"The mind of the subject will ..."
Author's Note
This takes place after the Rumors Arc of the Pony POV Series.
"The mind of the subject will ..."
It was a dark and stormy night, and I feel silly just saying that old line. Though, the weather pegasi really had outdone themselves, but thankfully, Ponyville made preparations ahead of time.
Most ponies were safe and sound inside their homes. But an orange pegasus stallion made his way through the rain. His blue mane lay flat against his head. His cutie mark was a blue shield with a lightning bolt.
Who was he? Me.
-
Good thing I didn't wear my guard armor and helmet, I'd be freezing by now. Oh wait, sorry, I mean barding and champron. Geez, I'd never even heard of those words before coming here.
I glance at Twilight's library, the lights are on inside. It was crazy when I learned not only was she not a princess (well, not yet anyway), but she was staying in a library. Well, from what she told me, she'd slept in the library when she first visited Earth, so I guess it's kinda fitting.
Maybe Princess Celestia'll give Twilight her own castle once she becomes a princess?
More than ever I wanted to go in and say 'Hi, I'm the guard who fought changelings with you in Canterlot, but I didn't give you my name.' But I remembered what Doc said about causing paradoxes.
And like it or not, there was someone I had to see, the only person… er, pony I could really talk about what was happening who would understand. There was Princess Luna, sure, but I don't think she has the hands-on experience for this. It's best I talk right with the source.
Now where did he live again? Just look for the blue box, it's not easy to miss even in pony land!
Well, I have wings now, might as well use 'em, up we go... and, bingo! Found him! Guess I should be happy he isn't on Mars or visiting Robin Hood or something. Down we go ... and this is it. Just need to see if he's home, hope he doesn't have guests, and isn't fighting some blob monster... maybe I should go back and get my guard armor or... yeah, I'm stalling. And I'm not sure why. I need answers or I'm going to go crazy or get poofed out of existence. Ugh! Time to get out of the rain!
Knock-knock.
The doors opened. "Doc" was waiting on the other side.
"Why hello, Flash. Been a long time hasn't it?" He greeted welcomingly, from inside his nice dry time machine.
"Hey Doc, got a minute to spare?" I put on my best casual smile.
"Well, I've never been in the business of buying or selling time, but I certainly have time to share. Come on in, before you catch a cold!"
Some hot cocoa and a large supply of muffins later, Doc asked,
"So what brings you here, Flash-Flash-Hundred-Yard-Dash?”
I just stared at him.
“... Yes, that sounded much better in my head. Still, I imagine you didn't brave the storm for a social call."
I put down my cup of cocoa I'd been holding with one of my wings (it was a trick we did with our tactile-kinesis, there, mystery solved!).
"Doc, lately..." I gritted my teeth. I hadn't really thought about HOW to explain this out. Where was Pinkie Pie to spell everything out when you needed her? I breathed in deep. Still some part of me held myself back and I didn't know why! "I'm having trouble remembering the way things are. And not little things like needing to ask First Base where I put my armor polish. There are memories about my life that just don't feel right anymore!"
Doc just stared at me for a minute with his eyes a bit wide before giving a chuckle and waving a hoof.
"Well, the universe did go through a giant clean-up. Lots of things got swept out, fixed up, relocated to another universe, all those things. Believe me it makes for many an awkward conversation!"
"DOCTOR!" I put my hoof down. "I know what that is! I think freakin' time itself told me that what I remembered couldn't get retconned because my cosmic character sheet or whatever is stored in another filing cabinet!"
That look... it was the same one my parents gave me when they were about to tell me there was no Santa Claus.
"Yes. The revisions made to this universe don't mean a thing for OTHER universes. The one you came from is the same as ever."
I narrowed my eyes. "Then what's happening to me?"
"…I'm sorry. I’m so sorry." When Doc says those words, it's never a good thing. "Perhaps, when things got cleaned up, some things that got attached to you when you first crashed here also got washed away. That’s the most likely scenario."
"You're saying I had memories of this world's Flash Sentry's bouncing around in my head and now those have changed or are gone?"
"... That would be a nice answer, but no. Be it pony or human, most would never question their own memories. After all, memories are a part of us, of who we are. And no one truly wants who-we-are to be wrong. You sincerely impress me, Flash, that you figured out this much by yourself. But your real memories may not be pretty."
"Am I a clone?"
"No."
"A robot?"
"No."
"A transwarp duplicate?"
"I'm not sure that's even a thing."
"Am I both my own parents?"
"Sweet Rassilon, no!"
"Then what?!"
"First let me ask some questions of my own. What are some of these memories you're questioning?"
-
"Hey, Gilda."
"Hey Dash, so... these are your 'new' friends huh?"
Spike, meanwhile, was looking at Gilda's blue dog. Her tag red 'Ember.' "Hi, I'm Spike!"
Ember looked as freaked to hear him speak as a regular person would at a talking dog.
-
"Meet my new pet, Winona." Applejack patted the giant dragon on the snout. It gave Applejack a loving lick with its forked tongue as the rest of us hid behind the apple crates.
-
While Twilight and I danced, I saw the glasses-wearing Twilight dancing with a figure. It looked like me in an army uniform with wings. A little pitch black girl with glasses was eating ice-cream with a purple-haired girl in pigtails. The heck...?
-
I smashed my 600-dollar guitar over Adagio's head just before she could snap her sharp jaws around Derpy's skull.
She looked at me with those walleyes of hers. "Thank you!"
-
As Sunset's wing was blasted off by the forest witch, she began to fall, but I managed to leap and catch her at the last moment.
She blushed. "Thanks, Flash."
"My pleasure."
-
The little sprites of different colored lights flew about everywhere, touching people and giving them horse ears, plus wings or horns, or in the case of the principals, both.
-
"Charge!" Sunset called, as she and the Rainbooms ran head-on against the similar Element powered Shadowbolts.
-
The merciless General Sombra's goons fired on the students of CHS, as they flew into battle with their new pegasus wings.
“Sunset’s hit! I’m going in after her!” I revved up my rocket sled that Apple Bloom had built and flew towards battle.
“Stupid boys!” Rainbow Dash grumbled, before grinning madly as she swooped into the fray. “Ah well, who wants to live forever?! HAHAHAHAHA! DIIIIIIIIIIIVE!”
"Well... those don't sound... so strange, considering what your high school became like after it got its first taste of magic." Then he looked me right in the eye. "Any other memories that seem out of place?"
My ears wilted. "Well... maybe."
"Which ones?"
"Oh no! We're doomed!" cried out Fluttershy.
"You always say that," Rainbow Dash snorted.
"But she's got a point this time," Pinkie Pie pointed out, wiggling in her restraints. They were all tied up to Company Chairman Sombra's magic draining machine.
"BWAHAHAHAH! Now that I have you, my pretties, nothing will stand in my way!"
"Wanna bet?" I dramatically leapt onto the scene, wearing a top hat and mask I'd slapped on from the drama club.
"YOU!?" Chairman Sombra roared. "Attack, faceless minions!"
His thugs charged me all at once, but I brought out my guitar and hit a string so powerful it knocked them to their knees!
Then I used my ice breath to freeze his goons! Then I used my heat vision to sear through the ropes holding the Elements of Harmony!
"He's so awesome!" Rainbow Dash said.
"He's so dreamy!" Sunset and Princess Twilight said together!
"No! You can't foil my evil plan!" screamed Chairman Sombra. My super strength was super enough to punch him to the moon! Everyone cheered, my cape flapping in the wind.
--
"... Okay, that one... likely didn't happen," I admitted.
"... No argument there," Doc said, matter of fact.
"And you're saying my memories aren't changing to fit with how things turned out now?"
"No. So you feel you have memories that feel... incomplete. Just ‘thrown in there,’ you might say?"
"Maybe," I agreed.
"And you never questioned them until after the world was given maid service?”
I shrugged.
“But the memories themselves haven't really changed?"
"The worst part is... that isn't the real creepy part."
Doc gave me the 'I knew this was coming' look. "Let me hazard a guess... memories that 'weren't there' before?"
I nodded. "And not just some 'little thing' either. This memory was big, and I mean way big. The sort of things you SHOULDN'T be able to forget at all." My entire body shuddered.
+++
I've never been to a summer camp with rules this lax. Who heard of a camp that let you bring your dog? Talking or not? It was actually kinda amazing how quickly we settled back into our routines every time something even more crazy happened at school. A talking dog was just a part of my life now. Accept it and move on.
Bon Bon seemed to be watching Sunset and her friends closer, while the principals were watching her closer. They both gave Bon Bon a lot of 'off campus assignments' with Lyra, in particular whenever it seemed Twilight had the gate open.
Something that was slightly more grounded in what we'd been taught was real was Rarity packing more than she could possibly fit in her tent. Had to be genetic, since I saw Sweetie Belle bringing along a mountain of luggage to her own Junior Campers thing with the other two Crusaders.
But instead of being with the Junior Campers, Snips and Snails had somehow gotten to come along with the high school age students (we called Canterlot a 'high school', but we also contained a middle school). I sincerely don't know how.
I didn't have that high an opinion of those two: once Sunset was no longer the power behind the throne, they abandoned her. Nobody made a big deal about how much they'd stayed by Sunset's side even AFTER she transformed into a demon and made THEM demons as a reward for their loyalty. Maybe they used that as an excuse?
But our real focus was on Sunset. Okay, I'll admit, I was sore with her too. As far as girlfriends go, she stunk. She wasn't a good person, but she knew how to act like one and make everyone else around her seem worse than her! Despite her attitude, I did my best to be good to her, maybe I thought she honestly liked me in spite of everything, or maybe I'd find the good in her, but... In the end I couldn't take her anymore.
Back to camp. Miss Daisy I think surprised EVERYONE when she declared that we'd be choosing the camp activities ourselves! Pinkie Pie put her motor mouth to good use and threw suggestions left and right and Miss Daisy didn't say no to any of them. Even Rarity's suggestion of a freakin' camp fashion show was embraced with open arms! If we'd all brought our instruments we could have done a music showcase.
Then there was the legacy gift to future campers, using our combined efforts to fix up the place's falling apart pier sounded like a good idea to me too. In fact... a lot of things seemingly broke, fell apart, or just plain wore out that week. As if the camp itself just, gave up.
Of course Sunset and her friends would all get matched up with each other. Fate seemed to have an odd sense of humor with them.
And then there was Miss Daisy's younger brother, Timber. He... and... the Twilight who wasn't the Twilight I knew, but the-Twilight-that-actually-belonged-here... They fit together like hand-in-glove. Seeing her face and her voice talking with someone else like that...
Ugh! Uh, what was I saying? Oh right. Weren't there laws about this sort of thing? Miss Cheerilee and Big Mac sure had trouble when the Crusaders got the idea to send love letters to each other with forged signatures courtesy of Scootaloo.
I talked to Sunset about... something or other... and Derpy was there and we talked about... some stuff.
None of us expected Diamond Tiara's father to show up. Or for him to apparently have bad blood with our chief counselor. Don't ask me why, but I noticed he wasn't wearing his wedding ring. Was there friction with Diamond Tiara's family?
In retrospect, one stunning thing, and please forgive me for sounding like Rarity, was all the custom uniforms. I was beginning to suspect Miss Daisy wasn't very wise with money. With what I later found out, it’s possible she just threw all financial caution to the wind since she figured her camp was doomed anyway.
Sunset and her friends getting super powers? I think we all just accepted it and moved on. Seriously. I think we'd given up any hope of getting away from magic, or that something strange and weird WASN'T going to happen at every major school event until we graduated! And things were about to get weirder.
It's strange... I remember -not- seeing someone! I know that doesn't make sense! But I remember that someone -wasn't- there. Like one of those big signs in a cartoon that read 'nothing here', except for real! There was someone -not- going about the camp, almost -not- like a ghost, -not- walking on water, -not- floating around buildings... and wherever they were, or weren’t, things went kaput.
All I know is that they didn't look a thing like how Timber described Gaea Everfree. It was like it was -not- the spirit of rot and decay herself that had come to Camp Everfree. They were -not- familiar, they were -not- short. I take back what I said before. I saw her, but I never -noticed-, like you don't notice a shadow. Nor did anyone else.
I saw her brushing her fingers against Derpy's arrows just before they broke. I saw her walking on the dock just before more of it fell apart. I saw her graze her palm against a bench before it broke under its own weight. And none of us even noticed she was there!
On what was the last day of the camp, I'd gone out for a bit to clear my head and think about...this and that. I might have seen Sunset and the Twilight with glasses, and... I think I might have followed them... maybe. I think?
But if I did, I lost track of them. And I soon saw Miss Daisy, not that she really looked much like Miss Daisy anymore. She didn't notice me the way you wouldn't notice an insect.
She had a rainbow colored necklace, and looked like ... well, like Gaea Everfree. I figured it had to be Gaea Everfree until I heard her speak... then I figured she was possessed by Gaea Everfree's spirit. Hey! It's no less crazy than princesses from another universe and ancient evil seahorses with mind control music!
Being near her gave me a sense of trespassing, that even stepping on the grass was disrupting nature too much.
And THAT is when things REALLY took a turn for the weird! My eyes and ears were seeing all of this, my brain was REMEMBERING all of this... but it was like computer files my current OS couldn't process and so just ignored. In retrospect, I'm lucky I was as far away as I was for soon-to-be obvious reasons.
I saw our spirit of rot and decay stand against the spirit of nature's vengeance herself.
It was Diamond Tiara, but she looked like she was going through a goth phase. She was without her jacket, and her outfit now had dark magenta and black colors. She'd dyed her hair a much darker shade except for her skunk stripe. If she was trying to look more mature, I'd say it had the opposite effect. And instead of wearing her crown Mark hair clip, she had on a pendant with a similar style with eight points going out. She also had an expression that would have given Pinkie's big sister with the rock fixation a run for her money.
A part of me tried to justify what I wasn't seeing. She and the other middle school students were too young to go on the trip. So had she snuck along? I'd expect that from the Crusaders, but not from her.
Whatever the case, Gaea Everfree didn't seem to have trouble acknowledging her existence with her own two eyes.
"DID FILTHY RICH SEND HIS BRAT TO SPY ON US? IS THE MAN TOO COWARDLY TO COME HIMSELF?!"
"I have no reason to tell you anything," what might have been Diamond Tiara said flatly. Her brow furrowed a bit. "What do you mean we can't use your magic without becoming wolf meat?"
"Why would I ever share my magic with you?"
"I wasn't talking to you."
Grayish pink vulture wings spread out from might-be Diamond Tiara's back. There was a glowing diamond-shaped ghost-white dot on her forehead. Her eyes were slit like a cat's, or a snake. Claws formed on her hands. The grass around her feet died. So did the insects which had been crawling on it.
Just 'not' looking at her, I thought about what was the point of getting up next morning, so I could be with someone because it was the -correct- person for me to be with? The person I was -allowed- to have? Be with someone like they were a silver medal? For songs no one would ever hear on the radio? To get drowned out by the million other musicians looking for a break? UGH! Why would I be thinking about that stuff? I dunno! I just know I felt a wave of depression looking at her.
Gaea Everfree looked at her for about three seconds in surprise and confusion.
"... ABOMINATION!" Gaea Everfree fired a blast of green lightning from her hands right at Diamond Tiara.
"... I know." Nightmare Diamond Tiara's coolly raised one hand and a beam of lifeless violet light shot from her palm.
The two magics clashed and canceled each other out, except it was Diamond Tiara who got pushed back.
Diamond Tiara looked at her hand, and her eyes widened, it had turned to stone.
"She has all seven," Not!Diamond Tiara said, I could hear alarm in her voice. "What do you mean this is how your dad's avatar felt? Oh, on the receiving end of wild completely unfettered harmony."
I didn't have a clue what any of that meant. I don't even know which one I should've been rooting for!
Vines sprang out of the ground and wrapped themselves around her legs. Her feet turned to stone, and the petrification slowly spread upwards, she took to the air trying to get away I guess.
"I should be able to rot those vines into dust with a touch."
"LOVE DEFIES ALL ENTROPY! AND I AM LOVE FOR NATURE INCARNATE!"
"Yes. You are. Pure unfiltered love, and not a drop of compassion to balance it out."
"SILENCE, WITCHLING!"
The mark on Diamond Tiara's head glowed and a beam sliced through the vines and she used her living hand to blast them away. She got out of the way just in time from another zap from Gaea Everfree.
"Those stone limbs must be slowing you down, but don't worry! SOON YOU WON'T HAVE TO MOVE AT ALL!"
Nightmare Diamond kicked Everfree in the face with a stone foot. "I have an adopted auntie who makes good use of hers."
The vines wrapped around her stone leg, and she was slammed into the ground several times until she left a hole in the grounds. She cut the vines again and flew out of the way drunkenly before another bolt of green lightning could hit her.
"Chakram." A sharp metal ring formed in Nightmare Diamond's hand, she threw it at Gaea Everfree with a whizzing sound. One of the vines smacked it away, the metal ring turned to stone and shattered instantly. Gaea Everfree smirked.
Nightmare Tiara's forehead jewel thingie glowed and so did her hands. At the same time boulders were lifted off the ground, and were tossed in the green Nightmare's direction. But the vines just caught them.
Without missing a beat, Nightmare Tiara's brought her fingers to her forehead, and began disappearing and reappearing all over what was becoming a battlefield. Gaea darted her head this way and that. Nightmare Tiara appeared right behind her, and fired another blast of her magic at Gaea's back. But Gaea smirked as a weave of the vines formed behind her without her turning around.
"How were you able to sense my presence without seeing me?" Tiara asked evenly.
Gaea turned and grinned. "You're surrounded by my eyes and ears, you're fighting the entire forest!"
As Gaea said that, flowers bloomed around Tiara, and each shot out a wooden needle dipped in something green at her from every angle. Tiara shot out her limbs and wings and the needles halted in mid-fight, then fell downward.
But before the needles even hit the ground, a vine fly trap the size of a car sprouted out of the ground and chomped down on Tiara from behind. Tiara kept it from eating her using her stone limbs as braces.
Gaea floated in close to her and cooed as her plant kept trying to crush Tiara. "Why can't you city kids learn to work WITH nature instead of fighting me?"
She replied without emotion. "It was nature that decided my mom should be insane, screw you."
Diamond Tiara's mother? I'd heard she was a jerk, but no one said she was crazy.
Using her hand that wasn't stone, she blasted a hole through the back of the giant fly trap's mouth. It let out some gurgled noise and collapsed to the ground.
"You wicked little brat!" This time Gaea Everfree's vines sent Tiara through a tree trunk, turning it into splinters. "YOU MADE ME SLAUGHTER MY POOR DEFENSELESS TREE!"
"You... ugh... have no one to blame but yourself." Tiara's voice remained freaky calm, but I could tell that had hurt. She had a bloody lip.
Screaming pale violet ghostly human skulls appeared around Tiara and they flew at Gaea from several directions at once, dodging the vines. Flowers bloomed from Gaea herself, and they ate the freaky ghost skulls.
Gaea just smiled and said in her best 'what a great time we're having at camp today!' voice, "What nice gifts, little girl, but still, IT'S BETTER TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE!"
The flowers opened, and green screaming ghostly bear heads popped out from the blooms. Tiara flew away while teleporting randomly, the ghost bear heads exploding like bombs when they touched anything. "Stupid feral Earth magic."
"I'm going to shatter those stone limbs of yours, petrify the rest of you, and you can be a bust for the camp grounds!"
That was a picture I didn't need.
Tiara changed shape. Her stone body parts stayed stone, but they changed form with the rest of her. She turned into a gray and pink wolf with vulture wings. Her clothes changed into fur, and an eight point ring symbol appearing on her back.
Gaea didn't look impressed. "Is THAT the best trick you have left?"
With tremendous agility, the wolf-vulture Tiara managed to get past the snatching vines, but Gaea didn't look worried in the least.
Then when they were right in close range line of sight of each other, Tiara changed again. Her body grew and grew, the vulture wings became like a bat, the fur became scales, her neck extended and horns grew, and her tail became like a snake.
The grayish pink dragon looked at the smaller Nightmare with two window sized eyes.
"No it wasn't. Burn."
It was all like a dream, but there was some tiny part of me that still warned me to hit the dirt. I remember smelling wood burning. I remember screaming, then a rumble, and an explosion, and steam flooding the place.
I looked up to see a water geyser blasting out at an angle right beneath Gaea. Steam was spewing from the dragon's mouth as it lay on its side twitching.
Gaea was smoking, a shell of blackened bark fell away, revealing herself unharmed. She floated causally over to Tiara.
"Hmm, I thought putting out a dragon's fire slew it. Let's see whether being slain by piercing the underbelly is a fairy tale too!" She lifted up one palm to the sky, and a wooden spear grew into shape, glowing green.
She lobbed the spear, but the dragon changed shape back into a winged little girl and the spear missed its mark by a wide margin.
Nightmare Tiara pushed herself up with her stone body parts, still on her knees.
"I couldn't beat you after all...” she said, still on her knees, looking at the ground, “but I've delayed you as long as I could, hopefully I bought enough time, the rest is up to them."
Gaea raise an eyebrow. "'Them' who?"
Tiara looked her in the eyes. "Not telling. Except... spoilers: you're going to lose."
Gaea gritted her teeth. "I'm fighting for my home, my legacy, my family, and this forest against greed, selfishness, and cruelty, and I have the power, there's no way for me to lose!"
Tiara teleported away before another lightning bolt could strike her or the vines could grab her. Gaea didn't seem that worried about her coming back to finish the fight. "Coward. Just like your father."
Whatever had been enticing me to just keep watching at all of this finally wore off as my common sense finally kicked in and I ran for it.
Now here's the thing. I remember seeing She-Demon Diamond Tiara, but I don't remember NOTICING HER. It's like there was a layer of film over my memory before that was 'Diamond Tiara' colored... blocking her out. And that film had now been removed, and I was seeing my memories without the 'special glasses' like they used to give out as gimmicks at movies to make the ghosts invisible.
You know it's crazy, and I still don't know what made me think of it. But if Diamond Tiara really was the one who made things fall apart before... she's the one who made Daisy go Nightmare while Sunset and her friends were all at the camp. If she hadn't pushed Daisy's buttons, Daisy might have not gone nuts until Filthy Rich had shown up after camp was over ... and she'd have gone on a rampage without any magical horse angels nearby to stop her.
Gaea Everfree got to camp, sang a song about how she'd protect what was her family's from the 'vultures and wolves' and how the campers were going to love staying here forever like caged animals. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity used her new powers to try stop Gaea or at least get everyone out of her grasp. But the vines grew like a plague. They tried to bring Miss Daisy back to reality, but she wasn't listening.
Timber at least DID something, trying to hack at her vines, and at least reason with her. Which wasn’t to say that it really worked, but at least it was an effort.
I could do nothing. Neither could Principals Celestia and Luna. They wanted to protect their students from being treated like animals at a zoo, but they were as helpless as the rest of us magic-less mortals.
Then Sunset and ... the other Twilight showed up. Twilight with glasses using her own magic to ripe the vines apart with more raw power than the others put together. Then... she got wings... like the Twilight I knew. Then ... I think the gems from Gaea flew to the girls, and they got magical girl costumes, and blasted her head back on straight like they'd done with glasses Twilight and Sunset Shimmer (I think that's how it works).
And... and... there was a charity concert, Sunset and the others putting their super powers to good use, enough to pay off the debt Daisy owed... I think Filthy Rich had actually given Daisy an EXTENSION on paying her debt originally. Maybe. I think?
Timber and... and Twilight couldn't have looked more at home together... They hit it off, spoke the same language. I think I was hoping that against all logic Princess Twilight would show up, and offer me a dance. But... if we had doubles of ourselves in Princess Twilight's world... did that mean they all had the same parents too? So... if ... if Earth's Twilight Sparkle fell for Earth's Timber... did that mean... did that...
++
"UGH!" My head hurt. I was back in the present with Doc, well, as 'present' as you could get after what happened to me.
"... You don't have to continue, Flash," Doc said gently.
"Recounting everything like that, trying to remember the details... it was like I was pulling stuff out of a tar pit."
Doc sighed. He said lowly, "That's because you're the one who threw them in there in the first place."
My voice died in my throat. My eyes were glued right at the Doctor.
"Flash, it isn't that your native reality changed and you've been sent updates down the pipeline. It’s that when you tripped and fell through the door, your brain spilled the contents of your manila folder and may have had to rewrite some of the documentation from scratch."
"I... I don't understand," I partially lied, as fear welled up inside me.
"Well, put more simply, memories are treacherous things. Ask three people for a recount of an emotionally charged event, and it'll be like they weren't even with the same people. We remember things in a way that justifies how we feel about them."
"I... I remember basic psychology... but what does that have to do with..." My unconscious tried to delay the inevitable.
"I'm truly sorry, Flash Sentry. Your memories aren't adjusting to changes in history. The fake memories you gave yourself are breaking down."
And the whole world stopped.
"'The mind of the subject will desperately struggle to create memories where none exist…' So said a decent expert on the subject of crossing different universes," Doc announced in a professional-sounding voice.
"But Twilight and Sunset never had any trouble with their memories when they came to Earth... did they?"
"Things didn't go quite that way for you, though... did they, Flash? You ended up at the wrong train station, so you ended up losing some of your luggage. How many memories do you have missing, that you didn't even realize were missing?"
"I... I haven't tried to figure that out..." I heard myself say.
"Can you even REMEMBER the exact details of how you got to Equestria to begin with? I don't care how many years it's been, you don't forget something like that!"
I held my head. It was like I had little guards in my head telling me not to go further. "It's... it's not something I've thought about."
"Why did you come to Equestria?"
"I... I wanted to tell Princess Twilight how I felt."
"... Answer me this, Flash Sentry. It's the worst question I can ask, but it's also the most necessary. Did you come here to 'tell Princess Twilight how you feel' like you say you remember?... Or did you come here to say goodbye or tell her you'd found someone else?"
My heart turned to ice. That couldn't be right.
"I think you wanted to leave some of that luggage inside your brain behind. Pretend you left it at the ticket booth. What nasty thing was inside those suitcases? What did you not want to remember about that place? Was it one little out of place she-demon fighting an insane pseudo nature goddess? Or was it something much more mundane?"
And it was like a safe came unlocked and swung open, spilling out what was inside.
-
"Guess I can't get too jealous, right? After all, she isn't my Twilight. Not that the other Twilight was mine! But we were... you know."
"Yeah. I get it. But your Twilight is a princess in Equestria. Hate to break it to you, but that's where she's gonna spend most of her time."
"So you're saying I just need to get over her?"
"Kinda, yeah."
"Ouch. You're not pulling any punches."
"Not really my style. Sorry."
-
"Hey, listen. I'm glad I ran into you. I really wanted to thank you."
"For what?"
"For the tough love. Telling me I should get over Twilight. I needed to hear that."
"Sure, no problem."
"Is something wrong?"
"What? No. Why?"
"Come on, Sunset. We used to date. I know when something's bothering you."
"Okay, here's the deal. My friend really likes someone, but I don't think that someone is who she thinks they are. I don't wanna upset my friend by telling her what I think, because I also want to protect her, because if what I think is happening is really happening, then she deserves to know. You know?"
"Nnnno. But what I do know is that your friend is lucky to have someone like you to look out for them."
"Really?"
"Yeah. You know, you've changed a lot since we went out. You're so much... nicer."
"Thanks. I'm glad you noticed."
"Uh, look, maybe you and me, we could start over as... friends."
"Uh, uh, sounds great. I gotta go!"
"Cool, yeah! I want to start over later, too! Hah." And I was alone again, except for Derpy coming out of nowhere giving me a sympathetic hand on my shoulder again.
-
I don't remember falling on my side, I don't remember hitting the floor, I don't remember my entire body twitching, I don't remember my wing hurting as I landed on it wrong, I don't remember my body breaking out in a cold sweat, I don't remember my breathing coming out in ragged gasps.
But I was on the floor, with Doc right over me making sure I wasn't dying.
"Let it all out... let it all out… That’s it."
I grunted out.
"I... I never wanted to be with the Twilight of my world... but I thought we could at least be friends. But... I really did want to get to know Princess Twilight better."
Doc sat down next to me. "A teenage boy who falls for a mysterious girl who turns out to be a princess from another world... Too bad THIS magical girl didn't choose to give up her kingdom to be with the boy she just met isn't it? And not noticing another girl who might have, or might not have had a crush on you instead... Rather awkward given the parallel bloodlines of both worlds... But that's what happens with dimensional contamination, realities begin to diverge."
"So... are you saying me falling for Princess Twilight was... a mistake?"
"Well, I don't believe people 'mistakenly' begin to like each other. Also, I don't exactly keep a biography of every person I've ever met, I don't know about you social life, but I needed to jar that memory loose. But some of the bigger events when they connect to... strange happenings ... I tend to keep track of. And time hasn't exactly caught up with you yet. Things have changed on this side, who’s to say what you remember now will turn out the same? Though... you're still here, which means you still have to arrive here, given what I've seen of Starswirl's work."
"Will the Twilight I liked, that I remember, even be the one to visit my world then?"
"Time is both stubborn and fickle, but the goodness in people can be more stubborn, and that's what you liked about her isn't it?"
"For a doctor, you have awful bedside manner," I said, not sure what part of me was hurting the worst right now.
"The truth hurts, take it from someone who's had a whole bottle of the stuff poured down his throat more than once."
"So that was it? You saw I didn't remember Sunset telling me to let Twilight go, and then me THANKING HER for it... well, I said I thanked her for it... maybe hoping I could be friends again with the girl who hooked up with me just because I was the school’s alpha male. So you figured it was best I just continue happy and ignorant?"
"I didn't tell you because your head was already a mess. It did its best job to glue itself back together and heal over. Otherwise it would have been like taking a sledgehammer to a porcelain vase. Besides, like I said, I don't keep records of every moment of every boy's life of another universe. I couldn't be sure what was real in your life and what your unconscious threw together. I could’ve ended up filling your head with complete nonsense. Better to let you decide who you were for yourself."
"How much of what I remember is a lie? How much do I NOT remember?"
"I have a feeling that what you DON'T remember is only the tip of the iceberg. As for how much is a lie... I think you were more upset about not being able to contribute more when a crisis hit than not having a date for the prom. Or having a date who was busy in another universe."
I got to my hooves. My chest felt heavy. "... Did you know, when... the world went NC-17, I wondered for a minute if I'd been stuck in some crazy virtual reality machine... and there was only one way to get out. But I believed in Twilight. And that’s what kept me going."
"You weren't wrong. The Twilight Sparkle you believe in is very real." He put a hoof on my shoulder.
"... I think... there WAS something I had to do, something I DID have to know... Otherwise, it would have been a cheat. Otherwise, it would have been in the same spirit as arranged marriages, except with the reverse outcome."
"So... what are you going to do now, Flash Sentry?"
"I... I don't know... but I still have an appointment to keep with Princess Twilight next year. That's what you told me, I had to be formally introduced to her THEN or it would trigger a time paradox."
"And the fixed points in time in your world HAVEN'T changed. Just promise me that you won't do anything... ahem, foolish if you spot this world's Twilight Sparkle speaking to a pony named Timber."
"... Then maybe they were meant for each other all along, and everything I've done here is a joke."
Doc poked me in the chest with his hoof repeatedly. "Don't ever say that again. You've protected people, you fought as bravely as any guard during the battle of Canterlot, you helped Twilight Sparkle during that battle, you've been a loving big brother, you saved a mare from something horrible, you fought Outer Gods and stayed sane, and you helped save the world! I’ve seen a lot in my time, and the list of people I’ve met who stepped up the way you have is too short. So I don't want to hear this nonsense that your time here has been a joke!"
I smiled. "Thanks Doc... Ya know... if someone told me I'd end up joining the army, I'd have told 'em they were crazy."
"We're all a little crazy. It's what make life interesting."
"I figured I'd be a rock star by now."
"So do most teenage boys."
"I haven't been a teenager in years."
"You haven't been human for years either."
Now I know how Sunset felt adjusting to Earth, and her going native, and the friends she made.
"... The portal is still closed. So I couldn't just pack-up and leave if I wanted to. And..."
"It wouldn't feel right for First Base if his big brother just up and vanished on him?"
I nodded my head, thinking of First Base's smiling face.
"And what will you do once you've had your appointment with the princess? Wait a year before she opens the portal again? Use that time to prepare to leave this world behind? Or say goodbye to the world you were born in?"
"...Guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it."
"Wise choice. But fair warning... you likely STILL have a cache of memories in there waiting to come back out now that you've cracked the dam. You may not like what you find, or what you left behind."
"... Thanks for the warning."
"Care to wait out the storm? I could use someone to win against in a game of checkers."
"Can't you just skip me forward in time when the storm's over?"
"What? And skip out on the chance to spend time with friends? Trust me, when you're old and gray, you WILL wish you’d spent more time with them."
"Can't argue that."
"Besides, you haven’t played checkers until you’ve played multidimensional checkers.”
“How does that work?”
“Come and see. And Flash... I know this sounds strange coming from me, but not EVERYTHING is set in stone, only things we've already lived through. The only thing worse than her saying no... is you never having asked."
"You're right." Twilight... no matter what Sunset said about letting go, I need to know how you feel first!
