//------------------------------// // When It All Began // Story: What Didn't Happen // by Zeg //------------------------------// What Didn't Happen by Zeg Chapter XXIII – When It All Began Twilight walked at a steady pace across the endless wasteland, her hooves sinking slightly into the sandy surface with each step. All around her in every direction appeared to be nothing but sand. There was no breeze. There was not a cloud in the sky. There was no sun, no moon, and no stars, and the only light came from the sourceless dim glow from the horizon that cast the endless desert in a dark blue light. This was the second time she had visited this place. The first was so long ago, from her relative perspective. Chronologically, this was her first visit, and quite possibly the first visit. Time travel had a tendency to make things confusing like that. She had almost forgotten, what with the quite lengthy break she had taken from using time travel magic. So much had happened since then. So many things had changed, even herself. She had grown since her younger days, both mentally and physically. She easily stood just as tall as either Cadence or Luna, though Luna claimed she would likely always be the tallest of the three, even if by an unnoticeable amount, due to the age difference. It was a point that Twilight was willing to concede since it seemed to bring Luna a certain level of happiness. However, when it came to sheer strength of mind and magical talent, not even Celestia had been able to match Twilight for quite some time. She was, after all, the Princess of the Magic of Friendship, Keeper of the Elements, and Equestria’s Eternal Defender. Those were the titles that she at least acknowledged, as there were quite a few others that she had been given over the centuries that she saw as frivolous nonsense and didn’t care to commit to memory. Even after so much time, she still found titles in general to be mostly silly, and prefered to simply be addressed as Twilight, or Princess Twilight Sparkle if the formality was absolutely required. It was her tasks, not her titles, that she held in high importance, and it was one such task that had drawn her here to this place and time. She had brought with her the six Elements of Harmony, Magic set within the silver crown upon her head and the other five sister Elements set within the silver peytral that rested against her chest. The only other visible barding she wore was upon her hooves in the form of polished silver slippers that covered the front of her forelegs up to just below the ankles. Every time she lifted a hoof to take another step forward, a wispy trail of sand followed. She glanced back over her shoulder momentarily at the trail she had left through the otherwise unblemished surface, and could no longer see where she had begun her journey. She looked back forward as she continued onward, the motion causing her sparkling mane rise from where it rested against the side of her neck for but a short moment, seeming to hang aloft on a gentle breeze before slowly settling back against her neck once again. She was getting very close now; she could feel it. It was almost the right when and where. She finally stopped, closing her eyes for a moment as she focused on her sense for magic. The rest of her senses momentarily fell away, and she reached out with her being to the world around her. There was nothing, almost. No other magic source existed in this vast desert, except for one tenuous spark that seemed to guide her, the only anomaly in an otherwise void world. It was nearby now, very nearby. Her eyes slowly opened as she glanced off into the sky near her. Her horn lit with a very dim glow, and her spell took form as a small, nearly transparent holographic layer of magenta light that curved and hovered just before her eyes. Her Holographic Universal Display spell began to scan the sky where ever her eyes looked, reporting back to her with a visual graph of the magic level just to the left of her vision that shifted gradually up and down as she slowly turned her head. She squinted slightly when three tiny triangles of bright magenta appeared upon the HUD pointing at a spot that her spell was tracking in the sky. A small line trailed off from the lower right triangle to the side with a numeric reading of the distance, indicating that the location was quite high and some distance away. About the right distance to be relatively safe, given what it was she was tracking. “There you are,” she said quietly. She had found the where, now it was time to wait on the when. With any luck, her wait wouldn’t be too long. She had erred on the side of being early, since being late was not an option. Measuring to the exact moment and location of the anomaly had not been possible due to the unique factors involved with this particular event. Only now, after so much relative time had passed since then, did she feel confident enough in her own abilities to make the attempt at intercepting it. There would only be the one chance, and failure was not an option. Twilight’s ears twitched at the sound of her HUD spell emitting three chimes, signaling a warning. She focused on the location in the sky, and the graph to the left showed a sudden and steadily rising increase of magic. It was happening. Her horn glowed as magenta lines traced out the shape of her royal armor across her body, and as the lines faded, the silver plates of her barding appeared in their place held to her body by white woven straps. Her hooves shifted in the sand as she took a braced stance against the surface, and her wings unfolded to their full span, causing a brief gust that disturbed the sand around her. She focused on the spot of growing power in the sky, her eyes quickly flicking to and from the graph showing the steady rise in power. She could already feel the magic increasing herself. A visible spark flickered in the sky. It started as a small speck of red light, and then quickly grew brighter as charged bolts of red lightning crackled from the point. The graph suddenly spiked, and the sky grew painfully bright. Twilight squinted her eyes as her HUD adjusted to cut the glare, and she watched as the space around the point began to distort as if it were being pulled inward toward it. And then, there was a loud, thundering crash just as the gigantic red crystal construct appeared there hovering in the sky. Twilight’s HUD chimed a loud warning in her ears as a small, blinking triangle appeared near the top, directing her sight upward. She found a house sized shard of red crystal flipping end over end as it fell from the sky above her. She lept a short distance back and crouched to the ground before launching herself just as the tip of the shard hit right in front of her. A large cloud of dust billowed into the air from the impact, instantly engulfing the area, and a second later, Twilight burst forth from the cloud, a trail of dust following her exit as she sailed upward into the sky. She climbed upward as quickly as her wings would take her, leveling off once she was close to even with the crystal construct’s center. She banked into a wide turn, circling the floating crystal from a safe distance while her HUD quickly scanned the area around it. An uncountable number of loose shards of crystal that ranged in size from tiny as pebbles to larger than buildings rose and fell in the sky around it as arcs of power lept between the shards and the main crystal construct. The air crackled with each charge of power that lept through it, and the loose fragments shifted about seemingly at random, some colliding with others or the side of the large crystal and shattering into deadly clouds of razor sharp shrapnel. The entire construct was getting more unstable by the second as large chunks of crystal periodically exploded and ejected debris that fell to the ground below. “Where are you,” Twilight said as her eyes darted about. The HUD was still searching, finding shifts in the magical aura about the crystal, predicting surges of power and collisions, but hadn’t found the most important thing that Twilight was searching for. Finally, a bright set of blinking triangles appeared, tracking a falling point near the side of the crystal. Twilight reacted immediately, sharply banking to the side to head straight at it. The HUD spell flooded her senses with warnings as she closed in, targeting the potential hazards she should avoid as she made her approach. Just as she reached and passed through the outer threshold of shards hovering around the crystal, her HUD spell began to react wildly. It flickered and flashed before her eyes as it struggled to keep its form, and what readings she could make out seemed to sporadically change. All magic within the influence of the crystal was behaving erratically, so Twilight chose to dispel her HUD as she continued to dive toward the location it had shown her, choosing to rely on her own sense to guide her to her target. The storm of magical power seemed to lash out at her as she passed between the hovering shards, coming dangerously close as the surges arced through the sky. She dodged and weaved as she felt the incoming surges, managing to feel her way through as she closed in on the last known location of her target. One particularly large shard held aloft by tendrils of lightning was blocking her path just ahead. She banked sharply around the left side, skimming within touching distance of the large shard, and as she pulled up and out of the sharp turn, her eyes quickly darted about as they scanned the area for her target. “There!” she said as she quickly dove forward. Her wings pulled in close to her sides, barely open as she picked up speed in an almost vertical dive. Her target was falling head over hooves, limply spinning about in the air. Twilight opened her forelegs and fanned her wings out to slow herself just before she arrived. She wrapped her forelegs tightly around her past self just as they collided in midair, sending them both into a spin. “I’ve got you!” she said as she flapped her wings to try and right herself. Just as she leveled out, she felt a nearby surge building. Unable to dodge the incoming bolt in time, she tried to form a shield to deflect it away instead. The arc of lightning struck her shield with a loud crack, and the combined magics caused a small explosion. The concussive force caused Twilight’s grip to slip just enough that her younger self fell from her gasp. She recovered from the blast quickly, turning over and then angling herself straight downward into a dive once again. She flew as straight and as fast as she could, trying to catch up to her younger self that was falling helplessly in a flat spin on her back. As she closed the distance, her senses picked up on a large surge along the side of the crystal. Her eyes darted to her right just in time to see the explosion that ejected the cloud of crystal fragments. She quickly rolled, spending a powerful gust of air out around herself as she dove through the cloud. Most of the fragments gave way to the gust with only a few of the thinner fragments cutting through and glancing against her armor. She felt some tiny stings from the few that had glanced her fur and scraped at the skin beneath, but she ignored the pain as she pushed herself forward into the dive. Twilight’s descent was quick enough to pass by her younger self, and she angled her wings to level off as she came around in a tight arc. She opened her forelegs and leaned back, flapping her wings to try and slow herself right before they collided again. The two of them let out an ‘oof’ when they hit, and Twilight tightly hugged her younger self to her barrel. “I’ve got you this time, I promise. Just hold on!” she yelled as she banked away to put distance between them and the crystal. She adjusted her course as she felt the surges around her, picking a path through the magical storm and hail of crystal. She ducked her head when a crystal shard as big as herself screeched by her at high speed, letting out a startled shout as it whizzed by. She followed it with her eyes as it continued on its high speed trajectory forward, and then watched as it slammed into an enormous chunk of crystal that was falling right into her path. She glanced about, looking for the shortest and safest path around the shard, but before she could decide she felt another surge building behind her. She quickly glanced over her shoulder back to the side of the crystal construct, and could see the power building to a single point as the arcs of red lightning skittered about on its surface. They were right in the path of the surge that was about to connect with the large chunk of crystal blocking her way. Twilight looked back forward and steeled herself as she kept heading straight at the broad side of the enormous shard. Right when it seemed they were going to crash into it, Twilight tightened her grip and then rapidly spun about horizontally in one full spin with her right wing fully extended. The quick motion projected a high speed blade of air at the shard that seemed to pass right through it. A second later, the large shard fell into two pieces as a small gap appeared where the air had sliced it. Twilight tucked her back legs and wings tightly against her body, holding her younger self tightly against her barrel as they slipped into the gap. She landed on her side, her armor sending sparks scattering about as they slid across the rough surface of the lower half of the divided shard. They slipped through to the other side of the gap, coming out in a backwards free fall as Twilight kept her focus toward the giant shard. At the exact moment she felt the surge peak, she created a shield between herself and the shard, blocking a small area of the crystal debris cloud as the shard exploded into thousands upon thousands of pieces. The rest of the fragments sped by them harmlessly to pelt the ground below. Twilight rolled over to right herself in the sky and opened her wings enough to glide. “That... was a little more exciting than I remember,” she said, sounding short of breath. She picked a location below that appeared to be at a safe enough distance and glided in to a landing. As she touched down, she gently eased her younger self down just before herself. The younger Twilight groaned as her head lolled to the side. She was conscious, but only just barely so. Her chest suddenly heaved as she let out a quick gagging cough. “Oh, don’t puke on me, please,” the elder Twilight said, cringing slightly. She gently reached a hoof down, placing it against the side of the younger Twilight’s face to guide her head up slightly. Leaning her own head forward, the elder Twilight touched the tip of her horn against the younger’s horn as she let a small amount of her magic flow between them. A tiny magenta spark jumped across, and the younger Twilight sucked in a quick gasp of air. “Wha—oh...,” the younger Twilight said with a groan, cringing as she rubbed a hoof against her forehead. She drew a hiss of air in through her clamped teeth as her squinted eyes blinked rapidly, and then she slowly glanced up to her side. Her pained expression slowly shifted toward disbelief as she stared up at her future self. After gawking silently for a few seconds, she managed only to say, “Huh?” A quick smirk turned up the corner of the elder Twilight’s mouth, but she quickly glanced back over her shoulder when a loud explosion came from the crystal construct. “Just hold that thought for a moment,” she said as she turned and cantered away toward the crystal. Her magic lit, calling her HUD spell back into being over her eyes as she stopped and looked upward toward the crystal’s peak. “Alright, where is it?” she asked as a image of the Alicorn Amulet appeared on the display. It shrunk to the side, appearing as a small triangle spinning in the lower left peripheral of her vision while bright lines of magenta scanned horizontally and vertically across the HUD. After a few passes, the lines vanished, and many sets of triangles appeared pointing to potential targets. Many, many triangles. A total in the lower right of her vision read one hundred, thirty seven possibilities. “Oh, no no, that can’t be right,” Twilight said as she tried to adjust the spell to account for the refracted ghost readings that the crystal was giving off. The lines scanned again, and the number dropped considerably to only seventeen, but that was still much more than the one she was hoping for. She furrowed her brow deeply as she began making more fine tuned adjustments, but stopped when a loud chiming alarm rung in her ears. The unstable power within the crystal was growing very close to the final tipping point. “I know,” Twilight said in answer to the alarm. She let the scanning spell do its work for a third time, and it came up with three possible results. Twilight knew that any further adjustments to the spell would take far too long. She drew in a deep breath, letting it out as she said, “Okay....” She quickly considered her options, and then decided on her method for choosing her target. “Eeny, meeny, miny... that one,” she said as she pointed her hoof randomly at the targets, finally settling on one. With one powerful thrust from her wings, she launched herself upward, stopping at a hover a short distance up. Her horn and eyes shone brightly with her power, and her Element came to life with its own light as it detached from where it was set within her crown. The other five sister Elements all detached from her peytral, spinning in a circle about Magic rapidly as a blir of rainbow light formed from their path. Once she felt that the Elements’ power was ready to cast her spell, she thrusted her forehooves and wings forward to release a focused blast of their power. A bright white, thin beam of light shot out from Magic and screeched across the sky toward the construct in an instant, and then blinked out almost as soon as it had appeared. Twilight glided back down to the sandy surface, landing softly. She took hold of the six Elements with her magic as their power once again went dormant, and she slowly placed them back within her crown and armor as she kept a scrutinizing glare locked onto the crystal construct in the sky. A few tense seconds rolled by as nothing seemed to change, but then the glowing reddish color of the crystals began to fade. As the light within the crystals dimmed and went out, the shards hanging in the sky began to crash toward the ground. Finally, even the large construct at the center faded back to the natural dull blue and violet tones of the crystal it was made of, and the entire thing began to fall straight down. Twilight let out a relieved sigh. She glanced over her shoulder behind herself, finding her younger self still sitting where she had been left, watching in amazement. Twilight quickly cantered over, setting herself beside her younger self as she looked back out to the falling mountain of crystal. The lower tip of the crystal hit the sandy surface, and it sent a tidal wave of sand in all directions as it plunged into the earth. The elder Twilight looked on at the wall of sand rushing toward them, spreading her wings out at her sides. She glanced out of the corner of her eye, seeing the tension and uncertainty in her younger self as the sandstorm closed in on them. Seconds before it reached them, the elder Twilight put a foreleg around the younger to pull her close, and then folded her large wings over the both of them. They both huddled under the elder’s wings as the blast rushed by, and once the howling wind died down moments later, the elder quickly fanned her wings back out to blow back the lingering dust in the air. The sandy surface around them had shifted into windswept dunes that radiated out from the mountain sized crystal spike that jutted out of the land. Relatively smaller shards of the crystal laid littered about like scattered boulders around a mountainside, and a dusty haze was still settling from the air all around them. The elder Twilight gave her wings a quick shake before fully folding them back to her sides. Most of her sliver armor faded into magenta outlines that then faded into nothing, and her HUD spell also blinked out of existence as she cancelled the spells, leaving her only with what she had been wearing when she first arrived. She leaned back from the younger Twilight that had been huddling to her side, looking down at eyes that still didn’t seem to believe what they were seeing. “Now we can talk,” she said as she smiled down to her younger self. A moment of silence lingered between them before the younger Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but the elder spoke first, saying, “Yes, I’m you. Future you, from your relative perspective.” The younger blinked, seeming a bit surprised that her unasked question had been answered before she asked it, and then she drew in a quick breath to ask another one. However, the elder quickly spoke again, saying, “I tracked you here, and came here so I could help you out.” “Okay,” the younger quickly said, raising a hoof. “Stop doing that,” she said, pointing the hoof at the elder. The elder let out a short chuckle. “Sorry, couldn’t help it. This is the second time I’ve had this conversation with myself after all. First time for you, though.” The younger stared up at the elder for a short moment afterwards, her eyes steadily blinking as her mind was no doubt trying to come to grips with the situation. She finally settled on letting out an exhausted groan before asking, “It’s never going to end, is it?” “Oh, well, you’ve done the major part already,” the elder said as she gestured out toward the mountain of crystal. “You’ll get to take a bit of a break once I send you back.” The younger’s ears perked up a bit. “Back?” she asked in almost a whisper. “That’s one of the reasons why I’m here. Can’t have my past self ending up stranded. There’s still a lot for you to do... after you take a break from saving the world, of course. Now, I know you have a lot of questions. I can’t answer all of them, but I will answer some of them. So, go ahead.” The younger sat silent for a moment as she considered where she wanted to start, and then asked, “How did you even find this place? I have no idea where we even are.” “When... is really the more important variable,” the elder said as she glanced out to the mountain of crystal. “You see, when we decided to cast the spell to take this as far away as we possibly could, in a way it worked and in a way it didn’t work. At least, not exactly how we had planned on it working. We poured everything we had into that spell to take it somewhere as far as we possibly could from our world, but it ends up that the modified time travel spell that we anchored to the space around it didn’t move it very far geographically.” The younger furrowed her brow, and then glanced around herself at the endless desert overcast with dark blues. “This looks nothing like anywhere I’ve ever been, and I’ve traveled quite a bit.” “Well, yes, that’s because there’s nothing here yet.” The younger quickly glanced back up to the elder, one eyebrow raising as she asked, “Yet?” The elder nodded before looking back out to the large crystal again. “Like I said, in a way our spell worked and in a way it didn’t. It didn’t take the crystal very far geographically, but chronologically, you have ended up very, very far in the past.” “...How far?” The elder slowly closed her eyes. “Can you imagine a time when our world had no magic in it?” She opened her eyes as she looked down to her younger self at her side, and waited until she quietly shook her head. “I really can’t either, but you’re looking at it. No magic. Nothing here, and there never was anything here and never would be.” The elder looked back out to the crystal mountain, pointing a forehoof toward it. “Until this happened. We brought magic here, and a lot of it.” The younger took a long, hard look at the mountain of crystal, and then shook her head. “That... that doesn’t make any sense.” “Because it comes from an altered history? Or because you’ve never seen anything like this in our world?” The elder leaned down so their heads were nearly level with each other. She leaned in, gently putting a foreleg around the younger’s shoulder as she glanced upward at the mountain. “Take a look at it, and tell me what you see.” She glanced out of the corner of her eye, seeing her younger self staring back with a look that seemed to question how serious the request had been. “Just humor me,” the elder said with a gentle smile. The younger drew in a deep breath before letting out a tired sounding sigh. She gestured forward, glancing upward as she said, “A giant mountain of crystal.” “Right. A mountain of crystal,” the elder said as she too glanced upward. “And, if it were to have” — she gestured upward toward the peak — “maybe some trees there on it. Perhaps a waterfall coming off the side of it right” — she pointed at the side — “there... and maybe just above that, a city?” The younger silently stared upward, her eyes widening slowly as she listened to her future self describe the possible scene. The profile of the giant crystal jutting out of the ground did resemble a place she knew, and she only knew of one city perched on a solitary mountain over a waterfall. “Canterlot Mountain?” she asked almost quiet as a whisper. “Some day, a very long time from now,” the elder said. She spent a silent moment looking out at the mountain of crystal before turning her gaze back down to her younger self. “This giant crystal will actually become the caverns beneath it. And without the dark influence of the Alicorn Amulet, the magic contained within will slowly spread across the world, and things will begin to change.” The younger Twilight continued to stare toward the mountain peak for a moment longer. She then rose to her hooves and began to pace back and forth. The elder Twilight patiently waited, watching the younger as she paced and muttered to herself. The younger finally paused mid step, and then looked toward the elder. “No, wait, this can’t be right,” she said, but the elder only raised her eyebrows slightly as she silently sat there. “You know it can’t possibly work like this! History was changed. None of this should have ever happened this way in the first place, but....” Her eyes trailed off toward the crystal mountain as her mind went back to puzzling over the events that had led to this moment. “If this event hadn’t happened, then nothing would have,” the elder said, completing the unspoken thought. The younger Twilight quickly looked back to her future self. “B-but, what Chrystallyn did—” “You shouldn’t worry yourself too much about trying to untangle it all right this minute. I already know that you’re not going to,” the elder said with a slight shake of her head. The younger fell silent, her stare going blank as she slowly sat down. “Don’t let it bother you so much. I can’t tell you the answer, but the answer will find you. Just give it time.” “Heh, time,” the younger said through a weak laugh. “Just how much have we messed time up?” “We haven’t. If anything, we’ve made sure that many of the required events actually do happen.” That statement got a questioning glance from the younger Twilight, but the elder quickly waved it off. “Before we get too far into that, I need you to return something to me.” The younger’s questioning glance intensified for a few seconds before she suddenly seemed to realize what it was she was being asked for. “...Dusk,” she said quietly, to which the elder nodded once silently. “You left it there.” “I knew you would need it.” The elder Twilight smiled gently as she watched her younger self slip into another moment of thought, no doubt trying to puzzle together exactly how her future self had managed to drop the artifact in the past for her. The younger then focused her magic, some strain showing on her face as she summoned Dusk into being. She caught the staff with her forelegs, and then offered it up to the elder Twilight. The elder took the staff up with her magic, bringing it close to herself and resting one fetlock against it. She smiled at it like one might do when seeing an old friend, and then it faded away as her magic sent it to its resting place. “There’s something you need to see, if you’re up for a short flight,” the elder said as she rose to her hooves. She waited until the younger stood and gave a quick nod. “Then follow me,” she said as her wings spread out from her sides. The two Twilight’s launched themselves into the dim blue sky, the younger trailing just behind and beside the elder as they climbed upward and toward the side of the crystal mountain. The elder cast her glance out of the corner of her eye a few times behind herself, making sure that her younger self was still there as they made their way closer and closer. Finally, they came upon an opening on the side of the mountain and landed just inside. The elder slowly tucked her wings back to her side as she began to walk deeper into the cave, stopping after a few steps and turning aside to look back at her younger self who was hesitantly standing where she had landed. “Don’t worry, it’s safe now,” the elder said. The reassuring words were enough to get the younger to canter up to the elder’s side, and once they were side by side, they began their journey into the depths of the Crystal Caverns. They walked without saying a word for some time. The younger was busy taking in her surroundings, while the elder was letting distant memories guide them to the destination she had in mind. They finally came upon a fork in the tunnel, and they both stopped while the elder looked back and forth between the two choices. She finally lit her horn for a brief moment, and her HUD spell appeared for but a few seconds before she dispelled it. “This way,” she said as she choose the tunnel to the right. She didn’t have to look to know that her younger self was now paying much more attention to her than their surroundings. She did remember how curious she was back then. She smiled when the question finally came as the younger asked, “What was that?” The elder glanced to her side, a slight smirk turning up the corner of her mouth as she playfully answered, “Magic?” Her younger self didn’t seem to appreciate the little joke, as she furrowed her brow and frowned. She let out a huff of air. “You’re having way too much fun with this,” she grumbled. The elder’s smirk changed to an apologetic smiled. “I’m sorry. It’s something I can’t tell you about,” she said as she looked forward. The tunnel they were traveling down appeared to go on endlessly, but she knew better. The low levels of refracted light only gave it that appearance. She glanced out of the corner of her eye toward her younger self once again, just catching her looking away as she quickly broke her stare. The elder chuckled lightly, which caused the younger to flatten her ears back as she glanced back up at her. Of course Twilight remembered what her younger self had been staring at. She quickly ran a forehoof against her mane, the motion causing it to lift from her neck and hover. It sparkled with magenta and lavender light as it slowly settled back down against her neck. “Like it?” The younger Twilight stared for a few seconds longer, her transfixed gaze locked on the shimmering mane before she blinked and looked to the elder’s eyes. “I do,” she said with a quick smile. “I was wondering when mine will start to look like that. But I’m sure you can’t tell me, can you?” The elder closed her eyes for a second as she shook her head slightly. “Thought so,” the younger said through a dejected sigh. The elder stopped, and a few steps later, the younger did so as well and turned around toward her. “I’m not holding things back to spite you,” the elder said. “There are certain things that I need to tell you, and everything else I can’t, because when I was you, my future self didn’t tell me about those things.” The younger nodded up to the elder, and they both began to walk the path through the tunnel again. After a few steps, the younger paused mid step. “Wait,” she suddenly called out, which caused the elder to stop and turn aside to look back to her. The younger was furrowing her brow deeply and squinting her eyes, her mind no doubt working once again. “Should I be taking notes?” The elder smiled playfully as a quick chuckle escaped her. “I didn’t,” she simply said with a shrug of her shoulders before turning away to continue down the tunnel. The younger stood there for a few seconds longer, letting out a long ‘hrm’ before she cantered down the tunnel to catch up. “Just seems like if we’re not careful, we could easily create some sort of paradox.” The elder glanced to her side, raising one eyebrow as she asked, “And what if I told you that our world was okay with some paradoxes?” The younger’s steps slowed for a second before catching back up. “How... is that possible,” she said, quickly shaking her head. “By its very definition, a paradox is an event that defies logic. It shouldn’t exist.” The younger tilted her head slightly, glancing up to the elder with an unsure look as she asked, “Right?” “That is mostly true,” the elder said with a single nod. “For example, say an unfortunate event happens that convinces you to invent a time travel spell, and you then use that spell to travel back in time to stop the unfortunate event from ever happening.” The elder paused in the middle of the explanation, looking down to the younger with an expectant glance. The younger nodded as she picked up where the elder had left off. “Right, by stopping the event, you then never have a reason to create the spell, and so the spell never exists and you never go back, which means you never stopped the event, which results in you creating the spell, and so on.” The younger let out another long sigh, shaking her head. “I remember that particular problem being one of the many reasons why trying to time travel was a bad idea, though I was still going to ignore it and try anyway.” “It is a good thing we didn’t get the chance. That is an example of an unstable paradox. It can’t exist because it creates an oscillation between opposed events that can’t possibly both exist at the same time.” A moment of silence passed, only interrupted by their hoof steps and finally by the younger speaking up. “So... there’s such a thing as a stable paradox?” she asked, sounding unsure once again. They were coming up on the end of the tunnel now, and could already see where it opened up into a large chamber. The elder looked upward toward the ceiling as they stepped hoof into the chamber, saying, “Yes, and you’re about to see one.” They walked together side by side as they circled around toward the opposite side of the chamber. The younger looked upward toward the high ceiling, her eyes tracing over the large crystal structure that hung from it. “I remember this place. This really is the caverns beneath Canterlot,” she said in a quiet breath. The chamber was the same as it had been, or actually, would be, with a large crystal dangling from the center of the domed chamber, and many ledges along the chamber walls. There were also many tunnels that left in other directions about the edge of the room. But as they came around to the opposite side of the crystal, the younger noticed that the elder had her gaze focused upon it. They both looked up toward the crystal as they stopped there before it. A moment of complete silence passed as they both stared upward, the elder appearing stoic while the younger appeared quite shocked at what she was seeing. Frozen behind the facets of crystal overhead was a dust grey alicorn, her wings folded about her body as she hung there motionlessly. “Chrystallyn,” the younger finally said in a quiet whisper. She looked up to her side toward her future self. “Is she...?” “She’s sleeping,” the elder Twilight said as she kept her stoic gaze forward. “It will be a very long time before she awakens again, and by then she’ll have forgotten nearly everything. This cavern will lay hidden behind a spell until the day comes when two young sisters find their way here.” “Celestia and Luna,” the younger said as she recalled the story of the sisters’ ascension. “They’re going to find her here in the caverns.” “Exactly. A stable paradox. It doesn't logically make sense, but it works.” The elder looked down to her side to the younger. “Chrystallyn exists because she exists, and her existence has no real beginning or end.” The younger looked back and forth between Chrystallyn and her future self, her mind no doubt working through the illogical notion of a being whose existence had no real origin. Her mind then wandered to another question that was less puzzling. “How would the magic here know to hide her until Celestia and Luna find her?” “It doesn’t,” the elder said through a sigh. She slowly sat down next to her younger self, turning herself to face her. “This is the point where you start to not like what I have to say.” The younger’s ears immediately fell back. “Why. What happened?” “It isn’t so much what happened, but what is going to happen,” the elder said as she gestured up toward the crystal. Her hoof fell back to the crystallized floor with a dulled metallic tap that echoed around the room. “You see, there are quite a few events throughout history that have to happen if they are going to lead to this event happening, and those events will need a little help to make sure they happen.” The younger Twilight slowly shrank back a few steps as the elder spoke. “You... no. No, you can’t be serious,” she said, shaking her head. “I am,” the elder affirmed. Her voice strongly echoed around them for a short moment afterwards as they both stared into each other’s eyes. The elder finally looked away, her glance drawn upward toward the crystal overhead as she spoke. “Chrystallyn and Celestia will both witness many visions throughout their lives that help guide them to make their choices, and I’m here to make sure that happens.” “No! That’s wrong!” The younger angrily said, her wings flaring out at her sides. “That’s... it’s controlling their lives. You’re not even giving them a choice! You’re forcing this on them! What gives you the right to choose how—” “Twilight!” The elder’s forceful use of their name brought the younger’s rant to a sudden pause. For a short moment, they simply stared at one another, locked in a silent battle that neither of them wanted to back down from. The elder finally closed her eyes, and slowly shook her head. “I can’t force them to make choices any more than anyone else in this world can.” “But, you just said—” “I said that I would show them possibilities, but it will still be up to them to decide what to do about the visions they see. They can choose to follow them, or not, just like you did.” The younger’s mouth hung agape as she caught the meaning behind what the elder was telling her. “That dream,” she said quietly. “That really was a vision, wasn’t it?” The elder gently nodded her head. “Our spell showed you what could have happened, but you decided to change it, and in doing so, you brought all of this here by your own choice.” The younger sat back on her haunches, seeming once again unsure of the thoughts working their way through her mind. “That’s... really iffy,” she said, squinting toward her future self with a thick layer of suspicion playing on her voice. “You already knew what choice I was going to make when I saw a dream of our world getting torn apart by the explosion.” “True,” the elder admitted. She tilted her head slightly to the side as she touched the tip of her hoof just under her chin. “I guess you could call it cheating, since I already knew how you should react to it. But, can you really blame me?” she asked as she shrugged her shoulders, but she didn’t get any further reaction from her younger self. “Let me put it this way then. Every choice you make everyday is in some way affected by the world around you. Where you are, what you have done, where you will go, and all the things you will ever do are the sum of all the events that have involved you up to this point, and all along the way the actions others have also been involved in those choices. Even without time travel involved, your choices are influenced by an uncountable number of outside factors, but that doesn’t make it any less your choice.” The younger lifted her hoof, mirroring her future self as she touched it to her chin while she thought. “Well, you’re right, of course,” she finally admitted. “No one forced me to follow Chrystallyn back in the first place or made me crash land in the past.” She glanced out of the corner of her eye at her future self, and her eyebrow slowly raised when she noticed her future self avoiding eye contact with her. She may have been dealing with a Twilight that was much older than she was, but she still knew herself well enough to know what that meant. “What else did you do?” the younger demanded sternly. The elder drew in a breath before putting on a forced smile. “I knew it would work,” she explained. The younger narrowed her eyes. “What. Did. You. Do.” The elder waved a hoof idly at her side. “I may have been involved with manipulating the spell so it would drop Chrystallyn, Spike, and you out at certain times and places,” she quickly said. Her ears pinned back against her head when she saw the sudden, wide eyed terror on her younger self’s face. The younger sprung up to all four hooves, stamping a couple steps closer as her future self cringed away slightly. “You could have killed us! Or worse!” she yelled, causing her voice to reverberate around the room. “I knew it would work!” the elder said, holding her forehooves up defensively. The younger glared up at her future self for a few seconds longer before letting go a loud huff and slumping back onto her haunches. She groaned as she held her face in her forehooves, and glanced over them up to her future self as she let them slide down and then land on the floor with a loud clack. She finally shook her head as she glanced dejectedly off to the side, quietly grumbling “Why do I become so reckless?” to herself. The elder quietly cleared her throat. “Well, I didn’t just bring you up here to tell you upsetting things,” she said as she glanced upward to the crystal above. She stood and spread her wings out at her sides, and with a gentle flap that seemed like hardly enough to lift her body from the floor, she slowly began to glide upward toward the crystal. Her aura glowed around her body as her magic held her aloft and brought her close, and she came to a hover close enough to touch the facet that lie just between her and where Chrystallyn was frozen on the other side. Her horn glowed brighter for a moment, and the reflection on the facet appeared to shift as she reached a hoof out toward it. When her hoof tip touched it, it sent a ripple across the surface as if it were water, and it gave way to her hoof as it slipped past. A magenta light glowed from within the crystal just above Chrystallyn’s head and then began to move toward Twilight’s outstretched hoof. Once it was just within reach, Twilight withdrew her hoof, drawing the glowing light out with it. The golden crown containing the Element of Magic that the younger Twilight had brought with her into the past was now hovering just above the elder’s hoof. The elder slowly glided back down to the floor below, three hooves silently touching the floor while she held the fourth out before herself as the Element of Magic slowly spun in the air just above it. “This one belongs to you,” she quietly said as she took it with her magic and passed it to her younger self. The younger took the crown in her own aura, bringing it up to her face as she stared into the magenta jewel. She seemed to ponder over her reflection in Magic’s facets for a moment before she looked back up to her future self with a curious glance. “But... won’t that mean there are two Element’s of Magic now?” “The answer will find you,” the elder said. The younger furrowed her brow slightly as she glanced to the Element in her grasp again, and then she placed it upon her head before looking back up to her future self. “And now we’ve reached the moment where I’m supposed to send you back,” her future self said as she smiled gently down to her. “Back... when exactly?” “Not long after you left, if I manage to hit the mark right on,” the elder said as her horn lit with her aura. At her magic’s call, Dusk appeared in her aura’s grasp right next to her, and she sat back on her haunches as she reached out and took it in her fetlocks. She looked from Dusk to her younger self, a slight smirk turning up the corner of her mouth as she asked, “You didn’t want to leave Spike stranded in history alone, did you?” “No, of course not,” the younger quickly said, shaking her head. “I guess I’m just surprised. I really wasn’t planning on going back.” She glanced down toward her hooves for a moment, her voice growing quieter as she said, “I didn’t even think I would survive.” She then looked back up toward her future self, and with a slight bow of her head she said, “Thank you, for giving me another chance.” The elder smiled gently in return, bowing her head as well as she said, “You’re welcome, and I only ask that you return the favor when it’s your turn.” As she lifted her head, her eyes and horn began to glow with a white light that slowly grew brighter, and her mane seemed to lift from her neck and hover about her head as if by some unfelt breeze. “Good luck,” she said, and as she lifted one of her hooves to touch it against her chin, her eyes took on an apologetic look as she added, “and... sorry about the headache.” “What headache—” A stroke of bright white lightning struck from directly above the younger Twilight in an instant, causing a deafening crash to reverberate through the room, and then she was gone. The elder Twilight’s ears splayed back hard against her head, and she drew in a hiss of air through her teeth as a pained grimace twisted her muzzle. “I can still remember that headache,” she said, but after a few seconds she shrugged her shoulders as she let a quiet sigh escape her. “Oh well,” she said as she took Dusk up in her aura and glanced upward, “time to get to work.” --- Streets littered with broken crystal, buildings fractured and toppled, and the city’s iconic crystal spire missing from the skyline were the sights that greeted those who emerged from the underground staging area. No home seemed to have been spared from receiving at least some structural damage. Some had fared much better than others, with the odd house here and there that had the misfortune of meeting a large chunk of crystal debris falling out of the sky. One could only hope that those homes had been empty. Moondancer had already taken to organizing the guard forces, no matter what their chosen uniform. A disaster had just stricken the Empire, and its citizens would need every helping hoof that could be spared. There were likely injured and trapped ponies within the city that hadn’t left their homes. With a search and rescue underway, those who were not guard members themselves mostly took to volunteering to fill whatever roles were needed. A makeshift triage area had been set up near the southern end of the city in a public park that had been left relatively unscathed from the battles. Already in the short time since the searching had begun, a few survivors had been found out in the city and brought back. Their injuries had been, thankfully, minor for the most part. Spike had taken to his own personal search when he had learned of what had happened above the city. His shadow had crisscrossed the city in an aimless fashion in his frantic attempts to find any trace Twilight from the sky. The chill in the northern air didn’t exactly agree with him, and as a result he had already pushed the muscles in his wings to the point that the joints were stiff and burning from exhaustion. He growled through his gritted teeth as he wavered in the sky when his wings threatened to fold on him. “Hey, big guy,” Rainbow’s voice called out to him. His glance quickly shot to his side, finding her rising up to glide next to him. “You should rest a minute.” “Can’t,” Spike said as he fought against his wings’ stubborn protests as they continued to threaten to give out on him. “Yeah you can,” she said, a bit sternly. Spike shot her a look that could have easily been considered threatening if not for the circumstance. “Think about it. How much good are you going to do if you drop out of the sky? I can’t haul your butt back to the triage camp.” An annoyed rumble echoed through Spike’s throat, and then he let out a snort that shot puffs of smoke from his nostrils. He didn’t like it, but she was right. The cold was going to force him to take a break, but he would get back to his search as soon as his muscles stopped complaining. He came down just north of the triage camp, nearly losing himself when his wings faltered just before he touched down. He stumbled forward, his wings going limp at his sides and dragging against the ground. He reached one of his hands up over the opposite shoulder, rubbing at the sore joints. Rainbow lit just next to him, glancing up to him with a worried look on her face. “I’m alright,” Spike said in a huff as he slowly gathered his wings up to fold them back. A smooth, and somewhat smug sounding voice called out from behind him. “Didn’t I say you wouldn’t find anything?” The sound of Discord’s voice caused the spines on Spike’s neck to bristle. He slowly turned his head, shooting a harsh glare in the direction that the voice had come from. Discord only gazed back with one eyebrow cocked and his arms crossed as he leaned against the solitary tree at the northern end of the park. “A lot of help you’ve been. Good thing we have you to make sure that tree doesn’t fall over,” Spike nearly spat back at him. “I was told to behave and stay put, so I am,” Discord said with a slight shrug of his shoulders. “Seems the sisters were against my inclusion in the search party. ‘Had plenty enough chaos for one day’ I think is how Loony put it.” He scoffed as he said, “As if such a thing is possible.” Spike only acknowledged him with an indignant snort before he began to walk off, uninterested in Discord’s brand of humor at that particular moment. However, he only made it a few steps before Discord spoke up again. “There’s no reason for me to lie to you.” Spike stopped, glancing back over his shoulder. There was no smug grin or condescending tone this time. Discord suddenly seemed serious. He was never serious. “You won’t find her, because she isn’t here,” Discord said flatly. There was no question that he believed every word that he had spoken. A tense moment passed as Spike and Discord exchanged a silent glare. Rainbow remained quiet to the side, her ears laid back as she carefully watched them both. When it seemed neither of them were going to back down from the staring contest, Rainbow took a few cautious steps forward toward Spike, extending her hoof to get his attention. However, before she could quite reach him, she suddenly had to dodge back when Spike turned and lunged at Discord with a speed that was impressive given his size. In one fail swoop, Spike managed to close the distance and pin Discord against the side of the tree, palming the draconequus’s neck in one hand as his sharp claws dug into the tree trunk and sent a spray of splinters flying as the wood cracked loudly. Discord only held both of his opened palms up defensively near his shoulders while Spike growled in his face. “How would you know,” Spike said as his voice came out as a low rumble, “unless you’re hiding something.” He made an attempt to squeeze Discord’s neck, but it was like trying to squeeze a solid block of iron. Discord then slowly turned his taloned hand towards Spike’s hand, using just his index finger and his thumb to take hold of Spike’s wrist and then slowly remove Spike’s grip on his neck. Spike let out an angry and somewhat painful sounding growl through his gritt teeth, and then yanked his hand back forcefully. He balled his fist as he held it against his chest, holding and rubbing his wrist with his other hand. “You should calm yourself,” Discord said calmly, the smug grin once again appearing on his face. Spike shot a fiery hot glare back in response, and was just seconds from shooting something else fiery hot back in Discord’s face when another voice stopped him. “What is going on here?” Rarity said sternly as she trotted up to the altercation with Rainbow Dash following at her side. Spike stepped back a few steps to the side as Rarity put herself between them. She gave each of them a no-nonsense look, and squinted her eyes slightly when they fell upon Discord. “Oh sure, blame me. It has to be my fault,” Discord said as he rolled his eyes. He made an exaggerated show of crossing his arms and turning his muzzle up. “From what I was just told, you weren’t exactly helping the situation,” Rarity said evenly as she kept her judging stare squarely focused on him. “Can you not tell that this is somewhat upsetting for Spike?” Discord threw his hands up before letting them flop to his sides. “Of course I can, but there is no point in searching for what can not be found. Don’t you consider it bizarre when I’m the only voice of reason?” He turned toward Spike, shrugging his shoulders as he said, “I thought you might like to avoid nearly killing yourself over nothing.” Spike’s fists clenched tightly at his sides, and his jaw flexed as he clamped his teeth together and wrinkled his muzzle. But before he could attempt to tear into Discord’s hide, he felt a light touch on the back of his hand and looked down to see Rarity looking up at him. “Spike. Don’t, please,” she said, her eyes and voice pleading with him to hold his anger. “He isn’t worth it.” “I beg your pardon?” Discord scoffed. “And you,” Rarity said as she turned a glare on Discord that managed to make his outward confidence wilt. He back away up against the tree when she stomped a few steps in his direction, holding his open palms up in front of himself defensively. “Seems you still have a long way to go before understanding what empathy is. Sometimes, throwing the truth in someone’s face is one of the harshest things one could possibly to do.” She squinted hard and wrinkled her nose at him for good measure, causing Discord to cringe back before she turned away. “Come on, Spike,” she said as she, Spike, and Rainbow all turned away to head toward the camp. As they were leaving Discord behind, Spike heard him yell out to them. “Oh, you ponies and your drama!” Spike muttered something under his breath before he turned around to see Discord following them. Discord held up his taloned hand, shaking a pointed finger as he walked up. “Why, I bet she’ll turn up like nothing ever happened. Isn’t that how these sort of stories go?” he asked with an exaggerated shrug as he stopped there in front of the group. “Heroine saves the world by sacrificing herself for some sort of greater good and then miraculously reappears in the end somehow?” “This isn’t a fairytale,” Spike said sternly. He turned away, not wanting to spend a second longer listening to Discord’s callous remarks and made up stories for fear of completely losing his temper. Discord stood there speechless in the middle of the park as the group once again turned their backs to him and left him behind. He grumbled quietly to himself, raking his talons through his goatee as he said, “I know I’m right. This is Twilight Sparkle we’re dealing with.” He ran his talons through to the end of his goatee, twirling the tip around between his thumb and index finger. “She’ll probably turn up again any minute now,” he said, matter-of-factly. His eyes glanced from side to side, taking on a suspicious looking squint as he said, “Aaany minute now.” The moment passed by quietly, and Discord’s ears drooped slightly as he let out a light sigh. Just as he was beginning to turn away to go back to his tree, a loud crack of thunder accompanied a bright flash of white lightning that struck nearby. He nearly tripped over himself as he scrambled a few steps away while holding his hands up to guard himself. He blinked as he glanced out between his fingers at where the lightning had struck, and standing there among a large scorch mark in the grass he saw Twilight Sparkle. A wide, excited grin that Pinkie Pie would have been rather proud to see overtook his face. “See! What did I say?” he yelled back in the direction of the camp as he pointed toward her. The bright flash and sound had drawn the attention of everyone nearby. At the edge of the camp, Spike, Rarity, and Rainbow were all staring back with dumbfounded looks. It wasn’t until Twilight collapsed to the ground that Spike snapped out of it and began to run toward her. His shaking legs didn’t seem to want to cooperate, causing his steps to start off slow and uneven. His pace picked up as he got closer, his wings and arms flailing as he leaned further into his steps to force himself forward. He finally made it to her, collapsing to his knees next to her and reaching a shaking hand out to her that he gently laid on her back. Her sprawled out legs and wings twitched at the touch, and she let out a groan as she tried ineffectively to push her face up off the ground with her forehooves. Spike slipped one hand under her barrel and gently eased her to sitting up. A small group was beginning to gather around them, but he only barely noticed their presence. He remained focused on Twilight, watching her breath heavily as she slowly blinked and rolled around her eyes. She finally glanced up out of the corner of her eye at him, and she gave him a weak smile as her hoarse voice tiredly said, “I’m back.” The entire world went blurry through Spike’s eyes. A single sob escaped from him and he leaned toward her, wrapping her up in a hug with both arms and his wings that lifted her off the ground and pinned her against his chest. She groaned quietly in protest at the dragon-sized bear hug at first, but then she nuzzled into his chest and relaxed as she drifted off to sleep. --- The sleep that Twilight fell into was a deep and dreamless one, brought on by the pure exhaustion of her body and mind. Waking up was like trying to scale the side of a cliff, slow and tedious. Bit by bit, her mind shrugged off the unconsciousness, and her senses began to come around. The first thing she noticed was just how heavy her eyelids felt, and it didn’t help that her eyes felt dried out. She rolled her eyes around, trying to work what little moisture might still be under her eyelids around to loosen them. As she managed to pry her eyes barely open, she noticed the funny feeling across her lips. She drew them back into her mouth, smacking them and finding the consistency to be something like a shriveled paper bag. She had definitely had better feeling mornings than this. The thought that it may not actually be morning crossed her addled mind when she noticed that despite having her eyes open, it appeared the room she was in was only dimly lit by a light somewhere nearby. The bed she was laying on had to be one of the most comfortable mattresses she had ever found herself sleeping on, and had an abundance of large square pillows spread out around her. It was a familiar feeling. Her eyes began to wander, staring intently at the dark curtains that hung from the canopy of the four-poster bed. It was a very familiar sight. Her eyes traced the starred patterns on the midnightblue fabric for a moment longer, and then it finally occurred to her. This was Luna’s bedroom. The earlier events began to come back to her in increasing clarity. She remembered her future self telling her that she was going to be sent back, and then pain. Goodness, was there a lot of pain. The amount of magic that her future self must have forced into the spell to send her back however far it was to this time must have been immense. She hadn’t been ready to be hit by that much power compacted into such a small, sudden burst, but then she probably wouldn’t have been even if warned. The next thing she had remembered after that was Spike picking her up off the ground. Spike. She remembered seeing his face for just a few seconds before passing out in his arms. He must have been worried sick about her. She needed to find him, to tell him that he didn’t need to worry. She made a move to lift her head from the pillow, and she immediately regretted it and quickly dropped her head back down. Her entire skull throbbed from the simple movement, and she wrinkled her nose as she drew in a hiss of air through her teeth. She held the breath for a moment until the throbbing began to pass, and then let it out slowly with whimper. She made a move to lift her forelegs up to her face, but one of them didn’t move, seeming to be pinned to the side of the bed. She feebly tugged at it to try and pull it loose from the covers, and when she couldn’t manage to get it loose she rolled her head to the side just enough so she could peer down her side to find out why. She must have quietly stared at Spike for minutes when she found him there knelt down and curled up against the side of the bed. She listened to the quiet sounds of his breathing that kept in time with the gentle rise and fall of his shoulders. He’d fallen asleep there with one arm folded around under the side of his face as a makeshift pillow, and the other stretched out toward her, resting upon her foreleg. The smile that has spread across her face finally reminded her of just how dry her mouth felt as she smacked her parched lips once again. Her eyes happened to wander upward toward the dresser next to the bed and then widened a bit when she found a clear glass pitcher of water sitting beside a drinking glass with a white straw sitting in it. She had to fight down the urge to reach out and snatch the pitcher with her magic, knowing that if something as simple as attempting to sit up would upset her headache, using magic would likely be ten times worse. She considered if getting her hooves on some water would be worth the pain, and then glanced back down toward Spike when she realized she had a much easier option. She opened her mouth and tried to speak, but all that came out was a strangled sound as a dry tickle in the back of her throat kept her voice from making its way out. She tried to swallow and clear her throat before making another attempt. “Spike,” she said, being caught off guard by the rough, whispery sound of her own voice in the otherwise silent room. She cleared her throat again and called out to him a bit more loudly, shaking the hoof pinned under his hand to try and rouse him. All she got in response for her efforts was something between a snort and a snore. She realized that her weakened voice wouldn’t be able to overcome Spike’s excellent ability to tone her out while sleeping, so she glanced over to her other side for another option. She eyed one of the square pillows beside her head and then slipped her free hoof underneath, carefully balancing it as she lifted it just slightly. She then looked back down her side at Spike, squinting one eye closed as she lined up her shot. She let the pillow fly, and it sailed true to its target, bouncing against Spike’s head with a soft pomf. Spike’s head lifted quickly as he drew in a quick snort. “Hm, dah?” he said as his eyes darted around. His brow furrowed deeply when his eyes came upon the pillow laying there against his arm. “Spike.” Twilight’s tired voice calling out to him caught his attention immediately. His wide eyes stared at her through the dim light as he froze still as a statue for a few seconds, and then he suddenly pushed himself to sit up straight as he nearly yelled, “Twilight!” Twilight splayed her ears back against her head and covered them with her forehooves. “Not so loud,” she whined as she squeezed her eyes tightly closed. Spike cringed. “Oh. Oh, I’m sorry,” he said as he dropped his voice to a near whisper. He shifted on his knees to move himself closer to her side, leaning his forearms against the bed. He waited until Twilight pulled her forearms back down to rest them across her chest and opened her eyes slightly. “How you feeling?” She let out a quiet groan and then glanced over toward him. “My head feels like a hydra did a dance on it, and my throat is really dry.” Spike cringed again, and when it appeared that he hadn’t picked up on her hint, Twilight looked past him toward the glass pitcher as she asked, “Could you get me some of that water?” Spike glanced from the longing look in Twilight’s eyes to the water pitcher she was staring at. “Oh, right,” he said as he gave his head a quick shake. He shifted on his knees so he was sitting facing toward the dresser before reaching out to take the pitcher and empty glass in his claws. Watching him carefully manipulate the comparatively tiny glass objects in his claws would have probably seemed at least a bit humorous to Twilight if she hadn’t felt like she was about to shrivel up and blow away like a dried out leaf. As Spike finished filling the drinking glass and was setting the pitcher back down, Twilight made her attempt at sitting upright so she could get the drink of water she desperately wanted. Spike quickly shifted toward her, reaching his free hand out to place it against her back to steady her as she sat up. She let out a miserable sounding groan as she slumped forward into a sitting position, frowning and furrowing her brow hard as her temples pounded from the movement. Her eyes followed the glass of water as Spike brought it close to her mouth, and she quickly took hold of the straw as soon as it was within reach. She greedily gulped the water down, managing to finish off the entire glass in seconds and causing a slurping sound to echo through the room. Spike gave out a light chuckle as he asked, “More?” Twilight nodded quickly back to him, and he filled the glass for her a second time. Instead of downing the entire thing as quickly as she could, she sipped on the second glass a bit more slowly, and eventually stopped when there was still about a third left. She dropped the straw from her mouth and sat back from the glass slightly, allowing a content sigh escape from her. “Thank you, Spike.” “No problem,” he said as he set the glass back on the dresser. “Anything else I can get for you?” “I think I just need to lay here, maybe rest some more,” she said as she laid back into one of the pillows. She stretched her forelegs and wings out at her sides as she flexed her neck back and forth, snuggling down into the pillow a bit more. She slowly blinked her eyes open and closed a few times, and then looked over to her side when she felt a touch against her foreleg. “You don’t have to worry about me escaping or anything,” she said with a slight giggle when she saw Spike holding on to her foreleg again. However, he didn’t smile back in return. He only quietly stared at her with an unreadable expression. The smile slowly faded from Twilight’s face, and then her chest heaved as she let out a silent sigh. “You’re mad at me.” Spike wrinkled his muzzle as he looked off to the side for a short second. “Eh, I thought I would be. Had my spiel about running off and doing stuff on your own again ready to go and everything but....” He slowly looked back to her, and with a smile and a quick shrug from his shoulders he said, “I’m just glad you’re back.” “Oh, Spike. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” She rolled herself over onto her side to face him, and rested her other forehoof atop his hand. “I know it probably won’t make it any better, but this was something I actually needed to do on my own, though I didn’t even realize that until it happened.” “What did happen? The princesses said you made a giant ball of crystal and crazy magic just vanish into thin air.” Twilight stared into his eyes for a moment. There was so much to tell, and she hadn’t yet properly gathered her thoughts to tell it. “Long story, really, and I want to tell you everything,” she said before a yawn overtook her, “but it might have to wait until I’m not about to pass out again.” “Pinkie promise?” Spike asked, tilting his head slightly. Twilight blinked. “Oh, you’re going to make me do that?” Spike only raised his brow slightly as he patiently waited. Twilight rolled her eyes while unsuccessfully trying to hide her smirking. “Fine. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” she said as she went through the motions with her free hoof, ending with it covering her right eye. “You know you can’t break those,” Spike said as he waggled his index finger at her. “Of course,” she said as she moved her hoof to pat the back of his hand. Another yawn snuck up on her, taking her by surprise. She blinked her watery eyes after it passed, and looked up when she noticed that Spike had let go and stood next to the bed. “I’ll get out of your mane and let you sleep some more.” “Tell everyone I’ll be alright. I don’t want them worrying,” Twilight said as she rolled back onto her back and snuggled back into the pillow. “Sure thing. There’s guards just outside if you need anything.” Spike walked to the room’s doors, stopping next to them and turning to look back. “Alright if I check on you again in a couple hours? I was thinking about bringing you some celery soup.” “That sounds wonderful. Thanks for always being there for me, Spike.” “You bet.” Spike smiled back at her for a second longer before turning to the door to leave. He pulled the door to gently, leaving Twilight with just the dim light and silence of Luna’s bedroom as her only company. Twilight shifted her shoulders and neck again a few times before finding just the right spot and she slowly blinked her eyes, her eyelids coming closer and closer to closed with each blink. “Comfy?” Twilight's eyes shot back open and darted to her left. Her left ear twitched as it tried to point to exactly where she had heard the voice. She was sure she had just heard Discord as if he had been standing right next to her bed, but there was nothing there. She squinted her eyes as she stared suspiciously at the empty space. “Psst, over here.” Twilight’s ear twitched again, finding Discord’s voice to sound like it was much closer than she at first thought. She rolled her head over to the side, and then furrowed her brow hard when she finally saw him, or at least part of his face. On the corner of the large square pillow she had her head laid against, she could see Discord’s bright yellow and red eyes looking at her, his toothy grin plastered to the pillow’s surface just below the eyes, and his goatee in place of the pillow’s corner tassel. The sight caused her to flinch and cringe away as she drew her forelegs in close to her chest. “Hello,” Discord’s mouth said while the disembodied fuzzy eyebrows floated up a bit higher above his eyes. “...Discord?” “But of course!” Twilight stared at Discord’s imprinted face for a moment. “You’re a... pillow,” she said slowly. “That I am.” Twilight’s brow rose slowly as she asked, “Why are you a pillow?” “Oh, well, I thought I’d do something to show some gratitude.” “...By being a pillow?” Discord let out a sigh, which caused the pillow to deflate slightly. “I’ll admit, the idea sounded better in my head.” The pillow suddenly vanished in a white flash, and then Discord reappeared in his more well known form standing next to the bed. This act had the unfortunate side effect of causing Twilight’s head to fall back against the mattress, and she let out a short cry in pain as she reached her hooves up to the sides of her head. “Oh! So sorry, that was not intentional at all,” Discord said quickly as he held his paw against his mouth. A stallion's voice called out from the other side of the door. “Miss Sparkle?” “I’m fine,” Twilight quickly called back, though the strain in her voice seemed to indicate otherwise. She shot a quick glare at Discord as she rubbed at temples and hissed, “That really hurt,” at him in a whisper. Discord brought his hands up near his chest, steepling his fingers together as he nervously tapped them against each other. “Seems I’m not too good at things of this sort,” he said, frowning as he slumped down to almost half his full height. Twilight’s expression softened, as it really did appear he was actually sorry. Then she noticed something, or rather noticed what wasn’t there. “They took the bracers off?” “Hm?” Discord tilted his head to the side, and then glanced down at his wrists. “Oh those, right. Uh, yes, eventually,” he said with a quick nod. “But I didn’t come here to talk about me, as surprising as that might be for you to find out.” Discord stood back at his full height, crossing his arms across his chest as he put on a smile. “Maybe a little surprising,” Twilight said as she smiled back to him. “Seems the old saying that the more things change, the more they stay the same has some truth to it.” Discord raised one of his forearms up, pointing an index finger toward the ceiling. “I’d offer my assistance in keeping things from getting stale, but I’m sure you’re not all that interested at the moment,” he said as he twirled the finger about in a circle before pointing it at Twilight and adding, “are you?” Twilight responded with a small chuckle. “No, I’m afraid not,” she said as she shook her head slightly. “You’re a... frayed knot... you say?” Discord said, slowly raising one of his eyebrows at her. The grin on his face increased, becoming a bit more mischievous looking. It only took a second for Twilight to pick up on his wordplay, and her ears quickly snapped back as she tensed and pushed herself back on the mattress with her back legs. “Discord, no! Don’t,” she said, holding a hoof out in front of herself. Discord could only keep up his mischievous mask for a few seconds longer before it finally broke. He nearly doubled over to the side holding his chest as a wheezy sounding laugh escaped from him. He drew in a snort of air when he glanced back at her for a second, and continued to laugh as he shook his head and pointed at her. The tension in Twilight’s body melted away when she realized she’d been had by one of his bad jokes. She squinted her eyes in a cold glare in his direction and drew her lips into a small, thin line on her muzzle. When he finally noticed the glare aimed at him, Discord let out a cough and cleared his throat as he tried to get his giggles under control. “Oh come now, don’t look at me that way. It was just a harmless joke, and you have to admit that you walked right into that one.” Twilight kept the glare on him for a few seconds longer before blowing a breath of air out through her lips. “Yeah well, after everything that’s happened, I’d rather not be turned into an old piece of rope, thanks.” “I wouldn’t do that, I know better.” “You do?” Twilight asked, tilting her head to the side curiously. “Of course I do,” Discord said, as if it were simply fact. “Twilight Sparkle, I’ve lived for a very... very long time. And in that time, I’ve seen and learned many things.” Twilight raised one of her eyebrows at him, and he shook his index finger at her in response as he said, “Yes, I can learn things. Don’t give me that look.” He smiled when he noticed the silent chuckle that Twilight was trying to hide. “I suppose one could say I ‘know things’,” he said as he lifted his hands, using his fingers to make air quotes, “and do you know what one of those things is that I know?” Twilight rolled her eyes when she saw Discord waiting expectantly for her to ask the question. She smiled as she asked him, “What is it you know, Discord?” Discord paused, looking at Twilight for a moment before a genuine smile appeared on his muzzle. “That I should never anger Twilight Sparkle.” Discord slowly raised his talons up beside himself, holding his index finger against his thumb. “See you some other time,” he said just before he snapped his fingers and vanished in a bright flash. Twilight held a hoof out quickly toward him, but he was already gone. Her hoof slowly lowered back down to her side, and she sat there on the mattress while the perplexing words played themselves out in her mind again. What did he even mean by that? Or was it just another one of his games that he liked to play, seeing if he could get a rise out of her? Only Discord knew for sure, and if his personality was anything like what she remembered of him, there was only a slim to none chance of ever getting him to fess up to what he was talking about. With Discord gone and silence once again returning to the room, Twilight felt exhaustion once again creeping in on her. She took another pillow from the many scattered around her and laid her head against it as she settled down on her side. Discord’s little comment had reminded her of other questions that had still been left unanswered, setting her mind abuzz with the possibilities. As the thoughts danced about in her mind, she blinked her eyes slowly a few times before closing them. The Twilight of tomorrow could worry about the unanswered questions. This Twilight was going to get some well deserved rest.