"So why, Twilight," began the cyborg mare standing in front of her, "did you decide to come to the Ball?"
Twilight was puffing, breath swirling up clouds of dust in front of her.
"I'd rather not say."
"Just making conversation. Personally, I came because I needed a rest. And this was the only sanctioned way to do it."
They would all be dead without knowing why if they hadn't come tonight. Now, they were going to die, but they would at least know why. The only small mercy they had been granted was that they had managed to avoid themselves. They could still see themselves across the hall, younger versions, reacting to the scream that had just split the silence. Doctor Whooves had just appeared, told them they needed to save time, then that awful scream. Shutting her eyes and shaking her eyes, Twilight pushed it from her mind.
Even while she could pull her thoughts away, she could not do so with her eyes. They were still locked on her younger self. They tracked her as she galloped to the sound of the scream. It was noise, it was fear, she knew she had to help. The horror of it though, well, she both wished she didn't see it and that she had seen it earlier. Across the room, in amongst the swirling dancers, who seemed oblivious, an aged stallion wheezed another breath, exasperated. He tried hoarsely to scream again, but his old lungs failed him. The past version of Twilight circled the dancers warily, as she remembered the magnetism of the magical orb surrounding them.
That fool Uncharted Map had put it up anyway, he seemed as aloof as the dancers to the present danger. The danger that had first manifested in the ancient stallion. His hair was white, and balding, and his coat was patchy and unwashed. From the looks of him, he had lived a thousand years. In reality, he was probably somewhere closer to Twilight's own age.
Future-Twilight watched on as Twilight pushed through the magical sphere, trying to not be thrown out again, and using all of her magic to protect herself from the forces at work. Once she had reached the stallion, she took his hoof in hers, as his last breath escaped his lips. Then, just as if in a book, his body began to disappear.
It didn't surprise her now, but it sure did when she first witnessed it. Past-Twilight yelped herself, then cast a spell to halt whatever magical process had caused this poor pony's body to begin to disintegrate with electric crackles and grey puffs of eldritch smoke. There was no use, though. The pony finally disappeared into smoke, and not a single one of the dancers paid any heed to his demise.
"What in all of Tartarus was that?" asked White Iron from the past.
Past-Twilight looked forlorn.
"He's gone."
Doctor Whooves, a silent bystander up until that point, said something quietly, as if he was unwilling to break the dim quiet.
"I've seen this before, only on a larger scale."
"What is it? How much larger?"
He looked up, unwilling to admit to what he had witnessed prior.
"It's the end of time," he said softly, "And I saw it happen to the whole universe."
After a short while, the ponies from Twilight's past departed to speak with Uncharted Map, and she was so thankful they had. Every moment they had been there, Twilight was just waiting for a chance glance, and then some horrible force tearing her asunder. It was an absurd belief, to be sure, but one still given merit by the bizarre occurrences of the night. Or at least, the duration of night that had passed since they had arrived. That begged the question; how long had they been there?
"Two hours," answered White Iron after Twilight asked, "Pretty random, huh? Feels like a day or more to me."
She was heavily inclined to agree. In fact, it reminded Twilight of some of the longer adventures she had been on in her two year stint living in Ponyville. Taking Cerberus back to Tartarus certainly took a few days, and was about as tricky as the predicament that faced Twilight and White Iron now. They fully understood the gravity of the situation that lay before them, and they knew how hard it would be to come out on top, but they had no idea what it would take.
To the left of them now, another scream, this time accompanied by the now-familiar crackle as a pony began to be erased. Twilight rushed to them, now not afraid of the consequences, as she had previously been encumbered with the heavy task of not disturbing the natural flow of events. Had she saved the pony from before, time would be further scarred, but now, the shackles were off.
She reached the side of the pony in distress, and cast a spell to attempt protection. It was futile, though, the pony gasped as they aged prematurely, then disintegrated into nothingness. Twilight, even though she was helpless to save them, felt the utmost guilt from inside, as if she had slain the pony with her own dagger. Why could she do nothing to help these ponies? How could such paramount destruction every be real? Tormented questions swirled, each vying for top position.
"No!"
Again she had failed to save someone, again had she let somepony take the brunt of her inaction.
"Not today."
No, not today. Today was different, today she played by different rules.
"Twilight, where are you going?" cried out White Iron as Twilight pulled out her Intertimepiece once more.
Floating in the endless, Twilight focused on when she wanted to go. She could see herself standing there...
Staying at a distance, she cast yet another spell as the aging stallion screamed, adding power. It was no use, a few sharp crackles later and he was gone.
"I'll get this right. More power!"
Another spell added to the other one, but again he fell to the ground, gasped and disappeared.
This had to work, eventually. It had to work...
The three spells worked into one another, adding to the swirling mass of energy. Would it work? Third time was the charm, as the saying went. A gasp, a crackle, and nothing.
Clearly this charm needed more. Much more.
How many spells now? Twilight lost count. She squeezed her eyes shut so as to not look at the small circle of Twilights who each added to the spell. It was growing in magic potential, just waiting to be released. As soon as they heard that scream, felt the crackle of time distortion...
The plan had to work. It had to, there was no way around that fact. Twilight would not fail. Never fail, because if it worked now it had always worked. Always work. Never fail. Just waiting for that horrific scream to echo again.
They waited, the spell growing as each Twilight, though none of them could see it, flared their horn to add to the ball of roiling magic. It needed to be released soon, kept pent up anymore and the power would explode. Pressure mounted, magical pressure that forced sweat to fall from the concentrated faces of the Twilights. When was that scream? When was it? The spell had to be released, there was no way anything could hold it in. Perhaps Twilight had bitten off more than she could chew with this one...
The spell burst, cascaded into a thousand sharpened fragments of iridescent purple, spearing out into the gloom. Most of the Twilights disappeared to their own time again, and only one was left as the spell disintegrated. The shards that flew towards the dancers bounced off the magic-immune bubble, briefly illuminating spots of the rainbow surface. They rebounded towards the left wall of the castle forecourt, shattering into motes of magic. The wall cracked, deep rents carving the surface into nothing but a loose pile of stone.
White Iron rushed up to Twilight, seeing her distress. It was now her turn to comfort the lavender princess. She picked her up using a mechanically-assisted hoof, and brought her to safety.
Or at least, tried to. As she turned to take a step away from the rubble wall, it shuddered and began to fall. Slowly, then with increasing speed until it was right on top of them.
A horrific crunch rang out, but the dancers didn't care, they continued to swirl and skip. White Iron's cyborg shell warped under the pressure of the stone on top of her, while Twilight was still unconscious. She had managed to escape most of the ruins, White Iron's suit protecting her from the worst. Even so, it was not enough to stop the clobbering she had received.
When she awoke, Twilight found herself warm and snug, somehow. She tried to move away from the pain of her various injuries and into the comfort, but found that she was sheathed in a thick, soft coating. This coating was nice though, nice and smooth and warm, like a blanket. It was a blanket. She slowly opened her eyes,, taking in the bright white light. Unusual seeing as the Castle of the Two Sisters was fed only from external light. She fully awoke, realised she wasn't at the Castle any more, and tried to fall back asleep. It was no use, she felt a firm hoof shaking her awake.
"Twilight, Twilight."
A loud voice, but soothing, and it took her mind a few brief moments to recognise it. She opened her eyes again, and stared into those of Celestia. Her beautiful mentor knelt against the edge of her bed, iridescent mane gently caressing the side. It was a hospital bed, for that was where Twilight found herself. A hospital, but quiet. A strange occurrence that meant only one thing. It must have been the dead of night. Just how long had Twilight been there for? And for that matter, had Celestia been by her side for the same length? It would surely seems so.
However, the Princess of the Sun gave no indication that she was ready to cease her nurturing presence now. As she sat, she gently stroked Twilight's head with a light hoof, and softly whispered.
"Do not worry, Twilight. All is well."
Twilight sat up, wriggling into position. Welts all over her body ached, and nurses sat at the corners of the large room, waiting on the dozens of patients there, as it was not just the two Princesses.
"How long have I been here?" she asked gently, as a large bruise on her neck brushed against her esophagus, preventing her from speaking loudly.
"A few hours, no more."
"And White Iron?"
Celestia gave Twilight a puzzled look. She must have stayed in her own time. Neither of them pushed the question, and Twilight slowly fell back into sleep. Celestia, by her bedside, sat in silence as her pupil drifted off into the land of sleep.
This time when she awoke, Celestia was no longer there by her bedside. In her place was a small basket filled with small fruits and a handwritten note from the princess. Twilight lifted and opened the note using her magic, trying to keep the noise of the performance down. Many patients were still resting, even in the early morning light that streamed in through a glass window high above.
Dear Princess Twilight,
I wish you all the best with your swift recovery, and would very much like to hear about your adventure in time, and how you came to bring yourself back home. I must admit, it was quite a surprise to find two Twilights at my doorstep.
Your steadfast mentor,
Celestia
Twilight sat up, feeling fully rested and her heart warmed by Celestia's note. She walked through the wing of the hospital, Canterlot's finest at that, and eventually passed through the doors, with fruitbasket in tow. As she exited, she first looked behind her. The hospital was a good five stories tall, and Twilight's body felt as though she had been dragged down the stairs of every floor. Then, she turned to the front and saw an altogether different sight. The castle filled her vision, a sight inescapable in the nation's fair capital, and fresh eyes looked upon it. Twilight was sure she had never seen it in this light, from this angle, and everything seemed new. It was a sincere thought, a hope even, that the castle meant a new beginning. A chance to forget the events of the past few hours, that she could pretend everything was resolved and all loose ends tied.
Morality and empathy were strong motivators, and in this instance they firmly prevented Twilight from just abandoning her friends. It wasn't just Discord and Doctor Whooves at risk, it was her new friends also, and even those of whom she had not met yet. Lives, countless, would be lost to time, endless, unless Twilight could prevent the imminent catastrophe. And what better way to do so than seek the counsel of one a thousandfold wiser?
So she seeked out Celestia among the castle's many denizens. The guard at the front gate did not know of her whereabouts, so Twilight pushed herself into the inner boundaries of the castle, and towards Celestia's private quarters. In the dawn of the sun, there were few ponies wandering the courtyards or passageways, not even staff it would seem. Twilight inquisitively stalked the halls, and still found no-pony to speak of, or to speak to. Then, as the sun rose gloriously across the horizon, painting the halls with beams of golden bliss, the reason for the emptiness became clear.
On her hunch, she ran outside as the light from the sun flowed through the sleeping city like waves of honey. Sure enough, crowned by the halo of the rising sun, hovered Celestia, the magic from her horn lifting both the sun and herself high into the sky. Thousands of eager faces drank up the liquid sky pouring down on them, enraptured by the light. The sun began to climb even higher, defying the shackles imposed by mortal limitations.
The spectacle ceased, Celestia gently floated back to the ground, and a cheer rippled through the audience. Stamping hooves brought raucous applause for the magnificent sight, and Celestia gave a small bow before walking to the left of the sun, and entering the castle. Twilight followed.
"Ah, Twilight," Celestia began warmly, "Glad you could come. How are your wounds healing?"
"Well, thank you, Celestia. I was wondering, could we have a talk?"
"I would love to."
Celestia led the way to a dark corner of the castle, a small reading room with a few shelves holding fragile and thinly-bound books.
"Princess Celestia, I know you want to hear about my adventure, but the truth is I don't know much about it."
"What in Equestria do you mean?"
"I mean, I have no idea how I got to the hospital. The last thing I know is that a wall fell on me-"
"A wall?"
"Yes, a wall. It's not important right now. The point is, I need to go back in time and save my friends, but I don't know how."
"Well, I think you already did," Celestia said as she rested a hoof on Twilight's shoulder, "I did say there were two of you when you came back."
Twilight thought about it for a while. If she went back and saved herself, brought herself back here, then that explains and solves that, but what of the singularity? She should have been erased from time by now, even though 'now' is a flexible term when dealing with all of time. Therefore, she must have stopped the singularity, but how. Celestia broke in.
"Why are your friends in danger?"
"A singularity in time, that is to say, a massive time black hole, is going to destroy anything that has disturbed time, so any time traveller. I don't know what to do about it!"
"The proverbial unstoppable force. That is a tricky conundrum."
An unstoppable force was a good way to describe it. There really was no conceivable way of stopping time, unless you put it on pause indefinitely, which would have the same fate as death. There wasn't even an immovable object to complete the proverb. There wasn't a way to guarantee something would happen. Was there?
Yes, the was. There was a way to put a roadblock on time. There was an immovable object. Staring her in the face the entire time, just literally tucked away.
"Thank you, Celestia. I think I know what I need to do now."
Celestia looked suprised. "Really?" she said.
"Yes. You see, I got an invitation and..."
White Iron squeezed open an eye, even though her movement was thwarted by the heavy masonry. She gazed into Twilight's eyes, then looked upwards, to the right, and looked into another pair of purple eyes.
"Twilight? What are you here for?"