Twilight had been preparing for it, it all comes down to this moment. In the next five minutes, she and Starlight are going to create an experiment of the millennia. At first Starlight was very reluctant at Princess Twilight request, but eventually, she gave in..
At some point about two weeks ago this conversation did happen. Princess Twilight had been overly excited about something, so her first and only student Starlight decided to see what's going on.
“What are you working on Twilight?”
Twilight ears perked up, “There is a very small project I wanted to do, and I was hoping that you could help me.”
“Okay, what exactly is a project is about?”
Twilight trotted next to Starlight, grabbed her with a shoulder with one hoof and then waved her second hoof in the air, “Starswirl the Bearded time travel experiment.”
“Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“I know we did have some issues in the past, but we can’t stop progress because of a few screwups.”
“Well I am not really sure about this, I mean I almost destroyed everything, and well now you just making me extremely uncomfortable.”
Twilight ears perked down with sadness, “Oh okay then I believe I understand, I guess I just scrap everything..”
...
Pinkie Pie jumped down out of nowhere into the void, “Really, author Twilight is using a guilt trip on Starlight, to help her to close the loop, Oh hello Twilight!”
Twilight Sparkle entered the void, “Yes Pinkie that's exactly what happening, now get the hay out of my flashback.”
Pinkie Pie gasped,“Gasp, that's not Twilight, you must be Discorded Twilight.”
Twilight facehooved herself with both hoofs, “I said out, now where are we, if you are going to spend a year as a protagonist in a dystopian future story, then you are going to be just as grampy just like me.”
“Okay grumpy Twilight, bye grumpy Twilight.”
“Alright so sorry about that,” Twilight apologized to audience, ”and now back to our scheduled programming ”
...
Twilight sighed, “It’s alright Starlight, if you are going to say no then I completely understand.”
Starlight already wanted to refuse Twilight, however, she remembered something important that happened recently, specifically she remembered how she had a very strange experience with Twilight’s double.
“Alright, Twilight I will help you out.”
Therefore two weeks later everything has been prepared and as Twilight from the future has predicted it the unthinkable has happened. the extremely precious experiment that the princess Twilight had been painfully preparing for literally blow up in her face.
At the same exact time as it happened Twilight from the future already have been patiently waiting for her opportunity to swap herself with her past self, and when it's finally happened she jumped straight into the room expertly taking control of an extremely chaotic situation.
“Starlight!” She screamed to make sure that Starlight had been paying attention to her, as a bonus she grabbed a panicker mare by the shoulders and shook her a few times, “Listen to my voice Starlight, I need you to stay focused.”
“I remember there were two of you at some point in time...One of you came to me and then insisted on helping with whatever crazy project that the other you wanted to do...and then…. I am a bit confused because I am not really sure which one of you is which.”
Twilight slapped Starlight a few times, “I said focus Starlight, I am the real Twilight the one that spends some time with you before this spell backfired so spectacularly, but everything is fine now.”
“Starlight blinked a few times clearing her mind, “Can I ask you something Twilight, What the point of any of that?
Twilight thought about that for a second, “Well, at first I really thought it was just a freak accident or something.Back then I really was hoping that something was useful would come out of it, but now...” She blinked, “now I guess it was just meant to happen.”
“Meant to happen, how is this completely bizarre situation is probably meant to happen?“
“Well, it's kind of like… Starlight did I ever told you a story about how I accidentally time traveled to the past and then turns out that I didn't really have to do that, but it still happened,“ She shrugged it off.
“Right, I think I heard something about that from other girls. So what’s going to happen now?”
“I suppose that we could just pretend like nothing really happened.”Twilight trotted right into the middle of the room. “Well, would you look at that, I need to make sure to clean this room sparkly clean. Would you like to help me? I promise that nothing bad is going to happen this time.”
Starlight took cleaning tools in her telekinetic grip and then pretended to wipe the dust, “I suppose that nothing bad would come out of it, besides I think I already told you that I did have enough out of time travel.”
“Can’t blame you for that.”
Princess Twilight Sparkle decided to visit Canterlot Castle, it's been about a year from her perspective since she last visited She was more than happy to be on her true timeline. She couldn't say anything about her past-self having the most shocking experience of her life.
Thinking back she really loved that helicopter, unfortunately, the flying machine tends to have an extremely bizarre habit of crashing like crazy. It's not that it became completely totaled. A lot of effort and spatial magic went into making sure that it was fixed right back up.
“Is something wrong?” Spike, her very original Spike, not the robotic model noticed Twilight’s spacing out from the reality.
“It's nothing, never thought I am going to say this but I think I am having a nostalgia.”
“Aha!” Spike rolled his eyes, still wasn't sure what it was all about, just recently Twilight suddenly decided to visit Canterlot, she said she just wanted to visit Princess Celestia, as well as her parents. The confusion comes from the fact that Twilight almost never does that. Apparently, she is ignoring her old classmates for almost forever until Spike suddenly didn't remind her. To be perfectly fair Lyra and Twilight had been living in Ponyville and been ignoring each other almost forever.
“Are you thinking about me?” Twilight asked him.
“Well actually yes, how did you know?”
“Oh Spike, I am pretty much spent an entire lifetime with you, I practically know what you are thinking about on any given day.”
“Oh right, I guess its true.”
Twilight and Spike crossed several bridges as well as several districts and they are about to enter the castle grounds when they stopped by a pair of royal guards
“Stop, who goes here?”
Princess Twilight Sparkle smiled, “Guys guys, I think you can relax a bit. I believe you are new here so let me just introduce myself. Hi, my name is Princess Twilight Sparkle and I am the 4th princess of Equestria as well as Friendship.”
“Sorry about that Your Highness, but we still need the proof of your identity.”
Spike quickly jumped on Twilights back and then whispered in her ear“Um Twilight, they want you to spike your horn to test your magical signature with the recorded image that they have on file.”
“Spike my horn...Spike my horn,” Princess Twilight slowly mumbled to herself, and then she suddenly remembered. “That's right the new security protocols, how could I have forgotten about them?” Twilight quickly sent two quick magical pulses into the skies that exploded as an image of her cutie mark.
“It looks like everything checkouts Your Highness,” the first guard quickly scanned an afterimage of her eyes with a special security spell.
“Right well, please excuse me. Once again you are doing a great job of keeping the Equestria safe and secure.”
“Are they?” Spike whispered to her.
“Honestly Spike I have no actual idea.”
Twilight was about to get free from their attention when the second guard intervened
“And it looks like everything is one hundred percent authentic Your Highness,” the second guard makes a note for the records into his book of records.
“It is?” Princess Twilight silently remembered her own cyborg wings.
“Yep, you are free to go on about your business, Your Highness.”
Twilight happily nodded to them and then they both went on their way. Several stairs and corridors later they entered the main hall of the castle where Princess Celestia had been doing day court.
“Is there anything else I can do for you Minister Pencil Pusher?”
“Well you know gotta keep pushing pencils,” the small earth pony tried to joke. “Right well I better get going, and I wish you and your sister happy holidays ”
“Honestly my dear, It's a season of holidays, I am pretty sure that the government isn’t going to fall over on itself if one of our most workaholic member of our government is going to take a break at least once in a while.”
“Right, I suppose I will take on your advice, Your Highness.”
“Please do so, Minster… Oh hi Twilight how can I help you with anything”
Princess Twilight ears perked up, “ I don't want to bother you, I know how important it is your work is.”
“Not as much as spending time with my favorite student.”
“Your only student,”
Twilight’s ears perked up, “Spike!”
“Sorry Twilight didn't mean to offend you.”
Princess Celestia laughed, “I suppose I am getting a bit rusty ain't I? Very well by Royal Decree I declare Minister Pencil Pusher as my student.”
“Me, Your Highness,” The Minister said nervously.
“The first lesson will be sometimes it's a great idea to take a vacation,” Princess Celestia winked at him.
“Right, of course, your highness!”
Meanwhile Twilight was trying her best to suppress her own giggles, she just found the whole situation very funny. She waited when he went away, and then continued talking with Princess Celestia.
“I am so glad to finally meet you, I mean a few weeks that is, also happy heartwarming Princess Celestia.”
Princess Celestia invited Princess Twilight to come closer to be her throne.
The pleasure is all mine Twilight, I hope the new security detail didn't give you too much trouble.
“Nah, they just doing their job, back then I really didn't want to say anything but if Sunset Shimmer hears that Spike demoted her as Celestia's student, then she will never forgive me.”
So she is going to admit that Sunset Shimmer isn't Celestia’s favorite student?”; Said Spike.
Princess Celestia tried to defend herself, “Well I...” but Twilight interrupted her.
“Spike, don't be mean to the Princess!”
“What? That what she said,” he protested.
“Spike, don't be rude! I am so sorry, Spike isn't usually like that.”
Princess Celestia raised her hoof, “Spike, Twilight, I don't really mind what Spike had said about Sunset. When it comes to her I am not the best teacher. To be fair Twilight I failed where you succeeded.” A small smile grew on her face, ”Sunset Shimmer isn't my student anymore she is yours perhaps very first student of friendship Twilight.”
“Me…? But I only used the Elements of Harmony on her.” Twilight was genuinely surprised by Princess Celestia words.
“I suppose that's true, however, you are the first one who didn't give up on her, and then you forgave her.”
Twilight's ears perked up, “huh… I thought that you cared.”
“I do, perhaps just not the same way as you are, it's just that I was also the first one who prepared to kick her out of the castle. In a way, I did give up on her.”
“Oh...” Twilight simply said.
“Twilight, is there something else you wanted to talk with me about.”
“Well, actually yes, I have a very interesting story to tell you about what I did in the past year of my life.”
“Um, Twilight, don't you mean what you did in the past two weeks? Didn't you met Celestia just recently.” Asked her Spike.
“No Spike in the past year, this is kind of important. It's so important that she needs to know, and technically it's a bit complicated because the last time I’ve met with Celestia about a few weeks ago, however, I couldn't see my own Celestia for an entire year.”
Spike scratched his head, “Now I am confused.”
Twilight blinked, “You know what just forget it, It would be better if I just show you.” Twilight grabbed her left wing with a telekinesis.
“Twilight, what are you trying to do...”
“Hold on on Spike, I almost there..and,” With a small clicking sound the locks were released, and Twilight ripped away from her left wing.”
She heard Spike fall from her back in shock, “Now that was freaky.”
“I am glad you like it, it would be a great option for me if I ever would want to relieve my old unicorn days.” She then reattached her wing back into the place where it belongs. “But I think for now I just stay as an alicorn.” Twilight turned to Celestia.
“That's was quite something Twilight, I guess you need to explain this to me after all the way from the very beginning.”
Twilight smiled, “I better of starting then, it all started when I decided to do a purely scientific experiment in the name of science. Starlight and I were about to perform the spell when the world around me exploded in brilliant white light. I disappeared from the reality of course, but only for a brief moment.
Then everything blue-shifted and I warped back into reality only thousands of years into the future.”
“Blue-shifted?” Celestia asked.
“Yes,” Twilight nodded. “Blueshift and redshift”
The light particles blueshift or redshift depending on the direction of the travel, and I simply have been observing a temporal background radiation.
“Is it to my understanding that you lost your wings, how exactly did it happen?”
“They were burned to ashes in the dragon fire, at least that's what my brain remembers.”
“Brain remembers? You would need to explain that.”
“I think it went something like that… my body had been engulfed by a stream of draconic fire. It was almost maddening to think. At that point, my subconscious mind switched on an automated response, so I reacted. The next thing I remember is me losing conscious, and my opponent laying dead in the dust,” Twilight continued speaking in almost monotone voice.
“So you killed them.”
“Not by choice, and sometimes because I guess I had too.”
“What are you been doing then, for almost an entire year?” Princess Celestia continued her questioning.
“Just my job, that's I so foolishly chosen. I was simply an Officer of the Friendship and I was sent by a corporation into Dragon town to pacify their turf war, all in the name of friendship and tolerance, and cooperation between species and each other.”
“Friendship doesn't require going to this extremes Twilight. I thought I already told you that,” Princess Celestia sounded slightly disappointed.
“I wish I could agree, however at this point there is nothing I can do about that almost cult-like cultural phenomenon that formed based on my name and then goes down in history as Princess who suddenly disappeared.”
Princess Celestia raised an eyebrow, “And here you are standing in front of me.”
“Aye ain't it almost paradoxical?”
“Hm...”
Twilight suddenly blurted out, “Let's say you go back in time, but there is a small accident. You end up killing yourself. Unfortunately, you would need to bury your own body. Do you see a problem with that? Or perhaps the problem solved itself. Because you end up replacing yourself.”
“I have to admit that the problem sounds a bit ridiculous, specifically you are describing a situation where the time travel is forced into an endless loop where he is forced to accidentally killing his own doppelganger. You wouldn’t mind if I would refer to the possible time traveler situation in a male gender.”
Twilight shook her head, “Yes well, he could just voluntarily stop doing it after all nothing is forcing him to do so. Bonus question, how many dead bodies are buried in the grave?”
“Well if I had to guess it would be somewhere between none and infinity, but for the sake of argument I prefer to think that the grave doesn't have any extra ponies that doesn't belong in there.”
Twilight smiled, “That's slightly unfortunate because we simply could have told exactly how many loops did the time traveler took by simply counting the dead bodies of his duplicates.”
“I would still prefer that the possible violence would have reduced to the minimum,” Celestia politely smiled in return to Twilight's smile.
Twilight looked around, “Oh well look at the time, I suddenly remembered that I still need to visit my parents, and I was thinking that I want to do it before sunset.”
.
“Mhm,” Princess Celestia said mysteriously.
“What was that?”
“I am the Princess of the Sun and I say the Sun is not going to set until I said it would,” Celestia winked at Twilight.
“You are really bad Princess, abusing your powers is bad. I am afraid I would have to put you under arrest.”
“Well, maybe next time my dear friend.”
“Yeah yeah I know, Spike come on let's go and meet my parents,” Twilight went and grabbed Spike by the leg with her telekinesis.
“Hey, I can walk by myself,” he tried to protest. Twilight just nervously laughed at that.
“Once again thank you for not being so hard about it,” she turned to Princess Celestia to say her final goodbyes for today to her.
“Any time Twilight, and remember that we have plenty of time to discuss it.”
“Of course, thanks and goodnight princess,” Twilight was trying to exit the throne room.
“Goodnight to you to Twilight.”