There was a knock on the door of Vic’s house, late in the evening. As Vic approached the door, whoever stood on the opposite side knocked again, and Vic noticed that the sound came from a little higher than usual. Expecting the best, he opened the door to reveal Queen Luna. She stood there looking regal, with a single member of her Night Guard beside her, and Reddened Chaos skulking around at a respectable distance.
“Your highness”, Vic said with a bow. “What brings you to my home this fine evening?”
“We would have words with you, historian”, the Dark Queen replied simply.
“Well, who am I to reject you, madam? Please, come in and you can have your words. Perhaps you and your guard would like a drink as we speak?”
“That would be very cordial of you. It pleases us to see this”, Luna complimented as she trotted into Vic’s home and followed him to the living room. “Cordiality, these days, seems in ever-shorter supply.”
“Times change, your highness”, Vic said in agreement as he floated some of his better sitting pillows into the room and put them down near the fireplace. The best one on one side, a slightly less good but still high-quality one next to the first, close by but not too close, and the worst of the three, but still nice, at the other side. “Perhaps it is just not ‘cordiality’ as you or I would recognize it. Would you tea or maybe something else, madam?”
“Moonbeam, please, if you have it”, the queen replied, and took her seat on the best pillow of the three.
Vic nodded and turned to the guard. “And you, sir?”
“…The same, please”, the guard replied in a low rumble.
Vic lit up his horn as he sat down on the singular pillow on his side of the fireplace. The sounds of running water and a stove igniting could be heard from the kitchen.
“Incidentally, before we start, I would like to quickly introduce my friends and social parasites”, Vic interjected, pointing towards Tailchaser and Powder, who were sitting at a side table in a distant corner of the room, playing Old Maid. “These are Tailchaser, the pegasus, and Powder.”
Being in the middle of his turn, Tailchaser was lost in thought as he considered which card to pick and didn’t react. Powder turned his head at the mention of his nickname and gave a respectable, slow nod towards the lunar diarch.
“Now then, let us have those words. Your majesty?”
“Very well. My dear sister has given you an occupation as her court historian, correct?” Luna asked. Vic nodded and floated a small wooden box full of tea bags into the room, not breaking eye contact with his guest. “We… I had asked her several times how it could be that you would be asked about some past event and know everything there is to know about it within an hour.”
Vic couldn’t hold back a proud smile as he opened the box with his magic, still looking Luna in the eyes, and extracted two packets of moonbeam blend.
“I had sent one of my secret agents to find out what exactly it was that you did. He had failed his mission – apparently some other agent had intercepted him before he could deliver his report, and by the time he did return, I had already been told the key element to your methods by my dear sister.”
“I will be right back”, Tailchaser suddenly said, lowering his voice as to not disturb the others, and stood up. “Toilet break.”
He gently made his way to the hallway, but instead of going to the little colts room, he silently flew up the stairs into the storeroom, where Sixteen had built her cocoon. Tailchaser carefully tapped the hardened muck, drawing out the occupant.
“Good evening, Sixteen”, he said as the changeling wiped some green fluids from her eyes. “Do you remember that time I foiled this one spy?”
“How could I forget? Good times, when you caught the guy”, Sixteen joked, stifling a yawn. “What about him?”
“He’s here again, skulking around outside.”
“Yeah, so?”
“I do feel bad, in a way, for what I’ve done to him.”
Sixteen nodded. The changeling could tell at a glance and a sniff how Chase felt about Red.
“I would appreciate it if you could… give him a good time for me”, Chase hesitated. “He seems to have a hopeless crush on the queen, so maybe if you…?”
Sixteen nodded again, more vigorously. She knew exactly what to do. They flew back down in single file and as Chase went off to the toilet, Sixteen changed her form, growing larger and more blue.
Just as the water reached boiling point, Vic reached out and removed the kettle from the stove and turned it off. Two cups appeared in front of his guests, and the kettle floated in from the kitchen as the box of tea bags was returned.
“What I would like to know is how exactly this time travel works,” Luna continued. “Tis clearly not the method of Starswirl the Bearded, I know as much.”
Vic nodded in agreement as he prepared the moonbeam tea. “You would be correct, madam. It is, in fact, based on Starswirl’s method, but highly optimized and expanded. In fact, I could perhaps show you in practice. By the time we get back, your tea should be properly steeped and at a temperature you would find more agreeable.”
“Perhaps a hooves-on experience would be the best way to learn of your method, Mister Victory. Very well then”, Luna announced as she stood up, her guard following suit shortly after.
“If you would accompany me to my workshop, then…”
“Now, what historical event would you like to witness, your highness?” Vic offered. “The closer to now, the easier it is for me to plan out the journey, I should tell you.”
Queen Luna thought about the offer for a moment, then turned to a photograph of her moon. “Are you familiar with the time after my return from exile?” she asked.
“Naturally. In fact I was there at the Summer Sun Celebration when you returned”, Vic answered as he started jotting down some initial numbers on a piece of loose-leaf. They were rough starting points for a hundred years or so back, and Vic had memorized them to make travel to that period easier to plan out.
“Then, could you possibly take me to the first Nightmare Night that followed?”
Vic considered the request as he subtracted a few months’ worth of stellar rotation. “No offense, but I am not entirely sure if that is a good idea, your highness.”
“And why is this?”
“Things are weird enough when my dear Jennie comes along with the saddlebags your sister had enchanted”, Vic explained. “It turns out that its presence causes the Celestia of that time to temporarily gain the memories and experiences of the one now.”
Luna blanched. “What.”
“I shudder to imagine what could happen if two of the same pony were to meet. In all my journeys through the decades, and even back when I did my first trial runs, I had gone through great pains to never meet myself, and for good reason.”
“And that reason is fear?” Luna asked. It was almost not a question at all. Vic nodded solemnly. “We can understand, Pyrrhic Victory. If it is really that unsettling, we will abstain from this risk for the time being.”
“Thank you, your highness. At least I can rule out mental merging just by being there twice – my first trial run went back only ten minutes, and I was there for thirty-six seconds, but I have no memory of remembering two points in time simultaneously.”
Just as Luna was about to thank Vic, a scream reverberated through the building.
“I’LL KILL YOU, BUG!”
“Ah. It seems Mister Chaos has made a new friend”, Luna remarked with a regal smile.