//------------------------------// // 4 - Decisive // Story: Feedback // by RQK //------------------------------// Princess Luna rolled over in her bed and leered at a pile of sheets, her sheets, off to the side. She reached out with her hoof but found they lay outside her reach. Snorting, she whipped her head back onto her pillow. The same few thoughts played through her mind again and again. They refused to leave, their resolve just as strong as it had been some time before. Had it been an hour? Three? She wasn’t sure. Luna rolled over to look at the clock on the wall, only to find that it had fallen face-first onto the floor. She frowned. Oh, of course. That’s my fault. The door to Luna’s room creaked open and a large, white alicorn sidled in, still adorned with her usual golden regalia. “Luna,” Celestia greeted. Pretending to be asleep would have proven useless, Luna decided. “Greetings, Sister,” she said at length. “How are you?” “I’m fine, Sister dear,” Luna replied, waving dismissively. “I am just fine.” “Are you sure?” “Of course I am sure.” Celestia smiled demurely. “You forgot to lower the moon tonight.” Was it that late already? She twisted her head toward the window and her scowl deepened on seeing that, indeed, the sky outside was dark. “Is something the matter?” Celestia asked. I am caught. I should have known that she would see right through me, she thought. Luna rolled over on the bed and attempted to stand. “Sister… I am so…” “Unsure?” “Conflicted.” Celestia remained in the doorway. “I do not know what ails me this night,” Luna continued, “and I feel that I cannot speak of it either.” Sucking in a breath, Celestia entered the room and pushed the door closed behind her, making sure that it clicked in place. “Luna, you can talk to me. What is on your mind?” Luna’s only reaction was to trot over to the window. However, rather than look down at the city outside, she stared at her own slightly distorted reflection. “Are you still upset?” Celestia asked. Luna snorted. “Thou knowest I am not the only one upset.” Celestia didn’t respond. “Sister,” Luna continued, “I am well aware that thou have been skipping on some of thy royal duties.” “We both have,” Celestia replied quietly, walking over. “You can talk to me. I can see this is eating at you.” “She saved me from the nightmare, Sister,” Luna said. “She’s the reason why I am here tonight. You have said it yourself that we are together now because of her. She brought me back!” She stomped her hooves against the floor, causing the very room to tremble. “And then she goes and does this,” Luna thundered, “and I didn’t even know about it! She was here five days and we didn’t even know about it!” She gnashed her teeth together. “Sister, I did not even think to check to see how she was doing! This is most distressing!” Luna turned her gaze down toward the floor. She took some deep breaths in an attempt to compose herself. “You were right at the ceremony. Twilight Sparkle hath done wondrous things for Equestria and saved our hides many times over. I…” Her voice fell down to a very subdued tone and she grabbed her leg with shame as she said, “I could not do the same when she needed me. “I have failed in my duty to her. I have not repaid my debt. Now I never will get the chance.” Celestia did something that she would never have done in front of anypony else; she sniffled. Celestia then walked up, and just as purposefully as she had entered the room, she wrapped her forelegs around Luna. Luna’s only reaction was to reciprocate. They held each other for the longest time. Neither moved, and neither spoke. “...Sister?” Luna croaked. Celestia felt something wet hit her backside. “Yes, Luna?” “...Why must these things happen?” Celestia frowned and responded by holding her sister even tighter. “I don’t know, Luna. I just don’t know.” Applejack steadied herself against the wall. Her face felt like it was going to fall off, but she resisted. Pinkamena Diane Pie, meanwhile, sat in the corner, lost in a well of screams. The former party pony had grown a shade darker, and her once-poofy hair had fallen straight and listless. Together with Fluttershy, who had locked in an embrace with her, she produced cries that overtook the entire floor. Rarity, meanwhile, had planted herself on the couch nearby, burying her face into the pillow. The fabric underneath her now bore stains from the makeup running down her face. And Spike sat at the edge of that couch, having drawn near her like a magnet. But unlike the others, Spike remained silent. The tears in his eyes forgot to fall. Furthermore, he forgot how to wail as well. He appeared like a husk in the shape of a baby dragon. Applejack shuffled toward the tower’s large entryway. A cool breeze invaded the room, blowing the door back and forth on its hinges. And as she hobbled over, her thoughts drifted toward their escapee. On its own volition, Pinkamena’s body started doing things on its own. First, her ears flopped backward, and then her knee twitched. To top it off, her eyes then fluttered. Applejack turned her head to the sky. BOOM! The castle quaked and rocked. Applejack had to place a wayward hoof on the doorframe to balance herself. She looked on as a large, multicolored disk appeared in the sky outside, accompanied by a light-and-melted-sounding reverberation. That was Rainbow Dash somewhere above the city. And Applejack could just imagine the scream over the report. Twilight Sparkle wanted to end her own life. Had ended her own life. Had. There was one thing Twilight had been right about. Applejack knew so. She would have died alongside her best friend. Gladly. BOOM! Applejack narrowed her eyes as another rainbow appeared. And Pinkamena’s body had not stopped twitching yet. She had not died along with her best friend. She had succeeded Twilight without choice. She slammed a hoof against the wall, leaving a small dent. Twilight was dead. Twilight had died. Twilight was going to die. Dead, died, would die. Is, was, will be. BOOM! * * * The rotunda stretched in a direction well beyond Sunset Shimmer’s reach. She had never once given any thought to the frays and patterns in the architecture, having focused her attention on the frays and patterns of text instead. But her eyes had earlier fallen on a particular discoloration in the ceiling pattern and her attention had been held there since. She could hear every detail of every report from below. It was almost a given since she had friends that held the same identities, and that helped to pick them apart. Same essences, different bodies. Funny how Twilight had once had access to two versions of each of her best friends. Even the way they cried was reminiscent of her friends from Canterlot High. She had come to know that over the past few days. The newest familiarity in a series of familiarities that she wanted no part of. But now they were gone and now nothing stopped her from soaking in every reminder of her past failures. At Canterlot High, she had done one thing right. And in Equestria, she had done everything wrong. Sunset let her head fall to the side, turning her focus to the tower on the other side of the castle, where her single greatest failure resided. She had lost Celestia because she had pushed too far. Just like she had almost lost everything pushing too far during the Fall Formal. And she had, evidently, pushed too far even now. And now here they all were in a situation she was sure everyone would have rather not known about. Her ears fell back on the wails from down below and she buried her head in her hooves. Good job, Sunset. You’ve managed to screw up again. * * * Applejack heard something touch down outside the door. She stirred from her slump against the wall. “Welcome back,” she said, knowing it was but a token gesture. Rainbow Dash shook her mane out of her eyes and trotted inside. She entered to the despondent raising of heads. She slinked toward a lonely cushion near the back wall, and eventually collapsed into it with a long and drawn out groan. The room was silent save for the occasional sniffle and light sob. The rhythmic tick of a clock on the wall passed around them, and all of them momentarily lost themselves in it. “Oh, Twilight…” Fluttershy said, trailing off as she reclined against the wall. The six shared several silent glances and offered nods of acknowledgment. “What are we going to do with her?” Rarity mused. “This is so typical of her, honestly.” Applejack shook her head and half-snorted, half-chortled. She then let herself sink back against the wall and adjusted her hat. Twilight had sacrificed herself before; once with Chrysalis, once with Tirek, and now with the Nameless. Eeyup, that’s our Twilight, Applejack thought. * * * Sunset decided that she had put it off for long enough. How long “long enough” was escaped her, but noticing that the shadows in the room had changed had been enough of an argument. With trepidation, she floated the ball over. “Hey, Twilight,” she said as she wrapped her hooves around it. Twilight Sparkle, who had been writing some equations down in a journal, looked up with interest. It took her a moment more to register what was actually happening, but when she did, she let off a smile. “Sunset! How good it is to… see? No, hear you.” “You too, Twilight,” Sunset replied warmly. “I’ve missed you so much. I know we write to each other, but still…” “Yes. How are all of your friends doing?” she asked as she resumed her work. Sunset blushed, “They’re doing pretty alright. They’re kind of mad at me right now, though. I um… I broke a parade float on accident.” “You what?” Twilight asked, somewhat shocked. “I broke an entire parade float.” Twilight glanced up from her book once more, dumbfounded. “How did that happen?” “I just, I just… I just accidentally the whole thing. Don’t make me talk about it. But honest, Twilight, I didn’t mean it,” Sunset said with a shrug. Twilight snorted, stifling further laughter before resuming her writing. Sunset rubbed her leg out of shame but let off a refreshing laugh. “anyway, that’s what’s happening with them.” Twilight nodded. “That’s good. That’s good. And…” she said as her tone suddenly grew somber, “how are my friends doing?” Sunset glanced toward the stairwell. The downstairs was deathly quiet, and she knew why. It only meant the tears were over. Nothing else. Except she did not know how to express that. Twilight heard nothing but interpreted it all the same. She buried her face in her hooves. “I guess I’ve really messed up this time, huh?” “I dunno, Twilight. I mean…” Sunset paused and tried to think of something but only managed to sigh defeatedly. “I don’t know what I would have done if I were you. How could I say if it was right?” “It’s not what I wanted to do.” “I know.” “I really don’t know what else to do. I mean, there’s no way I would let them get involved. Not this time.” She paused in her writing, prodded the page with the quill a few times, and then lifted it away altogether. Twilight flipped back a page to see what else she had written, but after a solitary glance, she closed it altogether. “It’s a difficult situation.” “I see you care a lot for them. I mean, well… Is that what friends do?” “Of course. We look out for each other. I look after them, and they look after me. If I could, I would go to the ends of this world and back for them.” She stopped for a moment to think, and then she grinned melancholically. “This is just my way of doing that this time, I guess.” Sunset swallowed. “You would… die for them?” Twilight nodded. “Yes.” Sunset flinched. Die? For another pony? “I’ve actually thought about this from time to time,” Twilight began, nearly setting the quill down upon the page. “It’s usually after Spike’s gone to bed or something like that. But I’ve given it special thought since I came up from the chamber. “And it’s a fact of life,” she earnestly explained. “Everypony dies eventually. It’s the price of having a life. And so I look at my friends… And I know. I know that every single one of us is going to go someday. I… I’m afraid of us being driven apart, Sunset. Death is one heck of a way to do it.” And then Twilight Sparkle grinned. “But you know the conclusion I’ve reached? If I had to do it now so they could go on and be together for another sixty years, then I’d do it a million times over. I will always make that choice. Because some ponies are worth dying for.” * * * Sunset descended the staircase. Each stride took longer than the last and her gaze did not connect with anything but the floor. Tentatively, Spike stood up and walked over, intent on meeting her halfway. “Well?” he asked. Sunset shook her head inconclusively before she strolled over toward the kitchen area, setting her sights on the tea kettle. “What did you talk about?” he asked again. “We talked a little bit about the lengths we’d go for each other,” she said, gathering a cup and saucer before pouring her drink. “Like, how she would do anything for you guys. Including what she did.” Spike hummed affirmatively. “We know she would,” Rarity said, rolling over on the sofa. “She’s a good mare. I’m just… disappointed that she didn’t give us the chance to do the same.” Sunset scratched the back of her head. “I just… I don’t get the whole concept. ...I don’t know if I could do what she did. And I definitely don’t feel any better knowing she did it for me. Or, I guess, you. Or Equestria. Whatever.” “Ah reckon...” Applejack said, “the one thing we can do to help her right now is to be here for her. Ah think she could really use her friends.” “Mmhmm,” they collectively agreed. As she took another sip of her tea, Sunset noticed the broken remains of Applejack’s teacup near the door. She wrapped her magical aura around the shards and lifted them into the air. “I do wonder about that time stuff, though. I mean, I’ve read stuff on time when I lived here before, but most of it was theory,” she explained as she levitated the pieces into the garbage disposal. “Oh, yeah,” Pinkamena said, “that. We had an episode where that happened once.” Spike hummed in agreement. “Twilight traveled through time.” Sunset tapped a hoof against the floor as she tried to decipher what they had said. “…Twilight Sparkle traveled through time?” she asked incredulously. All six of them nodded. “Ah don’ understand it much,” Applejack admitted, scratching her head. “Ah honestly think that Pinkie Pie can tell ya ’bout it better than Ah can.” Sunset automatically glanced over in Pinkamena’s direction, even though she didn’t mean to. “Yeah, this one time,” Pinkamena began, sitting up, “Twilight had a real doozy of a thing. It all started when she got a message from future Twilight. She time traveled in and was looking really bad. “So, Twilight assumed that there was a disaster. And she spent the whole week freaking out about it, but she ended up causing it too. Like, everything that she did to prevent the thing that she was trying to prevent actually caused the thing that she was trying to prevent.” Pinkamena straightened up as she progressed through her tale, a sign that her former energy was returning. “And so, eventually, Twilight, and Spike, and I broke into the Starswirl the Bearded Wing by politely asking a guard to let us in! And then we found a time spell where Twilight could go back in time but oooonnly for a minute, and oooonnly once in her entire lifetime. “And then Twilight went back in time and caused the whole thing!” “It’s like she said,” Spike concluded, “Time is fixed. ‘Is, was, will be.’” Pinkamena let off a smile before she slumped back against the wall. Sunset crunched down what had just been said, going over each individual sentence as she created a mental picture of exactly what they were talking about. The latter half was the fact that, apparently, a time spell existed in the Starswirl the Bearded Wing and she had never seen it. The second part was that the time loop, as Twilight had described, was stable. But then the crux of the matter returned to her mind once more. “Time travel is possible…?” Sunset trailed off as she set the teacup and coaster on the floor in front of her. “Yepperooni,” Pinkamena replied. Fluttershy wiped some orphaned water from her eyes. “Maybe that’s what you were doing earlier?” Time traveling in to have Twilight copy a book, Sunset thought. I time traveled. There was a long and almost palpable pause. And then Sunset rose to her hooves with a wide-eyed expression. …No. I am going to time travel. Sunset whirled around so fast that her mostly empty teacup fell off the saucer. She took care to right it before she turned tail once more and scurried up the stairs, leaving behind several looks of bewilderment. She raced over to the crystal ball but found Twilight absent, supposedly outside the reach of the ball’s sound. That was no good. With her mental wheels still running faster than she could keep up with, she instead turned her attention to the shelves. Using her magic, she yanked out book after book, fueled by what she remembered of her time in the library. But these were not the immediate books that she wanted, and she tossed them aside with little regard to where or how they landed as she levitated more and more out of place. Cursory glances at their covers ruled them out as well. “Sunset!” Applejack yelled, being the first to catch up, “What the hay is goin’ on?” The others soon showed up behind her, wearing confused looks on their faces. “I need to find a book!” Sunset said, throwing another across the room before she moved over to the ladder and started to ascend. “Remember what Twilight said? ‘Is, was, will be.’ If time is really fixed like Twilight says, then at some point here, I am going to time travel.” “What’s that got to do with anythin’!?” Applejack thundered. “It means”—her eyes stopped on a candidate before ultimately rejecting it—“that we’re not out of the woods.” “Why?” At that point, Sunset stopped. Taking a deep breath, she stepped off of the ladder. “See, it’s like this. I know magic. A lot of magic. In fact, it’s possible that I know more magic than Twilight. I even know quite a bit of dark magic; believe me. “But time travel magic is not one of them. “So now, what reason would I have to not only learn it but then use it for whatever it was I was doing there? There’s a contradiction here.” Five of them let out a flurry of sharp gasps and exclamations. Meanwhile, Pinkamena’s hair shot upward and then tangled itself into a poofy mess once more. “Oh my gosh, you’re totally right!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, jumping up and down. “It’d be a time paradox if you don’t time travel!” “So now,” Sunset said as she glanced over the cover of another candidate, “we should think back; what was I doing exactly?” “Oh! Oh oh oh!” Pinkie Pie said almost faster than they could register. “You came in carrying a book! And you wanted Twilight to copy what was in it!” Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement. “That’s what I saw too!” “Then that’s it,” Sunset said, “I’m going to time travel and that book is the reason why.” “Okay,” Rarity cut in, “but what book would Twilight need? We’re in a library.” She motioned to the entire room with her hooves. “There are plenty of books for her to choose from. And I doubt the stock has changed between then and now.” Sunset raised a hoof to her chin in thought. “That’s a good question. We have no idea where the book came from.” “Well, Ah reckon we can’t have a book appearin’ out of thin air,” Applejack said. “It’s gotta be somewhere.” “Twilight’s read every book in here up and down,” Spike pointed out. “But hasn’t that what’s her face that Twilight gave this here place to—” “Moondancer.” “Moondancer. Hasn’t she moved some books around?” Spike shook his head, “Yeah, but she’s only taken a few books. We talked to her three weeks ago and she hasn’t taken anything since we were here back then.” “Yeah, but… fahne,” Applejack conceded, crossing her forelegs. “Ah know this is Twilight we’re talkin’ about.” “Then maybe it came from outside of the collection,” Rarity suggested. “That seems to be the case,” Sunset agreed. “So then, the next question is where that outside is.” “Future Sunset time traveled with the original book,” Pinkie Pie argued. “She must have got it from the future.” Rainbow Dash sailed through the air above them. “Will time travel. I think? I’d think it’d have to be soon enough that she’s still in Equestria, though.” Applejack nodded. “Can’t be too long from now, Ah’d say.” “But that’s still pretty complicated,” Rainbow Dash protested. “I mean, why not just grab the book from wherever Twilight needs the book from and then just teleport in?” “Because then she’d need to know where it was at the time,” Fluttershy replied. “Okay… but... can’t Sunset look up library records to see which books go where?” “That still doesn’t tell us what the mystery book is,” Rarity said, shaking her head. Rainbow Dash groaned loudly and threw her hooves exasperatedly into the air. Applejack gave herself a knock to the head. “Mmkay, so here’s what ah think: maybe it’s somethin’ that weren’t around back then, but might come around in a few days?” “…I think I might know just the thing,” Fluttershy piped up. All of them, including Sunset, shared a collective glance, almost having a short follow-up discussion through their eyes, only to arrive at a consensus. Spike sprinted over to the ball and took it in his hands. “Twilight! Twilight!” he called. There was no response. “Twiiiilight!” he called again with a little more desperation. “Yes?” Twilight replied as she reached the top of the stairs. “That, uh, book that future Sunset gave you. Was it stuff on the Nameless?” Twilight paused as she considered what those words meant outside of their immediate message. “Yes. That’s what it looks like. Why?” “I want to see it,” Sunset said. Spike relayed her request, and then he looked at Sunset discerningly. Twilight cantered over to the desk, opened her copy of the book, and took a few cursory glances at some of the pages. “That’s what I can gather, at least. I haven’t been able to look at all of it yet. So far, a lot of this is a series of numbers. There’re some computations in here, but…” She flipped through some more pages. “There’re some notes scribbled in the margins here, but pretty much everything else is just math.” Sunset stared holes through the ball. The flowing curls of each letter and number appeared familiar to her. “Honestly,” Twilight continued, “I had my doubts on whether or not it was actually Nameless, but now that I think about it, yes.” She ran her hoof along a couple of lines in the text and chuckled. “It might be a lot of numbers right now, but it might be possible to turn this into something legible.” “So hey, we were right!” Applejack exclaimed. “Yippee! We did it!” Pinkie Pie cheered. Within moments, there was a loud and bubbly pop before a shower of long, multicolored strands of paper rained down upon all seven of them. That was accompanied by a small round of laughter. Except for Rarity and Sunset. But with the former, Pinkie Pie already had some consolations ready to go. “Told ya, Rarity: streamer emergencies,” Pinkie Pie said. Rarity’s scowl deepened. Sunset, meanwhile, looked back and forth between the pages that she could see in the book. Her frown grew deeper all the while. “Why can’t it be regular words, though?” Rainbow Dash asked, now turning her attention back to the mare in the crystal ball. “I could read regular words,” she said with a smirk. “Quite right,” Rarity concurred, “That’s very specific information to send back.” “That’s because mathematics can explain lots of things,” Twilight replied. “I’m not all too surprised, really.” She casually flipped through some more pages. “If you ask me, this is the beginnings of a very complex spell. More complex than I’ve ever seen.” “Well, ain’t that somethin’…” Applejack cooed, though with a noticeable quiver in her voice. Her eyes drew up toward Sunset. Rarity seemed to reach the same conclusion and looked over. “Sunset, dear?” Sunset didn’t answer. She shook her head. She had to be seeing things. She recognized the way this penmanship flowed, leaned, and even faltered. The writing couldn’t be familiar. Could it? “There’s just one thing I’m a bit confused about,” Twilight said, now scrutinizing the writing itself. “This writing looks a bit familiar. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it before. As in, I’ve seen it quite a bit, recently…” She leaned in to carefully discern the curls and strokes. And then Twilight gasped. She covered her mouth to keep it in, but it was still audible. “Sunset! This… this is…” “Yeah,” Sunset said as she placed a hoof on the crystal ball. She looked at the book in Twilight’s grasp and gulped. “That’s my hoofwriting alright. I wrote that book.” * * * “So, I’m going to write a spell…” Sunset trailed off for the umpteenth time. “Yeah, yeah,” Applejack said as she leaned against the wall. “We know already.” Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash held their own private and unrelated conversation near the kitchen area. Spike, meanwhile, was plopped on the floor next to the ball, refusing to leave it. Sunset didn’t want to particularly bother them anyway. “Well, we know at least one thing,” Rarity said, “and that’s that you don’t have to be here any longer than five days. You’ll know if it works or not by then.” Sunset scratched her head. She looked over at the crystal ball for a few moments as thoughts about time came to mind. Ultimately, she didn’t partake in it. “I just wonder what sort of spell is in there,” Fluttershy thought aloud. “I mean, that’s what Twilight said, anyway.” “Plus, that mathematics is too fancy for me,” Applejack said, half-complaining. “Ah haven’t the foggiest what it is. Ah reckon you can tell us best.” They went quiet for a few moments as they reflected on what they had seen. However, wandering eyes eventually fell on Sunset as Applejack’s statements soaked in. She could tell them best. “I honestly don’t know what the spell does yet,” Sunset replied. “All I know is that I’m compelled to write it, time paradox or not. But… getting Twilight out of this mess would be a really compelling reason, right?” Within moments, the entire scene went from several disjointed areas to one singular scene in which their attention was undivided. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I intend to see this whole thing through. Maybe it’ll surprise us. Maybe we might get Twilight back. Or maybe this won’t even go anywhere and it’d be just a waste of time.” Sunset swelled as she said, “But I will do it. Because… Twilight is worth it.” Those that had been sitting immediately stood. Each of them wore small and intrigued grins. In fact, they were almost glowing. The best part, however, was that they were looking to her. Waiting. As if she would give them some amount of direction in light of the new developments. In fact, Sunset had them in her corner as she prepared to do something that was possibly bigger than anything she had done before. This must be how Twilight feels all the time, she thought. And then she smiled, finding herself tickled. This is going to be interesting.