//------------------------------//
// Ponyville, Circa 20 AT 
// Story: The Beginning and the End 
// by bdoubleowo 
//------------------------------//

THE FRIENDSHIP EXPRESS, IN BETWEEN CANTERLOT AND PONYVILLE, YEAR 20 AT (AGE OF TWILIGHT) 

Twilight Sparkle, unicorn student of Princess Celestia, had discovered something: riding trains with no book to keep one busy was boring. 
She groaned, alerting Spike. “How much longer will this take?!” 
“Not much longer, actually. We’re almost there!” Spike said, pointing at the window. Twilight could see a small station coming up on the left. The train stopped, and the doors opened. 
“Finally.” Twilight muttered. She stood up and trotted out the door, Spike following. Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks. 
“Spike? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked. 
“I just…” Spike held his head for a minute. “I just feel… well… déjà vu.” 
“Déjà vu? But we’ve never been here before!” Twilight blinked. “That’s weird.” 
“Yeah…” Spike muttered, a little confused. Twilight picked up Spike and placed him on her back. 
“Alright, Spike. What’s the plan?” she asked him. 
Spike pulled a long scroll and a quill pen from Twilight’s saddlebag. He read the scroll, which was apparently a long checklist of a sort, then looked at Twilight. “It says, ‘Step one: Go to Ponyville.’ Check.” He took the quill pen and checked a box next to that step. “’Step two: Find the town library.’ Same old Twilight, eh?” 
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Spike, the town library is sure to have magic books, and possibly a solution to our time traveling. It’s a very important place to go to!” 
He held up his hands in an ‘I-surrender’ pose. “Okay, okay! The only problem is, we don’t know where it is. At least I don’t… do you?” 
“No, I don’t. But maybe we can ask somepony.” She noticed a young yellow-coated earth pony foal – Twilight couldn’t tell if the foal was a colt or a filly – with a pink mane trotting down the street with a rubber chicken in their mouth. She trotted over to them. 
“Um, excuse me?” Twilight asked them. The foal looked up, noticed Twilight, and gasped. The rubber chicken fell out of their mouth, and Twilight levitated it back to them. 
“Thanks.” They smiled. Then, suddenly, there was a loud gasp from behind the two ponies. 
A pink earth pony mare with a very poofy pink mane – which, Twilight could see, had stuff stuck in it, and the mare seemed oblivious to it – ran over to the foal. “Li’l Cheese, what are you doing! You almost – gasp – missed the Welcome to Ponyville party!” 
“I know!” Li’l Cheese said. “Mom, there’s a second new pony!” 
“Whaaaaaaaaat?!” the mare said, then looked up. Twilight blinked, and nervously waved. 
“Um… hi? My name is Twi-“ Twilight was suddenly cut off as the mare hugged her. “Huh?” 
The mare suddenly released her. “Twilight, you didn’t have to disguise yourself! We here in Ponyville know who you are! Plus, you did a reeeeally bad job of doing it.” She nudged Twilight with a smirk on her face. “Your best friend Pinkie Pie knows what’s going on.” 
“Pinkie Pie?” Twilight’s mind was drawing a blank. “Look, I’m just trying to find the library. Do either you or Li’l Cheese have directions?” 
“The library was destroyed, duh! I mean, it’s been many years, so I understand that you may forget, but still! During the Tirek battle? Remember?” Pinkie looked confused. Then, a smile appeared on her face. 
“You know what, Twilight? I know what will jog your memory!” She ran off, and Twilight was left alone with Li’l Cheese. 
“Your mom just ran off without you…” Twilight told them. “Is that… normal?” 
“She’ll be back.” Li’l Cheese said, and that was when Pinkie returned… with two other mares, one a pegasus with a rainbow mane and a leather jacket and the other an earth pony with a yellow mane in a bun and a red and white scarf around her neck, in tow. 
“Pinkie Pie, what in tarnation are you trying to do?!” the earth pony yelled. 
“Sorry, Applejack, but I needed to show you something awesome!” Pinkie said excitedly. “Look!” She pointed at Twilight. 
Applejack looked over at where Pinkie was pointing, and her jaw dropped. “Rainbow Dash! Look!” She nudged the pegasus mare next to her, who was staring at Twilight in shock. 
“Li’l Cheese, why don’t you go check on the Welcome to Ponyville party preparations for Opal Glow?” Pinkie whispered to her foal, who nodded and ran off toward a bakery nearby. It said ‘Sugarcube Corner’ on a sign next to it. 
“Twilight?! Wasn’t the last Friendship Council meeting only two days ago? When you told us and Luster Dawn about your coronation twenty years ago?” Rainbow Dash questioned. “Why are you here so soon? I mean, it’s great to see you. But this is uncommon... especially since you decided to come as a younger version of yourself.” 
Twilight threw her hooves up in exasperation. “Why does everypony assume that I’m a disguised version of Princess Twilight?!” Suddenly, her eyes grew wide. “Wait. You’re Applejack!” She pointed at Applejack, who looked confused. 
“Yes…?” the orange mare said, still confused. 
“A kirin in Canterlot mentioned you, and another pony named Fluttershy!” Twilight said excitedly. “Are you really the Element of Honesty?” 
“Well, I was...” Applejack started. “But when they were destroyed...” Twilight’s eyes went wide at that statement, but the orange mare was soon interrupted by her cyan pegasus friend. 
“Wait. Then you’re not Twilight Sparkle?” Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes. “Are you just some kind of perverted changeling?” 
“What?!” Twilight was really confused. “NO! I’m not a changeling, whatever that is! I am Twilight Sparkle, personal student to Princess Celestia and a resident of Canterlot! I have never been to Ponyville until today, and yet everypony seems to know me already. I get that the ruling princess nowadays is also named Twilight Sparkle, but how much time has honestly passed between my time and now? WHO EVEN ARE YOU PONIES?!” Twilight glared at the three ponies, who looked at each other in shock. 
“Darling, are you feeling alright?” Twilight turned to see a white unicorn with a fancy purple mane streaked with gray trotting toward them, followed by a yellow pegasus with a light pink mane in a ponytail. “We could hear your rant from Carousal Boutique, which is pretty far down the road.” 
“I’m fine.” Twilight clenched her teeth. “I am just trying to find the town library! Pinkie says there isn’t one, but what town doesn’t have a library?!” 
Rainbow Dash flew over to the white unicorn. “We can’t let her leave, Rarity! She’s a changeling, for Twilight’s sake! Impersonating a younger Princess Twilight!” 
Rarity scoffed. “Of course she’s not, darlings. If she was, she wouldn’t be so adamant against the fact. Plus, she claims to have zero knowledge of changelings, and either way, whether she was a changeling or not, she would have still heard of them. It’s been a while since the Canterlot wedding invasion, after all.” 
“So what does that mean?” Applejack asked her. 
“It means, Applejack, that she is lost, possessed, in a costume, or simply time displaced.” Rarity said, trotting over to Twilight. “I do apologize for my friends’ behavior.” 
“Oh, it’s okay. I did ask them for directions, after all.” Twilight said, smiling. Spike, who had been watching these entire proceedings in silence, finally spoke up. 
“Wait, do you five know Twilight or something?” he asked. 
“I’ve never seen these ponies in my life, Spike.” Twilight answered. He rolled his eyes. 
“No, I meant Princess Twilight,” he said. “They act like they do, at least.” 
Pinkie suddenly bounced up to them. “Yeah! We’re Princess Twilight’s best friends! We helped her defeat Nightmare Moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra...” 
Pinkie continued speaking names, but Twilight barely heard. Her mind was still caught on Pinkie’s quote: “We helped her defeat Nightmare Moon...” 
Twilight suddenly felt dizzy, and was finding it hard to stand on her hooves. She was going to help defeat Nightmare Moon. She, Twilight Sparkle, with friends, would defeat Nightmare Moon. A part of her was wondering what happened to her relationship with Minuette, Twinkleshine, Lemon Hearts, Lyra Heartstrings and Moondancer, but she shrugged off the feeling. Suddenly, Twilight felt her knees give way. 
“Y’all okay, sugarcube?” she heard Applejack ask her, but it was faint. For the second time that day, Twilight Sparkle passed out.