Prelude
For the past three years Twilight has lived in Ponyville, every day seemed to have a new adventure waiting for her and her friends. Some days are as complicated as being visited by her future self or saving an entire kingdom from an evil overlord. However, most days are fairly simple: Wake up, eat, and read.
Today began like most days, waking up close to noon from a late night of studying to find Spike’s basket empty. Spike was always getting breakfast ready for her at this time, so she sniffed the air expectantly. Odd, all she could smell was the musty scent of her numerous books in her room.
Not bothering to dwell on it, she hopped out of bed and proceeded with her wake up routine. She walked into her bathroom, blinking the sleep from her eyes as she closed the door behind her. She looked at her bed-mane in the mirror as she gave a mighty yawn, then levitated a number of brushes in her magic. After a few minutes of brushing, she nodded in approval of her appearance. Her coat was smooth and her mane didn’t have a single hair out of place.
She left the bathroom and began to head downstairs. Sniffing the air again, she found that Spike had still not prepared her breakfast. She grunted in aggravation, she could understand waiting to make breakfast for when she woke up, but he usually hears her when she wakes up. Her stomach growled angrily agreement, this was cruel and unusual punishment for something vague and minor for certain.
Deciding to get to the bottom of things, she angrily marched downstairs to put Spike in his place. Or apologize for something he took way too seriously and get him a gem. Either way, she was prepared.
Not seeing him on the main floor, she continued into the kitchen. Sitting at the table was a strange creature wearing black clothing, leaving only its lower arms and head visible. At first glance she thought it was a hairless diamond dog, but after further investigation it resembled a hairless ape of some kind.
“Do you know what that is?” the creature suddenly spoke, looking up from its odd device on the table.
“Know what what is? And what the hay are you doing in my house!?” Twilight asked, attempting to get the upper hand on the situation.
“An ape, do you know what it is?” it asked simply.
Twilight thought back through all her books and reference guides, unfortunately she could recall nothing more than that apes were similar to the creature in her kitchen but with more hair all over their bodies.
“They’re like you are… but with more… hair?” Twilight said uncertainly. “That’s all I know right now, but I think I would remember reading about them, such an unusual creature would surly catch my attention.”
“Ah, and therein lies the key detail: Apes do not exist in Equestria, or anywhere here in your world for that matter. So here is another question: if apes do not exist then how do you know that I resemble one?”
“B-because you do! What is this anyway? Why are you here in my house?!” Twilight yelled, both furious and frightened. The thing in her kitchen didn’t react in any way; instead its attention was focused on the odd glowing device on her table as he seemed to strum his fingers across the surface.
“That brings me to another question, how did you know these were fingers?” it asked as it continued to strum the device with one hand as it flexed its fingers on the other for her to see. “Oh and same with the hand. How do you mysteriously know these things that by rights you should have no knowledge of?”
Twilight was struck speechless, never in her entire life had she encountered such a being, yet without a doubt she knew of its hands, fingers, and biological ancestry without ever knowing of its existence before now. Her world felt like it was slowly spinning around her as she collapsed to the floor, her stomach crying out in hunger once again as a dull throb began in her head.
“Calm down Twilight, let’s get you some food and we can talk.” Tapping with one hand again, it reached beneath the table and withdrew a plate piled high with fresh, steaming hay pancakes drowning in syrup, a trick she would often see Pinkie perform. Instantly her mouth began to water as the sight and smell assaulted her senses. With renewed vigor she leaped up off the floor to the table and began to hungrily devour the pancakes.
A few minutes later Twilight set her fork down with a clink. “Okay, enough of the confusing questions. Who and what are you?”
“Straight to business then, but first one more question,” Twilight groaned loudly in annoyance as the thing kept tapping away at the device. “No it’s a rather interesting question, I assure you. What is your point of view on the multiverse theory? Where there are an infinite number of universes existing over one another, one for every choice made and every idea ever had by anyone?”
“I-I don’t know, I’m definitely familiar with the concept from-”
“-from Starswirl the Bearded’s research you read in the archives of Canterlot Castle.” It finished for her. Twilight was terrified, whatever this thing was, it knew way too much about her life. In an effort to calm her down, it kept talking.
“What I say is true, Twilight. I am from such a dimension. In my world, your entire universe was created from someone’s imagination, namely Lauren Faust. From there, she created a cartoon series called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. In the story there are mainly six ponies, the Elements of Harmony, your friends. Together you would all go on adventures and learn a little bit about friendship every Saturday morning. It started as trolling on various forums before it exploded into an almost cult-like following. From that point on, millions of my people would write various works of fiction about your adventures, some terrifying or sad, others just downright silly. But the point is, each and every one created its own universe in which their stories live out their lives.”
Twilight was on the verge of a mental breakdown, “I-I don’t exist?! Nothing here exists?! Is this just some sick fantasy you created?!”
“Whoa whoa, slow down. Of course you exist, because I made it so. You also existed before I made this place too, you are but a different version of yourself that was created about three years ago. Give or take, I’m terrible with dates. Anyway, we have something important to discuss.”
Twilight took a deep breath, “Okay, what is it you are here for?” She said, managing to sound calm, while the thing kept tapping its device.
“First off, I am what is called a human, my name is Jeff. This here is a MacBook Pro, a computer.” He motioned toward the device his fingers never left, “and right now I am writing everything you said, did, and thought this morning.”
“You mean like, taking notes?” Twilight asked as Jeff smiled knowingly.
“No, I mean I am writing what you said, are saying, and what you will say. What I write here and now happens here and now, you can say I am like a god.” Twilight raised an eyebrow skeptically. “Don’t believe me? I’ll prove it.”
“I really doubt you could prove anything so scienticiely impossibru. Vat? Vas des heck iz diz? Why 4M 1 5P34K1NG L1K3 D1Z?? 21516354!!!” Twilight said in shocked confusion.
“Because I typed it, here come look.” Twilight trotted around to look at the computer from Jeff’s angle.
On this side she saw a large pad Jeff used to move a selector thing on the glowing screen while his fingers kept tapping at a wide variety of buttons on the base of the computer. The buttons had every letter of the alphabet as well as all the numbers needed. Turning her gaze to focus on the screen, she saw Jeff writing out her observations as she made them. He then scrolled to the top and let her read what he had written so far, covering everything that happened this morning. She noticed a few minor discrepancies but kept her peace because Jeff didn’t feel like pointing out his own mistakes to himself.
“Wow…” Twilight said, awestruck.
“I know, it’s insane. Anyway, I have an offer.”
“And that is?”
“Care to join me on a grand adventure across the multiverse of anything created by anyone ever?”
“Won’t you be too busy writing to have adventure if we do that? And what about my friends? Won't they notice I'm gone?”
“Nah, as soon as we begin a new universe will be created featuring you and me while I type it up in a separate universe. And besides, your friends technically don't exist here because I didn't write them into the story, so there is nothing to worry about.”
“Sounds confusing…” Twilight said warily.
“Ah let me worry about that. Next stop: Adventure!” and together they both jumped into the air and slapped hand and hoof together before exploding in a burst of light to their first adventure.
Meanwhile in another universe, Jeff rocked back and forth in an over-stuffed blue lay-z-boy with a keyboard on his lap, typing out the now fictional version of himself going on adventures with Twilight.
