Back In Time

**PreRead By Subtle Rampage

Diamond Sparkle**

From the diary of Diamond Sparkle:

Current Date: March 3rd 1003

I admit that I don’t have as much of a killer instinct as the other five but that does not mean I can’t get the job done. I however believe Starry Nights is wrong about one thing concerning this mission. I believe that we should involve our ancestors. I have simple proof- Twilight Sparkle created Sparkle Laboratories. I’ve done jobs for SL, and let me tell you there's nothing, nothing that will prepare you for what you will see their. And it is run by the consciousness of Twilight Sparkle herself. I’ve met the AI that is home to Twilight’s mind. The thing is absolutely, undeniably, INSANE. In my opinion anyone willing to do or even sanction the things that go on in SL would be willing to help us once everything is explained to them. The TSparkle I know would be willing to kill just for the sake of killing. And they do say that AI’s are more stable than organic minds.      

I closed the diary program on my mini-computer, a crazy grin plastered on my face. No one else was around to stop me, time  traveler or otherwise as i walked out of the hotel. First Stop: Ponyville Library.

The door was locked. It was 2 PM on a Saturday and the door to a public library was locked. Seeing no other option I did the obvious thing and knocked on the door.  A moment later a green-and-purple dragon came to answer the door.

‘’Who are you,’’ he asked, ‘’and why hasn’t Pinkie thrown you a welcome to Ponyville party by now?’’

Pinkie parties, I shuddered at the memories that came unbidden into my mind.

‘’Its PA-ART-TEY time!’’ Shouted the pink, gun wielding ponies, doing the pony pokey. It would have been funny if they weren’t so deadly. ‘’Now let’s start DANCING! Remember whoever dances for the longest gets to survive!’’

A group of rogue Pinkie Clones. I danced the longest. My little brother was killed first, followed by my Mother and then my Father. As soon as I could walk again after being forced to party constantly for days I walked the 20 miles to the nearest military academy and enrolled.

I DO realize that the party clones have their own consciousnesses but the insanity had to come from the source.

I looked at the dragon again. ‘’She tried. I’d like to speak with Twilight Sparkle please.’’ I said flatly.

‘’Oh um, alright follow me,’’ he said, ‘’TWILIGHT, there's a pony here who wants to see you!’’ He called up.

‘’Coming,’’ the reply drifted down from the stairs.  We walked in as Twilight ran down the stairs. I still could not believe they had hollowed out a tree for such a useless purpose. I knew that it wasn’t a common thing to think, but I grew up in the slums, trees were precious things there. I walked over to Twilight, trying to look friendly and open.

‘’Twilight, ‘’ I began, ‘’I need to tell you and the other bearers of the EoH something. I ask you not to pass judgment until you have heard EVERYTHING. Understand that you will hear things that  you believe impossible.’’

She gave me a confused look. ‘’Who are you ponies anyway?’’

I sighed. ‘’I don’t want to repeat myself, gather your friends. But let me tell you one thing: what I tell you will blow your mind. Twilight hesitated for a moment, torn between not trusting an adult blank flank and curiosity. Curiosity won out. ‘’Fine. But only if you tell me why you don’t have a cutie mark.’’

I nodded. ‘’Easy enough.’’ She dashed out. ‘’I’ll be back as soon as I can! Stay here!’’

I smiled. ‘’I will Twilight Sparkle, I will.’’

‘’So, what is it y’all called us here for?’’ Asked Applejack. I looked at the orange earth pony. ‘’Simple matter.’’ I closed my eyes concentrating on an illusion spell. The standard, History Explanation for Morons became reality. Not really of course, but to the viewers, well they had just been dropped into a war zone.

A voice over started playing over the scene of aerial battle. ‘’In the year 1010, Celestia attacked her nation.’’ The illusion shifted to a vision of rainbombs being dropped by pegasus on unsuspecting cities. ‘’She believed it was necessary to cleanse her land of certain ponies and creatures.’’ The scene moved this time showing machines that killed beings, breaking them down for meat. ‘’Luna would NOT stand for this! She formed a rebel group against the solar empire as it was known! Celestia called it insanity. She truly believed she was trying to help HER little ponies. By taking away their freedom and rights.’’

‘’Eventually two different nations formed- The Solar Empire and The Lunar Republic.’’ Now the illusion showed the flags of both nations. ‘’To this day the fighting continues. ‘’ The illusion ended and my  horn stopped glowing. I looked out at my audience. ‘’Any questions?’’

Twilight raised her hoof. ‘’How did you do that spell? And make that up? That couldn’t really happen? IT WOULDN’T!’’

I raised an eyebrow. ‘’Wow. You’re even more naïve then I thought. But no matter. This next scene that I show you is my own, untampered memory.’’ My horn glowed once more.

‘’Hey, Diamond, what’s that? It looks like a Convoy but it’s not!’’ Said a small green pegasus filly standing next to me. ‘’A Convoy’s a Convoy, maybe it’s a Warship or Battlecruiser or something,’’ I said  with disinterest. ‘’It’s a convoy alright Diamond, but it’s WHITE, ours aren’t WHITE. I jumped up. ‘’WHAT?! I looked up. A white convoy was hovering In the sky above us. ‘’O-oh S-shit, ’’ I stammered my voice waverly and quiet.  ‘’Solar Empire Tech.’’ Responded Leafy voicing exactly what I was thinking. ‘’SET.’’ We said together. ‘’Get SET to die.’’ A laser blasted down inches from my left front hoof. I started running dodging as much of the laserfire as I could. Luckily nothing hit me or I would have been a smallish pile of ashes. Or in Leafy’s condition. They hadn’t hit her directly but the hit was enough to fry part of her brain. Her skull was literally smoking and a few drops of greyish liquid dribbled out of her ears. I fought down the urge to vomit as she stumbled around, finally collapsing. Then the laserfire hit her directly. I started running. I didn’t stop, but I didn’t need to; they’d had their fun.

I looked at them, trying to gauge their reactions. I hadn’t wanted to show them something truly horrific, but it had had to be jarring. Something large and blue jumped in front of my vision, still slightly hazy from the FlashbackIllusion spell. I realized that I was looking into the violet eyes of a certain rainbow maned pegasus.

‘’Do you have any PROOF that Celestia would actually DO these things?!” she said her nose pressing against mine.

‘’She hasn’t done them yet,’’ I gasped out, ‘’I’m from the future.’’

The replies ranged from.

‘’COOL! Have you met future Pinkie’’ to ‘’yer lyin, I may not be one a them fancy unicorn types but time travel in gosh-darned impossible!’’

I looked at them. Then I used my magic to get rainbow dash off me. ‘’Generally, yes time travel IS impossible, but if you have a large enough power source such as, say the Elements of Harmony, I said lifting the tiara from my saddle bags.

‘’Ya, stole that ya, lyin thief,’’ shouted Applejack. ‘’God, I cannot believe YOU went on to make   AppleCorp ©!’’ I muttered. ‘’Look, you can interrogate me or use a truth spell on my all you want but the results won’t be any different. ‘’Oh, yes they will,’’ said Rainbow. Because Twilight is sending a letter to the princess RIGHT NOW! And WE aren’t listening to these traitors anymore.

I gulped. Perhaps I had overestimated my abilities to convince them . . .