Pony POV Series Dark World Gaiden: Sirens vs Nightmares

by Alex Warlorn

...Sunrise!

*N-No. No! I won't allow it! Nightmare Eclipse's defeat will not come at the cost of another horrible timeline! This vision will not come to pass! Time to give this story a real happy ending!*

{Yes yes yes.}

*Razzaroo?*

{This timeline's at least. Need a miracle?}

*Always.*

*You're as much Twilight Sparkle as she is, what would remain in your heart no matter how twisted you were?*

What would be the one part of her that might still exist in this twisted corrupted version of her? Twilight looked over Eclipse and her friends as the Rainbows continued to fight back and forth...That's it!

“Eclipse...no, Twilight Sparkle!” Twilight yelled. “You really are friends with the others?”

“Of course I am!” Eclipse yelled back with a proud smile.

“Well then, here's the thing: if the Sirens win, your friends get erased along with this world, right?!”

The lead Nightmare's eyes widened with a gasp.

“The only way you keep your grudge on Discord is if I reset the timeline, but that's not happening no matter what you do!” Twilight turned her head and looked directly into Mirror's shattered but still existent wings. “We'll all cease to exist if the Sirens win, but after everything you've done? We're willing to be erased to stop you! Right?”

One by one her friends did the same thing and nodded, resolute despite gazing into the wings of the Cruelest of Truths.

“Your grudge dies today one way or another! Either by being purified or by being erased! And don't say your dream of a Golden World dies too! Because I have one too! But it's a Golden World we build in the present! So that leaves you with one question: would you rather hold onto your grudge on Discord and take it with your friends to Oblivion, or spend eternity with your friends making up for all you've done?!” Twilight asked.

Nightmare Eclipse gasped. She prepared to speak a retort...at which point Mirror's Apple Pie ran in and did a jump, intentionally grabbing Mirror's wing and swinging it in front of Eclipse's face.

“Apple Pie! Stay outta this!” Nightmare Mirror yelled.

“No! Ah'm done hidin' and watchin' yah do this tah yourself, AJ!” the filly screamed, holding the wing in place.

“Yah Pinkie Promised not tah stop meh!”

“Ah'm not! Ah'm stopping Eclipse!”

“...Got meh there.”

“You're not a hero. You're murderer.”

“You would've have made the Golden World millions of years ago if it really mattered to you.”

“You've killed your friends so many times you've lost count.”

“If you loved them, you'd have never lobotomized Rainbow Dash to make her be your friend.”

“If you really cared about your friends, you'd have never destroyed their happy endings.”

Robbed of self-deception in the face of pure, objective, cruel truth, Eclipse could only answer Twilight's question with the honest answer.

A tear ran from her face and the world vanished in Rainbow Light.

---

“Got it,” said Sonata with a smirk as the sisters circled the portal.

“Good, then let's sing a song and teleport all of our good little adoring fans to their new home,” Adagio said with a smile.

The trio sped up, practically forming a tornado as they sang a single, long note. The portal ripped open wider, the wind blowing in erasing the flames and leaving a damaged and wrecked, but still huge pocket dimension waiting. Flutternice and their personal Ponyville waiting in that intact portion of the domain to accept their fellow subjects. All over the world, ponies began to glow red, flickering as they prepared to teleport.

However, when the flickering reach its apex, a light came on the horizon.

“Stop it right there!”

The trio blinked, turning and seeing who dared to interrupt them.

While some had to remain on Spike's back, the group hovered in front of the Sirens. One half composed of five Alicorns the size of the just purified Princess Luna and a Dragon God a little bigger than Spike...with an ethereal white unicorn with a blue mane and tail, his Cutie Mark a shield with the same star as Twilight floating beside them.

---

The group all looked as the stallion the Alicorn version of Twilight had split off from herself, who mainly set there, looking depressed and unresponsive. He'd failed the true purpose Pandora had created him for. He failed to give Cadence a happy ending in the end. The one time he'd not been able to change a story, it had to be a tragedy. Even when he was really trying to be a true hero.

The purified form of Mirror walked over, holding up one wing. A kindly looking eye opened on its underside, staring the stallion in the eye.

'It doesn't matter what you were, you were a loyal, trustworthy coltfriend and brother until the very end. You're not that Nameless thing, you're you. And you're more real than he ever was. You did all you could've done.'

The purified Eclipse walked over, prompting a gasp when Shining looked him in the eye. “You didn't fail. I failed you, BBBFF. Now we both have a chance to set things right.”

---

= Beverly / Be The One (English Ver.) =

“Well...I finally get to save the world,” Shining Armor said with a small smile. “For real this time.”

On Spike's back, Apple Pie, the one from the present timeline, sat, with a new Element of Chaos around her neck.

---

Luna slowly opened the door...and walked in to find herself at Paradise Estate long ago. Walking forwards, she looked around, noting all their friends from back then were themselves, acting just as they did it life.

She continued walking until she finally saw two little Alicorns and a baby Draconequus playing. “Dreaming of simpler times? We thought Dissy was long dead, Discord.”

The baby draconequus sighed and grew back up to the Spirit of Chaos she knew...no, not the one she knew.

Discord gave a sad sigh. “What can I say? Several hundred million years in a torture device of a time loop changes a Draconequus...Though with Eclipse defeated, I can finally say something I've wanted to for a long time, not that she'd ever let me.”

“And that would be?”

“...I'm sorry.”

Luna's eyes widened and she stared at him for a moment. “Y-You're sorry?”

“I realized awhile ago what a fool I was, Lulu. Believe me, if I had a choice I'd have just apologized to you and Celly as soon as I got out of the statue. Tried that once, Eclipse overwrote it with me turning you to gold and silver statues,” the Draconequus explained. “At least those Sirens have no interest in tormenting me and my family for eternity. Then again when your other option is 'the ninth circle of dad' anything looks appealing.”

The Princess of the Night still gave him an air of suspicion...but dared to hope. “Then in that case, you should have no resistance to granting my request for aid stopping them?”

“Your wish is my command.” Discord was suddenly in a genie's attire, complete with lamp his body trailed into.

“We need the Element of Hope.”

“Oh...And what makes you think I'd know where to get it?”

“It was your mother's, and I refuse to believe if mortals managed to resurrect Trust all this time, somepony wouldn't have found Hope as well. And if they had, you would memorize where it was, if not make a point of it to find it and claim it,” Luna replied.

Discord gave a pleased smirk. “Clever girl. Yes, a few times it did resurface and I did exactly that...I just have one thing I ask in return.”

---

“If I help with this, you'll really let me see my dad in the dream world?” Fluttercruel asked, getting a nod.

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Twilight replied.

“Then let's kick their flanks.”

“Come for another beatdown?” Aria asked, cracking her forelegs.

“No, we came to put you down!” Rainbow Dash yelled. “Time to give this story a happy ending!”

The former Nightmare Eclipse looked at Adagio. “You were right when you said the difference between us was you didn't pretend this wasn't all about trying to get back what the world took away...but we're alike in another way,” she said. “And I can see it now: we were both stuck in the past and unable to let go! You could've just let the world adore you for beating me and saving it! But you can't just move on! Just like I couldn't let go of Discord! Worse than that, this isn't even about getting our worlds back anymore! It's about enjoying what we're doing! We've become addicted to taking our everything on others! You don't have to destroy the world! You couldn't just enjoy your victory and let everypony have a better world while adoring you for the good thing you did, could you?!”

Adagio snarled. “Of course I don't want to let go of the past! I lost everything! You expect me to just throw away the chance to make the world pay me back with interest?! What kind of idiot do you take me for?!”

“...An idiot that threw away a world worth having now,” was the simple, knowing reply.

“Girls! Formation!” both Twilights called.

Adagio sniffed, noticing the 'song' of the Nightmares now being back to its normal configuration. “When are you going to learn? Girls! Let's play our song!”

= Final Boss Battle (Last Hit) – Kirby Star Allies OST =

Red energy linked between the three and exploded upwards, their avatars manifesting and now so massive that they blotted out the sun with their bodies.

One group glowing with bright colors the other with dark ones filled with starts, fourteen lights united and for the first time since the dawn of Ponykind, the twin rainbows erupted skywards in all their glory, piercing the clouds. They seemed to dance with one another like long separated siblings finally reunited.

The Sirens sang their song, their massive avatars each firing a duel colored beam from their mouth that collided into a massive tidal wave of twisted rainbow magic at the heroes. Atomizing the very air between the groups.

= Sonic Colors Music – Final Boss – Part 2 =

{Time to call down a miracle.}

High above, each of the heroes rainbows formed into a massive sphere of energy. From the bright twin emerged a pair of massive wings while from the dark came tentacles.

Descending from the sky came two gigantic beings made of energy. One was a massive Alicorn, body of blue crystalline energy and mane and tail of rainbows, while the other was a nightmarish horror. Even seeming to intentionally hide enough of its nature to not drive all insane, the latter was terrifying beyond reason...but balanced out by its light counterpart that canceled its presence out. The two glared down at the Sirens for a moment before throwing their heads forwards. From the light's horn came a massive ocean of radiant rainbow light while the dark beast opened the jaws of Hell itself and let loose a dark rainbow filled with stars.

The two oceans mixed into a swirling, twelve colored rainbow and collided with the Sirens' own beam. The fact they resisted at all was a testament to how massively powerful the trio had become, but their beam soon shattered, the deluge of power slamming into their avatars.

“No! How?!” Adagio asked, eyes widening as her avatar filled with cracks, her sisters' doing the same. She then snarled, eye snapping open with clock hands forming in it.

“We'll come out on top!”

The former Eclipse's eyes went wide and she quickly did the same.

“Time stop!”

The two clock hands slammed into each other once more, time coming to a screeching halt as the two groups and their attacks were the only things present. Twilight's alternate self cringed, sweating in seconds as the clock in her eyes began to rapidly crack faster than the Siren's Avatars.

Twilight looked over with a gasp and focused, looking at both Adagio and her other self before closing her eye and snapping it open with the same hands.

“Let time come untethered,
You will wander forever!” Adagio and her sisters sang, clock beginning to tick backwards.

“We will wander...” the two Twilight grunted, straining as their clocks tried to move forwards but were losing ground, time beginning to slowly tick backwards...until one by one, their respective groups put a hoof on their backs, rainbow energy flowing in and slowing the rewind down, but not stopping it.

Celestia, being carried along by the hero's time spell, gasped. If nothing was done, the Sirens would simply turn back the clock and defeat them before they had a chance. “They need more Elements of Magic...” 'Luna, stay in your domain. If something goes wrong, you're the only hope we have left.'

'You can count on us, sister,' her sister's voice said in her mind.

Taking a deep breath, Celestia hoped she was still worthy enough for this. She looked to Sunset. “Come on!” she yelled, grabbing her and flying up next to her lavender student's side. Watching for a moment, focusing on every bond and friendship she'd ever had in her life until her own eye was filled with a blazing clock of its own. Celestia gave a shocked look for a moment, then the most peaceful smile she'd given in awhile. “...I guess I'm still worthy after all.”

The two spells finally stalemated, ceasing the backwards creep but the cracks continued to spread too quickly. The Dayarch quickly looked to her adopted daughter. “Sunset! Try to help! We can't do it alone!”

“Me?! But...but...” Sunset stuttered, eyes wide. This was all her fault, what if she just made it worse?

“You're my Little Sun and an Element of Magic!” the Dayarch yelled, straining against the spell but giving a smile. “I've always believed in you! You can do this! You were worthy once, you can learn your lesson and be worthy again!”

Sunset gasped...then tears started in her eyes. She slowly turned, looking at the ones using the spell for a few moments. To her own surprise, a clock of her own formed in her eye and she pushed back with all her might. The cracks finally ceased and reversed, repairing themselves.

The two Twilights gave small smile and glared back at the Sirens.

“No longer!”

The two groups remained locked in the stalemate, resulting in everything being frozen in time...except the groups and their attacks, allowing the Twin Rainbows to continue tearing into the avatars without the heroes' spell losing ground.

Finally, the avatars shattered, the combined beam slamming down at the trio like a meteor. Adagio quickly grabbed her sisters and teleported out of the way...only for the Twin Rainbows to instantly speed up and change directions at them. Sonata quickly pulled several of their thralls up with telekinesis as a shield...but the Twin Rainbows passed harmlessly through them, leaving them free of their control, and kept coming. Aria summoned a boulder and split it in half, trying to slam the heroes themselves between them, only for the boulder to dissolve in seconds. The Sirens finally resorted to inhaling and letting loose their strongest sonic attack possible at the two, but to no avail as the Twin Rainbows finally slammed into them full force.

Within seconds their gems filled with cracks and shattered to bits. Their magic broken, the world's time was restored and began moving forwards. Their eyes widened in terror as their bodies began to turn to stone from the light rainbow...and swiftly be torn apart by the dark rainbow to atoms.

Sonata...genuinely looked like she was going to cry. “...I guess we aren't going to see our sisters again after all...”

Adagio looked on her sisters, seeing the same happen to them as herself...and flashing back to two dying sea ponies millennia ago. “No! Not again! This can't happen again! We were going to have everything!”

Looking up at Rarity, the Siren saw the image of a familiar pink mare...looking at her with sad eyes. “Melody?”

The mare slowly put a hoof on Rarity's shoulder, Rarity joining her sad look for a moment, before Melody vanish.

Adagio felt something about the waterfall of energy change, but regardless turned to stone, energy erupting from her and her sisters' eyes and mouths. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

In a final explosion of light, the trio detonated, their stone components blown to ashes swirling around in the rainbow.

The dark abomination gave a shrug while its light counterpart merely gave a nod and both vanished back into the rainbows which summoned them forth. The twin rainbows formed into a dome, washing over the world and purging both Discord's taint and the Sirens' spell...

However, Sky Ocean, in some way or another, didn't fall, merely glowing softly with the two rainbows' light. The Chaos Castle's windows blinked, fully repaired by otherwise still itself.

“We did it,” Twilight muttered as Spike touched down, letting the group off. The two Twilights, Celestia, and Sunset practically collapsed panting for a few moments, the effort of casting and mainting such a powerful spell for so long being enormous. Twilight finally rose to her hooves as she caught her breath...only to hear crying on top of the crowd regaining their senses and, remembering everything they'd experienced, cheering for their saviors. Walking over to where the Sirens had been floating, her eyes went wide. “What?!”

The group gathered around to find...three infant, sea pony-like Alicorns sitting in a pile of ashes, crying as babies tended to do.

“What. The. Buck?!” Rainbow Dash asked, eyes wide.

“Why are they so tiny?” their Apple Pie asked with a giggle.

“I don't know what came over me, darling but...looking at them, I just felt sad...” Rarity admitted. “Like whatever made them this way was a tragedy that needed corrected...and given we had the power of creation itself, this seemed right.”

“I was thinking the same thing...they said they were like us, ponies who had their world taken...if we're getting a second chance, I guess it was only right to give it to them too,” Nightmare Whisper...or rather, Princess Gaia said sadly.

“Mama!”

“Flutternice!” Gaia yelled, flying up to the rift in the sky and hugging her daughter. She'd probably have a lot of issues and mistreatment to fix, but that was for another day.

“Ponyville!” Manacle, or rather Fidelitas, flew up through the portal after her to check on her friends.

“...Am I the only one really, really confused by what the Tartarus they're talking about?” Rainbow Dash questioned. Everypony from this timeline collectively nodded.

Fluttershy looked up at her Nightmare self, at least some of what'd been done to Flutternice obvious from both the name, who'd raised her, and how she acted. The young Demi-Draconequus was acting like a very small child...but twitching. Like there was a constant fight just beneath the surface. Or like she was in self imposed bonds she just couldn't break free from. Her expression looked...forced. Unnatural. Even Fluttercruel could tell that poor girl was anything but mentally stable. Fluttershy had accepted that Fluttercruel, while she shouldn't be allowed to run wild like a roaring beast as she had for a thousand years, had Cruelty as part of her very being. If you suppressed that completely and utterly...

'Mom, you're not going to do that to me, are you?' Fluttercruel asked in her head.

'No, honey. There will be changes, yes...but you're still you,' the cream colored Pegasus replied. True, Fluttercruel needed to change, but that was the keyword. Change. Not be forced to become something she wasn't on any level.

“So...the old Sirens are gone?” Applejack asked, looking down at the still crying babies.

“They've been reset,” said Celestia, keeping a wing over Sunset's back. She did a quick scan. “Blank slates...a second chance for their souls. Reincarnations for lack of a better word...” she said, giving a bittersweet smile as she remembered her desperation to save them the first time. In the end, she'd gotten her wish in a way, hadn't she?

“So...who's going to care for them?” Twilight asked, before Pinkie picked them up and rocked them with a hum until they stopped crying.

“I've raised so many kids to be meanies like I was...let me raise some big meanies over again to be good,” the Bearer of Laughter and Courage said, giggling as little Sonata booped her nose.

“Making up for everything...looks like a good time for that, doesn't it darling?” Rarity asked, looking to Rainbow Dash who gave a nod.

Twilight nodded...then realized something pertaining to that and slowly turned to see her other self hugging Shining Armor's shade with tears in her eyes. The same shade that before they'd split them apart she'd acted like was an abomination. “Huh?”

The Alicorn broke the hug...only for a shade of Twilight herself to remain hugging him before the two vanished into spheres of light and flew away into the distance. “Shining needed to be tethered to the other six somehow...so his Twilight was in the driver's seat alongside my friends' Twilights to link them.”

= Balloons – MandoPony =

The other Twilight took a deep breath and so many lavender lights Twilight couldn't count them all erupted from her body, sailing through the sky and into the still open rift one by one. As she watched, Twilight saw her own image manifest so many different times, in so many different ways. So many different worlds. All streaming off to the Ponyville within that rift.

“N-Nightmare E-Eclipse?” Twilight asked, looking to her alternate self...to find her having shrunk down to match her size rather than post purification Luna's.

“Not anymore...or rather, she's in here. But...she didn't want to let go, the rest had to make her,” said the mare before her. “The rest of us Twilight's forming me that is. Those that just left were the Twilights who have somecreature who's still existing somehow. Well, most of them...Eclipse Prime is still in here, and I'm still going to atone for it all, but she'll never hurt anypony ever again...I'm so sorry for what happened to you, Twilight.”

Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder. “I forgive you. I'm just glad this nightmare is over.”

The two shared a smile.

“So...what really did happen with Shining? The only one of...whatever it is he was I know is that thing that Discord turned into his back up minions,” Twilight replied. She'd wondered what had happened to them...until Pinkie Pie had mentioned they'd gotten on Angry Pie's bad side and were among the few people she'd killed who's deserved to die.

“It's like AJ said. In that timeline Discord simply hollowed the nameless, soulless horror he used to be out and left the shell to rot. its empty presence gravitated to Cadence and her subconscious mind filled it with something else, turning it into the white knight she needed......except unlike before, where the persona was only a mask it wore to achieve its goals, this time the persona became real. He grew a soul of his own and became a person...a person who fought tooth and nail to the very end trying to save his sister, Cadence, and their friends,” Eclipse, or rather Amicitia, said gave a sad sigh. “As Nightmare Eclipse, I couldn't see that. I only saw an interloper into my story. Looking back on it, it was beautiful. A horror that before could only care about stealing stories for itself, now content to die if it kept the stories of others continuing. He deserved the Element of Trust...and he deserved to live. Something I hope the real gods watching over this world will grant him. He deserves his happy ending.”

Twilight slowly nodded. She admitted, when she'd heard the base story, she'd been somewhat unnerved...but when her other self put it that way, it really did sound beautiful. “I agree. We can pray he does, right?”

The two shared a brief prayer for Shining's soul together.

Nearby, Apple Pie approached her alternate self and Nightmare Mirror, now Veritas. “This is kinda weird now that Ah have time tah think about it, isn't it?”

Veritas' Apple Pie gave a chuckle. “Yeah...yah...yah still miss her too, don't yah?”

The paradoxical filly didn't take long to realize who this situation would bring to mind. “Yeah...she was mah twin. Ah'll always miss her. But we Apple Pies keep truckin'.”

As the two versions of the same filly talked, Applejack slowly approached Veritas. “So...how do yah feel about dishonest old meh now?”

The former Nightmare gave a sigh. “Ah still hate lies. But part of bein' a Nightmare is yer blind tah the other side of it...Yah might be a liar, but yah've been a better AJ than Ah've been for millions of years...Thanks for keepin' mah Apple Pie safe.”

The Element of Fantasy nodded without question. “We're family, even across time and space. That's one truth Ah'll always be happy tah tell.”

Leaving Pinkie Pie to her three new daughters, Rarity meanwhile walked over and looked up at Banneret, now Avaritius. “...For what it's worth? While I love my Spike, I am happy for you to be cured.”

“Thanks...And I know. I had a Rarity that loved me and I threw her away,” the Ryujin admitted sadly, thinking back. “My Rarity. When she wouldn't become a Nightmare and come with us, I...I just let Eclipse erase her...I was being so selfish.”

“Yes, you were,” Rarity said, being Element of Honesty now for a reason. “But now you've got a chance to set things right. Even if that ship has sailed, you can at least make the future brighter as she'd wish you to, correct?”

Avaritius blinked...then gave a small smile. “Yeah...thanks.”

“You know, thinking about it, Pinkie,” said Granfalloon, or rather now Thalia. “The Sirens...they were a lot like me.”

“...Wanted the world they lost back so hard they became big meanies to try and get it?” Pinkie asked, pulling a bottle out of nowhere to feed Adagio from. Thalia merely nodded. “Yeah, I know. That's how I always felt too. Guess if I'd never felt that way, you couldn't exist...but I couldn't just give up my friends I have now like that.”

“...I wish I hadn't given up mine to follow Nightmare Eclipse,” the Alicorn of Joy replied...while tears ran down her face. She caught one on her hoof and looked at it. “Huh...it's been so long since I...since I...”

Setting the Sirens down in a crib she pulled out of nowhere, Pinkie hugged herself. “It's okay to cry sometimes...I learned that when Twilight helped me stitch my mind back up the right way.” The party pony didn't budge as her own Alicorn finally let herself feel sorrow for the first time in an eternity and cried on her shoulder.

Spike looked at Avaritius, wondering if he should go talk...but in the end decided to his alternate self needed Rarity's help more right now. The dragon instead contented himself with watching Derpy, now freed from her curse along with her daughters, gleefully hug them both for the first time in a thousand years. The huge dragon then blinked as a blue police box phased into view and a familiar, but very different stallion greeted them. Saying something about 'dealing with the Valeyard,' the family departed without another word...then returned back a few seconds later talking of some adventure they'd had. “...Is the Valeyard gone?”

“Yep!” Derpy replied simply. “Took bus awhile!”

“That's all I needed to know.”

Rainbow Dash...saw no reason to interfere with her other self. She didn't particularly care what her alternate self had in mind up there in the freaky rift in the universe. Instead she was busy apologizing to the gathered crowd, honestly and sincerely, for what she'd done as Traitor Dash.

This gathering lasted for some time before Amicitia suddenly looked up at a portal, sensing a distortion. The main Twilight followed her gaze. Flying before the portal was an Alicorn the group had never seen before, one in beautiful armor that made Twilight feel like she was looking at Justice itself.

She didn't look angry, merely giving a small smile, but Twilight got the feeling she was here for a reason.

“Speaking of atonement, I'd best go get on with it.”

“Who is that?” Twilight asked.

“Celestia and Luna's sister, Justitia. The Concept of Justice. Something we've avoided for far too long now. Come on everypony...we've got a lot we need to do,” Amicitia said, turning and walking.

Twilight gave a nod...then couldn't help wondering what her alternate self had meant by 'most of' the Twilights with someone who still existed' leaving.

As the former Eclipse walked by Veritas, who was talking with Applejack and the Apple Pies, Amicitia put a hoof on her paradoxical filly's shoulder. “Come on, let's go home,” she said with a warm friendliness and look that made filly and orange Alicorn both look up with eyes wide.

“H-Halflight?”

Amicitia merely nodded, leading the two along (the present Apple Pie waving goodbye to her other self) as they picked up Thalia and Avaritius. To the former she said some joke the present Twilight didn't get but Thalia certainly did...and asked Avaritius to take a letter.

“So...I guess that's it, huh?” asked Fidelitas, coming to greet her friends at the portal, looking at Justitia...who Celestia and Luna had both flown up and hugged like a long lost sister.

The former Eclipse put a hoof on the Rainbow Alicorn's shoulder. “We'll face it together, Rain.”

Fidelitas' eyes widened. “T-Twilight?”

The two's eyes welled up with tears before they hugged. A hug to Gaia and what could only be their Fluttercruel followed.

As the new Alicorn flew back through the portal to join them, the redeemed Nightmares gave a wave, Twilight, and her friends who cared returning it before the the fabric of reality healed itself and vanished.

Twilight didn't wonder which Twilights were still in there forming her Alicorn's consciousness anymore.

“Twilight!”

“Mom?! Dad?!” Twilight asked, turning and accepting a hug tackle from her restored parents while Apple Pie rushed to her freed father and family.

The world slowly remembering what normalcy was.

---

“Don't worry, Fluttercruel, we're going to put your father's statue somewhere safe,” Fluttershy said as soon as possible, flying into the upper chambers of the castle. Things forward were going to be...hard. Fluttercruel was a murderer. She'd killed a lot of ponies...she wasn't good. Lots of ponies wanted her to face justice, having helped save the world or not. Fluttershy believed she could change for the better and due to her background deserved a chance to try. Others didn't quite agree, but it was acknowledged doing anything only with her would prove difficult and all agreed out of the Six of them, Fluttershy was the most undeserving to suffer. For now, the Princesses had declared Fluttercruel was guilty, but with mitigating circumstances. For now, Fluttershy wasn't just her mother, she was her jailer. They would see how the mother's attempts to reform her would go, and then they would decide if more serious measures would be required. And make sure to get whatever psychologist help was possible in the present situation.

For the time being, however, Fluttershy opened the last door to the chamber they'd left Discord's statue in...and gasped at what awaited her.

Discord groaned, holding his head surrounded by broken stone and having a huge band aid on his stomach. “What the...”

“Daddy!” Fluttercruel yelled, taking control and hugging her father. “What happened?!”

“That's what I'd like to know...” the draconequus muttered, looking down to find a note. Picking it up, he began to read as the mouths that took the place of O's attempted to eat his fingers.

'Dear Son;

Seeing Celly And Her Little Long Lost Daughter Reunite Made Me Decide To Give You A Little Reward For Good Behavior. I Did Confiscate A Few Toys I Should Have Never Given You To Begin With. Enjoy Your Time With Your Daughter, And Try To Be A Good Boy.

Havoc.

Discord tried to make a familiar red sphere of destruction form in his hand, but nothing came. “Probably should've never had those to begin with...”

“You're going to take over again now, right dad?” asked Fluttercruel before Fluttershy started retraining her again. True, Luna had told them what she's seen, but she was still a little wary.

“...Fluttercruel, Odyne...dear. I'm afraid we're going to need to have a very, very, very long talk.”

---

“Sunset?”

The mare turned to look at the Princess of the Day as she entered the room a few days later. One of the towers Celestia had sat aside for her in the palace during her stay. “Y-Yes?”

Sunset expected a lot of things next. Her mentor finally letting her have it for unsealing the Sirens and nearly resulting in them becoming the overlords of the timeline now that the crisis was over. Yes, she'd helped stop them...but that was just one good decision in a long, long series of bad ones.

“Sunset, would you like to come back and be my student again?” Celestia asked with complete sincerity.

The yellow unicorn's eyes widened and she was stunned silent for a few moments. “W-What?!”

“Twilight is no longer my direct student. And even if she was, nothing says I can only have one. I would like you to return and be my student once again, my Little Sun. If you so wish.”

“B-But I...I let the Sirens back into Equestria! They nearly hijacked the timeline and erased everypony from existence!”

Celestia sat down and put a wing over the yellow unicorn's back. “We all make mistakes, some cataclysmic, others minor. But it's not making mistakes that makes the difference: it's how we learn from those mistakes and react that matters. And I believe in you that you can learn and grow from the ones you've made. You already helped fix the one you made, you just couldn't do it alone. And learning that is part of learning from your older mistakes as well.”

Sunset was silent for a few moments, tears starting to flow freely. All this time, all these years of bitterness and anger...and all she'd have had to do to get back her place at Celestia's side would've been to come back and ask.

“I...I made a lot of mistakes in the other world...I need to fix them first, but then...I think I'd like that.”

Celestia hugged her and after a few moments, Sunset returned it and broke down crying.

“I...I missed you...”

“And I missed you too, my Little Sun.”

Sunset blinked, noticing tears running down her face. “Why are you crying?”

“They're happy tears...I lost you...I lost Discord, Luna, and even that alternate Twilight...” Celestia said, giving a smile despite the tears in her eyes. “But now you're all found...I'm so glad to have you back.”

It even gave the Concept of the Sun hope that maybe, just maybe, her lost older brother may one day be saved. This all proved nothing was impossible.

For now, the two merely sat there, hugging as mother and daughter.

---

“So, everypony ready?” Amicitia asked, she and her friends floating over Manacle's fake Ponyville.

“Ready!” called the rest of the group.

“Let's finally make the Golden World. For real this time.”

With an army of Twilight Sparkles and Scootaloos as angels, the group descended...and began building a universe behind the once fake domain for all those they'd torn from their own timelines as part of their community service.

Justitia watched as their 'parole officer' as Thalia started a group working musical number. Some might say they'd gotten off easy. Only having to turn their little domain into its own self sustained universe, and maybe they were right. But wiping them from existence or killing them would do nothing, making them have to do something constructive would. This was justice And they would do it as friends.

---

It was a few months later. The Era of Chaos was finally over, and the Princesses had returned. To celebrate the transition of power being completed, the group sat in the Sky Ocean, watching a show. Nothing big or important, just some random show where the Sea Ponies were singing an ancient song passed down from the Second Age.

“Let's find...
Let's find...
Let's find the magic...”

Fluttershy/Fluttercruel sitting next to a strange hippogriff with a tornado Cutie Mark. The restored, but still somewhat crazy, Golden Tiara and Diamond Tiara sitting next to the latter.

Rainbow Dash had a little hippogriff of her own beside her who asked millions of question.

Pinkie Pie surrounded by three giggling Sea Pony Alicorns who seemed to instinctively sing along with the Sea Ponies whenever music came up, almost like they knew this specific song by heart. Pinkie Pie had taken to teaching them to feed on hate in a way that promoted joy. Being Pinkie, it seemed to be working.

Applejack with the Apple Pies surrounding her...and wearing an oddly 'Rarity' dress.

Rarity ironically being the plain one, but sitting in Spike's claw.

Sunset up in Celestia and Luna's personal theater box next to her mentor. She'd been on the other side of the Mirror for most of the time, fixing her mistakes, but Celestia had invited her back.

And Twilight seated next to her parents and Apple Pie.

Not quite normal...but still wonderful.

“Oh, Twilight? A little surprise?” asked Twilight Velvet.

“Yes, mom?” the lavender unicorn asked, smiling.

“You're going to be a big sister. Twins.”

Twilight gasped in surprise...before smiling as she briefly saw the spirits of what looked like her and a white stallion with a blue mane and tail behind her mother. “That's great, mom! Can't wait to meet them!”

Like she said: not quite back to normal. But in some ways better.

The End.

Minty, Princess Ashima, closed the book with a smile.

"Gee... it was fun and nice to get back to stuff. It was big and epic just like when Rainbow Dash, I mean Dark World Fidelitas' battle against Dark World Starlight Glimmer when it turned out Nightmare Eclipse had in-doctor-nated Glimmer 'just in case.' And... it's happy to see that Starlight Melody... I mean, the sirens... kinda got a happy ending... A fresh start, a clean slate... like us." Minty Age of Dreams incarnation had been born from the fusion of the souls of a close family, much like Starsong. "Another reason I think about her I guess."

Minty shook her head with a smile. "But you can't just keep going over the same stuff forever and ever. Ya gotta go forward, put yer hooves in front another. Otherwise ponies will just get bored, and that's no fun... Twilight, Amicitia, she fixed up lots of worlds... it was important to her, and to those worlds, but it would get boring for everyone else to just read her fixing them all over and over." The Alicorn of Reconciliation with the Past took the book of four hundred and thirty-five chapters of the primary ony POV Series Interviews, placing the manuscript at the end, and slowly closed it. "I should go and say hi to Pinks. It's beautiful full moon outside, perfect for a winter night sleigh ride. All that pretty fallen snow, like a blank page waiting to be filled. Even if it's not green." Minty laughed. She glanced at the book again and the manuscript within. "Starsong, you're free," Minty looked through the window at the diamonds at night, "and so am I."

~Always More Stories To Be Told, but now may this storyteller rest.

Comments

[DangerDean]

10094049
I fallen into a spell. My bad!

[Fury of the Tempest]

So... is this really the end of your fanfiction writing days? Because you said that previously, yet didn't stop then.

[Alex Warlorn]

10216715
I didn't write this story. I commissioned it years ago, and the author jut now finally got around to writing it.

I apologize that you wondering if I was going to write more was all you got from the story, that is a failure on my part since I read through, edited, and approved this story as canon for my fanon.

[Fury of the Tempest]

10217803
Ah right, a commission. Okay, yeah, that makes sense.

Just, you said you were done with fanfiction after Pony PoV's finalle, but you've gone ahead and done stuff like your version of TCB.

[new55]

That was a good story it was nice to have another look at the dark world timeline. the fight against the sirens was fun to read it made alot of sense for they're powers to be such a hard counter to the Nightmares its to bad they were just as evil. Was the first ending the original version the second ending a failed attempt at fixing the timeline?

[Godzillawolf]

11775244
Very glad you enjoyed it and the hard counter worked and made sense.

First 'ending' was the original 'bad ending' as part of the time loop, second one was a 'what if' Eclipse wasn't forced to help to show it wasn't going to work unless something different was attempted.