Stopping the Future That the past Creates

by Yoshi1990

Chapter 14: Another Crash in the Past

Blooming Shadow, the new thestral princess, was taking a casual walk through the crystal castle. This place still scared her but she knew that she had to be strong. If not for herself, then for other ponies who were getting use to this new word of light. Her morning had been pretty average. No exciting things had happened yet. In the room next to her, she could hear magic crackling through the air. Her curiosity got the best of her and she investigated. She opened the door to see a portal forming in the center of the room.

A black pegasus with a dark-green mane hovered through the portal and smiled at her. Blooming Shadow smiled back. “Hi,” she said. “That was some entrance. You do know we have a door to the castle?”

“Yes,” replied Lightwing. “Hey, do you know where I can find Princess Luna, Celestia, Lyra, or Vivian?”

Blooming Shadow smiled reassuringly. “Sure I know where they are but what’s your name?”

“Lightwing.”

Blooming Shadow’s smile turned into confusion. “Did you just say Lightwing? As in the Lightwing that Vivian and Lyra talk about?”

“The one and only,” replied a smug Lightwing.

“Follow me,” said, Blooming Shadow as she trotted away.

Lightwing followed closely as the two went through hallways. The familiar but empty hallways brought mixed feelings to Lightwing. There was no conversation for the three-minute trot to the throne room.

Blooming Shadow burst through the throne room doors. “I have important news, Luna.”

Luna continued looking out a window. “Hast thou gotten over thy fear of this castle?”

Confusion made itself onto Lightwing’s face as Blooming Shadow giggled. “You know you sound so weird when you talk like that. My fear is still here but I found Lightwing.”

Luna turned away from the window. With a face of confidence, looked at Blooming Shadow and Lightwing. “We have been expecting you, Lightwing. Discord told my sister and I when you would return. Come, let us inform the others.” Lightwing put the medallion and diamond the floor.

Two princesses of the night and a pegasus journeyed to the dining hall of the the crystal castle. Lightwing stayed out out of sight as Luna and Blooming Shadow entered the dining hall.

Lightwing carefully looked into the room as Luna and Blooming Shadow took a seat at the table with the five other princesses, Lyra Heartstrings, Trixie Lulamoon, and Discord. Lightwing didn’t know what food they had but it smelled delicious.

Celestia greeted her sister and the thestral princess with a wave of her hoof. “Welcome back sister. Has Blooming Shadow decided to eat with us now?”

Blooming Shadow rolled her eyes in disagreement. “I only bring news.”

Discord casually tapped the table with his bear paw. “News that four of us already know but do share.”

Celestia rolled her eyes in response to Discord. “This is another prank...I just know it. I know you are trying to spread fun around but this will only bring sadness.”

“Oh, Celestia,” replied Discord with a sad face. “Why would you think such a thing? I may be the spirit of chaos but I would not want to make anypony sad.”

Luna pounded a hoof on the table, quieting down the room. In a firm voice she said, “I think we should tell them the news.”

“No,” replied, Celestia firmly. “I will not give my little ponies false hope. And neither will you.”

“We should still tell them,” Luna calmly replied. “Even if you do not think it is the truth.”

“No!” growled Celestia.

Honeycrisp, the earth pony princess noticed something in the corner of her eye. She looked over toward the door to see a black-furred pegasus eavesdropping on their conversation. Lightwing motioned to the earth pony princess to be quiet. Honeycrisp nodded and went back to watching the alicorn sisters argue.

Lightwing facehooved as Honeycrisp raised her hoof to signal she wanted to speak. The alicorn sisters looked at Honeycrisp quietly. “I am going to put my two bits into this argument,” she stated assertively. “I believe we should know this news. Just tell us this news and we can chose to believe it or not.”

Violet Lily, the changeling princess spoke up next. “I wholeheartedly agree with Honeycrisp. Time for a vote. All in favor of hearing this news shall raise a hoof.” Every pony except Celestia raised a hoof. “Excellent,” said, Violet Lily with a smile. “Sister, please tell us the news.”

Blooming Shadow smiled back at her sister. “Thank you Violet Lily. The news I bring is that Lyra and Princess Vivian’s friend, Lightwing, has returned.”

“What?!” replied, Lyra and Vivian in unison.

Lyra giggled as she teleported a plushie onto the table. “Lightwing has always been here,” she said with a laugh.

The plushie vanished in a light-blue aura as Vivian laughed. “If only the real Lightwing were here.”

Celestia had a look of annoyance and slight anger on her face. “Play time is over Discord. You had fun but the real Lightwing is not here.”

Lightwing quietly took a deep breath. With full lungs, she yelled, ‘Tis a lie!”

Every pony and a draconequus looked over to see Lightwing standing in the doorway.

Vivian teleported over to Lightwing and gave a tight hug. “I’m so happy you were able return...and it only took you twelve days.” Vivian teleported back to her chair.

I was only gone three or four days, Lightwing confusingly thought to herself.

Lightwing tried to say something but was cut off by Vivian. “Time for you to meet all the princesses of the new Equestria. First we have our thestal princess, Blooming Shadow. Next we have her sister, Violet Lily.”

The changeling waved a hoof. “I’m adopted,” she said with a smile.

“Next is the earth pony, Honeycrisp.”

The yellow earth pony waved a hoof. “Don’t assume I work with bees.”

“Pegasus princess, Sparkling Sunrise.”

The blue pegasus waved a hoof but said nothing.

“And the unicorn princess is me,” Vivian said with pride. “Lyra is Celestia’s student and Trixie is Luna’s student. Discord is...just himself.”

Lightwing smiled awkwardly. “It was nice to meet you all, but I need to leave and find the other half of a diamond.”

Luna looked at Lightwing with curiosity. “Is this other half this diamond black?”

“Yes…,”replied Lightwing cautiously. How...would you know?”

“I have what you seek,” answered Luna. “I have a diamond that was split in half. I have had it since before I met you. A year after I was freed from an evil spirit, I found the diamond. I could sense a powerful evil in it. I took it for the purpose of stopping others from getting it. It also reminded me of myself because it was broken...like I was. Thus I kept it. Why do you need it?”

Lightwing began walking out the dining room door. “I’m going to destroy it and its evil. Meet me in the throne room,” she said as she galloped down the hall.

Every pony in the room left the dining room to go to the throne room.

Discord sat alone, tapping his talons on the table. “Things are going nicely. Not exactly as planned but well enough.” A smile found its way to his face. “Altering the timeline ain't easy. Not with that time traveling earth pony and the time keeper. I better go watch Lightwing destroy the Destruction Diamond. A very interesting magic artifact but the Chaos Emerald will be far more powerful.” Discord snapped his talons and vanished in a blast of confetti.

Discord appeared on one of the throne room chairs.

With all the ponies in the throne room sitting around Lightwing and her two supplies, Lightwing pushed the two halves of the black-diamond together. A small light radiated from the diamond as it became whole. A small piece of knowledge was given to Lightwing before Luna used her magic on the diamond, shattering it into dust.

Lightwing blinked a few times. “I just saw a vision of the past. I need my time traveling stuff.”

A light-blue aura surrounded Lightwing. “No,” stated, Vivian. “You just got back...you need to stay. You saved the future, so why do you want to go back in time again?”

With an eye roll, Lightwing replied, “I don’t want to save the future...I want to change it. Make it so this dark future never happens and I think I can do that now. So please release me from your magic. You know I don’t like you using magic on me.”

Discord hovered over to Vivian. “Release her. Don’t force her to stay. She needs to make her own choices.” Or at least think she is making her own. “Do you really think you can stop her from her life-long goal?”

Luna took this chance to voice her opinion. “I agree with Discord,” she said firmly. “She must choose her own fate.”

Vivian mumbled something under her breath as she released her magic grip. A saddlebag appeared next to Lightwing as Vivian marched out of the throne room.

Lightwing looked into the saddlebag and saw her potions inside. With an awkward smile, she put her medallion into it and closed it the bag. “I should probably pack some food and make sure I have enough money. Take a look towards Cloudsdale in about half an hour. You will see a sonic rainboom. Maybe you can travel two hundred thousand years into the past and visit me.” Lightwing took a quick drink of a potion, put on her necklace and teleported away.

Lyra, Trixie, Celestia, and Luna walked out of the throne room. Blooming Shadow, Honeycrisp, Sparkling Sunrise, and Violet Lily stared at the now empty spot where a pegasus had been. After a minute, Honeycrisp spoke up. “Lightwing teleported…”

====================

Lightwing appeared in a field northeast of Cloudsdale and southwest of the Crystal Empire. She exercised her wings for fifteen minutes and then preened her wings for the next ten. Lightwing chose to eat some wild flowers for a meal. She also drank water from a river, even though it seemed very uncivilised. With a full stomach and wings ready to fly, she took to the sky and flew over the field picking up speed until she left the timeline in a wave of color. Most of northern Equestria could see the sonic rainboom but few knew it was a time traveling pegasus.

====================

It was an average day in the town of Phoenix Burg, a large unicorn town, ponies were on main street with their shop stands, and others were in there homes enjoying large breakfasts. Today was the special once a month breakfast sale at the two bakeries where everything was seventy percent off until noon.

Martha Feathers was flying toward her new job at the garden center. Martha quickly covered her ears as a loud explosion was heard right in front of her. The sound had come from a strange rainbow-colored portal opening up in front of her.

Lightwing zoomed out of the portal and straight into another pegasus. The collision knocked them both out of the air and sent them spiraling downward at amazing speed. The two pegasi closed their eyes as they crashed through a second story window, two wooden supports and then through the wall.

The two hit the ground with a bang. Martha groaned in pain as Lightwing simply said, “I need to-” She was cut off by the sound of a building collapsing. She turned her head to see the new pile of rubble. “That’s...not good.”

Martha’s left wing twitched as she painfully said, “You broke my wing.”

Lightwing ignored the group of unicorns gathering in the street, around the event. She simply gave Martha a small bottle labeled healing. Lightwing smiled nervously. “Drink this. It will numb the pain.” Lightwing drank a potion herself too.

Martha stood up but was a little shaky from the recent event. “How did you appear from nowhere?”

Lightwing was unable to answer because a unicorn stallion came up to talk to the two pegasi. “You two are under arrest for for accidental pony slaughter and shall be punished accordingly.”

“What?!” exclaimed a confused Lightwing. With a cautious voice she asked, “What is said punishment?”

“Death,” the stallion calmly answered.

“Oh…,” was all Lightwing could say. Realisation hit her. “Does this punishment go to the other pegasus too?” The stallion said nothing as he nodded his head. “She did nothing wrong...she is a victim too. You can’t punish her. I won’t let you.”

In a calm voice the stallion replied, “Please do not resist arrest. I only enforce the laws, not make them.”

A huge group of ponies was now gathered around the scene and more law enforcers were arriving.

Two more stallions joined the first one near Lightwing. “Is she resisting arrest?” they asked.

“No but I fear she will,” he replied to his fellow law enforcers.

Lightwing sighed in annoyance. “Am I allowed to get a drink from my saddlebag?” Lightwing received a yes from the law enforcers. Lightwing opened her saddlebag and grabbed a potion, making sure to hide the label from the other ponies. She downed the whole thing and put an empty bottle in the saddlebag.

Martha sat motionlessly on her hind legs as sadness took hold of her. “Today was supposed to be a good day. I just got a new job...my family will be so sad to know I will be dead soon.” Martha softly cried.

Lightwing put a reassuring hoof over Martha. “It will be fine. I’ll make sure you are not punished for my mistake.” Lightwing turned to face the three law enforcers. “I’m only going to say this once. You will leave this other pegasus alone. She is not responsible for my actions. She is innocent. I take full responsibility for my mistake but I won’t let you kill me for it. I’m sorry that I accidentally killed the ponies in that house. I’ll have to live with that forever. I’ll accept a form of punishment but not death.”

The law enforcers faces showed true concern and regret. “We have no choice. You killed nine ponies, almost ten. We can lighten the punishment for the other pegasus but you must be put to death. Are you going to come with us peacefully or not?”

“I didn’t want it to come to this…” Lightwing ascended into the air, ready for a fight. “Save yourself the trouble and just let me go. You won’t win against me. I have a lifetime of experience.”

One of the law enforcers' horns lit up with magic. The two other unicorns and the huge crowd of onlooking citizens watched as nothing else happened. Martha, still crying decided to watch the battle between the unicorns and a strange pegasus who seemed to be immune to magic.

Lightwing snickered as she said, “It will take more than a simple levitation spell to stop me.” The three law enforcing unicorns all charged up an attack and shot shot bolts of magic at Lightwing. She was able to dodge them with little effort. “You’re so outclassed,” she said as she teleported around the sky.

The three unicorns looked at each other with confusion. “We need the advanced spell casters.” One said. He then galloped off while the others waited. A minute later, a group of eight new unicorns joined the two remaining unicorns. “You have to take this pegasus down. We are unable.” The two law enforcing unicorns joined the crowd as the eight new unicorns looked up to see a pegasus with a green shield protecting her.

Lightwing’s confidence faded slightly. “Eight unicorns that are good with magic is a problem...two or three is easy. Four or five is annoying but any more and it becomes problematic.”

The eight unicorns surrounded Lightwing but paid no attention to Martha. Two of the unicorns began sporadically shooting balls of magic while two others used random attacking spells. The four non-attacking ones raised shields to protect the group.

Lightwing smiled as she avoided most of the attacks. “You ponies need to learn to aim,” she said. “Time to see a real magic trick.,” mocked Lightwing. She shot a beam of magic straight through her enemies shield and knocked a unicorn out. The enemy shield quickly fixed itself and Lightwing blasted another beam at it but the shield held this time. “That was not supposed to happen.” Lightwing jumped--if that was even possible from in the air--as a bolt of lightning struck her shield. “Hey! Watch where you shoot those things.” Lightwing gracefully dodged incoming attacks as she thought to herself. My strongest attack won’t work now. Three unicorns using a protection spell at the same time is too much...I only broke it last time because they did not expect it.

Lightwing teleported next to Martha. Now both pegasi were in her shield. Martha looked at Lightwing and asked, “Why are you down here?”

“I have a plan but I need you to stay by my side,” replied Lightwing. “Listen to me, attackers. I am going to lower my shield and if you continue to attack, you will hurt an innocent bystander. Is that what you want?” All attacks aimed at Lightwing stopped. Lightwing smiled as she lowered her shield. “Now let us talk about this like civilised ponies.”

The unicorns just glared at her. “There is nothing to talk about. You are resisting arrest.”

Lightwing could sense a teleportation spell being cast. She sidestepped to avoid her attacker and punched him in the face as he appeared, knocking him out. Lightwing chuckled as she said, “Two down and possibly six to go.”

One of the unicorns looked at martha. “Are you being forced to stay there as a shield?”

“No,” she replied.

“Then why not leave?” Martha had no reply. In a flash of light, Martha was teleported next to the group of unicorns.

Lightwing foresaw her attackers next move and teleported into the sky. She looked down to where she was a second ago that was now occupied by all of her attackers. She smiled. “Nice sneak attack but did you really think I would fall for that? I’m still willing to talk about how we can solve this problem.”

One of the unicorns smiled evilly. “We will now use your own strategy against you. We are going to use innocent bystanders to help us.”

“What?” asked Lightwing.

“Will all unicorn citizens watching this battle please use a levitation spell on this troublesome pegasus?”

Lightwing looked around her at the huge group of unicorn observers and an occasional non unicorn. Fear overtook her as she realised that there had to be over one hundred unicorn citizens. She sighed as she realised she could not counteract a spell being cast by so many unicorns, even if they were all weak with magic.

Lightwing could feel magic surrounding her, forcing her down to the ground. “Well played,” Lightwing reluctantly commented. “But this is not over yet.”

“How so?” asked one of her enemies. “You have no defence.”

Lightwing chuckled evilly. “Oh how wrong you are. I have one last trick and it’s a one hundred percent victory.”

The six enemy unicorns raised their shields. “Lets see this victory,” one said sarcastically.

Lightwing replied in an evil voice. “As you wish.” Her irises turned black with magic. Everypony around watched in fear as an evil aura pulsated around Lightwing. “I really don’t like using dark magic but you left me no choice.” A wave of dark magic pierced through the air instantly knocking out her six enemies. “Does anypony else want to challange me?” she asked as she looked around at the hundreds of observing ponies. There were no replies.

Martha cautiously walked up to Lightwing. “Did...did you kill them?”

“Almost but No,” said, Lightwing as her irises turned back to their normal blue color. “I just-” A blinding flash of light cut her off.

A regal white and red alicorn was now staring at Lightwing and Martha. Everypony except Lightwing was now bowing down.

Enceladus, the queen of the land looked around with a perplexed face. “We sensed evil here but we only see thy pegasi and unconscious unicorns.” She made direct eye contact with Lightwing. “Dost thou know where the evil is?”

“Yes,” replied Lightwing. “I...used dark magic but I can explain.”

With an eyebrow raised, Enceladus said, “Continue.”

Lightwing took a breath of relief. “I crashed into another pegasus,” she pointed at Martha. “And then the momentum pushed us through a home and it collapsed. It killed nine ponies. The law enforcers and law-enforcing spell casters tried to arrest me for accidental pony slaughter, which is punishable by death. I did not want to die, so I fought them off until they had almost won. I then used dark magic to ensure my victory but I did not kill them.”

“Interesting,” was all the queen could say.

With skepticism, Lightwing asked, “Do you believe me?”

“We do not know.”

Still bowing, Martha fearfully said, “She tells the truth. She can use magic...and did use dark magic but it was only for protection...please spare her.”

Enceladus stared at Lightwing with interest and disappointment. “Thou art a magic-using pegasus...most impressive. We shall spare thee out of amazement and curiosity. Thou shalt not be spared if there be a next time. Are we clear?”

“Yes,” answered Lightwing.

Enceladus released a wave of magic that revived the eight unconscious unicorns. “We hereby decree that thy pegasus be spared from death.” Enceladus vanished in a flash of light.

Lightwing and the spell casters exchanged glares for a few seconds before the spell casters chose to teleport away. The huge crowd of unicorn citizens began to break up and go back to their lives.

Lightwing took this time to notice there were some nurse unicorns standing next to a young unicorn blue colt, seven or eight years old, who was staring at the pile of rubble that was a house earlier. With slight fear in her eyes, Lightwing stared at the blue colt who had a yellow mane and began to lose track of her surroundings.

Martha used a wing to lightly slap Lightwing back to reality. “You look like you’re seeing a ghost. Do you know something about that colt?”

Lightwing’s eyes stayed focused on the young colt as she answered, “I recognize that colt...just put a gold-colored diamond around his neck. Pretend he is older and...he looks just like a pony I saw before. That can’t be a coincidence…”

Martha stared at Lightwing questionably. “But you have never seen him.”

“I’m a time traveler,” Lightwing said almost too casually. “I have seen him...in the future. That was so long ago. He told me his life story. A pegasus killed his whole family...I killed his whole family.” Martha nodded her head pretending she actually knew what Lightwing was talking about. Lightwing fell back onto her hind legs, disappointment emanating from her. “It makes sense now. He was there when I fought the dragon...watching me. At my restaurant too.” Lightwing collapsed to the ground, almost crying. “The dragon even told me I killed this poor unicorns family in a flying accident. I...I...I have now created the very thing I set out to stop.” Lightwing buried her face into her fore hooves as she silently cried to herself.

Martha put a reassuring wing over Lightwing. “I don’t know what all these time travel shenanigans are, but I’m here for you.” Martha sat down as she saw the young colt walking toward them.

The young colt almost said something but was cut off by Lightwing, who had no idea the colt was there. “I need to go back to the future and stay there. Every time I travel back in time...something goes wrong. I vow to never travel through time again after I return home. Traveling through time is just too painful.”

The young colt stared at Martha, waiting for something to be said but when he got to reply, he spoke up. “Is this a bad time?” he asked with concern.

Lightwing’s tear filled face looked up at the colt. “So you’re here to tell me how horrible I am.”

“No,” replied the colt.

Lightwing wiped some tears off her face as she asked, “Then why be here?”

“I came to say I forgive you,” answered the young colt. Lightwing and Martha’s faces showed confusion at that statement. “My family told me that bad stuff happens to everypony and we should not blame others when an accident happens.”

Lightwing smiled at that fact. “I honestly wish I believed you...but I don’t.” I have seen the future. I know what you become. It might just be an insanely enormous coincidence.

“You don’t have to believe. I know it was an accident. I may be alone now but I can go live with my friend. I promise that I will always show you kindness and forgiveness, even if most unicorns don’t like pegasi and earth ponies.”

Lightwing’s smile grew a little. “Nice speech. You won’t be seeing me for a long time. I’m leaving soon. I wish you good luck with your life.”

An idea sparked in the colt’s mind. “You claim to be a time traveler, so come visit me in thirty years. I promise I will be nice,” he said with a smile.

“Nice idea kid,” Lightwing said with a slight chuckle. “Exactly thirty years from tomorrow, I will see you at this location.” With that, the young colt walked away.

Martha shuffled her hooves as realisation hit her. “I’m late for work. You can rest at my home. It’s the only cloud house to the east.” Martha galloped away.

Lightwing shouted, “But your wing is broken!” Martha was too far away to hear. “Well...she’ll figure it out in a few hours.” Lightwing stood up and looked at her surroundings. There were a few non-rubble houses, a school, a candy shop, and a few taller buildings to the south.

Lightwing began her journey to the east. She noticed that almost every citizen was keeping their distance from her. She could not blame them.

It took ten minutes to reach her destination. It was a two story cloud house with two balconies. Lightwing flew up to the wooden door and knocked. A green stallion opened the door and greeted her. “Hi. Do you work with my wife?”

“No,” replied Lightwing. “She said I could stay here. I’m just passing through town.”

“Welcome to one of the three cloud homes in this large town,” he said with a smile.

“Is there a spare bed I can sleep on?” asked Lightwing before she yawned. “I need some rest.”

The stallion pointed up stairs and said, “Second door to the left.”

Lightwing hovered up the stairs and went into the room she had been told. She put her saddlebag next to the bed but chose to keep her necklace on. She levitated the blanket over her and closed her eyes.

After a four-hour nap, Lightwing began waking up from the smell of food. With a yawn, she rubbed her sleepy eyes. “That was a nice nap.” Her nose twitched as she said, “I smell food.” Lightwing grabbed her saddlebag and scurried out and downstairs to the kitchen, where she saw Martha and her husband. In a cute voice, Lightwing asked, “Can I have some food?”

Martha dramatically pointed at an empty seat with a third plate of their dinner on it.

“Thanks.” Lightwing took a seat and ate some dinner. “Why did you make an extra plate? Did you know I would wake up?”

Martha smiled as she swallowed some food. “Yes, we knew you would wake up. The room you were in is right above the kitchen.”

“Interesting,” replied, Lightwing as she poked at her dinner with a wooden fork. There was no more conversation for the rest of the dinner. After dinner, Lightwing said goodbye and trotted to the outskirts of the town.

Lightwing looked around the field, making sure there were no roads passing by and no buildings of any sort. With a smile she said, “This spot should be good. No time travel accidents should happen...hopefully.” Lightwing took a drink of the time travel potion. She spread her wings and took flight, making sure to fly away from the large town. She continued picking up speed until a wave of rainbow energy emanated from her location as she vanished.

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A loud explosion to the east caught the town of Phoenix Burg’s attention. Some of the town citizens saw a rainbow-colored portal and fear struck them, as they recognised the portal.

Lightwing came to a quick stop as she exited the portal. Looking around, she smiled. “Yes! No accidents. This is just a quick stop and then I go back to my original time. Two hundred thousand years into the future.” Lightwing landed on the ground and began trotting toward her target destination. After five minutes, she reached a road that led into the large town. Several unicorns had a look of terror in their eyes as they passed Lightwing. Black fur was rare, so it made sense that they would recognize her, even if it was thirty years later. After a fifteen minute trot through the town, getting all sorts of looks from the citizens, Lightwing was at her destination.

Casually walking up to the house that she had once turned to rubble, she knocked on the door.

Before the door was opened, she heard a young colt inside yelling. “Oh no! Please tell me that’s not her!”

A familiar blue stallion with a yellow mane opened the door. “Wow you look the exact same as I remember you...you really are a time traveler. Nice to see you again, time traveling pegasus. You never told me your name. I have wondered what is is for thirty years.”

“Lightwing,” she answered.

A young colt who looked exactly like his father came to the door and glared at Lightwing. “So it is you. The unicorn murderer.”

Father glared at his son. “Be respectful to our guest, son.”

The young colt rolled his eyes as he walked away.

“Forgive my seven-year-old son. We just told him about you a month ago.”

Lightwing forced a smile. “No problem. I’m sure he will get over it.” I don’t think he will, but I hope. “Maybe this is a bad time. Maybe I should go away.”

“Nonsense. My name is Lightning Bubble. Come in and meet my wife, Radiant Rose.

Lightwing followed Lightning Bubble into the main room of the home. She saw a pink unicorn mare with a curly yellow mane.

The mare smiled at her guest. “Welcome to our home. I apologize for our son.”

A golden shimmer from another room caught Lightwing’s attention. She looked over into the room to see a faint golden glow on a wall. “What’s in that room?’ she asked as she pointed a wing toward the room.

Worry was present in Lightning Bubble’s voice. “That’s my son’s room. It’s probably best for you to stay away from it. He already dislikes you...we don’t need it to get worse.”

Radiant Rose walked over to Lightwing. “Our son has been unnaturally protective of his room ever since he received that hybrid golden-diamond. It looks like a diamond and is shaped like one too but the thing is made from an unnatural-weird gold substance.”

Lightwing’s eye twitched as she said, “Golden...diamond.” With determination, Lightwing looked directly into Radiant Rose’s eyes. “You need to take that thing away from him. That thing has some kind of unknown magic. It’s dangerous.”

Radiant Rose gave a look of concern. “Bad idea. Our son loves that thing. It would break his already fragile heart. Maybe we should talk about this outside, away from my son.”

Lightwing tried to smile but could not hide her annoyance. “Good idea.” The two mares left the house and began a walk through town. “How can I convince you to give me that diamond?”

“Why do you want it so badly? It is just an old artifact.”

Lightwing huffed in anger. “It’s so much more than an old artifact. That thing is the source of twelve thousand years of darkness and evil...possibly more.”

“I had no clue.” Radiant Rose turned a corner. “Are you positive about that claim? Seems a bit much.”

“Yes!” Lightwing snapped back. “That diamond is trouble. You will-” Lightwing had been pushed to the ground as she heard a sound pierce the air. She opened her eyes to see Radiant Rose had been stabbed through the heart by a sword. “What happened?” she asked. Lightwing received no answer. Radiant Rose was already dead.

Five unicorns had seen the event, and an orange unicorn mare walked up to Lightwing. “Are you hurt?” she concernly asked.

Lightwing was still staring at Radiant Rose as she answered, “I’m fine. Did you see what happened?”

“I did,” she answered. “A unicorn teleported behind you and magically threw a sword at you. The other mare pushed you away and took the hit. The unicorn responsible teleported away.”

Lightwing pounded a hoof on the ground. “And things started out so good.” Still staring at the dead unicorn in front of her, Lightwing asked, “Would you help me take her to her home?”

The orange mare nodded and an orange aura levitated Radiant Rose onto the back of Lightwing and the helper. The two walked back to the house that Lightwing had only left five minutes ago.

Lightwing motioned to the orange unicorn to stay outside. Lightwing entered the home with worry. She saw father and son in the main room. They both looked at her, one with kindness and one with anger. Lightwing sighed before she said, “There’s a problem.” Both father and son waited for an answer. Lightwing shuffled her hooves nervously as she said. “Radiant Rose is...dead.”

The room was speechless as the orange mare brought the dead Radiant Rose into the house. The orange unicorn forced out a smile. “She died a hero...if that makes you feel better.”

Lightning Bubble asked with worry. “What happened?”

His son forced out a sarcastic laugh. “I know what happened. The time traveling pegasus is the bringer of death. Everything that pegasus touches dies! One day I will kill you, time traveler.”

Lightning Bubble took a deep breath to calm himself. “I know it was an accident. Don’t say that stuff about Lightwing.”

Lightwing fell back onto her hind legs, a few tears forming in her eyes. “Your son is right...everything I touch does die. The Elements of Harmony died, countless ponies died because of a dragon I released, your family died, and now your wife is dead. I should have never come back. I’m sorry I ever met you.” Lightwing tightened her saddlebag and trotted out the front door, taking to the air as she closed the door.

The orange mare looked at the father and son with confusion. “What just happened?” she asked.

Using magic, Lightning Bubble opened the front door and calmly said, “I think you should leave now.” The orange unicorn left without a word.

A few hours later, a wave of rainbow-colored energy was seen in the east skies of Phoenix Burg.