Forwards to an unfortunate future

Rarity felt like she had been falling forever. She looked around and knew at once that her time travel trip had been accomplished. Ponyville. Yet something was different, but what? Rarity trotted around Why is it so silent? Where did every pony go and why are there cries coming from near Fluttershy's cottage? she wondered, trotting closer as the sobs became clearer. Soon she was right in front of Fluttershy's cottage and knocked on her door, there was no answer. She knocked again, but there was still no answer. Just then Rarity noticed that the cries she had heard before had disappeared, in replace of it was the wind rushing between her mane. What is going on? she thought as she trotted around Fluttershy's cottage, though after a while Rarity still couldn't find Fluttershy. She decided to leave the cottage in search of another pony but just as she crossed the bridge there was a squeal and after that crash, Rarity turned around and was surprised to see Fluttershy. "Flutter shy, what happened?" Rarity asked, Flutteshy squealed again

"Y-you know my name!" she yelled

"Of course I know your name your my fr- I mean I heard about your relationship with animals. I just came by to ask two questions. Why were you crying? And where is every pony? Answer the second one first,"

"What you don't know?"

"Know what?"

"About the invasion,"

"I-INVASION!!"

"Yes, Nightmare Moon had come back after a thousand years and took a hold of the land, no pony was able to stop her. Then Discord came after being revived by Nightmare Moon and went by her side. These strange black creatures soon came but left after, I don't know why." Probably because there's not enough love for them to even feed on Rarity thought "After that King Sombra had rised and ruled over a kingdom called the Crystal Empire. Then these strange plants just grew out of the ground and started to attack ponies, Discord found out that he could control them and used them as punishment for ponies. Finally came the most terrifying of all, Lord Tirek, he can take away the magic, flight or strength from ponies. We've been living under the rule of all of them for a while now, it's all too frightening," Fluttershy continued "Us ponies from Ponyville have managed to flee from our town and escape into th-the Everfree Forest. But I accidentally left Angel behind and I'm sure that the shadow knights took him! Oh, he must be frightened to death right now!" she yelled. Whilst Fluttershy was talking to Rarity, Angel was too busy hiding underground with Fluttershy and helping herself to some carrots.

"I'm so sorry darling, I wish I could help but I just came from the past and I have no info on anything except what happened to Equestria!" Rarity explained without thinking. "Urm what I mean is..."

"Oh, I believe you,"

"Y-you do!"

"Why yes! As a matter of fact, I think I can take you to the , you'd be a great use to me there,"

"Wh-what?" Rarity backed away, she didn't like the way Fluttershy began to talk.

"What's wrong dearie, didn't you say that you wished you could help," she maliciously asked

"Y-yes, but I-"

"I know of a way that you can help me," Fluttershy grinned as she stepped towards the mare. Suddenly, a green pillar of light appeared out of nowhere on the place where Fluttershy was standing. Queen Chrysalis stood before Rarity. "B-but I thought that you all left!" Rarity yelled with shock

"Yes, the best piece of information that you had learnt from me," Queen Chrysalis said, stepping forward, She must have tricked me! Rarity thought. A green glow appeared on her horn and Rarity knew at once that she had to run, but she was struck with fear and couldn't move an inch.

The green glow grew brighter. But a sudden boom made the glow fade away, there was silence then something was thrown out from the Everfree Forest and landed in between the Changeling and the mare, the strange object exploded like a bomb and smoke devoured the air. Rarity began to cough as the smoke spread further, then she felt like she was being lifted and noticed that some pony else was carrying her away.

When Rarity was out of reach from Queen Chrysalis the pony that had carried her had stopped moving and placed Rarity back on the ground. "Who are you?" Rarity asked she placed her hoof above her eyes to remove the sun's shade to see two ponies standing before her.

"I'd like to ask you the same thing and what in Equestria you were doing back there?" the pony replied, Rarity remembered this voice of a female earth pony. "Applejack!?" Rarity said, not answering the earth pony's question.

"Hey, how'd you know my name?" she questioned

"It's a long story, but where is every pony? I thought that you all escaped into this forest,"

"We did, just not this part, follow us. Oh yeah, and you have to put this mud on yourself to prove that your not a changeling," another voice explained

"Urm.." Rarity

"Colgate, now come on!" Colgate ushered Rarity over to her to place the mud onto her. Soon after all the trouble of applying the mud on Rarity's face the three ponies trotted off in one direction, Colgate and Applejack kept on looking around themselves to see if anyone was following them.

When they arrived Rarity was extremely shocked to see a village that wasn't exactly like Ponyville, but the ponies in it seemed to act as if there was no invasion and that they were still in Ponyville. "Why is every pony acting like they're still in Ponyville?" Rarity asked

"They're all trying to forget about it all and act as if there was no invasion," Applejack responded before dragging Rarity over to a nearby hut. "We got a new one 'ere!" she suddenly yelled, then she shoved Rarity into the hut and led her to a zebra, with a cutie mark? "Zecora!" Rarity suddenly yelled

"You're confusin' me by the second," Applejack murmured "Zecora! This mare was saved from nearly bein' captured by Crysalis, that royal changeling wanted to capture her and said somethin' about time travel," she finished

"So you are a pony that is not of this time?" questioned the zebra curiously

"Well yes, I mean no I mean, well I'm not really sure. You see this mare captured me and..." Rarity continued telling her intriguing tale of how she managed to accomplish time travel. "Hmm, so this Starlight Glimmer is the very reason why we are in this dilemma, so it seems that we must help you to go back in time and fix those problems that your enemy has caused," Zecora explained

"Well I guess so, but how are you able to not rhyme?"

"In a cause to make a potion an accident had occurred and the potion ended up spilling over me, now I am no normal zebra, the potion must have caused some side effects such as the cutie mark," she replied before going to a stack of books. Rarity thought that it was unusual for her to have a cutie mark but when everything was normal she remembered that Zecora still had a cutie mark. "Ah, here is the one, this is the book that may help 'Star Swirl's unique guide to time travel', it explains the way to travel back and forward in time. In this book there is also a message that I think the great unicorn wanted to try and send to you," Zecora said before handi- hooving over the book to Rarity. Rarity rapidly opened the book, eager to see the message that Star Swirl had tried to send to her:

I would like to thank a certain young mare,

for she had inspired and helped me to continue with this spell.

I believe that she will one day be a hero to us all

and I am sure that day will come.

Rarity was most shocked to find out that Star Swirl managed to send a message from the past to her! She knew at once that she had to stop Starlight glimmer from erasing friendships future. "But how am I going to stop her if I don't even know which time period she's in?" Rarity asked after the few minutes of silence "She's got more understanding of spells than me plus she uses her magic to fly around so I won't be able to catch her so easily," she said

"I may be able to teach you a few spells that may help you," the zebra responded.

Rarity was told to come to Zecora's hut everyday to learn and practice new spells. Her first spell was the freeze shot, she needed to focus her energy on that one object that she wanted to freeze and feel herself get cold at the same time. Rarity managed to understand the spell in two days but still used her spare time to perfect it.

The next one up was the floating spell that Starlight Glimmer used, Rarity had to feel herself levitating up and controlling herself at the same time. It took Rarity two days to fully master the spell, it was quite an easy spell to understand since Rarity used her magic to levitate many other things.

After that spell was the illusion spell, she had to think of a way to trick Starlight Glimmer and allow that type of imagination to come out. I took her three and a half days to understand the illusion spell.

Then came the truth spell, Rarity had to think of a question for the pony she cast a spell on and imagine that pony is under her control. Rarity spent two and a half days to master this spell.

Soon came the personality spell, Rarity had to think of any type of personality and then blast it into the heart of the pony that she wanted to change the personality of, making the pony temporarily act as that personality. It took her three days to fully understand this spell.

Finally came the hardest of all: the counter spell. Rarity had to have another unicorn cast a harmless spell on her and she had to think of herself as the one casting the spell so that she could deflect it back. Rarity managed to accomplish this spell in five days.

After a a week and four days, Rarity was able to finish off the spells that Zecora had taught her. Tomorrow I'll be going back Rarity thought I should probably give them all something as a token of my gratitude, for helping me. then another voice arrived in her head Changing time is your token of gratitude! Forget about giving them something else! No! You must give them something else, in return for teaching you new spells, caring for you, watching out for you, I'm sure that when you change time they might not even have what you gave them, but you should still- You're going to save Equestria, no point in wasting your time on that! Now Rarity made her decision.

The next day the moon was still in the sky like it had always been. When Applejack came to see Rarity she had found out that Rarity wasn't in bed. She searched the place for her but still couldn't find the unicorn. "What in Equestria's goin' on here?"

"We must search for her!" proclaimed Zecora. Soon both the farm pony and the zebra were searching for the missing mare.

Meanwhile Rarity was too busy searching for something precious to give to her friends. "What is there that I can find for them in this place?" Rarity whined, she trotted around the forest for for a while before entering what was left of Ponyville, "Maybe there's something around here! Why didn't I think of that before?".

She searched through the broken town for a memento that was worth keeping, in the end all she found were bits of broken wood and destroyed flower beds. She met the Golden Oak Tree Library and thought that there may be something interesting in there. Let's see: History of Equestria by night flame, Guide to potion making vol.2, lecture on the two sisters - Wait the castle of the two sisters there could be something in there! Rarity thought, she galloped back into the Everfree Forest just before Zecora and Applejack came out "We might as well search here," Applejack suggested. Rarity dodged branches and jumped over mud puddles, she shrieked when she nearly stepped on a hoof-sized mud puddle. "I wonder what I should get from there, probably that old tapestry," she said as she sped along the forest, until she saw a bridge.

When she entered the castle scary emotions began to creep up and around her skin, she knew that it was in ruins and it would obviously scare her but she still couldn't help it. The castle was full of old treasures that had caught Rarity's eyes but she knew she was her for more important reasons and kept on searching for something special. Soon after a while of searching she finally found it, 'The United Tapestry'. The top triangle symbolised unicorns the left triangle symbolised Pegasus and the right triangle symbolised the earth ponies. In the centre of it all was the Equestria symbol, "Perfect,". Rarity used her floating spell to reach the top of the ancient tapestry and used her magic to lift it up, once she lifted one side off she took the other one off. Finally the whole tapestry landed onto the floor with a thud and a crack, Rarity remembered that the castle was very old and it was practically falling apart. So she gently lifted up the tapestry CRACK, gently CRACK, gent - Oh who cares just lift it up!

Soon after all that mess with the tapestry Rarity managed to survive the crooked floorboards and escape the castle.

When she returned to the village the other ponies were surprised to see her there because they all thought that she had been pony napped by the changelings. Rarity cheerfully trotted to Zecora's hut and placed the ancient tapestry on the table.

"Well we searched the place for her but still nothing, it's obvious that she's been taken by the changelings. Oh, hey Rarity! So I think we ought to tell, wait, Rarity!" Applejack turned to see an excited Rarity standing in Zecora's hut. "Surprise!" Rarity yelled, she stepped back to reveal an old tapestry lying silently on the table, awaiting for the two's arrival. "Rarity! Where were you? We thought you were captured by the changelings!" Applejack said

"Oh, no, no, no! I was too busy getting this," Rarity pointed towards the tapestry. They were both surprised to see it there and was most amazed to think that Rarity was able to get away with this. "We will take proper care of this to remember you," Zecora said, calming down already, "I believe that now is the time for you to go," Zecora suddenly ordered. "Can't I stay for just a bit longer," Rarity begged throwing out her best puppy-dog eyes at the zebra, yet nothing seemed to work. "Believe that bringing back Equestria, is you top priority," Zecora explained, she turned around   and led Rarity to the other ponies who were wondering what was going on. Rarity sighed, she really was going to miss being here, but she knew that she had to bring back the real Equestria for the sake of all the ponies that were being ruled over by the cruelty of the enemies.

Rarity took her 'guide to time travel' book into her saddle bag, said her goodbyes and lit up her horn. She read out the words to allow herself to go to the correct time and into the time portal.