> Astra (Story 1/9)
>  by Spikey_Wikey
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 2: A New Land
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 2: A New Land


Clover woke slowly from her sleep as the morning sun shined through the window.  Today was the day she was supposed to meet with Princess Platinum.  As she sat up, she began remembering what had happened over the past few days of her life.  The first memory was of the funeral.  It had been a small one, and very informal, but it was all Clover could manage.  She didn’t really know anypony else.  Her parents had died when she was young, and somepony had taken her in to look after her, and that was how she had met Starswirl.  One day, Clover had been playing in the forest and had gotten lost.  For hours she had tried finding her way out, but when she couldn’t she got really upset.  In a panic, she began firing a bunch of spells in all directions, until she was suddenly standing in front of her door.  She had no idea how she had gotten there, but noted that a strange mark had appeared on her flank.  Not sure what to think, she went inside her house to find her guardian talking to a pony, who called himself Starswirl.  He noticed the mark she had and almost immediately offered to teach her any magic he knew.  She accepted of course, and over the years the two became very close friends.  Now only she attended the funeral, and after a short eulogy and many wordless tears, he had been properly buried next to his house, and Clover vowed to fulfill every last one of his wishes.

The few days after that had been spent planning for her meeting with Princess Platinum.  Apparently, the Princess’s father had died a few years ago, but she loved her title so much she had decided to keep it.  Clover had done as much research as she could, and during breaks she would work on moving all her books to Starswirl’s house.  She had taken a liking to it ever since his passing and found it to be very cozy and comforting.  The next thing she did was remove the books on time travel from the closet.  These she shrunk down to a smaller size and placed in a glass jar, which always sat on the counter.  It was much easier to keep track of them there since she spent most of her time reading in the kitchen.

Clover stood up and stretched as she remembered the letter she had found.  Something about it had been bothering her.  It was almost as if Starswirl knew exactly what was going to happen that night, even though he hadn’t used a spell to find out, but what concerned Clover the most was a particular sentence in the letter.  She recalled it now and said it out loud to herself.

'I can’t remember all the details as to why, so I’ll explain later.'

She had thought about it over and over, but could not make sense of this statement.  He had written that letter before she went to see him, but the letter was meant to be read after he had died.  How could he explain anything now that he was dead?  She even tried looking through his books for some answers, but came up with nothing, though the book with the Windigoes in it did hold some mystery as well.  There was hardly any writing in it, and a majority of the pages that were sticking out were notes, as though they were supposed to go into the book, but never made it.  Some of the pages, however, had some interesting drawings.

Clover began to remember these as well, and she wondered even more just what Starswirl had seen when he went forward in time.  The creatures depicted were very strange.  One was a large-looking animal with wings and very sharp teeth.  It had claws and its skin was made up of scales.  Its mouth was open wide, and it seemed as though fire was coming out of it.  Another drawing depicted a pony with holes in its legs and paper thin wings.  It had small fangs and its tail was short and mangled.  Clover couldn’t imagine all the horrors that Starswirl had seen, but perhaps these awful looking creatures were the reason Clover had to do all these tasks, aside from the Windigoes.

Clover made her way out of her room and went down the stairs.  Normally, she would have started making breakfast, but she was a little nervous this morning.  After all, this was where it all had to start.  Everything Starswirl had told her about began with her becoming Princess Platinum’s assistant.  She wasn’t sure how everything would turn out, or if her life would be the same, but that didn’t matter.  She had made a promise, and she was going to keep it.

Deciding that it would be best to just leave, she carefully placed the jar containing the time travel books inside her saddle bag and put it over her back.  She glanced out the window.  It had begun to snow.  Clover was used to these sudden changes in weather.  They had begun happening two days after the funeral.  Clover put her cloak on, making sure her hood was secure before walking outside and closing the door behind her.

The fact that it was snowing in the middle of summer did little to lessen the tensions between the three pony tribes.  If anything, it only made it worse.  The earth ponies blamed the pegasi for the weather, the pegasi blamed the earth ponies for taking all the food, and the unicorns blamed both of them for the weather and the lack of food.

As Clover began walking up the road that would eventually lead to the castle, a light layer of snow began to cover the ground, and there was a slight breeze blowing toward her.

‘Why is it that no matter which direction I’m facing, the cold wind has to blow in my face,’ she complained to herself bitterly.  She wished she knew how to teleport, but after that time in the forest, she simply couldn’t make herself do the spell again.  Once or twice she had come close, but she never actually moved anywhere and felt very dizzy afterward if she tried too hard.

Clover could see the castle in the distance now as she drew nearer.  It was perched on a cliff overlooking the ground where the earth ponies lived.  She began wondering how she could keep the peace between the leaders without telling them any of the information Starswirl had told her.  It was like she had to act as though she didn’t know what was going to happen, but could she really do that?  Just pretend she was clueless like the rest of them and forget about the world-shattering event that was going to take place?  Frustrated, Clover kicked a rock that was in the path to the side.  It flew through the air and went into the nearby forest.  She expected to hear a light thud when the rock landed, but instead heard a firm “Ouch!”  She stopped for a moment, wondering if she had heard correctly and walked over to the edge of the path, ready to apologize to whoever she had hit, but to her surprise, there was nopony there.  Shrugging, she quickly turned around.

Clover simply wasn’t ready for it.  At first she thought she was hallucinating.  How could he possibly be here, standing in front of her like that?  She rubbed her eyes with her forehoof to make sure they were working properly.  There was no way this was happening.  Starswirl had died five days ago.

Cautiously, Clover walked toward him, unsure if he was real or not.  He had been watching her this whole time, waiting for her to say something but finally couldn’t wait anymore.

“My dear, I was hoping for a different reaction than this.  Surely you must have something to say.  Questions, at least.”

“I…” she tried to respond, but couldn’t find the words.  “How…”

Starswirl chuckled, and it slowly turned into a series of coughs.  They were light coughs, but it told Clover that he was still sick.

“I did tell you, didn’t I, that I did a fair amount of time traveling?  Or perhaps I should say, I will tell you.  It depends on whose perspective you’re looking at.”

At this point, Clover had accepted the fact that her dead mentor was standing in front of her, alive and well, and finally formed a question.  “How are you here?  You…you…” her voice trailed off.  She simply couldn’t finish her sentence.

Starswirl began to explain.  “Clover, my time is not up yet.  At least, not for me.  I know that for you I’ve probably been dead for a few days, but this is a younger me, not the same one you unfortunately had to see pass away.”

“How do you know that?”

“Clover, I know what is going to happen to me, and I do have a plan for it.  It’s unavoidable that you see me on my dying day.

“But I’m seeing you now!  How long do you have exactly?”

Starswirl thought for a moment.  “I honestly have no idea.  In my time period, you’ve been away from the village for three days conducting some research.”

“Right, I remember.  I came back after seven days because you sent me a letter asking me to.  It sounded pretty important so I went to see you.  It took me two days to get back.”

“I’ve got six days left then.  Clover, I know that this must be strange to run into me like this, but you see, I need your help.”

Clover was in disbelief.  Her voice began to rise as all her apprehensions and anxieties came out at once.  “You need my help?  I’m on my way right now to meet Princess Platinum so I can accompany her to a new land that’s going to be attacked by Windigoes because somehow if I’m there I’ll just know what to do to stop it, not to mention the countless other things you’ve told me about that I now need to ensure happen, and you’re asking for my help?!”

Starswirl gazed down, and Clover noticed the sad look in his eyes.  “I’m…I’m sorry, my dear, " he said.  "I am so, so sorry…for everything that has happened and will happen.  I wish it all could have turned out differently because it isn’t fair that you have to do all this, but…yes,  I need your help.”

Clover looked right at Starswirl.  He still looked old.  Not as old as he did on that rainy night, but still a little bit old.  His eyes still had some shine to them, as did his fur, and he didn’t look particularly tired, but there was sadness in his voice, not just from knowing what he was putting his student through, but something else as well.  Clover took a step back as she realized what he must be going through.  He knew he was going to die.  He was probably taking care of any last minute preparations to ensure his plans were put into action, and talking to her right now was one of them.  A surge of guilt shot through her as she immediately regretted yelling at him. She tried to form some sort of apology, but couldn’t find the right words.

“I…I’m sorry…I didn’t realize…I…whatever you need, I’ll help you.”  She almost felt like crying again at the thought of what she had just done.

Starswirl looked back at her.  He had wiped his eyes.  “It’s alright, my student, I understand what this must be like for you.  Would you like to know what I was even doing here in the first place?”

Clover thought for a moment.  “I think you just went to see Princess Platinum.  It’s pretty close to the day I’m supposed to meet her, for you anyway, so maybe it was a last minute confirmation meeting to make sure she understood I was becoming her second in command?  Oh!  Then you time traveled to now right after you were finished!  Was it easier because it was in the same area?”

Starswirl stared at her, wide-eyed.  “Do you have a title yet, Clover?”

“Yes.  You gave it to me actually, but I don’t think I should tell you what it is.”

“And why is that?”

“Well, you sort of…thought of it on the spot.  Don’t worry. You did it once, I’m sure you can do it again.”
Starswirl smiled at her.  “Sound reasoning.  If I came up with it randomly as you said, I shouldn’t find out what it is until that moment.  That’s very clever.”

Clover did her best not to react to this.  “Thank you.”  She smiled back.  “What was it you needed help with?”

“Oh, of course!  Yes, well, I need some sort of…backup plan, just in case I don’t finish telling you everything before I…” he stopped talking suddenly, and the sad look returned to his face.

Clover walked over to him and put a hoof around his shoulder.  “It’s okay,” she said quietly.  “You actually did leave something.  I found a letter inside your hat.”

Starswirl let out a weak laugh as Clover removed her hoof.  “That sounds like something I would do.  So, what exactly couldn’t I finish telling you?”

Clover quickly explained to him everything he had said to her that night, as well as what was in the letter, and told him to leave his hat on the counter. 

“I’m not going to remember what was important about your son?”

Clover shook her head.  “No.  I’m afraid I can’t help you there.  I wish I knew myself, but…I guess you’ll tell me later, or is it earlier?”

“As I said it depends how you look at it, though I really wish I could remember…”Starswirl said quietly.  “Every time I use this spell, some notes always wind up getting lost.  Anyway, thank you, my student.  You’ve been an immense help to me today.”  His expression was bittersweet at the moment, like something else was on his mind now as well.

“As clarification, my past self can never find out that she’s going to meet you at this moment, right?”

“That is correct.  She must believe that that night is the last time she will see me.”

Clover sighed.  “Alright, and I suppose this won’t be the last time I see you?”

Starswirl smiled.  “Of course not.  There will be a few more visits from me throughout your journey, but for now, I think you should get to the castle as soon as you can.”

Clover nodded.  “Yes, I probably should.”

They said a brief goodbye to each other and went their own separate ways, Clover toward the castle, Starswirl…well, he simply disappeared.  Clover continued on the path for a few more minutes before finally reaching the doors.  She knocked loudly several times before a guard pony came to the door.

“Clover?”

“Yes, sir, I’m here to see Princess Platinum.”

“Right this way.”

‘Here we go,’ Clover thought to herself as she was led inside the stone castle.  It wasn’t very big, but then it didn’t really have to be.  Nopony lived there except the Princess and a few guards.  The castle was made entirely out of stone, and the entrance hall had almost nothing in it, except for a few cushions lined up by the windows and a rather large wooden table.  If anything, it was rather depressing.  The rugs and tapestries that decorated the room only seemed to be a desperate attempt to make the castle more visually appealing.

Clover was led up some stairs going to the left side of the castle and down a hallway.  At the end of it was a set of large brown doors.  She and the guard entered and there, sitting on a throne was Princess Platinum.  Her fur was white, but she had a curly purple mane and tail.  What Clover noticed, however, was her clothing.  Even the things she wore were purple and white, from her crown to her neck plate to her robe.  Surrounding her were jewels of all shape, size, and color, all in a gigantic pile surrounding her throne and taking up about half the room. 

The guard bowed to her.  “Your majesty, this is Clover.  She’s the one Starswirl has sent to help you with-”

“I know who she is.”  She cut the guard off, her tone sharp and cold.  “You can go now.”

Clover did her best not to look shocked.  This was Princess Platinum?  Leader of the unicorns?  She certainly didn’t expect her to be so…rude.

The guard had left, and the Princess now focused her gaze on Clover.  “So,” she said.  “You are going to be my assistant.  Do you have a title?”

“Clover the Clever, ma’am.”

“Clover the Clever?  Well, then, if that’s true, I think you’ll do just fine with helping me.  You’ll certainly be better than any earth pony or pegasus.”

‘Great, I have those conversations to look forward to now,’ Clover thought.  ‘I wasn’t expecting it to be brought up this soon, but I guess it was going to happen eventually.’  She groaned silently to herself.  She was not going to enjoy this.


***


Two months had gone by since Clover had met Princess Platinum.  In that time she had grown accustomed to calling her things like “Princess,” "your majesty,” and things like that.  It hadn’t been easy getting along with her at first.  Clover had tried her best to keep their separate views on the earth ponies and pegasi out of conversation, but sometimes it was simply unavoidable.

The weather had grown worse as well as more and more snowstorms occurred, eventually turning into a never ending blizzard.  There was ice and snow everywhere, and as a result the earth ponies weren’t able to grow any food.  Clover woke one morning to find that a patch of ice had sealed her door shut.  Luckily, within those two months, she had actually learned how to teleport, and so this wasn’t too big a problem for her.  She wasn’t very good at it yet, and going too far would often leave her dizzy, but she practiced what she could whenever she could.  This one particular morning, she was running a bit late, so she teleported as quickly and often as she could up the path to the castle.

She had insisted on not living there.  Starswirl simply had too many books and other precious items she would have had to take with her.  As she walked up to the castle, she began to wonder how she would bring it all with her when the time came to leave, and that’s when she remembered.  Today was the day that Princess Platinum, Commander Hurricane, and Chancellor Puddinghead would be meeting with each other to try and come to some sort of agreement.

Clover had played her part well, pretending to be the clueless, yet supportive assistant Starswirl clearly had wanted her to be.  Princess Platinum now trusted her completely, and had asked her to wait for her at the castle until the meeting was over so they could discuss it.  Good thing she had brought a book with her.  She didn’t know much about the other two leaders, so she wasn’t sure how long the arguing would go on for.

It was early in the evening when the Princess finally returned.  She walked up to the castle doors and opened them, shivering from the cold as the snow blew around outside.  She leaned against the door, tired.  “Clover the Clever!  I need you!”

Clover was there in an instant with a blanket for her, as she slumped to the floor.  She always was very dramatic.  “Yes, your majesty,” she said.  “Did the other pony tribes see reason as I predicted?”  How she hated the fact that she couldn’t simply tell the Princess everything and just get it over with, end the façade she was being forced to play.

“Those other tribes are impossible!” exclaimed the princess as Clover shut the door behind her.  “I, for one, can no longer bear to be anywhere near those lowly creatures.”  She slumped down on a nearby cushioned seat, and Clover brought her some water, an unimpressed look on her face.  “The unicorns are noble and majestic.  We’ll no longer consort with the likes of them!”  She put her hoof down to emphasize this, but instead wound up splashing Clover with some water.

Clover simply wiped her face.  “So, what are we going to do then?” she asked, knowing exactly what the answer was going to be.

“The unicorns are leaving!  We must find a new land!”

Clover sighed.  This was it. This was where things got really complicated, at least, according to what Starswirl had told her.

“Alright, Princess, I’ll go with you.  I’ll just need to pack a few things tonight.”  It was a good thing she knew the shrinking spell.  She had a lot of books to bring with her.

“Very well,” Platinum responded.  “You may go home for the day.  I’ll see you tomorrow morning outside the castle doors.”

Clover nodded.  She said goodbye and headed home.


***


“This is simply taking forever!” whined Princess Platinum as she pushed through a tree branch.  “My hooves are killing me!  How long have we been walking for?” she asked, turning to Clover.

“About five minutes, your highness,” she replied, lowering the branch so that the Princess could see the castle, which was not that far away from them.

Platinum sighed as she turned around and continued walking.  “I never imagined finding a new land would be so hard, but it’ll all be worth it.  Don’t you agree?”

Clover knew she had to keep up the act, as she had been for weeks, but this one time she slipped up.  “I actually think that the three tribes could have tried harder,” she replied, and immediately, she regretted saying it.

“Stop!” Platinum yelled as she suddenly stopped walking, and Clover was sure this was it.  Princess Platinum would fire her and return to the castle, and none of the other ponies would ever find another place to live.  Her heart sank as she thought about the lack of food and the eventual starvation that would come with it.  

Even now, though, she couldn’t break character.  It was almost like acting, and she had to keep going no matter what the circumstance.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, running over to the Princess.

“That is what’s wrong,” she replied, gesturing to a small stream running in front of them.

“Your highness, it’s just a stream,” said Clover as she began to walk over it.  “We can cross it easily.”

“I refuse to get my gown wet,” insisted Platinum, turning her head away.  “I have no intention of arriving at my new land looking like a bedraggled earth pony.”

‘Oh, here we go again,’ thought Clover.  ‘I am so sick of hearing about this.  So what if they don’t have horns?  Our kind would be dead if it weren’t for them!’

“On the other hand, I have no trouble watching you stoop down.”

“Ughh,” groaned Clover, as she came out of her thoughts.  ‘What the hay is a hand, anyway?’  No doubt Platinum had just made some sort of remark about how pegasi and earth ponies were below her.

The next thing she knew, there was a rope around her muzzle, and Platinum was sitting on her back.  Clover couldn’t wait for this to be finished.  She unwillingly began to walk across the stream.

“And do watch the gown, darling.  It’s worth more than all the books in your library.”


***


A few days had gone by since their journey had begun.  Clover had brought what little food she could find with her (as well as every single book in her house).  They had made their way through a large forest, passed by many rivers and lakes, watching the snow thin and actually feeling the temperature rise as they moved away from their dying home.  Today, they found themselves on a path winding around the peak of a large mountain, and it was positively filled with gems.  Platinum had plucked some out of the dirt as they walked down the other side of the mountain, and when she couldn’t carry any more with her magic, she stopped and put them into a small pile.

“I’ve never seen such jewels!” she exclaimed, crouching down in front of them.  She picked up a purple one with magic.
“This ruby is dazzling!  This whole land is dazzling!  I’m double dazzled!”

Clover just looked at her with slight concern.  ‘I wish I knew what to say to hurry this up.  I can’t stand much more of this!’

“…Unicornia!”  Platinum produced a flag from inside her robe and stuck it into the ground.

Clover did her best to hold back her laughter as a small smile came to her face.  That must have been the only item Platinum had brought with her.  Unicornia?  Really?  Uninspired a name as it was, they were at least making some progress.  All they had to do now was find the other tribes.  That’s what Starswirl said would happen.

“Very nice name, your majesty, but I think it would be best if we kept moving, don’t you?”

Platinum nodded.  “I’m simply overjoyed with the looks of this place.  We found our new home!”

Both ponies paused.  There was something strange about the way she had said that last part.  Clover looked around anxiously, and found that they were actually very close to the bottom of the mountain, but that’s not all she saw.

Four other ponies were very close by.  One of them was sitting on a mound of dirt.  She was entirely pink, her mane and tail all puffed up and curly, and she had a ridiculous looking hat on her head.  That had to be Chancellor Puddinghead.  Only someone with a name as silly as that would wear that on their head.  The orange earth pony standing next to her was still a mystery, but Clover could only assume that she was the Chancellor’s assistant.

She turned her gaze upward and saw a blue pony with a rainbow mane and tail sitting in a low hanging cloud.  The official armor she wore, as well as the proud way she-

“I planted my flag first!” yelled the blue pony, rudely interrupting the narrator during his description.

‘That must be her,’ thought Clover.  Commander Hurricane.  Hovering next to her was a nervous looking yellow pegasus, also with a pink mane, but one that was more…neat.

“Did not!” retorted Platinum.

“Did to!”

“I planted mine earlier than first!” said the Chancellor.

‘That doesn’t even make sense!’ Clover thought to herself.  How was she going to make these ponies see reason if one of them couldn’t even use basic argumentative logic?

“….riffraff are trespassing in Unicornia!”

‘Again with that ridiculous name!’

“The name is Pegasopolis!”

Even though she knew the situation was serious, Clover was using every ounce of her being to control her laughter.  Pegasopolis?  No name could sound more ridiculous than-

“Earth!”

Clover walked away for a few moments to let out a few quiet giggles.  These names were the worst names she had ever heard.

“Pegasopolis!”

As Clover returned, she couldn’t help but notice that the only ponies not arguing were the assistants, her included.  Could it be that they were like her, that they had no hatred for other kinds of ponies?  Or were they simply letting their superiors argue and keeping their place?

“Unicornia!”

Commander Hurricane had clearly had enough.  She flew right over to Princess Platinum.

“I say we fight for the land!  May the best pony win!”

As she said this, a chilling wind began to blow.

“That’s barbaric,” Clover heard Platinum say, right before feeling her hooves leave the ground as she was levitated over to stand between the Commander and the Princess.

“Clover the Clever, throw that brute into the dungeon!”

‘Okay, this just has to stop.’

“What dungeon?” she asked as she began walking away.  “Look, perhaps if we all calm down…”

“I agree.  Let’s all calm down,” the orange earth pony suddenly said.  Clover noted her strange sounding accent, but what she really cared about was the fact that this pony seemed to support her.  Maybe this was how their differences could be worked out.

“I vote for calm.”

Now the yellow pegasus spoke up, though just barely.  Her voice was very soft and quiet, and Clover could barely hear it from where she was standing, especially with the wind picking up.  It hardly mattered, however.  Both assistants seemed to be on her side, and that had to mean something.

Commander Hurricane turned around, shocked.  "I’ll have you court marshaled for insubordination, Private!” she yelled.
The wind was blowing even harder now, and it had begun to snow.  Clover did not like where this was going.  The unclarified agreement between herself, the orange pony, and the yellow pegasus wasn’t enough to compensate for the hatred between the three tribe leaders.

“We settle this on the battlefield!” the Commander continued, but immediately stopped talking as she was hit in the face with a snowball, presumably thrown by Chancellor Puddinghead.

Clover had no idea what to say about this.  ‘You have got to be kidding me,’ she thought as Princess Platinum began laughing at the Commander, but soon stopped as she, too, was hit with a snowball.

“Who dares throw a snowball at royalty?!” she yelled, as the Commander’s laughter died down.

“Wait a minute!”  Clover looked down at Chancellor Puddinghead as she dropped a snowball onto the ground.  “Where did all this snow come from anyway?”

Dark clouds were now forming over the six ponies, and the snowstorm turned into a blizzard.

“Oh, no, not again,” said Commander Hurricane.

“We have to get out of here!” the orange earth pony yelled.  “There must be some sort of shelter we can find!”

As much as Clover hated the idea, she knew she couldn’t do anything but agree.  She would have preferred to stay there and perhaps finally get a chance to defeat the Windigoes and stop the leaders’ arguments, but she couldn’t simply disagree.  It would look too suspicious.  Reluctantly, she nodded in agreement with the others and they all began moving away from the mountain.  Each leader stayed with her assistant, never venturing too close to one another.  After a few minutes of traversing through the cold, they found a cave, and quickly took shelter inside.

‘Finally!’ Clover thought as she looked around.  ‘It was getting really bad out there.’

All six ponies were now standing inside the cave, and Clover knew what was about to happen.

‘Oh, no.  We’re going to have to share the cave now.  They’ll probably start arguing over that as well.’

The cave itself was quite roomy, but sure enough, it didn’t take very long for the leaders to begin their quarrel. 

It was Princess Platinum who started it.  “Please, Commander Hothead-”

“It’s Commander Hurricane.”

Platinum cleared her throat.  “Please, Commander, could you just stand back and give me my royal space?” she asked, waving a hoof in the Commander’s face.

“You mean like this, your highness?” she replied, deliberately stomping her hoof down even closer to where the Princess was standing.

“Indeed not.”  Platinum shoved her hoof away from her and leaned close to the ground, pointing with her hoof.  “You see this invisible line?”

‘Are you actually serious right now?’ Clover was beside herself with frustration.  She felt slightly bad for asking for it, but those Windigoes couldn’t come soon enough.  This was a huge waste of time.

“Private, outline our territory for everypony to see.”

The pegasus looked as though that was the last thing she wanted to do, but what choice did she have?  She placed her hoof on the ground, and the Commander picked her up and dragged her hoof across the floor.

“See this real, non-invisible line?  No unicorns or earth ponies are allowed to cross it.  This is the sovereign territory of Pegasopolis.”

“Clover the Clever!” Platinum yelled.

As much as she hated to, she knew she had no choice, either.  She had to play her part until the Windigoes showed up.  She was just worried that she wouldn’t know what to do when that happened.

“Uh, Smart Cookie!” Chancellor Puddinghead yelled.

‘So that’s her name,’ thought Clover.  ‘I just wish I knew the Private’s as well.’

“I know, I know,” Smart Cookie said tiredly.

Grimacing, the three ponies began making lines in the dirt, separating the cave into three sections.  Once, Clover accidentally ran into Smart Cookie.  She wished she could have said something to her, but she couldn’t risk making a mistake.  Starswirl had told her not to tell anypony until the time was right, and now was certainly not it.  The two exchanged an awkward glance before backing away from each other.

“What are you doing?!  Don’t go around the rock!  Go over it!”

Clover looked up in time to see Commander Hurricane yelling at the Private as she had tried to draw her line around a rock lying on the floor.

“I’m not giving up an inch of territory to the enemy!”

Princess Platinum was quick to retaliate as she ran over to the two pegasi.

“That rock is clearly on the Unicornia side of the cave, and it belongs to us.”

She whispered to Clover, who had walked back over, having finished drawing her line.  “Who knows, there could be jewels inside.”

‘How much more of this do I have to endure?  This entire trip has been nothing but a headache.’

She looked over at the Commander in time to see her kicking the rock across the line, onto the Pegasopolis side of the cave.

“I claim this rock for Pegasopolis!”

The yellow pegasus looked really apologetic, and Clover felt sorry for her.  Commander Hurricane seemed a lot more demanding than Princess Platinum.  

“Unhand that rock this instant, you scoundrel!” replied the Princess.

Chancellor Puddinghead had decided that that was the right time to quickly rush over to the rock and steal it for herself.

“Oh look, you found my rock!” she said.  “I’ve been looking for it everywhere.”  She picked it up in her mouth and darted away.

‘How does she move so quickly?’ thought Clover, who was abruptly shaken out of her thoughts by the Commander’s voice.

“Hey!  You invaded our territory!”

The Chancellor had just finished reaching her section of the cave, which was the closest to the entrance.  “Finders keepers, losers weepers!” she practically sang.

‘Alright, that is not a normal pony.’

“That’s the last straw!” yelled Commander Hurricane as she began walking over the line toward the Chancellor.

Princess Platinum chimed in.  “Give me my rock!”

Before Clover could even think of what to do, the three tribe leaders had begun chasing each other around the cave, shouting at one another.  She put a hoof to her face in exasperation and looked up just in time to see Chancellor Puddinghead standing in front of her, making a ridiculous expression in an attempt to further antagonize the other two.  The chasing soon died down, and the leaders finally stood still in different sections of the cave.  They were still yelling at each other, and Clover couldn’t begin to try and figure out what they were saying. 

Just then, the wind began to blow hard again and clouds filled the air.  Clover looked around and saw that ice had begun forming over the cave walls.  This was it.  The Windigoes must have found them.  She glanced over at the entrance, which was slowly freezing shut and decided that enough was enough.

“Look, everypony!  The entrance!”

The three leaders had been standing in the middle of the cave and abruptly stopped arguing when they saw this.

“Great, now there’s no way out!” said Commander Hurricane as she walked back over to the Private.

“You two deserve this horrible fate!  You’ve done nothing but argue and fight with each other!” replied the Princess as she trotted over to Clover.  Ice was now slowly spreading across the cave floor.

“You’ve been fighting, too, your highness,” argued the Commander.

“Yeah, worse!”  Now the Chancellor spoke up.  “I haven’t been fighting nearly as much as you!”

Clover watched in horror as ice slowly began to form over the Chancellor’s body.  She didn’t even seem to notice, and if she did then she certainly didn’t care.  Clover looked over to her left now and backed away from the Princess as the ice began covering her as well.  This wasn’t enough to stop her from arguing, however, as she retorted back at the Chancellor.

“How ridiculous!  A unicorn never stoops to fighting!”

“That’s just ‘cause you wimpy unicorns know you’d never win!” Commander Hurricane interjected, the ice slowly encasing her, too.  Her assistant moved away from her, horrified.

“Earth ponies are numb skulls!” was the last thing she yelled before she was completely covered.

“Pegasi are brutes!”

“Unicorns are snobs!”

The three leaders were now completely enclosed in ice, unable to move or speak.  Clover, Smart Cookie, and the Private now backed away from them, toward the center of the cave.  They wound up walking into each other and turned around, terrified.  Clover had no honest clue what to do now.  Starswirl had told her he was sure she would know, but she couldn’t think of anything.  Now she was regretting wishing the Windigoes would come.  She didn’t want to end up like the other three!

The ponies hugged each other as a low roar echoed throughout the cave.  They looked up.  Amidst the swirling snow clouds were strange creatures.  They looked like ponies, but they were a transparent blue and seemed to gallop through the clouds.  Clover knew instantly what they were.

“What is that…thing?” the Private asked.

Clover had to think fast.  She knew she had to keep playing her part right up until the very end.  Choosing her words carefully, she responded.

“They must be…Windigoes!”

“W-windigoes?”

The other two looked really frightened now.  Clover stepped out of their embrace, having decided that now was the time to explain.  She wouldn’t tell them everything, just what they needed to know.

“My mentor, Starswirl the Bearded taught me about them.  They’re Winter spirits that feed off fighting and hatred.  The more hate the spirit feels, the colder things become.”

Clover looked up at the Windigoes, who were swirling the clouds ominously over the ponies’ heads.

“Then…this is our fault,” said Smart Cookie.  “We three tribes…we brought this blizzard to our home by fighting and not trusting each other.”  She glanced back at Chancellor Puddinghead.  “Now it’s destroying this land, too.”

Clover stepped closer to the center of the cave as more ice covered the floor.  Even now, she had to keep acting, somehow get all three of them to rid their hearts of hatred, not that she thought they had that much to begin with.  Again, she thought carefully about her words before speaking.

“And now our bodies will become as cold as our hearts…all because we were foolish enough to hate.”

That had to be it.  She couldn’t think of anything else that could spur the other two to outright agree with her.  The three ponies huddled together in the center of the cave, which was growing colder by the second.

“Well, I don’t hate you.”

It was the Private that had said it.  Clover could have hugged her right then, for this surely had to be the start to the conversation that would save them all.

"I…actually hate Commander Hurricane a lot more than I hate you guys.”

Clover hadn’t been expecting that, and found some humor in it.  She gave a light laugh and was joined by Smart Cookie, who apparently also thought it was funny.

“Actually,” the pegasus continued.  “I don’t really hate her.  I just really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really dislike her.”  Ice was beginning to form around her.

‘Now that was funny,’ thought Clover as she and Smart Cookie began laughing even more.  It was just the way she had said it.

“Well, I don’t hate you guys, either,” said Smart Cookie.  They were facing each other now as the ice slowly covered their bodies.

“Nor do I,” said Clover, and she really meant it.  She had only spoken to these ponies for a few mere moments, but she already felt like they were really close friends.

From above, the Windigoes began crying out.

“No matter what our differences,” Smart Cookie added.  “We’re all ponies.”

Clover closed her eyes as the ice almost completely encased the three of them.  ‘That’s exactly how I feel,’ she thought.  All preoccupation about what Starswirl had said was gone.  She couldn’t explain why, but she didn’t want to, either.  All that mattered was that for the first time in a very long while, she was completely happy.  She had made two really great friends.

The ice had reached her horn now, and as it moved its way to the top, Clover felt something stir within her.  Some kind of magic she had never experienced before.  Her horn began to glow.  It grew brighter and brighter until suddenly the ice surrounding the three ponies split apart.  Clover’s eyes were a bright white now as her horn expelled a huge amount of magic that shot upwards toward the Windigoes and engulfed them like flames.  She had no idea what was happening to her, nor could she control her actions.  She just…knew what to do.

The Windigoes cried out as the spell weakened them, and dissipated one by one, defeated.  The clouds had disappeared, and as the last of the spell was cast, it formed itself in the shape of a heart that hovered inside the cave over the ponies’ heads.  Clover sat down on the ground and looked around, unsure of what had just happened.

The Private and Smart Cookie both ran over to her.

“What was that?” asked the Private.

“I didn’t know unicorns could do that.”

“I didn’t, either,” replied Clover as she stood up, and it was the honest truth.  “Nothing like this has ever happened before, but I know it couldn’t have been just me.  It came from all three of us, joined together, in friendship.”  She was sure that that was it.  It had to be.  It fit perfectly with what Starswirl had told her.

“What do we do now?” asked Smart Cookie.

“Well, I guess we have to wait for our leaders to thaw out,” Clover giggled.  She had done it.  Unsure as she was, she somehow managed to drive away the Windigoes with the help of her friends.

“Oh, um, I don’t think I ever told you.  My name is Private Pansy,” said the yellow pegasus. 

Clover laughed again.  “Pleasure to meet you.  I’m-”

She had been about to properly introduce herself, but at that moment, some other strange event began to take place.  The magical heart Clover had conjured had been floating above them, but now it began to expand and contract.  Bits of magic flew off of it as it grew and shrunk.

“What’s happening?” asked Private Pansy.

“I…I have no idea!” said Clover, and she didn’t.  She could only watch as the heart began to shrink and expand erratically, until finally there was a loud cracking sound followed by a thud.

The heart had changed its form completely and fallen to the ground.  Clover cautiously walked over to it and picked it up.  She could hardly believe what she was seeing.  The magical heart had turned into a crystal.  It still held the same shape, but it was smaller and much heavier now.

“Oh, wow,” she whispered as she ran a hoof over it.  “Look!”

She turned around and brought it over to her new friends.  “It’s a crystal heart!  It must have formed as a symbol of our friendship!  I can’t believe this!”

The two others were just as excited, but unfortunately, they couldn’t do much of anything at the moment, and it was Smart Cookie who pointed this out.

“Uh, I hate to be a downer, but our superiors are still frozen, and the exit is sealed shut.  What are we going to do?”

Private Pansy responded, “I guess, um…we’ll have to wait until the ice thaws.  It’s still pretty cold, though.  Does anypony have any fire wood?”

“I’ve got some,” said Clover as she pulled some sticks out of her saddle bag.  “I started a collection during this trip with Princess Platinum just in case we ever needed it.”

A fire was quickly built and the three ponies gathered around it.  Enveloped by the warmth of the fire, they told stories to each other, some about themselves, others about their leaders.  Clover was always careful to never mention anything Starswirl had said, and after a few hours, they all felt pretty tired and decided to go to sleep.


***


Clover awoke the next morning to find that the ice had completely melted and the cave entrance was clear.  She stood up and stretched as she yawned loudly.

“Good morning everypony,” she said.

“Good morning,” replied Chancellor Puddinghead.

Clover then remembered that with the ice melted, the tribe leaders were now free.  There was a brief feeling of anxiety in her stomach as she looked around, and saw…

Commander Hurricane having a normal conversation with Princess Platinum and Smart Cookie.  The Chancellor was going over to Private Pansy to help her pack up.

“Wh-what’s going on?  What are you all doing?”

“Well, darling, we three leaders have all had a long talk, and…we really do regret all the fighting we’ve done,” said Princess Platinum.

“So now we’re friends!” finished Commander Hurricane.

Clover was relieved.  Finally, the leaders were getting along with each other, and that meant she had definitely succeeded.  Merely defeating the Windigoes was only half the battle, but she was happy that the other half had taken care of itself.

The six ponies walked outside and savored the warm, summer air.

“What now, everypony?” asked Clover.  This was an entirely new land for them to explore and live in, and it was absolutely beautiful.  There were lush, green trees and animals of all kinds everywhere, beautiful rivers and lakes, and the landscape itself seemed to stretch on forever.  “What should we name this new place?”

“Well, we’ve all decided on a name,” said Smart Cookie.  “Two, actually.  One we came up with on our own, but we think you’ll like it. And the other is in honor of you.”

“This entire land will be called Equestria,” said Chancellor Puddinghead.

‘Now that’s a good name.’

Princess Platinum then produced the crystal heart from inside her robe and gave it to Clover.

“And at the center will be the capital, which we have all agreed to call the Crystal Empire!”

> Chapter 3: The Darkness Begins
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 3: The Darkness Begins


Dark clouds loomed in the sky as Clover trotted toward the castle, the crystal heart packed tightly into her saddlebag.  Well, perhaps crystal was a bit of a stretch.  The heart was mostly stone now.  It had been nearly a year since the Windigoes had been banished, and though initially life in the Crystal Empire had been good, the atmosphere of the place had become ominous and gloomy.

Clover shook some water off her hoof as she stepped in a puddle just in front of the castle.  It was a strange sight to behold at times, mostly due to its design.  Most of the castle was comprised of a giant crystalline tower that stood on four short legs, all reaching up to join together at the top.

Clover walked in, unquestioned by the guards.  She was a close personal friend of Queen Platinum, after all, and so was well known around the castle.  Well, sort of, anyway.  The six ponies’ friendships had suffered heavily ever since migration to Equestria had finished.  They had all become very busy with their duties and hardly had any time to spend with each other.

Private Pansy had moved to the outskirts of the empire after discovering she had a love for animals.  Smart Cookie had decided to start a farm, as well as oversee the production of other farms.  These, too, were located on the border of the empire.

Clover had taken up residency in a house along one of the streets that ran to the center of the empire where the castle stood.  In it were all of Starswirl’s books, as well as any other of his possessions she managed to bring with her.

Commander Hurricane insisted she lead the weather team, to which the other five ponies agreed.  Chancellor Puddinghead was in charge of land development and exploration, and Queen Platinum took the throne of the castle, dealing with public relations and things of that nature.

Queen Platinum.  Clover was glad that the Princess had decided to change her title.  It was more fitting in her opinion and sounded more mature as well.  Of course, the fact that Platinum had a pony she wanted to impress may have had something to do with it as well.

Raincloud was a simple pegasus.  His name had seemed rather unorthodox to Platinum at the time she had met him, but as she got to know him, she had found herself liking him more and more each day.  They had met when one of the pegasi groups was migrating.  Raincloud had grown fatigued from trying to carry too many of his possessions at once, but his stubbornness prevented him from landing and walking.  He crashed into the ground, or what would have been the ground if Platinum hadn’t been standing there.  He had apologized profusely, quite sure that the unicorn Queen would banish him, but something about Platinum had changed a lot.  She was no longer as snobbish and unforgiving as she used to be and had almost laughed at the thought of banishment.  The two were getting along marvelously, and Clover was sure it wouldn’t be long before they became engaged.

Clover now approached the doors to the throne room and opened them slowly.

“Clover?  Is that you?”

There she was, sitting on the throne, sorting through dozens and dozens of small rolls of parchment.

“Yes, I wanted to show you-”

“Whatever it is dear, please do it quickly.  I’ve fallen behind in my work and have even less spare time than before, I’m afraid.”

Clover nodded.  This was how it was now.  They were all too busy with their own work to spend any time with one another, and top of that, the whole empire was suffering from what Clover could best describe as a plague of depression.  There was always a sense of foreboding in the air and despite their best efforts, the weather team could only make the clouds disappear for a few minutes.  Overall, the mood was very grim, and it seemed as though it would never end.

“Here.”  She pulled the heart out of her saddlebag and placed it on the floor.

Platinum gasped and ran over to where Clover was standing.  “What happened to it?  It’s just a chunk of rock now!”

“I have no idea,” Clover said, and she hated the fact that this was true.  She turned away from the heart.

“It happened shortly after the migration was complete.  I’ve spent months trying to fix it, but nothing I’ve done ever worked.”  She looked out one of the stained glass windows.  As usual, the sky was overcast.  Clover rested her forelegs and head on the windowsill.

“Can’t you feel it?  That sense of gloom that’s taken over the whole land?  It’s really put a damper on everything, even our friendships.  I feel like none of us are as close as we used to be.”  Clover watched as the trees outside swayed in the breeze.  Sighing, she turned around.

The heart was gone.  In its place was a small pile of dust.  Clover, now in a panic, ran over to Platinum, eyes wide.

“What did you do?  What did you do?!”  

“I…I…nothing!  I looked up when you were speaking, and when I looked down again, it-”

She was interrupted as the doors flew open with bang, and a sobbing, yellow pegasus flew into the room.

“What is it?  What happened?” asked Clover as she landed.

“It’s…it’s the animals.  They’re all gone!”


***


Clover sat down at the table of a small kitchen inside the castle.  Private Pansy was to her left, and Smart Cookie was to her right. Platinum sat directly across from her, the other two sitting on either side of her.  The pile of dust that was once the crystal heart had been scooped up into a bowl and placed on the table.  Clover was now staring at it as she heard the sound of rain come from outside.

“Something must be done about this,” Platinum said.

“Where do we start?  We’re dealing with a lot of different problems here, and they all seem to connect somehow…” Clover answered.

“Whatever do you mean, darling?”

“Don’t you see?  Haven’t any of you noticed what’s been happening outside?”

Commander Hurricane looked at her.  “Oh, of course not.  I only lead the weather team.  I’ve got no idea.”

Clover rolled her eyes.  “I don’t mean the weather exactly, although that’s a contributing factor.  I mean…haven’t any of you felt the atmosphere?  Think about how you feel whenever you walk outside.”

Chancellor Puddinghead was the first to respond.  “It feels really, really, gloomy, like the world forgot how to be happy and laugh.”

“Exactly, and this began happening shortly after the migration finished.  That’s the first problem.  The second problem is-”

“Uh, if I could just say something quickly,” Smart Cookie cut in.  “I’m just wondering why I’m here.”

Platinum gave her a puzzled look.  “Why, you’re here because you’re our friend, and one of the founders of Equestria as well.”

“Yeah, but…this just seems like something that more…royal ponies would talk about, not somepony who supervises the food supply.”

“Perfect example right there,” said Clover.  “Problem number two: our friendships.”

Commander Hurricane broke the long silence following that statement.

“Uh, I’m not the only one who’s confused, right?”

Clover sighed.  “It’s true, everypony.  Our friendships, whether we all see it or don’t, are fading.”  She turned to Smart Cookie.

“You are one of the six founders of Equestria and hold a very important place in the government of the Crystal Empire, and yet, you don’t even feel you deserve to be at a meeting with the rest of us!  And I’m willing to bet you’re not the only one.”  She turned now to Private Pansy, who looked down a little guiltily.

“Oh, um…I…no.”

“That’s Private Pansy, though.  She-”

“Commander,” said Platinum warningly.  “All six of us have a right to be at this meeting.  We are all friends.”

“Then why aren’t we acting like it anymore?” asked the Chancellor.  “I miss those few days where we spent time with each other and laughed and had fun.”

Platinum tried to reassure her.  “We’re simply too busy, that’s all, darling.  It’s nothing to get upset about,” but the Chancellor shook her head.

“Nuh-uh.  Something’s not right anymore.  It’s like our friendships are…are…”

“Dying,” finished Clover, and the Chancellor nodded, her eyes slightly wet.

“Um, what if…what if we had more help with our jobs?  Maybe that…could give us more free time?” asked Private Pansy.

“Speaking of jobs,” said the Commander as she turned to Clover.  “What exactly is your job?  What do you do as a founder of Equestria?”

Clover was slightly taken aback.  “Well, I run a library, and I do research.  If it weren’t for that we wouldn’t even be having this meeting right now.”

“Oh, great, good thing you do research then, otherwise I might be doing my job now or something.”
“Hey!  That’s-”

“And what about you?” she said, turning to Private Pansy.  “What is it that you do?  Something with animals?”

Private Pansy shrunk back, unable to answer.

“That’s not fair, Hurricane!” said the Chancellor.  “Her job and mine go hoof in hoof!  It’s very important that while we’re expanding and exploring our land, we respect the wildlife that’s out there.  All of our jobs have meaning, and it’s very rude to think otherwise!”

“Well, your job just got much easier, because all the animals are gone now!”

Private Pansy looked at her with tears in her eyes, and Clover put a hoof around her.

“There’s no need for yelling,” said Smart Cookie.  “We should all just stay calm and-”

“Stay out of this!” said Commander Hurricane.

“Don’t yell at her!  She didn’t do a thing!” said Platinum.

“Everypony be quiet!” yelled Clover as a loud clap of thunder rumbled through the sky.  The bowl rattled lightly on the table, and all six ponies fell silent.

Clover nervously cleared her throat.  “I rest my case.  On to the third problem: the crystal heart.  As you can see, it’s not a crystal anymore.  I don’t really think there’s much else to say about it, other than the obvious fact that we have to fix it.”

The other five nodded in agreement.

“Any ideas?” asked Commander Hurricane.

“Well…as I said before, these problems seem to be all connected, and we know the cause for most of them.”

“Most of them?” asked Platinum.

“Yes, that’s right.  The crystal heart’s destruction is, I’m fairly certain, a direct result of our diminishing friendships, and that is a result of the fact that our time is being taken up doing our absolute best to work through this whole bout of misery afflicting the Empire.  However…” she paused and looked at all of them.  “What caused that in the first place?”

They sat in silence for several moments before Smart Cookie spoke.

“Uh, I don’t think any of us know.  Why don’t you just tell us?”

“I can’t,” replied Clover.  “I don’t know what’s causing it, either.”

“Then why are you asking us?” said Commander Hurricane.

“Well, I thought there was a chance one of you might have an idea, but I guess what I’m trying to say here is that for a problem like this, one we don’t know the reason for, I think the best thing to do is just solve it.”

“Get rid of the depression hanging over the empire?  How exactly can we do that?” asked Platinum.

“Oh!  Oh!  I know!  I know!” said Chancellor Puddinghead.

The other five looked at her inquisitively.

“We can have a party!”

Clover slapped a hoof to her forehead.  “Chancellor,” she began.  “If the six of us just have a party, I don’t think that will-”

“No, no, no, no, I mean everypony!  Everypony in the Crystal Empire!”

“Darling, that’s…well, actually…” Platinum looked at Clover, who nodded.

“That’s actually a really good idea.  If we have some sort of gathering where everypony in the Crystal Empire can attend, it might at least get them to feel happy again.”

“Where would we have this party?” asked Commander Hurricane.

“Everywhere!  It could be one big party inside the whole Crystal Empire!”

“Like a fair, right?” asked Private Pansy, who hadn’t spoken since the Commander’s outburst.

“Hey,” said Hurricane.  “I’m sorry for before.  I shouldn’t have-”

The Private held up a hoof to stop her, and then looked at the Chancellor.  “Like a fair?”

“Exactly!” she replied as the Commander sat back in her seat.

“When would we have this fair?” asked Platinum.

“I can’t think of any better time than the day the Windigoes were defeated last year,” replied Clover, and the others nodded in agreement.

“So, it’s settled, then,” said Smart Cookie.  “We’ll host an all-day fair to get these ponies’ and our spirits back up.  Just one question: what will we call it?”

“I think that’s rather obvious, darling,” replied Platinum, gesturing to the bowl.

“Right,” said Smart Cookie as she gave a small smile.  “We’ll call it the Crystal Fair.”


***


It took a week to complete the necessary preparations for the fair.  Commander Hurricane and the weather team had done their best to control the weather as much as possible, and promised to continue all the way through the duration of the fair.  Chancellor Puddinghead had been placed in charge of the décor, making sure the streets looked welcoming and festive.  Queen Platinum had dealt with the public, making sure as many ponies knew about the fair as possible.  Private Pansy, still a little upset about the animals, had decided to brainstorm ideas for activities and events the fair could hold, Smart Cookie was in charge of the food, and inevitably this left Clover to oversee everything.

Fortunately, things went according to plan, and everything was ready on the day exactly one year after the banishment of the Windigoes.  Now the six friends stood underneath the tower, a crowd of ponies eagerly awaiting one of them to speak.  The pile of dust had been placed on a pedestal and covered with the bowl so it wouldn’t blow away.  Clover slowly stepped forward to speak.

“Hello, everypony!” she began.  “Welcome to the first annual Crystal Fair!  We’ve decided to start this tradition to celebrate our good fortune and success at starting our lives over in our new land!”  She glanced over at her friends.  “But most importantly, we’re here to celebrate the friendships we’ve been able to make with each other, despite all our differences, because we made this empire what it is!  All of us, working together as one!”

The crowd cheered and stamped their hooves in approval as Clover finished.

“There’re games, refreshments, and other fun stuff to do here as well.  Have fun, everypony!”

As the crowd dispersed, Clover turned to look at her friends.

“That was great!” said Commander Hurricane.

“Really, really, really great!” added the Chancellor.

“It was nothing, really.  I just…said what I felt,” replied Clover.

“Well, I thought it was marvelous,” said Platinum.

“Thanks, guys.  So, I guess now we just…see to things, make sure everpony’s having a good time?”

“Guess so,” answered Smart Cookie.  “Come on, y’all, let’s split up.” 

They each went off in separate directions, except for Clover who wanted to stay by the pedestal just in case anything happened.  She laid herself down on the castle steps, staring at the bowl.  It wasn’t long before she began to feel sleepy and eventually nodded off.


***


Octan was busy roaming the streets of the Crystal Empire, enjoying the festivities of the fair.  He was having a wonderful time.  The sights, the smells.  It was all so exciting!  He came to the tower-castle and began to walk under it.  As he walked, he looked upwards, in awe of the castle’s structure.  He noticed a pedestal with a bowl sitting on top of it and walked over to it.  Curiously, he reached a hoof up to touch it, but stopped when he heard a soft snore from behind him.  He turned around to face the steps.

She was the most beautiful mare he had ever seen.  Her violet mane cascaded down her crest and wrapped gently around her neck, a lavender streak running through it.  A soft purple coat covered her entire body, down to her tail, which lay across her rear legs.  Her head was resting on her forehooves, and he watched with pure infatuation as her chest slowly rose and fell with her breath.  Even her Mark was a sight to behold, so mysterious and vibrant.


***


Clover yawned quietly as she slowly woke from her nap.  She sat up on the steps and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.  The first thing she noticed as she looked around was the pedestal.  The second thing was that there was a pony staring at her.  She opened her eyes a bit wider, too groggy still to really feel anything but indifference about this.

“Hey,” she said.  “Were you just watching me sleep?”  

The pony was obviously nervous, his stammered response a confirmation of this.  “I, uh…I was, um…” His voice trailed off into meaningless nonsense.

Clover shook her head in an effort to wake herself up quickly and now got a good look at the pony.  He was an olive-colored unicorn with a dark brown mane and tail.  His eyes were an intense dark brown shade and his mane was a cluttered mess, unsure of which way it wanted to face.  His tail jutted out in several tufts that formed almost a spiral shape pointing toward the ground.  Looking even closer, Clover could see some olive streaks in his mane and tail, haphazardly strewn about.  The most important thing Clover noticed, however, was that this pony was cute.  Really cute.

‘What are you thinking?’ she asked herself angrily.  ‘You don’t have time for things like this!  There are much more important matters to attend to!’

Now that she was completely awake, she noticed that the pony was stuttering like an idiot.  ‘Oh, no, please,’ she thought.  ‘I’m supposed to be assisting with the fair, and instead I’m standing here waiting for this pony to form a coherent sentence.  Hmmm...’

Clover walked over to him and held up a hoof to his mouth.  “Shh,” she said as she giggled.  “I’m not mad. So what’s your name?”

Her hoof was on his mouth.  The beautiful purple pony had her hoof on his mouth, and on top of it all, she was staring at him with her big, violet eyes.  She also seemed to be asking him something.  ‘Name?  Name…oh!’

“I, uh…I’m Octan.”

“Octan.  I like it.  My name is Clover.”

‘Clover…Clover the Clever?  The Clover the Clever?  The pony that drove the Windigoes away from the new land and is one of the six founders of the Crystal Empire?  This is the pony that was sleeping on the steps?’

Octan was clearly having trouble forming sentences.  Clover giggled again as she realized he probably liked her.  ‘And doing that probably isn’t helping,’ she realized.

She extended her hoof.  “Nice to meet you.”

He returned the gesture, and both ponies blushed as they shook hooves, Octan in particular.  He knew his hoof was trembling and was sure Clover would feel it.

‘Why can’t you just be cool for once?’ he said to himself in annoyance.

‘His hoof is trembling.  This is only making him cuter,’ Clover thought, and it was true.  His shy, quirky, nature coupled with his adorable looks…as much as Clover knew she should focus on running the fair, she was having a hard time caring.  All she could really think about right now was the adorable olive pony shaking her hoof, desperately trying to keep his composure.

‘I wish I could spend more time with him, but I’ve got to make sure nothing happens to the…pile of dust,’ she reasoned.  It was still sitting on the pedestal, the bowl covering it untouched.

“I’m really sorry.  I wish we could go somewhere, but I have something I need to do.  This is the first fair, and none of us know what may happen.”

“Oh, uh, y-yeah.  Okay.  No problem.  I’ll just, um-”

“You can stay here if you want, and we could just…talk or something.  Ordinarily I’m okay being left alone, but today isn’t an ordinary day, is it?”  ‘Perfect.  Now I’m flirting with him.’  

Octan looked at her.  Was she really doing what he thought she was doing?  “Uh, sure, I’d love to.”

“Great!”  Clover said as she smiled.  She turned around to lead him to the castle steps, her tail accidentally grazing his forelegs.

“Come on!” she called.  “We can sit over here.”  He quickly caught up with her, and the two ponies sat down together.


***


At first, Clover had quite a time getting Octan to speak.  It seemed he was really taken with her, though she’d be lying if she said she didn’t feel the same about him.

One thing still puzzled her, however.  Octan’s Mark.  It was a ball with a bunch of different lines and shapes on it.  At a glance it looked like a globe, but Clover couldn’t figure out what it represented.  Curious, she decided to ask him about it.  

“So, about your Mark…what’s your special talent?”

Clover watched as his eyes wandered to her own Mark.  He was probably wondering the same thing about her.  “Umm…” he started, but couldn’t find any other words.  

After a few more seconds of this, Clover realized what was happening and cleared her throat slightly.  “Eyes up here,” she said as she giggled.

Embarrassed, he looked up at her.  ‘Those eyes!’ he thought to himself.  ‘They’re so violet!  So…beautiful.’

“I, uh…well, I’m really good with plants and animals, and I know a lot about the sun and moon cycles, too, I guess.  What about you?”

‘It’s got to be something with magic, right?’

Now it was Clover’s turn to be nervous.  ‘How the hay do you tell someone that your special talent is being an expert spell caster and researcher?’

“I…my special talent is researching and using different kinds of magic.”  ‘Hopefully that won’t sound too proud.’

“Wow, that’s really awesome!”  He paused for a moment.  “But…I think it’s much, much more than that.”

Clover tilted her head a bit.  “Oh?  What do you think?”

Octan made no hesitation before answering.  “I think you’re the most amazing unicorn ever.”

‘Idiot!’  What in the world made him say that?  His leg began bouncing nervously as his heart rate increased with every pang of anxiety.  His gaze never left her eyes as he stared at her, trying to keep himself together, and he noticed that Clover was blushing.  ‘Great, I’ve embarrassed her now,’ he thought bitterly.

Clover could feel the heat in her face.  She tried to open her mouth to say something, but couldn’t find the words.  ‘What do I say?  How do I respond to this?’  How could somepony she just met have such an effect on her?  ‘Say something!  Do something!  Do…no.  There’s no way I can do that.  We just met!  But…’ 

Clover smiled slightly.  “Is that so?”  She moved a little bit closer to him and rested her hoof on his.

Octan watched in stunned silence as Clove now turned to face him completely, her other hoof now wrapping around his shoulder.  Slowly, he began to reciprocate as the two slowly drew each other into an embrace.

“Clover!  Clover! Is that you?  Come over…wait, whoa, what?!”

‘Are you actually kidding me right now?!  Why?!  Of all the times, it had to be now?!’ 

Both ponies quickly moved away from each other, and Clover groaned in annoyance as she turned around to see her five friends looking at her.  Sighing, she turned back to Octan, who was now looking down at the ground.  She lifted his chin up with her hoof.   

“Maybe next time,” she said.  “Come on, let’s go see what they want.”

Octan was immobilized.  Try as he might, he couldn’t find the capacity to move himself.  He heard Clover saying something to him, but couldn’t quite understand what it was.  He was still trying to process what had happened.

Just then, a strange force engulfed his body and he was lifted off the steps.  This was certainly strange to him, but he soon became content with it as he realized that it was Clover’s spell surrounding him.  Completely relaxed, he resigned himself to his thoughts and began to reflect on the day he had had.


***


‘Maybe that was a bit much,’ thought Clover.  ‘Especially knowing how nervous he is around me.’

Quickly, she picked him up with a levitation spell and walked over to her friends.

“What’s going on?” asked Clover.  Her friends just stared at her.

Commander Hurricane was the first to speak.  “Uhh…what-”

“That’s not important right now.  What happened?”

"I don't think-"

"What happened?"

“Look at the pedestal,” replied the Private.

Clover looked and was surprised at what she saw.  The crystal heart seemed to have reformed itself and was now floating slightly above the pedestal.  It shined a brilliant bright light, and a growing number of ponies began to surround it.  As Clover took all this in, she noticed that the bowl was teetering on the edge of the pedestal.  It broke into pieces as it fell to the ground.

Octan came out of his thoughts as he heard the bowl smash.  Remembering that he was still being levitated, he tapped Clover gently on the shoulder.  

“Um…hey, I-I’m real sorry about before.  I couldn’t…”

Clover turned to look at him.

“Can you walk?” she asked as she lowered him to the ground.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.  I just…wow, you were making me float…I never knew you could do that to other ponies!”

Clover giggled.  Octan loved that.  It was the cutest sound he’d ever heard.

“So, uh, what’s happening now?” asked Smart Cookie.  “Looks to me like the crystal heart’s been fixed.”

“Do you think it actually worked?” she asked, turning to the Chancellor.  “Did we do it?”

“It sure seems like it!” she replied cheerily.

Clover turned back to look at the Crystal Heart as more ponies arrived to see what was happening.  “Wow,” she whispered.
Clover suddenly felt a strange warmth go through her.  She closed her eyes as she began remembering everything that had happened the past year.  Her new friends helping her defeat the Windigoes, the Crystal Heart forming, the founding of Equestria and the Crystal Empire, the migration over to the new land, setting up the Crystal Fair, meeting the cutest and nicest pony she’d ever met.  All of these thoughts welled up inside her, and when she opened her eyes again, she noticed that the ponies looked different.  There was a sort of luster to their coats that she hadn’t seen before, and she realized that the same thing had happened to her.  

The streets they were standing on had gone through a similar change and they illuminated as bright as the crystal heart was now, giving off rays of light.  Then, it all disappeared as this new energy receded to the center of the Empire and drove itself right into the crystal heart, which began to spin.  It spun faster and faster until finally it released a giant burst of energy that expanded to all corners of the Empire.

The dark clouds grew slightly brighter as the top of the tower glowed a bright white, and a rainbow beacon suddenly shot out of it. It exploded high in the air and sending its colors shooting out in all different directions.  The gloomy clouds disappeared instantly, and a beautiful sunset took their place.

As the magic died down, Clover could only stand there in awe, wishing that Starswirl could have been with them to see this amazing sight.  Never had she expected anything like that to happen.  The crystal heart now floated proudly above its stand, glowing a brilliant white light.

Clover turned to the Chancellor and whispered “It worked!  Your idea worked!”

“Yupp!  There’s nothing like a big party to make everypony smile!”

“Clover, I believe you have another speech to make,” said Platinum.

“Wha-oh! Yeah, I guess I do.”

Clover stepped forward into the open where the crowd could see her and cleared her throat.

“Everypony, we’d like to thank you all for not only coming to the first annual Crystal Fair, but also for playing your part in making it a possibility!  It’s been an entire year since Equestria was founded and our Empire established, and we were able to do it because of your hard work and dedication, and we hope that the Crystal Fair next year will be even better!  Thank you again, everypony!”

The crowd cheered again as Clover finished her speech.  She turned to her friends, astounded at what they had been able to accomplish that day.  She opened her mouth to say something, but Commander Hurricane cut her off.

“Before you say anything, who is this?”  She gestured toward Octan.

Clover blushed again.  “Oh, his name is Octan.  I met him today.  We’ve been talking here all day.”

“Sure didn’t look like there was much talking going on when we got he-ow!”  Platinum had jabbed her in the side before she could finish.

“Well, I suppose that’s a wrap then, yes?”

Everypony nodded and bid each other a good night, except for Clover and Octan.

“I had a lot of fun today,” he said, turning to face her.

“Me, too,” she replied.  “But…”

“What?” he asked.

The sun was hanging low in the sky now as night began to fall over the Crystal Empire.  Clover slowly walked towards Octan until she was standing right in front of him.

“I, uh…”  Now it was she who couldn’t speak.

Octan looked at her inquisitively.  “What is-”

He stopped speaking as he felt a pair of forehooves wrap around his shoulders and Clover’s lips press against his cheek.  “Let’s have lunch tomorrow, okay?” she said.  “I’m at the library.”  Octan merely nodded.

Then she was gone.  It took him a few seconds to realize that Clover had just teleported.  As the last of the sun’s dimmest rays disappeared, Octan turned to go home as well, still in slight disbelief that the prettiest, most amazing unicorn in existence actually liked him.


***


Clover squinted her eyes as the morning sun’s first light shined through her window.  She mumbled a bit to herself as she tried and failed a few times to go back to sleep.  Eventually, she gave up and let out a sigh as she sat up in her bed, rubbing her eyes.

Her ears perked up at a sudden noise from the first floor.  Curious, she got out of her bed and left her room.  She heard the same noise again.  It sounded like somepony was walking around downstairs.  She made her way down the steps and noticed that the noises abruptly stopped. 

“Hello?” she called out, wondering who it was.  Slowly, she walked into the kitchen.

It shouldn’t have been any surprise to her, but Clover couldn’t help herself.  There he was, nonchalantly standing there as if he had been waiting for her.

“Starswirl?”

He smiled at her as he said her name.  “Clover.”

Clover hugged him, happy that she was finally speaking to her mentor after so many months.  As she let go, she noticed that something wasn’t quite right with his smile, as though he was trying to mask some other emotion behind it. 

“It’s good to see you again,” he said.  Now Clover knew something was wrong.  His voice seemed normal on the surface, but carried the smallest hint of grief.  

“You too,” she replied.  “But is everything alright?  You seem a little…” Clover’s sentence trailed off as she was suddenly unsure of how to describe what she thought Starswirl was feeling.

“I’m perfectly fine, my dear.  Don’t worry about me.” He let out a feeble cough.

‘So that’s still happening,’ she thought to herself.  ‘It doesn’t seem nearly as bad as the last time we met, though.  What could that mean?’

She noticed a book in the saddlebag he was carrying.  It was positively overflowing with loose papers.  From one of these she could see a drawing very similar to the one she had seen in that book the morning of her first meeting with Platinum.  It was the creature that looked like a pony, save for the fact that it had holes in its legs and incredibly thin wings.

Starswirl noticed this and shifted slightly, causing the paper to move out of sight.  He then cleared his throat.

“If I may ask, when was the last time I saw you?”

“It was before I met with Princess Platinum.  I was on my way there when I accidentally hit you with a rock.”

Starswirl chuckled, a seemingly unbreakable habit of his.  “Yes, of course…” he muttered.

“What was that?”

“Hm?  Oh, nothing!  I was just thinking to myself.”

Clover noticed a slight movement inside Starswirl’s saddlebag.  She decided not to question it.

“So, were you at the fair?  Or maybe…”

“Oh, no, I’m afraid I couldn’t attend.  For some reason I have the feeling that I shouldn’t be seen.”

“Well, um…” Clover paused.  Was this a test by her mentor to see how well she understood time travel or not?  “Starswirl, don’t you remember?  You told me you were going to die.  I mean, you told me that after you died.  Well, after you died from my perspective.  I-”

“What are you talking about Clover?  When did I ever tell you that?”

“You…” Clover stopped and thought for a moment.  The last time she had seen Starswirl, he knew about his coming death.  But now he didn’t.  He also seemed much healthier than before, almost as if…

Clover slowly took a step back and stared at her mentor and friend, not believing what was happening.  “No,” she whispered.  “That’s not…how could you…”

“What’s the matter, Clover?  What is it?”

“You…it’s not…you.  You’re…”  How could he do this to her?  She had never even considered the possibility that when he told her she would see him again, it would be with a Starswirl that knew even less than before!  And he was healthier than the last time as well, which must mean he was younger.  There was only one way to explain all of this.

They were time traveling in opposite directions.

Well, Clover wasn’t time traveling in the same way as Starswirl, but the basic principle still applied.

“J-just a quick q-question.”  Her voice was shaking.  “Am I going to see you again?”

“Yes.”

There was nothing added to this answer.  No revealing inflection, no emotion, nothing.  Starswirl looked at her with concerned eyes, and Clover knew that he had been waiting for the moment when she would understand.  

“Each time we meet, I’ll know more, and you…”

“Yes.”

The same ‘yes’ again.  Clover struggled to wrap her mind around this.  He knew that this would happen, and he didn’t tell her.  ‘Might as well clue him in on that fact so nothing gets messed up.’

“You didn’t tell me.”

“I never planned on it.”  His tone was bitter, regretful.

“Wha-what?  Why not?  How could you do this to me?  I thought you’d planned on meeting me more after the last time, your next time, whatever!  I never expected…this!”

As she said this, Clover remembered her last meeting with him. 

‘I’m…I’m sorry, my dear.  I am so, so sorry…for everything that has happened and will happen.’

“But you also apologized…why not just tell me, though?”

“Because…” Clover noted the growing weakness of his voice, his eyes moistening as more and more guilt welled within him.  “Clover, I have no doubt that I’ve apologized to you already, but I have to again, and I am so, so sorry.”  He exhaled heavily as he struggled to keep his composure.

“It was too painful.  I could never bring myself to tell you, so I decided I wouldn’t.  That was selfish of me, and on top of it all, you…” He sat down on the floor and rubbed his eyes.

Clover had never seen her mentor like this before.  A tear ran down her cheek as she began to understand what he was going through.

“You…you…I’m sorry.  I can’t talk about it.  I don’t…” He let out another heavy breath followed by a light cough.  “I don’t know how you do it, Clover.  You are so much stronger than I am.”

“Do what?”  Clover was thoroughly confused.  No doubt her questions would be answered, but the most frustrating part was not being able to know when that would happen.

“Cope with…no, I can’t.  I can’t discuss it.  It might-” He chuckled again.  “It might mess with the sequence of events.”

Clover walked over to him and put a hoof on his shoulder.  “I understand,” she said softly as she helped him stand up.  “Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it when it comes.”

Starswirl suddenly pulled her into a hug.  “You’re right,” he said.  “And it seems your newfound friendship has made you very strong.”

As he let go, Clover asked, “Would you like to meet them?  Or…can you?”

Starswirl shook his head.  “Even if I could, I’m not sure I would want to.  A pony like me, doing the things I’m doing, I can’t have friends.  It would be too dangerous and too…painful.”  He looked at Clover sadly.

She decided not to pursue this.  Instead, another thought crossed her mind.  “Um, the last time I saw you, you knew about your death, but when I met you just now…” Once again, her sentence trailed off.

“I…I didn’t know.  I suppose it serves me right to find out the way I did given everything I’ve put you through.”

“It’s not your fault, and you know that.”

“Perhaps not, but it makes sense that I should die.  I haven’t been feeling well lately.  I think it’s all the time travel.  Please, Clover, you must assure me you will never use it.”

Clover nodded.  “You told me in the let…I…no, I mean, I won’t use it.  I promise.”

Starswirl looked at her for a moment, no doubt deciding whether or not to question the stuttering.  

“Oh!  I just remembered something!” said Clover, attempting to redirect the conversation.  “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about my son, would you?”

Starswirl shook his head.  “I’m sorry, but I simply don’t remember.  Something very strange happened the last time I met with him.  I think the only advice I can offer you is that you teach him the value of love.  That, and, I feel like he is incredibly important and plays a large part in many events.  Take good care of him and your daughter.”

Clover sighed.  She supposed she’d have to wait until the next time to find out.  “That’s okay, I understand.  Thank you.”

“Well, Clover, I must be going now.  There are still a few things I need to understand before I can help you.  Don’t tell me what happens, either,” he said as she opened her mouth to speak.  “We don’t know what that would do to the timeline, and me telling you not to say anything was obviously meant to happen.  I’ll have to discover it on my own.”

Clover nodded.  “Understood.  But before you go, I just have one more question.”  Clover had decided to find out what that creature was.

“That drawing on that paper…the pony.  It doesn’t look normal.”

Starswirl tensed slightly at this, and Clover was sure he was deciding whether or not it was safe to tell her.  He must have decided it was, however, as he closed his eyes and gave a short nod.  

“I’ll tell you what it is, Clover, and then I must leave.  You must never tell anypony else.  Don’t even write it in a book.  You understand?”

“Yes.”

Starswirl readied his time travel spell, eager to leave, still unsure if he should do this or not.  As the spell reached its peak, he said, “The creatures call themselves Changelings.”

And then he was gone.

> Chapter 4: Surprising Developments
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 4: Surprising Developments


Polaris sat back in his chair and rubbed his eyes, tired after another long day of research.  His wooden desk sat in front of him, a random assortment of parchment and books sitting on top of it.  The small window above yielded a rather unfriendly view of the Crystal Empire, looking just as dismal and depressing as ever.  In the distance Polaris could see the castle, which had begun to fall apart ever since his sister had left…


***


“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Why not?  He and I have been friends since we were just foals!”

“I don’t trust him.”

Equina let out a frustrated sigh.  “Polaris, he’s the son of one of our mother’s best friends.  It’s fine.”

“You don’t think it’s strange then?”

“What are you talking about?”

“The deaths…”

“Oh, here we go again…”

“I’m serious, Equina.  Those weren’t natural deaths; even mom thinks so.”

“And just what was so unnatural about them?”

“Well, our father’s is a good example.  He died in his sleep, remember?”

“So?”

“Nopony his age just dies like that.”

Equina bit her lip.  “Well, yeah, I guess that is a bit odd…but that doesn’t prove anything.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Polaris agreed.  “But it still doesn’t sit right with me.  I don’t want you to go to the castle.”

“I’m going,” Equina responded.  “It’ll be fine.  There’s nothing to worry about.”


***


Despite their argument, Equina had gone to the castle anyway.  What happened after that, he never found out, although that was the last time he ever saw his sister.  He had tried many times to get into the castle and see her, but it was too heavily guarded, and he had suspected that even his mother wouldn’t have been allowed entry, and she had been Queen Platinum’s best friend since the three tribes were still around.  Of course, there was no way to know for sure, not after…

He glanced at a small painting of his mother on his desk.  It had been done years ago, long before any of the six founders had passed away.  As he looked back out the window, he noticed that it had begun raining.  This was normal now.  Ever since his sister had gone and the Empire fell, nopony was around to raise the sun and moon.  The weather would fluctuate wildly every day.  One moment it could be bright and sunny, the next it could be a torrential downpour.  This rain seemed familiar, however…


***


“Polaris?  Can I come in?”

“Sure, mom.”

Clover gave her son a concerned look as she walked into the room.  “Is something wrong?”

“Equina’s gone to the castle.  I tried telling her about…well, you know, but she wouldn’t listen.”

Clover nodded.  “Yes, she’s very persistent.”

“But mom, I’m worried.  I mean, those deaths…they’re just not normal.”

Clover hugged her son.  “I know they’re not, but why do you think he was the one who caused them?”

“I…I don’t know.  Maybe it’s because I want it to be him, but…there was something else, something I noticed.”

“What was it, sweetie?”

‘Sweetie?’  His mother had never used such a word when talking to him, not even when he was a colt.

“One day, when I was a foal, we were all out having a picnic.  He was there, too, obviously, and I looked at him, and…it’s like something was there, right behind his eyes, just waiting.  I don’t know what, but I saw it; I know I saw it.”

Clover nodded.  “What did you see?”

‘No surprise in her voice or on her face,’ thought Polaris.  ‘Did she already know I was aware of it?’  He looked down at the floor.  “It was dark…so dark.  And so…hateful.  It hates everything, even-”

He stopped as he noticed his mother staring at him, a seemingly blank expression on her face, but Polaris knew better.  Something was wrong.

“Princess Platinum…his mother…she had a seizure during the pregnancy,” he continued, looking for some sort of obvious response from her.  “And…”

“And what?”

“And…mom?”

“Yes?”

“You’re crying.”

“What?  Oh…”  Clover wiped her eyes.  “No, I’m fine.  It’s nothing.”  Her voice was shaking slightly.

“Mom, what’s wrong?  What is it?”

“Nothing!  Nothing!  I’m alright.”

Polaris looked at her suspiciously.

“No, you’re not.  What’s wrong, mom?  You can tell me.”

Clover opened her mouth to speak, but stopped suddenly.  Her eyes went wide, and she put a hoof to her chest.  “It’s happening…” she whispered.

“What’s happening?  What is it?”  Polaris watched her in a slight state of panic as his mother’s breathing became shallower.  She tried to stand up, but collapsed onto the floor, one hoof supporting her.  Polaris kneeled down next to her.  

“What is it?”  His heartbeat increased as a knot of anxiety formed in his stomach.  “Mom, what’s happening?”

She was clearly struggling to speak.  “P-Polaris,” she said through strained breaths as she turned her head to look at him.  “I’m s-sorry…”

“Sorry for what?  What’s happening?” he asked her.  He put a hoof around her back, leaning down to get closer to her.  “Please!  Tell me what’s happening!  I can help you!  I can-” He stopped abruptly as his mother shook her head.

“No,” she said.  “There’s nothing…nothing you can do.  I…ahhhh!”  She cried out as a jolt of pain shot through her.  The hoof supporting her gave out, and Polaris caught her before her head hit the floor.  He leaned her against the bed.

“It’s…o-okay,” she said.  “It’s okay.  You-” Her eyes began to close.

“M-mom?” Polaris whispered.  His eyes were wet now.  “Mom, no…”

As if out of nowhere, it had begun raining, and Polaris sat on the floor, holding his mother as the raindrops pounded on the window.  Clover looked at him one last time and gave him a small smile, her body shaking slightly.  “You were r-right,” she whispered.

And then she was still.  Her eyes were completely closed as Polaris hugged his mother, tears streaming down his face. He stayed there like that all night, and it wouldn’t be until the morning that he would begin making his plans, for now he knew for certain that it couldn’t be anypony else.

King Sombra had destroyed his family, and Polaris vowed to make him pay.


***


Polaris shuddered slightly.  That was not a scene he enjoyed remembering, but the rain today was the cause of that.  It had been nearly half a year since his mother had passed, and with nopony else around to attend a funeral, he buried her himself, placing her body peacefully in the ground outside the rear of the house.  He had been by himself ever since then, trying to think of ways to fix things as the world around him fell apart.

At first, he had been very hopeful.  His house was filled with books about all different kinds of spells thanks to his mother.  After months of research, however, his hope had begun fading.  He hadn’t found anything.  There were, of course, no spells to bring the dead back to life; no spells to magically ‘fix’ everything.  It had occurred to him at some point to try time travel, but he hadn’t found any books on the subject, which was very strange.  He knew they had to be here.  His mother had told him about her brilliant mentor, Starswirl the Bearded, and the advancements in magic he had made, including time travel.  She had never said what he used it for, or if he used it at all, but he knew that there had to be at least one book in the house somewhere that spoke about it.

Polaris stood up and walked over to his mirror.  His black mane and tail were a disheveled mess.  There were small bags under his dark green eyes from all the lack of sleep.  His normally brown coat was becoming more and more pale.  Even his horn was looking a little discolored.  He sighed as he stared down at his cutie mark, or at least where it would be if he had one.  He was a grown stallion, and he hadn’t gotten it yet.  His sister had gotten hers at a very young age, however, and it was his mother who had coined the term.

He missed his sister very much as well, and it angered him that he wasn’t allowed in the castle just to visit her.  She was very dear to him, even though he was younger than her.  He had always felt a need to protect her.  After all, she was the only one of her kind, with both a horn and a pair of wings.


***


“Look, Polaris, look!  I got my cutie mark!”

“A what?”

“A cutie mark!  That’s what mommy calls it.”

“Oh, wow!  What is it?”

Equina unfolded her wings to show him.  “It looks like the sun and moon!  I can move them, y’know.”

“No, you can’t.  That’s the unicorns’ job!”

Equina giggled.  “Not anymore!  Now I can do it!  It’s my special talent!”

“Wow…” Polaris said.  “I wonder what my special talent will be.”


***


Ponies had come from all over the Empire to see the filly who could control the sun and moon.  Until then, there had only been earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi, but not anymore.  It had been Octan who had come up with the name for this new type of pony.  Alicorn.  Everypony had liked it, including Polaris.

He had never been jealous of his sister, either.  Jealousy was a very pointless emotion to him.  Why focus on what others can do when you can focus on making yourself better?  He had always been very happy for his sister, but now, as an adult, he wished he had at least gotten his cutie mark.  He had tried many different things, but despite how good he was at magic, nothing had ever really seemed to work.

Polaris turned away from the mirror and began walking over to the door.  It was late in the afternoon, and he hadn’t eaten anything yet.  He opened the door and jumped back in surprise.  A pony was standing outside in the hallway, his hoof in the air.  It looked like he had been just about to knock.  The pony lowered his hoof as Polaris stammered out the only questions he could think of.

“Wh-who are you?  How did you get in?”

The pony gave him a small smile.  “My name is Starswirl the Bearded.”

Polaris just stared at him.  “What?”

“My name is Starswirl.”

Polaris blinked and then reached out a hoof.

“What are you doing?”

“You…you’re not real.  You can’t be.”

“Put your hoof down, boy!  Of course I’m real!”

Polaris dropped his hoof to the ground and shook his head.  “No…no, you don’t understand.  Nopony but me lives in the Crystal Empire…and my sister, maybe.  I don’t know.”  He looked up at Starswirl.  “And you’re dead.  My mother told me you died years ago, before Equestria was even founded.”

Starswirl looked at him for a moment.  “And where is Clover?  For that matter, where is everypony?”

‘He knows my mother’s name.  Is he actually telling the truth?’

“I don’t know.  She died about six months ago, and everypony else just…disappeared.”

“Disappeared?  What does that mean?”

“They’re just…not here.  Look, I don’t really care about that right now.  How do you know my mother’s name?”

“Because I am her teacher, Starswirl the Bearded.”

“And I’m telling you that you can’t be.  She told me you died.”

“And did she perhaps mention that I experimented with time travel?”

“Yes, but…oh.  Oh!  Oh, you…”

“And there it is.  Do you understand now?”

“Where…when are you from?”

Starswirl looked up for a moment, no doubt pondering whether it would be safe to tell him or not.  “I’ve been on my journey for a few weeks now.”

“Why are you here?” he asked.

“Well…to be honest, I’m not entirely sure.  This looks like the right Crystal Empire, but something about it isn’t quite right.  There should be more…” he stopped talking suddenly.  “Did you say that Clover died?”

Polaris looked down again.  “Yes.  She had a heart attack.”

Starswirl shook his head.  “No, that’s not possible.”

“It’s true.  King Sombra killed her.”

“King Sombra?”

“You know who he is?”

Starswirl nodded.  “And I’m afraid I must leave it at that.  I’ve already interfered very much with the events of this place.  Telling the wrong pony the wrong thing at the wrong time can have serious consequences.”

“So then what are you doing here?”

“As I said, I don’t-” he stopped short as he noticed the desk on the far side of the room.

“What’s this?  You’ve been researching something.  I can tell from the state of your study area.”

“I’ve been trying to figure out…I don’t even know.  Something.  Some way to…fix all of this.  The Empire fell apart when I lost my family, and I made a promise to fix it.”

“Yes, this is certainly a problem.  It’s not the same as either of the two other versions I’ve seen, though this one is closer.”

“Two versions of what?  What are you talking about?”

“Err…never mind.  Have you found anything that may be useful?”

Polaris sighed.  “No.  I’ve thought of everything; even time travel, but I can’t find any books about it.”

“Clover spoke to you about time travel?”

“She only told me that you invented the spells for it.  I know she has the books somewhere, but she never told me where they were.”

Starswirl looked around the room.  He then walked over to the desk and looked out the window.

“Yes…” he said as he nodded.  “Yes, I think we may have no choice.”

“No choice for what?”

“I really don’t want to do this, but we have to.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I need you to concentrate.”

“Concentrate on what?”

“Close your eyes and focus.  Think back; back to the day your sister left, the exact moment if you can.  Keep that memory in your mind and don’t lose it, or we’ll be done for.”

“What are you doing?!” asked Polaris as he felt Starswirl grab his hoof.

“Focus now.  Don’t stop remembering, even for a second.  Concentrate.”

A breeze began to blow around them, even though the window was closed.  Parchment flew around the room haphazardly.  The wind picked up, blowing even faster now.  Polaris could barely hear Starswirl yell something to him as he kept focusing on the moment his sister left the house.  It had been an average day.  Bright, sunny, nothing out of the ordinary.  They had been in the living room.

“NO!” he heard Starswirl yell.  “A third pony point of view!  We don’t want to land in the middle of your house!”

Polaris instead focused on the yard behind the house.  Same day, same event, but a different place.  He concentrated as hard as he could.  The wind was whistling now.  He felt like he was floating.  Higher and higher, faster and faster.  He heard Starswirl’s horn fire off some sort of magic.

It stopped.  Polaris squinted as he opened his eyes.  The bright sun shined down onto the grass he was lying in.  Starswirl was next to him, legs outstretched, breathing heavily.  Polaris stood up.

“What…” he said as he looked around.  “Where are we?  What did you do?”  He helped Starswirl up.

“We’ve traveled in time,” he replied.  It has now been about…half a minute…since your sister…left for the castle…assuming of course…you were focusing…correctly.”

“You…you brought us back in time?” asked Polaris.  Unlike Starswirl, he wasn’t out of breath.  “Why?”

“Because I have to know…what happened.  The Crystal Empire I saw…the ponies were…gahh…I can’t tell you.  We need…to get to the castle…quickly!”

“Why?”

Starswirl just stared at him.  “Are you absolutely sure you’re Clover’s son?  Your sister is on her way to the castle, and you said that this is the day your mother died.  So let’s get to the castle to see what happened.”

Polaris gave him a look.  “Alright, I see.  But she’s already gone.  How are we going to get there before her?”

“We’ll have to teleport.  Come on.”  Starswirl stuck his hoof out.  “I really shouldn’t do this.  Teleporting two with one spell isn’t as bad as time traveling like that, but it’s still draining, especially for somepony my age.”

“Why didn’t we just time travel to a few minutes before Equina left?”

“Can you remember what happened a few minutes before she left?”

Polaris thought for a moment.  “Oh, well…not really, no.”

“That’s why.  Now, with me.  Let’s do this quickly.”

“Wait.”

“Oh, what is it now?”

“I never asked you…how did you know where to find me?”

Starswirl looked down at the ground.  “I can cast a spell to search for life signs, and…”

“And what?”

“Well, it has a limit, but it can cover the whole Empire, you know.”

“So?”

“When I casted the spell…it only found one life form.”

“Yes, me.  I’m…oh.”  

His sister.  The spell hadn’t found his sister.

“M-maybe she got away.  Maybe-” He stopped as he noticed Starswirl shaking his head.

“No, that’s not it.”

“Then what?  She died?  She died inside the castle while the rest of the world fell apart?  Is that it?”

“I…I can’t tell you.”

Polaris stamped a hoof on the ground.  “What do you mean you can’t tell me?!  That’s my sister!”

“I’m sorry, but you don’t know who I am yet, and there are certain things you shouldn’t know this early.”

“You told me your name was Starswirl.”

“Not my name, boy, me!  You don’t yet know who I am or why I’m important to you!”  He snorted.  “I’ve already told you more than I should have.  Now come on.  We’re running out of time.”

“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me exactly who you are.”

“And I’ve already said you can’t know that yet!  Just…trust me.”

“Why should I trust you?”

“Because I’m currently your only solution.  You wanted a way to fix this mess?  I can help.”

Polaris stared at him for a few moments before deciding that he was right.  “Fine.”  

He grabbed his hoof as Starswirl looked up at the castle towering high in the sky.

“One, two, three.”

There was a brief moment of weightlessness, and then Polaris felt his hooves touch the floor of the castle.  He looked around.  They were standing in the entrance hall.

“Do you know an invisibility spell?” asked Starswirl.

“Yes.”

“Do it.  I’ve used a lot of magic in the past few minutes, and I’m getting tired.”

Polaris performed the spell, removing both ponies from sight.

“Where do we go?” he asked.

“I’ve no idea.  Why was your sister coming to the castle?”

Polaris remembered now and uttered the pony’s name through gritted teeth.  “Sombra…”  It hadn’t occurred to him until now just what he could do.  He was here, right inside the castle.  He could end it before it even began.  His teeth were clenched in anger.  He wanted to find this pony.  He could very easily find this pony, the pony that was responsible for the deaths of his friends and family, the one who took his sister away from him.

“I know what you’re thinking,” said Starswirl.  “But you can’t.”

“Oh, but I can,” replied Polaris, his breathing now slightly heavier.  “I can very easily.  I could kill him right now, and then he’ll never get the chance to take my family from me.  He’s already gotten my father and the other founders.  It stops there.”

“Polaris, you can’t do that.  It’s not part of the established timeline.  We are here only to observe.  I could have easily done this without you.  I brought you along out of courtesy.”

“Courtesy?  You needed me to land at the right time.”

“Not necessarily.  I could have chosen a random point before this event and waited.  You told me everything I needed to look for, after all.”

“So then what are we going to do after we’re done observing?  How are we going to fix this?”

“I’m still working on that.  Now, where is…ah!”

Equina had just walked into the castle.

“Follow her,” Starswirl whispered to Polaris.

Quietly, the two ponies walked behind Equina as she made her way up the steps at the rear of the entrance hall and turned right.  There was a hallway in the front and more stairs to the right leading above the entrance hall.  She went up these as well.  They were now on the second floor, walking in the direction of the front doors.  There was a balcony overlooking the ground below with a table and chairs set up.  A pony was sitting on one side of the table.  His mane and tail were black, his coat gray.

“There he is…” said Polaris with a growl.

“Don’t,” replied Starswirl.

Equina walked over to the table and sat down, smiling at Sombra.  On the table were a few sandwiches and some water.  Sombra poured two glasses for them.

“That water…it looks funny,” said Polaris.

“Yes, it’s got a slightly pink tint to it,” Starswirl agreed.

“I wonder…”

Polaris began to recall all the research he had done, including books he had found on potions.  He glanced up, noticing that Equina was now resting her hoof on Sombra’s.  She took a sip of the water.

“Don’t!” yelled Polaris.  

“Shut up, you idiot!” hissed Starswirl.

Equina and Sombra both looked at the spot where the ponies were standing.  Polaris removed his invisibility spell and ran over to the balcony.

“What did you put in the water?!” he yelled at Sombra.

“Polaris, what are you doing here?” asked Equina.  “Get away from him!  We’re just eating!”

“Look at the water, sis!  It’s pink.  Why is it pink?”

“It’s just for flavoring, right?  Right?” she looked at Sombra now.  “Sombra?”

Sombra sighed.  His eyes were closed.  “This was going to be so simple.  All I wanted was your love, Equina.”
His eyes flashed green as he opened them.  He picked up Polaris with his magic and threw him onto the floor.
“And I’m going to have it.”

“No!” yelled Polaris.

“If you interfere, I will see to it that everypony in this Empire suffers!”

“I don’t care!  That’s my sister!”

Sombra gave him a dark look.

“So be it.  And you!”  He cast a spell at Starswirl, removing his invisibility.  “Don’t try anything.”

Sombra began powering up his horn.  The tip glowed red as it grew brighter and brighter.  Soon his whole horn was engulfed in a red aura.

“Hmmm, I think half the population should do.  What do you think?”

“No!” yelled Equina.

It was too late.  Sombra fired off the spell.

It rocketed out in all directions, spreading across the Empire.

“You lunatic!  What have you done?!” yelled Polaris.

“Quiet, or it’ll be the other half next.”

Polaris closed his mouth as a realization hit him.  His mother.  She might still be alive.  He turned to Starswirl.  “We have to go,” he said.

“You two aren’t going anywhere.  Especially you,” Sombra said, casting a glance at Starswirl, who was now almost right next to Polaris.  “If you move again, you’re next.”

“Don’t you do anything to them.”  Equina had stood up now, her horn glowing bright.

“I don’t think so, my dear,” said Sombra.  Quickly, he grabbed a cup of water, and fired a spell at Equina, paralyzing her.  “Drink up.”

He forced the liquid into her mouth and down her throat.

“What was that?  What did you just give her?” 

“Oh, it’s just a simple potion I cooked up, intended to make both drinkers fall in love with each other.”  He released the spell.
“Now, my dear Equina, how are you feeling?”

Equina looked up at him, her eyes glazed over.  She opened her mouth to speak.  “I…I love you…King Sombra.”

“NO!” screamed Polaris.  He lunged at Sombra but was thrown back, landing right in front of Starswirl.

“I warned you what would happen if you interfered again.  I guess you got lucky the first time, but now you won’t be.  Prepare to die.”

“Equina!” yelled Polaris.  “Equina, please!”

“Stop yelling, boy.  She doesn’t care!  Now, let’s see…”

He began charging up the same spell again.

“You just had to open your mouth, didn’t you?” said Starswirl quietly.

The spell fired off, once again spreading in all directions.  Sombra glanced over at the two ponies.

“What?!  How are you still alive?”

At that moment, Equina threw herself at Sombra.  While he had been charging his spell, she had grabbed a second glass of water and now had him pinned, holding his mouth open, her black mane blowing wildly in the wind.

“Whatever you put in that potion…” she said with a fire in her dark blue eyes.  “You’d better hope it isn’t deadly.”

With that, she forced the drink down his throat and sat back on the floor, her pupils dilated.  

“It’s time to go,” said Starswirl.

The wind picked up as he grabbed hold of Polaris.  With a sickening lurch, the two ponies were thrown forward, landing face down on the ground, in the backyard of Polaris’s home.

“Wh…where are we now?”

Starswirl looked around.  “The better question…is when are we?”

Polaris now began looking around as well.  This was not a Crystal Empire he was familiar with.  All around there were dark crystals growing out of the ground.  Small fires raged uncontrolled in the streets.  The tower castle, once shining and bright, was now dark and sinister.  All around were ponies wearing shackles, and at the center of the Empire was a giant wheel going all around the castle.  Ponies were in chains, attached to the wheel, turning it.  As Polaris and Starswirl ran out into the street, Polaris looked underneath the tower and cast a spell to enhance his vision.  The Crystal Heart was missing.


? ? ?


“Psst!  Hey!  Wake up!”

The pony tiredly rolled over on his side and slowly opened his eyes.  In the darkness of the room, he could see a white pegasus with a yellow mane standing next to his bed.

“Wha…” he said as he sat up, rubbing his eyes.  He turned to look at her.  “Oh my God.  Who are you?  What are you doing in…hang on.”  He looked around the bedroom.  “Where am I?”

“My name is Surprise!” she said.  “And right now you’re inside a house.”

“Inside a…oh, very funny.  Where exactly is the house?”  As he began to wake up more, he was able to fully realize just what was going on.  There was a talking pony standing next to his bed.  He was inside a room he had never been in before, and…he moved the bed sheets…he was a pony as well.

“How…how am I…how are you…what is going on here?”

“I can explain later, but right now we need to-”

“Look at this!  I’ve got wings!  I’m a pegasus!  I…I…who am I?”

Surprise looked at him with some concern.  “She never said it would be this bad.”

“Who said what?  How am I here…wherever this place even is?  How am I a pony?  I’m not supposed to be a pony!  I’m supposed to be a human!”  He stood up now and ran over to the open window in a panic.

“Hey, hey, hey!  Stop!  I’m supposed to bring you to-”

“The only place I want to go is back home.”

Surprise frowned.  “Well, you are home…sort of.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s…well…I can’t explain it.  But just trust me, there’s somepony who wants to meet you, and I’m supposed to bring you to her.”

“Can she fix this?”

“Absolutely!” Surprise said with a smile.  “Don’t worry!  She’ll explain everything once we get there.”

“You know…you remind me of some…pony.  Heh, that’s a little strange to say.  I’m not really used to it.”

“Really?  Who?”

“Do you know a mare by the name of Pinkie Pie?”

Surprise gasped.  “You know Pinkie Pie?”

“Well, not really.  I just know who she is, that’s all.”

Surprise nodded.  “I bet.  Anyway, we should leave.  My friend is expecting us.”

“Wait, you still haven’t told me where I am.”

“Well, follow me, and you’ll find out!” Surprise said with a smile.  She walked over to the bedroom door and opened it.  There was a hallway outside.

The pony sighed.  “Alright.  Things can’t get much weirder, I guess.  Where are we going?”

“Downstairs.”

“Down…alright then.”

Surprise led the pony out of the bedroom.  The hallway had other doors in it, no doubt leading to other bedrooms, except for the one all the way at the end.

“This is the staircase,” Surprise said as they approached it.

“This…is this a hotel?” the pony asked.  The staircase certainly made it seem that way.

“Um…kind of.  It’s…you’ll find out.”

She led him down the stairs and through the door at the bottom, but there wasn’t a hallway on the other side of this door.  It opened into a giant room, and the pony guessed it was the only room that comprised the first floor.  It looked almost like a giant office.  There were a hand-(hoof?)-ful of ponies all sitting at desks covered in paper and other office supplies.  At the back of the room was a giant blank chalkboard.

The pony was now more confused than ever.  He turned to Surprise.

“Please,” he said.  “I don’t know who you are, who I am, where I am, or what this place is.  What’s going on?”

“I’ll take it from here, Surprise.”  A new voice now came from their left.  The pony turned, and his eyes widened in shock, for he knew who this pony was…probably.

Standing in front of him was a white alicorn with blue eyes and a chestnut brown mane and tail.  At first he couldn’t believe it, but upon seeing her cutie mark, a quill, he knew it couldn’t be anypony else.

“Hello,” she said.  “My name is Lauren Faust.”

> Chapter 5: Saving the Family
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 5: Saving the Family


She had actually done it.  She had escaped.  It wasn’t like it had been a very difficult thing to do.  After all, those two idiot ponies hadn’t been expecting her to even be alive.  Yet here she was, running away from them as fast as she could, free to do as she pleased.

She really should have been looking where she was going.  A head on collision with something brought her out of her joyous thoughts, and as she looked at what, or rather who, she had crashed into, those joyous thoughts quickly turned to those of disbelief and dismay.

“How…how are you here?” she asked, the look of surprise unmistakable on her face.  “I thought I…” she glanced back through the forest she had been running through.  She would have started running again if not for a sudden drowsy sensation overcoming her.  This really wasn’t her day.  The last thing she remembered before falling asleep was feeling her head hit the soft ground.


***


“Over here.”  Starswirl gestured to an alley between two dilapidated houses.  Polaris followed him, still looking around, bewildered.

“So…when are we then?” asked Polaris.

“This is supposed to be a future version of the Crystal Empire,” answered Starswirl.

“So you brought us forward in time.  Why?”

They had reached the alley.  Starswirl turned around and shrugged.  “It was the first direction I thought of.”

Polaris thought about that.  “But…wouldn’t bringing us back in time have been better?”

“Why would that possibly have been better?” asked Starswirl as he squinted at him.

“We could have saved my family!”

Starswirl just stared at him.

“What?” asked Polaris.

“Shh!” said Starswirl with a firm shake of his head.

“I wasn’t even-”

“Shhh!”

Starswirl was silent for a few moments, eyes shut.  “I don’t understand this…” he finally mumbled.

“Me neither,” Polaris agreed.  “Sombra’s spells should have killed the entire population, so why are there ponies walking around?”

“No, no, it’s more than that,” said Starswirl shaking his head as he paced back and forth.  “Based on the events we just witnessed and…”  He looked at Polaris.  “…caused, this doesn’t make any sense.”

“What do you mean?”

“Clover…”

“She died of a heart attack that Sombra caused, remember?  She didn’t just disappear.  Shouldn’t we be focusing on how all these ponies got here anyway?”

Starswirl stopped pacing and put a hoof to his chin.  “But what if those two things were caused by the same event?”

Polaris now had a confused look on his face.  “Okay, now you’re really not making any…”

He stopped as he noticed that Starswirl was now standing at the end of the alley.  Polaris watched as a pony in shackles walked by.  Suddenly, Starswirl grabbed her hoof in his and pulled her into the alley.  “Quickly!” he whispered.  “Before you’re seen.”

“Wha-what is it?” she asked, and suddenly her eyes widened.  “Oh, no, I’ve been chosen haven’t I.  Please, I’ll do whatever you want, just don’t-”

“Quiet!” hissed Starswirl.  The pony immediately stopped talking, and she was soon surrounded by a magical glow.  “Stay still.  I’m checking for spell traces.”

A few silent moments passed before he spoke again.  “Of course,” he said finally.

“What?  What is it?” asked Polaris.  “How did all these ponies come back to life?”

Starswirl looked at the pony and then down at the ground.  “Because they were never dead to begin with.”  He looked up and turned to Polaris.  “Nopony is powerful enough to cast a spell of that nature, not even me.  I don’t yet know if Sombra was lying or if he was unaware of what the spell did, but these ponies were never dead.”

Polaris looked at the chained pony curiously.  “What exactly did it do to them then?”

“It suspended them in time.”

Polaris blinked.  “Uh, okay then.  What does that mean?”

“Basically it’s as if they were paused, frozen in the same state of being while the rest of the world kept going, except for Clover.”

“So you’re saying that the spell I caused him to use only killed my mother but ‘paused’ everypony else?  And for that matter, why weren’t you, I, or Equina affected by it?”

Starswirl was now mumbling to himself, his eyes once again shut.  Polaris turned away and sat on the ground, feeling exhausted and hungry.  He hadn’t eaten for a long time.

“Yes…” he heard Starswirl say after a few minutes.  “Yes, I think I’ve got it.”

Polaris stood up and turned around again.

“Got wha-” he stopped short.  The enslaved pony was gone.  She had run away.  “Ehh, I don’t mean to alarm you, but our friend has left.”

Starswirl’s eyes snapped open.  He quickly turned around and looked toward the street.  “We need to hurry then.  The last thing we want is to be discovered.”

“So tell me what’s going on.”

“Before I do that, I need to be sure of something.”

“And what might that be?”

“I need you to think back to your final conversation with your mother.  What was it like?”

“What do you mean what was it like?  It was horrible!”

“I mean before she started dying.  How did the conversation go?  Specifically, what sort of things was she saying?”

“Well, she…” Polaris thought about it, and the more he thought, the more he realized how strange a conversation it was.  He had replayed it in his head many times but had never thought of it in this way before.  Now that it was being brought to his attention, though…

“It was…awkward wouldn’t be the right word…”

Starswirl looked at him impatiently.  “Do try to hurry.  We may not have long before somepony finds us.”

“It’s like she was there, but not really.  Some of the things she said…she called me ‘sweetie.’  She’s never done that, and the…sort of bland way she answered what I said…it’s like she was just going through the motions, and…” he stopped now as he remembered the strangest thing of all.  “She started crying.”

“I would imagine so.  She was having a heart attack, right?”

“No, no.  She started crying…before the heart attack, almost…as if…”

“As if she knew it was going to happen,” Starswirl finished.

Polaris stared at him with a slightly horrified look on his face.  “Starswirl…what exactly is going on?”

Starswirl’s face became grim.  “Polaris, I promise you everything will be fine.”

“And how can you know that?!”

“I told you I was working on a plan, right?”

Polaris nodded.

“I’ve got one now.  Just bear with me.  It’s going to get a bit complicated.”

“Where do we start?”

“Well, you’re going to stay here while I go and get something.”

“Go and get…what are you talking about?”

Starswirl shook his head.  “It isn’t here exactly.  Just…hang on.  I’ll be right back.”

He closed his eyes as his horn lit up, and after a few seconds, he disappeared.


***


Polaris had barely taken a breath before Starswirl returned, this time with another pony.  At least, Polaris thought it was a pony.  His first thought was that it was some sort of alicorn, but then he noticed that there were holes in its blue, paper thin wings, as well as its legs, one of which had a mysterious green aura surrounding it.  Its fur and tail were completely black, even its horn, and there were fangs protruding from its mouth and horns on the top of its head.

“What is it?” he asked, noticing the creature was asleep.

Starswirl looked up and down the alley before answering.  “She has no official name yet, but she calls herself a changeling.”

“She?  Changeling?”

“Not so loud!” said Starswirl, putting a hoof over Polaris’s mouth.  “These creatures don’t exist in this time period, and we don’t want anypony to know about them except us.”

“She’s asleep.”

“Yes.”

“So you traveled in time and just…took her?”

“Well…yes, but-”

“And it seems that you’ve magically cuffed her to yourself.”

“Yes.  Just let me-”

“And that’s just okay?” 

Starswirl sensed the disapproval in Polaris’s voice.  “You don’t know the circumstances.  I do.”

Polaris looked at the changeling, and then back at Starswirl.  “Fine.  Where do they come from?”

Starswirl shook his head.  “I’ve never investigated their origin.”

“Changeling…” said Polaris.

Starswirl nodded.  “Yes, they can take on the shape of whichever pony they choose.”

“Is it permanent?”

“No, they can change back at will.”

“I see.  So…why do we need her?  Does she have a name?”

“No,” said Starswirl as he shook his head again.  “She’s nameless, but she is going to serve a very important purpose.”  He nudged the changeling with his hoof.  “Wake up.”

The changeling stirred.  She picked her head up and looked around, blinking the sleep out of her blue, empty eyes.  “Where am I?” she asked.  “Where-” she stopped as she noticed the two ponies standing in front of her. 

“Oh, no,” she said.  “I thought I-”

“Quiet!” Starswirl said sharply.  He jerked the hoof with the magical cuff around it to make her stand.  “Come with me.”
“Where are you going?” Polaris asked as Starswirl led the changeling down the alley.

“I need to have a word with her so she understands what’s happening.”

“But…I don’t even really understand what’s happening.”

“That’s alright.  It’ll be easier if I explain as we go along, anyway.”

“Explain what?”

But Starswirl didn’t answer.  Polaris watched as the two engaged in what seemed to be a slightly heated conversation.  She was arguing with him ferociously about something, and suddenly Starswirl stomped his front hooves on the ground and yelled something.  Why couldn’t he hear it?  He looked up at the sky again and took note of how dreary it was and then wandered out to the other end of the alley.  He stood there for a few moments, taking in the environment.  Ponies of all kinds walked to and fro, completely chained, and the buildings around him were worn and neglected.  He was about to turn around when something caught his eye, and when he saw it he couldn’t believe it had never occurred to him.  Two young ponies, a filly and a colt had walked by, chained together.  Polaris suddenly felt sick, his previous hunger dissipated.  Sombra was going to pay for this.

From behind him, he heard Starswirl clear his throat and turned around.

“She has agreed to help us,” Starswirl said simply.

“Help us with what?  I don’t even know what your plan is.”

Starswirl looked out at the streets, watching the enslaved ponies slowly walk by and then up at the dark, overcast sky.  He began to charge up his spell as he grabbed both the changeling’s and Polaris’s hooves.

“We’re going to save Clover.”

Starswirl cast the spell, and the three disappeared.


***


Clover sighed as she turned away from the kitchen counter.  Polaris and Equina were arguing again, and she knew exactly what it was about.  Like her son, she also wished Equina would stay away from Sombra; there was something almost…sinister about him.  Unfortunately, she had raised Equina to be persistent (and as a result, stubborn) under Starswirl’s suggestion, and the only reason she had agreed to it was because he was from her future.  If not for that fact, she most definitely would have gone about things differently.

Voices outside the window shook her from her thoughts.  Not wanting to get involved in yet another fruitless argument, Clover instead opted to use the back door to go and investigate.  These voices were arguing with each other as well, and now that she could hear them better, they also sounded very familiar.  She rounded the corner of the house, and the sight that met her eyes was confusing to say the least.

Starswirl was there.  That was normal.  She was used to his random visits by now, however it was the ponies accompanying him that made Clover wonder if she was seeing things.  Starswirl was arguing with Polaris, but that couldn’t be right because Polaris was in the living room arguing with Equina…and then there was that third pony.  As Clover got closer, she realized what it was. 

“Is…is that…”

Polaris and Starswirl stopped their bickering as they realized who had shown up.

“Starswirl…what…what’s going on?” Clover asked.

“Clover, my dear.  So good to see you again.  How have you been?”

“No, no, no…no.  What is going on here?  Why…no.  How is my son with you?”

“Clover, just let us explain.”

“Mom,” Polaris began.  “We’re here to help you.”

“Help me with what?” Clover asked indignantly.  “Why are you traveling with Starswirl?”  There was noticeable concern in her voice.

“I’m…I’m a future version of Polaris.  You see, Equina is going to go to the castle to visit Sombra in a bit, and we-”

Starswirl interrupted.  “If you explain to her what happened in that order, all it will do is cause her more confusion, Polaris.  Let me do this.”  He turned to Clover.

“It is true that Equina will go to the castle, but this is not entirely about her right now.”  He took a breath.  “You see, after she leaves, Polaris will go up to his room, concerned for his sister.  You will go in and talk to him.  Well, when I say you…”  His voice trailed off as he briefly looked down and then back at Clover again.  “Anyway, the conversation will end with your death as Sombra fires off a spell that supposedly kills everypony in the Crystal Empire.”

Clover blinked.  “I’m…I’m going to die?"

“No, you won’t.  Well…I’ll get to that in a bit, don’t worry.”  He cleared his throat.  “For six months, Polaris is going to do all sorts of research in the hopes of finding a way to reverse everything.  Meanwhile, the Empire will fall apart through neglect.”
“What happens after six months?”

Starswirl smiled.  “I arrive.  I search for life forms and only find your son.  He and I travel back in time to-”

“You only find him?  So the spell actually did kill everypony?”

“No, it didn’t.  It…” He paused.  “I’ll explain in a few seconds, but I have to finish.  We don’t have much time left.”  He looked at Polaris.  “Go to the window and tell me how the conversation is going, but make sure you aren’t seen.”

Polaris nodded and walked over to the window.  He peeked in.  Through the kitchen he could see his past self and his sister arguing heatedly.  “We’re still talking,” he called back to Starswirl.  “But all the same…”

“Yes, we should still finish soon.” Starswirl agreed, and he faced Clover again.

“Anyway, Polaris and I travel back in time to a few moments after Equina leaves for the castle.  We teleport there, and follow her up the stairs to the balcony, invisible.”

Clover nodded again.  “And you couldn’t prevent her from going because Sombra may have come looking for her.”

“Not only that, but who is she to listen to her brother, somepony she just finished arguing with, and an old pony whom she has never seen before in her life, especially with how stubborn she is.”

Clover smiled.  “I was going for perseverance when I was raising her.  Anyway, what happened…or, will happen next?”

“Our purpose there was merely to observe and come up with a plan to stop whatever events were to come, but it seems that the future I saw was in fact a direct result of the two of us being there in the first place.  Your son decided at some point it would be a good idea to reveal himself and try to stop Sombra.”

Clover glanced at Polaris, who looked down in shame.  “Mom, I’m sorry.  I just-”

“It’s alright,” said Clover as she put a hoof on her son’s cheek.  “You wanted to protect your sister.  I understand.”  She turned back to Starswirl.  “What happened next?”

“Sombra showed who he truly was and cast a spell that he claimed would kill the entire population of the Crystal Empire, you included, and he also forced Equina to drink what seemed to be a love potion.”

Clover raised an eyebrow.  “He was in love with her?”

Starswirl nodded.  “It seems so.  However, your daughter, even under the potion’s effects, found the strength to break free for a few moments and force Sombra to drink some as well.” 

“Wait a minute.  I think you’re forgetting something,” said Clover, and she looked at Polaris.  “Weren’t you ever curious as to how the two of you survived Sombra’s spell?”

“Oh, actually…yeah.”  He looked at Starswirl.  “You never answered that question.”

“You became too important to the timeline.  If your past self was to be affected by the spell, your future self could never be the reason it was cast in the first place.  It would have caused a paradox.”

Polaris was surprised to say the least, for it wasn’t Starswirl who had said all this, but Clover.

Starswirl chuckled.  “Clover, you are as brilliant as ever.”  He turned to Polaris.  “You could learn a lot from her.  She always was very, very clever.  Anyway…”  He looked at Clover again.  “Let’s finish up.”

“Polaris and I then left.  I chose a random point in time, and we ended up in a future where everypony is controlled by Sombra.”

“So then why do you have a changeling with you?”

Starswirl looked surprised.  “I told you about changelings?”

“From my perspective, yes, but I only know what they’re called and what they look like.”

“Well, Clover, this has to do with Sombra’s spell.  You see, it didn’t actually kill anypony.  Well…”

Clover nodded.  “Alright, so then what did it do?”

“It suspended the entire population of the Crystal Empire in time.  The rest of the universe kept going, but they stayed still, never living, never aging, never dying.”

“So then why did I die?”

Starswirl now turned to the changeling.  “Go ahead.”

She stepped forward, staring at Clover with her blue, empty eyes.  A green aura suddenly engulfed her, and in a few seconds it was gone.  Clover was now staring at a perfect duplicate of herself.

“As the name suggests, changelings can take on the physical appearance of whomever they choose at will and can change back at will.”

Clover just stared at the changeling, her mouth open.  “I…I…this is…this is incredible!  Where did you find her?  Are there more?  How do they-”

“Clover, I’m sorry, but I cannot answer any of those questions.  Focus now.  We’re almost out of time.”  He took another breath.

“Changelings have a self-destructive defense mechanism, almost like an allergy, to certain spells, one of which is the one Sombra used.  In the event a changeling is unable to return to its true form, it dies of a heart attack.”

“Why?  That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It’s because of how we feed.”  The changeling suddenly spoke.  Clover looked at her and saw that she had changed back.  “We gather energy from love, but only when we are in our natural form.  If we are unable to change back, our bodies prevent the long weeks of starvation, and instead we…”  Her voice cracked a bit as it trailed off, and Clover found herself feeling sorry for her.

“What?” Polaris asked.  “So you’re telling me that that conversation…all those months ago…I was talking to you?”

“Now you understand why it seemed so strange,” said Starswirl.  “I’m assuming we didn’t have much time, if any, to explain things to her.  Look inside the house.”

Polaris did just that and gasped as he peered into the living room.  “Equina and I are gone,” he said.  “We need to do this.  Now.”

“Hold on a minute,” said Clover.  She looked at the changeling.  “Isn’t there another way we could do this?”

The changeling shook her head.  “No.  You need to live.  The world will need you to live.  I am alone.  I am the only one of my kind right now, and I don’t belong here.”

Clover stepped toward her.  “But there has to be something-”

“There is no more time to discuss this.”  The changeling looked at Clover one last time before the aura covered her.  Clover was once again looking at herself.  She put her hooves on Clover’s shoulders.  “Please…make sure my death was not in vain.”

“Wait-” Clover began, but it was too late.  The changeling had disappeared.  Clover now looked at Starswirl.  “What did she mean…the world needs me to live?”

“Clover, I promise you you will find out, but right now we have to leave before our past selves discover us.  Grab my hoof.”
Reluctantly, Clover complied, and once Polaris joined in Starswirl began the spell.

“One, two, three.”


***


“Wh…where are we?” asked Clover, picking her head up off the ground.  “Oh, no…”

Starswirl was panting and coughing.  Polaris helped him up.

“Is this six months later?  Is this what it looks like?”

They were exactly where they had been standing moments ago, but everything looked different.  The streets were empty.  Houses and shops were falling apart, and the plant life had begun to grow on anything it could find.

“To be more precise…six months…and one day,” answered Starswirl through strained breaths.

“It was a definite safe point in the timeline for us to go to,” Polaris tried.  “There’s no chance of us encountering our past or future selves here.”

Starswirl nodded, still slightly struggling to breathe.  “Now you’re getting it.  Come on…we have to get…Equina.”

“No, you need to tell me exactly why that changeling had to die.”

“Clover, I can’t,” Starswirl said.  “If I tell you what happens, that may affect future events!”

“So?  That’s in the future, right?  It shouldn’t matter now.”

“But if what happens is different, then that means what I learn may be different, and as a result, what I tell you may be different.”

Clover groaned in frustration.  “Another paradox…” she muttered.  “Fine, then.  I have another question.  What were you two arguing about?”

Polaris and Starswirl looked at each other and then back at her.

“Clover, there’s nothing we can do about it now.  You must understand that.  We can’t-”

“What was it about?” Clover repeated.

“…Polaris wanted to know why we couldn’t save Octan.”

Clover looked at her son and then back at Starswirl.  “That would require another changeling, right?”

Starswirl shook his head.  “Even that wouldn’t work.  The changeling would have to die under the same circumstances as Octan, and that could never happen.”

“Why not?”

Starswirl turned to Polaris.  “Perhaps you can work it out?”

“Can’t you?”

“I already know, but I want to see if you can do it.”

“Is now really the time for this?” asked Clover, but Starswirl held up a hoof to quiet her and pointed at Polaris, who had his eyes closed.

“Let him think,” Starswirl said.

Polaris was talking to himself quietly, going over everything he had learned, in particular the knowledge he gained during those lonely six months.  After a few moments, he opened his eyes.  “A life draining spell,” he said.

Starswirl nodded.  “Exactly.”

Polaris looked down and grimaced.  “I can’t believe I never…”

“Life draining spell?” Clover repeated.

“Yes,” Polaris said as he looked at her.  “Sombra must have cast it on him toward the beginning of his life, otherwise we would have noticed something was wrong.”

“Life draining spells are really advanced magic,” Clover said.  “And hiding one is even more difficult.  How could Sombra have successfully performed one at such a young age?”

“There’s something not right with him, mom.  Dad never exhibited any signs that he was dying because the spell Sombra used prevented physical symptoms from emerging.  This goes beyond the scope of what an average unicorn can accomplish.  I don’t know exactly what’s going on with him, but I do intend to find out.”

“And this is your chance, Polaris, because now I can explain why I brought us here,” said Starswirl.  “You are going to go to the castle to rescue your sister.  Though I cannot find traces of life other than ourselves right now, I’ve no doubt that she’s still alive, and you must go and get her.”

“Hold on.  Something still doesn’t make sense.  If you can only detect the three of us right now, then what happened to Sombra?” asked Clover.

“Yeah…” Polaris added.  “Is he suspended in time, too?  Or is he dead?  Shouldn’t the spell have worn off by now?”

“I don’t know, but for some reason I cannot detect him.  Be careful when you get there, Polaris.”

Clover stepped toward her son.  “I’ll go with him.  That’s my daughter, and I’m getting her back.”

Starswirl shook his head.  “No, Clover, you cannot go with him.”

Clover was taken aback.  “What?!”

“You are much too important to risk losing right now.  There is something more urgent you are needed for.”

“And my daughter isn’t urgent enough?!”

Starswirl groaned in frustration.  “Do not forget that I am from the future!  I know what will happen and what must happen!”  He walked over to Polaris, and Clover watched as Starswirl whispered something in his ear.  After a few moments, he leaned back and said, “I’ll see you soon.  Now go!”

Polaris nodded, then took off running toward the castle.

“What was that?  What did you whisper to him?” asked Clover.

“It’s not important right now.  He knows what he has to do,” Starswirl answered.  “Now come on.  We have to-”

“No!” Clover yelled.  “I’m not having this!  I don’t care what other things I may be needed for!  My daughter comes first!”  With that, she took off running after Polaris.

Starswirl watched her for a few moments and then began casting a spell.  “I’m sorry, Clover,” he muttered, and in a moment he had teleported right in front of her.  She crashed into him, and he quickly grabbed her hoof, his horn already illuminated as he began casting the time travel spell.


***


Polaris cast an invisibility spell as he slowly approached the castle.  Starswirl had told him a few things before he had left, one of them being to remain undetected for as long as possible, which suited him just fine.  If he had to fight Sombra, he would, but now that he wasn’t important to the timeline anymore, it also meant that he could die.  The goal was to find Equina as quickly as he could and get out.

He slowly walked through the front doors and into the entrance hall.  Corridors led off to the left and right, and the steps towards the back of course led upwards onto the second floor.  Polaris decided to start searching on the balcony, the last place he had seen his sister.

As he walked up the stairs, he took note of the place.  Like the rest of the Crystal Empire, the castle had also fallen into a decrepit state.  The stone floor was chipped and cracked, and some stones had even been moved out of place to be replaced with plants.  Any tapestries or flags that were still hanging were torn and faded.  The rest lay forgotten on the floor.
Polaris reached the top of the steps and walked over to the balcony.  Equina wasn’t there, but he hadn’t expected her to be.  The table and chairs were still set up, but what Polaris found strange was that the table had been cleared.  He began to think back to when he and Starswirl first confronted Sombra.

‘There was food and drink on the table when we arrived, and it was still there even as we were leaving.  So what happened to it?  If Sombra fell under the same effects of the potion as Equina did, food shouldn’t have mattered to them.’

He turned away from the table and began walking away from the balcony when a realization hit him.

‘Wait a minute…how did I get in here?’ he asked himself, looking around.  ‘This is six months and one day after Equina left, and every time I tried to get into the castle, I couldn’t because of all the guards.’

“Gaahh!”  Polaris cried out weakly as a sharp pain shot through his head.  ‘How could there be guards if everypony was suspended in time?’  He collapsed onto the floor, holding his head, which was now splitting with pain.  ‘The Crystal Heart…what?’

Polaris yelled as a jolt of pain went through his back and spread to the rest of his body.  ‘Guards…Crystal Heart…spell…can’t get in…’  His mind was racing as he desperately tried to shake off whatever was happening to him, but it was no use.  He writhed on the floor and screamed as another wave of agony engulfed his entire body.  The last thing he saw before blacking out was a figure coming up the staircase.


***


Polaris woke with a start.  He was in a bedroom, lying on a bed, his head resting comfortably against a pillow.  There was a side table next to him with a glass of water on it.  He moved the sheets off of himself and sat up, grunting in pain.  His body still ached from…what exactly had happened to him?  He had been trying to remember how he had gotten in the castle when-

“Ah.”  A small stabbing pain in his head brought him out of his thoughts.  Maybe he would just worry about that later.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door.  

“Umm…come in?”  Polaris didn’t know where he was or how he got there anyway, so presumably this was the pony who had put him in the bed.  The door opened, and Polaris was amazed to see who it was. 

‘This must be some kind of dream.  There’s no way...’

“Dad…is that you?”

The pony stepped into the room.

“Yes, Polaris.  It’s me.”


***


“Take me back!  Take me back!  I…what…”

“Clover…” said Starswirl with a cough.

“What…what happened?”

The Crystal Empire Clover was looking at was horrifying.  As far as she could see buildings were falling apart, completely abandoned by the ponies that had once inhabited them, for they were now walking about the streets, chains around their hooves and necks.  Clover turned around and saw that they were standing across the street from her house, which was in a state similar to the rest of the Empire.

“Clover, look at me,” said Starswirl.

As Clover turned around to face her old friend, she caught a glimpse of the castle.  The once shining tower was now covered in dark crystals, and a mass of chained ponies were gathered in front of it.  Looking upwards, she could see-

“Clover!” Starswirl’s voice cut through her observations, and she turned around fully to look at him.

“What is this awful place?  Why did you bring me here?” she asked.

Starswirl stared at her for a moment before speaking.  “Clover…I’m not sure how to explain this to you.”

“Well, you can start by telling me exactly why we had to leave my son to fend for himself against Sombra.”

Starswirl shook his head.  “That’s not all that important.  Polaris is fine.  It’s…it’s you.”

Clover let out a sarcastic chuckle.  “Me.  I really don’t see why I’m so important right now.  I did everything you asked me to do.”

“And what did I ask you to do?”

“Starswirl, you know I can’t tell you that.”

“Well, I’ve got a feeling I probably told you to teach Equina the values of perseverance, and to teach Polaris the importance of love.  Am I correct?”

Clover nodded.  “If you already know, then that’s fine, but does this mean you met them in your past…my future?”

Starswirl looked down.  “Your future…”  He took a deep breath.  “Polaris and Equina are inside the house waiting for you, but listen to me.  You must not allow them to stay here.”

“What?  Why not?”

“They need to leave the Crystal Empire.  Please, Clover, trust me.  They cannot remain here.  It’s not safe.”

“They can handle themselves, though.  We can all defeat Sombra together!  We can…”  She stopped as she noticed Starswirl shaking his head again.

“It’s too late for that.  The Empire is lost, and you need to make sure-”

“What do you mean the Empire is lost?  Are you saying this can’t be fixed?”

“Not right now.  It’s not time yet.”

Clover let out another frustrated groan.  “You never make any sense!  Every time I saw you, you always told me that I would understand things later, and that never happens!  When will I get some answers?!”

Starswirl looked away from her.  “Clover…I’m sorry, but I don’t think you ever will get any answers.”

“Great.  So what are you saying?  This is the last time I’ll see you?  You’re the only one who can tell me anything, so this must be it, right?”

Starswirl picked his head up, and Clover noticed that his eyes were wet.  “I don’t know if I can do this.  Clover…” 

She looked at him inquisitively.  “Do what?  What’s-”

She was interrupted as Starswirl pulled her into a hug.  “I’m so proud of you, my student,” he said with a sob.

Clover returned the embrace.  “Why are you crying?  What’s the matter?”

“Clover, I...I know so much, and I can’t…”

Clover was slightly surprised.  This wasn’t the first time Starswirl had become teary-eyed around her, but she had never seen him cry like this before.

“Clover…” he said, trying to steady his voice.  “This is the end.  This is far as our crossed timelines go.  The two of us…right now…we’re both the most aware of what has happened and will happen.”

“What are you talking ab-”

Starswirl let her go and held his hoof up to silence her.

“The next version of me you see will be one that Polaris hasn’t met yet.”

Clover thought about this for a few moments before responding.  “Where is he from?”

“What do you mean?”

“What does he know?  What time period is he from?”

“Clover, I can’t-”

“Yes…yes you can…because I’ve worked it out…”  Clover’s eyes were now wet as well.  “I’m going to die.”  She took a shaky breath as she looked at Starswirl.  “So you can tell me…you can tell me everything because it won’t matter.”

Starswirl shook his head and put his hoof on her shoulder.  “You aren’t going to die, Clover.  That’s the whole point.  You’re going to live.”

She wiped her eyes.  “But how?  Obviously something’s coming, and whatever it is must be pretty bad.  All I want to know is why we can’t prevent it now.”

Starswirl moved his hoof up to her cheek.  “Oh, my faithful student…we just can’t.  I know what happens, and what happens must always happen.  That’s the way time works.”

“Time can’t be rewritten…”

“Exactly.”  He put his hoof back on the ground.

Clover shook her head.  “So now what?  We just…say goodbye?  I’m never going to see you again?”

“Of course you will…one last time.  Well…sort of.   But bear in mind he won’t know anything that has happened.  It will be his first trip to the Crystal Empire.  Be careful of what you tell him, Clover.”

“His first trip to the Empire will be dealing with whatever is coming to kill me?”

“And I am living proof that he survived, and I know for a fact that you…you will, too.”  Starswirl’s voice became shaky as he finished his sentence.

“Well, then.”  Clover sniffed and took a step backward.  “Until next time.”

Starswirl nodded.  “I’m looking forward to it.”

Clover watched as her long-time friend and teacher began to cast his time travel spell, assured that she would see him at least one more time, even if it wouldn’t be exactly him.

He completed the spell, and in the blink of an eye, he had disappeared.  Clover fought back tears as she began to walk across the street, understanding now why he had acted so bitter towards her the day after the Crystal Fair.

‘Each time we meet, I’ll know more, and you…’

‘Yes.’

But that was only from her perspective, of course.  Through his eyes, it was the other way around.  She had even asked him why he never told her she’d be encountering younger versions of him, and only now did his answer make perfect sense.

‘It was too painful.  I could never bring myself to tell you, so I decided I wouldn’t.  That was selfish of me, and on top of it all, you…’

Come to think of it, a lot of the second half of that conversation didn’t make much sense.  She remembered telling herself that all her questions would be answered, but when?

‘I don’t know how you do it, Clover.  You are so much stronger than I am.’

‘Do what?’

‘Cope with…no, I can’t.  I can’t discuss it.’

Cope with what, though?  Loss?  She had comforted him, and then…

‘Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it when it comes.’

And then he had hugged her.  Realization suddenly hit Clover as she understood that that Starswirl she had spoken to all those years ago was the same one she had just said goodbye to.  Whatever he had seen happen to her must have affected him so much that he was willing to lie to her over and over again just to make sure she was as content as possible, but Starswirl had told her she wasn’t going to die, so what could possibly…

Clover had reached the door at this point, now very confused.  What could be worse than death?  Or, maybe…what could hurt Starswirl more than his best student and friend dying?  Clover didn’t know, and she certainly wasn’t looking forward to finding out.


???


“You’re…you’re…I…I don’t understand,” said the pony.

Lauren smiled.  “Follow me.  I’ll explain everything to you.”  She nodded at Surprise.  “Thank you for bringing him down.”

“No problem!” Surprise answered.

Lauren now turned back to the pony.  “Do you have a name yet?”

The pony looked confused.  “What do you mean ‘yet’?  My name is…um…”  He glanced over at Surprise, who was now talking with a gray pegasus.  What was his name again?  Why couldn’t he remember?

“You don’t know your name, and let me guess.  You think you’re supposed to be a human?”

The pony looked at Lauren again.  “No, I know I’m supposed to be a human.”

Lauren shook her head.  “You’re a pony, and that’s what you’re meant to be.  Bear with me.  This is going to get confusing, so just ask questions, and I’ll answer them.”

The pony nodded.  “Alright.  Where am I?”

“You’re in a safehouse in Ponyville.”

“Okay…how did I get to Ponyville?”

She tilted her head as she thought about her answer.  “Hmm…well…you were always here.  You were just waiting to…I guess exist would be the best word.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.  How can I suddenly just start existing?  I was a human, and now I’m a pony.”

“No, not exactly.  You’re a ponysona.”

The pony blinked.  “A what?”

“Ponysona,” she repeated.  “A version of yourself inhabiting a pony body.”

“It just sounds like I’m a human that went to Ponyville.”

“Mmm…not really.  There are two ways that can happen, one where an actual human winds up in Equestria, and one where a human becomes a pony and winds up in Equestria.  Neither of those apply to you because your human self still exists somewhere else.”

The pony nodded slowly.  “Okay…I think I understand.  What am I doing here?”

“You have a strong creative connection with the pony world as a result of the stories you’re writing, but you were more drawn to this place.”

“And what exactly is this place?  I mean, I know it’s Ponyville, but…something’s different.”

Lauren nodded.  “This place reflects my original vision.  All of the characters here and the events that have happened represent what I originally intended before The Company began interfering.”

“The Company?”

“Yes.  I’m sure you’re aware of a television show called My Little Pony.”

The pony thought for a moment.  “Yeah…yeah, I think I remember that.  Why do I remember that?”

“It’s part of the knowledge you share with your ponysona.”

The pony gave her a blank look.  “Alright, wait…if I’m a pony right now, why are you still talking to me like I’m a human?”

Lauren sighed.  “The connection hasn’t been completely established yet.  Your ponysona right now is acting based on your emotions and experiences.  It doesn’t have its own personality.  That comes with time.  It doesn’t even know its own name yet.”

“So how do I help it?”

Lauren shook her head.  “There’s not much you can do.  As far as I know, it’s a process that must be completed by itself.  Your ponysona will gradually gain more and more independence of you and will eventually be able to act of its own accord.  At that point you can begin sharing experiences with each other.  Right now you’re only projecting.”

“I can’t even help it figure out its own name?”

“Well…there might be one way.  Close your eyes.  Try to relax your mind for a moment.  You should feel a sort of secondary presence there.”

The pony did as he was told.  He forgot about all his thoughts and emotions, trying to sense out this second person…pony.  A few minutes went by, and still nothing had happened.  His mind was absolutely quiet.  After a few more moments, he felt it.  It was faint, but he knew it was there.  ‘What is your name?’ he asked it.

It was silent for a few moments, and then finally…‘Webster.  My name is Webster.’

The pony opened his eyes.  “Webster,” he said.

Lauren nodded.  “Then that’s how I’ll address you from now on.  It’ll probably help speed up the connection process.  Do you have any more questions?”

“Yes.  You said that this world represents your original plans for the show before The Company started getting heavily involved.  What do you mean by that?”

“The Company discovered that my persona had a strong connection to this world, and then they discovered how to artificially recreate the connection.  They started using some of their people almost as agents to work behind the scenes and interfere with the world’s events.”

“Why would they do that?”

“To make the world more marketable.  In the beginning, most episodes of the show were based off of the writers’ creativity, but over time, as the agents started sending more and more information to this company about the world, they began finding ways to change it.”

The pony was confused.  “That doesn’t make sense.  Why go through all the trouble of actually using agents and whatnot when they could have just made up episodes by themselves?”

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out.  Derpy Hooves, the pony Surprise is talking to, is an ex-agent, as well as Doctor Whooves.”

“Are there any confirmed agents?”

“We only know two of them right now.  Their names are Lyra Heartstrings and Octavia.”

“I see…so how do I fit in to all of this?  What is my purpose?”

“As I said, you share a strong connection with the pony world, but not the one that is seen on television.  You’re more closely linked to the world I originally envisioned.”

“That’s why Surprise seemed so familiar…”

“Yes.  She was originally Pinkie Pie.  All around the safehouse and outside you’ll see ponies like that - Twilight Sparkle without wings, Rainbow Dash as an earth pony.  We believe that you might be able to change the events of the world the show is currently reflecting.”

“How?”

“You began writing while the third season of the show was being aired, and your connection was established after it ended.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that you can change events simply by writing about them.  Whatever information the company is currently gathering, however they’ve interfered, it won’t matter.  When the fourth season airs, it may not be accurate at all.”

“And how can I just make these changes?”

“A few reasons, the biggest one being the strength of your creative connection, which is not something The Company has.  The other reason is because of where you started telling your stories from.  You began at a point very early into the timeline of the pony world, and so you have the power to set up events that can happen many years down the line, so long as those events occur after the third season.”

“Wait, hold on.  How do you even know about my stories?”

“One of our agents found them and told me about them.  We’ve been waiting to be able to talk to you ever since then.”

“And I’m guessing you couldn’t contact me before now because it was too difficult.”

“Exactly.  Here it’s much easier to talk without The Company finding out, and that is also the reason why you need to be careful when you get to the time period the first three seasons take place in.”

“Why is that?”

“Anything you change during that time, the agents will know about.  They’ll find this world and this safehouse and destroy it.  The beauty of this is if you create characters or set up events in a time before the agents came, they’ll go unnoticed.”

“How do you know that?”

Lauren smiled again.  “Do you remember an episode called Hearth’s Warming Eve?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I actually had a heavy hand in the creation of that episode, and what I found was that the agents simply remembered the events of that episode happening, despite that not being the case before it was written.  How far this ability can be pushed has yet to be discovered.”

“So you really think I can do this?”

“Of course.  You’ll have plenty of help from everypony here along the way, but what’s important right now is that you just keep writing and working on completing the connection.”

The pony nodded.  “Alright.  That sounds fair enough.  What happens now?”

“I think it would be best for you to try and help Webster.  The sooner we have two of you working, the better.  If you get tired, you can go sleep in the room you were in earlier and there’s a kitchen on the far side of this room if you get hungry.  It’s night time so I wouldn’t recommend going outside just yet.”

“Okay…okay.  I just have one more question.  How do I know that any of this is real?  How do I know this is actually happening?”

Lauren thought for a moment.  “I know this is hard to accept.  Just…give it some time, and keep helping Webster.”

The pony sighed.  “Alright...I just need some time to myself.  I need to…wrap my head around this.”  He began walking back toward the stairwell.  “Thank you.”

“No, thank you,” replied Lauren as she turned and walked away.

The pony opened the door and made his way up to the second floor.  His mind raced as he walked down the hallway to the bedroom he had been in.  This was almost unreal.  A television show based off of a real world, secret agents, ‘creative connections,’ whatever that meant…he walked into the room and laid down on the bed.  Despite that he had woken up not that long ago, he couldn’t help but feel tired.  He closed his eyes and allowed his now chaotic mind to burn itself out, eventually drifting off to sleep.

> Chapter 6: Making a Mark
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 6: Making a Mark


Polaris lay in his bed, completely stunned.  Here was his father, standing in front of him, looking perfectly normal; the one pony Polaris had never though he would see here.  Starswirl must not have known about this, for he surely would have told him.  Mouth slightly agape, he spoke the only question he could think of.

“How?”

Octan gave a small chuckle, then walked over to the bed.  “Come with me,” he said, gesturing with his head to the open door.  “I’ll explain everything I know.”

Still slightly dazed, Polaris climbed slowly out of the bed and followed his father out into the hallway.  It was in the same run-down state as the rest of the castle.

“This way,” said Octan, and he began walking to the other end of the hall, which Polaris could see led to the second floor of the entrance hall.  He walked behind his father, his mind racing as it struggled to understand exactly what was going on.

Octan turned left up the stairs that led to the balcony and walked over to the table and chairs, still in the same positions as they had been before Polaris had collapsed.  He sat down in one of the chairs, and gestured for Polaris to do the same.

“Dad…” Polaris began, but quickly stopped.  It had been a long time since he’d used that word to address the pony associated with it, save for his disbelieving question a few minutes ago.  He took a deep breath and tried again.

“Dad, I-”

“Polaris…I know you have questions, and I know this is strange for you.  It’s still very odd for me as well, but I promise you I will tell you everything I know.  Please, sit.”

Polaris nodded and sat down in the seat opposite his father.  “So,” he began.  “I guess we can start with the obvious.  How are you alive?”  It couldn’t be time travel, could it?  Starswirl had explained that there was no way to save his father.

Octan took a deep breath.  “You and Equina were young.  Your mother…” he paused for a second, and Polaris noticed a slightly saddened expression come over his father’s face.

“Your mother had taken the two of you out to go shopping.  I was at home, reorganizing the library, when he appeared.”

‘Maybe it was Starswirl then,’ Polaris thought.  “Who was it?”

Octan shook his head.  “He never told me his name.”

“You didn’t ask?”

“I did…but he said that soon his name wouldn’t matter anymore…I can tell you what he looked like, though.”

Polaris was a bit perplexed.  Starswirl never struck him as the kind of pony that was hesitant to give out his name, even if he was, for good reason, apprehensive when it came to answering questions about himself.  He nodded.  “Okay.”

“This creature had a very long, skinny body, almost like a snake. He stood about nine feet tall on two legs, one of which was a lizard’s, the other one a goat’s.  The top half of him was gray, the bottom half was brown, and he had a short red tail at the end.  His right wing was-”

“Okay, stop,” Polaris interrupted, and his father looked at him, the slightest hint of surprise on his face.  Polaris, on the other hoof, wore an expression of disapproval.  The thoughts in his head had come to a skidding halt as his father began describing the creature, and though the sights he had seen recently were hardly to be believed in and of themselves, this was not something he was willing to just accept.

“I’ve been through a serious ordeal, especially within the past few hours,” he continued.  “But even after everything that’s happened to me, I just can’t believe a being like that exists.  It sounds ridiculous.”

His father frowned.  “Well, I won’t finish describing him, then, but the general idea is that he looked like he was made of all sorts of different animals combined.  A few of them were some I’ve never even seen before.”

Polaris blinked.  Surely his own father wouldn’t make something like this up…

“Where is Sombra?” he asked.

“I’m getting there.  First, just let me-”

“How do I know you’re actually my father?”

Octan looked at him, the surprised expression on his face now much more pronounced.  “Polaris, I…of course I am…I know this is strange, but-”

“Stop, okay?  This isn’t as simple as me just believing everything you say.  I’ve learned more today than I ever have, and one thing I learned is that nothing can be trusted.  How do I know you’re actually you?  How do I know you’re not a…” He couldn’t finish his question.  Did his father even know about changelings?  What if he didn’t?  He’d have to explain what they are and how he knew about them, and then what if that had consequences of its own?  Polaris looked down.  Was this what Starswirl went through every time he had a conversation with one of them?  Carefully planning every word he said, calculating all of his answers so as not to upset any established events?

“A what?”  His father’s voice shook him from his speculations.

Polaris shook his head.  “N-nothing.  Just…when we’re done here I’d like to see Sombra.  What did this creature want with you?”

Octan was slightly shocked.  Was this his son now?  What had happened to him?  How could a colt that was so bright and cheerful grow into a stallion this…cold?  What exactly had happened to him?  Hesitantly, he began speaking again.

“He…told me that I was dying…Queen Platinum’s son had secretly cast a life-draining spell on me.  At first, I didn’t believe him.  I could hardly believe my own eyes, but he explained things to me, and we made a deal.”

“What did he explain to you?  What kind of deal?”

“Well…showed would be a more accurate word.  Before I could protest, he had taken me through time to…umm…my funeral.  It was only a year in advance.”

Polaris looked down as he remembered the day in question.  It was a day like any other…warm, slightly sunny, a small breeze every now and then…nothing unordinary…except of course for the events happening that day – the eulogy, the casket being lowered into the ground, his mother and sister crying, and the faintest feeling within himself that something just wasn’t quite right…

“He offered me a chance to see my two foals again,” Octan continued.  “My daughter for six months, and my son for a brief period of time.”  He chuckled.  “I guess he was right.”

Polaris looked up at his father inquisitively.  “You were here for six months?”

“Who else do you think took care of your sister?” Octan answered nonchalantly.

“What are you talking about?”

“Polaris, you saw what that potion did do her.  Believe me, her recovery from it was not an easy process to go through.”

“Alright, but…the Crystal Heart…mph,” Polaris tenderly touched his head as it twinged.  “Never mind…what was his end of the deal?”

“Hold on…do you know what the Crystal Heart can do?  Do you know what happened to you?”

“Not…really,” Polaris replied vacantly.  “I just remember wondering how I got in here if the castle was being guarded, and…then…I guess I passed out?”

Octan nodded.  “I can explain that.  The creature told me some things about the Crystal Heart most ponies don’t know.”

“Like what?”

“Well, you’ve probably already figured out that the castle was never being guarded by ponies, but you thought it was, didn’t you.”

Polaris remembered the revelation he had what he assumed was a few hours ago and nodded.  “Why, though?  Why do I remember something that never happened?”

“It’s a sort of…foolproof defense the Crystal Heart uses.  In the event it becomes endangered, it will modify the memory of anypony that wanders too close to it so that they’ll just…go away.  Completely harmless…unless that pony remembers.”

“I remembered…” Polaris said.  ‘That explains the splitting pain I experienced earlier.’  “Why did it let me in now and not before?” he continued.  “I tried to get into the castle many times during the six months I was alone.  Why now?”

“That I don’t know.  The creature didn’t tell me.”

Polaris sat back in his seat as he took this in, trying to think of an explanation.  ‘What if it had let me in the first time I tried?  I would have met with my father, gotten Equina, and…’  Then what?  Stayed in the Crystal Empire?  What if she had wanted to leave?  What if he had never met Starswirl?  Sombra never would have cast the spell that caused all this, Equina would have become a victim of the love potion, and then…who knows?  And what of his mother?

“A paradox…” he muttered.

“Paradox?” his father echoed.  “What are you talking about?”

“It had to be now…it could only ever be now.  Any time before now was too soon.”

“What does that mean, son?  You’re not making sense.”

A hint of a smile found its way onto Polaris’s face.  So this was what it felt like to know what others didn’t.  Choosing his words carefully, he answered his father’s question.

“Dad, I…don’t think I can tell you what’s happened to me because it might…upset things.  I’ve…I’ve traveled through time a bit with Starswirl-”

Octan’s ears perked up at that name.

“-and we sort of accidentally caused and prevented certain events…really, really important events.”

Octan blinked.  “You met Starswirl?  Clover told me-”

Polaris held up his hoof, but made a mental note of his father’s reaction before continuing.  “Point being if I had been allowed into the castle at any time before now, it would have changed a lot of things…probably for the worse.  The Crystal Heart knew exactly when to let me in, and for similar reasons, I’m assuming you could never get out?”

Octan only stared at his son.  The last time he had seen him, he had only been a young colt…and now here he was, independent and responsible.  A sense of extreme pride came over him, and he realized that his eyes were glistening.  He quickly rubbed them and cleared his throat, deciding not to push the Starswirl issue.

“No, I…I couldn’t.  The Crystal Heart only modified my memory once, and after I realized what it had done, I had a reaction similar to yours.  That was the first and last time I tried to leave.”

Polaris nodded faintly.  ‘I wonder if the heart blocked Starswirl’s life detection spell.  It would explain why he wasn’t able to sense Equina, Sombra, or my dad the day I first met him.’  “Something is still bothering me, though.  Something I saw…”  He let his gaze drift away from his father and off into the distance of the Empire.  Slowly, he scanned the empty streets, taking note of the desolate buildings lining each one.  After a few moments, he found the two he was looking for – the two houses adjacent to the alley he and Starswirl had decided to hide in.  ‘But what did I see before that?’ he asked himself, slightly annoyed.  ‘I saw…I saw…I saw…’ Images flashed through his mind now.  Sombra casting the spell, Starswirl grabbing him, a street filled with enslaved ponies, the Crystal Heart missing…

“What did you see?” Octan’s voice interrupted.

“The Crystal Heart…” Polaris absentmindedly answered.  ‘How could I have…oh, but of course I forgot.’  That clever little rock, always making sure it wasn’t noticed by the wrong pony at the wrong moment.  It had reached out across the fabric of time to make him forget about it and focus on the more important tasks.  Only that could explain why he never mentioned it to Starswirl.  Polaris let out a small chuckle.  “I don’t even remember forgetting…”  He looked back at his father.  “The Crystal Heart is safe, correct?”

“Yes, but…what did you see?”

“I…I can’t tell you, dad.  I’m sorry.  I might be able to, but you have to finish your story first.”

Octan stared at his son quizzically.  “Okay, then.  Well, I believed the strange creature after seeing myself…you know.  He explained to me that in the more distant future, Sombra would take over the Crystal Empire as a tyrannical ruler, but not before he and Equina became victims of one of his own devices.  I was to look after Equina until you showed up to take her back.”

“But where is Sombra?”

“I…I don’t know.”

“You don’t know,” Polaris repeated coldly.

“When the creature brought me to this castle six months ago, they were here, right here, on the balcony, still under the effects of the potion.”

Polaris didn’t like where this was going.  “Dad,” he said, the nervousness prevalent in his voice.  “Tell me exactly what happened.”

“I…I didn’t know what to do.  I knew I had to get them away from each other quickly-”

“Why?” asked Polaris urgently, a sick knot forming in his stomach.

Realization struck Octan, and he hastily quelled his son’s anxiety.  “Polaris…nothing happened…I promise you.  There’s no way I would have allowed that…although I was almost too late.”

Polaris gave him a hard stare.  “You’re sure-”

“Yes,” Octan replied quickly.  “I grabbed Equina and teleported her to a random spot in the castle.”

Polaris let out a relieved breath as he relaxed.  “You know how to teleport?” he asked, slightly surprised.

Octan smiled.  “Your mother taught me.  She knew how to do it months and months before she met me…even told me she did it once accidentally as a filly when she got lost in the woods.  She’s such an amazing pony…”  He shook his head abruptly.  “Anyway, Sombra always somehow found us after a few minutes, and keeping Equina from escaping was proving to be a challenge as well, but eventually, he just gave up.”

Polaris was skeptical of this.  “He quit?  Just like that?  That doesn’t seem like him…”

“Well, the stranger thing is that around that same time, Equina seemed to become normal again, like the potion had worn off.”

Polaris had been staring intently at the table, pondering why Sombra would just forfeit the chase, but this information brought him back to the conversation.

“Say that again.”

“It…was…like the potion had worn off,” Octan repeated, slightly confused.

“Dad, where is Equina?”

“She’s fine.  She’s sleeping in one of the bedrooms on the first floor.  I didn’t want to wake her just yet because I wanted us to talk first.”

The knot in Polaris’s stomach was forming again, his heart rate increasing.  “Take me to her.  Now.”  There was a demanding, yet shaky tone in his voice, a combination of anxiousness and…fear.

Polaris was truly, properly frightened.  Sombra was no longer under the potion’s effects and hadn’t been for quite some time apparently, his father had no idea where he was, Equina wasn’t being monitored, and now, on top of all that, he was in the castle as well.  Never would there be a better opportunity for Sombra to not only kill off a majority of his family, but rewrite history, too.  Polaris had gathered that his father would have to be returned to the correct point in the timeline…and then pretend for a year that nothing happened.  If Sombra killed him now, he would never be able to go back.  He quickly stood up from the table and began walking away.

“Polaris, are you alright?”

“Dad, you don’t understand what we’re up against.  We need to find Equina.  Right now.”

“I told you she’s…she’s…umm…”

Polaris whirled around.  Standing next to his father was the very creature he had described to him, and it was holding on to his hoof.

“Hey!” Polaris yelled to it.  “What are you doing here?!  You can’t take him back yet!”

Octan looked up at him.  “I still need to give it to him,” he said, which the creature responded to with a short nod.

“What are you giving to me?” Polaris asked as his father walked over to him.

“Do you know how to perform a storage spell?” Octan asked.

Polaris nodded.  He’d learned about those during his months of research as well.

“Good.  I’m told that what I’m about to give you must stay safe.”

“Why?  Who told you?  Oh…” Polaris said as Octan glanced briefly back to the creature.  He turned his head back.

“Here.”  A small object appeared next to his ear.  Polaris looked at it closely.  “Is that…”

“A scale, yes; it’s a lizard’s scale.”

“Why would I need that?”

Octan shook his head.  “I don’t know, but you need to keep it safe.”

Polaris performed the storage spell on the scale, removing it from sight.  “Dad…” he began.  “I’m not going to see you again, am I.”  He was trying to stay as calm as possible, but his grief was beginning to surface, causing his voice to shake a little.

Octan gave Polaris a sad smile as he pulled him into a hug.  “It’s alright, son…no matter what happens, I know you’ll make me proud.”  As he let go, Polaris noticed that his eyes were wet.

“Wait…you didn’t say goodbye to Equina.”

His father sighed.  “I’m out of time…Polaris, tell her…tell her that I…” his words failed him as he struggled to keep his composure.

“As soon as I find her, dad,” Polaris said.

Octan nodded at the creature, who at this point had walked over to him.  Fighting back tears of his own, Polaris looked at it as it again took his father’s hoof in its claw.

‘Strange,’ Polaris thought.  ‘He almost seems sad.’  His mouth was forming a small frown, and his eyes were squinting slightly, as if trying to fight back tears.  Polaris looked right into them.  They seemed so strange, and yet…

“What’s your name?” he asked, a small sense of awe coming over him.  “Who are you?”

The creature stared at him sadly for a few more moments before answering.  “I’ll see you soon.”

“Wait!” Polaris yelled as he galloped towards the pair, but it was too late.  In an instant they had disappeared.  He let out a frustrated groan and bucked one of the chairs with his hind legs.  It crashed into the table, which fell over onto its side, causing a loud clattering sound to echo throughout the entrance hall.

It had been brief, but just for a moment, looking at the creature, Polaris could have sworn he saw…what was that?  A strange object was now sitting on the floor a few feet in front of him.  He walked over to it curiously.

It was a feather; a long, gray feather.  Polaris picked it up and examined it closely.  The vane on its left side was shredded and frayed, and yet something about it seemed familiar…  He might have spent more time pondering it, but at that moment he remembered something more urgent.  “Equina.”  He quickly performed a storage spell on the feather as well and raced down the first set of steps leading to the T-shaped stairs against the back wall, continuing to run until he was on the first floor of the entrance hall.  He remembered that the bedrooms were on the same side of the castle on all floors and made a left when he reached the bottom.  He was about to walk over to the hallway when something caught his eye; or rather, a lack of something.  The doors of the castle had been left open from when he had entered, and looking through the large doorway, he could see the pedestal the Crystal Heart sat on.  At least, it would be sitting on it if it weren’t for the fact that it was missing.

A cold shiver ran down his spine, and he cast an invisibility spell on himself as he began walking down the hallway.  Sombra definitely knew he was here.  There was no doubt about it.

His father hadn’t said which room Equina was in, so he decided to just try all of them.  The closest bedroom to him was the first one on the left.  Cautiously, he opened the door and slowly peeked his head inside. A chest of drawers sat up against the wall next to the door, two small lanterns sitting on top of it, the only source of light within the room.  Across from them against the other wall was a small side table and an empty bed.  Polaris closed the door and turned around.  Was it just his imagination, or did the hallway seem longer than before?

The next bedroom was also on the left side.  Just as carefully as before, he opened the door.  Inside was…the same bedroom…the exact same bedroom as the first one.   A pang of nervousness shot through his chest, and he closed this door as well, turning to continue down the hallway once again.  Much to his dismay, the next bedroom door was on the same side of the hallway as the previous two.

Fear slowly began overtaking his mind and body as he quickly trotted over to the next door.  Throwing caution to the wind, he forcefully pushed it open with his front hooves.  The room inside was, as expected, the exact same as the first two.  Polaris began to feel sick.  His breathing became heavier, and a bead of sweat found its way down his face.  Nearly stumbling over his own hooves, he turned away from the door, not even bothering to close it and tried to peer down the other end of the hallway, back towards the entrance hall.  There was just one small problem.

The entrance hall was gone.  It had been replaced by a seemingly endless void of darkness, and Polaris certainly wasn’t going to try stepping through it.  He turned around to face the other way, only to find that the rest of the hallway had met a similar fate.

Polaris gulped as he came to terms with the fact that there was now only one place left to go.  He had no idea what might happen to him if he stepped into the room, but he had no choice.  Shaking slightly, he pushed the door open all the way and stepped into the room.  A loud banging sound from behind him made him jump.  Slowly, he turned around.

The door had closed itself.  He didn’t bother trying to open it; it was probably locked, and even if it wasn’t there was no point going back outside.  He faced the interior of the room again and took note of the missing bed.  The lighting of the room was dimmer as well, a result, Polaris observed, of one of the lanterns’ flames extinguishing.  He slowly walked over to where the bed had been, an ever-growing sense of dread creeping into his mind, and the slight drop in temperature accompanied by just the faintest hint of wind did little to remedy this.

Darkness.  The other lantern had gone out now as well.  He was locked completely alone in a pitch black room with no idea as to where his sister or his enemy might be.  He turned back to face the center of the room as another, slightly more palpable breeze wove its way through his coat.  It was at this point that Polaris now realized just how eerily quiet it was, the only audible sound being his own quick, uneasy breaths.  Frantically, he scanned the room, desperate for some source of light, and, much to his surprise, one presented itself.

A few feet in front of him, reaching down from what he assumed to be the ceiling, was a tiny, conical beam of light.  It illuminated a miniscule section of the floor, and Polaris decided to chance walking towards it.  His heart still thumping, he stepped forward, his hooves emitting a small clacking sound as they made contact with the stone floor.  As he approached it, he thought he noticed it become wider and brighter, until finally he stood directly under it, both he and the floor beneath him fully illuminated.  He stood there for a few moments, savoring the calm that this light was bringing him.  His breathing was slowly returning to a normal pace, as was his heart, and the slight shaking of his front legs had all but completely dissipated.

This, unfortunately, was short-lived, for at that moment, a violent breeze entered the room, accompanied by a brilliant flash of light.  Almost blinded, Polaris quickly squeezed his eyes shut, letting out a brief grunt of discomfort as he lifted a hoof over his eyes and staggered backwards, nearly falling to the floor in the process.   Collecting himself, he turned around, mane and tail whipping wildly in all directions.  The light was dying down, and through his partially restored vision, he thought he could make out a figure standing a few feet away from him.

Polaris could tell that he was no longer inside the castle, and when his pupils readjusted themselves, he discovered that he was, in fact, standing on what seemed to be the top of the castle’s tower, essentially a giant, circular crystal enclosed by several thin, crystalline pillars, allowing for a view of the Empire and the lands beyond.  What most concerned him, however, was the white pony on the far side of the tower lying on the ground.  She was engulfed in some sort of magic field, and she seemed to be unconscious.

“Oh, no,” he said as he began running towards her.  He had barely taken two steps, however, when a blast of magic exploded in front of him, leaving a scorch mark on the ground.  Polaris let out a short yell and stumbled back, looking around frantically.

“Not another step,” said a stern voice.  As the dust from the impact began clearing, Polaris could see who the voice was coming from, and he did his best to hide the chill going through his spine.

He was standing there, as menacing as ever, his red eyes glaring at Polaris, his teeth slightly bared.  Polaris let out the breath he had been holding in and did his best to gather himself.  Starswirl had said there was a good chance he’d encounter Sombra, but he never said anything about how to defeat him.  Furthermore, the explosion hadn’t woken his sister, and Polaris deduced that the field engulfing her was sound-proof, much like the spell he had seen Starswirl use earlier.  He choose his words carefully as he looked away and answered.

“I’m here to get my sister back.”

Sombra looked surprised.  “Your sister?  I have the Crystal Heart, I have the power to kill you where you stand, I know for a fact you have nopony else to help you, and the first thing you’re worried about is your sister?”

Polaris took a step toward him.  “That’s right.  I’m going to take Equina back from you, and then I’m going to defeat you.”
No sooner were the words out of his mouth than he found himself hanging upside down about twenty feet above the floor of the tower.  Polaris took deep breaths as he struggled to keep his panic under control and concentrated.

“I could kill you right now!” Sombra called up to him.  “I don’t even have to do it with a spell!  I could just drop you over the edge of the tower and let you plummet to your death!”

Polaris was barely listening.  His eyes were closed as he focused his mind.  He was thinking of a specific location in space, a very specific location.  His horn began to glow.

“What are you doing?” Sombra yelled.  “I know you can’t save yourself.  You don’t even have your Mark yet.  I think I’ll just end this.  I’m already getting bored with you.”

Polaris opened his eyes as the light emanating from his horn intensified.  “Go ahead!” he called down to Sombra.  “Let me go!”

The result of his demand nearly ended his spell right then and there as he felt himself be forcefully pulled over the edge of the tower.  He was now looking at the ground, a considerably higher distance than before.  He closed his eyes again and braced himself.

The magic supporting him suddenly disappeared, and Polaris, for the first time in his life, felt the full sensation of falling.  As the ground beneath him came closer and closer, his horn finally illuminated completely as he focused on the same spot he had just been standing in.  Moments before his inevitable impact, he felt a massive jerk on his entire body, and suddenly he was standing face to face with Sombra.  He had done it.  He had actually teleported.  The only downside to it was Sombra’s reaction.

The whites of his eyes were turning green, his jet black mane blowing everywhere as the wind picked up.  Polaris could tell that Sombra was angry, and he braced himself for whatever was coming.

A stunning spell hit him square in the head.  Polaris reeled back in pain as he smacked up against one of the pillars and fell to the ground.  The right side of his body now sore, he picked himself up and turned to face Sombra again.

A dark blue aura suddenly covered his head, and it slowly became more difficult for him to breathe.  A suffocation spell; he had read about them just a few weeks ago.  The only problem was remembering the counter before he ran out of air.  He racked his brain as he took as many shallow breaths as possible.  From the corner of his eyes he could see Sombra staring at him, most likely just waiting for him to die.  He had to hurry.  The spell didn’t require much space, and he was rapidly running out of air.  Suffocation spells…where had he read about them?  He closed his eyes and thought as hard as he could, inhaling a massive amount of air as well.  He needed all the time he could get.

‘Counter spell…counter spell…something with the horn.  It’s not a spell exactly, but…rrgh...what was it?’  His lungs were beginning to cramp as he struggled to remember, and his forehoof began tapping lightly as his body involuntarily found a way to express his extreme discomfort.  ‘Come on…come on…I know this…’  His lungs were screaming now; his insides felt like they were about to explode, and…

That was it.  Concentrating as much as he could, Polaris channeled his remaining air up to his horn.  After a few short moments, it burst outward, and the spell around him shattered.  Polaris gasped as fresh air entered his lungs, collapsing on the ground as his legs gave out.  His eyes scanned the area, and he groaned in frustration as Sombra walked over to him.

“So…it seems you’re smarter than you look,” he said.  “Tell me…why don’t you have your Mark yet?”

Polaris coughed.  “I’m going…to stop you…” he said between breaths.

Sombra frowned.  “I don’t think so.  Look at you.  You can barely breathe.”  He leaned his head down toward Polaris.  “You are weak.  How do you plan on stopping me like this, hm?”  Sombra’s horn glowed again, this time casting a spell on its owner.  Green light now surrounded his two front hooves.

Polaris wasn’t prepared for what came next.  In one swift motion, Sombra raised his front hooves and stomped on his ribs, a sickening crack emanating from his side.  He screamed, his breathing now much quicker as tears welled in his eyes.  “This could have been so much easier for you,” Sombra half-whispered to him.  “I was willing to just end it quickly and not make you suffer.”  He picked up his left hoof and began pressing it against Polaris’s head, squeezing it against the ground.  “The Crystal Empire and your sister both belong to me now.”

Polaris’s eyes began to close as Sombra pressed harder against his head.  He struggled to remain conscious, to no avail, and as everything around him faded to black, a memory surfaced within his mind; a lesson his mother had taught him.

It was a bright, sunny day.  Polaris was a young colt, his sister just a bit older.  They were outside in the yard with their mother tending to the small garden along the back wall their father had been working on.  It had only been a few weeks since his passing.

Polaris walked over to a patch of roses in the corner, his mother and Equina on the other side of the yard.  ‘Wow,’ he thought to himself as he stared at the vibrant flowers.  ‘Dad sure was good at this.’

He decided to take one out of the ground.  He quickly glanced over his shoulder to make sure his mother and sister wouldn’t see him before reaching his hooves to one of the roses.  Carefully, he began to pull it.

“Polaris, what are you doing?”

Polaris jumped and quickly let go.  He turned around to see his mother standing right behind him.  “Sorry, I was just…um…”

“You like the roses?”

“Mhmm.”

“You like the way they look and smell?”

Polaris nodded as his mother sat down next to him.  She pulled a rose out of the ground with her magic and levitated towards them.

“Mom?” Polaris asked, confused.

“If you pick a flower, eventually, it withers and dies,” Clover said.  Polaris watched the rose as Clover’s magic caused it to shrivel up.  It hung limp in the air now, all color drained from it.

“So if you love a flower, you should let it be.  Love is about appreciation, not possession.”

Polaris watched as his mother moved the dead flower over to the rooted ones and set it down in the dirt.  He looked up at her and nodded.

“Mom?”

“Mmm?”

“Did you pick dad?”

Even as young as he was, Polaris could see his mother trying to hide her pain.  Her eyes went wide for a brief second before returning to normal, and her breathing became shallow.  She quickly looked down.

“Polaris, could you go inside?  I’ll…I’ll be in in a minute.”

“Alright.”  Polaris stood up and began walking toward the house.  His mother was sitting in front of the roses, staring at them.  He reached the door, but as he was about to open it, he heard her quietly say something.

“I’m so sorry.”

Polaris slowly opened his eyes.  The memory of that day and his new understanding of it had given him back a small amount of energy.  He glanced around.  Sombra had walked away from him and over to Equina, presumably because he thought he was dead.  Close to his head he saw the scale and feather.  The storage spell must have broken when he passed out.  It required a negligible amount of energy to sustain, and Polaris reasoned that he must have really been about to die.

The memory. Appreciation, not possession.  He chuckled.  A jolt of pain went through his side as he did so.  Now Sombra really was going to hurt him.  Speaking of which…

Sombra had heard him.  In an instant, he had teleported over to him.  “You’re alive?!”

Polaris coughed.  “Yes, I am…and you’re wrong, by the way.”

“What are you talking about?”

Polaris spoke through strained breaths.  “You said once…that you just wanted her to love you…but she never will.”  Sombra’s eyes suddenly flared up, and Polaris decided to speak with more caution.  “Because you…don’t understand…love…I do.”  As he spoke he noticed that his horn was beginning to glow.  “My mother…taught me…an important lesson.”  Now his horn was really illuminating, the golden light beaming from it engulfing the scale and feather as well.  They began spinning together rapidly, until they were just a blur, two objects becoming one.  Polaris could feel warmth coming from them and began to stand.  Clumsily, he got on his two front hooves and put some weight on them.  Sombra was staring at him, completely ignoring the spell.

Polaris nodded to Equina.  “Look at her…do you really think…she’ll ever…love you?”  As he spoke these words, the aura coming off of his horn suddenly exploded and traveled to the scale and feather.  They shot up into the air, sparking off bits of magic and spinning madly, until finally, there was a huge flash of blinding white light.  For the second time, Polaris was nearly blinded, and he shut his eyes immediately.

The light died down much quicker this time, and he shivered as a breeze went through his fur.  At least, he thought it was a breeze.  Something about it wasn’t quite right.  He glanced upward from where he lay, and his gasp sent another wave of pain through his side.  Sombra, meanwhile, had had a similar reaction.  He was staring, mouth agape, eyes wide open at the sky, for the creature that was currently hovering above them was unlike anything either of them had seen before.

It was about the size of three ponies put together, completely covered in green scales, its eyes in the shape of a vertical ellipse.  On the ends of its four legs were sharp claws, and its tail moved menacingly back and forth, the end of it stopping about a foot away from its large wings at the end of each swinging arc.  There were several conspicuous scales lining its back and tail and a forked tongue hanging just slightly out of its mouth amongst many sharp teeth.

Without warning, the creature turned its head towards the sky and let out a roar, an enormous jet of fire shooting forcefully out of its mouth.  It extended far above their heads before tapering off into a brilliant orange and white cloud that hung in the sky over the tower.  It jerked its head back toward the castle tower, narrowing its eyes at Sombra, its black pupils glinting in the light coming off of the cloud of fire above it.

If it hadn’t been for the tingling sensation coming from both his back legs, Polaris probably would have kept staring at it.  Instead, he looked down and could hardly believe his eyes.  As he finished standing up, his legs shaking slightly from the weight, he gazed with amazement at his left rear leg.  After all these years, his Mark had finally appeared, and the creature above his head could barely compare to what it was showing.  It looked like a random assortment of all sorts of body parts; arms, legs, claws, tails, wings, all attached to one generic body shape in the center, as though it couldn’t quite decide what it wanted to be, though it lacked the snake-like structure of the creature his father had been visited by.

What was perhaps most confusing about his cutie mark, however, was the very obvious question mark floating above the creature.  Polaris had no idea what it was doing there or what it could possibly mean, but he decided he’d have to worry about it later.  He looked over at Sombra, who seemed almost immobilized.  The creature had begun to descend, its mighty wings stirring up a large wind as it came closer to the top of the tower.

Its tail slammed down behind it as its four claws collided thunderously with the floor.  Polaris felt a hint of pain go through his side as a vibration shook the tower.  He looked at it closely.  This had come from a feather and a scale?  And what was that spell he had accidentally done?  He eyed it inquisitively, visually examining as much as he could. 

Suddenly, the creature turned to face Sombra, its tail kicking up a small amount of dust as it swayed slowly across the floor.  It let out a snort, and Sombra slowly began backing away from it.  It turned its head around, its narrow gaze aimed at Polaris and then back to Sombra as it followed him towards the edge of the tower.  He jumped slightly as he backed up into a pillar, glancing briefly behind himself.  There was nowhere else to go unless he teleported.  Growling, the creature bared its teeth and lifted one of its claws, but before it could attack, Sombra vanished and reappeared behind it.  As if it had been expecting this, the beast turned around, a massive flame exploding out of its mouth.  Sombra shielded himself from it; or rather, he tried to.  After a few seconds, the fire began breaking through his spell, the beast walking closer and closer to him.

Polaris could see Sombra struggling, but it was no use.  His shield broke, and at that very moment, the beast let up its fire, and, in one swift motion, spun around.  Polaris watched as its tail dragged on the ground, and at the very last moment, lifted up slightly, smacking Sombra directly in the side.  He went skidding across the floor and off the edge of the tower, completely silent.  The beast let out a triumphant snort of smoke and turned to Equina, who was still trapped in Sombra’s spell.  It reached out, its claw passing seamlessly through the spell.  Delicately, it picked her up and pulled her out.  The moment this happened, Equina woke up, and upon seeing what was happening to her, let out a piercing scream.  She fired a spell directly at the creature’s chest, to no avail.  The spell merely dissipated, leaving it unharmed.

‘Magic doesn’t affect it?’ Polaris asked himself before addressing a more pressing issue.  “Equina!  Equina!  It’s alright!”

Hearing her brother’s voice calmed her down a bit, and she allowed the giant claw holding her to place her gently on the ground in front of it.  Polaris ran over to her, and she fell against him, shaking with tears.  He put a comforting hoof around her.  “It’s alright, now…you’re fine…you’re okay….shhhh.”

A sudden strong gust of wind caused them both to look up.  The creature had taken flight, soaring off into the now almost pitch-black sky.  They watched it for a few moments before turning to face each other.

“Equina, I…I’m sorry I couldn’t come sooner…I tried for months-”

“What…what was that thing?”  Her voice was weak.

“I…I don’t know.”

“Where are we?  Where’s dad?”

“He…he had to go…couldn’t say goodbye…I’m sorry.”

Her face fell with the delivery of his words, and she looked at the floor.  “I...I won't see him again, will I.”

“I'm sorry...there was nothing we could do.  He wanted me to tell you…he loves you, Equina, and he’s going to miss you so much…” 
Equina gave a few small nods and sniffed.

“Look...” Polaris continued.  “We need to get out of here.  I don’t think Sombra’s gone, and-”

“How right you are.”

The voice had come from behind them.  Grimacing, Polaris turned around.  Sombra wasn’t looking very good.  There were small cuts all over his ragged coat, accompanied by several bruises.

“We’re leaving,” Polaris said.  “I already know what happens, and I know that I don’t have to beat you here.”

Sombra opened his mouth to respond, but at that moment, a pony materialized in front of them.  “You!” Sombra yelled.

It was Starswirl.  Ignoring Sombra, he ran over to Equina and Polaris.

“Hey, I remember you,” Equina began.  “You were there when we-”

“No time.  With me.”

“Equina, his hoof,” Polaris said quickly as he took Starswirl’s hoof in his own.

“What?  Why?  What’s-”

Starswirl interrupted her again by grabbing her hoof instead, and hurriedly began casting his spell.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Sombra growled as he began charging a spell of his own, but he was too late; the three of them had disappeared.

> Chapter 7: The Empire Falls
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 7: The Empire Falls


Polaris stumbled forward as the spell threw him forcefully into whatever time period Starswirl had chosen.  He turned around and held out a hoof to his sister, who was lying on the ground, not very well acquainted with the jarring turbulence that was a side effect of traveling through time.

“Are you okay?” he asked her as she stood up.

“Polaris…you need to tell me…what’s going on.”  Equina’s broken speech was an indication of how panicked she was, as well as her breaths, which were quickening in pace.  “He…he found me and he…there was nopony there…and then you and that…what was that thing…it had wings and it was so big and it just…it flew away and…oh…”  She suddenly noticed the markings on Polaris’ flank.  “You got your cutie mark…when did that happen…where are we?”

Starswirl had heard this and, with some struggle, picked himself up off the ground, coughing as he did so.  “You…your Mark?  It appeared?  I always…wondered…”

“Yeah, I don’t really think that’s important right now,” Polaris answered as he looked around, still holding his sister’s hoof.  “Are you alright by the way?” he asked him.

“I’m fine,” he answered, clearing his throat.  “It’s…the spell…it’s only meant…for one pony.”

Polaris half-nodded, still surveying their surroundings.  They were in an alleyway, but when…

At that moment a pony in chains walked by the alley, answering his unspoken question.  ‘Something familiar about her, though…’  He quickly shook this thought away and turned his full attention back to his sister.

“It’s okay…come here…you’re alright.”  Carefully, he helped her sit down against the wall of one of the buildings.
“Polaris…what happened…I don’t know...”

“I’ll explain everything soon, I promise.  Just…try to relax for a bit.”

Starswirl was standing at the end of the alley leading to the street, and Polaris now walked over to him.  “What next?” he asked.

“Your mother and I will be arriving in a few hours,” he answered, staring across the street.  “You’ll have some time to console Equina and explain to her what happened, but be careful with what you say.  Thankfully, she’s the least involved in all of this, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem…but better safe than sorry.”

“That’s…not exactly the answer I was hoping for.”

Starswirl shrugged a bit.  “I’m sorry to disappoint you.”

Polaris let out a half frustrated sigh.  “What do we do now?  How are we going to defeat Sombra?”

“Rather curious, your Mark…cutie mark your mother calls it, correct?  Tell me…what was the name of that giant creature?”  He was completely ignoring the question.

“I don’t know or care right now.  What do we do next?”

Starswirl looked to the ground behind him.  “Equina,” he said, and she looked up.  “I don’t believe we’ve properly met.  My name is Starswirl the Bearded.”

Equina’s eyes widened slightly.  “Mom talked about you…but she said…she said that you…died…”

Starswirl smiled a little.  “Well…yes and no.  I time travel, you see.  It’s how I was able to get the three of us off of that tower before.  I’m simply a younger version that hasn’t…died…yet.”

Equina merely nodded as Polaris cut in.  “Give me an answer now.  What’s going to happen, and why don’t you want to tell me?”  His voice had become much sterner.

Starswirl again paid him no mind.  “And now that we’ve been introduced, I’m afraid I must say goodbye.”

“No,” Polaris said.  “No, you’re not.”

Now Starswirl looked back at him, staring into his eyes.  Polaris had been about to ask him his question again, but something caught his attention.  At first, Polaris wasn’t sure he was seeing correctly, but there was something very familiar hidden in Starswirl’s gaze, something he had seen before, but that was impossible.  The last time this happened to him, he was just a young colt.  Surely it…no.  This was unmistakable.  Though he had sensed this sinister energy in Sombra so many years ago, there was no doubt in his mind that he was seeing it again now.

That same energy; dark, malevolent, and angry, though what he was seeing here was by no means as bad as what he had seen with Sombra, for it felt like a mere shell of what it had been… and there was something else as well...something new.  Frantic, random, and chaotic; this was certainly unexpected, and not nearly as suppressed as he felt it should have been…and all this coupled with a crushing weight of despair and grief.  What exactly had this pony gone through?  This sadness he was sensing seemed familiar as well…

Starswirl placed a hoof on his shoulder, bringing him out of his thoughts.  Smiling, he stepped back as he began his spell and uttered his goodbye, a goodbye that left Polaris completely speechless.

“I’ll see you soon.”


***


“Wait…I’m confused…where did the feather and scale come from?”

Polaris sighed as he leaned back in the chair he was in.  Not a minute after entering the house, he remembered how long it had been since he had last eaten, and Equina, hearing her brother’s protesting stomach, quickly prepared some small sandwiches and tea.  The two of them had then sat down in the living room, where a grateful Polaris hastily wolfed down a majority of the sandwiches.  Equina waited patiently as her brother ate, and within a few minutes was given an answer as to why he was so hungry in the first place, after which Polaris told her everything that had happened to him – his six months of complete isolation, watching the empire fall apart as the weather and night and day cycles became more and more random, Starswirl finding him and taking him to the castle, the changeling taking the place of their mother, the regrettably brief time he had spent with their father, and his pitiful battle against Sombra.  Polaris left out nothing, having decided that whatever was going to happen couldn’t affect anything that had already taken place.  For the past few hours of his life he had felt as though he had been tossed around, jumping from this time period to that, twisting and entangling the timeline within itself into one complex, yet perfectly rational knot, and now he, his sister, and his mother had arrived on the other side of it.  It was late evening now; Equina had decided to try setting the sun for the first time in many weeks.

“I told you.  Dad gave me the scale, and the feather…was just sort of there.  The…creature took dad back to his own time, and when they disappeared, there was a feather on the floor.”

“But…where did dad get the scale from?”

Polaris shook his head.  “I don’t know exactly.  The creature definitely gave it to him, but-”
“Would you stop calling it that?  It has a name, right?”

“He…”

“What?”

“He…never told anypony what it was.”  ‘Or at the very least, he never told dad what it was.’

“He?”

Polaris nodded.  “That’s how dad referred to him.”

“Hmmm…”

“Equina?”

“Yeah?”

“There’s something we need to talk about.”

“Alright.”

Polaris paused and looked down, contemplating his question.  What he was thinking wasn’t a pleasant thought at all, especially not for his sister.  There had been a small period of time where she was alone with Sombra and completely unable to defend herself.  What if he had…

No…for some reason, Polaris couldn’t bring himself to accept that conclusion.  Evil and loathsome as he was, Sombra still did love Equina.  There was something else, though…

‘It hates everything, even…’

He blinked as the memory of the night the changeling died randomly surface in his mind.  He had been about to tell her what he really thought was going on with Sombra but stopped himself when he noticed her staring at him.  Even what, though?  What had he been about to-

‘itself.’

“What?”

‘It hates everything, even itself.’

Polaris grimaced; self-hate, that was it.  Whatever this dark energy was, it hated everything it knew about, including its own existence, and it would never want to make more of itself, assuming that was possible…  But how did it come to exist in the first place?  And what was it doing here?

“I said alright.”  His sister’s voice jerked him from his thoughts.

“Huh?”

“You said ‘what’ and I told you I said alright.”

“No I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did.  What did you want to talk about?”

“Uhh, nothing.  Never mind.”  ‘There’s no sense scaring her over this if it’s not even true.’

“Okay…I guess…” Ordinarily, she would have argued with him, but she was quite exhausted after what she had been through and opted instead to ask him something she thought would be more interesting.  “So…what exactly was that ‘beast thing,’ as you put it?”

Polaris now looked at her.  “I…I don’t know.  I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, not even in books.”

Equina nodded thoughtfully and took a sip of her tea.  “You said that the feather and scale sort of combined together with the magic coming from your horn, right?”

“Yes.”

“And then there was a huge flash of light, and it was just hovering in the air?”

“Yeah, I figured that the scale and feather are what created it…and I guess the spell.  I don’t even know how I did that.  I was sort of…monologuing.”

“Monologuing,” Equina echoed, a small smile on her face.

“Just a bit,” Polaris said with a chuckle.  “I’m lucky I was able to speak at all.”

Equina nodded.  “So what are you going to call it?”

“What do you mean?”

Equina set her mug down.  “Well, obviously, it’s not something anypony has seen before, right?  That must mean it’s a new form of life, and since you created it, I think you should name it, too.”

“I…guess so…” Polaris said.  “But I’ve got no idea what to call it.”

Equina put a hoof to her chin.  “Well…think about what it looks like or what it does.  You said it breathed fire, right?”

“Yeah, so…maybe…firebird?”

“Firebird.”

“That’s not good at all, is it.”

“No,” Equina said as she giggled.  “That thing is way more dangerous than a plain old bird.”

Polaris sighed and rubbed his eyes.  “I don’t know then.  Maybe-”

He stopped short when he heard a voice come from the front of the house.  “Equina?  Polaris?”

“Must be mom,” Equina said quietly, and the two of them quickly got up and walked to the front room.  Their mother was standing there; she had let herself in.

“Mom,” Equina said, her voice weakening as she ran to her.

Clover smiled as she returned the tight embrace of her daughter.  “I’m so glad you’re safe.”

“Polaris saved me after dad left.”

“Your father?” Clover asked as Equina let go.

“Long story mom,” said Polaris.  “You know most of it, but there’s a couple of things I should tell you.”

Clover nodded as she looked at her son, taking notice of his cutie mark.  “What’s that for?” she asked, pointing at it.

“I’m…not sure exactly.  Let’s go to the living room.”

Thankfully, Polaris just had to tell his mother what happened after the two of them separated, and so it took merely a few short minutes before she was all caught up.

“It just flew away, huh?” Clover said when he had finished.

“Yeah…I’m a little uneasy about that…not too sure Equestria needs a giant fire-breathing beast flying around in the sky.”

“Yes…fire-breathing…” Clover said absently.  “I think I…oh, of course!”

“What, what is it?” Equina asked.

“I’ve seen that kind of creature before!  In one of Starswirl’s books!”

“In one of…so that means they did exist before the one I made, right?” Polaris asked, but Clover shook her head.

“It was in the same book that talked about Windigoes and Changelings…there was no name or description, just a drawing, but that was definitely it.  I wondered where he could have seen something like that.”

“But mom, he…he didn’t show up until it was gone.”

“Hmm…maybe he saw it some other time then.  Did you…”  Clover stopped talking.  She had been about to ask if the creature had a name or not, but a sudden thought had come to her.  ‘Should we really just be sitting here talking like this?  Something really bad is going to happen soon.  Shouldn’t we be preparing ourselves?  What are we doing?’

“Did I what mom?”

“Oh…never mind,” Clover answered.  “I was just thinking about something…I’ll be right back.”  With that, she stood up and began walking towards the stairs.  She needed a few minutes to organize her thoughts.

“Are you alright?” Equina asked her mother, who was now halfway up the stairs.

“Yes, I’m alright.  I just need to think.  I’ll be back in a minute, I promise.”

She continued up the steps and turned left into the library where she began pacing, a pastime of hers whenever she was working something out.  This time was just a little different however.

‘Why didn’t Starswirl just send them away himself?’ she began.  ‘Better yet, why not just bring them out of the Crystal Empire?  What happens now?  Why are the three of us here?’  She understood that Starswirl couldn’t bring them to a different time period; that might have had serious repercussions on the timeline, but why bring them back home?  Unless…oh…

They had to say goodbye.  He was giving them some time to spend together before they’d never see each other again, and based on what Polaris had told her, she was pretty certain she knew what was going to happen.

It had to be Sombra.  He was going to find them somehow; she was sure of it.  The fact that Starswirl had unintentionally (or perhaps not) made them nearly untraceable by dropping them to random points in time didn’t matter.  Somehow, Sombra was still going to show up, but something else didn’t quite make sense either.  Where did the enslaved ponies come in?  How did that happen to them?  She felt a pang of guilt as the realization that the chained-up ponies she had seen outside were the same ones her and her friends had found a safe, new land for all those years ago…

With some reluctance, she shook this thought from her head and instead focused on the Crystal Empire’s timeline.  From a linear perspective, it would appear as though Polaris had spent six months by himself and then one day later went to the castle to get his sister, but as Clover struggled with this information, something else Polaris had told her presented itself as well; something about…

The Crystal Heart.  Polaris hadn’t gotten that back from Sombra, who no doubt had used it somehow to enslave everypony.  They had to get it back, but Starswirl made it sound like that wasn’t even an option the last time he spoke with her.  Clover put the Crystal Heart issue to the side and focused on that conversation instead.  Unsure of what exactly she was looking for, she simply chose a random place to start and went from there.

“…what did I ask you to do?”

“Starswirl, you know I can’t tell you that.”

“Well, I’ve got a feeling I probably told you to teach Equina the values of perseverance, and to teach Polaris the importance of love.  Am I correct?”

“If you already know, then that’s fine, but does this mean you met them in your past…my future?”

Could this mean what she thought it meant?  Had Starswirl encountered the two of them sometime in the future?  It was the only explanation Clover could think of.  As if to confirm her theory, another sentence echoed in her mind.

"The next version of me you see will be one that Polaris hasn’t met yet."

But something about it was just a bit…off.  Presumably, the next Starswirl to arrive would be from sometime in Equestria’s future, but what if only a part of that sentence had been referring to the future?  In her head she repeated the sentence differently.

‘The next version of me you see will be one that Polaris hasn’t met…yet.’

Now that was interesting.  With that extra pause in there, it made much more sense.  Starswirl would be showing up at some point, and that particular Starswirl would be one that Polaris, the one downstairs, hadn’t encountered yet, which confirmed what she had been thinking before.

‘That’s why they need to leave.’

Clover stopped pacing and looked at the large collection of books and scrolls in front of her.  She sighed heavily.  Perhaps it wouldn’t matter that she had to get rid of all of them.  If she was going to die, it’s not like she’d miss them.

A glass jar sat on the floor next to the shelf closest to the door; the same jar she had used when she first left with Platinum to find a new land.  Heavy hearted, she casted a duplication spell on it.  Now two empty jars were on the floor.

“Mom?”  Equina’s voice carried up the staircase.  Clover ignored her as her heart sank even further, afraid that any attempts at answering would render her a sobbing mess.

The next thing to take care of was Starswirl’s books on time travel.  She had hidden them well.  With everything she knew how to do, a storage spell was easy to maintain.  She ended it now, and several books came into view, falling to the floor with a soft thud.

“Mom, are you alright?”  Again, Clover ignored her; she was almost done now.

The next step was to duplicate the entire book collection, but first it had to be shrunk.  Luckily, she had gotten much better at that since the last time, and effortlessly shrunk the books and scrolls to pebble size.  The shelves were now empty, and a pile of years’ worth of research, both on her and Starswirl’s part, was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room.  Clover copied this pile as well and placed one in each of the jars.  There was a chance the spell didn’t affect each book, but as long as at least one of everything there existed, she’d be happy.  She simply couldn’t risk all of her and Starswirl’s hard work being destroyed.

Carrying the two jars with her magic, she made her way back down the staircase.  Polaris and Equina had stood up, no doubt having agreed to go and see what their mother was doing.  Clover tried not to notice the small looks of confusion on their faces.

“Equina, Polaris…these are for you.”

“What are they?” Equina asked.

“All of our books and scrolls; everything I got from Starswirl, and everything I learned for myself.”

Polaris looked perplexed to say the least.  “You’re giving these to us?  Why?”

Clover inhaled through her nose and steadied her voice.  “Because…you have to leave.  Starswirl told me it’s not safe…and that you two had to go.”

“Why, mom? What’s going on?”

“I asked him a similar question, Equina,” Polaris answered.  “He wouldn’t tell me.”

“I figured it out while I was upstairs,” Clover said, keeping her best composure.

“Figured what out?” Equina asked.  “What’s going to happen?”

Polaris thought hard about what it could have been, and almost immediately his mind was a blur of thoughts.  In a few seconds he realized that Sombra still had the Crystal Heart and a few short moments later connected that to its absence the first time he had come here with Starswirl, and-

Sombra again.  Was he coming here?  He couldn’t be.  From a bystander’s perspective, the three of them were simply popping in and out of existence, especially his mother, but…what if Sombra still knew where to find them?

“Mom, what is it?"  Equina persisted.  "What's going on?”

“I’ll tell you what’s going on!” a voice yelled.

Clover barely had time to cast a shield spell around the three of them before the front wall of the living room exploded, sending wood and glass flying everywhere.

“What’s going on is that you three thought you could hide from me by jumping to random points in time with that old idiot!”  Through the dust, Clover could barely make out the unmistakable shape of the pony.

It was Sombra of course.  He was hovering in the air over the hole he had created in the house.  Clover ended her spell as the dust cleared, coughing a bit as she stood up.

“Ah, Clover!  I was hoping you’d be here!  It’s a shame your friend wasn’t smart enough to think of a shield spell when I did the same thing to her barn!  Then again, I suppose she couldn’t considering she was just a worthless earth pony!”

Clover fought back the bitter memories of the empty casket funeral as the only question she wanted an answer to came tumbling out of her mouth.  “How did you find us?”

“One of my scouts,” said Sombra as he landed.  “She came to me a few days ago and told me that she had been walking down the street when suddenly a very old pony grabbed her, pulled her into an alley, and performed a magic tracing spell on her.  She said that this pony was accompanied by another one…without his Mark.”

Sombra now glared at Polaris.  “But I suppose that’s now been fixed, now, hasn’t it.  I told her to inform me if she saw those two ponies again, and it just so happens that she did…today, in fact, and there was a third one with them this time; one with both wings and a horn.”

Polaris closed his eyes in anger.  The pony he had seen walking by the alley earlier; that’s why she had seemed so familiar.

“The three of you really should have been more careful.  Did it not once occur to you just how much you would stand out?  An old pony, a young pony, and a pony with wings and a horn, none of whom are wearing cuffs or chains of any kind, all just standing around in an alleyway?  Did you think nopony would notice?”

Polaris’ anger only grew more, and Clover decided to cast an invisibility spell around the three of them.  “You two need to go,” she whispered, her voice shaking through held back tears.  “Take the jars.”

“Don’t think going invisible will save you!”  Sombra yelled.

“We can’t just leave you, mom,” Equina said as she stored her jar away.

“Out the back door.  I’ll distract him.  Just…go…please,” Clover answered, wiping her wet eyes.  Her children pulled her into a hug.

“Mom, we don’t have to go,” Polaris said.

'You aren’t going to die, Clover.  That’s the whole point.  You’re going to live.'

Starswirl’s voice echoed in her mind as she hugged her two foals tighter.  She didn’t see how she was going to survive this unless she somehow defeated Sombra, and it didn’t look like that was going to happen.  If her friends were still with her, she was sure they could have found a way, but by herself…

“I’m so sorry Polaris.  You do.  You have to-”

“No, I mean…look.”

They let go of each other, and Clover turned around.  Standing behind Sombra was-

“Is that…” Polaris whispered, and at that moment he suddenly became aware that they were very visible.  Sombra had broken the spell, but it looked right now as though the three of them were the least of his problems.

“But Polaris, this is what you-” Clover began.

“I’m not sure what the two of you are going on about, but you’re welcome to keep talking so long as you die,” Sombra interrupted.

“I believe they’re talking about me.”

Out of the shadows the figure stepped, and Sombra turned to face him, his short lived expression of disbelief turning to one of…recognition.  “I know who you are,” he growled.  “Even though you’ve changed, I still know who you are.  I can feel it, and…” Sombra looked up at the creature’s face.  “Your eyes are still the same.”  

Clover gasped as she looked at the creature now, noticing all of its mismatched limbs and remembering what Polaris had told her.  Her gaze wandered up the creature's serpentine body and stopped when she was met with a pair of amber eyes.

“S…Starswirl?”

The creature looked at her now as it raised up one of its arms.

‘I’ll see you soon…’ Polaris thought to himself.

There was a snapping sound, and Sombra crumpled onto the floor.

“How…how did you…do that?” Equina asked, staring at Sombra.  “Is he…dead?”

The thing that was Starswirl shook his head.  “I can fight him, but I can never defeat him.”

“Why not?” Polaris asked as he walked over to his mother to help her.

“He is a victim…a victim of something I helped create…and unfortunately it isn’t something I can beat…because it also lives within me.”  As he finished his sentence he looked at Polaris, who nodded in understanding.

“What are you talking ab-”

“Clover, I told you to make them leave.”

“I was trying to, but then Sombra-”

“Okay, what exactly is going on here?” Equina asked.

“This is…this is Starswirl,” Polaris answered.

“That’s…but what…what happened to you?”

Starswirl closed his eyes for a second before answering.  “This body…is my fault.  It’s what happens when you focus too heavily on if you can do something, rather than if you should.  My vanity prevented me from seeing what was going to happen…now I must live with the consequences.  Very soon my mind will be lost to it; I don’t have much time.”

“What is it?” Clover asked.

“Chaos in its physical form.  There’s no official name of course; no other creature like it exists…I call it draconequus…just something I threw together.  It won’t matter anymore, though.  Soon this body will belong to the mind of a-”

He stopped short, having noticed that Sombra was no longer on the ground.

“Clover-”

Too late.  From the other side of the house came the unmistakable sound of magical discharge, and a dark blue jet of light flew across the room.

Time seemed to slow down as Polaris watched the spell hit his mother square in the chest.  She cried out in pain as it knocked her forcefully onto the ground.  He barely heard his sister’s scream over his own as he ran to her.  She was coughing and breathing heavily, tears in her eyes.

He kneeled down next to her, Equina at his side within a second.  “Mom, mom…it’s alright…you’re alright.  You’re gonna be okay.  Help me!” he yelled to Starswirl, but it was no use.  He was heavily engaged in a battle with Sombra.

“Putting me to sleep?  How long did you think that was going to work?” Polaris heard him yell, but he barely paid mind to it.  
With  a great deal of difficulty, Clover reached up with both her shaking hooves and wrapped them around her children, pulling them in close.  “Equina…Polaris…I’m so proud of both of you…”

“Mom, no…mom, please…you can’t.”  Equina pleaded with her desperately.  “Just…just stop it now.  You can’t!  You can’t-”  She was silenced with a hoof on her lips.  In the background they could hear the sounds of magic spells being fired off.

A trickle of blood left Clover’s mouth as she coughed again.  “Equina…you have to be strong…remember…to always be strong…and never…give up…”

“No…” Equina whispered.  “Mom, please…there must be something…”

“Polaris…” she started as she let out another cough.  “Never forget…to always love…”

Polaris had been struggling to speak up to this point.  “I can’t…” he barely said as he looked into his mother’s eyes.  “I can’t…do this.”  His voice cracked a bit as he let out a sob.  “Mom…I lost you…once...I can't...again…please...we can…h-help…you…” His broken speech turned to tears as he rested his head on his mother’s dying body.

And suddenly, she was gone.  Polaris’ head hit the…that didn’t feel like the floor.  He sat up and rubbed his wet eyes to clear his vision.

He was in a field.  There was grass underneath him.  His mother, Equina, Starswirl, and Sombra were gone.  Slowly he stood, feeling something build within him as a small wind hit his mane.  He was completely alone.

“No…no, no no no.”  He paced around frantically, the knot of anxiety in his stomach as tight as it had ever been.  “No…please…please…”  His pacing turned into hoof stomping, and after a few more seconds of this, he let go.

He fell to his knees and screamed as long and as loud as he could.  He didn’t care who heard him; he was pure, unfiltered emotion.  He beat the ground with his front hooves again and again, yelling the entire time, until the grass began to wear away, and he started hitting dirt.  Tears once again screwed up his vision as his lungs emptied completely.  Broken and exhausted, he collapsed on the ground and cried until he finally fell asleep.

And many miles away, the first alicorn in existence received a final glimpse from the edge of a forest as an evil, tyrannical pony, enraged by his defeat, casted a spell she had seen used only twice before and removed, right before her teary eyes, himself and her home from existence.

> Chapter 8: Separated
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 8: Separated


Equina sighed as she sat down and took a sip of her tea.  The sound of rustling leaves met her ears as a small breeze blew through her mane.  She grimaced; the tea was bitter, but that couldn’t be helped.  She had no sugar to use.  Even her seat was nothing more than a small tree stump.  Carefully, Equina tried to grab the teacup with her hoof, but it was still too hot.

She set the cup down next to her and stretched, looking over to her right at the same time to admire her work.  Four stone walls formed a square room sat in a treeless area of the forest very close to her.  It was about the size of one of the bedrooms in the Crystal Castle.

The castle…she shuddered and tried to force herself not to think about it, but she couldn’t.  Three weeks; it had been three weeks by her estimate since…her thoughts came to a halt as she struggled against the sudden build-up of tears in her eyes.

‘Stop this,’ she thought to herself; she hated thinking about it, and, hastily wiping her eyes, shifted her thoughts to something else.

She needed an easier way to get stone blocks.  A reshaping spell she had found in one of the books she had with her had helped her with the room she had built, but the process was slow and didn’t result in many useable stones; she was going to need a lot if she wanted a castle.

She smiled to herself at the thought of this.  It was going to be great living in a castle that she built all by herself.  After all, she was a princess.



***



Polaris struggled to keep running as his stomach began cramping up.  It was right behind him, and he knew that if he stopped for just a moment, he was dead.  Leaves kicked up behind and to the side of him as he ran through the forest, frantically dodging trees and rocks in a seemingly vain effort to run from the beast that was chasing him.  He glanced behind himself briefly to get an idea of how close it was and almost immediately wished he hadn’t.

It was racing after him as fast as it could, its four large claws sending up small explosions of leaves, dirt and rock as they smashed into the ground.  Any branches that were in its way were either torn off or burnt to a crisp as it chased him.  Its mouth opened wide and let out a bone-chilling roar.  Polaris looked back in front of him, but it was too late.  He tripped over a fallen tree and fell over himself, tumbling a few feet forward before landing painfully on his back.

The beast had caught up to him now, and he sat up to face it as it walked slowly closer to him, baring its many sharp teeth.  It spread its wings and crouched down low, almost crawling to him, licking its lips with its forked tongue.  Polaris watched as the leaves behind it were launched into the air as its tail dragged on the ground.

Dragged on…

Drag on…

Dragon.

It was inches from him now as it opened its mouth.

‘It’s called a dragon.’

He could see the fire building in its throat.  It was going to cook him.  His heart felt as though it would burst out of his chest.  He raised his hooves up to shield himself as the dragon exhaled its flames.  He screamed in agony as it consumed him, searing his fur and skin and boiling his blood.  He rolled over and landed on the floor.

Polaris opened his eyes.  He was staring at the ceiling, his breaths heavy and loud.  Slowly, he sat up and looked around.  His bed and door were on either side of him, and he leaned back against his bed, breathing a sigh of relief.  After a few minutes, he stood up, his shaking legs barely supporting him.  He was sweating and his mane was a complete mess.  Carefully, he made his way out of his room as he began to remember his nightmare.

‘Dragon.’

As he thought about the creature’s mannerisms and appearance, he realized how appropriate a word this sounded, yet he couldn’t figure out why.  It just seemed to fit.

“Dragon.”

It sounded so…dangerous; a majestic, yet fearsome creature, capable of shooting white-hot fire right out of its very mouth.  As he made his way into the kitchen, he noticed, through a hole in the wall he hoped would someday have a window, that it was still dark out.  He sighed; it hadn’t been the first night he had lost sleep, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.  He rubbed his eyes tiredly as he lit the candle sitting on the kitchen table.  He knew it wasn’t right to use magic in such a lazy way, but a straight month of insomnia had taken its toll on him.

He pulled out the only chair he had and sat down in it, resting his head in his hooves and rubbing his temples in a half-hearted attempt to wake himself up more quickly.  He remembered reading about an awakening spell in one of the books he had with him, but even if he could remember it, he probably still wouldn’t use it.  It was a crude use of magic and was really only meant for the most desperate of situations.  On top of that, he had had to cut down a regrettable number of trees using magic in order to build the small house he was now living in, and that was abuse enough.

His head slowly began to clear, and he started to think about what he was going to do that day; after finishing his house a few days ago, he had rested as much as possible and been generally unproductive, but now boredom was beginning to set in.  He slowly stood up, his legs still a little shaky and looked into the living room at the books that his mother had given him.

His mother…

Suddenly, he felt very sick; like a switch inside him had been turned on.  In perfect synchronization, his breathing and heartbeat steadily quickened.  His pupils dilated, and he began sweating again.

‘No!’ he scolded himself, struggling through a frenzy of racing flashbacks.  ‘You’re not doing this now!  It’s been almost a week since the last time!’  He focused on his breathing and did his best to get it under control.  He kneeled down, supporting himself on his front hooves, and, after a few strained moments, he slowed his breathing down.  The most help, however, came from a source that, on the very first night of his second isolation, had given him a small ray of hope.

Through the hole in the wall, Polaris could see that the sunrise had started, and there was only one pony he knew of that was capable of doing that.



***



‘I like this forest,’ Equina thought to herself as she sat in the kitchen of the nearly finished castle.  ‘I like it a lot.’  It was quite beautiful, especially now that it was autumn.  Brightly colored leaves covered the trees and ground, giving the forest an almost magical glow.

Three months on her own…three months of pure isolation with nothing but the sounds of nature and her occasional spoken word to meet her ears.  She had a lot of time to think now, and lately her thoughts had been focusing on her father.  ‘It’s been a really long time…I wish I could visit you…’

She had also thought about Sombra a few times, though that never lasted long.  It wasn’t enough to say that she’d never stop hating him.  As far as she was concerned, ponies like him didn’t deserve to live.  During her first few days alone, when she had been particularly distressed, she had made a ‘list of traits’ she felt Sombra had as an attempt to try and vent her emotions: cruelty, deceptiveness, treachery, selfishness, anger…the list went on and on.  She had even put something on there about how easy it was for him to take the Crystal Heart.

‘I guess that’s what happens when you place all your hope for defense in a spell artifact.’  The moment she thought that, however, she began scolding herself.

‘Shut up!  The founders did the best they could…mom did the best she could…’

She shook her head to prevent her thoughts from trailing too much. ‘Still, there has to be a better way.  Hmm…’

She thought about the list she had made; specifically, the first five items.  ‘What if these specific words don’t just define Sombra?  What if they define evil in general?’

It seemed reasonable enough.  ‘So if that’s the case…maybe there’s a way to protect against it using their opposites.’

“The opposite of cruelty…” she said aloud as she looked out the window.  Today she would finish the castle, and then tomorrow she would figure out a way to protect it.



***



Polaris squinted as the sunlight hit his face.  For the first time in what he could only guess was a few months, he had actually slept through a whole night.  His insomnia seemed to be slowly dissipating, and his panic attacks were occurring less and less often; it seemed the trauma he had experienced was finally starting to go away.  Maybe he could find something to do with his time, like find his sister or-

He sat up and looked at his thigh, only now remembering that he had never figured out what his special talent was supposed to be.  For weeks had had walked around his house aimlessly, sometimes passing out right where he stood or falling over and waking up from a nightmare a few hours later.  He hadn’t had the time or energy to think about his cutie mark (his face momentarily fell as he remembered his mother’s endearing term for it, but he quickly fixed himself) and had all but completely forgotten it was even there.  He eyed it inquisitively now, trying to figure out what it was for.

‘Random template-looking body parts and a question mark…it appears after I create a brand new creature out of random objects…’

No…no, it couldn’t be…not that…it was just too…

And yet, Polaris saw no other alternative.  It had been a long time since he had felt excitement like this.  ‘I can…create…creatures?  Living, breathing, creatures?  And all I need is just…stuff?  That’s my special talent?’

A knocking sound brought him out of his thoughts.  He slowly looked up at his bedroom door, unsure whether or not he was hearing things.  He got out of his bed and walked into the hallway.

Again he heard a knock.  It was coming from the front of the house.  ‘That’s…that’s the front door…how could somepony be knocking on the front door?’

Carefully, he walked up to it, taking no notice of the sudden darkening of the room or the chill that was now in the air surrounding him.  The door seemed foreboding for some reason, as though it would be better off left alone.  The knock came again, louder and more forceful this time.  Polaris really didn’t want to open it, but he noticed, with increasing concern and heart rate, that he was no longer in control of his own body.  His hoof reached for the knob and turned it, and the door swung open.  The sight that met his eyes left him completely speechless.  He stumbled back in horror, nearly falling to the floor in the process.

Standing outside was his mother.  There were deep cuts and bruises all over her dirt-covered body and empty, black sockets where her eyes used to be.  Her bottom jaw had been knocked out of place, blood dripping from her mouth, and what was left of her mane was a filthy, torn up, disheveled mess.  Her front left leg was broken; Polaris could see the bone poking through her skin, and her cutie marks were missing completely.  Only bloody muscle tissue was showing, as though they had been ripped off of her.
There was a sick crunching sound as she took a limping step towards him.  He opened his mouth to scream but found his throat was too dry to do so.  He tried to back up and actually did fall down this time.  She was towering over him now, and the smell of rotting flesh hit his nostrils.

'Polaris…' she whispered, the sound of bone grinding against bone disturbing his ears and making him shiver.

‘Polaris…’

“Polaris…Polaris!”

“Gahhh!”

He felt his eyes open and looked around frantically, squinting as the bright morning light beamed through the window.  As his vision cleared, he saw that he was in his kitchen, lying on the table.

“Wha…what…”  Polaris slowly turned his head to the left and saw that Starswirl the draconequus was in his kitchen.



***



Kindness, honesty, loyalty, generosity, laughter; these were the terms Equina had come up with.

‘That last one may be a little weak, but...’

“Hmm…”  She rested a leg on the table and put a hoof to her chin as she thought about it.  After a few moments, she shrugged; it would have to do.

‘Now how do I put these traits into something physical?’  She knew she wanted it to be similar to the Crystal Heart, but it had to represent what she had come up with instead.  Her mind cast itself back to the last time she had been with her father.

‘He took care of me for six months…he made sure I got better…I have to dedicate this to him somehow.’

“What did he like?” she muttered to herself as she hunched over the table more.

‘Well, mom, definitely, and Polaris and I, but…’  She stopped her train of thought as she realized that she hadn’t seen her brother in months; she didn’t even know if he was alive or not.

‘He liked plants,’ she continued, forcing herself past this revelation.  ‘He had a garden of flowers and he always talked about…’

She abruptly sat up as she finished her thought out loud.  “Planting a tree!”

Yes, that was a great idea.  She would plant a tree, and the tree would physically embody the…traits.

‘There must be a better word for them.  Components, characteristics…elements.’

“Oh, that’s good,” she decided.  “Elements…of…hmmm…”

She shook her head.  ‘Naming them probably isn’t as important right now.  I need to plant the tree and figure out how exactly this is going to work.’

There was a small gorge just a bit south of the castle that would probably be a good place to plant it.  It was the same gorge she had gotten most of the stone from, and so now there was a moderately-sized quarry there.

Equina stood up and walked into the main hall, her hoofsteps echoing just slightly.  She opened the front doors and made her way outside, breathing in the fresh air.  She missed her home, but…everything here was so calm and tranquil, even when it was windy or rainy.  She felt a sense of security in this forest, like the whole world was at peace.   This was what she wanted to protect: the balance, the harmony.

“Harmony…” she said to herself as she smiled.  She knew what name to give them, and what a fitting name it was.

“The Elements of Harmony.”



***



Polaris just stared at him.  He was sitting on the counter, slowly kicking his legs, his mismatched lion and eagle claw folded together in his lap.

“Are you alright now?” he asked him, barely raising an eyebrow.  “That must have been some dream.”

“Nightmare,” Polaris said, standing up.  “I get them a lot.  How-”

“Don’t bother asking; I’ll just tell you,” Starswirl said quickly.  “I’d show you instead, but the last time I tried that you passed out on the floor…I’ve brought you your mother’s body.”

Polaris stared at him for a few seconds.  “You…brought me…”

“Alright…looks like I’ll have to explain this too,” Starswirl said as he hopped onto the floor.  “Weren’t you ever curious as to how you wound up in the middle of a bare field after seconds ago you were clinging to your dying mother?”

His words hit Polaris hard.  This wasn’t the Starswirl he knew; the one he knew spoke cryptically, carefully, like he wasn’t sure the pony he was speaking to would like what he had to say or that it would be understood.  This one was cold and abrupt.  There was no thought given to what he was saying.

‘Could this be part of the change he was talking about?’

“I…that…that was you?” he asked, looking up at him.  “You did that?”

“I had no choice.”

“I hardly even said goodbye to her,” Polaris responded, his voice already becoming desperate and forced.  “Me and Equina…and you just…”

He turned away from him as his anger built even more, his vision blurring his furious tears.

“That was my nightmare, wasn’t it,” he said as he tried to control his aggrieved breathing.  “You showed up at my door with my mother’s corpse, and…just thought everything would be okay?”  He turned around and faced Starswirl.  “Do you have any idea what this has been like for me?”

“Look, I don’t have much time.  I know what you’re going through, but-”

“No, you don’t know anything!” Polaris suddenly yelled.  “You don’t know what I’m going through!  I barely eat, I haven’t slept properly in months, I don’t know where my sister is, and I’m all by myself in the middle of some forest!  It’s almost exactly like how it used to be before you showed up in my house, only now I don’t even know where I am!”

He paused briefly as he paced around, trying to work more of his anger off.  “I’m losing my mind!  You have no idea what you’ve done to me!  These nightmares aren’t normal.  Every single one either ends with me dying or is so disgusting or horrifying I wake myself up screaming!  I’m stuck in my own head every second of every day, and it’s torturing me, so don’t you dare try and tell me that you know what I’m going through because you don’t!”

Starswirl stared at him for a few moments, watching his breathing become calmer before answering.  “I’m sorry.  I’m sorry I had to do that, but I couldn’t leave the two of you there.”

“You moved Equina, too?” Polaris asked as he sat on the floor, looking down.  “Why?”

“The Crystal Empire is gone,” he replied.  “That’s what I warned your mother about.  After I moved the two of you and saved her, Sombra got furious and placed a curse on the empire.  It vanished.”

“It…it’s gone?”  Polaris looked up in disbelief before shaking his head and addressing a more important issue.  “What do you mean you saved her?  You just told me that you brought me her body.”

“I-ahhh!”  Starswirl cried out suddenly as he fell to the ground, supporting himself with all four mismatched limbs.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Polaris asked, standing up.  “Are you alright?”

“N…no…” Starswirl barely managed.  “The change…is…f-finishing.  I…I have to go.”

‘His personality was changing, then.’  “Wait…what do I do now?  I have no one out here…wherever here is.”

Starswirl looked up at him and smiled through his tremor-inducing pain.  “Don’t worry.  We’ll see each other again.”

“But it won’t be…you.  You’ll have your original body, but you won’t know what happened to my home, right?” Polaris finished.  “When can I expect you?”

“N-not…s-s-sure.”

Polaris could plainly see that Starswirl was in agony, and, acknowledging this, nodded curtly.  “See you soon, then.”

“L-likewise, Polaris.  It’s…been a-an honor.  O-one day, I h-hope th-that-”

“Just go!”

“R…right,” he replied, and in the blink of an eye he vanished.



***



“Okay.  Here we go,” Equina said out loud as the shade of the small gorge surrounded her.  She had spent about an hour digging up a patch of dirt to place the seed in, but she hadn’t yet figured out how to give the tree the qualities she wanted.  The Crystal Heart had sort of just happened by accident to her understanding.

“Equina?”

“Yes, mommy?”

“Would you like to hear a story?”

Equina walked halfway down the stairs to the living room where her mother was sitting.  “What kind of story?” she asked.

“How about where the Crystal Heart came from?”

“Oooooh, yes, please!” Equina said as she bounded down the remainder of the staircase and climbed headfirst over the back of the couch.

Her mother giggled.  “Well, do you remember what I told you about the Windigoes and the five other ponies I was with?”

Equina nodded excitedly.

“Alright, then I’ll continue from there.  We were in the cave, surrounded by the cold, evil Windigoes.  There were circling high above us in the air.  Me, Smart Cookie, and Private Pansy were huddled together in the middle of the cave.”

“Were you scared, mommy?”

“A little, but the three of us had each other, and we all wanted to be friends.”

“Wait, what happened to the other ones?”

Clover giggled again.  “They were frozen in ice.”

“Oh.”

“So, none of us knew what to do.”

“You didn’t?”

“Nope.”

“But…but you’re so good at magic!  Wasn’t there a spell or something?”

Clover nodded.  “Turns out, there was.  We were so happy to be friends with each other that it didn’t matter to us if we were going to be frozen in ice, but luckily something happened.  I didn’t understand how, but I had started casting a spell, and after a few seconds it shot into the sky and made all the Windigoes disappear, and in the sky was a giant, pink heart!”

“Wow!  Is that where the Crystal Heart came from?”

“Sure is.  A little later, the pink heart turned into solid crystal, and the next morning, the three tribe leaders decided they wanted to be friends, too, and that’s how Equestria was made.”

“What was the spell, mommy?  What was the spell?”

“I…I don’t know.  I’ve been trying to figure that out for a while.”

“You don’t know?”

“Nope.  It just sort of happened.”

Equina frowned.  “Well, maybe one day you’ll figure it out…or somepony, right?”

“Yeah…one day…”

Equina looked at the seed sitting in the soil and picked it up.  This wasn’t going to work.  She turned around and looked up at the sky.  As far as she could tell, there were only two ways to make this happen.  She either had to figure out what the spell was or hope some friends came along so that they all could be placed in mortal peril.  She sighed as she began walking towards the dirt staircase she had built for herself.

‘Time to hit the books, I guess.’



***



“Here we go…” Polaris muttered to himself as he charged up the spell.  He focused on the rock in front of him as hard as he could, his horn sparking madly.  He thought about the rock; he thought about the rock breathing, about it moving around by itself.  Without warning, his horn fired a massive bolt of magic at it, and the ground beneath it exploded, sending dirt and grass flying in every direction.  Polaris stumbled backward and shielded his eyes, lowering his hoof when the dust began to settle.  The rock was gone.

‘Great.  Give me a scale and a feather, and I’ll create a flying, fire-breathing monster, but anything simpler than that is out of the question.’  He paused for a moment as his mind focused on the feather and scale.  Where exactly had they come from?  Who had given them to Starswirl?  The feather especially…he couldn’t place it, but it really seemed-

“Ouch!” he yelled out as he was hit in the head by a hard…rock.  It fell to the ground with a soft thud right in front of him, and he looked up at the sky.  How high had it gone?  He winced.  It was good thing it was small, or it really could have done some damage.  Slightly annoyed, he began walking towards the front door, briefly glancing at the mound of dirt in the front of his house before stepping inside.



August 11, 2013



“Psst…Webster.  Are you awake?”

The pony groaned lightly as he opened his eyes, which were immediately met with large, purple ones.

“Ah!” he cried out as he moved away.  “Surprise, don’t…you can’t wake some…pony up like that!”

Sompony…he was trying to get used to the different words of this place, but sometimes it was still weird.

Surprise backed away and frowned.  “Sorry, it’s just…I had to do it quickly.  Lauren really wants to talk to you about something.”

Webster barely nodded as he rubbed his eyes.  “Wow…how long was I asleep?”

“About two months.”

Webster chuckled at that.  “No, really, how long was I asleep?”

“You went to sleep on…June 15th.  You woke up now.  It’s August 11th.”

“Surprise, I don’t have time for – why did you wake me up anyway?”

“Wow, you're really slow when you first get up, aren't you.  Lauren wants to talk to you, remember?”

“What…what is it?”

Surprise shrugged.  “She just asked me to wake you up…said it couldn’t wait any longer.”

Webster moved the sheets off of himself and sighed.  “Alright…time to go.  Thanks for waking me up, I guess.”

“No problem!  Lauren says I’m really good at it!”

Webster had reached the door now and started to open it.  “Yeah, no kidding.”

Quickly, he made his way through the hall and down the staircase at the end of it, opening the door to the giant room.  As had been the case the last time he had been down here, it was full of ponies all bustling around with papers and clipboards.

“Ah, there you are!”

Webster turned to his right to see Lauren walking towards him and nodded at her.  “What’s going on?”

“Walk with me,” she answered as she walked past him towards the other side of the room.

“Is…everything okay?”

“No.”  Her tone was harsh.  “You almost compromised this safehouse.”

“What?  How?  I was asleep for two months…a-apparently.”

“Yes, you were asleep, but your human counterpart wasn’t.”

“I don’t understand what’s wrong.”

Lauren abruptly stopped walking.  “Your human decided to put what happened to you in the story!  Waking up, meeting Surprise, talking to me; you must have an excellent memory, Webster, because he was very specific!”

Webster’s eyes widened at her sudden outburst.  “What…what are you talking about?”

Lauren stopped one of the ponies walking by them.  “Do you have chapters 4 and 5 on you?”

“I…believe so…” said the pony as he shuffled through the papers he was carrying.  “Just let me…ah!  Here we go.”  He pulled out two groups of paper with staples in them and handed them to her.  “But I need those back.”

Lauren nodded.  “Thank you.  I’ll have them returned to you later.”

The pony nodded and walked away.  “Everypony is required to have a copy of all chapters on them at all times,” Lauren said as she faced Webster again.  “Look at these.”

She conjured a chair for him to sit in as he flipped through Chapter 4.  “It’s towards the end,” she said.  “It’s separated from the rest of it by question marks.”

Webster found it and began muttering to himself as he skimmed through it, his eyes widening.  “I…I don’t…this isn’t my fault, though!  I didn’t-”

To silence him, Lauren replaced the papers he was holding with Chapter 5.  “Keep going; it gets better.”

“The Company…” Webster repeated as he read.  “Ponysona…projecting…my name.”  He looked up at her with his mouth open.  “He got the whole thing…everything.”

Lauren nodded, a grim expression on her face.  “Maybe I wasn’t clear enough, maybe it’s not common sense not to leak information like this, I don’t know.  All I know is that we were almost discovered, and it’s your fault.”

Webster was confused.  “How is it my fault?  I told you I-”

“I know what you told me, but he got this information from your memories.  When you went to sleep, you connected with him, gave him the idea to write about this and told him everything he needed to know, whether you intended to or not.”

Webster sat back in the chair and folded his front legs.  “But how could The Company find this place?  It’s not like he’s a world-famous author or anything.”

“He doesn’t need to be.  The Company knows about us; they just don’t know where we are or who’s involved.  Some of our own people are working undercover there, but any more information, like, say, where we’re located, could be enough for them, and it’s a risk we can’t take.”

Webster sighed.  “So what do we do?”

“When you go to sleep again, he’ll no doubt see this conversation in your memories and want to use it, but you can't let him.”

“You do realize that there is literally nothing I can do to stop him from writing it into the story, right?”

“You two share the same mind…in a way of sorts.  He obviously appreciates the work we’re doing here or at the very least has an understanding of it, and…”

“And?”

“And I don’t think making it public will necessarily put us in jeopardy, but it needs to be…regulated.  There have to be standards.  He can’t just go publishing every conversation we have.”

“But what if people expect him to?  When he writes Chapter 6, he’ll need a reason not to write about this place.”

Lauren thought about that for a moment.  “I’m sure he’ll be able to come up with something, or maybe you can suggest to him what to do.”

“Like what?”

“I have no idea.”

“Great,” said Webster as he stood up.  “Guess I’ll get to work then.”

He started walking back toward the stairs, wondering how he was going to communicate.

“Hey!  How did it go?  Are you going to sleep again?!”  Surprise had caught up with him, derailing his train of thought.

“Yeah…that’s all I seem to do around here.”

“You make that sound like a bad thing!  I wish I could sleep whenever I wanted.”

Webster blinked.  “No, Surprise.  I…don’t think you do.”

“Well…maybe not, but it must be nice.”

“Actually, I’m not even tired.  How am I supposed to go to sleep if I’m not even tired?  I just woke up!”

“Oh, that’s not a problem!  There a spell on all the bedrooms that make you feel tired.  Usually ponies only sleep if they need to talk to their humans.”

“So…that’s why I slept for two months?”

Surprise nodded.  “Yupp!”

“You realize you could have told me that before, right?”

They had reached the bottom of the stairs now, and Surprise tilted her head to one side.  “You would have forgotten anyway,” she answered before quickly bouncing away.

“What?  Hey, wait!  What does that mean!?”  Groaning, Webster shook his head and made his way up the staircase.  He walked down the hallway at the top and opened the door to his room.  As he walked inside, he felt the effects of the spell for the first time, an overwhelming drowsiness hitting him.  He laid down on the bed and closed his eyes.

“Hey, um…author…human,” he whispered.  “I know you probably want to write about this, but could you wait a bit?  Maybe you could tell the people reading that your next chapter is really important, and you want them to focus on that instead of this or…something.  I don’t know, but…yeah.  Oh, and…maybe don’t use names since that might…well, it might be bad for that pony.  I guess you can use Surprise’s name, since she’s not part of the show, and you…kind of did already.  Just…be…c…care…”

Webster’s speech broke as sleep took him.  He wasn’t sure when he’d wake up again, but he hoped next time he’d be more helpful.

> Chapter 9: Title Drop
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 9: Title Drop


“Polaris, come on.  What’s the problem?”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Why not?  He and I have been friends since we were just foals!”

“I don’t trust him.”

Equina let out a frustrated sigh.  “Polaris, he’s the son of one of our mother’s best friends.  It’s fine.”

Equina tossed and turned in the bed she had built a few days ago, as a memory she wanted desperately to stop replayed in her head in the form of a dream.

“You don’t think it’s strange then?”

“What are you talking about?”

“The deaths…”

“Oh, here we go again…”

“I’m serious, Equina.  Those weren’t natural deaths; even mom thinks so.”

“And just what was so unnatural about them?”

“Well, our father’s is a good example.  He died in his sleep, remember?”

Images of her father flashed through her mind now, accompanied by an overwhelming feeling of guilt.

“So?”

“Nopony his age just dies like that.”

Equina bit her lip.  “Well, yeah, I guess that is a bit odd…but that doesn’t prove anything.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Polaris agreed.  “But it still doesn’t sit right with me.  I don’t want you to go to the castle.”

“I’m going,” Equina responded.  “It’ll be fine.  There’s nothing to worry about.”

She turned around and walked through the front door, slamming it behind her.

The dream ended, and Equina opened her eyes.  It was still dark out so she couldn’t tell what time it was, but it seemed sleeping was out of the question.  She shivered lightly as she walked out of her bedroom.  Her mind was still clouded with sleep as she glanced out one of the hallway windows, taking notice of the fact that it was snowing.

‘That doesn’t make any sense,’ she told herself.

Shaking her head, she made her way down the stairs into the entrance hall, listening to the wind hit the outside of the stone structure surrounding her.  She walked towards the kitchen, her thoughts now beginning to reflect her dream.

‘It’s my fault…all of this.  If I had just stayed home…if I had just listened to him...’

Equina shivered again as she walked into the kitchen, which was nothing more than a fire pit and some poorly crafted cooking utensils.  The ceiling was incomplete in order to allow smoke to escape, but as a result, the room was colder than the rest of the castle.  The winter wind blew gently through her coat as she began working on a fire.

After a few moments, she was able to light it, and she moved closer to the fire pit as the kitchen filled with heat and light.  She scanned her eyes across the wall in front of her, watching the shadows of the dancing flames, but she stopped when she got to the doorway, for standing in it was a familiar face.

“It’s you!” she said as she stood up.  “What are you doing here?”

Starswirl smiled and sat down by the fire pit, motioning for her to do the same.  “I figured it would be rude of me to just drop you two in the middle of nowhere and not even say goodbye.”

Equina was taken aback.  “That…that was you?  You did that?”

“I was under a lot of pressure.”

“Our mother was dying, and you couldn’t let us stay-”

“No, I couldn’t,” Starswirl replied coldly.  “I had told your mother previously to make sure that you two left, but you didn’t listen to her.”

“But why did we have to…” Equina stopped as a memory flooded her mind.  It was shortly after she had appeared in the forest.  She was still able to see the Crystal Empire.  The only problem was that-

“It’s gone.”  Slowly, she sat down next to Starswirl.  “It vanished. I remember; I saw it!”  She looked up at him.  “What happened to it?”

Starswirl sighed.  “After I saved your mother, Sombra-”

“What do you mean you saved her?  You just told me-”

“Don’t interrupt me!  I don’t have time to explain that right now!”

“Make the time!”

Starswirl stared at her, and she stared right back.  After a few tense moments, he looked up towards the sky.  “As usual, Clover has performed her task exceedingly well.”

“What?”

The draconequus sighed again.  “Before you were even born, I instructed your mother to instill the values of perseverance and persistence in you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I did this,” he continued, ignoring her.  “Because I had met you before, and you told me who you were and who your mother was.”  He looked back at her.  “I’ve traveled through time, remember?”

A memory surfaced in Equina’s mind: her mother, blood trickling from her mouth, lying on the floor and telling her never to give up.  She nodded.  “So, we’re going to meet…in my future?”

“Exactly, but I will still be a pony, and I will know considerably less than you.”

“But…wait…you told my mom how to raise me because you had met me and seen what I was like, but that only works because my mother raised me to be this way…where does it start?”

Starswirl smiled.  “It’s called a paradox.  There’s no start and no end.  It just is.”

Equina mulled this around for a few moments.  “Can…can it be broken?  What if I don’t meet you?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it.”  Starswirl stretched his two upper legs and yawned.  “In my experience, these things have a way of working themselves out.”

“Are you sure?”

“Entirely.  Now, I believe I was explaining what happened to the Crystal Empire, yes?”

“Oh, um, yeah.”

“Your mother had…passed away, and-”

“You told me you saved her.”

“And I told you I don’t have time to explain.”

“And I told you to-”

“No, I mean I literally don’t have the time!  You’ll recall what I explained about this form I’ve been forced to take and how it also comes with a brand new mind as well – the mind of a complete lunatic!  His whispers have clouded my thoughts for weeks, growing louder and stronger, tormenting me, and soon I won’t be able to control them anymore!  Soon he’s going to win, and I’m going to lose!  Every trace of me will be completely gone, so when I say I don’t have the time, know that I’m not just trying to shut you up!”

Equina had opened her mouth to respond, but decided against it.  She looked down at the ground instead.  “Sorry.  I…I guess I forgot.”

Starswirl let out a breath.  “It’s alright.  I’m sorry I yelled.”

“It’s just that…everything that’s happened since I went to the castle…”  She stopped; she didn’t even know how long ago that had happened and considered again the fact that it was snowing.

“If I hadn’t gone, none of this-”

“Knowing what I told you about paradoxes and what I’m assuming Polaris told you after saving you, how can you possibly blame yourself?”

“Well, what if I hadn’t gone?”

Starswirl considered this for a few moments.  “Polaris never would have had that conversation with Clover-”

“Who was actually just a changeling.”

“Yes…and he never would have met me because the event that triggered everypony disappearing was he and I showing up at the castle looking for you.”

“Right, and then he saved me after six months, talked to my dad-”

“Ah, yes, I suppose he wouldn’t have had time to tell you this.  I was actually the one who brought your father to the castle.”

Equina gave him a perplexed look.  “How did you know to do that?”

“That is another story in and of itself, and I-”

“-don’t have time,” Equina finished.

“I’m sorry.  If I could, I would tell you everything, but to ensure everything plays out how it is supposed to and due to the fact that I’m losing my mind to a maniac, I can’t.”

“You seem awfully calm about it.”

Starswirl shrugged.  “It’s been a slow process, and I’ve gotten used to it.  Now, he spoke with your father, I brought you both back to the present, and…hm.”

“You see?”  It’s all my fault.”

“That’s not true at all.  Events occurred long before you were born and well after you died that caused that empire to vanish, and I can assure you of this because I had a hoof-”  He looked down at his arms and legs.  “Eh, in a manner of speaking, anyway, in many of them.  Blaming all of this on yourself would be like blaming an entire forest on one blade of grass.”

Equina sat silently for a few moments before looking at him and nodding.  “Alright…I guess that’s true.  Can you answer something for me, though?”

“Depends what it is.”

“Well, it’s just that…it’s snowing right now, and I can’t help but feel like maybe…it shouldn’t be?  It’s kind of weird that the seasons change by themselves, too.  I don’t know...it’s silly, really.”

“Well, that’s partially correct.  You see, when I moved you and Polaris, I was obviously under severe physical and emotional distress, and I may have accidentally moved the two of you through both space and time.  By my calculation, Polaris was displaced forward in the timeline by eight months and you…”  He looked upwards at the snow and then back at her.  “Not at all.”

“Not…not all.”

“You told me you remember watching the Crystal Empire disappear, and I can assure you that happened not long after I moved you two.  At the most you’re ahead by a few minutes.”

“But then, why is it snowing?  It feels like it’s too soon.”

Starswirl thought about this for a moment.  “Well, let’s see.  It was early September when Sombra attacked, I believe.  How long have you been here?”

“I’m not entirely sure.  Autumn came pretty quickly, and it’s been snowing for a few weeks, so maybe…January?”

“Hmmm, you must be somewhere further south of where the Crystal Empire was, then.  I believe that place saw snow as early as mid-November, correct?”
Equina nodded.  “It’s been like this for weeks now, though…oh!”  She cried out suddenly as she remembered something.  “I wonder if I’ve missed Hearth’s Warming Eve.”
“Perhaps,” Starswirl responded thoughtfully.  “If I were in your position, I would count the weeks until the snow began melting.  You’re lucky the seasons here change by themselves, you know, otherwise there’d be no way to figure out what time of year it was.”

“I guess you’re right about that,” she agreed.  “So…Polaris isn’t here yet, right?”

“As far as I know, you…won’t see each other again.  I only know where to go from memory, but you’ll still communicate with him!” Starswirl added hastily, seeing Equina’s forlorn look.

“How?”

“If I told you everything, it would be cheating, don’t you agree?”

Equina smiled.  “I guess.  So, in eight months, Polaris is going to randomly appear somewhere?”

“Not eight, my dear.  It’s snowing, and for simplicity’s sake, let’s say it’s early January, which means-”

“Four months.”

Starswirl nodded.  “Yes, and I imagine he will be very upset.”

“You haven’t seen him yet?”

Starswirl shook his head.  “Most of what I would say to him he either already knows or doesn’t care about.  I am, however, bringing him…”  His voice trailed off.

“Bringing him what?”

“I…you see, I’m not sure you’re going to like this.”

“What are you bringing him?”

“Well, after your mother died, I wanted the body to be taken care of respectfully, so…”  His words died as Equina’s expression quickly began reflecting her thoughts on this news.

“And you chose Polaris?”

“I assure you, I have very good reasons for this decision.”

Equina thought about this and sat staring at Starswirl for a while, the cold wind whistling through the hole above their heads before finally answering.

“Can I see her?”

“You’re…you’re not upset that I didn’t choose you?”

“You have good reasons, right?”

Starswirl nodded curtly.

“Then please just let me see her.”

Starswirl ended his storage spell, and Clover’s body slowly came into view.  Gently, he placed her on the ground between them.

Equina looked at her and placed a hoof on her face.  “You weren’t going to tell me about this, were you.”

“I…didn’t think you would take it as well as you are.”

Equina nodded blankly before leaning down and resting her head on her mother, as she had done months ago.

“She always taught me never to give up, to always keep trying.”  She sniffed as tears filled her eyes and then closed them.

“I’m going to miss her.  She was my best friend and the best caster I’ve ever met.”

Equina sat up and wiped her eyes.  “Thank you for letting me see her again.”  She turned away as Starswirl performed the storage spell.
She sat there for a few moments sniffling before composing herself and asking a new question.

“Can you bring Polaris here?”

Starswirl shook his head.  “I’m now incapable of teleporting anypony but myself, never mind moving them through time as well.”

“Oh…well, what if I look for him?”

Starswirl, who had been looking around the room, put a claw up to his chin and chuckled.  “You’re welcome to try, but I think you’ll have other things to worry about.”

“Like what?”

“I’ll leave that up to you,” he responded with a smile.

Equina wiped her eyes.  “You’re always speaking in riddles.”

“Have you ever tried it?  It’s actually quite fun.”

“Hmph…when you show up here again, I’m gonna get you back.”

“Ah, that would explain it.”

“Explain what?”

“Exactly.”

For the first time in many months, Equina found herself laughing.  For a while now, she had sort of just been going through each day mindlessly, but now she had full closure.  Even though all of her questions wouldn’t be answered, she had at least been able to say a proper goodbye to her mother.

Starswirl had now begun laughing as well, and hearing this only made her happier.  It had been too long since she had felt like this, and, elusive and eccentric as he was, she couldn’t imagine what would have happened if Starswirl hadn’t helped.

‘Maybe laughter isn’t as weak as I thought.’

“Starswirl,” she said, having come to this realization.  “Are you sure there’s nothing we can do?  Some way to help you?  You’ve done so much for all of us; it’s not fair that this has to happen to you.  Are you sure there’s nothing-”

“Don’t.  For the first time in many years, I have no idea what’s going to happen, and I think…I think I’m okay with that.”

“Hmm…Polaris told me you were always very careful about what you said and did around us, but before you told me that everything works out so things happen how they’re supposed to.  Why did you work that hard, anyway?”

“I was younger then.  I didn’t realize at that point that it really doesn’t matter.  But now it’s like I get to start over.  It won’t be me, but, and I don’t know if this is just my damaged mind talking, I’ve been alive for a very long time, and I’m tired.  I think it’s time I took a break, anyway.”

Equina nodded, and the two of them stood up.

“Thank you for everything,” she said as she hugged him.

“No more questions?  That’s it?”

“Oh, I have plenty,” she said, letting go.  “And even though my mother taught me never to give up, my dad taught me to know when there was nothing more to be said or done.”

Starswirl nodded.  “Your father loved the three of you very much, and it was unfair that he passed away when he did.  I often consider…if I had done things differently…”

“It’s not your fault.  Like you said, a lot of different events caused all of this.”

“I…yes, I suppose you’re right.”  He shook his head.  “Before I go, however, there is one last thing I would like to do for you.”

He clapped a paw and talon together and suddenly the fire was gone, replaced by a stove attached to the wall.  The ceiling closed itself, and almost instantly the room felt warmer.

“This way,” he said to her as they left the kitchen and entered the main hall.

Equina couldn’t believe her eyes.  The rickety wooden front door had been replaced with a magnificent oak set of two.  High above them on the same wall were three beautiful stained glass windows, and the rest of the walls were adorned with torches and tapestries, the floor covered in a marvelous red carpet.

The stairs leading up to the second floor had been adjusted and repositioned to be even and were now decorated with a gleaming brass banister, while two crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling overhead.  Several hallways led away from the main hall in different directions, all covered with stone archway ceilings.

“Starswirl, this is…how did you do all this?”  She turned to him only to see that he had fallen to his knees and was breathing quite heavily.  She sat down next to him and put a hoof on his serpentine back.

“You told me you couldn’t do really powerful magic anymore.” 

Starswirl coughed violently before answering.  “It’s not that.  These powers, you’ll remember, are chaotic.  I’ve been keeping them at bay, but in order to do this,” he gestured around them.  “I had to let them take control and then take it back.”  He shivered.  “That was quite draining, but necessary, given what you’re going to be tasked with.”

“Great, more riddles,” Equina answered as she helped him stand up.

“I don’t know where all the rooms are exactly,” he groaned.  “But I’m sure you’ll learn the layout just from exploring.  Most of your belongings should be where they’re supposed to.  You might find a few misplaced items for the first couple weeks, but…”

“Oh, no, this is amazing!”  She gave the entrance hall another glance.  “I don’t even know what to say.  I’ll do my best to do…whatever it is I’m supposed to do.”

Starswirl smiled again.  “Well, I’m not really supposed to give hints, but if I were you, I’d start with the Elements of Harmony.”
Equina gasped and opened her mouth to respond, but Starswirl had, of course, already disappeared.


***


‘How can I say this?’

It was a question Equina had become all too familiar with over the past two months.  To pass the lonely time, she had taken to writing about her past and the fate the Crystal Empire had met, but writing wasn’t a particularly favorite hobby of hers, as she found she obsessed too much over wording her sentences just perfectly, and she often found herself struggling to get her thoughts on paper.  She wasn’t nearly as worried about concealing information as Starswirl had been, however.  If she wrote something nopony else was supposed to know, the timeline would simply correct it.

Currently, she was working on her recollection of the six months she had spent trapped inside the castle.  She found it helpful to write from a third pony perspective.  She was just stuck on the potion Sombra had given her.  She had no idea what was in it, and none of the other books she had had been helpful.  The potion was a light pink; that much she remembered, but no combination of ingredients she had tried had produced a potion of that same color and effect.

She looked at the snails she had sitting in the jar her mother had given her and sighed.  She felt bad for testing potions on them, but she couldn’t test them on herself, and after seeing some of the results she was glad she didn’t.  She had made a variety of different potions with a light pink color, but some of the effects were outright dangerous.  Some snails died immediately, some exploded, (her least favorite was the potion that caused them to explode several hours after administering it) some began floating, while others turned intangible, causing them to fall through the floor, and others simply disappeared, never to be seen again.

‘Maybe I’ll just work on the recipe later,’ she considered silently and began writing about something else.

‘After my father rescued me, he stayed with me, helping me recover from the effects of the potion for six months while the world outside the castle slowly fell apart.  My brother was out there, though for a long time I barely remembered that he existed, and after a “happenstance” meeting with Starswirl, (I suspect he knew more at the time than he let on) the two came to see me at the castle, causing Sombra to cast the spell that would ultimately result in suspending the citizens of the Crystal Empire (save, for reasons I still don’t fully understand, my brother) in a sort of “frozen” state.  Time did not pass for them, though it did for the structures around them, and six months of neglect, intermittent day/night cycles, and seasonal weather changes took their toll on them.

‘Anyway, Starswirl and my brother recruited the assistance of a changeling, a creature that can, as the name suggests, assume the physical appearance of anypony it sees.  The changeling took the place of our mother, whom Polaris witnessed the death of during a conversation with her.  (This conversation took place at the exact moment Sombra cast the suspension spell.  However, the changeling’s biology caused her to react to it differently, and she died).  Our real mother was brought to a “safer” (I will address this later) point in time by Starswirl and my brother dropped off at the castle to rescue me.  There he encountered our father, spoke with him, and proceeded to search the castle for me after realizing Sombra was loose.  (He, too, had been under the effects of the love potion but, unlike me, had nopony to help him recover from it).  Unfortunately, Sombra had already captured me and brought me to the top of the tower, trapping me in what I can only describe as a suppression spell.

'It was terrible.  The spell itself was like a bubble that surrounded me, clouding my thoughts and preventing me from breaking it.  Physical force was, of course, no use whatsoever, as the more I struggled, the less I felt I wanted to.  Eventually, I gave up and fell asleep, collapsing on the ground.  My brother arrived there (I assume) shortly afterward, having been trapped by Sombra in a hallway that had a spell cast on it to self-repeat.  He discovered me this way, and after a short, rather one-sided battle, my brother did something I never would have thought possible.  Beaten and broken, he concentrated what was left of his magical energy on two mysterious objects he had been given.  His spell, one which I haven’t seen and don’t believe anypony has seen before, combined with these two objects, a scale and a feather, created a creature unlike any other, a completely new kind of life.  It was covered in scales, with two massive wings on its back, a long, snaking tail, four large, sharp claws, and (its most fascinating feature) a mouth that could breathe scorching fire.  In one sweeping motion it knocked Sombra off of the tower and then reached through the spell bubble to grab me.

'I was awake in an instant, screaming in horror.  I tried to fire a stun spell at it to no avail; this creature (to my knowledge, it hasn’t been named yet) is impervious to magic.  My brother quickly called to me, and, hearing his voice, I calmed down.  The beast placed me gently on the floor, then swiftly took flight.’

She sat back and let out a breath.  ‘That’s probably enough for now,’ she decided.  Her head was foggy from writing so much, and she needed some fresh air.  Snowfall had been steadily decreasing lately, and plants had started growing out again, making it much more enjoyable to go outside.


***


She had finally done it.  Through failed attempt after failed attempt, she had finally been able to recreate the potion Sombra had made for her, much to the relief of the local snail population.  Now she could write about it in detail so that nopony would ever try to make it again.  It had taken her weeks and weeks, and, though she had no idea where, if Starswirl was correct, Polaris would be arriving in about a month.  She had kept close tabs on how many days passed by since Starswirl had visited her and had kept consistently raising and lowering the sun and moon.  Starswirl had told her Polaris would be upset, but knowing his sister was still alive might help him a bit.

She stood up and stretched, yawning loudly before making her way to the kitchen via teleportation, which she had finally learned only a few weeks ago.  She put the kettle on the stove and was about to turn it on when she heard a series of knocks.

Confused, she walked into the entrance hall towards the source, and, sure enough, the knocks were louder.  Was it Starswirl?  She approached the door slowly, putting her eye up to the peephole.  There was nopony in sight.

“Hello?” she heard a muffled voice yell.  It sounded very young.  She stepped back and opened the two doors with her magic.  Three small fillies met her surprised gaze.

One was completely white, with a glimmering rainbow mane and tail and lavender eyes.  The one next to her was a very dark blue, including her mane and tail, which sparkled as well.  Her eyes were dark green.  The third one was completely black with dark purple splotches all over her coat.  Her mane and tail were streaks of the same two colors, and her eyes followed a similar color scheme, save for the purple.  The most prominent and perplexing feature, however, was one, Equina noticed, all three of them shared.  They were alicorns, just like her.  Equina walked towards them slowly as the beginning suspicions that she was dreaming began to set in.

“Can…can I help you?” she asked.

“My name is Celestia!” the white one said as she walked forward, a big smile on her face.  She was the one who had called out.

“Mine’s Luna!” the dark blue one added, following the other into the castle.

The final one soon followed suit, and the three of them walked right up to a very bewildered Equina, simultaneously taking a seat in front of her.  The remaining filly looked up at her, her smile matching the two others,’ and introduced herself as well.  “I’m Astra!  The three of us are sisters!”

Luna pulled out a piece of paper from behind her ear and held it out to Equina.  If these three fillies randomly showing up hadn’t been enough to make her day strange, the message on the paper certainly was.

Hey, sis.  I finally thought of a name.  It’s called a dragon.


***


Within hours, Equina had figured out the task Starswirl mentioned, though knowing this didn’t help much.  For the first few days, she was at a complete loss as to what she should do.  How could she possibly be expected to look after these three fillies?  Despite their unanimous insistence that she was their mother, she knew for a fact that she had never met them before.  Would someone be coming for them?  Where did they come from?  Where did the note Luna had given to her come from?  She tried asking them these questions but quickly gave up when it became apparent that they didn’t have the answers to them, either.

It didn’t take long for the three of them to start referring to her as their mother, though Astra was the last to do so, waiting until the morning of the next day of their arrival, and Equina was convinced that this was only because she was the least talkative of the three.  She was certainly, however, no less energetic, for that morning Astra had woken her up by climbing under her bed covers and then lying down on top of her.

A few weeks had gone by since then, and during that time Equina had become more comfortable with the idea of raising three alicorn fillies, though she was still somewhat disappointed they couldn’t offer her more answers.  As the days went by, however, Equina found herself to be less and less bothered by this.  Starswirl had made the castle more than spacious enough to accommodate three energetic fillies, which was good since they spent many a day playing in it, as, she reluctantly recalled one day, she and Sombra had done in the Crystal Castle when they had been foals themselves (hide and seek was Celestia’s favorite game).  They loved the library, too, and would frequently ask what their mother was reading about or writing down.  Equina did her best to explain to them what she could, but it wasn’t always easy, especially on one day in particular when she had been sitting at her desk and Luna had asked her what the Elements of Harmony were.

Equina hadn’t thought about the Elements in long time; she had been far too busy with everything else going on, and when she asked where Luna had heard about them, Luna pointed to an unfurled scroll hanging over the edge of her mother’s desk, buried beneath a pile of papers and other books.

“Oh, that was just something I was working on a while ago,” Equina answered.  “I got stuck and started doing other things, and I guess I just never got back to it.”

“Oh, well, maybe now you can do it?”

“Hmm…maybe…” she responded absently.

“How’d you think of them, anyway?”

Equina thought for a while how best to answer this question.  She couldn’t possibly tell Luna about all the horrible things that had happened to her and her family.  In fact, she had carefully hidden her written account of these events with a storage spell.  No one should be forced to relive what she had gone through, least of all any of her daughters.

“Mommy?”

“Sorry, I…it was just an idea that I got from the story of how my home was created.  I didn’t always live in this forest.”

Luna looked shocked.  “You didn’t?  Where then?  Can we go there?  Is your mommy there?”

“It was…”  Equina now realized her voice was trembling.  “It was called The Crystal Empire, and…it’s gone.”  She forced herself as much as she could not to cry.

“Mommy, what’s wrong?”

“N-nothing, sweetie.  I’m-”

“Luna!  Why is mommy crying?  What did you do?”

Celestia had come in with Astra following her.  The two had spent most of the day running around and chasing each other through the castle, giving Equina some free time to read.

“I didn’t do anything!”  She took a few steps forward and stood on her hind legs, resting her front hooves on her mother.  “I’m sorry, mommy.  I didn’t mean it, I swear!”

“No, no, it wasn’t you,” Equina answered, stroking Celestia’s mane as she began climbing on the chair.  Luna and Astra quickly followed suit, and the three of them stood up, leaning against their mother for support and embracing her.

“Don’t cry, mommy,” Astra whispered.  “We want you to be happy.”

“I’m very happy,” Equina said, smiling.  “I love you all so much.”

She wrapped her hooves around them, glancing briefly at the parchment on the desk before closing her eyes, realizing, truly, that she had everything she needed.  All that mattered to her was caring for her three daughters.  Perhaps they could even help her work on the Elements.

She felt Celestia nuzzle her, and she smiled.  Now she had something worth protecting.  Now the Elements could be finished.  She no longer cared about where they had come from or why.  All that mattered was that they were there, and she would do everything in her power to care for them.  Something had brought her exactly what she needed, in her time of loneliness, something amazing, something unexplainable, something…magic.
> Chapter 10: An Ordinary Visit
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 10: An Ordinary Visit


Polaris shivered as the freezing cave air continuously bit at him.  His eyes were focused forward at the candle Starswirl was levitating, the flickering light dancing off the cave walls, briefly illuminating them before they were once again shrouded in darkness as the two kept walking.

“Use a warming spell if you’re so cold,” Starswirl remarked.

“No.”

Starswirl glanced back at him.  “It doesn’t matter.  You know that, right?”

“It does right now,” Polaris said through gritted teeth.  “Magic is only to be used for purposes that-”

“I know all that already.  And it doesn’t matter.”

Polaris looked at the floor, doing his best to control his shivering.  “Why not?”

Starswirl stopped walking.  “We’re here.”

In front of him, Polaris could see the same path they had been following, only now the cave walls that had surrounded them were missing, opening the tunnel up into a huge, expansive cavern.  Polaris looked around, noticing now that they were standing on what appeared to be a natural rock bridge which stretched far in front of them into darkness.

Starswirl cast a spell on the candle, brightening its light significantly, and Polaris saw just how massive the cavern was.  Above and below them, more bridges ran across the round cavern, leading off into other tunnels.  Paths had been carved into the walls as well, leading these different bridges to each other and to large, hollowed-out sections of the walls that were covered with small holes, almost like doorways.

“Are these…”

Starswirl nodded.  “I believe at one point they were, yes.”

Polaris took a few steps forward, pausing as his hoof met something on the ground that didn’t feel like rock.  He looked down at the wooden sign he’d stepped on.



The symbols seemed familiar.  He was almost sure he’d seen them in a book somewhere…

“How many lived here?”

Starswirl had crossed the bridge and now stood waiting at the entrance to another tunnel.  “I have no idea,” he answered.  “There’s no telling how deep this cavern actually is.”  He then gestured to the tunnel.  “This way.”

“Where are we going?” Polaris asked as he caught up to him.  Starswirl had blurted out only a few words to him when he showed up at his door before teleporting them to the entrance of the first cave.

Starswirl turned and entered the new tunnel, and Polaris quickly followed him.

“I found a solution to your problem.”

Though he knew it would probably be pointless to ask, he decided to try anyway.

“What problem?”


***


As the door shut behind him, it suddenly occurred to Polaris that a rock may not have been the best object to try and replicate the spell on.  After all, the feather and scale he’d used previously had both come from living creatures, or so he assumed.  He sat down at the kitchen table and rested his head in his hooves.  Perhaps it would do him better to try something like a leaf or flower petal.

‘Maybe it has to work in combination with something else, too.’

In retrospect, casting that spell on just one object probably hadn’t been the best idea either, since there wasn’t a reason to think two objects weren’t required.

‘I have to use plants, though.’  Animals were completely out of the question, as were trees; he’d used more than enough of those already.

“Plants it is then,” he muttered as he looked out the window into the forest.


***


The tunnel was unbelievably long and wound in all sorts of twisted directions, though Polaris could say for certain that they were descending.  They had been walking for what felt like at least a few hours, but the air around them seemed to grow warmer and heavier, certainly not what Polaris would expect.  To call this a cave was wrong.  It was a tube; a tube made out of rock that twisted and turned, narrowed and widened.

“Why couldn’t you teleport us to wherever it is we’re going?”

“Too risky.”

“What does that mean?”

“You’ll find out.”

Polaris decided to drop it and change subjects.

“You know, before you showed up, I was about to leave to look for my sister.”

Starswirl sighed.  “You need to be careful with what you tell me, Polaris.”

“What was wrong with that?”

“What if I…ah, never mind.  Do you know why I’m here?”

“Well…no, not really.  It’s just sort of become a thing.”

“Become…are you implying we’re going to meet again?  What did I just say about telling me certain things?”

“But it doesn’t matter.  Nothing’s going to change.  Events will still play out as they were always meant to.”

“What proof do you have of that?”

“I…look, I just know, okay?”

Starswirl sighed and rolled his eyes.  “Well, trust me.  Time is dangerous when meddled with.  It’s easy to cause changes without even meaning to.  I could take you to see your sister right now, but that could have dire consequences on the timeline.”

Polaris thought about this for a moment.  Starswirl was right.  If he’d already met Equina, then that meant he knew where she lived, and he could just teleport him there.  He needn’t even look for her.

“Take me to see her.”

“What did I just say?  Do you listen at all?”

‘You think it’s bad now, wait until we meet in the Empire.’  “If you take me to see her, and it’s not meant to happen, the timeline will correct itself.  Things will just…happen that will prevent any conflicts.”

“I’m not taking your word for it,” Starswirl said stubbornly.  “Besides, even if that were true, who’s to say my unwillingness to take you isn’t itself the necessary correction?”

“But what if I’m supposed to meet up with her?”

“Then I suppose you will in due time, but I can assure you, I lent no helping hoof in that endeavor, nor did either of you inform me of it.  Anyway, my question to you wasn’t regarding my showing up at your door today.”

“If you’re asking if I know why you’re even bothering with me, then I have no idea.”

“Not specifically with you.  You see, I’m trying to investigate the disappearance of the Crystal Empire.”

This surprised Polaris a little.  As far as he was aware, no civilizations outside of the Empire even knew of its existence, and any recorded history or account of it was now surely lost.

“How do you know about it?”

“I can’t tell you that,” he said, holding up a hoof as Polaris opened his mouth to respond.  “Let me finish.  I can’t tell you that because I already have, and telling you too early could-”

“-affect the timeline.  Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Polaris said, rolling his eyes.

Starswirl stared at him.  “It’s going to be a while before you find out.”

“Fine.”

“A very long while.”

“I get it.  It’s the first time you meet me.  I can’t believe you used to be this bad at giving hints.”

Starswirl scowled at him.


***


Grass and leaves crunched under Polaris’ hooves as he traipsed amongst the trees occasionally ducking under low hanging branches.  He’d been walking for a couple of hours, trying to find interesting plants or flowers to use, anything that wasn’t grass or weeds.

His rear left hoof suddenly stepped on something that didn’t quite feel like the ground, and he turned around to inspect it.  It seemed he’d squished a low-flying butterfly and killed it.  For a moment he stood there, wiping it off of his hoof, but then he noticed its wings had detached from its body.

‘Well,’ he reasoned.  ‘It’s not like I intentionally killed it, and the wings may work with spell, too,’ and with that, he stored the two wings away with magic and kept walking.

After only a few more minutes, he came to a clearing.  It was nearly perfectly circular in shape, and on the ground was a very distinct blanket of leaves that extended up and formed a mass on the side of the clearing opposite him.  Upon closer inspection, Polaris realized that he’d found a mass of vines.  The leaves that comprised this large clearing were all attached to interwoven stems, reaching their way outward, and Polaris noticed that a few of them were touching the trees next to him.

Curious, he made his way to the other side where the giant mass was, intending only to take a few leaves.  As he reached out his hooves, he got a strange feeling.  Standing in the middle of this giant plant, his hooves wedged into its leaves, felt almost eerie.  As quickly as he could, he stored a few leaves away and turned to go back the way he’d come.

It would be quite some time before Polaris would realize what he’d tripped on, but in that moment he didn’t much care.  All he cared about was standing up, pulling his body out of the disgusting, creepy vine he’d foolishly walked into, and returning to his home.  He scraped a large splinter out of his hoof onto the ground and teleported back to his house.


***


They continued on for a few more minutes until the tunnel finally opened up into another cavern.  This one, however, was smaller than the previous one; the ceiling wasn’t too far above their heads.  Around them were more rock bridges, but there were no house-like structures in the walls.  Instead, these bridges led to circular platforms in the middle of the cavern, all of which were surrounded by what seemed to be some sort of magical aura.

Polaris looked down as they began walking to one of these platforms and saw just how deep the cavern went.  Starswirl’s candle light couldn’t even illuminate all of it, even shining as bright as it was after the spell he’d cast.  He conjured up a rock that he’d stored away and dropped it into the abyss.  Starswirl kept walking towards one of the platforms while Polaris listened.  After about two minutes, he gave up.  Either there was no bottom or it was simply so far down he couldn’t hear it.

He trotted over to Starswirl.  “So how come we couldn’t just teleport in here?” he asked.

“Look at what we’re standing on.”  Starswirl gestured with his hoof to the walkways.  “Do you know how dangerous it could have been for me to try and teleport us in here when there’s a much higher chance we would have fallen to our deaths?”

Polaris peered into the dark pit again and nodded.  “So, why are we here?”

Starswirl had begun closely examining the magical aura.  Polaris waited for a few moments for him to say something about it, but as the minutes ticked by he grew more and more impatient.

“Why are we here?” he repeated, a tone of annoyance in his voice.  “What problem were you talking about?”

Starswirl seemed to have just remember Polaris was there.  “I can’t figure this out,” he said finally.

“What does that mean?  Do is it even supposed to be?”

“It’s a jail cell.  That much I know for sure.” Starswirl answered.  “But I can’t figure out how this magic was created.”

“Why did that tunnel take us here?  Why is it connected?  Is this where they kept their criminals?”

“No.”  Starswirl had begun rummaging through his saddlebag, evidently searching for something.  “At least, I don’t think so.  I believe it was intentionally carved to lead here, but I don’t think they knew about this place before digging.”

He gave a slight sigh of irritation, rolled his eyes, and performed a spell.  Polaris recognized it as the storage removal spell; he’d used it many times.  He also recognized the object Starswirl had evidently stored, though he couldn’t believe he was actually seeing it again.


***


‘Maybe they’re just not compatible.’

Polaris had been attempting for at least an hour to recreate the spell, but all he’d managed to do was make the leaf float a little bit.  ‘Is this whole spell just complete trial and error?’

If that was the case, there was no telling how long it would take him to figure out another working combination, if it even happened at all.  Frustrated, he sat down at the table and rested his head in his hooves.

‘It was different the first time I used the spell.’

He’d been severely injured and both mentally and physically exhausted.  The spell had simply happened by accident.

‘I remembered something, too.  That time I pulled a flower up.’

Why had he remembered that?  His mother had taught him a lesson about love when he’d picked a flower out of his father’s garden, and then…

‘When I came to, I basically just repeated what I’d learned to Sombra, and then the spell cast itself.  Maybe it had something to do with mom’s lesson?’

And as if on cue, another memory surfaced, this time of his father.  It was quite an old one; Polaris couldn’t have been more than six years old. 

His father was in the garden, kneeling down in the grass.  There was a small bowl next to him.

“Are those seeds, dad?” Polaris asked as he approached him.

“They certainly are,” Octan answered.  “And one day they’re going to be flowers.”

“But they’re just seeds!” Polaris said, sitting down next to his father.  “How can they turn into flowers?”

“It takes time, Polaris,” his father chuckled.  “You have to be patient and care for the seeds as they grow.  They’re small right now, but they have a lot of potential.”

“What’s that mean?”

Octan made a hole in the dirt in front of them and placed a seed inside.  “It’s everything something could be.  For example, before your sister got her cutie mark it could have been anything, but now-”

“Now it’s the sun and moon!”

“Exactly.”

“But dad, you know the seeds will grow into flowers.  So how is that the same?”

“I knew I was going to have a son, too.  But I didn’t know how smart he’d turn out to be,” Octan said, rustling his son’s mane.

“Dad, stoooop.”  Polaris batted his father’s hoof away and started to fix it.

Octan chuckled again and returned to making holes in the soil.  “Anyway, even though I know what kind of flowers will grow, I won’t know exactly what they’ll look like or how tall they’ll be.  That’s what I love about this the most.”

Polaris sat back in his chair, staring at the leaf and wing.  He brough a hoof up to the top of his head and smoothed his mane.  How could potential relate to his mother’s lesson?

‘That one was about appreciation,’ he remembered.  ‘That love wasn’t about possessing something, but about appreciating it.’

“I don’t know what to do,” he muttered.  “Are they even supposed to relate to each other?”  He tried focusing more on the memory of his father.

“He liked the potential the seeds had...”

‘He appreciated the potential the seeds had.’

Appreciation of potential…

“But what could a leaf and butterfly wing possibly turn into?”

‘What did a scale and feather turn into?’

“The first time I didn’t even know about the spell.  How…”

Polaris ran a hoof through his mane.  His father had told him about a spell his mother had used once…

“You know how to teleport?”

His father smiled.  “Your mother taught me.  She knew how to do it months and months before she met me…even told me she did it once accidentally as a filly when she got lost in the woods.”

Accidentally casting a spell she didn’t know because she was in trouble; the same thing must have happened to him on top of the castle tower.  Polaris stood up as his horn had started to glow a faint golden color.  The leaf and wing had started to levitate as well.

“A simple scale and feather turned into a flying, fire-breathing beast,” he reasoned.  “Who knows what these things can do?”

A bright beam of gold shot out of his horn and hit the leaf and wing.  They rose higher off the table, spinning all the while around each other.

“What will you become?” Polaris asked loudly.  “What will you be?”

His horn exploded, the beam of magic growing bigger, and he took a few steps back to keep his balance.  The leaf and wing spun faster and faster as the spell engulfed them until finally they exploded in a bright white light.

Polaris uncovered his eyes, excited but a little worn out.  He’d been thrown onto the ground from the force of the spell.  He picked himself up and glanced across the table.

A tiny red ball was floating above it, using a pair of wings to keep itself in the air.  He moved around the table to get closer to it.  It certainly hadn’t been what he expected.

‘Although if it had turned into something huge, it would have destroyed my house.’  He made a mental note to only use this spell outside from now on.

The creature turned around to face him.  Its eyes were enormous, and now that he was closer, he could see that it had a small mouth and four tiny legs underneath it, but there was nothing else to it.  It was simply a flying ball with a face and legs.

“What are you?” he asked, sitting down again.  “Are you a bug of some sort?”

It responded by flying slowly across the room to one of the cabinets.

“There’s some apples and berries in there.  Are you hungry?”

The creature turned to him and nodded, a pout on its face.

Polaris smiled and stood up.  “Alright, then.  Let’s get you something to eat.”


***


“Where did you get that?” Polaris asked as he took a step back, instantly recognizing the size and shape of the creature that had eaten all of his food and then flown away.

“I found it,” Starswirl replied.  “Or, more accurately, I found them.”

“Them?  There are more?”

Starswirl had pulled out a tiny, red, four-legged ball and was now floating it over to the magical aura.  It was squirming, around, trying to escape, but of course it couldn’t.  Polaris watched Starswirl pass it through to the other side, and the spell holding it in the air instantly broke.  It tried to escape the aura, but it couldn’t, and the two ponies watched as it desperately flew into it over and over again.

Then, something strange happened.  The little ball began to cough.  At first Polaris thought it had simply become winded, but its coughs slowly turned into very violent hacking and suddenly out of its mouth came what looked like an orange ball of wet hair, the exact same size as the other one.

“There’s no way,” Polaris said, but he watched in awe and disgust as the orange ball slowly grew a set of four small legs, a pair of wings, eyes, and a mouth.

“You are here, Polaris,” Starswirl said as he turned around to him.  “To learn a lesson.  What did you use to make them?"

Polaris watched as the pair of them started flying repeatedly against the magical wall, remembering what the first one he’d seen had done.  “How do you know it was me?”

“You have a very guilty look on your face right now.”

Polaris looked away.  “Is this the problem you mentioned earlier?”

“This is just the start,” Starswirl said grimly.  “Now, what did you use?”

“Just the start?”

“Polaris!”

“A vine leaf and a butterfly wing!”

“What kind of vine?”

Polaris looked at him now.  “I…I don’t know.  There was just this giant mass of vines in the forest, so I took a leaf.”

“Why not a tree leaf?”  Starswirl stepped closer to him.

“I’ve taken enough trees.  I had to cut down a bunch of them just to build my house and furniture, and I had to do it with magic.”

Starswirl rolled his eyes.

“So taking a tree leaf is off limits, but killing a butterfly for its wing is alright?”

“I stepped on it accidentally on my way through the forest,” Polaris shot back.  “I figured I could at least try to put it to good use.”

“Oh, yes, excellent use, it seems,” Starswirl retorted, gesturing to the magical wall.  “There are hundreds of these things now!  I watched one eat at least twenty trees’ worth of apples!”

“I…I didn’t think…why would a vine leaf and butterfly wing make something like this?  It’s like they’re a parasite or something.  They just eat and turn the food into new ones!  It must have been the vine leaf.  But what…”

He thought about exactly what had happened.  There was a clearing completely covered with vines and then a mass of them on the other side, creating a sort of wall.  He’d picked off a leaf, and then tripped when he’d turned around.

“I pulled a splinter out of my hoof…” he muttered as he looked down, and then he realized what he’d tripped on.

“It was a tree root.”

“What?”

“When I turned to leave, I tripped over a tree root.  The vines were covering trees.”

Starswirl seemed to have understood as well.  “The vines stole the trees’ sunlight and killed them.”

“They were parasitic.  I didn’t even realize…”  He looked up at the parasites.  “How are we going to catch them?”

“At this point, Polaris, it’s probably not even worth it.  If a single one is missed, it’ll just repopulate again.”

“And these two?”  Polaris nodded toward the jail cell.

“I think they’ll die without a food source, but I can’t be certain.  They don’t seem to be able to get out.”  He stepped past Polaris back towards the tunnel.  “I brought you here to show you this place.  I don’t know if you’re going to continue experimenting with that spell of yours-”

“It’s probably not even worth asking you how you know about that.”

“-but if things go wrong, I think this place will suffice to ensure your…experiments don’t run rampant all over the place,” Starswirl finished, his eyes closed in frustration.

“So I just force them into these cells and leave them to die?” Polaris asked incredulously.

“Or you can stop using the spell,” Starswirl said loudly.  “Or ignore my advice altogether!  Who knows?  Maybe your next masterpiece will shoot acid out of its mouth and turn-”

A low, quiet rumble interrupted him.  In fact, during the few short moments of silence that followed, Polaris was almost thankful it shut Starswirl up.  That was short lived, however, as the rumble kept growing in volume, and both ponies were instantly able to recognize it as a growl.  It didn’t last very long, but the moment it was over, it was replaced by the very faint sounds of crumbling rock.


***


Polaris opened the cupboard and took out a few small blueberries.  From the size of the creature, he reasoned it couldn’t possibly eat more than two.  He placed them on the counter, and it flew down to land next to his hoof.

“There you go,” he said as he took out an apple for himself.  He watched as it sniffed at the berries, expecting it to start nibbling on them.  Instead, it opened its mouth as wide as it could and swallowed them whole.  Polaris stared at it, his eyes widened in surprise.

“I guess you were really hungry, huh?”  It stared up at him and made a small chirping noise.  Then it flew over to apple and swallowed that as well.

‘How did it do that?  It’s smaller than the apple!’

“Hey now,” he said, a little uneasy.  “Don’t eat too much.”

It smiled at him and then flew over to the window.  “Where are you going?” he asked, half hoping it would stick around.
But the little ball didn’t care about company.  It gave one last chirp and flew out the window.

“Come back!” he called after it, but it kept going until it faded completely from his view.

Even if it seemed to eat a lot, he would have enjoyed the company.


***


Starswirl looked at Polaris, and Polaris looked back at him.  The growl came again, this time much louder, and the sounds of falling rock were soon after accompanied by those of shuffling and scraping.

“It’s climbing,” Polaris whispered once it had stopped again.

Starswirl nodded and held his hoof out.  “Let’s go, shall we?”

Polaris took his hoof and Starswirl began to cast the spell to get them out of there.  His horn sparked a few times and then…nothing.

“What’s wrong?  Do the spell!” Polaris hissed frantically as another, even louder growl rumbled through the cavern, loosening some small rocks above their heads.  The scraping had turned into thuds; it was attached to the wall and climbing steadily.

“I can’t,” Starswirl said shaking his head.  There was a definitive note of panic in his voice.

“What?  Why?”

“I can’t cast any spells.”

Polaris tried it himself, only to get the same results.  He looked around quickly.  The entrance was right behind them; all they had to do was walk towards it.  He gestured to it, and Starswirl nodded.

“We have to walk.”

“What?  Why?”

Another shower of rocks and dust hit them.  Starswirl rubbed his eyes.  “Running might make things worse.”

The climbing sounds had grown quicker and louder now, bouncing madly around the cavern.

“Let’s go then,” Polaris said, and they began walking towards the tunnel.  He did his best to just focus on walking next to Starswirl, doing his best to ignore the crescendo of climbing sounds.  They were nearly at the entrance now.

Then suddenly the sounds stopped.  For a half a second Polaris felt relieved, but that relief soon turned to dread as he heard the loudest growl of all right behind him.  He and Starswirl turned around at the same moment.

Towering over them on the rocky walkway was a giant, black, three-headed dog.  Polaris couldn’t believe it even fit on the narrow path.  Its red eyes glowed bright in the darkness, and saliva dripped from its three mouths.  The entrance was right behind them; all they had to do was keep backing up.  Step by step they kept going.  Polaris’ chest hurt from how fast his heart was beating, and what happened next certainly didn’t help.

The dog suddenly stood up on its hind legs and barked loudly, causing more rocks to fall from the ceiling and land uncomfortably close to them.  Polaris and Starswirl nearly tripped over each other, quickening their pace, not daring to turn their backs as they entered the tunnel.
They were inside now.  The dog for some reason was still on its hind legs, its heads curiously tilted to the side.  It barked again, and more rocks fell, completely sealing the tunnel shut.  The two ponies were now shrouded in darkness.

“Do you have your candle?” Polaris asked, his voice shaking considerably.

Starswirl wasn’t doing much better.  “I…I think I left it…I dropped it…”

Polaris shivered.  “Well, at least there’s only one path.  We can probably just-”

He stopped short as a light source lit up the tunnel.  It was coming from Starswirl.

“I guess I can get us out of here now.”

“Guess so.”

From behind the wall of rocks, they heard another low growl.

“Polaris…I’m not sure how much further back I need to go, but I need to get to the Crystal Empire.”

“Why are you so interested in it, anyway?”

“Research.  History,” Starswirl huffed.  “That place has a bigger historical impact than you might think, and it’s wrong that such a small amount of it was documented.”

“I saw a lot while I was there.”

“I assure you, whatever happened to you, whatever you witnessed was merely the tip of an enormous iceberg.”

“So you’re not looking to change anything, then.  Just observe and record things as they happen?”

“That’s correct.”

Polaris studied him for a few moments.  Something about this was bothering him.  The Starswirl he’d initially met had seemed determined to try and change the set course of events, though Polaris of course knew that in doing so the two of them actually helped cause them.  What could have happened between now and then?

‘My mother.’  Yes, that had to be it.  Starswirl didn’t know his mother was one of the founders of the Crystal Empire or that Sombra had killed her.  He must have changed his motives once he’d found that out.

“I can take you there.”

“What?  How?”

“Your teleportation spell works if either one of us thinks of a location.”

Starswirl tilted his head.  “How do you know this?”

Polaris just looked at him.  “Remember how I accidentally mentioned that you’re gonna meet me again?”

“Ah.”

“Now, the Empire won’t be there once we arrive, so you’ll have to travel back in time.”

Starswirl nodded.  “How long?”

Polaris shrugged, enjoying being the one on the other end of the questions for a change.  “I really don’t know.  It feels like it’s been about four months, but that I can’t be sure because there should be snow everywhere, unless I’m not living in that kind of climate.”  He shook his head.  “Either way, I’ve been here about four months.”

“Alright.  How will you get back?”

“I can teleport.”

“Already?  How?”

Polaris sighed.  “You do realize you’ll find all this out anyway, right?”

“Well…yes, I suppose that’s true.”  He held out his hoof.  “Shall we, then?”

“One more thing,” Polaris answered.  “I told you before I was going to look for my sister, but to do that I can’t be at my home all the time.”

Starswirl opened his mouth, but Polaris held his hoof up.

“Just…let me finish.  I want to look for her.  I want to find her.  Can I do that, or do I have to worry about you dropping by my house randomly from here on out?”

Starswirl looked down and scraped his hoof across the ground a few times.  After a few moments, he let out a huff.  “No.”

“Thank you.”  Polaris nodded and took his hoof.  “Now, I’m gonna think about where I lived, and all you have to do is cast the spell.”

“Alright.”

Polaris let his mind focus on his home.  He pictured his house sitting on one of the many streets leading to the center of the Empire, his yard, with his father’s garden in it.  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Starswirl’s horn light up.

As his mind wandered further, his focus turned into memories.  He remembered the day his mother took him to the park and gently hovered him over the slide as he went down, the day his father died, the day he was finally reunited with his sister and they sat in the living room to catch up.

Starswirl finished the spell, and they vanished.


***


Polaris grew frustrated as he tried fruitlessly to shove another book into his saddlebag.  Not even a day had gone by since that creature had flown out of his window, but he’d decided to look for his sister, even though he had no idea where to start.  He’d spent the rest of the previous evening practicing teleporting around his small home and reading the one book he could find about navigation and map charting.

A knock on the door caused him to roll his eyes.  ‘Perfect timing,’ he thought, removing three apples from the saddlebag to try and make more room.  ‘The first of many random visits from Starswirl the Bearded, only now I’ll know way more than him.’

The book suddenly slipped out of his grasp and knocked the apples askew.  Annoyed, he turned around and walked over to the door, halfheartedly kicking an apple that had landed there.  He opened the door to let Starswirl in.

“You should’ve told me in advance you were coming,” he said as he stepped back to invite him in.  “I would’ve prepared a meal for us.”

“I need to show you something,” Starswirl replied as he grabbed his hoof, and before Polaris could even respond, Starswirl teleported them.


***


“Mom says dinner’s ready!” Equina called out from the back door.  “Oh!  Are you planting more seeds, daddy?”

“Your brother was helping me,” Octan replied, smiling as she ran over to join them.

She looked at Polaris.  “Your mane is messed up,” she said matter-of-factly.

He scowled at her as he tried to fix it again.

“What happened to your other flowers, daddy?” she asked, sitting so close to her younger brother she nearly sat on him.

Her father sighed.  “They just wouldn’t grow properly.  Sometimes it happens that way.”

“But these seeds have…um…potrensil, right dad?” Polaris interjected.

“Po-ten-tial,” Octan corrected.  “The other seeds did, too, but they just weren’t meant to be I guess.”

“Wasn’t there a spell you could’ve tried?” Equina asked.

“Probably, but that’s not a very good use of magic.”

“Why not?”

“It’s crude,” he answered, covering up the final hole.  “Magic isn’t a gardening tool.”

“What’s ‘crude’ mean?” Polaris chorused.

“Well, it’s sort of…”

His voice faded away as Equina began daydreaming.  Time seemed to slow down around her.  Puzzled, she slowly looked around.  A small blue alicorn was sitting next to her.  She jumped back in surprise and hit her head.

“Ow,” she muttered as she blinked her eyes open.  Luna was sleeping next to her, nestled under the blankets.  She stared at her daughter for a few moments.  It wasn’t all that strange to see her in a dream, but this had been different.  This time it had felt more real, almost invasive.  Luna hadn’t been dreamt up by her own mind; it was more like she’d actually somehow willed herself inside.

Equina shook her head.  It was probably nothing.  Gently, she picked Luna up and carried her back to her room, making sure not to wake her sisters.  Starswirl had provided a room for each of them, but Equina thought they’d be lonely that way, so she’d turned the other two rooms into playrooms.

She placed Luna gently in her bed and went back to sleep.