• Member Since 10th May, 2012
  • offline last seen March 12th

Archmage Ansrit


T

Variables.

The Crystal Empire came back much earlier than what it 'should' have. Sombra recovered much faster than he 'should' have. Cadence and Shining Armor were delayed. Sombra was so much more powerful than anticipated.

Trixie spent ten years of her life in hell on Equestria, imprisoned for many of them. Her body, wracked by disease, nearly gave out on her... but the Elements of Harmony would not be denied, for they are the most powerful form of magic known to ponydom. A contract, a stay of death, a rescue and escape, and an attempt at rebellion. Love.

Loss.

One final contract. To earn back her life, Trixie's mind was to travel back in time and stop Sombra before he had the opportunity to kill Twilight Sparkle. Saving the others was a good thing, but the world literally depended on her survival.

With her healthy body back, free of Sombra's spells and... brands, with the strength of so much time spent on a rock farm, and with the training she received, it was disappointingly easy.

The problems started when the refugees arrived.

Turns out, her old timeline sent a few messages along with her.


Inspired by the many 'X beats Sombra before time' fics floating around.

With a little bit of 'Days of Future Past' thrown in, because I was itching for some even before seeing the movie.

Chapters (8)
Comments ( 40 )

woah, interesting story idea, really like it so far.

Really liking this so far, and hope to see more.

Yeah, Trixie can be heroic and still showboating. It works, it's been done, and it's awesome.

The past timeline references are sometimes a little confusing. I gather that Twilight did not get butchered in this timeline, though?

Also, it would be a hoot to see Cadence's and Shiny's reactions when they show up to protect the Empire only to find that Trixie's fixed everything and is running it. And has no plans on giving up her throne now.

Also, Thunderstruck was an awesome comic and it was sad to see it end prematurely. I can easily see Trixie catching bullets (or the Equestrian counterpart) and hiding them behind her opponent's ear.

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Yeah, Twilight is just fine this time around, though deprived of the Super Mode she invented. Will invent. Can invent. Whatever tense it's supposed to be.

Our great and powerful protagonist's plans are not defined - she only had 'stop Sombra' on her checklist. Luckily for her, the ponies and... miscellaneous around her present her with courses of action.

Thunderstruck is updating again; check the link.

Thunderstruck is updating again; check the link.

So it is! Sweet! Thanks for letting me know.

"We have the magic. We can make her stronger, faster, more powerful. Trixie Lulamoon: The Six-magical-element mare!" *hums theme*

Interesting. So it seems Trixie wasn't the only one to remember the lost timeline?

Also, Trixie in a pile of little colts and fillies. Where's my insulin?

Inspired by the many 'X beats Sombra before time' fics floating around.

Care to name some?

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He isn't remembering it per se, being dead by the time the time-travelling happened, think more along the lines of the 'gift' mentioned on the last line.

As for Celestia, it's dramatic irony.

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Nigel M. Chandlers, Emperor. HiE, dark humor and violence.

The King Is Dead, Long Live The Emperor! Changeling thrown back in time. The other stories by the same author have more on changelings and their abilities as per his 'verse, though it's not exactly a part of it.

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This is the very start. Have fun!

Nice Chapter ! keep going, i cant wait to see more :twilightsmile:

Hey can you please explain what was going on jumping between past and present so much I got lost. I know trixie killed somerbra and she's getting the crystal heart but i have no idea about the future except sombra kills twilight.

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More than a jump they are memories, and most reveals of non-Trixie future events will be small, if they happen at all.

Basically, Twilight did something with the Element of Magic that... is a bit of a fan interpretation of their use, based on a whole bunch of other stories... however, Sombra had brought golems with minimal situational awareness and limited decision-making - when they perceive a threat, they attack unless told not to - which caught Twilight unaware (everyone else was too busy gawking).

Trixie was there, though, and managed to figure it out in a scale more to her level - though still impressive. The problem was that her health was... sub-optimal, and there wasn't enough time to let her recover - things were becoming steadily worse.

I am a pretty smart guy but what am I reading i don't understand any of this it just seems like a bunch of random events stapled together. I feel like you ripped pages out of a book and just put them back in any order. Please help me understand. My problems are I have no idea when any of these scenes are taking place or if there even real, your plot is overly complicated and your story telling leave me completely in the dark.

What is everyone doing so far?

celestia is afraid and sent twilight t the empire
Twilight maybe dead
trixie was in an operation
trixie is living with the crystal pony foals
luna wants to find lula
lula is trixie
cadence says crystal empire came back during her honey moon

Question: has this all happened in two weeks?

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Trixie is dreaming, but since she has memories from the future, she dreamed of things that 1) Happened 'years ago' for her, but 'years from now' from the perspective of the calendar and 2) Didn't happen anyways since she changed the timeline.

Luna doesn't know this, however, and thinks that 'Lula' is currently out there, still sick-ish, instead of being a time-traveler with a body that never experienced illnesses that bad.

Trixie woke up and went about her second day in the Crystal Empire.

Celestia's scene... is to establish her character. A peek inside of her head, with a bit of dramatic irony for the reader.

Cadence's is merely showing that she is being delayed because the circumstances are different than in 'canon'. Instead of departing from Canterlot, where preparations are easier, they had to take a longer road, and ran into bad weather they would have otherwise avoided.

The group of refugees got a considerable head start (due to messages from the future, courtesy of the self-sacrificing sender), did avoid the worst of the bad weather, and are thus making better time.

Technically, everything is happening in the same morning, with the dream happening first, of course, but everything else semi-simultaneously.

Conflagrations I fully understood this chapter.

4984861 thanks the chapters after that explain most of what's going on it's the lack of context as to when every thing is happening (you might want to put the date and time of these scenes to make people get a better sense of time) that makes it hard to follow you cause you jump without any warning that trips me up.

This title is a mouthful.

honest, constructive criticism:

Direct explanations to the reader should be kept at minimum and subtle. However, if you can't find any alternative that is not the characters themselves doing the explanations(Explanations the characters involved in said conversation probably already know) then it would be better to just explain.

Well, I can say I definitely like this story, its very different then many out there.

IT LIVES!:pinkiegasp: Seriously though awesome to see this story updated.:pinkiehappy:

A good starting chapter. Sombra shows up, gets offed pretty quick, and no doubt it'll be permanent with the return of the Crystal Heart. No sliced off horn saving him this time either :trixieshiftleft:

I wonder whom the future creature Trixie is talking with is, whether a canon character or an OC. We'll have to see in later chapters if it's brought up again. The mechanics of Trixie's time travel aren't quite entirely explained: it's stated that she doesn't have future injuries anymore, and along with the mention of her legs being strong from the rock farm, doubtless she is in the form of her past body, but did she return to that precise moment right before Sombra went out onto the balcony, or did she return a little bit later, travel to the Crystal Empire as soon as it returned, and then take out Sombra, with that being the trigger to finally erase the old timeline, being a major change of events?

Future Trixie had a lot of respect for Twilight, apparently. Not just all the compliments she gives Twilight, but even giving her name two adjectives at one point. I wonder if she respects Present Twilight anywhere near as much without the experiences of the Crystal Empire. One thing's for certain: Present Twilight will pop a blood vessel or five once she hears Trixie has returned and become the Empress of the Crystal Empire. For that matter, I wonder how Celestia will react, since the show makes it seem like she had intended all along to install Cadance on the throne of the Crystal Empire, whether Cadance is a natural descendant of Crystal Ponies or not.

I was wondering in the early part of the chapter if the Changelings had invaded in this revised timeline or not, but that gets answered later in the chapter as the Empire only having returned a few days earlier. As a result, it must be befuddling for Luna to see Changelings and ponies working together on a surgical operation, especially since she doesn't know this is a future operation. No doubt the one Changeling that caresses Trixie there is also the one mentioned later as trekking towards the Crystal Empire in the present timeline.

Something that isn't given enough information and I don't know whether it was deliberate or not is the mention of the six shards. It definitely sounds like it could be either the Element of Magic, broken up into six pieces, or a remaining fragment from each of the Elements. Since you clarify it as just being the Element of Magic, maybe add something in about each of the shards being purple? Trixie later mentions being in her 'regular old Trixie body' so I imagine she no longer has whatever benefits the Element of Magic conferred upon her. That said, I would love to see a drawbrony do a picture up of Crystal Ponyfied Trixie buried under a pile of foals!

Hopefully Trixie never decides to tell Celestia what her decision to rely on Twilight would have wrought in the unaltered timeline. Celly might not be able to deal with the depression from that.

I see Trixie will take some convincing to become Empress of the Crystal Empire. Of course, given the title of this fic, it's all but a given. It'll be interesting to see how those events go, though, and if Celestia and/or Cadance demand that Cadance be given the throne as an Alicorn and descendant of Crystal Ponies. But, well, Trixie single-handedly defeated Sombra and brought the Crystal Heart back. Difficult to beat that! While you appear to be doing a little bit of world-building here with new creatures and pony hybrids, between the first scene and last chapter it appears Celestia is more than slightly paranoid, and this could set her off as well, especially given the hint of Trixie offering the Changelings and succubi sanctuary in the Crystal Empire.

Trixie's future-Changeling-boyfriend is probably the specific Changeling mentioned in the starting scene, and Swarm, the creature Trixie mentions as having died in the rebellion, might be his name. I guess it's a RAFO situation.

The Bold and Relentless Trixie spearheaded the incursion to the territories of the kitchen, which were taken without resistance (there was nopony to resist, nevertheless, it was a valid account of the event). With her army of foals, the Adjective and Other-Adjective Trixe was unstoppable!

Simply adorable.

Looks like a Crystal Fair is in the offing. The amount of worship Trixie gets there will no doubt push her a bit further towards becoming Empress.

If I'm picking up the vibe correctly, Future Celestia still lived, but was a complete dick and didn't want anything to do with the resistance movement, while Sombra continued to get more powerful, or at least powerful enough that her and Luna together couldn't defeat Sombra. That vault for the Elements also comes up. Trixie thinking of it being useless isn't surprising, since the first time we see it, Discord managed to easily swipe them, and the Mane 6 are prevented from getting to it during the Canterlot Wedding.

Since apparently Celestia and Luna couldn't defeat Sombra in the future, it makes me wonder - was future Sombra ever actually defeated, or did the resistance find a way to send Trixie back in time and then erase the old timeline entirely?

So if I take the one Changeling's line talking about growth spells and well-trained ponies, then the large Timberwolf was a fake that they made to throw away the guards' attention so they could make a clean escape? The way the Changeling explains their jail escape isn't quite neat enough to make one hundred percent sense, however, with regards to the whole leaving no trail.

The dream scene that Luna observes of Trixie learning the different types of magic: now that Trixie is no longer possessing of the Element of Magic shards, I wonder if she can still use the other types of magic, or if she has lost the capacity to do them ie. whether she needed a psychic catalyst to be able to access them at first and can then use them thereafter even after her time travelling, or if the Element of Magic was a physical requirement.

So it seems my intuition that 'Swarm' and the changeling leading the migrating pack and Trixie's Future Changeling Coltfriend were all the same was correct. Good to have that affirmed.

I'm going to take a stab and guess that Future Cadance was killed off pretty quick, as soon as she arrived in the Crystal Empire. As such, Trixie doesn't quite realise how aligned Cadance and Celestia are yet, at least with regards to their treatment of the exotic species such as the Changelings and Lilin. Once she does, that will certainly make her decision to take the throne for herself easier, if only to stop a bigot from having control over the Empire and casting out all the refugees.

Let's see how long it will take for Luna to clue in on either of who 'Lula' is (maybe making a mention to Twilight Sparkle about a mysterious blue unicorn) or that Lula is from the future. She might be getting a little closer now.

That ending scene tells me Trixie's more violent battles aren't over just yet, either.

I can see how the earlier commenters were complaining about how some of the segments feel very out of place. The whole bit with Octavia, Vinyl and the officer early on is one of them. I get that Vinyl is one of the exotic species that would be otherwise sent to jail if she was discovered, but the whole chat between the officer and Octavia seems really weird. The officer just knocks on the door, talks to her for a bit while Octavia plays a metronome, and then leaves. No exposition in his thought about who Neon Light is, random blurbs on Octavia and Vinyl's relevance, and so on.

And so Trixie finally reunites with her love apparent, and he offers to do a second time around relationship with her. Her mention of his death having been right after her surgery, and her earlier thinking exposition about him having died some time earlier means she must have continued on in the rebellion for quite some time after her implants. I wonder what difference it made in her contributions to the war efforts then.

Also, did I read it correctly in that Luna and Celestia actually used the Elements of Harmony to literally prevent ponies from forcing arranged marriages altogether? That's what I'm interpreting Trixie's talk as, and that seems rather a bit, well, intrusive of the Elements' powers.

Anyways, I'm up to the last posted chapter. I see the last two came after a year's hiatus, so I hope to see a new chapter soon instead of another hiatus!

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Luna wasn't seeing a dream, but a memory; Trixie wasn't seeing with her eyes, and the pieces were ungodly "bright".

As for relying on Twilight, it actually worked out pretty well at first; Ponyville held out quite well until Twilight died.

Looks like Celestia has more than a few dirty secrets, along with some blindful ignorance.

I half-expect Trixie to start notching up the kills on immortals and inadvertently gaining a title like The Immortal Killer or something (if Sombra could have been considered immortal, that is).

The Great and Powerful Trixie!!! GODKILLER!!! Extraordinaire!!!!

Story is good, but I'm unable to get past the Trixie/Swarm pairing that just happened. The reason why is simple, I hate the concept of time travel that one goes into the past to change it and meets the one they love who starts back in a relationship with them. Which also includes the destiny/one true love aspects which such stories also include to hand wave complications away.
The story so far is good, I'm sorry I won't be reading the rest because of being unable to get past that concept I hate. Hope you continue writing as what I read is good.

Is this still active?

So any updates soon, or have you given up on this?

Not a fan of everyone else being connected to the other timeline. Makes it all needlessly complicated. A jumbled mess to read.

It feels like 3 different fics within this story.
1) is Luna trying to piece together a mystery of an operation on a half dead pony.
2) Celestia has gone insane and xenophobic and wrongfully imprisons ponies and their nonpony lovers, who eventually orchestrate an escape and are on the run.
3) is Trixie coming back from the future and aiding the crystal empire because Sombra killed twilight.

Each sounds fantastic. The problem I have that it's difficult to read all three at the same time. Things get very confusing.

This is an intresting story. I always like giving my mane three more screen time

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