Nopony remembered.
“Sunset let me in! I’ve got big news!” Opening the door, Sunset Swirl rolled her eyes as her friend barged her way into the house. Following her down into Sunset’s basement, Sunset sighed as her friend pulled open her old notebook. Revealing the page dedicated to the teleportation, Sunset reared back as the page was pushed into her face.
“We’re going to try and get your teleportation thing working, I’ve got an idea! Magnetic force!” Her friend, while a bit on the zany side, did have a point. Sunset put a hoof to her chin.
“I dunno Starlight Shimmer, could be dangerous. There’s a risk of overloading it and causing the magnet to attract objects toward it in a substantial radius. We’d have to ensure nothing metal is kept in here during such experiments.” Giving a smile, Sunset chuckled at the eagerness of her friend.
“But alright, we can give it a shot.” Smiling, Sunset began to pack up all the metallic items in her lab. Glancing toward a picture, she dreamed of the day she met a stallion whom cared for her as much as Starlight’s did for her. Turning around, Sunset noticed Starlight’s horn glowing.
“What spell are you casting?” Curious, but not alarmed, Sunset frowned as Starlight’s smile turned sadistic.
“The forbidden spell you kept locked in your secret compartment.” As Starlight’s grin grew, Sunset’s eyes widened, and her mouth went ajar. The forbidden spell that her ancestor had saved in case war broke out once more.
“How did you even get in there? It’s magic coded so only his ancestors could open it.” Then it dawned upon her. The teleportation rings Sunset had been experimenting with to share the power of multiple unicorns. Could it have?
“Your thinking is correct. I drugged you one night and performed the deed. No longer will your pathetic victories and intellect be yours and yours alone. Every memory, every theory will be mine. And you get my old body. With a few key memories missing of course. Can’t have you plotting your revenge, can we?” Magic growing to greater levels, Starlight cast the spell, and Sunset cried out in pain.
“No!”
‘That’s right, my best friend betrayed me.’ Closing her eyes, Sunset let a single tear fall from her ghostly form. The cold no longer bothered her, and all she could feel was a burning hate in her heart.
‘How could she? How could they support her for all those years? How could Twilight name MY project after her? It was my name, but she’s the one that got a statue made in her honour. And to top it off, she went and killed me at the next possible convenience. How could she? How could she!?’
“HOW COULD SHE!” Windows shattering from the sheer cold of her voice, Sunset ignored the ponies as she phased through the roof, heading for the sky. All that was left was anger. All she wanted to do was get revenge. They would all pay! Hate, Hate, Hate. The world deserved to be frozen, just like her heart had been when her friend had pulled it out of her chest with a rusty blade from an era past.
“THEY WILL ALL PAY.”
Her wails rose to deafening heights, and clouds began to obscure the sun.
Protected by the barrier Celestia had erected, the ponies huddled together. It was obvious holding such a large barrier was straining her limits, but Celestia maintained it, keeping Ponyville from freezing over. Just.
“What do we do?” Looking to Luna, Twilight bit her lip. Their entire plan had hinged on getting here in time.
“We will have to eradicate the Wendigo from this planet, just like your forebears did over a thousand years ago. We must get to the Crystal Palace and send a pulse of love once more through Equestria.” Flaring her wings, Luna prepared to take flight.
“Isn’t there some way we can save her? She doesn’t deserve to just vanish, even like this.” Pinkie Pie glanced toward the sky, biting her lip as the clouds finally obscured Nopony from view. Luna shook her head sadly, but paused when Celestia put a hoof on her shoulder.
“The-huff-files-hah-you know what to do.” Gasping for breath, Celestia struggled to even finish the sentence. Luna frowned in response.
“Are you sure? We agreed to never use those spells except for a war-like emergency.” Concerned, Luna didn’t want to dive into that section ever again. There were some secrets best left secret. Celestia managed a nod, and began to shake on her hooves. Luna turned toward Pinkie Pie.
“My sister cannot keep this shield up at this size. Move everypony as close as you can to her location, or she will not last.” Seeing the pink pony salute, and vanish, Luna then turned to Twilight.
“Come with me, there is one final secret we must show you.” Conjuring a smaller shield of her own, Luna took into the air. Twilight did the same, following her to the Castle Ruins. Glancing up, Twilight bit her lip, catching a glimpse of the Wendigo. Nopony was already so huge…
Landing, Luna quickly led the way into the catacombs of the castle, and toward the organ piano. Magic weaving a complicated set of music onto the device. After a moment a silence, the piano shuddered, and slid into the ground. The wall slid open, and the two entered the room. Looking around, Twilight shuddered as wave after wave of protective spells passed over her.
Arriving in the room, Twilight breathed in sharply. Row upon row of old scrolls, barely even legible by this point, were lined up carefully. Walking over to one, Luna gently pulled it off the shelf, and unrolled it. With an unknown spell cast by Luna, Twilight could see words slowly appearing on the unmarked paper.
“This is-“ Cut off by her own amazement, Twilight couldn’t believe what she was reading. A true time spell. One that would allow anypony to return to any point in time as many times as they wished.
“Please understand, that once this ordeal is over, I will have to wipe the spell from you memory, along with this location.” Luna rolled the scroll back up, and put it away.
“I understand, nopony must ever know this place exists. Can I at least keep the memories?” Such power in the wrong hands could cause many problems, Twilight knew. As such, they quietly left the room, and the organ rose up once more. Looking at the wall, Twilight couldn’t even see a difference, and soon lost where the door met the wall.
“But who should I go back in time to see? I can’t change what happened to Nopony. That could have serious repercussions to the future.” Biting her lip, Twilight rubbed her forehead.
“It is not when in the past you should return to Twilight, but whom you should bring back.” Closing her eyes, Luna breathed out. Blinking, Twilight breathed in once more. Of course! The spell could travel both ways! Should she try the future instead? But if it was the future, wouldn’t they have already come back to fix it?
‘Who should I bring back…’ The first answer was a version of Sunset's past self. After all, they could wipe the memory once done. But what would her past self say that would reach? Maybe Clover the Clever, whom created the fire of friendship and ended the wendigo’s? But that wouldn’t help either…
“The only other pony I can think of is Starswirl…” Glancing to Luna, Twilight bit her lip.
“You will have plenty of time once you make the choice,” suggested Luna. Of course Luna was right.
“Right, okay. I’ll be back soon.” Giving a sheepish smile, Twilight concentrated, breaking out into a sweat. This spell required some serious horsepower. And suddenly, she popped out of existence.
Popping into existence, Twilight stumbled over a stack of books, falling to the floor. Standing up, she brushed herself off, and looked toward the stack of books. Leaning down, she opened one up, skimming it out of curiosity.
“Excuse me, thou art rude to read mine books.” Jumping slightly, Twilight turned to see the very pony she had been looking for. Placing it down gently, she stuttered and apology, and looked down. Here he was, her hero in pony!
“Tellest thy, how many Alicorns are in thy era?” Pulling out a large scroll, Starswirl unrolled it. Glancing to it, Twilight saw various names written in chronological order, and a number above each once.
“Four. Me, Luna, Celestia, and Cadance.” Rubbing the back of her head, Twilight gave a sheepish laugh.
“Ah, Modern Equestria then. Good, I don’t have to keep up the deplorable accent that evades Equestria up until the Post-Modern era.” Accent changing, Starswirl rolled up the scroll, and placed it back in the drawer, before standing up and giving a bow.
“So, what problem faces your time? Monster from another dimension? Discord again? Elements of Harmony shattered and you can’t find the pieces?” Standing up straight, Starswirl glanced toward a bell as it rang, and a scroll slid down a wooden tube. Pulling it out, he signed it, and tossed it out an open window.
“U-Uh, Wendigo.” Taken aback, Twilight wasn’t entirely sure what she had been expecting.
“Can you not use the Crystal Palace? It’s been restored by this point, correct?” Glancing toward the table, he pulled out a list of events, before nodding to himself. Stroking his beared, he looked Twilight up and down, before chuckling.
“W-Well you see, t-the wendigo is- Well sh-she is.” Pausing, Twilight took a deep breath in and out, steadying her nerves. She was here on business, as much as she wanted to pick apart Starswirl’s mind.
“The Wendigo is your great great granddaughter, excluding a few greats for simplicity’s sake. A pony named Shimmer Swirl stole a forbidden scroll from your family and used it to steal Sunset Swirl’s memories and body, and then killed her some time later. Celestia and Luna managed to keep the transformation at bay by making Sunset forget, but it’s too late to redo the spell now.” Taking a breath, Twilight’s ear flickered when she heard a sound in the other room.
“Oh you want to know what that is? Come,” spoke Starswirl, opening the top of the door to show Twilight what was inside. It was a large room with an antigravity spell on it, and two Alicorn fillies were playing around in it.
“Cute aren’t they? Cute is the word right? Eh, not important. Watch this.” Smirking, Starswirl whistled, catching the two fillies attention.
“Thy voices are silkiest of sweets, pray provide me a song from the heavens.” Giving a small bow, Starswirl began to snigger as the two fillies broke out into an ear splitting chorus that sounded almost as bad as nails down a chalkboard. Clapping them, Starswirl closed the top of the door, and the sound cut out almost immediately.
“Bet you didn’t know they use magic to enhance their voices in your era. Bet you is correct, right?” Frowning, Starswirl pulled out another scroll, sending a pile of papers falling to the floor.
“No it’s ‘betcha’. Slang these era’s.” Rolling his eyes, Starswirl quickly fixed up the pile, and sat down at the desk.
“I can have a spell whipped up for you within a week or so. Until then you can either hang around this era, or just time hop to next week. Just make sure you put on the clothes provided near the door if you decide to head outside. There’s also spending coin there too.” Beginning to write, Starswirl levitated a pair of glasses onto his nose.
“How often do you get visitors from the future?” Stupefied, Twilight seriously wondered how somepony could even keep up with so many era’s.
“Eh, every other week or so. Sometimes two at once. That’s when things get really entertaining let me tell you.” Chuckling, Starswirl continued to work, occasionally mumbling words. Twilight glanced toward the books, and then back to Starswirl.
“May I-“ Cut off, Twilight blinked.
“Yes you can look at my study notes,” he replied, rolling his eyes.