Part 4: Epilogue
Teleporting long distances was a risk. It took a lot of magical power, and if anything was in the way at the destination, the caster would be bounced back to their starting point minus the power they used. Fortunately, Twilight knew of one place in the Crystal Kingdom that wasn't going to have anything in the way, and with a fizzling sound, she, Spike, and Starlight Glimmer appeared right next to the crystal heart.
The last of the three was dangling in the air thanks to Twilight's telekinetic hold. Along her horn was a series of small, violet crystals, glowing brightly as they absorbed her magic. Purposefully, the alicorn began to walk, pulling the unicorn behind her past the guards who simply saluted after they'd gotten over their surprise.
Starlight's expression was subdued, her muzzle turned towards the ground, avoiding the gaze of both the dragon and the princess, wincing on occasion as her horn sparked in defiance of the crystals. “I...don't suppose you could remove this?” asked Starlight weakly. “I promised you I wouldn't run.”
“And I believe you,” said Twilight. “But the pony who taught me that spell didn't teach me the counterspell.”
Another spark jumped from her horn, the unicorn briefly biting her lip to stop a cry of pain. “I really didn't know just how important your friendship was to Equestria.”
Twilight held her tongue, silencing the sharp retort that immediately came to mind. If Starlight had just done half as much research on them as she'd done on Starswirl's idiotic spells...
“All friendships are important, Starlight,” she said instead. “I just wish you hadn't given up on yours so easily.”
“What? But I-”
“Did you ever try to write?” interrupted Twilight before the unicorn could finish. “Visit? Connect with him again? Look him up once you were older and had your own income?”
“But...but he-”
“-Obviously didn't realize how much his friendship meant to you,” finished Twilight for her. “He's not blameless, but you put yourself into this spiral of depression just as much as he did.”
Starlight let out a miserable sigh as she floated along behind the princess, trying to work some feeling back into her numb legs. “So...are we heading to the library?”
“No, we're going to see a specialist,” said Twilight cryptically.
---
Sunburst groaned, rolling over on his bed and knocking the book he'd been reading to the floor. It was early. Too early. Several choice words entered his mind in the time it took for him to make his way from the second floor of his house down to the front door, but every single one of those words died on his tongue when he saw who was on the doorstep.
“P-princess Twilight! Sir Spike! And...Starlight...Glimmer?”
The other unicorn looked almost as surprised as him, her eyes wide and her mouth slightly open. In a panic, she looked towards the princess, but Twilight ignored her. “Greetings. You have my apology for waking you at such an early hour, but I can't afford to wait any longer than I have.”
Sunburst blinked and turned his focus back to the princess. “It's no worry at all, Princess! I'd be happy to lend you my assistance, but I'm not sure-”
“Excellent,” interrupted the alicorn, stepping inside and pulling Starlight along behind her, bringing her upwards into the air and displacing several books from the couch before setting the unicorn on the cushions. “I'm sure you've noticed the crystals around her horn, yes?”
Sunburst adjusted his glasses, squinting slightly at the violet crystals that were affixed to her magical focus. “Yes, I see...that is some rather nasty dark magic. I'm not sure if I have the power to-”
“I don't expect you to break it,” said Twilight with a wave of her wing. “But from what I understand, you have extensive knowledge of the Crystal Library, so if anypony knew where to look for information on how to dispel such magics, it would be you. I'll be back in a couple hours to provide the power for your counterspell. Any questions?”
“N-no, none at all! I'll get right on it!”
“Good.” The princess turned and walked towards the door, the baby dragon giving the two of them a sheepish wave before it shut behind them.
As one, the two unicorns let out a breath, the tension in the room departing along with the young princess.
“Sorry for dropping in unannounced,” said Starlight meekly, shifting slightly on the couch.
Sunburst hesitated, searching around for something to say. Finally he settled on courtesy. “Would you like something to drink?”
“Only if you're willing to levitate it for me,” grumbled Starlight, gesturing to her horn with a hoof.
Sunburst brought a hoof to his mouth and coughed. “Right...sorry. So, um...why did Princess Twilight hit you with such a nasty spell?”
Starlight looked surprised. “You can tell?”
“Of course,” said the unicorn confidently. “There's clearly quite a bit of power behind the spell, far more than that of a normal unicorn, or even a powerful one for that matter. And the color of the crystals matches the glow of the princess' magic she was using to um...carry you.”
Starlight chuckled weakly. “You always were good at analyzing magic like that. And, well...I may have screwed up. A lot.”
The researcher’s inquisitive look told Starlight that her answer clearly wasn't satisfying enough. Groaning, the unicorn took a breath and let it all out at once. “I stole her cutie mark, broke into the Starswirl the Bearded wing of the Royal Canterlot library, stole a forbidden time spell, briefly fractured the timeline via a butterfly effect, and nearly doomed all of Equestria.”
Sunburst gaped. It was tempting to ask if she was pulling one over on him, but a memory from his foal-hood reminded him that Starlight was terrible at making jokes. “And...you're not in prison?”
“Probation,” murmured Starlight. “Although after what I did...” She trailed off, avoiding his gaze and looking around the cramped but cozy house. “You seem like you've done well for yourself.”
“Ah, well...not really,” he confessed. “I'm mostly just a researcher, helping to catalog and organize the texts in the crystal library. I...never really had your talent for magic.”
“At least you put your magic to good use,” countered Starlight. “All I did was make everypony around me miserable and turn Equestria into a wasteland.” The crystals on her horn suddenly began to glow, a few sparks leaving her horn and a yelp of pain escaping her mouth.
Sunburst was by her side in an instant. “You can tell me about it later,” he said hurriedly, his horn glowing softly as he began to analyze the magic afflicting her. “I have a couple of spells that might ease the pain at least.”
Starlight nodded her thanks, letting out a sigh of relief as her old friend's magic began to take the edge off the pain.
---
“Do you really not have a counterspell for that crystal magic?” asked Spike, the skepticism clear in his voice.
Twilight smiled, her eyes opening as she let the eavesdropping spell fade. “Of course I have a counterspell, Spike. I would never have used it otherwise. I just figured this would be a good opportunity for Starlight to connect with her old friend.”
“So what are we going to do in the meantime?” asked Spike, as Twilight began to leisurely walk towards the crystal palace.
“Oh, I've got a checklist,” said Twilight with a smile. “Borrow some books from the crystal library to help Sombra, convince Cadance to start negotiations with Chrysalis, and make sure Starswirl didn’t leave any more world-altering spells lying around.”
Spike took a glance around him, as if checking to see if anypony was trying to listen in on their conversation. Leaning towards Twilight's ear, the dragon whispered, “So are you ever going to let Starlight know that the mess she caused might actually be beneficial in the end?”
“Not a chance in Tartarus, and if you so much as hint that to her, I'm cutting off your ice cream supply for a year.”
“Okay, okay...yeesh.”
“Which reminds me. Spike, take a letter to Celestia. I'm bumping up 'sealing Starswirl's archive' to number two on the list.”
Reaching into her Rarity-brand saddlebag, Spike instinctively withdrew the supplies he needed and began to write, easily managing the dexterous feat of riding and scribbling simultaneously. “So what's the first thing on your list?” he asked curiously.
“Spending some quality time with my brother,” said Twilight firmly. “Starswirl isn't that important.”
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A fun and interesting ending and a good story all around. Great work.
I'll be honest, extremely disappointed by such a sudden ending like this. Story should've gone on for another chapter or two. At least you could've shown Twilight meeting her parents and having another struggle with leaving, possibly even meeting the Starlight of that universe and learning from her why she acts like that.
Honestly, Twilight wanting to snap at Glimmer bothers me, as 'Research' more then likely wouldn't have told her anything outside of what she already observed.
The entire country litterally depending on six people getting along is not something to be proud or even respected for, it's a sign of just how incompetent the rest of the government and military are and how close the world is to crumbling at a moments notice.
I thought the ending was fine. A bit miffed that it kinda turned into a fix-fic, but overall the story was interesting and managed to keep me interested.
7372545 our world is no different.
Think world war and nazis.
If they had gotten the bomb before we did the entire world would be different.
All it would have taken was one successful spy, or one of our scientists going a different route with the experiments.
There are many linchpin moments in history that could change everything, and this just happens to be theirs.
7372684 Or Heisenberg not leading the German project down a blind alley for years
really?
i mean i liked the ending but it feels like it skipped a lot.
like twilight saying goodbye and who knows what discord is doing.
but that said id LOVE to see this continue in another story the universe where twilight is dead i mean XD
...interesting. Very interesting take on an alternate world indeed.
~ Super-Brony12
In one of my fanfics I have a character bring up the same point. Glad to see someone else did it, too.
I was wondering where this could go after last chapter, but I guess aside from what sounds like a brief fight between Twilight and Starlight there really wasn't much more you could do.
A fix-fic in the end, but still one I can appreciate. Starlight was handled...so poorly in the show, when they had so much potential.
Okay...then?
That was good. Don't get me wrong. You addressed a few points, showed the outcome of her fight with Starlight, and brought it to a functional close, but...
It feels like we you're missing a large section or two, maybe some reflection on the world she left behind, did she make the right choice, etc...
Eh, it works I suppose, and that's what matters. Just feels rushed and a bit incomplete.
7372798
7372684
True, but this situations more so Celestia didn't even try to prepare despite the prophecies, and has thrown blind faith to the challange.
Build countermeasures to threats that may return, don't bury them and let them be forgotten.
She's a far cry from Nazi's or Heisenburg. She's more akin the burning of the library of Alexandria.
Things generally go well, but problems that have solutions do far more damage because no-ones got the answer and are to wrapped up in their beliefs to look for one.
Edit for spelling error.
7373183
The problem with this is it isn't even addressed.
I feel like she did but he didn't respond for any of the multitude of reasons available to someone in his position, and she took it far harder then the average individual would.
Things like this make me point out that not everyone handles things the same way, or even the same in general. One person might not even care and another might feel everything they cared for just got destroyed.
7373419 True. It's perfectly normal to think that, in her mind, she thought it was impossible to ever get in contact with him again. But that doesn't mean it's still not a legitimate point.
I enjoyed that, thanks for writing it. I wouldn't have minded it being longer, but I realize this is more of a glimpse-type story. Still, interesting nonetheless. Thanks for putting the time into it!
7373442 True, But then that brings the fact that all of the mane six have done things that fall under the same category, for even less or even more selfish reasons.
And didn't even get a slap on the wrist.
Eh. Interesting, but after all the thinking Twilight was doing in the previous chapters, her all of a sudden going, "We're staying here." with no introspection whatsoever is abrupt and kinda anticlimactic.
7373580 *Sigh*
I know I shouldn't get tired of doing this, that a lone voice shouting into the Internet, on messageboards and other sites with fairly small memberships to boot, can't possibly reach all two billion netizens. But I'm only human, so spare me my irritation at once again having to point out that the courses of the Twilight-Starlight fights are not determined by power, but by tactics.
Starlight set the whole situation up to give Twilight every possible disadvantage. Every time Twilight arrives in the past, Starlight's already on the scene, able to ambush her or pre-empt her likely tactics (which Starlight knows because she spent a season studying Twilight, whereas Twilight only knows Starlight from their one brief direct encounter). Starlight's task is much easier than Twilight's. She merely has to disrupt the timeline, and, if chaos theory is to be believed, can do that simply by her presence. Time in FiM is just a bit stickier than that, but the principle is the same. The timeline is easier to change than to preserve, so Starlight can intervene in just about any way and she'll get what she wants. For Twilight, who is trying to preserve the timeline, everything must go off without a hitch. She can't be too flashy or Rainbow will be distracted, as we were shown. She can't be too destructive or Rainbow and the others might get hurt (this is, of course, something she'd want to avoid anyway). She has to protect Rainbow and the others from Starlight, who lacks both moral and practical compunctions against harming them. Finally, judging by her performance in the Nightmare Moon timeline, Twilight's fatigue carries over when she goes back to the past, while Starlight is endlessly refreshed. That in their final confrontation before being transported to the wasteland timeline Twilight dueled Starlight to a standstill is a near-miracle, considering that Starlight fought as much like Batman as any character in pretty much any medium.
if i remember correctly, Suri Polomare is the treacherous mare who stole Rarity's clothing designs in "Rarity takes manehattan".
7374701 and yet she never brought the law against her friends when they did worse...
I call that corrupt and underhanded, not honorable.
Nicely done.
Bravo, I say! Bravo!
Maybe people will hate on me for this comment, maybe not. But I would like to see a sequel to this. It would be a good story.
This was pretty good. You mentioned in a comment that the intention here was to tell a story rather than just showcase a timeline, and I'm always thankful for that, because it was an interesting story that was told, and the timeline was interesting too. There were a lot of original concepts played with here.
Shining Armor especially was a great addition; I was not expecting him in an antagonistic role, and I think that the fight scene with him, Chrysalis, and Discord, far from wasting time, was actually the highlight of the fic. Would the story have been better with more introspection and inner conflict? Well, yeah. Character development is always good, and I always welcome more of it. But I wouldn't want to trade the fight scene for more of what we already kind of have. The fight scene was fantastic. And besides, if it's emotional conflict we want, I think Twilight having to literally fight her brother because he wouldn't let her leave is powerful enough on its own.
I also have to praise everything you did with Discord, because I am the Discord Guy, and I always love when someone does something unique with him. This scratched that particular itch just fine.
I do think that the epilogue could've been better, though. I don't mind a little focus on Starlight, since stopping her was Twilight's main goal, and we kind of need to see her resolving the time loop problem before any other business can be attended to. But considering that Starlight wasn't even in the fic before the epilogue, I think a disproportionate amount of page time was spent on her. I would've liked to see more of Twilight beginning her research on Sombra, or Twilight trying to locate Chrysalis, or an actual answer as to whether the timeline we spent the whole story following really was erased or not.
And while we're critiquing, I also think that Sombra could've used more development as a character. Considering that even what little personality show-canon Sombra has was completely overwritten, this Sombra may as well be an OC. And for such a conceptually interesting character, I really couldn't definitely say anything about him other than that he seems basically a decent guy. If you ever were to do sequels or prequels and explore this world more, I'd start with taking a closer look at Sombra. He needs it the most.
Overall, it's not flawless, but I'd say this is one of the better fics I've read based on the alternate timelines. Solid work. I'm glad to have read it.
This abrupt ending doesn't really feel like it comes off well. Sure, Twilight explored a potential other timeline and saw how things could have turned out, but it doesn't seem like she really learned anything on a character basis. She learned several spells and knowledge to bring over Chrysalis and Sombra, as well as a way for Shining Armor to ascend, and that's a terrific bonus, but it seems to fall flat as an adventure without personal development.
On a side note, if you appreciate getting multiple decently-sized comments from me, I wouldn't mind getting a comment or two in return...
EDIT: After a day to reflect, I think what it is it that Twilight is running away more than anything. Her friends were sad to miss her but they didn't fall apart without her. The other Twilight is objectively superior in just about every aspect, with the exception of capital-F Friendship, but she still ascended through the friendship spell presumably. If Twilight stayed, she would forever be in other Twilight's shadow.
Decent stuff. It has flaws, but those do mostly come down to each person's stance on what decisions were made for what reasons.
That sure was an interesting and dramatic story.
And a very probable timeline that could have been created.
I love this! The only complaint I have is I wish it was longer! I love Sombra the most I'd have to say. And would love a story just focusing on him. How long did it take him to accept his horn was gone? Did he come with Twilight right away, or was he still evil even without his horn? How long did it take for him to come to grips with his situation? I would love to know!!!
I enjoyed reading this, and it's well worth a gold star.
Though I was a little disappointed that Twilight's list at the end didn't include an entry to 'research true nature of time' and find out whether she had in fact created and killed dozens of worlds with her time travelling. Strikes me as the kind of topic she wouldn't just ignore. But a small nitpick overall.
I loved this story. Fantastically written, balanced just right to cover every angle but never overdo it (what would Twilight's parents say, for example, that Shining Armor hadn't already said?), a really thoughtful take on it all and a great addition to the episode that spawned it. I really liked how she still had Rarity's saddlebags with her at the end, and it was quite sweet how the former villainess was one of the two characters willing to fight to keep her redemption intact.
Only thing I wasn't sure about was the decision at the end to spend time with Shining Armor; I thought he acted fairly unforgivably and I'd want some time apart from even his alternate timeline self. He tried to justify his petty revenge for his frustrations over feeling impotent by going on about how much he loved his sister, but it's pretty obvious in the show that the other mane ponies are much closer to Twilight than her brother is; he wasn't even mentioned for almost two whole seasons.
Re-read this story again, and decide to remove this story out of my "good story" bookshelf.
And add this story to " Favorite" bookshelf
And add a vote up!
So her number 2 priority... is essentially book burning.
God, I loved this story so much. Gonna be a shame this world might never exist after she goes back. But then again the entire franchise it's fiction, sup I guess it's moot to lament the potential loss of this world.
Kudos on the amazing story.
8211554
It is most definitely an Undertale reference :)
This was an excellent story, but I personally feel that it handles the finale more weakly than the show did. In the show, Twilight got valuable experience in resolving a situation where she could not simply power through it, with a foe who truly believed she was doing the right thing, and her demonstrated empathy for Starlight's situation will likely be much more effective in permanently reforming her than "I beat you up and dumped you in front of your childhood friend". Even if this story's Starlight ends up disavowiing her earlier actions, she hasn't experienced the true power of forgiveness and friendship as in the show.
7960478
Er, huh? What does "how often someone is mentioned onscreen" have to do with how close someone is to them? Shining and Twilight were still meeting off screen during the first two seasons, and Twilight was extremely protective of Shining in ACW, speaking to how close they still were.
8312090 Bit of a tangent for story comments, but...
We don't know anything in canon either way about whether Twilight and Shining Armor were still meeting up off-screen. We do know that Twilight doesn't go back to her old place in Canterlot once before Amending Fences in season five, so if she did visit Shining Armor she must've stayed elsewhere. And the dialogue in ACW does rather suggest that she didn't know he and Cadence were together, since there was no response to ' Twily, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza is Cadance, your old foalsitter.' of 'Oh yeah, that makes perfect sense, because you guys have been a couple for ages!' It also says that Twilight hadn't mentioned to her Ponyville friends that Shining was captain of the royal guard.
So I think it's reasonable to say they're not that close, or haven't been for a while, and their actions stem from possessive over-protectiveness rather than genuine concern.
8312726
"Ever since I moved to Ponyville, we've been seeing each other less and less."
"Seeing each other less and less" means that her visiting Shining or Shining visiting her had a gradual (and not a sudden) decrease in frequency since she moved to Ponyville, necessitating at least several such occasions offscreen during season one and two.
Also, how often you talk about someone or how often you interact doesn't really correlate to how close you are to them on a personal level. When I was in college, I never talked about my brother to my friends (the topic of our families just never came up), and I would only see him every couple of months, but every time I did see him, we were as close as ever. When Twilight and Shining met in ACW, they were talking as familiarly as could be expected of siblings, with teasing and such, so I don't see any reason to believe they were any less close than before. Twilight was lamenting that they didn't see each other as much as they used to, not that they didn't love each other as much as they used to.
8312972 Yep, that's a fair point about seeing them less and less.
It does seem very odd Twilight wouldn't talk about Shining Armor much, though, given how much she talks about Princess Celestia and her Ponyville friends.
This is pretty good, might read again sometime.
Just finished the whole story. It was good enough that I am leaving this review to say that it is good.
10/10
Not bad.
But it nose dives straight into the '(almost) everything is the better because X character wasn't a whiny bitch'-internet trope.
I loved this story, although I found myself agreeing with 8312090's criticism of the ending. The philosophical conflict between the Princess of Friendship and Princess of Pragmatism was fascinating though, and addressed a part of the show that a lot of writers skip over entirely in a way that gave it some real weight. Gets a spot in my faves overall.
Short, sweet, to the point, well done author.
Well done.
There's still the uncertainty regarding the alternate world and whether they are truly still alive, but it's a good ending even so.
There really should have been an Undertale-esque ending (especially if that passphrase WAS a reference), though, because I can think of no better being to keep track of the timelines than Discord. After all, that's what the original passphrase was for -- detecting time travelers, since Sans knew that someone was mucking with timelines.
Perhaps Discord could confirm what happened to the others, drop a hint that some of them might still remember what might have been, or even let them go visit someday in the case of the multiverse.
The answer to every moral dilemma, whenever possible, is "Both." Or "Neither," depending on the context. The point is, you look for a way to defy the narrative presented to you, find the falsehood in the dichotomy. In this case, it's carry over the essence one worldline to the other in the form of information. And this, Twilight literally has the hest of both worlds. Or, at least, she will in relatively short order.
Great stuff, especially in how you extrapolated alternate Twilight's behavior. Thank you for it.
Allow me Twilight, IF YOU’D JUST DONE HALF AS MUCH RESEARCH AS REQUIRED THIS WHOLE HOEDOWN COULD'VE BEEN AVOIDED STARLIGHT! done, :3
Huh, so the crystals takes color after the magic that casts the spell........ that actually makes a lot of sense, it’s downright logical, :D,
it’s a pity that Spike from the alternative line did not talk to Twilight from the canon
It was a really good story, but it would have been great if Twilight stayed or went into her own past to make events move toward that future.
9487119
ik this is late but still.
tbe secret code word is a reference to undertale, its "im a stupid doodoo butt"