• Published 2nd Apr 2017
  • 5,274 Views, 373 Comments

Reflections - RQK



Crystal Faire, a Flurry Heart from an alternate reality, attempts to stop the collapse of all existence. ...With a little help, perhaps.

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10 - Lines

The room was filled with a mixture of idle conversation and metal clinking against china. Ponies of all shapes and sizes gathered around the clothed tables dotted about. Most ponies wore bow-ties and simple dresses and had their manes and tails sleeked and designed. The room itself was shaped like a donut with its outer wall a series of glass windows that stretched from the floor to ceiling and its inner wall solid save for a few doors.

Twilight Sparkle glanced out the window and saw a landscape of lights far below. She imagined they were at least a kilometer up, maybe two. It was hard to gauge given the night sky outside. She shuddered and buried her face into her menu.

Crystal Faire, who sat opposite her, chuckled. Her cloak lay folded on one corner of the table. She too had an open menu in front of her, but it lay flat on the table.

A new pony, carrying two glasses within a magical aura, approached the table. His exterior looked metallic and shiny and his eyes looked cybernetic. Twilight couldn’t find an organic part on this pony. And yet, despite all that, he looked just like Savior Fare from Ponyville, complete with a mustache and a sleek albeit equally metallic mane.

“And here we are,” the waiter said as he set the drinks on the table. His voice, while containing a few electrical qualities, sounded just like a normal stallion’s. “Sparkling Chardonnay for Miss Faire, and Water with Lemon for Miss Sparkle.”

Crystal received hers and took a sip from her glass.

The waiter then lit his mechanical horn and levitated a pen and paper from his coat pocket. “Are we ready to order?”

“We are,” Crystal replied.

“Excellent. What may I get for you this evening?”

Crystal folded her menu together and glanced up. “So… I’ll have the Lasagna, with the Caesar Salad beforehoof. She’s going to have the Fettuccine Alfredo, with House Salad beforehoof. Hold the peppers. And… the two of us are going to split some Bruschetta.”

Twilight nodded and folded her menu together as well.

The waiter jotted down the order and then tucked the items back into his pocket. “Excellent. I will get these orders in for you,” he replied as he picked the menus up with his magic. “Let me know if you require anything else.”

Both mares replied with “Thanks” as he took his leave.

Twilight chuckled. “I never even told you what I wanted.”

“Oh, Twilight, please,” Crystal replied with a roll of her eyes.

“I know, I know. You read the future.”

Crystal giggled and took another sip of her wine.

Twilight watched the waiter visit another table, no doubt checking on other patrons. “Robot ponies,” she said. “How far are we?”

“About two thousand years, give or take.”

“What a fascinating place,” Twilight said. She glanced back out the window and noticed similar structures not far away. They were buildings, just like the one they sat in, which stretched from the ground to the same height and beyond. Carriages, seemingly self-propelled, zipped through the air this way and that; Twilight could tell from their headlights.

“Sometimes, I’ll get bored, and I’ll just take a while and develop futures like this one,” Crystal explained. “This one took a while to build up.”

“You made all this?”

Crystal shrugged. “Well, I steered it this way, if that’s what you mean.”

“Sure. Wow, I’d like to see more of this place.” Twilight sighed as she laid her chin on her hooves. “What prompted you to do all this, though?”

Crystal reached up and stroked the scar the went up and down her right eye. “Well, I needed to get this fixed. This future had the tools to make that happen.”

Twilight stared at Crystal’s scar. She briefly tried to imagine what had done it. Crystal was a master of the multiverse. Surely, Twilight thought, it must have been something pretty incredible to have done that to her.

She grunted. “I wonder about that scar. How did you get that?”

“This?”

“Yes. Did you get that in a monster attack? Did some… villain do that to you?”

Crystal laughed. “Actually, uh, I grew bored one day, and so I tried juggling knives.”

Twilight cringed. “That’s… even worse.”

“I was quite dumb. There was a long while where I didn’t have a right eye.”

Yeah.” Twilight stroked her chin. “Wow. I’m… honestly, I’m actually a little disappointed. I thought I would hear one amazing story.”

“Sorry.”

Twilight shook her head. “Anyway, you came here and got all fixed up, huh?”

“Yeah. I kept the scar as a reminder to not be so careless, though.” Crystal snickered. “It’s a bit funny, actually, this makes me look a little bit intimidating. You can imagine how desirable that is. I like how it looks, at least.”

Twilight took a sip of her water and licked her lips. “So, what does this timeline look like, exactly?”

“Hmmm?”

“As a line, I mean.”

Crystal stared for a few moments before her eyes went wide. “Oh! Yeah. I see what you mean.” She lit her horn and the image of a line formed above the middle of the table.

Twilight looked at it and spotted many sections of all sizes. Most parts were shiny, but every so often, she found a very thin crystallized segment. Her eyes drew toward the top of the line where, after one last, very thin crystallized segment, the line became almost but not quite crystallized.

She pointed to some of the crystallized segments. “So these are the points where you came to this timeline. You were busy.”

“That I was,” Crystal replied.

“So, these in-between bits, these shiny parts…” Twilight said, pointing, “you mentioned that these are okay. You mentioned…” she said, scratching her chin, “that when you visit a timeline… everything before that moment turns into this.”

Crystal nodded. “Also right.”

“What do these mean, exactly?”

Crystal stopped to take a sip of her wine and then leaned forward in her seat. “Right. So, obviously, I’ve never been to this semi-crystallized region. But this is set in stone. There is no changing these parts. I can’t thread it with other timelines, I can’t travel there, nothing.”

“Why?”

“I think it’s because if I could do either of those things, then I could run events such that this—” she pointed to the crystallized layer above it, “—never happens. But it did happen for me. So… it would be a paradox.”

Twilight folded her hooves together and nodded. “That makes sense.”

“I can’t revisit these crystallized portions either.”

Twilight sipped on her water. With her magic, she plucked the lemon slice from the rim of the glass and squeezed its juices into the water, replaced the lemon slice onto the rim, and swished the contents about. She took another sip, noted the hints of a sour flavor within, and nodded.

She turned her attention back to the line. “So… as far as any one timeline is concerned… you only have one shot at getting things right.”

Crystal frowned and turned her eyes toward the window. “Yeah.”

Twilight looked past the line and studied Crystal’s saddened expression. Crystal was probably thinking about what had happened.

“You know that awful future that I accidentally took you to that first time? I automatically failed it just by going there.” Crystal shrugged. “I can’t prevent it anymore.”

Twilight frowned. “…Failed mine when it collapsed?”

“…Yeah.”

Twilight turned and glanced out the window as well. She watched as some flying carriages flew this way and that at speeds that would have made Rainbow Dash smile.

A nearby table shared some laughter which, while not uproarious by any means, managed to draw Twilight’s attention. She studied their expressions and found genuine smiles and from-the-heart laughter. She spotted the emptied wine glasses and the crumbs across their plates. She saw a busser, a flesh-and-blood mare, stop by and place their plates on her back while exchanging warm smiles with them.

“It looks like you got this one right,” Twilight said.

Crystal raised an eyebrow and eventually nodded and sat up. “Sure. I did good. I think. I do think about the times when I’ve… not done good.” She turned to look out the window again. “Live and learn, I guess.”

Twilight turned her gaze toward the window as well and the two of them watched the world outside. Several lights moved up and down lines which curved and stretched into the distance. The faint silhouettes of ponies moved within the lights of adjacent buildings.

Soon enough, their mechanical waiter returned with two bowls in his magical grasp. “Here we are, your salads,” he said as he placed their respective dishes in front of them. “Are you two doing okay so far?”

They looked up and nodded. Crystal voiced it with, “Yes.”

“Excellent. Your food should be out shortly,” he said.

The two nodded, and the waiter took his leave. Twilight glanced at Crystal’s bowl which hosted lettuce, shredded cheese, and some croutons. She then looked at her own bowl which was a mixture of different lettuces, onions, and the occasional olive.

And Twilight chuckled. “Both of these look good,” she said.

Crystal took a bite and nodded. “Taste good too.”

Twilight ran her fork through her salad to mix the dressing in and then took a bite as well. She could taste the onion heat that she had been looking for. She took a few more bites in silence.

Crystal eventually pointed her fork at Twilight. “Speaking of your timeline… I wanted to show you something.”

Twilight swallowed her food and nodded. “Okay.”

Crystal lit her horn again and another line segment appeared. The very bottom was completely crystallized while a long section just above that looked almost as hard as those crystallized portions. A short length looked shiny before the very tip looked like hard crystal.

Twilight narrowed her eyes. Where previous line segments faded near the top, this one simply ended. The tip looked jagged and uneven.

Images of holes in space and time filled her mind. She imagined reality slowly burning away at several spots. She imagined it all coming to an end.

She knew what she was looking at, and yet her mouth moved anyway and she said, “What… timeline am I looking at?”

Crystal pointed at the line segment with her fork. “This is yours, Twilight. Your home timeline.”

Twilight set her fork into her salad and narrowed her eyes. “You… It does exist.”

“This part does. But everything after this doesn’t. It’s collapsed, remember?”

Twilight’s hooves banged the table. “But this part still does! We… we could go there! You could take me there!”

“I can’t travel before any point that I’ve already been,” Crystal whispered deliberately. “It’s semi-crystallized already.”

Twilight kept staring at Crystal but said nothing.

“It’s a hard and fast rule, Twilight. I explained that to you.” Crystal set her fork down as well and stared at the line segment. “Doesn’t matter how we want to look at this; I’m cut off from this timeline forever.”

Twilight stared at Crystal for a few moments more before turning her attention to the line segment. She shifted in her seat and nodded solemnly. “Yes… you’re right.”

Twilight reached out and batted at the line and whimpered when her hoof went straight through. At that, she sat back, folded her hooves together, and murmured, “Will you… break this down for me?”

“Absolutely,” Crystal said, lifting a hoof to point at the timeline. “This… what you’re seeing now is a timespan of several years. At the very bottom is where you and Starlight appeared at the Rainboom. We travel up, we arrive at the point where you met your friends and subsequently defeated Nightmare Moon. Here, you defeated Discord and saved Equestria again. Here, you stopped Queen Chrysalis and then attended Mother and Father’s wedding.”

Where I… Twilight thought, went to the Grand Galloping Gala with them, discovered my cutie mark connection with them, saved Applejack’s farm, stopped dragon smoke from covering Equestria…

“And here is where you stopped King Sombra,” Crystal finished. “Everything up until this point is constant across all timelines. Everything diverges after that.” She pointed toward the sections that looked almost crystallized. “Here, you ascended to alicornhood, returned the Elements of Harmony to the Tree of Harmony, and then you defeated Tirek here, went on your first Cutie Map mission…”

Bested Trixie in a duel, met Daring Do with the girls, attended the Equestria Games, amended my relationship with Moondancer…

“And then here, where this section ends,” Crystal pointed at the boundary between the strange, almost-crystallized portion and the semi-crystallized portion, “is where you romped through time with Starlight Glimmer.”

Twilight blinked and looked at Crystal again. “I… Okay. Why does this stretch of time look like it’s almost crystallized but isn’t quite there?”

“This quasi-crystallized section signifies parts which are locked time-wise; time travel being the usual suspect. Or, rather, it’s the part of the timeline within the light cone of the time travel event.” Crystal pointed at the entire section and said, “There are a few of these here and there, but you don’t see them on every timeline. I can decrystallize these by preventing whatever is causing the time lock. But I can’t travel into a quasi-crystallized section.”

Twilight stroked her chin and hummed in thought. “Because… if you did, in this case, you might prevent somepony from going back in time. But, you can only thread timelines going forward in time. So… you would still have a pony appearing in the past because of time travel, and yet there would be nopony in the future to travel back to that past. It would be a discontinuity.”

Crystal, who had jabbed her salad with her fork, looked at Twilight with a raised eyebrow. Eventually, she nodded. “That is exactly right.”

Twilight leaned forward. “I also noticed that with the timeline that we’re in right now. Everything after this moment should be time-locked, right? Otherwise, you would be in two time periods at once.”

Crystal smiled. “Also true! But… I can jump forward.”

“Really?”

“There isn’t anything that prevents me from trying to go to some part of a timeline that I can’t access,” Crystal explained. “But if I get denied, I end up right back where I was, and you wouldn’t even notice I had even tried anything. But… that small amount of latency in the travel gives the future enough time to decrystallize, so it ends up working.”

Twilight nodded. “I see. That makes sense.”

Crystal chuckled. “Anyway, I am impressed that you’ve kept up with this so far.”

Twilight blushed and popped some leaves and onion slices into her mouth. So… quasi-crystallized for time-locked segments, semi-crystallized for areas of time leading up to crystallized parts, and then there’s crystallized and non-crystallized. She stroked her chin. Possibly… concurrently-crystallized for everything that threaded together?

Crystal took a bite, chewed, swallowed, and then said, “Either way, you know what these parts afterward are about.” Her hoof traced up the crystallized segment before it reached the top, and Crystal frowned. “And… obviously, everything after this…”

Twilight popped another few leaves into her mouth.

“I wish I could tell you why. I… don’t understand it. I still don’t.” Crystal looked at Twilight with pleading eyes and said, “I’m sorry.”

Twilight continued chewing in silence. Her eyes drew up toward the line segment in the middle of the table and thought about what it signified. She thought about friends and family; their voices and faces flashed through her mind.

And then she looked past it and into Crystal’s eyes.

“This thing…” Crystal’s voice said in Twilight’s head, “this thing where your timeline died, your home timeline… You aren’t the only one who has gone through that. I can promise you that.”

“Crystal?” she croaked.

Crystal leaned forward. “Yes?”

Twilight remained silent for another moment and then said, “I was… wondering… could you show me your timeline? Since you’ve shown me mine.”

Crystal set the fork into her own salad bowl. She swallowed once, twice, and then took a sip from her wine glass. She then nodded solemnly and lit her horn.

Twilight’s timeline moved off to the side and a new line segment formed in the previously occupied spot. Unlike every other timeline that Twilight had seen, this new line segment was entirely crystallized from faded bottom to abrupt top.

Twilight stared at it but couldn’t glean anything else from it. Its red and purple colors, coalesced together, told of things that she could not decipher. And yet Twilight knew that the line segment in front of her contained an entire history.

“This is your home timeline?” she asked.

“Was.” Crystal bit into her salad again. Her eyes wavered everywhere else but the line itself.

Twilight’s muzzle twitched. “Do you… Do you think you could tell me a little bit about it? I want to know what it was like. I… want to know what your life was like.”

Crystal continued chewing in silence. Her eyes remained elsewhere. She remained silent even after she swallowed her food.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Twilight added.

Crystal shook her head. “No, no, it’s fine. I just needed a moment there.” She sighed and leaned against the table as she stared at the line herself. “This was my home timeline. You’re right, it had a lot of things in common with yours. You defeated Tirek, you time traveled with Starlight Glimmer… Obviously, I didn’t break the Crystal Heart when I was born.”

Some color disappeared from Crystal’s muzzle and she folded her hooves together. “The truth is… I’ve been able to see the timelines my whole life. And I’ve yet to find anyone else in the entire multiverse who could do that.” She popped a crouton into her mouth and chewed for a few moments. “I couldn’t travel between them when I was a filly, but I could still see them. I struggled with it a little bit when I was growing up. Mother and Father sometimes thought that I was suffering from a mental illness.”

“You told them about it and they didn’t believe you?” Twilight asked.

“No, not entirely. I wasn’t entirely convinced that it was legitimate either. They did recognize that I could have been right but, even for how strange our world is, that seemed far-fetched.”

“I could see that.”

Crystal giggled and shook her head. “But they were so supportive of me and they did everything they could to help me cope with it. They were always smiling and telling me that things were okay. But... seeing this line now, I know they spent a lot of nights talking and crying about it. They struggled with it just as much as I did.

“And then you were there… Auntie Twilight and I ended up becoming very close.” She chuckled and sat up in her seat. “I remember this one time where she spent the entire week trying to prove that me seeing the timelines was actually a thing. She failed. But still!”

Twilight’s chest swelled with pride. “Well, I am the B.A.E.,” she said.

“That you are.”

“Knowing what we know now, you really were seeing the timelines. You had knowledge of the future. Or, at least, possible futures. Did you use that at all?”

“I did. We lived very peaceful lives and so I ended up not having to use it for all that much; most of the terrible things that I saw—and I saw many terrible things, I even struggled with it for a while but Auntie Twilight helped me cope with that—those were all outside Equestria or in places I would never go. Mostly, I could just say what room Mother was in when I needed her, or I could say what stories Father would tell when he returned home from training with the guard.” Crystal nodded her head from side to side. “I was pretty accurate a lot of the time. It’s part of the reason why Mother and Father and you were so patient with me; that was their proof that it could have been real.”

Twilight took a bite from her salad and nodded in silence.

“I did all sorts of stuff like that when I was a filly. But I ended up predicting some major things too. I foresaw a formal treaty between the dragons and Equestria and eventually attended the signing ceremony between Dragon Lord Ember and Princess Celestia. I also foresaw you,” she pointed at Twilight, “getting married, and then I ended up going to the wedding.”

Twilight’s muzzle curled into a wry smile. “Oh, is that right?”

“Yes, and even then, after all that, I still wasn’t sure about whether or not seeing the timelines was a legitimate thing.” Crystal’s smile faded and her features grew pale. “And then… not long after that… I predicted that I would lose my Auntie Twilight in an accident.”

Twilight cringed.

“And then... when it actually happened… that was when I knew for certain that the power was the real deal.”

Twilight sat in silence for a few seconds and then nodded solemnly. “So… I… I died?”

“Yes.” Crystal reached up and pointed at a spot on the line segment. “Right there, at that moment, you did.”

Twilight swallowed. “What happened after that?”

Crystal sucked in a breath. “Well, the nation mourned. I think morale across Equestria dropped off a cliff. Father… never really recovered from it. …I lost him soon after that.”

Twilight’s hoof shot to her mouth and she gasped.

“I became a recluse for a while after that. Mother… She didn’t really smile for a long while afterward. Auntie… my other auntie, she ran away. And Princess Luna pretty much had to take over for Princess Celestia for a month after it happened. Luna got sloppy, even. Equestria went somewhat downhill after that.”

“I see…”

“But I made a vow after that. I knew that the power was real, and that everything that I saw, good and terrible, was real. And I knew I could influence reality, and I could shape the future.” Crystal punched the air. “I vowed that I would use the power for good.”

“And so that’s what you have been doing. I see,” Twilight said. “I’m glad that you keep doing it… We could have been in a lot of trouble if you had decided to use that power for evil, huh?”

Crystal, after a long moment, shuddered and nodded solemnly. “Yes… indeed.”

Twilight twiddled her forehooves together and said, “I kinda wanted to ask… do you miss them?”

Crystal frowned and nodded solemnly. “Very much. I lived through that reality with them, and I’d quit this life if it meant I could go back. Mother and Father, you and Sunset Shimmer, your friends, the royal sisters…” Crystal shook her head in disbelief. “I knew them. They were the ponies that I grew up with, had memories with, went through highs and lows with…”

“I think I know what that feels like now,” Twilight said. “You had all those experiences with them… lived a life with them… These past few days, I’ve been looking at everypony around me, and I’m just not sure.”

Crystal chuckled. “Yeah… It’s something, isn’t it?”

“That’s how you felt about Cadance and Shining Armor… about me.”

Crystal stared at her mostly empty bowl. “That’s right. You… you aren’t the Twilight who helped raise me… or the Twilight that tried to help me cope with what I saw… You’re not the Twilight that died when I was young.”

The two sat in silence for several moments. While Crystal’s eyes remained on her plate, Twilight’s gaze slowly locked onto the mare sitting opposite her.

“But I am the Twilight that’s traveled the multiverse with you,” Twilight eventually said. She raised an eyebrow. “That has to mean something, right?”

After a pregnant moment, Crystal giggled. “You know, maybe it does.”

At that moment, the mechanical waiter returned carrying several plates within his magical aura. “Your food has arrived,” he said.

The magic coursing through Crystal’s horn faded and the timelines above the table disappeared. She pushed her plate out of the way, and then Twilight did the same.

The first plate sported several layers of pasta and sauce. “Lasagna for Miss Faire,” the waiter said. The second contained a mountain of buttery noodles; “Fettucine Alfredo for Miss Sparkle…” The last had several pieces of grilled bread with tomato toppings, which the waiter set in the middle; “And your split Bruschetta. Is there anything else that I might procure for you at this time?”

“No, thank you, we’re all set,” Crystal replied.

The waiter bowed and, with his head held high, left them.

Crystal twirled her fork and cleaved her piece of lasagna in two. She then sliced a corner off it and lifted that into her mouth. Her features lit up and she moaned as she chewed. Twilight, meanwhile, twisted several noodles around her own fork until a ball had formed on the end. She popped that into her mouth and momentarily lost herself to the (just right amount of) cheesy flavor.

She started to replay the entire conversation in her mind but only in bits and pieces. She frowned when she realized that something had stuck out.

Several minutes passed. While Crystal ate with a content smile on her face, Twilight’s expression grew more focused; her brow furrowed and her muzzle scrunched up. Her chewing intensified, and she eventually stared at nothing but the plate. Something had definitely stuck out.

Crystal eventually put her fork back down. “Twilight? Are you feeling okay?”

Twilight nodded.

“You’re looking like something’s wrong over there,” Crystal added.

Twilight swallowed her food and waved her hoof in a dismissive manner. “I wouldn’t say that. I mean…”

Crystal raised an eyebrow.

Twilight shook her head. “I think there’s something wrong, but I… can’t… quite put my hoof on it.” She jabbed her fork into the bowl and started rolling more noodles. “Just give me a minute, I’ll probably think of what it is.”

Crystal rolled her eyes and gathered another bite.

A few moments of silence passed between the two of them as they each ate their meals.

Twilight hummed and swallowed her food. She lifted a piece of bruschetta off the center plate and held it close to her mouth. “You said that everything before and including King Sombra is constant across all timelines, right?” she asked.

Crystal, who had a mouth full of food, nodded. “That’s right,” she eventually said after swallowing.

Twilight popped the piece of bruschetta into her mouth and chewed. She could taste the garlic coating and salt. The tomatoes, much colder than the bread itself, stuck out with every chomp. She chewed in silence, and as she did, her brow furrowed more and more.

Eventually, Twilight swallowed. “And… if Starlight and I traveled through time, that means Starlight and I appeared at the moment of the Rainboom in all timelines, right?”

Crystal nodded. “Also right.”

Twilight nodded and took a sip of her water. She twisted some noodles around her fork but, even after a lump had accrued at the end, she didn’t lift to take a bite. She kept twisting and twisting. She took another sip and set the fork down.

She frowned, looked up at Crystal, and said, “But… there are timelines where Starlight and I did not travel through time. Right?”

Crystal, who had been in the middle of chewing her food, stopped. Her eyes remained fixed on her plate before moving up to Twilight. One of her eyebrows cocked up and stayed there.

Twilight leaned across the table. “Right?”

Crystal chewed, swallowed, and then nodded. “Y-yes…” she stammered. “T-that is also right. O-oh—”

There it was. “That’s what’s bothering me, and I think you see it too. Crystal… there’s a discontinuity—”

“Oh. Oh!” Crystal hid a surprised expression behind her hooves.

Twilight steadied herself against the table and stared Crystal down. She watched every little twitch and every eye dart.

Crystal swallowed and steadied herself against the table as well. “You and Starlight appearing at the Rainboom happens in all timelines, but… there are timelines in which you don’t go back to the Rainboom!”

That’s not possible,” Twilight said through grit teeth.

Crystal pulled on her mane. “But… it… that’s how it is. I don’t…”

The two stared at each other for long moments. Diners around them, engrossed in their own conversations, carried on around them. Metal clinking against china and the low murmur of idle conversations filled the silence. Neither Crystal nor Twilight noticed.

Twilight finally shook her head. “So… first we learn that timelines can collapse, now there’s a discontinuity.”

Crystal flopped her head into her hooves and groaned.

“There must be…” Twilight bit her lip, “things… things at work that we don’t understand. Why would a timeline collapse? What does that? Why the discontinuity? What does that?”

After a moment of silence, Crystal added, “That thing where your timeline threaded together after the fact… I guess I have a lot to learn.”

Twilight sighed and took a drink from her water. After tilting the glass most of the way, thus downing the drink, she shook the remaining ice about and set it at the edge of the table. Crystal glanced up, lit her horn, and Twilight’s glass refilled with water from seemingly nowhere. Twilight chuckled and took another drink.

Crystal remained silent. Her magic sloshed the remaining bits of her wine about. Twilight took a moment to wrap more noodles around her fork and took a bite.

Crystal lifted her head, and after another moment, she chuckled. “Huh, that is a good idea, isn’t it?” she muttered.

Twilight raised an eyebrow and hummed in questioning.

“So… here’s an idea. When we get done eating here…” Crystal’s muzzle curled into a sly smile. “What’s say we run an experiment?”

Twilight paused in her chewing.

“Think about it,” Crystal said, “with your brains and my abilities, we could actually figure out some of those things. We could have a better understanding of how these multiversal mechanics actually work. I know I’d find it useful, and I know this sort of thing is your jam.” She leaned across the table. “What do you say?”

Twilight chewed the rest of her bite, swallowed, and then looked up at Crystal with a growing grin on her face. She chuckled and said, “Crystal… you had me at experiment.”

Crystal’s face lit up. “You’ll do it?”

“Of course! Actually…” Twilight stroked her chin, “I have a couple things in mind… Oh! This is going to be so exciting! I wonder what we’re going to find!”

“Then it’s settled!” Crystal exclaimed, slapping the table. “But let’s finish our meal first. We can talk all about this when we get back.”

Twilight nodded. “Yes, you’re right.” She stuck her fork back into her food and resumed eating.

She remained silent even as Crystal returned to her own food. Twilight’s body turned on autopilot, gathering bites without her being aware of it. Her mind, instead, occupied itself with lists and documentation and methodologies. Hypotheses and thoughts on how to test them bounced around her head.

And Twilight shuddered with excitement.