Day 8 (morning?).

"No, Spike... I don't want to eat blue elephants..."

My eyes shot open and I frantically looked at my surroundings. This wasn't the cave... and... Where in Equestria was the princess?!

No, Twilight... No time to panic! Think logically about this! The last time you went bananas things only got worse... That's the last thing the princess needs!

I was inside some sort of prison cell, just that instead of iron bars, there were... wood bars. Outside stood an earth pony whose coat was painted with strange designs of various colors (mostly white, blue and red). He also held a lance and wore a necklace made of bones and rope and a bandana with a decent amount of feathers attached to it. His expressionless face reminded me of the royal Canterlot guards...

It took me a while to remember why I hadn't just teleported out of there, or even easily broken the wooden bars. One, of course, I couldn't use magic. My horn was burnt.

Two, I was actually safer here than out there.

I had awaken in the cave, but I couldn't find the princess anywhere. Knowing she had a lot of injuries all over her body I obviously panicked and went outside in a desperate attempt to find her. I ended up being chased by the biggest dragon I could have ever seen in my entire life, which was around twice the size of the one me and the girls had to face on top of that mountain. The last thing I remembered was tripping and being surrounded by five or six ponies that looked just like the one guarding the cell outside... All of them earth ponies...

Even though here I was safe from ridiculously gigantic dragons, I had to find the princess. Of course, I could negotiate with whoever was the leader here, but it seemed like these ponies didn't speak Equestrian at all... Everything was so primitive about this place...

When I actually thought about it a little more, this dragon was probably the reason why the princess didn't want me to go outside no matter what... And she was really tired... Could it be that we had somehow appeared there and Princess Celestia had to carry me all the way into that cave while being chased by that dragon? And judging by the nature of the injuries she had, probably she had already been injured when she had to run away...

A shiver ran through my spine at the simple thought. There were so many different emotions filling my heart...

Suddenly, the leather curtains were lifted and revealed a small indigo coated filly being escorted by another painted pony. This filly didn't have any marks or jewelry and she seemed strangely familiar... Something else confirmed my suspicions; she seemed to be an alicorn, but lacked her cutie mark. I dismissed my hypotheses, they were just too crazy.

The filly started doing a strange dance in front of the guard as she babbled random syllables and did strange sounds. Somehow, this dance was very alike to the hoofshake Cadence and I always did when we saw each other, but some other moves were added. Probably every movement meant something, and when two or three were put together they acquired a whole new meaning... Could this be their language?

The guard also did a dance of his own, and after a couple of nods he opened the cell. I cautiously gave a step forward and, after seeing they only stared at me, completely walked out of the cell. The filly gestured me to follow her and a few moments later we were already walking through the village. I could see the natives casually greeted her; this filly seemed to be very popular here, but why would she help me out?. I wanted to ask the filly a dozen questions, but I kept quiet knowing she probably didn't speak Equestrian either...

"You're not from around here, are you?" the little filly asked curiously, but before I could answer... "Well, duh! You're a unicorn! And you don't have paint on your coat with those crazy designs or wooden sticks pierced through your skin! That's just ridiculous and pointless! Aaand it looks like it hurts too... which just makes it more pointless!" I felt relieved, finally there was somepony here that I could communicate with! "Anyway, I'm Luna!"

"Y-y..."you're who?! It almost looked like I was imitating those ponies, muttering nonsense, but no coherent words could come from my mouth. I could only stare at the hoof the 'princess' innocently offered with the cutest eyes.

"Oh. Maybe you can't speak Equestrian either... That's too bad."

"N-no! I can! I-I... my name is..." had my hypotheses been true...? If that was the case then I had to be extremely careful with what I did or said, otherwise it could have severe consequences. I had to avoid changing anything here, or being any sort of influence to anything at all... unless this was actually meant to happen. I couldn't take that risk though, for now it was better to keep the world from hearing the name 'Twilight Sparkle' yet. "Lavender. I'm from the East and things are more advanced there." I carefully shook the small hoof.

"Really? I thought some Eastern ponies spoke 'Chinese' or 'Japanese' or something like that" at this point, I was sweating bullets and asking to whoever resided in the heavens why did I have to forget something so trivial precisely at this moment, and why was such a small filly so smart! Well, filly or not, this is Princess Luna we're talking about! Though... the informality of the natives actually told me Luna probably wasn't a princess at this time... "Honestly, I don't know how they come up with those weird names for their kingdoms! I don't even know where Equestrian language itself came from at all!"

"Haha... well, about that..." Suddenly, my brain started to work just in the right moment "I'm a... researcher! Yes! A researcher and I was sent here from Japan to study this place, so... I've studied enough Equestrian... and, actually my name is 'Murasaki'" I mentally thanked for that one time where I was so bored I suddenly took a random book from the language shelf and began reading even though I didn't understand most of the foreign words.

"Awesome!" As soon as Luna turned around to continue the walk, I sighed in pure relief. I felt bad for lying to her, considering she was technically a more adorable version of Luna.

"By the way, how did you know I was imprisoned?"

"Oh, the natives told me!" Luna answered calmly. It seemed like people here were actually nice and not savage, heartless creatures "They were asking me if it was okay to kill you and eat your meat!" Okay, I take it back. It was kind of disturbing she was telling me these things with such a cheery and nonchalant tone " And even though I understand these are harsh times for them, I decided to take you out. But that doesn't matter. Anyway, Mukasa... Musa... Lavender! How did you end up... here?"

"W-well... I was being chased by a dragon, tripped and fell here-"

"You stepped into dragon territory?!" Luna abruptly turned around and looked at my with those two huge orbs.

"Um... I don't know?"

"Alright. Dragons may be big and scary, but they're actually pretty nice... as long as you don't step into or touch their property. It's pretty funny that Mommy and Daddy never told me this," her parents? "but I learned it through my sister that accidentally made this mistake..."

"Your sister?" suddenly, my heart pounded with anticipation. What was the princess like as a filly?

...No... no fantasizing!

"Yup! My big sis Celestia!" she spoke her name with sweetness and pride, her chest puffed. "Wanna meet her?"

"Well, I... I'd better not" it was very tough to refuse, but I did not want to involve myself with this world any further; it was already too dangerous as it was.

"Awww!" little Luna pouted with big sparkling eyes, it almost made me change my mind if I didn't know what was in danger here "Why noooot?"

"I... um... have a lot of studying and researching to catch up on" that actually translated to 'I have a lot of searching to catch up on. I mean, the future princess of Equestria is missing and if I don't find her soon it's either suffering for the rest of my life, or your future self making me suffer for the rest of my life! Or both!'. I sheepishly smiled, trying with every fiber of my being to look at anything at all but at the filly's eyes. My eyes darted, landing on the dirt, then on the beautiful blue sky, and lastly at many of the exotic, big and colorful flowers had been long since extinct in the future "You know... All that time I wasted in that cell..."

"Okay..." She sulked and I dared to look at her; probably I wasn't going to see Princess Luna the same way when I returned... "So, at least do you wanna eat something? You're probably hungry!" Luna offered with renewed energy.

"Um... well... Why not? I guess..." I could find the princess in the way, and even get some food too.

When we reached the outskirts of the small village, Luna began to 'talk' to another native. He seemed a little younger and more expressive than the rest, he was even a little goofy and laughed a little with Luna before coming towards me.

"His name is" she did another strange, but shorter dance "Which means 'Spike' in Equestrian" Luna did yet another dance, probably introducing me to the stallion.

"That's..." I muttered, feeling memories of Spike, my assistant, striking me hard. I really missed him, as my library and all of Ponyville, that little crazy, but nice town that taught me the meaning of friendship, as well ... now who knows when we were going to get back to the future... "That's a nice name!" Luna did another dance, probably translating what I had said to the young stallion named Spike. He blushed and clapped his hooves with a huge smile in response.

We resumed our walk, entering further and further into the jungle. The flora and fauna here felt very foreign and the need to actually study this place began to invade my mind, and it probably wasn't going to leave me alone until we left. Putting that aside, the fruits were bigger and had even stranger colors, while the trees were even taller. Spike seemed to be very attentive and aware of his surroundings; if everything had these colossal proportions and weirder appearances, the animals could be the same. Whether that was good or bad... it was up to nature itself to prove it. Though I think it's just logical that this size wildlife had wasn't very beneficial since evolution actually took place. I could only be surprised at the vast knowledge Luna had about the wildlife here.

Suddenly, I realized almost stepped on the smaller version of Luna due to being lost in thought about how different things were. It was very ironic, while everything had become bigger, the princess was actually smaller.

We had stopped in front of a palm tree which had some big, blue and almost perfectly round fruit growing. Spike did another dance while pointing at the fruit.

"Spike asks if you wanna eat that blue fruit you see over there. The natives call it some weird name that's impossible to pronounce, so I call it 'blue elephant'. You know... because it's big, sturdy, round, and blue!" Luna explained "Though I don't think you can eat one by yourself. Seriously, it looks bigger when you have it in front of you than up there!" It wasn't necessary, I could already feel the weight on my back... but probably it was worth it, as long as I had some food with me to eat in the way or to share with the princess if I found her.

"Buuuuut" Luna began again "Even though it has a lot of sweet juice inside, it can be a pain to open it! Plus, some may even by dry and may have these nasty bugs inside..." she stuck out her tongue in disgust. Taking in account what this amazingly knowledgeable filly had just told me, it probably wasn't really worth to take the risk...

"In that case, I'll look for something simpler and smaller... I'm sorry, Spike" I smiled apologetically at the stallion, even though I knew he couldn't understand me. I wanted to keep it simple and direct in case Luna wanted to translate it "I don't want to eat 'blue elephants'"

Evening

I was walking back towards the cave, now with saddlebags overflowing with provisions. Luna and Spike had provided me with a decent amount fruits and vegetables, water, and even scrolls, pens and inks! Though I had no idea of how I was going to write without my magic... My hoofwriting was a little sloppy. No, very sloppy.

Probably, with these materials, I could actually study the wildlife here and write a whole history book speaking about it! I just wondered why Princess Celestia hadn't come up with that sooner! Oh, right, busy with her kingdom...

I was starting to question if going back to what seemed to be dragon territory was a good idea, but I had to look for the princess. Yes, sure, she could be far, far away at this moment. Worst case scenario, she got tired of me and returned to the future, leaving me here to fend for myself and probably leaving an eternal scar in the fabric of time itself. I was getting nervous and extremely depressed just by thinking about it...

But now that I thought about it, what could have brought us here? What or who could have enough power or ability to teleport us through time? Not even the concept of time itself was well developed and any spells related with it were kept in secret in the Royal Canterlot Archives! Precisely because they could have severe consequences in the flow of time and reality itself!

Wait... Why do I feel like I'm forgetting something really important?

The experiment! Just what happened to it? The more I thought, the more I felt like I needed to find the princess. Not only because she could be in danger, not only because ~~I wanted to be her hero~~ she could be injured, not only because ~~I missed her~~ Princess Luna could be worried sick back in the future, but because I wanted answers. I needed them. Though, I was scared to know the truth... There was this scarce possibility that the experiment had ended in failure, or something had gone wrong, or probably some side effect had resulted in a... a portal. A time portal. But most importantly, if this was the case... that meant it was all my fault and mine alone... I couldn't bear with that.

Images of the princess's hurt body flashed through my mind and I just asked myself... Was I really responsible for this? No, I was not afraid of the punishment I could receive, just the simple idea of causing harm, bother, inconvenience or any form of trouble to the princess made me feel... sick.

I groaned and stomped at the pain I felt in my stomach; this always happened whenever I felt extremely guilty. Then I thought, if I had really caused all of this, I had to fix it no matter what. Sighing, I began running at full speed towards the cave (that now I notice was in an extremely tall mountain) that now was in my field of view. My heart began to beat faster and harder; if Luna was right, and if I had understood her properly... this was dragon property. I stopped right in front of the entrance and looked up to find a cloud of smoke coming from the peak of the rocky mountain...

Definitely, there's a dragon here. Probably the same gigantic dragon that attacked me before.

I entered the cave to find I could see absolutely nothing. As soon as I tried using a light spell the pain that countered my efforts reminded me of my condition. It wasn't necessary, though. There was no fire at all, which meant... this cave was empty, and I had run the risk of stepping into a dragon's place for nothing.

My only consolation was knowing I'd have a long, funny story for Spike when I got back home...

Well, time to go back to finding the princess...

"Alright. As I was saying" the goddess kept talking form the heavens as Princess Luna (no, not the filly. The adult one) was already making measurements and collecting remnants of the crystals. Apparently the goddess could somehow return them to their original state. Luna only had to take care of keeping the portal opened, Mello would be ready to close it afterwards.

According to Mello, the crack could actually close itself, but she had mentioned something about 'the universe being too young and undeveloped in these details, so if we were to leave it to close by itself... it could end up being a little awkward and weird stuff could happen'. Luna thought it was a little weird for any kind of 'deity' to speak so informally and casually... And she also thought that probably this entity knew more than she/it wanted to tell.

"This actually happened because a mare named Brain Storm crashed through the window and then, this and that thing got out of place and... 'caboom'." If this goddess had been talking about some kind of nonsense Luna would be annoyed, but at least she was getting a very vague explanation about what had actually happened. This vagueness alone was enough to irritate her, but she had to be patient; Mello was helping her and this was better than being all alone, dealing with angry subjects and probably another mental breakdown because of this.

"Turns out to be that this mare wanted to sneak into the castle to look for a recipe to make..." she trailed of, and Luna clenched her teeth. She imagined herself yelling at full volume with her Royal Voice...

"TO MAKE WHAT?!"

But that was her imagination.

"Luna, you're a little tense" the princess only shrugged and rolled her eyes "I'm going to show you a form of entertainment from Nicardia!" Suddenly, a kind of box appeared in front of Luna's hooves, and some sort of black board was attached on one of the walls. "C'mon! Take a break!"

"H-how do you know about Nicardia?!" Luna could only stare at the box with shock. These things actually existed? How much had she missed from this mysterious and chaotic technological kingdom?

"I told you I knew a lot of stuff..." Mello answered nonchalantly, which only increased the princess's irritation "Anyway, in my world they called this 'box' a 'Nintendo 64'. So technically, Origin is only copying from... let's call them 'other worlds'. Basically, this is a machine... or whatever, that you use to play games, in other words a video game console. You attach it to the TV; that 'board' you see in that wall over there."

"...I do not have time for this nonsense" Luna muttered, resisting the urge of kicking the strange object far, far away from her, and returned to her measurements.

"Actually, you do. Remember that one time where your sister stepped into a dragon's place?" Luna scratched her chin in thought... she had heard of this before... of course she had! Yes, she remembered this! And this was no good news.

"You mean... Celestia and Twilight are..."

"Mhm. And because of how much the world has changed from that time to this time, it's probably gonna take them a while to find a way to return, and you're almost done, if I'm not mistaken." The princess began to reconsider; this could turn out to be something foolish and a waste of time, but she was not going to know for sure unless she actually tried.

"Alright. I..." she sighed "suppose I will try it once I finish."

"Yay! I'm gonna see a gaming Luna!"

"Pardon?"

Author's Note

Yup, gaming Luna.