Maretime Bay
Twilight only stood there, blinking, for what seemed like hours. She just stared at Starlight, not really seeing the unicorn. The others didn't have anything to say either.
"I...I'm sorry," Twilight finally managed to squeak out, "but could you repeat that, Starlight?"
"You were the one that cast the time portal spell on the Time Twirler," Starlight reiterated. "The spell's signature is a perfect match for your unique magical signature. Well, there's some of my magic in there, Star Swirl's, and Discord's, too. But the base of the spell comes from you. And before you ask, yes, I checked it against the records of our magical signatures. That's how I knew."
Twilight's jaw dropped. "WHAT?!" she shouted. "BUT...I...HOW...I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!"
"So, um...I'm guessing you don't remember doing that," said Sunny, awkwardly patting Twilight on the back with one hoof.
"No! I don't remember doing that at all!" insisted Twilight, holding her head with both forehooves. "How could I have..." She stopped mid-sentence. Behind her eyes, one could see the gears in her head turning, an electric connect-the-dots firing through her brain. "Oh my Celestia."
"What is it, Twilight?" asked Applejack. "Did you figure something out?"
"Well, we can rule out the idea that my future self somehow survived her battle with Opaline. Because if Starlight, Star Swirl, and Discord all helped with the spell, it must've happened closer to my current present. Meaning that, after this affair is over, we create that spell on the past version of the Time Twirler, throw it in the ocean, and it washes up on Maretime Bay's beach, setting this whole thing in motion! It's a time paradox!"
Everypony else all blinked, staring blankly at Twilight. Spike looked like the mere suggestion was hurting his brain. He'd figured out where it was going already.
"I'm sorry, could you elaborate?" asked Zipp. "I don't get it."
"Who's Opaline?" asked Starlight.
"Sorry. I didn't explain it very well," replied Twilight. "Starlight, we'll get to that in a minute. Anyway, let me tell you a story from my past that might help it make sense. One day, I was sitting in my house, when suddenly, a future version of myself from a few days later appeared before me. She was trying to convey some message to me, but I kept interrupting her, so she disappeared before she could get it out. I became convinced she was trying to warn me of some coming disaster, and I started panicking, as I tend to do." She sheepishly placed a hoof behind her head. "I'm sure my group remembers that particular...incident well."
Her six best friends all nodded. "We don't blame you though, darling," said Rarity. "If my future self tried to give me a message and failed, I'd become sick with worry as well."
"Thank you, Rarity. As I was saying, I thought some calamity was about to befall us, but as it turns out, it was nothing. The day my future self came from occurred, and it was a perfectly normal day. So I used one of Star Swirl's time travel spells to go back in time and tried to tell my past self that there was nothing to worry about, but the conversation with my past self went exactly as it did the first time. Meaning, it was the very act of me going back in time that caused me to go back in the first place. It's a stable time loop. It's a cycle that has no beginning. I know, logically, it should make no sense, but it does."
"Wait a minute," Sunny cut her off. "So you're telling us that your visit to our future will lead to you developing the time portal spell on the Time Twirler after we defeat Opaline, thus enabling us to meet in the first place?"
"That's a good way of putting it, yes," replied Twilight.
"Oh, my poor brain hurts," groaned Pipp.
"I get it!" said Izzy.
"So does that mean we've already defeated Opaline?" asked Applejack. "Since you already cast the spell on the Time Twirler in Sunny's future, does that mean we're guaranteed to win?"
"I'm not sure. I don't know what will happen if we don't defeat her, so let's make sure we don't find out," said Twilight. "And I think I might have an idea as to how."
"How?" asked Sunny.
"Remember how, in Opaline's memories that I saw, the Unity Crystals were always on display at Canterlot during my rule? What if that's because we created them now, and used them to seal away Opaline's magic?"
"So...you're saying...we get to actually participate in the creation of the Unity Crystals?!" Sunny squealed, bouncing up and down on the tips of her hooves.
Twilight opened her mouth, but before any words could come out, an explosive burst of lightning in the skies above cut her off. Everypony turned their gaze towards the Crystal Brighthouse, where a bunch of dark black clouds were rolling in, blotting out the sun. More lightning strikes came from the clouds, only these bolts were purple instead of yellow.
"Opaline," snarled Rainbow Dash, punching her forehooves together. Applejack put a hoof on her shoulder to calm her.
"We need to act fast," said Twilight. "The ambient magic around the crystals at the Brighthouse will keep her busy for a minute, but not long enough." She turned to the others. "Rainbow, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Spike, Hitch, Zipp, Izzy, Pipp. I hate to ask this of all of you, but can you hold her off long enough for us to go back to Ponyville and forge the crystals?"
"You can count on us!" said Pinkie.
"Affirmative!" said Zipp.
"I've been itching to take a crack at her," said Hitch, with a grin.
"Wait a minute, what about me?" asked Sunny.
"You're gonna help me," replied Twilight. "To put the magic of all three tribes in the crystals, we're gonna need more than one alicorn. And I don't want the princesses in my time to leave the portal unguarded."
"But I can't control my alicorn powers!" protested Sunny, nervous. "I can't—"
"Yes, you can," insisted Twilight, placing a hoof on Sunny's withers. "You're stronger than Opaline, you're smarter than her, and you have the power to do this. I'll help you as much as I can."
Sunny swallowed fearfully. "Well, okay. If you say so."
"Seriously, who is Opaline?!" complained Starlight. "I have no idea what's going on!"
"Come on, Starlight! I'll explain on the way. We'll probably need your help to stabilize the magic," said Twilight.
She grabbed the unicorn in her telekinesis, and rushed off towards the portal, with Sunny following. The remaining ponies, plus Spike, all looked at each other.
"So we gotta keep Opaline busy?" asked Pipp.
"Yep," replied Pinkie. "Sounds like fun to me!"
Zipp groaned quietly. "This is gonna be a long day."
Crystal Brighthouse
Opaline's smile only grew wider and wider as she flew closer and closer to the Brighthouse.
"Those fools left the crystals unguarded," she said, smugly. "Probably too busy worrying about that stupid baby dragon. This is why love is pointless and idiotic. Soon, all the magic in Equestria will belong to me, finally! And I'll erase Twilight Sparkle from history!"
She locked her gaze onto the Unity Crystals floating in the top of the Brighthouse, through the glass dome. Lighting up her horn, she surrounded herself with an aura of pure flame, while simultaneously causing her body to accelerate. She prepared to smash through the glass and seize the crystals.
And that was when she smacked into the side of the building, spreading her body against the wall, and slid downwards.
With a grunt, Opaline flapped her wings, getting herself back into the air. She fired up her horn once again, and cast a quick probing spell.
"So the crystals have a defense mechanism now," she growled. "Well, it doesn't matter. My magic is strong enough that I can get through it."
"Guess again!" came a voice from below.
Opaline yelped as vines emerged from the earth below her, and wrapped themselves around her body. Then they began twirling around, taking Opaline for a crazy ride in the air. Finally, Opaline powered up, and sent a fireball downwards, burning through the vines and releasing her. Once she'd regained her bearings, Opaline looked down, discovering nine ponies, plus Spike, staring back up at her from below. They didn't look happy. Twilight Sparkle and Sunny Starscout were absent.
"So, you decided to face me after all," Opaline said with a sneer. "And I see those two unworthy alicorns didn't show up. Were they too scared to face me?"
Zipp stepped up. "Listen up, Opaline!" she shouted. "You're never getting those Unity Crystals! So you can either lay down and give up, or put up a fight you can never win!"
"Yeah!" added Spike. "And don't think you can take us! We've beaten down plenty of Equestria-conquering maniacs before!"
"Well, you have," Pipp muttered quietly.
Opaline chuckled wickedly. "I'd say this display is foolish and pointless, but it does bring me a moment of amusement. I might as well have some fun before I finally claim what is rightfully mine. I'll enjoy destroying Twilight Sparkle's best friends before I take her life and—"
"Señor Butterscotch, attack!" yelled Izzy. In her telekinesis, she held her homemade unicorn friend, and hurled him towards Opaline. He landed on top of the alicorn, and slumped over her like a limp blanket.
Opaline, clearly caught off-guard, blinked a couple of times. She looked at the homemade unicorn covering her body, before rolling her eyes. Then, she levitated Señor Butterscotch off her body and fired a blast directly into his chest, breaking him into bits. The pieces flew everywhere, and the charred head landed in front of Izzy.
"SEÑOR BUTTERSCOTCH, NO!!!" screamed Izzy, as she scooped up the head and cradled it in her forelegs.
"Uh, Izzy? Not to be rude, but could we focus?!" demanded Rainbow.
"Do you have any more garbage to hurl at me?" asked Opaline, looking unamused.
Hitch turned back towards her. "You'll pay for what you did to Sparky," he growled.
Maretime Bay Hospital
Misty lay on her back in the bed, staring up at the ceiling. Her mane was unkempt, and her mouth was stuck in a permanent frown. Considering that Opaline had basically stomped out her entire purpose in life only an hour before, her mood made sense.
A flash of light from the window attracted her attention. She turned in the bed, and looked towards the Crystal Brighthouse. She saw more bursts of purple lightning blaring, and her eyes widened. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on.
"Opaline..." she said to herself.
She sat there, staring for a few seconds. Then she leaned down, seized her IV line with her teeth, and pulled it out.
So I’m guessing that they’ll make another Unity Crystal, but what would happen if they did that, would it’ll be another repeat of A New Generation thing once Opaline is sealed away?
I can only imagine Opaline’s reaction when she realises that, in trying to prevent her first defeat, she was the one to had set it in stone.
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Firstly, Twilight isn’t making another Unity Crystal, she’s making the three crystals from her point in time because they existed in Opaline’s memories.
Secondly, Twilight will need to stabilise the paradox to ensure that she and her friends do head to the future to help the Mane 5 stop Opaline, so I think A New Generation will still happen as it does in canon.
Great chapter, and whoa, that really is a time paradox where the time twirler came from and how it landed in the future. And looks like twilight has a plan and the others will help and stop Opaline as their friends keep her busy while starlight, Twilight and Sunny work on their side of the plan, and looks like Misty is seeing the whole thing from her hospital bed and feel guilt for what she did, but I had a feeling her time to shine will come, awesome job on this chapter, keep up the great work
Hmm… looks like Misty’s got something up her proverbial sleeve…
OOH!!! What a cliffhanger!! Go Misty, you got this!! Also, this was a time paradox? Well, that would make sense considering the premise, honestly. Definitely bummed that it’s confirmed Future Twilight didn’t survive as I would’ve loved to see the two Twilights interact, but I will say that it subverted my expectations there. Can wait to see everyone take on Opaline, let’s go!!
Have I mentioned that I’m totally loving this story so far?
of course she doesn't
Thats what I thought as well!!!
Its just a repeated endless cycle.
Equestria falls, Twilight removes magic, bainshes Opaline, creates Time Twirler, years pass, Mane 5 reunite Ponykind and magic returns, the past Main 6 meet the Mane 5, Opaline returns, they defeat her, years later in G4, Equestria falls, Twilight removes magic, banishes Opaline, creates Time Twirler, etc etc
Its just an endless cycle.
So since this isn't operating by Multiverse Theory, that would mean that every iteration of this loop is exactly the same. Meaning that Twilight in the future, as she's mentoring Opaline, knows exactly what she's going to do, and lets it play out.
That is one hell of a dissociation. Obviously there's a parallel you can make with Celestia, seeing as how she uses the calamities that befall Equestria as tests for Twilight, but that's usually done with the premise that she can intervene if something "goes wrong", and the goal is for her student to improve in her studies. But here, Twilight has seen through Opaline's eyes what she did, yet will eventually tutor her, which means one of two things.
1. She let everything play out.
2. She wiped her and her friends' memories (after Opaline is defeated in the "future", the Unity Crystals are formed, and Twilight records the message in them), leading into the events of Season 9 and Opaline's time, except the Unity Crystals are inexplicably around.
Won't lie, I was actually expecting something to happen, here. Also, it's Señor Butterscotch; he's a mister, not an elder.
Unworthy? Oh Opaline, look in a mirror. You became unworthy when you became an arrogant megalomaniac. An amber unicorn might have a thing or two to teach you...
Unless you're talking about that future Twilight back in season 2 or hopefully the future Twilight from season 9 finale let's just hope that's the letter
Zipp it's already been long since this morning
We will avenge him
It looks like Misty is going to do something but what
This is getting really intense so after Starlight basically drop the bomb about Twilight at least the future Twilight sending the time watch to the Future and also affecting the past again time traveling is so complicated it's even explain that experience before but before they could think of something else Opaline was attacking the lighthouse Twilight sunny and starlight had to get back to the past to find a way to fuse the crystals while the others have to distract her as fast as they could especially how Op she is meanwhile at the hospital Misty was in her lowest point being betrayed lied about her Destiny and everything and feeling guilty for what happened to Sparky and lying to her friends then it looks like she realized she has to do something the question is what's going to happen guess we'll find out next time
Still feels crazy to think Twilight may intentionally let Opaline go through with her genocidal rampage. But I guess we have yet to see what the full story is...
Distraction via insanity is a valid tactic! Good work Izzy
Misty's gonna save the day, isn't she?
I'm eager to see what Misty is going to do.
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Fixed. Also, I was expecting a lot more people to get angry with me for "killing off" Señor Butterscotch.
11603433
I think the unfortunate fact of the matter is that the show doesn't have enough hype around it for most people to be invested in certain tertiary character relationships, especially toward inanimate objects. Like if Opaline had done something like this to Gummy/Angel/Tank/Winona/Owlowicious/Spike/Opalescence, they'd definitely mad, but because this is played off as a joke for a unicycled mailbox, the investment isn't there.
In my head though, I was imagining that Izzy has some sort of anime breakthrough moment, fixes Señor Butterscotch, and uses him as a weapon like Shiki does with Mr. Mew in The World Ends With You.
cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/029/207/033/large/ian-matining-full-final-shiki-misaki.jpg?1596784870
(girl uses telekinesis on inanimate object to attack combatants. Can also make duplicates of different sizes to overwhelm opponent in extreme circumstances, capping off with a kaiju version that shoots laser beams from its eyes).
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Oh, I love the World Ends With You!
11604170
Oh awesome, I love it too. What're your thoughts on the sequel?
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I still haven't gotten around to playing the sequel, but it's definitely on my list. I've heard it isn't as good as the original, though.
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I like it myself (not as much as the first), but it definitely feels like a lead-in to another sequel.
She really just said "Go Mr. Mew!"
11599465
If you hadn't made that reference, I would have.
А почему Искорка и Старлайт просто грубой силой не уничтожат Опалин? Почему они не позовут ещё и Дискорда? Или Селестию и Луну? Почему они не позовут Шайнинга и Каденс их сила любви без шансов разберётся с огненным аликорном. Ладно, это не имеет никакого смысла как и всё G5