Harry Potter and the Prancing of Ponies

by The Guy Who Writes

Rehabilitation 14.2: Securing Knowledge

"And finally," Twilight finished, "I'm going to pretend like I don't know exactly what the other you's were capable of doing and exactly whom the other you's were capable of killing in order to get power and keep power."

…

Twilight was taking deep, calming breaths.

…

"Well," said Riddle into the silence. "Good on you for mitigating your moralizing," he said in a backhooved compliment. Typical. "You're doing better than most. The Celestia of four years ago would probably have tried to vaporize me by now, if she were in your horseshoes. But if you're going to pretend all that, naming it out loud has already caused your pretense to fail." A twisted smile. "We all find a way to satisfy our emotional temptations in the end, don't we?"

Twilight sighed massively. She made it so close, she almost avoided the subject, but in the end, she couldn't stop herself from doing the thing-she-was-tempted-to-do-but-shouldn't-have-done, and Riddle just went ahead and sniped right back at her without hesitation. Counterproductive, as predicted. "Let's just get to work on Project Panacea."

"I respect the sentiment and maturity, Ms. Sparkle, truly," said Riddle, sounding impressed, which is something he almost never sounds like. "But I think the project is blown for the day. Your mind is too strongly occupied by other matters that will distract you. I think my mind is occupied as well. I suggest the alternative of discussing certain aspects of the time spell, since our minds care deeply about that whole general topic at the moment."

Twilight regarded him skeptically. "I was trying to avoid that. It could lead into more 'moralizing', as you call it."

"If it does, I will accept some of the blame for steering you back in this direction. Let us say, your first three outbursts will be deserved by me. I will allow them to pass unquestioned, unchallenged, and, as best I can mange, uncriticized. Even in my own mind. I will give a count of one, two, and three. You can choose to make your three shots count, or try not to have any at all. I will respect one of those choices more than the other. If you'd like, you can view it as a test, a chance to redeem yourself and not repeat the mistake you just made."

A few hairs began sticking out of Twilight's mane. There was the slightest twitching of her eye. But she said nothing.

"With that out of the way, I'd like to discuss the alternate timelines spell. If you have not fully wrapped your head around it yourself, it would be a good thing to discuss between strong minds."

"Wwwwwwwhat about it?"

"As much as you can share. Would you be opposed to simply describing what happened today, from your perspective?"

"Yyyyyyyyyyyes, I think I would be opposed to that."

"Then would you be opposed to at least describing the spell's mechanics? Especially what you meant by its operating on the 'deepest desires' of Starlight?"

Twilight continued regarding him skeptically. "It's like I wrote in my letter exchange with Spike that you sneakily commissioned apparently. And it's also like I said to Starlight just now, which you were there for. If a pony deeply wants to change something in the past, the spell makes you see a different present based on how that thing would change it."

"Are you in danger from that different present when you go there? It sounded like a visceral experience."

"Other than mental trauma, I'm pretty sure there wasn't any actual danger. Yes, it was visceral. You get to fly around and explore what looks like an actual different world."

"You are 'pretty sure' there was no danger to you?"

"Well I didn't let that one killing curse the other you fired at me connect. Or the sudden unexplained assaults from most of the others mid-conversation. And the least violent one of you-" the 'president' "-politely asked me what I'd been doing the whole time be completely immune to something called 'Legilimency', which is the point where I left that alternate timeline, and it's something I intended to ask you about when I was calmer."

"It's on my to-teach-to-you list." He paused ever-so-briefly. "Perhaps sooner rather than later. But you've proven your point about the lack of danger. How do you know what you described is the spell's true operation and function, rather than something else? Starlight's actions in your letter don't make sense if she believed as you do."

"Well, Starlight thought it was actually changing the past and actually changing the present. There was a moment at the beginning where I almost panicked and thought that was going on too. But I've done enough research into Time magic to know that's almost certainly not actually possible."

Riddle's lips twitched upward. "Agreed. What did you do after you almost panicked?"

"I said to myself, 'Calm down, Twilight, it's probably something else, what else could it be?' And just the other day I was reading a futuristic story where the world's smartest and craziest and most senile old unicorn called 'The Professor' invents a 'what if' spell and a bunch of young adult ponies use it to see what the world would be like if they got what they wanted. And that actually sounded a lot like what was going on, but at the end of the day it was just a theory. So I cast a super-dispel to see if it broke the 'what if' simulation, and it did, and Starlight got all indignant, but I pretended to be all indignant myself and I asked her where she learned a spell so powerful, and she bragged that she finished an unfinished spell from Starswirl's personal collection, she's the greatest unicorn ever. So when she cast it again I paid real close attention to the magic, and then in the altered present I went to the copy of Starswirl's personal collection in Canterlot castle, I found the spell she was probably talking about, and I replicated her results real quick, which is a lot easier to do when you've seen a successful casting and you understand the real underlying principles. So I'm basically 100% positive that's how it actually works. Oh, but it's not like the 'what if' machine where you can just ask it anything, it actually has to be something you really want deep down. And I think there's a tendency in the spell to show you how things go terribly wrong unless you're really specific and careful about exactly what you want to change. And that's all I'm going to say because I'm really tempted to start talking about the terribly wrong things I did see."

Riddle nodded. "Would you mind terribly if we left for Canterlot Castle?"

Twilight opened her mouth-

"Before you leap to conclusions," Riddle headed off the predictable objection, "my current specific intention is not to visit Starswirl's collection, nor to learn that spell myself, though I would like to do both at some point. Please register those requests as 'standing', somehow. But regarding my current intentions at the castle, there is a piece of information I'd like to gather pertaining to this specific spell, from a source you might find interesting, and not at all related to Starswirl…"

---

"How long has it been?" said a voice that sounded like it was coming from the other side of this flat back frame, which Riddle claims is a magic Mirror. And which required Princess Celestia's personal permission for Twilight to visit. Which means he was probably telling the truth.

"Three days," Riddle answered the voice. "This shall not be your first scheduled session with Celestia. Call it a digression."

"What kind of digression?" asked the voice, sounding weary and skeptical.

"I have a minor request for a hint to a puzzle you have solved. How much is that worth to you, and how much would you ask in return?"

"That depends on the puzzle and the hint. I shall not play the part of Lore dispenser for you, Tom."

"I was not going to ask you to play the part for me that Perenelle played for you. Now, prior to…" he waved a hoof, "…all of this, you accessed a function of this Mirror that, as far as I'm aware, had never been accessed before in recorded history, and you used it to reward those who could make it past the challenges. I would ask for at least a hint as to how you accessed that function."

"Ah. I see. Honestly, Tom, I do not know what disclosing that hint would be worth to me. What could you possibly even offer at this point?"

"Would it be worth knowing why that function exists, if you have not already guessed what feels like the correct answer?"

There was a brief pause.

"Perhaps. That depends on what you say. I'm sorry, Tom, but you shall have to volunteer your theory first, for me to evaluate."

"Do I have your word that you will evaluate it honestly, and that if it is a plausible theory you haven't considered before, regardless of your ultimate subjective judgement on its accuracy, you will then give your hint?"

There was a slightly longer pause.

"Yes."

"Then my own guess to that function which you accessed for the first time in recorded history is that it is a perfectly sensible precaution build into a powerful wish-granting machine designed to not go horribly wrong. It shows you a world in which one of your deep desires has been fulfilled, so that you may think twice if you see disaster. Being merely a precaution, it is powerful to be sure, but it is ultimately just an illusion."

There was another long pause.

"Your hint, Tom, is that I accessed the function by comprehending what scholars of the Mirror now refer to as the Words of False Comprehension. They are a solvable puzzle, by anyone, anywhere, at any time."

Riddle's eyebrows rose. "Interesting." He inclined his head. "Thank you, Professor." He walked around to meet Twilight.

"Um…" said Twilight. "Is somepony- are you trapped in there?" she asked in a raised voice.

"I am trapped out here," said Riddle. "And yes, he is trapped in there. And he did not hear you. He is not subject to the passage of Time unless I stand before the Mirror."

"That's- that's not good!" said Twilight. She didn't know exactly how it wasn't good, exactly how bad the problem was, so she didn't say 'horrible' just yet.

"We are working on a solution."

"Who's 'we'?" Twilight demanded at once.

"'We' refers to myself, Celestia, Luna, and the Mirror's occupant."

Twilight deflated from her drive to defend the detained. "Oh."

"Yes, 'oh'. Of all the problems in the world, Ms. Sparkle, this one is not your responsibility. If you solve the Stone and we have not yet resolved this situation, then we shall accept your help. But Celestia does not want to distract you too much from your mission, and honestly, neither do I."

"Then why are we even here?"

There was a pause.

"Because you were already distracted, and I wanted us both to fully comprehend at least part of what happened to you before we move forward. But now that I say it aloud, I hear it for the excuse that it is. We are here because I want to comprehend something I have been curious about for six years. But that's not to say it's pointless to our endeavour either. If you solve these words faster than I do, I shall concede that you are at least on my level when it comes to some styles of problem-solving. Perhaps even better. And that will help me trust your intellect going forward."

More condescension and ego. What a surprise. "I don't like it, but fine. I'll try to think of it like a test for a new hire to make sure they're as good as their resumé says they are."

"Precisely."

"Alright. Let's get this over with. No collaboration if we're competing, right? Like taking tests separately in school?"

"Correct. The words are right there on the back of the Mirror, beneath what I presume to be Celestia's obfuscation. I am erecting a barrier to prevent you from cheating off of me. If your own barrier is weak enough that I can cheat off of you, that is your problem. We both begin as soon as we feel our privacy is ensured. The strength of your privacy is also part of the test, for obvious reasons."

Twilight frowned, sighed, and nodded.

After erecting enough security spells to stop even the most evil and cunning of Dark Lords from cheating off of her, she actually began working on the problem.

Step one is to see through the obfuscation. If it's Celestia's – er, Princess Celestia's, Twilight should be careful not to damage it. So she systematically tried all of the see-through and clairvoyance spells she knew. The very last one worked, so luckily she didn't need to try anything that would require removing Princess Celestia's probably-sensible-precaution and putting it back on again.

Riddle, who had already done that long ago in his many hours spent down here, and who was faster (i.e. more practiced) at establishing his own security than Twilight, attacked the problem directly, giving him a decent head-start. Having never done so himself, despite being almost entirely sure it was safe, he spoke the words aloud.

He frowned, then spoke them again.

There's something his mind is trying to tell him…

Ah-ha!

He left for the Astral Plane, and spent just a bit of time finding the memory of Mr. Potter speaking those words.

They were different!

Slightly. The ending was the same, but 'noitilov detalo partxe tnere hoc ruoy' was entirely different. For Riddle, it was 'snoitibma ruoy fo secneuq esnoc eht'.

Why would those be different? Do these words, which can be solved by anybody, mean different things to different readers? Asked in such a fashion, the question answers itself. In order to be solved by anybody, the puzzle would have to shape itself to the puzzler in some way or another…

He extracted the memory of Mr. Potter's iteration of the runes for precise later review, then returned to Equestria.

As he briefly wondered what he should do next, as he saw no immediate path forward for the puzzle, he decided to change tactics.

Time to test Ms. Sparkle's security.

…

Solid enough at first go, when using all the manners of subtle ward-breaking he knew. She probably felt him prodding, and he felt a triple prod at his own in return, almost like a child saying 'I heard you'.

He returned to his puzzle for now.

On Twilight's side, she had done the obvious thing of using the speaking-spelling spell to write down the words that she spoke. This was so that, while she continued thinking about the problem, she'd at least have something to look at other than what her brain was informing her were chicken scratches.

And looking at what she had said aloud is all it took for her to notice the obvious solution.

She felt Riddle prodding her security, possibly as a test, or possibly to inform her he was done, so she gave a triple prod in return.

Nothing.

She gave another triple prod.

Then another triple prod.

Then another.

A blood-red-glowing fire-snake ate a hole through her security so fast she literally retreated to the Astral Plane before her brain could catch up with her.

"Twilight?" asked a familiar and very comforting and reassuring and nice voice to hear after such a stressful day.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight said, turning around and hugging her favorite pony in the world. Along with her parents. And her friends. Well, she's hugging one of her many favorite ponies in the world. "What are you doing here?"

"I came as soon as I felt you go to your Astral Plane," explained Princess Celestia. "What are you doing here?"

"I-" Twilight said, then blinked. "I don't know. I didn't mean to come here."

"You came here by accident?"

"I… guess?"

"Hmm… you were with Riddle just now, were you not?"

"Yes. OH! He used Fiendfyre! On my security charms!" And maybe he was trying to hit her too, but she wasn't going to jump to that conclusion just yet. Even if she had spent all day experiencing versions of him trying that over and over. Well, not trying Fiendfyre specifically. Only, like, two of him tried that.

Celestia took a deep breath. "And let me guess. He did not warn you first that anything like that would be coming your way?"

"Correct," said Twilight, thankful to be reminded that it's not the whole world that's insane. Just Riddle.

"Well. I am almost tempted to march out of here and demand an explanation from him." She exhaled. "But first, I should explain something to you before I forget. The reason you showed up here is that the Astral Plane can act as a defense mechanism for Alicorns who feel threatened. If we aren't actively doing anything extremely important that needs our constant attention and presence – in particular, if we aren't actively protecting anypony other than ourselves – and if we then feel threatened by a surprise attack that might kill us, we sometimes show up here. It does not protect us when we are not aware of the threat. We can get hit by surprise attacks, even mid-combat, if we did not see them coming. But I, too, have ended up here after I saw a Fiendfyre coming my way, with no way to counter it in time or dodge."

Twilight absorbed the information like a sponge. "Oh! It's just like how Riddle teaches the reserves to run away with their portkeys. That's incredibly useful."

(Later, when Twilight noticed her own confusion about the 'defense Mechanism' when she wasn't in the presence of a pony she absolutely trusted to basically always be right, when her exception-seeking hind brain thought about the problem, later she would ask Princess Celestia why Nightmare Moon – and much later she would apply the logic of Princess Celestia's answer to Discord as well – she would ask why Nightmare Moon did not retreat to her Astral Plane when she realized she was about to lose.

Princess Celestia would first answer that Nightmare Moon fought to the bitter end the first time around, believing her own power would overcome Celestia's, and the Elements banishing her had been a complete surprise that she hadn't expected to do anything, since she was supposedly the wielder of half of them. Princess Celestia would then addend her answer to mention that the Elements, when fully charged and fired, probably prevent a retreat to the Astral Plane. If you ever find yourself the justified target of the Elements of Harmony, Harmony itself probably doesn't want to let you escape to the Astral Plane. And if you find yourself the unjustified target, well, the Elements will do nothing bad to you.)

"Yes, it is incredibly useful," said Celestia. "Truthfully, I would likely not be here today without that mechanism, which is why I did not object to that training regimen of Riddle's. And now that we have that out of the way and we are back on subject, would you mind telling me the context of the Fiendfyre, just in case context somehow makes up for it? Or better yet," she waved a hoof at the floating blank screens around them. "Show me?"

Twilight eagerly showed her mentor the memory, starting at their arrival to the Mirror room.

By the time the memory had reached Twilight's retreat to the Astral Plane, Princess Celestia wore a defeated expression. There was a long, long suffered sigh. "So he used Fiendfyre to test your security."

"Um… maybe?"

There was a deep, deep inhale of breath. "And you left your answer lying around where he could steal it?"

Twilight froze. Then unfroze. "No, just my worksheet. I didn't write the answer down on it."

"Could he get any ideas from your worksheet?"

"Um… it's hard to see how?"

Celestia was frowning. "I think I can predict what he will say to you when we get back. Can you predict what he will say?"

"Ummmm… don't be such a scaredy-cat?"

"I hope that is not what he says. If he says that, he and I shall have words. No, Twilight, I think he will say you should have destroyed your worksheet before you left. Or you should have programmed it to self-destruct if you needed to get away instantly. If seeing your worksheet helps him solve the puzzle at all, he might consider that your failure. You could always work your way back to that point later. Imagine a Dark Lord saw your half-finished work on the Stone, and then figured out the rest on their own."

…

…

…

"Oh." Then, after thinking about it, "Well, we need to figure it out anyway, so would it be so bad if-?"

"Yes."

"But I'm saying once the Dark Lord figures it out, we could just steal their knowledge. It'd be fine to do it once to them if they did it once to us. Or we could just go the legal route."

"And trust that you are a better thief than a Dark Lord, who has practiced all his life, and is more paranoid about theft than you were? And trust that the Dark Lord has broken the law in a way you can prove? And trust that you can stop the Dark Lord when they have the power of the Stone on top of everything else?"

Twilight had deflated steadily at each question. "Oh."

When Princess Celestia continued speaking, it was in a gentle voice. "You do not want to see what a Dark Lord does with great power, Twilight. Even power that can be used for good. What you have already seen in your trials has been bad enough, but it is tame by the standards of history."

That's an understatement. She'd seen the torture chamber of the 'Nameless King' iteration of Riddle. And when she confronted the 'Nameless King' about it, he said that at least he ensures his torture has a point which is not sadism. And no, he doesn't stupidly try to extract reliable knowledge through torture. (She did not know he simply used Legilimency in a world where nobody knew about it.)

Correction through pain. That's what he claimed.

"The wisest course," said Princess Celestia, stirring Twilight from unpleasant memories, "is to prevent the theft of your knowledge in the first place. If it is knowledge you must keep secret, I mean."

"But how, Princess? I don't know how to prevent a surprise Fiendfyre attack!"

"Then figure it out," said Princess Celestia in an encouraging tone. "I've never known you to cheat on a test, Twilight, and I would not want to hear that you were forced to do so. Especially not because you made a mistake you could have prevented by studying harder. First learn to protect what knowledge you have, even from the darkest of lords – especially from the darkest of lords. Then earn more knowledge the right way. Through study and science, not stealing."

Twilight brightened at that last line. "Okay!" She gave another hug. "Thank you, Princess Celestia! You always know the right thing to say."

"No, Twilight. I sometimes know the right thing. And when I do, I let the truth sing. Looking for the right thing to say is where ponies often go astray. Now excuse me while I have an existential crisis."

That didn't sound good. "Princess?"

"Don't worry, Twilight. You will likely see it for yourself one day. It's nothing you need concern yourself with at the moment. But I intend to go off and think about it for a while. Can you take things on your own from here? Give Riddle a knock?"

"A… a knock?"

"Ask your Astral Plane to announce itself to his Plane. If he does not answer, try again for a few times – it can be hard to hear on the receiving end if we are not in our Astral Plane and we are busy. If he still does not answer, ask your Astral Plane to leave a message for him."

"I can do that?"

"I suspect so. You can ask your Astral Plane for help at any time. Hopefully this is not restricted to ascended alicorns, and anypony who has made it to their Astral Plane can do it. It is a means that Alicorns may use to speak with each other, no matter where we might be." Her gaze went a bit distance. "If we are conscious, and one of us has not banned the other from contacting us." Her gaze refocused. "Oh, but make sure not to unthinkingly let Riddle into your Plane, or unthinkingly cross over into his. I know it might sound strange, but think carefully before trusting another Alicorn. You can speak at distance without much danger."

"Got it," said Twilight, who might have thought that advice sounded strange if Riddle did not exist.

"Then I shall leave you to it," said Princess Celestia. "Farewell, Twilight."

"Bye, Princess!"

There was a goodbye hug, and then Twilight was left to her duties.

"Okay," she said aloud. "Astral Plane, can you contact the Astral Plane of Riddle Tome?"

A roll of parchment appeared in front of her, one that looked exactly like the kind she would use to send Friendship and/or Magic lessons to the Princess. Words appeared on the page.

Yes.

There was a brief pause.

"Um… have you done it yet?"

No.

"Uuuummmmm… why not?"

Directive required.

"Oh. Um…" She felt a bit awkward giving an order, but… "Astral Plane, contact the Astral Plane of Riddle Tome."

Specify manner of contact.

Twilight blinked. "Um… can I knock on his door?"

Yes.

…

…

…

"I would like to knock on his door."

…

"Manifest his door."

A door appeared in front of Twilight, looking like the front door to her home.

There was another pause as Twilight waited for something to happen next. She briefly wondered if the knock has gone through, she considered asking the Astral Plane, but first Twilight tried to remember exactly what she asked the Astral Plane to do.

She sighed.

This was going to take some getting used to.

She walked up to the door and knocked on it herself.

---

As Riddle stared at three 'sentences' writ upon a page, he experienced an odd, distant sensation. Something like he once felt long ago, when living in an apartment back during his Borgin and Burke's days. Something like he felt more recently, when the rare, brave student would knock on his office door for office hours. The sensation of someone wanting to contact him.

He did not wonder if he imagined it, even as it went away.

He waited briefly, wondering if it would return, thinking of theories for what it might be. When the knocking returned, he went to his Astral Plane, which was his most likely guess. There, his attention naturally flowed to his bookshelf, which had a visible book on it.

He frowned, and levitated the book towards himself – not touching it – and opened it at distance. The page read, Knock knock.

He knew the correct response.

He didn't want to say it.

He really, really, really didn’t want to say it.

But as if some greater power grasped his lips, he said, "Who's there?"

Upon the page appeared: Twilight Sparkle.

And that was as far as he allowed that childish cliché to play.

"Tell her I am beginning to find her knocking annoying. As I did before." There was a brief pause as, prescribed by Riddle says:, his own words were transcribed onto the page.

Twilight asks: "You used Fiendfyre because you found my knocking ANNOYING?!"

"Among other things, yes."

During the next reply, he explicitly realized that the words did not appear on the page all at once, they seemed to appear one by one, probably as Twilight spoke them.

Twilight shouts: I was TRYING to tell you I was DONE WITH THE PUZZLE!

Riddle's eyebrows rose. He actually hadn't finished himself just yet. She finished that quickly? "I was also testing your security," he pointed out.

Twilight says: I know. I should have burned my paper or programmed it to self destruct. Even though it didn't contain the answer. Just so you know, I didn't try to leave, the Astral Plane made me leave, and I didn't know it could do that. But even if I did know it could do that, I wouldn't have thought that I should program my worksheet to self-destruct just in case you tried to Fiendfyre my security and triggered an automatic retreat. Out of curiosity, did that paper help you find the answer in some unconceivable way I can't imagine?

Again, that feeling of being impressed. Rare, that it happened twice in one day, and rarer still that it was a pony who was not a copy of himself. Or Luna.

He answered her question. "Your paper helped me realize it might be a useful tactic to write the Words down, which I had not yet thought to do myself." Not that he'd found the solution just yet.

There was a brief pause in reply. The space next to Twilight says: was slowly occupied by a few … indicators.

That's my mistake then. I'll try to do better.

"Merely trying will not be sufficient, Ms. Sparkle."

Twilight says: Fine. Can you TRAIN me to be a better secret-keeper? That's more important than uncovering knowledge in the first place, if we're going to be uncovering powerful stuff.

"Instilling a security mindset within you takes absolute priority, yes. Our session is almost done for the day, but I shall leave you with an instruction manual-" Occlumency: The Hidden Art, the same manual Mr. Potter had started with "-that will take you through some basic exercises. Let me know when you feel like you are ready for the first practical lesson."

---

A week later…

He thought Luna had been quick on the uptake. Twilight Sparkle truly is something else.

Before this point, he would have said that successfully noticing intrusion in the first lesson should be impossible. He would have said that redirecting intrusion by the second lesson, if not blocking it with a sufficiently solid pretense, should also be impossible.

Reading her mind and thought speed also improved his opinion of her.

For the first time, he felt something like a spark of suspicion that she might actually be capable of uncovering the inner-workings of the Stone in a reasonable time frame. Which is to say she might have been capable of doing it even if she did not have an immortal's lifespan to work on the problem.

As for the nature of the thoughts he saw as he was reading her mind…

Many of them had to do with how she saw him. And he did not like what he saw. Not in the 'she's just stupid and narrow-minded' way. In the 'perhaps I need to behave differently' way.

In particular, he saw her thoughts regarding his other iterated selves. And those selves…

They rubbed him the wrong way.

He could easily see himself acting as any of them, he could see the personas they were pretending to be, he could almost see the histories that led them to wear those masks, the various political and power calculus circumstances that would cause him to adopt those various roles.

In all of them, he saw the same conclusions: Escape is hopeless. Enjoy yourself, like you did as Voldemort. Ensure this world does not stupidly end.

He did not see any of his current conclusions: There is hope for escape. Strive towards the Patronus. Other minds can be worth your deep respect, and it is valuable to form good relationships with those minds.

Only the President iteration of himself seemed to have any positive relationships at all.

Key word: seemed.

Appeared.

Resembled.

On the surface.

Even Twilight, when she had met Mrs. Starbright, could see that it had been a marriage done purely for appearances sake and good PR, to a completely vacuous and inoffensive wife who would not say anything career-ending to a slimy journalist.

Twilight's thought patterns had not gone quite like that, of course. Twilight had simply realized that the President's wife knew literally nothing at all about her husband. None of his secrets, none of his past, none of his true nature. She had eagerly sought the mare out upon hearing that the President had a wife, only to be disappointed by the obvious truth.

Another thing his past selves all had in common is that they all seemed to be the end result of his past desires. They seemed to be where Tom Riddle might have ended up some day, had he gotten everything he thought he wanted. Either as Voldemort or David Monroe.

His other selves seemed to be where a lord ends up after they've make it to the top, after having gotten rid of all worthy foes, and after ceasing to have any reason to strive for something greater.

No doubt those selves had many Horcruxes, or at least 3, depending on if Mr. Silver had forced those selves to make that promise.

Riddle had a feeling those other iterations hadn't made that promise to Mr. Silver, going off of the various ways in which they obviously broke it – torture, maiming, murder. Maybe President Starbright had made that promise. But the rest, almost certainly not.

So the question is: Why not? How not?

He had made that promise with Mr. Silver immediately, as soon as he got to Equestria, before doing anything else. What could have changed that?

Did those other selves successfully plot through the loopholes, free themselves from the promise, and kill Mr. Silver? Or did those selves not have any conversation at all with Mr. Silver? Did those future selves seem to be what might result if there even was a Mr. Silver, at any point during their time in Equestria?

The obvious answer seemed to be 'no'.

Which meant that one potentially obvious insight is that Mr. Silver never made it into those traps, into those iterations, in the first place.

WHY?!

If so, why?

Why would the Mirror-

Ah.

Well, that's an obvious guess. If the Mirror was subjectively in control of the Process of the Timeless, and if this pony world has always been running in the background, as Merlin's presence suggests, and if Twilight's friendships were a necessary prerequisite for Equestria to be a world in which Mr. Potter's wishes could be fulfilled…

Then perhaps with that prerequisite gone, with Ms. Glimmer's wish fulfilled and Twilight's friendships nonexistent, the Mirror traps only Riddle, leaving Mr. Potter unharmed.

Or perhaps it traps Riddle in Equestria and Mr. Potter in the normal setting of frozen instants.

Perhaps Dumbledore and Quirrell were selectively trapped or frozen or not trapped, depending on the precise circumstances.

One iteration had 'the resistance' tell Twilight of 'the powerful bearded one', what whispers called the second coming of Starswirl, the only pony capable of stalling and stopping The Empty Tyrant in direct combat.

Maybe Dumbledore's side of the trap had also gone differently in those alternate worlds? Maybe he had made it to some of those iterated selves and was lying low until those selves finally came close to dying of boredom, at which point they would be less likely to kill Dumbledore, at which point perhaps Dumbledore and Riddle's wishes could be fulfilled from there.

But all of this is guesswork.

All he can say with some amount of certainty is that the Mirror is a powerful wish-granting machine capable of seeing many iterated possibilities. It's entirely possible that it was capable of evaluating various futures and selectively choosing to trap or not to trap or to freeze Mr. Potter, himself, Quirrell, and perhaps Dumbledore.

…

…

…

And all of this, he realized, was a way of distracting himself from an area he did not wish to look.

His iterated past selves.

Something is wrong in all of their thinking. He can see it, he can sense it, but he cannot name it, and he does not know it.

He does know that his current, real self thinks that way as well, but it is less obvious, more subdued, more tame. Which would make that mode of thought no less wrong. It would also make it far harder to nail down and fix.

What comes to mind is one of Luna's common refrains. She has never once said it to Riddle, though he knows it applies to himself. He knows she has probably wanted to say it to him for a long while. She said it plenty of times a thousand years ago, to plenty of other petitioners:

"Welcome to the lonely, lonely Island of Always Being Right. Escape is just a life-raft of humility away."

But he suspects that is not quite the right way to think about the problem. Or perhaps it is, but it is only step one, and he does not know the next step. He can't take that thought any further. It does not cut deep enough. His mind is making up excuses like 'I've admitted fault and conceded to my own stupidity plenty of times', and when your mind is making excuses, that is a warning sign that you have not yet found the exactly correct thought. You have not found the insight that cannot be refused or excused.

He has so many layers upon layers of rationalizations and excuses that he needs a surgeon to cut through them all with keen precision. He needs to be able to grasp the true, base root of the issue. The underlying and undeniable source of his tyrannical tendencies.

And he knows it's going to keep nagging at him until he does.

Comments

[Fireeaters]

Neato

[Booster Spice]

The last sentence is the reason he needs?

Rifddle Tome is Always Right, even when he is Right about being Wrong?

[The Guy Who Writes]

11750085
Precisely!

[harts fire]

[The Guy Who Writes]

11750690
That WAS the intended reference for the 'story' Twilight read, yes. Love the last line of the episode: A man can dream, can't he? A man can dream.

[harts fire]

11750729
i am a huge Futurama fan and spotted it right away.

[Fireeaters]

I thought of a quip while I was looking at my comments were I managed to figure out something you had planned for later; and it went "Somewhere, in the vast emptiness, a neuron fired. And the people rejoiced.". Lol

[carlarc]

Twilight found out what the Words said, told Riddle.... and then they DONT immediately talk about it!? What happened? Bwuh?? I feel like I'm missing something.

Fun and awesome chapter, god I want to read like ten full chapters of the Alternate Riddles lmao.

[mishun]

Well, Starlight thought it was actually changing the past and actually changing the present.

She clearly did that by understanding how stuff works in canon.

It does not protect us when we are not aware of the threat. We can get hit by surprise attacks, even mid-combat, if we did not see them coming.

Shouldn't have disclosed Avada Kedavra.

Only the President iteration of himself seemed to have any positive relationships at all.

Judging from how he rage-quitted being Monroe, I have a hard time imagining Voldie would have any tolerance of that president bullshit.

[Doctor Vux]

Slightly. The ending was the same, but 'noitolov detalo partxe tnere hoc ruoy' was entirely different. For Riddle, it was 'snoitibma ruoy fo secneuq esnoc eht'.

Slight typo (BTW, the one I mentioned last chapter wasn't fixed last time I checked).

[Poparakelis]

I am confused

[keybounce]

... And that actually sounded a lot like what was going on, but at the end of the day it was just a theory.

"So that's what would happen if I built a what-if Machine" :-)

"Some people say lunch is the most important meal of the day, but that's just a theory"

[keybounce]

it actually has to be something you really want deep down. And I think there's a tendency in the spell to show you how things go terribly wrong unless you're really specific and careful about exactly what you want to change.

Hey, that's *canon* in the episode where Twilight is trying to figure out what to do with Starlight when she is ready to "graduate", only to find that neither teacher nor student has any actual self confidence.

[keybounce]

Interesting. So, Dumbledore already solved the false comprehension. And anyone can solve it. Therefore, it must alter for each person.

And then Twilight solves it.
...

[Black--Soul]

The brightest future is rather gray, but hey!
Semi psychopath or maybe highly functional sociopath is better than... the rest...