This can't be happening. This can't be happening.
This is all some joke, right? They're just playing with me. Right?
What in Tartarus is going on? First I can't remember how I got here, now all of a sudden time's gone backwards? What does that even mean?!?!?
[...]
Those thoughts and many others spiral around your mind like gnats in the humid air attracted to sweat and salt. For what must have been a minute in the real world feels like a near eternity for you ever since you laid your eyes on the calendar Trixie gave you. Speaking of the unicorn, she and Nurse Redheart stare at you with concern and uncertainty, as if you're some foreign device that could go off at any second.
Trixie calls you by your name. "Is everything okay? You've been blanking out for a while."
This can't be real. This has to be a prank! Or maybe it's a dream! I just need to need to WAKE UP!!!
Sadly, nothing about this seems fabricated to you as time went on. Unless these two mares, along with Sunburst, are some of the meanest and lowly ponies you've ever met, you see no reason as for why they would play just an unnecessary gag on you, especially with how much time has passed. And as for a dream, while it may be true, the unsettling feeling in your stomach is enough to motivate you to wake up, if possible.
Without warning, you start to shift underneath the covers, slowly squirming your way to the left side of the bed from your view. When at the edge, you poke your right fore- and hindlegs out from the covers, slowing lowering the trembling appendages down to the tiled floor. The knot in your stomach gets harder as your legs descend further.
"You shouldn't really do that," Redheart warns. "You still aren't feeling well."
"I appreciate that," you call back politely. "But I just need to wake ---"
You tried to raise your body from the mattress with your remaining legs, but instead, you manage to fall back down on the edge of the bed when your left shoulder contracts a cramp. As a result, you slip off the bed and come to a hard landing on the floor. In the process, your tray of food, which you had left on the bed's right side, is swept underneath by the moving sheets and clatters to the floor as well, spilling out all of its contents.
Trixie and Redheart gasp collectively. "Are you alright?" asks the unicorn.
Your shaky legs hold you back from standing upright immediately, and even when you do gain the upper hoof in the end, you still struggle to keep yourself from collapsing. The weight in your lower abdomen has grown even heavier than before, and before you realize it, the feelings of nausea and short-sightedness come in to join the misery contest.
You were certain that you would be passing out in any second, but any regard to that fact was of minimum importance to you as you turn around. With your half-misty eyes now trained on the opened door in front of you, you walked, or rather shuffle, towards the visible hallway of the school. When the first steps prove to be laborious, you stand on your hindlegs and lean against one of the other office beds for support.
Before you can move past to the other bed nearby, Redheart intercepts your path and places her forehooves on your shoulders. With a stern, yet calm look, she refers to you by your name.
"I'm afraid I can't let you go any further," she cautions, pushing her own weight against yours. Beads of sweat start to pour down your head, and your head starts to pound, but none of that stops you from trying to make it past her.
"I'm fine," you say in between coughs. "I just need to wake up, and it'll all be over."
You lift a hoof to touch the next bed, but the nurse swats it away. "No," she says. "You need to lie in bed, then everything will be fine. Just go back to bed."
Your efforts to push pass Redheart are utterly futile, but nonetheless the nurse looks towards Trixie. Taking the hint, the guideance counselor lit up her horn and covers you over in a magical purple aura. The tickling, buzzing sensation sets your off, and you try to shoot past and under the nurse's forelegs to the door, but all four of your hooves are lifted off the floor. As you float backwards, you look back to see Trixie levitating you back to the bed you're trying to escape from. Along with holding you in the air, she also manages to open up the covers with her magic, leaving a nice spot for you to rest on.
I just need to wake up. Damn it! Why am I in this dream?
FWOOSH!!!
You find yourself fallen on the floor. A forceful blast of blinding blue light fills the nurse's office, followed by a powerful gust of cold, freezing air that rushes through all three ponies' furs. Countless sheets of paper from the desk fly through the environment and then flutter down like autumn leaves, while the room itself is subjected to a roar that soon subsides. As quickly as it appeared, the light dies out.
Though the spectacle is over, you still keep a hoof over your injured eyes full of dancing stars and dark splotches. From the female groans that you hear, it seems that both Trixie and Redheart were also victims of the blast in a way similar to your experience.
"Well, that'll teach me to manage my time."
The unexpected voice took you by surprise, as it came by a male figure instead of from either of the mares inside --- and the voice itself sounded too deep and gruff to be that of Sunburst's.
You open your eyes to the source of this newcomer, and see, through the stars and splotches littering your sight, a stallion standing in between Trixie and Redheart, who are rubbing their own eyes. He is a light green unicorn with a green and yellow mane and is wearing a brown robe with yellow edges.
"There you are!" the stallion exclaims with a toothy smile, showing no regard towards the two stunned mares beside him. "Well then, it's time to get going!"
"What?" you say in confusion.
Before another appropriate response could be given, the stallion lights up his horn with a blue glow. Soon, you yourself are surrounded by an aura of a similar color and are left to helplessly gawk at the floor as you are floated up into the air.
"What are you---"
In another flash of blue light, though gentler this time and without much wind, you and the stallion are gone from the room. The two mares left behind look in shock at the spots that the two of you once were. Not even the sound of galloping outside of the room could disturb the duo out of their trance. Once the sound stops, an anxious and wide-eyed Sunburst pops his head through the door frame.
"What was that!?!?"
Miles northwest of Ponyville lays a hilly meadow, full of several luscious green trees. Though summer is soon to end with the arrival of autumn, the shimmering afternoon heat of the day drove many woodland critters to the shady abode of the meadow. Sojourners of all shapes and sizes, from rabbits and squirrels, to even foxes and snakes, took refuge underneath tall trees in order to cool down their heated skins or furs.
Many of these animals took much time to rest in the meadow and would have continued to do so --- if not for a bright flash of blue light. The spontaneous event drove off many visitors from their resting spots, especially those in the center of the hill, and away towards the outer reaches where few of the trees' shadows stretched out. Though the incident was quick, it was alarming enough to prevent most of the animals from returning.
When the light faded away, the things left behind in its spot are two ponies --- one a male unicorn and the other a teenager, who happens to be you.
Just literally a second ago, you were in a nurse's office at Princess Twilight's School of Friendship in Ponyville, far away from your home in Canterlot --- without any explanation as for why you were there in the first place. Worst of all, you're somehow in a scenario where you were nearly two decades back into the past, which you believed (and still believe) to be a dream. But before you could wake up, this unicorn stallion in front of you kidnapped you at the last minute.
Laying on your belly, you look up at your captor with a scowl that conveyed startlement more than anger. The green unicorn doesn't meet your eyes, instead staring at something behind you. Though still weak, you're able to get up on your hooves and turn around to look off to the unicorn's direction, where off to the horizon you could see several buildings of Ponyville, including a bright purple castle.
"Several minutes at Jack's Tavern," the unicorn says, with an accent that one from Canterlot or the Griffith Isles would have. "Several minutes is what I said to myself. Afterward, I was supposed to be coming back to the school to check on you."
You turn back around to face the unicorn, holding on to your scowl towards him. Whether your facial expression is noticeable to him or not is unknown to you, but it does nothing to deter the stallion from giving you a relaxed smile with rosy cheeks.
"Of course, what became several minutes turned into nearly two hours of joshing and laughing with some of the boys there. Nice folks and all, but they definitely kept me busier than I meant to be --- along with the beers of course."
You raise an eyebrow. "I don't know what you're talking about."
The unicorn's unbothered face changes, as if he had a cup of water thrown at him, though the blush remains. "Oh, sorry about that. Just a bit of rambling. What I meant was that I was preoccupied with something that I should have known better than to get into. That's why I wasn't there to get you outside of the school."
"Why would you meet me outside the school? I don't know anything about you."
"Well, you're probably wondering why you're stuck in the past, right? Probably all confused about why you were pulled away from whatever you were doing in the future --- or rather the present in your case."
You drop your scowl, seeming almost relieved. "Well, this is the weirdest dream I've ever had."
The unicorn tilts his head. "Dream? What're you going on about?"
"Well, this all has to be a dream. There's no way that a stranger could suddenly know what that guidance counselor told me. So you just have to be a part of my conscious telling myself what I already know. So it's no problem."
The unicorn's confusion doesn't wash away. "No, kid. This isn't a dream. This is real life and you're back in the past. Weren't you in the middle of something?"
"I can't remember much of anything other than going to bed before school. I guess I just have to hold on until I can wake up."
The stranger examines you thoroughly from head to hoof with his dark blue eyes, his quizzical face presenting itself to you like that of a dog or cat greeted to a newcomer. His face betrays no hints as for what is going on in his thoughts, which leaves you a bit unnerved and lacking in assurance, especially with how odd things have been.
"A spell like that must have done something serious to your psyche," he says. "If that's the case, I know just the thing to fix your head up."
Before you could spit out another word, or be able to catch him on time to move out in the way, the unicorn's horn is lit up blue. Pointed in your direction, the horn shoots out a small mist of light that sprays your entire face. The cold, electrifying taste of fuzz fills your mouth and small stars smear your vision as you stumble backward and cough out. You glare at the stallion and lift up a hoof, ready to call him out for that unwanted action, when your pupils turn to pinpricks and your mouth is left a gaping opened hole.
It all comes back.
Everything.
Everything comes back.
The feeling is like a flood that overcomes the weakened structure of an old dam, devastating the land below. It's like all the fur, hair, and skin has been removed from your body in one fluid, naked, painful motion, only for everything to grown back to its original place as if nothing had transpired. It's like your body and soul were launched from the surface of the earth through a cannon, having to drift through the hostile and radioactive void of space before returning back down in a scorching fireball.
However the experience could be described, your entire mind is shattered by the knowledge that you now possess --- the knowledge being that everything that has happened so far is not some construct in your subconscious, as you can remember all that went down before you came here.
Your time studying for your class in the school's western courtyard after hours. Your encounter with the bullies Bran and Sunny that ends with you getting roughed up. And worst of all, those explosions that rocked the city of Canterlot. Even now, those roars are still present in your ears and rattle your bones, with even the smells of dust and smoke remain stuck in your nostrils.
You can even recall that time spent in the alleyway after the second blast, being surrounded by a weird surge of purple electricity as you struggle against negative thoughts inside your head, all while you were lifted up into the air. Nothing can come to your mind after that, other than waking up in the nurse's office.
"My gods," you whisper shakily, holding a hoof up to your cheek as you stare wide-eyed into the meadow. "This isn't a dream. This is real life."
With a grin, the unicorn shakes his head. "Yep. You're definitely in the past. Now I know this is all confusing to you and all, but I need you to listen to---"
Before the unicorn can finish his sentence, you grab him with both of your hooves --- your panic-soaked brain disregarding the proper etiquette of respecting other ponies' boundaries.
"I don't understand!" You shout. "Why is this happening?!? I should be at home --- not here! Why am I---"
The unicorn shoves your hooves off of him. "Calm down, now. Just calm down, lad. Everything's about to be explained to you. How about we just sit down first?"
"No! You don't understand! My home --- Canterlot --- it's being blown up! All these explosions and everything. They just came out of nowhere! I don't even know how many creatures are---"
The unicorn's eyebrow raise. "Explosions? Dear Celestia, you must have gotten picked up when it already happened.... But still..."
The unicorn walks back towards a tree and sits down on the grass against the trunk. With a calm smile, he motions for you to join in with him underneath the foliage. You hesitate for a while, of course, given how befuddled you are with how things are. But needing the answers to end your confusion, you decide to take the unicorn's offer and set down beside him under the tree, much to his approval.
"Good," the unicorn starts off. "Now then, let's introduce each other. My name is Cyrus. Simply just Cyrus. And you are...?"
You tell him your name.
Cyrus shrugs. "Hmm. Quite a name for you, I suppose." He extends his hoof out to you. "Either way, welcome to the past. I don't know how far you are from the future, but nonetheless, welcomes to you still."
You stare at Cyrus' hoof as if it was some deceased specimen on a lab tray from one of your previous science classes. The thought of touching it feels off to you, as if the world would not make any sense if you made physical contact with it. Before you could realize that you were showing a lack of respect and gratitude, Cryus pulls his foreleg away.
"Sorry," he apologizes. "This is still a bit of a shock to you. I get it."
"Well, I..." you draw out, "...appreciate the concern. But I still don't know how I got here."
"My mentor's responsible for that."
"Your mentor?"
Cyrus nods his head. "His name was Vergil. An ornery old fellow. Owned a sorcery shop up in Ginger Alley of Canterlot. That's where he trained me. I won't go too deep into what it was like to be with him, but in general he was demanding. From what he told me, he used a spell of some sort to bring you here from the past."
Your raised eyebrows add more detail to your already quizzical face. "Why would some sorcerer summon a random pony like me to the past?"
"Oh, you got it all wrong lad. You're not here by coincidence. You're connected to this big disaster and everything."
"Disaster? What do you mean?"
"Well, Virgil sensed a magical disturbance one day and decided to leave his shop to go on a journey. Left a note behind explaining this, so I never got a chance to converse with him. Then days later --- about a week ago --- I get a letter from him warning me of a looming threat that will doom Equestria in the days to come, and that I need to help in preparing a defense against it."
His non-chalant description of the details give you skepticism. "And... you just believed him?"
"Of course I believe him!" Cyrus exclaims, sounding almost offended by your curiosity. "He may have been a bit strict with things sometimes, but I doubt he would waste his time, and mine, over a serious event that would never happen. He wouldn't make a fool out of the both of us."
Your skepticism still doesn't subside. "Well, you know him better me."
Cyrus smiles back. "Thank you. Anyway, along with the warning of future dangers, he advised me to travel to Ponyville and be on the lookout for somepony from the future who would be appearing outside of the School of Friendship. That somepony, that being you, would be somepony connected to the ever-looming threat. Though he finished the spell by the time I got the letter, the spell was still taking its time into bringing you here."
"But, how did you know that I was the pony you were looking for? You admitted a while ago that you weren't near the school when I came there."
"Me finding you is all because of this little fellow." Cyrus reaches into the window of his robe and pulls out a blue irregularly shaped crystal attached to a small ring with a smaller thread of rope through it. "This crystal here can detect magical anomalies within a few miles, and since you're technically not supposed to be here without the aid of magic, it wasn't that hard to find you. See?"
The green unicorn rubs the crystal between both of his forehooves and a small blue light emits from the item. When he lets it go, the crystal leaves his forehooves and floats right in front of you. Cryus then claps his hooves four times to get it to stop floating.
"So what is this threat that Vergil was talking about?"
Cyrus shrugs. "It beats me, lad. He never specified what type of danger Equestria would be in. It could be anything from a foreign conqueror to a wide-scale natural disaster."
"Can't you just ask Vergil? If he's so worried about this threat, then shouldn't he be here himself?"
The smile onthe unicorn's face falters a bit along with his ears becoming droopy. "That's the problem. He passed away before the letter got to me --- or maybe even after. It happened right here in Ponyville, somewhere."
You can feel the air becoming awkward and colder, even just by a slight degree of change.
"I'm really sorry about that." you find yourself apologizing without realizing it.
"Oh, don't worry about it," Cryus says reassuringly. "Anyway, we should get up to date about what your role is meant to be." He looks over to the town in front of them and points a hoof forward. "You see that purple castle over there?"
You nod.
"Good. That's, as you may already know, is the Castle of Friendship, and though we can't see it, the School of Friendship is just adjacent to the castle. According to Vergil's letter, you are meant to attend the school and learn as much as you can about the value of friendship. Only once you've learned all you need to know can you stop Equestria from facing imminent doom. Or something of a similiar matter."
"What does learning about friendship have to do with saving the world?"
Cyrus can't help but chuckle. "Kid, if you haven't learned from all the times that Princess Twilight and her pals saved the world through friendship, then I feel you need a bit of catching up to do. But in your case, I really don't know what being in this school will do for you. But from what Vergil wrote, you should unlock some secrets about how to prevent the future from becoming worse."
"What types of secrets? Like a weapon or something?"
Cyrus shakes his head. "Sadly, his letter didn't reveal much. I don't even know how he found out about the future. His horn-writing was more shaky than usual, so I doubt he was in his right mind to fully dot down anything else."
If he wasn't in the right state of mind, did he really know if what he found was even that dangerous?
A mindful silence penetrates the atmosphere of the meadow as neither of you speaks another word. With this quietness now present, you take advantage of the time to think over everything that happened.
The day you've had can best be described as chaotic --- nothing more and, sadly, nothing less. From being assaulted by bullies and facing near death from blasts of energy, to traveling back in time and being forced into a role you didn't anticipate for, to say that you are overcomed by stress and confusion is a definite understatement. But aside from being stressed and confused, you felt something else: Irritation.
That irritation is directed at Vergil, for bringing you here in the first place and tearing you from your home, even if things had become bad there. It is directed at Cyrus, whose nonchalant, relaxed personality deeply constrasts your own anxieties and frustrations over this dilemma. And it is even directed at those ponies at the school who tried to keep you in your bed when you initially freaked out.
Though your negative emotions are still alive and livid, you realize that lashing out with them will do less good than you could ever hope they would. Still, you decide to continue staring off in the direction of Ponyville, watching as the wisps of clouds and black specks of birds float over the town. Off into the horizon, towards the left, you spot Mount Canterlot, and along with it the very city that the mountain is named after.
"Look, lad," Cyrus says, scooting over to you. "I get that this is all confusing, and maybe even terrifying. But you're not alone in this. Vergil's letter told a few other apprentices that he wanted to search around Equestria for any possible signs of abnormal magical activities --- especially the scary, evil, dark magic type of nonsense."
You see that Cyrus is not staring at you, but is instead looking out towards Ponyville as he continues speaking. "That's their goal, while mine is to help you out with finding out this whole mystery involving friendship." He chuckles. "Given how the old man always talked about me, I never imagined he would trust me with this big of a task. But despite that, I still believe he wouldn't just do this without a good reason."
"Well, that's good to know," you say. "But, how am I going to get back home when this is all over?"
The unicorn finally looks down on you with a sincere frown. "I don't know, kid. I'm not an expert on such time travel babble, but hopefully, there's something in his shop that you could help you out to a degree."
Your pupils shrink alongside your heart as panic nearly paralyzes you. "S-so there's n-no way for me to get back to the f-future?"
Cyrus notices the panic. "Woah, woah. I didn't say there wasn't a way. You have to remember: I said that I have no knowledge of time travel. But luckily for you, the subject was one that Vergil was very interested, so there must be some notes or books he left behind that could help you out. Not to mention that there's also his other apprentices that could help out, as well."
Though the fear never goes away from inside, you're able to calm yourself down just enough to make it look like you had collected yourself from the outside. Once you've relaxed, you get up on all four of your hooves and stare down at Cyrus, who looks up at you with curiosity.
"So if I go to this school," you say, "and learn about the importance of friendship, or whatever, I'll find out how to stop what I saw from happening somehow?"
The green stallion nods with a smile.
"So, I guess there's no other choice, then."
Cyrus stands up and places a hoof on your shoulder. "I'm glad to know you're on board. Now, let's get back to the school. We have some explaining to do."