“Twilight. Hey. Come on now. Wake up.”

Twilight grunted and unconsciously reached for her missing blanket, head throbbing horribly.

“Not right now, Discord. I have a headache.”

“Twilight Sparkle. Wake up.”

“*Kid, I think nap time is over.”

Twilight sat bolt upright on her now half of a sofa, bloodshot eyes wide as she jerked herself awake.

“Wh-what happened?” she forced herself to stand, legs feeling oddly wobbly. “Where am I?”

“*Warn me the next time you decide to take a nap like that, kid,” Sans had a single skeletal hand placed over his chest. “*Had me dead worried there for a minute.”

“... Was that a deliberate pun?” Discord blinked.

“*Must have been... bone tired.”

“Your joke is bad and you should feel bad.”

Sans only shrugged.

“*Must not have a funny bone.”

Twilight groaned, head in her hooves as she struggled to reclaim what little sense she could. The talking skeleton didn't seem very pleased with Discord. The fact that there was a talking skeleton in her house at all still upset her to some degree. It was still a matter of piecing together exactly what had happened with the mysterious figure that had barged into her home and t-

“Spike!” Twilight yelped, scrambling down from the sofa so hard that it collapsed completely. “He took Spike!”

“Whoa, easy,” Discord held her back as she frantically strained to pull herself away, suddenly very aware that it was already evening. “Calm down. One thing at a time. Okay? One thing at a time.”

“A-alright – okay, alright,” Twilight nodded.

“That's it,” he pulled away, hands up in what he assumed was a calming gesture. “One thing at a time, Sparkle. First things first. 'He' who?”

“*That would be Gaster,” Sans said quietly, hands still in his jacket pockets. He looked far different from the skeleton that she had met just that morning; his shoulders were slumped, his wide smile was gone and there were, against all logic, what appeared to be worry lines under his eyes.

“Alright, see?” Discord held out his mismatching arms to each side as if to prove a point. “Now we're getting somewhere. Next question... who is Spike?”

Twilight only stared.

“... Are you freaking messing with me?” Twilight's voice involuntarily cracked as a lump formed in her throat.

“Twilight, take it easy-” Discord held out his palms again, but this only seemed to incite her further.

“That's not funny, Discord!” she snapped. “That-that thing foalnapped Spike!”

The draconequus looked genuinely confused, looking back and forth between Twilight and her odd visitor. An uneasy feeling prickled at the base of Twilight's neck the more confused he looked.

“Spike,” she forced herself to say, and her voice came out uneven. “Spike. Dragon. Very short, very purple. My little brother,” she enunciated every syllable.

“... Did she hit her head?” Discord asked out of the side of his mouth, but the skeleton didn't respond.

“Oh, you're useless!” she shoved Discord out of the way, catching him off guard as she stumbled through the smoking remains of her front doorway. She had to fight to keep the panic from taking over, to keep back an unexpected well of tears in order to focus. If she panicked now it would only waste more time, and every second that ticked by was another moment that Spike could be in serious danger, or worse.

That thought didn't help.

Fortunately, she was quick to spot a familiar streaking trail of color high in the sky which gave her a glimmer of hope. Twilight lit a little ball of magic on her horn, focusing intently for a few seconds as she drew in concentration. Then, she sent the little ball as high up into the air as she could and released the energy she had been drawing in.

A vibrant, bright violet explosion of color streamed out in numerous directions, her makeshift flare lighting up the entire village of Ponyville for a single instant before leaving dancing sparks in nearly every inhabitant's eyes.

Twilight was almost prancing back and forth impatiently as Rainbow Dash descended in a swirl, landing already at a full gallop toward her before coming to a screeching halt. The pegasus was nearly out of breath, her chest heaving and her eyes wide.

“Jeez, Twi, just aim right for me next time why don't you?!” she glowered at her hard. “I was already on the way, what'd you do that for?”

“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight's relief was plain in her voice, and her friend's irritation evaporated quickly. “I can't begin to describe how happy I am to see somepony sensible. I need help, and fast.”

“Whoa, dude,” Rainbow held up a hoof. “Say no more, just tell me whose flank needs kicking. Is it Discord? I bet it's Discord, he's staring right at us-”

“No, Rainbow,” Twilight struggled to get her attention. “It wasn't Discord. Something bad happened, we need the Elements of Harmony all together, and fast.”

“But... not because of Discord...” Rainbow Dash said slowly, eyeing the destruction that had been wrought upon Twilight's home.

“Time is of the essence here, Rainbow Dash!” Twilight stamped a hoof against the ground. “Something foalnapped Spike!”

“Okay, hold on a second first,” the pegasus held one hoof to her head. “First you want to tell me Discord is, what, innocent? Then what happened to the library? And who's Spike?”

Twilight suddenly felt like throwing up.

The ground shifted hard beneath her hooves all of a sudden, and she had to fight to keep her balance.

“... Twi, have-have you been drinking?” Rainbow Dash asked in a quiet, soft tone that was seldom heard from her, concern etched onto her face.

“Just get the others,” Twilight responded in equal tone. “I'm... I'm going to start damage control.”

“Okay, Twi. Okay.”

Rainbow Dash took off, and Twilight couldn't help but notice that her friend was throwing back several uneasy looks as she did so.

The crunch of wood and glass as she slowly walked back into the ruins of her house was the only sound to be heard, both Sans and Discord waiting for her. They both exchanged what looked to be a shared expression of equal parts confusion and concern, and neither of them spoke.

“... You had better start explaining right the buck now, or I am going to murder somepony.”

“It really wasn't my fault this time,” Discord floated up into the air as she brushed callously by him. “I mean it, I'm just trying to, er... help.”

“Then make yourself useful for once,” Twilight responded darkly. “Go get the others. We need to chat.”

She continued on her way without looking back at him, muttering vehement threats under her breath as she attempted to put her wall by the stairs back together.

Discord had his talons poised to snap before he noticed a slight tug at his opposite arm. Surprisingly, the skeleton stood there with one hand in his jacket pocket, his face blank.

“*Do me a favor?” Sans asked quietly. “*... Take your time. There's something I need to talk to the horse about real quick.”

Discord didn't move for a long moment.

Then, slowly, eyes never leaving the empty sockets, very, very slowly, he tilted his head downward in understanding.

And then he was gone.

Twilight magically slammed piece after piece of wood back into place where Gaster had blown out the wall, and it was evident that there simply wasn't enough of the wall left to repair it all, but that didn't slow the unicorn down.

“*... Hey kid.”

Again she jerked involuntarily away from the skeleton, who looked, unexpectedly, wholly offended.

“... That friend of yours foalnapped my baby brother,” Twilight breathed through tightly clenched teeth. “And when my friends show up, we're going after him.”

“*Sounds like a cool idea,” Sans said casually as she struggled to stretch the wood to fit the hole, several pieces falling out instead. “*How do you plan to do that?”

“I-I...” Twilight refrained from looking at him, just knowing that he was staring at her with a judgmental gaze. Her hooves were shaking so hard that her shoulders hurt.

“... I don't know yet.”

“*Guess we should probably start in on answering some of those questions of yours first,” Sans suggested, pulling what appeared to be a hot dog with cat ears drawn on it out of one pocket and taking a few bites. “*Unless you want to scrap that plan in favor of your new one. Whatever's cool.”

“Why doesn't anypony but me remember Spike?” Twilight blurted aloud, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Sans was quick to stuff the remainder of the snack back into his pocket.

“*Ohh, kid- c'mere,” he hugged her warmly, arms wrapping as far as he could around her neck. “*Hey, it's all gonna work out. You'll be okay.”

“I don't care about me,” she tried weakly to push him off, soon giving up and only standing there shaking. “I-I just want my brother back.”

“*Believe me,” Sans patted her back as he finally released her, and there was something gleaming in his eyes when she looked at him. “*I know exactly that feeling. Right now, you need to know what you're up against.”

A horrible thought occurred to her.

“... Am I going to forget, too?”

Sans didn't look away, but he didn't answer, either.

“*... I know this all seems overwhelmingly unfair,” he said after a couple of seconds. “Downright dastardly, even. But I think you should forget about trying to stick your wall back together and come have lunch with me.”

“I-what?” Twilight balked, suddenly feeling a very strong urge to kick something. “How can you think of food at a time like-”

“*Just come with me, okay?” he said quietly, holding out his hand. “There's a great little place I think you'd really like. I even know a shortcut.”

Twilight looked back at her demolished library. One of her books tumbled from the collapsing shelves and fell apart into ashes before it even hit the floor. Wind flew in from the front opening, the ugly gash a harsh reminder of her last visitor. Somewhere, somehow, she felt that she could find an answer by contemplating the bizarre situation long enough...

Twilight sighed, finally grasping the skeleton's outstretched hand with her own hoof.

*Pffffft. *

“Whoopie cushion?” Twilight deadpanned. “Are you s-”

Then the whole world fell away.

“-erious?”

She almost fell over from the shock, forcing her legs to buckle to keep her upright on the sidewalk, and she was glad that she did. From nearly the moment that she had taken the skeleton's hand it was painfully obvious that she wasn't in her library anymore, and the sudden jump made her head spin.

“... You can teleport,” she breathed after a moment, familiar Ponyville streets both comfortingly familiar and unsettling simultaneously. “That's how you do – how do you even do that? You and that Gaster, both skeletons, both of you can teleport; Sans, what aren't you telling me-?”

“*NOW come all the questions,” he gave a little chuckle, but there didn't seem to be much humor in it. “Can it wait until we grab some grub? I promise, I'll tell you as much as I can.”

Twilight wanted very badly to argue, thinking instead of marching right back over the cobblestone streets across Ponyville and dragging the skeleton all the way home, but decided against it. She swallowed hard and nodded.

“*Cool,” he finally grinned with actual delight as he pushed open a door that Twilight hadn't even been aware of mere moments before. “*Welcome to the Eight Bits Bar and Grill, cheapest place to munch and chill.”

A thin line of hazy smoke wafted out of the door and into the cool evening air, white innards rolling outward into the sky. Twilight paused on the doorway, uncertain. She'd never even heard of the place, and likely wouldn't have bothered stopping at such a run down looking little bar, but what bothered her more was that after all her time both exploring and mapping Ponyville in her spare time she'd never even heard of this place.

And for some reason, Sans knew more about it than she did.

“Heyas bartender,” Sans waved to the unfazed looking lime colored stallion behind the counter, scrubbing away at a perpetually uncleaned spot on a glass mug. “Two of your best burgers. And a bottle of ketchup.”

There were a number of other patrons quietly milling about in the surprisingly spacious bar, all minding their own business, which was all lightly covered by the hum of overhead fans and a worn old beaten up jukebox in the corner, playing an oddly familiar tune.

“... This raises so many more questions,” Twilight took a seat beside Sans, thoroughly unnerved by the fact literally nopony seemed to mind that anything looking like Sans could walk right in completely unchallenged. In fact, nopony even seemed to notice that they were there at all, save the bartender, who was wordlessly setting about a small grill behind the bar.

“*Go ahead,” Sans grinned widely at her, taking a long drought from the glass ketchup bottle without taking his gaze off of her. “*I'm pretty sure you're still curious.”

“How can you teleport?” Twilight blurted, several more important questions fighting for attention behind her thoughts.

“*I can kinda bend time and space. Next question,” he replied casually.”

“... What?”

“*I can kinda-”

“No, I heard you,” Twilight shook her head. “I just-just wasn't expecting an answer like that. How?”

“*That's a very long and complicated story,” Sans said, finishing off the ketchup bottle. “*Short version, Gaster is sort of my father, in a weird 'created you from bits of my own body' kinda way.”

“What?”

“*If that's all you're gonna say we're probably going to be sitting here longer than I expected,” Sans chortled again.

Twilight only glared.

“What do you mean, he's your father? Explain the 'bending time and space' thing first, please, followed by how it's at all related to the fact that my little brother has been foalnapped and his exact location, in that order.”

Sans stared at her for a second, and his grin widened.

“*Well... to start off with, Doctor Gaster kinda... grew me. Those holes in his hands? I used to be just a baby bones.”

Twilight's mouth was hanging open a little.

“*Oh, sorry, sorry, right,” he clapped a bony hand to his forehead with a slap. “You wanted me to explain the other thing first. Right. That's kinda tied into quantum shenanigans and theoretical – well, not really theoretical physics, just regular old physics I guess. Which part of the story do you want me to start at?”

“The-”

“*The beginning, naturally,” Sans rolled the lights in his eye sockets. “Well, see, Doctor Gaster used to be a fairly normal- actually, that's not true at all, he was always a few screwdrivers short of a full toolbox,” he explained as a pair of hayburgers were laid out before them, steaming fries and all, though Twilight payed no mind to the fact that Sans was swiping several of her fries and stuffing them into his face. “But for your average monster... well, no he wasn't average at all. Dude's a genius. More brilliant and dangerous than you can possibly imagine.”

“I am... so confused.”

“*It gets more confusing,” he said with a mouthful. “That's why I'm explaining now so that when you eventually do decide you want to run right into Gaster's trap, you at least know what you're up against.”

“What do you mean, walking into his trap? Why doesn't anypony else but us remember Spike? Wh-”

“*Whoa, kid, lemme ketchup to ya' there...” Sans motioned to the bartender for a refill, and another couple bottles were sent sliding down the bar toward them. “One thing at a time, remember?”

“*So, it starts off like this, see...” Sans made an odd crushing motion with one hand. “Gaster made me as his lab assistant. Created me to do all the heavy lifting. I guess you could say I... put a lot of backbone into it.”

Twilight did not smile.

Sans spun one of the empty ketchup bottles slowly on the table.

“*... Yeesh, tough crowd,” the skeleton shivered. “Anyways, G and I didn't always see eye to eye-”

“Is it because you're fat and short?”

“*ANYWAYS,” Sans continued, “He's the one who imbued me with a little bit of magical power.”

“A little?”

“*Do you want me to finish?” Sans said a little grumpily, unused to being interrupted quite so often. “So, he taught me all sorts of things. Probably a little more than your average monster. One time I tried using that knowledge and magic together and...”

Twilight noticed that the bottle that had previously been spinning had stopped.

At an angle.

“Wh-how...?”

“*I found,” Sans continued quietly, staring straight at the bottle as it ever so slowly began to fall back into place. “*That if I pushed hard enough, I could slow down time. If I pushed harder... I could make it go in reverse.”

“... Oh Celestia I don't like where this is going.”

“*And if I pushed even harder...?” Sans watched the bottle flow back down the countertop and vanish out of sight. “*I could change a lot of things. I could change timelines.”

“That is extremely dangerous,” Twilight hardly dared to breathe. “What were you even thinking? Why would you do something like that?”

Sans didn't answer.

“*So, my turn for a question,” his head perked up with a small smile. “*If you could save somebody's life, to change fate itself so that even against the highest stacked odds an innocent life could still be spared... would you make the gamble?”

Twilight wasn't certain how to respond.

“*Not so easy to answer, is it?”

“... So you're created from Gaster...” she mulled it over, twirling a hay fry around her empty plate, sans burger. Sans, on the other hand, was already helping himself to her sandwich. “Is that where your... 'power' comes from?”

“*Not 'zactly,” he swallowed. “*More of a test run gone wrong.”

“So what about Gaster?”

“*Test run gone extra wrong.” Sans looked away with a shudder, and when he turned back he wouldn't look directly at her. “*He... fell. Into one of his own creations. Scattered across space and time. Everywhere and nowhere at once.”

“So... how did he wind up here? How did you wind up here?”

Sans looked down at his empty plate, hands folded over his lap.

“*... Are you sure you really want the answer to that?” he asked quietly without looking up.

“Yes,” she nodded without hesitation. “Tell me everything.”

Sans only shook his head, as if saddened by something unexplained.

“*I pushed too hard.”

“I... don't understand.”

“*I don't expect you to,” he twiddled his thumbs over his rotund stomach. “*One day I tried pushing too hard. Relied entirely on the magic inside me, and I failed. Or succeeded. Not sure which one is worse, to be entirely honest. Sometimes, you can't change the past or the future. Some things are just doomed to happen. It just wasn't fair. So I decided, from then on, that I wasn't going to play fair either.”

Twilight listened silently to the skeleton's tirade, watching him grow more and more irritated as he twirled the bottle on edge without touching it.

“*Things would start... changing, you know? Not just little things. Sometimes, big things. One time I came back and my own brother didn't know my name. I think that was one of the worst days of my life.”

The bottle fell with a clatter, and Sans was quick to scoop it up.

“*But it wasn't all bad,” he shrugged, finally looking up at her. He looked... tired. More tired than any living creature she had ever seen. “*Sometimes it's easier to just accept that, no matter what you try to do, you're just as weak and powerless as everybody else. Kinda liberating.”

“That isn't exactly helpful,” Twilight frowned, pushing her plate away. “Doing nothing isn't going to save my brother.”

Sans froze.

“*... Do you know what happens if I push as hard as I can?” Sans asked quietly as the bottles gathered together, more of them than she had even seen separately. Several floated up into the air with their own gravity, spinning like slow glass tops. “*I don't break. The world breaks. And, once I knew that, it was only a matter of time before I tried it again. And again. And again.”

“... Why?”

“*Wouldn't you do the same for your brother?”

Twilight thought heavily with her hooves pressed together over her mouth.

“*I know the void that Gaster exists in,” Sans continued quietly, and all the bottles vanished at once. “*I know how to get there. I know how we can get your brother back. But it means accepting some revelations that I'm about to lay down that you might not like.”

“If it saves my brother, I don't care.”

“*See,” Sans unfolded his hands and scratched the back of his head. “*That's exactly the type of attitude that got me killed more times than I can count.”

“But you're still alive,” Twilight began filling in the blanks, her thoughts running rampant through her mind as she explored a multitude of possibilities. “Because you exist in more than one place at once. Just like-”

“*Just like Gaster, yeah,” Sans nodded. “The main difference being that I can exist in the physical world for more than a spare few seconds at a time.”

“So what does it all mean?” the unicorn beside him looked half on the edge of despair at any moment. “Why did he take Spike?”

“*Because he knows what a person will do to save their family. He knows...”

“That we're going to break the world,” Twilight finished for him with a heavy, shaking breath.

“*Damn straight.”

“... I'm going to need more data.”

And the plot to undo all of creation began.