Princess Twilight Sparkle descended the steep stairs, nearly tripping in her haste. The only thing making her slow down was the reminder that if she did fall, she had no more wings to catch herself with.
Her beautiful wings had vanished along with ShadowFire. So, from all accounts, had the Hunter. So had several other magical items and spells that Twilight had made with ShadowFire's help. It would be hard for her to replace those things, or learn to live without them.
But she hoped that something else had vanished along with them.
With a flash of her horn, Twilight passed through a set of magical locks, half of which no longer worked, into the inner chamber, the lowest room in the palace.
The room was crowded with magical implements, from metal boxes with flashing lights and green display screens, to complex structures of gold and lead wire and a dazzling variety of gemstones, to pulsating clear orbs filled with rainbow lightning.
Since assuming the throne with the help of ShadowFire, Princess Twilight had been telling her subjects that every drop of unicorn magic that could be spared was necessary to keep these machines running, and that these machines were important to maintain not only Equestria, but the stability of the universe.
That had been half true.
Princess Twilight wasn't even surprised that Celestia had gotten away with lying to her subjects for so long. She herself had found her subjects sadly gullible. But she'd told herself it would be worth it.
That seemed silly now.
Princess Twilight slowly approached the little green capsule in the middle of the room. Aunt Jackie could say what she liked about the Time Guardians, but they had served a purpose in history. It was only through their work that she'd managed to create a capsule of frozen time.
With some hesitation, Princess Twilight cracked the seal. Now to see if all her dreams had come true, or been shattered forever.
Lying in the capsule, his arms crossed over his chest, looking just the same as the day she'd sealed him away, was Spike. He was a bit taller and his legs and arms more gangly, but otherwise he looked the same as his past self.
The spots were gone, Princess Twilight thought, a glimmer of hope forming in her mind. Gently, she reached out and shook him. "Spike? Spike? Please wake up."
Spike didn't move. His skin felt cold to the touch.
Tears appeared in Princess Twilight's eyes. Some of them fell on Spike's face, but he still didn't move.
Princess Twilight flung herself around Spike in a tight hug, sobbing in earnest. Her horn glowed- regular magenta again- as she frantically tried to wake him up with whatever magic spell would do the job.
"T-Twilight?"
Princess Twilight gasped and uncurled slightly so she could look at Spike's face. His eyes flickered open.
"Twilight?" he whispered. "Where are your wings?"
Twilight hugged Spike tightly and nuzzled his cheek affectionately. "I traded them for something far more precious."
"Oh, Rarity," Past Fluttershy breathed. "Your sky is beautiful."
Princess Rarity looked up at the night sky. "Oh, I can't raise the moon or anything, dearie. That's all handled by Twilight. I'm mostly a figurehead." She smiled slightly. "But on occasion I have fun with the constellations."
Stars shifted place across the sky, rearranging to form the shapes of the six elements of harmony.
"Now remember," Pinkie Pie said as she unpacked a picnic basket at impossible speeds, "this is a Peace Picnic. If you want to confess your own problems, fine. But no accusing any other pony."
Aunt Jackie ground her teeth together. "You folks are sure gonna get it from me soon as this picnic's over..."
"Wait until our past selves go home at least," Diane Pie said.
"Ah know," Aunt Jackie said.
Rainbow Dash snatched a platter of tiny cakes and flew up in the sky with them.
"Hey!" Twilight Sparkle said. "Those are for everypony!"
"You know just as well as I do that if I leave them on the ground Pinkie Pie will-"
Pinkie Pie and Diane Pie decimated a cake together.
"See?" Rainbow Dash said.
"We only ate one slice!" Pinkie Pie protested. "There's nine slices for the rest of you!"
"Yeah, guys. Don't you know what 'decimated' means?" Diane Pie said.
"Don't fall," Fluttershy whimpered, watching the two Spikes dangle their legs over the edge of the cloud.
Princess Twilight had enchanted a cloud to be a safe platform for all the ponies and dragons to stand on. She wanted them to see the stars 'a little closer' for their picnic.
Rarity trotted over to the two Spikes and sat down between them. "Oh, the castle looks beautiful from up here."
"It's like I never left," Future Spike whispered.
After a pause, Rarity said, "You know that neither of you are going to die of terminal illness, right, dearies?"
"Yeah," Future Spike said, smiling. "Twilight explained it all to me." He swung his legs back and forth and stared at the ground. "Thank you... for saving us."
After a pause, Rarity picked Past Spike up and hugged him. "We couldn't have done it without you!"
"Aw," Spike said. "It was nothing." Hearts appeared in his eyes.
"So," Twilight Sparkle said to the two princesses, "I know we're not supposed to accuse other ponies... but you are going to let the unicorns go, right?"
Princess Twilight and Princess Rarity looked at each other.
"Well, we'll talk about it," Princess Twilight said. "Maybe I can go back to a magic tax?"
"Or we could check on Celestia and Luna again," Princess Rarity whispered. "But what about Sweetie Belle?"
There was a pause. "Oh, uh, yeah... her..." Princess Twilight said, shuffling her hooves and kicking up cloud dust.
"I mean, her special talent is to fuel magic spells, isn't it?" Princess Rarity pressed.
Princess Twilight drew herself up and took a deep breath. "Hercutiemarkisfake."
"What?" Princess Rarity said, cocking her ear to hear better.
Princess Twilight closed her eyes as if braced for impact. "Sweetie Belle's cutie mark is fake."
Princess Rarity's eye twitched. "Come again, darling?"
"I made it up so that you wouldn't mind that I was using her as... a... battery..." Princess Twilight shrank back at Princess Rarity's harsh glare.
"You did what?!" Princess Rarity roared in the Canterlot Royal Voice.
"I-I didn't want to look like I was making exceptions for my friends! It would have looked bad!" Princess Twilight whimpered.
"You turned my sister into a brainless little machine! I can't believe you-"
"Twilight didn't erase Sweetie Belle's memory!" Aunt Jackie shouted, whacking Princess Rarity on the shoulder.
Princess Rarity leaned back and stopped glaring at Princess Twilight. "...What?"
"Sweetie Belle's amnesia isn't Twilight's fault. Somepony else did that."
"And this is a peace picnic!" Diane Pie shouted.
"I'm sorry," Princess Twilight said. "Giving Sweetie Belle a fake cutie mark was wrong and I shouldn't have done it and I will do whatever it takes to make it up to you... but I can't fix the past."
"Says who?" Aunt Jackie snarled. "Says Doctor Whooves?"
"Says the fact I'm not a Time Guardian," Princess Twilight snarled back.
"But we can fix the past!" Pinkie Pie said. "And we will! We will!"
"Speaking of which," Rainbow Dash said, shoving the rest of a submarine sandwich in her mouth, "you've got the portal ready, right, Sparkie?"
Princess Twilight nodded. "Ready when you are."
"In a minute," Pinkie Pie said. "You can't leave in the middle of a party."
The ponies settled down to enjoy one last moment together.
"Is everypony all set?" Princess Twilight asked.
"It's not like we brought any luggage, dear," Rarity said.
"Oh, but I do have that fabulous outfit you were wearing when you first arrived!" Princess Rarity said, magiking the ensemble onto Rarity.
"Ooh!" Rarity cooed. "I can't believe you remembered!"
"Are you going to tell Twilight about... you-know-what?" Fluttershy whispered to Dame Fluttershy.
Dame Fluttershy smiled bitterly. "I won't leave it alone... let's just leave it at that."
"Promise me you two will try and get along," Applejack told her future self and Captain Dash.
The two ponies shrugged at each other.
"I'll do my best," Captain Dash said.
"And stop with the magic enhancements," Rainbow Dash said. "Those are what's making you so... such a pushover. Hormones and all that. I learned about this in Cloudsdale."
"So did I," Captain Dash said with a smirk. "And I'll think about it. But I do have the kingdom's safety to think about."
"But I promise to stop with the medicine," Diane Pie said. "You're right Pinkie Pie. My... our powers are a gift. I'll just have to figure them out on my own time."
"Okay, seriously, guys?" Twilight Sparkle called from the floor of her library. "I think the princess is getting tired of holding the portal open."
Princess Twilight nodded, smiling weakly. "Thank you, Twilight..."
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Fluttershy shouted, hopping to the other side of the portal right away.
The portal was the same as the one that first lead Twilight and friends into this world- surrounded by crystals, creating a hole in the castle wall that really lead to Twilight's library instead of the castle grounds.
"Oh, yeah, sorry about that," Rainbow Dash said, stepping to the other side.
"Goodbye!" Pinkie Pie said, stepping over the line. "Will we ever see you again?"
"Hopefully not," Princess Twilight said. "But if we do, I hope it's only because you decided to visit our timeline again."
"Stay strong!" Rarity said, joining her friends in Twilight's library.
Applejack hesitated.
"Before Ah say goodbye," she said, backing off into the library, "Ah'd like to know one thing, if you can tell me that..."
"Yes, dear?" Princess Rarity said.
"Ah'd just like to know... Princess Twilight? Yer highness?"
"Yes?" Princess Twilight said.
"Do you know when... when Doctor Whooves first shows up?"
Princess Twilight frowned with concentration. The portal flickered like a TV with poor reception, into and out of existence.
"Princess?" Applejack said.
The words came to her, broken and soft, but still intelligible:
"Soon. Very Soon."
The portal closed permanently.
End Arc 1.
Author's Notes
Hey, thanks to everyone who's read this far! It was a lot of fun writing Arc 1 (at times...) but I'm still glad it's over, because I think I'm going to have even more fun with Arc 2.
There'll be a bit of a break between arcs, as I still need to figure out an outline for Arc 2, but I wanted to give you a hint about the plot. (I mean, a hint other than 'Doctor Whooves is in it'.) I've always been fond of the Next Episode previews of Doctor Who, which shows you several one-second clips of the next episode with no context given, leaving you to wonder and speculate at the meaning of some of the scenes. So I had an idea for something similar. I'll give you several clips of dialogue from the next arc, without telling you the context- or who is saying the dialogue.
Of course, since I'm giving you these little dialogue clips before I've actually written the story, I can't guarantee that they'll be used in the arc verbatim. But all the plot points that are being referred to by these snippets of dialogue will be used in the story, unless something radical happens (like the story needing a major plot overhaul because I realized it isn't working, or like me suddenly growing up and deciding I have mature, grown-up things to be doing instead of writing fanfiction for a little girl's TV show.) But hopefully nothing like that will happen.
Here goes:
Up next, on My Little Pony: Through Space and Time:
"Well, Minuette, it seems that you're on time as usual."
"Th-that can't be my special talent! Nopony's special talent is being punctual! Nopony!"
"Look, Octavia- I have wings today!"
"Oh, Celestia help us..."
"Who needs Celestia when we've got an alicorn for a little sister?"
I am so scared.
I woke up just now, and I can't remember anything.
Not my name, not my job, not my family- anything!
Dear Time Guardian Council,
Trying to adjust to life as a mundane earth pony. I cannot tell you how much I hate it.
I am so scared.
I woke up just now, and I can't remember anything.
Not my name, not my job, not my family- anything!
But do you know what's creepier?
The first thing I saw was this journal. And the first entry in this journal was... about how I'd just lost my memory.
Does this mean I've had amnesia before?
"Welcome to the Ultra Mall, the only facility you'll ever need. Here you'll have nothing to do but relax, take life easy, eat fatty foods, and live a life of decadence. Please... don't try to leave. The Lord Smooze has already had lunch today. We'll tell you when you can leave. Don't worry; you'll probably be just in time for dinner."
Dear Doctor Whooves,
The Time Council regrets to inform you that it has no memory of anypony named 'Doctor Whooves', either working for the Time Guardians or otherwise.
I am so scared.
I woke up just now, and I can't remember anything.
Not my name, not my job, not my family- anything!
But do you know what's creepier?
The first thing I saw was this journal. And the first entry in this journal was... about how I'd just lost my memory.
...And so was the second.
And the third.
How many times has this happened? And why can't I stop it?
To be continued...