The Journeymare Project: Turbo Pegasus

by MadHighlander

2: Changes

The time travelling spell spat Rainbow out in a clearing surrounded by massive needle-covered trees. Spreading her wings, she came to a gentle landing on the mossy forest floor. The sounds of various animals echoed from all around the clearing, but none came close – possibly as a result of the ring of stones set up around the area. Rainbow supposed the stones were auto-spell stones set up to deter curious animal life from disturbing the historical record. Speaking of which…

She looked around the clearing. Around the edge, not far from where she had set down, was a large, flat, gray rock, and on that rock was a metal box matching the key she had taken from the present. Inserting and turning the key, she removed a hoof-sized crystal object – presumably a storage crystal bearing the historical record.

Good thing Twilight put it someplace sensible, instead of, like, inside a cliff across a raging river. I mean, why would that even be necessary? Storing the crystal in her saddlebag, she activated the map control stone, leaving the key in the box. It could be retrieved later. The ‘Jump’ option on the stone’s display was now colored gray, while ‘Recall’ was blue. She selected ‘Recall’ and the time-sphere opened up again, sucking her back to the present day.

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A present day that looked surprisingly normal, when the time spell deposited her over the table. The crystal castle was even still present, its walls obscuring her view of the outside. If it wasn’t for the fact that the map room was full of dusty crates and riddled with cobwebs, Rainbow might have assumed nothing was wrong. Judging from the map room’s state of disuse, it appeared nopony had lived in the castle for some time. From the absence of the ceiling decoration that Rainbow and her friends had made for Twilight out of the root system of the old library, it must have been abandoned not long after it had originally appeared. But speculation would only do so much – it was time to compare the historical records. Rainbow took out the crystal she had retrieved from the past and turned to the map.

Okay, now that’s different, she thought. The map was divided into three distinct segments by what appeared to be massive stone walls. Many of the cities she remembered from her timeline hadn’t ceased to exist, but had shifted so that, for example, predominantly Unicorn cities such as Baltimare were now situated in the northern segment, while large Earth Pony cities such as Manehattan were gathered in the southeastern area. Cloudsdale and Las Pegasus – while both still mobile cloud cities – were close together and far to the west, and – when she looked closer – the undersides of both cities were covered with wickedly sharp icicles. The walls converged on Canterlot and the mountain on which it was situated.

I really need to find out what happened. Locating the other recording crystal and the apparatus with which Twilight had secured it to the map, Rainbow inserted the unaltered Historical Record and watched the magical projection appear over the map table. It flashed a confusing flurry of images before displaying a list of five dates spread out across history.

“Five major events located. Three are possibly alterations, two are likely consequences thereof,” announced the inflectionless voice that had previously counted down the temporal rip’s arrival. “Events are available for your review.”

Okay, thought Rainbow. Let’s start from the beginning, I guess. A series of buttons were illuminated on the side of the historical record socket allowed her to manipulate the projection; she selected the earliest date, April 19th of the first year of the second era.

“In the unaltered timeline, expeditions from all three of the Pony races arrived in what would become Equestria. On arrival, they fell to fighting each other but were temporarily overcome by Windigoes that had followed them from the old North. Working together, three of the six successfully manifested the Fire of Friendship, banishing or destroying the Windigoes. When the other three recovered, the six signed a treaty of co-operation, leading to modern day Equestria’s deep-seated ideals of co-operation and friendship. In the altered timeline, the Windigoes were successfully defeated as normal, but following this a series of events – purported to be deliberate sabotage on the parts of various other members - set the six once more at each other’s throats, and the treaty they signed divided Equestria into sections for each of the three races.”

That explains the walls, thought Rainbow. But why would somepony want to change that? Whatever. It doesn’t matter now – next event. The next date was the 31st of December, 398th year of the fourth era.

“In the unaltered timeline, Princess Luna, consumed by jealousy, became the entity known as Nightmare Moon and attacked her sister Celestia in the now-ruined Castle of the Two Sisters. Princess Celestia used the Elements of Harmony to banish her sister to the moon for a thousand years, marking the end of the Fourth Era. In the altered timeline, a sudden explosion of advanced magical origin wiped out the Castle of the Two Sisters. Everyone inside at the time was believed killed, including the two Princesses who had temporarily united the warring Three Colonies. The magical knowledge required to generate such a blast was far beyond what was available at the time, which when combined with a strange object seen in the sky shortly afterward, led analysts both at the time and later to suspect hostile alien origin.”

Now that makes a little bit of sense. It can’t be a coincidence that this happened on the day aliens were supposed to make contact.

The next date, the very beginning of the sixth era, was marked as ‘consequential’. Rainbow selected it anyway.

“In the unaltered timeline, Twilight Sparkle, the personal student of Princess Celestia, was sent to Ponyville, ostensibly to oversee preparation for the Summer Sun Celebration. When Nightmare Moon returned, Twilight and five others entered the Everfree Forest and sought out the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters, retrieving the Elements of Harmony. The friendships the six mares had built along the way allowed them to activate the Elements and purify Princess Luna of her hateful feelings. The Moon Princess’ return marked the beginning of the Sixth Era. In the altered timeline, Lord Regent Twilight Sparkle, the ward of Empress Cadance, was sent to the township of Ponyville in response to ill omens that had plagued her. While there, the spirit of chaos, Discord, was freed from his imprisonment, prompting Twilight and five others to independently enter the Everfree Forest to seek out the legendary weapons that had defeated Discord in the past. While within the forest, they met each other, and despite initial mistrust, learned to work together. This allowed them to utilise the Elements of Harmony to imprison Discord again once they had located them beneath the former site of the Castle of the Two Sisters. Note: Although the similarity in these two events make it clear that they are related, there is a temporal difference of approximately 1.3 years between them.”

Rainbow found herself hoping that it was still the same five of them who had joined Twilight to bear the Elements. I don’t know why I think that. I’m about to unmake this timeline anyway. The next date, the fourth of April in the fifth year of the sixth era, was labelled as a third alteration.

“In the unaltered timeline, a magical map appeared in Princess Twilight Sparkle’s crystal castle, sending the princess and her five friends to a town in the northeast where everypony was made perfectly equal by magical means, and by their own choice. Although the Princess and her friends were briefly affected by the same spell and imprisoned by the town’s leader, Starlight Glimmer, they were eventually able to expose the trick that Starlight had used to make the townsponies give up their cutie marks, and Starlight was run out of town. In the altered timeline, the shack in which Lord Regent Sparkle and her friends were imprisoned caught fire late at night while they were locked inside, killing all six. Although a later investigation determined that the fire was accidental – a lantern had fallen on a pile of hay – Starlight Glimmer was arrested and imprisoned by a contingent of royal guardsponies for endangering an agent of the crown leading to death.”

A series of emotions flicked through Rainbow’s mind on hearing that. That’s gotta be an intentional change. But why, though? Why would someone go back in time to kill us? It doesn’t match with my alien idea, I don’t think. She gritted her teeth, then shook her head. Let’s check the last one and then get to Starlight’s Town. When I figure out who's responsible for this… The last date, marked as the second consequence, was in the seventh year of the sixth era.

“In the unaltered timeline, an alien vessel descended from the stars and hovered over Canterlot Castle for ten minutes. It then broadcast a message to all nearby radio devices, the content of which is as follows: “We represent a peaceful confederacy of alien races. Your history has been reviewed and you have been judged worthy of joining us. We will give you ten of your years to decide on your answer, and will return to receive it when that time is up – no sooner, and no later.” The ship then disappeared back into the sky from whence it came. In the altered timeline, the events proceeded likewise, except that the message stated simply “We will return when you are ready”.”

Okay. Even if it wasn’t their ultimate goal to stop first contact, they’ve done it anyway. Stopping the unification and blaming the Nightmare Moon incident on aliens fit that goal, but I can’t figure out why they would want to kill us, unless –

Rainbow gasped. Unless they know we’re protecting the timeline, but don’t know we can get behind the ripple effect. But who could know about the Map?

Rainbow’s thought process was interrupted by a pounding on the door. Uh-oh. Not looking forward to explaining why a dead mare is messing with an abandoned castle. She activated the map control stone, noting it had automatically preprogrammed the three dates she would have to travel to. That’s convenient.

The doors to the map room burst open, and a trio of armored Unicorn guards rushed in. “Stop right there, criminal scum!” shouted the leader.

Noping out. Rainbow hurriedly selected the third date and ‘jump’, and the time spell activated.