Camaraderie is Sorcery

by FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 2:20 - A Sparkle in Time

Chapter 2:20 – A Sparkle in Time

Twilight Sparkle paced anxiously in a circle in Golden Oak’s laboratory. She did this so frequently that Spike was beginning to worry she’d wear down the floor faster than the laboratory could regrow it. He could swear the last time he’d swept it out there’d been a groove here. Despite Celestia’s admonition earlier in the year for Twilight not to worry or overexert herself, Twilight Sparkle was a worrier at heart. At least this time she wasn’t determined to juggle umpteen topics of study at once, then try to open a gateway to Tartarus when she couldn’t pursue any of them. If Spike could’ve, he’d have stashed the books on the Great Ones and Tartarus away anyway just to be safe, but given the sorceress’s current area of focus, that wasn’t possible.

They’d only returned from Trotstagor two days earlier, and during the whole trip back and all the time since, Twilight had been obsessed with the same worry. She needed to know where the seventh fragment of Discord’s soul was and what to expect from it. Most of what she did was just theorize or guess. If she could ascertain an answer from the tomes she had, then she gladly would have turned to them again, but sadly, they were not forthcoming on any practical advice for her situation. The way Discord had split his soul was unprecedented, such that it was not mentioned in any of the books about the Great Ones, even the ones that mentioned instances where they possessed other “lesser” creatures. She’d had Spike send a letter to Celestia requesting books from the Cant’r Laht Archives on soul splitting but hadn’t received any response yet. That kind of research was probably restricted, and for good reason, though Twilight wouldn’t see it that way.

“You may just have to wait it out, Twilight,” Spike suggested as she trotted past him, “Just like the other ones.”

“This one is different, Spike,” Twilight insisted, “I am worried. It may be in the Principality of Stalliongrad now—at least I hope it still is—but Celestia’s second summit in Cant’r Laht is only a few weeks away. What if the pony carrying the soul fragment comes to the summit and Awakens there? Can you imagine what kind of damage they could do with all of Equestria’s leaders assembled together? If I can find it before then, I will, and if I cannot determine some way to find the soul fragment before the pony carrying it Awakens, then I will just have to hope that they Awaken before the summit.”

“Okay, fine,” Spike yielded for now, “Don’t spend all day worrying about it, though. Remember, Mayor Mare wants to meet with you.”

“What would she want to meet about?” Twilight asked as she continued her pacing.

“She didn’t say. Or, rather, the courier she sent didn’t say,” Spike said drily, “I think she thinks you’re snubbing her.”

“That is probably because I am,” Twilight said, stopping her pacing at last, “I have nothing to say to her. She seeks to use one hoof to manipulate me and acquire some of my prestige for herself while working behind my back with another hoof.”

“That’s true,” Spike admitted, “But were things any different in Cant’r Laht.”

“I suppose not,” Twilight sighed, “At least there is only one of them here. Fine; Spike, find out when it will work for her to meet.”

As Spike hurried off to do the sorceress’s bidding, she resumed her pacing. She couldn’t get the feeling out of her head that something bad was going to happen around this last soul fragment and around the summit. The former was due to experience with the other fragments, which fortunately hadn’t caused irreparable harm yet. The latter, well … last year’s summit hadn’t gone off without a hitch, what with Blueblood’s murder and everything else. At least the leaders of Equestria had agreed to meet again this year, and in Cant’r Laht, too. There’d been no invitation yet to another Grand Galloping Gala, but Twilight was sure that Celestia would host one again. The effect of a pony possessed by Discord’s soul and wielding chaos magic at either of those events would be catastrophic.

So lost was Twilight in her own thoughts that she didn’t notice the fluctuations of magic and unnatural wind blowing within her study until her pacing brought her face to face with an emerging spell. A glowing, crackling ball of energy was growing on the floor, throwing off sparks in all directions. Twilight rushed to save her books and notes from being incinerated before she realized that the motes of magic just bounced along harmlessly, sometimes through the walls. The ball of energy grew larger before resolving itself into a pony with a blinding flash and discharge of lightning that arced along everything metal in the laboratory.

Twilight was worried who this interloper was—possibly an enemy sorceress or the seventh Discord-possessed pony—but gasped when she realized the stranger was none other than Twilight Sparkle. Somehow, some way, it was her crouched in front of her. Only, this other Twilight seemed a little worse for wear. The pitch-black cloak she wore was tattered and torn. A half-healed cut angled across her left cheek, and her mane was singed and ragged. Her right eye was covered by an eyepatch, and a bandage was wrapped around her head. The new Twilight looked around to get her bearings as she stood before spotting the one previously in the room and trotting over to her.

“Twilight, I know you have many questions, but you must listen to me!” the ragged Twilight said urgently.

“Who are you?” the pristine Twilight demanded of her doppelganger, “You are me, I think, or some version of me. But how could that be? This is not possible, yet here you are.”

“Please, Twilight, I have an important message for you from the future!” the ragged Twilight pleaded as her counterpart paced around her and tried probing her with her magic.

“The future!” present Twilight exclaimed excitedly.

“Yes, but that is not important right now—” future Twilight said, only to be cut off by her past self.

“What happened to you? Or … me?” Twilight asked, lifting the ragged cloak with a hoof before suddenly dropping it and staring herself in the eyes—the one she could see, anyway, “Is there some cataclysmic war or disaster years in the future?”

“No, I am from much closer than that—” the other Twilight waved her off.

“Does this have to do with the seventh shard of Discord’s soul?” present Twilight asked before her doppelganger could get a word in edgewise.

“What? Yes. No! You do not need to worry about that right now. I am only from a week away, next Honday morning,” future Twilight said, growing exasperated.

“I simply cannot believe that time travel is possible,” present Twilight said, circling her future counterpart once again, “How did you—I—figure it out?”

“Time spells are in the Cant’r Laht Archives, but that is not what is important—” future Twilight said.

“Where? You would know how often I have been there, and I have never seen them before.”

“In the restricted section of the Star-Swirl the Bearded Wing,” future Twilight answered, getting fed up with herself, “Now, please listen to what I have to say—”

“If you could travel to any point in time, why would you come now?” present Twilight asked, “Is this some important decision point?”

“Sure, whatever,” future Twilight said frantically as her body began to glow and motes of magic drifted off of it, “I only have a few seconds, so be quiet and listen! Whatever you do, do not—”

“Do not what?” Twilight Sparkle wondered aloud as her future self vanished in a flash of light, leaving four hoofprints burned into the floor.

What kind of disaster could have befallen her in the next week that would compel her to jump back in time to warn herself about it? Twilight Sparkle wished she hadn’t interrupted herself so much in trying to get information that she’d missed out on the real information she’d come back in time to relay to herself. It must have been something terribly important and devastating. Well, even if she hadn’t heard everything her future self had to say, she had gotten the warning and she was determined to prepare for this disaster now.

“Spike!” she called to her page, wherever he was in the laboratory. The meeting with Mayor Mare would have to wait. She had more important things to attend to.

***

By the time Spike returned from the Mayoral Keep, Twilight had a plan drawn up. She couldn’t keep an eye on all of Equestria, but she could try to protect Ponieville. Since her future self had suffered whatever catastrophe had compelled her to come back, whatever it was would likely strike the small town. The greatest protection she could provide for the hamlet would be what had already saved Equestria twice: The Elements of Harmony. Thankfully, all six of the Brave Companions kept the Elements nearby since the shards of Discord’s soul had begun to surface, but now they had to keep them especially close. She also gathered them all together in Ponieville so that they could respond to threats at a moment’s notice.

Once they were there, though, she realized how difficult it would be to keep them around for a full week. Everypony had their own responsibilities, and they’d also just returned from being gone for nearly two weeks. She was about to tell them to head home but remain vigilant when a ferocious growl sounded over the town. Leaping Ponieville’s palisade and houses, a cottage-sized hound bounded through the village. Its enormous size was not the only peculiar thing about the hound. It also had three heads, as well as a long, serpent-like tail. Ponies scattered screaming in its wake, especially as it bounded through the square around Golden Oak’s laboratory, crushing wagons as it did.

“What is that?” Spike asked.

Twilight quickly teleported to the study of the laboratory behind the group and returned a moment later with two books. She rapidly flipped through them before finding what she was looking for and passing them to Spike for him to hold.

“As I thought, that is Cerberus, also known as Kerberos. He was a creature of the Conjunction who roamed free and terrorized ponies until he was tamed by Yliiena the First and her companions, and bound to Tartarus,” Twilight Sparkle explained as Cerberus uprooted a tree and began gnawing on it, “He is supposed to be guarding the gates of Tartarus, that one permanent link between the shadow realm and our own and prevent the Great Ones from escaping their prison!”

“What is he doing here?” Spike asked as he perused one of the books Twilight had shoved his way, “It says here that he is unable to leave his post.”

“Well, about that,” Twilight said sheepishly, “I suppose it is possible that when I opened a gate to Tartarus of my own last summer that I may have inadvertently weakened the seal on the shadow realm and allowed Cerberus to break free.”

“You what?” Rainbow Dash said with concern, though everypony looked just as worried as the Hunter.

“I believe, darling, that what Rainbow Dash is trying to say is that aren’t the Great Ones able to escape Tartarus now?” Rarity asked after clearing her throat.

“Yes, is it not great?” Twilight asked excitedly, leaving everypony even more shocked than after her revelation of the stakes, “This must be the disaster that future Twilight was trying to warn me about! Now, all we need to do is return Cerberus to Tartarus. Fluttershy, what …?”

While Twilight had been speaking, the druidess had wandered her way over to the gigantic hound. Cerberus looked down on the pegasus, dropping his tree. Fluttershy rose into the air in time to avoid being struck by the flying branches and bark and looked the center head in the eyes. She swallowed hard before speaking.

“Now, Cerberus, what are you doing here?” she asked, her voice resonating in the air as she used her talent for speaking to animals, “Shouldn’t you be back home?”

Two of the heads loudly whimpered while another yipped. Given the size and ferocity of the creature, none of the utterances sounded particularly meek or nonthreatening, but apparently Fluttershy could understand that the three-headed dog meant no harm, as well as understand what he was trying to communicate to her.

“I see,” Fluttershy said once the yipping stopped, and she hovered back down to the Brave Companions, “He can’t return to Tartarus; the way is blocked.”

“Well, I suppose there is nothing else for it, then,” Twilight said after a pause, “We will have to return Cerberus to Tartarus.”

“You’re not goin’ t’ … open another portal, are y’?” Applejack asked worriedly. That last attempt had not gone well and had apparently also compromised Tartarus’s security.

“No. The gates of Tartarus are located in the White Mountains on the other side of the Everfree Forest,” Twilight said, just as Spike found the same information in one of the books, “Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Spike, the four of us can make it to the gates of Tartarus with two days travel, more than soon enough to prevent the disaster that future Twilight came to warn me about. Once Cerberus has been returned to his post, then no disaster will occur.”

“Unless one of the Great Ones escapes before then,” Rainbow Dash commented.

Twilight Sparkle’s face fell as she considered the possibility.

***

Like the journey to the Three Palaces of the Two Queens nearly two years earlier, the trip to the gates of Tartarus was urgent and made nearly without stopping. There were no traps set by Nightmare Moon to hold them up, but there were the usual monsters that filled the Everfree to overflowing. Fortunately, most of them were scared off by Cerberus and didn’t attempt to attack the ponies and dragon traveling alongside the mighty beast. A few were not so wise, and were either cut down by Rainbow Dash’s sword or devoured by the three-headed hound. The ponies had to be mindful of Cerberus as much as they did their surroundings. Though the hound harbored no ill will toward ponies (despite the fact that they’d imprisoned him in Tartarus just as surely as the Great Ones he watched over), he wasn’t always fully aware of his surroundings. More than once, the ponies had to scatter to avoid being crushed under a tree whose trunk had been severed by the sharp edge of his wagging tail.

At last, they reached the gates of Tartarus, alongside where the White River poured out of the White Mountains and into the Everfree Forest. A massive gateway the height of ten ponies covered in ancient runes was carved into a cliff face beside a roaring waterfall. The doors within the gateway were of the same stone, and more runes were carved along the seam that ran straight up to the gates’ peak. Along that seam were three crystals, each the size of a pony’s head, glowing dully green, orange, and white.

“Tartarus is on the other side?” Fluttershy asked nervously as they approached the doors.

“Not exactly. Tartarus is another realm entirely, but here it is easy to open and close a gateway to Tartarus. Yliiena the First had it built to make it safer to transport Great Ones to their imprisonment there,” Twilight explained as she sidestepped a great globule of drool that fell from one of Cerberus’s mouths, which belonged to a head who’d started panting happily upon spying the gates.

“You mean so they wouldn’t weaken the seal on Tartarus by opening other gates?” Rainbow Dash asked, still a little upset about what Twilight had done.

“Yes,” the sorceress admitted sheepishly, “Now, I am going to open the gateway. Fluttershy, you let Cerberus know.”

As the druidess spoke to the three-headed hound and Rainbow Dash watched, still curious how she was able to communicate with animals, Twilight Sparkle started her spell. She already had some experience with opening gateways to Tartarus, and she found it to be incredibly easy to do here, even without any physical aids. Cerberus’s heads jerked toward the gate as soon as the gateway was opened behind it, but there were no visible signs that anything had changed, other than the crystals glowing the slightest bit brighter. The crystals all served as locks, and Twilight believed she’d deciphered how to unlock them through her research on the way here. First the emerald, then the citrine, and finally the diamond all ceased glowing. Lastly, she reached out with her magic and pulled the gates aside.

Slowly, with a grinding sound, the gates each slid into the cliffside, revealing the gateway to Tartarus. The world dimmed as soon as Tartarus was visible, though there was no apparent source for the shadows other than the gateway itself. Tartarus was the same barren and terrible wasteland she’d viewed before, the cracked moon she’d last seen overhead now hovering in the distance and staring down like a bloodshot eye. The shapes of wardens wheeled about but did not try to come near the gateway like last time. The shadowy figures of the imprisoned Great Ones were visible, but now nowhere near the gate. A long crumbly stone bridge stretched across the endlessly deep chasm between the gate and the terrain that housed the shadow realm’s prisoners, flames that had burned for millennia flickering along its length. Tortured screams sounded in the distance, one especially loud followed by the distinct sound of massive chains being snapped.

Cerberus rushed the gates as soon as they slammed all the way open. As the three-headed hound bounded through, his tail swung around and caught Twilight Sparkle across the face, cutting to the bone. The sorceress screamed and fell to the ground, her spell immediately releasing. The gateway to Tartarus slammed shut, slicing off the end of Cerberus’s tail, and revealing a blank cliff face. The gates sealed up and the crystals resumed their glowing as blood gushed from the gash in Twilight’s face. She tried to focus her magic on the wound but was having difficulty. When she finally managed to focus, the wound still resisted her efforts and she was only able to heal the gash partway.

“Twilight, are you okay!” Fluttershy asked anxiously as she and the others rushed to gather around the sorceress.

“I am now,” the sorceress said as she rose to her hooves unsteadily, knees shaking, “It could have been worse. At least now Cerberus is safely gone, and the disaster will not happen.”

Twilight Sparkle felt completely drained from the days of travel followed by intense use of magic, and she walked slowly toward the nearby river. Her face and robes were covered in blood from her wound, and she sought a place to wash it off. Finding a calmer part of the river, she cleaned herself up a bit, to be a more presentable Cantr’ Laht sorceress. Any further repairs to her face or her clothing would have to wait until after she’d had some time to recover.

“What is it?” Spike asked with concern when Twilight gasped in surprise upon seeing her reflection in the river.

“This! Do you not see it?” she demanded as she spun around, pointing at the half-healed cut with a hoof.

“I see it, but I was expecting worse,” Spike admitted.

“This cut on my left cheek is exactly the same as the cut on future Twilight!” Twilight said in exasperation, “That means that things are still playing out as they did for her and the disaster is still coming! We need to get back to Ponieville!”

***

After another day of travel, Rainbow Dash insisted they rest, despite Twilight’s protests. The sorceress saw impending doom coming closer with every second, but that was often how she reacted to any troubling situation, so Rainbow put her hoof done. Other than Spike, who’d dozed some on Twilight’s back, none of them had gotten sleep in three days. The Hunter could probably have gone another few days before it seriously affected her, but the others needed to rest, especially Twilight.

The sorceress had become more and more frustrated as they retraced their steps through the Everfree Forest. She’d repeatedly tried to fully heal the cut on her cheek without success, and she grew more worried with each failed attempt. Something about Cerberus had gotten into the wound and rebuffed her magic. It was healing on its own, but any attempts to force it to heal faster by spell failed completely. Given that the end of Cerberus’s tail had turned to a noxious sludge that blackened the ground and killed the nearby plants after it was separated from his body, Rainbow thought that Twilight should count herself lucky the cut was healing at all.

The three ponies and dragon were camped on a bluff in the Everfree for a few hours of mandatory rest. Even Rainbow Dash slept, though it was done sitting upright with her sword drawn in front of her and facing away from the camp. She had set some traps before going to sleep that would deter or kill anything that might sneak up on them, but you could never be too careful.

Twilight tried to sleep, but had great difficulty allowing her mind to relax. What sleep she got was fitful, and she tossed and turned. Eventually she admitted the futility in keeping her eyes closed and arose, intending to make more plans to prevent whatever disaster was coming. It was then that an idea came to her that could fix everything. Rainbow Dash had some healing potions in her saddlebags that might be able to cure the cut on her cheek, where everything else had failed. Supposedly such potions were fatal to anypony who hadn’t gone through whatever secretive process was used to make Hunters faster, stronger, and all-around better at fighting monsters, but Twilight’s magic could probably counteract those ill effects. It was a risk she was willing to take, but she also knew Rainbow would never let her take. So, she crept over to the Hunter’s saddlebags in the dark, or at least she tried to. Her hoof slid against a loose rock and she pitched forward, stepping on Spike’s tail as she tried to regain her balance.

“Wah!” the dragon yelled as he awoke suddenly, and he involuntary spewed fire directly upward and into Twilight’s face.

The sorceress pitched back from the blast, and everypony awoke from the commotion.

“Twilight! I’m so sorry! Are you okay?” Spike asked when he realized what he’d done.

“Oh no. No no no no no no no!” Twilight cried as she ran her hooves along the charred edges of her mane, “This is just like future Twilight! I have only made things worse!”

***

The rest of the journey was not pleasant for anypony. The longer they were away from Ponieville, the more Twilight worried, and the more her worrying affected her behavior. She’d been right about Rainbow Dash not going along with her plan to use one of her Hunter potions. In fact, after finding out what Twilight had been trying to do, the Hunter made sure to keep her saddlebags out of what she thought was Twilight’s magical reach, flying most of the time. The sorceress, of course, could have teleported the potions out of her saddlebags any time if she’d wanted too (and had known where they were in them), but she wouldn’t do that to a friend, even if she thought it might be a way to prevent the disaster that had afflicted future Twilight.

“Pinkamena, I sure am glad to see you,” the sorceress said as she trotted through Ponieville upon arriving and confirming that no disaster had befallen it in her absence, “Have you had any premonitions lately?”

“Nu-ope!” the part-time bard, part-time baker said as she shook her head vigorously.

“Not one?” Twilight asked desperately, “Not even a little one?”

“No, nothing,” Pinkamena said, shaking her head again.

“Oh, I was hoping that you might have some clue about this disaster that is coming,” Twilight said, crestfallen.

“I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as I find out,” Pinkamena promised.

It wasn’t much, but at least it was something. Twilight nodded sadly and started to trot away. She considered asking Pinkamena to stay with her at all times at Golden Oak’s laboratory so that she would know immediately, but that wouldn’t work; she had work to do for Master and Mistress Cake. Maybe I could stay at Sugar Cube Corner? No, then I wouldn’t have access to any of my research materials. Knowing that Tartarus is open, I need to find out more about the Great Ones, since that’s probably what the disaster will involve.

“Wait, wait! I’m getting one!” Pinkamena said excitedly.

“Yes?” Twilight asked with excitement, turning around so fast that she nearly threw Spike off her back. The dragon climbed down while frowning at the sorceress.

“Something … something will fall!” Pinkamena announced with her eyes closed.

“Something … like Cant’r Laht?” Twilight asked as she imagined the city falling both figuratively to a Great One or an invading arm,y and literally plummeting off the side of the Titan’s Horn.

“No, something like that horseshoe,” Pinkamena said just as one plunged out of the sky and hit Twilight on the head.

“Sorry!” could be heard from a pegasus overhead, but Twilight was already out cold.

***

“Twilight, are you feeling better?” Pinkamena asked as she entered Golden Oak’s laboratory later that day.

The ground floor of the laboratory was empty, but Twilight’s study on the second floor had books and parchment strewn everywhere. Spike extricated himself from the mess as Pinkamena arrived and pointed upwards. A scroll bounced down the stairs, unrolling as it did, as Pinkamena ascended to the small balcony atop the laboratory. Twilight Sparkle was frantically rushing back and forth between a writing desk and a telescope, murmuring things to herself as she did. A bandage was wrapped around her head after the run-in with the horseshoe earlier, and she hadn’t missed that it matched the one she’d seen wrapped around future Twilight’s head. The telescope she’d had since shortly after she’d first moved to Ponieville, but she hadn’t used it in a while. Stargazing seemed to have little value other than recreational since Luna had taken over managing the night sky and arranged it in patterns different than the ones scholars had studied and charted for a thousand years. It was a more pleasing sky, but not to those who studied celestial motion.

“Hi, Twilight,” Pinkamena said, a little worried for her, “Are you okay?”

“Of course, or I will be after I figure out what this disaster is that future Twilight tried to warn me about and how to prevent it,” Twilight spoke quickly as she continued her work, “I realized after yet another component of future Twilight—the bandage—appeared, that my chances of predicting and preventing the disaster are slim. Thus, I have endeavored to be ready for every possibility and to spot the disaster as soon as it arrives so that I then have ample time to react. This has led me to the conclusion that to be able to do so, I must monitor everything in our surroundings, and record and compile the results of my monitoring. What I would give to be able to speak to those Twins of the Tower from the College of Eyes right about now, but alas, I have no means of communicating with them.”

“Uh-huh,” Pinkamena said, “Listen, Twilight, maybe you should take a break.”

“Take a break? I have no time to take a break,” Twilight said, “I must be prepared for the disaster that my future self came to warn me about! I can take all the breaks I want after the disaster is passed!”

Pinkamena examined Twilight’s telescope, trying to compare how similar it was to her own spyglass. It looked to be pretty much the same, except more powerful. There were some knobs on the base that didn’t seem to do anything when she spun them, but they had an effect when Twilight rushed back to use the telescope. In moving it, it spun far more quickly than she’d anticipated, and she found herself staring directly at the sun.

“Aieee!” the sorceress yelled as she jumped back and clapped a hoof over her right eye.

“What is it? What happened?” Spike asked as he hurried up the stairs.

“My eye!” Twilight moaned before pulling her bandage down over it, “The same eye that future Twilight had injured.”

“But, she had an eyepatch, right?” Spike tried to cheer the sorceress up.

“It does not matter, Spike,” Twilight bemoaned her fate, “It seems that whatever I do, I am destined to go down the same path as the Twilight that encountered disaster some time in the next three days. That leaves me with only two choices.”

“What are those?” Spike asked nervously.

“The answer was staring me in the face the whole time. Time spells are the answer. Either I must travel forward in time, find future Twilight, and ask her directly what the disaster is, or else I must stop time completely so the disaster can never occur,” Twilight said, causing Spike’s eyes to widen significantly with her second suggestion, “Either way, we need to travel to Cant’r Laht.”

***

Spike wasn’t sure exactly why Pinkamena was coming with them, but he was glad to not be the only one there trying to talk sense into Twilight, at least at first. Pinkamena wasn’t much help in deterring her after she gave up and went along with the plan to retrieve spells from the Cant’r Laht Archive to stop time. The dragon felt like giving up as well, especially as Twilight became more enamored with her plan the closer they got to Cant’r Laht. At least he was able to convince her that traveling to ask her future self for more information first would be a better plan than trying to stop time entirely. If doing so didn’t work, though, she was sure to try to pull off such a harebrained scheme. Spike hoped that the sorceresses of Cant’r Laht had never come up with a spell that could stop time, but was worried that they could have.

Travelling without stopping, they arrived in Cant’r Laht Abonday night, just hours before Honday morning. While the city slept, they crept through the streets, avoiding patrolling guards. Twilight Sparkle, Pinkamena, and Spike were all cloaked in black to help them blend into the shadows better, but Spike found it ridiculous. There was no reason the personal protégé of Celestia couldn’t march through Cant’r Laht and demand entrance to the archives. If anything, all this sneaking around was slowing them down, but he was kind of okay with that. If they failed to reach the Cant’r Laht Archive before her disaster occurred, then she wouldn’t attempt to stop time. He was beginning to think that maybe there was no disaster at all, and she’d misunderstood her future self. Twilight wasn’t keen on this idea, though, so he kept quiet about it.

Among Cant’r Laht’s many manor houses and not far from the Lodge of Sorceresses stood the Cant’r Laht Archive. The structure was like a manor all on its own and housed the largest collection of books in Equestria, most of them magical treatises and grimoires. Technically, the books of the archive belonged to Celestia, but ever since they’d been moved out of Cant’r Laht Castle many centuries ago when the collection grew too large, she gave the Lodge much freedom in administrating the Cant’r Laht Archive. The sorceresses of the Lodge had expanded the archive greatly with their own contributions and encouragement for others to add books to the growing collection, adding on new wings or digging out sublevels whenever the building seemed it would burst. They’d also built up a bureaucracy nearly as complex as the one that administered the Bank of Trotstagor. Speaking to numerous clerks and filling out just as many forms was required for somepony to gain access to the contents of the archives, unless you were Celestia. Occasionally, Twilight could get by on Celestia’s authority as her prized student and could cut through the bureaucracy as well, but with little time left for the disaster to occur, she didn’t dare risk it.

In a city of mages, teleporting into the library wouldn’t work, so the trio climbed over the wall that surrounded the archive grounds to gain access. As Pinkamena hoisted Twilight over, her cloak caught on the spikes topping the wall and tore. As the sorceress looked up at the edge of her cloak, Spike came flying over—thrown by Pinkamena—and she rushed to catch him. He seemed none the worse for wear, and Pinkamena bounded over a second later, grabbing the tattered scrap of Twilight’s cloak in her teeth as she did. At least the guards wouldn’t find any evidence of their intrusion.

They hurried through the dark and past leafless trees to the building. Twilight lost some more bits of her cloak to branches and brambles as they ran, but Pinkamena retrieved them all and tucked them away in her saddlebags. At last, they reached the archives, and Spike used his claws to pry open a window. Twilight jumped through as soon as there was a way in and looked around for guards. All she saw were rows of books and locked doorways.

She had been to the Cant’r Laht Archives many times, and the sorceress tried to create a map of them in her head. She thought she knew how to get to the Star-Swirl the Bearded Wing, but where the entrance should have been, she instead met a wall. Her anxiety was getting the better of her, and she found herself reevaluating her position multiple times until at last the trio reached the wing named for one of the greatest sorcerers in history. Star-Swirl the Bearded may never have never attained alicornhood, but he’d still been an extremely powerful wizard and created so many spells that most of the books in this wing had been written by him personally. Twilight’s future self had told her that the time spells were in the restricted section of this wing, so she headed for the center, where the way was blocked off by a sturdy gate of dimeritium with closely woven bars. Her magic would be useless in breaking through or taking anything out of the room, so she had to find some way in.

“Twilight,” Pinkamena whispered to her, tapping the sorceress on the shoulder.

She nearly screamed when she turned to see a pony in the polished armor and conical helm of the archive guard trotting right toward them. What to do? What to do? What to do! Do I knock him out and take his keys? Wait, aren’t the archive’s guards warded against magical attacks? Could I subdue him physically? Probably not without alerting the other guards. Tell him I’m here on Celestia’s authority? What do I do!?

“Hello, madam sorceress. I did not expect to see you here tonight,” the guard said while she was still thinking, “How long have you been back in Cant’r Laht?”

“Oh … not long,” Twilight said uncertainly.

“Do you need to get in?” the guard asked, pointing at the locked gate, and Twilight mumbled an affirmation.

She watched with disbelief at how easy it had been as the guard unlocked the gate and opened it for her.

“I’ll be sure to … keep quiet about your presence here,” the guard said with a smile, “I’m sure the archivists wouldn’t be too pleased to know you brought Spike here among their incredibly ancient and incredibly flammable books.”

“Yes, of course, thank you,” Twilight said unsteadily.

She waited for him to trot out of sight to be sure this wasn’t some kind of trick before she dashed into the restricted section. Scrolls and tomes were stacked in shelves from the floor to the ceiling, too many to go through in the little time they had left. Still, they had to at least try. Twilight Sparkle divided the section into pieces and assigned Spike and Pinkamena to look through two of them while she was already searching her own. There were some incredible spells here, many of them in the restricted section for good reason, but she only cared about the time spells. She searched and searched, throwing out scrolls that Spike would put back in their places later, but none of the time-related spells she could find would help her out now. Many of Star-Swirl’s writings on the subject had to do with differing progression rates of time among parallel planes of existence, and not with actually being able to travel to a different point in time.

“Um, Twilight,” Spike got Twilight’s attention after what seemed like hours of fruitless searching.

She followed the direction of his pointing claw to the window outside the restricted section. It was no longer dark outside; the sun was rising in the east over the White Mountains. Twilight rushed around the restricted section like a madmare, convinced that whatever disaster had befallen her future self would come down upon them any second now. However, nothing happened.

For the first time in a week, she paused and really stopped to consider her situation. It was Honday morning, the point in time that her future self had said she’d come back from. She had had something to tell her past self, but she hadn’t specified the nature of the information she had to disclose, only that it was important. She tried to think back. Had her future self ever really mentioned a disaster, or had she just assumed one based on her appearance? Speaking of appearance …

Twilight Sparkle examined her reflection in the large hourglass that stood in the center of the restricted section, sand slowly slipping from the top to the bottom. She looked exactly like the future version of herself she’d seen a week earlier, and she hadn’t been through any major disaster. Could it be? Was she now future Twilight? Had she worked herself up for nothing?

“What is it, Twilight?” Spike asked, staring at her as she was lost in contemplation.

“Spike, I think I may have made a mistake,” the sorceress replied slowly, “I do not believe there was ever going to be a disaster at all. I do not know what future Twilight was trying to tell me, but it was not to waste this entire week looking for a catastrophe that was not coming.”

“Finally,” Spike breathed a sigh of relief, “If only you could’ve known that a week ago.”

“Maybe you can!” Pinkamena said as she emerged from a pile of scrolls, “Twilight, look at this! It’s a spell that’s supposed to let you travel back in time, for a few seconds at least.”

“That is perfect, Pinkamena,” Twilight said as she took the scroll and examined it, “I can go back and let myself know not to worry.”

If Twilight had been thinking straight and not still coming down from a week of worry and panic, she’d have realized what a poor idea this was. Spike had a bad feeling, but he couldn’t place why. Pinkamena had never studied causality, so she had no objections to the plan. So, there was nopony to stop Twilight Sparkle as she cast the spell on herself and was engulfed in light, immediately traveling back one week and into her study in Golden Oak’s laboratory.

“Twilight, I know you have many questions, but you must listen to me!” she said as soon as she saw her past self’s stunned face.

“Who are you?” the past Twilight demanded as she looked her future self over, “You are me, I think, or some version of me. But how could that be? This is not possible, yet here you are.”

“Please, Twilight, I have an important message for you from the future!” Twilight said, mindful of her time as her past self paced around her and tried to examine her with her magic.

“The future!” her past self exclaimed.

“Yes, but that is not important right now—” Twilight Sparkle said as she tried to get her message across to her past self.

“What happened to you? Or … me?” past Twilight asked, examining her cloak torn from her dash through the archive grounds before staring her in the eyes, “Is there some cataclysmic war or disaster years in the future?”

“No, I am from much closer than that—” the Twilight from future Cant’r Laht waved her off, beginning to get annoyed with herself.

“Does this have to do with the seventh shard of Discord’s soul?” past Twilight demanded.

“What? Yes,” Twilight said, considering how that was how this whole business had started before realizing that her past self could easily misinterpret that answer, “No! You do not need to worry about that right now. I am only from a week away, next Honday morning.”

“I simply cannot believe that time travel is possible. How did you—I—figure it out?” her past doppelganger asked as she circled her.

“Time spells are in the Cant’r Laht Archives, but that is not what is important—” Twilight explained to herself wearily.

“Where?” past Twilight demanded to know, “You would know how often I have been there, and I have never seen them before.”

“In the restricted section of the Star-Swirl the Bearded Wing. Now, please listen to what I have to say—”

“If you could travel to any point in time, why would you come now? Is this some important decision point?” past Twilight asked, irking her future self even more with each question.

“Sure, whatever. I only have a few seconds, so be quiet and listen! Whatever you do, do not—” Twilight said as she was engulfed in light and found herself standing once more in the Cant’r Laht Archives, “—waste your time … worrying … about … the future.”

“Did it work?” Pinkamena asked.

“No, in fact, I just traveled back and did exactly what I saw future Twilight do,” Twilight answered, “I gave myself a vague warning that is going to make her spend a week worrying about a nonexistent disaster and end up looking like this.”

“Can you try again?” Spike asked.

“No, it says the spell can only be used by a pony once,” Twilight sighed as she gestured to the scroll, “It would not make any difference, anyway. It has already happened, just like the future will happen. No use worrying about it.”

“Does that mean no more freaking out about things?” Spike asked hopefully.

“I do not think it is fair to make a promise I cannot keep, but at least I will not worry about the seventh shard of Discord’s soul more than is sensible. It will surface someday, just like all the others, and there is no point bending myself out of shape until then.”

“I guess I’ll take what I can get,” Spike said.

Comments

[hamster wizard]

This is pretty cool, reminds me of The Witcher a bit. Was that an inspiration for you writing this?

Edit: I didn't read the author's note earlier lol, I guess that was a big inspiration.

[kitsune119]

Poor cerbys tail