As the world comes rushing back Twilight smiles mischievously at me, as an audible 'What the-" is heard from upstairs.
"So you switched the books huh? He clearly noticed." Twilight grinned.
The perturbed dragon walks down the stairs to face us, "Haha, very funny Twilight, what kind of magic is this? Some sort of new teleportation spell or something?"
Twilight giggles, "It's a mystery, remember?"
"Well whatever you did, next time be more careful, I got a papercut, ya know." Spike huffs, holding out his tiny thumb, a thin line of blood running down it.
"Oops, sorry about that part, Spike. I'll get you a bandaid."
A papercut?
So it was possible.
The changes I made within my gaps, unmarked by time, may still carry over into the world outside my own.
And my first was change written in flesh.
Guilt weighed upon me. While my morals were often tested by my gift, I hood stood by many throughout, and one was never to physically harm another being. For many, this was not so clear, there were threats present to them which could not be escaped in another way, while I may always simply vanish.
But for the first time, I hurt another's body, however unintentionally.
I am lucky it was not more grievous.
Spike sucks on his thumb, cleaning his wound.
He pulls his thumb from his mouth, glancing down, as another droplet of blood begins to pool, then trickle. "Man, this thing won't quit," he comments before shoving the thumb back to his mouth.
"Here you are Spike, a little bandaid for your owwy..." Twilight speaks demeaninly, yet sarcastically, as she raps the bandaid around his cut, "All better!"
Spike huffs, "Yeah, yeah, just don't do it again ok?"
"Maybe I will, maybe I won't," She replies smugly, "it's still a mystery after all."
"Yeah, well the mystery will be who wants to check out any books with blood all over the pages..." Spike marches off, back to resume his activities upstairs.
"That was amazing!" Twilight remarks enthusiastically, "He shrugged it off so easily! You really have to be drastic to make anypony notice don't you?"
"Indeed. I've even told others of my gift but it seems to just...wash over them. It's always been dismissed in some way or another."
"Why don't you pull them in with you like you did to me?" Twilight offers.
"Before you, I had never even considered it a possibility. But even if I had, I don't think I would. My gaps are very sacred to me, to share them must be for good reason, and with someone I trust. Your reason was pure, interest for the unknown which you believed to exist. Besides, in a way, you wanted my gaps to be real, you were not so deeply bogged in skepticism that your mind could dare to accept the impossible."
"I guess I should be honored then..." she giggles, "but why do you trust me so much?"
"I...I don't know."
The world slips away once more.
It was true, I had no idea why I trusted her. While I had been given no evidence not to, but now that I look back, I cannot think of another with whom I would share such vulnerability.
My life has been lived over a safety net. Whenever things got rough, or danger presented, I could always trust my gaps as a means of escape. Nothing could hurt me there, I was safe from all harm. I was preserved.
Yet I brought her with me without second thought. I showed her the one place she could harm me, truly, deeply, but the thought that she would had never even entered my head. Perhaps because she was already able to hurt me anyway, just in a different way...
I spent so much time alone, I had grown accustomed to thinking myself as separated from normal ponies. They were not the same as me, they were almost an enigma, a puzzle I was still learning to solve. Thus, when their thoughts of me were negative, I would try to 'fix' them, though often I could not. When I could not, it was chalked to our differences, another thing that separated me from the rest of ponies.
But for reasons I cannot understand, what she thinks matters greatly to me, and if her thoughts of me fall ill, it will pain me, not confuse me.
She can hurt me, gaps or not, simply by her thoughts. If her thoughts held that much power regardless, then by the time her actions were even present, I would already be defeated.
The world rushes back.
"Well, for whatever reason, I'm glad you trust me, I trust you too, strangely enough." She beams.
I can't help but smile too.
I guess I was wrong.
The first change I made in my gaps was not one of flesh.
In my quiet lonely world I dared to share with another brought I brought about a much greater change.
I gained the trust of a pony dear to me.
My first change within my gaps
was a change of the soul.