Chapters Twilight's Trouble with Time Traveling
It was a "normal" day in the library. Twilight was really nervous, as always since she became an alicorn. It's been two weeks already and she did not sleep since four days, trying to learn the basics of being a princess. Spike's situation wasn't much better. He never understood why Twilight can't get all the books herself with her magic. Of course, right now Twilight was so nervous he wouldn't even dare to ask. He had to help her all the time. Fortunately he did get some rest, thanks to his friend Owlowiscious.
Suddenly, they heard a knock on the door. Spike went to answer. It was Applejack.
"Hi, Spike, is Twilight home?" she asked. "I just wanted to check on her, haven't seen her since the coronation."
"Who's there?" asked Twilight.
"Princess Celestia," Spike replied, knowing it will be the only way to get Twilight to stop reading and come say "hello" to her guest.
It worked. Twilight was in front of the door in a matter of seconds.
"Oh, hey, Twi!" said Applejack, just before she realised how tired and angry Twilight is. "Whoa, what happened to you?"
"Hi, Applejack! Sorry, but I'm really busy right now," she said and tried to close the door, but was stopped by AJ.
"Hey, I haven't seen you since 4 days alredy, sugarcube! Did you even get any sleep?", she asked, being really worried for Twilight.
"Yes, of course," said Twi, trying to avoid further conversation, and once again attempted to close the door. This time she was stopped by Spike.
"No, she didn't", he said. "Twilight has been really nervous since she was turned into a princess without any preparations. She's still a little mad at Princess Celestia for not telling her what was she planning. She didn't tell me that, but I can see it."
"Never mind... What am I here for is, Pinkie Pie invited you to a party at Sugarcube Corner this afternoon, we all knew how nervous are, sho we decided to calm you down.."
"Of course I will come!", she replied.
"Really?" asked Applejack.
"Yeah, how could I miss a meeting with my friends?" She said. "Bye!"
"Bye, Twilight!" said AJ.
Twilight then went to read some books, but after a few hours she was really exuhusted, so she decided to go to sleep. She woke up at least a few hours later, surprisingly rested and ready to study once again.
Finally afternoon came and Twilight, as she promised, went to Sugarcube Corner. She opened the door, but didn't see any of her friends, even Pinkie Pie, which was surprising, because she works here. The only ponies around were some two stallions, sitting near a table and eating some cake. Twilight figured out that the party have either ended already or not started yet, so she decided to wait an hour.
After two hours nopony came, so Twi decided she'd go to her friends and ask why didn't they come. The closest was Pinkie. She came to the shopkeeper.
"Hello, is Pinkie Pie home?" she asked.
"I'm sorry, but I don't know anypony of that name," replied the shopkeeper. Right now, Twilight realised it wasn't Mrs. Cake.
Twilight was surprised, and went outside to check if she is in the right place. The sign on the building clearly said "Sugarcube Corner".
She had no idea what was currently going on. Twilight tried to see the rest of her friends. Next was Applejack.
Twi arrived at ad Sweet Apple Acres, but, as expected, did not find Applejack there. She went closer to the barn, she thought that the Apples may be here. Unfortunately, she only found some other ponies, who apparently didn't like her, so she walked out of the farm. Only now she realised that the place she just was in was called "Flim Flam Fields".
"Yeah, it's not gonna be a normal day," Twilight said to herself.
Next was Rarity. That is not even worth mentioning, Twi did not find the Carousel Butique at all, so she went to Fluttershy's cottage.
Surprisingly, it was actually surrounded by animals, so Twilight was a little happy, hoping to find a yellow pegasus in here. Unfortunately, she didn't. The house appeared to be empty. The windows and the door were also broken. The last pony was Rainbow Dash.
Fortunately, she knew how to fly already. She also knew where Rainbow Dash lives, so finding her wasn't a problem. Well, wouldn't be, if not the fact that Rainbow Dash, as well as her house, did not exist.
"How strange, she couldn't go anywhere without telling me, she's the element of loyality!", she thought.
After a while of thinking, Twilight decided to write a letter to Princess Celestia, and ask her what's going on. She quickly rushed to the library, and started calling for Spike. To her surprise, he also wasn't there. Then, there was nothing else left for Twilight to do, other than getting in a train and going to Canterlot to find her mentor Celestia.
When she arrived at the train station, she saw Sweetie Belle.
"Hey, Twilight!" she said. "Have you seen Rarity?"
"No, have you seen any of my friends?" asked Twilight.
"Well, no, I didn't," said Sweetie Belle. "Apple Bloom said something weird was going on with Sweet Apple Acres. She was told she doesn't live there and kicked out."
"I can't find any of my friends or actually anypony who I know around here," Twilight replied. "Not even Spike."
"What? What happened to Spike!?" shouted Sweetie.
"I don't know. I was going to Princess Celestia to ask what is happening around here," said Twi.
"Can I come with you? I want to see Canterlot!" asked Sweetie Belle.
"Well, I don't know..." Twilight hesitated.
The little filly hugged her front left hoof. "Please?"
Twilight sighed. "Okay, Sweetie, you can come."
"Yay!" Sweetie Belle jumped.
"Get on the train now. I'll buy some tickets," said Twilight.
Shortly after Sweetie sat in the train to Canterlot, Twilight bought the tickets and sat with her. At first they weren't talking with each other on their way there, they were both wondering. While Sweetie Belle was thinking almost only about how great and beautiful Canterlot is, Twilight was really worried about Ponyville and the absence of her friends. She really hoped that Princess Celestia will be in her castle, but she couldn't be sure of that. After all, everypony she knew so far disappeared. Everypony she knew so far. Everypony... except at least Sweetie Belle and herself. But Sweetie said something about Apple Bloom. Is it possible that the Cutie Mark Crusaders also survived whatever happened in Ponyville?
"Hey, Sweetie Belle?" she suddenly said.
Sweetie Belle looked at her. "What?"
"Have you seen Scootaloo today?" asked Twilight.
Sweetie laughed a little bit. "Well, of course. She's at our clubhouse. I don't know why, but it looked a little... damaged today." She suddenly gasped. "Oh my, I told them I was just gonna search for Rarity! They're probably looking for me now!"
"Don't worry. I Think we have worse problems currently going on," said Twilight, "Did Apple Bloom see her sister today?"
"Well, yeah, but not after she was kicked out of Sweet Apple Acres," Sweetie replied.
The train finally stopped. They Arrived at Canterlot. Twilight grabbed Sweetie with her magic, put her on her back and ran to the castle.
"Stay here." Twilight put Sweetie Belle back down. "I'll be right back."
Twilight didn't see Princess Celestia or Luna at first. After a while of walking she saw Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.
"Hi, Twilight! Princess Celestia wants to speak with you, but couldn't send any letters. We have noticed lately that something happened to the ponies of Equestria.", she said.
Twilight frowned. "That's probably why I'm here."
Cadance have led her a few more corridors and they finally arrived in Celestia's throne room.
"Princess, I have something important to tell you!" Twilight bowed.
Celstia smiled. "Twilight, you don't have to bow before me now, you're also a princess."
Twilight immidiately got up, apologizing.
"Now, that's better." Celestia stopped smiling and went to a really serious tone. "I suppose you're here to tell me about the absence of your friends and the citizens of Equestria."
"Yes, princess. What is it caused by?" asked Twilight.
"I think that somepony have been practicing time changing magic and changed the current time to what should be happening 100 years from now. Normally we wouldn't even notice, because we would be our 100-years-from-now selves, but..." Celestia stopped for a bit, but quickly continued. "For some reason, it didn't affect Alicorns and children. Right now, the world looks like it would in a hundred years if we won't rule the land."
"What should I do change it back?" Twilight asked.
"I didn't tell you that it is gonna be your job. But we should all look for some way do do something," said Princess Celestia. "It wouldn't be that bad, we could always rule the kingdom again, but the worst thing is about the little ones. What will they do without their homes and famlies?" said Celestia.
"Actually, I don't understand why did everypony we knew disappear," said Twilight.
"Did you ever see a pony who lived more than a hundred years?" Celestia replied with a question. "They all just... died."
"No, Rarity!" cried Sweetie Belle.
"Don't worry, Sweetie, we'll fix this," said Twilight. "Wait! Aren't you supposed to wait outside?"
"I'm sorry, It just took so long..." she said.
"How long have you been listening to what we're saying?" asked Twilight.
"Since the beggining," she replied.
Twilight was really mad at Sweetie for eavesdropping, but quickly calmed down. "Don't worry. Everything will be alright."
"I hope so..." said Sweetie Belle.
They all said goodbye to each other and Twilight with Sweetie got on the train. They were heading back to Ponyville.
Twilight's Trouble with Time Traveling
Twilight and Sweetie once again were in a train. This time, however, they were heading the opposite direction, Ponyville. When they arrived at Canterlot, Sweetie Belle was hoping to walk and explore the streets of Canterlot, but after she heard Twilight's talk with Princess Celestia, she lost her desire for that. She just realised that the problem Twilight was talking about was really serious. However, she hoped that Twilight will figure something out and her sister and friends will be here again.
Twilight, however, was not so optimistic about it. Ponies in the train were looking at her wierdly, when they saw how Sweetie Belle was calming her down, while she was supposed to be calming Sweetie down.
"Don't worry, Twi. You'll figure something out!" said Sweetie Belle while petting Twilight on her head.
"What if I won't? I'll have to spend the rest of my life without my friends, ruling a kingdom of ponies who hate me because I have disappeared for a hundred years!" cried Twilight.
"Well, it will be pretty bad if you look at it that way, but not if you will do something about it!" said Sweetie. "There's gotta be a way!"
Then, the train stopped and they both went out of it. Sweetie Belle have led Twilight to the library and walked to her friends to apologise for being absent for so long and tell them what's happening.
She was greeted in their clubhouse by Scootaloo, who jumped so high at her sight, she even flew for a while.
"Where have you been?" she asked angrily.
"I'm sorry, I was at Canterlot with Twilight," said Sweetie.
"Why did Twilight go to Canterlot?" asked Apple Bloom.
"And why din't she take us with her?" asked Scootaloo. "You were supposed to go find Rarity!"
Sweetie made a really sad face. "Actually, she's dead, but not what you're thinking, it's complicated."
Her friends both sat down from the sudden sad news.
"What? How?" said Apple Bloom, nearly crying. "Why is it complicated?"
"It's not that bad, well it's not bad at all, because..." Sweetie wanted to finish this sentence but was interrupted by Scootaloo.
"Because what? How is it not bad?" she said angrily.
"Well, we have been moved to the future, to the times when she was already dead, 100 years from now," Sweetie finished.
Apple Bloom suddenly stopped crying. "It changes the situation pretty much, but I'm not sure what is worse: If she would be really dead, in our times, or... what is now."
"Probably 'what is now', because it is most probably reversable," said Sweetie.
"But, How could this happen?" asked Scootaloo.
"I don't know. Princess Celestia said that, when I was in Canterlot with Twilight," she repiled. "Let's go outside. I'll tel you all about that."
Sweetie Belle told her friends everything about what happened at Canterlot and on her way to and from there with details. She told them all about what's happening in Equestria, why did they go to the future, what's so bad about all this.
"Well, this story isn't as bad as what you said when you arrived at our clubhouse," said Scootaloo. "You wanted to scare us, didn't you?"
"It seems it's not that hard to scare a chicken like you, Scootaloo!" said Sweetie and laughed a little bit.
"Okay, calm down, everypony. What really matters right now is the stuff Sweetie told us," said Apple Bloom.
Scootaloo nodded "Why did only fillies and princesess go to the future?"
"And colts!" said Sweetie Belle.
"And this guy!" said Apple Bloom pointing at a brown earth pony stallion walking down the street with a sad face.
They both looked at her with confused faces.
"What?" said Scootaloo, surprised.
"I remember him, i once tried to sell him some apples." she replied.
The remaining two finally looked at the stallion. None of them, however, believed Apple Bloom. How much possible could it be that some normal earth pony also traveled in time. Well, unless he's a hidden princess. Sweetie and Scootaloo looked at her and smiled, thinking she's joking.
"Really! I did see him, I swear!" said Apple Bloom.
"Well then, What's his name?" asked Scootaloo.
"I don't know, why do you think I would know his name?" she replied.
Sweetie Belle smiled at her. "We can always ask!"
The three fillies walked to that pony. Sweetie started talking. "Excuse me, what's your name"?"
He looked at them, confused. "Uh, Time Turner."
"Well, yeah, I knew it. I was close to figuring out," claimed Apple Bloom.
"No, you weren't. How can you remember a pony who will be born 100 years from now?" said Scootaloo.
"Not from now, we traveled in time. You can say, um... from the day in which we traveled," Sweetie Belle corrected her.
"I'm telling you, i saw him!" shouted Apple Bloom. "Just, um, look at his name! Maybe he, like, Turned Time!"
Time Turner was looking at them all the time and listening to what they're saying and at some point he seemed to have realised something, when he opened his eyes widely for a second and gasped a liitle bit.
"Um, this may be a stupid question if the answer is no, but... Are you serious with all that talking about time travel? Did it really happen?"
"Well, yes. Princess Celestia even said that!" replied Sweetie Belle.
"And, what were you doing at Princess Celestia's castle?" asked Time Turner.
"I was there with a friend, who is her... former student." she said.
"Can I see her?" he asked. "I think I have something important to say about that... event."
"Well, of course!" Sweetie was already pulling him to the Golden Oak Library.
They knocked on the door, which was quickly answered by Twilight. While the crusades met Time Turner, Twilght was at her library, reding a lot of books about time traveling. Every book she rod made her read two more books as she was literally destroying all of the bookshelves at her home.
"Uh, Good morning. I heard you are currently having problems with some sort of 'traveling in time', and I think i can
somehow help you with it," Time Turner greeted her kindly. "You see, I know what may be the cause of your experiences."
Twilight grinned widely, almost jumped. "Really?"
"Well, yes, I think. From what this filly has told me "– Turner has pointed his hoof at Sweetie Belle –" I understand that you have experienced 'going forward in time 100 years into the future'."
"Yes. I understand that you have experienced the same thing?" Twilight asked.
"Yes, I did, and I may know the cause as well as the solution of that problem," He replied. "Well, you see..."
Twilight's Trouble with Time Traveling
"Three days before this happened, I was looking for a way to go to the future for a moment. I just wanted to take a look. I found a book called 'Time Travels: Are they possible?'. It said I needed to use something called 'The Magic Hourglass'. I started searching for it.
"Of course, it wasn't an actual hourglass. It just had this name. I didn't even know how to do it, maybe even I'd have to be a unicorn, but it always was worth trying to find it.
"The book said I needed to use it, otherwise something terrible would happen if I tried to do it without using that thing. It didn't however explain what exactly, because nopony ever tried because of the danger.
I also didn't want to take the risk, of course. I was just practicing, I was making sure something would go wrong in the process, so that I could stop it.
"One time, unfortunately, something went wrong in the process of making something go wrong. Because of that, everything went right, except for one thing: I did not use the hourglass.
"I think if I'll find it and that book, I'd be able to reverse what happened."
"It can't be that hard, maybe I have this book," Twilght said and immidiately started picking up books with her magic and reading their titles.
Turner and the Cutie Mark Crusaders also were searching throughout the whole library. It took them almost an hour before finally Time Turner stated: "I found it."
Suddenly everypony stopped their searches and walked to him. Twilight took the book and started looking. It thankfully contained the exact guide how to come back if anything went wrong.
"Great. Now we only need to find the Magic Hourglass," said Time Turner.
Twilight turned a few pages in the book. "I think that you are really bad at finding things. Although you are the master of screwing them up."
"What do you mean? You also don't know where it is, Princess," he replied, fully accepting the insult.
"Don't call me a princess, I'm not ruling Equestria yet. You're wrong, my dear, I know where it is. The book says it's somewhere in the Everfree Forest," she said.
"The Everfree Forest? How awesome!" said Apple Bloom.
"Awesome? I'm not coming into there. Not after that one time when Fluttershy had to save us," said Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle laughed at her. "That's right: Even Fluttershy is more brave than you. What are you, a chicken?"
"Maybe she is, Sweetie. If she doesn't want to come, let her. It'll be even more fun without having to care for her and calm her down all the time," said Apple Bloom. "Remember the time when we were camping with Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash?"
"Yes, of course. Nopony was scared, except for her," she replied.
Scootaloo walked towards the door. "Okay then, get lost, everypony."
"Well, I'm not sure if I will let you two come, as well," said Twilight. "I don't know if I'll have time to watch over you."
"Come on, Twilight, Nothing will happen to us!" begged Sweetie. "We can take care of ourselves!"
"No, you can't. Only I and Time Turner are coming," said Twilight.
Sweetie smiled. "Time Turner is coming? –" she quickly went and hugged his front hoof just like she did with Twilight's when they were going to Canterlot "– Then he can watch us!"
Turner looked at how badly she wanted to come. "Oh well, guess I have to."
Twilight sighed and smiled slightly. "Okay, if you really wanna come..."
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle cheered up.
"But we'll go tomorrow. It's too late already to be wandering around the Everfree Forest. Especially with you two," said Twilight. "You can stay in the library for the night, as you have nowhere to sleep."
Time Turner talked a little more with Twilight and went to his house, Twilight slept in her usual bed, while Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle slept in the same bed that Applejack and Rarity did turing Twilight's slumber party. Nothing really unusual happened in the library during the night.
In the morning, Sweetie woke up first, but stayed in bed a little more trying to fall asleep again as Twilight was still sleeping. Suddenly, she saw Twilight wake up from bed. Twilight looked at the little fillies, and for some reason Sweetie started pretending she's asleep. She heard her walking down stairs and heading outside.
"That's why she told us to go to sleep! She wanted to go without us!" said Sweetie to herself.
She quickly but silently woke up Apple Bloom, because she thought Twilight would hear her from outside if she yelled.
"HEY! I'M TRYING TO SLEE––" shouted Apple Bloom, but was interrupted by Sweetie's hoof in her mouth.
"Shh. Twilight went looking for the hourglass without us! I think she can still hear us from outside!" Sweetie whispered.
Apple Bloom got up, wore her favourite red bow and silently went down the stairs with her. They opened the door and saw Twilight walking by the street. They both knew she's headed to Time Turner's house.
"Wait, how does she know where Time Turner lives?" asked Sweetie. "Even we don't and we were the ones who found him in the first place!
"Remember when she was talking with him when we were already in bed?" asked Apple Bloom. "We didn't hear it but maybe they were discussing a place of meeting."
Sweetie nodded. "Good theory."
After following the princess for a few more minutes, they finally saw her stop near a fountain, where Time Turner was already waiting for her. They talked for a bit, but the fillies couldn't hear anything and going more forward would reveal that they're here, which they didn't want yet because Twilight would probably send them back to the library. They were going to show up at the Everfree Forest, because they would not be able to go back by themselves from there.
After half an hour they finally arrived at the Everfree Forest. Unfortunately, Twilight and Turner decided to split up. At first the fillies wanted to do the same, but were too hungry and exahusted and they thought it will be better to stay together in case somepony faints. They both woke up too early for their age, and now they noticed that they didn't eat since the last day morning. They both followed Time Turner and were just waiting for a good time to show up to him. They still didn't want to go back, although they knew it would be the best option now.
After at least an hour Time Turner found a cave somewhere in the forest. The fillies wanted to go in, but they would have to reveal themselves because they thought there is a lot of open space in caves.
"What now, Sweetie? Are we going in?" asked Apple Bloom.
Sweetie Belle hesitated. "Well... okay."
They entered the cave along with Time Turner, saying nothing. After a while he looked behind himself and noticed them.
He sighed. "How long have you been following us?"
"Since Twilight woke up," said Apple Bloom.
"You have to be real tired," he said and continued forward into the cave.
The fillies were real tired. They knew that if it was Twilight going into the cave, they'd have to stay out of it and wait for her to come back. They were currently not sure if this would be better for them. After all, the cave was dangerous and none of them knew if the thing they were looking for is here. They finally found a tunnel that led into something that might even have been a room. It even had an age-old wooden door. In there, they noticed a wierd chest with some kind of mechanism on it. There was some puzzle that had to be solved to unlock the chest, but surprisingly, it wasn't locked at all.
"Why isn't the chest locked? If it has that kind of mechanism on it, the insides are probably really valuable," wondered Apple Bloom.
"Or maybe somepony already took them out," said Time Turner.
To their surprise, the insides were there. The insides themselves weren't as surprising: The Magic Hourglass.
"Or maybe we unlocked it for us. I mean... will unlock," said Sweetie. "When we come back."
They headed outside. Twilight was waiting for them near the entrance.
"Oh, hi, Turner, I knew you were in the cave, so i decid––" Twilight wanted to say something but noticed the fillies. "How did you get here? Have you been following us?"
Apple Bloom wanted to answer that question, but fainted from hunger.
Twilight's Trouble with Time Traveling
After these 'unfortunate' events, everypony were preparing to go back to Ponyville. Surprisingly, Twilight was not angry at Sweetie. Well, in fact she was, but didn't show it to not frighten her any more. Luckily for Sweetie, they brought some food with them, just in case the adventure would be longer.
The adventure, however, was pretty short, though. Every one of them expected it to be a little longer than those two or three hours. Sweetie was now really bored. She was also a little disappointed, altough every time whe looked at her friend, she immidiately did regret the thought.
She obviously knew that wandering into the forest after Twilight was a bad idea. She realised that the princess simply didn't want anything to care for her.
After a while, they had to go back to Ponyville. Partially satisfied, they grabbed the item they have just gotten, and started walking. Apple Bloom was carried by Twilight Sparkle's magic.
When they finally arrived, Time Turner grabbed the book they were reading earlier. "Okay, now I've just got to find a way to reverse that."
"Wait... you don't know how to do this?" asked Twilight.
"What? Why would I? It was originally supposed to last a while," he replied, confused.
Twilight sighed. "Maybe it's in the book."
She used magic to take the book from his hooves and turned a few pages, but did not find what she was looking for. So she turned a few more pages. And more. And More. Table of contents. Still nothing.
"Well that's just great," she said.
"Uh, what now?" asked Time Turner.
"I don't know, "Twilight said with a sad look on her face. "What I do know, however, is that I'll make sure you go to jail as soon as we fix all this."
"How can you not know that? You're the princess here!' he replied.
Twilight suddenly gasped. "Wait... I think I might have an idea."
In a while, they were on their way to Canterlot. They all left Apple Bloom in bed in the library. Twilight explained the plan to the rest in the train. It seemed good to them.
Once they arrived in the city, they were heading into the castle. Sweetie came with them, altough she did not know why did she have to.
They were heading to the Canterlot Archives. Star Swirl the Bearded's wing. Twilight's plan was to find the spell Pinkie Pie found the time she was worrying about the disaster that would never come. She was going to use it, go to Time Turner's house before he did this and steal his book, so he's unable to do what he did. There was, of course, one catch.
The spell was said to bring you back to the past once. Twilight was not sure if it meant once a day, once a year, or maybe once in a lifetime. Because of that, she had to bring Sweetie Belle with her, just in case. However, even though spells written on scrolls were so much easier to cast, Sweetie could not use magic at all.
Without much problems, Twilight found the spell they were looking for. She tried to cast it, but her expectations were unfortunately correct. She could not have cast the spell on herself.
"What now?" Sweetie asked.
"You have to do it," she simply replied.
Sweetie Belle was surprised. "What? How? I can't do magic."
Twilight nodded. "I know. But you have to try."
The next few minutes were filled with Sweetie's failed attempts of casting the magic spell. None of them were successful. Now Twilight had another idea. She could cast it... on Sweetie.
After a few seconds the filly disappeared from the room.
"Hey, why couldn't you use it on me?" asked Time Turner.
"Haven't crossed my mind," she simply replied after making a smile. "Maybe I'll try next time."
"Hopefully there is no next time," he said.
There was no next time. After a while Sweetie appeared back happily.
"Oh, hi!" said Twilight. "Did you--"
It was a "normal" day in the library. Twilight was really nervous, as always since she became an alicorn. It's been two weeks already and she did not sleep since four days, trying to learn the basics of being a princess. Spike's situation wasn't much better. He never understood why Twilight can't get all the books herself with her magic. Of course, right now Twilight was so nervous he wouldn't even dare to ask. He had to help her all the time. Fortunately he did get some rest, thanks to his friend Owlowiscious.
Suddenly, they heard a knock on the door. Spike went to answer. It was Applejack.