2

Twilight was afraid to open her eyes. Who knew what could happen if the spell went wrong? For all she knew, she could have ended up outside of the time continuum or something. She could be right in the middle of nowhere.

She then heard a voice calling her name from nearby. It was quite familiar. She quickly recognized Spike, who rushed over to her. "Are you okay?"

Twilight nodded, but she kept her eyes tightly shut. She figured it must be the Spike from whatever time period she had teleported herself to. In that case, it shouldn't have been too far in the past or future, since Spike sounded exactly the same as he did in the present.

That was Twilight's theory, until Spike added, "Did the spell go wrong?"

At that, Twilight's eyes flew open. She was lying on her side, and Spike was standing beside her, looking down at her with concern and mild panic in his green eyes. She was afraid to look around her yet. "You came with me?"

Spike nodded. "I guess. This looks nothing like Ponyville."

Twilight pushed herself up to a sitting position and, feeling her rapid heartbeat, scanned over her surroundings. It seemed like the town was just shades of gray. The houses were worn, but not abandoned--Twilight noted that some had lights and voices inside--and any trees were bare. Some of the buildings were destroyed, like the one that Twilight was lying in the rubble of at that moment. Since the surrounding buildings seemed so different she couldn't tell exactly which were destroyed, but if she did nail down the location of her teleporting, the rubble was probably of her library. It was a reasonable conclusion, she realized, now that she noticed a few dead leaves and broken branches scattered around her and Spike.

"Was there a war?" Twilight asked, her voice quiet with fascination.

"There are still ponies living here," Spike told her. "We could ask them what's going on."

"Would they believe us if we said that we're from what could be centuries ago?"

Spike shrugged. "Is it at least worth a shot?"

"I guess." Twilight scanned the area again. "Where should we go first? We have no idea how far into the future or past this is, so we also have no idea if our friends are still alive or not, or even of they've been born."

"We could just wing it."

Twilight nodded. She stood up. She was actually a bit afraid to go to one of the houses, for fear of who might be living there. She could discover something awful just by going inside.

Spike poked her. "You're shaking."

Twilight took a deep breath. "O-okay. Let's go."

They stepped out of the rubble and approached the closest house which had the lights on. Twilight hesitantly knocked on the wooden door, surprisingly still intact. She heard hoofsteps rushing toward the door, which soon creaked open. A stallion was standing there. He looked about twice Twilight's age, and he had dark circles under his eyes. In the dark, Twilight couldn't make out what color he was, but he seemed orange.

"What?" His voice was extremely rough, as if he had eaten a bowl of gravel for breakfast.

Twilight blinked. "Um...how do I put this...I was just wondering--"

The stallion scowled. "I've no business with the poor, 'kay, filly? Why don'tcha hang around with her and beg for money?"

"N-no, that's not--"

He proceeded to slam the door. Twilight glanced down at Spike. "Who is she?"

"Was Sandy giving you trouble?"

They turned around to look further down a street. A mare in a worn, dark lavender cloak was watching them. "Was he talking about you?" Twilight asked.

The mare nodded. "If you could just join me, I'll try to help you out."

Twilight doubted she could, but she gestured for Spike to follow her down the street anyway. As Twilight got closer, she noticed the mare was white, with blue eyes. She was a bit startled by this. I'd ask, but it's a bit too soon.

But the mare's eyes widened as she got a better look of Twilight. She looked over her and Spike for a few moments, then asked, her voice trembling, "W-what are your names?"

"I'm Twilight Sparkle," she introduced herself, though she had a feeling she didn't have much need to say this. "And this is Spike."

The mare stared, then smiled a little, her eyes shimmering. She pulled back the hood of her cloak to reveal her curled, dark violet mane. It was a little unkempt, but not too much. "It's been ten years, Twilight."