//------------------------------// // Ch. 22 Epilogue // Story: Dash of Humanity 3: Live, Fly, Reboot. // by Kaidan //------------------------------// Dash and I had managed to sneak out of town to celebrate our reunification after the end of the time loop, and had the time of our lives celebrating our engagement. Today we returned to find Twilight inviting us out to lunch at a local cafe. She was accompanied by Minuette, and Starlight, who looked like she hadn’t gotten much sleep. We ordered an assortment of sandwiches and salads, and the conversation slowly drifted from formalities to the state I’d left the town in. “So, Dawn, about my castle…” Twilight sighed. “Why did you let the Cutie Mark Crusaders shoot it with a railgun?” “Me?” I put a hoof to my chest and tried to look offended. “I had to teach them a valuable lesson in friendship! Why, I’ll have you know they swore off dangerous crusades after that whole ordeal.” “Well, of course they did. They’re grounded for a month, they won’t be crusading for a while.” “That seems harsh. I mean, how do three fillies build a railgun without anypony noticing? If anything, we should ground their sisters.” I scratched an itch on my side. “It’s not like he forgot,” Dash added. “If anything, he probably remembered but decided it’d be funny.” “Not helping,” I muttered and glared at her. “Somepony could have been hurt,” Twilight said. “Nah, nopony got shot as far as I know during the loops, and if they did they wouldn’t even realize it happened.” “You know,” Starlight began, “there was one day early on when I was exploring the castle and just woke up with no explanation.” “I stand corrected, nopony important got hurt.” “Who?” Starlight said, with a singsong quality like an owl. I gulped. “Kidding, of course!” I chuckled nervously. “Of course you’re important.” I shifted in the seat and looked down to see if there were ants or something on the chair. “Are you okay, Dawn?” Minuette asked. She was seated to my side and could see my attempts to discreetly scratch at my flanks. “Uh, I think Pinkie got me with itching powder again, it’s nothing.” I waved a hoof dismissively, “she’s just been getting even for some allegedly broken Pinkie Promises during the loop. She’s also demanding I finish a memoire before next Tuesday or else it’ll create a paradox.” “Well you’re the one who told me to go along with her antics” “You know,” Starlight offered, “I know a spell to speed up writing. We could have the book done in a few hours.” “If you break time again I’m going to bill you hourly,” Minuette threatened. “That reminds me, what did Celestia think of your explanation, Starlight?” I asked. “Celestia wasn’t happy about what I’d done, but when we got done talking she agreed to let me study friendship. I can’t cast anymore time spells though, not that I’d be dumb enough to,” Starlight explained. “And Celestia wasn’t upset about how we fixed it?” I asked. Starlight glanced around and lowered her voice. “I told her that you’d explain that part. I’m not stupid.” “Thanks.” I rolled my eyes. “So it looks like I get to explain to Celestia how I convinced Discord’s tantabus to teach me chaos magic. At least she likes me, though if you’d like to explain instead, Twilight, I’d really appreciate it.” She chuckled and shook her head. “Sorry, Dawn. Consider it a friendship lesson on the value of… honesty.” I groaned. “Not everything has to be a lesson.” I looked over to Starlight. “I’m glad you’ll be sticking around at least. It would have been hard to get away and visit you in Tartarus, what with a kid on the way and all.” I smirked and took a bite out of my sandwich. “Dawn Seeker?” a pony called. Trotting towards me was the brown stallion that I’d been saving from the construction site throughout the past several months. He was wearing saddlebags and a long scarf. “Oh, hey… you! Good to see…” I wracked my brain for his name, but quickly came to the conclusion that I’d never asked. “You again.” He walked up to the table and gave a small nod to Twilight. “Princess, pardon the interruption, but I’ve been trying to track Dawn down since yesterday to thank him.” “No toasters,” Dash said. “Would love some chocolate covered strawberries, though.” “Easy there, it’s my reward. You should have seen how heavy that log was,” I replied. “Do ponies have the law of surprise? The best part of that is my reward could be anything: a house, a boat, or a godchild.” “Ah, yes, about that reward. Introductions are in order first. I’m the Doctor.” He pulled a small black wallet out of his saddlebag with his mouth, and held it up to show me his credentials. “Oh? You must be a veterinarian, because that says you’re the Ponyville Pussy Inspector,” I responded. He spit the wallet out in shock. “What?!” The Doctor glanced at the blank paper in disbelief, before Twilight snatched it out from in front of him. “Dawn! It says here he was knighted by Celestia, and she hasn’t knighted anypony in over a hundred years, so show a little respect!” Twilight scolded. I laughed and pointed at the credentials. “Well, it actually says Department of Homeland Security. However, nopony but me would have heard of that, so I just figured he was using some sort of Jedi mind trick, and I’d mess with him.” “Ahem.” The Doctor snatched the badge back and put it in his bag. “It’s psychic paper, actually, and it—” “How can paper be psychic?” Starlight asked. “Maybe it took a correspondence course,” I answered. “It does create a lot of unanswered questions, however. If a paper can be psychic, can an axe can have a Ph. D?” “Dawn!” The Doctor interjected. “I’m trying to repay you for saving my life here and you’ve gotten us quite off topic.” I nodded and looked over at him. “Sorry, you’re right. I just got done sparing you from a crushing death in the time loop. So, you’re Doctor… who?” “Whooves, actually,” he stated. “It’s quite embarrassing. I was caught completely off guard by the time loop and would have taken days to regenerate after that beam hit me. The cumulative effects of dying over and over can be very bad, but luckily it seems we’ve all avoided the worst of it. I owe you a debt of gratitude, but more importantly, this.” He pulled out a business card and handed it over to me. “If you’re ever in need, just follow the instructions to give me a call.” I glanced down at the card, reading it out loud. “To activate, read instructions out loud. To summon The Doctor, look into a mirror after reading, and say his name.” I glanced up at him to make a witty remark, when the business card suddenly vanished in a swirl of golden energies, shooting itself into my foreleg and vanishing. “Gah! What was that?” I asked. “Ah, just the spell activating. I find it best to store these things in the fourth dimension, you wouldn’t believe how often ponies misplace get out of jail free cards like that,” The Doctor explained. I shook my leg a few times, trying to make the card reappear. “If you just tagged me with some fourth-dimensional kick-me sign, I’m gonna be pretty upset.” “Nothing of the sort. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m late for brunch with Starswirl.” He gave another nod to Twilight, before trotting off. Twilight spit out a bite of the sandwich she’d been chewing. “Wait, did he just say Starswirl?” “I wouldn’t worry about it,” Minuette explained. “I’ve heard stories, he’s become a bit of a legend or a conspiracy theory depending on who you ask. I never thought he actually existed.” I looked over to Twilight, then Dash. They didn’t seem to have any idea what was going on either. “So what is he then?” “Oh, a time traveler,” Minuette explained as if it was a matter of fact. “Wait, so I could have just asked a literal time traveler for help this whole time and nopony told me?!” I looked at Starlight who shrugged, and then at Minuette. “I guess, technically yes. If you’d ever stopped to get his name, or to know him” she answered. I groaned and let my head fall forward, landing on the table with a loud thud. “Please somepony tell me this is an elaborate prank.” “I don’t think so, Dude,” Dash said. “Maybe you can catch him and ask, though.” I sat back up and nodded. “Yeah, be right back.” If he had just sat by and done nothing for a whole year, I’d probably have to throw down and beat a little sense into him. I gently flapped my wings until I was above the cafe, and flew off around the corner of the building that I’d seen the Doctor disappear behind. I could hear whining noises, and followed it to the source, catching a glimpse of something like a mirage. There was no sign of the stallion, however. The blue image I thought I saw quickly vanished. A shadow passed by me and I heard a pony land right behind me. “Ah, Dawn, just the pony I was hoping to see,” a voice said. I turned to see Celestia standing there in her royal regalia, smiling happily. “Oh, did you happen to see a brown stallion run by here? Fancies himself a doctor?” I landed near her, folding my wings against my sides. Celestia nodded. “He seems to have taken a liking to you; I’m certain you’ll see him again.” “So, he really is a time traveler then?” I asked. “Spoilers, Dawn.” She glanced back at where the fleeting image had recently vanished. “It’s not often he gets upstaged, which begs the question of how you managed it. Who knows what problem he was solving during the loop, but he clearly trusted you to solve yours. Or, maybe he couldn’t have helped; he’s a real enigma. “He still could have at least tried,” I whined. “He doesn’t do anything by chance or accident, but feel free to ask him when you meet again. The Doctor would not have given you his business card otherwise. Now, to the matter of this time loop and you vouching for a pony who very nearly erased existence… I’ve already talked to Starlight, Minuette, even Luna. I’d like to hear your side of the story.” I nodded and gulped. “So, how much trouble am I in? Need I remind you I just saved the world?” Celestia chuckled. “Oh, Dawn, don’t be so glum. If I turned everypony who annoyed me into a statue I’d need a bigger garden. You’re not in trouble, at least not from me. Though, I was a bit surprised when an avalanche of letters appeared after the loop ended. Apparently you wrote for help often, and I appreciate the sentiment. Also, Princess Cadence wrote and said something about banning golf in the Crystal Empire.” Celestia smirked, “I’d quite like to hear the story behind that sometime.” I let out a deep belly laugh and felt a bit more at ease as I pictured golf balls whistling out of thin air, bouncing around a crystal throne room. “Okay. So I guess the loops weren’t all bad. But I had to make a few decisions I don’t think you’ll like. Did Luna tell you about the dream?” “Luna only said that she’d tell me what you did after I gave you the chance to do it yourself. Starlight, on the other hoof, seemed a little too willing to fall on her sword to protect you. You must have made quite the impression on her.” “Yeah, I guess being stuck in time can do that. You may want to sit down for this,” I said. I took a seat on the ground, waiting for her to do the same. “So, I assume Starlight explained how she’d created a matrix of spells, combining them all together to do more than any single spell could do?” “Yes,” Celestia said, taking a seat. “She did. An impressive feat, honestly. I haven’t seen a unicorn that skilled since Twilight. The more spells you combine, the more chaotic it becomes. I think Starswirl once managed eight, but Starlight managed twelve at once.” “Sounds right to me,” I answered. “There’s just one problem, she didn’t manage it. She created the time loop, but there was too much chaos for her to control, no matter how many ways we tried to tackle the problem. One of the spells would always fail catastrophically, and the table itself seemed to be linked to the Tree of Harmony, and it wasn’t exactly thrilled about us poking and prodding the leyline. I think it may have been behind that bubble and somehow prevented reality from unraveling. I wonder what that would look like.” “Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light,” Celestia explained. “I think Minuette called it total protonic reversal. Apparently that’s what almost happened. I was able to see some of the thoughts and memories of the Tree of Harmony, though I’ve got no idea why it didn’t do something more direct. It seemed to help, but even then I was barely grounding enough of the energy from the leyline to stop it from vaporizing us. If Discord got to run around screwing things up, shouldn’t Harmony be allowed to be more direct and run around fixing them?” “Sadly, it hasn’t worked like that in a long time. So what is this knowledge you used to fix the loop? The knowledge Luna and Starlight seem insistent I hear about from you?” “Well around the time I was bleeding to death a few days ago, I finally realized there was only one being who could teach me what I wanted to know. The problem in the spell matrix was that we didn’t know how to control chaos.” I looked at Celestia, noticing her eyes narrow as she stared at me. Meeting her gaze always intimidated me. There was something behind those eyes, some mixture of power, wisdom, and sorrow. I didn’t want to say what I had done out loud, and we sat there awkwardly for a minute while she waited for me to fess up. “So… I realized I had this tantabus of Discord in my head, and Luna told me how it was just as dangerous as Discord. I figured, he must know as much as the original did too, right?” “Dawn…” she whispered. “You didn’t.” “So I asked it to teach me chaos magic, which went about as well as you’d expect. Then he said something about how I didn’t realize what I’d just done, laughed gleefully, and granted my request.” Celestia bowed her head slightly and sighed. “That bad?” I asked. Her face was unreadable, which meant it must be bad if she felt the need to hide it. She opened a wing and nodded towards it. I walked over and sat down next to her, letting her wrap a wing around me. Celestia spoke softly as she embraced me. “Dawn, the knowledge you’ve been granted will be coveted by the most dangerous beings in Equestria. They couldn’t take it by force from Discord if they tried, but a pegasus? I’ll do my best to protect you, but Discord was right. You’ve leapt out of the kettle and into a fire.” “Funny you should say that.” I leaned against her side and braced myself. “Because I’m not a unicorn, and Starlight was the one who needed to know chaos magic so she could fix the spell.” I felt Celestia tense up for a moment, before exhaling and relaxing. “I suppose there was no way around that. I’ll have to keep an eye on you and Starlight, then. If that knowledge is ever shared, it could bring ruin to Equestria. I’ll have to speak to Starlight again and impress the importance of this upon her. I trust you can keep quiet about what you know?” “Of course, I’m only like twenty-percent stupid,” I answered. “I learned a lot about magic during the time loop, and I’m not going to go running my mouth about any of the restricted stuff, and especially not about chaos magic. Not like I can cast it anyway. The best I can do is the passive applications, like imitating a magical lightning rod.” Celestia relaxed and I could feel a change in her posture as she hugged me with a wing. It was comforting and warm; it made me feel how everpony else must feel to know an unstoppable force of nature was always watching over them. “Then I suppose you’re free to go. I trust you, Dawn. You’ve come a long way since your arrival and I regret having doubted you at first. Due to the actions of you, Twilight, and her friends, chaos is all but gone from Equestria. You may see the return of harmony in your lifetime thanks to your actions. I’d still appreciate a more detailed letter on what transpired, minus the sensitive information, of course.” “How sensitive are we talking?” I asked as I got up and took a couple steps away, then turned around. “Because I got up to some pretty wacky stuff in the time loop.” “Keep it safe for fillies, after all Spike’s probably going to transcribe and send it,” Celestia answered. “Got it, I’ll skip the parts about the sex orgy, the harem, or how I enslaved the entire town using an ancient necromantic ritual.” I waved my hooves in the air and made a spooky sound. Celestia laughed, and shook her head. “I’m glad you’re okay, Dawn. Equestria certainly has been more interesting since you arrived. Go on now, your friends are waiting to finish lunch.” “Thanks, Celestia. Oh, and next time can it be Twilight’s turn to save Equestria?” I asked. “On one condition,” Celestia said. “Starlight may be Twilight’s pupil, but you were her first friend and pulled her out of the time loop. It’s your responsibility as much as Twilight’s to help her learn a better way.” “Uh, you’ve met Dash and Lyra recently, right? You sure you want me to rub off on Starlight too?” I asked. “Yes. You may deflect with humor, but you’re as selfless and loyal as anypony I have known. You adapted to life here, despite all you had lost. If you can teach those traits to Starlight, then one day Luna and I will be leaving Equestria’s fate in the most capable of hooves.” I smiled widely and went back over to give Celestia a quick hug, which she returned. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me. Thank you, and it’s a deal.” I ended the hug and began to walk back towards my friends. “I’ll make sure Starlight stays reformed, if you make sure Twilight solves the next apocalypse!” Later that week I headed out onto the balcony of Dash’s cloud home to watch the sun set. Ever since I’d gotten out of the loop I liked to watch it, partly to remind myself I was out of the loop, and partly because I was worried I was still in it. Dash joined me a moment later, sitting down next to me and spreading a wing across my back. Having her here helped relieve the anxiety I felt in the evenings. “Hey, Dude.” “Will you ever stop calling me that?” I asked her. Dash grinned widely. “Not a chance.” I wrapped a foreleg around Dash, pulling her in close and holding her against me. She was soft and warm, and I watched her shift her position slightly to get comfortable. I put a hoof against her belly and could feel the foal inside shifting around. It wouldn’t be long now until we had a baby, and were raising a family together. I’d never imagined that I’d be raising a family like this, let alone as a pony. At times being in Equestria hadn’t seemed real, but Dash had been an anchor for me to hold onto. Now that I’d asked her to marry me, I felt like it was the sort of thing I’d known would happen ever since I first arrived. As the sun touched the horizon I tightened my grip on Dash. “Are you okay, Dawn?” she asked. “Yeah,” I sighed. “I just keep having this feeling that any moment I’m going to wake back up in the loop, and that maybe if I hold you tight enough I won’t lose you again.” Dash nodded, wrapping her own foreleg around me. “I’m here for you, Dawn.” I tensed up a bit as the sun dipped below the horizon, but began to relax as I saw the moon rising. None of the loops had ever made it to night time, so now that the moon had reached the apex of the sky I could relax, safe in the knowledge I wasn’t in a loop. “Thanks, Dash.” “It’s no problem.” I got up and followed her to bed, crawling onto the cloud mattress and laying down beside her. I began to grin stupidly as I smelled the scent on the pillow. “What are you up to?” she asked. “Nothing.” I might have convinced her if my grin hadn’t kept spreading. “No, really, what are you thinking about?” “It’s just that scent of rain,” I admitted. “Everytime I smell it, it brings back good memories. During the loop it gave me hope, and even now that you’re right here in front of me, I just love the memories it brings.” “That was beautiful,” Dash said. “Don’t go telling anypony we’re turning into sappy romantics, though.” “Deal.” Dash rolled over to get comfortable and find a position to rest with her back up against me. I snuggled up and nuzzled against the nape of her neck, breathing in the scent of her hair. I held onto her with a foreleg and yawned, feeling myself drifting off to sleep quickly. Perhaps Luna was giving me some help in that department; she had been quick to intercept any nightmares I had lately. As I fell asleep, I reflected on the interesting twists and turns our lives had taken, only for us to end up together. I was content and happy, and I knew Dash was too. I adjusted the blanket a bit as my eyes started to feel too heavy to keep open, and drifted off to sleep.