3: Sunset at 2 A.M.
Celestia massaged her temples, trying to find an explanation as to why the medical spell wasn’t working. She knew Pinkie and Spike would probably take a while before they would arrive due to the hospital wing’s distance from her chambers, and in addition she had flown up, saving a significant amount of time otherwise spent on hoof.
Suddenly the room was brilliantly illuminated from behind her, causing shadows to appear in the sharp contrast and shroud Twilight’s peaceful form with darkness in the shape of her graceful outline.
Alarmed, Celestia turned about, raising her hooves to shield herself from the blinding light. Invisible traces of magic shredded the belongings in her room within a visible ratio around a half of the chamber. Pages were torn from books, several scrolls were ripped to pieces, and the force of the magical energy blew the embroidery clean off her couch before it was reduced to ashes.
An orb of pure golden magic appeared and expanded in size, and then just as quickly was sucked back into itself, a giant maw that threatened to devour everything. The light contracted then settled, leaving a silhouette shimmering with the bright aura standing in the center of the room.
“Who are you?” Celestia demanded, quickly leaping to her hooves. “Show yourself!”
The tall and regal figure trotted forward in an elegant motion. Wary of the intruder, Celestia took up an aggressive stance, tensing her muscles and lowering her center of gravity. As the glare of the light faded and the mysterious pony became discernable, she gasped.
The mare standing before her was much taller and more slender than the average pony, her multicolored mane billowing serenely despite the absence of wind within the room – Princess Celestia was standing face-to-face with an exact copy of herself.
“You are… me?” She asked, still guarded; she could not take the risk of being fooled if it was an imposter.
“Yes, I’m from the future. Time is precious, please, trust me,” the alicorn said, her eyes soft and pleading.
Celestia glared suspiciously at the other mare. “Why should I trust you?”
“Because I’m you; and because – it’s the only way to save Twilight.”
At the mention of the unicorn’s name, Celestia looked worriedly at Twilight. Slowly she nodded. “Say what you have to say; I shall decide whether to believe you afterwards-”
The other Celestia was already talking. “Twilight is not just fatigued; the underlying reason is in what she was doing – when we found her earlier this morning after we had raised the sun-” Her eyes widened in alarm as the golden energy started swirling around her again, threatening to envelop her. “Find the scroll she was looking for!” she shouted, her torso fading away as the spell took hold of her again. “Use it – Close the time loop!”
And then she disappeared fully, the last sign of her the tip of a royal hoof guard vacuumed back into nothingness.
Celestia sat down heavily, her thoughts in a tangle. Find the scroll that Twilight was looking for. And then what? For Twilight – if there is any chance, any hope for bringing her back, there’s no reason not to do it.
She sighed, looking anxiously at her unconscious protégé, and then wrapped her hooves around the lavender mare. I don’t know what happened to you, Twilight, but please hang in there.
There was a knock on the door, accompanied by a high-pitched voice. “Princess, we’re here!”
The goddess opened the door with a flick of her magic, and in trotted a pink earth pony with a baby dragon on her back. They looked around the room, surprised at the state of disarray it was in: torn pages littered the floor, and several cushions were ripped apart.
“WHEEEE! Did you just throw a party in here?” Pinkie giggled, bouncing amidst the mess. “Hey, where’s Twilight?”
“Yeah, what happened?” Spike grinned, thinking about how the princess was usually neater than this.
“There was an… incident,” Celestia said at length, beckoning for them to come to the bed.
They approached, and both of them could make out Twilight’s resting form, covered almost entirely by the bed sheets. Spike slid off the pink pony’s back and clambered onto the bed. “Hey Twili-” He paused midsentence, turning to the princess and lowering his voice. “Is she still sleeping?”
Celestia frowned, unsure whether to tell them the truth. They have a right to know, she decided after a few seconds of consideration. “Yes, she is asleep, but in fact… she can’t wake up,” the alicorn said regrettably. “And it is much more serious than I thought – I am in need of your assistance.”
Pinkie flew into the air, her mouth agape, a shrill gasp escaping her mouth. “Whaaaaaaaaaa-?!”
Spike narrowed his eyebrows, confused. “Huh? She can’t wake up? What do you mean? How is that possible?”
Celestia covered her face with a foreleg. “I don’t know, either… but I need to know which spell she was looking for this morning.” She put her hoof down, placing it on the bed near her dear pupil. “You two were helping her find a scroll when I saw you this morning, am I right?”
“Y-yeah-” Spike sputtered.
“It was a time travel spell,” Pinkie said, and Celestia noticed her hair drooping slightly. “Twilight wanted it so she could travel to the past.”
“Do you remember where it is?”
“I know where it is, Princess,” said the pink earth pony. “I’m the one that found it.”
“Could you take me to it? And Spike, could you please look after Twilight? Send a letter to me if anything seems wrong, all right?”
The baby dragon nodded and waved at them. As the princess left the room with Pinkie, she saw from the corner of her eye that Spike was prodding Twilight, trying to wake her up. The reminder of Twilight’s condition almost shattered her heart, the sense of urgency tightening its grip on her.
She broke into a brisk canter, and was pleasantly surprised when she found that she needn’t slow her pace for Pinkie's sake. She had already guessed that the pink mare would be able to keep up with a brisk trot, but now she was almost completely sure that Pinkie could keep up no matter how fast she went.
The princess led them out the castle and onto the lawn, surveying the grounds forlornly. Has it only been a few hours since I was here with Twilight? “Pinkie, could you please tell me more about the events of this week? Specifically what happened to Twilight and why she was looking for such a spell?”
“I think it was because Twilight was visited by herself that made her so worried and made her want to visit herself in the past to make sure she wouldn’t be worried, Princess,” said the pink pony, her tone much more serious than usual. “And this whole week she didn’t sleep at all ‘cause she was so afraid something bad might happen, so she asked us to come with her to the archives to help her find the spell.” The pink pony’s face fell, and Celestia swore she heard a balloon deflating as Pinkie’s normally buoyant curls straightened out even more.
“Hmm.” The princess pondered Pinkie’s words. So the actions of the future Twilight influenced Twilight in the past, causing her to set off on a path, which, when she arrived at the point in the future, influenced her to go back to influence past Twilight, and all events looped back full circle – just like what my future self asked me to do…
As they entered the archives, Celestia wasn’t even aware that she had only nodded to the guards out of habit, lost as she was in her own thoughts. I remember all research on time travel was supposed to have come to a standstill after the mare that came up with the theory passed away half a millennium ago, and even she hadn’t gotten anywhere near a working spell.
She had kept tabs on the research; while she had not discouraged it, she had been aware of the hazards that such a spell could pose: ponies right and left, seeking to undo their past follies. In the wrong hooves, time travel could severely disrupt the lives of her subjects, and the princess had secretly been relieved when nopony had continued the research since then.
“It’s in this room, Princess,” Pinkie said, her voice bringing Celestia back to the real world. She trotted down several aisles, finally stopping in the deepest part of the room. Pulling over a ladder and climbing up, she reached into the topmost shelf, taking some books out and stacking them in a lower shelf until it she could see the back wall. She then stretched her foreleg deep inside. Princess Celestia watched, dumbstruck, as the earth pony’s hoof passed through the wall before she pulled it back out, now clutching a scroll.
An illusion wall… how is it possible that I never noticed… the alicorn thought as Pinkie leapt off the ladder and gave her the hidden document. “Pinkie…” she asked, bewildered. “How did you find this?”
“I was looking around, and I had a tingly feeling to look inside that shelf so I poked my hoof inside, and then I just felt it going through.”
Celestia unrolled and scrutinized the worn parchment. There were a few complicated calculations and glyphs, and two diagrams, each depicting a pony: one appeared to be a foal, the other of indeterminate age. A single word was scribbled in the margins: torn?
She narrowed her eyes. “So Twilight managed to cast a working time spell just by reading this scroll?”
Pinkie nodded, and the alicorn inclined her head to read the paper again. So the spell had been created… but its existence was hidden, even from me! And how does this help Twilight? Why would my future self want me to use this?
She checked the glyphs regarding how to control how ‘far’ she could go back in time and was surprised that the point of time at which the spell caster arrived in the past could be fine-tuned with fair precision.
She motioned to the pink mare. “Thank you for finding this for me, so… let’s head back and check up on Twilight, shall we?”
“Sure,” Pinkie replied, and the two made their way back to the princess’ room.
“Did you find anything?” Spike asked anxiously as the two ponies entered the room. He was still sitting beside Twilight, a claw on her shoulder.
“Yes, we found the spell that Twilight was looking for,” the princess replied absentmindedly, still studying the parchment which she had taken from the archives.
The pink pony rushed over to Twilight, her ears drooping again to see her friend in such a state. Celestia sat down beside the bed, and ran a hoof over Twilight’s mane; the unicorn’s expression was so peaceful it was hard to believe that there was anything wrong.
Celestia glanced out the window; it was almost time for her to set the sun. “It is getting rather late, would you two like a place to stay for the night?” she asked.
“I’ll go back to Ponyville,” Pinkie replied, giving the unconscious Twilight a hug. “I wanna let the rest of our friends know that Twilight’s got into some trouble but that you're taking care of it so they won't have to worry.”
“I'm staying right here, Twilight needs me!” the baby dragon said with determination, looking at his best friend.
Celestia rose, and followed Pinkie to the door. “I’ll arrange a chariot to send you back; thank you for your help,” she said to the pink pony.
“No problem,” Pinkie replied, pausing at the doorjamb then waving to Spike. “I’ll come back tomorrow, bye Spike.”
“Bye!” said the baby dragon, waving back.
------ ------
The candle flickered, sending the shadows dancing over the giant bookcases, the desk and chair, and the two mares within the dim room.
"What? No I was just – what? The underworld?" Twilight shook her head like a maniac and took an involuntary step back. "I…I'm… I'm dead?" She finally asked with a growing sense of dread
“You didn’t know you’re dead?” The elderly unicorn asked incredulously.
“I didn’t know! I was talking with the princess and… Who are you anyway?”
“My name is Chronas. I came here a long time ago.”
“Chronas? The mage who modified the teleportation spell?” Twilight didn’t mean to – but her eyes wandered to the other unicorn’s cutie mark which, from what she could make out in the dim light, was a dark rent. The black cutie mark was like a yawning maw, which seemed to be able to vacuum anything, whether time or space. “Um, oh – your cutie mark’s the same as on the portraits of you,” she added.
“Yes, that’s me. And you mentioned the princess, still Celestia, right?” Chronas asked with a chuckle.
“Yes, I’m her personal student! Or at least, I was -“ The unicorn’s eyes widened as she came to a realization. “Oh no! What if she was so angry that I was sneaking around in the archives that… she killed me?” Twilight covered her face with a foreleg, her lip trembling. .
“I don’t think she would do that – has she changed so much?”
Twilight remained silent for a while, her foreleg over her face, almost wishing that by staying in this position she could shield herself from the question, which was painful because of the thinking process it prompted. She couldn’t have executed me, could she? But if she didn’t… why am I here? Does she hate me? Have I been such a disappointment?
No longer wanting to think, her heart heavy and her emotions dull, she let her hoof fall. Chronas had apparently run off; but in the room was a small filly, and Twilight noticed her coat color similar to the mage’s.
Strange, where did she go? Twilight thought, confused that Chronas would leave in the middle of their conversation. She peered at the back of the room – it was dark due to the only source of light being the candle, but it seemed that there was only a single room.
She trotted out instead, nonplussed. Maybe she had something to do, and teleported off? Hmm, might as well take a further look around this place.
She continued down the road further into the town, but as far as she could tell, most of the structures were in the same state of disrepair. It occurred to her that the settlement was in fact quite large, sprawling to where the buildings connected with another forest.
In the far distance, on the other edge of the settlement, she could make out a prominent building which seemed to be a temple of some kind. It was slightly taller than the trees that secluded it, quite lofty compared with the other ruins which were mostly one or two stories at most.
She started trotting towards the temple, curiosity getting the better of her. At least there are plenty of places to explore if I get bored here… she thought drily. I wonder if being dead is really all that bad... She winced and aggressively blocked the thought from her mind. Of course it's bad! I'll never get to see my friends… or Spike or the princess again… She sniffed, struggling against her emotions. Princess Celestia must have never really liked me at all if she sent me to the underworld…
The last thought made her shiver; the dam that was holding back her emotions finally cracking, her tears welling up and flowing freely down her face, dripping to the ground. She slumped on the weed-ridden cobblestones, burying her face in her hooves and whimpering.
Suddenly she felt a chilling draft and a sense of vertigo overwhelmed her, like the world was being pulled from under her hooves. Her head began to throb as she felt a slimy, queasy sensation slither through her stomach. Clambering to a sitting position, her eyes widened as the road and the structures along it disappeared for the briefest fraction of time, and were replaced by the street with a bookstore.
Twilight just sat stock still for a few seconds, her mouth agape. She blinked a few times through her tears before she could focus on her surroundings again. What? What’s happening? I’ve got to get back to Chronas’ place before something bizarre happens again!
Getting to her hooves and silently congratulating herself on having the luck to end up on a road she recognized, she broke into a gallop, her hooves making a clip clop on the cobblestones.
Skidding to a stop at the door with the ‘records’ plaque, she flung it open. “Chronas!” she said loudly. A quick survey revealed that the strange filly had gone, but in its place was a grown up mare, and Twilight saw her coat was also in the same shade of maroon as the mage. “Um, excuse me, did you see Chronas?” Twilight said, trotting up to the mare.
“I am Chronas,” the mare said, in an evidently more youthful voice than the elder Twilight had been talking to previously.
Twilight looked at the mare skeptically. “That’s impossible, Chronas is older than you.”
“Oh, you mean this?” said the mare, flicking her tail. “Happens all the time – it was a result of my experiments, I think. Messed up with too many spells that somehow my appearance jumps back and forth in time.” The maroon unicorn stepped directly into the candlelight and pointed to her cutie mark. “Do you believe me now?”
Twilight gaped for a few seconds and then nodded numbly, but the cutie mark wasn’t the most important thing that she saw. She hadn’t noticed before, but now that Chronas was in the light it seemed to pass through the mage. The bookworm squinted, disturbed, and found that she could even see the faint silhouette of the candle and the stool it was on. “You’re-you’re transparent?”
Chronas chuckled. “Yeah, that happens when you’re dead, but you’ll get used to it.”
Frowning, Twilight put her hoof to the light, but try as she might, she couldn’t see the candle through her foreleg like she had with Chronas. The mage leaned over curiously when her observation of Twilight’s hoof met with the same result, and raised her own hoof in front of the flickering candle.
The difference was evident – Twilight’s foreleg blocked the light, but Chronas’ let some of it through.
“You’re not dead?!” the mage exclaimed, surprised. “And I don’t remember seeing you on the list of recent deaths… Maybe you’re not supposed to be here after all.”
Twilight’s worries came rising to the surface again. “Which means that the princess must have banished me here, if she didn’t kill me, that’s why I’m not on this ‘list of dead’! Oh no, oh no oh no oh no…”
Chronas smiled reassuringly at the lavender unicorn. “I doubt that. From when I knew her, I can tell you that she wouldn’t do that, at least not without telling you why. You didn’t commit any crimes, did you? And you said that you were with her before you came here, right?”
“I was in her room, she was reading my reports. She must have banished me right then because she caught me in the act when I broke into the archives!” Twilight wailed, bawling.
“Did you do anything else together before that?”
Twilight scrunched up her face, finding that her memories of the morning were suddenly a bit hazy. “I was in the archives, and after that we took a walk and had breakfast… and then we went to her room… that’s all I remember.”
“If she wanted to banish you, then why would she spend so much time with you? And you were in her chambers too. I don’t even know of any ponies that have that privilege.” Chronas paused, curious. ” What were you doing in the archives anyway?”
“I was looking for a spell there, in fact. I wanted to find a way to travel through time to warn myself in the past.”
“Did you find it?” the mage asked with a shrewd grin.
“Uh, I did. A friend of mine did, in fact.”
"You did?" The magus looked perplexed for a moment before smoothing her expression. "I guess I should tell you since you know about the spell now – I invented it, but it was too dangerous so I hid it where nopony would find it."
------ ------
The moon hung in the center of the sky – midnight – and most of the castle and the city of Canterlot was silent, but the light from the tower of the solar goddess was still shining, like another star on the backdrop of Luna’s night sky.
Inside the tower, Celestia tucked the snoring dragon into the covers on the other side of the unicorn before resuming her position on the bed facing Twilight. Levitating a quill over parchment, she wrote a quick note to her sister:
Luna, could you please come to my chambers? There is something urgent I need to discuss with you.
Celestia
She sent it off with a glow of magic from her horn and rested her head on her pillow, never taking her eyes off Twilight as she waited. It wasn’t long before she heard a knock on her door.
“’Tia?”
“Come in, Luna,” the alicorn said quietly, but loud enough to be heard, and the door swung open, her sister entering the room.
“I came as soon as I got your message – what is it that you wish to discuss?”
“It’s Twilight, she’s in a coma… and I can’t figure out what caused it.”
Luna quickly trotted to where her sister, Twilight, and the baby dragon were lying. “Twilight Sparkle? Are you sure she’s not just exhausted from another binge of studying?” The lunar princess chuckled. “She is almost always awake at night you know; always looking at my stars as well, I believe she rather enjoys them.”
“No! Luna, I used the Revivication Spell – even that did not work.”
“That must have been tiring, even for you – but if even that failed, then how do you expect me to help?”
“I’m not sure, but I think it has something to do with time travel.” Celestia hesitated; even though she knew it was theoretically possible to travel through time, she still had a hard time actually believing it. “You see, I was visited by myself from the future, who said that finding the time spell – have you heard of it?”
Luna shook her head, and Celestia continued: “There was development of it five hundred years ago, but I had thought none had succeeded. It turns out that somepony had developed a working spell but had hidden it, which Twilight found and used to warn herself in the past. My future self told me to find the spell and travel back, if I wanted to save Twilight.”
Luna gently placed a hoof on Twilight’s brow, concerned. She had taken a liking to the mare since their meeting on Nightmare Night, and she knew that Twilight meant much to her sister as well. “So… you are going to go back in time, and tell yourself to find the spell.”
Celestia nodded, getting off the bed and to her hooves. “And I need you to stand guard, in case anything goes wrong.”
"Sister?" Luna’s question was soft, her voice laced with worry. "Why exactly are you doing this yourself? It is… unlike you."
"What do you mean it's unlike me?" Celestia bristled, her wings flaring in agitation. "I always help ponies whenever I can!"
Luna didn't cower like most ponies would have, simply continuing to speak in a calm voice that forced Celestia to listen carefully. "I know that, 'Tia." Luna sighed and made a vague gesture with her hoof. "Normally, you would help by proxy; a guiding hoof rather than solving the problem outright."
Luna's words hit Celestia hard and she sagged, her wings and ears drooping as she sighed as well. "I… I know." She looked at the lavender unicorn on the bed. "But Twilight is my student; there is nopony closer to her than I am." She laughed, a weak laugh without any real mirth. "At least nopony that could help her, I still don't know what happened but I can tell that it's dangerous."
The younger alicorn leaned over to give her sister a hug. “Then I shall do as you ask. Good luck, ‘Tia.”
The solar goddess smiled, trying to appear more confident than she really was. She lit up her horn, having memorized all the instructions on the parchment.
The spell drew from her magic at an alarming rate – Celestia knew of few spells that required such energy. Her golden aura compressed into a ball, pulsing and fizzling, spitting sparks, condensing into an brilliant, blinding glare, much like she had experienced when she had been visited earlier on.
She felt herself losing her form, her physical hold on the world unraveling as she was torn, particles of her being scattered to the threads of time, then finally interweaving back together, merging into a solid figure once more.
She stood in the center of her room. There was no Luna, nor Spike; only a pallid mare, her features lined with worry as she sat by her pupil. The ashen mare turned, warily looking at the bright haze that was still surrounding her.
As the light dimmed with the settling of the magical energy, the past Celestia, noticing her existence, leapt to her hooves. “Who are you?” she barked. “Show yourself!” As Celestia trotted closer, her eyes widened in recognition. “You are… me?”
“Yes, I’m from the future. Time is precious, please, trust me.”
“Why should I trust you?”
“Because I’m you; and because – it’s the only way to save Twilight.” I wish I could be sure about that… Her mind went back to the unconscious unicorn, and her resolve hardened. I’m here, and I’ll do this right. For all I know, this could be the only way to save Twilight.
“Say what you have to say; I shall decide whether to believe you afterwards-”
Celestia didn’t let her finish – the spell was going to wear off soon, according to her memory. “Twilight is not just fatigued; the underlying reason is in what she was doing – when we found her earlier this morning after we had raised the sun-” She felt the magic pulling on her; her time was up. “Find the scroll she was looking for! Use it – close the time loop!”
The golden energy gathered around her, crackling as it took hold of her again. Magic danced in a never-ending whirlpool as the time stream sucked her in. Time and space were wild in the funnel, twisting and warping, and Celestia felt herself almost losing herself as the threads of her being were torn apart again, merging into the swirling stream.
Finally she rematerialized, gasping, a few inches from her previous spot in her room. Luna was by her side almost immediately, bracing her as if afraid she would fall.
“’Tia! Are you all right?”
“Y-yes. The spell worked – but then what good would it do? I do not think I am any closer to helping Twilight.”
“Maybe you are. Twilight used the spell before she fell into this state, did she not? Perhaps she made a mistake when she used it?”
“That is unlikely!” Celestia said, her sharp tone surprising even herself. She moved to the unconscious unicorn and nuzzled her. But there were a thousand ways that it could have gone wrong. Maybe she used too much magic. She seemed pretty awake; at least I didn’t suspect she had been very fatigued. That doesn’t explain why she couldn’t wake up with even the healing spell. Or maybe it was the effects of lack of sleep and the magic usage combined…
If Luna had been surprised at Celestia’s outburst, she didn’t show it, instead giving her sister a hug. “I’m sure that we can find a way to save her, ‘Tia, but you should rest; you looked tired… I’ll go look up something about the failed researches in the archives. If you need me, just send another note, all right?”
“Thank you, Luna,” the solar goddess murmured.
------ ------
Luna stretched amidst a small of mountain of scrolls, her limbs a bit stiff from sitting in the same position all night. She hadn’t found anything worth mentioning, which irked her, although the material on time travel had been scarce to begin with.
Sensing that it was time for her to lower the moon, she trotted to the window before she lit her horn, her mane rippling in her astral magic. Slowly the moon began to set, and she looked to the other side of the horizon, where the sun would be peeking out at any moment.
The sky remained dark. She frowned and glided off the balcony of her room to the tower next to hers. “Celestia! Time to raise the sun!” she said loudly, knocking on the floor-to-ceiling glass panes. Why hasn’t she raised the sun? Even if she’s worried over Twilight she shouldn’t be neglecting her duty!
She waited for a response for a few seconds, but there was none - so she slid open one of the windows and poked her head inside. “Celestia?” There was still no answer. The lunar princess frowned, and entered the room.
She found the alabaster alicorn on her bed; her mane was not flowing with the solar wind as it should be, but limp like a normal mane, draped over the pillows and the unicorn she was curled around. A purple dragon was asleep on the other side of the bed.
“Celestia! Wake up!” she said louder, shaking her sister. But Celestia lay still, her body motionless, just like the student she had been trying to save.
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Oh this is getting very good.
whelp there goes the sunny days
cant wait to see where u go with this :D
MOAR!
o snap
you know its painfully obvious the spell sends you to where chronas is well then sides that continue on then.
Oh crap... hate to say it but Tia you screwed the pooch big time.
552536
Or did she do the right thing? After all now she can find out about the problem and help Twilight return more directly.
552562
Might be a case when asked if she screwed the pooch or if she did the right thing, Celestia would answer, "Yes". So a little from column A, and a little from column B.
Called it!
Totally called it. So I take it Celestia is going to interact with Twilight in that dream world thing? Can't wait for the next chapter, as always.
This is getting really,REALLY interesting....
It's your move,Quillsaga!
From this moment forth, the night will last FOREVER!
OH.
SHIZZNIT.
The trouble has been doubled!!!! *insert Luna emoticon*
552832 Ohhh, this is going to get awkward for Luna....
Liking that OC, and more dialogue for Luna too. If Celestia's going down with her, you know what that means... Let the Twiliestia shipping continue!
Oh my god... this situation just got 10x worse.
awesome chapter, i was wondering how exactly it could be both adventure and romance with the previous setting; if they were going to be separated from each other a whole lot of time.
shit got real
shit just hit th' fan.
So it appears to be the spell, not the fact that twi ran for 12 days straight without rest and expending a sizable amount of energy in difficult acts that put peeps into comas...
Amm. se pone cada vez mejor XD
Luna you better learn how to raise the sun and fast, or ponies will think you turned back into Nightmare Moon.
damn cliffhangers! this is too good! Please update soon!
Ooooo, more Time-y fun
I always wondered what happened to things when I stuck them in infinite loops (Oh Java, you so crazy). Expelled to the underworld, waiting for a break in the loop. Well, it does make sense that Celestia would be dragged along for the ride. Can't think of a way to ship through adventure if both parties aren't present for said journey.
I'd guess Chronas died after recording & hiding the spell, so the body continued to age until death. Makes sense since they're in comas.
Doesn't exactly bode well for Twilight & Celestia if the one who created the time spell failed to exit the time loop before death.
It's cool that you're referencing the time-paradox from the episode.
They only thing is that in Twilight's case, the current Twilight wouldn't be looped until a week later, but I'd guess that'd ruin the flow of the story.
I await more mythological references Ms. Quillsaga. More time shenanigans, and more Twilestia fun
...
...
...
(inb4 Pinkie Pie fixes everything by 'flying against the spin of the Earth, reversing time to the point before the first Twilight uses the time spell'. Silly superman)
How could Celestia have not realized that she was putting herself in the exact same situation as Twilight had? It's almost as if these ponies WANT to be put into eternal comas... I can only hope that Luna, instead of going back to warn herself, goes to warn Celestia or Twilight not to go back in time...
554374
But that would not yield a time loop...
This side effect does explain the part about only being useable once though.
Yeah... I kind of saw that coming. But she did that on purpose, didn't she.
Welp. Here's hoping Luna can take over with the sun in her absence. The last thing Equestria needs is another Nightmare Moon scare.
554460 Indeed.
Looks like Luna will have to raise the sun.
552832>>553049 dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Luna_lolface.png
554257
Considering your avatar, I don't think Twilight would be encouraged by that reassurance. Not the royalty she's likely going to want to see.
553049
Of course. And Twilight, who defeated NMM before, is conveniently incapacitated as well...
553160
Actually, Twilight and Celestia's present location technically isn't real.
555000
I don't doubt that it will happen (it probably already has), and you make a good point.
Celestia banished her to the underworld, and now she's there to throw her in a dungeon in the place she banished her to!
555057
You're forgetting that Celestia would be freaking out also, and that she would be quite aware of the repercussions of her own potential demise because of Twilight's mistake. Celestia will not be a happy pony, and Twilight knows her well enough to be able to see that.
Moreover, Celestia freaking out would probably preclude Celestia calming down Twilight. Sure, the confusion might show through a bit, but nonetheless there would still be a lot of tension.
555132
Also, angsty Twilight is best Twilight
Oh shit, bro. That just happened.
called it
Wow, that was daft of Celestia. "This spell sent my student into a coma.....I'll do the exact same thing, durrr!"
I'm guessing both Celestia and Twilight will be in the same dream world but at different times with the occasional time slip allowing them to meet instead of talking through messages scratched on walls.
Oh snap!
The bitch is the moment she appeared to herself she was predestined to use the spell. Causality does not fuck around. It already was, therefore it had to be. The difference between what Twi did and what Celestia did: Celestia's message was more useful.
Ahhh. So Twilight and Celestia are now stuck together in the dream world. This is starting to resemble "Apotheosis", except instead of a hateful Luna, we have a hopeful Celestia. HNNNNGG so much to go on with this!
Also, I keep reading "Chronas" as "Kurona"...bucking anime. Messing with my reading and stuff.
Well, this is a fine pickle, indeed. Celestia's on an out-of-body trip, hopefully with the same destination ticket as Twilight, and Luna's going to get a crash course in walking in her sister's hoof boots. If nothing else, Luna's going to end up appreciating the amount of work Celestia had to do for a thousand years after their last fight, in addition to having to face the inevitable rumors that Celestia's incapacitation was part of a plot to take power. (And that will be the part that really hurts in the long run. Fortunately, she does have friends who trust her to fall back on.)
Hopefully, between Chronas, Twilight, and Celestia they can work out what is happening with the time spell, though I suspect that cryptic little note jotted into the margin has a lot to do with it. If I had to make a stab at it, I'd say that Chronas' spell was balanced perfectly to account for the caster's physical body and magic, but she missed a calculation when it came to the spirit side of the equation, and the imbalance ends up pulling the aura out of the body after the spell completes. Hmmm... wonder if she started the spell research by looking at astral travel type spells, which could technically give one a sort of time travel effect, just without use of the physical body making the trip?.... That might explain the side effect being exhibited. Oh well, I'm sure that we'll find out in due time.
554374 But, then that would create a further alternate dimension in which none of the events of Lesson Zero happened at all and the very fabric of our canon would unravel at the seams as the space-time continuum went out of flux and our understanding of our own dimension would be thrown into chaos as our brains try to come to grips with just which dimension we are living in and which timeline is the true timeline and
ERROR
.
ERROR
.
UNDERSTANDING CAPACITY HAS REACHED CRITICAL LEVELS.
.
EMERGENCY SHUT DOWN SEQUENCE INITIATED
.
.
.
EMERGENCY SHUT DOWN SEQUENCE COMPLETED
.
COMMENCING BRAIN REBOOT
May the Grace of the Valar Protect You
Shire Folk
559431 Right..... I'm just going to stop thinking now before I break something- er, someone.
552965 Why arn't you helping close the time loop? Isn't that your specialty Doctor?
CALLED IT
Nice chapter! Although a little bit of advice, while I like the reference to Chronos, Greek titan and father of the gods, a better reference to use would be Charon, the ferryman of the River Styx. He ferried the recently departed across the River Styx which separated the real world from Erebus(Greek word for the Underworld). Just my two cents.
Rudi!
I Am just a simple bongo drummer! You know I don't do all this meestic bullsheet!
That's your job, with all the door in your hair amd that purple dress!
553121 Yep!
And if you already knew I love Luna, you'll see why I gave her this, um, position
553804 Thank you! And yes, the body does continue to age, so in Twilight's case, there is a time limit for her to... you get the picture
555000
Yes, Chrysalight 
But I already knew about this, um certain 'fixation' 
Teeny things? 
555102 Yes! Freaking out left and right - does make for a fun story, no?
557889
Bingo! Well the reason I had Chronas ('The mage who modified the teleportation spell') is because of the properties of the two spells - threads of time and space, travel, etc. She wanted to delve into a 'deeper form' of teleportation, if that's what time travel could be called
559431 Rebooting is fun! [person who tampers with their iPhone]
562471 I'm aware of Charon, but well the reason for picking Chronos is 'time'. There was no 'ferrypony' when Twilight was on the boat, which was done on purpose. I didn't want to create too much references, most of the scenes and stuff are entirely of my creation, else ppl could just go read, Percy Jackson for instance?
Percy Jackson?
Isn't that a movie? I saw the trailers for it, looked like they completely butchered Greek mythology, and I didn't watch it. Should I?