The Wonderbolts rocketed back toward Canterlot, having been dismissed by their temporary master.  Everything had gone off without a hitch, and the pesky knot at the beginning of the loop was closed off.  Twilight let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding, and slumped to the ground with a smile on her face.  She was exhausted, but at least it was almost over.  There was just one brief moment where there had been an extra Scootaloo wandering around town.  She was sure it was just a mistake that was already taken care of.  Somewhere along the line, the filly had accidentally gotten dragged along through time and then later gotten dragged back.  There was definitely only one Scootaloo right now, so it didn’t look like there would be any work to do.  It was just a precaution, making certain there were no temporal troubles unaccounted for.

Twilight heaved herself into a standing position and turned toward the library, offering only a subdued ‘later’ to Rainbow Dash.  Dash didn’t notice or care and continued napping on the low flying cloud.  After she had gotten her well-deserved rest, she would fly over to Sweet Apple Acres and regale her marefriend with a completely unexaggerated account of how she had defied the natural order, led her idols on the single greatest magical/aeronautical/magical-aeronautical event in history, and saved all of Equestria.  Applejack would be incredibly impressed, and would surely reward her for her efforts.

Everything had gone great and everything would continue to go great and there was absolutely nothing that could ruin her day.

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Twilight Sparkle was at her wit’s end.  She stomped furiously about the empty library in an attempt to vent her frustrations.  It wasn’t enough.  She needed somepony to scream at.  Somepony to blame for everything, even if that pony was herself.  But it didn’t work that way.  Her hoof had been forced by her future decisions and she had no way to reshape the timeline.  She wanted to be angry at herself for setting things up this way, but she knew that she had just been following her own decisions the same way she was now.

Still, it felt wrong.  Shouldn’t being the pony who INVENTED time travel give her some say in the matter?  Time was already bending backward over itself to make sure the decisions she made were able to be carried out, why shouldn’t she be able to nudge things around a bit?  Why should she have to play by such a ludicrously complicated set of rules?  Almost none of the events she set up even had any direct impact!  Most of the effort went into stopping sloppy mistakes she thought she shouldn’t have made in the first place.  Why would a project planned and directed by the prized pupil of the Princess be so messy?

Twilight turned to go stomping in a different arbitrary direction and stumbled over a stack of books.  She didn’t fall, instead steadying herself with a hoof against the chalkboard.  Setting the hoof back on the floor, she noticed the smudge she had made and sighed.  Her horn lit up as a piece of chalk floated upward to correct the now erroneous portion of the notes she had left for herself.  They were very helpful, and she certainly wouldn’t want to leave them incorrect in case she forgot something.  It only made sense to fix it now before it became a problem, but something was strange… it almost looked like…

The chalk dropped to the floor, as did Twilight’s jaw.  She had left herself a hidden and encoded message!  But how did she know she would smudge that exact spot?  That was a stupid question – because she had already smudged it herself.  Picking up some blank paper, and her jaw, Twilight was about to begin deciphering whatever she was trying to tell herself.  Her jaw dropped again, as did the papers, and she quickly scrawled the original notes back onto the board.

The very first portion of the message was a warning.  Nothing could be written or spoken and no clues could be left.  Enemy eyes were everywhere.  She would have to mentally re-smudge the board and do all the decoding in her head.  Whatever she was trying to tell herself, it was clearly of the highest importance.

Working as quickly as she could, the studious unicorn realized exactly why she had made such a jumble out of what could have been a much simpler affair.  If you need to write a long letter, you need a lot of paper.

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Rainbow Dash lay curled up in a tight spiral, breathing softly but covered in a thin film of dried sweat.  The hard part was over, and she had somehow found it in her heart to forgive Applejack for what she had put her through.  At the center, surrounded on all sides by the warm and tender embrace only a mother is capable of giving, lay a very small pegasus filly.  Her love for her daughter was strong, but there was something else in the air.  As terrible as it made her feel, there was one emotion continuing to fight its way to the top.  She just couldn’t shake the confusion she felt.

Her daughter was a pegasus, that made plenty of sense.  Although she had never payed attention in school when discussing genetics, she figured any oddities in coloration could be chalked up to her crazy rainbow nonsense – pick any color, she’s got ‘em all.  Still, THIS coloration was impossible.  Sure, time junk or whatever could explain just about anything so that nothing was TRULY impossible, but that still didn’t make it any less of a shock.  It did nothing to make the moment feel any more real.  Applejack had fainted the moment she made eye contact with the newborn pegasus.

The filly began to stir and whimper.  Setting aside her befuddlement for now, Dash nuzzled the precious little ball of fur and focused on giving her all the love she deserved.  Maybe, just maybe… it was a long shot, but there was a chance it was a coincidence.  They could still try to be a normal family.  The filly uncurled and stretched her limbs before looking up into her mother’s face.  Looking back down at her daughter’s face, Rainbow Dash realized she was deceiving herself.  The colors matched too perfectly.  The face was EXACTLY the same.

She set aside her confusion and decided that in the ever-so-grand-and-convoluted scheme of things, it didn’t matter.  Somehow, some way, it had happened.  It was probably Twilight’s fault, but it just didn’t matter.  Rainbow Dash had given birth to Scootaloo, and all she could do about it was love her.