Awkward Conversations And Other Stories

by No one is home

Let's Do The Time Warp Again (Surprise/Ki/Seven): Who are you?

“Jake? Where are you buddy?” Ki spun around the ruined, broken bar, then turned on his guide, “What did you do with Jake? Where is he! Take me back to where we just were! I need to tell Diane…”

“There is no Diane,” Surprise shook her head sadly, “Not the way you knew her. You’re a copy now. In a new universe. It’s just like the Blind Goat said, time is unwinding and rewriting itself.”

“Then we have to Find Pinkie Pie in THIS timeline and…” the frustrated human started, only to be interrupted.

“I’m really, really sorry to tell you this, but the Pinkie Pie of this timeline doesn’t even know you, most likely,” Surprise shook her head sadly, “I know the Pinkie Pie of the original timeline doesn’t. On my world I had a really good friend named Night Watch. But the Night Watch of this world acts like she doesn’t even know me. Like I’m in the way. The timeline you come from may or may not even still exist and you can never go back. If you ever do meet Pinkie Pie, she won’t be your marefriend. She won’t be your comrade in arms. She’ll just be confused because you think she knows you.”

“It can’t be,” the human tugged helplessly at his mohawk, “Her Pinkamena sense is what stopped the train in time. We’ve fought together. Hell if she hadn’t pushed me out of the way, I wouldn’t have taken that shot to the shoulder, I would have taken it to the chest. It was a bad day. Jake took a hit to leg, he got a nasty break. Don’t know if they’ll let him fight again. I think they’re giving him some leave before they transfer him to a civilian support unit…”

Ki trailed off, and Surprise put a hoof over his shoulder, “It’s gonna be okay, we find our friends. They may not remember us, and maybe we don’t remember them, but we find our friends.”

“I found a human one time, eating out of the dumpster behind Sugar Cube corner,” Surprise bowed her head and turned away, “He was terrified that ponies wanted to do horrible things to him. So I introduced him to my friend Silver Stars’ friend Rough Tumble, because he was starting up delivery business and he needed somepony who was really good with transport logistics. And you wouldn’t have thought it but… my human friend was really great at that. And it got him away from Celestia, because he had serious issues with Celestia and the sun in general. He’d rant for days sometimes about the Text ‘resetting time’. Now I wonder...”

“You know me, don’t you?” Ki looked up suddenly.

“No I don’t know you. The same way I don’t know Night. I knew Charlie,” Surprise suppressed a sob.

“And I’m not ‘Charlie’,” Ki nodded slowly.

“And I’ll never be ‘Diane’,” Surprise smiled, “What did you ask for?”

“Just put me in front of a train,” Ki laughed shamelessly, “And when it asked what I wanted to bring with me I said ‘I didn’t care’.”

“Pinkie Pie #7 saw that,” an ambiguous changeling suddenly had it’s hoof over the smiling human’s shoulder, “Pinkie Pie #7 was watching a resistance evacuation train. You just didn’t move and they didn’t even try to stop. And you smiled when the train hit you. You were laughing at that exact moment.”

“It reminded Pinkie Pie #7 of the day we all won. It reminded Pinkie Pie #7 of the day she killed her sister…”

-=-=-=-=-

She was only a nymph, She shouldn’t have even been there. Pinkie Pie #7 told her it would be okay. Swing shift was a prodigy, She could be anything she wanted. Even an adult changeling. Pinkie Pie #7 told her it would be okay. She told her she would keep her safe. Pinkie Pie #7 stopped being a good changeling that day. She just didn’t know it yet. She told a horrible lie.

It was a stupid plan. Pinkie Pie #7 is not sure even how it worked in the end. The ponies were just so afraid that they might hurt their friends by mistake. Pinkie Pie #7 should have been as carefull.

Swing Shift could change so perfectly. It wasn’t Pinkie Pie #7’s fault. There was a Pink Pony beating up my little sister. I know we were all siblings, but Swing Shift was different… I took care of her. Other nymphs would call her ‘Somepony’ or ‘nopony’ or ‘whatserface’,but she was something special. And I..and Pinkie Pie #7…

Pinkie Pie #7 saw a pink pony beating up her little sister. And she took the shot… and she… she…

-=-=-=-=-

“And she extinguished a smile,” Surprise finished for the sobbing changeling, “And it haunted her everyday after that. I think this card belongs to you. I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to do what I did. I was so afraid. I just saw a mean changeling trying to hurt my friend. I took the shot. We’re going to make this right again.”

“How can we make this right when my sister is dead?” the changeling sobbed as she took the card.

“I don’t know,” Surprise admitted as the silver sky melted around them in bleeding lines.

Author's Note:

Two days in a row, I gotta chapter out ahead of the Dungeon Master! My gloating shall be both great AND powerful.

Comments

[Boulder]

Okay timey wimey stuff now, I'm having an aneurysm.

[No one is home]

7312801 Not my fault this time. I blame Glim Glam.