From: Fluttershy

To: Whomever may find this letter,

One Hundred and Ninety-Nine days after the death of Rarity

To whomever may find this letter,

My name is Fluttershy, and by the time anyone reads this, I’ll be somewhere else.

A little over six months ago, four of my best friends left on journeys of discovery and never returned from them. What caused these sudden departures were a mystery to me, but not to them. Even if they didn’t choose to go, I know now the wouldn’t take back that choice if they could. They’d found their way to Paradise, and even though they’re no longer with us, it’s something I wouldn’t condemn them for choosing over us.

Now, I found myself unable to live without them. It hurts. It hurts to be alone, to be without friends, to have everything you care about thrown into the wind, and be expected to get over it. It hurts so much I didn’t think it real. How could anything in the world feel as surreal as losing almost all of your closest friends? It’s absurd. It couldn’t happen, but it did.

So I ran.

I ran away from my home to a fairytale, a magical castle full of mystery to distract myself from the paramount need of learning to cope with what had happened. Somewhere inside me I figured coping was hard and that facing the future would break me. I couldn’t even think of one memory without breaking down, getting angry, or feeling guilty. It made me sick after a while and I was sick of being sick. I wanted to feel better, to be better, and I childishly clung to the first thing that did that. Love.

It presented itself, and I took the chance. Only because of how wonderful a pony my love was did I make it so far. At times I’d feel whole again. I’d never fallen in love before. It wasn’t my first priority, but I still wondered why it had happened. I think some fall in love to complete themselves, like a puzzle. Maybe I’m the same way, but I don’t think I am. I think I fell in love because I was broken, and I needed someone to put me back together. So, I thank you, Luna.

But to you, founder of this humble letter, you need to only know a few things. I’ve found my own way to Paradise, and I have hope again. There are so many things that ponies tell me are important—quintessential to life—money, knowledge, power, but now I know that there is only one thing that matters anymore.

Happiness.

With a heart full of love,

Fluttershy

Her Happily Ever After

Sweetie Belle sat alone in the darkness of the Carousel Boutique Showroom, staring at the broken mirror, whose shards had taken her sister's life. The showroom had long lost the flair and sheen it once held, now a memoir to its past owner. Her sister’s will designated her as the new owner, but Sweetie Belle didn’t want it. What she’d even do with it, she didn’t know. She didn’t like fashion the same way Rarity did and she’d never have the same caliber of art to fill it with. It may be her’s legally, but it’d always be Rarity’s.

Ever since she learned her sister’s grisly end, the showroom had become a shrine to Sweetie Belle. They tried to come clean it up, but she wouldn’t let them. It had to stay the same. The glass of the broken mirror still littered the floor, jagged shards caked with Rarity’s blood.

So artistic, thought Sweetie Belle. I wonder if she stared at her reflection while she did it.

Of all the things that opened her mind to the artistic way of looking at things, Rarity’s death wouldn’t be her first guess. So many ponies thought of death in such a simplistic way: a long, dreamless sleep, clouds and pearly gates, misery surrounded by fire or darkness. It baffled Sweetie to think all the possibilities of death she heard in her life could be written on a single page.

One could die, but who's to say that meant they were gone forever. And where even was "gone"?

Leaving Equestria could mean so many things, to the departed and those left behind.

Without saying a word, Rarity had taught her that death was what she made of it. Every other pony could stay convinced that their fathers and grandmothers would just live as memories, but that seemed too simplistic. It felt asinine to think that everything a pony was ended up nowhere else but our mind when we choose to remember them.

Existence is a big place, and there was no way that Equestria, the world, could hold all of it.

That meant Rarity could still be out there. She may be done living in Equestria, but that didn’t mean she was done living. She was on a journey, in a different chapter of her story, and yet they were connected. It didn’t matter where on their journeys through life and beyond Rarity and Sweetie Belle were. Through all of time, they'd be connected.

In the room Sweetie Belle could feel Rarity next to her, sad enough to take her life, but still with her. In this place, in this single moment, they could be together, through time and space.

She took a deep breath.

There was a task Sweetie belle had given herself awhile back. It was the day she realized she had a choice in life. It was the day she decided there was one thing in the world that could bring Rarity back, so to speak.

Sweetie Belle picked up the shard caked with her sister’s blood. In it she saw her reflection, her face calm and melancholy. The world had tried to take away her best friend, her sister, but she wouldn’t let herself be walked all over. No, she’d show the world. She’d show it that it couldn’t tell her ‘what’s what’. It said that she couldn’t see Rarity again, and for all she knew, it was right, but a broken life could be put back together.

A broken mirror could be put back together.

She was going to give reuniting with her sister her best shot, and if it didn't work out, who cared? Starting the next chapter of her journey didn't have to wait. She moved the bloody shard to her stomach.

“Sister…” she whispered to herself.

She pressed the sharp into her stomach.

“Sweetie Belle,” barked Rarity. “Put that down this instant!”

Sweetie Belle snapped to the source of the noise. It came from the shattered mirror. The various shards of glass still in the room began to rattle across the ground like an earthquake.

“Rarity?!”

In a single moment, the glass shards flew up from the floor and replaced themselves in the mirror. They arced and shot, rapid-fire, from the ground to their respective spots until one hole remained. The shard in her hooves shook lightly, pulling itself towards the mirror, begging to be reunited. Sweetie Belle let go of it and it flew into place. The cracks sealed in a brilliant light and, Sweetie Belle saw a fast-approaching Rarity. Her sister was dashing at the mirror from the other side, a full gallop.

“Don’t you even think about it!” she said.

Before she knew it, Sweetie Belle tumbled across the floor in the embrace of her sister: her weeping, whimpering sister. Sweetie Belles mouth hung open, her eyes were growing wider with each passing second.

“What the flipping heck?” swore Sweetie Belle, her voice cracking.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. Big sister has you. You’re okay…” said Rarity, stroking her mane.

Of all the things for Sweetie Belle to consider at the moment, her sister saying ‘you’re okay’ seemed to stick out. “I’m okay?! You’re dead!” she said. “Am I dreaming or something? If I am this is really, really real!”

Sweetie Belle slapped herself twice. Rarity grabbed her hoof as she drew back for a third one.

“Sweetie!” she exclaimed. “You really shouldn’t hit yourself. You have a pretty face and don’t want unnecessary scarring.”

Sweetie Belle subtly bit the inside of her lip until she tasted blood. She winced from the pain, but didn’t wake up. Usually pain would have jolted her awake. Countless instances of falling out of her own bed in the middle of the night assured her of that conclusion.

The realization that Rarity had just come out of a mirror hit her like a train.

“What...?” she said without a trace of wit left in her eye.

By this point in time, Sweetie’s eyes were somehow much larger that the sockets they inhabited. The fuse had been blown, her reasoning power long gone.

“Sweetie, you have no idea the sort of trouble I went through to save you...” cooed Rarity.

Sweetie Belle did nothing notable in response beside blinking. Either she was hallucinating, or Rarity was. Either way something was most likely wrong, and everything was absolutely confusing.

“I—uhh, thanks?”

“Anything for you, little sister, but as much as I want to sit here and catch up, I must find a friend of mine.” Rarity broke their embrace and looked out the window. It was dark, the sun having set a while ago.

“Are you real?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“Of course I am,” replied Rarity. “Why would you think I wasn’t? Oh my, have you slept recently? You look so very tired.”

“I think something really important happened…” said Sweetie absently.

“Tell me later. We need to be in at my friend's house five hours ago,” she said firmly. “As much as you need rest, I’m not letting you out of my sight, and anyway, it won’t take us long to get there.”

Sweetie Belle snapped out of it, sort of. “I uhm… What should I bring?”

“Art supplies: crayons, paper, paint, and don’t just think visual art. I know how fantastic of a singer you are and have some very special sheet music in my nightstand drawer I want you to bring.”

*

Ten minutes later, they both had saddlebags filled to the brim with everything listed. They went back to the repaired mirror in the showroom and Rarity touched its surface. It rippled like water, with each small wave shining a different colour of the rainbow. Rarity stepped through the mirror and Sweetie Belle followed.

Trixie and Stella sprinted down the unnaturally empty halls of the castle. Trixie hadn’t noticed any patrolling guards or late-night scholars. Luna’s embassies hadn’t convened and the apparency of wrongness grew with each passing second. Yet, Stella seemed unfazed by their solitude. All that seemed to matter to her was closing the gap between her and Twilight as quickly as possible. The subtle chill in the air crept up Trixie’s spine. Canterlot Castle didn’t rest at peace on a lazy summer night.

Silence and stillness petrified it.

“Stella,” said Trixie. “Could you explain to Trixie what exactly is going on?”

“There are so many things. I don’t know where to start.”

The two of them rounded a corner, sliding across the cold marble. Stella’s pace never slowed, even picking up a bit.

“Well—How is Twilight Sparkle trying to change fate?” panted Trixie. “And why is it bad?”

Stella took a moment to gather her thoughts. When she spoke she did so quickly without pause.

“It’s a long story, but basically a very silly pony told me to figure out how to move her through time. She'd made the incredibly intelligent decision to imprison her lovey poo for a long time, and then realized she couldn't wait."

Stella was cut off by a thundering boom that echoed through the resounding marble halls. Trixie winced and looked up as though the sky was about to fall. Stella on the other hand, slowed her pace and searched the floor with no object in mind. She cracked a smile and laughed breathily, shaking her head.

“What was that?” whined Trixie.

“I can’t believe it,” said Stella to herself. “That was a sonic rainboom approximately one year ago.”

“What? What do you mean ‘one year ago’?”

Stella laughed nervously. “So, time traveling to the future is really hard, right? Because that stuff hasn't happened. It's so hard, in-fact, that its actually easier to predict the future, and then use multiple dimensions to effectively time travel your target and then bridge the dimensions for them to return."

There she was.

Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy tried to form words, but they didn’t come. All her mouth could do was curl into a smile. The last six months had felt so surreal, living without her friends, coming to Canterlot, and falling in love with Luna. She wondered when the dream would be over. When would she wake up from the nightmare to see none of it had really happened?

Yet, given everything that transpired, nothing felt more surreal than Rainbow Dash standing right in front of her face.

She fit Fluttershy’s memory perfectly: same cyan coat, rainbow mane, and borderline flippant attitude. It felt silly to think, but Rainbow Dash almost looked majestic, and the scratchiness of her voice held a melody to her ears.

So much so that Fluttershy had no idea what Rainbow Dash just said.

“Fluttershy?” asked Rainbow Dash, waving her hoof at her. “You okay?”

“I—Um! Yes! Very much so!” she replied, before nodding her head like a rabbit. “Can I hug you?”

Rainbow Dash looked like she’d just been asked how often she picked her nose. She shifted her weight between the heels and toes of her hooves uncomfortably.

“Uh—Well, there’s kind of stuff we need to take care—”

“Please?” interrupted Fluttershy, a frown forming on her face.

Rainbow Dash looked surprised and even less comfortable as Fluttershy crept into her personal bubble with big puppy dog eyes.

“But it’s really, really important—” tried Rainbow

“Please?!”

“Ya know, my back hurts—”

“Please?!”

“I—” she started. “Maybe a quick one—”

Rainbow Dash didn’t get farther than that. Fluttershy had her strangled and pinned, crying into her chest like a little schoolgirl. Trying all she could, Rainbow struggled to break free of her iron grip, but it was no use.

“F-fluttershy...” choked Rainbow Dash.

“Not done!” she protested, squeezing tighter.

“Can’t breathe!”

“Not done!”

Fluttershy peeked through slitted eyes to see Rainbow’s eyes bugging out of their sockets. She released her and took a step back to give Rainbow some breathing space.

“Oops, sorry,” she said with a blush.

“You’ve—been—working out,” replied Dash between gasps of breath.

“I just really missed you.”

“Glad to know I was missed.” Dash eyed Luna who observed with a distant curiosity. “You don’t want a hug too, do you?”

Luna shook her head. “I don’t, but your presence confounds me as does a few other things. I wouldn’t put it past our Princess Cadenza to want yet another wedding, but the witching hour seems an odd time. Can you explain this?”

“Yeah, I can,” replied Dash, rubbing the back of her neck. “So Twilight and Rarity figured out how to time travel awhile back. Twi went to the future, and Rarity to the past. And I mean serious time travel. We’re talking the very beginning of time and the very end of time. Creation and Paradise. Big stuff here.”

“Is that where they’ve been?” asked Fluttershy.

“Yeah, and recently something connected them, pulling them together. That doesn’t sound so bad, but what’s happening is that instead of them just traveling back through to the same time, they’re staying where they are and time between them is being squashed, like a big, dumb time sandwich, until everything is in the same time.”

“Time is being squished between them?”

There was a grim look on Luna’s face. “I know what this is,” she said. “Imagine all of eternity passing in one second. That’s the catastrophe we’re moving towards. The two ends of time are coming together to make any difference in time indistinguishable.”

“Yeah, she knows,” iterated Dash. “It means everything that has ever happened, and will ever happen, is going to start happening right now. Basically the world is ending.”

“Do you know what’s connecting them?” asked Luna. “If we sever the connection, time should return to normal.”

“Sort of, but I don’t think we should just cut them off. If we do, Twilight and Rarity might get stuck where they are and never come back. They’re working on a way to fix this, but need give them as long as we can.”

“What can we do to help?” asked Fluttershy.

“You.” Dash tapped Fluttershy on the chest. “You need to stay alive as long as you can.”

“Why me?”

As if on cue, blood curdling screams from far below broke it. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy followed the noise to its source and saw black, writhing masses terrorizing the wedding. Fires started to break out.

A vaguely feminine voice with the hiss of a snake crept into their ears.

“Princesss Luna, sso wonderful that you made it to my very ssspecial day. Where iss your ssister?”

They turned and saw the tall, wicked Queen of the Changlings.

“Chrysalis?!” said all three of them.

She flipped her ratty mane and gave them a seductive look. “Sso you do know my name. How are you three tonight?”

“Surrender,” commanded Luna.

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “I can ssee you share your sisster’s mannerss.”

At her sides, two glowing green whips flashed into existence. They wiggled and cracked on their own accord. She snapped them at Luna who rapidly cast a few strikes of lightning to deflect them. Fluttershy squeaked. The dust settled, each side staring the other down.

“Hmph,” said Chrysalis. “Would you be inssulted if I said I expected that to work?”

“No, but I am saddened by the increasing likelihood that I may have to beat down somepony so mentally incapable,” replied Luna.

Chrysalis transformed into a mirror image of Luna and smiled.

“Oh, the irony.”

Her horn lit and behind them a swarm of changlings rose into the air. Luna and Dash noticed them out of the corners of their eyes, but didn’t move. All at once, the drones rushed in from behind with Chrysalis firing a neon green power beam from the front.

Quick as a lightning’s flash, the full moon shone a pillar of light over Luna. Her eyes glowed white with power and a pure white blade of light erupted from her horn. She swung her head to the right and used it to parry Chrysalis’ attack as it traveled to its target. Taking advantage of spinning her momentum, Luna brought her back right heel high up to crack Chrysalis in the temple, sending her to the ground.

Dash launched straight up with a sonic rainboom, its explosive force breaking the drones’ tight formation and disorienting them. High above them, she bounced between storm clouds, sending lightning strikes at the dazed changlings. Most of them missed, but the rapid fire electrical discharges thinned their numbers enough to rout the swarm in an instant.

Once they dispersed, She floated back down to the balcony.

Fluttershy blinked.

They stood over the downed Queen of the Changlings. Chrysalis sat up and cracked her jaw back into place, a thin red line leaking out the corner of her mouth. She smiled, unfazed. Luna looked discomforted by the non-effectiveness of their attack while Dash just dug at the ground.

Chrysalis stood up and brushed herself off. “This form,” she said, staring straight at Fluttershy. “So full of love and passion. And power.”

Chrysalis called down her own barrage of lightning strikes to assail Luna. She rapidly cast shields and barriers to deflect each strike, but could only barely keep up. Her greens whips flailed outward, wrapping around two of Rainbow Dash’s legs. Three more whips appeared, wrapping around her other two legs and neck. Dash struggled to fly away, but it was no use. Chrysalis pulled her closer until her sharp horn pressed into Dash’s back. Dash screamed at the top of her lungs.

With a strobe of lightning setting background to the horror, Fluttershy watched the silhouette of whips pull her farther back. It happened so quickly. One moment, Dash was screaming, she heard a crack, then silence. The next moment, Dash’s limp form hung upon the end of Chrysalis’ horn.

She dumped the corpse to the ground and turned to Fluttershy. The whips had her legs and neck in an instant.

Rarity and Sweetie Belle found themselves in an old, dark cottage. By the looks of it, it had been abandoned decades ago. A thick coat of dust covered everything, no corner was without cobwebs, the ripe smell of mothballs permeated the air.

The place was in the shape of a half-circle. Along the flat wall two beds flanked a hearth, and along the rounded wall were closets, bookshelves, countertops, and cabinets. The wood used to build the furnishings looked dry and delicate, like the gentlest touch would crumple them to dust.

Sweetie Belle hacked as she walked face first into a cobweb.

“Blech! Rarity, what are we doing here?” asked Sweetie Belle.

The sound of crying sounded through the house.

“Lily?” said Rarity. “Darling, are you here? It’s Auntie Rarity.”

The crying stopped. Sweetie Belle tensed up. The place was already creepy, and the sounds of a crying pony only ever meant bad things. At least that’s what the movies had taught her.

“Rarity, what was that?” whispered Sweetie Belle. “Can we leave? This place is giving me the creeps.” She peeked out the nearest window and saw a barren wasteland littered with rocks and dead trees.

“Nonsense,  it just needs a little sprucing up, and we can’t leave without my friend.”

Almost as if on command, the two of them broke eye contact looked and around the small establishment. The fact of it being a one room house, and not being a house anyone would want to live in anyway, didn’t inspire confidence.

“She’s here,” said Rarity reassuringly. “Just look around and tell me if you see anything out of the ordinary.”

“Okay…”

Sweetie Belle eyed the central table, and upon seeing Rarity go to check another part of the room she figured she should check it out. Apprehensively, she approached it. On it, someone had neatly set up three sets of pewter tableware for a meal that never happened. In the center of it stood an empty, four-pronged candlestick. Sweetie looked from side to side before reaching out and poking the candlestick with her hoof.

It wobbled.

She searched the table for anything else of note. On the fourth edge of the table where there wasn’t a placing set, she noticed that beneath the dust was something white. A quick puff of air revealed a pristine white piece of paper with a drawing of a white unicorn on it. She raised her brow at it. The pony held a shocking semblance to Rarity the only difference being her mane colour and style.

“Hey, Rarity, I think I found something,” she said. “It’s a picture of a pony.”

Rarity turned her head up from the trunk she had new nose stuck in.

“Oh? Let me see.”

Sweetie levitated the drawing over to her. Rarity barely glanced at it.

“Well done, little sister,” she said, patting Sweetie on the head. “Alright, give it to me.”

“Why what’s going to happen?”

“A lot of things, darling, but there is no time to waste.”

Sweetie Belle looked down at the simple drawing she held, and then back up at Rarity. The expectant look on her sister’s face bothered her. She’d spent six months crying over the thought that Rarity had killed herself because of her. She missed her so much, and now she was back and apparently too concerned with “her friend” to even give an explanation. Maybe it was wrong to get angry at someone because their death hurt and they didn’t seem to care.

She didn’t want to admit it, but part of her resented Rarity’s sudden rising from the grave.

“First, can you tell me where you went?” asked Sweetie. “It’s been a really long time since I’ve seen you…”

Rarity looked surprised, her mouth forming the shape of a tiny “o” and her pupils shrinking a bit. She recovered with a nervous laugh and disregarding wave of her hoof.

“Oh, Sweetie, it’s—it’s too complicated. A lot of silly magic things. We’d be here all night.”

“I have time,” said Sweetie. “I have all night.”

Rarity grimaced. “I’m sorry, but I don’t. Now, if you’d hurry up and let me see that already.”

She tried to levitate it away from Sweetie Belle, but she held firmly. Even the slightest tug gave it a small tear.

“Sweetie, give that to me this instant.”

“Rarity, where have you been?!” she outburst suddenly. “Off in who-knows-where doing silly magic things? Is this picture one of those silly magic things?”

“Yes, I suppose that is one way to describe it,” she admitted.

“Are you gonna leave again if I give it to you?”

“That’s not important—”

“Whoa!” protested Sweetie. “Not important? It’s like the most important-est thing there is! Why would you go off again when you can just stay here? Forget that other junk, that’s the stuff that's not important.”

Rarity chewed her lip. “It is though…”

“No, it’s not! It takes you away from your family and friends.”

Trixie was completely out of breath by this point in time. This must have been the fifteenth long, dimly lit hallway they turned onto. All this running confirmed her sneaking suspicion of Canterlot Castle being bigger on the inside than the outside. Thankfully at the end of this hallway was the door they seeked, Celestia’s private chambers. With this they slowed to a slow trot to give them a moment to catch their breath.

“Okay, so you time traveled,” said Trixie, still winded.

“Almost. The diary you recovered contains the spellwork for an artificial dimension whose purpose was to replicate real life exactly. We thought that we might be able to send the silly pony through time faster in this other dimension and then bring her back when she was in the right time period, but I don’t think it worked exactly like that."

"It doesn’t sound like it would."

“Now the problem is that Twilight Sparkle has done something to connect our world and run them parallel to each other. Our timelines don’t merge cleanly because time doesn’t work the same way here as it does there. To make matters worse, the diary also controls the other dimension. If you change the diary, you change the other dimension—"

“And Equestria,” said Trixie thoughtfully. “Does that mean Celestia was trying to protect us the whole time...?”

“That’s what she says she wanted. I doubt it though. Originally, changing the diary had no effect on Equestria, and really, it’s not like whatever she writes is going to make things any worse than ‘ending all time’.”

“So what do we do?” asked Trixie.

“The worlds are connected and we just need to break the connection.”

They arrived at the doors.

Stella pushed them open. The grand room marble and gold room was empty aside from one small, purple form on the bed, Twilight Sparkle. The clops of Stella’s hooves echoed through the cold room.

“Trixie, I need your assistance,” said Stella.

“What is it?”

“I need to cast a spell. To do this, I need you to give me a drop of your blood and a tear.”

Trixie shifted her hooves uncomfortably. “Um, okay—go ahead.”

“Think of something sad that you might be able to force a tear out with and I’ll make a small cut on your leg.”

Trixie almost found the request humourous. Think of something sad. She’d lived a sadder life than most ponies knew. Up until these last fews months, asking her to think of something happy would have proven a much more difficult task.

She brought to mind the first show she tried to put on since the first incident in Ponyville. It kind of made her sad, but she moved on to the time she spent on the Pie’s rock farm. She thought of the day she left and felt enough water in her eyes to push a tear to her cheek.

Stella’s weak magic tickled it off her.

“Very good, you’re doing an excellent job. Now, hold still.”

Trixie closed her eyes and felt a prick of pain on the inside of her leg. She winced, but saw as Stella levitated a drop of blood from the cut, mixing it with the tear. She then moved it to the stub that remained of her horn. In a flash of light, a ghostly projection of her horn glowed where it should have been.

“Thank you. That’s all I needed. You may leave, now.”

Her horn flashed and a blade of pure light appeared at her side. Stella walked straight towards Twilight, swirling the blade through the air. Trixie noticed her horn had shrunk in size.

“Wait, what do you plan to do?” asked Trixie, her eyes fixed on Stella’s weapon.

“Break the chain…”

Trixie’s eyes went wide.

“You’re going to kill Twilight Sparkle?!”

She raised the blade above Twilight, sighing deeply. “Don’t make me sound like the bad guy. My daughters deserve a world to grow up in…”

Stella brought the sword down.

Without thinking, Trixie magically propelled herself between the two and manifested a glowing blue shield to block the blow, roaring as she did. Stella’s eyes widened in surprise.

“What are you doing?!” bellowed Stella.

“I can’t let you kill Twilight Sparkle. She—She’s my friend.”

Trixie threw Stella off her with a swing of her shield. She skid across the smooth marble floors. Her face twisted with anger.

“You’re a fool, Trixie,” she said, materializing a second blade of light. Her horn diminished.

“Trixie knows this,” she replied. “But she owes Twilight Sparkle a favour.” The events following her second visit to Ponyville filled her mind. She could have been imprisoned for years, but Twilight had asked that she be pardoned. “One reprisal for another.”

Stella leaped high into the air, bringing down one blade and then the other onto Trixie. Energy swirled about Trixie’s horn as her magic built up. Her shield twitched and shook as pink lightning crackled around it. Stella struck it and magic discharged, the resulting shockwave throwing Stella back once more. Trixie dispelled the shield and brought forth a similar energy longbow. Trixie surrounded it with a series of mirrors and magical smoke. Dozens of reflections of the magic bow being drawn back shone through the smoke, and all at once, a barrage of arrows left the cloud leaving behind long trails of light.

The attack struck home. Stella deflected a few, but she lost a blade in the process and ended up getting her wing clipped. Blood flowed from the open wound. As she fell to the ground, she dipped her hoof in it and from that tip, fired a ball of energy at Trixie.

Trixie dismissed the smoke and mirrors only to take the blast straight to the face. Trixie shook it off though.

Stella had landed on her back, but didn’t miss a beat and tossed a forceful blast of magic in direction opposite of the bed to propel her beneath it. Once beneath Twilight, she used her blade to slice the bed apart, but the deeper parts of her strikes bounced off of Trixie’s bubble shield.

Trixie screamed intensely with each strike. The shield began to crack. With few options left, she tossed Twilight high into the air and did an aerial flip backwards to avoid Stella’s onslaught.

The bed nearly exploded as her a few dozen slashes tore it apart in a matter of seconds. Stella saw her target falling back towards her, but Trixie jerked Twilight out of her reach.

Twilight slid across the floor behind Trixie, who took a defensive stance.

“How did you like smoke and mirrors?” taunted Trixie.

Stella folded her hurt wing back in. “It was lovely. I didn’t have to see your ugly face for once.”

“Trixie’s glad—” Her horn lit up and entire room became shrouded in a smoke and mirrors.

Stella could scarcely see the other side of the room. Trixie’s form ran throughout the smoke in more places than she cared to count. The clops of Trixie’s hooves echoed throughout the room.

“Do you even know what happens if Twilight is allowed to live?” said Stella calmly, watching every movement she could.

“It doesn’t matter,” she replied. “The ponies closest to my heart taught me what it means to be in another’s debt, especially after treating them so poorly.”

Stella’s ear twitched. Trixie was behind her. She swung, but nothing connected. A bolt of magic shot at her from the smoke, exploding on contact and sending her rolling and crashing into a mirror.

Stella got to her hooves, and began pacing about the room. Moving would distract her more effectively. She slashed at each and every mirror she came across, shattering them.

Another bolt shot out, but Stella caught it out of the corner of her eye and slid out of the way. She followed the source of the attack and carefully watched the mirrors.

Movement behind her. The sound of hooves against marble pointed to behind her. A bolt flew out, but Stella deflected back at its source. It hit Trixie right in the face. She screamed and the mirrors and smoke disappeared.

Trixie took a moment to rub her eyes and try to shake off the stunning attack. Stella swung in with her blade

Less than two seconds later, Trixie screamed out in the most excruciating pain she’d ever felt. Her horn rolled across the floor a few feet away from her. She buckled to her knees, her hooves permanently affixed to the stub that used to be her horn.

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” whispered Stella, still in the stance she used to take away Trixie’s magic. “Be happy you’re still alive.”

Nothing but screams, blood curdling screams.

“Unfortunately, the magic of friendship goes beyond unicorn magic, so I can’t offer Twilight the same courtesy.”

Stella looked back towards Twilight who still laid on the ground where she landed. She used her blade to make a small cut across Twilight’s cheek. She grimaced in pain but still didn’t wake up.

“Just a stray dog that Rosetta brought in off the street,” spat Stella. “That’s what you are.”

She swung the blade at Twilight’s neck, but a yellow beam of energy shot out and destroyed her weapon. It took her a moment to realize it, but when she did, she screamed.

“Who did that?!” she bellowed.

A tall, white pony approached.

“Stella,” said Celestia. “I think you misunderstand what needs to be done.”

Stella glared at her with burning eyes. “You said, ‘break the chain’, and that’s what I’m doing.”

Celestia shook her head. “Killing my student won’t break the spell. It continues as long as the diary does and I don’t think we have the time to find a way to destroy it. To save Equestria, we need to remove that which ties it all together.”

“Kill the pegasi then,” chided Stella. “But that won’t stop Twilight Sparkle from rewriting anything else. She needs to die to secure Equestria.” She materialized another blade, leaving her horn’s magic half-depleted. “Please don’t stand in my way.”

Celestia brought forth her own weapon, a golden white energy lance. She gently parried Stella’s blade to the side. Stella let her push it without reaction. They locked eyes and Stella looked a deep breath.

“So it’s come to this,” said Stella. “Quite the underdog story isn’t it?”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” replied Celestia. “This time, I won’t stop at your horn.”

Fluttershy flapped her wings frantically, but the whips around her limbs and neck had her in a iron grip. She was helpless as they reeled her in.

“Luna! she screamed. “Help!

It seemed like the more she yelled, the faster the bolts of lightning struck Luna. Soon, even she slipped up with her defense after defending for so long against attacks that moved at the speed of light. Once one bolt slipped through, more did and the effect snowballed.

“So much love,” said Chrysalis.

She lifted Fluttershy into the air and to her horn. Fluttershy felt it begin to dig into her spine. The lightning stopped and she saw Luna on the ground trembling even to get up.

“Princess Luna,” said Chrysalis. “Wouldn’t you like to stare lovingly into her eyes during her last moments?”

Luna grit her teeth in frustration, tears flowing down her cheeks. She couldn’t even lift herself up.

“Let her go you miserable, worthless insect!” roared Luna.

“It’s okay, Luna!” cried Fluttershy. “I just want to tell you that I lov—”

The digging horn in her back cut her off. She released a pained screamed.

Chrysalis laughed. “This is so precious! Princess, I do believe it’s your turn to reply.”

Luna had nearly managed to get to her knees. Her horn sparkled weakly. They heard thunder above.

“Oh no,” said Chrysalis. “We can’t have that.”

Without warning, another whip came out and cracked Luna across the back, leaving a deep red gash. She collapsed to her stomach.

“No magic. Only tender, heartfelt words of endearment and longingness.”

Chrysalis wrapped the whip around Luna’s neck and held her up to Fluttershy, her legs dragging behind her. Luna couldn’t look her in the eye, guilt filling them with too many tears.

“Go on. Say something. Kiss even. Doesn’t matter to me. I’m starving for anything.”

“I love you, Fluttershy,” whispered Luna too quiet for anyone to hear.

They heard the snap of fingers and the whips turned into wet noodles.

Fluttershy and Luna dropped to the ground and a deep, sarcastic voice that always seemed on the cusp of a laugh rang out.

“Hungry, Chrysalis?” hissed Discord, suddenly behind her. “I got something nice and hard for you to chew on.”

She turned around. Discord stood ready with a metal baseball bat over his shoulder, ready to swing. With all his might, he smashed her right in the mouth, leaving it a pearly, bloody mess. She screamed in agony, held her hooves to her mouth and fell out of her Princess Luna disguise.

Discord followed up with a backstroke, breaking her jaw. A vertical spin attack to spike her to the ground. A stomp of his foot to bounce her up. He landed a flurry of strikes, very stylishly at that, Chrysalis stunned and defenseless. It was a savage beatdown that finished by knocking her high up and grand-slamming her all the way to Cloudsdale.

“No one hurts Fluttershy,” he snarled, watching her blink off in the distance.

“Discord!?” exclaimed Fluttershy. “Wh-what? Did you just save me?”

He turned to her and smiled. “That I did. Anything for a dear friend.”

“Friend?” The word felt like a foreign sweetness on her tongue.

“Indeed. You’re probably not aware, but in the future, we’re actually very good friends.” He frowned and between Luna and Rainbow Dash. “But as much as I’d like to catch up, I think we have more pressing matters to attend to.”

She knelt down next to Rainbow Dash and place her ear to her chest. Chrysalis’ horn had left a puncture wound in her abdomen, but regardless, she still drew shallow breaths. Normally, the thought of her friend dying would be enough to send Fluttershy spiraling in a black out. It had before, and probably would in the future, but right now she didn’t have the luxury to not take action. Rainbow Dash needed her.

“She’s still alive,” said Fluttershy putting her hoof directly into the wound to prevent further bleeding. “Discord, can you do anything?

He knelt next to her on his stubby legs and waved his hand over the wound. Magic light danced from his fingertips, but it met an invisible bubble and ran down its sides, failing to meet its target. He raised a brow and stroked his beard.

“Alicorn magic. It’s a little outside my realm of expertise,” he said. “Celestia will know what to do.”

He snapped his fingers and Rainbow Dash popped upward into a black bubble, floating in the middle of it. He tied her by a string to Fluttershy’s wrist like a balloon. Dash bounced about weightlessly.

“I put her in a stasis. She shouldn’t worsen while under that spell, but you ought to get her to Celestia asap. And for Luna—” he said. “Something extra special.”

He pulled out a massive magnifying glass and used it to capture the concentrated light of the moon and focus it on Luna. She stirred to life and fluttered her eyes. Her hoof ornaments, cutie mark, eyes, and necklace began to glow hot white. The wounds across her back began to close up. She moaned from the sheer intensity of the magic flowing through her. Static cracked through the air, searching for a source to discharge to.

The grit her teeth and looked up at the magnifying glass like a caged animal. With a roar, the static shattered it. Her eyes and cutie mark returned to normal, but the light on her hooves and neck only fell to a low shimmer.

“Discord? You’re free as well?” exclaimed Luna. She took up an aggressive stance. “Surrender! Or face me!”

He chuckled. “Really? Didn’t you just do this and fail miserably?”

Luna blushed scarlet red.

“You dare mock the Princess of the Night?”

“Yeah,” he said, scratching his nose. “I do almost daily.”

“It’s okay, Luna. I think he’s on our side,” interjected Fluttershy. “Look, he helped Rainbow.”

She held out her wrist. Luna went from distressed to confused in an instant.

“I—a stasis. Not a bad idea,” she admitted. “And you’re trying to help our cause?” she asked to Discord.

“Somepony thinks they can tell me fate is a thing, like—like I can be predicted!” he said. He clenched his fist and shook it at the sky. “Spoilers are not a thing!”

“What?” asked the ponies.

“Nevermind. You two, go.” Discord put on a pair of sunglasses, poofed a baseball cap on his head, turned it backwards, and spit in his hands before clapping them together and gripping his bat.

“Where are you going?” asked Fluttershy.

In the distance, a massive, red, centaur-like monster terrorized the countryside, firing laser beams from a ball of energy between his horns.

“To unsettle some finished business.”

Sweetie Belle glowered at her sister who returned her animosity.

“Sweetie, I’m not sure that you’re aware, but I have moved literal mountains to return to you. I’m not at all excited about the prospect of using this silly magic to do more silly things,” said Rarity.

“Then don’t!” replied Sweetie Belle.

The house began to creak as if the wood itself was growing restless.

“It’s not that easy. There are things I need to take care of that you just don’t understand—”

“That is the cheapest excuse,” chided Sweetie Belle. “What? Because I’m a kid and you’re the older sister that nothing I say matters and everything you say is always right?”

Rarity fumed in a silence only broken by the increasing restlessness of the house.

“All your dumb magic has done is break ponies apart! I bet Twilight and Rainbow are both part of this, aren’t they?”

More silence.

“Do you know what it was like in Ponyville when all three of you disappeared forever? Pinkie has been in the hospital because she’s so flipping sad! Scootaloo wouldn’t stop crying and Fluttershy had to leave to go take care of Twilight!”

Sweetie Belle was crying in frustration now. Only half-aware of what she said, the words came flowing out.

“This happened to us on accident!” protested Rarity. “We didn’t search this out. It found us!”

“Fine! Go back! I don’t need you anyway, cause I’ve learned to live without you and it’s freakin’ awesome!” cried Sweetie Belle.

Rarity’s anger vanished. Her lip trembled and her face scrunched up.

“You—You don’t mean that, do you?”

“You leave, and then you come back! And then you leave again! I hate you! I hate you so much!”

Rarity’s eyes fell to the floor, searching it like somewhere was a button that’d end this nightmare. She could hardly breathe and tried to swallow but her mouth and throat felt like sandpaper.

“I—I’m…”

Rarity began to cry, but did everything her power to not make a peep. Her face scrunched up and she looked up to the corner of the room. She choked down every sob and bat her lashes to soak up the tears.

“I’m happy for you…” she said. “If I remember correctly how much you said you loved me, then being able to get over me makes you a strong filly. Stronger than me.”

Sweetie Belle didn’t say anything.

“You can leave through the mirror we entered, it’s a two way portal. Break the mirror on the other side, and you don’t ever have to see me again,” said Rarity.

Rarity glanced down at Sweetie Belle and the locked eyes. Never before had Sweetie Belle seen her sister so desperate. It was almost pathetic how broken up Rarity looked. It ripped Sweetie Belle’s heart right out of her chest. They held each other’s eyes for only a second before Rarity let a sob through, and once that happened, it took no time at all for them to be crying in each other’s arms.

*

“Are you going to go?” asked Sweetie Belle, some time later.

“I’m afraid Equestria isn’t going to be here much longer. I can’t stay here.”

“Can we go together?”

“I wouldn’t leave without you.”

Sweetie Belle held out the drawing for Rarity to take. Rarity smiled and quickly tore it in half, then fourths. Sweetie Belle ripped a piece off and then laughed as they tried to rip it into as many tiny pieces as they could. The paper fell to the floor and they left through the mirror they came, back home.

*

On the other side unicorn familiar to Rarity stood waiting. She was white with a baby blue mane and amethyst eyes.

“Illustrious,” said Rarity. “I’m glad to see you’re finally free.”

“Freedom, a most essential qualitative liberty that I have never been able to accurately define,” replied Lily with a bright smile. Her eyes went wide and she held a hoof to her mouth. “But wait—” she whispered. “That’s not what we’re talking about right now, is it?”

“No, darling. Well, technically it is, but we should probably discuss how we’re going to fix this.”

They watched a parasprite buzz by above them. A hundred more followed.

“I agree,” said Lily.

“My friend Twilight told us that there is a way to Paradise. My efforts in your world have only concerned accomplishing this goal, but we have ran into some issues.”

“Like the cessation of a tangible concept of time?” replied Lily.

“How did you know—?”

“Remember how it’s my world you’re using for this? The one that I poured my heart and mind into? I’m aware.”

“Oh.”

“Anyway, the spell that underlies this problem has been modified. I believe your friend in Paradise doesn’t fully understand the ramifications of her actions, so we need to give control of the spell to somepony who does.”

“Who? You?”

Lily smiled and shook her head. “I’m probably only the fifth most qualified pony. The pony we need is Pinkie Pie.”

In the span of ten seconds the wind outside had picked up to a roaring gale. House sized debris seemed to come out of no where, crashing into the city below and escalating the chaos. A thunderless lightning storm flashed the sky like an oversized strobe light. Both the sun and moon were out, and the light of day mixed with the starry night like a tye-dye shirt. Fluttershy shouted at the top of her lungs just to be heard.

"I don't get it! She was just here a few minutes ago!" she said scanning the approaching hallway to Luna's observatory. "Where could she have gone?!"

"By now she has probably recognized the impending calamity and gone to secure Twilight Sparkle!" replied Luna. "We need to go to her personal chambers!"

Fluttershy nodded and they both took off down the hall. Celestia’s room wasn’t far. They could hear crashing and crumbling as debris pelted the walls around them.

“What is the calamity?” asked Fluttershy. “What’s going on? Why did Rainbow tell me I need to stay alive?”

“I—I don’t know.”

“You’re lying.”

“Well of course I am. I just don’t want to say it.”

“I don’t care. Tell me.”

The hallway seemed to stretch on forever. No matter how fast they ran, they never got anywhere.

“You want the truth?” spat Luna.

“Yes.”

“You’re what connects Rarity and Twilight. I don’t know how you did it, but you all got caught up in an old, broken spell that should never have happened in the first place. You brought two ponies at the ends of time together.”

“Is everypony outside dead?! Because of me?” cried Fluttershy.

“Is that really what’s important right now?” deflected Luna.

“Yes! All I did was write them letters. I wanted to see them again because I didn’t want to be alone and you left me. I didn’t want any of this to happen!”

Luna slowed to a stop. She looked forward and behind her. Both ways went on forever. Fluttershy didn’t want to stop, but did anyways.

“This is useless,” said Luna. “Time is about to collapse, and then it’ll be over. Everything.”

“So, this is it?”

Luna shook her head, tears welling up. A wayward tree crashed through the skyway behind them. Gusts rushed to fill the empty halls. Another one crashed into the skyway in front of them. Luna leaped over to Fluttershy to shield her as debris began to circulate around. They pounded her shield, each blow weakening her. Luna’s magical shield cut off Rainbow Dash, the threshing debris turning the bubble into a red mist.

“We’re gonna die,” sobbed Fluttershy.  

Luna grit her teeth, cracks in her shield webbing everywhere.

“I don’t want to live without you,” continued Fluttershy. “I love you too much.”

“I—I love you too.”

They heard a voice. It came from in front of them. At the other side of the chasm a light shone through. Their only hope.

“Fluttershy!” called Twilight from across the gap. “Are you alright?!”

“Twilight?! Is that you?!” replied Fluttershy.

“Yeah, come on! The door isn’t going to be open for much longer!”

Fluttershy looked up. An onyx black door now stood where the infinite hallway to Celestia’s chambers used to be. Across it she could read a few etched names: “Fluttershy”, “Twilight Sparkle”, and “Rarity”.

“Luna’s having trouble keeping her shield up. I don’t know if we can make it!”

“Fluttershy— she can’t come!” replied Twilight. “I messed up the spell. I messed up everything! Everything I love is being destroyed because I’m the dumbest pony in the world! Everything except for you!”

“Wait, what do you mean ‘everything except for you’?” parroted Fluttershy. “Where’s Rarity and Pinkie?

“I don’t know where Pinkie is, and Rarity is out in the storm. How many times do I have to say this? I messed up. Now, please, come on. I have no one else!”

Fluttershy turned back to Luna. Luna’s clenched her eyes in focus, putting every last ounce of magic she had into her shield.

“I… I—” began Fluttershy.

“I can get you across…” said Luna weakly, cutting her off. She looked up at Fluttershy with desperate, bloodshot eyes. “Go.”

Fluttershy searched deep into her, to her soul and back. She chewed her lip, her face scrunching up in tears. The decision she dreaded was finally her’s.

“If I die, is the connection broken?” asked Fluttershy. “Will the world stop ending?”

“I—I’m not living without you,” refuted Luna. “I don’t want to become that nightmare again.”

“It’s not your choice. It’s mine.”

Fluttershy backed up, stepping outside the shield into the chaotic storm. Luna moved the bubble shield in the same direction, continuing to protect Fluttershy. However, the shift came to exclude part of Luna’s tail. She cried out in pain as the storm shredded it. Fluttershy heart sank seeing her princess hurt so.

“Stop it!” cried Fluttershy. “You stupid, stupid pony!”

“I think we’ve reached an impasse…”

“No! We both don’t have to die. Only me!”

Luna laughed weakly. “I don’t want to live… I just want to spend eternity with you…”

“How’s that gonna happen if we both die?!” Fluttershy’s eyes went wide. “Oh my goodness…”

“You’ve brought of time together for us. All of eternity passing in a single moment,” repeated Luna. “That’s just what I want, but if you don’t want that, you can go with Twilight…”

Fluttershy blinked, and when she did, she was somewhere else. The roar of the storm evaporated into thin air.

The world around them changed to the meadow and cottage they’d dreamt of so much. It was calm and quiet. The fresh fragrance of flora filled her nose. Where she knew a dream from reality, this place was real. Far above them, the sunless daytime sky dimmed to dusk and she afforded a deep sigh. Her eyes became dry and a blink later they sat in Luna’s room, on her bed. She could smell a familiar scent, fresh-baked scones. Luna kissed her on the cheek, and felt warmness in her face and chest.

She sat in the meadow with all her friends. The spa with Rarity. In her cottage with Angel and her animal friends. Every moment before passed by, some she remembered and some she didn’t.

Another blink and they returned to the hopeless dreary storm inside the hallway.

“Fluttershy! Our time is up!” called Twilight. “Come on! We need to go now!”

Fluttershy smiled and began to cry.

“Fluttershy?!”

“Twilight… I think,— I think I’ve found Paradise. It’s not a place I need to go because I’ve been here all along.”

All things swirled together like a sleepy summer day lost to obscurity. The storm started to feel a lot like everything else.

“I’ll see you soon,” said Fluttershy to a Twilight Sparkle she wasn’t sure was there anymore.

With that, the shield collapsed and Fluttershy and Luna were no more.

Celestia stood over the defeated Stella, her lance to her throat. All the magic she amassed from Trixie was spent fighting a losing fight. She could know the most powerful spells in the world, but the sheer brute force of Celestia’s magic couldn’t be circumvented. Still, she locked eyes with Celestia, unafraid, with a scowl on her face.

“What’re you waiting for?” asked Stella. “Afraid to do it?”

Celestia’s expression was hard to place. Somewhere between curious and agitated, but intense either way.

“Yes. I am.”

Stella laid back and relaxed with her hooves behind her head. “I don’t think I’ve ever really understood you.”

Celestia pushed the lance head deeper into Stella’s neck. She frowned as it nearly broke skin.

“You whine and complain so much about living forever, but you don’t act all that old,” she said.

Celestia didn’t reply, only listening.

“You throw a tantrum. Things escalate, and suddenly your love turns into a maniac to which you answer with imprisoning her in the moon, with the elements of all things.”

“I didn’t have a choice.”

“Using the elements on an element holder. So smart,” mocked Stella. “They go into hibernation, and what do you do? You throw another tantrum three-hundred years later.”

Celestia’s eyes went ablaze. “Don’t test me, Stella! I may just forget my fear momentarily!”

She shook her head. “Another tantrum.”

The lance broke through. Stella winced, as a thin stream of blood ran from her neck. Stella knew it wasn’t fatal, but it definitely hurt.

“Listen to me,” growled Stella. “Why are you so afraid of old age when you aren’t old at all?!”

“Shut up. I’m millennia old. I’ve outlived entire nations.”

“Yeah, has all that time robbed you of the richness of life? You fell in love, made promises, and boy oh boy, did you get your heart broken. Sounds like you’re right there in the moment.”

“Should I expect that your last breath will be a baseless insult, because I’m obliged to hasten the process!”

“You know, in a weird way, I love you like my own and I want the best for you. You have it in your head that you’re old, that life has nothing new for you.”

“It doesn’t.”

“But, you tore fate in two just to have her back in your arms. Despite living forever, a thousand years was somehow too much for you to handle. It’s the blink of an eye in the grand scheme of things.”

“I— missed her. Was that so wrong?”

“No, it’s not. That’s actually the beauty of it all. Time hasn’t numbed you as much as you think it has. You’re still a young mare.”

Pinkie Pie laid in her own bed back at the rock farm. The early morning sun tickled her eyelids to a flutter. She looked out the window and saw two familiar figures just turning into the farm’s perimeter. They smiled and laughed, and Pinkie couldn’t help but return the subtle favor.

She wound up a jack-in-the-box and used it to startle her mane from its bedhead poofiness to its trademark poofiness. Her mane, at the top of its form, grabbed the diary on her bed stand and proceeded to consume it into its depths. After a five second breakfast of apple scones, she raced outside to meet her friends.

Morning routine? Managed in thirteen seconds.

“Hey, you two!” said Pinkie. “How is my favourite royal couple doing this supertastic morning?!”

Fluttershy gave a look of friendly concern. “I—umm, it’s been odd, but I think we’re doing alright.”

“Favourite? You’re not a fan of Cadenza and Shining Armor?” replied Luna.

Pinkie thought for a moment. “Oh right, they exist…” She tossed her hooves up. “It’s a tie!”

“You know, we wouldn’t hold it against you if you played favourites,” said Luna.

“Pinkie Pie has no favourites…” replied Pinkie.

“Umm— I really do enjoy the quaint juxtaposition,” said Fluttershy, “but what in the wide world of Equestria happened?”

“Oh it’s easy!” said Pinkie, batting the air with a hoof. “I toodled the mathbusting mcnobbleknob to reset the ratios of space-time after Twilight geared the clocker double dum dum off the winker tink.”

The two sane ponies blinked (nothing unusual happening because of this).

“Really?” asked Fluttershy.

Pinkie giggle-snorted.

“Ha, no. It was just really fun to say. I think Luna should be the one to explain what that big, silly Ferry was originally meant to do.”

Fluttershy looked up to Luna. She blushed uncomfortably, looking down at her hooves.

“Yes, right,” she said quickly. “So, about seven-hundred years ago, three-hundred after my banishment, Celestia’s heart was broken. She wanted me back and would do anything.”

“Couldn’t she just bring you back?” asked Fluttershy. “I mean, she did cast the spell.”

“No, Nightmare Moon was still a threat, and without the elements I’d stay that way,” replied Luna. “It was no coincidence that the elements reawakened when I did, but that’s another story for another day.”

“A really good story too!” added Pinkie.

“Right, so Celestia, looking to reunite with me, enlisted the help of a few ponies to craft a powerful spell to help her travel through time to that moment seven-hundred years later. It was part time-travel, but we also managed to change fate a little bit.”

“They called it The Ferry,” interjected Pinkie again.

“It would bring Celestia to me, and then let us live together for eternity, thus the name, but we feared other ponies would use it for malicious purposes. It was supposed to end when we were reunited. Celestia would travel through seven centuries to reunite with me, the Ferry dispelling itself.”

“All this was written in a diary that contained the spell, which Twilight found,” said Pinkie. “Then she went and rewrote it cause she’s cray cray!” Pinkie’s mane produced the diary. “But then I was like, ‘silly Twilight, rewriting time is best done Pinkie Pie style’, and then I fixed it all!”

“That detail eludes me,” said Luna. “Could you enlighten us as to what you did?”

“Oh princess, it was easy. Do you know why when you reunited with Celestia, the Ferry didn’t dispel itself?”

Luna shook her head. “I figured it was because we never truly reunited. I mean, she didn’t even remember my name when I returned.”

“Name?” asked Fluttershy.

“Selena.”

“Well, Princess Selena,” said Pinkie. “The spell didn’t end because it was never about you and Celestia. It was about you and Fluttershy.”

“Us?” whispered Fluttershy.

“Bingo. You two ended the spell. Pretty romantic if you ask me.”

“And, pray tell, how did this happen?” asked Selena. “Did you change the spell?”

“I—umm… Long story,” she replied. “But yes. For saving the world, I take payment in cupcakes, helium tanks, and rent money."

“So, does that mean everyone is okay and that I didn’t end the world?” asked Fluttershy.

“Yeah, they’re on their way with a few friends,” replied Pinkie. “Try to be really supportive of Twilight though. She’s beating herself up pretty bad over this…”

The three of them heard the sounds of voices. They turned in the direction of the rising sun as it peaked over the distant mountains and saw the silhouettes of familiar ponies approaching. Fluttershy almost began to cry.

“Oh, one last thing,” said Pinkie. “Ever wonder what we grow on a rock farm?”

Fluttershy and Luna turned to one another with confused looks, but noticed a flower on the ground between them sprout up beneath the dirt. Then, even beneath their hooves, lush greenery and wild flora bloomed to life like wildfire across the farm and countryside. The magic of it all left Fluttershy speechless, even more so when she realized where she was.

Pinkie Pie picked up a flower and sniffed it heavily, leaving her a little light-headed. It began to glow and so did the rest of the meadow.

“They ask me, Pinkie, how do you grow rocks? Isn’t that impossible?” she said. “And I say, Silly goose, we don’t grow rocks. We grow happiness.”