Tough Love
It was a good day packed with activities, and I managed to get a lot of things done, as is proper for the Princess of Friendship. I checked the checked checkBoxes on my checked checkLIst and neatly folded it in the ‘Done’ chest by my bed. It was time to sleep.
I lay in bed, rested my weary head on a book and closed my eyes. My consciousness slowly slipped away as I drifted deeper into slumber.
A joyful dream of friendship and harmony gained form and all my friends were there to greet me.
A flash of light disintegrated everypony into dust before my very eyes. Their screams of agony echoed in my ears. The dream violently ended, but the brightness remained. I could see it even with my eyes closed.
When the light faded, and I opened my eyes, a pony in a black furtight bodysuit dropped from mid-air on top of my bed. All four hooves surrounded me. “How could you!?!” she screamed at me.
“Wha…” I uttered.
“You lousy, good for nothing, tard!” A barrage of hoof slaps across my face interrupted the question on my tongue.
I’m known to be patient with ponies, but this mare crossed the line. “That does it, old hag, you chose to mess with the wrong pony! You should not trifle with an alicorn!” I charged my horn and let out an energy burst that could pierce a whole mountain.
With a mere blink of a horn, the ninja pony disintegrated my blast into nothingness. “Typical! You think you can just magic your way out of this ordeal, don’t you? No wonder you’re such a loser!”
Another blink of her horn later, I flew through the air, crashing into a wall. “Auch!” I pressed a hoof on the bruised head and glanced at the invader, “Who are you? What do you want with me?”
“How tardy can you get, tard?” The black figure yelled.
She used that word-base twice in a single sentence. I’m the only pony known to abuse it so much. I knew who she was. “You’re me. Did I mess something up?”
“The water bill, dummy! You forgot to pay it on this day! You didn’t even put it on your checkList!” She pointed to the chest by the bed.
“Oh, right!” I facehooved “How did that slip my mind? I’ll put the bill and the bits in my saddle bag right now, and I’ll pay it first thing in the morning.”
“You better, or future-me will return with a vengeance!”
“Before you go back to the future, tell me why you’re acting so hostile. I’ve never been this mean to anypony before.”
“I’m not mean to anypony. I’m just strict with myself, and that’s a good feature to have. It’s called self-discipline. You should try it sometime.”
“Still, I want to know what happens in my future/your past that forces me into going as far as to try changing the unchangeable timeline.”
“You really want to know?” She smirked at me. “Good, because I was going to tell you anyway. Those interests on the overdue water bill I had to pay decades ago are actually a minor inconvenience. I mostly just needed to vent to somepony. You see, some old Future Twilight popped up on me in the middle of the night! Can you imagine that? Of course you can’t. It’s unthinkable! Anyways, she said that I’ll develop vein problems in the future, and now I have to wear this clingy furtight bodysuit at all times so that my veins don’t expand. But it’s super tight and uncomfortable. It’s itchy and restraining. I feel like I’m constantly suffocating. It feels as if a hundred hooves are touching me without my consent, especially in the areas I don’t want to be touched. The abuse won’t stop no matter what I do. If I move away from the fondling, it opposes my movements, reminding me of my solitary confinement and my everlasting victimhood. Trapped in the tight bubble that disconnects me from the real world. Bound forevermore. I’m not even wearing this furtight bodysuit; it wears me! And with each passing moment, it wears out my mind and resolve more and more. The fabric doesn’t ask for my consent and doesn’t take no for an answer; it just assumes direct control over my freedom and keeps the rapy initiative. I’m exposed to bad touches all the time, but I can’t even take the damned clothes off because Future Twilight said she’ll beat the shit out of me if I try. I just want to get out of this enwrapping prison, but no amount of kicking and screaming can help me.”
“Well, I better enjoy the rest of my freedom before I meet your fate.”
Future Twilight put a hoof under her chin. “Now that I think about it, maybe there’s a way out for me. My future Twilight even hinted at this possibility.” Her horn glowed, “I could just help myself. And by I, I mean you. You can help me! You can help the future-self.” With half-closed eyes, she glanced in my direction. ”Speaking of future-self, I’ll be right back.”
At that moment, a bright light filled the room and another Future Twilight dropped in. “Okay, I’m back.” She saw the other Future Twilight. “Stupid wibbly wobbly, timey wimey chronology…” She dropped some black material on the floor. “It seems I’m a bit early.” Pointing a hoof at me she yelled, “Unlike you with paying our water bill, you tard!”
The previous Future Twilight also pointed a hoof at me and ordered, “Do everything Future Future Twilight tells you, or we’ll both come back to beat the shit out of you.” With that last warning, she disappeared in a flash.
I sighed with relief but quickly caught a piercing stare from the other Future Twilight.
“That was very disrespectful of you toward yourself. You shouldn’t bring yourself down like that.”
“Sorry about my lapsus. I don’t usually exhibit such a self-defeating attitude.” With a lowered head, I said, “I’ll pay the water bill, I promise.”
“I’m not here for that.” She kicked over the black fabric brought from the future. “I had Rarity make two smaller versions of what I have to wear. I even had her add two rubber socks to cover your face, just to be sure. I told Rarity that they need to be super durable so that I don’t have to come back every time you brush against something sharp. We all know how clumsy you can get. Rarity is old in my time and needed two weeks to complete the task. Supposedly, some materials need to be ordered moons in advance, but I didn’t want to wait so I told her to just work with what’s available. She warned me that she’d have to use the uncomfortable itchy material to adhere to all my specifications and that only a filly would be able to fit inside, but I didn’t mind. It’s your problem now, anyway.”
“Why is it my problem? You’re the one who was ordered to wear a furtight bodysuit!” I protested.
Future Twilight sighed. “I shouldn’t be forced to wear anything, especially not these stupid clothes.” She kicked herself in the other leather-wrapped leg. “It’s not fair! But I’ll make it fair for myself and regain my freedom. All that‘s needed is some self-discipline.”
“But the old Future Twilight ordered you to prevent her vein problems, not me!” I insisted.
“She did, but I was wronged. How can you not see how super unfair this is to me? No, of course you can’t, oblivious tard. You can’t even see an unpaid bill.” She waved a hoof in dismissal. ”Anyways, I have a solution. I figured that if you wear a tighter version of what I’m wearing, and a pair of them, at that, I might be allowed to take mine off. And that’s how I’ll get my own old Future Twilight off my back.”
I wasn’t about to just take the brunt assault of that one-sided argument of hers. “If you think I’m going to even touch these rubber-torture wrappings, you have another thing coming…”
A blast of light engulfed me. “And this is a paralysis spell against which you tard haven’t developed a defense yet. Now let’s get this stupid fabric on you. Once I do, you won’t be able to take it off even if you try. And if you do try, I’ll make it a daily routine to come to the moment you disobey me and we Twilights will beat the shit out of you and make you wear yet another layer every time you defy us.” She stopped wrapping my motionless body for a moment, “You know, this could probably have been avoided if the younger you wouldn’t walk nacked around all the time. But what can you do… It’s not like you could change the past, right?” She proceeded to enwrap me with the entrapping fabric.