//------------------------------// // Arrival // Story: Revisions of Past Mistakes // by SC_Orion //------------------------------// The Twilight from the future had been sleeping, that was until she regained consciousness. It took her a moment to realize she had woke up, her mind instantly went to work on figuring out what had happened. She heard something... 'The door.' she noted. She pretended to still be asleep as the sound of hoofsteps approached her, she listened intently for any signs of who would be checking on her. The sound stopped, and she felt the tingle of magic enveloping her body. "I see you're awake." Twilight opened her eyes when she heard her own voice greeting her. The younger alicorn stood beside her bed with a bright, cheery smile on her face. Twilight started to get up, she felt a sharp pang from her body, instantly reminding her of being hit with a spell. Her face grimaced momentarily, but she pushed through it. The younger Twilight was surprised by her resolve, "You shouldn't do that! You're injured, you'll make it worse!" The older Twilight chose to ignore her words and was quickly on her hooves. The younger one had stepped forwards to help her get up to reduce the stress on her body. "Thanks..." she lifted a wing and looked at her body where the spell had impacted and noted the bandages surrounding it. She returned her gaze to her younger self. "I have... So many questions for you!" Twilight shot out with excitement, "And that spell, the one you used, how is it you're still here? Shouldn't you have returned by now? Starswirl's spell only lasted for about a minute..." The door opened and Princess Celestia walked in, "Perhaps you should give her a chance to speak, Twilight." "Sorry." the younger Twilight apologized sheepishly, "It's just... It's not everyday you meet a future version of yourself..." Celestia approached the older Twilight, taking note of how much more developed her alicorn form was, her more sharply muzzle, her more filled out wings, how her neck curved back more. "Good morning, Twilight." Celestia's greeting surprised the older Twilight, having not expected it to be so friendly. Twilight shook her head and recomposed herself, "Sorry, Celestia... It's... I wasn't expecting that." "That's quite alright, Twilight." "Calling me Twilight is going to be confusing, having two of us here." "Wait, how long are you going to be here?" the younger Twilight spoke up with confusion. "I won't be leaving any time soon. I still have a couple thousand years of life..." she trailed off when she remembered that she didn't know that currently. "Wait... I'm... What!?" she looked between Celestia and her older self. "Sorry, Celestia. I forgot I hadn't realized that yet..." Celestia nodded, accepting the apology. "So... I don't think 'Older Twilight' is going to cut it..." younger Twilight said, having finally regained her line of thought. "What would you prefer we call you then?" Celestia asked. "First, I want to say I'm surprised you're not pounding me with questions..." she looked at Celestia with a knowing smile, "Thank you. I took on the name Eclipse for a while..." she grimaced. Celestia caught her reaction to the name and frowned slightly, but chose not to push it. "So... Eclipse then?" Twilight asked. "That's fine, yes." "I have so many questions..." "I will tell you everything... Eventually... In due time. But feel free to ask away." Eclipse replied. "The spell... I've never seen that before, and there's no way that was based on Starswirl's." "No, it was not based on Starswirl's. It is a... Very taxing spell..." "Did you create that spell, Eclipse?" Celestia asked. Eclipse winced for a moment, "No, I owe it to Discord, actually." Twilight did a double take, "What? Discord made that spell!?" Twilight opened and closed her mouth, trying to find words to speak, however nothing was forthcoming. "It wasn't easy, either. It is easily one of the strongest spells in existence." Eclipse added. "I'm surprised it drained your magic so much then..." Eclipse turned to Celestia, "I..." she looked down, "I don't want to talk about it..." "I will push it no further then, until you want to talk about it." "Thank you..." Eclipse looked at Twilight, "I... I have to admit, I'm surprised you're not... I'm surprised you're so... Trusting of me... I guess I shouldn't be surprised..." Both Twilight and Celestia looked at her with confusion. Eclipse shook her head, and glanced at her bandaged side. "Celestia, do you think you can do me a favor and heal me? I'd do it myself, but..." Eclipse trailed off, not wanting to talk about her lack of magic. Celestia nodded, "Of course," she lit her horn and cast her spell, Eclipse felt a tingling sensation where her injury was as the effects of the spell took hold. The glow from Celestia's horn died down. "Thank you." Eclipse nodded as Celestia pulled the bandages off with her magic. "Why... Why are you here?" Twilight finally asked the question Eclipse had been expecting since she awoke. "I can't tell you that. Not yet, anyway." "Why not!?" Twilight started to whine. "I'm from the future. Granted, my presence will change how things turn out..." Eclipse smiled slightly, "But I have not yet had the impact I need to have." "And what impact is that, exactly?" Celestia inquired. Eclipse sighed, "I will tell you everything, just not right now. If... If it's not too much to ask, I'd like to see the others... My friends..." Celestia nodded in understanding, Twilight simply furrowed her brow in confusion. "I believe that should be alright, Twilight?" "Sure..." Twilight said, still contemplating why Eclipse sounded sad when she had mentioned her friends. She pushed the thought aside for the moment as the group walked out of the room. "The castle really hasn't changed much. I never really noticed that until just now." Eclipse commented as they walked through the halls towards the dining room. The trio walked in silence for a few minutes before finally reaching the large crystalline doors to the dining room. Twilight opened the door with her magic, and beckoned everypony inside with a hoof. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Spike were all waiting inside the room, sitting at the table with plates full of pancakes in front of them. Eclipse fought to hold back tears as she took in the sight of her friends once again. It was hard, but she managed to hold back the tears. She let herself smile more happily than she had in a long time. Everypony turned to see the trio enter the room, they happily greeted them with smiles. The three alicorns walked over to the table and took a seat next to each other. Twilight and Eclipse both sat to the right of Celestia, who sat beside Fluttershy. Twilight levitated a couple pancakes from the platter on the middle of the table over to herself and Eclipse. "I see you finally woke up. Good morning... Twilight?" Rarity pondered. "Call me Eclipse. It will be easier than calling us both Twilight." "That's an awesome name." Rainbow's words were near indecipherable with her mouth full of pancake. "Rainbow, it's rude to talk with your mouth full!" Rarity scolded. Rainbow just nonchalantly batted a hoof in her direction and swallowed. "She's still Twilight." "From the future." Twilight added. "Twilight... Eclipse, I... I don't know why you'd want to mess around with time travel... I know you... You wouldn't do that unless it was important..." Applejack managed to redirect all attention onto Eclipse, she grimaced. "Yes, Applejack... You're right." Rarity spoke up a few seconds later, "You going to tell us or..?" "Sorry, I can't tell you. It's too soon." Pinkie Pie popped up beside Eclipse, "Awwwwww! But come on Eclipse, it would be so much fun!" Pinkie paused as her eyes lit up and an even larger smile took hold of her muzzle, "Just think about it-" Eclipse raised a hoof, eliciting her to stop. "After I fix everything, I promise I will tell you everything." She paused, "It's a pinkie promise." she smiled as she went through the motions. "Um... I don't mean to interrupt or anything... But uh, maybe we should let her eat? She looks kind of hungry..." Fluttershy trailed off and shrinked back into her mane slightly. "I reckon you're right, Fluttershy. We can all talk more after we eat, right?" Eclipse nodded, "Yes, I'll be here for a while." Breakfast passed mostly in silence as the group of ponies and dragon enjoyed the delicious blueberry pancakes. With the exception of idle question about Eclipse's opinion on something, she was mostly left in peace. She was grateful for the relative calmness, it was a much needed break from her past. The past. And with that, Eclipse's mood went south, her smile contorted into a frown, and her ears fell slightly. Memories she would rather forget soon replaced the present, bringing pain, sorrow, and regret. "Eclipse?" Celestia's voice managed to snap her out of it. Eclipse blinked a couple times and looked at Celestia, "Yes?" "Are you alright?" "I'm..." she clenched her eyes, trying to steel her resolve. It wasn't working. "I'm... Fine..." her voice broke up slightly, everypony soon turned their attention back to her. 'I thought I had prepared myself for this...' "If you ever need to talk, you know where to find me." Celestia's motherly tone had the strange effect of both comforting her and souring her mood both at the same time. "And I'll be nearby if you ever need me." Twilight added. Eclipse smiled at the thought of comforting herself. "And so will we." Applejack smiled. "Thanks..." Eclipse took a deep breath to calm her nerves, and slowly released it. A few minutes passed of just awkward silence as eveyrpony finished their breakfast. "Well, I'm sorry to have to cut this short, but I need to get back to Canterlot and discuss this with Luna. I will also need to announce your arrival, Princess Eclipse." "Not yet, please." She paused to contemplate a reason, "I'd like to have as much magic as when I was a unicorn at least before that..." While it was true, she did want more magic before that, she also wanted to get certain things done first. Celestia nodded her head, "Very well." Eclipse sighed as she flipped through yet another book by hoof, her magic still hadn't returned. She read through the text, knowing full well that it did not contain what she was looking for. She looked around the library, the massive crystalline bookshelves supported thousands of books on many subjects. Some books were fiction, while most contained knowledge ranging from magic to alchemy. No, only a handful of places would have the knowledge she was looking for. And only one pony knew the spell she was searching for. Of course, she couldn't simply ask Princess Celestia about it. She would come up with some excuse about it. Eclipse let out a frustrated sigh, "It's not her fault, Twilight... Everypony made their own choices, you made yours..." she looked up from the last page of the book she had been skimming and looked around the library. She missed her magic already. It would return to it's full power eventually, but it could take months to do so. This knowledge plus the fact that the spell mentioning "for every force there is an opposite force" did not help her stress levels. She stood up and took a deep breath. She put a hoof on her chest and slowly extended it while she exhaled. Despite the technique bringing back memories which hurt, it did help relieve her stress. "You can stay in my room if you'd like, or you can just stay in the same room we had you in last night. You can use whatever you need while you stay here, and of course, you can stay as long as you need." Twilight rattled on as both her and Eclipse walked through the crystal halls. Eclipse had spent the day in the castle's library, Twilight figured she wanted time to adjust to the sudden change. "I'll stay in the room I woke up in then." "Are you sure? I can-" "Yes, I'm sure. It's closer to the library anyway..." Eclipse trailed off. Twilight wasn't sure how to take the fact that Eclipse wanted to be closer to the library, "You can spend time with me and my friends, you know. They are your friends too..." Twilight said comfortingly. "There will be time for that soon... After..." Eclipse shook her head. Twilight was starting to get annoyed by now, Eclipse had left shortly after Celestia had left. She spent the entire day in the library. "Your friends will always be there for you, if you need us." 'If only that were true...' "I know..." she sighed, "Sorry. Thank you." Eclipse stepped into her room, it was sparsely decorated, due to the unexpectedness of her arrival, but it contained a bed, a desk, and other assorted bedroom decorations. 'I'll be sure to put the desk to good use.' Somehow they had managed to acquire another bed for the castle that was large enough for her alicorn form. White pillows, blue sheets, covers... Woooden frame... It looked nothing like the bed she had before. It was comforting, knowing everything was better now, but saddening leaving what she knew behind, even if it was for the best. She strode over to the bed and gently laid down underneath the covers. She laid there with her eyes open, thinking about the past day and the days to come. 'I can't do much until my magic recovers... I can't really easily put anything down on paper, or hid it without magic either... I won't find anything of use in the library...' she sighed, 'I do want to spend time with my friends... But they're not the same... They're younger... But they are my friends...' she smiled.