Chapter 7 – Tick, Tock, Ding, Dong
“Twilight?”
Twilight wasn’t sure how much time had passed while she had been sitting hunched on the field in silence, but it certainly wasn’t long enough. If she didn’t look up then she could pretend it never happened. If she didn’t look up then she could convince herself everything was okay.
“Twilight, please?”
She definitely couldn’t bring herself to look into the accusing eyes of whoever was trying to get her attention. Oh, they wouldn’t say that they blamed her, but they would all be thinking it, and rightly so. She had known that they were ignorant to the nature of the Infection, and yet she had allowed Luna to throw her life away without any attempt to stop her. At least if she stayed in her own head there was nopony to fling guilt at her.
“Twilight,” the voice repeated, still kindly but with a sterner edge to it. “Don’t you leave us now. We…” and the voice suddenly cracked. “We need you Twilight.”
This was finally enough to break the withdrawn alicorn out of her reverie. Twilight slowly and cautiously raised her head to look into the pale face of Fluttershy. The pegasus’ eyes were concerned and slightly red. She had evidently been crying, which made Twilight feel irrationally guilty at her own lack of tears. Behind her stood the other three of Twilight’s friends, all looking similarly grief-stricken, although sharing Fluttershy’s worried gaze in her direction. Twilight couldn’t help but cower under their stares. They didn’t seem accusatory, but why else would they all be looking at her like that?
“Oh good, you’re okay.”
Twilight snorted.
“Oh well, no, but…” Fluttershy trailed off and backed away.
“You’ve been unresponsive for hours Twilight,” Rarity explained, stepping up to take Fluttershy’s place. “We were ever so worried.”
Twilight was barely paying attention. She had just realised somepony was missing from the scene, and spun her head around to take stock of her surroundings, noticing as she did so that the sun was a lot lower in the sky than it had been.
“She’s gone Twilight.” Twilight turned to look into the face of Fluttershy once more. “She suddenly vanished half an hour ago. She didn’t say anything.” The pegasus sniffed sadly. “I hope she’s alright…”
With that explained Twilight dropped her head again and the group lapsed back into silence. It was so tempting to withdraw into her mind once more, to blank out the world around her. But it seemed Fluttershy would not allow her that respite, as she felt a comforting wing fall across her back.
“Come on Twilight, we should go home. We can talk about… things… tomorrow.”
Twilight nodded dully. As she got to her hooves she noticed that Applejack and Rainbow Dash were already making their way through the field, both unusually quiet. It would be a long journey to Ponyville if they were to walk, and Twilight was not sure she could cope with that right now, so she started to prepare a powerful teleportation spell. It was a longer distance than she would normally risk, and there were many ways it could go wrong, but at the moment she just didn’t care. For a second she considered leaving the others behind, but she thought better of it. So, without warning, she pictured Ponyville, felt out for her friends, and cast the spell.
There were a few surprised yelps as the other four unprepared ponies found themselves abruptly transported to Ponyville’s town square. They received curious glances from some of the townsfolk, at least until their identity became clear, at which point they were mostly ignored. Having achieved her goal, Twilight cast the spell again, teleporting herself into the library without another word.
Spike must have heard the tell-tale sound that accompanied Twilight’s teleportation, because within a few seconds of her arrival he had run to meet her. It was clearly obvious that something was wrong however, because the smile dropped from his face immediately.
“Twilight? What’s up?”
Twilight turned to make her way up to the balcony. He would find out soon enough, and she wanted solitude at the moment. “Not now Spike.”
Evidently her tone was enough to make Spike think better of coming to speak to her, because she was able to sit at the balcony looking up at the sky without being interrupted. She followed the sun as it slowly descended, once again clearing her mind of any and all thoughts. If she just stayed here, and watched the days tick by, what would be the worst that would happen?
A few hours later, or maybe just minutes, Twilight certainly wasn’t counting, the sun finally slipped past the horizon. Twilight held her breath without really meaning to, not considering what she was even hoping for, but nothing happened. The sky just remained dark, neither day nor night. She was clearly not the only princess who was waiting with false optimism for something miraculous. Minutes passed with no movement in the heavens, and Twilight could only imagine what ponies across Equestria would be thinking.
And then finally the moon rose, but this was not the graceful ascent she had grown used to seeing. And the stars appeared in the sky, but this was not the marvellous spectacle she had been waiting for. These were not the actions of the mistress of the night, passionate and wondrous, but the methodical motions of one who acted without alternative, and without joy.
Now, finally, the tears came.
---
Canterlot Station was bustling with ponies as the Friendship Express pulled in. It was easily the busiest station in Equestria, especially at this time in the morning, and was always a great place to overhear the latest gossip. Some ponies would come to the nearby café entirely for that purpose, and the ones who had done so today would agree that the gossip was in particularly fine form this morning.
“I heard Prince Blueblood’s been seen spending a suspicious amount of time with Miss Fleur recently. Such a scandal!”
“Apparently the Princesses had a falling out last night and that’s why Princess Luna refused to raise the moon…”
“Did you hear Donut Joe’s latest tale? He says he saw a pony who came back in time from the future, and then he watched them shatter! Sounds like he’s been overdoing the mead!”
“I have it on good authority that there’s friction between Princess Cadenza and Prince Shining Armor. Don’t be surprised if you hear of a divorce in the near future!”
Having spent a lot of her life working in a bakery, Pinkie had heard a lot of gossip in her time. The pink earth pony had developed a knack at telling apart the gossip with a foundation of fact and the stories that were completely fabricated, but she wouldn’t have needed it in this case. She had spent the last day with both Cadance and Shining Armor and they were clearly doing just fine! Okay, so they had other problems to deal with in the Crystal Empire, and she should probably tell Twilight about those, but their relationship seemed just peachy!
Pinkie had learned a long time ago however, that it didn’t help to jump in and correct somepony’s gossip. They were rarely pleased to be interrupted, and if anything it only encouraged them. So instead Pinkie ignored the throng of ponies and made her way into the city, heading towards the castle. She didn’t know for sure that everypony would be there, but even if the others weren’t, Twilight would almost certainly still be in Canterlot researching, and one of the princesses could surely point her in the direction of the studious alicorn.
Despite the busyness of the city, it didn’t take too long for Pinkie to bounce her way up to the castle gates. All her journeys seemed quicker when she was in a good mood, and despite the horrible events of a couple of days ago, she was back to her regular exuberance now. The guards at the castle gates clearly recognised her, because neither of them made any attempt to delay her, one of them even waving good-naturedly. Pinkie waved back without slowing down, continuing her bounding gait up to the castle entrance.
She felt as though something was wrong almost immediately upon entering. The castle seemed unusually deserted, and as she bounced up to the throne room she found it completely empty. Confused, she turned to the nearest guard.
“Hiya, have you seen either of the princesses?”
“No ma’am,” came the stiff response, the guard barely moving an inch.
“Okay sir,” Pinkie replied equally rigidly, snapping a salute and almost, almost, stifling a giggle.
Her next point of call would be the Starswirl the Bearded Wing then. She knew Twilight would probably be studying there, and Pinkie had been there before, so she knew which direction to go.
Fifteen minutes later, Pinkie was standing outside an equally deserted looking room. She hadn’t been allowed inside; apparently nopony other than the princesses were allowed access. Pinkie had told the guard that she had been inside before, but he would not be swayed, which had left the party pony somewhat deflated. But it probably didn’t matter, because looking through the bars leading into the wing, it did not seem like anypony was inside. Where were they all?
“They’re not here,” answered a voice from somewhere behind her, as though reading her mind.
Pinkie spun around sharply.
“You!” She pointed a hoof accusingly at the draconequus that was lying nonchalantly in the air in the corridor. “What have you done with everypony?”
“Me? Oh my dear Pinkie Pie, why would I have done anything?” He hovered down to the ground and a halo appeared over his head. “You know I’m reformed.”
“Well okay,” Pinkie said, still suspicious. “But I’m watching you!” She pointed a hoof between their eyes while wearing a menacing expression that could only have intimidated Fluttershy.
“And I’ve been watching you too,” Discord replied, pulling out a telescope which he rested against his eye and immediately extended to smack Pinkie in the forehead. “And you’ve been looking in all the wrong places. Your friends have all gone back to Ponyville.”
“Really? Why?”
“Homesick maybe? They all seem a little sad.” He popped over to appear next to Pinkie, putting an arm around her conspiratorially. “Between you and me, I think they need a good party to cheer them up. Do you know somepony who could help?”
“Oh, yes, me! I could!” Pinkie bounced into the air proudly, placing a party hat on her head and blowing a party horn.
“Wonderful!” There was an abrupt flash and the earth pony and the draconequus were suddenly standing in the centre of Ponyville. “I’m sure they’ll all feel fine after a celebration!”
“Wait a minute,” Pinkie narrowed her eyes distrustfully. “Why do you care?”
“Pinkie my dear, do I really have to keep telling you that I’m your friend now? Why shouldn’t I care? And besides,” Discord reached out to grab the party hat off Pinkie and place it on himself, at which point it grew legs and started doing a jig on his head. “I’m in the mood for a party myself!”
Pinkie beamed. “Okie-dokie-lokie, I’ll get one of my emergency party cannons! I have just the one, it’s a new upgrade and I haven’t had the chance to use it yet. It’ll be perfect!”
“Wonderful! Everypony’s already gathered in the library, so we’ll head there when you’re ready. I’ll wait here for you.” He smiled a smile Pinkie would have labelled as ‘evil’ had the draconequus not been reformed. “I wouldn’t want to miss their surprise!”
---
The other five element bearers were indeed gathered in the library, along with Spike who had been updated on the situation by Rarity and was now sitting glumly in the corner. He had been the one to ask all of Twilight’s friends to come to the library. The baby dragon had been concerned when Twilight had refused to go to bed, instead remaining in silence on the balcony for the entire night. He figured her friends might be able to help her, although they had all seemed just as miserable when they had arrived.
Now that he knew what had happened, he felt completely out of his depth. This wasn’t something he could deal with. Part of him felt guilty that he had been pestering her so much when she was clearly grieving, but another part felt almost angry with her for shutting herself away and not talking to him, and he had no idea which part was in the right.
Twilight’s friends had all gathered in her room so that they could see out to the balcony where Twilight was still settled. She had not stopped looking out into the sky, although she was at least talking now.
“Twilight, we, er…” Rainbow Dash fizzled out almost immediately, and looked around pointedly at her friends.
“Oh, that is to say, you know that, uh…” Rarity did not last much longer, the words refusing to come to her.
“We don’t blame you Twi,” Applejack finished.
“I…” Twilight sighed and dropped her head to the floor. “I know. I know you don’t.”
“And you shouldn’t blame yourself either darling!”
“Shouldn’t I?”
“No!” they all replied at once.
“Of course not,” Fluttershy added, finally feeling bold enough to flit over to the balcony and settle next to Twilight and wrap a wing around her.
“Celestia will blame me,” Twilight said glumly.
“Oh I’m sure she wouldn’t think that Twilight.”
“She will. She wanted me to help her and I couldn’t. It’s my fault.”
“Twilight, no.” Fluttershy actually grabbed the alicorn’s head and twisted it to face her. “Don’t do this to yourself. Sometimes sad things happen, and they’re nopony’s fault. And death?” The pegasus took a deep breath. “Death is the saddest thing of all. But it still happens, and it can’t always be avoided.”
Twilight continued looking into the hypnotic eyes of the element of kindness, before she suddenly shook her head and pulled herself away, walking back into the library.
“It could have been avoided,” she said darkly. “I shouldn’t have let her do it, I should have known-”
“You can’t know everything Twilight.”
The lavender alicorn turned to her adopted brother, seemingly surprised to see him there with them.
“If you’re going to blame yourself for everything you don’t know,” continued the dragon, “then you’ll be constantly punishing yourself.”
“He’s right Twi,” Applejack began. “So don’t beat yourself up over nothin’. And besides, Ah’m sure Luna wouldn’t want you to-”
“What do you know about what Luna would want?” Twilight suddenly snapped, causing her friends to all flinch back in shock. “None of you knew her as well as I did! I spent more time with her than any of you, so it’s easy for you to say that I should just forget about it and move on, because you just don’t care as much as I do.”
Unsurprisingly, none of the other ponies in the room seemed happy with this statement, but the shock at their friend’s sudden outburst was enough to keep them in a stunned silence for a few moments. Rainbow Dash was the first to recover, and was clearly about to swoop in and argue when she was interrupted by a loud stomp from beside her. Rarity had absolute fury in her eyes as she stepped towards Twilight, who backed away in astonishment at the sight of her friend so livid.
“Stop,” the unicorn seethed, the air seeming to boil around her. “Just stop. I have had enough of this!” She stomped right up to Twilight who slumped to her haunches automatically. “Yes, Luna is dead. Yes, it is sad. Nopony is saying you should forget about it! It is terrible, and we will never forget the sacrifice she made, but it is done. Blaming yourself will help nopony. She is gone Twilight, and there is nothing we can do to change that.
“But,” she continued, her eyes beginning to cloud over with tears, “there are still other ponies out there dying, Twilight. You may have been close to Luna. Maybe she was like a second mentor to you, I don’t know. But I had to watch my sister…” Tears were streaming down the unicorn’s face now. “My Sweetie Belle, dying in my hooves!” She took a deep breath to steady herself, her voice sounding more and more hoarse. “But we can still change that. We can stop it from happening. But not!” She prodded the dazed alicorn in front of her. “If you!” She prodded her again. “Keep moping!”
There was another stunned silence as the occupants of the room all stared at Rarity with a mixture of shock and awe. Rarity herself was shaking, breathing heavily to recover from the draining lecture she had just given, the fire slowly fading from her eyes.
“Sheesh Rares,” Rainbow muttered, “leave some for me next time!”
Twilight stared, dazed, at the panting unicorn in front of her. She understood now why Rarity had been so cagey about her trip to Manehattan, and could only imagine how painful the experience must have been for her. It had been hard enough watching Trixie die. And they had all watched Luna die, and the others may not have known her so well, but that didn’t mean they cared any less. Twilight felt her heart solidifying as she realised some of the shameful things she had said in the past hour.
“You’re right,” she whispered finally.
The four other ponies and Spike all turned to her, Rarity raising an eyebrow.
“You’re right,” she repeated, more loudly. “I shouldn’t blame myself, and… and I’m sorry for saying you didn’t care.” Twilight was surprised how good it felt to talk. “And I shouldn’t be wallowing, because Luna wouldn’t have wanted me to. We still have work to do to ensure others aren’t caught up in this mess too.”
Rarity smiled and wiped the last few tears from her eyes. “And I’m sorry for going a little overboard dear. We’re all a little upset I think.”
“Shall I write this in a friendship report for the princess?” Spike asked, only half joking. “For old times’ sake?”
Twilight’s heart sunk again. She was not sure she could cope with seeing Celestia yet. The agony she had heard in Celestia’s voice as she had watched her sister collapse still rung through Twilight’s mind, and it made her extremely uncomfortable.
“Helloooooo?”
Everypony turned in shock towards the door that led out of Twilight’s room into the main part of the library. There was only one pony that cheerful voice could belong to.
“Anypony home?”
Applejack walked out of the room and started to make her way down to the library below, closely followed by the others. As soon as the last of them was in sight there was a loud bang and the room was suddenly coated in streamers, with confetti falling from the ceiling.
“Surprise!” Pinkie yelled excitedly, running up to each pony (and one dragon) in turn and placing a party hat on their head. A banner appeared overhead, draping itself along the wall and reading ‘Pinkie’s Cheering Up Party’. Standing beside it stood Discord, who looked rather pleased with himself.
When Pinkie had finished flitting between her friends she whizzed back to the middle of the room and beamed at them, only to notice them all sharing glances and looking very much like they weren’t cheered up.
“Hmm, maybe there still weren’t enough streamers…”
Applejack sighed. “Pinkie, this ain’t really the best of times.”
“Nuh uh,” Pinkie interjected. “When you’re feeling down is the only good time for a cheering up party!” She stopped and tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Why are you all feeling sad though?”
Almost in unison everypony turned towards Twilight, clearly nominating her as the one to pass on the bad news. She sighed and walked up to Pinkie, trying to think of the best way to say it.
“Pinkie, it’s about Luna, um…” She groped for the most tactful thing to say, but her mind had gone blank. “…she died,” she finished bluntly. “She tried to enter the mind of a pony who came from the future, and she was killed by the same infection.”
Pinkie had frozen solid, her mouth wide open. She then looked around in horror at the streamers and party hats.
“Oh, I’m so stupid.”
“No, Pinkie, it’s okay. You didn’t know.”
Pinkie opened and closed her mouth a few times without saying anything, before spinning indignantly towards Discord who was still standing in the corner looking smug.
“You knew!” she exclaimed angrily. “And you didn’t tell me!”
Discord didn’t even attempt to deny it. “But if I told you then I would have made you sad,” he explained, as though it was perfectly logical. “That doesn’t sound like something a friend would do.”
“You don’t seem very upset about her dying,” Rainbow Dash pointed out accusingly.
“Oh, right.” There was a flash and Discord was suddenly wearing a black veil. “Ding dong, the witch is dead. How dreadful.”
“Discord!” Fluttershy stared in horror and disappointment at the draconequus. “You apologise right now!”
“Uh, sorry,” he muttered quickly, looking genuinely abashed as the veil vanished.
Pinkie slumped on the floor, her hair slowly deflating. “Luna was nice,” she said simply.
“Yes.” Twilight sat down beside the pink mare and leant against her. “Yes, she was.”
The other ponies and dragon soon followed suit and sat around on the floor in an impromptu reminiscing session.
“She was great with the kids on Nightmare Nights,” Applejack mumbled. “Always went the extra mile.”
There were nods and murmurs of agreement.
“She watched all my tricks,” Rainbow Dash said. “Didn’t complain once, nopony else has ever watched them all in one sitting before.” The athletic pegasus smiled wistfully. “She seemed really impressed. Even gave me a few tips.”
Twilight looked at her friend curiously. “When was that?”
“Oh, uh,” Rainbow blushed. “In here,” she said, pointing at her head.
“You know,” Discord said, teleporting over and curling up next to them. “I think I actually will miss her.” To his credit, he sounded completely sincere.
“And she died for nothing,” Twilight spat, her annoyance rising once more despite her best efforts.
“Oh I wouldn’t say that.” Discord snapped a finger and suddenly he was holding Twilight’s notebook between his claws, flicking through the pages with a pair of thick glasses on his face. “I heard that you weren’t sure how time travel worked, and you thought that you might not even be able to change the future.” He flicked a few more pages. “But look, here I see a note that says you learned that all four alicorns were alive in the future these ponies are coming from.” He peered over the rim of his glasses to look at Twilight. “Our dear Luna may have gone about it in an extreme way, but she has at least proved that the future is malleable.”
Twilight found it hard to get excited about this, but it was a valid point. There was still hope.
“So what’ve you been up to Pinkie?” Rainbow asked, clearly not wanting to get into an in depth conversation about the intricacies of time travel.
“Oh! So much stuff!” Pinkie’s hair re-inflated and her smile returned and Twilight wondered whether that was it. Perhaps Pinkie had done her grief. She felt an irrational pang of envy, but the sight of Pinkie jabbering away happily did manage to raise her spirits. Only after a few moments did Twilight realise that she should probably be listening.
“…and then I saw another Shard, only this one was a crystal pony Shard, and I know they’re all made out of crystal, but this one was more crystal, you know? And he turned the half-pony into a half-Shard, which was horrible, and then they were about to attack me, but then-mmmph…”
Pinkie was abruptly cut-off by the disappearance off her muzzle. She looked cross-eyed down to see where it had gone, blinking in confusion, before making a mumble that sounded uncannily like “not again!”
“Oh, so sorry Pinkie Pie,” Discord began, not sounding sorry in the slightest, “but I actually had a reason for coming here, and I don’t really want to hear a lot of boring exposition.” Discord snapped his fingers, summoning into his claw a strange mechanical device that started spinning around in circles, beeping occasionally. “Another of your time-travellers from the future is going to be appearing and you wouldn’t want to miss it.”
Twilight sighed. “I’m getting sick of it, but I suppose it probably would be useful to talk to more of them.”
“Oh yes, but this one especially, since they’re not actually a pony.”
Everypony perked up at this. “Who is it?” Pinkie asked excitedly, her mouth returned to her, whether by Discord’s will or her own.
“You want me to tell you now and spoil the surprise? How boring.”
“Wait, hold on.” Twilight stood up and stomped over to the draconequus. “Are you telling me that all this time you’ve been able to sense when ponies would be arriving yourself? After I spent days coming up with a spell, you could already detect them?”
“I could,” Discord replied simply.
Twilight groaned. “And I suppose you’d say that learning that spell was a great lesson for me for some reason.”
“Actually I just didn’t want you calling me up every time you wanted to find one of them. I have other things to do you know.” He started flipping through a schedule, every section of which was filled with the words ‘perform chaos’. Fluttershy frowned at the sight, at which point Discord coughed and the schedule rewrote itself to read ‘perform nice chaos’.
Twilight grunted and turned away from the draconequus, reaching into her mind and re-casting her scanning spell. She could detect two different disturbances, one a lot closer than the other. “Where exactly are we supposed to go to meet this mysterious non-pony?”
“Oh, they’ll be right here in Ponyville.”
Twilight concentrated harder. One of the disturbances was indeed in Ponyville, or on the outskirts at least. Probably just a short distance from Fluttershy’s cottage. If she was judging the turbulence of the ethereal imbalance correctly, they would be arriving within the hour.
“Twilight, are there any other time-travellers arriving soon?” Rainbow Dash flexed her wings. “I fancy a flight. I could chase one down.”
“I’m sorry Rainbow, but the only other one I can sense is way up in the Crystal Mountains, even further away than the one I sent Pinkie after. And they’ll be arriving too soon for you to get there.”
“Ha, says you!”
“I’m serious Rainbow, even you couldn’t make it in time.”
Rainbow slumped to the ground in disappointment. “Okay, fine. But promise me you’ll let me know the next time.”
Twilight looked at her sullen friend. She was clearly still hung up over the fact that she hadn’t made it to the pony who had appeared in the Badlands. “Okay Rainbow, I promise.” She turned to Spike. “I guess we could let Cadance know though. I’m sure she could get there in time if she isn’t busy. Could you send a letter?”
“On it!” The dragon said smartly, jumping up and grabbing a paper and quill in an instant. As the purple alicorn started dictating, Spike scribbled down the message.
Dear Cadance,
Thank you for having Pinkie Pie for a few days. I assume she has informed you of the current situation facing Equestria, whereby ponies are appearing from the future with a strange infection. I have attached the location that one such pony will shortly be arriving, and you may find it enlightening to meet with them and discuss the future in as much detail as you can.
…
“Err, Twilight? Is that it?”
Twilight sighed. “I… I don’t know whether I should tell her about Luna. She probably doesn’t know yet, but I feel like telling her in a letter would be too detached.”
“Oh goodness no, Twilight. We simply must tell her face-to-face.” Rarity waved a hoof. “Besides, our original plan was to go to the Crystal Empire to investigate, was it not? We shall be seeing her soon enough.”
“I suppose. And there’s always a chance Celestia will talk to her.” Twilight nodded. “Okay then Spike, let’s wrap this up.”
The six of us will be visiting the Crystal Empire in the next few days to try and investigate the cause of all this trouble. It would be nice to meet up and talk while we are there.
Lots of love,
Twilight Sparkle