My Own Comfort

by Listener

Chapter the First

As Twilight cradled the trembling filly in the middle of the library, her mind spun with all the different possibilities that were implied by her mere presence. This wasn’t just any filly, this was Twilight herself. A younger version of her. Was someone crazy enough to create a duplicate of her and send her to her library home? Twilight would have felt it coming. Then a thought occurred to her. It was practically an impossibility, but it only turned more probably the more she thought about it.

Time doesn’t just change. It can’t. It won’t. It’s a natural law that everything must be as it has always has been. With respect to time, fate didn’t exist. Whatever choices she has made or events that have happened must always happen, else a paradox would arise. Nothing can change time. She had already proven that to herself.

The filly in her arms quivered, her crying petering a bit as she wept into her shoulder. The hue of the filly’s familiar purple mane hid her face.

Time never changes. But it had changed… somehow. Her past self was irrefutable proof of that. The why and how of this all, however… why someone, or even why her past self would want to come to the future, and how exactly whoever was responsible for this, had obtained the power and means. It was these two important motives that evaded Twilight Sparkle. And the unknowns were beginning to frighten her

All this and so much more crowded Twilight’s mind. Her train of thought screeched to a halt as she came to the only logical conclusion to the matter at hand. If what she was taught to believe was true, then the current situation was impossible.

She couldn't be here as a filly. She didn’t remember it ever happening.

History was rewriting itself with the filly Twilight being its new lead, heralding the creation of a new path. However, she herself was of the future, albeit one that no longer has meaning.

What was to follow was plain to see.

She was going to disappear.

Her mind hitched on that one essential fact as she continued to hold and comfort the scared filly. Her tears had pretty much dried up at this point, but filly Twilight still snuffled a bit as she drew away from the embrace.

She took a look at the library and the shelves of books that towered above her. Ears folded, she slowly looked back at Twilight.

“W-Where am I?” Her past self finally spoke, softly breaking her sobs and the relative silence.

Her past self’s attention squarely on her, Twilight quickly swallowed her fear and smiled. “You’re at the Golden Oak Library,” she answered sagely nodding assuredly at the filly. “It’s the best place in town for a bona fide reading experience, either literary or scholarly.” She said as her mind tried to think of a solution.

Filly Twilight nodded, looking around and gradually shaking off her fears. Looking down, she took note of the scorch marks on the floor from her arrival, and the sooty bits of paper and hardback scattered about.

“I-I’m sorry I destroyed some of your books, Miss...”

“Don’t worry about it,” Twilight said, smiling gently and patting her on the filly on the back.

With her horn shining bright, her magic promptly set to work. Salvageable books flew in and out, setting themselves on a nearby a reading desk. Meanwhile, a dusty mop wrapped in a purple glow flopped into view and wiped the floor of soot as the pair scooted away from the scorch mark.

On the other hoof, Filly Twilight was left in a daze. A mundane chore like that came off as perfectly choreographed performance akin to a fireworks display. It amazed her completely.

“Wow… You can do all that at the same time?” she said in awe.

Twilight chuckled and nodded, her fears forgotten for a moment. “Yes, I can. Quite easily in fact. This is only a bit less than what I consider a chore” she admitted, tousling the filly’s hair. “With practice you’ll be just as good in no time.”

Far less actually. On an good day, Twilight would be satisfied with just dusting the place. On more… hectic days, Spike would have to stop her from trying to develop a new sorting system for hours on end. However it was only for a moment, and that existential fear was steadily taking hold of her again. Anxiety was flooding the forefront of her mind, and she mustered all of her remaining courage to keep it in. An adult breaking down in front of a foal was the last impression she wanted to leave on herself. For her past self’s sake, she had to keep a lid on it.

Filly Twilight noted the slight twitches on the older mare’s face, but paid it no mind. The thought of becoming as focused and precise as the mare in front of her was nothing short of awe-inspiring.

“Do you really think so?” she asked her eyes lighting up.

Then the thought came to her. The one time back then when she managed such a display of power, in spite of being only a filly. Twilight had barely stifled down a gasp.

“By any chance…” She hesitated for a moment, but she plucked the resolve to go on. Twilight just had to know. “Were you taking your entrance exam for Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns?”

Filly nodded slowly, embarrassed by the sudden inquiry. “How did you know about that exactly?” Her past self asked, petering out in volume as she slowly recalled what had transpired.

“Oh...right, my sister is taking the exam later this week,” Twilight excused in the spur of the moment. With that unexpected hurdle overcome, she pressed on. “So, did you pass? Did you hatch the dragon egg?”

Her worst fears came to pass when filly Twilight answered, ”No... I didn’t have enough magic!” It was her dream to enroll in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. But she failed spectacularly and literally couldn’t even show face. She looked about ready to cry another river.

In an instant, Twilight’s blood ran cold at the implication, and she resisted the urge to run up the stairs to make sure her number one assistant was still there. “There, there. Everything is going to be alright. I promise. Something clearly didn’t go right for you to end up all the way here. Technically speaking, your exam was interrupted, and there’s nothing in the guidelines that’s stopping you from trying again, is there? You’ll definitely pass next time ‘round. With flying colors no doubt.”

Half lies she spun around her past self’s young mind. Twilight vaguely remembered reading the rulebook way back when, so chances were her past self did too. It was just easier to convince herself of something she wasn’t sure was there. However, those words were just as much directed to herself as they were to the small filly she wrapped tightly in her embrace. More than ever these last moments of calm and comfort mattered the most to Twilight, as her fabric of reality untangled and began to unweave. In the place of her reading desk, neatly organized shelves and cozy library home, a dusty abandoned hollow of a tree began to set in. Filly Twilight was none the wiser.

Terror had taken root in Twilight.

“I’m Twilight Sparkle. What’s your name, Miss?” her past self introduced, then asked. Oh she was so blissfully unaware.

Twilight barely kept her cool and struggled not to crush the filly in her horror-fueled vicegrip. “It’s… It’s Waning Star,” she answered, on the verge of breaking into sobs herself. The tears would have alerted Past Twilight to the older mare’s plight. If only they hadn’t faded before reaching her coat.

“Uhh…. Let me head out real quick.Why don’t you pick up a book and pass the time?” Twilight suggested, wiping away the tears. She put on a mask of a reassuring smile. “I’m going to get in touch with your parents and have them come get you.”

Like the good little filly she had been and still was, filly Twilight made her way to the fading reading desk. In its stead was a dusty, toppled over version with a wobbly leg. Her past self didn’t mind it at all. She grabbed a nearby book and box to sit on, blowing the dust off the old tome.

Twilight watched her eagerly lock gaze into the book’s contents, reading on without a care in the world. It was then her own cares and trouble came back crashing down on her. She reached for the knob of the front door, but her hoof only phased through. Twilight tried forcing it open. The door creaked open with wooden boards peeking from past the crack. She stepped back and looked at her past self. Amazingly she didn’t notice the racket she was making.

“Haha, I forgot something upstairs. Silly me. Don’t you worry,” Twilight assured with the filly nodding obediently. “Everything is going to be okay!”

Her breath hitched as she ducked out of the main room and raced up the stairs to Spike.

“Spike?” She cried out, looking for her number one assistant as she frantically ran round the upper floors. “Spike! Where are you?”

She checked everywhere; the bedroom, the bathroom, the closet, outside the balcony, every hiding spot she could think of. But the rooms were hollow and bare of furnishing. The bathroom dry and it’s pipes rusted. Everywhere she went, there were only dust bunnies to greet her. In frightened realization, Twilight accepted the truth.

Spike was gone. Reality was shifting, nearly finished in setting place.

She collapsed to the floor, not even kicking up dust in her fall. Twilight curled into herself. A crumpled, discarded idea in the scheme of existence. Her eyes squeezed shut as the tears fell in vain, staining her fading body as she bawled it all out. Filly Twilight didn’t even hear the crying, because there was nopony there with her in the first place. Not anymore.

Twilight Sparkle ceased.

Comments

[TheFaceofMercy]

Wait.

[Falx_of_Lume]

The FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Piecemeal Pony]

It's just those damn onions...

[MustacheMerlin]

She should have cast a memory spell and then sent her back to the exam, with a little nudge to hatch Spike and create a stable time loop to save reality. This is more interesting though.

[dragonjek]

[lazyreader19]

6601744 this

6601844 this

6603711 you bastard!

Why must I feel these feels

[khatre]

Ten years ago Twilight Velvet and Night Light are freaking the heck out wondering how their daughter vanished ...

[ABronyAnonymous]

Time never changes

Time...time never changes... (Dammit Fallout!)

[Nezel]

Just a big ol' fat m.memegen.com/g9wj8d.jpg

[Lost_Marbles]

Dang... This got hard fast. But if Twilight ceased to be... who's narration are we following? How will the story continue. I must find out!

[Tanis]

i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/353/279/e31.jpg

Holy cluster frag grenades... this story must have set some kind of speed record, going from zero, to crossing the Despair Event Horizon, in five minutes flat.

[GentleGarbage]

The filly in her arms quivered, her crying petering a bit as she wept into her shoulder. The hue of the filly’s familiar purple mane hid her face.

" Twilight, since this is the end, I will fill you in. What you have just witnessed and felt, was you in the future.You from a few years in the past, witnessed your self from the future. This s your ability. You erased time and leaped past it. "

images-cdn.9gag.com/photo/aPYP8OP_700b.jpg

[Ice Star]

That last sentence is ominous as fuck.