//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3: Time is a loop 
// Story: Time is up, Twilight 
// by Dream Whisper 
//------------------------------//

"I am glad you have finally arrived."

Celestia was standing in front of a small painting, apparently the valley under Canterlot in the light of the moon. You could almost feel the cold breeze coming out of that painting, refreshing and calm. It was a completely still image, there was no indication of movement inside. Still, the stars seemed to sprinkle as if you were really standing outside seeing it. The painting had a certain feeling of calm, that was incredibly relaxing.

"Now that you have seen it, you will have to vow to me not to spoil the birthday present for Princess Luna. Let me just finish..."

She quickly made one or two strokes with her paintbrush, causing a little bit of motion to finally appear in the painting. That lead Twilight to notice a detail that she had not noticed before: There was actually a Princess Luna inside that painting, small but incredibly beautiful. It was an impressively painted work of pure art. The two strokes make the still image of Luna seem to fly through the air. She had never seen Celestia painting before, and she regretted not visiting Celestia more often. The art was incredible and Twilight was surprised, although she maybe should not have been. Celestia had had thousands of years after all.

"Now, I have wanted to speak with you. You have to tell me exactly what spells you have used."

Celestia suddenly seemed incredibly serious. Twilight decided, it would be better to tell her every single detail. Not often did Celestia seem so curious and furious at the same time. Maybe there was something that Twilight had not thought about. Maybe the spell going wrong was not the only thing to worry about. Maybe Celestia had realized something that she had ignored? Twilight took a deep breath as she thought about how to tell her story. Celestia would want to know every detail, but not an overly excessive story. As she finally decided for a possible version, Celestia already looked annoyed. Twilight took a deep breath once again and started to explain:

"As you know, I spent many days trying to create a potion that could help every unicorn in Equestria to be able to cast much more powerful magic. However, there was a slight turbulence: Some mysterious mare tried to stop me. I still don't know, who that was. Before that mare could do much, though, future Twilight traveled back through time to save me. Afterwards, I used the potion... but the spell misfired. Instead of traveling a couple of seconds into the future, I got here."

Twilight had a bad feeling about it all, and it only got worse when Princess Celestia frowned upon hearing what she had just said. Celestia had had her suspicions, but this was worse than she had expected. She looked her student in the eyes, but Twilight could not stand the stare for more than a couple of seconds. Twilight quickly looked down on the ground, examining the exact structure of the wooden flooring. As Twilight looked back up again, Celestia's face told of bitter knowledge. 
Had Twilight just verified something horrible? Celestia sure looked like that. A really bad feeling slowly crept up her body, causing her intestines to turn against her. Princess Celestia let her gaze wander through the room once again, obviously to think about how she could tell the most horrific news to Twilight. Twilight shook her head. Maybe Celestia didn’t have horrible suspicions and she was just overreacting. 
Celestia knew, that what she was about to say wasn't something to just easily let over your lips. She had learned in all those thousand years, that really nothing should really be said easily. She was about to make her faithful student do something very dangerous. Was she sure, it had to be done? Most certainly.

"Twilight Sparkle, you will have to journey into the past again. When it really has been your future self saving you, you have to go back and save yourself. If you do not go back and save yourself, nopony will have saved you, thus there will be undesired consequences, resulting in you never coming into the future. I should have forbidden it. I could have known, you were too strong."

Celestia was actually close to tears. It had all been her fault. If she had just done it… Now, the entire world would suffer from the consequences. Each and every subject of hers would have to suffer because she had not forbidden the most obvious of things. Twilight was completely confused. Celestia had wanted to forbid what? Celestia seemed so worried that the growing fear slowly numbed her whole body.

"Time travel - it was impossible for everypony in Equestria. Now, that you have done it, we have to find a way to solve this grandpony paradox. It is my fault and you will have to live with it. The biggest problem about this unfortunate turn of events is, that it is completely unpredictable. I have never traveled through time myself, and there are only theories about what happens. I still advise you to go back. We cannot know, what would happen otherwise. We cannot risk the unpredictable consequences."

So now she was supposed to just go back in time? She had just arrived. Why would she leave again? However, if she would really cease to exist, when she wouldn't travel back into time, maybe it would be better to do it. Then again, how should she know from which time future Twilight traveled back, though? Does that even matter? If she travels back right now or in twenty years, she would still arrive in the same time, wouldn't she? Then again, future Twilight had not really been 20 years older than herself. Wasn't there a way to test it all out? Her head was starting to hurt. This was nothing like logic in her math lessons. What if she would just come back to this moment, let's say two days from now. Or maybe...

"...just from tomorrow."

Another future version of Twilight appeared through a purple hole. Twilight spun around to face future Twilight. Celestia doing the same, looked utterly horrified. Had Twilight really done that?

"This is so crazy."

"That is funny, because I have said the exact same thing... And you will probably say exactly this."

Then, Celestia interrupted both with her royal voice. She was furious about the arrival of future Twilight. The anger almost erupted from her body.

"Twilight Sparkle! This is no fun matter! You have no idea what you are playing with! We have no idea, what the consequences are!"

Twilight, however, did not give up her plan. "There is no other way to find out the consequences!"

"Twilight Sparkle. You may be a princess now, but do not try to play with the fundamental laws!" While Celestia was speaking the 'not', the whole tower began vibrating from the volume of her voice. Even the window of her chambers was shattered. Much more quiet, Celestia added some words which would forever be burnt into Twilight's mind: "It may already be too late."

Never before, she had seen Celestia so enraged and at the same time mournful. "It may already too late."

Celestia looked down, now deeply involved in her own thoughts, thinking about the consequences. Maybe she had gone too far. Twilight was not sure whether she should still travel back. She decided to just not travel back, which should solve this problem, shouldn't it? When she did not travel back, she could not cause herself and Celestia so much pain. Then again, she would cause herself never to travel back, would she? This was indeed, confusing - Or confuzzling, as Pinkie Pie would have called it. She decided to at least sleep on it for a night. Maybe tomorrow the whole situation would be less... confuzzling.

Twilight went straight towards her own chambers, it was late evening anyway. Sleeping a couple of hours earlier wasn't such a bad thing, especially after exhausting yourself like that. It was so strange, how everypony else missed her, even though for her it had just been a day time, that she had been gone. 

Twilight’s mind was filled with questions which were all asking to be solved. Twilight tossed herself around and turned under the covers, trying to fall asleep. However, her thoughts were not allowing her any calm. If she could not come to sleep, she would have to use a sleeping potion. How should she get one, though?

She looked up to the ceiling, but the ceiling was gone. There was only darkness above her. She stood up and the bed was gone. She looked around: Only darkness. Then, there was somepony else. That pony had such a dark coat, Twilight almost couldn’t make her out. The pony’s eyes however shined through the darkness. 

The dark mare slowly trotted towards her, growing in size as she came closer. Then she looked down at Twilight, and whispered something in a deep and demonic tone.

"Twilight, it is too late."

Twilight attempted to escape that mare, but she was held down by magic. Her pulse exceeded every limit and the pounding of her heart was louder than she had ever expected to be possible. She was panting as the air resisted to enter her mouth. She only brought out the one word:

“Who?”

The dark mare laughed and the whole dark world vibrated. The demonic laugh echoed through the darkness.

“I am you.”
Twilight burst awake, panting for air. The nightmare was gone, but it almost felt as if the dark mare was still hiding inside of the shadows. The sky outside was still pitch black, filled with twinkling stars. She looked out across Canterlot, breathing in the cool night air. A few ponies were still up at this hour, taking care of late night affairs. Everything was perfectly still and calm. It was comforting just looking out into the city.

After she had calmed down, she laid down under the sweaty sheets again. Her body was still tired, but her mind feared sleeping again. This would be a long night, but she just couldn’t sleep. She remembered the dark mare. 
“I am you.”





Mornings are always stressful. The pain of getting up is one of the worst possible things. The dim light of the red morning sun shown through the open window. Although her window was still open, the air in her room had somehow managed to become muggy. The room was just another guest's room in the Canterlot castle, as there had not really ever been a special room designed for her. Her own house in Ponyville had always sufficed. She stood up and opened the door. A fresh breeze through the window caused it to fall shut. Twilight stepped outside her room, trying to let her eyes become used to the dark corridor. It was still quite early in the morning as indicated through the red light of the sun, shining through one or two windows of empty chambers, whose doors were still open. It had not really been a long sleep and she seemed more exhausted than before. She had just arrived at the corner of the corridor, when suddenly she stood right in front of her own chamber again, about 100 hooves away from the corner. Had she just day-dreamed all of that? Was she really that exhausted?

She started trotting again, this time concentrated on any little movement. Maybe there was somepony trying to have a little bit of fun with her. As she got around the corner of the corridor, there was nothing except a cold breeze rushing through the corridor. Where had she actually wanted to go? Ah, yes, she had wanted to talk to Celestia. Most corridors were empty, as most ponies were still sleeping. However, as was her duty, Celestia would already be awake and making the sun rise above the horizon, waking up everypony for their own daily duties. 

Twilight knocked at the door, but again, something happened. Suddenly, she found herself trotting up some stairs, without memory of how she could have possibly gotten there. Completely confused, she decided to turn around again and walk to Celestia's chambers. It almost felt like a strange déjà vu. A chill ran down her spine. What if this was what Celestia had talked about, it already being too late? This time, not only confusion, but also fear crept up her mind. The fear was numbing her. What in Equestria was going on? Maybe this had been some big coincidence. She knocked on the door again, this time without getting teleported somewhere else.

"Come in!"

Celestia did not seem a bit tired, although she had been awake for a couple of more hours. Her faithful student and now Princess Twilight Sparkle entered the room, having a worried look on her face. Celestia already knew what had happened to her. All her theories were true. The plane of space and time was really unchangeable. She would need to help her student, but how could she do it, without making a contradiction herself?

"Celestia, you have to help..."

She knew, that her student would try to find her help. She could not allow her positive feelings towards Twilight to lead her to inaccurate decisions.

"I know, Twilight. I cannot help you, though. You will have to find your own way..."
'...until I find a solution' she added in her mind.

Twilight was furious, but she knew well enough not to question Celestia. Celestia had been on this world for thousands of years, while she did not even get up to a mere hundred. Celestia hopefully knew what she was doing. For now, Twilight had to find a way to stop this from...

She didn't continue that thought, as she was again teleported somewhere else. The fear she had tried holding back, was slowly making it impossible for her to think straight. This was impossible. This wasn’t real. It is all just a nightmare. 

"Come in!"

The realization was sudden, but nonetheless painful. She was not being teleported somewhere else, she randomly was traveling back through time. This was obviously an effect of the misuse of her power. How should she have known it though? Celestia had known it and not warned her of the danger.

"Twilight, you can come in now!"

Celestia shouted again. Twilight slowly opened the door and trotted in. This time, she was just silent. Would it even matter, what she would say, if she got flung back to the past anyway?

"Twilight, I cannot help you with this. I can see what is happening to you, but you will have to do it on your own."

Why didn't Celestia help her? If she was such a wise leader, as she had always been praised, why couldn't she help her? Twilight knew that these accusations were unfair and stupid, but what else was she suppose... Again, she was just catapulted back in time, this time to the edge of the corridor again. Which then again meant, that it was staggering. Maybe she soon would not have time to react anymore, as she would be catapulted back to before she had invented it all. Or maybe even further: Before she had met her friends... Maybe even worse: To magic kindergarten! Or maybe even into never existing. She took two deep breaths and assembled her magic energy. If she would not get back now, maybe she would not ever get back. She released the time travel spell, only hoping to arrive at the right time.