> To End A Life
>  by Diceman
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> I: The Cure.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 1: The Cure


Beams of sunlight slowly crept along the old oak floor until they reached the edge of a bed lined with blue sheets. They began to climb up the bed, slowly, until they reached a lavender blanket. The beams started to spread quickly across the bed, illuminating the face of a creature sleeping. The warmth of the sun roused the sleeping creature and she slowly turned over, to face the light. The sun illuminated the face of a purple Alicorn with moderate sapphire blue mane with two streaks of moderate violet and brilliant rose running down its mane on the left side of its horn.

"Morning already?" The creature groaned in a feminine voice. She quickly pulled the covers over her eyes, but the sun would not relent, she could see the beams of light even though the cover. She tossed and turned for a few minutes, trying to find a comfortable position to get back to sleep.

"Bah, fine." The purple Alicorn tossed the blankets off the bed and rolled out onto the floor, landing on all four legs. She gave a long yawn and began to stretch out, her back arching into the air as if she were a cat. She soon reversed her stretching and added her wings to the morning routine. 

"Ahh, that feels good." The Alicorn flapped her wings a few times, a few stray feathers falling out. She looked back at her wings and noticed that a few feathers were jutting out at odd angles, some of them overlapping and some of them stabbing into other feathers. She checked her right-wing and than her left. "Maybe I should manually preen them today" she said to herself. She flapped her wings a few times and some of the loose feathers fell out, but none of the others seemed to want to go back into place.

"I don't have time for this, I'll just use the auto preen spell." She closed her eyes and her horn began to glow a deep pink, a pink that soon enveloped her entire body. The feathers that were stubbornly jutting out at odd angles began to swivel back into aliment with the others and the ones that were too damaged to salvage dissolved into puffs of purple smoke. The spell wasn't perfect however, as some of the feathers just flat out refused to be straight.

"Bah, whatever. Not like I go out much anyhow." The Alicorn moved toward a mirror on the end of her room, a single brush levitated off a nightstand next to her as she stepped in front of the mirror. "What I wouldn't do for some Canterlot blue sky shampoo." The Alicorn stared into the mirror, trying her best to brush away the split ends on the hair that hung just above her eyes.

"Oh well, enough faffing about. Time to check on Spike." The Alicorn walked through the door to her room and into the hallway. She made a quick left turn and walked down some stairs into what looked like something right out of a science fiction novel. A room filled with many different contraptions ranging from the mundane like a cappuccino maker to the bizarre like an assembly conveyer belt for bottled products, all of the bottles labeled 'Starlight Chemical Co' on them. Strangest of all was a massive chemistry set that ran along the ceiling of the entire room, dropping down every so often to funnel contents into beakers near the floor.

"Ah, the fresh smell of the laboratory." The Alicorn inhaled deeply, her face breaking into a smile. "Today should be the day. The last test with gravel wort was promising." The Alicorn walked though the lab to the end of it where a large metal gate stood, an elevator. She opened the gate and stepped inside, closing the gate behind her. 

"Bottom floor please." A pink orb at the top of the elevator whirred to life and responded in a robotic tone. 

"Good morning, Twilight." The orb said.

"Good morning, Sam." Twilight replied.

"I have finished mailing out your entire repertoire of spells and ingredient lists for potions for all scholars in Equestria. Operation immortal tome is 95% complete. Awaiting your order to initiate the last phase." The orb said.

"Good. I should have the potion finished within a week at most" Twilight said.

"This may seem a bit off topic, but what about the dragon below once your plan is complete?" The Orb asked.

"Oh, I built a fail-safe into my lab. It will shrink down to the size of a pea, destroying the front wall in the cliff face and the ceiling inside his cave. This will shine light on his project that hes been at for the past thirty or so years" Twilight said.

"Oh, his memorial that he wanted to build?" The orb asked.

"He finished that a long time ago, he decided to build more statues" Twilight said.

"Are you going to tell Celst-" The orb cut itself short.

"For the last time, NO. I want nothing to do with her" Twilight said angrily.

"I am sorry. Remember I am a learning AI. Your lack of explanation as to why you're angry perplexes me. I will endeavor not to bring the subject up again." The orb apologized. 

Twilight sighed. "Sorry, when I get angry I don't focus very well and my work suffers for it. I will upload an explanation from my journal to your mainframe when my work is complete."

The elevator continued down the shaft and from inside one could sea an ocean of yellow set to the backdrop of leaky stonewalls. Suddenly a large purple head appeared in front of the elevator. It was the head of a large dragon, it had long green spines running down its head and neck, two sharp fangs stuck out from the edge of its mouth and piercing emerald green eyes.

"Good morning, Twilight. Have you come to join me for breakfast?" The large dragon said as he lowered his head to follow the elevator to its destination. 

"I guess I could go for some juice and toast. If you would be so kind as to set the table, Spike." Twilight replied. As the elevator descended Twilight could make out more of Spike's titanic girth. In just a little over a couple centuries the once small baby dragon had ballooned into a massive amethyst dragon. Even though he wasn't full-grown and wouldn't for another ten centuries or more, his sheer bulk was always breathtaking to behold.

Spike nodded and reached over to a pile of gold at the far side of the room. With his massive powerful tail he pushed large piles of gold out of the way as if they were mere balls of dust. He kept at it until the gold neatly piled to the left of its original position. Underneath all the gold was a small cupboard, a mini fridge and a wooden bench that looked as if it was bolted to the stone floor.

"Sorry about that. When I sleep I sometimes toss and turn, things get moved around and all that" Spike said as he tried to pry open the door on the cupboard carefully, his single massive claw larger than the entire cupboard itself.

The elevator came to a stop and Twilight opened the gate. Twilight spread her wings and glided to the far side of the room where Spike was trying his best to open a single door. "Silly dragon. You're much too big to be trying that stuff. Here, let me get the little stuff, all I wanted you to do was clean up the gold pile on it."

Spike frowned. "I almost wish I was small again, I would even settle for those awkward teenage years. At least then I could make nachos for myself without help."

"I understand the feeling, Spike. Back when I was a unicorn everything seemed so new and fresh, every new thing I did or tried was exciting, but now..." Twilight sighed. "I really miss the challenge in things, now even the most complex spell is a breeze. Potions are simple and even spell creation is too easy. The only potion left for me to discover is-"

"Let's not go over that again. You know how I feel about your project, let's just try to eat breakfast without going over that discussion again" Spike said.

Twilight shook her head. "Maybe one day you will understand my position. Dragons may not be immortal, but elder dragons can live upwards of ten thousand years."

"I am well aware and actually some dragons never age past five thousand. Both silver and onyx dragons cease all aging at five thousand years of age." Spike corrected.

"I remember reading about them. Never met either kind before though." Twilight opened the cupboard door with her magic and levitated out what looked like a metal box with a round cylinder battery object strapped to the side. "I heard rumors they went extinct."

"Not entirely. There are the few of them that still roam the skies of the far north. They don't socialize much, some say they even went mad and lost all sense of self eons ago" Spike said as he flicked a spare gold coin off the table and into a pile behind Twilight.

Twilight bit her lip, she wanted to use this as an argument for her plans, but she knew it would spoil the mood. "Anyway, what bread would you like this morning? Raisin, cinnamon or wheat with jade chunks?" Twilight asked.

"Jade chunks if you would be so kind. The last time I had raisins it gave me gas for a week. I almost accidentally melted one of the statues" Spike said, giggling.

"Speaking of, how far along are you." Twilight asked as she pulled a loaf of cinnamon and wheat jade bread from the cupboard.

"The last one should be done by tomorrow morning at the latest. We are still in agreement about the rest of our hoard right?" Spike asked.

"Yes. The entirety of it is already arranged to be transported to the Equestrian orphanage association. Lightly toasted or dark, Spike?" Twilight asked as she shoved two slices of the bulky wheat bread down the makeshift toaster on the table.

"Oh, medium if you would be so kind" Spike replied.

Twilight tapped the toaster with her horn and the device began to jump up and down, spewing sparks all over the table. Seconds later the toast popped out of the top of the toaster and onto the wooden table. Twilight then shoved two slices of cinnamon bread down the toaster and tapped it with her horn. This time the device hummed for a moment and spat out two slices of lightly toasted cinnamon bread.

"Really should fix that problem it has with gem encrusted bread." Twilight turned her head to the mini fridge under the cupboard. "Would you like anything to drink?" Twilight asked.

"Some Apple Family cider if there is any left" Spike said. 

Twilight opened the fridge door and indeed there was nearly an entire gallon of the stuff on the bottom shelf, right next to it some orange juice. Twilight lifted the bottle out of the fridge and set it on the table. Something however, caught her eye and she leaned closer to the jug. "Huh, when did they start using this red filly on the front of the jugs instead of granny Apple bloom?" Twilight asked.

"A couple of months ago I think. It's been many years since she passed away, I guess it was time for a new face for marketing" Spike said as he picked up the jug and examined the label. "I believe this filly is Big Mac's great great granddaughter."

"I miss the old label, and the one before that" Twilight said as she moved a small bottle of orange juice from the friend. Closing the door lightly as she set it on the table. 

Spike scratched the back of his neck. "You know Twilight, you could always leave here and go learn more about all the descendants your friends left. I mean it couldn't hurt right?"

Twilight shook her head. "No, as much as I want to know how well they are doing, I don't want the same pain I felt each time one of the others passed away. If I never get attached in the first place than the pain of loss won't be as great."

Spike nodded his head. "I understand, many of my own kind live in absolute seclusion. Their entire lives being nothing but building up their treasure hoard." Spike looked up to the large cloth covering his statues, particularly one with what looked like a point in the blanket at the top. "They miss the entire point of living."

Twilight took a bite of her toast and swallowed. "Spike, when did you get so smart?"

Spike smiled. "I learned from the best" Spike said while staring at Twilight.

Twilight smiled. "Flatterer." 

Twilight took another bite of her toast and took a drink of her juice. "You want this last piece, Spike? I really should get to work." Twilight picked up her toast and set it next to the jade toast on Spike's side of the table. 

"You sure? You've been working really hard lately" Spike said.

"I can feel it Spike. I'm so close to being done. I'll finally be able to end my suffering, to end my story on a positive note. I've already rewritten nearly all the laws of chemistry. It's time for me to leave this world behind and let some other ponies rise to be even greater at chemistry than I am" Twilight said. 

Spike sighed. "I wish you would just hang out for a while. You're always consumed with work."

"Oh Spike. Tell you what, we can go down to the beach this afternoon, I'll bring dinner" Twilight said cheerfully.

"Really? That sounds awesome. I guess you will be going in disguise again?" Spike asked.

"Yeah. I'll be going as Star Burst. I guess I should disguise you as well, unless of course you want the entire beach to ourselves like the last time we went." Twilight grinned, rubbing the back of her head.

"Hey now, they don't have to know I'm a gentle giant. Having the ocean to yourself is kinda cool, I mean I don't want to scare them off, but if I want to go swimming they have to vacate the water. I make massive waves when I cannon ball" Spike said.

"I know, my rowboat ended up in the middle of town the last time we went" Twilight said, rolling her eyes.

Both of them shared a hearty laugh.

"Anyway Spike, I'll see you later tonight" Twilight said cheerfully as she made her way to the elevator.

"I look forward to it" Spike replied.

Spike watched the elevator ascend until it was out of sight. He turned his head to where the statues he was working on were still covered up. "I wonder what they would have said to stop her..." He said to himself.


***


Twilight opened the gate after the elevator stopped and flew into her lab with gusto. "Sam, activate experimental setup alpha. I want a clean slate for when I start this next batch up." 

A floating orb of pink with a  single large purple eye descended from the ceiling. "As you wish Twilight." The ball fired an electrical beam at a circuit board on one of the walls and slowly the machines in the room began to move around. The larger machines used for mass production flipped under the floor one by one while cabinets marked with various tags for ingredients popped up along the wall in their place.

"Error, there is a gear stuck in section C7" Sam announced roboticly.

Twilight reared up on her hind legs and stomped on the floor, she then quickly took to the air as the floor beneath her flipped around to reveal a large chemistry set on a large blue desk. Beakers and valves adorned the top, mixing pots and wooden salve mixing trays, even a complete safety equipment set.

"Error corrected. May I advise you check out the gearing later tonight?" Sam suggested.

"Yeah that gear has been acting up lately. Probably just needs some lubricant though." Twilight levitated the safety equipment to herself. She quickly put on a face mask, safety goggles, lab coat and rubber mitts for both her legs and her wings. 

"I always wondered, if you are technically immortal than why all the safety gear?" Sam asked.

"One of the defining principles of any science or any field of work for that matter. Just because I'm immortal doesn't mean I can't get crippled, actually I read in a book once that immortality just means there is a very high chance I will be trapped forever if something bad were to occur to me or imagine a toxic potion I'm working on can't kill me, but end up blinding me. That kind of stuff." Twilight explained.

"Any other issues?" Sam asked.

"Say for instance I accidentally made a shrinking potion and it got on me. Then, say something really heavy, something outside my ability to lift physically or magically landed on me. I would be stuck there until either the potion wore off, the object rotted away or somepony found me" Twilight said.

"Sounds ... strange. I will store this conversation for later use. I do have another question, wouldn't Spike get worried about you and start looking if he didn't see you for an extended period of time?" Sam asked.

"I don't think Spike could fit in here to look for me, he would have to tear the house apart bit by bit to do so. No, if something goes wrong that's what I have you for" Twilight said.

"You mentioned in the past that I was to replace an assistant. Was said assistant once Spike?" Sam asked.

Twilight walked over to a cabinet with a skull and crossbones insignia on it. "Yeah, after Spike hit his teenage years a combination of size and hormonal imbalances made him something of a liability. He would knock things over constantly, even when being excessively careful. He had wild mood swings too. Everything from sad-sack slumps to pure rage." Twilight opened the cabinet and began to levitate ingredients onto a table nearby.

"My knowledge of dragons is very limited. It seemed there are very few books on the subject according to my records" Sam said.

Twilight levitated a clipboard from a pin on the wall over to her and began to examine it. "Years ago I had the same problem and until fifty years ago next to nothing about dragons was really concrete. I had to write the darn book on dragons myself, had to venture into the dragon wastes and everything to study them, at least for adult dragons. Teenagers seem to be just as hormonal and moody as any other creature."

"That doesn't seem too dangerous, you are immortal after-all" Sam said.

"You would think that." Twilight levitated a quill from the table and began to mark off sections on the clipboard. "Dragons are quite capable of killing even an Alicorn, their entire body is magical. So much so that ancient Zebra tribes even tried hunting them to fashion things such as armor and elixirs, to ... less than fantastic results." 

"Wait, you are trying to make a potion to remove your own immortality, correct?" Sam asked.

"Yep." Twilight replied.

"And dragons are capable of killing even immortal creatures yes?" Sam asked.

"I see where you're going with this and yes, I already tried that. As dangerous as dragons are the ones I asked were shocked about such a request. As big as they are most of them avoid confrontation were possible. Some breeds are even outspoken against such things." Twilight pulled a few more jars from the cabinet and set them down. "Also, I think being torn to ribbons while still alive is a terrible way to go. As much as I detest this curse and the certain pony that gave me it, I couldn't stand for a friend like Spike or Luna to find me that way ... or what is left of me, anyway."

"Could you not fashion what you seek from leftover parts of a dragon? Say their teeth or scales?" Sam asked.

Twilight picked up one of the jars labeled 'DoomShroom' and opened it, the smell of rancid death assaulting her nostrils. "Ick, seemed the stems on these things are starting to rot." Twilight put the lid back on and picked up another jar. "The thing with dragon bodyparts as part of a potion is that dragon scales, teeth, dorsal spines and such is they lose massive amounts of magical power over time. They lose close to eighty percent of their power the second they are shed from the dragons body. Here, I'll show you." Twilight opened up one of the cabinets and pulled out a jar labeled 'Dragon Fang' and levitated it toward her. She quickly unscrewed the jar with her magic and lifted out a small fang.

"This is one of Spike's baby teeth. I saved them from when he started to turn into a teenager." Twilight set the jar and the dragon fang on the table and levitated a small orange box from across the room with little metal diodes sticking out of it. She turned on the device and held it near the small dragon fang until it made a short beep. Holding up the device, Sam came in close to see what Twilight had scanned.

"Mpu of less than two? There are flowers with more magical potential than that" Sam said.

"See what I mean? Even adult dragon teeth only get a magic power unit of around twelve or less. If they are still in socket they grow tenfold." Twilight put the small dragon fang back in the jar and pulled out a much larger fang and held it up next to her device, the machine reading a steady seven and a half.

"This one was from Spike's moody teenage years. I won't get any adult teeth from him for at least another thousand years or more. Then again adult teeth have few uses aside from those in the blacksmiths trade." Twilight set the large fang back in the jar and closed it tight.

"Is there a way to stabilize the magic loss pre-extraction? They could be used in a potion if you could do so" Sam suggested.

"You know, there may not be a way to stabilize it, but there may be a way to push power into them." Twilight opened another cabinet and levitated a book onto the table in front of her titled 'Everything About Dragons' and began to flip though the pages, quickly scanning them.

"Isn't that the book you wrote?" Sam asked.

"Yes, I'm flipping though it to see if I ever actually tried to empower the dragon fangs before. So far, I've tried a few different ways  but I seemed to have missed one." Twilight closed the book and then levitated the jar to her. She pulled out the largest dragon fang in the jar and set it on the table. She then moved multiple smaller fangs around the larger one on a hexagon-like formation. "I've tried direct input, fabrication input from rare metals, potions and even petals of the White Solstice flower which falls from space and only grows on the friggin sun, but not this. Actually this should have been the first thing I tried now that I think about it. I wonder how I missed it."

Twilight levitated what looked like a tuning fork from across the room and began to tap each individual tooth. "Let's see, this onei s off tune, this one is not centered right, this one is useless due to fracture." Twilight kept hitting each tooth with the strange device, slowly tossing away teeth that didn't fit her experiment.

"What are you doing now?" Sam asked.

"Checking their magical resonance frequency. I need them to all be synchronized for when I start pumping magic into them." Twilight hit all the teeth in a circle followed by hitting the table they were sitting on. "Perfect, all of them are in perfect harmony." Twilight lowered her horn onto the edge of the table and began to channel magic into it. "Ummm, just for safeties sake Sam, could you temporarily turn off the fire system? I kinda don't want to have to replace all the machinery here and un-waterlog you like I did two months ago.

"I already did so. Bobbing around in orb mode in the water for hours made me motion sick. A feeling that I do not want to revisit any time soon" Sam said with a hint of aggravation in its voice.

"I don't even remember programming that kind of feeling into you. Astounding the progress your systems have made." Twilight slowly began to funnel purple magic onto the table. At first it went in a straight line to the smallest teeth on the outside of the hexagon-like structure then moving outwards to the other teeth until they encircled the largest fang in magical power.

"Okay, now to stabilize the ring." Twilight lifted her horn off the table briefly then set it on the large fang in the center. "Now to pump this full of as much magic as I can muster." Twilight gritted her teeth as large arcs of purple electricity began to arc from her horn, striking some of the grounding nodes in the lab. He eyes began to glow a hot white with just a tinge of purple in them. Soon her entire body was enveloped in a vibrant purple aura, her magical might shaking the floor and instruments as if a reasonable large earthquake was occurring just beneath her.

Twilight took a deep breath, the air around her growing thinner from her own power. Her eyes narrowed as she focused on the large fang in the center and slowly, she began to pump vast quantities of magic into the fang, making it glow red.

"Structural integrity field active, currently reduced by ten percent." Sam chimed in to notify Twilight of the lab conditions.

"Only ten percent? I must be slacking off or something." Twilight grunted, pouring even more magic into the center fang. The teeth on the table began to vibrate in sequence with one another, slowly hopping inwards toward the larger fang. "Just a bit more."

"Warning, magical output has depleted integrity field by 80%. Suggest immediate cancellation of current project." Sam chimed in with what seemed like sheer panic as the machines in the room began to rock back and forth violently.

"Almost got it..." The teeth began to jump one by one into the larger fang, disappearing as the larger one absorbed them one by one. Twilight, sensing she was close to something grand pushed with all her might until the fang could take no more and the backlash hit her in the chest, sending her tumbling clear across the room and clean through a couple of her machines.

"Twilight!" Sam cried, the pink orb descending from the roof to check on Twilight. "Are you okay?"

Twilight flipped one of the machines off her with her magic and stood up. As she took a step forward she felt a sensation that she hadn't felt in a very long time on her side. It was pain, but not just the typical bruise like pain she had been accustomed to since she became an Alicorn, deep, writhing burning pain. The kind that indicates a serious wound. Twilight stared down her left side and found where the pain was coming from. All along he left side was a nasty half inch deep cut that ran under her wing. It was only a minor flesh wound, but it bled profusely for such a small injury. 

"Is that ... my blood?" Twilight had to hold back the instinct to lick her wound.

"Twilight, you are bleeding. I will get the first aid kit." Sam buzzed off to the other side of the room, frantically searching for the first aid kit.

Twilight just stood there in shock. She was actually hurting, bleeding, for the first time in a very long time she actually felt her own mortality working against her. Part of her wanted to go back to her experiment, but the other side just wanted to stand there in awe of her own mortality. 

"I have found a first aid kit." Sam came buzzing back, carrying a white box with what looked like a thick layer of dust on the cover, obscuring the red cross sign on it.

Twilight, however, ignored Sam altogether. Her wound was beginning to close itself up and she needed to savor this moment, for science and her own sake.

"Twilight?" I need you to -Oh, I see." Sam set the first aid kit down and watched as Twilight's wound sealed itself up. "Are you okay Twilight? Shall I get you medication for shock?"

Twilight stood there, staring at where the wound once was, noticing her own blood was beginning to dry up as well. I just got injured in a serious manner. If I can get injured, than that means I can die? Have I finally found a way to end my own life after all these years?

"Equestria to Twilight, come in Twilight." Sam said as he buzzed in front of Twilight's face to get her attention.

"H-huh? Oh, sorry Sam. I was a bit preoccupied with what all this means." Twilight noticed a vibrant red glow in a reflection on a metal plate below her. "Where is that coming from?" She looked up and saw the red glows origin. On the table where she was fusing dragons teeth together was a small red orb. 

"Sam? Get my testing equipment. I think we discovered a new element!" Twilight raced toward the table, her horn glowing and attracting instruments to study the object to her. If it is strong enough to injure me than maybe it is strong enough to kill me.


***


Spikes ear scales shot up and he felt a cold shudder run down his body followed by the strongest urge to hurt, no, kill another creature, something he had never had the slightest inclination to do. He looked down at his own scales which had small bits of green magic dancing up and down his spinal scales. He looked around his lair, trying to find what was making him feel so...angry. filling his mind with urges to hurt and kill. He looked toward the elevator that led up to Twilight's lab and realized what she had done.

"Celestia warned me of this!" Spike began digging in his gold pile, tossing massive piles of gold as he searched frantically through the pile. "Where is it? Where the hell is it?" Finally he came across a small bright blue package. "There you are!"

He quickly picked up the small package and ripped it open as if it were a birthday present. Inside was a silver lined note wrapped around what looked like two green grapefruits. Spike quickly removed the note and ate both fruits, package and all. Just as suddenly as urge to kill started it quickly left him as soon as the fruit was swallowed.

"Bleh, she didn't tell me it would taste like old rotting tofu." Spike scraped at his tongue to try to remove the aftertaste in his mouth but to little effect. "What else did she say to do?" Spike looked at the small note in his claws, but couldn't read the small print. "Keep forgetting I'm the size of a small mountain now." Spike picked up a diamond from his gold pile and put it on front of the letter, using it as a magnifying glass.

"Dearest Spike,

If you are reading this note, then it must mean that Twilight has discovered one of the few known ways to kill an Alicorn, this one being the Dragons Rage orb. I suggest you eat the Moki Moki fruit I put in this care package for you post haste or barring that get as far away from the orb as possible. A dragon your age and mannerisms can resist the orbs suggestions, but not for very long, staying within its influence can drive even the most peaceful of dragons into a frothing unquenchable rage. After you have eaten the fruit, I want you to send this letter to me. I have put a tracking spell on this note and even though you have refused telling me where you are in the past you simply must tell me now. If Twilight manages to concoct a potion from that orb she will be treated to a fate far worse than her silly quest for death. Please, we must stop her from making a potion from it. I know she must hate every fiber of my being for what I did to her, but she MUST not be allowed to die this way. For her own sake.

best wishes, Princess Celestia."

Spike tossed the diamond aside and shook his head. "Twilight is so going to hate me forever for this, but If Celestia says its bad then what choice do I have." Spike held up the note in his claws, but was hesitant to send the note on its way. "She will never forgive me if Celestia finds her ... but maybe she can talk some sense into Twilight." Spike inhaled deeply and blew his flame onto the note. It shriveled up and with a pop, was sent on its way to Princess Celestia ... along with about a quarter ton of his own gold, as the flame reached farther than he anticipated and vaporized the top part of a pile near him.

"Opps. Well, worst case they can use it for the treasury" Spike said as he grinned to himself.

Suddenly spike felt something in his gut that he hadn't for a very long time. A burning sensation that quickly ran up his throat and into his mouth. He instinctively held it back in his mouth until all the magic was too much to contain and then burped green sparkly fire. The fire hung in the air for a brief moment then began to spin, collapsing in on itself until it dissipated with a pop, leaving behind a scroll. A scroll curled up and tied, a seal representing Princess Celestia's personal stamp of approval.

"That was fast." Spike grabbed the scroll out the air, picked up his diamond and began to read.

"Spike, the spell only managed to track her down to an area of twenty or so square miles. Me, Luna and Cadence along with the entire 7th division air force are on our way to scout the area. Do what you can to stall her, with any luck we will be there within the hour. Also, what's with all the gold you sent me? Can I count that as a donation to my cake fund or something? You know I'm on a diet."

"Seems Twilight knew I might betray her and put up an obfuscating spell to stop this kind of thing." Spike rolled up the parchment and set it on the table by the fridge. "I don't know what she expects me to do to delay her. I can't even fit upstairs. I would have to do something drastic to signal the others where we are-" Spike had an epiphany. "Wait, I'm a pretty big dragon. I can just signal them with fire."

Spike made way to the double rock plated doors that were the entrance to his hoard and pressed a red button. However, the door didn't budge. "Huh I wonder what is wrong with it?"

"I'll tell you what went wrong with it, Spike." Twilight's voice was loud and clear over a little intercom by the door. "I locked the doors so you can't signal Celestia my location. My sensors picked up the after trail of the magic transmission spell. I got curious and decided to turn on the intercom just in time to hear your plan."

"W-what plan? I was just going to go out for a flight. You know stretch my wings a little." Spike lied, knowing full well Twilight could detect the tells in his voice.

"Sure, if by 'flight' you mean signaling that ... that ... bitch by means of fire, then sure 'flight' " Twilight said in a sarcastic tone.

"Twilight listen you need to talk with her, give her a chance to-"

"NO!" Twilight shouted so loud that the speaker began to spark. "I will not give her the time or place to try to talk me down like some child. Like she always did before, the trolling, condescending bitch. No I will have none of this. I locked the doors for three hours, Spike. I'll be done with the potion by then." Twilight composed herself. "I will open the large skylight in the botany lab as well as these doors so you can say goodbye once it is finished. Even after this betrayal know that I still love you, Spike."

The intercom went silent. Spike just sat there, feeling sorry for himself. "I'm sorry big sis, I wish there was some other way."


***Elsewhere***


"I want full mobilization. I'll need at least three of our top chemists and a crew of ten or more of our strongest fliers. Move your hides!" Luna shouted as the ponies in front of her scattered to carry out her orders.

"Luna, calm yourself. We have at the very least five or more hours. Twilight may be good, but she cannot control time, or at least I hope she can't" Celestia said softly.

"Stop acting like such a soft hearted prat" Luna growled. "She betrayed us and hurt your feelings. She threw off her crown and flew off to who knows where in Equestria."

"Luna, please." Princess Cadence said as she walked into the room. "She has been really busy, she has cured many diseases, found a potion to repair the blind and the lame. Even came up with an artificial intelligence machine. I think its high time we stop blaming her for the past and look forward to what other greater things she can do in the future."

"She did those things? How? When?" Luna asked.

Cadence's horn lit up and with a pink pop a large heavy book fell to the ground in front of her. Cadence opened the book and began to turn the pages. "For years the Starlight Chemical corporation was sending scholars here in Canterlot all kinds of goodies."

"I know of that company, they make a very nice coat soap that gets your coat sparkling clean. I also know that the director of the factory they have set up in Stalliongrad is the real brains of the operation. Twilight Sparkle has nothing to do with them" Luna said stoutly.

"Luna, why don't you see this for yourself. This book is the original recipe book, all the prototype notes are in here as well." Cadence turned the pages as Luna watched. 

"You're right, this writing, the style is all consistent with Twilight's penmanship" Luna said as she observed the rigid structure of the step-by-step processes on each page. "It even has the little double asterisks that she does when a note she makes becomes irrelevant."

"That's not all." Cadence turned to the back of the book where a single hoof-print and signature was stamped on the back cover. "When Twilight was but a foal she chipped her left hoof in a very peculiar way. All of her hoof prints on her left hoof have a little double star stamp on the right side."

Luna leaned over and inspected the imprint. "You are correct. This matches Twilight's signature style as well." Luna's ears folded back. "It seemed I was quick to judge her. This still doesn't excuse what she did, but I also have no excuse for my ignorance."

"You should really learn not to hold grudges. Besides what's at stake here is much worse than hurt feelings" Celestia said.

"You have been quiet about the specifics of why we are in such a rush to stop Twilight. I mean, I want to stop her, but I can understand her reasons for wanting to well ... die." Cadence looked down at a locket hanging around her neck and opened it with her magic. Inside was a picture of her long deceased family; her husband Shining Armor and their son, Unbreakable Bulwark.

Celestia sighed. "It's not so much her reasons why or the fact that she wants to commit suicide that bothers me. Luna and I have both dealt with that issue in the past. No, it's more the reason how she's going about it."

"Shall I explain sister?" Luna asked.

"No, Luna. I need you to ready the sky chariots. I will explain to Cadence exactly what will happen and exactly what is at stake" Celestia said.

Luna bowed her head respectfully and busied herself with shouting at a couple of slacking air force troopers.

"Cadence, have you ever heard about an old treasure called the 'Dragon's Rage Orb'?" Celestia asked.

Cadence scratched the back or her mane. "I think it was mentioned very briefly in history class, but I...kinda was never good at that class to be honest."

"Thousands of years ago an adventurer stumbled upon an abandoned dragons hoard. Inside, he found the skeletal remains of a colossal dragon, one like no pony had ever gazed upon. It was well over a hundred feet long and even it's smallest claws would make an elephant blush with size envy" Celestia said as she did a motion with both hooves as if she once caught a fish this big.

"I thought dragons left their hoards to their offspring? Surely this one had many offspring" Cadence said.

"Oddly enough, no. It was a corpse of a Titanic Wyrm, a dragon that is typically far-out of its own breeding age, but just below the last level of dragon based power; of which we only think is hypothetical. Anyway when this adventurer tried to take a sample with his magic the entire skeleton collapsed in on itself and began to glow. Slowly all the bones started merging together and left behind an orb no larger than a hoofball." Celestia used her magic to show an image of a glowing red orb that fit snugly in her outstretched hoof.

"And this little thing is what will kill Twilight?" Cadence asked, still skeptical.

"Worse. Generations later a Unicorn that even you should know the name of began to experiment with the orb. He found it had properties that made other dragons frothing mad with rage, fighting each other, even killing one another to gain possession of it. Furthermore, he found a way to concoct a potion that could in theory remove the immortality a creature that drank it." Celestia explained.

"Wait how do you even test something like that? I thought we were-" Cadence stopped when she noticed Celestia's stern glace. "Sorry, continue."

"He tested it on ... me or at least an impure prototype" Celestia said.

"I see. You tried to kill yourself at one time as well?" Cadence asked.

"I did, but this potion had a very different effect. While it is theorized that yes it will eventually kill you, it does it in a very slow and torturous manner. The impure version makes you relive every single bad event in your entire life and at the end of the cycle causes minor wounds. Star Swirl hypothesized that the perfect version would make you relive all those moments, but in real-time. Meaning you would relive them all in your mind while standing up in a daze, with only a single drop" Celestia said.

"That sounds terrible!" Cadence looked down on her locket. "I...don't want to even relive one bad moment, let alone a lifetime of them."

"It gets worse. The lethal part at the end doesn't scale well at all. Star Swirl did the math after my ... experiment and found that you would need to relive your worst memories for a billion years before it would wear off and give you a lethal wound. He even said that with how Alicorns heal there is even a chance that we won't die and the other part of the potion with continue on for the rest of eternity. It is literally condemning oneself to an eternal personal hell from which there is no known escape." Celestia sighed. "Twilight doesn't deserve that. No creature does, even the most horrifying villains Equestria has ever faced deserve a fate that horrible."

Cadence wiped a tear from her eye. The thought of the little foal she used to take care of being condemned to a fate worse than death was just too much to handle.

"Dry your tears, Cadence. Sister, preparations are ready. We can leave at any time." Luna announced.


Celestia nodded at Luna, a determined look on her face. "I just hope we find her in time."



 










 
> Chapter II: Broken Kinship
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter II: Broken Kinship


The sky above the ocean slowly turned a bright orange as the sun slowly began to sink below the horizon. The only sounds for miles around were the crashing of waves along the shore, the occasional skittering of a crab into its den and the noise being made from a small flock of seagulls settling into their nests for the night. The blissful serenity seemed as if it could continue forever, but something massive was on its way. On the shore, sand began to be whipped up in every direction, the wind howled as a large circles began to appear in the sand along the beach, each whipping up their own small hurricanes of sand and water. Bright lights began to appear in the circles of sand, at first small, but growing in brightness and size in mere seconds.

With a brilliant flash of light hundreds of hooves began to collide with the soft sand, the once serene coast was now swarmed by a massive army of pegasi ponies. The golden gleam from their armor scattered the seagulls into the sky, crabs that were once busily eating on the beach were now running for their lives as more and more ponies began to appear, some of them trampling their burrows as they landed.

"Attention! Front and center!" Luna yelled to the pegasus ponies below as she hovered in the air above the water. "Celestia has most graciously exhausted her power to get us here faster than anticipated." Luna looked  behind her at an absolutely drained and sweaty Celestia laying down on the beach, the waves crashing against her side. "I expect you to all repay the favor, spread out and find the hiding place of Twilight Sparkle."

The army of pegasi ponies all saluted Luna and took off in different directions, except one. A pegasus pony, one much smaller than his comrades, was entirely enamored by a peculiar crab he had found. It was a strange looking crab, it had glass-like eyes and a rusted metal look to it, unlike the other crabs on the beach. The soldier in question seemed entirely enamored by it, to the point that he didn't notice he was the only one of his flight still on the ground.

"Solidier, what are you doing?" Luna asked, a hiss of anger in her voice.

"Y-your majesty!" The soldier immediately sat up and saluted, his helmet falling over his eyes from the quick movement.

Luna tried not to chuckle in an effort to keep her royal composure, she did however, crack a smile. "You should be in the sky with the rest of your regiment, why have you delayed taking flight?"

"I-I noticed a crab that was a little out of place and had to investigate! I'm sorry your majesty, I'll get in the air on the double!" The pegasus took to the sky, although from the fluttering of his wings made it seem like he could barely maintain altitude as he flew off.

"Luna, why do you have to always be mean to Iron Eagle? I understand treating all the soldiers the same , but you always seem to find time to pick on my great grandson" Princess Cadence objected as she flew up and landed behind Luna. 

"It is exactly because he's related to you that I push him to be better. One day another of your line may join us and that one may well be a male, for the first time." Luna noticed Cadence wasn't listening to her and instead was busy examining the out of place crab.

"Now you are enamored by sea life? Tis' just a crab, it's nothing special" Luna said in an annoyed voice.

Cadence managed to grab the crab with her magic before it managed to scuttle into a nearby hole.

Luna walked up behind Cadence. "Honestly, now you are harassing the poor thing? If you're so interested in ocean life we have thousands of books in the royal library on the sub-" Luna paused when Cadence dangled the crab in front of her face.

"Does this look like a normal member of the crustacian family to you?" Cadence asked as she held the struggling crab mere inches from Luna's face.

"It's just a crab Cadence, I don't see the...oh." The crab seemed to have glossy, reflective eyes, like a pair binoculars. Its color was red, like the rest of his kin, but not a red carapace. The red in this case seemed off color, there were parts that looked painted red while others had a rusty brown-red tinge to them. Cadence then flipped the crab over with her magic and on the bottom there seemed to be two screws on the bottom, each on the side of a rectangle piece of carapace. Upon further inspection it seemed the joints in the legs had a small aluminum spring on the backside of the joint and the shell edge was riddled with little bumps, obviously rusted screws.

"This isn't any crab I've seen before, it looks like some kind of windup toy" Luna said as she watched one of the springs on the leg pop off as the machine struggled to get loose.

Cadence rolled her eyes. "Luna, its a security robot. Havn't you been reading any of the news?"

"I kind of...skip over most of the news and go right to the comics section. Occasionally I browse the sports section, sadly the Canterlot Cardinals can't catch a cold, let alone a touchdown pass."

Cadence sighed heavily. "Celestia, can you come over here for a moment?"

Celestia looked up at Cadence with droppy, drained eyes and staggered to her feet. "This better be important, I'm so draiend that I can't even feel my dignity anymore." Celestia walked over to where Cadence and Luna were standing and immediately noticed the crab Cadence was holding up with her magic. Her eyes went wide as the crab struggled to away harder than ever before.

"Luna! Tracking spell two on this crab, right now!" Celestia barked.

Luna, without hesitation, fired a spell at the crab, but mere seconds before the spell touched the surface of the crab, it exploded into little metal bits; showering Luna, Celestia and Cadence with little gears and springs. 

"Dammit all! That would have made finding Twilight so much easier..." Celestia kicked the sand angrily, accidentally spraying some into Cadences mouth.

"Ptah- yuck, salty" Cadence said as she spit at the ground, trying to get the sand out of her mouth.

"Sorry Cadence, I'm just a bit frustrated" Celestia apoligized. "That spell would have led us straight to where she was hiding..."

"I don't follow. How is a spell designed to track the origins of magic supposed to work on something mechanical? I mean, I didn't sense Twilight's magic on that device at all..." Luna said as she kicked one of the remaning legs on the ground.

"It's simple, when used tracking spell two can also lock onto radio frequencies. That crab was a suvelliance device, Twilight knows we are here and what's worse she knows that I'm in no position to stop her, drained as I am." Celestia laid back down on the soft sand. "I need more rest if I am to be of any use confronting Twilight. Wake me when you have found her."


**Elsewhere**


"Twilight, we I have recieved feed from one of our security scouts on the beach. Shall I review the footage and report or have it sent to the overhead monitor?" Sam asked as she hovered over Twilight.

"Too busy, look over the footage, it's probably just sea ponies poking them again." Twilight added a hoof full of death wart to her couldron, stirring it vigorously as it turned an ugly black color.

"Affirmative. Scanning footage, processing, processing. Error, no sea ponies found. However, three creatures identified as Alicorns detected." Sam hovered over to the overhead monitor and turned it on.

"Wait, Alicorns? Seriously!?" Twilight stopped stirring and watched the monitor above her. Indeed, Luna, Cadence and Celestia were all gathered together on the beach, though Celestia looked worse for wear.

"This doesn't make sense, it should have taken her hours to get here unless..." Twilight looked closely at Celestia, he mane was nowhere near as vibrant as before. "She used a mass teleport spell?" The camera on screen panned over, bringing a vast army of Canterlot sky guard into frame.

"Warning, air defense systems have been activated. Multiple contacts detected in the skies above the lab" Sam announced. The over head monitor went blank for a moment and then displayed a black screen with multiple circles going from small at the center to large at the edge of the display. 

"She really wants to find me doesn't she?" Twilight studied the radar display, there were almost two hundred Canterlot sky forces in the air, most of them nowhere near her home. "What's the status on the cloaking field Sam?"

"Cloaking field was activated thirty minutes ago, if power reserves hold it should stay active for another four hours or so. We can extend this by another two if we deactivate all other spy drones in the area" Sam stated. "The illusion should hold  as well, assuming none of Celestia's troops  get too nosey."

"Good. Also, deactivate all the other drones in the area. I can't risk a tracking spell leading them here" Twilight said, he attention mostly on her mixture.

"Affirmative, all drones shutting down. Error, beach drone has been destroyed, self detonation after tracking spell was detected" Sam announced.

"Well at least the fail-safes work, best not push our luck, that trigger only works if the drone spots the spell before hoof." Twilight went back to her work, adding in more ingredients to her couldron. 

"Proximity alert, equine life form detected 30 yards from the base!" Sam yelled.

"On screen!" Twilight commanded.

The screen shifted view from the skies above her lab to some of the overgrowth on the south side of the building. In the trees one could make out a light blue pegasus inspecting the animals and insects in the area for clues. Every so often he would stop to adjust his helmet as it seemed far to big for his head. On his flank was what looked like some kind of hawk or eagle made of metal.

"He's obviously part of the Sky Guard, but why would Celestia bring along a greenhorn? He doesn't even properly fit his armor" Twilight said as she pointed out how loose his gear was. "I'll keep one eye on him while I get this potion ready." Twilight continued to stir the concoction, occasionally glancing up to check to see if the pegasus was still in the vicinity.

"Sam, I want to be notified if he gets within twenty or so feet of the cloaking device, I need to focus on getting this potion done before they find us." Twilight said as she turned her full attention to her work.

"Agreed. Proximity Alarm set." Sam confirmed.


***


Iron Eagle took his Helmet off and set it on the ground, he then took a deep breath and sat down on a nearby rock. He glanced around him, nothing but trees, vines, the smell of partially dried out marsh. "I dunno why the rest of my regiment is searching from the sky, Twilight Sparkle is one of the most cunning ponies ever known. It's obvious she would try to cover her home with brush to avoid being spotted from the sky."

Iron Eagle looked into the sky, remembering his studies. Not of his studies in the military flight academy, but of when he snuck off to the history library to read about the elements of harmony  and the last remaining element;Twilight Sparkle. Grandma always told me the history books didn't do her genius justice. He remembered how Cadence would talk for hours about her sister in law, how Twilight would get herself into some of the worst situations Equestria had ever seen and somehow come out on top. He closed his eyes his mind wandering back to when Cadence first started telling him about Twilight.

"She's strong, but's she's quick to panic and lose focus in exteme situations. Her friends were always there to snap her out of it though."

"Then why did she disappear Grandma Cadence?" The younger Iron Eagle asked.

"A broken heart, little Iron...a broken heart" Cadence said somberly. 

A loud whoosh from far above him snapped Iron Eagle out of his flashback. The other troops above seemed to be getting desperate in thier search for Twilight's hideaway. "Idiots. You have to think like Twilight in order to find Twilight. The signal we recieved is somewhere in this area, which means she probably has her home hidden somewhere." Iron Eagle stood up, put his helmet back on and began walking around, examining his surroundings.

Things looked much different at ground level than in the sky. The small batch of forrest he was in from the air had fully grown mature tree canopy, but something was seriously off. The ground was littered with grass and bushes, something you typically do not get in mature forrest unless there is a clearing for sunshine to reach them. What was also strange was the fact that many of the trees around him looked rather young, but from above looked like they were hundreds of years old. There was also a very distinct lack of mushrooms, birds or even insects. Even the smell of leafy rot was missing, despite the ground being littered with them.

"This is definately an illusion, but how to dispell it without magic? Actually now that I think about it, this seems really sloppy for a pony with more than a centurys worth of top level magic training." Iron Eagle  looked around and noticed that there was a line of ants heading towards a rock, but they suddenly stopped and made a sharp left turn.

That's odd Iron Eagle thought to himself as he inspected the small colony of ants. Iron Eagle took a few steps forward, trying to get a better view of what was deflecting the ants away from thier course when he felt his snout bump into something hard. Iron stumbled back, reflexively rubbing his nose, when he noticed that what used to be a small bush was now a solid stone wall.

"Checkmate, Twilight Sparkle" Iron Eagle said triumpantly.

Iron Eagle reached for his spatha and swinged wildly at the foliage around the stone wall. Bit by bit the illusion began to fade revealing a wall made of some kind of polished stone.  Iron Eagle put his sword back in its sheath and examined the wall. It has some kind of  coating on it that gave it a light glow, even stranger is the wall showed not the slightest hint of weathering, as it it was built just days before.

"Oh, right. The rest of my unit might want to know about this." Iron Eagle reached into his saddle bag and pulled out a flare gun. He quickly removed the safety cap on the trigger, pointed it into the air and fired. A stream of red and blue flares shot through the tree cover above him and into the sky. He pulled the trigger a few more times to fire off more flares, just in case his companions missed them.

"Now to just wait for reinforcements" Iron Eagle said as he let out a sigh. He had a sudden urge to break down the wall in front of  him, but he knew better of it. As much as it would help his career to bring in Twilight himself, he knew that deep down he was no match for Twilight alone; her magic was even more than a match for entire Unicorn regiments, let alone a low ranking Sky Guard.

"I hope this ends peacefully. I don't want to have to fight my great aunt if I can avoid it."


***


"Warning, Warning! Proximity breached, building sections detected! Illusions dispelled!" Sam yelled, making Twilight shoot her attention from the potion to the screen.

"You got to be kidding me! How? When? I told you to keep him monitored!" Twilight growled.

"I am sorry, Twilight. I was so focused on watching you work that I entirely forgot the simpleton poking around our abode. Shell I dispense the defenses to claim him?" Sam asked.

"No, the Sky Guard may be many things, but inefficient is not one of them, see?" Twlight pointed to one of the other monitors in the room, one displaying large flares detonating in the air followed by more Skyguard approaching from all directions.

"Then what do we do?" Sam asked.

"Divert all power from illusions systems and activate the shield. We need to buy time until this potion is complete."

"And the spare Sky Guard? He's well within the shields proximity" Sam said, noticeing that indeed the Sky Guard was right up against the building.

"It's just a lone pegasus greenhorn. I wouldn't be surprised if he couldn't figure out the password at the front door, let alone cause us any problems." Twilight looked down at her potion then back up at the screen. "No, he doesn't seem like a threat, though theres something about him that I can't shake. That I know him from somewhere."

"Shall I dispatch defense bots? I could set them to stun any intruders" Sam asked.

"No, those drain power that we need to keep the shield up. I want any auxillary systems keeping the shield up, I cannot be interuppted before the potion is finished." Twilight focused her attention back on her work, stirring the concoction clockwise, then counterclockwise.

Still, something about that skyguard is  incredibly familiar...I just can't seem to put my hoof on it.  Twilight thought.


***


"Huh, usually they are here in an instant. I wonder what is-" suddenly, all the foiliage around him aside from the grass and a few shrubbery's disappeared entirely, revealing a polished brown and  white building riddled with metal plates, wires and electronics of all kinds protruding from the  sides and roof.

"Well, then. Hopfully this means she decided that surrender was-" Before Iron eagle could blurt out another sound a faint humming noise caught his attention and the source seemed to be coming from behind him. He turned around to find a glowing wall of semi transparent red light. He followed the wall from the ground up into the sky and noticed that it  curved into a dome over the entire building.

"And now I'm stuck." Iron Eagle approached the shield and  touched the red light, a jolt of energy shot into his hoof, making a hissing sound and making him immediately pull back. He shook his  hoof in the air a moment, blowing on it occasionally to soften the sting. "Yeah, class S shield spell. I wouldn't expect any less from Twilight."

On the other side of the shield  he watched as multiple flights of  Sky guard landed just a few dozen yards from the front of the side of the building. One of the larger pegasi approached the shield, but unlike the other Sky Guard around him, this one had armor that was dark black and grey. Dotted with bits of red and flecks of gold  from what looked like a line of medals on his right breastplate.

As he got closer, Iron Eagle broke out in a sweat. The pony Approaching him had deeps scars all over his face and even scars all over his leathery wings. His medals were not just any medals, he has seen ponies with lines of medals before, but all of these were given out by Luna and Celestia themselves; a line of ten platinum medals of honor. General Flaccid Snake of the bat ponies!

Iron Eagle stood at attention, saluting his superior officer as he approached, his helmet falling over his eyes from the quick movement. 

"Sir, r-ready to report sir!" Iron Eagle said, his voice trembling.

Flaccid Snake smiled and shook his head. "At ease soldier, getting nervous now doesn't impress your peers." Flaccid Snake sat down in front of the shield, looking it over with a stare that could probably break through it if he so wanted to. "Looks like a class S shield and judging how you are behind it means you must be the one that fired those flares."

Flaccid  Snake turned to one of the many Sky Guard behind him. "Do I really need to order one uof you to fetch the top brass? Can none of you think for yourselves?"

The Sky Guard stared at one another before a few of them flew off on thier own, breaking formation with the rest of their comrades.

"I swear, so strict on the training that they lose common sense." Flaccid Snake sighed then turned his attention abck to Iron Eagle. "Report son, and keep it calm. I get enough jitters from other commanders as is." 

Iron Eagle adjusted his helmet and sat down, breathing deep before he started his report. "General, I noticed that searching for Twilight Sparkle from the  sky was folly and that she would most likely disguise her home in a manner that would make spotting it from the air nearly impossible. So I broke formation and started searching at ground level."

Flaccid Snake nodded his head. "Go on."

"From my studies in Canterlot I realized that the plant combination here was a bit off as well as there being no animals, birds and very few insects. I followed a path of ants and noticed they suddendly turned away from some of the plants on the ground near them, as if a wall was there. Sure enough after further investigation, there was indeed a wall." Iron Eagle gasped, forgetting to breathe during his entire report.

"By further investigation you mean you bumped into it, right?" Flaccid Snake asked.

"Y-yes, sir. That and swinging my sword at it." Iron Eagle replied.

"Well, whatever works I suppose. Don't worry about your commander hassling you about formation breaking. I takes more than protocol to make a good soldier and I'll make sure to tell him that." Flaccid Snake heard the combined sound of multiple sets of headgear rustle. "The Princesses are flying in from behind me, aren't they?"

"Y-yes sir!" Iron Eagle replied.

Flaccid Snake turned around slowly and put his right hoof over his chest. If Iron Eagle didn't know any better he could have sworn that the General was half heartedly saluting. 

"Ummm, sir?" Iron Eagle whispered.

"Oh, you don't know. I'm a highlands bat pony. We all salute this way. The hoof across the chest means strength of heart above all else." Flaccid Snake turned his attention back toward the sky, his eyes following Luna, Cadence and Celestia as they landed. He held his hoof over his chest even as the others around him bowed down so far that they were practically kissing the ground around the Princesses.

"I expected as much. Sister,Cadence, it appears my top General has found the hideout of Twilight Sparkle." Luna  pointed triumpantly at Flaccid Snake.

"Not me your highness, the nervous wreck of a greenhorn behind me." Flaccid Snake stood up and took a few steps to the side, revealing a  quivering Iron Eagle, his helmet down over his eyes as he saluted the approaching royalty.

"You must be pulling my wing general. Surely the worst flyer in the Sky guard didn't-"

"Ha!" Cadence yelled, interrupting Luna.

"You owe me pie and a hoof rub , Luna, as per our bet. I told you he was the one most likely to find Twilight's hideout." Cadence walked up and nudged Luna in the side with her front leg. 

Luna rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fine, fine. However, I can almost bet the farm that my next wager will result in absolute victory."

Before Luna could address the quivering Iron Eagle Celestia stepped forward, lowering her head to eye level with the terrified greenhorn. "I want you to listen to me very carefully Iron Eagle."

Iron Eagle took off his helmet and set it on the ground beside him, he  then looked directly into Celestia's deep purple eyes, sweating and shaking perfusely. She's never adressed me directly like this before, don't screw up, don't screw up!

"I can feel the power of the barrier between us and even with our combiend might and the aid of the entire Unicorn Artilliery brigade it would take hours to bring this shield down. No doubt she learned the basis for it from her older brother. What I'm about to ask you come from the bottom of  my heart. You must make it into the facility and bring down this barrier."

"Y-your highness! I-i'm not entirely sure I am even remotely a match for Twilight and she must know that her home is surrounded by now." Iron Eagle looked behind him, he knew that he wasn't even a match for other ponies in his own rank, let alone an Alicorn on par with Celestia herself, if not greater.

"I'm not asking you to fight her. I know full well that even the most talented unicorn would be no match for her, let alone a pegasus. No, I want you to sneak into her home and do whatever you can to bring down this barrier. I know Twilight may be a bit unhinged, but she has never killed the defenseless, restrain, yes, but not kill." Celestia  lifted her head and stared at a camera on the side of the building.

"I know you can hear me Twilight, bring down this barrier. What you are doing is foolhardy and will not give you the result you desire. It will only end in your suffering and the heartbreak of an entire kingdom." Celestias eyes lowered and set on Iron Eagle. 

"The second that camera up there centers on me, I want you to sneak in. Keep an eye out for anything that can let us in" Celestia whispered out of the side of her mouth.

The camera on the building pivoted up and centered on Celestia.

"Now!" Celestia whsipered.

Iron eagle rolled backwards until he slammed up against the building, leaving his helmet near the barrier. He looked directly above him and noticed the hinge on the camera could not get the camera into a position where it could spot him. He picked himself off the ground and pressed up against the building, doing his  best to stay silent as she moved sideways along the outside.

"You know you can't get in here in time right?" Twilight's voice blared over a speaker on top of the building just above the camera.

"Twilight, listen to me. That concoction you are making will doom you to your own personal hell if the concentration is wrong. Please, if you want ...a way" Celestia wiped a tear from her eyes. "A ...release from living, then let me help you."

"Sister!" Luna yelled in astonishment.

"Celestia, you can't be serious!" Cadence added.

"Silence, if the only option is eternal suffering and her...killing herself, then I will gladly aid her in doing so " Celestia growled.

"I think you're full of it. I begged you decades ago for a way out and you denied me. I was at your hooves begging for a way out, for a way to see my loved ones again and you put your own sense of duty and corrupt logic ahead of my own well being. No, I will not lower the shield and by the time you reach me I will finally have the result I have waited for for so long." The speaker crackled and went silent.

Celestia stood there, silent, her head lowered. "Luna, Cadence, the second this shield is down, expect a fight. If she won't listen to reason then we must capture he and force it down her throat."

"I hope it doesn't come to that. Maybe seeing her great nephew might jar some sense into her." Cadence said as she watched Iron Eagle climb through a small basement window. 

"Assuming she even knows who he  is. You forget that she has isolated herself from everypony for so long that she has no idea who Iron Eagle actually is." Luna sighed. "Not one to be all sour grapes, but if you entrust this mission to him, he will fail it."

"I wouldn't make that bet, Luna. Iron Eagle may be many things, but he's swift witted, just like his great aunt" Cadence said with a smile on her face. 

"What do you mean? He did terribly in all of his physical tests, combat tests and even his flight rating. He barely got away with a D plus. The only reason he got into the Sky Guard was most likely his relation to you and little else." Luna stomped on the ground. "it infuriates me to no end how you can trust such an important  mission to a class clown like him. If i had my way he  wouldn't even be fit to scrub the latrines in the palace."

Cadence giggled, putting her hoof over her mouth to stifle the sound.

"What is  so funny?" Luna asked.

"The reason he's in the Sky Guard isn't because of me. He scored a 1799 out of 1800 on his entrance exam, only missing the last question because of his over nervousness. He's literally the sharpest mind of his generation and if he were a unicorn would be on par with some of the most powerful magic users ever to live." Cadence turned to Luna. "He will suceed, you can bet on it."

"I somehow doubt that" Luna replied.

"She's right Cadence, we need a backup plan just in case he fails. Luna...we have to somehow talk HIM into helping us." Celestia  shook her head, shuddering at asking that creature for a favor.

"I'll send a message to him. Hopefully he will reply and the cost won't be too great." Luna motioned for a scribe and unicorn to come to her.

"I hope not sister. I hope not."


***


"Ow! Sonava!" Iron Eagle rubbed his head, sorely wishing he had kept his helmet with him; even if it fit him poorly. What he initially thought was a basement window was little more than an old ventalation shaft built into the foundation of the building. The shaft was poorly lit, with only what looked like a few sparse magical lights every ten or so yards, most likely used for maintenence. Thankfully it wasn't excessively cramped. He still had to crawl through it, but it was at least  wide enough that he wouldn't get stuck or could turn back if needed.

"See, it's a good  thing I'm smaller than all of  my comrades, if I was any larger then  we would have had to call this whole thing off" Iron Eagle said to himself.

As he crawled through the space he remembered his other comrades insults. Shrimp, pipsqueak, mouse, midget, small fry; a constant stream of insults playing in his mind. "Aww c'mon brain, none of that. Bad enough I get reminded of it daily, you don't have to do it  while I'm alone too."

I swear, I'm going to end up with a Napolean complex Iron Eagle thought to himself.

"Hello? Is somepony there?" A loud voice echoed down the shaft.

"Wow, that was loud. I need to be quieter" Iron Eagle whispered. A few short minutes later he could see the end of the shaft and oddly enough a faint golden glow was illuminating the room beyond.

Oh right, she has been really busy over the last century. That must be her stockpiled treasury. 

Iron Eagle reached the end of the shaft and peeked out. What he initially though just might be a small basement was anything but; it was a massive cavern with gold piles everywhere. It was easily a hundred feet or more to the bottom of the cavern. "I could glide down, but I don't want to be spotted by any security."

"I hear you! Who goes there?" The loud bellowing voice said.

Iron Eagle looked up and could feel his legs go numb. Dead across from him was a massive purple dragon, roughly at eye level with him and quickly moving toward his position.  Quick, think of something Iron Eagle could feel his  heart thundering in his  chest, his mouth was dry and his legs refused to do anything but quake in fear. 

I can't fight that, an entire regiment wouldn't fight that!" 

Iron Eagle looked behind him, he could just move down the shaft and hide in the darkness. No, that would leave me cornered and he  can breathe fire down this way. 

Wait, I got it! 

Iron Eagle took off one of his gold legplates and tossed it as hard as he could. The metal clang echoed to the left of the large dragon, catching his attention. Cheese it!

Iron Eagle spread his wings as he pushed himself out of the ventalation shaft. He momentarily lost control of  his trajectory as he adjusted to the colder denser air in the basement, flying just behind the dragons head. He then spotted what looked like a very large white sheet or  curtain sitting fairly close to what looked like an elevator shaft. 

I'll hide there he thought.

Iron Eagle swooped behind the sheet, landing on the backend. He quickly grabbed a bit of the sheet and rolled himself in it just as the dragon approached him from the side.

"I heard that. If you're another random thief, be warned that I will give you a stern talking to like the last few. No pony evades Spike for long." Spike put his snout over the back of the sheet covering the statue in the room and inhaled deeply through his nostrils. 

"You know, I can see the defomation in the sheet and I can smell you. Come out of there and we can talk about this, I promise I won't hurt you." 

That is Spike!? Sheesh, he's huge compared to the family photos of him Iron Eagle could feel Spikes breath on his back, he was right above him. He knows I'm here, what to do, what to do...

He then noticed a shadow of a massive claw coming down on top of him. As soon as the claw grabbed onto the deformation and lifted it up, he rolled left, falling off the curvature of whatever the sheet was hiding and glided down the opposite side, just out of line of sight of Spike.

"Huh, nothing there? I could have sworn I smelled pegasus in my room." Spike looked left, and then right, scratching his  head with his other claw. He then leaned over the sheet and looked down, nothing was below him either.

"I guess I'm hearing and smelling things that are not there. Oh well, back to trying to budge the door." 

Iron Eagle held his breath, making absolutely sure he didn't make so much as a sound. When the footsteps became little more than a low thud he finally exhaled, wiping his forehead. That was close, if I had known there was a statue under the sheet I would have hid here in the first place

Iron Eagled stared up at the statue. it was a statue of  some kind of  four legged animal, most likely a pony. His eyes trailed down the belly until he noticed a tail between the back legs, a tail that was curled all the way down to the ground.  I wonder if Spike made this? Iron Eagle rolled over onto his  hooves and began to slowly peek from under the sheets at the front of the statue. At the other end of the room by a pile of  gold were two massive double doors and Spike, who seemed to be preoccupied with a large keypad.

"Err...where was I? Oh, right. One, one, nine , nine?" Spike punched in the numbers one by one with his massive index claw.

*Bzzt*

"Darn it Twilight! You know I don't want to lose you, why can't we talk about this?" Spike punched the double doors as hard as he could, making the entire room shake with the impact. "All these years I thought I could just keep pushing you to stop your foolish crusade and even then you still want to end your own life." 

Is...he crying? Iron Eagle watched as large teardrops landed on the floor, each of them large enough to fill a pool on their own.

He seems preoccupied with that door and... Iron Eagle sighed.

"His own guilt" Iron Eagle said as he stepped out from underneath the statue. "Mr. Spike, I'm here to help." I hope I don't regret this...

Spike slowly rubbed his  eyes, wiping the tears away, and turned his head toward Iron Eagle. "So, I was right when I smelled a pegasus in my room." Spike lumbered toward Iron Eagle, keeping his eyes on the pegasus. 

"Wait, that armor..." Spike stared at Iron Eagle, his body was adorned with silver and gold of the royal guard, though this pegasus seemed to be missing his helmet and shin guard. He was much smaller than a guard however, much more like the size of an average pegasus like a weather patrol pegasus or a shopkeep. He had a short unkept indigo mane with two stripes of  blue running the length; one light blue and the other navy blue. His  coat color seemed familiar as well being a sort of off purple color, something close to a very pale violet. His most prominent feature was his eyes. One was the same color as Twilight's and the other was a sparkling blue.

"Are you a Equestrian guard by chance?" Spike asked.

"I am, ensign level one of the Sky Guard to be precise" Iron Eagle said nervously.

Spike examined Iron Eagle further. He had seen this  pony before somewhere, but he couldn't quite put his claw on when or where. "This may sound silly, but you look like you're releated to someone I know, but I can't remember who."

"My Grandmother is princess Cadence. I'm here to try and stop my great aunt from offing herself. I am Iron Eagle of the Equestria Sky Guard!" Iron Eagle put one hoof above his eye in salute, puffing his chest out to try and make himself seem bigger than he really was.

Spike raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "Well, you certainly have the armor of a guard, but you're the scrawnyest solider I have ever seen. As for the relation to Twilight, well, I don't know about that. I guess it doesn't matter though, if Celestia is up above then that can only mean a confrontation is inevitible."

"Spike, I need your help." Iron Eagle stared up at Spike, trying best not to feel afraid of him. "I need to get the barrier outside down so Celestia, Luna and Cadence can get through and stop Twilight."

Spike looked at the small button panel behind him and then back down at iron Eagle. "I guess I'm out of options. If she turned on the barrier then opening the lock is pointless. I guess I'll have to depend on you, little soldier. Listen to me very carefully, behind you is a gated elevator that leads up to the main lab level. There are cameras on the corners of every room and you may run into Twilight's security and lab assistant AI."

"AI? wait, what's an AI?" Iron Eagle scratched his head with his hoof.

"Not surprising, Twilight never did mass produce her. Anyways, an AI is a robot that can think for itself. Theres this little orb above that floats around by itself and thinks for itself. If you trip any sensors of any sort up there you can bet your flanks she will be there to investigate. Actually I might have something to help you out..."

Spike turn around and began to dig through a pile of gold. "No, not that one, no, that one will get him killed, ahh here we are." Spike pulled a very small faded blue gem from the pile and presented it to Iron Eagle.

Iron Eagle Blushed furiously."Umm I like you Spike, but I don't think that relationship would work out. Also, you're a guy."

"Huh?" Spike noticed he was kneeling on one knee, presenting the gem as if he were proposing to Iron Eagle. "Oh, no, no, no. Sorry, I was just being overly dramatic about giving this to you. I didn't mean THAT."

"Well, now that we cleared that up. What does that gem you're holding do?" Iron Eagle asked.

"About a century ago, before Twilight invented other means to get supplies, she would wear a disguise and head into town with this around her neck. See, being an Alicorn is a lot harder to cover up than you would initially think. You can use illusion magic  to make your wings disappear, but your own power would distort it before too long. If any of the townsfolks got suspicious of her or is a guard would start to follow her, she would run into a back alley and use this." Spike held up the gem and pointed to the two notches in the middle of it.

"See, the bottom notch grants you inaudible footsteps spell and the top one grants you a greater invisibility spell for about a minute or so. There is a drawback, however. The gem has lost much of its power over the years and Twilight hasn't recharged it in a very long time. It used to be a purple color, but as you can see it lost most of it's power and faded to this blue color. I think at best it may give you a small invisibility field for a dozern or so seconds at best." Spike set the gem gently beside Iron Eagle.

Iron Eagle picked the gem up and examined it.  From a distance it seemed like it had a pale blue color, but as he examined it he moticed that it was only slightly pale blue, most of the gem was transparent most of the way through. "You're right. It might have enough power left in it for a single spell before it loses power and changes color permanently."

"Sorry, it's the best I can do. Dragon magic isn't exactly compatible with enchantments made by ponies. If I could recharge it, I would. If I could then maybe I could have snuck out and not be locked in." Spike turned to the keypad behind him and snorted angryly, blowing  fire and smoke onto the keypad out of disgust.

"Before I head up, I have one more minor detail. How did Twilight manage to hide herself if she was going into town and such all these years?" Iron Eagle asked.

"She disgused herself as an older greying mare. She managed to fix the instability of her illusion spell by cutting it back a lot. making it only target her mane, tail, cutie mark and wings. No one ever got suspicious of an old elderly mare coming into town for supplies. She got a few odd looks from a few guards, but so long as she changed the costume every generation or two, she was safe from them." Spike leaned over and pressed the button to call the elevator down.

"I'll gladly tell you the details of her life later, but for now I need you to get up there and stop her. I already lost too many loved ones for a single lifetime and the last one I want to lose is my big sister." Spike wiped a tear from his eye, the droplet making a large clank of the pile of  gold below him.

"I understand. I won't fail!" Iron Eagle saluted Spike then stepped up in front of the elevator just as it opened the gate at the bottom floor.


At least, I hope I don't fail...




 

 
















> Chapter III: Phantoms of the past
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter III Phantoms of the past


Iron Eagle pressed the button the call the elevator and waited for it to descend. As he listened to the cables above creak as they lowered the platform his mind raced with how he was to accomplish his goal. Without a doubt, they would know he was here just by the fact that the elevator was moving on its own. Maybe if he used the jem Spike gave him right as he reached the top landing, they would  write it off as a mechanical malfunction. 

"Spike, how much clearance is there between the top of the elevator and the machinery used to move it around?" Iron Eagle asked.

"About two or so feet between the top of the compartment and the gearing system at the most, why?" Spike asked.

"Well, I need you to press the button to send it up and then a minute or two later press it to go down again. Make it look like you're bored so she will be annoyed with you and not thinking an intruder is in her home." 

"Will do, just remember; Sam will be looking for any abnormalities in the security system. If she finds you, she has a weapons system used to neutralize and imprision would-be thieves. Whatever you do, do not let her see you." Spike pointed his claw at the elevator, which had just stopped at the bottom of his cave, the metal safety gate swinging open to let Iron Eagle in. Iron Eagle nodded to Spike and jumped on top of the elevator compartment, he then crouched down and motioend for Spike to press the button to send it back up. Spike reached inside the compartment and pressed the up button with his massive claw, breaking the panel in the process and bending the gate as he pulled his massive claw out.

"Oops, sorry." Spike apologized as the safety gate closed.

"Seriously, Spike? Now they are definitely going to be suspicious.

"Wait, you're a Pegasus; just fly up the elevator shaft ahead of it" Spike proposed.

Iron Eagles ears shot up and he looked back as his wings, still tucked tightly against his body. Why do I have to miss the obvious things?
Iron Eagle Spread his wings and took off just as the elevator started to move. However, it seemed the elevator was keeping pace with his flight, it seemed the damaged console on the inside was set to high gear. Iron Eagle noticed that the cable system was moving too fast for  his own comfort. Bumping into one during flight while it was slower wouldn't have been an issue, but with them moving that quickly one would easily clip a wing and send him into the gearing system below; and most likely to his death.

Iron Eagle hovered in place, allowing the elevator to catch up with him. Just as his front hooves made contact with the roof of the compartment the tip of his right wing grazed the cable going through the gearing system, quickly and painfully tearing out multiple feathers.

"Ow ,ow ,ow!" Iron Eagle reflexively pulled his wing away, blowing on it to ease the pain. "I could have sworn this  kinda gearing system is supposed to be cased in metal to prevent it catching on any technicicans." Iron Eagle watched as his feathers were chewed up by the system and sprayed all over the floor of the compartment below. Well, so much for stealth...

Iron Eagle looked above him, he  could see the floor where the elevator let off and above that with only a few inches to spare above the gearing and cable system; just enough to duck and hide in. As the top of the elevator reached the gate leading to the next floor Iron Eagle could see through the safety gate. Coming around the corner of some kind of large metal contraption was a floating ball of pink with what appeared to be a camera mounted in the middle; which thankfully wasn't pointed in his direction. The elevator ground to a halt with only a few inches to spare between Iron Eagle and the deathtrap of machinery above him.

This reminds me of that rainbow factory horror story all the teenagers used to tell us at school... Iron Eagle thought as he looked up into the sets of thick metal gears, each of them easily wider than his forelegs. Glad that whole thing was just some dumb story to scare the kiddies into passing their flight tests...

The safety gate below opened and the  pink orb floated into the middle of the caged section below. It began to look around the compartment when it noticed a few spare bits of feather stuck on the floor. 

"Scanning, initiating standard security protocols. Twilight, I have discovered what appears to be a feather of some kind on the elevator floor." A small metallic arm lowered out of the bottom of the floating pink sphere and picked up one of Iron Eagles feathers. It lifted it up and held it in front of its main camera. 

"Hmmm, nah. It kinda looks like one of my feathers, just a little bit faded." The voice of Twilight said through a nearby speaker. "I might have gotten a bit flustered with Spike earlier today and shed a few, though why the alert elevator was triggered through the inside..."

"Twilight, I believe I may have found a problem." Sam motioned towards the damaged control panel inside the elevator. 

"Yeah, that looks like Spike is trying to  get my attention after I cut him off on the intercom earlier. I'll make sure to talk to him and  say goodbye before I take the potion. Until then Sam, I want you on patrol duty. No telling if Celestia has any tricks up her sleeve to gain access to my lab."

Sam hovered in place for a moment examining the feathers it had just picked up. It seemed pre-occupied with the color and texture of the feathers, as if noting that they indeed, were not Twilight's. Sam spun in place looking around and even seemed  to look upwards for a moment, directly at Iron Eagle. 

Iron Eagle held his breath, he was sure that the shadows obscured him, but  wasn't sure if  this advanced robot AI thing could see him in ways he couldn't imagine. They stared at one another for a moment, each of them not making a move, then suddenly a beam of light illuminated the gearbox to the far left of him. He had to move quickly.He looked up above him, there was just barely enough room to squeeze above the system and on top of it. Iron Eagle slowly set his back legs against the wall and his front legs against the metal side of the gearing system and slowly shuffled his way up, just barely making it on top as the light from Sam shined on his previous position.

Iron Eagle held his breath, making sure not to make a single sound until Sam left. After a few tense moments the light turned off and he  could hear Sam grumbling about a mouse problem or some other. Iron Eagle exhaled and inhaled deeply, wiping the sweat from his brow. 

That was close, I guess it is a good thing I'm so small.

Iron Eagle looked about the  shaft, below him; where he  was standing, was the metal lid with a half square pipe latch. To his right and left were solid steel supports that dug into the stone walls; thankfully spread apart far enough to allow him to squeeze through one direction, but not the other way unless he wanted cut up by the beveled edges protruding like a reverse triangle from either side. Above him was near complete darkness with the exception of a few beams of light at the very top of the shaft.

"Not enough room to fly up for the most part" Iron Eagle said to himself in a low whisper.

Iron Eagle looked for a way up; the shaft was far too narrow to allow for flight , but at the same time just wide enough to prevent him from shimmy up it like a chimney. He looked around for another way up and quickly found it. A couple feet above his head were notches in the wall deep enough to put a hoof and possibly a leg in. They seemed to go most of the way up the shaft, ending right before the beams of light. Iron Eagle sighed, remembering how he hated doing vertical climbing during basic training. "I guess this is what they meant when they said wings will not always be the solution to mobility issues".

Iron Eagle put his left hoof in one notch and his right hoof in another. He tried at first to pull himself up, but found it difficult to do so. Part of him wanted to say the armor and grime were weighing him down, but he knew otherwise; he was just no good at physical activities to begin with. 

Maybe If I...

Iron Eagle flapped his wings slowly, making sure they they made as little sound as possible, but provided at least some lift to get him up the shaft. Slowly but surely he put his front legs into the second, then third set of wall notches. As he got his hooves into the 4th set of notches he could put his back legs into the first set, allowing him significantly more leverage than before. "Well, here goes nothing."

Iron Eagle began to climb the wall in earnest and realized he no longer needed his wings to support him. Something about the wall made him feel lighter and put a spring into his every step, it  almost felt like as he was suddenly spider and soon he found himself a good twenty or so feet above the elevator gearing system. The light at the top of the shaft being only a few feet away.

"I wonder if it's an access shaft to a maintenance room or-" 

As Iron Eagle climbed to where the light was coming from he noticed that there seemed to be not one, but two separate souces for the light. One was an old square doorway and the other a much smaller round hatch. Iron Eagle examined both of them closely. One seemed to be about the right size for a pony to fit through and the other was shaped nearly exactly to the size of that robot AI thing he encountered earlier.

"I guess the regular door is an access for when she used to do the repairs and maintenance herself and the hatch is for the AI to do them." Iron Eagle pulled himself onto the small landing in front of the twin doors and slowly pushed the handle on the larger door, slowly opening it. At first it creaked loudly, as if it hadn't been opened in many years. Part of him wanted to retreat, but the other part; his natural curiosity, wanted to see what was behind the door. 

"Whoa" the door swung open, revealing a large open room with a deep red carpet. Iron Eagle stepped through the door and looked straight up. Along the walls were bookshelves that seemed to go on forever into the darkness of the ceiling, shelves that must have been magically reinforced as they were almost thirty stories high. 

"Wait, how did no one see this from the outside?Clearly a tower this  size would be well above the natural tree canopy" Iron Eagle Asked himself.

"A space compression spell, maybe? If so, it makes the Grand Canterlot Library look like a joke. Now that I think about it, it doesn't even compare." Iron Eagle felt as if he could lose himself in this room. He could spend a dozen lifetimes reading all the books here and not even so much as clear a single shelf. 

"Overwhemling, isn't it?"

Iron Eagle froze in place, he knew exactly to whom that voice belonged; if his hunch was right, Twilight Sparkle was right behind him. Iron Eagle slowly turned his head, to find that indeed, Twilight Sparkle was right behind him. Though she seemed a bit off. The pictures he had seen was of her as an Alicorn like Celestia, Luna or Cadence. However, Twilight seemed to be missing her wings and was slightly shorter than what he remembered from old photos, almost as if she was still a unicorn.

"Is something wrong?" Twilight asked. 

There was something off, this Twilight seemed to have a faint purple glow about her as if this was an illusion. "Twilight Sparkle?"

"Yes...and no. It's complicated" Twilight responded, though in a much less angry voice than what he was used to.

Twilight walked by Iron Eagles right side and for a moment he could have sworn he saw right through her body. "Are you some kind of security spell?"

"I could be, but judging from your armor you're part of the Royal Air Forces. I'm guessing you're trying to figure out exactly what I am, aren't you Iron?" Twilight put her hoof over her mouth. "Oh, so that's who you are."

"Well, I think Twilight knows who I am; I think" Iron said, scratching his chin with his hoof. "But, you're...not  her or?"

"As I said before, I am Twilight, but at the same time I am not her. I guess you have never heard of a memory phantom error?" Twilight asked.

"No, I know some about magic, but" Iron Eagle looked at his wings, a look of disdain momentarily on his face. " As a Pegasus you can pretty much already know how well I can perform it."

"If you want there's probably a couple species bending spells in this library. Though I don't think any of them have lasting power I'm afraid. Other Twilight tried, but the innate protection from what she is, is just too strong. As for me being a memory phantom; I'm not surprised. It's a very dangerous and restricted spell that spawned me." Twilight's horn lit up with a faint purple glow as she lowered a book down from near the top of the bookcases, levitating it in front of her as she manually turned the pages with her left hoof.

"Ah, here we are. The spell that created me." Twilight levitated the book over to Iron Eagle to read.

"Self time reversal spell? Wait, time magic is incredibly forbidden. There's only a few spells known and all of them are locked away in Starswirls library." Iron Eagle kept reading the passage on the spell in the book, stopping every so often to shake his head. "Is she  out of her mind? If she so much as messed up even the tiniest bit, she could have easily created a timeless zone miles wide or killed her- ,oh...I see."

Twilight nodded in confirmation. "She performed the spell perfectly, however, being an Alicorn protects you from many natural hazards automatically, including time magic. She tried to reverse time on her own body to the point where she was a unicorn and thus mortal again. She kind of succeeded, but not in the way she intended."

"Explain. This spell doesn't mention your existence as a side effect anywhere" Iron Eagle said as he kept reading the spell side effects.

"You see, the spell worked, but her Alicorn powers kicked in to protect her, instead making a magical copy of herself from the intended moment in time. I'm Twilight from a few months before that fateful day when Celestia managed to transform her."

"Then why can I randomly see through you? If it made a copy of Twilight then you should be physical in form. Also, you knew my name, but if all your memories are from long before I was born..."  The  book in front of Iron snapped  shut and raced towards where Twilight had gotten it from.

"Memory phantoms are a magical duplicate, we still think, feel and act like the original, but we lack a physical body. I am effectively the result of an unbalanced equation. The spell needed to resolve itself and the best it could do was making me." Twilight kicked the floor begrudgingly. "Kinda wish I did have a body though, I have all these memories of things I used to do, but without a body to properly interact with the world around me I just sit in this library; little more than just a ghost of what used to be."

"Still have questions" Iron Eagle said, though his voice showed concern for Twilight in its tone.

"Oh, yeah. Well, the reason I know who you are is because I am effectively restricted to this library by the spell and with little else to do I just read things. I came across my own future bloodline a few months back. You are Iron Eagle, our great, great nephew." Twilight pulled a book from a nearby shelf with her magic and let it float in front of her while she quickly turned the pages. "Yep, right here. You're related to Shining Armor, our deceased brother."

"Yeah, well. I may be related , but I'm not anywhere near as talented. My sister Emerald Sonata was blessed with all of that. I'm kind of the black sheep of the family, err, no offense to black sheep mind you. Didn't mean to come off as racist." Iron Eagle blushed in embarrassment.

"Speciest technically, also, you have a sister?" Twilight looked at the book again. "Oh, I see. There seems to be ...water damage where the picture of your sister should be. Strange."

"So, you're not going to sound the alarm on me?" Iron Eagle asked apprehensively. 

"No, even if I wanted there is no alarm system in place for me to do so. I can't even shout for help since any sound I make that leaves this room ceases to exist. What I wouldn't do to be able to explore other Twilight's lab; it must be amazing. Here, I'll show you." Twilight walked up to a small brass and wood door opposite the elevator shaft and pushed it open. She opened the door and stepped forward, only to have the front half of her leg disappear. "See?"

"That is strange" Iron Eagle said as he stared in astonishment.

"This entire room is time isolated. Meaning I can never leave it and before you ask, yes, I have tried many different ways to do so. If I walk into that other room, I fade away for a moment. Then when I come to, I'm back here. I think time itself has created a slipstream barrier to prevent me from interacting with the future, though the future seems to have no problems interacting with me." Twilight stepped back and her hoof came back into the room with her.

"How long have you been here? Iron Eagle asked.

"I have no way to tell really. I think I've been here at least a century, but without any way to tell time I can't be sure" Twilight sighed dejectedly.

"Is...is there any way to help you?" Iron Eagle asked. He  knew there was probably nothing he could do, being a pegasus and all, but he at least had to ask; if only to give Twilight some comfort.

"There are two  plausible ways to fix it, but both of them are entirely outside of my control or ability for that matter." Twilight stared off into the distance. "One is that Twilight, the real Twilight dies. The spell will dissipate and I will fade back into my own timeline, merging from where I came. The other is far more complicated and a near complete impossibility."

"Which is?" Iron Eagle pressed the question, if there was anything he could do to help ; anything at all, he would do it.

Twilight levitated another book from one of the nearby shelves and opened it in front of Iron Eagle. The illustration at the top of the page was of  two Alicorns surrounded by a dozen or so class S unicorn mages, all of them in a magic circle. Both Alicorns were firing beams of energy at what looked like a half disembodied ghost in the center.

"It's a quantum time slip. Memory phantoms are excessively rare, but they have occurred in the past. One of the solutions if to focus an opening in time to allow time itself to fix the problem. In this case the time phantom in question becomes flesh and blood." Twilight moved one of her front legs through the other, demonstrating that she wasn't entirely all there.

"Wait, from what I'm reading this could potentially rupture space-time itself on the location of the phantom." Iron Eagle put one of his wings out and began to count the feathers, randomly mumbling different numbers. "By my calculations this should be almost definite way to kill everyone in a time vacuume for a hundred miles around easily."

"Nah, time itself always takes the path of least resistance. When given the option to destroy the universe or make a duplicate, it always chooses the option that takes the least amount of energy and causes the least amount of damage. Think of it as a very lazy bus colt at a cafe. Waiting until half the customers leave to pick up all the dirty dishes." Twilight began to draw a math formula in the air with her horn. "See? E is always conserved, time itself loops this formula over and over until E is balanced. I know it kinda breaks our current knowledge of physics, but that's how it is."

Iron Eagle just stood there mouth agape, utterly confused. The stories of Twilight's brilliance were well known to him, but the books and family stories seemed to hardly do her justice; even Starswirl himself would be amazed at her complexity. Just looking at her he realized that she was doing math at an entirely different level than he; or anypony else for that matter could understand. He felt a tinge of guilt welling up in his throat. If he was to complete his mission it would mean that he would possibly doom this version of Twilight to an eternity of being trapped and lonely.

"You know. I can see you thinking really hard and while I appreciate you thinking about my wellbeing; I already know why you are here. Either Twilight has the worlds largest parking ticket or she has finally found a way to kill herself and you just barely managed to slip through the barrier when she wasn't paying attention." Twilight walked up to Iron Eagle, a smile on her face.

"You're not going to stop me right?" Iron Eagle had no idea what a memory phantom was capable of magically, but even with a basic levitation spell; Twilight could hinder him.

"No, I want you to save her. The reason she is like this is because she isolated herself, forgot the reason she was an Alicorn in the first place. She is a princess of magic, but also of friendship. The sadness of loss and the isolation chipped away at her resolve and the only way to mend a broken heart is to get out there and well, live." Twilight sat on her haunches and looked at the door into Twilight's bedroom.

"Through there is her quarters and from there is the hall and a set of stairs that leads to the lab. At least, that is what I managed to gather when Sam visits me."

Iron Eagle stared at the door and then back at Twilight. "I promise to come back for you, I'm sure Celestia and Luna will listen to your plight. Assuming I succeed."

Iron Eagle bowed courteously at Twilight and headed toward the door.

"Do yourself a favor. Don't bother trying to convince her that she is in error, find a way to drop the barrier first, then try to convince her. Assuming she doesn't outright obliterate you that is." Twilight smiled.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence" Iron Eagle replied sarcastically.

"In all seriousness, she's a tad bit unhinged and knowing myself I can do a lot of damage and  not realize it when angry."

Iron Eagle smiled meekly at Twilight, an effort to reassure her that he can save her. "Wish me luck then" Iron Eagle said nervously.

Twilight sat and watched Iron Eagle open the door and walk through, listening intently, but then quickly realizing she still couldn't hear things occuring outside the library either. 


I wish you the best of luck. I just hope you are in time to save us...








	
> Chapter IV: Operation Sneaky Sneaks
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter IV: Operation Sneaky Sneaks


Iron Eagle slowly opened the door, creeping into a well lit room with a hardwood floor. To the right of  him was a rather less than extravagant double bed with unmade lavender blankets and a nightstand with a couple books stacked on it. To his left was what looked like a mini-fridge and to the right of it a large, round vanity mirror. Not too far away from the bed near the door was a small three drawer tall dresser. On top of  said dresser was a few random gems, bits, Staliongrad currency as well as a hairbrush. There was also a picture frame.

Iron Eagle walked over to the dresser and picked up the picture frame. It was a set of two pictures, one was of her and some of the greatest ponies in history, the bearers of harmony, the other was of Twilight's own family. A Stallion earth pony with a deep blue coat and muted green mane, Twilight herself and another that he had never seen before. A filly no more than the age of five or six, but she wasn't a unicorn, Earth pony or pegasus, but an Alicorn. 

"Is that her daughter?"  Iron Eagle asked himself. "Our family history doesn't mention another one. I thought Grandma Cadence bared the only Alicorn child." Iron eagle stared at the picture, trying to make sense why he had never heard of Twilight having a daughter. "She looks kinda like my sister, now that I think about it."

Iron eagle set the picture down and looked to his left; a door was ajar that led to a very spartan restroom. A single low set toilet, a sink with a medicine cabinet and a relatively small shower stall. 

"If I didn't know any better I would say this was some low ranking officers personal quarters. Also, why would an immortal need a medicine cabinet?" Iron Eagle scratched his head and remembered that at one point in time Spike was small enough to move freely around the building, though he couldn't figure why she would need a medicine cabinet now, as a single pill for Spike would weigh several hundred pounds.

He really didn't know what to make of Twilight's quarters. He half expected to see a bedroom as extravagant as Luna's in Canterlot or as mesmerizing as the rooms in the crystal palace. After the inspiring library he expected at least a bed worthy of a queen, instead he found one that was much more down to earth; something he might own himself.

Iron Eagle quickly moved across the room and opened the door on the far side. It led to a relatively simple bare wood hallway with a set of stairs in one direction and what looked like a cleaning closet in the other. He quietly stepped into the hallway, closing the bedroom door behind him. Before he can make way down to the stairs he heard a robotic voice say the words "Scanning" not too far from his position. the sound appeared to come from the bottom of the stairway.

Gotta hide! 

Iron Eagle spun around in place and moved as quickly as his legs would carry him without making a sound. He opened up the door on the end of the hall to find it was indeed a cleaning closet. Iron Eagle stuffed himself inside the closet, doing his best to narrowly squeeze behind a wooden crate of floor cleaner. Just as he managed to squeeze every bit of him behind the crate, the lid on top popped open above him, hitting him on the head.

"Son of a" Iron Eagle cursed under his breath, but quickly covered his mouth. Just outside the door he could hear the hum of the security robot he encountered earlier getting closer. The hum got louder and louder and then stopped. He then heard the sound of Twilight's door opening and closing. A short time later he then heard the door open and close again. The hum then moved ever so close, so much that he could hear it just outside the closet door.

"Search procedure protocol activated" Sam said in a robotic voice.

Iron Eagle heard the door open and watched as the light from Sam shined into the closet, only his position behind the box and under the box lid kept him from being detected. He could hear Sam right near him, it's light saying back and forth as it searched the closet. After a minute or so of heart pounding fear, Sam turned around and closed the door behind it.

Iron Eagle waited for the hum in the distance to be entirely inaudible before exhaling and wiping the sweat from his brow. "I swear I better get hazard pay for this." Iron Eagle stood up, pushing the box lid back onto the box with an audible clank. Iron Eagle cringed at the sound it made and waiting a few moments to make sure that the robot outside didn't hear him. After a few tense moments he slowly opened the door and stepped into the hallway.

"Well, better get downstairs before it comes back."

Iron Eagle trotted down the hallway and peered down the stairs.  At the bottom of the flight was a clearing followed by rows upon rows of large metal machines, most of which he knew were very outdated computers; the kind Canterlot's science divisions used to use. 

For an Alicorn that has a treasure stash that would make the Canterlot vault look like a burger flippers savings account, she has weird antiquated tastes.  Iron Eagle thought to himself. 

He moved down the stairs, quiet as a mouse and leaned up against one of the machines. He then peeked to the left of one and tried to listen for the tell tale signs of the security robot approaching. However he soon realized that trying to listen for the robot was pointless. All the sounds of chemicals bubbling, gears and tape decks turning and electrical coil whine was making it nearly impossible to listen for the low hum the security robot made.

"Any signs of intruders Sam?" 

Iron Eagles ears perked up, he knew that voice. It was the same voice as in the library and earlier over the loud speaker. It was just barely audible over the hum of the machines near him. He stuck his head around the corner of one of the machines and listened as hard as he could. 

"None reported, though I have to say I think we have a family of mice living in the elevator system again" Sam reported. 

"Jeez, again? You would think they would understand that it's incredibly dangerous to raise a family by heavy metal gears and high voltage circuitry" Twilight replied in a frustrated tone.

"Twilight, I need to recharge soon. Shall I turn on auxiliary security while I do so?" Sam asked.

"No, as amusing as it would be to see any intruders try and get around the laser system, we need any extra power we can spare to keep the shield up as long as possible. You go ahead and recharge in your bay, I'll deal with any uninvited guests."

Iron Eagle had to suppress saying out yes out-loud so he didn't blow his cover. He could hardly believe his luck, the only security he had seen would be out of the way soon and Twilight refused to turn any other security on. However, something in the back of his  mind kept telling him to be cautious. There was no use getting excited and celebrating early when a job still needed to be done.

Suddenly Iron Eagle heard the hum of the security bot above him. It seemed that her recharging bay was literally spike on top one of the machines. Thankfully he was close enough to where it couldn't see him with it's field of view, but it also meant that he have to be excessively careful trying to get away from it.

Just stay low to the floor and don't panic Iron Iron Eagle thought to himself.

Suddenly, the robot seemed to shut down and sat in place, balanced precariously on he spike. 

Either I'm the luckiest pony on the planet or I'm walking right into a trap.

Not wanting to get too cocky, Iron Eagle stayed low to the floor as she sneaked past the rows of machinery in the room, occasionally stopping to look behind him. However, he couldn't help himself as he occasionally went down one of the rows, examining various experiments in progress. one row has a massive chemistry set running along the ceiling, the contents dripping into a beaker that said read "prototype liver cancer cure". Another row had screens that seemed to be flashing shapes at other screens and the opposite one had to guess the shape name with text.

There was even a row populated with tanks that had little self replicating robot crabs, much like the one  he had seen on the beach; though these were much closer to the real thing. Finally he came to the last row  and heard the sound of wood grinding up against metal and the smell of slightly toasted anesthetic; a smell that reminded him of  his potions class in basic training. He peered around the corner where the smell was coming from.

Jackpot Iron Eagle thought.

Dead in front of him, no more than a dozen yards was  the back of Twilight Sparkle, busily stirring a old black cauldron full of potion; the potion she planned on using to kill herself with. A few feet from her to the left were two separate control panels, one with a large red button in the middle and another with a large blue button. Iron eagle squinted, trying to reach what looked like text under each button. The Blue one seemed to read "Shield System" while the red one had "environmental control shutoff" labeled underneath it.

I can just sneak up behind her and press the button Iron Eagle thought to himself.

However, this just didn't sit right with him; he getting lucky once or twice is a stroke of luck he could accept, but  there were far too many situations where could have been caught, but evaded detection instead.  Iron eagle sulked back behind the corner out of view to think. 

I need to come up with a backup plan. Iron Eagle thought. He looked around him for anything he could possibly use as an emergency diversion or fail-safe if this was an elaborate trap. Wait, I still have that invisibility gem Spike gave me The gem was tucked just under his breastplate, easily accessible if he needed to make a quick escape. 

That's it for the emergency cloak, but about that distraction... Iron looked around him, noticing a machine with an open circuitry box on top and a few electrodes sparking, but failing to exchange electricity. that gives me an idea Iron Eagle sat on his haunches and stared at his armor.

Ahh there we are, glad equestrian armor is made by the lowest bidder. Iron Eagle poked at a loose thread coming from the soft under layer of his  armor. He kept prodding at it with his hoof until it  was far enough out of bite on. He then bit  down on the loose thread and pulled. copious amounts of  thread unraveled from under his  chest-plate, easily enough to make a small rope with. Iron Eagle then started to cross knot the string all on one side, making a fairly heavy hoop while keeping the weight baring part very thin, nearly invisible.

Iron Eagle quickly judged the length of the string and compared it to the distance between the chemistry pipes above and the open top of the machine, making adjustments to the length just a few inches. He then tossed the rope above the rafters and let it hang above the open circuits below. 

Good, now for the hard part Iron Eagle flapped his wings a couple times to get on top of the machine, making sure to make as little sound as possible. He then pulled off a bit of damaged metal from his armor and tied a knot around it. He then grabbed the rope in his teeth and glided back down to the floor. Alright, looks good. Iron Eagle pulled on the string, until the bit of metal was halfway up to the ceiling. He then tied it to a hoop in his armor by the collar and poked his head around. 

Distance looks spot on, I guess being a pegasus does have some advantages.

Iron Eagle watched Twilight closely, making sure she was still busy with stirring her potion. He lowered his body as close to the floor as he could without letting his armor scrape it and moved slowly forward. Inching ever so close to the control panel that had the off button for the shield system. He then stopped, looked around one more time for any obvious traps, the thought crossed his mind that he could just tackle Twilight, knocking her over and the potion as well, but he knew that would be stupid in the extreme. He had no idea if the potion can be absorbed through skin contact or if Twilight were to be suddenly startled and accidentally swallow some in the struggle. Also there was always the chance that she might straight out kill him, she was an Alicorn after all.

No time for heroics here, just push the button and let the royalty handle it. Iron Eagle stood up, reached out and pressed the button, for a second he saw a monitor out of the corner of his eye, but he kept his focus on the button. As soon as the button was pressed down came a small dome barrier surrounding him, blocking off any escape.

"Well...balls" Iron Eagle cursed aloud.

"Well, I have to say this little game was amusing, watching you slink around upstairs after you came in through the basement. Watching you pass out of the library, into that closet and then eventually down here." Twilight Sparkle turned around, a smile on her face. "If it wasn't for the magic of closed channel cameras, I would have never seen you coming."

Twilight moved to the side to allow Iron Eagle to see what she was talking about and sure enough, there was a monitor with multiple different view angles in every room of the facility except the library. 

"Oh...well then. Wait, if you knew I have been here all along then why allow me to get this far?" Iron Eagle stared at Twilight, his confusion very obvious to her.

"At first I wanted to just tell Sam to bring you in. She spotted you on top of the elevator on the way up, but I told her to wait and see since your intrusion seemed more about stealth than brute force;entirely unlike your peers." Twilight stirred the pot with one hoof  while keeping her eyes on Iron Eagle.

"I can't put my hoof on it, but I have seen you somewhere before." Twilight put her hoof to her chin while examining Iron Eagle.

Maybe if I try and appeal to her emotional side, I can stop her here and now. It's worth a try anyways. Iron Eagle thought to himself.

"Well, I'm not surprised since you have secluded yourself for so long.I'm your great nephew on your brothers side of the family; Iron Eagle. You may know of my great ,great Grandma, Princess Cadence."

Iron Eagle watched as Twilight Sparkles eyes widened, her face somewhat alight with curiosity; not much unlike his own when the topic was right.

"Y-you're lying right? I thought Flutter Heart decided it was best for her never to have children of her own. I was there at her coronation when she decided not to" Twilight said, a hint of disbelief and excitement in her voice.

"Well, you know. Meet the right stallion, first few dates go well and eventually hormones get in the way. You're forgetting who her mother is, I wouldn't even be surprised if grandma pushed them somehow. I mean, she is the princess of love right?" Iron eagle put his  right leg forward and tried to push on the barrier. He noticed that the front moved a bit, but the backside of the barrier thined out to compensate for the extra pressure.

"I wouldn't bother with that. I made improvements on my brothers defensive spells over the years. This one can detect where a threat is coming from and re-balance itself accordingly. Not only is it just as strong, but uses around seventy percent less power than the original." Twilight explained, a smug grin of triumph on her face.

"I guess asking nicely is out of the question?" Iron Eagle asked.

Twilight's horn lit up and Iron Eagle felt a tug on his armor. The thin band of string holding up his distraction broke loose and he watched as Twilight's aura enveloped the entire setup, pulling it down from the ceiling. She then levitated the small bit of metal that he broke off his armor in front of him.

"Ingenious really, setting up a distraction ahead of time in hopes that I wouldn't notice. I mean, using an invisibility stone in conjunction with an electrical explosion to make me drop that barrier was rather clever. Big brother was no slouch when it came to tactical cleverness either, I see you inherited that much. As for your request, no. I'm afraid I cannot risk you being free for another hour or  so at the least. Once I am  dead I'll have Sam disable the shield and you can go about with your life." Twilight dropped the bit of metal on the floor and turned back to her work.

"Why, why are you doing this?" Iron Eagle asked.

Twilight's horn lit up and her aura surrounded the large  spoon she was stirring with. It began to stir the potion slowly as she turned away. She started at Iron Eagle with a harsh glare, as if she was staring right into his very soul.

"Do you have any idea how horrible being immortal is?" Twilight growled.

Iron Eagle just shook his head no in response. He figured he touched a nerve and it was best just to let her elaborate than continue to ask questions.

"Imagine for a moment waking up everyday and not feeling any different from the last thousand. You barely ever feel hungry and if you so wanted being tired would never be an issue either. Every day is the same and just blends together as your perception of  time becomes more and more skewed.  Soon you realize that the very ponies you loved are aging around you while you stay in pristine condition. Then suddenly one day you wake up and one of them dies from age, then another, then another. You mourn your losses, but continue to carry on."

Twilight looked behind her to check to see if the pot was still be stirred, then turned back to Iron Eagle, her face far more relaxed than it was before. "At first you try to cope, trying to make your friends wants and needs fit to their offspring or relatives. Trying to make yourself happy  by living out the happier days of your live vicariously through their relatives and children. Only to find that they too are aging and then dying off, creating even more sadness. You try to fit in with the next generation and find you are moor and moor aloof, unable to comprehend who they are because you are subconsciously trying to impose how your loved ones were over them."

"It sounds like you neglected any mental counseling" Iron Eagle said, though he immediately regretted it as he saw some bits of Twilight's mane set on fire in anger.

"I'm going to act as if I didn't hear that" Twilight said, trying to lower her voice slowly from a growl. 

"No, I did try counseling. I had a dozen of the best ones in Equestria help me work through my problems. The problem is they don't have my perspective, you can only  guess what it's like waking up and feeling heartbroken, knowing you will continue to live on as little more than a  shell of what you used to be. Being little more than a pillar for other foolish ponies to aspire to. How I wish I was them, how I wish that I could live again. The excitement of the unknown, the danger of my next step being my very last. Finally finding out what it's like to be old. And lastly..."

Twilight lowered her head, tears were obviously flowing from her eyes as the floor below her was forming a small puddle. ""*Sniff* getting to see your daughter grow up into a mare and knowing that as you leave this world, something of you still remained." 

Iron Eagle stepped back as Twilight collapsed on the floor in an uncontrollable bit of sobbing. "That little filly, in the picture upstairs. The one with the emerald mane was... "

Twilight sat up, drying her eyes with her right leg. "Her name was Gaia."

"I've never heard of her. She isn't listed in any of our history books, family pictures, no one in Equestria has ever heard of her." Iron Eagle sat down on his haunches, racking his  brain for any  hint of Twilight's phantom daughter. "I'm sorry, I've never heard of her."

"No one has. It's one of the reasons I despise that rainbow maned bitch." Twilight's face had  turned from one of  somber, back to that of rage. Her eyes were narrow and her lips barley hid her obviously gritting front teeth. "She removed her entire existence from everyponies mind, forcibly. Had every single history book mentioning her burned or edited and even mind-wiped and entire town, just to make sure her existence was purged. 

"But, why? That doesn't sound like the Celestia I know." Iron Eagle couldn't believe it, Celestia had been nothing but kind from as far as he  knew.

"Without...making me relive the details. Let's just say that it was a political power play. Her reasons were partially justified, but it didn't make me HATE her any less." Twilight turned around just as a humming sound started to approach her. "Ah, Sam is back online. She can keep you company while I finish up this potion." 

Sam soon arrived and her and Twilight talked to one another in what Iron Eagle could only decipher as a kind of sign language. Though there seemed to be hints of old Draconic language interspersed in between to make  words that the sign language they were using didn't have. 

"Could we at least talk this out? Celestia told us that the potion you are going to use doesn't kill you. it just makes you relive the past over and over again. With how your biology works you will just stand still for all time!" Iron Eagle shouted.

Twilight turned to him, a look of disbelief on her face. "I have been doing chemistry of all kinds for the better part of a century. Celestia is lying just to get me to stop so she can make sure no one ever learns that Alicorns can die."

Twilight walked over to the magical dome, her horn lit up with a spell ready to be cast. "As for you, enough questions or trying to talk me out of  this." Twilight fired a bolt  from her horn, it struck the barrier and nothing seemed to happen.

"No listen!" Iron Eagle yelled, but then quickly stopped.Iron Eagle couldn't hear anything, there were words coming from his mouth but no sound was being made.

"Mute zone spell. Really good  to have around when the machinery gets to noisy and you need to focus." Twilight turned her back to Iron Eagle and began to stir her potion again. "It's not that i don't mind company, It's just the last thing I want to hear in the last hour of my life is someone trying to talk me out of it."

Iron Eagle stomped his hoof and yelled as loud as he could. But no sound came out, even stomping his hoof didn't make a single sound.

Wait, no sound at all? Iron Eagle thought. 

Iron Eagle stared at the floor for a moment, noting that it was just a bunch of  wood planks nailed down. He watched as Sam stared at him, then went back on patrol, leaving him nearly unsupervised, except for one minor detail; the screen with the camera watching him was right in front of Twilight and she looked up at it every twenty or so seconds.

"What to do what to do..." Iron eagle looked for anything he could use to get out. "Let's see the barrier moves its energy around to counter force." He remembered how the barrier behind him was weaker when he pushed forward earlier, but he was nowhere near physically strong enough to break it. Maybe if he were a ground marine perhaps, a pony that could put out a lot of kick, but  that option was out of the question.

"Wait..." Iron eagle stared at he floor. Most of the planks seemed to be uniform with the barrier, except one. The plank in the middle was nailed down toward the middle of the dome where he was standing and the nails on its other side were just at the edge of the dome, the rest of the plank being slightly overshot.

He remembered that barriers, like all magic have to follow laws. Shining Armors were no exception, they either had to repel, move or break. This shield was anchored to the wood, but didn't go under the floor to make a bubble, which meant that it can repel, but a large enough force could flip it over like a salad bowl.

Iron Eagle waited for Twilight to glance up the the screen and then back again. The second her attention was back on the potion he snapped a bit off of his armor and pried two of the nails out. He then pulled out his invisibility gem and touched the center, turning him cleanly invisible.Taking note of how much time he had at most he quickly turned in place and pried the other two nails out; keeping mental note of how much time had gone by, and just as he  got the last nail out, Twilight stared up at the screen, quickly turning her head toward the barrier.

"I know you're still in there. That gem doesn't allow the wearer to pass though a solid object. I know you want to stop me, but really; you are far too young and inexperienced to be messing with-"

Iron Eagle bent down and said into the floor crack, making sure that twilight could hear him. "Oh, I know, however; the third law of magical barriers has something to say to you."

Iron Eagle jumped up as high as the barrier would let him and held his front and back legs as close together as possible, making a kind of pony shaped railroad spike midair. He then Landed on the plank without and nails holding it down. Like a colt jumping on one side of a seesaw that sent his sister flying face first into the sand, the other side of the plank did the same for the barrier. At first it didn't want to move, but as one point in the cohesion to the floor failed, the rest did in turn.

The barrier jumped off the floor and rolled forward, not only blocking any initial magic from Twilight, but allowing to slip out unnoticed. However, Twilight was having none of it and quickly shattered the barrier with ease. Letting loose a barrage of energy bolts from her horn in an attempt to hit a target she could not see. Iron eagle could feel the hum of  his jewel begin to fade, the barrier may have given him a  small boost to it's power reserves , but it was only another few seconds at the most.

All the commotion had attracted Sam whom flew right past his head. It was then at that moment that he realized that Sam was little more than a floating ball and with no friction with the ground...and she was directly lined up with the other button he didn't get to press.

Objects in motion stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force!

Iron Eagle jumped in the air and slapped the back of the orb shaped  Sam as hard as he could. She flew forward, bounced off the floor and then right into the console, breaking the off button on impact. 

"Hows it feel to be outsmarted by your own nephew, Twilight?" Iron Eagle yelled triumphantly.

"I can still hear you, idiot." Twilight fired a bolt from her horn, hitting the still invisible Iron eagle square in the chest armor. the impact sending him into the machine behind him. 

As Iron Eagle stood up, he noticed there was a really sharp pain in his chest and back and a strange wetness under his armor. He reached under his armor and touched it and wished he hadn't, it hurt a whole lot. He pulled out his hoof and stared at it; blood. Burned and  cauterized blood, but blood all the same. He looked up at Twilight, whose face went from angry to concerned in a flash before him. 

She moved toward him, tears running down her face. "I'm sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to use that much power!"

Before she could reach him though, and explosion rocked the entire facility followed by the wall where the monitor used to be collapsing. Dust and debris filled the room in clouds. Iron Eagle knew who it was though, without a doubt it was the royalty.

The dust began to settle and three separate Alicorns appeared out of the dust. To the left was Cadence, the right was obviously Luna and in the middle was Celestia herself.

Twilight stared at Celestia and then back at Iron Eagle. "Well, mission complete for you I guess, nephew." Twilight cracked a smile. "Well played, but now the real event begins."

Twilight turned on the spot, staring down the three Alicorns in front of her. "I should thank you, Iron Eagle."

"Why?" Iron said, wheezing a bit from his wound.


"Because, now I get a shot at vengeance before death."



 




> Chapter V: Hatred
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter V:Hatred


Twilight stared directly at Celestia, her eyes narrow and her teeth grinding together in anger. One could feel the heat of Twilight's gaze on Celestia and Celestia alone. The cauldron behind her popped as an air bubble exploded at the surface of the potion, but that did not advert her gaze in the slightest.

The opposite was true for Celestia though. She seemed to have a face that showed both worry, but at the same time curiosity as she scanned the room, as if she was trying to make sense of all the strange contraptions in the area. She also seemed to intentionally miss direct eye contact with Twilight. Whether this was to keep her composure or to avoid a staring contest with her former pupil, one could not say.

Iron Eagle could barely keep his eyes off them, they seemed to be locked in a game of cat and mouse, each of them waiting for the other to make the first move. It was like watching two mighty samurai meet. One being the old master and the other being the pupil ready to subvert her power and prove herself an equal.

Then It came back, the pain in his chest was intense. Every breath he took felt labored and only half complete, as if he were drowning in a pool. He didn't know if  he was lung-shot or not. Everything he remembered from his emergency first aid told him that being lung-shot usually resulted in the affected pony coughing up blood. While such injury had a reasonably high mortality rate with Earth ponies, it was exceptionally lethal in Pegasi, due to their highly efficient lung structure. However, while he did manage to cough a few times and the wound hurt quite a bit, there was no blood. Twilight's attack had cauterized the wound all the way through. 

"Hate to interrupt the staring contest, but' I'm not  sure if' I'm bleeding out or not. Some medical attention would be nice" Iron Eagle sat up, his back against of of the many machines in the room, breathing heavily.

"Twilight! What did you do to him?" Princess Cadence rushed forward, breaking the staring contest between Celestia and Twilight.

"It's very hard to restrain my power. The wound is cauterized, you may pass to administer medical aid. However, promise me you will not get between me and Celestia's fight." Twilight motioned Cadence to go past her, but kept one eye on her as she passed. 

Cadence quickly moved over to where Iron Eagle was sitting and probed his injury with her magic. "There doesn't seem to be any bleeding though a inch more to the side and she would have severed your aorta."

Iron Eagle winced in pain as Cadences magic slowly closed the wound. "N-nice to know that I almost died, builds character ya know."

"You just concentrate on healing. You did your job admirably, it's time for Celestia to deal with the rest" Cadence said.

"I'm sorry about going a bit overboard Iron eagle. That shot was intended to stun you, not nearly kill you." Twilight said, though her attention was still entirely on Celestia.

"Twilight, we need to talk. I know  what I did was wrong and I'm here to fix it. that potion you are cooking up will not kill you, it will just keep you in an eternal memory loop. There are other ways to fix -

"Silence!" Twilight yelled, interrupting Celestia. "I will not be talked down by you, your sister or anypony. If you take so much as a step toward stopping me and my potion, I will not hold back."

"Surely you jest? You would have to take on three Alicorns. Even if you're the element of Magic you will most assuredly be overpowered" Luna said as she stepped forward. "Please Twilight, end this silliness. A fight here would only end in you being hurt. Besides, we are all immortal here-"

Iron Eagle rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Almost all immortal here. A fight would be an exercise in futility." Luna stepped forward "do as we say Twilight, we can work this out."

Twilight stared at Luna and then back at Celestia. "Do you really think that I have been slacking off in my practice the last few centuries? I am more than powerful enough on my own to fight off you and the entire S class unicorn battalions."

"You bluff, that amount of magical power would be nearly impossible to control!" Luna balked. 

"Luna, I want you to stay out of this fight, you too Cadence" Celestia said calmly.

"I wasn't going to fight her to begin with. I came here to talk with Twilight, not fight her" Cadence said.

"Are you sure about this sister? We can overpower her, lock her down. Make her see reason" Luna pleaded.

"I'm sure. I only want intervention if she gets anywhere near that potion. Cadence, get your kin out of here, his  job is done. Luna I want all detachments of troops moved at least three hundred miles away and a barrier put around them and any nearby villages. I don't want collateral damage." Celestia's eyes fixed upon Twilight, a combination of anger and pity in them.

"Sister, I can-" Luna was cutoff by a quick glare from Celestia. She had the sudden urge to defy her sister, she wanted to for all the right reasons, but  anypony could see it; Luna fur was standing on end and her lip quivering. Whatever Celestia had planned for Twilight; it  shook Luna to the core.

Luna paused for a moment as if contemplating her next few words. "Fine, but if I see your fat behind losing, I will step in." Luna swished her tail flippantly as she turned around and headed through the hole in the wall. "Don't you dare lose sister."

"You will have to excuse her Twilight, she has always had that rebellious streak in her. Besides, I couldn't bare to see her get hurt for my  battles. I'm the one you want, not  her or Cadence, right?" 

Twilight stepped forward, spreading her wings. "No, she never wrong me. You on the other hoof have the audacity to bully your own sister in front of me. Just like you did to me back then..." Twilight turned her head towards Cadence. "Cadence, there is a no teleportation zone around my home of around  twenty miles or so. It allows me access, but no other pony. I suggest putting up a barrier around you and Iron."

"Twilight, you can't be serious. There are other ways to work out our-" A quick glare from Twilight stopped Cadence short.

Iron Eagle watched as drips of sweat rolled down Cadence's neck. The look of  fear was unmistakable on her face, a look that he had only seen a few times in his lifetime; one of them being his sisters grand master magic test. It wasn't just the look either, there was unmistakable trembling involved as well. 

Is she afraid of Twilight? The magic  gap between them can't be  that great can it? Cadence is far older... Iron Eagles thoughts raced, trying to search for answers.

Twilight turned her attention back to her potion, quickly erecting a barrier around it before turning her attention back on Celestia. "Now to give you back some of the pain you forced me to live through." Twilight erupted in a ball of purple flame and before Celestia  could even defend herself, rammed her into, then through the ceiling.

Cadence quickly erected a barrier around herself and Iron Eagle, just in time to prevent several heavy wooden beams from crushing them. 

"She's completely out of her mind. The Twilight I knew would never endanger her friends and family so...so.." Cadence seemed at a loss for words.

"Recklessly?" Iron Eagle said.

"No, it's more than just recklessness. So was prone to being reckless every so often, usually with mostly benign effects. This however is entirely different. She seems detached from those around her, only focusing on herself and what she wants in that moment." Cadence used her magic to sure up the barrier as a few spare bricks hit it.

"Grandma-"

"Call me Cadence, please. You know calling me that makes me feel old" Cadence snapped, cutting Iron Eagle off.

"Sorry, Cadence. Why were you so...terrified of Twilight when she glared at you? I was under the impression you were much older and thus more powerful than her, was I wrong?" Iron Eagle asked.

"More experienced maybe, but not anywhere near her. You can't feel how deep her power is because well, you're not a unicorn." Cadence tried to sound as non-patronizing as possible, but a sigh from Iron Eagle made her think it sounded as such anyways.

"Can you try to explain it to me at least?" Iron Eagle asked.

"I'll try and boil it  down to layman terms. Imagine all of powers were converted to water. Mine would be enough to fill an Olympic  pool while the average unicorn could fill a couple gallons, maybe a kiddie pool at most. Now Imagine Luna is about on par with a great lake and Celestia is on par with a sea." Cadence began flashing picture examples in the air with her magic, in an attempt to visualize each Alicorns total power.

"I figured as much. So, where does Twilight stand? She can't be anywhere near Celestia or Luna."

"And that is where you would be wrong." Cadence used her magic to project a picture that was nothing but  solid blue. The picture slowly panned out until one could see the entirety.

"An ocean?" Iron Eagle stepped back, bumping his head on the barrier behind him.

"All of the oceans." Cadence panned out the picture further to show the entire planet.

"But, that doesn't make any sense!" Iron Eagle complained.

"No, no it doesn't. I have a working theory though. There's a possibility that Twilight is directly connected to all magic, just like how Celestia is connected to the sun. The problem is that kind of vast power should not be possible under normal circumstances." Cadence checked the ceiling, making sure no more debris was going to fall on them and then lowered the shield.

"There must be some kind of device here that is funneling power to her" Cadence said as she  looked about the room for anything suspicious.

Iron Eagle staggered to his feet holding his chest where his wound was. "And if all that power she  has is natural?"

"Then Celestia is only fighting her to buy us time or has some plan to use her experience as a buffer to fill the power gap. I'm a fan of the former plan, if we can break that barrier around the potion and fill it with random ingredients..."

"Then it  will be the same as capturing Twilight, except you know; not suicidal" Iron Eagle finished Cadence's train of thought for her.

"I would have used words that were less blunt about our situation, but yes; direct conflict with her is a foals game. You wouldn't happen to know how to go about finding a solution to our dilemma Iron Eagle?" Cadence asked.

Iron Eagle looked around him, noticing Sam was listening in on them around the corner. "I may know of a particular being that can be of help..."


***


Celestia and Twilight circled one another, each of them sizing up the other. Celestia's gaze however kept adverting to her troops moving away from them and a few very foolish guards that tried to attack Twilight the moment she left her home, of which at least a dozen of them lay on the ground unconscious.

"Don't worry Celestia, they will recover. I have no intention of killing anypony today, even you. Though I will have zero qualms about making you suffer for what you have done." Twilight used her magic to lift up one of the bodies of a knocked out sky guard and moved it over to a nearby stretcher.

"I have no idea if you're going to keep your word or not Twilight. You have already broken one of the key rules of being an Alicorn already. Keeping your emotions in check. You've  changed so much from the mare I used to know that I can no longer remotely predict what you're going to do next." Celestia adverted her gaze from Twilight to Luna, nodding at her sister as she directed the last few squadrons away from her and Twilight. "That and the sucker punch ram though the ceiling. Completely unsportsmanlike."

"What would you know about sympathy, compassion? You who has been around for thousands of  years, but did nothing but sit on your fat behind eating cake in your pearly palace." Twilight spat on the ground. "You do nothing while all of Equestria is left to fend for itself. Fighting creatures that are way outside their talent, dealing with disease, disability and famine all on their own while you just sit  about and raise the sun every morning."

"And what would you have me do Twilight? Spend every waking moment fixing every little leak and crack that appears on the surface of our country? Ponies need to know how to take care of themselves. We tried the whole fixing all the problems thing eons ago and you know  what it led to?" Celestia asked.

"No, because you destroyed or sealed all the historic records from that far back." Twilight growled.

"Wars upon wars, all for either getting my attention or  some religious zealot trying to appease us. A hooves off approach was the best option. We only ever intervened in the most dire of circumstances." Celestia lowered her head. "I know the a lot of suffering happens, but if I just fly around fixing every scrapped knee then there will be no progress as a whole. Worse I will take away those little victories from them when they do fix a problem on their own."

"No, the real reason is you're lazy. In just a few centuries I have cured diseases, helped the disabled live a better life and even fixed problems long before they ever became a crisis. The changelings are no longer starving, dangerous magical creatures of all kinds are either placated or afraid of pony kind and there's no chance of another Tirek every arising again. Face it Celestia, I accomplished more in a few mortal lifetimes than you have in a hundred."

"And there it is, doing exactly what I said you were doing from the start. Not keeping your emotions in check." Celestia looked into the sky, looking for any pony that may be too close. However, taking her eyes off Twilight was a mistake. She felt a hot stinging sensation in her chest and her body lurch backward from the impact, slamming her into the ground and dragging her back several feet. She managed to kick her back legs into the ground, flipping her upright to defend against Twilight's next attack. Sure enough Twilight was charging right at her, a purple aura surrounding her body, ready to ram her again.

Celestia lowered her head and fired a black bolt of energy from her horn, but the beam just went right through Twilight. 

"Where are you looking?"

Celestia turned her head to the left just as a Twilight grabbed her by the horn and slammed her face right into Twilight back hoof. She instinctively closed her eyes, the pain was absolutely blinding though; like somepony had slammed her face into the side of a mountain at a thousand miles an hour. There was something else though, a cold sensation flowing out her nose. She opened one eye and watched as small blobs of red floated through the air in what seemed like slow motion. It was blood, her own blood.

Before she could recover, Twilight threw a tremendous right hook into her stomach followed by another left hook into her ribs.

If the first blow was enough to wind her, the next was obviously designed to keep her winded and off balance. It wasn't just tactical, but Twilight was hitting her far harder than her small frame should allow. Each of her blows easily registered in the hundreds of tons region, she could feel her bone creaking under the force of her blows, just barely staying intact.

Before Twilight could land another blow, Celestia guarded her midsection with her legs and put up a hasty barrier. Twilight however, seemed undeterred in her assault and continued to attack the shield; each strike putting cracks in it.

This doesn't make any sense, Twilight has never used melee as a means to handle a situation unless under the most dire of circumstances Celestia watched as her shield began to give way from Twilight's furious strikes. Her tactics were completely unorthodox  for a unicorn and entirely unexpected. She knew that there was no way she could match Twilight in martial combat like this, she wasn't used to fighting anything in this way. 

I have to get some distance between us, formulate a plan to counter her melee...

Celestia lowered her horn and fired a massive ball of energy at the ground below her, kicking up a large dust cloud to mask her movements. Just as Twilight shattered the barrier Celestia took to the skies, trying to put as much distance between her and Twilight as she could. "If I can just keep her at range..." 

Twilight erupted from the cloud of dust and smoke and headed right for Celestia. Celestia focused her power and fired a volley of energy at her. However, just as they were about to collide Twilight fired a massive blast of energy from her horn, easily tearing through Celestia's volley and striking her in the left wing. Surprised Celestia attempted to roll in the air to recover, but found her left wing entirely immobile. A quick glance revealed as to why, the entire wing was encased in ice. 

Twilight capitalized on Celestia's inability to dodge and flew above her, she raised both forelegs above her head and swung them down in between Celestia's wings in a vicious double axe handle. Celestia went crashing into the ground, skipping a few times before coming to a halt a few feet from Twilight's home. 

"Is this seriously all you have?" Twilight taunted as she landed a dozen or so yards away. "No wonder Chrysalis put you on the ground so easily all those years ago,  you're barely any more powerful than a top end unicorn. The only thing keeping you alive is your immortality."

Celestia staggered to her feet. She could feel a few of her ribs were broken and the bones in her left wing were entirely mangled and unusable. "The- the only reason you're so cocky right now is because you are fighting in a manner entirely uncouth for an Alicorn. If you were to challenge me in-" 

Before Celestia could put up her guard, she felt both of Twilight's back legs dig into her midsection, winding her and knocking her back onto the ground. Twilight then used her chest as a springboard to jump a few yards away. The pain was unimaginable. He mind raced at how  such a small Alicorn could be inflicting this much damage from simple melee combat.

"Still trying to wrap your head around it aren't you?" Twilight fired a beam at Celestia that turned into a large golden chain midair that quickly coiled around Celestia's body, holding her in place.

Celestia tried with all her might to get the magically created object off her, but without any luck. The chain itself was easily just as strong as Twilight was physically. Strong enough to possibly choke her unconscious if Twilight willed it. She then has and Ideal, maybe if  she  used a high end transmogrification spell, she could make it little more than a strand of spaghetti. Celestia horn lit up, in preparation for the spell...

"I wouldn't do that if I were in your position" Twilight warned.

Sure enough the end of the chain wrapped around Celestia's snout and squeezed down on her entire body all at once. She wanted to scream, but all she  could manage was a yelp as all of the air was forced out of her lungs. Any attempt to breathe was only met with unimaginable pain. The chain dug in hard, crushing her hips like a twig, the bones now grinding against one another inside her body. Every one of her ribs snapped as if they were made of toothpicks, both front legs were also in shambles and the coil around her neck broke it and collapsed her trachea. The more she struggled, the harder the object would squeeze; every second was agony.

"That's enough, she gets the idea" Twilight commanded.

The chain removed it's grip over Celestia mouth and let the links along the length relax. Celestia  gasped for air, before coughing up blood and moaning as her immortality went to work fixing the damage the chain had done. Tears rolled down her eyes, as her body twitched and gasped, trying to even measure the damage done to her.

"I don't suggest trying to escape again. The next time you try I'll make sure it grinds you into a fine pulp, if you think your immortality healing you from those injuries was painful, imagine trying to come back from a fine mush" Twilight nodded toward the chain and he loosened up further, allowing Celestia to take in larger gulps of air.

"So, in case you were too dense to notice I have been planning this for a long time. I knew that you favored magic heavily and worked on the quickest way to dismantle any defense or offense you might undertake. Personally I hate self monologue, but I have the time before that potion is complete." Twilight walked toward Celestia, each one of her steps cracking the ground beneath her as she walked.

Celestia watched, but couldn't say anything. Her body had yet to heal enough to allow her to speak properly.

"You see, Earth ponies are physically stronger than both Pegasus and Unicorns by a far margin and have more stamina. I figured that if I used both a combat tactic you are unfamiliar with and magic that you typically ignore, that you wouldn't be able to counter it. Seems I was correct in my assumption." Twilight walked around Celestia, watching her take in one staggered breath after another. "Well, I'll get back to my potion then. chain, if she tries to escape, crush her till she loses consciousness. I don't want any more interruptions." Twilight turned around and headed toward her home.

Must find a way to stop her... Celestia tried her magic once more, this time trying to overpower the snake by funneling her magic through her body. Again the chain responded immediately and clamped down on her body with all of its might, winding her and re-braking all the bones it previously had.

"Agggrrrrrhhhh!" Celestia screamed. 

"Now you understand the pain you put me through" Twilight said in a matter if fact tone.

Suddenly a black fireball flew over Twilight's home, slamming into the chain and evaporating it with black flame. Twilight looked up, a scowl on her face. "Luna, I don't want to fight you. You never did anything to harm me and even tried to argue on my behalf. Take your broken sister and leave me before I do something I will regret."

Luna stared at Celestia and shook her head. "Always with the fight losing, I swear Celestia if you were any worse at combat you would end up kicking your own posterior by accident."

Luna moved her gaze to Twilight. "As for your threat Twilight, it does not  phase me in the least. I am not the easy target fluffy cupcake that my sister is. To put it bluntly, take the first shot if you feel hard enough." 

Twilight bent her legs slightly, then sprung into the air, the force of her liftoff creating a small crater below her.  "No pony will stop me!"

As Twilight threw a punch with her front leg at Luna's chest, Luna moved her body slightly higher, letting the attack hit  her square in the stomach. However, when Twilight tried to follow up her attach with kick just under her ribs Luna grabbed both of her back legs and began swinging her around in a circle. Before Twilight could react she found herself hurling down, crashing through the roof of her home.

"H-how? How did you-" Celestia said, her mouth agape in amazement.

Luna hovered in the air for a few brief moments, clutching her stomach and coughing up blood. "She was using a very aggressive form of pony Tae Kwon Do. There was no way I could counter her speed, but Judo is a natural counter. For every hit I take she will harm herself just as much just from her own momentum." Luna spread her wings out and glided to the ground next to Celestia, a foreleg still over her stomach and  one eye closed as she  winced in pain. "That's odd though, she didn't have enough momentum to knock herself out. She  should have been out of there and angry as a hornets nest by now...

Celestia  stared at the hole in he roof and her ears folded back. "Luna?"

"What is it? Is she preparing some kind of magical counter attack?"  Luna asked.

"No, I think it's far worse. Follow me." Celestia staggered to her feet and limped forward, walking through the hole in the wall they had made earlier, Luna not far behind her. As they walked into the lab they noticed a pink glow up in the rafters of the ceiling. 

"Stop!" Don't step in it!" Cadence cried.

Celestia and Luna looked at one another, each knowing what happened as they both made lights with their horns. On the floor  was a thick half  burned  coating of  purest black and as their light stretched across the room, they found both Twilight Sparkle and Iron Eagle huddled together, both covered in the remnants of the potion. 

"I...I tried, I tried to make a barrier to stop her fall, but she broke right through it and knocked the potion over on herself and Iron. I'm ...I'm" Cadence collapsed on the wooden beam she was clinging to, bawling her eyes out. "I'm so, so sorry." 

Luna lowered her head somberly. "It's all my fault. If I hadn't-

"No, don't blame yourself. We need to act quickly. Send out a command, I want they very best chemists and potion masters on this planet here as quickly as possible" Celestia said.

"I thought it wasn't curable?" Luna asked.

"Doesn't mean we can't try." Celestia stared at the black covered heap that was Twilight and Iron eagle, noting that arch of Twilight's magic were hitting Iron Eagle's head.


I'll save both of you, mark my words.










 



> Chapter VI:Not Exactly Sane
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter VI:Not Exactly Sane


Jeeze, did anyone catch the plate number on that trolley? Iron Eagle thought, his hooves massaging his temples as he tried to make the pain go away. Actually, I can't even feel the ground under my legs anymore now that I think about it. Iron Eagle opened his  eyes, only to find nothing but pitch black. He turned his head every direction he could, only to find an endless void of darkness in every direction. He seemed to be tumbling as well, as if there was no gravity at all around him.

"Am I dead or did someone teleport me into space? Wait, I can hear myself talk-" Iron Eagle inhaled deeply. "And I can breathe as well, so space is out of the question."

"Yep, most definitely dead, though I'm not  sure if this is what death is supposed to be like" Twilight said.

Iron Eagle looked above him or what he figured was up in a space with up or down and there was Twilight Sparkle, busily looking around herself like he just did moments ago. 

"Hey, Twilight!" Iron Eagle yelled.

"Iron Eagle?!" Twilight yelled back, frantically looking around for Iron Eagle.

"Above you Twilight... errr, just look straight up, I guess, not sure if it's actually up though" Iron Eagle yelled.

Twilight looked straight up and saw Iron Eagle, floating just above her. "Wait, why are you here too? Did you die as well? Last thing I remember I was thrown by Luna and crashed into you and my potion. When I opened my eyes I was floating around in this void. At first I thought I bounced so hard off the ground that I ended up in orbit, but then-"

"No planet, you can breathe and you can hear yourself talk right?" Iron Eagle interjected.

"Yeah, exactly in that order. I guess we came to the same conclusion then?" Twilight asked.

"I haven't gotten that far. Still need more testing to confirm exactly where we are. Though I'm leaning a bit toward purgatory or some kind of  pocket dimension caused by a reaction with one of the machines in your lab." 

"Well there was a quantum time slip drive in there, but I never got it to work. The energy requirements were well outside what anyone could feasibly gather. I mean, I wanted it to work, but I don't have a galaxy worth of stars to power it" Twilight said. "No, I think we are actually  very dead, though I'm confused. If this is what death really is, there should be millions of other ponies around us in this void."

"Why do you think it's death related? I don't remember you crashing into me that hard. I mean, I'm gonna feel that next week , but it was no where near a lethal impact" Iron Eagle said.

Twilight gave a little gasp and then covered her mouth. She then looked at Iron Eagle with the saddest look on her face. "We knocked over the potion. Either we both ingested some accidentally, or it can work by physical contact as well."

"Wait, does that mean I'm...dead with you?" Iron Eagle asked. 

"I'm so sorry Iron." Tears began to run down Twilight's cheeks, leaving a long uncomfortable pause until she spoke again." You had the rest of your life ahead of you and because of that sun butt bitch you're deader than Billy Crystal's movie career."

"Who the hay is Billy Crystal?" Iron Eagle asked, scratching his mane.

"Oh, right. You wouldn't get that reference. He was a goat actor when I was about your age. Now that I think about it that joke is redundant. he's been dead a very long time now, like physically speaking, not metaphorically; like his career." Twilight gave a nervous  smile at Iron Eagle.

"So, this is how I die eh? No college exams, no wife or kids, not even the chance to rub my PHD in my smug sisters face. Not exactly how I envisioned it would end. I was thinking I would probably die in my sleep in old age after tiring myself out yelling at fillies to stay off my lawn." Iron Eagle stared at his hooves and then at Twilight. 

"I'm so, so sorry. I wish there was some way to fix this. Celestia should have never put a mortal life up to stop me, least of all a relative. She always does this though, putting ponies in mortal danger for crap she should be able to handle herself." Twilight sighed dejectedly. "No use getting angry over it now though. We are now both dead and floating around in a void of pointlessness." 

"I guess so, but I'm not entirely convinced we are dead yet."

"Care to explain. I mean I'm not one to jump to conclusions, but I'm pretty sure we have exhausted the most obvious choices."

"Celestia mentioned that the potion forces you to relive your own worst memories until it kills you. It could be we are stuck here until that starts." Iron Eagle looked around once more, noticing a small glimmer of light appearing very far away, but slowly approaching them.

"It was probably non-sense. Celestia knew what I was up to and would say anything to stop me or in your case lie to anypony to stop me for her. Though I have to say that floating around in an empty black void for the rest of eternity wasn't what I expected." Twilight glanced over at Iron Eagle and noticed his attention was focused elsewhere. 

"What are you staring at?" Twilight rolled over and traced Iron Eagles eyes to a small point of light in the distance that was growing larger in size. "What is that?" she asked.

"I think it's the light when you die. You know like that whole 'go toward the light' thing when you die that's in some older movies and books. Except we don't have to move toward it, it seems to be coming for us." Iron Eagle watched the light grow in size, though he was not sure of the light was expanding , moving toward them or if they were falling into it.

"Iron, shouldn't you be trying to avoid the light. I mean I'm not your mom or anything, but you should probably fly the other way. Assuming this is a death or near death experience that is." Twilight unfurled her wings in an attempt to fly herself, but found there was no air for her to glide with.

"That's why I didn't bother. I couldn't feel any wind currents, air or anything around us. We can breathe, but I think flying is out of the question." Iron Eagle watched as the light was now heading at them very quickly. "If this is death, I guess there's no escaping it. See you on the other side, Twilight."

"Hope to see you too Iron." Twilight Sparkle closed her eyes. Finally, after so long; some closure. She thought as she felt the tingling sensation of the light consume her as well. 

Huh, that felt weird. However, she soon felt the rush of air past her face and the pull of gravity below her, she was most certainly falling.

"That's odd..." Twilight opened her eyes just in time for her face to collide with a dirt road head first. However, instead of  her face being buried into the dirt, she bounced off the ground and rolled downhill until she came to a stop. 

"Jeeze, are you okay Twilight?" Iron Eagle said as he trotted over to her. "You think with all your experience being an Alicorn, you would at least unfurl you wings." 

Iron Eagle lent out a hoof, which Twilight grabbed as leverage to get herself up. Oddly enough though, that crash didn't seem to hurt her at all, there wasn't even so much as a blade of grass out of place from where she landed.

"So...this is the afterlife? It feels really familiar, like I have been here before." Twilight looked around her. There seemed to be apple trees that went on for miles and miles in nearly every direction. A couple were even growing sideways out of the hill. "I know this place. This is  the southern field of the apple family farm!" Twilight inhaled deeply, the smell of fresh apples and tree pollen in the air.

"Rainbow, seriously gal, slow down!" The sound of a familiar southern tone came from the top of the hill.

"It can't be!" Twilight took to the skies and landed on the road in front of her. No more than a dozen yards in front of her was Apple Jack and Rainbow Dash, both bickering with one another as they walked down the road. Neither looking in her direction, nor even hearing her land.

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight yelled enthusiastically, rushing forward to hug her. 

However, as she reached Rainbow Dash she noticed that her body collided with her, but instead of knocking them both over; she just phased through her harmlessly.

"Huh? I don't get it, I was able to feel Iron Eagle as he helped me up. Why would I just go right through her like that? Like Some kind of ghost....oh I get it!" Twilight let out a hearty, but  timidly unsure laugh. "I see what you did there Rainbow Dash, always the prankster you!" Twilight watched as she just continued to walk down the road, ignoring her entirely.

Iron Eagle let out a sigh. Explaining this to her isn't going to  be easy. He thought to himself.

"Why, why are they ignoring me? I heard of Applejack being in on a prank, but not this long" Twilight lowered her head and tried to use her magic, but nothing came out of her horn, not so much as a single spark.

Iron Eagle walked up beside Twilight. "Like Celestia told you, that potion you were going to drink was going to be the worst things you have ever done. She told us what would happen."

"What...but I, I worked so hard. This must be the death I was looking for" Twilight cried.

"If you need confirmation, just fly alongside those two for a bit. I'll be right behind you." Iron Eagle pointed at Apple Jack and Rainbow Dash, both of which had stopped in the road to glare angrily at one another.

Twilight nodded and flew over to where Applejack and Rainbow Dash were having their dispute, Iron Eagle close behind her.

"Listen, yer meh friend and all Rainbow, but I have to stop ya. There is no way a pony of your age can possibly beat the record that little mare set. She's a right bit lighter than you and in the prime of her years. You on the other hoof and I mean no offense by this, but yer a far cry from spring chicken anymore." Applejack stopped momentarily, waiting for Rainbow Dash to retort, but continued after she realized that Dash was actually listening to her.

"On top of it all, yer wings are starting to degrade, even the magic part of  just bein a pegasus is fadin. You can barely keep up with weather duty anymore, despite bein told by others to retire already. To top it off, that's Spitfires daughter out there; I know you watched the last record she broke; she beat your hundred meter dash by more than three seconds." Apple Jack put her front leg over Rainbow Dash's back. "records were meant to be broken sugarcube, you had your time in the limelight, time for some pony else to have some fame."

Rainbow Dash sighed. "You're right, but pride is all I have left Applejack, well, besides friends. I have to try, I have to know where I stand."

Applejack shook her head. "You know, I know a pony that could settle this little disagreement. Let's go have a chat with Twilight before you make any hasty announcements or anything."

"I guess I can do hat much, let's go. Race ya!" Rainbow yelled.

"Yer on!" Apple Jack replied, chasing after Rainbow Dash.

Iron Eagle watched as Twilight fell to the ground, her body in a slump as she started to cry.

"Twilight, I-" He didn't know what exactly to say. How do you even go about comforting a immortal that just doomed herself to an eternity of suffering. "Listen, I know this may seem difficult, but I'm sure Celestia, Luna and the others are working on a cure to get us out of here."

Twilight looked into Iron Eagles eyes and wiped away a tear. "So, this potion...what exactly does it do again?"

"It's supposed to kill you, but it makes you relive the worst memories you have ever experienced. For a mortal pony like me, it would probably come rather quick since I would probably die from starvation or dehydration long before I went through all of my bad memories. However..." Iron Eagle hesitated, part of him not wanting to be the witness of another emotional breakdown from Twilight.

"It affects Alicorns differently, doesn't it?" Twilight asked somberly.

"Yeah, from what I was told the prevailing theory is you will witness all your worst memories for all eternity. All because Alicorns natural healing factor will keep you alive and the toxin replicating the magic that causes this won't be seen as an intruder. It's a feedback loop that's really hard to fix." Iron Eagle looked away, bracing himself for another round of crying from Twilight, but it never came.

"There's still hope then?" Twilight asked calmly.

"No idea, sadly chemistry is not my strong point. However, if there's any cure for it Celestia and Luna will find it."

Twilight tapped her hoof on her chin for a moment "From what I remember reading, the legends I found about it said it needed to be entirely green before drinking it. So at this stage there is still a chance to at the very least get you out of this mess." Twilight took to the air, Iron Eagle not too far behind.

"This is odd, why are you suddenly so...accepting of this?" Iron eagle asked.

"I have lived a lifetime of failures trying to kill myself, to finally rid myself of Celestia's unwanted curse. Now my own meddling with power beyond my understanding has led me here. I may not die, but I will at least know that I will have he smug satisfaction of defying her one more time." Twilight began to fly away toward Ponyville.

"I don't get it. I'm beginning to think you are mentally unhinged in a serious way. I get being lonely and wanting to kill yourself, but this...acceptance of what I can only see as a personal seven hells just blows my mind." Iron Eagle argued as he kept up with Twilight.

"If what you say about the potion is true, then WHY are you seeing my memories? Shouldn't you be reliving 5th graders stealing your lunch bits or something more personal?" Twilight asked as she landed just outside of Ponyville.

Iron Eagle landed behind Twilight, his mouth open as he tried to answer her question. "I- actually have no idea. Now that I think about it, if these are your memories, why do you remember...parts you were not there for."

Twilight sighed and motioned for Iron Eagle to follow her into town. "I'll explain while we walk, it's been so long since I explored this town so thoroughly. At least I can have that little bit of pleasure."

Iron Eagle watched as Twilight walked onto a cobblestone road past some very rural looking homes. This Isn't the Ponyville he knew, the one he  knew was far more populated and didn't have architecture that was so dated. Some of the homes even still used thatch roofing, something that would never fly with current Ponyville's building codes.

"Are you coming or you just going to stand there?" Twilight asked. 

"No, no I'm coming. It's just, this  town looks like such a countryside dust bowl compared to the one I know" Iron Eagle said, noticing how the streets hadn't been swept of dirt in a very long time and were cobblestone instead of pavement or concrete.

Twilight cracked a smile. "Yeah, I prefer to remember it the way it was and not the way I finally left it. A peaceful town full of ponies with dreams and not the rotted cesspool of inadequate wealth distribution, corruption and hatred it became after I left."

"Never thought of it that way. Guess you really don't notice that stuff when you didn't grow up there." Iron Eagle followed Twilight further into town, making a mental note of how drastically different everything was in the past compared to how he knew it now.

"So, as I said earlier. The reason I remember things I wasn't there for is because I worked with incredibly forbidden magic. Magic that would possibly get a mortal pony a lifetime dungeon sentence, or at the very least a large scale memory wipe." Twilight paused, watching a mare water some of her roses.

Iron Eagle looked over Twilight's back, looking for why Twilight suddenly stopped. In front of  her was a mare that had a very pale yellow coat, a single deep red mane and a single stripe of grey in her mane running all the way to her tail, a few stray strands of pink still visible around the edges of grey.

"That's Roseluck, shes one of the ponies that participated in the yearly spring and summer growing festivals for flowers. If memory serves me right..." Twilight watched as a slightly smaller deep red maned filly came out the house that looked strikingly similar to Roseluck, though her cutie mark was of a bush of thorns and not a rose. 

"Mom, I have something we ummm, need to really discuss. And no, it isn't about me killing the daffodils" The Mare with the thorn bush cutie mark said.

"What is it dear?" Roseluck asked, walking over to her daughter as she motioned her closer to whisper.

"That's her daughter, Rosetta Thorn. She had all the gardening ability of a can of weed killer. Anything she  touched would never bloom, no matter how hard she tried. She was however exceptionally good at keeping the weeds down. Reverse green hoof  has it's advantages I guess."

"You're what now?...I can't believe it. Honey, how long have you known?" Roseluck said out-loud. 

"A couple days now, the test came back positive" Rosetta replied, though in a hushed voice.

"Whoohoo!" Roseluck did a back-flip followed by a cartwheel in the street. "I'm gonna be a grandma!"

"This is the day Rosetta learned she was pregnant with what would become her daughter, Rosebud. The father found out a week later when he was on leave from the Navy, they were ecstatic to say the least. Something you don't get in cities too often anymore sadly." Twilight moved on, Roseluck still ecstatic and talking a mile a minute with Rosetta about foal showers and the like.

"How do you know this memory? You most definitely were not there for it." Iron asked, his curiosity over this even and the last one getting the better of him.

"I used a memory foundry and absorbed all the memories of every single pony in Ponyville" Twilight said,oddly enough intentionally staying silent for a moment as she intentionally played the pro-noun game with him.

"What is a-"

"It's a incredible device, able to pull memories from a land mass from any time period you desire. It can even go as pulling an entire lifetime from a living creature...alive or dead" Twilight said, a hint of foreboding in her voice.

Iron Eagle stopped in place. He had a terrible sinking feeling that he was going to hear something that he didn't want to hear about. Then again, with Twilight constantly playing the pronoun game with him like she was, his curiosity was getting the best of him.

"Fine, I'll bite. Just get on with it already, getting a little bit  bored of playing question hot potato with you" Iron Eagle said.

"Don't have be be a jerk about it. You see a memory foundry is an incredibly restricted device, only two of them exist and they require massive amounts of power. I managed to steal one from Celestia's vault when I went into hiding and thankfully it was mostly powered. Originally I just wanted to use it  to siphon the memories of  my departed friends but..."

"Their remains are in the palace itself, in the hall of heroes" Iron Eagle finished Twilight's sentence for her. 

I don't like where this is going... Iron Eagle thought to himself.

"So Instead I time displaced the device multiple times and absorbed all the memories of every pony that ever lived in Ponyville during the lifespan of my friends. Then I absorbed them all into myself. Mainly to try and comfort myself, but  for the other half of  my plan. Soul recall."

"That sounds an awful lot like necromancy. There's a reason it is super special ultra banned everywhere. Every time some pony has tried it, it always ended poorly." Iron Eagle put a hoof up to his neck and slowly moved it across his throat making a choking noise as it went to the other side.

"Well, yes, but it was always a unicorn or mad scientist earth pony trying it. nowhere near the power I can put out." Twilight pointed to Applejack and Rainbow Dash, both of  which just passed by a large cart full of apples being pulled by a very large Red stallion. "I remember this. Watch with me Iron."

"You know if Twilight's in her office today Big Mac?" Applejack asked.

"Eeyup!" Big Mac replied enthusiastically.

"Oh and did Apple Bloom fix the other cart? I don't like how this older one is lookin, hitch seems a bit worse for wear." Applejack moved over to the cart and started to inspect it, tapping on the spots where she noticed some cracking and splintering.

"Nnnope. Double finals this week" Big Mac said.

"Well, least she's  got the book learnin down, now if she could only keep up with her farm responsibilities too. I mean, how many masters degrees does a girl need? She already has two." Applejack said disdainfully.

"Do you have any idea how stupidly hard the phd level in biochemistry is? I flunked the introduction course and that was in flight-school. Cut her some slack AJ, not like she's being lazy or anything" Rainbow Dash interjected.

"I guessin yer right Rainbow. It's just so hard to keep up with everything. Let's get to Twi's place so we can settle the dispute from earlier. No racin  though, mah dogs are barkin somethin fierce from earlier."

Iron Eagle watched the exchange with Twilight, though he wasn't sure this had anything to do with necromancy. "So..."

"Oh, right. my plan. See, true necromancy is stupid difficult. Recalling just a single soul from wherever the afterlife is has severe consequences. If the body it receives isn't a perfect replica and the setting isn't right, they can rot away slowly, become zombies or ghouls. All kinds of really terrible things can go wrong." Twilight started following Applejack and Rainbow Dash towards the castle library in the distance.

"Then why even try it? What makes you think you can pull off what even Celestia or Luna  would never dare to try?"

"Cloning. One of my original plans was to clone all of Ponyville biologically and then insert all the memories I acquired from the foundry into perfect replica bodies before starting a mass recall. At least that was he plan, I never went with it. Too many minor complications."

"Minor complications? I'm pretty sure being entirely against the law and nature itself would register as more than minor." Iron Eagle said, an obvious hint of disgust in his voice.

"Spare me the moral berating, I didn't go through with it because there was too much that could go wrong. That and the genocide part did not sit well with me. Ah, we're here!" Twilight watched as Applejack knocked on the door.

"Genocide?" Iron eagle yelled, his mouth agape.

"Yeah, setting is important. If it's not perfect there will be a  20% chance of body rejection with possible zombie apocalypse shortly after. In order to avoid this I would have needed to annihilate all of  the residents of the current Ponyville, city and all to make way for a perfect replica. like I said, that didn't sit well with me." Twilight watched as the door on her old home opened up, a teenaged Spike answering the door and beckoning them inside.

"I...I'm at a complete loss for words. That you would even think of that kind of solution is just...insane." Iron Eagle stepped backwards. 

"Yeah, no. I think I don't want to spend my time with an obvious nutcase" Iron Eagle said.

"I'm a scientist, first and foremost. Sometimes the conclusion and solution is very ugly. Just because I came to that conclusion doesn't mean I would execute it. You should know that's problem solving 101, map out all solutions."

"There just some solutions you shouldn't ever try to map out!" Iron Eagle said angrily.

Twilight rolled her eyes. " All solutions must be open, progress is not made by sandbagging with reality. You will learn that as you get older."

Iron Eagle opened his mouth, but then quickly closed it. He wanted so much to tell Twilight off, especially so with her patronizing attitude. However, he knew that starting an argument with her would get him nowhere.

"So, you want to see what happened or you just going to sit there and think of a way to toss morals at me?" Twilight said as she began to trot down the road Applejack and Rainbow Dash did a couple minutes earlier.

Iron Eagle hesitated, part of him wanted to know Twilight's past, but the other part wanted to be as far away from her as possible.

Maybe just a few minutes away from her to cool off will help... Iron Eagle thought to himself. 

Iron Eagle turned away from Twilight and headed in the opposite direction.

"Hey, where are you going?" Twilight asked.

"As far away from your particular brand of crazy as possible." Iron Eagle replied curtly, picking up his stride to put some distance between himself and Twilight. However, the further he got away from Twilight, the harder it was to move, at around forty or so yards it felt as if there were rubber bands wrapped around his chest; pulling him backwards in the direction of Twilight. He tried to push on but at around sixty yards he stopped moving forward. The force pulling him back was too great and just as he managed to take a single step further he was flung backwards at high speed, skipping across the ground and landing right next to Twilight, his face in the dirt.

"Hmmm, didn't expect that. Seems you're stuck with me" Twilight said.

Iron Eagle pulled himself up, angrily knocking dirt off his nose and spitting some rocks onto the ground that he managed to eat when he landed. "Fine, but try to lay of the evil moral compass stuff."

Twilight rolled her eyes and sighed. "Just because I thought of a solution to a unique problem does not make me inherently evil. Also nothing I did was breaking any moral compass. Think of it this way, I thought of doing something bad and so have you. It's our decision to carry out those or to not carry them out. You know, like how you were thinking of looking into the mares changing room..."

Iron Eagles turned beat red. "H-how do you even know about that? N-not that I ever did such a thing or..."

"When you snapped back I got little flashes of your memories in the back of my mind. Also, yes, I agree Garnet has a nice behind. though, I don't think you will win her over by being peeking tom." Twilight watched as Iron Eagle lowered his head in shame.

"Don't beat yourself up over it, perfectly natural for a pony your age" Twilight said.

"It feels like you're blackmailing me here, who knows what secrets you managed to get out of me without my knowledge."

Twilight giggled. "I wouldn't use that against you unless I had no other options." Twilight tapped the side of her head with her left hoof. "I absorbed generations of memories, I could bring down families, even entire kingdoms and cities with the knowledge I have. It's my choice to use it or not use it that matters. Just like that Necromancy plan from earlier, just because I could do it, doesn't mean I ever will."

"Fine I get it, can we just get along with this whole memory thing already?" Iron Eagle said, his tone shifting from meek and embarrassed to frustrated anger.

"Sure, but I suggest if we ever get out of this that you find a better hiding place for your Haruna Miku hug pillow. If the guard captain ever finds that you will never live it down." Twilight smiled and turned away, walking up the dirt path.

"I...what. I don't" Iron Eagle took a deep breath, composing himself. Don't let her get to you Iron, she only doing this to play mind games and control you. "I-I happen to be a fan of hers mind you, nothing weird is going on, I swear!" Iron Eagle called after Twilight.


***


After a brief exchange of doubtful glares from Twilight the pair continued up the road, arriving at what Iron Eagle could only describe as a castle that was also part tree. 

"Wow, it's so much more radiant in the past than how I remember it." The branches reached skyward, a mixture of sapphire blue and sharp purple amethyst. Gold adorned nearly every balcony on the structure and roof. The door was also solid gold adorned with gems all along the edges and 2 large jewels in the center. How this building still stood was beyond him though. The building he remembered had fallen into dis-repair and most of the gold had been stripped away by thieves. To see the building in it's past glory was just so overwhelming.

"Beautiful isn't she? Personally I prefer the old tree-house, but this building grew on me. Though, I would have to say mornings were not exactly fun; all these crystals mean the building was brighter than a dozen lighthouses stacked on one another in the early morning. No amount of coffee ever fixed that." Twilight stared at her old home, a tear running down her cheek. 

"Are you...crying?" Iron Eagle asked, though already knowing the answer.

"I..I just. I really miss the past I guess. She was never the same after, well, after all my other friends died" Twilight said somberly.

"Why did you leave? It's only broken down because you left your post as a princess." Iron Eagle quickly covered his mouth, knowing he has messed up in accusing Twilight; even though he was technically correct in doing so.

Twilight didn't seem to get angry though, she just calmly turned toward Iron Eagle and smiled. "Even if I did stay, it would have changed nothing."

"I think you're pulling my chain" Iron Eagle said sarcastically.

"I wish I was. After my friends started dying off the magics protecting it began to slowly fade. At first it was little things like roof panels falling off, but as more and more of the elements of harmony died the damage began to stack up. A building like this is very unstable naturally, the sapphire and amethyst both being magically created. After each friend died it became more and more unstable, until it was no longer safe to live in. Ponies think that thieves and vagrants pilfered the building of all the gems and gold, but most of it just evaporated into thin air."

"But, most of the building is still thee, just horribly faded" Iron Eagle interjected. 

"It's only because I'm still alive. The second my life ends the rest of the building will collapse in on itself, becoming little more than dust." Twilight stared at her former home, sighing dejectedly. "At least that's what all the models show would happen."

"Seriously though, how can you drink that stuff?" Rainbow Dash yelled.

"Green tea spiced with apple spice is what gives us Apples longevity. Granny drank some every morning and you see she lived past a hundred" Apple Jack replied.

"Yeah at the expense of having the taste of boiled used tube socks in your mouth for the rest of the day" Rainbow Dash said, pointing at her mouth with her left hoof, making a gagging motion.

Apple Jack just rolled her eyes in dismissal. "I just don't wanna play cards with the reaper so early ya know, want to see Apple Bloom safe and secure ya know. If she ever gets done with all the book learning anyhow. How many Masters degrees does one pony need?"

"I wouldn't know. I dropped out of Flight School, seemed to work out in the end for me" Rainbow Dash said enthusiastically. 

Apple Jack looked as if she wanted to chastise Rainbow Dash for a moment, but bit her tongue and just raised an eyebrow. 

Rainbow Dash walked up to the library door and knocked Twice, Apple Jack close behind. After a few moments the sound of a pop could be heard behind the door, followed by the door slowly swinging open.

"Hello Apple Jack; Rainbow Dash, what can I do for ya today?" Past Twilight Sparkle said. "I didn't miss another one of Pinkies parties did I?"

Iron Eagle couldn't believe his eyes. This Twilight Sparkle was nothing like the one he had been following around. He coat was practically gleaming bright purple, her eyes where focused and full of life and how she carried herself was nothing short of bursting with exuberance. Iron Eagle looked to his side, watching Twilight Sparkles reaction, but there really was none; only the smallest of frowns was on her face; like she didn't even recognize herself from way back then.

"Actually we needed you to mediate a little debate me and Rainbow were having and by mediate I mean talk some sense into the air she keeps between her ears." Apple Jack said snidely.

Rainbow Dash shot Apple Jack a glare, but kept her composure. "Can we come inside to discuss this?"

"Sure girls, I'll have Spike put on some tea" Twilight replied, barely containing her cheer at having friends over.

Twilight Sparkle headed into the library, beckoning her friends to follow her in.

Iron Eagle got up and started to move toward the door when he noticed Future Twilight was just sitting on her haunches, her head held low, her hair blocking her face from view.

"Is something wrong?" Iron Eagle asked.

Twilight stood up; brushing aside a stray hair from her mane that fell on her face. Iron Eagle tried to make out what Twilight was thinking, but he couldn't get past how...sad she looked. Her tail was down, her eyes had a dead fish look to them and it seemed like any energy she had was gone. Nonetheless she moved forward, phasing through the door to the library as it closed.


"You're about to see one of the biggest mistakes of my life" Twilight mumbled.

> Chapter VII: Fastest Thing Alive
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter VII: Fastest Thing Alive



"Absolutely Not!" Twilight yelled, getting an angry glare from a nearby filly reading a book on beginner chemistry. Twilight grinned at the filly and drew her attention back to Rainbow Dash, being careful to lower her voice. 

"Do you have any idea how badly in shape your body is for that kind of exertion? You could get injured or worse, crippled" Twilight said, barely maintaining her inside voice.

"See what I mean sugar cube? You taint no spring chicken anymore. It's in the best interest that you hang up yer jumpsuit and retire, leave the record breakin to the youngins" Applejack put her front leg over Rainbow Dash's shoulders, pullin her close for a hug. "You don't have to prove that you were the fastest mare, I already knew you was; everypony in town does."

Rainbow Dash pulled away from Applejack, snorting in frustration. "That's the problem, was is a past tense. Nowadays all the top pros look down on me like I'm a has-been, some of them even question my legacy entirely; like I lucksacked my way to the top. That a flight school failure making it big was just a fluke, an accident."

"Rainbow, I don't know what to say, but you need to let it go. Your records are well documented. You held and still do hold multiple world speed records. That's the thing though, records are meant to be broken; it's just part of life." Twilight looked off down one of the isles, her horn glowing faintly as one of the books sprung off the shelf and floated to her. She then set the book down on a nearby table.

"It should be in this one, History of Flight volume twenty-eight." Twilight opened the book, flipping the through the glossary to find the entry for Rainbow Dash. "Let me see, Povell Powers, Queasy Bert, Rapid Railer...huh, I must have the wrong volume, you're not listed in here." Twilight levitated another two volumes from the isle she got the first one from. Setting them on the table she quickly looked through them, only to find that Rainbow Dash wasn't in those books either. 

"What is going on here? I could have sworn that I got the year right" Twilight looked dismayed, her mind racing that she may have gotten the wrong books.

"Twilight, the only place you will find me listed is unofficial flight history volume seven, right before the entries on UFO's." Rainbow Dash grumbled, tossing her mane to the side in disgust.

"But, what? How? You're practically a legend around here. There's no way you're not in the official books. Your record breaks were broadcast live to millions around the world. You were on the cover of every sports magazine for nearly a year; even the swimsuit edition!" Twilight covered her mouth blushing, hoping that Rainbow Dash and Applejack didn't hear the last part.

"Why would you be lookin at a swimsuit sports magazine Twilight?" Applejack asked, puzzled.

"Silly, I help spike with putting books back on the shelves in the correct order and section. That particular magazine was really popular with the colts in Ponyville. Had to keep ordering new ones cause the pages were sticking together for some reason. Colts in the area must have sticky hooves for some reason" Twilight said, giving off a fake grin.

Iron Eagle gave out a audible snort, earning him a glare from future Twilight. "Sure 'sorting' also, gross."

"Yes, yes, laugh it up. I was a little dense to the simple explanations back then" Twilight groaned. "To be fair though Rainbow did have a nice rear end." 

Iron Eagle sent Twilight a sideways glance, entirely not expecting her to admit to something so personal.

"What? Every mare goes though that phase. It's entirely normal." Twilight shook her head and directed her attention on the scene at hoof. Doing her best to avoid eye contact with Iron Eagle. 

"Ummm Twilight, you do know that was probably-" Applejack was cut off by Rainbow Dash shaking her head.

Past Twilight arched her head in confusion. "Anyways, I can check the other books real fast with a mass glossary spell." Twilight took a step back and closed her eyes. Dozens of books flew off the shelves and circled her, kicking up quite a gust of air. Each one opened up individually  and quickly flipped through the pages before closing and flying back to their original destination. 

Twilight opened her eyes, her once look of confusion was now replaced with what could only be explained with a face of utter contempt or rage. Here eyes were narrowed and her teeth were clenched tight, as if she was ready to punch a pony in the face. 

"This is preposterous!" Twilight growled. "What kind of shenanigans is going on here?"

"You all right Twi?" Applejack asked.

"No, I'm not alright. Rainbow Dash isn't in ANY of the books in here aside from the unofficial editions and I don't know why. She's set more than her fair share of records, enough that she should have her own book." Twilight was visibly shaking with rage.

Rainbow Dash lowered her head somberly. "N-not even a single entry? I thought I might have missed something."

Twilight's horn lit up as she created a portal in mid air being projected from her horn. "Call Flight Historians Society" Twilight said in a commanding tone.

An image of an old greying stallion with half moon spectacles on his face appeared in the portal. "Ahh Princess Twilight! what an unexpected surprise. What can I do for you today, your highness?"

Twilight seemed to want to yell at the stallion, but took a deep breath to compose herself before speaking. 

"It has come to my attention that multiple world record setting athlete Rainbow Dash is not in ANY of the official record books that your society prints. I am contacting you today to rectify this error in the name of historical accuracy" Twilight said sternly.

"Hmmm, that is odd, even I know Rainbow Dash has quite a few records under her name. I was actually at a couple of them with my grand children when she set them. Quite the flier she was." The old stallion motioned an assistant over to him and whispered in her ear. " If you will give me a few minutes while we hunt down the former heads ledger. I'll need the details before I can lodge a formal edit to the record."

A few tense minutes passed until the old stallion walked back to the portal. "I have terrible news your highness, it seems that while we are indeed the ones that printed those books we are in fact not the ones that wrote them. It appears from the ledger that the Royal Flight Academy is the ones that are responsible for all the entries and writing for the past few decades. I suggest getting a hold of them to rectify this error."

"Oh, I will. Thank you for your time" Twilight replied, barely keeping her tone of disgust hidden.

Twilight closed the portal and promptly opened another. "I'm gonna get to the bottom of this."

A young blue mare with a sunshine yellow mane appeared in the portal. "Desk of the Royal Flight Academy, deans office. How may I-"

The mares eyes went wide as she set them on Twilight. "Y-your highness! W-what can I do for you this fine day?"

"I need a conference call with the dean to rectify a grave error in your history books that you have been writing over the last few decades" Twilight stated calmly.

"I- umm, I'm not sure if I can help you there. The Dean is in a really bad mood today...I'm, well, terrified I will lose my job if I bother him" The mare stared off to her side at a large oak door behind her desk.

"If he fires you I'll double your pay and you can work reception here. This is important that I see him" Twilight said reassuringly.

Iron Eagle stared at future Twilight then at past Twilight. He had a strange feeling that his mind kept wanting to make double takes; not being fully convinced that they are both one in the same being.

"I-I'll get him." The mare pressed a red button on her desk, a short buzzing sound indicating that the intercom was on. "Dean, we have a call from-"

"DID I NOT TELL YOU NO CALLS TODAY!!??" A loud and very angry voice came through the desk intercom.

"B-but sir! It's Princess Twilight on the line!" The mare squeaked, clearly terrified.

"I don't care if it's Celestia herself, no calls means no calls. Also I expect your desk to be cleared out by this evening, I have no use for receptionists that cannot follow simple orders." 

"B-but" A buzzing sound indicated that the dean had forcefully ended the conversation from his side.

"It's fine. I will deal with the dean myself." Twilight closed the portal and nodded to Rainbow Dash and Applejack to come closer to her. "Girls, we are going to the root of the problem. I hope you didn't eat anything too heavy recently."

The room slowly started to break apart; entire parts of it blowing away like grains of sand until there was nothing left, but a black empty void. 

"What's going on? Is it supposed to do that?" Iron Eagle asked.

Teleportation causes brief lapses in memory sometimes. It's kind of like the doorway effect; you enter a new room and the reason for entering said room escapes you for a moment" Twilight explained.

"Oh, like going to the kitchen for a sandwich and then just starting stupidly into the fridge for a minute or two."

"Pretty much that, pay attention though; this next part is important" Twilight said as she pointed to black void below them slowly beginning to take the form of a floor.

In just a few seconds a new room had formed; one with a large oak desk sitting to the right of very thick and heavy looking twin wood doors. The room was very ornate; brass handles, smaller oak tables and rows of books that ended in gold lettering on each shelf. The walls were adorned with very expensive looking wallpaper that shined like freshly spun silk. All around the room were dozens of gold laced frames; each depicting different Wonderbolts from previous generations. 

Iron Eagle stared around the room, mouth agape at all the history around him. However, before he could make comment on it a sudden pop turned his attention to the front of the oak desk. Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow Dash appeared; startling the mare at the desk and causing her fall out of her chair.

"Are you okay sugarcube?" Applejack said as she quickly helped the mare up.

"I-I'm...f-fine?" The mares gaze met Twilight's; her eyes widened and her breathing slowly turned into hyperventilating. "Y-y- Your, high-ness!?" 

She was visibly shaking as if both nervous and terrified at the same time. 

"Can you buzz me in to the deans office?" Twilight asked calmly. "I need to have an emergency hearing with him. It's of the upmost importance." 

"I...I c-can't help you. He locked the door from the inside and revoked my security clearance...right before firing me." The mare began to sob uncontrollably. "I ...I don't know what to do...how can I afford rent now?" 

Twilight sat on her haunches next to the crying mare, putting her wing over her back. "You have nothing to worry about; when I'm done with the dean I'll have you hired at the Canterlot royal library." 

"B-but I can't make that commute every day...my apartment is in Cloudsdale, northwind avenue" the mare said.

"I'll work out the details with you once I am done with the dean." Twilight closed her eyes and with a pop blue bag landed on the floor in front of her with an audible thud, following by what sounded like the jingle of money. 

Rainbow, Applejack, would you two do me a favor and take this young mare out to lunch. She really needs to calm her nerves." Twilight levitated the small bag and set it firmly in the crying mares hooves. 

"T-this is really heavy. This is easily a months wages for me, a-are you sure I can-" 

"Wait, that little amount is a months wages? What kinda slave driver do you work for err..." Rainbow Dash stopped, realizing she didn't know the crying mares name. 

"Minty is my name, Minty Fresh. Also, yeah the dean voted to cut funding to staff to finance something or other. I'm not too keen on the details."

"That smug jerk. I seen hay burger flippers make more. Once I get my hooves on him I'll-"

"You'll let me handle it Rainbow Dash. You two just go get yourselves some food our new friend here" Twilight said, smiling.

"Hey, no fair. I wanna have a word or two with that dean myself" Rainbow Dash said angrily. 

"By words you mean two hooks to the kidneys followed by an uppercut right?" Twilight said, rolling her eyes.

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to argue, but quickly realized that Twilight had called her out on her plans. "Would it change your mind if I went with a kick to the liver instead of the uppercut?" 

"No, no Dash, it wouldn't. Also, I've known you far too long to think for a second you would forgo the uppercut" Twilight said, giggling. 

"She's readin ya like an open book sugarcube" Applejack added, smiling slyly. 

"Fine, fine. I'll let egghead handle it. Minty, Applejack, let's go get us some grub; I'm starving." Rainbow Dash helped Minty to her feet, handing the bag of coins to Applejack to carry.

"So, where do you reckon we should eat?" Applejack asked. 

"I dunno, I stopped living here years ago and the foods always pricey. I wonder if Big Don's is still open; they had some amazing pizza" Rainbow Dash said.

"Big Don's closed nearly a decade ago. There is a nice Mexican grill where it used to be though, we could try that" Minty recommended. 

"Don't care where we eat, so long as it's not Cloudsdale cloud pastries. Stuff goes right through me" Applejack said.

Before the trio opened the door leading outside, Minty turned back to Twilight, beaming at her. "T-thank you so much you're highness. You're every bit as amazing as I have heard." 

Past Twilight blushed. "Thanks I ummm...well, I don't handle compliments very well."

"I should have never given her that job" Twilight said dejectedly.

"Why? Was she a bad receptionist or something?" Iron Eagle asked.

"No, she was quite exceptional at her job. Sadly, five years from now she will die after being hit by a trolley in Canterlot. Both her and her unborn child died because of this one little decision of mine to intervene." Twilight shook her head.

"You can't go blaming yourself for random events that you don't have the power to control. The future isn't set in stone and even if some of it is; that's far outside any ponies power to prevent." Iron Eagle tried to console Twilight, but she batted him away with one of her wings. 

"I don't need your pity right now. You can't even fathom the amount of dead ponies I have directly or indirectly killed in my time." Twilight stared toward the door, watching her past self try and pry it open. "Had I known then what I know now, I would have executed the filth behind that door without a second thought." 

"Jeeze, why does the dean need a magically reinforced door? It's not like ponies are out to kill him." Past Twilight lowered her head and fired a bolt of magical energy into the door. "And a double tumbler magic seal?" Twilight stepped back, puzzled as to why so many different magical protections were on the door.

"It doesn't make any sense. There's at least two dozen different spells active keeping this door shut. I guess I can just buzz my way in..." Twilight walked up to the oak desk and pressed the large red button on the desk. "This is Princess Twilight, I am here for an emergency meeting with the dean."

"And I'm the prince of dolphins. Even if you are Twilight, I have no time for you today, so move along little girl" the deans voice replied over a nearby speaker. 

"Little girl huh?" Twilights eyes started to glow a hot white. She lowered her head and fired a beam of light into the middle of the door. 

"What is she...ewrrr...past you doing?' Iron Eagle asked.

"Blowing up the door. Thing is with over saturating an object with magical protection is raw unbridled power will overload it with ease" Twilight replied.

"Wait, you blew up the door to the deans office? Isn't that ultra illegal, even for a princess?" Iron Eagle asked.

"When I get frustrated I was never one for subtlety. Sure I liked thinking my way out of problems, but as the power of being an Alicorn grew with me I started using the brute force approach a bit more often than I should have." Future Twilight pointed to the door, just as past Twilight blew it open, showering the entire room in splinters.  

"What is the meaning of this!" A voice shouted from the other side of what used to be the door. 

The dust from the door settled, revealing a large room with a single solid brass desk in the middle, peeking from behind it was a pony with an orange wavy toupee, a blue business suit and pale white coat that seemed to be too unrealistically shiny. 

"Oh...no wonder, it's YOU." Twilight said with a disgusted undertone in her voice. "I usually don't pull rank, but when the Princess asks for an audience, especially with an individual paid though the state coffers; I expect only two outcomes; yes your highness or at the very least 'I'll fit it on my schedule'." Twilight walked into the room, eyes still glowing in a show of power.

"Are you...trying to bully him?" Iron Eagle asked.

"Oh, I know who this pony is. He ran for the governor position for Appaloosa a few years back. He had a very unpopular anti-bison platform and got creamed in the election; the only vote cast for him was his own. Calling him a right jackass would be an insult to mules everywhere" Twilight said.

"I should have you arrested for this intrusion, but-"

"But none of the guards within three counties like you and I know most of them by name" Twilight said, cutting the dean off. 

"Abuse of power much?" Iron Eagle said.

"Yeah, maybe a bit, but as we explore my memories further you will understand why I should have just killed that filth when I had the chance" future Twilight said, the tone of her voice shifting into a deeper, angrier state. 

"I don't get it, what could thi-" Iron Eagle stopped himself mid sentence as he noticed a brass bar with the name carved in the front of it that read 'Ronald Thump'. "Oh...oh, no."

"So, now that you destroyed my beautiful door and asserted your authority. What can I do for you, fake princess?" Ronald Thump said, a smug grin on his face.

"It has come to my attention that multiple world record setting pegasus Rainbow Dash has been scrubbed from the books your office publishes. I am here to investigate the reasons why" Twilight said in a commanding tone. 

"Oh, that little failure of a mare" Ronald Thump replied, a smirk on his face.

"Excuse me?" Twilight replied, the hint of anger in her voice barely contained.

"You see, one of the older qualifications circa 899 CE required that any flight related records must be accompanied by a flight school registry. In short they must have attended and graduated from flight school. Since your friend dropped out of flight school she was never qualified to hold any records" Ronald Thump said, a smug grin forming across his face.

"So she was never book smart, that hardly matters here. She is a seven time decorated hero of Equestria, she holds dozens of records and has helped saved the lives of thousands, if not millions of ponies. Also, no other dean dead or alive before you ever enforced such a rule. Spitfire's great grandfather isn't scrubbed from the books and he was a simple farm pony before he joined the Wonderbolts." Twilight argued, though from the blank expression on the deans face; he wasn't even remotely listening to her.

"I have yet to get around to him and that smug bitch Spitfire yet. You see, I am currently working to remove flight record keeping altogether. It creates inferiority complexes in Earth ponies at other schools. This creates lower scores on tests and thus should be stricken from the record. Quite frankly it has been unevenly hooved for a long time now; not a single Earthpony record on our books." Ronald Thump picked up a book from his desk and quickly turned through the pages. " Not. a. single. one."

Past Twilight stood there for a moment, mouth agape as she tried to process the inanity of Ronald's argument. "You run a flight school for Celestia's sake! You know, for creatures that FLY ! Complaining about a flight school having records for creatures that fly is like complaining about a culinary schools records for best cookies. The entire school is built on the narrow scope of just a few abilities. Discrediting creatures that fly because others cannot is racism."

"You're...really fired up back then." Iron Eagle commented.

"Sometimes I wish I could have the same passion now as I did back then. As we go through these memories, you will understand why I don't" future Twilight said somberly.

"And? You know how many ponies apply to this school every year that cannot fly?" Ronald asked.

"My guess is none. Because you know, lack of flight ability in a FLIGHT SCHOOL" Twilight replied, her tone shifting to yelling to emphasize certain words.

"Exactly right. You should also know that enrollment is down. We can no longer just pander to just creatures that can fly. This is just a step to be more inclusive for other ponies that may want to learn at this fine establishment." Ronald picked up a piece of paper on his desk and pushed it toward Twilight. 

Twilight read the paper, quickly glossing over the middle portion until she noticed the large red numbers at the bottom. "So you're in the red about a hundred bits or so due to less enrollment this year. Why not just ask the treasury for a funding review, or do a bake sale. Also, I noticed quote a few programs are being entirely cut. Botany, music and airship engineering are all entirely gone as of next year."

Twilight slammed her hoof onto the desk, the paper she was ready ripping in two and the desk itself cracking at the legs. "I call shenanigans on your claim of lack of enrollment and changes to history to increase diversity. Especially when you cut half a dozen programs that all ponies would be interested in. As of now you are suspended from your duties as dean pending an investigation."

"Too bad you can't do that" Ronald said, sitting down in his chair and reclining it backwards. 

"What part of Princess did you not get? Like I said, I'm not one to pull rank often, but your mismanagement of this school is abysmal" Twilight growled. 

"I am very well aware of your falsely given rank. However, as Luna is the one that installed me in this position, she is the only one, barring Celestia herself that can remove me" Ronald replied, a smug grin forming across his face.

Twilight gritted her teeth angrily, but managed to take a few deep breaths to calm herself down. "Fine, I'll speak with Luna then. I suggest you don't get too comfy in that chair. By the end of the day I suspect a far more qualified pony will be in it."

"Cute. Now if you could run along and...do whatever friendship princesses do that would be great. I have work to do an you're taking up more time than you're worth.

"You really don't like this guy do you?" Iron Eagle asked.

"Originally I found him little more than a pest. He wasn't very well liked in most places, except a very fringe group of pro-earth pony groups. Before this event I never took his antics seriously, occasionally getting bills in to be shot down, being a general racist jerk. So long as you don't give them a platform their horrible ideas usually don't get any traction." Twilight sighed. "I'm sure you read about him in history books though, about what he nearly accomplished."

"Yeah, but books probably doesn't send home exactly how terrible he was. I kinda want to see for myself personally" Iron Eagle said.

The room began to break away again, dissolving into black and slowly rebuilding the next memory. 

Iron Eagle and Twilight found themselves sitting in front of a very ornate pair of double doors. Each of them was deep blue with gold trimming. In the middle of each door was a brilliant sapphire shaped like a half crescent moon. 

"Wait, isn't this the door to Luna's personal quarters? I was expecting us to be transported to he night court or office" Iron Eagle said.

"Are you absolutely sure you want to do this Twilight?" A familiar voice could be heard echoing down the hall. 

"Yes, I want this resolved as soon as possible" past Twilight replied.

"Are you super sure? Honestly even I do not dare to wake up Luna in the middle of the day like this. It's practically asking to be blasted." 

"Celestia..." future Twilight said, gritting her teeth.

Iron Eagle watched as Princess Celestia slowly approached them. He stood at attention, just like the guards on either side of the hall did, each bowing as she passed by. She was a slightly different Celestia than what he was used to. She moved with far more power and grace, her mane was brighter and the colors more vivid. She also seemed to lack the look of perpetual tiredness she carried around her. Instead it was replaced with radiant power, so much so that he could feel it as she approached. 

"Yeah, she was always like that when we were still on good terms. The sensation of being around her even seeps into your memories; the power you are feeling from her is very much real." Future Twilight made a sideways glance at Iron Eagle, whom was ready to bow his head. "You don't have to do that, she can't see or interact with you in any way."

"S-sorry, just a habit that they ingrain into you hard during basic training. I wonder though; as a side tangent of sorts; if you could feel the power radiating from her back then, then how did she lose so many fights? Historically speaking I mean."

Twilight rolled her eyes at Iron Eagle. "A combination of her natural gentle nature, general combat incompetence and not intervening when she feels that it would be an opportunity for those below her to grow. The enemies that decided to pick fights with Luna on the other hoof, somehow thinking she was the easier target, were always sorely mistaken."

"Really? I didn't read much into that" Iron Eagle said.

"Well, sit back and watch. You're about to get a demonstration of what she was capable of" Twilight said. 

"Alright Twilight, I warned you. I'll be in the hall with the guards behind a barricade of sandbags if you need me. Royal guards, I suggest you all move about a hundred or so yards from the door and behind the sandbags I'm about to make. if you value your coats anyways." Celestia lowered her horn and fired a beam of rainbow light down the hall, forming a stack of sand bags about four feet tall in the middle and twenty feet wide.

"Wait, wh-" before Iron Eagle could ask what was going on, a dozen or so royal guards ran down the hall and jumped behind the sandbags, quickly followed by Celestia who popped he head over the top of the bags, quickly putting a green army helmet on her head. 

"Go on Twilight. We are ready here." Celestia yelled from down the hallway, giving a very forced grin.

"You're over reacting, how bad can she possibly be?" Past Twilight shook her head and opened the double doors just enough to slip in. 

A few tense moments passed and there seemed to be no real activity in the room. 

"Huh, this is a bit anti- climat-" A sudden roar came from Luna's room, a chilling roar that sent a chill down Iron Eagles spine.

"How dare you disturb my slumber!" Luna roared.

Within moments an explosion of epic proportions made a Twilight sized and shaped hole in the double doors as she flew through them. Her body skipped off the floor a couple times skidding to a halt upside down in front of the sand bags.

"Someone get number on that trolley?" Past Twilight said.

"You weren't kidding" Iron Eagle said, his mouth agape.

Past Twilight began to slowly stand up, but her body was in tatters. She was bleeding from her nose and eye sockets, her stagger did little to disguise the completely shattered bones on her left set of legs. She also appeared to have lost quite a few teeth and her fur coat seemed to be completely singed all the way around her body.

"Like I said, Luna was the far stronger fighter of the two. The reason you probably didn't read much into it is because the few that did decide to fight her were destroyed utterly. If there is any being, mortal or otherwise that I would fear to go head to head with; it would be her." Future Twilight stood up and walked toward her past self, shaking her head. 

"Sadly, this is the closest I have ever come to death since becoming an Alicorn. The pain back then was far beyond what a mortal body could sustain; if I had been just a few years younger..." Future Twilight sighed.

"Well, I did warn you Twilight. I suggest you lie down for a few minutes and let your body heal. Moving around after a blast like that isn't smart" Celestia suggested.

"How many ponies has Luna accidentally killed just by being woken up like that?" Iron Eagle asked, aghast. 

"None; she used to wake up using a reverse force shield; it pushes with enough force comparable with what magical energy is inside the creature being pushed. The guards all know better, but the few that have done it have gotten away with only a few scrapes and a broken bone or two. I made the mistake of putting up a shield on myself; as you can see it ended poorly."

"No, no , no what have I done!" Luna yelled as she ran past Iron Eagle, tears forming in her eyes. She stopped just a few few from Twilight, her hoof over her mouth. "T-those injuries, they are...so very grave." Luna bent over, running her horn over Twilight's body. "Hold still, I will help accelerate your healing." 

After a few moments, Twilight stood up, wiping the blood from her mouth. 

"Sister, may I ask why you were not healing her yourself? Surely you knew how much she pain she was in" Luna asked.

"I warned her well ahead of time of what could happen. I saw it fit that she not be coddled in her mistake; a reminder that while she may be functionally immortal, she is in no way immune to pain." Celestia said as she stood up.

Most of the guards began to slowly peek up above the sandbags and after making sure the coast was clear, returned to their posts.

"I see. Still, what could be so important as to risk waking me?" Luna asked.

Twilight took a few moments to speak, her body still shivering from the shock she sustained earlier. "I came here about your appointed dean of the Royal Flight Academy." 

"Shall I take your complaint first or put it in the the rest of them?" Luna turned on the spot, her horn lighting up with a blue glow. A couple seconds later a large sack flew from her quarters and landed in front of her. The bag slumped open revealing a virtual cascade of letters, some opened.

"So what is it he's doing this time? Is he trying to push weather denial again? Denial of deeds of unicorns? No more corn muffins in the cafeteria...ok, maybe that last complaint was mine." Luna picked up letter after letter, listing infractions varying from the incredibly minor to incredibly serious.

"His school is responsible for publishing flight history record keeping or at the very least is sub contracted out to do it. He completely expunged all of Rainbow Dash's records from the books. Even books going further back than when he was dean are missing them" Twilight explained.

"This is a very serious accusation Twilight, are you absolutely sure of this?" Celestia asked.

"Yeah, I checked as many books as I could. It's like he recalled multiple older versions and had her expunged from them. I even visited him at his office to confirm my suspicions. He's also cutting dozens of programs from the school; citing a lack of funds. I...also kind of blew his doors up." Twilight stared at the floor, her cheeks running bright red.

"I would chastise you for lack of control , but..." Luna stared back at her door which still had a Twilight shaped hole in it. "I fear I am not one to talk about keeping my temper in check."

"I know...I just..." Twilight sighed. "Rainbow Dash wants to try to break the world speed record again. I tried to talk her out of it by showing her she still had records left that haven't been touched in a long time."

Celestia shook her head. "She is well into her mid-fifties. I know she was once the fastest flier alive, but the stress on her body at this stage of her life could lead to severe injury or even cripple her."

"That's what I told her, but I'm afraid she might do something stupid." Twilight said.

Luna took a deep breath. "Sadly, I cannot remove him from office. I am bound by the contract that we both signed a year ago."

"Then...then what can I do Luna? This is a miscarriage of justice! He's intentionally destroying a ponies legacy for his own self-"

"Calm yourself, Twilight." Luna interrupted.  "I said I couldn't remove him; I can however forcefully cancel his publishing contract and have Rainbow Dash's flight records reinstated. There of course will be a recall of all the older books to rectify this injustice." 

"Oh, Thank you so-"

"However" Luna interrupted Twilight again. "This will cost quite a bit and I fear he will use my decision as leverage to gain power elsewhere. He will attempt to put the blame of his own poor financial decision on me and any political allies I may have in order to gain favor in the voting block. I cannot foresee the damage he can do in the future, but I an predict he will continue to be a right pain in the flanks."

"Like trying to run for senate again? Didn't he get demolished last time?" Twilight put her hoof on her chin. "Actually, why did you hire him for that position?" Twilight asked.

"Lack of options mostly. He managed to bribe the pony I was going to give the job into dropping out or at least that's why the rumor was. As much as I hate to say it he weaseled his way into being a top pick. He may seem ignorant and a dullard, but he's quite good at petting all the right manes if you get my drift." Luna lifted the bag of letters into the air and send it flying back into her room. "Out of three candidates he won due to the others simply dropping out. That said, I do believe it was ultimately the right choice or at least, he was before the mail started flowing in."

"How can she say that? He's clearly nothing but a self serving jerk" Iron Eagle complained.

"Why?" Twilight asked, her head tilted sideways and lips curled in disgust.

"Keep your friends close and your enemies close, Twilight. It's how you avoid political disaster." Luna sighed "It's one of Celestia's older doctrines she uses."

"Keep your friends and enemies rich and you will soon find out which is which." Celestia said, correcting Luna. "You will understand once you take a more active role in governing" Celestia added.

"I guess Luna's solution is adequate for now. Personally I would like to see that racist waste of space eat crow, but I can bide my time for now. Thank you Luna." Twilight nuzzled Luna under her neck affectionately, Luna returning the favor by nuzzling her back. 

"By the way...how much do I owe you for the door?" Twilight asked.

"Oh that? Don't worry about it, tis just a door. I'm just glad I didn't cause any lasting damage to you" Luna replied.

Iron Eagle looked on, clearly confused how Twilight could be so...affectionate with Celestia's sister. "I don't think I have ever seen Luna and Celestia be that affectionate with another pony. I mean, yeah Cadence had no problems with public displays of affection; but this seems out of character from the current Luna and Celestia I know."

"Back then we truly loved one another, depended on the others for support" future Twilight said somberly.

"I guess I best get going. This may not be an immediate solution, but I'm sure Rainbow will understand." 

The room began to break apart into a void again. Slowly it began to reassemble into the cloudy ground that was Cloudsdale. It was a street Iron had been to quite a few times in his youth, though most if not all of the shops on either side of the street were entirely different than the ones he knew.

"Hey, this is Storm street! I cut school at the arcade a lot on this street!" Iron Eagle said.

"Cut?" future Twilight said, glaring at Iron Eagle.

"Errr...." Iron Eagle grinned nervously at Twilight, rubbing his leg behind his neck. "Would socially redistributed time be a better description?"

"No, no it wouldn't" Twilight replied, rolling her eyes disapprovingly.

"What are you waiting for? A pay raise? Arrest her and her cohorts for stealing out of my office!" A very familiar voice with a haughty overtone caught Iron Eagles attention.

"W-what?" Minty Fresh said, stepping back.

"Are you dense or something pardner? You fired minty here and she left without so much as cleaning out her desk. The only crime that occurred was the emotional damage you did to this poor mare" Applejack said, stepping in front of Minty to protect her.

"That and your stupid haircut. I mean, I'm not Rarity, but if she was here she would ask what squirrel curled up and died on your head" Rainbow Dash added, mockingly.

The two police ponies on either side of Ronald barely managed to contain their sniggers. 

"I'm sorry, who are you again? I don't speak to failures" Ronald retorted.

"Excuse me? You want to repeat that to me one more time?" Rainbow Dash said, getting right up in Ronald Thumps face.

"I said, I don't speak to low class, ignorant, inbred, bottom of my hoof failu-"

Iron Eagle watched as Rainbow Dash moved like lightning, landing two quick body shots followed by a vicious right hook that sent Ronald Thump tumbling over onto his back.

"She's...really fast for a mare her age. That was what, three solid hits in under a second?" Iron Eagle asked, still mesmerized. 

"She was a 6th degree black-belt in three separate martial arts. Frankly I'm still surprised to this day how much she managed to hold back" future Twilight added, bemused.

Ronald managed to drag himself off the floor, barely managing to stand up on all fours. "Well, what are you waiting for? Arrest her for assault!"

"Yeah, no. You asked for that one bud" one police pony said.

"Are you kidding me? That's THE Rainbow Dash. My kids would crucify me if I arrested her and my apartment isn't big enough to contain the hate mail I would get. Like Bob said, you asked for it" The other police pony added.

"Rainbow Dash stand down!" Twilight yelled.

"I wasn't gonna hit him anymore Twilight, I promise. I hit him just hard enough to get my message through" Rainbow Dash said, grinning ear to ear.

Twilight sighed and walked over to Ronald. "Accusing your former receptionist of theft when I watched her leave without so much as cleaning out her desk is one thing, but using it as an excuse to harass Rainbow is another."

"As if I need an excuse to call her a cheating, lying, manipulative failure of a pony. I bet she even managed to cheat on all her world record...oh wait, those don't exist" Ronald said smugly.

Other ponies in the room gasped, most of them mumbling comments about him lying. One filly even got smacked upside the back of the head for calling Ronald an F bomb.

"Why does he seem to have such a massive hate boner for her?" Iron asked. 

"She was one of the major donors against his campaign. The organizers she hired helped empower the Bison enough to make sure he never took office. Ronald had a long history of going after potential political opponents" future Twilight said.

Noting that he had gotten the attention of all nearby ponies, Ronald stepped toward Twilight, grinning. "If you little failure of a friend wants to prove me wrong  then I have a challenge for her."

Twilight's eyes went wide for a moment, her face quickly contorting into an angry stare. She walked right up to Ronald's face and mumbled under her breath "Don't you even dare, you so much as utter those words and I will make it my personal crusade to ruin you."

Ronald snorted at Twilights threat and turned to the crowd. "A contest! If Rainbow Dash is half the mare she thinks she is, then she should be able to break the current airspeed record for flying."

"You're on!" Rainbow Dash yelled, without so much as a moment of hesitation.

The crowd of ponies cheered, most of them chanting Rainbow Dash's name in unison. However, a few of the older pegasus had looks of deep concern on their faces.

Twilight shot Rainbow Dash a worried look. Her lips began to move without any sound coming out. She seemed to be moving her lips as to say "You can't do this, it's too dangerous."

Rainbow Dash noticed the worried look on Twilight's face and shot her a confident, albeit terrified glance in response.

The scene once again began to break apart, fading back to the black void, much to Iron Eagle's dismay.

"I thought this only happened when a teleport was occurring. It just keeps doing this ...scene change for the lack of a better word, leaving out some of the details." Iron Eagle stared at Twilight, hoping she would have an answer.

"Maybe the potion is causing intentional memory lapses. I don't know for sure without further testing. However..." Twilight pointed ahead of her, the void began to rebuild the memory bit by bit. They were now sitting in Twilight Sparkles home, the once combination castle and public library. One could hear the chirping of crickets outside, the moonlight was shining in through the windows; illuminating the books on nearby shelves. 

The sound of chatter came from behind them and the door to the room swung open. Past Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Applejack walked into the room, each seemingly having something on their minds, but being hesitant to be the first pony to bring it up.

"Twilight" Applejack said, as she jolted her eyes slightly to the left to indicate Rainbow Dash next to her. "I need to hit the hay, my brother's probably gonna growl at me for sittin him with the rest of the chores today and I need to be up early tomorrow to, well, remedy that problem. I trust...you can deal with the elephant in the room in my absence?"

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes as Twilight merely nodded in response.

"Okaley dokeley then. I'll see you two latter, good night." Applejack turned around and walked through the doorway, closing it behind her.

Past Twilight walked toward the back wall of the room where the fireplace was and lit it using her magic. She sat down on her haunches and beckoned Rainbow Dash over to her.

"We...we really need to talk about what happened earlier today. I didn't want to kill the moment earlier, but this is very serious" Twilight said somberly.

Rainbow Dash sighed and sat opposite of Twilight. "I know, I messed up, but...he insulted my pride like that. I couldn't refuse his challenge; not with so many ponies watching me. Especially all the colts and fillies."

"I know, but you should also realize that your body is in no shape to take on the world airspeed record." Twilight levitated a book from one of the shelves and opened it, quickly flipping through the pages. "If memory serves the current world record holder was Fireball, yes?"

"Spitfire's daughter, yeah" Rainbow Dash replied.

"And she beat your previous world record by how much again?" Twilight asked.

"About six hundred kilometers an hour or so" Rainbow Dash said dejectedly.

Twilight closed the book and stared at Rainbow Dash for a moment. "By about six hundred and twenty or so kilometers to be exact." Twilight levitated the book back onto the shelf. "I know your pride doesn't like to take a hit, so I formulated a plan to get you out of this inane challenge while letting you save face."

"I don't want to pull out of-"

"Let me finish before you argue with me Rainbow" Twilight interrupted. "It's not anything too terrible."

"I'll bite Twi, what is your plan?"Rainbow Dash asked.

"As you are very well aware, a pegasus mare your age starts losing some of the magic built into her body. This is a linear decline in both airspeed, agility and in some cases lift" Twilight explained.

"Roundabout way of calling me old" Rainbow Dash huffed.

"Sorry, I'll get to the point. You see, I can call in a few favors with doctors I know to have you deemed unfit to compete. I can even talk Celestia herself into signing off on the doctors examination. See, some ponies would question a pony doctor calling you unfit, but no pony would bother to question Celestia's judgement on the subject." Twilight smiled "See, it's an all win plan!"

"Twilight...I, I'm gonna compete. Nothing you can say will talk me out of this." Rainbow Dash lowered her head, as if feeling ashamed of herself.

"Rainbow, you can't do this. You could lose the ability to fly for the rest of your life, be crippled or worse; die in the attempt." Twilight slowly raised her voice "I'm not ready to bury a friend. I don't want my last memories of you to be dying from exertion in the air, or spending the rest of your life in a wheelchair!"

"And I don't want to spend the rest of my life being called a coward, a has-been and a failure!" Rainbow dash growled. "That pony is out to destroy everything I have achieved in my life, to destroy my legacy in its entirety. To-to..." Rainbow wiped away a tear. "To make sure I die forgotten."

"Rainbow, I already told you I have the history books situation well and covered. It's only a temporary problem! It will go away soon!" Twilight pleaded. 

"That's easy for you to say! I'm here wasting away while you sit there, ageless; in a the body of a twenty something. Ponies will always know who you are; you will always be there for them. I don't have that much time left Twilight, that legacy is all I have to my name." Tears were now freely flowing down Rainbow Dash's cheeks, staining the carpet below.

"You could DIE Rainbow. Your pride isn't worth losing your life over!" Rainbow Dash yelled.

"Then maybe I should die! I would rather die a champion doing what I love than die in some hospital bed a dozen or so years from now!" Rainbow Dash yelled, her breathing heavy.

"I- I..." Twilight didn't know what to say, how to retort. 

Rainbow Dash collapsed on the floor, sobbing intensely. "I-I have to do this Twilight. I don't even care if I break the stupid record. I have to do this for me! I-I have to know where I stand. I can't look at myself in the mirror if I don't at least try!"

Twilight's eyes teared up, her head kept shifting from left to right, almost as if she was imagining the options set before her. She was clearly distraught and confused as to how to proceed. On one hoof she would possibly be signing her own friends death warrant...on the other, her friend would live, but never be the same; possibly even cutting ties with her entirely. 

Iron Eagle watched as past Twilight contemplated what Rainbow Dash was telling her. Watching as she slowly realized that  this was important to her and that denying her this...could mean the end of their relationship.

"I should have pushed her harder back then" future Twilight said. "Instead I let my own feelings cloud my judgement, my own yearnings to keep her as a friend over what was clearly in her best interests." 

"I kinda get where Rainbow is coming from. I mean, I'm not like a lot of pegasus, but a large chunk of us value our pride more than anything in the whole world. I may not, but I get where she was coming from" Iron Eagle said. 

"Rainbow...I'll help you. Under one condition, that you train up you body for a few months and we put a safety device on you. If..if I'm to help you, I need to have at least little piece of mind." Twilight walked over to Rainbow Dash, nuzzling her. "I- I couldn't bear to lose you."

Rainbow Dash stared into Twilight's eyes. "Y-you mean it egghead? You will help me out with training and everything?"

Twilight pulled away smiling. "Well, not right away. I still need to contact the inventors guild about getting a device to keep you out of harms way, though I do have a few ideas. Also, I have to figure out where we can do your training, away from all the reporters and prying eyes."

"And to hide it from Applejack?" Rainbow Dash asked. "She...didn't seem to keen on letting me try."

"Well, maybe at first. I want her to warm up to the idea slowly if at all possible. You know she can be stubborn...like another pony I know." Twilight pointed at Rainbow Dash.

"I know, but you gotta understand where I'm coming from." Rainbow Dash lowered her head. "Also...I guess I was kinda jealous of you for a moment there. I guess knowing that being an Alicorn gives you youth, power and effectively unlimited fame kinda hurts. Deep down I resented that, knowing my own body was starting to fall apart."

Twilight sighed and stared into the fireplace. "I actually asked Celestia to either restore my own mortality or grant my friends extended mortality. She refused on the grounds that it would be incredibly unfair for other ponies and that I should have more time as an Alicorn to adjust." Twilight turned back to Rainbow Dash "I even discussed possibly turning the lot of you into Alicorns. However, Celestia never told me how to initiate such a transformation and she mentioned the pool of power Alicorns pull from is limited; meaning it only recharges every few centuries."

Rainbow Dash sighed "Yeah, I know. You mentioned that a couple times before. Still must suck though, for both parties I mean. Us getting older..."

"And me sitting here not able to do a thing about it" past Twilight replied.

The two sat there for what seemed like twenty minutes, each one not wanting to be the one to break the awkward silence.

"Sooo...can we start that training now or?" Rainbow Dash asked, doing her best not to sound desperate.

"Not right now silly, it's the dead of night. Come talk to me in a couple days. I should have everything setup for you by then" Twilight said, giggling.

"Alright! Workout session with Twilight, hope all that book reading didn't get you out of shape!" Rainbow Dash turned and opened the door. She then looked over her shoulder "And Twilight...thanks." Rainbow Dash walked out the door, closing it softly behind her.

"So, I guess you gave in then?" A low rumbling voice came from above, startling Twilight.

"Spike, don't do that!" Twilight complained, jumping slightly into the air before turning to him. "H-how do you know what we talked about?"

"I'm not deaf sis."A towering shadow walked into the light coming from the fireplace, it was around ten or so feet tall and easily dwarfed Twilight.

"Wait, is that spike? Somehow I imagined him a bit...bigger" Iron Eagle said.

"Dragons take a few centuries to reach the size you seen him in my home. Wyverns and Pit Drakes are the ones that grow fast; both of which are not true dragons" future Twilight said.

"Didn't know that. Also, what's a Pit Drake?" Iron Eagle asked.

"A kind of quasi-dragon that hunts and eats ponies, goats and other small prey. Thankfully they are mostly relegated to very far off desert environments" Twilight replied.

The room began to break apart again, this time far more quickly than before. As the scene slowly built itself Iron could make out hundreds of silhouettes; ponies of all ages where gathered behind loose netting pinned up on poles. He could make out food vendors of all kinds lined up behind said crowd selling what appeared to be everything from Rainbow Dash wigs to rainbow colored Tacos. The scene continued to build, the sky a completely clear and a nice mid day blue.

On the far end near what looked light a launch pad were a trio of thrones. Each with their own markings to signify whom it belonged to; A half crescent moon for Luna, a sun for Celestia and a crystal heart for Cadence.

"I don't see a chair for you Twilight" Iron Eagle said.

"I wasn't super into public events back then. Also, I was Rainbow Dash's coach and advisor; it was much better for me to be on the field than a spectator" future Twilight said.

Suddenly the low roar from the crowd became deafening. Chanting of Rainbow Dash's name echoed across the field, almost to the point of being ear drum popping. From behind the three thrones stepped out a small entourage of ponies and a fairly tall dragon. At the front of the group was Rainbow Dash, smiling and nodding at the crowd. She seemed to be wearing a dark blue vest, a red and blue ball cap and her signature Wonderbolts flight suit.

To her left was Twilight Sparkle, carrying a briefcase around her neck along with a name tag to identify her job. To her right was an orange pegasus with a light purple mane that Iron didn't recognize. Behind the orange pegasus was the sister of Rarity; Sweetie Belle being followed shortly by Rarity herself.

"Jeeze, every pony in hall of heroes is here. There are even a few I don't really recognize" Iron Eagle said, barely containing his exuberance. 

"The orange pony with the purple-ish mane is Scootaloo and the one with the blue star spangled cape is Trixie Lulamoon. The pony next to Rarity is-"

"Sweetie Belle, I know. She ended making a pretty popular line of insulated horse shoes a long time ago" Iron Eagle interrupted.

"That seems...a  bit outside what someone of your demographic should know. I mean, I get you're a little bit of a history buff, but that tidbit is a little obscure; especially for a soldier." Twilight raised an eyebrow at Iron Eagle.

"Well, you see. One of my ancestors dated Sweetie Belle's daughter and well, they got hitched. So, we are kinda related by marriage" Iron Eagle said, embarrassed. "Quite a few of the ponies you knew have family lines that still exist. Well, except for-

"Rainbow Dash. She never married, though she considered Scootaloo an adopted sister; though I never really kept in contact with her after...well, you will see" Twilight interrupted. 

"You hear that crowd Twilight? This is what I live for!" Rainbow Dashed waved to the crowd. 

"Now, now darling, don't let it all go to your head" Rarity said, bemused.

"Nah, it's her day. She can have a little bit of an ego" Trixie added.

"Oh, hey. I didn't expect to see her here!" Rainbow Dash ran over to one of the corners of the crowd. "Fireball! Spitfire! I didn't expect to see you two here!" Rainbow yelled.

"Why wouldn't we be?" Spitfire asked.

"Yeah, it's great to see you flying competitively again!" Fireball lifted the left side of her mane up, showing off the outline of a tattoo that looked exactly like Rainbow Dash's cutie mark. "I don't even care if you beat my record or not today. I'll always be your number one fan!"

Rainbow Dash smiled, though she could practically feel the glare coming from Scootaloo right towards Fireball; though Fireball either didn't care or didn't notice. "I'll give it my best shot."

Suddenly a small group of royal guards from each side walked onto either side of the thrones and lifted trumpets up to their mouths. A quick blow into the horn quickly silenced the crowd as Luna, Cadence and Celestia descended from above to take their seats. The crowd watched silently as one of the guards quickly moved a microphone up toward Celestia.

"We are gathered here today to witness Rainbow Dash-"

The crowd erupted in a low roar at the mention of Rainbow Dash's name, interrupting Celestia briefly.

"As well as many others try to break world records in flight. I would like to remind everypony to have the upmost respect for each of these contenders, I will no tolerate jeering from the crowd. Each and every one of these brave ponies are risking their life and health for our entertainment; they are all champions in my eyes." Celestia passed the microphone to Luna.

"The games will begin shortly, once the games commissioner checks the equipment." Luna waved a pony over in front of the throne. He was a much older greying pony, one with barely a single black stripe going down his rather wild mane and a blue coat that was very faded.

"Allow me to introduce Celková sabotáž, our recently appointed games commissioner!" Luna yelled.

"Wait, why does that name ring a bell?" Iron Eagle asked.

"Because he was pushed into his position by that asshole over there" future Twilight pointed to the other side and there stood Ronald Thump, grinning from ear to ear.

Future Twilight wasn't the only one to notice his presence as past Twilight pointed him out as well. "See Rainbow, here's your chance to beat a record and push it right in his smug face." 

Rainbow Dash smiled. "Well, at the very least I can show him I'm no joke."

Twilight set the briefcase she was carrying around her neck on the ground and opened it. Inside was a single small silver bracelet with a clock interface and a few small black boxes with wires going in between them on the surface. Twilight lifted the bracelet our of the briefcase and wrapped it firmly around Rainbow Dash's left foreleg.

"Listen, the tests we ran this morning showed you can only go maybe a dozen or so kilometers above the current record safely. This device will slow you down if you go over the safe speed." Twilight reached down and touched the clock interface on the front of the bracelet. 

The device buzzed for a moment and the clock showed all zeros on the front, indicating that Rainbow Dash's current speed. 

Several other ponies started to line up near the throne, each of them putting on similar devices on various legs. 

"Mine looks a bit different than theirs, Twilight" Rainbow Dash said, noting that the other ponies devices were copper and looked quite a bit lighter overall.

"Yours has experimental equipment in it. Yours will still report airspeed back to the ground, but it also slows you down with a generated reverse thrust wave, in case you get to close to your max speed" Twilight explained.

"Hold on a second; I've never seen an airspeed counter like that before!" The games commissioner walked over to Rainbow Dash, waving the stallion behind him that he was fit to fly.

"You should have gotten the paperwork from the inventors guild. Rainbow Dash is much older than all the contenders here; this device will make sure she doesn't over exert herself" Twilight explained.

"Still, rules are rules. I have to check the calibration on all airspeed devices before use" the games commissioner said.

He reached into a black saddlebag and pulled out what looked like a jagged red wand from his backpack. He then shot a quick glance over to Ronald and then leaned over to Rainbow Dash's left foreleg. A spark jumped from the wand and the numbers on the clock went wild for a second before all resetting to zero.

"Why did he look at Ronald just now?" Iron asked.

Twilight was silent, but the look of disgust on her face told the story better than words ever could.

"Hey, what was that just now?" past Twilight asked.

"I reset the gizmo to it's default setting. It's to prevent tampering with it to make the wearer seem faster than they actually are." The games commissioner put the wand back in his bag and signaled to Celestia that all was well.

"I should have rechecked the calibration back then..." future Twilight growled.

"I have the all clear from the commissioner and now I pass the microphone to Princess Cadence." Celestia stepped away, motioning Cadence to move forward. 

"Ahem" Cadence cleared her throat and tapped on the Microphone a couple of times to make sure it was working. "As you all know Rainbow Dash will be the first flier in the sky today. She had recently had her records re-instated after a clerical error" Cadence gave a slight pause sending a somewhat mean glare at Ronald's direction. "Accidentally erased some of her achievements. She is here to prove that even an old mare can show some whipper snappers how it's done as she will be attempting to break the world air speed record."

Suddenly a young filly ran up to the stage, yelling "Where is da pwince?" At princess Cadence. Her mother quickly ran up and pulled her away by the tail, apologizing profusely.

Cadence gave a hearty laugh. "Not to worry little one, Shining Armor is doing just fine. He's currently supervising construction in the crystal empire and could not attend today. Also, before anyone asks, yes, Flurry Heart is still being a bit...stubborn to say the least."

"What does she mean by that?" Iron Eagle asked.

"I thought you knew. I mean, you have probably had more contact with her than I have in the past centuries" Twilight replied snidely.

Iron Eagle scratched the back of his ear nervously. "Cadence never really talked about her much. I heard she is still around, ruling some far off kingdom somewhere."

"Well, I really don't know too much myself. I know she got heavy into the dark arts at some point, dunno what happened after that." Twilight mused for a moment, maybe she got sick of living and found a way to kill herself before I did? Then again if she did I would have never heard about it...

Iron Eagle stared at future Twilight quizzically, raising one eyebrow in suspicion.

"Without further delay, let the games begin!" Cadence yelled, tossing the microphone aside.

"Rainbow Dash, Rainbow Dash!" The crowd cheered in unison. 

Rainbow Dash walked a few dozen or so feet onto the airstrip, waving at her adoring fans until she reached her starting point. She then slowly lowered her goggles over her eyes, slightly adjusting them for comfort. She slowly began to flap her wings and flick her tail, making sure they everything was in order. The roar of the crowd began to die down, everypony watching Rainbow intently. 

With a powerful gust of air she took off from the airstrip straight up into the sky performing an aileron roll followed quickly by a barrel roll maneuver. She then stopped midair to inspect her path for obstacles. After a brief moment she began to move, quickly gaining speed. 

Huh? Rainbow Dash thought. That's weird, I feel a bit heavier... Rainbow Dash stared at her bracelet and noticed a green glow emanating from it. That can't be right, I'm nowhere near at my limit for the slowdown to be in effect... Rainbow Dash thought for a moment; should she wave down Twilight and tell her of the malfunction? No, that would kill the crowd and they man suspend my attempt entirely to investigate. The thought of going through more red tape to get another shot at this was already bad enough...but the thought of the shame she would suffer from her fans was far more pertinent in her mind. 

"I can't let them down!" Rainbow Dash yelled.

She put both of her forelegs forward, forming a cone shape at the end. She took a deep breath and began to beat her wings as hard as she could. She pivoted her body into a sharp dive. She could feel the front of her body rattle as the air in front of her began to form a mach cone. Her body felt as if it was gaining a lot of weight quickly and the bracelet on her foreleg was starting to push back, trying it's hardest to slow her down. The mach cone forming in front of her began to shake her body violently. If she didn't find a way to put more power into her wings soon, she would lose too much speed to even make a sonic boom; let alone break the airspeed record.

Pull yourself together girl, you're the best there is. You don't believe in slow or failure!

It was all or nothing, Rainbow Dash began to beat her wings harder and harder; every beat becoming a little more painful to maintain. She could see bit of the warp cone in front of her warping, spitting out small changes in color; a signal that she was at the sonic rainboom barrier. She was only a few hundred yards from the ground, if she didn't rainboom now and pull up, she would fail.

Just a bit more... 

The crow watched with baited breath as Rainbow Dash pulled up. Just as she did a explosion of rainbow colors flew out in multiple directions, followed by Rainbow Dash gaining a streak of Rainbow colors behind her.

"Good going Dash, just a bit more!" Past Twilight yelled. 

Rainbow Dash's breath was going a mile a minute as she did her best to maintain her speed. Her wings were practically on fire, her heart felt as if it were going to explode in her chest at any moment. The bracelet on her foreleg whined under the strain of trying to slow her down. 

"Just a little bit more!" Rainbow Dash growled.

Rainbow Dash put everything she had left into her wings and pushed forward. The bracelet whined one more time in a futile attempt to slow her, but then went silent. Suddenly she felt as if time was standing still, everything around her was little more than bright white light. She could just barely make out the crowd and trees below. Her body no longer hurt but at the same time she could feel her flight suit setting fire at the seams. She looked down and noticed every second she was passing over Saddle Arabia, Hoofington, Canterlot and Ponyville. 

Trippy, I wonder how fast i'm going?

In the crowd below was an entirely different story, most of them were standing horrified at a white light flying overhead multiple times a second. Past Twilight was jogging in place nervously, yelling at Luna, Celestia and Cadence to do something.

"She's at 30% the speed of light!" Twilight yelled staring at the odometer on her briefcase with a  dumbfounded expression on her face. "If we don't find a way to slow her down she will die!"

Celestia, Cadence and Luna all shot Twilight nervous glances and then looked at one another. Each seemingly at a loss as to what to do.

"Twilight...I'm at a loss as to how. There's no way we can stop her at that speed safely" Celestia said.

Twilight stared at the odometer, the numbers going higher and higher. "Please, Rainbow Dash, stop before it's too late..."

"This...seems to be a problem" Rainbow Dash said. The seems on her flight suit had burned away and the suit itself flew off her body as if she was covered in butter, burning into ash seconds later. Okay, pretty sure I broke the record at this point, time to slow down a bit. Rainbow Dash tried to angle her wings to catch air in order to slow herself. However, the second she even moved them a hundredth of a degree to the braking position the wider feathers at the bottom edge of her wings sheered off entirely and set fire behind her. 

"I...I can't slow down?"  Rainbows thoughts raced. If she couldn't slow down naturally, then maybe she could maybe slow down by drag alone. She could stop flapping her wings and glide to a safer speed. 

Okay then, just gotta stop flapping my-

It was just then the realization struck her; she hadn't been flapping her wings for a couple minutes now; except, she was somehow still gaining speed. "This doesn't make any sense!" She yelled angrily. Her mind raced, thought after thought and solution after solution being struck down. All except one, a theory she once barely paid attention to in science class.

That means...I will have to go faster and break that barrier to go back in time to stop myself from going this fast to begin with...

Down below the crowd seemed to be enjoying the light show, but puzzled as to why after breaking the speed record she kept going. 

Twilight could only watch as the odometer kept going up. Rainbow Dash had already surpassed seventy percent of light speed and was still climbing. There has to be something I can do to stop her...or slow her down. Twilight thought. "Time parallel skip? No, don't know any spells for that. Maybe a quantum entanglement? No, that would just make the object I entangle with her go light speed as well. Maybe I could pop back in time to stop her?"

A stern shake no from Celestia quickly put that idea to bed. 

"Why not!?" Twilight cried. "It will only be a couple seconds!"

"That is a fair point." Iron Eagle mused "I mean the spell to travel back in time is heavily restricted, but you could have easily-"

Future Twilight shook her head. "No, I couldn't. I used too many time jumps to stop Tirek from rising to power during our second encounter with him. The fabric of time can only handle so much jumping and righting itself in a certain time frame. If I had jumped back in time then it still wouldn't have stopped present Dash from breaking the time barrier."

"I don't follow" Iron Eagle said.

"If I jumped back, the fabric of time was already seriously stressed, it may have caused a quantum time explosion if Rainbow Dash went back in time at the same time. Think of time as an accordion, it can be compressed when jumping around to add to it, but eventually that compression will fail if abused. If time jumping were safe then Luna or Celestia would have used it to stop the potion from spilling on us to begin with." Twilight shook her head somberly. "It will be millions of years before it is safe to time jump again. I regret ever using it against Tirek..."

Past Twilight kept coming up with new ideas, only to shoot them down seconds later due to some technicality, lack of time or ability. She kept at it, until a flash of light and an small explosion broke her out of her panic stricken chain of thought. Rainbow Dash had vanished.

The crowd went silent, the only sound that could be heard was the billowing of a light eastern wind on the trees and grass. A couple seconds later another flash of light appeared on the runway and there stood Rainbow Dash; her entire body trembling. 

"Rainbow!" Twilight and her friends ran as fast as their legs could carry them, stopping only a few feet short of her. 

"Rainbow!? Are you alright?" Twilight asked the panic and worry clear in her voice.

Rainbow Dash smiled and stared at Twilight. "Yeah, egghead. Everything is f..fi...fine..."

Rainbow Dash collapsed on the runway, her body shaking violently. 

"Rainbow!" Twilight ran up to Rainbow Dash, holding her head up in her forelegs. "Dash, what's wrong! Where does it hurt!? I can heal you I can-"

"Sorry egghead...I...I'm...Sorrrr...yy" Rainbow Dash said.

Rainbow Dash body began lose color, her rainbow mane and coat fading to shades of grey and then black and then grey again. Her entire body quaked for a moment and then laid still. Within moments her body became as ash, breaking apart on the spot and falling through Twilight's forelegs. 

"Rainbow Dash? Rainbow Dash!" Twilight yelled. She pawed at the ash pile on the ground and then began to fire spells in quick succession at the pile of ashes. 

"Sugar cube!" Applejack yelled, grabbing onto Twilight by her midsection and pulling her away.

"No, shes not gone, I can still save her!" Twilight yelled, struggling against her friend. However after a few more futile spell cast, she collapsed on the ground, crying profusely. "No...this can't be happening." Twilight watched as the pile of ash slowly began to fade away, leaving only a single feather from Rainbow Dash behind.

It took a few moments to sink in, but The mood in the crowd changed from confusion, disbelief and then sadness. Most of the ponies were crying and the few that managed to keep their composure were just barely holding back the tears. Many of the other fliers head their heads bowed respectfully for their fallen comrade. Even the thrones setup toward the back had it fair share of noise coming from it; Cadence had broken down and was crying into Luna's shoulder.

"Why! Why did she go that far mom!?" Twilight could heard Fireball scream from the crowd. She glanced over and found her collapsed on the ground, her face in her mothers coat. "I should have never set that stupid record, then she would still be here!"

The mood was no different in the group of Twilight's friends. Rarity had broken down sobbing uncontrollably, refusing to be consoled by her sister. Scootaloo just stared off into the sky, completely devoid of any kind of activity as if she was still in shock and disbelief as to what just occurred, Spike trying in vain to snap her out of her trance.

Iron Eagle stood there, dumbfounded as to what exactly happened. He had read before that Rainbow Dash died on this day, though the books he read attributed her death to exhaustion. This however, was a completely different story than what he was raised to believe. He turned to Twilight to try and ask her for a answer, but noticed she was absolutely livid. She seemed to be glaring angrily at somepony; at first he thought she may be glaring at Celestia, but after tracing her stare he noticed it fell on the one pony in the crowd devoid of any kind of sad emotion; Ronald Thump. 

"I swear if I knew then what I knew now, I woulda burned his sorry behind alive on a stake then and there" Twilight growled.

Doing his best to ignore her violent outburst, Iron pressed on with his question."So...what exactly happened?" Iron Asked, still lost as to what exactly occurred.

Twilight stood up, still visibly shaking with anger. "He blackmailed the games commissioner specifically to tamper with her bracelet. Mind you we didn't find out about it till years later when he died and left it in his journal, long after Ronald was executed." Twilight sighed "as for what exactly happened, time was still heavily damaged and compressed going backward, but not forward."

Iron Eagle scratched his head. "Errrmmm, I think I get it? Sorry, theoretical science was never my strong suit."

Twilight rolled her eyes "And to think you are related to me. To put it in laymen terms she went so fast she skipped forward in time well past the heat death of the universe and went so far forward that she managed to reach quantum breakdown of the universe. There since she was near the end of time she was able to get back to where she started. Since time was able to right itself at that point."

"That...I think that breaks physics in some ways. Also, you figured that out that quickly?" Iron asked.

Twilight seemed taken aback for a moment, seemingly not registering that Iron had complemented her. "No, I figured it out years after the fact. I'm smart, but I'm not that smart. Took a long while to get around the math. Unfortunately, Dash far exceeded the abilities of Alicorn magic. She was traveling at least a couple dozen times the speed of light, if not more."

Iron stood there, his mouth agape. "B-but I read that record, it's not listed as such!" Iron Eagle lifted his his hoof, tapping his chin. "Also, that still doesn't explain what happened to her."

"Because the computer handling the odometer could only register mach fifty five or so. The odometer itself worked fine, the computer hit an error around that point. As for Rainbow Dash...time caught up with her; she brute forced the cosmos and the second she stopped it pushed right back, aging her billions, if not trillions of years in mere seconds." Twilight stood up and stared somberly at her former self.

"Why Applejack! Why did I say yes to her! Why didn't I be a good friend!?" Past Twilight cried, pulling on her friend.


A tear shed from future Twilight's eye as she turned away toward Iron Eagle.


"I hope you're ready for the other failures...they only get worse from here."