Laughter Died

by Leafdoggy

1: Not What I Expected

I swore off of time travel for a reason.

That’s all I could think as I cast the spell. Every instinct in my body was screaming at me to stop, telling me I was only going to make things worse. I had seen what time travel could cause with my own two eyes. Time travel was the reason I knew what the end of the world looks like.

None of that stopped me, though.

The jump hit me like a sack of bricks. A jolt of lightning shot through my nerves as my body adjusted to being in a whole new world. Everything around me looked the same, if a little brighter, but it felt different. It felt wrong. The universe itself seemed to be pushing back on me, telling me to leave, that I didn’t belong there. That the second I landed in another time, I wasn’t meant to exist.

That couldn’t stop me, either. I knew what was coming if I stopped.

I was in the library, just as I had been before casting the spell. Books all around me, encased in glittering crystal. That old, familiar smell washed over me, a smell you could only get with cared-for books and well-polished rock. It was a breath of fresh air compared to the mustiness I left behind.

The library doors opened, and I cursed under my breath. I chose the library because I expected it to be empty. I wanted to get to Twilight before anypony else. She would understand. She would know how dire things must have been to come to this. It looked like my plans were destined to fail right from the outset, though.

Pinkie Pie wheeled a cart full of party supplies inside as she skipped along and whistled a jaunty tune. She was so happy, so innocent. Her eyes held no pain, no fear, no dread for what the future may bring. It made me overjoyed, and at the same time, it broke my heart. Her life, all their lives, they were still perfect. They were still happy.

And here I was, their harbinger of doom.

Pinkie Pie stopped short when she saw me. “Really, Twilight? You’re supposed to be in town!” If she noticed how much older I was than her, she didn’t let it show.

“Um… Sorry?” I had no idea what to say.

Pinkie huffed. “How long have we been friends, Twilight? You should know better by now.” She ran up behind me and started pushing me towards the door. “If somepony suddenly starts trying to distract you on your birthday, I’m obviously setting up a surprise party, and those really work a lot better when they’re a surprise.” She shoved me into the hallway and pouted at me. “So you better forget you saw this!” Then she slammed the door in my face.

For a while, I was stunned. What was she talking about? Surely somepony was mistaken here.

But, then I thought about it some more, and I felt like the biggest idiot in the world. Somehow, I had forgotten my own birthday. This grand plan of mine just continued to be a roaring failure.

There would be time to mope later, though. I still had a job to do, so I started to leave the castle.

I wasn’t entirely sure where to go next. Pinkie said Twilight was being distracted, but not who was distracting her, or where. What would have distracted me back then? I thought on it, but all that would come to my mind was paperwork.

So, that’s what I went on. If it was paperwork, she was probably in her office at school.

I opened up the grand front doors of the castle, and light streamed in and rolled over me. Then I flinched and slammed the doors shut again. It was so bright. How could anypony stand to live in that? How could I have lived in it for so long? After so long in the dark, the idea felt utterly alien to me.

A quick trip to Twilight’s room later, though, and I was out on the street sporting the sunglasses I knew she would have. They helped quite a bit, but it still felt strange. It wasn’t the same. Everything was so warm and reflective, little bits of dust sparkled in the air. It all made me feel more and more out of place.

I wasted no time in getting to the school. Here and there ponies waved to me along the way, but none gave me a second glance. I suppose I must have aged well. Or maybe ponies just didn’t know what I looked like all that well.

The school was the first place I came across that was truly different. It had, quite predictably, not survived the quarantine of Ponyville. It was still there, serving as living space for the unfortunate ponies who were visiting Ponyville at the time and got caught up in the spreading infection, but it wasn’t a school any longer. It had become a dreary place, a constant reminder of the world we lived in, a place so dire it seemed to drain the color from the world around it. Nothing like the beautiful grandeur of the building I was walking into now.

The students all greeted me warmly, and it brought me back to how things once were. How we reveled in the simple joys of life. Again, I felt that melancholy bliss. That happiness that seemed to weigh on me like an anchor.

I didn’t give the students too much of my time. I had someplace to be. I made my way straight to the headmare’s office and knocked as calmly as I could.

“Come in!” A voice I didn’t recognize answered me. That puzzled me, but I chose to ignore the hesitation and made my way inside.

If that feeling was an anchor on my heart, walking into that office dragged it down into the briny abyss.

Again, I had forgotten. I’d forgotten that I stopped being headmare. I’d forgotten who would be here instead.

I’d forgotten her voice.

It… It broke me. Seeing Starlight, smiling warmly—kindly—at the sight of me, it was just too much. Of course it was too much. The sight ravaged me, tore through me, forced into my mind memories of all the ponies whose lives I’d ruined, all the dear friends I’d failed. Failed worse than I’d even thought. I’d sealed her away, forced her to live alone for years, and then I’d let her disappear and slip out of my life. I…

I’d forgotten her voice.

I fell to my knees as the sobs started. She was up before I hit the floor. She ran over to me, shut the door before anypony could see in, and carried me over and onto her couch. Her entire focus was suddenly on me, on making sure I was okay. On being kind.

I buried my head in my hooves and let out the tears.

Starlight was so gentle. She lifted a blanket up from the back of the couch and draped it over me, then she knelt beside me and rubbed my back. She didn’t say a word, not at first. She just let me get it all out.

I don’t know how long I was crying like that. I know that, more than once, she had to get up to ask visitors to come back later. I know that it exhausted me so much, I fell asleep at some point and woke to see her at her desk, quietly filling out paperwork. She, of course, noticed as soon as I was awake and rushed back over to me. I know that she never left me alone as I let out those years and years of long-held anguish. I have no idea how long it was, though, before the silence was finally broken.

It was me who spoke up first. I had to. It was something I needed to say. It took a lot of effort, but I managed to push my head up and turn to look into her eyes.

“I’m sorry.”

She stroked my mane softly. “Twilight, it’s alright. You never have to apologize for being upset.”

I shook my head. “Not that. I’m sorry for… For—”

The fates must have been conspiring against me, because at that moment there was a knock on the door.

Starlight pursed her lips. “I’ll be right back,” she said, and stood up when I nodded.

A strange look crossed her face when she opened the door. She looked back over to me, then to the guest, then back at me. Something had her utterly baffled.

She turned back to the guest. “I think you’d better come in.”

I was terrified at first. Who could she be bringing in to see me? Was it one of my friends? I wasn’t sure if I could handle that. Who else could it be, though?

I felt relief wash over me when I saw Twilight walk in. Finally, a stroke of good luck.

Twilight, clearly, did not feel the same relief. Her face sank in shock and worry the moment she saw me. It was understandable, really. Meeting a copy of yourself unexpectedly is never a good thing. Still, I was a little hurt.

I pushed myself upright on the sofa and met Twilight’s eyes. Starlight came over and sat beside me, patting me reassuringly. I shuddered as I tried to push the sobs away.

Twilight let out a deep breath. “Please don’t tell me you’re—” I nodded, and she frowned deeply. Then she walked over and took a seat nearby, still looking me over with that serious expression. I could only imagine what my own expression was, but with all the crying, the exhaustion, and the pure dread I always seemed to feel, I couldn’t imagine it was good.

Then, Twilight’s expression softened. “Are you okay?”

“Not particularly,” I told her, “but I think I’m past the worst of it for now. I just… I guess I wasn’t as prepared as I thought I was.”

Twilight nodded. “Can you tell us what happened?”

“I think so,” I said, “although I don’t know very much. Something is coming, some kind of… Magic, or disease, that cuts ponies off from the elements.”

“A disease got so bad you had to go back in time?” Starlight asked.

I nodded. “We could barely keep it contained, and that containment was going to fail. I don’t… I have no idea what would happen in a world with the elements gone, but it was going to be bad.”

“If you’re me, which you seem to be, then I believe you,” Twilight said. “So, what do we do?”

“I… I don’t really know,” I said. “I’ll tell you and the others the whole story tomorrow morning, but really… All I’m bringing with me is the knowledge that it’s going to happen.”

“Why not tell them now?” Twilight asked.

“Well… It’s your birthday,” I said. “I don’t want to ruin it.”

Twilight smiled softly. “I appreciate the thought. Are you going to come to the party?”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” I replied. “I mean, a second Twilight is a lot to drop on them all so suddenly.”

Starlight wrapped a leg around my shoulders. The touch was warm and kind and more wonderful than I remembered being held by a pony to ever be. “Of course you’ll be there,” she said. “It’s a party for Twilight Sparkle. That means it’s for you too.”

I smiled weakly and leaned against her. She squeezed me in a loving hug. It was starting to dawn on me that, after so many years holed up looking for a cure, I had sort of forgotten what it was like to have friends.

And, with just that thought, the tears started flowing again.

Comments

[OceanBytez]

10109584
I feel your pain. My description really only covered the details of the immediate beginning of the story but as i write i realize it does not cover the larger story all that well. I am still at a loss on how to write my description better.

[Leafdoggy]

10110683
yea stories where I don't have it all planned out beforehand have a real tendency to go off the rails and away from the initial idea. Keeping scale appropriate is one of the things I'm still having to work at. It's tough. Honestly tho depending on the length of a story, trying to encapsulate all of the twists and turns gets a lot less important than just laying out the groundwork for the story. I figure that so long as I can make everything flow together properly, it won't be an issue.

[toshibafox]

to my understanding of what events that transpired

Kindness, to her knowledge it started here
Generosity/Honesty at the same time
Loyalty
assuming, magic is next or last

[OceanBytez]

10110717
Well i had a pretty clear plan for my story but, I did not want the desc. to spoil too much into the fine details. In fact I left out one of the 2 main characters all together as He is not suppose to be introduced until chapter 5 where he essentially provides a solution to the initial problem but, ends up providing a bigger problem that is, in turn, the main story arch.

I left it vague so that once you get to that part you end up truly invested by how the 2 main characters are going to get their lives back on track.

[Leafdoggy]

10110866
yea I get that for sure. Don't wanna spoil a cool reveal. To me things like that tend to come down to whether I prefer keeping the character's significance under wraps, or attracting readers who like that character by tagging them. It's a tough choice.

[OceanBytez]

10110878
Well so far I have liked the read. Feel free to swing by and give my story a shot too. Maybe we could bounce some ideas off one another.

[Leafdoggy]

10111089
glad you're enjoying it! I'll keep yours in mind but honestly I don't actually read that much (hard to focus on) so I can't make any promises

[OceanBytez]

10111155
fair enough. If it helps the chapters are short spiels and there is a bit of action that happens from time to time. so far only one significant battle scene exists but that is always subject to change.