Twilight, Seri, Sienna, Reykan and I are now seated around the circular ‘dining table’ in the library’s main room. Reykan is too small so we placed and stacked four books on the floor for him to sit on.
“Just don’t scratch the books, please,” Twilight tells him.
“But Twilight,” Seri smiles at her. “You told me that those aren’t real books and you can easily just recreate—”
“Yes, yes,” Twilight cuts her off. She sighs, her ears drooping. “You don’t need to remind me. Old habits die hard, after all...”
I blink at her. The books aren’t...real? Well, I suppose that would have been obvious, considering how...ancient this world is... I look around. “So... Is this just an illusion spell?”
“An advanced illusion spell!” Seri chirps happily as Twilight uses her magic to distribute the veggie soup in each bowl. The swan eagerly eyes a floating soup heading towards her bowl. “Twilight told me that this is what her home used to look like, and she wanted this old tree to look like it! And what better way to make it look like her old home than using an illusion spell! And I’m going to eat now!” She literally dunks her head in her steaming orange bowl, making me wince.
“This is really good!” Reykan says as he slightly pulls his head away from his blue bowl enough so he can properly look and smile at me. “Weird, but good!”
Twilight chuckles as she levitates a spoon to scoop up some soup from her white bowl. “Maybe I can teach Seri how to cook meat for you.”
Reykan’s eyes grow very, very wide. “You...can make meat taste even more delicious?!”
“That’s what cooking does to food,” I say as I eye my yellow steaming bowl. “If done properly, I mean.”
“Why aren’t you eating yet?” Sienna suddenly asks after pulling her head from her pink bowl.
I shrug. “Still a bit hot for my liking. I don’t wanna burn my tongue and all that jazz.”
The three of them blink at me. Plus one, now that Seri pulls her head out of her soup.
I blink back. “...What?”
“It’s not scalding hot,” Seri chuckles. “Or else I wouldn’t put my entire head in my bowl!” She grabs her bowl with both wings and lifts it a bit, eyeing Twilight. “Seconds please.”
Twilight rolls her eyes and uses her magic to give her more soup. Leaving the happy swan on her own, she shifts her focus to me as I test the hotness of my soup with my tongue. “So... Jay, was it?”
Nope. Not scalding hot at all. Maybe it’s slightly affected by the illusion spell? Wait... I furrow my brows as I turn to her. “...What does this soup reeeaaally look like, Twilight?”
She blinks at me, blinks again, and then she rolls her eyes with a frown. “And I thought I was the paranoid one.”
“Can I have more?” Reykan asks with a potato goop on his nose.
“As long as you’ll let me call you cute!” Seri teases him, earning herself a frown from the panther cub.
“Stop teasing him, Seri,” Twilight says as she refills Rey’s bowl. “And stop...dunking your head in the soup! You’re going to spend a lot of time in the bathroom again trying to get rid of all that soup under your feathers!”
I stop eating/drinking my soup... She as an illusionary bathroom here, too?
“It’s a good thing that there’s a storm outside, right?” Seri smiles a beaked smile. “I can just let the rain do the work!”
Twilight rolls her eyes, shakes her head before she turns to me with a...poker face. “So, Jay... How come you...” She raises a hoof and makes circle motions in the air. “...know stuff that uh... How do I say this right?”
I gulp down what I’m eating/drinking and sit straight up. I take a breath and sigh. “Twilight. I’m going straight to the point. No reason to zigzag around or whatever.” I take another breath to collect my thoughts. “I’m...not from here. And I’m hoping against all hope that you could help me get back home.”
She blinks and frowns as her ears droop. That’s...not a good sign...
“May I have more?” we hear Sienna say.
Twilight refills Sienna’s bowl with her magic without even ripping her sad stare at me. “I’m not from this world either...”
I blink. Oh... I should have worded what I said better...
“I...am also looking for a way to get home, Jay... Because... Well...” Twilight closes her eyes, takes a breath, and sighs as she slightly hangs her head down. “I’m sorry. I know that...wherever in Equestria you were from, you must have heard that I’m really great with magic after I became a princess.” She looks up at me. “And then, after...everything changed, you looked for me for help, right?”
I...nod my head. Aaand Twilight cannot help me after all, judging from how sad and disappointed her tone is. If Equestria really did change, and she can’t find a way to fix it, then how can she ever help me with my case? My ears droop as I sigh. “Yeah... I feared you wouldn’t be able to help...”
Sounds of eating and slurping...
I sigh once again as I grab the sides of my bowl with two hooves.
“Thirds?”
Twilight refills Seri’s bowl without tearing her gaze away from me. “I’m...sorry to ask, but...I’m genuinely curious...”
I eye her as I raise the bowl and take a slurp.
“How come you’re...not affected? I mean...” She rubs her head with a hoof. “You still...talk and act like the ponies back in Equestria. The real one, I mean...”
Er... I...have no idea what to tell her. I mean, I can tell her that I’m...from another world, or dimension, but she might just think that I am just from another Equestria. I think she already assumes that I am a pony living in the real Equestria. How in blazes can I explain it to her that I’m literally from another world, that is not Equestria?
“I take it that you don’t know?”
I must have been silent for too long. I didn’t even realize. “I, uh, y-yeah,” I say with a frown to mask the lie.
She sighs, slightly hanging her head as she eyes her soup. “I figured as much. No offence, but earth ponies don’t really have much knowledge in the field of magic unlike unicorns do.”
I’m not really a pony, so I can’t really take offence to that. “It’s all right.” I pause. Hm... “Twilight?”
She eyes me. “Hm?”
“Can I ask you to answer your own question?”
She raises her head and blinks at me. “...How I’m not affected, too?”
I nod my head.
She takes a breath and exhales through her nostrils. “...Well... Before everything became like the way they are right now, I was sitting on my chair around the ‘cutie mark map’ when I saw a fast bright light approaching.”
Chair? Not throne?
She looks back at her soup, brows furrowing. “I don’t really know what it was, but the moment I saw it, I felt great amounts of magic that I’ve never...felt before.” She looks up at me again. “A bright white light swallowed everything in a blink, but I managed to cast a protection spell on me. But...” She looks back down on her soup. “...that light disappeared as soon as it appeared, and after it was gone, I found myself inside a forest.” She sighs. “I...think you can formulate a scenario of what I did next.”
I slowly nod my head. Right... So...a flash of white light, and Equestria changed. That’s got to be a work of magic right there. And Twilight said that the magic felt more powerful that she ever felt...or knew...whatever. So...more powerful than alicorns, Discord or even Tirek, maybe? Okay, I can’t really wrap my mind around this whole magic thing... I take another breath and sigh. “...You’ll figure something out, Twilight.”
“Huh?” She raises her head to look at me.
I nod with a small smile. Time to say some inspirational bullshit. That’s how things work in the cartoon world, after all... “You always do. And I know for a fact that, when you put your mind and heart to it, you’ll be able to figure something out and fix whatever magical mojo happened to Equestria.” And to me, but that comes later. She’s too stressed that she just lost her reality. I lost mine as well, but I don’t want to burden her with it for now. Maybe later. I mean, Equestria’s sudden change must be connected to how I got here, right? That’s usually how this whole thing works...I think...
She sighs, her head drooping slightly. “I’ve tried, Jay. Really, I have. I've read every book in Celestia’s library, Canterlot’s library and the books in my library.” She slightly shakes her head. “But I don't remember reading something that could change Equestria like this... I even thought that, since this is an altered dimension of some sort, then that meant I haven’t went back in time yet.” She raises her head as I arch an eyebrow. “I figured that, since I haven’t cast the time travelling spell in this world, then I should be able cast it again and it worked!”
I nod my head, remembering that she did went back in time...in the show. “So...you went back to last week.” I blinked. “But... I thought you can only stay in the past for only a couple of seconds?”
Twilight uses her magic to refill Rey’s bowl before she answers, “Wow... For an earth pony, you sure know a lot!”
I shrug and continue eating as she continues.
“Anyway, I improved that spell when I got nothing to do in the library and in the castle. I created my own version, where I can actually stay in that time forever if I wanted to.”
I nod my head. “But wouldn’t that put you in a loop?”
She shakes her head. “I unfortunately couldn’t figure out how to make the caster cast the time spell again, so no.”
I shake my head. “But... That...”
“Don’t think too much about it, Jay,” Twilight says with a smile. “As Spike once told us after I told my friends that I created my own version of the spell, ‘don’t think too much about it or your heads will explode.’” She sighs, her smile growing smaller and smaller as she refills Seri’s and Sienna’s bowls with her magic.
About Spike... Uh, no. Don’t get Twilight sidetracked for now... Or more sad. Sadder. Whatever... Hm... “Uh...random question.”
She blinks and nods.
I look around. She mentioned the castle and the cutie mark map thingie... So this Twilight already got the friendship castle. I look back to her. “This entire library’s an illusion, right? Even the smell?”
She nods her head.
I nod mine as well. “So... Just curious. Why the library? Why not your castle?”
“Oh. That? Well,” she smiles a small and shy smile, “I lived in the library longer that it became my home.” She takes a breath and sighs. “I... I needed something familiar and homely for me to remind myself of...home...”
“Oh...” To stay sane, I guess?
More sounds of eating and slurping.
“S-sorry for uh, making you feel sad... Sadder than sad... Um...”
She shakes her head. “It’s fine, Jay. Don’t worry about it.”
Well, if she says so. Hm... So if she went back in time... “Is it safe to assume that there are...two Twilights in this world?”
She shakes her head. “No. When I went back a week in time, uh, I merged with the other Twilight.” She bit her lip. “...And it ripped my wings off...”
I almost choke on my soup.
“I-it wasn’t painful or anything!” Twilight quickly adds as she refill’s Reykan’s bowl in a haste, accidentally making the soup splash in his bowl, splashing on his face. He didn’t seem to mind. “I’m sorry if I scared you, Jay. But don’t worry. I figured that me having wings and the old me not having wings wouldn’t match, so my wings were removed...”
“Twilight with wings...” Seri stares at Miss Purple. “Hm...” She blinks and then shakes her head. “Nope! I can't imagine Twilight having wings.”
I take a few breaths to calm my vocal chords. “I...see Rainbow Dash’s preferred choice of words is showing on you.”
Twilight rolls her eyes. “Anyway, I was half expecting that I’d end up in the castle, in the correct world, time, dimension, whatever, and work on a way to prevent...this from ever happening, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.” She sighs. “No... I ended up standing before a herd of frightened goats in a field of fire. I...was harming them, Jay.” She slowly raises her two hooves, staring at them.
“Do they fart rainbows?”
I bring a hoof behind Rey’s head and push his face back inside his bowl.
“They...called me names. And I believed them. I mean, why shouldn’t I?” Twilight brings her hooves back down as she slowly shakes her head. “I have the other Twilight’s memories of this timeline after I merged with her... And I...harmed a lot of beings. Got myself hurt. Was exiled from my own kind. Almost got eaten by a hydra.” She sighs. “I sometimes wished that this world’s Twilight was eaten by that hydra so I wouldn’t have merged with her and be worrying about my...episodes...”
I swallow some soup and nod. “Um... Seconds, please?”
“And me,” Seri chirps.
Twilight refills our bowls.
“Thanks,” I say quietly. “But, eh, well... Look on the bright side!”
She gives me a curious look.
I smile an awkward smile, doubting. “You...uh... If the other you died, then you’d be a zombie right now, right?”
She blinks. “Not really. If the ‘me’ in this world was dead a long time ago, then I wouldn’t merge with her.”
I sigh. “Eh... That was a poor attempt of a joke in trying to cheer you up...” Hm... Wait... Something doesn’t add up...
“Maybe because Twilight pony doesn’t know what zombie means?” Reykan offers. “I don’t even know what the two of you are talking about!”
“Me neither,” Sienna shakes her head.
Seri shrugs. “You two will get used to it.”
“Well,” Reykan eyes his empty bowl. “I can definitely get used to this kind of food! More please?”
Twilight refills his bowl.
Sienna curiously stares at Reykan. “Does that mean you’re not going to hunt and kill us and other creatures anymore?”
He blinks and looks at her. “... ... ...Nope!”
Sienna’s ears droop.
Seri chuckles heartily before she leans her long neck towards the metallic pot on the middle of the table, blinking inside. “Huh...” She pulls her head back and looks at Twilight. “Twilight, you need to eat a lot more than that.” She blinks again. “It’s almost time, and you don’t want to feel so weak and helpless after your episodes, now do you?”
The unicorn sighs and nods her head in agreement. “You’re right. I’m sorry, Seri.”
The swan smiles. “No need to apologize, Twilight. Now, stop using that puny little spoon and just eat from the bowl! Like us! You can eat a lot of food that way!”
Twilight gives her a small smile. “I appreciate your concern, but I’ll be fine,” she says before she scoops a spoonful of soup and starts eating.
Alright, so... Uh... Um... Derp... I don’t know. There are so many things to ask that I don’t know where to begin. Let’s see... Ah, phooey.
“Twilight?” I call.
“Hm?”
“If... If you don’t mind, may I ask a couple of questions?”
She nods her head.
Right. “You said that after you went back in time, you, uh, ‘merged’ with the other Twilight, yes?”
She nods her head again. “I think I know what you’re going to ask, Jay. I have a simple theory.” She takes a breath and sighs. “The other me was already dead after you and I got in this world. Or after Equestria changed in a blink.” She shifts her gaze to her soup and furrows her brows. “She was already dead when we got here, but she was still alive one week ago. I...don’t really know what caused her death though...” She slowly shakes her head. “That was why I still had my wings when I first got here.” She takes another breath and sighs before looking back to me with a sad frown. “Does that answer your question?”
“Jay?” I hear Reykan call, catching my attention. “So... Twilight is both dead and alive, right?”
“Huh?” Twilight huhs.
I smile a small smile at Rey “Eh. No, Rey. Not really.” Hm... If Twilight doesn’t know how to fix this...phenomenon, then I might as well—“Do you know where Celestia and Luna are?”—ask as I turn to face her.
She blinks, looking completely stunned after hearing the question.
“I mean... If you can’t figure whatever happened to Equestria... Maybe they can?” I mean, sure. That magical light may be more powerful than them, but Celestia must know something about it or how to fix this, right?
“They...” She frowns a sad frown. “They don’t exist in this world, Jay...”
I blink... Wat...? Then who moves the sun and moon? The unicorns?
She sighs. “Not even Cadence...” She slowly shakes her head. “And according to the memories of this world’s version of me, Shining Armor’s...dead...and my parents, too...” She shudders. “A-and Spike... I never met Spike in this world. Never met my friends. No... Never befriended any of my friends. Rainbow Dash delivers the unicorns storm clouds, but that was it. And Rarity?” She shakes her head. “The other unicorns ignored me, but she tried and tried to talk to me, to help me, but I was...just too out of control, Jay. This world’s me, I mean.” She sighs. “I don’t know where Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie Pie are...”
Right. Celestia and Luna aren’t around. Cadence, too. And I have no freaking idea how to console someone. I slowly shake my head. I guess I can try some old and common lines for these situations... “I’m...sorry to hear that, Twilight.”
She shakes her head. “Don’t worry about it.” She goes back to eating, albeit in a slower pace.
“Well, if anything, I happened to meet Applejack, her brother and Pinkie before I found you.”
She looks at me, looking eager to know.
I smile a small smile. “The three of them are doing okay. They’re in a pas—”
“Don’t tell me where they are,” Twilight suddenly interjects. “Just...tell me. Are they doing okay?”
“Uh...ye-yes? Pinkie was very cheerful and welcoming, Applejack was very friendly and generous, albeit mean and bossy towards the pegasi, and Big Mac? Eh,” I shrug, “same old, same old.”
Twilight chuckles and lets out a happy, contented sigh. “That’s...nice to hear.”
“Oh! And uh, I also met Rainbow Dash. Albeit briefly...”
She nods her head. “Yeah. From this world’s Twilight’s memory, Rainbow’s a jerk but with a surprisingly flexible patience.”
“Yeah...” I nod. “Um... May I ask why you don’t want to know where Pinkie and AJ are?”
She frowns and slowly shakes her head. “Just...a precaution, Jay.”
I arch an eyebrow. “A precaution?”
“Yep!” Seri suddenly chirps. “In case that she’s in her episodes and if her ‘episode safety precautions’ won’t get her.”
Twilight sighs as she turns to Seri. “It’s almost time, isn’t it?”
“Yep!”
I slightly shake my head. “I...don’t follow.”
Twilight sighs once more. “I’d rather you don’t...” Twilight then looks up at the ceiling as red light and a strange, quiet hum suddenly fills the entire room, confusing me, Reykan and Sienna. “But it’s...something that I can’t prevent from happening to me.” She then slowly looks back to me with a sad frown. “So...whatever happens... I’m so sorry in advance.”
“We need to hide in the kitchen,” Seri suddenly says, standing up on her webbed feet. She looks at Twilight, and the two of them nods their heads. Seri then turns to us with a nervous smile. “Come on, everyone. Follow me!” She wobbles towards the kitchen.
“But I’m not done eating yet!” Reykan pouts as he and the rest of us eye the retreating swan. “And why is everything colored like blood all so suddenly?”
Seri shrieks a fake-sounding shriek from inside the kitchen. “Oh! I forgot that there’s more soup in here!”
Reykan immediately runs after her into the kitchen, scattering the books on the floor.
“Jay, Sienna,” Twilight calls, sounding like she’s trying to calm down and not to panic. “P-please follow Seri in the kitchen.” She stands up and backs away from us.
“I don’t understand what’s going on,” Sienna says, already up on her four dainty feet and frowning at the two of us... “B-but I have the sudden urge to...run away?”
I don’t know what’s going on either, but the sad and scared look on Twilight’s face is making me feel scared as well.
Despite the fear on her face, Twilight tries to flash me a small smile as she gestures with her hoof for me to go to the kitchen.
I seriously don’t know what’s going on, but maybe this is something very urgent?
“Jay, Sienna, please...” Twilight pleads, tearing up. “I... T-there’s not much time left. You have to go.”
My ears twitch as I hear Sienna retreat into the kitchen. I turn and see her and Seri’s heads poking out from the entryway, eyeing us nervously. I gulp, turn to Twilight and nod my head. I stand—wait, no. I’m already on my four hooves. I turn and walk towards the kitchen. Standing on the entryway, I look over my shoulder and see Twilight gesturing for me to go inside. I nod and—
A red-glowing gemstone falls on the table from above, making Twilight gasp. It glows a harsh red light and immediately flies toward Twilight’s yelping form.
“Twilight—!”
More and more red-glowing gems fall from above, and then fly towards the unicorn, covering her entire body, and she’s not even fighting it!
I run towards her, ignoring Seri’s call. “What’s going—?!”
A powerful purple beam erupts from the cluster of red-glowing gems, making me skid to a stop. The newly-formed gap shows Twilight’s face, the red glow illuminating her manic expression: angry bloodshot eyes, dot-like pupils, and an angry smile. Horn glowing, she fires thin purple beams at the many gems flying towards her.
She cranes her neck and fires a beam of magical energy, throwing another set of approaching gems away from her. Her large, angry eyes then blinks as she stares at me. “Why... Hello there, handsome,” she says in a voice that feels like a cold-scaled snake crawling on my skin, making me shiver. And she then fires a beam straight at me!
“Gah!” I cry in fright as I throw my two hooves forward to shield myself. “Augh—!” I howl in pain as my hind leg suddenly feels so freaking painful. I collapse on the wooden floor, the severe pain making my vision go blurry and muffling any sound that I hear. Tears start to collect around the edges of my eyes as I continue to howl at the burning and painful sensation on my leg!
Despite my agony, I feel my entire body tingling with a strange sensation as I no longer feel the hard wooden floor against my side. I feel the rush of air and gone, and suddenly feel a muzzle against my own. Through my blurry vision, I can see Twilight’s manic eyes staring into my soul.
“Do you have a family, handsome?” I hear Twilight’s quiet and cold voice as I hiss in pain and panic. “You’re about to lose them all... And I’ll let you watch them die right in front of you...” More and more red-glowing gems slowly cover her face. “...Just like how they made me watch mine die in front of my eyes...”
A gem blocks her eyes, and I suddenly feel myself dropping on the floor, shivering.