Chapter 23 - Clever Pony
Twilight was alone at the center of the crater, her entire body trembling and her hooves wet with her own blood.
“She... She saves her?”
She shook her head. If she had any free will she would never become that thing. Twilight did not know if the Empress had been from a future, the future, or a future that now would never be.
“No. I won’t let it happen, not like this. I won’t become her.”
Still she could not move.
Maybe the events of today would ensure that she would never declare herself Empress of Equestria. Maybe by traveling back, that Twilight had undone her own existence.
However, no matter what had happened going forward, she had done something horrible.
She had obeyed.
Twilight certainly could not go talk to Rainbow Dash. She did not know if she would ever be able to look her best friend in the eyes again, and that was not even considering how she would even begin to explain what was going on.
Likewise Twilight still had not told Celestia about her new time magic. She needed somepony now, and did not think she could handle the explanation or questions that might follow. Neither was Twilight certain she could stand to tell her construct.
“Will she judge me?”
She needed the real Princess Celestia.
The fires lit by magic were dying down, the source of their fuel having disappeared.
How am I going to explain that magical surge to everypony? I can’t just tell them about that future me.
Twilight shook her head again. Explaining things was not her real concern.
For the second time that day, Twilight poured magic into a long distance teleportation spell and found herself in the Sun Study. She would come up with an explanation for her ponies later. She threw herself on the bed burying her snout in the blanket and tried to breath in the scent.
“My most faithful student, what happened to Rainbow Dash was long in the past. She has healed from that hurt and will not blame you. You need to talk with your friend.” The imagined words were what she wanted to believe.
Twilight shook her head burying it deeply in the pile of pillows.
“She’ll hate me.”
“Rainbow Dash is the last pony who could ever hate you, my most faithful student. You need to trust in your friends.”
“How do I explain?”
“If you don’t think you can, then don’t. Simply tell her the truth and that you can’t explain it. She will know.”
“How is it possible that I become… I become that?”
Twilight imagined Celestia embracing her with her wings as she sank into the blanket. Despite lying down, it seemed as if a wave of dizziness swept over her.
“You don’t need to, my faithful student. Your destiny is for you alone to decide. But… there is one glimmer of hope in this.”
“What… What’s that?” Twilight said while sniffling. Briefly she registered that something had changed in the blanket’s scent. Something smelled oddly metallic.
“It might not have been your nightmare that killed me. If it is some alternate future Twilight, you have no need to feel guilty because you have not done anything. You can avert the past by changing the futu-”
In her imagination Celestia looked at her with shock, raising a bloody hoof from her chest where crimson stained her once pristine white coat.
Twilight jerked away from the blanket, feeling it tear away from her fur where it had begun to stick. The fabric and feathers were soaked in her blood. She looked down at her body to see that bits of rocks were still embedded in her purple fur, and blood was oozing from around them and the long gashes from when she had hit the ground.
With her head upright, she felt woozie as the room seemed to spin. How much blood had she lost? She looked back down at the blanket.
“No, no, no…”
Twilight levitated the blanket before her only to cause some of the blood that had pooled on the fabric to begin to ooze down it. Clumsily her mind grasped for a spell that Rarity had taught her to remove stains. Her spell work was sloppy and Twilight momentarily wondered why she never did her own laundry.
The blood pulled away from the fabric in a lavender glow to where she dropped it on the ground. Twilight floated the blanket to her face and tried to smell it.
The blanket fell back to the bed lifelessly, as tears began to replace the blood.
“I’ve ruined it.”
+++
Twilight entered her study. The staff had repaired the damage from her ‘tantrum,’ and though she could not see it, she knew that it looked as good as new. Some pony had been smart enough to not bother with replacing the torn wall hangings and ripped paintings. Instead there were tapestries with rich textures, wall sculptures with interesting geometries, and more. All of it had a nuanced feel and was a delight to her feelout with her magical sense.
She still needed to find out whose idea it had been. She needed to thank them.
Even some of the bookshelves had been replaced, though their contents were now wildly different. Twilight perused one row of books that were all in braille. She was still learning the alphabet, but it was not as much of a burden as she had first suspected. The largest problem, she had discovered, was that the selection was severely limited.
“Hmm… Maybe I should draft a proposal to the Magesterium to have the Canterlot Central Library’s braille section expanded. I certainly can’t be the only pony who would appreciate it. Course, we will have to pay to get more books translated.”
None of the texts in the row caught her attention. The other rows contained traditional texts that her present blindness rendered unreadable to her. However, they were there because she could always call in a Solar Guard and have Celestia read them to her. Unfortunately, she had not even felt like reading the past few weeks.
Twilight wandered over to her desk. It had been a month since “Empress Twilight Sparkle” had departed after giving her final cryptic, but hopeful message. She hated that older pony for what she had made her do, but Twilight could not deny that part of her hoped that the pony had spoken the truth.
“She is waiting for Us... We saved Celestia.”
The encounter had occupied much of her thoughts during the intervening time, and as much as Twilight wanted to believe that everything would be all right there was a memory that she could not shake.
Twilight stood in the center of Ponyville with the entire might of her mind marshalled behind her. Another much older Twilight stood across from her.
She stared into Empresses Twilight’s eyes as she defied the order.
There, in her own mind where she could see, before Twilight’s will had been crushed she had recognized the look in the older Twilight’s eyes. It was a look she had seen before in her own eyes. Spike called them “Test eyes.” There was a dangerous obsession in the other pony. Twilight always tried to suppress her anxieties and manage the aspects of her personality that someponies might call “unbalanced.”
However, Twilight knew the other pony had gone off the deep end. Twilight was convinced that Empress Sparkle, despite her massive power, was crazy.
Twilight sat down at her desk. It was an unorganized mess, and that was ignoring the uneaten sandwich that had been brought to her for lunch. For some reason she was not feeling very hungry.
One boon of losing her eyesight was that certain things did not bother her as much now that she was unable to see it. It was strange. Just a year ago, even the knowledge that her quills were not lined up parallel to one another and perpendicular to her straight edge - which itself had to be half a hoof from the edge of the desk - would have driven her into a fit. Now, the towering pile of things on her work surface didn’t phase her. It was if they were not even there. It was freeing to be able to drop something and not have to worry about whether it was aligned with everything else.
Her servants did their best to keep her rooms clean; it had been that way her entire life. Even when she had been a student, Spike was the only thing keeping her from being a total slob. It was something she had never understood about herself. She could care so much about order and everything being in its place, and then she could leave a room looking as if a hurricane had hit.
So would I be able to care so much for Celestia, and yet still kill her?
Unfortunately, there was not much her servants could do for the desk. They did not know where their Princess wanted things sorted. However, for once she was happy with them right where they were. She was somewhat concerned about what her desk would look like in however many decades or centuries it would take for her to regain her eyes.
“I wish I had asked her how long it will take for my eyes to regrow.”
But she would leave it as future Twilight’s problem.
Twilight used her magic to open a small box sitting on her desk. Inside was the fruit of two months of work with Celly, three hoof-sized crystals sitting side by side on a silk cushion. In the lid, was more padding with impressions where the crystals would press against it.
Her hoof hovered over the first crystal on the left. It matched a purple notebook that she could no longer read, contingency plan seventy-three. The dagger would be preferable, but Equestria would survive even if Twilight would not. The plan needed work, but there was still time.
The middle crystal contained all of her notes about the future. Everything she had seen and experienced while in those strange trances. Every word and every nuance of Empress Sparkle. She had poured the crystal full of her thoughts, ideas, and theories. Ultimately there was simply too many details that she did not know.
The crystal lifted up for a moment as Twilight considered working on the puzzle that was both her past and her future.
To fight your enemy you must first understand her.
Twilight lowered the crystal back in the box. Thinking about the Empress just made her feel dead inside. She also supposed she had spent too much time puzzling over the contents, and for now had a kingdom to run. The third crystal floated from the cherry wood container and shot to the center of the room.
It’s contents were constantly changing, holding whatever notes and thoughts she had been working on. Eventually Twilight hoped to have more “crystal notebooks” but there were higher priorities than crafting more of the magical trinkets. She projected a light spell into the crystal.
The light scintillated and reflected inside of the crystal, and when it bounced back out in every direction, it created a nuanced three dimensional pattern filling up the room. Twilight began a slow circle of her study, runes and diagrams floating around her, slowly analyzing them with her magic.
Her magic floated wrapped around the aura of a glowing square.
Send letter to King Thunderclaw regarding progress of agricultural assistance program.
She thought of the letter she had dictated hours prior. A check appeared inside of the square. This was a language she could still read.
Twilight moved down to the next box,
Prepare for meeting on railway project.
She sighed as the runes swirled around her, until they stopped on an abstract representation of Equestrian cities and their transportation connections. Twilight traced the glowing lines between each node, making note of the railways that Princess Celestia completed and the many lines that were left undone.
The meeting was important and she had a lot of work to do if she wanted to be ready.
+++
“Princess, is everything alright?”
Twilight bolted upright in the council chair. She knew what the pony had meant to say was “Princess, are you paying attention?” but of course, nopony would be so bold.
“Yes. I’m fine. Please continue.”
However, despite her words, her mind was elsewhere. The speech regarding steel and coal requirements went unheeded as she could not stop thinking about her encounter a few hours ago.
+++
Twilight was lying on her back in her bed slowly waving her hooves in air as she contemplated her upcoming meeting. She was done going over her notes and was prepared as she would be. Ultimately, the meeting would decide whether Equestria would complete its rail system or whether miles of uncompleted track would continue to give way to the elements. Twilight wanted to make sure her mind would be “in the game” as ponies would say. So she was sorting her thoughts as she used her muzzle to trace her hooves slowly running through the air.
Suddenly she felt another terribly familiar presence suddenly appear in the room and groaned. At least this time she was masking her aura and would not cause a panic.
“Not this again,” she said while rolling over onto her hooves.
“You don’t get to complain. This is only your first time through this.”
Twilight sat up and looked at the identical pony sitting at her desk. She could sense the other pony holding her head and wrinkled her nose. The other pony smelled of vomit and something else.
Blood?
“Is everything alright?”
“Yeah, no… It’s… There is a lot going on in here. Haven’t had a chance to sort it out yet." The Twilight at her desk paused rubbing her temples. "Ugh, which one are you?”
“What?”
“Do you know Diam- No that won’t work, might give it away," said Older Twilight as she began to pace around the desk.
“What are you talking about?”
“I’ve had this conversation twice now. I’m trying to figure out which version it is.”
“You’ve been through this loop twice already?” Twilight shook her head as she wondered how complicated things were going to get.
“No don’t be stupid. Parallel lines. They converge soon. Oh! Did you kill Little Pinkie?”
Twilight frowned. She was not sure if she liked this future Twilight.
“Why ask a question you already know the answer to?”
“Yes or no? Did you kill Little Pinkie?”
“I did what I needed to in order to save my friend.”
“Good. I mean… I know which conversation this is now. Wish I could just tell you not to eat too much and walk out the door now, but we have a lot to talk about. OK I think I have it all sorted, at least enough to get through this conversation without any mixups.”
Twilight growled in frustration. She was lost even more than usual. “What are you talking about?”
“Too complicated to explain. Not sure if I could. Crowded up here. You’ll understand soon enough anyway. You have another question?”
“So how far-” Twilight tried to ask.
“In the future am I from? One week.”
“Don’t-”
“Finish your sentences?”
Twilight just frowned at her future counterpart.
“Fine, fine. It’s just a little payback is all. I’m the pony having to sit through this conversation a second time remember. And I have a huge headache.”
“I thought this would be your third?”
“Ugh, no. Keep up. It’s only the second time through this version.”
Twilight found herself trembling as she considered the possible ramifications of what her doppelganger was saying.
“You mean you... “ She shook her head. The other Twilight would explain if she wanted to. “Still even having been through this version once still gives you an unfair advantage.” Twilight waited hoping the other pony would reveal something.
“Look, in a week, you will be here, in my hooves, finishing your past self’s sentences.”
“Please don’t tell me you are just here because the first time through the loop you were visited by a future Twilight.”
She tensed her hoof up. Depending on the answer she was willing to punch the other pony, future self or no.
“Calm down, no. I’m here for a good reason this time.”
“And that is?”
“I’m here to give you a message." Older Twilight paused a beat in thought. "Well, more to deliver a warning.”
“You’re delivering the message? Who’s it from then.”
“Her.”
Twilight gasped at the venom in the word and knew immediately which pony her counterpart was talking about.
Twilight whispered the name below her breath, “Empress Sparkle.”
“Please, she doesn’t deserve that title, and-”
“How did you hear that? Our hearing isn’t that good.”
“I remember saying it, dummy. Stop thinking so linearly. You need to-” The future time traveler stopped mid sentence.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“I just realized that this doesn’t make sense.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you hear me saying it right now, that this doesn’t make sense, but you don’t really internalize how nonsensical this is until you are me and me right now. You, in the right now, are assuming that this will all be clearer the second time through and that it only seems confusing to you.”
“That’s what I’m hoping. But what specifically doesn’t make sense.”
“Well, you aren’t going to heed the warning. I know that for a fact. This conversation wasn’t even in my mind when I- well... when the warning would apply. That’s not the point of the warning…”
“Maybe the point is to give me information.”
“That’s what I said when I was you. No that doesn’t make any sense either. She could have just told me what I needed to know without sending me back.”
“Then why?”
“The only reason I can think of would be-” Future Twilight abruptly cut off her words.
“Would be what?” Twilight was beginning to feel impatient.
“I don’t know.”
“Oh come on!” Twilight flung her hooves into the air. “Don’t think I don’t know when I’m lying. Do you not trust me?”
“It’s not that. It’s just it bothered me all week that future me wouldn’t tell what the reason was, and I just now figured it out.”
“That’s not a reason. That was her reasoning and I still don't accept it.”
“No, I know. Let me think about it more. There are some big things we discuss during this conversation, and I’m hoping by the end I’ll have some better answers from having been on the other side of it.”
“You already know if you are going to tell me or not… It’s not fair.”
“Just be patient. You’re going to be me soon enough. I don’t… I don’t think you can understand until you are me. We have a paradigm change.”
Twilight puzzled at that, but decided she would get her answers later. “So what’s the big, all-important warning.”
“Sometime in the next week you are going to do something very bad.”
“That’s the warning?”
“Yep.”
Twilight had done bad things before.
“How bad are we talking?”
“I threw up afterwards.”
And that explains that part of the smell. But what about the blood.
Twilight could see tears in the pony’s eyes.
“So I suppose you can’t give me any more details.”
“Nope… I mean yep. Oh! There was one more thing. You are never supposed to do it again.”
“Is there any chance you can tell me what it is that I do?”
“You’ll know it when it happens," was all Future Twilight was willing to divulge.
“Any chance I can not do it?”
“Not if we want there to still be an Equestria.”
“Time explosion?”
“No. I mean, the thing we- you do averts Equestria’s destruction.”
Twilight’s eyes went wide, as she ran to her desk to grab her note-crystal.
“What! We need to prepare. We need a checklist. You can’t just drop the apocalypse on me and expect me to avert it without preparation.”
“Calm down. You… take care of the problem.”
“Are you OK?”
“Not really, no.”
“Do you want to talk to somepony about it?”
“I would…”
“But future you didn’t talk about it your first time through the loop?”
“Nope.”
Twilight sighed.
“Does all this time magic at least make more sense for you than it does for me?”
“Actually yes. That’s one good thing that comes out of this. I’ve had a breakthrough in understanding the fabric of reality. It won’t really make a lot of sense, but it’s like a big tapestry.”
“A tapestry?”
“Yes, and before you ask, because I know you are going to ask, the threads are time, or events, or… I’m not sure. It was confusing. Yes, the thread is made up of all these little fibers, and the fibers are threads themselves. No, those fibers are the lives and actions of ponies and other creatures, wait, no-”
“When I said not to finish my sentences I also meant to not answer my questions before I ask them.”
“It’s faster that way.”
“No, it’s harder to follow, and then we have to have a conversation about how much more annoying I become in just the span of a week.”
“How does anypony put up with you?”
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“You do... In a week.”
“So reality is a tapestry?”
“Sort of.”
“And the threads are made of time?”
“Kinda.”
Twilight growled. “OK, maybe you can tell me something else. Where is this tapestry? If it’s reality, then where does it exist?”
“No clue. The whole thing might just be a metaphor concocted by my mind so I can understand it. I was hoping to have an answer this time through, but I don’t. Maybe there isn’t one. I do know, however, what’s between the threads of time.”
That got Twilight’s interest, and so she asked, “OK, what’s in between?”
“You won’t like the answer.”
“Just tell me.”
“The impossible.”
“What does that mean?” She was thoroughly exasperated.
“You’ll just have to wait and see. In a week you learn to see the threads. You’ve done it before sort of instinctively. This time it will stick. It’s sort of like. You need to glance sideways, but not sidewise, a different sideways. Look, it will make-”
The time traveler stopped, groaning and clutching her head. Twilight focused her magical feelers in on the other Twilight and realized she felt something strange. Blood was dripping onto the floor from her counterpart’s head.”
“Are you OK?” Once again Twilight was concerned for her future twin.
“I can feel him.”
“Feel who?”
“One sec, I’m trying to make sense of things. Why is that thread still there?”
“I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“Oh that’s confusing. So that’s what I meant last time.”
“Can you PLEASE tell me what you’re talking about.” Twilight was beginning to lose patience with the time traveler.
“Fine, but it’s not going to make a lot of sense right now. Come back to this after a week, and it will, but right now, no. So Twilight does something at a certain point-”
“Which Twilight, me, you, future us? Past us?”
“I’m not sure if it really makes sense talking about it like that. For the sake of the conversation lets say me. I do- did something that causes our thread to split.”
“Split.”
“Yeah, it separates and goes down two paths. But the split is way back. Almost thirty years ago.”
“What did I do thirty years ago?”
“I didn’t say that I did anything back then. It’s the birth of a pony that causes the split, and- Let me finish. And we lead our life up until next week along one of the threads, that’s the one you are experiencing now- the first one that is. At that point the threads merge back together. After that I traveled back and ended up here.”
“How does that work?”
“Everypony else only remembers the second thread. Me? I’ve got thirty years of contradictory memories up here.”
“Things change? Why is it only you who remembers both threads?”
“No. They’ve always been like this, the two parallel threads. Don’t worry though. Most of the changes aren’t all that bad. A lot of them are actually pretty good, well some of them… Actually I haven’t really sorted through that yet.”
“But for me… Things are going to change from the way they are now.”
“Yeah…”
“So did everypony’s thread split thirty years ago?”
“Yes.”
“And they all rejoin in a week.”
“No… That’s why they only remember the second thread.”
“Wait… If they split, what happens to everyponies’ thread that doesn’t join up with the second path?"
“Nothing… The threads that we join back with continue on. The others…. They just dangle there.”
“That doesn’t seem good.”
“No it doesn’t. I think that’s part of the purpose of the warning.”
“So the bad thing I do?" Twilight paused looking at her Older self for any possible clue. "It causes the split?”
“Maybe… As I said, I think it was always that way. I’m not really sure, this is still new to me. I only have a few hours of lead time on you in regards to this particular revelation.”
“Fine, be that way.”
“I think that eventually they will all fray away. Until there is no more split. When that happens our thread will collapse into one path wound all together.”
“This is confusing.”
“It’s a bit better the second time through, though my head is still killing me.”
“Ok so-”
“You did it to save Fluttershy.”
“What?
“Sorry.” Future Twilight shook her head. “I thought you were going to- had said something different.”
“Wait? Did I mess things up? The other times I’ve talked to my past self it was almost like we were following a script. Did I… Did I go off script?” Now she really was hopeful.
“No, calm down. I… I just mixed things up is all, so settle down.”
“Okay, can you tell me something then. Future Twilight, I mean Far Future Twilight since you don’t want us calling her Empress.”
“Fine! Call her Empress for all I care… It get’s harder to follow otherwise.”
“Empress Twilight… do you trust her?”
“No.” There was no hesitation.
“Do you think she killed… kills Celestia?”
“I… I don’t know. The way she is… It really seems like it would make a lot of sense, but… She shows us something, and… I’m not sure if she would be capable of killing Celestia.”
“I think she would be capable of any-”
“No I mean… I don’t think she is physically capable of doing it.”
“You felt how powerful she was… Even Princess Celestia and Princess Luna wouldn’t be able to stand up to her.”
“I have no doubt she could kill Princess Luna, but… Look, you will just need to talk with her yourself.”
Twilight levitated over a pillow from her bed and sat down on it.
“So you think we should just go ahead and let her keep on going with whatever it is she has planned?”
“Absolutely not.”
“So what are we supposed to do then.”
Older Twilight got up from the desk and slowly walked over to her. Once they were facing one another, Twilight felt a hoof coming to rest on her shoulder.
“We’re clever ponies right?"
Twilight nodded her head in a confident bob. “Absolutely. We are a very clever pony.”
“So let’s come up with a plan.”
+++
Twilight threw herself back onto her bed, burying her head in a pillow to muffle a scream. She barely restrained herself from throwing the shared note-crystal at the wall.
“How are we supposed to thwart the plans of a pony thousands of years into the future who is going to have our memories of everything that we do? Our every action might end up in a history book, and she can just come back here and stop whatever we are doing.”
“We just need to make sure not to become her.” Older Twilight had been far less emotional throughout the entire planning session and it was beginning to bother Younger Twilight.
“How do we make sure of that- unless… contingency plan seventy three…”
“The plan to let Equestria survive if we somehow die? What does that…” As the older Twilight tensed, Twilight realized that her counterpart had just remembered what had been going through her mind. “No, no, absolutely not.”
“Why, not? I’m not… I’m not saying its the best option, but we should at least consider it.”
“Well for one thing, I’m here right now. What’s going to happen if you-”
“I could wait a week obviously, or you could do it.”
“I… No. I’m blackballing that plan.”
Twilight looked at her counterpart with contemplation.
“Why are you so against it? We should at least keep it on the table.”
Twilight could hear the otherpony shuffling her hooves in the ensuing silence.
“I don’t want to not be.”
She looked up from her bed in surprise. “I find that hard to believe.”
“It’s... “ The future pony choked back a sob. “It’s true, and not just for Equestria. I want to live for myself. I don’t want to die.”
“How do I change so much in a week?”
“Things aren’t as bad as you think. You’ll see that in a week.”
Twilight got up from the bed and walked towards her older self. “So you aren’t sad anymore?” She could not suppress the hope from her voice. Twilight could not imagine what it would be like to have the darkness lifted from her heart or what could accomplish such a task.
Older Twilight shook her head. “I’m more messed up than ever. It’s just that… things aren’t as bad as I think… I think. It’s just with all the confusion going on up here…” she said putting a hoof to her forehead, “I just don’t want to die.”
“Okay then… I will believe you because I want to believe that… What if we gave our construct orders? We could explain to her about the time travel and do something like we did with the dagger. Celestia, Celly, we can trust her.”
“No, we would have too much time between now and becoming Empress Sparkle to work around that. Besides… There is another thing we need to consider.”
“What’s that?”
“What are your theories? On how Princess Celestia died that is…”
“Well, theory one… I killed her when I was younger. The nightmare construct in my mind manifested and overpowered Princess Celestia and Luna. I had been pretty certain about that awhile ago.”
“But?”
“Well it doesn’t make sense really. It wasn’t strong enough to manifest until this year, and even if it had been, how did it overpower the Princesses?”
The Older Twilight nodded her head. “So unlikely… But still a possibility.”
“Now my leading theory is that Empress Sparkle does something, though you’ve cast some doubt on that.”
“I want to propose another theory.”
“OK, and that is?” Twilight asked.
"This was all put into motion by a third agent."
"Who?"
“Celestia does it.”
Twilight looked with some concern at her counterpart. “Just how bad was that nosebleed?”
“No I mean… Celly. We explain time travel at some point in the future and she realizes she wouldn’t exist without Celestia’s death. We made her to want to be like the real Princess Celestia, and she couldn’t do that if she was still around.”
“That’s… That’s ridiculous. The real Princess Celestia would never do something like that, and so Celly would never do something like that. What would even make you think-”
“Just wait a week.”
Twilight stared at her future twin during the silence wondering just how event filled the week would be.
“I trust her.”
“You should probably be getting to your meeting soon.”
Twilight focused on her mental clock and realized with despair that future Twilight was right.
“OK, One last question.”
“Shoot. I can’t really remember what you ask. It’s been a busy week.”
“So, with this thread merger thing, if everything is going to change for me in a week-”
“Some things are going to change for you in a week. Most of them not very big or important.”
“Ok, well if some things change for me, what about you?”
“What about me?”
“I mean… If you’re going to be hanging around for the next week-”
“I’m not going to be just hanging around. I have some important things to do.”
“Whatever, you know what I mean. You’re going to be in this time for the week. Which version are you going to remember?”
“Which version?”
“Yeah the version that this thread is in, or are you going to remember a week of “doing important things” where all the changes have already happened in the other thread.”
“Oh horse apples.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Well, with the splits and mergers, it was already confusing. I didn’t realize it at first.”
“Realize what?”
The other Twilight groaned. “My personal timeline split the moment I arrived in this room. I think it remerges again in a week.”
“So?”
“It was really not pleasant - isn’t pleasant - sorting through these double memories this first time. Now I’m going to have to do it again.”
“It will only be a week of memories this time, maybe it won’t be too bad.”
“Yeah, or maybe I’m going to throw up again.”
“I thought you said you threw up because you were upset about what you did?”
“I don’t know why I threw up! There were a lot of things going on and I was really upset. I mean, I feel queasy thinking about it, but I can’t rule out that it wasn’t the effect of disparate time lines merging… I got a nosebleed.”
“I know you got a nosebleed. You’ve been bleeding all over my carpet!” Twilight took a deep breath “I’m going to be honest. I’m not sure if I trust you either. Something is off about you.”
“I’m not her.”
“It sounds like whatever you did was really bad if even Empress Twilight thinks it should be off the table.”
“Just wait a week. We’ll see how you choose.”
“I really don’t like you.”
“The feeling is mutual. You have no idea what it is like, but are so morally superior. You’re just like her. Ev-”
“Her?”
“The other Twilight.”
“What?
“Forget I said anything. But listen. Everything I do is for Equestria. Everything I do is for her.”
“Don’t question my conviction.”
“I’m not questioning it. I just know that it hasn’t been truly tested yet.”
“I think you should leave now.”
“Fine. Let me just put on a disguise.”
The future Twilight turned into a small pink unicorn, the same unicorn that would be seen coming or going from the palace whenever Twilight had a therapy appointment.
“Good idea. It will help reinforce the disguise if ponies see us someplace at the same time.”
"Oh, one more thing."
Twilight sighed, but acquiesced. "Alright, what?"
"OK, this is important and I need you to listen. I'm not going to hop."
Twilight quirked her head at her future self. "OK... Why would you?"
"Exactly, that's right. There is no reason for me to; I can't ever imagine a reason for me to do so... But remember the first time we did this, I mean talked to ourself in the tower, we hopped up and down for no reason other than we already had. Well I am unilaterally declaring that I will not hop up and down while talking with my past self. Ever again."
"I don’t get it... And I don't care if you're older than me by a week, I'm not sure you can just declare something like that."
"Sure I can. Now if I ever see a future version of myself hop and down, then I will know that she has changed things, even if it is as simple as hopping up and down. You are welcome to hop when you are me, if you want to change things, though your younger version won’t know the significance unless you explain it to her first like I am now."
"Do you plan on hopping now?" Twilight knew what she wanted the answer to be.
"No... There is still too much I don’t understand. But I just wanted to make sure we were all clear on that."
"Well..." Twilight frowned at her counterpart. "Then I hope the next time I see another Twilight she will be hopping up and down."
"You think I'm a coward don't you? You know how terrifying this is."
Twilight ignored the question. "You can leave now if there isn't anything else..."
Older Twilight only sighed before heading towards the door in her disguise. “I’m going to the dining hall. If you could have one of the guards run ahead a message that I’m a guest... By the way, I know it’s not going to do any good, but if you can remember, duck.”
“Huh?”
The other Twilight walked out the door.