The moon was just beginning its rise over the sleepy hallow of Ponyville, as the newly declared Princess; Twilight Sparkle, walked with abandon. The alicorn was exhausted, and for good reason, she had barely slept since her new-found wings appeared and she was crowned a princess. When she finally opened the wooden door of the library she practically collapsed.
Not one to ignore Twilight, Spike ran over to see what was wrong, "Twilight, are you okay?" He began trying to help her up, concerned for his dearest friend. "You look awful, what's wrong?"
Twilight struggled, but eventually got up on all fours, using Spike as a crutch, "I'm so tired!" She whined, "Ever since I became a princess, I've had no time to myself!" She looked down, "Everypony is kind, but they're asking me for trivial favours that they could do themselves!" She started walking towards the stairs, upset with herself and annoyed at recent happenings. "A unicorn asked me to create a spell to unclog his drain, a pegasus wanted me to summon a rainstorm for her.." She sighed, "A little filly covered in dirt asked if I could bring her parents back to life." Twilight sat on the stairs of her library, "On top of that, I'm a guest lecturer at Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.. I've had to comprise notes and different spells for every class that's come in." She laid down on the hard wood and shut her eyes. "I wish there was a way I could have soem time off!" She cried.
Spike sat next to Twilight and was rubbing her back, "Twilight, it will get better soon, I promise.. it just takes some time for ponies to realise that they need to solve there own problems." He gave her the biggest hug a baby dragon could, and in doing so had an idea. "Twilight! Why don't you see if there are any more time spells in the Castle's library? You could hop a week into the future and everypony would have themselves sorted out!"
The princess blinked, "Spike... that's brilliant! I'll just fly over and search through the spells, I'm sure I can find one that lets me jump forward in time just as easy as going back in time!" She smiled for the first time that day, "Then everypony will stop being so dependant on me, and I can have some time off." She began to stand up, but realised her exhaustion had gotten to her more than she thought. Twilight could barely stand, and fell onto the hardened stairs once again. "I think.. I'll go tomorrow, when I'm not as tired." The princess slowly climbed the stairs, and before reaching her door she called back to Spike, "Don't stay up too late, goodnight Spike!"
"Goodnight Twilight, sweet dreams!" He called back, happy that his idea was well approved.
Twilight loved the Canterlot Library, it looked exceptionally regal, and the collection was far greater than hers. She loved seeing the blue and gold banners, representing the love between the regal pony sisters. In certain areas, Twilight even saw purple and pink banners, most likely representing her and Cadence. As she continued down the hallways, Twilight felt a little anxious, 'I hope they'll let me into the StarSwilr the Bearded section...' She swallowed, getting more and more nervous.
When she finally reached the section she was looking for, the two guards smiled, "Good afternoon Princess Twilight, can we assist you in anything?" While they were both very formal looking, on the inside they were giddy with joy at the thought of assisting the youngest princess. "Anything at all? Fighting hydras or saving kittens from trees? You name it, we can-"
"N-no," Twilight interrupted, "I'm just here to look up a spell." She smiled sheepishly, "N-nothing to worrisome, just a simple little spell." She politely asked if they could open the door for her, to which both the guards scrambled to do. Once the door was finally open, both the guards had a bruise from one another, and had begun arguing, not knowing their favourite princess had already slipped by, and was exploring the ancient scrolls.
The center atrium of the StarSwirl the Bearded section was dark, forcing Twilight to carry a candle with her; and have to be able to squint to read the titles of the tomes and scrolls before her. The room was stuffy, almost like a crypt, and brought back memories for Twilight. When she was a little filly, she got lost in the large library and ended up in this exact same room; and, as most foals are, she was frightened by the dark and the shadows looming in the corners. Luckily Princess Celestia had found her hiding under a desk. 'I sure was a scaredy pony when I was little' Twilight thought as she searched through the scrolls, recalling where she had found the time travel spell.
"Aha!" She said aloud, locating the book on time travel spells, it wasn't very large, as very few had been able to channel the magic of time and live to tell the tale. She flipped through the pages, searching for the incantation that would send her into the future.
The future of mine is what I seek, to see through time at its peak.
Let those who know me say goodbye, but I'll see them again through time's eye
Through its stream I will be carried, to see the future oh so scary.
The last line confused Twilight a bit but she thought nothing of it. Using her horn, the alicorn closed her eyes to concentrate on the powerful magic words. Around her, the environment was taking a heavy toll from the power of the princess. The candle she had went out, and the wind started thrashing in an uproar, blowing open windows and doors. Even the ancient stone walls shook as Twilight cast this powerful spell, and cracks began to form on the ground around her, carving a runic symbol into the floor.
The flash of light from the spell could be seen from Ponyville, as it illuminated Canterlot castle and the mountain it was carved into. It was bright enough to be mid-afternoon, although the sun had long set. In the library, Spike awoke to see the great flash, and happily smiled, knowing it was simply an affect of Twilight's powerful magic. What he didn't know, however, was when she'd return.
Twilight woke up, drained of her energy, in the dark room of the atrium. She groggily tried to stand up, but like her previous night's sleep, was too exhausted to move. With nothing better to do, she looked around at the damage her spell had caused. The walls had cracked , and the shelves had crumbled slightly. She felt awful at the sight, feeling so guilty that she had destroyed centuries of knowledge. The thought of Celestia's punishment sent shiver's down her spine, and gave a nervous boost of adrenaline. She quickly stood up in the dark room, examining all she had done, and fretting heavily over it. "I've got to find somepony to help me.. maybe those guards will be know how to restore the library?" She quickly trotted down the halls and past the shelves of the damaged Castle Library, finally reaching the room with an exceptionally large, and now broken, plane of glass. Her panic became worse, just the thought of how much replacing such a large window would cost made her shudder. "Okay, repairing the damage will take a lot of work on my part..."
Eventually, Twilight found her way to the guarded gate, where she was first let in, "Excuse me sirs, I was wondering if-" Outside of the gate, nopony was there, the guards who were there a week earlier had left their daily assignment? Twilight was confused, as the guards had always been incredibly polite and loyal to every guest in Canterlot castle. She shook off her feelings of confusion and decided that maybe someone in Canterlot could help her.
The castle was barren, no one in sight... Twilight began to panic. "Where is everypony?" She practically yelled as she reached the gate. It was all so strange. She pushed open the gate and saw what shocked her; The radiant square of Canterlot was in ruins. Statues had fallen over, and buildings had crumbled, windows were shattered and stores were long looted. Without another word to herself, Twilight ran. She ran to Pony Joe's, which had fallen, She ran to her brother's guard post, which no longer had a tower, she ran to her parents home, which was long burnt to the ground. "W-what happened...?" her eyes were filled with tears.
She heard no answer, no cries for help. All she felt was the bitter cold of night. "Ponyville... someone will no what's happened.." She hurriedly spread her wings an began to flap for her life.
It was to no avail, Twilight's exhaustion caused her to spiral out of control, and she landed deep within the Everfree forest. The trees were black, almost like they had been charred, burned. Nothing grew any longer, and with every couple of yards she travelled, Twilight saw animal bones, both large and small. Nothing grew, and nothing lived in the Everfree forest any longer. It was barren, and Twilight had no problem's finding her way to the hills of Sweet Apple Acre's.
"What happened here?"