"Thank you for this, Discord." Twilight spoke as she held a scroll in her magic.
"I suppose this makes us even now." Discord spaced out and stroked his beard, then sighed. "It wasn't easy to make that, you know."
"I... I can't imagine." Twilight truthfully answered and shook her head. She started pacing around the room which held the cutie map, and she ruffled her wings. "Once I start this Luna will know." she paused, "She will try to stop me."
"I can't help you there." Discord solemnly answered.
"You... You should go. She won't trust me with this..." Twilight trailed off, "Stay safe, Discord." Twilight teleported beside the draconequus and pulled him into a hug. Discord happily returned it. They parted after a moment, Twilight stepped back.
"Take care of yourself, Twilight." Discord snapped his fingers and disappeared in a flash of white light.
Twilight turned her head towards the map. She inhaled deeply and exhaled. Her eyes glanced at the spell, and then back to the map. She took a step forwards.
And then another.
She soon found herself with her hooves on the crystal map, a representation of Equestria. It had changed so much, she hardly recognized it anymore.
It pained her to look at it.
She swallowed back her growing anxiety and steeled her resolve. She levitated the spell out in front of her face, and then over to the center of the map. She inhaled and started channeling her magic into a spell. A very complex spell. One which would bend the fabric of both space and time.
The amount of magic the spell required would leave her with very little magic to do anything while casting it, and would severely drain her for a long while afterwards. The level of focus required was beyond that of a normal unicorn, but Twilight was not a normal unicorn. She was an alicorn.
She closed her eyes tightly, and opened them a minute later. Her eyes had turned pure purple, magic radiated off of her eyes. She soon found her body levitating in the air from the amount of magic she was channeling. Pure magic soon radiated off of her body in waves, she focused the magic into the spell she was preparing in her mind.
As she channeled the spell, her memories were brought to the surface. The good ones, and the bad. Every memory she had flowed through her eyes, as if a replay of her life was taking place. Twilight smiled as the memory of first meeting her friends came up, followed by several more happy memories.
The memories started to flood back to her, cascading over her mind unbidden. She soon found herself reliving the memories of her past. Her first Winter Wrap Up, how she tried to help without using her magic, and eventually resorted to organizing it. Seeing Rainbow Dash perform a sonic rainboom to save Rarity from falling to her death at the Best Young Flyers competition.
The first Grand Galloping Gala she attended with her friends, and how it ended up being a good time not because the event was perfect, but because they were there together. Fluttershy crashing the party by scaring the animals... The world being turned to chaos by Discord, her friends forgetting who they were, and eventually reforming and befriending Discord. Her brother's wedding to her foal sitter, Princess Cadance. How they had repelled the changeling invasion... The return of the Crystal Empire, defeating King Sombra... Her ascent to alicornhood... She smiled at that distant memory, back when she had been so young and naive...
Battling Lord Tirek to a standstill, until he threatened her friends' lives... And subsequently using the power of friendship to defeat him... Her first encounter with Starlight Glimmer...
As minutes passed, her smile soon turned into a frown and tears fell from her eyes.
Twilight sensed something off, it took her a moment to process it. 'Luna is here...' Twilight clenched her jaw. 'I can't fight her while doing this, and I won't get another shot at this.'
The spell was nearing completion, and Twilight was almost out of magic when the door exploded open, showing the room with jagged shards of crystal. Princess Luna stepped in with determination plastered on her face. Her horn was smoking from the heat generated from the spell she had used to obliterate the heavy crystal door.
"L-Luna... Please." Twilight pleaded as she readied a barrier spell. It wouldn't hold long against Luna if she attacked her, and it would slow down the spell, but it would be better than meeting a quick end.
"Twilight! Stop this at once or else." Luna glared at Twilight with her horn lit, magic was flowing into it for a spell. Twilight grit her teeth, knowing she needed to buy time.
"I... I can't do that Luna. I have to do-" Twilight was forced to cast her barrier spell to prevent Luna's attack from hitting her. The purple magic barrier cracked when hit by the bolt of indigo magic.
"I can't let you interfere with the timeline, Twilight." Luna paused and shot another spell towards Twilight, the cracks in the barrier expanded even more. Twilight shuddered from the impact. "You should not meddle with time. Even Starswirl did not actively seek to change the past."
"Luna, do you honestly think this is how things were supposed to turn out?" Twilight shouted. Sweat rolled down her head, her magic was nearly depleted and the spell was almost finished.
Twilight's words gave Luna pause, "No..." Luna answered, and the magic in her horn faded. She frowned as she pondered Twilight's words.
Twilight breathed a sigh of relief and lowered her barrier spell, immediately pumping the magic into the other spell. 'Two more seconds...'
"But what has happened has happened." Luna fired a spell towards Twilight, who having no magic to raise a barrier clenched her eyes shut.
A magical rift opened right at the spell neared Twilight, she fell through it, and some of the magic from Luna's attack managed to get through before the portal exploded outwards.
"No..."
"I'm so glad you could make it!" Twilight exclaimed as she opened the door to her castle for Princess Celestia. They walked into the castle side by side.
"Twilight, please calm down. That is the twelfth time you've said that on the way here." Celestia smiled at the small purple alicorn beside her.
"Sorry..." Twilight sheepishly apologized. "I'm just excited, this will be the first time both of us will get to spend time together along with my friends without the fate of Equestria hanging in the balance..." Twilight trailed off and sighed, "I really am looking forwards to you spending the night, even if Princess Luna couldn't make it."
"Well, one of us had to stay in Canterlot. She offered to stay so that I could go." Celestia smiled.
"Hi Princess Celestia!" Spike waved as they walked into one of the castle's living rooms.
"Hello there Spike." Celestia greeted the young dragon.
"Are the girls here yet, Spike?" Twilight asked as she glanced around the room.
"They were hanging out in the kitchen last time I saw them."
"Thanks, Spike." Twilight replied and lit her horn, casting a teleportation spell to take her to the kitchen.
There was a popping sound and Twilight appeared in a purple flash, startling the assembled ponies. "Oh good, you're all here!" Twilight happily exclaimed, then took each of them in her magic and pulled them closer to her and teleported them back to the living room.
"Hello, my little ponies." Celestia greeted with a smile as Twilight returned with her friends. All of the ponies except for Twilight, who had teleported them, and Pinkie Pie seemed slightly startled by the suddenness of what just transpired, and it took them a moment to recompose themselves.
"Hi Princess Celestia!" Pinkie bounced over to the alicorn with a big smile spread across her muzzle.
"Hello, Pinkie Pie." Princess Celestia greeted in return. Spike walked in wearing a pink apron and carrying a tray of cookies. Pinkie sniffed the air, and her attention was immediately drawn to the freshly baked cookies.
"Thanks, Spike. You're the best." Twilight praised Spike's cooking ability, and his foresight.
Spike put the platter of cookies down on the table in the center of the room, "No problem, Twilight." Spike replied nonchalantly. He turned and walked back out the room, "Hope you all have a good time tonight."
"You sure you don't want to join us, Spike?" Twilight asked while the rest of the girls idly chatted among themselves.
Spike batted a claw at her comment, "No thanks, Twilight. I have comics to read and stuff. If you need anything else, I'll be in my bedroom." Spike walked out of the room. Twilight shut the door with her magic.
"I take it Princess Luna couldn't make it tonight, Princess Celestia?" Rarity asked and levitated a cookie off the platter.
"Please, just Celestia is fine for tonight. We're here to have fun." Celestia paused, "And sadly, yes. She volunteered to stay in Canterlot to deal with both our royal duties."
"I sure hope Twilight doesn't try to use a book for advice on slumber parties this time." Applejack deadpanned. Twilight nervously smiled and hid the book she had been carrying in her magic behind her.
The group of ponies settled in over the next few minutes. They chatted for several minutes before Twilight eventually pulled out Mareopoly. Rainbow and Pinkie had been neck and neck for a while, but then Pinkie landed on the 'Go To Dungeon' tile. A few minutes after that, Twilight landed on Manehatton Square, and went bankrupt. Applejack eventually drew a chance card, one which Twilight hadn't noticed in the game before, 'Discord's House Cleaning Service', she ended up having to pay one hundred bits to repair each house she owned. The game lasted for just over an hour, and ended with Princess Celestia dominating the rest of the group.
Games came and passed, hours slowly faded by, and soon it was night.
"It's getting rather late for myself," Rarity said with a yawn, "I don't know about you girls but I think I will retire for tonight."
"Aww, Rarity! You can't go to bed now! It's..." Twilight stopped paying attention when it became apparent that Pinkie was about to start rambling a long, incoherent speech to convince Rarity to stay up.
"Okay, I'll stay up... Just for a little while longer." Rarity finally gave in, causing Pinkie to smile.
"Yippie!" Pinkie shouted.
A few minutes of idle chatter passed, "So Twilight..." Celestia spoke up.
Twilight turned her head towards her mentor who was smirking, this perplexed her. "Yes, Celestia?"
"It's been a while since I've seen you, anything interesting happen... Maybe find a somepony who you like?" Celestia cheerfully asked.
Twilight blinked, then opened and closed her jaw repeatedly as she processed what was said, "I... Why... Wh... What?" she finally stuttered out. "Why would you think that?"
"You invited us all to a slumber party. Cadance thought for sure you had found somepony," Celestia smiled, "I told her that wasn't the case, she disagreed. We made a bet about it, in any case, you didn't actually answer the question."
"I-" Twilight stopped when she felt a tingling sensation throughout her body, everybody seemed to notice it too. Celestia had stood up, and the rest of the girls were looking around the room.
"What is that?" Fluttershy asked with fear.
"I don't-" Celestia was cut off.
Twilight was hurling through space and time, the fabric of reality being bent and broken by the spell she had used. The long tunnel she had been passing through seemed to stretch on forever, but she could see the end coming. She did not know exactly when she would come out, but she had focused on sending herself to a time when her friends were all gathered in close proximity, along with Princess Celestia. There were hundreds of times she could arrive at, but she had focused on the more calm and happy events, attempting to focus on one of them.
She looked behind her and clenched her jaw. Some, if not all of the spell Princess Luna had sent towards her had managed to follow her into the portal. Depending on the spell, and how much of it followed her, it could kill her instantly when she arrived at her destination. 'The spell shouldn't allow a time loop to be created, so... What would that even mean...' Twilight began contemplating what could happen if she did die when the spell hit her, 'If it kills me, then they will know I die in the future...' Twilight's eyes darted about, 'I will know I die in the future... I may even figure out it was Princess Luna who killed me.'
'That could cause problems... The timeline could turn out worse...' Twilight shook her head, when she looked ahead she could see one of the rooms in her castle, she could see herself, her friends, and Princess Celestia.
'It looks safe, that's good. Although they do seem to notice something is off.' Twilight frowned, 'I suppose that's to be expected. The amount of magic I used...' She shook her head.
She tightly closed her eyes as she quickly closed the distance to the portal, bracing for the jolt of her arrival, and the impact of the spell trailing her, unaware as to what it would do.
There was a bright flash of light, temporarily blinding everypony present in the room. The Twilight from the future appeared and yelped as the spell struck her, she quickly collapsed to the ground, bearing a wound from the impact of the spell.
A second later everypony's eyesight was restored, "Twiligth are you oka-" Applejack stopped when she saw two Twilights, one lying on the ground with a burn on her flank, and one was standing where Twilight had been standing before. Applejack did a double take.
Princess Celestia rushed over to the injured Twilight, and examined her in her magic, "She's alive, but unconscious..." Celestia's eyes flew over Twilight's body, she noted several scars that Twilight did not have, her horn was longer, and her mane looked ethereal, yet lacked the same quality that her own mane possessed. Celestia also noted that the injured Twilight was as large as Princess Luna.
"What..." Twilight finally managed to mumble in disbelief. "That's... That's me..."
"How can she be you if you're standing right here?" Rainbow asked.
"I... I don't know." Twilight paused to think.
"Whatever happened, she is you, Twilight. Much older than you, but she is you. Whatever spell she used to get here seems to have drained her magic. The spell she was hit with was a very powerful one... One designed to cause magical feedback, it would have caused her great pain, and harmed her greatly. " Celestia levitated the injured Twilight in her magic and looked to the other Twilight.
"Right, um..." Twilight lit her horn and teleported them all to one of her spare bedrooms. Celestia placed the injured Twilight upon the bed.
"I would heal her, but the residual effects of the spell would cause me to do more harm than good." Celestia answered with sadness. "All we can do right now is wait for her to wake up so we can ask her some questions..." Twilight cut her off.
"That's assuming she doesn't go back before then..."