Lost in Time

by Xduskreaver

Rating: teen
Tags: Rainbow Dash, Adventure, Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia, Dark, Alternate Universe, Princess Luna, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 1259

What happens if Princess Luna is never returned to normal? If the Elements of Harmony instead destroyed Nightmare Moon and any hope for Celestia of reuniting with her sister?

What happens if Princess Luna is never returned to normal? If the Elements of Harmony didn't purge her of Nightmare Moon, if instead they destroyed Nightmare Moon and any hope for Celestia to reunite with her sister?
For Celestia, it means many nights of the deepest sorrow and regret.
And for Twilight Sparkle.. it means a trip through time itself.

Published 2013-02-26 13:30:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-02-26 13:30:02 UTC

The Beginning

Tears ran down Twilight’s face as she cast the spell. A light appeared from within her chest. It burned brighter and brighter, until Celestia had to turn her head away. Celestia saw out of the corner of her eyes that Rainbow Dash continued looking despite the searing pain, tears running down her face in rivulets.

“Twilight!!” Rainbow screamed, and fell down onto her knees, where she let her head thump down onto her chest and she closed her eyes. Suddenly the light was gone, and Celestia swiveled her head back. A small blackened circle was left where she had been standing, a thin layer of ash coating the ground.

“Make sure you come back to us.... Twilight.” She whispered. Celestia closed her eyes and prayed.

Three pegasi beat their wings frantically, straining against the wind as they fled. A monster of unbelievable proportions burst out of the clouds behind them.

The beast was covered in grey scales, not leaving even the smallest patches of its body vulnerable. Its face, if it could even be called that, consisted of a large protruding beak like mouth with large reptilian eyes set back at the base of its skull. The monster had small fins sticking up all over its body, allowing it to easily control its movement through the air.
One beat of its wings propelled it hundreds of meters, leaving it right behind the three pegasi in an instant.

“SHIT!! Soldiers, 270 backwards corkscrews!” The three peeled away, pulling their wings in for an instant, dropping like stones below the monster as it came upon them, before snapping their wings back open and pushing themselves upside down in a 180 til they were facing directly away from the monster and powering off. They lined up for the dense cloud cover behind them, from which the monster had just burst.

As they sped off, the monster roared in frustration, slowly coming around to face towards them again. Suddenly all of the fins on its body closed, its body becoming completely streamlined, and it gave one extremely hard beat of its wings before wrapping them around its body as well. One of the pegasi watched over his shoulder as this happened, his horror growing as he realized what was going to happen. As he predicted, all of the monsters actions served it by causing it to shoot towards them at unreal speeds, acting like an arrow shot straight off of a bow.

Despite how close the pegasi were to the clouds, the monster closed the distance within a few seconds, smacking all three pegasi against its hard scales. Each of them spun awkwardly with their wings half-open, like leaves falling from a tree, as the monster snapped around. It landed on the ground just a couple of seconds before the semi-conscious pegasi.

The monster’s snake like body started rising off the ground, and small legs became visible from underneath the great beast. It started forward, about to snap up one of the prone pegasi, when it was distracted by a bright light from high above. It growled warningly when it realized that the light was getting brighter and closer. The monster tensed, crouching slightly on its powerful yet small legs.

The monster leapt, at an unbelievable speed opening its maw in an earthshaking roar and closing its mouth upon the light. As the pegasi became aware of what was occurring they looked up and watched, in complete shock as these fast paced events unfolded before them.

“Look! Its belly!” The Pegasus on the left yelled pointing with one of his hooves. The others looked at where he was pointing as the beast landed, a minor earthquake resulting from its great weight impacting the ground. They gasped as they saw its stomach glowing, and watched in fascination as, like a flare, the light flashed super bright, forcing them all to look away.

When the pegasi looked back at where the beast was, they were shocked to see that it was gone. In its place were completely blackened hunks of flesh, scattered around a fairly small crater, larger than life bones sticking out of them.
“No way, look!” The same Pegasus distracted the rest from staring at the chunks of steaming meat surrounding them, pointing to the middle of the crater where a small lavender bundle could be seen. As they watched, it moved, ever so slowly, unfolding to become a purple unicorn, looking very shaken and confused.

Twilight felt hot. Her body felt like it had been roughly treated, tender and sore all over. She groaned as she tried to unfold her legs from the fetal position she seemed to have assumed during the course of the spell. Slowly she strained her legs and rose, panting with the effort.

It was only when she was standing that she opened her eyes. Her eyes instantly watered from the bright light suddenly filtering through them, causing her to blink rapidly. As she regained her sight, her other senses seemed to kick in, causing her to retch. The air stank with the smell of burnt, roasting meat.

Twilight groaned, her legs trembling from the strain. She slowly locked her knees in place, allowing her strength to return, as well as control over her stomach. Breathing deeply she looked around again, trying to place where she was. She seemed to be in the middle of a… crater?

Eyes wide, Twilight examined the crater, noting the cause of the horrible smell permeating the air. From the way the blackened chunks of meat were surrounding the crater and some appeared to have fallen in it, she assumed that some sort of creature was responsible for the explosion which caused the crater, and she was looking at the remains of the owner of said explosion. The very, VERY large owner.

Twilight gaped in astonishment as she took in the implications. The creature must have been huge! Hundreds of times bigger than a pony like me. Maybe even comparable to an Ursa Major! Wait a second… why am I in the exact center of the crater? What in Celesta's name actually hap…

Twilight's thoughts were interrupted by somepony clearing their throat from behind her. She whirled around, surprised and shocked to find a Pegasus hovering just a few meters away, with two others standing a bit behind him.

All three pegasi were bland shades of grey, if it weren’t for the strange markings white markings on their faces Twilight wasn’t sure she would be able to differentiate them.

The pegasi hovered closer to her and cleared his throat again before speaking, his eyes glimmering with curiosity but also tempered by fear. “You.. Who are you? How did you come here? What is with your coat? Where’s your Gauze? Did…” He rambled on, asking question after question.

Twilight struggled to follow all his questions and eventually shouted. “Wait, WAIT!!” She realized that wherever this was, it was far from home. The culture differences alone made that obvious. However, she had to make sure.

“First of all… Where in Equestria is this and what year of Celestia’s reign is it currently? I really hope I made it to the right time period…” The last part was mumbled under her breath as she watched the pegasi attentively. However, her hopes sunk and tears built up in the corners of her eyes as he only blinked in confusion.

“Equestria? I don’t know where this Equestria is, but this here is New Canterton in Dystopia! Also… who in Discord’s name is Celestia?”…