Soft Reset - A Novice Chronomancer's Guide to Tempomancy

by Foxvolt

6 - She Doesn't Have A Choice

SHE DOESN'T HAVE A CHOICE

"If I established a spatially-locked quantum entanglement field, it would be easier to observe the subtle nuance between a standard temporally-locked array and a free-flowing one." A clipped colt's voice echoed across the room, bouncing off the long walls, high ceiling, and multitude of sliding chalkboards all riddled seemingly incoherently with advanced magical and mathematical equations. Graphs, repeated words like "quark," "quantumly divided," and "imbecilic" dominated large swathes of multiple of them. While the last one was hardly a word, it did help him channel his frustrations when he underlined it multiple times in chalk.

"well, wherefore don't thou conduct such a test, then?" A rich, regal voice dripping with sarcasm rang out from in front of him. It was only slightly condescending, but they expected and encouraged that from each other. It kept them on their toes, kept them thinking.

"You know well why, nightmare," he chided in response. It was a fitting nickname when they were in the middle of a fit of banter, made all the more appropriate by her day job- Or rather, night job. "The thermal output would in and of itself null any findings as unprovable and unbacked without a proper control group, which there cannot be without a true vacuum. Even with a thousand attempts over a thousand days which would leave me a magically crippled husk, a similar finding with each attempt still falls outside of acceptable variance."

Luna didn't follow that one up, this was where she had a duty to maintain to her kingdom. She had dabbled in this art a millennia ago, and it took her nearly a full lifetime of on-and-off study to jury rig an appropriate apparatus to make it even remotely plausible. That was with the magic of an alicorn to brute-force its' size and technology far beyond what the Everfree kingdom had developed. Without the massive wellspring of an Alicorn, which was basically just brute forcing the problem by minimizing the impact of thermal irregularity, Star Swirl would have to find a proper solution before his research could continue in any facet.

Star Swirl, however, was annoyed at the damning wrench of a problem something so small was posing. Something this insignificant should have been solved and moved past in a matter of minutes with a mind like his, and here he was for nearly a month no closer to an answer. In fact, he was further from an answer given the amount of possibilities that had been ruled out, such as 'dual hoofball-sized entanglement fields,' 'getting Luna to tell me,' and 'threaten Luna with a relational hiatus until she tells me.' The latter almost worked after about a week, but just served to sharpen her temper. Twice already she'd lectured Star Swirl about the duty she had to not rush magical and technological advancement prematurely, and twice the argument had ended in her bed chambers.

"Dost thou find thy failure to proceed amusing?" Luna quipped. Star Swirl found himself blinking the rare smile from his face, re-focusing. She was right. Keep thinking.

"It's always possible we're- that I'm missing something obvious." He started. "But if you've got another way-"

"I do not." She cut off the beginnings of another pointless conversation, a tiny hint of boredom seeping into her voice.

"Do not blame me for your lack of patience." Star Swirl casually accused, his attention focused back onto the book open before him, examining the diagrams carefully. It was clear these were things only he knew how to read or interpret properly as his eyes spied through the books' pages. Encrypted formula shorthoof, one of the many paranoia-driven behaviors he began to adopt in recent years as he suspected other aspiring scholars could attempt to publish his findings as their own, if only they stole away one of his spellbooks.

He didn't notice, however, the fuming alicorn preparing a lengthy riot act for him, as he continued to skim the pages.

"Thou dare to infer to know the nature of an alicorn's patience? I should like to see thou live a millenia or ten and repeat such blasphemy!" While it wasn't her 'royal' voice, otherwise known as screaming with extra steps, it was loud. It didn't preterb the studious unicorn though, who flipped to the next page in search of a specific footnote from last week's failed experiment.

"And I should like to see you gain mortality and come to realize the value of such time when it is limited." His voice was quieter this time. It was fueled by spite, not at Luna but the nature of his own mortality. It was the reason he endeavored to cultivate such a school of magic in the first place. Mastery over time itself, the possibilities were limitless. Though he knew he'd never succeed, as the first thing he would do when he solved it would be to travel back to the inception of his studies and give himself the answers to the entire problem, he still had to try. It could mean immortality akin to the princesses, an eternal lifetime to become a true master of his craft, to put the title of Archmage to shame.

But Luna couldn't know that, he wasn't sure if she could even comprehend that, having lived for longer than she'd ever been willing to disclose, and without an end in sight. It wouldn't surprise him if she and Celestia purposefully crippled the development of magic such as this in an attempt to mitigate anything that could theoretically harm them.

The corners of Luna's mouth twitched in agitation, and her frame was frozen in place with a barely-contained rage. She'd sent ponies to the gallows for far less, and for just a moment she considered that perhaps she afforded Star Swirl too much leniency, accepted too much disrespect despite their relationship. When the thoughts all boiled to a head, though, she yelled in frustration and blinked out of existence in a flash of azure light, leaving the room silent once again.

"There it is," Star Swirl muttered, finding the footnote he was looking for.

- - - -

I am so not ready for this. I'm putting on a brave face, but the reality that an imprisoned pegasus mare who's been stalking me for weeks or months or even years wants to talk to me and only me has me on edge. I have no idea what she's going to say, and I'm scared of what she might. Spike picks up on it, but thankfully he doesn't raise a scene about it. He knows I need to do this. That doesn't stop him from latching onto my left shoulder as we walk though, and the familiar presence quells some of the anxious thoughts running rampant in my mind.

"Sorry for assuming it wouldn't work." I suddenly blurt out, my mind settling on our conversation with Princess Luna before we left the hospital. "I shouldn't have just assumed your idea was a bad one, I just heard it and-"

"I get it, I didn't think it would work either. It might still not, who knows?" He interrupts me, but he's got a small grin on his face. I've got to treat him to some fried gemstones after this is all over, to Tartarus with the food budget.

Luna had teleported us to the edge of town from my hospital room after ordering a guard to inform the nurses of our departure, and now the five of us- Spike, Luna, myself, and two Lunar Guard- were making our way towards the Everfree. It would make sense for them to detain her here, nopony with a will to live ever wanders within spitting range of the treeline, where the gnarled roots are just waiting to gobble you up and never spit you back out.

"So, uh... Did she say anything at all?" I try to keep any conversation flowing, addressing Luna. I'm keeping pace to stay in line with her, but I need to go just faster than a trot, but not quite a gallop to do so. It's awkward, like when you're leading somepony somewhere who's exactly 20% slower than you. With all the quests I've been on, it happens more often than you'd think.

"Nay, I am afraid." She turns to face forward, and it seems like she doesn't have anything else to add. So much for conversation. We continue to walk in silence for another minute or so, breaching the treeline as the dirt path quickly fades to an overgrown suggestion.

"There is nothing to fear, Twilight. She is helpless in this state, the runecraft is my own. I would bet my immortal soul on it." She states after another moment, and with such a confident bravado it's easy to tell she believes it. Not just that, she said it in such a matter-of-fact way that I question if even Murphy's Law could stand up to such a bold proclamation. I try not to linger on that last part though, instead finding some solace in it. I'm being personally escorted by Princess Luna and her private detachment of Lunar Guard, quite possibly with more on-site. It's just a talk, a talk with unknown stakes and intent in the equivalent of a sensory deprivation chamber with a mare that hospitalized me.

Why do I always do that to myself?

I don't have long to ponder it, though, as Luna suddenly takes a sharp left into the underbrush. With an effortless flick of her horn the undergrowth parts ways for us for hundreds of feet ahead, and closes behind us, leaving no trace of it having ever been manipulated. That's a really specific application of telekinesis, for it to leave such malleable growth so similar to its' pre-altered state. I make a mental note to ask her about it, but in the back of my mind I wonder if that's something that falls under the category of 'Magic beyond my time.' In a way it's infuriating to know that most of the discoveries I've made she's likely already lived through a society discovering, it makes some of the pride in my pursuit of knowledge deflate a little. I'm not the first to figure this out, and I might not even be the last, if the Princesses handle the collapse of pony society the way I'm starting to believe they do. It's a simultaneously humbling and terrifying thought.

We arrive at our destination—and it isn't much of one. A few smaller gnarled trees, a clearing maybe fifty yards across, and only a couple hundred deep, two minimalistic canopy tents with some machinery I don't recognize sitting on wooden tables likely hastily crafted from the nearby forest, and about half a dozen Lunar Guard not in ceremonial black-and-blue chitin-esque armor, but full enchanted platemail. They all stop what they're doing when Luna walks into view, and without a word they lean forward into a deep, reverent bow. She doesn't have to relieve them of the ceremony, though, as almost exactly three seconds after the uncomfortably synchronized display they resume what they were doing without a word. It's clear all these ponies have done this before.

What really grabs my attention, though, is at the center of the clearing. An opaque, jet-black dome, with a multitude of layers of powerful warding magic distorting the very air and space around it. I've seen a lot of wards, some powerful enough to minimally bend light itself, but never this. I feel like if I were to step too close to it, I'd fall past its' event horizon and never experience anything again.

I'm snapped out of my stupor by Luna, as she gently pushes me forward with a large wing. I start walking with her to one of the tables with strange metallic devices on them, all of which seem to be labeled in Old Ponish, which I'm not adept enough at to decipher with only a glance. The only words I can really make out in the moments I can see them are 'Power' and 'Anomaly'. There are an uncountable number of graphing devices constantly printing a deviation measurement on an exceedingly long stream of paper, dials set to strange symbols instead of numbers, and one of the guards is constantly flitzing with buttons that glow like a lightbulb at random intervals.

"I trust you to not speak of this technology to anypony, Twilight. It is seldom used, but it was a necessity. My guard are trained to guard its' secrecy with their very lives, and some have." She stares down at me expectantly. So this is future technology, then? I could probably decipher the function of about a third of the machines if I had a translation tome and about two days, but the rest of it is so absurdly beyond anything I've ever seen that it brings that sense of existentialism back to the surface.

I swallow it back down.

"Of course, on my life." I respond. Luna flinches at that, and I look back up at her. She's thinking something I can't imagine behind those stoic eyes, but she remains silent.

"I am sorry to have involved you with this secret, Twilight. Truly." We continue to stare at each other for a few moments longer, before she quickly trots forward, wiping a hoof at her face. I follow closely behind as she takes a seat on a large pillow beneath an otherwise empty canopy, and a guard brings two more forward for Spike and me. I thank him, but he only nods before returning to one of the machines. We both sit down with Luna.

"I must reiterate that everything I am about to tell you is classified Indigo Cosmic. Should any of this information be revealed to the public, the consequences could be catastrophic to the development and stability of Equestria." She puts on her Princess face, and speaks quickly in a clipped tone. She doesn't wait for a response before continuing. "I ask that you listen to me in full before raising questions or interrupting, as the possibility that I will answer your question thereforward is high." She pauses that time, and waits patiently for Spike and I to glance at each other. I nod back to her.

" Of cou-"

"No way!" Spike yells out, jumping to a standing position. It startles the both of us, and more than a few of the guards bristle at the display that could be barely classified as 'hostile.' "Why tell us all of this anyway, why show us all the fancy mumbo jumbo instead of just teleporting us next to her? Why's Twilight gotta do the dirty work and get thrown under the bus AGAIN? You could have just thrown some blankets over everything or moved her further away, somewhere in town!"

He's livid, and a reach a gentle hoof forward to reassure him. I'm okay with this, really. I'm used to it might be the better way of phrasing it, but semantics have a time and place, and this is neither. For the first time in years, though, he pushes my hoof away, defiantly staring at Luna.

"Spike-!" I'm hurt, this isn't like my Spikey Wikey, but his words from a few hours ago are trudged up in my mind.

'Why's it always have to be us, you know? When do we get a pat on the back, Princess Celestia tells us 'good job,' and we let somepony else handle it?'

Suddenly, I don't have anything to say. Worse, I'm actually curious what Luna has to say to that. For the second time in so many hours, she stares at the little ball of purple scales with unconcealed surprise, though clearly agitated by the accusations.

"I commend your bravery for speaking your mind, young dragon. I did not mean to imply that there was no choice in the matter, Twilight has every right to refuse. I must ask that you trust in my judgement on this matter." She says gently, recollecting her even, negotiating demeanor. Spike's unimpressed.

"You know she would never say no, not to a Princess. You shouldn't have thought to give her the choice, now even if she says no she'll be bothered about it for the rest of her life! It's not a choice, it's playing dirty because you want her to do something." Spike's aggression isn't going unnoticed, and Luna slams a hoof as she stands and presses her face down against his in an equally defiant manner, patience wearing thin.

"SHE HAS BEEN INVOLVED FOR YEARS, BY NO DIRECTIVE OF MY OWN! WERE WE TO BE IN CONTROL SHE WOULD NEVER HAVE KNOWN, AND SCORES OF THESE SO-CALLED PONIES WOULD BE WITHOUT BREATH!" She screams in the archaic Royal Canterlot voice. Several flocks of black birds take off from surrounding trees, and all the activity from the guards slams to a halt as all eyes are on her. For a moment, I'm concerned that she could be heard all the way back in Ponyville. Spike's bravado falters a bit as he shrinks away from the display, and I've seen enough.

"That's enough, both of you!" I step between them, and push spike back a few inches from Luna, who closes her eyes and raises her head attempting to recenter herself. In one day my expectations for three of the most important creatures in my life have been shattered by unhinged displays of emotion, I'm not sure I can take any more right now. "Please, both of you, just..." My words falter, and I find myself back on the ground, burying my head in by hooves. Oh Celestia, why is this all happening? Why can't this just be a simple exchange without ideals getting in the way? Why can't-

...What does she mean 'if' she were in control?

"Twilight, I'm sorry, I just-"

"We apologize for our- my-"

"What do you mean 'in control?' What's happening here? How long has this been going on?" I deadpan, staring forward instead of at either of them. I just want facts and logic right now, I need facts and logic. Something I can ingest, parse, extrapolate from and memorize.

I can't see her reaction, but from the way she takes a step back from me I can tell I've stumbled on something deeper. I just keep staring detachedly forward and wait for her response. Spike's grip on my side tightens a bit as he's probably upset I'm choosing to involve myself against his wishes, but he's right. I have to know, or I'll never forgive myself. I don't have a choice.

"That... I am not..."

"If you can't answer my questions, I can't trust that Spike isn't right and that you're manipulating me." The words are completely empty, hollow. I can't remember the last time I've actively distrusted somepony, and the fact that it's Princess Luna just has me completely at a loss for how to feel about any of it. So for the moment, I just don't.

"Twilight Sparkle, truly you do not wish to-" I snap my head right to stare at her, and she has the same look as when we first entered the clearing, after I promised to hide the technology's existence with my life. Something struck, though. Her head hangs low in some form of shame for unknowable reasons, and she sits back down across from us.

"Sister has planned contingencies for the appearance of members of this group, many of which involve you." She quietly and slowly mutters, a deep sense of guilt layered beneath her words. I can't find it in me to pity her, though. I hear that familiar high-pitched ring in my ears, and I feel myself approaching a breaking point.

That's done it. I officially can't trust anypony.

"She does care deeply for you, never before has a pupil of hers-" I'm uninterested in her justification, I just need a bit to process this. I need to mentally reset and think about all the angles in play, what my responses to those conditions should be, and who to place my trust in going forward. Clearly the Princesses don't mean me harm. Despite coming to the realization that I'm a pawn in some chessboard of Princess Celestia's making, I know that both want me to be safe and prosper. The ringing gets louder. Do they want me to prosper, though? How much of my academic pursuits would have been made easier by restricted tomes of bygone ages? Surely they must have scores of them in the Vault. Knowledge freely obtained is free to keep, that's what Luna said, but here she is simultaneously admitting to keeping secret centuries, at minimum, of developments from pony society. Is the fall of a society somehow akin to no longer being freely obtained, honestly worked for by generation after generation of those in pursuit of knowledge? When will this infuriating white noise go away?!

"Celestia, I can't even think!" I yell out, covering my ears with my hooves. There's silence, blissful silence, as I finally take a deep breath and look up. Spike's next to Luna, and it looks like they were mid-argument. I think I lost some time for a second there, but that's the least of my problems if I'm reading everything right.

"Tell me everything." I say plainly. The two look at each other, then back to me. Spike sighs, and Luna looks dejected, but nonetheless turns to face me. I face her back, and spike decides to sit between us instead of at my side, looking incredibly dejected. I'll apologize to him later. He doesn't want to hear it right now, and I don't want to say it right now.

"The ponies you encountered are agents from an organization known as the Chronomancer's Guild. They are fanatics about the development and application of Chronomancy, and are willing to go to any length to serve that purpose. They answer to a pony who calls himself 'The Timekeeper,' and he is as ruthless as he is clever. He has been rampant nearly nine hundred years now, indoctrinating the brightest of each era to his cause. Thankfully for everypony, he seems to understand the influence of his existence and operates in secret. Sister has yet to corner him, not for lack of trying through the years." I simply nod, and she continues.

"This pegasus will likely attempt to do so on his behalf, you need to mentally fortify yourself to not be taken by the promise of power or knowledge."

"How do you know the Timekeeper is a colt?" I ask, and she fidgets. Another lie of omission.

"I do not," She admits. Or lies. "Not for certain, though I believe their leader to be a unicorn. One from past times, with whom we are both familiar." She doesn't want to say it, but she knows I won't let it go. My heart sinks just a little bit more at the revelation that one more pony I adore just got added to the list of 'Re-evaluate my standing with their existence.'

"No way," Spike interjects for her, giving her an out. His eyes are wide, but I'm doing my best to remain detached until I can let everything catch up and have my mental breakdown safe and sound at home.

"Indeed. While he understood the policy Sister and I adhere to, he never truly agreed with it. After my banishment Celestia took up the mantle of mentoring him in my stead, though I can only imagine how he might have resented her, believing it was her doing."

"It wasn't?" I ask, and a hint of curiosity slips out. While I'm trying to figure out how to ask her to elaborate, she spares me the trouble.

"Nay. My banishment was of my own design and execution. So far even as to betray Sister's plans. She was willing to allow civil unrest and risk a kingdom-ending conflict to spark to attempt to spare my image. I could not allow her." She look at me, and she's wearing that same stone expression I've been wearing the last few minutes. She would probably be bawling at the memory if she hadn't trained herself to uncouple from her emotions like that. I'm not really sure what to say to that, either. Pity is a common reaction, but we both know that would be just vain words.

"... So you sacrificed yourself until you could be cured, and Princess Celestia was forced to say she did it which gained public stability instead of civil war." I put some pieces together, and I get a small nod from her.

"We are straying from the main point of discussion." She uprights herself again, and she turns to a guard nearby who approaches without the need for a signal. Wordlessly, he reaches into a slot in the chest of his platemail, and tugs away a hoof-sized amulet with an Opal slotted into it, and it's faintly glowing white. I take it, and Luna nods for me to put it on. I tie it off and slip it over my head, and it rests flatly against my chest. It doesn't have a noticeable effect, but I do get a strange sense of familiarity from the jewel, like it's a part of myself from years ago.

"A soulgem," Luna says simply.

WHAT!?

I rip the amulet off and jump away from it, my eyes wide and my breathing sharp and sudden. What in Equestria is she trying to do to me, and how does she have a soulgem from ME!? She doesn't react immediately, but she gives me a minute to catch my breath before explaining.

"It is not a necromantic abomination as you fear it to be, it is a set of instructions on the assembly and nuance of your body and mind, allowing for resurrection. It requires evocation magic only Sister and I know, or are even capable of. With this, should anything happen," She pauses for a moment, and I can tell she's chiding herself for her choice of words. "I will be able to restore you within the hour. Purely precautionary. As I stated previously, I have the utmost confidence the pegasus shall pose you no threat."

A build-your-own-Twilight instruction manual? There's at least half a dozen problems I have with that, no less than three existential and morally challenging, but after I've calmed down I look at it again, and she nudges it towards me. She probably expected me to act that way, given what the history books say about the charms the Zebras used in the war.

The guard quickly trots back to his station, and I'm left to poke at the medallion, necklace, soulgem thingy. It doesn't react much, but when I make contact that feeling of familiarity comes back.

"Does it... Update?" I'm finding it difficult to find the words to describe its' function.

"Nay, not in realtime. It requires manual input, which I will conduct when you are ready. This gem is from before you left Canterlot, many years outdated."

I try not to think about how they got an instruction manual on reconstructing my DNA when I was still an adolescent, instead focusing on the glowing gem socketed inside. 'That's me,' I mutter internally. I know this goes down a dark path if I think too much about it, so instead I decide it's time to rip off the band aid. I slip it back on, and try not to think about what would happen were she to accidentally restore me to before I came to Ponyville.

"Would I retain my memories? If you were to... Use this?" I ask as she lights up her horn. Her hesitation before an answer makes me more than a little anxious.

"Not after the update to your restoration point, no." She says, giving me a moment to come to terms with that possibility. The idea of losing memories or potentially some small piece of myself is scary, but identity scruples aside it's preferable to death. I nod, and she begins weaving a spell from some foreign branch of magic. I feel a slight tingling sensation, and looking down I can see that my fur is standing on edge, as if there were a static charge coursing through me, and I'm shedding a dim white glow similar to the Opal dangling from my neck. It's not entirely unpleasant, but knowing that my DNA is being sequenced for later reconstruction kind of sucks away my desire to watch. So instead I close my eyes, and try to think of something else.

Rarity and I were supposed to spend the afternoon with Aloe and Lotus, to celebrate their second spa opening next year. I have to remember to apologize for bailing on them. I'm sure they understand, but I still feel bad that I hadn't even thought about it until now. Pinkie was going to throw them a surprise party, too. Well, a second surprise party. 'Nopony expects two surprise parties, that's what makes it a surprise!'

I wonder what the girls are all up to, now that I think about it. They must be worried, given they were told I wasn't allowed to have any visitors. Maybe Luna gave them some cover-up? I don't even know how to address it if she did, what could I even tell them? Lying isn't my strong suit, but I've already dug myself into a hole by implicating myself in all of this. Maybe Spike was right, I could have been better off leaving this to Luna.

'WERE WE TO BE IN CONTROL SHE WOULD NEVER HAVE KNOWN, AND SCORES OF THESE SO-CALLED PONIES WOULD BE WITHOUT BREATH!'

...Or maybe it really is for the best that I intervene. I don't really know right now, but I'll have plenty of time to organize these thoughts after I hear whatever this Goldfish pegasus has to say. I don't have to wait long, though, as Luna finishes up her spell and I feel that static tingle fade away. My amulet is shining brighter than when I first put it on, I can only infer it's because of the increase in data it has to hold for current-me as opposed to 17-me fresh out of Canterlot.

As the magic fades I'm not sure what else there's left to do besides addressing the black hole in the room.

"So, I just walk in and talk to her, no plan or anything? I assume your silencing wards are one-way so that you can listen in, is there anything else I need to know?"

Luna stands and begins to walk towards the large opaque dome in the middle of the field, containing the Pegasus responsible for all of this. I follow, taking deep breaths to prepare.

"Nay, we shall lift the graviturgy and fae dust enchantments now, though she may be groggy for a moment. Sleep enchantments maintained over long periods have strong sedative effects that tend to linger." Luna nods to a guard across from us, and he and another unicorn mare work in tandem to begin unraveling several layers of the colossal magical construction before us. The mare siphoning magic away, and the colt adjusting more buttons and knobs in a flurry of hoof dexterity that I can't help but be entranced by.

"Do you want me to go with you?" Spike asks, placing a hand on my back. It's a nice gesture, but we both know that's not a great idea. I shake my head but give him a half-baked smile. Thankfully he doesn't protest, instead opting to slowly trod back to the open canopy and sit back down on one of the pillows, closing his eyes and leaning forward to rest his forehead against his fist.

I look up at Luna, and she gives me a small nod before stepping aside. Now it's just a giant wall of shimmering opaque darkness between me and Goldfish, blocking all light and sound from her. 'She won't even know what day it is', I realize, but quickly push the thought away. I'm already psy-op'ing myself into pitying her. I would normally want to believe she's a good pony who didn't choose this, a good mare who was the victim of some convoluted circumstance, but the day's many revelations have left my optimism levels critically low, and my empathy capability trailing close behind. Whatever she's playing at, whatever she feels so strongly she can say to only me, I'll have to judge on its' own merit without my usual positive lens. With one last deep breath, I raise my head and decide it's time to stop stalling.

I walk confidently into the void.

Comments

[darklight731]

I would call all of this the work of a shadow government if it wasn`t for the fact everyone knew who the princesses were.