July 3rd, 1003

Dear diary,

It is currently three in the morning as I write. I’m not rewriting that sentence for being overspecific, I’m too tired.

I’m so glad I have Owlowiscious to help me.

I used to handle long nights so much better than this, but some human had to go mess it up for the both of us. I hate some of my inherited traits.

Point is, today is now technically my third day after having had my mind merged with the human Mary, this all having started the morning of the first of July. Is there any meaning in it being on the first? Who knows.

~~Today~~ Yesterday was fine. I mostly worked on rescheduling everything, which did require a lot of going around and getting up to date with anypony I had to shift schedules around with. I was afraid I’d be forced to explain what had happened to somepony, but most were eager to accept my miniscule effort to sweep that whole day under the rug. I got to eat some more of Pinkie’s cupcakes, always a treat. Rarity went out of her way to invite me to some time at the spa, which despite being an unplanned excursion I accepted for some reason.

I did enjoy the spa trip. Though it is only with hindsight that I can say I find it funny, if not still annoying and embarrassing, that the mere context of being at a spa somehow made the concept of nudity more…well you know. ~~Thank God I don’t have a dick, it’d be impossible to~~

I forgot to even mention why I’m writing any of this down.

I need a way to ground myself and accept that this is all still real. Being able to read in my own words that what I remembered happening happened helps in that. In addition I have a feeling that this journal may become useful in the same way that the Journal of Friendship will. Not to imply this journal is going to point us all to some item intrinsically tied to an experience which exemplifies our element and then use those to open that mysterious Tree of Harmony chest, but…

Speaking of, I have no idea how I’m going to deal with that now. The series of events that led to that box being opened are now thrown off and I’m spoiled as to how it works! I have no clue what will happen now!

Too tired. Goodnight

-Twilight Mary Sparkle

July 4th, 1003

Dear diary,

Yesterday and today were thankfully filled with time all to myself, with only the occasional excursion. I was able to convince many of my friends that I just needed a couple days of less time outside. Having couched the idea in it only being less time was a big part as to why I believe it was successful.

I still kept my obligation to my biweekly tea time with Fluttershy on the 3rd, which was involved to say the least. Having not thought to make anypony keep my interest in meat secret, the information had reached Fluttershy and, to put it lightly, she was extremely interested. There was a lot of initial coaxing her down from a lot of fears and worries, but surprisingly after that she must have had some sort of epiphany because she was suddenly extremely understanding of my situation. I remember specifically her bringing up the fact that ponies are technically opportunistic herbivores.

Even if I can eat meat it doesn’t mean I should.

Despite how much it still unnerves me to do so, I might try praying about that tonight, whether meat is okay to eat or not. I know that it was fine in Mary’s world, but…

On another topic, I’ve been mulling over an old mystery brought back to the forefront due to Mary’s knowledge: Pinkie Pie. Sadly there still is nothing conclusive, yes shockingly I’ve been disappointed about that, go figure. The theory which simultaneously makes the most sense and is the most frightening is that whole idea that when Pinkie contained Discord’s magic for a short duration in the finale, that somehow managed to affect her throughout time, including beforehoof.

It’s stupid and has no basis, but I’ve been dealing with a lot more of that in my head recently anyway.

I finally feel like I have even a small grasp on where to start with creating smokeless powder. But even then, so much of my research has just been figuring out where the sources I currently have point to so I can go get those original sources! In addition, it looks like I’ll mostly have to work off translations of Griffon texts which will hopefully not result in any insurmountable issues. It’ll take some time for everything I’m ordering to arrive.

There was a single line in my one book on Griffon warfare which mentioned the attempted military application of Dynamite in artillery, which failed entirely due to being essentially too powerful for the gun to handle. As far as I understand, dynamite is our current closest relative on the journey to smokeless powder so I must now investigate the reason why it doesn’t work and perhaps in doing so I can create a more effective solution.

-Twilight Mary Sparkle

July 5th, 1003

Dear diary,

I’m starting to actually get used to random ponies walking into the library again. To be honest, it’s kind of nice to just interact with so many ponies and it just all be normal. I even went and stocked up on more ink and quills and it felt… mostly normal. I can’t tell sometimes if ponies are looking at me weird because I’m more strange than normal or just because I’ve always been a little strange.

I had a lovely conversation with Cheerilee today who came to pick up some material on algebra. I’d say she reminds me of my mom, Sarah, but she was more the type of teacher who somehow got away with occasionally cursing in front of the students—which somehow only made her more popular with them all. Cheerilee is certainly not like that.

I hope my family on Earth is doing okay. I hope my—I guess—ex-boyfriend is doing fine too. I’ll pray for them.

On the research side, I came to a dead end on trying to figure out anything more with smokeless powder so I went and checked up on that whole theory of relativity E=MC^2 thing, and yep it’s out there. It wasn’t even that hard to find.

I know in Mary’s world there was some pushback against the theory but yikes. The only reason I could find it is because it’s so darn infamous, being torn to shreds by just about every physicist of worth. I ended up being able to read through the original paper through another paper which criticized it line-by-line, which ultimately meant it included the entirety of the original within.

I didn’t know I was going to have to come in to defend Mr. Hoofstein (yes this universe’s Einstein, I’m trying not to think about it too hard). To be fair I didn’t know I was going to have to do anything I am right now.

-Twilight Mary Sparkle

July 6th, 1003

Dear diary,

I finally got the main brunt of my ‘Future Plans’ piece done, motivated by events of the day. However…that’s not as great of an accomplishment as I wish it was. To be frank, it’s a seven and a half long bullet list of items. I simply don’t have the knowledge necessary to do more than that.

Rarity and Rainbow Dash both randomly popped in today, though not at the same time. Rainbow Dash was somewhat expected, because I knew she’d be coming by to pick up the newest Daring Do book as soon as it arrived, but she came over way before that. She practically woke me up with how early she dropped by. Spike ended up making breakfast for all three of us.

Apparently Dash had got the idea from thinking about Daring Do to ask me what I knew about our future exploits, since I’d mentioned during my ‘Welcome to Equestria’ party that Mary knew Twilight as a fictional character. I gotta say, I’m kind of proud of Rainbow Dash of all ponies for putting the pieces together that I might have future knowledge.

I told her about as much as I know, which sadly isn’t much. I wish I could claim to have been some sort of super fan who knew every episode by heart, but I actually really fell out of watching the show later on. There were…some revelations…which Rainbow Dash had big reactions to. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look on her face when I told her that—as far as I understood it—her and Applejack got together some twenty to forty years in the future.

It was not entirely a look of disapproval from her, I’ll say that much. Still, that seemed to be the last straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back of her belief that everything I said would 100% come to fruition—as I had continuously been trying to tell her throughout the conversation.

Ultimately the proceedings came to a good conclusion in that she encouraged me to work on remembering as much as I can, and she’d work on getting everypony together tomorrow to discuss.

My conversation with Rarity was not as grandiose, thankfully. She’d decided that I may be in need of a new wardrobe since I had been making my way all around Ponyville the past few days in what scant choices of clothing I had. I have half a mind to say she found a sort of perverse humor in my touchyness with nudity. She came nowhere close to Pinkie Pie flat out mooning me at the train station, but she might as well have done the equivalent through conversation.

Still, she retained enough professionalism to get down a whole host of ideas in order to create an entire line of clothes fit for my style and tastes designed for daily wear. I’m excited to see the fruits of her labor.

-Twilight Mary Sparkle

Future Plans

By Twilight Mary Sparkle

Mary, the half of me which was human, was a fan of a piece of fiction which bears striking resemblance to my current reality. However, things are different. No knowledge will be applicable one-to-one, and even if it were, the very fact that I’ve experienced this mind merge would invariably change the series of events I know through my memories on Mary’s side.

All of the events and information gleaned from that aforementioned source will be hereafter referred to as being from the alpha (α) timeline/alpha Equus/etc. Events and information from our current reality will be referred to as being from the beta (ß) timeline/beta Equus/etc.

1.Return Tirek to Tartarus.

The first of many villains to come in the near future and attempt to ruin Equestria. In the alpha timeline he escapes during the cerberus’s absence from his post guarding Tartarus. Eventually his return was noticed, but his whereabouts remained unknown. It wasn’t until Celestia tasked Discord with locating him that events began to escalate. Tirek managed to convince Discord to work for him in overthrowing Equestria. All three princesses, besides me, bestowed into me all of their magic in order to hide it from Tirek—who was unfamiliar with my existence. This plan failed completely due to the various clues which hinted at my existence and the very fact that Discord, who was working for Tirek, knew of me quite well.

With Discord’s help, my friends were easily captured. It was only then that my friends learned of Discord’s betrayal. Fittingly, it was just then that Discord was betrayed in turn by Tirek, as he absorbed Discord’s chaos magic. It was then that a conflict was inevitable. In that conflict the Golden Oaks was destroyed. Ultimately the fighting came to a stand still, with Tirek offering a deal: Give over all of the alicorn magic within me to him, and he would release my captured friends, discord included.

I agreed to the deal, and with my friends returned we journeyed to the Castle of the Two Sisters, down to the Tree of Harmony. I had realized what the keys to the box were, through going through our Journal of Friendship. Each of the elements, other than myself, had a moment in the journal where they came to a realization related to their element, and each of these moments corresponded to an item they’d each kept.

With those items, plus an amulet given to me by Discord who had originally received it from Tirek in dishonesty as a sign of good faith and friendship, the box was opened. The items literally transformed into keys upon contact with the chest.

A new power was unleashed, engulfing me and my friends, and it was with that power that Tirek was defeated. The chest then proceeded to fly towards Ponyville, dig itself into the ground, and formed a massive crystal tree castle with a round table at its center, with chairs for each of the elements.

If in the beta timeline we can find Tirek, without Discord’s aid, before he gains too much power we may be able to stop him early.

2.Read through the Journal of Friendship to find the known items to unlock the Tree of Harmony chest.

In the alpha timeline Discord had read through the Journal of Friendship after all the important events of everypony but me had occurred and then modified the journal to have color coded tabs for each of those important moments.

Without this aid in the beta timeline, we will have to look through the pages manually to discover which events are the important ones and what item correlates to it.

Sadly, my memory of the alpha timeline is lack-luster, so I cannot list out what the items are here. Hopefully upon reading the journal certain passages will jog my memory.

2a.Discover the rest of the items.

The journal may be incomplete, there may be ponies who have yet to experience their important event and thus do not yet have their item. I am unsure of how we are to discover the remaining items, especially my own, if the beta timeline plays out too differently.

3.Find Starlight Glimmer and try to convince her of the error of her ways using future and past knowledge, such as knowledge about her childhood I shouldn’t otherwise have.

After the creation of the new castle and its round table, it is discovered that the table also acts as a magical map of Equestria. Every so often images of our cutie marks would be shown on the map moving to somewhere else that those ponies weren't currently located. This would be accompanied by the affected ponies also having their cutie marks glow.

In short, the map would call us to solve friendship problems in particular locations, but only in specific groupings.

The discovery of Starlight Glimmer was due to one of these callings, where we were all called to a remote village far off the edges of Equestria.

To make an incredibly long story short, Starlight Glimmer was—in an attempt to fix what she saw as a failing of cutie marks—running a village where all the inhabitant’s cutie marks were stripped away. We defeated her in the end, but she escaped.

Later she learned of how all of the element’s cutie marks were tied back to Rainbow Dash’s performance of the first sonic rainboom. With her vast magical knowledge, and the help of the crystal map in the castle as a focus, Starlight Glimmer traveled back in time to prevent the sonic rainboom from occurring.

Spike and I managed to follow her, and it was only through many attempts, which led us to seeing various possible futures, that we eventually convinced Starlight Glimmer of the terrible consequences of her actions and gave her a hoof in friendship to redeem herself.

She would become a pupil of mine, and slowly grow and prove herself as a student of friendship over the years.

4.[Unknown]

Sadly, it is about here that my knowledge of the alpha timeline starts to wane, I know only the largest, most critical events that proceed, but I’m quite sure I’m missing some of it.

5.Stop Cozy Glow.

Continuing even further into the alpha timeline I would form a school of friendship, inviting creatures from all across the world to attend. One student would prove to be a hidden seed of evil, a very young filly named Cozy Glow. Despite her age, she is determined to…I believe rid Equestria of all of its magic. If I’m correct, then the timeline I know of in which all life is dead is due to her, but I could be mistaken.

I have no knowledge of how she tries to implement her plans, I only know she is a potent force of evil.

6.Find and stop Grogar.

Somehow the ancient evil, Grogar, returns in the alpha timeline. I’m not even sure if the events which allow this will occur in the beta timeline, but it’s still best to be on the lookout.

7.Inoculate Equestria to racism to prevent the return of the Windigos.

The penultimate event of the alpha timeline is the return of the Windigos to Equestria. All I know of this event is that in the alpha timeline Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow team up in order to influence the Earth Ponies, Unicorn, and Pegasi to all be distrusting of one another.

July 7th, 1003

Dear diary,

The meeting discussing Future Plans was, by design, rather short. I do wish I could say there was some amazing revelation given by one of my friends, but they’re all more in the dark than I am about anything that could potentially happen in the future. It’s still good to get them a little more caught up and prepared.

There was a mix of condolences and otherwise about the potential loss of my library. Rarity couldn’t help but ogle over the idea of an entire castle made out of gems.

We then proceeded to pour over the Journal of Friendship together with great results. In short, we’ve discovered with certainty the items for everypony! Well, except for me, since that whole series of events is far from happening.

The journey to the Tree of Harmony was short, and the items all turned to keys for the box upon contact, just as I predicted. I wish I could say that I didn’t prance around like an excited school filly and boasted in everypony’s face about how I was right when it happened. I don’t think I’ll ever live that down.

I started another line of research, this time into computing, just as something to take my mind off of trying to prepare for the future. I just so happened to have received the latest edition of the Manehatten Institute of Science journal and, to make a long story short, they were very quick to respond to the telegram of a princess—me—asking to buy one of their latest computers for my own research! I can’t wait for it to arrive!

-Twilight Mary Sparkle

July 8th, 1003

Dear diary,

After yesterday being so focused on serious topics, it was nice to go back to a relatively normal day. I finally got some time to hang out directly with Applejack, as apparently that hadn’t happened yet since the merge. Her and Applebloom were doing some work on the truck and AJ thought I’d have some expertise—I really don’t have much, but I was happy to help. Honestly, as expected, Applebloom was the biggest contributor to fixing up that truck.

It’s strange knowing how she’s not going to end up with a cutie mark in something mechanical or engineering related despite her talents. Or at least it’s very probable she won't. I still have no clue how much of an impact my changing of events will have. There has yet to even be anything from an episode of the show, it’s all just been filler time. The next episode is going to be that trip to Rainbow Falls. I just know it. Again, I’m not extremely familiar with the entire show, but I know that the trader’s exchange was the scene of some episode I don’t remember.

Makes me nervous just thinking about it. I’ve done all the research I can on the event and there is really nothing special, nothing that pops out as important. If anything my role there will likely just be as a rubber stamp for the whole affair. Even if I did know more I’d be afraid to attempt to change anything unless it’s something major, like Tirek.

-Twilight Mary Sparkle

July 9th, 1003

Dear diary,

Today was reshelving day. It…took longer than I expected, even after I had accounted for it taking longer than normal! Needless to say, I’m not very happy with myself. I just kept tripping up over things I normally don’t!

Spike’s been understanding, and extremely helpful. I’m so glad to have him as my assistant. I need to do more to show him that, though hopefully in a way that doesn’t involve him over gorging himself on rubies...at least not too often. A day off might do him well. It’s only now that I realize how much he’s been taking up my slack.

I’ve been trying not to think about it. I lay here in bed, about to go to sleep after this whole day of not seeing a wink of the outdoors or my friends.

Probably not a good idea to avoid one’s friends as the princess of friendship, even if that wasn’t my intention.

-Twilight Mary Sparkle

***

Twilight hovered the diary into the drawer of her nightstand, along with the quill and ink she used, in her magic. Her head turned to her right, her eyes slowly meandering over the vista of Ponyville outside her bedroom window. The darkened figures of thatched roofs were barely distinguishable from the shadowed mountains beyond them. The stars blanketed the sky, their twinkling catching Twilight’s gaze in a net, like a moth to a flame.

She thought about the week so far, how each day progressively melded into the next. Tomorrow will just be another day. It seemed impossible that she was here, living it, but she was. She couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to come. It was too serene, too simple, too easy to just blend into this life. Something had to come and knock down her tower, it just had to be on its way right now!

This was how it happened each night. It made it hard to sleep with all that worry. She focused on her friends, how they’d each shown such amazing grace with her, each in their own way. She rested her head against the pillow, as she snuggled into the bedsheets. Her lidded eyes couldn’t decide whether to close or stay open. Her vision blurred as she focused inward.

The image of her friends that first day, huddled around the board game. The image of Pinkie in front of her face, surprising her with the whole affair. The image of Pinkie standing over her, protecting her from her friend’s stinging remarks. The image of the trees passing by through the window as Pinkie sat perfectly still across from her. That last one was so very unlike her…

Author's Note

Another short chapter to bridge over to some events leading up.
Next chapter is going to be our final deep dive into the goings on of Twilight before we move on to new stuff~

Excited :)