Old Haunts
The party cannon was fired precisely at noon and the wind had spread the sparkling confetti over the paving stones, roof tiles, and the backs and manes of all the ponies gathered in the Ponyville main square. The sun was shining brightly, its rays glinting off the brass and copper of the cogs and wheels of the old clockwork.
It was then that she heard a familiar bouncing sound and quickly turned around to see the unexpected, yet familiar, sight of Pinkie Pie skipping towards her out of the bushes. It took the pink pony less than two small jumps to cover the distance between them until she stopped as if crashing into an invisible wall.
"What’s up, Twilight? Hey, wait a second, what are you doing here?"
The mechanical gadget slipped from the grasp of her magic and disappeared into the long grass.
***
The first colors of the rising day were barely seen against the dark veil of the night, and just like every day before and since, the rising sun had reminded her of Princess of Celestia: Once, a long time ago, the weight of the sky had fallen on the back of a young alicorn named Twilight Sparkle and she was never able to forget its impossible burden. She had changed since then and so had the world around her, but the sky and the sun have stayed the same.
Taking her eyes off the window, she had turned to look in the silver mirror.
Her once lavender coat was now the color of a clear summer night, and her mane and tail were adorned with the pattern of the first evening stars. In the passing years, she had grown, now rising far above her servant-mares who were helping her into an indigo gown and cape.
She shifted her spectacles slightly and considered her garments. Every single fold had to be done per the demands of the etiquette. As a Princess of Equestria and the Dean of the University of Magic, she simply had to follow a certain image, whether she liked it or not. Life was so much simpler back when ponies only dressed up for special events… On the other hoof, this was exactly what she was doing, so perhaps there wasn't that much of a difference.
Now it was time to put on the horseshoes. Her hoofmaids were already walking over to the large wardrobe, but with a simple effort of her magic, Twilight had already preempted them, bringing out the horseshoes and diadem surrounded by the purple aura of her magic. Letting out a very small sigh, Twilight nodded to the maids:
"Thank you, girls. I’ll take it from here."
The purple stones on the horseshoes shone with the red sparks of the rising sun, which looked like small pieces of dusk on her hooves. Twilight had always tried to capture the mysteriousness of Princess Luna without the older alicorn’s darkness – as the most powerful sorceress of the modern age, she believed she was expected to project mystery and even danger. And regardless, the amethyst always brought out the purple of her eyes or, at least, that is what Rarity always insisted and who would know better than the original designer of the ensemble?
The thought of her old friend had brought a sad smile to Twilight. Rarity was so happy about those last changes in fashion… Twilight stopped her thoughts to avoid the pain that would inevitably follow and tried to distract herself by looking out the window again.
Down below, the guard pegasi were already preparing her carriage, but she suddenly found herself unable to even contemplate the thought of the coming trip and its destination.
It would be a short ride, and then there will be thousands or even tens of thousands of ponies, all of them looking at her with sadness and adoration. They will be crowding around her to express their condolences and their reverence, and they will bow to her and be awed and bow again, and then she will have to say the speech with all the right words and feelings to all those ponies whose names she did not even know…
No! Not today. She could do it on any other day but this. She may be their Princess, but today was the day of her grief and she would not share it.
With her eyes closed, she slowly exhaled. The sharp pang of her conscience was short but still painful. She had no right to be so selfish and to think of her own feelings instead of theirs. She was a Princess of Magic and her duty was to them. To magic, to Equestria, and most of all, to all her little ponies… and yet, she decided, today she would allow herself to be no more than a grieving friend.
She let the diadem drop from her magic grip, and the ding of silver and gemstones against the hard floor echoed through the room. Even through her tightly shut eyelids, the blinding flash of purple and white hurt her eyes.
Before her sight returned to her, Twilight could already feel the nostalgic bittersweet smell of recently mowed grass, of the wildflowers in bloom, and of the wild, endless forest.
Finally opening her eyes, she looked at the brightly coloured houses of Ponyville, which, from her vantage point on a hill, looked like toys forgotten by a giant on the edge of the boundless forest. The lights have already stopped dancing in her eyes, and she just now felt the tears welling in the corners.
She turned sharply away from the sight and ran, gathering the speed with every step, until, at the very edge of the cliff, she spread her wings and took into the air.
***
The sound of the cannon fired was still echoing through Ponyville, intertwining with the ringing of the clock tower bell striking noon, when the sombre procession began from the Town Hall on the Two Sisters plaza along the Twilight Alley towards the old clock tower.
The march was followed by a cacophony of sounds, where firework explosions, the ringing of the clock tower bells, the booms of party cannons, and the crackling of roaman candles all connected to create a single symphony of a party that contrasted sharply against the silence of the procession. Every citizen of Ponyville was here, from the youngest foals to the most elderly earth pony, they joined in their march by thousands more. Many ponies, pegasi, gryphons, humans, dragons, and creatures much stranger than these came from every corner of Equestria and even further to join in this silent cavalcade, stepping solemnly in the shadow of hundreds of blue and yellow balloons filling the sky.
"Ohmygosh! IT’S A PARTY!!!!", Pinkie Pie bounced again, one pink rubber ball buzzing with energy, jumping all around the startled Twilight. "Look, the balloons! And the fireworks! Oh, oh, and a giant cake! Twilight, why are you not looking at the GIANT CAKE!?"
"Wait, Pinkie, just… wha… how?"
Flabbergasted, Twilight ignored the falling mechanism that slipped out of the grasp of her magic, and it immediately disappeared in the tall stalks of grass, blinking with the last glint of sunlight on copper. She looked at the pink whirlwind of Pinkie Pie who was already buzzing all around her, examining her mane and her hooves and her coat, and never, even for a second, stopped the stream of words.
"No, wait, that weird pony with a sand-clock cutie-mark said that I might fall into the far, faaaar future! And look at you! With the mane, and the glasses, and how tall you are…” Pinkie jumped all the way to Twilight’s height to emphasize the point “...You are totally a Princess now! Not that you weren't before, because you totally were, but now you look like Celestia! Or Luna? Anyway, it’s absolutely Princess-y!"
"Pinkie, STOP! Please!”, was all the Twilight managed to squeeze out, but it was enough to make Pinkie freeze mid-jump in the air.
Only then did the Twilight finally manage to notice that her jaw was slack in the most surprised expression. She really was not used to being this surprised anymore, and definitely did not demonstrate her surprise in a very long time. It really must have been Pinkie Pie, exactly like she remembered her years upon years ago, right here in front of her. That was utterly impossible, yet there she was.
Frowning, she was almost ready to cast a spell of Revelation that would break any illusion and reveal any changeling trick, but then, as she realised what Pinkie just said, she finally remembered what was going on. A huge wave of relief and happiness hit her almost as hard as she facehoofed herself, and all she could do was laugh and hug Pinkie with all her strength.
"Whee! Free hugs! But what’s the occasion, huh, Twily?"
But Twilight was too busy laughing to answer that. Dear sweet Celestia, it was so long since she laughed with so much levity and happiness. Her laughter quieting down, she found herself looking at her old – and oh so very young – friend intently.
Pinkie stared back, feeling up her own face under Twilight’s intense scrutiny.
"What? Twi, what’s going on? Is there something on my face? There’s something wrong with my face, isn’t it?! Where?"
That brought out a few last chuckles out of Twilight.
"No, Pinkie, everything is fine! It’s just that I forgot… I almost forgot our adventure in the Caves of Time. You got lost because of all the chronovores chasing us, and I could only come and get you after…"
"Hey!", A pink hoof firmly closed Twilight’s mouth, preventing her from talking, "Spoiler alert, you silly filly. If I wanted to know how it ends, I would just flip to the last page, right?"
"Wht, whft?" stepping back to free her muzzle Twilight repeated herself, "what?"
"Eh, never mind, I did sneak a peek anyway, so it’s ok. Sort of. Anyway, now I am not now, right? I am waay in THE FUTURE, ain't’ I?"
"Well, yes, you are, but…"
"Ohmygosh! I want to see so many things! Soooo many questions! How’s Gummy? Do I still live in the same place? Is Celestia still a Princess? What are Pound and Pumpkins’ cutie marks?”, she drew a huge breath, “and I would REALLY like to go to that HUGE PARTY down there, it looks super-duper fun!"
Looking down at Ponyville, it was probably for the best that Pinkie did not see Twilight’s smile die on her lips.
***
The red light of dawn was already spilling over the green leaves of the age-old trees, and the morning breeze beat against Twilight’s wings as she rose into the air. The weather was changing - precisely by schedule, as it should in Equestria.
In her flight, there was no longer any trace of the initial awkwardness of her first clumsy attempts to take wing and she had almost forgot how she used to be afraid, new to her wings as if expecting them to fail her. Likewise, a long time ago, she lost the thrill of the flight, the all-consuming adrenaline rush of going faster, the euphoria of the sky rushing past her in a maddening race. Now her wings, much like her hooves, were just a mode of locomotion, something to get over short distances in case she did not want to teleport for one reason or the other. Grand entrances aside, she could hardly understand why Celestia always chose to travel on a pegasi-drawn carriage, and never in a million years would she understand Rainbow Dash, for whom flight was her whole life and the only passion, from the day the rainbow-coloured pegasus was born and forever.
Until the last of her days.
Clenching her teeth, Twilight flapped her wings against the rising winds, flying higher and higher above the light morning clouds until she could barely see the dim orange lights reflected off the roofs of Ponyville below. She began to move towards the faraway mountains on the horizon, piling speed on until she was at her limit. Her heart was thumping loudly and painfully against her ribs as if trying to escape this mad race against herself.
She flew until she could barely keep herself in the air, her dress now a soaked mess, her sides foaming with sweat. But somehow this mad dash above the Everfree Forest helped to settle the inner turmoil that was haunting her so, and she finally acknowledged where her wings have taken her.
Diving down in a wide arc, she flew downwards, almost touching the tips of the ancient oaks with her hooves. The forest below teemed with a life of its own, as free and inscrutable as it was a hundred years before, and a thousand years before that, and still just as wild. Its folds still covered myriads of birds and beasts never seen or named by any pony, living their lives in the pale light of firefly swarms and will-o-wisps and never seeing the rays of Celestia’s sun from under the leaves of the trees.
A mighty roar shook the forest underneath, felling a tall elm tree instantly swallowed by the thick growth of the forest. Whatever it was, Twilight was neither threatened nor interested and soon the incident was left far behind, the creatures of the Everfree Forest once again left to their own devices.
They spent a lot of effort – she and Fluttershy, back then, to save the Everfree Forest from the inexorable march of pony civilisation. Progress was moving with a speed of a diving Wonderbolt, requiring more and more space and resources with each passing year. Ponies required places to live, safe from the monsters of the untamed lands. They needed the comforts and predictability that were contrary to the very essence of this place.
Hail and storms, thunder and rains brewed above it, unpredictable without pegasi oversight, untamed and perhaps untameable in their fury. Beasts were born here, at the roots of millennia-old trees, to hunt or be hunted, to perish or multiply depending on their own wit, strength and luck in a circle of life free of animal-team pony care. Here, monsters that would stagger even the most learned of unicorn-zoologist reigned supreme.
The Everfree Forest was an entity unto itself, and it did not need ponies.
Nor did ponies need the Forest – what they required were lands to plough and sow, to grow fruit and grass upon; they wanted wood for ships and buildings; they wanted space to build houses and castles and schools. Even when speaking for Fluttershy’s motion to protect the Forest, Twilight still had her doubts: she was a creature of order and organisation, of system and design, and she had to acknowledge the arguments made towards taming and domesticating the Everfree Forest for ponykind.
But the noes have had it, and today, more than any other day, Twilight was happy to see the Everfree forest unchanged and free. Only here and now could she truly be alone and by herself, a lonely soul in a vast sea of chaos preserved in the heart of an orderly Equestria. Equestria to which she was now an irreplaceable and vital part. Here and now she could pretend she did not have this endless burden of duty, to imagine that she could put away, if for a moment, the gilded shackles of her title.
The lonely mountain rose on the horizon, getting closer with every flap of her wings. Her tired muscles protesting every step of the way, her lungs on fire, Twilight pushed on, throwing her all into the flight. It was long since she flew so hard, not since her first year as an alicorn, when she raced Rainbow Dash across the forest to the very same mountain.
Back then, the mountain rose above the forest like muscles rolling underneath the hide of a giant creature, its slopes covered in the thick growth of mighty trees. Now it looked more like skeletal remains of a long-dead mythic beast; its sides barren and scorched, with nothing but the most tenacious of vines covering its bare rock, and a rare tree, that once stood proudly, with its branches reaching to the sky, still clinging to life, too stubborn and entrenched in the cracks of the mountain to wither.
Back then, when Twilight had just started to fly, Dash was doggedly determined to teach Twilight every single trick of ace flying. It took months and months of bruises and exhaustion, proving to Twilight once and for all that despite her new alicorn wings, she was definitely built for cosy evenings in the castle library with dusty ancient tomes and a nice mug of hot cocoa, not for mind-numbing terror and exhaustion of all those barrel rolls, nosedives and corkscrews. Unfortunately, this argument had failed to convince Rainbow.
In the end, she mastered the material, and it was a time for the final test (as it always is). They were racing over the Everfree Forest, and Twilight hoped that should she ace this test, she’d be able to finally finish the training sessions. She was almost missing her time with Rainbow already: the moment she freed up the time from her flying lessons, some royal duty or the other would surely find a way to occupy every minute and second of it.
Rainbow Dash was leading of course, not by that much – by a nose or two, and much less than she could have, with her being a reserve Wonderbolt. With a mountain barely a stone throw’s away, she was sure to win the race. Or so she would think....
Twilight smiled, imagining in the smallest detail how her friends' cocksure grin – which she just knew Rainbow Dash had on her face - would disappear, turning into shock and indignation. With a short laugh that took the last of her breath, she closed her eyes, casting the spell of teleportation.
"HEY! NO FAIR!" - Dash's shout caught up with her as Twilight’s hooves sparked against the plateau of the mountain, trying to slow her slide.
"Na-na-na-na. I won, I wo...." - Twilight blew a raspberry towards her friend.
"Why, you little cheating...", Rainbow hit her full speed, and both ponies rolled across the plateau, over the rock and hard bush that covered it, barely stopping over the very edge of the mountain. The pegasus was panting, her sides foaming and on her face was such a childlike expression of utter betrayal that Twilight could not help but laugh.
Soon they laughed together on the open plateau, listening to the skitter of stones displaced by their brawl turn to rumble, and then to the thunderous booms of a landslide…
... Twilight's hooves clicked against the hard scorched stone, and she folded her star-spangled wings, gasping for air to catch her breath. The permanent smell of sulphur and burnt stone had marked the plateau, and no vine nor a single blade of grass survived here. Finally regaining her breath, Twilight shifted uneasily, and with a last glance towards the Everfree Forest behind her, she started to go up over the crumbling mountainside. Her every step raised a small cloud of black soot and ash, quickly ripped apart by the howling winds.
The higher Twilight ascended, the more the hard smell of the sulphur and smoke was burning her throat. She could have, of course, simply flown all the way to her destination in her mad dash across the forest - the yawning pit of a cave few hundred meters above her landing place... but she did not. However long and hard her flight might have been, it was this last step that was the hardest. It always was.
She trotted through the arch of the cave entrance on the top of the mountain and peered into the blinding darkness ahead. She could not see further than her nose in the pitch-black of the lightless cave, but she did not need her sight to know what lay within.
As she always did, hundreds of times before, she took three careful steps over the stone polished to glass by the immense heat, the clopping of her hooves echoing over the infinite abyss she knew was not even a foot in front of her. Peering into the darkness, she whispered the name of her friend.
Only the echoes answered her, so she called again, louder this time. Still, nothing called back but thousands of reflections of her own voice echoing ever lower. Finally, as she always did before, she shouted at the top of her voice:
"SPIKE!"
***
The bell chimed for the last time, and it was past noon when the procession entered the shadow of the Ponyville clock tower. Back atop the hill by the edge of the Everfree Forest, Twilight Sparkle was trying to find the right words to explain... but was, again, interrupted by Pinkie
"Look Twily, you dropped something."
The distraction came as a blessing, diverting Twilight from her torturous thoughts to look at the piece of mechanism she dropped earlier, at which Pinkie was now pointing her hoof.
"What is that thing anyway?"
A lavender aura wrapped around the mechanism as Twilight pulled it up to her eyes.
"This... honestly, I've no idea. I think it has been lying around my lab for ages. I don't even know where it came from in the first…"
"Okie-Dokie. Well," Pinkie dramatically looked at her empty front hoof, as if expecting it to have a watch, "it's time for a PARTY!"
"Pinkie, wait…” Twilight tried to stop her friend again, but this time it was not enough, as Pinkie was already galloping downhill towards Ponyville.
Sighing, Twilight could only tuck the mechanism back into the pockets of her gown and teleport to catch up with her friend. Together, they trotted on the old overgrown path, past the edge of the Everfree, and into the town, Twilight struggling to keep up with the bouncing trot of her friend. Several times she tried to broach the hard topic of what the party they were attending was, but she could barely put in a word edgeways, as Pinkie was talking non-stop all the way, allowing Twilight to delay the dreaded discussion again and again until she was completely consumed by the easy and simple conversation.
On the empty streets of Ponyville, the wind was scattering around the shiny sparks of confetti and ruffling around the few balloons stuck under the roofs or in the wires above, and the only thing to breach the heavy silence of the town was clopping of their feet and Pinkie's chatter. There was no longer any music - silent were the trombones, the drums and accordions and the last fireworks have already been swallowed by the sky. The city was silent like a ghost town, the only movement around them was the flapping of black ribbons and the motley flags flying at half mast.
None of that seemed to affect Pinkie in the least - she was too busy talking.
She was telling Twilight about how she got lost in time - something Twilight already heard dozens of times in the last hundred years, and even partially witnessed herself, but was more than happy to hear again. She was asking Twilight every question imaginable - about her spectacles and her gown and her horseshoes, what she ate for breakfast, and hundreds of small things that would hardly be the interest of any other pony who found herself a hundred years in the future. She barely even waited for Twilight to answer before she skipped to the next question until she asked:
"So, Twilight, since it's been so long, you must have tonnes of new friends, right? I would really, really like to meet them!"
"I... well, you see... the thing is", Twilight looked away, as she tried to explain, realising that they were almost at the centre of the town. "Pinkie wait!", she tried to halt her friend again.
For in front of them, just beyond the bend of the street, there was a sea of heads, flanks and shoulders, all frozen in the silence and contemplation, its’ soft muttering catching two incoming ponies by surprise. Once again, Pinkie froze mid-jump and gave Twilight a perplexed look.
"What's the matter? We are gonna miss all the fun! Well, actually, for a crowd this large, I expected something more exciting…"
"Pinkie... you see, it's not quite what you think... not at all what you think. We shouldn't even…"
"Look, something's starting to happen!"
And indeed it was - following a drum roll, the crowd came alive, murmuring, whispering, moving. A pegasus in a tuxedo flapping in the wind had risen on the stage - a small wooden thing erected in the middle of the square right underneath the clock tower. It was not too big, but high enough that all of those gathered in the plaza, even Twilight and Pinkie standing at the very edge of the crowd, could see him.
He took the stand and checked the microphone, causing a burst of static to echo around the square. Behind him loomed a giant pink monstrosity of a three story-cake liberally covered with icing and sprinkles.
"Greeting, mares and gentlecolts, and all our guests", His voice, deep, if a bit raspy, boomed through the speakers and all across the gathering, silencing the rumble of the crowd. "My friends... it is hard for me to find the words to express what I feel... what we all feel today. The Princess of Magic, Twilight Sparkle herself, was to give her speech today, from this very stage, and I am sure she would be able to do it much better. To express our feelings, console and support each and every one of us. Alas, she could not make it today, for reasons of no doubt great importance for all of Equestria..."
"Hey, Twilight, he is talking about you", Pinkie whispered loudly, "But... you are here, aren't you?"
Twilight winced.
"Pinkie, I"....she barely managed to mumble before she was interrupted by a pink hoof poking her hard in the side.
"Hush! I am listening!"
"... for all of us. Every pony in our town knew her and loved her, from their first birthday to their elder years. I... we cannot imagine Ponyville without her. With her help, every day was a party... sometimes too literally”, a wave of silent chuckles rolled across the crowd, a testament to the truth of those words, “Most of us still remember the ill-famed and even somewhat tragic Carnival Year. But one way or the other, everything she ever did, was done to make everypony in this town happy. She was chosen to be a mayor if this town twelve consecutive times, and every single time she did it perfectly, though I swear I will never understand how..."
Another wave of quiet laughter rolled across the square. Even the speaker himself gave a few chuckles. Wiping budding tears from his eyes, he continued.
"She was...eccentric and random and absolutely brilliant, and that is how we loved her and that's how she will always remain in our hearts. All of us, from all over the world, and some of us I see here who travelled quite a bit further than that. I am sorry to give such a short speech… it is hard for me to find words that would capture and honour this exceptional mare, but it is now time for our final goodbyes."
The orchestra started playing some piece of music that was joyous to the point of hysteria… and yet was somehow ever more tragic for that, and through the silent crowd, two ponies clad in madly cheerful outfits carried a....
"Looks like all of them loved this pony", Pinkie noted, "she must have been great!"
"Pinkie, I don’t think you should see this" – The Princess’ voice almost broke as she tried to stop herself from crying. She grabbed Pinkie by her tail, trying to move her back into the alley, but the pink pony would not budge as if grown into the stones of the plaza.
"Oh come on, just a few more minutes!"
They were starting to get noticed. Some ponies from the back rows already turned around to look at all the commotion. Whispers and whinnies of surprise started spreading through the crowd.
The pall-bearers were already gone from the scene, hidden behind the giant cake, but Pinkie kept watching.
"Ready! Set!" – Ponies wearing parade dresses charged a twenty-foot tall party-cannon, pointed at the stark blue sky.
"Farewell, Lady Mayor. Farewell Pinkamena Diane Pie. Fire!"
She did not care if the ponies around her could see their Princess crying. Unable to even look at her friend, Twilight simply let the tears flow, sobbing uncontrollably into her mane.
It was then that the sky above Ponyville exploded into a million shards, an inequine, bloodcurdling cry that could not be a product of any living thing in Equestria or beyond rolled across the square, shattering eardrums and windows alike, from the Rail Station to Sugarcube Corner, and from a wound in the very fabric of space and time, a chronovore appeared.
And time itself broke apart.
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Well...huh
I think you had a neat idea here but I think a couple of key problems are hurting the story.
1. You need to keep your tenses straight. You should not change tense in the middle of a sentence especially with no reason.
2. You clearly were leading up to that reveal in the ending but we had so many questions that we are too confused to get the right reaction from it. There are a number of questions that need to be answered so that we can get the full impact of the ending.
That being said I thought that you had some really good ideas here and it is close to working but you can't leave that much mystery for us.
Well, here to review as promised. I'll take a look at the second chapter in a little bit, but here are my thoughts on the first.
You've got some tense changes here and there, which can be quite jarring.
I'm really bad at naming tenses, but there's a slight tense difference between the two. 'Then there would be' is how it should go, if it's to match the tense of the rest of the story.
You're missing an enter in some lines as well, meaning that some paragraphs run together like this.
Aside from that, there's one major issue so far. The whole deal with time travel isn't very well explained. The best I can gather is that anything that changes the past causes time guardians to appear and eat stuff. But that doesn't really make all that much sense. Especially given Pinkie's earlier reference to a tan-colored pony with an hourglass, who I can only assume to be the doctor. It's mostly confusing as opposed to anything else, and given how central it is the whole story, it doesn't really make me all that interested in what's going.
If how it actually works were better explained, even in a singe paragraph or over a handful of sentences, it'd definitely help with my understanding of what's going on.
nice first chapter I liked it a lot. pretty much everyone else said what I had to say in terms of problems. Then again it's not like I have any room to say anything. great job, can’t wait to read the rest.
8510257
You do know that there are two more chapters right there, right?
Interesting story, nice writing up the atmosphere, it’s perfect, but I’ll need to continue to find out if I should add this to my favorites.