Sudden Realization
Insanity.
A term used lightly when describing the inhabitants of Ponyville with its quirky and different characters. Some can be 'different' but not insane. Pinkie Pie would be one common example. Her bouncy personality and interesting ways of seeing things could be 'different' but that does not make her insane. Well, it’s hard to picture insanity in certain characters or to even imagine it in such a peaceful place. But Ponyville does have some characters which are more than quirky.
Twilight Sparkle has had her fair share of mental breakdowns of course. Whether it being a certain event that's supposed to happen stresses her out. If something isn't correct she could sort of lose control and freak out. So when she has been locked up in her library for five days straight without any contact from the outside, you can safely guess that something is wrong.
***
Spike approached the large library tree, it loomed over him as he stepped ever closer. The curtains were drawn and the door closed. Leaves left shadows on the wooden walls, darkening its natural colour. The trees’ lack of life was disturbing the dragon, almost stopping him from entering. It looked more sinister than ever for some reason.
Gripping the handle of the door and slowly creaking it open, he lightly stepped into the building.
The library was a mess, every time Spike cleaned the shelves and stacked the books, Twilight would seem to come up and ruin it again. There didn't seem to be a reason for the books to be on the ground, it was like it was there for Spike to clean or something. Why does Twilight do this to me? He thought to himself.
The dragon trudged through the swamp of books towards the downstairs entrance, pushing waves of literature back and forth. Stepping out of the piles and next to the door, he stopped. He had no idea what to expect. Is Twilight passed out or something, was she even down their?
A flood of questions filled his mind. But with a shake of his head quickly drained the useless thoughts and moved on to the actual task.
He grasped the door-knob between his fist and turned it very slowly, minimizing any sound he might cause.
He looked down the stairs into the brightly lit room. He saw what he couldn't fathom. There was a large chalkboard with fifty-two circles all in two rows with little words under each of them. A desk with only a candle stick melted to the base and a few random sketching’s.
Along the back wall was a science kit. Test tubes filled with unidentifiable liquids, tubes coiling in random directions, a metal framework holding it all together. He looked at the room and saw that more scrap bits of paper with only a few bearing the random scribbling littered the floor.
He saw his overseer scampering through the papers between the table and the obscenely large board. Twilight’s mane was unkempt; it frizzled in many directions like a messy birds nest. Her tail looked as if it was coming apart; it clumped in about three strands which were also frizzled.
He moved down the first steps towards the basement, itching to ask the unicorn 'what was up.'
"Uhhh, Twilight..."
The mare stopped in her track when the dragon made a sound. She stared blankly into space before turning painfully slow towards him. Her pupils were minuscule, almost consumed by the whiteness of her eye. With a slightly maniacal laugh she answered the familiar. "Hey Spike, can't talk. Doing science."
Spike didn't know what to say. He stood with a disturbed blank expression with his claws lifted in front of his face. Dude, that’s creepy.
Twilight continued to scamper around the room, pouring he liquids into other test tubes, drawing on a board with an oversized equation covering it. "What exactly are you doing Twilight?"
"I'm trying to work out an equation which links my thesis to my research and it might lead to some strange answers that might..."
Spike wasn't in to the whole science mumbo-jumbo he called it, some of Twilight's scientific rants would fly right over his head. What is she on about?
"...some of my research has lead me into quantum physics and the space time continuum..."
Is she still talking?
"...and I'm trying to localize it into a way so others can read it and so that others can understand what I discovered."
Ok...That sort of made sense.
She stopped moving and fixated on Spike. "Do you understand any of this Spike?"
The dragon was dumbfounded even more. The more the unicorn stared at him, her eye twitching every now and again, the more he felt perturbed and out of place. "Space time... Physics... Something like that?"
Twilight groaned in frustration turning back towards the table. She looked to be scrambling around with the papers drawing with a pencil roped in her magical grip. "I will need an example for this to make sense, a..." she thought for the right words. “Case point to back up my thesis!"
She approached Spike staring down at his little emerald eyes. He looks at her, him being a little frightened now. I'm a dragon, I'm not frightened.
"Ok Spike, do you remember where you came from before you came into the library?"
Spike was surprised. Not the question he was expecting at all. He knew the answer to that, because he can't stop thinking about her sometimes. "I came from Rarity's Boutique." He explained to the unicorn. "She needed some help and I helped... Why do you ask?"
"Ok, but do you remember any of that? Being at the Carousel Boutique I mean."
"Well yea I went over..."
He stopped mid-sentence, thinking back to later today and tried to retrace his steps. Surprisingly he couldn't remember anything. He couldn't remember ever going over to Rarity's. Then what did he do? He looked back at twilight trying to collect his thoughts. "I can't seem to remember?"
"That's just it Spike, it never happened..."
The dragon's eyes enlarged in shock. He did not know what to think now. Another flood of questions swept into his mind. If that never happened. Then what else didn't? Is Twilight correct? How could she be, that's insane!
"Now Spike, this may be crazy to hear but listen to what I have to say."
As twilight turned back to the chalkboard, still bearing the two rows of circles, Spike followed cautiously behind her. He was hoping that the board would make sense of what he just can't fathom. They approached it while Twilight magicked over a long pointing stick, which she used in numerous other scientific presentations for Spike. "This here is what I've been going on about."
She gestured the stick onto the circles pointing at a few. One, two, three. "For you see Spike, a few days ago I had a sudden realization..."
Oh no...
"I was starting to see that my life had unfilled gaps of time where I didn't remember anything." Her voice sort-of returned to its more informative regular Twilight voice. "And the more I thought about it, the more I began to see..."
Spike sat and tried to listen intently, but these rants would leave his brain hurting. Too much thinking, what did you find?
"...And that's how I came to this." she pointed the wooden stick onto the board again, making a small slapping sound as it impacted the material. "I call these events 'Episodes'."
The dragon stared at some of the circles, then quickly realizing something. Some of the words under some of the circles weren't just random scribbling’s, but the names of MAJOR EVENTS. Winter Wrap Up, The Grand Galloping Gala, Hearth's Warming Eve, Cadence and Shining Armour's Wedding.
"For you see Spike, these 'episodes' is all I remember from my life."
"But what about when you were just a filly Twilight?"
She seemed to twitch a bit when the dragon mentioned the word 'filly'. She pointed to the 24th circle on the top line. "From this point on, I could remember how I got my cutie mark." she turned to Spike suddenly. "But anything before that... It's like it never existed!"
Silence filled the void in the room, not before Spike broke it again. "Is there any other occurrences?"
"Yes!" she yelled at the dragon, starting to sound ever more frustrated. "In episode 52, the most recent, it seems
I have a brother, memories of him and of Cadence foal sitting me? But same as before..."
"The memories didn't exist until then." Finished Spike putting two & two together.
"And themselves, I don't know, these characters just appeared in our lives and we acted like we knew them forever."
Spike sat in deep thought, wondering about any other strange occurrences in his life.
“But it doesn’t end here; I theorize that there are many more of these alternate timelines, thousands that depict how we live our lives.”
This was getting out of hoof. How could this be true, there must be a reasonable explanation for this? "So I thought that, 'There must be a reasonable explanation for this'." Twilight continued.
She ran over to the science table and poured the liquids into another test tube, mixing them and changing the colours sporadically. Red, green, blue, black. Spike was curious once again. "Uhhh Twilight... How does that help with your 'case point'?"
The mare stopped again and turned to him, looking up while she pondered on Spikes question. He was correct. "Spike, your correct, this has nothing to do with what I'm researching." she sounded sort of excited but more frightened than anything. "I think I know why I'm doing this."
Rushing over to the table again, the unicorn wrote down more and more scribbling’s. Of course Spike could only sit and watch the unicorn stress. "What I was doing that with the potions can be explained. It's making me look like in doing something science-y even though it has nothing to do with what I'm actually doing." she ran up to Spike and swooped him off the ground. "It's a way to visually show that I'm doing something with science."
"Uhhh..."
"Think Spike, the obscenely large equation on the board, the potions, the mess on the ground." she spun around gesturing her hoof into the air. "All of this is to make visual sense. It’s easy to show something to get a meaning across."
Spike once again cringed at the overload of information hammering at his head. It didn't make much sense but did in a strange way. "But..." Spike protested. "That would imply that we are being...Watched."
"You could be correct Spike. Who knows what is watching us."
The unicorn look like she snapped, she cocked her head suddenly with a very deranged grin. Her eyes twitched uncontrollably, pupils returning to their shrunken state. Spike was now highly cautious, what he just learnt maybe the truth about their existence.
There was a knock at the basement door startling everyone in the room. "Twilight, are you ok down their?"
The fast speaking hyperactive voice of one of her dear friends resonated through the room. "Can I talk to you?"
"It's Pinkie... Should we tell her?" asked Spike as he looked around the room with a paranoid gaze.
"I don't know Spike, how would she handle it?"
"It's Pinkie Pie, she is random. She might not even get it."
"Well Twilight... Are you even down their?"
"Yes Pinkie she is down here." He turned to Twilight then yelled out his answer. "I'm coming up."
"Ok, hi Spike by the way."
The dragon begun up the stairs and towards the door while Twilight lay in the middle of the room stroking her tail. The anxious pony outside continued to clop on the door. Why does she keep knocking, she knows I'm coming.
Spike thought back to what Twilight said. Is she doing that purposefully or is something making her do that!?
A few situations ran through his mind, jumping to ridiculous conclusions. Is it aliens! Have they taken over our minds making us...Zombies?
He opened the basement door once again and was greeted by the bright pink pony bouncing in happiness. "Hi Spike, where's Twilight? I heard she was locked up in her basement and hasn't talked to anyone. So I rushed over to cheer her up. But that's only if she's sad or something. If she isn't then I'm just going to say hi." She gasped loudly. "Maybe I should throw her a basement party!"
How can she say things in such a crisis! Aliens are taking over!
"There would be lots of balloons of course, not a party without one. Lots of cake and sweet treats. Wait I'm getting off topic. Where is Twilight? Oh she is down their laying on the floor. Looks like fun. I like her new mane style. Maybe I should say hi."
The pink pony bounced softly down the steps and into the chaos with Spike eyeballing her searching for any alien tampering on her persons. I don't see a brain slug, maybe their inside her brain? Is one in my skull!?
Spike couldn't handle what he comprehended. He curled up into a fetal position and started to rock back and forth on the floor.
"Hi Twilight, what are you doing down here, everypony is sort-of worried. But I knew you would be fine, it's just sleeping on the hard floor isn't as good as a bed. I like your mane."
The unicorn stopped stroking her tail and rose to her hooves. She stared into Pinkie's eyes, contemplating whether to tell her or not. She looked over Pinkie's shoulder and saw how baby Spike reacted, who knows what sort of reaction she would get from Pinkie.
But Equestria must know the truth.
Twilight slowed her voice and tried to make it sound less frantic. "Hi Pinkie... How are you?"
"Well I'm fine Twilight, what about you?"
The purple mare groaned in her head. Sometimes it was easy to get a conversation, but when your mindset was on a certain subject; you can't help but mention it. "Pinkie, if I tell you something life changing, theoretically speaking, would you promise not to freak out?"
"Well I've read, heard and seen plenty of life changing stuff so, ok." she gleamed at her friend as she continued to promise. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."
"Ok, you ready?"
Twilight leaned closer towards her pink friend, Pinkie leaned in closer, Spike continued to rock back and forth. "I may have discovered something that may change how we see our lives, the truth."
"Oh, that's what you’re talking about."
"Wait what?"
"Oh Twilight, that's nothing to worry about."
Did the pink mare say she knew all of this? "Well of course I do writer."
The unicorn backed up slowly as she examined her friend. Her friend who somehow knew the truth and now was talking to no-one?
"Don't worry Twilight, you'll get used to it, I did and now it's fantastic."
"Who were you talking to? How do you know? Why do you know? How are you sane?"
"Well, I was talking to the writer creating this story. I found a plot hole a long time ago. Because I read what they were writing and I don’t know the definition of sane, am I sane Twilight?"
Twilight now could not fathom what she was hearing. "Who are they? Who is the writer?"
"Oh Twilight, that would be telling." she giggled. Stepping towards the unicorn. "It would ruin the surprise."
Now the purple mare had finally lost it, after what is supposedly been a few days of finding a crazy theory which turns out to be true and her friend already knew! She collapsed, eyes were wide open; she sunk like a stone to the floor in a near comatose state.
"Now if you put two & two & two together, you can see how Pinkie Sense works now." she bounced over to Twilight's statuesque body. "I just get signals from the creator in the ways of bodily movements, a side effect for working for them."
She leaned close to the unicorn’s ear, her muzzle touching it softly. "Silly Twilight, I'm the one who keeps the truth a surprise so life can be happy and adventurous."
She pulled Twilight's head in front of hers fixating on her eyes. "Now, look into my eyes."
Her eyes slowly changed from her blue iris to a green swirl. A trick she showed off when she sung her 'Evil Enchantress' song. Then Twilight's followed closely, her eyes becoming swirls as well, spinning away slowly.
"Don't worry Twilight, not knowing is better for you and everyone else." she looked over her shoulder. "Even you Spike."
***
It's hard to describe insanity in the likes of ponies. You could call someone this, but to be truly insane, that's on the other hoof all together. The insane ones are the ones who know too much and maybe they’re the only sane ones left.