The Timepony’s Journal

by Penny_Shavins109

Chapter 26 - Broken Memories and Lost Promises

Radiance’s hooves clicked on the floor, a solemn silence echoing throughout her TARDIS. She rummaged through the databanks for anything to trigger her memory, anything to lead her back to wherever or whenever Prism was. The phantom of her past both figuratively and literally lingered behind her. Everything was cold as she punched in the coordinates. Iridescence, the monster from her past, had taken so much from her. All of those days, all of those moments, completely lost to her. She knew that they were in her mind, laying dormant, but trying to access them hurt so much. For now she focused on the task at hand, tears drying from her eyes as the time rotor gently drifted up and down. She sat down in an antique chair, putting a hoof to her head.

It was like a floodgate had been opened and she had to hold back the tide. So many memories, so much information, it was too much for her to take in all at once. Her head pounded as she could hear the beating of her hearts. The sounds of several voices called out to her, her vision narrowing as her breath grew heavy. She couldn’t take it all, it was too much. It was too much. The TARDIS landed, and all was quiet once again. She was alone with nothing but herself. All of her phantoms were gone, both physical and mental. It took a moment for her to recover and pull that lever to open the large doors. She stumbled out, still rubbing her temples as the pain resided. The air smelled sweet like ice cream and candy, the walls lined with large pipes and crates marked for shipment. Strangely, the area she’d landed in perfectly fit the pink gazebo, even having a reserved print on the ground and a digital display with her name on it. At least, it felt like her name. Whenever she tried to read it her mind just couldn’t register the text, another barrier she wasn’t ready to cross.

A small rotating droid came out from the wall, quickly scanning the monochrome mare on the spot. It whirred for a few seconds, processing the scan through its database.

“Designation: HOPE, Reserved for: YEARLY FACTORY TOUR PLUS ONE, please wait while we dispatch an administrative assistant.”

Radiance froze as she heard that name. She looked around and tried to regain her bearings. She wasn’t sure how the droid recognized her, probably more than facial recognition, but hearing a name she used to have only cut her deeply. She could feel herself starting to sweat and slip in and out of consciousness as she tried to concentrate. Somepony quickly rushed to her aid as she started to fall over, feeling ill and distressed. Suddenly everything went blurry and her mind couldn’t register anything anymore.

---

Blurry images, fragments, distorted visions of the past. Her body felt unnatural, like the whole universe was tilted at a strange angle. Her brain was firing pulses at a rapid rate, her heart’s pounding in her chest. Where was she, who was she?

“Hope…please wake up…we need you.”

Everything looked like TV static, flickering in and out of existence. What was she doing, there was a battle to fight. She needed something, someone important. Soon the images became clearer and she knew what she saw. The universe was falling apart piece by piece, the fragile Web of Time stretched and strained as the fighting continued.

“Would this bring her back? Can I save her?!”

Radiance hardly recognized her own voice, if it was truly hers. She wasn’t really here, it was just another memory. The room she was in was cold and sterile, filled with machines that no lower life form would ever understand. It was beyond magic, it was what could be the foundation of countless universes. Radiance finally remembered what that name meant to her, in the moment where hope would be gone.

This was it, the nexus point that she’d been trying to find. Being here, in this moment in her past, hurt so much. She could feel white hot pain searing through her mind, unable to tell if this was how she felt in the present or how she felt in the past. She could see those machines moving, twisting and turning like a metallic serpent before coming close to her. It was all part of some experiment to end the fighting and finish the war once and for all. Hope was scared, Radiance was scared as she felt like she was losing herself all over again.

Time suddenly froze around her as she couldn’t handle being there anymore. There was one last thought passing through the seafoam green mare’s mind before the world faded away. She had hope to make things better, Hope would hold the universe together and end the fighting. She closed her eyes and the machines slipped away, the lab filled with mystical secrets and weapons, all to end the war to end all wars. This was where all hope and light was lost, and Iridescence took its place.

---

“Are you okay?”

It was her voice this time, though the world was a lot less distorted than the previous memory. She felt like she had more control, more confidence, though she didn’t know who she was yet. She was her original self again back in the ice cream factory, the place more new and polished than in the present. She’d arrived at just the right time and place to be one of the first hundred customers to enter the brand new Minty Magic ice cream facility, the largest in the galaxy in fact. With a time and space machine it was easy to score a lifetime pass with a free tour every year. It was almost like a theme park for ice cream enthusiasts, perfect for the ice cream salespony. Hedley looked down at Prism on the floor, her best friend unsure whether to clutch her stomach or her head in a moment of pain. Hedley just looked at her in pure disbelief.

“45 different flavors in less than 20 minutes…did you really not think all of this through?” Hedley asked.

“It was 15 minutes, and I regret nothing!”

This got a chuckle out of Hedley while she carried her best friend to her TARDIS. Prism was heavier now that what felt like a pound of souvenirs weighed her down, having gone all out on gathering as many limited edition collectables and new free samples as physically possible. Prism also wasn’t helping, begging like a foal as she was dragged back to their mode of transport.

“You do realise we have a time machine, right? We can take a several hour break and still come back as if we were only gone for a few seconds.”

Hedley placed Prism on a foldable chair, one of the few pieces of furniture she owned. Hedley danced around the controls, occasionally sneaking a glance back at the fluffy white mare. Prism could see the worry in her eyes, the experience of nearly being ejected into space merely hours ago weighing on her deeply. They both knew that this trip was an apology, a feeble attempt to make things right without talking.

“Hey…you wanna talk?” Prism asked while moving around the console.

Hedley slightly shifted herself away from her, tensing as she got closer.

“I…I don’t know. All of my life I’ve been taught never to interfere with the affairs of other species, to stay out of trouble. Maybe they were right. My teachers, my mentors, my parents…they said that my friends were a bad influence on me.”

The two of them stood in silence for what felt like an eternity. What could they say? It was true that Hedley had risked both her and Prism’s life, depended on Prism to help her make the right choice, to even care about what the Expo might have done to planets other than Provia. But at the same time, that was all she ever knew. Not to care about others outside of the perfect glass dome of the citadel, to perform one single function for the rest of eternity. Hedley felt Prism wrap a scarf around her neck the color of multiple types of sherbert. She was then immediately pulled into a hug as they both started to cry.

“I’m sorry…I’m so sorry…” Hedley apologised.

That was all she could do, all the words she could muster. After several minutes Hedley was finally able to look at Prism again, wiping the tears out of her eyes.

“Hey…you were doing your best. It’s hard, but you can talk to me.”

“Thank you…I’ll talk, but not now. I’m not ready…but I promise you I’ll be ready someday soon.”

“That’s all I need to hear. Also, I think that scarf suits you.” Prism said while cracking a teary eyed smile.

“It does? Maybe I shouldn’t be wearing lacy dresses anymore then.”

“You do look like you’re on your way to a wedding. Does this place have a bathroom? You’ve never shown me around this place.”

“Oh you have no idea, it’s got virtually everything. Bathroom is two doors down, take a left, up the stairs, take a right, through the double doors and it should be on the left. If you’ve passed the warp drive you’ve gone too far.”

Prism just started at her, blinking cluelessly.

“I’m sorry…what?”

Hedley laughed and took her hoof.

“It’s alright, I’ll show you the way…”

---

Radiance groaned as she came to, waking up in what looked like a private lounge. She understood so much more, more and more memories starting to become easily available to her. She was starting to recognise just how much she’d lost, all the adventures and days gone by that were trapped behind the fog of a healing mind. She took a long sip of water before taking several deep breaths. She looked up at the attendant and some of her supervisors.

“Are you feeling better now? Don’t strain yourself too much, we’ve got medics coming soon.”

“M-medics? Are you sure that’s a good idea? I just…feel a little dehydrated.”

“You were writhing on the ground for nearly ten minutes. After that we brought you here so you’d be safe from the normal crowd.”

“Normal crowd…I lost someone, somepony I was meant to be with but I can’t remember where she is. Violet Prism, my plus one.”

The attendant looked at the others for some guidance, a few whispers being exchanged before she replied.

“I’m sorry, but you arrived alone. We can put out a report for her if you like.”

Radiance looked down while wiping some of the sweat off of her brow. She knew how many lives she’d lived and dreaded the thought of what may have happened to her first friend, maybe her only friend. There was no telling where or when they’d meet again.

“Sherbert scarfs…she gave me one some time ago. Maybe longer than I can remember.”

“We’ll be on the lookout for her. It’s okay, we have the bioscan still in our customer database. I’m sorry that you had such a poor experience.”

“It’s not your fault that I can’t find her. In fact, that’s specifically why I’m here. Thank you so much for your help, you did your best.”

It wasn’t long before the ambulance rolled in, or rather hovered in considering it had no wheels to speak of. Hedley wasn’t put on a stretcher, simply opting to ride in one of the seats in the back. She was so tired, so alone, though she had many more answers than she started out with. She felt some of the strength and color returning to her body, which felt odd considering she didn’t remember having any color at all before. It felt nice and warm, like the clouds were finally parting inside of her. While looking out of the window she could faintly see the apparition of herself, smiling wider than she had ever before while wearing that bright sherbert scarf.