//------------------------------// // 1 - Security Clearance // Story: Twilight's Twilight // by sunnypack //------------------------------// Chapter 1: Security Clearance How do you keep yourself safe from yourself? It took all of two seconds for me to freak out. “WHA—” “Shhhhhhhh.” A surprisingly soft hoof pressed against my lips. The alicorn waited a moment more before nodding, satisfied that I would stay silent. She trotted across the room and wondered at the contents. It was me, looking around, except it wasn’t. I was different. Older. Taller. Most gobsmacking of all, I was an alicorn. I mean future-me was. Does that mean I will be a princess?  Several times I cleared my throat, trying to prompt… my attention. I frowned. This was going to be confusing. Okay from now on, that alicorn was Future-Twilight. I cleared my throat louder. Future-Twilight continued to ignore me. At this point I was ready to explode. “W-Who are you?! Are you me? What are you doing?” My interrogative questions bounced off her like water from a lily-pad. She glanced back my way, smiled and continued to soak in her surroundings. “Ah, this brings back so many memories. The books, the furniture, the table, oh, this study desk!” The alicorn rubbed her face on it. “Still smells like books!” She looked back at me with a heady grin. “I love it!” I watched with wide unblinking eyes as my future-self examined my writing desk. Papers were picked up. Novels and textbooks examined. Ink bottles shaken. Quills chewed thoughtfully— “Hey! Stop that!” I yelled indignantly. “That’s mine!” Future-Twilight seemed to find that incredibly amusing. She laughed, then she grinned. “You’re right, it is mine,” she replied… and went straight back to chewing on its tip. “Ah!” “Hey! What are you… what are you writing?” I approached my future-self with a confusing cocktail of exasperation and curiosity. Was this what I was going to be like in the future? I was wearing regalia for pony’s sake. Where did I get that? I didn’t have that around. I took in the regal form, the slightly unkempt mane, her longer legs and the wide canopy of wings sifting restlessly on her back. Her violet eyes—woah! “Done staring?” she asked with an impish smirk. I turned away, blushing. Wait. Why was I so embarrassed? It’s not like I’m doing this to a stranger! Future-Twilight turned away and rolled up the parchment laden with freshly inscribed words. Belatedly, I realised that the alicorn had made use of my writing materials while I was caught up looking at… kind of a reflection of myself. Future-Twilight placed the scroll in the drawer and closed it with a firm telekinetic push. “Don’t open that,” she added in a serious tone. “At least not until Thursday.” “Wha—?” “Trust me, it’s very important you don’t open that until Thursday. Maybe. Kind of. Well you can open it before that, but you shouldn’t. Could have some consequences to do with the world, I think. What did I remember…? Oh yes.” Shook her head apologetically. “Memory’s fuzzy. Long time ruling and all that.” “Long time…?” Then she leaned forward and kissed her past-self on the forehead. That would be me. Wait, me?! “Wha-ba-bwah?!” My mind short-circuited. Did I just kiss myself on the forehead? I thought about all the theories of time-travel, paradoxes and the butterfly effect. Wait, wasn’t there something about ending the universe just by looking at each other? Well, no, that wasn’t true, I’d just done that—wait, why am I ignoring the fact that I just kissed myself?! “Y-You can’t do that!” Future-Me smiled. “I just did.” I shook my head angrily. “You’ve invaded m-my p-personal—I have boundaries!” “N’aw, you’re so cute when you blush like that!” I was blushing because I was angry. Not because I was embarrassed! I’m not embarrassed! “Why would you do that?!” I spluttered. Future-Me raised an eyebrow. “All the questions you could ask a time-traveler and that’s what you go with?” She grinned at my helpless expression. “Do I need a reason to kiss myself?” She tapped her lip. “Wait, that sounded incredibly narcissistic. Well when you get to be my age…” “Your age? Just how old are you?” Future-Twilight opened her mouth to speak… then the infuriating alicorn disappeared in a flash. I stared at the empty space of my room, mouth hanging open. Though everything seemed intact, it felt like a tornado had blown through. It took me a while to blink, and much, much longer to formulate a response. When I did, I went with the classics. “What the heck just happened?!” —————— Princess Celestia gently placed the cup of tea down. “Well my dear student, that’s spoiled my surprise.” My mouth could have swallowed a bugbear. After sending the letter, I didn’t expect the Princess would have believed me, much less grant me a personal audience alone in the gardens. One hasty train trip later, I had found myself in front of my mentor, but her poised demeanour was a sharp contrast to my own mounting anxiety. Maybe she felt I was a little unbalanced. I wouldn’t blame her. “You mean you knew this?” I spluttered. I covered my mouth with a regretful hoof. “I mean, Princess.” Then again, this was the Princess we were talking about. Princess Celestia dipped her head sympathetically. “Well, yes—” she held up a hoof to stem the tide of my questions “—after all it happened to me.” I sank back into my seat slowly. “So you mean…” “It’s already happened to all of us. Particularly Luna, her future-self couldn’t resist a chance at changing the past,” Celestia added. She hesitated while reaching for the tea cup, and added a little ruefully, “Alicorns tend to have enough power to sustain long time time-travel trips.” She blinked, then chuckled softly. “That’s certainly a mouthful.” I sat back, silent, trying to digest the bombshell. “So it’s true, then?” I said slowly. “I’m going to become an alicorn?” My face scrunched into a worried frown. “But isn’t time-travel a little…” I glanced around, even though I knew we were alone. “Risky?” Celestia shrugged slightly and smiled. “Sometimes my future-self would be wrong about future events. She claimed it was a gap in my memory, so either the future isn’t fixed, or I’m simply the unlucky recipient of bad luck.” I played with the tablecloth. “You haven’t tried?” Celestia shook her head. “I’ve never felt the need to.” Celestia took a sip of her tea and frowned thoughtfully. “Or maybe I was going senile?” She murmured the last part more to herself, but with a bemused smile. The Princess shook her head, and locked eyes uncomfortably with me. Within the deeply aged gaze, her eyes reflected mirthful curiosity as she leaned forward. “So, what was your future-self like?” I flushed uncomfortably, feeling embarrassed for myself, I mean my future-self. Did that make sense? I decided to get it over and done with. I could trust the Princess. “Overbearing,” I admitted with a flustered sigh. “She was preoccupied with the nostalgia of my library room.” When Celestia merely raised an eyebrow and took another sip of her tea, I continued. “S-She…” “Go on…” “She…” “It’s alright, Twilight.” “She kissed me!” Pfft! I never would have thought that today would be the day I would see Princess Celestia, Princess of Equestria, ruler of thousands, an alicorn over a thousand years old… choke on her tea. “O-On my forehead!” I hastily corrected, though much too late. I could feel my cheeks go scarlet as Celestia’s eyes watered and the alicorn reached for a napkin. This was the worst. Celestia coughed and spluttered, hastily wiping her muzzle with the napkin. “Oh I’m so sorry, Twilight,” she said breathlessly, “that’s the most amusing thing I’ve heard in a while.” I sat there miserably as Celestia took a few more minutes to compose herself. “You must introduce me to her.” “N-No!” I yelled instinctively, then clamped a hoof around my mouth. “I-I mean, p-please Princess…” Celestia smiled at me, nodding while I sank back down gratefully. “As you wish, Twilight, but the offer still stands…” She poured herself some more tea and settled back in her seat. “If your Future-self enjoyed the library so much, perhaps you’ll be moving somewhere else in the future?” Celestia offered. I considered it, then shook my head. “I’d never leave Ponyville! I’ve grown to love it there. All the friends I’ve met. Despite the great times I’ve had here, it doesn’t hold a candle to Ponyvill—” My eyes widened considerably as I caught myself a little too late. “I-I mean—” Celestia chortled softly and waved away my frantic attempt at apology. “It’s alright, Twilight,” she said. “I know what you mean, and I couldn’t be happier for you.” She reached across the table and patted one of my hooves. “You belong in a place that makes you happy.” I couldn’t help but blush at the kind words. “Thank you, Princess. It never would have happened without your help.” Then my muzzle crinkled as I thought of the perplexing problem at hoof. “I was thinking…” Celestia smiled pleasantly. “As you do.” An abashed grin fought its way to the fore. “I was thinking,” I continued. “Time travel doesn’t seem like it’d be possible from our objective perspective.” Celestia acquiesced to the thought with a nod. I took that as an invitation to continue explaining. Reaching into my saddlebags, I withdrew a simple labelled diagram I had sketched on the train ride to Canterlot. Celestia blinked at some of the minor equations, formulas and conjectures on chrono-magical theory written in the small spacing around the two-dimensional timeline split. “That’s… quite extensive,” she commented, her gaze raking critically over my formulas and hypotheses. “Thank you Princess, I haven’t had time to build it to scale or have it painted…” Celestia smiled in amusement. “It’s fine, Twilight.” I pointed to a particular subsection that had some of Star Swirl’s time travel conjectures side by side to my own, though penciled in. I tapped it in frustration. “I couldn’t make any sense of combining magic in such a way that I could visit myself in the past! Each time I run the equations, I come up short. It’s disastrous! Any ideas, Princess?” Celestia raised an eyebrow. “I’m guessing that you’re trying because you know it’s possible, as evidenced by your own usage of the spell.” I hesitated, then nodded. “Well, yes. Do you know anything about it?” Then a sudden thought occurred to me. “Am I not allowed to do it?” Dear Celestia, did I just admit to a crime I’ve done in the future?! It never even occurred to me that time travelling was illegal, although it made sense what with the ability to— The Princess read my nervous look and put my rising fears at ease with a demure smile. “No Twilight, nothing is stopping you from using the spell. As far as I can tell, it’s not a problem.” But if there wasn’t anything stopping anypony from using it, then why haven’t we seen time travellers left, right and centre? There had to be a reason. “What’s stopping anypony from using it?” The Princess smiled and took a sip of her tea, then grimaced, probably because it was cold as ice after leaving it for so long. I smiled privately, I knew the Princess intimately enough to recognise when she was surprised by the taste. I never said anything because I thought the gesture made her feel like less of a princess and more of a kind pony that just happened to sport a crown, wings and the pretty hoof-covers that go with it. Though she could probably do it herself, I heated her tea up with a quick spell. She smiled gratefully at me, then placed the cup down while she debated whether or not to reveal the information to me yet. A small tug of her lips at the corners of her mouth was the only evidence of her internal discourse. “There is a spell, but it’s incomplete and the power required to pull it off is tremendous.” The Princess quelled my obvious excitement with a steely gaze. “You must not attempt to use the spell.” I sagged. Then she winked at me. “Until you’re absolutely sure you can handle it.” I perked up with a grin that almost split my face in two. “Really, Princess? Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Celestia raised an eyebrow in forewarning, bringing my attention back to the conversation. “Anything I told myself never really helped, and my future-self never brought anything into the past with her. I wouldn’t put much stock in the merit of such a spell.” I leaned in closer, whispering in a low, but urgent, voice. “Princess,” I whispered, “my future-self left me something. A letter.” Celestia set down the cup with a clink that sounded like a thunderclap in the tense silence. “Did you open it?” Celestia asked in a voice barely above a whisper. I shook my head, growing more worried by the second. “No. I told myself not to open it. Well, sort of. She strongly suggested I don’t open it. Kind of.” Celestia knew what I meant the moment I made a move to correct myself. “I think it would be wise to leave it alone,” she said quietly. “Are you to open it at all?” “Yes,” I replied. “She told me not to open it until Thursday. I don’t know why.” It suddenly occurred to me that the day after tomorrow was Thursday. Today was Tuesday. Celestia considered the new information with a thoughtful expression. “Well, Twilight, I’m not sure why you would give yourself a letter and telling you not to open it until Thursday. Did you ask your friends?” I cocked my head. “Why?” Celestia looked nonplussed at the remark. “I would have thought your friends would be the first ponies you’d go to for a decisive dilemma.” I shook my head. “No, no, no. Maybe later. I think I need to solve this on my own.” A sudden thought occurred to me as I blinked. “Could it be a warning?” My mind raced into overdrive as thoughts sizzled down snarling roads of potential misfortune and calamities that would force me to go back in time and warn myself. “Maybe it’s a disaster that’ll happen on Thursday!” Then I frowned as I recalled how future-me seemed. “But it wasn’t like I was worried or anything. Maybe I got more confident when I became an alicorn?” The argument sounded incredibly weak and I blushed furiously as Celestia let out a small chuckle in response. “I’m sure you had your reasons,” Celestia said calmly. “I think it’s up to you. You know yourself the best. I think you should decide if it’s a good idea to peek inside the letter earlier.” She paused briefly, before adding, “I also think that you should also get some opinions before diving into the letter.” I hesitated, licking my suddenly dry lips. “Do you trust me?” With a potentially world-ending letter? Celestia’s smile thawed the anxious ice gripping my heart. “Of course, Twilight. Even if the universe were at stake.”