//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: What happened? // Story: Time is up, Twilight // by Dream Whisper //------------------------------// Twilight tried to hold it back with all of her force, but it just came out. She coughed a couple of times; Everything in here was so incredibly dusty. The storage room was filled with boxes and crates, all as old as time itself. It was really an unpleasant feeling to be cornered in by so much old stuff. The machine however, was just missing. Where, or better when, had she actually arrived? It didn’t seem like the time before her first time travel nor the time before her last one. Maybe there were still unpredictable consequences after all, like arriving at a completely random time. How should she make a plausible plan if the time travel was so unpredictable? Ughh… Twilight clenched her teeth as she tried to not think about it all. It only hurt to think about it. In her thoughts she always went back to her friends, even though she tried not to. It only brought her pain. Would she see them again? Now she squinted her eyes as the tears tried rolling again. Not now Twilight, you have to concentrate on the task at hand. She stood straight up, breathing in a deep breath. She could do this. Twilight made her way out, pushing aside box after box, and finally arriving at the door. The door itself was already brittle, almost as if it had not been used for a decade or so. She decided to try to open it, however, it just broke apart as she was using bits of her magic. There was something most definitely wrong here. She stepped past the broken pieces of the moldy door outside, through a muddy, old corridor. It almost seemed as if Canterlot castle had been left... Maybe even completely abandoned? It was strange to walk through the same corridors, now completely different. The questions kept coming. Why was this place deserted? Where was everypony? What had happened? It took her almost a minute to get through the castle and out of the huge front door, while treading through thick dust and mud on the ground, and while being surrounded by crumbling walls and sometimes even holes in the ceiling. This had to be decades after when she had wanted to arrive. "Hello?! Is somepony in here?" No answer. Twilight was really confused as to why the Canterlot castle should ever be left like this. They would have at least cleaned the storage room, wouldn’t they? They w… Then, she heard a noise. Not really as loud as to echo through this empty place, but still loud enough for her to recognize it through the noise of the wind; It had been a door shutting. Either it had been through the wind or maybe it had been the result of somepony actually being inside the castle. Either way, it would be worth it to find out. She turned around and went back into the castle, straight into the direction of where she had heard the sound come from. Obviously, that had been just inside, up the stairs, through the left hall into the big celebration hall. There was only one door that had that distinct sound. It was the sound of the door out to the garden. Although the guards gave their most to oil that old loo, it almost always squeaked when anypony tried to open it. It was especially annoying if you are working on your papers. That door was actually quite hard to open, so shutting through the wind was improbable. As she got closer and closer to that destination, the sounds amassed. A window breaking, a door opening, hooves hushing over the wooden ground. The further she advanced, the more she felt as if somepony was around her. Maybe she was leading her? Or maybe even luring her? Nah, that would be ridiculous. She crossed through doors, through halls and over the wooden flooring. "We have got you now!" Something heavy was pulling her down from behind. Argh! What…? She tried to turn around, but somepony was preventing her. She lunged out trying to hit the attacker, but she didn’t quite hit. The attacker tried to pull her and she decided to use her magic. She teleported just a couple of hooves forward to escape the grasp. She didn’t want to hurt her attacker as she didn’t know who it was. Maybe it all was only a misunderstanding. The other pony fell down as the ‘victim’ had just escaped her grasp. Twilight turned around and... "Twilight?!" Right before her hooves laid the attacker. She clearly did not know that pony, however the pony seemed to know her. Twilight just stared at that strange pony. Why had she attacked? What were her intentions? Was she still dangerous? The attacker must have read her mind: "It's me, Apple Bloom." This was seriously crazy. This was not Apple Bloom, this was some old mare. However, every second she spent looking at this pony made her recognize Apple Bloom a bit more. It really must have been about two decades. Two days, two years and now two whole decades? This was impossible?! This was crazy! This was nonsense! Twilight! You have lost consciousness and this is all just a dream. Snap out of it! "Then, why did you attack me?!” Almost as if Twilight had said something wrong, a worried look on Apple Bloom's face returned. She was not a filly anymore, she was most definitely a grown mare. Apple Bloom mustered her with a strangely serious look. It almost looked like she was thinking about this strange meeting. Twilight began to shiver slightly. This was all real! "Twenty-three years. It has been a long time and a lot of things have happened. There is something we have to tell you. Just follow along." Twilight was utterly confused and shocked. Her brain tried to process it all, but it wasn’t ready yet. Is this all real? Not only did Apple Bloom make this whole meeting at least twice as mysterious, but there was also the question about what had happened here. Apple Bloom was now a grown mare - Twilight just couldn’t get used to that thought. Further, Apple Bloom seemed to be evading her question. "You know, we have missed you! 23 years is a long time! Nopony expected you to come back." There was a certain bitterness in Apple Bloom's voice. Twilight understood that having somepony missing for twenty years was really a different thing to just having a short pause of contact. Apple Bloom has grown up without her, how strange was that? More than twenty years? She had to fix this! She had to fix this fast! However, she would still be able to fix it all. As long as time did not reset again, she had time to find out about this strange future and then reverse it all. She had to reverse it! She almost burst out in tears, but not here, not now. Apple Bloom was still here. They finally arrived in front of the big hall, the Canterlot royal garden, where she was introduced to what Apple Bloom had implied with 'we'. 'We' was actually a bunch of ponies she actually knew, but they were hiding inside the garden for some reason. Yes in the garden. In the garden? Why in the garden? She had most definitely not misheard that, had she? A familiar voice interrupted her thoughts. "Apple Bloom, are you completely out of your mind? You have brought an un... Wait. Twilight?" Twilight did her best to bring out an unsure smile, although it was almost impossible considering, what she saw and thought right now. There were Applejack and Fluttershy, both clearly weathered by age. It was indescribably strange to see your best friends as elderly. Applejack had been the one yelling at Apple Bloom. Although she noticed the incredible joy of meeting her again in their eyes, there was a certain fear in their eyes, too. She would have to fix this all... “Hey… Applejack." Applejack looked at Twilight as if she had just said something weird. An awkward silence ensued. What was going on? Her mind was tortured with these thoughts. 20 years? She had to fix this. Her mind was trying to process it all, but like a broken plate it kept stumbling about the same questions without actually answering any. She looked around, noticing other ponies in between the bushes and on the trees. An old version of scootaloo, some old versions of ponies she had met in Ponyville, but mostly ponies she didn’t know. "Twilight. Do you really not know it? So much has happened. I don't even know where to start." The pain and bitterness in Applejack's voice was unbelievable. It made Twilight ever more curious about what had happened. This all did not make much sense as of yet. The empty castle, the ponies hiding in this Canterlot garden... What was going on here? This future was neither when, or what she had expected. "Do you remember that machine you built?" "Yes, of course. I used it just a couple of minutes ago." There was this certain fear in her eyes again, but as she continued speaking, that fear in her voice was gone… or hidden. "That machine, no matter how good it had supposed to be, has ruined Equestria. It all started when Celestia pulled the darn thin’ out, about fifteen years ago. Somehow, they must have succeeded. Soon all of Equestria was filled with those darn potions. Ther must have been somethin’ wrong with them, terribly wrong. As more and more unicorns started to use the potion, it turn’d out to work like a drug. They came back again and again and again. They became addicted to it, even Rarity. She wasn’ able to get her hooves off that potion. She had us’d it to make dresses as it help’d her be creative. Then, she used it more and more. There was somethin’ wrong with the potions, as they chang’d whoever used them. They became... different. Rarity started to refuse our help, even refused meeting with us. All the unicorn who had taken the potion start’d to behave differently. They started to... forget who their friends were..." Applejack almost burst out in tears as she remembered what had happened. She didn’t have to tell Twilight every single detail. What had happened, had changed the face of Equestria, had changed the ponies she had thought to know. She hated to remember how Rarity had looked at her before. The anger, the disgust... "They started grouping up. We didn't really mind, although we felt our friends missin’. Then, they started to exclude us all. It started getting worse and worse. They started segregatin’, as they based arrogance on the difference to us. Most unicorns started to... go different ways, livin’ their lives absent of the magic of friendship. They abused their power, they broke the harmony! The potion made them forget who they were... Soon, it started to go wrong. They start’d to make rules for us, causing disadvantages for other ponies. They started to do unbelievable things. When the last bit of harmony was gone, t’was all over. They hunted us, they tried to imprison us... You cannot believe how hard the last years had been... This machine... Twilight, we needed you..." Applejack had to stop there, as it became impossible to speak any more words. What had to be said was said. Thinking about it would only make it worse. Her words faded into tears, but the tears did not seem to fade. Twilight, on the other side, was completely shocked, scared and angered, unsure and disgusted of what Applejack had just told her. In twenty years, it seemed as if the world she knew had turned into the opposite. How could something like that be a result of her doing? How could such a noble goal become the deepest immorality? The machine that had been constructed to help unicorns give the world peace, had led them to abandon others? Maybe there had been a reason for the natural limit being balance and harmony. Twilight had found a way to step over that limit. A tear slowly ran down her face, as she was unable to hold it back. It was all too much, all too much. How was she supposed to bear all of this? It didn't feel real. It felt like some other world. This was not the world she loved and lived in. This was different, something she had not expected to find. Where had she arrived? This was not Equestria anymore, not as she knew it. Somehow, she couldn't make the connection. The machine in that dusty cellar was supposed to be the reason for this much disharmony? Had she become a villain herself? No! She had not done anything wrong. This was... impossible to fully understand. She had not done anything, and yet it seemed she had condemned pegasi and earth ponies to live a terrible fate. She could not believe it and thus it didn't feel real. It was two days ago now. The world had not changed, it was all just a dream... Right? She was not even here to fix anything, she had just arrived here because of a certain almost unsolvable problem with time. Now, she was here in a most unlikely future, where unicorns had turned against the other tribes. Had she done this? Was this real? It hurt her only thinking about that possibility. Her breath was heavy and her teeth clenched. Everything was incredibly dusty. Suddenly, she found herself in the storage room again. The whole world had just disappeared within a second without any notice. It had all been replaced by those damn boxes. The machine was still gone, the room was still dusty, the door was still brittle. Had she just dreamed all of that? It would have been nice to know, that it all had been a terrible nightmare. It was too much for anypony to handle. Her brain still scratched back and forth like a broken vinyl plate. Was this all real? She stepped outside to the muggy corridor, where the same noise echoed through as at the first time… She came to a conclusion, not sure how she should feel about it. Of course, she should feel scared and angry, but her brain was not reacting anymore, not responding to anything that happened. Her conclusion was simple, but incredibly hard to fully grasp. Maybe she would lose her sanity here. She remembered the sentence that would haunt her for her entire life: It may already be too late.