//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4 
// Story: The Meaning of Time/An Hour of Judgment 
// by TimeRarity64 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 4




The battle with the Sand bird continued as Rainbow Dash dodged its sand tendril attacks. It took a few minutes for Twilight to finally charge up her spell, but she had to time her attack right in launching it at the sand bird. When Rainbow Dash noticed Twilight giving her a signal to return, she smirked and flew around a cloud before heading through it, quickly flying pass her friend that fired a purple blast of magic.

The Sand falcon was hit directly in the chest, causing it to be knocked back before plummeting down the sky. The two cheered, watching the massive bird fall, but pause once they saw its sandy chest begin to spread apart and soon arise into the air, taking the form of a long snake.

“You got to be kidding me?!” Rainbow Dash cried out as Twilight charged up another spell. 

“Don’t worry, I got this!” She yelled, firing another blast of magic. The sand snake quickly twirled in a helix form, causing the beam of magic to go through center of it, missing its body. 

“You miss!” Rainbow Dash yelled.

“You don’t say?!” Twilight cried out, beginning to panic.

“Quick, make a right turn!” Rainbow Dash yelled at the Royale guards that quickly pulled the carriage right, dodging the incoming snake. She sighed in relief before gasping when a shadow hovered over the carriage. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and the guards both gasped when they saw the large mouth of the snake opening wide as it came down. 

The lavender mare eyes glowed brightly white as her horn sparked purple before launching out a blast of magic. A golden beam came out from the purple luminescing horn, crashing hard into the sandy dark mouth of the snake causing it to explode into pieces, sending chunks of hard sand everywhere. Twilight began panting as she felt her energy spent and muscles becoming tired. She rested on the floor of the carriage as Rainbow Dash came to her side both shocked and worried.

“Twi, are you alright!?” She asked, but Twilight did not respond, but instead, she passed out on the floor with her eyes rolling back. “You guys, we need to land now, something is wrong with Twilight!” Dash yelled at the guards who finally caught up with the others.

“Rainbow Dash, are you and Twilight okay?!” Rarity called from afar. 

“Twilight passed out, we need to land and see if she’s okay!” She yelled, as her friends gasped and became worried.

“Y’all heard’em! We gotta land!” Applejack said, looking at the guards that nodded their head and flew down. The group spotted a forest as soon as they passed through the massive white clouds and beyond the forest was the ancient castle where Déjà vu resided.



“It has been years, sister, years since brother’s supposedly death. The war that he fought in had wiped away any trace of him, thus leaving the only answers of his disappearance was simply death.” Celestia said as she strapped her saddle bag tightly around her. The two were outside in the gardens, sitting in front of each other.

“We understand sister, but we must confront brother alone and see if we can possibly get answers to why he is doing all of this, instead of slowing down and walking on the path of good. While we do that, you can provide support to Twilight and her friends since you know more about them than…we do.” She said, frowning at the end of her sentence.

“Sister, you must not frown. You made plenty of friends in Ponyville and she was one of the first. Now, I will leave and find the others, be careful, and best of luck to your plans to convince our brother to return the Elements of Harmony and stand down from his anger and return to us so we can be a family once more.” Celestia said, wrapping her sister in a tight hug. The mare of the moon returned the hug, nuzzling her sister’s neck before being release. When Celestia’s wings opened, Luna followed, and when Celestia began flying away, Luna did so, too.



Twilight’s eyes slowly opened as she stared into the bright blue sky pass the large branches. When she started groaning, Fluttershy rushed to her side. 

“Twilight, you’re awake, what a relief.” The young mare spoke, smiling softly at her friend.

“Fluttershy, where are we and where is everypony?” Twilight asked as her tone sounded weary. The unicorn slowly got up from the ground and saw all her friends chatting with one another.

“You passed out after using a strange spell to save the guards and Rainbow Dash from that sand snake. We landed here in the forest and waited for you to wake up before continuing on to Déjà vu’s castle. We are close at.” She explained, causing Twilight to blink in surprise before staring down at her hooves shocked. Fluttershy looked at her unicorn friend worryingly as the mare had an unsettling look upon her face.

“I had a strange dream that was so strange.” Twilight said, looking at Fluttershy. “It was a frightening one that left me very disturbed.” 

“W-what was it all about?” Fluttershy asked hesitantly.

“If I tell you, I am sure that not even you will be able to understand.” Twilight said, shaking her head as she started trotting towards her friends. Fluttershy only stared at her with concern as the mare gave her friends a fake smile, concealing her unhealthy mental state.



Déjà vu eyes slowly opened as he felt the tight cables connected to the hourglass slowly be release from his back. He breathed heavily as he stared into the dark ceiling. “I must continue.” He muttered in a painful tone as the cables were levitated back into his back, attaching before piercing his spinal section. His eyes started glowing brightly gold as his horn lighted up. Sand began forming around him as the Elements of Harmony appeared being rotated around the hourglass.

“Father!” Twelve yelled, staring at her father frightened as he began crying out pain. Yellow lightning began striking down around him, causing the sand to scatter around the room.

“In order to enable the Elements of Harmony to activate, I must embed them into me. Soon, I will be one with Time and Space and judgment will be cast upon this world in a blink of an eye!”

His dark tone caused Twelve to become unsettled and frozen in terror as she backed away from the sand whirlwind that her father was within. The amount of energy being spent was dangerous and she could feel the unstable gems starting to lose control of their own strange magic, too, while casting their own lightning that was blue instead of yellow.

She knew it had to stop and quickly forced the cables off her father’s back, pulling it off with a magical grip spell. Everything began to settle down as Déjà vu stood there exhausted and half-dead from the excessive usage of his own magic. He soon vomited on the ground when the whirlwind of sand began sinking into his body and the Elements of Harmony fell onto the ground.

“Father, are you okay?!” Twelve called, running to his side as he began breathing heavily, staring at the sand beneath his hooves in a dreaded state.

“I need a new host…my body…it is not capable of holding such power.” He said in a shocked tone as his began trembling. “No, after all this time, it was not successful!” He muttered before feeling a large stinging pain struck his back. He stood his ground and began limping pass Twelve who stared at her father shocked and dishearten.

“Father, “Fix the hourglass and make sure the Elements of Harmony are brought to my chambers at once, I must…meditate.” He cut her off, glaring at his daughter with a dark stare before proceeding out the massive room. Twelve frowned as she sat down on the sandy floor, beginning to sob from her father’s descent to madness.



The darkness in space was all too horrifying to Twilight as she remained cold and lost in the abysmal plane of emptiness. She had no control over her body as she floated aimlessly. But when her body came to a stop, it did not stop by any inanimate object around her, instead it was but magic that held her in a tight grip. Her body glowed brightly, glinting dark purple as she soon saw large white eyes opened wide before her.

“The realm you float upon is only but a grave full of your ancestors and your friend’s friends ancestors. The grave is dark, hollow, nothing but an empty void from where you will soon meet again in the realm of the dead.”

Whoever he was, his tone was completely dark. It froze Twilight’s body and caused her to remain petrified.

“I am the emptiness in all. I am what many feel and encounter when they lose someone they loved. I am…Hollow Void, the Alicorn of Space and we will meet again very soon, my granddaughter.”



“Twilight?” Rainbow Dash’s voice caused the lavender mare to return back to the world of consciousness as she looked around confused. Her friends all stared at her worried. The mare looked around again before ending the silence. 

“Yeah?” She replied.

“Are you okay, you have been dazing off a lot since you woke up?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Oh, sorry, it’s just I’m a bit tired. It’s getting late anyway and I think we should camp here while the Guards fix up the carriages.” Twilight said.

“Okay, I think it is best at least to call it for the night and continue on to the castle tomorrow.” Applejack said, picking up Twilight’s strange tone. The mare was more than tired, but frightened.

“Okay, if you say so.” Rainbow Dash said, shrugging her shoulders as she looked around. “I will find us some wood and make a campfire. Anypony brought food with them?” 

Everypony remained silent.

“Great, looks like we are starving for the night. Hopefully, that Déjà vu can at least offer us a meal when we break through his castle’s doors.” Rainbow Dash said, before flying off.

Twilight stared off again, staring deep into the forest’s depths. In the darkest part of the forest sent chills down the mare’s back as she soon saw white bright eyes. 

‘What in Celestia did I just see?’ She thought.




-To Be Continued-