Applejack was more than a little nervous. For her whole life she had been an earth pony, and she had always been proud of that. True, there were some stuck-up aristocrats who looked down on earth ponies. Some thought that they were the least of the pony races because they couldn't do magic and they didn't have wings. Yet that was Applejack's heritage, and she was proud of it. She never had a desire to be anything other than exactly who she was. Applejack worked the land, tended to her family's apple trees, and lived a good life. She was content.
Then that infamous tree fell on her and killed her, and Rainbow Dash talked her into getting a pair of wings. It was certainly nice, but in a way it just didn't feel right. Applejack was an earth pony, not a pegasus. She worked the land; she didn't fly over the clouds. But now things had changed even more. Starswirl the Bearded – a pony who had died almost a thousand years ago – had transformed her into an alicorn and taught her everything he knew about magic. Applejack was about to use a magical spell to jump a hundred years into the future, and she was not happy about it.
Magic was one thing that Applejack never really cared about. That had always been Twilight's business. The purple alicorn spent endless hours in those dusty books of hers, studying and reading and writing tedious essays. It always struck Applejack as kind of boring. She already had her life passion: her family and her apples. She knew more about apples than just about anypony – and now she knew more about magic than even Twilight Sparkle herself. She knew all kinds of spells that could do all kinds of things. She even understood why the spells worked. Some of the spells she knew were so arcane that they would only be of interest to – well, ponies like Twilight.
All Applejack wanted was to be an earth pony again. She wanted to go back to her old life – to the way things were before that blasted tree fell. But the only way to fix Equestria was to go into the future and then go back into the past, and that meant she had to use magic.
What a mess, Applejack thought. Maybe when all this is over I can go back to the way things used to be. Only I guess that ain't gonna happen, because when I save the original there's gonna be two of us. That's going to be mighty strange! I wonder how all my kinfolk will react at the family reunion.
All of this crossed Applejack's mind in an instant. The orange alicorn looked at Starswirl one last time, checked to make sure that Rainbow Dash was standing right next to her, and then lit up her horn. Now that's an odd feeling, Applejack thought. I didn't even have this body part a few minutes ago, and here I am using it as if I've had it all my life. Casting spells feels all tingly and weird. Do all spells feel this way, or just the time travel one?
A glowing sphere appeared around the two ponies. Applejack concentrated on the spell and poured more magic into it. The sphere began to glow brightly – and then the world around them vanished. In fact, a lot of things vanished. The barn vanished. Sweet Apple Acres vanished. All the grass and trees vanished. The clouds vanished from the sky. Even the sun itself vanished. All that was left was the ground beneath her hooves.
Applejack stared at the ground and frowned. “Now that's weird. The ground ain't made of dirt anymore. It looks more like some kinda fused glass. I've never seen anythin' like it. Where did that come from?”
“You think that's what's weird about this?” Rainbow Dash replied. “So the ground changed – big deal. I want to know what happened to the rest of Equestria. Isn't there supposed to be a farm here? And where are all the trees? This doesn't look anything like Ponyville! Are you sure you just took us a hundred years into the future? Because this looks more like a hundred million years.”
“I'm pretty sure. I've cast that spell lots of times. It's never gone wrong before.”
“What are you talking about? You've never cast a spell before in your whole life! You've been a unicorn for, like, ten seconds. Time travel is not something you do on a regular basis.”
“Oh. Right. Of course – I meant that Starswirl cast that spell lots of times. I guess I'm gettin' the two of us confused.”
“Please don't do that,” Rainbow Dash begged. “We already have a friend who's a bookish magical nerd pony. I like Twilight and all, but we don't need two of her.”
“I'm sure she will be delighted to hear you say that – especially since we're about to have two Applejacks and two Rainbow Dashes. Speaking of that, where are you plannin' on livin' when we get home? Do you think your old self will let you move in with her?”
“I hadn't really thought about it. Eh, it doesn't matter. After all, Twilight's got lots of space in that sweet castle of hers, and I can always move in there. I'm sure she won't mind. She let Rarity move in, didn't she?”
“So where is that castle?” Applejack asked. “I don't see anything around for miles. This really don't look like Equestria at all.”
“But it's got to be. Right? I mean, it's not like we stepped through a magical mirror into an alternate dimension. There must have been some kind of big disaster after we left, and everything got blown up. Well, we wanted to see if the future was bad, and now we know: the future is super bad. So now all we have to do is go back in time and fix everything. You do know how to go backwards in time, right?”
“Sure. I've done it – I mean, Starswirl's done it lots of times.”
“Are you sure you know how? Maybe we should have practiced that spell before we came here. Because if it turns out you forgot something important, we are going to be stuck here. And this is not a fun place to be stuck.”
“I'm positive,” Applejack said firmly. She paused. “At least, I'm pretty positive. I guess we'll find out when we give it a try.”
“Great! Then let's go. Ponyville, here we come!”
“Now hold on a minute! We can't go back until we know what happened. We've got some work to do first.”
“What do you mean?”
Applejack waved a hoof at the horizon. “Look at this place! Do you know how this happened?”
“Does it matter?”
“You bet it does! For all we know, Twilight decided not to release her books after all. This could have been caused by anything. Maybe there was some kinda war or somethin'. Maybe disease wiped everypony out. Maybe the sun exploded. The point is, we can't go back in time and prevent this disaster until we know what the disaster actually was. We've got to know how things got this way.”
“Oh. Right. I see what you mean.” Rainbow Dash grinned. “You know, maybe this is all Discord's fault. Maybe he got bored and blew everything up.”
“I highly resent that accusation,” a familiar voice said. A snake-like figure slowly materialized in front of them. The oddly-shaped being looked like some kind of malformed dragon that had been made up of leftover parts of other animals. He had a deer antler, a goat horn, a snake tongue, a lion's arm, an eagle's claw, and other assorted odds and ends.
“Hello, Discord,” Applejack said. “Fancy meetin' you here.”
“Actually you are the real surprise,” Discord replied. “I had given up all hope of anything interesting ever happening in this dimension again. Then you two showed up! After all this time, too. I'm glad I left the light on for you.”
“Do what now?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “You mean you're responsible for all this?”
“Oh, not at all! When I learned of this unhappy occurrence I was as surprised at you. Surely you must realize that if I did destroy the world, it would be ruined in a far more interesting fashion. This apocalypse has boring written all over it. Where are the giant-sized beavers? Where's the chocolate rain? No, I had nothing to do with this. Celestia is the one who decided to burn the world to the ground – quite literally, actually.”
Applejack frowned. “I find that just a bit hard to believe.”
Discord pretended to be offended. “Why, Applejack, how can you doubt me? Aren't we friends? And friends trust each other, don't they? Here, why don't I take you to Celestia. I'll let her explain everything.”
Discord snapped his eagle talon. The three of them vanished.
The group reappeared at the bottom of a giant pit. The pit was enormous – it stretched off into the distance for what looked like miles. The rim of the pit was high above them. The pit itself was empty, and its floor and walls were made of fused glass. There was nothing to be seen.
Well, almost nothing. Rainbow Dash shrieked when she saw it. Lying on the ground were the skeletons of two alicorns. The bones were about thirty feet apart and were in terrible shape. Their wings were crushed, their horns were shattered, and most of their bones were broken.
“That's awful!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
“Actually, my dear, that is Celestia,” Discord corrected. “Your friend Twilight is over there. The two alicorns had quite a fight! Oh, I wish I had been there to see it. It must have been truly epic. Not only did they manage to kill themselves, but they took out the whole world with them. Even the sun itself did not survive. It gives the term 'collateral damage' a new meaning, doesn't it?”
Applejack was horrified. “That ain't possible! Why would they fight?”
“Excellent question,” Discord said. He snapped his eagle talon, and a royal golden throne appeared. He sat down in it. “Let's start at the beginning, shall we? When all of this nonsense started I was in my own chaotic dimension – a wonderful place, by the way – taking a well-deserved nap. Being the Lord of Chaos can be so demanding. Ponies come to have such high expectations of you.”
“I'm sure they do,” Applejack said dryly.
“As I was saying, one day I decided to poke my head out and see how things were going. And do you know what I found? All the ponies in the world had abandoned their lives and moved into books! Books, I tell you. I can't imagine a more boring fate. I was gone for two months and everyone went batty. You know, if their poor little lives were missing excitement they only had to ask. I can really be quite the entertainer! My rates are very reasonable.”
“Books aren't that boring,” Rainbow Dash said defensively. “I've had a lot of fun reading books.”
“Yes, reading books,” Discord said. “Not living in them! I considered trying to talk to Twilight about this irritating development, but I knew it would be useless. After all, Twilight is the Princess of Books. Living in a book is probably paradise to her. I'm surprised she didn't think of it sooner. So I decided to abandon Boringville. I attempted to take dear Fluttershy with me, but Sunshine had replaced her with a brainwashed clone.”
Discord sighed. “I had no choice but to leave Equestria and try to find a more interesting apocalypse. Let me tell you, there are some great ones out there. I'd be glad to give you the tour, if you're interested! Just remember to not make fun of the Super Mutants. They can get a bit testy.”
Applejack held up a hoof. “Hold on just a second. So Twilight did release her books, and everypony moved into them. I get that. But what in tarnation happened to Equestria?”
“As I said, I missed the fight itself. But the explosion was so vast that even I noticed it, and I wasn't even in the area at the time. It appears that Sunshine had trapped Celestia in some sort of time prison. When Celestia finally escaped, she confronted Twilight and the two ponies got in a big fight. The fight went on for days. In the end Celestia must have realized that she couldn't beat Twilight, because that's when she used the sun as a weapon. I don't know what she was trying to do; my guess is the spell didn't work right. In the end she blew up all the books, destroyed the whole world, vaporized the sun, and killed herself – and Twilight still didn't die.”
“But she's dead now,” Rainbow Dash pointed out.
Discord nodded. “Twilight did die of her injuries eventually, a day or so later. I have to say, it was all rather shocking. I have never seen two ponies who hated each other so much. I thought you ponies were supposed to be all about love and harmony! I'm quite disappointed in you.”
“Hey, this wasn't my fault,” Rainbow Dash protested.
“Oh? Is that so? Weren't you the one who pushed Twilight into inventing this magic into the first place? This whole idea would never have occurred to her on her own. If you ask me, you are precisely the pony who is responsible for this.”
“That's not fair! All I did was ask Twilight to save my friend. I didn't ask her to have the whole world move into books, or get in a fight with Celestia! That was her doing.”
“Believe what you must,” Discord replied.
Applejack spoke up. “So Celestia destroyed the sun? But if that's the case then why is there still light?”
“As I said, I left the light on for you. I thought there was a slim chance that something interesting might happen here again, and if it did happen I wanted to be able to see it.”
“So this light is your magic?” Applejack asked.
“Of course it is! Who else could provide this level of service? I admit it's not up to my usual chaotic nature, but consider what I'm working with. There simply isn't a lot of potential here anymore.”
“Well, thank you,” Applejack replied.
“So can we go now?” Rainbow Dash asked. “I think we know what happened. Time to head back to Ponyville.”
Applejack shook her head. “Not just yet. I want to talk to Twilight first.”
“But she's dead!” Rainbow Dash pointed out. “Dead ponies don't have a whole lot to say.”
“That's not what I mean. I want to go back in time to a period after the fight, but before she died. I'd like to have a word with her before we try to fix this mess.”
“Seriously? Why would you want that?”
“Think about it. Twilight was the pony who created this blasted magic in the first place. She lived through everything and she fought Celestia. I'd like to find out what she was thinking right before she died. That might help us to convince the old Twilight to not make the same mistakes.”
Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Whatever. It sounds like a big waste of time to me, but you're the magical alicorn here.”
“Now wait just a minute,” Discord said. “I'd like to point out that Rainbow Dash is literally the last pony left in the entire world. The last real pony, anyway. Shouldn't she get to make the decision?”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “Fine. Rainbow, are you comin' with me, or are you gonna stay here?”
“I'm coming with you,” Rainbow said quickly.
“There – it's settled. What about you, Discord? Are you up for some time travel?”
The draconequus yawned. “I find this whole timeline to be positively boring. Go ahead and reset the future. Nothing of any consequence will be lost.”
Applejack smiled. “You miss Fluttershy, don't you?”
Discord stood up. He snapped his talon, and the throne disappeared. “I have no idea what you are talking about,” he said with a slight smile. He then vanished out of sight.
“Well, that's that,” Rainbow remarked. “Can we get going now?”
“You're in a mighty big hurry to leave!” Applejack commented.
“Of course! Have you seen this place? It's, like, totally terrible. I want to get back to my friends. This isn't exactly a great place to hang out.”
“I know what you mean. C'mon, let's get out of here. Time to go talk to Twilight.”
Rainbow flew over and stood beside Applejack. Applejack then lit up her horn, and the two ponies vanished.
* * * * *
When Applejack and Rainbow Dash dropped back into the timestream, the scene around them changed ever so slightly. The sky, the ground, and the air were all the same. There was just one difference: they were no longer alone.
When Rainbow Dash saw Twilight, she immediately screamed. She averted her eyes and tried very hard not to throw up. Applejack had a very different reaction: she rushed over to her fallen friend and tried to help her.
There wasn't much she could do, and she knew it. Twilight's wings were crushed, and most of her bones were broken. Her horn was shattered and there was a large gash in her side. There was blood everywhere. Twilight herself was unconscious – thankfully. If she were awake, she would have been screaming in pain. If she was still alive enough to scream.
Applejack lit up her horn and got to work. She couldn't use magic to set bones, but she could stop the bleeding. She knew it was useless; Twilight's internal organs were badly damaged, and she would be dead very soon. But she had to do something. She couldn't just leave her suffering like that.
Applejack finished by casting a spell that would remove all pain from Twilight. She then hesitated. “I'm going to wake Twilight up,” she said aloud.
“I think Celestia's dead,” Rainbow Dash said with a strained voice.
Applejack glanced behind her and saw the crushed body of the princess. “I'm not surprised. Discord did say that Celestia died first. I can see why. Given how injured both ponies are, I don't understand why Twilight survived as long as she did. Alicorns must be made of pretty tough stuff.”
“I am going to be so sick. Do we have to do this? This is the most gruesome thing I've ever seen – and I saw your severed head. Whenever I see Twilight again I'm going to think of – that,” she said, pointing with a hoof. “I'm going to have nightmares for sure.”
“I know it ain't easy. It tears me all up inside to see our friends like this. The only reason I ain't a mess is because I know we're gonna fix all this and keep it from ever happening. It's like what Starswirl told us – once we're done, the timeline will be changed. Celestia and Twilight will never go through this.”
“But that's not going to help us! We went through it. These memories are going to haunt us for the rest of our lives.”
“This won't take long,” Applejack assured her. She lit up her horn and cast a spell on Twilight.
The purple alicorn moaned. Her eyes struggled to open. She opened her mouth and coughed. Blood came out.
Rainbow Dash winced.
“Twilight?” Applejack said gently. “Can you hear me?”
Twilight looked at her. She struggled to speak. “I – I can't feel anything. My whole body is numb.”
“I know. I cast a spell to get rid of your pain.”
“I wasn't complaining,” Twilight replied weakly. “I've been laying here... for a while. I don't know how long. All I could feel is... pain. I couldn't move.”
“I know. You're injuries are pretty extensive. I did what I could, but there ain't a whole lot I can do.”
“I'm dying,” Twilight said flatly. “I just don't know... what happened. Celestia couldn't beat me. I was too strong. I could have hurt her, but I didn't. I held back. I wanted her to see that the fight was futile. I wanted her to... give up. But then she did something.”
Rainbow Dash spoke up. She still couldn't look at Twilight. “Discord said Celestia cast a spell on the sun or something. Only the spell went bad, and it blew up the whole world.”
“Discord?” Twilight said. She coughed again. “He's here? Wait. Who are you two? All the books are gone. There shouldn't be any ponies left.”
“Oh right – sorry about that,” Applejack said. “That blue pegasus over there is Rainbow Dash. She's the original, actually. Not a clone or anything. I'm the first Applejack clone that you made. You created me after the original died.”
“But... you have a horn.”
“Yup, I sure do! I still ain't used to it. Starswirl gave it to me so I could travel through time. He was worried that your book project was really dangerous, so he sent Rainbow Dash and me into the future to see how things turned out. So here we are.”
“Through time?” Twilight gasped. “That's what he did? I thought he killed you!”
“Killed us?” Rainbow said. “That's crazy! Where in Equestria did you get that idea? Starswirl would never kill anypony! He was awesome. I liked him.”
“Sunshine was the one who told me...” Twilight stopped. A look of anger appeared on her face. “Stupid. Stupid stupid stupid! Why did I trust her? I was... a fool.”
“I take it you've had a falling out with your friend,” Applejack said.
“She betrayed me,” Twilight said bitterly. “She replaced my friends with clones. Lied to me. She was horrible.”
“I kinda figured. You know, Starswirl thought that Rarity was a clone. I guess he was right. He was convinced that Sunshine was bad news and that your comic magic would lead to disaster. I gotta say he was right on the money. The future is a much bigger disaster than I ever imagined.”
“But you can... fix it,” Twilight said. Her breathing was labored. “Make it... right.”
“Now don't you worry none,” Applejack said soothingly. “That's exactly what I'm gonna do. Rainbow and I are going to go back in time and stop that tree from killing me. Then–”
“No,” Twilight gasped. “Don't... do that. Make a new future. In a book.”
“In a book?” Applejack said incredulously.
“Think about it. The real world is... bad. Full of pain and death. Can't you see? The only way to be happy is in books. In books you can... stop bad things from happening. This world is just... trouble. Don't try to save it. Make a better one.”
Rainbow Dash spoke up. “You know, she kinda does have a point.”
“No she doesn't! Look, Twilight, I know you're fond of books and all, but I think you've lost your senses. I am not going to spend the rest of eternity harvestin' fake apples from fake apple trees, and living with a fake family in a fake world. I want somethin' real. Those books of yours are just fantasies – nothing more. Why in Equestria would I want to live in a daydream?”
Twilight struggled to talk. “Its... better. No loss. No death.”
Applejack shook her head. “Twilight, you ain't thinkin' clearly. Look, I know that life has pain and problems. That's just part of it. But that's why you have friends – they help you get over the rough parts. I know there's bad in this life, but there's good too. The trick is not dwellin' on the bad or lettin' it define you and change you who are. Instead you have to overcome it. That's what you've always done before, and it's helped you grow stronger and become a better pony. Trying to avoid pain by living in a daydream is just foolish.
“Besides, it don't work anyway. I understand that you don't like death. I don't like it either. But don't you see? Death is somethin' that even you can't prevent. No matter what you do, your friends are still going to die. The best you can do with your book magic is replace then with copies that do whatever you want them to do. Are fake friends with fake emotions really what you want?”
Twilight looked at Applejack. “Aren't you... a clone?”
“I surely am, and I hate it. And what's more, you hate it too. You're still angry with Sunshine for replacin' your friends with clones, and I bet it's because you want the real thing. You can't tell me that you believe a clone is just as good as the original. I know that you hate the bad parts of this life; I get that. We all feel the same way. But what you really want is something real. And you can't get that in a book.”
“But... my friends. If you fix the timeline, they will still die. I'll still... lose you. I can't bear that.”
Rainbow Dash spoke up. “She does have a point, you know! Twilight's an alicorn. She's going to live for thousands of years. You might live that long, since you're a magical pony created out of a book, but I'm sure not.”
“I'm sorry, Twilight,” Applejack said. “I know you love your friends, and I know you don't want to lose 'em. Bein' an alicorn has both good and bad, I guess. It just depends on how you approach it. I know you won't be able to keep us forever – but since you'll live for so long, you'll get to have more friends than I can even imagine. You'll meet all sorts of ponies. Now I admit it would be hard to make a friend when you know you're gonna outlive them by centuries. And it's true that since you're gonna live for so long, it will be really hard for you to relate to anypony. Yeah, I see the problem. I would tell you to go and talk to Celestia about it, since she seems to handle it ok, but I know she's kinda, um, dead right now. I wish I knew what to tell you, but this is way beyond me. I'm just an earth pony, after all.”
“No you're not. You're... an alicorn,” Twilight pointed out.
“Oh. Right. Yeah, there's that. But my point is, even your books can't keep your friends from dying. I know you want a world that's free from pain, but this magic can't do that. What you ought to do is fight the pain instead of fleeing from it. Twilight, you've got friends! Why, you had friends all over Equestria who loved you and cared about you. You didn't need to create a fake pony to be your friend. When you had problems, your real friends could have helped you overcome them. Real friends give you something real to hold onto. Something you can trust.
“Let me ask you a question. When you are feeling sad and upset, what would you rather do: go to some fake pony in a book, or go to your real friends in Equestria? Because if I take your advice, there ain't ever gonna be any more real ponies again. Is that really what you want?”
Twilight looked at Applejack. Tears began to form in her eyes. She struggled to speak. “I want... my friends back. I've been... so alone.”
“Then that's what we'll do,” Applejack said.
“I'm... so... sorry,” Twilight said weakly.
“I know,” Applejack replied.
Twilight did not respond. She was gone.
* * * * *
After Twilight died, there was silence. Applejack sat by Twilight's body and looked at her, lost in thought. Rainbow Dash flew around in the air. She was nervous and antsy.
“What are you doing, anyway?” Rainbow Dash finally asked. “I'm pretty sure she's dead. She's not going to answer any more of your questions.”
“I know,” Applejack said softly. “It's just really sad, you know? I never thought I'd live long enough to see her die. I always figured I'd go before she did.”
“You did die before she did. That's how all of this started.”
“That's true, ain't it? I guess you're right. I just hate seeing her like this.”
“Then let's go back in time and fix it! That's the plan, right? It's not like there's anything more we can do here.”
Applejack stood up. “You know, you're taking her death awfully well. You don't seem all that upset about it.”
“That's because I refuse to accept the fact that Twilight is dead. When you and I go back in time, Twilight is going to be alive again and none of this will have ever happened. This is all, like, a bad dream or something.”
“I wish this were just a dream. I really do. But you're right about one thing: we are going to fix this. But first there's one more thing we've got to do.”
“Aw, c'mon! What now? What could there possibly be to do in this empty world? We're the only ponies left!”
“I need Twilight's memories,” Applejack said. “I need to know what happened between the time we left and now. That way when we go back in time and talk to our friends, we can explain to them how the world was destroyed. Somepony needs to remember this timeline.”
“Can't we just tell them that it's bad and leave it at that?”
Applejack shook her head. “That ain't a good idea. I can't tell Twilight to not do somethin' without tellin' her why. It would be too easy for her to think that I was wrong, or that it wasn't really that bad, or that this time it's gonna be different. I need her memories. That's the only thing that would convince her – I mean, really convince her deep down.”
“I dunno. It kinda seems like an invasion of privacy. Are you sure Twilight wants you to have her memories? Aren't they kinda personal?”
“I'm not going to get all of her memories. I just need the memories from the day I died until the day she died. All those memories will be of events that the old Twilight will never experience. They'll be from a Twilight in a different timeline.”
“But won't there still be lots of personal stuff in there? I mean, you're going to lean all sorts of things about her that she probably doesn't want you to know.”
Applejack looked at Rainbow Dash. “You do realize that this whole thing started when you took my memories and gave them to a clone, right? Twilight was the first pony to take a pony's memories – from my corpse, as a matter of fact.”
“But she didn't take them for herself! She was trying to recreate you. It's not like she grabbed them and put them all in her head.”
“That's true,” Applejack agreed. “Instead she put 'em in a stone and then stuck them on a shelf in her basement, so she could access them whenever she wanted.”
“C'mon – you know Twilight's not like that.”
A thought suddenly occurred to Applejack. “Wait a minute. This isn't about Twilight at all, is it? You're still upset that Twilight accidentally gave me some of your memories!”
“And I don't want that to happen to her,” Rainbow Dash said. “I know what it's like. It's bad.”
Applejack nodded. “All right. So suppose that instead of doing that, we just take Twilight's body back in time with us and let Twilight extract her memories from her corpse. Would that work?”
“Ew! That's gross. Are you crazy? Why would you even suggest that? Just use a memory stone.”
“I ain't got a memory stone. And I sure don't see any laying around here.”
“So make one,” Rainbow said. “I mean, you've got your comic definition, right? You can use that to just poof one into existence. Problem solved.”
“I guess I could do that,” Applejack admitted. “Then when we go back in time, we can give that stone to Twilight. She can then have very vivid memories of losing all of her friends, being betrayed by Sunshine, descending into madness, and then dying a slow and painful death after being attacked by her mentor Celestia. I'm sure she's really gonna enjoy that. There's no chance at all that might cause permanent psychological damage.”
“Fine,” Rainbow Dash muttered. “I give up. But aren't you worried about losing yourself? I mean, you've already got Applejack's memories – the original, I mean – and you've got my knowledge of flight and my memories, and you've got Starswirl's knowledge of magic. Now you're going to have Twilight living in your head too. How are you going to keep from going nuts?”
“It's easy. I'll just create a partition in my head and I'll store all of Twilight's memories there. If I need them I can access them, but they won't be a part of who I am.”
Rainbow frowned. “You know that's not a thing, right? Ponies don't work that way. I'm pretty sure that's not possible.”
“Maybe not for a real pony. But I'm fake, remember? All I need to do is change my definition, and pretty much anything is possible. That's how I became a time-traveling alicorn. I just need to do a little bit of writing.”
“Did you bring a quill?”
“Nope. But I don't need it. I can just use magic.”
“Oh. All right, fine. But hurry up, ok? I want to get out of here.”
* * * * *
Applejack spent the next hour working on the memory transfer. The first thing she did was change her own comic definition. That proved to be trickier than she realized. It was true that she was a fictional pony, but all the changes that she wanted to make had to conform to physical limitations in the real world. In Equestria she was flesh and blood, and her alterations had to respect that.
What Applejack was attempting to do was very tricky and highly experimental. Her old earth pony self would have been completely lost. That sort of deep knowledge was beyond her – but it was not beyond Starswirl. Applejack was able to harness his vast understanding of magic to find a solution. Applejack would be able to carry Twilight's memories without being lost in them. Or so she hoped.
Once that task was done and her mind was ready, Applejack began transferring Twilight's mind into her own. It took a long time. Twilight's mind was broken, and there were pieces of memory everywhere. Applejack struggled to only take the memories that were recent, and leave behind the ones that took place before Applejack was killed. It wasn't easy and it proved to be very taxing, but she was convinced it was necessary. Somepony had to remember this timeline, in order to make sure it never happened again. The record of this terrible era could not be lost.
Applejack did not want to carry this information forever. Once she fixed the timeline she wanted to write all of this down and then purge it from her mind. But for now this would have to do. If the ponies of the past doubt me, I can just show them the memories. That will be far more convincing than words on a page.
When it was finally done, Applejack shut down the magical connection between her and Twilight. She breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, I'm glad that's over with!”
“It sure took long enough,” Rainbow Dash remarked. “So can we go now?”
“In a minute. I've got to rest a bit. Magic ain't as easy as it looks. It takes a lot out of you.”
“Fine, fine, go ahead and rest. We need time to come up with a plan anyway. Once we go back in time, what are we going to do?”
“Prevent the accident that killed me, of course!”
“Ok, great. We'll start with that. Then what?”
“Um, I guess then we'll go talk to Twilight.”
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Nope. Bad plan. What we need to do is gather everypony together and have a big meeting. Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie, the original Applejack and the old me – they need to be there too. Oh, and the princesses should come. Cadence is probably busy, but Celestia and Luna should be able to make it.”
“Why in tarnation would we do that?”
“Um, maybe because an alicorn from the future just came into town and accused Twilight of destroying the whole world? Don't you think that's going to stir ponies up?”
“I guess you have a point,” Applejack admitted. “Maybe it would be best to tell the story to everypony. That might help Twilight understand.”
“It's not just about Twilight, you know! Once you've told the story, everypony will have to decide what to do.”
“What do you mean? I'll tell Twilight to never, ever invent the book magic. It's easy.”
Rainbow shook her head. “No it's not. The book magic is not bad. Sure, the way it was used is bad, but the magic itself can do a lot of good. It did create you, after all.”
“It also created all of this,” Applejack said, waiving a hoof around. “I don't see anything good that came out of it.”
“But that's not the magic's fault! Look. You died, remember? You died, and you were gone. Now, thanks to this magic, we are about to go back in time and save your life. The original Applejack is going to live again thanks to that book in your saddlebag. Is that a bad thing?”
Applejack paused. “No, I guess not. But the cost of saving my life was awfully high, if you ask me.”
“Yes, there's good and bad,” Rainbow admitted. “But I think we need to talk about it with everypony. Maybe we can control this magic! Maybe we can limit it and use it for good. Maybe instead of using it to make fantasy worlds, we can use it to create things in this world – like food for hungry ponies.”
“You know, you seem strangely thoughtful today,” Applejack remarked. “You usually ain't much of a philosopher. Are you sure you're not just tryin' to avoid the blame for pushing Twilight into inventing this magic in the first place?”
“Of course not!” Rainbow protested. “Ok, well, maybe. Celestia is going to kill me for all this, isn't she? I am so, so dead.”
Applejack suddenly realized something. “Wait a minute! You're the one who pushed away Twilight's friends after I died. You wouldn't let anypony come and visit her – not even Celestia. I remember it plain as day. That's why Twilight got so lonely and felt abandoned, and that's why she created Sunshine. And Sunshine was the one who replaced her friends with clones and led to the destruction of the world. Why, Rainbow Dash, if you had just let Twilight have some company that week, none of this would have happened! Equestria would still be here.”
“I know,” Rainbow said painfully. “I admit it was a mistake, but seriously. How was I to know that telling Celestia to come back later would kill everypony on the planet? It's not like I did it on purpose! And wait a minute. You weren't even there! You were dead at the time. How could you remember what happened?”
“I have Twilight's memories,” Applejack said.
Rainbow sighed. “Can we get out of here? I want to go home.”
Applejack smiled. “Sure. Let's go pay a visit to Sweet Apple Acres. I need to have a conversation with myself.”
Rainbow Dash stopped flying in circles and landed right next to Applejack. The orange alicorn then lit up her horn. The pair of ponies was enveloped by a glowing magical sphere – and then both of them vanished.