‘Two days,’ Twilight thought, staring out of a port hole, ‘two days and this all feels like a very bad dream.’
Around her, the gentle snores of Fluttershy were the only sound aside from the occasional creak the ship made. Rainbow Dash had mostly taken to trying to be asleep most of the time, though it was clear when she was awake, as the snoring from her stopped. Pinkie Pie for the moment had gone to find some food for them all to eat, leaving the room in its current silence.
Before Twilight was a small wooden desk, with a candle, paper, ink and a quill. She had been given them on request the previous day, and so far, she had only jotted simple notes to keep track of events. Beside the desk, Spike had curled up and was currently asleep.
Twilight lifted the quill, dipped the tip in the ink, and begun to write.
Day Two,
I can’t not think about this anymore. Something doesn’t sit right with me about the events back in Equestria with those portals, the pathways to the past or to some horrible future. How did going through them cause our bonds to the elements weaken? Even when the Element of Magic appeared on my head, I didn’t feel what I normally feel when it is there.
So I’m going to do what I do best, and pour a scientific eye over the events in order to work out what happened.
Rainbow’s portal was to a future, earth ponies and unicorns had become “corrupted”, whatever that means, leaving pegasi all alone in a ruined civilization. She said that she woke up, because I hadn’t been given the spell to make the portals yet, after beating an alternate version of myself, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and the Princesses. Could it be her feelings of being disloyal in that alternate future broke the bond she held with the Element of Loyalty? The only reason Ulysses didn’t take it was because Rainbow managed to avoid whatever dark magic he was using to try and take it.
Pinkie’s portal isn’t clear, besides what Rainbow recalls an alternate timeline Pinkie Pie saying as she faded out of time. But I have some idea. When I had to take the marble from where it was there, and return to Rainbow’s portal, I set the events for the possibility of Rainbow dying there. To then prevent it, this now non-existent Pinkie Pie had to stop being random and fun loving, and be serious, completely different to what made her the Element of Laughter and breaking the bond she had to it. As this alternate Pinkie Pie died, Ulysses must have transferred the corruption from hers to the one belonging to the Pinkie Pie who was fine.
Twilight paused with her writing to look up. Applejack stood up and walked to the door of the room, stopping to smile wearily at Twilight, before she exited the room to walk around the ship. Across from Twilight, Rarity sat also with paper and charcoal, doodling designs to take her mind off events. Twilight sighed, and resumed writing.
The portals for Fluttershy, Applejack and myself are all linked to a similar past event, the weeks before the Elements were used by the Princesses to defeat Discord. In the portals for Fluttershy and Applejack, they met three colts, Fireshot, Cloudswirl and Forest Breeze, who had set out to defeat Discord. Its clear why Ulysses chose this part of the past to allow Fluttershy and Applejack to go to, Fluttershy couldn’t be kind and tell them they had no chance of winning against Discord, and Applejack had to lie to keep the past as it was, she couldn’t ever tell them that they would lose. Right there, going against their Elements.
The pattern is becoming slightly clear. So far, my friends had to betray their Elements to leave the events. In Rarity’s, the generous thing she could have done was to stay and try and help rebuild a ravaged world, but she had to fight and doom the last survivors, and only then could she return.
But what about mine? After my portal, Ulysses seemed angry. Maybe it hadn’t worked right? If so, why did I feel as though the Element of Magic was distant when it appeared on my head?
Again Twilight stopped to think. Beside the desk, Spike stirred, and turned over on his other side, mumbling something in his sleep. Rainbow Dash was now snoring as well, so she wasn’t now pretending to be asleep. Twilight examined the events that involved only her to try and see why her bond to the Elements had been broken. And then it clicked.
My Element! It may be magic, but its the Magic of Friendship! In the past, I was nothing but friendly to everypony except the Ulysses still going through the events, so my bond to it never got broken!
But the present day Ulysses, he forced me to set up the events my friends and I would live through, making me betray my friends! That’s how he broke the bond, he couldn’t do it with magic, and so had to make me stab my friends in the back.
I feel terrible now, if I had just stopped running through the portals and falling for his plan, we’d still be in Equestria, with his name and description, and could have stopped him. Instead, I... I handed him five of the Elements, the Princesses and the whole of Equestria.
I, I’m a... traitor.
The magic holding the quill vanished, and it dropped to the desk with a clunk from the heavy tip. Rarity stopped doodling dresses and looked up at Twilight, noticing she was crying. Leaving her designs where they were, Rarity walked over to Twilight and held her.
“What’s wrong Twilight?” Rarity asked.
“I worked it out, how he did this,” Twilight sniffed, still sobbing at what she had figured out. “It was us he wanted to corrupt, not the elements.”
“And we fell for it, we acted differently to what we represent,” she lay flat on the floor, “we corrupted ourselves... one by... one” she choked out through the tears.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but you never had to cast magic in your portal right? So you never went against magic, how could you if you didn’t use any?” Rarity questioned, looking at Twilight curiously.
“My Element isn’t magic in the sense of magic. It represents the magic of friendship. Even Discord mocked me once, and he called it the magic of friendship. When I went through the portals at the end, he made me set up the situations we’d all been through, in effect, betraying all of you. I’m a traitor, I gave him pretty much everything to take over Equestria.” Twilight ceased crying and whined, hanging her head.
“Twilight Sparkle, you are not a traitor! We all fell for Ulysses’ plan, we had no way of knowing what he would do next. Had we known, we might have been able to do something,” Rarity held Twilight tighter, “now come on, you can’t be a traitor if you were just an unwitting tool he used to achieve his goals. Even Princess Celestia would tell you that if she were here this second.”
Twilight looked up at Rarity and smiled weakly. She hugged Rarity back, neither noticing that Fluttershy had woken up, rather confused at the two hugging the other, and where she slept, Rainbow had stopped snoring, woken up by all the talking.
When Applejack returned five minutes later, helping Pinkie Pie bring in the food she had found and been allowed to take, Applejack convinced Rainbow to at least sit up and eat, which Rainbow did in silent protest.
From there, Twilight explained to all of them what she had worked out, how Ulysses had weakened the bonds they had with the Elements of Harmony, and that Ulysses had tricked them into behaving the opposite of their elements.
“Shoot,” snorted Applejack, “he’s just like Discord in a way, except far weaker and his head shoved far up his behind.”
There was a slight chuckle at her comment. They sat in silence to eat their food, mostly various kinds of fruits which Pinkie said she had found in a fridge. The revelation that Irvest had fridges as well made the six feel as though Irvest might not be too different to Equestria after all.
As she ate, a thought entered Twilight’s mind, and she decided to share it.
“Girls,” the others looked at her, “while we joked how Ulysses is like Discord, in another way, he isn’t. Discord changed us all so the Elements couldn’t be used against him. Ulysses must have known there was a chance we’d find out he was causing the events, and could have just got the elements, corrupted or not, and use them against him.” Twilight stated.
“Now ya mention it, somethin’ ain’t right. Even in Ponyville with his dark magic, if he hadn’t reacted so fast, we could have used the Elements then and just stopped him. Why did he run the risk of being attacked by them?” Applejack questioned, the thought now disturbing her.
Ulysses indeed had ran a huge risk. At any moment he could have been found out, and all it would have taken was a blast of harmony to stop his plans. So why had he done it?
“What if the risk was worth whatever he really wanted? I mean,” Rarity paused to think for a second, “he was after possession of the Elements, not Equestria. Whatever he really wants, currently ruling Equestria is the least of his concerns, otherwise he’d have gone straight after the princesses.”
“He did mention something about a ‘birthright’ when I met him,” Twilight added, “but I don’t recall in the legends of the elements of there being any mention that they belonged to anyone before Princesses Celestia and Luna found them. I guess the only way we’ll know for sure is when we go back to get the other elements and stop him for good.”
And so, the six friends and Spike continued to eat, all attempting to try and consider what the ‘birthright’ Ulysses had mentioned had to do with the Elements of Harmony.
Later, Twilight would write one last thing to the notes she had written prior to talking to Rarity, writing the following;
After talking with my friends, they reassured me that I am not a traitor, despite my original feelings.
Now I feel better, I have to think of how to stop Ulysses. The only clue for his actions being that he is seeking his ‘birthright’, but I have nothing else to go on besides that. Maybe in Irvest, I can find out more of his past.
And then, we can all return to Equestria, defeat Ulysses, rebuild Ponyville and return to our normal lives.