Consequences (Vote Chapter)

“Turn it off,” Radiant Hope demanded in desperation but all she received was the mocking laughter of the two evil queens.

“What a fool, to get himself corrupted so easily,” Chrysalis howled with laughter, a fist banging against the table.

“We should help him,” Radiant Hope protested, but she felt like a naive toddler wondering why she couldn’t have sweets every day.

“It doesn’t seem like “him” is quite appropriate here though does it?” Nightmare Rarity mocked, watching the image she was projecting with unabashed glee.

“We should still do something,” Radiant Hope protested but she could see it was all in vain. She stormed off, making her way to the last member of the conspiracy who might listen to her.

She slammed the door of the Time Master’s room open startling the young Flurry Heart who had been playing with the Time Master into a crying tantrum, but she didn’t care.

“You knew this would happen!” She snarled, raising a finger at the Time Master. They turned their hood only a fraction to face her, but this time they seemed less direct and more ashamed. "You said you could see all of time, that means you knew exactly what Sombra would do and what would happen!"

The Time Master's hands wrapped around Flurry Heart, calming the infant, but when they spoke they were quiet and apologetic. “Yes, I’m afraid I did.”

“Then you let Sombra get corrupted,” she snarled, eyes narrowed like slits.

"There was nothing I could do, there was a possibility that he would be sensible, a possibility that would have been made worse if I warned him," they explained gently.

"How would warning him make him more likely to go there?" She scoffed but the Time Master simply sighed.

"Neither he nor Chrysalis has any love for me, and they both resent me trying to control them, necessary as it may be," they explained, placing Flurry Heart on the ground and getting to their feet. “If I had warned him he would have gone there out of spite. A childish ‘you can’t tell me what to do attitude’.”

Radiant wanted to argue, wanted to tell her that Sombra was wiser than that, wanted to blame the Time Master for all this, but she couldn’t. She’d known Sombra all her life, and she knew how much his pride could get the better of him. Bitterly she kicked over one of the chairs in frustration as she hit a brick wall.

“It’s not fair,” she whispered in anger, tears falling down her face. “He didn’t deserve this, no one knew but there was good in him. No one but me.”

She collapsed to the ground in frustration, silently cursing the waste and the cruelty of the world. Flurry Heart crawled up her leg in an attempt to comfort her, and to Radiant Hope’s surprise, she wasn’t the only one to comfort her. The Time Master had placed a hand on her shoulder. “I knew.”

“Right of course you did,” Radiant Hope spat, “you know absolutely everything you shit.”

“Not just from this timeline, but from alternate timelines.”

Radiant Hope was silent, simply looking at the Time Master in curiosity. “There are more timelines than just this one, and I’ve been to them. There’s one where Twilight became sole ruler of Equestria, one where the three pony tribes split into their own communities, one where the Cadence that Spike ran into was in fact Chrysalis and many more.”

The Time Master took a seat in front of Radiant Hope and crossed her fingers in front of themself. “And there was a timeline where Sombra became a hero again and redeemed himself. I met that Sombra and the good in him, so yes I know there’s good in him. And there is a possible future where he becomes good as well.”

Radiant Hope was silent, she had to chew on this information. The room was silent bar for the whistling of the wind and the soft cooing of Flurry Heart. “So what do we do now? This Spike bastard would have to know about us from Sombra.”

“Actually on that, we don’t have to worry,” the Master of Time told her, their voice turning gentle.

“What do you mean?” Radiant Hope asked her voice now filled with suspicion.

“Deep within each of your minds, except for Nightmare Rarity, there is a magical trigger inside that will, if compromised, erase any memory of the conspiracy from your minds. Easily detected by an alicorn, but by other species not so much.” They explained, their voice neutral but Radiant Hope knew that the Time Master was ready for the backlash. They would not be disappointed.

Radiant bolted to her feet in an instant, nearly sending Flurry Heart tumbling as she did so. A finger jabbed into the Time Master’s chest. “YOU DID WHAT? You-you brainwashed us? Like that dragon?”

“No, there’s a wide margin of difference between what I did and what he did. This trigger merely erases sensitive information from your minds,” the Time Master replied coolly.

“You still brainwashed us,” Radiant snarled, eyes sparking white in fury.

“It was necessary, if I hadn’t then like you said the dragon would know about our entire conspiracy. He would only need to speak a single sentence to bring it all crashing down.” The Time Master explained, her voice completely calm and reasonable. As if there wasn’t a raging unicorn in front of them.

“But-but when?” She stammered, “when would you have done this?”

“When each of you were born.”

“H-how?” She asked meekly, **** confusion welling up inside her, battling amidst her anger. But her need for answers overpowered her sense of betrayal.

“Time travel. It can be very convenient, allowing you to set certain things up well in advance.”

“But-but then why not simply-“

“Why didn’t I prevent Spike from getting the Root in the first place? You recall how I can see the consequences of those kinds of actions, which butterflies I should and not step on?” The Time Master asked Radiant and she nodded, earning a sigh from the Time Master. “Well in this case preventing Spike would have led to a worse candidate finding the root, maybe in your lifetime, maybe not. Some candidates were Chrysalis or Sombra. And you know that would have been a bad thing.”

Radiant wanted to protest that, protest that her love would be any worse than this twisted, depraved dragon but she couldn’t quite bring herself to do it. “Why not simply destroy the roots then, prevent any pony from getting them?”

“I would if I could but they’re invulnerable to any means at my disposal. Any attempt to conceal them would only draw attention to them in the long term, and I couldn’t take the magic for myself when I already had a root power of my own.” They explained a fact that caused Radiant’s curiosity to soar.

“You have a Root power?” She asked, genuine awe in her voice as she studied the Time Master as if there was some clue on her that would tell her what it was. “Which?”

“Generosity, sadly the power is very situational and the most limited but also potentially the most powerful.” The Time Master explained, but seeing Radiant cock her head told them they must continue. “It’s a sort of support power, with the consent of the other root wielders I can allow them to give weaker versions of their power to another individual.”

“Oh, that’s it?”

“Well not quite, because if I was able to get their full consent I could also have them give up their power completely to another individual, including myself which would let me theoretically gain the power of two roots.”

“Well as powerful as that sounds, no one in their right mind would ever give up a power like that. Unless you’re thinking mind control?” She suggested but the Time Master shook their heads.

“Wouldn’t work I’m afraid, not without resorting to their level. But you would be surprised, there is good in Spike and Rarity. There is a future where they see the error of their ways and are willing to surrender their power.”

“I hope our plan doesn’t depend on it though, because somehow I doubt that there’s a lot of futures where they do that,” Radiant Hope demanded crossing her arms.

“No indeed, but thankfully there is another way to remove that power.” The Time Master explained gesturing to a crystal chest laying in a corner of the room. "I had the good sense to acquire these when Starlight was delivering the gender-changing potion to Cadence. They don't even realise they're gone."

The chest was opened and Radiant Hope let out a gasp of surprise at what she saw. "They're..."

"The Elements of Harmony themselves, keep this between us. I don't think it would be a good idea if Nightmare Rarity or Chrysalis knew we had these here hmm...?" The Time Master explained, patting the Crystals with a hand. "They'll be able to undo all the damage unleashed by the Roots and can't be affected by them."

"But we'll need ponies to wield them, and all the candidates are part of his harem."

"There are other candidates, myself for starters. I'm actually able to wield one of these elements, loyalty to be precise. I've gone to great lengths for my family... even when it's hard."

"Yeah, that's just one though."

"Don't worry, remember what I said about alternate timelines?" The Time Master asked and she nodded. "Well there are five lovely ponies in one just as capable of using these elements as the Defenders of Equestria are. The challenge will simply be to get Spike and Rarity over there and in a position where they won't be able to use their Root Powers. Quite the challenge hmm?"

A/N: So I've changed my mind completely on how the Root of Generosity works, like completely but I think this idea is interesting as it offers more possibilities to help expand the harem and Spike's control through proxies. I hope no one was too partial to the original idea and it just sparks new ideas for suggestions in the future.

In any case, it seems Radiant Hope is winning the background pony vote, I thought it'd be Cheerlie but shows what I know. Maybe I should have made Radiant a main because she's tied into the plot, but that's hindsight for you. Suggestions as to what should be done with her are helpful, as is any anthro fanart you can link as it's a struggle to find that.

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