Flash!

The golden light bled through from my peripheral vision, but I couldn't look at her. "Twilight... You stopped it." She sounded relieved, only because she didn't know. "I didn't think–I mean of course–" She didn't even know what to say.

"Don't thank me." My voice was still laced with vile hatred. I'm sorry, Glowheart. I will never stop hating her for what she did, my heart is not as good as yours was. "Just leave me alone. I need to figure out how to actually fix your mess."

I heard her hoofs stepping across the invisible line I never told her about, "Twilight—You're right, I should've listened to you about this. But now that you're helping, we can make everything right!"

When her hoof rested on my shoulder, I couldn't stop my rage as I lashed out, striking my metal clad hoof across her face. I took guilty satisfaction in watching her tumble to the ground with a very confused and now bloodied expression.

"Princess!" Twilight ran the half hoof distance to her mentor, bending down and frantically looking her over. "What do you think you are doing?!" She yelled at me.

I tried to ignore her. I peered down at Celestia, who looked away from me. She had the audacity to look away. "Don't you dare touch me." My eyes darted to Twilight's, her eyes were wide and concerned, but mostly she seemed mad at me. I didn't linger. "Don't touch me one more time, or talk to me like everything is okay again." I shook my head. "Because, if you do? I will put you through how I feel right now." I stared into Twilight's eyes. "Don't think I won't because of rationality, I don't feel rational right now. In fact, I feel very, very irrational." I looked away. "I just have to insure that I fulfill my promise to Glowheart, then I don't want anything to do with you ever again."

Celestia didn't move, she didn't take Twilight's hoof when she offered to help her up either. She still didn't even look at me. "I'm sorry, Twilight." Sorry doesn't cut it.

Blink

I appeared in Twilight's laboratory, she had it installed into one of the many conference rooms in the Castle of Friendship. It was also connected to the advanced magics and alchemical devices section of the library in such a case as she needed a refresher before continuing with a risk experiment.

It was brilliant, I will never take this system for granted. The things I created in this laboratory, the lives I saved. The lives I ended. I shook my head, my magic reaching out and accessing the books I needed. Unfortunately, this is before I created the signalizing spell—which added a unique magic signature to whatever it was cast on, making finding books with magic as quick as thought almost—so finding them took a little bit longer than I'd have liked.

"Just who do you think you are?" Twilight called, startling me slightly. I hadn't noticed her arrive. "First you illegally rummage through my memories, then you straight up back hoof Princess Celestia, I can see that you're an alicorn," I turned back to her, waiting for her to finish. "And I can see your resemblance to me, not to mention the fact that Celestia referred to you as Twilight."

I blinked. "Your point? Look, if you're just here to rant about seeing your mentor smacked, kindly see yourself out."

"This is my castle!" She stomped. "If anyone should get out, it's you!" She realized where this was going quickly. She brought a hoof to her chest, closing her eyes, in—out. She extended her hoof with her breath. "Look. You're obviously related to me somehow, I don't actually know how, it could be time travel, cloning—I honestly don't care which right now." She opened her eyes, "But I want answers."

"Answers?" I levitated the books around and dropped them on a pristine white counter. "Answers." I echoed, watching her nod slightly, already unsure. I nodded along. "I'm you. In the future, I bucked things up big time." I trotted over to her slowly. "Then sixty–three years, two months and eight days ago—to be exact—Celestia went to the future where she found me, barely alive and wanting to die. It was my time to die, I'd earned it fair and square."

As I approached, she kept backing up. "But no. No matter how much I begged, and pleaded and threatened, she wouldn't let me die. She wouldn't even let me get someone else to do it. Then she blackmailed me, using the life of my precious student—a young filly you would've been teaching the values of friendship and magic to in a year—as a betting chip." Her flanks bumped into the wall behind her, and I stood only a hoof or two away. "A bet she lost."

"She bet the life of another pony, Twilight—not even somepony who said she could do it—somepony very important to me, somepony who would've been very important to you, and she lost. So before you come here, trying to make me feel bad." I started towards her again, watching her squirm against the wall, unable to concentrate enough to cast a teleport spell. "I want you to go talk to her about Glowheart—Ask her about the student she murdered, I want you to use those. Exact. Words. Then come back here and make me feel bad." I jabbed a hoof on her chest roughly. "I dare you to try and find a reason to make me feel bad after what she's done."

Flash!

I was temporarily blinded by her bright teleport. She overloaded it in her panic to get far away from me, she likely overshot Canterlot by a mile, a part of me felt bad for scaring her, but she'll get there soon enough. I huffed, turning back to my work.

She came back, but she didn't talk to me anymore. She just sat far away from me, in a corner. She barely even looked at me, and when she did, her expression looked like she didn't know what to think of me anymore. The likely case was that Celestia told her the truth, or a modified truth and she was trying to figure out how to deal with that information. I didn't pay her much mind though, I had to figure this out or my promise to Glowheart was pointless. "What was the future like?" She finally asked me. I barely offered a glance, still calculating the math my idea would need.

"Excuse me?"

"The future. Celestia said everything was dead, but then you said the future would be beautiful at Rainbow's funeral."

I raised an eyebrow, quills and parchment still being written and drawn on all around me. "Put two and two together?" I asked, interest being perked a little.

"It wasn't hard. You didn't change your size much, and even then the proportions were all the same. Just shrinking in general and a shoddy color swap isn't a good disguise." She shrugged. I shrugged back, it fooled the average pony, which is all I usually needed out of it. I just underestimated myself I suppose. "But Princess Celestia only saw the end. What was the way there like?"

I sat the quill down, sighing deeply. "It was... Complicated."

"Complicated?" She picked up one of the parchments, glancing it over. "I thought it was beautiful?"

I took the parchment from her, rolling it up as I placed it right back where she found it. "No touching." Then I snorted. "But it was. Sometimes." I heaved onto my hooves, my back popping as my magic sat everything in it's place. "Come here." I told her, my horn alighting again.

"What are you gonna do?"

"Show you something." I popped my neck, twisting left, then right.

Her mouth moved, but then she closed it and trotted over to me. "I want you to open your mind." I said, placing my horn to her head. "Just think about love. Love and loss. Peace and war. Birth and death." My magic nudged further and further in, being far more gentle at the mind walk this time. "Think about the beauty of life, Twilight." Especially due to it being a dual access mind walk, meaning she'd have access to my memories too—if I allowed it. Her eyes closed, and I closed mine.

Blink

"Where are we?" She asked immediately. "I don't recognize this place." She looked around the golden halls. Sunshine sparkled on the white marble walls, making everything yellow and warm.

"This is a memory I saved using the Tree of Harmony as a buffer, it was the only thing I could think of that could store a memory for as long as I needed, the material it's made of is perfect for that." I trotted to her. "It can only be accessed when it has direct access to the Tree of Harmony as a result unfortunately, or when it's influence is particularly strong in the caster." I ran a hoof across the walls, smiling a little. "After the telematrix detonated, this—among a few other memories—was all I had to keep myself sane. I had trinkets in the real world of course," I sighed, looking back to her. She still looked very confused. "But let me show you."

I trotted ahead of her, Twilight falling into pace behind me. "Won't this harm the time stream even more? Me knowing all this?"

"It's already pretty bucked. There's not much that could wreck it entirely. Destroying Canterlot or the Castle of Friendship being on the list of 'Don't ever do this'." I heard the distant noise of a sonic rainboom. "Besides, Celestia already prevented this from ever possibly happening." Twilight obviously did too, as she ran ahead of me to find it. I galloped after her, knowing exactly what the noise was. She soon reached the end of the hall, rounding onto a balcony.

"Sweet Celestia..." She whispered, standing bipedal over the railing and looking around. "Where was this?" She marveled at the marble buildings that streaked into the clouds like rays of sunshine.

"Trottingham, the City of Sunlight. The new capital city of the Equestrian Republic." I said, resting against the railing next to her as I too took in the view.

"Republic? But Equestria is a diarchy!" She then noted the Wonderbolts flying through the sky, the telltale rainbow trail following them. "Rainbow Dash?!" She yelled, waving her hooves.

"They can't hear you, no one can. It's a memory of the events in the city for a period of time, they can't be changed." I explained, she nodded sadly. "And that's not Rainbow Dash. She just died yesterday, Twilight." As her face drooped, I instantly regretted my words. "Those are the Wonderbolts."

"But that was–"

"That was the Rainbow Squadrons signature move, the sonic rainboom." I said, watching the rainbow trail seem to cut across the sky. "After Rainbow's passing, the Wonderbolts dedicated an entire new branch to the study and replication of the sonic rainboom, in honor of her." She just watched them with me as they streaked across the sky, when I saw them fly three and a half inches from the cloud shaped like a cookie with a space monkey riding it—from my perspective anyway—I pulled back. "We should hurry. We don't want to miss it."

"Miss what?"

I didn't answer as I hurried down the mural hall. Several times I had to grab Twilight with my magic and drag her along when she stopped to study a mural. "Hurry up! Was I always this slow?"

"Where are we going?" She asked, running to catch up with me.

"The council is ending, we get to see everypony and watch the evening ceremony." I actually smiled as I broke into a gallop. Twilight galloped after me, struggling to keep pace. We eventually round another corner that let out into a massive courtyard, overlooked by rows and rows of occupied benches. In the center was an erected platform.

I skidded to a halt, my hooves sliding across the scuff–less yellow marble easily. Twilight slid a few hoofs past me, spinning and panicking. She eventually stopped, laying with all her limbs spread out and her face and belly flat on the ground. "Ow..." She muttered, struggling to her hooves and rubbing her eyes. But my eyes remained centered on the platform. "You could've gone a little slower." When I didn't answer, she followed my gaze. "Is that...?" I nodded.

"The Alicorn Council." I trotted up and sat next to her as we watched them debate soundlessly. "I cut the debate audio from the memory, it was boring politics and I didn't want to hear it whenever I revisited this memory." I explained.

"The Alicorn Council? I have so many questions! Where did they all come from? Who are they? Where is–" I nearly smacked her when I moved my hoof to her mouth.

"Shh. Just enjoy it for now, questions later."

She looked annoyed, but thankfully obliged. We watched as the council meeting soon ended, the watching crowd all stomping their hooves in applause. Said applause could be heard and it startled Twilight, the sudden noise in the otherwise silent world being quite jarring. "Where are they going?" She asked, noticing them all leaving the courtyard through another hall.

I smiled down at her. "Do you want to find out?"

We followed the council, my eyes lingering on Glowheart as she laughed with her friends and fellow council members. Then we arrived at the Trottingham castle. It dwarfed every other castle, every other city that Equestria had ever had in Twilight's time. "It was built by me and the council over the course of a century, in honor of Celestia and Luna's passing." I said when I took note of Twilight's expression. "It was the first time we had ever lost a fellow alicorn, to us—me especially—it was the first time we had ever felt such pure, unfiltered and unimaginable pain. It was worse than losing our friends; our lovers. It was losing the only family we still had after our families had died, the only assurance that we wouldn't be alone."

I ignored the look Twilight gave me. "We built the city with the new found knowledge of our own mortality and the mortality of our loved ones. We built it with the image of billiance, but it was built as the ultimate fortress against dark magic, out of fear." Yet I still couldn't help but smile at the castle. While it was the marking of the first pain I felt in thousands upon thousands of years, it was my home. It had been my home for a very long time and I had so many memories of this place. The place that never would.

"It's... Huge." She peered up at it, leaning further and further back to no avail. "I can't even see the top of it."

I nodded. "It doesn't have a top. It's enchanted to keeping building itself higher the taller we needed it." She didn't even react to that. I imagine the possibility of a spell like that is more imaginable than the city itself. "Come on."

She nodded mutely, following me as we approached the castle. It was like approaching a mountain, even though you got closer it didn't seem to get bigger until it was right in front of you. Then we rounded the bend in the outer wall, leading to the ceremonial platform. The council had beat us here and were already lining up on the platform, most already up the stairs. I picked Twilight up with my magic and flew us both up there. I sat us down in the center of the round arrangement of alicorns around me. I saw Starfield, Glowheart, and dozens of my other friends and family members.

Twilight gasped and I followed her gaze. "It's us." She said, taking note of my mane, this was before I invented the bands and it was massive. It fluttered up and around like a snake. She sat upon the obsidian throne, Celestia and Luna's cutie marks embossed on either side of the headrest in bright, vibrant colors.

I moved my lips with her words, knowing the memory front to back by heart. "Friends, family. We gather here tonight as we do every night to gather in mourning of our late mare of the sun, Princess Celestia, and celebrate majesty the mare of the moon, Princess Luna, created for us." In front of the castle was a crowd bigger than the population of Canterlot, dotting the crowd was enchanted poles to carry my voice across the city.

No one spoke, not a soul even coughed. My horn exploded in purple, casting light across the crowd as everyone watched in awe. The light from the sky waned, the hazy golden beams of sunset cutting out and soon replaced with dark blue streaks as stars lit the sky and the pseudo moon appeared.

"The old celestial bodies are gone, but I created an illusion across the whole atmosphere, even to nations who dared war with us. It took an immense amount of power, and sometimes it left me incredibly weak in the first few decades after Celestia and Luna died." I said as Twilight starred at the sky. I took a deep breath, flapping my wings and flying into the sky, relishing the smells of Trottingham, the way the air had moved, all unique to this beautiful, forever never city. "But it was worth every day I spent hospitalized from magic exertion to know I was giving the sky back to my subjects. The sky gave our nation hope." I spun in the air before landing aside Twilight, who sat silently.

The light from the other Twilight's horn died, her mane shrinking dramatically, now barely the size of Celestia's in her time. "Her magic will regenerate over the course of the night, don't worry."

The sky shimmered and I sighed. "The memory is ending soon." I trotted over to Glowheart, who obliviously stared through me at her teacher: Me. I wanted to reach out and hug her one last time, but I couldn't. I could only watch until her face fizzled from view, replaced by the astral plane. Twilight sat quietly, staring at her hooves. "Are you okay?"

She flinched at my question, looking as far away from me as she could. "Am I okay?" She shook her head before looking at me. "How are you okay?"

I tilted my head. "I'm not okay. You think I'm okay?" I gestured around myself metaphorically, "That I'm over what happened? No, I'm not." I nickered. "But with immortality, Twilight, comes the time needed to be able to live with the bad. The time to be able to appreciate good memories without letting bad things taint them."

Blink

Our eyes opened in her laboratory at once, our faces inches from each other. "I cannot guarantee a future, Twilight. But I can guarantee that if there is one, you'll find happiness in it one day."

She regarded my words, staring deep into my eyes before nodding and trotting away. I sighed, I still had work to do.

I stood with Celestia, Luna, Twilight and Cadence around a large table, my designs and plans scattered around it in what some would call chaos, but in the words of Rarity, it was organized chaos. It made perfect sense to me, and even Twilight was beginning to see the pattern I noticed. "I have spent the last day or two—remind me to add windows later to help with telling time—in fact, Twilight? Add windows to the laboratory—designing these schematics. What we need to do is go to Trottingham and find out where the split started, then we can permanently seal it and prevent others from occurring."

"But how? You haven't exactly explained any of this." Celestia complained, waving a hoof around like a complete idiot.

Cadence nodded, standing aside the white alicorn. "I agree, the most you explained was how to create the device. What powers it?"

"Um." We all glanced to Twilight, having seated herself as far from me and Celestia as she could on the other side of the table next to Luna. "If my calculations are correct—which they usually are." Twilight said, a little, almost nonexistent snort as she giggled at herself. "Then it's going to need a power source comparable to the Elements of Harmony in their heyday, or the Tree of Harmony itself. But less spontaneous and more constant." She tapped her chin, giving way for Luna to speak up.

"And what is this... Thing?" She tapped one of the pieces of parchment. "It's hard to tell with such a... muddled drawing."

I snorted. "Well I didn't have time to take it and laminate it, or have an artist redraw my rough sketch." I nodded to where she had poked, "That is the power source. Don't worry about what it is, I'll be dealing with that."

I received suspicious glances from Cadence and Luna, but Celestia and Twilight nodded. It's to be expected, they knew me better, enough to trust my judgement. I glared at Celestia. Perhaps they knew me too well. "Then it's decided, Twilight and uh..." Celestia trailed off, staring awkwardly between me and my double. "Twilight will work as a team in finding the split and constructing the chronostablizer Twilight–" She nodded at me. "Designed." She looked at Cadence and Luna, "Meanwhile, Luna and Cadence will help them with anything they require. And I will remain in Canterlot, trying to calm the inhabitants of Equestria and manage everything else."

Everypony nodded. "Alright. Everypony to work."

I stood, "Cadence, Luna." I nodded to them, standing near Twilight. They approached. "Close your eyes." They hesitantly complied. I rested a hoof on Cadence, who flinched, and my horn on Luna, meanwhile Twilight rested her hoof on my shoulder. I closed my eyes.

Blink

We all opened our eyes and glanced around. "By the Mothers..." Luna muttered, casting her gaze around at the scorched ash and dusted remains of the once humble town. Twilight said nothing, keeping her eyes glued to her hooves. After seeing what it might've been, I imagine the scene is breaking her heart almost as much as it's breaking mine.

Cadence too gazed around the city with sorrow, feeling for the dead a love we couldn't understand. "What do we need to do?" She asked.

I looked around myself, "We need to locate the split. The easiest way to do that is weaken the binding spell Twilight created and close it up again before it destroys anything else." I sighed. "Which means I have to buck up the time stream more. While telling Twilight wouldn't result in much change, telling you secrets about the future that won't happen..." I looked directly at Luna. "You're going to die."

She blinked. "Excuse us?"

"Around the four hundredth day in the 3rd Era of the Equestrian Republic, you and your sister died." Her eyes widened slightly.

Bum Bum...

It didn't take much. Being this close, even the slightest change caused my heart to beat strangely. I think the link between my heart and the time split is because I'm in the wrong time. I turned away right as Luna looked like she was going to protest and ask me questions. "It's this way."

As I followed my heart, and the others followed me, Luna kept trying to get me to tell her more, but I didn't need to now. Then we heard it, the screeching, horrible noise that accompanied the split. A few more moments of walking and we found it. "Alright." I said, marking the ground below it. I summoned a scroll and quill, jotting down what I needed briefly, then hoofed it to Cadence. "Can you and Luna find these items while me and Twilight start drawing out the runes?"

She nodded and they disappeared in a pink flash. "I really hate that old teleport. Despite the fact you can do it with your eyes open, and from a distance, it's slow and as a stealth tool all but useless. Where mine was instant, and required little magic, theirs actually takes only slightly less time than double sonic rainboom speed and used a ton of magic the longer the distance." I ranted, silently wishing I'd replaced their memories of the old spell with mine.

Twilight was quiet though. "Come on, lets just finish this." She finally said, completely disregarding what I'd said. I raised an eyebrow, but followed her example. Something was bothering her, but that wasn't my business. Besides, she was right. We had much to do.

"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin."

― Mother Teresa