//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: Rarity's Secret // by YamiPuppy //------------------------------// Things are just about to get complicated… --- Aquilegias sat awkwardly on her bed, her shoulders supported by pillows. Her sister was carefully wrapping bandages around her chest. Aquilegias sighed, lifting a cup of tea off her desk. It took more effort than it should have. Purpur looked up and frowned. “You could have asked for help you know.” she mumbled. “I’m not completely helpless. Not yet.” Aquilegias replied, lifting a few books off her desk to prove her point. Purpur sighed. “Don’t wear yourself out.” Pouting Aquilegias set the books down. “Fine, but lifting books isn’t that hard.” “It will be if this gets any worse.” Purpur explained, hovering a mirror in front of Aquilegias’ face so she could see her chest. “And those are very small books. I doubt you could lift the medical encyclopedia, or the training manual.” “I bet I could lift them both at once.” Aquilegias insisted. Purpur finished wrapping the bandages. “Let’s not find out. I know this is hard, but you can’t do as much as you used to.” “I am younger than you!” Aquilegias retorted. “By a few months. Besides, you and I both know that is not what I mean.” Purpur unraveled the bandages wrapped around her sister’s flank and hind legs. “Didn’t you just do those?” “They need changing every day.” Purpur looked at her sister. Aquilegias looked back at her, worry shining in her gaze. “I’m not going to get better, am I?” Purpur didn’t reply, just stared at her sister. She wasn’t sure what to say. Without thinking, she said the first thing that came to mind. “I’m not letting the last thing I say to you be that you’re going to live a life of suffering. That would be wrong.” Aquilegias looked at her sister, tears shining in her eyes. “Don’t you have any hope for me at all?” “I know it’s going to happen, it’s inevitable.” Purpur wanted to slap herself. How could I have been so stupid? “You have to have hope! I can’t do this without you! What do you mean the last thing you say to me?” Purpur winced at the pain in her sister’s voice. Purpur forced herself to reply. “I didn’t want to worry you, but, I guess I have to tell you now. We are losing the war. I’m going to have to fight, and I don’t want the last things we ever say to each other to be an argument because I said something stupid. It’s not that I don’t have hope for you, sister, I’m just very scared. I know that something bad is going to happen. It’s hard to be hopeful when I’m so afraid.” Aquilegias looked at her sister. She wasn’t sure what to say. “I’m scared too. I’m afraid something bad is going to happen to you, or to me. I’m always afraid that you won’t come back when you walk out my door, and I’m terrified that Rainbow Dash will never wake up.” Purpur wrapped her hooves around her sister. “I know. It’s so hard when everything around you is falling apart. I hate just sitting here and waiting for the world around us to come crashing down. I know that it was a long time ago, and I was very young, but I remember when the war started. I know that is was just little skirmishes that only last a few weeks, but I was terrified. I can only remember being scared. That’s why I came and got you, and we ran and ran. “I was always the same. I was always afraid that one of us would die. We would always run from ponies. I would carry you on my back when you got tired, and I’d take care of you. Then we found that little town called Ponyville. We met Rarity and Rainbow Dash and we followed them to Canterlot. Then they got into that fight with their friends and we ran again. We were always running. Then we found Rarity again and decided to fight for peace. “I never stopped being afraid.” Purpur squeezed her sister, remembering when they were fillies. “I’ll never stop being afraid.” Aquilegias returned the hug. “Neither will I, sister, neither will I” --- Rarity looked around her. She was surrounded by translucent orbs. There was a path of stars laid out in front of her. “Princess Luna, Is this the void?” Luna rested a wing on Rarity’s shoulders. “Yes, I must show you something, Rarity. You seem to have forgotten who else you have to protect.” The orbs floating around the two began to slow. Some dulled to a grayish-white glow while others lit up, showering the duo with light. The brighter orbs formed a circle, while the ones in the middle had dulled. Inside the circle, a picture began to form. “Is that-” “Yes, Rarity, this is Aquilegias in the universe you just left. She’s…. sick. Anyway, as you know, every time you travel to a new universe, you leave behind a bit of your soul.” As Luna the spoke, the image changed to one of Rarity. It split into two copies, each one a bit transparent. “As you keep traveling your presence in each universe becomes weaker.” The pair of Raritys split into four, then eight, then sixteen. Each time they became more transparent. “As that happens, the spell keeping the different part of your soul…. stable weakens as well. Soon, the line between the different universes loses stability and then everything is reset rather than you actually travel back in time.” The Raritys lined up. At first there was a line separating each of them, but it faded near the end. “If you keep traveling enough times after that, the earliest universes begin to lose stability quickly. Soon after that, the border between all of them completely dissolves, and the different parts of your soul begin to merge. As this happens, all the universes are dragged along with them until they collide. “This, of course, will not end well, but there are two ways to prevent that from happening. The first is obvious: You don’t travel back in time anymore, you accept the outcome of this timeline. Then, once you die, you will be reincarnated with the other yous until you have regained the rest of your soul. The pros of this method is that it doesn’t affect the rest of the universes for the most part. The other method is part of the reason we need to harness Fluttershy’s soul. “This may sound cruel and unethical, but it is for the greater good. First, we need to completely remove all of her memories except for the ones of being the element of kindness and anything related. Then, we take the rest of her soul and give her your memories from past universes. Then we take her soul and divide it into the different universes based on what memories we gave her. That will keep those universes stable and allow you stabilize these universes and have one more chance to fix everything.” Luna closed her eyes, thinking of everything Rarity had been through. Rarity’s gaze was fixed on the images in front of her. Without warning, Luna wrapped her hooves around Rarity, promptly ending the spell. To Rarity’s surprise, Luna was crying. “Princess, what is it?” “Oh Rarity, you’ve been through so much. I’ve never been there to help you, and I feel like this is my fault!” Luna held Rarity tighter. Rarity looked in shock at Luna. “Oh, Princess Luna, this is not your fault in any way. You know my motivation for doing this. You couldn’t have stopped me from falling in love….” Rarity returned the hug. “We’ve both been through a lot, I promise, things will get better. I have a very good feeling.” Luna simply nodded. The two held the embrace for quite awhile. It was broken when Luna had begun to tire. Rarity carefully laid a blanket over the Princess, smiling. She lifted a picture of Rainbow Dash out from behind a few rolls of fabric. She pressed her muzzle to it, sighing in relief. She knew that things would be much easier since the Princess was here to help her.