The Meaning of Time/An Hour of Judgment

by TimeRarity64

Chapter 9

“Why are you doing this to me? Have I not suffered enough?” Luna questioned, “What do you want from me?” Her voice racked in pain as tears streamed down her eyes. Her brother’s heartless gaze was a terrifying sight before her.

He did not answer her question, instead, scoffing and sitting on his throne chair. Glancing to the left, he stared out of the window quietly. Luna coughed a few times before gritting her teeth in pain when she felt the cables returning a painful jolt of electricity. Her life was on the brink of death. She could not last any longer with the cables attached to her. Struggling was out of the question since they would tighten around her.

Shutting her eyes, she muttered out her parent’s names, only to feel a magical grip tighten around her neck. She was forced to open her eyes and look up staring into her brother’s eyes that stared into her. She felt daggers stabbing every part of her soul; wanting to murder it instead of stealing it. Sand formed around him and slowly took the form of a massive dragon, glaring at her with its light brownish eyes.

“They are not alive to save you from your doom. If this fails, I will replace you without a single care and toss your body into a lake. Stop talking and just accept your place now in this world.”

Those words struck her painfully with every syllable pronounced with a bitter tone of malice. Then she felt something course through the cables. A strange type of magic, but also familiar sent a warm sensation through her body as if soothing her pain. Apparently, Déjà vu was not aware of this and went back to looking out of his window from a distance while Luna took the advantage to figure out the source. She waited for a few minutes for the strange magic to return through the cables, and it did return again.

She smiled mentally knowing who contained this much magic, glad that help arrived for her. It was Twilight’s magic.

“Somepony capture Zero in the Hourglass room!” A young colt dressed in armor shouted, causing Déjà vu to twitch a bit. Luna noticed how his eyes remained still, but his right ear was twitching madly as a sign of aggravation. Putting together the intruder, the hourglass, the cables, and Twilight; Luna managed to figure out who the intruder was and kept in mind of her plan of escape. Twilight was going to free from the bounds.

But realization dawned on the princess when she suddenly remembered her most of her magic being drained by the cables. She was not going to be any match against her brother in a weaken state. Pride and stubbornness was still alive in the mare when she felt that if she was surely going to lose a fight, she would go down fighting instead of begging. She clearly saw those eyes of her brother being emotionless and cold. Putting aside their blood, he was only an enemy of the world not just the country.

“I want you to handle it along with the others, have Twelve there, too.” Déjà vu ordered. The colt saluted before him and ran out of the room. The alicorn slowly glanced at Luna for a few seconds before returning his emotionless gaze out the window. His horn began glowing brightly as the moon began rising into the air with night right behind while sun went down to bring day to the other side. The alicorn of the night stared in complete shock at this.

“It is easy, honestly. Raising the moon or lowering it is not hard at all. I just need to keep things on schedule, that’s all. Right now, your subjects believe that you are still alive and fighting against me with the greatest strength you have, or had. Too bad they will be disappointed when they are being abolished from this plane of time.”

“Wait…what do you mean by “abolished”?” Luna asked, frightened by her brother’s next response.

“I will compress time together…and…restart it.” He said bluntly.

“Compressing time and restarting it? That does not make any sense!” Luna stated, staring at her brother in confusion.

“Let’s start from here: The past, present, and future will all collide into one small ball then be wiped out clean. All that was in the history of time will be restarted from day one and I will be there to govern it as it grows. It is like a phoenix: all of its memories are remembered after its death. If it lives for a very long, long time and gets close to others, those experiences will painfully flash before its eyes. Those that are reborn in my new world will remember only the terrors of war and atrocities that they will seek me for safety. I will rule the world and make my own laws. Nopony will be able to die. Nopony will be able to hate. Nopony will wage war. Nopony will suffer like I did. That is what would become in the new world.”

“You will kill everything on this planet!” Luna cried out, “What if does not work? You will be all alone!”

“Nothing matters to me anymore,” Déjà vu spoke causing Luna to remain silent and grimace at his apathetic tone, “What matters to me now is the new world I would be creating.”

“You…you don’t have to do this, brother,” Luna stated, “Would you kill every single thing on this planet…no…in the universe just to rule?!”

“More than that, my little sister,” He softly chuckled, “I plan to end the suffering I been through. Hence my explanation to why I am creating a new world.”

Luna saw no way in persuading him. She prayed mentally for the others to free her and stop him before his plan comes into action.

---

“Oh where, oh where has Twilight gone? We can’t find her anywhere in this large, ancient, Victorian place!” Rarity complained.

“Beats me, but complaining isn’t gonna get you anywhere if you continue doing it!” Rainbow Dash yelled flying down the hall as the others followed behind.

“How did Twilight suddenly vanish?” Fluttershy asked, concerned for her friend.

“Beats me.” Applejack stated.

“Did any of you felt cold after we exited the creepy dungeon?! I sure did! I remember feeling cold for only a split second before we all realized Twilight was gone!” Pinkie Pie yelled, causing the others to go into deep thought about it.

One of the guards began to speak up, finding the change of climate a clue to her absence: “Perhaps somepony froze time and kidnapped Ms. Sparkle.”

This caused the others to stop and glanced at the guard in shock. He blinked twice looking back at them confused, wondering what he said wrong. Rainbow Dash landed on the ground and walked over to Rarity, devising up a plan to find their purple friend.

“If that is so, Rarity, don’t you know any spells that could help us locate Twilight?”

“Darling, my level in magic I must say is not so skilled with Twilight’s. I’m only great at levitating things and finding…gems.”

Rainbow Dash smirked. “That’s the point. Wouldn’t Twilight have a gem with her or…beside her? Can you at least try using a spell that will help you locate her easily?”

Rarity gave it some thought before taking a cautious glance down the hall. She nodded her head and gave a determined smile. “I shall do my very best. I shall scan this entire castle of grotesque horror and its grim lore and find our friend no matter what it takes!” Her horn started glowing brightly before she cast her spell. A blue wave of magic spread out through the entire hall emitting off a whistling sound of wind that echoed in the lament hallway.

All the ponies remained silent, until the marshmallow mare turned to them with a dashing smirk. “I think I found her friend!” She stated before running down the hallway.

“That’s our Rarity, yee-haw! Let’s go, everypony!” Applejack yelled, following behind Rarity.

Rainbow Dash nodded her head and followed suit with the others.

“That was a good idea you gave Rarity, Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy commented, flying next to her friend.

“It made a lot of sense really. Twilight might have been taken to the room where the Elements of Harmony are being hold up. Since Rarity knows a lot about gems, I’m sure she can find them a mile away.”

“But what about Princess Luna, do you think Twilight got replaced, “Let’s not think about that Fluttershy. Twilight and Princess Luna are tough mares. They won’t go down without a fight.” Rainbow Dash said, smiling at her timid friend who remained concern for her friend’s safety.

“O-okay.” She muttered.

---

“Sorry about your siblings.” Celestia said, looking down at the unconscious colts and fillies before her as she stood in the middle of the hallway.

Twelve frowned. “It’s alright; at least you put them to sleep with that spell. It was harmless right?”

“Of course, now we have to worry about is Déjà vu. Take me to him and I will see what I can do to convince him to end this madness.” Celestia said.

“I am not sure he will even be capable of being convinced. You know his true objective; his mind is set in completing it.” Twelve said, leading the way to her father’s throne room as Celestia follow behind.

“There has to be a way. He must understand that to do such a thing will surely backfire on him and leave unsettling results to handle.” Celestia stated in a concerning tone. Twelve only shook her head, finding all reason in convincing her father to surrender to being truly impossible. His mind was impregnable of being convinced and only his goal matter the most than anypony else in his life. Truly, the alicorn was gone from the world and this broke the daughter’s heart. Her father was never like this. Now, since the days have grown and the years ever so became heavily dreadful, he was not her father anymore, but a monster in his skin.

Celestia knew that if he succeeded and life managed to survive, he will regarded in ill repute. Everyone in the world will go after him and there will be no way she could protect him from the danger they carried. What still remained, however, in Celestia’s head about Déjà vu’s plan was the hourglass within the chambers below countless floors of the castle. Twelve had informed her of the mare within the capsule and explained how she played a vital role in all of this. If there was a way to use her as a source of reasoning, perhaps she will be able to save her brother from absolute destruction.

“Twelve…do not worry. I will do my best, okay?” Celestia asked, giving the filly a reassuring smile. Twelve did not look back, but nodded her head confirming she understood. This was difficult for the filly to handle, but she knew what was best to be done.

Slowly being plotted out in her head, Twelve was planning to kill her father if things were not handle fast.

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-To Be Continued-