//------------------------------//
// Two Halves Make a Whole 
// Story: The Right Place in the Wrong Time 
// by RunicTreetops 
//------------------------------//

The walk to Bridlewood was pleasant. It is a very nice day, with only the occasional cloud dotting an otherwise spotless sky. A bit on the warm side but with a soothing breeze. This is fortunate, as Bridlewood is much farther away from Maretime Bay than you would have liked. Of course, your five new friends made the journey much more fun to be on. Between Pipp's singing, Zipp's flying, Hitch's fascination with the local wildlife, Sunny's optimism, and Izzy's... Izzy-ness, it's hard to find a dull moment with this crew.

Eventually, you arrived at Bridlewood. It is definitely a sight. Many homes are built into trees and the surrounding areas. The population naturally consists mostly of unicorns, but there is the occasional earth pony or pegasus walking around. Apparently it was a lot more dreary before the magic returned, but right now it looks about as bright and colorful as you'd expect a magical forest town full of unicorns to be. Seeing as Izzy's house is one of the first buildings one comes across after entering Bridlewood, Izzy took the time to show you around the town first. Admittedly, there isn't actually that much to be shown. The tree buildings are fascinating, and there are many beautiful crystals jutting out of the ground, but there aren't that many shops or landmarks apart from the Crystal Tearoom. Your group sat there for a spell listening to some slam poetry and sipping at tea.

...Nope, not as good as Tia's.

After completing your tour, you arrive at Izzy's abode. It's an adorable home on the outside, while the inside is pretty much exactly what you expected. Which is to say that it is extremely messy and filled with unicycling projects, both finished and otherwise.

"Welcome, one and all, once more or for the first time, to La Villa Izzy!"

"This really is a nice place you have here, Izz." You honestly are impressed, mess aside.

"Thanks! Now, where's this Timer Tune thingy you're looking for?"

You have no idea. Your group begins looking around Izzy's home. This turns out to be difficult for two reasons. For one thing, she has a LOT of unfinished unicycling projects, and none of them are organized. The second issue is the stuff that IS done. None of you want to be the one who accidentally breaks one of her unicycling projects, so you are all taking extra care to be extremely gentle with everything you touch. And there is a lot to touch.

After a couple of hours, you finally notice it. Nestled on the floor between a few broken crystal chunks and a small pile of books was a small metal box. It hardly takes more than a glance for you to recognize it as the box you found at the Castle of the Two Sisters. You gingerly pick it up. The top is sealed once more, though the lock appears to be completely different. Rather than an old hunk of rust, the lock appears to be made out of a high quality metal similar to the rest of the box, and it is adorned with two alicorns. Interestingly, there is no key hole. Sunny, who was searching next to you at the time, takes a look at it as well.

"Whoa. Is that it?" she asks.

"Well, it certainly looks like the box I found it in, but the lock is totally different. Is it even inside?" You pick up the box. There is a noticeable weight to it, extremely comparable to when you first found the box. "Yeah, I think it is."

The rest of your friends, having heard the conversation, approach and look over your shoulders at it.

"Uhh, Izzy? Where did you get this thing?" Hitch asked.

"Hmm." Izzy tapped a hoof to her chin. "I think I found it at a yard sale when I was a filly. I thought the lock design was pretty, so I bought it."

"Who's to say how it got here from your time, though? There are countless things that could have occurred between now and then." Sunny added.

"Right, but to be completely honest, I don't really care how it got here. I'm mostly thankful that Izzy didn't accidentally activate it. I guess the question now is, how do we get it out?"

"Wait, you don't know? I thought you opened it already?" Zipp asked.

"No, this lock must have been added after the fact." You take a closer look at the lock. The design is very similar to old depictions of Celestia and Luna, with two alicorns locking horns in the center of the design. However, as you already pointed out, there is no keyhole on this lock or anything. Putting two and two together... "I think it has to be opened with magic."

"No problem!" Izzy excitedly prepared her horn. She levitated the box towards her horn and... focused, or something? You can't really tell what she's trying to do. "Ugh, it's no use! My magic isn't working."

"Here, let me take a look at it." Sunny took the box from Izzy before closely inspecting the design. "Now, I imagine you would know more about this than me, but do you think it's possible this design is asking us to get an alicorn to open this box?"

You had a feeling she was going to say that. "Yeah, I suppose it could. But, uh, how are we going to do that? I have a few alicorn associates, but apparently they're little more than ancient history to you guys."

Everypony laughed at that. What's so funny? Sunny answers your question before you can ask it.

"Sorry, I just realized I completely forgot to tell you. I'm an alicorn! Well, sorta. I think. It's complicated."

Seriously? How many alicorn friends are you going to make? "Wait, where are your horn and wings?"

"They aren't always 'out' per se. Here, I'm getting better at doing this willingly. Let's see."

Sunny appeared to concentrate for a moment before a small burst of light seemed to shoot out from her body. You shielded your eyes for just a moment, and when you turned back, you saw her smiling at you. There, on her head, was a magical, ethereal horn. A pair of similar-looking wings protruded from her back. Your jaw dropped. That's definitely something you've seen before. Only, you can't control it quite yet.

"Pretty cool, right?"

"I... yeah. You... I... where did you learn to do that?"

"Oh, this just sort of happened after we got the magic back. I couldn't really control it then, but I've since realized that it's tied to my emotions and my desire to do something. I'm still not perfect at it, but I can at least consistently get them to come out."

Emotions and her desire to do something? Well, you did manage to do it when you thought about saving Tia. Possibly both times, but you didn't actually confirm if you got those wings to work when you first fell into Maretime Bay. You decide to put that to the test.

You close your eyes. Once more, your thoughts drift to Celestia. You've been here for a while now. You really want to see her again. You imagine your friends in Ponyville. You imagine Twilight getting used to her wings, Rainbow Dash showing her the ropes, Applejack preparing to catch her. Thinking about them, your chest starts to feel warm and full. A smile creeps to your face. You want to see them again. You want to go home.

You hear several gasps. You open your eyes, and your friends are staring at you, their mouths agape. It's barely within your peripheral vision, but you can barely see a magical horn protruding from your forehead. You reach for your back. Yup, those are wings. You give Sunny a smile.

"I guess you figured out how to do it on command before me, huh?"

"You... you're an alicorn?"

"Well, maybe? I don't really think I CAN be an alicorn considering I'm a human. They also aren't permanent, so I don't know. Maybe I'm like a half-alicorn or something?"

"A half-alicorn, huh? Is that what I am, too?"

"Well, I have no idea about that one. I don't know how or why I can do this, you know? It just kind of... happened, while I was trying to stop the Everfree Forest from destroying Ponyville."

Sunny had a mixture of joy and relief on her face. "It's actually really comforting to know I'm not alone. There isn't a huge downside to being a 'half-alicorn' exactly, but it does feel sort of isolating to think you're the only one of your kind."

"Hey, I'm the only human in Equestria. Trust me, I know how that feels. But that's what friends are for, right? They don't care what you are so much as who you are." Zipp, Pipp, Izzy, and Hitch seemed to agree and both you and Sunny found yourselves getting pulled into a group hug. It is very soft, very heartfelt, and admittedly a little uncomfortable. "Now, how about we get that box open?"

You all look down at the still-closed box. If you were right about needing to use alicorn magic, then you should probably focus your efforts on the alicorn design, right? You look over at Sunny, who meets your gaze and looks a bit concerned.

"I understand that we're trying our alicorn magic, but to be honest, I don't really know how to do that."

"It's okay, I'm not exactly an expert either. Just follow my lead."

You reach out your arm as you usually do when casting a spell. You can feel your magic gathering within your horn and slowly spreading through your chest and towards your fingertips. A magical release is incredibly simple, and you just need to concentrate a gentle beam of it towards that lock. A familiar tingling feeling wells up within you as a light-green magical energy shoots from your hand a bit more violently than you were hoping. You all recoil after the sudden burst of magic, and you hesitantly take a glance at the lock. Thankfully, it seems to be completely undamaged.

"Maybe wait until I get this down first before following my lead, haha..." 

You feel a blush reach across your face as you trail off. You clear your throat and start trying again. If you were being gentle before, you were barely doing anything at all this time. Slowly, and with a bit more warning this time, you feel a steady stream of magic release from your hand. This time, it remains small and steady, and your aim is perfect. Your magic is hitting the lock exactly, and the lock seems as though it is absorbing it. If you were to look closer, you would see that one of the two alicorns on the design is beginning to glow. Sunny watched you closely, first with wonder, then with determination. You watch as her horn begins to glow brighter. Zipp, Pipp, Izzy, and Hitch all take a few steps back, just in case. Sure enough, Sunny's first try is similar to yours, with way too much magic being released. Your own spell wavers a bit as she does so, but you barely manage to keep it going. She looks at you with a nervous expression, and you give her your best comforting smile.

"It's okay, you can do this. Take it nice and slow. Breathe."

You watch Sunny do a deep inhale, much like the breathing technique Twilight taught you. Her horn once again begins to glow, though not quite as bright. Slowly but surely, an orb of magic begins to form at the tip of her horn before a beam of magic, similar to yours but orange in color, shoots out of it. It would be really cool if she didn't miss the box entirely. Out of instinct she drops concentration on the spell and looks at you again. You just give her a small laugh, and she seems to relax a bit. She plants herself as best she can and begins the spell one more time. This time, her aim is perfect. Your spells intersect in the very center of the lock, and the whole design begins to glow a brilliant yellow color. Suddenly, there is a loud "click" sound. The two of you drop your spells and exchange a glance before looking down at the box.

It's wide open. Your spells worked.

You both let out an excited gasp before sharing a quick hug. Your friends once more stepped forward, and Hitch slowly reached into the box. You all held your breath as he retracted his hoof. The light hits the box just right, and the object in his grip seems to shimmer. There is no doubt about it. That's the Time Tuner, just as pristine as you left it.

"That's it, all right. That's the thing that brought me here in the first place."

"That's all well and good, but do you know how to make it send you back?" Hitch asked quizzically.

"Well, uh, no. No I don't."

You beckoned for Hitch to hand the artifact to you. You were much more nervous back in the Castle of the Two Sisters and you failed to inspect it as closely as you could now. You didn't dare invert it, but you could make out a few more details about it. Ultimately, it was still just an hourglass made out of what looked like glass and filled with a "sand" that glowed a magical blue color. However, when you first saw it, you failed to notice a ring of runes lining the top and bottom in a circular pattern. You... can't read runes. Like, at all. You memorized the ones needed for Tia's teleportation circle, but you have no idea what they mean.

"Hey, I know a bit about runes! Mind if I take a look?" Ah, Sunny. Always the history nerd.

She gently takes the Time Tuner from your hands. Her horn and wings have already dissipated, and you notice that yours have, too. She looks closely at the runes, and very slowly rotates the object to read them better all the way around.

"Well, I think it roughly translates to 'Time will bend, but will never break. Invert once more to return to your fate.' Well, that's... shockingly helpful, actually."

"Invert once more? Wait, so it has been flipped over for all of these years? There's no way!" Pipp exclaims. You have to agree with her on that one. What are the odds of that? Your attention is suddenly pulled from Pipp as you hear Izzy fiddling with the now-empty box.

"I think this box is made of something funky. My magic doesn't really seem to work on the inside." She was clearly using with her magic on the box, but she seemed to be having difficulty doing so. "Maybe it can't invert so long as it's in here?"

That's a reasonable deduction. That would explain how it has remained untouched for all of this time, and why it was stored in that box in the first place.

"Well, are you ready?" Sunny looks at you expectantly. Her eyes are wide, and she seems... sad.

You look at the rest of your new friends. Izzy has put the box down and is now looking straight at you, a frown starting to creep across her face. Hitch and Zipp were keeping straight faces, but they were obviously upset as well. Pipp was the most obvious, as tears starting filling her eyes before she spoke up.

"I'm sorry. This is a good thing! I just wish... we could have hung out a bit more." She gives a sad chuckle before wiping at her eyes. At that, Izzy, Sunny, and Hitch started crying a bit too. Zipp was holding it together fairly well, though. You feel yourself starting to get emotional, too. You've only been here for about a week, but it sure has been fun.

"Sunny, Hitch, Pipp, Zipp, Izzy. You've all been too good to me. As soon as you heard my story you leaped right into helping me. I offered nothing in return, heck, I still have nothing to offer. Yet, you've gone to a lot of lengths for me. And, you know what? This has been one of the most fun weeks of my life."

You found yourself nearly tackled by Izzy, who was wrapping her forelegs around your stomach so hard that it was difficult to breathe. Pipp and Hitch joined her, and now you're on the floor. The fall kind of hurt, but you aren't really thinking about that right now. You return the hug with just as much strength as you feel Sunny and Zipp join you on the floor. 

You all stayed there for what had to be a couple of hours, enjoying what were likely the last moments you would ever have together. It's strange. What made these ponies so fun to be around? And what made them want to be around you so much? You really don't feel like you deserve all the love that you receive, but you aren't about to refuse it. No matter what happens, no matter how brief your time with them was, these ponies will always be your friends. 

You stood up and began saying your goodbyes. Once more, you all found yourselves crying. Even Zipp this time. One by one, they all shared their final thoughts with you.

"I'm sorry for calling you a monster! You'll always be welcome at Maretime Bay!" Hitch choked out.

"I have so many unicycling projects you've inspired me to do! Watch, somehow, I'll find a way to show them to you!" Izzy was never one to focus on the bad for long, and she looks to be energized once more.

"Even if you never see it, I'll get better at flying and detective work! I'll be a legendary pegasus in my own right! Bet on it!" Zipp gave you an enthusiastic wink.

"From one 'half-alicorn' to another, I am truly glad to have met you. And, thanks for talking with me, and understanding me! I'll make sure history remembers you!" Sunny's smile is infectious.

"Hey, come here! One more pic for the road!" Pipp pulled you all close and snapped a photo. You smiled as best you could, but you weren't really expecting it. "Don't worry, I'm not going to post it. I think that one is a personal keeper." Pipp is still misty-eyed as you pat her head.

Finally, you step towards the Time Tuner. You turn around for one last look at your friends. Standing in a row, they all gave you a warm smile. A smile you can't help but return.

"Goodbye, everypony."

You flip the Time Tuner over. The runes inscribed into it glow a bright green, and you find that similar runes appear along the ground and encircle you. In a motion that is extremely familiar to you, the ground seems to disappear, and you find yourself falling into an endless void of green.