Hours Once Gone

Rainbow jumped up from her cloud, flapping her wings to keep herself afloat. She breathed frantically, before calming down. To her right, she saw Fluttershy, who must've woken her up. She waved sheepishly.

"Oh, hey Fluttershy," Rainbow sighed. "What's up?"

Fluttershy swayed from side to side, clearly not comfortable being so high up. "Oh, I was just looking for you…" she said. "Everypony is worried."

Rainbow sunk back into her cloud, laying on her side. "What for? None of them want to help." She gave a bitter scowl.

"About that…" Fluttershy mumbled. "I came to ask if maybe… I could go with you?"

Rainbow's eyes lit up for a moment, before she regressed back to her pessimism. "Don't bother. It's not like we can use the elements on our own."

Fluttershy frowned. "Well… are you sure I can't help in some other way?"

Rainbow Dash thought about it, but then her eyes widened when she suddenly remembered the dream she had. "Oh my gosh! Princess Luna!" She shot upwards and darted across the sky towards the train station and record speeds.

"Ah, Rainbow, wait!" Fluttershy slowly followed after the rainbow pegasus, barely able to keep up.

Rainbow Dash zipped through the city streets and blasted into the train station. She landed, starting to jog in place anxiously. Fluttershy eventually caught up, panting and flopping onto the floor.

"Rainbow…" she huffed and puffed. "Why are you in such a hurry?" She weakly stood up, her wings trembling.

Rainbow swiftly bought two tickets to Canterlot, rushing to the edge of the station. "Come on Fluttershy, we don't have time!" She grabbed Fluttershy and dragged her into the train.

Fluttershy just let Rainbow pull her along. "Okay, but where are we going?" she asked.

Rainbow threw herself and Fluttershy onto the nearest seats, impatiently looking out the window. "I need to talk to Princess Luna."

"Okay… but why? Weren't you going through the Crystal Mirror?" Fluttershy asked.

"Forget that!" Rainbow shouted. "The princess is the only pony who can help right now."

Fluttershy sighed as the train began to leave the station. "How do I get myself into these situations…"

Several hours later, Rainbow Dash busted through the front door of the Canterlot palace. If she wasn't Rainbow Dash, she'd be put in prison pretty quickly. Fluttershy covered her face with a wing as she walked in after Rainbow, not wanting to be associated with her. Rainbow quickly informed the guards that they needed to speak with Princess Luna, and they were guided into a room to wait for her.

After several minutes of waiting, Luna arrived with multiple scrolls levitating behind her. Rainbow curiously eyed up the scrolls, before remembering to bow. She then stood up and opened her mouth to speak, but Luna put a hoof out to stop her.

"We know you have many questions," Luna started. "However, this is a matter best dealt with carefully and slowly."

Fluttershy tilted her head, not understanding a thing that was going on. "Um, excuse me, princess…" She gave a light bow. "What exactly is this about?"

Luna glared down at Fluttershy, unintentionally frightening her. "Rainbow Dash is having… complicated troubles," she said. "Unfortunately, we cannot disclose what those troubles are with you."

Rainbow nodded, before flying behind Luna and grabbing a scroll. "Sorry Fluttershy- so what are these?" She opened one of them up at random. "Please tell me they have a super convenient solution in them."

Luna sighed, swiping away the scroll from Rainbow Dash. "These are the theories of Yester Hay. We presume you know who that is?"

"Are you kidding? Everypony knows who Yester Hay is!" Rainbow yelled, outraged. Although, truth be told, Yester Hay wasn't very famous at all unless you were a Wonderbolt nerd. "She's only like, one of the most significant Wonderbolts of her time!"

Fluttershy retreated to the corner of the room, just listening to their conversation and patiently waiting for them to be finished. She couldn't help but feel a little left out.

Luna gave a different scroll to Rainbow. "We had not known Yester Hay personally, being trapped in the moon for so long, but we do know that Yester Hay was a controversial figure," Luna said. "Yester Hay was a pony who believed time was not a law governed by nature, but a construct created by ponies. You may think of it similarly to how pegasi control the weather, or how my sister and I raise the sun and moon."

Rainbow skimmed over the scroll given to her. The scroll theorized that indeed, time was not natural but magical, and that somehow, ponies were responsible for time flowing forwards. The paper didn't just detail one theory, but many theories as to what was responsible for the movement of time. Unicorns, draconequus, creatures originating from the everfree or even undiscovered species that could control time.

"You're kidding me…" Rainbow said. "Yester Hay was a conspiracy theorist?" She facepalmed, disappointed in her idol.

"Is she?" Luna retorted. She glanced over to Fluttershy, gesturing to her to leave the room. Fluttershy, being the pushover that she was, left without a complaint. "Rainbow Dash… knowing what we know about you now, are Yester Hay's theories really that outlandish?"

Rainbow looked at the passage at the bottom of the scroll. It read: "If true, we may be taking the time we have for granted. If the passage of time is gifted to us through magical means, then that supply may be limited. Whether or not our time is running out, the answer might come in the form of an apocalypse." Rainbow couldn't believe what she was reading. An apocalypse, really? It sounded like the ravings of a mad pony.

"All that we know, Rainbow Dash…" Luna started. "Is that you are not alone."

Rainbow tilted her head. "What do you mean not alone?"

Luna turned her gaze out the window, looking to the moon. "You may not be the only pony to conquer time."

Right as she said this, Fluttershy entered the room, making both Rainbow and Luna jump with surprise. "Um… sorry," Fluttershy interrupted. "But you have a visitor…" She gestured to a small filly with a white coat, blue and yellow mane and blue eyes.

All three of them looked on in shock. Luna's eyes were locked onto the filly like she was an undead corpse. Although, the reaction was justified. After all, this filly was an alicorn.

Rainbow immediately ran up to the filly and started tugging on her wings, as well as poking at her horn. "What the hay!" she shouted. "Uhhh, Princess Luna? This wouldn't happen to be a… cousin of yours or something?"

The little filly tucked her wings to her sides, her expression nervous from all the ponies staring at her. Luna didn't stop staring. She didn't blink, completely baffled at what she was seeing.

"Rainbow Dash, do you not see the same thing we do?" Luna pointed to the filly's flank.

As Rainbow moved her gaze to where Luna was pointing, her eyes widened. "Her cutie mark… it's moving?"

Her cutie mark, a blue and gold hourglass, was moving. The blue strains of sand were falling through the hourglass. Each bit of sand sparkled as it fell.

"Um, what's going on?" Fluttershy whispered from the corner.

This wasn't what she expected when tagging along with Rainbow Dash. The filly began to shiver, tears forming in her eyes. All this attention was clearly putting her on the spot, and so Fluttershy came to the rescue, approaching the filly ushering her out of the room.

"Let's just… let her calm down for a bit," Fluttershy said in her serious voice, before directing her attention to the foal. "Oh, I know, let's have a look around the castle!" Fluttershy said excitedly, taking her away. Fluttershy's voice became more distant as she left the room, closing the door behind her.

"What just happened," Rainbow said, before shaking her head. "Nah, there's no way… right?" She looked to Luna for reassurance, who's jaw had dropped.

"An alicorn with an hourglass cutie mark," she said, before also shaking her head. "Let us not jump to conclusions. For now, we will discuss what we meant to discuss in the first place. Rainbow Dash, what does the future look like?"

Rainbow had forgotten the entire reason she was here. Right, Luna was the only pony who she could talk to. That sudden interruption really threw her for a loop. An undocumented alicorn just happened to stumble into the Canterlot castle. A filly no less. Right outside their room, past the royal guards.

"Right, where were we…" Rainbow said. "Right, sleeping spells! I think the one I'm dealing with is dormant… how can I tell what activates it?"

Rather bluntly, Luna shrugged to say she didn't know. "Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible to know. However, you have the ability to see it happen for yourself, do you not?"

True, Rainbow saw the spell with her own eyes, but how could she know what caused it? She wasn't smart like Twilight, not informed like Luna.

Luna noticed Rainbow stuck in thought. "Was there not any indication of a magic spell?" she said.

Then it clicked. "She had her horn again! Right… Scarlet used the amulet to regain her horn."

Suddenly, Luna's face went aghast, as if she'd just watched someone be killed. In her face was horror and shock. She curled her lips and squinted her eyes.

"Rainbow Dash, what did you just say?" she glared at Rainbow with daggers for eyes.

Rainbow gulped, sensing the fury from Luna. "Scarlet… Snow? She used the amulet to regain her horn, and that's when..."

Luna was fuming, her face turning red. She sighed, calming herself down. "If only you had said her name sooner…"

"What do you mean?" Rainbow asked.

"Rainbow Dash," Luna began. "We are the one who killed Scarlet Snow."