//------------------------------// // Going Home // Story: Utopia // by SilentWanderer //------------------------------// “Sunny” gave the Administrator a hard look. “I will not let you hurt my student!” Her cutie mark changed, and her body began to grow. Blue lines flowed from her collar over all of whole body, before centering on her sides, where her wings started to painfully emerge. The Administrator was amused by the situation. “I see, so this is that time when I accidentally teleported myself and my friends to the future. Relax, Celestia, I will not do anything bad to myself.” They exchanged a look. “I promise. I remember what I will do.” Celestia relaxed. Her body regained its previous size and cutie mark, and reabsorbed her wings. Suddenly, a multicolored streak dropped from the sky. “There you are, Twilight. We have to... Two Twilights?” The rest of her friends soon arrived, while the black flying vehicles silently left. Pinkie Pie bounced around the group. “Now we can go to the party!” “Pinkie, there is no time for a party!” “Actually, Rainbow Dash, there is,” interrupted the Administrator. “I will answer your questions there, and after it is finished I will take you all back to your time.” “Yay! Party! Party! Party!” “I thought I would miss it. I really like these parties. You are invited too, Celestia.” “CELESTIA?” shouted Twilight's friends in unison. “It is a long story, I will tell it at the party. I think it has already started. Could you lead them there, Celestia? I have to prepare a few things.” -*-*-*- Celestia led the group, through well-lit passages, to an underground station. Many other ponies were already waiting there. Soon, a long vehicle arrived behind a transparent wall, and doors opened between it and the station. They entered the vehicle, which closed its doors and left. Within it, the time-traveling ponies shared what had happened to them since they arrived in this future. They exited at another station, where a ramp led directly to the party hall. The place was full of ponies, who were chatting, dancing, and eating. “The Administrator told me that you all were coming. Welcome to the party, Rarity. So I was right about you.” Before Rarity could answer, Rainbow Wing glided towards the group. “I can't believe that I flew with the real Rainbow Dash! Come here, Butter! She is not scary at all!” “H-hi.” “What a beautiful dress, Butter. It really matches your wings,” said Fluttershy. “One of my friends made it for me. It can change its colors, like my wings.” “Your wings can change their color?” asked Fluttershy. “And she only uses it to hide better from other ponies,” snarked Apple Seed. “You did it, Pinkie!” exclaimed Happy Party, appearing out of nowhere with a wide smile. “You brought everyone here, and the Administrator told Sweet Light that she is coming too!” “Let's party!” shouted Pinkie Pie and Happy Party at the same time. -*-*-*- A low murmur announced the arrival of the Administrator. She greeted many of the partygoers, adressing each one by name, slowly making way to the desk where Celestia was seated. It was in what Happy called the “quiet corner” of the hall, where the music volume was lower and the lighting calmer. “Enjoying the party?” Celestia did not answer. The Administrator seated herself at the desk. “I asked Happy Party to leave us alone with my past self and my past friends. We have a lot to talk.” The ponies from the past soon arrived at the desk and seated themselves. After they all were comfortable, the Administrator started the story that she had promised to tell. “You know how, back in the day, it seemed like every month there was a new threat to Equestria. Every time we had to fight, and every time we defeated it. “That went on, until one of my best friends had to sacrifice herself. She gave her life for all of Equestria. “It was then that I decided that this had gone on for far too long. That instead of waiting for every new threat, instead of reacting only when it was almost too late, I should be more proactive. That I should go after anything which could menace the ponies of Equestria, and deal with it before it became a risk. “Some sacrifices had to be made. Sometimes things only got worse. But I persevered. One by one, I dealt with problems before they happened. I disrupted, drained, or controlled every magical phenomena which could pose a danger to our lives. I killed, imprisioned, or neutralized any being which could attempt to undo the peace I was working for. “And it worked.” -*-*-*- The six time-traveling friends were speechless. She had created a peaceful utopia, but at what cost? After a long moment of silence, Celestia spoke. “And of course, your first victim was the mentor you admired.” “I had no choice. I knew you would try to stop me as soon as you knew what I would do. It was the hardest thing for me to go against you. But I had to.” “And Luna?” asked Twilight. “She was her second victim.” “I made a deal with Celestia. She could live as a normal unicorn in the society I created, with most of her power sealed. But Luna never accepted that deal. If I ever released her, she would try to destroy everything that I worked to create. So I have to keep her imprisioned. Celestia visits her often.” “This friend who sacrificed herself, it was me, wasn't it? Can't you do anything to avoid it? Go into the past and fix it?” “I thought about that a lot. Setting aside the fact that none of the spells I could find allows the past to be changed, I made several simulations. On all of these simulations, saving you only makes things much worse. Without your death, I would not be as proactive in hunting threats to Equestria. Some of these threats, if not dealt with very early, would cause an untold amount of death and suffering. “In the end, I had to resign myself to accepting your death. You cannot fight fate.” -*-*-*- The party was ending. The place was now almost empty. The Administrator called Rainbow Wing, Butter, Happy Party, Sweet Light, and Apple Seed to say goodbye to their distant relatives. “It is time to take you all back home. I already prepared most of the spell. Say goodbye to the ones you met here, and let's go.” After the farewells, they went to a room in another building, where the Administrator had prepared the spell. “Before sending you all back to your proper place in the time stream, I will erase your memories of this visit to your future. We have to make sure that your history is not damaged by any knowledge you might have acquired about what will happen in your lives.” “But when we met, you mentioned that you remembered going to the future and meeting myself, I mean, yourself!” “True, but I only remembered much later, after I had already been on my path for a long time, and long after all my remaining friends had fully lived their lives, happy in their ignorance of my schemes. Or, at least, as happy as they could be after their loss.” She paused, and with a thought, released and removed her glasses, revealing at last her purple eyes, flickering with emotion. “Even if you do not forgive me, I am really happy to have seen you all again. For all these hundreds of years, I have missed you all so much.” She could not speak anymore. Slowly raising her special glasses back in front of her eyes, she silently started working the complex spells. Moving patterns of magical light filled the whole room. Before finishing the first spell, which would make her past self and friends forget all about their meeting, she almost inaudibly said a single word: “Goodbye.” -*-*-*- At the very top of the tallest skyscraper in Equestria City, near the top of the dome, within a single large room with transparent walls occupying the whole floor, the Administrator was silently looking at her city. The cybernetic glasses, which she normally wore all the time, lay at her side. Making as little noise as possible, Celestia entered the room and approached her former pupil. “Having second thoughts?” “Sometimes I wonder if that was really the only path open to me. Sometimes I wonder if there wasn't any other way. Sometimes I wonder... And then I lock these feelings away... but not today.” Celestia sat down at her side. Neither spoke for a long time. Below them, millions of ponies went ahead with their peaceful and happy daily lives, blissfully unaware of any sadness or danger. “Oh, and Celestia? Your attempt to put a magical compulsion into my younger self, to make her think it over and not do all the things I did, will have failed. A few months after returning to her present, she will have accidentally removed the compulsion, while trying to cure a headache caused by studying too much.” The Administrator weakly smiled. “I guess I foiled your plans again. It has been how many times so far? I think I lost count.” “I had to try, you know.” “Yes. I am happy that you are still here with me, even after all that I did. It seems that, somehow, I am still your faithful student.”