Déjà Vu
Sparkle couldn't stand the concept of fate. She hated those ponies who spoke of it, as if it were this overarching, controlling force that decided what happened in life. She refused to believe in it, not when it meant that she was fated to kill her parents, or that she was fated to have – accidentally – caused her brother to lose that promotion, or... any of the misfortunes that befell her after that fateful day. Not when her sister...
Best for her not to think of such things.
The sound of a door opening snapped her attention away from her thoughts. Thorn – as he was too different from his counterpart to share a name – strode in. Unlike Spike, who was a distinct entity from Twilight, much like child and mother, Thorn was a parasite. Technically speaking, he was a necromantic construct, like a zombie, but he grew, aged, and while he'd never been truly alive in the first place, he had had full cognitive abilities. The drake depended on Sparkle's magic to live, and not without consequence.
Sparkle's magic was dark by default even without the emotions most unicorns needed to power it. Thorn, born of and raised on the corrupt energies, had the physical traits to go with it. Sharper claws, a larger, more angular frame, and glowing eyes with pupils that looked like moving black flames instead of slits. Even his mind varied from his double's, though the differences could easily be attributed to the significantly varied growth environment.
"Hey, Sparkle," his voice, raspy yet crisp, punctuated the otherwise quiet environment of Sparkle's apartment study, "we're going to be late for our date with Twilight and Spike if you don't get a move on."
Her eyes glanced up at the clock. "Gyah!" she shouted. Before the next tick of its second hand, the mare was on her hooves, shoving research notes aside, carefully packing up the pony bones she had been studying, and calling down the assorted specters that roamed her home all at once. "I can't believe I forgot the time!"
While bending down to pick up the assorted bits and bobs that had fallen in Sparkle's haste, Thorn commented, "Really, we'll be there in time; we always are. It's not like the garden district is that far away from us."
Sparkle agreed with a slight nod of the head, enough to cause a strand of her disheveled mane to dangle before her left eye. With a puff, she removed the offending strands from her sight. Grabbing a pair of saddlebags, one side stuffed with copious amounts of notes, and the other stuffed with equal amounts of blank paper, plus enough ink and quills to fill it all, Sparkle quickly exited and locked up the spartan apartment.
Without their parents, the income that had kept them in their home had evaporated. And the salary of a relatively low ranking, inexperienced guard, when compared to the expense of Canterlot living, saw them living in the industrial section, a cable car, assisted teleport, or half-hour hike below Canterlot proper. And without that income, getting into a decent school would have been hard enough. You know, of course, if her reputation wasn't still in the trash from that fiasco over ten years ago.
As bad as her situation may have seen, Sparkle's saving grace was, oddly enough, herself. Her other self, Twilight. The protégé of the Sun Princess had offered to let Sparkle copy her very detailed notes and tutor Sparkle, in exchange for Sparkle giving Twilight any of her discoveries and personal research notes.
That's how it was originally, at least.
Exiting from the teleportation station - solo ranged jumps still messed with her - Sparkle and Thorn headed to Doughnut Joe's. The moment her nose caught a whiff of sugary treats, her horn lit up...sort of. Rather, the aura her horn produced sucked the light away, leaving a bubbling, inky blackness. Time moved to the left.
In the same place, at a parallel, equal time, another mare lit her horn, which shone with a brilliant white light. Time moved to the right.
Within the resulting bubble of superimposed space-time, the two sisters embraced, horns still alight. To those outside the bubble, it appeared as if a single mare was embracing nothing, and to those inside, the non-native mare appeared as a distortion in the air in the shape of a pony. But to Twilight and Sparkle, as well as Spike and Thorn, they saw one another in the flesh.
Walking into the bakery, the two sat at their usual seats, flanked by their draconic companions. "It's so good to see you again," Twilight declared to her double, smiling brightly as she spoke. “It seems like only yesterday that we were here."
Less enthusiastically, Sparkle replied, "Not so much for me; this last week was hell."
"Oh?" Twilight leaned in, intrigued. Meanwhile, the two unicorns began pulling out their notes and paper, using their magic to transcribe them automatically while they talked. Such notes were mostly theory and discussions of the inner workings of their respective magics. Such notes were quite interesting, but of little practical value at this level simply because of their inability to use the other's magic type, unless they reverse engineered the spells. That had proved to be a practically impossible task for the mares.
"Well..." Sparkle started, but didn't finish.
Picking up where she was going, Thorn spoke, "The chop-shop murderer. We figured out who the bastard is."
"Language, Thorn," Sparkle chided, which earned her a mutter 'not sorry' in reply. "Anyway, yes."
"Who?" Spike asked. "Some kind of weird psycho doctor ninja pony? A deceptively sweet old mare? A super villain?"
"With a name like ambassador Redclaw, I don't think it could get any more obvious," Thorn replied.
"What?" Twilight responded. "Are you-"
She was cut off by the arrival of the yellow stallion that ran the shop, both versions of him. "Hello again, Twilight/Sparkle, Spike/Thorn." They said in a unison that would have been creepy had the two mares and drakes not been used to it already. "Communing with the light/darkness again, I see. The usual?"
All four nodded. As soon as Joe had trotted away with their order, Sparkle whispered, "Yes, I have irrefutable, but court inadmissible proof... I can't lay a finger on the rooster."
Getting the picture, Twilight nodded. "But I can. Where do I look?"
"Embassy sub-basement. The staff is either in on it, or paid not to notice. The usual excuse should get you in, or at least enough sway to launch an investigation. He doesn't have a victim now in my time, and since the dates are consistent, then there shouldn't be one right now for you either." Sparkle closed her eyes and massaged her temple. "For the love of Celestia, I need evidence to take this guy down the right way. Otherwise..."
"I know."
"Good."
"Unfortunately though, we might have bigger, more urgent problems," Twilight somberly stated. "What do you know about Nightmare Moon?"
"I don't see how an old mare's tale is more urgent than a serial killer, but I'll bite. Very little, why?" the dark mage asked her light counterpart.
"Because her prophesied return happens this Summer Sun Celebration. And the only weapon against her, aside from overwhelming force from Princess Celestia and the Royal Guard combined, is the collective power of the Elements of Harmony," explained Twilight. "Which, might I add, are missing."
"Shit."
Unable to resist, even in the serious mood, Thorn quipped, "Language, Sparkle."
"I'm not sorry." She dismissively waived her hoof. "Besides, even if we could find some lost super weapon, I'm not even sure I could use them." Sparkle gestured to herself. "I'm not the most harmonious of ponies."
"Do you know something?" Twilight inquired.
Sparkle racked her brain for a moment, while Joe chose that moment to deliver their doughnuts. Between bites of necessary sugar, Sparkle replied, "Err... They're in parts, and each need at least two users total. Um... Each needs a virtuous user who matches the element. I think one of them is comedy or humor, and another is generosity... That's about all I know. It's been a while since I saw the reference."
"Well if you need a second pair of claws-"
"-we're here to help," the drakes chorused.
"Thanks, you two," the mares chorused back.
"In all seriousness though, I'm going to ask the Princess about this as soon as we're done here. I'll have Spike flame you with my next move." Twilight scooped up the finished notes, set the bits she owed on the table, and stood. "I don't know what will happen next. We should do our best to be prepared."
Mirroring her counterpart's actions, Sparkle stood as well. "Be careful, sis."
"You too."
Sparkle's horn aura vanished, along with most of the evidence that Twilight and Spike had ever existed. The replicated notes, Sparkle's next lesson in advanced magical theory, was swiftly pocketed. "Come along, Thorn."
"So what's going on?" Thorn asked between attempts at reading the letter he'd belched up a moment prior – a letter that, despite its ephemeral, translucent appearance, was weighing heavily on Sparkle's mind. As his creator's frown deepened, his worry grew. "Sparks, seriously..."
"I don't get it. Instead of heeding her warnings, Twilight's Princess Celestia sent her to Ponyville, of all places. And to oversee decorations for the Celebration, of all things." The frown on her face distorted subtly as she thought. "What am I missing?"
It was Thorn who had the realization first. "Not Ponyville, the Everfree Forest. Remember the last day of our training trip?"
"Of course!" Sparkle shouted, drawing a few glances from the other ponies on the sidewalk. "The Castle of the Two Sisters! If the Elements were hidden rather than lost, that would be the place!"
Quickly, Sparkle drew out a piece of paper and jotted down two notes, then split the paper in half. "Thorn, this to Shiny and this to Twilight, ok?"
Taking the two letter in claw, he ignited one, then the other with his flame. "Right, now what?" Thorn asked, though he suspected he already knew the answer.
A letter appeared in front of Shining Armor's face. Unfolding it, he read the hasty and terse script.
B.B.B.F.F.,
Going to Ponyville. Really important - lives at stake. Will be back after next sunrise.
Love you!
L.S.B.F.F.
He crumpled the paper in his magic and tossed it in the trash. At least she was warning him this time before running off to do who knows what.
The other lavender unicorn received a similarly long letter, invisible to all others by virtue of being alien to this time. It stated the speculations of Sparkle and Thorn.
As the Royal chariot carrying Twilight flew her towards her destination, it also flew her to the beginning of her destiny. And despite her vocal opinion to the contrary, Sparkle was following her along the adjacent path, literally and metaphorically, to hers as well.
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Different, but certainly curious to see where this goes.
Welp, I'm confused already, and I can keep up with Cultural Artifacts. Congratulations!
Hmm, why is the Dark Magic TS named Sparkle? Wouldn't it be better reversed? Twilight is the time between day and night...
Heeding.
>a practically impossible task for the mares
der iz 2 spaces between 'task' and 'for'
>The replicates notes
wut
>"So what's going on," Thorn asked
y u no question mark¿ ;_;
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I wrote this Google docs mobile on an iPad... it tends to make stupid mistakes and not point them out to me like a word processor would.
5541811 You require a sharper eye
The adventures are fine and dandy, but will we get to see how this pretty unique relationship between the two lavender unicorns came to shape? Just abit eager to see stuff like that, this sort of setting seems like the perfect breeding ground for feels I guess.
Really though, the setting is just so damn new for me. Never seen this idea before.
Back after sunrise. Just a little ominous when dealing with NMM isn't it?
Oh wow, so Twilight and Sparkle know and help each other out? This is the best idea I've read all month, and it's the second to last day of the month.
5532903 I laughed far too hard at this. Scary thing is that I can keep up with this but not Cultural Artifacts (well until fairly recently)
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Really? I find this pretty straight forwards.
I'm liking this shit!
Let the skullfuckery commence, we embark!
This is beyond confusing... Gonna soldier thru tho
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I read lesbian fuck friend myself...
i am an awful person.
Well, this is getting really interesting...
5532903 Well, I can't say that that's an accomplishment that I can claim. I love that story, but at a certain point (a point now far in the past, thankfully), after close to a 300-page book's worth of words of near-incomprehensible, cryptic, half-missing, out-of-context, bulls***, f***ing gibberish interspersed with little nuggets of sanity and clarity, like pieces of corn in a turd, I've been this close to just giving up, removing it from my Favorites and trying to forget that it exists.
...wow, that's a whole lot more vitriol than I thought I had for that story, but once I started typing it just flowed out. I guess I'm still the teeniest bit upset over that clusterfuck of a - I'm just gonna stop there before I get going again. I guess I could remove all this, or clean it up, but it's strangely cathartic to air out my frustrations, especially since I'm a bit more unlikely to offend or hurt the author's feelings if I do it here rather than spill my bile all over his/her comments section.
Seriously, I love that story, and the author can write really great stuff, comedy, action, drama, all that good stuff, but not when you have to reread a scene several times and still can't even tell what physically occurred during it. Trying to understand the most confusing periods during that story was almost half as hurtful to the mind as successfully visualizing a tesseract.
By the way, I wouldn't suggest attempting that, the tesseract thing I mean. Let's just say that after that experience I can understand how just looking at a 4th-dimensional object can drive people insane in stories and RPGs. Well, I actually doubt it would drive anyone with at least the mental fortitude of a field mouse insane, it's just that it's the most unpleasant, purely mental "sensation" I've experience so far. At a guess, I'd say it's the equivalent of compressing a quarter of a day's worth of intense, apathy-based depression into half a second of feeling.
I'm gonna stop writing now because otherwise I'll ramble onto some other topic and then I'll never get to the next chapter of this story, that or I'll go back to griping about Cultural Artifacts.
Ciao.
Not sure why this is so confusing. It's as relatively straightforward as it gets. Two timelines, they exist in tandem, one had a tragedy related to T/S, the other had a miracle. Whether fate is a thing or not, the same events happen in both. If you want to know more about why things in one universe can't be seen in another, except by those directly connected, study a tiny bit of quantum physics and the theories of superpositions and quantum string vibrations. It won't give a perfect explanation, but it'll give you enough knowledge to make your own conjectures.
I'm enjoying this so far, wille179. Very interesting twist on the original story and quite well written!
5929026 Well, you've given me the opportunity to be a wiseass, and I'm gonna take it. If you wish to see a Tesseracts, just go watch Avengers!u
Really, Ty?
Yeah... That was bad, even for me...
My modern concept of time and all it's quirks is begging me, pleading on it's knees for me to stop reading this confusing construct of horse words. My curiosity is thirsting with ravenous hunger for more. My head is spinning. My brain is splitting. My theories of the waking world are dying in the flames of 'holy shit, my eyes are on fire!'.
I no longer know what the point of this comment was. It was lost somewhere in the past as I continued to stair off into the future. So in the present, I shall continue reading.
Why? Because my other self threw his computer across the room.
I don't want to be like him.
Wow, this is awfully complex. However, I hope we get to know how these two are even able to communicate with each other or how they met.
This is awesome!
A lot of timey wimey stuff going on.
dark magic is part of this fic! We need Sans The Skeleton! He can help with the timey wimey stuff and Sparkle can summon him with her dark magic. Nah I'm just kidding, I doubt he is in this but that would be cool. 
6770177 I hope they don't have a bad, TIME. I have nothing to FIBULA to you guys about, but I find this interesting.
6380664 Magic, that's how.
Huh, so, they know who each other are. That's . . . nice.
Please tell me that's his brotherly frustration with her and not a budding sign of sibling strife.
Wow that's just hella lucky
I am a bit surprised that Twilight is not freaked out from Sparkle's lifeway, i mean with a bit of bad luck their life could be reversed. I would be a bit scared if in a space-bubble-thing i could see an necromancer me with dark magic and more so knowing his life.
8011125 shes probably used to it by now.
Well this is going in a different direction than I was expecting from the description. Still kinda intriguing, though.
These chapters feel really short compared to what I'm used to.
Just guessing but the twilights can see each other but no one else can see both of them, just the one that belongs to there timeline
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Also it's pretty abundantly clear that while Sparkle's magic and its effects are technically Dark, Sparkle herself isn't.
I did not expected this. The way, your described them, they should be enemies.
But it seems that differences barely more then cosmetic for now.
Hmm... Will Sparkle be sat in the Castle of the Two Sister's and NMM will show up be like "You can't stop me!" And Sparkle will be all "I know, I failed the moment I failed 10 years ago, but at least I can help my sister!" And then Sparkle destroys NMM through the pure awesomeness of cross-timeline magic