Chapter 2
The Keeper of Time
Twilight stood outside of the Carousel Boutique, her hoof hovering in front of the door. She had been hesitating for the past five minutes. Finally, she took a deep breath and knocked on Rarity's door.
The whole duration of her trip home from Canterlot, all Twilight could think about was what the princesses had told her. It was so much information to absorb—almost too much information—and although it felt like a far-fetched (and slightly crazy) idea that the princesses had just put in her head, Twilight knew it was the truth.
During her dreams, there had been no confusion on Twilight's part when the other humans referred to her as Amy. The name struck a chord in her heart and somehow seemed dear to her, like it was an endearing nickname.
The more she repeated her alternative name to herself, the more flashes kept appearing in her head. Twilight referred to them as "flashes" as opposed memories, because at the moment they still felt strange to her. She could see all of the images playing in her mind, and they all had a sense of déjà vu, but it wasn't quite like she was remembering yet. It was more like she was watching what had happened to her in her past lives.
By the looks of what she saw, there had been a lot of destruction. There were very few flashes of her life back on Mercury as a princess, but those that did come were the best. The castle decor shimmered and there were flashes of a light blue dress. Sometimes there was the face of a man and a warm embrace. But those flashes were very scarce and quick. More often, Twilight would see visions from what Luna had described as the late 20th and 30th centuries. Mostly it was of battle.
"Twilight! What a lovely surprise. What brings you here?" Rarity asked, as she opened the door and broke Twilight from her thoughts.
"We need to talk," Twilight said squarely. Rarity looked slightly taken back, but she put on a polite smile and gestured for Twilight to come inside.
"Shall I make some tea?" Rarity asked, as she shut the door behind her.
"That would be nice," Twilight said.
Together they walked into the kitchen. Twilight sat at the table and Rarity bustled around making tea.
"Do you want to start talking now?" Rarity asked.
"We should wait until you're sitting down," Twilight said. She watched as Rarity's face turned to concern.
Twilight sighed. She didn't know where to begin and hadn't even been sure of who to begin with. She had watched the flashes carefully on her way back to Ponyville, trying to get a sense of character for the other scouts, for which one of her friends would possibly be the easiest to approach first. It would have been easier to talk to them all at once—except she couldn't talk to Fluttershy. She had considered going against the princesses' word and talking to them all—really, how dangerous could this Sailor Saturn be?—but after seeing her in a few flashes, Twilight began to realize just what kind of destruction this scout could do.
So, after much debating and studying of what flashes came to her mind as she tried to recall more about her past life, she settled on talking to Rarity first. In her visions of their alternate life, Rarity, who went by the name of Trista Meioh, had seemed like one of the more mature scouts. She looked like the oldest and wisest of the bunch.
But Twilight had also picked up on something else out of the visions she had seen; Rarity had also been the loneliest of the scouts. Although eventually she grew to be warmer to the other sailor scouts, both inner and outer, there was always a distant, reserved look in Trista's eyes. As the Guardian of Time and Space, she had spent most of her life—the duration of which is unknown—isolated and guarding the door between worlds. The first friend she had made was with Small Lady—Cadance. A small part of Twilight felt a little awkward and guilty, that in this world, she had been the one to have a special connection with Cadance. Cadance had once been her foalsitter, and now she was her sister-in-law.
There's no need to feel guilty though; that's just silly. In this life, Rarity is one of the most social ponies ever. She craves the high-society life of a socialite, and has established herself as such. Maybe as a result of her lonely past, she was rewarded in this life as a social pony. I've not once ever seen Rarity look lonely. She's happy here... Hopefully she'll be just as happy when I tell her to remember...
"So Twilight; what is it that you wish to talk about? Is everything ok?" Rarity asked. She placed a cup of tea in front of Twilight and took a sip from her own. She smiled at her friend.
Twilight sort of smiled back. She took a long sip of tea. She wasn't quite sure of where to begin. How did you go about telling one of your best friends that she had an eternal soul—maybe the longest living one out of all of them—and that it was time for her to wake up and remember her old lives, so that they could go off and battle together?
Twilight even wondered why the princesses wanted her to awaken her friends. If they were to use the Elements of Harmony, why bother telling them about their past lives? The Elements worked with them in the here and now, as ponies, no sailor scouts required. And they involved Fluttershy, the shy, peaceful, internally-waiting-to-be-awakened-destructor.
"Well," Twilight said, as she set her cup down, "I've just come straight from Canterlot. I had a conference with the princesses."
"The princesses? Both of them? I do hope that nothing is amiss in Equestria," Rarity said.
"All three of them actually; Cadance was there as well," Twilight said. She paused. "I'd been having these nightmares for a while, and wrote to Princess Celestia about them."
"Oh," Rarity said. She quietly took a sip of her tea. "These dreams were bad enough for the princess to summon you? I do hope she provided you with a cure."
"She did, in a way. You see, she told me that the dreams were actually memories—memories from a past life," Twilight said slowly.
Twilight watched Rarity carefully, trying to gage if there was anything out of the ordinary in her reaction to what she was telling her. Rarity glanced away from Twilight; she seemed uncomfortable. She took a hasty sip of tea and waited a beat before she responded.
"M-memories you say? From a past life? Did they explain to you what this past life was?" Rarity asked.
Rarity shakily took another sip of tea. She spilt some on the table.
"Oh my," she said. She quickly wiped up the mess.
"Rarity, are you ok? Have you... have you been having these dreams as well?" Twilight asked.
Rarity sighed, her breath hitching for a second, as though she were about to cry. She didn't. She walked away from the table and stood in front of the window, and stared outside.
"No, I haven't been having the dreams," she said quietly. Twilight waited for her to continue. "I haven't been having the dreams or memory-retrieval, as we used to refer to them, because I don't need to retrieve my memories. They never left. I've been awake the whole time."
Twilight shook her head slightly, and tried to clear her thoughts and make sense of what Rarity was saying.
"Rarity... what are you saying? What do you mean you've been awake this whole time? You... you remember who you are?" Twilight asked.
"I don't 'remember' who I am, as the same way that you are remembering who you are Twilight Sparkle—or should I say Amy?—because my memories were never put away. They weren't hidden from me. I've known who I am this whole time; I've always known. My name is Trista, Trista Meioh. I was the princess of Pluto during the Silver Millennium, and served to protect the solar system from outer invasion. For much of my life, I have been the Keeper of Time and Space, and lived a solitary life guarding the door between worlds. I was alone guarding the door, and alone on my planet—which has been displaced as a planet now—for it was the furthest in our system.
"Because I am the Keeper of Time and Space, my memories cannot be altered like yours and the other sailor scouts. When I was transformed alongside everybody else on Earth, I pretended to not know," she explained.
"But why? Why hide that you remember who you are?" Twilight asked.
"Because I was tired of being lonely!" Rarity said. She turned back to face Twilight, tears falling down her face, "In this life, I don't have to be lonely. I have friends and family here. There's no need for me to stand alone at the Gates of Time anymore."
"But the princesses know who you are," Twilight said, "They've told me to awaken you and the others."
Rarity sighed. "I know they know who I am. How could they not? They're the ones who transformed us two thousand years ago. Sometimes I feel so selfish for hiding who I am. Perhaps I could have helped Princess Luna when she turned into Nightmare Moon. Maybe she wouldn't have lost her way then..."
"Two thousand years? But I'm only a few years old. How could I have been created a few thousand years ago?" Twilight asked.
"The princesses recycle the scouts' souls when their shells 'die'. While you have only been Twilight Sparkle for a few years, Amy's soul has been around since Equestria was first made. There have been many times when I thought the sailor scouts would be awakened again—Discord, Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, to mention some—but they never were. Whenever serious conflict arose, I would be waiting for the day when Celestia or Luna—or one of you—came to my door and told me it was time to wake up and take action. But it never came. There must be something serious coming if you're all awakening now," Rarity said.
Twilight took in a big breath and exhaled loudly. This hadn't gone at all how she expected. Rarity knew this whole time? This whole time she had known she used to be a human, that she had fought centuries upon centuries ago. She pretended this whole time to be somepony else.
"Please do not think of me as a different pony, Twilight," Rarity said, as though she could read Twilight's thoughts, "I am still the same Rarity that you know and befriended. Being Rarity—and the ponies I was beforehand—has given me the time to do things that I could never do as Sailor Pluto. But... but now it's time for me to fully wake up and become serious again. If Equestria's in danger and needs the sailor scouts, then it's time to take on that responsibility again. I can no longer hide who I really am."
Twilight stared at her, slightly shocked by her sudden turn around into serious mode. Rarity gave an awkward smile back and cleared her throat.
"So, um... What did the princesses tell you exactly?" Rarity asked.
Twilight recounted what the princesses had told her. Rarity nodded and began to pace as she listened to Twilight's story.
"Yes; I never was one hundred percent sure which princess was which, but I had guessed right. There have been so many days and nights when I have longed to reach out and talk to Small Lady... but I never did," Rarity said with a heavy sigh.
"Well, maybe once this is all over you and her can catch up?" Twilight said.
"Maybe," Rarity said quietly.
"So, who do you think we should approach next then?" Twilight asked. "I don't have my full memories back—they're more like flashes and visions of what happened in the past, images that I watch, but don't fully remember—so I'm not sure who would be the best to approach next."
"Well, as the princesses told you, we absolutely cannot talk to Fluttershy about this, nor can we talk about this in front of her. If she starts to get her memories back as Sailor Saturn, destruction and chaos will reign free again," Rarity said. "She was accidentally freed once before in Equestria times."
"Oh? When was that?" Twilight asked.
"When Discord reigned over Equestria. The princesses hadn't quite figured out everything in their new Earth, and a mysterious new creature named Discord appeared. He wasn't from the Negaverse or Black Moon, or any of the older foes that we have fought before—he was new and somehow came along in the creation of Equestria. He learned of the princesses true identities and learned of Sailor Saturn. He awoke her and while he created chaos, she created destruction," Rarity explained. "I was worried that when Discord returned, the same would happen. I'm sure the princesses were just as worried—but it seems with Fluttershy being one of the Element bearers, the magic of her Element of Kindness keeps Saturn at bay."
"Interesting," Twilight said. "Why do you think the princesses want us to awken everyone—except Fluttershy—to battle whatever they expect to attack the Crystal Empire, if we are going to just use the Elements anyways? Isn't it just easier to use the Elements as ponies, like nothing has changed, than to awaken everyone and confuse them?"
"I am not full of all of the answers, Twilight," Rarity said with a smile, "I am sure the princesses have their reasons. My guess would be it's because whatever is coming is from our past lives, a force that perhaps we have fought before, and therefore we may need the help of our memories in order to defeat it."
Twilight nodded. It was a feasible hypothesis.
"As for your question as to who she would wake up next though," Rarity said, as she put away their empty cups of tea and tidied the table, "I would say that we should wake up Venus next. She was the captain of you four inner scouts, who were directly responsible for the Moon Princess's safety."
Twilight sighed. She nodded in agreement. While Rarity's words were true—Twilight had seen visions of Venus with a sword, and seen her giving orders, and had figured herself that she might be the next best bet to awaken—Twilight wasn't too keen on finding a way to talk sense into Venus's pony form. She could see it being a challenge.
"Alright then," Twilight said with another sight, "Let's go find Pinkie Pie."