//------------------------------// // Interlude // Story: Counterclockwise // by AdrianJNovelle //------------------------------// Dr. Zimmermare said I slept for twelve hours. I hardly believed him at first, but the skies looked half as dark as they did when I fell asleep, and my headache was, for the most part, gone. We had breakfast together, Dr. Zimmermare preparing me a lovely plate of bacon and eggs: something quite familiar to me, yet something he hadn't made before. The bacon was too crispy and the eggs were bland, but I gagged them down anyway: to not be rude. After breakfast, I finally took a nice, hot shower, and washed all that hideous dye. My lavender coat, my navy-blue mane with my two distinct stripes, and my unique cutie mark all came into relevation as the water brutally removed all that paint off my body. Except for the drippy mane, I was myself again. I dried off, and brushed my mane back into its normal position. I was me again. I returned to the parlor, where I knew Dr. Zimmermare was reading a book on temporal mehanics to help fix his good-for-nothing contraption of a time machine. "Ms. Sparkle?" he asked, scrutinizing me. "Yes?" "Is that you?" "Yes. I finally washed off all that dye I had on...This is how I really look." "You look quite familiar," he said. "Do I?" He nodded. "Indeed," he closed his book, set it on the end-table next to his expensive-looking chair, got up, and walked over to one of his many towering bookcases. I followed up behind him. "When you were in your...eh...dye, I didn't recognize you. But your appearance - I know I've seen it in several of my history books!" He turned around. "Especially that," he pointed to my flank. "My cutie mark?" "Precisely!" he exclaimed gaily. He turned back around. "Your cutie mark is a legend in design for the magical arts. It's been used in billions of works over time: architecture, clothing, paintings, glassware, furniture, decorations, books - it has basically evolved to be the symbol of magic itself, all thanks to you and your expertise on the subject, being that you are the most powerful unicorn in history...well...as far as history for you goes, anyway. But you are still the first pony to achieve such." "Wow, I had no idea!" "Well of course you wouldn't: all this innovation began with your death. That's the sad part: you get to witness nothing of your cutie mark's fame." He used his magic to bring a particular book out from the shelving unit. "Here: this book has everything anyone could ever want to know about you until your death...Well, except your sexuality: someone in your family requested that be a secret, which I couldn't quite understand because it's not like you're a pervert." "My sexuality?" I asked, holding the book in my hooves. "Since when do I have a sexuality?" "Age two hundred, twenty," Dr. Zimmermare answered promptly. "When you fell in love with your husband." "Husband? Two hundred, twenty? You mean this book-" "Is in reference to your long, long life of eight hundred, seventy-six years of age, Ms. Sparkle. Good ahead - read it! I'm not teasing you with all the knowledge of your life." The book was entitled The Anthology of Twilight Sparkle: Equestria's Most Significant Unicorn. "That book is older than anything in my home," Dr. Zimmermare retorted as he made his return to his seat. "All I ask is that you be gentle with it." "Yes, sir, Luis." I slowly used my magic to navigate through the pages, flipping to parts I was most interested in. Twilight met her husband, Dawn, at the ripe, old age of two hundred, twenty. Because of her age-reduction spell, however, she still looked like the same age she was when she cast that spell on herself many years ago. Dawn was a painter who Twilight met at a party. It was love at first sight. Three years later, the couple married, and they had a daughter named Anacornia, derived from her mother's middle name, Acorna. Anacornia spent her childhood in Canterlot, after her parents moved shortly following her birth. They lived in a residential part of Canterlot Castle, under the approval of Princess Ellistar III, who was currently in power at the time. They remained in Canterlot until the Equestrian Restoration Committee declared its second movement, into the unchartered land beyond the Everfree Forest. Twilight herself was the leader of this frontier. She became the founder of a whole new pony society, adjacent to Equestria, named Anacornia, after her beloved daughter whom she had treasured all these years, and made third-in-line (after her husband). Unfortunately, due to her long life, neither Dawn nor Anacornia were ever in command of Anacornia. Twilight served as the leader of Anacornia until her daughter started a family of her own. Twilight wished to stay in close contact with her daughter as the family tree expanded, and she surrendered the Throne and departed from Anacornia two weeks before her daughter married Borealis, a unicorn childhood friend of Anacornia. They had two children: Cloud, a pegasus, which no one - not even Twilight could determine the probability of, and Starburst, a unicorn who resembled his mother and grandmother quite thoroughly. The large family kept residence in Canterlot, Equestria, for another generation. And the great-grandmother would live in elation until this time. Dawn went first. He died of heart disease at age eighty-seven. Shortly after Twilight declared the termination of her mourning period of Dawn, Anacornia died of natural causes at ninety-two. No longer able to live in this depression, Twilight moved back to Anacornia incognito, where she would stay for many... I stopped reading. Tears rolled down my cheeks. What have I done? I'm a murderer! I killed Anacornia, Starburst and Cloud - preventing their existences by preventing myself from living as long as I did. It was no longer a simple matter of law: it was now a matter of family and love. I am the center of a grand family of great ponies who have yet to be born. And I cannot live with myself knowing that I am the cause of their births, and I had reverted these remarkable characters from ever being born. But it doesn't have to be this way. I have time-travel on my side. I closed the book, put it back on the shelf where I found it, and put on a face of determination. "Hold on kids - Mommy's coming."