The Equestria Diaries

by Istaran

Epilogue: Chasing the wind

That was the last of your memories I could recover. I filled in some other bits of the tale from other sources while we wrapped things up, and put them in as close to chronological order as made sense to me. I don't know if that other timeline still carries on to this day, or what happened when you went back home, or even if the portal was really a portal to your home world or not.

After I snuck away, I made my way back down to the badlands. There was a kilometer wide glass bowl there, sitting atop a layer of black but that isn't what I came for. I came for the sand that hadn't been melted, which we had seen made for the fastest reproduction of spiders. I used your crystal trick to shapeshift, rather than my own ability, as it allowed me to push beyond my normal limits and shift into the form of a massive dragon. Why a dragon? Simple. It let me hold more spiders in my body. It made playing the ocarina a much more ridiculous looking feat, but Turbine was able to grow little tiny hands out of my palms to work the notes.

When the song faded, I was back exactly where I had been when it all started.. ironically within striking distance of the spot where Ryan had finally been killed. The other changelings in the hive reacted with understandable alarm as I was suddenly in the form of a massive dragon, without even the normal fanfare of shapeshifting. The Queen, of course, immediately demanded to know what this was all about.

"I am sorry, Queen Chrysalis, but time is of the essence. I have returned from the future to prevent the destruction of our hive and deaths of our people! I trust this much will please you, however, my loyalty has been sold to another in the exchange; I will save the hive, but I will not be returning to it." I didn't have time to here her response, as she was speechless for a moment, and I had things I needed to do swiftly.

I teleported into the desert, near where Ryan started, but out of his line of sight. As a dragon, I could peek over the rocky outcroppings that separated us, and see his Construction Yard beginning to assemble his base. I sloughed off my excess spiders and set them to reproducing as I shifted down into the form of a slim, well toned human woman, with a pair of white pegasus wings and wrapped in white silk clothing. From your memories of your culture, I figured this would be perfect to gain the trust I needed as quickly as I needed.

No, not from Ryan. Don't be stupid. He deserved a swift hoof to the head, not an angelic rescuer.

I teleported again, leaving a sizeable low-magic zone in my wake, as I appeared before the ill-fated Benjamin. I appeared just as he was about to slap his hand down on some device strapped to his wrist, and the rather peeved looking dragon behind me was drawing in a breath. "Come with me if you want to live!" I quoted as I reached a hand out to him. He was just fast enough to allow us to teleport before the flames caught up with me.

I dropped him off nearby, in this abandoned farmhouse we changelings occasionally use as a safehouse. I made him promise not to kill anyone before I left again.

Frank was next. I found him quietly stumbling about in Twilights library, while the librarian snoozed obliviously. I think I heard her start to awaken just as I disappeared with the confused man. I'm sure the low-magic zone I left behind proved to be an intriguing afternoon's study subject. I set a few spiders lose to locate the QR code, just in case it changed with every reset.

At that point, I stopped back in the desert and set my tidal wave of spiders on him. As his empire crumbled around him, he stumbled out into the open, where I punched him in the face, yelling "Ponies are people too!" Sadly, the message was entirely lost on him at the time. But it was still fun to knock him out. I dumped him in with the others before continuing my collection.

The others went pretty smoothly, until I got to you. I found you asleep here, in this ruined castle, and so I settled in by your side. When Deus was mature enough, Turbine connected to him, and shared your diary with him, so he could share it with you. And that brings us to the present. Wake up soon, my king!

---

When I awoke, I was pretty confused. Deus had uploaded all of the memories into my mind, though they had an unreal quality to them. Pixelation is the closest analogy I can find to describe it. I knew what had happened in the time before, what Wind Chaser had lived through, but also that it wasn't me who had lived it with her, done those things. I tried to get Deus to erase the very idea of Istaran from my mind, before there was any possibility I could accidentally become him again, but he refused. Even now his loyalty to his fictional master remained a real factor.

I didn't let my confusion keep me down for long, though. We returned to the farmhouse, joining the others and got to talking. I explained what had come before to them, in as vague a way as they would let me. The QR codes hadn't changed, so we were able to load them into our phones swiftly. Activating them took more work.

I got Zeke to lend me his cards and played around with them for a while, putting together a green deck to practice with. It took some time, but I was able to finally get a feel for the magic coursing through me. As I turned myself into a pegasus once again, the Magic code finally became enabled for me.

This time, I didn't say anything about not bringing the artifacts home. This time, I wanted Equestria to be left as pure as it could be. Given the troubles last time, I suggested we go through the portals in reverse player number order, so that Ryan was the first one through. As Player 1, that left me still on the Equestria side as the once-more young boy Robert walked through, hand in hand with his mother.

Side by side, Wind Chaser and I waited, a pair of pegasi watching a swirling portal in a barn until at last it closed.

The world faded to black around me. The text reappeared.

"11 out of 12. Almost a perfect score."

"I don't belong on Earth anymore. 11 out of 12 was perfect."

"You will remain here forever then. It was entertaining to watch you, in all your iterations, but your final act has undone the lessons hard learned by those who returned."

I sat in silence a moment before speaking out again.

"I have a challenge for you."

"You dare to command me?"

"I have no authority of you, but you can, presumably, control yourself. Think of it as a game if you like. See if you can hold to all three parts of the challenge without fail."

"I will hear your challenge."

"One; don't bring anyone to Equestria anymore that doesn't want to be here. It's one thing to bring a brony across, but not someone who would refuse the offer if you asked. Two; no more games: bring them here to live, or not at all. Three; no more artifacts. Let them bring something common, or something they own but no more of these.. Cheat Codes, was Relena's term. Equestria has enough powers of its own without you handing a new arrival the ability to destroy the balance of power singlehandedly."

There was empty silence for a time, punctuated only be a series of dots... when the text had, apparently made up its mind, it wrote to me again. "I will accept your challenge, if you will accept mine. It likewise has three parts. One; do not allow your spiders to live outside of your flesh, and that of your subordinates. Two; do not use your spiders to make focus crystals, work with your own magic or not at all. Three; do not use your spiders to manufacture items for use outside yourself. Do you accept?"

In my heart I had already accepted before I thought it through, but I made sure I considered the implications before I agreed. It worked toward the same purposes as my own challenge; to keep Equestria from being overwhelmed by foreign superpowers. I nodded my accent, only to find myself back in Wind Chaser's presence, nodding without context.

"Hmm?" she asked. I quickly gave her my memories from the conversation with the Text. "Hmm.." she responded. "So.. what do we do now?"

"That should be obvious," I said as I got to my hooves and started to lead the way toward the nearest town. "Go have our, very much belated, first real date."

Comments

[David Silver]

'fasted reproduction' ???

[Istaran]

5853017 Fixed.
Even fractal spiders are no match for typos!

[Istaran]

If you want to see more, checkout my blog post here and let me know what piques your interest!

[Seeking Dusk]

Time Travel. Can't live with it, can't live without it. Also; I really hope they kicked Ryan while he was gone. The dude is like the embodiment of all the bad things they say video games do to people.

[Istaran]

5898326 If anyone could have reached him, they might have convinced him of the reality of what he was doing, and gotten him to stop and/or repent.

Post reset version didn't do anything. He intellectually knows what he almost did, but never really realized the reality of it all.