Chapters Memory Scan-Inator Thingy Ma-bob
"So," Twilight said, peering at the four confused faces staring back at her. "Any questions?"
Four hooves instantly raised, one wildly waving around. Twilight ignored Pinkie's hoof and pointed to Applejack.
"Yes, Applejack?"
"Ah was jus' wonderin' what it does."
Twilight had gone all over Ponyville to look for all five of them, and once she found them, she dragged them all off to her new Palace's lab, where she showed them a metal helmet-like thing sitting on a table. This is where we are in the story, now. Her five best friends staring at a strange machine on a table with five identically confused looks.
Twilight smiled, and gestured towards herself. "It will help me remember. Rarity?" She pointed to the only nicorn left in the group, who had her hoof politely raised.
Rarity frowned. "What is it called?"
Twilight frowned, too, but hers was more of a thinky-thinky-princess frown. "What do you mean, 'What is it called' ?"
Rarity walked forward a couple steps, setting her hoof on the machine, to which Twilight cringed and cautiously removed.
"Well, any great invention needs to have a good name. It's simply uncouth to do without." She chirped. Rainbow nodded from behind her.
"Yeah," she called, "Like 'The Memory Scanner 9000'!!! "
Rarity rolled her eyes. "No, no, no, that will simply not do. It needs to be sophisticated, like 'The Memory Scanner 9000'. "
"That's what I just said!"
"Yes, dear, but I said it more gracefully."
"Enough!" Twilight had to stop them, before a full-blown argument started.
"Look, girls, let's just call it-"
"I KNOW, I KNOW!!!" the frantic pink hoof waved faster.
"Yes, Pinkie?" Twilight deadpanned.
"The Memory Scan-Inator Thingy Ma-bob!"
Twilight sighed, a small smile on her face as she shook her head. "Alright Pinkie, we'll call it the Memory Scan-Inator Thingy Ma-bob."
"YIPPEE!" Pinkie cheered from her spot in between Rarity and Applejack.
"So, Fluttershy?"
The yellow Pegasus squeaked at her name, shrinking back. "Uhm, yes, T-Twilight...?"
"Do you have any questions?"
"No..."
"Great!" The Alicorn grinned, picking up the Memory Scan-Inator Thingy Ma-bob, setting it on her head. "The way it works it this, Rarity, I'll need you to channel your energy to your horn while you're wearing this," Twilight picked up some metal thing shaped like a Unicorn's horn. She stepped towards Rarity, placing it on her horn and fitting it. "The energy will be carried through these tubes," she pointed to some clear tubes that went from Rarity's horn brace thingy to Twilight's helmet. "And the energy with lock with my own," she pointed to a brace thingy with some tubes leading towards Rarity's. "The magic from our energy will infuse and create a burst, which is led through the helmet and into my mind."
A blue hoof was raised.
"Yes, Rainbow Dash?"
"Why not just use a spell? Like, why do you have to use science for everything?"
Twilight turned and began to pace, setting her helmet back on the table.
"Well, you see," she began, "There are of course spells for somepony else to look into another pony's memories, but what that pony doesn't remember, the other won't see. So no spell would work in the way I need it to."
Rainbow Dash still did not see the need to use this stupid helmet thing. Why make everything so complicated when in reality it was so simple? Why couldn't Twilight just invent some spell that would work right? The answers to these questions, she didn't know.
"So, all in all, here we are. Now the question is... are you ready to try it, girls?
Twilight found a pain rushing through her head as Rarity's and her own magic surged through her machine, making Twilight feel like all the Manticores in all the wide, wide world of Equestria were trying to tear her head off, as slowly and as painfully as they could. Her friends just looked on in wonder... well, minus Rarity, who's eyes were closed from the effort of all her energy focusing towards merging with Twilight's.
Pinkie, of course, was having no problems with her energy. Bouncing and cavorting around the room that, even putting Twilight's extensive knowledge and ability to stay on task, made Twilight put into question whether they were in her lab or at Ponyville fair. She finally made the decision that they were in the lab. Why would a fair have chalkboards with formulas scribbled all over them, test tubes, or multiple machines?
Twilight shut her eyes, too, allowing her mind to wonder. What would happen if the test didn't go right. As a matter of fact, now that Twilight had gained this thought, she could not push it out of her head. What if something terrible did happen? A bad feeling twisted in her gut when she felt Rarity's magic waver. Was Rarity doing okay? Was she having trouble directing her magic? Was something wrong with the design of the Memory Scan-Inator Thingy Ma-bob? Was Twilight's preparation not enough?
Just as she was about to continue contemplating terrible things, something worse than she could've imagined happened.
As Pinkie would put it, BLAM-O!!!
Twilight groaned, sitting up in an unfamiliar room. No, not unfamiliar... old. One Twilight had seen, but also in a way, had not. She was laying on the floor of Golden Oaks Library's basement. She gave a startled scream, but instantly threw a hoof over her mouth. Where were her friends? Twilight tried to remember, remember what had happened in her lab. She found that she couldn't recall. Her lab! She was in it, but... where were her things? What had happened to the dusty chalkboards, extensive research and science that had once consumed the space she sat in now? Why were there old boxes in her way, things marked as storage? WHAT HAD HAPPENED IN HER LAB?!
Twilight carefully examined the little information she had: An experiment, her friends screaming... glowing lights? Hmm... her memory was pretty foggy. She wrote it off as her tired mind, her imagination running away from her.
She slowly got up, her legs wobbly. She cautiously made her way towards the stairwell and head up the stairs, having to cling to the railing. Then, just when she was nearing the top of the stairs, she heard voices. Angry ones, at that.
"Where am I?!" One pony called out.
"Yeah," Another complained, "And what happened to my stage?!"
These voices sound awfully familiar , Twilight thought. But I can't quite put my hoof on it.
The voices began to get closer, and before she knew it, Twilight was looking up at the two glaring faces that could only belong to Trixie and Sunset Shimmer.
"Twilight Sparkle." They said in union.
Screaming emitted into Applejack's ears. She sighed, hoping it would be over soon, but of course, she was wrong. The screaming continued before a tragic shout rang over the others.
"THIS IS THE. WORST! POSSIBLE THING!!!
"SHE WAS SUCKED INTO A PORTAL!"
"Girls?"
"NO, I BET SHE BURST INTO FLAMES AND WAS ASH BEFORE WE COULD TELL WHAT WAS HAPPENING!"
"Uhm... girls."
"I BET SHE JUST EXPLODED!"
"Girls."
"OH NO! Wait, can ponies do that? Like, just randomly explode?"
"I bet they can! WE BLEW TWILIGHT UP!"
"GIRLS!"
Everypony turned to stare at Fluttershy. When Shy got loud, she was serious.
"You need somthin', sugarcube?"
"Uhm, do you girls remember what Applejack and Twilight were saying about the Elements of Harmony still being connected to us, but on the inside?"
Fluttershy gained four equally confused nods.
"And, uh, the little balls of light above us?"
"What're you getting at?" Rainbow Dash stopped the flapping of her wings, allowing her to drop to the floor, and stepped forward to poke Fluttershy's chest.
"Um, I thing they sent Twilight to the past."
"WHAT?!"
"Twilight Sparkle." The two familiar mares deadpanned.
Twilight was confused. Sunset Shimmer was... a pony again? Did the mirror open? It hadn't been thirty moons... had it? No, of course it hadn't. Pinkie had decided to be Twilight's personal calender.
And Trixie? Hadn't she been reformed? What was happening?
Although Sunset was friends with Twilight and the others now, she was still a bit weary of Twilight. She just had a bad feeling about her. This must be why! Twilight conjured her and this... Unicorn, here so that she could execute her evil plan! Sunset knew it!
Twilight shushed them and glanced around the library. "Girls, quiet."
"No!" Trixie sneered. "Trixie will have to refuse! Trixie demands to know what's going on here!
Sunset agreed, "Yeah! Why are we here?!"
Twilight shushed them once again and stood up straight, making a point of opening her wings to show her authority. While Trixie refused to acknowledge this, Sunset cringed.
"I'm not so sure myself," Twilight said, closing her wings. "I think it has something to do with my invention."
Trixie smirked and nudged Sunset. "Hear that? She thinks. "
Sunset snickered to this, but with a simple glare from Twilight, she quieted. She may have been suspicious of Twilight, but this did not mean she didn't know her place.
"Look, I don't know what went wrong, but I intend to find out! Now would you both please just shut-"
"What's going on in here?"
"Up..." Twilight turned her head to see a Unicorn mare walking through the door. An extremely familiar mare. In a creepy way.
The three mares shrieked at the purple Unicorn with a baby dragon riding on her back who had walked through the door. She must have noticed the similarities between her and the Alicorn who stood in her library, because she shrieked back. The baby dragon had managed to slide off her back and step into the middle of the area between the two mares, holding his claws out to keep them from charging horns with each other. This did not, though, stop Trixie and Sunset from advancing onto Unicorn Twilight.
"You're a Unicorn!" Trixie exclaimed.
"But she's an Alicorn!" Sunset pointed at Twilight.
"How is this possible?!" Trixie wailed.
"There shouldn't be able to be two of them in the same point of time!"
"Now we have to deal with both!"
The two let out a joined wail.
Twilight and Twilight rolled their eyes, frowning.
In union, they spoke a flat-voiced, "Allow me to explain."
A Different Kind of Different
"Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh!"
"I can't believe it!"
"This is so amazing!"
"How is it possible?!"
"It's probably extremely dangerous."
"That doesn't make it any less amazing!"
"Quiet!" Alicorn Twilight snapped at Trixie and Sunset, who were currently in each other's faces.
"Look, Trixie knows you're the 'smart one', but Trixie can figure things out too!"
"Yeah, and Sunset- I mean, and I'm gonna help!"
Trixie threw a glare Sunset's way before looking to Alicorn Twilight.
"Listen, while Trixie seems to be the smartest pony here, she believes that the Twilights said they would explain how they're both here, mmm?"
The Twilights each nodded, and began talking in clockwork unison. "I believe it had something to do with my machine, made in the future obviously, and the Elements of Harmony."
"The Elements of Harmony no longer exist, of course, after I became an Alicorn." Alicorn Twilight said, setting a hoof on her chest.
"But they do in the past, A.K.A. now." Said Unicorn Twilight. "I've only been here for a day. The Elements have already been assigned to Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and I."
"We think that since they've only just been assigned, they can reassign themselves." They said.
"Which is no good for the future," Said Alicorn Twilight.
"Or the past." Said Unicorn Twilight.
"Woah, wait," Sunset muttered.
"Are you saying that..." Trixie started.
"The Elements of Harmony reassigned themselves to US ?!" The yellow and blue ponies exclaimed.
"Yes," The Twilights sighed.
"Hold on... there's only four of us here? Aren't there six Elements?"
"That's right," Alicorn Twilight said, frowning.
"And we're both one Element, Magic." Said Unicorn Twilight. "So that means there are at least three more ponies that need to be here."
"Trixie is beginning to lose interest. She is wondering what Element she is!"
"I am too! What Elements are there?" Sunset asked.
"Well, doesn't it go... Laughter, Honesty... Kindness, uh..." Trixie trailed off, but Sunset quickly picked up where she left off. "Generosity, Loyalty, and Magic."
"The Twilights are already Magic, so Trixie would say she's... Loyalty!"
"I guess I'm Honesty? I don't know."
"You two do know this is a theory, right?" The Twilights asked.
The other two ponies ignored the purple twins and continued to babble about why they're that Element and such.
Suddenly, Trixie burst into the lab. The five ponies looked at each other-had any of them heard her come in?
"I'm here, don't worry!" Trixie called. They all stared at the showpony, clueless as ever.
Trixie frowned. "I take it Twilight has not filled you in on what's happening?"
"Ohhhhhhhh!" Pinkie laughed to herself, bonking her head. "That must've been what Twilight forgot! And that's why she went!"
"... Sure." Trixie said. "Anyways, I'm here to help get Twilight back to her normal time so we don't screw everything up in a time loop again."
"Whatever are you talking about?" Rarity asked, her voice light and disbelieving.
"Hopefully it won't happen again in this time line for you to see it." Trixie muttered.
"This timeline? You mean Twilight's off runnin' around on some other timeline? And she didn't think to warn herself?" Applejack asked, frowning at the showmare.
"She can't! That's why I'm here to stop it from happening again! I don't want to have to go over this 400 times..." Trixie muttered.
