//------------------------------//
// Return and Resume 
// Story: Split Second 
// by wille179 
//------------------------------//

	The bone-chilling wind howled around them, blowing in their ears and stinging their eyes. It would have been worse had the sole unicorn of the group not cast a spell that allowed their bodies to burn extra fat for warmth. For now, they were only slightly uncomfortable, but by the time they landed in Canterlot, they'd be ravenous.
But, despite the mild discomfort they were feeling flying a dracolich bareback, at high altitude, on a day near the winter solstice, they couldn't help but stare down in wonder. Snow blanketed the ground for as far as the eye could see, making the world look like a giant snowball. The midday sun shone over them; it offered a little warmth, but nearly blinded them with the intensity of itself and its reflection on the snow below.
Cobalt was nearly leaning off Thorn’s back, so transfixed by the sight below. He'd never been in a pegasus chariot, nor had he been in an airship. Riding on Thorn’s back was the first time he'd been higher than the edge of upper Canterlot. “Wow. It’s beautiful.”
Behind him, with her hooves wrapped firmly around his barrel, sat Sparkle. She leaned against him; even with a warming spell, she was still a little chilly and his warmth was nice. 
“I know,” the mare replied.
“You get to see this every time you fly?”
“The summer’s pretty amazing, too. As is spring and fall,” she replied. “But winter, it looks like the world’s covered in powdered sugar.” Her stomach, apparently liking the idea, burbled and growled in approval.
Sparkle chuckled, but Cobalt stiffened slightly in her grasp. “Cobalt, what’s wrong?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. It’s just... never mind.”
Her real leg slid up his body until it was wrapped around his shoulder and breast. Though she wouldn't admit it, she liked feeling the toned muscle under his fur, and she could feel it even through his cloak. And while she may have been a bit of a pervert, especially compared to her sister, such thoughts weren't on her mind at that particular moment. “Cobalt, what is it?”
He squirmed slightly. “Ms. Sparkle, you're making me a little uncomfortable.”
“Oh.” She quickly pulled her hoof away, and then put it back around his barrel.
“Not what I meant,” he said softly. He was quiet for a moment. “How do you know?”
“Hm? Know what”
Cobalt rephrased, “In the comic book, you said that they really did taste like unicorn. How do you know that?”
“Oh, that. That’s easy,” Sparkle replied. “I can taste what Thorn tastes, and he me. We can choose to share any and all of our senses, although it’s harder to not share when we get excited. When Thorn ate Radiance, I tasted her too.”
“That’s a little gross, Ms. Sparkle, but also not quite want I wanted to know,” Cobalt said. “How do you know what pony tastes like?”
“Again, Thorn,” Sparkle said, although her tone was marginally colder than it had been before.
Cobalt again was silent for a time, while Sparkle simply waited for him to finish thinking. “And souls... You've told me you could eat them. I don't think I ever gave any real thought about it until now, but what... what do souls taste like?”
Sparkle sighed. “The soul, it’s an ethereal thing. There’s not really a flavor to it, but the texture is indescribably wonderful. They really are delicate things, but when you swallow one, you feel a rush of power and pleasure. Your aches and pains disappear, and your head clears. For a brief moment, you see snippets of the life you took, and in that instance, you know you've just destroyed somepony, and you know that they will vanish before they can get to the afterlife. Yet, the guilt never quite makes it, because a hole in your soul that you almost forgot was there now feels full... for a little while, anyway. And then the rush is gone, and you're left yearning, knowing that everywhere there is life, there is food ripe for the taking.
“Cobalt, you know dark magic; you could eat souls if you truly desired. Don't ever fall into that temptation, because you won’t recover,” Sparkle solemnly said.
Throughout her description, Cobalt sat still and silent, staring straight ahead. Finally, he spoke, “Ms. Sparkle, I mean no offense, but you're a monster.”
Sparkle stiffened. It hadn't been the first time somepony had said that about her, but never to her face, and never by somepony she cared for. Those words cut her more deeply than even she realized.
His tone shifted subtly, enough that Sparkle didn’t catch it. “But I already knew that. I knew that before I even became your student. I could see it in your eyes.” He chuckled darkly to himself. “You're my monster, Mistress, just like I’m yours.”
“Cobalt, you're not a monster,” Sparkle retorted. “Don’t think of yourself that way.”
“Says the soul eater to the assassin who loves his job,” the painted pony retorted. “Face it, we're both monsters.”
“Hey, what about me?” the dragon carrying them rumbled. “Don't I get to be a monster too?”
Cobalt smiled, and although Thorn couldn't see it, he could hear it in Cobalt’s voice. “Of course. You're a bigger monster than Ms. Sparkle.”
The dragon hummed in satisfaction, his ego now properly stroked. The thing was, even if Cobalt had said it as if it were a compliment, he didn’t mean it as such. Of course, he'd never tell the killer dragon his true feelings; that would be stupid.
Cobalt’s eye twitched as another memory finished reconnecting in his head. To anybody else, the little movement wouldn't have meant anything significant. For Cobalt, it was the last vestige of a suppressed wince that slipped through his guard.
The beaten and bruised stallion was dropped in front of him by his unicorn mother. “You're useless, Red Fields. Well, almost. Kill this stallion, and maybe I won't have to punish you this week.”
Red Fields picked up his knife in his mouth, his expression blank. The earth pony trotted over to the bruised and nearly broken stallion, transferred the knife to his hoof, and slit the stallion’s gag.
“Th-thank you,” the stallion said.
“I’m still going to kill you,” Red Fields droned. Then, his face contorted into a wicked smile as his mother’s conditioning took hold. “And I’m going to enjoy every second of it.” 
His knife struck.
Cobalt pushed the memory of his past persona away, flicking his ear as he did so. He looked down at the brilliant, white snow below. One last thought, born from his mother’s monster, wormed its way into his consciousness: ‘Wouldn't the snow look interesting splattered with blood?’
Again, he forcefully cleared his head. This time, he looked towards the city ahead. “Mistress?”
Sparkle’s ears perked up, despite the cold. “Yes, Cobalt?”
“Didn't you tell me that your parents were still alive on this side?” he asked.
“Err, yes.” Sparkle tilted her head to the side, confused. “What about them?”
“Do they know about you?” He turned around to look at his teacher. His vibrant blue eyes met her corrupted red and green eyes.
Sparkle quickly broke the eye contact. “They do, but we haven't talked in... a while.”
“We should go see them,” Cobalt declared. “It would be good for you.”
Sparkle’s eyes widened, even as her pupils constricted to pinpricks. “No, let’s not. Thorn, don’t stop flying until we get to the castle.” The drake nodded in reply, and then gave an extra-powerful flap to build up more speed.
Realizing that he was getting into sensitive area, Cobalt asked, “Ms. Sparkle, they didn’t...?”
The necromancer didn’t respond.
Cobalt said, “I'm sorry if they hurt you. I shouldn't have-”
Sparkle cut him off. “They didn’t hurt me. They're good ponies.”
“Then why?”
“I can't face them!” Sparkle yelled. “I don't think I could ever face them again, knowing what I’ve done. I can’t...”
Suddenly, her hooves fell forwards, passing through a cloud of black smoke where her student had once been. Her fall forwards was short lived as a pair of hooves wrapped around her from behind, pulling her into a tight embrace. “Cobalt, my spines.”
“I don’t care,” he said, even as the spines protruding from his mentor’s back poked him sharply. “Ms. Sparkle, if your parents are even half as good as I think you think they are, then they should love you regardless. I think.” He chuckled, but then his mirth died away, only to be replaced by seriousness. “But I know you won't be able to live with yourself until you can come to grips with yourself and what you've done. I’ve been conditioned to deal with death, but you've had to figure this out all on your own. But you don't have to.”
A shudder wracked Sparkle’s body. “But, I don't think-”
“Ms. Sparkle, don't throw away your family. Even monsters deserve love.”
Sparkle was still for a moment. Then, slowly, she began to relax. Finally, she nodded. “Just for a bit.” Below them, Thorn, who had been listening, subtly shifted directions. “Cobalt?”
“Yes, Mistress?”
“How did you get so smart about family things?”
Cobalt chuckled. “I just thought about whatever that mare wouldn’t do.”
“I see.”





As they descended from above, the city seemed to unfold beneath them as a result of the space-expanding magic around the city. Buildings that should have been clearly visible only became so as they descended. Streets that should have been obvious only now revealed themselves. More houses popped into existence on nearly every block.
Thorn, because of his size, couldn't land in the rapidly clearing streets, so his passengers teleported to the ground before he shrank to his smallest size and joined them. Where he had put them down was surprisingly close to her childhood home, the original estate of House Twilight.
The group walked in tense silence, with the ponies up front and Thorn trailing slightly behind. The walk, which took all of sixty seconds, ended all too soon for Sparkle, leaving her at the door of an identical copy of her foalhood home and with no idea what she was doing there.
“This it?” Cobalt asked, to which Sparkle nodded. He raised his hoof and knocked once, then twice on the wooden door. Through the beveled glass window, he could see the silhouette of a white coated, purple-maned pony approaching.
The door opened inwards, revealing Twilight’s mother, Twilight Velvet. “Twilight? What are you doing here?”
“Actually, Mom, it’s Sparkle.”
“Oh, honey! I’m sorry! You just look so much like your sister, and even after all this time, I'm still not quite used to having my daughter duplicate yourself.” Velvet blinked, and then her eyes widened slightly. “Oh, come in! Come in! I don’t need you standing in the cold.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Sparkle said, and then trotted inside. Thorn and Cobalt followed shortly after.
Velvet’s eyes hovered on Cobalt, who had returned from his candy cane paint job back to normal zebra stripes. “Hello, I don't believe we've met. I’m Twilight Velvet, matron of House Twilight.” She offered her hoof.
Instead of shaking it, Cobalt bent down and kissed it - a significantly more formal gesture and decidedly not what Velvet was expecting. “A pleasure, ma'am.” Then, in a spontaneous decision, he switched from the common tongue to Unicornian, a magical language that he, according to common knowledge, should have been physically unable to speak or understand due to his lack of a horn. <<I am Cobalt, your daughter’s humble apprentice.>>
<<You can speak the true tongue?>> Velvet asked, surprised.
Switching back to the common language, he replied, “I can do more than that. Your daughter is a skilled teacher.”
“Sparkle! That is amazing!” Velvet forcefully embraced her second daughter. “I'm-Ouch!”
The elder mare jerked back, surprised by the sudden and very unexpected pain. She looked down at her injured leg and was surprised to see a trickle of blood pouring out of what appeared to be a puncture wound. “What?”
“Mom! I'm so sorry!” Sparkle’s horn darkened with necromantic magic. Velvet flinched at the feel of it, having never truly felt it before, but relaxed as it started stitching the wound shut. “I should have warned you.”
“Warned me about what?” Velvet asked. Meanwhile, her wound had been completely sealed and her fur was in the process of being cleaned. “I don't even see what I could have hurt myself on.”
Sparkle stiffened. “Err, right. Mom, you might want to sit down for this.”
Velvet sat on her green striped couch that lay across from the lit fireplace. “Sparkle?”
The necromancer closed her eyes and then let her illusions drop. Her mom gasped, but since Sparkle wasn’t looking, she couldn't tell if her mom was disgusted, frightened, or both.
“My dear filly, what happened to you?” A gentle hoof stroked Sparkle’s cheek. The mare could hear her mother’s hoofsteps as the matriarch moved around to look at her better.
“I got a little too into my work...” Sparkle said.
“To go this far in so little time,” Velvet muttered. Sparkle opened her eyes, eliciting another gasp from her mother. “Corruption like this takes decades. My baby girl, what have you done?”
“What I had to,” Sparkle responded stoically. “Things went to Tartarus on my side, Mom.”
Velvet looked around and saw the somber expressions on the faces of her two other house guests. “I see. I wish your father wasn’t at work right now. He’d... Anyway, why don't I grab the cookie jar and we can talk over sweets?”





By the time they had eaten their way through the first cookie jar and most of Velvet's super secret second cookie jar,  the mood in the room had lightened noticeably. That wasn’t to say that the mood was cheerful, but they could still smile occasionally.
It may have been because Sparkle had censored her retelling of the events that had followed that disastrous gala, it may have been because Cobalt interjected a little humor here and there to release some of the tension, or it may have been the fact that Twilight Velvet was an inherently optimistic mare. Whatever the case may have been, Sparkle was glad that the conversation was going more smoothly than she had anticipated.
“Oh, Mom,” Sparkle exclaimed, remembering something she'd wanted to say. “At the end, Princess Celestia awarded me a title of nobility for my efforts. You’re looking at the head of the Noble House of Twilight.”
“Are you serious?” When Sparkle nodded, Velvet embraced her daughter, mindful of the spines this time. “Oh, sweetie! That’s wonderful! A teacher, a hero, a noble, a powerful mage, you've taken all my expectations and exceeded them! I'm so proud of you!”
“Right...” Sparkle hesitantly replied.
“Now you just need a stallion so I can have more wonderful grandfoals to dote on,” - she glanced at Thorn - “and then my dream as a mother will be complete!” Velvet leaned back and looked at her daughter. More specifically, she looked at her daughter's expanding belly. “Or have you already started on that?”
“I’m just a surrogate,” Sparkle replied.
“A surrogate?” Velvet asked.
Sparkle nodded. “Savior isn't mine. I did something I regret, and carrying him is how I'm making my reparations.”
“Awww...” Velvet moaned, disappointed. Putting on a pouty face, she said, “I want you to get to work on that family of your own. Perhaps with that charming stallion over there?”
Cobalt blinked, and then straightened up at the mention of him.
Meanwhile, Sparkle pushed back from her mother. “Mom! I couldn’t. He’s my apprentice; it wouldn't be right!”
Cobalt shrugged. “I wouldn't mind it.”
Velvet playfully whacked Sparkle on her good shoulder. “See? Mother’s intuition. Besides, I had a crush on my own master during my apprenticeship. Of course, your father managed to steal my heart before I could get anywhere with old professor Rune. And besides, Cobalt is closer to your age than I was with my own teacher.”
“But, that’s not...” Sparkle wanted to argue that she wouldn't feel comfortable dating Cobalt because of the geases. She felt like she'd have too much power over him, because she could easily make him do things that he didn’t want to.
“I know what you're thinking, Ms. Sparkle,” Cobalt said. “About the thing, I don't care.”
“Oh. Well...”
“If you don't mind me prying,” Velvet asked, “what thing?”
“It’s personal,” Sparkle replied, sending Cobalt a significant look.
It was then that Thorn looked at the old grandfather clock in the sitting room. “Hey, Mom, it’s getting late. We need to get to the portal.”
Sparkle looked at the clock as well. “Oh! Sheesh, you're right. Sorry to cut this short, Mom, but we need to go.”
“Really? That’s a shame. And your father was going to be home soon, too,” Velvet said. “Then I suppose a goodbye is in order.” She hugged Sparkle again. “Take care, Sparks. Be safe.”
“You too, Mom.” As Sparkle stood up, she reapplied her disguises and headed to the door. Thorn followed closely behind. “I’ll see you later, then.”
“You too,” Velvet replied. “And Cobalt? Be a good student for her, will you?”
Cobalt nodded. “Yes ma’am. I'll be the best.” Then, quickly, he leaned over and gave Sparkle a quick peck on the cheek while in full view of her mother.
“Cobalt!”
“What? I was just practicing those magic kisses you showed me.” Laughing, he galloped out the door.
“Get back here, Cobalt!” Sparkle said, both angry and mortified. 
“Hm hm hm,” Velvet giggled. “Those two are good for each other.”
“Yeah, and they both know it,” Thorn commented. “Mom just won't act on it. Yet.” He snickered a bit. “Anyway, see ya, grandma!”
“Bye, my little dragon.”





Sparkle trotted up to one of the guards at the main gate of the castle. Withdrawing a scroll emblazoned with Princess Celestia’s personal seal from her saddlebags, Sparkle passed it to the guard. “We need to speak with the Princess about her Mirror.”
The guard took the scroll, read it once, and then ordered them to follow him. As they followed him, Sparkle couldn't help but think he felt familiar. “I think I’ve seen you somewhere before.”
“Ma’am, our armor is enchanted to make us look all the same,” the guard replied. “I doubt you could’ve recognized me.”
“No. Not your face or coat,” Sparkle said. “Your essence... Brass?” The soldier stiffened. “I think that was it.”
“I’m impressed. You do recognize me. But how did you? I don't recall ever meeting you.”
Sparkle chuckled. “Oh, no. I’m from a mirror timeline; I knew the other you; he took my class. That Brass was quite memorable.”
The guard looked back at her, confused.
“I pity him, then,” Cobalt said. “Which lesson did you teach his class?”
“The Toymaker Terror lesson.”
“Oh. So that’s why I see guards muttering about being put in the toybox,” Cobalt realized.
“Exactly. I think I broke them,” Sparkle replied.
Brass, still just as confused, finally reached an appropriate reaction: ‘Nope. Nope. Nope.’ His pace picked up as he tried to get away from the two ponies and a little dragon that were giving him some really bad vibes.
He pushed open the doors to the throne room, where court was in session. “Pardon the interruption, your highness. These three are here to inquire about your special mirror.”
Princess Celestia looked away from the petitioners before her and towards Sparkle and company. Her eyes narrowed slightly. “Court will now take a fifteen minute recess while I address something that has come up. Please wait here.”
The mare that had been petitioning Celestia, a flamboyantly-dressed noble by the looks of her, sent Sparkle a pointed glare. In return, Sparkle focused all of her bloodlust (and a little unfocused dark magic) into a deceptively neutral gaze that nevertheless made the noble recoil in fright.
Celestia motioned for them to follow, to which the group complied. Sparkle, however, kept her distance, as she could feel the warmth radiating off the princess and found it uncomfortable. Eventually, Celestia led them into the cavernous laboratory under Canterlot Castle, the one that they had emerged from when they originally entered the timeline.
Celestia’s horn lit up with a bit more power than strictly necessary, and struck the mirror with her magic. It rippled twice, and then was still. “The mirror is active. Enjoy your trip home.”
“Thank you for letting us use your mirror, Princess,” Cobalt said, while the other two nodded in agreement.
“You're welcome,” the day bringer replied.
“Let’s go home, mistress. Ladies first.” Sparkle nodded and stepped through the mirror and into a path of pure color.





It had been a few weeks since their vacation in the other timeline, and things had quickly settled back into a routine. Cobalt had finally decided that his memory situation had recovered enough to resume his old job, and had gotten in touch with some of his old contacts. And so, between his lessons, the young assassin had taken a new contract.
As for the lessons themselves, Cobalt had requested that Sparkle teach him about body modification so that he could recreate the ability he'd had in the comic book: super speed.
"Right," Sparkle said, "Show me what you've got for the heightened reflexes component."
"I was thinking of a radial array consisting of the sigils al, aagl, soiy, sorr, gharlo, orn, and niyfal, with a Marigold iterative complex attached to the sorr spoke.” Cobalt explained. “That would let the brain perceive and process stimuli at a heightened pace, hypothetically up to a hundred times as fast.”
Sparkle hummed as she envisioned the spell array. “No, if you activated that, it would cause turbulence with the magical fields produced by the brain. At anything over four times acceleration, you'd likely cook the brain in its own magic.”
“Oh. I forgot about that. What about switching the aagl and the gharlo? Would that work?” Cobalt asked.
“Invert the Marigold iterative complex, and it would work very well, I think. You might not get a hundred-fold acceleration due to the magical waste that would cause, but I think it would be much safer to use,” Sparkle replied.
“I see. Thanks,” he said, before returning to his notes.
Sparkle smiled and returned to her own work, which, not coincidentally, was also connected to the Power Ponies comic. However, she had no interest in their abilities, but rather was interested in the universe itself.
Gathering information on how to create her own pocket universe was simple enough. Between Warp Theory, Haycartes’ method, and Star Swirl’s published works, Sparkle had enough knowledge to construct a fully independent universe in the void and anchor it to something in this universe. That was easy enough. She'd created three by now, although they were too unstable to put anything of value in yet.
The problem lay in the fact that she couldn't figure out how to gain master control of it yet, nor did she have any clue about how to fill it with such realistic constructs. She'd bought a few comic books from the House of Enchanted Comics, which all had the same enchantments on it, but reverse-engineering it for dark magic was proving to be absolutely futile. It made her want to bash her head against a wall.
Sparkle hadn't realized how long she had been working on it in one marathon stretch until Cobalt teleported next to her, carrying a bound and gagged stallion in his magic. “Mistress.”
“Uh, what?” she replied groggily. Her eyes refocused when she saw the stallion, whose glazed, off-color eyes clearly showed that his consciousness had been trapped inside his own head. “Who’s this?”
“My target. Dye’s running around disguised as him for a bit to allow me to get away,” Cobalt explained. “I was wondering if I could use him as a test subject, or if you wanted to use him for anything.”
“Sure.” She knew the stallion would die eventually. Cobalt was a professional; if he said he'd kill somepony, he'd kill them. That was part of his talent, after all. And yet seeing the stallion floating there, helpless before her, didn't cause the same reaction it once would have. She didn't consciously know it yet, but Cobalt calling her a monster had resonated with her. Thanks to the battle of Canterlot, the number of ponies that had died by her hoof had climbed into the thousands. There were now hundreds of souls sitting in her gut, ever so slowly digesting into nothingness, including her own, real parents. If that didn't make her a monster, then what did?
And yet, when her monstrous nature was voiced aloud for the first time, the seed of an idea had taken root. It hadn't sprouted immediately, and even yet, nearly a month later, it was still growing in the back of Sparkle's mind. And while it hadn't bloomed into a flower of acceptance, its presence had still affected her. 
Sparkle then yawned. “What time is it, anyway?”
“Half-past eleven,” he replied.
“That’s not so bad,” Sparkle said.
“Eleven-thirty A.M. - you’ve been up all night.”
Sparkle blinked. She looked at the clock, where the hands did say that it was indeed eleven-thirty, but not if it were A.M. or P.M. As the room had no windows, a mistake in reading the clock could see her twelve hours off without noticing it.
“And here I thought I had just been productive.” She yawned again. “I’m going to go take a nap. Cobalt, would you kindly wake me in about two hours so I can observe your casting? Don’t start before then.”
“Yes, ma’am.”