New Digs
I looked at the living space of my apartment and the handful of cardboard boxes that sat within it. I had managed to find a nice place downtown, equidistant from Canterlot High and Canterlot University. It was exceedingly well maintained, well within my budget, and allowed pets.
What’s more, I had my own private entrance to the basement condo of the renovated office building. I had been so excited when I found it, and Twilight had loved the photos I sent her. From a follow-up text, I assumed that she was packing a few things herself. I was about to hoist up a box to take down to the moving van when a knock sounded on my door. I opened it to find Twilight outside.
Or rather, I found Princess Twilight outside, a sheepish look on her face.
“Come in, come in,” I said, stepping aside. “Don’t mind the mess, you caught me in the process of moving.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t give you a warning,” she said. “But there’s been something disrupting the portal and the book on my end. As near as Starlight and I could find, a celestial convergence is twisting some ley lines, but they’ve mostly passed now.” She tapped her fingers together, looking at the boxes. “Was this a bad time?”
I smiled. “Of course not,” I said, handing her a small box. “Lend a hand and you’ll get to see the new place.”
She relaxed a little and helped me load the boxes into the moving van where my larger pieces of furniture -namely my bed and couch - had already been loaded with the help of Applejack and Big Mac before they had to head back to the farm. I slid the door shut and locked it. I slid a glance at Twilight.
“You didn’t come all the way from Equestria just to explain why you’ve been silent, Twilight,” I remarked. “What gives?”
Twilight sighed. “Your sister Morning Glory has been to the castle a few times, trying to find you,” she said. “I’m running out of reasons why you aren’t around Ponyville or Canterlot.”
I sighed as I slid into the cab of the van and started it. “I’m sorry, Twi,” I said as the woman slid into the passenger seat. “Glory has always been a bit nosy. I’m not sure what to do.”
“Well, you'll have to tell her sometime,” the princess returned. “I mean, you are going to be getting married soon. I assume they’re invited?”
“Top of the list right now,” I said, sliding the van into traffic. “But then, my side of the aisle is going to be a little light, given the small number of family that I have.”
Silence ruled the ride until we pulled into the parking lot of my new home.
“I guess I’ll have to show them,” I said finally as I pulled a small box that contained toiletries from the van. “But that would leave you with the unfortunate role of gatekeeper.”
“Considering the shock they’ll feel coming through, I think it’ll be tough enough just to get through the wedding,” Twilight responded, sliding out of the van. She gave the building a once-over. “This looks like an office building,” she said, confused.
I smiled as I walked around to the side of the building, stepping down a small stairwell. “It was until recently,” I said, juggling the box to slide the newest key on my ring into the lock. “It was renovated by the new owner last year and I managed to get the last condo. Landlord’s pretty lenient as long as the rent gets paid.” I finally got the door unlocked and we entered the space.
The entire eleven hundred square feet was mine, and the smooth eggshell walls were begging to be adorned with my photos. A large kitchenette sat off to one side, linoleum shining in contrast to the dark carpet. I saw three doors along the far wall, two leading to bedrooms and the third a bathroom with a large vanity sink and a tub that was large enough to satisfy my wish to be able to submerge to my neck to soak. The windows were set up high into the walls to allow sunlight to trickle in. The living room was empty except for a double set of bookshelves built into the wall.
“This is a nice place,” Twilight commented, looking at the bookshelves.
“Says the princess with a castle of crystal back home,” I joked, pleased to see a bit of an embarrassed flush on her face.
“I mean it,” she said. “For what you’ll need, it’s nice, and I know the city well enough to know that this is close to both CHS and the university, and plenty of room for two young ladies.”
“Rarity would insist on more closet space, I'm sure.” I set my box on the bathroom counter. “But for Sunshine and I, it’s enough. Even room for Spike to play and a dog park around the corner.”
Twilight snickered. “Sorry,” she said, composing herself. “It’s just that I had an image of my Spike frolicking in a dog park.”
I chuckled too.
“Let's get the boxes unloaded so AJ and Big Mac can help me move my furniture in later.” I tied my hair up in a low tail. “Are you staying the night, or heading back?”
She thought for a moment. “Let me send Starlight a note so she can look after things there,” she decided. “I want to do some astronomical observations on this side to see if we can decide why the portal has the cycle it has if events on both sides are similar, and if there’s any reason why we come out a younger on this side.”
“That would be nice to know,” I said. “Sunshine and I had a shock just after getting back from the cruise over spring break.”
“Oh?”
I gave the quick story of seeing my counterpart for this world as we unpacked the van.
“She appeared to be in her mid to late twenties if I’m any judge of this world’s aging process,” I finished. “Given that I’m roughly twenty-five in Equestrian years, that seems to add up.”
“Twenty-five?” Twilight said, surprised. “I thought you were older than that. I’m only twenty-two and I never saw you before you came to steal the crown.”
“And you were a social butterfly, I assume?” I said lightheartedly.
She looked down and tapped her fingers together. “No,” she said. “You have a point there.”
I patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t feel bad, Twilight,” I said. “I was likely through the mirror and a sad memory in Celestia’s mind when you were her student. She likely didn't bring me up at all while teaching you.” A wisp of memory whispered through me, having tea at night with her as she told me stories before I returned home.
“Maybe we can use that to figure out the age difference,” she said, eyes starting to light up in a familiar way, though it was odd to see it without some glasses adjusting in the mix. “Maybe the ratio of days to lunar cycles might have something to do with it, as well as the reason why the portal opens naturally every thirty moons.”
“I can tell you right now the numbers are going to be tough to come up with,” I said. “The year here is longer for sure, but the days vary in length. It’s not controlled by an Alicorn, it’s ruled by physics as we orbit the sun of this world.”
Twilight couldn’t have been more confused if I turned into a hydra. I gave her a one-shouldered hug as I locked the doors to the van.
“Don’t feel bad, Twi,” I said. “It took me most of four of this place’s moons to figure out the year.” I grimaced. “As well as some downsides to this physiology.”
She quirked an eyebrow. “I haven’t found much weird outside of bipedal locomotion and fingers,” she said, wiggling said digits.
“You’re only here a few days at a time,” I said. “Females here don’t go into estrus once a year.”
“Sounds like a relief,” she said.
“Every month,” I said.
Her eyes popped wide.
“Well, actually roughly every twenty-eight days, but it can change. Humans spontaneously ovulate, so every month they have to shed the uterine lining if they aren't impregnated.” I found my hand subconsciously laying just below my navel. “It’s not pleasant.”
She giggled nervously. “Say, why don’t we go get something to eat? Or find the girls?”
I pulled out my phone.
“Sound idea,” I said. “But after, Sunshine and I have business to attend to in Equestria.”
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If it helps, I've taken a coupe stabs at figuring out the time dilation.
Here's my blog post about it.
Eh, personally I'm just sticking with a 1:1 time ratio for my own works. Much less complicated that way imo. But yo do what feels right for you in that regard.
Anyway, this is a promising start to the fic. As always, I'm eager to see what comes next.
I'm leaning towards having the celestial rotation rates be slightly off, with a natural alignment every thirty moons. Cue dual-plane full alignment every X-number of years and - assuming it's not orbital wobble - we have the final clue for Chaos Theory. I like the idea Jedi mentions about two portal openings, but not every thirty moons. What if when the proper alignment on either side of the portal is hit, it opens regardless?
Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.
This is really good so far, can't wait for more
Head's up, for whatever reason the story isn't showing up under your list of stories, Allykitty.
7973695
I'm guilty of not submitting it. It was supposed to be a one off, but it decided to be a two-fer
Amended.
Ahh... Red Week. Never really thought of that, but then again, I'm a guy...
7973768
It blows.
7973713 You're one of my favorite authors on this site, loving the speed and quality you put into your work, so I'm glad to help out when I can
7974021
7973838 indeed. My Fiancee ever so charmingly refers to it as shark week. Then she calls me an idiot for being envious of what I consider one of the most overtly feminine of biological processes.
Generally it's accepted that one show season is one year.
When Applejack said it's been a hundred moons since the last reunion, assuming moon is a luna month and that months to years is pretty much the same as us it puts the time frame at approx eight years.
Honestly, I kinda like that idea. It slows down the setting by a fair bit and makes a sleepy country town seem more like just that. A sleepy country town.
It certainly makes the semi-regular monsters more an exception then a rule.
Of course, this does start to mess with some other time frames in the show but this is what happens when you try to apply a proper time frame to a show built on a floating one.
As for the Mirror, my personal head canon is that the two worlds do not sit side by side in a synched time. It speeds up and slows down at whim only really synching when the portal is active.
To Sunset it's been just a few years but in Equestria she left before Dash ever even pulled off the Rainboom.
By the Bye, hoping that Sunny actually brings her sisters through the mirror rather then just explaining it.
Is this story a part of a series or is Sunshine nickname for Human Twilight you just didn't explain?
7974321
Part of a series. The first of them is here: Homecoming
7974311
It's also a possibility that it's one year per every other season since we've only had at most two of very important annual events.
Sadly, it's just too convoluted to nail down canonically, so I'm just going to plow on with my own idea which will be solidified as this story finishes.
7974325 Disregard the previous version of this comment, you could you maybe put a link to your page in the story description to make getting to the other parts of the story idiot proof?
7974341
I'll do you one better, here is a loose timeline for all my stories.
So, they've found a place of their own and Sunset has commenced moving right away. Makes sense since she was living alone, but I'm increasingly intrigued to see how Twilight's moving process goes.
I'm wondering if Twilight will be a bit cloyingly sympathetic about the girls 'plight' now that she knows about it!
My admittedly very rough rule of thumb is two televisions seasons to a year in Equestria, based on the every-other-season appearance of Hearth’s-Warming and (if one counts “Bats” for its storytelling tone) Nightmare Night episodes. I assume a one-to-one correspondence in timekeeping and calendars between the two worlds on an even flimsier basis—the rather sketchy world-building approach imposed on the scriptwriters by their toy-company bosses! I’m so unromantic. . . .
“Me and Sunshine”. Yes, I know I sound nitpicky and you can blame my mother for that.
When thinking about why there's an age difference in eqg compared to mlp fim, it just gives me a headache on why this happened and how to solve it.