Chapter 1
The Archives were quiet at night.
Outside, guards patrolled the barbican, the palace gate, the throne room, and the many long corridors. They strode along ramparts and glided past minarets. They stood in pairs outside the Princess’s suite. But nopony went into the Canterlot Archives.
Moonbeams cut through the bookshelves from high windows, sprinkling light on the dust that swirled slowly around them. Row upon row of ancient texts, scrolls and tablets, boxes and carvings sat upon the shelves, without even the scratching of a bookwyrm to disturb the calm.
And then, in an aisle between two tall bookshelves, the space twisted, distorting the view of everything behind. It snapped back into place, revealing two ponies who hadn’t been there a moment before.
“You’re getting better at that, Princess,” said the smaller of the two, a pink mare with a warm golden mane.
“It’s best not to get used to it,” replied the taller, a graceful purple alicorn. “Time travel is inherently dangerous, you know that.”
Luster Dawn patted her saddlebag, containing the scroll they’d brought. “Dangerous but necessary. You’re lucky I interviewed Star Swirl for that assignment, or the whole of history might be in trouble. Again.”
“What has happened before must happen again,” said her teacher, Princess Twilight Sparkle.
“Ha! That’s two bits please.”
Twilight blinked. “It wasn’t, was it?”
“That was definitely a cryptic Celestia-ism. Pay up.”
“When we get home,” said Twilight with a sigh. “Sometimes I just can’t help it. She was my role model for so long, it’s so easy to slip into.”
“You taught me that poetry doesn’t equate to wisdom, remember.”
“I know.” A moment of pain crossed her face.
Luster patted her with a hoof. “You miss her?”
“Always. As much as you’d miss me, I’m sure.”
“Well, we should probably get in and out before we end up in her dungeon."
Twilight chuckled and inspected the shelves. “You’re right. Let’s put this scroll where it belongs and leave before we can do any damage. Let’s see, we found the spell in the Star Swirl the Bearded Wing. I think it was near the pegasus magic scrolls…”
She took the left aisle, while Luster wandered down the right. “I thought you said Pinkie found the scroll?” She brushed a careful hoof against shelves full of history. Centuries of accumulated knowledge from all three tribes kept under lock and key.
“You’re not supposed to be here!”
Luster ducked down. Whoever had issued that challenge was on the far side of a bookcase and probably hadn’t seen her. But that voice…
Princess Twilight turned to see her much younger self. The filly couldn’t have been more than twelve. She was standing on tippy-hooves, trying to look taller, and glaring indignantly at her older self.
“Er…”
“The Archives are only for authorised ponies,” she reiterated. “Who are you, and how did you get in here?”
“I… have special dispensation. From the Princess herself,” she added.
I do hereby grant myself special dispensation to enter my own library at whatever time it me behove, thought Princess Twilight hastily. She mentally stamped the permit, making it official.
“If that’s true, why are you sneaking around at night?”
This is unexpected. I don’t remember meeting another pony in the Archives, particularly not myself. I definitely cast the non-diverging version of the time travel spell, so it shouldn’t even be possible for me to change history in any significant way. I guess that means she’s… I’m going to forget all about this.
If that’s the case anyway, then… maybe honesty is the best option?
“I’m… alright, listen carefully, Twilight Sparkle. The truth is that I’m you, from the future.”
The filly squinted at her older self. “Nuh-uh. Because I know all about time travel.”
“You do?”
“And I know that it’s impossible. Nopony has ever been able to make a time travel spell work, not even Star Swirl the Bearded.”
“Ah, well, that’s true…” It was true, technically, Star Swirl never had figured out how to make a working time travel spell – which is why they were there to plant one.
“And ’sides, you don’t look anything like me. So,” the filly continued, punctuating her words by stabbing a hoof in the air, “you can’t be me from the future. It’s ridiculous. So who are you really?”
Princess Twilight took a step backwards. Actually, that may be for the best. If she did believe me she’d ask a lot of questions about her own future – like why I have wings. Still, she’s going to notice my cutie mark any minute. If I’m not using that to prove my identity, I should use it to support another story entirely.
“Well, I’m… somepony who’s a big fan of Star Swirl.” She lifted a fragile folio from the shelves in her aura, and at the same time cast a disguise spell on her flank, so that the glow of her horn from the first obscured the second. Her new cutie mark was an open book overlaid with a swirl of stars.
“So big a fan that you broke into the Canterlot Archives at night?”
“Of course. Haven’t you ever…” She paused. “Wait a minute. You’re not supposed to be here either, are you?”
The filly hesitated. “O- of course I am.”
“You’re supposed to be back in your tower asleep. You’ve got classes in the morning.”
“No I don’t!”
“Let’s see, it’s Wednesday night now, so tomorrow morning would be… magical ethics with Velvet Boot.”
“No it isn’t! And magical ethics is boring anyway. It’s all anecdotes and stuff old ponies said and stern warnings to never have any fun. It’s not like I’ll ever need to use it.”
Ha! You’ll be surprised how often magical ethics is going to come up. It isn’t always as simple as good pony, bad pony. Like that time the kirin ambassador–
An intake of breath and a muffled thump from the adjacent aisle drew their attention.
Was that Luster?
“What was that noise?” asked the filly.
It’s probably best to keep Luster hidden, or this cover story’s going to get more complicated.
“Oh, that was… probably just a bookwyrm, I expect.”
“There aren’t any bookwyrms in the archives. The spells keep them away.” She frowned, a little less certain, and there was a slight tremble as she added, “There… shouldn’t be any.”
“Oh, they’re clever little creatures. They can get into almost anywhere. I had an infestation in my own library once that took weeks to clear out. Every time I thought it was sorted out, I found another one nesting in a grimoire.”
“You have your own library?” asked the filly breathlessly.
Princess Twilight grinned. “I have the best library. There are books in there nopony else has even heard of. Sometimes I just spend whole days hidden away there, reading – until they finally find me.”
“How big is it?”
“Much bigger than the one I used to have, though I still miss that sometimes.”
“How come? How do I get my own library? I’d love to have my own library!”
“Well, being a princess helps.” She turned and fluttered one wing to allow the filly to see.
The filly was unimpressed. “Eh, that’s not so special. My foalsitter was a princess too. Not that I’ve needed a foalsitter in years and years,” she added hastily.
Why, that snotty little…
“Besides,” continued the filly, “plenty of ponies who aren’t princesses have libraries, so that clearly isn’t a condition.”
“That’s true, I suppose I wasn’t a princess when I was first put in charge of a library.”
“If I had my own library I’d spend all day and all night reading, and I wouldn’t need to do anything silly like making friends. And I’d lock the doors so nopony could disturb me.”
Ah, so this is after Celestia gave me the friends talk. The first of many.
Princess Twilight settled down on the floor. “I can see the temptation,” she said, recalling a number of occasions when she’d driven her courtiers to despair by doing just that. The mages always broke through her shields after a day or two. It was good practice for them. “Even so, don’t you feel sorry for those poor books?”
Filly Twilight was confused. “What do you mean?”
“When I see a book, I just feel like it wants to be read, don’t you? It’s full of knowledge waiting to get out, but instead you’ve got them all locked up, gathering dust.” She blew a little dust off a stack of ancient scrolls on a nearby shelf. “What about other ponies who want to borrow books?”
“They can’t. It’s my library. Other ponies aren’t allowed.”
“Well, that’s a shame. All those poor books going unread.”
“I’ll read them all,” insisted the filly. “I’ll just spend all day and night reading, and I’ll read every last one of them.”
“You’re only one pony,” replied the princess. “You can only read one book at once. I think It would be more efficient to let other ponies read them with you. Don’t you think the books would prefer to be read by lots of other ponies? Doesn’t a library full of ponies learning seem better than one where you’re all alone?”
“Other ponies are stupid.”
“They’d be less stupid if you let them read your books.”
“Nopony else gets how to treat a book right. They just leave them all over the place, out of order, upside down. If I had a library I’d organise things my way.”
I do that as well. I’m terrible for leaving books in a mess. And the librarians aren’t afraid of giving a princess a stern talking to. But there’s no point arguing with myself. I know what I was like at that age. And if I did somehow change my mind, I’d be changing history.
“Still, as nice as it is to read alone, some day you’ll realise how good it can be to spend time with your friends as well.”
“Nuh-uh. Time spent being friends and doing… friend stuff is time I’m not reading.”
“You really don’t have to choose one or the other, you know. I manage to read, while also making time in my life for the ponies that matter to me. There’s time enough for both.”