Chapter 6: Existence

“Tailor, is something the matter? You look pale…”

I was stunned; Winter Breeze had the exact same cutie mark as me. Of course, it wasn’t entirely uncommon for two ponies to have amazingly similar marks, but they were never identical! Not only did Winter’s mark display books of different genres, they were the same books as mine, and in the same positioning too.

Winter was staring at me as I got lost in thought. I was trying to remember some of the letters we had sent to each other after I had transferred schools; had we ever talked about getting our cutie marks? Even in passing? For the life of me I couldn’t remember. I found it unlikely that we had never mentioned getting our cutie marks to each other, as it was quite an important event, but I honestly had no recollection of any mention of cutie marks in any of our letters at all.

“Tailor, seriously what’s wrong? You’re beginning to freak me out a little…”

It dawned on me that I was wearing an apron for work and that it was covering my cutie mark. Winter couldn’t see that we had the same mark.

“Um, yeah, well… Can we talk alone? I just need a minute to ask my boss for a quick break.”

“Actually,” Winter began, “I have to get back to work, maybe we could meet up tomorrow to talk about whatever’s wrong.”

“No,” I stated sternly, “I think this is something very important, I need to talk to you now.”

Winter stared at me for a moment, taking in my serious mood, “Fine, but I really can’t talk long.”

I nodded, and went to tell my boss I was going to be gone for a little while.

***

Winter and I were sitting on a park bench.

I was having difficulty starting the conversation I wanted to have.

“So why did we need to talk so urgently?” Winter began the conversation for me, she looked at me quizzically.

“Well, um…” I looked down at my hooves for a moment, then I took off my apron, “take a look at my cutie mark.”

“Hmm,” Winter moved her gaze to my flank and then let out a gasp.

She stopped and stared, just as I had done a few minutes before.

“But that’s… not possible…” was all Winter managed to say.

“I know.”

We were both silent for a moment, then finally Winter spoke again.

“What is you talent?”

“Helping ponies find-”

“Books they like…” Winter cut me off.

“You too?”

“Yeah,” she nodded.

More silence.

I spoke first this time.

“Are you happy with you talent?”

Winter looked at me oddly again, “Of course I am.”

“Well there’s the difference…”

“You mean you’re not happy with your mark?”

“No, I’ve always felt like I’d been given the wrong talent… and now, it seems like I have yours…”

Winter and I took part in a little more awkward conversation but soon had to go, we had to get back to work. We agreed to meet again the next day.

I was now just even more confused than I had been before.

I was now not only convinced that I had the wrong cutie mark, I was convinced I had somepony else’s.

***

Winter and I met up the next afternoon at a coffee shop.

Once again things were a little awkward, but we seemed to be a little less shocked than yesterday and it made talking a little easier.

“I have to ask,” I began, “how did you get your mark exactly?”

“I helped somepony who didn’t enjoy reading get into reading.”

“Me too… Where were you working?”

“My school library, as a volunteer of course."

“Me too… when was this?”

It turned out we had received our marks on the exact same day.

This was only getting stranger and none of the information was actually helping me understand the situation better.

I thought for a moment.

“Winter?”

“Hmm?”

“There’s somepony I think we should talk to.”

“Who?”

“Their name is Serenity.”

***

I was still I bit upset with the results of my first meeting with Serenity and felt a little odd when knocking on the door of her office building.

Soon after knocking Serenity appeared in the doorway.

“Tailor? Here again without an appointment I see; you realize you don’t have the excuse of not knowing you need one this time… Hmm, who have you brought with you?”

“This is winter,” I stated, “I know I don’t have an appointment, again, but I think you may want to talk to us.”

“And why’s that?”

Winter and I moved so both our flanks were visible.

“But, that’s...”

Serenity was silent… I was already beginning to get tired of all these stunned silences that I’d been receiving since the day before.

“So,” Winter began, “is there any chance we can come in unannounced?”

Serenity took a moment to snap back into reality.

“Um, yeah, yeah, come right into my office… We’re going to talk now.”

***

Serenity had taken us straight to her office, to the noticeable annoyance of the ponies in the waiting room, and we began to talk immediately.

“What is your connection?” Serenity asked, “I mean, how do you two know each other?”

“We were child hood friends,” I explained, “we only went to the same school briefly, but we wrote each other letters throughout most of our youth.”

“And, Winter, what is your talent?”

“The same as Tailor’s… But I’m happy with mine.”

“I see…”

We informed Serenity of how creepily similar the ways we got our cutie marks were.

Even Serenity had no idea of what to make of the information, so she moved right onto casting her spell.

Once again light surrounded me, and also Winter.

After a while the light receded.

Everything was still and silent.

“So?” Winter asked, “What do you think?”

Serenity stared at us, the emotion displayed on her face was odd and I couldn’t tell what she was thinking at all.

All I knew was her look did not inspire confidence.

“I don’t know how to say this…”

That’s all Serenity said for a long time, neither Winter or I dared to say anything.

Eventually Serenity spoke again.

“One of you… you shouldn’t exist.”

What?

Once again nopony spoke. I couldn’t take this damn silence anymore.

“What do you mean?” I shouted.

Serenity spoke, still stunned, “One of you... well, your mere existence is not possible.”

“What does that mean?” Winter asked seriously.

“I can’t really explain it, it doesn’t make sense.”

“It’s me isn’t it?” I said quietly, “I shouldn’t even be here… I don’t fit here; I don’t belong,” then even more quietly, “I knew I was the problem… I should have accepted that sooner.”

Author's Note

Oh, I almost forgot to include an author's note... which I guess I have always done in the last five chapters.
I don't really have much to say about this one... It's not bad but the last chapter was a bit better. This only came out so soon after the last one because I used this as an excuse to procrastinate on some work... But I feel my sort of nervous mood about getting my work done actually added to this chapter a bit... maybe it doesn't though and I'm just crazy.
Oh well, hopefully you enjoy this chapter. Comments are greatly appreciated.
Thanks for reading.