Life New and Old

Dress making with Rarity.

Animal watching with Fluttershy.

Flying with Rainbow Dash.

Applebucking with Applejack.

Baking with Pinkie Pie.

Studying with Twilight Sparkle and Spike.

The past few days had been the happiest of my life. I guess I really had forgotten just how good it felt to have to a friend at all. Still, hanging out with these ponies made me see them as just that, ponies. Average, everyday ponies. But Twilight showed me just what happened if these ponies weren't friends, or least if the rainboom didn't happen. Even now, it just didn't add up. How can one group of friends be so important to Equestira. I knew that it was because of the rainboom that Twilight and her friends got their cutie marks at once. Evidently, the story did not stop there, and I needed to know the rest.

"Twilight, can I ask you something?"

The princess looked up from book. "Of course Starlight."

"You know how you showed me that wasteland with the time travel spell? I need to know just what you and your friends did that's so important to Equestria."

Twilight closed her book and sighed. "That's a rather long story. Is it alright if I just show you?"

"Yes"

"Good, because I've been wanting to try out this spell." Twilight walked up to me.

"What kind of spell?"

"A spell that allows the cast to project memories. I'm going to show you mine. In them are the answers you seek." Twilight explained and began to cast the spell. A screen showing a picture of a grassy field with large buildings in the distance appeared .

"What it that place?" I asked.

"The campus of Celestia's school for gifted unicorns." Twilight replied.

"Really? I wonder if you can see Sunburst from here?" I asked, looking out for him.

"Starlight, focus please."

"Right, sorry."

"Look." the screen showed a tree on a hill. A familiar looking unicorn was reading a book under it.

"Wait, is that...?" I wondered in astonishment.

"Yep, that's me. Before I became a princess. You'll find I was a very different pony then."

Unicorn Twilight got up and ran toward the school buildings. The display screen followed suit. She eventually met a group of three students.

"There you are, Twilight! Moon Dancer is having a little get-together in the west castle courtyard. You wanna come?" one asked.

"Oh, sorry, girls... I've got a lot of studying to catch up on." Unicorn Twilight replied.

Those worlds seemed to have cut deep, since alicorn Twilight made a somber face when she heard them. Unicorn Twilight ran off again. I couldn't believe what I just saw. Twilight Sparkle, princess of friendship had been anti-social!

The student who spoke sighed. "Does that pony do anything except study? I think she's more interested in books than friends."

"Friends? I thought those ponies where business associates of yours." I said astonished.

Twilight looked confused for a moment. "I met those ponies when I was a filly, but I got so caught up in my studies, I forgot about them and left them behind without a second thought." Twilight cracked a small smile. "I still can't believe how understanding they were after all those months."

Unicorn Twilight ran up the stairs to the top of a tall tower. She burst into the room and started looking through various books. Spike finally gave her the one she wanted. "Ah! Elements, Elements, E, E, E... Aha! Elements of Harmony, see: Mare in the Moon?"

"Elements of Harmony?" I asked. I had heard of the Mare in the Moon legend, but not of these.

"Yes, powerful artifacts that serve as Equestria's greatest defense. They can only be wielded by a select few. Like, a group of ponies who have a special connection." Twilight put in.

I turned to her. "The Rainboom." I said quietly. What I though was an isolated incident of little consequence was beginning to grow into something big. So much so it changed Equestria forever, even if the effects weren't felt right away. So big, the safety of all of Equestria was at risk without the rainboom. "What about the other girls? And just what else does the mare in the moon have to do with this?"

"We'll see the other girls later on, but first, what do you know of Princess Luna's return?" Twilight asked.

"Not much, I just heard Celestia had a sister all this time and that she was recently reunited with her."

Twilight pointed back to her memory of younger self. She was telling Spike what write to Princess Celestia. They got a response almost immediately. Spike read it out-loud. The response was apparently not what Twilight was expecting at the time.

"I'm going to fast-forward my memory to a more important part." We watched as Unicorn Twilight and Spike flying a chariot to Ponyville.
"This is when I first came to Ponyville." Twilight said wistfully.

Unicorn Twilight and Spike went around Ponyville checking on the preparations for the summer sun festival, meeting familiar faces along the way. Then came to a treehouse library, where a party was waiting for them.

"You didn't seem to like your friends very much." I commented.

"No, but I didn't know them very well back then. What happens next would change that." Twilight replied.

The memory now showed all of Ponyville waiting for Celestia to raise the sun. But the princess never came, instead a dark armored alicorn appeared in her place.

"Who is that?" I asked.

"That is Nightmare Moon. She was Celestia's sister Luna, corrupted by an evil known as the Nightmare Forces. Her goal was to bring eternal night." Twilight answered.

"But that would kill all of Equestria, the whole world even!"

"I know. Which is why I had to do something to stop her." Unicorn Twilight was running back to library, followed by the mares she had met before. "Thank goodness I didn't have to do it alone."

Unicorn Twilight was now reading about the elements of harmony. She and her future friends then left the library to the Everfree forest. We watched as the group made their way to the old castle, and trials they faced along the way. Finally, they arrived. Twilight found the elements, but couldn't make use of them, and was forced to face Nightmare Moon on her own, who then seemingly destroyed them. When her new friends came in, there was a spark in her eyes, and she gave speech about friendship. Shattered pieces from the elements began to surround each pony as she spoke. The pieces then formed necklaces and a large tiara for Twilight. In a blinding flash, a large rainbow descended on Nightmare Moon, leaving a alicorn filly in it's place. Celestia herself showed up and embraced her long lost sister. I stared in amazement.

"I...have...have you needed to used the elements since then?" I asked.

Twilight changed the memory, showing me various time when various villains tried to take over Equestria, only to be stopped by Twilight and her friends. Seeing all of this, now it wasn't so hard to imagine the wasteland Twilight had showed me coming to be. Twilight stopped the projection and the screen disappeared.

I just stood there, taking it all in. "I shouldn't have messed with time." I said finally.

"Hindsight is 20/20." Twilight said simply.

"Twilight, do you think was I really that much of a threat to Equestria?"

The princess pondered this for a moment. "Come with me." she said.

"Where are we going?"

"Back to that little town you started."