• Published 13th Aug 2018
  • 8,366 Views, 420 Comments

Twilight's Time Traveling Troubles - LordBrony2040



After failing to locate Starlight Glimmer during her last trip to Cloudsdale, Twilight appears in a time that seems too good to be true, yet much too different to be possible.

  • ...
115
 420
 8,366

Chapter 3: Revisionist History

Spike did his best not to freak out completely as Chrysalis continued to dig through a rather large number of old boxes in an attempt to find the gems she said Rarity used to collect. Meaning, she didn’t do it anymore. More proof that things had gone so horribly wrong. But, it was nothing compared to the world shattering revelation that had come about earlier. Something he still had trouble even comprehending. “H-How could Twilight and Rarity get married?” he asked in a mass of confusion.

Chrysalis set aside the box she was holding in her magic and looked back to Spike. “You’re kidding, right?” she asked. “It was the biggest wedding in Equestria, you actually didn’t know your little purple savior was hitched?”

The question made the train of thought Spike had chugging along in his mind derail. Chrysalis thought he was upset because Twilight got married? That was just...ew.

But, as his mind began to clear a little from the distracting thought, Spike saw the wisdom in letting her think that. If he started getting interested in Rarity, it might raise a few red flags to the bug...princess? He really wasn’t sure how to think of the changeling in front of him. “Uh...n-not really? How’d it...happen?”

“Same way most filly friends hook up, I suppose,” Chrysalis said before she went back to rooting around the storage room. “When Twilight experienced her first heat, she went to her oldest friends to ask for help. Then, as they all got older, physical need was replaced by desire, which eventually turned into an actual relationship. Then, one thing led to another and boom, they all got hitched.”

Spike blinked at the wording. “All?”

A second later, Chrysalis stepped away from the pile and actually knelt down closer to Spike before she let out a little sigh. “”Look, Spike. Twilight probably did something amazing and saved you from something and all that, but I’m going to do you a huge favor and nip this in the bud. I’ve seen where these kinds of things go, Tartarus, I’ve caused more of them any anypony likes to admit, so...in the time that you’ve known her, has Twilight ever shown any interest in you romantically, whatsoever?”

In Spike’s mind, he couldn’t help but replace the word Twilight with Rarity. “Well, um...she’s been, n-nice to me. Nicer than a lot of other ponies, actually.”

“Ponies that probably thought of you as, what? A servant? A pet? Something to just do chores around town and start the fire for cooking?” Chrysalis asked.

That wasn’t how other ponies saw him, was it? Spike stared at Chrysalis for several seconds as her words sunk in, all the while, the dragon running through all the memories he had of Ponyville to prove her wrong. While there were plenty of moments that he could use as fuel for an argument, most of his memories...fell in line with her questions. “It’s pretty disturbing how you’re able to say something like that with any accuracy after just talking to me for less than an hour,” he said in a toneless voice.

Not to mention how wrong it was. Ponies...didn’t think of him...like that.

Well, not Twilight and her friends, at least.

Or the ponies of the Crystal Empire!

Who didn’t really know him half as well as every other pony in Ponyville…

“Look, this may be harsh and all, but it’s better to put the stinging ointment on than let the wound fester,” Chrysalis told him in a way that actually made it sound she had some sympathy for the dragon. “That ointment being the truth. And the truth is, she is a mare nearly twice your age that is already more than interested in a slew of other ponies. It doesn’t mean she won’t be your friend if given half the chance, but...well, friendship is as far as it’s gonna go. So you can either accept that and take what you can get, or you can throw it aside in favor of, I dunno...being all sad and resentful. Ugh, Cadance is way better at this stuff than me.”

Spike stared ahead blankly as everything the bug queen had just said played through his mind along with several of the moments he and Rarity had been together. While there were several times Rarity had been very friendly a a little...enticing when it came to things like asking to help out with carrying things, she had never really done anything more than that. But...it was Rarity, she had to have known about his crush on her after being together for so long.

“Why didn’t she just…” Spike said, unable to finish the thought.

“What?” Chrysalis asked. “Tell some creature she just met not to go gaga over her? Spike, Twily is hardly the pony to notice stuff like that. Now, let’s find ah-ha!”

But Rarity would, Spike told himself. In fact, Rarity did. She just...remained quiet about it. Why would she do something like that? Spike asked himself as the world began to blur and Chrysalis floated a chest out of the junk pile.

“Okay, so we’ve got some rubies, sapphires, I think this is a dia-no, zirconia,” the changeling said before she looked down to Spike. “H-Hey, are you crying? Crap, you’re crying. Ugh, this is why I left the hive. No idea how to deal with-um, I think Rarity’s got some ice cream in her old fridge downstairs. You want some ice cream with your gems? Rarity downs the stuff like crazy when she’s sad.”

That just made Spike feel worse.


Twilight had to admit, seeing something that at least looked somewhat familiar to her original world, even if it was bad theater, did help calm her down a little. The changeling actors that trotted around as the storm troopers unnerved her a little, but them being on a mirror meant they was no actual danger.

Sky Walker stood in front of Mary Sue, his long gray mane blowing in the breeze as he frowned at the pegasus that could use the mystical Force. “What did you think was going to happen? That I would take on the remnants of the Empire with a light sword?”

There was a bright flash that filled the screen. When it disappeared a second later, Cadance stood between Sky Walker and Mary Sue. Decked out in magical jewelry, the crystal alicorn towered over both the old and new hero, needing to bend her legs and lower her head to shout in his face. “YES! That is EXACTLY what we expected to happen!”

“P-Prin-I mean, ah,” the pony playing Sky Walker stuttered as he showed his professional acting skills by getting himself under control in record time and clearing his throat. “Wh-Who are you, stranger?”

Cadance smiled down at the pony while Merry just stood, completely flabbergasted. “I am Princess Cadance, a pony...from the future!” she announced to the audience before spinning back around to look at Sky Walker. “I’ve come back to prevent you from making a terrible mistake. Come with me, and we shall defeat your nephew in battle and turn him from the dark side.”

Sky Walker looked out towards the direction of the audience. “Well, that is tempting, but…I’ve...given up,” he said with a great deal of difficulty, as if just saying the words was like ripping something out of his very soul.

“Jedi never give up!” Cadance exclaimed before stepping forward to lay on her belly as she took his hooves in hers. “Help me, Brave Sky Walker, you’re my only hope.”

The old Jedi stood frozen for a moment. Then, he looked down to take in a deep breath before meeting Cadance’s eyes. “You know what? Buck it, your solution sounds way cooler than the original plan.”

Mary Sue stepped forward. “But, what about me?”

“Oh!” Cadance said before she tapped her chin in thought for a moment. “Well, you need to stay here and train some more.”

To which Sky Walker quickly added, “There’s some moldy old books inside that big dead tree you passed on your way here. Study them for about five years. Then, after the war’s over, I’ll come back to teach you in pony.”

As the two older ponies trotted off together Sky Walker looked over to Cadance. “So, uh...are you gonna need a light saber or-”

Several bits of crystal flew out from underneath Cadance’s wings before they each lit up and created a dazzling display of short, pink energy beams. “I brought twelve of my own, plus spares if you need one.”

“A-Are those real?”

Cadance giggled before she and Sky came to the first mate yak standing by the legendary ship, making the pegasus raise his hoof in greeting. “Hey, Chewie.”

“Hrmmm, tempered by defeat and risen from the ashes to mentor new generation. Now hero is...perfect,” the large hairy quadruped replied.

The last of the pie fell from Twilight’s mouth as the watched the scene end. Ever so slowly, her brain started to work again after the display of sheer wrongness that Twilight had just witnessed disappeared from her view. “That...that was…”

Celestia giggled. “Amazing, right?” she asked rhetorically as she hugged Twilight a little. “I’ve read the original script, and to be honest, I much prefer this version. Thank the stars Cadance was attending the recording and decided to intervene.”

Unable to hold back her emotions at such a discrepancy as what had been displayed, Twilight jumped up and spun on the little Celestia. “Cadance was seven feet tall!” Which wasn’t the only change to her big sister-in-law, but the extremely bright and shiny coat alongside her transparent flowing mane weren’t as glaringly obvious. “She-she’s bigger than you!”

Plus, they didn’t seem to put her above the real ruler of Equestria, who was currently a lot shorter than she should be.

A tiny, concerned frown appeared on Celestia’s face. “Of course she was.”

“But...t-that’s not...HOW?” Twilight demanded.

Celestia’s frown deepened. “Twilight, you told me that you saw this movie.”

“I did, but it didn’t have have a giant big sister that look down her nose at you in it,” Twilight said as all the stress the little bit of familiarity the movie let her work out quickly began to rush back in. “So how in the hay did something like that happen?”

As the story continued on behind Twilight, Celestia sat silent. For a good three seconds, at any rate. “Cadance bound herself to the Crystal Heart. It gave her more power and her body adapted by increasing in size and taking on new characteristics, just like it is with every alicorn.”

Twilight tried to factor in the new information and use it to figure out how such a thing was possible, but came up short. “But, why would she do something like that?”

“To defeat King Sombra,” Celestia explained simply. “When the Crystal Empire reappeared, I sent Cadance and your brother to deal with the evil I knew would return with it.”

The discrepancy only added to Twilight’s confusion. “B-But that’s not how it happened!”

Silence filled the room for several seconds before Princess Celestia took a deep breath. She Rolled onto her belly and stood up. “Okay, I’ve been trying to get you to relax and rest before we dealt with this, but...Twily, something is very wrong with you right now.”

“No!” Twilight shouted back at the not-Celestia. “You’re wrong! Cadance is wrong! The whole bucking world is wrong! And I have to fix it. I have to fix everything. B-But every time I try, every time I...it’s not...I, I can’t…”

With her blurry vision, Twilight could just make out Celestia hopping off the bed before there was a bright flash, and Twilight was looking at the Princess Celestia she used to know.

Before she could think of what it was that she did wrong to make Princess Celestia change back, the big alicorn wrapped her up in another hug. “Okay, Twily,” she said gently before she picked Twilight up in her forelegs and spun around to place herself on the bed, with Twilight on her belly. “Okay then, how about you tell me everything that’s wrong?”

The question made Twilights panic slowly slide into a depression as she focused in on the most immediate error of this world. “You’re not supposed to call me Twily.”

It hurt to say. Hearing Princess Celestia speak of her with such affection was more than anything Twilight had ever hoped to hear from her. But, it wasn’t real, and Twilight had to face that fact.

Princess Celestia just gave her a gentle laugh. “Well, What else am I supposed to call my grandfoal?”

“Um...what?” Twilight asked as Princess Celestia’s words rattled around in her head. “G-Granfoal? You mean, we’re not...um...s-special...someponies?”

The look on Princess Celestia’s face went from a smile to an expression that most ponies made when they saw a very gross thing that they had stepped in. “Okay, first and foremost...ew,” she replied before shivering in revulsion. “And second off, I think you need to tell me everything that you think is different than it should be.”

Seeing Celestia’s revulsion at the idea of her and Twilight together gave the purple pony a kick in the gut, but...it wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be. It seemed that the dreams of a filly were still nothing more than that, simple flights of fancy that were quickly done away with for a mare of her age. But, Twilight felt her nervousness begin to return even more after Celestia’s question. “W-Why?”

“Because, it’s obvious to me that something has caused your memories to be altered from what they should be,” Princess Celestia told her. “Magic like this works in a very particular way. Whenever a memory is altered or erased, a pony’s mind works to...fill in the gap. If somepony had simply wiped an hour of your memory, you’d just have a blank, a small block of time that you couldn’t remember because you think you passed out. But what’s happened to you seems something far more sinister than a simple amnesia spell. Something much more important to your life was altered or taken out of your mind, and this...false history that you remember incorrectly is the result of your brilliant mind trying to explain its absence.”

Twilight felt like arguing with Princess Celestia, she felt the desire to tell her what was really going on, that somepony had altered things, and it was in fact Twilight who remembered things correctly, not Princess Celestia. But, if she explained that to her…

Twilight shook her head fiercely before she could complete the thought. She couldn’t waste time explaining things to Princess Celestia, it would just mean more fuel for her growing headache. What Princess Celestia was suggesting was something Twilight needed to do anyway. She needed to understand how Starlight Glimmer had altered things. Twilight hadn’t seen the mare in Cloudsdale, she hadn’t seen what Starlight had done. But with Princess Celestia’s help, she knew that she could figure it out.

“Okay,” Twilight agreed slowly. “Umm, where should we start?”

After a few seconds of thinking, Princess Celestia nodded to herself. “Well, since we’re already on the topic, let’s start with Cadance. Now, why were you so surprised that she had absorbed the power of the Crystal Heart?”

Twilight remembered seeing her old foalsitter standing in the mirror, wielding as much, if not more power than Princess Celestia and didn’t bother to hide her nervousness. “B-Because it didn’t happen.”

“She didn’t use its power to defeat Sombra?” Celestia asked.

After starting to shake her head, Twilight paused. “Well, uh, she did, it just um...h-how do you remember it happening, Princess?” she asked.

Princess Celestia pressed her lips together for a moment. “Well, I wasn’t there, mind you. But, from what I was told, Shining Armor and Cadance found that the Empire had returned along with Sombra. While Cadance battled with him at the edge of the Empire, Shining Armor overcame several defenses made of dark magic and found the Crystal Heart. He delivered it to Cadance and held off the shadow unicorn for a few seconds while Cadance forged a link with the artifact. It didn’t have that much power because the ponies were still under the remains of Sombra’s curse, but it did give her enough energy to finish him off for good. Then, as the crystal ponies recovered and filled their hearts with love, empowering the Crystal Heart, so too did Cadance’s power increase,” she explained before frowning. “How do you remember things, Twily?”

“Well, Shiny and Cadance did go to the Crystal Empire,” Twilight told Princess Celestia. “That part’s the same. But...they couldn’t save it on their own, so you sent me and my friends to help them. It was a test to see if I was ready for bigger things. To fulfill my destiny.”

After a few seconds, Princess Celestia frowned. “I sent you there?”

Feeling a little nervous, Twilight nodded slowly. “Yes.”

“After Shining Armor and Cadance failed at their task,” Princess Celestia went on.

Twilight nodded again, slightly more confident than before. “Well, sort of. Shiny...got hurt protecting me and my friends from Sombra after we showed up, so he couldn’t use his magic. So, we had to look for the heart.”

“And thus, we find the problem with your story,” Princess Celestia told her.

“...what?” Twilight replied as her mind derailed a bit.

Celestia shuffled around a little underneath the purple mare before putting a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Twily, think about it. Cadance’s destiny revolves around the Crystal Empire. Saving it, ruling it...everything-ing it.”

The odd phrase got a little giggle from Twilight, which made Princess Celestia smile. “Nice to see you can still laugh,” she said before continuing. “The idea that I would mess with the fulfillment of her destiny, to use it as some kind of test, or even supplant her completely by having another mare do anything to it, the very thought of that is horrifying to me.”

Twilight felt the tiny bit of mirth she had gained from Princess Celestia’s obviously intention verbal stumble die. “W-What?” she stammered.

“To have the moment she was born for snatched away by some other pony,” Princess Celestia went on. “I can’t even imagine how badly that would have crushed her. A-And you say, I was supposed to have done that to her? Twilight, I...that...really hurts, Twilight.”

As Princess Celestia’s expression fell, the purple pony’s brain went into overdrive to try and fix things. “B-But that’s not how it happened!” Twilight exclaimed. “I-I couldn’t fix things either! I needed help too!”

Princess Celestia went back to frowning. “From Ss-er,” she said before pausing. “I mean, the Empress? Ugh, I really hate it when she’s asleep. Anyway, so...the Empress came and defeated Sombra? She could have done that from the beginning, she could have crushed him like a bug. If that’s what happened in your memories, then wouldn’t it have made sense for her to have done it before?”

The odd comment made Twilight’s mind stumble. “Um...b-because it would have ruined Cadance’s...destiny?” she asked more than answered.

“You see what I mean, Twily?” Celestia asked. “When put under examination, the story doesn’t hold up. Chrysalis and your mother understood that Cadance needed to fulfill her destiny and willingly stood aside so that Cadance and Shining Armor could do what they needed to do. They grumbled and fretted every second and barely stopped from teleporting over when Cadance got put up against the ropes, but...to do otherwise would have been almost as bad as letting Sombra win.”

Twilight’s mind could only comprehend half of Princess Celestia’s explanation. There was one glaring word that just didn’t make sense. “What does Chrysalis have to do with anything?”

“She’s Cadance’s best friend,” Princess Celestia said after a slight pause.

The nonsensical explanation made Twilight stare blankly at Princess Celestia. “...that’s not possible.”

After a few uneasy seconds where she broke eye contact Princess Celestia took in a breath and spoke again. “Maybe it’s best if we avoid that subject altogether.”

Twilight thought about it for a moment, then nodded. Whatever Starlight had changed, it had happened long before the royal wedding. “Okay,” she agreed. “So, where do we start?”

“Well, I suppose the most logical thing to do is work our way backwards from a certain point to see just how much your memory has been affected,” Princess Celestia said. “Although I’d say that to do a through analysis, we should start from yesterday, your Crystal Empire story has me wanting to start there.”

Twilight hesitated. She knew it was wasting time. The change that Starlight had introduced had to have come earlier than that, but...the discussion she and Spike had back in Starlight’s home village came to the forefront of her mind. From what she could deduce, Starlight kept changing things even after Twilight left for the present. She needed to catalog all the changes if she was going to have any hope of storing the monster that had ruined her life.

“Well,” Twilight said. “I guess the biggest event before the Crystal Empire was the Royal Wedding.”

Princess Celestia smiled down at her as if Twilight had gotten a hard answer right in a test. “That’s right.”

A nervous began to creep across Twilight’s spine. “But...um, did Chrysalis invade Canterlot and foalnap Cadance?”

Princess Celestia let out a musical laugh. “Okay, this I’ve got to hear. Just why did the groom foalnap her best mare?”

“Uh...come again?” Twilight asked as she tried to make sense of Princess Celestia’s statement.

After a few more seconds of giggling, Princess Celestia spoke again. “I’m trying to figure out just how your mind worked to invent the idea of how the groom could foalnap her best mare at our wedding.”

Twilight stared at Princess Celestia for several seconds. “You’re...wadja...huggaba...youja…” she stuttered as her brain tried to process what her mentor had just said. “Wait...CHRYSALIS IS YOUR WIFE?” The little purple pony shouted as she jumper to her hooves to try and back away, only to stumble and fall onto her back while Celestia giggled again and used magic to set her right back onto the bigger pony’s belly.

“Oh-Hohohohoho, no Twilight, Chrysalis is my husband,” Celestia corrected her. “Despite sounding female and having the ability to produce offspring, changelings are asexual. They don’t really have a set gender like ponies. We just call her that because, well, she sounds like a mare and her base form doesn’t have any obvious stallion parts. Plus, the whole asexual reproduction when it comes to her making more changelings. But I can assure you, Chrysalis is fully capable of producing all the correct body parts to interact with me like a very large stallion should. She’s done so many, many times.”

For a moment, Twilight found herself wondering what Princess Celestia was talking about. Then, she wished she hadn’t wondered, because that led to her realizing that stallions did certain things with mares, and ‘very large’ didn’t refer to Chrysalis’s height. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Twilight screamed as she as she tried to get to her hooves again, as best she could, anyway. She needed her forelegs to hold her head on the sides and keep it from exploding. “There are things my mind's eye can’t unsee!”


Properly positioned on Rarity’s couch, Chrysalis laid on his side as Spike’s mouth hung open for several seconds at the sight of the male changeling that easily dwarfed even Celestia in size. He was being polite, but...Spike had played the through the Palace of Pleasure scenario with Big Mac. He knew what a horse the size of Chrysalis was probably carrying.

“Whoa,” Spike said a moment before Chrysalis turned back into his, or...could it even be called her normal form if she really wasn’t a guy or girl? The confusing thought made Spike scratch his head. “So, you’re really like, a...guy?”

“Ugh, explaining this sort of thing to a two gender species creatures is always so annoying,” Chrysalis as the changeling rolled his, her, or its pair of eyes. “I’ll give you the basic version that ponies can follow. I’m a princess, so I’m female...most of the time. It’s just when I’m in private with Celestia or hanging out with Shining Armor that I’m male. But, we’re getting off topic. Like I was saying, I do know a thing or two about romance. I’m married to Celestia, and best friends with both Cadance and Shining Armor. Which means I have to listen to two sides of their relationship troubles, rare as they are. So, I can guarantee that my expertise trumps that of a little dragon that became smitten with a pony he doesn’t even know because she looks cool.”

Spike stared at at the changeling for several seconds as the words he had spoken in anger repeated in his head. “WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW ABOUT ANYTHING? YOU’RE JUST A STUPID CHANGELING!”

The minutes-old memory made Spike sink in on himself and moan. “I’m sorry I yelled at you,” he apologized.

“Wow, an apologetic dragon. You really were raised by ponies,” the changeling said before nodding. “It’s fine. I understand that you’re young and stupid.”

Spike winced. “Gee...thanks for the compliment.”

A little smirk appeared on Chrysalis’s face. “Would you rather I lead you on?”

With the way the changeling phrased the question, Spike found himself wanting to ask her another. “Hey, Chrysalis, could you...help me with something?”

“Not until I know what it is I’m agreeing to,” the big bug pony told him.

Spike wrung is claws at the reminder that he really was talking to a changeling, not a pony. One of his friends would have just agreed. “It’s not just, uh...Twilight, I had feelings for,” the dragon half-explained. “B-Back in my home town, there was this other pony, a mare. And she was really into fashion.”

“That explains how you know Rarity, then,” the big bug mumbled. “And...oh, I get it. You’re into this hometown mare. Then why did you freak out about...you know what? Nevermind. Just...continue.”

“Anyway, she uh...well, I really liked her too. Like, really, really liked her. And she like me, uh...sort of,” Spike admitted, both to himself and the changeling. “She would let me help her with her work and uh, g-give me these looks every now and then, w-whenever I did stuff for her.”

Chrysalis studied him for a moment. “Before or after?”

The question made Spike blink. “Eh?”

“Did she give you these looks before, or after you completed the task?” the changeling asked.

Spike had to think about it for a moment. “B-Before...mostly,” he said before quickly adding more in Rarity’s defense. “But she also gave me a few gems whenever I helped her out. Uh, sometimes. Every now and then.” For some reason, the situation started to look worse and worse the more he talked about it.

“Ever go on a date?” Chrysalis asked.

“N-No,” Spike admitted.

“Did you ever ask her out? the changeling went on.

His shoulders slumped as the idea that he might never get the chance rolled around in his mind. “No.”

“Did she ever show interest in another stallion in front of you, or another mare?” Chrysalis went on.

Spike felt his heart contract a little. “Oh...yeah. Definitely.”

The questions stopped for several seconds. “And how does she feel about your species?” the changeling finally asked after the pause.

“She-” Spike stopped himself.

I despise dragons!” the memory of Nightmare Moon’s Rarity said.

You’re not like any of those awful brutes, Spikey-wikey,” Rarity told him during the dragon migration.

Spike blinked as a very unsettling thought entered his mind. “I don’t think she likes dragons.”

“But she does like you?” Chrysalis asked.

“Yes!” Spike said, a little too desperate than he meant to.

“As a friend?” the changeling went on.

That question was easy to answer. “Yes.”

“As a lover?”

Spikes eyes went wide and his cheeks turned red. “I-I...um...t-that’s…” Unable to continue, he just gulped.

By some silent cue, Chrysalis’s face turned almost predatory. “Oh? Don’t tell me you’ve never thought about it,” she asked before practically slithering off the couch she was resting on to move around him with a dexterity no pony could ever have. “Ponies have their breeding cycles, after all. When mares become overcome with the overwhelming urge to find something to cool the inner fires. She’s never asked you to...help her out when it happens?”

Despite his age, Spike knew exactly what Chrysalis was talking about. “I-I usually get sent away...f-for a week,” he confessed. Twilight was so embarrassed by her heat, Spike usually found himself visiting her parents in Canterlot or Shining Armor in the Crystal Empire while she did something to keep herself busy, like completely rearrange everything in the library, both tree and castle ones.

Chrysalis blinked, then quickly stood up tall and straight. The air of seduction disappeared as if it had never existed. “Oh, well in that case, she likes you, but only as something akin to a little brother. More than likely, this whole cat’s paw thing she’s playing is just her milking your affection while she can before you grow out of it. Big sisters are a little mean like that.”

“W-What?” Spike asked, completely confused by the sudden change in atmosphere.

“Don’t be too mad at her for not setting you straight,” Chrysalis said with a shrug. “Ponies are a prey species. Their instincts tell them to run away rather than confront uncomfortable things head on. She probably just doesn’t want to hurt you. But, you’re not really serious about her either, so...it’ll all work out. Think of her more like a big sister, you’ll be happier.”

Finally able to shake off the confusion over what had just happened, Spike ran up to the changeling. “W-What’s that supposed to mean? I love Rar-Ra…” he finished lamely, barely able to keep himself from mentioning Rarity’s real name.

Chrysalis floated Spike up onto her back. “No you don’t.”

“How would you know anything about-”

“I believe we already covered that subject when I mentioned my wife,” Chrysalis told him. “But all the pheromones I released had nothing to do with love, that was all about desire. And, after giving you enough to get a rise out of an elephant, then talk about the time in a mare’s life where most stallions would sell one of their left everything to be in the same room as the mare they desired.

“And what did you do?” she asked. “You talked about how the ponies sent you away from town. Not what you wanted to do. You couldn’t even lie about it and tell me you wanted to lay with her. You talked about how you were completely removed from the equation. If you can’t follow through with everything a relationship entails, then you need to wake up and call it quits. Because love isn’t a game, it’s not something you play around at, just hoping to score something.”

Unable to argue with the changeling queen, Spike found himself frowning at the oddity of somepony like Chrysalis telling him that. “You really are Cadance’s best friend, aren’t you?”

Chrysalis giggled. “Eh, I picked up a little here and there,” she said before offering her back for Spike to hop up on again.

As Spike rode Chrysalis through the door and out around town, the little dragon looking around again. But, unlike before, he didn’t just mentally note down the changes of yet another timeline that wasn’t right. He watched the pony foals playing like they always did.

“Let’s go, Sea Horse!”

“I’ll take you down this time, Game King!”

Spike blinked and looked over to the pair of foals with some odd crystal trays attached to their necks that held several cards on them.

“I summon, Imperial Flame Princess!” the first foal shouted before he took a card from his tray and slapped it down. A second later, a gigantic alicorn that was larger than even Celestia by a good margin with a golden coat that glowed in the sun and a mane that danced around like fire appeared in front of the colt with the extremely spiky mane. “And, she gains one-thousand attack points for every pony in my deck!”

“She’s no match for my Dark Princess of the Night!” the colt wearing an outlandish outfit that even Rarity would have called over the top threw down a card to bring forth a magical projection of another alicorn with a raven black coat and starry mane before he began speaking again. “And my Dark Princess’s special ability activates, placing your pony into a deep slumber! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

“OH NO!” Game King cried out in horror.

“And it looks like they’ve got some new games, too,” Spike mumbled as they walked out of view of the overly emotional display. He wondered if anypony in town still played Card Wars.

But, the thought was short lived as another one began to quickly form thanks to all of the smiling faces he saw trotting around town. The Cakes were walking down the road with their foals. Time Turner was doing maintenance on the clock tower. Lyra was sitting on her usual bench next to Bonbon...who was wearing a business suit and dark glasses like some Equestrian Secret Service member?

Unlike every other world that he and Twilight went to, this one wasn’t an Equestria on the brink of collapse, or a desolate wasteland already devoid of life. Ponies were happily living their lives, just like they had been in the old Equestria.

“Hello, Chrysalis,” a familiar voice that sent a chill down Spike’s spine, bringing his thoughts to a halt. He looked back to see Starlight Glimmer trotting up with a scowl on her face.

The changeling stopped and turned around. “No luck, huh?”

Starlight let out a groan. “Of course not. Keeping that the tower running smoothly so close to the Everfree for more than a week is something we can barely manage. Never mind when Dash decides to break it.”

After a few seconds, she took in a breath. “So, the dragon confess yet?” Starlight asked as she looked up at Spike.

The lilac unicorn’s glare made Spike shiver before Chrysalis moved to put her head between the two. “Didn’t your glorious Empress teach you something about not jumping to conclusions? And manners?”

Starlight’s eyes widened for a moment before she let out a long sigh. “Okay,” she said before her face became a lot less frightening and she bowed her head slightly. “I apologize for thinking that you did something bad to Twilight before I found any evidence.”

“Um..." Spike replied, unsure of how to respond. “That’s...okay?” It felt strange talking to Starlight like she wasn’t a homicidal maniac that got her kicks from watching the world burn.

Before an awkward silence could set in, or Starlight could get all crazy again, Chrysalis cleared her throat. “Great. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, don’t you have a sun to go worship or...something?”

Starlight groaned before frowning a little at Chrysalis. “Funny, I thought that was your job.”

Not following what they were going on about at all, except for the growing tenseness of the situation, Spike raised a claw. “Um, excuse me. What’s going on?

“Oh, just just having a little discussion about theology with my sun cult friend here, right Starlight?” Chrysalis asked.

The answer, at least to the part that was addressed to Spike, made him blink. “You’re a member of a cult?” he asked the lilac mare. Which...made a certain amount of sense when Spike thought about it. Although he had been anywhere near Starlight’s freaky town back when this whole mess really began, the stories he had heard from the girls had said the place had been run with a single mindedness that bordered on fanaticism.

Starlight glared at Chrysalis. “It’s not a cult!” she insisted vehemently. “We are an official religion, recognized by the crown! And even then, that’s just legalities.”

Although he knew it was probably be best to just keep his mouth shut and hopefully move on, Spike couldn’t help himself. He had spent his entire life with Twilight, after all. “So, uh, you...worship...Celestia? How does that work?” Spike had heard rumors of such a thing, but Twilight had always seemed hesitant to talk about the subject when they lived in Canterlot. Afterwards, it just hadn’t seemed important.

The question drew Starlight’s attention, and Spike felt like clinging to Chrysalis a little harder. Because instead of the dark frown on her face that he was used to, Starlight gave Spike a gleeful smile. “Oh, so you’ve heard of us then?” she asked excitedly. “Or at least our parent religion, I mean. We are the Order of the New Sun, totally different than those old guys that are so into Celestia. Which we still give homage to, of course. But for the most part, we follow the teachings of the Empress!”

“Oh, uh...r-right,” Spike stuttered before raising his claw nervously. “Uh, Praise the Sun?”

“Praise the Sun, Spike!” Starlight said happily. “Oh, before I begin, I am legally and ethically bound to ask, do you want to hear more about the glory of the Empress? If you don’t, or you don’t have time right now, I do run a meeting at the Golden Oaks every Sunday. We kick it off when the sun goes down, of course.”

Spike blinked at the mention of his old home. “T-the library?” he asked.

After giving a quick nod, Starlight raised her hoof. “That’s right, it’s over-well, okay, you can’t really see most of it because the town hall is in the way. But, yeah. Since Twilight isn’t living there anymore, we use it for meetings.”

He couldn’t believe it. The library, it was...back. The factory and the tower, not to mention all the other new stuff around town, Spike had been so fascinated by them that he hadn’t even noticed it. “Okay, well uh…” the dragon paused as he slowly regained his senses.

Since everypony obviously knew who this Empress was, asking basic questions about her would no doubt start raising a ton of red flags. But if Spike asked questions in the right way regarding Glimmer’s new...path in life, he might be able to pick something up. “You know what? I think I would like to talk to you about, uh, you know, how great the Empress is, and stuff.”

Starlight’s eyes brightened. “That’s great!” she exclaimed before looking back to Chrysalis. “Hey, I’ll escort him back to the castle. You go check on Twily, I know you’re worried about her.”

There was a moment of indecision from Chrysalis, then the bug horse shook her head. “No way.”

The expression on Starlight’s face became half-lidded. “You’re still sore about your application being denied, huh?”

“If you’re going to be kissing Celestia’s ass, then mine needs some attention too,” Chrysalis told her before she started moving in the direction of the castle.

As soon as Chrysalis began trotting again, Starlight looked up to smile at Spike. “So, what is it do you want to know about us?” Starlight asked. “I run the Ponyville chapter of the club so, I’m the mare to ask if you’ve got questions.”

“Club? I thought it was you know, something like a church,” he said in confusion before the pony started leading Spiked back towards the castle at a slower pace.

Starlight pressed her lips together in a tight light and made a little groan of annoyance. “Well, legally we are considered a religion, we’re more of a fan club than anything else,” she explained. “Yeah, we thank the Empress and the Mother for every day, and take time to admire the night sky, but it’s pretty hard to have a religion when your head deity outright tells you not to worship her. But She does want everypony to follow Her teachings, so as long as we’re not forcing anypony into anything and are always open to dissenting views, She says it’s okay to have an organization dedicated to letting everypony know how amazing all the alicorns are.”

“And the Mother is...Celestia?” Spike asked to confirm that particular theory.

The question got a happy nod. “Mmmhmm. She may not be a princess anymore, but we still give the Mother the respect and admiration she is due,” Starlight told him.

Spike stumbled before looking over to the pony in surprise. “W-What?”

“Do you have a problem with that?” Starlight asked as her eyes narrowed. “Yes, Celestia made the mistake of giving Discord another chance, and ponies died because of that. But I’m not going to let you bad mouth her. She kept Equestria running for a thousand years despite the loss of her family. I’d like to see anypony, even the Empress accomplish something like that half as well as she did!”

In an attempt to placate the irritable unicorn, Spike help up his claws. “No! No, I’m good,” he said before realizing something else. “So uh, what about Cadance?”

Starlight frowned a little. “Princess Cadance’s official position is Matron,” she explained. “Although, we try not to use it because she says it makes her sound old. And, of course we follow her teachings to love one another with all our hearts.”

Although he was tempted to ask more about Cadance, not to mention how Luna fit into this different direction of crazy Starlight had latched onto, Spike fought to stay on topic. “So uh...have you ever met the Empress?”

Starlight brightened. “Are you kidding?” she asked excitedly. “I was practically raised by her!”

“That’s funny,” Chrysalis cut in. “I was under the impression she was your teacher at Celestia’s school back when you were an at risk foal. Must have missed the part where you were adopted.”

After a few seconds, Starlight took in a breath. “Okay, I’ll admit, I’m embellishing quite a bit there,” she admitted. “The Empress was a my teacher for a time, and...well, I lost my mom when I was very young and she was always there for me. And yes, I know, there’s a huge difference between a mother and a teacher, which the Empress made clear to me on several occasions, in pony. Still, she was there for me when no other adult was and did more for me than either of my real parents, even the one that’s still around. So, not an official mom, but a mentor. Happy?”

Chrysalis nodded. “Just keeping the facts straight.”

Spike looked back up to the tower. “So, uh...did the Empress make that?”

“You don’t know about the crystal network?” Starlight asked, both confused and surprised.

The dragon cleared his throat. “M-Middle of nowhere town, remember?”

The excuse seemed to work, as Starlight nodded to herself a second later. “Yeah, guess that makes sense. Those things are a pain to build and keep going,” she said. “And you’re half right. The crystal network is more a mix of the Mother, the Empress and the Matron’s efforts. They were mostly just something the Empress copied from a foreign land she visited while on a quest back when she was a princess and adapted to work with magic. But, there wasn’t enough building material for anything more than a few proof of concept inventions that nopony outside of an alicorn could power with any reliability until the Crystal Empire reemerged. Since then, Equestria’s undergone a reneighssance of invention and artistry! Playwrights are cranking out new works every month, ponies in Manehattan can talk to ponies in Van Hoover in an instant. It’s only been a few years, but we’ve already seen new mechanical, medical, magical and military developments at ten times the speed that Equestria was experiencing previously. Of course, the alicorns make sure that we’re moving in the right direction.”

Spike nodded. “Like Twilight.”

There was a slight stumble before Starlight looked back to Spike and gave him a little smile. “T-That’s right. Just like Twilight and her friends.”

“Say,” Chrysalis chimed in a little too happily. “I bet Spike here would like to know what you guys do when it comes to honor Twilight.”

An uncomfortable expression crossed Starlight’s face. “Chrysalis, you know that’s not exactly something, we’ve, uh...been privy to. Yet.”

“You mean it’s not something you like to talk about,” the changeling corrected Starlight almost too happily. “Because now, that little filly you used to take care of is you have to bow in reverence to, and you’re both having a hard time coming to grips with that. Hmm, I wonder if your entire religion is just a bunch of ponies that got too caught up in admiring a pony from afar, and now that you’ve got some ponies you actually know as ponies, you can’t do that so easily anymore.”

Starlight gulped and looked around wildly before she locked onto something. “Oh look! Big Mac is having another one of his meltdowns. Let me go take care of this, okay?”

Watching Starlight quickly trot off for a second, Spike followed her intended path and found the big stallion glaring down at a much smaller female pony with a look of panicked rage. “Don’t lie ta me! I saw what you were doin’!”

“I was just-”

“STOP TRYIN’ TA MARESPLAIN THINGS TA ME!” the big stallion shrieked before Starlight arrived and separated them with her magic.

Chrysalis groaned and turned away from the scene. “Ugh. They need to stop letting him out in public.”

As the big red stallion cried out in rage and flailed about in Starlight’s magic as if he was on fire, Spike did his best to wrap his head around what he had just seen from a pony who showed less emotion in a week than what had just been displayed inside of five seconds. “W-What happened to him?” Spike asked.

“Love potion,” Chrysalis explained simply before they turned a corner to take Big Mac completely out of sight.

When it didn’t look like he was going to get anything else from the changeling, he tapped the bug with a claw to get her attention. “Are there more than three syllables to that story?”

Chrysalis sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine. A few years ago, somepony slipped a love potion into the drinks of the pony you just saw and the local school teacher, a mare named Cheerilee. The two of them didn’t do much more than kiss and shop for wedding dresses before the spell was broken, but you know how it is when something like this happens,” she said with a grumble. “Big Mac was the poor, innocent stallion with ties to the town’s biggest farm, and Cheerilee was a mare. It didn’t matter that she was proven innocent of using a love potion under magically binding testimony, nopony wanted their fillies going to a school where the evil teacher that they had already convinced on rumor, so they petitioned Twilight to find a new teacher and Cheerilee didn’t fight getting run out of town in the interest of preserving the peace. Now, she’s working at Celestia’s school in Canterlot and Big Mac thinks any mare who smiles at him is plotting to enthrall his mind or something and only drinks unopened bottles of water. Which, okay, yeah, means he suffered so major trauma, but...I liked Cheerilee.”

Guess it’s not all good news, then, Spike told himself before blinking at his own thoughts.

He didn’t think this world was a good place?

Did he?

Rarity...this Rarity is married to Twilight, he thought. If that was the case, then she would never…

...what?

Boss him around again? Flirt with him to get a free helping claw?

Spike reached up to rub his head, remembering what he and Chrysalis had talked about just moments before. If even a tiny grain of what the changeling said was true...Spike’s feelings for Rarity would never be returned.

I...I’ve got to stop thinking about this, Spike told himself as he tried to focus on other things.

But there was nothing else to focus on. They were almost back to the castle, and that place looked more or less the same as when he and Twilight had left it. Which meant he would meet up with Twilight and now that she was rested, they would go back to the map to leave so they could fix things.

And leave this world behind.

Which made Spike wonder as Chrysalis brought him back into the castle, what happens to all of this when we leave?

Did everything stick around?

Or would they...disappear?

Spike gulped as the last thought crossed his mind.

No, he told himself. That’s not...how things happen...right?

The question remained unanswered as he tried to think things through. He was Twilight’s number one assistant after all. He could figure something like this out.

Possibility one, Spike thought when they got to a door he didn’t recognize that turned out to be an elevator. Every time, we go back in time, everything stays the same. They were still around after Starlight Glimmer did it the first time, after all. If she really had gone back in time, then wouldn’t he and Twilight been altered along with everything else?

Except...it takes time to travel through time, and Starlight set all this up to torture Twilight, Spike told himself. The time it probably took Starlight to set things up so that she could go back in time, or whatever it was, Spike had grabbed the scroll and activated it.

There had been what Zecora had told them about how she was the one who shouldn’t be, but...she was a zebra that lived in a forest that nopony who wasn’t crazy went anywhere near, in a world on the edge of annihilation. It probably wasn’t a good idea to take her word as gospel.

So, every time we go back in time, a new world get created and...

The elevator dinged and the doors opened on what had to be the castle’s fourth floor. The sound also signaled an epiphany for Spike. Wait, if we go back in time, change things so it creates new world, then we get sent to that world’s current timeline, he reasoned. So...does that mean, even if Twilight does everything absolutely perfect and makes everything happen the way it did before...we’ll just be stuck in a world that looks just like our own, but...isn’t?

Everything would be the same, look and sound the same, except...it wouldn’t be home. It would just be a copy.

And if the worlds they left still existed when they were done, that meant that somewhere out there, the real Equestria, the one where all of Spike’s real friends were...was forever out of their reach.

“Hey, you alright?”

Spike looked up as Chrysalis. Queen Chrysalis, was looking at him in concern. She wasn't evil and seemed just as happy as most other ponies. If the other theory, where the world was unmade, did they have any right to erase everything that she was to replace it with something worse just because it had been around earlier? “I just...realized...something,” Spike said in a tone as empty as he felt.

A sympathetic smile appeared on the changeling’s face. “Decided to let her go, huh?”

“Huh?” Spike asked.

“That Ra-Ra pony you told me about,” Chrysalis reminded him. “I figured if you were being so quiet, it had to be about something like that. Looks like you made a decision.”

Spike slunk in on himself a little. With the possibilities of destroying worlds or just getting trapped on one where everyone he knew just looked exactly like his friends, he hadn’t thought much of Rarity at all. “C-Can I go talk to Twilight now?”

“That’s where we’re headed,” she said before turning back around before a nearby door opened. Chrysalis’s body tensed and she groaned. “Ugh. Discord, what’re you doing here?”

The sudden change in attitude made Spike look back around to see the draconequus coming out of a room, pulling a cart full of brooms and mops behind him that looked like it had been heavily modified to work with his frame.

He looked a little different than what Spike remembered, though. There was a black rock that looked far too dark to be natural right in the middle of his forehead and another where Discord’s neck met his body. “Chrysalis, I’m just, you know, just doing my...well, I can’t really call it my job, since this is slave labor, but...” he said before turning his head towards Spike. “Oh my, what’s this?”

“Serving the community is a light sentence for a creature that ended the lives of so many ponies,” the changeling told him in a testy tone.

Discord rolled his eyes. “Oh please, I didn’t do anything to them. Tirek was the one that sucked away their magic and technically it was the starvation that caused them all to pass. Hmm, settle this old argument for us, you. Can something die before it’s even been born?”

The odd, morbid question made Spike frown. “Say what?” he asked while trying to figure out what Discord had just said. Was it some kind of weird riddle?

“A foal dying in it mother’s womb still counts,” Chrysalis growled.

Spike tensed. “Foals?” he asked. “Tirek killed...foals?”

“See? He said Tirek, not Discord.”

While Discord went back to looking at Spike thoughtfully again, as if he was trying to puzzle something out that had an answer just out of reach, Chrysalis snorted. “A good number of mares that Tirek drained of their magic with Discord’s help were pregnant. The strain of carrying an unborn foal while lying motionless, without enough energy to move for three days caused several miscarriages and dozens of mares dying simply because their bodies didn’t have the nutrients or liquids to survive,” Chrysalis explained harshly to Spike before turning her attention to Discord. “Now get out of my way before I beat that smirk off your face. And by that, I mean, shatter your jaw.”


Twilight swallowed the last bite of the pie right before Princess Celestia floated a napkin over to wipe her mouth. If she was lucky, this piece would manage to stay down.

“My Twilight, I’ve heard that thinking about what their grandmare’s do in the bedroom makes some fillies sick, but I’ve never actually seen it before,” she said with a giggle.

A little whine came from the purple pony. “Please stop talking about those sorts of things,” she begged. “We don’t have any pie left.”

Princess Celestia pulled Twilight in close to kiss her on the cheek. But it wasn’t the kind of kiss Twilight had dreamed about getting from Celestia when she had been younger and obviously very stupid. It was the kiss of a grandparent, just like all of her older kisses had been. It made getting them seem even worse than never feeling a single moment of such closeness with Princess Celestia.

At least then, Twilight had still possessed a little filly’s foolish dream.

“So, since we’re working our way back, what happened before the wedding?” Princess Celestia asked.

Glad to get her mind working on anything else, Twilight thought about it for a moment. “Well, I guess the incident prior to that was this little mystery we had on the Friendship Express. There was this cake and um...somepony took a bite out of it before it got to Canterlot to be judged.”

Princess Celestia let out another giggle. “Yep. That Sunny Skies, sneaking a bite of all the treats on the way over after helping you and Pinkie to load the cake. Shame on her,” she said with one of those smiles Twilight had seen her use when she was up to something.

“Well, then there was…” Twilight said as she tried to keep her mind focused. She would deal with Sunny Skies when she put everything right, but at the moment, there was more important things to do. “Oh, there was the time Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo-”

“Right, the newspaper incident,” Princess Celestia cut in with a curt tone. “I’d rather not talk about how I had to talk your mother into not stripping a disabled filly’s harness as punishment for what she wrote about the royal family in a gossip column.”

Twilight blinked and looked over to Celestia. “Filly’s...Harness?”

Once again, Princess Celestia’s face became concerned. “You know, the magical harness you made for Scootaloo that lessens the pull of gravity and allows her to fly like a normal pegasus? Or...like a changeling, considering how fast she has to beat her wings.”

While the thought of such an invention intrigued Twilight for a moment, the greater ramifications of her doing such a thing made her wings twitch. “Oh, right...that harness,” she said while trying to imagine how she could have changed in such a way that would mad made her think something of the like was a good idea.

Or that Princess Celestia didn’t stop her.

Scootaloo was one of those rare ponies that had been born prematurely, as thus, somewhat undeveloped when it came to her tribal features. As such, her wings were unable to generate enough lift to get her off the ground. She didn’t need a magical solution that enabled her to fly. She needed to accept her limitations and live within them.

It reminded Twilight of moments ago, when she had seen that lab the fake Twilight had made in the castle. The other Twilight was trying to hold onto something that she shouldn’t. The former unicorn was an alicorn, a princess, and that meant she couldn’t do any of those things she had dreamed about before. She couldn’t be an alchemist, she couldn’t be the next Starswirl. She had to follow her destiny.

“So you don’t remember the harness, either,” Princess Celestia said evenly. “That’s...interesting.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “What? No, no! I remember, I um…” she said before trying to think of an excuse to tell Princess Celestia as to why she had just forgotten this thing that the other her had invented, despite how wrong its existence was. “But, uh...l-let’s get back to what we were talking about before. So, um, before that was...oh, right! Tornado Day in Ponyville. When I helped Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy test the wing power of all the pegasi.”

After giving Twilight a long, calculating look, Princess Celestia nodded. “That’s right. They even broke the record for most powerful tornado, I believe.”

Twilight blinked. That...wasn’t the way that it was supposed to have gone. “R-Right,” she said uneasily. “And before that was the time I met my-” The door opened, cutting Twilight off as Spike ran in with...Chrysalis not far behind. Which was really, really disturbing for Twilight to see.

Chrysalis wasn’t supposed to be there! She wasn’t supposed to be smiling, and good, and...MARRIED TO CELESTIA!

“Twilight!” Spike said before rushing up to hug her. “Are you okay?”

Princess Celestia let out a small laugh. “She’s getting there. Hm...Spike, wasn’t it?”

As Spike raised a claw to give an unsure wave to Princess Celestia, Twilight looked over to the dragon. “Did you have a nice walk around Ponyville, Spike? See anything interesting?” she asked.

“Uh…” the dragon looked back to Princess Celestia for a moment, then over to Twilight again. “You and Rarity are married.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide. “...wut?” she asked incorrectly as her brain tried unsuccessfully to process what she had just heard. Rarity was a great friend, beautiful, smart, successful, talented, generous, loving and a whole bunch of other things that had tempted Twilight to become too distracted with her rather than focus on studying friendship when she first moved to Ponyville, but if she had tried something, it would have meant they were no longer friends.

Which meant that the fake Twilight of this world must have failed in that as well.

Princess Celestia let out a sigh that sounded more like a groan. “I was trying to keep this under wraps, considering your current mental state, but yes. One of the things your failing to remember correctly in relationship to your friends, is well...your relationship with them. Two years ago, you and Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie finally stopped messing around and officially got married.”

“Most redundant wedding ever,” Chrysalis comment with a roll of her eyes.

A second later, Princess Celestia looked back to the changeling. “Don’t let Cadance hear you say that. You know she made them actually address the stallion question they had all been avoiding for years. Getting married was a way to put it all to rest,” she said before smirking. “You’re just mad they had a bigger ceremony than us.”

Twilight scrambled to her hooves in a panic. Time to think on the issue hadn’t helped. While each and every one of her friends were perfect in different ways, the idea of becoming romantic with any of them, much less all of them, was just wrong! “But that’s not...I can’t...how did...but they’re my friends!”

The declaration got a confused frown from Chrysalis. “Well I’d hope so. Not liking the pony you're banging makes for a bad relationship.”
e

“But...I don’t...it...how?” Twilight stammered as she continued to try and get her mind working again.

Chrysalis gave her a sly smile. “Well, I imagine that…” she said before her face turned sour. “Wait, I just imagined my grandfoals having sex...ew.”

A tiny laugh came from Celestia. “It’s nice to see you’re still growing.”

Unfortunately, Chrysalis’s comment about what she was thinking about made Twilight think about how Chrysalis could get turned away by thought of intercourse between Twilight and her friends, which in turn let to Twilight thinking about...something she shouldn’t have. “AHHHHHHHHH!”

“I hear screaming!” a familiar voice said before Discord popped his head into the room through the door, rather than just...popping it in his usual way. “Is Twilight upset? Please tell me that Twilight’s upset!”

After turning her head to look at the newcomer, Princess Celestia frowned. “Now is not the time, Discord. Get out.”

“Wait a minute,” Discord said as he slithered past Princess Celestia and put to Twilight to examine her and Spike. “I’ve seen this somewhere before.”

Princess Celestia let out a disgruntled rumble. “Discord. I’m not in the mood. So, I will give you one minute to leave, then I’ll be throwing you out a window. And this time, I won’t stop them from using torches and pitchforks when you’re caught outside the castle.”

After looking back and forth between the two for a second, Twilight focus on Discord. “Well of course you’ve seen me before Discord. I uh...live here.”

“Oh no, not you. This,” he said as he threw his mismatched hands out in a wide gesture towards Twilight and Spike before taking a step back. “Now, let me think. Where was it…”

Chrysalis’s eyes narrowed. “That’s thirty seconds, get to stepping or you won’t make it.”

At Chrysalis’s threat, Discord grumbled a little and headed towards the bedroom door.

Celestia looked back at Twilight. “Now, let’s get back to what we were talking about before,” she said. “What else can you remember?”

Despite the revelation about how the wrong-Twilight had somehow married all five of the ponies who were supposed to be her friends, the Twilight Sparkle that was supposed to be knew it was a moot point. She was going to be fixing things back to the way they were supposed to be. Which meant no marriages and everypony would be friends again.

And Princess Celestia would like Discord again.

And...let him...get away with...anything…

Not to mention Chrysalis would be...evil...again…

Before her mind could dwell on such things, Twilight rapidly shook her head to clear it. She needed to figure out where the divergence was. “Well, before Tornado Day there was...oh!” Twilight said as she put more effort into focusing on her memories rather than how weird this Equestria was getting. “There was the time I got worried over nothing because I met a me from the future because of a time travel spell that-”

“THAT’S WHERE I’VE SEEN YOU TWO BEFORE!” Discord shouted before he stuck his head back in the door.

Twilight’s eyes went wide. “What?”

“Huh?” Celestia said as she looked around towards the draconequus.

“Oh no,” Spike mumbled.

“Ten seconds and counting,” Chrysalis grumbled.

The big white pony looked at Twilight for a moment with one of her considering stares. “Give him a moment, my love,” Celestia said before she turned to frown at Discord. “What are you talking about?”

Discord gave a delighted laugh as he walked around Twilight’s bed to stand on the side opposite to Celestia and Chrysalis. “Well, back when I was spending all my time just totally stoned,” the amalgamated creature said in a strange accent. “I liked to watch the goings on in Equestria. All the crazy happenings and whatnot. Like, a couple of weeks before your darling little girl showed up in your vanity room, Starlight Glimmer and Twilight, who was carrying this dragon along with her, just popped out of a temporal disturbance Sire’s Hollow and just went on and on about a bunch of boring things like how she got mad because Sunburst got his cutie mark and went on about how she tracked the pony down and killed him for it when she was a foal.”

Celestia’s expression deepened. “What?”

Twilight felt a tug on her foreleg. “Twilight,” Spike said in a voice she could just barely make out. “We need to talk.”

“Just a minute, Spike,” she said before pulling her leg away from him and looking over to Discord. “You saw that?”

Twilight’s mind boggled at the possibilities. If Discord was aware of her traveling through time, which he apparently was since he was still aware of the happenings in Equestria despite being petrified, that changed everything! It must have been one of the reasons everything was different every time she came back to the present. Twilight had thought it was Starlight Glimmer’s doing, but if Discord decided to alter his behavior as well because he saw an alicorn trotting around that was just like a unicorn he had met or was going to meet previously…

Twilight didn’t get a chance to finish considering the ramifications as Discord stood up a little straighter. “I sure did! Ponies talking about murder and the like, it was so out of the ordinary that I just had to remember it after you used that big crystal map thing to travel through time again,” he said with glee before going on. “Then, a few years later, I felt the familiar twinges and looked over to Cloudsdale to see Starlight Glimmer just appear and go on about how she was going to kill Rainbow Dash. Of course, we all know what happened to her!”

“Um...I-I don’t” Twilight mumbled as an uneasy feeling made itself known in her gut.

“And how Princess Lovey-Dovey and Princess Sunny Disposition kept an eye on Glimglam for years because of that, not letting her become little Twily’s mentor because you all thought that she might be in some way connected to the temporal disturbance and picking that talent-less Trixie instead.”

Twilight blinked in absolute confusion. “M-Mentor?” she squeaked as horrible visions of a life as Trixie’s stage assistant ran through her head while Spike continued to tug fiercely on her hoof.

“But what nopony saw at the time, other than that idiot Rainbow Dash who promptly forgot about the whole thing because of her cutie mark, was that this Twilight here also appeared,” Discord went on happily as he sucked up everypony’s attention as Spike's tugs became more and more frantic. “But all she did was talk about how different Cloudsdale looked before getting sucked back up by some more temporal magic, just like Starlight did at the same time.”

Spike got close enough to mumble something at her. “Twilight, we need to go, now!”

“You know the big temporal discrepancy all of you have been investigating for the past twelve years? The reason why her big, fat, furious rageness showed up when she did instead of when she said she was supposed to? Well, this is the reason!” Discord asked before he grabbed Twilight and lifted her into the air with a grunt of effort as Princess Celestia’s eyes started to slowly widen and the room became somewhat uncomfortable in terms of temperature. “And remember the Princess Twilight that made you and Cadance so angry that you practically swore never-ending vengeance against her should she ever cross your path? Well, here she is!”