In the quiet silence of the Great Crystal Castle of Friendship, Twilight sat on her throne and sent the last of the petitioners away with a sigh.

When the doors closed with a gentle clang, Twilight took the opportunity to look outside. The skies were filled with the wonders of modern technology. It seemed like everyday something was made anew, something was crafted, or solved, or reinvented. Her ponies had an innovative optimism about them that had swept through the populace. She had smiled, waved, contributed even, but her heart was not in it.

She trudged her way back to her room, a simple room that housed a small observatory from which she could gaze at the sky and lose herself in her thoughts. Tonight, she was not in the mood to stargaze, read reports or be productive. She just wanted to sleep. She just wanted to fade away, perhaps to dream?

She eased open the door and stumbled inside, kicking off her hoof covers with a faint clang. She shrugged off her heavy regalia that she despised and threw it on her desk with an disinterested clatter. Twilight stretched out her wings, and checked them, as she did everyday, for tiny flaws or ragged feathers. After identifying a few and plucking them out, like Rainbow had told her a long time ago, Twilight turned to her bed.

Then she paused.

Something was wrong.

She turned back. The crystal was still glowing. That meant the microverse was still running. With a sigh, Twilight considered the crystal, weighing whether she should terminate the experiment or freeze it. She tried to imagine what Celestia would have said. She tried to draw up her friends from the edges of her mind. Her true friends. Friends from this universe. But they slipped away. She only had memories of what was recent. Visiting the microverse had contaminated her memories of her real friends.

The idea was laughable. All she wanted to do was re-experience time from the past, but she ended up corrupting her own links. Her most precious memories, things that couldn’t be regained. She didn’t have a save state for that, she couldn’t go back to her own past. As time wore on, it became very clear that her memory, like everything else didn’t last forever. Except her. And she was tired.

But there was a feeling of freedom, like letting go and moving forward, even if it did mean cutting herself away from the binds of nostalgia she had wrapped herself up in. It was necessary, and they had made it very clear that she did not belong. Maybe, subconsciously, she knew it and she was only deluding herself? Perhaps...

With a grim smile, Twilight bid farewell to her experiment.

The experiment need no longer be extant, she noted in her diary. Experiment terminated.

Her horn glowed, charged with purpose.

Then a flash lit her room.

And all was silent.

————————

I came out first, alone. My friends would arrive soon, I was sure. What I didn’t expect was where I was. The floor seemed to be made of crystal. It seemed clear at first, but because it extended so far, the crystal took on a bluish hue that was somewhat disconcerting to stare at for a long period of time. I felt like I could get lost in the depths.

Then I heard a squawk, a scramble and a yelp that sounded familiar.

Across the room, full of weird astronomical star-gazing paraphernalia was Twilight. Future-Twilight. Twilight-of-this-universe-Twilight. Her eyes were wide, the whites showing as she pressed flat against the wall.

“W-What are you doing here?!” she squeaked. “H-How?”

I was about to reply when another flash lit the room and something hit me in the head. Something orange. I wobbled a bit, and shook my head as I heard a mumble.

“Ow! Gees, Twi’, can you make our landing a little softer? Where the hay is everypony else?”

Future-Twilight stared at Applejack like she was a ghost risen from the dead. “Applejack? No, you’re not her. Just a saved state, not real, not real.”

What was she mumbling about?

“Hey can you—”

Another flash lit the room, Fluttershy tumbled out, thankfully missing everypony, but colliding with Future-Twilight instead.

“Oof! Eep! Oh! I’m so sorry! Are you alright? Uhm, Twilight? No wait…”

“I’m fine, Fluttershy,” she said and eased herself away from her. “You how can you— I don’t—”

She didn’t have time to say more as Rarity and Rainbow tumbled out together in quick succession. By that time, we had wised up and dodged them, but Rainbow took a full face of a bookshelf, while Rarity got lucky and hit the mattress instead.

“Ow!” Some books tumbled down and hit Rainbow as well. “A bookshelf?! Why does Rarity get the bed?”

“Oof! That was simply—why these sheets are delightfully tasteful.”

Applejack glanced their way and chuckled in amusement.

“Not funny, AJ!”

“It sure is sugarcube, I was wondering where you’d land, but luck ain’t by your side at the moment.”

Future-Twilight reared up on her hooves. “Would somepony please tell me—”

Another flash, this time Pinkie came tumbling out, after performing an impressive somersault and a flip. “Weee! Oh, can we do that again?”

“Not now, Pinkie,” I said. There was something else, I was forgetting something, but what was it? “Uhh, is that everypony?”

Twilight looked like she was about to blow. “You brought everypony here? Why? How?”

“To talk to you, of course,” I said. “You left without even explaining everything.”

Twilight shifted her hooves. “I did, in the letter.”

“You think that’s good enough?” I shot back.

Twilight’s gaze swept around the room, as if she were suddenly concerned with what she should say. For some reason, my friends being here was putting a damper on her usual confidence. She looked lost for the first time I’ve met her.

“It’s complicated,” she finally replied.

I wasn’t having any of that. “Oh please, spare me that. I got everything.”

“You shouldn’t be here, you can’t be here, how could you even be here?”

Before I could say anything, a final flash lit the room. Wait, that was—

I ducked, and none too soon.

“Wha—” Twilight began, before getting a face-full of Star Swirl’s Addendum. The book itself, though it claimed to be an addendum, was about eight hundred pages long. It was a pretty thick book, so I didn’t envy Twilight getting hit in the face with it. Now, as a bonus, Twilight wasn’t really in my future, so I wouldn’t have to worry about a book being smashed into my face. So seeing this in action actually brought me a small amount of unexpected pleasure.

Serves her right. Then I withdrew the thought. Horrible as she may have been, taking pleasure in seeing another pony in pain wasn’t really the path I wanted to take. Especially if it lead to her. With us all gathered here and Twilight groaning on the ground, I decided to start the conversation.

“So I think that’s everypony,” I said. “We’ve come to you, since you didn’t want to come to us.”

Twilight picked herself up slowly, all the while staring at Star Swirl’s Addendum. Something finally clicked for her and she lost a bit of her panicked attitude, though her stance didn’t relax from being guarded. “You’re here,” she replied, “but the book never contained anything about traversing back.”

“Yes it did,” I said, “there was a passage about anchors. That’s how you got back, I just followed it, that’s all. It didn’t require too many modifications, even though the rework was slightly experimental.”

Twilight eyed us warily, like we were a nest of snakes she had discovered in her room.

“You aren’t supposed to be here,” she repeated.

I could feel my cheeks twitch. We are here. Deal with it.

I took a deep breath. “That doesn’t excuse you,” I said. I looked around. “Where is it?”

Twilight looked surprised at the abrupt change in subject. “Where’s what?”

“Don’t play dumb with us, where’s the microverse?” I pressed, stalking forward.

Twilight straightened, her back was to the wall, but she didn’t balk. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She must have been as poor a liar as I was, because her eyes flickered down before snapping back up to me.

I turned around, searching the floor and found the softly glowing crystal. I picked it up carefully, examining the smooth surface and the intricate structure beneath it. How could such a small thing contain a whole universe? I knew the theory of course, you could encapsulate it with higher dimensions, expand space as you saw fit and then you had an infinite playground to mess around with, but holding it in my hooves just felt surreal.

Everything I knew and loved, minus us, the travellers, were contained in this small sphere. I gripped the ball with my hooves, then passed it to Applejack, who held it firmly to her chest, giving me a look that showed she understood the significance.

I sighed, then turned back to Twilight. “I want to know your reasons,” I said. “Not just on paper, but your real, true reasons.”

Twilight stared back, but didn’t say anything. She neither looked angry, sad, nor defiant. She just looked… tired. I bit my lip, and turned back to my friends. Fluttershy was also biting her lips in consternation, Rarity had gotten off the bed and just stared at Twilight with a mixture of pity and sadness, Rainbow was simply stoic and Pinkie just shrugged, gesturing for me to do something. Applejack was preoccupied with the crystal, her eyes wandering the surface before they met mine.

“It’s… a lot,” she whispered, pointing at the crystal. She lifted it up as she offered it back to me. “I-I think you should take it back, Twi’.”

Confused by her tone, I took back the crystal and peered into the depths like Applejack had. Around the swirling surface, misty lines and whorls of energy danced across in mesmerising patterns. All of a sudden I had a swooping sensation, like I was drawn into the depths, it pulled me in, and I felt like I was falling through the vastness of space. Then suddenly, green and blue filled my vision, and I saw the detailed landscape of Equestria.

With an effort, I tore my eyes away and blinked at the sudden collapse of my perception. I glanced back at Applejack who nodded at me. Wow… that was…

“Huge,” I mumbled, disconcerted. “I could see Equestria, but suddenly I had a sense of everything, like before when we began to travel.”

Future-Twilight peeled herself off the wall. “All of you shouldn’t be here. I can’t let myself sink back into my own indulgences. You must leave, go back.”

“Why?” I shot back. “We’re not simply indulgences! We’re thinking, living beings!”

“You’re a saved state. A saved state isn’t—”

“Alive?” I snarled.

“Hang on, hold on Twi’,” Spike said, waddling forward.

“Wait, when did you arrive?” I blurted. Oops, I forgot about Spike.

Spike bore a wounded expression. “I came out the same time with you. You didn’t notice?”

I shook my head mutely.

He sighed. “Probably because I was the only one that wasn’t catapulted out of your weird spell.”

“Hey,” I grumbled. “That spell did pretty well for something that I didn’t test.”

“Well done,” Twilight interrupted with a heavy dose of sarcasm. Now that her initial shock wore off, she seemed to regain a bit of her authoritative aura. “Now you must go back.”

“No,” Rainbow said, taking her attention off me. “We’re here until you’ve sorted out your thing with Twilight.”

She shot a glance at Rainbow, then turned back to me, as if I were the only pony in the room.

“Go,” she said.

“Hey,” Rainbow growled angrily. “Don’t ignore me!”

“Sure as hay, that ain’t nice of you to ignore your friends,” Applejack pointed out.

Twilight turned to them. “That’s not fair,” she said. “You can’t do that to me.” She muttered something I couldn’t quite catch.

“Do what, dear?” Rarity asked gently.

Twilight backed away, edging to the door. “You’re all— I can’t—” She tried to open the door, but I was ready and slammed it back shut. Twilight whipped around. “Stop that! I don’t want to have a discussion with my friends. They don’t matter. They can’t matter. They’re not real!”

“What’s not real?” I snapped. “We’re real, how can you say otherwise?!”

“Because my friends are dead! Everypony is dead! Everypony I love is dead. Only I’m alive. It’s just painful keeping up the façade in that little experiment. It was fun at first, but they just remind me that they’re not here. It’s maddening. It’s madness! It’s terrifying me.”

“What?” I couldn't make sense of her rambling.

“Just let me go,” she croaked, tears spilling out. “I can’t face them again. Not after what I’ve done, not after what I would have done.”

I felt a trickle of unpleasant dread work its way down my spine. Twilight shot a quick look at her desk. She tried to hide it, but she was too late. I made my way towards it…

Twilight appeared in front of me, blocking my way. She had teleported from her spot by the doorway.

“Move,” I said.

“No,” she whispered. “There are things that are best left unknown.”

“Not this time,” I said, then teleported myself in front of her.

At such a short range, teleportation was a risk, but I was willing to roll the dice. I glanced at the desk where a book lay open, with dated entries. It disappeared before I could focus on it more, but I caught enough to send tingling numbness coursing through my nerves.

“Experiment terminated?” I said in a low voice.

Fluttershy gasped. Applejack glanced at me in surprise, then narrowed her eyes at Twilight. Rainbow looked at Twilight accusingly, and looked ready to launch herself across the room. Rarity had a disgusted look on her face, while Pinkie stared at the floor, her face hidden.

“It’s not what you think,” she whispered in the murderous silence.

“Tell me, then,” I said, eyes drilling into her own, “what I’m supposed to think?”

Twilight shied away from my glance, but didn’t move from her spot. Again, she simply looked like the weight of the world rested upon she shoulders. In a way, it did.

“I was going to freeze your microverse and bury it deep. My experimentation had reached the limits. I thought about destroying it. You wouldn’t have felt a thing, but I couldn’t do it.”

“Couldn’t do it because you didn’t know how, or because you realised you were wrong?”

Twilight shrugged, clutching her other foreleg to herself. “Neither, Twilight, I simply lacked the courage.”

There were so many things wrong with that statement, I didn’t know where to start. This… prankster, this idiot, this playful spirit, was more different than I thought. She was a gulf apart in my understanding, but that didn’t mean that she was justified, or that I wouldn’t be able to set her straight.

I paced around the room, deep in thought. It was good that she didn’t decide to simply destroy the universe, but it was troubling that she didn’t seem to find a reason why that was wrong. It all stemmed back to her warped views about us. To her, it was like we were copies. Things to be simulated, reproduced, and rewritten or destroyed at will. She didn’t believe we were real.

I gestured to my friends as we gathered together. I glanced back, seeing Twilight hunched off to the side, looking more miserable than ever.

“What do you think?” I said. “We need to find a way to convince her that we’re real.”

Applejack sucked at her teeth, tilting her head in consideration. “I don’t know, Twi’, ponies just know when something is real and when it’s not. It ain’t difficult, you know it here.” She tapped her heart.

“You can’t win over Twilight with that kind of logic,” I pointed.

“It’s not about logic,” Rarity said. “It’s about feeling.”

Fluttershy nodded. “She’s using logic as an excuse,” she said quietly. “I feel like she’s just hurt on the inside.”

“Maybe she needs a good kick in the head,” Rainbow muttered. She glanced around, then rolled her eyes. “I don’t mean literally.” She paused. “Okay, maybe a little.”

“We need to overwhelm her,” I said. “In one move she won’t be expecting.”

“She kind of freaked out when she saw you brought your friends?”

Pinkie grinned. “I know what she needs,” she said with a devious smile.

“What?” I asked.

Pinkie cocked her head. “Isn’t it obvious? She needs a hug.”

I blinked at her incredulously for a few moments, then I grinned so hard it hurt my cheeks.

“Oh, Pinkie,” I said with a laugh. “That’s so crazy it actually might work.”

——————

I approached Twilight with a purposeful stride.

She met me with eyes devoid of emotion. For a few heartbeats, I saw the depth of age concealed within her mask of blank outer emotion. Then it was gone, and she merely stared at me, waiting for me to say something.

“We’ve decided to go back,” I said abruptly.

Twilight’s mouth fell open. Inwardly, I added that to my sadly lacking column of wins, but we were having a good run.

“You’ll just leave, just like that?” she said hopefully.

“Yes, on one condition,” I said.

Twilight looked at me, then glanced warily at my friends who wore satisfied smirks.

“What condition?” she asked cautiously.

“That we give you a hug,” I said casually.

“W-What?” she spluttered.

“Well, I guess you haven’t been the best pony in the world, but in the end, you’re still me. What’s important is that you understand that we’re real, we exist, and that we’re something you don’t just throw away.” I glanced around. “We don’t really belong here either, the same way you don’t belong in our universe. We should go, but not before we know you won’t do anything rash.”

“Giving me a hug isn’t going to change my mind,” Twilight whispered.

“Maybe,” I said with a shrug, “but what are we going to do? Anything I come up with isn’t likely going to persuade you through your wall of reason. If I know myself, you’ll have rationalised every little argument you can think of to guard against our words. Simply put, I’m stubborn, so I know you are too. What you need is something to break past that. Something to remind you of what’s important.”

“It’s not going to work,” she insisted, but this time she broke eye contact.

“Well, we won’t know until we tried,” I said with a wry smile. “Spike, girls?”

I wrapped my hooves around the alicorn and pulled her into a hug. Fluttershy joined, and soon after everypony else had circled around and drawn Twilight into a tight hug. Feathers and hair and hooves stuck out in all directions, even sharp claws, but I ignored them and hugged her tighter. It was like hugging granite, but I didn’t mind. This was the best we could do.

When we finally broke away, Twilight was trying very hard to bore a hole in the floor just by looking at it. I smiled weakly, uncertain of whether our plan succeeded or not. Twilight didn’t move, nor did she speak. When nothing was forthcoming, I shrugged and made for the crystal sitting on her desk.

“Come on everypony, let’s go home.”

“Wait.”

I froze, then turned back.

Twilight was still staring at the floor, her feelings a mystery.

“Yes?” I prompted, causing her to look up.

Eyes stained ochre met mine. “Maybe stay? There’s no rush to go. M-Maybe for some tea?”

She sounded so awkward I had to stifle a laugh.

“We can’t be here for very long, we don’t—”

“Twilight,” Rarity said, “we should give our host a chance to be hospitable.”

“But…” I looked at the others.

Rainbow shrugged. “I didn’t eat anything today, I could use some grub.”

“Tea would be nice,” Fluttershy said.

“Wouldn’t turn down some tea,” Applejack added.

“Tea would go well with the cake I brought!” Pinkie exclaimed. She brought one out of her tail. I put aside thoughts about eating cake with Pinkie’s tail hair in the mix.

Spike shrugged and smiled, but didn’t say anything.

“Ah yes, right, a few hours more won’t hurt,” I hastily amended.

Twilight perked up slightly. “Really?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah,” I turned back to my friends. “Can you all go ahead? I just want to… talk to myself for a bit.”

When everypony except Twilight left, I closed the door and stared at her.

“You must think I’m evil,” she muttered.

“Evil? Not really. Misguided? Definitely. I guess it depends on the perspective.”

“I’m sorry,” she said slowly. She winced. “It’s… a little hard for me to say that.”

“I can tell,” I said wryly. “Come on, the others are waiting.”

Twilight stopped me with her hoof. “Just like that? Weren’t you going to say something too?”

“No, I just felt you wanted to, so I stayed behind, that’s all.”

Twilight considered this and for a very long moment lay silent.

“Can you forgive me?”

“No,” I said finally, watching her sag. “The hardest thing to do is to forgive yourself. I’ve been so disappointed that I don’t even know if that’s possible.” I took in her tortured look and eased up a bit. “But who knows, maybe I will...” I trotted towards the door and turned around with a sly smile.

“...in the future.”

Author's Notes:

Okay so here's the revised epilogue. It's a lot less open than I originally planned it, but I hope this is a lot better. Again, I want to say thank you for reading this, whether you enjoyed it or not. I will plan for another arc, but I'm not one hundred percent sure I want to implement it.

If this chapter brings more closure, then I think I will leave it here.

Next Chapter: Time does not heal all wounds.

As always, my indelible readers, thanks for reading.

P.S. There will probably be some mistakes, which I'll fix coming morning. It's late here and that was a lot of writing. Of course there were some perspective leaks, hotfix applied. Some minor fixes to grammar, punctuation and style were applied. Some more punctuation and style changes. Lots of dumb flubs pointed out and hopefully eradicated by docontra! Thanks!