A really unpleasant awakening
Twilight Sparkle yawned and set herself upon her bed, the unending toils of the day finally catching up to her. From sending numerous reports regarding the nature of magical wave functions to devising a more efficient method of calculating the harmonic resonance coefficient of triple layered spell matrices she was utterly exhausted. Although the academic inside of her would have strongly urged to continue onwards in an unstoppable momentum of learning she felt her completion of next week’s projects and upcoming six month schedule afforded her a chance to relax. So it would be she decided, that half-past midnight was an early enough bedtime.
Trudging drearily down the stairs of the library Twilight suddenly became aware of a gentle grunting noise coming from the second floor, something being so thoroughly engaged in study would not have let her notice earlier. She dismissed the idea of a psychotic murderer hiding underneath her bed in favour of the idea that Spike was experiencing something exciting inside his little head. Twilight sighed, related to Rarity no doubt, she thought with the slightest hint of amusement and potential concern before trotting downstairs. After a bout with several unorganized book shelves she managed to sort and pack her stationary in their appropriate bins and get underneath warm sheets in under forty minutes.
Soon the only light shining down upon her was that of the moon while the only smell was that of burnt wax and candle smoke lingering about before eventually clearing. Twilight felt settled beneath her thick blankets and on top of her soft pillow, it was the perfect environment for inducing slumber in case her fatigue wasn’t up to the task. Slowly she drifted between sleep and wakefulness before the former won over putting her in dreamland.
***
Twilight Sparkle awoke in comfort. The shining rays Celestia bestowed upon her filled the hollow tree with bright energy as particles of dust danced lazily around her bed. With renewed vigor she threw off her covers and poked her head out the window to savour the fresh morning air, which was quite uplifting. It was not before she saw the sun half way across the sky did she begin to tremble.
If the sun is there already, then the day is half finished meaning… I overslept! Oh nonononononono this is bad! My scheduled breakfast and lunch, I’ve missed them! And all the reports I finished last night, they’re all overdue! They should have been sent this morning at seven-thirty exactly, what will Princess Celestia think?
Regarding Twilight it was possible, for a well trained eye, to link and identify several stages of panic based on the situation in question. Scheduling errors, minor mistakes in calculations and such usually resulted with Twilight breathing heavily into several paper bags and anywhere from ten to twenty hours of study immediately after. Missing a deadline entirely was something not yet documented in the wild, although many hypothesized that Twilight would simply pass out from tachycardia and nopony would be there to witness it.
As Twilight’s heart began gaining speed she started pacing frantically around her bed in an attempt to calm herself and regain sufficient motor control with poor results. Had it not been for the hard scaly object on which she stomped and accompanying cry of pain she might have indeed lost consciousness from shock. Brought back to her senses Twilight shook her head back and forth and peered down at the source of noise. A green and purple baby dragon peered right back at her with one half open eye before grumbling and pulling his blanket back over his head. Spike, is still in bed? She thought, this late?
While not unusual to see the dragon sleep through the early morning Twilight had never seen him back in bed after breakfast, which should have been this morning at eight o’ clock, she reminded herself. If she ever overslept he would wake her but given the fact that half a day’s worth of productivity was wasted and Spike was likely to have already eaten, based on the shards of gem lying strewn about his bed, it would seem the only logical inference was that the lazy reptile had shirked his work. Twilight’s face contorted into a mass of unrecognizable shapes that would have piqued the curiosity of psychologists everywhere.
“Spike! What are you doing still in bed?! The sun’s out, half the day is over and I OVERSLEPT! Overslept! Me! Do you realize the consequences of such actions?! Reports unfiled, work undone and my schedule! Oh, it’ll take hours to successfully divert and rearrange times to compensate for this ‘incident’, and that’s just the start! There’s still many other factors to consider, like how I’ll…”
It was at this point that Twilight realized her words were meaningless to the immature dragon who was actively mocking her just by not saying anything or responding to entertain her rant. With verbal communication ineffective Twilight moved down the checklist of ways to get baby dragons out of bed to her next best alternative, physical stimulus. Nudging with a hoof didn’t seem to work nor did any other forms of physical contact. Twilight noted this while jumping up and down on the test subject, who stilled appeared fairly unresponsive.
Hmmm, better use the magic touch, she thought and hopped off the now trampled mess of blankets housing the little bugger.
“Come on now, get your scaly little butt out of there, we have a lot to catch up on!” Hopefully her incentive was tempting enough to get him up, after all, who doesn’t like to get out of bed to work and study? Her horn lit up and a purple manifestation engulfed the baby dragon slowly pulling him out of bed before a burst of green fire made its way from Spike’s mouth to the caster’s face.
“Leave me alone or you’ll get another one to the muzzle, you morning marauder.” He grumbled before pulling sheets back over his head. Twilight stared in shock, she couldn’t believe what had just happened. Sure Spike could be quite grumpy in the morning but to intentionally belch at her was something different altogether. It was something that required further investigation into the dragon’s psyche, something that warranted a bit a probing. Twilight smiled, a bit of revenge was in order.
Just as her horn was powering up the sound of a door opening and closing became audible, the library door in all likeliness. Twilight had a visitor! One of her friends or a very intrusive sales pony, she hoped it was the former although the latter wouldn’t be too bad, even Twilight needed target practice now and then. The sound of hoof steps echoed through the library and Twilight could hear clops on wood as the mystery pony moved upstairs. The purple unicorn readied herself to attack or friendly greet her guest, perhaps both. However Twilight would do neither as her guest just happened to be, herself.
How very peculiar, Spike must have hit me harder than I realized, Twilight thought while staring at her doppelganger who half-heartedly returned the gaze with the utmost neutrality. Other her was almost completely identical save for a mane and tail that had never seen a brush and a face that was the epitome of apathy, if apathy had a face. Twilight, the concerned one, studied the clone in more depth but noted no changes in facial expression or body language even when being right up in its face.
A changeling? Twilight pondered to herself while other her bellowed out a large yawn before walking over to their bed. Not likely, it would have to be an exact duplicate in appearance and there are several noticeable flaws.
Twilight kept contemplating several different scenarios while other her flopped onto the bed and disappeared beneath a thick heavy blanket. Perhaps I’ll try talking to me, no it! I’m not crazy! It’s not me! She eventually dismissed the topic of questioning her own sanity and approached the occupied bed.
“Good morning, my name is Twilight Sparkle, I’m the attendant of this establishment and wish to confer a warm welcome to you but I must first let you know that this is not a bed and breakfast, it is a library. If you are looking for a book to check out it would be my pleasure to assist you and perhaps we can chat about your selection over some tea. However before any of that can take place I must know, who exactly are you?”
Twilight waited with bated breath for a response. Soon the covers began to shuffle and other her sat up and gazed at her.
“What are you talking about? This is my place and it should be your pleasure to see yourself out,” she said before snorting and beckoning to the door. Twilight seemed taken aback at first but came up with a suitable response.
“Excuse me, but I think you’ll find this is my library. It is not a place, it is a center of knowledge and discovery with me as its supervisor. Now I will politely ask you again, what is your identity?”
“What’s it to ya huh?! This is my place and you’re disrupting me, so get out and let me sleep!”
“Sleep?! At this time?! The day is nearly half finished and you want to sleep?! If you really were the curator here then you would be a bit more proactive about your duties, and if you really were me then you would be finishing those reports to the princess and proofreading that paper on spellbinding circles before submitting it to the Center of Experimental Magic! So what’s your excuse?!”
Other Twilight stared at her with a look of exasperation that quickly turned to a lack of interest as she just shook her head and fell back on her pillow without another word. Proactive Twilight felt victorious for a while but soon realized that other her had shrugged off the lecture like water off a duck’s back.
The nerve of it! Did lazy her not realize the importance of continuing studies? The absolute necessity of seizing the day as a means for productive efficiency? It was unfathomable for Celestia’s personal protégé.
The only nonfictional situation Twilight could apply the current situation to had been a book detailing the Many-worlds interpretation titled Quantum mechanics, Objective reality and the universal wavefunction. From there Twilight had read and contemplated the possibility of alternative histories and futures, how there was an infinite number of universes and how everything that could have possibly happened in her own past, but did not, occurred in the past of some other universe or universes. Even with this information however, Twilight could be absolutely certain that in no alternate universe did she exist as such a sluggish, languor, lackadaisical, procrastinating, careless, dilatory lout!
To her acquaintance with fact and truth, only Discord could be capable of conjuring up such a nightmare.
Nightmare! That’s it! This is just a bad dream! It’s the only logical explanation! She thought with newfound joy as the realization that none of this horrid experience was actually real hit her. This was nothing more than a false awakening, a type of lucid dream which had convinced Twilight she had awoken from sleep but in reality had not, with an undesirable setting thrown in for laughs, although Twilight was not feeling humorous in the slightest.
All I need to do is wake up, then this abomination will be gone! Fortunately, Twilight had learned much regarding the magic of dreams from recent correspondence with a certain princess of the night. “If stuck in a world of horror, one that brings out the greatest demons and anxiety within your slumber and I have not come to your aid, this technique will be your greatest ally.” Twilight could remember the grand statement clearly and now recalled the correct formula for warping out of the despicable place she called her dreams.
As her horn glowed with a slowly intensifying light she spared one last glance at the apathetic version of herself and sighed.
“You know…” she started, “I can’t force you to do what I think is best for you, that is something you must discover on your own. It is the self-enlightenment you should find to be quite valuable in the long run and if you need somewhere to start I can suggest several good books that detail the topic quite thoroughly…”
“Jeez! Can ya just shut up and leave?! You’re giving me a headache!”
Lecturing Twilight gave a hard stare and was about to deliver a scathing comeback but before she could do so her horn flashed brightly and the dream world fell away into nothingness.
***
With a gasp followed by heavy breathing Twilight Sparkle awoke once more, hopefully for real this time. Quickly she took in her surroundings, still her room, and breathed a sigh of relief. Upon putting a hoof against her forehead she felt moist hair, apparently she had sweated quite thoroughly. The nightmare had been quelled and looking out the window Twilight could just see the sun peaking over the rolling hills of Sweet Apple Acres, her schedule had not yet been violated.
Twilight glanced over at Spike’s bed and found him snoring away as expected, maybe she wouldn’t get assaulted so viciously while trying to wake him. With a very evident smile on her face Twilight hopped out of bed and trotted downstairs to retrieve her daily planner.
Everything is going to be how it should be.
***
With a gasp followed by mild breathing Twilight Sparkle awoke for the first time that day, hopefully for not too long. Slowly she peered back and forth over her covers, still her room, and grunted with frustration. Upon putting a hoof against her forehead she felt it to be bone dry. The annoyance in her slumber was over, abruptly ended by that busybody manifestation. The dream went well at first, she had been placed just outside her library and entered only to find a fake her. She had dismissed it as just another strange dream and ignored the presence, which unfortunately made itself known.
The sound of Spike snoring was audible and the sun shone brightly through the window. Looking at her bedside table she saw a book titled Quantum mechanics, Objective reality and the universal wavefunction, one that she had finished not too long ago.
Stupid book, she thought before closing her eyes and pulling the covers back over her head.