> Split Second: An Eternity Divided
>  by wille179
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Two Ponies and a Dragon Walk Into a Minotaur Bar...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Two ponies and a dragon walked into a minotaur bar. Mind you, they didn't enter at the same time. 
The first pony to enter was a blue unicorn named Cobalt, who bore a chef's knife cutie mark. Or at least, that was what he wanted the casual observer to think. In actuality, he was a red earth pony by the name of Red Fields, who just so happened to have a hobby of disguising himself, and who bore a throwing knife mark. It was certainly a useful skill for an assassin from a famous family of killers, but his disguise abilities served another purpose as well. Because of the fake horn, nobody considered it odd when he used unicorn-type magic.
The second pony to enter the bar was a little, prepubescent unicorn colt. He was tall for his apparent age, but simultaneously slightly underweight, making him appear like a walking stick figure. His dark gray fur was thick and matted, as if it had never been brushed once in his life. His mane and tail were similarly long and disheveled; the black mass of fluff on his head looked more like a lion's mane than a pony's and the tail dragged on the ground behind him.
The young colt looked around the bar with a ravenous, predatory gaze. His eyes hovered over each of the minotaurs, bulls and cows alike, before moving on to the next one. In a small mining village like this, there wasn't a single minotaur that a pony wouldn't see as a walking wall of muscle.
The colt sat down at the bar next to Cobalt, and waved over the waitress. "Could I get something big and filling? I could eat a mountain right now."
The waitress replied, "Sure thing, sweetie." She tried to give him a friendly smile - keyword: tried - but failed when she made eye contact with the colt. It came out as a malformed grimace-smile hybrid that quickly vanished. The minotaur waitress quickly sped away, knowing in her gut that there was something wrong with that colt.
After a few moments of silence, Cobalt, who was slightly drunk, decided to ask the question on his mind to the young colt. "You're awfully young to be on your own. Where are your parents?" Cobalt's accent clearly places him as a foreigner, one from Equestria, on the other side of the Minos-Equis sea.
"I'm on my own. My mom died in childbirth and my rapist, bastard sire got himself trapped in a hellish place when he pissed off a necromancer. Been on my own for practically my whole life," the colt replied matter-of-factly.
"Oh." Cobalt looked down at his beer. It was a heavy minotaur brew, and at that moment, was far more interesting for Cobalt to stare at than the colt next to him.
The waitress came by with a tray piled high with a large salad and bread rolls. The colt looked at it with mild disappointment, as if he expected something else, but then dug in with great gusto. Cobalt watched in awe as the little colt put away more food than even he, a full grown stallion, could eat, and then promptly ordered seconds.
His old teacher had once told him that unicorns have to eat extra food proportional to their magical strength; the stronger the unicorn, the more they needed to eat. 
And before Cobalt knew it, his little companion was on thirds and was showing no signs of slowing. A small crowd had gathered to watch the colt eat, and were starting to cheer him on.
Finally, after the third massive portion had found its way down the colt's throat, he sighed in relief. "That hit the spot." The colt then set the requisite silver pieces on the counter, but made no move to stand.
"Cobalt, just because your teacher is temporarily disembodied doesn't mean that you get to slack off on your essays or project reports."
Cobalt's brain practically tripped over those words. "Wait, what?"
"Cobalt, would you kindly figure it out?" the colt asked.
But to Cobalt's mind, it was not a question; that was an irrefutable order thanks to the geas he was under. And there was only one pony in the world who could control him like that through it. "Sparkle?"
"In the new flesh," he - no, she - replied.
"B-but... You're a colt!"
"I am aware, yes."
"How?" Cobalt asked. 
Sparkle shrugged. "When I was disembodied back at the Crystal Empire, I found that I couldn't access my pocket dimension, so I couldn't get to the spare bodies I had in there, Sombra and Tirek. Anyway, I needed a body, and fast, so when a group of ponies came out of the Empire, I latched on to the first mare I could find. Turns out, Ruby had an embryo already that hadn't developed its own soul yet, and my reincarnation spell latched onto that instead of making a new body."
"And the parents?" Cobalt asked. 
"It turns out that my mere existence is like poison to the mother's soul. For the first few weeks, she was fine, but by the time I was ready to be born, her personality and memories had been mostly eroded away. Her soul gave out shortly after I was born," Sparkle answered.
"And the father?"
"Raped Ruby, along with countless other mares, repeatedly. The ex-king, ex stallion Sombra is currently enjoying my full hospitality in my pocket dimension." 



Meanwhile in a parallel dimension... 

"It's gone, it's gone, it's gone, it's gone, it's gone, it's gone..."



"I got most of it working while I was in utero thanks to Thorn's help, so now Sombra's facing an endless loop of his personal horrors made very real," Sparkle said with a sadistic gleam in her eyes.
"Well, I'm glad you are healthy and... happy. Where is Thorn, by the way?" Cobalt asked.
The ex-mare said, "He should be here soon. Hey, are you going to eat that?" She pointed to his half-finished pasta.
"You're still hungry?" the shocked stallion asked.
His food was already in her mouth when she started answering. Through mouthfuls of food, she managed to spit out what the assassin understood as, "I'm aging ten times as fast during the day and over a hundred times as fast during the night. I need the calories."
Well, that answered Cobalt's question of how a colt that should logically be only a month old looked like a prepubescent about to enter his first growth spurt. "Hey, Sparkle, which pronoun do I use with you?"
"Either. I don't care," she replied, setting down the fork on the empty pasta plate. "I feel like a mare at heart, but we'll get weird looks if you call me a mare. It doesn't matter to me; it's just a word."
"Right," he said with a nod. The door to the bar opened, drawing Cobalt's attention to it. "Thorn's here."
The dracolich spotted them quickly and strode over. Undisguised as he was, Thornecrovitar made for a fearsome sight. He had long, sharp claws, a bladed tail, wickedly sharp back spines and teeth, eyes that glowed green, and pupils that undulated like black flame. He drew plenty of nervous stares as he walked through the bar.
"Hello, Cobalt. Long time, no see." He stuck out his thumb and smiled. "Hey Mom. I brought you more of the good stuff."
Snatching the bag from his grip, she ripped it open and drew out strips of raw meat. She wolfed them down without hesitation.
Cobalt gagged a little. He knew his teacher liked eating meat, but he couldn't stand the stuff. He'd eaten chicken once and had been sick for hours, while Sparkle, who had eaten the same chicken, had been completely fine. It was his earth pony nature rejecting it, he supposed.
Sparkle looked at him. She slurped up strip of meat and then said, "Don't ask."
"Sparkle, when were you planning on going back to Equestria? When I left, Shining Armor was kind of messed up; I think it would be good for him to see you again... For the first time," Cobalt suggested.
Sparkle paused her voracious eating. "Define 'messed up.'"
"Depressed, mostly. It was like I was talking to a golem, really. He just wasn't all there," Cobalt replied. "I think he took your temporary death much harder than he should have.
"But he knew I'd be back, right?" Sparkle asked, worried for her brother. "Right?"
Neither Thorn nor Cobalt answered. "Did... did we forget to tell him that I could come back?"
"Errr... We've kept so many things secret from uncle Shiny that I can't remember it all. I just don't talk to him about black magic," Thorn replied.
"I literally can't. I'm geas bound, remember?" Cobalt added.
"Buck. Buck it all to the pits." For a brief moment, Sparkle lost control of her magic. Dark energy erupted into the room, causing all the other occupants to freeze in place. "Sorry!" Sparkle called out as she reined her magic back in. Dropping back down to a more normal volume, she asked, "And did we ever send a letter to Twilight about all this?"
She looked at Thorn. He looked away.
"For crying out loud! Now they all think I really am dead!" The little foal necromancer slammed her head against the table, picked it up again, and then began stuffing it with more of her dwindling meat supply.
Her sister, Twilight, was the more neurotic of the two, and far less able to deal with stress. Even though they were technically the same mare, it had been twelve years since the timelines had split. Sparkle, the necromancer, had had a very different life than Twilight, the paladin and bearer of the Element of Magic.
"Hey, cheer up," Thorn said. "You've got me. I can send them a letter and we can get this all cleared up in a heartbeat."
Sparkle smiled and blushed. 
At that moment, a defect in her new body decided to show itself. Sparkle's new body had bi-tribalism; it had improperly grown, resulting in it demanding her magic both like a crystal pony and like a unicorn. And while the conflicting demands on her magic hurt her control, it also caused another effect.
Like a crystal pony, Sparkle went transparent when she was happy. Her bones, because of her condition, did not. For a brief moment, Sparkle's entire skeleton was visible.
"Ahh! No! Bad body!" Sparkle said, forcing herself to become fully opaque again. Cobalt asked what just happened, so Sparkle filled him in to the basic details of her condition. She also told him of the heart problems that came with it, though told him she'd already fixed that defect.
After he was satisfied with the short explanation, she turned to her son (who was now technically older than her). "Thorn, take a letter."
He pulled a quill and scroll from his bags. It was always a good idea to keep writing implements handy. "Ready!"
"Dear BBBFF..."
> Decrescendo/Alone [History Overwritten]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The letter materialized before him in a burst of green flame. He had not seen a flame like that in what seemed like forever, and he had long since resigned himself to the fear that he might never see it again. And yet here it was. For one brief but glorious second, the flame burned before his eyes.
A scroll materialized. With a flump, it landed on the cold, hard, crystalline floor of the palace he had grown to hate. His pink aura lifted it up as gently as if it was a slightly cracked egg. Quickly, he slid off the length of twine and unfurled the scroll.




Dear BBBFF,

I’m alive. 
You have no idea just how much of an asshole I felt like when I realized that you didn’t know I was still alive, and didn’t know that I had a plan to survive. Celestia, I’m a horrible sister.
Shining Armor, I AM ALIVE.



His legs went weak, causing him to wobble. “She’s alive?” Quickly, he read through the rest of the letter, reading all about how she survived, how it took her so long to pull herself back together after being blasted by the heart, and how she was doing now.
The moment he finished reading the letter, his head shot up. In an explosion of movement, he raced to his wife’s throne room as fast as his well-trained legs would carry him.
“CADANCE! SHE’S ALIVE!”



In another time, there was a lavender mare laying on her back, staring absentmindedly at the gray, blobby clouds in the dull blue sky. She wondered what Rainbow Dash was doing. Was she having fun at the Wonderbolts Academy?
A sigh escaped her lips. That happened more and more frequently these days, it seemed. Her stomach rumbled as well. That too seemed to be occurring more frequently these days. And yet, Twilight lacked the motivation to fix either problem. In fact, she’d lacked the motivation to do much of anything these days.
Fate, if such a thing existed, took exception to Twilight’s depression. It expressed its distaste by slapping her in the face with a scroll that materialized from thin air just above where she was lying in the grass.
The paper bounced off her muzzle and rolled into the grass. Twilight turned her head just enough to see it out of the corner of her eye. Slowly, she stretched out a leg, covered in spiderweb-like scars, to grasp for it.
It had rolled out of reach.
She sighed again. This time, she focused her magic in an attempt to grab whatever Spike had sent her.
It refused her magic’s touch.
Twilight sat upright, obviously confused by the scroll’s lack of reaction to her power. The only reason something made of paper would refuse to be touched by telekinesis was-
Her eyes and body snapped to full alert. In a quick motion, she snatched up the scroll from the other timeline and ripped the twine away.




Hey, Twi. I’m alive.




As her eyes scanned across the rest of the letter, something blossomed in her heart that hadn’t been there for months, something that she had so desperately needed: hope.



The cool breeze swirled around them, tussling the manes of the two ponies in the trio. Green grass tickled their hooves and feet as the walked down the slope. The late spring sun shone down upon them, bathing them in its warm light as it slipped between the thin, wispy clouds.
This did not bring Sparkle any joy. Rather, the sunlight made her scowl. Celestia’s light - and the magical radiation that came with it - tickled at her soul, reminding Sparkle of the pain it had caused when she was bodiless and exposed. In fact, the light only served to amplify the regret and worry she'd suffered from since her rebirth.
She half closed her young body’s sensitive eyes in a vain effort to stop the light from coming in. And, despite knowing that it wouldn’t help, Sparkle found herself disappointed that it hadn’t. Sighing, she switched into a trot for a moment, recovering the distance between herself and Cobalt. His larger frame took three steps for her five.
As the trio reached the bottom of the hill, they transitioned from a grassy slope to a stone path. They turned right and walked for a little bit until they eventually rounded the base of another hill. Before them lay the sleepy port town of Sea Horn. They could see a half dozen large ships, and perhaps twenty smaller vessels, in or entering the port. The road they were on clearly wound its way down into the town and all the way to the docks, making an easy path for them to follow.
Within an hour, Thorn, Cobalt, and Sparkle had descended into the port town and reached the docks. And within a few more minutes, the trio had come to the office of the harbormaster. 
When none of the three actually moved to enter the office, Sparkle nudged Cobalt. "Hey, Big Brother, I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm just a little colt. Can you, the only adult in this group, ask so I don't look like an oddity?"
Cobalt chuckled with embarrassment, though his blush didn't show through his blue fur dye. "Oh, right." He trotted up to the door and gave it a few solid knocks.
"Can I help you?" Cobalt jumped slightly when a deep voice came from a direction he wasn't expecting. The earth pony spun around. Behind them stood an old minotaur with a thick, gray beard. He wore a vest with the town's blue and black flag embroidered on the left side, and on his wrist, he sported an armband made of stone.
"Are you the harbormaster?" Cobalt inquired.
The large bull nodded. "That I am. Name's Fred. What can I do for you?"
"Are there any ships headed to Equestria? Ones that would be willing to ferry a trio across the ocean?" Cobalt asked.
Fred's eyes immediately darted upwards to the wispy clouds in sky. “Not in this weather."
Sparkle tilted her head to the side in confusion. "Why? The weather's fine."
Fred looked at her for a moment. As he made eye contact with her, he shuddered slightly, and then went back to normal. Then he asked, "You're an Equestrian, aren't you?"
"Err... Is it that obvious?" Sparkle asked.
"It is, little colt. We don't have any pegasi or griffins managing the weather here; it's all wild," Fred replied, enjoying the looks on the trio's faces as he said that.
"Still, it looks clear," Sparkle insisted.
"It won't be for much longer," Fred said. "We minotaurs are a bit more in tune with the earth than you ponies are. We listen to the world, rather than controlling it." He pulled off his stone wristband and began to mold it between his fingers as if it were clay instead. "And while stone may be our domain, out at sea, we are at the world's mercy. So if I say the weather's going to be bad, you can bet your coins that notaur is going out to sea today."
Sparkle sagged her head. Cobalt looked down at her, and then back up. "How long do you think we might have to wait?"
Fred crossed his arms. "Hmmm... Storms are rather common this time of year. Sometimes they can make the harbor inaccessible for a week at a time. It all depends. Sorry."
"Right," Cobalt said. "Come on, let's go find an inn."
The trio had barely taken three steps away when Fred called out. "Wait. Exactly how badly do you need to get to Equestria?"
Sparkle looked back and said, "We may have accidentally convinced our family that we were dead."
"Ouch. Well, there is one ship that's leaving in a few hours, and they are headed to Los Pegasus. The Nevermoon."
"Nevermoon?"
Fred nodded. "Yes. It's a cargo ship, and while the captain's nice, the crew can be a bit rough. Plus, it's by no means a passenger ship. It'll get you there fast, but the voyage will be somewhat unpleasant for those without their sea legs. And that's only if they've got the room."
Cobalt looked down at Sparkle, who nodded affirmatively. "Sure," he told Fred. "If they can fit us, we don't mind leaving today. Thanks."
"Excellent. The Nevermoon's at pier five. Hurry before they cast off." He gave them a thumbs up, but the gesture was lost on the two ponies. "Good luck, and may Holone and the Allmother be on your side." With a wave, he turned and headed in the opposite direction. 
As the harbormaster had said, the Nevermoon was a small cargo ship. It was clearly well maintained and, because it was built by and for minotaurs, it was very tough. The cargo ship, a smaller-than-average fluyt, stood waiting as its crew loaded goods onto it. True to the harbormaster's prediction, it was the only ship in sight bringing goods onboard.
Cobalt scoped out the crew and trotted over to a minotaur cow who looked to be in charge. "Excuse me. Is this ship headed to Equestria?"
"It is," she replied, not bothering to look down at him.
"Do you have room for three passengers? We can pay."
She looked down at him with a strange expression. "Get lost."
"Hey, Beth, wait," a younger bull said. "We don't have a full load this run. I'm sure the captain wouldn't mind a little extra silver for some live cargo."
"Fine. Go ask him," she replied.
As the bull ran off to find his captain, Thorn pulled Sparkle aside. He bent down a bit so he could talk quietly without the others overhearing. "Mom, I'm not going back to Equestria. Not yet, anyway."
"What? Why?"
"Mom, you know why. They can't know that this -” he pointed at Sparkle's cold body, "- is you."
"Sorry. I remember. There's a difference between planning it and actually being separated from you.
"You've got the dummy wraith ready and your plans all set?"
Sparkle nodded. "Double and triple checked."
"I'm gonna miss you. I wish I could go home with you, but having me there right now would just complicates things. You know what Celestia will do to you if she finds out. If I'm there, we can't be together or somepony might figure it out." Thorn's serious expression softened a bit. "Plus, I've also got a lead on Scorpan's whereabouts. I promised I'd find him, and Equestria is in the wrong direction."
Sparkle reared up and hugged him, a challenge now that he was taller than her. "I know. Thorn, do you think that you're ready for this?"
"Please, I've been on my own before. Maybe not this long, but what's a little more time? Plus, I can always use the link to talk to you and the pocket to get stuff from you or send it back. It's not like we're really ever apart," Thorn reassured her.
It worked. Sparkle's new face smiled widely while her bones momentarily became visible as her soft tissue crystallized from her happiness. "You're right. Stay safe, Thornecrovitar, and I wish you luck."
"You too," he replied, scooping up his mother's small body into a tight hug.
Cobalt trotted up to them. "The captain will let us on for seventy silver pieces each, fifty five if we do chores."
Sparkle nodded in his direction. "Then this is goodbye, Thorn?"
"Not really. It's just 'I'll see you later.'"



So far, she hadn’t seen anything that would explain the harbormaster’s warriness. The crew was a bit gruff and tended to avoid her, but other than that, she could see nothing out of the ordinary. From the secluded little hidey-hole that she’d found, she could still see outside, but the afternoon sun wasn’t shining directly on her.
The only exception to the crew’s avoidance of her was a young lad cleaning the deck with a mop, who smiled at her every time he passed her. That little fact had been enough to capture Sparkle’s attention, causing her to watch him work. Still, just watching him mop hadn’t done much to pull her out of the slight melancholy she had found herself in.
The young bull glanced up at the sails of the ship, and Sparkle followed his gaze. Perched upon the ship’s yards and all the various ropes were hundreds of strange, small, white birds. Each and every one of them was sitting there, silently. Sparkle was surprised to see them, as she hadn’t even noticed their arrival.
The bull whistled; the notes were amazingly loud and cascaded in a strange, short measure. Half a second later, the birds took off and a huge gust of wind simultaneously slammed into the ship’s sails, causing the whole fluyt to rock. The bull whistled again, and all the birds slowed their flight and the wind slacked off a bit.
Sparkle stared in awe at the scene, and the bull, seeing her face, smirked. “I take it you saw that?”
“What was that?” Sparkle asked excitedly. “Are you an aeromancer?”
The minotaur laughed. “No, I’m just whistling. It’s the flock doing all the work.”
“The flock?” Sparkle looked up at the birds, which were moving at a steady pace alongside the ship. “What are they?”
“You can see them?” The bull paused his mopping. “It’s been awhile since anybody else could see them. Well, for your information, I call them wind raisers.” He then whistled again, signaling for the flock to land on the ship. As they descended, the wind slowed to a stop. He held out a hand, one finger extended, inviting one of the birds to him. One landed on his finger.
Smiling, he carried the bird to where Sparkle was hiding from the sun. He bent down and brought the bird closer to her so she could see it. From this perspective, Sparkle saw that it had no eyes at all, and its serrated beak was attached to its head sideways. Furthermore, in the shadows, she could see that there was a faint white glow around it.
“A storm flyer! I’ve only read about them. You don’t see many demons in Equestria, even of the harmless kind,” she said.
“Demon?”
Sparkle nodded. “They’re pure life without a physical body. Not all of them are malicious, you know. But yes, they’re demons. That’s why so few can see them.”
He stood back up. “More demons.” He looked at the bird contemplatively, while the bird, despite not having any eyes, seemed to look back at him. Then, shrugging, he tossed it into the air and watched it take flight. He whistled once more and watched them all take off again, causing the wind to pick back up.
“What do you mean, ‘More demons’? Have you seen others?”
He shrugged. As he turned and walked away, he muttered something that sounded affirmative. Sparkle was left with her curiosity yearning for more, but left unsatisfied. 
A while later, as the sun was starting to get low in the sky, and storms were building on the opposite horizon, Cobalt came and found her. “I brought you some food. Potatoes and veggies.” He levitated the tray of food to her, and after mumbling a quick thanks, she started eating. Having turned off her aging spell, and thus aging normally, Sparkle’s appetite was now appropriate for a colt her size, weight, and magical power.
Cobalt sat down next to her and gazed at the thunderous storm clouds in the distance, which were much larger than any cloud in an Equestrian storm. “I’m glad we’re missing that.”
“Mmm hmm...”
He looked down at his small mistress-turned-master. It was clear to him that she wasn’t quite in the moment. “A bit for your thoughts?”
“Time.”
“Time?”
“Just time.”
Cobalt dropped from sitting to lying on his belly, mimicking the posture of Sparkle. “What about time?”
Sparkle gave him a sidelong glance. “Do you believe in fate?”
“Hmmm... Not really, no. The mare who raised me always insisted that it was my fate, my duty to serve the family. And then I struck out on my own. Heh, you know where that got me,” Cobalt mirthfully replied. His hoof slowly traced the grain in the wood beneath him. “Why do you ask?”
“It’s... no, it’s nothing,” the necromancer replied dourly. 
The pair lay there quietly, just listening to the sound of the waves and the noise of the crew on the other side of the wooden wall. Sparkle eventually broke the silence. “Cobalt?”
“Yes, Sparks?”
“Have you ever met Death? Without me?”
Cobalt nodded. “Once, about a year ago, just after you died. I knew you had survived, so I thought she was coming after me instead.”
“What happened?”
“We talked. She let me ask her a question. It turns out, she planned for you to die there.”
Sparkle’s brow furrowed as she took in the new information “Did she hurt you?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Whatever they would have said next was interrupted by a shout from below, followed by a hatch opening nearby. One of the crew popped his head out and spotted them. “Hey, you two, come inside. The sun is setting.”
“Why?” Sparkle questioned. “It’s nice out.”
“Yeah, but it’s not safe,” the crewmember insisted. "You'd probably trip on something and fall into the sea. And drown." He paused, as if contemplating something. “You know, on second thought, do whatever you want. I don’t care.”
“Oookaay...” Sparkle said. Regardless, she and Cobalt stood and followed him inside. After they passed through the hatch, the minotaur shut it behind them and latched it tight. He gave it a firm tug, making sure it was secure and wouldn’t open if the ship rocked. Then, appropriately satisfied, he led them to the bunks. “Captain wants you sleeping with us in the crew quarters. They’re not the coziest of accommodations, but then, this ain’t a luxury liner.”
“Right.”
They were led to their small-for-minotaurs sized beds. After a while, the crew, save for the night watch, started settling for the night. From a doorway on the other side of the bunks strolled in a minotaur with several rings on each of his horns, who spotted the two ponies and made his way over to them. “There are my two passengers! Sorry I couldn’t find you earlier; Cobalt here said you were off hiding. I’m Captain Joseph.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” she replied. “Thanks for letting us ride with you.”
“It’s not a problem. We were under loaded anyway, so having you two aboard makes this run a little bit more worthwhile,” he explained. “So, are you heading home, or just passing through Equestria?”
“Heading home,” Sparkle replied. “I’ve got family in Ponyville, so I’m heading that way.”
“Ponyville, huh?” Joseph remarked. His brow creased slightly, despite his relatively positive tone. “My brother, William, he told me that the first pony to ever stand up to him and take his satisfaction guarantee was in Ponyville. He’s a traveling motivational speaker; a strange profession if I’ve ever seen one, but I can’t say he isn’t good at it.” Then he looked away.
“Have you ever been there?”
“Can’t say I have. I usually never... leave the ports.” His happy-ish expression broke, warping into a frown. “I’m sorry, but can you stop looking at me? I don’t know why, but your eyes are really bothering me.”
Sparkle quickly complied, looking at the floor. She could audibly hear him - as well as several others - all sigh in relief as quietly as they could. “What’s wrong with my eyes?”
The captain floundered for a moment. “Well, ah, you see... they’re oddly reflective. That’s it. The light reflecting off your eyes is weird.”
Sparkle frowned, spotting the lie instantly. “But I’m a crystal pony. That’s normal for our eyes.” She looked back up at him with her still lavender eyes and made eye contact. Using a trick Cobalt had taught her after learning about it from a pegasus friend, she pushed a little unstructured magic into her eyes. The effect was immediate. Joseph took a step back and flinched as if he had been struck. “Are you scared of my eyes?”
“Yes,” he whispered. “Just a little.”
“What’s wrong with them?”
“Please don’t kill me.”
Sparkle sighed and broke eye contact, much to the captain’s relief. “It figures.” Eyes were the window to the soul, after all. Sparkle knew that some magic relied on eye contact to be effective, or was introduced into a pony’s mind and soul via the eyes; thus it made sense that the opposite was true, and that her oversized, older soul would make her seem very strange and scary to anyone who made eye contact with her.
Joseph wasn’t even the first to notice it. She’d been getting odd looks since she was reborn, and only Cobalt and Thorn seemed immune. Joseph had just been the first to say anything.
Her mood even lower than before, she turned and climbed into her bed, planting her face into the thin little pillow she had been provided.
A hand rested itself on her back. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be insensitive,” Joseph said. “I’ve seen many fantastical things in this world, on these seas. Your eyes just happened to be one that caught me off guard. I mean no insult, little colt.”
Sparkle waved her hoof, but didn’t extract her face from her pillow. “It’s fine,” she replied dourly, though it was slightly muffled by the fabric and down. 
The captain withdrew his hand. He opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it again. His thoughts churned, evident by his fist clenching and relaxing repeatedly. There was something about seeing a sad pony child that bothered the bull, and yet, this faux-colt disturbed him. Eventually, he settled on ignoring the problem and walked away.
The crew went out of their way to avoid her after that night. It was one thing to see ponies and minotaurs look past her, as if she wasn’t there; it was another thing entirely to have them purposefully avoid her. Sparkle distracted herself with conversation with Cobalt and Thorn, but the feeling of isolation never left her. And when, four days later, the ship finally docked in Los Pegasus, Sparkle found herself racing off the ship in a full gallop.



She stepped off the overnight train in lower Canterlot, newly acquired sunglasses covering her eyes. Yes, that particular train had made a stop in Ponyville, but that wasn’t where she was headed, not at first. No, she had another stop to make first.
Cobalt led her down one back alley after another, winding their way through the seediest part of Lower Canterlot. No pony with any sort of legitimate business ever came down here, and with good reason.
The duo stopped at an unmarked wooden door. Sparkle recognized the street, as she’d been down here in her past life when she had to get loans to pay her various legal fees and lawyer costs. Now, however, the money she’d hidden away was enough to afford these services, although it would likely cost her almost half of what she had left. “This better be worth it,” Sparkle said. “If he half-asses this and I get caught, it’s your fault.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve used his services before, and so has the rest of my family. I haven’t had issues yet, and neither has anypony else I know that’s used him.” Cobalt knocked on a door twice, skipped a beat, and then knocked twice more. The door opened, revealing a nondescript yellowish green unicorn stallion. “Can I help you?”
“We heard you sold masks here. May we try a few on?”
"If you’ve got the bits, come on in.” He stepped aside and let the assassin and the necromancer in, and then shut the door behind them. As they walked through the narrow, decrepit hallway of the house, the stallion asked, “So, you need fake IDs. What do you need, when do you need them, and what do they have to prove?”
“I need the basics of a new identity,” Sparkle answered. “Birth certificate, hospital records, citizenship papers, and a homeschooling form. I need them planted in the appropriate places, and I need them as soon as possible, and they have to be as good as genuine. I also need planted birth records for a mare in her mid twenties.”
“Aren’t you a little young to need a fake ID?” the forger asked.
“I’m several times my apparent age and in a body that doesn’t legally exist at all. I have more than enough magic to liquefy your brains and devour your soul, or better yet, force you to make what I need for free.” To punctuate her statement, she flared her magic and pushed down her glasses so she could stare him in the eye. The forger gulped, knowing he was dealing with the genuine article. “But I’m willing to pay for these instead. I’m also willing to pay for your silence.”
The forger nodded quickly. “Right. That’ll be two point five million. A quarter million for each of the documents and another quarter million for each of the plants.”
In response, Sparkle made a show of pulling three gold bars, each worth a million bits, from her pocket dimension. “Three million, as requested.” She levitated them onto the table next to them. Gold, being one of the more magically resistant elements, made for an impressive feat of levitation in large amounts, and yet Sparkle barely noticed the weight.
“Smart colt,” the forger remarked. “Tell me, who do you want to be? Name, age, parents, education, and birth city; I need it all.”
“And just to be clear, you can have them planted by?”
“Wednesday of this week, but I’ll have your copies done by Monday afternoon,” he replied. It was Sunday afternoon. “As long as you don’t get in any trouble until after Wednesday, I don’t forsee any problems.”
“Good. My new name is...”



“So this is where you live,” Sparkle remarked as she walked into Cobalt’s tiny apartment. It was clearly a place made for a single pony, as it had one bedroom, one bathroom, a tiny kitchen, and a small living area, which was overflowing with books, jars of various chemicals, and weapons, of which most were knives.
“Yep. This is home. I’ll have to dig out the couch for me to sleep on, but-”
“I’ll take the couch. I’m smaller,” Sparkle interjected. “Besides, I’m only here until Wednesday. I can deal with a couch for that long.”
“You sure, Sparks?”
“Yes, Cobalt, I’m sure.”
He shrugged. “Suit yourself. Anyway, there’s something I want to show you over here.”
Sparkle followed him, sidestepping to avoid the random clutter. He opened a door and motioned for her to go inside.
It was the bathroom, although it took Sparkle a second or two to identify “bathroom” features under the gigantic mass of fur dye bottles of every shade and hue, plus an assortment of wigs, fake horns, and fake wings.
“Wow.”
Cobalt beamed. “I am an artist, and the equine body is my canvas.” His eyes scanned the mass of bottles, eventually settling on a pair of grays, one light and the other very dark. “Here. This is for you.”
“I understand what this one is for,” she said, motioning to the lighter one, “but what’s the other for?”
“We can’t just dye your cutie mark; it would stand out if you went shiny. The same for your mane, hence the dark gray. And, if you’re going to be dying yourself, you’re going to need to know how to do this correctly.” Cobalt pointed to the shower. “In you go. We need to get the sea salt out of your fur first. Clean everywhere thoroughly. We’ll dye it tomorrow after the oils come back.”
“Can’t we do it today?”
“Do you want it to look natural?”
“Fine.”



With documents in her possession, basic illusions around her body, magic suppressed, fur dyed, and gender finally swapped to what it should have been, Sparkle stood on the train platform waiting for the Ponyville Express. For the second time in a week, she was leaving somepony close to her, and likely wouldn’t see him again for a while. The next step in her plan was critical. She had to get this right, otherwise everything would fall apart.
Unfortunately, it meant that she couldn’t be with Cobalt. In fact, he was going to the Canterlot Library to check out a book for the sole purpose of leaving a paper trail that kept him away from her and her new body.
“Are you ready?”
“I’m terrified that I’m going to screw this up. If I end up in Tartarus, write me please?”
“Sure, Sparks.”
The train chugged into the station, stopping on the tracks next to them. As the doors opened and other passengers spilled out, Sparkle hugged Cobalt. “Stay safe.”
“You too, Sparkle. Are we still going to meet for lessons soon?” Cobalt asked.
“There’s no doubt about that,” Sparkle replied.
“Good.” He bent down and kissed her on the cheek. Her sudden blush would have made her go see-through had her fur not been dyed. “Have a safe trip, and good luck.”
Sparkle stepped onto the train and took her seat. The illusion around her kept the other passengers from caring that she was a little filly far too young to be on her own. She looked out the window at Cobalt, who waved to her. She waved back.
The train lurched forward, signalling the start of the penultimate leg of her journey. As the conductor took her ticket, she could only wait and hope.



Sparkle stepped off the train. Nopony looked at her. She nodded to herself, satisfied. Turning, she broke out into a hard gallop north. Quickly enough, she found herself at the edge of the town and kept galloping at full speed.
The dirt road was easy enough to run on, having not rained here in a while. She powered her way north, running until she was far enough out of sight from the town that she couldn’t see it and pegasi would be unlikely to see her in the distance.
This particular road connected to Canterlot, and this particular stretch had some of the Everfree forest immediately adjacent to it on the east side. It was perfect for what she needed.
Sparkle clenched her teeth, upset with this next step of her plan. She concentrated, opening a portal to her pocket dimension. She reached in with her magic and pulled out the dead but preserved body of Ruby, her surrogate mother. Her fur had also been dyed, giving her the appearance of a regular earth pony of the same color.
Tears welled up in her eyes. “Please forgive me, Ruby. I wish there was another way. I’m so sorry. I know that neither of us had a choice in the matter, and that it was pure chance that my soul found you, of all ponies. I’m sorry.”
From her pocket dimension, Sparkle withdrew a set of wooden objects she’d carved while waiting for her papers to be finished. Setting them on the ground, she conjured a specter and then cast a puppetry spell on Ruby’s corpse. The specter went to the six wooden objects and shifted its form. No longer was there a pony of ink; instead, an inky wolf stood it its place. In its paws, it grasped the fake timberwolf claws, and in its mouth, it held the fake timberwolf teeth. It floated over to the edge of the forest and took its place.
Sparkle teleported herself and Ruby’s corpse back a good distance, appearing on a nearby bridge, and then set her corpse on the ground. She strapped a large set of saddlebags to the corpse, which contained half-eaten rations, sleeping bags, a bag of bits, miscellaneous bits and bobs, and their false papers - in short, everything a pony would need to hike to a town and live there for an extended period of time. 
“I’m sorry,” the necromancer whispered again. Then they started walking, taking care to leave some sort of hoof print on the ground. With a simple application of telekinesis, Sparkle restarted Ruby’s heart, creating blood pressure. As she approached the target spot, Sparkle signaled the false wolf to creep through the underbrush. At the last moment, the false wolf pounced, biting into Ruby’s neck. Blood spurted everywhere, even getting on Sparkle’s face.
Sparkle had the body thrash around, hitting the ground to create bruises and get dirty, while also having the fake wolf bite and claw at the corpse. She then had the wolf drag Ruby into the woods far enough that it wouldn’t be obvious, but short enough that she could be easily found.
The necromancer dismissed the wolf, as its role was done. However, she still had more details to fix. After heating the body to a normal temperature, Sparkle magically pressed on the mare’s rectum, forcing out feces that Sparkle had placed there. Then, she forced the mare’s artificially filled bladder to evacuate. As disgusting as it was, defecation and incontinence were the first two things that happened when the brain died, so adding in those details made the scene Sparkle was constructing all the more realistic.
Now satisfied and thoroughly disgusted, Sparkle set to work on herself. Returning to the path, she broke out into a gallop before intentionally tripping and falling on her face. She scrambled back up, ignoring the small cut she had gotten, and ran screaming as if the timberwolf was chasing her. As her small legs pounded the ground, she concentrated on all her regrets and sorrows, letting them fill her up. She thought of Ruby, the mare who had unwillingly sacrificed herself so that Sparkle could live again. She thought of the unborn child who would never get a chance at life. She thought of her brother and sister, who she had lied to and would have to continue to lie to. She thought of what would happen to her if it was found out that she wasn’t just a little filly who had just lost her mother.
She thought of all of this as she galloped. Her face contorted into genuine fear and sorrow, and tears ran down her cheeks in rivers of anguish. She thought of all of this, and fled from the demons in her heart.
> Crocodile Chicken [History Overwritten]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The sun was setting swiftly, and ponies all throughout the town were heading back towards their homes. It was a nice night, most of them figured. The stars were coming out and there were few clouds in the sky.
“AHHHH!”
The filly's scream drew the attention of several ponies, who spotted the distressed and bleeding filly running into town. A nearby pony intercepted the distraught filly. “What is it, filly? What’s wrong?”
“M-mom! timberwolves! Help!”
“Wolves?” The stallion asked. “When? Where?”
Sparkle pointed a shaky hoof back the way she had come. “Th-that way.”
“Stay here, filly,” the pegasus replied. “I’ll go save your mom.”
He flared his wings. The stallion yelled, “Timberwolf attack! Help!” With a downthrust, he took to the skies, followed swiftly by other nearby ponies.
A mare ran up to Sparkle and pulled her into a hug. “Shhh... I’ll be alright. They’ll save yer mommy. Don’t worry.”
Sparkle nodded and sobbed. The emotions behind those tears might have been very real, but at that moment, they were absolutely crocodile tears.
The mare comforting her eventually calmed Sparkle down with soft, soothing promises that everything would be alright, and that her mom would be fine. However, it was not to be. The stallion that she had first alerted to the timberwolves landed next to them, and shook his head grimly. The mare’s grip around Sparkle’s body tightened, and the necromancer knew the bait had been taken. “Is mom gonna be ok?”
“I... I’m sorry. Your mom... she... she’s not coming back. She escaped to the great green pasture of Elysium.”
Sparkle’s wailing renewed itself. Oh, how she wished that was true, but she knew better. She knew the horrible truth, and it ate at her soul.
“Sugarcube,” the motherly mare holding her asked, “where’s yer dad?”
“I-I don’t know... I never knew my daddy. Mommy told me he got really sick when I was a baby,” she explained between sobs.
“Is there anypony who could look after ya here?” she asked.
Sparkle shook her head. “Mom and I haven’t been here before. I... I don’t know...”
“Oh dear. Thunderlane, do ya know where Soft Spot lives?” The mare asked.
“Soft Spot? The mare who takes care of the orpha-Oh. Her. Yes, I know where she lives,” Thunderlane replied.
The mare gave Sparkle a significant look, and then looked back at Thunderlane, who nodded in understanding. “My name is Peachy Sweet,” she told Sparkle. “What’s your name?”
“R-Rhodium,” Sparkle lied, giving the name she had made up for her fake persona. The name itself was the element directly below cobalt on the periodic table, and it was for that reason that she had chosen it. “B-but my mom calls me Rody.”
“It’s nice to meet ya, Rody. Ah tell you what, why don’t ya come with Thunderlane and ah, and we’ll get ya somewhere safe for the night. Does that sound alright?” Peachy asked.
Sparkle nodded. She knew exactly where they were taking her, having followed along with the conversation to a degree that no real child her age and in her “situation” would ever be able to. In fact, she was counting on it.
Thunderlane led them to a house, only distinguishable from the other houses nearby by the sign above the door, which was adorned with the figures of a colt and a filly surrounded by a heart. The pegasus knocked on the door rather urgently. When the door opened, an earth pony with a mulberry coat and a pale, sea green mane emerged. “Hello?”
“Soft Spot, this is Rhodium. Rody’s mom... got into a bit of trouble. Could she stay here with ya for the night?” Peachy Sweet asked, giving Soft Spot a look that implored don’t ask; I’ll tell later.
Soft Spot smiled. “Sure! Come on in. We’ll get that cut of yours all bandaged up, won’t we, Rody?”
“Rhodium” shuffled inside and let Soft Spot lead her to the bathroom, where the mare doctored up the facial cut.  At this point, Sparkle had stopped crying and had gone quiet. The combined stress of her act and her unbottled emotions had now left her numb and unfeeling, much as one would expect from a little filly in shock.
“Come here, Rody,” Soft Spot led her to a small bedroom with two beds in it. One had clearly been slept in recently, while the other looked slightly dusty from lack of use. On the side of the room with the used bed sat a small, wooden scooter. “Here we are. You can sleep here tonight, but that can wait for now. Are you hungry? Thirsty?”
Sparkle shook her head. She was actually very thirsty, but she wanted to be left alone more than anything.
“Do you want somepony to talk to?” Soft Spot asked.
Again, Sparkle shook her head negatively.
“Alright. Well, the bathroom’s down the hall to the left if you need it, and I’ll be nearby if you need anything from me. If you want to be alone for now, that’s fine. My room’s down the hall to the right if you’d rather sleep with me. Or you can stay here, but you’ll have to share the room with another little filly.”
“M’fine,” Sparkle mumbled. “I want mommy.”
Soft Spot did her best to hide her frown. “I’m sure you do. I’ll be right back. I’m just going to have a quick chat with the kind ponies who brought you in. Wait here for just a minute.”
The caretaker hurriedly trotted out the room and down the stairs. As soon as she was out of sight, Sparkle quietly followed down the stairs, stopping as soon as she could make out Soft’s voice. “What happened?”
“Her mother got attacked by timberwolves. She died quickly.” That was Thunderlane, judging by the sound of the voice.
Soft gasped. “Oh no...”
“I asked Rody about her dad; from what I got, her father died when she was very young.” That was Peachy talking.
“Any relatives? Friends?” Soft asked.
“They were moving to Ponyville, but Rody didn’t name anypony,” Peachy replied.
“The mom had saddlebags with her,” Thunderlane said. “We found their papers inside.”
“That’s one thing at least.” Soft sighed. “Well, I’ll take care of her for now. I hope we can find somepony to take care of her, but I’ll gladly care for her for now. The other foals are sweet; I’m sure we can make her feel better.”
“What about the mother?” Peachy asked.
Thunderlane groaned sickly. “It was bad. I’ll spare you the details, but we’re probably not going to want an open casket funeral before we bury her.”
Sparkle’s eyes widened. They were going to bury Ruby? That wasn’t good. Sparkle needed any potential evidence gone. Luckily, between Canterlot tradition and rumors about her own past, she had an answer handy. “No! Don’t bury mommy!” Sparkle cried out as she rounded the corner.
“Rody!” Soft Spot exclaimed.
“Don’t bury her! She won’t sleep if you bury her! She’ll be stuck and get mad and the bone mare will make her crawl out!”
“The bone mare? Rhodium, who is the bone mare?”
Sparkle sniffed. “She’s the bad mare who turns dead ponies into monsters! You have to burn them to keep them safe from the bone mare!”
The three adults’ eyes widened. Peachy gasped. “The necromancer?”
Sparkle nodded and then lifted her special glasses slightly to wipe the tears away.
“On second thought, maybe the unicorns were on to something with their funeral pyres,” Thunderlane muttered. Soft Spot nodded in total agreement.
The caretaker walked up to Sparkle. “Don’t you worry about a thing, Rody. We’ll make sure the bone mare doesn’t get your mother. Now come on, you’ve had a rough day. Why don’t we get you all cleaned up and put you to bed. You’ll feel much better in the morning.”
“Thanks.”



Sparkle had a plan. The plan was straightforward enough, and the most complex parts were now finished. That didn't mean it would be any easier. Academically, she knew that this would be a difficult plan to follow, and possibly a commitment years in the running. She had been planning this for months now, even while she was still being reborn. She was ready for it.
Or so she thought. Up until that moment, she had only comprehended her plan logically, not emotionally. And yet, it only took one little thing for her to realize just how out of her depth she was in.
She had no toothbrush.
It was a trivial little problem. She would have just put off her morning tooth brushing until she could run to the store, except now that she was a foal in an orphanage, "running to the store" wasn't much of an option.
It dawned on her then just how much of her independence she had sacrificed in order to craft the identity of Rhodium and separate it from "Sparkle." She shuddered.
It was worth it, Sparkle told herself. It was completely worth it.
Her body disagreed, letting out a quiet sob. She tried to turn away from the bathroom mirror, but her hooves refused to move. Without her glasses on, her reflection glared back at her as if it were angry at her weakness. You raped Ruby; that's what your spell did to her, the reflection seemed to say. You sacrificed an unborn child and mutilated its body for your selfish desires. You caused her pain. You kidnapped her. You imprisoned her. You used dark magic on her against her will. You killed her. You destroyed her soul.
"What was I supposed to do?" Sparkle shouted in despair at her reflection. "I didn't have a choice!"
Her reflection didn't say anything, but her eyes held the truth she knew deep down, and yet didn't want to admit it. You did have a choice, foolish mare. You could have died. And you still have a choice: stop and get caught, and let Celestia banish you to Tartarus, or get a grip and move on.
"Is everything alright in here?"
Sparkle jumped and spun. Her eyes settled on Soft Spot, who was standing in the open bathroom doorway and looking at Sparkle with worry evident in her expression.
"I'm fine," Sparkle lied, her own eyes quickly darting to the floor. "But I don't have a toothbrush."
"In the drawer to your left, there's a bunch of clean spares; pick one you like," the caretaker replied.
Sparkle mumbled her thanks.
"Come downstairs when you're ready; breakfast will be ready soon and I'm sure you want to meet the other little colts and fillies."
Soon enough, Sparkle had prepared herself for the day, both physically and mentally. She quickly trotted down the stairs, which seemed really big compared to her small frame, and headed into the kitchen. The scent of hot muffins and fresh fruit greeted her nose. The next greeting she got came from a pony; specifically, it was from an orange pegasus filly. "Hey, it's the new filly," she said, drawing the attention of the other colts and fillies in the room.
The filly hopped off her stool and walked towards Sparkle. "Hi. I'm Scootaloo. What's your name?"
"It's..." The fake name took a second to come to her. "...Rhodium."
"Rhodium? Cool. Do you want to sit next to me?" Scootaloo asked.
Sparkle shrugged and hopped up on the seat next to Scootaloo's place, Scootaloo climbed back into her own seat. "Let me introduce everypony."
What followed was a flurry of names that Sparkle honestly didn't put much effort into remembering, though Sparkle noted to herself to try and learn their names at some point. What she did notice was that she was by far the youngest pony in the group, if you only went by biological age. She also noted that she looked a good year or two younger than Scootaloo, and was the only unicorn in the room.
"So, what are ya in for?" One of the other colts asked, before being promptly kicked in the shin.
"You don't ask that kind of thing!" The filly next to him said.
“Sorry."
The rest of breakfast passed in a blur of activity. Ponies came and went, some being shuffled off to school, others running off to play, and the orphanage staff doing whatever needed to be done. Through it all, Sparkle watched them from behind her shaded glasses. 
When the final dishes were put away, Soft Spot came up to Sparkle. "Rody, I know it must be hard for you right now. I just wanted to let you know that things will get better, I'm sure of it. Everypony in this house has gone through something like what you're going through, myself included, and we all know your pain.
"Your mom's funeral is going to be this afternoon. You don't have to come if you don't want to, but I think it would make you feel better if you did. And don't worry, we won't bury her if you don't want us to."
Sparkle nodded.
"Good," Soft replied, smiling. "Now, is there anything you want to do before this afternoon?"
"Can I go to the library? Books always make me feel better," Sparkle said.
"We have some books here you might like," Soft Spot said. Sparkle's eyes narrowed in annoyance behind her glasses, her plan temporarily thwarted. "But if you don't see any you like, then we can go and get you some tomorrow. Doesn't that sound like fun?"
"Mmmhmm," Sparkle hummed appreciatively. It wasn't a total loss then, just a one-day delay until she could meet her sister again. On the bright side, it gave her an opportunity to get the final, major piece of her plan into action.
"Would you like me to read to you?" Soft Spot asked.
Sparkle scowled. Somewhere deep down inside her, Sparkle knew that it wasn't a slight against her reading abilities, but it still felt like it. "I can read on my own. I want to be alone."
"Oh, alright then," Soft replied. She then led Sparkle to the orphanage's small collection of books. Sparkle needed only a second to observe that most of the books were fiction and tailored for a young audience. She grabbed a book of the shelf at random - a Daring Do book - and trotted back to her room with the book held in her mouth.
Sparkle shut the door to her room and slid the lock into place. She may have slammed it in Soft's face, but at the moment, she didn't care. She could always apologize later. Double checking that the room was clear, she opened the portal to her pocket dimension.
Out stepped a Specter like no other before it. It had twenty five times the raw magic fueling it, rendering a full quarter of Thorn and her magic inaccessible for as long as it existed. The magical structure shaping it was almost six times as complex as normal, and it took her nearly an hour to cast it, rather than a few seconds. Its behavior was more complex than any specter she had made before, and its abilities were more numerous.
Its appearance was also vastly different than any specter she had ever made before. Gone was the swirling ink-in-water, vaguely pony-shaped figure. In its place stood a near exact copy of what Sparkle had looked like before she died, with two significant differences. First, her missing leg had reappeared, and second, the spectral Sparkle looked as if she were drawn with pencil and charcoal by a master artist. The specter was a grayscale copy of her. Only the horn on its head was in color, as it was Sparkle's original horn that Thorn had recovered.
Its presence even felt like her. Sparkle had designed the specter to fool every sense, including soul sight, to convince observers that it was the real Sparkle, just in wraith form. And, since she could control it remotely or let it work independently and knew what it knew, it could fill in for her in every way that mattered.
Well, almost every way. Specters couldn't initiate the time distortions that let her see Twilight; only her real soul could do that. That meant that she had to be close to it in order for Twilight to see it. But, since it could work in every other situation without her immediate presence, it was the perfect decoy,
She silently passed on her instructions to the fake wraith. Disappear for awhile. When I signal, be seen coming into town. Head to the library. Pretend to bend time by flaring magic.
Yes, Mistress, it replied.
The specter dismissed itself, fading into black smoke which rapidly vanished. Meanwhile, Sparkle unlocked the door to her room and then hopped up onto her bed. She had a few hours to kill at least before the funeral. Setting the book aside, she took up a relaxed pose and focused inward toward her magic, which she was still actively suppressing.
Slowly, she relaxed the suppression, careful to not let her magic escape her small body. Gripping it tightly with her mind, she began to slow down its spin and decompress it in an attempt to change its fundamental type. As it slowed down, it became more nebulous, more wobbly, and less potent. However, she had to fight it down, as it wanted to stay spinning.
Eventually, it came to a stop. Sparkle cheered quietly; she'd never gotten this far before! She focused even harder and started spinning her magic again, this time in a different direction. But before she could get it up to a useable speed, her magic collapsed, swirling in a great big mess as her dark magic reasserted itself.
Her eyes opened - she hadn't even remembered closing them - and she looked at the clock on the wall. Almost an hour and a half had passed. Sparkle groaned in frustration. Yet again, she'd failed at transforming her magic into a normal type. Cobalt and Sombra did the same thing in reverse every time they wanted to cast a spell, and they could do it in a second or two and hold it while casting. Even her old mentor, Black Hammer, could transform his dark magic into masculine type on demand, so why couldn't she make it feminine?
Still, there was no motivation like desperation, for she knew that so long as she was holding this identity, she could never use even the smallest amounts of dark magic where another pony could see her. Since her magic was naturally dark, that included things as simple as levitation and magic sharing.
If she slipped up, she'd be shipped back to Canterlot and she'd be ostracized again and she'd be forced to see the princesses again who would surely see through her disguise and ship her and Thorn off to Tartarus for a thousand years and-
Sparkle shook her head to clear the runaway thoughts. "Here and now, girl. Here. And. Now."
Her attention once more turned toward her magic. She'd taught Cobalt how to do this without being able to do it herself; she wouldn't bucking give up now. She had her pride, damnit.



The time of the funeral had come at last. Sparkle was actually amazed to see the turnout for a mare that nopony knew. The ponies who had searched for Ruby came, as well as the children and staff of the orphanage. Where Scootaloo went, so did her friends, and where they went, their sisters and sister figures weren't far behind.
Rarity walked up to Sparkle, who was sitting next to the unlit pyre with her head bowed. The white mare, who was wearing a black funeral veil, said, "I'm dreadfully sorry for your loss. My name is Rarity. I know that you don't know me, but I just wanted to say that if you ever need anything, you're free to come to me. I always have an open door for ponies in need."
Sparkle thanked her. Rarity replied, "Any time, darling. I mean it." And with that, Rarity took her leave, moving back into the rest of the crowd.
There was a service for Ruby. It was really nice, although it ate at Sparkle like acid. The lighting of the pyre couldn't come fast enough for her, and as the blaze burned higher and the sun started to set, Sparkle turned away and left. The light of the fire and the light of the setting sun made Sparkle cast two shadows. To her left, the shadow from the sun grew longer and darker, and ahead, her shadow writhed with the movement of the fire, as if taunting her.
Perhaps it was.



“Hey, Rody, you're rooming with me?” Scootaloo asked as she walked into the room, spotting the disguised necromancer lying on her bed.
“I guess so,” Sparkle replied.
“I was sleeping over at Applebloom’s house last night,” Scootaloo said, as if Sparkle cared about an explanation. The name Applebloom was vaguely familiar to her, but she couldn’t quite place it. Was she the red maned filly that had been sitting next to Scootaloo at the funeral? “Hey, you don’t have your cutie mark yet!” Scootaloo realized. “You should join the Cutie Mark Crusaders! We’re on a quest to get our cutie marks together!”
Sparkle opened her mouth to decline, but then stopped. It could be fun to just play like a foal. Her first foalhood had been squandered up until she was eight because she was only interested in books, and then it was cut short by the bad mark on her flank, which was currently hidden by fur dye. Plus, if she acted like a foal, it would be one more thing to help hide her true nature until the right time came. “Sure.”
“Awesome! There’s so many things we’ll have to help you try! Like kayaking and hang-gliding and shoe tossing and..” Scootaloo continued to ramble on, listing out ideas that, while silly, sounded like fun anyway. Sparkle knew there was no point in her trying, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have fun.
“Hey, Scootaloo, I think you’re going about it wrong,” the little teacher inside Sparkle couldn’t help but voice. “I mean... a friend of mine who already had his cutie mark once told me that you always get cutie marks for things you’re good at and already do a lot. He had a magic shield cutie mark, and had been practicing shield magic for a long time before then because his father taught it to him. Another friend got a knife-throwing cutie mark because his family did a lot of knife throwing and he picked it up from them. Both of them realized that their marks were a perfect fit for them and neither had to try really hard to earn them.”
“So you're saying we get our cutie marks from our family? Because, if you haven’t noticed, we don’t exactly have a lot of that around here...” the pegasus pointed out.
Sparkle shook her head. “No. You get your mark by doing something that gives you purpose or makes you feel good. And I’ve heard that if you focus on one thing you really love, even if you aren’t that good at it, you can make yourself get a cutie mark for it.”
“Something that makes me feel good...”
“You’ll figure it out eventually,” Sparkle replied. “Everypony does.”
“Haha, you’re pretty smart.”



There was a knock on the door which drew Sparkle’s attention away from her magic, which caused it to collapse back into dark magic after yet another vain attempt to change her magic type. She groaned and suppressed it once more. “Yes?”
The door to her room creaked open. “Good afternoon, Rhodium,” Soft Spot said as she looked in.
“Afternoon, Ms. Soft Spot,” Sparkle replied. “What can I do for you?”
“We need to head on down to the schoolhouse to get you set up with Ms. Cheerilee. I won’t have misfortune interrupting the education of our precious children,” the earth pony caretaker declared.
Sparkle scowled. Yet another thing she wasn’t looking forwards to. At that moment, she regretted not making herself a few years older before starting her false identity plan.
“Hey, don’t give me that look! School isn’t that bad.”
Sparkle wiped the scowl off her face. “Sorry. I was thinking of something else.”
“I see. Well, come along then.”
One fifteen minute trot later, Sparkle caught sight of the red schoolhouse. A bemused expression crossed her face when she regarded the size. It was tiny; there was likely no more than one classroom in the building, and yet it was enough for an entire town? Canterlot would need one of these for every few neighborhoods. 
Sparkle could also see that school was still in session, seeing as several foals were running out the door and heading to the playground. A pink earth pony walked out the door behind them, and when Soft Spot saw her, the caretaker called out. "Ms. Cheerilee! Hello!"
"Oh, Ms. Soft Spot, how lovely to see you! And who might this be?"
The caretaker looked down towards Sparkle. "This is Rhodium. She'll be joining your class for now."
"Hello, Rhodium. How are you?" the teacher asked, lowering her head to look at Sparkle at eye level.
"Fine," Sparkle replied.
"And how old are you?" Cheerilee asked.
"Nine," she replied, giving the age her fake birth certificate implied.
"Have you ever been to school before, or were you home schooled?" Cheerilee asked.
"Mom taught me," Sparkle lied.
Cheerilee straightened back up. "Here, come inside. I'll get some things to test her with so we know where to place her." Turning towards the playground, she shouted, "Rumble!"
"Yes, Ms. Cheerilee?" The colt shouted back.
"I have to go inside for a bit; you're in charge until I get back."
"Yes, Ma'am!"
Cheerilee returned her attention to Sparkle and Soft Spot. "Let's get started."



The test was grueling. Oh, the questions were easy enough; in fact, they were too easy, which was the problem. Sparkle had to consciously get some questions wrong in order to seem like she was less educated than she was. As a mare who strongly valued correct knowledge, it was torturous to intentionally fail.
And then, as Sparkle watched Cheerilee's eyes grow wider and wider as she graded the test, Sparkle realized that she may have failed to fail badly enough. At least being labeled a prodigy would be a valid justification for all the time she planned to spend in the library.
"Remarkable," the teacher said. "You did much better than I expected."
"Really?" Sparkle asked, playing the excited filly act.
"You did. I think you'd be bored if I placed you with the foals your age, so I can place you with the foals a year older, if you want. They meet on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, every week," Cheerilee explained.
"Three days a week?" Sparkle asked. In magic kindergarten, she'd had to go five days a week. Three days seemed awfully short to her.
"Yes, but we meet during the summer as well. That way, you can get all the education you need," Cheerilee replied. "So, do you want to be with the older foals, or-”
"Yes," interrupted Sparkle. "I want to be with the older foals."
"Excellent! Ms. Soft Spot, you can leave her here for the rest of the day. I'll send Rhodium home with some makeup work so she doesn't get left behind. Now, if you'll excuse me..." And with that, Cheerilee popped her head out of the one-classroom schoolhouse to call the other foals back in. Meanwhile, Soft Spot said her goodbyes and headed back to the orphanage.
The foals came back inside and Cheerilee gave Sparkle a generic-sounding introduction. When it was done, Sparkle took a seat in the back row, between the wall and a pink earth pony wearing a tiara. Said tiara-wearing pony then, in a whisper, introduced herself as Diamond Tiara. “You're young,” she added. “Let me help you make the right sort of friends.”
Sparkle listened to exactly three sentences ooze from Diamond’s mouth before she associated Diamond with the worst of the nobles up in canterlot - the same sort of nobles that had sent an assassin after her. Perhaps it was a bit unfair to the pink filly to be lumped in together with that group of ponies, especially when Sparkle had just met her, but the association stuck; you can’t un-think a thought once it’s been thought.
Sparkle lowered her head and looked at Diamond over the frame of her reflective shades. The moment they made eye contact, Diamond Tiara flinched. “No thank you.”
Diamond Tiara humphed with disdain. “Suit yourself. But remember, I did offer.”
One absolutely riveting lecture on basic math later, Sparkle found herself suddenly dragged off by Scootaloo to meet the orange pegasus’ friends. “Come on. Let me introduce you to the rest of the crusaders. This is Apple Bloom.” 
The earth pony waved. 
“And this is Sweetie Belle.”
Sweetie nodded. Sparkle recognized her from when Thorn had rescued Rarity from the Diamond Dogs. 
“And together, we’re THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!”
Sparkle rubbed her ears to clear out the ache from the impressively loud group shout. “Interesting.”
“So, Scoots says yer interested in joinin’, right, Rhodium?” Applebloom asked.
“Yeah, it’ll be lots of fun!” Sweetie Belle squeaked.
Sparkle shrugged. “Meh. Sure, I guess.”
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS: NEW MEMBER! YAY!”
“Please stop doing that right next to my ear,” Sparkle said. “It’s a bit loud.”
“Sorry,” Sweetie Belle bashfully apologized. “It’s habit.”
“So, whatcha want to do first, Rody?” the yellow filly asked.
Sparkle pretended to think on it, though she already had a destination in mind. “I want to go to the library for some books.”
“Really? That sound’s kinda lame...” Scootaloo said, muttering the second half.
“I want to be a teacher,” Sparkle replied, “but I have to be really smart for that.”
Sweetie and Applebloom shrugged. “Can’t argue with that logic,” the former replied. And with that, the trio-turned-quartet galloped off to that magical place of learning that wasn’t the school they had just left.
> The Trouble With Librarians [History Overwritten]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Four fillies, three real and one false, galloped into the Golden Oaks library and were greeted by the Library’s caretaker, Celestia’s protege and bearer of the Element of Magic, Beatrix Lulamoon. What neither the heroic librarian or the three innocent fillies could see was the false filly calling out to her magical puppet. ‘It’s time.’
The specter that would take her place in the world sent back an affirmation that it was ready. Materializing on the edge of town, it started floating in to town, clearly and purposefully taking a path that would get it seen by as many ponies as possible.
However, until it showed up in a few minutes, Sparkle couldn’t break character. So, acting as if everything was completely normal, she looked around and spotted the shelf labeled with the Dewdrop decimal system number for religion - specifically, she was after books about Death. Know thy enemy, as they say. She already knew what her own books said and what she had observed herself, which all together was surprisingly little; she knew that she was an extraordinarily powerful dark mage with a inclination for systematic mass killings, and that she apparently had plans for her. Sparkle figured that some other sources would give her a better understanding of the enigmatic reaper.
Quickly spotting three or four books that might be helpful, she pulled them off the shelf and set them it a little stack. She sat down at the table in the center of the library’s main area, opened the book, and began to pretend to read. She was too excited to actually read at the moment.
Scootaloo picked up one of the other books she’d grabbed. “An Unabridged History of the Divine, fifth edition? That sounds a little dry.”
Sparkle just shrugged. “You’re free to read whatever you want; this is what I want to read.”
“Meh, whatev-” Scootaloo’s words were cut off as the door to the library slammed open, revealing Sparkle’s fake wraith floating in the doorway. That was Sparkle’s cue. Under a potent illusion that she’d had ready since that morning, her horn unnoticeably darkened, causing time to bend. A faint figure appeared where there had not been one before, and upon noticing the bending time, reciprocated the action. Twilight popped into view.
In that fraction of a second it took for the alternate timeline to come into focus, several things happened simultaneously. First, Sparkle moved herself around the table so that the horse-head statue in the center obscured her immature body from Twilight’s view and then ducked under the table; her illusions would not work on her sister at all. Second, the specter posing as Sparkle moved itself into Twilight’s field of vision. Third, Trixie, who was reshelving on the other side of the room, dropped the book she was currently holding and ducked around the corner and out of sight to listen in. Finally, Sweetie Belle squeaked in surprise, recognizing the specter as Sparkle from when she’d last come to Ponyville.
“Hi, Twilight!” the fake wraith proclaimed in a near perfect imitation of Sparkle’s voice.
“Sparks? Is that really you?” her very shocked doppelgänger asked. To Sparkle's eyes, Twilight looked dreadfully thin and her fur in poor condition, as if she had been neglecting herself for some time now.
“In the flesh!” the specter replied. “Err... well, not really, but you get the idea. Sorry I was gone for so long.”
Blinking away the tears of joy that were quickly flooding her eyes, Twilight shook her head. “No, it’s fine. I’m just glad you’re safe.” She quickly tried to pull the Specter into a hug, but her limbs passed right through the construct’s body.
“Whoops. Forgot to make myself solid,” the specter replied as it helped Twilight off the floor. It spread its forelegs out, open to another hug, and asked, “Want to try that again?”
As the mare and the puppeteered Specter hugged, the real Sparkle was silently crying, tears hidden behind her glasses, and ashamed that she couldn’t even let her sister see the real her.
“Why are ya hidin’?” Applebloom asked, bending her head down to look at “Rhodium” under the table.
“That’s the bone mare,” Sparkle whispered in reply. Rumors of Sparkle’s actions had clearly made it to the trio of fillies, as they all reacted in varying degrees of surprise. Scootaloo was visibly the most fearful, while Applebloom looked over at the specter with a worried but highly skeptical glance. Only Sweetie Belle looked mostly unconcerned, relatively speaking, as that very mare and her son had helped save Rarity from the diamond dogs almost two years back. However, all three were made wary by the fact that “Sparkle” was apparently a ghost.
“Hide, you three!” Sparkle whispered when none of the fillie moved.
Meanwhile, Twilights tears had eventually surpassed her ability to hold them back and came flooding out. “I-I-I th-thought you were g-gone! Sh-Shiny told me you were d-dead!”
“Shiny did? How?”
“Th-the typewriter. You know, the one you always FORGET TO TELL ME STUFF WITH? Don’t you think I should have known?” Twilight said, her voice briefly seething with rage. Guilt slammed into Sparkle as if she had just been bucked in the side by an enraged Applejack, making it literally hard for her to breathe. Sparkle’s guilt deepened as she noticed the hundreds of thin, nearly-but-not invisible, fracture-like scars that crisscrossed Twilight’s gaunt body. She very much reminded the necromancer of china that had been broken and glued back together.
“I’m really sorry, Twi. But I’m alive now - mostly - and everything will go back to normal, right?” the Specter asked.
The light mage let out a sound that was a hybrid of a laugh and a sob. “I don’t think normal is the right word for us, Sparks.” She shook her head. “How did you survive? I thought you were shattered by the Crystal Heart.”
“I was,” Sparkle’s specter replied. Then, on her orders, the specter looked around. “Twi, I don’t think this the place to talk about my transformation into a wraith, what with four impressionable foals and a nosey librarian listening in.”
Twilight blinked and looked around, eventually spotting four of the five ponies that Sparkle had pointed out. Thinking of a place where they could be some distance away from others and yet in a place where they could both be, Twilight said, “Oh, right. To the park, then?”
“Lead the way,” the specter replied. 
As Twilight walked out the door and the specter floated behind her, the real Sparkle quickly cast a spell that filled the library. Immediately, the library’s other occupants’ eyes went out-of-focus as they donned a dreamy, distant stare. To the hypnotized fillies, the necromancer whispered, “You think I am with you still. You won’t think about what you just saw. You will stay here until it is time for you to go home. You will never think about me hypnotizing you.” Then, she trotted over to the similarly entranced Trixie. “You will write to Celestia to let her know that Sparkle is here. You will not go looking for her, as she is dangerous. You will never think about me hypnotizing you.”
Hypnotism was the lowest form of mind control Sparkle had, and was easily broken by outside influence. However, when given commands that generally aligned with what a pony would already want to do, or that lowered the overall stress level of the pony, they tended to comply very easily. As for the “do not think” command, it made Sparkle’s actions seem insignificant to the subconscious minds of the recipients, and thus not worth remembering in the long term.
Now that they were properly taken care of, Sparkle grabbed her stack of books, pocketed them, and then hurried out of the library in order to keep the bubble of distorted time in place as her sister walked away. As soon as she was out the door, she spotted Twilight and the wraith talking to one another. Instead of running up to them, she matched their pace, neither gaining on them nor lagging behind, and always stayed in Twilight’s blindspot.
“So, how did you survive? Twilight asked the wraith.
Sparkle’s copy lied, “Not easily. I was really disoriented and weakened from the blast. It took me a very long time to become coherent enough to even start forming a body, and even then, it was very slow going. By the time I came to months later, Thorn had fled Canterlot since he had no reason to stay. It took me a while to find him again, and when I did, I didn’t want to come home, since I knew that they’d ship me back to Canterlot almost as soon as I got back.”
“And you didn’t think of writing me until last week?” Twilight angrily asked.
“Sorry,” the floating image of Sparkle said, shrugging.
Twilight sighed. “Well, better late than never.”
The specter nodded. “Hey, Twi, those scars...?”
“Are from when you got struck,” Twilight answered. “I thought that, since I lived and I could still feel the connection, that you were alright too, and then I got your Shiny’s letter.”
The specter, under Sparkle’s control, sank lower and flattened out against the ground. “I said I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to keep saying it,” Twilight replied, pausing her trot briefly to look at the black puddle that was her “sister.” “I already forgave you.”
“Really?” the specter said, popping back up. “That’s a relief.”
The pair and their miniature stalker arrived at the park, and upon seeing the ghostly figure, most of the ponies in the park quickly fled. Twilight trotted over to a bench and the specter floated behind her. Meanwhile, the real Sparkle altered her course and trotted over to a bush. She then hopped inside it and spun around so that she could watch her sister and the specter from her hiding spot.
“Its interesting, being a wraith,” the specter said. “I can’t sense things as clearly. At first, being a disembodied soul is near total sensory deprivation. Do you know what your mind freaks out about first? The lack of lungs and blood vessels. Your brain pays attention to your lungs and blood chemistry without you thinking about it. When that goes… It’s not pleasant.
“I did have some senses, though. I could feel magic - both my own and the magic around me. The Crystal Empire was a nice beacon in that way, big and easy to feel. I could also somewhat see souls, though I was blind to everything else. And I could feel the setting sun, and I was immediately thankful for the fact that it wasn’t up for much longer. The sun’s light burns a little bit. I’m growing to strongly dislike the sun now.
“Now though, I can see and hear almost as well as I could before. The sun still burns, but I can handle it.” The specter smiled. “And I get to see you once more.”
“Sparkle, I’m sorry about what you had to go through,” Twilight said, “but I’m so glad I have you back.”
“Me too, sis.” The smile on the specter faded, as did the one on the hidden filly that contained the real Sparkle. She needed to know something. “Twi?”
“Yes, Sparks?”
“There was another way I could have come back. Not as a lich - my body was too shattered for that - but... What if I had come back with a new body?”
“You mean like reincarnation?” Twilight said, frowning.
“Yes. I could have.”
Twilight’s frown deepened. “I’m glad you didn’t. Sparks, coming back from the dead is a horrible perversion of the natural order - not that I’m not glad your back - but using a mare like that to grow yourself a new body... you don’t happen to have a mare willing to help you with that, do you?” Sparkle asked.
“No,” the specter replied. “That’s not the sort of thing you can ask around for, you know.”
“And just planting yourself in any random, nonconsenting mare is better?” Twilight countered.
“And what if I had?”
“What about it?”
The specter looked Twilight right in the eye. “What if I had planted myself in an unsuspecting mare? What would you think?”
“Knowing that you had options, I’d be disgusted with you.”
Both the specter and the real Sparkle narrowed their eyes. “That’s the line?  So I’m a killer and a soul eater, that’s fine, but if I came back with a new body after effectively magic-raping a mare, I’m a monster? Well, it’s great to know where your limits are.”
Upon seeing her “sister’s” glare, Twilight floundered. “No... I mean... It’s not like that.”
“Then what is it?”
Twilight sighed. “When I spent time with the Paladin Order, I was taught about some of the necromancers of the past. Some of them resurrected themselves like how you were suggesting. When I asked Princess Celestia about them, she explained to me that they were all beyond redemption.”
“Every single one of them is in Tartarus, on Celestia’s orders,” Sparkle added, satisfied now with her sister’s response. As much as it hurt to lie to Twilight, Sparkle swore that she would never tell another soul about her reincarnation. “I knew that. Why do you think I came back like this instead? I’d rather be almost here than rotting for the rest of my life in there.” Sparkle chuckled, as did the fake wraith. “I even had some bodies that I’d thought about possessing, but decided against it for the same reason.”
“Bodies?”
“Yes. I kept them in my pocket dimension - I finally got that working, by the way - but I couldn’t use them because both of them were known criminals,” the specter answered. “One of them was King Sombra, of the Crystal Empire.”
“That’s right! Shining Armor told me you’d killed him,” Twilight commented.
“Not killed; defeated. He’s locked up in my dimension. I just claimed he was dead because he was as good as dead,” Sparkle replied.
“That’s better than what happened to our version of Sombra.”
“Your... version?”
“Two months after you brought the empire back on your side, it came back on its own on our side,” Twilight explained.
Sparkle groaned. “Buck. I died when I could have just waited two. Bucking. Months! I feel so stupid!”
“There was no way you could have known,” Twilight said reassuringly. “Maybe you bringing it back triggered its slow return on my side.”
“Gah! What happened to yours anyway?”
“Take a guess,” Twilight replied, giving Sparkle’s wraith a meaningful look.
“I see.”
“How did you defeat yours?” Twilight asked.
“Easy, I took his magic by using a soul weapon I stole from Tirek,” Sparkle replied.
Twilight took a second to process that. “Who’s Tirek?”
“He’s... BUCK! I knew I forgot something!” Sparkle’s specter reached into her pocket dimension and pulled out the soulless but still functional body of Triek. “This is Tirek, or what’s left of Tartarus’s most recent centaur escapee. He can steal a pony’s magic from a short distance away and grows every time.”
“He escaped from Tartarus? Buck is right.” Twilight stood from the bench abruptly. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to go write a letter to Celestia, just in case he hasn’t been caught yet. I’ll be back in a minute to throttle you for not telling me in that letter you sent me!” With a flash, Twilight vanished, leaving Sparkle alone with her puppets in the middle of a deserted park.
Quickly, she shoved Tirek’s corpse back into her pocket dimension, as there was no point in keeping it out anymore. That done, Sparkle found herself with little to do except twittle her hooves and try not to think about the crushing guilt of lying to her sister’s face.
Another flash of light shone through the park, revealing Twilight. “There. Now Celestia knows that Tirek’s loose. Any other shocking revelations that you’d like to drop on me?” Twilight hissed through clenched teeth.
“Uhh... Thorn’s on a quest to find Tirek’s lost brother, or his grave. Other than that, no, nothing,” Sparkle answered.
“Good,” Twilight replied casually, and then in playfully exaggerated anger, shouted, “Now get over here so I can grind you to dust!”
Twilight fired a bolt of superheated light magic, knowing full well that the timeline barrier would keep it from hurting Sparkle. And despite knowing that as well, the Sparkle copy couldn’t help but dodge instinctively. “Woah! Twilight! Take it easy!"
"Take it easy? You throw me into a depression with your disappearance and the first thing you give me when you come back is a criminal that you should have told me about a year ago!" She fired another high-energy beam at the specter. Obviously, unlike her body, her magic had not fatigued at all. "Of course I'm not going to take it easy on you!"
Sparkle commanded the specter to stick out its tongue at Twilight. "Nyeh! You can't catch me!" The specter dodged another blast, and then a third. Unfortunately, it was the fourth beam that spelled disaster.
Sparkle and Twilight had extensively studied the boundary between their timelines, and while neither matter nor magic could cross normally, electromagnetic forces could. Light could cross, and so could physical touch - the interaction of the electrons of atoms at close range. But what this also allowed to cross was heat, and the beams of light magic Twilight was firing were very hot.
One of them grazed the bush Sparkle's real body was hiding in, a bush that was dry from the lack of rain. The heat was too much, and the bush ignited.
Sparkle screamed the moment she realized that the heat was present. Quickly, she bolted out of her hiding spot and rolled on the grass to smother any embers that may have landed on her.
Twilight panicked, fearing that she may have hurt a child, while the specter also panicked, fearing for its mistress's safety and their secret. The mare and specter raced over to the filly, with the specter reaching her first. It gave Sparkle a once over and, seeing that none of her overly fluffy coat was burning and that she wasn't in pain, was satisfied.
"Are you alright?" Twilight asked. "I-"
She cut herself off as her eyes affixed to the bubbling black aura around the filly's horn, a result of the magic holding the timelines together.
Sparkle's eyes widened behind the glasses as the tracked Twilight's gaze. "I-uh..."
"Dark magic," Twilight realized.
The specter roughly grabbed Twilight's shoulder and spun her around until they were face to face. "Twilight, no."
"But she's a dark mage! A natural!"
"I know. And if you tell anypony, she'll go through the same nightmare I went through," the specter said. Addressing its creator, the specter commanded, "Rody, go home."
"Yes, Ms. Bone Mare," Sparkle answered before turning and running a bit. However, before she was too far away, she stopped, turned, and looked back at them.
Twilight  looked at "Rody," and then back at "Sparkle." She asked, "Who is she?"
"Rhodium. She's seven years old and used to live in Canterlot. I met her and her single mother. They had managed to keep her power secret, even after they moved out here. Don't ruin that for her," the fake Sparkle insisted.
Twilight's eyes narrowed, alternating her critical gaze at both the wraith and the filly. Sparkle's stomach clenched as she waited for her sister to say something, anything.
Twilight looked over at the filly's body, disappointment evident in her eyes. "Liar."
And in the space of a single breath, Sparkle's world shattered. Her legs gave out beneath her, dropping her to the ground. As her head dropped, her glasses slid down her snout, exposing her eyes to the harsh, unforgiving light of her sister's teacher. 
"Twilight..." 
It was a pitiful, pleading sound that came out of Sparkle's small mouth. The word felt strange and alien on her new tongue, and the expression on her sister's face was just as alien.
"A year I don't see you, and the first thing you do to me when you come back is lie to me? About this?" Twilight asked, her voice treacherously calm. "What else have you lied to me about?"
"Twi..."
"Answer me!"
"I-I... But..." No words would come. Her brilliant mind, for the first time she could recall, failed her when she needed it most. If only she could explain, if only she could just say the truth...
If only.
But no words came. And when the silence had stretched on for too long, Twilight spoke, "I told myself, 'She's just defending herself. It was an accident. They were attacking her.' Every time you killed somepony with that horrible, disgusting magic of yours, I told myself that you were in the right. Answer me this, Sparkle, was I lying to myself? Are you like all the others?"
"I don't know, not anymore," Sparkle whispered. "I don't know."
Twilight turned her head away. "Are you even my sister anymore? How much of your soul is still hers? Or are you lying to me about that, too?"
But she didn't give Sparkle a chance to answer. "You know what? I don't want to know. I'm too mad at you to think straight. I'll send you a letter through Spike when I'm ready to hear the whole truth, and if you're not willing to tell it... I don't think that we have any more to say to each other."
She started to turn away and let the magic holding the timelines fade, but Sparkle's outcry made her pause. "Please, Twilight, if there's any shred of compassion left in there for me, please don't tell Celestia. Yours will tell mine and then I'll be dragged down to Tartarus again."
"Again?"
Sparkle nodded. "I took Tirek's memories. I know what it's like down there. I can't go back. Never again."
Twilight sighed. "I don't know about you, but I'm not that cruel." And with that, she teleported away and let the temporal magic fade to nothingness.
"Mom?" The mental voice of her son cut through the silence she found herself in. "I saw that... Did Aunt Twi really just do that?"
Sparkle looked at her specter, which nodded at the unspoken command. Then, she looked at the grass beneath her hooves. A sphere expanded out around her, swallowing her but not her specter. A second after she materialized in her pocket dimension, Sparkle exited once more, depositing herself in the arms of her son, thousands of miles from where she had been just a minute ago.
> Forgive But Don't Forget [History Overwritten]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As far as mane brushes went, the claws running through her mane ranked as a solid seven out of ten. Again and again, they ran through her mane; the knots had long since been brushed out. Sparkle rested her head against the cool scales of Thorn's belly as he slowly, softly stroked her coal black mane. Her breath came in uneasy gasps, the last remnants of tears run dry.
For as gently as his claws were stroking his mother's thick mane, Thorn's face was contorted in a furious glare and each breath came out as a deep, rumbling, furious growl. Visions of his aunt's eviscerated corpse filled his mind, and he longed for the taste of her flesh and blood for what she did to Sparkle. And yet, for his mom, he pushed those thoughts aside and buried them under immediate concern for her wellbeing.
His claws paused their brushing. “Mom, do you want to keep going?”
“Yes, more brushing,” Sparkle thought back.
Thorn’s expression softened slightly and he resumed his brushing. “Of course, but that’s not what I meant.”
“Hmm?” The sound came from her throat instead of just as a thought.
“I mean,” he thought through their link, “do you want to continue this charade, or do you want to just... move on? We could finish ageing you up, you could join me on my quest, and... we never have to go back. There’s more to the world than just Equestria.”
The fluffy mare-turned-filly readjusted her position on Thorn’s belly. “I’m already really invested in this...”
“In what, a miserable life living near a mare that hurt you in a country that hates you? Look how well it’s turning out already, and it hasn’t even been a week since you got there,” Thorn replied. He sighed, despite having no real need to breathe. 
Sparkle turned around to look him in the eye, the glasses that had adorned her face no longer present. “Thorn,” she said aloud, and then paused. “Thorn, I’m...” She paused again.
Her head lowered down until her chin was lying flat against the drake’s scales. “What’s it like, out here?”
Images from above of an arid landscape, covered with canyons and red mesas, filled Sparkle’s mind. Below them was a small caravan of gargoyles and centaurs, of which Thorn knew that none possessed a soul weapon. The memory shifted, and they were standing by a crystal clear river flowing through the base of a canyon. One of the gargoyles floated above the river, eyeing the water and trailing the tip across the surface. A fish bit onto it, and the gargoyle flicked it up and caught the slippery animal in his claws. The memory shifted again; they were walking into a small town built along the bank of the river. Despite being the only dragon in the group, the gargoyles, centaurs, and occasional minotaur never gave him a second glance. Memory Thorn smiled.
“I like it,” Thorn said. “I got a job as a mercenary guard for a merchant caravan. They were heading to Cengoyle’s capital city, and I thought I’d tag along and earn some local money in the process. It’s fairly easy,” the lich remarked. “We’re about a day and a half’s flight north, although it will probably take two weeks on land.”
“Most mothers would be worried if their sons became a mercenary,” Sparkle replied, her mental voice more lighthearted than a minute prior.
Thorn’s face had gradually softened until the beginning of a smile was there. “Most sons can’t eat souls or grow into an armored behemoth on demand.”
Sparkle looked down, her expression darkening once more. Thorn noticed this, and frowned again. Lifting up a claw, he placed it under her chin and lifted until she was looking at his eyes once more. “If this is about what she said, then screw her. Screw ponies. We can go wherever the buck we want and do anything we so choose.” Sparkle started to argue, but then Thorn cut her off. “You want to be a teacher; who said you had to teach ponies? Come on, this world is full of magic, and not just the kind that comes from the soul. Let’s go explore it.”
Sparkle’s smile had returned. “Thanks. You know just how to cheer me up.”
Thorn grinned, showing off his razor-sharp fangs. He tried to give her a thumbs up, but stopped when his stomach rumbled. Sparkle giggled, feeling the dragon’s flesh gurgle beneath her. At the same time, Thorn let out a huge belch and a jet of flame, which quickly materialized into a scroll.
Thorn snatched it out of the air before Sparkle could grab it with her magic and unrolled it swiftly. His eyes flickered over the contents in few short seconds, having inherited his mother’s speed-reading ability. The frown returned full force.
He crumpled the letter up and threw it to the far side of the inn’s bedroom, where it bounced off the wall. “Bah. The bitch wants you to apologize to her. If anything, she should be apologizing to you.”
Glaring at her son, Sparkle stood from Thorn’s belly and walked to retrieve the letter from the other timeline. She too quickly read the scroll’s contents, although it wasn’t worded nearly as badly as Thorn’s reaction had made it seem. “She wants me to apologize for lying to her,” Sparkle said, “but if you’d read the whole thing, you’d know she wants to apologize for insulting me.”
“Insulted?” Thorn asked, flabberghasted. “Mom, you’re still shaking. I’m still shaking. We’re both a hair’s breadth away from snapping, and you think she just insulted you?” He shook his head and exhaled a plume of acrid, black smoke from between his teeth. “No. That was not just an insult, that was a blow against our very existence. I still think you should kill her, but I know you won’t.”
Sparkle rolled her eyes. “Thorn, save it. You’re not helping.”
“I’m just saying...”
The necromancer’s eye roll made an encore. “Look, I’m just going to get this straightened out. If we get a happy ending out of this, great. If not... I’ll deal with that if and when it comes. In the mean time, why don’t you go blow off some steam for us, alright?”
“There was this centaur mare in the group that was eyeing me. Could I...” He made a ring with one claw and stuck two finger from his other claw into it.
“You’re a kid.”
“Who’s had first-person experience with it thanks to you, and who can become an adult anytime I want.”
“The virginity sacrificing rituals-”
“Also work if your partner is a virgin. Besides, it’s not like I need them,” Thorn countered.
“And getting her too drunk to think straight doesn’t count.”
“Duh,” Thorn replied, rolling his eyes. “There’s no fun in it if she’s drunk enough to say yes to anything.”
“And don’t eat her when you’re done.”
A beat. “... I wasn’t planning on it.”
Sparkle eyed him closely. “Alright. Do whatever you want. It’s your mess, though.”
“I know,” Thorn replied. “Now, don’t you have an undeserving sister to attend to?”
Sparkle waved a hoof dismissively. Her eyes focused on a point in front of her as she created the portal to to their pocket dimension. Using the fake-wraith she’d left in Ponyville as an anchor, she stepped through. The portal instantly vanished behind her, leaving only a small, quickly-fading ripple in the air.
Thorn flopped down, sprawling across the wooden floor of his room. He absently stared up at the similarly wooden ceiling. “Sheesh , I wish there actually was a centaur with the hots for me. Anything would be better than this shitstorm.”



Sparkle reappeared within her own bed in the orphanage, much to her surprise. Apparently, when she had warped away without thinking, her wraith had decided to fill in for “Rhodium” using an illusion. She giggled slightly when she realized her blunder, thankful that she had made the specter as smart as it was.
The specter itself nodded and then drifted away to do whatever specters did when Sparkle wasn’t commanding them. Sparkle, meanwhile, hopped off the bed and headed for the door of the room. She took note of the clock on the wall and was mildly surprised to see that she had spent the whole night away with Thorn.
A short walk later ended with Sparkle in the same park where she had been discovered by her sister, who was waiting for Sparkle on the same bench as before. Twilight’s face was stern and hard; Sparkle knew her anger was still as intense as ever, even if it had cooled from an inferno to a frosty chill. The necromancer walked up to the paladin and plopped down beside her. “I’m sorry, Twilight. Can you ever forgive me for lying to you?”
“That depends on what you say next; can you tell the truth about everything?” Twilight answered, her voice even and tightly controlled.
“Heh. Figures.” Sparkle’s eyes turned upwards, gazing at the crisp, blue sky. “I guess I should start with an introduction. Hello, I’m a monster with many names and many faces. To the public, I’m a little filly named Rhodium. To my family, I’m a mare named Sparkle, and to my enemies, I am a soul-eating abomination nicknamed the bone mare. My soul is a chimeric hybrid composed of a pony’s soul, half a dragon’s soul, a fifth of a centaur’s soul, and a soul weapon. Thorn, my draconic other half, has a taste for pony flesh that’s slowly been bleeding over to me. My student is an assassin that I am training to be even more deadly, and I secretly worship Lady Death in the vain hope that I won’t end up in the pits for the death and destruction I’ve caused. I study and practice the blackest of arts and am the antithesis of all that paladins stand for.
“I hope we can be good friends.”
Twilight’s face had slowly worked its way through an number of expressions as her sister, or the thing that called itself her sister, introduced itself. The non-sequitur at the end, however, completely threw her for a loop. “What?”
“You heard me,” Sparkle replied. “I’m an utterly irredeemable monster, a danger to society, a walking mass of destruction, and I want to be your friend.”
“Sparkle, take this seriously,” Twilight said. “I don’t want any bullshit; just tell me the truth.”
“Alright then. I’m a normal mare, as normal as a natural dark mage can be. I’ve accidentally killed a few ponies, but I always apologized. I’ve never broken any laws, excluding the whole reincarnation thing. How about that?” Sparkle asked, seemingly serious, and then her tone changed dramatically. “Is that enough bullshit for you? Because that first story was the truth. Or are you going to keep deluding yourself even when I tell the truth? You asked for it, you better damn well listen to it.”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it!” Twilight yelled at her sister as she loomed over her sister’s little body. “Drop the theatrics and just tell me the straight truth.”
“Fine. Let’s start with your whorse of a teacher and all the ways she screwed me over. Sound fun? Let’s see...”



They talked. More accurately, Sparkle talked and Twilight listened. Aside from the occasional question, once Sparkle started really talking, Twilight barely spoke at all. And while it might have started out angry and heated, Sparkle’s tale eventually cooled into a confusing ball of emotions.
The shadows around them as the sun approached noon, and then lengthened again as Celestia’s orb started its return to the western horizon. Ponies passed by them, seeing them as just a mare and a foal having a conversation, unaware of the stakes. With the cool breeze and the puffy clouds, it would have been a lovely day, but Twilight and Sparkle had no attention to spare to notice it.
At long last, Sparkle finished speaking. Her throat was dry, her mouth was exhausted, and her stomach furious because she hadn’t eaten since lunch, the day before. And yet neither thirst, nor hunger, nor fatigue were on her mind at that moment; the only thing Sparkle cared about was Twilight, and the silence that had fallen between them.
Finally, Twilight spoke her mind. “I’m not sure what to think. This is all just a bit too much for me at the moment. But, I think I understand why you did what you did. I don’t like it, not at all, but I understand.” A pause. “Here’s what I do know with absolute certainty. First, you did tell me. I feared that you’d run off or lie to me again; you have no idea the relief I’m feeling because that isn’t the case. And second...”
She looked Sparkle right in the eye, brushing aside the glasses so that she could look right through her sister’s window-like eyes. In a significantly softer tone of voice, she said, “Second, you are my sister. I love you, and I always will. Perhaps I forgot that yesterday when I yelled at you, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Maybe I just needed a little reminder.”
Sparkle released a breath that she didn’t know that she’d been holding. Tension flowed out of her body like water rolling off a duck’s back, causing her to slouch semi-contently.
“So, for those two reasons alone, I’m going against everything I was taught as a paladin and the student of Celestia,” Twilight continued. “I’ll forgive you on three conditions.”
“W-what?” Sparkle asked, her breath hitching.
“First, tell Shining Armor everything.” 
Sparkle’s body stiffened instantly. 
“Maybe not now, but at some point, he deserves to know the truth. Do you really think he’d turn you in? Of course not; he’s our BBBFF,” Twilight stated.
Even with that argument, Sparkle didn’t want Shining Armor to find out. She’d poured her soul out once already; now she wanted nothing more than to bottle it up again and never, ever speak of it. But upon looking at her sister and subsequently remembering the very last moment she’d seen Shiny, Sparkle changed her mind.
“Fine. Not now, but eventually.”
“Good,” Twilight said, nodding. “Second, and this is the big one: No more secrets and lies between us. I’ll never use them against you, so you never have to be scared of telling me. I feel like my emotions have been torn at by a hydra; I can’t take any more lies. The next time you do or know something, tell me straight away. Trust me; I’m your sister. We always need to be there for each other, and if we can’t trust each other, then who could we? It would be the end of us. Will you promise me that there won’t be anything but the truth between us?”
Sparkle looked long and deep at her sister. All at once memories flooded her mind. Every time she sat next to Twilight and held her, the times when Twilight cried for her when she herself had no more tears to shed, and when Twi smiled for her when she couldn't. She vividly recalled the all-consuming emptiness she felt when Twilight had walked away. Sparkle knew that laying her soul to bare before herself after all she had done had been difficult enough; doing that before somepony else, especially someone that meant the world to her, would be painful, but not as bad as this had been. 
However, there was something even more unacceptable that she couldn’t possibly deal with and expect to remain intact after: the loss of her sister. And so, with a grim, yet determined smile, Sparkle chanted, “Cross my heart, the end is nigh, stick a spear point in my eye.”
Twilight scooped up her little sister and held her deeply against her chest. To Sparkle, the warmth of the contact felt like a warm light in a sea of darkness, and to Twilight, it was exactly what it felt like: a scared, little foal who needed solid, stable love. “Thank you,” Twilight said. “Although you could have used a more pleasant vow, you know, like Pinkie’s swear.”
“I’d rather get a spear through my head than lose you,” Sparkle replied with absolute certainty as she snuggled against her sister. “By the way, what’s Pinkie’s swear?”
Twilight leaned back, letting her little sister go in order to free up her forelegs. “I’ll show you. I promise that I will never lie to you, and that I will never willingly hurt you, cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”
“Seriously? That’s like a filly’s version of my swear! Mine’s better!” Sparkle replied, somewhat boastfully. Underneath that, her sister’s promise did resonate with her, building up a little bit more trust between them.
“Well, maybe for you,” Twilight mirthfully replied.
“Hmm...” Sparkle wrapped her short forelegs around her bigger sisters skinny body. “What was the third thing?”
“I’m sorry. Can you forgive me for insulting you? I was mad and I wasn’t thinking and-” A tiny hoof on her lips stopped Twilight.
“Easy,” Sparkle replied. “I forgive you.”
Twilight hugged her again, harder this time. “Thank you!”
Sparkle pushed away a little bit. “Just steer clear of Thorn for a bit. He was very... colorful... in his description of what he wanted to do to you for insulting us.”
“Sure,” Twilight said.
“I’m serious,” Sparkle insisted. “He’s been watching us the whole time through my link, and he’s still furious and still insisting that I at least maim you for that, and now he’s cringing and trying to bury the thought because he knows I caught him.”
“You’re using the link? What about that Nightmare of yours? What was it called? Sparkrovitar? Is it safe to use the link because of it?”
“Still there, but still bound by Luna’s spells, thankfully.” Sparkle rubbed one hoof against the other, silently noting that she needed to get the feathering on her fetlocks trimmed. She didn’t like thinking about Sparkrovitar, and so her mind automatically sought out distractions. “We haven’t ever opened the link that far since then. But, without the junk thoughts that became Sparkrovitar, it feels cleaner. We stay more distinct than before. I’m tempted to say that we’d stay separate now, even if we opened it up all the way.”
“That’s good... I think,” Twilight hesitantly replied.
“It is.”
Silence fell between them. As good as their reconciliation had felt, the lull in conversation exposed something between them. Sparkle could feel it in her chest - an ache that had no source but from the pain her sister had caused. Similarly, Twilight’s heart was heavy, still stinging from the pain of the loss, return, loss again, and return again of her sister. Neither mare would forget, and no apology could ever make them feel whole and unwounded again.
But that was alright. A cleaned and bandaged wound can heal without festering, but in the end, it still leaves a scar. They forgave, but would never forget.
> Interlude 1 - A Thorn for Hire & A Message for Death
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There was a ripple in space and time, and things changed. It wasn't the kind of thing a normal observer could detect, as they rippled along with everything else. And as for the changes, they went completely unnoticed by all; everyone's memories changed along with the world.
Weren't there fewer of them before? Did more join us? The thought seemed to stick in Thorn's head until he eventually decided to take a headcount. His eyes scanned across the merchant caravan, taking in the sight of the centaurs and gargoyles as they readied the wagons for the day's March. Forty five. Same as yesterday, I guess... He couldn't shake the odd feeling, but since everyone was accounted for and no one new had joined, he set the thought aside.
“Hey, Thorn, are you ready to head out?” A muscular centaur called out to the dracolich. As he trotted over to the dragon, Trav, the leader of the group, said, “Everybody else is about ready to go.”
Thorn’s claw moved up to his neck, feeling the adorning pendants there. One was the very reason he was here - Scorpan’s Amulet - and the other was his Mother’s old severed horn. “Yeah,” Thorn affirmed the merchant.
“Good,” Trav replied. “The stretch of the canyon we’re entering today is the most dangerous on this route. Bandits gather here.”
“Hey, if bandits gather here, why don’t we go around?” Thorn asked.
“It costs less to hire a dragon than the profits we’d lose trying to go around, and that’s saying something. Time is money, and we just don’t have the time.”
“I see,” Thorn replied. 
He and his boss quickly ran over the details of their route. Once satisfied, Trav hitched up to his own wagon and signaled the group to start moving. As he had done on the days before, Thorn took to the skies to scout out the route ahead.
Behind him, the village they had spent the night in - a luxury compared to sleeping out in the cold desert night - receded away. Thorn loved flying, and he was growing to love entertaining as well. Knowing that the caravan below was watching, he did a few quick twirls and dives, fast enough that a normal dragon would have likely strained their wings in the process. He looked back, and sure enough, Thorn saw many in the group looking up at him.
Smiling, he dove, rapidly picking up speed. At the last second, he leveled out just above the ground and raced along just above the road at a breakneck pace. His left wingtip felt the edge of a thermal updraft; banking to the side to enter, he was able to ride it up without sacrificing much of his ground speed.
At his one o’clock position, Thorn spotted the Stone River Canyon, which he knew that the caravan would have to cross. Adjusting his course slightly, he glided to the edge and then down into the stone crevice. 
The scent of cooked meat in the distance tickled Thorn’s nose. Since this canyon was technically uninhabited and presently devoid of other civilization-related smells, Thorn knew that there had to be someone upwind of him, and that someone was definitely not the caravan. A twitch of his wings adjusted his course.
He touched down on the canyon floor and folded his smokey wings behind his back. From where he was standing, it appeared as if there was nobody with him in the gorge, if he ignored the smell and the soul light shining from the brush.
"Hello!" Thorn loudly called out. He raised his claws in the air. "I was a bit hungry and smelled something nice, so I thought I'd drop in. Could you spare a bite for a poor drake?"
In reply to his question, an arrow whizzed by his face, just barely missing his eye. Thorn's smile widened maniacally. "Thanks! I haven't had a good meal in ages."
Two seconds later, and the archer who had loosed the arrow regretted not getting in Thorn's eye.
A second after that, he was regretting having fired it at all,
And a second after that, as his soul was forcefully ripped from his body, the bandit archer regretted ever being born.



As the first wagons rounded the corner, they came across the sight of Thorn cooking over a campfire, which was burning green. "Thorn!" Trav called out.
"Hey, Trav! The path's safe now. There was a small bandit camp here, but I dealt with them. Now, I'm just helping myself to the spoils that they left."
"Fair enough," the leader acknowledged. He glanced down at his shadow and, estimating that it was about midday, called for the caravan to rest and set up for lunch. Most of the group pulled out dried meats, dried fruits, and dried bread to snack on while they were resting, leaving Thorn as the sole user of a fire to cook his meal.
Tippan, a young gargoyle woman, sat down next to Thorn and gazed at the green fire. Meanwhile, Thorn reached into the fire and pulled out the meat that had been cooking within. The woman watched as he tore into it as she nibbled at her own meal. "Where'd you get fresh meat?" she asked.
"The bandits," Thorn replied simply. His teeth removed it from the large bone as easily as if it had been smoked for many hours thanks to the magic of his flame.
"No, I figured that was the case," Tippan replied.
Thorn raised an eyebrow.
She continued, "No, I actually wanted to know what animal it was from. There's nothing that large around here that I know of."
Thorn finished picking the meat off the bone and went for the next one. He set the clean bone down next to him and raised the meaty one to his mouth. "The bandits," Thorn said again as he bit into the flesh.
Tippan's eyes gazed down at the bone next to her, and the words registered.
Thorn chuckled as he watched her scream and fly away as fast as her little wings could carry her. Maybe that was a bit mean spirited of him. He stood and followed her to her "hiding spot," if you could even call ducking behind a centaur hiding. Unlike his mother, he had far fewer issues with using mind magic to convince people of things, and so set out to convince her that it was just a joke. The severed horn around his neck darkened, resonating with the magic that Thorn shared with his mother, spilling forth numerous illusions.



Smoking wings gracefully deposited Thorn on the path, along side the caravan. They were hours out from the Cengoyle capital city of Crolis, and Thorn had spotted it in the distance. It wasn’t the only thing he’d seen. Despite the desert conditions, he could have sworn he saw a small, isolated patch of forest of indeterminate size to the west of them. He asked the leader about it.
“That’s Death’s Oasis,” the centaur replied.
Thorn raised an eyebrow. Death’s Oasis was a magical upwelling zone, one of several where wild magic erupted from the planet in a continuous stream and raw soul dust gathered and formed into weak demons. Each upwelling zone also had certain properties; Death’s oasis caused the plants and animals inside it to become hyper poisonous. But, legend had it that there was a connection to the magic of Death there.
“I could have sworn that was in a different desert,” Thorn muttered. He shrugged it off, chalking it up to misremembering it. Still, while he was here, it was worth taking a detour to see. Because of his undead nature, he’d probably be the only one able to enter without serious protection.
Eventually, the caravan reached the towering walls that surrounded the city. Above the walls, he could see the faint shimmer of a semi-permeable defensive magic dome. “Are the bandits really that bad here?” Thorn inquired.
“Oh yeah,” Trav replied as they walked up to the guards at the gate. “Well, not in the city itself, but in the canyon and along the river, there are several bandit camps.”
The centaur reached around and fished for something in the wagon he was pulling. He withdrew a small sack and a stack of papers. “For you,” he said as he tossed the sack to Thorn. He held up the papers. “...and for me.”
Thorn opened the bag up and inspected its contents; a couple hundred silvery, hexagonal coins sparkled in the light, not at all tarnished like real silver would have gotten. Since Cengoyle’s money wasn’t made of silver, that was how it should have been. He banished the coins to the pocket dimension. “Thanks. A pleasure doing business with you.”
“No problem,” Trav replied. “Hey, if you’re done with whatever you’re doing in three days, meet me at the south gate an hour after sunrise if you feel like working the return trip.”
“We’ll see,” Thorn replied noncommittally.
As Thorn entered the gate, a scroll-and-quill-bearing guard stopped him, as he had every other entrant into the city. “State your name, occupation, residence, and purpose for being here.”
 “Thornecrovitar, uh... mage’s familiar, Equestria - though I don’t really live there, and delivery drake,” the lich supplied cheerfully.
“What do you mean, you ‘don’t really live there?’” The guard asked with a skeptical look.
“Just a little personal joke. Equestria is my permanent residence though.”
“I see.” The guard’s mouth was still open, as if he had paused before saying something else. The centaur’s eyes were on the golden pendant dangling around Thorn’s neck. “Why are you wearing the old medallion of the royal family? No commoner, especially not a dragon should be wearing it.”
Thorn just smiled. “That’s what I’m delivering. It got misplaced and I’m trying to get it back to its original owner.”
“Come with me, then. I’ll take you to the palace; I hope for your sake you do intend to give it back, and have a very good reason for how it came to be in your possession.” Swiftly, the gatekeeper took him to the palace. After a few words to his superiors and a few minutes of waiting, the gatekeeper finally led Thorn into the throne room.
“Your majesties, this drake, by the name of Thornecrovitar, has in his possession a medallion of the royal family,”
The queen, a gargoyle in an ornate, white dress, floated over to Thorn. “May I see it?”
Thorn nodded and pulled the amulet off his neck. Handing it to her, he said, “I promised that I’d give it back to its original owner, or bring it back to his grave if he no longer lived. It belonged to-”
“Grand Uncle Scorpan,” she interrupted. “But that makes no sense! How could you come across this? Scorpan gave this to his late brother shortly before Tirek’s death in Equestria.”
“Queen...?”
“I am Queen Alybaon, the Third, and this is my husband, King Vorak, the Second,” she said, indicating the centaur that had walked up next to her.
“Right, Queen Alybaon, King Vorak, that’s a lie. Tirek was locked in Tartarus for a thousand years, but he was certainly alive enough to escape and attack my mom for her magic,” Thorn answered.
“Because, when my mom defeated him, she took his memories to see if there was anything useful. I only knew to come here in search of Scorpan because of those memories,” Thorn replied.
King Vorak scowled. “Guards, fetch me the grand sorcerer. As for you, drake, it would be in your best interest to explain from the beginning.”
“Right.” Thorn launched into a lightly censored account of what they had discovered about Tirek in the past, what Tirek’s memories held, and Sparkle’s encounter with Tirek himself. Just as he was finishing up, a very strong magical presence caught Thorn's attention. He turned his head just in time to see an ancient-looking gargoyle appear out of thin air with a loud crack.
The elderly gargoyle mage blinked once, rubbed his eyes, and then stared at Thorn as if he were dissecting the dragon with his eyes. "Spike? Is that you, my friend?"
"No, I'm Thorn, but I do actually know the dragon you're talking about. Spike's in Equestria, and he's waiting for you, Scorpan." For reasons he couldn't quite explain, the fragments of Tirek that he and his mother had absorbed were acting up. The hatred that colored all of the late centaur's memories was fading fast and a feeling of brotherly affection was taking its place.
It made Thorn feel all warm and fuzzy inside. He decided that he didn't like it.
Scorpan smiled. “Then I thank you, Thorn. But, I sense that is not the only reason you are here.”
“It isn’t.” Thorn snatched the amulet from Queen Alybaon’s grasp, uncaring of the faux pas he’d just committed, and handed it to Scorpan. “I brought you this. Tirek had it with him when he escaped Tartarus.”
“But that-”
“Makes no sense?” Thorn finished, echoing the queen’s reaction earlier. “It is very strange that Equestria would say Tirek was dead when instead he was just imprisoned.”
Scorpan drifted to the ground, eyes glazed over and distant. “He was in there the whole time? Brother, I am so sorry. If I had only known...”
Suddenly, the gargoyle mage looked up at Thorn, a spark of hope in his eyes. “If he is no longer in Tartarus, then do you know where he is now?”
Thorn looked away nervously. “Well...” 
Switching to the link, he asked Sparkle, “Mom, do you mind if I give back Tirek’s body to his family?”
“No, go ahead,” Sparkle replied.
“My mom killed him when he attacked her. I already told the king and queen that. What I didn’t say was that we preserved the body as well.” Thorn waved a claw, and the body of Tirek appeared before them, still in stasis and just as it had been when Sparkle killed it over a year ago.
Scorpan walked - as in, he actually used his legs instead of his wings - over to Tirek’s supine corpse. His boney fingers brushed the black fur on Tirek’s head. “Brother...”
The gargoyle mage stood straight and turned to face Thorn. “Wake him up.”
“Hmm?”
“I know the power you and your maker wield, lich,” Scorpan said matter-of-factly. “I may be half-blind and half-deaf, but my magic is as keen as ever. I felt the touch of her magic in Tirek’s body. I know it isn’t him, but I know you can interrogate the dead. Please, give me back my brother, even if it is only a shade of him.”
Thorn nodded and snapped his fingers, cutting the power of the stasis spell. The specter Sparkle had kept in Tirek’s corpse commanded it to inhale as it resumed the body’s cellular functions. Soulless eyes fluttered open and the body lifted itself off the stone floor. “Scorpan.”
“Tirek... I’m so sorry! I should have never told the ponies. I never meant for you to be imprisoned!”
“Scorpan, the real Tirek despised you, or at least he thought he did. I think he needed to hear that as much as you needed to say it,” the zombie centaur answered.
Thorn meanwhile took a few steps back from the two brothers, which put him next to King Vorak. Addressing the King, Thorn said, “I think that’s my cue to leave. I’ll be in the city for the night before I leave tomorrow.”
And with that, Thorn vanished in a cloud of black smoke, much to the surprise of everyone but Scorpan.



The place was not terribly far away, but it was in decades away in a future that soon would be overwritten. Something materialized next to the sole individual in a particular room. Death whirled around upon sensing the arrival. He scowled when he saw it.
There was a distortion in the air in the vague shape of a minotaur, though the soul contained within it looked like nothing Death had ever seen before. “Give me one good reason not to kill you where you stand, Outsider. I won’t hesitate to end you if you are a threat to this world.” 
The creature raised its arms defensively. In a surprisingly normal voice, it said, "I'm no threat; I'm a friend. Today, I'm also a messenger."
"If you're a friend, you won't mind introducing yourself."
"You know me as Mod, remember?"
At the word remember, memories of time spent in a strange room with that creature appeared in Death's mind. The memories had been previously sealed away, but not forgotten. Death's six eyes lightened, and a genuine smile spread across his face. "You never come here," Death commented. "What's the occasion?"
"Oh, I just thought that I'd remind you of something you'd asked me the other day. Now, normally, you'd forget it the moment I left, but there's some pencils and paper right there on your desk…"
The dark god whipped around, grabbed the aforementioned objects, and hastily wrote a note to himself. As soon as he'd finished it, he turned around to thank… thank…
Why was he thanking somepony? He was alone in here and he'd been alone here the whole time. He shrugged and sat back down at his desk.
There was a note there.
He had no idea why there was a note there. It was in his hoofwriting, but he didn't remember writing it. He read it quickly.


Time travel can fix that hard problem you've been struggling with for a long time.


He half-smiled thoughtfully. He knew himself, and judging by that letter's tone, Death figured that he had been aware that he was going to forget the letter even as he wrote it. Leaving vague, thought provoking letters to oneself was how he had taught his apprentices to make themselves trust their own forgotten messages.
As to the message itself, a hard problem that he'd been struggling with for a long time? He knew exactly what that was. A few seconds later, he'd penned another letter; this was to his past self instead of an amnesiac future self.
The reaper levitated the letter with his magic. If he remembered correctly…. Yes, that was the right moment in the past. Doing it then would be best, as almost everything had been in place at that point in time. Still, he hesitated. If he messed this up, something could drastically change. Actually, as he continued to ponder his decision, he realized that it would be a drastic change. It was so far in his past that he'd likely cease to exist and a new Death would take his place.
He shrugged.
Figuring that if he was going to commit suicide by temporal expungement, he might as well make an alternate version of himself happy and give a big old Buck You to Time. Lord Death’s horn darkened with powerful black magic, drilling a path through time and space. A hole in space-time opened before him. The moment it was stable and he confirmed that it was going to the right place and time, he tossed the letter through.
Letting the magic dissipate from her horn, Lady Death sat back down at her desk. She couldn't believe she'd put off sending that letter to her past self for so long. Maker forbid she forget to send it and end up trapped in a stallion's body for all eternity.
"Mom?" a young colt's voice called out from the hallway. Death blinked, suddenly overcome by the strange sensation of both recognizing the voice and not, all at the same time. How could she forget her own son's voice? "The kids at school were teasing me about my legs again…"
The dark goddess teleported out of her office and scooped up her similarly six-legged son. Using her normal voice instead of her signature voice-of-the-reaper, Death said, "Stygian Blue, you listen to me. Ignore them. Ignore everything they say about you and your cute little legs." She brushed a strand of his seemingly impossibly dark blue mane out from his eyes. "We'll go talk to your teacher in the morning to see about getting them to stop. I'm sure she'd love to help, and if not, I can always go talk to those foals myself."
Stygian smiled, showing off his mouth full of teeth that were as sharp as his mom's. Growing up with the aspects of Death as his parents, he knew exactly what such a talk would entail. "Thanks, Mom!"
> Love Eater
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The sun seemed extra bright today, just as it had been for the past few days. It was the good sort of brightness, the one that comes along with an unexpected source of optimism, and not the kind of brightness that would have irritated Sparkle’s eyes. It was also the same sort of brightness that was reflected in Sparkle’s roommate’s eyes whenever the orange filly started talking about cutie mark crusading or, as was more relevant to the current situation, when racing down the hill at breakneck speeds.
Rody, the name by which Scootaloo knew Sparkle, clutched on to the edge of the pegasus-drawn wagon as they careened down the hill. Her smile was even wider than Scootaloo’s, as the sensation called forth memories of riding on Thorn’s back. Imbued with a strange courage that stemmed from having defied death - the action, not the goddess - and from the fact that if she were hurt, she could heal herself, Sparkle found the extremely dangerous trip to be quite exhilerating. 
Ponyville market passed by them in a blur, meaning that their destination was fast approaching. Too fast, actually. 
“Scootaloo! Slow down!”
“I got this!”
In the blink of an eye, Scootaloo's furious wingbeats swapped directions and produced a reverse thrust. The wagon quickly lost speed, but Sparkle knew that it wouldn’t be enough to completely stop a crash. The orange driver gently turned the scooter’s handle, sending the pair gracefully arching away from the building just in time to avoid plowing right into the front door. 
When the wagon finally came to a stop, Sparkle quickly hopped out, thankful to feel solid ground again. As fun as that was, it was still nerve wracking. “Scootaloo, are all you flying types so crazy?”
“Hey, I’m good enough not to crash into anything, even with passengers!” she retorted.
“I didn’t say you were bad,” Sparkle replied with a slight giggle, “I said you were crazy. Fun, but crazy.”
“Right. Anyway, come on! Let’s get Sweetie Belle and Applebloom!” Tossing their helmets into the wagon, the pegasus filly and the reincarnated mare both trotted up to the door of the Carousel Boutique, the one they had nearly crashed into.
A bell jingled as the two fillies opened the door. The white proprietor of the store popped her head around the corner. “Welcome to... oh, Scootaloo! Rhodium! So good to see you! I’ll go tell Sweetie that you’re here.”
“Thanks, Rarity,” Scootaloo said.
As Rarity walked off, Sparkle’s eyes, hidden behind the reflective glasses, followed the mare’s flanks. For some reason, the mare that Sparkle had once found sexy thanks to Thorn no longer evoked any reaction. The necromancer attributed that to her prepubescent body and lack of hormones.
Not even thirty seconds later, the white filly they sought came bounding down the stairs in the back. “Scoots! Rody!” Sweetie Belle blinked, her face suddenly showing her confusion. She walked up to Sparkle and looked her over.
“Is there something the matter?” Sparkle asked.
Sweetie Belle eventually shrugged. “No. For some reason, I thought you were supposed to be a colt. And younger. I don’t know why, though.”
“Rody, I had a dream that you were a colt,” Scootaloo added.
“Huh,” Sparkle said, slightly nervous inside. Why had they thought she was still a colt? She’d swapped her gender ever since that mysterious note had reminded her of it, back when she was staying with Cobalt. “I was a filly when I met you and that hasn’t changed.”
“Meh,” the orange pegasus said. “This is Ponyville. Weirder things have happened.”
“Yeah, like the time my sister got rescued from diamond dogs by a zombie dragon,” Sweetie Belle said.
Rarity, who had been working on her current project on the other side of the room piped in, “Yes, that was quite the ordeal. Hey, Sweetie, why don’t you three go to Applebloom’s house so that you can tell Rody all about your adventures?”
Sweetie Belle’s eyes practically sparkled at the suggestion, while the fake-filly suppressed the urge to groan. With all three of them together, she knew it would be only a matter of time before they were screaming in her ear again.
With purpose behind their hooves, the three fillies headed outside to the scooter and wagon. And soon enough, the town was passing them by. With twice the load, Scootaloo was content to go a more reasonable pace, just over the speed of a foal’s gallop. The road to Sweet Apple Acres brought them through the edge of town and past the train station.
It was then that Sparkle noticed something peculiar; sitting on the station’s sole track was a train unlike any she’d ever seen. The entire thing, all ten or so cars including the engine, was made of crystal. The Crystal Empire flag carved on the side of the engine just confirmed that.
Sparkle muttered a particularly colorful swear under her breath, chiding herself for forgetting that her brother was coming today. While concentrating on making no strange visible reactions, Sparkle reached out with her mind to her wraith doppelganger and commanded it towards the train station.
A shadow raced across the ground at a speed that was hard for Sparkle to follow, even from this distance. As it approached the station, if bubbled up from the ground and shaped itself into the form of Sparkle’s old body.
The mare-turned-filly felt a twinge of nervousness in her chest. Hopefully, without the barrier and light magic protecting them, and without Sparkle nearby to be discovered, the Specter’s illusions would hold better against her brother and Cadance than they did against Twilight.
The scooter continued on its path, the driver and the other passenger unaware of her thoughts. As the distance between them and the train station grew, Sparkle turned more of her attention to the specter that was approaching her brother and sister-in-law.
With her mind, Sparkle pulled on the specter as if it was a puppet and set it dancing to her tune. “Shiny! Cadance!”
The stallion, who had just stepped off the train, took a half-step back in surprise, bumping into his equally stunned wife. In the same instant, the guard escort that was accompanying the princess and prince consort of the Crystal Empire raised their spears defensively. “Sparkle? Is that really you?” Shining Armor asked.
“Hi, Shiny,” Sparkle said, tilting the puppet specter’s head in a way that could possibly be interpreted as a nod. “I missed you.”
The wraith went to hug Shining, but a bubble of pink magic pushed it away. “Prove it, please. I don’t think I could take it if this was a trick.”
“Cadance, Sunshine, Sunshine, / Ladybugs awake...”
“Clap your hooves / and do a little shake!” Cadance finished cheerfully. She, along with Shining Armor, raced in to hug the specter, which had made itself solid for the occasion.“Sparkle, it really is you!” 
At that, the guards surrounding them all lowered their spears, save for one. That one in particular, a non-crystal pony, was too busy having flashbacks of his time in Sparkle’s class. Brass had thought she was gone for good, but she was back. “Don’t put me back in the dark box. Please, I’ll be a good toy.”
“But how did you survive?” Cadance continued, unaware of her transfer guard’s emotional turmoil.
Sparkle’s grin, the one on both her real body and the copy, faltered. “I can’t tell you, not yet.”
“Why?” Shining Armor asked, perplexed.
“Because I swore that I’d take that secret with me to the grave. So, would you kindly lead me there so I can tell you?” She giggled at her own joke.
“We couldn’t find many fragments of your body in the snow, not enough to cremeate, anyway. You don’t have any ashes or a grave,” Shining Armor replied.
“Oh...” Some distance away, the real Sparkle slumped slightly in the wagon, though Sweetie Belle didn’t notice. The idea that she didn’t even have a grave was rather upsetting to her. She didn’t let it show outwardly, through. “Then I guess this dead mare’ll tell no tales.”
“Are death jokes something that we’re going to have to deal with now?” Shining Armor said with a grin.
“Why? Are they killing you?”
“No, but you sound like Dad did when he made his stupid jokes.”
“Shiny! Don’t disrespect the dead! I’m sure Dad would be rolling in his grave!”
Shining Armor snorted and shook his head. “It’s really good to see you, Sparks.”
“You too, Shiny, Cadance. So, I’ve already talked to Twilight a bit and she said that there was an invasion of changelings on her side on your wedding day. What happened here?” Sparkle asked. Knowing that her death was so close to when the wedding was planned, Sparkle knew that it was likely that things had changed. She didn’t know by how much, but one thing was obvious: Shiny and Cadance obviously weren’t changelings in disguise, judging by their souls. Still, it left her wondering.
The jovial mood deflated like a balloon with a slow leak, minus the annoying sound. “Ah,” Shiny started, “let’s just say that those enhancements worked a little too well.”
“What happened?” Sparkle concernedly asked, jumping straight into investigation mode. “If something’s wrong, I need to fix it!”
“Well...”



“It was a few days after your funeral, and the night before our postponed wedding...”
Shining Armor gazed out the window of Canterlot Castle. The moon was quickly rising in the east, pulled along by Princess Luna. Its soft glow illuminated the room more than the single candle did. Behind him, the door to the room slowly slid open, though the stallion did not turn back to look at the entrant.
“Shiny, please, you need to move forwards. I know that you’re upset, but you shouldn’t be. Not tonight. Not on the eve of our wedding,” the pink alicorn said as she slid up next to Shining Armor and draped her wing across his back. She leaned in and kissed his neck.  “Please, there will be time to be sad later. You need a little happiness right now.” The kissing returned, more intense this time. “Come here, Shining Armor. Come to bed with me.”
“I won’t bore you with all the details, but...”
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Ahhhh~”
“Cadance, I’m-Ahh~!” Shining Armor looked down at the mare below him, who’s mouth was open wide in a gasp of pleasure. He couldn’t help but notice that her teeth looked unusually sharp. And then-
-he was standing in the middle of the hallway.



“Wait, what?” Sparkle asked, interrupting the story.
“Yeah, one minute I was with the changeling queen, who I still thought was Cadance at the time, and the next, I was standing in the hallway. For me, it was like I’d blinked, though everypony else said that it had been about twenty minutes. I awoke with Chrysalis impaled on a spear made from my own magic, dripping reddish-gray blood down onto me.”
“It killed her?” Sparkle asked.
“I take it that you know what it was, then?”
“I’d planted a specter into your skull; if you were ever hit with a psychic attack that you didn’t voluntarily request, it would force you into soul-sleep and take over your body to protect you, mind, body, and soul,” Sparkle explained.
Shining matched her explanation up with his memories and what he’d been told. Deciding that that was likely what happened, Shining answered her original question: “No, Queen Chrysalis didn’t die. I missed any major organs and the spear was still in place, stemming the internal bleeding. We took her to the hospital, bound her magic, and then fixed her up before placing her under arrest.”
Sparkle asked Cadance, “So what happened while he was unconscious?”
“Well, I had been kidnapped at the time, trapped down in the crystal caves until Aunt Celestia managed to get from Chrysalis where I was. But, from what we’ve gathered...”



Chrysalis opened her mouth to siphon the post-orgasm bliss that was sure to be pouring off of her current prey and found... nothing? She jerked back in surprise, her own pleasure haze cleared away with a surge of adrenaline.
Her disguised eyes caught sight of Shining Armor’s eyes, so dead-looking and yet so full of hate. Black smoke oozed from the edges, and the sclera were slowly turning black. 
An alien-feeling magic pulsed from Shining Armor’s body, and in the blink of an eye, it was standing some distance away from the bed. “You tried to feed on my host, changeling. Bad move.”
Shining Armor was a barrier master, a pony skilled at creating solid geometric shapes out of magic that could act as shields. Or, since the shape was defined by the user, the ability could summon bladed weapons. A spear appeared above Shining’s back, and two square walls appeared at either side of Chrysalis and her opponent. Even possessed, Shining Armor was still a master of Scorpion style, a form of unicorn spear combat where the spear was the stinger and the shields to the sides were the claws that keep the target in the most dangerous position.
The magic spear shot forwards. At the last instant, Shining’s controller changed tactics and widened the speartip, changing the attack from a stab to a bludgeoning strike.
Chrysalis tried to dodge backwards, unable to move to the side because of the walls. It was in vain. The blow hit her squarely in the chest.
She in turn plowed straight through the wall behind them.
Chrysalis was by no means weak. She stood, aching all over. The initial blow disrupted her transformation, but the wall and floor barely hurt her through her carapace. She stood shakily, expecting to see it walking through the wall.
It was already in her face.
The possessed stallion’s second blow sent her flying past the guards who had been summoned by the noise.



“None of those who were there could really remember exactly what happened after that,” Shining Armor said. “They did say that I played with her for a while, not going for the kill until she was thoroughly defeated.”
“I see,” Sparkle said, making a mental note to correct the specter’s behavior so that it went straight for the kill instead. “And after you stabbed her? You took her to the hospital and imprisoned her, right?”
Shining Armor nodded. “Yes. Once she was stable, Chrysalis was quick to tell us - and by that, I mean Celestia - what she had been planning and where Cadance was.”
“I was rescued soon after,” Cadance said. “I was down there maybe ten hours, at most. Other than being tired and hungry, I was fine. Chrysalis herself was the only one to get hurt in the whole ordeal.”
“Then what happened?” Sparkle asked.
“Peace talks, of all things,” Cadance replied. At Sparkle’s specter’s incredulous look, Cadance elaborated. “When the Crystal Heart returned, so did much of the love that the changelings had been missing. Chrysalis had originally planned an invasion to gather ponies to farm for love, but downscaled when the heart came back. What Chrysalis was doing was a resource grab; now that they had love, they were after other resources that their hive couldn’t normally get, including direct access to the Crystal Heart through me. More importantly, they wanted plants in companies who would then send them resources. When Celestia heard about this, she ended up negotiating the first ever trade agreement between Equestria and the Changeling hives.”
“But Chrysalis kidnapped you!” Sparkle replied. “Why would Celestia help her?”
“Because she thought that being stabbed was punishment enough, since I wasn’t hurt? Perhaps because she saw an opportunity to end suffering? Or perhaps because she’d been trying to revamp Equestria for over a year now and thought that the country could use a new economic ally? Who knows, except Aunt Celestia?” Cadance said.
Why? Sparkle wondered. For a decade, she'd had to fight and claw for every last good thing that came from the government, and then that parasite comes along and after kidnapping a princess, gets a trade deal. It didn't seem fair to Sparkle. Her opinion of the white princess dropped further.
"So... A changeling hive as an ally. I never thought I'd see the day," Sparkle commented. "Hey, is it just me, or does it seem like a lot of big things happening nowadays are in some way triggered by me?"
Shining Armor reflected for a moment. "Yeah, I'd say that's a reasonable statement. You planning on writing an autobiography?"
Sparkle chuckled and shook her head. "I was just thinking that it felt like the plot of somepony writing a book, or at least actively trying to adjust the outcomes."
"I thought you didn't believe in fate," Shining Armor said.
"It's probably somepony else pulling the strings. I personally think it's a time traveler."
The white brother looked at her skeptically. "Whatever you say, Sis. Whatever you say."



Four fillies galloped or rode on a scooter or wagon towards the middle of town. Scootaloo pulled as usual, and joining Sweetie Belle in the wagon was Applebloom. Meanwhile, Sparkle galloped alongside the wagon, easily keeping pace.
“Are ya sure this will work?” Applebloom asked Sparkle.
“I’m only as sure as Scootaloo is,” Sparkle replied. “If doing tricks with her scooter really is what she’s good at and loves doing, then I’m sure that this will get her her cutie mark.”
Scootaloo swerved, turning sharply into an alleyway. She yelped in surprise, though Sparkle couldn’t see why until she too rounded the corner and promptly ran right into it. Or her, as the case turned out to be.
Sparkle’s face ached from where her sunglasses had been pressed into her and then dragged off by the collision with the other pony. She opened her eyes, only to wince and shut them again after the bright sunlight hit them.
“Hey, watch where you’re going!” the voice of Diamond Tiara said.
“Sorry,” Sparkle replied. She tried to open her eyes again, but the direct sun was unusually bothersome today. “Hey, where did my glasses fall?”
"Oh, these?" Diamond Tiara said as she put them on. Sparkle smirked slightly as she felt the magic within them take hold of the pink filly. Diamond Tiara asked, "What's so special about them anyway?"
"Give Rody back her glasses!" Applebloom shouted.
"Yeah!" Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle agreed in unison.
Instead of replying, Sparkle simply walked right up to Diamond Tiara and yanked the glasses off her face. Without a word, she slid them back onto her own head and blinked in relief from the bright sunlight. "Come on; let's go."
As the four crusaders set off, three of them paid little attention to the fact that Diamond Tiara hadn't moved since she's put the glasses on, or that she was now grimacing.



"Diamond Tiara's walkin' funny," Applebloom remarked, curiosity evident in her voice.
"I noticed that," Sweetie Belle added. "It's kind of funny looking. And have you noticed that she jumps occasionally, like she was just slapped in the butt?"
"Yeah, and look at Silver Spoon. She keeps giving Diamond these weird looks," Scootaloo said, pointing her hoof to the other side of the classroom, where Silver was quite clearly staring at Diamond.
"I don't know," Sparkle said. "Whatever it is, it's kept her away from us. She hasn't bothered us for a while now."
"True," Scootaloo agreed.
It was about that time when Cheerilee trotted into the room. "Good morning, class. I've got an exciting lesson for you all today!"
With class starting, the crusaders' conversation died down. While three of them looked towards Cheerilee, Applebloom turned her attention once more towards Diamond Tiara, who was gingerly rubbing her rear end. The rich filly had been unusually subdued for a week, and hadn't bullied them once in that time; the respite was nice, but the oddness that came along with it left the crusaders and the rest of the class rather curious.
> Keep Calm and Save the Trio
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Scootaloo’s leg muscles tensed as she prepared to leap. Her wings, as weak as they were, would only hinder her here, so she was forced to rely entirely on her legs. She grit her teeth in concentration. Sure, she had done this task several times, but each success had let her tormenter know that it was alright to up the difficulty for the next time.
She lept. Her body soared over the precariously stacked tower, but her rear hoof clipped the top. She hissed as she landed, frightened that she might have caused a catastrophic collapse, but the tower, wobbling ominously, eventually stilled without falling.
The orange filly sighed in relief, before turning to her last obstacle. Mercifully, this one was much lower and much less likely to crush her if it fell. With an athletic leap, she arced over it and landed safely on her bed mattress on the other side.
“Seriously, Rody. You have too many books.”
So, perhaps it was a bit of an exaggeration brought forth by a childish mind, but there was a nearly three-layers deep sea of books on the floor of their shared bedroom, which made walking quite hard.
Rhodium merely hummed in noncommittal acknowledgement. The pages of her current book flipped by exceedingly fast, much faster than Scootaloo thought possible while still reading. And yet, Scootaloo’s roommate remembered everything she read.
In the time it took the pegasus to recall the time she had tried to call Rody on her speed reading ability and then discovered that it was in fact real, the unicorn snapped her book shut. “I’m going back to the library,” she said.
“AT LEAST TAKE SOME OF THESE BOOKS WITH YOU!” Scootaloo shouted.
The faux-filly complied, taking as many as she could carry... which hardly left a dent in the sea of books. It was almost as if those she’d removed had already been replaced, even before she would return with more books.
Scootaloo envisioned herself drowning in a sea of paper. At this rate, it was the way she’d most likely go.
The door clicked shut - a miracle considering the pressure the books exerted on it - leaving Scootaloo alone in her shared room. She had come up here to do her homework, but amid the paper ocean, she found her eyes and mind wandering. Maybe she could hide her homework in here and say she lost it among Rody’s books. Rody was always reading in class, so maybe it wasn’t that far off.
The young filly’s eyes paused, fixed upon a book on the top of the pile that stood out somewhat from the rest. Instead of words on cover, it had a drawing of a five pointed star inside a circle that was decorated with other shapes and symbols.
A shiver went down her spine. Her eyes widened unconsciously.
She picked it up, curious about its contents, and flipped it open. Scootaloo very quickly realized that she could read less than half of it, as most of the stuff was written in a strange, foreign language. A second later, it clicked as to where she’d seen those kind of symbols before: Sweetie Belle sometimes wrote like that. Did that mean that this was a spell book?
The crusader knew that Sweetie Belle was getting old enough that she would soon be able to consciously control her magic, and so thought that the white filly might be interested in the spell book.
Shutting the tome, she hopped off her bed and trotted out the bedroom door, homework forgotten. 



Scootaloo galloped up the ramp to the clubhouse, book clutched in her teeth. She lept through the door and landed right next to Applebloom, who, not expecting her sudden arrival, startled a bit. Scootaloo set the book down on the single table within.
“Hey, Sweetie! I found a book written in that funny language you sometimes write in. I think it’s a spell book,” Scootaloo exclaimed.
Trotting over from where she was behind the podium, Sweetie Belle looked at the aforementioned book. Her eyes widened with pleasant surprise. “Cool! It is one. Rarity won’t let me read her spell books until I can levitate things well enough, so I’ve never actually read one before.”
“So can you read it?” Scootaloo pressed, “‘cause it looks like a bunch of strange, little drawings to me.”
“Yeah, except I’m not really fast. It might take a bit for me to translate...” Sweetie Belle said.
“So? What’s it even called?” Applebloom asked.
Sweetie traced her hoof around the symbols on the cover. “Hmmm... The closest thing I can think of is ‘Enemies Fall,’ though this symbol here implies getting back at somepony and this one is either ‘trap’ or ‘prank.’ I think either one works there.”
“You sure?” Scootaloo asked. “You sound hesitant.”
Sweetie frowned at the doubt cast on her reading ability. “I can read it just fine, it’s translating that’s the problem. How did Rarity explain it? Unicornian doesn’t specify magnitude in the same way that Common does, so” - Sweetie made a series of intelligible noises - “could mean Applebloom poked me or she applebucked me so hard that I went flying. You have to guess how hard from the context and tone. And then there are a lot of words that are like mixes of other words, so it’s hard to imagine the right one.”
“But ya can understand it, right? Ya just can’t say it, is that what yer sayin’?” Applebloom asked, to which Sweetie nodded.
Something else Sweetie Belle had said registered in Scootaloo’s mind. “Hey, you said it was a prank book, right?”
“Errr...” Sweetie Belle looked down at the cover again. “Yeah.”
“Cool! I wonder if Rody learned any cool spells from it?”
Sweetie’s ears twitched. “Is this Rody’s book?”
“One of the millions of books covering our floor. I’m sure she’s already memorized it by now, so she won’t miss it for a bit, and we can always bring it back if she needs it,” Scootaloo said.
Applebloom snickered. “Yeah. Remember that time when Cheerilee gave Rhodium a pop quiz when she was reading, and Rody got a perfect score anyway?”
“Yeah. Hey, Sweetie! Prank spells! See if there’s anything good in there!”
Sweetie Belle flipped open the book and began to skim through the different spells. After a few pages, she was frowning, and a few pages further on she was turning slightly green. “Some of these spells are really gross, or really mean. There’s a spell for turning a pony inside-out. Ewww...”
Scootaloo tapped her hoof to her chin. “I dunno. That could be kind of funny,” she commented.
The little unicorn flipped several pages forwards and stopped on a dog-eared page, unaware of the warning written in bold and in the common tongue on the previous, obscured page. “Bad Joke? Hmmm...” Her eyes scanned across the text, unknowingly completing a magical circuit inscribed in the binding of the book, which planted an idea in her head. “This one looks interesting.”
“What is it?”
“Hang on...” Sweetie’s eyes thoroughly examined the page as her mind worked to translate the runes. The occasional note written in the margins helped with the translation somewhat. “This is for a potion that... makes the pony who eats... something made with it to see... something scary, and if they scream, it... plays a joke on them. The main ingredient is poison joke.”
“Heh, Ah remember when mah sister got poison joked. She shrank until she was smaller than me!” Applebloom said.
“And my sister got really hairy!” Sweetie said.
Scootaloo giggled. “That sounds really funny. Hey, can you imagine what it would do to Diamond Tiara if she got hit with poison joke?”
“Or bad joke?” Sweetie offered. “It’d be like being scared by a ghost story and then getting pranked!”
“Yeah!”
Applebloom had some reservations, however. “Hey, remember the last time we gave somepony a potion? Mah brother almost married Ms. Cheerilee.”
“Oh yeah,” Scootaloo said, deflating somewhat in mood.
Sweetie Belle was undeterred. “Pfft. That was only because we didn’t read all the directions first. We’ve learned our lesson.”
“And when we were trying to prank Babs Seed?”
“We were going to do it until we learned that she was being bullied, but we know that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon aren’t being bullied. They are the bullies,” Sweetie argued.
“Huh,” Applebloom said. “Well, you got me there. So, are we really going to make this?”
“Sure,” Scootaloo said, smiling.
“I don’t see why not,” Sweetie Belle added. “It looks easy enough.”
All in agreement, Sweetie read out the short list of ingredients, and the steps, while Applebloom recorded them in the common tongue so that they didn’t have to keep looking back at the book. Once they were satisfied, they ran off to gather the ingredients, unaware that Sweetie Belle had skipped a very important note.



The mare now known as Rhodium trotted back into her room, new books in tow. Unlike her roommate, her steps were quick and sure, as she knew that the books on the floor were really just an illusion created for the sake of annoying Scootaloo. Some of the books she was carrying with her were library books, as she had said, but some of them were her own personal books as well.
A bead of sweat dripped down her brow; it was the last trace of the strenuous magical exercise that she’d been doing for the last hour of real time (four hours according to her body’s clock) in her pocket dimension. Though she was still fruitlessly struggling with trying to get a different magic type, her dark magical skill was advancing like always.
Banishing the illusion of books on the floor, Sparkle noticed that some of them remained; frowning, she levitated the real books that had fallen on the floor. Upon seeing the titles, she grimaced. They were her spell books, and she had been astronomically foolish in leaving them out. What if-
There were six in her grip. Where was the seventh? The only pony who came in here was Scootaloo; did she have it?
Sparkle swore a very colorful phrase and dissolved into smoke. Her body vanished in the shadows and raced towards Sweet Apple Acres, where she hoped that Scootaloo would be. The necromancer prayed that they hadn't tried anything. 



Sweetie Belle smiled in satisfaction at the little bottle filled with a translucent blue liquid. She'd actually done it! She'd done real magic!
"So it's done?" Scootaloo asked, picking up the bottle and examining it closely.
Sweetie Belle nodded. "Yep. All we need to do now is put it in Diamond Tiara's food."
"SCOOTALOO!" The door to the clubhouse burst open, propelled by a black hoof. Scootaloo jumped, sending the bottle crashing down, where it shattered on the floor. "Scootaloo, have you seem a book with a-" Sparkle cut herself off, spotting the very book she was looking for sitting closed on the table. "Please, please tell me you didn't read it!"
"Uhh... Well, you see..."
"Damnit, damnit to the pits," Sparkle cursed. "Did any of you cast anything?"
"Yeah," Sweetie Belle replied. "Just one of the prank spells."
"Prank spells?" Sparkle asked, her mind struggling to comprehend the statement. "That's a book of curses! What did you-?"
The smell of the spilled potion finally registered in Sparkle's mind. She looked down at the ground, and then at Applebloom, whose hooves were wet with the spilled concoction and whose eyes were unfocused.
In a fraction of a second, Sparkle's power went from tightly bound to fully flared. Every living thing, seemingly including the tree that the clubhouse was perched on, immediately recoiled. "WHAT. IS. THAT?" Sparkle demanded, her voice monstrously distorted.
"B-b-bad j-j-joke," Scootaloo squeaked out.
"Bad joke? You mean morbid joke? Damn. COBALT, WOULD YOU KINDLY GET OVER HERE?" Suddenly, the necromancer lunged at the entranced Applebloom and magically slit her trachea vertically. Sparkle clamped the filly's mouth and nose shut, forcing her to breath through the emergency tracheotomy incision instead; since no air could pass through Applebloom's larynx, she couldn't scream no matter what she saw or felt in the hallucination.
"What are you doing?" Scootaloo shouted.
"Saving her life."
A distortion appeared midair inside the clubhouse and a blue stallion hopped out. "Sparks?" he asked.
"Restrain them, and then help me keep her still and breathing. Knock her out as well, but keep the other two awake. Watch out for the spilled potion; it's poison," Sparkle commanded.
He nodded. His forehead illuminated with magic as the earth stallion grabbed Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. With a thought, Cobalt inflicted paralysis on the fillies. Satisfied, he turned towards Sparkle and Applebloom, the latter of whom was now convulsing uncontrollably.
As he had done for the other two, Cobalt cast a paralysis spell on Applebloom, followed by a sleep spell. His magic then appeared around her neck and worked to keep the hole open and free of blood. Meanwhile, Sparkle’s magic spread across Applebloom’s fur coat, cleaning off any of the spilled poison so that no more would seep into her through her skin. Then, once that was done, she created a second incision, cutting all the way down to a major artery in Applebloom’s shoulder; however, instead of letting the blood spurt out, her magic kept it contained as she filtered out the lethal poison.
Sweat dripped down from her brow as she concentrated. Her reserves were already low from training, and though she was sure that it would last through this, her control was shaking like an overused muscle.
Slowly and steadily, she filtered the earth filly’s blood of the toxin. The little globule of blood plasma and toxins that she had extracted grew steadily larger with each passing minute; by the time a half-hour had passed, it had steadily grown to the size of a large grape.
Then, when she could feel no more of the insidious magic inside of Applebloom’s blood, Sparkle injected her own magic into Applebloom’s blood to fight off any infectious agents that may have entered through the two gaping wounds on her body. The necromancer wouldn’t go through the trouble of saving her from Morbid Joke poisoning only for her to succumb to septicaemia. And finally, when she was sure that Applebloom would live, she healed up the two incisions in such a way that there would be no visible scarring.
Sparkle tapped her horn against Applebloom’s head and pushed her magic into the unconscious filly. Memory modification may have been a difficult art, but erasing whatever visions she saw and pain she felt - as recent as it was - proved to be a sinch. She’d wake with a killer migraine, but Sparkle figured that would be punishment enough for her foolishness. As for the others...
“What the buck were you thinking? Making Morbid Joke? That’s an assassination-grade poison!” Sparkle yelled at the two fillies.
When they didn’t answer, Sparkle realized that Cobalt still had the paralysis curse on them. She motioned to him, and he in turn freed the other two Crusaders. “Well?”
“I thought it was just a potion to play a joke on somepony!” Sweetie Belle wailed. “I thought it was a book of joke spells!”
“It’s a book of trap spells!” Sparkle shouted back. “What, are you so foolish as to blindly follow any recipe without understanding what it is? Without making sure you read everything properly?”
Scootaloo and Sweetie visibly flinched. Sparkle’s eyes widened with realization. “You’ve done it before. Of course you have. Foals are idiots; why did I expect any better from you three?”
“Maybe because you were a self-taught, self-raised child prodigy?” the previously silent Cobalt quipped.
Sparkle glanced at the only adult pony in the room with a carefully neutral expression. “Thank you, Cobalt. You may go now,” she said tensely.
“Meh, I’m waiting to see how you handle this, and to keep the brats from escaping while you try,” Cobalt said while smirking.
Sparkle grit her teeth.
“Can somepony please tell me what’s going on?” Scootaloo exclaimed, interrupting the dialog between master and apprentice.
Sparkle didn’t react immediately, but after a second’s hesitation, she turned a faux-smiling face towards Scootaloo. “Well, to me it looks like you stole from a monster, almost poisoned your friend to death, and then forced said monster to come and clean up your mess.” She pulled off her glasses, flared her considerable magic, and glared at the two fillies, who instantly recoiled in fright. “Yes. I’m a monster. I’m only pretending to be a filly; if I didn’t like you three so much, and I didn’t need to hide, I’d kill and eat you three. Instead, I’m going to cast a little spell on you three to make you keep my secrets. Don’t make me regret it.”
Her magic erupted and enveloped the souls of all three fillies.



"So, what have we learned?"
"Don't make potions without the proper training," the three fillies chorused. 
"And?"
"Take proper safety precautions."
"And?"
"Don't make potions to hurt ponies?"
"And lastly?"
"Never touch Rhodium's stuff."
Sparkle eased up on her magic, allowing the three crusaders to stand again. "I'm glad we could get this sorted out. And I'm sorry about all that..." The artificial world around them shifted, transforming from a scary-looking classroom into a pleasantly decorated dining hall, complete with a table full of food. Sparkle helped herself to a slice of cake, knowing full well that it would taste exactly as she had imagined it because she had literally imagined it.
"So, ah... Are you really a pony-eating monster?" Scootaloo asked from where she stood rooted to the ground.
"Something like that, yes," Sparkle agreed. "Not that I want to be one. Life's so much easier when everypony thinks you are a good pony. It's been, what, almost two months since I came to Ponyville, and I haven't once caused a problem."
Sweetie Belle and Applebloom both nodded, while Scootaloo voiced her agreement. "So you're a good monster?" Sweetie asked.
"I'm trying to be," Sparkle nodded. "The whole reason I'm pretending to be a little filly is so that I can live a normal life, where ponies don't know I used to be a monster. I'm not quite sure how well this plan's going to work out, though, all things considered." She paused, and then said, "You're welcome to eat, if you want."
"And what about him?" Applebloom asked as the other two relaxed and helped themselves to the food. She was pointing at Cobalt, who was happily snacking away.
He swallowed and smiled. "My name's Cobalt. I'm Sparks' apprentice. She's teaching me magic, and I pay her and assist her with her research. I'm also just a normal pony,"
"Hey, Rody, why does he call you 'Sparks?' Is Rhodium not your real name?" Scootaloo inquired.
Sparkle shrugged. "It is, and it isn't. To my brother, sister, and son, I'm Sparks; to my sire and dam, I'm Obsidian Knife," – Cobalt suddenly choked on his food, to which Sparkle rolled her eyes – "and to you and all of Equestria, I'm still your friend, Rhodium. At least, I hope we can still be friends."
"Ya promise not to try and eat us?" Applebloom asked.
Sparkle stuck up her right hoof. "I promise that I will do everything in my power to avoid hurting any of you three, cross my heart, the end is nigh, stick a spear point in my eye." As she spoke, she went through her own version of the motions. "Now, since this all started because you wanted to prank Diamond Tiara, might I suggest something?"
She told them her idea.
As the three excitedly discussed the proposition, Cobalt glided up next to Sparkle. He whispered, "Obsidian Knife?"
"Ruby's last lucid act was to name me that," she whispered back. "I know exactly what it sounds like, but we cannot assume anything."
Cobalt nodded.
Oblivious to the little exchanged between mistress and student, Scootaloo cheered, "This is going to be EPIC!“
> The Painted Ponies (part 1)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The strangeness of his mistress's false world always gave him a headache. Before him stood four fillies, all happily snacking on whatever his mistress conjured up, but out of the corner of his eye, Cobalt could see the truth: that three of the fillies were asleep and the fourth was busy modifying their memories. Having only an invitation to this world through the specter he called Dye, rather than full control, he too was subject to the dreamlike properties of the artificial universe.
With only a little focus, the assassin pushed his way out of the dreamlike construct and into the white limbo that surrounded it. The ground, despite being indistinguishable from the sky, was solid enough under his hooves, so he trotted over to where the others were.
"Good, you're out," Sparkle nonchalantly commented upon spotting him.
"How much are you changing?" Cobalt asked.
"Not much, really," Sparkle answered. "Mostly I'm fogging up their memories. They'll think this was all a bad dream."
"And when they figure out that it wasn't?"
"The geas on them will keep them from talking, while their original assumption of it being a dream will give them time to process and forget more before the shock comes. Hopefully, they won't freak out too badly," Sparkle said, as she leaned over Sweetie's sleeping form. "They're under a calming illusion now, but I can't keep them this way forever." 
Sparkle straightened back up. "Hey, Cobalt, how's your own head. Dye tells me that you're getting some more memories back, but I want to hear how you're doing straight from the pony's mouth."
Cobalt shrugged in reply. "Meh. Between my memories and my fact-checking, I've got maybe four fifths of my life back. It's honestly quite depressing, really. I do remember my sister now, so that's something."
Sparkle smiled, delighted at the news. Family had always had an important place in her heart. "Good! Have you spoken to her since you regained your memories of her?"
"She called me a mud pony to my face shortly before the gala. I'm inclined not to bother," Cobalt started dryly.
While the earth pony didn't look too upset, Sparkle could tell that the atmosphere around them had taken on a distinctly sour note. Not wanting to press the issue lest there become bitterness between them, Sparkle awkwardly turned her attention and the conversation back to the fillies who were sleeping by her hooves. "So, ah, I think I've got everything under control here. You're free to go. Thank you for your help."
"My pleasure," Cobalt replied, nodding his head. "But, um..." He paused, suddenly looking very nervous. "Mistress, forgive me, but are you Lady Death?"
Sparkle froze mid step. "... Didn't I tell you not to assume anything?"
"It's less of an assumption and more of a logical hypothesis based on a series of observations," Cobalt replied, his tone stiff and cadence measured.
Sparkle sighed. "I don't know. It's vaguely possible, and the conclusion I came to as well."
"You mean-"
"I don't know. There's too many things to consider, the most important being how it would even be possible. Her soul is massive, almost a million times the size of my own. It's... Look, I don't want to talk about it. I don't even want to think about the possibility that I become that... I don't even know what to call her. Just drop it."
Cobalt looked at her for a bit, his expression unreadable. "If that is what you wish, then I won't press you on the matter, Mistress. But might I make one last observation before I depart?"
"What?" Sparkle asked with a slightly annoyed inflection to her voice. "And drop the formal tone."
"Yes, well, if you are the Reaper, wouldn't that make your little shrine somewhat... narcissistic?" And before she could reply, he winked and warped out of the pocket dimension.
Sparkle blinked. A small smile graced her lips. "Heh... I suppose it might be."



The portal looked nothing like a conventional portal. Rather than being a flat plane that one could pass through like a door, it appeared to be a sphere of glass, save for the fact that the image seen through it was not the distorted background of its location, but of its destination. Additionally, one could approach it from any angle and pass through it.
This was what Cobalt observed as he stepped out into an alleyway near Canterlot's gardens and rejoined with Dye, who was acting as an anchor for the portal. With the disappearance of the hole in space and the reunion of specter and host, the alley returned to a state of normality.
Knowing that there was a clock tower nearby, Cobalt hurried off to get a sense of how long he had been gone. It likely wouldn't have been more than a half hour, but he still had to be sure.
When he did finally come to the right street and spotted the clock, he sighed. There would be time to meet his "friend" like he had planned, but no time to get food beforehoof. Wishing that a Manehattan food vendor cart would appear on his path, and knowing that it wouldn't, Cobalt set off towards the northern end of the gardens.
A tingling sensation spread through his skull as he passed through the garden; the latent chaos magic still left here – even after the Elements of Harmony and elements of nature had done their part to clean it up – still set off his training-heightened magic sense. And although the sensation wasn't terribly unpleasant, he knew that this was a bad place for spell casting, and would likely be for a long time.
Speaking of which, Cobalt noted that there was a royal chariot returning the statue of Discord back to its original spot. Why it had been removed, he didn't know. Hopefully, whatever had happened wouldn't let the draconequus escape again.
Continuing on, Cobalt soon came to a small fountain dedicated to Celestia. Water shot up from the little jet and rained down on the statue of a mare whose mane was carved as if it was wet. And although the water had already eroded some of the finer details, the statue itself was still quite beautiful.
"Cobalt!"
He turned, hearing his name called out from behind him. Immediately, the painted pony recognized his "friend," Shifty Eyes. Although the pegasus was over a decade older than Cobalt, his svelte body still looked as if time hadn't touched his speed or agility.
"Shifty! Good to see you!"
"And you," the pegasus replied. "So, has anything interesting happened with you lately?“
"Well..." Suddenly, Cobalt was behind Shifty with a summoned knife pressed to the latter's throat, having moved faster than the eye could follow. "I finished my high speed technique, so if you would be so kind as to mention that when you talk to your associates, it would be much appreciated." He withdrew the blade and banished it back to his home.
"Impressive," the information hungry pegasus noted. "Anything else?"
"Meh, I may have accidentally sold my soul to the dark goddess. Not quite sure on that one, though. I'll let you know if it turns out that I have," Cobalt stated with the same matter-of-fact tone that one would use to say that the sky is blue. "What about you?"
Shifty Eyes blinked owlishly, attempting to process that little bit of trivia. Deciding to ignore it for the time being, he filed it away in the back of his mind. "Oh, nothing special..."
Some of Cobalt's bits found their way into Shifty's saddle bags.
"... But I did hear about an interesting job on the market. It's a single target infiltration-assassination, but the client is hosting an interview for the position tomorrow. The pay is great, as well."
"An interview?" Cobalt asked, surprised. Most clients hired by reputation alone, and it was ponies like Shifty Eyes who marketed the assassins to them. "When and where?"
"I don't know..."
More bits changed hooves.
"But I'm pretty sure that it's tomorrow at noon, at this address," Shifty stated, withdrawing a slip of paper from his shirt's pocket and passing it to Cobalt. The painted pony took it and memorized it quickly. Once he was sure that he had it, he passed the slip back.
"Thank you for this," Cobalt replied. 
"No problem," he said, smiling. "I'm happy to help."
With a snicker, Cobalt added, "For the right price, of course."
"Of course."



That address led Cobalt to a surprisingly normal house. Most ponies who hired his kind went elsewhere to do business; should something go wrong, the less one side knew about the other, the better. Cobalt's intuition told him that this potential client was new to the underworld.
Fiddling with the doorknob and finding it unlocked, Cobalt swung it open. If one were to describe the scene inside, an apt description would be a house party that had gotten boring, and then downright hostile. Ponies of all shapes and sizes filled the nearby rooms, ranging from tall and muscular stallions to dainty little mares, and all of them seemed mildly hostile to one another, or at least irritated with each other. Many of those ponies Cobalt recognized as his peers in the assassination business.
"Ya here for the interview?" A gruff voice asked.
"Yes," Cobalt told the large stallion, pushing his way past him.
"Then get lost. There are too many here already." The large stallion reached out to grab Cobalt, but the smaller pony sidestepped him so fast that he seemed to teleport to the side without breaking stride.
"I think I'll stay, thank you."
"Red?"
The pony's ears swiveled to focus on the young mare's voice that called his birth name.
"Red Fields, is that you?"
Pinning down the source of the familiar voice, Cobalt spotted a mare that he really didn't want to have anything to do with: his younger sister, Blood Lily. At nearly a decade younger than him, Blood Lily was easily the youngest pony in the room.
That didn't mean she wasn't as deadly as the rest of them. Their mother and father saw to that.
"Hello, Brat."
"Aww, the first thing he says to me after almost two years missing is an insult? And a lame one at that? Hmmm... I really shouldn't have expected anything more from a mud pony," she retorted. The elder brother noted that her usual level of immaturity - a level that a filly half her age would have - was pleasantly absent. That apparently didn't translate to the young teenager being nice.
Cobalt also noted with some satisfaction that several of the earth ponies in the room had caught the racist insult and were now glaring at her. There was no doubt in Cobalt's mind that Canterlot was a racist city, but almost nopony dared openly state their beliefs aloud. To say something like that, especially considering the present company, was a very gutsy but foolish move.
"Brat, do look around. It's not the place for spewing insults that affect more than half the ponies in here,” Cobalt commented calmly. The insults didn't bother him too terribly much, but he would be mildly irritated if somepony did something stupid because of her.
"I don't care; they can't touch me here. Fighting in front of the client is the fastest way to lose a contract, you know."
"And there are some that care about their pride more than money, foolish filly."
Blood Lily just shrugged. "Whatever. Hey, you still getting whipped by your mistress? I bet that whorse loves a stallion that can't fuck back."
Cobalt's eye twitched, the only outward sign of the rage that engulfed him. The fury from years of abuse from his family, remembered or still suppressed, welled up all at once in his mind. He could tolerate their abuse of him, but of Sparkle? That was a line that, once crossed, he wasn't willing to forgive the offending party.
He smiled, but the grin never made it to his eyes. "Why yes, she is whipping me... Into shape, that is. Now, normally my geas prevents me from using her teachings against another, but I can in the defense of someone. I feel like defending her honor... Why don't I show you what I've learned? No, I have a better idea: a bet. If I show off and get the job, you apologize. If I don't, I admit that I am a balless stallion. Deal?"
"Interesting." She considered for a second. "Deal."
A black sphere, about the size of an orange, appeared a hoof-length above Cobalt's forehead, where the tip of a unicorn's horn would be. Less than a fraction of a second after it appeared, it started expanding rapidly and fading to clear. The sphere passed harmlessly through the ponies in the room and through the walls itself, but the more magically sensitive could feel the malicious intent that it carried. By the time it had expanded to contain the entire building, it was completely invisible to the naked eye, but no less present.
"Soul Trap."
Blood Lily stepped back, surprised.
"HEY EVERYPONY! I NEED THIS JOB, SO UNLESS YOU'RE LYING FACE DOWN ON THE GROUND IN THE NEXT FIVE SECONDS, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Cobalt roared to the room.
"Ha! I'd like to see you t-“
Cobalt flung the dead stallion away. With his super speed, copied from Filly Second, Cobalt had crossed the room faster than any eyes could track. "Alright, Blood Lily, watch carefully."
The dead stallion that Cobalt had discarded stood back up in spite of his broken neck and lunged at the nearest mare.
"This, this is what I can do."



"Send in the next pony on your way out," the unicorn mare said to the younger pegasus mare on the opposite side of the desk.
The younger pony nodded and stood. "Thank you for considering me," she replied. 
The older mare nodded. As soon as her potential hitmare exited the room, she frowned and rubbed her head. She hadn't quite expected there to be so many of them applying for this job.
There was a muffled thump outside the office door, and a blue earth pony walked in. Her eyes immediately gravitated to the blood on one of his cheeks. "Are you hurt?"
"It's just a scratch," he replied. "I had a little accident while preparing a portfolio of my skills. It will heal."
"A portfolio? My my, you are a sensible business pony. None of the other candidates I've seen so far have had that," she said. "Slim Chance."
"Red Fields. A pleasure," Cobalt said. "If you would step outside? I have something set up that I think will impress you."
Slim Chance stood up, stretching a bit as she did. "Oh, I am getting too old to be sitting still for too long. I really should stretch more."
She walked to the door, stepped out into the hall, and froze. Dead bodies littered the ground, while bodies that were too mutilated to live still stood.
"As you can see," Cobalt said, "I am an assassin with skills in fighting many opponents without alerting those nearby. I have knowledge of blades, poison, melee combat, and most importantly, magic.“ As he spoke, he pointed to bodies that had fallen in those exact ways. "Under my teacher, Necromancer Sparkle, the Bone Mare, I too have acquired the ability to raise the dead and raze the living through dark magic. But wait, there's more!"
Suddenly, he dragged her over to another room. "I also have skills in intimidation," - he pointed to several cowering mares - "physical coercion," - a stallion with broken legs - "and illusion-based mental manipulation.” He pointed to his sister, who was sobbing an apology. “I don’t like doing those things, but I can if I need to.”
Slim Chance stared at him. “You...”
“I can also clean up after myself. Dye!” 
The black, ink-like specter flowed out of his body. “Yes?”
“Take everything dead to Thorn for me. Empty the trap and take those to Thorn as well. I know he’ll be happy with this."
“And the injured?”
“Do whatever you want. Just get them out of the house.”
Dye saluted. “Hehehe... yes, sir.” She then swooped off to go perform her tasks. 
Cobalt then focused and created some more specters of his own. “You all, clean the house up. Leave no trace that we were here.”
“Yes, sir!”
The potential client finally got her mouth working. “You... what are you?”
“A necromancer’s apprentice,” Cobalt answered. “Also, I’m the only assassin left; the others all surrendered to me or died, so if you really want this job done, it’s me or nothing.” He gave her a winning smile.



Sparkle smiled somewhat dreamily; her attention was definitely somewhere else instead of on Cheerilee’s class.
‘Hmmm... well, I’m upset that he killed so many, but all those he killed were assassins that would have definitely killed more had they still been alive. There obviously will be a net decrease in the amount of ponies killed as a result of this. I guess it isn’t that bad,’ she thought. Then she blinked upon realizing a minor detail that she’d overlooked in her musing. ‘I’ve killed killers before. Who am I to contemplate the morality of Cobalt’s kills when I’m just as guilty?’
“Mom, enough philosophy,” Thorn said through the link.
Sparkle blushed a little. “Was I broadcasting that?”
“Yes, Mom,” Thorn replied. “Hey, you want any of this that Cobalt sent? ‘Cause I’m going to eat them  if you don’t.” 
“I’m fine.”
“You sure? This mare has some nice flanks if you want a bite, and these souls are really tasty~.”
For a second, she was tempted to say yes, until she realized that she would have meant a blanket yes - a yes to cannibalism. Realistically, it was a step down from soul-eating, as the body was the vessel and not the person within, but she didn’t want to go there... yet. And with that realization, another tiny part of her self-identity as a pony degraded away, and took her appetite with it. “No. I’m good.” She paused. “Were you watching him through Dye by any chance?”
“Nope.”
“Ah, well he’s gotten really good. I’m proud of his skill.”
“Shouldn’t you be focusing on class, little filly?”
“Rhodium!” That snapped Sparkle out of her conversation with Thorn.
“Yes, Ms. Cheerilee?”
“I asked if you would come up and solve the problem on the board?”
Sparkle glanced at the chalkboard. “Twenty seven,” she replied and then looked back out the window.
Cheerilee sighed. “Correct. Rhodium, are you bored in my class?”
Sparkle blinked. “What? No!” A pause. “Ok, maybe a little. But it’s fine!”
The teacher nodded, having heard exactly what she expected. “Alright, but if you ever need more of a challenge, feel free to talk to me, Ok?” 
The other, darker teacher-turned-student nodded. “Ok, Ms. Cheerilee.”



She swallowed a bite of food. “Hey girls!”
“Howdy, Scoots. What’s up?” Applebloom said.
Scootaloo set her PB&J sandwich down on her plate while the other two original crusaders sat down next to her at the clubhouse table.
“I had a dream last night were we thought of a prank for Diamond Tiara. Well, it started out with us making a potion, and then Rody had to be a doctor, and then she turned into a monster, and then we talked about pranks... well, you know how dreams are. Anyway...” Scootaloo paused. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Ah had the same dream,” Applebloom said.
Sweetie exclaimed, “You too?”
“It wasn’t a dream.”
The trio turned to see Sparkle sitting down next to them. “It wasn’t a dream,” she repeated. “That was real; I only made you think you were dreaming so that you didn’t panic and cause a scene. In fact, there’s still a little magic in you now forcing you to be calm.”
“Wait, what?” Scootaloo asked.
“So you’re really a monster?” Sweetie Belle asked.
Sparkle nodded. “Yes. Does that bother you?”
Sweetie Belle nodded. “A little.” 
“I don’t believe you,” Scootaloo said. “Yeah, you may have seemed a little scary, but that doesn’t make you a monster.”
Sparkle rolled her eyes. Obviously, she’d fuzzed up their memories too well. Noting that they were alone in the Crusader’s Clubhouse, she decided. “Oh? I don’t? Here, let me remind you.” In quick succession, she flared her magic, partially dissolved into smoke, let her eyes change color, and bared her sharp teeth, now freed from the illusion hiding them. The effect was instant and profound.
The trio jumped back in fright and screamed.
Sparkle moved closer, grinning like a shark. “Why are you afraid of me? I already promised that I wouldn’t hurt you,” she said, her voice distorted by the raw magic she was exuding. When spoken like that, even innocent words could sound sinister. 
And then, as fast as she had transformed, she changed back into the “sweet filly” named Rhodium. “I promise that I mean you no harm. I’m just living here until it's safe to move on with my life, and in order for me to stay safe, I can’t hurt you three. Your sisters wield the Elements of Harmony; they’d blast me to the moon if I did anything to hurt you. And even if I could hurt you, I wouldn’t. You three are too sweet for me to ever want to hurt,” Sparkle declared.
Following a sad frown, a spell formed on Sparkle’s horn. When it touched their minds, the Crusader’s bodies relaxed. “I’m really sorry, girls. I shouldn’t have done that. I can understand if you don’t want to be my friends any more.”
Whether it was because of the calming magic or because of her own bravery, Sparkle didn’t know, but Scootaloo reached out and put a tender hoof on the fake filly’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s cool with me, on one condition...”
“What?”
“You’ve got to help us do that epic prank on Diamond Tiara.”
“Hehehe. Deal.”
> The Painted Ponies (part 2)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Slim Chance was a rational business pony, or at least, that's what she told herself. Such an assertion was questionable, considering that she had already paid the first half of an assassin's commission fee. Regardless of her mental state, she considered herself sound of mind.
That rational part of her brain, which might or might not exist, was telling her to run. Abandon the crazy scheme, and cut her losses. It was a foolish idea, her rational mind might or might not have thought...
But her greed and jealousy were definitely real, and very much committed to her current plan, which involved the sensual red dress that clung to her body, and the young stallion in a suit sitting next to her in the coach. "Do you remember the plan?"
"Of course," he replied. "What do you take me for? An amateur?" He scoffed. "I am your date for the evening, and I am to get close to your ex-husband and current business partner. You want me to corner him, remove a specific part of his anatomy, then kill him and dispose of his body over the edge of the upper city. I am to return to you, give you your trophy, and then receive payment from the driver."
"Correct."
Cobalt gave her a disappointed look. "I really wish you had considered my advice a little more thoroughly, Slim Chance. The chance of this going in your favor as-is, is - pardon the pun - slim."
"I don't care. Even if he lives, this will make a statement," she replied resolutely.
Cobalt sighed deeply, very much intending for her to hear it. That wasn't at all what he meant; Slim had confused herself; she seemed to believe that her ex's survival (or lack thereof) outweighed getting away with the crime. Cobalt wasn't a suicide killer; if he thought things were going south, he'd bail.
The coach arrived at a large mansion at the edge of Upper Canterlot. Having used a specter of his own creation - weaker than his mistress's own - plus having done his own research, Cobalt had a good idea of what the building was like, inside and out.
Cobalt hopped out of the coach and then assisted his client. As they walked together towards the mansion, Cobalt's eyes scanned the surroundings with a precision only acquired by years of training, as they searched for every possible exit and threat. And while he always had teleportation and his mistresses pocket dimension as an escape route, his earth pony instincts and years of training encouraged him to keep an eye out for a land escape.
Upon entering, Cobalt took stock of the numerous partygoers, more than he had anticipated. The halls and rooms were packed with guests, and while it didn't obstruct anypony moving at a leisurely walk, running was almost out of the question. His false smile wavered a bit, but quickly reasserted itself.
Soon enough, Cobalt spotted his target, a black stallion named Chess. He tapped his client's shoulder, and then trotted over to his target's general vicinity. Chess was talking to another partygoer at the moment, meaning that Cobalt couldn't yet discreetly pull him aside.
But as he watched Chess socialize, Cobalt noticed another stallion standing nearby who seemed to be quietly following Chess around. Cobalt recognized a bodyguard when he saw one.
Cobalt frowned. Taking a closer look at the guard, Cobalt spotted a lapel pin in the shape of a jagged star affixed to the guard's collar. 'Great, a Paladin,' the assassin bemoaned.
The presence of a paladin changed things; not only was he a skilled fighter, but Cobalt couldn't use any of his dark magic without raising the alarm. Realizing that his plans needed a change, Cobalt trotted back to his "date," only stopping at the bar setup to get her them drink.
"Ms. Chance, we need to talk," he said as he passed her the drink.
"What is it? Is something wrong?"
Cobalt nodded. "Yes, the stallion you seek has somepony else by his side. I am afraid that he does not wish to dance," the assassin explained in hushed tones. Quickly, he took a deep drink of his cocktail and set it on a nearby table. Then, offering a hoof, he asked, "How about we dance instead?"
Slim Chance took a drink from her own glass and set it alongside Cobalt's. "Why not?" Accepting his hoof, she let him lead her to the dance floor, where a quartet of musicians was leading the dancers through a silky smooth waltz.
Cobalt leaned his head against her neck as they danced; she stiffened, while he ignored the intimacy of the gesture in favor of getting his mouth closer to her ear so that he did not have to speak as loudly. "Chess is guarded," Cobalt whispered. "I doubt that I can get him alone enough."
"Are you saying that you can't rid me of that cheating bastard for good?"
Cobalt hesitated, but only slightly. "No, he will die tonight if you truly wish it, I can promise you that. I can also assure you that I will not be caught, nor will I be killed. I just wish to know what your opinion is."
"Kill him," she commanded.
"I was planning on it anyway. No, what I wanted to know was how you wanted it done. Should it be discreet, or should it, as you put it, 'make a statement'?" Cobalt inquired.
She scoffed, as if offended at the notion. "Make a statement, if you please."
Cobalt rolled his eyes, but seeing as he was still nuzzling her neck, she couldn't see his eyes. He knew that this sort of thing would end badly for her, and that he was likely to not get the second half of his fee because of it. Still, he had a reputation to uphold. "As you wish."
He pulled his head back, though he kept swaying to the music. "Tell me, do you two have any common enemies, ones who might want you two out of the picture?"
She thought about it. Finally, she answered, "Yes."
"Who?"
"Crackerjack." The name was spat as if it were a poison.
"Good; I can hear real emotion there. That makes things easier." Cobalt motioned towards the door to his left. "Come, let's go find Chess."
"What are you planning?" Slim Chance inquired.
"We're going to make a scene. How well can you act?"
"Fair enough. Why?"
Cobalt smiled. Unnoticed by all, his shadow stretched out as Dye, aware of his plan, left his body in pursuit of Chess. "Just trust me. Now, I need you to get mad. Pretend I'm working for this 'Crackerjack' individual, and I was only getting closer to you so that I could exploit you or your resources for Crackerjack's gain. And if you need a little more anger, channel the anger that made you want Chess dead. Got it?"
She nodded. "This will help you?"
"Undoubtedly." Cobalt looked around. "We're close enough. Let's make a scene."
She promptly slapped him in the face.
"HOW DARE YOU! I can't believe you used me like that!"
Cobalt regained his bearings quickly, and though he was surprised by the sudden action, he immediately rolled with it. Faking more dizziness than he actually felt, Cobalt "struggled" to regain his balance.
"You traitorous little worm! Working for Crackerjack! Playing with my fragile heart! What in Celestia's name is wrong with you?"
"I... I can explain!" Cobalt squeaked out, intentionally pathetically. He raised his hoof in a placating manner, but another pony's hoof grabbed it as well.
"I sure hope so," Chess said, having been lured closer by the noise (and a little mental suggestions, courtesy of Dye). When Cobalt didn't immediately answer, Chess said, "Well? Start talking."
"I only wanted to know..."
"Know what?"
*Splitch*
*Splat*
"What kind of pony you were on the inside," Cobalt deadpanned, telekinetically flicking the blood off the blade. The necromancer's apprentice looked at Chess, who seemingly hadn't yet caught onto the fact that he had been vivisected, or that his intestines were spilling out.
In that tiny instant where everypony was either frozen in shock, or otherwise unaware of the situation, Cobalt felt Dye return to him, confirming that Chess's soul was now among the dead, and out of the paladin's reach. With nary a moment's thought, Cobalt exploded forth in a burst of extreme speed and fled the now ruined party.
He wove an illusion around himself, hiding himself from the sight of all but one: the coach driver that brought him here. Zipping up to the stallion, he snatched the case that had his payment, and then fled around the corner before teleporting away.
After a series of jumps and on-hoof sprints, Cobalt finally jumped to a hotel room that he had booked under one of his many false names. Opening the case, he verified that the money was there, and that it was not cursed of bugged in any way. Satisfied, he closed it up and vanished once more.
Finally, he returned to his apartment. Only then did he relax. His job was done, his target was dead, and his client's life was about to be in ruins. Why? Because he'd made sure that ponies had seen him come into the mansion with Slim Chance, he'd made sure that they were together at the end, and he'd dropped her name to the bartender. When the Canterlot Police Department came to investigate, she'd get dragged into the mess.
Cobalt smiled. Assassins were scum, yes, but so were the ponies that hired them. Having one less of their kind made Cobalt feel good. He smiled wider. "O' Goddess of the End, I have devoted my life to You. I pray that I have read Your signs right, and that You are who I have come to believe. I beg of You, satiate Your hunger on my meager offering..."



"AAACHOOO!" Sparkle rubbed her nose, which had been irritated by the powder. "Why did we have to use powder. Why not wet paints?" She paused. "Scratch that; why not illusions? I already cast time-delayed illusions on Diamond Tiara."
Applebloom, with her fake cutie mark already painted, groaned. "That woulda been much easier."
Scootaloo nodded in agreement. "Well, we've got them all done now. All that's left is going to class."
"Right, race you there!" Sweetie Belle said as she bolted out of the crusader clubhouse.
"Wait for me!" Scootaloo shouted as she too bolted.
Applebloom sighed, looking at the mess of paints and powders that they had left behind. Sparkle put a hoof over Applebloom's shoulder. "Don't worry," the false filly said, "I'll help you clean it up later. Come on!"
Quickly, the Crusader quartet galloped to the schoolyard, laughing all the way. With smiles on their faces, they charged into the classroom and took their seats.
Just as the bell was ringing, Diamond Tiara came in wearing a dress. Scootaloo frowned upon seeing her. Thinking quickly, she asked loudly, "Hey, Diamond, what's with the dress?"
Diamond Tiara recoiled. "It's none of your business!" She snapped. "But for your information, I just wanted to wear it today."
"Oh, good," Scootaloo said. "For a second there, I thought you might have caught jumping cutie mark disease."
"What?"
Scootaloo snickered. "Yeah, I heard Rainbow Dash and Trixie talking about it. Apparently, it makes your cutie mark vanish and reappear on somepony you know. I'm glad you're not sick."
Of course, Scootaloo then stood up to go sharpen her pencil, proudly showing off Diamond Tiara's cutie mark on her flanks. Snails, more observant than most gave him credit for, was the first to spot the mark. "HAHA! Scoots has got your cutie mark!"
The whole class looked at them. Diamond Tiara squirmed under their gaze, for once very uncomfortable with the attention. "G-give it back!"
"Why? So I can go back to being a Blank-Flank, Blank-Flank? No way!" Scootaloo retorted.
Sparkle stood up. "Come on, Scoots, don't be mean to her. We're better than that. Besides, she was nice enough to lend her cutie mark to all of us."
At that, Sweetie and Applebloom also stood up and joined them. Upon seeing the formerly blank flanks of the Crusaders, there was a smattering of giggles among their fellow students.
"And besides, all she has to do to get her cutie mark back is to kiss our a-butts, right on the mark," Sparkle said.
"What? No way!" Diamond Tiara screeched. "I'm not kissing your butts!"
Sparkle lifted her tail and pointed her rear at Diamond. Thankfully, Cheerilee was running late, otherwise, the lewd gesture would have gotten her a detention. "Come on, kiss it."
Applebloom jabbed her in the ribs with her hoof. "Rody!"
Sparkle lowered her tail sheepishly. "Sorry."
The rest of the day went well. Diamond Tiara never did take off her dress, so Sparkle let the illusion underneath shatter. It didn't matter anyway; Diamond's reaction was enough to let everypony in the class know exactly what was wrong, and yet when an adult eventually checked on them, the combination of her clean bill of health and the Crusader's ink-covered flanks got everything written off as the simple prank it was.
And thus ended a perfect good day. Scootaloo and Sparkle returned to the orphanage, Applebloom returned to the orchard, and Sweetie Belle was picked up by her sister. And on that night, they all had sweet dreams. 
But they were the lucky ones, for the mistress of dreams suddenly found herself otherwise occupied...



It was the next day.
It was morning.
It was in another timeline, one unknown to its slightly askew neighbors.
It was in that very specific time that a very specific mare started to sing. 

"Morning in Ponyville shimmers,


Morning in Ponyville shines!


And I know for absolute certain,


That everything is certainly fine!"

And while that future morning in that alternate timeline might have been just fine, such was not the case in these two timelines. Why?
Because a set of black seeds under the Everfree forest had sprouted early.
> Vine Ascendant
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Princess Celestia and Princess Luna published a pamphlet each year with the upcoming year’s schedule of sunrise and sunset times, with the promise that the sun and moon would transition within ten minutes of that given time. If either moved outside of that time - an extremely rare occurrence, seeing as the last time it had happened was over a century ago - it was a signal to Equestria’s allies that the nation was in significant and dire trouble.
The sun and the moon sharing an east-west bifurcated sky thus sent the leaders of the world into a panic. Across the seas, the minotaurs, dragons, and griffins feared for the damage to the Equestrian economy; to the south, the Zebra feared for their northern cousins’ safety; and deep within the Everfree Exclusion Zone, a tribe known as the Flowing Stone Deer prayed for their goddess’s safety, and for their own.
In Ponyville, like all settlements in and around the Everfree forest, the sky was quickly forgotten about in favor of the more immediate threat: the black vines that had erupted from the ground and practically declared war against all they encountered. Unlike most of those settlements, Ponyville had a defender by the name of Twilight, a 3rd order paladin.
Spurred into action by the vines, Twilight first attempted to establish communication with the princesses. She practically threw her hastily composed letter at Spike as she barked the order to send it.
Wasting no time, Spike ignited the scroll, only for it to reform almost instantly above his head. “Hey, Mom, we’ve got an issue.”
Twilight swore creatively. “Fine. Ah... send it to Kibitz. Celestia’s Secretary should know what’s going on.”
Spike nodded. Taking a second to recall the feeling of the elderly stallion’s magic, he gathered his flame and sent the scroll with a burst of emerald light. This time, it sent without fail.
The response came with the swiftness a royal secretary was known for. Spike tore off the scroll’s ribbon and unfurled it, only for a golden pendant to fall out. Twilight scooped up the pendant and gasped. “A seal of wartime authority?”
The dragon quickly scanned over the letter and then summarized it to his mother figure. “Celestia and Luna have been captured by unknowns, vines are attacking Canterlot as well, and... here’s the passcode spell for the vault of the Elements of Harmony.”
“We’ve got to get to Canterlot right now,” Twilight declared, to which Spike nodded.
Unbeknownst to them, although not at all coincidentally, the alternate timeline’s Beatrix Lulamoon was simultaneously, silently making the same declaration to an empty room, having also messaged Kibitz through different means.
However, only Twilight had the magical strength to teleport directly to Canterlot. And so as Trixie ran to the chariot airstrip, Twilight gathered her magic to teleport herself and Spike to Canterlot.
Except, upon triggering the spell, Twilight and Spike found themselves painfully slammed into the hard dirt just outside the library. Spike, being the extremely durable dragon that he was, was the first to recover. “Guhhh... What happened?”
“That's what I want to know,” Twilight replied. “My horn feels like it's on fire.”
Spike licked his fingers and pinched her horn. The protruding keratin sizzled. “That’s because it was,” the drake replied.
“What- SPIKE! MOVE!” Twilight shouted, lunging to push Spike out of the way of the erupting vines. A hastily erected and mercifully functional barrier deflected the worst of the blow, even if the vines did still pierce it.
“Are you ok?” Twilight asked the young drake.
“I’m fine,” Spike replied, “but you’re bleeding.”
Indeed she was, Twilight observed. There was a decently sized gash across her back. It wasn’t deep, nor was it bleeding too badly, but it would need to be tended too soon. She knew some first aid spells, but was hesitant to use them given what had just happened with her failed teleport.
“Spike, come on. We need to get somewhere where these vines can’t interfere with my magic. Let’s start moving to the train station.”
Spike nodded.
As they ran, Twilight sent out tendrils of magic to probe the air around them. As the probes drew near a vine, the black plant would lash out at it violently. Twilight saw similar vines all over town, attacking ponies everywhere. Dread filled her heart; would they even make it to Canterlot in time?
She could also feel the fluctuations in space caused by her sister. If this was happening on the other side too, Twilight realized that Sparkle must have been throwing around some powerful magic. All of Sparkle’s ripples were coming from the direction of the Everfree. Twilight acknowledged that that might be towards the source of the problem.
The paladin rounded a corner and then came to a halt. Before her, she could see the train engine of the Canterlot express on its side, knocked over by the writhing vines sprouting from the track.
Twilight swore again. Spike didn’t bother correcting her, as he was too busy swearing as well.
“We’re stuck here, aren’t we?” Spike asked rhetorically. Twilight hummed her agreement anyway. “Now what?”
“We fight back.”
Spike was just about to ask how when Twilight’s body started glowing. Her fur shown with lavender light instead of merely reflecting the color. A smile crossed her face. “I half expected that to not work.”
“What?”
A similar glow enveloped Spike, granting him a mental clarity from a fog that he hadn’t noticed clouding his mind. “Whoa.”
“The vines are disrupting magic at the source - our bodies and souls - so I used a charm to help push that influence out. Spike, I’m going to go help the others, but I need you to do something for me.”
“Yeah?”
“Burn.”
The dragon’s grin was infectious. “Aww yeah!” he said, his tone oh-so-similar to Rainbow Dash’s own cocky voice. “Right. I’ll try not to burn anything other than the vines, OK?”
“Good boy. Right, I’m off,” Twilight replied. She knew that dragon fire, when unhindered, was one of the most dangerous things in the world. She also knew on an academic level that dragons were incredibly durable, more than her instincts seemed to realize. Even if her instincts were telling her to keep her son close, Twilight trusted Spike to be able to look after himself.
The battle roar from his growing form filled her with even more confidence.
Twilight charged. With every pony she passed, she quickly purged them of the vines’ influence and established a magical link through which she could push healing and rejuvenating magic. It wasn’t enough to heal them of their wounds, but it would toughen them up and help them last longer.
If there was one benefit to being bonded to a ritual-using necromancer, it was their massive magic reserves. Twilight had magic to spare, and with Celestia as her witness, Twilight swore that she would use it to save all their lives.
Brighter and brighter her horn grew. Light magic poured out of her like a fountain, enveloping every single pony in the town, reinforcing their souls, their magic, and their bodies on the most basic of levels.
Deep within Twilight’s soul, at that very moment, a miniscule, foreign shard fused to the core of her very being. It searched and, finding what it was looking for, began to truly awaken within her.



Princess Celestia and Princess Luna published a pamphlet each year with the upcoming year’s schedule of sunrise and sunset times. The filly currently known as Rhodium did not read that pamphlet at all, instead choosing to set her alarm clock to whatever time was convenient. However, she didn’t need to know any of that at the moment, not the rise time, nor her clock’s time, seeing how the sky was bifurcated between night and day.
“That’s a problem.”
“Tell me about it,” Scootaloo replied.
The two of them were currently in their room at the orphanage. Sparkle and her younger and far more innocent companion were staring out of their window, trying to comprehend the chaos outside. Vines surged from the ground and attacked everything that moved, as well as most things that didn’t. The vines themselves made Sparkle shudder for reasons that she couldn’t even fathom. Whatever her soul sight was telling her in regards to those vines, that message just simply wasn’t taking hold in her mind.
There was a wooden-sounding crash from the floor below, followed immediately by the screams of the matron and several foals. Sparkle knew that the slithering black plants had found their way into the orphanage. She acted quickly.
“Scootaloo!”
The orange filly looked at her roommate. But before she could say anything, Sparkle lifted the foal up with her magic and shoved Scootaloo into her pocket dimension. “Wait there. I’ll be back before you know it.”
Scoots tried to protest, but the closing of the portal cut her off. Sparkle sent a magical command to the pocket dimension to adjust the internal speed such that what could be hours or days would only feel like seconds to her friend. 
Her link flew open next. “Thorn, code dark-gray.”
“I guessed as much. Are you sure that it will come to that?” he inquired.
“It’s very likely. I’d hate to abandon ship so early, and after having invested so much, but such an outcome is likely.”
With the vines quickly approaching, Sparkle jumped out the second story window, landing far too solidly for her own good. She groaned before squashing the pain down and breaking out into a gallop.
She ran without any particular destination in mind; her only goal was to observe the situation. Her senses told her that the vines were distorting magic, and that any spells against them directly would be ineffective. However, she had more than spells at her disposal, but no way to know if they’d work.
“Do you want me to start shopping around for a body or surrogate for you?” Thorn’s mental voice asked. “I’m still out in Cengoyle, so you have the option of a centaur rebirth, if you want. Or do you want me to start preparing Sombra as your next vessel?”
Sparkle shook her head, though Thorn wouldn’t have been able to feel it. “Keep your eyes open, I guess. We’re not at that point yet. Just... look for those who are desperate or are within death’s reach already, ok?”
“Sure thing.”
To herself, Sparkle muttered her dislike of the whole situation. “Now, how to deal with you?”
A vine lashed at her, possibly attracted by the sound of her voice. She jumped to the side, able to dodge thanks to magically enhanced reflexes.
Deep within her core, she wound up and launched the harpoon of her soul weapon, hoping to drain the vines of their magic. Opening her mouth wide, she began to pull.
The harpoon came loose, filling Sparkle’s mouth with nothing but air and the possibility of catching a fly. Irritated, Sparkle dodged another vine and wound up her weapon again. This time, however, when she fired, she sent a tendril of her own magic chasing the harpoon. The moment it struck the plant’s essence, her magic spilled around and then solidified its grip on the very life of the plant.
Sparkle heaved a mighty heave. With tremendous effort, she started pulling in the life essence of the vines, eliciting a horrid shriek from the even more horrid plants. And yet it was working; as soon as the first little bit of the plant’s life force touched her own, the boost of energy made pulling out even more that much easier.
It was a cycle; the more she ate, the more easily she could eat even more. But that cycle was not without cost. Her magic pulled the noodle-like ribbon of life force from its vine casing, meaning that the vines started dying at their furthest point from her - all the way on the other side of the Everfree.
There was a lot of the black vine between Sparkle and the furthest reaches of the plant, and it was not happy at all about being eaten. That which was closest to her lashed out, and with the necromancer’s mind focused on devouring the plant, she could not as readily dodge. The vines lashed out, wrapping around her barrel. Blood oozed out as the thorns opened up gashes on her sides, though the life of those very plants saw the wounds healed up just in time for the plants to inflict more pain.
As her feeding grew stronger, the normal plants and underground creatures around her started dying off. The black vines, however, grew even more vicious. Dragging her towards the forest, they tried to gas her, but the necromancer’s augmented metabolism was too fast for the tranquilizer to seriously take hold.
Faster and faster Sparkle drained the life from the vines. Her only awareness now was the power flowing through her, the sense of how much still needed to be consumed, and how full her soul’s “stomach” was getting. Whole towns now were getting the upper hoof now, but Sparkle was still trapped in a writhing mass of vines in a growing field of death. The rapid influx and expenditure of life force was having a toll on her as well; with every cell division, her body aged faster and faster, growing into an emaciated adult within the violent half hour she’d been trapped.
And then, deep within Sparkle’s soul, at that very moment, a miniscule, foreign shard fused to the core of her very being. It searched and, finding what it was looking for, began to truly awaken within her, just like it was in her sister at that very moment.



In another place, another time...
“A mark of one's destiny, singled out alone, fulfilled. Wait a second, that's it! I understand now! I know how to fix the spell!”



In yet another place, but in an unknown time...
A gray, bald stallion in a gray suit and gray fedora looked at another stallion who also fit that description. The first, August, spoke to his slightly younger looking colleague, July, stating, “The shards have awoken.”
If July had had an eyebrow, or emotions, he would have raised said eyebrow in surprise. Has he had neither, his face remained completely neutral. “Shards?” Although there was no inquisitive inflection, August knew July was asking for clarification.
“The reason for the interference has been revealed. The split replicated the shard of divinity twice. One remained almost completely isolated in the prime timeline, while the other two formed a bridge between the two daughter timelines,” August explained.
“This clarifies much,” July replied. “The temporal instability is repairing itself, is it not?”
“Correct,” said August.
July then stated, “We must prepare for our first confrontation with her, then. She must know of the danger her later abilities pose to the stability of the universe. Gather the other eleven fragments of Time.”
“Yes, July.”



And finally, in three particular, congruent times, in three close locations...
Three mares suddenly vanished. 
The first was supposed to vanish, and went where she was supposed to go. Her teacher was there when she got to that new place. 
The second was also supposed to vanish, but not at that time. She also did not go where she was intended to go, but she found herself where she needed to be.
The third mare was not supposed to vanish at all, but did so anyway. After a moment’s panic, she found someplace she knew and set about getting herself there, unaware of the two companions she was dragging along for the ride. 
> The First Side of the Coin
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	She didn't remember passing out, but if her waking up was any indication, she must have. Slowly, Sparkle’s mind attempted to figure out what the buck was going on. Her last memories, those of both physical pain and spiritual pleasure, contrasted with the stillness and the uncomfortable cold she now found herself in.
With nothing better to do, she opened her eyes. It wasn’t instant, but within some arbitrary, short amount of time, she came to deeply regret that decision. Before her very eyes was pure, unadulterated madness, of a variety that made even Discord’s rampage look tame by comparison. Her ears burned from the pungent scent of the acrid blackness. Impossible geometric shapes danced before her eyes, while organic forms drifted by, so convoluted in their design that lesser individuals would be driven mad by the mere sight of them.
Sparkle recognized this place, if only by description: the edge of the incomprehensible void between universes.
And yet, as some mockery of time passed, Sparkle came to the realization that her mental facilities were not diminishing in any appreciable way. If she had been reduced to a jibbering wreck by the bizzaraties that were on display before her, she wouldn’t have been able to come to that conclusion in the first place.
That realization calmed the necromancer down immensely. A goal formed in her mind; she would escape. Sparkle realized that the odds of her ever returning to her own universe was slim, but if she could find any universe, it would be better than staying here.
A motion caught her eye. There, continuously emerging from the foggy shape that felt like her chest, was a large, black chain. Off to the sides, two smaller chains, each about half the size of the large one, flowed into her body from opposite directions. Despite their strange appearance - they were definitely not made of metal - the chains were the most normal looking things in this madness.
Being the most real looking things, Sparkle immediately latched onto the largest chain, turning it into her literal lifeline. She lurched forwards, drawn by whatever force was pulling the large chain out of her indistinct body. Sparkle didn’t know what she would find, death or salvation being major possibilities, but anything was better than this.
She drifted forwards, drawn by the chain. A distant point of black slowly expanded as she approached, filling her vision more and more. She closed her eyes, and braced herself.



She hit solid ground with a gentle thud, and promptly experienced the strange sensation of waking up while already being wide awake. She blinked her eyes open.
All around her, a light mulberry colored grass grew under a pale, yellow-green sky. The breeze gently tousled her mane as she gazed upon a very familiar castle in the distance. Somehow, against all odds, she had landed in Thorn’s portion of their pocket dimension. She sent out a mental command and, to her relief, the glass-like interface for the pocket dimension control appeared before her.
She gestured with a hoof and felt the whole dimension shudder as its relative time shifted. Instead of being in near stasis, time inside was now progressing nearly a million times as fast as the real world, giving her plenty of time to figure out what just happened.
“MOM!” The scream from her son shattered the tranquility Sparkle had.
Before she could react, Cobalt, via Dye, telepathically screamed, “HELP ME!”
Sparkle panicked and pulled her soul in tight on instinct alone. Funnily enough, that was exactly what she needed to do to save them, for with two loud pops, Thorn and Cobalt materialized before her.
The necromancer immediately noticed something wrong with them. Thorn’s body was strangely distorted, though she couldn’t say to what extent because of how he was curled up. Cobalt’s body, while not distorted, had moving, black lines covering his body. But the worst was their souls. Thorn’s soul portion was swelling up like a balloon and rapidly deforming, while Cobalt’s soul looked like it was being crushed by some sort of giant dragon claw made from soul-stuff.
They both opened their eyes, and Sparkle suddenly saw Death. It was as if she was seeing through their eyes, and they were gazing upon Lady Death herself. She gasped and took a step back; so did Lady Death.
She waved, and so did Lady Death.
She spoke, and though their ears and through her own, she heard a less-distorted version of Lady Death’s voice come out of her own mouth. “What? What’s going on?”
Thorn stood up, and as he did, Sparkle recognized the form he had taken from ancient illustrations: he was Death’s Keeper. He had six limbs, arranged like a Centaur’s body. Two curved horns protruded from his head. On his face, six eyes, arranged in two clusters of three gazed down at her. Every one of his spines was sharper than before, and the blade on his tail now resembled a sword. His wings, with their shadowy membrane, twitched unconsciously and draped themselves over his lower body’s back.
Through his eyes, Sparkle could see herself, transformed to look like a smaller version of Lady Death. She now had six legs, four forelegs and two hind legs. Her face looked to be encased in crystal, although it was just as sensitive to touch as the skin that had once been there. A ridge of horns extended from her primary horn, down the back of her skull - and in her mane - until they blended into the spines - the same ones as her old body had - protruding from her back. Across her body, crystal-like growths protruded out of her skin, all of them looking like bones, giving her the appearance of a walking skeleton. That appearance was accentuated by how emaciated she looked. While her mane was the same black hair that she had previously, her tail had been replaced with black vines - the same black vines that she had been fighting off just that morning. On her back, two boney wings, sans the membrane that would grant lift, sat tucked against her sides. In her mouth, her equine front had been replaced with a sharper set of flesh-ripping carnivore’s fangs.
All those observations she made through Thorn’s eyes took only a second to make. She twisted around, and gazed at the mockery of a tail she had. Giving it an experimental flick, she found that the vines acted like prehensile tentacles, reacting to her thoughts as any limb would, and providing her with an unexpected level of sensory input.
“Seriously, what's going on?” Sparkle repeated. Flashes of memory shot through her head. They felt like hers, but were distinctly different from hers as well. With a start, she realized that the link between her and Thorn was frighteningly wide open. Panicking at the thought of a repeat of the Sparkrovitar incident, Sparkle screamed, “The link!” She promptly tried as hard as she could to close it, and felt Thorn echo her efforts. 
Said efforts ultimately proved fruitless, as the link refused to shut. However, Thorn made an observation: “We’re still separate. I still feel like me, and you like you, but we don’t feel like me, or it.”
“You’re right!” Sparkle realized with no small amount of relief. Even with full access to each other’s senses, memories, and bodies, they still felt like their own individual primarily in their own body. “Do you think this was the way it was supposed to be?”
“If it is, it’s much nicer than what being that thing was like,” the drake replied.
“And what about Cobalt?” Sparkle asked as she looked to the aforementioned stallion. Other than the lines, which looked something like bones painted onto his fur, Cobalt was physically unchanged.
Thorn contemplated the stallion, who was starting to bow down to them. A small part of each of the linked pair realized that this exchange between them was happening much faster than normal. “I think we’re only getting his surface thoughts and sensations, but not the reverse. He hasn’t reacted as if he can hear this.”
Sparkle hummed contemplatively. “Let’s see if he can hear this. COBALT!”
Cobalt jumped. “Lady Death?”
“It worked,” Sparkle noted. “Cobalt, it’s me, Sparkle. That’s Thorn, if you didn’t recognize him.”
“Mistress? You’re Lady Death?” He broke out into a grin. “Called it.”
“If you’re making jokes, I assume that you’re feeling alright. Are you?” Sparkle asked.
He nodded. “I feel good. Really good. I can feel power pouring into me - your power. There’s no mistaking that feeling. I can’t hear Dye’s voice, though, and my soul feels tight.”
Sparkle looked more closely at the “claw” that was clutching Cobalt’s soul. It only took her a second to see that it was part of her own soul, which had mysteriously grown to a massive size and density, comparable to that of Luna’s, Celestia’s, or Cadance’s souls. “Well, as long as you feel that you are healthy... I still want to know what happened to us.”
“What about the identity ritual?” Cobalt suggested. “It can show what we are now, and if we compare that to what we were...”
“We might know what happened!” Sparkle exclaimed. “That’s genius!”
The purple grass beneath them shifted, flattening out into a rough but level stone. Upon the stone, chalk lines and candles materialized, brought forth by Sparkle’s will influencing the pocket dimension. Within the span of a thought, the ritual space was constructed.
“Convenient,” Thorn remarked.
“I know, right?” Sparkle replied as she stepped into the circle. “We’ll each do this, just in case.”
Sparkle’s horn - the first one - darkened with magical power. A beam shot out and struck the flame of the first candle before splitting and ricocheting to the others before converging again on Sparkle’s head. Her eyes flashed and her mind filled with information about itself.
Without warning, the circle exploded.
The trio was sent flying. With a solid thud, they each landed on the grass some distance away. Yet they stood quickly; all three were uninjured, only needing time to recover from the surprise.
“The buck was that?” Thorn growled. “It wasn’t supposed to explode.”
“I-” 
Thorn turned to look at his mother, whose first left hoof was pressed against her mouth as if she was going to be sick. Sparkle wobbled slightly as her six eyes rolled in their sockets. “I-” she repeated. Her head dropped and she threw up. It wasn’t vomit that came out.
Instead, golden light poured out of her mouth, forming a radiant pool below her. She hurled again, and more of that light came out.
When she was finally finished, she remarked, “That felt awful.”
“What was that?” Cobalt asked.
Sparkle smirked, although the expression seemed forced. “Just watch.”
The pool of light quivered, then lurched. Suddenly, it began expanding in all directions, mostly away from Sparkle, and collecting into large, ever growing, ever multiplying blobs. As each blob separated out from the rest, it grew larger and more defined. Claws, paws, and hooves started forming. Eyes, mouth, limbs, and all sorts of other body parts took shape. Within a moment, the formerly empty field was full of creatures, mostly ponies, diamond dogs, and small vermin.
There was a scream, and then suddenly the field erupted into chaos. There was screaming, cheering and hugging at first, but then the jubilation quickly died away as it was replaced by a sense of panic. Those closest to the trio suddenly realized where they were, and fled in panic. That panic quickly spread to the others, who in turn started fleeing, which in turn caused the animals to panic.
Amidst all the chaos, Sparkle stated, “The ritual worked. Apparently, it turns out that my books were wrong about soul eating, and that, A, those souls weren't actually destroyed by me eating them, and B, I’d apparently never once realized that I could cough them up. So I did - all of them.”
“All of them?” Thorn asked.
“All of them,” Sparkle affirmed. “Including-”
“SPARKLE!”
The trio turned to where the new, yet familiar voice had come from. There, charging against the crowd, were the two ponies Sparkle had desperately wanted to see again.
“Mom! Dad!”
The two ghostly ponies, a mare and a stallion, and younger looking than their living counterparts, raced up to her and caught her with a tackle hug. “Oh, Sparkle, it’s so good to see you for real!” Twilight Velvet said.
“You have no idea how long we’ve waited for this!” Night Light shouted, tears of joy welling up in his eyes.
“Thorn, get over here,” Velvet said through her sobbing. “I want to hug my grandson for the first time.”
Thorn hesitated. “How... how did you know my name? You died the day I was born.”
Twilight unconsciously pulled back from her parents upon hearing that. The same question nagged at her as well.
“We could see, hear, and feel everything you two ever did,” Night Light answered for his wife. “That’s how we recognized your new faces.”
“E-everything?” Sparkle stammered.
The older mare immediately realized what was going through her daughter’s head. “We forgive you, Twilight Velvet Sparkle.” She lifted a hoof up to her daughter’s chin. “You are our child. We’ll always forgive you, and we’ll always love you. Even if you do make some questionable decisions...”
“She’s right, you know,” Night Light replied. “We love you, and will always love you from now until forever.” He looked over at Cobalt. “Son, thank you for being there for her. I’m glad my precious little filly can count you as her friend.”
“You’re welcome, sir,” Cobalt replied.
Thorn cleared his throat to get their attention. “Not to be rude or anything, but do you think we can save this reunion for later? We’ve got more pressing matters at the moment, like the fact that we might be trapped in a bubble universe drifting through the void, that we’re trapped in here with the thousands of souls that we’ve murdered, that the Everfree forest is apparently at war with ponykind back home, or that Cobalt, Mom, and I are apparently three facets of the goddess of Death.”
The smiles faded all around. The new goddess of death massaged her forehead before her eyes suddenly went wide. “Scootaloo!”
Everyone but Cobalt immediately knew what she was talking about. When he asked, Thorn quickly filled him in. Meanwhile, Sparkle immediately took off to find the little orange pegasus, who had been unceremoniously tossed into the pocket dimension at the beginning of the attack.
Sparkle called up the interface for the pocket dimension as she ran and pulled up the map. She stopped, scowling. “The buck is going on here?”
“What?” Cobalt asked as he ran up next to her.
“The internal and external geometry of this dimension has shifted. It’s now something like 4000% of its original diameter and is partitioned into four distinct areas. It’s also shaped like a fermata with two layers in both the crescent and the central sphere, instead of the sphere it was. I didn’t make any of those changes,” Sparkle said. Her horn darkened, releasing a stream of magic into the screen.
“Can you find her?” Cobalt asked.
“I’m having the system scry for her, but this is a massive area to search, and the scrying abilities I built in are sub-par at best. I don’t actually remember where I sent her, either.”
Her frown persisted for about thirty more seconds, until suddenly a little orange dot appeared on the map, followed by a black one on a different spot. “Found her,” Sparkle declared.
The memory appeared in Thorn’s mind as well. A second later, he’d grown large enough to carry the rest of the group. “Hop on.”
A goofy grin appeared on Velvet’s face. “Oh, I always loved when you two went flying!” She eagerly hopped onto Thorn’s back.
As Night Light climbed on behind his wife, he said, “Now, if only we could talk to Shining Armor, this would be a perfect paradise.”
“Funny you should mention that,” Sparkle said, adjusting her seat between Thorn’s back spines. “Technically speaking, this is the afterlife. When I did the identity ritual, I found that this place had permanently bonded to me. This dimension’s very much a part of my soul now.”
“Wait, does that mean we’re inside you right now?” Cobalt asked.
“Yes. It’s one of three such bonds that have appeared. If I’m right about one of those bonds, it could be a path home. The other, I think, leads to Twilight’s timeline. I only have a vague idea of why that one exists.”
With a mighty flap of his wings, the draconic aspect of Death took to the off-colored sky. Directed by the map in his memory, he banked to the left and ascended up a conjured thermal.
“Huh. How much did that ritual tell you, anyway?” Cobalt asked, although his eyes were watching the strange landscape below instead of the mare his inquiry was directed to.
“More than you’d expect. Apparently, I fused to the abstract concept of death. And yet, as contradictory as it sounds, I’ve also always been this way. It’s like I had memories stretching back in time, billions of years, to the moment when the very first cell ever died, and that I’ve always been Death. And yet, I also distinctly remember being a mortal, too. It's a strange dichotomy, and it's giving me a headache.
“It also seems that I’m not done ascending. There’s a second stage to my growth, and the ritual sped it up. I think - and I don’t know how I know this - but I think that it should have taken years for me to fully ascend, and the ritual has sped it up to somewhere around a month, real time. I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing,” Sparkle explained.
Thorn dove low, guided by some instinctive knowledge. Then, without warning, he twisted and pushed through some invisible barrier. The world shifted around them. What was once a purple, grassy plane and an off-color sky was now near total darkness, with only a faint glow that seemed to emanate from everywhere and nowhere at once. At her mental command, sunlight erupted around them, revealing a gorgeous green field under the most vibrant blue sky one could possibly comprehend. Sparkle immediately recognized it. “Elysium.” 
“This is Elysium?” her father asked. “Wow! It is! This’s amazing!”
“I... I didn’t build this place. But I did. Strange,” Sparkle muttered quietly. Then, louder, she said, “Yes. This is Elysium. Death... future me, I guess, brought me here, once. Thorn, fly lower. You have to smell it; it’s to die for.”
“No death jokes,” Cobalt quipped.
“Wait, what?” Sparkle blinked, then she got it. “Oh. No pun intended.”
Velvet asked in disbelief, “You built all this?”
“Yes. No. Sort of? It’s complicated. I think the abstract part of me did, as we were merging into one being.” 
“This merging thing, what’s the deal with that?” Night Light asked. “I didn’t get to see the results of the identity ritual; it knocked me out like the last time you did it.”
“It’s complicated, but the gist of it is that the abstract concept became something like an entity without a personality or a will of its own. It and my soul merged into one singular entity, well binary if you count Thorn, with all the memories, powers, and desires of both. Since I’m the only contributor of a personality core-”
“Curseword’s second postulate states that your soul would completely subsume the partner soul and remain the sole intelligence. Fascinating,” Night Light interjected.
“Yeah, but how-?”
“Did I know?” He replied smugly. “I was reading every book you ever read. I was working out the problems alongside you. Twelve years of being trapped in somepony else’s body gives you a lot of time to learn, especially since you were almost as much of a bookworm as me.”
“And we know how every spell feels to cast correctly,” Velvet added. “Sparkle, you had two very bored magic professors in your head for over a decade. It’s safe to say that we’re almost as good of necromancers as you by proxy. And Sparkle, not to be mean or anything, but your casting method is pathetic. As soon as everything calms down, your father and I are going to be drilling you on everything, starting all the way back with telekinesis.”
Beneath them, Thorn snickered. It was enough to jostle all of his passengers.
“And you too, Thorn,” Velvet said. “I know you can use some magic; I’m going to be drilling you as well.”
“No... NOT HOMEWORK! NOOOOOO!!!”



Thorn touched down at the edge of End of The Line, the End, for short. It was a massive and completely depopulated city, with buildings that were all of the same bland design, replicated repeatedly until there was only a sea of uniformity. The End was, according to Sparkle’s mysterious new memories, purgatory. She expected there to be a huge number of ponies and other beings living here, and yet that was just not the case.
“Scootaloo is in there?” Cobalt asked, looking out at the vast cityscape before them. “It’s going to take forever to find her.”
“Not really. The spells holding this place together have some neat little features for those with author-level access. Oh, remind me to add Mom and Dad to that list. Anyway, all of these buildings are actually linked. Here, come inside.”
Everyone filed inside. The interior was just as drab as the exterior.
“Alright. Group together at the center and look out towards the walls. As soon as anybody sees anything orange, shout. Ready?” 
As soon as they were, the room started flickering. For a time, nothing seemed to happen, but then Thorn shouted, “STOP!”
The flickering stopped, and then started again, but much slower. At this speed, they could tell that they were actually rapidly teleporting between nearly identical rooms. Suddenly, the flickering stopped and they found themselves in the same room as the little orange pegasus.
Scootaloo was huddled in the corner, covered by a blanket that she’d found (which, not coincidentally, didn’t exist until she’d started to look for it).
“Hey, Scoots,” Sparkle said.
Scootaloo jumped and shrieked. Then, upon seeing Sparkle and Thorn’s monstrous forms, screamed some more and pressed herself against the corner.
“Scootaloo, wait! It’s me, Rhodium! I just look different, that’s all.”
“Rody?”
“Yep. The last thing I told you was to wait here, and that I’d be back before you knew it.”
The filly smiled. “Wow. You got tall. You’re almost as tall as Princess Luna now. And your face! And body! What happened?”
Sparkle smiled and turned her body just enough so that Scootaloo could see her flank. “Oh, you could say I found a secret talent of mine.”
The cutie mark adorning Sparkle’s flanks had changed, influenced by whatever had triggered her ascension to goddesshood. The skull biting a starburst remained, but the skull now had six eyes instead of three. It was now a perfect match to every depiction of Death’s cutie mark she’d ever seen. Technically speaking, the causality of which one was matching which was the other way around, but that involved time travel, something Sparkle wasn’t thinking about at the moment.
“You got your cutie mark?” Scootaloo exclaimed. Sparkle simply smiled in response. Scoots raised her hoof. “Put ‘er there.”
Sparkle rolled all six of her eyes and decided to go along with the childish gesture. She too raised her hoof and bumped Scootaloo’s.
Scootaloo promptly died.
Her soul simply vanished and rematerialized a few hoof-lengths away, still in hoof-bump position, while her body collapsed to the floor, having had every last bit of its life forcefully expelled. 
Sparkle blinked. 
Scootaloo blinked. 
Sparkle cleared her throat. “I can fix that.”
Three seconds later and one forbidden necromancy spell later, Zombieloo - sorry, Scootaloo - was standing up again, back in her now fully functional body.
“What was that?” multiple ponies asked.
Sparkle shrugged. “Note to self; godly power means deadly touch defaults to on.”
“Yeah, we’re going to have to fix that,” Cobalt commented.
“Among many, many other things,” Thorn quipped, answering for Sparkle.
Before anyone could say anything else, a powerful wave of magic cascaded through them. For Scootaloo, the least magically sensitive of the group, the wave didn’t even register in her mind. For the rest however, their attention was immediately drawn in the direction of the pulse’s origin. The Death Trio were especially wary, as it was a strong pulse of light magic.
Across the room, a point of golden light erupted from thin air. It rapidly grew and grew until it took the form of a mare of equal stature to Sparkle. Then it flashed, momentarily blinding the five ponies and dragon.
When it faded, a gorgeous alicorn mare stood before them. Her body was curvaceous, her coat was immaculate, and her flesh was beautiful beyond compare. In fact, were it not for a few key details, she could have easily been the hottest mare in the history of Equine culture. However, the extra forelegs and extra eyes, as beautiful as they were individually, detracted from the whole ensemble. Still, there was no denying her beauty.
This was the goddess of life and fertility, the creator of every single soul in existence. This was also the most mysterious of goddesses, having been rarely seen by any mortal ever. Some considered her to be the one who made the universe. Others considered her to be the paragon of virtue and goodness.
But all of that was second compared to what Sparkle’s soul sight showed her. For deep within the light goddess’s soul, there was a core made from something Sparkle knew all too well. It was something that Sparkle couldn’t say she didn’t expect.
“Hey, Twilight. Fancy meeting you here, of all places. Love the new look.”
> The Other Side of the Coin
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The two goddesses were reclining on giant, ornately decorated pillows, conversing between themselves. The building they were in had also transformed into a miniature palace under the direction of Sparkle’s parents, who were experimenting with their new control over the afterlife’s environment. Outside, Thorn and Cobalt had decided to spar, in order to test their new power, never mind that they were inside each other’s head and could see and feel everything from each other. Scootaloo had decided to watch the titan and the assassin spar, which ended up with the two males turning it into a competition of who could win more of her adoration.
Yet the general good mood was soured by the sheer amount of unknowns they were dealing with. Sparkle was just finishing up her explanation of what she knew to Twilight.
“So, we really are goddesses?”
Sparkle nodded.
“We look the way we do because you attached extra bits to your soul, and your bodies adapted to that. Then, me being me, I reflected that during my own ascension.”
Sparkle nodded again.
“And we’re potentially stuck here until we can figure out a way home,” Twilight said.
“Yeah, I can’t feel the one anchor I had left. We could be drifting through the void for all I know.”
“Wonderful.” Twilight’s shoulders slumped.
“I'm not that worried, though. Thorn says that we can’t be stuck here forever because I met myself, the future me -”
“Oh, right. Time travel,” Twilight muttered.
“And I couldn’t have met me unless I returned home and lived long enough to find a way back in time. Circular causality is a wonderful thing in situations like this,” Sparkle remarked.
Twilight smiled. Her hoof traced the plant-like embroidery on her cushion. “Of course, that means you absolutely must find a way to time travel.”
The dark goddess nodded. “Of course, you do too. There were books that described you. Obviously, you have to go back at least once.” 
The goddess of life replied, “Fine, but we have to get out of here first. I don’t even know how I got here to begin with. Sure, I was floating in the void, but what connection would I have with this place?”
“I might have an idea,” Sparkle replied. “I’ll try and confirm it later, though. Home first, and preferably before we eat through my stockpile of real food.”
“Wait, what? Can’t you just make food in here?”
Sparkle shrugged. “Yes and no. I can, but nothing made in here can leave here. If you eat it, and then you exit, the matter vanishes from your body, wherever it might be. I’ve got enough for four people for a month, but I’m bigger, Thorn’s bigger, and we have you and Scoots to feed as well. Plus, wherever Sombra is, he’s eating some of that food. I guess I should put him into stasis...” Sparkle’s horn darked. Like ink flowing in water, a specter emerged from her horn. However, in the afterlife, it took on a far more pony-like form than before. In fact, it was so realistic that the little inconsistencies made it look rather unsettling.
Nodding, for it was created already knowing its task, the specter flew off to find the ex-tyrant to kiss into an enchanted sleep. “That’s easy enough,” Sparkle remarked as it flew away.
Then she stood up and stretched. “Ah... Ok, let me put Scootaloo to bed as well, and then we’ll go figure out if there's still a connection to home.” She trotted outside to where the rest of the group was.
Craters dotted the landscape, while the burning husk of a city provided the backdrop. For supposedly “light” sparing, the surrounding environment looked like a battlemage’s warzone. Above the two warring combatants, Scootaloo watched from her cloud perch.
“Hey, Mom,” Thorn’s deep voice rumbled. The titanic dragon landed before shrinking down as far as he could go. Alas, he’d never be small enough to ride on Sparkle’s back ever again. “Look what I can do. Cobalt!”
The assassin nodded and launched a high-powered cutting curse at the drake, cleanly decapitating the latter. Thorn’s head bounced on the ground once before the body went and picked it up. “Ok, you know how with injuries like this, I’d need you to stitch me back together?” His severed head said. “I can do it by myself now.”
The lich tossed his head up into the air. A tendril of blood shot out of his neck, latched onto the head as if the blood was rope, and then pulled it back in. With a wet squelch, his head landed back on his body and started healing the wound. A second later, and Thorn was literally as good as new. “Cobalt’s got a healing factor, too.”
“Yes,” Cobalt agreed, “though it doesn’t seem to be as fast as Thorns. Still, I had a gash on my leg that I don’t have now.”
“Interesting. We’ll investigate that more later. For now, I need to borrow Scootaloo,” Sparkle said.
 Looking down from her cloud at the sound of her name, Scootaloo called out, “Yeah?”
Sparkle levitated the filly down to her. “Sorry, Scoots, but it’s nap time.”
Before the orange pegasus could reply, a sleep spell crashed against her head. She was unconscious an instant later. “Mom, Dad,” Sparkle called out. “Could you watch over Scootaloo for a while?”
“Sure thing,” the ghost of Twilight Velvet replied. “We’ll keep her nice and comfy.”
“You know how to contact me if you need to,” Sparkle said. “And... she’s in an enchanted sleep, so if there happen to be some loud noises, she won’t wake up.” She turned to her son and student, and motioned for them to follow.



“You do realize that they’re-”
“Yes.”
“Twelve years apart and-”
“I know.”
“I’m just saying that-”
“Cobalt, would you kindly stop talking about the thing that I know my parents may or may not be doing?”
Cobalt’s jaw snapped shut against his will.
“Thank you.”
The group continued on in silence for a time. Cobalt shot Thorn a pleading glance. Thorn replied with a smirk, and then inhaled. “They’re fucking like rabbits, aren’t they?”
Seething, Sparkle growled, “LANGUAGE.” Next to her, Twilight was similarly gritting her teeth, as well as blushing profusely.
“And yet she doesn’t deny,” Thorn quipped. “So... Mom... any chance that you’d let me lose my virginity any time soon?”
Sparkle stopped, groaned, and then teleported a good distance ahead. 
It didn’t help, as everyone else in the group just teleported after her. However, before they did catch up to her, Twilight gave the two males each a no-nonsense glare, which served to get them to drop the matter entirely. Sure, Thorn might have been a demigod-dracolich, and Cobalt might have been a goddess-empowered assassin, but Twilight was a full goddess of the opposite power, placing her firmly in the “do not screw with” category.
As Twilight appeared next to her sister, she asked, “So where exactly are we going?”
“One of the new sections of the afterlife. I built this place with a large number of precautionary monitoring spells, so that I could always have a good idea of what’s happening in- and outside. When I arrived, I noticed that there was a large, steady flow of energy through this dimension, with a slight net increase in the total energy inside.”
“Could that chain that I used to get here be causing it?” Twilight asked.
“Wait. Was it a black chain that seemed to emerge from your body?” Sparkle asked, surprised.
“Not exactly. It seemed to flow into me and split into two smaller chains that came out of me,” Twilight said. “I had to pull on the big one really hard to get moving.”
“Interesting. I had the same chains, in the opposite directions. I just latched on to the big chain to get pulled here. I wonder what they were.” Sparkle paused. She lifted a hoof and pressed on a spot that looked like empty air to everyone else. The air split open like a curtain, revealing a dark room beyond. “Beauty first.”
Twilight raised the single eyebrow over her left eye cluster. Then, she turned and went inside. Sparkle followed suit, and then Cobalt and Thorn entered behind her. Sparkle clicked her tongue, and the room flooded with light.
Whatever they expected to see, that which lay before them was definitely not it. There were only two things, both of which dominated the massive chamber. Closest to them was a massive tree made of solid blue crystal, with branches that formed a perfect three dimensional fractal. Sparkle noted that it exactly matched the cutie mark tree on Twilight’s flanks, which had grown symmetrical because of her ascension. On the branches, Sparkle thought the tree was bearing glowing fruit, but then gasped when she realized that it wasn’t fruit, but infant souls growing on that tree. Down on the ground, a river of glowing, liquid soul-stuff fed the tree, originating from the main areas of the afterlife. From above, a golden mist - even purer soul-stuff, rained down upon the tree.
But behind the tree of souls, the far wall of the room was missing. Instead, there was a shimmering, translucent membrane, beyond which Sparkle could see the sheer madness of incomprehensible void. Something deep within her knew that bringing a mortal pony unprotected into this chamber would destroy them.
It seemed that even this glimpse was too much for Cobalt. He whimpered and covered his eyes. Taking pity on him, Sparkle teleported him out of the chamber.
“This is... wow.” The words to describe it simply wouldn’t come to Twilight.
“I think that this place is yours,” Sparkle said. “The tree, it’s your cutie mark.”
Drawn by some irresistible urge, Twilight trotted up to the tree and placed her hoof on it. Like a fireworks show encased in glass, color exploded forth from the point where she touched and ricocheted up the branches. Hundreds of new souls appeared in the branches above them. A golden aura surged from Twilight’s horn and plucked an infant soul from the lowest branch.
Immediately, it began expanding. The single, golden point of light grew into a little ball, where it promptly burst into flame. The color rapidly shifted to a pale blue, and within the span of half a second, it had completely specialized into a newborn pony foal’s soul.
“Euphoria.” The word escaped Twilight’s lips without her even consciously realizing what she had said. And yet, in the instant that followed, the soul surged in brightness. The magic of the afterlife kicked in, and within two seconds, the body of a pale blue foal formed around it. “She’s  ready,” the goddess of life remarked with no small amount of awe and wonder.
Yet no instinct pushed her further. Twilight was left waiting, holding the new infant lovingly in her magic, but with almost no idea what to do next. “She needs to go. Her body’s waiting for her... but how do I get her there?”
“Twilight.” She turned towards her sister, who said, “I know you didn’t do the identity ritual, but I think I’ve figured it all out now. You are life. You, in a way, have always been life. Search within yourself; you’ll know what to do.”
Twilight closed her eyes. Her magic lifted little Euphoria up higher and towards the membrane that kept the void separate from them. Below her, one of the chains appeared, while a golden shell surrounded the infant. The shell sank down, merging with the chain until a single link was glowing with the same radiance. Then the chain shot forwards at impossible speeds, whisking the newborn Euphoria to the body she would inhabit for the rest of her life. 
“That was amazing!” Thorn exclaimed. Sparkle nodded vigorously, too stunned for words but in full agreement.
She quickly composed herself. “I feel really honored to be one of the first people to see the birth of a new soul.”
“It wasn’t anything special,” Twilight remarked. “I do that all the time.”
“No, you didn’t,” Sparkle corrected. “Your abstract half did, but your mortal half was just an ordinary mare this morning. The new memories are probably really confusing.” She chuckled a little. “You confirmed a lot for me, though.”
Twilight took a second to process before she replied, “I did?”
“Yes. First, you proved that those chains are our connection to home - I was tracking the soul as it left - and that those chains are the road by which souls travel to and from the afterlife. You also just proved reincarnation theory-” At Twilight’s confused expression, Sparkle added, “I’ll explain later. And, I think, based on how the light seemed to split, that we’re the Life and Death of both timelines. Anyway, with that information, I think I can make us a portal to each of our timelines. There’s just one problem...”
“What?”
“I have no idea which connection goes to which timeline.”



“That’s easy,” Twilight Velvet replied when the two goddesses explained their predicament. She brushed a loose strand of her unusually disheveled mane out of her eye. “Spike.”
“Spike?” Twilight asked, then it clicked. “That’s great! We open a portal to both worlds and have Thorn send a trackable letter to Spike. Whichever portal the smoke goes through is my home!”
Sparkle facehooved, disappointed in herself for not realizing that obvious solution. She announced that she would go grab some real paper, and then teleported away. A few moments later, she reappeared with the required materials. She scratched out a quick note, wrapped it up, cast a quick spell on it, and then handed it to Thorn. Then she set to work on opening the actual portals.
It took a few minutes, but she eventually pried the two holes in space open. “Ready.”
Thorn ignited the scroll with a jet of emerald flame. Disintegrating into smoke, the scroll hovered in place for a brief moment before surging towards the leftmost portal. Sparkle immediately tossed an anchor spell through Twilight’s portal, and then another, distinctly different anchor through her own. 
With the dimensional anchors in place, Sparkle let her portals fade. “Feel for them. It’s a lot like when we’re bending spacetime to meet each other. Can you sense them?”
Twilight lit her horn and scrunched her face up in concentration. “Umm... yeah, I found them.”
“Do you think you can make the jump yourself?”
She thought for a second. “Yes. I’m sure I can.”
“Good.” The death goddess smiled. “Now remember, no banishing annoying ponies here, ok? I’ll get them eventually; I don’t need them any sooner than that.”
“Got it,” Twilight replied with mock exasperation. “I assume that I can visit any time?”
“Sure.”
“Hey, what did that letter say?” Twilight inquired.
Sparkle chuckled. “Dear Spike, Your mom died and went to paradise, and then she made a baby. With love, Aunt Sparkle.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “You do realise that he’s going to take that entirely the wrong way, don’t you?”
“He’s a hormonal drake on the cusp of puberty. I KNOW,” she replied, snickering. From nearby, Thorn echoed the sound.
Twilight merely rolled her eyes. “If that’s the way you’re going to be, then I’ll see you later. I’ve got a vine infestation to fix.” Her horn started glowing.
“Twilight, wait,” Sparkle said, causing her sister to extinguish her horn.
The goddess looked back at her darker sibling. “Yes?”
“Do you have to go yet?” She asked. “I mean, the time dilation is so extreme that a second of real time is almost eleven days in here, and I can push it faster if we need it. We’ve got time... and I kind of want your help in getting this place up and running.”
Twilight paused, her face contemplative. “I suppose I could stay for a while. I’m in no rush.” She turned back towards her sister. “But I thought that you built this place with dark magic. I wouldn’t know the first thing about how to do anything in here.”
“There’s more than that,” Sparkle said. “There’s all those souls I brought with me, there’s all the souls I need to sort... I need a sorting method, too. I also need to get more of the design work done for the pits and paradise, which is probably going to take me decades anyway. We also probably need some way of disguising ourselves when we return. I could use illusions, but they’re a pain to use for a long time and you’re so out of luck in that department. And then there’s all those souls calling out for me to end their pain and... yeah, I’ve suddenly got a whole lot to do, and that’s probably not even everything.”
Twilight sat down onto the hard ground. “Wow... Actually, now that I think about it, there’s probably something I need to be doing to get things up and running for myself as well. Does that identity ritual work if you cast if for somepony else?”
Sparkle nodded.
“Yeah, I probably need to do that myself. I’m glad you stopped me. What if I had just gone home and ended up neglecting something that catastrophically impacted the next generation of ponies?”
“That would have been bad,” Sparkle replied.



Thirty seconds. That was all the time that had passed since the moment of their ascent, if you counted with a clock in the real world. It had also been just that long since a subtle magical pulse rippled through the entirety of both sets of spacetime. 
The shards of Time could feel it, as the pulse solidified a fundamental aspect of reality. But they weren't the only ones. Seven other individuals reacted to the pulse.
In the heart of the Great Minotaur Maze, King Bakhotir, the God of Stone, looked to the sky, worriedly. In the great Deer forests, Lady Holone, Goddess of Water, paused mid stride, only resuming when one of her assistants addressed her. The Storm Emperor, God of the Sky, grinned wickedly, putting the griffins near him on edge. Lady Evrfyr, Goddess of Fire and the largest dragon in the world, immediately started figuring how much her investments would change when this came to light. Princess Cadance, Goddess of Love, frowned, having never felt the sensation before. Princess Luna, Goddess of Outer Space and the Night, redoubled her efforts to break free of the vines.
Luna's struggles proved unnecessary, as Celestia promptly burst into celestial flame, incinerating the vines that bound her and a good portion of the surrounding Everfree in response to the pulse.
She was mortified to learn that she’d ignited near the Tree of Harmony, but then relieved to discover that it had survived unscathed. It was at this point that the two Celestia’s diverged slightly. In Sparkle’s timeline, Celestia smiled and said, “So it was Beatrix that fulfilled Apollo’s prophecy¹. She’s earlier than I expected².” Conversely, Twilight’s Celestia frowned with worry and muttered, “If Twilight fulfilled the prophecy, does that mean her double also ascended? That cannot be good.”
Both Celestias resynchronized when the looked towards Luna, who nodded in understanding. Then, both Celestias gathered their magic and teleported to the place where they expected their student to be: the aether. They were both wrong.
> The Divine Power of Checklists
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“You know what we need now?” Twilight asked her sister.
Sparkle replied, “Let me guess: a checklist.”
“You know me so well,” Twilight said. Using the dreamlike properties of the afterlife, the light goddess conjured up a scroll and perpetually-inked quill. “Now, what do we need to do?”
“The identity ritual for you; that’s a must,” Sparkle declared.
From nearby, where he was currently lounging, Thorn yelled, “Watch out for explosions!”
Twilight looked over her shoulder. Thorn was casually lounging on a skull-and-jewel themed throne, his six limbs splayed everywhere. For whatever reason, the combination of his last sentence and current position served to confuse Twilight greatly. “Bwuh?”
“We’ll be careful,” Sparkle yelled back.
“I’m sorry, what?”
The dark goddess looked back towards her sister. “The identity ritual’s rune circle exploded when I did it. It didn’t hurt, and the ritual worked, but it was odd nonetheless.”
“That’s odd,” Twilight remarked in agreement. “Do you think it will explode for me as well?”
The ritual circle appeared under Twilight. Sparkle grinned, showing off her razor sharp teeth as she charged up her magic. “Let’s find out.”
A bolt of dark magic shot out of her horn and struck the ritual circle before Twilight could even cry out in protest or alarm. The magic surged upwards, flowing into Twilight where it pierced the magic around her soul like a needle through skin. Twilight’s eyes turned solid black as the spell took hold.
A second later, the ritual circle exploded, tossing Twilight harmlessly into the air. She landed on the ground, which had softened itself for her. Yet, by the time she had picked herself up, the ground was just as hard as it had been and bore no trace of the explosion.
“A little warning would have been nice,” the light goddess said as she reoriented herself. 
Sparkle snickered. “But where would the fun be in that? I knew you wouldn’t have been hurt.”
Twilight massaged her forehead. “Please don’t tell me that this is going to become a reoccurring thing for you, Sparks.”
“Twi, I have a sinking suspicion that I’ve intentionally been the butt of my own secret jokes. What makes you think I’m going to spare you, if I don’t even spare myself?”
She was silent for a second, but then she groaned. Rolling her eyes, Twilight overdramatically announced, “It’s all so clear to me know. You’re a sadistic monster. Oh great and annoying Death, spare me from your madness.”
“Never,” Sparkle hissed. She then blinked in surprise. “Oh...” Clearing her throat, she said, “So that’s how I do that voice. That feels weird in my throat. Hmmm... what about... HoW dOeS tHiS sOuNd?”
Twilight shuddered. “You never mentioned that. Dear Celestia, that’s horrible sounding. Please don’t do that again.”
“SuRe. WhOops, sorry.” Sparkle laughed, thankfully in her normal voice. “I think we’re getting a bit off track. Did the ritual help you much?”
Twilight nodded. “It sure did. That was enlightening. It feels weird, knowing the very reason for my existence so clearly. Hey, did you know that the whole afterlife is acting as a processor, extracting soul material for me to make new souls from the souls of the dead?” 
Sparkle nodded, indicating that she did, in fact, know that. Most of the souls that had died before the construction of the afterlife had already been processed. Those that hadn’t were somewhere within the afterlife now.
“Oh, and I’ve got something for you.” Twilight’s horn lit up, basking the two of them in golden light. A glass jar appeared before the life goddess and floated up to her horn. A bead of a strange, black liquid formed on the tip of Twilight’s horn and trickled into the jar. One drop turned into two, and then a steady stream. When the jar was full, Twilight capped it and passed it to Sparkle. “My abstract half always filtered the soul material before turning it into new souls, and it gave it to death to dispose of. This is a jar of pure, concentrated evil, plus every other contaminante of the soul.”
The black goop inside seemed to fit that definition to a tee. It thrashed around in the jar of its own accord, seemingly desperate to escape from its confines. Even the jar itself, sealed as it was, radiated a malignant presence. Every instinct in both Twilight and Sparkle screamed that it was extremely dangerous.
So, naturally, Sparkle uncapped the lid and chugged the contents of the jar in one go. “Delicious!”
“SPARKLE! What did you do?! Spit that out!”
Sparkle merely belched proudly. “Oh, that was just as good as I remembered it.” She chuckled. “Relax, sis. I’m just doing what I’ve always done.”
Twilight looked at Sparkle contemplatively. “That explains so much, and yet raises so many new questions. Gah! This whole ‘two entities as one’ thing is going to be so confusing.”
“Agreed. Anyway, the identity ritual for you, that’s the first thing on the list done,” Sparkle commented, marking things off even as she mentally created the checklist. “Let’s see, soul filtration... we just did that, so check. I need to locate and round up all the dead in here, I need to sort them, which also means that I need some sort of sorting method, and I need to finish constructing the spells for the afterlife. I am so glad I built this place with expansion in mind.”
“And I need to make sure that the flow of soul material from the afterlife to my tree is functioning correctly,” Twilight added. “Other than that, I think I’m good here. That just leaves dealing with the vines we get back and then dealing with... all this.” She gestured to her own body, and then Sparkle’s in turn.
Sparkle blew a strand of her black mane out of her eyes. Over the last hour, it had grown more and more buoyant, taking on the same smoke-like characteristics as Sombra’s mane, and now it was practically moving on its own. Blowing it out of her eyes only kept it that way for about a second. “I’m actually really mad about that. I already invested so much in my Rhodium disguise, and now all that’s down the drain. I suppose I could keep up some illusions so that I have some smidge of a normal life. Hey, do you think there’s any chance that we could cash in on the “Lady” titles and live like nobles? Or even as princesses? You might actually be able to get that title, all things considered.”
“Me, a princess? No way. I couldn’t do that,” Twilight replied. “I’d probably mess everything up. I’m a paladin! Not a politician! I’d probably just be stuck smiling and waving!”
“Bwahaha! The All-Mother as a figurehead? That’s a riot!” Sparkle exclaimed. “What’s next? A tea party with Lady Death and the bearers of the Elements of Harmony?” The smile vanished off of Sparkle’s face in an instant, and the warm aura of her subconsciously radiated magic went icy cold. “Twilight...”
“Sparkle?”
“If I were to kill your friends' doubles in their sleep so that they couldn’t blast me with the elements, how mad would you be with me?”
“Hmmm... Mad enough that if I were you, I’d seriously reconsider that course of action. Of course, we are just talking hypotheticals, right?”
Sparkle slowly nodded. “Right, I understand.”
“Good!” Twilight exclaimed with an excessive amount of exuberance. The message was clear, however; don’t mess with my friends, or their clones. “Now, before you brought up that little hypothetical, I was going to say that I remembered you mentioning once that Luna was at the Gala in a true transformation. I wonder if she could teach that to us.”
“Oh. That works. I hope she’d be willing to teach me. I wonder what she’d want in exchange, though. I know that I wouldn’t teach someone like me something like that without a major incentive,” Sparkle said. From her tone, Twilight assumed that she was partially thinking aloud.
“All you can do is ask,” Twilight replied.
“True,” Sparkle replied. “Now, what’s next?”



A single, massive table stretched down the length of the implausibly long room. Chalk boards lined the edges of the room; each one was clean and had fresh chalk on the little shelf. Books were stacked high on the table in organized stacks. Collectively, they were the sum total of Sparkle’s literary collection. The Dread Necroptica series, having been purged of the information demon they contained by the crystal heart, sat discarded at the end of the table; they were irrelevant to the task at hand.
Sparkle drew a spell formula on one of the chalkboards, aided by the book levitating in her grasp. Over her shoulder, Twilight critiqued the growing array of numbers and symbols. It was an uncompressed spell formula that Sparkle was writing, meaning that it had none of the space or effort saving tricks applied to it yet, and was thus extremely cumbersome to write out in its entirety. They had no other option, though. They were developing this spell from scratch, and it was promising to be unimaginably complex.
During the review and the compression stages of development, Sparkle knew that she’d get her parents, Cobalt, and Thorn, involved, but for the early stages, she and Twilight knew that they’d have to do this alone.
“It should be sight based, likely compounding on the framework left by the soul-sight spell,” Twilight argued.
“That works. Building off of that pre-existing framework would give us a decent starting point,” Sparkle agreed.
Their goal was simple in theory, though quite complex in reality. The two goddesses were attempting to develop a spell that would enable Sparkle to quickly sort a soul to the appropriate portion of the afterlife. They had decided quickly that whatever system they used would assign a number to the soul, one which the enchantments of the afterlife could read and react to. With that in mind, they’d sent Cobalt and Thorn to lead the programming of the rest of the afterlife.
Both tasks would take lots of time. They knew that from the start. Still, they dove in. Knowing how long it would take, Sparkle further pushed the time dilation of the afterlife to its maximum setting. Now, at nearly two million times regular speed, they had nearly twenty four days for every second that passed in the real world. It was, quite frankly, a ludicrous speed.
But, knowing that the ongoing disaster of the vines invading their homes was presently a non-issue, the two goddesses settled down for the academic long-haul.



Thorn knocked on the door to the “study dungeon,” as he had taken to calling it. In his left claw, he balanced a tray of various homemade sweets that he’d made. The ingredients were all imaginary, but the process he’d used to make them was very much real.
The door opened. His nose was immediately assaulted by the scent of sweat, the kind of scent someone picks up after a long period of going without bathing, yet staying relatively clean in the meantime. He banished the scent with little more than a thought. ‘Buck, I’ll miss these powers when I back go to the real world,’ he thought to himself.
“I brought you cookies,” the dracolich-demigod announced. Contrary to what one would assume a dracolich-demigod would put into a batch of homemade cookies, these contained chocolate chips, peanuts, and no damned souls. Well, perhaps one; he did like to spoil himself, after all.
The scene inside looked like a library-warzone hybrid. Books and papers lay everywhere, and discarded scraps littered the ground. The two combatants, Twilight and Sparkle, were still working with the same zeal they had started with all that time ago. Thorn knew that they had lost their sense of time. Without a need for food, sleep, or any other bodily process, and without a sun or a clock to measure time by, they had just continued working without ever realizing just how long they had been going.
The cookies were celebratory in nature, though. His mom and aunt were finishing up and, having access to his mother’s senses, Thorn had timed the batch of cookies so that they’d be warm by the time the two goddesses were done. And lo and behold, Sparkle was making the final adjustments.
“Done!” She declared with no small amount of excitement. “Done done done!” she repeated.
“Congratulations,” Thorn said. “The two of you managed to convert the entirety of equine morality into a single, elegant, adaptable formula. Have a cookie; you deserve it.”
Sparkle and Twilight each grabbed a cookie and devoured it with gusto. Thorn offered them each another. “I really am impressed with you two. You did it in a little less than a minute.”
“It was longer than a minute, Thorn,” Sparkle remarked. “A few days at least...”
Thorn looked at his mother; his face was completely neutral. “You completely lost track of time in there, didn't you?”
“A bit, yes,” Twilight said, answering for her sister.
“You were in here for a minute... of real time,” Thorn replied.
Sparkle did the mental calculation. “Almost four years?”
Thorn shrugged. “Well, not quite that long. At least two years. Maybe three. You two were making such progress, we didn't want to stop you. And then there was that month you two took off to have sisterly bonding time, because being trapped in a room with somepony of the opposite spin for three years meant that that was bound to happen.”
“BuCk No. We DiD nOt SlEeP wItH eAcHoThEr.”
“I didn't say you did,” Thorn quipped.
“You thought it, and I can still read your mind,” Sparkle shot back.
Thorn at least had the decency to look away sheepishly. “Anyway, Cobalt and I took care of things. Scootaloo and Sombra have been moved to the real world, since we didn't think prolonged stasis was a good idea. All the souls are in soul-sleep, and won't awaken until you give them the order. Grandma, grandpa, Cobalt, and I finished up the enchanting as well, so as soon as you two are ready, we can get everypony sorted.”
“Oh... Thank you, Thorn. You’ve been really productive,” Sparkle said.
“You're welcome. Also, I should mention that Cobalt’s been going a little stir crazy lately. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and Cobalt’s infatuation with you certainly hasn't diminished at all.” Thorn growled. “Buck him, use a libido killing curse on him, I don't care; just do something.”



Massage vouchers changed from hooves to claws. In a world where nothing physical had value, the promise of a massage or similar service had become the new currency between the afterlife’s awake citizens. Thorn smirked, knowing his grandmother owed him a massage, having lost their little bet. Of course, him winning meant that Cobalt and his mother still weren’t doing what they so obviously wanted to do. Even a kiss between them would have been nice, but Thorn had made his bet knowing that Sparkle wouldn’t actually sleep with Cobalt, even though they both wanted to.
Thorn led the group to the souls of the dead. For whatever reason, he had placed all the sleeping souls in front of Sparkle’s palace - both versions of it. As it turned out, the afterlife had grown a mirror image side, where everything was replicated, including most of the ponies. Those that died in Sparkle’s timeline appeared in the “upper” version of the afterlife, while those that died in Twilight’s timeline appeared in the “lower” version of the afterlife. Considering that gravity reversed when one traveled between the two otherwise disconnected sections, and that the buildings in one section were reflected perfectly into the other, those orientations were rather meaningless and arbitrary. Thus, Twilight proposed that the two henceforth be referred to as the “light” and “dark” afterlife, in reference to their respective, patron soul goddess. Sparkle accepted those names without hesitation.
Currently, Sparkle, Thorn, Cobalt, and Twilight were standing in the middle of a field. In the distance, Sparkle’s simultaneously real and imaginary castle stood tall, overlooking the meadow like a giant, stone monolith of impossible proportions. Closer to them stood hundreds of souls, now awakened. Many of them had been formerly devoured by Sparkle. They would have run, had it not been for Sparkle immobilizing and silencing them all. 
But now that a nervous Sparkle was standing before them, with their undivided attention upon her, she found that dangerously few words would come to her. “Um... Hi. I... really have no idea what I’m doing here. Sorry, I’m new at this. For those of you who don’t know... you’re dead, and Sleeper, Keeper, and I are, collectively, Death.
“I suppose some of you knew that already. Many of you, I took before your time. I am deeply sorry for that. I also know you were trapped inside of me. I know that you all saw what I saw. I am also deeply sorry for that. There is likely nothing that I could do that would ever make up for that.
“Still, I’d like to try. That is why when I release you, you’ll each find paper and a pencil. I would like you to write out your greatest wish, along with your name and race, and if it is within my power, I will do what I can to grant it.”
Here, Twilight spoke up. “I am the All-Mother, although some of you might know me as Lady Life. My sister’s crimes against you were terrible, I know, but she really does ask for your forgiveness. I ask of you that you find it within yourself to forgive her, as I have done. If it takes restoring you to life, or allowing you to return to the world of the living once more for her to earn that forgiveness, I am sure that she would be more than willing to accommodate you.”
Sparkle looked at her sister. She knew that matters regarding the living was now Twilight’s domain; if Twilight, both a paladin and Life, was willing to let the dead return just this once, then Sparkle would let the dead return if they asked.
Sparkle released the restraints binding the plethora of souls in place. The field erupted with noise as the dead screamed and hollered. Many of them ran forwards, intent on striking Sparkle, on getting vengeance with their own hooves and claws. Instead, Thorn roared and stepped forwards, growing in size as he did, with the intent of shielding his mother from the onslaught. “Back off!” he growled. “Act like civilized people. I’m the only monster here; if you try to hurt my mom, I won’t hesitate to eat you again!”
That got the mob to quiet down quickly. Sparkle scolded Thorn mentally, but had to admit he’d done a great job of quelling the mob’s immediate rage. “Now,” Thorn said, “write down your wish. Let’s get this done like the people we all are.”
Soon enough, the first ponies were done writing their wishes and were pushing their way up through the crowd. Almost every single one of them had a negative expression, ranging from a slight scowl to a downright murderous glare. And with each one, Sparkle felt like she was being cut deeper and deeper, and that soon there would be nothing left of her beyond mincemeat.
Yet, as the procession of the dead carried on, Sparkle started noticing more and more ponies with neutral, or even happy expressions. When a small filly came up to her, donning a broad smile, Sparkle had to ask, “Why are you so cheerful?”
“I remember you,” the filly said. “You were the purple pony that helped me when I was sick.”
“When you were sick?” Sparkle asked. She honestly could not remember such a filly, yet this filly could apparently remember her previous body and identify her anyway. Somepony who’d been eaten by her wouldn’t have had that problem, but she hadn’t eaten a filly’s soul - as far as she could remember.
“Yeah! I got so cold and hungry, and then my body started falling apart. You found me in that alley and whacked me in the head. It made me feel better. I thought we were playing a game. And then when you finally punched me out of my body, I felt so good. I could finally get to sleep. Then I woke up here, and you looked different, but you felt the same,” the filly explained. Strangely, her tail was wagging behind her body, as if she was really excited.
As for Sparkle, something in the filly’s story made if finally click where they’d met before. “You were that zombie filly that I found on the streets of Canterlot a couple years ago!”
“Yep!” the filly replied. “Can I have a wish too? I know you said it was for the ponies you hurt, but you only helped me...”
Sparkle smiled. “Of course,” she replied. “What is it that you wish?”
“Can I have ice cream? I’ve never had ice cream before! Daddy wouldn’t let me.”
Sparkle’s smile faded. The filly had become an undead because of her neglect; of course she wouldn’t have tasted something as simple as ice cream. That was readily fixed, as Sparkle conjured a large carton of peanut butter ice cream for her. “Here you go; peanut butter flavored, my favorite.”
The filly grabbed the carton. “Thanks!” And without another word, she dashed off.
Cobalt trotted up to Sparkle, a basket full of wishes in his magical grip. “That was sweet of you,” he remarked. His voice was still tinged with disappointment from his lack of earlier success with Sparkle.
“It was nothing,” Sparkle replied. “I didn’t even realize ponies like that were here.”
“Oh, they're here all right. I think you had a habit of collecting the ghosts of those who died near you,” Cobalt stated. Then, changing the subject somewhat, he said, “I’ve gotten a couple of requests and individuals that I think you should really take a look at. There's a couple of Death Cultists that are determined to appease you and want to help feed your insatiable hunger and/or lust. I think they might be planning a breakout to raid the living world for souls to feed you with. Then there’s also a Mr. Black Hammer who was asking about you, as in Sparkle, the lavender coated necromancer.”
Sparkle’s eyes went wide. “Black Hammer’s here? Where? I want to see him!”
Cobalt pointed over his left shoulder. “He’s back that way a bit. Careful of the cultists, though. They’re a bit antsy.”
“Thanks!” And with that, she galloped off. Navigating the crowd was easy enough, as she was taller than most, save for the occasional diamond dog or other non-pony, and everyone was eager to move out of her way. “Black Hammer!” she called out. “Where are you?”
“My Lady!” a pony that was definitely not Black Hammer called out. Sparkle took one look at him and immediately recognized the signs of vampirism on him. He ran up to her with all the speed his condition afforded him. As soon as he was in sight of her, he practically dove into the ground, bowing so deeply that his face was quite literally on the dirt.
“What?” Sparkle replied, not stopping at all. Her head continued to sweep back and forth as she looked for her old mentor in the crowd.
“My Lady,” he repeated, hoisting himself up so that he could follow. “My name is Ace O’ Hearts. It is such an honor to meet you, Lady Death. My fellows and I-”
“Let me stop you there,” Sparkle interrupted. “Are you one of those ponies that claim to be my devoted followers?”
His eyes went wide and he smiled, showing off his sharp fangs. “Yes! We are but your humble servants, willing to do your every bidding!”
“I don’t care.”
Ace’s expression shattered like glass. One would think that he’d just been stabbed, judging by the pained expression that had replaced the smile.
“You cultists have long since been an annoyance to me. I don’t have time to deal with you; I have somepony very important to find,” Sparkle said, still walking away. Honestly, she couldn’t get away from him fast enough; her first major encounter with a Death Cult had nearly ended with her being sacrificed to herself, and her second major encounter involved a war waged in her name. Even her lesser encounters had left a bitter taste in her mouth.
“You are looking for somepony?” Ace asked, trotting swiftly to keep up with the long-legged Sparkle. “Please, allow my companions and I to help you search; it is the least we can do.”
Death paused, if only for an instant. She shrugged and replied, “An old friend of mine, Black Hammer, is somewhere nearby. I wish to speak with him. He is an elderly unicorn stallion, and is likely searching for somepony himself.”
“I understand, my Lady! I will inform the others, and we will begin searching at once!” Sparkle nodded. Ace turned and galloped away, much to Sparkle’s relief. If they helped her find Black Hammer faster, she’d be grateful; if not, then they were at least otherwise occupied.
Eventually, she did manage to spot her late mentor’s soul, without having needed the cultist’s help. She trotted up to him. “Black Hammer.”
The elderly dark enchanter bowed his head. “Lady Death,” he replied.
“I heard from my Sleeper that you were searching for information on Sparkle,” she said. “I believe I have all the information you seek, and more.”
His eyes lit up. “Really? Please, I beg of you, what became of Sparkle?”
Sparkle simply offered one of her six hooves. “Let me show you.”
He took her hoof eagerly. Being already dead, her lethal touch had no effect on him. With little more than a thought, the two of them vanished into the shadows. Together, they reappeared inside Sparkle’s castle, specifically inside her bedroom. 
As she trotted over to her nightstand, she activated her soul-sorting spell for the first time. Her vision wavered momentarily, but then it fully took hold and latched onto her soul and soul-sight. Her eyes glanced back at her mentor, the pony she loved almost as much as her own immediate family. In that instant, his soul seemed to unfold before her. Every little mark and crease suddenly had a novel-length story in her eyes. His entire history, as seen through his own eyes, was bare before her, and in an instant, she understood it all.
Brought up by the spell, she knew in that instant where he stood on the balance of good and evil, measured on a numeric scale. The number eleven floated over his head. Sparkle smiled. He’d just barely made it into paradise, but that was better than purgatory. 
Still grinning from the confirmation that her mentor was a good pony, despite what the ponies of Canterlot had said, Sparkle opened up her drawer and pulled out two of her most prized possessions. Both of those items were very real and not conjured by the magic of the afterlife. It gave them a solidity that nothing conjured possessed.
She levitated the two objects to her mentor. “I’ve cherished these since the day they were made. One was a gift from my mentor, while the other was made by me to impress him. I believe you’ll recognize them.”
When Hammer saw them, his eyes went so wide that Sparkle wondered if they were going to fall out of his head. “These...”
On the left was a simple slide whistle, bearing a crudely made curse that affected blood flow. On the right was an extremely well-crafted and heavily cursed dagger, wrapped in decorative crimson cloth. Sparkle unwrapped the cloth and held the dagger aloft. “I was told that there was only one pony that this bloodthirsty dagger would never hurt.”
She plunged the blade at her heart with her full strength. As she had known it would, the blade pressed into her skin, but never punctured it - not by virtue of her divinity, but because the blade refused to harm its master. Had she been literally anypony else, the blade would have killed her had she even nicked herself.
“Sparks?”
She pulled her grandfather-figure into a bone-crushing hug. “Hey, Hammer. It’s good to see you again. I missed you so much.”



It was a veritable sea of souls that they had to wade through. Even with Thorn and Cobalt helping, as the Soul-Sorting spell had transferred to them as well, sorting through the plethora of the dead took time. And even with each sorting taking only seconds of hyper-accelerated time, they had been working for hours.
Finally, finally, they were done. All the souls of the dead had been sorted, and those that had been wronged by Sparkle had had their wishes listed and sorted as well. It was with no small amount of pleasure that Sparkle was able to finally declare the afterlife “open for business,” so to speak. She still had a massive list of things to do, and she knew that more things would be coming every day, but at least she was caught up for now.
The deathly trio then joined Twilight and the twins’ parents. “So, are we ready?” Sparkle asked.
Twilight nodded. “Yes. Everything is up and running for me. Soul production is at 100%, and the energy is flowing freely from the afterlife to the tree of souls. I’m ready.”
“You know,” Thorn said, “it feels odd going back to the real world after all this time. Even though this place is the dream, the real world seems distant and hazy...”
“And yet it feels like we were there just yesterday, all at the same time,” Sparkle finished.
“Well then, I suppose that I’ll see you soon?” Twilight asked.
“Hey, we don’t have to split up just yet,” Sparkle said. “You were having trouble with the vines on your side, and I was having trouble with them on my side. But now that we have a way to cross between the two-”
“We can fight them together!” Twilight cheered.
“We’re two halves of the same whole,” Sparkle said. “Why shouldn’t we fight together?” She paused. “And I think I just realized what I meant when I told myself that coin metaphor all those years ago.”
“What metaphor?” Twilight asked.
“A coin has two sides, and one is always the winner. Flip accordingly. If one of us can’t fix something, the other should be able to,” Sparkle answered.
“That makes sense. So, which world do we fix first?”
“Let’s start with you; weren’t you on the defensive when you left?” Sparkle asked.
Twilight nodded. “Yes.” Her horn illuminated with light magic. Before her, a portal to her home opened up.
Sparkle mirrored her with dark magic, opening a portal to her own world. Twilight looked at her inquisitively, until she saw that Sparkle was pulling Scootaloo and Sombra back through the portal. Sparkle explained that with their return to the real world, the time dilation would end, leaving the two ponies at the mercy of the vines, and that by bringing them back, she could protect them.
“What are you going to do with Sombra anyway?” the light goddess asked.
“Well, I was going to use him as a spare body, or as a magic teacher, but now... I was thinking of killing him for real and using him as a servant. It would be fitting, seeing as he enslaved his own people. Or we could always melt him down to use in the next generation of souls, after heavy filtration of course.”
“Just don’t be excessively cruel,” Twilight replied. “Don’t be cruel to anypony, if you can avoid it.”
“... I’ll try.”
“That’s all I ask,” Twilight replied. “Now, let’s go kick some vine butts.”



Approximately 48 seconds after the first pulse had raced through all of space-time, a second, stronger pulse burst forth in the “light” timeline. Those attuned to it, both light and dark mages, as well as the magically sensitive individuals across the world, all recognized that something had fundamentally changed.
The goddess Life had awoken, and had made her first appearance.
Thirteen figures immediately appeared around the portal from which she and her sister emerged. Twelve of those thirteen were gray stallions, lacking in manes, tails, and eyebrows. Each was dressed in an identical gray suit and wearing a gray fedora. The thirteenth was less of a person and more of a distortion in the very fabric of reality, invisible to all but the most powerful of beings, and even then was hard to see.
Sparkle’s soul-sorting and soul-sight abilities almost immediately went on the fritz, but in that single instant of sight, she caught a glimpse of something very alien in nature.
“Death,” the gathered stallions all said in unison. “We need to talk.”
“Who are you?” Sparkle demanded. “And what are you?”
“We are Time.” And then time froze. The air stopped. Sound stopped. Light stopped. Even their bodies stopped. Their awareness, however, didn’t stop.
And then, a meaningless amount of time later, time resumed. And the two goddesses saw the stallions for what they were. Thirteen fragments of a whole, they were at once one being and many. Unlike Sparkle and Thorn, they appeared to have been violently torn asunder, rather than having been carefully split.
“You have traveled into the past. You have met your past self, before your own ascension. You are a threat to the very integrity to this universe. Retrace your steps and create yourself, or the universe risks destruction. Do not try and cross us. We have erased your mistakes with time before; we will do it again if necessary. It will be even more painful the next time.”
The thirteen vanished, their warning having been delivered. Twilight and Sparkle were left standing in the forest they had appeared in, completely alone, and very confused. “What was that?” Twilight asked.
“You know just as much as I do,” Sparkle responded. “Come on, we can deal with this “Time” group later. They don’t seem so keen on sticking around right now. Let’s deal with the vines first.”
“Right.”



Purging out the vines was almost trivial, they realized quickly. It wasn’t even their nature as goddesses that helped them so much. Twilight had struggled because she was stuck on the defensive, and had no ability to counter. Sparkle had struggled because her lack of defense had cost her most of her offensive arsonal. 
Twilight cast the same magic-protecting light spell on Sparkle, which freed her from the disruptive influence of the vines and enabled her to cast a few highly malicious (and highly illegal) curses at the vines that were left, causing them to wither into ashes.
What actually ended up being the real challenge when they returned was the sudden onslaught of sensory information from their respective domains. Twilight could feel when every new soul was needed, and Sparkle could feel when and where every death was occurring. In the case of the latter, some of the deaths passed her by in the blink of an eye, or felt horribly drawn out. Some were loud, and Sparkle realized that those were ponies who knew they were dying, while others were quiet to her senses, meaning that the ponies were surprised or unaware of their deaths. And with a soul being born or dying every few seconds, the onslaught was almost constant for them.
Life and Death pushed it aside as much as they could, knowing that it would take time for them to get used to their abilities working in real time. Instead, they focused on the task at hoof, which was currently getting to Sparkle’s world so that they could end the remaining vines there as well.
The portal opened up before them, carrying them to the afterlife. Another opened up soon after. This time, Cobalt and Thorn crossed over with them, returning to their own timeline once more. Together, they set off to purge the last of the vines.



Again, a pulse rippled outwards from the moment they appeared. This time, however, it was the darker factions that took more notice, as Sparkle resonated more strongly with her own time.
In Ponyville, a mare by the name of Marionette clutched her head. The ex-Death cultist panicked. That wave of power could have only been from one source: Lady Death. 
Marionette knew she had a debt to pay. She had incurred Death’s wrath with her foolish plans, and she knew that Death would soon come to collect. However, in her fear, she had devised a plan to save herself - or at least, protect herself against eternal damnation. She knew that now it was time to act.
Her stuff was already packed. She’d been living out of a suitcase in her own home since Death’s visit a little over a year ago. Now it was time to flee.
Her route was already planned, and so was her destination. What she needed was a tiny, isolated town in which nothing ever happened, and in which she could bunker down in. Luckily, her second cousin, Starlight Glimmer, was the mayor of such a town, and was sure to welcome her with open hooves.
> The Proper Procedure to Procure a Pretty Pony Princess's Power
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight stared at Sparkle. 
Sparkle stared back at Twilight.
Thorn stared at them both.
Cobalt looked at the three of them curiously, wondering why they were staring at each other.
“I’m guessing it’s not just Thorn and me, then?” Sparkle asked.
Twilight’s stomach rumbled angrily, a passionate echo of Sparkle’s and Thorn’s own stomachs. “Definitely not.”
A general rule of thumb was that ponies, especially those that used unicorn style magic, ate food in amounts proportional to their magical power. And, while not strictly necessary for them, even alicorns like Celestia and Luna generally fit that pattern.
Sparkle and Twilight had just spent years in a place where dreams were just as real as physical matter, a place where their every material wish could come true. Unintentionally, this included keeping their stomachs comfortably full at all times, such that they rarely felt hunger.
But, seeing as nothing conjured in the afterlife’s pocket dimension could ever cross to the real world, their stomachs were forcefully emptied of everything save for a few half-digested cookies. From their perspective, it had been years since their last substantial meal, and all that hunger was coming back to them all at once. And since the plunder vines had been dealt with and Scootaloo had been returned to the orphanage, there was nothing left to immediately distract them.
“Hayburgers?” Twilight suggested.
“Nah, let’s get something a bit more meaty,” Thorn suggested.
Sparkle nodded in agreement. “Sure. I know a good place in Canterlot; I’ll pay.”
“Wait, shouldn't I pay?” Twilight asked. “I mean, besides Cobalt, I’m the only one with a paying job at the moment.”
“Twi, we’re in my timeline right now. Do you even have any bits on you?” Sparkle countered. “No? Then shut up and let your sister treat you. You can pay me back later, if you want. Besides, Cobalt pays me for tutoring him. You didn't think I was teaching him for free, did you?” Sparkle held out one of her hooves. “Come on.”
Twilight grabbed Sparkle’s hoof. “Sure.”
Sparkle looked back with one set of eyes. “Cobalt, you coming, or are you going to go your own way for now?”
“I think I’m going to head off on my own once we get to Canterlot. I’ve got a few contacts that I need to speak with. Do you mind me announcing that I’m your Sleeper to certain trustworthy circles? I won’t mention your real identity, though.”
“Sure, go ahead,” Sparkle replied. “And watch out for the death touch; I don't know if it's transferred to you as well.”
“I’ll be careful,” he replied. He stuck out a hoof and twirled one of Sparkle’s tail vines around his fetlock. “Ready.”
Sparkle nodded. Her body rapidly dissolved into black smoke, and the transformation spread to Twilight and Cobalt at their respective points of contact. Over to the side, Thorn mimicked the transformation. Now no more solid than a stormcloud, the four of them rapidly sank into the shadows.
They rematerialized in a secluded alleyway. Even before her body had finished emerging from the darkness, and well before it had finished solidifying, the portion of the cloud that was vaguely Sparkle’s horn crackled with dark energy. Had anypony been watching, they would have seen two giant unicorns, an earth pony, and a centaur appear, rather than the deities of Life and Death; such was the power of Sparkle’s illusions.
“Whoa... that was weird,” Twilight remarked. “Is that what it feels like to teleport for you?”
“You don’t actually feel the teleportation,” Sparkle replied. “That was the formlessness you were feeling. It takes some getting used to. Now come on! I’m hungry!”
Twilight merely motioned with her hoof. 
Sparkle looked over at Cobalt, who nodded in thanks and trotted off to do his own thing. Then, turning in the opposite direction, Sparkle started trotting while her son and sister followed behind.



“So I have to ask, before we commit to this place that I’m thinking of,” Sparkle began, “but are you opposed to extremely traditional Griffin Empire food?”
“I’ve never even had regular griffin food,” Twilight answered as she trotted behind her sister. “But right now, I’m hungry enough to devour just about anything.”
“Heh. Well, at least this place has some more normal food if you’re not into - and pardon me while I butcher this word - skrȅroa.” She pronounced the word skree-row-ah; She knew the moment she choked out the unfamiliar griffin term that she had utterly failed to pronounce it correctly. “And no, there’s no common tongue translation.”
“What’s it like?”
“Delicious.” Sparkle turned a corner and kept trotting. This alley was even narrower than the one they had just left. “But also utterly unpalatable if you’re not fully determined to ignore its appearance take the first bite. And if you don’t eat it when you ask for it, they get really pissed off. You choke it down, or you leave with less blood than you came in with.” Twilight tried to say something, but Sparkle cut her off. “No, I’m deadly serious.”
“Meh, I could finish her portion if she doesn’t want it. They wouldn’t care then,” Thorn remarked.
Sparkle shrugged in agreement; since she was walking, the action involved a higher than usual step with her first pair of forelegs. That wouldn’t have been a problem if she only had four legs, but she had six, resulting in her unceremoniously face planting on the cobblestone street. Hoisting herself up, she muttered a few swears under her breath. “Ignore that. Anyway, you want to try this place?”
“Sure, I guess...” Twilight replied. In truth, she wasn’t sure, but her stomach was protesting too loudly for her to refuse the offer.
Sparkle’s eyes lit up, and Thorn mirrored the action to a lesser degree. “Great,” they said as one.
They turned another corner. This new path was less of a street and more of a gap between buildings. Thorn’s claws and wingtips brushed against the opposite walls even as he pulled the latter in tight; very soon, he’d be too big to come anymore.
When Sparkle stopped at a seemingly ordinary patch of wall, Twilight cocked her head to the side. “Why-”
“This place isn’t strictly above board, if you catch my drift,” Sparkle said. “But, it’s worth it. A griffin introduced me to this place when he wanted my services. It was one of the few times I said yes.” She bent down and examined a few of the bricks. Apparently finding what she was seeking, she tapped one of them thrice.
Another brick, this one about eye level, slid into the wall and moved aside. “What?”
“Password,” Sparkle muttered; from the extremely faint darkness enshrouding her horn, Twilight assumed that Sparkle was making the gruff voice’s owner hear something very different.
“How can I help you?” The voice inquired. Despite being just as gravely as before, it was noticeably calmer sounding.
“Three to see the lineup, three to dine. We might require an assistant - still undecided.”
There was a scuffle-scratch and a click. The wall soundlessly slid back, revealing its true nature as a door. “Down and to the left,” the voice said, its owner having moved out of sight as the door opened.
They walked inside, ducking so as to not hit their horns or spines on the doorframe. The moment they were inside, the door shut with the same non-sound, though the latch did click softly to announce its security. The griffin that had been standing behind the door, the owner of the voice, said, “Illusions down; I know you’re wearing them. Disguises too, if you are changelings.”
“Very well,” Sparkle acquiesced. Like shattered glass, her illusions fell away.
In that instance, Sparkle swore there was an explosion. The griffin in front of her puffed up so fast that it was practically audible. A pathetic little chirp squeezed its way out of the puff ball’s beak.
Thorn’s baritone laugh punctured the silence, and allowed the puffin to deflate back down to a griffin. Composing himself, the griffin motioned to a staircase with his mocha wing. 
They descended several stories. Twilight wondered how deep they were going, for at this depth, they were likely within the mountain itself by now.
Sparkle broke the silence. “Twilight.”
“Yes?”
“Whatever you do, don’t make any more of a scene than we’re going to make already.”
And with those words settling into Twilight as if she’d swallowed a brick, they came upon a simple, black-painted wooden door. The dark goddess pushed it open with her magic.
Conversation graced their ears, though it faded fast. It seemed that they had brought silence with them, as all eyes turned to face them and all voices ceased abruptly. Sparkle walked in as if that were perfectly normal.
Of all the things Twilight expected to see, a bunch of cows milling around, being watched by several armed griffins, was not it. Cows were a rare sight in cities, and it was almost always a solitary cow, rather than the numbers here now. Even though they were as intelligent as ponies and fully capable of speech, cows as a whole had never been very particular to living in anything more than wild herds or as farm animals comparable to simple pigs. And yet here they were, underground in the heart of Canterlot.
In the time it took Twilight to process that, conversation was already starting to pick back up. She blinked, realizing suddenly that her sister and nephew were walking towards the group, looking around as if they were searching for someone in particular. Further, their eyes kept darting to each other, a sign that they were telepathically communicating.
Finally, they stopped in front of what had to be the largest cow in the room. “She’ll do,” Thorn said.
The cow seemed pleasantly surprised at this. “Me?” She mooed with joy. “Ya hear that, girls? It’s my turn!”
There was a small amount of applauding hoof-stomping, though Twilight couldn’t fathom why. Her stomach ached too much to care.
The cow led them into another room; this one was composed of many smaller rooms, each one divided with a sliding door. Leading them to an unoccupied room, furnished only with a wide table and a low, wide grill, the cow led them inside. Sparkle and Thorn sat down on the floor, and Twilight mimicked them a beat later.
“Oh, I’m so glad you picked me,” the cow said cheerfully. “Now, what can I get you?”
“Water for me,” Sparkle said.
Once the other two had given their drink order, the cow asked, “And to eat?”
“Everything you’ve got,” Sparkle said.
The cow quivered. “Everything? That is a lot of food...”
“Don’t worry; I promise we’ll eat it all. But, if you could...” Sparkle leaned in close and whispered into the cow’s ear, careful not to actually touch her.
“Of course! That is not a problem, ma’am.” The cow bowed her head. “I hope I am delicious for you!”
And with that, she hurried out of the room and shut the sliding door.
“Wait, what?” Twilight asked.
Sparkle smirked. “Why, she’s the main course.”
“She seemed really eager to be eaten,” Thorn remarked.
“I know. And did you see those flanks on her? She’s going to be so juicy.”
“Seriously, WHAT THE BUCK?” Twilight screamed.
“This is a skrȅroa restaurant. It’s for griffins who want to kill their own pray. We just delegated the killing part to the house butcher. Skrȅroa cows were engineered by the griffins over thousands of years to instinctively want to be eaten, and want to die. It’s an inborn madness they afflicted on the cows. If you don’t eat them, they eventually commit suicide. At least this way, they can die happy. And that’s why you have to eat everything they serve you; to not eat something would dishonor the cow.”
Deep in the dark goddess’s mind, where she could feel the souls of those who were dying, one soul in particular suddenly sang out to her: their cow’s. With a thought, she plucked the soul from its dying body and brought it to herself.
“That’s horrible!” Twilight yelled! “That is completely messed up!”
“If trees could talk, they’d tell you to eat their fruit. These are cows that can only breed if they volunteer to be eaten. It’s the same deal for both; a loss of themselves in order to sire progeny. It’s farming.” Sparkle paused. “Also, I am fully aware that this is highly illegal in Equestria and morally reprehensible. But honestly, I’m so hungry I could eat a cow.”



Oh, how he wished that were what had happened. As he bit into his eighth chicken sandwich with far more force than strictly necessary, Thorn imagined it as juicy, bloody cowflesh from a freshly murdered bovine, imagined that his mother was enjoying it too, and imagined his aunt’s horrified expression at the thought of eating another sapient being.
But that’s all he did.
As much as he wanted to dine like the barely restrained, civilized monster he was just below the surface, Thorn found himself sitting in a fancier-than-normal-but-still-relatively-cheap diner that catered to omnivores as well. The only thing monstrous about this particular setting was the number of sandwiches the three of them - he, his mom, and his aunt, - had devoured. Well, that and the fact that Sparkle had done an unusually shoddy job of hiding them under an illusion, leading many of the other patrons of the restaurant to jump in fright every time they saw the true forms of the three of them out of the corners of their eyes.
Besides, sitting in a diner full of jumpy ponies while doing nothing but eating wouldn't have made for a very interesting story.
After each of them devoured another three sandwiches, they finally decided to call it quits. As they got up, Sparkle hugged her sister. “I suppose you're heading home now?”
“Yes,” Twilight replied. “I really should have gotten this to go; my friends are probably worried about me and I’m just sitting here, pigging out in an alternate timeline.” The faintest hint of laughter trickled out from her supple lips. “But now that we have the afterlife to bridge the gap, I expect you to visit all me the time.”
“And you, me,” Sparkle added.
“Of course.” With a twist of her magic, something almost but not exactly a spell, but rather an exercise of raw magic, Twilight formed the portal to the afterlife. “Later, sis.”
“See you!”
The portal closed, taking Twilight with it.
A beat passed.
“Really?!” Sparkle shouted as she whirled around to her son. “Why would you ever think I’d do that to Twi? Eating cows!”
“But you aren't denying that you’d want to eat cows,” Thron quipped.
A roar of exasperation ripped its way out of Sparkle’s throat. “Of course not. You know as well as I do how much I want to get my hooves bloody at this very moment. You know that we want nothing more than to rip into the ponies of this city, drink their blood, devour their flesh, and feel their souls cross over. But we’re not going to do that, and we're not even going to imagine doing that when Twilight is anywhere near us. Got it?”
“Yes, Mom.”
Her tone and her expression softened. “Look, I know that abstract death changed us, likely for the worse, and I know that we both need to vent this hunger for destruction. You did a wonderful job of hiding it from Twilight; now we just need to hide it long enough to get Luna to teach us how to shapeshift back into our real selves without bucking everything up.”
“We wouldn't want that,” Thorn agreed. And with that, the two of them set off for the castle.



Rather than the moments it normally took to craft an illusion, Sparkle took a full two minutes to refine it. She knew that it would likely fool everyone but the princesses, but she didn't need to fool them, so that didn't matter too much. But, with the illusion in place, she and Thorn walked up to the castle’s front gate.
They strolled in without issue. None of the guards or castle staff gave the pair more than a second glance. Sparkle turned down a familiar corridor that she knew would lead to the throne room. Even if Luna wasn't in there, somepony who might know where she was would be there. 
The two entered the ornate chamber, though Luna was unfortunately absent. Sparkle trotted up to a nearby guard. “Do you know where Princess Luna is?”
The guard gave her an incredulous look. “What rock have you been under? The Princesses were kidnapped by the plunder vines, and have only just escaped and returned to us. They’re running around like madmares, trying to get everything back in order. Unless the integrity of Equestria depends on you speaking to them in the next few hours, I suggest you go home and not come back for a few days.”
Sparkle glanced out the window to the now normal sky. She had forgotten that the sky had also been messed up, for by the time she and Twilight had started fighting the vines for real, the sky had already been in the process of returning to normal. Sheepishly, Sparkle realized that she hadn't even stopped to consider why the sky had been like that.
Sparkle nodded. With a quick word of thanks, she trotted off. The illusion around her then convinced the guard to pay her no more attention and move along.
Thorn walked up along side her. “Now what?”
“We wait for her,” Sparkle replied. Something caught her eye, and a devilishly playful grin bloomed on her face. Beneath the illusion, her skeletal wings shifted in anticipation. “Hey, now that I’m technically an alicorn, shouldn't I be allowed to sit on the throne?”
The devilish grin cloned itself onto Thorn’s face. “Of course, my princess.”
With childlike glee, Sparkle hopped up the short ramp, stumbled over her extra legs, regained her balance, finished climbing the ramp, and plopped down into the ruby-colored cushion of the golden throne. “Ohh... this is remarkably comfy.”
Thorn took a moment to vicariously observe the texture of the cushion through his mother’s ass, and then took the immediately succeeding moment to ponder how odd that preceding moment was in retrospect.
“You know,” Sparkle relaxedly observed, “I’m pretty sure I just set off a half dozen security spells just by sitting in this thing. Whoops.”
“Celestia must not like ponies sitting her spot,” Thorn casually remarked, dismissively waving a claw in the air.
“Yeah, and while I’d laugh at that, I’m currently finding it funnier that I’m sitting on her throne and nopony in here cares,” Sparkle countered, gazing out upon her “subjects.” Obviously, she knew that the effect was magically induced, but seeing ponies just ignore the dark goddess on the Sun’s throne did strike said goddess as humorously odd.
The throne room door opened, announcing the arrival of an irate, disheveled Princess Luna. The scowl on her face deepened when she noticed Sparkle on the throne and Thorn by her side. Sparkle wondered exactly what Luna, possibly the strongest psychic in the world, was seeing her as.
It didn’t matter, though. Sparkle tore off the illusion and hopped off the throne. She and Thorn flared their wings wide, inciting panic from the mortal ponies in the room.. “Hello, Princess Luna. I hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time.”
“Death,” Luna growled with such malice that it honestly startled both of the bearers of that title. “Begone. Thou are not wanted here.”
Sparkle looked at Thorn, and he returned the glance. She asked, “Wait, did I do something to offend you? Is this about me sitting on the throne? That was just a joke...”
“Cease thy prattle, fiend. You know what you did to us!”
Sparkle realized what was going on. “Damn, I hate time travel. Princess Luna, this is the first time we’ve met from my perspective.” Technically the first time Death had met her, but that was not so for Sparkle. “Whatever I had done to you, I have yet to do to from my perspective. I just returned from the afterlife... what... an hour and a half ago? This is literally my first day on the job.”
The anger faded slightly from her eyes, but even that dying flame still possessed burning heat.
“Even possessing innocence now does not absolve thee of thy future self’s sins in our past. Thou are obligated to construct the past, lest thee damage the fabric of reality and invoke Time’s wrath. Thou will still reap our friends.”
“Ouch,” Sparkle said, wincing. “And here I was hoping that I could get some help from you. Now I see that I’m wasting my time.”  She moved to leave. Silently, she thought to Thorn, “Come on. Let’s go... I don’t know where. Fuck, I can’t go back to the orphanage. You probably can’t go back to where you were staying in Cengoyle either. And since there’s no way I’m ever going to willingly go back to the Crystal Empire while the heart’s there, staying with Shiny’s out. Are we really-”
“Homeless in the real world?” Thorn finished. “Yes. So long, normal lives.”
“Then it’s the afterlife, then,” Sparkle reluctantly thought. After having been in the afterlife so long, the real world seemed so solid. Everything was real, and every sensation was crisp and clear. Even the minor aches and pains were more real. The solidity felt great. That it and the “Rhodium” identity she’d worked hard to craft were starting to crumble around her, Sparkle realized that her last chances for ever having a normal life were quickly fading away.
The whole exchange between mother and son took less time than it took for them to walk five steps. “Goodbye, Luna. We’ll show ourselves out,” they said, contralto and baritone speaking in a distorted harmony.
Luna almost let them go. Her jaw clenched as they passed her, trying to restrain her tongue, but a deep unease forced her to turn and speak. “Your first day?”
Both goddess and demigod paused. “Yes.”
“And you did not appear in the astral plane?”
“Should we have?”
Luna did not answer. Instead, she asked, “Your future self had a third body: the Sleeper. Does that individual exist yet?” As she spoke, her horn flickered with magic.
“He is elsewhere,” they answered, the alien quality to their voice fading. “But alive and part of us.”



Elsewhere in the castle, Celestia’s head perked up slightly. “Pardon me, ambassadors. Something urgent has come up. I am needed by my sister in the throne room. We will resume as soon as possible.”
The griffin and minotaur ambassadors, both here in this meeting to deal with the international ramifications of the sky’s strange behavior, nodded in understanding. A leader of a recovering nation had the right to deal with her own nation’s problems first.
As Celestia finished speaking and teleported away, the griffin remarked to the minotaur, “You know, she never said to wait here. If there is a problem, I would like to be there to offer support to our ally.”
The minotaur, a peculiarly quiet member of his race, shrugged and followed the griffin out of the meeting room.



A bedraggled Celestia appeared within the throne room with very little idea as to what she would find. Her sister’s message had been “death” and a set of teleportation coordinates that she recognized as the throne room’s. An accidental death, a medical emergency, an assassination attempt gone awry - all of those passed through her head.
She did not expect Death, the personification.
“Lady and Lord Death, to what do we owe the unexpected visit?”
“A fool’s errand,” Sparkle answered. Her voice was tight and her tail vines were whipping around irritably behind her, a fact that Celestia immediately picked up on. “We came for help - admittedly at a very inconvenient time, it seems - and we realized that Luna is unwilling to help us. As it is unlikely that she’d ever be willing to help us, we’ll see ourselves out.”
Celestia remembered something. “Hold on, just a moment, Death. Which version of you am I speaking with? I’ve spoken with different versions of you over the years.”
Sparkle blinked, and then filed away the fact that Celestia knew she was a time traveler for later. “The first.”
“Is that so?” Celestia remarked. “Humor me with this, but would you describe yourself as ‘desperate’ right now?”
“A bit, yes,” Sparkle replied.
“Luna, it’s time to pay up,” Celestia said, turning her attention to her sister. “Please, do whatever she’s asking for.”
Luna took a step back. “What? No!”
“Luna, she could have let Canterlot be destroyed; instead, she saved it. Whatever it is they want, we owe them that. If we don’t repay our debts, then what do you think she’ll do?”
“She is right here,” Sparkle muttered under her breath. Celestia didn’t seem to notice. Still, the princess was saying a lot of useful information, so Sparkle took the effort to try and memorize the conversation.
“Fine,” Luna relented.
Celestia turned back to Sparkle and Thorn. “I apologize for my sister. She is exhausted from our ordeal earlier today, and we’re both a little short tempered. Anyway, what is it you request?”
“Luna knows a true transformation spell, one apparently strong enough to overpower our tendency to return to our original, uninjured forms. I need it. Also, I need to know when and how I saved Canterlot if I am ever going to go back and save Canterlot.”
Both princesses looked surprised, as if they were expecting her to ask for more. “Truly?” Luna asked. “That is all? To be honest, I expected more than you to ask for my personal spell.”
“Temporary transformation is so utterly outside my skill range that I wouldn’t know where to begin,” Sparkle admitted. “And I’m the one with the magic talent in my trio.”
“Then it is good that this spell is so elegantly simple,” Luna remarked. Her horn lit up, and the light that poured out drew a simple chain of unicornian glyphs.
Sparkle read it once, then twice, and then said, “Excuse me.” She teleported over to a wall and promptly smashed her head against it. Repeatedly. “Stupid, stupid, stupid.”
Trotting back over, Sparkle groaned. “That was really all there was to it? Maker, I’m an idiot. Thank you, Princess Luna. And thank you, Princess Celestia.”
“You are welcome,” Celestia replied.
“And you are even now,” Luna added.
“Not from my perspective; I owe you two,” Sparkle countered. “So, when and how did I save Canterlot?”
“Two years ago, during the battle of Canterlot, you appeared before me in the form of an ordinary unicorn mare, which I now realize must be the form you take from Luna’s spell. You offered me the use of the afterlife to protect the city from my regeneration when I was shot with this.” Celestia’s horn flashed with sunlight gold magic. A broken longbow materialized in her magical grip, one Sparkle immediately recognized.
“They tried to kill you with the Conquest Longbow?” Sparkle asked, taking the bow her master crafted from Celestia with her magic.
“Not tried; did. The arrow struck me through the open portal, but you closed it before I could burn. Solar fire tends to leave craters the size of cities, as the land that became Horseshoe Bay can attest.”
“Wow...” Sparkle gaped, trying and failing to imagine an explosion that big. “So that’s the real favor.”
“What do you mean?” Luna asked.
“I was there, in Canterlot, that day. I met my future self, but I didn’t know that that’s what she was doing there. I also didn’t know that she was future me at the time, but that’s besides the point. I saved my own mortal life.” She shook her head. “I really need to start charting out everything I did in the past. And then figure out how to get there.”
“You don’t yet know how to time travel? But-”
“Tia,” Luna interrupted. “She ascended today.”
“Oh dear. That complicates things. But... that makes no sense. That’s not... but Apollo said...” She blinked, and her eyes refocused on Sparkle. “Who are you?”
“A dead mare. A dead drake. A stallion who’d lived in death. A centaur’s shattered remains. The daughter of a tyrant. The son of a soul eater. A parent killer thrice over. Take your pick.”
“Your name,” Celestia clarified. 
“Obsidian Knife.”
Celestia frowned. “That still makes no sense.”
“It makes perfect sense,” Sparkle countered. “You’re just missing some of the pieces of the puzzle. Anyway, I’m sure you two are busy mares. I have what I need - thank you - so my Keeper and I will be off. I’m sure we’ll meet again, someday.”
She turned on a dime and walked out the throne room door, Thorn trailing behind her. They passed by a griffin and a minotaur, who watched them pass in stunned silence.
“I think that went well,” Sparkle said. She noted with some satisfaction that she was still levitating the one of the few cursed bows Black Hammer had ever made. Celestia hadn’t managed to ask for it back before they left. She quickly tucked the broken bow into her pocket dimension. 
With a synchronous flair of their collective magic, Sparkle and Thorn activated Luna’s transformation spell, which surged inwards into their own bodies before the magic ever became visible. They started shrinking immediately. When the spell finished, an ordinary, black unicorn mare - Rhodium’s adult form - and an ordinary preteen dracolich stood where the divine pair had been. Looking over themselves through each other’s eyes, Sparkle and Thorn enjoyed the feeling of being ordinary again, even if it was only temporary.
Sparkle hopped around on her four hooves. “Alright! That’s done. Let’s see, what’s next?”
> Are You Ready for the Reap?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight’s portal deposited her back in the same stretch of the Whitetail Woods she’d appeared in the first time, when Sparkle was with her. It was where the anchor for the pocket dimension had landed, making it the sole location in her timeline she could open a portal to. 
Spinning in place, Twilight turned and trotted home. Her wings twitched, as if they were disappointed that she wasn’t using them. She may have flown a bit in her extended vacation in the afterlife, but the dreamlike properties of that world meant that any physical skill she’d learned was suspect. Even with a healing factor, she didn’t want to faceplant into the dirt.
Twilight marveled at the forest around her. Though she could not see the souls or the life force like her sister could, her ascension had given her something of a seventh sense, allowing her to perceive the life around her with just as much detail. If she had to compare it to one of the classical six - sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell, and magic - she’d compare it to a hybridization of her sense of hearing and her sense of magic.
“Trippy” was an apt word to describe it.
Unlike her sister, who had to keep her magic contained in order to prevent killing everything within a certain radius of her, Twilight let her magic flow freely. Flowers bloomed, trees visibly grew, the grass greened, and the nearby animals were whipped into an off-season mating frenzy.
She came to a gap in the trees, and found herself overlooking Ponyville. In the distance, a major part of the Everfree was smoking and burning; yet, as the flames weren’t green, Twilight knew that it hadn’t been Spike who set that fire. But with the fire brigade pegasi already taking clouds out to deal with the blaze in the already damp forest, Twilight wasn’t too worried about it.
Instead, she fixed her gaze upon her distinctive tree home. With a clear line of sight, she lit her horn and transformed her body into light, rematerializing next to her home an instant later. Then, a moment after that, she frowned.
The great oak tree that served as her home was very much alive, but compared with the hundreds of trees she’d felt in the forest not even thirty seconds ago, it felt almost sickly. That was doubly strange, since she’d been pouring life-giving light magic into it since she arrived in Ponyville. While trotting inside, she poured more of her power into the tree; strangely, it seemed to resist her magic, rather than enthusiastically accept it like most living things did. 
That warranted further investigation, and likely a chat with Sparkle, but not now. Instead, she needed to find Spike and her friends. 
“Spike!” Twilight called out. “Spike?”
There was no answer.
Turning back around, the light goddess headed for the door. “Where could that drake be?” It occurred to her that despite feeling like years to her, less than an hour had passed since she had vanished. They were likely out looking for her.
Before she could open the door, it was slammed open from the other side. There, in all his miniscule glory, was Spike. In his claw, he was clutching the letter Sparkle had sent to determine which world was which; the paper was crumpled in his tight grip. He blinked and then stared at Twilight. “The buck?”
“Language, Spike,” Twilight replied light-heartedly.
“Mom?” the drake asked, but the moment the name had left his lips, he knew he was correct; even with extra eyes, there was no hiding the mare looking out through them. “Mom? What...”
“Spike... long time, no see.” She smiled before scooping him up into a hug. “I missed you!”
“Mom! Air!” the drake gasped. Blushing, Twilight loosened her grip. 
“What happened to you?” he asked as soon as he caught his breath. “You’ve got extra eyes! And legs! And wings!”
Twilight's smile didn’t waver. “That’s a long story,” she said, “but if you send a quick letter to Princess Celestia, and then help me find the rest of my friends, I’ll explain it to you all!”
“Sure!”



Celestia arrived within minutes of getting the letter, having obviously teleported. Twilight balked momentarily at her mentor’s disheveled state. She knew that with the vines gone, Celestia would have been freed, and that she’d been free for only a short while now, but somehow that hadn’t corrected her subconscious idea that Celestia could be anything other than perfectly beautiful and elegant.
And yet, at the same time, Twilight’s new sense finally gave her a perspective on just how powerful Celestia actually was. The sun goddess radiated like the nuclear furnace she was, and just by standing near her, the rate at which Twilight was harvesting raw soul dust skyrocketed. She knew that the sun made soul dust, but she’d never expected that Celestia radiated it.
The princess had, upon arriving in the library, reacted similarly to Spike. “Twilight?”
“Hello, Princess,” Twilight replied somewhat hesitantly. It was a bit jarring realizing that she could almost look Celestia directly in the eye, after having been shorter than Celestia all her life.
“Twilight, I am so proud of you!” Celestia exclaimed. “You became an alicorn! But I don’t understand why you have the extra legs and eyes.”
“Sparkle,” Twilight replied. “She modified her soul; this is just an echo of those changes.”
“That mare,” Celestia replied, frowning. “Her folly has hurt you, my faithful student.”
The mildly vitriolic tone Celestia spoke with startled Twilight. “Princess, it’s fine. I’m used to it already. It’s a permanent reminder of our sisterhood. Besides, not to be rude, but Sparkle got the worse end of the deal.”
“What do you mean?”
“Let’s just say that her changes were worse than mine,” Twilight replied. “Well, she and Thorn.”
Celestia’s eyes went wide. “You don’t mean that she ascended as well, do you? No, of course she did. She is your alternate self. She had no choice in the matter.”
“And by ‘no choice,’ you mean?”
Celestia exhaled a little louder than normal, though it wasn’t quite a sigh. “Those of us who can ascend were born with the ability. We each bore a shard of divinity in our souls; they’re impossible to detect before that moment, but are completely obvious in retrospect. If you ascended, then every other version of you must also ascend.” Celestia paused momentarily. “Do you know your domain?”
“Life, Princess Celestia,” Twilight replied.
The disheveled, elder alicorn started pacing. “That... I had not expected that, to be honest. Given how you and your sister had both been the same mare once, and had been neither light nor dark, I had expected your domain to be magic - likely even harmony magic. But if you are Life, then am I right when I say your sister is Death?”
Twilight nodded. 
“Then I pity the ponies of her world.”
The smile on Twilight’s face vanished faster than it had come. “Celestia,” she said, dropping the elder mare’s title, “my sister may be a self-professed monster, but she has a duty now. You know me; give me a task, and I give it my all. Sparkle is the same way. Death keeps the world running properly, and benefits all the living and the future born. We know that. Even if I wasn’t there to help her, I know that she has the best interests of all life in mind. There is nothing and nopony to pity, and by pitying them anyway, you are insulting my sister, and you are insulting me.”
Now it was Celestia’s turn to be startled at the very serious, and very displeased tone her former student was directing at her, of all ponies. “Forgive me, Twilight. Lady Death has long been thought of as the enemy of all life. Though I should know better, old habits are hard to break. I did not mean to insult you... or your sister,” she replied. 
“Twilight, to change the subject, did you appear in the aether at all?”
She shook her head. “No. I appeared in the void, of all places. I found my way to Sparkle’s pocket dimension - which had turned into the afterlife - and then later found my way home.”
“The void! Oh, Twilight, are you alright?” Celestia exclaimed.
“I’m fine,” she replied. “As I said, I found my way to the afterlife. Sparkle manipulated its internal time so that we had time to figure out what was going on and get everything up and running.”
“That’s good to-” The door to the library burst open, revealing Spike and the rest of Twilight’s friends, plus Celestreea, the tree golem Twilight had created in her mentor’s image a couple years back. 
“TWILIGHT!”



It was a hectic hour, getting them all caught up. They bombarded her with questions, and in the end, Twilight agreed to show them a little demonstration of her new power. Gathering up the raw materials radiating out of the sun goddess’s body, Twilight crafted a brand new soul. Because of the sheer amount of magic involved in making the soul outside of her own body, the soul shone with visible light, letting everypony and drake see it with their own eyes.
Then, Twilight pulled at the spell matrix holding Celestreea together and interwove it into the new soul’s mind. She smiled as she wrapped it all together. Giving it a little push, the new soul floated into the tree golem.
Celestreea’s eyes shot open. “Amazing. I feel so good... so strong... so alive.”
Twilight smiled. “You have a pony sized soul now, not just a spell and a tree’s spark of life. You are a true person now.”
The golem’s, no, ent’s eyes filled with sap tears as real, genuine emotion flowed through her being for the first time. “Thank you!”
“My pleasure!”
“Twilight,” the original Celestia spoke. “There is something important I need to tell you before I leave.”
“Yes, Princess?” Twilight replied.
“I don’t think you need to call me princess any more. As of today, you are my equal, Princess Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia said.
“What?” Her lips twitched. She bowed her head as a snicker escaped, followed by another. Within seconds, it had devolved into full-blown laughter. “Me? Hehehe... A princess? Hehehe, good one.” Then she noticed that Celestia wasn’t laughing, and her own laughter quickly died. “You aren’t joking.”
“I am not.”
“But I can’t be a princess! I have no idea how to run a country! I didn’t do anything to deserve that!” Twilight cried.
“Twilight, walk with me,” Celestia ordered. Turning to Twilight’s friends and Spike, Celestia said, “Pardon us.”
As they left her stunned friends behind, Celestia told Twilight, “Twilight, I know you could deal with everything the position of Princess throws at you. I know you’ve read many, many political theory books, and I know you’ve spent many hours with me in court and while I was on duty. If you wanted, I’d hand you my crown and all the power that went with it, and I sleep easy knowing that Equestria would be in good hooves.”
Twilight shook her head. Without looking up at Celestia, Twilight spoke, “With all due respect, Princess, I don’t think that I can, or that I want to. Maybe this is Sparkle’s influence talking, but I want to see the world. I want to put my paladin training to use, fighting off the world’s darkness. Even my stay in Ponyville, I never intended it to be permanent. If I’m a princess, my duties to the government would interfere with that.”
“I knew you would say something like that, Twilight,” Celestia replied. “Gods and Goddesses have always held the highest positions in their respective homelands. Even the afterlife is referred to as the kingdom of the dead, with Death’s aspects as both their Lady and Lord. To not offer you the highest title in Equestria would amount to me declaring you lower than any of us. Even if the title is honorary, like Prince Blueblood’s, or minimal, like Princess Cadance’s, I would still like to bestow it upon you.”
Slowly, Twilight nodded. “If it was only a title, I think I would be fine with that. Yes.”
Celestia nodded once in return. “Of course. I’m sure Luna will be excited to hear of your acceptance. I’ll send a letter through Spike once all the details of your coronation are set. Now, let’s go tell your friends the good news.”



Across the temporal divide, the Lady of the Afterlife was receiving some very different information. Like her sister, she too had developed a seventh sense of sorts, but instead of seeing the life in ponies, she was seeing their death. Averaging once every few seconds, she could feel when ponies died. Those that died quickly barely registered, but those that had prolonged deaths stood out clearly to her. And, the more the soul in question understood that they were, in fact, dying, the clearer of a picture Sparkle had of their death.
Making sure that her disguise was intact, Sparkle followed the pull of one of the loudest calls. With no clear destination in mind, and only the pull of the dying soul to guide her, Sparkle teleported.
Her black smoke coalesced in a hospital. She’d be visiting hospitals a lot, Sparkle knew. After all, hospitals were the most haunted buildings in the world for a reason. 
With little more than a thought, a notice-me-not charm enveloped her body. It was mild enough that ponies could see her and move out of her way, but nopony would actually care why she was there. Nopony would see her as anything more than a patient’s family member, instead of as a dark goddess following the call of a dying soul.
She pushed open the door to a private room. The stallion on the bed didn’t even register her arrival, though she suspected that that had more to do with the i.v. drip filling him with painkillers than any of her magic.
Her sorting spell gave him his number. Twenty one. He’d been a very virtuous individual.
She let said magic fade away. “Hello,” she whispered softly. “How are you doing?”
His eyes darted over to her. “I feel like shit. I’m dying.”
“Here,” she whispered. The black magic curled off her horn and sank into his body, causing him to relax instantly.
“The pain’s gone,” he remarked.
“But that’s all.”
“Ah.” He looked at her closely. “Who are you, exactly? You aren’t a nurse.”
“No,” Sparkle laughed. “I’d be a very bad nurse.”
“Ah, don’t be so hard on yourself. I think you’d be a really good one. I’m feeling better already,” the bedridden earth pony remarked.
“But it’s only a feeling. Still, it’s the least I could do. You did call out to me, after all,” she replied.
“No, I didn’t,” he replied.
“Bluejay,” she said, using the name she had learned from using the sorting spell on him, “your soul called out to me. I came.”
His head flopped back on the pillow. “Ah. You know, I didn’t expect you to look like a beautiful young mare, Death.”
“I assure you, it’s better than what I really look like,” Sparkle replied. “Are you ready, then? Your soul is already starting to come loose; if I take you now, you won’t have to feel your brain dying.”
“Yeah,” Bluejay replied. “I think I am.”
Sparkle nodded. With all the care one would hold a newborn foal, Sparkle cradled the stallion’s soul and lifted him out of his body. And with equal care, as his body took its last breath, she took the soul within herself, and through herself, to the afterlife.
The heart monitor spell blared, signaling that it was time for her to leave. And so, with no goal but the next loud call in mind, she teleported away.
This time, she found herself on the edge of a bridge near San Fransiscolt. The mare she found herself appearing next to looked far healthier than the stallion before. The number six floated over her head in Sparkle’s vision. This mare was purgatory bound.
“I wouldn’t jump if I were you,” Sparkle said. The mare blinked and turned to look at her. “Hitting the water from this high is like hitting stone. You’ll break, but you might not die.”
The mare looked over the edge, and then took a half step back. “Why shouldn’t I? I’ve got nothing left to live for.”
“And what about tomorrow?” Sparkle asked. “My sister may have given you lemons, but tomorrow, you could be sipping sweet, sweet lemonade.”
“Whatever.”
“I couldn’t have said it better myself. Whatever. Tomorrow could have been better. Tomorrow could have been worse. But whatever. You don’t care. I guess you should just jump.”
Sparkle’s magic shoved her off the bridge. The mare screamed, but Sparkle stayed focused as she enveloped the mare in telekinetic force. With a heave, she pulled the falling mare back up, seconds before she would have hit the water at a literal break-neck speed.
The dark goddess set the shaking mare down on the bridge. “Now, are you still going to jump? I won’t be there to catch you if you do.”
And with that, Sparkle stood up and walked away. She knew that she’d gotten through that mare’s thick skull. The dark goddess could feel her death call fading away, and her life stretching on into the future. How far it went, she didn’t know, but she knew that the mare wouldn’t be dying today. And maybe, just maybe, she’d bought that mare enough time to raise that number over her head before then.



The third death call Sparkle received that day that was strong enough to really catch her attention came hours later, just as she was finishing up some broccoli pizza. The type of soul felt different than the first two - it was a dragon’s, she realized - but the cause of death seemed to be disease, like Bluejay’s was. Still, just by looking at the death call, she knew that it was going to be hours before they fully died.
But, with nothing urgent that she had to do, Sparkle shrouded herself in a more powerful notice-me-not and teleported.
The first thing she noticed was the heat. It was massively intense, though the bits of draconic magic (and now biology) that she had inherited from Thorn made the triple digit temperatures a non-issue now.
The second thing she noticed was that she was in a massive caldera, standing at the edge of a pool of molten liquid. It didn’t look like lava, though; the color was off. She levitated a little blob of the liquid out of the pool and watched as it cooled into a bright, gold metal. On second thought, gold might have been exactly what it was, which meant that she was standing on the edge of the legendary Gold Lake. Hastily, she threw the little golden nugget back into the pool; such riches were not hers to take.
But, seeing as there were thousands of dragons here in the Caldera, finding the one thing she did intend to take might be a challenge. Still, he wasn’t due to die for a few more hours, so all she had to do was sit back and watch for a sickly dragon.
“Thorn, look at this,” she thought. Immediately, she could feel her son’s consciousness pressing into hers, looking through her eyes.
“Wow. That’s a lot of dragons.”
“This is Gold Lake. You know what that means.”
“Lady Evrfyr, the Flame!” Thorn exclaimed. The goddess of fire, Lady Evrfyr was to dragons as Celestia was to ordinary ponies. She also happened to be the richest being in the world; you had to be in order to be able to afford a bed made out of a pool of pure, molten gold the size of a small lake.
“If she surfaces, I’ll be sure to watch her for you,” Sparkle promised. “Now, I just have to find the sick dragon.”
“There,” Thorn replied instantly, calling her attention to a slim blue dragon at her ten o’clock. Sure enough, his soul was only loosely attached to his body, a sure sign that his body was slowly failing.
“Good eye,” Sparkle replied, genuinely impressed. “How did you spot him that quickly?”
“See how his head is drooping and his tail is curling upwards? I do that sometimes when I’m in pain. He’s probably really hurting, and just gritting his teeth and bearing it,” Thorn answered.
Unfortunately, given how many dragons were nearby, if she were to announce her presence in what amounted to a holy temple for the dragons, she’d get way too much unwanted attention. And using magic to ease his pain would definitely announce her presence.
“Hey, Thorn, are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Sparkle asked
The dracolich refocused his attention to her eyes. “Yeah, none of these dragons have a number over seven.”
“There should be some higher numbers here. Remind me to check the calibration of the spell, and interview a few dragons as well,” Sparkle thought to her son. “Maybe this is just a bad bunch, but I don’t want to be sending dragons to a worse fate than they deserve.”
And so Sparkle waited. More dragons kept pouring into the caldera as time went on, all of which took up a position around the lake, using the caldera walls as stadium style seating. A sense of excitement built in the air; Sparkle could hear the dragons chatting eagerly.
The dragon that had unintentionally drawn her here slowly limped his way down to the edge of the lake. Tilting his head upwards, the dragon gathered a small, azure flame in his mouth, and then changed it. The flame flickered, and he ROARED.
The sound was bone-rattlingly loud. It was a single, sustained note bellowed at a volume that no lungs could ever produce; indeed, it wasn’t his lungs that were making the sound at all. It was a pyro-acoustic roar, made by dragons repeatedly detonating their fuel in their mouths at such a speed that the successive blast waves are perceived as a single, continuous tone.
And it was loud enough to force Sparkle to drop to the ground and clutch her ears in pain.
When the cacophony finally abated, Sparkle picked herself off the ground. She saw that the sick dragon was speaking to the gathered dragon crowd, but she couldn’t hear him due to the ringing in her ears. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because as her hearing came back, Sparkle realized that he was speaking in draconian, a language that she and, unfortunately, Thorn could not speak.
The molten lake rippled. From the center, a set of spires started rising out of it. A second later, Sparkle corrected herself when she realized that they weren’t actually spires, but the spines protruding from an absolutely massive dragon’s head.
The largest Thorn had ever gotten was about the size of a ten story building, so large that he could have eaten a half dozen ponies in a single bite, and could have swallowed without chewing. This dragon could have eaten Thorn’s head when he was that size with the same ease. In fact, she could likely eat all of him and have room for seconds, maybe even thirds.
Sparkle’s soul sight allowed her to gaze upon the dragoness’s soul, revealing to her the soul of the fire goddess. And if that wasn’t enough proof, there was the fact that the ambient temperature shot up as the great dragoness emerged.
The dragons around the caldera cheered Lady Evrfyr as she emerged, each one of them full of almost religious zeal. Even Thorn was smiling as he watched through Sparkle’s eyes. To him, Lady Evrfyr looked like the pinnacle of beauty.
The sickly dragon approached the great dragon and began speaking to her, but it was obvious that she wasn’t listening. Her eyes were sweeping back and forth over the area where Sparkle was standing, searching but not finding. 
She opened her great maw and spoke with a voice so low, so powerful, that it was comparable to a talking earthquake. “Come out, come out, little pony. Mere spells cannot hide your flame of life from me.”
The heads of countless dragons immediately turned to where Sparkle was standing. Her horn stung with the sudden strain of the notice-me-not spell warding off so many actively searching eyes all at once.
“If you won’t come out and face me in my own sanctuary, die.”
And Sparkle did.
The only way she could describe it was that every single cell in her body ceased functioning simultaneously. Upon later reflection, Sparkle would realize that Evrfyr had extinguished her fire of life, i.e. her cellular respiration, simultaneously killing every cell in her body.
And as her body collapsed, her soul, invisible to everydragon there, stood in shock. It wasn’t like the last time she had been disembodied, where she only had a vague awareness of the world around her; no, this time she could see and hear perfectly.
She watched as Lady Evrfyr reached out a massive pair of claws and picked up her now visible body. Strangely, though the notice-me-not spell had failed in her confusion, Sparkle’s transformation had not. “What a pitiful little pony. You shouldn’t have entered my home.”
And with that, the titanic dragon devoured her corpse.
‘Two can play at that game,’ Sparkle thought. She drifted over to the dying dragon and pushed his soul out, sparring him a few minutes of pain. Then, she sank into his empty corpse. Sensations flooded into her mind, the most prominent of which was pain. ‘Ugh, internal bleeding. He should have been bedridden with agony. Buck, he should have been dead hours ago.’
The corpse’s eyes started bleeding and smoking. The sclera turned a toxic green, while the azure irises turned crimson. “The eyes are the window to the soul” wasn’t a metaphor as far as magic was concerned - the expression was very literal. And, being a mortal’s corpse, the dragon’s body was in no way suited to containing the power that was a deity’s soul. But it was adapting.
“You know, that wasn’t very nice, Evrfyr,” Sparkle said, pronouncing the other goddess’s name as “ever fire.” “I was just here to escort a dying soul to his just reward, sparing him the pain of mass organ failure and internal bleeding, and you go and eat my body. For shame.”
“Ah, Death. I had long wondered when you would finally grace me with your presence. It peeves me that you claimed my secretary before I was finished with him. Alas, that is no longer my problem. It is you that holds my interest now.”
The dragon corpse’s bones crunched. Sparkle’s healing factor — having decided that the body she was inhabiting was hers, but incorrect — was trying to fix it. The flesh started writhing, and with every second, its intensity grew. Already, extra tissue was starting to slough off, making several of the nearby dragons look away in disgust.
“And why is that?” Sparkle asked, although her speech was slurred as her borrowed jaw reconfigured itself.
“Because the stories say that you are half dragon yourself. The ponies already have three goddesses, while the dragons have only me. If that’s true, then consider this an open invitation to my home and my country.”
She’d barely finished speaking before Thorn, at his largest size to date, had passed through a portal, appearing next to his almost-a-pony-again mother. “The stories are true,” he and his mother spoke as one. Idly, he scooped up some of the discarded dragonflesh that Sparkle was still shedding and popped it into his mouth in an act of casual cannibalism. He swallowed. “And I would advise against attacking my kinder half ever again. She may be opposed to casual slaughter, but I am not.”
The laugh that bellowed forth from the massive dragoness shook the very earth. “I like you. Do come back sometime. I look forward to getting to know the one that has the Sky Sisters in such a worked up state.” As she spoke, she dipped a single talon into the lake of molten gold that she was still mostly submerged in. As she drew it out again, a thick stalactite of solid gold formed on it, easily several times Sparkle’s normal height in length, though relatively speaking, it looked like a simple extension to her claw.  She snapped it off and handed the giant hunk of gold to Thorn. “Leave. Go buy yourself something nice. We’ll talk later.”
Thorn bowed deeply, and mentally nudged Sparkle to do the same. “Thank you for this gift. We’ll be in contact.” Thorn reached out and grabbed his mother, prying her now equine form from the pile of loose flesh that had once been a dragon. Swiftly, he pulled them into the afterlife.
“That was rude of her,” Sparkle muttered.
“Rude? Mom, Lady Evrfyr gave us a part of her hoard. Do you know how unheard of that is? The only time she’s ever gifted anyone with a part of her hoard was when the Storm Emperor brought down her entire army single handedly, and she paid him out of respect. Only the Wind God has ever gotten what we just got.” He hugged the spire of gold. “Spike is going to be so jealous.”
“I was referring to her trying to kill me,” Sparkle retorted. “Yes, I know how much this gift means. It also means that we’re now obligated to come visit her. She wants us on her side. For what, I don’t know, but it can’t be good.” Rubbing her temple with her hoof, she continued, “Troublesome. I just wanted a quick, easy reap. I should have just let that guy come the normal way. Now we have to deal with this.”
Thorn shrugged. “I could deal with it by myself, if you want. I’m just as much of Death as you are, and she seemed more interested in me, anyways.”
Sparkle pondered for a second. “Sure, if you want. That would be really helpful, actually.”
“Great! And maybe she’d be willing to pay us for our services,” Thorn remarked. “She may be stingy with gifts, but she’s known for paying dragons to work for her. Just think about how much money we could make!”
That got Sparkle smiling. Her ascension had done nothing to temper her draconic greed; if anything, it had mildly exacerbated it. “That reminds me, Death, in all the stories, even the fictional ones, was famous for betting on the lives she reaped and challenging them to contests to survive. That sounds like a fun way to earn some bits...” Her eyes glanced at the golden rod in Thorn’s arms. “Not that we really need them right now.”
> Crystal Mirror
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Thorn hadn’t been here in ages. Well, more precisely, it had been around a year and a half since he’d been on this particular street, but with all the distorted time he’d spent in the afterlife, it felt something like five times longer than that. He strolled down the street, relaxedly gazing about at the stone buildings of Dragon Town, Fillydelphia. He’d been drawn here by a murder gone wrong and decided to stay afterwards once he recognized the city.
He wore an illusion of being a large dragon on all fours, rather than transforming into his original four-limbed biped form, because he felt more comfortable that way, even if it did make him significantly larger even at his minimum size. Ducking under the door frame (an action his illusion didn’t mimic), Thorn entered the comic book shop owned by his acquaintance, Mina.
He spotted the pink dragoness behind the counter. She, having learned his and Spike’s size/age-changing method, stood behind the counter as one of the tallest dames in the room - an impressive feat considering that she’d been rather short the first time they met not so long ago. “Mina!”
She looked over at him. “Wait, Thorn? Is that you?”
“Sort of. Remember when we first met, how I showed you how to see my best features? Look; don’t assume,” he replied.
She did indeed remember that. How could she not? She saw his true eyes for the first time after piercing the illusion on him, and the surprise rigidly cemented the memory in her head. So, repeating what she’d done before, she took a good look at him.
The thing about illusions is that they are entirely dependant on the force of will of all those involved. The caster is trying to tell a lie, forcing the target to believe the lie over their own senses. By wanting Mina to see through his illusion, even the magic holding it up wasn’t enough to fight their synchronized wills. 
But there was another variable that Thorn had forgotten. Every time they had met Sparkle’s time traveling future self, she had been radiating a psychic aura that distorted the perception of everyone who saw her - a sign of permanent black magic corruption. That aura, while not as strong or chaotic as it would be once their ascension fully completed in a little over two weeks real time, was already present and growing. As the two of them had desired to be left to their own devices, the unconsciously emitted aura currently had a calming effect on those that saw them.
Mina, united with Thorn in their desire to let her see him, managed to break through that aura, effectively slapping her in the face with the force of his presence. As Celestia radiated the warmth of the sun, and Twilight filled a room with the essence of life, Thorn flooded the area with the chill of death.
And so, expecting to see a pair of funky eyes, Mina found herself facing a six limbed, six eyed, shadow winged giant that made her survival instincts kick into overdrive.
She bolted.
Thorn rolled all six of his bizarre eyes. No longer needing his mother’s severed horn to use magic, Thorn simply waved a hand and caught her in a black telekinetic aura. “Mina, relax.” As he spoke, he strengthened the illusions around her to the point where when she looked back, she could not see or feel any of the things that had startled her.
“Th-thorn?”
“Yeah. Sorry about scaring you; I should have warned you about that,” he said. 
The magic dissipated from Mina’s body, letting her drop a few inches to the floor. “Shit. What was that?”
“Oh, I got a few new body parts. That’s all. Mom gave them to me.” The half truth rolled easily off his tongue.
“No, not that… that… that...feeling that washed all over me! I thought I was going to die!”
Thorn frowned slightly, but didn’t let it show on the illusion’s face. “You’re not, I assure you.”
“Right. That just leaves one more thing,” she said, visibly and audibly more calm than she was seconds before. The pink dragoness marched up to the purple demigod and slugged him in the shoulder - or where she thought his shoulder was, which was actually his hip. “Fuck you, Thorn.”
Luckily, Sparkle had figured out why they were killing everything they touched, so now he was able to keep Mina from instantly dying. Of course, being an undying demigod dracolich meant nothing compared to a dame’s punch of righteous fury.
“What did I do?”
“What did you do? What did you do?! Thornecrovitar, I’ll tell you what you did!” She shouted. “You nearly exploded, and then flew away like a bat out of hell! I thought you were dying! Sure, you visited great grandpa Spike a few weeks ago to let him know you’d found his old friend, Scorpan, but you didn’t bother to come find me! For the longest time I thought you were dead! Really, truly, dead, and not just half-dead. I thought I was your friend.”
Thorn’s shoulders slumped and his spines went pitifully limp. “Oh.”
Mina glared at him, claws at her hips in the oh-so-effective ‘I’m more angry at you than I’ve ever been and it’s totally your fault’ position. “Yeah. Oh. Jerk.”
“Well, in my defense, I didn’t realize you cared that much about me.”
The sharp glare remained.
Thorn raised his hands placatingly, but realized that she couldn’t see them under the illusion. “Here, why don’t we go get something to eat? My treat.”
Her eyes glanced to the clock on the wall. Nodding to herself, she walked to the back room of the store and shouted, “Hey boss, can I take my lunch break now?” A muffled yes drifted back in reply. “Thanks!”
She turned back to Thorn. “Sure. I want miso-ruby soup. You remember where we met, right?”
Thorn smiled at the suggestion, and then widened it at the memory. “Of course.”
“And I want to know everything that happened.”
“You’d need to take the day off to get the full story,” Thorn quipped.
The pink dragoness raised an eyebrow. “I hope it’s interesting, then.”
Thorn chuckled. “Trust me, it is.”



“So you really know when somedragon is about to die?” Mina asked.
Thorn put down his fourth bowl of soup. “More like we know that they are dying while they’re in the middle of doing it, or while they are seriously trying to end their own life. A soul acknowledging the approach of death seems to be what makes it the easiest for us to see, although everything’s been getting progressively clearer since we first ascended.”
“So you don’t know when I’m going to die? Darn, and here I was hoping you’d know.” She rolled her eyes. “Actually, I’m kind of glad you don’t know. It gives life a certain amount of surprise, you know?”
Thorn nodded. “Yeah. And if it makes you feel any better, your soul is very strongly attached to your body; you’re not dying as we speak, so that’s good. And, if Mom, Cobalt, or I are feeling particularly generous, and are able to help, we can give you a little more time. Mom’s already stopped a few suicides. Feels weird doing that, though, like we’re going against our very nature.”
He paused, a thought occurring to him. “You want to see the afterlife?”
“Don’t I have to die to see that?”
Reaching into the afterlife, specifically straight into his nightstand in the castle there, Thorn pulled out a sack of bits. Counting them out, he placed them on the counter for the waitress. “Nope,” he replied. “You just have to have the key, and you can walk there. It’s a real place that one can go, but it’s also very unreal.”
Mina shrugged. “Sure, I’m game.” She hopped off her seat. “I’ll meet you after work, and then you can show me.”
Thorn grabbed her arm. “We could go now. Time flows differently in there. Days there are seconds here. We could stay for as long as you like, and nodragon would notice that you were ever gone. Come on.”
“Are you sure?”
Thorn grinned. “I guarantee it. Now, close your eyes and tuck your wings in.”
She did.
For the hell of it, Thorn opened the portal directly below their feet, literally dropping them in. Mina shrieked. Before she could open her eyes and wings to see and stop her fall, they crashed into a deep body of water. Yet, instead of floating, they continued sinking rapidly.
The pink dragoness clutched her mouth and throat, but Thorn just put a hand comfortingly on her shoulder. “Mina, breathe,” he ordered, despite being underwater. “Trust me; it’s like a dream. You can do it, just believe.”
And Mina did, and air, not water, filled her lungs. “What? How?”
“This is the Soul Sea, which lies to the south of the Elysian Fields.” A school of rainbow fish swam between the two dragons. “My grandfather built this place. He always loved the ocean.”
“He built a sea?” Mina asked disbelievingly.
“The afterlife is a world where dreams - or nightmares - are just as real as you or me,” Thorn explained. "Anything you can imagine can become reality." He grabbed Mina’s claws and, with a flick of his tail and a flap of his wings, rocketed them into the depths. Very quickly, lights started appearing below them, and soon enough, Mina could make out an entire underwater city.
Thorn pulled her towards a massive glass dome filled with shining lights and thousands of people of all species. The two of them ghosted through the glass and floated down to the floor of what Mina realized was a casino. “Welcome to Lazuli Casino. Here, you bet your own soul and your ultimate fate. Win big, and an afterlife of luxury is yours. Lose, and it’s off to the pits with you. After all, what's paradise without risk? Or the pits without hope?”
“How does one gamble their fate?” Mina asked.
In response, Thorn handed her a casino chip with a “1” on it. “With these. Everyone who dies gets a number that represents how good or evil they were in life, based on their crimes, good deeds and the context in which they were done. The afterlife alters your perception of reality - and thus reality itself - based on that number. Negative fifty to negative ten is the pits, negative ten to ten is purgatory - about the same as real life - and ten to fifty is paradise. Everything, from where you can go to what you see and feel when you get there is dependant on that number. But, you can trade it like money. If you want someone to do something for you, give them a fraction of your number. Your afterlife gets worse; their afterlife gets better.”
Mina looked at the chip with a “1” on it. “If it’s a scale with a hundred spots, then this chip must be really valuable.”
Thorn smirked. “In here, that chip is worth a few million bits. Most never gamble more than one one-millionth of their number at a time.” He could practically see the bit signs in her eyes. Waving his hand, he conjured a bucket full of those chips, and chips of other fractional denominations, and handed it to her. She instantly grew a few inches. “So, want to play? My treat.”



Mina may have been treated like royalty that day, but Twilight, to the amusement of her family, now was royalty. It was the second day since her coronation, and she had just arrived in the Crystal Empire for the Equestrian Royal Summit. Political leaders from all over Equestria, rulers from their neighboring satellite nations, and diplomats from most major nations would be in attendance.
Twilight herself was only attending as a figurehead, much like her technically equal male counterpart, Prince Blueblood. Although in truth, due to her family's rapidly skyrocketing political clout - thanks to having sired not one, but two royals - and her status as a true alicorn, not just a pegacorn like some past princes, she actually outranked the blond prince.
With her crown - a new setting for the star-shaped Element of Magic - atop her head, she and her guard escort made their way to the massive conference room that the summit meeting was being held in. Although she wouldn’t be participating in the meeting’s discussion, Princesses Celestia and Luna had insisted she be there. When she’d asked why out of curiosity, Luna had informed her that Equestria was making a statement in an attempt to help them curry more political and economic in order to catch up to the more industrial economies of the minotaurs and the griffins.
“Princess Twilight!” Twilight looked to her right and saw Cadance and Shining Armor approaching her. It had been her brother that had spoke. “Princess Twilight. I still can’t believe that my sister is a princess!”
“I can’t believe it either,” Cadance said. The sheer amount of love the pink goddess was emitting was palpable even to Twilight. No wonder the changelings had been after her and Shiny.
The youngest of the three blushed. “It’s just a title,” she said, having said the same thing to them when they first found out.
“Aww, but Twily, don’t you remember those little tea parties we had when you were a foal? You used to pretend that you were a princess too,” Cadance said. 
Twilight’s blush intensified. “Yeah, but I-”
Cadance cut her off. “And don’t forget how we dragged Shiny into our little game.”
“He was your prince charming from day one,” Twilight said. “Even if he was a dork.”
“I’m right here, you know!” The blue-maned prince whined.
“We know,” Cadance and Twilight jointly replied. Cadance continued alone, “Why do you think we were bringing that up?”
Shining, blushing like his sister had been, motioned with his head. “Come on. We need to introduce you to the world, and those stuffy politicians aren’t going to like being kept waiting.”
The goddess of life sighed. “Right. Let’s just get this over with.”



To her misfortune, her first public appearance seemed to drag on forever. Somehow, what should have been a quick little pre-rehearsed speech had devolved into a Q-and-A session that, while not terribly long, had been massively draining. She could just see all of those important individuals judging her, and she hoped that they, composed of every sapient species on the planet, judged her favorably.
The resulting anxiety gotten her so worked up that even now, as she tried to drift off to sleep, her twitchy wings kept her awake. It didn’t help that she wasn’t even in her own bed, or the impossibly comfy beds of the afterlife.
But, at last, she did manage to drift to sleep.



Flash Sentry was patrolling the halls of the Crystal Palace in both timelines. However, since the Empire had returned months earlier in one timeline, the resulting cascade of effects meant that he was nowhere near his doppelganger. One was patrolling near the southern, fourth floor corridor, watching for anypony who might try to approach Princess Twilight’s room. 
The other, since there was no Princess Twilight in his timeline, was instead patrolling through the third floor’s small library. Not being as large, elegant, or easily accessible as the main library on the first floor, the third floor library was rarely used. Still, it, like all the other public rooms, had to be patrolled.
Now, Flash Sentry was rather talented in aeromancy - wind manipulation magic. Specifically, he was good at reading the flow of air. And while it did give him some extra skill in music, his prefered application of his ordinary talent was listening for movement during a night patrol.
So, when he felt the flow of air in the library change, but no sound accompanied it, his gut instinct told him something was wrong. His first assumption, drilled into him by his sergeant, was that there was a unicorn or pegasus using their abilities to muffle the sound. He immediately turned to investigate, but kept walking at the same cadence so as not to alert whoever was there to his awareness.
Following the twitch of his feathers, Flash Sentry rounded a corner and spotted a pony in a brown cloak. The pony saw him too.
Panicking, the cloaked pony grabbed him with her green magic and slammed him into the crystal bookshelf and then turned and ran, never looking back.
That particular bookshelf, however, was built with a structural flaw in the crystal. When Flash struck the stone, his metal armor cracked the crystal in just the wrong place. Loaded up with hundreds upon hundreds of books, the damaged shelves could no longer bear the weight.
Metal shelves would have deformed on failure. Wooden shelves would have cracked and splintered, but would have flexed without collapsing. Crystal, however, is different. Terribly rigid and horribly inflexible, the only thing crystal could do on failure is shatter.
Books and broken crystal rained down on the disoriented guard, pinning him to the ground and slicing his exposed skin to ribbons. But, despite being horribly maimed and having his lungs crushed, Flash Sentry did not pass out from shock. In fact, the adrenaline had given him an unusual clarity of the situation. 
Unless he could free himself from this pile, and soon, he would die.
Ironically, it was that very thought that was his salvation.
“Sheesh, what a mess. That shelf really did a number on you. Are there no health and safety standards in this building?”
The pain faded, and Flash found the strength to look up at his savior. Six glowing eyes looked back down at him. “So, as you can probably guess, you're dying. But, if you want to live, I ask: do you want to play a game?”
Flash nodded; what else could he have done?
“Good.” Magic surrounded the books and crystal shards and pried them off. More magic spread around Flash’s body. “So, right now, your body is being kept alive by a spell I placed on you, and that spell is being powered by feeding on your own magic. You cannot die until that spell wears off, but without help, you will die for certain if it does.” She finished prying the books off of him. “So you better get to a doctor. How long do you have to live, before you run out of magic? I don't know, but the clock is ticking, soldier. The clock. Is. Ticking!” 
Flash Sentry picked himself off the ground and stood on three legs, since one of them was broken. Yet, despite his (no longer bleeding) wounds and his (strangely painless) leg break, the soldier hobbled forwards. The idea of survival filled him with determination.
The death goddess smiled as she watched him leave, knowing that he wouldn't die. The “game” was rigged heavily in his favor, after all. 
She looked about. Where was she? Even having done this so many times already, Sparkle was only navigating by death calls and had no clue where she’d end up. Landmarks tended to be her biggest clues, but she wasn't well traveled enough to recognize many places.
The crystal around her was a big clue. A feeling of dread descended upon her, and rightly so. She was in the Crystal Empire.
Memories of the Crystal Heart shattering her flashed through her mind. Her chest tensed. Her jaw clenched. Her legs locked into place.
And then she buried most of that fear with magic. Twilight would be mad that she was messing with her own head again, but Sparkle didn't care at the moment.
She took a second to take stock of her situation. If she was in the Crystal Empire, the heart was sure to be active, and yet it wasn’t even attacking her. She didn’t know what that meant. Maybe her ascension gave herself some immunity to the heart’s effects, maybe her improved illusions could fool even the heart or at least confuse it, or maybe it was something else entirely.  But one thing was certain, she wasn’t sure she wanted to stick around to find out.
But, there was something else nagging at her. Why was Flash Sentry under the bookshelf in the first place? And what was that strange feeling in the air? Now that she’d noticed it, she couldn’t ignore it at all. It felt like... well, there was no other way to describe it other than an impossibly large collection of souls.
It wasn’t her nature as an aspect of Death that moved her six hooves. It was curiosity and her soul’s ravenous hunger that drove her forwards. Unfortunately, with her reasonable fear suppressed, Sparkle did the illogical thing and followed her faulty gut instinct and the “scent” of those souls.
“Cobalt, Thorn, we have a mystery to solve.”



Sunset Shimmer, Sunset Shimmer, and Sunset Shimmer had stepped out of the mirror portal. Each one was unaware of the other two, and each of the three cast the same spell.
Sunsets one and two detected a strong response from the southern, fourth floor corridor of the Crystal Palace. Sunset number three detected a weaker pull from the third floor instead. Numbers one, two, and three immediately bolted for the sources they detected. The first two found themselves before the room of Princess Twilight, goddess of life, and Princess Twilight Sparkle, goddess of magic and friendship. Inside both rooms (the same room, really), they found a crown bearing the element of magic - one in the form of a tree, and the other in the form of a star. They both quickly grabbed the Elements of Magic and bolted, only to be pursued by Twilight and Twilight Sparkle.
The third Sunset Shimmer had worse luck. She could not find the artifact her spell had detected, and had to make a retreat. In the midst of her search, she’d had to flee from a guard that had spotted her. She hoped that she hadn’t hurt him too badly, but she’d heard the crystal break.
She’d waited a few moments to see if the coast was clear, and when she had a moment, she bolted, found another hiding spot, and repeated. Seeing an opportunity, she bolted again.
Sunset came to a dead stop. There, in the intersection of two corridors, were a pony and two massive figures. Sunset had barely processed that there was something there before she was fleeing in the opposite direction. Unfortunately for her, it was the direction that the three figures were walking.



“I wonder what her hurry is?” Cobalt asked.
“No idea. Let’s keep moving.”



Sunset Shimmer, Sunset Shimmer, and Sunset Shimmer all reached the portal that they had come from. The Sunset that had stolen the star-shaped element of magic entered first. Seconds later, the tree-element stealing Sunset entered, having been delayed slightly longer by the more aggressive Twilight. The last stumbled through the portal a full six minutes later.
Unfortunately for them, there was a problem with the mirror. Sunset Shimmer, the original, had fled into the human world before the rift in the timelines had appeared, and the rift had not extended to that world. Sunset Shimmer was not affected by the phenomenon, and had aged more slowly in the human world due to the different relative times. 
When she had returned home for the first time, she’d been split among the timelines, since each one was equally her home, creating three doppelgangers. That wasn’t unusual either, as everyone alive at the moment of the split had a doppelganger, guaranteed. What was unusual was that they decided to return to that human world. Three Sunset Shimmer's, each at and in a different time, trying to go through a portal to the same point in space-time.
The mirror didn’t care. It saw each of them as a unique passenger and nothing more. So, the first Sunset stumbled out of the portal, only for another to fall on top of her. Panicking at having been chased and spontaneously duplicated, both newly re-humanized mares fled for their home on Earth. By the time the third Sunset appeared, only to flee to the same home, the first two were already long gone from the scene.



Sparkle gazed at the crystalline surface of the mirror. It was the same mirror she’d used to go to Twilight’s timeline originally, having been transported to the Empire. She’d seen the orange mare disappear through it, so Sparkle assumed that she was originally from Twilight’s timeline. And while that was just as true as saying she was from Sparkle’s own time, that wasn’t the case here.
Sparkle didn’t know how wrong she was.
“Come on, let’s go pay Twi a visit,” she said. “I heard that she was at a summit up here tonight.”
Thorn and Cobalt nodded, thinking along the same lines as Sparkle. Together, they strolled into the reflective surface of the mirror.
> Ɔɹʎsʇɐl Wᴉɹɹoɹ
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sparkle paid no heed to the lone figure running off in the pre-dawn light. The fact that she suddenly had fingers was far more interesting. “Ugh... what the buck happened?”
The three of them picked themselves off the ground, but all three found their pony-like stances very awkward. “I think,” Thorn remarked, “that these bodies are supposed to walk on two legs.”
Realizing that he was probably right, Cobalt and Sparkle corrected themselves, only to both wobble unsteadily. Cobalt’s hand shot out and grabbed Sparkle’s shoulder, steadying them. Then they took a moment to look themselves over.
Cobalt was by far the shortest of the trio, coming up to just above what Sparkle assumed were her strangely engorged teats, while Thorn stood a good head taller than both of them. The ex earth pony now resembled a monkey in form. His skin and hair were the red and pink of his coat and mane, respectively. While from head to toe, he was dressed in solid blue clothes. Blue hoodie, blue pants, blue shoes, and blue, fingerless gloves. On his hip, there was a sheathed blade hanging from his belt, one that matched his cutie mark.
Sparkle found herself in a loose, black cloak that covered her completely; the sleeves were longer than her arms, and hid her hands. Four of her eyes were obstructed, and upon investigation, she found herself wearing a skull-shaped mask of white porcelain with only two eye holes, a mask that mimicked the underlying bone of her new form. Unlike Cobalt, she had two arms emerging from each shoulder, though they were hidden by her billowy sleeves.
Finally, the largest of the trio stood with the least amount of clothing. A simple cloth, held aloft with a decorative ribbon, covered his groin and hips. On his wrists and upper arms, a thin band covered the otherwise bare limbs. And aside from some neck and head ornamentation (which reminded Thorn of Pharaoh Phetlock from the Power Ponies comics), Thorn’s upper body was completely devoid of clothing. His head, unlike Sparkle’s and Cobalt’s, was that of a six-eyed, purple-furred jackal, making him look more like a diamond dog than a monkey. He, unlike Sparkle, had only four limbs.
“It seems that we’ve been transformed into the native species, of wherever we are,” Cobalt remarked, glancing about. “Although I think it failed with you two.”
Sparkle snorted. “I’ll say.” She tried to reach out to the afterlife to check that her connection was still accessible in this strange dimension, but no portal opened. She tried to reach out with her magic, period, but found herself thwarted. “Buck... my magic.”
Now, magic is inherently a spiritual phenomenon. Thanks her training as a necromancer, her experimentation with Tirek’s magic-draining soul weapon, and experience as a death goddess, she was well versed in the manipulation of a soul’s magical energies. After about a minute of restricted self observation, she realized what was blocking her magic: the arcane equivalent of a condom.
It wasn’t even a good one, especially for somepony of her magical “size.”
She pushed and twisted and stretched her magic. With the feeling of a rubber band snapping, she freed herself of the bonds. Black magic surged from her hands (of all places), and the grass around them promptly died and browned. With a flick of her wrist, a portal to the afterlife opened, and then closed a second later. She then relayed her instructions to the other two so that they could free themselves.
With their magic free, the trio found their sense of the life and souls around them return to full capacity. In an instant, Sparkle recognized the feeling in the air as the same feeling that had drawn her to the mirror in the first place; she could feel the billions of souls of this world blurred together into one mouthwatering sensation. It made her feel similar to the sensation of not being hungry, but wanting to eat anyway just for the pleasure of it.
Sparkle gazed around. They were standing at the base of a horse statue in the yard of a large building, a school if she’d guessed right. Residential homes lined the other side of the street. In the distance, she saw some taller buildings that reminded her of Manehattan and Fillydelphia.
“Ok, I vote we go exploring for a bit,” Sparkle declared, still under the effects of her fear-suppression spell. “How often do you get to see a whole new world?”
Cobalt smiled. “That sounds like a lot of fun. I wonder what the inhabitants of this world are like? But...” Here he paused. His hand illuminated with red magic that quickly shifted to a bubbling black. An inky, pony-like shape poured out of his hands. “A specter to watch the portal for us.”
“Good idea,” Thorn remarked. Glancing to the side, he noticed that his mother had already started walking off. The two males jogged and quickly caught up to her. Once he was beside his mother, Thorn looked up at the dawn sky. “I wish I had my wings. How fun would it be to fly in an alien sky?”
The other two looked up as well. “Oh yes,” Sparkle remarked. “That would be fun.”
A vehicle raced past them on the paved road with such speed that it caused the trio to jump. Looking at it, the three of them realized that they didn’t know what it was. Sparkle’s eyes filled with glee. “Oh! I wonder what sort of magic and technology they have here!”
Thorn and Cobalt shared a knowing glance. It filled them both with joy to see the mare they loved getting so excited.



“That was Sunset Shimmer, a former student of mine,” Princess Celestia explained. 
Honorary Princess Twilight and Spike stood before the mirror that they’d seen the orange mare vanish through. Having had the Element of Magic stolen, they’d alerted the guard, who had in turn retrieved all three of the Equestrian Crown Princesses.
“She began her studies with me not long before you did, Twilight,” the solar princess continued.



“But when she did not get what she wanted as quickly as she liked,” another version of Celestia said, this time to Crown Princess Twilight Sparkle, her assistant, and the other Element bearers, “she turned cruel and dishonest. I tried to help her, but she eventually decided to abandon her studies-”



“-and pursue her own path. One that has sadly led her to stealing your crown,” the first version of Celestia finished. Unbeknownst to her or any of the beings in that room, her doppelganger had given that exact same speech at the exact same time to the exact same individuals. The only difference here was that Twilight, the goddess of Life, was not surrounded by her friends, as the goddess of Magic was.
“But where did she go? The other timeline?” Twilight asked. Her doppelganger did not ask that.
The lunar princess was the one to reply. “No. While this mirror can and has been used to traverse timelines - as your sister can attest - its primary function is traversing whole universes. In order to maintain stability, the mirror opens to other worlds predictably and periodically, for three days at a time. And while it opens in time with the full moon, for three days at a time, any one world will only reconnect once every thirty. Since the mirror has only just opened, it is likely that Sunset Shimmer has spent several years on the other side.”
“And what is on the other side?” Twilight asked.
Celestia shrugged. “I do not know. I lost track of the cycles, and I am not familiar with all thirty of the worlds it connects to by default. Plus, it has been several hundred years since I ventured through the mirror. That said, all of the worlds are inhabited by life as we understand it, and all are generally safe enough to explore, but very few have ponies.” She sighed. “I had always hoped that Sunset Shimmer would someday use it to return, to come back to Equestria seeking my guidance. Obviously, this is not what happened.”
Here, Cadance spoke up. “Twilight, you must use the mirror to go into this other world and retrieve your crown. Without it, the other Elements of Harmony are powerless and Equestria is without one of its most important defensive weapons.”
Luna spoke next. “Your crown does not belong in that world. The magic of one universe can wreak havoc on denizens of another world.”
“I know,” Twilight replied. “That’s one of the reasons paladins exist, to combat the outsiders that and demons enter our world.”
“Indeed,” Celestia replied. “And before you ask, the mirror has some safeguards that inhibit our magic on incompatible worlds. The Element of Magic, however, is far too powerful to be contained like that. Should she use it, the results could be catastrophic.”
“Now, are you ready?” Luna asked. Twilight nodded. “Good.”
Twilight stepped forwards. But, just before she pushed her hoof through what looked like a solid surface, she glanced back at her son. “Come on, Spike. Let’s do this together.”
Spike beamed and hopped onto Twilight’s back. Holding on tight, he said, “Ready!”
“Let’s go!”



Ungracefully, the goddess of magic and her number one assistant flopped onto the ground. She groaned and started picking herself off the ground. 
A second later, there was a yelp from behind her.
Ungracefully, the goddess of life and her son flopped on top of the two that were already there. Groaning, they tried to untangle their many limbs. “Sorry, sorry,” the two mares cried in unison.
The two Spikes, both much smaller than their respective pony, hopped to the side. “Whoa, where am I?” one of them said.
“Wow! A talking dog!” the other said.
“You’re one to talk, mutt!” The first said.
Then they both looked down at themselves. “Oh. Twilight!”
“Yes?” Both mares said, looking over at the two purple and green dogs.
“Gah! Eyes!” One of the Spikes exclaimed, while the other simply walked over to his Twilight.
“What’s going on?” The two-eyed Twilight asked.
Behind them, a voice giggled. “Now, isn’t this interesting?” Like ink flowing across the ground, the specter slid into their common field of view. “Two of the same mare, two of the same dragon, and neither of them are the mistress!”
“A specter? Are you one of Spark’s?” The six-eyed mare inquired.
“No. I belong to Cobalt. Death is already here.” The specter did a playful loop-de-loop and then twirled around them. 
The light mage nodded. “Good. Could you let them know that Spike and I are here as well?”
The specter twirled in place. “Sure!” It paused. “Ok! They know now. The mistress is coming.”
“Good. Thank you.” The life goddess tried to stand, but she felt awkward. Spike, her Spike, commented that she should try walking upright. Laughing, Twilight did, as did the other. Looking at her, the taller mare exclaimed, “Wow. That’s a bit freaky. It’s like looking at a time-bending funhouse mirror.”
The mare across from her did remind her of herself from before her ascension, albeit with some minor cosmetic differences. There were the same two eyes, the same mane, and the same fur color as skin. It looked to Twilight as if her doppelganger was a minotaur-monkey hybrid version of herself.
Looking down at herself, Twilight saw that she was dressed in a white cloak with long sleeves that covered her entire body. Her arms, all four of them, were completely hidden in her sleeves. Other than the extra arms and extra eyes, it appeared as if her body had the same basic shape and coloration as the mare across from her.
“Who are you?” Twilight Sparkle asked.
“Princess Twilight of Equestria, Goddess of Life, and bearer of the Element of Magic. Now, if I had to guess, you’re named Twilight, Twilight Sparkle, or Sparkle, and you’re also from Equestria.”
“I... yes. I am Princess Twilight Sparkle. I’m not a goddess as far as I know, but I am an alicorn. And I also bear the Element of Magic. I still don’t know what’s going on, but...” she trailed off, looking at something over Twilight’s shoulder. “Oh, that can’t be good.”
The six-eyed princess and both Spikes turned. There, approaching rapidly, was an ominous black cloud with many, many eyes. The two-eyed princess stepped back, as did her Spike, but the other two relaxed. The advancing cloud stopped and shrank, eventually solidifying into not three, but four figures.
“Agh!” the smallest of the arrivals screamed. “What on earth was that!?”
“Dark smoke travel,” the second tallest replied. “Now, what do we have here? Yet another Twilight Sparkle, I assume?” Shaking her head, the dark figure muttered, “How many of us are going to keep crawling out of the woodwork?”
“Seriously, what’s going on here?!” The two-eyed princess and the glasses-wearing one shouted.
All three six-eyed figures answered back simultaneously. “How much do you know about alternate timelines?”



After a crash course in multiverse and timeline theory for the two who did not know, they had eventually debated and assigned unique names. Or rather, Cobalt insisted on giving them each a name. “You, you’re Science, since you’re the native without useable magic. You, you’re Magic, since you’re the generalist. Miss, you’re Life, obviously. And my mistress is Death. Science’s Spike is Puppy, Magic’s Spike is Blade, Life’s Spike is Spear, and Thorn is still Thorn. And incase anypony forgot, I’m Cobalt.” 
“I’m still not convinced that you’re one of us,” Magic admitted. “And why does Thorn look like that, if he’s a Spike? Wow, that’s weird to say...”
Death smirked. “I stole this body after I was blown up, and Thorn’s a lich, empowered by my soul and part of a dragon’s soul. Why do you think I’m Death? I’m a necromancer turned reaper! Besides, he’s more pony than any of the other Spikes, so the mirror made him more... hey, Science, what’s your species named?”
“Human,” the quiet native answered.
“More human,” Death concluded.
“What’s the deal with Science anyway? How did you find her? And what are you doing over here anyway?” Life asked.
Death grinned, and then began her tale.



Earlier...
The Death trio was walking down the sidewalk, one which was steadily growing more crowded. The people that passed them kept their distance and gave them some very strange looks, but otherwise didn’t react as badly as Sparkle had expected. She figured that with Cobalt, who looked exactly like one of them, walking next to her and Thorn, they figured that the trio was simply an odd looking bunch and not actually anything extradimensional.
There were more vehicles on the road now, and Sparkle was watching their ebb and flow with rapt attention. She noticed how when they came to an intersection, they reacted to the lights hanging overhead. As they watched, Sparkle noticed someone odd across the street, and pointed her out to her companions.
“Look at her. She looks like Twilight. Even her soul looks similar to Twi’s - or, as Twi’s looked before she ascended.”
Thorn smirked. “I’m not surprised. Every world needs a Twilight. Look, she’s even got her face buried in a book like you and Aunt Twilight always do.”
“And she’s got that same, cute, this is fascinating face that you have,” Cobalt added.
The lights changed, and the native look alike started traversing the crosswalk, nose still buried in her book. Behind her, a leashed dog with the same coloration as Thorn followed close by.
At that same instant, a large vehicle was running the stop light. Now, had the Death trio not been there, the driver would have noticed the girl in the road and slammed on his brakes in time to bump her hard enough to bruise, but not break anything. But, since they were there, he had glanced their way, meaning that he was a whole second slower hitting the brakes.
The crunch of bone was sickening. Even though it was not her dimension, and she was not the local death god (provided there even was one), Sparkle was close enough to feel the struck girl’s life waver. It was like a punch to the gut, and more than enough to shatter their collective surprise and get the trio moving.
With speed unmatched and the strength of an adrenaline-fueled earth pony demigod, Cobalt heaved the truck off of the wounded mare, while Thorn and Sparkle worked to move her to safety. “Buck!” Sparkle exclaimed. “Broken bones, bleeding, and who knows what else. I don’t even know her physiology!”
Thorn flashed an image of a minotaur in her mind.
“Good enough.” An unspoken thought passed between them: keep her alive.
Thorn pressed his hand against her chest, near where her soul was located. He could feel her heartbeat below, weak and fading. Do not die, he ordered her soul.
It complied.
Meanwhile, Sparkle brushed one of her right hands against the girl’s forehead. Her patient relaxed, soothed by a numbing spell. Then Sparkle set to work. Magic erupted out of her four hands and began stitching the girl back together again.
“What the hell?!”
Cobalt approached the driver of the trick that had struck the girl. “Do not interfere,” the assassin commanded.
But the driver didn’t listen. “Whatever the hell you two things are, get away from that girl! She needs a doctor!” He stepped towards Sparkle and Thorn to pull them away, but Cobalt grabbed his hand firmly.
“Stop.”
Pain like nothing else shot through the driver’s hand. It only lasted an instant, but it was enough to bring the driver to his knees.
“Cobalt, I need life force, native life force,” Sparkle said, still working on the wounded girl. The combination of her unfamiliar anatomy, the differences between her body’s energies and what Sparkle was used to, and the fact that Sparkle was having to use her hands instead of her horn as a magical focus meant that she had to go much slower than expected. For the girl’s sake, and because of the gathering crowd, Sparkle didn’t want to drag this out.
“Right.” Cobalt turned to the driver. “You hurt her, now you get to help heal her.” He shoved the man towards Thorn. The moment the lich touched the man, he aged by half a dozen years.
“Here.” Thorn poured the gathered life force into the broken girl. Instantly, her body’s own healing abilities kicked into overdrive. With Sparkle coaxing it along, her wounds closed and her bones set and solidified.
The girl groaned as she returned to full consciousness. With a thought, Sparkle magically forced the girl to sleep. “Hang on, let’s get away from here.”
And with that, they, along with the girl’s dog, vanished into the darkness, leaving a very stunned crowd behind.



“I took her elsewhere and woke her up. I explained to her what happened, then convinced her that magic was real - yes, this world has no useable magic, but it’s not totally devoid - and then compared notes with her about our lives. Yes, we are otherworldly counterparts. I’m sure of it,” Death finished.
“I wouldn't have believed any of it if it weren’t for the scars and Spar- I mean, Death, showing me her magic. The extra arms and eyes helped convince me, too,” Science added.
Magic blinked. “Extra arms?”
Life and Death rolled up their sleeves, showing their four arms.
“The portal really messed you guys up,” Blade remarked. 
“Actually, we did have extra forelegs and eyes back home,” Life replied. “You can thank Death for that.”
Death smiled sheepishly. “Hey, I couldn’t control what happened when we ascended.”
“To become alicorns?” Magic asked.
“To become goddesses, like you. What’s your domain, anyway?” Death asked.
Magic looked down at herself, as if trying to see something that wasn’t there. “I’m not a goddess, I don’t think.”
“Horseapples,” Death snorted. “I can see your soul, and Magic, that is not a mortal pony’s soul.”
“Really?”
“I promise that I’m telling the truth. Cross my heart, the end is nigh, stick a spearpoint in my eye.” Death grinned as she went through the motions.
Magic shook her head. “I’m sorry, I just don’t know.”
Death put a hand on Magic’s shoulder. “Then ask Luna to perform the identity ritual on you; that will show you for sure.”
“I will.” Magic said. “But right now, I need to find Sunset Shimmer.” Life blinked and perked up, as did Spear. “She stole the Element of Magic from me!” Magic continued, oblivious to Life’s reaction.
“She stole my Element of Magic as well,” Life commented. “Or at least, another version of her did.”
“I wonder if there are several of her running around as well?” Cobalt suggested.
“Probably,” the three non-native Twilight Sparkles agreed.
Death then added, “Well, since Trixie was nowhere near the Crystal Empire in my timeline, my world’s Element of Magic is safe.”
“Then why did you come here?” Magic asked.
Death shrugged. “I smelled souls.” She ignored her sister’s withering glare. Then, she remembered something. “Hey, can you two do magic?”
Both princesses tried and failed.
“Here, allow me. This is easier when I’m doing it from the outside.” Death then pressed her hands on Magic and Life, and charged her dark power.
“Wait!” Life exclaimed, but it was too late. A magical pulse rippled through their bodies and dispelled the spell holding their magic in.
“What?”
“Princess Celestia said that the mirror inhibits magic on incompatible worlds! You could have done serious damage!” Life exclaimed.
Death blinked. “Um... you know how I said this world has no useable magic?” At their nod, she continued, “Well, these humans have magic. It’s wild and unfocused and largely self-negating, but...”
“But what?”
Death blushed. “Well, when I used magic to heal Science over here, she sort of latched onto my magic and started mimicking it. Feel it. The effect’s still there.”
Life and Magic reached out with their senses, and found that Death was indeed correct. “You have alicorn magic!” Magic exclaimed.
Science blinked. “I do? How is that even possible?”
Death smiled, quite pleased with herself. “Draconic dark-alicorn magic, technically. I don’t know how that happened, but I’d like to find out. Buy me breakfast, and I’ll teach you how to use it, too.”
“But...” Science blinked, and then looked down at her watch. “Dangit! I’m late for school! I’m TARDY!”
Death extended her hand. “While those two are looking for their Elements of Rainbow Doom Lasers, I’ll give you a lift back to your school. I might even convince your teachers not to hold it against you. What do you say? You can learn magic after class.”
Science relaxed somewhat. “Sure. Yeah. Let’s go.”
“Cobalt, Thorn, you can go do whatever. I’ll keep in touch,” Death said. Then, without further ado, she grabbed onto Science’s arm. “Just focus on where you need to go. Keep a clear picture in your mind. Got it?”
Science nodded. 
“Good. Later!” And with that, they vanished into the shadows. Cobalt and Thorn followed a second later.
Magic and Blade looked at Life. “Is she really us?”
“Who, my sister?”
Magic nodded.
“Yep. But also a little more. She’s grafted parts of other souls onto her, so she isn’t quite a pony, if that’s what you're asking. I know she doesn’t feel like anything else, magically speaking.”
Blade looked at Spear. “They’re weird.”
“Yeah, but Aunt Sparkle and Mom are great anyway,” Spear replied.
“Wait, ‘Mom’?” Blade asked. “You call Twilight ‘Mom’?”
Spear blinked. He couldn’t ever remember not calling the light mage his mom, though she said that he’d gotten the idea from Thorn. “Well, she did raise me and hatch me.”
“Huh... Mom.” Magic’s assistant let the word roll around in his mouth, as if he were tasting it. “Mom, mom... Twilight Sparkle is my mom...” Tears welled up in the dragon-turned-dog’s eyes, but his grin was anything but sad. “She’s my mom.”
“Spike!” the two mares called out. The two drakes looked over, and saw that they were heading towards the school. Happily, the two dogs bounded over to their mothers.



Sunset Shimmer number one sulked as she walked to school. It was bizarre how the mirror had cloned her, or how each of the clones had had a different experience on the other side. And unlike her sisters, she had failed to retrieve anything useful on the other side of the mirror.
In her mind, she didn’t believe in entitlement. She believed that those who succeeded deserved to reap the reward, and those who failed didn’t. Her whole argument with Celestia was over the fact that she thought she had worked hard and deserved the opportunity to learn more, to gain more power. And when she didn’t get it, she’d run to this world.
Now, having spent over a decade here in an artificial body that didn’t age right, Sunset Shimmer had gone back home to steal anything that could have been used here, anything that could have let her tap into her magic, to fulfill her cutie mark. And two out of three had succeeded. That left her, the failure, as the one without the reward. It was only fair. That didn’t mean she had to like it. 
The other two were studying the crowns that they had gotten. Even with her magic blocked off, she’d been able to loosen it over the years, and on her return trip, had kept the inhibitor from fully activating. She couldn’t use her magic outside of her own body, but she could now clearly sense magic.
And so they were studying the crown, and she was headed back to boring Earth school. A school that just so happened to be next to the portal to Equestria. Gritting her teeth, she passed by the portal she’d exited in triplicate not a few hours earlier. She was late for school, but so what.
She stopped.
The grass by the portal was dead and brown. It hadn’t been that way yesterday. Actually, now that she looked around, there were a huge number of dead trees and plants. Suddenly wary, her heightened alertness let her realize that something else was amiss.
There was dark magic in the air. She could feel it.
Swearing, Sunset pulled out her phone and emailed herself. Her sisters knew to check their laptop frequently, just in case something came up. Something like this.
She swore again.
After all, why would Celestia let a dark mage through the portal?
> Black Magic Classroom
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The mare and woman, known as Death and Science respectively, materialized on the grounds of Crystal Prep Academy. Less than a second later, Cobalt and Thorn materialized behind them. The fact that they had just done that in a world that had no functional magic, in plain sight of the other students arriving at the school, seemed not to bother most of the group.
Science stumbled, still very disturbed by the feeling of temporarily lacking a physical form. And as she regained her bearings, she couldn’t help but look around and notice that she wasn’t being stared at by the student body. In fact, nobody seemed to be noticing her at all. “Death, why aren’t they looking at us?”
“Do you want them to be?” The goddess countered.
“No, but...” The true human looked around again. “What we did was impossible by normal standards! Shouldn’t people be reacting?”
“The notice-me-not charm is very practical for situations like that.”
The human Twilight Sparkle blinked. “Oh. I should have guessed you had something to do with it.” She shook her head. “Anyway, thanks for the lift.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Well... see you later, then?” Science then quickly turned to walk towards the school building. Death and her companions followed suit. It only took Science a second or two to realize that she was being followed. “Um... why are you following me?”
Death walked up and put her hands on Science’s shoulders, while the other two walked past and on into the building. “Well, I’m not sure about the other two, but I need to make sure you make it through school today without blowing someone up or eating someone’s soul.”
Science blinked. “You’re kidding. Tell me you’re kidding.”
Death shrugged. “I ate my parents souls when I was eight years old.”
“What!”
“Yeah, I coughed them up later, but I still went years thinking I’d killed my own parents. Which I did, technically. They’re ghosts now.” Death shrugged again. “Anyway, I’m just going to follow you and make sure you don’t accidentally kill someone in a horribly gruesome way until we can sneak off and I teach you the basics. Got it?”
“You're not making me feel any better.”
Death grinned, though it was hidden behind the skull mask. “Just stay calm. Dark magic feeds on both emotion and intent. As long as you calmly wish for nothing to happen, nothing will.”
The true human frowned, but said nothing more, instead choosing to continue on into the school. Death followed her in, only to stop a few steps beyond the door. “Wow. This is familiar.”
“Oh?” Science muttered, neither stopping nor looking back.
“My world has the Crystal Empire. The architecture is similar.” Death picked up her pace a touch to catch up to her counterpart. “Say, does the name Sombra mean anything to you?”
“Dean Sombra? He was arrested a few years back after he molested a student.”
Death shook her head. “That’s disappointingly ordinary. My sister’s version of Sombra was blown up, and my version, I trapped in a parallel dimension before I got blown up in the same explosion.”
Science stopped and gave Death an incredulous look. 
“What? I got better.”
Now walking again, Science made her way to her locker. “Are you going to give me commentary all day? Because I have class in three minutes, and I really can’t afford to be distracted.”
The dark goddess waived a pair of hands dismissively. “Don’t worry about a thing. Seriously, don’t worry. Worrying will get someone killed. You know, boom.” She made a little exploding motion with her hands.
Of course, such advice would inevitably make her worry more. But then again, that was exactly what Death wanted Science to do in the first place. Thought the true human didn’t know it yet, Dark Magic 101 had already begun.
The pair entered a classroom, a biology lab by the looks of it. On the teacher's desk were several potted plants, likely intended for the day’s lesson. Twilight Sparkle took her seat, while the dark goddess strolled to the front corner of the room, unseen by any of the other students or the teacher. The electronic bell rang over the intercom system, and the remaining students took their seats.
The teacher took roll, and then began the day’s lecture. Death paid little attention to the teacher — she’d already read more medical textbooks and dissected more dead bodies than most of these student would ever see in in their life. What she did pay attention to was the students, specifically their souls. Unlike in Equestria, their souls had a much narrower range of colors they could be, and while that was interesting to the goddess, it was ultimately little more than an interesting piece of trivia.
However, she did notice that the average human here was easily on par with souls of a similar age in Equestria. They clearly had magic, and an abundance of it at that, but they couldn’t access it. If her counterpart was any indication, they needed to be exposed to it first. Behind the mask, Death frowned. If that was correct, Death theorized that everyone Twilight Sparkle used enough magic on would also gain magic, as would any child she gave birth to. And any people they interacted with, and so on. Assuming that the humans expressed magic similar to ponies, the dark goddess realized that she may have just unleashed a dark magic STD-like plague upon the human population.
Whoops.
She walked to a student sitting behind her human counterpart. With a thought, she extended out a tendril of magic towards the boy. Neither he nor his soul reacted. When the tendril touched his body, he shivered, but did nothing more. Only once her magic reached his soul did it react; the magic of his soul slowly unwound and stretched towards her magic.
She withdrew her power, and the human’s magic quickly curled back up into its original ball-like shape. Death glanced at Science’s soul, which burned like a pony’s and fluttered like a dragon’s. Repeating the experiment with Twilight Sparkle, Death stretched out her magic and got the same results as the boy, up until her magic made contact with the human girl’s. There, instead of the human soul reaching out for the foreign magic with its own, it slid towards the magic like metal towards a magnet, just as a pony’s soul would have done. That told Sparkle a great amount of information.
The teacher lectured on, unaware of her concealed guest moving towards the front of the room. Death looked back at Science and made eye contact. Then, she reached out towards one of the potted plants. The moment her fingers made contact, the plant wilted and browned. The class, which had been charmed to not notice the goddess, was under no such influence regarding the plant, and collectively gasped.
The teacher floundered for an explanation, but since nothing seemed to quite make sense, and nothing else of the sort happened again, class eventually resumed. At the end, when the bell dismissed the students, Science glared at Death but said nothing, instead choosing to go to her next class. Death followed behind.
In the classes that followed, the dark goddess made a point of disrupting every class. In anatomy, she animated the model skeleton. In calculus, she bewitched the professor into saying “death” every dozen words. And in history, she caused the class to subtly hallucinate.
The human Twilight Sparkle, for her part, just grit her teeth and dealt with it silently until lunch time. As she stepped out of the class, she turned on Death and pointed her finger. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Over all? Stress testing you. But currently, I’m making you look like a madmare.”
“A what?”
“A loon, a psycho, a crazy.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, everybody can see you and hear you. Nobody but you can see or hear me. You’re talking to yourself.”
Science blinked and looked around. Sure enough, there were people giving her a strange look. Death just chuckled. “I tell you what, you just walk on to your next class, and I’ll explain what I’m doing. Got it?”
The true human nodded, then turned towards the cafeteria. Death, following behind, said, “I can see souls. I can see your magic, as it’s a part of your soul. I was purposefully disturbing your classes to see how your magic reacted. I’d stop it if anything got out of hand, and I can fix almost anything you can do accidentally. But I needed to know how you dealt with stress. And, assuming you like learning as much as I do, that was pretty stressful for you.
“Good news for you: you passed. You didn’t explode. So, on to round two — how do you do without me watching over your shoulder?” And before Science could answer, Death faded away, leaving her all alone. Or, that’s what Death wanted her to think. In reality, she’d just adjusted the perception filter so that Twilight Sparkle couldn’t see her, and hadn’t moved at all.



Meanwhile, the assassin-turned-demigod, after wandering the halls of the school, found himself in the room he was looking for: the library. With a devious grin, he walked into the nonfiction section and pulled a book off the shelf. After confirming that he could, in fact, read this world’s language, he created a book-sized bubble of magic around the book he was holding. One silent command later, and an identical book appeared in the afterlife. 
He put the book back on the shelf and expanded the magical field to cover all of said shelf. Suddenly, he shot forwards with super speed, dragging the bookshelf-sized magic bubble with him up and down the rows. For each book that entered the bubble, a copy was made. And in less than ten seconds, he'd copied the entire nonfiction section. 
He paused for a moment, shrugged, and then continued his replication in the fiction section. A few seconds later, that too was wholly copied. Grinning smugly at the thought of having “checked out” an entire library, he pulled a random book off the shelf and plopped down in a chair to see if was any good (and to rest his legs, not that he’d admit to that).
There was a girl staring at him. 
He blinked. “Can... Can I help you?”
“How did you just do that?!”
“Err... Do what?”
“The super-speed thing!”
“I have no idea what you're talking about.”
“No, I saw you do that! You were like, whoosh, zoom! Are you a super hero?”
Realizing that he wouldn't be able feign ignorance any longer, Cobalt decided to play along. “No. Of course not. Super villainy is much more rewarding. See, I just stole and hid forty books. That's as many as four tens, and that's terrible.”
“Well, aren't you a smartass,” the girl deadpanned. 
“I try.”
The girls stuck out her hand. “Name’s Indigo Zap. What's yours?”
“Well, I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you. You can call me Cobalt.”
Indigo blinked. “Wait, like the serial killer? Really?”
Cobalt’s brow furrowed slightly, but only for an instant. Then he struck an overly dramatic pose. “Ha! As if some lowly serial killer could compare to me! I am an assassin, a refined killer for the refined individual!” He held the pose for a second longer before snorting mirthfully. “Bah! I’m just messing with you.”
“Oh? Then what's that?” Indigo pointed to the dagger strapped to his belt. 
Cobalt looked down, having honestly forgotten that it was there. “Oops. My bad.” He then proceeded to unsheath it, tip his head back, and swallow it. In actuality, he just opened a small portal to the afterlife just behind his teeth, but the effect was the same as far as Indigo Zap was concerned. “Mmm... So, where were we?” He asked the slack-jawed girl. 



As for Thorn, he’d quickly gotten bored of the school and had wandered into town. There, he stumbled across an all-you-can-eat buffet. After sneaking in with a simple application of a notice-me-not spell, the Anubis-shaped-dracolich came to a very important realization.
“They have so. Much. MEAT!”



For the teen nicknamed Science, who could feel the alien energy thrumming under her skin, the absence of the dark goddess was certainly worse than her presence. The tall alien had given her something to focus on, to direct and suppress her anger and fear with and at. 
Now that Death was gone, Science was about ready to try to rip off her skin and dig out the dark, twisted magic. Her nerves were so frayed that she was visibly shaking to such an extreme that her sixth period teacher had sent her to the nurse. 
The nurse had let her lie on one of the beds while she calmed down, and had excused herself to care for another student that had come in. Twilight Sparkle, now alone, tried the breathing exercises that Dean Cadance had shown her. 
A set of footsteps heralded the arrival of someone into the clinic’s back room, but it wasn't the nurse that turned the corner. Death had returned. The dark goddess moved up to the human’s side and placed a hand on her shoulder. In that instant, Science’s stress and anxiety melted away with almost supernatural ease. 
Momentarily dizzy from the sudden drop in blood pressure, Twilight Sparkle only managed a confused “Huh?”
“Sorry about that. I didn't expect you to get so worked up without me,” Sparkle lied, having known full well that she would. “But at least we now know that you aren't leaking magic when you get stressed. That's good.”
“I can feel it under my skin,” the human remarked, clearly disgusted. 
“Yeah, that happens,” Death replied. “It's normal. All that means is that you just have to pull your magic in tighter, which is one of the first things that I am going to teach you.”
“Can you teach me that now?” Science asked. “I can't stand that feeling any more.”
“Of course. All you had to do was ask.” She offered a hand. “Shall we?”
Hesitantly, the human took the goddess’s hand. Suddenly, and without warning, Science found herself being pulled off the clinic bed and falling into a white void.
The Reaper pulled off her mask, letting Science see her six-eyes face for the first time. “Welcome to the afterlife, my personal playground. No, you aren't dead. In here, time flows differently, so while we could work for as long as you like, only a few seconds will pass in real time.”
Twilight Sparkle looked around at the featureless void. “I thought there would be more here.”
A massive amphitheater built of obsidian formed around them. At the center, a gargantuan throne of skulls formed, framed by fountains of blood. The sky darkened and lightning flashed. The wind howled with the screams of the damned. From atop the throne, Death asked, “Is this more what you were expecting?”
The human flinched and nodded meekly. With a flourish of her hand, the Reaper vanished the morbid architecture and abyssal storm, replacing it with a grassy field and a sunny sky. “This is a world of imagination, a world I built. It's also the safest place you could possibly be when learning dark magic. So, let's get started. Any opening questions?”
The human nodded. “Why dark magic? Why not just magic?”
“Because I am a natural dark mage, and you copied from me; the magic our souls produce is of the dark type, rather than masculine, feminine, or light type. Well, for us, it's a bit more complicated than that, but we're only worried about projected, external magic at the moment, since that is the most dangerous for you and for those around you.”
“Got it.”
When it was clear that the human had no more questions, Death began teaching. “Right, let's start off with a really basic exercise: drawing out your magic. We’ll get into the theory later, but for now, imagine that energy in your chest as a limb. You can move it, and so long as it remains attached to your soul, you can also sense with it. Now, currently, it is balled up in your core; this is the default position. Let the energy up, down your arms, and out.”
“And how do I do that?”
“The same way you move any limb. It's the same part of the soul, and thus mirrored in the same part of the brain,” Death answered, tapping her head. 
A determined look bloomed on the human's face. Sparkle watched as she started to bring forth her power. But then, everything went weird. A blinding burst of light stunned Death and obscured Science from view. When it cleared, Death was shocked by what she saw.
Before her eyes, Science was floating in mid air. Long, skeletal wings with membranes of smoke protruded from her back, and a curved horn made of solidified darkness jutted out from her forehead. Her eyes were glowing green, with purple smoke billowing from the edges, while her hair whipped around her head as if caught in a gale. Even her clothing had changed, having gone from a conservative school uniform to a more provocative purple dress.
“Well, that’s new.”
The suddenly transformed woman looked down upon herself. “Was that supposed to happen?”
“No, not at all,” Death replied. “Hmm...” She walked closer to the transformed woman and grabbed hold of the wing. Science gasped at the contact, but Death paid it no mind. She examined it closely, both with her eyes and with her magic. Finally, she let go and said, “Fascinating. You conjured all that as a manifestation of your power. Try suppressing your magic — just pull it all into your core and wrap it up tight.”
The same look of determination reappeared on Twilight Sparkle’s face, followed a second later by all the changes on her body reverting back to normal. She quickly inspected herself again. “At least I’m not stuck like that.”
“Let out your magic again,” Death commanded. “Let’s see if that happens every time.”
“Right.” And then Twilight Sparkle flashed and transformed.
“Hmm... Pull it back in again. Let me show you how to levitate things, and we’ll see if you transform when casting spells instead of just letting your magic flow freely.”
Long story short, the human kept transforming so long as she was actively drawing her magic, much to Death’s irritation. The fact that the transformation was so visible annoyed her, as according to Death, it ruined the subtle aspects of being able to use dark magic. “Well, at least the somebody-else’s-problem spell will take care of that. And hey, you’ve got a built-in costume, if you ever want to be a superhero.”



Earlier that day, one of the ex-Equestrians by the name of Sunset Shimmer made her way into her first class of the day. This particular Sunset Shimmer was currently the only one of the trio anywhere near Canterlot High School, and the only one without an Element of Magic. And while the other two Sunset Shimmers held on to the Elements, she clutched her smartphone as if it were just as important.
Yes, Sunset Shimmer was paranoid. There was no doubt about that. After all, she’d felt dark magic by the portal, and she was stranded without magic in a world that had no defenses against dark mages. As soon as she’d realized it, she’d emailed the other two versions of herself and told them to lay low and be ready to move if needed. They’d emailed back almost immediately, telling her that they had decided to not use the elements in case the mage could detect the burst. That didn’t surprise the Sunset at the school; it’s what she would have done.
Unfortunately for Sunset, her paranoia worked against her. While she may have been an excellent liar, that was only while she felt she had control over the situation. Thus, it didn’t go unnoticed by the student population of CHS that Sunset Shimmer hadn’t been mean to anybody that day, nor did it go unnoticed that she was looking around every corner and jumping at every loud noise.
Perhaps it had something to do with the guilt of what she’d tried to do, or perhaps it was because of her imagination running wild, but either way, when someone bumped into her in the hallway between fifth and sixth period, she screamed.
“Sunset Shimmer!” The soothing voice of Principal Celestia exclaimed, startled by her student’s extreme reaction.
Sunset looked into the concerned eyes of her principal, the same eyes as her former mentor, and relaxed, slumping back against the lockers. “Hooo boy....”
“Ms. Shimmer, are you alright?”
She nodded. “Yeah... just a bit jumpy today, is all.”
“Alright, if you say so.” The extremely tall woman’s tone said she doubted that very much. Regardless, Principal Celestia didn’t push the issue. “Actually, I was looking for you, Ms. Shimmer.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Two women came by my office just a little while ago, asking for you by name and if you went here. They said they were looking for their lost possessions, and that you might know something about them,” the administrator explained.
“Umm... who were they?” Sunset asked.
Celestia blinked. “Oh, you know, I never caught their names. They were both purple-skinned women, one in a blue shirt, the other in a white cloak, of all things. Does that help?”
Sunset shook her head. “I don’t recognize anybody by that description, no.”
The principal hummed. “Well, they might still be in the front office.”
The unspoken command was clear. Sunset nodded and headed towards the front of the school. The moment she was out of sight of the principal, she whipped out her phone and shot off a warning message to her other selves.
Now, she had no intent to actually talk to the people in question, but she would at least get close enough to take a peak and perhaps feel their magic, if they actually had any. And if they looked to be a threat, she would just back away before they noticed and be on her merry way.
Sunset nodded to herself, as the basic outline of a plan gave her confidence and lended a vigor to her step. Too bad for her that confidence didn’t protect from sensory overload, for as she turned the last corner to the hall that would lead to the principal’s office, she spotted the two women Principal Celestia had described, and felt their magic.
Now, imagine living in a place where everyone spoke in the faintest of whispers that you had to strain to hear, only to suddenly have two people shout at the top of their lungs straight into your ear. Replace sound with magic, and you have what Sunset Shimmer was feeling at that very instant. The sheer, radiant energy unconsciously spilling off the two was than most humans would actively express in their entire lives.
She jumped and shouted in surprise, drawing attention to herself from the two Equestrians standing in the hall just outside the office. “Sunset Shimmer?” the shorter one asked.
The ex-unicorn shook her head. “Yes?”
“May we talk to you in private?”
Now that she’d had a second to rebalance herself, Sunset realized that neither of them radiated dark magic; in fact, the taller one — who was currently hiding her face under her hood — radiated light magic. “Yeah, sure,” she agreed; it was best not to make a scene. “But who are you two?”
They moved towards a less visible area of the hall. “Princesses Twilight Sparkle, of alternate timelines,” the taller one replied. “Blame the mirror,” she added, knowing that Sunset would be confused. Then, she pulled down her cloak’s hood.
“Eye!” Sunset balked at the sight of the princess’s six eyes. “...don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sunset, don’t play coy with us. We know you’re an Equestrian, and that you went through the mirror portal and stole something very important from both of us. It would be in your best interests to return them to us.” The six-eyed woman’s hands started glowing with magic.
“I’m not a thief; I didn’t steal your crowns,” Sunset honestly replied; it was the other two versions of her that had stolen from the princesses.
But the six-eyed princess grinned. “I have good news, and bad news, Sunset Shimmer. The good news? In my sister’s timeline, nothing was stolen, and I think that Sunset Shimmer is you; you didn’t commit a crime. Bad news? I never said it was a crown that was stolen. In fact, I never said what was stolen at all, either to you or to your principal. So, care to tell me how you knew?”
Sunset flinched, as if she’d been struck, but composed herself quickly. “No, I don’t care to tell you anything. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have class.” She started to leave, but the shorter princess grabbed her hand.
“Those crowns are the Elements of Magic, an important part of Equestrian defense. Without them, Equestria’s in danger.”
“But we aren’t in Equestria right now. Let go of my hand right now, or I’ll scream and make a scene. I’m sure the police would be very interested in two women who are threatening a highschool student.”
The shorter princess let go, but the taller one chuckled. “You’re right, Sunset. You’re absolutely right. If we were in Equestria, you could be charged with high treason for endangering a national defense and stealing a national treasure.”
“Treason?” Sunset squeaked.
“But we aren’t in Equestria right now. Obviously, there are at least two other Sunset Shimmers running around, each with an Element of Magic-” Sunset’s Twitch told the goddess she was right on the money, “-and they have taken refuge in a foreign country that neither recognizes Equestrian Law, nor has an Extradition treaty with Equestria.” She pointed at Magic. “And since Twilight Sparkle and I technically illegally entered a sovereign foreign nation, we have no authority to compel you to give up the location of the other Sunset Shimmers or the Elements of Magic beyond simply pleading with you. So can we have the Elements back?”
Sunset just stared at the six-eyed princess.
“I take that as a no, then. Well then, here’s what’s going to happen. Twilight Sparkle and I are going to start walking away. I am going to remark that in the capture of traitors, the use of any magic is allowed. I am also going to say that as crown princesses, neither of us can use magic to attack an innocent mare without seriously damaging our reputation. I am also going to say that since there is no functional magic in this world, this nation has no laws regarding its use. And finally, Twilight Sparkle and I are now going to find this mural on the wall very fascinating, and if you just so happen to be compelled to speak your mind, well, we didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.”
Despite being a light mage and a princess, Twilight easily pulled off her sister’s malicious grin. Then she quickly grabbed a confused Twilight Sparkle’s arm and spun her around to face the mural on the wall.
Behind them, Sunset Shimmer made a choking noise, stopped, coughed once, and then spoke. “The Mistress is rubbing off on you, Ms. Twilight. You are a very naughty filly.”
“I don’t know what you mean, Sunset Shimmer,” Life told the specter that wore Sunset’s skin, the same specter that Cobalt had created earlier. Magic started to speak up, but Life grabbed her hand and squeezed, silencing her.
“Hmmm.... well, the other Sunset Shimmers have the two Elements of Harmony. They are in a house only about twenty blocks southwest from here. 212 Cherry Street. They know that this meeting is happening, and if they don’t hear an all clear message soon, they will assume that the worst has transpired, and that the dark mage that they knew came through the portal was to blame.”
“I see. Well, you just let them know that you’re alright, Sunset Shimmer. Also, would you be so kind as to inform anyone else that needs to know? That would be great, Sunset Shimmer.”
“Of course, Ms. Twilight. Master Cobalt will be informed. Oh, and by the way, the phrase is ‘Would you kindly?’ Just F.Y.I.”
“Of course.”
“Now, I’m going to walk to 212 Cherry Street and you're welcome to come and visit me.” The possessed mare’s tone shifted midway, so that she no longer sounded possessed at all. “You two clearly have good intentions. I’d be happy to have you two over as guests.”
Life turned back around and looked at Sunset Shimmer. Aside from slightly grayed sclera, she looked perfectly normal. “Thank you for the invitation.”
Magic, for her part, had managed to hold her tongue quite well up to this point. However, even the tremendous willpower of any Twilight Sparkle was not infinite. “What’s going on?” she demanded.
“Plausible deniability.”
> Percussive Maintenance, or The Chapter In Which Sunset Shimmer Gets a Boo-Boo and Death Gives Her a Band-Aid
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“And that’s it for the fundamentals. I think you have a solid grasp of all the basics, and probably won’t kill yourself if you experiment.”
The true human woman collapsed to her knees, panting. Her hair was no longer up in its bun, but hanging loosely down her back in a tangled mess. Her brow was covered with sweat and her skin was flushed. And yet, despite her exhausted state, she was happy. And, like her mentor, her smile showed a few too many teeth.
“So, what next?” the high-schooler-turned-mage asked, looking up at the dark goddess standing above her.
Said goddess looked down on her newest student. Death, having just been sparring magically with her student, stood without the robe the mirror had given to her. The upon seeing the undergarments remaining, Science had described them as “really skimpy,” much to Death’s secret pleasure. Her mask sat similarly discarded.
“Well, that depends on you,” Death replied.
The human girl stood up and scooped up the discarded vest from her uniform. “What do you mean?”
“Pick one subject. We’ll go from there.”
“Errr...” she began, “What do you recommend?”
“Well, there’s necromancy, which will allow you to do what I did to save you, plus make specters and zombie servants, which are helpful. Then there are the mind arts, including illusions, hypnosis, mind control, and the extremely complex field of memory magic. You could learn curse crafting, which is good if you have enemies. And you could learn enchanting; self-explanatory, that one. There’s also ritual magic, which is powerful, but dangerous. We could also work on your flight, your earth pony magic, or your dragonfire.”
Twilight Sparkle frowned; there were too many choices, and she didn’t know what to pick. Instead, she voiced her indecisiveness.
“Well then,” Death replied. “On this list, what scares you the most: dying, lack of control, other people, unpreparedness, or weakness of body?”
Twilight Sparkle thought for a moment. “I think... if you’d asked me before we’d met, I would have said lack of control or unpreparedness, but now I’m not so sure.”
“Necromancy, then.” A quick nod of the head accompanied her declaration.
“Really?”
“Yes. Dark magic works best when you are emotional, and necromancy works best when you are afraid. Any fear works, but that instinctive, animalistic fear of death also helps keep you focused. Even I, despite being Death, can conjure up that very mortal fear for myself. I don’t need much, since I can substitute with raw power, but that fear is always there.
“And so I think that, given your uncertainty, and given what I’ve seen so far, the best fit for you is Necromancy. You lack the dominance and desperation needed for mind magic, the hatred for curses, and the sadism for rituals,” Death said.
Science blinked. “And what of enchanting?”
“It accentuates the other disciplines. I personally think you’d be better off learning how to use another discipline well first. You can always experiment on your own later.” Science nodded in understanding. From the basics she’d learned so far, Death’s explanation made sense to her. “Right, lesson one: what is the soul?”



Two necromancers stepped out of the dimensional portal and into the infirmary of Crystal Prep. On the wall, the second hand of the clock ticked for the only third time since they had left. 
The first shorter of the two, Twilight Sparkle had changed. Her hair was longer, her fingernails were sharper than they had been, her teeth were just barely too sharp to be natural, and her ears had slight points, like an elf’s. As for her body, the metabolic effects had slightly eaten away at her bodyfat without any improvement to her muscles. None of it was too noticeable at a quick glance, but if you looked too hard... 
What an observer would claim hadn’t changed were her eyes — if she was wearing her glasses. Behind the enchanted frames lay eyes that were much like Death’s — green sclera, red irises, slit pupils, and purple smoke emanating from the corners. And if the glasses were ever knocked off, she could hide them with magic, and now do so without involuntarily transforming.
Death emerged from the portal wearing a too-wide grin, something that was quickly becoming a permanent feature on her face. This particular grin was rooted in pride, for she was quite pleased in Science’s progress. The student, however, was not so happy. With a concerned glance, the newly minted necromancer looked back at her teacher. “What now?”
“I don’t know. It’s your choice.”
“But what if... what do I do?”
Knowing which issue she was referring to, Death came up with an answer. It had been a frequent question from Science, so the answer came quickly to Death. She placed a hand on the smaller woman’s shoulders. “I can’t tell you how to live your life, Twilight Sparkle. Look, if you have sex, have a child, or use your magic on another person, you run the risk of spreading our type of magic, and once you let that cat out of the bag, there’s no taking it back. So, you can either spread it or no. You can keep your magic a secret, or not. With no magic on this planet, there’s no jail that can hold you if you choose to be evil, but you also have the power to do great good. If I were you, I’d introduce magic to the world on a good note. Again, that’s your choice.”
Though her frown didn’t fade all the way, Twilight Sparkle nodded in understanding. “Right. Thanks.”
It was at that moment that something unexpected happened. The portal to the afterlife, which had closed after Death had stepped through, opened from the other side. Yet it wasn’t the afterlife they saw. Instead, the opening of the portal was inches away from another portal, which appeared to lead from the afterlife to a secluded room of the school. Cobalt, unusually disheveled, stood on the other side of the portal, though he wasn’t alone.
“Indigo?”
“Twilight?” 
The two students stared at each other through the artificial rift in reality. Further conversation between the pair was prevented as Death Spoke up. “Cobalt?”
“The Princess Twins found the location of the thieving triplets. They’re heading there now.”
Death raised an eyebrow, but under her mask, the gesture went unseen. “Ah. We’ll be there shortly.” She looked more closely at her apprentice. “Let me guess, ‘First Contact,’ hmm? Well, make sure you take precautions. We don’t need a hybrid running around.”
Cobalt snorted, while Indigo Zap blushed while looking confused. “I’m not an idiot,” Cobalt retorted.
“I didn’t say you were.”
Cobalt didn’t reply. Instead, he waved his hand and shut the portal. Death didn’t mind; in fact, she found it funny. “He forgets I’m in his head,” she muttered mirthfully to herself.
“Wait, Death, did Cobalt just do it with Indigo?”
“Obviously,” Death drawled sarcastically.
“But wouldn’t that expose her to magic?”
Death replied, “Earth pony magic. It’s nowhere near as explosive as unicorn magic. In fact, the selling point of Earth pony magic is its subtly; without training, she’ll just be a little stronger and faster than normal. Maybe she’ll grow pony ears like you do when you transform, but that would probably be the extent of it.”
“So what was that about anyway?”
“You forgot already? They found Sunset Shimmer. Want to go watch them catch a criminal?”



Princess Twilight, Goddess of Life, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Goddess of Magic, their Spikes, nicknamed Spear and Blade, respectively, and one Sunset Shimmer, currently possessed, all walked down the street. As they made their way towards the residence of the Sunset Shimmers, Life interrogated the possessed mare-turned-woman.
“So, why did you come through the portal?”
The specter lodged in her brain, wrapped around her soul, compelled Sunset to answer. “To see if we could acquire any sort of magical artifact that could be used on this side. I was tired of being without my magic. It is my special talent.” The four native Equestrians all winced; a pony being denied their talent would make them quite stir crazy. “And the Elements of Magic?”
Again, she was compelled to answer. “The most powerful things they, the other Sunsets, could find on such short notice. The only other major artifacts were all tied into that city’s ward scheme. We couldn’t remove anything without drawing attention to ourselves.”
“Now, what do you expect the reaction of the other Sunset Shimmers to be?”
The possessed mare shrugged. “Depends on how you handle it.” Her voice shifted. “Likely, this one will run while the other two will don the crowns and try to use them against you. Worst case, they will try and get physical. They carry knives.”
“Are you not staying?” Life inquired.
The specter shook Sunset’s head. “The mistress has requested that I go into standby mode and temporarily sever my connection with Cobalt for his sake, in the event that the elements misfire. While they will be watching, and ready to intervene in the worst case, Death collectively will be keeping their distance.”
“Understood.” 
It didn't take them much longer to reach the house where Sunset Shimmer lived. The specter stopped Sunset right in front of the house. “This is where I leave you. Magic, both Spikes, please restrain Sunset while Life does her work; she really wants to run.” The specter then extended the mare’s arms out to the side and waited. A second later, the possessed Sunset was lifted far enough off the ground with lavender telekinesis that she could find no purchase. 
The specter closed her eyes. When they opened again, it was by Sunset’s unrestrained will. “Ugh... Where am I?”
“Welcome home,” the light goddess replied, not looking at her but instead turning towards the front door of the home. She raised her right arms and knocked three times with the pair.
Sunset started squirming in the field of Magic’s namesake. “What did you do to me? Let me go!”
“We did nothing,” Life insisted before Magic could reply. Sunset Shimmer kept squirming, but Life made a point of ignoring it as she waited for someone to come to the door. Though it was taking a while. Growing slightly impatient, Life peeked through the nearby window. She saw nobody. “Are they even here?”
“No, we’re HERE!” The shout came an instant before twin blasts of magic hurled the two goddesses through the wood of the front door. The sudden impact broke Magic’s concentration, freeing Sunset to see what had just happened.
There, floating above the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street, were a pair of twin demonesses, with hair like fire and wings like a dragon’s. On their heads were the two Elements of Magic, and on their faces were vicious smirks.



Death walked down a row of shelves, Cobalt and Science following behind. On every shelf sat four or five of the strangest candles the human had ever seen. Each was a pale, off-white color, with wicks of various colors. Each candle was also held by some appendage, be it a four-fingered, blue hand, a claw, a hoof in any pastel color, or what-have-you. Death seemed to be searching for a specific candle.
Science picked up one of the hand-held candles to investigate it. Something about it gave her a strange feeling, but she couldn’t place it. Then it clicked. “Is this a hand of glory?”
“Glory candle, actually. It doesn’t have to be a hand.”
Disgusted, she put down the pickled, severed hand. “Why do you have so many of them?”
“They’re useful,” Death replied. “Ah, here it is!” Death picked up a candle mounted on a purple hoof, one that matched the human’s skin tone exactly. “Don’t tell my sister I have these. They’re, for obvious reasons, more than a little bit illegal, quite immoral, and she’d be furious. This one especially.”
Suddenly, the world shifted around them. When everything snapped into focus, they were standing in an ornately decorated lounge. Death motioned for her to sit in one of the chairs, while Cobalt plopped down onto the sofa. “It’s not often you pull out a glory candle. Is it really worth it?” he asked.
Death shrugged. “It’s not like I have any other way of watching right now that doesn’t open up a direct path to our souls. I want to watch, but I want even more to not be blasted by those horrid things; having my soul nearly implode was bad enough.” And with that, she lit the candle.
To the human, it was as if Life had suddenly stepped into the room and filled it with her presence. The flame, whiter than any flame she’d ever seen before, danced in a nonexistent breeze. Death shot a little bit of magic at it, causing the flame to start billowing out black smoke. The smoke split into two trails, moving sideways, then up, and then back together again to form a ring of smoke. Within the ring, a hazy image appeared, swiftly growing crisper. They saw a shifting pile of wood and tangled limbs.



Twilight pulled herself out of the shrapnel pile, her body sore and bleeding. Beside her, Twilight Sparkle was doing the same. The life goddess scrunched her face; a second later, the bleeding stopped and the pain faded. She glanced over at her doppelganger, whose cuts were fading just as fast.
Dusting herself off, Life stepped out into the sun to see their assailants. Said assailants spoke first. “Well, well, well. You’re tougher than we gave you credit for.”
“Are you crazy?” The uncorrupted Sunset Shimmer shouted at the two demonic mares. “They’re the prin-”
“SAVE IT!” The other demoness shouted, hand bubbling with black and green magic. The still human Sunset flinched.
Life leaned over to the other goddess and whispered, “Shields or fighting; what are you better at?”
Without hesitation, the magic goddess replied, “Shields.”
Life’s eyes glanced at the uncorrupted Sunset and the growing human crowd that had stopped to  watch. “Protect the bystanders.” Magic nodded. Addressing the two demonic mares, Life said, “So, could we have our crowns back?”
“Hmm.... How about NO!” Another laser blast of magic from both punctuated their declaration. Life dodged, while Magic shielded, deflecting the blast skyward.
Speaking in Unicornian, the language of magic, Life incanted, “Justice Arena!” A seven pointed star of white light formed around her hand, parallel with the ground. It swiftly expanded to encompass the whole block. Throwing up her hand, she again incanted, “Valor Hammer!” And like the star, a massive warhammer of pure light formed, already held aloft by her magical grip.
Switching back to the common tongue, Life said, “Sunset Shimmer and Sunset Shimmer, return the Elements of Magic to us.”
“And you think we’re just going to give it to you for showing off with some pretty lights? You’re more foolish than I thought,” they said in perfect sync.
“I am Princess Twilight, Goddess of Life and Paladin of Equestria. This is Princess Twilight Sparkle, Goddess of Magic. We bear the Elements of Magic. You stole them from us.” She switched languages. “Justice Arena: Seal!”
The heptagram on the ground flashed brighter, and a dome of white light formed above it. “This is the Justice Arena, and this-” Life held the hammer aloft. “-is the Valor Hammer. Both are conditional magic, which both grow stronger the more of an advantage you have.” 
The hammer flashed and grew bigger and brighter. 
“Neither of us can leave, and I can be harmed by the magic just as you can.”
Again, the hammer flashed and grew.
“I will use only one other spell - a teleportation spell.”
For the third time, the hammer flashed and grew. Now larger than her own body and glowing so bright that it was hard to look at, most users of the Valor would have stopped charging it. Life was not most users. “I stake my honor-” Flash! “-my titles-” Flash! “-and my crown-” Flash! “-on your defeat! Make your move.”
There were three flashes that time; one final flash came from the hammer itself, but the other two came from the transformed mares as they launched their attack. The beams shot forward, but Life deflected them with a flick of the brilliant hammer.
The beams bounced off the dome of the arena, but then smashed into the front of one of the houses that had the misfortune of being within the arena’s perimeter. Life winced, hoping that nobody was hurt, then resolved to have better aim.
She hefted the massive weapon up, twirled it once, and then brought it down against the low-hovering Sunset on the left. Dirt exploded upwards from where Sunset hit the ground, but Life paid it no mind as she shifted her attention to the Sunset retreating upwards. “Oh no you don’t!”
In an instant, Life’s body dissolved into light and shot upwards, reforming at eye level with Sunset. The hammer struck.
That Sunset shot across the arena, slammed into the dome, and bounced straight down into the ground. Dirt exploded, scattering against Magic’s hastily erected shield.
Life, without her wings in this form, fell to the ground, landing with a thud. Her hammer was noticeably dimmer already, while her breath was quick and gasping. The Valor Hammer and the Justice Arena were both incredibly draining on her. As she couldn’t exactly stake her life on winning, being immortal, she had to substitute resolve for raw power. Add in the fact that she was using a hand to channel the magic instead of a horn, and the problem was only compounded.
Unfortunately for Life, whatever twisted power the Elements of Magic had given the Sunset Shimmers, it was enough to allow both twisted mares to stand up again. “That fucking hurt, you bitch!”
Life didn’t reply with words. Instead, she flashed herself over once more and struck. She flashed again and struck the other. Both flew through the air and crashed near where the other had been standing. But again they stood up, and this time, they were beyond pissed.
As explosions rocked the block, inside Magic’s shield, the uncorrupted Sunset Shimmer begged Twilight Sparkle. “Please, you have to let me out!”
“No you’ll be killed!” The other people in the bubble with them nodded in agreement.
“But I have to stop them! This isn’t what we wanted! Maybe I can make them stop!”
The princess bit her lip. Sunset begged once more, “Please! Someone’s going to get killed if we don’t stop them!”
The princess relented. “Fine, but be safe.” A hole, barely wide enough for Sunset to squeeze through, appeared on the magenta bubble.
Sunset squeezed through. “I will be!” 
She ran towards the middle of the arena, heart pounding so loudly that she could barely hear anything else. “STOP!”
And they did. For an instant, Life froze with her foot pinning one of the demonic mares to the ground, while the other was picking herself off the ground directly across from them. And then the latter one growled. “Out of my way!”
The uncorrupted Sunset Shimmer had only an instant to process what was happening before the black and green telekinesis slammed her against the arena’s dome with a sickening crunch.



Death sighed and snuffed out the glory candle, ending the magic that was allowing her and her companions to view the fight.
“Aww!” Cobalt whined. “It was just getting good!”
“We have work to do,” Death replied, which shut her apprentice up instantly. Meanwhile, Science cupped her mouth with her hand, suddenly realizing what she’d just seen. Death looked over at Science, who looked faintly green. “You don’t have to come, but do clean up after yourself if you get sick.”
With that, a portal opened and two of the three aspects of Death walked through.



The magical arena shook as the massive, dark presence spilled in. Two figures emerged from the portal. The first was a tall, robed figure spilling darkness from within, while the second was a man covered in black markings that gave him a skeletal appearance. To all that looked upon them, they knew who and what they were instantly: Death personified.
The Reaper walked slowly to the broken body of Sunset Shimmer and knelt beside it. Her hands plunged into the corpse, which parted as if it were water, and pulled out the trapped soul within. It screamed in agony. “Do not fear; you are safe now, Sunset Shimmer. Let me take you somewhere free of pain.” She embraced the soul, and took it within herself.
The battle had halted completely, and the whole street had fallen silent. Even the cops, firefighters, and civilians, both inside and out of the barrier had fallen silent. Few had ever seen someone die, and none had seen the reaper herself come for them personally.
Through his connection with his mistress, Death’s Sleeper knew what he needed to do now. “It seems we have a little problem. You would have been just a thief, but now you’re a murderer too.” His wrist flicked out, and a knife embedded itself in the guilty Sunset’s chest. As the blood flowed out, it spread across her torso and formed itself into the shape of a skull. Cobalt held up his hand. “Remove that crown and repent, or die and suffer the pits.”
Shakily, she pulled the crown off. Without the magic supporting her any more, her legs gave out. Her body reverted to normal, but the blade remained embedded in her chest. Cobalt walked over and kicked the Element of Magic aside, and then knelt down and placed his hand on her breast. His hand glowed red, then black. With his other hand, he removed the knife, then watched as the wound healed shut. The blood that was on her, no longer bound by magic, began spreading across her as blood normally would. “You’d better regret it.”
The other Sunset Shimmer looked down at her clawed hands, as if seeing them for the first time. Suddenly, she yanked off the crown and hurled it as far away from herself as she could. As she reverted back to normal, she broke down into tears and collapsed to her knees.
Above them, the Justice Arena flashed once more, then vanished altogether, as did the Valor Hammer. Magic’s force-field shattered as well. The two then quickly retrieved their Elements of Magic.
When Life looked back, Death and Cobalt had vanished once more, as had the body of Sunset Shimmer. Her breath still heaving, Life looked down at the Element of Magic in her hand. It felt heavier than it had ever had before, and she half wondered if it was actually as good as they thought it was.
She looked up. The police were approaching her. She sighed.



Hours later, all the Equestrians — the drakes, the alicorns, the Living Sunset Shimmers, and Cobalt — plus the native Twilight Sparkle, and excluding Thorn, were all gathered by the mirror portal. Life and Magic, having escaped the police, were about to escort their Sunset Shimmer’s home, while Death stayed behind for a while longer, just in case something went wrong with the mirror, so she could pull them back if needed.
Well, that and Thorn was off doing something and wasn’t there yet.
The somber attitude of the gathered made for a very strange goodbye. Magic quietly made her way to the mirror with her version of Spike and Sunset Shimmer in tow. She then paused, looked back, and said, “So is this it? Am I going to walk through this mirror and never see you again?”
“Well, never is a really long time. Maybe, maybe not,” Life replied. “I hope we can see you again.” Spike, Death, and Cobalt nodded in agreement.
Magic smiled faintly. “I guess this is it, then. Bye.” She turned and then lead her group through the mirror.
As soon as they were gone, Life looked back at the native Twilight Sparkle. “Sorry we caused such a mess. We kind of blew any chance you had of keeping magic a secret.”
Science cracked a half-hearted smile. “Well, it’ll help when I go to get published on magical research.”
“So you are going to tell the world?” Life asked.
Science stuck out her thumb and pointed it at the Reaper. “Death here showed me some of the good uses of magic, and I love the flight and strength that comes with it. There’s so much benefit to society that it’d be criminal not to share it. But I plan on keeping the strong stuff for myself,” Science replied.
“Define ‘strong stuff?’”
Death whistled innocently.
Life shook her head. “Maybe I’m better off not knowing.” She turned to the mirror portal. “Anyway, we’re off.” She levitated her Sunset Shimmer, who, unlike her counterpart, was sedated with a sleep spell. “Say bye to Thorn for me.”
“He knows.”
Life and company disappeared through the mirror. Since neither reappeared within the next few minutes, but the specters Sparkle had sent with them did, she assumed that they all returned home safely. She then looked at her human student, who, had spent a little longer training in the afterlife after having seen what magic was capable of in a fight. 
Science, now the only one here who responded to “Twilight,” looked even more like a vampire-elf than before. Here ears were noticeably pointed, and her teeth were far too sharp to be human. It seemed that the physical corruption affected humans faster than it did unicorns, so they had improved the illusion enchantment on her glasses to restore her normal face.
“Twilight, you know how to reach me, right?” She nodded. “Don’t be afraid to call, even if it’s just for a chat... or if you want another lesson.” Twilight nodded again.
“Sure. But I’ve got to go now. My brother and parents are probably worried about me.” She paused. “What about your Shining Armor? You don’t talk about him much.”
“Meh... we don’t talk much. But that’s fine,” she lied. “Anyway, off with you. Don’t keep them waiting.”
“Right. See you ‘round.” Twilight the magical human vanished in a puff of black smoke that faded into the shadows.
Cobalt walked up to Sparkle and wrapped his arm comfortingly around a pair of hers. “Don’t worry about it. Everything will work out.”
“I hope you’re right.”
They stood like that for a while, silent and arms entwined, waiting for their wayward member. It felt nice, Sparkle supposed. The air was pleasantly cool, the sky was beautiful with the colors of dusk, and she had pleasant company with which to share it comfortably.
A portal opened behind her, announcing the arrival of her son. For an instant, she felt a stab of annoyance at him for ruining the mood, but then shoved the feeling aside. She turned around, dropping her right arms to her side. Six eyes locked onto Thorn.
The jackal-headed young dracolich wasn’t alone. Three women were following him out of the portal. But rather than human souls, they had seapony souls, and modified ones at that. Sparkle raised a questioning eyebrow. A second later, her soul-sorting spell gave them each a number — minus fifteen across the board — and her eyebrow went higher. “Thorn, who are they?”
“The Sirens.”
“Wait, the Sirens, the masters of auditory mind control that Star Swirl the Bearded fought? Those Sirens?”
“Yeah, yeah,” the one on the left said. The soul-sorting spell informed Sparkle that she was named Adagio Dazzle. “Rub it in.”
“No, that’s not what I meant! I mean, I’ve been trying to perfect my auditory mind magic for a while, ever since I read about you three! I didn’t realize you three were still alive!”
“Still alive?” The second one, the one the spell informed her was Sonata Dusk, said. “Why wouldn’t we be alive?”
“Yeah,” the final one, Aria Blaze, said. “It’s only been a few years.”
Sparkle took a second to process that. “Ah. Trans-dimensional relative temporal progression.” They gave her a blank stare. “Time passed faster at home than it did here. Star Swirl died a little less than a thousand years ago, from our perspective.”
“Wait, really?” Adagio exclaimed. Sparkle nodded “Haha! Take that, bastard!”
“So, ah, who are you two?” Aria asked. “Thorn here just dragged us here shortly after we met him. And what’s up with his head?”
“We’re Death,” Thorn replied, flaring his magic without dulling the deathly edge to it so that they could feel the truth of his words. The sirens shivered. “Anyway, I found these three singing, liked it, and thought, ‘Hey, they’d probably like performing at the Lazuli Casino. I should hire them!’ And here we are.”
“You want to hire us? That’s, like, awesome!” Sonata exclaimed. The other two nodded, though there was a calculating glint in Adagio’s eyes.
Sparkle glanced over at her son. Through the link, she asked, “So, did you bring them here to get my permission?”
“No,” he replied. “I brought them here because I already made up my mind and I’m showing off the new gems of my collection.”
Sparkle snorted mirthfully. “But you’re keeping them in line.”
Thorn grinned. “Now, ladies, why don’t we head home to our world so we can discuss the details, m’kay?”
“Deal!” Aria exclaimed. Adagio glanced at Aria, but said nothing, while Sonata bounced in place excitedly. 
Smiling, Thorn flicked his wrist, creating a portal that swept them up and into the afterlife. “Don’t need them duplicating like Sunset Shimmer did.” Now ready to go, he and the other two aspects of Death finally stepped forwards and into the mirror portal.
One swirling vortex of pure color later, the trio was deposited in a heap at the mirror’s base. As they disentangled themselves, they were pleased to find that they were all back in their original bodies.
The dracolich was the first to speak. As his claw traced out a new portal to the afterlife, he said, “Well, that was fun, but I’ve got things to do. See you.” Then he vanished.
Sparkle nodded, letting him go. Then she started brushing her semi-crystalline fur with her magic to smooth it out. A moment later, she paused to looked at Cobalt. “You’re not running off to do whatever, Cobalt?”
“Nah. I’m fine here.” What went unspoken, but not unheard, was the “with you” at the end.
“Well then,” Sparkle said as she started moving towards the door to the room they were currently in, “I feel an approaching death nearby.” She opened the door and started to step out. “Shall we-guh!” Sparkle exclaimed as a passing unicorn ran into her side. And while she was fine, the sudden unbalance knocked the white stallion to the ground.
“Whoops, sorry abo- wait, Shining Armor?”
> Oh Bʳother
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	She would have liked it if the clock had frozen at that moment. She would have been grateful for even a few extra fractions of a second to think. But that wasn’t to be; Shining Armor was a very quick-witted stallion who dealt with surprises far better than any version of Twilight Sparkle ever could. She barely had time to start taking a step back in surprise before the first syllable’s of Shining Armor’s reply were spilling off his tongue. 
“Wha? Death.” He slid back up from the ground in a movement so fluid, it was almost supernatural. His eyes were quickly narrowing into a scowl as they locked onto her, not even looking away as his horn magically gathered up the papers he’d spilled.
But, while she would have liked the extra time to think, when she had to act, she could really move. “You’re not hurt, are you? You rammed me rather hard.”
“No. I’m fine.”
“Not even a little? Shame,” Sparkle joked, though by the looks of it, her elder brother didn’t enjoy it as she had.
“What were you doing in there?” He demanded, military authority saturating the prince’s voice.
“Making impressions in a mirror,” she replied honestly, if misleadingly. She had made an impression on her other selves, after all.  And sure enough, the seemingly non-sequitur nature of her answer knocked Shining Armor mentally off balance. 
He recovered quickly enough. “You shouldn’t even be here. This is a restricted area.”
Sparkle momentarily took that statement at face value and started to reply, then she realized the absurdity of it. After all, what place in the world shouldn’t Death be able to go? It wasn’t like there was a place where nopony could die. Sparkle giggled. “Alright, I’ll show myself out, little prince.” She giggled again. This was the first time she’d seen the height difference between them since her rebirth, and the first time she’d ever been taller than her brother.
Sparkle turned and started walking down the hall. Was that towards the exit? She didn’t really know; she was just walking and hoping. Unfortunately for her, she had neglected one little detail; she hadn’t come alone.
Out of the corner of his eye, Shining Armor saw movement. His eyes darted to the side, landing upon a stallion he recognized well. “Cobalt!? What are you doing here?”
Sparkle froze mid-step, muttering a cuss under her breath. Cobalt, however, smoothly replied, “I’m with Death, of course.” His eyes darted towards his mistress, and then he brought his hoof up to his head. He tapped twice and then rubbed it, as if the latter was all he’d ever intended to do. But Sparkle got the message.
Their link, much fainter than the one she had with Thorn, opened up. “Well?”
“Anything you want me to say or not say?” he asked.
Unaware of the thoughts passing between the two, Shining Armor asked, “Does my sister know you’re with Death of all ponies? No offense, ma’am, but my sister is terrified of you.”
Sparkle grinned wickedly and chuckled, showing off her sharklike teeth. “If only you knew.”
“No,” Cobalt added immediately, as directed by Sparkle’s will over the link. “Sparkle knows that I’m here.” 
Now, Sparkle was in the midst of feeding him ideas that he intended to parrot out. However, the nature of their link was different than with Sparkle and Thorn’s. Unlike here, Sparkle could send Thorn direct neural impulses, controlling and sensing with his body as if it were her own. Here, the ideas were more abstract, so the exact wording that came out was entirely dependant on Cobalt’s interpretation. Thus, when they were later discussing the next sentence that came out of Cobalt’s mouth, Sparkle would insist that it was Cobalt’s perceptions misinterpreting her thoughts that embarrassed them, while Cobalt insisted that he’d spoken it accurately, and that it had been Sparkle that sent him that thought.
Cobalt motioned towards the reaper. “After all, she’s my marefriend.”
They blinked. All six of Sparkle’s eyes stared owlishly at her apprentice, and then she blushed. “What! Cobalt!” Cobalt, for his part, squeaked and covered his mouth with both hooves, and then promptly fell flat on his face.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” he begged mentally. “Why did I say that?”
“I don’t know. Just drop it.”
 He responded with a mental nod. “Fine. By the way, I think you should tell him who you really are.”
“What? No. Not after that pronouncement. Shiny will kill you.”
“Sparks... really?” Cobalt deadpanned. “You know the real reason why you won’t tell him.”
“But... he’ll know what I did. I doubt he’d love me once he knew how I got this body.”
“So skip that part, or lie for that little detail. But not having your brother is eating you up on the inside; Thorn, your parents, and I have all seen it. Tell him.”
Looking him in the eye, she found resolve. “Fine. But on one condition...”
That whole exchange between mistress and apprentice happened at the speed of thought, which is to say, far faster than any words could convey. However, it wasn’t fast enough to stop the formation of an awkward silence. Shining Armor, in an effort to break the silence, coughed once.
Sparkle’s eyes refocused on him. Then her body began to shift and shrink. Six legs melted into four, four eyes vanished, and the rest of her features warped. As for the remaining eyes, the sclera returned to white and they stopped smoking, but the red irises and slit pupils remained. Where once there was a twisted goddess, now there stood a crystalline unicorn mare that bore a striking resemblance to the late King Sombra.
“Ah, there we go. Now, speaking of your sister, there is something concerning her... status that we really need to talk about. But, if you don’t mind, I’d like to find your wife first, since this concerns both you and her as well.” 
Shining Armor’s front hooves slid across the ground as he adjusted his stance. To the unfamiliar, it looked like he was getting ready to blindly charge her, but Sparkle recognized the pose as the starting stance of her brother’s Scorpion style. His soul spun in his body and readied his magic just below his horn. “Tell me now. What have you done to my sister?”
“Me? I’d tell you, but we need Cadance for that. As for you, I thought you, Prince of the Crystal Empire and ex Captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard, had more sense than to fight Death herself head-on. You’re in no position to say otherwise; I hold all the cards.”
Shining Armor’s scowl twisted into a frown — not an I’m furious frown, or even an I’m worried frown, but an I’m confused frown. That wasn't to say that he wasn't worried or upset, because he clearly was. Then his stance relaxed somewhat. “Fine. Follow me.” He then turned and went the opposite direction that Sparkle had originally intended to go. Sparkle followed after her brother, while Cobalt followed after her. 
The prince led the two incarnations of death silently through the halls. And that silence, it was a powerful silence, one that demanded your attention and directed it at the void of meaningful sound that was Shining Armor. It was oppressive; that silence very quickly eroded Sparkle’s patience. “Not feeling very talkative, are we?”
“You want to talk about my sister yet?”
“Not particularly, no. Not yet, any rate.”
Shining Armor snorted, clearly indicating that that was his answer. He said nothing else and continued walking as if that little exchange hadn't just happened. 
“You know, they always seem to do that,” Sparkle remarked, gazing back at her student. “Pretend I don't exist, hoping I’ll go away. Or they panic.”
“The cultists don't,” Cobalt replied. 
“Yeah, but they're all madder than a hatter.”
“We’re here.” Shining Armor stopped in front of a large door, guarded by two armored stallions who, if Sparkle had guessed correctly, looked to be father and son. Shining addressed the two. “Alarum, Iron, make sure these two don't wander off while I’m inside.” They saluted, and he slipped inside. 
Sparkle turned her attention to the two stallions. Iron Bell, the elder, had a -9 floating above his head, meaning he was balancing precariously on the edge of the pits — a position not terribly uncommon among the guards who were guards because of a love of fighting. But the real shocker came from Alarum Bell, who had a score of -28.
That got a reaction out of both Sparkle and Cobalt. In the purgatory range, ±10, small deeds could have a big impact. As a soul moved further to the extremes of paradise or the pits, it got progressively harder to move to even more extreme values. Such a strong, negative number generally meant that the pony had done some awful thing.
“Well now, aren't you interesting?” Sparkle said to Alarum Bell. “It's been awhile since I’ve seen a soul like yours.” As she spoke, she switched her soul-sorting spell into active mode, allowing her to clearly see the criteria upon which it sorted them. This also had the effect of letting them see it as well. In other words... 
“Hey, you know how they say that your life flashes before your eyes when you have a near-death experience? Hello.” She grinned, and for an instant, her mouth was full of razor blades instead of pony teeth. At the same moment, she flared her unmistakable aura.  “That me, seeing your life. And I know what you did.” She mimed slitting her throat with a knife. 
Alarum flinched visibly. Iron noticed that and, for the first time since Sparkle and Cobalt had been left in their watch, he looked away from them to glance at Alarum. 
Just then, the door creaked open and Shining Armor motioned for them to come inside. Sparkle quickly trotted inside. Cobalt, however, had seen everything from the sorting spell that Sparkle had, and because of that he trailed slightly behind. As he passed between the two guards, and without looking at either of them, he said, “Why didn't he mourn Silver and Golden?” Then, with not a word more, he too slipped inside. 
Once beside his mistress again, he whispered, “Ten bits says less than an hour.” She nodded, accepting the bet. Then, Sparkle took a good look at the conference room they were in. On one side of the central table sat several crystal ponies, while on the other sat several changelings and Queen Chrysalis herself, all undisguised. The changelings were looking at her with no small amount of worry. The crystal ponies weren't as worked up, but there was definitely some muttering going on among themselves. 
“Well, I didn't expect to be brought in the middle of a meeting...” She trailed off, an embarrassed blush spreading across her face. She wanted to look away, but then remembered that she was in a room full of emotivores, which only made her blush harder. 
Chrysalis giggled.
Cadance, unaware of the silent exchange between Chrysalis and her sudden guest, announced to the room, “Please excuse me. A family matter has arisen that I must take care of. Continue without me, please.” Then she stood. 
“Er, no, it's not that important,” Sparkle replied. “It can wait.”
“I beg to differ,” Queen Chrysalis, of all people, replied. Rubbing her sides, she said, “I took a spear to the barrel for my family, and for my family, I’m willingly staying in the same room as the stallion who put it there. I know the importance of family, so please, go ahead. Plus, Shining Armor looks like he’s about to burst, and I don't feel particularly keen on repeating that experience.”
The ghost of a smile, directed at the changeling queen, found its way onto Shining’s face.
Sparkle sighed. “Right then.” A portal opened up beside her, angled so that the majority of the people in that room, pony and changeling alike, could see into paradise. Immediately, Cobalt stepped through. “Shall we go somewhere a little more private, then? We won't be long.”
Cadance nodded and stepped through. Shining Armor followed his wife a moment after. Sparkle moved to follow them, but then momentarily paused when she felt a nearby pony’s death approaching; the sensation was strong and clear. As Sparkle resumed her walk through the portal, she heard a muffled yell of “To the pits, you filthy bastard!” A shame — she owed Cobalt ten bits now.
The portal closed behind her, and as it did, Sparkle let the transformation fade, restoring her to her normal, six-legged form. She stretched. “Ah, that's better.”
Shining Armor turned to face her. “We're alone. My wife is here with me. Now talk.”
Train tracks materialized on the grassy plane behind Sparkle, and an instant later, so did a sleek-looking train. “Wouldn't you rather talk to your sister yourself?” That shut him up real quick. 
Death stepped into the open door of the train car, which had materialized directly behind her. The royal couple and Cobalt followed after, and found themselves in the most luxurious of train cars. No sooner had Sparkle sat down then a pony in a conductor’s uniform entered through the door at the front of the car. “My Lady, my Lord?”
“Topside Palace, at a reasonably fast pace, please,” Sparkle said. “Also, a pot of the Tea of Life, for my guests and I.”
“And a water for me,” Cobalt added.
“Right away,” the conductor replied before retreating through the door he’d come from. A moment later, the train smoothly started forwards. As the lush countryside of Paradise began to roll past, Sparkle turned towards her brother and sister in law. “Well now, I suppose I should officially welcome you two to the Afterlife. You're each one of only a hoof-full of ponies who have come here while still alive, and one of an even smaller group that will actually leave while still alive.”
“The Afterlife?” Cadance asked, surprised. “So that pony-”
“Was dead? Yes. On Time died two weeks ago of bone cancer, though since time passes faster in here than it does in the real world, he's been my conductor for a good bit longer than that.” 
Said pony returned pushing a cart bearing a tea set. He poured each of them a glass of the glowing, golden tea, and then vanished again. Sparkle summoned a little vial of the concentrated, liquid evil she’d extracted from the dead. She uncorked the vial and poured the writhing, malicious tar into her tea, and then proceeded to down the entire contents in one go. “Bah!” she exclaimed as she set the teacup down. “So good...”
Cadance took a polite sip of her own tea, blinked, and then exclaimed, “Wow, you're right! This is delicious!”
“Thank you. Now, I really should tell you some things before we arrive. Firstly, your sister and inlaw is fine; she's actually living in my palace. So if you were worried about her, don't be. Secondly, since time passes faster here than in the real world, you don't have to worry about missing too much of that meeting. And thirdly, I myself am a time traveler, and this happens to be the youngest incarnation of me. Although I know of you two, and I know my future self has run into you in the past, this is technically the first time I’ve ever met you two like this.” 
She tried to gauge their reactions. Shining Armor merely nodded while keeping up the blank, royal guard face, while Cadance looked only mildly surprised.
The pink alicorn took another sip of her tea. “So, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you?”
Sparkle thought on it for a second. “From your perspective, I’d be roughly twenty years old. From my perspective... I’ve lost track already.”
“If you’re only twenty, then does that mean your family’s still alive?” Cadance asked.
Sparkle smiled, while on the other side of the train car, Cobalt suppressed his own. “My older brother and sister-in-law recently moved out to the Crystal Empire, while my twin sister lives in Ponyville. My parents were murdered.”
“Oh...” Cadance’s happy expression withered.
For a second, Sparkle held a melancholy expression, but then she burst out laughing. “Bwahaha! The look on your face! Cadance, please, remember where you are and who you’re talking to,”
Both husband and wife blinked. Then Cadance facehoovedd while Shining Armor groaned.
“They have their own cottage on the palace grounds,” Sparkle explained.
Suddenly, Shining Armor stiffened and sat upright. Slamming his hoof on the table between them, he demanded, “My parents. Please, I want to see them! They died about twelve years ago, and-”
Sparkle closed his mouth with her magic. “Please, what kind of a bitch do you think I am? Of course I’ll let you see your parents. It’ll be one big, happy, tearful reunion.”
Shining Armor’s eyes widened and his breath hitched. For the first time since she’d bumped into him, the stallion’s body was completely relaxed and there was a genuine smile on his face.
“Next stop, Topside Palace!” On Time’s disembodied voice proclaimed. Shining and Cadance looked out the window. The grassy plains had vanished, having been replaced with a rugged mountain range that sailed past them at a breakneck pace. The train hurled around a bend at a speed far faster than it should have ever been able to go, and as it did so, a massive castle came into view, perched at the top of a snow-capped mountain. Even from this distance, the scale of it was mind-boggling — it was easily bigger than Canterlot Castle and the Crystal Palace combined, and spires and towers protruded from it at angles that should have been impossible.
The train turned and crossed a bridge that spanned the massive chasm between where they were and the castle. Shining Armor found that he had to look away so as not to get vertigo. 
Soon, however, the train came to a stop directly in front of the castle gates. At this distance, even with the enclosed garden between the castle and the train platform, the castle loomed above them ominously.
Sparkle stepped off the train and walked towards the gate, which opened on its own as they approached. And as they entered, a soft humming brushed against their ears. There, tending to the flowers, was Shining’s mom, Twilight Velvet.
“Hey Mom,” Sparkle said, “I brought guests.”
“Hm, Sparkle? Who- SHINING ARMOR! Oh Celestia, NIGHT LIGHT, COME QUICK! IT’S SHINY!” From another part of the garden, there was a clatter as a coffee mug was dropped and a chair was flung aside. The dark blue stallion bounded in, spotted his son, and tackle-hugged the flabbergasted stallion.
“Mom, Dad?”
“Oh, my little knight, let me take a good look at you!” Velvet propped Shining Armor up and then took a step back. She looked him up and down, then looked over at Cadance. “You’re a lucky mare. Ooh! My son is so handsome!”
“Well, it’s about time,” Night Light said to his daughter. “I was starting to think you’d never tell him.”
Shining Armor blinked. “Tell me what? If this is about Sparkle...”
Night Light rolled his eyes and face-hoofed. “Of course you didn’t. Well, Shiny, that anxious bundle of nerves there, despite her appearance and behavior to the contrary, is Sparkle, your sister.”
Shining and Cadance’s heads whipped around to focus on her. Sparkle merely waved one of her six hooves. Then, lowering herself down a bit, she started to dance. “Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves and-”
“-do a little shake,” she and Cadance finished together. “Oh my goodness, Sparkle!?”
“Hello!”
> Love and Other Such Things
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As the facts clicked into place, a serene smile spread across Shining Armor’s face, a smile that nearly made it to his eyes, but didn’t. “Cobalt...”
“Yes, Shining?”
“May I... talk with you for a minute? Alone?”
“Uh, sure.” Cobalt motioned to the side and led the white stallion off to a small grove of trees and shrubs. 
They were barely out sight when Shining Armor placed his hoof on Cobalt’s shoulder in a friendly gesture. Then, without so much of a twitch of his muscles nor a change of expression, Shining’s aura twisted into a malevolent cloud of fury. Calmly, oh so terribly calmly, he asked, “When exactly were you going to tell me that you were dating my little sister?”



On the utter opposite end of the emotional and reaction spectrum, was Cadance. She had just come to the same realization as her husband at nearly the same moment, and she had also correctly guessed that it was what Shining Armor had pulled the poor, doomed soul aside for.
“You two are dating?” Cadance asked eagerly.
Sparkle shook her head. “No. We aren’t. It was a slip of Cobalt’s tongue.”
Cadance’s smile fell. “Oh. Come on, you two would do well with each other. I can tell.”
The dark goddess sighed. “Cadance, please... there are circumstances around us that make me feel uncomfortable with anything more than a working relationship with him. He’s my friend, but even that’s pushing it for me.”
Cadance put her hoof to her chin thoughtfully. “Have you discussed these circumstances with him? Maybe they’re something that can be worked out together.”
Sparkle looked away. “It’s a geas, Cadance, and a bucking strong one, at that. When Cobalt became my student, I placed him under it to protect my secrets and to keep him from betraying me. His loyalty might just be artificial, and even if it is real, it wouldn’t take much for me to break him, to reshape his mind into something he isn’t.”
Cadance shuddered visibly and gagged. “Ugh... Sorry, Sparks. You just reminded me of a nightmare I had recently. But... Now that I think about it, I want to tell you about something I did shortly after your ninth birthday, something my nightmare reminded me about. 
“Sparkle, I had barely had my horn for five years when this happened. You know I grew up with earth ponies, right? Well, I hadn’t grown up with the dogma of magical responsibility drilled into my head. Sure, I was taught as such by Celestia, but there’s a difference between learning from an occasional tutor and growing up hearing it like most unicorn foals do. Anyway, once upon a time, I came upon an arguing couple. Their argument was heated, and I feared it was going too far. However, I could feel a trace of their mutual love, so I gathered my magic and cast a spell to strengthen their romantic feelings for each other. Guess what I did wrong?”
Six eyes blinked. “I’m not sure. Did you cast your spell on the wrong ponies or something?”
The alicorn of love chuckled morbidly. “I wish. No, I boosted their romantic love. They were siblings. Eleven months later, I was sued on charges of mind manipulation and for foal support. We thankfully settled out of court, and thankfully the press didn’t catch wind of it, but I was mortified of what I had done. Their filly was mercifully healthy, but she and I have never met because they have a restraining order against me.
“And don’t think Aunt Celestia and Aunt Luna don’t have stories like that — they have several each. My point is, we alicorns are disastrously strong. It’s like the world is made of cardboard, and we have to be careful or we’ll break things, or worse, people. And for the two of us, it’s not just their bodies that we have to worry about breaking.”
Sparkle swallowed as she took that all in. “That’s... I think I understand what you’re trying to say, but...”
Cadance shook her head. “From the look in your eyes, I don’t think you quite get it yet, so I’ll spell it out for you. That stallion of yours? He’s aware that you could snap him like a twig, in both body and mind. He introduced himself to you, knowing that you could do that even when you were just a unicorn. He stands next to Thorn without fear, knowing that Thorn, at your command, would tear him to ribbons. That is a stallion who knows he could be broken, but charges forwards anyway; the only reason he hasn’t charged forwards now is that he doesn’t want to break you. What does that tell you about him?”
“Damn you, Cadance,” Sparkle replied, though there was mirth in her voice. “This? This is why I love you. I’ve been a fool.”
“But you’re my fool.” Sparkle whirled around to see Cobalt walking up to her, a pleased Shining Armor following close behind.
“How long were you listening?” Sparkle questioned.
“Long enough to know that Princess Cadance was right on the money.” Cobalt stopped right in front of his teacher. “Sparkle,” he asked, “would you be my marefriend?”
Sparkle blanched and gulped. “Cobalt, I... I can’t. No. I’m sorry.”
She expected him to be sad, or to be dejected. She also expected that if the former didn’t happen, then Cobalt would simply shrug it off. Neither happened. Instead, Cobalt waved his hoof and materialized a scroll. He handed it to her. “Remember this?”




By Sparkle's power, the earth pony known as "Cobalt" shall be placed under a rank 10 geas with the following terms and conditions:


1.


Cobalt shall study and master all lessons offered by Sparkle to the best of his ability.


2.


Cobalt shall adhere to the schedule set forth by Sparkle to the best of his ability.


3.


Cobalt shall pay Sparkle the agreed upon rate, to be determined at a later time. This rate is always re-negotiable.


4.


Cobalt shall always obey any and every command Sparkle gives him, immediately and without question, so long as they are prefaced by the phrase: "Cobalt, would you kindly..."


5.


Any commands given with the phrasing stated in item four (4) are to override any conflicting orders given prior to that time.


6.


The above conditions are only valid so long as Sparkle considers Cobalt her student, or Cobalt considers her to presently be his teacher.


7.


Cobalt shall not be allowed to quit from Sparkle's tutelage unless there is no other option.


8.


Any knowledge deemed "secret" by Sparkle is to be kept secret for all time, regardless of current status of Sparkle or Cobalt, unless given explicit permission by Sparkle to reveal the information to a designated individual.


9.


Cobalt will not allow himself to be put under the influence of any other geas by any entity that is not Sparkle for as long as he is alive.


10.


Attempting to willingly violate these conditions will be punished with pain until the attempt stops. Successfully willingly violating these terms will be punished by instant death and the forfeit of Cobalt's soul to Sparkle. Accidental violations will be excused provided an attempt is made by Cobalt to explain the situation to Sparkle.




“Wait, these are the conditions to your geas,” Sparkle remarked.
“Exactly. Now, I’ve been studying your notes in my spare time, so I’m reasonably certain that you implemented the geas fairly literally. That makes things easy. Let’s start with clause two; if you set forth no new schedule, nor make one on the fly, then you are not teaching me. Then, through clause four, you can order me to quit being your student. That satisfies clause seven, the no quitting clause. That in turn satisfies clause six...”
“Breaking the control aspect of the geas!” Sparkle exclaimed.
Cobalt nodded. “Meanwhile, clauses eight, nine, and ten are still active. Not only are those not restrictive, but they make me into the ultimate secret keeper. Better yet, since you are death, if I’m ever trapped somewhere, all I have to do is try to tell a secret of yours and the geas will yank my soul straight to you!”
Sparkle grabbed the smaller stallion in a four-limbed hug. “Cobalt, you clever pony! This is perfect!”
“Is it clever enough to score a date with the smartest goddess?” His eyes darted over to the pink alicorn. “No offense, princess.”
Cadance waved her hoof dismissively.
“Yes, Cobalt, yes it is. But first things first. Cobalt, all your lessons are canceled. And Cobalt, would you kindly quit being my student?”
For the last time, Cobalt found his body uncontrollably puppeted by the geas. “Ms. Sparkle, I quit. I am no longer your student.” The moment the magic’s control waned, Cobalt added, “Now, I’m your coltfriend.”
“Is it really gone?” Cobalt nodded. “Good. I can live with that.” Then, Sparkle leaned down and kissed the stallion.
The world around them faded to nothing, literally. The dreamlike nature of the afterlife filled the air between them and the others with a thick, supernaturally warm fog. Sparkle and Cobalt paid it no mind as they let their passionate kiss consume them. Too enamoured by their dancing tongues, they barely noticed the garden grass beneath their hooves shift into the soft mattress of Sparkle’s room.
Immortal as they were, they pushed on with their kiss beyond their need to breathe. With the connection to Sparkle’s soul, Cobalt found he needed no words. Everything he wanted, she knew, and everything she wanted, he knew in return. They had no need, nor desire, to stop. So they kissed.



Back out in the gardens, the fog had cleared, revealing the empty spot where the goddess and demigod had once been. The two mares squealed with happiness at the idea that their daughter/sister-in-law had finally found love, while the two stallions exchanged conspiratorial, overly-protective father/brother looks. Of course, neither of those things lasted long as Shining Armor was soon swept up in the embrace of his late parents. After all, he had twelve years of catching up to do.



The embarrassed new couple reunited with Shining Armor, Cadance, and Sparkle’s parents around a half-hour later, when they finally pried themselves apart long enough to realize that they had just abandoned the group. While they had been gone, Thorn had joined the others. 
Now, the group was collectively getting caught up in each other’s lives, finding out what they had missed. The storytelling ended up going on for hours, long enough that Sparkle ordered them food. And of all her staff that could have answered, it was the ex-king, Sombra.
The ex-black mage nearly dropped the tray when he saw Cadance. “Princess Amore?”
Cadance blinked. “Err, no. I am Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, Cadance for short. Princess Amore was somepony else entirely,” she replied. At her side, her wings fluttered.
“Oh...” Sombra sighed, and then shook his head and chuckled. “You look so much like her, you know, especially in your eyes. I thought I finally had a chance to apologize, to make peace with her. Foolish, I know.”
“I know of Princess Amore, though,” Cadance said. “She left journals that I found after King Sombra was defeated. I’m amazed that he didn’t have them destroyed.”
“Princess Amore is the only pony I regret killing; I couldn’t just destroy her journals as well, especially not with how useful I found them during my reign.”
Cadance took half a moment to process that. “King Sombra?!”
“The very same, though I am a king no more,” the stallion replied. “I assume you are the heir to my throne? Very well. I could hardly have chosen a better heir than one of the goddesses, even if you have yet to fully ascend.”
Shining Armor, who had positioned himself between Cadance and Sombra, growled, “My wife hardly needs your blessing, Sombra.”
“And yet I give it anyway,” Sombra replied. “A tyrant I might have been, but the Crystal Empire was my home. Is it wrong that I offer my support to the one who has taken my place?”
“And what makes you think we need it?”
“I don’t, but I’m giving it anyway.”
Sparkle cleared her throat. “Shining, please stop antagonizing my butler. Sombra, my brother is tired of you; I suggest you serve us our meals and leave.”
At the word brother, Sombra’s jaw dropped and his eyes went wide. It dawned on the ex-king just how powerful the unicorn stallion across from him must be as the brother of one goddess and the lover of another. Shining Armor was no doubt magically powerful, Sombra realized, and had the might of two divine beings behind him. “My apologies, my Lady,” he muttered as he began unloading the tray of food. The moment that was done, he scurried away.
As he slipped out of the room, Shining Armor turned to his sister. “So, Sombra is your butler?”
“And tutor, guinea pig, and personal punching bag.” She shrugged, waving a hoof about in the air as she did so. “Really, when you think about it, it’s a much better deal than what he’d get being in the pits. And if he keeps his good behavior up, I might even give him his magic back.”
“I see,” Shining Armor replied. “Well, if you think you can keep him under control...”
“Don’t worry; I can.”
“Hey, Sparkle,” Cadance began, “If you’re... this, then what was that wraith we saw?”
“Ah...” She paused very briefly, thinking. “That was a specter, nothing more. I created it as a puppet to live as me while I was getting used to my new body. When we met that once, I was just a filly hiding in the bushes, watching from a distance. I actually didn’t want anypony to know that I had been reborn. And by the way, can I ask you two to not say who I am? To the rest of the world, I’m Obsidian Knife, a crystal pony that had been born before the Empire was banished. I’d like to keep it that way.”
Cadance readily agreed. Her brother did as well, but gave her a concerned look. “Do you mind me asking why you want to hide who you are? I’ll keep your secret, but I’d like to know why.”
Sparkle swallowed. “I... Shiny, Cadance, if I tell you, I’m trusting you with something big. I hope you know what you’re getting into.”
The husband and wife pair looked at each other. Without a word, their eyes carried their entire conversation. Nodding they both turned back to Sparkle. “Yes, we’ll keep your trust,” Cadance said.
“From least to greatest importance, there are three reasons. First, the crystal heart is supposed to be an object of love and purity. When I was shattered by it, ponies began assuming that I had been secretly or not-so-secretly evil this whole time. The reputation of ‘Sparkle’ is lower than ever. Second, Celestia and Luna already dislike me for things I have yet to do in the past. Time travel, you know. But I can work with whatever assumptions they have now, and I don’t want to complicate things. And third...
“This completely overshadows the other two things. When I was reborn, I didn’t create this body from scratch. I used the reincarnation spell. I used it, and seized an embryo from the womb of an unsuspecting crystal pony mare who was leaving the Empire. It killed her unborn child and eventually destroyed her as well. Thorn, being as protective of me as he was, foalnapped the mare and held her in this pocket universe until I was born.”
Cadance gasped and Shining scowled. The former exclaimed, “That’s horrible!”
“It’s bad enough to be sent to Tartarus, according to Celestia herself,” the death goddess shamefully replied, hanging her head and avoiding eye contact. “What I did was inexcusable, especially since I knew there was another way and I could have done it. I could have actually become a wraith, I could have merged with Thorn, or, as most ponies would have prefered, I could have just died.” She looked back up. “But I did the wrong thing.”
“You regret it.” It was not a question, but an observation by her brother. He marched up to her and embraced her, though he had to stand on his hind legs to get his forelegs around her neck. “Sparks, as long as you can feel regret, there is nothing you can do that I won’t reply with this: I forgive you.”
Sparkle’s breath hitched.
“You needed to hear that, didn’t you? I forgive you. I am your brother, and Cadance is your sister. We’ll forgive you and love you forever. What you did was horrible, but what was more horrible was that you felt that you couldn’t trust us to keep your secrets.” He let go, and then playfully whacked her. “Shame on you, Sparks.”
Sparkle’s chest heaved once, and then like a tidal wave, tears came flooding out of her eyes. A tension in her heart was suddenly gone, and relief came flooding in. She had her brother back; for the first time in what felt like forever, the Twilight family was whole again. 
Well, minus Sparkle’s still-living aunt Overcast, but nopony cared about that bitter mare anyway.



“Alright, so as I was saying before we got interrupted,” Cadance said, “Shiny and I have been trying for a foal.”
“Really?” Sparkle’s eyes went so wide, they seemed to occupy the entirety of her face. “That's great! I’m so jealous.”
“Oh? Well, there's nothing to be jealous of yet. We haven't had much luck so far,” Cadance replied. “That said, I didn't know you wanted to be a mother.”
Sparkle sighed. “No, I’m jealous that you have the chance. This body of mine was born a colt, and I changed it to a filly. But testicles turned into ovaries lack the egg cells needed to have a foal. I thought that was fine, since I could just jump bodies again, but I never expected to get stuck like this.”
Actually, she was wrong, but she didn't know that yet; nopony knew. The mixture of reincarnation, gender swapping, and ascension that she had experienced had never happened before. 
“You should talk to Twilight, though,” Sparkle added, changing gears. 
“Oh?” Cadance questioned. “Why’s that?”
“Obviously, since that mare is my equal and opposite, she would know a thing or two about life,” Sparkle replied.
“Does that mean what I think it means?” Shining Armor didn’t have to hear Sparkle’s answer; her expression was enough. “Dear Celestia, I’m related to almost half the pantheon.”
“More than,” Sparkle corrected. “Remind me to tell you about the other two versions of Twilight Sparkle I found on the other side of the mirror portal.”
“There’s more of you? Buck, my sister is multiplying like parasprites.” He chuckled and shook his head. “So, Twily is Life, right? And she can help us have a child?”
Sparkle nodded. “More than that, she can influence your foal’s appearance, gender, intelligence, strength, personality, tribe... Everything. Within limits, of course. Nothing’s set in stone, and how they develop is still up to you once they’re born.”
Cadance almost immediately took on a dreamy expression. “Oh, I’ve always wanted a little pegasus filly.”
Shining Armor chuckled. “I agree with you there. Remember the little unicorn filly we cared for? She was such a hoofful, and she grew up to be such a troublemaker. A pegasus sounds so much nicer. No offense, Sparks.”
“I’d just like to point out that you are in said troublemaker’s castle — which is bigger than yours — and eating her food?” Sparkle quipped. “But... None taken. Anyway, I’ll get in touch with Twi and arrange a time for her to come over so that she can help you.”



As with all good things, Shining and Cadance’s impromptu excursion came to an end. As much fun as they had had in the afterlife, they had to get back to their meeting and their real lives. But, before they could go back, Sparkle decided to have them go over a few things.
“Now remember, when you’re in the real world, Sparkle is a wraith and I am Obsidian Knife,” Sparkle reminded them.
“We know, Sparks,” her brother replied. “You’ve told us a dozen times already.”
“I’m just making sure,” she replied. Unlike normal, Sparkle was currently in her disguised form of a crystal unicorn mare.
“Don’t worry. Everything will be fine,” he reassured.
Instead of saying anything else, Sparkle opened the portal to blackness. However, that was only because of the time dilation; as the afterlife’s clock slowed to match the real world’s, the colors faded in, starting with dark reds that shifted to blues until everything beyond the portal was the correct color.
Cadance and Shining Armor stepped out of the portal. Though they knew that practically no time had passed, the fact that everyone in that original meeting was still in the same spots still managed to surprise them. “Wow,” Cadance remarked.
Sparkle stepped out after them. “The wonders of time dilation. It’s been only a few seconds.” The goddess of death glanced at the changeling queen, who hadn’t even had time to get bored without Cadance there at the meeting. “I told you we wouldn’t be long.” Then, addressing her brother and sister-in-law again, she said, “Excuse me. There’s a stallion nearby I need to see.”
She trotted over to the door. In the second it took her to cross the room, the meaning of her words registered in Shining’s mind. “Wait, what?!”
Sparkle opened the door and stepped onto the wet floor. She looked down. It was blood she was standing in. Her eyes darted to the side and spotted the impaled body of Alarum Bell and his panting, now spearless father, Iron Bell.
Death tsked disapprovingly. “You should have waited until you at least were somewhere private, Iron Bell.” She reached down and grabbed the soul from Alarum’s dying body. In her grip, it was visible to all, including the growing crowd behind her. “To the pits, I think I heard you say. I can do that. As for helping you get away with murder in front of all these witnesses?” Sparkle laughed. “Sorry, I can’t help you there.” 
And with that, she teleported away.
> Professor Death
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It had felt like years to her. It had been years, actually. By her count, she and Cobalt were now likely in their early-to-mid thirties, though neither of them looked it. Thorn, now in his early twenties, was the only one who’d really changed as his minimum size slowly crept up. He was growing up, but they were not growing old.
And yet, only now did it really hit her just how long her future was going to be. It wasn’t even a spectacular revelation; she’d just seen a newspaper with the date on it, and realized just how long — just how shortly — she’d been Death. 
One month.
It was significant to her. It reminded Sparkle of the identity ritual she’d cast on herself all that time ago, right after she’d ascended. It reminded her of all that she’d seen in that instant. Her past, her future, the inner workings of herself, the inner workings of the universe... it all came to her in that one singular moment. And in that moment, the gradual second stage of her ascension had accelerated. She’d given herself one month before her ascension completed and she was one hundred percent bonded with the abstract concept of Death. That day was today.
And like a switch flipping on, and yet nothing like that at all, she became aware of the entirety of her domain. It wasn’t a rush of new information, but a gradually increasing of a familiar sort of information, like sensation returning to a numb limb. In fact, if she hadn’t been paying attention because of the date on the newspaper, she suspected that she wouldn’t have noticed the changes at all. But it did make her aware of something else. She was set in place, unchanging. The face she saw in the mirror would be the one with her until the end of this world.
The slight melancholy that thought bought didn’t last long, though. She thought of the future, and what all it would bring. Moreover, she remembered what her vision of herself showed her: that she would be the one to write the final page in the annals of history when the universe itself finally died.
But for now, Death had a more pressing concern than the eventual heat death of the universe: money. Sure, she had a good number of bits stashed away, but that wouldn’t last forever. And with Cobalt no longer her student — and thus no longer paying her for his tutelage — she was technically unemployed. Yes, she had that solid cone of gold from Lady Evrfyr, but something like that was nearly impossible to sell. It was bigger than her whole body, and nopony had the sort of money to buy it; as for cutting it, Thorn wouldn’t allow it.
Thus, Sparkle was out of a job and slowly eating through her finances. Sure, she no longer needed a home, but she and Thorn still ate real-world food and her experiments sometimes needed expensive materials.
“Well, you’re a teacher,” Cobalt had replied when she brought the matter up to him. “Teach.” He’d been joking slightly, thinking that if she even took the suggestion, she’d repeat what she’d done with him. But she immediately turned the joke on its head.
“Wouldn’t it be funny,” she countered, “if I went back to teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts? Maybe even full time this time?” They’d joked about it, but as the conversation went on, Sparkle quickly latched onto the idea as a serious goal. Not serious as in I really want to do this serious, but an I want to see if I can do this serious. She didn’t have the princess’s help this time.
Sparkle arrived at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns in her unicorn form. Cobalt, currently dyed orange and wearing a prosthetic horn instead of his usual blue earth pony appearance, walked alongside her. She was going to apply for the job later today, but right now, they were curious as to who was teaching the class presently.
After a little bit of digging, Cobalt found the room the class was being held in, and at the appropriate time, the couple wandered in and took a seat at the back of the lecture hall. Sparkle glanced around, her eyes lingering on the various ponies. A good number of them looked like they were military, but some of them were decidedly not; those in the latter group were obvious by how much louder they were. What’s more, none of them, military or otherwise, looked that stressed out. Sparkle had told Cobalt of how she’d taught the class back before her untimely death, and knowing that this wasn’t the first day, told the two of them that this class was extremely different than the class she’d taught.
There was one thing that caught the couple’s attention, though. A mare sat down next to Sparkle, and like Sparkle, she was suppressing her magic. That was not what drew Sparkle’s attention to the pink-maned unicorn; no, it was the fact that her soul was bigger than her own body. Princess Celestia, of all ponies, had just sat down next to her.
“Well now, that’s interesting,” Cobalt remarked through their link. “You think she’s here to observe?”
“Obviously,” Sparkle replied. “This school has her name on it, and this class is training her soldiers. I think she’d want to know what they’re teaching her country’s protectors. She did this with me, once, when I was first starting out. She even gave me a few good pointers.”
“So now the question is, does she recognize who she’s sitting next to?”
“You mean Blueblood’s killer? How would she even know what you looked like?” the dark goddess quipped.
The demigod rolled his eyes. “Not what I meant.”
“I know what you meant. No, she simply can’t recognize us. Unlike Luna, Celestia is not resistant to illusions, and is even less resistant when suppressing her magic.”
“If she were your student, she would have just failed,” Cobalt observed. Sparkle snickered.
The teacher came in and began the lecture. Sparkle and Cobalt observed her closely, watching her more than the lecture. She was a middle-aged unicorn, one that had the body of a scholar, not a fighter. As the soul-sorting spell activated for her, Sparkle slowed it down so that she could observe the character of the mare that was teaching the class.
Past Evidence was her name, and her talent was understanding historical patterns. She’d applied that knowledge to military tactics, and had written several books on what strategies worked, what didn’t, and why. Between that and what she was writing on the chalkboard, Cobalt and Sparkle realized what sort of class Defense Against the Dark Arts had become: a defensive strategy class.
Sparkle, being the academian she was, found the lecture quite interesting. It was by no means how she would have taught the class, but she could see the use of the information that was being presented. Cobalt, on the other hoof, was far less enthused. As an assassin, his entire mindset was that every plan is always failing, and that improvisation is always needed. And, more specifically, he knew that plans tended to fail because of the assumptions upon which said plans depended.
Cobalt raised his hoof. Sparkle glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, curious. Up at the front of the class, the professor stopped to take his question. “Professor, that formation depends on a number of assumptions, and I’m concerned about its viability when it comes to facing dark mages.”
“Oh? Now, I feel fairly confident in it, but I would love to hear your concerns.”
Cobalt nodded, accepting the unspoken challenge. “Well, first it assumes that the caster is using Canterlot Frontal, Germane Fest Schritt, or Prench Magie Linéaire. Yes, those are the three most common casting styles in Equestria, but they are hardly the only styles, and Backcasting, for example, allows a unicorn to cast while retreating. Second, it assumes that the unicorn will be rather stationary while casting, which is, again, quite common. But I know for a fact that some ponies—” Here, he lit up his false horn with his red magic and launched a harmless ball of light. It flew through the air, but with Cobalt’s extreme speed, he ran to the front of the room fast enough for him to be hit by his own spell. “—Can outrace airborne magic. Third, it assumes that disabling the horn is enough to disable the unicorn.” Here, he flicked out a hoof, causing a black blob of magic to fly out and hit the professor in the chest. “Again. That’s usually enough, but you never can tell. Fourth, it assumes that—”
“The unicorn cannot turn your own allies against you, like I have just done,” Cobalt and the now specter-possessed teacher said in unison. “Fifth, it assumes that the caster is, in fact, a unicorn.”
Here, Cobalt pulled off his fake horn. “And finally, it assumes that the target will attack with only magic.” He closed the distance between himself and the teacher. From the rubber horn, he pulled out a small switchblade and held it up to her throat, dull side towards her skin. Simultaneously, he commanded his specter to release her and dissipate. “There’s more than that, but that’s six assumptions already, each with an unknowable array of possible arrangements. Six assumptions puts you six hoof-lengths under.” He folded up his knife, picked up the prosthetic, and zipped back up to his seat before the teacher could even reply.
“I see...” Professor Past Evidence replied as she gathered her wits again. “All of those are valid points. However, as I covered in yesterday’s lecture, this strategy is for a specific situation in which you can be reliably certain of your opponent’s abilities.”
“Again, I would argue against its validity. My marefriend, for example, has a twin sister with a vastly different combat style. Yet, give her thirty seconds, and she can emulate her sister so well that you literally wouldn’t be able to see that you were fighting the wrong pony. You think you’re fighting a barrier mistress, and then suddenly she rips your heart out. My point is: information can be wrong, even maliciously so; circumstances can change; and then you find yourself back at square one with little-to-no useable information and a plan that will put you in an early grave.”
By now, the entire class was staring at Cobalt, who was twirling the switchblade in his magical grip. Even the disguised Celestia was staring at him. He stabbed the blade into the blade into the desk hard enough that it remained upright when his magic released it. “But what do I know? You’re the professor, and I’m just a stallion in love with Death.”
The teacher took a second to get her class’s attention back, and then quickly explained her counter-arguments to Cobalt’s points. However, the two goddesses in the room weren’t listening to her. Celestia leaned around Sparkle to address Cobalt. “Well now, you’re an interesting stallion. I haven’t seen an earth pony mage in a long time, and never one so young.”
Cobalt grinned. “I learned from the best,” he replied. “And while your compliments are much appreciated, I’m already taken.”
Startled slightly, Celestia shook her head. “No, no, no. That’s not what I meant at all!”
Cobalt’s grin morphed into a smirk. “I know. But even if you were flirting with me, you’re a bit old for my tastes. I prefer my mares to be less than a century old, Princess Celestia.”
Whatever the disguised princess was going to say, she didn’t get a chance as Sparkle shushed them both. “Can’t you hear that?”
Celestia blinked and flicked her ears in the direction that Sparkle’s were pointed. Cobalt did the same. “The bell?” Cobalt asked, referring to the muffled clanging of a bell he could hear coming through the windows. It sounded like the bell of a clock tower, except that the tower they could see wasn’t one; it was the central tower of the Mage’s Guild.
“I don’t hear anything,” Celestia remarked.
“I know that sound...” Sparkle remarked, frowning. But, more than the sound, she recognized the foul power that it carried. “No, it was a recording... Um... Oh, it was with that poem in the books. Um, what was it again?”
She switched to speaking ancient unicornian. <<First is the bell that hides in the tower, waiting to chime the thirteenth hour... Next is the mage with the neck-hanging bell, whose power never ceases to swell... Third comes the call of the thirteenth hour. Lost are the souls who see the dread tower....>> Next to her, Celestia’s breath hitched. Sparkle paid it no mind. “Damn, what was the last verse? Um... oh!” <<But those who are cast out will surely come back, if the dread Tambelon bell should crack!>>
Sparkle stood and trotted to the window, a feeling of unease filling her body. Her senses told her that something was about to happen, that ponies were about to die. Her horn started bubbling with black magic, the release of which slammed into the awareness of every magically-sensitive pony in the room like a ton of bricks.
*Clang, Clang, Clang...*
With each morbid ring, a pulse of black magic surged out of the Mage Guild tower, accompanied by hundreds of orbs of darkness that zipped through the air until they bounced off of Sparkle’s magic. Sparkle’s knees buckled under the sudden strain; she was using her magic to contain the power of the bell’s to a small area, but she hadn’t expected it to be that hard.
Flashes of various colors started appearing in the yard below, revealing several disoriented ponies, with more appearing every second. They were ponies who had had the misfortune of trying to teleport within the vicinity of the active bell. “Sleeper, no teleporting.”
The use of his title instead of his name cued him into the fact that they were now very much on duty. “Right. Reaper, you might want to take a look at the professor.”
Sparkle glanced back down. One of the black orbs had struck her and burrowed into her head. The dark goddess had only looked in time to see the orb devour the mare’s soul. However, the professor’s body didn’t fall. Instead, it looked right up at Sparkle, Cobalt, and Celestia. “Well, what do we have here?” the thing in Past Evidence’s body cooed. “Two brilliant souls to-”
*BANG*
Whatever it had been about to say, it didn’t say it. It couldn’t, on account of the fact that its head was now splattered on the blackboard. Back up at the top of the lecture hall, Sparkle eyed the devastation her smoking, prototype rifle had caused. “Well, that explains why future me liked these things so much. I’ll have to thank Sci-Twi for the specifics.”
Celestia could only gape at the destruction the weapon, cheerfully engraved with the words “Humanity’s Salutations.” had caused. When she looked away from the gore, away from the now screaming students, the Reaper had transformed back into herself and was galloping out the door, the Sleeper right behind her. Celestia moved to chase after her, but when she tried to run through the door, she was thrown back. A pain unlike any other coursed through her very being, and up in the sky, for only an instant, the sun flared brighter than it had ever been before.
Now untransformed herself, Celestia picked herself up off the ground. She looked  at what she had just run into. With no small amount of horror, she realized that she was inside Death’s soul trap, and trapped with a bunch of panicking ponies. She knew that she had to act quick; if a mortal tried that, they would die for certain. “QUIET!”



Outside, the two aspects of Death galloped through the school in an effort to get to the tower. “What’s going on?!” Cobalt exclaimed.
“No time! We have to get to the bell in the mage’s tower and disable it before it rings again, or worse, gets destroyed!”
“And what was that thing that attacked the professor?”
“Demon!” Sparkle shouted, both as an explanation and an exclamation as she shot another possessed pony’s head off. She kept sprinting, nearly slipping through his blood as she passed the corpse. “Grab your weapons. Kill anything or anyone with an abnormal soul. Destroy the demons, reap the good souls. Go!”
Cobalt nodded once, and then dashed off so fast that he seemed to flicker out of visibility. Sparkle turned her attention to her other aspect. “Thorn!”
“Got it!” the dracolich replied, having been privy to her thoughts and memories. He pushed his way through the afterlife and into the soul trap. His roar as he emerged was loud enough to shake the entire building.
The next possessed pony Sparkle came across hardly looked like a pony anymore. The demons were transforming the living corpses they inhabited into nightmarish abominations, and they were doing it very quickly. But that wasn’t all they were doing. The abominations would attack anypony they came across, killing them but at the same time leaving them unable to part from their bodies — in other words, zombifying everypony they touched.
The screams were growing louder and more plentiful, and the loud report of the gun was echoing through the halls more and more frequently. Sparkle burst through the doors of the school and into the field between it and the mage tower. Unicorns were still teleporting in, unable to stop themselves from being ensnared by the bell’s pull. Demons and zombies were there waiting for them by the dozens.
Fire rained down from above, scorching the field and all within it with divine fury. Incinerated by the flames of a divine dracolich, the demons exploded, the zombies crumbled to ash, and the unfortunately still living found their souls reaped before the pain of the inferno could register in their minds.
Sparkle strolled through the emerald flames, unharmed as they licked at her fur. “Thorn!”
The dracolich, large enough to swallow her whole, landed beside her. “Yeah?”
“Get me up to the top of that tower,” she said, pointing. “Then cough up some of your fuel; I might need it.”
“Got it.” He snatched his mother up with his mammoth claws. “Now, question: What happens if you can’t safely destroy the bell, or disarm it?”
Sparkle didn’t answer.
“Right. And Celestia?”
“...We’ll deal with both as it comes to that.”
Thorn sighed. “Right. Well, I’ll try not to burn down too much of her school, but no promises.” Sparkle looked up at Thorn, and his six eyes glanced back at her six. She said nor thought nothing, for she knew that he knew everything she wanted to say.
One of Thorn’s fists lashed out, punching a massive hole in the top of the tower. The claws carrying his mother deposited her in the hole. Without a word, he turned around and looked at the small monstrosities that were flooding out of the building. He roared, and they were consumed by fire.
Meanwhile Sparkle was making her way into the tower, levitating a blob of Thorn’s fuel behind her. However, she’d barely gone the length of a single hallway before a pony jumped out to face her. She leveled her gun at him, but something made her pause. Like the other possessed, he was in the process of transforming. However, he seemed to still have his soul as well as the demon inside him. What’s more, he had a choker with a single silver bell on it.
“Greetings, Death. It’s been a long time since we met last,” the possessed pony said, even as curved goat horns erupted from his skull. “Fifteen hundred years to be exact. Fifteen hundred years since you left me to rot in Tartarus.”
Two names floated into her view from the soul-sorting spell: Puzzle Piece and G̵̷͕͖̀r̷̺͔o̶̢̪͕̫g̷̢͈͘a̴̭̰r̡̬͍̖͝ͅ.The first was a pony she didn’t know, but the second was from someone she’d once called a no-talent hack for relying on the power of the bell; perhaps, though, she needed to reassess that opinion, since she could tell that there was more to him that met the eye. “You know, the only reason I can imagine myself locking someone away is if my past self was going to kill them in the future. Time is funny that way.” 
She pulled the trigger on her gun. The forelegs of the increasingly goat-like pony vanished in a shower of gore, causing him to fall into his own blood. She pulled the trigger again, and the still-aloft hindquarters of the pony-goat exploded as well.
Grogar should have been in excruciating pain, but didn’t look it. The bell on his neck jingled, causing all the sprayed gore to start collecting again, rebuilding his legs and ass. “If you think I am going to let you kill me, think again. And even if you do-” He stood up again. “-no prison will hold me forever. Not even the one you call the afterlife.”
*Bang.* “Do you even know what the afterlife is, Grogar?” *Bang.* “It’s not a prison.” *Bang.* “It’s my stomach. And I am never.” *Bang.* “Ever.” *Bang.* “Going to choke you down.”  *Bang.* *Bang.* *Bang.* “I’m going to erase you from existance... kind of like that,” she remarked as she looked at the bloody mess that had been Grogar. Rule one of fighting anyone: don’t give them a chance to fight back; and rule two: there’s no kill like overkill.
With her magic, she plucked the silver bell from the pile of guts, noting that it remained clean despite having been drenched in blood. It radiated a powerful magic, and as long as it did, Sparkle dared not assume Grogar was actually dead or destroyed yet. However, she did figure that she had a moment to move before he could reform.
Galloping along, careful to not let the clapper in the little bell ring nor spill any of the precious dragonfire fuel she was still carrying, Sparkle explored the tower for the primary bell. It didn’t take long to find; the central bell had a psychic pull on everypony around it that compelled them to find it, urging them to ring it again. Sparkle knew it was a trap, however.
When she finally found the bell, she’d expected to see it hung by the old wooden beam it was depicted with; had the bell appeared there by itself, as the legends said it was capable of doing, it would have come with that beam, which would have embedded itself in the existing architecture. Instead, it was free standing in the center of the room on an obviously modern support rig. Runic markings covered the floor around it, and delicate magical instruments were lined up around it, confirming Sparkles fears: the bell had been brought there.
“Now, how to disable you?”
“Cursefire might work,” Cobalt said as he zipped into the room. Only a forewarning thought over their link had kept Sparkle from shooting him with fright.
“No. Not yet,” Sparkle replied. “We might take out half of the city that way. That’s a last resort.”
From over the link, Thorn threw in his own suggestion. “What if we set it off? If that legend is to be believed — and I double checked the wording on my way here — destroying the bell has the risk of opening a portal straight to Tartarus. It would be this times a million as everything trapped in there could get out again! But, if we set it off and it took one of us with it on its return, we could destroy it there.” 
“Except that Sunbutt is still in here,” Cobalt countered. “Sparkle may have caught the magic in her soul-trap, but she also caught the Princess. I really doubt that she’d enjoy being dragged down to Tartarus with us. Buck, I can’t believe we’re actually seriously contemplating getting dragged into Tartarus.”
“Focus!” Sparkle snapped. “I can drop the trap for an instant, letting one of us rush her out. Then I put it back up and whoever’s left.”
“Correction,” Thorn growled, “Them — Luna just got ensnared. She’s on the other side of the trap from Celestia, and she’s coming at me! Gah!” Thorn went silent as his thoughts fully shifted to warding off the attacking princess of the night. “QUIT IT, YOU IDIOTIC PRINCESS! I’M ON YOUR SIDE!” his massive voice bellowed.
Thinking quickly, Cobalt came up with a plan of action. “Alright. I’ll get Celestia out, you get Luna. We’ll have Thorn ring the bell, since he’s the best fighter and the most destructive of all of us.”
Sparkle nodded and echoed the plan to her son. “Right, I have no idea what’s going to be waiting for the chance when I pop this bubble, so you’re going to have to move fast. I’ll be placing down the new trap 200 hoof-lengths further out than this one, and I’ll give you ten seconds. That should be more than enough time to get out at a full gallop. As soon as we get out, circle and find anything that managed to escape with us.”
“Obviously. And leave that stuff here.” He motioned to the fuel and bell still in Sparkle’s magical grip.
Sparkle set them down. “Right. Let’s go.”
Cobalt zipped off to find the solar princess, and Sparkle traced her way back to the hole that Thorn had made. She jumped out, never minding the several story fall, and transformed into a cloud of formless black smoke. In that form, she rushed towards her son and the nocturnal princess.
“Luna!” she called out as she rematerialized. The princess was currently fighting off a trio of demons; without a soul-and-body shredding weapon, she was having a much harder time of it than Sparkle had been. However, that wasn’t to say she was totally defenseless; quite the contrary, she had summoned a pair of warhammers and was bashing the demons senseless. The only problem was their incredible healing and extreme toughness.
Three more shots roared out of Sparkle’s rifle, quickly despatching the demons with terrifying ease. A fourth shot fired, killing an approaching zombie mare. “Luna! We have to get out of here right now."
“We cannot! Our citizens are in here! We must defend them!” Luna roared.
"Luna, they’re all dead. There’s not a single uninfected soul left in here! Believe me; I can feel it,” the Reaper replied. “We need to get out of here before the bell drags us all to Tartarus!”
That shut the lunar princess up nice and tight. She nodded. The two of them raced to the edge of the soul-trap, though Sparkle had to clear out several more undead and possessed along their way. As they approached, Sparkle received word from Cobalt that let her know that he and Celestia were ready.
“When I drop the barrier, we’re going to have to sprint. Ten seconds, two hundred hoof-lengths. My partner is explaining this to Celestia as we speak,” Sparkle explained.
“Celestia is here?” Luna exclaimed.
“Yes. Ready? Three, two, one, RUN!” The two of them bolted. Across the burning campus, Cobalt had said the same thing as she and was now running alongside Celestia. Their hearts pounded, the magic swirled around them, the demons roared, and Sparkle counted.
Ten. The barrier shimmered into existence just behind them. “Cobalt?”
“We’re out.”
“Thorn!”
“Give me a second...”
Sparkle would, but she had other things to attend to. She dissolved into smoke and began spreading herself around the bubble that was the soul-trap, careful to not let a single part of her slip back inside. As she spread, she sought out anything that had escaped and destroyed it with extreme prejudice.
“Alright... See you guys later,” Thorn announced, though there was a trace of fear coming over their link. Then the bell rang.
*Clang, Clang, Clang...*
Then, like a bathtub drain being pulled, the world swirled at the top of the tower, drawing everything into the vortex, souls, building, and all. The howling winds threatened to suck those outside the soul-trap in, but they held their ground.
When it finally stopped, there was a perfectly spherical crater dug into the ground, extending to the exact contour of Sparkle’s barrier. There was nothing left — no buildings, no life, no flames, nothing. Sparkle let the spell collapse, and then she herself collapsed as well.
Thorn was in Tartarus. Her little baby was in Tartarus! The thought alone made her choke. She could feel him still and see through his eyes just fine, so she knew that he was fine for now, but some part of her still made her worry.
Suddenly, she felt extraordinarily tired, as if the life was being sucked out of her. In a way, it was; Thorn was calling upon more of their shared magic than he had ever done before for a massive cursefire blast, and it was taking its toll on her.
“Hey! Hey!” Sparkle looked up with heavy eyes. Cobalt was running towards her, both princesses in tow. “Reaper! Get up!”
Sparkle hoisted herself to her feet, very much aware of how the sudden lack of earth pony magic in her made her legs feel like jelly. “What?” she snapped.
“I could be asking you the same thing,” Celestia said. At that moment, Sparkle’s head was spinning so badly that she couldn’t tell what emotion Celestia had said that with. “What was that?”
“Bells of Tambelon.”
“We know that much,” Celestia replied. Whether it was the royal we or she was actually referring to herself and Luna together, Sparkle didn’t know. “What we’re talking about is why you felt it was necessary to slaughter our subjects!”
“They weren’t your subjects. Not anymore. Some were consumed by demons, others were zombified,” Sparkle replied tersely.
“The paladin order could have handled it with far less death and destruction,” Celestia quipped. “They are literally right there.” She pointed with her hoof, and sure enough, there were close to a dozen paladins and three times that many royal guards exactly where she was indicating, having gathered in response to the magical burst.
“If you hadn’t noticed, sunshine, I had the situation handled!” Sparkle growled. Something about Celestia’s statement had struck a nerve with her. The fear and stress in her warped to anger, while at the same time Sparkle found her second wind. “The bells should have taken the entire city down to Tartarus, you and Luna included! I think I did a pretty damn good job of containing the situation. Look around you! Half a school and a mage tower, and all the ponies in them! That’s a bargain compared to what you could have lost thanks to your mages’ idiocy!”
“A bargain?!” Celestia shouted. “There are hundreds dead! And what do you mean, ‘My mages’ idiocy?’”
“That bell sure as Tartarus didn’t just appear there. It was placed there. I saw it with my own eyes. An artifact that was designed to feed entire cities to the demonic hordes inside Tartarus was brought into the third most populous city in Equestria!”
“SILENCE!” a bloodsoaked Luna roared. The two other goddesses shut their mouths and stared at her. “Thank you. Now, Tia, callous as Death may be, she is right. I know you are not as sensitive to the workings of dark magic as I am, nor are you as knowledgeable, so you can be forgiven for not knowing. However, she did just end a disaster that should have by all means destroyed the entire city. In fact, I am utterly astonished that she did as well as she did. Death, I mean no offense, but given my past with you, I would have expected you to not act at all until it was too late.”
“None taken,” Sparkle replied.
“Celestia, those paladins? They would have been able to do nothing, and we would have lost them as well,” Luna said. There was a muffled shout of protest from said paladins. It was ignored.
“I beg to differ. They are extremely skilled at purging demons and putting down the undead,” Celestia replied.
“The implication being that I’m not?” Sparkle quipped. “At least I can get the whole soul out every time. I’ve had to stitch sixteen ponies back together after a botched re-killing in the last week alone.”
“Enough, you two!” Luna shouted, though not in the Canterlot Royal Voice this time. “Tia, I do not know what has gotten into you, but you need to shut your mouth about those little white knights that you are so fond of. And Death? Please, be quiet. I am trying to defend you here, against my better judgement even, but you are not helping at the moment.”
Sparkle ignored the backhooved declaration of help and wisely stayed quiet. 
“Thank you. Now, Death, forgive my bluntness, but could you just go wherever it is you go whenever you’re not ending innocent lives? I want to speak to you later about this, but right now, Celestia and I have an utter disaster to clean up. Come, Tia, we have ponies to keep from panicking.”
“Yes, Luna, that sounds like an excellent idea.” The solar princess was looking Sparkle directly in the eye when she said that. Sparkle knew that it wasn’t crowd control that she was agreeing with.
With a huff, Sparkle opened a portal directly below her hooves and fell through it to the afterlife. Behind the two princesses, Cobalt copied her. Their portals closed an instant later.
Luna turned to her sister. “Now, that stallion who was with you...” She looked over her sister’s shoulder. “Wait, where did he go?”



Sparkle screamed into her pillow. Thorn mercifully had returned, though not without injuries that were taking a remarkably long time to heal, and was currently wrapped around Sparkle and Cobalt. He too was upset, though more indirectly. “That was extremely rude of Celestia, insulting your talent and our domain like that,” Thorn said.
Sparkle screamed again. She was putting off waves of anger and frustration, not just because of that situation but from years of bottled-up frustrations. Her emotions were affecting Cobalt as well, who was gritting his teeth in frustration. But, playing devil’s advocate, he replied, “To be fair, I don’t think she realized what she was saying. Emotions were high, and she was used to thinking of her paladins as the best line of defense after the Elements of Harmony and the princesses themselves. Still, she could have handled that better. A thank you would have been nice.”
“YES!” Sparkle shouted. “Two words, and I would have been able to shrug that off. But Nooooo... Now I’m pissed.”
“Relax, Sparks,” Cobalt said. “We’re all safe and sound and there are no disasters here. Relax.”
There was a knock on the door to Sparkle’s Chambers. “What?” Sparkle called out.
Sombra’s voice drifted through the wooden door. “My Lady, you have a letter from your sister.”
Sparkle’s head popped up from the pillow. “A letter? From Twilight? Why didn’t she just come herself?”
“It was written on your magic typewriter just a minute ago. It seems urgent.”
She hopped up and trotted over to the door. Yanking it open, she snatched the letter from her butler and began to read. “Shit.”
“What did it say?”
“Shit.” Sparkle ripped open a portal to Twilight’s timeline and hopped through, letting the letter fall to the bedroom floor. Cobalt, not knowing where she was going, hopped off the bed as well and picked up the letter.


Sparkle, help. Attacked by Tirek, lost magic. Can’t get EoH. Friends trapped.


“Shit,” Cobalt echoed as he followed after her.
> Aftermath (Part A)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The centaur sat outside the Golden Oaks library, holding a cup of tea. Across from the centaur were a couple of individuals. First, there was an earth pony, painted orange, who was eating a muffin. Next, there was the current resident of the library-house, who was holding her own cup of tea. Then, there was the mare’s sister, who wasn’t really doing much of anything at the moment. Finally, a dragon who matched the centaur in size sat next to him. 
The reason they were outside the library and not sitting inside it was the centaur himself; though he was smaller than he had been not too long ago, he was still far too big to fit through the door. The centaur wasn’t complaining, though. The weather was lovely and the grass was soft.
“Not that I’m complaining — everypony got their magic back — but what did you actually do to Tirek?” the princess of the group asked. “I sort of missed it.”
The centaur took a sip of his tea. “Funny story,” the centaur said in a Canterlot accent that didn’t actually belong to Tirek, his six eyes looking down at Twilight, “I just had a really shitty day, and when I got your letter, I got a little mad.”



Sparkle burst out of the portal screaming bloody murder. And as anypony who heard that sound would tell you, there was nothing more terrifying than an enraged dark goddess. Still screaming, she spotted the massive centaur and launched herself at him, fangs bared and mouth frothing.
She leapt and tackled the behemoth’s leg. Her fangs sank into his flesh, causing Tirek to howl in pain. Using her magic, she grabbed the limb that was reaching down to swat her off and pulled, practically folding Tirek in a direction his spine was not meant to twist.
The centaur fell, and as he did, she gave him an extra shove and completely flipped him over, pinning him to the ground with raw telekinetic fury. She climbed on top of him and tore into his neck and ripped out his trachea. Then, she ripped into his ribcage and tore out his heart. The moment the still-beating organ was removed, she took a massive bite out of it.



“I knocked him over after catching him unaware, and then pulled out his soul.”



Gurgling in agony, the mutilated centaur had the joy of spending his last ten seconds of consciousness being ripped out of his own body. She spared him no pain; normally, she’d scoop out a soul with the delicacy one might use to lift wet tissue paper, but here, she pulled with the same slow might that one would use to rip someone else’s arm off.



“After that, it was just a simple matter of releasing the trapped magic. If you don’t know how to properly integrate the fragments of a soul together, the stolen magic just kind of sits there. Open it up, and the fragments fly back to the rest of the soul that they came from.”



Like two magical drills, a pair of tendrils of Sparkle’s magic bored their way into the Centaur’s soul. The moment they were deep enough, they solidified into finger-like protrusions of energy and pulled in opposite directions. Tirek’s soul cracked much like an egg, releasing the gooey mess that was countless ponies’ magics.
The fire-like lights of the soul fragments wooshed back to where they belonged, but Sparkle didn’t care about them, not even the extra-bright fragment of her sister’s soul. No, her attention was still wholly on the soul in front of her. Donning a savage, bloody grin, Sparkle pressed the fragments of Tirek’s now deflated soul back together again and stitched them up. Then she opened up her jaw wide, wider than it ever should have gone, and devoured his soul.
But she didn’t let his soul drop into her stomach. Oh no, she used her magic to shove it to the side, into that same pocket of her being that had imprisoned her parents before she’d ascended, the same pocket that kept him trapped while letting him see the world through her eyes.
“Tirek. You hurt my sister, so I’m going to make you suffer.”



“After that, I had his body to deal with. I thought I’d take it, since it was just going to rot away otherwise. So I hopped inside,” Sparkle said with Tirek’s mouth. “Since his body is already built for handling such huge amounts of magic, it didn’t react badly to my presence.”
“Unlike the time with that dragon,” Thorn added.
“Exactly. Well, actually, I think the reason it didn’t shift into my form was because I already had part of Tirek’s soul fused to my own before I even ascended. This...” she motioned to Tirek’s slightly modified body, “is what a divine centaur looks like. It’s just as much me as that body is.”
The specter animating her old body waved its hoof.
“Yes, well, it’s creepy, Sparkle,” Twilight replied, taking a sip of her tea after she spoke. Then, as an afterthought, she added, “Creepier than you usually are. You're wearing the body of the person that just attacked me.”
Sparkle’s newly acquired hand stroked her newly acquired beard. “Well, I have a sizable bit of my Tirek’s memories, his soul interface, his magic, his soul weapon, your Tirek’s body, and the rest of Tirek’s memories that I plan to integrate later. Save for his personality, which I plan to chew on later, I basically am Tirek.”
Twilight groaned. “Not helping, Sparkle.” She took another calming sip of her tea. “So, what were Cobalt and Thorn up to? They arrived a few minutes after you did.”
“We were checking for more bells of Tambelon,” Cobalt replied. “We just got finished dealing with our version and wanted to make sure Canterlot wasn’t about to be wiped off the face of the map. Don’t worry; Canterlot’s 100% free of demonic bells.” He nibbled on the muffin again. “Not sure about any other cities, but none of us have felt anything like an approaching demon horde slaughtering everypony in their path.”
“Well, Grogar did say he knew me, so I’m guessing this is another one of those things that will play out differently because of my time traveling,” Sparkle-in-Tirek replied. “We really should try to map out the differences in our histories. It’s becoming increasingly apparent that though we thought our two timelines were the same, they’ve since diverged both before and after the initial split.”
“Wait, back up. Bells of Tambelon? Grogar? Demon horde?! What the buck are you two talking about?”
This time, Thorn answered. “The bells of Tambelon were a pair of magical bells that appear in a tower, lure people in, grants one who rings the main one power while corrupting their mind, and then when the main bell is rung again, they suck the entire city and all its inhabitants into the deepest pits of Tartarus, beyond where even the Tartarian Guard dares to tread.”
Sparkle continued. “In our case, some idiot had the bright idea of moving the bell into the middle of upper Canterlot. When the bell rang for the first time, Grogar appeared and possessed the stallion’s body. From what I’d read, I’d thought he was just a goat hopped up on the power of the bell. Turns out he’s actually a demon and summoned up a couple dozen of his demon buddies. Cobalt and I happened to be literally right there when the invasion started, and we were able to contain it. Thorn popped in a little bit later and destroyed the bell for good.”
“A little cursefire did the trick.”
“A little?” Sparkle asked with an arched eyebrow. “You used a massive portion of our magical reserves. Even with what I got from Tirek just now, we’re still running low. Just how much curse fire did you need?”
“A little for the bell. The rest was for the horde,” Thorn replied, shrugging. “Besides, it’s Tartarus. It’s not like a little fire’s going to hurt it.”



Meanwhile, in Sparkle’s timeline...
The Tartarian guard rushed up to the two exhausted princesses, who were on their way back to the castle. “Your Highnesses,” the pony in black armor shouted, “Tartarus is on fire!”
Luna looked at him with bored, tired eyes. “Tartarus is always on fire, soldier. It’s built inside a magically-hyperactive volcanic region.”
“No, you don’t understand! Even the fire is on fire! Unquenchable green flames that eat our magic and try to attack us! Everything is burning!”



“If you say so, Thorn,” Sparkle replied.
Meanwhile, Twilight looked away, caught by the sudden realization that perhaps her own adventures looked really strange from the outside. The existential surrealness of their lives caught the light goddess off guard. “Ohh dear...”
Turning back to her sister, she straightened out her facial expression. Then Twilight asked, “Well, since you’re here, do you want to hang out for a while? I’m sure my friends wouldn’t mind you stopping by.”
Sparkle shook Tirek’s head and started picking his body up off the ground while ordering the specter to do the same with her own. “Nah. I need to do something with this body — it’s getting some strange looks from the townsponies,” she replied, flourishing her hand to indicate the ponies who were staring at them from a distance. Said ponies, realizing they had been spotted, blushed and tried to look as if they hadn’t just been staring at them. “I’m going to head on home.”
“I think I’ll join you later, Sparks,” Cobalt said. “The fruit’s nice and fresh out here, and I’ve been meaning to pick up some apples for myself. Plus, I feel like I haven’t had any real dirt under my hooves for a long time now.” He turned to the hostess of this little gathering. “Thank you for the muffin, Ms. Twilight.”
“My pleasure.”
Thorn also got up, moved by that silent social declaration that their tea party was over. “Is Spike here? I haven’t hung out with my bro in ages.”
“He should be at Rarity’s right now,” Twilight answered. “You, ah... aren’t still obsessed with Rarity, right?”
Thorn chuckled. “No. I’ve mellowed. Plus, I’m now interested in Mina, actually. She’s this cute, pink dragoness I met in Fillydelphia.”
Twilight chuckled. “You’ll have to tell us about her sometime.”
Thorn, already turning his back, waved her off with only a single laugh. “Whatever. See you later.”
Twilight turned back to her dark sister. “Now, you aren’t planning on leaving without a hug, are you?”
“You want to hug me in this body?” Sparkle asked, motioning to her centaur-ness.
“I want to hug you in whatever body you’re in,” Twilight replied. “Unless that body happens to be a spider or a snake. Eww...”
Sparkle smirked. “And what about one of those slime creatures that live deep in the Everfree? What if I were one of those?”
“Maybe. Slime isn’t as bad as snakes.”
“Well, since I am neither slimy, snakish, or spiderish, awkward sibling hug?”
“No. Heartfelt sibling hug.” Twilight leaped up and put her forelegs around the large centaur that contained her sister. “I love you, Sparkle. Never forget that.”
“Love you too, sis.” The two then separated. With a dramatic bow, Sparkle-in-Tirek opened a portal to the afterlife. She and her specter-controlled real body disappeared into the portal.



Sparkle stepped out of the afterlife and into her own world a few hours later, once more in her own body and once more transformed into a mortal form. For a moment, she wondered why she even bothered with this timeline anymore — there were only two ponies she really cared about here that couldn't follow her anywhere she went. Then, she pushed the depressing thought aside.
It didn’t stay aside for long, however; her frustrations were being unusually hard to suppress. Sparkle’s mind dredged up memories of Celestia — both Celestias, in fact. She thought of her sister, dutifully following in Celestia’s hoofsteps, and she thought of herself, unintentionally standing as a symbol of the things Celestia opposed. Her lips curled into a frown, then a snarl, as her mind refused to go in a more pleasant direction.
But Sparkle trudged forwards, towards the princesses’ castle anyways. The last rays of sunlight had vanished quickly some time ago. Now, Sparkle found herself weaving through the gathering crowds of ponies, many of whom were bearing candles or sticks of incense. At an intersection, she turned to make a little detour past the temple her parents and brother had occasionally taken her to as a filly; there, mourning ponies were gathered to pray for the dead. Their singing crescendoed as she passed, though because of her own twisted magic, she couldn’t hear the magical music that she knew they were hearing.
She continued walking without stopping. Never before had she paid much attention to the aftereffects of death; as a necromancer, she saw death as a state of being, not a tragedy, and as Death, she found that she could no longer empathize with them at all. What irked her was that it was an Alicovitite temple, a temple dedicated to the sun and the moon; they should have been praying to her as she was the one who held their late loved ones’ souls in her gasp.
Once she’d gotten to the castle, it hadn’t taken her long to find where Luna was: Luna’s tower, preparing for the evening’s dream patrol, which was sure to be a hectic one all things considered. With a little magic aiding her, Sparkle made her way to Luna without being impeded by the castle guards or staff.
Death knocked on the Night’s door. “Yes?” the faint voice on the other side asked.
“You told me earlier that you wanted to talk to me.” Sparkle said back. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything, Lady Nightbringer.” 
The door opened magically, revealing Luna without her regalia. Luna looked down on Sparkle, who was currently in the form of a pegasus. However, Sparkle’s eyes were more than enough to tell Luna just who was at her door. “Death. Or should I say, Sparkle.”
Sparkle stiffened. The transformation spell on her shattered abruptly, and as she shifted back, she fell into a defensive stance. Luna knew her secret now. Any second now, Luna was going to... to...
But whatever Sparkle was imagining — or failing to imagine, as it was — Luna did something else. The lunar princess snorted softly and turned her back to the incarnation of mortal demise. “Do relax, Sparkle, and do come in.”
Sparkle blinked. She stepped forwards, though without dropping her guard, and entered the small office, closing the door behind her. “How did you know?”
“I didn’t, not for certain. You just confirmed it, just now,” Luna replied, the ghost of a smile dancing across her lips. She made her way to her desk and pulled out the simple wooden chair. With a hoof, she motioned to an identical chair nearby. Sparkle sat. “That certainly answers a few of my questions but raises a few more. Though I suspect that I already know the answer to those questions as well. Let me guess, reincarnation?”
Sparkle’s silence was telling.
“I see. And let me guess once more, you know of my sister’s... reaction to that particular branch of magic?”
“Yes.”
Luna opened the drawer of her desk and pulled out a mint. She popped it into her mouth. “If you’re worried about me telling her, you needn’t be. It would be hypocritical of me; grief, I fear, brings out the strangest aspects of otherwise strong ponies. It is a hole punched through both the mind and the heart, and a feeling I know well.” For an instant, her features hardened into a mild glare before they quickly softened back. “Plus, Tartarus is more on fire than usual-” Sparkle looked away sheepishly, “-and not a place I want to send our unsung heroine.”
Sparkle’s frown had faded. Now, the emotions going through her swirled into a muddy brown, leaving her face neutral for lack of a better expression. “If you just wanted me here to confirm your theories about me, then I’m not staying.”
“Nay, I asked to speak with you back at the school because it seemed that you knew what was going on and were interested in saving lives. You could have left the city to perish, and yet you didn’t, much to my surprise. My request was nothing more than a pragmatic impulse; I wanted your help before you would no longer give it. It was your use of my old title that made me connect the dots; you yourself were the last one to call me that, back at the Gala two years ago,” Luna replied.
“I go to pains to hide who I am, and it’s a simple phrase that does my secret in,” Sparkle sighed. She shook her head. “So, what do you want to know that isn’t about me?”
The two quickly fell into a discussion about the Bells of Tambelon, about how it was a trap and a harvesting tool used by the demons imprisoned in the deepest depths of Tartarus. That then turned into a conversation about general threats and defense. “It strikes me as odd,” Luna remarked, “that the incarnation of death would promote long lives and good health.”
“I’ll get everypony’s souls eventually,” Sparkle replied. “It doesn’t matter how long you live beforehoof; you may as well get the most out of your life.”
“Ah. That makes sense,” Luna said. “Well, that about answers all of my questions. Except... why were you at the school in the first place?”
“I wanted to be a teacher again,” Sparkle replied lightheartedly. “Full time, hopefully. Between DADA and my apprentice, I’ve really grown to love teaching. But since I’m teaching neither, I’m technically unemployed. Unless you count making deals and grave robbing, but I don’t.”
“Well, that is perhaps the least nefarious reason I could have imagined. Maybe when the school is reopened.” Luna’s eyes glanced at the clock. “Dear Faust, look at the time! I meant to be patrolling the dreamscape an hour ago!”
Taking that as her cue to leave, Sparkle stood up from the chair. Her bony wings flexed at her side, adjusting to no longer being squished by the sides of the wooden seat, while her vine-like tail stretched and flexed as well. “I’ll see myself out then.”
“Death, wait.”
“Hm?”
“The life of a goddess is one of suffering. Celestia and I have suffered greatly, as you too will suffer. But, unlike you and I, who take our comfort wherever we can, finding joy even in darkness, Celestia seeks to bring the light wherever she can to make the world better. If you two butt heads again — as your different philosophies inevitably will cause you to do — try not to take it personally.”
Sparkle’s mild frown returned. “No promises, Luna. Some things are best left to the dark.”



If one were to describe the situation in the castle, one could describe it like this: imagine a wound. It has been stitched shut and bandaged while the painkillers are just starting to kick in. But, by no means is the wound healed; instead, it leaves you weak, tired, and immobile. That was the castle; the initial disaster had ended, the panicking crowds had been dispersed, the cleanup duties had been delegated, and everypony had had a moment to stop and breathe. They were now in the slowest part of the recovery effort, and the weight of what had just happened was finally sinking in.
Luna trudged down the halls, a stack of papers, a quill, and an inkwell floating in her magical grasp. She knew the castle well enough now that she could work while she walked and not run into any walls or get lost.
“You met with her last night, didn’t you?”
Luna looked up and to the side, spotting her sister walking towards her. “I did. I asked her to come.”
“And?”
“I learned little of consequence but confirmed many of my assumptions and theories. I have already drafted a proposal based on her observations on how to deal with a situation like this should the need ever arise, however unlikely that may be.” She pulled out a sheet of paper from her stack and passed it to Celestia.
Celestia quickly skimmed it. “Good. But this was not quite what I was curious about.”
“She is rational, pragmatic, and a quick thinker,” Luna replied, understanding her sister’s intended question. “She is a bit like me, I think.”
“No offense, but that does little to ease my worries,” Celestia replied.
“Some taken,” Luna replied. “I would caution you, though. I told her this, and I will tell you. I think you two are too different to ever truly get along when it matters. You should just leave her to her work.”
The corners of Celestia’s mouth turned downward ever so slightly, while the crease in her brow deepened. “I cannot not protect the lives of my ponies.”
Luna looked at her sister for a silent moment. Then, as she turned to continue on her way, Luna said, “Admirable, but that is ultimately an empty promise, ‘Tia. Everypony dies, even us, at the end of all things.”
> Interlude 2: Call of the Dragon Lord
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Of all the things to happen today, Thorn glowing was the second most unexpected thing to happen. Having asked some of the dead dragons, they quickly figured out that it was a summons from Dragon Lord Torch, the husband of Lady Evrfyr. And so, with that in mind, Thorn flew off to answer the summons and make the infernal itching stop.
But the most surprising thing of the day was that Sparkle was also glowing and itching, for the very same reason. Apparently, whatever magic had called Thorn also detected enough dragon magic in her for it to trigger as well. Thus, when Thorn flew off to answer the summons, Sparkle was riding on his back.
Soaring over the increasingly barren landscape, the two aspects of Death saw other dragons approaching, most of whom actually looked very young, late adolescent at most. The only exception was a massive pink dragoness with blue horns, whom Thorn instantly recognized. “Mina!” he called out.
The dragoness, massive for her age, glanced over at him and blinked in surprise. Gliding closer, she asked, “Thorn?”
“Heh, I’m surprised to see you here,” Thorn remarked. “Any idea what’s going on?”
“No clue. One minute, I was minding the comic book shop, and the next, I’m on the floor, itching like crazy and glowing. Everyone else in the store was glowing as well.” She cocked her head to the side. “Wait, is that pony on your back glowing too?”
Thorn nodded. “Mom’s part dragon. The Dragon Lord’s Scepter works on her as well.”
“Wait, ‘mom?’ Oh, nevermind. I remember.”
“Hello, Mina,” Sparkle greeted from atop her son’s back. “After this summons business is all sorted out, do you want to come over to our place? Thorn’s been thinking about you lately, and-”
“Mom!” Thorn shouted, embarrassed at his mother’s antics. The reaper giggled.
The trio flew towards a craggy rock field, where all the other dragons seemed to be heading. At a silent request from Thorn, both he and his mother began shifting into their “mortal” forms: a normal unicorn and a “normal” dracolich. Sparkle didn’t bother asking why Thorn wanted them that way; she was more than happy to comply.
Mina, having never seen that particular transformation, drawled, “Cool. I didn’t know you could do that.”
Thorn smirked. “A dracolich always has a few hidden tricks.”
They landed among the other dragons. Sparkle hopped off her undead son’s back as he and Mina both began to shrink down to their smallest sizes. In Thorn’s case, the time he’d spent in the afterlife meant that he was now physically older and more mature than Mina, leaving his smallest form a head taller than her’s.
A short ways away, Mina’s cousin, Garble, spotted them. He and his cohorts decided to make their way towards the two dragons and a pony, especially the latter. He growled, “Mina, Thorn. You brought a pony to a dragon summons.”
“And you brought lunch,” Thorn replied, sending the draconic teens a toothy, bloodthirsty grin. “Lovely.”
Meanwhile, Mina’s size grew slightly. “Garble, play nice.”
“Or what?” He snapped. “Is your little pansy drakefriend gonna shatter again, like he did last time?”
Thorn mockingly clutched his chest. “Oh, the pain! Your insults tear my heart out!” Then his claw clenched, piercing the scales on his chest. He didn’t flinch as black blood poured out of the wounds, nor did he react at all as the claws dug in deeper. There was a sickening crack as his ribs broke, then his hand sank fully into his chest. A second later, he yanked his hand out. Clutched between his claws was his still beating heart, though it reeked of rotting flesh. Then, smugly, he raised the putrid organ to his mouth and took a bite out of it, as a pony would an apple. With blood-stained lips, Thorn asked, “Garble, are you feeling alright? Do you need a hug?”
Garble was, in fact, absolutely not alright. He, like almost every other dragon that had witnessed or smelled the scene, was busy puking his guts out. As it was, most of the dragons were too busy being ill or putting distance between themselves and the lich to notice the massive form flying towards them until it eclipsed the sun.
With a boom, the massive form of Dragon Lord Torch landed on a pillar of stone that was suspiciously throne-shaped. “Dragons of Equestria, hear me!” Torch roared. “I have been Dragon Lord for longer than many of you can remember, and my reign has been extraordinary!” He paused. “Agree with me!”
A good portion of the dragons immediately agreed, but it was clearly not unanimous as many hadn’t answered. Torch, irritated by the lack of unity, demanded, “What is wrong with you all? I SAID AGREE WITH ME!”
Garble puked again.
For the first time since he’d arrived, Dragon Lord Torch took a good look at the gathered dragons and realized the state they were in. Then the smell hit him. But, rather than fall ill, Torch launched a blast of fire in Thorn’s general direction to clear the stench. “Well well, this is interesting. I smell death.”
“Well, what else would I smell like?” Thorn quipped.
The mountainous dragon grinned and nodded. “True. What indeed? Hmph.” He then addressed all the dragons. “Unfortunately, according to dragon law, it is time for me to step down. This is why I have summoned you — to compete for the throne in the Gauntlet of Fire!” Under his breath, which was still fairly loud, all things considered, Torch muttered, “Though I think I may have summoned more than I bargained for.”
Sparkle and her son shared a quiet laugh. Mina rolled her eyes and muttered, “You have no idea.”
“Whomever has the strength and fortitude to retrieve this bloodstone scepter from the heart of the flame-cano will be crowned Lord of the Dragons!” At that, he tossed the proportionally tiny scepter he was holding into the distant volcano, an impressive shot given its distance and the lack of aerodynamics involved. The moment the scepter disappeared, a blast of magical energy erupted forth and disrupted the glow of all the dragons and the sole alicorn. “The Gauntlet is dangerous, for I designed it myself! Only dragons with my ferocity, strength, and determination will be able to finish. We will gather at the cliff when the sun is at its peak!”
“That sounds fun, right Mina?” Thorn asked.
“Yeah, it does,” she agreed. “But are you competing? You just... didn’t that hurt? I mean, you have a gaping hole in your chest!”
Thorn rubbed his chest. As he smeared the foul blood away, he revealed unblemished scales. “No, I don’t.”
“Wait, you were faking that?!” Garble exclaimed. “By the great flame, I thought that was real!”
Thorn glanced at the red dragon. “Whatever floats your boat, dude.” Turning back to Garble’s cousin, he asked, “Mina, want to work together?”
“Sorry, Thorn, but I really want to do this on my own strengths,” the pink dragoness replied. “So... may the best dragon win.” She offered her hand.
Thorn grasped it and shook once. “Good luck, though my offer’s still open.”
By now, many of the dragons had dispersed to go ready themselves for the competition. Torch bent down from his throne and addressed the little group. “Lady Reaper, Lord Keeper, I would like a word with you two, please.”
An unspoken thought passed between the two incarnations of death. Thorn began growing larger while Sparkle climbed up onto his back. Up and up they went as Thorn forced his body to develop. Only once he was eye-level with Torch, who was still sitting on his tall throne, did Thorn stop growing. “Yes, Dragon Lord Torch?” the lich drawled.
“I am quite surprised that you answered the call of the scepter.”
“That magic really was quite annoying. I wanted it to stop.”
“And are you planning to participate?” Torch asked.
Both the dracolich and the pony atop his head nodded. “We are.”
“Then I have a pair of favors to ask of you two, though I am in no position to make demands of Death. I summoned dragons who are entering their prime; the best candidates for Dragon Lord. First, I ask you to spare as many of their lives as possible.” Above his head, Torch’s soul’s number ticked up by one in response to his good intentions.
“We won’t kill any of them ourselves, if that is what you are asking,” Thorn remarked. “If they kill each other, or die for some other reason, that’s their fault.”
“Haha! Fair enough. Secondly, this is a competition between dragons for the title of Dragon Lord. If I may, I ask you to fight as a single dragon, and not as the deity you two are.”
This time, Sparkle answered instead of Thorn. “Sure. That just makes things more interesting.”
He smiled. “Good.”
“I’m curious, how did you recognize us for who we are? Not many do when we are transformed and suppressing our aura,” Sparkle inquired.
“After your legendary fight with Celestia, the total lack of your presence is almost just as telling. Now...” His voice dropped down to a true whisper, one that they actually had to strain to hear. “I’m sure you two could tell that I was lying about why I’m stepping down. How much longer do I... you know... before...”
“A year at most, maybe only half,” Sparkle answered. “But nothing’s set in stone.”
“Especially where people we find interesting are involved.”
“So, how interesting can you make yourself to a young dragon and a dragon-minded pony, Dragon Lord Torch?” Sparkle asked, her voice twisting into a deathly sound.



Sparkle and Thorn, the latter in his smallest form, walked the edge of the cliff. Both were wearing an “I just made several million bits” smile. Some distance behind them, Dragon Lord Torch, looking decades younger and significantly healthier, was also making his way to the cliff’s edge.
“Dragons! Welcome!” Lord Torch’s voice was stronger than before, and the rough edge was gone. That, combined with his improved looks, made him significantly more imposing than before. “Flying to Flame-cano Island is the first of many challenges you will face in your quest to find the bloodstone scepter!”
Then he roared flame. The dragons took flight. Mina, who had been standing closer to the edge than Thorn, shoved past a green dragon in golden armor and jumped off the cliff. In one flap of her wings, she’d doubled in size. By two, she’d quadrupled that. And by three, the sheer size of her wings was creating enough turbulence to disrupt the flight of dragons who had thought themselves far enough away from her. With her massive wingspan, she quickly cleared the majority of the crowed, while a few explosive fireballs at the dragons ahead of her gave her the lead.
Thorn, however, hadn’t taken flight with the rest. Like Mina, he had started growing, but unlike her, he was enveloped in emerald flames. When they cleared, he was standing taller than Torch, but was nothing but bone — a bone dragon. Next to him, and during his transformation, Sparkle had dissolved into black smoke, which now wrapped itself around and inside Thorn’s bare skull.
This whole process took only a few seconds, but it was enough to put the son of Death at the back of the pack. Roaring, he took to the sky. Without most of the mass a dragon his size should have had, he was able to very quickly gain on and then overtake the group. As he passed, the other dragons scattered.
“Below,” whispered Sparkle into the lich’s mind. Without looking down, for his mother was doing that for him, Thorn dodged left and avoided the geysers of the deepwater leviathans. Others behind him weren’t so lucky.
Unfortunately for Mina, her huge size and the relative gap the other dragons were leaving her was making her an easy target for the leviathans. And yet, her size was also working for her, for rather than being knocked out of the sky, she was able to catch herself and keep flying. She lost some of the lead she’d created, and ended up flying alongside Thorn a the front of the group.
“You doing alright?” he asked his friend.
Mina smirked. “Worry about yourself!” she roared back just before putting on a huge burst of speed. Thorn laughed and flapped harder.
Meanwhile, Sparkle was enjoying herself by making chaos in the dragons that were following behind. Those who got close to them were knocked back with a simple force spell, but for those who were knocked down by water jets or other dragons, she telekinetically caught them until they could correct their flight. Very quickly the dragons realized that sheer speed and agility was what they needed, and that they couldn’t waste their effort trying to knock each other out.
And so the race continued.



Now much smaller, the re-skinned dracolich, Mina, and one other armored dragon were all in the final chamber. Thorn stood leaning against the mound of crystals, twirling the bloodstone scepter in his claws. Mina stood in the back, panting from exertion but otherwise unharmed, and the dragon in the middle — Princess Ember — was in the middle, marching towards the lich. “Give me the scepter!” she demanded.
“Hmmm...” Thorn replied playfully. “How about you try and take it from me, Ember? If you can get your claws on it before I make it back to Torch, then you can keep it. Same for you, Mina.”
The dragon princess growled and lunged for Thorn... who was actually some distance to the left, under an illusion. And, as she quite suddenly found out, so was the ground. With armor on and wings tucked tight, Ember had no time to correct her mistake before she hit the stalactites on the ground with a sickening sound. “Ugh...”
Mina, who had also raced forwards, stopped in her tracks, recognizing the illusion for what it was. Concentrating, she closed her eyes and then focused on seeing the world for what it was. She’d seen Thorn’s illusions before, the first time they’d ever met, and he’d showed her how to see through that type. When she opened her eyes, the illusion was still there, but so was the real path and the real Thorn.
With great care, Mina walked over to the real Thorn, who, despite having seen her coming, hadn’t moved. Nor had he stopped arrogantly twirling the staff. Mina stopped in front of him. She watched for a second, and then her claw shot out and caught the staff. “I win.”
“Oh, you do?”
Mina leaned in and planted a kiss on Thorn’s cheek. At that moment, his grip loosened. She yanked the staff; it popped from his grip and let out a fiery energy that soaked into her body. “Yes, I do.”
“Well then, Dragon Lord Mina, I suppose you’d better get back to Torch and claim your throne,” Thorn whispered in an unusually sultry voice.
Mina blinked, looked at Thorn, looked down at the staff, and then looked back at Thorn. “Oh buck. I really am the Dragon Lord. You just gave me the scepter. I’m the Dragon Lord!” She looked as if she couldn’t decide between jumping for joy and hyperventilating with anxiety.
“Not if I have anything to say about it!” Garble shouted, having just entered the cavern.
“Go,” Thorn ordered, pointing to the open sky above them, visible through the hole which the scepter had fallen in. “I’ll hold him off.”
Mina, however, had something that, for her and her alone, was a far more pressing concern. “Wait, you mean we could have just flown in through the top? I feel like an idiot.” She then spread her wings and flew out the stupidly obvious shortcut.
And, in the time it took her to voice that revelation and take flight, Sparkle, still amorphous and floating around Thorn, had fired off enough dark magic stunners at Garble to take down a dragon four times his size. He dropped like a cut marionette.
As soon as Garble was down, Thorn spared a glance down at the fallen princess, who merely had a broken arm. With a flap of his wings, he glided down to her level. Sparkle’s smoke swirled around him and rematerialized beside the lich. “Broken bones suck.” Then, reaching out with her magic, immobilized the arm and set the bone. She didn’t bother with any healing spells more complex than a basic growth-stimulant and life-force redistribution though.
“Who are you?” the princess demanded.
“The one who’s not taking you today,” Sparkle replied. “Just ask your father.”



Mina was giggling like an excited teenager, which, despite her currently massive size, was technically accurate. “Yesterday, a comic sales dame, today, Dragon Lord.”
The coronation ceremony passed without excessive fanfare. There was fanfare, as it was a coronation, but it didn’t exceed reasonable amounts. Afterwards, an irate princess Ember landed in front of Thorn and Sparkle. “What in the world happened back there? You did something to the ground, you cheater! You had that unicorn with you!”
“Ember.” The ex-Dragon Lord put a claw between his daughter and the two aspects of death. “Ember, do not mourn your loss, and especially do not take it out these two. You pride yourself on your intelligence, so use it now and understand the foolishness of angering Thornecrovitar, the Keeper of Souls, and Obsidian Knife, the Reaper of Souls.” Ember blanched at the names, while Sparkle blinked in surprise at the use of her other name. “In truth, you had no chance of winning. From the moment they declared their intent to compete, I realized that there really was no chance of any dragon winning.”
“Yeah,” Thorn said. “If I’d really wanted to win, I would have taken every dragons’ soul and enslaved them to my will. I could have killed your father at any time and taken his crown as well. Of course, your father made himself interesting to me, and as long as he continues to be, I have no reason to end his life.”
“Yes, and for that, I am glad.”
“You know,” Sparkle commented, “With a new Dragon Lord in place, Equestria is in for some interesting times. I look forwards to hearing of your successor's exploits. And Torch, remember our deal.”
“How could I forget? No, you have my word, Lady Reaper.”
“Good. And say hello to Evrfyr for me. I’m still peeved that she destroyed my body that once. Well, we’ll be off then.” 
For the first time in a millennium, Torch blanched.