Twilight has opened Star Swirl's lost journal and discovered a secret that has shaped history, and will now change her future.
Star Swirl the Bearded is one of The most influential ponies of all time. So why is it that behind all the myths and legends of the pony, none seem to know where he came from, and none know what happened to him? Who was Star Swirl? Twilight Sparkle will learn, from the stallion's own journal, filled with his memories (literally), who he was.
This was one of the best moments of Twilight’s life. Top 5 for sure… probably, she’d have to check her list. Well whatever! This was still huge. The Canterlot Archives just went through their yearly inventory check, and they found a lost book! That alone would be something to celebrate, but this book was especially special! Star Swirl the Bearded’s personal journal! Oh but that was not all! No ma’am! This journal was enchanted in such a way that no one could read it! A logbook attached showed that ponies had been trying to open this book since Star Swirls disappearance up until about two hundred years ago when it was lost. Even Celestia and Luna had tried to open it without success! And now the mysterious book sat at Twilights hooves along with a letter from Celestia asking if ‘she would care to try to unlock it’.
As if she even had to ask.
Hundreds had tried, all had failed, and now Twilight prepared herself. She gathered her wits, amassed her powers, and made a check list. Consulting with her books, Twilight created The Ultimate Book Unlocker(Version1.00 Patent Pending), a spell made from every other known Key spell used to unlock such enchanted literature. There are quite a few too, as almost every serious spellcrafter uses such spells to protect their research. Twilight’s spell would cycle through them all, usually you wouldn’t do this because it would cause the enchantment to seal up further or even cast a return spell, but through some clever crafting, Twilight had bypassed that particular problem. It gets a bit complicated in the details so please just trust that she did.
No really she did. Look do you have an degree in Advanced Arcane Arts? No? That’s what I thought.
The enchantment was a lock waiting for a key. So the spell would basically work how Twilight thought lockpicks worked. Push the lock in certain ways, gauge the tension, and then move on in to the next section, recording all the data for her to study and refine. Eventually she should be able to fashion a workable key spell. This would be great! Like solving a puzzle, this would take time, patience, and an analytical mind. It could take quite some time to, Star Swirl was the genius of an age after all, and had already bested the princesses and hundreds of others. This could very well take years.
So imagine Twilights surprise when it unlocked on her first try.
“Oh come on!” Twilight vented as she examined the readings from her spell. ”Seriously? The first spell? Nopony tried a basic key spell!? Wait... what? But that’s.. this is impossible! Well I guess it’s possible, just stupidly insanely improbable!” So she checked again.
Yep, her UBU spell didn’t ‘force’ the lock. She didn’t get lucky on the first component. It just fit perfectly. All 343 component spells. In her specific order.
Twilight slowly looked from the read out to the book, as if she were afraid that it would run away or attack if she moved even her eyes to fast. This now seemed rather probable.
Slowly, very slowly, Twilight examined the book, then she scanned it, then she threw a few other books at it to see what would happen. This took over an hour. Finally she was satisfied that the book wasn’t going to kill her. However her scan did find something interesting, there were several enchantments on the journal, all the same kind too. Memory spells.
This wasn’t just Star Swirl’s notebook, it was made from his very memories! Well possibly,it could be memories from somewhere else but that was a bit unlikely.
Another hour later, Twilight was ready.
Alright, let’s do this.
She opened the book.
*****
“So did Twilight tell anypony why she called us all together?” Rainbow asked the group.
“Nothing useful darling.”
“Naw, she jus’ popped in, an popped out again.”
“Not really”
“No! She was talking so fast I almost couldn’t follow what she said!” Pinkie proclaimed.
The five friends all looked to the two princesses sharing the waiting room with them.
“Tis most perplexing.Twilight shared nothing in the letter to Celestia and myself. Any conjectures sister?”
Celestia sat off to the side staring at the door. Deep in thought it took Luna nudging her with her wing to shake her out of her trance.
“Are you well sister?” With a worried look on her face, Luna nuzzled up to Celestia.
“Yes, just concerned is all. I fear it may have something to do with Star Swirls journal, I just sent it to her this morning though…”
“Wait that old wizardy guy that Twi won’t stop talking about?” Rainbow hovered in the air folding her forelegs across her chest. “This better not be about, like his favorite recipes for cookies or something.”
Any response from the others was preempted by Twilight almost blasting the doors of her new castle off their hinges. Her eyes moved across the waiting group until they landed on Celestia, who was currently picking herself up from where her impact with the door had launched her.
“Celestia!” Twilight dashed over to where her fallen teacher lay, and surprised everypony when she not only didn’t help Celestia up, but shoved the now infamous journal into her face.
“Did you know about this? Did you?! Of course you did! How couldn’t you? You were friends, he must have said something!” The look Twilight had was difficult to pin down: pain, confusion, fear, and even some anger fought for face time. “Wait, first prove that what you saw real Twilight. Celestia read this book! Read it right now, then I need you to write a report on what you find so that I may compare it with my own notes. I’ll expect your report in a half hour! Must do more research!” With a flash and pop the erratic purple princess was gone.
Nopony moved. They all sat in shock, either blinking rapidly or staring open mouthed at what they were pretty sure they saw.
“Did.. Did Twilight just give the Princess an assignment?”
They all just sat there a moment thinking about that. Until spike came in.
“Oh good! You’re all here, have any of you seen Twilight?”
“Yes, we did. She came in, gave me homework, and then teleported off. Spike? What has gotten into her now?”
Looking at the bewildered Princess, Spike saw that she had the journal in her magical grasp. “Well, she read that book and froze in place, for like an hour, then she ran around yelling about how ‘this changes everything’ and something about ‘a history changing romance’. So I’d say Freak Out level 8: Panicky but collected, no maniacal actions.”
“Star Swirl was writing a romance novel?” Pinkie asked confused.
“I think he means Star Swirl was in love with somepony darling.”
“Twilight said the book had memories so you could see from Star Swirls perspective, or something.”
“Very well then, best get started so we can reel Twilight back in.” Celestia sat down at the table to get comfortable.
“Oh oh! Story time!” Pinkie jumped around excitedly. Finally settling next to Celestia, she pulled out some popcorn.
Celestia chuckled at the happy mare’s antics. “Well I suppose I can project the memories so we may all see.” Looking around the room, everyone gave their consent.
Celestia opened the book and began to read.
I have traveled long and far. I have seen things that so few will ever see. I have met ponies who will undoubtedly affect the very history of the world. They have been my friends, my companions, my enemies.
But only one has ever held my heart, my love.
I’ve written this so that she may, someday, know the entirety of my feelings for her.
Some background will help. My parents worked in a castle, my mother a maid, my father a guard. I spent my foalhood playing and working around the castle, I didn’t have many I would consider friends, but I did have one. As things go for most children, my life changed the day I got my Cutie Mark.
Celestia began to feel the pull of the memory, casting a projection spell everypony and dragon saw the memory begin.
+++++
Star Swirl dashed down the halls.
“Princess! Princess! I got it!”
Running recklessly through the castle, the young colt kept calling out at the top of his lungs all the way. On his haunches, brand new, sat the source of his excitement, and he was determined that the first pony he’d show it off to would be the princess.
The Princess.. she was so pretty, and tall, and her hair did that wavy thing. So pretty…
Crushing hard, Star nearly collided with two maids.
“Sorry!” He yelled back, turning forward just in time to smash through the doors to the Royal Bedchamber.
His head swam as Star tried to get up. Finally the world stopped spinning. There she was!
“Princess Twilight look! I got my Cutie Mark!” Star Swirl the scruffy chinned colt declared to the purple pony princess who was undoubtedly Twilight Sparkle.
“Princess! Isn’t it great! I was helping Mr.Brown hang a clock in his bathroom, when i slipped and hit my head, and when I woke up I had my cutie Mark!” Star rubbed his head. My noggin sure is taking a beating today… He smiled to himself, looking up at his favorite princess, only to be confused.
As young and sheltered as Star Swirl was, even he could see the pain on Twilight’s face, the tears forming in her eyes. Suddenly all he could think was that it was all his fault that his best friend was so sad.
“Umm, a-actually, now that I think about it, it’s not really that great.” He began backtracking, tears now forming in his eyes. “I mean come on, a Mark for getting all dizzy. Uh.. I know! I-I’ll make some kind of Cutie Mark switching magic or something and get rid of it. Some stars swirling around,Pfff, I already got that for a name, right?”
The crushed colt turned to run back the way he came, only for the world to flash purple. He tasted raspberries(he liked raspberries) and found himself caught in Twilight Sparkle’s embrace.
“Don’t you dare.” Somehow those three words had such warmth and care in them. “I’m sorry, it’s just… I have a friend who has the same mark, and you just reminded me of them so much, it hurt.” Star looked up into her watery eyes, hope filling him once again. “It truly is a great Cutie Mark Star Swirl.” She told him with a sweet, sad smile.
“Thanks Princess. W-wait… You mean somepony else has my Mark? Aww, and I thought it was unique or something.” He pouted. Wait, Princess Twilight never uses my whole name.
“Not to worry, every pony I’ve known with this Mark were… Historic.”
*****
Now I know what that look was, that look that just about broke my heart. She knew. At that moment she knew that this would be the last time I’d be in her life.
Ironic isn’t it? The first time I met Twilight Sparkle as a whole grown pony, was the last time she would see me.
That is ironic isn’t it? I never could get that right.
Oh, and poetry aside, I lived happily as Princess Twilight’s apprentice for some years, I didn’t just disappear the next day.
Also my name was less of a give away to Twilight than you might think. I grew up in Twilight’s part of the kingdom and her love of history was felt everywhere. There were more than a few other colts and fillies with famous names and none of them are time travellers... To my knowledge.
Sorry if I ramble a little, you tend to get that way when you’re my age and have a story to tell.
Actually, how old am I? Not an easy question when your a time traveler…. Huh, this is going to bug me.
Anyway, I wouldn’t understand that look for years to come.
*****
Powerful magics raged through the room. Magical foci of numerous make gathered power, interconnected runic symbols carved across the whole floor directed it into books laid in a careful pattern, each filled with arcane equations fueled by the system.
In the center of it all stood Star Swirl the Clean shaven(rather impressive when you’re covered in fur).
“Star Swirl! What are you doing!?”
He turned his attention from his apparatus to see his teacher standing at the edge of his spell.
“I’ve done it Princess! I’ve taken old SSB’s time travel spell, mastered it, and then perfected it! I’ve overcome the temporal range limit with a repeating mana cycle. Now it’s possible to travel to anywhen! I did it Twilight, I beat him! Take that Beardy!”
Star could only watch confused as the most intelligent mare he knew was reduced to a nearly inarticulate name caller. “What? No, really it works.”
“Seriously, of all the reasons to..! Of course it works! It works because you aren’t just named after Star Swirl the Bearded, you are Star Swirl the Bearded!”
Even the maelstrom of magical forces seemed to fall silent at that.
“....So what you’re saying is that I didn’t make the most advanced time travel spell in known existence to spite and one up a pony centuries dead. But have instead done all that… to spite and one up my, apparently, future self.”
“Yes.”
“...Huh.” Then the spell activated. Reality warped around Star, expanding and contracting, quickly becoming incomprehensible. The last thing Star Swirl saw before being sucked into his spell, was the panicked look on Twilight’s face and the glow of magic on her horn.
The first thing Star Swirl saw, after being spat out of his spell, was Twilight’s face, filled with the panic and confusion only a suddenly materialized, collision bound pony could create.
“Star Swirl, I’m happy to see you again but why do you do this every time? I swear I get a little nostalgic and then you come crashing through your Time Skip.” Twilight greeted as she tried to get out from under him.
“Uhhh… Nostalgia?”
*****
Since that day, I have hopped, skipped and jumped through time. I land in a ‘Time Zone’ (Always on top of Twilight) and then spend a few years or so in it while the spell spools up for the next leap.
The spell I created was originally meant to take me to ‘Beardy’ in his Time Zone, it was an efficient design that would have gotten me to him in a short while, after making a few uniform sized jumps. That didn’t happen. After a few jumps, and subsequent crash landings, I figured out what occurred.
Twilight Sparkle. It’s her own fault I crash on her.
In the moments after my spell activated, but before I jumped, Twilight made a quick, masterful modification. Well really more of an addendum, but still, masterful. Her alteration bound me across her timeline, bringing me to her across the centuries. A side effect of it however has been that my jumps are no longer uniform, and neither are the rest periods. I have gone past a whole century on a year recharge, and spent a decade only to go back three.
Because of Twilights spell, my journey has taken far longer than I meant it to. I don’t blame her though, because all in all, I’ve loved just about every minute of it.
Every time I landed on Twilight, I got to know her better, but she knew me less. It’s an odd thing, falling in love with a mare going the opposite way. And one day she didn’t know me, just as I didn’t know her.
Turnabout’s fair play I guess.
Ha! I’d forgotten all about that shaving kick! I was trying to distance myself from ‘old beardy’ at the time. Ahhh, youth.
Eventually I created a spell, my great gift to my teacher, friend, love. I say great gift because with time travel involved, ‘final’ gets a bit difficult to define. Anyway, my ‘secret unfinished masterpiece’ will eventually have made it to her. Masterpiece my left hind hoof it doesn’t even rhyme. Celestia will probably tell her something about how I didn’t understand friendship or something. Ha! Nope! All part of my convoluted, twisted, temporal paradoxical plan! Helps to know it’s going to work in advance.
Don’t understand friendship indeed. ‘Oh look at me! I’m Celestia. I know so much more than old crazy Star Swirl so I’ll just go through his magic mirror to make out with Good Sombra! Mwa Mwa Mwa!’ Take that Sunbutt! Yeah I’m still steamed about that.
Also since I know you’re reading this right now Celestia, along with Spike, Rarity, Pinkie, AJ, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and your sister. I’ll have to ask that you don’t tell Twilight the specifics of my feelings for her. I wrote this so she could know one day, but not today.
And yes I do know what day it is that you read this. So no telling!
Or, you know, reality splitting paradox.
See ya all soon! By the way, Thirty minutes are up.
*****
Everyone just sat there.
“Sooo… That was the weirdest thing ever for me. How about you guys?” Rainbow questioned the room.
“Having my old friend turn out to be the time travelling, time-crossed lover and student of my student call me ‘sunbutt’? Not even top five. Though it was unique… Number seven. No six.” Celestia mused.
Everybody else looked around.
“Yep,s’pose it’s right up there for me too. Even countin Discord.” AJ summed up all their thoughts rather well.
Then the door exploded.
“REPORT! I can’t believe I forgot about your report! I’m already one minute and thirty seven seconds late collecting it!” Twilight exclaimed, much more of her mane having sprung up, indicating her descending mental state. “What did you find out!!? What did it say?!”
“Twilight, dear, you read it as well, we know what you know.” Rarity tried to reason with her.
“No! You saw something I didn’t and I have to know what! The perception filter won’t let me read much!”
…
“What?”
Twilight could only look at them with confused disbelief. “The perception filter? They prevent ponies from seeing things, in this case words. Princess you’re the one who taught them to me, you mean you didn’t notice it?”
Celestia picked the journal back up from where she set it and began to scrutinize it intensely. “You’re correct Twilight, there is a filter here, but… It’s odd. It’s so.. specific, it’s unusual makeup makes it almost unnoticeable, even more so for the one it works on. How did you ever notice it?”
“Well.. because I was looking for it. Ever since you showed me that spell I’ve scanned every book I’ve ever read since. You know, just in case.” Twilight had the sense to look sheepish at this admission.
Once more everyone found themselves staring.
“Every book. Every single one. Twilight, dear that’s… how to say this?” Rarity trailed off, thinking deeply
“Crazy?” Rainbow deadpanned.
“Well, yes but I was trying to say it with more tact.”
Twilight looked un-amusedly at them. “I prefer prudent. Anyway, forgetting how most of my friends apparently think I’m insane, please tell me what you’ve found.”
Celestia now had Twilight’s muzzle against her own, the smaller pony somehow eye to eye with her. Right, wings. My she certainly is getting used to them, I wonder if she.. wrong time.
“Well, Twilight, you see it gets a bit complicated there..”
And then, in a flash of blue, Star Swirl was deposited on top of Twilight Sparkle.
“WooHoo! Right side up! Another jump and I think I’ll have the whole dodging thing down! Great news, eh Twi?” The grey stallion declared proudly, stroking his fantastic, though short, beard.
“Mmmpphh.”
“Twi what’s the deal? You’re usually better at not getting crushed under my rear, You sick or something?”
Twilight stood on her hooves, looked up, and froze. “You.. You’re.. Star Swirl the Bearded! Ohmygosh!Ohmygosh!Ohmygosh!Ohmygosh!Ohmygosh! Star Swirl the Bearded!! I am your biggest fan! Wait, what are you doing here? No! Wait! How did you overcome the thaumatalogical instabilities inherent in temporal displacement matrices?!?”
For everypony and dragon who had seen the memory of Star Swirl’s Cutie Mark, the look of crushing realization on Star’s face was painful to behold. Even Twilight couldn’t miss it, despite the stars in her eyes, though she didn’t know what it was.
“I’m sorry, I just got so excited, you probably hate it when fans crowd you. I’ll uh, give you some space.”
At that, the look on Star’s face broke, slowly changing to a smile. “Don’t you dare. So this is the first time you’ve met me, huh? Well then, I have something I’ve been dying to tell you.”
“Hello Twilight Sparkle, I’m Star Swirl. Pardon me, I’m still growing the beard. Would you like to be my friend?”
-----
Some Years Later…
“Star Swirl, there you are! I’ve been looking for you all over. Could you give me a hoof with some of these calculations?” Twilight trotted out onto a balcony where Star Swirl was watching the sunset. “Star? Are you alright?”
The stallion sighed, looking away from the dying day. “No, I’m not alright, but that’s alright, right?” He smirked at his lame word play/philosophical thought. “I’m going away tonight, I can’t hold it back any more.”
“What? Well where are you going? I could come. Just let me pack and I’ll..” The look on his face, it was the same as when she first met him. So very sad. “I can’t come, can I?”
“No. I’m about to leap through time again.”
“Of course that’s what you meant. I’m so stupid.” She couldn’t help but bow her head. Until a gentle hoof lifted her chin back up.
“It’s ok to be forgetful, or foalish, or even ignorant. But, Twilight you have never been stupid. That’s not to say you’ve never done anything stupid, but that’s different.”
…
“pffff Ha!”
“We’re pretty bad with serious moments aren’t we?”
“At least with each other!” They both giggled, leaning against each other for support, until they found themselves in a comfortable silence.
“I’ve been fighting it, you know? The spell has been trying to whisk me off for months now. Can’t hold it back anymore though, going to be a big snap this time. At least I think it will, never can tell…. This is the last time I’m ever going to see you.”
Twilight looked to him, the stallion she had become so used to, tears welling in her eyes.
Seeing that, Star Swirl tried to help. “Oh! Don’t worry though, you’ll see me quite a few times yet.”
“It’s not that… It’s..”
“I know.”
Once more silence between them. The Ponyville bell could be heard in the distance, birds chirped, etc etc.
“It’s funny, this moment comes.. and I have no idea what to say.” Twilight admitted. “I mean, just talking seems like it would be a waste, but saying would be important. I’m making no sense am I?”
“No, I understand. And I think there is only one thing to say.” Star Swirl faced Twilight full on, leaning against her.
“I love you.”
Who moved in for the kiss first, neither could say, it didn’t matter. They shared the moment, until, the taste of kiwis, a flash of blue, and then Twilight was alone.
-----
The little filly tried, oh she tried her best, but this enemy was powerful. Stupid eyelids, stupid tiredness, stupid hypnotic letters that just droned on and on lulling her ever onward to sleep…
Fwump!
Awake! She was awake! Nope! No sleeping here! Sleeping fillies had to leave the library and she wasn’t sleeping! Nuh-uh!
“Uhhh, no more soft landings I guess…” A strange stallion was picking himself off the floor.
Twilight thought he looked really funny with those silly robes.
“Are you ok mister?” She inquired innocently.
The silly stallion whirled around to find a little purple pony. Cutie Mark or no, Star knew this filly.
“Oh, who me? Fine, just fine. Say, what have you got there?” He tried to shift her attention away with her pile of books.
“What, this? It’s magic books! I’ve got Copperfield’s Complete Compendium, and Hoofdini’s How To, and..”
“What!? No! Nonononono! What are you reading this… stuff for? Actually stage magics not that bad, I mean I have a many times great grandmother who was pretty accomplished at it, The Great and something or other. That’s where I got the idea for the robes. But you! You want real magic right?! Of course you do! I can see it in your eyes. So tell you what. Try… this!”
Pulling books off the shelves Star found what he was looking for. Laying it down in front of Twilight he smirked.
“Star Swirl the Bearded’s Seriously Superior Spells? I don’t know, sounds kind of dumb.”
Star deflated faster than a balloon.
“Young filly! Why, I’ll have you know that Star Swirl the Bearded was one of the most influential and powerful spell crafters of history! I mean look! I’m even dressed up like him! And I’m just some random stallion!”
“I thought you said that it was your grandma’s dress?”
“It’s a robe, and it can be both!” The pull of time hit Star then, nearly knocking the air right out of him. “Ah! Oh! Oh look at the time! Well, I must be off, good luck with your entrance exam!”
And then the silly stallion ran off. Twilight thought she saw a flash of blue, but she was pretty tired.
How’d he know about my exam? She wondered as she turned back to the new book in front of her.
The blizzard raged outside, winds howling, snow rushing, and still the stone walls of the castle didn’t care. Inside, safe and warm, a wizened stallion sat at a desk writing.
“There! All finished!” Star Swirl the fully bearded declared, the glow of magic fading from his horn as the locking of his journal was completed.
“Finished with what sir?” A thin green maned mare asked as she stepped into the room.
“Ah Clover! Come here my clever little filly. I’ve invented a new type of paper, much thinner and lighter than parchment, and have just finished writing a journal made of the stuff! Held up pretty well with all those spells I think!”
“Congratulations sir. I am sure it would be a great success, if we did not already have paper.” She said with that calm, reasonable smile of hers.
“Hmph, well… mine’s better I bet.” He pouted, quickly turning to chuckling. “So, what brings a clever pupil like you here? To a pony, so old and doddering that he doesn’t even know that paper was already invented?”
“I think you underestimate yourself sir. You have a great many years ahead.”
“Oh quit kissing my hind end and spit it out, something’s troubling you isn’t it?”
She continued to smile that small smile, but it was filled with worry. “I have come for advice sir, what do you believe I’ll need for this expedition?”
“Ahhh, so that’s it. Hmmm. Tell me what you think first and I’ll add my two bits as we go.”
“Well, I have never left this valley before, and except for you, I do not know any unicorns that have travelled. I am ignorant of much of the world, and since the summits failure, there have been reports that the pegasi and earth ponies are also sending expeditions out into the unknown making it that much more dangerous. Are there any spells that you can teach me in order to defeat nature or our enemies?”
Star Swirl sat there examining Clover for a while, until he seemed to have a response.
“Yes, I have many spells I could teach you, spells that would destroy your enemies and devastate obstacles in your path… but I’m not going to teach them to you.”
“But.. but sir! Why not? Am I unworthy somehow? Have I displeased you so that you would deny me salvation? Or do you think me incapable?” Clovers calm exterior quickly broke apart in the face of her masters disapproval. She must have overstepped her bounds! She should have been more attentive, both to her studies, and to her masters needs. She should have…”
“It’s nothing like that, my clever girl. You’re simply not suited for them. You’ve done fine, I’m quite proud of you in fact. You are worthy, and you are capable.. but I will not teach those spells to you. You may go and learn them if you want, I won’t stop you, but I do believe it would be a mistake.”
Clover just could not wrap her mind around this,“Why? Why do you deny me? You call me clever one moment and then deny me knowledge the next! Why!?”
Star looked at Clover with a new understanding forming in his eyes. “Ahhhh. So that’s it… do you know why I chose you as my apprentice Clover? It’s not that you have great power, or an astounding intellect, or are nobility, given enough time anypony can get those things. I chose you because you’re clever. No, really you are, you see things… things ponies rarely notice, or do things others would never dream of doing. Do you remember when we met?”
“I tried to pick your saddlebags sir, not exactly a clever thing to do, more desperate than anything.”
“No, it wasn’t the smartest thing, but you were still clever about it. Diverting my attention, running off into a maze of alleyways, Oh! And that bit with the dogs! Hehehe.. classic,” Star chuckled to himself, reliving that moment. “And then you did the cleverest thing of all, you apologized. Not many in that position would, given that stealing was your only means of surviving. Especially not in this age.” He muttered to himself. “You don’t need spells of destruction to succeed, in fact, they’d just get in your way. That’s not to say I don’t have a spell for you, one much more suited for you.”
Clover was a bit nervous now. Star Swirl had that look again, that one that made ponies sure he was mad, that excited wild eyed look that she absolutely loved.
“Alright so this spell is a bit different, it was taught to me by my own teacher, it was a magic that she was especially talented in, in fact she invented it! Or at least the high level stuff, it has always been around. Because, you see, it doesn’t use your own magic. It uses friendship….”
As Star Swirl the Bearded continued to explain the.. spell., the more Clover suspected that maybe he was getting a bit old.. and silly… and just plain insane.
“Fires of Friendship sir? Is that not.. What I mean is I do not even know that many in the expedition that well. I can see how it could be useful against pegasi and earth ponies, assuming that this spell does all that, but I would never be able to use it. I simply have no friends...” In the middle of her attempt to talk some sense back into her teacher, she realized it was true. She had no friends. Why did that seem so sad?
“Then make them. And should there not be enough unicorns around, make friends with whomever you meet, even those pegasi and earth ponies you seem so intent on blasting.”
“It is not that I want to blast them, sir. It.. I.. I am afraid of them.. I thought that the plan I helped Princess Platinum come up with to show the other tribes reason would work.. But I obviously do not understand them very much at all, and that frightens me! What must they be like that reason can not work? Perhaps the nobles are correct and they are just barbarians..”
“Phhh. Please, I’ve been friends with many earth ponies and pegasi and barbarians. Clover I’ve made friends all over this world! From griffons to minotaurs, dragons to sea serpents, draconequus to alicorns and let me tell you.. you can’t understand them! At least not completely, but don’t let that stop you! Become their friends and learn and understand what you can because they will broaden your vision. You see things that many don’t, but you still see them from the viewpoint of a unicorn, friends will show so much more. So, should you find yourself, oh, I don’t know, trapped in a cave with ponies of different tribes, don’t hold that against them. In fact, value them all the more for it! At the very least, you could try.”
Clover had rarely heard her teacher so enthusiastic and passionate, except maybe when it came to bells and their ‘awesomeness’. “Thank you sir. Should the situation arise, I think I will try… wait, what is an alicorn?”
“Huh? Oh nothing that’s just this thing so anyway pack light, maybe a cloak and don’t bring anything you can’t bear to lose.”
*****
Long ago in the future, in the magical land of Equestria There lived a depressed princess Her name was Twilight Sparkle She was young and purple And everypony liked her One day, about a week after the stallion she loved disappeared in a flash of fruity time magic She thought it would be a good idea to tidy up her library On her dustless shelves there were books she hadn’t read for years Checking them through, She accidently dropped a journal And suddenly she heard
Twilight, I love you Twilight, I love you
Well, she was sure she hadn’t heard that ever before She wasn’t even sure she’d heard it that time Because books don’t usually talk So she hadn’t really been listening What was worse, she didn’t know if she was having some psychotic episode or something Anyway, she picked up the journal, flipping through pages at random And suddenly
Twilight, I love you Twilight I love you Remember, I’ll be there for you I know we’re ages apart Still it hasn’t broken my heart Loving you is all I can do
Well, she heard it that time alright, no doubt about it That or she was really far gone That was Star Swirl The strange stallion now in the distant past When she wasn’t born and history was made The pony she loved She couldn’t follow him at all So, she played the message again
Twilight, I love you Twilight, I love you
This was it
I’ve recorded this for Twilight I’ve passed her by, she can never reply One day she’ll meet a younger me Till then I hope this helps Twilight, I love you Twilight I love you Remember, I’ll be there for you
‘Bittersweet’ she thought miserably But at least she knew where to find it in her library From then on she could play it whenever she wanted Think about what she had yet to come And lived in hope long after
Twilight, I love you Twilight I love you Remember, I’ll be there for you I know we’re ages apart Still it hasn’t broken my heart Loving you is all I can do Twilight, I love you Twilight I love you...
Honestly I couldn't decide how to end this. Time travel can work so many ways and while I may think one ending might work better, I am a softy for a happy ending.So I chose to write all the endings I could think of. You chose which you like best.
Holly trotted down the path leading from the forests back to Daleton, the Earth pony village she called home. It wasn’t a bad haul she had managed to collect, plenty ingredients for her aunt the herbalist. Ever since she was tiny, aunty Mistle had trusted her to gather her ingredients, most ponies feared the forest, but not Holly. An average day for Holly really, but then again, most extraordinary days start that way. For on this day, a strange pony met Holly on the road.
“Excuse me. Sorry to bother you, but I’m looking for somepony and I was wondering if you might be able to help me.” It was a mare wrapped up in an odd cloak held close by a purple starburst brooch.
Holly was no stranger to capes and cloaks, however the middle of summer was perhaps not the right time to wear one. And the cloak itself… there was something about it, it was as if her mind was simply missing something so painfully obvious that its absence was drawing attention. What was noticeable however was this purple mare’s horn protruding from her head. Holly was instantly on edge, something of a reflex, you simply had to be on your best behaviour with unicorns or else they could get a bit liberal with those horns.
“I will do my very best milady.” Holly replied, bowing a little to show her deference.
Her response seemed to panic the mare as she looked herself over in a bit of a fluster, finally apparently satisfied of something, confusion took over her face, eventually replaced with understanding.
“Oh! Oh no, no I’m just a simple traveler, a minor magician that’s all. Not a noble. Certainly not some kind of royalty. Most definitely not a princess hehehehe…” The strange mare said with a too wide smile and shifting eyes.
This pony was quite likely crazy, but there was something about her that put Holly at ease, like being next to your best friend. That feeling seemed to pour off this mare, was it magic? Her horn wasn’t glowing, so what was this feeling?
“Look I’m just looking for a pony, a unicorn by the Star Swirl. Long beard, lots of bells, stars and a swirl pattern Cutie Mark.”
Holly’s felt her heart skip. She was looking for him… This was indeed a cruel day.
*****
“Hello mister Swirl! How are you feeling today?” A young Holly asked bursting into the little hut.
“COUGH COUGH, Ah Holly! Feeling better and better! Yep I’ll be up and about in no time! COUGH! Just COUGH! Just you wait and see.” He said with a grin
Holly frowned up at the stallion wrapped in blankets in bed. “You’re lying, why?”
“Sorry, I had hoped that telling you that would make it true. COUGH It’s something of a twitch of mine to try to encourage young fillies like you. Besides, I could use some encouragement too.”
“Here I brought all you need for some leek soup! I’ll start cooking it for you and you could tell me more stories! I mean if you are well enough that is.”
“I think I’ve got enough in me for a story…”
*****
The two mares walked in silence around the side of Daleton towards a small hut on a hill.
. .. …
“Mister Swirl has told me many stories of his homeland. He called it Illustria..”
“Equestria.” The purple mare corrected automatically.
“Is it true that zap apples are the main crop there?”
“No, they’re a special breed that require much more attention than other apples, making them unfeasible for more common purposes. Any more questions? Or do I pass your test?”
Holly stopped and turned toward the mare. She examined her face, watched her body for tells. “Is it truly as wonderful as he says?”
“Yes, at least I believe so.”
“A place where the tribes are equal, and such benign and powerful beings help guide everypony without tyranny. I wish I might see it someday.”
Once more silence fell. They were past the village now and the hut could be seen next to a copse of trees on the next hill.
“Mister Swirl was the first unicorn I met, he is my friend and I’ve only been disappointed by his fellows since, so please excuse my questioning. I do not wish him to be disturbed by some ninny not worthy of him.”
“Thank you, for caring so much for him.”
*****
“AH! You brought me some more leeks dear? Thank you very much! They will go pretty well in some soup! Would you like some?”
“Papa said I shouldn’t talk to you, just deliver the vegetables.” The filly Holly replied watching the unicorn suspiciously.
“Well if your father said as much then you probably should do as he says huh?” The stallion lit up his horn picking up the leeks, only to have a coughing fit bring them all to the ground.
Holly quickly picked up the precious food from where it fell. “Papa says that your fancy magic won’t do ya any good if you’re sick.” She declared a little smugly at her perceived superiority to the silly old stallion.
“COUGH True true. Yep if I were an Earth Pony I bet this cough would barely slow me down, and if I were a pegasus the cold would hardly bother me at all. Oh well, if wishes were fishes eh? Then again, I’ve only been on my journey because of my magic, and, all in all I’d say it was worth it.”
“You’re strange.”
“Haha! COUGH Yes I am. Would you like to hear one of my stories? As payment for the vegetables of course.”
*****
The two mares sat under one of the trees next to the hut.
Looking at the carving etched into the tree that was Star Swirl’s Cutie Mark.
“He died that winter, it was peaceful, as far as deaths go I suppose. He had to suffer my cooking for his last, said it was the best yet, old fibber.” Holly said with a sad smile.
“... Are you Twilight Sparkle?”
The purple mare seemed surprised to hear the name.
“Wh..What did he say?”
“He said a lot. When he talked about you he just came alive in a way I never saw otherwise. He truly loved you, I think.”
What Holly saw that day, she would recall all her life.
Twilight Sparkle removed her cloak. Suddenly Holly could see what the cloak’s magic hid. A mare easily three times her size, mane blowing in star dust, wings grander than any birds. Twilight Sparkle was majestic. An alicorn straight out of Star Swirl’s stories, a symbol of so much to Holly that she thought them an impossible ideal.
Holly watched what she saw as a goddess mourn. The world seemed to join her, as the hill they sat on shook violently.
Holly would try to describe the event for the rest of her life, but words would never do it justice in her opinion. Eventually though it came to an end. Twilight Sparkle gathered up her cloak and turned to the little pony that had sat with her.
“Thank you, for all you did, for being there for him when I could not. Thank you for making sure he wasn’t alone.”
Star Swirl took another look around his lab, his last look. He could feel the Jump coming for the past week now, and as always it came too soon. He had only spent, what, eight years here? Heh, a time travel spell that made you wish you had even more time, was that ironic? Well he thought it was funny even if it wasn’t.
Eight years in the Pre-Classical era, training Clover, helping her become a fine young mare destined for greatness. Out of this entire period of history, she was by far what he’d miss the most. Sure he was the Arch Mage in the Court of the Unicorn King, but that was literally the only other outstanding thing that came to mind, and it just couldn’t hold a candle to raising a filly as if she were your own daughter.
He had a letter written out for her for when she came back from her historic expedition, explaining he had gone travelling. Not really a lie, it also helped that he had already told her the truth in her future.
I’m always leaving. This time to who knows when.
This was it. The edge of the map. The furthest recorded mention of Star Swirl the Bearded, he reached that point when he became Arch Mage. Now it was a complete unknown what his future would hold. It was a bit unnerving really, he’d never looked too deeply at the specifics of his future, but he did look to see certain things to expect.
The original spell was aimed at a late point in the life of Star Swirl (as far as history knew anyway). That point was a few decades behind him. Star could only guess that Twilight’s modifications altered the destination a bit.
Ha! All those ponies I’ve crashed into through the years. I’d bet my last bit that they were her ancestors or otherwise connected to her. Ahh, time travel.
The spell surged a bit more. Whenever I’m going it must be quite a while ago, I don’t think I’ve felt it this… agitated before.
Heh.. I’ll probably wind up in prehistoric times, I bet I introduced magic to the first unicorns or something. I’ve certainly had practice shaping some of history’s great moments. What’s one more?
The spell began to coalesce around him, stronger than he had ever seen.
“Maybe I won’t have to leave the next one. That would be nice.”
Why his time travel magic always tasted like kiwis, he never did figure out. He just knew he hated kiwis.
POP!
FWUMP!
“Ow.” Really, this whole falling on ponies thing was hilarious when it was Twilight, but Star was getting up there in years and he just wasn’t as spry as he used to be. The novelty was long gone. Once again he ran through his standard apology. “Terribly sorry! I’ve been practising my teleportation and I haven’t worked all the bugs out yet so if you could just excuse this doddering old stallion I’ll just.. I...”
His victim, a rather tall purple mare seemed to be copying his stunned expression.
I never thought I’d see her again.. Was she always so tall?
“Hello Star… welcome home.” Twilight gasped out before she lost control to the tears that she just couldn’t seem to stop, neither could he. They held each other tight in an embrace, far too long in the making.
*****
A week. Star had been back a week, and he just couldn’t figure out how he felt about it.
He had gone to see his parents, that was… interesting. They seemed rather surprised that their son had somehow aged significantly over night. By his own estimation, Star now was older than both of them put together, but it was hardly exact. Time travel was, however, a fantastic explanation as to the why. All in all they were very accepting.
He looked up the fates of his friends, and was pleasantly surprised to find some of the less noteworthy ones still made the history books. He never investigated that kind of thing before, to avoid the possibility of knowing too much of what could happen. They had many happy ever afters. But they were still all living in their times, and dead in his. Mixed blessings there.
And then there was Twilight.
The love of his life, but did she still see him that way? It took some jumps for their friendship to become love on his side, so for her, she was most recently used to him being a friend and student. He personally never thought he’d see her again, and had tried to let those feelings go to rest. He was an old stallion now, slowing down, but she was still as vibrant as ever.
He just couldn’t figure it out.
He sat on the balcony of his old room. He just wasn’t comfortable there, it was a room for a colt, young and immature. Well except for Hoots his stuffed owl, he loved Hoots.
“Bit for your thoughts?” The primary subject of his current conundrum questioned.
“Oh.. Nothing much, just thinking over a new spell I want to try” Star Swirl lied.
Twilight let him know what she thought of that.
“You’re lying. If you really were thinking of a new spell you would have a much happier expression on your face, no matter how difficult it would be. In fact you would be happier the trickier it would be. I think you’re thinking about us.”
“Am I that easy to read?”
“I think you’re forgetting how well I know you.” She moved to sit in front of him, “And I think you’re forgetting how much I love you.”
“But how do you love me? Am I your student who has returned, or am I the stallion you love come back into your life?”
She smiled, that wonderful smile he hadn’t seen in so long. “You left as my student, with a teacher’s love. You’ve come back as the stallion who earned my heart.”
Hope swelled in his chest. “I’m old.” He stated gauging her reaction.
She laughed in that way loved. “I’m older than you, you know.”
“Yes, but you just get bigger, I get wrinkles, and achy joints.”
“I think you’re still thinking as if you were in the past. You may not remember, but we have much better medicine now, than back in the Pre-Classical era. And besides, you are one of the most powerful unicorns ever known, you have another century or two easy on that alone.”
Star Swirl the Bearded listened to her argument intently, he agreed of course, but there was still one last hurdle.
“I’ll give you that, but there is one last barrier we must overcome if we are to continue where we left off…. You’re just so tall. Honestly I feel a bit like a child again next to you.”
Twilight just gave him that look(you know the one). That look quickly turned into a sultry look, and then there was a flash of magic.
Twilight sidled up to Star, the same size as she was when she found his journal so long ago.
“Any more excuses, or are you ready for a happy ending to your adventure?”
“I’ve got nothing left.” He smiled, “I love you.”
Right there, right then, Star Swirl the Bearded was glad for that one final jump.
“Doctor, I can’t thank you enough for giving me a ride back to my time. Really, it means so much to me, but if you could answer one thing that would be great. Oh what was it again? Uh.. Oh yes, now I remember. Why are we crashing?!!” Star Swirl the Bearded queried as he stumbled about the TARDIS control room.
Derpy was faring a bit better, somehow she was managing to walk around easily as she tried to help The Doctor with some of the controls, “I’m sorry! I just don’t know what went wrong…”
“Don’t you worry Derpy. It wasn’t you, but our hitchhiker who’s caused this mess!”
“I haven’t touched anything!”
“No, you just exploded with magical time travel energy in the TARDIS!” The Time Lord pony worked at his console scanning Star Swirl trying to figure out what exactly happened.
“You told me we were in a state of temporal grace! If that were true my spell wouldn’t have been able to reactivate!”
“That was a clever lie! Artron energy at critical levels, Chronon, Zygma, Huon.. Huon! Where? How did you get Huon particles!? You see, this is exactly why I said that time travel should be left to the experts, like me, and not amateurs jumping through The Vortex in nothing but their robes!”
“Um guys..”
“Amateur?! Hey I invented my own time travel spell! I didn’t just ‘borrow’ a time machine from a people who had mastered it already!”
“Guys..”
“Just because my people mastered time travel doesn’t mean I personally don’t know more about time than you do!”
“And yet you still owe me a chicken!”
“..What? You mean that bet with the volcano? What’s that got to do with this?”
“Nothing, but I’m still sore about it!”
“GUYS!!” Derpy finally yelled.
“WHAT?!” “WHAT?!”
“We’ve landed.”
The two stallions gave each other a quick glare, only to break into laughter.
“Hahahahaha haaaaa!”
Hehe haha ha heee… I still want my chicken.”
“Not happening Mr.Drapes.”
“And what’s wrong with my robes!?”
“Oh look at me with my floppy hat and bells! Aren’t I such a wizard!”
“You’re one to talk with all your quirks and gimmicks, you could open a shop! I mean just look at this poor ship! All wonky and wibbly wobbly, falling apart at the seams, do you even fix her up? I swear, one good bump and she’ll fall apart!” Star Swirl punctuated this tirade with a hoof slamming the console.
Which subsequently popped open bathing the console in golden light.
“Huh. That’s new.”Star said, staring into the open console.
“Don’t do that!” The Doctor yelled, closing the distance as fast as he could, he slammed the console closed. Immediately he began scanning Star Swirl With his sonic.
Blinking rapidly, Star returned to the waking world, and donned a frown. “Why’d you do that? I wasn’t done looking at that!”
“Yes you are! Come on, let’s get you outside before you do something else to mess with the TARDIS.”
Stepping out of the TARDIS, the trio were met with alot of red. An impressive stone city rose around them, and everything seemed to have a red tint to it. Walking down an alley they set out looking for landmarks or anything really that could tell them when and where they were. Star Swirl and Derpy, being less travelled, decided to leave this to The Doctor. Sitting down on a bench they pony watched and talked.
“Sooo.. What’s with all the bells Star Swirl?” Derpy asked, taking the opportunity of being outside to stretch her wings.
“Well I add one for every time jump I’ve had, and I just really like bells, I like to jingle and jangle. You’d be surprised the magical applications that bells have also. For instance…”
The Doctor was nervous. He looked at the architecture, blinked, then looked again. He examined the ponies that were beginning to gather around his companions, much to the displeasure of more than a few. He tasted the air, properly this time too, gave it a good lick, then the dirt for good measure. The air again to get the taste of dirt out of his mouth. He hopped in place a bit testing the gravity, then he stared at the sun for a bit, calculating how long it took to become blinding.
This was impossible. Like really-truly-extra-super-duper-not-being-metaphorical-at-all IMPOSSIBLE.
This place.. this time, this was all time locked so hard the universe would shatter before even considering thinking about letting anything in. But they were here, and that was perhaps TheMost Frightening Thing The Doctor had ever known.
Well ok maybe not The Most, he had seen some things, but it was certainly in the top five.
And then he noticed that his friends had gathered a rather large crowd of ponies that were not too pleased with something.
“What are they?” “What could they have done to themselves to have such deformities?” “Mommy why is that stallion wearing a dress?”
A rather irate mare seemed to be trying to start a mob or something against them. “Such blasphemy! Did you all not hear this stallion claim to have magic? For a stallion to claim to have the same powers as the priestesses, he must be criminally insane!”
“What are you talking about? It’s the simplest thing in the world for a trained mage such as myself to use magic.” Star Swirl rebutted. Not noticing the doctor trying desperately to get his attention to run away, he continued. “Here I’ll show you a simple spell, it was one of my teachers favorites.”
Channeling the raw cosmic force that fueled unicorn magic, Star Swirl expertly crafted from his decades of learning the array to focus it, and with a will that would crush lesser minds he called forth into being a magnificent handlebar moustache for his face.
That’s right. Double moustache. Plus the beard.
… He thought it was cool.
Except instead of a fresh new black moustache sitting atop his snowy white facial hair, Star Swirl the Bearded exploded.
Every pony all around backed away as fast as they could from the golden inferno that Star Swirl had become. Mesmerised by the sight, none could bring themselves to flee, and still more came, drawn by the powerful lights.
A burnt and tattered hat and robe fell to the ground from where they were thrown by the release of energy. A single bell remained to signal their return.
And then it stopped. Star Swirl sat where he had before, though a bit more confused.
Poof!His new wings spontaneously sprang into an open position for all to see.
“Huh. That spell usually doesn’t do that. Has anyone seen my hat? I seem to have misplaced it.”
The hat and robe which sat defeated and battered on the ground out of Star’s sight began to glow gold. All the damage that they had sustained reversed itself bit by bit until they were pristine again, when they simply disappeared, only to reappear on Star.
“Oh wait, never mind I’ve got them. On my head. Ha! the things you forgot when you get old.” The now very youthful looking alicorn stallion said.
The crowd of onlookers stared mouths agape, except for Derpy who was clapping and requesting an encore, and The Doctor who seemed to be trying to grind his hoof into his face.
*****
“Wow that was some adventure huh?” Derpy asked happily as she trotted back into the TARDIS.
“It sure was, can you believe the nerve of those priestesses? Using magic like that to control everypony, disgraceful. Oh well, they won’t be doing that anymore!”
The Doctor followed behind, unable to choose between all the conflicting emotions he had at the moment, he settled for an eye twitch and did his best to try to feel relieved, after all things turned out how they should have.
“I especially liked you speech Mr.Star, it was very inspiring. That last bit was really great! ‘You’re all Lords and Ladies of your own destinies, so gallop free across this world!’ Um, are you ok Doctor? You’ve been super quiet this whole adventure.”
“Who, me? Just.. having an off day is all, well anyway I think it’s past time we got our guest home, don’t you Star?”
“No rush, but it would be nice. Oh! Did you ever figure out what world that was?”
The Doctor froze in front of the console. His eye twitched a little more.
“Really? You never figured it out? That’s not like you at all. You really were having an off day, eh?”
“Of course I know! How could you not? Everypony was just chanting it as we walked away!”
“... I don’t get it, they were just chanting some of my inspirational speech.”
Derpy’s face got a bit serious as she thought about it. “Gallop free.. gallop free gallop free gallop free… Oh. Doctor was that Gallopfrey?”
“Those were Time Lords?”
“No, at least not yet, but because of what we all did just now, events will eventually lead to the Time Lords.”
“Are you sure? Cause it didn’t seem like we did that much.”
“You made a hole in the fabric of reality through which all of the Vortex can be seen! That didn’t just happen now, It retroactively manifested itself in Gallopfreyian history, and it’s called that because in the ancient when magic still ruled, The God of Time himself is said to have given everypony in the world the right to be a Lord and’ gallop free’. Oh and then there’s this..” The Doctor picked up a marker from somewhere in the console, and began drawing on Star Swirl’s Cutie Mark, “Even your Cutie Mark translates into ‘Time’, or even ‘Time God’ in Old High Gallopfreyian!”
Silence filled the TARDIS as everypony thought about that, contemplating Star’s plot. Finally Star Swirl seemed to make a decision, he arranged himself as regally as he could, put on a solemn face, and turned to The Doctor.
“My Lord Doctor, as your patron super being, I demand payment for your use of my temporal vortex, in the form of a chicken... Also twenty bits.”
“... Fine let’s settle that stupid bet, I haven’t any money though.”
“It’s only stupid because you lost, and two chickens will do just fine.”
I had watched them, I had listened to them, and I never had to leave my station as The Center of my kingdom, My world. They numbered seven, six knights from some land outside my world on a crusade, and a wizard from even further.
At first it seemed that the one called Pendragon their leader, he was charismatic and had a commanding presence. He had a good grasp on tactics and the art of combat, and while he held sway and was doubtless the leader of the knights, it was the frail old wizard who maneuvered him.
He claimed the name Whirlin Star, guide and mentor to Pendragon. With promises of glory he had led them to my kingdom. I have held dominion of these lands for centuries, and these are not the first to come here looking for such, nor the last.
Once I was mortal, though I’ve since forgotten what exactly I was. Now I sit upon my ‘Throne’, a Font of pure magic where the Ley Lines, there very arteries of the world, converge and erupt continuously, filling the land with its divine essence. Not before it flows through me however. Now my Darkness permeates this land, my mischief can be found in the vegetation, my hate and rage twist the animals into monsters, and my cruelty has shaped the sentients that have stayed inside my borders beyond recognition of what they once were.
It is beautiful.
These knights, they have come here and wrought their ‘righteous’ destruction, defeating, destroying, breaking and outright killing my possessions and most beloved abominations. It truly is humorous. All the justice, virtue, and ethics that they spout on about, all of it a comforting lie that they have swaddled themselves in to ignore the truth.They call themselves good ponies, but I know, I have heard the whispers of truth in the pits of their hearts.
The sadist who tortured helpless animals.
The mighty knight who brings misery upon his home.
The colt who lied and let her die.
The thief who has taken from so many.
The ‘friend’ who seduces the wife of another.
The illegitimate weakling who deludes himself into thinking himself noble and superior.
I have seen who they are in the dark, and I laugh and laugh.
Then there is him. The wizard who guides them, who leads them to me The Center.
In all my centuries, I have yet to see anything like him. Unremarkable in build, an impressive age for a mortal, he is more experienced and powerful in magic than most perhaps, but he is so very different in a much more profound way. His companions are typical of all the filth that scrap about outside my territory, for even outside my influence the nature of the world has left them harsh and uncaring. They reek of delicious hypocrisy.
This wizard though… He has seen much. Even for his age, his steps are unusually weighty with his experiences, his hooves coated in the dirt and dust of places impossibly distant, impossibly different. His heart, while heavy, is pure and shines with hope. There is True Virtue in this stallion, and it disgusts me.
This thing is anathema to me in ways I did not think possible! It has existed inside my border for much too long, and now I practically quiver with anticipation as he descends to my chamber. I cannot wait any longer to destroy this blight. I have watched him, I have listened to everything, and I have peered into that painfully bright and warm place that is his deepest pit. The greatest darkness I have found has only been faint regret! The shadow I sent to cling to him and whisper into his soul shriveled and died on the measly bits it scavenged off of him.
Now he comes, leading his knights to me, making them into better ponies by his very presence! I will suffer him no longer, and I will take his comrades and twist them into masterpieces of my design.
They enter my chamber, the knights huddled behind this ‘Whirlin’, they have already been told.
Do not interfere. This is our fight.
My form has changed over my reign considerably: tentacles, seven wings of various shapes and sizes, scales, fur, exposed muscles and bone, a couple mouths, and teeth all over. All in all it is my favorite form so far, but for this; I think something more compact would be fitting.
I contract my being to as small a point as I am willing, I believe I will start with a pony. Five limbs extend from my core to become my ‘legs’ and ‘head’, now let’s make something special. Five horns erupt from my ‘skull’; two swept forward, two back, and one in the traditional position, all of them lethally sharp blades. No ears but I spawn a multitude of eyes around my ‘head’. The skin at the forefront of my ‘face’ tears into a many fanged maw. My neck I keep long, at least three times as long as a pony would have. For wings I cause four boney protrusions to come out of my ‘back’, a fleshy membrane extending out of the bones of each wing. I decide to add a tail as well, so I produce a tentacle tipped with many spines. The legs could do with some work too; five joints should do. Clawed paws instead of hooves finish my adjustments.
It is more symmetrical than I usually care to be, but I believe I have become recognizable in shape enough while being monstrous to instill grand nightmares in the most hardened of beings. The knights plainly cower now, but ‘Whirlin’ has not changed his look of grim determination at all.
I will change that. He has come to my place of absolute power; my ‘throne room’, the center of my kingdom, and I AM THE CENTER!!
We charged each other at the same moment. Rapidly approaching, Whirlins horn began to glow and in a flash he was gone. Teleportation, difficult but a classic, he will appear behind me to capitalize on it.
Only he didn’t, he reappeared right in front of me. A mighty blast from his horn left me embedded in the wall of my chamber.
Tricky, loathe as I am to have him in my presence, I can still appreciate a cunning foe, but what was that magic?! In all the that I can recall I’ve never felt magic like that. It had the same taste as that light inside him, that.. that harmonious and hopeful feeling that burns so much.
Well, I can be tricky too. I dissolve into smoke and close the distance again. Once more he charges me, the fool. I descend upon him, he pivots and bucks up at me. I am once more surprised to find that it connects! His hooves reek of magic, pegasi magic!
I recollect myself and decide that perhaps some range would be prudent. I summon forth my power and cause spears of crystal to erupt under the wizard. He leapt to the side in time to avoid being skewered but his robes were shredded, revealing a youthful body beneath. Age magic! Fascinating really, and truly telling of this ponys true power.
I shot spears of crimson crystal from all corners of the chamber at my opponent, only to have them shatter before a shield he conjured up. Shields have their own limits however and so I responded by throwing a massive boulder I ripped from the ground.
His shield would have to shatter under that, but I was not going to leave it to chance. I powered my horns, ready to deal a final blow, when he came phasing through the rock and launched one of my own crystal spears into my head.
Now being the almighty being I was, the removal of half my ‘skull’ was not as fatal as others might find it to be. I was not however pleased with how this was going. As far from winning as he might be, he was still testing me in front of my soon to be subjects in a manner I found unacceptable.
I ripped gravity apart. Boulders, rocks, and crystals floated into the air as gravity reversed itself in places, and doubled in others. I did not expect to see him treat this as just some game.
Just like training with Twi.
That.. That was his thoughts. Hehehahaha! He may sling his spells all day, but as this battle goes on I can feel his mind! A little longer and I can crush his mind. I may have him yet.
He comes at me, I ready my wings to strike. Then my vision is filled with hair as dozens of moustaches cover my ‘head’.
Good old number twenty five. I hear him think as he connects with my body. I take the opening and delve deep, searching him to find a weakness to exploit.
He readies himself to deliver another blow, “Star! Please stop!” Only to stop as I wear the face of somepony named Twilight. The look on his face, ohhhh so wonderful. The confusion and surprise for that split second that dominates him, only to be replaced with such pure rage. Delicious.
I grasp him with my claws in his moment of hesitation and bite deep into his shoulder, only missing his neck because of a quick maneuver on his part.
He chants this mantra quickly in his mind, regains his focus, and teleports away from me before I can bite down again.
In the course of our brutal exchange, my Gravity Sunder came undone, and now debris is scattered about my chamber, giving the wizard many places to hide. But not for long. As tricky as he is, he is now bleeding and I have many senses to track him down with.
Now is the time for me to attack in a way that he can’t dodge.
Hello wizard. Hehehe yes it’s me, I know you can hear this; we’ve been getting to know one another quite well through our battle wouldn’t you say? Is it so surprising that you might begin to think like me?
Is that a prayer of yours or something? Ohhh who are these ponies you think of when you chant that? Are those their names? No no, sorry I recognize that last one, I did wear her face.
Hehehe it really is funny that you hold those virtues in such high regard, considering your companions. Each one a walking contradiction to a virtue you hold dear.
Yes, keep chanting. I’m sure it will protect you from me.
I find a drop of blood, his trail. A tongue snakes from my mouth to lap at the drop. Ahhh, ambrosia.
I follow the increasing trail, taunting all the while.
You’re not a good pony you know. Good ponies don’t do what you have done, and I don’t just mean what I pointed out earlier. You have hurt so many ponies, and what is even better? You have loved them all so much. The pain you’ve caused, it must be like such a poison in their veins, to know that they were used and abandoned by you.
No, little Star Swirl. You are not a good pony.
I found him. leaning against a boulder he tried to catch his wind; his age spell having failed him. My many jointed limbs wrapped him in a crushing embrace. He screamed in pain, only to burst into a rainbow of lights, burning all of my flesh that it shone on.
Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, Loyalty, Magic. Do you give up?
I shudder, I feel him. Grabbing hold of a massive boulder, I hurl it out of my way. Only to be greeted by the sight of him, sitting upon my throne. He sits there upon my Font, My Center!
Such primal rage surges through me that it takes me a moment to realize that I have in fact impaled him on my tail instinctively.
All the stupid pony can do is stare at the spike protruding from his chest. There is blood, it’s not a clone. I win.
Then he looks up and smiles.
That will do nicely.
He grasps hold of my tail with both hooves; I cannot move.
He smiles. Why is he smiling? I should be smiling.
His horn lights up, and I feel him take My Center.
The Font flares in response to his magic, and so does the magic that makes up my being.
One last spell; Transformation. Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, Loyalty, Magic.
I feel my body rip apart, the magic sucked into the singularity that He has become. All of it pours into Him becoming pure unaltered magic once more. My Darkness fading into the shadows, and I fade as well.
I know that I will not be destroyed however, I am Darkness, I may fade, I may be divided, but I will NOT disappear! I will return in many forms and I will take back My Center! Enjoy your victory, but I will be waiting in The Periphery.
I saw Him take his form: A Tree of crystal, and heard his final thoughts.
You won’t win. Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, Loyalty, Magic.
*****
The knights who traveled to the Tainted Lands with Whirlin the wizard stood outside of the entrance to his final resting place. For surely the great magician was dead, right? They had all followed him because they thought he promised riches and glory, now they understood his cryptic oath; he made them better ponies.
They had watched the duel between him and that Abomination, and while they could not understand it completely, they knew that he had been more than all of them put together.
Whirlin would constantly be spouting that; now it felt as if all his lectures on those virtues had been chiseled into their minds even firmer than before.
They would return to their homelands, and all their lives they led better, trying to emulate the great pony that they had known. In time, their contributions would cause things to change, and eventually things would be ready.
The tribes would unite in a land bountiful and peaceful, purged of the Darkness that once filled it.
Fluttershys cottage was quiet, a bit unnaturally so, but given who was currently sipping tea with the animal caretaker, it was understandable that many animals decided to go for a walk.
“So you see my problem, yes?” Discord stretched out on his back across the couch.
“Umm, yes I do, but I wonder if you might be, um, exaggerating just a little bit.” Fluttershy blew on her tea, Discord made it a bit too hot this time, but the flavors were still there.
“Exaggerating!?EXAGGERATING!!! Yeah ok maybe a bit, however the point still stands! I love Twilight Sparkle! Maybe not to the poetic depths to which I described previously, of which the greatest of bards will be forever jealous, but I am!.. In love!.. With Twilight Sparkle that is. But now Swirly the Bewhiskered is around and I can’t tell her how I feel. I am absolutely miserable.”
“When did you actually fall in love with her?”
“Oh from the moment I first met her! Why do you think I did all of that stuff when we met? I had to show her what I could do! You know flex my muscle and show what I’ve got, so to speak.” His horn and antler flexed themselves to demonstrate this might.
“You brainwashed us into going against our natures though, how was that supposed to help?”
“Well look at it from my perspective, I wanted to spend some time alone with her and the rest of you wouldn’t have allowed that right? Then she spent all of our alone time trying to fix you all. I was a bit annoyed and I didn’t take it well I’ll admit. Things… got out of claw.”
“That… makes sense I guess, though why didn’t you just ask? Or become friends with her friends so that you have more in common?”
“I’m new at this remember?” Discord sat up, grabbed his tea, downed it in one gulp, added two lumps of sugar to the cup and stirred with his antler. “Anyway the past has passed us and I am more concerned with what I should do now.”
“We could ask our friends for advice; Rarity enjoys romance, and Applejack would have some something solid and helpful I’m sure. We could even ask Princess Cadance; love is her special talent after all.”
“Nonononono! This is my great love we’re talking about here! I could barely work up the nerve to tell you! Please please please don’t tell anyone or thing else! Besides, they’re still sore about the whole betrayal thing.”
“You could just tell her.”
“Oh Fluttershy, dear sweet Fluttershy… Yeah I think I will. But not as long as Whirly Spin is here. I will wait until he leaves to tell her!”
*About a decade later*
Discord sat in a sideways tub full of mud washing himself because chaos. A great echo of power from the ethereal sea wash over him as something somewhere happened to someone.
The Draconequus sat upright, the side of the tub splitting him in two, and he remembered.
It was his turn to bring the sandwiches to tea.
*several centuries later*
Twilight sat amidst the remains of Star Swirls array. The room was a mess, paper everywhere, wax pooled around, actually it was about normal. But it felt empty, as if it knew that the pony that called it home was never coming back, and so it let go of that feeling of life.
She would never see him again, would she?
The stallion that she loved…
“Hello? Anypony home?”
Not him, not now, please!
“Ah! There you are! I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” Discord opened one of the walls like a door and walked in. “Aquestria, Griffonia, Zebrica, Minotauria, the Changeling Hive..ia. All over really. Never would have thought to look in your palace honestly, until I felt something big happening here, and now here you are!”
“Please Discord, please leave.”
“No can do Twilight my dear, I just remembered something important I had to tell you…”
Discord, unfortunately, found himself interrupted by a sudden flash of teleportation, and the room being crowded by four more ponies. The Princesses of the sun, moon, love and her boytoy.
“Twilight! We came as soon as we could, we figured you might need some emotional support in this trying time (also we sensed Discord).” Celestia said nuzzling her former student.
“We figured it must have been Star Swirl beginning his journey.” Cadance stepped up, “Do you need anything? Maybe some cleanup help?” She winked and motioned her head at Discord.
“Great idea Credenza!” Discord snapped his paw and all the clutter in the room vanished, “There! Now it’s Lulus problem.”
Luna glared at the mismatched miscreant, “She was talking about you Discord.”
“Moi? How very inconsiderate of you Armoire, Twilight and I were about to have a very important and private conversation, when the lot of you burst in uninvited. If you would show yourselves to the door, Twilight and I would be very grateful.”
Just about everypony had a retort for the chaotic spirit, but they were all preempted by Twilight.
“What did you want to talk about Discord?”
For centuries now, Twilight had been Discords friend, she had come to develop a certain amount of skill when dealing with the difficult draconequus, mostly in how to not take his jabs and jibes too seriously. The distraction of the other Princesses had given her a moment to prepare herself for him.
“Well.. It really is a private matter..”
“Discord, please, I think you’re about to make day much longer, and I’d like them to be here. So if it really is important, I think it can be said in front of my family.”
Celestia and Luna shared a smile, they both figured it was true, but this was the first time Twilight had acknowledged outloud that they were family to her. Cadance and Shining Armor hugged each other a little tighter, so proud of their sisters(in-law) strength in what had to be one of the most difficult times of her life.
“I love you.”
..
…
The silence of the room really felt like a solid thing, like if anybody moved a fraction of a hair, the air would shatter like glass.
“I’m sorry Discord, being an alicorn and therefore at a constant physical peak, I assumed that my ears wouldn’t fail me as they so obviously have. The only other explanation would be that you just admitted some kind of love for me on the day when the love of my life was lost to me forever (presumably) to the sands of times past.”
“Oh! Nonononono.. No. You’re ears are fine, it was the second one. The one where I love you.”
Discord, having finally declared his love, found himself switching from contemplating the long strange journey he had just completed, to wondering how Twilight was managing to strangle him with hooves.
It took, perhaps, just a bit too long for anypony to move to stop Twilight from throttling Discord.
“You see!*gasp* I knew you’d be excited about it.*cough* What time should I pick you up?”
Taking a moment to collect herself, Twilight decided, against her better judgement, to try to understand Discords ‘reasoning’.
“Why.. How are you in ‘love’ with me?!”
“I don’t know. I just am, I always have. Since that first time we met I felt this way, but I couldn’t figure it out, you know, put it into words until shortly after that whole Tirek thing and then old Swirly showed up, with his journal and future/history love stuff, and I decided I would wait until he left. Which I ended up forgetting about, until the next time he showed up, and then I waited for him to leave and forgot again.”
Neither Discord or Twilight seemed to notice their audience pass five bits each to Cadance.
“The first time we met? And your first reaction to that feeling was to brainwash my friends?”
“Like a colt with their first crush, pulling a filly’s pigtails.” Cadance chimed in.
“Fluttershy said something similar.” Discord mused.
“Wait Fluttershy knew about this?! Why didn’t she say anything? Or remind you?”
“First because I asked her to keep it between us, and second… I dunno.”
Twilight steamed for a minute or two, starting and immediately stopping sentences. Great, I declare my love and she just happens to break at the same time, I have the worst luck.
“Why? Why me?” She seemed to settle on that question, if for no other reason than to buy time to think of better ones.
“I don’t know… Um.. Purple! I like purple. And you’re pretty, you know, for being symmetrical and all. And you’re smart, and so much fun to mess with; You make this face..” Twilight glared at him with half lidded eyes and an almost frown, “Yes that’s the one!”
Twilight stared at Discord intently for a moment, “Why do you love me Discord?”
Why was that question making him so uneasy? He really was trying to answer her, but it just wasn’t something he had thought much about. One day he realized that he loved her, and for him that was it. Maybe a different approach?
Discord pointed his tail at their audience. “I don’t really have many romantic options do I? Celestia is too serene and into that whole wise leader thing. Luna just can’t take a joke. Cadance I might be able to get along with but I think she’s too high maintenance. And honestly I’m just not into Shiny.”
“Immortals aren’t your only option, and there are many creatures of all kinds in this world who’d no doubt love to be with you. So, why are you in love with me.”
I love you because you’re you! Nobody else is you, you’re the youest you of all of you. In fact…” Discord’s grin quickly put everypony on alert, “I’ll show you.”
The fluff on Discord’s tail snapped like fingers and a burst of light flashed in the room, leaving behind some rather confused ponies (both the transported and audience). The flash faded revealing a unicorn who was obviously Twilight, just like she looked when she moved to ponyville.
She blinked a few times, first to adjust to the flash, then to see if her eyes were working.
“Ummm, what’s going on here? Where am.. DISCORD!”
The unicorn lit up her horn and cast a spell at the mismatched maniac, only for him to grab her magic and use it as a fishing line to reel the purple pony in and hoist her high.
“Hoowee! I’ve got a live one here!” Discord proclaimed proudly, standing in waders. “Twilight my dear, that’s princess you by the way, this is Twilight Sparkle. Don’t worry, I didn’t pull her from the past.” Quite a few ponies in the room relaxed at that, “Nope! I pulled her right out of a different reality!” The relaxed state quickly evaporated. “One where she never unpetrified me, and I never reformed, she never ascended (for whatever reason), and she and her friends never had to give up their Elements of Harmony.”
“You had give up your Elements? How do you defend Equestria?! And why isn’t anypony trying to save me!”
The Princess Twilight teleported unicorn Twilight beside her. “Don’t worry you’re not in danger, and I’ll make sure Discord sends you back, won’t you Discord?”
Discord nodded grinning, “Sure, easy as pie.” He conjures up a cake. “And that’s why I love you rather than her! She is content to rely on The Elements, where as you dared to dream of what you could do, would have to do, without them! And it’s not just that you had some wings and bit more exercise, you went somewhere that this Twilight wouldn’t.”
“Wait he’s in love with you!?”
“That’s why you love me more than her, but why do you love me?!” Twilight could sense something going on with Discord but what was it? If she just kept pressing on this point maybe he would show what was really happening in his head.
Discord was getting nervous, why was he getting nervous? He snapped his eyebrows and summoned another Twilight; this one too was a unicorn, but she was much older and dressed in the official garb of The Arch Mage of Equestria. She seemed to take her sudden relocation better than her predecessor. She blasted Discord in the face.
“Oh Discord, it’s you, you know you shouldn’t teleport me like that.” Her tone was very much like that of a strict teacher, she quickly surveyed the room as Discord scrapped the char of his face, “Well this is different, I’m going to guess alternate reality with alternate mes, correct?”
“Yes gold star, PT, that’s Princess Twilight, I love you more than her because of reasons, sorry I had something more eloquent in mind, but then my face got melted.” He snapped his claws.
A changeling Queen appeared in the room, she seemed to be in the middle of waxing her chitin… while singing.
“Come on everypony smile, smile, smile! Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine! All I really need's a smile, smile, smile! From these happy friends of mine!!”
Then she seemed to notice where she was. She too took it rather well.
“Ahh! My face again!” Discord screamed again as he tried to remove the apparently acidic goo that Queen Twilight spat in his face. “Why is it always the face?!”
“Oh I’ve got more for the rest of you!” Queen Twilight then proceeded to beat Discord up in a variety of ways. It got… Creative, I’m going to go with creative... Then a bit mundane but practical. Then just kicking, usually punctuated with some grievance the changeling seemed to have with the spirit.
“And that’s for anything else I might have forgotten!” She declared with one last firm kick to Discords side. Taking a few steps away she collapsed on her pitch black plot panting.
“Sooo.. Being a changeling, that must be interesting.”
“*pant* Oh yes,*pant* it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster ride, but all in all not so bad. Sensing emotions and the whole shape shifting thing, that’s pretty nice.”
“You know that isn’t your Discord right? He’s not the one that cursed your ancestors.”
“Oh, yes. I figured that out about two minutes in. I probably would have been quicker, but I was a bit distracted.”
“Ow.”
PT stepped away from her alternate selves toward the damaged Discord. “You keep bringing different Twilights here, why? How do they answer ‘why you love me’?”
“Because they’re you, but they’re not you. I’m ok with them not loving me, or even liking me or being my friend because they aren’t myyou. I can’t put it into words exactly, but I love you. And I don’t know why. You think I don’t want to know? It drives me crazy! I love you, so please… Love me too.”
“It’s true.” All eyes seemed to fall on QT, “I mean he does love you, it’s all confused, knotted up and mixed with jealousy and regret, but he really does love you.”
Princess Twilight processed this, she looked back at it all, but she kept coming back to the last thing Discord said..
“Discord..” If she was right, about any of her theories, this would hurt, who she wasn’t sure. “Why should I love you?”
It was as if a light came on. One moment Discord was on the floor, nursing his ‘wounds’, and then he was standing there in front of Twilight. Rage and pain twisting his face as she’d never seen.
“Because you said you always would, Twilight!!! You said you’d never stop loving me no matter what! You said you’d find a way.. A way to.. You said you’d bring me back home.”
Both Twilight and Discord had shocked expressions, the realisation of his words hit them both.
“Star Swirl.. Is that you?”
“Yes.. I.. How did I forget that?”
“What happened to you?” Twilight wrapped him in her forelegs and wings.
“A paradox too many, I guess, I remember it now. I jumped just like every time before, but then I.. something happened and the spell couldn’t resolve the paradoxes anymore, so they all fed back into me… So much confusion, so much chaos. I guess.. I went insane, and never stopped.”
“Star.. We can fix this..”
Discord tore himself away from her. “There’s nothing to fix Twilight! I am what I am, and no amount of magic and change that! I’m not Star Swirl anymore so just.. just don’t worry about me.”
“Discord..”
“Here Twilight, you deserve a Star Swirl.” He snapped both his claw and paw, materializing three more Star Swirls. “We come in all kinds of flavors! Plain,” He picked up a plain unicorn version of himself, “Alicorn,” He motioned to the oddly perplexed alicorn of space and time, “Or extra shiny.” He finished leaning against The Tree of Harmony. “Go on! Take your pick! Anyone of these fine Swirly studs should fit the bill. I mean it’s not like…”
Discord found himself stopped by the firm slap of Princess Twilight’s hoof across his face, and then the warmth of her powerful embrace.
“I don’t want someone else’s Star Swirl. I want mine, no matter what has happened to you, you will always have been him. And I want very much to know how much of him is left, how much is new, and how much of who you are is your confusion and pain? Even if you really aren’t Star Swirl anymore, you are Discord the Draconequus; My friend. And I don’t want to lose him either.”
“... So you’ll go on a date with me?”
“Yes I will.”
“Great! I have a place booked already, and I hear double dates are great! Good thing I already brought our doubles eh? Those ones will just have to go with each other though,” He pointed at their original audience of Celestia, Luna, Cadance and the apparently mute Shining Armor, “I really don’t think I have it me to deal with their doubles too.”
“Discord. Shut up.” Twilight generously helped him in the task by kissing him. “Now.. Let’s go find out about each other.”
