Ghosts from the Future

by Pix

Chapter 2 - That Old Black Magic

Chapter 2 – That Old Black Magic

In the end, all of the remaining element bearers went together into the Everfree Forest to find Zecora. Rarity had carefully levitated the shadowy dust from the field in Sweet Apple Acres into one of the jars the Apple family would normally use for Zapp Apple Jam (prompting much speculation from Pinkie on how it would taste), and the white unicorn was now levitating it alongside her.

Only a few years ago, the path they were taking would have filled them with terror, but time and experience had dulled their fear and it was almost with easy familiarity that the five ponies trotted between tall intimidating trees, ignoring the distant howls of Celestia-knows-what and the shadowy figures visible slinking between the branches above. As it was, the five element bearers were likely making more noise than anything else in the forest as they followed the trail towards Zecora’s hut.

“I’m just saying, it seems weird doing this without Twilight with us.” The cyan pegasus swooped through the air above the others gesticulating wildly. “More and more often she’s off doing her own thing. Ever since she became a princess she’s leaving us all behind!”

“I think you might be exaggerating somewhat, Rainbow darling. Of course she has extra duties now, but she still always makes time for us.” Rarity sniffed. “I will admit I would have liked it ever so much if we could have sat with her at the Equestria games. But she is a princess, and she has an image to maintain.” Rarity struck a regal pose at this. “If anything, it sounds like you might be a little jealous…”

“Ha! Me? Jealous!” Rainbow swooped down to land in front of Rarity. “As if! If anypony’s jealous here it’s you Rarity,” the pegasus jabbed a hoof at her. “You’ve always wanted to be a princess.”

“Well it has been my dream for as long as I can remember, true, and I did so love those wings Twilight gave me that one time, but I would never begrudge a friend their success. And besides, a lady is never jealous.”

“Well Ah don’t understand why anypony would even want to be a princess. All Twilight does is wave at this event here, and sit in this seat there. Don’t sound like much fun to me.”

“Oh but you just don’t understand Applejack,” Rarity began, her voice gushing and her eyes glazed over. “Just think of all the ponies you would meet! And the dresses you could wear! I’ve never quite persuaded Twilight to wear suitable regal dress all the time, but that’s up to her I suppose.”

“I’d love to be a princess!” Pinkie said suddenly, continuing her perpetual bouncing alongside them.

The conversation fell silent as the other four ponies tried to imagine a Pinkie with wings and magic, before all shuddering simultaneously and continuing their journey. The sight of smoke rising above the trees in the distance told them that they had almost reached the hut, and they made care to step around the field of blue flowers as they went on their way. It took Rainbow Dash all of her self-control to refrain from pushing Rarity into the poison joke to witness a return of ‘Hairity’.

“We’re here,” Fluttershy said happily as the hut came fully into view, and it wasn’t long before they had knocked and the zebra had let them all inside. Fluttershy helped Zecora make drinks while Applejack did her best to explain once again exactly what she had witnessed. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie were already playing some sort of game that involved them wearing the giant masks adorning the inside of Zecora’s hut and making ghost noises at each other, and Rarity was watching on with her nose raised, occasionally sniffing her disapproval, but just as occasionally breaking into a small smile at their antics.

Rarity had set down the jar of mysterious powder on a shelf in the corner of the room when they had first entered, and as Applejack’s story came to a close Zecora walked up to the jar and peered inside.

“An incredible tale, and if it is true, Equestria surely has much to do.” Zecora grabbed the jar and started collecting up ingredients. “Of the nature of this magic, I haven’t a clue. But I can learn more about it by making a brew.”

“So it’s a magical disease then?” Fluttershy asked as she handed out drinks, giving Rainbow and Pinkie scolding looks which quickly settled them down.

“This is no normal illness to do what you claimed. Only the darkest of magic could make one so maimed.”

The hut was silent as Zecora started filling her cauldron with the cavalcade of ingredients she had gathered. Then as she unscrewed the jar and let the crystalline dust fall to join the bubbling mixture, the ponies all leaned forwards, although none of them knew what they were hoping to see.

Whatever it was they had been hoping to see, nothing prepared them for what actually happened. As a black mist started slowly drifting up out of the cauldron, the wisps suddenly formed an outline of a pony, a pegasus to be precise. As the surrounding ponies watched in awe, the mist became increasingly solid, until the outline became a frame and then more, as though an apparition of the pegasus were in the room with them.

“That’s him,” Applejack exclaimed in surprise. “That’s the pony Ah met, sure as sugar.”

Zecora narrowed her eyes at the image in front of her. It seemed even she was surprised at the result of her mixture. But it did not stop there, as without warning the liquid inside the cauldron itself started flowing upwards to fill out the floating frame above them, like watching a bath draining but in reverse. As the apparition became more and more complete the liquid solidified into a jagged crystalline form that caused Applejack to take a step back in shock and Zecora to open her eyes wide, but it was only when the shadowy crystal pony was fully formed and a sudden red glow appeared in its eyes that anypony acted.

Zecora quickly grabbed the glass of water from out of Fluttershy’s hooves and flung it towards the base of the cauldron, extinguishing the flames, but it was too late. The newly formed mockery of a pegasus let out a keening wail and swooped down towards the zebra, grabbing her with its jagged hooves and pushing her roughly against the wall of the hut. It then opened its mouth and the same black mist from before rushed out towards the trapped zebra. She struggled in its hooves, trying to lean her head away so that she would not come into contact with the mist.

Rainbow Dash was the first to react. With a quick flap of her wings, the resulting rush of air caused the dark mist emanating from the creature’s mouth to dissipate harmlessly against the far wall. The crystalline form released Zecora, who slumped to the floor, before turning to see who had interfered. In doing so the creature opened up its side to an attack from Applejack, who spun around on her forehooves and gave it a sharp buck in the ribs, or at least, where ribs would be in a normal pony. There was a yelp of pain from Applejack as the jagged surface of the pegasus’ crystal body sliced into her hind legs, but the result was immediate as the creature was flung bodily across the room, smashing against a far wall and causing one of its forelegs to shatter into a familiar shadowy dust.

This did not seem to bother the unearthly creature however, as it merely spun around and, with a quick flap of its wings, launched itself towards the orange mare. Applejack brought her hooves up to defend herself, but this proved unnecessary as the beast’s course was diverted by the sudden arrival of a saucepan wrapped in blue magic slamming against the side of its head. There was a resounding crunch as the crystal form clattered into the ground, more fragments bursting forth. Applejack responded by letting loose another solid buck, launching the creature across the room once more, landing at the hooves of Fluttershy who did not seem to have moved since the impromptu fight began.

Fluttershy looked down in horror at the form before her and hesitated, not knowing what she was supposed to do, or what she was even capable of doing. That brief moment was enough for the pegasus to pull itself to its feet once more, and Fluttershy was just ducking under the serrated hoof it swung towards her when there was another resounding crunch with an air of finality about it, and then a splintering sound as the body disintegrated into thousands of small shards. Fluttershy looked up to see a heavily breathing Zecora holding out a staff through the spot where the attacking pony had just been.

There was a pause as everypony gathered their breath, before, predictably, everypony started speaking at once.

“Wow, Zecora that was so cool! I’ve got to get a stick to fight with!”

“Eurgh, some of that filthy dust got on me, get it off, get it off!”

“Oh, is everypony alright? I’m sorry I wasn’t more helpful.”

“Zecora what was that thing? It looked just like the pony Ah met before!”

“That was so amaaazing! Do it again, do it again!”

Zecora waited for everypony to settle down before getting to action once more. Reaching over to pull Pinkie away from trying to pour the newly formed powder back into the cauldron, she addressed Rarity first. “That dust has no power itself, so there’s no need for alarm. Give yourself a good wash and you’ll come to no harm.” She turned to the rest of the room. “As for the beast, I am afraid this is tragic, but I have no knowledge of that foul dark magic. I will dispose of these shards as best as I can,” she said, gesturing to the pile of ominously glowing black crystals, “but other than that I do not have a plan.”

Fluttershy looked down at the shards at her feet. “Did anyone else think that maybe, um, that looked a lot like King Sombra’s magic?”

“What? That guy again? Didn’t we off him already?”

“Now Rainbow, I think Fluttershy here does raise a valid point. Sombra did seem intent on besmirching the beautiful Crystal Empire with foul dark crystals like these.”

“But we destroyed Sombra,” Rainbow continued unabated, spreading her hooves as she hovered in the air. “And we were awesome! And we were thorough! And I guess by ‘we’ I mean mostly Spike, but still! Sombra should be gone!”

“You may have defeated your unicorn foe,” Zecora started, speaking up once more. “But that does not mean that it is all over, oh no. The Empire is clear of the magic he brought forth, but some of it may remain deep in the frozen north.” Zecora pointed at the pile of crystals. “If you want to know more about this magic most dire, your answers surely lie in the Crystal Empire.”

“But that’s what I was saying aaaalll along!” Pinkie exclaimed suddenly, ending a bout of uncharacteristic silence. After seeing the surprised and confused expressions on everypony’s faces she snorted to herself. “Or maybe I was just thinking it, ha! Silly me. I don’t often make that mistake but when I do it’s so embarrassing! Like the time I was going shopping for some paint and Pastel Brush asked me what colours I needed and I thought to myself, ‘well I really need some fresh cerulean and jasmine because I used up all of them the last time I made a poster for our cake sale, but it would also be good to get some cobalt and magenta because I’m low on those, and I should always get some fresh heliotrope…’” She interrupted her story by sidling up to Rarity and whispering to her conspiratorially, “but that’s really just because I like the word heliotrope.” She sidled away again. “And so anyway, I was thinking all that and then realised ‘oops! Silly me, I’ve been thinking and not saying!’ And so I giggled and said aloud, ‘Well I really need some fresh cerulean and…’”

By this point only Zecora seemed to be listening diligently to Pinkie. The rest were all leaving Pinkie’s rambling to run its course and were helping to tidy up the mess they’d made of Zecora’s hut, Fluttershy tending to the cuts Applejack had received on her hind legs.

“…and so anyway. Crystal. Empire.”

Rarity stopped sweeping the floor and turned to face everypony. “So we really think our answers are in the Crystal Empire?”

“Of course they are!” Pinkie beamed. “If there’s something mysterious happening with shadowy crystals then it just has to be in the Crystal Empire.”

---

Meanwhile, there was something mysterious happening with shadowy crystals in the Crystal Empire.

More specifically, there was something mysterious happening with shadowy crystals in the Crystal Mountains just east of the Crystal Empire.

Even more specifically, there was something mysterious happening with shadowy crystals in one of the networks of tunnels below the Crystal Mountains just east of the Crystal Empire.

Azure Prism did not care for more specifics. Azure Prism did not care for where he was going. The tunnels he was galloping through were truly beautiful, with unique crystal formations decorating the walls and glittering lights of many colours shimmering through the many facets. Azure did not care for that. The passage in front of him split into multiple directions and the crystal pony took one without a thought as to where it was heading. Azure did not care for that. He had lost track of the others that had been part of his team. Azure did not care for that. All he cared for was continuing to run for his life away from the twisted creature that had once been his friend.

Far behind him in the darkness, a black crystalline form paused in its pursuit. It looked like a unicorn moulded out of an uncooperative piece of ice, jagged shards jutting out of his body and the protruding spike on his forehead looking more like an icicle than a horn. Around him a black mist was swirling to match the storm visible within the unicorn’s translucent body.

The creature’s glowing eyes moved across the passage in front of him as it split into four separate tunnels. With a spark of erratic red magic from his horn, the unicorn manipulated the mist around him until three other shapes started forming. After a few seconds the outline of the same unicorn stallion was visible three times over, and with a final flash of red the mist solidified into shadowy crystal until there were four identical looking forms standing in the tunnel. Then, with an eerie synchronicity and a keening wail, they all ran forwards at the same time, each taking their own tunnel and continuing the hunt.

---

Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic and Princess of Equestria, launched the most recent book she had been reading across the room, flung her head back, and groaned. Her research had not been going well. It had been three days now since she had started trying to uncover all she could about time magic, and she had made almost no progress.

Upon her arrival to Canterlot things had gone smoothly. The young alicorn had arrived in the Canterlot Castle throne room to find both Princess Celestia and Luna waiting for her. After retreating into the nearby study, the three of them took seats around the central table and Twilight recounted everything she had heard from Applejack, as well as all she could remember of the appearance of the shadowy dust when she had gone to see it herself. The princesses had listened patiently, waiting for her to finish talking before speaking up themselves.

“…and that’s about it I think,” Twilight finished, looking up at her one-time mentor expectantly. “Do you know any spells that could send a pegasus back in time?”

Celestia let out a deep sigh and looked down at the table. “I am afraid I am no more knowledgeable than you are in this matter Twilight. Perhaps even less so, considering that you are possibly the only pony alive who has travelled through time themselves.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Really.” Celestia looked up at Twilight with a frown. “You were the only unicorn I trusted to be allowed access to Starswirl’s notes on time magic, and I must admit I have never had the patience to read them myself. Starswirl’s writing is really a bit long winded for my tastes…”

Luna and Celestia shared a chuckle at Twilight’s horrified expression at these words, but the lavender alicorn quickly recovered and spoke up again.

“So what should we do?”

Celestia and Luna turned to each other for a moment, before turning back to Twilight.

“I think you are right that the best approach to understanding the situation is to try to speak to any more ponies that may appear from the future,” Celestia began, “and studying time magic is probably the best way to find them.” The sun princess smiled warmly. “I can think of nopony more qualified than you to do that research.”

Twilight blushed at this. “So what will you two do?”

Luna spoke up first. “We will keep our eyes and ears open for whispers of time-travel ourselves. I can travel the mindscape and see if I can discover anything that way, and Tia can listen out for any more strange reports.” The dark blue alicorn turned to her sister. “If all the ponies from the future ask to have messages passed to you then you may find you do not have to look very hard.”

Celestia nodded and turned back to Twilight. “Other than that, well, we still have a kingdom to run.” She smiled wearily. “We’ll do our best to keep panic to a minimum. The last thing Equestria needs is rioting from ponies who do not understand the situation.”

“It sounds like nopony understands the situation,” Luna said with a sigh.

“True,” Celestia responded, giving a matching sigh. “So we should try to address that. Twilight, you should find all the books you need on a desk prepared for you at the back of the Starswirl the Bearded Wing. I suggest you get to work right away.”

And so it was that Twilight found herself three days later at a now empty desk, every one of the books she had been provided in a heap against the far wall as she had tossed them away one by one when they proved inadequate. The brief notes she had made were inconclusive, and in her current state, having not slept properly since she had arrived, they made no more sense to her than Pinkie’s explanations of her Pinkie Sense.

The trouble was that time travel was just so complicated. There were huge numbers of different theories of how it would work, all of which contradicted each other and none of which matched what she herself had experienced. When she had gone back in time it had been only for a few moments and was only usable once. In hindsight, she hadn’t even changed the past at all, she had just completed what had already happened in a sort of self-fulfilling loop. It certainly wasn’t an experience she would want to go through again, even if she could reuse the spell.

And that spell was the only one Twilight had been able to find that even worked. There were many incomplete spells, mostly by the same unicorns who had written the implausible theories of time travel, and even these never suggested a method by which anypony other than a unicorn could travel through time. Starswirl had written less than Twilight would have hoped about the subject; the spell Pinkie had found when they were last in this wing being little more than a footnote at the end of some ramblings on a different topic. Twilight was beginning to see what Celestia had been getting at. When you were looking for specific details Starswirl did seem a little long-winded.

The alicorn sighed and looked around her. At least her working environment was pleasant. The Starswirl the Bearded Wing was as empty as ever, and this meant there were very few distractions. The slow trickling of sand from the huge hourglass in the centre of the room was a noise Twilight found very relaxing, and helped her keep her focus. Of course there were still some distractions, as Twilight had realised many times when she had come across an interesting passage on some unrelated magic or a scroll containing an interesting but irrelevant spell. She had already moved a scroll into her saddlebags that contained a particularly interesting spell that purported to turn the caster’s voice into a replica of any pony she put her mind to. She would study that one later.

The other benefit of this working environment was that the lack of librarians meant that there was nopony around to chide her from mistreating the books she had been reading. Twilight guiltily looked over at the pile she had formed, and was just about to levitate them back up to her desk when there was a flash of light and the books re-formed into a tall stack, rocking back and forth under the weight of the draconequus that was suddenly seated at the top.

“Discord,” Twilight said flatly.

“Oh Twilight, or should I say Princess Twilight, whatever is the matter? It sounds like you’re not pleased to see me.” There was another flash and Discord was laying back across the desk in front of her. “And here I thought I would pop in to see my good friend so that we could have fun times together. I thought that was what good friends do, but if you aren’t happy to see me then perhaps I was wrong.” He pulled an exaggerated frown.

“This is not a good time Discord.”

“Oh I know,” Discord continued, and with a further flash he was now laying on the sand in the bottom half of the giant hourglass, the falling sand from the top bulb turning around in the air above him and flowing back up. “I hear you’re having some problems with time travel. Nasty business.”

“How did you know that?”

Discord teleported back to the desk in front of her. “Well why wouldn’t I know? Infected ponies from the future appearing all over Equestria? That’s just my sort of chaos! And also Fluttershy told me in her letter yesterday, she’s such a dear.” Discord pulled a letter out of nowhere and started rereading it.

Twilight sighed. A couple of days ago she had received a message from Spike detailing the misadventure her friends had had in Zecora’s hut, and their conclusion that the mystery lay somewhere in the Crystal Empire. Twilight had not wanted to jump to conclusions however, and felt that their best option was still to try and talk to any more future-ponies. Her confidence in that decision was fading more and more as her research ground to a halt though.

“Well you’re right Discord, I am studying time magic, and I would like to carry on, so if you could leave me alone…?”

Discord frowned at her. “Well it doesn’t look like you’re getting anywhere.” He pointed at the now suspiciously blank notes in front of her. “Some element of magic you are.”

Twilight groaned as the notes in front of her folded themselves into birds and started flying around her head. “That’s because time travel is impossible to understand.”

“Impossible to understand? Oh Twilight Twilight, surely you know by now that only I am impossible to understand.” The draconequus tapped his nose, which promptly fell off onto the floor before crawling back up his body to reattach itself. “Besides, I know all about time travel.” There was a flash and a second Discord appeared next to the first, throwing streamers and shouting “Tada!” Barely a moment passed before the first Discord said, “I can even travel through time myself, just watch,” and vanished with a pop.

Twilight blinked and tried to take in what had just happened. She had always known that Discord seemed to have magic that didn’t play by the rules, but she had never considered just how far it could be stretched until now.

“Wait, did you just travel through time?” Twilight leaned forwards, eyes wide. “Could you send someone else through time? A pegasus maybe?”

“Alas no,” Discord said, visibly drooping to the floor. “Even my power has its limits.”

“Oh.” Twilight tapped her chin in thought, before turning back to Discord and narrowing her eyes suspiciously. “Can you even travel through time at all, or was that some sort of trick?”

A sword suddenly appeared through Discord’s body and he staggered around the room. “Such accusations! They wound me! I can’t believe that you, a good friend, would suggest such things.” The sword vanished. “It was a trick, but I’ll have you know that I can travel through time. In fact I’m doing it right now.” A clock appeared in each of his claws, one labelled ‘Discord’ and one labelled ‘Everything Else’. They both ticked at the same rate. “I’m currently travelling through time at the rate of one second per second.” He looked up at Twilight and gasped. “And so are you! Twilight you didn’t tell me you knew how to travel through time too!”

Twilight had had enough. “Discord, I do NOT have time for this. This is really important, possibly something that will affect the whole of Equestria, and I need to get back to my research RIGHT NOW.”

“Fine, fine.” The clocks disappeared. “I only wanted to say that you’re going about this research all wrong. You don’t need to understand how to send a pony through time, you just need to be able to detect when and where they’re going to arrive. But then I’m not an alicorn princess,” large wings and an oversized horn appeared on his body, “or the element of magic,” a huge tiara appeared on his head that slipped down to rest on his shoulders, “so what do I know?”

Twilight almost dismissed Discord before what he had just said properly sunk in. He was right, there was no need to work out what spell would send a pony back in time. Obviously a spell like that existed, because it was being used, but all she really needed to do was to find a way of detecting its use. Maybe she could work from the magical signature of the time travel spell she had used herself, and create a scanning spell that would let her locate any magical disturbances that matched that signature as and when they happened. She grabbed one of the still flying paper birds out of the air and starting scribbling down some notes. Yes, that would work!

“Discord, you’re a genius!” She looked up expecting to be face to face with the draconequus once more, but the room was now as empty as it had been for most of the last few days. Shrugging, Twilight returned to her notes. Now that she had her enthusiasm back, nothing would distract her.

In just a couple of hours of solid work Twilight felt she had a spell that would do the trick. She didn’t know exactly what she’d be able to detect, but with any luck it would all become clear momentarily. Twilight closed her eyes and concentrated on the spell in her mind, picturing the magical signature of Starswirl’s time travel spell.

After a few excruciating moments where she felt nothing, Twilight finally sensed a weak ripple. With her eyes still closed she focussed on the ripple, forming a map of Equestria in her mind so that she could pinpoint its location. To her relief it seemed to be coming from somewhere within Canterlot, and when she was convinced she would be able to locate it she released the spell and galloped out of the room, launching herself through a nearby window and into the sky. To her surprise it was dark outside. That made it the fourth night since she had come to Canterlot. She should definitely get some proper sleep soon.

After days spent cooped up inside, the cold night air rushing through her feathers felt wonderful, but Twilight would not allow herself to get side-tracked. Flying up so that she had a pegasus’ eye view of the city, Twilight spotted the likely intersection of streets and swooped down, landing with a less-than-graceful thud.

Disappointment started welling up inside Twilight as she looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary. The streets were deserted, as would be expected at this time of night. She looked to the ground, hoping to see a tell-tale trail of dark crystals, but there was nothing. As a last resort Twilight cast her scanning spell again. Maybe she had landed in the wrong street? This time upon casting the spell however, Twilight felt far more than a faint ripple. A pulsating force was coming from the area right in front of her.

Twilight stepped back in shock just in time, as there was a resounding bang and the alicorn was launched back against the ground. When her ears had stopped ringing, Twilight looked up at the small crater in front of her. The first thing she spotted was a charred purple hat, arrayed with a collection of stars. Sprawled on the ground next to her hat was a familiar azure unicorn, albeit covered in unnerving looking black blotches, groaning as she tried to pull herself to her hooves.

“Trixie?”