//------------------------------// // Moonlit Memories // Story: What Didn't Happen // by Zeg //------------------------------// What Didn't Happen by Zeg Chapter VI – Moonlit Memories “There should be two others with you,” Chrysalis said as her eyes locked squarely on Twilight, who returned the glance by narrowing her own at the Changeling Queen. A tiny voice in the back of Twilight’s mind was already telling her that something about this encounter wasn’t right. Chrysalis turned herself to look up to the five Elements that slowly circled the top of the crystal above. “This isn’t ideal, but I suppose those of you who are here can claim the Element that you each represent.” Her horn lit with a green aura, and the giant crystal gave out a single pulse of green light within the room. The Elements then descended from above the crystal, circling down to the ground to land in a neat line just before her. “You three should find yours here,” Chrysalis said as she gestured to Twilight’s friends. “We should get the remaining two to their bearers as soon as possible.” Twilight was fully focused on trying to read Chrysalis’s intentions. She had only ever known Chrysalis to be an enemy of Equestria, but here she was now readily giving up the Elements to a group of mares that she had never met, and should have no prior knowledge of. She had witnessed Chrysalis channeling some sort of unidentified spell on the Elements through the crystal when they had walked into the room, and then there was also the unexplained presence of the hive within Equestria’s borders, the victims within it, and the sudden complete lack of changelings the last few days. There were far too many strange things that didn’t add up to a clear answer. But the one thing that had really caused Twilight to feel alarmed was that Chrysalis seemed to know more about the Elements’ bearers than she should. Somehow, Chrysalis had known that only Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie could claim an Element from the five available. Her instincts were screaming the same three words over and over in her mind. Don’t. Trust. Her. “Don’t touch the Elements,” Twilight finally said, holding a foreleg out to her side to keep her friends from advancing forward. “She’s done something to them.” She had no proof of her claim, but she could feel in her gut that something was wrong. It was the same feeling as the first time she had encountered Chrysalis over two centuries ago, and she had been right then. She felt no reason not to trust her instincts now. “Done something...?” Chrysalis seemed to stare back in shock at the accusation for a moment, before she tried to defend her actions. “What is it that I have done? Can you not see that I am trying to help?” Twilight decided to make an attempt to drag an answer for Chrysalis’s unexplainable knowledge out in the open. “How did you know there were six of us? There are only five Elements, so there is no possible way you could have known there are six bearers.” Chrysalis grit her teeth, her sharp fangs showing for a second before she made an attempt to answer. “I-I was told, the sixth is hidden. It will reveal itself when the other five are present.” Twilight wasn’t done yet. She raised an eyebrow as she tossed another carefully baited question out. “Then how did you know the hidden one belonged to me?” “Well, I merely overheard, through my informant that you revealed within the camp. I’m sure you already know I am connected with all of my drones. What they know, I also know.” Twilight knew that Chrysalis’s claim about knowing what her drones knew was true enough, but the rest couldn’t be. Twilight set her jaw, her mouth forming a thin line on her muzzle. She had found the shred of proof she had been looking for. “Funny...,” she began as she stared Chrysalis down from across the room, “I don’t think we spoke a word about the Elements outside our tent. Nopony should have heard a thing through the sound dampening enchantment I placed on it.” Chrysalis seemed shocked into silence by the revelation that she had been caught in a lie. Her voice cracked as she strained for a few seconds to find something she could say. “I-I can explain,” she finally said in a pleading voice. “I’m not interested in more lies,” Twilight said plainly, causing Chrysalis to stammer. Making a quick decision, Twilight raised her voice, calling back over her shoulder toward the ramp. “I need some help up here!” It was a gamble, but she felt there was no other choice. If the Elements had somehow been tampered with, she could not risk her friends touching them, and she simply couldn’t let Chrysalis go free if she was going to find out the truth. There was a chance Chrysalis would try to reveal them to Nightmare Moon, to make a claim that she knew their true intentions for being there. However, if she did she would be revealing whatever secrets she was hiding at the same time, as she would have to come up with proof of her claim. Twilight figured that at worst, it would end up being her word against the word of a changeling, which was in her favor. “Twi, you sure about this?” Applejack asked, glancing between Twilight and the Elements that rest across the room. “We’ll lose the Elements.” “I know... but I can’t let you chance it,” Twilight said as she kept her gaze focused ahead. “I’m sorry, but we just can’t trust her. She’s hiding something from us.” Chrysalis began to step forward, a flash of anger twisting her face into a scowl. “You are making a mistake!” she said hotly, her fangs glinting in the dim lighting. “Don’t!” Twilight snapped with a stamp of her hoof, causing an echo through the room as her horn suddenly lit with a bright white pinpoint of light, causing Chrysalis to freeze mid step. “Not a single hoof closer. If you even come an inch closer to my friends you’ll be regretting it for weeks.” The stone cold stare that Twilight gave Chrysalis conveyed her intentions to make good on her threat. For her part, Chrysalis wisely decided not to advance any further. The sound of a group of hooves galloping up the ramp began to echo from behind the four mares. Gale was the first of the Nightguard on the scene, soaring into the room just slightly off the ground. She came to a halt in the air just above the four mares, hovering there for a second as she took in the scene. She dropped to the ground quickly, landing next to Twilight with a loud clack of her hooves. As she did, she glanced back over her shoulder at the group of unicorn and earth pony guards arriving in the room, motioning with her wings to wordlessly direct them to fan out to the right and left in the room. The unicorns among the guard quickly readied their spells as they surrounded the Changeling Queen, the glow from their horns casting a starburst like shadow on the floor around Chrysalis. “Be careful, she’s the hive queen,” Twilight announced to the Nightguard in the room. “Have you seen any others?” Gale asked. Twilight shook her head. “Not yet, but don’t count them out.” “You won’t find any of my drones here,” Chrysalis said with a sneer. “I sent them away to avoid them being mercilessly slaughtered by these guards.” “That choice will prove to be your downfall.” The voice had come from the ramp, drawing the attention of nearly everypony in the room. Nightmare Moon ascended the last few steps of the ramp, calmly walking between Twilight and Gale into the protective ring of guards that surrounded the Changeling Queen. “It has been quite a while, hasn’t it?” Chrysalis said as she locked her eyes on Nightmare Moon. “I see the rumors of just how much you had changed were not exaggerated.” “Silence!” Nightmare Moon barked out as her eyes flashed at the quick moment of anger. Her word echoed multiple times through the hollow interior of the hive as she continued her advance toward to Chrysalis. Her hoof steps were the only sound until she stopped when she was just a leg length away, where the five Elements rested there on the ground between the two of them. She stared intently at the five Elements resting on the floor for a moment, the prize that she had come to claim, before she looked back up to Chrysalis. “To think that Celestia would have entrusted you with the Elements,” she said, her words dripping with disgust. Chrysalis stared back silently for a moment, her jaw working back and forth as she ground her teeth. “It bothers you, that she choose me over you... doesn’t it?” she said, a very slight hint of a smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth. Nightmare Moon’s eyes suddenly widened at the remark. She stood still as a statue for a few seconds, until suddenly she drew in a forceful breath through her nostrils, her entire body shaking as she did so. Her wings flared out to her side suddenly, causing a sudden rush of air, and the resounding crack of her hoof connecting with the side of Chrysalis’s face caused most of the onlookers in the room to flinch. Chrysalis amazingly stayed standing after the strike, only stumbling a single step as her head and neck snapped to the side. After a few gasping breaths, she tilted her head to glare up at Nightmare Moon. “Touched a nerve, did I?” Nightmare Moon returned the hatefilled gaze with an equal glower of her own. “After what we have seen here... the very thought of either one of you makes us sick.” Chrysalis swallowed against the pain in her jaw. “What is it you want? You have already won.” She slowly raised her head back up to stare levelly at Nightmare Moon. “Or, were you hoping for a fight to the death? I’m sorry to disappoint you if that is the only reason why you came here. I’m not suicidal. I know you have more power than I do.” “Then you are a fool for not fleeing when you had the chance. Surrender,” Nightmare Moon demanded. Chrysalis closed her eyes for a few seconds, a silent sigh escaping from her. She peered down at the Elements at her hooves shortly before looking back to Nightmare Moon. “I surrender to you,” she declared with a slight bow of her head. “Sergeant.” The word was the only one that needed to be said. Gale took the unspoken command from her queen, quickly directing most of the unicorn guards to surround Chrysalis. Nightmare Moon watched as the Nightguard began to lead the defeated Changeling Queen toward the ramp. “If she tries anything, or if a single one of her misbegotten kind shows their face...,” she lowered her voice nearly to a growl, “make her regret it.” Twilight and her friends stood aside, allowing the Nightguard to escort Chrysalis past. As they did, the Chrysalis glanced down to Twilight. “You have no idea what you have set into motion, do you?” she asked quietly as she was escorted by. Twilight looked on following the group with her eyes until the Nightguard and Chrysalis were out of sight, the unsettling words continuing to echo through her mind. “You five, with me,” Gale’s voice echoed through the room. Twilight turned her gaze back to the center of the large room, where Sergeant Gale was gathering together five of the earth pony guards. “Let’s get these relics secured and out of here,” she said as she directed her fellow guards to the Elements. Twilight looked on intently as the guards approached the five geodes resting on the floor. When one of them reached out to touch one of the relics, Twilight found herself letting go a breath she hadn’t realised she was holding. She had been expecting something to possibly happen, but it appeared there was no noticeable reaction to the Elements being touched. The Nightguard worked diligently to collect the relics, helping each other to secure one Element each to their back with lengths of rope. Twilight glanced up to her side when she noticed that Nightmare Moon had walked up next to her. The Queen watched as her guards gathered the Elements, her current tranquil demeanor sharply contrasting her actions only a moment ago. “I have you to thank for this success,” she quietly said only loud enough for Twilight to hear. Twilight didn’t particularly feel proud of her actions. A part of her was wondering if her choice had been the right one. Chrysalis hadn’t revealed anything further as she had hoped, and now she could only stand there and watch as her one possible chance to free Celestia was being taken away right before her eyes. “I only called for help, your Majesty,” Twilight said humbly, lowering her head slightly to the monarch. “You did what was necessary to ensure Equestria’s future.” Nightmare Moon responded by bowing her head slightly in respect to the mare that had helped ensure her victory. “I have not forgotten my word. You shall be rewarded for your service to me, in time.” --- Twilight had returned to Ponyville along with her friends the following day. Sergeant Gale had insisted that the Nightguard be allowed to provide an escort through the Everfree, as her way of thanking the group of mares for their help. With the protection of the guards, the trip had been an uneventful one, and also a mostly silent one. Even if their original plan had failed, they each knew that talking about it openly among Nightmare Moon’s Nightguard wouldn’t be wise. Once they had arrived home in Ponyville, the group had given their thanks for the escort and then decided to find somewhere to talk in private. Applejack’s farm had been chosen, as it was the closest, and the group would likely find the privacy they were looking for within the large red barn on the acreage. Once they had made it there, they made themselves comfortable inside. The few days away from civilization had made them come to appreciate something as simple as a bed of soft hay to relax on. At first, there didn’t seem to be a lot for the group to talk about. Twilight had remained mostly quiet while the rest of the mares tried to make conversation about their adventure, but the idle chatter gave way to long moments of silence again and again. Eventually, the subject of what they were to do next was brought up, which also lead into talking about the disappointing results of their attempt to recover the Elements. Rainbow Dash had proven to be the most vocal on this particular topic. “I’m just saying, it was probably the biggest waste of time ever,” Rainbow said as she swiped her hoof through the loose hay in front of her. “I mean, we could have sat on our hooves and accomplished more.” “Now Dash, that ain’t really true,” Applejack said. She reached over from where she was laying next to Rainbow, and prodded her shoulder. “What about all them ponies that the guards are rescuin’?” “That isn’t why we went there!” Rainbow grumbled as she flicked Applejack’s touch aside. “I mean yeah, sure, that’s good and all, but did we really have to just hand over the Elements? I mean, I know Fluttershy couldn’t really help out and I had to stay with her, and I’m not saying it’s her fault or anything. But, why just say ‘no’ when the bug queen was trying to give them to us?” Rarity hummed at her own thoughts, drawing the attention in the room to herself. “Well, it definitely was a sticky situation. I can see why Twilight was weary of this Chrysalis character. She seemed a bit off.” Pinkie nodded with a quick ‘uh huh’ from where she was resting near Rarity’s side. “There was something kinda funny about her, and not in a ‘funny ha ha’ kind of way either. More like the really creepy ‘I’ve been watching you in your sleep’ kinda funny.” Pinkie lowered her muzzle to the point that she was only peaking out over the top of her forelegs, her eyes shifting back and forth suspiciously. “I mean, it was like she knew we were coming.” “That doesn’t matter!” Rainbow said as she once again swiped her hoof in front of her, her agitation seeming to grow. “That was probably the best chance we were going to get, and now it’s gone!” Rainbow snorted, the frustrated breath of air causing loose straw to blow across the floor. Her tail flicked quickly from side to side at her agitated state, and her eyes happened to glance over to Twilight, who had spent most of the evening staring at a spot on the floor near herself. “You haven’t said two words all night. What’s the deal? Doesn’t this bug you?” Twilight glanced up from staring at the floor, looking Rainbow Dash in the eyes for a few seconds while the room went deathly silent. Drawing in a deep breath, she let it go with a long hum as she stood from the bed of hay she had been resting on. She began walking toward the doorway, levitating her jacket over to herself and putting it on as she said, “I think I need to take a walk for a bit. I’ll be back when I can clear my head.” With that, Twilight quietly exited through the door, letting it swing shut to latch on its own. The rest of the mares looked about at each other wordlessly, each seeming a bit shocked. Rainbow’s voice cracked as she failed to find any words to describe what she was feeling, her hoof gesturing to the doorway. When she finally found her words again, her voice climbed an octave as she asked, “What was that!?” “Well,” Applejack started as she glanced from the doorway back to Rainbow, “you were kinda raggin’ on her pretty hard tonight, Dash.” “I was not ‘ragging’ on her. I was just blowing off steam.” “Sounded like raggin’ to me.” “Oh so, now we’re going to say this is my fault, huh?” “Girls,” Rarity interjected. “There’s no reason to fight.” “We ain’t fightin’, we’re just discussin’ this, ain’t that right?” Applejack said as she looked to Rainbow and shrugged her shoulders. “Yeah whatever.” Rainbow suddenly took an interest in the floor right in front of her, staring at it as she ground her hoof against the loose hay she found there. “I still think you guys should have gone for it back in the hive,” she grumbled. “Shoulda coulda, but doesn’t matter much now.” Rarity leaned herself toward Pinkie Pie, lowering her voice to speak quietly in her ear. “Looks like they’re going to be at this a while, doesn’t it?” Pinkie nodded her head, letting out a ‘mhmm’ in reply. Rarity shifted on her hay bed, trying to make herself comfortable for what was likely going to be a lengthy session of ‘discussing’ between the two mares. She happened to catch something out of the corner of her eye, and glanced over to the doorway to see Fluttershy quietly making her way towards it. The pegasus rested a hoof on the door’s latch, glancing back into the room and noticing that she was being watched. She seemed to hesitate, glancing back and forth between the doorway and Rarity. Rarity didn’t need an explanation; she smiled to Fluttershy, wordlessly telling her to go on with a quick wave of her hoof. Fluttershy nodded back a silent thank you as she slipped out of the barn otherwise unnoticed. After making her way to the dirt path just outside the front gates of Sweet Apple Acres, Fluttershy stopped to glanced around at the moonlit scene. The night-time like air was crisp, but the breeze was very light making it easily bearable. The cool air and lack of sunlight had caused a dew to build up, and Fluttershy took notice of a trail of hoof marks that left the path and cut through the grass. Following the tracks through the dew laden blades, Fluttershy soon found herself topping a hill just on the edge of Ponyville’s park. Only a few more trots away was a park bench and table that the tracks stopped at where Twilight had found a place to be alone with her thoughts. She was sitting at the bench with her chin resting on the table, her forelegs crossed in front of her muzzle as she stared across them at the empty park. Fluttershy cautiously approached, standing off to the side to avoid disturbing Twilight incase she was in the middle of some important deep thinking. Twilight noticeably flinched when she realized somepony else was there. Her head raised from the table as her ears and eyes snapped toward Fluttershy, but her gaze quickly softened when she noticed who it was. “You sure can be sneaky when you want to be,” she said with a small smile. Fluttershy retreated a step, drawing a forehoof up against her chest. “Did I startle you? I didn’t mean too,” she said as her ears drooped. “I know you didn’t mean too,” Twilight said as she tapped a hoof on the bench next to herself. “Have a seat.” Fluttershy took the offer and sat down next to Twilight, who went back to looking out at the moonlit scene. A silence lingered between the two for a short while before Twilight decided to break it. “So, how are you feeling now?” “Oh! Well, thanks for asking, but I’m perfectly fine now. I’m not seeing butterflies everywhere any more,” Fluttershy said as she gestured at the air around her. “But um... actually I came out here to ask if you are okay. You didn’t look happy when you left. I was a bit worried.” Twilight shook her head. “You don’t need to worry about me. After everything that I’ve dragged you through, I’m actually surprised you came looking for me.” Fluttershy furrowed her brow at the comment. “Why would you say that? You haven’t done anything wrong.” Twilight snorted and scoffed at the remark. “I’ve done nothing wrong, have I? You do realize that all of this is my fault, right?” “Twilight, you can’t just blame yourself for things out of your control. It isn’t fair to you.” “Oh, things were well within my control.” Twilight leaned forward to rest her elbows on the table, crossing her forehooves just under her chin and resting on them. She stared straight ahead across the moonlit park silently for a moment as she recalled events from long ago. “The entire reason why the time spell even exists is because of things that were within my control. I’m the Princess of Magic. My destiny has always been to create new magic that would benefit everypony all across Equestria. And at first, that is exactly what I did. “But, that changed,” Twilight said with a heavy sigh. “I ended up twisting my destiny into a selfish desire, seeking to create magic that I never planned to share with anypony else.” Twilight paused, taking a moment to consider whether or not she should continue. After the short hesitation, she decided she wanted to share some of her past memories with her friend, if only to lighten the load on her mind. “I already told you guys that I wasn’t always an alicorn. That came later, after we had known each other for a little while. It turns out, one of the things about becoming an alicorn is that you no longer age. Something about embodying all three forms of pony magic that just makes it stop. I’ll be coming up on my two hundred and seventy second birthday soon. I’ve never really figured out for sure how it works and the other princesses don’t have a clear answer for it either, but it sounds great, right? “Well, it turns out it’s not necessarily the best thing ever. I knew pretty early on that it meant that someday, all of you would pass on and I would be the only one of our little group left. That’s kinda sad if you think about it, but that was just the way things were going to be, so I made the best of what time we had together. But, I don’t think it really hit me until I lost one of you. I thought I was prepared for it; fact is, I wasn’t. And it just got worse every time another one of you passed on. It was like... like a part of me was just getting hollowed out little by little. “And then after you were all gone, I just couldn’t figure out how to move on. For some reason I couldn’t get my mind off that fact that I was going to live on thanks to all of you, but none of you got to benefit from that. It didn’t feel fair and it bothered me. I felt guilty, like I had stolen something from my own friends, and it really started to cause havoc on my daily duties. The other princesses were nice enough to give me all the time off that I wanted to try and work out my issues, but they should have just knocked some sense into me instead. It probably would have stopped this all from happening and saved a lot of wasted time. “You see, since I had all this extra time to sit around and do nothing but obsess over something I couldn’t change, I eventually ended up getting this crazy idea,” Twilight said as she sat up, pushing away from the table. “I was the Princess of Magic, which meant if anypony could figure out a way to create new magic that could bring somepony back from the dead, I could. So that’s what I focused on for years, spending my extra free time trying to chase down the answer to resurrection so I could bring you all back. “All I found was that it was impossible. Dead is dead. After working on my research for over a decade I had finally found conclusive evidence that resurrection through magic was completely impossible to do, so that’s it right? At that point you would think I would have finally given it up. “But no, I didn’t.” Twilight shook her head disappointedly as she continued to reflect on her past. “I kept obsessing over it, and kept telling myself that I was overlooking a possibility somewhere. I kept digging into every scrap of magical research I could get my hooves on just to try and find some hidden, unorthodox method of magic I didn’t already know about that might help me bend the rules of the universe. “And you know what? I found it,” Twilight said as she shifted to look directly at Fluttershy, a faint smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “The answer was actually quite simple. I couldn’t bring you all back from the dead, but I could go back to when you were all alive and see you again. All I had to do was figure out time travel, which was something that I already knew was possible because the spell already existed. I just had to make the spell work better. “So, I poured more of my time into my research. I came up with theories on how to bypass the limitations that were placed on Starswirl’s version of the time travel spell, and by the end of it I had basically replaced everything about his spell with changes of my own, coming up with something completely new and different. Instead of teleporting to another location in time for a very short moment, I would be able to quite literally just walk through time after opening a tunnel to the other side and stay there as long as I wanted. I could go wherever I wanted too, see anypony I wanted too, and do it whenever I felt like it. “And I was going to do it too. Oh, I knew about all the possible consequences. I made very detailed notes about my theories. About how the very act of stepping one single hoof out of the spell at the other end could be enough to cause a chain reaction of events that could end in the destruction of just about everything everypony ever held dear, but you know what?” Twilight paused for a second, staring directly into Fluttershy’s eyes, who was still completely focused on listening to the story. “I didn’t care,” she said plainly. “I’d completely lost sight of the reason why I had started searching for this power in the first place, which was supposed to be to find a way to bring all of you back, and to let all of you share in the gift I was given. It had instead turned into a selfish desire to cheat the universe and get more time with you all at any cost. I was so consumed with the thought of just seeing you all again that I completely threw caution into the wind and decided to go through with it. Consequences be damned, I wasn’t going to let anything keep me from it, not when I was so close to making it really happen. “But, I did get stopped,” Twilight said as she shrugged her shoulders, letting her hooves fall to her sides. She glanced away to the table’s surface as she continued her story. “The others found out what I had been up too. They had come across my notes, including all the details on why this was really one of the most horrible ideas ever conceived, and how it would likely destroy Equestria’s history as we all knew it. Needless to say, their reaction to what I had been doing in secret for all those years wasn’t the best. “They destroyed it all. Every last scrap of notes; all of my research that I had devoted over a decade of my life too. Only after they had eliminated the threat of me ruining Equestria’s past did they confront me about it directly. And oh, was I livid. I came so close to losing what was left of my sanity right then and there. I was seriously going to hurt them all, make them all pay for destroying the one dream I had left, but luckily they talked me down. Instead, I just choose to leave it all behind. I didn’t want anything to do with the whole princess mess or any of them any more. So, I left Canterlot and my title behind.” Twilight paused for a few seconds, side glancing at her friend before looking back to the table’s surface. “They left me alone for awhile,” she said a bit quietly. “Well, not completely. They still checked in with me now and then... probably to make sure I wasn’t doing anything crazy. I didn’t really mind that they did at that point. It didn’t take me long to realize what I had almost done, and to be honest I felt quite ashamed of how I had abused my power. I couldn’t blame them for what they had chosen to do to stop me. They had no choice; they had to protect Equestria. I was the one who had been wrong. So my reason for staying away changed. I no longer felt I deserved to have the title of Princess of Magic.” Twilight glanced up to the night sky above, the corners of her mouth twitching a bit as she came across a memory that seemed slightly amusing to her now. “You know, I actually earned myself a nasty little nickname back then. I don’t know who it was that started the rumors, but somehow word got out that Twilight Sparkle had gone a bit bonkers and had nearly taken Equestria with her. I started hearing the title of The Twilight Nightmare being tossed around during my exile, though nopony was ever brave enough to call me that to my face.” Twilight let go a light hearted chuckle at the mention of her old nickname. “That’s mean,” Fluttershy said as she frowned a bit. “It was deserved,” Twilight said glancing to her friend, her face quickly becoming serious, “which is why I just let it slide. If I hadn’t been stopped, it would have become a reality. I had come so close to becoming something so twisted and wrong, and it had all started from a single reason that I thought was good. But, even something starting with a good reason can end up becoming a disaster.” Twilight went back to staring out across the table at the open field. She rested her forehooves on the tabletop, shifting them over one another as she let the memories of her past echo in her mind. Drawing in a deep breath through her nostrils, she let it go with a hum before she continued to share more of her past. “Well, after a few generations went by, the whole thing kinda blew over. Nopony really remembers that name anymore, and things actually got a lot better when I finally decided to return to being the Princess of Magic after my self imposed exile. Surprisingly, the other princesses asked to have me back. I guess the saying that ‘time heals all wounds’ has a bit of truth behind it. It only took me a few decades of time to stop being a nutcase, not bad right?” Twilight let a small smirk turn the corners of her mouth for a few seconds, before it faded away. “Well, honestly I just learned to live with it. That hollow feeling had turned into more of... just a disappointing feeling. I tried to find new friends, but it just wasn’t ever quite the same for some reason. My best guess is that most of the ‘friends’ that I had over the years were ponies that primarily wanted to be friends with Princess Twilight Sparkle, not just Twilight Sparkle. Not that I could blame them really, if that’s what made them happy then who was I to deny them that happiness? So, I didn’t let it bother me. I had already wasted everypony’s time enough, and I needed to focus on being the best princess I could be to make up for lost time. Friendship became a pretty low priority once I was fully into my daily duties again. Kind of ironic, considering that’s what got me there. “But then something really amazing happened a few years ago. After so much time, I finally met somepony who I could really call my true friend again. Her name was Crystal Charm, a young unicorn that had grown up in Canterlot. It was almost like looking in a mirror and seeing my past self. She was extremely talented in magic, and wanted to know everything she could learn about it. When she got the chance to talk to me, she didn’t ask me anything about what it was like being a princess or if I could show her around the palace, which is what I had come to expect from most of my new friends. No, she was content to just talk about magic spells and theories. She told me that I was the only pony who would take her serious and actually talk to her about these things on an advanced level. “I decided to take her on as my first personal student, and it was amazing. She excelled in her studies far faster than I ever did. I was so proud of her, and wanted her to succeed with her dreams of perfecting advanced magical spell casting. So, I decided that I would try to get her access to one of the most restricted wings of the Canterlot Archives, the one that only a very privileged few have ever even stepped hoof into. There’s notes on magical studies in there that haven’t been read for generations from many of the greatest magical minds of the past. I still remember when I told her that I had gotten approval from the other princesses to let her into the archives. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anypony that happy.” Twilight’s voice fell silent just as her happy expression changed over to something much more somber. Her eyes slowly closed as she relived a memory in her mind. “I had forgotten that when I was doing my research all those years ago that I had hidden a copy of my notes there. I don’t know if it was really forgetfulness, or if that part of my subconscious that had gone nuts just decided to hide it from myself so the last remaining copy of my work wouldn’t get destroyed. Either way, the notes had hidden there for nearly two hundred years, and I had completely forgotten they existed. If I had remembered, I never would have allowed her to get her hooves on them. There were things in those notes that I never intended anypony other than myself to see. Things that rightfully shouldn’t have been permitted to exist. “I still don’t know why,” Twilight said as she looked down at the table surface again, shaking her head. “I’m sure the notes didn’t have a completed time spell in them, but there was plenty enough there for a unicorn as talented as Crystal to connect the dots and finish it. We found out too late. By the time we realised something was happening she was already gone, and all that was left... was a hole in reality that lead to some other time and place. None of us know why she did it. “I did the only thing I could think to do at that moment; I jumped in to follow her. I knew it was dangerous, but I knew that we couldn’t just hope that she would turn around and come back without causing any irreversible harm. She was my student, and it was my spell. That made it my responsibility. “But, something wasn’t exactly right with the spell. Instead of me just walking out at the other end it kinda... shot me out in the middle of the sky. I still don’t know for sure why it failed like that. I’m actually pretty lucky that I’m good at shielding spells, and that I happened to know a rather useless temporary self petrification spell that I had come up with one day when I was bored. If I hadn’t, I probably would have broken every bone in my body when I hit the ground in the Everfree, and we wouldn’t be sitting here talking about this.” “So, you’re not sure where Crystal is?” Fluttershy asked. Twilight slowly shook her head. “No, I don’t know where she went for sure, or why. I don’t even know if she survived the trip. All I know for sure is that she must have gone back further than I did. But, whatever happened when she arrived, it obviously changed a lot of things. I get the feeling that we’ve only scratched the surface, and that the whole Nightmare Moon thing isn’t even the worst of the problems. Twilight quietly tapped her hoof on the table a few times as she stressed her mind over her student’s actions, finally letting one final loud tap go along with a huff of air. “Crystal really isn’t to blame. Ultimately, all of this really is my fault, because I could have stopped it before it ever happened if I had learned to just let go. And I am trying to make this right, but so far I’m not doing a very good job. Honestly, after hearing how much of a huge mess I’ve made, I wouldn’t be surprised if you just got up and left.” The two sat there for a time after Twilight had finished her story as the silence returned. Finally, Fluttershy quietly raised herself from her sitting spot, taking a step back from the bench. Twilight couldn’t help but feel her heart fall a bit at that very second as her friend got up to leave the table. However, she was taken by surprise when Fluttershy hugged her from behind, resting her chin gently on Twilight’s shoulder. “You were lonely for a long time,” she quietly said. Twilight was silent for a moment, the shock slowly melting away as she relaxed in Fluttershy’s embrace. “Yeah,” she said softly. “It’s okay now.” Twilight slowly shook her head. “What I did back then was wrong.” “It’s okay.” “I was selfish, and now it’s coming back to haunt us; to haunt you.” “Shh, it’s okay.” Of course Fluttershy would be forgiving, Twilight thought as a smile spread across her muzzle. Raising a single hoof and gently placing it atop Fluttershy’s, she enjoyed the moment with her friend that she had once thought would never be possible again. Sharing the buried memories dredged up by recent events had helped her relieve some of the doubt that had been weighing on her mind, and filled her with a renewed sense of purpose. Her friends deserved a bright future, even if that future wasn’t the same one she remembered. “I’m not going to give up,” Twilight said with a confident smile as she side glanced at her friend. “I don’t really know what I’m going to do yet, but I can’t just give up because things didn’t work out like I’d planned. I just hope it doesn’t end up taking years to figure something out....” Fluttershy tilted her head slightly, raising her eyebrows a bit, to which Twilight let go a light chuckle. “Even an alicorn forgets things. I haven’t seen my old research notes in almost two centuries, and in all of the frantic panicking about the possible end of the world I didn’t think to bring a copy with me. The time spell is super complicated, so theres no way I could safely recreate something like it from memory without at least a little extra research from the sources I originally used. As long as Nightmare Moon is ruling over Equestria, I doubt I’ll be able to get access to the archives. And even if I somehow did, I still haven’t a clue how I would even use the spell to make things right, or if that’s even possible any more. I guess I thought answers would just magically start falling into place if we managed to dethrone Nightmare Moon. “But, so much for that now, huh?” Twilight said as she swiped a hoof dismissively through the air before letting it fall to the table with a clunk. “Now she has the Elements, and there really isn’t any other obvious options left to us. Dash was probably right, that was our best chance to deal with her, but I just... couldn’t risk it. I was afraid that Chrysalis had done something to the Elements. If she had, and it ended up harming any one of you, I never would have been able to forgive myself for forcing something like that on you.” Fluttershy let go her embrace, leaning on the bench with her forehooves next to Twilight to look around at her. “Have you thought about trying to talk to her?” she asked, tilting her head. “Um... Nightmare Moon, I mean. She didn’t seem like a horrible pony, at least not from what I saw. Maybe she gets an ency bit angry at things sometimes and comes across as being scary, but she did say she was going to rescue all of those ponies from the changelings. I guess... I guess I don’t see how she is all bad. I think there is good in her, so maybe if you talk with her and explain things, she might understand?” “You know, it’s funny that you say that,” Twilight said as she regarded her friend. “I’ve actually been thinking about that too, but I don’t think I can risk it. She knows all of you, and she knows that you know me. If I revealed myself to her and things didn’t go well, she would come after all of you next. I’m not going to risk your safety on something like that.” She scratched at the back of her neck as she stressed her thoughts over the situation, grumbling a bit to herself. “If only there was somepony else that could help us out; somepony that would have access to the Canterlot Palace at least, but the only ones that I can think of would likely be in hiding. I doubt Princess Cadance stuck around the palace when Nightmare Moon showed up, and my brother isn’t Captain of the Royal Guard at the moment... I hope those two are okay.” “Your brother is a Royal Guard Captain?” Fluttershy asked, her voice taking on an impressed tone. “Well, it doesn’t look like he is now. It looks like he was replaced by Moondancer. I just hope that was because he left by his own choice.” Twilight fell silent for a moment, before she suddenly let go an annoyed growl. “Ugh, this is annoying. So far we’ve just been randomly running into everypony who’s ever been a problem for Equestria. Honestly, the way things are going I wouldn’t be surprised if Discord came walking up the street to say hello.” “Discord, who’s that?” Fluttershy asked, her head tilting again inquisitively. “Eh, I’m just grumbling...,” Twilight answered as she shook her head dismissively. However, she furrowed her brow as she considered her own comment. “Though, I probably shouldn’t jinx it.” Fluttershy pushed away from the bench, taking a few steps to the side. “Well, maybe you just need to take a little break,” she said as she smiled back to Twilight. “I mean, you have been spending all of your time trying to think of ways to fix things since you got here. Sometimes, when things are starting to get frustrating, instead of trying harder and harder it’s best to step away for a while. Once you feel better, you can come back to it and things usually work out better.” Twilight pursed her lips, tapping a hoof to them as she thought about the wisdom that her friend had offered. “That is probably some of the best advice I have heard in awhile,” she said with a smile. Standing from the bench, she walked over next to her friend to join her as the two of them began to leave the park. “Come on, lets go see if the girls are still at AJ’s.” --- Twilight did her best in the following days to heed her friend’s advice. However, she had always found that the only way she could get her mind off of something was to get it on to something else. She decided to occupy her mind with studying the effects of Nightmare Moon’s eternal night, and actually found it strange that Equestria seemed to be accepting the change with no noticeable resistance. Ponies simply carried on like they had every day before the change, with the only noticeable difference being the lack of daylight. The perpetual full moon seemed to provided a tolerable level of light that even the land was beginning to adjust too. Life had found its own way to carry on it seemed, and Twilight even found herself wondering if she should just let things be on more than one occasion. There was no widespread hardship under Nightmare Moon’s rule, no specific reason for anypony to be truly unhappy. However, she could always sense the undertone of sadness when she happened to speak with other ponies. While they may have accepted the change, there was still a longing for the way things use to be. Fluttershy had extended her advice to give things time to all of her friends, and so for now they had all returned to their day to day tasks, agreeing to stay in touch incase anything new developed. Life for the Ponyville mares returned to a semblance of normalcy rather quickly, for most of them. For the time being, Twilight had found a place to call home thanks to Fluttershy. Her cottage proved to be the ideal place for an alicorn in hiding, since she was one of two among Twilight’s Ponyville friends that rarely received any random visitors at her house. And, since she was still passing herself off as a unicorn, she couldn’t very well make use of Rainbow Dash’s cloud home without giving away the fact that she had wings, making the cottage the only real choice. Twilight had awoken in the cottage’s guest room, and like the previous few days she had found Fluttershy down stairs and joined her for breakfast. The two friends spent the morning sharing conversations with each other, mostly with Fluttershy doing the listening while Twilight did the speaking. This morning, a knock came at the door, and the two friends fell silent as they glanced to the doorway. Fluttershy hurriedly made her way to the window near the door when the knocking came a second time. She brushed the curtain to the side, peaking out from the corner cautiously. A second later she quickly dropped the curtain, gritting her teeth as her forehooves rapidly danced in place. Turning toward Twilight, Fluttershy frantically motioned for her friend to hide herself, and Twilight hastily made a quick dash from the table to Fluttershy’s bedroom. Once Twilight was fully out of view, Fluttershy turned herself back toward the doorway, hearing a third knock from the other side. She steeled herself, taking a calming breath in and letting it out slowly, before she gave one confident nod and forced a smile to her face. However, as she reached out to place her hoof on the door’s latch, the smile faded into uncertainty as she began to chew at her bottom lip. The door pulled partially open toward Fluttershy with a click. She peered out through the gap at the visitors outside with a weak ‘good morning’ as a greeting. The three Nightguard that had been waiting on the other side of the door looked to the meek pegasus hiding behind her cottage door. The one standing closest, a unicorn mare, seemed somewhat familiar. She was flanked by a pegasus stallion to her left and a pegasus mare to her right. “Good morning,” the unicorn replied. “I’m Captain Moondancer. I was told I might find Twilight Sparkle here. May I come in?”