Chapter 3
Watching Adora eat, Twilight Sparkle felt a tickle on her nose. She reached up, rubbed her nose with her hoof, and tried to make the tickle go away. She almost sneezed and she squeezed her eyes shut as she held everything in. After what felt like a short slice of forever, the sneezy feeling went away and Twilight opened her eyes.
Adora, well mannered, was still eating cookies and sipping at her milk when Twilight opened her eyes. The draconequus foal appeared to be a fastidious eater. Adora had better manners than Spike, something that Twilight would never say aloud. Twilight began to wonder what a nutritious meal for Adora might be and realised that she had no clue about the diet of the draconequus, other than they were known to eat books.
“Adora, what do you eat?” Twilight prepared her mind for a possible deluge of information and committing it all to memory. Twilight, eager for knowledge, waited for an answer. Adora was chewing and it seemed that the foal didn’t want to talk with her mouth full.
Swallowing, Adora turned to look at Twilight. She smiled. “Anything.” Adora sipped some of her chocolate milk, slurping it through a straw, swallowed, and then began to nibble on the edge of a cookie that was far too small for such a large creature.
Twilight Sparkle realised that she was going to need bigger cookies. Compelled by a need to know more, Twilight asked, “Anything?” She watched as Adora finished her bite and gulped it down.
“Anything. I once ate part of Mommy’s castle. She was upset and I got scolded. She stood me in the corner. Spike too. We were hungry.” Adora returned to eating her cookies.
Note to self, teeth are capable of biting through almost anything, very much like a dragon. Twilight shivered, unable to help herself. It wasn’t that Adora had teeth like a shark, it was that she had multiple rows of teeth like a shark.
“Well, I feed Spike a healthy diet of gems and other foods… I guess you and Spike can share gems. I think that Spike might like having somepony to talk to about how gems taste.” Twilight felt a growing sense of unease, a dreadful feeling of nervousness that gnawed at the back of her mind, very much in the same way that Adora was gnawing upon a cookie.
The growing feeling of unease was now almost unbearable. Twilight, now a nervous wreck, needed to find some way of sorting all of this out. She needed truth. She needed evidence. She needed to know the hows and the whys of this whole situation.
She glanced over at Adora, who was curled up on a pile of cushions, reading a book for ‘school time.’ The announcement of school time had made the draconequus overjoyed. Twilight had given Adora a book that contained the friendship reports that Twilight had sent to Princess Celestia, the very friendship reports that had made Twilight a princess.
Content that Adora was settled in and satisfied, Twilight turned away and headed off to her study. She had to find some way of discerning the truth. She wanted to believe Adora, but Twilight’s own natural skepticism was working against her. As she walked to her study, she wondered if Spike had a return message yet. She reasoned that Spike did not have a return message, because he would have come running home if there was one. Which meant that Celestia was now aware of this situation and was now trying to sort it out. Perhaps.
The best place to start would be a detailed study of time travel, and then try to begin to establish some controls. Twilight wondered why she hadn’t gone back in time to tell herself the truth about this issue. It struck her as being a rather good idea. She froze in place and made a mental note that she needed to come back in time and explain things to herself to clear up all of this confusion. Twilight Sparkle smiled. There, that should fix everything, she thought to herself. I should be showing up any minute now…
Twilight waited, but no sign of her future self arrived. Disappointed, confused, Twilight tried to sort out what had gone wrong. She had made a mental note. Perhaps she had forgot? She frowned, knowing her own habits, and felt a bit of worry. She hurried off to her study to find her long term to-do list and write down a reminder that she needed to come back in time and clear things up right away.
Sitting in her study, Twilight waited for her future self to arrive, feeling very cross with herself. When she finally arrived, Twilight Sparkle was going to give herself a good lecture. A lecture with lots of strong words. She felt betrayed by her future self, knowing the importance of this issue, and she felt that it was very rude that she had not responded.
There had to be some reason why she had not responded. Horn glowing, Twilight began conjuring up as many books as she could about the subject of time travel. There was a mystery here, something she was missing, and Twilight was determined to figure out what was going on.
Maybe her future self was incapable of coming back. Had she killed herself to open the portal? Adora had mentioned that the world was ending. Twilight’s lips pressed into a straight line. She thought about how she had felt when she had all of the power of the different alicorns and her battle with Tirek. She had trouble containing that much power. It had been problematic to say the least. She wondered if she could contain all of Discord’s power and hold everything together. Was she capable of such a thing?
If Adora was now part of the past, how was the future changing? If the future changed enough, would Adora cease to exist? What if Discord and Cadance, upon hearing about their shared future, changed their future together… never loving each other, thus never bringing Adora into existence. Would Adora just fade away? The thought made Twilight feel sick. She now began to worry about sending a message to Princess Celestia. Maybe it would have been better to hide Adora away.
But Adora would want her mother. Adora wanted her mother even now. It wouldn’t be fair to Adora to hide her away and keep her away from Cadance, trying to preserve the future somehow. Twilight shook her head and moaned, feeling crushed by her own thoughts, she wasn’t certain she could face the future she might have just destroyed. Perhaps she should have taken more time to think about this before telling Celestia all about it. Adora would want her father too… Twilight began to worry if Discord would want anything to do with Adora.
“No… everything has become a mess… what do I do?”
Twilight looked around her study as if looking for answers. There were no answers. There was only a growing sense of fear and doubt. Panic and doubt brought along fear and loathing for the ride and Twilight began to feel her emotions slipping away from her control.
Twilight Sparkle decided she needed a practical hoofs on experiment. She brought Star Swirl’s spell to the forefront of her memory and began to make herself ready to cast it. She paused, realising how much energy it took, and thought better of it. Using her telekinesis, she plucked a single hair from her mane, placed it upon the floor, and began her preparations to cast the time travel spell in earnest upon the purple hair.
With a crackling zap, the hair vanished and Twilight sent the hair back to when Adora had been eating cookies, and Twilight had been in the kitchen. Twilight waited, wondering what was about to happen. She held her breath, filled with anticipation—
And then, in a moment of clarity, she remembered the tickling of her nose and the powerful need to sneeze. Something had tickled her nose and had made her want to sneeze. It had to be the hair! A second later, a purple hair popped into existence and floated down to the floor.
There was a bright flash of light and then Twilight Sparkle saw herself. Remembering what had happened the last time, when she had interrupted herself, being rude to herself, Twilight Sparkle remained silent, her hoof clamped over her mouth.
“This is a test. This is only a test. Five minutes from now, you are going to send yourself back in time. I want you to try and resist doing it to see what happens. Try to force yourself to not cast this spell. I know it is paradoxical, because right now, you can see that you failed, but try any—”
Future Twilight Sparkle vanished in a brilliant burst of light and was gone, leaving Twilight Sparkle all alone with herself. Twilight Sparkle tried to piece together her own thoughts. This was paradoxical. What if she tried to resist sending herself back in time? If she succeeded, there would be no Twilight coming back in time to tell herself this.
The room exploded into a brilliant white light and then there were at least two dozen Twilight Sparkles all staring at present Twilight. Twilight blinked, surprised to see so many of herself.
“Guard your mind and be careful what you think!” all of the Twilight’s said together. “Your thoughts determine the future! Oh bother, there is no way to stop this from happening!”
The two dozen Twilight’s all exploded into blinding flashes of light, leaving present Twilight Sparkle all alone with herself once again.
Once again, Twilight’s study was filled with blinding light. “I broke something! I’m sorry Twilight, but trust me, I have to do this to you. You tried a little too hard to resist going back in time, and now I need to fix things, I’m sorry!” Future Twilight’s horn glowed brightly and Twilight Sparkle felt herself being consumed by magic.
With a gasp, Twilight found herself in her study, a strange feeling of missing some time, and the most peculiar memory. She had sent herself back in time and she had seen herself back in time, just five minutes or so ago, and she had tried to tell herself the following:
“This is a test. This is only a test. Five minutes from now, you are going to send yourself back in time. I want you to try and resist doing it to see what happens. Try to force yourself to not cast this spell. I know it is paradoxical, because right now, you can see that you failed, but try anyway.”
Only she had been unable to finish the word ‘anyway’ and had been cut off.
Feeling very confused, Twilight Sparkle tried to put the pieces together. Something had happened. She had broken something perhaps? To fix it, she had sent herself back in time and she had delivered to herself her first warning about this being a test. How did she know what to say? Er, how had she known what to say?
“Auntie Twily?”
Twilight’s thoughts came to a screeching halt. She looked at the vibrant pink draconequus in the doorway. Adora looked sad and rather droopy. It was heart wrenching to look at. Twilight rose and headed towards Adora.
“I miss my Mommy.” Adora whumpled forwards, tackled Twilight, and began to coil around her like a nightmarish pink boa constrictor. “I’m lonely.”
“I’m sorry. Try to be patient. Cadance will be coming soon, I’m sure,” Twilight said to Adora, her worry about the future growing ever stronger. It felt nice being hugged by Adora. Something about it was calming, soothing. Gravity had vanished and Twilight was floating in Adora’s embrace. She wrapped her forelegs around Adora’s long neck. Twilight wasn’t certain where Adora’s neck ended and her body began.
“I’m scared,” Adora whispered.
“Why are you scared?” Twilight asked.
“Because my Auntie is scared… and that scares me because my Auntie isn’t afraid of anything,” Adora replied.
Reaching out with her hoof, Twilight touched Adora’s cheek and watched as the foal closed her eyes, revelling in Twilight’s tender touch, soaking up Twilight’s affection the same way flowers and greenery soaked up rain. “There is so much I don’t understand. It scares me. I’m sorry. I’ll try to be a little braver for you, okay?”
“Okay,” Adora replied as she snuggled closer, wrapping tighter around Twilight.
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the ending was nice... i do want to see how cadance and discord will react to adora when they see her
Uh... the rules for time travel weren't that clear. Either you can't change the past/create a paradox and bad things will happen if you try to change it (but changing it back is fine) or you can change the past and Twilight is too neurotic to trust herself to do it without erasing her own memory.
6304599
That's not the rules.
The rules are... Twilight might feel a sneeze. Or a tickle. Or have something weird happen. And that is all I have to say on the issue.
Edit: It will not always be made clear when the timestream is being manipulated.
Sneezing? Nightmare pink boa constrictors? Time travel? The readers getting to figure out what happened when with which of the said time travel?
Oooh, I love this already. You might say my happiness is... Adora Belle.
*ba dum tssh*
Side note, though, I think the pacing in the last two chapters was perfect. Thank you for listening to my rant of advice. It means a lot, my friend.
6304599
Also...
Daaaaaaayum. You are clever.
So Adora is an object now?
In regards to following the proposed time travel shenanigans, would the author recommend the passengers on this ride be sober or drunk for the duration?
6304726
Just remember your towel.
Hold on to your butts...things are about to get trippy.
I am going to be honest here...... I just started reading this and I am now awaiting chapter 4..... The entire time I was reading this I was overcome with a sudden feeling of sorrow and sadness, reading what Adora recalled of the future and the things that happened have unsettled me greatly.
I am greatly intrigued with this story though.
She really needs to talk to someone about this
Wouldn't the more confusing paradox be in the fact that she basically told herself her own idea? She clealy wouldn't have been likely to figure it out otherwise.
There could also be a split in time and space that caused anything after adore's appearance to be completely different from what she knew, in this life, princess cadence and discord may not even get together.
Assuming my last point doesn't work out as it does, the fact is that what happens after this point would be the current adore would eventually die and princess cadence would get with discord; another adore would be made and wouldn't have a clue about the original(?) adore.