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On secret assignment from Princess Celestia herself, Twilight investigates a powerful magical artifact for clues to the mystery of Luna's transformation in the evil Nightmare Moon. Incautious use of the artifact sends Twilight hurtling back in time. Can Twilight discover what caused Luna's transformation? And will she ever make it home again?
Oh, awesome! You posted this here!
This is the story I've been really looking forward to! I love a good alternate universe tale and this is shaping up to be quite spectacular. It's cute, it's interesting and it's structured in a unique way. And I can't get enough of the two main unicorns interacting with each other in humorous ways.
Heh, good thing you got this out before the last Twilight episode. Though, in your case, the spell Twilight cast was much stronger. Can't wait to see what happens that turns her into Darklight Star. I'm predicting that Twilight took the curse of whatever affected Luna so that Luna wouldn't have to go through that experience.
Anyway, tracking this so hard you don't even know!
I'm running on the assumption that Darklight Star is Twilight who goes back in time and is corrupted(possibly willingly aka the "tried to change things for the better"?). That would make the Twilight snippet at the end of the prologue yet another time traveling Twilight, possibly one cleansed by alternate filly Twilight?
Time travel, always confusing...
Alternate Universe, my friend. Things are different here. That's kinda the point. I don't want to give too much away, but as you should have realized from the opening at the very beginning, there IS no Nightmare Moon here. We have Darklight Star instead. Keep reading, you'll get it.
No, not on hiatus. I just happened to hit the writer's block jackpot: going through family issues, a boatload of schoolwork, a lack of inspiration and plain ole' laziness. HOWEVER! I've recently returned to working on this, and the next chapter is nearing completion. Expect it soon!
Well that didn't take long, now did it?
Only a week in and Twilight's already mucking everything up. It's glorious.
It's that question that comes up every now and then with historians. If you had the chance to go back in time and remove a figure from history that had caused war and death, would you do it? And even if you did, would it change anything? Given what we know from your previous chapters, that answer becomes a big, fat NO.
Great to see this back! Eagerly awaiting more!
hope it won't take as long for the next chapter and I'm happy to notice that you actually thought about givingthe Royal Canterlot Voice to Celestia, other writers could have probably forgot the fact that said voice was heavily in use by both Celly and Luna a 1000 years ago
Twilight is slowly creating a paradox because she'll be in two places at once unless she can figure out how to either fix it or live with herself; that is figuratively. Worse off, Twilight now has to literally invent everything Starswirl the 5th did in 5 years + prevent the rise of Nightmare Moon. All of this plus she has to make it back in time for food. There is no excuse for breaking a Pinkie Promise. 
Good luck, Twilight Sparkle; you are going to need it.
Sadly I see 1 of 4 things happening in the end.
1. Blue Star Twilight figures out she doesn't have to screw with the timeline allowing Trixie(alt) to join the Mane 6 and defeat well, her. Then live on with her life...
2. She is forced to, in all honesty, destroy Trixie's friendship with Twilight(Alt) and fix the time paradox she created estentially ending with the story ending with original Twi stopping herself from doing the experiment. Creating a grandfather paradox but in return closing the more serious timeline errors.
3. Dark Twi takes over Equestria and the buck stops there. (If NM Moon = Celestia while Celestia > Luna) (Then Twilight with NM power would have to be just weaker than both alicorns + EoH making her a literal juggernaut)
4. The universe explodes and everything ceases to exist except Surprise, Pinkie, and Pinkie (alt) since they all exist outside the typical realm.
OK... so, I pretty much already know the general working of the past arc. Now it's all up to the story-telling. You did not disappoint with this chapter kooler, I love this stuff. Oh god, I don't want to bring up any of my assumptions as I'm so fairly sure that I'm right on such a majority of them, that I don't want to spoil it for anybody
The funny thing about destiny (if you believe in it) is that it usually fails to politely inform you of what it is you're actually supposed to do beforehand. 
For what it's worth, I don't generally believe the past can be changed even by time travel. Partly because a single fixed timeline (optionally with any number of branches if you want to have your alternate-universe cake and eat it too) with all time travel events that will ever occur anywhere and anywhen already "planned in" and accounted for is the self-consistent model I can most easily wrap my mind around, and partly because making it somehow easier to change both past and present (via time travel) than to simply edit just the present alone (via at least Discord-level reality warping) would be a major, major violation of the No Free Lunch rule.
The question that is burning my mind...okay two questions actually.
One: When's the next chapter coming out?! 
Second one that's just going over in my head....since Twilight's gone back in time and SPOILER!! taken the place of NMM...when the thousand years deadline has passed, there will be two Twilights, and with this plan of the Princesses...three ponies in the same room who can yield the Element of Magic... and given that the older Twilight has previously done so in our timeline.... what's going to happen?! I'm half-expecting some kind of paradox explosion or something...
Ohh, what a twist!
A locket, a cult and a prophecy. Now things are really getting juicy! At first I found the segments featuring alt-timeline Twilight to be somewhat dull... now it is picking up and it has my interest.
Please keep up the good work Koolerkid! This is a great story with a very different premise and I highly enjoy it.
Excellent! 
Hmn, is Stalwart inspired by the Solar Guard turned Night Guard Stalwart Hide from Cleff Scratches recent lunar stallions stories? Name and cutie mark seem similar.
I am also wondering if a pegasus named (or at least codenamed) Bright Eyes should be recognizable, but since this is someone who would have been around when Twi was a filly I am guessing no.
If they are working from a manuscript and have a goal of "a better future" I can't help but wonder if they are really followers of Darklight Star, or if they just think they are and past-Twilight just has a really long game in play.
Stalwart just popped out of my brain, actually. He was meant to just be a basic, generic unicorn guardpony. He's not important; Bright Eyes, however, is. And... well, some people mentioned she bears a resemblance to a known character, but I refuse to comment. Do tell me if you think of any theories as to her identity.
It's a good thing these Twilight/Trixie chapters come every other update or I might not be able to handle the D'aww that comes with them.
Political intrigue, I see. Whatever did our plucky Blue Star set in motion? I have a sinking feeling that Twilight and Trixie are in for the mother of all friendship crises later on.
Which makes me look forward to more!
Yay! An update! Figured the locket was connected to Blue Star/Darklight Star. 
I wonder how much ahead Twilight has planed... Did she plan for the thousand years imprisonment and put little plots and things in motion for when she returns... Is that what the locket, and hinted at other artifacts are for? That's one of the things I love about this story, so many posibilities! 
>>554803 Hmn, yellow eyes, surprisingly deep voice, a pegasus (or at least a pony with wings, though I suspect a guard would have recognized one of the princesses unless said princess was disguising herself, in which case the eyes and voice would probably be meaningless).
Ehh, I got nothing. Unless...
Edit: His locket is a little suspicious as well. Starswirl's locket, perhaps?
I'm in for the ride that leads to alt-Twi meeting Blue Star. Oh I can already see the paradoxal cataclysm...or not. 
I'm guessing Starswirl is pretty pissed at Blue Star. Does that locket of his hold magic powerful enough to eradicate North Star? What's the link to it and the elements of Harmony? Is Trixie a boulder in the whole circle of friendship, or is she the link to defeating the evil pony (or even helping the evil pony succeed)?
GAH. Only time will tell. Would the author kindly write some more? Um, if you want to, that is. I don't, um, mind waiting that much. 
Oh dear....more cults....
Uh oh...um, serious problem! If history goes the way I'm thinking it will (Elements of Harmony work somehow and turn Darklight Star back into Twilight/Blue Star) we are going to have one 
pony with tons of magic when she finds out about this Order of Stars...
This can't go over well...
I think you mean fobwatch.
Other then that, I only have one response:
Ok, more food for you:
I first thought that altTwi and Trix could somehow both end up as the bearer of magic, kinda like it's split between the two of them, but with the new infos from this chapter I think that Trix could join Darklight Star when she returns, while altTwi meets with the other bearers, which could create more tension for the battle(that I think is going to come), since altTwi would be hesistant to fire the elements at Darklight while Trix could get caught up in it too.
So far I must say that you managed the story very well, have a Twi and write with the food I've given you!
Part of me is wondering if Darklight Star will turn out to be somepony other than BlueStarTwi. Also, hoping for more Surprise. :)
Taking 5+ months to write new chapters is the story of my life. In fact, there's an original story I'm working on, and I completed the last chapter at least nine months ago. 
All of this. I like all of this. Though I noticed one little teeny tiny error right at the beginning.
'“‘m fine, Princess,” the disconsolate filly mumbled. “Didn’t sleep much.”'
I believe that's supposed to be 'I'm', not just an 'm', yes? Though, a tiny little slip-up compared to the powerful twist I was just hit with in this chapter is literally nothing. Well done, my friend! Can't wait for the next chapter already!
Actually, I was trying to show she was mumbling. When you're tired or moody, do you pronounce the 'I'? I don't.
Anywho, glad you liked it so much! Next chapter should be around soon; it's nearly done, but I've been busy and haven't had much time to work on it.
Surprise: check!
Posey: check!
Firefly: check!
Sparkler: check!
Applejack: uncheck! (if she's even on the list, that is)
Why do I have a feeling Starswirl's suddenly romantic interest?
I loved that last scene with Celestia.
Earth Ponies reading being scandalous? I have a feeling Celestia knows less about her kingdom's culture than she thinks she does...
Another great chapter!
What? No.... Didn't Celestia refer to Darklight Star using female pronouns earlier? I thought it was obvious that Twilight (AKA Blue Star) will become Darklight Star. The big question in my mind is whether she actually turns evil, or deliberately sets up the whole thing (including 1000-year banishment) as a ploy to return to her own era.
I love this story and the clever use of G1 ponies to represent historical figures in the FiM world. I've been doing something similar with A Very Minty Summer Sun Celebration, except I went with G3 ponies. And now I need to actually go get back to work on that...
I suppose with Surprise already in the story, it shouldn't have been surprise (pun not intended) to see Posey, Firefly, and Sparkler show up.
*wonders if Starswirl is the Applejack analog*
“Oh, don’t worry. I intend to do something about that." Go get em Twi, that's my girl.
Starswirl shipping would be interesting, and the signs of a pleasant relationship between the two is another thing that makes me wonder if the uptime conspiracy isn't sinister.
>>592916 Great theory, by the way.
I wonder if the 'cultists' aren't in fact part of an organisation founded by Surprise, Firefly, ect... back in the day, dedicated to setting up events to turn Darklight back into Twilight (or as they saw her, Blue Star.) 
This story is awesome.
I still think somethings going to go horribly wrong like a magical overload or something when the Elements get brought to bear on Darklight, what with the whole there being two Twilights and two potential wielders of the Element of Magic assuming that our Twilight isn't already auto its wielder in this new timeline...
Ergh, magic and timetravel...especially destined magic and timelines. Gives me a headache on parallel when somebody decides to play around with time travel whilst travelling to an alternate reality. Now that's a headache and a half.
My guess is that the Nightmare (let's call it that) is kind of a parasitic entity and Blue Star needed to assume host of it, else it would infect Luna.
I don't think she'd try to return to her time a thousand years later... unless she has no clue of how time travel works. Then again, nobody does
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And man, Twilight has said buck the timeline hard hasn't she?
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