This story is a sequel to The Princess that Equestria Never Had
Although this fic is listed as a sequel, you won't be missing anything if you read this fic without reading Never Had.
After traveling through time to stop Starlight Glimmer from changing the course of history, Princesses Celestia and Luna give Twilight Sparkle the opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to study under Star Swirl the Bearded himself! Nothing can go wrong with such a powerful time travel spell in such capable hooves. Twilight knew there was something familiar about Clover the Clever when she read the Journal of the Two Sisters, but she never knew exactly how familiar.
Based off a theory developed by DRWolf001 and written with his permission, with additional hypotheses developed by The Brony Notion.
Featured on Aug 14, 2016
Featured on Nov 9, 2016
Featured on Aug 20, 2018
7/4/20 UPDATE: After attending a panel from my friend Vivid Syntax I've decided to mark this story as "complete" and start a new story for the rest of Twilight's time as Clover the Clever. More details in a blogpost.
Great start to the first chapter
I can't wait to read more of this story
Keep up the great work
6683211 Thanks! I've got a lot planned for this fic. It'll be updated every Sunday.
6687663 Cool can't wait
Love it hope to read more soon.
Another great chapter can't wait for the next keep up the great work
6704478
6704422
Thank you both!
This story is really interesting. I can't wait to see more.
OMG this is a great chapter can't wait for more keep up the great work
twi is still alicorn right
6728518
Yes, she's just wearing a cloak to hide her wings.
now this is really rocking the story world, this story is why I read fimfiction. please update when you can, I look forward to more ch and storys you mske
6728660 i don't know why but i get the feeling two certan princess foals will apper and twilight will take them in as her own
I really like this chapter and hope to read more soon
6728518 Yes, Twilight's still an alicorn, but is hiding her wings with a cloak. Several future chapters will reference the difficulty of doing so for extended periods of time.
OMG another great chapter
Hmmm.....
6771691 Is this a positive or a negative "hmm"? It's hard to tell.
6771709 It's a neutral...Haven't quite figured out what to really think of it yet.
special somepony?
Star Swirl match with Twilight Sparkle and have two daughters, Celestia and Luna.
Interesting, very interesting. I'm curious where things go from here, but I already find this to interesting to stop reading.
seem fate has left twilight in a pickle, she has to be clover the clever and help save the past. this book is alwsome, twilight helping during the time Equestria has not yet been found, this is the story that has made time history catorgy one of my fave to read. so please update when you can and I look forward to more ch or/and storys you make till than keep up the alsome work
Your Colors are fine. That's the Joy of Fanfiction after all; if we don't like something about the "Canon" or even Semi-canon material we can change it. More than that, though, is that I've noticed that most don't really consider anything but what's shown in the show as being "True" Canon, so you should be fine.
6795522 I saw a hierarchy of canon once. I can't find it, but here's how it went:
The show and films (A-Canon)
The comics and books (B-Canon)
What the show staff tweets/says
Headcanons
The show staff one might have been first or second, but regardless. I tend to take nearly everything that comes from staff and official merchandise as canon, which would include the pop-up book. Doing so also requires some creativity with contradictions: for example, one of the Elements of Harmony in the reference guide is green, but none of the physical Elements are green. We could say this was an animation error, but The Brony Notion put out a video once about this, postulating that when Celestia used the Elements on Nightmare Moon, they temporarily lost their power or something, because some colors weren't in the right places and one was green. He theorized that when the illustration in the reference guide was drawn in-universe, the Elements were in their powerless state, and they gradually gained their power back over a millenia, back to the colors we know of today.
It doesn't always happen like this, but sometimes taking everything as canon is a great way for coming up with headcanons, which is part of the reason I do it.
Iiked the chapter hope to read more soon
Twilight's magic is exhausted for raising sun, even there are 5 unicorns and Star Swirl works with her?
I don't think Twilight's magic is so weak.
6819371 In The Journal of the Two Sisters by Amy Keating Rogers, it's established that the unicorns (other than Star Swirl) who assist in moving the sun and the moon have their magic depleted, which is what Star Swirl would expect to happen to Twilight as well. Twilight does use her magic in this chapter after helping Star Swirl, however, but not in his presence, and it's replenished rather quickly. My personal headcanon is that her magic would be completely depleted if she tried to move them both with nopony's help.
6819371
Or she is faking it as she doesn't want people to know she is an alicorn
Haha really like how twilight fakes her magic being gone
Is Twiloght's magic just recharging becaues she is an aliocn now so she should still be able to use magic even if she rases the sun and moon.
6819461 It's a combination between recharging and hiding the fact that her magic is different from everypony else's in the time period.
6819575 oh got it
I do have to raise a minor point I think you / everyone else missed.
Being part of the team to move the sun and moon does not drain a pony after one attempt, it's a process that takes a few months at least (otherwise equestria's days would have been limited to a few hundred before either fiery or frozen death)
I understand that it's your story and you can have things work however you wish, but this is one thing that is really cutting into my suspension of disbelief.
6819448
When I read this first time, I thought her magic should not so weak.
So I comment that message.
...................................
But I recalled the canon S5e25 e26, Starlight is just an unicorn and Twilight can not beat Starlight...
I think you are right, Twilight should be exhausted her magic when she raised sun.
6820568 My source for that idea is The Journal of the Two Sisters written by Amy Keating Rogers. While reading that I also became aware of the timeline difficulty for such a severe consequence to exist, but I assumed that there were plenty of unicorns available. Though also with its issues, that's helped me continue my personal suspension of disbelief.
6821053 There were plenty?
Mate....There just aren't enough to go around even with human population for unicorns.
6821248 I did say it also had issues.
6821260 Then get on with it...fix it, makes it make sense...Don't coppy-paste something so illogical.
6821279 It's staying how it is until I can figure out something better. Until then, ignore it and keep enjoying the rest of the fic!
6821342
We can't ignore it mate, It's staring at us like
pinkie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw3015-some_ponies_just_want_to_watch_the_world_burn_by_lvgcombine-d4q89om.gif
No offense, but this story is FAR better than the one it's meant to be sequeling. When i read that one it felt... stale. The words just didn't capture my attention and pull me in, to the point where i wanted the fic to end just so i could get to this one.
The chracters in the story before this one felt bland and i just couldn't feel the emotions that were meant to be shown. Not to mention reactions just felt bland as well.
This story is far more enjoyable and pulled me in from the first few words, pulling me in and has kept doing so. A few hitches a some points, but very minor ones and easy to ignore in favour of the rest of the story.
To be honest, this would've been fine as a stand alone story, not sequeling the other.
So far, it's been a fun ride with this story and i hope it goes on being fun.
6835785 Thanks for the comment! I completely agree about the staleness. And there's no sarcasm in that; it's the honest truth.
When I wrote Never Had, my goal was to create a believable story in which Twilight had never existed. It was my first real attempt at fanfiction, and the first story I'd even attempted to write after 5 years of writing nothing but but term papers. After high school, I sort of lost my motivation to write creatively, but it eventually returned.
Before I'd published the first chapter, I couldn't decide whether or not to label this as the sequel to Never Had. On one hand, it's a sequel in the sense that it takes place later in the same canon as Never Had. On the other hand, Always Had barely refers to Never Had. I knew I could have written it better, but for a long time I was just proud that I'd actually finished a long story. I'd never even come close in all my attempts before.
There are a few reasons Always Had is much better. For one thing, I completed the outline for this one before I even began writing the chapter so I wouldn't fall prey to writer's block as often. For another, I think I started writing this before season 5 premiered and only published the first chapter on November 29, 2015 after the season 5 finale had aired. That gave me plenty of time to create the characters and the world that we've only seen glimpses of in canon. I also had several chapters completed before I started publishing so I could stay on a weekly schedule, something I had a bit of trouble with several times for Never Had.
So far, I've decided not to rewrite Never Had and to keep Always Had as a sequel because of the change in my writing between the two. Always Had promises to be much longer and, as you've mentioned, much more engaging than its prequel. Look forward to the next chapter, which will be put up on Sunday morning. Now, I must get back to writing future chapters so I can keep up with the weekly updates. Enjoy!
Here I'm hoping you don't let the character that is suppose to be smart and clever hold the idiot balls...We will see, I guess.
Because Stubbornness and prejudice care nothing for logic and common sense
I always thought this would go down... differently. But hey, it's much better than I imagined after reading the title & summary.
Wait, I need a quick second... there. Added to favourites.
6771737
Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
Me likey that idea
Not to mention, Alicorn
can possibly have 
and Luna.
These are the times I wish there was a Luna emoji.
I hope someone catches her with her while she is flying. Can't wait for the next chapter.
I love the stories so much.
darn I was going along enjoying the story and then, no chapters to read. oh well welcome to the favorites and I eagerly await an update notification.
6849346 Good to know you enjoyed it! New chapters are uploaded on Sundays.
6844018 lol i could see twilight walking up to luna after returning to the future and going all mother rage mode and 'disciplining' her
FINALLY I he found the first clue I hope he actually find out or see for that matter when she is an....... ALICORN I love this chapter. I wounder if they are any set backs maybe she gets imprisoned for something she didn't do sorry I just can't wait for the next CHAPTER.
