Reflections

by RQK

28 - Reflections I

Chrysalis whirled around when she heard a loud crack that she knew she shouldn’t have heard. It was coming from the direction of the plaza where, as far as she knew, the spell still sat. She could feel her already cold blood growing colder in her veins.

She lit her horn and gave the foe in front of her a quick laser blast, knocking several blob-like particles out of him, before she touched a hoof to her neck. Chrysalis’ world shrunk down to a point and then back out again and she found herself on top of the familiar metal sphere. Said sphere, however, was now rolling down an incline as the plaza, evidently, slid off the mountain.

Harsh winds swept her off its surface and toward the hole above the city, and she tumbled through the air, but she could nonetheless tell where the spell was going. And there was a cliff at the end of the now-ramp.

There were any number of protective enchantments on the spell, but she still didn’t like it.

She watched the giant sphere disappear over the side and she couldn’t help but touch her neck again. The world contracted and expanded again and she found herself standing atop the falling spell. She wrapped her magic around the monolithic structure and pulled upward, trying to slow its fall. One of the enchantments on it responded by grabbing onto her magic and pulling in kind. Its fall slowed. It did not, however, stop.

The report of it slamming into the ground thundered across Equestria, punctuating the way that it shook the ground. The impact threw massive amounts of dirt and debris into the air as the spell embedded itself into the soil.

And Chrysalis slammed into it. All her wind left her in a heartbeat and she gasped for air. The sphere wasn’t moving anymore which allowed her opportunity to wheeze and roll over and clutch at her stomach.

She could see bits and pieces of marble and concrete falling from Canterlot above. Most pieces either missed or ricocheted off the supercomputer’s metal surface. One piece, however, fell right toward her and she rolled out of the way at the last second.

She attempted to stand up when she felt the structure shift underneath her. She could feel the sphere sinking along with the rest of the ground.

A tremor threw her off balance again and the sphere sunk several meters. It stopped, sunk some more, and then disappeared past a surface of pure black underneath her. Chrysalis then fell into that black too.

She reemerged into the void of infinitely tall towers. She tumbled through the space and used her willpower to right herself.

She looked down and could see the supercomputer floating away from her. It plowed through some debris fields, scattering dust and rock in all directions. She gave chase to it and quickly situated herself on its surface.

It was then that she looked up and saw the chaos above her. She could see several individuals, pony, human, and neither, all engaged in tight skirmishes as they traded blows with each other. A few magic spells and other projectiles occasionally made their way across the bedlam; Chrysalis tracked a spell as it ran into a pony which prompted them to expel many blob-like particles.

And that was where she found Starlight Glimmer and Sunset Shimmer. The latter two looked down and started to break away from the main fight itself, but a few foes flew after them.

Chrysalis lit her horn and prepared herself, sure that it was really about to begin.

* * *

Crystal Faire stumbled her way down the carpet. Cadance, similarly, stumbled her way down from the dais. The two met in the center of the chamber and paused to stare into each other’s eyes.

“Mother,” Crystal tentatively said. “I’m home.”

Cadance smiled softly, reached out to stroke Crystal’s neck as if she had to make sure she was real, and then she swept Crystal into a hug. “I’ve missed you so much. Welcome home…”

A few tears welled up in Crystal’s eyes and she hugged back. “I’ve missed you too. Sometimes more than I could bear.”

The two remained in each other’s embrace for several moments and didn’t let go of each other even after they broke the hug.

“You’ve grown since I last saw you,” Cadance said, now noting how Crystal stood a full hoof higher than she did. She then reached up and pushed some of Crystal’s mane out of the way so that she could get a good look at the scar over Crystal’s right eye. She chuckled and let some more tears fall out of her eyes as she said, “I can only hope you’ve learned to be more careful with knives, dear.”

Even as more tears fell down Crystal’s face, she couldn’t help but laugh in return.

Cadance kept looking over every inch of Crystal, sighing with delight all the while.

Twilight stepped forward at that point and cleared her throat. “Cadance?”

Cadance blinked and looked over.

“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake…” Twilight began. She stopped, however, when Cadance simply stared.

And Cadance’s smile turned into a frown and her muzzle rolled from side to side as she concentrated. “Oh… that… I know that. I…” She shook her head and gave an exasperated sigh. “Help me out here…”

Twilight sighed dejectedly and finished. “Clap your hooves and do a little shake,” she finished.

Cadance slowly nodded. “Clap your hooves and do a little shake. That’s right…” She blushed, rubbed the back of her head, and said, “I’m sorry. I know who you are, Twilight, it’s just been so long…”

“It’s okay,” Twilight said with a smile. “I know you lost your world’s version of me a long time ago.”

“Yes. And I know that you aren’t her,” Cadance said as she trotted over to examine her. “It’s terrible about what happened to your home reality. Are you okay?”

“Yes. I’m okay. Thanks for asking.”

Cadance smiled and gave Twilight a quick hug. “Of course.” She then continued on toward the open doorway at the front of the throne room and then turned. “I hope neither of you mind walking with me.”

“Whatever you would like, Mother,” Crystal replied.

The three of them exited the throne room. The two guards that flanked the double doors pushed them closed as they exited and then barred the way once more. Cadance led the two into a nearby hallway.

The architecture was just as smooth and spotless as Crystal remembered. The crystal, colored in the way she expected, bent in every way that she knew it to. There was the slight dent that she had made when she was playing with model airships at age seven. And over there was the spot where a random magical surge had set the curtains on fire at age four.

It was all there. It still bore some traces of those happenings.

“Cadance?” Twilight asked. “What is this ‘Queen of the multiverse’ title that I’ve been hearing about?”

Cadance chuckled. “Oh, that. That’s just a joke. I mean, I am a queen, I guess. It’s just that it’s been just us for way too long and, you know…” She shook her head and added, “I think it’s been a few millennia, but nopony’s keeping track.”

“Y-you all have been out here this whole time?” Crystal tremulously asked.

Cadance nodded. “Yes… we’ve survived. I think, mostly.”

“But how?”

A shrug. “I don’t know. I think everypony stopped trying to figure out how we’ve managed a long time ago.”

Crystal let out a sigh and shook her head.

“But, in a way, that’s given me ample time to watch all of your exploits over the years, Crystal. I’ve seen all the amazing feats that you’ve pulled off.” As they reached a set of stairs, Cadance turned and put another hoof on Crystal. “You’ve become so strong, and you’ve helped so many ponies out. I am so proud of you.”

Crystal blushed and pressed a hoof against her mother’s.

Twilight remained silent all the while. She too wore a small grin.

They made their way down the stairs and shortly emerged into a hall a floor beneath.

“Mother…” Crystal tentatively began. “I don’t wish to do this, but… I have to address what happened.”

Cadance shook her head. “I know, I know. I’m sorry. I panicked a little bit because I was worried that you wouldn’t come out to see me. Stealing that Miasmus was all I could think of.”

Crystal frowned. “But why? When the multiverse is at stake…”

“Because I want to be with you, Crystal. You are my child; you are my entire world,” she said as they rounded a corner. “I’ve hoped and prayed that there would be a way for us to be together again. I’ve always wanted you to come back, and you have.”

Twilight shook her head. “Cadance… that doesn’t excuse what you did. I’m sorry, but…”

Cadance frowned. “Listen, I don’t want to stop you from saving reality. That’s not what I’m trying to do at all. I just…” She sighed. “Just… let me show you something.”

They reached a closed doorway and Cadance lit her horn. The door swung open and the three trotted into the decently sized room. Said room, Crystal knew, was right underneath the throne room. A large window took up its entire opposite side, allowing them a view of the lands beyond the city and the backdrop of towers even beyond that. A few cushions formed an arc around an unlit fireplace on one side of the room. An empty shelf and the bookcase next to it took the opposite wall.

Twilight swallowed. “This room?” she asked.

Cadance chuckled. “It’s Crystal’s study. Ah… she spent so much time in here… especially after losing her aunt.”

Crystal nodded. “That I did.”

Cadance trotted into the center of the room and then frowned and glanced back at them out the corner of her eye. “I’ve kept this place much like you left it, especially since I’ve been hoping for a long time that you would come home, Crystal. And… if what I’ve seen over these many many years suggests… you’ve wanted to come home for a long time too.”

“Yes…” Crystal said with a solemn nod and a heavy sigh. “I have…”

“You’ve wanted to come home because you thought it would make you happy.” Cadance turned to face them. “And now I’m in a position where I can offer that choice to you. Your home is right here in front you; I am right here in front you. So choose… choose to be here. Choose me!”

* * *

Starlight flipped over as another pegasus tried to tackle her and she answered by shooting a beam. The beam itself was unwhole, unlike most other attacks she had let off. She couldn’t even get a whole shot anymore. The shot, nonetheless, hit its mark, and blob-like particles sprayed off her foe posthaste, but Starlight found herself glancing at her horn.

She willed her body to move closer to the metal sphere. The supercomputer itself continued to float along at the same speed that it had been moving before. The supercomputer plowed through another debris field, and as she righted herself, she noticed that it was about to puncture a hole in the side of one of the towers.

She scurried down the side and tried to push the sphere back the way it came; easier said than done when the object was so massive. She pushed back against it, even going so far as to allocate some of her magic to do so. Yet her horn ached, no, everything ached.

She succeeded in eventually stopping it and sending it back the way it came. But as she wiped some sweat off her brow while watching it go, her vision went blurry for a moment. She took that moment to feel at her forehead.

She glanced up and saw Sunset and Chrysalis still throwing their own attacks. The foes fell to them one by one, but she could see the way they panted and she could see the way their attacks were as unwhole as her own.

The foes kept coming. While the many humans and ponies that had been helping them were still caught up in their own fights, they weren’t exactly turning the tide. The possessions persisted.

A few more possessed earth ponies flew up to her and Starlight took shots at each of them. Some landed on the metal sphere and started to fruitlessly pound at it but she didn’t wait to see if they would damage it.

A pegasus swooped in and blindsided her. They went tumbling across the expanse with Starlight wrapped in his forehooves. She twisted around in his grasp and tried to light her horn for another blast.

Nothing came off her horn.

She tried again and still had no luck. The two continued to plummet and then found themselves running right into one of the towers.

They hit. The world twisted and folded and then the both of them landed on wood. The impact punched some of the air out of her body but also threw her attacker off her.

She stood up in a huff. The immediate surroundings were steel beams, steel railings, and wooden floors. From the way the ground seemed much lower than her position on all sides, she was airborne. Maybe it was an airship.

But that meant she was in a reality.

Her hooves flew over every inch of herself and her eyes did the same. She still looked and felt wholesome.

Her foe, the pegasus stallion, who currently tried to regain his footing on the wooden platform, looked faded and unwhole.

By the time Starlight could breathe a sigh of relief, the stallion was pouncing on her again. They tumbled across the deck and rolled to a stop with him sitting on top of her. She tried to light her horn again and nothing still came out. She had no recourse but to try and shield her face from his hooves.

And after a few blows, she caught one of his hooves and tried to push him off. His disorientation was far too temporary and he launched some more attacks.

A few startled cries from the side drew Starlight’s attention where she saw two individuals now standing at the other end of the deck. The shorter one was a pug-faced hedgehog with what looked like a piece of cake in his claw. The taller, a purple unicorn with a broken horn, produced some sparks and sent electricity in their direction.

Energy surged through their bodies and the pegasus reeled backward, writhing in agony. Starlight similarly screamed as her entire body spasmed.

The purple unicorn quit her spell. That gave the pegasus enough time to scramble to his hooves and try to pounce again. Starlight, on the other hoof, immediately flung her own hoof onto her neck. And thus her world shrunk down.

When her world expanded back out, Starlight landed on top of the metal sphere. She collapsed against it, panting for breath that she didn’t even need. Her eyes glanced up and she saw the infinitely tall towers. She could see the fight still going on.

She took a moment to glance at her own horn. And she poked it. And then she saw the sheer number of foes still left to face with even more foes about to join in.

And she cursed under her breath.

* * *

Twilight surveyed the room. She had been in a room like this once, but that had been in another reality. She had, however, seen this room in a vision once before. She trotted past Crystal and Cadance and approached the bookshelf. She scanned the bindings, noted a few titles that she didn’t recognize, and then pulled those off the shelf.

She spent a few moments skimming through them. She cooed at a few passages here and there, internally wishing that she had more time to sit down and fully absorb the material; some of it covered topics that she had never seen before.

She gave a sad sigh and replaced the books. The reading would have to wait for another time.

Instead, she trotted over to the window and ran her eyes across the city. She settled her gaze on the many towers in the distance. They were timelines, Twilight knew. She couldn’t make heads or tails of what was in them.

“Cadance? Can I ask you a question?”

Cadance turned. “Of course, Twilight.”

“You said you’ve been watching her for a while.” Twilight turned to Cadance. “I guess that means you can read timelines. Does that mean… that you can see them like Crystal does now?”

Cadance giggled and shook her head. “No, I’m afraid not. Crystal’s power is still beyond me,” she said and scratched the back of her head, “and I don’t think I’ll ever be nearly as good at reading timelines as she is. But, you know, after spending so much time being able to see these towers, I got a feel for what they were saying.”

Twilight frowned. “Did you ever try to figure out where that power came from?”

Crystal also turned to face her mother in full.

Cadance sighed. “Truth is, I have. I’ve looked at our entire past. I don’t know what happened to her.” She paced around the room, her eyes glued to the floor as she went. “Pretty much everypony here’s tried to figure out what happened. Most of the ponies I’ve talked to like to say that, before Crystal came along, existence was a different place. Maybe something happened. Maybe there was some event… some fluctuation, that reshaped all of existence… and changed everything.” She smiled and looked at Crystal. “Whatever happened, it also gave you to me.”

“I guess I would have to agree,” Crystal said as she kicked the floor. “It’s what makes sense. I really am an error.”

Twilight frowned and hung her head. Oh, Crystal…

“You are also, to me, the best thing that’s ever happened,” Cadance replied. “I just hope that you can believe me.”

Crystal looked into Cadance’s eyes and sighed.

* * *

Sunset flipped over and landed with a thud on top of the metallic sphere. She struggled to her hooves and looked at the bedlam above. She had no idea how many were friend and how many were foe, but it just seemed like the latter were greater in number. The sphere presently floated away from the bedlam but the bedlam trailed not far behind.

Her legs wobbled and she forced them to steady themselves before they could give way underneath her. She let out a long sigh and wiped some sweat off her brow.

She looked over at Starlight who sported some singe marks and looked just as dazed as she felt. “Are you alright?” she asked.

Starlight pointed to her horn and shook her head. “I’m out.”

Sunset groaned and turned her attention back toward the incoming attackers.

A few of their allies, currently flying by, swept some of those foes away, but those remaining still came. Many unicorn shots careened off the metal. That, however, didn’t stop nearer foes from diving in and headbutting it at full speed. Sunset repelled a few of them with laser blasts before they hit but others still made it through. The collisions knocked them unconscious but they still, nonetheless, left small dents.

Sunset wondered about the circuitry inside. It had to survive. It absolutely had to.

They spotted Chrysalis engaged with some enemies above them. Chrysalis let off a few shots here and there, but between having to physically drive them off her and trying to find good angles, not all of her shots hit.

Sunset tracked some foes that were swooping in for the tackle and she lit her horn.

And nothing came out.

She went pale. “Huh?”

Starlight gasped. “Oh no…”

The foes slammed into Chrysalis and they, collectively, tumbled through the expanse. They flew into a tower and disappeared into it; the tower below that point turned shiny and semi-crystallized while everything above it turned into something that was almost crystallized but not quite there.

The two didn’t have time to properly process what had happened as the supercomputer met with a crystallized timeline right behind them. It bounded off without a scratch on either of the entities but the sudden jolt nonetheless threw Sunset and Starlight off the structure and into the crystallized timeline which they too bounced off of.

Sunset’s insides hurt. She tried to reach down and pull some magic up and into her horn but couldn’t find any; only a few token sparks came off.

And there were still more foes coming.

* * *

“I don’t know how you can say that,” Crystal said. “You just said that you’ve seen the past. So you know…”

Cadance stamped her hoof. “I know that you needed help. I know that you were unhappy—you still are. But I never needed to read timelines to see that.” She placed a hoof on Crystal’s withers. “Crystal, you know my highest priority has always been your happiness. I did my best, and… back then, my best wasn’t enough, but I am ready to try again. This is why I want you here… because I know that’s what you want and I know… that’s what would make you happy.”

Crystal shook her head and reached up and lifted Cadance’s hoof off her. “It’s not that simple.”

Cadance scowled. “How is it not simple? I’ve seen you express interest in coming back here. I’ve watched you, remember?”

Crystal sighed and started toward the fireplace. “Yes… I’ve wanted to come back here. This was where my life was. This was where everypony that ever mattered to me once was. I’ve longed for it, knowing it was impossible.”

“And here you are…”

“But I also don’t know if, after what happened, if I even deserve to be here anymore.”

After a pause, Cadance narrowed her eyes and shook her head, trotting over to the fireplace as well. “You’ve spent your entire life helping more realities than I could ever count. You have been a bastion for all of existence. I couldn’t be a prouder mother even if I tried.” She came up to Crystal’s side and said, “And I just want you to know that I don’t blame you at all for what happened to us. I don’t blame you for what’s happening to the rest of the multiverse as a result.”

Crystal turned to face Cadance. Her eyes now looked moist and she was red in her face. “But you should,” she croaked.

“No,” Cadance replied with a matter-of-factly tone. She took a moment to sigh. “Yes, the Crystal Heart was corrupted. Yes, I got infected—I’m sorry that I yelled at you. I wasn’t myself at the time… I probably still am not. I know how the Crystal Heart came to be corrupted, Crystal. I’m not angry.”

Twilight blinked and trotted over to them.

Crystal could feel her heart weighing a million tons in her chest. It hurt. “But do you know why it became corrupted?”

Cadance opened her mouth to speak but then closed it again. She eventually shook her head.

“I long ago made a vow to use my power for good. And I’ve done my very best to uphold that vow. You have seen so for yourself. But I made a mistake, and thus the Crystal Heart was corrupted.” Crystal’s frown grew deeper. “I failed my vow, and I failed you and everypony else.”

Cadance sighed. “Everypony makes mistakes. And yes, all of the negative energy inside of the Crystal Heart would have led to Equestria’s destruction. You tried to stop that, in the end.”

Crystal Faire took a moment to sniffle and wipe some tears from her eyes. She then stood tall and took several deep breaths and then stared deep into Cadance’s eyes. “Yes, in the end. But in the beginning… Equestria’s destruction was exactly what I was trying to cause.”

There was a long and pregnant pause. And then Cadance blinked and turned a few shades paler. “You… you did it… intentionally?”

Twilight stumbled over and glanced between the two of them. “W-what are you talking about?” she croaked.

“The reason why the negative energy came to corrupt the Crystal Heart…” Crystal Faire wheezed, “was because I was the one who put it there.”

Twilight’s jaw dropped to the ground. “W… what!? You!?”

Crystal nodded solemnly. “Yes… me.”

Twilight fell to her haunches. “W… why?”

Cadance swallowed. Her expression turned firm.

Crystal averted her gaze. “I was in a really bad way for the longest time. This power’s never been without difficulty, but I learned to tolerate it, and especially now where I’ve dealt with everything that comes with it and have now mastered it. Auntie Twilight was instrumental in helping me sort it all out the first time. But when she died… in my grief, I lost it all.

“I dealt with the harsh reality of all the terrible things that I perceived on a daily basis, I lived in constant fear that I would cause another accident like what happened to her… I didn’t have it in me to go out and make friends and see the world, even though I know that was what you wanted for me,” Crystal said, facing Cadance in particular.

Cadance’s frown grew deeper but she said nothing.

“It was enough to drive anypony crazy,” Crystal said. “And so I slowly started to lose myself. And I found that I started having problems with keeping those emotional energies in.”

Twilight gasped. “That… those clouds that have been coming out of your horn…”

Crystal nodded. “Before this business with the multiverse collapsing started, that was the first and only time I’ve ever dealt with this problem. I took a page out of Starlight Glimmer’s book and I bottled them up. I kept them over there,” she said, pointing to the empty shelf on the other side of the room.

Her mind’s eye turned toward the timeline. But as she watched her younger self bottling clouds in the timeline, the memory played in sync in her mind.

“And I kept it up for years…”

Crystal funneled the dark blue cloud from her horn into the bottle before placing a cork in it. The cloud swirled inside the glass container and she watched it while wiping some tears from her eyes. She then sighed and placed the bottle on the shelf where it joined a few dozen others.

Cadance hung her head. “Y-yes… indeed you did. I remember…”

Twilight frowned. “Starlight… told me that her bottle broke.” She leaned forward to look Crystal in the eye. “Don’t tell me…”

“The bottles broke late in the night,” Crystal said. “I could only stop so many of the unspeakable things in the world and… it gets to you. I had failed to stop yet another… and for just a moment, I lost control.”

Crystal cried out and stomped the ground. The room shook. The shelf of bottles jumped and then split down the middle, depositing all the bottles toward the floor where they shattered into countless pieces.

Crystal gasped and watched in horror as the clouds spilled out and filled a corner of the room. Her horn immediately lit up.

“I absorbed the released energy from those broken bottles but I knew that I could not contain it; it would have to eventually go somewhere. But what I absorbed clouded even my own mind. It clouded my mind with every terrible thought I had ever had.” Her voice then dropped down to a whisper. “And so… through clouded judgment, I had an idea of where to let it go. I had the truly awful idea to let it go everywhere.”

Cadance shuddered and actually had to avert her gaze.

“I knew that, if I did that, Equestria would rip itself apart, and then there would be no more injustices and no more disasters.” Crystal shuddered. “I thought that it would be… the ultimate solution.”

She then stood at her full height. “I took everything and I went to the Crystal Heart,” she said.

The nighttime darkness ensured that nopony would see her but she remained in the shadow of a cloak all the same. Crystal spent many moments staring the Crystal Heart down, watching as it idly spun about its axis.

Bolts of blue magic swam about her horn and she even winced as an especially strong spark arced from the tip to the base.

“And when I got there… I gave in. I yielded myself and became the villain. And that point of weakness… it changed everything.”

Crystal aimed at the Crystal Heart and then unleashed a blast. The space beneath the castle lit up from the intense energies flowing between her horn and the Heart. And then, a few seconds later, her spell was done.

She could see her energies, now represented by greens and purples, swirling within the now tinted red Heart.

Crystal teetered for a moment and had to shake herself back into shape. She then examined the Heart, staring at it for long moments. Her expression eventually hardened and she nodded to herself before taking flight.

Crystal sniffled again. “I became my own antithesis; I became the very thing that had plagued me so. I betrayed myself and everything I stood for in every comprehensible way. And by the time I came to my senses and realized that I had made an absolutely awful mistake… it was too late. I couldn’t undo it.”

“Please… please…” Crystal cupped both of her forehooves together and said, “I am begging you to not fire off the Heart. There has to be another way.”

“Enough!” Cadance exclaimed as she threw a foreleg into the air. “Crystal Faire, you will return to the castle at once!”

“Mother!”

“That is an order!”

Cadance stumbled backward and eventually fell onto her haunches. Twilight, meanwhile, started hyperventilating.

Crystal hung her head and mumbled, “And I was prepared to pay for my mistake with my life. And so I went… I went to put a stop to what I had wrought.”

Crystal picked a spot just above the Crystal Empire’s top-most spire. She whirled around and stared down at the castle. Her expression was a study of horror.

The streets below began to glow. Crystal ponies everywhere bowed, allowing energy to circulate about. The glow spread across the city, accenting its snowflake-like layout. And then the glow retreated. There was a crackling, accompanied by a greenish glow in the space below the castle where the Heart rested.

Crystal sniffled, wiped some tears off her face, and then straightened up. Her expression firmed up and she, despite the redness in her face, looked like a regal princess.

The next moment, the entire castle glowed white as energy swam up its body. There was a brief flash of light at the tip of the castle and then a multicolored beam shot straight out of it.

The beam shot straight into Crystal’s chest. There was a twisting, a cracking, and then something very definitely exploded into an uncountable number of pieces.

Crystal raised a hoof and felt at her chest. The signs that anything had once struck there were now gone, but the alien sensations and the blinding pain that had once been came to her mind. It had been more than just the Crystal Heart’s magic; so too had it been her own.

She closed her eyes and took a long deep breath. “But I never could have fathomed what my true existence was. I meant to prevent Equestria from being destroyed. But it was destroyed anyhow… and so now is the multiverse… because of me… because of my moment of weakness.”

The world came to just enough for Crystal to discern the Crystal Empire underneath, the surrounding lands, and then the proverbial sea of infinitely tall towers that lay just beyond that.

Cadance screamed and crumpled to the ground. “Ohhhh! By the stars!”

Twilight flip-flopped between hyperventilating and wiping the tears from her eyes.

Crystal averted her gaze.

“Oh, by the stars!” Cadance cried. She then looked up, stood up, and ran straight up to Crystal and wrapped her into a hug. “Oh stars! I’m… so sorry!”

Crystal swallowed. “What are you sorry for?” she croaked.

Cadance pulled away but didn’t let go. “I… knew you were in a bad way, but I didn’t know that it was to that depth… I failed you as a mother, Crystal.”

Crystal swallowed but couldn’t get any words to form.

There was a pause before Cadance wiped the tears from her eyes and her expression tightened into a determined frown. “Please… let me make it up to you. Let me be a mother to you again like I always meant to be. I promise you, that if you stay here with me… I will make you happy, no matter what it takes.”

Comments

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Emperor above....

[newhope0722]

Crystal destroyed her home timeline ...

[Snorlaxkid]

I understand that this is an extremely emotional part of the story, but everytime Crystal and her timeline's version of Cadance open their mouths, I just want to shout: "UNIVERSE IMPLODING! CAN THIS NOT WAIT?!"

[Razzy]

Good going, Crystal. :/

[Sound Wave]

Crystal Faire.... What have you done....

[EchoWing]

Well, I'm not surprised at the revelation, though the details behind it did surprise me. That last line at the end has me worried, though...

[Thought Prism]

So, the multiverse was doomed by teen angst. Got it.

[xoid]

8659376
Dear god is it going to be hard to take this story seriously again.

[RQK]

8659376 8660094

[Csquared08]

Oh dear

[NeoNymph]

8659376
FOr f***s sake! XD

[Thranx]

"I will make you happy, no matter what it takes.”

That line is rather concerning.