Renewal

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony, nor am I profiting off this literary venture.

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Today had been...

Terrible.

Absolutely, positively, downright terrible. He'd expected to be behind his classmates, sure. He thought, however, that he'd be within spitting distance of understanding what the teacher was talking about.

He didn't. He had absolutely no idea what a lot of words meant. Like coefficient, organelles, republic-democracy and the like.

It was okay, he could deal with this. He was used to feeling stupid, he lived with the smartest pony he knew.

Had lived.

"Gah!" Spike grabbed his head, silently shouting. It was already starting! The education was...

It was... Sinking in.

He dropped his hands, dropping the theatrics as well when he noticed there were people staring. He put his hands in his pockets- Delightful inventions, those, ponies didn't make much use of them- and moved on down the hallway. He had to find the library.

He remembered passing it earlier that day between classes, it was on the first floor. Had double doors, big glass windows.

His hand paused on the doorknob. A grin spread across his face. He opened the door and stepped in.

"You have no idea how glad I am to see you!" As he got closer, the details got more muddled but this was somepony he couldn't not recognize.

"Oh, um, yay?" Why was her voice so quiet though? She was almost as soft as Fluttershy. "It's nice to see you too?"

"You weren't waiting too long, right?" He pulled out a chair at the end of the table where she sat and joined her. "I didn't mean to keep you."

"Oh, no, no. I got only just got here." She closed a book and tried to set it in a backpack near her feet. Something red and furry shifted by her feet and huffed. "Oh shush Garble."

Spike felt something in his chest freeze. He squinted, pulling her into focus.

It was Twilight, he knew that from the start. But there were details that he finally noticed, things that were different.

Her hair was up, she wore glasses. Those were wrong, certainly. Her hands were together in her lap, shoulders were hunched.

His gaze slid down, completely passing over her. By her feet was a large dog, its fur was red and it looked old.

"Is something wrong? I know a lot of people don't like dogs and Garble can be kind of intimidating but if you don't like him I can't-"

"Sorry, sorry, it's not you or him." He stopped squinting and started rubbing the brow over his right eye. "I found out I need glasses a few days ago and since then I've actually noticed how blurry everything is."

Alright, it was him. He was bigger, a pony...

Human. He was a human now. Still, just the thought of the red brute made him feel small, helpless.

Scared.

"Oh, I remember that.Back when I got my glasses, I didn't really notice I was nearsighted. It kind of hit me when I went outside with them on for the first time." She sounded wistful.

"What did you see?"

"Trees and branches. Leafs. I forgot what a tree in Spring looked like. What it really looked like." He could almost empathize, he couldn't remember what his claws looked like in detail.

Maybe he didn't want to.

"Anyway, I'm supposed to tutor you, right?" He nodded. "Alright. What do you need help on?"

He could lie. Shield his fragile pride and stubbornly tell her a falsehood he wished was true.

"Everything." But he wouldn't. If this... This replica of his closest friend was anything like he'd heard about Twilight before he was assigned to her.

No. He was going to be honest with more than just her. He had to be honest with himself as well.

If this Twilight was anything like his Twilight before she'd made friends in Ponyville, she didn't have anyone she could really talk to. Didn't have anypony who was closer than an acquaintance...

"That's a lot to cover." Maybe she didn't have faith in herself yet. He knew she understood the material, there was no such thing as a Stupid Twilight. "Maybe we should try one topic. What do you want to get started on?"

Nothing.

"Social studies. I kind of understand how a dictatorship works but everything else is new to me." Certainly Equestria was ruled by a pair of princesses. Who'd been in power for over a thousand years, never passed on, never had children and never gave up their throne. Human definitions did not call that a kingdom.

"A-alright, that should be simple enough. You see, there's a handful of major government structures and from there we have..." Spike listened as she explained how various government structures were defined, asking questions when she explained something he didn't understand.

A lot of questions.

The longer she talked though, the more comfortable she seemed to get. Faltering and stuttering only after he asked a question.

"...And that's how a representative democracy such as our own works."

"But wouldn't that be..." Spike noticed she was fidgeting, that Garble had gotten up and was pawing at the ground. "Time's up I guess?"

"Er, yeah. The tutoring session is scheduled to go from 2:45 to 3:45 but it's almost half after four." She stood up, banging her knee on the table. She hissed and Spike heard a growl. "Heel Garble!"

The dog was facing him. It wasn't growling any more, but Spike still felt nervous. If it was anything like Garble from where he was from... It would be vicious when it stopped playing nice.

"Sorry about him. He's trained to be very protective of me, that's all. Anyway, if you have anymore questions you'll be welcome to ask them on Thursday." She started walking to the door, glancing at him every few steps.

"Sure." She paused, her hand on the push bar for the library. "Thanks Twilight."

She rushed out the door, sparing him one last glance.

That was different, he never remembered her acting like that. Or at least, he never remembered his Twilight acting like that.

He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

The other analogues had been different, he knew.

So why wouldn't she be, too?

Author's Notes:

To the individuals wondering where in the timeline this is occurring... I think I shall answer your question with a question.
What branch of magic is the creator of the mirror famous for having created?