Ciderfest BOAS APP Stories: 86?!

by Janicethelight

13. #AShadowofDoubt

Story
Fizzy sighs as you both make your way towards Ponyville. You pat her head in hopes of helping her feel better. "I can't believe I caused so much trouble…” Fizzy sighs.

“I mean, it’s not so bad, Fiz.” you give a dry chuckle, “I mean, there have been a few weird and hard moments, but nothing world-ending, right?”

At that moment, you note something out of the corner of your eye. Without thinking, you push Fizzy away, swept up in black, spiked vines that thrash you around. Fizzy gasps. “[USERNAME]!” she shouts, glaring at the aggressive vines that continuously reach for her hooves to no avail. Her eyes glowing in anger, she yells, “LEAVE MY FRIEND ALONE!” Going into her Nirik form to deal with the issue at hoof, she rushes into the vines, and burns them to a crisp. You fall down hard onto the ground. Shocked, Fizzy goes back to her Kirin form, dragging you out of the spreading inferno.

You both watch as the surviving vines squeal away from the fire. You bite your lip, confusion written all over your face. “That’s weird. Isn’t this supposed to be where Ponyville is? Did we make a wrong turn?!”

Fizzy checks her phone., “No. This is where Ponyville should be, but it’s not.”

“...We should get the princesses.” You nod, turning towards Canterlot.

Canterlot stands fortified, unicorns standing guard as pegasi patrol the skies. You are attacked with questions at the gate, but let in when you tell the guards about the vine attack. As you make your way, you swear that you see Starlight and Trixie as part of the watch at the borders, but they get blocked off by the walls before you are sure.

Inside, Earth ponies work on making rations, as well as making and fixing clothes. Flashes of other timelines with the use of Starlight’s spell flash through your head, and you murmur to Fizzy, “My guess is that somepony messed with time!”

Fizzy nods in agreement, and you make your way to the castle. You both look around to find the two regal sisters, but instead you see Twilight in the library, her hair pulled into a bun. Excited to finally see a friendly face, you and Fizzy both rush over, “TWILIGHT!” you both gasp.

Twilight jumps away, raising an eyebrow, “Yes? May I help you?”

“It’s so good to see you!” Fizzy sighs, a moment of relief flashing through her before her face softens back into a somber one, “What…what happened here?”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asks, then, looking both of you up and down, “And what creatures ARE you?”

“Oh, I’m a Kirin. This is my friend [USERNAME]. They’re human.” Fizzy explains.

“Huh.” Twilight looks around the books, searching with her magic, “We have a few mentions of Kirins, but nothing on humans. Are you a brand new species?”

“....something like that…” you look away.

“The point is, we, um…we don’t know a lot about pony history. We’re from a different nation. We heard ponies were peaceful and fun loving.” Fizzy lies.

“Oh.” Twilight sighs, putting the books away with a single thought, “Over a thousand moons ago, a creature by the name of Discord ravaged our land with chaos. Ponies were powerless to stop it…until one fateful day, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna banished the Lord of Chaos into a pocket dimension…and themselves with it.”

“Why didn’t they use the Elements of Harmony?!” You ask before placing your hands over your mouth.

Twilight turns her head toward you, raising an eyebrow before looking through her books once more, “I think you’re confused. You mean the Pillars of Harmony, correct? The seven pillars who once made our world peaceful? While I believe Starswirl was still alive at that time, most of the others were long gone, and even Starswirl was well past his prime.” She turns, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to study before Sombra decides to attack our stronghold again. Last time, he took out a section of the wall and half of my science section of books with it!”

“...but Twilight…what about helping Equestria…and your friends?” Fizzy asked.

“Friends?” Twilight blinks, “I am MUCH too busy for friends. I have important tactics to go over, so…please leave.” She uses her magic to push you both through the door.

Fizzy hyperventilates, “What are we going to do? Some creature changed the past! We can’t go into the past!”

“We can use Starswirl’s time spell like Starlight did.” You offer.

“It only worked for more than 10 seconds after Starlight messed with it! I don’t think we can just go up and say ‘Hey, Starlight. Sorry to bother you, but we knew you once and you were friends with Twilight, but you don’t remember any of this because somepony changed history as we know it.’ Yeah. That’ll work!” Fizzy exclaims, finding your suggestion difficult to process.

“It’s always difficult when the timeline is wrong, and you’re the only one who knows it.” Another voice sighs. You and Fizzy jump as you realize Doctor Whooves is next to you, leaning against a statue of the two regal sisters.

“Wha-how-why-?” Fizzy began.

“All fantastic questions, my curious kirin, but all that really matters is that I am here, I remember the world as it was, and I wish to fix things as well. You two believe some creature messed with the past. I came to the same conclusion. How about we work together to fix this?” Whooves offers.

“Deal.” You nod, shaking his hoof, “Twilight said there’s no mention of the Elements of Harmony.”

“Oh, and she called the pillars The Pillars of Harmony and not the pillars of Equestria…said there was seven too, which is weird…I thought there were six.”

“Seven…why would there be sev-” you freeze, eyeing Whooves before asking, “Do you remember Stygian?”

“I do indeed.” Whooves nods, “As well as what happens to the poor unicorn.”

“Stygian?” Fizzy asks, “What’s he got to-” Realization floods her eyes, “Oh…OH. Seven!”

“Exactly.” you nod.

“Okay, but how will we get back to Stygian’s time?” Fizzy wonders.

“Leave that to me!” Whooves grins.

* * *

You walk out of the tiny barn-like home with a new appreciation of quantum mechanics. Whooves waves you off. "You two go on. Seems a calibration is in order."

You and Fizzy stare out onto the land, night settling over every area. You look over to the cave that should one day house the Tree of Harmony, now barren. "Alright. Let's fix the future!" You nod.

"How did Whooves house bring us to the past?! What kind of magic item does that?!" Fizzy looks back.

"No time!" You pull Fizzy along, looking for Stygian. To your surprise, you find Sygian being hugged by the Pillars, a grin on his face. Every single Pillar shows the small unicorn affection…except one. Starswirl the Bearded sits off to the side, a smile on his face.

You and Fizzy exchange looks. You both sit on either side of him. "Starswirl?" You begin.

He looks between you and Fizzy, and sighs, "I wish I could say I'm shocked, but no magic is infallible. So, you found me out." He nods over to Stygian. "Once I knew about these pages, there was only one thing I would change…I wished for him to have the…the relationship with us that he always deserved." He looks up to the sky. "After everything we-no…" he looks back down to the ground, shame covering his face, "after everything I did…he deserved this much. I'm sure you're from the future. You, my Kirin friend, aren't discovered until long after we come back from our…long vacation." He looks over to you, " And my apologies to you, odd creature, but I've never seen anything like you in all my life!"

"Yeah. We're from the future…" Fizzy reveals.

"Great. Tell me of the tales that come from this day. Tell me how wonderful the future is now."

Fizzy looks to you for help.

[CHOICE] What do you tell Starswirl?
> Well, the future changed, but all we need to do is fix one thing! (Chaos)
> Tell Starswirl about the implications and what he can do in the present instead. (Hero)
> Tell Starswirl everything's fine. We can fix what's wrong ourselves! (Villain)

[ENDING A: CHAOS]
"Well. The future is a bit messed up…Tia and Luna are gone and the ponies seem to be in constant war." You admit.

"WHAT?!" Starswirl gasps. "All of that from helping a friend?"

"I don't think it was the friend, Starswirl." Fizzy adds.

"Before you decided to banish the Pony of Shadows and yourselves, you planted something to protect Equestria in your place…remember?" You prompt.

"The Tree of Harmony. Of course!" Starswirl gasps. "We never planted it. Well, we will now. Thank you. Both if you. With Stygian to help us, the Tree of Harmony will be stronger than ever!"

You each hug Starswirl before going back to your time. The world of Equestria is almost the same as you know it, but the Pillars are nothing more than ancient history, and there is a new Pillar that everypony talks about: Stygian.

(+1 page for Chaos)

[ENDING B: HERO]
"Well. The future is a bit messed up…Tia and Luna are gone and the ponies seem to be in constant war." You admit.

"WHAT?!" Starswirl gasps. "All of that from helping a friend?"

“It seems like such a small thing, but the implications are massive.” Fizzy sighs.

“It’s wonderful that you want to help your friend,” you continue, “but, unfortunately, you didn’t, and trying to change that has terrible consequences for the future. Instead of trying to fix the past, maybe you should work on showing Stygian how much you care in the present.”

Starswirl sighs, “I suppose you’re right.” He reveals a bright page, changing what was written. The page glows, and, as it dies down, you see tents as the Pillars, now without Stygian, get ready for their last known night in Equestria. Starswirl gives you the page. “Would you two look after this for me?” He asks as you and Fizzy realize the page brought you back to the Equestria you know and love.

(+1 page for Heroes)

[ENDING C: VILLAIN]
“You know…it’s..” you look at Stygian’s face and back at the smile on Starswirl, “...it’s great.”

“Huh?” Fizzy wonders.

You exchange looks with Fizzy and she slowly nods, “Uh…yeah…it’s…okay?”

“That’s wonderful to hear. Thank you for your visit. Glad to see my time travel spell was perfected. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go give my friend a hug.” Starswirl goes off, joining the hug with his friends.

As you go off, Fizzy asks, “Why did you lie like that?”

“Did you see how happy they looked? We can’t ask for them to give up their happiness for the future. We’ll find another way to save Equestria. You’ll see.” You nod to Fizzy.

“Yeah. Okay.” Fizzy agrees as you both find yourselves back in the desolate wasteland, a very confused Whooves walking out just as Tirek trots his way over to Canterlot, sucking the magic from Whooves and Fizzy before going towards the nearby castle.

(+1 page for Villains)

Author's Note:

Giving Starswirl a chance to show regret? Check!

Make a story where the good option is a hard choice? Check!

This one evolved as well, but I'm happy with how it turned out over all. The hardships it gave me along the way though...whew.

And it is this story that I will take a moment to thank all of the editors who helped every single one of these stories to be there best.

Thank you for putting up with me and my 100,000 spelling errors XD