The Timepony’s Journal

by Penny_Shavins109

Chapter 31 - The Edge

Radiance continued to rest, fluttering in and out of consciousness. That was enough remembering for now, her mind burning with white hot pain. She needed to rest, but she didn’t want to give up on finding Prism. She was so much closer than before, she had to find her. Laying still on a stretcher in the ambulance, Radiance stared up at the roof of the ship as it flew towards the nearest hospital station. She didn’t feel that she strictly needed an ambulance given that she wasn’t physically injured, at least to her knowledge. It hurt for her to think, but there were so many burning and lingering questions that she just wanted the answers to. She’d mentioned her TARDIS to the crew, tried to tell them how vital it was to her, but she could barely mutter out the words.

Her breathing became heavier as she felt a dull ache welling up in her chest. Looking down she was shocked to see a small pink patch growing and shifting on her chest. Then another appeared, and another, and another. It was her coat, every hair attempting to change from their usual grey to a soft hue of pink. She suddenly felt so incomplete, just when she’d finally gotten such a large part of herself from. It was only one of the many lives she’d lived, but she knew so much. She wasn’t incomplete, she was unfinished. Her hooves had a faint golden glow as she finally blacked out from the pain. Radiance felt as if she were drifting, like floating in a lazy river. Everything around her was slightly cold, sending a chill up her spine. When opening her eyes all she saw was herself and the inky void. She shouldn’t have been able to see anything in this darkness, and yet she could see so clearly.

Wincing, Radiance bumped her head on some kind of raised platform. It felt like she was getting out of a pool of molasses as she stood up. Her limbs were heavy and her mind still somewhat foggy. She was still shifting coat colors, but it no longer hurt. In front of her were five round platforms, each with her ornate clock cutie mark engrained with the hands pointing to different hours. Behind them was a golden archway with a black fenced gate. She couldn’t see past the mist behind it,she couldn’t hear anypony or anything. Upon approaching the platforms the fifth one glowed softly, as did her cutie mark.

“You’re not supposed to be here yet.”

Radiance nearly jumped out of her skin, turning around to see Hedley behind her on the first platform. She stepped down, the glow beneath her hooves dissipating. Hedley wasn’t as regal as she last saw the apparition. Perhaps this was the true Hedley, complete with every memory of her regeneration. She was wearing the sherbert colored scarf too, that made Radiance smile.

“Where am I? I was just in the ambulance. Am I asleep?”

Hedley walked past her, towards the golden arch.

“You’re at the gateway to the edge. Where all of us go in the end.”

“Edge…what edge?”

Merely turning around she was in a completely different place. It was a barren wasteland, an orange desert that almost looked like a painting. Barren hills swooped up and down like the strokes of a brush, dead bushes littered around like a wild west film. Radiance hardly even noticed the edge of the cliff until she nearly fell off of it. A chunk of the dirty red stone broke from the cliff, falling eternally into the abyss below. Radiance quickly backed away, her hearts pounding in her chest.

“That edge.” said a new voice.

Turning around, Radiance saw a small indigo pegasus sitting in a wicker chair. Her mane and tail were short and transitioned from a light blue, to seafoam green and to a warm yellow. Both were tied up in a neat little ponytail and every feather in her wings was a different shade of pink or orange. She knew that this was another one of her past selves, yet she was still a stranger to her.

“This is where the mind goes when at the end of a regeneration, but you shouldn’t be here yet. You’re unstable, you’ve overworked your mind trying to remember us.”

“But that shouldn’t kill me! Why am I regenerating, why am I changing?”

Suddenly the mare morphed into a seafoam green unicorn with a forest green mane, the next one in the line of many.

“That’s why you’re here, you haven’t stopped regenerating. You’re not fully complete yet. Something’s happened during your regeneration process, preventing it from fully completing.”

“But why? What’s happened to me and why can’t I remember?!”

The mare shifted one last time, causing Radience’s hearts to sink. Those dark and soulless eyes, her inky black mane and tail, she’d seen that face before. It felt so long ago, leaving Ponyville in search of somewhere to ease her mind. For the first time in her recent memory, she felt pure and unbridled hatred.

“I happened…” said Iridescence.

“The Doctor, Prism, Provia, all of it. Why did you do it? Why have you and are you hurting so many ponies?!”

Radiance was on the verge of tears, causing Iridescence to look down in shame. There were so many terrible and unforgivable things she’d done, she could feel it despite not remembering it. Somehow that made her feel more guilty, the shame of doing so much wrong and not even remembering it ever happened. It wasn’t her that did those things, it was Iridescence, it was her to blame. Yet she was her, and there was nothing Radiance could do about it. So much anger welled up inside of her that she wanted to scream, to explode, to make her feel the same pain that she’d caused on others. She didn’t even know why she was so angry.

“Because of the War. Because of what I lost. And because it hurt too much to care. I’m still out there, equally as incomplete as you are. I was sealed away for something I couldn’t control…I honestly didn’t think you’d exist. A future for me.”

Iridescence shifted back into Hedley, already starting to cry. Radiance softened, but she was still in so much pain. Approaching her, Radiance gave her past self a long and needed hug. They cried together until Radiance’s pain returned. She was returning to the real world, not this false one conjured up by her subconscious.

“You’ll wake up soon, and you’ll probably never see me again. So as a parting gift, let me help you as much as I can.” smiled Hedley.

Both Hedley and Radiance closed their eyes in unison, their minds touching. Contact was made and Radiance began to steadily relax. She smiled, drifting into a steady trance as some of those barriers softened. Prism and her had had so much fun together, exploring the wonders of Provia and later the universe. They were more carefree back then, from 930 Manehatten to the ice caves of Shabalodon V. They told each other the truth, how they felt, and they steadily became best friends. There was still a little more of her first life to remember, those last pages still missing from the chapter. Though this was more than enough, more than she could ask for. Hedley was back in her head, almost completely.

Upon opening her eyes Radiance found herself in a hospital bed. The spots were still there, still shifting at a slower pace than before. A nurse by her side called in another doctor, their words still muffled. They applied some kind of medicinal spray to the spots, covering them in bandages to help them heal. They were only trying to help, but this was far beyond their understanding. She could sense her TARDIS somewhere nearby, she could heal properly there. Radiance couldn’t even tell when she started running, just that she was. Operating on pure instinct, she dodged left and right through various halls into the docking bay where all the ambulance ships were held. She stopped to catch her breath, looking around to see two or three purple alicorns sliding back and forth.

“Hello again, Twilight.”

In a matter of seconds she fell forwards, caught in the lavender aura of Twilight’s magic. The feeling of her home was strong here, her TARDIS was calling out to her. Radiance slowly raised her hoof, reaching out to wherever her senses guided her. She closed her eyes as she was carried inside, the warmth of the console room stabilising her condition. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been asleep for but it felt like an eternity. Getting up out of a wicker chair, Radiance saw Twilight looking over the console confused. Radiance knew Twilight wasn’t as attuned to her TARDIS as the Doctor’s but she was still a skilled pilot.

“Do you like it? It’s a little older model than the Doctor’s, but it’s still mine.”

Twilight jumped slightly as she turned around to see her. Radiance chuckled as she looked over the controls. She was still a little hazy, but her mind had become even clearer than before.

“Welcome to the Tardis, Twilight. My Tardis.”

Twilight stood there speechless for a few moments, her mouth wide open as she struggled to find the right words.

“Who…are you really? You hardly told me anything, you just ran away.”

Radiance felt a slight twinge of guilt for her past actions, though she wasn’t quite herself just yet.

“Let me explain…I’m an old friend of the Doctor. I studied with him in the academy on Gallophrey. I used to repair Tardises for fun until I arrived on Provia in this one. She’s a refurbished model, but she’s still reliable. I arrived on Provia a long time ago, made a friend, travelled a little, and the rest…the rest is still hazy to me. I’m not sure what happened to me, but my memories are still jumbled. This regeneration is still incomplete.”

“So, you know where he is?”

“I have a general idea, and I could probably get you back there. I’m still too weak though, too weak to try and fight anypony let alone a past version of myself. Not to mention breaking the first law of time, it’s still too risky.”

“But I can fly the Doctor’s Tardis, I can get to him. I’m an alicorn now, an element of magic, I’m sure that there’s something I can do!”

Radiance pulled Twilight into a hug, patting her on the back. Twilight felt so powerless, so useless. She was supposed to be an alicorn, the Princess of Friendship, but she didn’t know what to do. Ever since her fight with Tirek, she’d been afraid. She started to cry in her arms, her brave face melting away.

“It’s alright…you’re doing your best, and you’ve done a good job. While I’ve been resting and recuperating you’ve been doing all the hard work. You learned to pilot a Tardis on your own, you were even able to find me. I think it’s time you head home for now, have some rest of your own.”

“What’s the point of my work, though? I don’t need to keep looking for the Doctor, to keep reading and decrypting his diary. You can do it, can’t you?”

“We both know that you don’t want to. If the Doctor left you any instructions, then it's best to keep trying to find them. But for now, I think you’ve earned a long rest.”

Radiance removed one of the roundels, pulling out a small silver box that looked like an advanced radio. She gladly placed it in Twilight’s hoof, adjusting some of the knobs on it.

“It’s a space-time telegraph, allows you to contact my Tardis wherever and whenever I am. Should still be relatively functional…I hope. I’ll try and come back as soon as I can.”

Twilight nodded knowingly, exiting Radiance’s TARDIS and returning to the Doctor’s. Radiance sighed, smiling tiredly. She wasn’t sure if this was the best course of action, but it was going to be worth it.

“Well…I guess I have some work of my own to do.”

Author's Note:

End of Act 2

We’re in the home stretch. I want to thank again everyone who’s stuck around or read this far. You’re all the reason I continue writing this story.

~ Penny