Decrescendo/Alone [History Overwritten]
The letter materialized before him in a burst of green flame. He had not seen a flame like that in what seemed like forever, and he had long since resigned himself to the fear that he might never see it again. And yet here it was. For one brief but glorious second, the flame burned before his eyes.
A scroll materialized. With a flump, it landed on the cold, hard, crystalline floor of the palace he had grown to hate. His pink aura lifted it up as gently as if it was a slightly cracked egg. Quickly, he slid off the length of twine and unfurled the scroll.
Dear BBBFF,
I’m alive.
You have no idea just how much of an asshole I felt like when I realized that you didn’t know I was still alive, and didn’t know that I had a plan to survive. Celestia, I’m a horrible sister.
Shining Armor, I AM ALIVE.
His legs went weak, causing him to wobble. “She’s alive?” Quickly, he read through the rest of the letter, reading all about how she survived, how it took her so long to pull herself back together after being blasted by the heart, and how she was doing now.
The moment he finished reading the letter, his head shot up. In an explosion of movement, he raced to his wife’s throne room as fast as his well-trained legs would carry him.
“CADANCE! SHE’S ALIVE!”
In another time, there was a lavender mare laying on her back, staring absentmindedly at the gray, blobby clouds in the dull blue sky. She wondered what Rainbow Dash was doing. Was she having fun at the Wonderbolts Academy?
A sigh escaped her lips. That happened more and more frequently these days, it seemed. Her stomach rumbled as well. That too seemed to be occurring more frequently these days. And yet, Twilight lacked the motivation to fix either problem. In fact, she’d lacked the motivation to do much of anything these days.
Fate, if such a thing existed, took exception to Twilight’s depression. It expressed its distaste by slapping her in the face with a scroll that materialized from thin air just above where she was lying in the grass.
The paper bounced off her muzzle and rolled into the grass. Twilight turned her head just enough to see it out of the corner of her eye. Slowly, she stretched out a leg, covered in spiderweb-like scars, to grasp for it.
It had rolled out of reach.
She sighed again. This time, she focused her magic in an attempt to grab whatever Spike had sent her.
It refused her magic’s touch.
Twilight sat upright, obviously confused by the scroll’s lack of reaction to her power. The only reason something made of paper would refuse to be touched by telekinesis was-
Her eyes and body snapped to full alert. In a quick motion, she snatched up the scroll from the other timeline and ripped the twine away.
Hey, Twi. I’m alive.
As her eyes scanned across the rest of the letter, something blossomed in her heart that hadn’t been there for months, something that she had so desperately needed: hope.
The cool breeze swirled around them, tussling the manes of the two ponies in the trio. Green grass tickled their hooves and feet as the walked down the slope. The late spring sun shone down upon them, bathing them in its warm light as it slipped between the thin, wispy clouds.
This did not bring Sparkle any joy. Rather, the sunlight made her scowl. Celestia’s light - and the magical radiation that came with it - tickled at her soul, reminding Sparkle of the pain it had caused when she was bodiless and exposed. In fact, the light only served to amplify the regret and worry she'd suffered from since her rebirth.
She half closed her young body’s sensitive eyes in a vain effort to stop the light from coming in. And, despite knowing that it wouldn’t help, Sparkle found herself disappointed that it hadn’t. Sighing, she switched into a trot for a moment, recovering the distance between herself and Cobalt. His larger frame took three steps for her five.
As the trio reached the bottom of the hill, they transitioned from a grassy slope to a stone path. They turned right and walked for a little bit until they eventually rounded the base of another hill. Before them lay the sleepy port town of Sea Horn. They could see a half dozen large ships, and perhaps twenty smaller vessels, in or entering the port. The road they were on clearly wound its way down into the town and all the way to the docks, making an easy path for them to follow.
Within an hour, Thorn, Cobalt, and Sparkle had descended into the port town and reached the docks. And within a few more minutes, the trio had come to the office of the harbormaster.
When none of the three actually moved to enter the office, Sparkle nudged Cobalt. "Hey, Big Brother, I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm just a little colt. Can you, the only adult in this group, ask so I don't look like an oddity?"
Cobalt chuckled with embarrassment, though his blush didn't show through his blue fur dye. "Oh, right." He trotted up to the door and gave it a few solid knocks.
"Can I help you?" Cobalt jumped slightly when a deep voice came from a direction he wasn't expecting. The earth pony spun around. Behind them stood an old minotaur with a thick, gray beard. He wore a vest with the town's blue and black flag embroidered on the left side, and on his wrist, he sported an armband made of stone.
"Are you the harbormaster?" Cobalt inquired.
The large bull nodded. "That I am. Name's Fred. What can I do for you?"
"Are there any ships headed to Equestria? Ones that would be willing to ferry a trio across the ocean?" Cobalt asked.
Fred's eyes immediately darted upwards to the wispy clouds in sky. “Not in this weather."
Sparkle tilted her head to the side in confusion. "Why? The weather's fine."
Fred looked at her for a moment. As he made eye contact with her, he shuddered slightly, and then went back to normal. Then he asked, "You're an Equestrian, aren't you?"
"Err... Is it that obvious?" Sparkle asked.
"It is, little colt. We don't have any pegasi or griffins managing the weather here; it's all wild," Fred replied, enjoying the looks on the trio's faces as he said that.
"Still, it looks clear," Sparkle insisted.
"It won't be for much longer," Fred said. "We minotaurs are a bit more in tune with the earth than you ponies are. We listen to the world, rather than controlling it." He pulled off his stone wristband and began to mold it between his fingers as if it were clay instead. "And while stone may be our domain, out at sea, we are at the world's mercy. So if I say the weather's going to be bad, you can bet your coins that notaur is going out to sea today."
Sparkle sagged her head. Cobalt looked down at her, and then back up. "How long do you think we might have to wait?"
Fred crossed his arms. "Hmmm... Storms are rather common this time of year. Sometimes they can make the harbor inaccessible for a week at a time. It all depends. Sorry."
"Right," Cobalt said. "Come on, let's go find an inn."
The trio had barely taken three steps away when Fred called out. "Wait. Exactly how badly do you need to get to Equestria?"
Sparkle looked back and said, "We may have accidentally convinced our family that we were dead."
"Ouch. Well, there is one ship that's leaving in a few hours, and they are headed to Los Pegasus. The Nevermoon."
"Nevermoon?"
Fred nodded. "Yes. It's a cargo ship, and while the captain's nice, the crew can be a bit rough. Plus, it's by no means a passenger ship. It'll get you there fast, but the voyage will be somewhat unpleasant for those without their sea legs. And that's only if they've got the room."
Cobalt looked down at Sparkle, who nodded affirmatively. "Sure," he told Fred. "If they can fit us, we don't mind leaving today. Thanks."
"Excellent. The Nevermoon's at pier five. Hurry before they cast off." He gave them a thumbs up, but the gesture was lost on the two ponies. "Good luck, and may Holone and the Allmother be on your side." With a wave, he turned and headed in the opposite direction.
As the harbormaster had said, the Nevermoon was a small cargo ship. It was clearly well maintained and, because it was built by and for minotaurs, it was very tough. The cargo ship, a smaller-than-average fluyt, stood waiting as its crew loaded goods onto it. True to the harbormaster's prediction, it was the only ship in sight bringing goods onboard.
Cobalt scoped out the crew and trotted over to a minotaur cow who looked to be in charge. "Excuse me. Is this ship headed to Equestria?"
"It is," she replied, not bothering to look down at him.
"Do you have room for three passengers? We can pay."
She looked down at him with a strange expression. "Get lost."
"Hey, Beth, wait," a younger bull said. "We don't have a full load this run. I'm sure the captain wouldn't mind a little extra silver for some live cargo."
"Fine. Go ask him," she replied.
As the bull ran off to find his captain, Thorn pulled Sparkle aside. He bent down a bit so he could talk quietly without the others overhearing. "Mom, I'm not going back to Equestria. Not yet, anyway."
"What? Why?"
"Mom, you know why. They can't know that this -” he pointed at Sparkle's cold body, "- is you."
"Sorry. I remember. There's a difference between planning it and actually being separated from you.
"You've got the dummy wraith ready and your plans all set?"
Sparkle nodded. "Double and triple checked."
"I'm gonna miss you. I wish I could go home with you, but having me there right now would just complicates things. You know what Celestia will do to you if she finds out. If I'm there, we can't be together or somepony might figure it out." Thorn's serious expression softened a bit. "Plus, I've also got a lead on Scorpan's whereabouts. I promised I'd find him, and Equestria is in the wrong direction."
Sparkle reared up and hugged him, a challenge now that he was taller than her. "I know. Thorn, do you think that you're ready for this?"
"Please, I've been on my own before. Maybe not this long, but what's a little more time? Plus, I can always use the link to talk to you and the pocket to get stuff from you or send it back. It's not like we're really ever apart," Thorn reassured her.
It worked. Sparkle's new face smiled widely while her bones momentarily became visible as her soft tissue crystallized from her happiness. "You're right. Stay safe, Thornecrovitar, and I wish you luck."
"You too," he replied, scooping up his mother's small body into a tight hug.
Cobalt trotted up to them. "The captain will let us on for seventy silver pieces each, fifty five if we do chores."
Sparkle nodded in his direction. "Then this is goodbye, Thorn?"
"Not really. It's just 'I'll see you later.'"
So far, she hadn’t seen anything that would explain the harbormaster’s warriness. The crew was a bit gruff and tended to avoid her, but other than that, she could see nothing out of the ordinary. From the secluded little hidey-hole that she’d found, she could still see outside, but the afternoon sun wasn’t shining directly on her.
The only exception to the crew’s avoidance of her was a young lad cleaning the deck with a mop, who smiled at her every time he passed her. That little fact had been enough to capture Sparkle’s attention, causing her to watch him work. Still, just watching him mop hadn’t done much to pull her out of the slight melancholy she had found herself in.
The young bull glanced up at the sails of the ship, and Sparkle followed his gaze. Perched upon the ship’s yards and all the various ropes were hundreds of strange, small, white birds. Each and every one of them was sitting there, silently. Sparkle was surprised to see them, as she hadn’t even noticed their arrival.
The bull whistled; the notes were amazingly loud and cascaded in a strange, short measure. Half a second later, the birds took off and a huge gust of wind simultaneously slammed into the ship’s sails, causing the whole fluyt to rock. The bull whistled again, and all the birds slowed their flight and the wind slacked off a bit.
Sparkle stared in awe at the scene, and the bull, seeing her face, smirked. “I take it you saw that?”
“What was that?” Sparkle asked excitedly. “Are you an aeromancer?”
The minotaur laughed. “No, I’m just whistling. It’s the flock doing all the work.”
“The flock?” Sparkle looked up at the birds, which were moving at a steady pace alongside the ship. “What are they?”
“You can see them?” The bull paused his mopping. “It’s been awhile since anybody else could see them. Well, for your information, I call them wind raisers.” He then whistled again, signaling for the flock to land on the ship. As they descended, the wind slowed to a stop. He held out a hand, one finger extended, inviting one of the birds to him. One landed on his finger.
Smiling, he carried the bird to where Sparkle was hiding from the sun. He bent down and brought the bird closer to her so she could see it. From this perspective, Sparkle saw that it had no eyes at all, and its serrated beak was attached to its head sideways. Furthermore, in the shadows, she could see that there was a faint white glow around it.
“A storm flyer! I’ve only read about them. You don’t see many demons in Equestria, even of the harmless kind,” she said.
“Demon?”
Sparkle nodded. “They’re pure life without a physical body. Not all of them are malicious, you know. But yes, they’re demons. That’s why so few can see them.”
He stood back up. “More demons.” He looked at the bird contemplatively, while the bird, despite not having any eyes, seemed to look back at him. Then, shrugging, he tossed it into the air and watched it take flight. He whistled once more and watched them all take off again, causing the wind to pick back up.
“What do you mean, ‘More demons’? Have you seen others?”
He shrugged. As he turned and walked away, he muttered something that sounded affirmative. Sparkle was left with her curiosity yearning for more, but left unsatisfied.
A while later, as the sun was starting to get low in the sky, and storms were building on the opposite horizon, Cobalt came and found her. “I brought you some food. Potatoes and veggies.” He levitated the tray of food to her, and after mumbling a quick thanks, she started eating. Having turned off her aging spell, and thus aging normally, Sparkle’s appetite was now appropriate for a colt her size, weight, and magical power.
Cobalt sat down next to her and gazed at the thunderous storm clouds in the distance, which were much larger than any cloud in an Equestrian storm. “I’m glad we’re missing that.”
“Mmm hmm...”
He looked down at his small mistress-turned-master. It was clear to him that she wasn’t quite in the moment. “A bit for your thoughts?”
“Time.”
“Time?”
“Just time.”
Cobalt dropped from sitting to lying on his belly, mimicking the posture of Sparkle. “What about time?”
Sparkle gave him a sidelong glance. “Do you believe in fate?”
“Hmmm... Not really, no. The mare who raised me always insisted that it was my fate, my duty to serve the family. And then I struck out on my own. Heh, you know where that got me,” Cobalt mirthfully replied. His hoof slowly traced the grain in the wood beneath him. “Why do you ask?”
“It’s... no, it’s nothing,” the necromancer replied dourly.
The pair lay there quietly, just listening to the sound of the waves and the noise of the crew on the other side of the wooden wall. Sparkle eventually broke the silence. “Cobalt?”
“Yes, Sparks?”
“Have you ever met Death? Without me?”
Cobalt nodded. “Once, about a year ago, just after you died. I knew you had survived, so I thought she was coming after me instead.”
“What happened?”
“We talked. She let me ask her a question. It turns out, she planned for you to die there.”
Sparkle’s brow furrowed as she took in the new information “Did she hurt you?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Whatever they would have said next was interrupted by a shout from below, followed by a hatch opening nearby. One of the crew popped his head out and spotted them. “Hey, you two, come inside. The sun is setting.”
“Why?” Sparkle questioned. “It’s nice out.”
“Yeah, but it’s not safe,” the crewmember insisted. "You'd probably trip on something and fall into the sea. And drown." He paused, as if contemplating something. “You know, on second thought, do whatever you want. I don’t care.”
“Oookaay...” Sparkle said. Regardless, she and Cobalt stood and followed him inside. After they passed through the hatch, the minotaur shut it behind them and latched it tight. He gave it a firm tug, making sure it was secure and wouldn’t open if the ship rocked. Then, appropriately satisfied, he led them to the bunks. “Captain wants you sleeping with us in the crew quarters. They’re not the coziest of accommodations, but then, this ain’t a luxury liner.”
“Right.”
They were led to their small-for-minotaurs sized beds. After a while, the crew, save for the night watch, started settling for the night. From a doorway on the other side of the bunks strolled in a minotaur with several rings on each of his horns, who spotted the two ponies and made his way over to them. “There are my two passengers! Sorry I couldn’t find you earlier; Cobalt here said you were off hiding. I’m Captain Joseph.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” she replied. “Thanks for letting us ride with you.”
“It’s not a problem. We were under loaded anyway, so having you two aboard makes this run a little bit more worthwhile,” he explained. “So, are you heading home, or just passing through Equestria?”
“Heading home,” Sparkle replied. “I’ve got family in Ponyville, so I’m heading that way.”
“Ponyville, huh?” Joseph remarked. His brow creased slightly, despite his relatively positive tone. “My brother, William, he told me that the first pony to ever stand up to him and take his satisfaction guarantee was in Ponyville. He’s a traveling motivational speaker; a strange profession if I’ve ever seen one, but I can’t say he isn’t good at it.” Then he looked away.
“Have you ever been there?”
“Can’t say I have. I usually never... leave the ports.” His happy-ish expression broke, warping into a frown. “I’m sorry, but can you stop looking at me? I don’t know why, but your eyes are really bothering me.”
Sparkle quickly complied, looking at the floor. She could audibly hear him - as well as several others - all sigh in relief as quietly as they could. “What’s wrong with my eyes?”
The captain floundered for a moment. “Well, ah, you see... they’re oddly reflective. That’s it. The light reflecting off your eyes is weird.”
Sparkle frowned, spotting the lie instantly. “But I’m a crystal pony. That’s normal for our eyes.” She looked back up at him with her still lavender eyes and made eye contact. Using a trick Cobalt had taught her after learning about it from a pegasus friend, she pushed a little unstructured magic into her eyes. The effect was immediate. Joseph took a step back and flinched as if he had been struck. “Are you scared of my eyes?”
“Yes,” he whispered. “Just a little.”
“What’s wrong with them?”
“Please don’t kill me.”
Sparkle sighed and broke eye contact, much to the captain’s relief. “It figures.” Eyes were the window to the soul, after all. Sparkle knew that some magic relied on eye contact to be effective, or was introduced into a pony’s mind and soul via the eyes; thus it made sense that the opposite was true, and that her oversized, older soul would make her seem very strange and scary to anyone who made eye contact with her.
Joseph wasn’t even the first to notice it. She’d been getting odd looks since she was reborn, and only Cobalt and Thorn seemed immune. Joseph had just been the first to say anything.
Her mood even lower than before, she turned and climbed into her bed, planting her face into the thin little pillow she had been provided.
A hand rested itself on her back. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be insensitive,” Joseph said. “I’ve seen many fantastical things in this world, on these seas. Your eyes just happened to be one that caught me off guard. I mean no insult, little colt.”
Sparkle waved her hoof, but didn’t extract her face from her pillow. “It’s fine,” she replied dourly, though it was slightly muffled by the fabric and down.
The captain withdrew his hand. He opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it again. His thoughts churned, evident by his fist clenching and relaxing repeatedly. There was something about seeing a sad pony child that bothered the bull, and yet, this faux-colt disturbed him. Eventually, he settled on ignoring the problem and walked away.
The crew went out of their way to avoid her after that night. It was one thing to see ponies and minotaurs look past her, as if she wasn’t there; it was another thing entirely to have them purposefully avoid her. Sparkle distracted herself with conversation with Cobalt and Thorn, but the feeling of isolation never left her. And when, four days later, the ship finally docked in Los Pegasus, Sparkle found herself racing off the ship in a full gallop.
She stepped off the overnight train in lower Canterlot, newly acquired sunglasses covering her eyes. Yes, that particular train had made a stop in Ponyville, but that wasn’t where she was headed, not at first. No, she had another stop to make first.
Cobalt led her down one back alley after another, winding their way through the seediest part of Lower Canterlot. No pony with any sort of legitimate business ever came down here, and with good reason.
The duo stopped at an unmarked wooden door. Sparkle recognized the street, as she’d been down here in her past life when she had to get loans to pay her various legal fees and lawyer costs. Now, however, the money she’d hidden away was enough to afford these services, although it would likely cost her almost half of what she had left. “This better be worth it,” Sparkle said. “If he half-asses this and I get caught, it’s your fault.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve used his services before, and so has the rest of my family. I haven’t had issues yet, and neither has anypony else I know that’s used him.” Cobalt knocked on a door twice, skipped a beat, and then knocked twice more. The door opened, revealing a nondescript yellowish green unicorn stallion. “Can I help you?”
“We heard you sold masks here. May we try a few on?”
"If you’ve got the bits, come on in.” He stepped aside and let the assassin and the necromancer in, and then shut the door behind them. As they walked through the narrow, decrepit hallway of the house, the stallion asked, “So, you need fake IDs. What do you need, when do you need them, and what do they have to prove?”
“I need the basics of a new identity,” Sparkle answered. “Birth certificate, hospital records, citizenship papers, and a homeschooling form. I need them planted in the appropriate places, and I need them as soon as possible, and they have to be as good as genuine. I also need planted birth records for a mare in her mid twenties.”
“Aren’t you a little young to need a fake ID?” the forger asked.
“I’m several times my apparent age and in a body that doesn’t legally exist at all. I have more than enough magic to liquefy your brains and devour your soul, or better yet, force you to make what I need for free.” To punctuate her statement, she flared her magic and pushed down her glasses so she could stare him in the eye. The forger gulped, knowing he was dealing with the genuine article. “But I’m willing to pay for these instead. I’m also willing to pay for your silence.”
The forger nodded quickly. “Right. That’ll be two point five million. A quarter million for each of the documents and another quarter million for each of the plants.”
In response, Sparkle made a show of pulling three gold bars, each worth a million bits, from her pocket dimension. “Three million, as requested.” She levitated them onto the table next to them. Gold, being one of the more magically resistant elements, made for an impressive feat of levitation in large amounts, and yet Sparkle barely noticed the weight.
“Smart colt,” the forger remarked. “Tell me, who do you want to be? Name, age, parents, education, and birth city; I need it all.”
“And just to be clear, you can have them planted by?”
“Wednesday of this week, but I’ll have your copies done by Monday afternoon,” he replied. It was Sunday afternoon. “As long as you don’t get in any trouble until after Wednesday, I don’t forsee any problems.”
“Good. My new name is...”
“So this is where you live,” Sparkle remarked as she walked into Cobalt’s tiny apartment. It was clearly a place made for a single pony, as it had one bedroom, one bathroom, a tiny kitchen, and a small living area, which was overflowing with books, jars of various chemicals, and weapons, of which most were knives.
“Yep. This is home. I’ll have to dig out the couch for me to sleep on, but-”
“I’ll take the couch. I’m smaller,” Sparkle interjected. “Besides, I’m only here until Wednesday. I can deal with a couch for that long.”
“You sure, Sparks?”
“Yes, Cobalt, I’m sure.”
He shrugged. “Suit yourself. Anyway, there’s something I want to show you over here.”
Sparkle followed him, sidestepping to avoid the random clutter. He opened a door and motioned for her to go inside.
It was the bathroom, although it took Sparkle a second or two to identify “bathroom” features under the gigantic mass of fur dye bottles of every shade and hue, plus an assortment of wigs, fake horns, and fake wings.
“Wow.”
Cobalt beamed. “I am an artist, and the equine body is my canvas.” His eyes scanned the mass of bottles, eventually settling on a pair of grays, one light and the other very dark. “Here. This is for you.”
“I understand what this one is for,” she said, motioning to the lighter one, “but what’s the other for?”
“We can’t just dye your cutie mark; it would stand out if you went shiny. The same for your mane, hence the dark gray. And, if you’re going to be dying yourself, you’re going to need to know how to do this correctly.” Cobalt pointed to the shower. “In you go. We need to get the sea salt out of your fur first. Clean everywhere thoroughly. We’ll dye it tomorrow after the oils come back.”
“Can’t we do it today?”
“Do you want it to look natural?”
“Fine.”
With documents in her possession, basic illusions around her body, magic suppressed, fur dyed, and gender finally swapped to what it should have been, Sparkle stood on the train platform waiting for the Ponyville Express. For the second time in a week, she was leaving somepony close to her, and likely wouldn’t see him again for a while. The next step in her plan was critical. She had to get this right, otherwise everything would fall apart.
Unfortunately, it meant that she couldn’t be with Cobalt. In fact, he was going to the Canterlot Library to check out a book for the sole purpose of leaving a paper trail that kept him away from her and her new body.
“Are you ready?”
“I’m terrified that I’m going to screw this up. If I end up in Tartarus, write me please?”
“Sure, Sparks.”
The train chugged into the station, stopping on the tracks next to them. As the doors opened and other passengers spilled out, Sparkle hugged Cobalt. “Stay safe.”
“You too, Sparkle. Are we still going to meet for lessons soon?” Cobalt asked.
“There’s no doubt about that,” Sparkle replied.
“Good.” He bent down and kissed her on the cheek. Her sudden blush would have made her go see-through had her fur not been dyed. “Have a safe trip, and good luck.”
Sparkle stepped onto the train and took her seat. The illusion around her kept the other passengers from caring that she was a little filly far too young to be on her own. She looked out the window at Cobalt, who waved to her. She waved back.
The train lurched forward, signalling the start of the penultimate leg of her journey. As the conductor took her ticket, she could only wait and hope.
Sparkle stepped off the train. Nopony looked at her. She nodded to herself, satisfied. Turning, she broke out into a hard gallop north. Quickly enough, she found herself at the edge of the town and kept galloping at full speed.
The dirt road was easy enough to run on, having not rained here in a while. She powered her way north, running until she was far enough out of sight from the town that she couldn’t see it and pegasi would be unlikely to see her in the distance.
This particular road connected to Canterlot, and this particular stretch had some of the Everfree forest immediately adjacent to it on the east side. It was perfect for what she needed.
Sparkle clenched her teeth, upset with this next step of her plan. She concentrated, opening a portal to her pocket dimension. She reached in with her magic and pulled out the dead but preserved body of Ruby, her surrogate mother. Her fur had also been dyed, giving her the appearance of a regular earth pony of the same color.
Tears welled up in her eyes. “Please forgive me, Ruby. I wish there was another way. I’m so sorry. I know that neither of us had a choice in the matter, and that it was pure chance that my soul found you, of all ponies. I’m sorry.”
From her pocket dimension, Sparkle withdrew a set of wooden objects she’d carved while waiting for her papers to be finished. Setting them on the ground, she conjured a specter and then cast a puppetry spell on Ruby’s corpse. The specter went to the six wooden objects and shifted its form. No longer was there a pony of ink; instead, an inky wolf stood it its place. In its paws, it grasped the fake timberwolf claws, and in its mouth, it held the fake timberwolf teeth. It floated over to the edge of the forest and took its place.
Sparkle teleported herself and Ruby’s corpse back a good distance, appearing on a nearby bridge, and then set her corpse on the ground. She strapped a large set of saddlebags to the corpse, which contained half-eaten rations, sleeping bags, a bag of bits, miscellaneous bits and bobs, and their false papers - in short, everything a pony would need to hike to a town and live there for an extended period of time.
“I’m sorry,” the necromancer whispered again. Then they started walking, taking care to leave some sort of hoof print on the ground. With a simple application of telekinesis, Sparkle restarted Ruby’s heart, creating blood pressure. As she approached the target spot, Sparkle signaled the false wolf to creep through the underbrush. At the last moment, the false wolf pounced, biting into Ruby’s neck. Blood spurted everywhere, even getting on Sparkle’s face.
Sparkle had the body thrash around, hitting the ground to create bruises and get dirty, while also having the fake wolf bite and claw at the corpse. She then had the wolf drag Ruby into the woods far enough that it wouldn’t be obvious, but short enough that she could be easily found.
The necromancer dismissed the wolf, as its role was done. However, she still had more details to fix. After heating the body to a normal temperature, Sparkle magically pressed on the mare’s rectum, forcing out feces that Sparkle had placed there. Then, she forced the mare’s artificially filled bladder to evacuate. As disgusting as it was, defecation and incontinence were the first two things that happened when the brain died, so adding in those details made the scene Sparkle was constructing all the more realistic.
Now satisfied and thoroughly disgusted, Sparkle set to work on herself. Returning to the path, she broke out into a gallop before intentionally tripping and falling on her face. She scrambled back up, ignoring the small cut she had gotten, and ran screaming as if the timberwolf was chasing her. As her small legs pounded the ground, she concentrated on all her regrets and sorrows, letting them fill her up. She thought of Ruby, the mare who had unwillingly sacrificed herself so that Sparkle could live again. She thought of the unborn child who would never get a chance at life. She thought of her brother and sister, who she had lied to and would have to continue to lie to. She thought of what would happen to her if it was found out that she wasn’t just a little filly who had just lost her mother.
She thought of all of this as she galloped. Her face contorted into genuine fear and sorrow, and tears ran down her cheeks in rivers of anguish. She thought of all of this, and fled from the demons in her heart.
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Okay, you admit that what happened to that mare was horrid.
Good on ya', Sparks.
Welp this is going to be a very interesting part of the story. Now to see how it plays out.
I rarely comment on Split Second and I've been reading it since the first few chapters, but I feel that this chapter needs to be commented on. I'm in awe on how you betrayed the emotions of your characters and show some foreshadowing on how it will play out later as the story progresses. I give you props on a superb job done well. I can't wait to see how Sparkle deals with her emotions.
Don't ask why I spotted this but there's a "t" missing from the word rectum.
6250815
Typo. It's fixed now.
Oh wow the emotion in this chapter even necromancers have regrets despite what others think. I loved this chapter!
I know that sparkle and celestia have never gotten along but how is her finding out bad?
Marvelous!
and it’s serrated beak was
Then, appropriately satisfied,he led
creating blood pressure.As she approached
1. Its.
2. Forgot your spacing.
3. Forgot your spacing.
6250964 But won't Celestia find out anyway? I mean, Shiny knows. And by this time he has most likely told Candance, who could quite possibly end up telling Celestia, or Luna, who would tell Celestia...
6251040
Thanks.
6250756
She's not the only one, I'll bet, and certainly hope. There are quite a few characters surrounding these two timelines that need development.
6251107 No problem. Sad that I can't think of anything proper to comment nowadays...
6251175
What I'm more curious about is if you actually read stories for the sake of reading, because I've seen you point out errors in other stories.
This story keeps getting better and better. always stop what I'm doing and read the update. This chapter was full of feels and it was good! Keep it up xD!!!
6251076 i think she would eventually i just dont know why thats bad
Given the discretion, I'm going to guess that Sparkle is going to try to get her old body back or something similar, right?
Great chapter!
The part about Celestia doing something to Sparkle if she finds her - was that about Sparkle sacrificing someone else to resurrect?
What's the point of spending considerable time as a fake residence of ponyville, out of all places? No to mention that Trixie is there, but why would she need to fake it in the first place, can't she just hide somewhere?
Even as a soul of a necromancer inhabiting the body of a forsaken child, she still manages to be adorkable.
Sparkle's is walking a very dangerous road with all the lies she's going to probably have to start spinning are going come back to bite her in a big way
I hope we get some kind of a redemption arc here with the Element bearers pretty soon. I'm kind of hating them as much as I did Celestia back at the beginning of the first story. I mean, they killed her--even if it was an accident--and gave not a single shit about it. Actually, I'll say they gave one shit. Half since Fluttershy did try to make Shiny feel better, and the other half for Rarity forcing them to go to the funeral.
In unrelated news, I will be super disappointed if the whole romance thing with Cobalt and Sparkle doesn't go anywhere, and not just because I really want to see those two end up together. If it doesn't go anywhere then it'll end up being nothing but a pointless distraction in the story
6251309 6251076
I'm assuming that it has something to do with the spell she used to bring herself back, since it killed the mother and the unborn foal. I'm pretty much positive that's illegal.
But yeah, telling Shiny and her alternate self that she's alive ruins the whole thing. We know that Luna, at the very least, can see souls when she wants to, and knowing that she's alive, it'll take almost no effort to simply follow Cobalt around and look at everyone he meets. Or she could find her through dreams. even if she can't find Sparkle personally, Sparkle shares dreams with Thorn, and, even if it's difficult, we know that Luna can find Thorn in the dream world.
And that's not even counting the fact that any kind of a basic examination of Sparkle's dead mother will reveal the fact that her coat is dyed...
6251772 you know i didnt even take the spell into account cant believe i missed that
6251796
I'm still kinda iffy on that though, since the death of the mother was an accident, and I don't know if the foal counts since she took its place before it had a soul at all. The dark magic restrictions would be a concern, but since she's gotten several layers of permissions to use it from Celestia, I feel like she could make a strong legal case for her being in the clear, or at lest only getting probation or something.
6251772 Well explained.
is she trying to hid from Death?
6243892
I played the game! (It was a little hard.)
I'm not actually sure how teleportation and relativity would fit together. Are we talking about teleportation through quantum entanglement? The science on how quantum entanglement and relativity connect is too confusing for me to understand without actual education or some effort and research.
So if you teleport from the Earth to the Moon, then travel back to the Earth at light speed...do you know what happens?
6251772
She's probably put together the backstory that they're crystal ponies that don't want other ponies to know that they're crystal ponies or something. She does show off her skeleton when she gets happy, and that's weird. Probably set it up in her story that her 'mother' dyed her fur in solidarity to cheer up the colt from having to dye his fur to keep from frightening off ponies when his skeleton is visible.
6252839
Yeah, but then Sparkle'd have to explain away why you could see her skeleton when she got emotional. Given how recently the Empire came back, there won't be many crystal ponies outside the Empire, and even fewer that would have a half-breed foal of her age. That's a pretty big red flag for anyone that might be looking for her.
The half-breed thing alone will raise enough questions to get her caught, since ponies don't have split magic like that without someone actively interfering, and there aren't many ponies with the strength or skill to do something like that.
I know she's got a plan in place to keep herself hidden, and a pretty elaborate one at that given her mentioning that she lied to Shiny, but she's leaving an awful lot of red flags for anyone that was seriously trying to find her.
6251400 Well, you have to remember that Twilight is living in Ponyville in the other timeline, making this the most common spot they can merge the lines and meet. If there is an orphanage or something similar, she won't have to meet Trixie, that and a change of face will make her pretty much unrecognizable.
6252865
Her body /is/ Sombra's progeny. I'd think that alone would be enough for motive of wanting to hide the lineage. And we don't know how long Sombra ruled before being forced to throw the empire into the void.
Although thinking about it, if that's the case, why'd she need to set up the fake ID's and drops? Eh. I'm sure she's got something planned.
Well that was... Interesting. Awaiting the next chapter in apprehension.
Why is sparkle disguising herself?
Nice!
I thought that the unborn colt had not yet formed a soul, so there wouldn't be any other one to be born, or am I wrong?
6252927
She had to do the fake ID and all that because her new body doesn't exist in a legal sense. Normally all of that paperwork would have been filled out at her birth, but that was never recorded officially. And the fact that she artificially aged herself just makes it even worse. When someone inevitably goes to look for a birth certificate for a colt named Obsidian and doesn't find anything, that would be a problem.
The half-blood comment was specifically directed at her visible skeleton thing. Sparkle mentioned that she didn't get the spell quite right, and her body is trying to process both crystal pony AND unicorn magic. That's why the skeleton thing happens. The only way that would be possible is if someone did pretty much exactly what Sparkle did to an unborn fetus.
Even if she can explain it away by saying that Sombra did it to fool most people, it would draw the attention of people that could actually get the real truth out of it.
6252886
I thought about Twi, but she has an easier time moving around than Sparkle has. Why not live in the everfree castle or something at least? it's as secluded as it gets, while fitting her perfectly, and it's close to Twi at the same time. I'm actually thinking that there might be another reason she's in ponyville to be honest, even though it's very very likely to come down to "Twi is there, and Trixie is really not a problem".
6251191 I do. We all read stories because we're usually curious about the content of it. The correction thing just sort of popped up as time went by.
6253132 It's a lot easier to blend into a crowd, the diarchy thinks she's dead, and if someone found her living in the Everfree Castle, it wouldn't take long before an official report is filed and, consequently, she is found out. The Everfree Forest is dangerous to normal ponies, she decided to blend in to be less conspicuous.
6251772
In relation to the second paragraph, the author has specifically said that the ship will not happen, however he is able to change his mind.
6253075
I think it goes something along the lines of in this story that the soul is there already, and that it bonds to the embryo the moment they meet, shown by sparkles. Though this is a combination of my own beliefs so feel free to deny me opinion, it won harm me.
Next chapter- I find out if my theory is correct! Seriously, this is probably going to confirm something serious. I wonder if we'll be getting a time-skip shortly after, considering a major story fact will be confirmed or denied based on the next chapter(well, assuming people remember a throw-away line from several chapters ago that Twilight herself doesn't know the significance of.)
I mean, I'm already 90% on it, but that's because I follow the ask blog, and it's given a few facts that I find relevant.
WARNING: IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT I BELIEVE IS A PRETTY F*ING MAJOR PLOT POINT, DON'T READ THE SPOILER. If you feel like responding, please spoiler anything that could give it away. As I said- I'm 90% sure this is true, and if so, it's a major part of the story
Seriously though, if Sparkle's name is Obsidian... Knife, was it? I think it was something like that... then that basically confirms it. Sure, the whole bi-tribalism thing was already a big part of it, and the recent answer where Death said that if they try to use the Heart and Elements to defeat Discord he wants nothing to do with it. Which mirrors a Sparkle answer a short while before regarding a dark-magic equivalent to the Crystal Heart where she said she didn't want to go anywhere near it ever again. Add onto that the fact that what happens to one of the Twins happens to both, and Twilight's likely upcoming ascension(even ignoring the fact that the timeline has been greatly expanded from the "one year from S1E1 to S4E1" canon, it's been about a year since the end of season two, and season three ended with Alicorn!Twilight, so...
6252736 From my understanding, if it was possible to teleport, you would see an image of the earth growing larger, and if you looked closely enough to see thing than yes, you could see the 'past' of the earth from the moon. However, as you moved toward the earth the movements of people would seem to speed up, and I believe it would appear brighter, because more light would hit your eyes in less time. When you reached earth, and stopped, people's movements would slow to normal speed and brightness would decrease to standard. Time would match up correctly with when you left, plus time to travel at light speed. So, you could see back in time, but not travel. Quantum Entanglement would only be relevant as the method of teleportation, if that's what you used.
6254110
But if this is the case, then we time travel every day. After all, we see stars billions of year old in the night sky as they were when they were young.
Also, the Internet doesn't really answer this, but I think the light coming at you would only blueshift, not become brighter.
My concern is that time should stop from our viewpoint as we approach the Earth at near-light speed. The deceleration from near-light speed would speed time up as we experienced a massive amount of acceleration, far more massive than any black hole could produce, probably.
But say we didn't stop. We just pass by the Earth, and especially ourself from the past. Now what do we see?
6253690
That disappoints me, because now I have to add it to the pile of other pointless things he's stuck in the story for no reason that detract from the actual plot.
Wow.... that last scene was deep o.o
Tho I don't know why she needs to be hiding like this
6254845
6253690
Well... I'm warming up to the idea. I didn't want to write it because I was slightly uncomfortable with it and didn't think I could do it well.
I probably won't give them a whole ship, but perhaps a raft so they can test the waters?
6254169
6254110
I leave you with the game Velocity Raptor, in which the speed of light is 3 m/s and you can see all the relativistic effects of traveling just below the speed of light. The physics grows increasingly more accurate as new properties are added. Note that to time travel backwards, you'd have to go faster than the speed of light.
http://www.testtubegames.com/velocityraptor.html
6255043
Whether you go for it just have it be unrequited on Cobalt's part, just make sure that it's actually relevant. Love is a powerful motivator for a character, regardless of whether the character accepts it or denies it, and whichever path you take with the two of them will drastically change their interactions throughout the rest of the story. Obviously I'm rooting for the ship, simply because Cobalt is adorable and a real relationship would probably do wonders for Sparkle's mental state (which Twilight noticed as well), but do what you think fits the story best.
As it is, it was basically mentioned for all of one chapter, and then completely forgotten. This kiss on the cheek and Twilight's blush is the only time it's been even alluded to since then (unless you count the thing when they were riding Thorn back to Canterlot during the mirror arc, but I'm pretty sure that was just me reading too much into an entirely innocent scene).
Really the only problem I've noticed in this story is the tendency for you to introduce things into the plot that are relevant at the moment, but once that moment is done they just sort of fall away as though they had never happened, despite the fact that they should probably still be influencing the story. I just really don't want that to happen here, regardless of which direction you end up going with it, since a romance subplot is a BIG thing for the characters involved.
6254169 You from the past would disappear before ever having reached the moon. If you were traveling faster than light, you would see the 'past' again as you looked back.
If you moved at the speed of light, time freezes behind you. It passes twice as fast in front of you. Or at least, that's how things would appear.
I specifically said you are not time traveling, just seeing the past. There's a difference.
You're right about blue shifting though, it's acting like a wave in this case. I was trying to treat it like a particle.
6255058 I'll check that out, thank you.
6250815 Rectum? Damn near killed'em!
Oh wait, she did technically kill her... Poor Ruby.