//------------------------------//
// Fanning the Flames 
// Story: Autumn 
// by canonkiller 
//------------------------------//

     So, this was what it had come to. The ever-present goddess sighed, running one claw over her forehead, the short fur bristling in it's path. Yet again, she had to untangle her brother's mess.
She reached out with one claw, gently pulling on one of the threads that knotted around her. This one, unlike the others, was merely a byproduct, an easy change. As the knot unraveled, a pony vanished from Canterlot. Noone noticed; noone would remember his name again.
That was one of the simple ones. There were other knots that were harder - falls of civilizations, deaths of to-be-famous ponies in the midst of war, the wrong foal being in the place of the right - small things that meant a lot. And then there were knots that could not be untangled. EVER.
These were major events, and quite a few of them had shown up lately. Or, whatever passed for lately when one was surrounded by strands of time instead of actually being a part of it. 
The first knot had occured farther back than an recorded history - when Celestia and Luna were born. That had turned into Discord's birth, and from then on the knots had just increased by far more than thousand-fold. By the time the tighter ones had been fixed, something else would go wrong. She had help lately, without the concious notice of the helpers. Six mares had been unraveling many... interruptions... along their own time line, that, due to the presence of old magic, had not reformed new knots along the way. But the efforts had grown slower, further in between, until they vanished almost completely.
Now, another set of knots had appeared, extremely close to each other and made of the time that refused to change. She made a sound, like a sigh crossed with a growl, and swore in thousands of languages - Equine, Griffon, Dragon, and other - at her brother. Poking the knots experimentely, she squinted at them, tilting her head to try and see better. 
Scenes playing out in still shots along the crossed strands; a young draconequus being held by a female dragon, a still body being laid to rest amid the snow, an older, more powerful draconequus glaring at what she assumed to be his son...
She flicked the strand, sliding it so she could see another knot. After it slowed, she peered into an earlier knot - the one leading up to the others; a blue Alicorn, spell ready, a statue appearing - no, it was breaking, the creature trapped inside overpowering the Alicorn...
Feeling sick, she flicked the stand again, looking away from the far too graphic images, moving backwards in time until she saw the event she was most familiar with. Her brother, seven creatures in tail, the town burning behind him. Angry, she shoved the line, sending it spiralling through the others into the distance.
Damn, she thought, I'll have to find that again later...
Ignoring it for the moment, she looked up through the endless circles running through the colorless air - if it had enough material to be called air, for it had no color or shade - and towards the single dot of colour in this endless, barren 'sky'. The little dot was pure colour, all of it, and not just in the visible spectrum, and was just drifting there. It showed her where the exit was, the way she had to move to go up instead of down. And if she needed to actually interfere with time, it was always there, sparklign in some part of her vision, guiding her back where she entered the line and needed to return here.
She shook out her sleek coat, scuffing her paws on the ground. She was hard to describe past this point, for her fur was long yet short, her scales rough yet smooth, her skin dry yet wet, and these were constantly shifting. She had wings, but they were that of a bat, a bird, a butterfly, a ladybug and all in between, and her tail was that of a dragon or a rat or a pony. Her muzzle was seemingly lupine, but also draconic, feline, humanoid, and equine all at once. Her color was not as much color as it was light, colorless yet rainbow-hued, black and white and grey and gold and bronze and silver, and shone like the sun given fur.
While her brother had nothing, she was everything. 
She was something.
And, spreading her great, many-skinned wings, she shot upwards and towards the little dot, grasping a single thread of time as she went, her long, curved claws fixing on one single moment as the dot filled her vision. There was a vague sense of weightlessness for a few moments, as if she was outside of her body - not unheard of - and looking down at it through another's eyes, before she was slammed back in, her paws taking the shape of hooves, tail growing short and sprouting long, golden hair, wings taking the single form of a bird, and muzzle shifting longer, eyes moving back, ears rounding at the tips, horn growing fron her forehead, mane sprouting and falling haphazardly around her head and shoulders, eyes opening and letting their purple depths adjust to this level of sunlight.
The Alicorn struggled to her feet, letting her golden hooves stabalize her pure silver form. The purple eyes spun once before focusing. A step forward was successful. She gave in to the instincts of this form, running forward, age-old programming rebooting in her mind, hooves pounding into the grass, wings folded to keep her grounded, head slightly raised -
She slowed to a stop at the top of a large hill, vaguely aware of the snow crunching under her feet. This form was one of her favourites after all. So much pure joy, power, grace... whatever it was, she whinned, rearing up to strike her hooves into the wind. As the last echoes died, she landed back on all fours, snorted stale air into the wind, and ran again.

Tigerjay paced. It had become a regular pastime now, due to the fact that Discord's kidnapping had slowed - a few ponies were looking rather gray lately, he had to remember to check on that - and a break in the schedule would have been welcomed. He kicked a chunk of snow, noticing how heavy it was. 
He looked over at the sun, lodged in just-before sunset, while the moon was almost perfectly above him. Three days. It didn't seem like long to anyone in the realms where the sun was normal, but for Ponyville, it was stuck in dusk. Everything had a kind of sepia tone, the temperature was dropping, and slowly, the crops were dying. Crimsonleaf was trying his hardest, going out for hours on end, horn flaring with old magic, but had only been able to raise the sun to it's present point. 
And this was why he paced. He could think clearly, without the noise and bustle of the Inner Dome. Deciding his talons were cold, he took off, circling in the dead air instead of on the ground. Another problem there. Flying was harder when night fell, because the helping thermals had vanished. Now, it felt like stones were piled down his back, weighing the muscles that pumped so easily before.
He had already contemplated asking Discord for help. Being one of the holders of an old magic store, he probably could do something. But he found this hilarious. Ponies stuck in twilight eternal? Food stores shrinking? Mood growing sadder with every passing day? Neither celestial body able to move? In his words, it was the funniest thing he had ever seen! 
"What a twisted sense of humor." Tigerjay growled to himself, finding his eyes drawn again to the setting sun. He hovered, despite how painful it was on his already worn muscles. "How did you move before the Goddesses were born?" He muttered. 
"Hello!"
Tigerjay's wings locked, and he fell out of the sky, landing awkwardly in a mound of snow. Jerking his head up, he looked around quickly. 
"You're funny, falling out of the sky like that!" The voice giggled. He could see the owner now, a silver Alicorn with a golden mane, tail, hoof and horn combo. Her eyes were a glittering purple. "Did you mean to fall out of the sky? Or was it an accident?"
"You scared me!" He protested, shaking out his feathers. "I can't fly when I'm scared!"
"You're a funny Griffon. Most of them are mean."
"Endless joy on my part. The name's Tigerjay. What's yours?"
"Som-" She caught herself, glancing around for any hints on a good name. "I'm Twilight!"
"Like Sparkle?"
"No silly! I don't sparkle!"
Are you retarded? He had to surpress saying that out loud. "Do you need shelter or anything? Our town's just over there." 
"No, I am fine! I am happy right here!" She tilted her head, looking past him. "Why's your sky so pretty?"
"Oh, that... you haven't heard of the Goddesses death?"
Crap. Forgot about that one. Come on, need somewhere that wouldn't have heard about that... "No! I'm from far away!"  That was smart. Her brain facehoofed.  Could you find anything less intelligent to say? Is it possible? "I mean, I heard about it, but I thought the sun and moon would start moving again like they did before-" I'm shutting up. Shut up now.
"Before? Wow, your history books must be old!" Tigerjay replied. "Ours don't go back any further than when Nightmare Moon got put up in the sky!" 
Something, now known as Twilight, had to keep from uttering something she would probably regret. She looked away, allowing her eyes to switch. The sheen changed from purple to green, and the snow turned black. When she faced Tigerjay, he was a blend of white, red orange yellow and green. Heat leaked from his body and into the air around him, staining it with yellow strands. 
"Hey, your eyes changed color!"
"They did? I don't think so." She made a fuss over trying to look at her own pupils, failing miserably. Time for a subject change. "I can move the sun for you!"
Doubt it... "Well, go ahead and try, but I don't think -"
Twilight spread her front legs, her chest almost brushing the ground and she tilted her head down. Her mane began moving as if it were blowing in the wind, but the air was still. Magical turbulence, Tigerjay remembered. She opened her wings, their tips touching the snow as her horn began glowing. The copper-colored aura around it intensified until it matched the hue of the sunset.
She opened her eyes, still seeing despite the otherworldly white glow filling her eyes. There was Tigerjay, his body heating up as he stepped back cautiously. There was the ground, black as ink. And there was her target, a burning sphere of pure white in her vision. She jerked her head up in one quick movement, her wings opening as wide as they could go, her front legs tucked close to her body, mane and tail writhing in the energy swirling around. The glow of her horn increased, flashing in pulses.
Tigerjay glanced at the sun. It was getting brighter, matching the rythym the strange Alicorn was beating out. She stayed focused on the sun, but she spoke to him.
Do not be afraid, little one. I will not hurt you. She whispered. Tigerjay could understand the words, although he didn't recognize the language.
As she talked, she was tilting her ears back, giving the impression that she was falling backward. Slowly, the sun was rising, and the moon was moving away at the same pace. All of the Alicorn history books said the Sun and Moon could only be moved in one direction. Those books lied. It was simply that no living Alicorn was powerful enough to go completely against nature.
The sky flashed into a clean, pristine, bright blue. The clouds changed from grey to white. It was daytime.
...
...
...
...
Tigerjay was frozen with shock. The sun was in the sky, moving against all natural order he knew. Who was this Alicorn?
Twilight fell forward, kneeling with her wings spread limply across the snow, chin just above the snow. But she wasn't showing any signs of exhaustion, weakness, or even breaking a sweat. But she was talking to something... it sounded like Corona?
She stopped muttering, getting to her hooves and walking over to Tigerjay. She seemed taller, having to kneel slightly to look at the young Griffon. He seemed shocked, confused even, but he had a good reason. Gently, she picked him up by the tail and began trotting in the direction Tigerjay had said the Dome was.