The Many Twilights of Ascension

by SvenFoxx

2. The Journey

Both Twilights sat in front of each other with a table between them, sipping tea that the Princess had brewed. They were in the Captain's kitchen. The Princess, who's magic was far stronger than the Captain's, was able to repair the hole in the wall she had caused.

"So..." the Captain started, but hesitated.

The Princess nodded. "I know. I can't stay here."

The Captain slowly nodded. "I'm not as well-read as my brother, or you, but even I know you being out of your home dimension can't be good."

The Princess sighed. "I'd go back if I could, but apparently Discord wants me to learn something from here. Stars only know what, though."

The Captain narrowed her eyes, remembering a conversation she had with the Princess’ Discord when they were alone.

“The loss of her son was only the straw that broke a bridge slowly accumulating more and more weight over time. The Princess of Friendship is still there, as it always will be so long as she has even a shred of compassion… but it’s been buried under layers of grief, regret, shame, and even hatred. Twilight needs to be reminded what it means to be the Princess of Friendship… or she’ll become a threat far worse than any version of me could ever have dreamed of being.”

“But why here? Why me? My ascension is based on shattering my destiny, not Friendship.”

“Because, despite your differences, you’re still a Twilight Sparkle.

“You’re still an Element of Magic.”

"He's apparently the expert, though I would hesitate to trust him for anything,” the Captain eventually scoffed. ‘Idiot couldn’t even tell that I’m not the Element of Magic. My brother is,’ she thought to herself.

The Princess noticed the hint of venom in her counterpart's voice and raised an eyebrow. "Is something wrong?"

The Captain sighed. "I just don't get why you would go to a villain, of all things, for advice," she said.

"Oh... he's not reformed in your world?" the Princess asked.

The Captain shook her head. "He's always been a villain. We gave him a chance to reform about a decade ago, but the moment our eyes were off of him he did something to the Elements. They no longer work on him. While he's not causing trouble on the same scale he did back when he first escaped, he tends to be an annoying pain in the ass from time to time, making confrontations with other criminals more difficult for shits and giggles, in his words."

The Princess frowned. “That’s not right. The Elements can’t just be altered. Corrupted, yes, but only through the actions of their bearers, not an outside influence.”

“I’m not a bearer. My brother is the Element of Magic, not me, though I have on occasion been given the armor for some reason.”

The Princess blinked. “Armor?” she asked.

The Captain waved a hoof. “You know, the Armor of Harmony? That’s what we call it in our world.” She noticed the Princess’ growing confusion. “The armor that the Elements become when activated? It changes to suit whoever wears it. That armor?”

The Princess frowned, then closed her eyes in concentration. With a flash of light the Captain found the six Elements of Harmony floating around the Princess. No… no, wait. They were different. They lacked the golden adornments. It was just the gems. It was the Captain’s turn to blink. “Um… how did you…?” she asked slowly.

“They’re not your Elements, don’t worry. They’re copies of the Elements from my world, connection to the Tree of Harmony and all. I discovered how to reforge not only them, but how to regrow the Tree of Harmony in the event it’s ever destroyed.” The Princess noticed the dull color of the Elements. “That said, being out of their home dimensions may have severed that connection.”

“Huh. I’ve never seen them outside of their settings,” the Captain noted. “Why’d you summon them?”

“A test. Catch.”

The Captain yelped as the Element of Magic was tossed to her. She tried to catch it in her magic but it seemed to slip right through her aura. She scrambled to catch it with her hooves. Once she had firm grip on the star though…

“Whoa…” the Captain murmured as she examined the simple golden shield the Element of Magic had turned into. “I didn’t know these things could change separate from the others.”

The Princess had a notebook and quill and was making notes. “EoM instantly latched onto possible candidate and attuned to subject. The EoM drew power from the subject and shaped itself based on expectations. No, surface thoughts? Maybe...” She paused, thinking. “Is that why we only ever got beams of magic, I wonder? We pretty much just wanted the Elements to DO something the first time, and expected the reaction we got every time afterwards.”

The Captain looked to the Princess, the shield in her hooves returning to the shape of a now glittering purple star once she was no longer focusing on it. “What was the point of that?”

The Princess frowned. “Like I said, a test.” She smirked. “Sorry, but you are an Element Bearer, or a potential bearer. In the event your brother is unavailable, the Element of Magic will default to you. I need one more thing to make a conclusive statement though. Can you take me to your Elements of Harmony?”

---

“Here they are.” The Captain opened the box she had pulled from under her bed. “I keep them on me at all times because Shining can use his portals to get to them from anywhere anyways. No real point in a security system.”

The Princess nodded, taking the glittering Elements into her aura. She was consumed with ancient memories as she beheld the Elements in the golden setting that she had not seen since her friends were still alive. She wiped away a tear that tried to trickle from her eye and immediately got to work examining the Elements.

“So, what are you trying to figure out?” The Captain asked curiously, tactfully ignoring the tears.

“The Elements of Harmony, after they were reconnected to the Tree of Harmony during the whole Nightmare Night fiasco, became subsumed in the power of Harmony. More than that, they are constantly being powered by the Tree so long as it exists and the connection is there. No source of Chaos Magic should be capable of holding them, let alone altering them, so long as that connection is there.”

“Discord touched them during our first encounter with him. He even hid them,” the Captain reminded her counterpart.

The Princess nodded. “He did, but that was due to two things. When he hid the Elements, he was capable of doing so because the Plunder Vines had pretty much killed the connection to the Tree at that point. They still contained Harmony Magic, but only a limited supply, and Discord used that to his advantage. The other time he touched them was when you faced him while you all were inverted, I’m guessing?” The Captain nodded slowly at that, still somewhat sore over how easily the Spirit had turned her into a lazy slacker that ran from responsibility.

“Well, that was the problem. You and your friends were so out of tune with Harmony and each other that the Elements couldn’t get power from you, leaving them mostly inert in an attempt to remain active and not go into shutdown mode again,” the Princess explained.

She suddenly frowned, holding both Elements of Magic in her aura. “Are you sure Discord altered the Elements? I’m not sensing any kind of Chaos Magic or difference in the connection to the Tree of Harmony.”

The Captain nodded. “When we tried to use them on him, they did nothing. Well, they cleaned up his current mess, but that was it. He laughed at us and said he had broken the power the Elements had over him forever.”

The Princess turned to look at her counterpart, staring as if in disbelief. The Captain shuffled slightly after a moment, somewhat uncomfortable with the stare. “What?” she asked.

The Princess sighed and rubbed her face with a hoof. “Discord, the Lord of Chaos, the Troll of Trolls himself, told you he had messed with the Elements… and you believed him?!”

The Captain blinked. “What?”

The Princess groaned. “I swear, the older I get…” she mused to herself. “Right, so… what happens when the Elements of Harmony hit somepony who is not, inherently, evil?”

The Captain blinked again. “Er… nothing?” she guessed. They had never tried using the Elements on an innocent, so she wasn’t sure.

The Princess nodded. “And what happened when you hit Discord with them?”

The Captain paused, the dots connecting in her mind. “You mean…? This whole time he’s been playing us for fools!” she roared, standing suddenly.

The Princess noted how her counterpart’s shield seemingly warped to her hoof. “Yes. As is his nature, he played a trick on you… one you all too willingly let him play.”

The Captain stopped. “Then… wait, so he’s good?”

The Princess waved a hoof. “Eh. Good may be a stretch. Despite how close I am to my Discord, even I get frustrated with the things he pulls. However, I’m willing to bet he’s not evil, and that Fluttershy knows.”

“Fluttershy? Why her?” the Captain asked curiously.

“Because in my world, she’s the reason Discord reformed. She was his driving force for becoming a better pony… person… thing,” the Princess eventually settled on an adjective. “If the only difference in our worlds is the timeline and that you and Shining swapped roles, I bet she’s still his source light.”

“Fluttershy was the one that was supposed to reform Discord somehow… and honestly she never seemed all that heartbroken over his betrayal.” The Captain sighed. “But why would she hide this? Discord’s caused so much chaos in the years since his release.”

The Princess eventually shrugged. “Could be a few things, but it doesn’t really matter, does it? Her life is her own. She can keep her own secrets, as well as the secrets of her friends. Besides, has Discord ever actually hurt anyone? I mean as in being the direct and purposeful cause of true mental anguish, or of loss of life and or limb?”

The Captain thought back, before eventually sighing again. She was doing that a lot today. “No. The worst he’s ever done is give some of our enemies a power boost. However, because we still win in the end, I’m beginning to suspect it was more of a placebo effect than anything.”

The Princess smiled. “There you go. Your Discord in not evil. Maybe not good, per-se, but not evil. A little more trust in him may not hurt.”

The Captain shook her head. “He’s an enemy of the state. I can’t trust him unless he willingly gives up his Chaos for good. He’s a constant cause for upheaval to public order and panic. He will never be trusted by me or any other Royal Guard so long as he continues to enjoy his Chaos.”

The Princess’ eyes grew stony at that, startling the Captain. “So you want him to just commit suicide for your sense of Order?” she asked.

The Captain… had not been expecting that. “What? No! I want him to become a law-abiding, productive member of society, and he can’t do that if everything he does flies in the face of Law and Order!”

The Princess stared at the Captain, and the Captain realized she was searching for something. Eventually the Princess closed her eyes and settled. “You don’t know,” she stated simply. “I had thought, for just a moment, that you and I were more different than I thought. That you would condemn a pony for the circumstances of their birth.”

“Hey, Princess, you… aren’t making sense,” the Captain said somewhat uncomfortably.

The Princess sighed. Yep. A lot of sighs todays. “Discord is the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony. His power, his very essence, is derived from chaos and disharmony. It not only empowers him, but it’s what keeps him alive.” She looked up at the Captain, who looked shocked. “He gave up Disharmony for Friendship, and that sacrifice drastically reduced his power. If he were to give up Chaos as well… he would die.”

“How…?” The Captain shook her head. “How can you be sure he didn’t trick you into believing that?” she asked, unwilling to accept that answer.

“Because I’m the Element of Magic. I AM Magic. The magic of all who dwell within Equestria is just as accessible to me as it is to them, and I can read it like I can read a book.”

The Captain shuddered as, in her eyes, the pony who looked just like her suddenly appeared much different than her. This mare. This ancient, ageless mare, was battleworn, war-weary, and scarred.

“I can see all that makes up every pony. I can see the very building blocks of life, all because it is all tied to magic in some way or another.”

And she was so. Very. Tired.

She finally understood why the Princess’ Discord had sent her on this journey. She realized now why he had been so worried. This was never a journey of self-discovery.

The Princess seemed to shrink in on herself slightly, and yet in the Captain’s eyes she only grew larger, her presence becoming all consuming.

“I am, for all intents and purposes, The Goddess of Magic…” The Princess of Friendship whispered harshly to herself.

It was a journey of acceptance.

Comments

[Comickook]

REALLY good job on this latest chapter. It seems Captain Sparkle needed that chat JUST as much as Princess Sparkle did. I admit I got a good mix of laugh and thought from the two Twilights comparing notes on their Discords and the other Twilight's reactions to the native Discord's antics. And, yeah, it DOES make sense that the Elements would not directly effect Discord if he wasn't inherently evil.

Anyway, wonderful job on the exchange, characterizations and future chapter set-up in all the right places.

[CommanderBigMac]

This just got deep, and even better.

[prism heart]

Love this story so far! Can hardly wait for more!

[badninja]

That was a good twist! Suddenly our good Captain finds out and learns so much.