My Little Pony: Civil War - or - The Battle of Eight Armies

by NPP6

Prologue 1 - The Arcanist and the Doctor

“So time is broken.”

“Oh, that doesn’t even begin to cover it. No, time’s not broken, it’s completely shattered! And before you ask, no, it wasn’t the purple twins. That was the first thing I checked… It’s weird, whatever did this happened before those two went on their little jaunt.”

“Is that what let them…”

“Nah… well, yeah, but no. No, from what you’ll say when I have you explain the spell to me, it would have worked anyway, this just made things easier.”

“How badly broken are we talking?”

“Badly enough that nopony around here’s noticed that they haven’t aged in five years.”

“…How long?”

“Since we got Luna back.”

“No Doctor, how long have you known?”

“That… Is complicated.”

“I get it, you’re a time traveler.”

“No, I mean… I’ve known the entire time – how could I not, considering how much I jump around in it – but… I don’t always remember. I just… suddenly do, and then spend some time trying to figure things out. It varies, sometimes hours, days, a week, but never longer than a month, and then I forget all over again. Until one day, I suddenly remember, and the cycle repeats.”

“So how long this time?”

“A few days.”

“And you didn’t tell me before… because I’m caught in it too. We can’t fix this from the inside, can we?”

“I don’t think so, no. I honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to, what with how I keep slipping in and out of it.”

“Is it just Ponyville, or…”

“It’s strongest here, not totally sure why, though I’ve a few ideas. There are a few other hotspots too. Basically the further you get from a major magical concentration the weaker it gets, but… The entire planet and a good chunk of the rest of the system are caught in it. It’s failing though. Erratically, but it’s getting better. Time is healing, or… at least, it’s trying to.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s like… You know that old saying about watched pots and boiling? This is the exact opposite. Hours, minutes, days, they all move exactly like they should, but… I asked Twilight how long she’d lived in Ponyville and she realized that her second anniversary of living here was coming up in a few months. Which she knew because she remembered that there was one other anniversary since she’s been here. The Cake twins still haven’t had their first birthday yet, but Rumble has had five – all of them his twelfth apparently, because that’s the number that keeps showing up on the school records. If I had to guess, nopony ever bothered to ask about the number, so it never changed.”

“So Doctor, aside from Dark Mint’s mastery of hot cocoa, what brings you here?”

“You know what’s coming.”

“You’ll have to be a bit more–”

“You know who’s coming for him.”

“Oh. Serious time then. Yes, I know. Unfortunately I know a little too much. I won’t be able to intervene directly on this one.”

“It’s happened before you know. Every year since this started. The day comes, they try to fight him off, they fail, he takes him, and the colt is only the first to die. And then somepony goes back and undoes it all, resetting things so completely that it takes another year for it to happen again. I have some suspicions as to who, but that’s not important.

“What is important is that every time, they reset things by making everypony forget that it was supposed to happen this year. That’s not going to be an option this time around. Between Black Diamond and Applebloom, the ages of all of them are going to be at least a part of what’s on everypony’s minds. This is our last chance.”

“On the plus side, something tells me we’ve never had quite so much to bring to bear before.”

“They had the entire royal family in town two years back. The problem is… this opponent is smart. He and his followers are going to research everything. They’ll be ready for anypony who’s ever saved Equestria before.”

“And you still haven’t told me why you’re bringing all this to my attention.”

“Dinky found out.”

“She…”

“Not everything, but enough. She doesn’t know what’s going to happen, only that something is. She’d honestly probably find a way to get involved this time even if I hadn’t…”

“Hadn’t?”

“Hadn’t promised Ditzy during the War of the Unfoals that we weren’t going to run from these anymore.”

“I would think you’d be proud, all things considered.”

“Oh I am, like you wouldn’t believe. But more than that, I’m completely terrified. She’s my baby girl Midnight, and I can’t… I can’t do anything or it’ll make things worse for everypony. I don’t… I can’t lose her Midnight, what if she… Tartarus, I can’t even make myself say it.”

“This… might be a better conversation to have with Sunny.”

“No! I… I can handle her being in danger – that’s been the case from the moment she was born. I just… I can’t stand not being able to do anything. Look at us, two immortals, sitting here and between us entirely capable of destroying entire galaxies. We know exactly what’s coming, and specifically because we know we can’t do anything about it without breaking the very systems that keep the universe running. I don’t need experience, I’m older than you are, what I need right now is hope. What do I do?”

“I see… it hasn’t happened for you yet, has it?”

“What?”

“A thousand years ago, you’re going to find me. I was in one of my labs, and when you get there I’m going to have everything I need to save her. It’ll be a chance to fix everything before it breaks, to make sure she never falls, and before I used it I had a conversation with you. I’m going to be holding it in my hoof, and I’m going to beg you to talk me down. I pleaded for you to keep me from using it because I’ll know what the consequences are. And I’m going to ask you the same question you just asked me.”

“And what will I tell you?”

“Ripples in a pond. That’s how we fight. We can’t break the rules, so we become very pointed and deliberate about the ways we don’t break them. We dance between the lines to the melody of crashing dominoes, making sure that if we can’t fight, those who can have what they need.”

“…You realize the problem with that, right?”

“I’m not Celestia. I know that the concept can be taken too far. This will have to be more than getting the right pony to the right place at the right time. We’re going to make sure that they have what they need too.”

“So where do we start?”

“First, you and I are going to compile a list of anypony who we think could help. Then, you are going to make a quick trip to ask their future selves if they would have wanted to get involved.”

“So what’s the first name to put on this list?”

“Well, we know that magically he specializes in…”