A cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail sat on the floor of a library. Beside her stood a pink, vivacious pony, which looked intently at a lavender unicorn, which had stripes of pink through her mane and tail. Off to the side stood a pale yellow pegasus with a light pink mane and tail. Her downcast eyes showed her nervousness and the orange pony with a yellow mane and tail next to her tried to cheer her up. Next to the lavender unicorn stood a beautiful white unicorn with a purple mane and tail.
“So what’d y’all bring us here for Twi’?” asked the orange pony.
“Well Applejack, I conjured up another time traveling spell. This time we can go as far into the future or past we want. I wanted to share it all with you so I know I’m not just imagining it,” the lavender unicorn, Twilight, explained.
“You’re always cookin’ up new spells Twilight. This one will definitely work. Besides, don’t you have, like, a whole book on the new spells you accomplished?” asked the cyan pegasus.
“I do have a book like that Rainbow Dash. I just like confirming my findings. However this spell is peculiar. We need to gather around a working watch for this to work,” Twilight explained, pulling the one off herself and placing it in the middle of their circle. “I need absolute quiet so I can jump ahead about, nine days. And before you ask, yes we can come back.” All the ponies proceeded to lie down and watch the watch intently. Twilight’s horn began to glow with her purple magic until a small orb of white and purple ringed magic gathered at the tip. The orb commenced in connecting with the watch. From the watch shot bolts of white magic, hooking onto each pony’s brain where electric currents of time are kept. The ground beneath them began to tremble until they could hear a dull roar in their ears Everypony shut their eyes tightly and they were then pulled into the watch, through time and space, until they were dumped into the future.
Fluttershy was the first to open her eyes. She peered around the room in question. It was dark and smelled dank and dusty. Dust rose from the floor beneath her and rose to meet her nostrils as she inhaled, causing her to sneeze. Applejack lifted her head in confusion, unable to see anything anywhere. The ground felt rough and splintery, unlike the smooth wooded floor of the library. In front of her came a glow of blue magic, for Rarity had ignited her horn for light. They were definitely in the library, but something seemed off. Purple magic helped light the room also and now they could see it fully. There was no real room. The roof was completely torn off and the sky was a mass of black clouds. Around them, the library was in shambles, deteriorated.
“What-what is this place?” Rarity asked, picking up her hooves and inspecting the dirt on them in disgust.
“I thought we were going nine DAYS into the future,” Rainbow Dash added, looking around at the gloomy atmosphere.
Bright light erupted from high above and sirens started blaring. Everypony covered their ears immediately and crouched onto the floor. Whirs of blades could be heard from airships above them. Around them wind blasted down, whipping their manes and tails around furiously.
“Twilight! Take us back! Take us back!” Fluttershy wailed.
“I can’t! If I don’t know how far ahead we are I could overshoot and send us into oblivion!” Twilight called back over the whir of the ships.
Everywhere ponies in dark suits landed from zip lines, grabbing the helpless friends and bringing them up into the airship. They screamed and hollered and kicked to no prevail. Rainbow Dash tried to pry herself away from her capture by flying but he clamped a wrap around her, pinning her wings to her body. Up on the ship they chained everypony without question. RD bucked and thrashed in the chains until the clamped more around her neck and muzzle. On the other hand, her friends were simply clamped around their hooves. They didn’t put up a fight so they weren’t treated the same as Rainbow.
“We will be taking you to the President,” said a pony in a dark suit, his mane a light grey and tail completely black. His eyes were a bright pink, however. Goggles were adjusted over his forehead where protruded a slightly small horn. “My name is Ground Rider. I’m the leader of this squad.”
“Squad? For what?” Twilight asked.
“You must be from the Backlands. This squad is to capture illegal aliens in the Ruins. We are Squad Alpha 3. The third best hired by the President,” explained Ground Rider proudly, smiling hugely at it.
“Backlands? Ruins? What the buck does that mean?” Applejack asked, huffing.
Rider eyed them suspiciously. “The Backlands are behind the Force Field encircling the UPN. The Ruins are the old remains of ancient villages dating back over 900 years ago. Some PN’s have actually just built their towns over the remains of old villages. Most cities now though float in the sky.”
Horror stricken faces glared back at Ground Rider. They’d been jumped into the future not nine days, but 900 years! How did this happen? Why did it happen? Weren’t Twilight’s spells’ foolproof? Apparently not.
“What…happened over the last 900 years…?” Rarity asked, shaking slightly.
Ignoring her question, Rider asked, “Where are you all from?”
Twilight made to teleport them out of there, to somewhere, anywhere but here but Rider screeched at the guards around them. “Stop here! Magic is illegal you imbecile!”
Immediately, a massive pony grabbed her and clamped a collar made out of cold metal around her neck. Just as the collar connected with her skin her magic immediately stopped working. The massive pony then persisted in clamping another collar around the white unicorn also. On the front glowed a rectangle in red, reading their magical output, breaking the scales as it read ‘override.’ However, the effects of removing magic did not leave.
“You obviously are not from anywhere around here. Therefore, you shall be killed,” Ground Rider said darkly, plodding off to the front of the air ship, leaving the six dumbfounded behind him.
“How did this happen? Why did we jump so far into the future, Twilight?” Rarity asked, trying to remove the collar.
“The watch must have had a glitch in it and shot us into the future,” Twilight said. “Without that watch and without knowing exactly how many years and days we shot forward, we can’t go back.”
