Team Quantum

by Impossible Numbers

The Chosen One Is Never Good At Mornings

Full daybreak.

Twilight Sparkle, Postdoctoral Researcher on the Esteemed Unicornian Scholarship Fund, Head of the newly coined Equiverse Committee, and arguably the greatest faculty member the University of Eohippus ever had… added what she cheerfully called “life” and “personality” to her bed chamber.

That is, she put the Smarty Pants doll on the bed. She arranged the books on the shelf, cramming where the quantity of books outclassed the quantity of space on said shelves. She – rather daringly – left a corner of the bed unmade.

Job done, she went down the spiral staircase.

Timing it, she hit the bottom step at the exact moment her precise mind counted five minutes, twenty four seconds, and one third of a second remaining. Not bad for eighteen storeys, though she’d long since learned to pace herself. This wasn’t a race so much as another chance to meet an interesting number.

Yep. It was one of those days.

All the same, she slowed to an amble across the courtyard. The University of Eohippus had given her the biggest tower because of her connections, not because she liked getting out of breath before breakfast. Moreover, she’d made them install motion detectors and safety nets in case of accidents: tripping, for example. It had saved her neck at least thrice so far.

“Good morning, Trixie!” she said to the bench, right on schedule. And right on schedule, Trixie folded up her magazine in a fluster and scurried after her, cape and pointed hat threatening to billow behind her.

“What’s so good about it?” she said in her nasal whine.

One of those moods, huh? Politely, Twilight said, “You seem to be in good health, if you don’t mind my saying so. Uh…” What was the correct terminology? Ah, got it. “Fellow frat member?”

“First of all, no one calls anyone ‘fellow frat member’. Did you read that out of a book?”

“N-No.” Twilight made a mental note to stop researching student slang through the ages.

“Second of all, the morning is not ‘good’ until Trixie has enjoyed her pep-me-up. When Trixie’s good, the morning is good.”

“Oh, uh, good.” Remembering last night’s talk, she added, “And, you’ll be pleased to know, I thought about what you said, and I think I know what the problem is.”

“Do tell.”

“The problem is… that I haven’t quite organized my time properly. All I have to do is schedule in another session later this week for what I like to call ‘Recharge’ time.”

“What on earth is ‘Recharge’ time?”

“Well, you know. Leisure time. I had a think, and what I suspect is that calling it ‘leisure’ is misleading and unproductive. Recast it as a contribution to mental acuity, however, by granting enough psychological space for information processing on a sub-conscious level, and I’m pretty sure that –”

“What a shock,” muttered Trixie. “Even when she’s fighting to add leisure time to her schedule, she can’t call it ‘leisure time’.”

“I’m not a workaholic.” Twilight felt her cheeks burning.

“You are, however,” said Trixie with bite in her words, “Head of the Equiverse Committee. Take it from your old friend Trixie; a Head does not do all the work herself. She does a little thing called ‘delegation’.”

“It’s my responsibility. I ought to do it myself.”

“Or she does her own thing without regard for the expertise of her old friend Trixie. There’s always that standby.”

Twilight’s insides screamed with frustration. She knew Trixie was right. She could feel down to her gut that Trixie was right. But when she actually thought about dumping all that work on her friends, as though she herself was shirking… That stopped her.

They walked across to the great hall, within which many murmuring students had gathered. Old college dons gathered at the highest tables. Among the rest of this… well, this gathering… it was easy to spot the undergraduates from the postgraduates; the former tended to read over their bowls, the latter tended to laugh and shout and throw things at each other.

Avoiding any possible glances or stares, she hurried her way over to her usual spot at the end of one of the long tables. Most of all, she hoped not to catch the eye of anyone on the highest tables. The dons had Views about ponies like her mixing with the regular students.

Opposite, Trixie threw her cape back before she sat down. Then she clapped her hooves together smartly. At once, servants materialized all around her.

“Full Equestrian, if you please,” she said. “You know how I like it.”

“At once, Miss Trixie.” They vanished.

“‘Miss Trixie’.” She shivered with glee. “Hoo hoo hoo! I’ll never grow tired of that.”

Twilight silently levitated toast along the table, carefully hiding it behind pitchers and sauce bowls so no one would notice. Casual telekinesis was about as ostentatious as she wanted to get, and even that seemed a bit much.

Opposite, Trixie rolled her eyes. “You’re in the University of Eohippus, and you’re eating toast? Again?”

“The Equiverse project might go wrong at any moment.” Twilight sneaked a knob of butter along to spread on her toast. “I don’t want a big meal. It’ll just get cold if I have to hurry away.”

That was a reason. And her parents wanted her to watch her diet; that was another. She liked toast; that was a third reason. What they were not, in fact, was the reason.

The reason, she silently knew, was that she had a lot of catching down to do. Catching down was right. A Head of the Equiverse Committee, with so many connections, and a tower of her own… Not to forget she was one of the rarest of beasts, a pony on the Esteemed Unicornian Scholarship Fund, which was so hard to get into that they marked successful entrants on the official university timeline.

And she sat opposite a unicorn whose only claim to fame – disregarding her own list of claims – was to have spent her lifesavings on a failing university course.

Every time the universe kept shouting at Twilight that she was special, her stomach lurched and her heart beat faster and her lungs couldn’t breathe deeply enough. After all, the universe didn’t shout at many other ponies. If it shouted at Trixie, it was most likely because it was heckling. So Twilight never shouted. She spoke softly. She snuck quietly around the place. She shoved other ponies to the fore, because if she didn’t make sure there was enough specialness to go around, the universe sure as sugar wouldn’t. Someone had to set the balance.

Trixie winced as a rolled-up ball of paper bounced off the back of her head. Someone shouted out a score.

“Barbarians,” she muttered, removing her pointy hat safely.

“Sorry,” said Twilight. She didn’t think.

“Why? It’s not yourfault.” Trixie levitated the ball and threw it back as hard as she could. A laughing student yelped on impact.

Twilight wished she had a book with her. The toast had gone lukewarm today. It wasn’t distraction enough.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed three unicorns walk past, just behind Trixie. She looked up, and instant recognition jolted her to life. Trixie had insisted last night…

“Lyra!” Twilight tripped and stumbled while she tried to both shout and avoid public attention. “Twinkleshine! Minuette! Wait up, wait up! I need to talk to you! Wait!”

She caught them at the grand entrance, framed between the bright lights of a cloudless sky and the subdued old stone of the interior. At first, she was sure they’d smiled at the sight of her blundering over to them, but then they looked carefully blank. Twinkleshine and Minuette looked up at the painted scowls on the walls as though taking a course in Advanced Art Appreciation.

“Oh! Twi!” said Lyra, a chuckle strangling itself on her voice. “It’s you!”

Twilight skidded to a halt in front of them. She was aware of the weight of her intrusion on their minds; a moment ago, she’d sworn they’d been talking and laughing freely amongst themselves. Clearly, she still had some catching down to do.

Her mouth hung open, willing to speak words it suddenly couldn’t find. What was she supposed to talk about?

“Uh…” she said.

What are their hobbies again? Trixie always said it’s important to know your audience. So… Lyra’s into… music. And Minuette’s into… Uh…

“I… was… thinking…” she said to buy herself more thinking time. Lyra’s eyes darted about as though looking for her cue in Twilight’s own.

Hopelessly, Twilight glanced behind. Trixie received a tall glass and sucked from the straw with eyes closed in delight. One opened briefly to allow her to spy on Twilight’s progress.

Remember yesterday’s talk. “I was thinking, maybe we could hang out sometime?”

Panic ran across Lyra’s face. “Oh, uh, it’s cool… that… you want to help us get ahead, Twi, really it is, it’s just, uh, we, uh…”

“Think,” whispered Twinkleshine as though not daring to speak louder.

“Think, yes, that we’re already quite far enough ahead, and, uh –”

Twilight beamed with understanding. “Oh, not for studying. I mean for leisure time. I’ve given you so much, and –” she chuckled, hoping it’d help “– now I think it’s your turn to give me so much.”

After several seconds of watching them blush, she got the impression those had been the wrong words.

Minuette was the first to manage a smile without straining. “That’s a neat idea, Twilight.”

Sighs of relief broke out among the other two.

“Oh, yeah. Leisure time. Exactly what I was thinking!” said Lyra desperately.

“Me too,” said Twinkleshine.

“OK, sure.” Lyra cleared her throat. “What did you want to do?”

Think of something other than “library”. Think of something other than “library”. Think of something other than –

Twilight shrugged. “I’m not sure. How about you three? What do you like to do for fun?”

“I like –” Twinkleshine clamped her mouth shut as though determined not to reveal state secrets.

“Me? I don’t mind,” said Minuette in what she evidently hoped was a helpful way.

“What don’t we like to do for fun?” said Lyra.

Stalemate.

“S-Sorry,” murmured Twinkleshine. “I-I can’t think of anything right now. If anything comes up, ma’am, we’ll let you know.”

In the silence, Twilight could feel the world icing up around her. She suddenly was no better than an animal trapped in a freezer. Her mind even slowed to a slushy crawl.

“Ma’am”, thought Twilight. She called me “ma’am”. Only senior faculty are called “ma’am”.

“Well,” she said, backing away, “if anything comes up, at least you know I’m interested.”

“We’ll let you know.” Lyra tried a wink. If anything, that made it worse. That was too obviously pretending not to have noticed the massive gaping hole opening up between them.

Twilight slunk back to the table. Behind her, she heard whispered comments. She could feel their gazes making sure she was too far away. She thought she heard a tiny, stifled giggle.

She sat down and took a bite out of her toast. It had gone cold.

Through a mouthful, Trixie said, “Better than usual.”

“Thanks, but I thought it was a complete –”

Trixie slurped up the last of the baked beans. “No, I mean this breakfast. You simply must try the tofu bacon. They’ve smoked it properly this time, and let me tell you that it is exquisite.”

“I don’t know how you do it,” said Twilight.

“Oh, those three mares simply throw themselves at my hooves,” said Trixie airily. “Trixie receives their invitations all the time. ‘Trixie, Trixie,’ they say to me, ‘I would be oh so honoured if you were to grace my birthday celebration with your presence.’ Noblesse oblige, as the wise horse says.”

Coldly, Twilight was moved to say, “I meant how you eat so much food.”

But Twilight was an amateur at being cold. When Trixie wanted to be cold – as she suddenly did now – Twilight shivered and longed for a thick fur coat.

“Trixie is a hard-working and exacting unicorn. Nothing less than the finest cuisine shall satisfy her refined palate.”

“I work hard too,” said Twilight. She wished she didn’t sound like such a foal.

“Not that it would’ve mattered.” Amid the chatter, Trixie’s mutterings almost passed unnoticed.

Twilight took another bite out of her toast, but she didn’t have to like it.

Unspoken were the words: But it does matter. Just because I could’ve cruised my way up to where I am now, doesn’t mean I should’ve done so. Just because I didn’t start out in the street like you, doesn’t make my work any less important. I made sure we had the same starting point. If I got anywhere, I earned my way there.

All the same, she didn’t quite believe her own thoughts. That’s why she never used servants, and deliberately skipped meals – even the usual three that her parents had assured her everyone ate – and never wore anything fancy or anything at all, and never ever forgot to write to her parents and tell tales about how homesick she was and how important family was to her. And that’s also why she’d insisted on choosing the members of the Equiverse Committee herself, because if anyone else had done so, they’d have chosen Big Names, not Good Friends.

Of course, it wasn’t all sacrifice. “Dinky Hooves said she loved your show last night,” said Twilight.

“Naturally.” Yet Trixie preened herself when she thought Twilight wasn’t looking.

“You’re going to perform at her birthday party next month?”

“Whyever would you think not? The Great and Powerful Trixie is pleased to perform for the great and the small alike.”

And I bet you never forget your roots. It always pays to give tribute to the fields you started off in.

Popping the last of the crust into her mouth, Twilight rose onto her hooves. She swallowed. “Well, I think that’s about it for me. Time for work.”

“Is it ever time for anything else?” Trixie shovelled fried egg into her mouth.

“Have a good day, Trixie.”

“Trixie most certainly shall.”

And from that, Twilight assumed she’d received a “You too”. Hard to tell with the Great and Powerful Trixie at times.

---

Comments

[RTStephens]

Hmm, not sure what to make of this Twilight. I think I get the gist of her; straight laced and wanting to project a sense of not being better than anypony else. A hard time relating to others, just like the show, but I suppose willing to try. I get the image in my head she's a machine just learning what's it's like to be alive.

Not sure if Trixie's comments and attitude are helping. Leaning towards sarcastic neutral.

Moving on!

[Fluttercheer]

Now I've fallen for this story. I already liked it before, but now I'm in love with it. The Twilight of this universe is even more a workaholic than the Twilight we know. Or, maybe, the Twilight we know used to be like this, too? Indicators for that are there, but we haven't seen much of the time before Twilight moved to Ponyville. Either way, Twilight's in overdrive here and I love it!
And also the setting and how you changed everything up. An even more work-obsessed Twilight, who is close friends with Trixie instead of being in a rival relationship with her, and still struggling with friendship, in an environment where her fame isn't working in her favor for everypony, a fertile ground for intrigues against her. Then Trixie's personality, still boasting and full of herself, but just like Twilight, cranked up to eleven.
Everything so new, but still in-character. Everything so fresh and still somewhat familiar. And that is only the start of the story.
This story is a prime example for it how we can create countless of alternate universes and never run out of G4 pony stories that way. I can't wait to see where you'll lead to with this story!

[Emperor]

Oh Twilight. Even in an alternate universe you're still a social misfit and neurotic mess. It's a good thing the Great and Powerful Trixie graces Twilight with her noble presence to always give useful life advice in the form of backhanded compliments . Heck, she may be the only to tolerate Twilight, if Minuette et al's reaction is anything to go by