I’m leaning over the Cutie Map when the portal opens. Whoever falls out disrupts the magic, smearing my view of how the Smooze is spreading. I look up. I’m not sure what to say, but that doesn’t matter, because what I see leaves me speechless.
It’s me. Wings, horn, and all. She looks a lot healthier than me, though. There aren’t any bags under her eyes, her mane and tail are combed, and I don’t see any ribs poking out. She’s even got Spike with her. Been too long since I’ve seen him.
“Hey,” I say. It’s all I can say. For a moment, my heart soars: I came from the future to give myself instructions on how to defeat the Smooze, which means we’ll win this so that I can go back in time to give myself instructions. But then it sinks again: Starswirl’s spell was only good for one use. So what’s going on?
She looks up. She smiles slightly. “Um, hey.”
None of us speaks for a moment. She and I stare at each other, and Spike’s just fidgeting and looking off into space. I break the silence and cough. “Are you me from the future? Please?” Sweet Celestia, I hope so.
She blinks. “Um, no. Sorry.” My heart sinks as she continues. “It’s, I’m from an alternate timeline, and I know it’s not good here, so I’m going to go back and fix this.” She levitates a scroll in front of her. “Now, I-”
She’s just leaving? My heart drops even more. “What?” I gasp. “You’re not even going to try to help me? Or ask what’s going on?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t need to. I just need to go back in time and right a certain wrong, and none of this will happen.”
She… she can’t be serious. Right? “But… but I need you. Equestria needs you.” My voice is sinking to pleading. Normally, I don’t plead. But desperate times and all. “With another alicorn, we can beat back the Smooze in weeks. Without you, I…” I sniff, and my next words are a whisper. “I don’t know if we can make it.”
“It’s more complicated than that.” She’s getting uncomfortable. I recognize that shuffling, that tail-flicking. “This timeline? It’s wrong, and I need to set it right.”
I blink. “Set… it…” No. Please. She can’t be serious. I’m not that self-centered. “What do you mean, it’s wrong?” I snap. “Why should your world be right and mine be wrong? It’s…” An idea springs into my head. “Look, if you want to go back, fine. But you’ve got a time travel spell, you’ve got all the time you need! Just…” I pause, trying to find the right words. I have to convince her to help. I have to. “Please, just help us clean this all up. Then, if you go back and can’t fix it, we’ll all be alright. Please.”
“I’ll just keep at it until I do fix it,” she says. “As long as I have to. Then none of this will happen.”
“So you’re going to kill me?”
She twitches. She doesn’t realize the implications of what she’d said. “No!” she yells. “I’d never do a thing like that! I just wa-”
She doesn’t get it. She does not get it. “But what’s going to happen to me? I’m not you, a-”
“You’ll become me. Trust me, you’ll live in a better world.”
Did she just…? No. That does it. I slam my hooves on the table and stand up. “I’ll become you?” I yell, my voice steadily getting louder and louder. “Why can’t you become me? Why are you the important one? I’ve been fighting the Smooze for a year! Why does that mean nothing to you? Why should your timeline exist instead of mine? Why can’t you help us?”
She takes a step back, her wings flaring a little. “My timeline’s the one that was changed,” she whispers. “Yours is the one that replaced it. I’m, I’m putting mine back in place. You’re not supposed to be here.”
For heaven’s sake and stars above, she’s an idiot. How can another version of me be this stupid? “Why’s yours so important? Why you? Why not me?” My words are close to becoming sobs. I try to hold them down. I can’t let this egotist see me break. “Why do you get to try to erase me from history? I’m not you. Why can you replace me?”
I’ve hit a nerve. She starts looking away, anything to avoid looking me in the eyes. She knows I’m right. She’s just too self-centered to admit it. “Maybe you won’t disappear,” she whispers. “Maybe you’ll… you’ll still exist, a-”
“Then help us!” I beg. I can’t stop it. The tears start coming out. “P-please! I’ve been at this f-for a year, and there’s n-no end in sight! But… b-but with you, I… we can do it. I kn-know we can. Please. P-please.” I’m tempted to climb up on the map, to force her to look me in the eyes. But that won’t work with her. I know because it wouldn’t work with me.
“Listen,” she whispers, “I’d like to.” I doubt she’s lying. Possible, but unlikely. “But if something were to happen to me, then the original timeline would nev-”
“Why are you the only one who can choose?” I bellow. I can’t believe it. She’s still stuck on this. Is she really me? There’s no way my mind could become that one-tracked. “Everything’s about you, you, you! But I’m here now!” I almost grab her in my magic and fling her across the room. But I can’t do that. Not after last night. I’m still too weak. “If I’m going to die when you change history, then help me so I can die in peace! If I’m going to stay here, then help me so I can live in peace! Just… just help me, you spineless…” I can’t finish the sentence. There’s no word that properly sum up my disgust for her. She’s unbelievable.
She stares at me for a moment. Her eyes are watery. I almost think I have her. I almost think I’ve gotten through to her. Then…
“We’re leaving, Spike.”
The scroll glows and the portal opens again above the Map. She and Spike start to rise into the air. I’m left gobsmacked, and it takes me a while to realize that she’s running away.
“No!” I scream. “You can’t do this!” I lunge for her, try to grab her, but she bats me away with magic. I slide across the floor and slam into the wall as she and Spike disappear into the portal.
As the portal closes, all I can do is scream. “Don’t leave us, you coward! Please d-don’t leave us!”
Ouch. I like this concept a lot, and she does have a good point. I never thought of all that in the season finale.
It's rather odd to me that she's calling Original Twilight the self-centered one. If that's the reasoning, then why should THIS Twilight be the one whose timeline supercedes all others? If only one can exist, shouldn't it be the better one? If she's so truly miserable, why would she WANT to keep this timeline intact? Clearly, so many more people die in this timeline. And above all of the other timelines we've seen, this one seems like it's the closest to them actually BEING the same person - it sounds like this Twilight has only a year's difference, even seeing the same spell from Starlight. So all she's losing, in exchange for the lives and peace of thousands, is a year of bad memories and experiences.
It's clearly the grief and panic and strain talking, and honestly, I can't blame Twilight for leaving. I'd be freaked out too if I met an alternate version of myself who was acting like this. Maybe Twilight should have stayed and tried to help, but then she theoretically has an entire universe to be concerned about; she's not wrong that her disappearing could cause it to cease to exist. That either means this tragic timeline would supercede that much more positive timeline, or that an entire universe of unique lives would cease to exist altogether. So, tough as it may be... I really can't blame Twilight Alpha here.
Whew, that was fun to analyze. XD
...weird thing is, Twilight Prime could have solved everything with just a few words... "The Smooze is sapient. You can reason with it."
After all, the main universe's Green Glob is hungry, sure, but also very, very friendly. Like a puppy version of Galactus.
7364791 But that's not fair to the Twilight in this story. The Prime Twilight has no actual evidence of what happens when she goes back to fighting Starlight. Sure, the Twilight of this story is obviously on the edge, but it's pretty well earned. She's been fighting a magic eating monster for a year and has no way to stop it.
I think you're being too hard on the Twilight in this story. She's not wrong in saying that Twilight would be selfish to leave. She's choosing to save her world instead of help another, there's no other way to interpret than but selfish; it's her friends lives, her family's lives, her neighbors, her associates, all of it is her own. It may be the right decision, but it's absolutely selfish.
Plus, Twilight has no jurisdiction to decide what world deserves to exist. It's not her fault these words do exist, and she's got good reason to try and restore her own. But if all of these other worlds knew for absolute certain that Twilight's action wI'll erase them completely from existence, for you honestly think they'd be for that? As hard as their lives are, they're still their lives.
The first thought I had after reading it, was certain similarities to the finale Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode. Which is to say, when all the alternative timeline versions of the Enterprise spill over each other, there's one which had been fighting the Borg for years. They were so desperate not to "correct" the rift that linked their timelines together, that they actively attempted to resist doing so, only to end up being destroyed. All the while, the original Picard from his own timeline, continued on regardless of what fate it would result in for all the alternative timelines.
Kinda similar, I guess. Anyway, neat perspective.
7367613 I think you have the episodes Parallels and All Good Things mixed up. While Picard did jump around 3 different times in his life in All Good Things, it was Worf who was jumping around alternate timelines while time progressed normally. Near the end of Parallels was where the one Enterprise, devastated from fighting the Borg, attempted to stop Worf correcting the incident.
Ugh, this is good, and quite emotional too. Have a favourite.
Wow, this almost made me cry with how emotional it is.
Actually, this Twilight is very selfish.
Twilight Prime's problems are no less than her's. She got entire world's existence in her shoulders, and she already failed many times. She can't entertain potentially lethal request of someone who might not even exist the moment she leaves and risk the lives of everyone she knows and not.
Not to mention, even if they had to decide what timeline had to stay, one would have surely choosen the peaceful and safe timeline instead of a half-destroyed and potentially doomed one. Unless they are purely selfish about it.
Not to mention that unwilling helper is useless.