Against the Current

by Boldish42

Beginning

“Princess! Isn’t it great! I was helping Mr.Brown hang a clock in his bathroom, when i slipped and hit my head, and when I woke up I had my cutie Mark!” Star rubbed his head. My noggin sure is taking a beating today… He smiled to himself, looking up at his favorite princess, only to be confused.

As young and sheltered as Star Swirl was, even he could see the pain on Twilight’s face, the tears forming in her eyes. Suddenly all he could think was that it was all his fault that his best friend was so sad.

“Umm, a-actually, now that I think about it, it’s not really that great.” He began backtracking, tears now forming in his eyes. “I mean come on, a Mark for getting all dizzy. Uh.. I know! I-I’ll make some kind of Cutie Mark switching magic or something and get rid of it. Some stars swirling around,Pfff, I already got that for a name, right?”

The crushed colt turned to run back the way he came, only for the world to flash purple. He tasted raspberries(he liked raspberries) and found himself caught in Twilight Sparkle’s embrace.

“Don’t you dare.” Somehow those three words had such warmth and care in them. “I’m sorry, it’s just… I have a friend who has the same mark, and you just reminded me of them so much, it hurt.” Star looked up into her watery eyes, hope filling him once again. “It truly is a great Cutie Mark Star Swirl.” She told him with a sweet, sad smile.

“Thanks Princess. W-wait… You mean somepony else has my Mark? Aww, and I thought it was unique or something.” He pouted. Wait, Princess Twilight never uses my whole name.

“Not to worry, every pony I’ve known with this Mark were… Historic.”

*****

Now I know what that look was, that look that just about broke my heart. She knew. At that moment she knew that this would be the last time I’d be in her life.

Ironic isn’t it? The first time I met Twilight Sparkle as a whole grown pony, was the last time she would see me.

That is ironic isn’t it? I never could get that right.

Oh, and poetry aside, I lived happily as Princess Twilight’s apprentice for some years, I didn’t just disappear the next day.

Also my name was less of a give away to Twilight than you might think. I grew up in Twilight’s part of the kingdom and her love of history was felt everywhere. There were more than a few other colts and fillies with famous names and none of them are time travellers... To my knowledge.

Sorry if I ramble a little, you tend to get that way when you’re my age and have a story to tell.

Actually, how old am I? Not an easy question when your a time traveler…. Huh, this is going to bug me.

Anyway, I wouldn’t understand that look for years to come.

*****

Powerful magics raged through the room. Magical foci of numerous make gathered power, interconnected runic symbols carved across the whole floor directed it into books laid in a careful pattern, each filled with arcane equations fueled by the system.

In the center of it all stood Star Swirl the Clean shaven(rather impressive when you’re covered in fur).

“Star Swirl! What are you doing!?”

He turned his attention from his apparatus to see his teacher standing at the edge of his spell.

“I’ve done it Princess! I’ve taken old SSB’s time travel spell, mastered it, and then perfected it! I’ve overcome the temporal range limit with a repeating mana cycle. Now it’s possible to travel to anywhen! I did it Twilight, I beat him! Take that Beardy!”

Twilight stared at him, mouth agape, “Wa? What!!? You..! And the..! Ahhhh! You.. you, you... Dumb! Dumb dummy stupid genius dummy! That’s you!”

Star could only watch confused as the most intelligent mare he knew was reduced to a nearly inarticulate name caller. “What? No, really it works.”

“Seriously, of all the reasons to..! Of course it works! It works because you aren’t just named after Star Swirl the Bearded, you are Star Swirl the Bearded!”

Even the maelstrom of magical forces seemed to fall silent at that.

“....So what you’re saying is that I didn’t make the most advanced time travel spell in known existence to spite and one up a pony centuries dead. But have instead done all that… to spite and one up my, apparently, future self.”

“Yes.”

“...Huh.”
Then the spell activated. Reality warped around Star, expanding and contracting, quickly becoming incomprehensible. The last thing Star Swirl saw before being sucked into his spell, was the panicked look on Twilight’s face and the glow of magic on her horn.

The first thing Star Swirl saw, after being spat out of his spell, was Twilight’s face, filled with the panic and confusion only a suddenly materialized, collision bound pony could create.

“Star Swirl, I’m happy to see you again but why do you do this every time? I swear I get a little nostalgic and then you come crashing through your Time Skip.” Twilight greeted as she tried to get out from under him.

“Uhhh… Nostalgia?”

*****

Since that day, I have hopped, skipped and jumped through time. I land in a ‘Time Zone’ (Always on top of Twilight) and then spend a few years or so in it while the spell spools up for the next leap.

The spell I created was originally meant to take me to ‘Beardy’ in his Time Zone, it was an efficient design that would have gotten me to him in a short while, after making a few uniform sized jumps. That didn’t happen. After a few jumps, and subsequent crash landings, I figured out what occurred.

Twilight Sparkle. It’s her own fault I crash on her.

In the moments after my spell activated, but before I jumped, Twilight made a quick, masterful modification. Well really more of an addendum, but still, masterful. Her alteration bound me across her timeline, bringing me to her across the centuries. A side effect of it however has been that my jumps are no longer uniform, and neither are the rest periods. I have gone past a whole century on a year recharge, and spent a decade only to go back three.

Because of Twilights spell, my journey has taken far longer than I meant it to. I don’t blame her though, because all in all, I’ve loved just about every minute of it.

Every time I landed on Twilight, I got to know her better, but she knew me less. It’s an odd thing, falling in love with a mare going the opposite way. And one day she didn’t know me, just as I didn’t know her.

Turnabout’s fair play I guess.

Ha! I’d forgotten all about that shaving kick! I was trying to distance myself from ‘old beardy’ at the time. Ahhh, youth.

Author's Note:

tried to write a bit a day so sorry if it feels choppy.

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[Dravkwn]

Quantum Leap, hoping each time, that his next leap will be the leap home.