Equestria 485,000

by Unwhole Hole

Chapter 16: Waiting for Memories

Descent was oddly difficult. From a perfunctory logical perspective, it should have been easier than ascent: there was no need to force oneself upward, just to allow gravity to work. That, though, was where the problem lay: going upward just required applying enough force to one’s wings to move upward, while descending could only be performed if one used exactly enough force to slow descent but not to rise or hover.

This gave Twilight no end of trouble, although she was able to accomplish it. The Pegasus pony, Rainbow Dash, was beside her and apparently having no trouble whatsoever. This made Twilight slightly angry; she was accustomed to being one of just two ponies- -the other being Celestia- -capable of flight, and she was considered by most of her empire to be excellent at it. Rainbow Dash’s presence, though, showed that she was in fact a rank amateur.

“Really?!” said Rainbow Dash, herself sounding frustrated as the pair dropped down the damp stone tube. “After all the time I spent teaching you proper technique, and you’re not even going to use it?!”

“I don’t even know you! You never- -”

“If you keep that up you’re either going to drop or get a sprain. Here.” She demonstrated with her own wings. “Spread, power stroke down and back. Fold, return stroke up and forward. Your body needs to be at an angle!”

“That’s what I’m doing!”

“No it isn’t! You look like an ostrich! Spread, down-back, fold, up-forward! ONE two THREE four!”

Twilight consciously refused to take orders from a lesser being, especially one she had just met. Still, she felt her wings obeying Rainbow Dash’s command. Her descent, which had before been tiring and uneven, slowed to a consistent pace. She would drop for a moment, and then slow, and then drop- -until she eventually reached a speed where her fall was slow and constant.

“See?” said Rainbow Dash. “When it comes to flying, I know what I’m doing. It’s literally my job. And my hobby. And required for me to get to my house.” She paused. “Come to think of it, with the number of injuries I get, that’s probably a design flaw.” She looked down. “I don’t know why we don’t just dive- -”

“I’m not diving!” cried Twilight. “I’ve had enough injuries lately, I don’t feel like being deboned!”

“Sheesh! Relax, Twi! That’s probably why your form is so bad, you never take any risks.”

“My form is bad because it’s almost impossible to fly in space!”

Rainbow Dash looked confused. “Um, isn’t it supposed to be, you know, big and open? As in, full of SPACE?”

“That’s not what I mean. Space itself has no air, you can’t fly in it. And modern starship design uses tight corridors to save space. I guess some of the old-model megastructures still have courtyards, but I don’t have the time to go out to those just to practice flying. Besides. They’re creepy and depressing.”

“So you and them have something common,” muttered Rainbow Dash.

“Excuse me?”

Rainbow Dash pointed to Twilight’s chest. “So. What’s so special about that crystal?”

She had changed the subject, but Twilight obliged, if only partly. “It contains the materials to construct an antenna that will let me contact my ship.”

Rainbow Dash looked extremely surprised. “You have your own spaceship?!”

“I have an armada,” said Twilight dismissively. “But it’s not my ship. Celestia recommended I take a Royal Navy craft, and I agree. There is no way I’m letting my cult get near this planet.”

“You have a CULT?!”

“I am a goddess,” said Twilight. “Of course I have a cult.”

“You have your own cult, and spaceships- -that it SO COOL!” Rainbow Dash almost giggled but managed to control herself. “Ahem. So, then, you really are from space?”

“Essentially, yes. Our society has no permanent colonies on any planet. The physiology of mortals limits where they can survive.”

“How are you not excited about this?!” cried Rainbow Dash. “I mean, it’s SPACE! Like, in books, and in the movies! You’re basically an astronaut! Except with big ships, and warp drives, and clingons- -”

“There are no clingons,” interrupted Twilight. “And it may seem interesting to you, but to me it’s downright mundane. Of course, it’s still better than being on this rock.”

Rainbow Dash frowned. “Yeah,” she said, softly. “I saw the city up there. It was…it was bad, wasn’t it?”

Twilight did not answer for a long moment. “Yeah,” she said at last. “It was.”

Below them, the reflection of the water at the bottom of the shaft came into view. Rainbow Dash pulled her wings against her body, dropping suddenly before spreading them into a dive. She splashed down into the water, leaving Twilight to descend at a sane rate.

“Wow!” said Rainbow Dash as Twilight landed. “This water is so clear! And so cold!” She lowered her head and took several large gulps. “Eew. But it tastes real bad.”

“Don’t drink that! You don’t know where it’s been!”

“It’s ‘been’ right here,” said Rainbow Dash, pointing.

“There you are!” called a voice from one of the dry corridors. There was a springy sound, and the pink pony- -Pinkie Pie- -appeared from the shadows. She seemed overjoyed, perhaps literally. “What took you so long? I was waiting for daaaays…!”

“It hasn’t been days, Pinkie,” said Rainbow Dash.

“Not ‘days’, daaaays! And that’s what if felt like!”

“It doesn’t matter if it took days,” said Twilight, climbing out of the pool of meltwater. “This mission is expected to take several years, perhaps decades. Days are trivial.”

“But you have to ENJOY every day!” protested Pinkie. “You know, carpet diem! Seize the rug! And I can’t enjoy much of anything if I’m waiting down here in the dark!”

“No one said you needed to wait, or to stand in the dark,” said Twilight. She pushed past the pink pony. “Although I don’t care if you do. Now if you will excuse me, I need to find my remnus.” She started walking, and Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash both began following her. “This isn’t ‘excusing’,” she said, without turning around. “There is no reason for either of you to follow me. It’s annoying.”

“Annoying? ME?!” gasped Pinkie, sounding offended. She looked to Rainbow Dash, who shrugged and held her front hooves about an inch apart, representing a little bit. “I’m not annoying! I’m the comic relief!”

“The only ‘relief’ would be you going away,” muttered Twilight. “I have work to do, and an antenna to build. Do you have any idea where the remnus is?”

“Well,” said Pinkie, “based on the whimpering I’ve been hearing, probably near Fluttershy.”

“Which one is ‘Fluttershy’?” asked Twilight. “Is that the white one?”

“Come on!” cried Rainbow Dash, suddenly exasperated. “That doesn’t even make sense! ‘Flutter’! How is a unicorn supposed to flutter?!”

“It’s not my fault nor is it my problem that you all have ridiculous names.”

“Says ‘Twilight Sparkle’,” noted Pinkie Pie.

Twilight was about to manage a retort, but she paused when she realized that it was a rather strange name when spoken in the Old Language. It sounded far more poetic in modern speech. She could of course have explained this, but she saw no point in it. Instead she let out a long sigh. As she did, she detected the sound of hoofsteps through the long dark halls. She turned to see Applejack approaching them quickly.

“Great,” said Twilight. “More of you. Why can’t any of you leave me alone?”

“Because I need to talk to you, Twilight. It’s urgent.”

“It is not more urgent than what I was doing already.” Twilight tried to push past her, but the earth-pony blocked the hall. “Move,” demanded Twilight.

“If you don’t take a rotten second out of your time to talk to me, you’ll have to make me.”

“It’s harder than you would think,” said Rainbow Dash. “She’s reaaaaally heavy.”

“Darn tootin’,” said Applejack. “Hey…”

Pinkie Pie giggled. “She called you fat.”

Applejack did not smile. She remained a serious expression, and Pinkie Pie seemed to understand that what she was about to say was important.

“First off,” said Applejack, “that tall girl? I don’t like her.”

“She’s not a ‘girl’. She is a remnus. And your opinions of her don’t really affect me, do they?”

“Yes they do! Twilight, I think she’s done something to you. Got you confused. And I think we need to get you out of here.”

“I have known her longer than I have known you,” said Twilight, “and I trust her more than I trust you. So no.”

Applejack looked as though Twilight had just punched her in the gut. Pinkie Pie giggled, but it was not a happy giggle at all. It was a nervous one.

“She still doesn’t remember,” said Rainbow Dash. “I’ve even tried reminding her about stuff! Like when I joined the Wonderbolts reserve, or went to flight school, or joined the REAL Wonderbolts, or when I competed with them in…”

Applejack glared at her, and Rainbow Dash stopped talking. Twilight, though, turned to look over her shoulder. “I turned the sound in my suit off while you were talking,” she said, “but hearing it now, no, I do not know what any of those things are.”

“Not even…a Wonderbolt?”

“No. Of course not.”

Rainbow Dash gasped and nearly fainted. Twilight turned her attention back to Applejack. “Is this what you came to talk to me about? To criticize my choice of equipment? I do not tell you how to farm apples, why should you tell me how to do my job?”

Applejack’s eyes widened. “How did you know I farm apples?”

Twilight paused, but only infinitesimally. “You have it in your name,” she said, “and you have an apple cutie mark. That, and earth-ponies used to be farmers. The pink one no doubt farms balloons. Or pies, maybe.”

“Oh, wow!” cried Pinkie Pie. “She’s good!”

Those were logical conclusions, and logical justifications, but for some reason Twilight felt like there had been something else- -as though she had somehow known in advance. She shook her head, though, dismissing that impossibility. She tried to step past Applejack, but once again the earth-pony blocked her way.

“That isn’t my question.”

“Then get to the point. I have work to do.”

“How old are you?”

Twilight blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Applejack,” said Rainbow Dash, her tone serious, “you don’t have to ask that. We already know.”

“I need to hear it myself,” said Applejack. “From you. The truth, Twilight, and I mean the real, honest truth. The last time I knew you, you were coming up on thirty three. How old are you now?”

Her statement forced Twilight to try to remember that time in her life. Of course she had been in her thirties once- -that was a given- -but try as she might, Twilight began to realize that she had no memories whatsoever of that time in her life. She could remember almost nothing from her first three thousand years, and ten thousand years beyond that were blurry and incomplete. The time that Applejack was referencing really was gone from Twilight’s memory.

“I don’t know,” said Twilight, simply.

This time it was Pinkie Pie’s turn to gasp. “But how could you not KNOW? That’s really, really, super mega IMPORTANT! I mean, how else are they going to know how many candles to put on your cake? I mean, it’s September, isn’t it? What age did they tell you at your last birthday party?”

“I do not know. I did not attend.”

Pinkie Pie gasped so long and hard she nearly fainted. “You- -you- -”

“I normally have a dedicated feast day,” said Twilight. “The entire Empire celebrates me. There are plays, poetry recitals, debates, scientific exhibitions. But I don’t attend.” Twilight shrugged. “Sometimes I just get busy for a few hundred years. Besides. Birthdays lose meaning after a while.”

“You LIE!”

Twilight turned to Applejack. “That said, I have a rough idea. I am close to four hundred eighty five thousand years old. Ask Silken for a more precise value.”

Twilight watched Applejack’s heart break as she learned the truth. What she heard, though, was Pinkie Pie bursting out into laughter. Loud, hearty laughter.

“That’s a good one, Twilight!” chortled Pinkie Pie, looking as though she were about to double over from humor. “Four hundred- -eighty FIVE! HA! You should have seen the look on her face!”

“I did,” said Twilight. She found no humor in this situation.

“You got us GOOD! But no, seriously, you can’t be- -”

“I am telling the truth,” said Twilight.

Pinkie Pie laughed even harder, the sound growing in volume and becoming increasingly manic. “There you go AGAIN!” she cried, tears rolling from her eyes. “You got me again, Twilight! That’s really funny!”

“No,” said Rainbow Dash. “It isn’t funny. It isn’t funny at all. And…”

“And she wasn’t lying,” said Applejack.

“So now you’re in on it too- -”

“Pinkie!” said Rainbow Dash in all seriousness, taking hold of her friend’s face. “This is Applejack we’re talking about! She knows…she would know…if Twilight were lying…”

Pinkie Pie’s laughter changed pitch. She was still laughing- -but also weeping. “But- -but it can’t be! I was- -I was just back in Ponyville! I was setting up for Sisters Day- -Maud was there, and Limestone and Marble were going to come all the way to Ponyville for the very first time- -we were going to have a party- -I was just there- -it just- -”

“I was already two hundred centuries old when the Exodus occurred,” said Twilight. “Apart from myself, Celestia, and what remains of Luna, no pony from that era has survived. If what you are saying is true, and you really from the era you claim, they are gone. Everypony you ever knew is gone. They have been for a long time.”

Twilight watched as Pinkie Pie’s laughter and smile faded upon realizing that she would never see her sisters or family again. The same look of realization came over Applejack’s face, and to a lesser extent Rainbow Dash’s.

“You asked,” said Twilight, pushing past Applejack and proceeding into the dark hallways to build her transmission antenna, “and I answered.”

Comments

[AppleTank]

Oof, those are some massive timescales they're missing. And "modern" language being mostly two letters is wack, its like they're speaking Morse. More like machines than pony.

Speculation: since the crystal castle survived the passage of time, maybe it got the blue machine dudes to recreate the Bearers.

[ZanyZapper]

9803269
Morse code, or maybe binary. You got me thinking of the Binars from ST:TNG.

(Replying to a two year old comment ftw!)