Imperatives

by Sharp Quill

23. Jailbreak

Meg waited for Discord to finish the thought, to state what could and did create a species bearing harmonic cutie marks. Twilight also looked on expectantly. Yet the draconequus remained silent.

“So who or what did?” Meg finally asked.

Discord sighed and stood up. “Let’s go pay her a visit.”

---

The two diarchs sat across the mahogany table from Meg. The morning sun shone through the panoramic windows. Celestia had already started brewing tea, as she was wont to do. “Do you have a date yet for this convention?” she asked.

“Not yet,” Meg admitted. “Hopefully we’ll know soon.”

“It is difficult to say if we can make an appearance until the date is known,” Luna said.

“I understand. But you’re at least open to the possibility?”

Celestia bore that smile of hers. “I should think so. A brief appearance, I must add.”

Luna nodded in agreement. “And no interviews. We teleport in, give a short, prepared speech, and teleport out. Perhaps lower the sun and raise the moon?”

“I figured as much. Andrew would want more, obviously, but I’ll deal with him.” Not like he’d have much choice in the matter. “What about Discord? I assume you’d like him to be elsewhere when you are on stage.”

Celestia was unconcerned. “I’ll have a talk with him.”

Better the princess than herself. “I think that covers that topic.”

“You have another?” Celestia asked.

“Yeah. Twilight might’ve already told you, but we’re going to travel back in time to free Tirek from Tartarus. I mean, we already knew we’d have to do that someday, but that day is basically now. Because it turns out if we don’t do that first, we can’t go back to fix the creation of the anomaly.”

“She has yet to inform me,” Celestia said. “It seems odd the two are connected.”

Meg sighed. “Tell me about it.” She got serious. “Is there anything you know about Tirek’s escape that now would be a good time to tell me?” Like how Cadance had known all along about that trip back in time, but had been Pinkie Promised to secrecy.

“I’m afraid not, Meg. We truly were clueless about how he escaped, nor had we any clue of the presence of your future selves back then.”

“I guess that tells us something about what not to expect, I suppose.”

That still left Discord, naturally. No way he didn’t know of “future” Twilight’s presence. He has already proven he can sense the presence of an additional alicorn. Maybe that was why he gave Twilight that hint when he did?

Meg raised her voice. “I don’t suppose, Discord, that you have anything to offer on this subject?” That rarely worked, but what the heck.

“Nope.”

Wait, what? Meg quickly scanned the room, but the draconequus was nowhere to be seen. “This time you responded?”

“I was becoming too predictable.”

Still invisible. “Whatever. You must have known we were there.”

“Imprisoned in stone, remember?”

A sheepish grin. “Oh, yeah. The escape was during season two. Sorry.”

“Apology accepted.” It sounded surprisingly sincere.

“Since we have your attention,” Celestia said, “let’s discuss the ground rules for my appearance—and Luna’s too,” she quickly added, “at the convention.” A brief pause. “Along with other convention concerns.”

---

Next on Meg’s list was a meeting with A. K. Yearling. The meeting was to take place in the palace cafeteria. At that hour business was light, making it easy to hold a private conversation. When Meg arrived the author was already seated, in the same general area as their last encounter there, digging into a slice of cake fit for a princess. Apparently that slice was all she had gotten, a between meal snack.

Meg wondered if she should’ve got something, but it was a little late for that now. She sat down across from Yearling. “So what are your thoughts on attending the convention?”

She helped herself to another bite of cake before answering. “I don’t know, to be honest.”

“Meaning?”

Yearling looked up at Meg. “Meaning, I do not know. The obvious reason for making an appearance would be to market my books. Unfortunately, with the recent insanity over ponies in your realm, I’m getting nowhere in signing up a publisher.”

“I knew it was bad, obviously, but that bad?”

It was the part of inter-realm relations Meg hadn’t paid much attention to; that was more Twilight’s area, and even she’d had little time to spend on that, what with everything else going on. But a while back, Meg had set up a laptop for Yearling and instructed her on its use, Serrell’s people helped make the initial contacts, and the author/businessmare was more than capable of handling matters without Meg’s further involvement.

“Looks like it. They’re not telling me to get lost, mind you, but they’re in no hurry either. It doesn’t help, to put it politely, that my non-de-plum is already in use in the human world due to previously published books by Hasbro.”

“Maybe this convention could change that? Create a demand they can’t ignore?”

“The demand’s already there and they know it. They just want to wait until the dust settles, so to speak. Unfortunately, it isn’t clear whether that convention will help settle the dust or stir up even more.”

No, it wasn’t. Not clear at all.

Apparently having concluded that Meg’s failure to volunteer an answer to the implied question was in itself an answer, Yearling continued. “And finally, there’s the question of how I’ll appear. I still haven’t figured that one out.”

Meg wondered if she’d heard that correctly. “As yourself, A. K. Yearling? There may be ponies in attendance, besides those who already know, I mean.”

She had another bite of cake. “It’s not that simple.”

“O…kay?”

Yearling—Daring Do?—focused on what was left of her slice of cake.

Who are you? Was she really A. K. Yearling? A pegasus disguised as an earth pony? That made little sense. And a disguise for what? A fictional character she role-played along with a bunch of changelings playing the parts of archvillains? So what if the public knew she did that. She could probably sell tickets to it!

Dared she ask her? It was a sensitive subject, that was obvious enough. But then… that mare wasn’t above dumping a “situation” on her either.

Meg looked around; no one was near. Lowering her voice, she said, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but… who are you—really? You’re not ‘Daring Do.’ That’s somepony you role play with changelings as a means of brainstorming your next book—right? And if you’re really ‘A. K. Yearling,’ then why pretend to be an earth pony? What’s the point?”

A nervous smile. It almost made Meg feel guilty bringing up the subject.

“Let’s just say I’m a very private person and leave it at that, okay?”

Meg leaned back. “I guess you’re rich and famous enough to do whatever you want.” And if privacy was what she wanted, that hardly made her evil. Meg got up. ”Once you’ve figured it out, let me know.”

“I’ll… do that.”

Meg departed. She had enough to send Andrew a status report, so she made her way through the palace to what had become her home. After arriving there and closing the door behind her, she squeezed her pendant to resume her human form, the better to type away.

She sat down on an office chair borrowed from the lab. It didn’t take long to write the report on her laptop. As she was reviewing what she had written, an all too familiar voice made itself heard.

“You could provide an update on my hotel.”

Meg exhaled and swiveled the chair to face Discord. “I could,” she politely agreed. “Regardless, I think it’s safe to say he’ll want to see it for himself—and… perhaps… offer constructive criticism?”

“Oh I see where this is going. The same thing happened in Las Pegasus. By the time—”

“I’ll do my best to prevent that.”

She had his attention.

“Look, I’m not promising absolutely no changes will be needed, but I assure you that plenty of bronies would love to experience what you have in mind—so long as it doesn’t go too far. We’ve already talked about this. Moderation is the key.”

He rolled his eyes. “Moderation.”

Meg sighed. “Yes, moderation—but. Some people will need more moderation than others. Maybe offer several tiers of chaos? From mild to… to no holds barred? Like I said before: just offer a safe word or something. And whatever happens, it must be temporary.”

He was still frowning.

“Do it right,” she teased, “and you’ll have a hit on your hands.”

He rubbed his goatee in reluctant thought.

There was still the subject of the documentary crew to document the progress of the theme park. No attempt had yet been made to contact them. Meg decided that topic would have to wait again.

“Fine,” he finally grumbled, and raised his claw to—

“Wait a sec, change of subject.”

His claw remained raised, waiting.

“Any chance of The Smooze making an appearance at the convention? Just an appearance, no questions, since we never did get that speech synthesizer to work properly. Too bad he can’t sign autographs.” After all, he had nothing with which to sign them.

An eyebrow raised… all the way to the ceiling. “Let’s make that a definite maybe.” A snap, and he was gone.

Meg swiveled back to her laptop. She stared at the screen. There was no point, she decided, in mentioning the hotel or Smooze. Not yet.

---

Twilight was the first to enter the Zephyr under an overcast sky. The cloud cover did not bother her; the weather over the Everfree was unmanaged anyway. It would be what it would be, both in the present and in the past. Too bad there were no records of Everfree weather that could be consulted.

After informing Captain Shooting Star of their flight plans, she went through her saddle bags, double checking that she did not leave any enchanted crystals behind. One set was for extended time travel and another for extended teleport. The latter was new, needed so that Tirek and Cerberus could be extracted to distantly separated areas. She barely had time to properly test it, but it did work; the spell was related to the extended time travel spell, differing only in the direction through space-time.

Nothing had been forgotten. Nothing to do but wait for the others to arrive. To pass the time she got out a book and began to read.

Barely a dozen pages later, Meg entered the observation lounge. “Re-reading Daring Do and the Calamitous Catacombs?” she asked.

Twilight’s eyes remained glued to the page. “Next book should be out soon.”

Meg wandered over to the window. “Just had a chat with her. She hasn’t decided whether to appear at the convention.”

Twilight looked up. “Why not?”

The answer wasn’t immediate. “I’m not sure, really.”

And Twilight wasn’t sure what to make of that. Perhaps she should have her own chat with Yearling. Or maybe not. It wasn’t that important, really, and there was enough for her to do.

Sunset Shimmer then arrived. Upon seeing the other two present and accounted for, she said, “Are we ready to go?”

Twilight put down her book. “Yes.” She went over to the intercom and pushed the button. “We are departing now.”

“As you wish, Your Highness.”

Mere seconds later, the ship began to rise. There was nothing to do until they arrived at the designated spot over the Everfree. It wouldn’t take long, just long enough to finish reading the current chapter and the next. Returning to the book, she picked it up and resumed reading.

In actuality Twilight finished that next chapter before the Zephyr began decelerating. She put the book down anyway and walked over to the front window, joining Meg and Sunset. Forest as far as the eye can see, which wasn’t that far given that the ship was as low as it was safe to be.

A rare clearing came into view. It wasn’t long before the ship hovered above it.

“Okay,” Twilight began. “Teleporting down now.”

They were down on the ground, drenched in sunshine. No clouds here. Twilight looked up. The ship had begun to rise, the better to stay safe until they returned. It would then go to the rendezvous point over another clearing. From her saddlebag she retrieved the gem enchanted with the time travel helper spell. Her horn lit up, channeling magic into it.

She cast the spell.

For a split second everything turned black.

Then they were back in the clearing.

The sky was still clear, but the sun had shifted position. It was mid-afternoon. Just as it should be.

From her saddlebag she retrieved the other gem, enchanted with the teleportation helper spell, and the obligatory plaid pills. Two of them went to the other mares. “Remember: go after I teleport.”

Once again, her horn lit up, channeling magic into the teleportation gem.

Twilight cast the modified teleportation spell.

She was just outside Ponyville, not far from the dam. Perfect. No perceived duration, as predicted. The distance traveled this time had been a few dozen miles, not lightyears of temporal displacement.

Nopony was around. It had been a gamble, but a calculated one, for history could not be changed. Nopony had reported seeing her around here, so nopony would. Ditto when she returned with Cerberus. If coming back, here and now, had led to a paradox… well, it hadn’t, so better get on with it. The other two should already be in Tartarus.

Twilight swallowed her plaid pill.

There was Cerberus, on his bed. Two heads were awake. Neither seemed aware of her sudden presence. Good. They already knew the pill’s invisibility worked in this realm. Probably because it was chaos magic—though why should that matter? She shook her head. No time for that now.

Over there was the guard station. Neither minotaur was looking in the guard dog’s direction. Perfect, again. It’d be a paradox if they were, for they had not seen the dog vanish into thin air. Nopony knew where he had gone or how he had left.

Twilight walked over to Cerberus. She glanced over at the guards; they were still chatting, passing away the time, letting Cerberus and his canine senses be on the alert.

Twilight grabbed Cerberus in her magic—it took way too much effort in this place—and invoked the return spell.

Cerberus jumped to his feet, all three heads swiveling about.

One of them, then all of them, locked onto her, in a decidedly unfriendly fashion.

Twilight spread her wings in royal display. “Calm down. Everything’s fine.”

Panic and anger morphed into confusion.

“I know you haven’t seen me like this before, and just to make it more confusing the next time you see me I won’t have them. It’s complicated.” She looked around; still nopony to see them. “I have a message from Princess Celestia. For your dedication and hard work, you have been granted a holiday.” She smiled. “Have fun!”

She teleported away, out of the bulldog’s sight. What she had told him was true enough; her Celestia had proposed giving him that message. She got out the teleportation helper gem and proceeded to recharge its magic.

---

Meg watched Twilight vanish into thin air. She turned to Sunset. “Ready?”

“Not really.” She swallowed her pill and disappeared.

Meg sighed. “Me neither.” She swallowed her own plaid pill.

There was Lord Tirek, behind bars, reading a book. They had access to books here?

“Go visible in three?” Sunset asked.

Focus, Meg, focus. The existence of a prison library was irrelevant—however much Twilight would disagree if she were here. We can do this. They already had, after all. Or others who impersonated us.

“Meg?”

Her head jerked to the unicorn. “Yeah, in three.” But that kind of magic didn’t work here. “One… two… three.”

Meg canceled the invisibility of her chaos-fueled magic bubble. Tirek had yet to notice their sudden appearance.

Now or never. Approaching a whisper, she said, “Lord Tirek, your freedom has arrived.”

His eyes closed, his head sagging. Sluggishly he put a bookmark in the book and set it down. He turned towards the mares, seemingly out of boredom. “This is a new low, even for Celestia.”

Meg exchanged glances with Sunset, who shrugged in response. Back to Tirek, Meg said, “You think Celestia sent us?”

“Your failure to use her title persuades me not at all.”

Meg had rather hoped it would.

“Princess Celestia,” Sunset said, “is unaware of our presence here.” The one in this time period, anyway. “Do you wish to leave Tartarus, or not?”

“Neither does your belated use of her title.” Tirek’s boredom did seem to have diminished, if only slightly. “How do you propose to accomplish this task?” He rubbed his chin. “For that matter, how are you here?—if not at Celestia’s pleasure.”

“We shall depart the same way we arrived,” Meg said.

Tirek smirked. “That only begs the question.”

“Regardless,” Sunset retorted, “either we can or we cannot get you out of here. If we cannot, you are no worse off; indeed, you can have the pleasure of calling the guards on us. If we can, does it matter the means?”

After a second, he broke out in laughter, which he quickly suppressed. “No worse off? I’d say it depends very much on the means. What if ‘cannot’ was due to us being captured on the way to the Gates? How do you plan on getting past that blasted guard dog?”

Meg couldn’t believe how much trouble this was becoming. “Because we’ll all teleport from this spot straight into Equestria, hundreds of miles from those Gates.”

Tirek’s eyes switched back and forth between Meg and Sunset, the centaur struggling to decide if he was being granted his fondest wish or was being served the greatest prank. “I suppose,” he carefully stated, “in that case, that I would indeed not be worse off should it be ‘cannot.’”

“Sooner would be better than later,” Sunset said. “Cerberus is being taken care of right now as a diversion.”

An eyebrow raised at that remark. “There is still the question of why? Why are you helping me?”

Oh shit. It had never occurred to them that he’d be so suspicious, that he’d care about the why. What excuse could they offer? And it had to be consistent with their eventual future encounter. There must be something, otherwise it’d be a paradox!

Then it came to her. “To correct an injustice,” Meg said. “You have served too many centuries already.” That very rationale had contributed to his eventual release back to humanity.

The centaur studied her, for a bit longer than was comfortable. Eventually he nodded. “I see. And what would you have of me in return?”

“Nothing.” No point in asking for good behavior; history was clear on that. It’d only sour their subsequent meeting. “We go our separate ways upon returning to Equestria.”

He smiled. “Then let us see if you can deliver on your claims.”

“Stand close to the bars,” Sunset said.

Tirek did so. Sunset grabbed him in her magic and invoked the return spell.

They disappeared.

Meg did likewise, returning to the clearing. Tirek was staring up at the sky in disbelief. “You are in a forest,” she said, “inhabited by many dangerous creatures. Nothing you can’t handle, I’m sure. But you are safe from the princess and her guards so long as you remain here.”

Suspicion returned to his countenance. “Is it a condition that I remain?”

“No,” Meg said, shaking her head. “We impose no conditions; you are free.” She nodded at Sunset, who was now beside her. “We will now depart.”

“Wait!”

Sunset waited; Meg wondered if she should have. “Yes?”

“I would know the name of my liberators.”

Meg froze. He did call her by a different name when he had first seen her back in his cell, hadn’t he? It had completely slipped her mind. What was that name again? She had to get it right, otherwise it’d be a paradox! But what was it?! Then it came to her: “You may call me Common Ground.” Meg looked aside to her companion. He had referred to her by her actual name. “And this is Sunset Shimmer.”

Before he could say anything more, Sunset teleported Meg and herself as far as she could in the direction of the rendezvous clearing. There was no clearing in sight. “Best I could do.”

Meg sighed. “Let’s start walking. I’ll fly up to spot it once we’re far enough away from him.”

Fortunately, most of what the forest could throw at them could be handled by Sunset.

Not to mention giving Twilight something to zero in on, should that happen.

---

Twilight fired up the long range teleport spell as soon as the gem had been recharged. The rendezvous clearing appeared around her. She trotted over to the top of the rocky outcrop that formed its center and looked around. Nopony else was in sight.

That wasn’t too surprising. She figured she should give them thirty minutes. Their task was a bit more complicated, after all, and Sunset’s teleportation could only take them so far.

She passed the time keeping an eye on the surrounding forest. All 360 degrees of it. While she knew the direction Meg and Sunset ought to arrive from, those two weren’t the only ones to watch out for. Not in this forest.

The minutes passed lethargically.

After ten minutes or so, second thoughts intruded. Maybe they encountered a timberwolf or manticore. Sure, Sunset ought to be able to handle it, but even so…

Twilight took flight. Better safe than sorry. But no sooner had she gotten above the canopy, she spotted something in the distance, too far to clearly make out, close but not too close to the trees.

She teleported as far as she could, unaided by the gem, and let out a sigh of relief. Meg was carrying Sunset, her front legs wrapped around the latter’s barrel. Not sure how they were managing that, but she couldn’t deny her eyes. One more teleport and she was beside them.

“Missed us?” Sunset asked.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “An abundance of caution,” she said. “No offense, Meg, but how are you carrying her? I wouldn’t have thought you had the endurance for that.”

“Ask Sunset.”

“Okay?” She looked towards the mare in question. Twilight then noticed the unicorn’s horn was glowing.

“Gravity countering spell,” Sunset said, confirming Twilight’s suspicions. “Something I’ve been working on after studying human physics. Seemed like a good time to try it out.”

“A pack of timberwolves caught our scent,” Meg said. “Flight was the only escape.”

“Much faster to fly, too,” Sunset added.

The rendezvous point was coming into view. A minute later and everypony was on the ground—to which Sunset collapsed. “That spell does take a lot out of you, though.”

“Won’t be long before we’re back on the Zephyr.” Twilight got out the other time travel helper gem. She had two of those as it would’ve taken too long to recharge the spent one. Meg was already by Sunset’s side. Twilight joined them and cast the spell.

The sun changed position and a few clouds now dotted the sky. Above the mares was their ride home. One teleport later and Twilight returned them all to the observation lounge. She lost no time informing the captain of that fact.

“So when do we try going back to observe the anomaly’s creation?” Meg asked.

“Now that the paradox has been resolved…” Twilight sat down next to the others. “Hopefully.”

Meg was still waiting for an answer to her question.

“Let’s try for tomorrow morning.”

Comments

[Kairee]

Ah, but HAS the paradox been resolved? Given all the time loops, I suspect there's one left unresolved. After all, Meg never actually gave her name as Common Ground to Tirek during the breakout - but he did know that name when they "later" met.. So many loops, so much to keep track of.

I'm really looking forward to each chapter.

[Sharp Quill]

11785137
Uh... crap. That fell through the cracks. Consider the name given off camera—uh, somehow. As you said, so much to keep track of.

[Kairee]

11785161
Darn, and I was hoping it was more clever than that :) Oh well, yeah, too much to keep track of when time loops are involved! Still enjoying the story.

[PiMan]

11785161
Just edit it in. A line or two ought to do it.

[Sharp Quill]

11785213
11785404
I fixed the chapter. Here's the modified text:

“No,” Meg said, shaking her head. “We impose no conditions; you are free.” She nodded at Sunset, who was now beside her. “We will now depart.”

“Wait!”

Sunset waited; Meg wondered if she should have. “Yes?”

“I would know the name of my rescuer.”

Meg froze. He did call her by a different name when he had first seen her back in his cell, hadn’t he? It had completely slipped her mind. What was that name again? She had to get it right, otherwise it’d be a paradox! But what was it?! Then it came to her: “You may call me Common Ground.”

Before he could say anything more, Sunset teleported Meg and herself as far as she could in the direction of the rendezvous clearing. There was no clearing in sight. “Best I could do.”