The Fate of Clover

by Kapuchu

Chapter 6 - Fate

It was several hours before Twilight woke up again, groaning as she rubbed her aching head. She stood up on wobbly legs and leaned against the table for balance, almost falling back on her side as the table slid across the floor a little.

Even as she was trying to fight her dizziness and not to succumb to the nauseating feeling in her stomach. She felt everything that had flooded her mind whirl around in her head before settling far too slowly. She didn’t know exactly what had happened, save the fact that she had found the ‘link’, and had opened it. At the moment, however, she didn’t really care what it was, the killer headache she was the victim of being the thing that she was most occupied with.

Several minutes of headache and dizziness later, she could finally feel the pain receding and making place for more rational thoughts. Slowly, ever so slowly, she started sifting through everything that had been forced onto her, quirking an eyebrow at the strange things, smiling at the funny ones - even frowning at those she found confusing and abnormal.

There were memories of a foalhood, of the first toy she was given, the first book she had read. She even found recollections of Clover’s parents, a light purple stallion and a blue-coated mare. She wasn’t surprised by the fact that they were both unicorns, given how society was back then. There were memories of friends, of fights, but most prominent were the ones with an old bearded stallion. It was interesting to see how Clover’s relationship with Star Swirl had been very much the same as the relationship Twilight had with Celestia. Just like she had lived in the castle with Celestia, so too did Clover live with Star Swirl in his own wing of the Unicornian castle.

She continued focusing on the memories of Star Swirl the Bearded and his education of Clover the Clever. The dream she had had where Clover was first successful at telekinesis was one of the first to come to the forefront of her mind. Further down that road, she came upon several memories of teaching sessions, from alchemy to magic theory, to testing spells she had created herself and almost ruining whatever table or room she was in from the resulting explosion.

She chuckled a little as she ‘remembered’ a certain mix of potions blowing up in Clover’s face, taking with it half her mane and mutilating her eyebrows.

Another memory pressed forth, one that she could somehow feel was important. It was of Star Swirl handing over a small book as he told her how it contained possibly his greatest achievement and greatest failure at the same time.

“‘I don’t doubt your abilities, Clover, but I’m not sure if you can do what I could not. Even so, I wish you good luck’. Isn’t that what he said?” Twilight muttered, repeating what Star Swirl had said in that memory. What was that book? It seems… familiar? She idly tapped her chin and looked around as she thought it over. It wasn’t long before her eyes fell upon the diary of Clover which she had left on the table. It wasn’t exactly the book that Star Swirl had given Clover, but if it was so important to her, and so difficult, then some of her thoughts on it might have been written down as an entry.

A quick burst of magic opened the diary as Twilight bent over it, rapidly scanning every line on the page for clues. With nothing on the page she opened up on, she turns to the next page only to find nothing on that either. For several minutes she looked through the diary with no luck until she came to the very last page, upon which a large spell diagram was drawn. It took only a glance for her to see that whatever this spell was, it was on a level that even she had not reached yet, and probably wouldn’t for the next half decade.

“Age… no. Could it be? It’s not an age spell, but…” Her hoof ran across the page as she mumbled to herself, trying to find out what the different symbols and parts of the spell meant. She recognised all of the symbols, but the array they were put into made it extremely confusing.

She continued in the same manner, mumbling to herself as she studied the spell for several minutes as a headache slowly built. At first she thought it was a product of the confusion she felt by the spell in front of her, but even when she took a short break to rub her temple did it not stop in the least. Not even a short minute of attempted meditation helped in the least.

It was only when she took her time to sort through what she had seen so far that there seemed to be something pressing against her mind. Or rather, it didn’t so much press against her mind as it was a memory that tried to make its way to the forefront of consciousness. It was a strange memory, but it quickly made sense.

Furrowing her brows, she lit her horn and threw up an arcane screen in the middle of the room, letting the memory play there. Even as she did so, she made a mental note to somehow thank Trixie for showing her this spell in the first place. What made it so genius wasn’t that she could see her memories play out, but the fact that the memories were played out from a third person perspective, meaning that she could see exactly what Clover was doing rather than just see the effects of it around her.

What she saw made her seize up and stare open mouthed.

“No… No. Th-that can’t be true.” She shook her head and looked up on the screen again, watching as it played from start to finish once more. Nothing had changed, the memory still played the exact same thing in the exact same way. Not a hair on Clover’s body moved differently in the second playthrough than it did in the first.

She gulped and would have fallen to her rump had she not already been sitting down. Her ears lay down and she shook her head, trying to shove the truth out of her mind and become unknown again. Alas, the memory playing out in front of her - Clover casting a spell, leaving her home a wreck as she seemingly teleported away only to reappear on a cobblestone street - would not let her.

In an almost panicked frenzy, she grabs the book and scans over the spell diagram yet again, constantly shooting glances to the memory before quickly reverting to the book. The two ponies approaching Clover, the place she was at, the spell was she was casting before she disappeared… It all made sense, far too much sense.

It was only thanks to Cadence’s breathing exercises that allowed her to not start hyperventilating. She swallowed and let out a deep sigh, hanging her head as she spoke into nothing her acceptance of the truth.

“I-I know what happened to Clover.”

---

Day court was just about over, and Celestia sat on the throne with her sister by her side, discussing one of the petitions that had been brought in earlier that day. As it was, there were currently no other petitioners and it was only a sense of duty that made Celestia stay until her time was officially up. Her sister had come by just a few minutes prior to ask how many nobles had been a hair’s breadth from being sent flying out of the windows. The answer had been twelve, a new record.

It was much to their shared surprise, then, when the large double doors opened to allow a small lavender shape to step through them. Their attention turned towards Twilight as she slowly walked closer with a small brown book hovering beside her, ears splayed back and with an almost frightened look in her eyes - but also determination.

The silence in the room was heavy as Twilight finally stopped at the foot of the stairs that lead to the twin thrones. Even from the diarchs’ position atop the dais could they hear the unicorn’s loud gulp.

“Yes, Twilight?” Celestia asked kindly, exuding that warmth and motherliness that she was so well known for among her subjects. It didn’t take Celestia’s familiarity with the mare to see that something was bothering her.

Twilight took a deep breath and let it out, cautiously taking the first step up to the thrones. When she was finally at the top and stood in front of her Celestia and Luna, she felt herself starting to second-guess. The revelation was enormous, so much so that she would gladly forget it and just let it be another mystery never to be solved. But she knew that it would not be so; she knew, and she was compelled to tell them.

She put down the book beside her and took yet another deep breath to steel herself. “Princess Luna, Celestia… I know what happened to Clover the Clever.”

Luna tilted her head and raised an inquisitive eyebrow, her face mirroring that of a curious dog. “Pray tell, then, what happened to Clover? T’is the mystery of the ages and we would gladly like to know.” Celestia only nodded her agreement, though her eyes were locked onto Twilight, concerned.

“I… She…” Twilight stopped herself and closed her eyes, forcefully composing herself. She slowed down her breathing, forced her heart to not hammer in her chest.

Finally, after several moments, she opened her eyes and looked up at both the royal sisters, steel in her eyes despite a frightened determination. “Before I begin, please cast the Truth Speaking spell on me, Princesses.”

Luna spared a quick glance to Celestia before she lit her horn and let a coat of magic cover Twilight before it soaked into her body.

Need to test it first. Let’s try to say, ‘Star Swirl was a mare’. “Star Swirl was a stallion… Alright, it works.” Twilight smacked her lips a few times to get a sense of the feeling of saying something she didn’t mean to say, then refocused on the alicorns.

“Twilight?” Celestia asked tentatively. She’d wanted to asked more but a raised hoof from Twilight stopped her.

“Luna, Celestia… I-I was born in the city state of Unicornia in the year 27 Before Equestria by my mother, Trefoil the Wise, and Ruby Quartz the Stoic, my father. I was taught and educated under Star Swirl the Bearded from age six and onwards, later earning my place as council mare of the late King Whitegold’s daughter, Princess Platinum.” She gulped and looked up, having lowered her head during her speech, and delivered the final nail in the coffin that was her old, ignorant self. “And my name... is Clover the Clever.”

Of all the possible answers that Celestia and Luna had expected when they allowed Twilight access to the hidden library, this was definitely not one of them. Truthfully, they had expected her to return empty-hoofed and with only the barest hints as to Clover’s disappearance, but nothing substantial and, certainly, not this. Had they both not know that Twilight was under the Truth Spell, they might very well have dismissed what she was saying as a prank.

“I… Clo - no, Twilight. Can you prove this to us?” Celestia asked, taking a hesitant step forward. She could see by the way the unicorn’s ears were splayed back and the way her eye subtly twitched every now and then that her student wasn’t in a very solid state of mind, so she proceeded with as much care as a mother would her new-born child. “I know that you were under the truth spell and could not have told a lie, but I think I speak for both my sister and I when I say that we trust you, but-” She was interrupted by an indigo hoof passing into her line of sight, blocking her view of Twilight. She glanced to her side and caught Luna’s meaningful gaze and stepped back, allowing her sister to take her place.

Luna stepped up to Twilight and kneeled down, bringing a hoof up under the unicorn’s chin to both prevent her from looking away and also to get her full attention. “Twilight, look at me, good. Now, look into my eyes and just relax.” Twilight did as she was asked, silent and somewhat hesitant, but also curious. Despite her brave face earlier, the façade was cracking. She could attempt to hide her uneasiness and shock behind that mask however much she liked, but it would only hold for a few minutes at best before it cracked and let her true feelings be known. Of all the ponies in Equestria, Luna might very well know better than any what it feels like to hide your true feelings and try to appear normal for all the world to see. She smiled as Twilight’s eyes met hers, the purple meeting cyan.

She lit her horn and spoke calmly. “You are worried and confused, Twilight, I know.” The light of her horn washed over the unicorn and she almost immediately seemed to sag, the tension in her body being washed away by the gentle flow of Luna’s calming magic. “But do not fret, you are still you and, in time, everything will be all right.”

Her smile widened slightly and stood up, stepping back as she did so. She threw a small, reassuring smile towards Celestia when said pony looked at her questioningly. “Calming magic. Very useful when dream walking,” she whispered, answering the unasked question as Twilight regained her bearings.

Celestia nodded and tilted her head towards Twilight as if to ask permission. Luna nodded, prompting Celestia to turn her attention back to Twilight, already preparing the question she had to ask. She was glad to see that Twilight was no longer trying to keep back a flood of uncertainty, fear and confusion, but was much calmer and just sat in contemplative silence.

“Twilight?” she asked, causing the unicorn to look up at her, awaiting whatever question she knew would inevitably come. “Can you tell us how you came to realise this? How did you find out about… Who you are?”

Twilight sighed, lifting a hoof to pat down some of the hairs that had sprung out from her mane during the few minutes before Luna had allowed her mind to come to some level of peace. She hadn’t even noticed it by now, and neither had Celestia, which wasn’t very surprising given the magnitude of the news she had received moments prior.

Twilight’s horn sparked to life and two empty, arcane screens appeared behind her. “I guess the best thing would be to start from the beginning. As I told you a few months ago, I found out that I had a certain Link which allowed me to access the memories of Clover, or so you told me. These memories have plagued me for years, coming to me in the form of dreams. I didn’t realise where they came from until I read he- m-... the journal. So much was identical to my dreams and when I brought it to you, I thought I had finally found a way to find out what happened to Clover.”

“I knew that if I was under the truth spell, as you had told me about by then, that I could tell you what I had seen via the link, but it wouldn’t be enough to convince other ponies. I was on a break in Ponyville with my friends when Trixie - I’m sure you remember her - came back with the Alicorn Amulet. She used a spell, the same one that makes the screens behind me, to show us of how her past had been since she initially came to our town. I figured that if she could use that spell to show how her past had unfolded, then so could I use it to show what I had seen via the link. During the days of Trixie’s brief reign I trained with Zecora, I briefly told her about my research and the problem I had. She told me about a meditation method that she often used to revisit her past and learn from it, and promised to teach it to me when Trixie had been… dealt with. She told me about how it would allow me to visit something she called the Hall of Memories, but also informed me that it was more than just simple meditation and required a bit of magic together with intense focus.”

She paused to regain her breath before continuing. “We got the amulet from Trixie and she apologised, so no harm no foul… That’s beside the point, but anyways. I spent about a month researching and practising the spell I had seen Trixie use, and when I had finally learned it went to Zecora to ask for her help. She agreed, saying that she had made a promise, and we then spent quite a bit of time training that meditation method, and I finally seemed to have it within my grasp just two days ago, I think.” She shook her head, pausing in her speech. “Sorry, I had a few black-outs so it’s been difficult to keep track.” Both Luna and Celestia nodded in understand, the latter then motioning for Twilight to continue.

She took a few moments to reorient herself, digging through her memory to be sure that she got everything right even as she prepared her magic, causing her horn to shimmer slightly. “Anyway. I entered this Hall of Memories when I came back to Canterlot and the library, having spent a few days with my friends before that as a break. I’d explain what it looked like, but it was really nothing but a white expanse with shimmering blobs of light,” Celestia nodded knowingly but said nothing. “I found several screens similar to the ones behind me there, but little else. At one point I came upon a sort of ‘thread’. It looked like it should have been one of those screens, or I think it should have, but it wasn’t. When I tried to grasp it I… The best example I can give is that I opened a floodgate and had every one of Clover’s memories flood my mind. I blacked out and woke up a few hours later, I think.”

She turned and looked to the screens behind her, upon one of which images were starting to fade in as Twilight worked on making her memories into visual representations. “I sorted through the memories and came upon one where Star Swirl gave Clover a book with a certain spell in it. I then looked in the diary and found the diagram of that spell. I felt a memory try to surface while I did that. When the headache it gave me become too much, I played it on a screen such as these… and this is it.”

The light surrounding her horn flashed brightly before a small beam shot from it and impacted on the first of the two arcane screens. Upon it appeared a still picture of a pony the exact likeness of Twilight - though wearing a cloak and looking a decade or so older - with her horn shining like a beacon and her face set in a mask of intense concentration. The room she was in was filled with book shelves lining the walls, a large hourglass standing in one end of the room with a desk cluttered with papers and a few tomes in the other end. There was a door which lead to a different room, probably the kitchen, but it was locked.

Twilight’s horn flashed again and the screen started playing the memory. An ethereal wind picked up inside the room, whipping around both papers and scrolls as well as causing both Clover’s mane an cloak to billow around her. The wind got stronger and stronger until it was as if a whirlwind of paper and scrolls surrounded her. When her horn’s light finally reached its apex, her eyes opened and showed shock, surprise, and horror. Even before the spell had finished, she knew something had gone horribly wrong.

Even soundless as the memory was, Celestia, Luna and Twilight could almost feel the scream that tore itself from Clover’s throat as the spell propelled her through time and space and twisted her very being. An explosion rocked the cabin she was in as the spell failed, leaving it a shadow of its former tidiness. Bookshelves fell over, some shattered. The top half of the hourglass was crushed and the rest tipped over, flooding a large part of the floor with its sand. Some books caught fire, but most noticeable of all was the large scorch mark on the ground where Clover had stood seconds prior.

The memory stopped and froze on the image of the wrecked room. Twilight turned back towards Celestia and Luna, awaiting the questions that would inevitably come.

Luna looked away from the screen with her brows furrowed in a contemplative frown. “Curiouser… Tell me, Twilight, do you know what this spell was?”

Twilight nodded and picked up the book, opening it on one of its last pages then presented it for the lunar alicorn. “It says here that it was a time travel spell which was supposed to allow her to travel into either the future or the past, much like Star Swirl’s original time travel spell, but only that it would allow one to remain there indefinitely.”

Celestia took the book in her magic and brought it closer, skimming over the text with Luna looking briefly over her shoulder to scan the text for but a second. “How was it made?” Luna inquired, looking back to Twilight.

“If you turn to the next page you’ll see a spell diagram.” “She cautiously reached out for the book, nodding in thanks as Celestia passed it back to her. She turned it around so that both the alicorns could see the page she had flipped over to; it showed the spell diagram. “I spent some time looking over it and sifting through… my memories and found out that way. The idea behind the original time travel spell was that it set a timer on you, so that you would be sent back to your own time when you became, say, two minutes older than you were upon casting. The way Clover - or, well, I - tried to to avoid this timer was to use parts of the age spell to reverse your age every time the timer was almost up. The problem, however, was that a miscalculation was made which caused that part of the spell to multiply over and over again until she reached the point where she was technically zero seconds old, or just born. Since the timer could no longer go back, the spell fell in on itself and cancelled out.”

Both Celestia and Luna hummed thoughtfully as they digested this new information. It made sense, sort of, when they thought about it. They had both studied Star Swirl’s spells, including the time travel one, and with this new information, and the spell diagram in front of them, they could see how it’d make sense and how it could potentially work. It was, however, too much work for even them to come up with a way to make it fully functional on the spot, but the idea and logic behind it was not lost on them.

Star Swirl was a genius in his own right, but Clover was certainly one too, Celestia mused, her eyes falling down to rest on Twilight, a smile following. But then again, we’re talking about her. That she’s intelligent is no surprise.

“It certainly is an interesting theory,” Luna said after a few moments. “And forgive me for asking, Twilight, but can you show us further proof that you truly are, or were, Clover the Clever? As we said before, we do trust you, doubly so because you are under the truth spell which compels you to speak the truth regardless of what medium you use, but without substantial proof such as the memory you just showed us, we cannot accept your word quite as easily as we’d like to.”

Twilight nodded. “I understand, and I guess it makes sense.” Luna nodded as well, the ghosts of a proud smile playing at her lips. Twilight, for her part, turned towards the remaining arcane screen and shot a beam of magic at that too, watching as a cobblestone street and Clover still wearing her cloak appeared. There were houses on either side, and it was clearly in the richer part of the city, Canterlot if the towering palace that could be spotted over the rooftops was of any indication.

Twilight looked back towards Celestia and received a nod of approval. She refocused on the arcane screen and the memory started to play. The first thing that happened was that Clover immediately started to lose signs of age. It was only when she seemed to shrink that the change registered in the mind of the pony herself. She stepped forward, the cloak falling off and revealing her cutie mark; a large pink star with a starburst of five smaller, white ones surrounding it. She continued to shrink and become younger and younger until she lost her balance and fell onto her side, the Cutie Mark having disappeared a few moments ago.

About half a minute passed before a newly born unicorn filly lay wailing on the ground. Just then, a pair of ponies rounded a corner not far away and approached in a hurried trot, having apparently heard the crying. They were a pair of unicorns, one mare and stallion. The stallion was a light blue with a mane and tail of a darker shade of blue. His cutie mark was two crescent moons, the smaller of the two being inside the other. The mare had a white coat with a purple and white striped mane and tail, her cutie mark being three, five-pointed stars. Celestia and Luna recognised them instantly; they were Night Light and Twilight Velvet, Twilight’s parents.

They looked at the filly in front of them and had a quick discussion as to what to do, or so the viewers of the memory assumed. It took less than half a minute before the mare picked up the filly in her magic and placed her on her back, then turned around and trotted away with the stallion following, their faces a mix of concern and determination. The last thing they saw were a young, white colt with a two-toned white mane opening the door to one of the smaller mansions and allowing the two adults inside.

“You were adopted,” Celestia noted. It was more of a statement than it was a question. “I never knew that… Does it bother you, Twilight?” She looked away from the screen and down to her student.

Twilight turned around and met Celestia’s politely inquiring eyes with her own thoughtful ones. “I’m not really sure. It may just be Luna’s spell, but it doesn’t trouble me as much as I think it should. Yes, I’m disappointed that they never told me and I’m sad that I don’t quite remember my… real parents. Clover’s memories are still so far off that they don’t quite feel like my own… even if I know they are.” She sighed and rubbed the bridge of her muzzle with a hoof. “I need to talk to them at some point, but right now what I need to most is to get past all of,” she waved her hoof at the screens behind her, “this.”

Celestia nodded in understand but said nothing, giving Luna the chance to speak. “So, Twilight, is there more you wish to show us? I, for one, think that you have given us plenty of proof of your discovery, and I am sure my sister feels the same.”

“No.” Twilight shook her head. “There isn’t. The only thing, well… I, I really just want someone to talk to, and I don’t think my parents are the ones considering that I just found out that I’m adopted.” She paused. A wry smile made its way onto her lips. “Still, though, they’ve treated and loved me like I was their own, so I can’t fault them. Plus, I suppose it’d be difficult to explain that they had just found me on the street.”

Celestia smiled and sat down for the first time since Twilight had entered, placing herself on her belly in front of Twilight with a warm smile on her lips. “If it is of any consolation, Twilight, you could say that Luna and I were adopted as well.” At this, Twilight tilted her head confusedly.

“I believe what my sister is trying to say,” Luna butted in, laying down in front of Twilight as well. “Is that we never knew our true parents either.”

This revelation had done nothing to help Twilight’s confusion. “So you two were abandoned? Who raised you? How long ago was that?” She would have fired off more questions, eager to move to a topic that did not revolve around her being someone she thought long gone, but Luna’s raised hoof stopped her.

“T’is true that we did not know our true parents, but we did have two ponies we considered to be our mother and father. We were, believe it or not, actually born mortal, and…”

Twilight sighed and closed her eyes, listening to Luna’s retellings of their past and their parents, about finding their cutie marks and ascending. Even if she wanted to, she couldn’t help the small smile that teased at the corners of her lips. I wasn’t raised by the parents that brought me into this world, just like Celestia and Luna. Like them, I never knew my real parents and became something I never expected to be. But even then, my life as Twilight Sparkle is a real as anypony else’s. I’m Twilight Sparkle, but I’m also Clover the Clever, and I don’t intend to change that. I still have some things I need to sort out before I can fully accept that, but I’m sure I can grow accustomed to it, given the time.

Author's Note:

And here it is, the finale and revelation of what happened to Clover the Clever. I hope you guys liked it and were, well, surprised. That was really my goal all along

I would more than appreciate it if you'd leave a comment telling me what you think. It's no surprise that I've been looking forward to this for a very long time and, as every artist out there, I thrive on the opinions of my readers.

With that being said, there isn't much more to comment on. I wish to thank Taranasaurus for his help on proofreading/editing my chapters. He's been invaluable when it comes to catching my more stupid mistakes and offering advice to making quite a few of my paragraphs better. So Hat's off to you, Taranasaurus.

There will be an epilogue out in the not-so-distant future, so until then... See you, and thank you for sticking with me!

Comments

[Amber flicker]

Certainly not how I expected it to turn out! Will she go by the name Twilight still?

[Kapuchu]

4570509
She will. As she thought to herself in the end, she is still Twilight.

[Jirodyne]

4570516 4570509 Some can see if has a reincarnation. Her old life 'died' and she was reborn, so she will keep her new name as it is 'her' while still remembering her old life.

Also everyone knows her as Twilight, so easier that way

[Unbridled Dolly]

I would never have thought of that! I was thinking that the spell was a spell to make her immortal or to tie her soul to this dimension, but everything exploded and she died but it worked so once her soul had been healed from the explosion, she came back to life. I like yours more! How long 'til the epilogue do you think?

[Kapuchu]

4571426
Actually, she didn't die. She never did

Clover was transported into the future where the spell, as explained, reverted her to being a new-born because it failed. Night Light and Twilight Velvet found her and took her in, adopting her as their own child and named her Twilight Sparkle.

[Unbridled Dolly]

4571438 I know that. I'm not so much of an idiot that I couldn't figure it out. That's just what I thought had happened before you put up this chapter.

[magicstorm4]

not what I thought might happen but super alwsome none the less, please make more

[Kapuchu]

4571564
After the epilogue to this story is done, it's off to a TaviScratch with equally big surprises

4571540
Ah, sorry. It just felt like you said that you had read it as her being blown up and then somehow healed.

[Unbridled Dolly]

4571571 Not your fault. I phrased it weird.

[Raven Flight]

Very nice plot twist!!! I truly didn't expect that, so mega kudos for the surprise!
I didn't have any guesses as to what happened to Clover, so I just rode your train (of thought). Great job, Kapuchu!

[Mariacheat-Brony]

Some how it doesn't surprise me as much as it should have... i don't know why

Not to say it was bad or anything of course, it was really awesome
but the plot twist came so naturally it didn't feel like a plot twist at all.... or at least to me...

It doesn't really make sense now that I typed it

[Kapuchu]

4573741
You never make sense!
In all seriousness, I think I actually told you once, so that may be why you're not so surprised

4572331
Thanks! You know, comments like yours was what I was hoping for; people who had the rug pulled out from under then by my twist. Trust me when I say that I'm very happy that I managed to make it such a surprise for at least one reader

[djthomp]

Interesting. I think I had guessed that time travel would be involved, but I don't believe I saw Twilight actually being Clover coming at all.