A Race Across Time

Twilight paced the floor of her giant library and frowned. It wasn’t like the Princess to be late. The Princess had asked to see her at 7:00PM on the dot. And here… it was 7:03PM and no sign of anything. Not a note to say she was running late or even a note to cancel her appointment. Spike tried to calm her down from the other side of the room.

“Twi… Twilight… TWILIGHT! Calm. Down. Celestia is fine. Just… a little late. Maybe it’s just some bad weather. Or maybe her guards are a little slow today. It’s only 3 minutes… Not world changing…”

Someone knocked on the door and Twilight jumped out of her chair, smoothing down her mane and trying not to look nervous. “Now Twi, don’t stay up all night again with the Princess. I’ll see you in the morning. This dragon’s gonna get some shut-eye!”

As she opened the door, the Princess gave her a wild look and threw a scroll on the table.
“Prin-“ Twilight tried to say, but was immediately hushed by Celestia.
“Did... did anyone follow me here?” Celestia gasped.
“How am I supposed to kno-“ Twilight started.
“Take the scroll.”
“What does it do?”

“You will find out in due time. For now, understand why I asked to come here. Someone is hunting us.”
“Us as in… The Alicor-“
“Yes. The Alicorns. We don’t know who, but Luna was badly wounded from a magical device planted on her chariot. She’s laid up in the royal bunker in Canterlot.”
“So where do I come into play?”
“You have to help me and that’s why I brought this scroll. I… used it once before and now it seems as though it won’t respond to me. At all.”

“So you have no idea of who’s hunting you?”
“It’s not important! Nothing will matter at all if they succeed in their goal! If they’re powerful enough to kill Cadance with a single burst of energy, they’re certainly powerf-“
“Cadance is dead? What about Shining Armor?”
Celestia looked guiltily at the floor while Twilight felt her heart start to race.
“I… I’m sorry Twilight.”

“YOU DIDN’T THINK OF POSSIBLY TELLING ME THAT MY BROTHER WAS DEAD BEFORE GETTING ME INTO YOUR CRAZY SCHEME? NOT EVEN A ‘HEY TWILIGHT, YOUR BROTHER’S DEAD, HELP ME SAVE MY RACE’?” Twilight’s anger ebbed and was soon replaced by emptiness. “Did… they die like… heroes?” Twilight asked as a single tear rolled down her cheek. Seeing her as a filly again, Celestia wrapped Twilight in one of her wings.
“They died saving me.” Her words seemed to echo in the quiet library as Twilights sobs faded away. Twilight pushed herself away from Celestia.

“Get out.” Twilight growled.
“B-b-but…” Celestia stammered, taken aback.

“I SAID GET OUT! YOU ARE NEVER WELCOME TO CALL ME YOUR STUDENT. EVER. AGAIN!”
Celestia’s eyes welled with tears and she ran. She ran as far and a fast as she could, eventually stopping under a towering oak to sit and cry.
Cry, because she’d lost one of the only ponies who had truly liked her. Cry, because it was her fault for not staying behind for Cadance and Shining Armor. Cry, because IT WAS ALL SO UNFAIR! She smashed her hoof as hard as she could into the tree and screamed, barely denting the ancient oak.
“What’s the matter Princess? Feel… rejected?” and before the Princess could widen her eyes in fear, the blade of pure magic had cut her throat.

Twilight wasn't sad. All she could feel was a burning anger. For Celestia. For not saving her brother. But as her anger ebbed, she began to think. What could the Princess have done? Magic powerful enough to kill an Alicorn was rare, and not a force to be reckoned with. As she looked around the room, her eyes fell on the scroll Celestia had left. As she unravelled it with her magic, she saw why the Princess had wanted Twilight to use it.

It was a time spell. A ridiculously difficult one too. And if Celestia really had wanted her to use this time spell, things outside were completely screwed.

"And the last ingredient..." Twilight froze "...is dragon blood." Spike's face fell.
"H-how much?" Spike questioned, terrified.
"Only 30 millilitres. Thank Celestia."

A lot had gone into this potion. The feather of a phoenix, Heart's Desire and a Fire Ruby, to name a few. And of course dragon blood. After the addition of the final ingredient, the mixture turned an eerily translucent blue and became more gel like.

"You really gonna drink that Twi?" Spike asked, a quizzical expression on his face.
"Don't even try to talk me out of this. You know full well that after I drink this, my magic will be powerful enough to use the spell. So yes. I am going to drink it." And with those words, she did.

"How do you feel Twi?"
"Powerful... Wow. REALLY powerful. I think... I think I can do the spell. Just let me... read this here..."
"Didn't you already DO a time spell?"
"Yes Spike. But this one might actually work for longer. Y'see instead of transporting myself into the past, my conciousness gets transported back and implanted into another pony's body... it's just...
"What?"
"I don't know who I'll become. I will try and become somepony I want to be but that won't always work. I may want to become Luna but become Celestia; close family ties, stuff like that.
"How many times will you need to do the spell?"
"Um... I would just advise you to find as many Fire Rubies as possible. Rarity might have some."
"Well. I'll just have to go over to her place right now and... get them... Oh Rarity..."
"SPIKE!"
"Sorry Twi."
"Well here I g-"

-CRACK-

And she was gone.