A Vium Salutis

Dinky Do was seven years old, but she knew quite a bit about the world around her.

She lived with her mother, her sister, her nanny, Carrot Top, and the Doctor.

It was Saturday, the one day a week she and Sparkler got to play.

But Sparkler was sick.

The mare started out with Hay Fever, which turned into a horrific case of double pneumonia.

She couldn't even be moved to a hospital for better care, so the facility had to bring equipment to the house.

Dinky wasn't supposed to, but she stood outside the room and listened when the doctor had some news to break to the Doctor and Derpy.

She caught bits and pieces, but couldn't hear much over her mother's sobbing. So, it couldn't be good.

She peaked in the keyhole as the doctor told Derpy one final thing. "Sparkler couldn't be cured, and she was going to die."

The foal couldn't take it anymore.

She burst into the door.

"What about a healing spell!? In medieval times, healing spells could cure anything! You're a unicorn, you cou-"

"Little one, it isn't that simple." the doctor tried to tell her.

"How!? I have an entire tome full of incantations. I can find a spell, and my sister will be fi-"

"Healing spells were eradicated by Celestia last millennia. Even if we did manage to find one, no one would be skilled enough to cast it."

Dinky bit her lip in a herculean effort not to cry. She would not show weakness.

"You're wrong! I'll find someone, I will!"

The foal bolted into her room, and sealed herself within.

And finally, she allowed tears to slip from her eyes.

Sparkler was family, she could not die yet.

And she would not, Dinky was sure of it.

No one from today could cast a healing, but her Doctor had told her something once a long time ago.

"People, well, ponies, assume time is a strict progression of cause to effect. But from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, time is more of a big Ball of wibbly wobbly…timey wimey…stuff."

It wasn't well thought out, but it meant time could be shifted.

She would bring someone from the past, and he could heal Sparkler.

It took a few minutes, but Dinky found it; an incantation to bring a unicorn from the past into the present.

The filly shuddered, the spell was a little dark.

One could easily see it was an ancient spell. As it required the synchronization of voice and magic to work.

Dinky trotted towards her closet, removing an "In case of Thunder" box from the top.

She levitated it down, and removed the top, along with thirteen candles.

As she lit them, the flames only seemed to have made the heat in her room recede.

She exhaled, and fear coursed through Dinky as it came out in a puff of frost.

She sat on her bed cozied in a blanket, and began her spell.

Her horn glowed, and the candles were hoisted into the air.

The candles spun and their flames turned bright green. The light-bulbs within exploded, leaving the flames the sole source of light in her room.

Dinky's words seemed to roll off her tongue, she hated it.

"Vetus Spiritis, do hoc filia in venia. Adduco mihi unum ab antiquus sanguis. Infit quis sedere interm stella. Quisnam donum et regina consilium."

She added a line of her own to the horrible spell.

"Et ad nisi soror mea!"

A prayer to save her sister.

Things in her room floated and swung around without pattern.

Dinky's room flashed with a blinding light.

When the light finally faded, Dinky watched as the fruits of her labor struggled to regain his bearings and stand.

A white stallion with blue eyes and a short, white beard.

Dinky immediately knew who he was.

The stallion was Star Swirl the Bearded.

And Dinky brought him to the present.

The filly dropped from her bed and helped him to his feet.

Their eyes met, and Dinky dropped into a bow.

"There is no need to bow little one. Do you even know you I am?'

His voice and appearance were quite young, suggesting he had just exited adolescence.

"You are Star Swirl. Father of the amniomorphic spell, and he who taught the royal sisters wisdom."

"Well, there is still no need to bow. May ask who you are now? And…where am I?"

Dinky's head went low. "I am but a filly from your future. You are in my home in 2014 AD. Long after you die. B-but, you are here be…because I am in need of dire help. M-my sister is deathly ill, she'll die without a healing spell. Nopony from this time could cast a spell to heal her, and I need help. Please, help me."

Star Swirl looked around, captivated by Dinky's room, but focused himself.

"The future, most interesting. So you brought me here for a spell, don't fear, little one. Your sister will be fine."

Dinky sobbed happily She took Star Swirl by the hoof and dragged