27. A matter of time
Wings of Tomorrow
Lament of the World
27. A matter of time
“Teleportation… teleportation… Gaah! For Celestia’s sake, where did I put that copy of ‘A quick introduction to near instantaneous, non-physical methods of matter repositioning’?!” a clearly frustrated Twilight Sparkle asked aloud, while running from one pile of books to another in search of the missing tomes. Her quick movements caused the innumerable papers that laid scattered over the tables and floor to fly up whenever she passed.
Finally she noticed the book she was looking for, laying half-hidden under a pile of notes on one of the tables she was allowed to use during her studying. Her magic quickly snatched it from under the papers and placed it on an empty lectern. Satisfied, she sat down at the lectern and opened the book, skipping ahead quickly to the first chapter.
“Chapter one: magical theory of the basic principles of teleportation,” she read aloud to herself, keeping her voice low and soft, after which she lost herself within the pages. The only sign of life coming from her was the occasional glow of her horn when she used her magic to turn a page.
It had been three days since her arrival in Cantropolis, and Twilight Sparkle had occupied the library ever since. When Rainbow Dash had informed her that she had been given access to all areas of the library and its archives, Twilight had ran off after muttering something that Rainbow Dash had barely managed to understand as a ‘thank you’. The unicorn had run straight towards the palace’s halls of knowledge, unwilling to spend even one more minute not being there, and she had not left them ever since.
Three days and two nights she had resided within the walls of the library, and a third night was already nearing its halfway point. During it, Twilight had not given herself even a moment’s rest. She had not gone out when the bell for breakfast, lunch or supper had sounded, surviving on the small snacks the palace’s staff brought her, though even those had not always been eaten entirely. She had not slept, fighting off the fatigue every time it had reared its ugly head. Sometimes she had fallen asleep on top of the book she had been reading, only to awaken with a start, after which she had scolded herself angrily for falling asleep before going straight back to her books.
The nearly uninterrupted, continuous study session clearly had taken its toll on the studious mare, for Twilight looked far from healthy. Her mane was a dishevelled mess and there were bags under her eyes, which were bloodshot. Her stomach was growling, the gratuitous amounts of coffee Twilight had supplied it with by far not being enough to still her hunger. She did not care. All her attention was focused on her books and studying.
“You can’t afford a break,” she told herself every time she nearly fell asleep. “There’s less than twelve days left to go until the war breaks out. Your friends are counting on you to be ready by then. You can’t fail them again just because you were sleeping when you should have been studying!”
Though it was impossible for anyone to relearn in less than two weeks what Twilight had learned during her entire former life, said pony was nevertheless determined to try. Though Twilight retained the memories of all she had learned in her previous life, due to her many years in the Republic during her second life, the knowledge contained within these memories had faded over time. In the Republic the use of magic more advanced than levitation was prohibited for every unicorn aside those who served in the army. As of such, Twilight had not been able to practice or study what she had learned in her previous life to keep the knowledge fresh in her memories. Much of it was gone and could only be regained by restudying that which she had forgotten.
The rational part of Twilight’s mind knew that there was no way she could regain all knowledge on magic, both theory and practical, in two weeks, but the rest of her mind seemed quite determined to ignore that. Every time she thought about taking a break, getting some much needed rest or slowing down the pace of her ravenous studying, the events of the night of the Parade replayed in her head. She could see Rarity again as she lay in a pool of her own blood, Fluttershy beaten down on the ground by vicious guards and herself unable to do anything to help them. She remembered her own injuries, how she had very well nearly been killed if not for the timely intervention of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.
“None of that would have happened if you had been the mare you used to be,” she told herself. “The old Twilight would have been able to hold down those guards until Fluttershy had escaped with Rarity. The old Twilight would have teleported herself and her friends to safety before those guards had even had the chance to injure any of her friends.”
Twilight clearly remembered how she had felt during that moment. Aside from the pain of her injuries, she had felt helpless and powerless. It was a feeling she loathed and one she never wished to feel again. She felt that she had failed her friends as well as herself that night, something she was not willing to repeat. She didn’t want a night like the one of the Parade to happen ever again. And thus she studied, relentlessly, desperately, heedless of anything else that went on in the world.
She hadn’t seen any of her friends since she had locked herself up in the library, nor had they come to visit her. Had they known what Twilight was doing to herself and her body, however, there was little doubt they would come over to put an end to her self-destructive studying. But as it was, they all had their own duties to tend to, or preparations to make for the upcoming invasion, that kept them occupied. As of such, Twilight could continue her plundering of the palace’s books for their knowledge unhindered.
Said plundering was not going as well as Twilight wished it to, however. A deep frown had etched itself onto her face and her jaws were clenched together harder and harder the longer understanding of the current subject continued to elude her. She groaned in frustration and rubbed her tired eyes as the words on the pages began to spin before them.
“I don’t understand!” she cried aloud, upset, to the empty library. Her hoof came down hard on the book she was reading. Again she rubbed in her eyes, after which she shook her head in an attempt to clear her mind. She read the page again but ended up none the wiser when she was finished.
“I don’t understand…” she repeated, much more softly this time. Twilight sighed, her eyes closing as her body slumped in defeat. “I know I once knew this part of the magical theory on the basic principles of teleportation… So why don’t I understand it now…?” She felt tears run down her cheeks and realised with a shock that she was crying. Twilight was stunned to find herself weeping over something as trivial as not understanding some magical theory. What was wrong with her?
Wiping the tears away, she sniffed and focussed on the page again. Once more she started to read it from the beginning, slowly this time, trying to let every single word sink in. She had spent the entire day so far brushing up her knowledge and understanding of teleportation, having quickly decided when she began her studying that it was one of the vitally important skills she had to master again before the invasion began. Hours had passed and many books had been read on the subject, but Twilight found herself not a step closer to understanding the principles and workings of the admittedly difficult spell.
Her latest attempt fared no better. She really tried, with all her might, to lock the words in her head, tried to force her mind to understand them, but it was futile. She was simply too tired. Every time she tried to read them, the words would start to spin before Twilight’s eyes, no matter how much she rubbed in them. This only served to frustrate her even more, which caused her to start crying again, due to the exhaustion making her emotions highly unstable.
Finally, Twilight’s body could take no more. Even as she was trying, in vain, to make out the words on the pages through the tears and haze of fatigue before her eyes, she started to slump forward. Her eyes slowly fell shut and Twilight no longer had the strength to keep them open.
She was already sleeping when her head fell down on the book and her body slumped against the lectern.
---
Twilight was roused from her slumber by the gentle tickling of warm sunrays on her face. A soft groan escaped her mouth as she clenched her eyes; the last attempts of her body to remain at rest in dreamland. The bright sunlight’s assault on her heavy eyelids was relentless, however, and she reluctantly took in a deep breath and stirred. It was only when she did this that she realised she had fallen asleep.
The realisation made her wide awake immediately and she sat up with a start. As she did this, a light-blue blanket slid off her shoulders and fell to the ground. Twilight could not remember wrapping herself with a blanket or even having a blanket in the library in the first place, so she concluded somepony else had given it to her. That same somepony had also removed her guide to the basic principles of teleportation from under her head, closed it, put it neatly aside on the table and replaced it with a fluffy pillow.
“Greetings, Twilight Sparkle. We see thou hast decided to awaken from thy slumber at last.”
The sudden words nearly made Twilight leap out of her skin. She shot up from the floor with a startled yelp and whirled around to face the unexpected speaker faster than one could say ‘book’. She got a second shock once she saw who it was that had decided to nearly give her cardiac arrest.
“P… Princess Luna!” Twilight stammered while hurriedly dropping into a respectful bow.
She could not stop herself from keeping her eyes fixed on one half of Equestria’s rightful diarchy. The Princess was lying on a comfortable lounger, hidden from the rest of the library by a few well-placed bookcases, with a light tome spread open before her. She was watching her sister’s protégé with warm and kind eyes, seemingly not at all perturbed by Twilight’s dishevelled state and quickly rising panic.
Twilight suddenly realised she had spoken the Princess’ name aloud when only a few days ago Rainbow Dash had told her that doing so was absolutely forbidden outside of the Princess’ personal quarters. She was to be called ‘high chancellor’ and nothing else. Twilight looked around the library nervously, trying to see if anypony had been there to pick up her slip of the tongue.
“Calm thyself, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said soothingly, before glancing down at her book and turning a page. “Precautions have been taken so that thou might speak freely. All who would enter here would see us as naught but an ordinary pegasus, while another spell makes any mentioning of our name pass by unnoticed.”
The Princess of the Night could not help but roll her eyes. “Grand admiral Hooves and her admirals mean well, but their security measures do strike us as somewhat excessive. We are no foal, tis a simple matter for one such as us to make ponies notice us not when we pass by,” she said. “Admittedly, those well-versed in the ways of magic such as thou possess senses acute enough to pick up our magic and notice something be off, but for a leisurely stroll to the palace’s library our precautions are more than satisfactory.”
Twilight was staring at Luna slack jawed throughout the Princess’ entire explanation, and only when Luna went quiet again did she have the state of mind to pick up her jaw from the floor and wipe the idiotic look from her face.
“I… eh… Princess… You… What are you doing here?” Twilight finally managed to stammer. She shifted nervously where she sat and tried to take an unnoticed look at herself and her surroundings. This corner of the library she had commandeered for her studies frankly looked like a shameful mess, while Twilight herself was in a state that would be more than capable of giving Rarity a heart attack. Twice. She bowed her head shamefully, not daring to imagine what the Princess would think of her now that she had seen her like this.
“We were told that thou had taken up residence in the library and decided to pay a dear friend of us a visit,” Luna answered calmly, on a tone that reminded Twilight very much of Celestia whenever the Princess had tried to calm her when her mind was going off into panic mode over a perceived offence or mistake. “When we entered, it was to find thee fast asleep, thy head nestled on an open book in a way that we perceived as most uncomfortable. Thou were sucking thy hoof in a fashion most adorable,” she added with a teasing look in her eyes.
Twilight blushed furiously and tried to look at anything but the Princess, feeling mortified and immensely embarrassed. She felt as if she was a filly in the library of the castle in Canterlot again, when Celestia had found her in exactly the same situation one day.
“I… ehm… er… meep?” she babbled nervously, causing Luna to laugh.
“Tis fine, Twilight Sparkle! Clearly thou were greatly exhausted and we did not wish to wake thee from much needed sleep. We brought thee a pillow and blanket so that thou might be more comfortable. We did not wish to risk waking thee by moving thee to thy quarters,” the Princess explained. She gave Twilight a warm smile. “Our sister once told us that thou could get most… enthusiastic while studying, to the point where it caused her to worry about thee at times. We know now that she had not been spinning us a yarn.”
Twilight bowed her head and closed her eyes in shame, her ears drooping. “I’m sorry, Princess.”
“Tis not a crime to pursue knowledge with great eagerness, my little pony,” Luna assured her calmly. “But thou must learn to temper thy enthusiasm. Tis fine that thou wishes to study, but it should not come at the expense of all else, least of all the needs of thy mortal form.” The Princess’ horn glowed blue as she used her magic to levitate a picnic basket over to Twilight, who looked at it and then at Luna with a frown of incomprehension.
“The palace servants told us that thou had barricaded thyself within the palace’s library and refused to come out, not even for nourishment. Thy absence did not pass thy friends unnoticed either,” the Princess said. “The basket was prepared for thee by the Element of Laughter, who deeply regretted not being able to deliver it to thee in person, but she said something about being occupied with the development of artillery of some sort.”
Twilight glanced inside the basket to find a more than acceptable assortment of baked goods packed with two bottles of juice. Then something the Princess said sunk in and she looked up at Luna in confusion. “Wait, what, artillery?”
Luna shrugged. “It eluded our comprehension as well,” the Princess replied, “something that appears to be the norm when it comes to thy energetic friend.”
“No kidding,” Twilight muttered quietly under her breath. Nevertheless, she was both touched by and grateful for the thoughtful and generous gesture of her pink friend. A loud growl coming from her stomach told her that her body was in full agreement with said gratitude. Twilight caught Luna giving her an amused look, which caused her lips to form an awkward smile. “I guess I was getting pretty hungry…”
“We bid thee to still thy hunger then without further delay,” Luna said kindly, gesturing at the basket with one of her hooves. “After which thou might perhaps reveal to us why thou decided it would be wise to starve thyself.”
Twilight blushed again and mumbled something unintelligible, quickly picking up a cupcake from the basket and biting into it as an excuse to not reply. She ate in silence for a while, Luna keeping herself happy with reading her book in the meantime. Twilight observed her quietly as she munched on her cupcake, trying to be subtle about it and not blatantly stare.
It was strange to be sitting there with the Princess right in front of her, laying comfortably on a lounger and doing something as casual as reading a book, while no less than four days ago Twilight had believed the same Princess to be very much dead and gone. Surreal, almost. For a moment she thought she was looking at Celestia, for the way Luna was laying there, so calm and relaxed while reading in the warm sunlight, reminded Twilight eerily of her beloved mentor. It struck her suddenly just how alike the two sisters were, while before they had always appeared to be truly as different as day and night.
Once the worst of Twilight’s hunger and thirst had been taken care of, Luna looked up from her book at Twilight again, gentle curiosity in her eyes. “Now that thy hunger hath been sated, perhaps ‘tis time for thou to give us a reason for thy most peculiar method of studying?” She asked her question gently and kindly, to make it clear perfectly clear to Twilight that she wasn’t in any form of trouble but that Luna did wish for an explanation as to why she had found the unicorn sleeping on top of an open book.
Twilight bowed her head again, knowing that Luna would take no satisfaction with anything but the truth. It was useless to lie and the thought, it has to be said, didn’t even really cross her mind. It felt just like the aforementioned time when Celestia had found her like this as a filly, and she had not been able to lie or make excuses then either. Something about the way the Princess had asked her for an explanation had made her want to tell the truth and nothing but. Likewise, the way Luna was now looking at her made Twilight want to confess her fears and doubts, to tell the Princess of the perceived failure that haunted her. She just didn’t really know how to start.
“The beginning is always as good a place as any, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said with a smile, as if she had read the unicorn’s mind.
Twilight opened and closed her mouth a few times before letting out a deep sigh. “When we arrived here, we were told that the Republic’s invasion would commence within fourteen days. That’s so little time!” she finally replied. “Rainbow Dash asked us to help her, but how can I be of any use to her when I have only fourteen days to prepare?”
She bowed her head for the third time, her ears lying flat against her skull. “I haven’t studied anything in my entire life… I’ve forgotten so much from what I learned in my previous one.” Twilight swallowed hard. “I’m not even half the mare I used to be… But I wanted so desperately to be able to do something for Rainbow Dash, for Princess Celestia, that when I finally got the opportunity to really study magic again for the first time in this life, I guess I kind of got carried away…”
Twilight looked up in surprise when she felt Luna’s wing wrap around her and hug her against the alicorn’s larger body. At some moment while she had been speaking, the Princess had gotten up from the couch and walked over to the distressed unicorn. Now Luna was smiling down at her sister’s startled protégé.
“Tis most understandable, my little pony, and thy motives were noble,” Luna assured Twilight kindly. “But surely thou realisest that, even for a mare of thy commendable dedication and great skill, tis not possible to learn a lifetime of knowledge in but two weeks? We are certain that thy friends will think no less of thee for failing this impossible task.”
“I know that,” Twilight admitted quietly, “but it’s not what I’m worried about. How can I be of any help when I can’t even perform anything beyond basic levitation? I’ve seen what Rainbow Dash is capable of in this era, what could I possibly offer her that might be of any use?”
“Thy friendship and thy support,” Luna said calmly. “It striketh us that this much would have been in plain sight for thou to see,” she added with a smile that contained a hint of good-natured mirth.
To her credit, Twilight had the decency to blush at having lost sight of the obvious and she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. “You’re right, Princess,” she replied quietly. There was a short pause before Twilight spoke again. “I’m sure I can give her that much at least, but, well… I had hoped to be doing a little more than being part of Rainbow Dash’s personal antidepressant.”
At this, Luna laughed aloud, the sound being like the melodious chiming of bells. “Aye, verily we did not expect thee to be content with a supportive role while one of thy closest friends is risking her life for the mentor thou lovest so dearly,” she agreed, as she looked down at Twilight to give her a smile that was both teasing and approving in nature. “For all thy studious tendencies, thou art quite the mare of action, Twilight Sparkle.”
“When the safety of my friends, teacher or country is at risk, at least,” Twilight replied, blushing a bit, more out of modesty this time.
“There could be no better reason,” was Luna’s answer. “Mayhaps we could be of some assistance in regaining thy lost knowledge?” she asked with an unreadable smile on her face, as she levitated the book Twilight had fallen asleep on over to the two of them.
Twilight gaped at the Princess of the Night, aware that it was rude to do so but unable to do anything about it. “Y… you would help me… study? As in: you teaching me? Personally?” she stammered, being more startled by the offer than disbelieving of it.
“Aye, that doth be what we offered,” Luna nodded. She smirked mischievously. “It might surprise thee, Twilight Sparkle, but though we might not be Celestia, we do happen to know a thing or two about magic ourselves.”
“O… of course you do! I didn’t mean to imply that you… I’m sorry!” Twilight replied, after her mouth had opened and closed a few times in horrified shock, as if she was a fish out of the water. She hurriedly threw herself to her hooves as she apologised.
Luna laughed again, softer and gentler this time. “Twilight Sparkle, please, we spoke but in jest! ‘T was but a harmless prank,” she assured the panicky unicorn, after which she gave Twilight another warm hug with her wing to prove her words. “Thou art more than free to refuse our offer, of course. We do not wish to impose ourselves upon thee.”
“Oh no, no! How could I refuse an offer like that?” Twilight said hurriedly. She got a nervous expression on her face and squirmed a bit under the Princess’ wing. “But, ehm… Don’t you have more important things to do than helping me remember, Princess?”
To her surprise, Luna’s smile faltered and she actually looked sad. “It might surprise thee, my little pony, but there is little to do even for an alicorn Princess when she is considered to no longer walk upon this world,” she replied. “Grand admiral Hooves and her staff, as well as steward Morning Red, do seek my council and input for the most important of matters, but until we march to free my sister at long last and we come out of hiding, ending the illusion of our departure, there is not much for us to do. Or could do, for that matter.”
Understanding dawned on Twilight and she felt terribly uncomfortable having voiced her question. It should have been obvious that, being considered dead, Luna could not do the usual work of an Equestrian Princess. She realised in that moment that for all her smiles and kind words, Luna no doubt felt frustrated and hurt inside due to being unable to do anything but wait in her highly isolated room until the Royalists freed her sister. Twilight felt awfully insensitive for having reminded Luna of that.
“I’m… I’m sorry,” she apologised lamely, her head bowed and ears drooped again.
“Nay, do not apologise, thou did no wrong,” Luna replied sincerely, shaking her head. She lifted her wing from around Twilight and folded it again, then gave the unicorn a warm smile. “Let us not dwell on matters of hurt and focus instead on how we can mend them, by preparing thee for the coming conflict by studying together in ‘fun’.” Her smile widened as she looked at Twilight expectantly.
Twilight returned the smile with an affirmative nod, a peaceful expression on her face. “Let’s,” she concluded, now smiling as well.
---
It was a strange feeling to study with Princess Luna, Twilight decided, because of how much it made her feel as if she was a filly in her previous life again, snuggled against Princess Celestia as the two of them read through a heavy tome on magical theory in the Princess’ private quarters. Those had been some of the happiest moments of hers and the Princess’ life both. She never asked why, but being able to lay there with Twilight at her side as she answered the filly’s questions about whatever book they were reading had always made Celestia look completely at peace and satisfied.
Her experience now with Luna was almost exactly alike, to her great surprise, for she had always thought for whatever reason that, should Luna ever have a personal protégé of her own, her methods of teaching would be radically different from her sister’s. Again Twilight had been proven wrong, being shown once again that the sisters were more alike than a lot of ponies suspected. As she gazed subtly at Luna’s content face, Twilight wondered what went on in the Princess’ mind. What was she thinking now, helping her sister’s personal protégé study the very same things Celestia herself had once helped Twilight with?
Whatever her thoughts on that matter were, they did not influence her teaching skills in the slightest, as Luna calmly and patiently went through book after book with Twilight, looking at all times content and pleased. Whenever they came to a part that Twilight did not understand, Luna helped her along by asking questions and offering subtle hints until the unicorn figured out the answer herself, exactly as Celestia had done.
It was an effective technique, and Twilight was pleased with her progress. Even though there was no possible way for her to even regain a tenth of her knowledge and skills at the pace they were currently going, Luna’s presence and calm encouragement kept her from going into another panicked studying frenzy. Twilight knew that it was better to truly regain her mastery over a few vital spells than to pick up some meagre skill with a great many of them by reading up on only the basics.
However, as they were going through a particularly monstrous tome that taught its readers the advanced principles and behaviour of teleportation spells, Twilight caught her mind wandering to something that had nothing to do with what they were currently studying.
“Princess Luna?” she began hesitatingly. The Princess looked up and gave her a kind and patient smile, but said nothing. Seeing that she had the alicorn’s attention, Twilight nervously continued. “Can I… Can I ask you something? Not about teleportation?”
Luna raised her eyebrows and her eyes widened a bit in surprise, but the rest of her face remained calm and kind. “Of course, Twilight Sparkle,” she said warmly. “Pray tell, what is it you wish to ask?”
Twilight didn’t immediately reply, chewing on her lip as she thought about how to best voice the question that was plaguing her mind, keeping her from her studies on teleportation. “I was wondering if you know how Steel Gear managed to travel through time,” she finally said. “I don’t know of any other spell but the one made by Starswirl the Bearded, and that one allows for only a brief visit to the past, not a long, extended stay like Steel Gear made.”
She paused for a moment, giving Luna tensed look to try and gauge her reaction to the new subject. When the Princess, whose face was now unreadable, did not immediately reply, Twilight dared to press on. She only hoped that Luna’s silence was because she was thinking, not because she was about to blow up in her face.
“When… when Rainbow Dash took us to meet you three days ago and you spoke of the anomalies, you mentioned that time was not the domain of either you or Princess Celestia,” she continued hesitatingly. “But the way you said that made it sound to me as if you were saying that it instead belonged to somepony else.” She paused again and swallowed hard. She wasn’t sure if she liked the look Luna was giving her. “You… you also said that you were ‘instructed from the beginning’ to not tamper with time in any way. Instructed by whom? The one who watches over the domain of time, if it exists?”
A long silence fell, one that was almost painful to Twilight as she waited for the Princess to move or respond in any way. The longer the silence dragged on, the greater Twilight’s fear became that she had overstepped her bounds and gone too far, asking about things she had no business sticking her nose in.
Then, suddenly, a genuine, kind smile graced Luna’s visage, one that instantly eased Twilight’s fears and chased away the doom scenarios that had already begun to form thanks to her overactive imagination. An imagination which, it had to be said, tended to take a huge liking to doom scenarios of the worst and most horrid kind.
“Thou art truly nothing if not perceptive, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna praised, still smiling. “Too clever for thy own good, perhaps. Verily, we finally understand why it delighted our sister so to teach thee! Any other would no doubt not have picked up the words thou now so shrewdly lay before our hooves.”
Twilight swallowed hard and suddenly found the bookcase to her right very interesting. “I’m sorry, please don’t be mad. Forget I ever asked,” she pleaded fearfully, only to feel Luna’s hoof come to rest comfortingly on her chin and turning her head, forcing her to look at the Princess.
“We bid thee to look upon our visage, Twilight Sparkle. Dost thou detect a trace of anger upon it?” Luna asked kindly. “Nay, thou hast displeased us not. Didst thou not hear us praise thy sharp hearing and perception? Thou hast every right to ask us this, and our prolonged silence was merely a result of our own surprise at thou having picked up these implications.”
Luna paused and gained a thoughtful expression on her face, while Twilight nervously waited for her Princess to continue. “To answer thy first question, however, we have to admit that even we do not know,” she finally said. “Like thou, we know that Steel Gear travelled back in time to the past, though knowledge of the method he used to achieve this feat eludes even us.”
“Our words may sound hard to believe, but we assure thee that they are nevertheless the honest truth. We sincerely doubt that even our sister could answer this question for thee,” Luna added when she saw the dubious look Twilight was giving her. The lunar Princess smiled wryly. “It may surprise thee, but there are in fact things that even our sister and us do not know of, though we admit that they are far and few in between.”
Twilight couldn’t prevent herself from looking quite disappointed, despite her valiant efforts to do just that. The mysteries surrounding Steel Gear were one of the things that had been troubling her since childhood. Throughout the years she had never really doubted the idea that Princess Celestia, or her sister, would be able to shed light upon these mysteries. To find out now that her faith had, in fact, been misplaced, was more than a bit of a let-down.
Luna’s voice shook her out of her thoughts. “Do not be disheartened, Twilight Sparkle,” the Princess said kindly. She gave Twilight a warm smile when the unicorn looked up and their eyes met. “We said that we do not know the answer thou seekest, but we did not say that we could not help thee further on thy way to finding it.”
A soft but nevertheless clearly audible gasp of hopeful surprise escaped Twilight’s lips. She gazed up at her princess with slightly widened eyes that held a certain kind of joy in them that could only come from one who had suddenly regained hope after losing it. The sight made Luna chuckle softly, though her expression turned surprisingly serious afterwards.
“Thou also asked us, if time is not the domain of us or our sister, than to whom does it belong, didst thou not?” the Princess asked, and Twilight nodded nervously. For some reason, it had become uncomfortably quiet in the library and a strange tension hung in the air. Twilight could nearly hear the beating of her heart as she looked expectantly at her Princess, who was looking down at her as if she saw her for the first time and was now measuring her up.
“Tis a peculiar question,” Luna said, shattering the silence and tension that had fallen over herself and her temporary student. A small, mischievous smirk formed on her noble visage. “What gave thee the idea that time, if not to us or our sister, has to belong to someone?”
Twilight shifted nervously in place, but nevertheless noticed that the Princess had used the uncommon word ‘someone’ instead of ‘somepony’. It was a subtle difference, but one that changed the meaning of her sentence completely.
“Well, there are a number of reasons, though to be honest I wasn’t sure until I saw you again three days ago, Princess,” she replied honestly. “As I said, the way you said that neither you or Princess Celestia hold influence over time made it sound as if somepony else did.” Twilight bit her lip and then suddenly decided she had enough of dancing around the subject. “I’m right, though, am I not?” she asked boldly, giving Luna a look as if she dared the Princess to deny it.
If Twilight at all expected the Princess to give a definitive answer, she was sorely disappointed, for Luna only gave an enigmatic smile. “Perhaps,” she said. “Tell me what other reasons led thee to this conclusion.”
Twilight huffed in annoyance at Luna’s refusal for a straight answer, but nonetheless wouldn’t even dream of not giving the Princess one herself. “It just appears to me that it would be a logical, given what you told me about the anomalies and how they’re a result of Time trying to repair itself,” she explained. “If time is trying to repair the damage Steel Gear wrought, it means it is not chaotic in nature but instead tries to return to a certain kind of structure, kind of like a living body, or like the weather in Equestria.”
Luna raised an eyebrow at this comparison and with an inquisitive glance implored Twilight to elaborate further on this vision.
“Well, when we get injured, our bodies heal in order to repair the damage caused by said injury, it doesn’t just leave the wound there,” Twilight answered. “Similarly, the weather in Equestria happens following a certain plan. If it didn’t, then Equestria would probably look like the Everfree forest. However, in order for both our bodies to heal their injuries or the weather to follow the plan, it requires something to direct it: the brain and pegasi, respectively. If we follow that line of thought, since time seems to want to return to an organised structure, it makes sense for there to be someone who oversees that process.”
There was a short silence, during which Luna’s face was impassive and unreadable. Then she broke into a smile again and looked at Twilight with undisguised pride. “A reasoning most sound, we must admit,” she said and Twilight glowed a bit under the praise. “Though not without its flaws, we are afraid. Taketh for example magic: we can assure thee that it has no overseer, yet it behaves according to set laws and structure. Admittedly ponykind does not fully understand which ones yet, but that is irrelevant. What matters is that magic is by very nature harmonious and requires no aid to be so. Why could time not be likewise?”
Twilight had to admit that it was a valid point with the potential to undermine her theory entirely, but it was one she had in fact been aware of. This entire exchange so far reminded her a lot of the friendly debates she used to have with Princess Celestia when the two of them had discussed advanced fields of magical theory.
“Because, if time just operates according to a set number of laws like magic, it gets impossible to explain Fluttershy’s case,” she said, with a smirk on her face like that of a hunter about to close the trap around its prey. Indeed, the very next moment Luna’s expression turned to one of bewildered shock, all composure having vanished, and Twilight couldn’t help but smile triumphantly.
“What art thou saying, Twilight Sparkle?” Luna demanded, frowningly deeply. “What doth our dearest Fluttershy have to do with this matter?”
There was an undertone of worry and even a small hint of fear in Luna’s voice, which managed to stir up feelings of worry within Twilight as well. She had thought the revelation of her trump card would simply cause Luna to give her straight answers, not make her worried or afraid. She hurriedly told Luna what she knew: how Fluttershy had seemingly never existed in this timeline, yet was known and remembered by all who had known her in her previous life, and how the young pegasus had suddenly appeared out of the blue in a back alley of Ponyville, lost and bewildered, as if she had literally been taken out of one timeline and dropped into the next.
When she was finished, Luna looked very grim and serious. The Princess mulled in silence about the new information Twilight had provided her with, which had made her visibly upset. “I do not understand… This is most unlike him. Why would he risk breaking our father’s laws…? I cannot make sense of it,” she muttered quietly, clearly speaking to herself only, as if she had forgotten Twilight was even there.
The Princess shook her head in frustration and climbed to her hooves so suddenly that Twilight nearly fell over. “Princess Luna…?” the unicorn asked nervously. To her great relief, the alicorn reacted to her call, turning her head to look at Twilight apologetically.
“We apologise, Twilight Sparkle, we were lost in thought. The news thou has brought us we find quite troubling and giveth us cause for concern,” she said.
Twilight swallowed audibly and rubbed her front hooves together nervously. “Why, princess?” she asked, frightened by Luna’s sudden shift in mood and behaviour. “What’s going on? Did… did I do something wrong?”
Luna gave Twilight a calculating look, before catching her completely off guard by seemingly ignoring the unicorn’s questions and changing the subject. “Tell us, Twilight Sparkle… What dost thou know about Scions?”
The question came so unexpectedly that Twilight had to blink a couple of times to make sure she hadn’t misheard. “Scions?” she repeated, now more confused than worried. “Ehm, not much, to be honest. I… I think I remember overhearing Princess Celestia saying that word a couple of times in my previous life. Why?”
Again the Princess of the Night ignored the question. “Hmm, this surprises us little. Indeed, few remain within the spheres of the world who would have heard of the term,” she said thoughtfully, more to herself than to Twilight. She gestured at the many bookcases that surrounded them. “Perhaps if thou searchest through these tomes, thou might come across the term and some of the answers thou seakest. We fear that we cannot offer to aid thee any further, however, to our bitter regret. We too now have questions, but the answers we seek cannot be found in books. We must take our leave immediately.”
Having said these words, Luna promptly turned away and began to march towards the exit with grim strides. Twilight stared at her retreating form with open mouth for a while, the strange behaviour of her Princess leaving her momentarily too dumbfounded to react.
Then, as if someone had hit her, she closed her mouth and shook her head bewilderedly. “Princess, wait! Where are you going?” she called after Luna, utterly confused. “What’s going on?!”
Luna paused in mid-stride and turned her head to look over her shoulder at Twilight. “Do not worry, Twilight Sparkle. Thou hast not incurred our wrath and we are not upset with thee, verily we are glad thou hast brought this to our attention,” she replied, her voice firm. “We do not know what is going on, but we intend to find out. Until we do, we bid thee not to worry. Continue thy studies and let thy goal continue to be to aid thy friends weather the coming storm! That in itself shall prove challenging enough without thee panicking about matters that need concern only the Annatar! Farewell for now!”
And once she had spoken those words, Princess Luna promptly left the library as unexpectedly as she had entered it, leaving behind a greatly confused and troubled Twilight Sparkle.
End of chapter 27.
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Well that was interesing!
Yeah, I can't say much about this chapter, save for the fact that it's good to see Twilight back to... something resembling normal. Time will tell if she is able to return to 100% capacity... but never mind! Scions, Annatars, whatever! Intrigue!
MOAR.
Oh boy, the plot thickens!
Scions? Why do I sense the hand of White Wolf Games in the use of that particular term?
Woah. Seriously, woah. Who was the one who brought Fluttershy into this world? Who's trying to bring time back on track? Who is this stallion?
I'm loving this more and more. Please keep this up.
Scions = Gallifrey
?
1917715 1953258
The term 'Scion' was borrowed (without permission and without any intention of giving it back) from Final Fantasy XII. Looking up what Scions are in that mythos might actually provide some clues as to what they are here. Just saying. 
I actually never heard of either of those two things.
...
I'm sensing a Twelve Lords moment here, but I doubt you know what I'm talking about.
Which is alright, it's headcanon about a game with no real backstory but what you give it, but still...
Hmm... We have Light (Celestia), Darkness (Luna), Entropy (Discord), and Time (Unknown masculine) so far. That's a full third of the Twelve, so I look forward to seeing if there's further match-ups to the remaining eight.
Remember when Shy first got dropped in the Equestria? There was a being there, talking and physically moving her form one time to another. This, ladies and Gentlemen, is the long lost Brother of the Royal Sisters.