Lying on a couch, Twilight Sparkle was reading an old history book about Everfree. Of course, she wasn’t reading it purely for pleasure, and the mare carefully wrote in a notebook everything important she stumbled upon.
Noticing the almost empty ink bottle with a glance, Twilight remembered that she had asked Spike to buy more earlier that day. Since he was supposed to clean the throne room, Twilight cast a portal spell to talk to him without having to move.
She jumped when she saw herself on the other side.
“Hi Twilight!”
Slowly processing the scene, the mare quickly listed in her head all the possible reasons why she was seeing herself through this portal. Changeling. It had to be a changeling.
“Is that you Ocellus? How did you know I was about to open a portal here?”
The other Twilight stared at her with a doubtful look. “I… I’m you from 2 minutes in the future.”
Now, it was the original Twilight Sparkle who stared back in disbelief. “Nice try, but I’m the one who cast this spell. I think I’d be aware if it had some advanced magic effects like that.”
Her clone looked at her, visibly embarrassed. “That’s what I thought when I was at your place two minutes ago too. We don’t have much time, come now to the throne room and tell your past self what I told you.”
Twilight stared at herself in awe. There was definitely a trick, something, someone playing with her. An advanced prank from her friends perhaps. Spike was probably behind it.
The pranksters wanted her to go to the throne room. Was it a good idea?
“Hurry up, it’s almost been two minutes.”
Not wanting to risk ruining the prank, and also out of curiosity, Twilight got up and walked to the throne room. When she got there, the portal she had created earlier was nowhere in sight.
Placing herself in front of where it was supposed to open, she waited a few seconds before a magic flash marked its arrival.
In front of her: a startled Twilight. Or at least, the person that had taken her form.
“Hi Twilight!” she said, remembering the words of her future self.
Her ‘past self’ looked completely lost, and Twilight hypothesized that the pranksters had recorded her past reaction somehow.
“Is that you Ocellus? How did you know I was about to open a portal here?”
Well, since Twilight didn’t remember every detail from two minutes ago, she couldn’t be sure it was a recording. Maybe some creature was very good at memorizing and reproducing pony behavior.
“I… I’m you from 2 minutes in the future.”
Her past self didn’t look convinced at all. “Nice try, but I’m the one who cast this spell. I think I’d be aware if it had some advanced magic effects like that.”
Was she really supposed to tell herself something she didn’t believe? It felt wrong, but she had to keep her role. “That’s what I thought when I was at your place two minutes ago too. We don’t have much time, come now to the throne room and tell your past self what I told you.”
Her clone was obviously trying to figure out what to do. Of course. After leaving her a few seconds to sort her thoughts, as her ‘future self’ had done, Twilight reminded her:
“Hurry up, it’s almost been two minutes.”
Luckily, her clone left the library as soon as she told her to, and Twilight could now watch the empty room, supposedly as it was two minutes ago.
True to herself, Twilight was starting to enjoy the game, even though it made her brain hurt a little. She didn’t want to try to create a time paradox just to prove it was fake. She wanted to figure things out by the rules.
Therefore, she decided to head back to the library. When she got there, the throne room had another pony in it.
“Twilight?” Rainbow Dash was standing in the middle of hall, looking through the portal with curiosity. “Why is there a portal to the library?”
“I wanted to talk to Spike, but apparently he isn’t here,” Twilight explained, carefully avoiding any details regarding the temporal shift.
“I was looking for him too, he was supposed to give-”
“Okay Twilight this is real,” the clone suddenly said as she entered the throne room, completely startling Rainbow Dash.
“Wait uh…” Rainbow started, her eyes widened. “How are you there and here at the same time?”
“This portal shows two minutes into the past,” the ‘future’ Twilight quickly explained. Turning back towards the portal, she continued: “I know you don’t believe me because I didn’t two minutes ago, but come to the throne room and see for yourself.”
This time without any hesitation, Twilight went back to the throne room, but decided to stay hidden and check if the ‘future’ she had seen would turn out to be real. She had memorized some very precise gestures both herself and Rainbow had made in order to check the accuracy of what she’d seen. Of course, Rainbow, who had just entered the room, could be an accomplice.
“Twilight?”
Sadly, the mare couldn’t see through the portal from where she was, but hearing the discussion and seeing Rainbow would be enough.
“Why is there a portal to the library?”
“I wanted to talk to Spike, but apparently he isn’t here.”
Rainbow Dash had made the exact same gestures as she had seen. Of course, the same words too. Even if Rainbow was far from the least agile pegasus, it was impossible for any creature to reproduce a set of complex moves as perfectly as that. Somehow, it was exactly what Twilight had seen two minutes ago, just from another point of view.
“I was looking for him too, he was supposed to give-”
“Okay Twilight this is real,” she said as she stormed into the room, too excited to let Rainbow finish what she was saying.
The pegasus’ eyes were going from herself to the portal very quickly. “Wait uh… How are you there and here at the same time?”
“This portal shows two minutes into the past,” she explained before turning back to face her past self. “I know you don’t believe me because I didn’t two minutes ago, but come to the throne room and see for yourself.”
Twilight felt her heart race when she saw her past self leave the library. Somehow, this was real. Well, showing the past in a portal was feasible, despite requiring advanced magic, but showing two minutes in the future was unheard of. Doing both at the same time… It seemed impossible.
“So uh…” Rainbow Dash started next to her. “Is this real?”
“I think it is?” Twilight didn’t want to state something she wasn’t 100% sure about, but she was convinced. “Maybe you could go to the library and check if you see the future?”
Pushed by her curiosity, Rainbow Dash left towards the other aisle of the castle.
Twilight waited patiently for her to get to the other side, but a minute passed and the pegasus was still not in sight. Wondering about it for a few seconds, it clicked instantly in Twilight’s mind: Rainbow Dash was going back to the ‘past side’, so it would take two more minutes for her to appear!
And indeed, after almost three minutes, she got to the library room.
“Hi Twilight!”
“Tell me, how long has it been since you left the throne room?”
“Uh… I guess less than a minute? Why?”
“Because for me it has been three,” Twilight explained.
Rainbow looked puzzled, trying to figure out how the system worked. After a few seconds, her face lightened up, but Twilight wasn’t sure if it was because she had understood or because she had given up on understanding.
“So, what’s it like in the future?” she asked Twilight.
“Not… not very different from the past I guess?”
“What happens if I jump through the portal?” Rainbow Dash asked all of a sudden.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Rainbow. It could be dangerous.”
“Can I throw something in it then?”
“I guess.”
Rainbow Dash turned around to look for something to throw. Her eyes stopped on a pillow sitting on the couch, and she kicked it through the portal.
Of course, it landed right in Twilight’s face, who glared at Rainbow with playful annoyance.
“Seems harmless, I’m going in.”
Twilight’s eyes widened and her heart froze. “Rainbow no!”
Too late, the pegasus had already jumped through the portal… and came out on the other side, unharmed.
“See? Nothing happened.”
Anger slowly replaced panic as Twilight processed the last seconds. “Don’t ever do that again, you have no idea how much that scared me.”
Rainbow Dash smiled, and it seemed like she was about to answer something, but a sorry look took over when she realized Twilight wasn’t joking. “Sorry.”
“‘Sup everypony!”
Both Rainbow Dash and Twilight turned towards the corridor, where… another Rainbow Dash had just appeared.
Twilight blinked a few times to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. “Wh- how?”
“I just went through the portal the other way.”
The alicorn closed her eyes for a few seconds to process everything. It made sense in a way? She turned back towards the ‘real’ Rainbow Dash.
“I guess you have to go through the portal the other way,” she said reluctantly. It still felt like something perfectly unsafe.
Rainbow Dash jumped through the portal and waved at Twilight from the other side. “See you in the throne room a minute ago!”
It seemed like she had understood everything better than what Twilight thought.
“I think we should head back to the library,” Twilight said. “Without going through the portal.”
The two ponies walked there and sat on the couch, in front of the portal. Twilight inspected its form and design thoroughly, but she was incapable of understanding how the temporal shift had happened. It looked like any other portal.
“Twilight?” Starlight Glimmer entered the throne room, her horn pointing forward threateningly. She took a few steps forward, clearly relaxing when she saw Twilight and Rainbow through the portal. “I sensed space-time distortions coming from here, are you okay?”
With one glance, Twilight asked Rainbow to let her handle it.
“I’m fine, and I didn’t see anything suspicious regarding that. Come to the library if you want, we can make sure everything’s fine together.”
Starlight nodded and left the room. Taking advantage of the three minutes they had, Twilight nuked the portal and told Rainbow: “Don’t talk to her about the whole portal situation, I don’t want her to freak out because well… you know her history with time-travel.”
Rainbow Dash nodded, understanding.
“It’s weird, the sensation disappeared,” Starlight explained as she walked through the doorway. “I’m not sure there’s any point in inspecting the castle now that whatever was happening is likely gone.”
Twilight widened her eyes. "How did you come here in less than two minutes?"