The Beginning and the End

by bdoubleowo

The Future is Now

CANTERLOT CASTLE, YEAR 20 AT (AGE OF TWILIGHT)

“Twilight?”

“Twilight!”

“TWILIGHT!”

“Whuhhh?” Twilight slowly opened her eyes, revealing Spike and an unfamiliar unicorn standing over her. Spike sighed in relief.

“Oh, thank goodness, you’re okay!” Spike hugged Twilight, then let go and pointed at the unicorn. “This is Amber Heart. She’s a nurse at Canterlot Medical Center. We’re at the center right now, actually. She helped me bring you here.”

Amber Heart nodded. “I’m glad you’re okay, Miss Velvet.”

“I am, too, Nurse Amber Heart.” Twilight smiled, then turned to Spike and mouthed, “Velvet?” Spike shrugged.

“Thanks for helping us!” Spike said.

Amber Heart smiled at him. “You know, you remind me of someone. I just can’t put my hoof on it! What’s your name, little dragon?”

“My name is Garble,” Spike lied. Twilight raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

“Well, it was nice meeting you!” Amber Heart opened the door, waved, and trotted outside. Twilight stood up and stared at Spike.

“Velvet? Garble?!” Twilight asked indignantly.

“Well, since you’re apparently the ruling princess of Equestria, I couldn’t say your name was Twilight Sparkle, could I?” Spike asked in response. “I told them your name was Shining Velvet – Shining from your brother’s name, and Velvet from your mother’s.”

“Huh. Good job, Spike!” Twilight rubbed his head, and Spike laughed. “Where’d Garble come from, though?”

“I dunno. Just sounded like a good name. It wouldn’t surprise me if there was an actual dragon named Garble, though.” Spike shrugged. “Or one named Smolder, or Sludge. Those were my second and third choices.”

“Alright, then.” Twilight jumped out of the hospital bed and lifted Spike onto her back. “Well, it’s time we find out how to get home.”

“Wait, Twilight!” Spike pulled on her mane, causing the purple unicorn to glare at him. “We’re in the ACTUAL FUTURE. We should find out about you, and how you became a princess, so that you know how to keep the timeline on its course when we return!”

“No, Spike. That’s cheating, and it’s also probably going to cause some kind of paradox. If anypony sees me, they’ll probably assume I’m my future self’s daughter or something, since I look like Twilight Sparkle. If I was, hypothetically, looking up my own mom, ponies may get suspicious.” Twilight sighed. “Although it would be interesting…”

“Well, then, let’s leave Canterlot!” Spike said. “I mean, you’ve never moved from Canterlot, and knowing you, you probably never will!” This statement earned him a glare from Twilight. “What? Anyway, why don’t we go to a smaller town’s library? They’ll probably have information about you. Especially if you’ve apparently been ruling for 20 years.”

“Great idea, Spike!” Twilight smiled at him. “The only question being… which town should we go to?”

Spike jumped off of Twilight’s back and ran over to a street vendor. He grabbed a map, paid the vendor, then returned to Twilight. Spike handed the map to her, and Twilight opened it.

“Ah! Perfect! Thanks, Spike!” Twilight clapped her hooves together. “Hmmm… That town looks good!” She pointed to a small location; close enough to Canterlot to get there easily, but far enough that ponies probably wouldn’t recognize her at first glance, or at all.

“What’s it called, Twilight? I can buy the train tickets.” Spike said, holding up two bits that he had taken from Twilight’s saddlebag, which she had never taken off from when she had been reading on the hill back in 2012 AC. “Granted, they’ll probably be more than two bits, but there are more bits in your saddlebag.” He peered at Twilight’s hoof, which was still pointing at the location of the town in question on the map.

“The town, Spike, is called Ponyville!” She smiled, and Spike raised an eyebrow at her.

“Seriously? Ponyville? That’s an original name…” he muttered. “Anyway, can I have some bits? I’ll go pay for the tickets.” Twilight hoofed over the bits, and Spike ran off to the train station.

She looked around Future Canterlot, examining all the changes. For one thing, Canterlot Castle had to be at least twice as large as it was in 2012 AC. Also, there was a huge statue in the middle of the fountain – the very same one that she had fallen in. As she looked closer at it, Twilight couldn’t believe her eyes. It depicted Twilight herself, surrounded by five other ponies: two were earth ponies, one was a unicorn, and the other two were pegasi. Twilight had no idea who those other five ponies were, but they must have been important.

Suddenly, Twilight heard the pattering of feet behind her. “Twilight, I got the tickets!” Spike announced, his voice quiet enough that only Twilight could hear him. “The ticket pony almost wouldn’t take my bits, something about them being ‘outdated’? But he soon accepted them.”
“Spike… what did you do?” Twilight asked him sternly.

Spike raised an eyebrow. “Nothing! Really! He just shrugged and accepted the bits, and gave me the tickets! Honest!”

Twilight laughed. “It’s alright, Spike. I believe you. I was just messing with you. Now come on, we can’t be late! We don’t want to miss our train!” She picked Spike up with her magic, placed him on her back, and galloped toward the Canterlot train station.

As they left, neither of them noticed the blue light of a changeling detransforming behind them. The changeling, who was light blue with pink chitin, red wings, and teal eyes, stared in shock at the departing unicorn and dragon. “Is… is that… no… but…” she sputtered, at a loss for words.

Ocellus had learned many tricks in the changeling hive about how to detect other changelings while both they and you were in disguise, back when she was a nymph and when Queen Chrysalis was in control. Both the purple unicorn and her dragon companion that Ocellus had seen had none of the identifiers – meaning that they had either found a way to avoid being detected by other changelings, or they weren’t changelings at all. Ocellus was willing to bet that it was the latter reason. If it was… she had to tell somecreature. Maybe… maybe even Princess Twilight.

Comments

[Switch Swap]

I was wondering if you could let me know when a new chapter is released.

[bdoubleowo]

10118391 You can track it, and then set the "Tracking" library to notify you.

But yeah, I'll do so! :)

[MouseBoy]

Looking pretty good. Keep it up!

[bdoubleowo]

10124811 Thanks so much! :D

[Yoshifan30]

“I dunno. Just sounded like a good name. It wouldn’t surprise me if there was an actual dragon named Garble, though.” Spike shrugged. “Or one named Smolder, or Sludge. Those were my second and third choices.”

Lol oh spike from season 1 if only you knew because you met those dragons in the future at least two of them who will give you some trouble but the Smolder she going to be cool with you

[bdoubleowo]

10559629
That's why I chose those names XD And yeah, Smolder and Spike are pretty cool

[Yoshifan30]

Well it looks like the past Twilight and Spike are in the future not knowing what is going on here they decided to explore Canterlot then they headed to Ponyville to check out but little they know Ocellus saw them and she doesn't know if they were in Disguise or something and it looks like she's going to talk to Princess Twilight about this again how would these two will react to each other

[bdoubleowo]

10559649
You'll have to read the latest chapter OwO