I lifted a hoof and was about to knock on the door to Rarity's boutique when it opened. An ivory unicorn filly stood in the doorway in front of me. "Hello, Sweetie Belle."
The filly looked up at me. "Hi, Twilight. I'll just let Rarity know you're here. Be right back."
Sweetie Belle raced up the stairs to retrieve her sister. A few moments later, Rarity appeared with the filly right behind her. Spike was staring at Rarity with hearts in his eyes. I rolled my eyes as Rarity descended the stairs to the doorway. "Hello, Twilight. I see my sister forgot to invite you in."
The unicorn glared at her sister before continuing. "Well, come in. You know you're always welcome here."
"Thank you, Rarity. Come on, Spike."
I walked past Rarity into the main room of the boutique, Spike still in the doorway. My horn lit up as I pulled him in by his tail. "Spike, it's not polite to stare. How many times do I have to tell you that?" I reprimanded quietly.
"Sorry, Twilight." Spike mumbled.
There was whispering behind me for a few moments before the door closed. Seconds later, Rarity entered the room without her younger sister following her. She probably sent her to Sweet Apple Acres. I thought. "So, how are you this morning?" Rarity asked
"Okay. My studies are going well. In fact, I think I've stumbled upon a spell that will allow us to travel into the future."
"Really? Does it work? If it did, I could see what future ponies are wearing and start a fashion trend before everypony else!"
I squinted and leaned back slightly against my friends excited squeals. "I-I'm not sure if it works or not. I haven't tried it. Anyways, how are you doing? You seem a little... excitable this morning."
"Whatever do you mean, Twilight? I'm perfectly fine. But the thought of being ahead of everypony in the fashion world! Oh, it's just so exciting!"
"Uh-huh."
"And how are you Spike?" Rarity asked, seemingly ignoring me.
"I-I'm good, Rarity." my assistant said quietly.
I glanced down at the purple dragon. All of our friends knew he had a crush on Rarity at this point, even the unicorn herself. Not once had the dragon shown any signs of giving up in his pursuit of the platinum mare. In fact, sometimes it seemed to me like she was starting to fall for him. My wings tightened at the thought, but I wasn't exactly unhappy for him. It was more like I was a little nervous at the thought of one of my friends falling for the young dragon.
"Hey, is that the fire ruby I gave you?" A voice broke into my thoughts.
"Yes it is, Spike. I'm surprised you noticed."
"Why wouldn't I?"
I looked at the necklace around Rarity's neck. How had I not noticed it before now? The gem had recently been polished and sparkled elegantly in the sunlight streaming in through the boutique's windows. It's carefully shaped surface formed a heart, each corner prominent yet delicate. The platinum unicorn simply smiled and turned back to me.
"Now, what exactly was it you wanted to see me about?"
"Well, you see..."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The sound of paper rustling could be heard as a cloud of raspberry magic turned yet another page in the magically suspended tome. The scratching of a quill on parchment echoed throughout the utterly silent library, scribbling down notes. The writing, though by magic, was barely readable at best and was hurried. The notes created by the writing were unorganized and hardly intelligible.
A set of violet eyes carefully read the pages of the tome in front of them, the quill flying over a fresh sheet of parchment that had been pulled from the bottom of the pile of notes. Stars shone outside the nearby window, the moon high in the sky. It was well into the night, much later than anypony should have been up. The moonlight streaming in the open window, accompanied by the glow from the alicorn's horn, was just barely enough light to read by.
Owlowiscious's amber eyes blinked open and a soft 'hoo' escaped his beak almost as a yawn. The lavender alicorn lifted her head, her eyes flicking from the pages to the owl perched on the nearby desk. As her pet spread his wings, so did she stretch out her own. A quiet sigh escaped her lips as she turned back to her studies. Quiet, nearly silent wingbeats followed soon after she averted her gaze back to the tome. The owl had just gone out for his midnight hunt.
With her pet out of the way for the time being, Twilight levitated a second book over to the desk that housed the owl's perch. She moved the wooden perch aside and laid out another ancient tome filled with knowledge. Opening the large book to a random page, she switched back and forth between the two tomes. Her quill scribbled away furiously across the floating parchment.
The glow of her magic slowly intensified as she looked between the two books before her. Both were on time travel spells, a recent interest of the newest princess. Of course, she was so engrossed in her studies that the steady brightening of her horn went completely unnoticed. Well, almost completely unnoticed. By the time it was noticed, however, there was little the alicorn could do to stop the last tendrils of magic from completing the spell.
Her near-sleepless nights of studying had been taking their toll on the alicorn. Just because she was now a princess didn't mean she could stay up day in and day out. It had never stopped her before, so she didn't think it could stop her now. But with her being beyond exhausted and simply running on threads of magic energy, it was only a matter of time before she slipped up and cast a spell she hadn't wanted to. And that's exactly what happened.
Appearing before Twilight's eyes was a swirling vortex of lavender, a surprising color since her magic was raspberry. That wasn't all, though. Her pupils became pinpricks as the center of the hypnotic swirl slowly separated to reveal a small view of a dismal looking town similar to the likes of Ponyville. Before she could get a closer look, the vortex snapped shut and disappeared in a flash of blinding raspberry tinted light.
"A-at least nothing came through there. I hope." said Twilight softly.
She stood stock-still for a few moments, debating whether or not to continue her studies or get some rest. With what had just happened, it seemed like the best choice would be to get some sleep. Cautiously, she used her magic to replace the tomes and perch to their rightful spots before trudging up the stairs to her second-floor bedroom. Her wings were folded tightly at her sides as Twilight collapsed into bed, falling asleep seconds before her head hit the soft pillows.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"I can't help but think that what I caught a glimpse of is what could be in store for Equestria in the near or distant future. I'm not positive about which time frame, since I was practically asleep when I cast the spell, but I need a second opinion as to what I should do."
"I'm not sure how well you can trust my advice on the situation, Twilight. If you were looking for a new way to style your mane or maybe a new gown I wouldn't have a problem helping you. But this! I simply don't know what you thought I could help you with."
My wings twitched slightly in annoyance at Rarity's remark, though it did ring with truth. I wasn't seeking fashion advice or anything remotely close to it. "I needed the advice of a fellow unicorn, the advice of a friend." I replied softly, mindlessly scraping my hoof against the floor.
The platinum mare stood before me in complete silence for a few moments before finally speaking. "You are no longer a unicorn, Twilight. You are an alicorn. You are more powerful than anypony dares to dream they could be. I'm still not entirely sure I'm the best pony to give you advice on something like this, but I can see why you'd come to me instead of going to Applejack or Rainbow."
After this there was a long pause, as if Rarity was purposely letting the silence drag on and create a veil over the boutique. I became immersed in thought, wondering what I might do if Rarity offered no help. A sigh resounded through the room, shredding the veil of silence and pulling me from my thoughts.
"In my opinion, Twilight, the best thing to do would be to try and figure out what time frame the portal opened to. Once you've done that, the six of us and Spike should meet to decide what to do next. Personally I think it would be best for us to just stay here and go on with our lives, but it is up to you, Princess."
"I guess you're right. We have to at least find out when that portal opened to, and possibly where if that can be determined. Hopefully by then I'll have decided whether or not we should head through the portal itself. Thanks, Rarity. Now, I must be going. I have research to do and a certain little dragon has some chores as well."
I turned and headed towards the door with Spike trailing behind slowly. "Goodbye, Rarity. See ya later?"
"We'll see, Spikey-wikey. And you're quite welcome, Twilight."
I barely heard Rarity as I exited the boutique and headed towards the library at a full gallop, forgetting about both my wings and Spike.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
I looked up as Sweetie Belle entered the orchards. I often saw her headed towards the tree house to visit with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom for countless crusades, but this was the earliest I had ever seen her here at the farm. Plus, she wasn't headed towards the Crusaders' clubhouse. She was making her way through the orchards slowly as she headed towards the barn, no doubt looking for my younger sister.
"Hey, Sweetie Belle!" I called as I trotted over to her, startling the filly slightly.
"Oh, hey Applejack."
"What's up? You're never here this early."
"Twilight came over to the boutique this morning..."
"Let me guess: ya forgot to invite her in before you got your sister, so Rarity sent ya here to play with Apple Bloom and keep ya out of her hair."
"Yep, like always. You'd think she'd give me a break. It's still super early in the morning and I'm just a filly, of course I'm going to forget some things."
"Well of course ya are! I bet ya ain't even had breakfast this mornin', have ya?"
The ivory unicorn shook her head slightly. "Come on, then. Apple Bloom should be just 'bout finished with her chores, so it's breakfast time for us anyways. I'm sure we can find ya a little something."
As if on cue, Apple Bloom came trotting out of the barn with a pail between her teeth. She spotted Sweetie Belle walking beside me and instantly dropped the empty bucket. In mere seconds she was at her friend's side and was talking a mile a minute. Now, I might be used to my sister with having to raise her and all, but that didn't mean I could understand every word that came out of her mouth in the two minutes it took us to walk to the farmhouse.
"Apple Bloom, can you slow down so I can understand you?" whined Sweetie. No, not whined. Complained. There was a distinct lack of her high-pitched moaning that was typical for their family when whining and a prominent annoyance at the rapid pace of my sister's tongue. Although for once I did have to agree with the complaining unicorn, my sister was just plain being annoying.
"Now, Apple Bloom. Ya know I can't understand a word you're sayin' when ya talk like that. And if I can't understand ya, nopony else can, ya hear?"
"Sure, sis. I hear ya. So anyways..."
I rolled my eyes as my sister launched into yet another string of rambling at the speed of sound. It was all I could do not to clamp her mouth shut and tie it with a rope. But that was demeaning to any creature, so I let her be after a short internal argument. Thankfully, my sister shut her mouth once we were sitting at the table. Sweetie had covered her ears against the babbling and carefully moved her hooves once she saw that Apple Bloom had stopped talking.
"So Sweetie Belle, what brings ya here this early in the morning? Usually you and Rarity ain't never up this early unless you've got school or something." asked Apple Bloom, her mouth half-full of pancakes.
After a few seconds of silence as Sweetie Belle finished her own mouthful, the filly earned her reply. It was no longer than the answer I had received, or really, supplied. "Twilight came to visit this morning and I forgot to invite her in before I went upstairs to fetch my sister, so she sent me here to help out with your chores."
The words were slurred together, but I could understand them better than I could my own sister most days. "So what yer tellin' me is that ya'll were sent here ta help Apple Bloom with her chores as a punishment for forgettin' your manners for a few measly seconds."
"Yep. But I knew that if I walked really slowly Apple Bloom would be done with her chores by the time I got here and then we could start crusading once Scootaloo showed up at about 1 o'clock."
I forced myself to stifle the laughter that was building up in my throat. "Now Sweetie Belle, was that very honest of you to tell your sister that you were comin' here to help with chores and then making sure you didn't get here in time?" I asked, my prominent southern accent seeming to fade into non-existence for a short while.
"I guess not. But you won't tell, will you Applejack? I don't want her to be mad at me. It's already bad enough that every time I try to cook her breakfast I end up making a mess."
"I guess I don' have ta tell her, but ya gotta promise me you and Apple Bloom will stay here at the farm for a bit longer and help me out with a couple of my chores. Maybe one of ya will even earn their cutie mark..." I said, knowing that last little bit had all but sealed the deal.
"Done!"