My Little Detour

by Scroll

Chapter 3: I Write My Own Story

“We're here already? Are you sure?” Star Breeze checked in surprise.

“I know you are not as accustomed to this ship or its crew yet, but if you were, you'd be used to the chaos by now,” the Doctor said as he trotted away from the center console and towards an adjacent room. “I know where I'm going, and I'm quite sure.”

“Then where are you going now?” Stern Wing inquired of the Doctor.

“To check on Derpy and get her to be alright,” the Doctor answered, then paused at the door leading to an adjacent room. From there he looked at Stern Wing and Star Breeze (who was temporarily within her younger father's body at that moment). “Since you've been here once, Stern Wing, you're welcome to escort the young 'lady' out on the town. I assume you'd want to keep an eye on her anyway, I'd wager. Just keep in mind that the citizens of Ponyville won't see her as 'Star Breeze' but as our dear friend 'Feather Wind'. Because of that potential confusion, you might want to stick around her to make sure you are available to smooth things out. Also, I don't think she's ever been to this town before so an escort would be prudent.”

“I was going to do that anyway,” Stern Wing agreed, then gave a nervous glance at Star Breeze, then looked back at the Doctor as she asked him, “but Doctor, what if this is permanent? What if Discord never reverses this alteration? You seem to be more familiar with her further future self. Can you give me any assurance that Feather Wind will return to us, and this young lady will return back where and when she belongs?”

“Unfortunately, there are no guarantees when it comes to Discord,” the Doctor lamented, “but I have it on good authority that things will eventually be straightened out. For the moment I recommend we press forward under the assumption that this is just a little detour for her. It is likely that things will go back to normal soon, such as it is.” The Doctor turned to face Stern Wing further. “Understand that, until she does return to where and when she came from, I'm not having this ship depart from Ponyville. Not while she is still here, at least. If another emergency crashes upon this town then I might reconsider that stance, but until then I'm holding the TARDIS here by default. Is that understood?”

Stern Wing gave the Doctor a right wing salute. “Not only are you understood, but accepted and appreciated. Surprisingly, Vision has proven that she can hoofle her own, but I'm not eager to invite yet another foal on our adventures. Not when our journey often proves so dangerous to even fully grown adults. Besides, for as long as she's here in my boyfriend's body, Feather Wind is not among us, and it might prove to our detriment if we take off without his help. He's come in hoofy too many times to consider it wise to take off without him.” Stern Wing looked at Star Breeze. “Sort of,” she amended.

“Exactly my thinking,” the Doctor agreed. “So I take it you'll supervise her in the meanwhile?”

Looking back at the Doctor, Stern Wing nodded confidently then said, “You can count on me, Doctor!”

“I never doubted it,” the Doctor assured with a grateful and proud smile to Stern Wing. He then let out a long breath, then said, “Right. If we get separated out there, meet us back at the TARDIS. Until we meet each other again, Talley-ho! Onwards and upwards, my friend.” He nodded at them one final time then departed from the room, but not from the TARDIS itself. Stern Wing and Star Breeze were standing closer to the main exit and entrance instead.

Star Breeze felt a little uncomfortable when she regarded the younger version of her mother, and she dwelt on the fact that was an unusual sensation for her. She knew that she was from the future and knew many things her mother did not know yet. It was hard to know what was safe to say and not say at that moment. Also there was the fact that she physically looked like her father right now. Actually, not just looked like her father but actually dwelt within his body. Star Breeze was accustomed to getting hugs and kisses from both of her parents, especially when she was younger, but her current situation made the mere idea of that quite awkward.

Both of them stayed still and silent for a long moment. Star Breeze studied her mother’s face. It seemed that Stern Wing was trying to figure something out. Stern Wing stared forward at empty space for a long pause, glanced at Star Breeze for two seconds with her brown eyes only, then resumed looking forward while she either debated something or tried to puzzle something.

Meanwhile, Star Breeze contemplated the fact that usually she could read her mother like an open book, but there was enough difference between both versions of her mother that it put Star Breeze at a greater disadvantage than she was used to. She knew that her mother was a security officer through and through. It was the one thing about her that never changed. All of her thoughts and inbred instincts were bent towards that fact, but for years Star Breeze had only known her mother to be in “mother” mode which meant her being careful with Star Breeze as a mentor in a “I care for you” kind of way. This pony, on the other hoof, was someone younger and perhaps very different from the mare Star Breeze grew up with. This version of her mother was stuck in “adventure” mode instead. That made sense, of course, given their current predicament, but that also made her mother far less predictable to Star Breeze. Star Breeze was far more accustomed to having a very close connection with her mother and that required a level of understanding and honesty which seemed to be lacking in their current predicament. Star Breeze really didn't like that feeling of looking at her mother like she was a true stranger. A familiar stranger to be sure, but still different enough to feel unsettling.

Just before Stern Wing spoke, she shook her head then focused her gaze back at Star Breeze, then said, “I just can't get it out of my head, so I have to know for sure.” Stern Wing turned her head to look at Star Breeze fully instead of merely gazing upon her with her eyes only. “Star Breeze . . . are you really my daughter from the future?”

Star Breeze pursed her father's lips and gazed down with discomfort and uncertainty. Would answering that question potentially jeopardize her very existence, maybe?

“Okay, okay! Forget that question,” Stern Wing decided, changing her mind. “But I do have to know one thing. Has Discord hurt you in any way to get you here?”

“No!” Star Breeze emotionally assured with strong intensity, looking back at her mother in the process. “He most certainly has not hurt me. Well,” she rolled her eyes, “okay, he has teased me and this,” she gestured across herself at her father's body, “was not what I had in mind, but believe me when I say that Discord is merely trying to do me a favor. I was bored and stagnant where I came from. Also I was eager for . . . something.” She looked down. “My parents raised me for years on stories of their grand adventures together. It made me very excited to grow up and experience things like that myself.” She looked back at her mom. “I've read stories and listened to stories and . . . some other stuff.” Star Breeze didn't feel too confident to admit that she gained a connection with the Red Crystal gem after her father, nor the subsequent stuff she learned from it. Much of the stuff she learned might be in the future of this version of her mother.

“Excuse me, doing you a favor?!” Stern Wing asked with bitter skepticism as she narrowed her eyes at her disguised daughter. “Taking your mind and putting you in the body of another pony in the distant past while we were fleeing from an emergency situation is your definition of a favor?!”

“Maybe not everything worked out as he intended. His inherit nature is chaos, so perhaps some elements of the situation weren't what he predicted,” Star Breeze said in Discord’s defense. “My point is, he did it for benign reasons. He wanted me to grow by being a part of this adventure. He knew we'd end up in Ponyville, too, so this is his way of scaling the adventure down a bit.”

“Listen,” Stern Wing lifted her head high. “I don't know if I have any true authority over you or not, but no daughter of mine is welcome to hang around the likes of Discord! That despicable monster has no right to meddle in the affairs of my family! If you ever see him again, then I order you to stay away from him as much as you can. You hear me, young lady?”

Star Breeze looked down with a pained expression.

“I'm telling you this for your own good,” Stern Wing assured. “That evil spirit is nothing but trouble.”

“What's your problem with him?” Star Breeze asked a little more defensively than she really intended as she looked back at her mother. “Discord is merely trying to be my friend.”

“Really?” Stern Wing cocked her head. “And how can you be sure? How do I know that he didn't pop you out of non-existence just recently? Even if you did exist for twelve years before now, how do I know he didn't force you to say what you just said about him?”

Star Breeze opened her mouth to make a rebuttal, but then shifted her father's eyes to her left when it occurred to her that her mother had a good point. If Discord really could do anything, then perhaps her very existence was a lie until recently.

Which reminded her of her existential crisis about her debate over who wrote the book “Sky Dancer, the First Flying Unicorn”.

“For that matter,” Stern Wing placed a hoof on her own broad and firm brown chest, “how do I know he didn't force me to play the devil’s advocate? Disharmony is in his nature. It would make sense that he would arrange a circumstance like this just to ensure we'd have an argument, and meanwhile he's probably hanging back and having a good laugh at our expense! He toys with our lives and puts our friends in danger purely for the sake of his own amusement. Only a villain takes vicious pleasure at causing other creatures’ suffering like that.

“How do we know if any of us have true freewill while a monster like that floats about and toys with the very fabric of existence? Do you see where I'm coming from, here?”

“Yes, I suppose I do,” Star Breeze admitted as her father's yellow eyes focused back on Stern Wing. “You think like an earth pony and you always have. You want stability in your foundation and core beliefs, and the existence of someone like Discord threatens those beliefs. Security is the most important thing in your life, so a being that could potentially threaten that is unacceptable to you.”

“I'm not just objecting to the degree of his power, I'm objecting to how he uses it!” Stern Wing argued. “Do you want to know what he did the first day we met him? Back then he turned the TARDIS into a dark and creepy amusement park filled with creepy clowns as hosts of the carnival and filled to the brim with apparent deadly games of chance with our lives on the line. He forced the Doctor to solve riddles and puzzles while the rest of us were trapped helplessly in something like a cage with a removable bottom. Below that was an aquatic tank with a shark eagerly swimming about in it, which had a laser attached to its head. During that time he also removed my wings and made the bars slippery!” Stern Wing waved a hoof away. “I don't want to talk about what he put the rest of my friends through. If you know me at all, maybe you can understand why I've had a sour impression of him ever since.

“Later on he tried to reveal how all of these things were far less deadly than they initially appeared, but none of that removes the fact that it was still a sick and deeply twisted cruel joke, or remove the scars of his psychological torture! I never trusted him ever since, and I'll never see what Feather Wind or Vision saw in him ever since then.”

“Vision can look into other creatures hearts quite deeply,” Star Breeze reminded. “If she trusts him, he can't be all bad.”

“Unless he used his powers to force her to sense or believe that,” Stern Wing counter argued. “You can't win this one, Honey. I know exactly why I deeply despise his guts!”

“Nor should you try to convince her otherwise,” Feather Wind mysteriously said beside Star Breeze. When he appeared, time around them seemed to pause. She looked at him in shock. Seeing that, he quickly put a hoof to his mouth and gave her a hushing noise, then said, “I'm not really standing here right now.”

“If you're communicating to me through the Red Crystal, does that mean you're actually Crystal Wind?” Star Breeze checked.

“Indeed,” Crystal Wind confirmed with a grin to Star Breeze. “You're one smart cookie.” He then pointed at the Red Crystal that she still wore around her father's neck. “Right now that version of the Red Crystal comes from the future, or rather to say it is in your time.”

“Did Discord switch our minds?!” Star Breeze asked urgently. “Is my father, Feather Wind, currently dwelling in my body in the future?”

“Huh.” Crystal Wind blinked in surprise as he gazed forward blankly, then admitted, “Surprisingly, no, but that honestly does sound like it should have been his style. Doing that would have evoked more chaos to amuse him. He should have thought of that.” He focused back at her. “Instead of that, my past self is instead asleep within that body you're currently possessing. He had no memory that this was transpiring to him while he was asleep, but don't you worry. I'll record the events of what happened to him while you possessed him, but I won't include your private thoughts. I'll only include what you do and say while you are here. Feather Wind will review those memories later on when he wakes up, which is why I'm aware of it right now.”

“Which means you even recall everything else I will do or say while I am here,” Star Breeze realized in awe as she stared straight forward blankly, then looked at her father with a questioning expression. “I take it I shouldn't inform your wife about your presence right now?” Star Breeze checked.

“Right now she's not my wife yet,” Crystal Wind said with a shrug as he regarded the past version of Stern Wing. “The decision in regards to informing her of my presence here is up to you, but that said,” he looked back at Star Breeze, “I wouldn't recommend it.”

“Okay.” Star Breeze acknowledged. “I'll keep this a secret, then.”

“Get ready. Time is about to resume. I'll pause it again when and if you need me too, but you can just as easily communicate to me mentally while time is resuming. So . . . there is that. You ready?”

Star Breeze nodded at Crystal Wind then regarded her mother. “Ready, Dad.”

“Okay, then. Here goes. In the meantime, I'll stay by your side and answer any of your questions,” he assured, then waved a hoof and time resumed.

“Um,” Star Breeze began, but forgot what her mother last said.

“She was just telling you how much she hates Discord, and why she doesn't trust him,” Crystal Wind reminded Star Breeze while lovingly regarding the past version of his wife. “Don't concern yourself with her orders about insisting you remain away from Discord, either. This version of her hated his guts with a passion, but she warmed up to him after the favors she saw him do for our friends as we marched our way north to confront the Dark Star. She was especially touched on all the favors she saw Discord do for Fluttershy.”

Unexpectedly, Star Breeze grew a little angry at her mother upon hearing that, then said, “Mother . . .” she looked firmly into her mother’s eyes and noticed her look of shock when Star Breeze confirmed that Stern Wing was her mother. Star Breeze went on. “. . . the parents who raised me, raised me to be a strong and confident filly. They didn't tell me whom to pick for my friends or not. They left that up for me to decide. As my father often tells me, my fate is not written in some book, nor is it any picture on my flank. Instead, I write my own story, because I am the main character of my story. My fate is up for me to decide, and so I shall. Whether I choose to go on an adventure or not, whether I choose to hang out with Discord or not . . . it's my choice because it's my life. Maybe you don't understand that now, but someday you'll grow up too and become the wise and powerful mare who raised me.

“Besides, you are wrong about Discord! If he truly had evil intentions, you would have never escaped that deadly carnival. A being that powerful could have made sure you'd never escape. He would rig every game and riddle so that it was unsolvable, but you did solve it and you did escape it. You did get stronger and grew up a little bit ever since then, whether you choose to accept that fact or not.

“As for our free will, believing that Discord's mere existence and all of his great reality-bending powers invalidates any of our choices is giving him far too much credit. How can you possibly believe that someone like Discord is the author of our story when it's so well written? Do you think a being as foal-like as him could possibly write out so many deeply complex characters, stories and situations? If he really was the true author of our reality, everything would always be a straight-up comedy. Everything would be just one bad joke and pun one after another with an occasional good joke tossed in there by pure random chance, but of course that is a matter of opinion of his audience. Being as purely random as he is, he'd be constantly tossing dice in his head to make random plot points smashed together when they don't really fit. Nothing would ever truly make sense. This would all just be one giant silly dream.”

Star Breeze looked around her, then went on, “But we're standing in the TARDIS, a legendary machine capable of pulling off miracles that are well fought for and well earned. There is history and deep structure to every creature that ever set a hoof in this fantastic machine, and that includes us and the Doctor. A story this rich and complex couldn't possibly be written by someone like Discord. If anything, it's more likely to be written by his counterpart, the spirit of Order and Harmony, whomever that is. There is too much structure here to realistically believe otherwise. Too much A that leads to B that caused C which later resulted in D.” She looked back firmly at her mother, who was crying a bit at this point with a proud and happy smile. “So don't question your existence, mother, nor mine. Neither of us deserve that. We,” Star Breeze pounded her father’s chest with a hoof in order to gesture to “her”self, “are the true authors of our own stories. Never lose faith in that. That is what my wise and loving parents taught me, and that is what I choose to believe.”

Crystal Wind also smiled proudly as he said, “Well said. In that case . . . I guess you finally decided to invalidate the 'Discord wrote the book' theory. It's about time you finally realized that.”

“I guess I just needed a healthy dose of reality check.” Star Breeze mentally decided at the phantom image of her father. “See? This is the reason I wanted to go off on adventures. I wanted to grow and learn.”

Stern Wing sniffled, gazing at the disguised image of her future daughter with pride, tears watering her eyes. “I can't believe this!” Stern Wing exclaimed. “You're not really even born yet, and already I love you so deeply!”

Hearing that brought tears to Star Breeze's own eyes, and her emotions overwhelmed her. She launched into her mother’s massive chest and got swallowed by it, especially considering her father’s very small stature. Star Breeze tried to reach her father's hooves around Stern Wing's chest, and Stern Wing pressed a hoof across Star Breeze's back as well as enveloped both of her brown wings with black tips around her like hugging a small, plushy toy.

There she is! Star Breeze thought to herself cheerfully. There is the mother I know and love!