When Twilight Sparkle learns that her assignment to make friends is the most essential one, she has a panic attack that results in a magic surge, one that puts her in a time loop.
When Twilight Sparkle learns that her assignment to make friends is the most essential one, she has a panic attack that results in a magic surge, one that puts her in a time loop.
On the eve of Equestria's Summer Sun Celebration, well into the latter half of the morning hours, a chariot hailing from Canterlot descended upon Ponyville from the sky. The pair of royal guard pegasi that were driving the chariot brought it to a clearance within a sparsely-occupied residential area, where they came to a stop and dutifully waited for their passengers to disembark.
"...And Princess Celestia said that it's even more essential for me to make friends!" A distraught Twilight Sparkle replied to Spike as she stepped down from the chariot, who immediately began to pace.
Spike followed after her a second later and tried to reason with her. "She didn't say that it had to be done while you're here."
"Even if I didn't have to worry about Nightmare Moon," Twilight Sparkle continued, too self-absorbed to notice Spike speaking to her, "or supervising the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration, is it even possible to make a friend in a day, let alone multiple!?"
Spike regarded her with a half-lidded stare. "Twilight..."
"And that's before taking into account how busy other ponies will be while the preparations are being made," Twilight Sparkle went on without pause, "and wanting to celebrate rather than making friends."
Spike raised an index finger, about to interject the fact that ponies were capable of celebrating and making friends at the same time, but paused when he noticed magic beginning to arc across Twilight Sparkle's horn. With a tinge of worry, he instead said, "Um... Twilight?"
"Ugh!" Twilight Sparkle cried out, as she threw her forehooves into the air in exasperation. "What do I do!?"
At that moment, the magic about her horn flashed as it surged outward, and the world became white to those in the immediate area. A few seconds later, as the after image of the flash was being rubbed or blinked away from many an eye, a disoriented Twilight Sparkle found herself on her back, her horn scorched and a trail of smoke wafting from its tip.
Worried that her magic had run amok and caused damage, injury or unwanted changes, she shook her head clear before rushing to her hooves and frantically looking about herself. Aside from some complaints or confusion being aired around her, stemming from the flash of light, nothing else stood out as a consequence of her magic. Which wasn't saying much, since she wasn't familiar with her environs or any of the ponies that she could see.
"Spike!" She called out, as she turned to the young dragon. "Can you tell if my magic's—" Upon seeing that he was among those rubbing their eyes, in the hope that it would clear up his vision sooner, her ears drooped. "Oh..."
Then she perked up, missing whatever Spike muttered to her in reply, when her attention homed in on a pink earth pony that was approaching them, who didn't appear to be visually-impaired. She hoped that the mare might also be a local, who would know the area and its denizens well enough to notice if anything was unusual. "Hi! Can you—"
The mare sprung into the air, gasped quite dramatically, then somehow managed to send her entire body sailing through the air, which Twilight Sparkle barely avoided by ducking her head.
"What was that?" Spike inquired, as he squinted his eyes and tried to see what was going on.
While gazing in the direction that the mare had galloped away to, and thinking about her prospects of meeting Princess Celestia's most important expectation, Twilight Sparkle glumly thought that the "what" in question symbolized a pink slip.
Despite her pessimistic view of the situation, Twilight Sparkle made an effort to make friends while she oversaw the preparations for the celebration. For a brief time, after meeting Applejack and her family, who were heading the banquet preparations, the future of her friend-making endeavor had looked promising: what with the mention of their like for making new friends. It had only been slightly marred by how she had felt pressured to eat more than she was comfortable with.
Unfortunately, things had gone downhill from there. Aside from being flown into by the pegasus handling the weather, Rainbow Dash, who had cleaned her up but made a mess of her hair after landing in a puddle of mud, said pegasus had flown off after she had manipulated her to disperse the clouds, thanks to being too shocked after seeing the job done in the ten seconds claimed. Then the unicorn in charge of the decorations, Rarity, had more or less abducted her and insisted on dressing her up after fixing her hair, which had been unpleasant enough for her to bolt when she had the chance. After that, she had gone to see the pegasus that would supply the music, Fluttershy, but she had been too shy to really engage in any conversation worth mentioning. That is, until she had noticed Spike: then she didn't have any attention to spare for her at all.
Finally, there was the welcoming party arranged by Pinkie Pie, the mare that had gasped and run away from her earlier in the day. Said party had been set up at the library, where she was supposed to stay for the duration of the celebration. The very library that she had hoped to find information about Nightmare Moon's return, to help convince Princess Celestia that it was going to happen. On that front, all she could say was that she hadn't spotted any books that had relevant titles on their spines, when she hadn't been too preoccupied or distracted to look, or found ones that she hadn't already read and knew the contents of. Her attempts at making friends had been mildly successful, but she knew that it had mostly been due to the efforts of the other ponies. She'd never actively tried to make friends before, or read any book on how to do it, so the entire experience had been awkward and nerve-racking.
When all was said and done, she left the party while it was still going strong, exhausted more mentally than physically, and collapsed upon her temporary bed. Before closing her eyes to rest, she gazed up at the night sky, through a bedside window, and hoped that she was actually wrong about Nightmare Moon's return, considering how unprepared she was for it.
Twilight Sparkle didn't know when she fell asleep, but when she woke up it was sudden and accompanied by an unusual sharpness to her faculties. If she hadn't known any better, she would have thought that she had been awake all along, but she was pretty sure that she had just finished a rather unique and taxing day before going to bed.
That is, until she focused on what she was looking at and it occurred to her that she wasn't inside a bedroom, let alone a building, and noticed that her upside down view of the world outside was eerily familiar. After rolling onto her hooves and standing up, she looked about herself and saw a scene that she recognized: Spike and a number of ponies who had very recently been blinded by a bright flash of light.
Before she could get too far into figuring out what was going on, she saw a familiar pony approaching her, just like they had "before." When said pony stopped a few paces away, she decided to see how she would react to her query. "Hello—"
The pony that she knew as Pinkie Pie, as far as her "memory" was aware, leapt into the air and gasped quite dramatically before she could finish speaking, and seeing her do that again was enough of a distraction that she almost failed to duck her head in time, when the mare shot toward her while still in the air.
While she watched her run into the distance, she heard Spike ask, "What was that?"
Twilight Sparkle was too distracted by her racing thoughts to answer, as she tried to comprehend and reason out what she thought she was experiencing. She was fairly confident that "yesterday" couldn't have been a dream: her memory of it was too long and easy to recall, the many events connected seamlessly, and all of her senses had been far too keen. She'd also never shown any capability of being clairvoyant, not that she had ever heard of anyone who could foresee so much at once and with such detail, and there were slight yet noticeable differences when comparing what she had "seen" and what she had just experienced.
Considering how the event had been directly preceded by an unexpected magic surge in both instances, on top of everything else, there was one possible — even if she had once thought it to be restricted to the pages of fiction — explanation that she could think of: a time loop. If that turned out to be the case, then spending some time to check and confirm it as a reality wouldn't be a problem. However, that would also mean that she'd have something else to worry about if it were real, aside from what Princess Celestia had tasked her with, despite how exciting it would be to discover that time travel was possible. If she was wrong about what was going on and ended up wasting time, or the time loop didn't repeat itself, though...
She had trouble coming to a decision until she realized that she could perform her duty as overseer and investigate at the same time. The last thing that she wanted to do was to fall short of Princess Celestia's expectations, so it came as a great relief. Between that, and not wanting to assume that she was crazy right off the bat, she resolved to see if she had somehow magicked herself into a time loop by accident.
With that in mind, she went over to Spike and levitated him onto her back. "Spike, we have a mystery to solve."
"We do?" Came the confused reply.
"Let me get this straight," Spike began, his tone and cocked brow expressing his skepticism after Twilight Sparkle had related her theory to him, "you think your magic surge created a time loop, and you want to confirm it?"
"I know how it sounds," Twilight Sparkle replied, as she determinedly traveled the road that led to Sweet Apple Acres, "but I can't think of anything else that's more probable, even though I've been of the opinion that time travel is impossible."
To that, Spike knowingly commented, "Well, it's like Shamrock Hooves says: 'when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'"
Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes. "He could only say that because he's a fictional character with enough luck to find all of the relevant clues and details to his investigation, effectively making him omniscient."
"Anyway," she went on, causing Spike to pause with his mouth open, who had been about to ask what "omniscient" meant, "since we're almost at our first destination, let me tell you what I expect to happen after we get there."
She told Spike about her initial meeting with Applejack, followed by the introductions and invitation to brunch, and she included as many details as she could remember about them — such as Applejack's hoofshake, all the food piled up on the table, and how they had ended up staying for brunch. The only part she omitted was how she had eaten too much, which she planned to avoid.
Spike was impressed by her accuracy after they checked the banquet preparations, thoroughly convinced about the time loop theory, but Twilight Sparkle needed to see more to convince herself that it wasn't mere coincidence. After all, it was within reason — she believed — to conceive such a scenario at Sweet Apple Acres and imagining how it might play out, and it wasn't a stretch to give an "Apple family" names that were associated with apples. She needed an event that could only happen by sheer chance, and thus would be very unlikely to anticipate without some indication that it would happen.
Fortunately, the next thing to check as overseer would provide the evidence that she was looking for. However, she really didn't want to go through the same experience with Rainbow Dash again, which would also influence how her encounter with Rarity would go, so she told Spike what had originally happened and that she planned to avoid the part where Rainbow Dash crashed into her, confident that Rainbow Dash would still end up in a puddle of mud.
So, she found a corner of a house for them to hide behind, one with a clear view of the mud puddle in question, and waited. Sure enough, Rainbow Dash made a spectacular landing in the mud before her momentum carried her out of it. The landing seemed a lot rougher than before, probably because she hadn't been there to soften it, so she made sure the pegasus was alright before picking the "script" back up and getting her to clear all of the clouds in ten seconds flat.
Once Rainbow Dash was gone, Spike looked over at Twilight Sparkle and prodded, "Well?"
Twilight Sparkle worried her bottom lip, excited by the discovery of time travel being possible and concerned about the dangers of that very discovery. "I don't know if the time loop will last more than once, so I guess I'll carry on with my responsibilities and see if I find myself starting the day over again."
Shortly after they began their trek to the town hall, to check on the decorations, Spike sighed before remarking, "Man, I wish I was in a time loop."
With an incredulous expression on her face, Twilight Sparkle looked at him from over her shoulder and asked, "Why in the world would you want to be in a time loop?"
Spike stared back as if the answer should have been obvious. "Then I wouldn't miss anything, of course! Especially when we have a festival with a bunch of games and events going on at the same time. I could always go back and enjoy the things I missed before, either because of the timing or from running out of money."
Until then, Twilight Sparkle hadn't considered that there could be an advantage to being in a time loop, and the notion made itself comfortable in the back of her mind for the rest of the day, at times becoming a distraction. By the time she found herself lying on her back and staring down at the morning sky for the third time, she vaguely remembered that she had been wishing for more time when she'd had her magic surge.
By the time Twilight Sparkle was back on her hooves, she was looking forward to all of the time that she would have to make friends. True, she didn't know if or when the time loop might end on its own, and whatever progress she made with anyone would reset, but it would still be a learning experience and give her the foreknowledge to make friends with certain individuals easier. As a bonus, she would also have time to find out how to deal with Nightmare Moon.
It would just be a matter of deciding on what to prioritize. However, when she noticed Pinkie Pie making her now-usual approach, she realized that she could harvest two apple trees with one buck. The problem was: she didn't know how to avoid having a party at the library without revealing that she knew something that she shouldn't. So, when Pinkie Pie stopped before her, they ended up staring at each other awkwardly. Well, it was awkward for her, at any rate.
Finally, between the wait and wondering why Pinkie Pie seemed intent on staying put to stare at her, seemingly without a care, she became irritated and asked, "What are you waiting—"
Pinkie Pie hopped into the air and gasped, but Twilight Sparkle caught her with her magic before she could get away, since she needed the library to be free of distraction and unwanted observation. Unfortunately, she still didn't know what to tell Pinkie Pie without giving away the fact that she had some insight into the near future.
Pinkie Pie calmly looked down to observe her situation and absently voiced, "Huh. This is new."
The mention of "new" sparked a memory of when Pinkie Pie had said it before, and Twilight Sparkle quickly jumped on the idea that formed from it. "Could you do me a favor and hold off on giving me a welcoming party until tomorrow?"
Visibly surprised, Pinkie Pie asked, "How did you know I was going to throw you a welcoming party?"
"I heard about you from somepony who knows a pony here," Twilight Sparkle confidently replied. Since Pinkie Pie had claimed to know everyone in town, it seemed safe to assume that word about her would get around — even if it had never gotten to her.
Pinkie Pie's surprise turned to confusion, bordering on disbelief. "Who and who?" She held up her hoof before she could be answered. "And I'm not trying to imitate an owl."
Twilight Sparkle would have found the clarification strange if she hadn't been put on the spot despite the reasonable claim that she had made. Not knowing what few ponies to name, who could be checked out if Pinkie Pie was of a mind to do so, she tried to hide her nervousness as she evasively countered, "Does it really matter?"
"Yes," came the quick reply, as Pinkie Pie stared unerringly into her eyes.
Between not wanting to deal with Pinkie Pie's odd behavior and problematic questions, and losing her patience, she testily said, "Look, all I want is some peace and quiet in the library."
She realized her mistake even as Pinkie Pie slowly lowered her eyelids until she was being peered at with suspicion. "How did you know I was going to have the party at the library?"
Twilight Sparkle clammed up as her mind frantically searched for a solution to the problem that she had just created. After asking herself how she could explain her knowledge about the party's location many times, however, it eventually occurred to her that she wasn't the only one in possession of knowledge that they probably shouldn't have. So thinking, she met Pinkie Pie's suspicious stare with one of her own and pointedly said, "Hold on: how did you know that I was going to be at the library?"
Pinkie Pie reflexively opened her mouth to reply, paused, then snapped her mouth shut. Eventually, she smiled weakly and offered, "Would you believe me if I told you that I heard about your plans from somepony who knew a pony where you live?"
Twilight Sparkle simply answered with a half-lidded stare.
"What did I miss?" Spike inquired as he stepped up to the pair.
When Twilight Sparkle spared Spike a glance, Pinkie Pie used the distraction to exclaim, "Boink," and tap the tip of her horn. Yelping more out of surprise than pain, Twilight Sparkle lost her hold on Pinkie Pie, who took the opportunity to beat a hasty retreat while shouting, "You win this time!"
Trying to make sense out of what had just happened, Twilight Sparkle stared in the direction that the retreating mare had disappeared to until Spike spoke up and asked, "What was that all about?"
With a shake of her head, Twilight Sparkle focused her attention on Spike and casually said, "Don't worry about it. Let's stop by the library before we oversee the preparations."
With a shrug of his shoulders, Spike said, "Okay."
It wasn't until they entered the library that Twilight Sparkle said, "Now, help me find a book on friendship."
Having just dismounted from her back, Spike looked up at her incredulously and asked, "Why would you need something like that?"
"Why else?" Twilight Sparkle absently replied, as she stepped up to one of the built-in bookcases of the library and began to browse its contents. "Because I've never actively tried to make friends before. The only ones I have are a result of being in the same class since we were foals, and I don't have that kind of time."
Her thoughts were derailed by the initial results of her perusal, which brought a look of disgust upon her face as she muttered, "Who in Equestria organized these books?" She was sorely tempted to sort out the entire library, because of how often she might use the library's resources, but she surmised that her efforts would likely reset at the start of each loop. That reminded her that she would have the time to make friends, although that didn't mean that she should be unprepared, waste time or risk embarrassing results.
Spike took a moment to consider that, along with the fact that she didn't hold up her side of the friendships all that well, and conceded the point. "Okay. So, anything about friendship?"
Looking over her shoulder to regard him, Twilight Sparkle nodded her head and said, "Yes, Spike. I don't remember even coming across the subject by chance before, so I don't know what to look for."
With a sigh, Spike admitted, "Me either."
"Well," Twilight Sparkle began, as she returned her attention to the bookshelves, "these books seem to be sorted into alphabetical order, so let's start at the 'F' section and hope we find a title that starts with what we're looking for."
Friendship: For Silly-Heads, written by Surprise, was found less than a minute later, which Twilight Sparkle gave a dirty look after reading the pink, gaudy and festive-looking book's title aloud.
"No...?" Spike fished.
Twilight Sparkle fixed him with an unamused glare. "Do I look like a silly-head to you?"
Spike was quick to shake his head. "Nope!"
After setting the book down on the other side of the stairs, as if it would cease to exist if it were out of sight, Twilight Sparkle said, "Then let's move on."
The "F" section was finished in short order, but — unfortunately — they found no more books that seemed to match what they were looking for. That continued to be the case until they reached and finished the "Z" section, at which point Twilight Sparkle had grown quite frustrated. The library had quite a number of books on love, including a book called How to Hitch Ponies Together, no doubt for the matchmaker-in-training, yet it might as well have had no books on friendship. She simply couldn't understand how that could be the case, conveniently overlooking the fact that she had surrounded herself with a private collection that hadn't covered the subject at all.
Her spirits rose when she spotted a book of interest in the "A" section, called Art of the Spiel: How to Win Friends, which was written by Flim and Flam. She visibly perked up and exclaimed, "Ah-ha! Finally!"
She quickly pulled it out and opened it up, fully expecting to receive the wisdom that she usually found in books. However, the more she read, the more her joy was sapped and face fell. It wasn't long before she began to skip to certain chapters, to confirm what she began to fear, and felt nauseous just from reading the ideas being conveyed by the book. One likely couldn't live in Canterlot and be completely oblivious to chicanery, and what she was reading was completely about manipulating ponies to fulfill one's own selfish desires — there wasn't anything about making friends at all.
She was strongly tempted to incinerate the book, but knew that the time loop would make that pointless. Instead, with great reluctance, she closed the book and placed it back where she got it.
"No good?" Spike queried, despite already knowing the answer.
"No good," Twilight Sparkle confirmed.
It was with far less enthusiasm that she continued the search, not expecting to find anything else after going through most of the alphabet. However, when they reached the "E" section, she was pleasantly surprised to find a book that covered another subject of interest: The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide. For Spike's benefit, she read the book's title aloud before removing it from the bookshelf.
Strangely enough, no author name was given anywhere on the outside; on the inside, where she would expect to find a name, she found none. Regardless, it looked like she had finally found something that she needed for one of her objectives, so she was willing to overlook such an oddity. That is, until after she went right to the part of the book where she expected to find the information that she needed. While there had been information to be had there, it hadn't been enough to not look for more information elsewhere. At that point she discovered that every other page of the book — that she checked — was as vaguely and distantly connected to the subject as possible, offering nothing of substance.
It was baffling, and her face must have shown it because Spike asked, "What's wrong?"
"I don't know," Twilight Sparkle answered slowly, distractedly, as she tried to figure out what she was seeing.
She was sure that the book couldn't have been created as an elaborate prank. What information was to be found in the book was a reflection of the scarcity of the information on the Elements of Harmony in general, considering how she had barely seen any mention of them despite her extensive studies and interests. The vast majority of the content seemed like it had been done for the sake of the book's appearance, if someone wanted to secretly pass on information through a familiar source. It wouldn't pass muster with enough scrutiny, which she would ordinarily give it, and that raised some questions. Had the book been meant for someone else? Or, had the book's creator expected her to find it when she was pressed for time?
Considering how events would have normally played out, where she had gone to bed without finding the book first...
She shook her head clear of the path that her mind had been going down. Things were complicated enough without adding some conspiracy whose intent was barely known, and that was assuming that there was one at all. Perhaps the mysterious author of the book had merely tried to capitalize on what little they knew about the Elements of Harmony, and had conceived it to scam a certain pony out of their money. That seemed to be a much more likely scenario.
Unfortunately, that meant that she couldn't depend on anything found in the book. However, since she had the time, she could verify the information herself if she wanted to. After glancing back at the bookshelves that she had gone through without much success, save the potential offered by the book that she held in her magic, she decided that she could spare some time to check its veracity.
Conveniently, the Everfree Forest bordered Ponyville, so it wasn't so far out of her way that she wouldn't be able to find the ancient castle within the time allotted to her by the time loop.
Spike was resistant toward putting off the inspection any longer, but Twilight Sparkle was able to convince him that she was in a time loop, in order to explain her behavior and intentions. It had been tough without the convenience of being able to demonstrate an ability to predict events, but it was also a relief because that meant she wouldn't need to predict anything in the "future" — all she would need to do was refine how she convinced him.
Shortly thereafter they stood before an entrance into the Everfree forest. The path inward narrowed until the undergrowth obscured it from view, hinting that it wasn't a well-traversed one. Something about the forest made Twilight Sparkle a little uneasy, but she chalked that up to being unfamiliar with the forest and much of the flora that she could see. Which wasn't surprising, considering the fact that she had spent most of her life on a mountain and hadn't been interested in plants that had no magical significance or application.
"So," Spike began, as he peered around Twilight Sparkle's neck, "any idea where this ancient castle is?"
"Nope!" Came the unconcerned reply, as Twilight Sparkle moved forward. "But if I can't find it this time, I can always try again."
Spike sighed and mumbled, "I can think of a ton of things I'd rather do if I were in a time loop."
"I know," Twilight Sparkle absently responded, as she reached the obscured part of the path and carefully pushed her way through.
Spike was about to ask how she knew, but it occurred to him before he could. Instead, since his mind was on the subject, he asked, "How many times have you looped, anyway?"
"If we don't count the day it started," Twilight Sparkle replied, as she used her magic to raise and push branches out of the way, "then this is the second loop."
"Only the second?" Spike replied, sounding disappointed.
Twilight Sparkle shook her head at his reaction. Before she could remark on it, though, she heard a bush rustle ahead of them. Not thinking anything of it, since it was probably a common, non-dangerous creature that could be found in many a pony-managed forest, she continued moving. That is, until she saw a chicken poke its head out of a bush.
Stopping at the unexpected sight, she rhetorically asked, "What's a chicken doing out here?"
After getting a look of it himself, Spike suggested, "Maybe it's lost."
The subject of their attention began to rise above the bush, its serpentine body revealing that it wasn't a chicken at all. Between the fright and shock of seeing a cockatrice, as it rose to an intimidating height and unleashed a monstrous squawk, it didn't immediately occur to Twilight Sparkle that she should turn her gaze away or bolt.
"Wh-wh-what's that?" Spike managed to get out, as he clung to Twilight Sparkle's mane.
The fear in his voice broke Twilight Sparkle out of her stupor, who panicked as she shouted, "Oh no! It's a cockatrice! Whatever you do, don't loo—"
Twilight Sparkle felt confused and disoriented as she stared down at the sky. "What happened?"
She remembered going into the Everfree forest, and pushing through the overgrown path, but her memory eventually became too hazy to recall anything specific. Considering how she had no memory of the rest of the day, she could only assume that something had happened by that point, something that had incapacitated her or... done something far worse.
She shuddered at the thought that she might have died, even though she didn't know if the time loop would have continued if she had.
Regardless, it didn't make any sense for the forest to be that unsafe. Out in the frontier towns, like Dodge Junction and Appleloosa, she wouldn't have been surprised if ponies hadn't completely secured the outskirts of their property, but a town within the shadow of Canterlot? It was a mystery that she would have to solve, considering how reaching the ancient castle, to search for the Elements of Harmony, depended on her traversing the forest successfully.
Pinkie Pie's face suddenly invaded the entirety of her vision. "Whatcha doing?"
She yelped in surprise and shot up into the air, somehow avoiding Pinkie Pie's head along the way, then landed on her back with a pained grunt. When she opened her eyes and saw Pinkie Pie still standing beside her, looking as if nothing in particular had happened, she released a sigh of annoyance and rolled onto her hooves. "I was thinking."
"About what?" Pinkie Pie inquired.
Twilight Sparkle eyed her for a second, not exactly in a mood to talk to her after the scare, but decided that it wouldn't hurt to ask, "This town manages the Everfree forest, right?"
"Nope!" Came the chipper, unconcerned response.
Twilight Sparkle's mouth hung open for a few seconds in disbelief before she exclaimed, "It doesn't!? Why not!?"
Unaffected by her response, Pinkie Pie casually answered, "Because of the zap apples, of course."
Twilight Sparkle opened her mouth to ask what zap apples had to do with it, then shut it because it was unimportant and she didn't want to go off on a tangent. Instead, she collected herself and said, "Okay. Can you tell me what kind of dangerous creatures inhabit the forest?"
"Sure!" Pinkie Pie happily replied. "There's manticores, sea serpents, parasprites, cockatrices, cragadiles, hydras, timberwolves, ursa minors — and majors..."
Once again Twilight Sparkle's jaw dropped, as Pinkie Pie continued to name the dangerous residents of the Everfree forest as if she were reading off of a grocery list. Eventually, though, the amount rose to such a number that she couldn't believe it; there was simply no way that so many dangerous creatures would be allowed a home so close to one of their towns. Certainly some of the named creatures actually resided in the forest, which would explain whatever had happened to her, but she couldn't imagine so many in one place, let alone so near to the capital.
"There's no way that can be right," she interjected.
Pinkie Pie simply shrugged her shoulders at the interruption and assertion and said, "Eh; it's no whip cream off my nose," before merrily pronking away. After a few pronks she tossed over her shoulder, "Have fun storming the castle!"
Staring after the departing mare with a questioning look, Twilight Sparkle wondered if her parting remark had meant anything. It must have been a coincidence, though, because who else knew that she was trying to reach a castle? She had decided that in a previous loop, and hadn't had the time to make her intentions known in the current one. Then her attention turned to one of suspicion, when she recalled how Pinkie Pie had known where she would stay while she was in town.
Once the subject of her gaze was out of sight, she decided that she could look into the matter later: she had more important things to prioritize. One such thing was how she was going to prepare for her next venture into the Everfree forest without reliably knowing the specifics of what dangers to prepare for. Hopefully she would have no trouble availing herself of the library again, although she couldn't recall seeing a book that would definitely have something substantial to say about the forest.
Upon noticing Spike's approach, who was still trying to rub one of his eyes clear, she put those thoughts aside — for the moment — and tried to formulate a quicker way to convince him that she was in a time loop.
"You're repeating the same day?" Spike responded, as he stood by and regarded Twilight Sparkle with a skeptical look.
Twilight Sparkle nodded her head. "It was caused by the magic surge I just had, when I was wishing I had more time. I haven't stayed up long enough to be sure, but I think the time loop starts after my magic surge and ends at midnight."
"Okay," Spike voiced his acceptance, his expression relaxing. Knowing her like he thought he did, he was pretty sure that she wasn't the sort of pony to lie about something serious. "Do you need my help with it?"
Internally relieved that it hadn't been too hard to convince him, Twilight Sparkle shook her head. "Actually, it was you who gave me the idea to take advantage of this situation."
Spike blinked his eyes in mild surprise. "I was?"
"And I've decided," Twilight Sparkle went on, "to both prepare for Nightmare Moon and learn how to make friends before addressing the time loop."
In light of the familiarity of Twilight Sparkle's dedication to Princess Celestia, and her stubbornness to prove something when she was confident that she was right, Spike absently scratched the side of his face and simply asked, "So, what's the plan?"
"First," Twilight Sparkle began, as she nabbed Spike with her magic and deposited him on her back, "we're going to make a stop at the library." With Spike ready for travel, she started to walk toward the aforementioned destination. "I just remembered that there are books on the second floor, and one of them might have something that will tell us about the fauna of the Everfree forest."
"Why do you need to know that?" Spike inquired.
"Well..." Twilight Sparkle temporized, as she considered how to word her response. "Let's just say that the forest isn't safe, and we need to travel through it to reach an ancient castle, where the Elements of Harmony might be found."
Spike cocked his head. "Is that the only way to get to the castle?"
Twilight Sparkle halted both physically and mentally as the question knocked her out of her tunnel-visioned focus, which gave her the perspective to think of another solution. Upon doing so, her face lit up with joy.
"That's it!" She exclaimed, before suddenly sprinting forward.
After yelping and barely managing to hold on, to keep himself from tumbling to the ground, Spike yelled, "What's it!?"
Twilight Sparkle had told Spike what she wanted to do, and why, while getting them to their destination. Said destination was a corner of a house that she had hidden behind before, in order to watch for a certain rainbow-haired pegasus who was destined to plummet into a mud puddle.
Looking decidedly bored as he stood beside her, Spike asked, "When will she get here?"
"Shouldn't be too much longer," Twilight Sparkle absently replied, who began to consider finding a convenient way to get a watch so she could mentally catalogue the times when certain events happened throughout the day.
A short time later Rainbow Dash made an appearance, in the middle of performing various aerial stunts. Eventually she tried something that she couldn't handle, and she would have failed to pull away from the ground in time if not for Twilight Sparkle catching her with telekinesis, thus saving her from a messy "landing."
Twilight Sparkle set Rainbow Dash down on dry ground as she approached her, who composed herself and put on a facade of confidence. "I had everything under control, but thanks."
Rather than call her out on that, and waste time, Twilight Sparkle genially replied, "Sorry. Despite knowing how great you are at flying, Rainbow Dash, I didn't want to take the chance."
Mildly surprised, Rainbow Dash pointed at herself and inquired, "You've heard about me?"
"Of course," Twilight Sparkle slyly replied. "I mean, aside from being the one assigned to supervise the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration, and knowing you're in charge of keeping the sky clear, a pegasus of your talent gets brought up in certain circles."
"Really!?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, who took to the air in her excitement. She proceeded to show her interest by swooping right into Twilight Sparkle's face and asking, "What are they saying about me!?"
Twilight Sparkle leaned her head back as far as possible and did her best to hide her discomfort. "W-well... I've heard that they wouldn't be surprised if you joined the Wonderbolts someday."
Rainbow Dash did a quick inside loop that ended near its center rather than completing the circuit, where she threw her forehooves up and cheered, "Aw, yeah! I'm getting noticed without even trying!"
Glad that her personal space was no longer being invaded, Twilight Sparkle regained her composure before she cleared her throat and said, "And that's why I'm here to enlist your aid."
"You want my help?" Rainbow Dash replied, caught off guard.
Twilight Sparkle nodded her head. "On the surface I'm supervising the preparations, but your town is more than capable of handling them. The actual reason for why I'm here is because Nightmare Moon is going to return."
"Nightmare Moon?" Rainbow Dash questioned, as she regarded Twilight Sparkle with an incredulous look. "But she was just made up to scare foals on Nightmare Night."
Knowing that she didn't have much in the way of evidence to convince anyone of Nightmare Moon's return, especially considering how someone as old and wise as Princess Celestia brushed the idea aside, Twilight Sparkle decided to try a different tack. "Would you be up for a little adventure, anyway?"
Intrigued, Rainbow Dash landed and inquired, "Adventure? What kind of adventure?"
"I need to reach a castle in the Everfree forest," Twilight Sparkle informed her.
"There's a castle in there?" Rainbow Dash voiced her surprise.
Twilight Sparkle nodded her head. "That's where I'm hoping to find the artifacts that had banished Nightmare Moon to the moon, so she can be stopped again."
Rainbow Dash furrowed her brow and stroked her chin in thought, as she weighed her skepticism against her lack of plans for the day, and the fact that the request was coming from a complete stranger. "Alright," she eventually decided, her expression relaxing. "I've wondered what the Everfree was like anyway, since it seems to take care of itself." She grinned cockily. "And if you're telling the truth about Nightmare Moon, it'd be awesome to save Equestria."
Face brightening, in light of her plan working out, Twilight Sparkle replied, "Great! Hopefully it won't take too long to find the castle from the sky, and we'll have plenty of daylight to explore it."
"And miss out on the forest?" Came Rainbow Dash's confused response. "Where's the adventure in that?"
Although Twilight Sparkle certainly had the time to explore the Everfree forest, she wasn't ready to ignore her habit of being efficient and productive just yet. "If Nightmare Moon is released at dawn, we would be wasting valuable time." Putting on a sympathetic front, in response to the disappointment that was very clear on the pegasus' face, she added, "Besides, if the castle has been abandoned for a thousand years, it's bound to be in disrepair, and there's no telling what creatures have made its home there."
Rainbow Dash perked up in response. "Hey, yeah! Now that sounds like an adventure!"
Spike watched as the motivated pegasus proceeded to grab Twilight Sparkle around the barrel, behind her forelegs, and flew off with her. He watched until he couldn't see them anymore, then, with a sigh of disappointment, he began to make his way toward the town hall. Apparently, there was an interesting pony for him to meet there.
"So-oooo," Rainbow Dash eventually spoke up, who was hoping to make their flight more stimulating while they avoided the interesting forest below them, "we're looking for artifacts?"
"That's right," Twilight Sparkle replied, her gaze on the forest and looking out for anything noteworthy. "There's six of them, and they're called the 'Elements of Harmony.'"
Sounding unimpressed, Rainbow Dash said, "Elements of Harmony? How lame."
"The important thing is that they can stop Nightmare Moon," Twilight Sparkle absently replied, most of her attention still on the forest.
"They better look cool, at least," Rainbow Dash muttered.
About a minute later she had to fly higher to crest a tall, forested hill, and that's when she caught sight of ruins that looked like they could be their destination. Excited that such a thing actually existed, she exclaimed, "Hey, look! That's got to be the place, right?"
Twilight Sparkle looked ahead, to see what was being referred to, and couldn't help feeling excited herself. "Unless there's more than one castle in this forest, then it's got to be!"
There was a large clearing in front of what appeared to be the entrance of the castle, and a chasm before that. Having noticed the pair of stone posts on each side of the chasm, Twilight Sparkle turned about to see if anything remained of the bridge after they made their landing. Surprisingly, not only did a bridge remain, but it didn't look to be in as much disrepair as she would have expected it to be, despite it only being attached to the stone posts on the far side of the chasm.
"I thought we were interested in the castle?" Rainbow Dash questioned, who had been ready and raring to go into said castle.
Eyes narrowing with suspicion, Twilight Sparkle began to walk toward the chasm before replying, "We are, but I think something strange is going on."
"Strange?" Rainbow Dash responded, who followed her out of curiosity. "What do you mean?"
Before answering, Twilight Sparkle used her magic to pull up the side of the bridge that hung into the chasm, until it was close enough to inspect with greater scrutiny. "Take a look at this. Does it look so old that it's unusable, or more like it's new?"
Rainbow Dash leaned in with squinted eyes, looking first at the rope and then at the boards, then frowned and said, "They look pretty new to me." She turned her gaze to Twilight Sparkle. "Has something like this happened before?"
While Twilight Sparkle tied the bridge to the stone posts on their side of the chasm, she chose her words carefully after she nodded her head in affirmation. "I think there's more to this than meets the eye." Once the bridge was secure, she met Rainbow Dash's gaze. "We should keep a look out for anything else that looks out of place."
With a mixture of seriousness and curbed eagerness, Rainbow Dash saluted and said, "You can count on me."
They began to approach the castle, with Rainbow Dash being the only one who had a spring in their step, happy over the prospect of being involved with an awesome adventure. However, that advance came to an end at the base of the steps, where they got a good enough view of the door to be certain that both it and its hinges didn't match the rest of what they could see of the castle, which had clearly been neglected for hundreds of years, if not a thousand.
Both shared a look, and it was Rainbow Dash who voiced the question that they both had. "Do you think somepony's been coming here?"
"Only one way to find out," came Twilight Sparkle's decisive reply.
They proceeded to climb the stairs and entered through the door that had neither been neglected or exposed to the elements for as long as the rest of the castle, let alone a fraction of that time, and entered the vestibule. As could be seen from the outside, the roof was completely gone, all of the windows were shattered, and some parts of the wall had crumbled. Not that anyone could tell by looking at the floor alone, which was clear of even the smallest shard of glass from the windows and stone from the ceiling. Even the vines that had crawled in from the outside had been cleared from the floor, yet left on the walls, pillars and — especially — the structure that dominated the center of the room.
Said structure was a very large stone statue, reminiscent of a chess' pawn in overall shape, which was covered in vines and moss. Unlike a pawn, it had five arms branching out from its center, with every arm ending in a platform that bore a stone ball. Each stone ball had a single, identical, gem-shaped image carved into them.
"Somepony's definitely been here," Twilight Sparkle concluded, noting that even the fallen pillars were missing, despite the wall behind the remains of one being intact, leaving it no place to fall but on the floor inside.
Rainbow Dash looked over at Twilight Sparkle and asked, "How many ponies know about this place?"
"I don't know," Twilight Sparkle replied. "I assume I'm one of the few, because I've pretty much read all of the books about the time period, when this castle was likely inhabited, and I'd never heard of it until the other day."
With a cocked brow and critical look, Rainbow Dash queried, "Are you a historian or something?"
Caught flatfooted by the pointed question, Twilight Sparkle became a bit defensive on reflex. "Well, not officially, if that matters. Why do you ask?"
Rainbow Dash went into a hover so she could cross her forelegs behind her head and casually remark, "With how cool you were about going into the Everfree, exploring an old castle, and maybe fighting a myth, I had no clue that you were an egghead."
"What's wrong with knowing history?" Came Twilight Sparkle's mildly sharp reply, who was as offended as she was confused.
"There's nothing wrong with it," Rainbow Dash answered with a slight grin, "if you're an egghead."
Annoyed that she would tease her in such a childish manner, Twilight Sparkle frowned while she thought of a retort. However, it wasn't long before she was smirking instead, after considering what little she knew about the pegasus and finding some ammunition to use against her. Even as Rainbow Dash's grin vanished in the face of her expression, she began to walk away confidently, toward the statue, while tossing over her shoulder, "I guess it's too bad that you're not an egghead, then, because you need to know a lot about the Wonderbolts' history to join the team."
"Psh!" Came Rainbow Dash's dismissive response, feeling unconcerned. "If it's a test about the Wonderbolts, I'll ace it — no problem."
Twilight Sparkle stopped and looked over her shoulder. "Oh? Then who was the pony that gave the Wonderbolts their name?"
With forelegs akimbo, Rainbow Dash confidently replied, "Flying Inferno!"
"It was Firefly," Twilight Sparkle corrected.
"Big deal," Rainbow Dash said, with a wave of her hoof. "I'm not going to fail a test for getting one answer wrong."
Twilight Sparkle turned around to face her and patiently countered, "Rainbow Dash, not only was that one of the most important things a pony should know about the Wonderbolts, if they were hoping to become a member of the team one day, but it's among the easiest."
Rainbow Dash dropped from the air, her confidence having faltered.
Wanting to drive the point home, because she still looked ready to argue, Twilight Sparkle continued. "They're going to ask you what the event was when Firefly gave them their name, what part of the military they were from, who established their choreography, how their uniform evolved over time, when was Colonel Purple Dart the leader of the Wonderbolts, why—"
"Okay, okay!" Rainbow Dash interjected. "I get it. I don't know why it's important to know all that stuff, but I get it."
"It's important because..." Twilight Sparkle paused, searching for a way to frame her answer so someone like Rainbow Dash would understand. "Even if you're not concerned about how others will respond to your lack of knowledge, should you be a Wonderbolt at the time you display it, it's not all about you. It's going to reflect badly on the team, and how that affects the other Wonderbolts could affect morale — and possibly how long you're a Wonderbolt."
Rainbow Dash remained silent, grudgingly accepting that she had a point, but also because she didn't want to admit that she would care if ponies made fun of her. She could already imagine ponies calling her "Rainbow Dumb" in that scenario.
"Anyway," Twilight Sparkle said, who returned her attention back to the statue, "I was thinking that this statue might be a representation of the Elements of Harmony. The book said that five would be at this castle, and there are five symbols being displayed here. Which makes sense, since the book also said that the sixth element would only be revealed by a spark, if the five are gathered together."
Stepping up beside her, Rainbow Dash asked, "So the real ones might be here?"
"I hope so," Twilight Sparkle replied. "Defeating Nightmare Moon hinges on finding them, after all."
With that said, they walked around the statue and continued until they entered a great hall. There were six doorways there, three on each side, that had stairs leading to other parts of the castle, and a larger staircase at the far end that split left and right, granting access to the mezzanine. Between the wide path that stretched across the great hall from beginning to end, and the smaller paths that led to the doorways, the ground was covered by grass. Above, hanging near the mezzanine, were a pair of banners: one blue, which had a night theme, the other yellow, which had a day theme, and both depicting an alicorn. Beyond that, there was a large hole in the ceiling, which allowed sunlight to illuminate the room.
"There's not as much debris from the ceiling as I would have expected," Twilight Sparkle observed. "Otherwise, I can't see anything unusual."
After looking at what choices they had for their next destination, Rainbow Dash asked, "So, uh... Where do we go?"
"The throne room," Twilight Sparkle readily answered, before pointing straight ahead. "Which is probably that way. There's a chance that the owner of this castle wanted something as important as the Elements of Harmony to be close at hoof."
Rainbow Dash had no objection to that, so they moved forward, with her flying to the mezzanine while Twilight Sparkle used the stairs. From there they continued onward to the throne room, where they immediately noticed that the large, red and gold-bordered carpet was pristine despite most of the ceiling being gone and exposing it to the elements. Aside from a very noticeable discrepancy in the amount of debris there was on the floor, relative to how much of the ceiling was missing, nothing else looked out of place. Even the double doors to the room had fallen off of their hinges and rotted.
"Why would somepony go through the trouble of changing the carpet?" Twilight Sparkle wondered aloud, before adding, "They even went through the trouble of putting some of the pieces from the ceiling on it."
Rainbow Dash replied with the only answer she could conceive of beyond the normal reasons, since those didn't make much sense for this situation, and the tone of her voice made it known that it was a shot in the dark. "Maybe they wanted to cover something up?"
Twilight Sparkle thought about it for a moment before deciding, "Let's see if there's anything underneath it, just in case."
They proceeded to clear the debris from the carpet, with the heavier pieces reserved for Twilight Sparkle's magic. Once the carpet was no longer obstructed, they went to the end by the doorway and began to roll it toward the thrones by hoof. Because they were looking down while doing so, to catch the first sign that there was something odd, they saw it as soon as they reached it: a part of the floor, unlike the vast majority of it, was the same color as the carpet instead of grey. They shared a look before rolling the carpet farther, until it completely revealed that a large, square-shaped section of the floor was a different color.
"What the hay?" Rainbow Dash remarked.
After scrutinizing the different-colored floor for a bit, Twilight Sparkle said, "Let me check something..."
She tried to encase that section of the floor with her magic, and her eyes widened when it worked. Then her brow furrowed and jaw tensed as she tried to move the heavy slabs of stone that she had discovered, which took some effort before they budged, the sudden, loud sound of their scraping making Rainbow Dash jump back. Once she got them moving, though, she was slowly able to move them aside, parting them to reveal a deep pit.
Breathing hard from her exertion, she joined Rainbow Dash at the edge of the pit, who said, "Man, this pit is huge."
Twilight Sparkle simply hummed her agreement as she caught her breath.
"I bet you could fit that statue in there," Rainbow Dash absently added, before realizing what she said and looking over at Twilight Sparkle, who had mirrored her action. "Wait, you don't think...?"
"That somepony took the statue from here, moved it to the entrance of the castle, where it would be quicker and easier to find, as if they expected somepony to eventually come here to look for it, then covered this up so nopony would know that it was originally hidden here?" Twilight Sparkle theorized, her mind racing for answers. "But if that's the case, where does the new door fit in? And the new bridge, which was left to hang? Not to mention how much of the rubble was cleared away, and where..."
Rainbow Dash shrugged and simply suggested, "Maybe they thought nopony would notice?"
Twilight Sparkle opened her mouth to shoot that idea down, but paused when she remembered having a similar thought not that long ago... about the book that had informed her of the castle's existence. Would she have noticed, or cared, about the bridge and door if she were in a hurry to find the Elements of Harmony? And if that statue truly held the Elements of Harmony, would she have assumed that was what they were on first sight if the circumstances were different, more... dire?
She took a calming breath before replying, though she spoke as much to herself as she did Rainbow Dash. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. First, we should try to confirm if the Elements of Harmony are on that statue or not."
Rainbow Dash nodded her head in agreement, who was clearly excited about the possibility of uncovering a conspiracy.
When they made it back to the statue, Twilight Sparkle levitated the stone balls down to the floor and drew them into a tight cluster. Then she stared at them, contemplating what kind of spark would be necessary to make the sixth Element of Harmony appear. That is, if the stone balls were more than the decorations that they appeared to be.
Wanting to be helpful, Rainbow Dash suggested, "Maybe set them on fire?"
"I don't think it's that kind of spark," Twilight Sparkle replied, barely containing the urge to express that she found that suggestion humorous. "I do have an idea, though. You might want to step back, just in case, because I don't know what effect it will have — if any."
Opting to heed her advice, Rainbow Dash backed up until she was closer to the doorway that opened up to the great hall than the stone balls. Once Twilight Sparkle saw that was as far as she would go, she returned her attention to the stone balls, closed her eyes and began to focus her magic on them. With no immediate reaction, she focused more and more magic, until each one developed an aura. She struggled to apply even more magic, which was when she got a shock that sent her flying backward, where Rainbow Dash caught her before she could hit the floor.
"Are you okay!?" Rainbow Dash queried with evident concern.
After shaking her head clear, Twilight Sparkle, feeling fine enough to have a different priority, looked to see if she had accomplished anything and became excited at what she saw. Pointing at the stone balls, she exclaimed, "Look! I think I did it!"
Rainbow Dash switched her attention to the stone balls, where there were bolts of magic jumping between them, and grew excited. That excitement died prematurely, however, when both the bolts and auras vanished. "Aw, man... It was a bust?"
Twilight Sparkle, who was still excited, gestured for Rainbow Dash to lower her to the floor so she could return to the stone balls under her own power. "It didn't reveal the sixth Element of Harmony, but that reaction indicates that they're not ordinary stone."
"They're not?" Rainbow Dash questioned, who flew beside her as they approached the objects in question.
"I'm sure of it," Twilight Sparkle said with certainty. When they reached the stone balls a few steps later, she continued. "I don't know what they are, but I want to find out so we can move on if they're not what we're looking for."
So saying, she focused her magic on only one of the stone balls and began to examine it. Initially, the information she was receiving told her that it was just stone, so she began to probe deeper, thinking that there must be something being concealed within. A few seconds later she felt something different and spent some time feeling out it's shape, so she could encompass it with her magic, then levitated it out while phasing it through the stone. What came out was a blue, hexagon-shaped gemstone, and both her and Rainbow Dash's eyes widened at the sight of it.
"Did we just find hidden treasure?" Rainbow Dash asked, who was about ready to explode with glee as she hovered and cupped her cheeks.
Twilight Sparkle looked on in wonder as she extracted gemstones from the other four stone balls, each one a different color. "I think these might actually be the Elements of Harmony, because they contain a magic that I'm unfamiliar with."
"Really!?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, her pitch rising but not quite a squeal. "So we just gotta figure out that spark thing, right?"
After nodding, Twilight Sparkle frowned and said, "Yeah... I'm not sure if the sparks I can think of will work, but my biggest concern is that at least one method could potentially damage them."
Losing a bit of her steam, Rainbow Dash landed and thought about the problem for a moment before perking up and suggesting, "Maybe the info on how to get the sixth element is also hidden somewhere?"
"I hope so," Twilight Sparkle replied, as she returned the gemstones to the stone balls, which she placed back upon the statue. "It would be preferable to try learning what it is before taking a risk with tests."
She knew that it might not matter, because of the time loop, but didn't want to assume that the Elements of Harmony, which held a power that she didn't understand, would be an exception. That, and she felt a lot more comfortable doing what she would normally do in a given situation — especially around others.
They proceeded to enter the great hall, where they decided to go through the first doorway on the right, with Twilight Sparkle providing light with her horn because there were no immediate holes in the ceiling and the sconces held unusable torches — if there was a torch at all. It took them to a corridor that split off into other corridors, with the occasional room between them, and no easy way to tell where the corridors led or whether they'd been in one before without seeing a room, pile of rubble, or damaged tapestry that was distinct from the rest.
Eventually, after several minutes of traversing the corridors, one of Twilight Sparkle's steps produced a clicking sound, which was quickly followed by the sound of a trap door opening up directly behind them. While she stiffened before whipping her head around to look over her shoulder, Rainbow Dash yelped and spun about while taking flight.
When she saw what had happened, and calmed down from being startled, Rainbow Dash flew close enough to the pit to see its bottom. "A trapdoor? Is that normal for castles?"
"It's not," Twilight Sparkle answered, who stepped up to the edge of the pit, which closed soon after her hoof left the pressure plate. Rubbing her chin while in thought, she added, "It's also not normal to have a maze of corridors, leaving very little room for staff and residents — unless there are sections devoted to them somewhere else and we've yet to find them."
"Only one way to find out, I guess," came Rainbow Dash's enthusiastic response.
Despite her enthusiasm, however, she still took the precaution of staying in the air to avoid any more trapdoors as they moved on. They went down several more corridors, aimlessly, before finding a staircase that spiraled down to the subterranean level of the castle. That seemed like a good place for hiding important things, so they decided to go down, with Rainbow Dash keeping pace with Twilight Sparkle when she wasn't feeling brave enough to fly anywhere that wasn't illuminated well.
The staircase led to a curved, vaulted passageway, and — unlike the corridors above — it was linear and had sections that varied in color and style. The first passageway to have something notable in it had both walls covered by disembodied pony legs on plaques, which Twilight Sparkle didn't even bat an eye at it. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, made sure to stay behind her so her unease wouldn't be seen.
Still, she wanted the unperturbed unicorn to believe that she was just as unaffected, so she said, "You're not scared of these, either?"
"These are pretty tame," came Twilight Sparkle's casual response, who spared the wall ornaments one more brief glance. "Ponies bring new works of art to the palace all of the time, and they can be, er... creative."
Rainbow Dash's ears perked up with interest. "You work at the palace or something?"
Finding that answer curious, Rainbow Dash flew over to her side and regarded her with a cocked brow as she pressed, "Are you too embarrassed to say? What, are you a janitor?"
With a sigh, Twilight Sparkle stopped walking and made eye contact with her. "When ponies learn about who I am, they tend to react negatively. Such as by: expressing disbelief, or expressing disbelief followed by disdain; they might stop acting like themselves, maybe become obsequious—"
"Kiss up to me," Twilight Sparkle clarified, before finishing with, "Then there are some ponies who try to manipulate me, or take advantage of me, and some are better at hiding it than others."
Crossing her forelegs, Rainbow Dash looked at her skeptically and said, "So you're some kind of bigwig, huh?"
With a shake of her head, Twilight Sparkle started to walk again. "Does it matter?"
Rainbow Dash thought about it for a couple of seconds before deciding, "I guess not," and catching up with her.
After they left the disembodied pony legs behind, the passageway eventually took them to a doorway that was on the inside wall. They stopped to peek through it, where they found a cavernous room being occupied by a humongous pipe organ at the far end — well, humongous by the standards of its time.
"Y'know," Rainbow Dash began, her tone expressing suspicion as she eyed the pipe organ, "after the other things we've encountered here so far, I can't help thinking that this was a villain's castle."
"I doubt the two regal sisters, who moved the sun and moon, were villains," Twilight Sparkle disagreed, before pausing and conceding, "Although one did become Nightmare Moon, apparently."
Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs and nodded her head with self-satisfaction. "See? I bet her dark side was showing before she did."
Twilight Sparkle didn't see any reason to argue about that, so she said, "Either way, I doubt the information we want is here, so let's keep looking."
"What do you mean?" Rainbow Dash asked, as Twilight Sparkle began to walk away. "What if playing a certain tune reveals the info we need?"
Stopping, Twilight Sparkle looked over her shoulder and patiently said, "Because, even if that were the case, we have no idea what the tune is. And with the amount of keys available, the likelihood of guessing the right combination before dawn is extremely unlikely."
She continued walking, and Rainbow Dash followed her, with ears lowered, before lightly challenging, "Well, where do you think we'll find it?"
Twilight Sparkle looked up in thought for a moment before replying, "I think the most likely places are the study, library, royal bedroom, any room that's a part of the living quarters for royalty, and the treasure vault."
"Think we'll ever find any of them today, because of that maze?" Rainbow Dash wondered.
"Don't worry," Twilight Sparkle confidently assured her. "I've got an idea on how we can deal with that."
They continued down the passageway, and the next notable thing they encountered was a section with many full-bodied suits of armor being displayed on both sides. While Twilight Sparkle showed interest in them, in terms of their historical value, Rainbow Dash was intimidated by their dark, sinister appearance, who made sure she hid it by staying behind Twilight Sparkle once again.
"Definitely a villain," she muttered.
The passageway ended with another spiral staircase, which they took back up to the ground level. They found themselves in the maze of corridors again, but this time Twilight Sparkle took a yellow tapestry and tore it into many, confetti-sized pieces, which would stand out against the stone floors and red carpets when left in corridors that they had already been in.
With the ability to tell which corridors they had already used, they were able to find a room of interest in about an hour, one whose windows and damaged ceiling allowed more than enough sunlight to not require light derived from a horn. That room turned out to be the library, much to Twilight Sparkle's delight, who began to flit from bookshelf to book pile like a filly in a candy store, glad that these books had been preserved with a spell.
Eventually, Rainbow Dash had to interject herself between her and the books before chastising, "You remember why we're here, right?"
Looking abashed, Twilight Sparkle turned away from Rainbow Dash's critical stare, and bit her bottom lip when she found herself gazing upon more ancient books. It took some effort, but she was able to suppress her desire to start reading any book she could get her hooves on, partly because she remembered that she could come back at another time, another loop, and read to her heart's content.
After taking a steadying breath, she said, "Sorry. It's just... This is amazing!"
"Yeah, yeah; I get it," Rainbow Dash flippantly replied. "It's an egghead's paradise."
"It's more profound than that," Twilight Sparkle retorted, wearing an irritated frown.
Rainbow Dash had already turned her attention elsewhere, having flown over to a pile of books so she could look over them herself. "What language even is this?"
"Well, I can't read it," Rainbow Dash said, who turned to face Twilight Sparkle while folding her forelegs behind her head, leaning back and crossing her hind legs. "So I don't think I'll be any help here."
"What we're looking for isn't necessarily inside of a book," Twilight Sparkle pointed out. "You can reach a lot of areas much easier and faster than I can, and there are a lot of places where something can be hidden in a library of this size."
Rainbow Dash wasn't all that enthused about looking in nooks and crannies, but began to do it anyway because it seemed like Nightmare Moon's return might actually be true and she enjoyed the idea of taking her down, even if this part of the process was neither interesting or fun. While she was doing that, Twilight Sparkle was looking for promising titles on the fore-edges of books, and trying very hard to not open up and read interesting ones that weren't relevant to their search.
An hour or so later, after finding nothing, a flagging Rainbow Dash found Twilight Sparkle and asked, "Hey, can we take a break and get something to eat?"
More due to the fact that she was in a time loop — and thus not pressed for time — than feeling sympathetic, Twilight Sparkle turned her attention away from the bookshelf that she had been perusing and replied, "Sure. I'll stay here and continue to look while you're gone."
"Do you want me to bring back anything specific, or...?" Rainbow Dash prompted.
"Anything's fine," Twilight Sparkle replied, who had already returned her gaze to the bookshelf.
Rainbow Dash observed her for a second, thoughtfully, before shrugging and flying over to the long table nearby, wanting to rest her wings after using them for so long to look around the library, following all of the time spent flying around the castle. "Okay. I'm just gonna give my wings a rest first."
She went to a chair on one end, and once seated she leaned the chair back and propped her hind legs on the table. Hearing an odd sound from the chair made her stiffen, then she was startled and took flight when a pair of nearby bookshelves rumbled before sliding apart from each other, revealing a hidden room.
Staring at the entrance to the room in disbelief, due to finding it like that after so much work, she didn't notice Twilight Sparkle had approached her until she heard her exclaim, "Good work, Rainbow Dash! Hopefully this is what we're looking for!"
Opening her mouth to explain what had happened on reflex, Rainbow Dash paused when she saw Twilight Sparkle already leaving her behind to enter the secret room, then decided to just accept the praise and follow after her.
At the far end of the room there were two windows, one yellow and one blue, which had day and night motifs respectively. There were two alcoves, with one having a bookshelf and a table, while the other accommodated a settee. There was another bookshelf between the left alcove and the windows, and another table just to the right of the doorway. And then there was the book on the lectern, situated in the center of the room, which Twilight Sparkle made a beeline for.
"Is that safe?" Rainbow Dash cautioned as the unicorn's magic enveloped the book, because she thought the placement of the lectern was rather odd.
Twilight Sparkle stopped herself before moving the book in any way, then tried to see with her eyes, and divine with her magic, if there was anything to worry about. When she couldn't detect anything noteworthy, she self-assuredly replied, "I didn't sense anything wrong, so let's find out what 'The Journal of the Two Sisters' contains."
Upon opening the book, nothing happened. When that continued to be the case for several seconds, Rainbow Dash flew over and landed beside Twilight Sparkle, to await her findings. There was a troubled expression on her face when she arrived, so she asked, "What's wrong?"
Staring at the name that claimed to be one of the journal's authors, and having trouble believing it, Twilight Sparkle swallowed before answering, "It's... If this is true... Then this castle belonged to Celestia."
"The Celestia!?" Came Rainbow Dash's surprised response. When she received a nod, she had a revelation. "Wait! So that would make Nightmare Moon her sister!?"
"If this is true," Twilight Sparkle reminded her, before worrying her bottom lip. "But... It makes enough sense on its face: Nightmare Moon was sealed away a thousand years ago, and Princess Celestia has been moving the sun and moon for a thousand years. Also, the book that..."
Seeing her trail off and look even more disturbed, Rainbow Dash worriedly asked, "What? Is there more?"
Twilight Sparkle closed her eyes for a moment and took a steadying breath. "Before I left Canterlot for Ponyville, I warned Princess Celestia that Nightmare Moon was going to escape her imprisonment."
"Did she respond?" Rainbow Dash queried.
"Yes," Twilight Sparkle answered, her mind awhirl with certain details that only she knew. "And rather than address my concerns, she sent me to Ponyville to oversee the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration."
"That's how you got the job?" Came Rainbow Dash's incredulous reply, before she shook her head. "Anyway, basically, she didn't believe you?"
With a shake of her head, Twilight Sparkle answered, "I don't know. If there wasn't more to this than what you're aware of, then maybe, but..."
"What else is there?" Rainbow Dash was keen to ask.
Twilight Sparkle considered the pegasus, wondering if she should reveal anything, but couldn't think of a good reason for why she shouldn't, since Rainbow Dash wouldn't remember anything when the current loop ended. So, she adopted a serious expression and began to inform her on who she was, in relation to the princess, what happened prior to her leaving Canterlot, the princess' letter, the time loop, and the strange book in Ponyville's library.
Rainbow Dash hadn't believed her, to the extent that she even began to doubt if anything about their quest was true. Fortunately, she quickly made the excuse that she couldn't deal with the quandary on an empty stomach and left to get their food, so her reaction could have been far worse — unless it was just being postponed.
Either way, that left her alone with the journal, so she brought it with her to the settee and began to read it, where she lost all sense of time while she learned about her mentor and her sister. It was so interesting that she could almost forget about her situation, but the more that she learned the bigger the questions loomed in her mind, casting a shadow over her conscious thoughts.
She had just gotten past the part that explained some of the castle's features and functionality when she heard Rainbow Dash yell that she was back. She came flying in with a small basket, containing a sandwich, an apple, and a bottle of juice. When her eyes caught sight of it, she was suddenly aware of her hunger and thirst and hastily set the journal aside and accepted the meal, her mouth salivating.
"Sorry it took me so long," Rainbow Dash apologized, although she didn't look or sound all that sorry. "I was asking around about the princess' student, and a couple of ponies were able to describe what you looked like after they were able to give your name, so I guess that much about your story is true."
Twilight Sparkle distractedly hummed her acknowledgement while stuffing the sandwich into her mouth.
"I also saw that book you mentioned," Rainbow Dash went on, "which was really weird." She regarded Twilight Sparkle with a suspicious look. "But who's to say that you didn't do that yourself?"
Since she couldn't prove that she didn't make the book herself, Twilight Sparkle thought about her response before swallowing the last bite of her sandwich, despite knowing that the time loop would make it pointless to convince Rainbow Dash of anything at this juncture. For some reason, she didn't want their time together ruined. She reasoned that wanting to salvage it had something to do with the fact that she had only advanced her investigation so much, and made the discoveries she had, because of Rainbow Dash's involvement. In particular, she couldn't imagine herself finding the secret room on her own any time soon, if at all.
So, in an effort to dispel at least some of her mistrust, she said, "When you went to the library, was Pinkie Pie preparing to surprise me with a party yet? Or was it ready by the time you got there?"
Rainbow Dash paused and blinked her eyes, not having expected questions — or those particular questions — in response to her own. "Uh... Actually, yeah. She came in while I was there." Her brow furrowed. "But how did you know she was going to set up a surprise party for you? And at the library? If Pinkie Pie wants to surprise somepony with a party, she's going to surprise them; she even got me when I moved here."
"Because I've experienced this day several times," Twilight Sparkle evenly explained. "Unless I act fast enough, Pinkie Pie's the first pony I meet at the start of each loop, and she normally hurries off as soon as I try to speak to her. And because I'm overseeing the Summer Sun Celebration, I've even learned where you are at a certain time, what you're doing, and when you crash land into a mud puddle."
"I didn't, though," A confused Rainbow Dash pointed out.
"That's because I caught you before you could," Twilight Sparkle reminded her.
"Okay," Rainbow Dash began in a challenging tone, her forelegs crossed, "then tell me what I was doing before that, if that's what you were talking about. You should be able to tell me exactly what it was, right?"
Twilight Sparkle confidently said, "You were practicing for the Wonderbolts, because you wanted to show them what you could do tomorrow."
With her mouth agape, Rainbow Dash landed clumsily and said, "I didn't tell anypony that. I mean, yeah, a lot of ponies know that I'm training to become a Wonderbolt, but..."
"...That doesn't mean they would know that today's practice was in preparation for a plan that you had for tomorrow," Twilight Sparkle finished.
Rainbow Dash stared at her with apprehension before she gathered the nerve to speak what was on her mind, slowly saying, "Let's say you're telling the truth. I was thinking about this while I was gone, and..." She paused to gather more courage. "If you remember, but I don't... What does that mean for me? Will I," she gulped audibly, "die?"
"Of course not!" Twilight Sparkle was quick to reassure her, but — out of habit — couldn't help adding, "Well, technically." Seeing that she had just undermined her effort, she elaborated, "I mean, we're talking about identity and not life. You can think of it as amnesia, except you regain a few hours of your time and can only remember events by experiencing them again precisely."
Looking at her doubtfully, Rainbow Dash replied, "So you'll do this with me again? 'Cause if the whole Nightmare Moon thing is true, and she's really the princess' sister, I don't want to be left out of the loop." Realizing what she had said, she perked up and said, "Hey, yeah! Why not just add me to the time loop?"
"Because I don't know how," Twilight Sparkle replied, which took the wind out of Rainbow Dash's sails. "I did it on accident, remember?"
After standing there for a few seconds, looking a bit lost, Rainbow Dash appeared to come to a decision and resolutely said, "Then I want to make the most out of the time I have left. Was there anything about the sixth element in that journal?"
Twilight Sparkle shook her head. "I've read about half of it, and — while the Elements of Harmony have been mentioned a few times — there's no information on how to make the sixth element appear."
Undeterred, Rainbow Dash suggested, "Then how about you ask the princess? You're her personal student, right?"
Worrying her bottom lip, Twilight Sparkle said, "I am, but..."
"But what?" Rainbow Dash pressed, eyebrow cocked in response to her reluctance. "If that journal is real, then who better to ask than the pony who used those things to banish Nightmare Moon?"
Twilight Sparkle knew that she had a point, but she was afraid of the implications if the princess had banished Nightmare Moon yet brushed the threat of her return aside. Something wasn't adding up, and that likely meant that there was an important piece of the puzzle still missing... A potentially-damning piece... Which might involve, if not stem from, the princess herself.
Eventually, though, she convinced herself that seeking the answer, rather than being willfully ignorant, was the right path to take, regardless of what she might learn. So, after releasing a sigh of resignation, she steeled her resolve and told Rainbow Dash, "You're right. Let's retrieve the Elements of Harmony and return to Ponyville. Once we find Spike, I can have him send a letter to the princess."
"Wouldn't it be faster to go to Canterlot?" Rainbow Dash responded, confused.
"Spike uses his dragon breath to send the letter directly to princess Celestia," Twilight Sparkle explained. "It shouldn't take more than a minute to get to her from Ponyville."
"Okay," Rainbow Dash acknowledged. A few seconds later, she frowned. "But what if she doesn't respond?"
Twilight Sparkle cast a worried gaze toward the windows and quietly replied, "I don't know..."
The flight back to Ponyville was both quiet and somber.
Twilight Sparkle spent much of that time looking down at the sack that hung from her neck, a curtain that she had taken from the secret room. Since her thoughts were focused on the letter that she would write to Princess Celestia, her attention was invariably drawn to the Elements of Harmony inside of it, which were highly relevant to the question that she would ask.
Not that there weren't other questions on her mind, but she was having a hard enough time committing to the one, if the princess happened to be testing her. She held the princess in such high regard that she feared how she would respond, even with the knowledge that it should be retracted with the next loop. After all, if there was a pony with a chance to notice and enter the time loop, surely the princess would be a very likely candidate.
But if she wasn't being tested, then all of the oddities that she had noticed, which were connected to the Elements of Harmony, may not have been done by the princess. If that turned out to be the case... Should she be worried? While it seemed like the intention was to gain access to the Elements of Harmony, at the very least, why would someone go out of their way to give them to another indirectly, instead of doing it personally? And why do it in the way that they had?
When they arrived at the town hall, she set her concerns aside and focused on finding Spike. He wasn't there, and neither was Rarity, so they made their way to Carousel Boutique, which she figured would be the next likely place to find him. By the time they got there Rainbow Dash had grown impatient, who rushed up to the door and knocked on it harder than necessary.
They heard a voice on the other side of the door, but it was only loud enough for them to assume that it belonged to Rarity. Spike opened the door a few seconds later, and the attire that he now wore was strange enough to catch Twilight Sparkle's attention and momentarily distracted her from conveying what she needed him for. Said attire was a pair of trunk hose, a doublet with full, slashed sleeves, a comically-large piccadill collar, and a wide-brimmed hat that had a sizeable, poofy feather sticking out from the band.
Rainbow Dash, who was also distracted by his appearance, got sidetracked enough to address what she was seeing while giving him an odd look. "Are you getting ready for a play or something?"
With arms akimbo, Spike proudly said, "Nope. Rarity just thought that I would look debonair in this."
"Debo-what?" Came Rainbow Dash's confused reply.
"Spike," Twilight Sparkle cut in, her volume notably lowered, "I need to send a letter to the princess. Can you please ask Rarity if she has a quill and paper that we can use?"
Spike, who looked curious, couldn't help asking, "Why do you need to send a letter to the princess?"
"A letter?" Rarity asked, who was suddenly behind Spike, eyes wide and alight with interest. "To the princess?"
Twilight Sparkle directed a slightly annoyed look toward Spike, for not following her example in being discreet, before answering Rarity. "Yes. It's very important. May I—"
"Will these suffice, darling?" Rarity eagerly asked, who already had a sketchbook and pencil floating above her head.
With a nod of her head, Twilight Sparkle accepted them and said, "Thank you."
While she began to write, Rarity finally had the presence of mind to notice the sack, which she looked at with poorly-concealed disgust as she gestured toward it and queried, "Why is that drab... thing hanging from your neck?"
Not wanting Twilight Sparkle to be distracted, Rainbow Dash explained, "Because she needed something to carry the Elements of Harmony and we hadn't brought anything to the castle." Seeing that Twilight Sparkle had stopped writing to stare at her unhappily, she defensively said, "What? It's not going to matter because of the time loop, right?"
Noticing that Rarity looked ready to inquire about at least one of the things that Rainbow Dash had said, Twilight Sparkle sighed before telling her, "I guess it couldn't hurt to tell you while we wait for the princess' response."
Rarity appeared to be appeased by that, so she focused on finishing her letter. When she did, Rainbow Dash, who had been leaning over to watch her write, thrust her hoof in the way when she tried to roll the letter up and aggravatedly said, "That's it? What about all the weird stuff we found?"
"What about them?" Twilight Sparkle responded in kind. "All we have to do is summon the sixth Element of Harmony, so we can stop Nightmare Moon."
"Stop Nightmare Moon?" Rarity voiced, not knowing if she should be concerned about that or the possibility of the two mares on her doorstep being crazy.
Rainbow Dash took to the air, folded her forelegs imperiously and obstinately retorted, "So you don't think it's suspicious that somepony — maybe the princess — went through the trouble to make somepony else use the Elements of Harmony instead of using them themselves?"
"If she did," Twilight Sparkle replied in a dismissive manner, "I'm sure it was for a good reason."
"But what if it wasn't her?" Rainbow Dash countered, undeterred. "If time travel is possible, and you were able to learn about Nightmare Moon's return from a book that had predictions and stuff, then isn't it possible for somepony else to know and prepare for it?"
That made Twilight Sparkle pause, meet Rainbow Dash's gaze and really look at her. She had an intense stare, wherein she could see a hint of what could possibly be desperation. After a few seconds of consideration, realization finally struck her: if she were in Rainbow Dash's position, who probably believed that she would essentially cease to exist in a couple of hours, then she would also want to make the most out of that time and learn what she could. She wasn't in her position, of course, so whatever she did would have no real consequence, but that didn't mean that her actions wouldn't weigh on her conscience.
So, eventually, she turned away, toward the sketchbook and pencil that she still held in her magic, and released a sigh of resignation. "Alright. I'll ask Princess Celestia if she knows anything about what we saw at the castle, as well as the library book."
Rainbow Dash landed and watched with a mixture of satisfaction and relief as Twilight Sparkle expanded the letter to include the aforementioned questions. When she was finished, she tore the paper from the sketchbook and gave it to Spike, who used his fire breath to turn it into a cloud of magic smoke and send it on its way to the princess.
An awkward silence followed, after they watched the letter disappear from sight, until Rarity cleared her throat and offered, "Would you like a drink, or a snack, while you await a reply?"
Twilight Sparkle could tell, from the expression on her face, that it was also an invitation to relate what was going on in more detail. Since she didn't have anything better to do with her time, considering the potential of what she could learn from the princess, she simply nodded her head.
"Do you have any cider?" Rainbow Dash asked, a serious expression on her face.
Rarity hesitated before replying, "Yes, I do, but..." After reading Rainbow Dash's face, her expression turned sympathetic and she changed her tune. "Will one bottle be enough?"
Rainbow Dash grunted. "It's better than nothin'."
With that settled, Rarity guided them to the living quarters of the building, unaware of the wary or distasteful looks that Rainbow Dash directed at the contents of her shop. Once they entered the kitchen, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash found their seats at the table while she went to provide everyone with drinks and snacks, Spike following close behind and ready to assist.
After Rarity and Spike delivered the aforementioned drinks and snacks, they sat at the table and listened to Twilight Sparkle as she related where she and Rainbow Dash had gone and what they had experienced, with the latter chipping in from time to time while she nursed an expensive bottle of cider. Rarity was skeptical about most of it, unsurprisingly, but she ceased to care once she got ahold of the Elements of Harmony and scrutinized them with a loupe, due to their internal structure being unlike anything that she had ever seen before.
By the time Twilight Sparkle had finished telling the story of their day thus far, her attention was fully drawn to the fact that the princess had yet to reply to her letter. She hadn't been the only one to notice, so she ended up reassuring the others that the princess was probably just busy, what with it being the eve of the Summer Sun Celebration and all, and tried to convince herself that that was the case as well.
As more time passed, however, the more awkward the conversations, and the silence between them, became. Not only was Rarity becoming more uncomfortable as they continued to impose upon her, but Twilight Sparkle was concerned about Rainbow Dash's brooding, which was quite different from the brash and energetic pony that she had become familiar with.
Finally, when Twilight Sparkle saw the time and accepted the possibility that the princess might not respond any time soon, if at all, she stood up from her chair, collected the Elements of Harmony, and put them back inside the makeshift sack as she told Rarity, "Thanks for the hospitality." Turning her attention to Spike, she said, "Let's go, Spike," before looking over at Rainbow Dash and offering, "You're welcome to join us if you're still interested."
Rainbow Dash contemplated the mostly-empty bottle of cider for several seconds before she sighed and remarked, "Might as well..."
She got up and began to walk out, mumbling her thanks to their host as she passed by.
Spike hesitated before asking Rarity where he should put his outfit, but followed Twilight Sparkle out after he was told that he could keep it and was assured that she was okay with that decision.
Once all of her guests had left the kitchen, Rarity hurriedly put away the cider before heading to the laundry room, where she used the back door to sneak out of her home.
On the other side of the house, after the front door had been closed, Twilight Sparkle looked up at the yellow sky and absently wondered, "What should we do while we wait? Pinkie Pie's probably waiting for me at the library to surprise me with a party, so going there is out..."
Rainbow Dash gave her a sidelong look. "Why? A party sounds like a good idea to me."
"A party sounds like fun!" Spike excitedly chimed in.
Seeing Twilight Sparkle's reluctance, Rainbow Dash turned to face her and entreated, "Come on; it won't start unless you go there."
Twilight Sparkle glanced between the two a few times, who were gazing at her expectantly, before she sighed. "Fine. I guess I can wait in the loft." Giving Spike a pointed look, she added, "Just be sure to bring the letter to me as soon as it arrives, okay?"
Spike saluted. "You got it!"
Since Twilight Sparkle wasn't looking forward to the party, even if the experience would be brief, she led the group at a sedate pace. No one felt inclined to talk, so she began to speculate as to what books she might find in the loft, trying very hard to not wonder why the princess was taking so long to respond to her letter. She hoped that there would be something new and interesting up there, regretting that she hadn't given them a look when she had been there that one time.
With her mind deliberately preoccupied, she didn't notice when Spike stopped walking and covered his mouth as he gagged. When he belched, however, she swung her head around to see if it had been accompanied by a letter. Seeing that it had, she quickly snatched up the letter in her magic and broke the seal before unfurling it, not noticing Rainbow Dash hurrying to her side and looking over her shoulder.
Skipping the greeting, she read, "I apologize for the lateness of my reply. I made many attempts to compose one, but I was unsatisfied with them. I'm not entirely pleased with this one either, but this matter is serious and I felt that I couldn't tarry any longer."
She paused on that ominous note before urging herself onward. "I'll get straight to the point: I was aware of the setup, but not many of the specifics. Somepony, or someone, has spent many years proving their goodwill and gaining my confidence with their predictions, none of which I could ever determine were artificial, and whose source I could never trace. This was the only plan that I was aware of, which they had shared with me, claiming that it would ensure a bright future for Equestria for a long time."
She was almost too shocked by those revelations to continue, but she reined in her racing thoughts and read further. "However, it's apparent that something has gone awry with the plan, because one of the few details that was disclosed to me would have made it impossible for you to discover the Elements of Harmony before tomorrow morning. So, unless I'm contacted by the seer and updated on the situation, I'll come to collect the Elements of Harmony from you after I arrive in Ponyville. It had originally been my plan to deal with Nightmare Moon personally anyway, as much as it pains me."
"...That confirms that Nightmare Moon is her sister," she absently noted to herself, before her eyes inexorably fell upon the last paragraph, which read, "We can speak more on the matter when I see you, and apologize in person if necessary."
She looked up and stared into the middle distance, unsure of how she should feel about what she had just learned. With the letter still held in place with her magic, Rainbow Dash was able to finish reading it, who was quick to express how she felt.
"The hay?" Came her incredulous response, her brow furrowed. "So... There is somepony — or whatever they are — who set all that up, and the princess knew and approved it?"
"Is that a bad thing?" Spike queried.
Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle turned to regard each other, neither knowing the answer and trying to seek it from the other. When that became apparent, Twilight Sparkle quietly replied, "I don't know."
With the amount of time left in the day, they decided to continue to the library, even if not for the exact same reason. They probably weren't going to find out who the mysterious "seer" was within a few hours, and Twilight Sparkle could spare however much time she wanted in such a pursuit, so Rainbow Dash and Spike were going to enjoy the party for the rest of the loop.
On the way there, Twilight Sparkle couldn't help wondering what Princess Celestia hadn't told her, given the difficulty that she'd had with conveying her message. She might find a clue after examining the letter some more, but that would have to wait until she was in the loft and away from distractions, since the library was within sight and she preferred to think without feeling rushed.
When they reached the library, Twilight Sparkle simply opened the door and strode into the darkness beyond without pausing, only stopping once there was room for the rest of the group to enter. Once everyone had joined her, it was with a raised voice that she unenthusiastically said, "I wonder where the light could be."
The light came on and many ponies shouted, "Surprise!"
Balloons were released, confetti was thrown into the air, and party horns were blown by the ponies who had all congregated along the bookshelves of the room. It was a carbon copy of what Twilight Sparkle had experienced one time before, except for Rarity, who smiled sheepishly and waved at her when she was noticed.
Her view of said pony was quickly obstructed by Pinkie Pie, who suddenly invaded her personal space and excitedly exclaimed, "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie, and I threw this party just for you!" She began to bounce in place. "Were you surprised? Were ya? Were ya?" She hopped over her and continued her questioning as soon as she landed on her other side. "Huh, huh, huh?"
Not in a mood to play dumb, Twilight Sparkle flatly replied, "Not really."
Pinkie Pie was about to say more, but froze in place for a few seconds before her ears fell, followed by her smile and expression in gradual succession. Eventually, she quietly voiced, "Oh." Then her gaze fell upon the sack hanging from Twilight Sparkle's neck, and the effects of her response instantly reversed themselves. "Oh! You didn't have that when I last saw you! Did somepony already surprise you and now you don't have enough surprise juice to be surprised!?"
"...I guess?" Came Twilight Sparkle's belated reply, after weighing her choice of answers in the face of such logic. Then she had a spark of inspiration and added, "In fact, I'm surprised by how draining the surprise was, so I'm going to get some rest before I, uh, enjoy the party."
"Okie-dokie!" Pinkie Pie readily and cheerfully accepted.
Glad at how well that had worked out, Twilight Sparkle wasted no time in heading toward the stairs, sparing only a brief look around to find out that Spike and Rainbow Dash had already separated and joined the party. In that time she also noticed Pinkie Pie looking up thoughtfully, and through the din and distance she barely heard her say, "So that's what happens when it's an olive green party hat with purplish-brown polka dots, huh?"
Having more important things to do than wondering why she would say something like that, Twilight Sparkle reached the stairs and began to climb them. When she reached the loft, she found the light and turned it on before setting the sack down on the floor. After she had taken Princess Celestia's letter out of it, she took it with her to the bed, so she could lay down comfortably while she examined it for clues.
The first thing that revealed itself was that the princess had originally planned to deal with Nightmare Moon herself, until the "seer" had shared their plan with her. Somehow, having someone else confront Nightmare Moon with the Elements of Harmony would deliver a better outcome — whatever that happened to be. Considering how the fate of the princess' sister was involved, she couldn't help wondering if that was included in Equestria's "brighter future", that there was a better way to handle Nightmare Moon that the princess was simply incapable of, or if it was just a way for her to avoid a confrontation with her sister a second time.
After studying the letter some more, the next detail to jump out at her was the princess' assertion that she shouldn't have been able to get the Elements of Harmony before morning. Seeing as she had learned about their whereabouts from a book that she found at her current location, and hadn't discovered it before her first experience traveling back in time, she could only assume that the book really had been created with the purpose of being found when time was of the essence, leading to the reader — presumably herself — not noticing how odd the book was as a whole. Whether that happened before or after Nightmare Moon's release, though, she couldn't be sure.
For a while she was unable to infer anything else from the letter, which was frustrating because she hadn't learned much from what she had. Before she gave up, however, her attention was diverted by the arrival of Rainbow Dash, who was looking rather exasperated. She could still hear the party, which seemed to be going strong, so her curiosity was piqued by her presence.
"Did you need something?" She asked her.
"I dunno..." Rainbow Dash's replied, sounding irritated, before expelling a heavy sigh. "I tried to enjoy the party, but..."
Catching on to what the issue might be, Twilight Sparkle set the letter aside and guessed, "But you keep thinking about what will happen when this loop ends?"
Rainbow Dash gave a reluctant nod in reply.
Feeling a pang of sympathy, Twilight Sparkle left the bed and walked down from the mezzanine to give Rainbow Dash her full attention. She didn't know what she could do to try and ease her mind, in the face of such an existential dilemma, but she felt the need to try because...
Because...
Before she could find the words to describe what she was feeling, she found herself standing in front of Rainbow Dash and had no idea of what to say. Between suppressing her panic and frantically scouring her mind for ideas, her mouth got ahead of her thoughts and she ended up blurting out, "How about trying something different?"
Rainbow Dash blinked her eyes at the unexpected suggestion. "Like what?"
"Well..." Twilight Sparkle temporized, who felt sweat bead on her brow while her eyes darted this way and that, in search of an idea. Unfortunately, all that stood out to her were the books, which were everywhere, so she eventually forced a smile and said, "You could... maybe... read a book?"
Looking baffled, and possibly insulted, Rainbow Dash replied, "Are you serious?"
Twilight Sparkle's smile became more strained because she couldn't think of an alternative, or anything else worth saying.
Eventually, Rainbow Dash threw her forelegs above her head and said, "You know what? Sure. It's not like I have to worry about living down being an egghead, or anything."
Simply relieved to have gotten out of that awkward situation, Twilight Sparkle ignored her remark and went to the nearest bookshelf, in search of a suitable book. However, since Rainbow Dash made it clear that she didn't care for books in general, finding one might not be as easy as she hoped. Even if she relied on her being an avid fan of the Wonderbolts, for example, that didn't necessarily mean that she would want to read about their history. Additionally, she probably knew their stunts from watching them.
She assumed that Rainbow Dash wouldn't be interested in anything intellectual or academic, so she decided to look for something that's read for entertainment, thinking that something with action or adventure might interest her. Fortunately, after considering and dismissing two titles on the first bookshelf that she went to, she came upon Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone, which had both action and adventure. Even better, if she liked the main character, who was well-read on history and other subjects, maybe she'd realize that there's nothing wrong with being an "egghead."
...Not that it would matter, sadly.
With the thought of Rainbow Dash forgetting her experiences, and why, her excitement was significantly dampened when she offered the book to her and said, "Give this one a try."
Rainbow Dash gave the cover a dubious look. "Okay..." When she raised her gaze, she saw that Twilight Sparkle was still standing there, looking on expectantly, and the discomfort that evoked made her agitated. "Do you mind? I don't want anypony watching me read."
Embarrassed, Twilight Sparkle turned away and looked for a place where she could give Rainbow Dash some privacy, who was moving toward a nearby table to read. Downstairs wasn't an option, of course, but it looked like the mezzanine had a good view of the aforementioned table, so...
When she caught sight of the balcony, she perked up and headed toward it. She paused after opening the balcony doors and going outside, however, when she remembered the princess' letter. So, she turned around, poked her head back inside, and snatched it up in her magic before closing the doors and moving to the end of the balcony, where she sat with her back facing the building.
With her horn alight, so she wouldn't strain her eyes in the ocher gloom, she continued to scour the letter for clues. Unfortunately, long after the color had drained from the sky and all of the stars were revealed, she hadn't been able to glean anything else from the letter. It didn't help that her thoughts kept detouring to what she had felt earlier, when Rainbow Dash had abandoned the party and come up to the loft. That, and as the end of the current loop drew near, she felt more uneasy and... something else, but she wasn't sure what.
Eventually, she growled out her frustration and threw the letter onto the floor with her magic. She stewed there for a bit, contemplating whether or not she should explore her thoughts on Rainbow Dash instead, when she heard the doors click open behind her. Looking over her shoulder, she saw the pony in question approaching her, trying to act casual but not quite pulling it off.
When Rainbow Dash sat down beside her heavily, she considered how much time had elapsed before asking, "Didn't like the book?"
"It was totally awesome!" Rainbow Dash blurted out animatedly, who immediately covered her mouth with her hooves and blushed profusely.
"You're not an egghead," Twilight Sparkle reassured her, voice tinged with amusement.
Rainbow Dash sighed and lowered both her hooves and head, but didn't say anything right away. Eventually, after an internal struggle that showed enough of itself on her face for Twilight Sparkle to recognize it, she quietly stated, "It's not fair."
After figuring out what she was probably referring to, Twilight Sparkle considered her words carefully before offering, "After I'm no longer looping back in time, do you want me to introduce that book to you again?"
With a humorless chuckle, Rainbow Dash replied, "Yeah, good luck with that. You'd either have to do it like this, or catch me when I can't fly and I'm bored out of my mind."
Not knowing how to proceed from there, Twilight Sparkle silently regarded her troubled companion, feeling a pang in her chest because she didn't know what to say or do that would have a positive impact on the situation. There had to be a book on how to handle something like this, and — if there was — she was going to find it and read it at the first opportunity.
Then, abruptly, Rainbow Dash clenched her eyes shut, exclaimed, "I can't deal with this," and shot into the air.
Before Twilight Sparkle could do more than stand up and open her mouth to call after her, the pegasus was already beyond the outskirts of the town, and would have been out of sight just as soon if not for the rainbow contrail that stood out starkly against the night sky. A second later, she felt a drop of liquid splash on her nose, and looked down her muzzle to see the remnants of a tear.
She felt her eyes sting at the sight. Guilt began to well up, and weigh her ears down, upon the understanding that this wouldn't have happened if she had kept Rainbow Dash in the dark about the time loop. It had seemed fine to make her aware of it at the time, but now she couldn't understand how she could have thought that. She had dismissed how someone else might feel about it just because the consequences wouldn't have lasted, as if she hadn't... cared about them...
At the exact moment that her eyes widened in realization, she saw ring-shaped waves of rainbow light flash into existence and explode outward in the distance. Had there been any onlookers, they would have seen it sparkle in her eyes, alongside the glistening tears.
Twilight Sparkle didn't know how long she had lain on the balcony with her face buried in her forelegs, consumed by guilt and regret, but it became apparent that it was long enough to find herself looking down at a blue sky once again.
The sudden shift of position and view jolted her out of her despondency, and she began to panic because she wasn't prepared for it and had no plan on how she would move forward after what she had just experienced. She sat up quickly and got to her hooves, her mind racing, when she caught sight of Pinkie Pie's inevitable approach in the distance. Not knowing what else to do, she ran away from her and hid behind the closest house.
Thinking that Pinkie Pie might follow her if she was noticed, she frantically thought of what she could do to avoid her while looking around. Eventually her gaze turned upward, and she immediately seized upon the idea of hiding on a roof when she saw one. So, she teleported to one that she had a good view of, which was thatched like many of the buildings in Ponyville.
It was with unsteady steps that she walked across the ridge and positioned herself behind a chimney before looking around it, to see if Pinkie Pie had tried to follow her or not. Said pony was standing at their usual meeting place, who appeared to be deep in thought while she stroked her chin. She also noticed Spike nearby, who was searching for her with squinted eyes and calling out for her in confusion.
After pulling away and resting her back against the chimney, she sagged and breathed a relieved, "Whew..."
"Woo!" A familiar voice shouted right beside her.
"Eeyah!" She yelped in surprise, and reflexively scrambled to get away from the source of the sudden noise.
Unfortunately, that led to a tumble off of the second-story roof, leading to a bounce off the first story before landing on the ground side-first and having the breath knocked out of her.
"Ow..." She croaked.
It wasn't long before Pinkie Pie was standing over her, looking down at her with concern. "Are you okay? That looked like fun, but you should be more careful when you're falling off a roof."
Twilight Sparkle struggled to her hooves with a groan, from both the effort and the comment, and regarded Pinkie Pie with an unamused frown. "How did you do that?"
Pinkie Pie cocked her head to one side. "Do what?"
"Get onto the roof so quickly and quietly," Twilight Sparkle elaborated. "It couldn't have been more than three seconds since the last time I saw you on the ground."
"Oh, that's because I didn't want to miss the celebration," Pinkie Pie nonchalantly answered, as if that explained everything.
"Didn't you go 'woo?'" Pinkie Pie responded, now confused herself.
Twilight Sparkle opened her mouth to correct her, but paused when the implication of her answer registered: first, that she had heard her quiet expression of relief; second, she "copied" said expression a split second later. Which couldn't be true, because she couldn't even accomplish that herself with the aid of teleportation — and the flash wouldn't have been inconspicuous, besides. Even three seconds, unless her own eyes had deceived her, was a feat that she couldn't readily explain.
She closed her eyes and rubbed the area between them. This was too much after what she had recently gone through, and there were more important things to worry about, anyway. "I have to go. The Summer Sun Celebration isn't going to oversee itself."
She had already turned around and began to walk away when she got a chipper, "See ya later," in reply, and focused her attention on what she would do during the current loop instead of responding.
Nothing decisive came to her by the time she spotted Spike, who was still looking for her. Before she could call out to him, however, she heard a stallion exclaim, "Here she is!"
Turning toward the source of the voice, she saw one of the royal guards who had delivered her to Ponyville rushing over to her. His voice had also alerted his partner and Spike, who also made a beeline for her. This stopped her in her tracks because she hadn't expected it, but her mind, which was still intent on continuing its current mission, saw an opportunity arise from this development and began to formulate a way to grasp it.
Upon his arrival, the royal guard that had first spotted her concernedly asked, "Are you alright, ma'am?"
After waiting a few seconds, until the others were close enough, Twilight Sparkle tried to allay their concerns with, "Thanks for the concern, but I'm fine."
"What happened?" Spike asked, once he was beside her.
"Spontaneous teleportation," Twilight Sparkle tersely replied, before refocusing her attention on the royal guards. "But never mind that: can you please take me back to Canterlot castle?"
The two royal guards shared an uncertain glance before one of them hesitantly said, "Um... Sure?"
"But we just got here!" Spike retorted, looking confused.
"I know that," Twilight Sparkle calmly acknowledged, "but my teleport made me concerned about our security, and as the overseer of the Summer Sun Celebration it's my responsibility to make sure that everypony are on top of things."
It took a few seconds, but Spike realized what that meant and said, "Oh, I get it! And Shining Armor is the captain of the royal guard!"
At the mention of their superior's name, the pair of royal guards stiffened their postures.
"Exactly," Twilight Sparkle replied. "And while I'm confident in my brother's abilities, I can't give him special treatment just because he's family."
She gave the royal guards an expectant look, who got the hint and went to hitch themselves to the chariot. Before she moved to follow them, she turned to Spike and said, "While I take care of this oversight, you can stay here and have some fun." Leaning her head over to his, she lowered her voice and suggested, "Why not check out the town hall? I heard that there should be something special there until the preparations are complete."
With Spike's interest piqued enough to happily accept that arrangement without question, just as she had hoped, she parted ways with him and boarded the chariot.
After Twilight Sparkle arrived at the castle, she quickly went to the areas where the princess' agenda routinely placed her throughout the course of a normal day. When she didn't find her in those places, or on the way to them, she began to ask the guards and staff where they had last seen her, and when that was. Fortunately, right when she was beginning to think it would be a bust, and she would actually have to find her brother and try to get his help, she encountered a custodian who not only gave her the most recent account, but placed the princess near a conspicuous part of the castle.
The location in question was a tower, and the corridor that granted access to it. It was the latest addition to the castle, built roughly two years after she had become the princess' student. As far as she knew, the tower was off-limits to everyone save the princess, and it stood out for other reasons as well: one, it was the tallest structure of the castle; two, its appearance deviated a bit from the rest of the castle, incorporating some features that were more common a thousand years ago; three, no one, except the princess, knew its purpose.
When she arrived at the corridor, she immediately noticed that there were no guards stationed there to discourage entry, which wasn't normal. Furthermore, the corridor had undergone a bit of a makeover, with the inclusion of a night theme and some related symbols, including those that she had seen in the Castle of the Two Sisters. The double doors at the far end, in particular, bore crescent moons, and above them was a lunette containing a mural of a stylized, dark-colored alicorn that flew above a sleeping world and below a starry sky.
She raised a foreleg, to take her first step into the corridor, but hesitated. This wasn't just anyone that she was about to confront, after all. Even with the reassurance of the time loop, and being so sure that she could get an important piece of the puzzle, just the thought that she could make the princess disappointed, which was among the least of her concerns, caused a wave of anxiety to wash across her body. Such was her regard for the princess, which was without compare.
But she set her jaw, put her hoof down, then transferred her weight to it as she forced herself to move forward. She had to know what was going on. She trusted the princess, couldn't imagine her doing anything with ill intent, but the same couldn't be said of that so-called seer. Was what they were doing being done out of the kindness of their own heart, or was it simply to gain the princess' trust, so they could take advantage of her? Was the princess' sister the chink in her armor? Or did certain things have to happen in order for something nefarious to be possible?
Whatever was going on, she'd face it head-on, just like she had been willing to do with Nightmare Moon.
Despite that, when she reached the doors, she paused and took a calming breath before opening them. A winding staircase awaited her beyond it, which she began to ascend with measured steps, knowing that she had a long climb ahead of her. Along the way, she continued to try and work out exactly what she would say to the princess, and how she would say it, to get the desired results, since she had failed to do so during the chariot ride.
When she reached the room at the top of the tower, she was met with another pair of double doors. They shared a similar theme to the last one, only more elaborate. As harmless as they appeared, however, the possibility of the princess being in the room beyond made them loom over her in a scary way, almost like the tests that the princess issued without letting her know that she should have studied, or prepared for it in some other way, beforehand.
With her heart hammering in her chest, she steeled herself and knocked on a door.
A response didn't come in a timely fashion, which didn't help her nerves any. She was just beginning to feel a bead of sweat roll down her brow when the doors swung open, revealing Celestia, whose confusion transitioned into surprise upon seeing who her unexpected visitor was.
"Twilight? Why are—" She swiftly collected herself and schooled her features. "I thought you left for Ponyville."
Between being emotionally distraught, and using all the willpower that she could muster to remain relatively calm, Twilight Sparkle didn't notice the shift as she replied, "I did, but... Um... I might have accidentally magicked myself into a time loop and a lot of things happened...?"
Celestia stared at her awkwardly-smiling student as she digested that information, neither expecting it or knowing how she should feel about it. However, when she saw that her lack of an outward reaction was brewing a panic attack, she stepped aside and forced a disarming smile to help ease her anxiety, even though she felt like frowning with worry. "Why don't you come inside?"
Twilight Sparkle heeded the invitation, albeit belatedly, and tried to center herself again while she took in the room. Said room was rife with the dark, muted and pale colors of the night, mostly of various shades of blue, purple and white. It really gave the feel that it was night time, despite the sunlight entering from the balcony, and it even felt cooler compared to the rest of the castle. What stood out to her the most, however, was the bed, whose frame was shaped and colored like a crescent moon.
She was jolted out of her examination of the room when she heard the door close with a soft click, and she turned to see the princess walking toward her. Turning around to face the princess, who came to a stop a few steps away, she couldn't help shrinking into herself a bit as she gazed up at her, her anxiety spiking once again.
Celestia placidly considered her student, and went over the words that she had spoken a moment ago, before surmising, "I take it that you didn't seek me out because you wanted to be released from the time loop?"
Not knowing how to feel about how calmly the princess was handling the situation, and how she was able to deduce why she was there, Twilight Sparkle did her best to ignore her dry mouth while she gave her response. "In the last loop I sent you a letter, and the reply you sent to me was... Well..."
"May I see them both?" Celestia requested, curious and wondering if it may not involve something serious after all, since her student made mountains out of molehills often enough for it to be possible — even under the current circumstances.
Twilight Sparkle looked around for a flat surface, to project the letters onto with a spell, and had to settle for the floor. With that being the case, she stepped back and projected them onto the space between them and indicated which letter was which, so the princess could read them in order.
Celestia leaned her head down and began to read them. When she finished the first letter, she dreaded starting the second. However, she knew that she had to find out exactly what "she" had written back to her student, even though she had a pretty good idea, so she reluctantly continued and read the second letter. Upon reaching the end of it, she closed her eyes and murmured, "I see."
After a few, tense seconds of silence, she raised her head and locked gazes with Twilight Sparkle before solemnly saying, "Twilight... As your teacher, it's my responsibility to provide you with knowledge, lessons and experiences, in order for you to reach your full potential. Toward that end, I'm willing to go to lengths that you would probably find horrifying, were you to learn of them right now."
"However," she went on, continuing to stare at her wide-eyed student, "there are some things that I wish to protect you from..." Her expression softened. "Not as a teacher, but as a friend. And your inquiry touches upon a subject that I believe you would be better off remaining ignorant of, and not just because of what a taste of it had done to one of my former students."
She lowered her head, to be on the same eye level as Twilight Sparkle, in addition to shortening the distance between them, and softly said, "But I'm willing to bet that you won't stop thinking about it. Short of me doing the unthinkable to you, what knowledge you've gained is going to distract you at some point, possibly even against your best efforts, and it will send you astray." She turned her head aside, but maintained eye contact. "Perhaps, if I told you what you wanted to know, everything would work out. Maybe I've been worrying over nothing all this time."
She released a sigh of resignation and straightened up. "Ultimately... I might be wrong to think that this is my choice to make."
"Wh-what do you mean?" Twilight Sparkle managed to get out, who was troubled by what the princess had planned for her, as well as the thought that she could be heading toward something worse than that.
Celestia regarded her with an unreadable expression and replied to the question with one of her own. "Twilight, do you truly wish for me to reveal what I know? Even with the knowledge that I will be entrusting you with both a great burden and responsibility, that must be borne for the rest of your life, if I do?"
Twilight Sparkle's ears wilted as she gazed up at the princess' stony visage. Normally she would be excited to be trusted with something significant, and she could feel a ghost of it despite the gravity of the situation, but the knowledge being offered seemed so consequential that — for once — she was unsure if she was willing to pay the price for it.
Then she remembered that this wasn't just about her. The princess was already dealing with the unspecified burden and responsiblity, and helping her was more important to her than anything she could ever learn, even if it only meant sharing the same hardship.
With that realization, she found the determination to nod her head.
The expression on Celestia's face shifted almost imperceptibly to Twilight Sparkle, to something she couldn't read, yet she couldn't help getting the impression that she looked older somehow. A few seconds later the princess began to walk around her, toward the balcony doors, and she stood by and watched her in silence, waiting and trying to prepare herself for whatever she would learn.
Celestia stared out of a window for a time, and continued to face away from Twilight Sparkle when she said, "As you've learned, someone is manipulating events. Toward what end? I have nothing but their assurance that it will benefit Equestria."
"I don't know how long they've been at it," she continued, "or if they have been involved the whole time, but I'm aware that this plan has been in motion for at least a thousand years." She turned her head aside and pointedly looked at Twilight Sparkle. "And you were a part of that plan back then."
Confused, Twilight Sparkle asked, "What do you mean?"
Once she was facing the window again, Celestia replied, "A thousand years ago, my sister and I found a tree made of crystal. This tree not only bore the Elements of Harmony, but three cutie marks: my sister's, my own, and most prominently... yours."
"But that would mean..." Twilight Sparkle began, who couldn't finish because she was overwhelmed by what was being suggested.
"Either our cutie marks are endowed with an awareness beyond our own," Celestia picked up where her student had left off, "or the Elements of Harmony only exist with the assurance that we will — one day — appear and use them."
Twilight Sparkle didn't reply. She didn't like the sound of either possibility, since they both meant the same thing: that destiny or fate could be out of one's own hooves. It would be one thing to be destined for a special talent, but it would be quite another if your life was planned out by your cutie mark, and that kind of distinction disturbed her.
Celestia didn't need to look to know that Twilight Sparkle was troubled by her words, so she tried to ease her mind. "Either way, I wouldn't worry too much about that. Even if they weren't restricted to being predictions, they're really no worse than the everyday restrictions and manipulations that influence your actions."
"...Are you sure?" Twilight Sparkle questioned, sounding doubtful.
"Not completely, no," Celestia admitted, who turned her head aside to show that she was at ease with that, not worried or embarrassed. Before explaining herself, she opened the balcony doors and gestured for her student to follow her.
Curious as to what more could be said on the matter, which involved relocating to the balcony, Twilight Sparkle heeded the silent instruction and joined the princess at the railing. From there she got a very good view of Canterlot, if not the best, and she was quick to notice the amount of activity that was devoted toward tomorrow's Summer Sun Celebration.
"'All the world's a stage," Celestia eventually said, as she looked down upon the city, "and all the stallions and mares merely players.' To most, those words don't mean anything special. For me, it transformed how I perceived the world, and everyone's role in it. It allowed me to reconcile a few things that had been troubling me for a long time."
"Like what?" Twilight Sparkle couldn't help asking.
"Making compromises and sacrifices, at the expense of my freedom and identity, for one," Celestia replied, who glanced over at her student. "Just because I felt confident enough to accept my role, that didn't mean I was perfectly suited for it — far from it, in fact. By now I've grown into it, for the most part, yet there are still some aspects that I have to fake, in order to be the most effective in my role."
She looked back down at the ponies far below them. "More relevant to your concern, is that every play has a separate set of actors that you typically don't see on the stage, because they work behind the scenes. In terms of the reality we exist in, most of those are forces of nature, which — among other things — makes the world possible in the first place. One of them, however, is the playwright."
"Tell me," she went on, adopting a serious expression as she turned her whole body to face her student, "how do you feel about the possibility of all events being written in stone since the very inception of the universe?"
Twilight Sparkle shrank into herself upon suddenly being put on the spot, with one ear drooping and the other twitching sporadically as she nervously replied, "T-that would be, uh, bad, but... I mean... If that's just how it is... What can you do, right?"
"Do you think we have free will?" Celestia pressed. "When, after we're born, everything we are exposed to is out of our control, and that's what our first conscious choice is based on?"
Turning her head and gaze away, Twilight Sparkle weakly said, "I... I don't know..."
Celestia's expression softened. "Let's assume that either is true. Would you trade this life for one of your own design?"
"No way!" Came Twilight Sparkle's immediate and lively response, her nervousness, and fear of being wrong, cast aside. "It's not perfect, but that's not a good enough reason to discard it." She frowned. "And, besides, wouldn't I be doing something similar to those two hypotheticals if I did?"
With a satisfied smile, Celestia answered, "Indeed," before assuming a neutral expression. "In many ways, both big and small, our answer to life's imperfections is to control what we can: in order to correct them, or to impose our own vision of reality."
She raised a foreleg and swept it across the city. "My influence reaches further than most. But, it wasn't because I met an obstacle that I couldn't overcome. Rather, it was because others were willing to place their trust in me, expecting that I would be looking out for their best interests whether I acted or not." She turned to face the railing once more. "In turn, I would also yield some of my own freedom to them."
Catching on to what the princess was getting at, Twilight Sparkle's brow furrowed. "Hold on. Are you going to say that we should trust this... seer?"
Celestia closed her eyes. "No. I was going to say that we might not have a choice in the matter."
"Why?" Twilight Sparkle asked, voice tinged with worry and indignance.
"Two reasons," Celestia patiently began, as she turned to regard her student, "and the second is no more than a strong suspicion. The first is that the seer is beyond my power. Not just my magic, but my extensive experience and all of the resources available to me as a princess. The second is based on my personal investigations into fate, which has led me to believe that the unknown nature of our evolution may have been engineered."
Twilight Sparkle's ears perked up, her interest piqued by the subject despite what it would mean if the princess' suspicion was well-founded. "You mean how proto-ponies evolved to have three tribes and diverged from horses?"
Celestia nodded her head. "As I'm sure you know, we haven't found evidence of a compatible species mingling with our ancestors, regardless of whether they would have passed on the traits that we now possess. Furthermore, the archaeological record isn't clear on how the proto-ponies went extinct, or how long that took, while modern ponies rose into prominence."
Nodding her head in agreement, Twilight Sparkle said, "There are only theories."
Seizing on her comment, Celestia replied, "One theory in particular, which I suspect is close to being the truth, says that the proto-ponies encountered the three magicks that we are endowed with separately. Personally, I believe that it was all three from the same source. I wish I could confirm it, but... something is preventing me from seeing that far back in the past."
"Wait, wait, wait," Twilight Sparkle cut in, doubt and skepticism rising in response to what was being suggested. "There's a way to see back that far? And I thought it was impossible for Earth, Heaven and Aether magic to exist together in nature?"
Celestia was unable to stop herself from showing some amusement because of the predictable reaction she got, despite the situation. "Yes, it's possible to see back that far, although the only method I was able to conceive requires the one who is peering into the past to be an alicorn."
"And while it is true that Earth, Heaven and Aether magic aren't attracted to one another on their own," she continued, "that doesn't mean that there isn't a process that could facilitate their interaction. Alicorns exist, after all."
Twilight Sparkle could only nod her head in acknowledgement.
Glad that her explanation was acceptable enough to avoid having to reveal the fact that she had discovered a way to create alicorns herself, Celestia returned her attention back to the fore, her gaze drifting toward the sky. "There are two more things I think you should know about the forces shaping our destiny."
"...What are they?" Twilight Sparkle asked, some of her concern creeping into her voice.
"There was a reason for why I told you to make friends while you oversaw the preparations," Celestia began, her voice even.
"The seer?" Twilight Sparkle surmised.
Celestia hummed affirmatively. "They offered no more details than that, so I conducted a very thorough investigation — some of which I handled myself. And what I discovered is that there are five ponies in Ponyville who share a very surprising, and unique, connection with you." She turned her head slightly away from her student, so she could look directly at the town in question before explaining, "In one form or another, a sonic rainboom was involved in the events that led to them getting their cutie marks."
"What's a sonic rainboom?" Twilight Sparkle queried, even as the name made her think about a phenomenon that she had recently seen.
"When a pegasus flies fast enough to break the sound barrier," Celestia began to explain, her gaze returning to her student, "both a sonic boom and rainbow are produced simultaneously."
With her head bowed in thought, Twilight Sparkle concluded, "So, my magic surge wasn't spontaneous..."
It hadn't been difficult for her to figure out, because the thunder that she remembered hearing during her entrance exam helped to put all of the other pieces of information together. Then her head snapped up, when she realized what that meant. "Wait, was Rainbow Dash the pony who caused the sonic rainboom?"
Looking mildly surprised, Celestia nodded her head before asking, "How did you guess it was her? Not many ponies know who caused the sonic rainboom."
Looking downcast, Twilight Sparkle looked down and away before trying to say, "Well, I..." Her voice, partly strained with emotion, lowered to just above a whisper when she tried again. "It was because of a recent experience."
Celestia studied her student for a moment before deciding that it would be best to move on. "Now, in addition to that, only one of you lived in Ponyville at the time, although Applejack was born and raised there."
Wanting to take her mind off of what had happened with Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle opted to share her deduction instead of being led to the answer. "And now that there's five, if you add me then there would be the same amount of us as there are Elements of Harmony."
"Exactly," Celestia confirmed. "Not that there needs to be to wield them, but there are too many coincidences for all of this to not be by design. Even Pinkie Pie, who you won't meet as an overseer, will probably — if I'm judging her right — be unavoidable."
"You can say that again," Twilight Sparkle muttered under her breath.
"The last thing that you should know," Celestia continued, becoming solemn, "is that the Elements of Harmony either have a will of their own, or they have a master who can control what others can do with them."
"They do?" Twilight Sparkle inquired.
Celestia schooled her expression before turning in the direction of the balcony doors and walking toward them in silence. Once she was halfway there, she paused and kept her face hidden before measuredly replying, "When we used the Elements of Harmony against Discord, he was encased in stone. When I had to use them against my own sister... Among the last things that I would have desired was for her to be banished, beyond my power to retrieve, and be reminded of that failing twice a day because I'm duty-bound to move the moon in her absence."
Twilight Sparkle stared in horror as the princess walked away, even as her legs gave out from underneath her.
At first, Twilight Sparkle was overwhelmed by the tragic reality that Princess Celestia had been harboring for a thousand years. Her heart ached, and she felt like she had failed her somehow, however irrational that was.
When a new feeling tried to invite itself, however, she allowed herself to become angry... Livid... Then furious. How dare anything do that to the princess!
She suddenly went from lying down on her folded legs to floating in the air, her coat turning white and her mane and tail bursting into flames as she unleashed a primal growl. She proceeded to thoughtlessly whip her head to and fro, as her red eyes sought out the target of her ire. Eventually, after she was unable to find what she was looking for, frustration allowed simple questions to break through the din of the roaring flames in her mind, and the answers that echoed back reminded her of the cold reality.
The feeling of powerlessness, which she hadn't wanted to acknowledge, snuffed out her anger, and she fell heavily to her hooves while her appearance returned to normal, her head hung low and spirits even lower. What could she do about the situation, if even the princess couldn't do anything? What help could she seek, who was better? Ultimately, was the princess right about accepting the whims of mysterious forces, or entities, and hoping for the best?
With no answers forthcoming, she began to wonder if seeking knowledge had been a mistake for once — as crazy as that seemed. She now knew things that were going to lurk in the recesses of her mind for the rest of her life, which would raise unpleasant questions if she ever thought about them. The princess appeared to be living with it well enough, and hadn't been broken by her lot in life, so maybe she should heed what she had said.
...And she wanted to do that. She really did. But... The injustice done to the princess, and who knows how many ponies over the course of who knows how many generations aside, something didn't sit right with her. She couldn't put her hoof on exactly what was bothering her, but she was sure that it would give her a reason to forsake the princess' wisdom if she figured it out.
Not knowing what to do with the rest of the day, but knowing that she didn't want to stay at the tower, she turned her attention toward Ponyville and considered going back there. To do what? She didn't know. Certainly not to get familiar with the ponies that she was destined to become friends with, because the thought of using what she learned about them to make befriending them easier, after what she had recently learned, now put a bad taste in her mouth.
Her gaze drifted away from the town in the river valley while there was a lull in her thoughts, and it slid over Canterlot until she noticed the residence that Celestia had given to her shortly after becoming her student. Thinking it a good enough place to be, either for a bit or the rest of the loop, she focused on a spot in front of the door and teleported there.
Upon entry, an eerie feeling settled upon her. She shook it off, thinking it was caused by the discrepancy between the time she had last been there in the loop and the actual time that she had experienced being away. After closing the door behind her, she slowly and aimlessly walked around while looking about the living area, trying to think of what to do and hoping that something would spark an idea.
When nothing occurred to her, she guided her steps toward the stairs and ascended them to the second level. Along the way, she looked up at the various things that gradually came into view, starting with the bust of a unicorn, which was mounted on a pillar, and the balcony where her telescopes were. Then came the bookshelves on the mezzanine, quickly followed by the hutch desk and the tall bookshelf on the second level.
Before she could get a good look at anything else, a flash of red caught her attention as soon as her eyes rose above the floor of the second level. It was a small, ruined present box lying on the floor, and beside it was a teddy bear whose stuffing was coming out of its belly. She paused, trying to remember the reason for why they were there, and it took a while because she had been so focused on finding Predictions & Prophesies at the time.
Walking over to them, she lifted both up with her magic and considered them for a moment, wondering if Moon Dancer's party was still going. If it was, maybe that would be a good way to pass some time, until she could figure out what she wanted to do. Should she repair Spike's gift and give it to Moon Dancer in his stead?
While she was thinking about it, she realized that the box felt heavier than she would have expected it to be, had it been empty. When she gave it a little shake, she heard a series of faint thunks as an object shifted around inside. Curious as to what it could be, she opened the box and removed what it contained, which happened to be a framed photograph. Upon bringing it closer, she discovered that it was a candid shot of her and her friends.
She furrowed her brow when she had trouble remembering their names. She had an excellent memory, and she must have learned the names of her friends at some point, so why could she only think of Moon Dancer? And why wasn't she sure about which pony to apply the name to?
Tilting her head down, she thought back to whatever moments with her friends that she could recall. What ended up happening, time and time again, was that she would remember them being present while her attention was on something else, instead of them being the focus of the activity or event. They were almost always... peripheral.
Pursing her lips, she wondered why they had hung around with her so much, if they hadn't been her friends. Was it because they went to the same school? Did her association with the princess factor in at all? Or did the princess, perhaps, put them up to it?
That last thought made her pause to consider if that would actually be a bad thing or not. While it wasn't all that dissimilar from what bothered her about the seer, in terms of manipulating aspects of someone's life for whatever purpose, the difference was that she trusted the princess. Even if the princess did something that made a negative impact on someone's life, she believed that it would have been done with good intentions. The seer, on the other hand, she neither knew nor trusted.
Her head snapped up when she realized that was what was bothering her. Whatever the princess had planned for her, she could live with it because she trusted her. To an extent, she could even accept the seer's designs on her, if the princess was fine with it. The problem was that the princess might not know all of the seer's plans for her. Not only that, but it was clear that she wasn't the only one being manipulated. Were all of their best interests being considered, or were there going to be sacrifices?
This was a problem that she couldn't leave unresolved. The only issue was: how was she going to find or contact the seer? What would she have to do, or what power would she need to obtain, to accomplish what the princess couldn't? And that's before considering the possibility that the seer was bad and needed to be stopped, so she also had to think about spending many a loop becoming so strong that she could do that — just in case it was necessary.
"I wouldn't recommend doing that," a familiar, effervescent voice suddenly spoke up from behind her.
Startled, she jumped up and dropped the picture. She spun about as soon as she landed and faced Pinkie Pie, who stood near the top of the stairs that she had just climbed with a seemingly-guileless smile on her face. Her presence, not just in Canterlot but in her abode, rose many questions, and she made a couple of false starts trying to decide on the most important one to ask.
By then, however, her harried mind caught up to what had been said, and realized those questions paled in comparison to: "Did you just read my mind?"
"Maaaaybe," came the playful reply.
Sure that there was something very wrong about this situation, Twilight Sparkle cautiously asked, "Why are you here?"
Pinkie Pie began to slowly walk to one side while maintaining her distance, continuing to look innocent and upbeat while Twilight Sparkle warily tracked her. "You were doing a bunch of new and peculiar things, so I just had to investigate. As it turned out, this is the earliest you've ever been in a time loop — and left to your own devices, to boot!"
That gave Twilight Sparkle a lot to think about, so she didn't get to respond when Pinkie Pie continued to speak a few seconds later. "And by the sound of it, you've been able to learn things that you shouldn't know yet." She suddenly pushed herself onto her back, or would have if her mane and tail hadn't supported her weight and began to move her back toward her starting location, then looked up thoughtfully while she tapped her chin. "Hmmmm... Should I allow this to play out, or should I set things back on course?"
Twilight Sparkle narrowed her eyes and sharply retorted, "I think you should leave that decision to me... 'seer!'"
Pinkie Pie paused and rolled onto her side, with the knee of a foreleg digging into her mane so she could prop her head up, and looked bored as she flatly challenged, "You think you can stop me?"
The sudden change in demeanor, and the threat, made Twilight Sparkle take a step back and think twice for a moment. However, she quickly regained her resolve and adopted an aggressive stance before defiantly replying, "What matters is fighting for what's right."
After staring for a bit, Pinkie Pie gave a Gallic shrug, simply returned to her hooves, then cheerfully said, "Okie-dokie! You can do whatever, then."
Confused, but keeping her guard up, Twilight Sparkle expressed her distrust by asking, "Seriously?"
Pinkie Pie turned her back on Twilight Sparkle and walked a few steps away before stopping and saying, "I've never been able to convince you — or anyone of importance, for that matter — that what I've done, and will do, doesn't make me a bad pony, so I won't bother trying. It's no problem for me if I just wait for my loop to end and not repeat the action that made this scenario possible."
"...What?" Came Twilight Sparkle's faint response, who had been almost too shocked to say anything at all.
Pinkie Pie tilted her head back and said, "Oh, yeah," before looking over her shoulder and nonchalantly confirming, "I'm in a time loop, too. Except mine lasts until I die and I'm being prevented from dispelling it."
Seeing that she was being stared at with what was clearly disbelief, she turned her body to face Twilight Sparkle and continued to speak while maintaining her uncaring demeanor. "It doesn't matter if you believe me, but I know you're dying to ask me some questions even if you don't, and I'm willing to give you the opportunity to ask them because you're important to me."
Twilight Sparkle had a lot of questions. One of them was in what way, exactly, she was important to Pinkie Pie, but she wouldn't allow herself to be sidetracked by that. She didn't know the scope of the puzzle, or how many pieces featured the pony before her, so she was keen to inquire, "For how long have you been manipulating events, and are you doing it alone? Princess Celestia seems sure that whatever is planned for me has been in motion for at least a millennium."
Smiling, Pinkie Pie commented, "Good questions, as expected." She looked up thoughtfully and stroked her chin. "We-eeeeeell... Technically, I've been active since I got my cutie mark, which is when my time loop begins." She lowered her hoof and looked Twilight Sparkle in the eye. "While I can travel back in time, the actual," her face very briefly flashed with anger, "thing that's running the show prohibits me from traveling before that point." She turned her head aside and frowned. "Whether what I do is what they want me to do... I dunno. I like to assume I'm not, because why else would they keep me trapped in a time loop, right?"
After mulling over her answer for a bit, Twilight Sparkle decided to stick with asking her preexisting questions, with the reasoning being that she would likely get more out of them than any based on the potential lies being divulged to her right now. "Are you what you appear to be? How are you able to avoid being detected by Princess Celestia?"
Pinkie Pie perked up upon hearing those questions, and a mischievous glint appeared in her eyes. She proceeded to do a backflip, but she reached a full rotation early, and at that point she slowed down and stopped several feet above the floor. While seemingly standing on nothing, she gazed down at her staring audience and giggled before saying, "You'd be surprised by what a pony can learn when given enough time and motivation."
Twilight Sparkle gasped when she unceremoniously plucked her head off of her body, which she began to roll down one foreleg, then up the other, as she spoke. "You can do stuff like this." She grabbed her head and began to pull and compress it, making silly faces while accordian sounds issued forth from her. "Or this!" Holding her head in one hoof, she used the other to pull out, then haphazardly toss away, one object after another from inside of her mane, some of which couldn't have possibly fit in there. "Or even this!"
A second Pinkie Pie leaned into view from behind a bookcase. "You!" A third popped into view from behind the large hourglass, her crane pose comically distorted. "Can!" A fourth squeezed the upper half of herself out from under the hutch desk. "Even!" A fifth flopped herself over the largest telescope on the balcony. "Pull!" A sixth jammed her head into a space between two books. "Time travel!" A seventh swung down and plastered herself on the outside of the floor-to-ceiling windows, who yelled a muffled, "Shenanigans," before sliding down noisily and disappearing from sight.
Staring at where the last Pinkie Pie had been with wide eyes, Twilight Sparkle didn't notice the other ones going back behind something and vanishing. She didn't notice the sound of the first Pinkie Pie walking either, so she was quite startled when she appeared in her periphery as she walked by from behind, who came to a stop and turned to face her when she was about an equal length away from both her and the windows.
With a grin, Pinkie Pie raised a foreleg high into the air. "And this? Easy-peasy."
She slowly began to lower her foreleg, and as she did so Twilight Sparkle quickly noticed the shifting shadows, followed by the gradual change in the sky's color. Her mouth dropped open in complete shock when she saw the sun through the windows, heading toward the horizon and soon dipping below it, ushering in a very early night. Her wide eyes shot toward Pinkie Pie's other foreleg when she noticed it rising slowly, and with the motion moonlight began to part some of the gloom.
When the moon stopped moving, she used the same foreleg to reach across the distance between her and Twilight Sparkle, who was several foreleg lengths away, and closed her mouth at the same speed as it took Celestia to return the sun to its proper place in the sky. "Just one more thing..."
That was all the warning that Twilight Sparkle got before she saw the events that had just transpired do so again, along with her actions, except in reverse and at a much greater pace. It stopped almost as soon as it started, a second before Pinkie Pie had begun to lower her foreleg and — with it — the sun. She lowered her foreleg again, only this time the sun was unaffected by it.
"Just being kind and sparing the princess the trouble," Pinkie Pie casually explained, with a slightly humorous lilt.
Twilight Sparkle was so overwhelmed by what she had experienced that she could only stare in gobsmacked silence as her hind legs gave out from under her.
Rather than let it end there, Pinkie Pie pronked over to her, sat beside her, threw a foreleg across her withers and conversationally said, "That's just a few of the things I've picked up after three hundred and eleven thousand, seven hundred and sixty-nine loops. To, y'know, stop looping and seek vengeance." Twilight Sparkle turned her head toward her with searching eyes, and because she could read her mind she addressed one of her fore-most thoughts. "Oh, I hadn't remained sane. Or good, for that matter. But I can assure you that stuff is far behind me, 'cause I have complete control over my thoughts and actions now." She regarded Twilight Sparkle with a solemn expression. "And the truest pony I could be was the young filly who saw a sonic rainboom and was inspired to make everypony as happy as she felt at that moment."
She hopped back onto her hooves and walked over to the edge of the second level, near the stairs, and Twilight Sparkle craned her neck to keep an eye on her. "To that end, with all of the terrible fates awaiting us in the near future, as well as farther down the road, I've made it my mission to deny all of them. Sometimes that requires controlling many aspects of certain events, like replacing an old, dilapidated bridge and door, moving rubble, clearing out certain fauna and flora, and making it easier to find the Elements of Harmony, so everypony takes the right actions at the right time and place."
"Anyway," she went on, as she looked over her shoulder, "I think I've given you enough things to think about. I'll remember this and all of your future loops now, so come and see me whenever you feel like it. See ya!"
She proceeded to leap off of the second level and dove into a potted plant, where she inexplicably disappeared.
After a minute of staring into space, Twilight Sparkle allowed her forehooves to slide outward and ease her body onto the floor. She really did have a lot to think about.
Twilight Sparkle lay on the floor for a long while, incapacitated by the dilemma that had her mind working in overdrive.
Despite how real the experience had felt, she still found herself questioning whether what had happened with Pinkie Pie had actually occurred. Had recent events taken such a toll on her that she'd had a psychotic break, leading her to imagine Pinkie Pie appearing in Canterlot and doing the seemingly-impossible, regardless of her being an Earth pony?
She didn't like that idea, and the problem was that she wasn't sure if she liked it any better if that weren't the case. Then she would have to ascertain if anything that Pinkie Pie had said or done was a lie or a trick. Exactly how she would do that for every single statement and feat was beyond her, especially if Pinkie Pie was as powerful as she seemed and didn't cooperate. So, rather than start on the hardest — and possibly impossible — path, she tentatively began to entertain the idea of approaching the problem while under the assumption that Pinkie Pie was being honest.
Which meant: Pinkie Pie was trapped in a time loop that could last for as long as a lifetime; something or someone was preventing her from ending the time loop; she had become extremely powerful trying to escape her time loop and seek vengeance; she had looped over three hundred thousand times; she used her power and knowledge of the future to prevent bad events.
It was a lot to think about, and for a while she didn't know what to do with the information. Eventually, though, after thinking about it multiple times, in addition to everything else, her attention settled on the part about Pinkie Pie wanting to end her time loop. Not only because she wondered what would happen if Pinkie Pie was no longer bound by the time loop, but what would become of her own existence if Pinkie Pie continued to loop, since she was — supposedly — only in her present situation because of something that Pinkie Pie had done during her current loop.
It disturbed her — much like it had Rainbow Dash — to think that she would forget all that she had learned. That, and repeat yet another life in complete ignorance of the powers shaping both lives and history, whether she died before Pinkie Pie or out-lived her. It wasn't something that she had to really worry about for a long time, though, so she focused on whether she should be concerned by Pinkie Pie's time loop ending.
After all, for all that she knew, Pinkie Pie's entrapment in a time loop could act as a sort of prison. Sure, she was supposed to be giving her the benefit of the doubt at the moment, but she had once believed that time travel — of any sort — was impossible, so she had never needed to worry about anyone going into the past and changing it, especially before the moment of her own conception. It just wasn't easy to trust someone with that kind of power.
Still, it would be remiss of her to not even ask about it, so she could base her feelings on something more substantial than her distrust. She didn't expect to have any of her distrust dispelled, but recent shocks and surprises made a good case for having an open mind on the matter. Unfortunately, that meant waiting until the current loop ended to talk to Pinkie Pie: because she didn't feel like leaving the familiarity, quiet and privacy of her residence, which was ideal when she needed to think.
...Or did she have to wait?
Hoping to finish her current train of thought sooner rather than later, while also testing Pinkie Pie's power, she raised her head and queried, "Pinkie Pie?"
"Whatcha need?" Came the immediate reply, as Pinkie Pie's smiling face stuck out from behind a stack of books that had been within view since she had lain down.
Suppressing her curiosity and disbelief, over how she had gotten there without her noticing, in addition to hiding both a head and body that were too big to be concealed by the books, she asked, "After ending your time loop, what do you plan to do?"
Pinkie Pie perked up at the question. "Why, I'd go on the biggest adventure, of course!"
"Which would be...?" Twilight Sparkle prompted.
"Dying!" Pinkie Pie replied without missing a beat, her smile broadening. Upon seeing that Twilight Sparkle was aghast at her answer, she clarified, "Not immediately, silly. I'll live long enough to ensure the world is full of happiness for a reeeeeeeeeeeeally long time, but there isn't really anything else to do, that I haven't already done before, so-oooo..."
While that made enough sense to Twilight Sparkle, for anyone who had lived as long as Pinkie Pie claimed, the blasé attitude toward death was off-putting enough for her to need a few seconds to recover and move on with her questioning. "Have you ever asked anyone to help you escape your time loop?"
"Like, duh," Pinkie Pie replied, with a roll of her eyes, before shifting her head to the top of the book stack and bringing her shoulders into view. Raising her left hoof up to chin level, she rolled it outward and said, "I've asked everyone notable that you know," she repeated the gesture with her right hoof, "and I've asked the ones you don't know." She dropped both hooves before continuing. "Heck, I've asked somepony you know really well but haven't met yet." An idea seemed to occur to her, eliciting a mischievous grin as she folded her forelegs on the book stack, leaned forward and locked eyes with Twilight Sparkle. "I've even asked you for help, when you're a lot more experienced and more powerful than anyone else — aside from myself, that is."
Twilight Sparkle felt uneasy in response to that last statement, due to the idea of having that kind of power, in addition to surpassing Princess Celestia in that regard. Not wanting to get sidetracked, by that or the other things that piqued her curiosity, it took a lot of effort for her to stay the course. "Final question: exactly how did you create your time loop?"
Pinkie Pie's grin faded, replaced by a contemplative expression as she settled her chin on a raised fetlock. "I guess it won't matter if I tell you this time as well," she eventually decided, the lack of enthusiasm in her voice conveying that it would be a waste of her time. After shifting to an upright position, with her hooves resting on the book stack, she said, "See, for my," she made air quotes with her hooves, "'evil', manipulative purposes, I normally tell everyone that I got my cutie mark after throwing my family a party. In reality, I got it right when I saw the sonic rainboom, while wanting to share the joy I was feeling with everyone."
"I know why you asked that," she went on, her gaze level with Twilight Sparkle's. "And I did try to fulfill my desire, once I finally realized that it might be my ticket to ending the time loop." She leaned back and stared up at the ceiling, a faraway look in her eyes. "At first, I spread joy to everyone I knew. When that didn't work, I spread it to everyone I met. Then, when the entirety of Equestria didn't seem to be enough, I spread it to the whole world."
With a sigh, she straightened up and regarded Twilight Sparkle once more. "It didn't matter if I did it one creature at a time or every creature at once, or if the joy they felt was brief or sustained for a hundred years." At Twilight Sparkle's doubtful but concerned expression, in response to the last part, she returned it with a look that said she was better off not knowing the specifics before continuing. "But, no matter what I did, or how I did it, nothing worked." She shook her head, more for show than with any real emotion. "I did like the basic idea, though, so I've been inspiring another pony to spread joy around Equestria while I pursue another solution."
"I see..." Was all that Twilight Sparkle could say, her eyes downcast while she was busy going over all the new information.
Pinkie Pie smiled warmly at the sight. Knowing that she was no longer needed, she plucked a cupcake out of her mane and tossed it to Twilight Sparkle, saying, "Don't think on an empty stomach!"
Twilight Sparkle looked up just in time to see the cupcake inches away from hitting the floor, and had enough time to feel a spike of panic before it landed, right-side up, with nary a bounce and completely undisturbed. She stared at it dumbly for a few seconds, wondering how it could be perfectly fine, before looking toward the stack of books and finding out that Pinkie Pie had vanished.
Looking back down at the cupcake, her stomach chose that time to complain. Feeling a little sheepish, which would have happened even if she hadn't been aware of the possibility of Pinkie Pie hearing it, she considered whether it would be a good idea to eat it or not. It wasn't as if she couldn't make something herself. Plus, it wasn't like she actually needed to eat anything, since each loop started shortly after breakfast.
...It did smell really good, though. She couldn't place what kind of cupcake it was, by either look or smell, so maybe one bite wouldn't hurt, for the sake of solving the mystery. Surely it would be alright to have it in her mouth long enough to taste it, before spitting it out, right?
Realizing what she was doing, she released a frustrated sigh before grasping the cupcake with her magic and muttering, "Might as well test her trustworthiness while I'm at it..."
She brought the enticing cupcake to her mouth and took a bite. Her eyes immediately flew open, then drew closed as she cupped her cheeks, hummed her delight and chewed. It didn't taste like anything she'd ever had before, despite all the food she had access to as both a student of the princess and a resident of Equestria's capital. However, while her tastes were pretty basic and unrefined, she also had enough experience with high-class dining to be pretty sure that what she had in her mouth wasn't a common commodity. Of course, at this point, she wouldn't be surprised if Pinkie Pie had given her something that only someone like Princess Celestia would normally have access to.
Her eyes went wide, and her body stiffened, after she swallowed the contents of her mouth, since that hadn't been a part of the plan. Between the delicious flavor and her occupied thoughts, she had been distracted enough for reflex to take over. Eventually, she breathed out a sigh of defeat before taking another bite out of the cupcake, figuring that she might as well get some benefit out of her mistake and eat the rest. Hopefully she had nothing to worry about, and that she could trust Pinkie Pie a little bit after this.
When she finished eating her new number one treat, she was surprised to feel completely satiated and full of energy. Unable to remain idle, she rose to her hooves and decided to walk over to the windows and continue her ruminations there. Oddly enough, she'd hardly begun before she figured out her course of action: she would try to free Pinkie Pie from her time loop.
Why? Because Pinkie Pie was aware of what she was doing, and if she was as powerful as she seemed then she could prevent her from discovering if she were actually bad or not, as well as stop her from attaining the ability to deal with her. So, instead of wasting who knows how much time and effort in that pursuit, or in becoming stronger than Pinkie Pie and finding out she was innocent all along, she would try to free her. If Pinkie Pie was telling the truth about the circumstances of her time loop's creation, and what she did to fulfill her desire, along with everything else she'd been told, she had a good idea as to what she needed to do. And if her solution didn't work, that would probably mean that she had been lied to and Pinkie Pie would remain trapped in a time loop — perhaps as she deserved.
It was surprising how easy it was to figure out. She supposed that all she had needed was more information.
After spending the rest of the last loop mentally preparing herself for the task ahead, Twilight Sparkle began the next by rolling onto her hooves with purpose, determined to succeed. The challenge wasn't just in being earnest about her objective, but being unwavering in her commitment to it. Because if Pinkie Pie was truly a victim, it could make all of the difference.
Upon seeing the pony in question approaching, she maintained her attention on her as she offhandedly told Spike, "Spike, I'm going to check out our accommodations. You can relax and have fun until I'm ready to oversee the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration."
While Spike expressed his confusion and tried to see past the after images, in order to find out what she was doing, she proceeded to walk toward Pinkie Pie. As she walked by her, she evenly said, "Follow me, please."
"Okie-dokie!" Pinkie Pie readily obliged, who simply turned about and picked up the pace until she was trotting beside Twilight Sparkle.
"I've decided to give you the benefit of the doubt," Twilight Sparkle began conversationally, gaze still ahead. "And I might have found a way to free you from your time loop."
"I doubt it," came the upbeat reply. "Ambrosia's pretty good, but it can't work miracles."
Twilight Sparkle looked askance with a slightly furrowed brow. "Ambrosia?"
"It's just a little thing another you engineered," Pinkie Pie casually answered. "It greatly enhances the consumer's mental capabilities for a couple of hours, and you designed it to have the perfect flavor profile for your palate."
"The cupcake?" Twilight Sparkle deduced.
"Mm-hm!" Pinkie Pie confirmed.
Twilight Sparkle was very tempted to get more details, about how to make Ambrosia in particular, but she restrained herself and returned her gaze to the fore. She had something more important to concern herself with, and couldn't afford to be distracted. Hopefully she would have the opportunity to bring the subject up again in the future.
A short time later, not long after the Golden Oaks library came into view, she noticed Rainbow Dash practicing her stunts. She couldn't help watching her, the pony who helped her realize the value of friendship. If not for simply being present, and being different in ways that she would have thought unimportant in the past, she wouldn't have seen more of the world open up and expand her horizons — starting with a pair of bookshelves that hid a secret room.
Of course, it was impossible to not think about the sonic rainboom, too. Until the princess had given it a name and described what it was, she'd never known about it. Now she knew that Rainbow Dash had done it the loop before last, and another time before that, which had played a pivotal role in how she, and five other ponies, had gotten their cutie marks. The fact that she had never encountered something like the sonic rainboom in a book, which seemed rare but hard to miss, was bizarre, and what made it even more so was how it hadn't drawn anyone's attention. With Rainbow Dash's interest in becoming a Wonderbolt especially, she would have expected her to be recruited and in the reserves by now, if not a regular member of the squad.
"That's because I did some meddling!" Pinkie Pie suddenly proclaimed, sounding triumphant.
After recovering from being startled, Twilight Sparkle swiftly gave her a dirty look and demanded, "Could you please respect the privacy of my thoughts?"
"Sorry," Pinkie Pie sheepishly replied, as she rubbed the back of her head. "Force of habit."
Once her anger passed, Twilight Sparkle's curiosity prompted her to ask, "Why did you 'meddle' with that?"
Pinkie Pie's expression darkened. "To save her from a terrible fate."
"...A terrible fate?" Twilight Sparkle echoed after hesitating, her worry for Rainbow Dash trumping any worry that she had over what she might learn.
After replying with a single, deliberate nod, with all cheer and lightheartedness absent, Pinkie Pie steadily said, "She becomes a marvel, then a celebrity in quick succession. For a short while she is able to repeat the sonic rainboom, until her ego swelled to an incredible size and pushed her heart aside, into the wrong place. Her insecurities came roaring back with this development, but for a while she is able to make excuses as to why she wouldn't perform a sonic rainboom, and is able to rest on her laurels."
"And during that time," she continued, voice and demeanor unchanging, and Twilight Sparkle morbidly rapt, "there were many ponies cozying up to her, with both mean-spirited and selfish desires. They tried to manipulate her, use her, and groom her to fit into their vision of the future. From this she eventually lost trust in everyone, becoming extremely cynical and unhappy. But that was nothing compared to what happened when she was old enough for the Wonderbolts to put her on the fast track to joining their ranks, with the expectation that she would add the sonic rainboom to their repertoire. She would fail to do it, no matter how much she desperately tried, until they ran out of patience and confront her about it."
"What happened?" Twilight Sparkle found herself asking in a quiet tone, without thought.
"I'd rather not say," Pinkie Pie simply stated. "Just trust me that things are much better this way."
With that said, her expression brightened and she proceeded to pronk ahead with renewed liveliness, toward the Golden Oaks library. Twilight Sparkle watched her go, maintaining her pace while she wondered about the amount of ponies Pinkie Pie had to manipulate in order to prevent the scenario that she had just described, and how she had accomplished it.
After a brief shake of her head, and reminding herself to tackle one issue at a time, she refocused on the conversation that was fast approaching as she followed Pinkie Pie into the library. When she closed the door behind her, she found Pinkie Pie standing in the center of the room, looking at her expectantly without showing any hint that she was being humored.
She took a calming breath before walking forward, until she was in the room proper. "I knew I would have my work cut out for me, if all you said was true: because, in addition to not having the magic prowess of Princess Celestia, I also had to approach the problem like somepony else, to avoid the failures another me would make. So... I took inspiration from a pony I recently met and looked for a solution that didn't require power and wasn't complicated."
"Oh?" Pinkie Pie replied, head cocked inquisitively. "Well, I'm not reading your mind, so maybe you'll actually surprise me."
Twilight Sparkle made a silent prayer before asking, "Are you happy?"
Pinkie Pie blinked her eyes owlishly. "Of course I'm happy. Why do you ask?"
"Because you said you tried to make everyone happy to end your time loop," Twilight Sparkle explained. "What if that included you, too?"
Chuckling with amusement, Pinkie Pie replied, "What makes you think I'm not happy?" She smiled broadly and pointed at her face. "Does this look like the face of an unhappy pony?"
Belatedly, Twilight Sparkle uncertainly answered, "I guess not?"
"You don't sound too sure," Pinkie Pie teasingly noted.
She proceeded to pull a hand mirror out of her mane and held its reflective surface in front of her face, but kept her attention on Twilight Sparkle as she confidently said, "Well, I just happen to be an expert on smiles," she switched her gaze to her reflection, "and this smile is..." Her pupils suddenly shrank and quivered. "This smile..."
"No," she whispered, which she repeated, and said louder, each time she tried another smile and looked from another angle. Eventually, she dropped onto her haunches, grasped the mirror tightly in both of her trembling hooves and stared, no longer trying to smile, her mane and tail straight and limp, and the color of her coat and hair dull. In disbelief, she quietly said, "I... When?" A few seconds later, she added, "How...?"
Taking a cautious step forward, Twilight Sparkle worriedly asked, "Are you alright?"
Dropping the mirror, Pinkie Pie tilted her head back and chuckled humorlessly, her eyes askew. "Nope! Never have been! Apparently I bought into my own act at some point!"
Her eyes closed before her whole body twinged, and Twilight Sparkle felt an indescribable change in the air, which raised her hackles. She watched Pinkie Pie nervously, not knowing what to expect after seeing her look so... deranged. Just as she began to consider if she should take her leave, she saw Pinkie Pie's diaphragm rhythmically spasm, accompanied by light snorts with each resulting exhale, as if she were laughing or crying — she couldn't tell which.
Pinkie Pie reopened her eyes when the spasms ceased, revealing that they were relatively dry and clear of redness as they properly focused on Twilight Sparkle. "Last time I asked, it was rhetorical," she began, with only a hint of emotion in her voice, "but now I actually want to know: what made you think I might not be happy?"
"Well..." Twilight Sparkle temporized, who felt uneasy under her gaze, which made it a little difficult for her to recall her reasoning. "I couldn't imagine being happy if I were in the position you claimed to be in. You also said that you had complete control over yourself, and that seemed to suggest that a lot of acting would be involved."
After staring for a bit, Pinkie Pie simultaneously released a sigh and slouched, which was quickly followed by her lowering her gaze and hanging her head. Softly, she said, "Pretty much. I had been traumatized even before my first reset. Once I was strong enough to overcome every single villain, I thought all I had to do was act like the pony I wanted to become, but..." She paused and clenched her eyes shut, as she tried to suppress the emotions that were welling up inside of her. "To be honest, I don't think I can be happy."
"Then don't think it," Twilight Sparkle said in a rush, completely out of her depth but knowing she had to say something. "We have time on our side, so it has to be possible."
Pinkie Pie raised her head and regarded her with a raised eyebrow. "'We?'"
Nodding her head resolutely, Twilight Sparkle firmly said, "I'm going to help."
Looking deathly serious, Pinkie Pie replied, "I don't need to read your mind to tell that you're reluctant to do that. Not just for me, but what that would entail for you."
"It doesn't matter," Twilight Sparkle stubbornly retorted, privately embarrassed that she had failed to hide her true feelings so easily. "I wasn't sure if I could deal with Nightmare Moon by myself, but I was still willing to try."
Pinkie Pie rose to all four hooves, her expression unchanged. "You can only say that because you don't fully understand what you're asking for."
Twilight Sparkle forced herself to remain calm and unwavering in the face of Pinkie Pie's demeanor, and spoke when she was sure her voice wouldn't reveal her disquiet. "Maybe it's for the best that I don't know."
Keeping her eyes trained on Twilight Sparkle's, Pinkie Pie approached her with deliberate steps. Twilight Sparkle's ears folded back, but she stood firm, even as Pinkie Pie entered her personal space and slowly leaned her face into her own, save for pulling her head back a bit at first. Pinkie Pie didn't stop until their foreheads and noses were touching, and their eyes dominated their field of vision.
Pinkie Pie quietly said, "I've already seen exactly what can happen to you when you focus on the same problem for several years without success, both in and out of a time loop, and the ultimate failure and guilt afterward isn't pretty either." She paused before continuing, the pleading tone in her voice reaching her eyes. "So, please, just move on. I don't want to see you go through something like that again, much less anything that comes anywhere near to what I've experienced."
She drew her head away and took a step back before levelly concluding, "It's my problem, and I've been dealing with it alone for a really long time, so don't worry about it. Like you said, time is on my side, so I'm sure I'll find a way to become happy one of these loops."
It was at that moment that Twilight Sparkle had an epiphany: Pinkie Pie was lonely. Not just from the natural consequences of her circumstances, but because she also pushed away those she cared about, so they didn't experience the same circumstances or burden themselves with a seemingly-impossible task. If not for the concern that was just expressed for her welfare, being told that she was important to her before, and the potential solution to her dilemma being refocused to her happiness, she wouldn't have figured out what the key issue was.
Upon seeing Twilight Sparkle's eyes widen, and pupils dilate, Pinkie Pie's ears drooped. Tiredly, she said, "I know that look..."
Twilight Sparkle ignored Pinkie Pie's remark and adamantly demanded, "Make it so my time loop begins and ends when yours does."
Her brazenness appeared to catch Pinkie Pie by surprise, but she was still able to quickly reply with, "Not gonna happen."
Frowning, Twilight Sparkle stubbornly replied, "I'm not trying to solve the same problem as my other selves. I was told to make friends, and I'm officially going to start with you."
"We're technically friends already," Pinkie Pie lightly responded, waving the idea aside with a hoof, "so there'd be no point."
Twilight Sparkle narrowed her eyes. "That's not true and you know it."
Pinkie Pie uncaringly shrugged her shoulders. "Doesn't matter. I'm not doing it."
Glaring at the uncooperative pony before her, Twilight Sparkle wrestled with her aggravation and subdued it before she felt composed enough to respond. With her voice soft and entreating, and eyes imploring, she said, "Pinkie Pie... 'A friend in need is a friend indeed.' Even I know that. If you truly consider me a friend, then allow me to help you."
Rearing back her head, as if slapped, Pinkie Pie angrily replied, "What do you think I'm trying to do for you?"
"This has nothing to do with me," Twilight Sparkle growled, her aggravation reignited. "You're the one who will have to live with the consequences of your actions. Whether you technically kill me now, or allow me to die naturally outside of a loop, I'll lose my memories of these experiences and carry on in ignorance within your loop, burden-free."
"And if you're wrong, what then?" She continued her offensive when Pinkie Pie didn't immediately respond, although more calmly. "You'll manipulate me so I'll approach you like this again? Will you be able to truly feel happy that way, knowing it's not sincere? Knowing that you rejected this me?"
She paused before tenderly finishing with, "But, more importantly, can you be happy when you're lonely?"
Pinkie Pie stared for a solid minute, her expression unreadable. Then her face fell, along with her ears, and she spoke quietly. "You'll have to lie and manipulate others, like me. Are you really okay with that? Like, really really?"
Twilight Sparkle hesitated before nodding her head once. While she did have unresolved issues about doing those things, a recent comment, made by the princess, offered some peace of mind. "All the world's a stage, right?"
"You'll—" Pinkie Pie's breath hitched, and her body began to tremor almost imperceptibly. "You'll have to be precise in what you say and do, and time them perfectly, because I'll rewind time and make you repeat yourself if you don't."
It took Twilight Sparkle even longer to nod her head this time. She could only hope that everything Pinkie Pie had said was true, regarding her being a victim and fighting against evildoers, so that particular ordeal would be worth it.
Pinkie Pie's bottom lip began to quiver, and her eyes moistened with unshed tears. Slowly, her hair began to recover its vitality, while both her hair and coat gradually regained their natural colors. "You're not going to like some of the things you're going to learn, and you'll have to trust me with a number of things that I'll insist you do, so... Are you sure?"
Seeing the transformation happening before her, along with Pinkie Pie's emotional state becoming more apparent, Twilight Sparkle couldn't help feeling the sting of tears herself. "I can't ignore a pony in need when they're right in front of me."
Pinkie Pie sniffled and wiped at her eyes. "No, you can't," she hiccuped, "can you?"
She paused when a growing warmth began to suffuse her flanks, so she directed her attention to one of her cutie marks, which had not only begun to glow but was becoming increasingly brighter as she watched. Comprehending what that must mean, a genuine smile blossomed for the first time in thousands of years, and she began to cry in earnest.
Before they were both completely enveloped in light, she turned to regard Twilight Sparkle, whose eyes were wide with shock and realization after turning away from one of her own flanks and seeing that she wasn't the only one experiencing this phenomenon, and wholeheartedly declared, "Twilight, you're the best friend a pony could—"
Then the world was washed away by the light.
When the white void retreated, Twilight Sparkle found herself in a familiar position: on her back and looking down at the sky. Confused, she rose to her hooves and looked around. What she quickly discovered was that nothing was moving, and no sound was being produced beyond herself. That is, until her ears picked up the sound of footfalls in the distance, which grew louder as they drew closer.
It didn't take her long to discover the source, when she caught sight of Pinkie Pie approaching her as she usually did. Uncertain as to what to expect, she turned to face her and waited for her to arrive. When she did, and proceeded to stand in front of her with an unassuming stare, she found it too awkward to remain silent.
However, when she opened her mouth to speak, Pinkie Pie dove forward and hugged the breath out of her. "I can't thank you enough for what you did," she said, voice laden with emotion. "I'm still having trouble believing that this is even real."
Once Twilight Sparkle had recovered enough to speak, she smiled warmly and returned the hug. "I'm just glad that I was able to help."
When it became clear that the hug was lasting longer than expected, all things considered, she cleared her throat and awkwardly inquired, "So, uh, what now?"
Pinkie Pie hastily disengaged and was just as quick to say something to divert attention away from what she just did, her voice raised louder than it needed to be. "Oh! Right! I guess now is as good a time as any to clean up your first mess!"
Confused, Twilight Sparkle asked, "Mess? What mess?"
Pointing toward the frozen scene nearby, Pinkie Pie affected irritation as she said, "All of these ponies are going to wait while they recover their eyesight, or get into accidents, and that's going to cause several problems down the line." Her expression lightened. "To fix it, all you have to do is go back to when you were still riding the chariot to Ponyville, make it clear that your focus is on Nightmare Moon instead of making friends, and don't be spontaneous and feel like blinding everypony anyway."
Twilight Sparkle regarded her with a half-lidded stare before releasing a sigh of resignation and saying, "Well, let's get this over with."
"That's the spirit!" Pinkie Pie cheered. "I would have been concerned if you were excited to do this."
Twilight Sparkle only had enough time to shake her head once before Pinkie Pie sidled up beside her, threw a foreleg over her withers, and sent them into the past.
Rainbow Dash kept her eyes clenched shut while she flew across the night sky with all of her might.
She wasn't running away. At least, she didn't believe that was what she was doing. Sure, she didn't want anyone to see how afraid she was, but that wasn't the only reason for her flight. She didn't have unicorn magic, or know any of that egghead stuff about time travel, so she fought against the fate that awaited her in the only way that she knew how. Ordinary flight wasn't going to accomplish anything, however, so her goal was to break the sound barrier.
She wasn't sure if that would help her, but she was desperate and grasping at anything that seemed even remotely useful. And what the situation had brought to mind was how time seemed to slow down more as she flew faster. Granted, the effect was usually so minor that it had taken her years to notice that it happened, outside of breaking the sound barrier, but that wasn't important. What mattered was that she didn't know if there was a limit to how much she could slow down time, which meant that there was a chance, however slim, that time could move in the opposite direction.
The thought that accomplishing such a feat could be prevented by how fast she could fly, or how much stamina she had, never crossed her mind. What drove her was primal, irrational, and there was no room for self-doubt. She just assumed that time could be slowed, what she feared involved the progress of time, and she was the only pony — that she was aware of — who could break the sound barrier.
She vividly remembered when she broke the sound barrier, despite having only done it once in her youth and — for whatever reason — never trying to do it again. The resistance was familiar, but she overcame it much sooner than she expected. She felt and heard the sonic rainboom an instant later, and then... nothing. Not only couldn't she hear anything at all, but it felt as if both the wind and gravity had completely vanished as well.
Such a disturbing development was enough to snap her out of her single-minded endeavor. When she opened her eyes, she was shocked to see an endless expanse of white instead of a night sky and a land bathed in moonlight. It was the same shade of white in every direction she looked, and she couldn't tell if it was light or a barrier, nor able to judge the distance between whatever-it-was that she was looking at and herself. Bewildered as she was by this, she stopped flapping her wings without meaning to, briefly panicked when she realized what she had done, then calmed down after she felt her hooves soundlessly settle upon an unyielding surface that perfectly blended in with the rest of the environment.
"What the heck is this?" She wondered aloud, doing her best to not panic while she looked around warily. "What's going on?"
"Whoa!" She yelped a second later, as she hopped away from a red-colored... thing that began to fade into existence in front of her.
Said red-colored thing turned out to be a mane, once it became fully realized. It belonged to a head, too, but it was the same color as their surroundings, apart from a pair of eyelashes, so she had no idea if it was connected to a body or not. She could tell that it was the head of a pony, though, because a horn divided most of what she could see of the mane, and she could make out the familiar presence of ears despite being much less conspicuous than the horn.
When the eyelids lifted, a pair of blue eyes settled upon her before their owner said, "Greetings, Rainbow Dash."
"Who're you?" Rainbow Dash demanded. "And where is this?"
She slowly and cautiously moved to the side so she could get a better view of who she was dealing with. The new angle provided her a view of a red tail, its location confirming that the other pony was at least twice as tall as she was, and she quickly identified the familiar shape of a wing obstructing some of it. Her keen eyes also saw a cutie mark, of a quill and inkwell, but she was far too preoccupied by the fact that she was in the presence of an unknown alicorn to even begin to consider its potential meaning.
"I am Foster," said pony serenely replied, "and this is a place where we can both exist and interact within the same space."
Rainbow Dash tore her attention away from the fact that "Foster" was an alicorn and kept her guard up as she accusingly deduced, "So you brought me here?" She received a single nod in reply. "Why?"
"Because you were in distress," Foster answered matter-of-factly. "I am here to reassure you that I can return you, with the memories of your experience in the time loop intact."
"Really!?" Rainbow Dash excitedly blurted, before shaking her head and staring at Foster with suspicion. "Why should I trust you?"
Foster smiled wanly. "You shouldn't. But my offer stands."
Frowning, Rainbow Dash thought about it. Between her impatience and the intolerable environment, however, it wasn't long before she decided to seek something more encouraging amid so many unknowns. "Okay, before I decide, I want to know why nopony knows about you. What do you do, anyway?"
Inclining her head obligingly, Foster said, "Nopony knows about me because I can't exist in your dimension." Seeing the question coming, she added, "Think of it in terms of density: if your dimension is water, and mine is oil, I can't enter the water because I am not dense enough."
"...I see," Rainbow Dash replied, despite clearly being uncertain about how well she understood it.
"As for what I do..." Foster continued, who shifted her stance and gave Rainbow Dash a better view of her cutie mark before gesturing toward it with a glance. "I'm a writer."
It was with much disbelief that Rainbow Dash flatly replied, "You're a writer."
"Mm-hm," Foster affirmed.
Unable to wrap her mind around an alicorn having a talent for something as mundane as writing, since she couldn't think of another way of interpreting a cutie mark with a quill and inkwell, Rainbow Dash released a frustrated sigh and said, "Whatever. I guess I'll trust you."
"Very well," Foster acknowledged, before gesturing for Rainbow Dash to approach her. Once the pegasus was standing in front of her, she warned, "Moving between dimensions can be disorienting, so I recommend closing your eyes."
Rainbow Dash looked up at her with mistrust as a rainbow-colored aura enveloped her horn, but she ultimately opted to heed her advice because she was completely out of her depth, wasn't keen on staying in a white void, and just wanted to find a cloud to take a nice, long nap on after everything that she had been through mentally.
Foster lowered her horn and touched its tip to Rainbow Dash's forehead. The pegasus quickly turned into a small orb of rainbow light before fading away. When it was gone, she closed her eyes and shed a tear.
While she had been true to her word, Rainbow Dash hadn't paid particular attention to what she had said and had made assumptions, exactly as she had expected her to do. After all, saying that she could return her didn't mean that she would, or in what state. Nor had she specified when her memory of events would return, so she could safely give them back when such knowledge wouldn't derail the future that she had been cultivating for ages.
She hadn't needed to spirit Rainbow Dash away, but she had wanted to indulge herself just once before her own story ended, and personally offer a pony some mercy for the first time since she had become an alicorn and ascended to a higher plane of existence. She wished that she could have given her a hug, but she knew that would have made her uncomfortable, which would have defeated the purpose of easing her mind before effectively terminating her.
Upon opening her eyes, she focused her attention on a certain time in the third dimension before wielding her magic to dismiss the barrier that prevented unwanted visitors from entering the pocket dimension. Unsurprisingly, she saw Pinkie Pie enter a few seconds later, since her vigil over the pocket dimension was constant. She was in her twilight years, but as she marched up to her with a steely-gazed determination, the white of her hair washed away from root to tip, the wrinkles retreated, and her steps became more steady as the ravages of time reversed themselves.
When Pinkie Pie stood before her, she was completely rejuvenated and staring up at her quite intensely. In response, she simply closed her eyes and bowed her head, making it clear that her fate was in her hooves. After all, of all of the ponies that she had manipulated over the course of many millennia, Pinkie Pie had been the most abused by far, and thus deserved whatever justice she desired to mete out.
She shouldn't have been shocked when Pinkie Pie hugged her, because of how well she knew her, but that's how she felt as her eyes flew open, so she could look down and confirm the reality of it. She had convinced herself, regardless of how well-intentioned her actions had been, that even Pinkie Pie wouldn't forgive her. She thought that Pinkie Pie would understand how terrible she was, because she'd had to do the same thing for what she believed in as well.
"Ah," she silently realized, before briefly closing her eyes and lightly shaking her head. "It's exactly because we're so similar, isn't it?"
When Pinkie Pie drew away, she looked up at her and evenly said, "You know why I chose the path that I did. Why did you choose yours?"
That was more than a fair question, so Foster turned her head aside while indicating that Pinkie Pie should look in the same direction. When she did, a misty-looking display screen appeared a short distance away, its oval frame hazy and gently oscillating. In short order, a vision of the distant past appeared, showing an overhead view of a pony settlement. There were a couple of adobe buildings, but most dwellings consisted of poles and animal hide, suggesting that these ponies were nomadic but regularly returned to that location.
"To give you some context," Foster calmly began, "by this time ponies have been fighting horses for a very long time, because their land was verdant and abundant beyond compare — especially in comparison to the steppes and desert where they lived. They've long since forgotten that their ancestors were horses who had been driven out of their lands, after they had failed to usurp the reins of leadership."
The perspective being displayed began to steadily draw closer to the settlement, focusing on one of the portable dwellings in particular. It soon entered that dwelling's interior, revealing a dozen young ponies raptly listening to a mare as she spoke to them. The mare in question bore a strong resemblance to Foster, save that she wasn't an alicorn, looked middle-aged and half as tall, and didn't have a cutie mark.
"As you can no doubt imagine," she continued, "it was common for ponies to be orphaned. I was one such orphan. I also lost my husband, and later my only child, to our war with the horses."
The orphans got up and raced to go outside, leaving Foster alone. The perspective moved to maintain a view of her face as she turned away from the entrance, as her grief pushed aside the facade that had been used for the sake of the children.
"Despite the pain and sorrow that many of us suffered, I was among a small minority who were willing to settle for the lands far in the west, so we could experience peace. Unfortunately, our leader, who was quite charismatic, was dead-set on taking the horse's land, and had little trouble revitalizing the chauvinism that was deeply-rooted in our culture. And that's relevant because our penchant for discord attracted the attention of a certain spirit of chaos when he happened upon us."
The display screen switched to a view of a battle between the ponies and horses. After a few seconds, the focus shifted to a hill in the distance, which overlooked the battle, before the perspective suddenly moved there in a blink. The aforementioned spirit of chaos, Discord, was there, sitting in a cinema chair. He was watching the battle with interest, slurping up film strips from a popcorn tub with a pair of chopsticks.
When the battle ended, with the ponies retreating, Discord looked thoughtful for a moment before making a big show out of having an idea. The scene changed, and now Discord appeared to be somewhere in the steppes, near a well-trodden path. He snapped with his feline digits and an object appeared in the air, a plasma globe set on top of a thumper from Dune, which he drove into the ground before activating it. After rubbing his hands gleefully, he disappeared.
The view flickered, and now there were ponies cautiously standing around the object, with most staying with their supplies on the opposite side of the trail. By now their fear and awe had subsided, and one pony was ordered to approach it. They did, reluctantly, until they were within reach of it. When nothing happened, they were compelled to touch it, and hesitated long enough to be yelled at before complying.
There was a flash of light, which caused a panic, but some realized that nothing else had happened and eventually calmed everyone down. They soon discovered that the expendable pony appeared fine, except now they had a pair of wings on their back. After some experimentation with their wings, and discovering that they could fly, the new pegasus inspired others to touch the object, and before long there were more pegasi, along with unicorns and earth ponies.
"With that device funneling raw Earth, Heaven and Aether magic from nature, keeping them separate but together, Discord was able to infuse ponies with them at random. No doubt he had hoped for physical transformations that were more extreme, but it wouldn't be long before their chauvinism more than made up for the disappointment."
While Foster continued to speak, the scene began to regularly change every couple of seconds, showing the beginning of the hostilities between the three types of ponies and how it worsened over time.
"At first, ponies used their new abilities to make inroads into the horse's territory and gain a foothold there. However, they didn't accomplish much more than that because they began to turn on each other. As they discovered more of what they were capable of, they wanted to prove which race was superior, which one was actually destined to rule. It wasn't long before the three tribes were established, and the rifts created between friends and family caused even more pain and suffering. Discord was over the moon at this development."
While the display showed Discord enjoying himself immensely, as he watched the ponies fighting one another, Pinkie Pie couldn't help speaking up to confirm what she suspected. "So it wasn't by chance that Discord took over Equestria shortly after the three tribes united?"
Foster nodded her head while she paused the scene with Discord. "That's correct. He had lost interest and turned his attention elsewhere when it had seemed likely that the windigos would be the end of the ponies. When he checked back up on them, he was quite surprised and upset to find them united and getting along."
The display resumed by showing the actions of the ponies, now focusing on the development of their abilities and their pursuit to one-up each other.
The earth ponies tamed the land, proliferating enough food to feed all ponies several times over, and created immense earthen fortifications and cave systems. A fraction of them became so in-tune with the minerals that they worked with that their bodies crystallized, and those ponies opted to find a new home in the west, so they could strengthen their number in peace before becoming contenders.
The pegasi relished the seemingly-limitless expanse of the sky, and many regularly went out to hitherto unexplored and unheard of parts of the world before coming back with what they had learned. This included their observations of other civilizations, particularly the tactics and technology of their armed forces, which they adopted and modified to suit their spacial freedom and agility. They also learned to manipulate the weather, creating storms that they'd never seen on the steppes before, and built a massive kingdom in the sky that was completely made out of clouds.
The unicorns mastered levitation and illumination, as well as projecting magic beams and shots from their horns, which alone were versatile enough to have many applications. They discovered teleportation and shields by accident, in the face of danger and fear, which opened the door to more experimentation and led to the development of basic spells. Eventually, though, they desired to illustrate that their supremacy was unquestionable, and that resulted in many unicorns combining their levitation magic to move the moon and sun.
"That had been quite the fiasco," Foster commented, lightly shaking her head. "The one good thing that Discord had done, in those days, was rein in the sun and moon so they didn't drift away. He couldn't restore order, of course, so he set up a geocentric system that required manual labor to simulate the old one and left the burden on the unicorns."
"Now, with all that in mind..."
The display screen showed where Discord's device was, only now a large fortress had been built around it. The view switched to the room where it resided, in the innermost area of the fortress. Foster was there, being forcefully escorted to the device by unicorns. She looked noticeably older from before, and her haggard appearance made her appear even more so. With a final push, she stumbled toward the device and stopped just short of touching it, but she looked resigned rather than relieved.
"With so many of the unicorns preoccupied with moving the sun and moon," she began to explain, "taxing them every day and night, their campaign against the other tribes began to falter, and they felt vulnerable. So, they took control of Discord's device and forced the ponies who had not been transformed by it to touch it."
"About a fourth of all ponies remained unchanged at the time," she continued, "for one reason or another. As for myself? I had been hesitant at first, but after what had eventually happened to my friends and family because of the changes, I had been keen to live out the rest of my miserable life as I was."
The display showed Foster's past self being shot in the flank with unicorn magic, inflicting a severe burn there, which made her cry out in pain and collapse.
"And with the unicorns in control of Discord's device," she dispassionately went on, "there was a two-in-three chance that I would die after touching it, to ensure only their ranks would grow. By that time, I began to prefer any result except a unicorn, but..."
When her past self finished crying, she looked up at the device with her eyes ablaze with hatred.
"...Something snapped inside of me. I'd suffered and lost so much. I thought, if I was likely to die anyway, then I might as well do something constructive and try to destroy the object that had caused ponies to turn against each other."
Her past self stood up and seemed ready to pounce, but then hesitated, eyes clenched shut and teeth grit. A threat was shouted at her by the unicorn who had shot her.
"However, at the last second, I wrested control back. That wasn't me. I couldn't be like them, being guided by hate and resorting to violence. Destroying that device, even if it would do some good, wouldn't change the past or reunite the ponies. So..."
After taking a deep breath, her past self steeled herself before leaping upon the globe and hugging it with all of her extremities. A flash of light immediately followed, which flooded the entire display screen before it was dismissed.
"I had wished," she softly said, still staring at where the display screen had been, "with all of my heart, to have the power necessary to save ponykind from itself. An unknown entity, who either couldn't make themselves known to me or chose not to, heard it and transformed me into what I now am."
She turned to regard Pinkie Pie, who was already staring at her impassively. "To make a long story short, I couldn't make any changes to the past that would alter the circumstances leading to my ascension, so I used the magic that was released by the destruction of Discord's device to transform the rest of the population and brand everypony with it, in order to have the influence needed to cultivate the future that I desired for ponykind. And with the prescience afforded to me, I could compose the strangest of circumstances, and the unlikeliest of outcomes, to make it possible."
Pinkie Pie nodded her head, then turned away and stared at the white void, with Foster following suit. They stood in silence for a while, until Pinkie Pie lightly chuckled and said, "This is a pretty boring ending, isn't it?"
"Mm," Foster voiced her agreement.
They shared another moment of silence before Foster looked over at Pinkie Pie and evenly stated, "It's time for me to rest. I wish you the best in the hereafter."
Pinkie Pie turned to face Foster and solemnly replied, "I wish you the same."
Foster closed her eyes, whereupon her body began to coruscate with all of the colors of the rainbow. Said colors broke away into individual motes and drifted upward for a few seconds before fading away. Soon, all that remained was her cutie mark, which didn't fall despite the disappearance of its owner.
After regarding the cutie mark for a moment, Pinkie Pie turned about and walked away, discarding her youthful appearance as she gradually vanished. Before she was completely gone, a faint smile graced her lips, inspired by the thought of having gotten closure before lowering the curtain on her own life.
