Once upon a time, (if the term even applies) two young ladies, (if that adjective even applies) decided to visit a magical land of Equestria, selected seemingly at random from about a million.
- One of the two is a time traveler deprived of her time machine, the other is an eldritch abomination out of her element.
- One would prefer the world of pastel-colored ponies to stay as it is, and canāt help but alter it. The other one is anxious to see how it can change, and canāt help but maintain it.
- Both believe that this is not their story. But while they disturb the delicate world of ponies, they donāt even notice ponies doing the same to them.
- Sandwiches are involved somehow.
There are many things this story is and some things it isnāt.
Itās not a fix fic, no matter what some of the characters think. Itās written in multiple first person narration, which happened for a pointlessly clever reason, that will eventually become quite obvious. Itās not a crossover, it just comes with an unhealthy amount of backstory. It could be a rational-fic, but since idealistic philosophy is typically not seen as very rational, itās only a philoso-fic instead. Itās quite meta, in the original definition of metafiction: fiction concerned with fiction as a concept. In any case, itās either a small monument to overthinking things ā Iām trying to reexamine many fanon ideas here ā or a digital paperweight, Iām not sure which. Itās quite a bit more subtle than it could be, and everyone talks way too much when they should be having glorious adventures.
I know how it starts, I know how it ends, and most of what happens in between. Readers say itās a slow burner, but weāll get there eventually.
Acknowledgements
With special thanks to my editors, Thainen, Shrink Laureate, and MitchH.
Further special thanks to ScarletWeather and Themaskedferret for valuable input.
The artist who made the cover image stubbornly wishes to remain uncredited, but thanks to her anyway.