turn around and try again tomorrow?”
“No,” said Shine. “We have to find a way to get in there. We’ve been fighting for too long for this to just be stopped by a brick wall or some poxy sheet of steel. Hell, if we pull this off, the Combine might never have been here in the first place!”
“Huh?” I said. “What’re you talking about?”
Twilight pushed aside several sheets of paper and uncovered a small diagram with a couple of lines. If you’ve seen Back to the Future part II you’ll know what I’m talking about: a horizontal line with a cross on each end and another near the middle with a second line skewing off from it.
“This,” she said, indicating the first cross, “is when you started building your GLaDOS. This,” she pointed at the one on the end, “is the present, and this central point is when the Combine invaded. If we can somehow prevent you from activating that machine then everything taking place now will never have happened. The timeline will skew off into an alternate tangent with a peaceful Equestria, not inhabited by alien invaders, and a considerable number of innocent ponies still alive.”
She looked around the group.
“I think we’re all in agreement in saying this would be a huge benefit,” she added.
“You said it,” said Soarin’. “The next change of guard is in one and a half hours. If we leave as soon as possible we’ll make it there in time to attack and get into the building, after which it shouldn’t be too hard to find the Star Swirl the Bearded Wing.”
He bowed his head.
“There’s nothing I want more than for things to go back to the way they were before,” he said. “When Spitfire was alive.”
“Who’s Spitfire?” I whispered to Twilight.
“His best friend before the invasion,” she replied.
Shine stood up and the rest of us followed suit. He led the way out of the guard quarters and onto the street. Soarin’, however, turned away and started walking in a different direction.
“Where’s Dad going?” asked Lightning.
“I’ll check,” I said, and I ran after the pegasus.
I found him a couple of streets away, standing in the middle of the road looking more solemn than I had ever seen him. He walked over to a wild passionfruit plant which was growing up the side of a nearby building, pulled off one of the brightly coloured flowers and laid it on the ground next to a skeleton.
I guess it would take too long to find a peace lily.
He looked around and noticed me, but didn’t seem to mind that I was there: on the contrary, he seemed to take comfort in the fact that I was with him. He didn’t respond when I walked over to him and remained silent even when I was standing right next to him.
I looked down at the skeleton. It was wearing the rotted remains of what appeared to be a Wonderbolt uniform and judging by the shape of the skull, it was a mare. Several scraps of orange mane hung off her scalp and flank, there were several bullets sitting in her ribcage that were visible through the decomposing fabric and as I watched, Soarin’ bent down and kissed her bony muzzle.
“You alright?” I asked him.
“I never was good at getting over things,” Soarin’ sighed with a faint smile. “I mean, my dad died when I was nine, my mom when I was eighteen and it was the reason I left Rainbow Dash when I was going on twenty, ‘coz I thought if I loved her to much something horrible would happen to her. Look how that turned out.”
He laid down on the floor, still gazing longingly at the bones.
“Spitfire was the best friend I ever had,” he said. “She was always there for me when nopony else was. Like, I went through a pretty bad phase after I lost my mom – I spent almost all night, every night, drinking hard cider in a bar – and this stuff was hard, like, sixty or seventy per cent proof. I’d always pass out ‘coz I was so plastered and I’d always wake up in her house. She’d ask around to find out where I was and take me to her place to keep an eye on me. I never realised how much she really meant to me until…”
He trailed off, sniffed and wiped his muzzle on his foreleg.
“Rainbow Dash had taken Lightning outside to get some fresh air,” he explained. “There was an Overwatch patrol and she had to run right into the city to escape, but the Combine cornered her in an alley. Spitfire and I went to search for her and, well… there was a soldier hiding in a doorway and I didn’t notice it until it had mowed her down. She died in my hooves and there was absolutely nothing I could do.”
His voice was cracking. He was obviously on the verge of tears. I put one of my hooves on his shoulder and against all probability he pulled me into a very tight hug. I patted Soarin’ on the back as he sobbed wretchedly into my shoulder.
It was quite a while before he picked up the courage to speak again.
“You must think I’m an absolute idiot,” he wept. “Still hung up on a friend who died seventeen years ago. Any normal pony would’ve got over it by now, right? I’m such a wuss.”
“No you’re not,” I said. “It’s perfectly normal to grieve. I’d actually think you were an idiot if you didn’t. Besides, you should know by now that if we succeed tonight, she’ll never have died in the first place.”
“I know that,” said Soarin’, “but I just- I miss her okay? I miss her… so, so much!”
He buried his muzzle in my shoulder and wept shamelessly.
“I get how you feel,” I told him. “I lost my little brother when I was ten. The only difference is that there was plenty I could have done about it and I’ve had to live with that guilt ever since.”
He pulled away and looked at me, understanding entering his face for the first time, and wiped his face again.
“Come on,” I said as I got to my hooves, “the others will be wondering where we are.”
I helped him stand and we once again galloped full pelt through the city of Canterlot in order to catch up with the rest of our little group.
They had moved quite a distance in the time Soarin’ had spent visiting Spitfire’s remains, and thanks to years of urban decay and Combine defence building the streets of Canterlot had become something of a maze. I’m wondering if we’ll ever find the others again-
“Hex! Soarin’! Over here!”
At Dash’s call we ran into an alleyway after her.
“What took you guys so long?” she asked. “We were beginning to wonder if you were even still alive.”
“Sorry about that,” said Soarin’. “I was just visiting a friend.”
His wife gave him an understanding smile and a small kiss on the lips before leading us to where Shine, Twilight and Lightning were waiting. They were confused or even worried at first, and Lightning was the first to speak.
“Are you okay, Dad?” he asked, obviously knowing what his father had been doing.
“I will be,” said Soarin’, “I will be, kid.”
“Then let’s move,” said Twilight. “We don’t have much time left.”
Our journey through the former capital city of Equestria was by far one of the quietest city-based excursions I’d ever been on before. Twilight walked next to her BBBFF, both detailing their separate tales of their over-extended period of severance. Soarin’ and Dash strode side-by-side, occasionally exchanging cheeky glances and I found myself once again with Lightning.
“Twilight and Shining Armor seem pretty happy,” he commented.
“Well, can you blame them?” I asked. “Each has spent the best part of nearly twenty years believing each other done for. Shine probably believed Twi was dead, even though he was searching for her for a majority of the time, and Twilight had pretty much given up hope. I’m not surprised they’re glad see each other again, but I think that’s a bit of an understatement.”
“You could say that again,” said Lightning. “They didn’t part for the whole time you and Dad were back there. Just one question: why couldn’t you have told me that he wasn’t just the Blue Demon, but also Twilight’s brother?”
“You fainted when you found out he was the Blue Demon,” I pointed out. “I had no idea how you’d react to discovering he was an extremely close relative of a mare you’d grown up with.”
“That’s a pretty good point,” said Lightning.
We walked in silence for a few moments – not because it was an awkward moment or anything, but because neither of us could think of anything to talk about. But there was definitely something on my mind…
“Lightning?”
“Yeah?”
“I… I’m really sorry I could be around while you were growing up. I know it wasn’t my fault and all – well, it probably was – but I really would have liked to get to know you sooner.”
“That’s okay,” said Lightning with a smile. “And besides; at the end of this you’ll have the chance to do it over. Not to mention… you know.”
“Huh?” I was genuinely confused. “What’re you talking about?”
“You know,” said Lightning with a sleazy voice and a nudge in my chest. “If all goes well I might not be the only new kid in Ponyville anymore. Especially considering you and Twilight being together now-”
“Oh, come on!” I said. “Is that the only thing anypony’s talking about anymore? What Twilight and I do with our love life is not exactly the sort of thing I’d like to become the main subject of Equestrian gossip! So if you don’t mind, I’d like you to keep your muzzle out of our relationship.”
“Okay, okay!” said Lightning. “Sheesh, I’m sorry, okay?”
“Fair enough,” I replied, and after a while I added, “I like your cutie mark.”
Lightning looked back at the blood coloured peace symbol over two crossed swords which was emblazoned on his flank.
“I like yours,” he said.
I looked back at my flank and saw my cutie mark – a large white-edged-with-blue lightning bolt flanked (no pun intended) by two smaller ones – and I have to admit I agree with him.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Now listen, all of you,” said Shine. “As we move closer to the Archives, we’re going to encounter unreality bubbles.”
“What’re unreality bubbles?” asked Dash.
“They’re areas where spell traps have been set to dissuade and disorient wayward wanderers,” Twilight explained. “We can disable them, but they’re impossible to detect and they could be anywhere-”
FLASH. And I’m blind.
“-so we’re going to have to be on our guard.”
Wai-WHAT?!
That did NOT sound like Twilight! That- That sounded like a colt!
“What the hay?” said the masculine voice. “What’s happened to my voice? What’s going on?”
My eyesight slowly returned, and I immediately wished it had gone again.
Twilight had… changed. Her eyelashes had shortened to the point where they were barely visible, her muzzle had extended and her face shape was generally more squared-off and angular, her body structure had expanded and become more muscular, along with her now short and choppy multicolour mane.
Twilight Sparkle was a stallion. And I have to admit: he’s not exactly bad to look at.
I looked around and it was the same story everywhere. Rainbow Dash had also grown in size, and her mane had become considerably shorter and spikier. Her tail had become a sort of thunderbolt shape and for some strangely awesome reason her eyebrows were shaped like lightning.
“What the buck?” she exclaimed in a rough voice which was very easy on the ears. “What the hell’s going on?”
“I’m guessing this is one of the unreality bubbles you were talking about,” said Soarin’. His form had become a lot smaller, and his artificial eye looked a little odd on such a round head. He made quite a pretty mare, I’ll admit.
Why am I finding male Twilight and male Dash so attractive? Unless…
I turned to a nearby boarded up window and yanked the planks away from the flimsy wooden frame before examining my reflection in the dulled glass.
I’m a MARE.
“Holy smeg!” I cried. “What the- is that my voice? *cough* is that MY voice? Smegging hell, I sound like a talent show host!”
“Be happy,” said a young mare I only just recognised as Lightning Strike. “At least you don’t look like some back-end supermodel.” His mane, rather than being short and combed over her face like it had when he was a colt, it was now draped carelessly over his face as though he was a cheap Fluttershy knockoff made by lazy mold makers.
“Holy buck,” shouted Dash upon seeing the female Soarin’, “you look so adorable!”
“Will you shut- wow,” said Soarin’, cutting himself off in mid-sentence. “Dashie, has anypony told you that you look absolutely smokin’ as a colt? And I’m not saying that just because I’m a mare: you are genuinely sexy right now.”
“Well,” said male Dash, moving closer to his lover, “maybe if this lasts, you and I could have a little fun experimenting together.”
“Uh, you guys don’t mind?” asked Lightning, quite obviously squicked.
While Shine tried to figure out the right kind of shield needed to protect us from this particular unreality bubble, Twilight approached me with her- his face glowing cherry red.
“I, uh,” he said, “I guess if this lasts our relationship could get rather interesting. You-you actually make a really pretty mare.”
“And you make a smegging handsome stallion,” I responded.
“Alright,” said Shine, “I think I’ve got this figured out. Twilight, could you come over here and give me some help?”
“Sure thing,” said Twilight, “BSBFF.”
“Ha! I get it!” cried Dash as the two unicorns approached each other.
Their horns touched and half a second later everything was back to normal.
“Huh,” said Dash, feeling her mane to check that it was in order, “I won’t say I liked being a stallion, but I won’t say I didn’t like it either. It was interesting; I’ll just say that and leave it.”
“That spell will shield us from the bubble, but it could break at any moment,” said Twilight. “Due to deterioration the spells around the Archives have become very unstable and potentially dangerous. We’ll have to stick close from now on.”
We bunched together and walked through the city in a much tighter knit group.
“This makes me feel a little uncomfortable,” said Lightning.
“If it’ll keep you save, then you’d better get used to it,” said Dash. “I’m not letting my son die on my watch.”
“Your mother has a point, Lightning,” said Soarin’. “It’s better to risk having somepony tread on your heels-”
FLASH. Again I was suddenly blinded.
“-so get used to- What the- WHAT?!”
If that was still Soarin’ I would have thought he had turned into a mare again if it weren’t for the apparent roughness of his voice.
When my eyesight returned I found myself surrounded by foals. It seemed that this bubble had regressed our ages back to when we were still children. Even Shine’s turned into a little colt!
“What the hay?” said filly Dash. “Why did we all shrink?”
“It’s another unreality bubble!” exclaimed colt Shine.
“I think we kinda figured that out!” said colt Lightning.
What- what kind of spell is this? This is ridiculous! I must be about five years old now! Is this how foals always feel?
Plus, I-I gotta pee.
NO! Now I’m thinking like a foal!
“Shiny!” whined filly Twilight. “We have to find a way to fix this! All the spells are disappearing from my head and I wanna lollipop!”
“O-okay!” said Shine while Lightning curled up with his parents and started crying about puppies. “We have to figure this out! Everypony, think adult thoughts and try to hold on to your previous personalities!”
Okay then, uh… quantum physics, circuitry, artificial intelligence; these are all things you know as an eighteen-year-old, not a five-year-old! Hold on to them, for smeg’s sake! Although I must say that the prospect of a new toy fire truck is sounding increasingly tantalising… NO!
“Oh no!” cried Twilight. “Hex, we need you!”
While trying to recall the first time I fired a gun, I walked over to where Shine and Twilight were looking extremely worried.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, and was astounded at how high my voice was again. “I’m trying to remember my first fire fight!”
“Because we’ve been regressed to foals, we don’t have enough power to cast the shield spell!” Shine exclaimed. “We’re gonna need you to join in!”
The three of us touched our horns together, and in another flash I felt as though my heart, my brain, most of my digestive system and a grand majority of my pancreas had been yanked out through my forehead. I felt my body thrown back and I hit the ground with a thud.
“Did it work?” I asked. My voice does sound lower…
“I… I think so,” said Twilight in a wavering voice. She looked over her freshly regrown body. “I really hope that doesn’t happen again. I think the best thing to do would be to just run. Gallop through the bubbles as quickly as possible and try ignore the things they do to us, because Shine and I can’t keep casting these spells forever.”
She helped her brother stand up and he rubbed his head, eyes rolling in different directions as he tried to regain his wits. He shook his head, blue mane flying everywhere, and seemed to return to normal.
“That sounds like a good plan except for one thing,” said Lightning. “What if they turn us into things which can’t run?”
“Yeah, what if they turn us into fish or something?” asked Dash.
“I think it’s decent,” said Soarin’, “but we should all just try to keep our heads-”
FLASH.
This time we had all switched heads.
“Very funny.”
Do you have any idea how disturbing it was to see Twilight’s head speaking with Soarin’s voice? So! Smegging! CREEPY!
“You heard the pony!” cried Shine’s head in Twilight’s voice. “RUN!”
And so it was that six ponies galloped at the speed of the gods through the streets of Canterlot in the direction of the most powerful spells in Equestria while constantly changing shape and trying to retain sanity.
It was the most terrifying dash I had ever executed in my whole life. Have you ever tried running while your body is unsure what it’s meant to be? The head switching thing was pretty quickly resolved, but after that things just got weirder and weirder and weirder. I found myself wondering if I could ever emerge from this with my sanity, or even with my own body.
I felt a little like one of those cardboard books I had as a child. You know, the ones where the pages are cut into pieces and have people of varying jobs on each page so that you can have a fireman’s head on a doctor’s body with a policeman’s legs and teacher’s feet? That’s how I felt at that moment, and right now my inner child was feeling very creative. I think I even had a complex arrangement of tentacles instead of legs at one point and it was absolutely smegging terrifying! And then another time I just turned into a wisp of smoke!
“Everypony stop, we’re here!”
Shine stopped galloping so suddenly that I ran into the back of him, and then Twilight ran into the back of me, Dash hit her, Soarin’ collided with Dash and Lightning got stuck on the end.
“Is everything okay back there?” asked Shine. “Everypony… complete?”
Lightning’s mane resolidified and flopped onto his face.
“No, yeah, we’re cool,” he said sarcastically.
We detached ourselves from each other and looked up ahead at-
-a brick wall.
“This is a brick wall,” I stated bluntly.
As I watched, Shine levitated his little sister up into the air until she was on top of the wall, at which point she jumped down and called “It’s clear!”
One by one the tall white stallion levitated us over the tall blockade of bricks. I’ve never felt another pony’s telekinesis before and Shine’s tickled rather pleasantly. Not in a perverted way, so get your mind out of the gutter. When we were all on the other side he levitated himself over and we continued on our way.
And we didn’t have far to go, because the Archives were visible right at the end of the alley, as well as the two soldiers standing outside on either side of the entrance.
“Wow,” said Twilight, “this place has really changed since I last saw it.”
“I guessed,” I told her. “It couldn’t have been this ugly before the invasion. Smeg, it’s even worse up close.”
“Shh!” Shine whispered, and turned to the huge building. “Okay, the door should be opening in three… two…”
The double doors slowly creaked open and the two soldiers walked inside.
“GO!”
As the new guards left the building the first thing they saw was six very angry ponies charging towards them, and they quickly met their doom at the end of a magic beam courtesy of Twilight. Once inside we mowed down the soldiers in the corridor and slammed the doors closed.
“Let’s move quickly!” shouted Soarin’. “Somepony will have heard that!”
Sure enough, the corridor was flooded with soldiers at both ends and we set to work exterminating them. This time Twilight led the way, shooting beams of magic in all directions to make a clear path, and kept running until she was a couple of floors up.
“Okay!” she shouted. “If my calculations are correct the Star Swirl the Bearded wing should be right here!”
We all looked at the opening in the wall.
“Is that it?” asked Lightning, clearly unimpressed.
“I guess so,” said Shine with a shrug.
“But it’s just metal bars!” the colt pointed out. “That’s literally all it is! Iron bars with a lock!”
“Yes, but look at all those priceless magic scrolls,” said Twilight, staring hungrily at the rolls of paper on the shelves inside.
“There are more in there than I could ever have imagined!”
“Twilight!” shouted Dash. “The guards!”
Without hesitation, Shine zapped the iron lock and it melted away into nothing, allowing the door to swing open. We all ran inside and he covered the open doorway with another deep pink shield.
“Find a time spell, quickly!” he commanded. “That shield’s not going to hold for long!”
While he sustained the force field which was all that stood between us and death, the rest of us started sorting through the scrolls in desperate search of a time travel spell.
Sheet after elderly sheet of parchment piled up in the ‘checked’ heap underneath a massive hourglass as we hunted madly for the one which would set right what went wrong all those years ago.
“What about this one?” said Soarin’. “It says you can go back once and it only lasts for a few seconds.”
Twilight snatched the scroll away from him and quickly scanned through the writing.
“It’s worth a shot,” she said. “However, I think it would be best if we looked for something a little more effective than a one-shot. A few seconds isn’t nearly-”
“No, Twilight,” said Soarin’. “Don’t you get it? This is how I passed that message on to my past self about going back to Rainbow! One of you cast this spell on me and sent me back!”
I exchanged a glance with Twilight.
“Definitely worth a shot,” I concluded.
“What’s going on back there?” asked Shine as he fired more magic at the shield.
“We’re going to try something out!” called Rainbow Dash.
Twilight bowed her head and screwed up her face in concentration as her horn began to glow.
“Good luck, Soarin’,” I said.
“Hey, don’t sweat,” said the pegasus. “How hard could this be?”
The light from Twilight’s horn became a thin concentrated beam which hit Soarin’ in the chest and caused him to start glowing.
“On second thoughts,” he said nervously, “I changed my mind!”
He turned around and started to run away screaming-
-and vanished.
There was silence for a few moments, and then the guards outside came to their senses and resumed firing upon Shine’s shield, which he had to restrengthen yet again.
“Oh no,” said Dash quietly.
“What’s wrong, Mom?” asked Lightning.
“I-I just realised,” she said. “If we succeed, we won’t have done this. Soarin’ wouldn’t have been sent back from the past to tell himself to go back to me. What would I do? I-I don’t think I could go through it all again. Alone.”
“Hey,” I said, and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “I’m sure he’d go back to you. What stallion wouldn’t?”
“Exactly,” said Twilight, laying one of her hooves on Dash’s other shoulder. “Soarin’s a good pony, Rainbow. He’d definitely find some reason to return to you and I know you’d be happy together.”
“And even if he doesn’t,” said Lightning, “we’ll be okay, Mom.”
Rainbow Dash, overwhelmed by her emotions, pulled the colt into another tight hug which he was more than happy to return.
“Let’s keep searching,” I said.
We scattered throughout the room and resumed sorting through the endless heaps of scrolls. A few seconds later Soarin’ reappeared in the middle of the room, and calmly re-joined our combing of the Star Swirl the Bearded wing.
“I got something!”
At Lightning’s shout, Shine once again fired at the shield as the teenager held up the scroll.
“It doesn’t let you go back in time,” he said, “but it does let you reverse it! It’s another one shot but you can go back as far as you need and change whatever you fancy!”
“Uh, change whatever you fancy?” I said. “I don’t think that’s the kind of thing you’d find written on a priceless magic scroll.”
Lightning sighed.
“Can’t you just let me be happy?” he asked as Twilight took the scroll out of his hooves. “I’m excited: I’ve just found a spell that could literally change the world for the better!”
“Good work, Lightning,” said Soarin’, and he gave his son a noogie while Dash hugged him lovingly.
Twilight quickly read the scroll, eyes moving rapidly down the parchment.
“Yes,” she said. “Yes, it could work! If we can reverse time to before the GLaDOS was activated we could avoid absolutely everything! We could save the whole world!”
She closed her eyes and her horn flickered briefly, but a few sparks was all that came out and they quickly faded away.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I used up so much power when I sent Soarin’ back,” she said. “I’m not sure if I have enough power to use this new spell!”
I placed a hoof on the back of her neck in a one legged hug.
“I can help you there,” I told her.
She didn’t say anything, and simply smiled sweetly.
“Good luck, guys,” said Dash.
“See you on the other side,” said Soarin’.
“Make sure I don’t grow up a jerk, okay?” said Lightning. “I don’t want to know I could have turned out better.”
Shine spared a moment to look back at us.
“I just know you’ll succeed,” he said. “Go for it, Twiley. You too, Hex. It’ll be good to get to know you again.”
Twilight and I turned to each other.
“You ready?” she asked.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I said.
She leaned closer to me, her horn still flickering as it collided with mine, and I closed my eyes and started to pour as much magic as possible into the solid spike of bone that sat upon my forehead. I felt it pouring out of the tip and transferring into Twilight’s body as the deep pink glow which began to surround us became striped with thin streaks of deep blue – the same deep blue which edged the lightning on my flank. I guess if it was viewed from outside, it would be very pretty.
I opened my eyes and saw her do the same. We looked around at the swirling orb of colours which had surrounded us on all sides, the shelves of magical scrolls only just visible through the translucent bars of magic. My eyes met hers, and I saw so much emotion in them I could barely believe what I was seeing: so much hope and happiness…
…and so much love. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out when a pony is in love, and I wouldn’t exactly call myself a genius.
I couldn’t tell whether we were floating or the ground had just dropped away, but we were hanging in mid-air with nothing under our hooves. I saw things rushing past outside the shield of pink and blue magic as we were transported back through time and space-
-and then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped.
I was standing up, not wearing an HEV suit or any kind of protective clothing, with my hoof on a large red button. My glasses were undamaged. My body was clean of cuts and bruises. The only evidence of what had transpired was the silver stripe of hair that was hanging on the periphery of my vision.
And I could feel a warm, welcome presence behind me.
“Twilight?” I wanted to know whether it really was her or not.
After a few seconds I heard her wonderful voice:
“Don’t push that button.”
I forced my hoof not to tremble as I lowered it to the smooth, cold stone ground and kept it there.
Then I looked around at the mass of machinery hanging from the ceiling.
It was a dumbass idea from the get-go. I mean, why would I even need a GLaDOS? What purpose would it serve other than to look cool and help me solve some of the more complex equations that come with advanced robotics and AI development?
That’s what I originally constructed it for anyway. After the Combine’s first attempt at invasion I redesigned it to monitor the resulting rift, which is probably what allowed Deluminata to possess the AI and allow the Combine into Equestria in the first place now that I think about it. I’m going to have to construct something smaller and less complex.
My eyes tracked down the body of the machine and fell upon Twilight.
Of course she looked exactly as she had on that day. How else would she look? There were shadows under her eyes – a consequence of the rough night’s sleep she’d had – and her horn was little more than a rough, jagged stump.
But she had retained the silver stripe in her mane. Maybe it’s because of what the dark energy did to our magic. I don’t know.
“Are… are you okay?” I asked carefully.
“I-I think so,” she said. “I’d better go home: Spike’s probably worried about me.”
She left.
I’m not sure how long I stood there staring blankly at the door she had departed through.
What does she think of me?
In all the time I was in Combine-controlled Equestria, she never actually said whether she blamed me or forgave me for allowing those monsters to invade in the first place. Am I ever going to find out what’s going on in that wonderful mind of hers?
I hope she doesn’t hate me. Because I don’t hate her. Quite the opposite: I know you may think I’m being sappy, but I feel like she’s the mare I’ve been waiting my whole life for.
She deserves so much better than me.
I tried to take her mind off her by disassembling my GLaDOS. Piece by useless piece came tumbling down to the ground as I wrenched the wretched thing to shreds and tossed them carelessly into the back room. I pulled out the wires, coiled them up and piled them in a corner. I broke circuit boards over my horn and folded panels into unusable lumps of metal.
I spent ages doing nothing but destroying the computer which had only brought Equestria pain…
…except it hadn’t.
All that never happened, did it? Maybe it did in an alternate multiverse: maybe we failed and the Overwatch mowed us all down. But in this place, in this Equestria, everypony lives. Just this once everypony lives.
By the time I looked out the window again, the sun had just touched the horizon and clouds were beginning to cover up the darkening sky.
I’m going to go and see Twilight.
I want to know that she’s okay.
And I’m not going to use a teleporter. I’m going to walk this time. I want her to know that I put some effort in.
If I ever return to that place it’ll be too soon. Way too much has happened there that I am nowhere near proud of. Like the GLaDOS it was doomed from the very beginning and should never have been attempted anyway.
There are some things I would return for though. Like my light globes – the little balls of glass with spidery, faerie-like wings that buzz slightly and illuminate the world with miniscule bolts of lightning suspended inside them. I think those are rather pretty and might even make cool toys or nightlights.
I wonder if Twilight will take me back.
As I pondered, growing weary from my journey down the mountain, the heavens opened and it began to rain right as the sun dipped below the horizon. I was going to arrive at Twilight’s place soaking wet, but right now I didn’t care one bit. All that mattered was that I see her again.
It was very, very dark by the time I reached the Golden Oaks library in Ponyville, and I was about ready to drop dead where I stood. I was so wet that I felt as though I was going to drown through my skin if such a thing was even possible.
I reached up, wishing the ground would open up between my hooves, and knocked.
And waited.
After a few seconds the door was opened, and it was Twilight’s face which was illuminated by the warm light behind her.
“Hi,” I said weakly.
“Hi,” she responded.
Not bad so far.
“Listen,” I said. “The reason I’m standing soaking wet on your doorstep is because I really wanted to talk to you.”
“That’s okay,” said Twilight. “There’s… there’s something I need.”
“Which is?” I asked, dreading what the answer might be.
“You.”
And without further hesitation she pulled me into my hooves and pressed her lips against mine, finally and permanently cementing our love.
"Ew, Dad!"
"What?" I asked. "What's the big deal? It was only a kiss."
"Yeah, but still," said Dusk Shine, "you could just say you kissed."
"Don't say that, Dusk," said Dawn Shimmer. "Dad, I thought it was very romantic how you would fight like that to save Equestria."
"Romantic?" I asked. "I wouldn't really put it that way."
"Yeah, Dawn, weren't you listening?"
The little colt leapt to his hooves and started jumping around, re-enacting my described battles, chattering all the time.
"Dad wasn't doing it for love; he was doing it for the AWESOME! Take THAT you Combine smeggers, and THAT! Bang, bang, POW you're dead!"
"Oh no!" cried Dawn, falling dramatically onto her back. "My little brother's killed me!"
"Little?!" Dusk seemed aghast at the very idea of the word. "I'm not little, I'm ten!"
"Hey, I'm fifteen," Dawn pointed out. "Next to me, you're little."
"Well," I said, "next to me, you're both little."
It always warms my heart to see Dusk and Dawn getting along so well. Smeg knows my relationship with my brother wasn't so great. If somepony had told me when I was still young that one day I'd marry an incredibly intelligent unicorn and gain two beautiful children, do you think I would believe them?
Take Dawn Shimmer, for example. The reason she has her name is that despite the fact that I'm brown and Twilight's purple, her coat is yellowish-gold like the rising sun. In her spiky purple mane she has a skunk stripe of silver, the same with her tail, and her eyes are exactly like Twilight's.
Her cutie mark is a golden pentagram, because she's an aspiring demonologist. And you know what? I'm cool with that.
Dusk Shine, on the other hoof, looks so much like his mother it's almost disturbing. His coat is lavender, just like hers, and his mane is straight and indigo just like hers. However, unlike Twilight he has a stripe of silver (like his sister) rather than the pink, purple and silver, and his eyes are brilliant green, rather like mine.
He isn't quite old enough to have a cutie mark yet, but I bet it'll be something cool.
It was at that moment, when I was admiring my two playing children, that there was a knock on the door. When I answered it, I was met with a welcome and familiar face.
"Hey, Lightning Strike!" I said in greeting. "Great to see you."
"Great to see you too, Hex," said Lightning. "Is Dawn there?"
"Hi Lightning!"
Dawn brushed past me on her way outside.
Huh?
"Wait a minute," I said, and Dawn turned to face me reluctantly. "What's going on here?"
"Dad, Lightning's my date," she said, pointing at the young stallion whose face was now brilliant red. "I thought I told you?"
"No you didn't," I said. "You just said you'd be going out, you didn't say it would be a date!"
"Yeah, I did!"
"Dawn, let me talk to you for a moment."
She looked to Lightning and said "Sorry about this," as I drew her aside.
"Listen to me, young mare," I love father talk, don't you? "I want you to respect Lightning, okay? I should know that he's a good colt. He'll take care of you."
"I don't need taking care of!"
"I'm just saying," I said, "he'll be good to you. If I had to choose a colt for you to date, it'd be him. So you be good to him, eh?"
Dawn gave me a small smile, and said "Thanks, Dad," before pulling me into a hug.
"That's okay," I said, and I released her. "Now you kids have fun."
As they were walking away, I decided to have a little fun of my own. Father style.
"But you have her back by eleven pm, you hear? And respect her! But don't mind if she starts going on about demons, she does that all the time!"
"Dad!"
"Don't worry, Hex!" said Lightning. "I'll be good to her."
"You better," I murmured under my breath. "That's my only daughter you got there."
Behind me, I heard a small giggle.
"You don't need to be so protective," said Twilight. "Lightning's a good pony."
"Yeah!" cried Dusk. "He's going to be a cop, Dad. How much cooler do you want?"
"I know," I said. "It's just... you know."
I felt Twilight's eyes upon my face - smeg knows how downcast I must have looked - and eventually she said, "Dusk, why don't you go upstairs and wash up? Dinner will be ready soon."
"Sure thing, Mom," said Dusk happily, and he trotted back inside.
Once he was gone, Twilight turned back to me.
"Hex," she said, placing a hoof on my shoulder, "you don't need to worry anymore. The Combine are gone. Technically, they were never even here. Nothing's going to hurt us ever again."
She always knows how to make me feel better. That's my Twiley.
"It would have happened this year, you know," I told her. "I would have come back, a massive uprising would start-"
"We'd almost be killed multiple times at the hooves of the Overwatch," said Twilight.
"You know," I said, "looking back, it was pretty scary, but it was also pretty cool."
"I guess it was," said Twilight, drawing her muzzle closer to mine.
"But this is better."
"So much better."
And this time, the kiss tasted of freedom, hope, and new life.
It was the kiss of home.