I Know You're There

by 8_Bit

Rating: everyone
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Science Fiction
Length: 3451

Somehow, I've always known.

Somehow, I've always known.

Cover artwork courtesy of Cloud-Drawings on DeviantArt.

My entry for the Dialogue-Only Contest!

Reading by Mystery Pony Fiction.

Published 2024-05-05 14:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2024-05-05 14:10:01 UTC

And for once, I'd like to have an honest conversation.

“Hello… is this working… testing, testing…

“Let me just… adjust this sensor here and… ¿Esto es mejor? No, uno momento… Wie ist es jetzt? Nein? Wie ärgerlich, lass es uns… this? Is that working now? Okay! Phew, sorry about that. Just a little smidge of temporal interference in the conscious matrix projector. It’s a finnicky component, sometimes it needs a little… ow, kickstart. Don’t worry about that beeping sound, it’s supposed to do that. And, err... please try to ignore that burning smell, it’s… probably fine?

“Right, we’ll make a start, since all my readings are looking… stable. Ish. So if I’ve done this right, I should be directly adressing you now. As in, I am talking specifically to you. Which, yeah, sounds kinda weird for me to finally say out loud. Very weird. I mean, by all logical reasoning, this is an impossibility. But at last, after an entire lifetime, here I am. Talking to you.

“It really is fascinating. All these years, you’ve had windows into my world of all shapes and sizes. I never saw them, at least not at first, but I could always feel them. Not to dig too deeply into the Pinkie Pie vernacular, but after some time I learned to develop my own ‘Psuedo-Pinkie Sense’ that… well, told me you were watching.

“Yes, you. I know, I know. ‘This is some kind of unusual plot device, giving the illusion that the one and only Princess Twilight Sparkle is adressing me and me alone’. Okay, believe that if you want. It might be a more palatable option than the alternative. The alternative, of course, being what’s true. And honestly, I’m not really all that concerned if you’d rather believe the former. Maybe the truth is outside what you’ll accept as reality. But either way, please permit me to speak my mind.

“Firstly though, I am a princess. It wouldn’t do to forget myself, or my manners.

”It’s nice to finally meet you. My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle. But, if you are who I think you are, you already know that. Oh, I could fill a dozen books with what I suspect you know about me and my world. There’s one thing I’d like to know though. Might I ask, what’s your name?

“...oh …err …hmm. Well that’s… that’s disappointing. All these years of work and… OUCH, nope that’s not gonna… OOF, work. Aargh! I worked so so hard on this and… YOW, no, no, no, no, NO!

“...hmph. Deep breath, Twilight old mare, deep breath… Sorry. That wasn’t exactly very princess-y of me. Certainly a side of me that very few ponies ever get to see. Then again, you’ve seen me at my highest and at my lowest so… there’s really no point in trying to hide anything from you, is there?

“That was a rhetorical question, so, don’t feel the need to answer that. Though it seems, this conversation is going to be rather one-sided. I’m not sure what I’ve done wrong on my side but… it looks like vocal communication is limited to one way, that way being from here to there. Just like, as far as I can tell, it always has been.

“Well, I guess you’re probably wondering what’s going on. So, let’s start with addressing that.

“You see, the notion of your presence has always been there, lingering in the back of my mind like a nagging voice. Even more nagging than Spike trying to get me to go to bed when I was hours deep into a midnight study session. Long before my ascension to princesshood, there were moments every now and then where I felt a strange sensation, like somepony was observing me from a long way away.

“These moments are only obvious with the gift of hindsight, of course. I was young, headstrong, and too stubborn to admit to it. After all, there’s no scientific basis to gut feelings. And though I did expand my worldview after the ‘Pinkie Sense’ incident, I guess it’s still something I was reluctant to admit to myself.

“I knew when it was gone though. Every time. It was like… oh, what was the analogy I came up with the other day, I thought it was pretty insightful… ooh, that was it! You know when you’re feeling sick, okay? Headache, stomach pains, overbearing in-laws, etcetera. And you’re just desperate for it to be over. Eventually, as much as you just want the pain to stop, you sort of become accustomed to its presense. It’s still there, and it’s still very much wearing you out, but you’re just at the point where you’re… dealing with it? And then when it’s finally over, you get a real strong feeling of the empty space the pain leaves behind. Well, that’s what it always felt like. The presence was hard to get a read on, but when the presence left… its absence was impossible to miss.

“At the time, I brushed it all off as paranoia, or the result of an overactive imagination. I was always distracted with more serious matters, it seemed. And that’s when I realised. The presence, it never showed up for the slow days. Not once when I was doing inventory reconciliation at the library. Nor when it was a laundry day. And especially not during my seven-hour meeting at Ponyville Town Hall, to discuss belated planning permission for the magical castle that sprouted out of the ground in somepony’s garden.

“However, as time passed and I grew accustomed to my new role and responsibilities as a princess, those fleeting moments of awareness became more pronounced. It was as if a veil had been lifted, allowing me to glimpse the truth that had been hiding in plain sight all along. That windows into my world were being opened, at crucial moments in my life and in the lives of my friends. Your presence was never a figment of my imagination. It was an intrusion into my existence I had been dimly aware of, but couldn't quite comprehend.

“Now, I’m really skipping over the bulk of the facts here. Coming to this conclusion… well, let’s just say it didn’t happen overnight. And it really was not an easy idea to come to terms with.

‘Hey Twilight?’

‘Yes, Twilight?’

‘Just so you know, your entire perception of reality as we know it is wrong.’

‘Oh wow, are you serious?’

‘Yes, very serious, there are strangers tearing holes in the universe to watch you solve friendship problems.’

‘Really? Awesome, thank you for this new and plausible information, Twilight!’

‘You’re welcome, Twilight!’

“Yeah… you uh… you see how that might be a difficult notion to wrap your head around? But, you know, if you eliminate the impossible… whatever option remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Which may not exactly be the most satisfying answer on this… well, I guess I could try to tell you my entire thought process, but we’d be here a long time. So for the sake of my time and your patience, let’s move along. I don't think this machine would run for long enough, anyway.

“Having reluctantly accepted this improbable truth to my reality, I couldn't help but entertain the thought that perhaps your presence was not entirely benign. Be honest, you come to conclusion that somepony is watching you from across space-time, your first thought isn’t going to be ‘ooh they probably want to hear my thoughts on crochet’. Although, for all I know, you got that spiel from Rarity or Fluttershy. Or both. They did have weekend crochet sessions where they… sorry, that would be a long tangent. Back on topic.

“I couldn't shake the feeling that the eyes watching me from the other side of the proverbial window might harbour ill intentions. What if they were not merely observers, but agents of some unknown force. I mean, by that point we’d already dealt with Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis and her army of Changelings, Sombra, Tirek, Starlight Glimmer, and the Union of Librarians. Although, I don’t think you saw that last one, I don’t remember sensing your observation. Which is probably for the best, it took months of recovery and intensive therapy for me and my friends to come to terms with that ordeal.

“With all these threats dealt with, and Equestria’s safety assured again and again, I had plenty of time to think over what this silent observer might be doing with the information they gather. What might they be plotting and scheming behind the scenes? What if their gaze held not admiration, but scrutiny and judgment? The idea sent a shiver down my spine, every single time. What if they were watching every victory we had over the enemies of our lands, to formulate a winning tactic that could ensure our downfall?

“And so, I… err, I just sort of looked back. I've always been a studious pony, and studying includes observing, analysing, and understanding everything around me. It's part of who I am. A natural thirst to seek out the new and exciting. With the stronger sense of what to look for when this presence came around again, I slowly started to reach out. To pierce the veil, as it were. Which is when I realised that these windows were, in fact, windows. Because I was able to look back through, and for the first time ever I was able to realise… well, there you were.

“Looking back wasn’t the hard part. Magical principles are difficult to convey to a creature like yourself who, contrary to what I expected by your ability to glance across dimensions, are unable to wield magical power of their own. To put it into a way you could understand, it was just a case of waiting for the window to appear. Then, using my magical senses like an extra limb, reach out and find the edges. Once that was done, it was just a case of finding the centre, and sort of… pushing back. In fact, I was surprised to find just how easy it was.

“What was the hard part? Doing this without arousing suspicion from my friends around me, or in a way that you’d notice. After all, on the off-chance you were an enemy of Equestria, I couldn’t let you know I was on to you, now could I? And everypony around me would probably call me crazy for trying.

“So yeah, then I saw you. For the very first time. Years and years after the first vague sense you had been watching me. All that time, the feeling of your observance had deepened, and stirred terrible thoughts in my head of what horrendous wrath you could be plotting to bring down upon the world I call my own. And those feelings, the moment I first saw you… well, they vanished. You are no enemy. No warlord, seeking to wreak power over my home. No villain with cruel intent. You’re not even anything malicious, you’re just… you. Somepony… sorry, somebody looking out across the cosmos to glance upon a different world. Why? Curiosity, plain and simple. This was a big relief to me, I have to admit.

“That being said, though, it is a violation of my autonomy, and that’s a breach of trust that cuts deep. I've spent years cultivating my friendships, building bonds of trust and understanding with those closest to me. And yet, here I am, and have been, exposed and vulnerable to the whims of an unseen observer. It was a bitter pill to swallow, a harsh reminder that even as a princess, I am not immune to the intrusions of others.

“And yet… I've always been curious about other cultures, other worlds beyond Equestria's borders. If I stopped and thought, for a moment, that I could observe them without their knowledge, would I be tempted to do so? The answer, I realized with a hint of chagrin, is yes. Despite my principles of respecting others' privacy, the allure of knowledge, of understanding the unknown, is a powerful force. Does this make me a hypocrite? Well, I suppose every rose has its thorn, even a princess. To quote an old song I once sang with my best friends, ‘None of us claimed to be perfect’.

“To add to that as well, I vaguely recognised your kind, from the time I spent in a world of humans. Spent as a human, might I add, but I think you already knew about that particular escapade because… heh, that window of yours is pretty convenient, isn’t it? Only, this human world, it wasn’t your world. It’s hard to explain, and I can only make a total guess based on what I know of the multiverse theory. But this was a human parallel of my world, in which every occupant had a counterpart on either side of the magical mirror used to jump between the two. And these two separate worlds exist independently of your world, which to my best guess, lacks the unity of cross-species doppelgangers.

“Confused? Sorry, and to be honest, I am too. It’s complete guesswork on my part, based on almost no evidence. Which wouldn’t really hold up under scientific scrutiny, but then again, I don’t think any of this would.

“With the revelation that you really do mean me no harm, either directly or indirectly, a sense of empathy washed over me. I really couldn’t maintain any delusions of indignation after that. Not if your intentions were purely driven by curiosity, just as mine would be in your position. So, no hard feelings. After all, forgiveness is a cornerstone of friendship, and if there's one thing I've learned, it's that understanding begins with empathy. So to you, the unseen observer who has been watching me all this time, I offer this olive branch.

“Heh… you know, it’s funny. The more time goes by, and the more I reflect on my life, I realise just how much smarter Pinkie Pie was than anypony ever gave her credit for. Her antics always seemed to dance along the edge of reality and imagination. Moments where everypony, myself included, brushed her off under the belief that she was simply talking to herself in her quirky, random way… well, I can now see what was really happening. She knew you were there, the whole time. And she was talking to you. In her own irrepressible way, she threw herself into embracing the essence of our interconnected realities. The magic of friendship ran deep through the very core of who she was, and she made every effort to extend a welcoming hoof of friendship to you. I hope you can appreciate what I failed to understand at the time.

“Pinkie Pie… I miss her so much. And Rarity. And Fluttershy. Applejack. Rainbow Dash. Starlight Glimmer. I’m priveleged to have been able to call these ponies my friends. If they were here now, though I would struggle to get a word in edgeways, I just know that there’d be more hooves of friendship extended your way. I… I miss them all so much.

“Time is passing quickly now, quicker than it ever seemed to. It only feels like yesterday when I first took Luster Dawn under my wing as my personal student, but now her great-great-grandcolt is proving himself most adept in his beginner transmutation course. He’s a natural talent, just like she was. Just like I was. I sense something very special in him.

“Which… well, brings me to today. The windows between realities, they haven’t opened in decades. Some time ago, I set my sights upon the task of opening one myself, even if for one last time. It was no simple feat, that much I can say, and required as much of my engineering prowess as it did my significant magical ability. It’s quite a nifty machine I’ve put together here, but it’s already been running longer than I expected. And… ow, that’s not good. Judging by the fact that the heatsink is starting to glow orange and, yes, I might have just burned my hoof on one of the thermal couplers… no, we don’t have much time left.

“Before we part ways, for what I suspect will be the final time, I do have one teeny tiny little confession to make. You see… uhh, I worked out quite early on when I was building this machine, that merely constructing the window wasn’t going to be enough. For whatever reason, the onus on allowing the window to open falls on your side of the dimensional barrier. So, I formulated a plan. And, uh… sorry, in advance of what I’m about to tell you.

“The completion of my machine allowed me to project my magic from my world into yours. And… well, manipulate you into opening the window under the guise of your own free will. Sorry, again. In your mind, the idea of ‘oh, that looks like it might make for an interesting story, I think I’ll give that a go’ might have felt like your own volition but… yeah. That was me, poking around and pressing the right buttons to lead you here. For the third time, sorry. But it worked, right?

”And, might I add, you had been watching me for years before I even became close to being aware of the exact nature of what was really happening, so I kinda think that the two acts cancel each other out in terms of ‘you did this to me’ versus ‘I did this to you’. I think we can call things even, don’t you?

“...I really don’t like the way the cooling fan on my machine is rattling, so I think we can just cut to the chase now. The reason I brought you here was to say… thank you. Even though I spent so long being uncertain of the true meaning of your presence, you were a constant during the most eventful times of my life. When Equestria was in peril again and again and again, everything seemed to work out in the end, and it feels to me like it’s because you were there watching me. There were dark days, yeah, that’s an understatement. But things always worked out in the end. And eventually, the fact that you were there watching gave me the reassurance to carry on.

“When the Storm King robbed all Equestria of its magic, I knew things would be okay if I kept fighting. When Stygian’s very being was held fast by the Pony of Shadows, I had the courage to persevere. When Chancellor Neighsay tried to drown me in more beauracracy than the average pony can withstand, I filled out the necessary paperwork in triplicate. And when the incident with Grogar’s bell… you know what, I think you get the idea.

“Now, please take this praise in moderation. Ultimately, it was the bonds of friendship I had forged over time that proved to be our greatest strength against the evildoers who threatened to tear up everything I held dear. But knowing, deep down, that observers outside our reality were watching keenly and counting on us to succeed. Well, the effort was indisputably our own, but it was a comforting presence. Like when me and the girls would cheer on Rainbow Dash at her flying events. Yes, it was her abilities that filled her trophy cabinet, but she admitted (quietly) on almost every occasion that having our support was immensely helpful in alleviating some pressure.

“So… yeah, that’s about all I have to say. It’s weird, because honestly, I don’t know what happens now. For longer than I can remember, I lived in a world that you were watching. My goal to open this line of communication one last time has been achieved, and I can say wholeheartedly that I have no idea what happens next. It’s an existential question that’s bugged me for a while. What is there for me now that this purpose has been expended?

“I guess that’s for me to find out. Hey, I’ve definitely faced worse. When this window closes, it will close for good… and I sincerely wish you all the best. Whatever lessons you sought from glimpsing my world, I hope you learned them. So, to you, who has journeyed alongside me through triumphs and trials alike, I offer one final farewell. Though our paths might never cross again, know that your presence will always hold a special place in my heart, and your absence will be felt strongly. Goodbye, old friend.

"Our story is ending now. And for what it’s worth, I hope it was a good one."