Lightning skittered over the bookshelves of the Ponyville Library. Sparks ran their fingers over the titles of the books, dribbled down the stairs, crackled on the ceiling. They popped off the spikes of a small dragon, known as Spike, and tickled the ears of a purple alicorn.
“T-Twilight?” asked Spike, nervously dropping his feather-duster.
Wind began to whip around the library, picking up the papers from the floor and whipping them into a frenzy.
“This looks a lot like my time spell!” shouted the alicorn, over the rising wind. “But that could only be used once, an-”
There was a sudden *bang* as a shape appeared in a flash of light, in the centre of the library. An entire shelf of books collapsed.
The first impression that Twilight got was an impression of yellow. The yellow of Fluttershy's coat, perhaps – only not quite. It was a touch oranger than that... and then she realised that the pony in front of her was also an alicorn, only marginally smaller than Celestia.
Who was yellow. Unlike any of the four known alicorns.
And was bowing to her.
“My apologies for the interruption, Princess.” said the yellow alicorn, politely (albeit with an odd accent, that Twilight couldn't place). “I appear to have undershot my target somewhat.”
“Target?” asked Twilight. “Wait, what target?”
“Yeah, what target?”asked Spike, digging himself out from under a pile of books.
“Spike?” asked the yellow alicorn. “Is that – is that really you?”
Spike and Twilight glanced at each other, confused. “Ummmm... yeah.” said Spike, after a pause. “I'm... Spike. Who are you?”
“You are so cute as a baby!” said the yellow alicorn, taking him by the shoulders. “I would never have believed it!”
Twilight cleared her throat. “Alright, but that time spell has a very limited duration.” she said. She took a moment to look at the alicorn's cutie mark; some sort of blue box, whose significance entirely escaped her. “Whatever you came to tell us, you should really get to it pretty quickly. Whoever you are.”
“You don't know?” asked the yellow alicorn, with evident surprise. “This is the first time you're meeting me?”
“Apart from my friend Fluttershy, I've never seen anyone who looks even remotely like you.” said Twilight, somewhat irritated.
“Oh, my apologies! It's so hard to keep these things straight sometimes.” She stood up straight and tall, placing one hoof on her own chest. “I am Dawn Hope, the Princess of Time. Which means, among other things, that my time spell only ends when I want it to.”
“Oh...kay.” said Twilight, hesitantly.
“Oh, and I am also Dawn Hope, faithful student to Princess Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Magic. Though I guess that part hasn't happened yet.”
“Wait, what?” asked Spike.
“Oh, yes.” said Dawn, nodding vigorously. “And you used to be my foalsitter. You used to let me ride you round the city. Some of the other girls in magic kindergarten were kind of mean, but they never picked on me after the day a dragon came to pick me up after school.”
Spike sat down abruptly. “Um.” he said.
“You know,” said Dawn, giving Spike a careful look, “I'm pretty sure I haven't been born yet. Which would actually make this kind of a record. First time I've gone back in time to before I was born.”
“And you still undershot?” asked Twilight. “When were you aiming for?”
“Oh. Um. Let's see...” Dawn looked over Twilight, and over Spike again, and looked around the library. “Hmmm... Ponyville Library and Royal Palace, right? I've seen pictures of this place... did they build the towers yet? I don't see the doors. What year is it?”
“One thousand and two, ANM.” said Twilight, promptly.
“Then I was aiming for more-or-less a thousand years ago.” replied Dawn. “There's some things I've got to go back and say to Celestia.”
“That would be only a couple of years after -”
“- she sent Nightmare Moon to the moon, yes.” nodded Dawn. “I need to tell her that the stars will free her in the thousandth year, and what to do about it.”
“That sounds a lot like a prophecy I read once.” said Twilight, cautiously.
“Yes, I know.” said Dawn. “You told me about that – back in the future. And Celestia told me that I'd originally told her about it, so I know I'm going to get the jump right, sooner or later. I just wish it was sooner.”
“Then what are you doing in the library?” asked Twilight. “Celestia would surely be in the palace at Canterlot?”
“Oh, the time spell is supposed to make me appear in front of an alicorn.” replied Dawn. “I wasn't all that precise with that part of it, because if I get the timing right then there'll only be one alicorn to appear in front of.” She sighed. “But it's a lot of time to jump through all at once.”
“Does it have to be all in one jump?” enquired Twilight. “I mean, if you jump to now, then can't you jump back from now, and then further back in bits and pieces until you get back to Celestia in time?”
Dawn pondered on this for a moment. Then she said “That's brilliant, Princess!” She leapt forward, and enfolded Twilight in a winged hug. “I'm so glad you're you. You always know the perfect way to solve any problem I have with magic!”
“Um, thanks?”
“Though,” continued Dawn, “it is a little bit odd to find myself bigger than you, Princess.”
“Please, call me Twilight.” said Twilight. “I'm still getting used to this whole 'princess' thing.”
Dawn giggled. “Trust me, you'll get used to it.” she said, letting go of Twilight. “Well... that, or you'll get tired of correcting ponies all the time. I'm not really sure which.”
“Okay. Well. Um. While you're here, would you like a cup of tea?”
“Oh, I'd love one, thank you. Let me guess – jasmine?”
“Exactly.” nodded Twilight. “Spike, could you please boil the kettle?”
“On it.” replied Spike, promptly.
“I must say,” said Dawn, looking over the library, “this place is kind of smaller than I'd expected.”
“I take it the library's not around in your time, then?” enquired Twilight.
“Oh, um. Well, you kind of built up a palace around it. The original library is now a museum hall, devoted to chronicling the history of the Elements of Harmony. There's a display tracing them from the First Discordian Era to their rediscovery in the Everfree – I'm sorry, is something wrong?”
“It's – it's nothing.” said Twilight, wiping one foreleg across her eyes. “I just, well, I just had this thought – you must be from quite far in the future.”
“A... fair distance.” nodded Dawn.
“And... I'm not used to thinking of myself as immortal yet, but I realised... if I'm still around there, in the far future, then I, I mean Future Me, must have outlived all my friends, and...”
“Oh, Twilight.” Dawn said, laying a comforting hoof on Twilight's shoulder. “You don't have to worry about that. Trust me. You haven't outlived your friends yet, and even in my time, it doesn't look like you're going to. Why, just last week, the six of you had to deal with a chryssabug infestation.”
“Chryssabug?”
“You don't want to know, trust me.” Dawn shuddered.
“So... does that mean that my friends will all become alicorns, too?”
“Oh, no, no, no. There's only six alicorns in my time. But there's... other ways. I'm not going to tell you how they do it, though, because that'll be spoilers. But they do do it, trust me.”
“Oh, okay. Wait, six alicorns?”
“Mmmm.” Dawn nodded. “The new ones are me and my brother. He's the Prince of Space. He gave me a rather bad scare some time ago. Um. Actually, I came back and shouted at you a bit over that. I don't think that's happened yet, has it? I'd rather like to pre-emptively apologise for that.”
“A scare?” asked Twilight.
“Oh, yes. Turned out he was alright, but... well, it didn't exactly look like it for a while there. Anyhow. You had tea all prepared, somehow – I have no idea how you knew I was coming – and you were so confident. You managed to calm me down before I did anything I'd later regret. I'm really very grateful for that.”
“Your tea, ladies.” said Spike, stepping back into the room with a tray containing a pair of teacups.
“Thank you, Spike.” said Twilight, as her magic aura enveloped one of the teacups.
“Yes, thank you.” said Dawn, taking the other. “You know, I still can't get over how cute you are, Spike.”
“Hmph.” murmured Spike.
“I mean, when I think of how you look back when I come from – twenty feet tall, with huge, leathery wings, and massive spear-like spikes... you normally look terrifying.”
“Really?” asked Spike, overjoyed at this news.
“Oh, yes. I have no idea how Princess Twilight knew to make the palace doors all twenty feet tall, or to make sure that the western tower could support a weight of forty tonnes, but – oh. I think I've just worked it out.”
“Yes.” said Twilight, making a few quick notes, “you just told me.”
“Yes, well.” Dawn put her still-almost-full teacup down, and stood up quickly. “Thank you for the tea, but I should really be going, before I accidentally cause any messes in the timeline that I'll need to come back and fix later.”
“Oh?” asked Twilight. “How does that work, exac-”
“Princess.” said Dawn, firmly. Her horn began to glow yellow. “I should really be going. Trust me, you will meet me again. Kindof scattered over the years for a while, then more-or-less continuously once you take me on as a student. But for now, I could cause a serious mess if I hang around, so I should really be off.”
Twilight sighed. “Of course. I'll see you... sometime.”
Lightning began crawling over the bookshelves of Ponyville library again.
“Oh, no.” muttered Dawn. “Gottagorightnowbye!” She charged up her horn, and vanished, with a *pop*. Winds began to spin around the library, papers whirling into the air, and then, with a *bang*, a younger Dawn appeared in the middle of the library.
This Dawn had a tear-streaked face, and an angry frown. “How COULD you?” she yelled at Twilight. Behind her, Spike quietly tiptoed backwards and into the kitchen. “You promised he would be safe! How could you?”