The Mask of Despair and the Face of Hope

by Wings of Black Glass

We Begin at the End.

I tumble through the conduit of light and color, alone. It’s hard to see past all the magic; I can’t see where I am going. Images, moments, points in my life flash around me. There is a bright point ahead, and I’m falling towards it. I need to be there, right now, it's the moment where it all began, those months ago. The point of bright light resolves into a purple pony, with two wings on its back and a magical horn on its brow. Her mane is dark, not quite black, with a streak of magenta. It’s an Alicorn; it’s Twilight Sparkle. It’s me.

I collide with the bright point in my life, and I blink. I’m standing in the map room of the Castle of Friendship. For just an instant I glance back at my wings, spread wide, and then at my flank, where my cutie-mark rests. Strength rushes through my body and my mind, I kick my left leg and can feel my magic at the ready. Everything is as it should be.

“It worked. You did it.” I whisper it aloud. And then I stand upright to face the situation before me, determined. There is a single other pony in the room. Upon the center of the magical table, he stands, facing away from me. A red magic aura flashes around him.

“You got back even faster than I expected.” He is surprisingly calm, his voice measured and steady. He’s wearing a long black coat which obscures most of his body. What I can see of him is a darker shade of purple than my own. His mane is midnight black and shot through with a streak of neon blue I know matches his eyes. Power, a static charge, builds in the air as he gathers the magic around his Unicorn horn to cast the spell. I have to stop him; he doesn’t know the consequences.

“I’m giving you one chance! Stop this now, or I will stop you myself!”

“I can’t stop! Not after everything I’ve sacrificed!” I knew he would say that or something like it. I gave him his one chance. Smashing aside a barrier erected specifically to distract me, I leap onto the table. Lightning jumps from the map and the floor and the very air to strike me, but I shield myself and power through it. “No! Get back!” I tackle into him, bodily tossing him off the map. We spill onto the floor; I manage to land standing. His control over the magic wavers, but he maintains focus.

This cannot stand. I focus my own power, mixing my magic with his and the magic of the map. The spell fights back, trying to push me away. I grit my teeth, and for a moment the two of us struggle over possession of the spell. He screams at me, picking himself off the floor. There is a tremendous force behind his magic, a power he stole, which he cannot control for long. Soon it will control him. Whatever it takes, I grimace.

My hoof slams into his side, hard, as I kick him. Something shatters like glass, the crack mixing in the air with all the lights and flashes of the magic at work. The sudden shock to his body breaks all his control. He loses focus, the magic abandoning him as I tear control over the spell away from him.

“No!” He screams again, in anguish. In a moment his focus will return, and he will try to take the magic from me again. Already I am dismantling the spell; he can’t be allowed to get it back under his control. All this power has to go somewhere. Best to get rid of it before something terrible happens. The unraveling threads of power erupt in a flash, the explosion throwing both of us to the floor. The shockwave flings open all the windows, the crystals on the chandelier above clink and sway. “No, not again!” There is so much pain in his voice.

I glance over at him as I pick myself up. One hoof is raised, reaching out towards the empty space over the map where the spell had been gathering power. His expression is one of loss and pain, and tears roll unchecked down his face. They fall upon the object on his chest. It’s a silver medallion, largely triangular, with a large red diamond at its center, a Unicorn head and two Pegasus wings adorn the top edge. It’s the Alicorn Amulet.

“I can try again. I can still…”

“Enough!” I step in front of him, slamming a hoof down hard on the floor. “If you try it again, I will have to stop you.” His eyes meet mine, sorrow and heartbreak before they look away. “I’m sorry.” He reaches up to his chest, feeling the Amulet there. “Take it off.” My voice is at its most commanding. He looks down at the Amulet, clenching his teeth. “Take. It. Off.” Visibly he wavers, looking at me and then at the map.

“You don’t know what you’ve done.” He seethes, but is unable to meet me face to face. Then he tears the Amulet from his chest and hurls it against the table. “Fine, take it. You’ve taken everything else.” The sheer hate in his voice sends a shudder down my spine. Just in case he changes his mind, I stand between him and the Amulet as he slowly gets back to his feet. From his defeated expression I can tell now that he will make no further attempt at the Amulet or the map.

“It’s over. At last, it's really over.” I have to let out a heavy sigh, and I fold my wings, trying to release my tension. Another pony enters the room, stumbling slightly. The newcomer is another Unicorn, Starlight Glimmer, so light purple she is almost pink, and with a violet mane.

“You stopped him?” Starlight stands beside me, staring venomously at the dark purple stallion. I nod. “Good. Now, what do we do with him?” I consider for a moment. I hadn’t thought this far ahead yet.

“You can go.” I direct it towards the Unicorn stallion. He blinks in astonishment, an expression matched by Starlight.

“You do know what he just did, don’t you?”

“I know exactly what happened.” Better than either of them could know.

“You’re letting me go?” He doesn’t believe it. I nod towards him. “Why?”

“Go. Just go.” Unable to meet him eye to eye; I try to sound stern. With one wing, I point to the exit. The Unicorn in the black coat stares at me for a moment and then heads away with his head hanging low. Immediately after he makes it outside I hear what sounds like a thunderbolt, the dark purple stallion teleporting away.

“Twilight, what are you doing?!”

“I’ll explain when the others get here. It should only be a minute more.”

“What do you mean? What’s going on?” I only shake my head and collect the Alicorn Amulet from the floor, placing it on the map table in the space before my chair. The answers will come, shortly. It’s only a few moments later when a blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane zips into the room, she stops and hovers right above the map.

“Twilight! What’s wrong?! The door is pulled right off the castle!” Rainbow Dash glances about the room, searching for a threat that isn’t there anymore.

“Calm down, Dash. Everything is under control. Applejack and the others will be here momentarily.”

“What in tarnation is going on!” I am proved correct when the orange pony with yellow mane charges into the map room. Following her are three more ponies and a little dragon. A white Unicorn with purple mane, Rarity. A pink pony with frothy red mane, Pinkie Pie. A yellow Pegasus with a long pink mane, Fluttershy. Last, holding onto his head in mild pain, the small purple and green dragon, Spike. When I see them all before me, I can’t stop myself, and nearly break down in tears.

“It is so good to see you all!” I draw them all in close, pulling them into arm’s reach via magic. “I’m so glad you’re all OK!”

“We’re fine, Twilight. Why wouldn’t we be?” I ignore Rarity’s question, hanging onto them all for dear life. I hiccup once as I catch my breath.

“Do you mind letting us go?” Dash is the first one to complain. “I mean, it’s great to see you too, but we just saw each other the other day.”

“It's been so much longer for me.”

“Um, I don’t understand?” Fluttershy speaks softly. At last, I let them all go and then go to my chair at the table.

“Alright. I’ll try to explain. Everypony take a seat.” Each pony goes to their seat, a crystal throne with the cutie-mark of the pony it belongs to etched on it. Starlight stands at my side; she doesn’t have a dedicated chair for herself.

“Is that the Alicorn Amulet!?” Pinkie Pie spots it first. I set a hoof on it to reassure everypony it was no threat.

“Yes.” They all gasp, aware of its risks and power. “You don’t need to worry. The crisis is over.” I pause, trying to collect my thoughts. “This is going to sound really strange. But for me, this is several months in the past.” They all stare at me in confusion and disbelief; all of them except Starlight, who gasps again.

“You used time travel?! That… that’s insane! Why would you risk something so dangerous?”

“It wasn’t my first choice to come back this far, but there was no other option.” I have to stop for a moment to wipe away a tear. “Have I got a story to tell you!”

Author's Note:

So here begins Part 1: Unique Destiny. It takes place somewhere mid/late season 7.
I've split my chapters up into manageable bite sized chunks, rather than 8k-15k word walls, with each sequence getting its own name. A little awkward maybe.

This way I can have comments/questions/criticisms clustered around the sections where they are most relevant. It also helps manage the framing device.

No matter what happens, no matter what stupid decisions I make or how bad the fanfiction-y things I do are, remember how it began. The only thing at stake here is the fate of a single pony.

If anyone wanted to do fanart, PLEASE do so and let me see it, because if you can't tell from my terrible story image, I'm not an artist. (I can do some limited 3d modeling, it took me two days to manage that mask)

Comments

[Golden Fang Ryu Shenron]

“Is that the Alicorn Amulet!?” Pinkie Pie spots it first. I set a hoof on it.

Oh no....

“It wasn’t my first choice to come back this far, but there was no other option.” I have to stop for a moment to wipe away a tear. “Have I got a story to tell you!”

Just what is this story about?

Interesting start, I’m eager to see how this plays.

[Ninjadeadbeard]

Aaaaand I'm sold on this. Very well sold.