Kindness and the Fate of Shadow

by Raven-Flight

Life Without Time

“Hiya, Twilight, how’s it going?”

“Huh? Oh, hi Pinkie. Great.” Twilight was sitting in an impromptu nest of books.

“Did you read all those books?”

Twilight nodded, not even looking up from a volume with the title Magical Physics.

“Huh. You look like you could use a little pick-me-up! What me to find you some coffee?”

“Uh-huh, yeah, coffee would be great.”

“Okay! Be back in a flash! Here you go!”

Twilight looked up. Pinkie Pie was holding a steaming mug. The alicorn rubbed her weary eyes, then looked around. “That really was fast. Where’d that come from, the ceiling? Is there a coffee machine on one of the tables I didn’t notice?”

“No, silly!” Pinkie Pie giggled. “I ran all the way back to The Center and wandered the streets until I found a coffeeshop! I told them all about the igloo you’re building out of books, and they said they had just the thing. Something even better than coffee! I think they called it ‘raktajino’? I took a little sip of it on the way back—I hope you don’t mind—and it’s super-duper good!”

Twilight took the mug and eyed its contents suspiciously. “‘Raktajino’? What’s in it?”

Pinkie Pie hummed an “I-dunno”. “They said they got the recipe from one of the dimensions they’ve explored.”

Whatever it was, it was worth trying if it could help Twilight keep her brain functioning at its peak. She took a sip. “Huh, not bad! So, what have you and the others been up to?”

“Rainbow Dash and I got to look at a black hole in a foreign dimension. Ptah showed us around the galaxy, but he wouldn’t take us to any inhabited planets because he didn’t want anything to get ‘polluted’, whatever that means. Then he started talking about the ‘experience rooms’ they have here in the Library, ‘cause the principal sentients of that dimension have really nice beaches I guess, and if we wanted to see them, we could come here to the Library to check it out without bothering anycreature. So Rainbow went up to the experience rooms, but I didn’t want to go do simulated things when there are real things right here! I’ve been strolling all over town making a bunch of new draconequus friends! I haven’t seen anything of Applejack and Rarity, though.”

“Sounds like everypony’s making pretty good use of their morrow,” Twilight remarked, peering into the bottom of her empty mug. “I wonder if one of the books here has a recipe for this stuff. I’ll be back in a few, but here: you’ll like this one.” A slim but brightly-colored book floated into Pinkie Pie’s hooves as Twilight turned to search the stacks.

“Celebratory Practices of the Linipsids,” read Pinkie Pie.

When Twilight came back, she found her friend well on her way to having a book-nest of her own. “Pinkie! Did you read all those books while I was away?”

“Yeppers! I finished the one you gave me and it was taking you a while, so then I wondered what other party books they might have! Turns out, it’s a lot!”

“It didn’t take me a while,” Twilight defended, her brows furrowing. “At least not that long. I just walked down to the reference desk, and the librarian conjured the book for me on the spot! You know what...” She watched as Pinkie Pie took another book off the top of a tall stack beside her and began to read it. “I think I might go up to see those ‘experience rooms’ you were talking about. Will you still be here, say, an hour from now?”

“Yep,” confirmed Pinkie Pie, patting her “to-be-read” pile. “But you remember hours don’t exist here, right?”

“Of course. I mean, you know, what feels like an hour.” When Pinkie Pie nodded again, Twilight slipped around a bookshelf, out of sight, to watch her friend read. She watched one page flip, and then… another. But while the cup of raktajino had stimulated her mind awake, it had done nothing to soothe her strained eyes. Twilight blinked. Suddenly, the book in Pinkie Pie’s hooves changed color. No, the book she had been reading was now beside her, beneath two other just-finished books. Unable to comprehend what she was seeing, Twilight gave her eyes a good rub. Then she looked again, and the “to-be-read” pile was all but gone.

Twilight leaped out from behind the shelf. “Pinkie!”

“Hi, Twilight! How were the experience rooms?”

“I didn’t go. I walked around this bookshelf for a moment and came right back!”

“Whaddaya mean? You were gone for about an hour, like you said!”

She couldn’t help it. Twilight collapsed to the floor with great heaves of laughter. When she finally regained enough composure to explain the experiment she’d run, Pinkie Pie joined in the half-delirious mirth.

Eventually, the pair made it back onto their hooves, with Twilight wiping tears from her eyes. “You know what? I feel like I’ve been here for weeks. I’m about ready to head home.”

“I agree,” Pinkie Pie nodded. “I mean, not about the ‘I-feel-like-I’ve-been-here-for-weeks’ part ‘cuz I only think it’s been a day or two, but about the going home part!”

Just then, the librarian appeared. “Come and see! They’re back!”

With instinctive alarm, Twilight glanced down at the horrendous mess of books she and Pinkie Pie had made.

“Oh, nevermind that,” dismissed the draconequus, sending the books fluttering back to their shelves with a wave of his lizard hand. “Come along quickly!”

---

Radiant. That was the word for it. She had thought at first that they were glowing with actual light as they stood there together, there in the center of the center of The Center of the center of the multiverse, smiling with a serenity too complete to be comprehensible. Their very presence seemed to inspire a kind of brilliant clarity on the vicinity.

And yet, the transfiguration had involved nothing so obvious and physical as light. Discord and Fluttershy had returned looking exactly as they did before. But their smiles were new, as was the way their movements echoed each other, like a dance choreographed and rehearsed to perfection. Fluttershy had faced the jubilant masses unafraid. Discord had carried himself with a calm dignity, self-assured as ever but now with a confidence that did not need to prove itself. The two had become new creatures. And yet they were not. They were who they always were, but Twilight now saw them with new eyes. Discord and Fluttershy had become themselves, fulfilled, certain of their places in the context of the multiverse and content with those places.

If only Twilight could say the same for herself.

A warmth settled in beside her, rustling the soft ferns that covered the ground. “I’m guessing by the look on your face that you and I are having similar thoughts right now,” said Rarity as she tucked in her hooves and cast her gaze in the same direction as Twilight’s. “It’s really quite marvelous, but also...”

“A little unsettling,” Twilight finished.

“Yes...”

They watched as Fluttershy, lying by herself a few lengths away, suddenly burst out laughing. Then she wiped away a tear and resumed smiling vacantly into space, as if she wasn’t fully present in the pocket dimension with her friends.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to seeing their thought connection in action like that.”

“Me neither,” agreed Rarity, “but that’s not the only part of it that’s ‘unsettling,’ as you put it. I mean, you saw how they were back in The Center—if there was ever any doubt that those two were meant for each other, it’s long forgotten now. It just makes one wonder if one’s own romantic connections could ever be half so fulfilling.” She laughed quietly, a gesture of self-awareness rather than mirth. “I’m almost a little jealous of them. Do you think ponies like you and I might have multiverse-appointed soulmates too?”

Twilight regarded her friend. “Hard to say. If so, we aren’t affected by any special soulmate magic to make it obvious.” Her hoof rose to tap her chin. This was a matter she had given a lot of thought lately, though she hadn’t come to any conclusions. “I suppose it’s possible that we could meet our own soulmates and build very happy lives together without ever knowing for certain that the soulmate connection was there. Or that we could never find out who our soulmates might be, if we have them at all, and build our relationships with the wrong individuals. But I don’t think that means a relationship with somepony who isn’t your soulmate couldn’t work out.”

Twilight finally looked to Rarity again, but Rarity was looking at somepony in the distance.

“Are things alright with you and Applejack?”

“Yes, quite.” Rarity brought her eyes back to Twilight’s. “In fact, I’d say things are going rather well between us. We really had a lovely time exploring The Center together. It’s just that I can see where we might run into problems down the road. Applejack pointed them out, actually. Despite all the ways we complement each other, we have such different lifestyles and very different dreams about the future. It’s why Applejack hesitated for such a long time after we recognized our feelings for each other. But we’ve been so happy together lately, and I just don’t want to believe that those matters will drive us apart. It sure would be nice to have the assurance of something like soulmate magic, you know?”

“Yeah.” Twilight laid her head on her forelegs. “Yeah, I know.”

“What’s troubling you, darling?”

“Just exactly what you’re, saying,” she sighed. “It would be nice to have the assurance of something like soulmate magic. I’ve never had a romantic partner and sometimes I wonder if I ever will. I know I’m immortal and have all the time in the world, but that’s a big part of my problem. Nopony’s ever going to trot up to the immortal Princess of Equestria and just ask for a date. And even if they did, how difficult might it be to find somepony who could truly support me in my position, both as a princess and an immortal? It just seems impossible.”

“Hey.” Rarity nudged Twilight with an understanding smile. “Celestia and Luna never found anypony for themselves, and their lives have been none the worse for it. They have each other, and students and friends like you. You can still have a perfectly fulfilling and meaningful life without a romantic partner.”

Just then, there was a burst of wing activity overhead. Rainbow Dash, who had been flying at high speed across the pocket dimension to watch her friends moving in slow motion, came to a complete halt mid-air and practically crashed to the ground in front of Twilight and Rarity.

“Heavens! Are you alright?” Rarity stood up, and so did Twilight.

Rainbow Dash managed to get all her limbs properly arranged beneath her and sat up, unscathed. “Yeah. I just caught the tail end of your conversation and, uh, thought it sounded interesting.”

Twilight cocked an eyebrow. “My nonexistent romantic life?”

“I can relate,” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “But anyway, who knows? Maybe you’re the soulmate of one of those immortal draconequui we met, and they’re chasing us down right now to try to get to you!”

“That would be rather unfortunate, seeing as we’re on our way back to a corner of the multiverse that no draconequus but Discord himself has the power to reach.”

“Hi, girls.”

Three ponies startled. Fluttershy had just slipped into their growing circle.

“Hello, darling! Finally done chatting with the chauffeur, are we?”

“Never,” Fluttershy grinned. “But I wanted to come see how you're all doing. I’ve hardly spoken to anypony since the last time we were in Discord’s pocket dimension!”

Noticing Fluttershy had become responsive, Pinkie Pie suddenly appeared. She had been galloping around the little, spatially-looped dimension in her own attempt to see her friends moving in slow motion. Applejack, too, wandered in from her exploration. Everypony was eager to hear about Fluttershy’s experience.

“Quite a lot has happened to you since then,” Twilight pointed out. “How do you feel?”

“I feel wonderful! I’ve never been so happy in my entire life!” Fluttershy paused, then giggled, paused again, and went on. “I’m only sorry I didn’t agree to perform the rituals sooner. Our thought connection could have saved Discord and me a lot of trouble.”

“So what’s that like,” Rainbow Dash interjected, “this ‘thought connection’ you have?”

“Oh, it’s just like talking to you right now, only we don’t need words and we can hear each other from anywhere. I say things to Discord and he says things back, and so on. But he only hears the thoughts I want to send him, and vice versa. It’s really quite nice.”

“But can Discord listen through your mind?” asked Twilight. “Like, can he hear us talking right now?”

Everypony but Fluttershy flinched when a voice from the sky thundered “Yes.”

Fluttershy was silent a moment as if listening to something, then relayed Discord’s explanation to her friends. “He can hear all of us because we’re inside his pocket dimension right now. But he can’t tap into my senses. He’ll only know what I see and hear if I choose to tell him.”

Pinkie Pie was still staring at the sky. “HI, DISCORD!” she shouted. A sudden and very localized hail of sweets descended to drop candies at her hooves.

Twilight had more questions for Fluttershy. “What was the binding ceremony like for you? It looked kind of painful!”

She sat down and squinted like she was trying to find a memory, and then her face brightened. “I hardly remember it now, but it was painful. The most painful thing you could imagine, like my heart was pierced and my whole body was burning, but right when it was at the very worst, that’s when I heard Discord’s voice in my head for the first time. Then we entered the dream-quest and the pain was all gone.”

“That’s another thing! What was the dream-quest? I did a lot of research in the draconequus Library, and all I could find was that it’s supposed to help you learn to control your new thought connection. But what was it like? What happened?”

Fluttershy frowned. “It’s, um… Well, it’s—it’s kind of hard to explain. It really was like a dream, except we were conscious, but not really, but it felt like it, and, um… Sometimes I was Discord, and he was me, or we’d both be him, or we’d both be me. But not really because it was all a dream. But everything in the dream was from our own memories, but then we could still kind of control what happened… And, um, we were also watching ourselves do all this at the same time, and…” She stopped, staring, then nodded enthusiastically. “I’m sorry I can’t explain it better, Twilight. Discord says the reason it’s not in any books is that the dream-quest is different for every couple, and nocreature who hasn’t experienced one is really capable of understanding what it’s like.”

Twilight sighed in frustration. “That’s exactly what Queen Ilmatar said.”

Before Twilight could pose any more questions, Applejack cut in. “That’s alright Fluttershy. I think we all understood well enough that it was a real unique and personal experience for the two of ya, and there’s no point confusin’ ourselves any further tryin’ to figure it out. We’re just mighty glad it all worked okay and you and Discord are happy.”

The others, including Twilight after a reluctant pause, nodded their agreement.

“Thank you,” smiled Fluttershy. “So what did you all do while Discord and I were on our quest?”

The friends all took turns relating their adventures in The Center. After the last story was told, Fluttershy’s attention flickered in that way the others had come to recognize meant she and Discord were communicating. “Discord has a question for all of you,” she said after a moment.

Rainbow Dash eyed the sky. “Why doesn’t he just ask us himself?”

“Because asking through Fluttershy is new, and therefore better,” Discord answered, his voice echoing across the little pocket dimension.

Fluttershy listened for another moment to a voice that now only she could hear. “He wants to know when you’d all like to return to Equestria. Like, at what point in Equestrian time would you like to be placed? Because of how long the trip was, the closest he can get us is maybe two days after we left, but he can put us back in any time at all after that.”

They settled for Friday of the same week they left. That way they’d have a full day to recover themselves from their astounding journey before visiting Sombra for his first assessment. The specific timing didn’t much matter to Discord and Fluttershy, though, for they were set to leave again immediately. As they said their goodbyes, Fluttershy gave a hug to each of her friends. Then, to Discord’s surprise and pleasure, each of their friends gave a hug to him, too.

A strange vehicle rolled up. It looked something like a shiny silver chariot, but sleek and aerodynamic and requiring nopony to pull it, and the cab was enclosed by windows. Discord opened the door on one side for his mate, then floated to the other side and dropped himself onto the plush seat beside her. He pulled the door back down to shut it and the pane of glass in its window slid down.

“Ta-ta!” he called. “Tell Fio and Corey we love them and will see them in two more days!”

“And to stay out of trouble!” added Fluttershy.

“Or not!” Then, with a look of exhilaration, Discord placed his hands on the steering wheel and the vehicle belched out a monstrous roar. Suddenly-activated wheels shrieked as they spun for traction. Finally, they blasted off at high speed, and the vehicle sparked like lightning and disappeared, leaving only twin flaming tracks behind.

Comments

[taterforlife]

This was a really nice break from all the conflict these characters are facing. Again, I love that it's about all these great characters, even if Fluttershy and Discord are the center of the plot.

The Twilight experiment with Pinkie was especially a fun moment I enjoyed. It made me smile.

Though I can definitely relate to Twilight and Rarity here. While no couple is perfect, and we know it deep inside, still. We all see that couple that seems wonderful in a social context... and we wonder if we will ever be in the same kind of situation.

I certainly know some of those and hope for the same for me, even though I know in my heart it's not as easy as they make it look. That there's more to what I see.