Counterclockwise

by AdrianJNovelle

Counterclockwise, Part 2

It was at this time, Dr. Zimmermare, that I realized how difficult this task was going to be. Sure, I no longer looked anything like my old self, but as I strolled through Ponyville - particularly, in the corner with which I was most familiar - I was subconsciously reminded that my current other self was no longer living in Equestria. Since I was still alive and well (as far as I knew), I figured I could do some research. And, as you know, I'm always up to the challenge when it comes to research!

So I hurried to the Ponyville Library, where, of course, no one was there, but there were plenty of books still stocking the shelves. I searched the shelves for a book on famous unicorns. Before I knew it, I had found one, and I flipped through it as fast as I could, skimming anything which might have revealed a clue as to my present location...or at least a starting point.

Then it hit me.

Duh! I'm still alive! Sure, I'm famous, but they only put dead ponies in history books, not living ones. Living ones have like Wikiponia articles, and I don't think even in this time, the Ponynet had been invented yet.

| "How do you know about the-?" |

I'm just a fast learner, Dr. Zimmermare. Now, as I was with my story.

I groaned with frustration. I went forward several years after my old self had died so I could look her up in a history book. Unfortunately, this trip took some time.

When I finally made it to the year 1,850,168 (twenty years after I had died), my journey still wasn't over. The Library was once again a shrine dedicated to my late self. I went in to take a peek and discovered that nothing had changed. For now, that's good news.

But, being that all the books were replaced with memorabilia of me, including tiny bobbleheads, a crystallized artwork of my cutie mark, and even a few large paintings of me, including one called the Birth of Twilight in which I was standing naked in the middle of a clam shell with a bunch of random mares and stallions - also naked - crowding me, looking as if they intended to greet me, like I was some sort of god.

That painting was so axiomatically incorrect. I don't remember my birth. But I'm pretty sure I was conceived by my parents and I was born in Canterlot Hospital, just like my brother, with only them and Shining Armor gathered around me when I came out of my mother. I certainly wasn't in a clam shell, fully grown, and had a reason to censor genitalia I didn't even have!

Ugh!

That was beside the point. I had a journey to make.

Seeing that my library was the only library in Ponyville - even in the year 1,850,168 - I figured I had to leave town to find a book about me. And yes, Dr. Zimmermare, before you inquire of me: I did take a glance around my shrine. There was nothing particularly informational - plainly decorative - besides the plaque which bore no information I desired to acquire. So I set hoof to Canterlot, where I knew there would be an even bigger library which would probably hold a history book about me, or at least a librarian who was familiar with my background.

One train ride later, and I was trotting through town, sticking out like a sore thumb when I saw everypony walking around with clothes on. I just realized then that Flo and Po stripped me of my clothing and forgot to give it back. I blame myself: I was in a hurry to get out of the spa and find my old self. I was also no longer of the more attractive ponies in Canterlot.

Luckily, even after all this time, the layout of Canterlot hadn't changed, and I was able to find my way around to the Canterlot Library. I originally wanted to visit the library that was in Canterlot Caslte, but security didn't recognize me, and they didn't let me through the doors. I guess my austere appearance made me look suspicious, even though I'm technically Canterlot Royalty...by marriage. Still.

A librarian spotted me surveying the shelves for a book.

"Need anything in particular?" she asked.

"Yes," I said. "I'm, uh, doing a report on a pony named Twilight Sparkle, and I-"

The librarian raised a hoof to shush me. She walked away for a few moments, and returned, a book entitled The Biographical Presentation of Twilight Sparkle in her hooves.

"This what you want?"

"Perfect!" I exclaimed.

I started for a table I saw nearby.

"You're not leaving with that, are you?"

I turned around, the book still in my hooves.

"Pardon?"

"Well, I'm gonna need a library card if you insist on removing that book from its home."

I groaned inaudibly.

"I just wanna skim it for something; I won't leave the library with it."

"Hmm. Very well. If you insist on not getting a library card to check it out...I suppose that's okay."

I trotted to the table, threw the book down, and started turning its pages with my horn.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon...childhood...adolescent years...young-adulthood...ehm...ah-hah! Departure from Equestria!"

Twilight Sparkle, before marrying the love of her life and becoming a parent, at age two hundred, twenty, finally left Ponyville and moved to Canterlot. There she would meet the loveable stallion, Dawn (see page 192) and leave Equestria almost for good.

After becoming a parent (see page 195), she and her husband joined a convoy of pioneering ponies into the great unknown, into a distant land, miles away, uncharted and unseen by anypony. There she raised a family, and did not return until the age of eight hundred and seventy. Seeing as she was growing elderly and her spell reducing the rate of the aging process, she decided to return home to Canterlot, where she would spend her final hours.

Upon her death, she was buried within the earth below the library in which she resided in Ponyville. The library was then emptied and converted into a shrine in her honor.

I know I abridged some of that, but that's what I remember the book said.

So, Twilight spent her last few years in Canterlot? UGHH! This wild-goose-chase was really frustrating me.

I handed the book back to the librarian, and then exited the library.

I went a few years back before my death: 1,850,165.

I then asked around for the location of a mare named Twilight Sparkle, who I heard was taking residence here. She was in Canterlot Castle, living in a large suite of her own. Now I had to get past security, and I was good to go. The only thing is: I'm an eye-sore nopony knows anything about. Had I still been sixteen years old when I went through all this, I would probably admit defeat here, or camp out in front of Canterlot Castle and wait until I left to incerpt myself. But, as a forty-one-year-old pony, my magical abilities far exceeded anyone's in Canterlot. What else should I have done by hypnotize the guards with my magical prowess?

Sure enough, I was able to sneak past security at the gate, climb the steps, and enter Canterlot Castle. It took me several minutes, but I managed to hide from all the guards patrolling the vast, empty halls, and find the room where Twilight was staying. I knocked on the door.

"Come in," a weak version of my voice called.

I entered, finding an old, old, old version of myself seated in a rocking chair in front of a fireplace, reading a book. I was unrecognizable. My horn was limp, I wore a pair of spectacles probably due to vision problems I was experiencing, my mane was completely white and lacking in color, my coat gray with age, wrinkles all over my face and my hooves. I would not say I looked eight hundred and seventy-three years old. But elderly: that was a given.

"Who are you?" I asked myself, squinting as I adjusted my frames and visibly trembled with pain.

"I'm, uh..." until now, I had not realized I was not going under a pseudonym. I called myself Twinkle once to somepony, but that's already the name of somepony who lives in Ponyville in my present timeline. She's as old as I am now. So, I thought up a lie - and I thought it up quick. "My name's Stardust. Are you Twilight Sparkle?"

"Yes," I answered weakly. "What can an ol' mare like me do for a foal like yourself?" I coughed after I spoke. "Pardon me."

"I'm a student of the Princess of Equestria. And I wanna do a research paper on you. Mind telling me a bit about your life?"

"Of course not. Please, take a seat," I pointed to another rocking chair parallel to the one in which I was sitting. I did so. "So, what is it you wanna know?" I coughed again.

"Just, uh, tell me about your life since you got back from being a pioneer pony."

"Not s' good," I frowned. "My husband's dead, my daughter's dead...I've outlived them all. I'm eight hundred and seventy-three years old and still going stro-" I hacked. "Sorry." I cleared my throat. "I'm hoping to live to a millennium. Nopony's lived to a millennium. I'll be the first pony in history to do that. Unfortunately, the only way that is possible is the use of my magical abilities. But I'm not too caught up in living a millennium: I know I'm already gonna be in the history books. And..." I seemed to have paused.

"And?" I inquired myself.

I took off my spectacles, cleaned them with a lab coat I was wearing (for whatever reason, I never found out the motivation behind that, I'm sad to say), and put them back over my eyes. "I'm miserable. Nothing but a dusty, ol' mare, just waiting to die. I've got no family. No husby. No kids. No parents. Shining Armor's dead. Princess Cadence's dead. Their children are dead. All my friends are dead, dead, dead." She turned her head to look me straight in the eyes. "I used to tell myself that if I could live my life over again, I wouldn't change anything - except casting that darn age retardation spell. I've since coped with reality. I cast that spell. And I know that if I ever tried to reverse it, I would be committing suicide. Sure, I may not be as happy and animated as I was when I was just a filly of two hundred, but that doesn't mean I can't be happy now. I'm just having some difficulty because I'm lonely - lonely as I was when I was here in Canterlot, even before I moved to Ponyville. I don't even have Spike with me anymore. Everyone I know's dead as a doornail, and have been for years, centuries even. It's a wonder I can still find pleasure and entertainment in such a dark, cold time of my life. Sometimes I pray for my days to end. But, I know no good won't come from such nonsense. I musn't think like that. If I truly wished for my life to come to an end - if I truly was unhappy - I'd go off my age spell and kill myself."

My own speech nearly brought tears to my eyes. I tried to hide them, but it was difficult, since, as she spoke, I began to wonder what my life would be like if everyone I knew was dead. This Twilight Sparkle is miserable, and too ancient and fogged up in her thoughts to realize it. If she weren't so old, I'd think she was out of her mind. But I know I could never be out of my mind, and I know that with age comes the deadly consequences of forgetfulness, a subtraction of logical reasoning, and reduced reflexes. And this Twilight Sparkle was not in her eighties or ninties: she's over eight hundred. Her misery should have terminated years ago. But casting that stupid age spell only made her life a living hell.

I could not bear to hear any more of my heart-wrenching speech of misery and woe. I knew what I had to do.

Now, to fix this mess.

"Thank you, Ms. Sparkle," I said, rising to my hooves.

"It's Mz. Sparkle to you, young lady," I said, twitching from what looked like Ponkinsan's. "It's okay: I know I'm an old lady. My body's a constant reminder of that, y'know. But, I've hardly told you a thing!"

"That's alright: I have more than enough information for my report."

"Do you now? Well then," I outstretched my wrinkled, limp hoof. "I wish you the best of luck on that report of yours, Ms. Stardust."

"Thank you," I said, shaking my hoof.

"Go on now...I'd show you to the door myself, but I'm in no condition to move right now; I'm sorry."

"It's no trouble. Goodbye, Mz. Sparkle!"

"Goodbye!" I coughed. "Maybe we'll see one another again soon in the future."

I mumbled to myself as I exited her suite. "Or the past."

The question was now: where to go? When did I cast that dang spell? I could go back inside and ask myself, but that would be suspiciously weird. After all: that Twilight Sparkle is capable of time-travel, but simply refuses not to. Given her age, I don't think she has a choice anymore. Nevertheless, asking her was not an option. I could also go back to the library, find that book and skim it again. But that would appear weird, too. Obviously, I wouldn't cast it in the first forty-one years of my life. So, what better place to start than age forty-two?

Good thing I was already in Canterlot when I arrived in the year 1,849,293, because I would hate to have to take what was formerly the Friendship Express back here. All this traveling was making my hooves hurt. Yes, they still hurt a little, especially after all that running around I did to escape the TMS.

Anyway, there was Princess Celestia's grave, and there was myself just a year older sitting at it, mourning her loss. I trotted down the steps of Canterlot Castle, and approached a much younger-looking Twilight Sparkle.

"I'm sorry for your loss," I said, grabbing her attention. "She meant a lot to me as well."

I said nothing even though I was staring right into my violet eyes, tear after tear forming in the corners, and quietly rolling down my cheeks as I sniffled.

"Can you do me a favor please, Ms. Sparkle?"

"How do you know my name?" I asked through the sobbing.

"Let's just say I've seen you around. You're a popular pony, Twilight. Anyway, can you do me a favor, please?"

"Yeah...I guess...what is it?"

"Don't cast a spell which retards the aging process. Ever. Just don't do it." I paused. "Think you can do that for me?"

"Um, yeah, I-I guess."

"Thanks. Well, like I said, you have my condolences, Twilight."

"You never said that."

"Okay, well, you have my condolences anyway. I, too, was close to Princess Celestia."

"Who are you?" I asked.

"The name's Stardust."

"Pretty name," she remarked.

"Thanks. Well, I just stopped by to give another word to Princess Celestia...I'm afraid I must be on my way."

I simply nodded in response.

I headed back to the year 1,850,168 - the year of my ancient death - and then took the bullet-train back to Ponyville, where I found my shrine once again, everything as it was with the axiomatically incorrect painting and fancy decorations of my body and my cutie mark. There was one change, however.

Twilight Acorna Sparkle
Loving wife, mother, and faithful student
1,849,251 - 1,849,349 (Age 98)

Comments

[silvadel]

What a mistake.. Just because she was miserable at 850 does not mean she did not have many good years between 98 and 849. Plus she may have been just as miserable at THIS 98 as she was at that 850. Plus it is not just her -- the world was probably better for having a twilight sparkle in it for all that time.

[JDC2263]

you good sir a getting a: like, favourite, and follow
on the other hand, EPIC story mate keep going