Prologue: Forward Unto Dawn
The future can be many things to many ponies; it can be a bright thing, a shining jewel of wisdom and enlightenment in the dark of the universe. It can be dark and oppressive, a grim reminder that things lurk in the shadows and that to defend against such things; one must become accustomed to warfare and bloodshed.
Whether it’s one or the other is for the species to decide and the long term survival of the species depends on the path they take. Enlightenment leads to complacency and becomes a prime target for the ignorant and crude who think only of destruction and power, such a civilization would accumulate vast knowledge but the fire will eventually burn out.
Warfare leads to power and it becomes easy for such a civilization to lose itself in bloodlust, devouring entire worlds and systems for the sole purpose of waging war. Destitute as that may be, such a civilization may last for eons, but all empires fade away eventually… everything dies, and everything has its time.
There are still those that straddle the proverbial fence, leaning towards neither option but maintaining a perfect balance between war and peace. Such a state is easy to achieve but difficult to maintain and these civilizations never reach their full potential, but it is these civilizations that last until the end of all things… the end of time and light and matter. Even then they are still powerless to prevent the darkness from engulfing them.
The Ponies of Equestria are one such civilization, they have had their conflicts and they have dealt with them while maintaining a semblance of peace. Over the eons, many forces, internal and external have threatened this peace but each and every time, heroes have been there to meet it.
A civilization is the result of its history, and thus the past shapes the present and the present shapes the future. This future is what Twilight wanted to see, she wanted to see her achievements, to see if she would be remembered. She knew the dangers of creating a paradoxical event chain and she would prepare her trip to the future carefully to avoid such a thing. Regardless of her plans, she still needed a way to travel to said future.
She needed this, she needed to see, needed to know if she would be remembered, it would give her life more purpose.
She needed prescience.
Twilight sought it with a fiery passion, her need to be remembered in history forever driving her towards knowledge. Starswirl the Bearded had only scratched the surface of manipulating time, which was something she’d never understood. His spells had brief limits and uses; he could have traveled far into the future, or the past. He could have learned so much but he didn’t. Why?
She knew there were other unicorns out there who pursued other avenues of foresight, and she thought them close minded. They simply sought the ability to predict, but if she could control time, she would gain the ability to manipulate, to shape events for the benefit of all Equians.
Celestia had warned her that manipulating time was a dangerous concept but she was confident in her abilities. She was Celestia’s prize student after all.
Twilight sifted through her notes one last time, levitating the candle close so she could make out the complex mathematics behind the spell she’d recovered from Sombra’s hidden archives.
It was the same spell he’d used to cast the Crystal Empire a thousand years into the future on the cusp of his defeat at the hooves of the alicorn sisters. He’d almost been able to cast it again recently before his defeat, which would have cast all of Equestria into the dark for eternity.
She ran her eyes once again over the extensive checklist she’d assembled. She’d left nothing to chance, even going so far as to send spike to her old study in Canterlot to get some things as a way to occupy him. She rolled up the parchment and put the checklist down, everything was ready, all she needed to do was revise her calculations and cast the spell.
She picked up the notes again and went through the calculations again. The spell used magic to create a localized ‘Gravity Storm’, intense study on Sombra’s part had revealed gravity to be capable of manipulating time and space but it carried a large amount of risk. The original spell he’d used was crude and had swallowed more than just the Crystal Empire and could have torn the world apart. Sombra had relied solely on the residual magical energy in the Crystal Empire to contain the spell from the rest of the world.
But even then…
It didn’t matter; Sombra was gone and was no longer a threat to them. Twilight had made extensive modifications to the spell and, using her magic as a buffer, Twilight would be able to contain the sheer amount of gravity to a significantly smaller area. This effectively formed a ‘gravity bubble’ with which she could use to manipulate time itself.
It was surprisingly similar to how a teleport spell worked, but on a much larger scale. Theoretically, she could combine the two to shift her body to a different location as well as a different time, but such experiments would come later.
Twilight finished the last of her modifications to the spell so that it would shift her and her only. She lowered the notes back to the desk and made her way to the arcane rune she’d prepared earlier, symbols of light blue traced the floor gracefully. Twilight took a deep breath and began to cast her spell, saturating the air around her and the rune with magical energy. The rune lit up and a semi transparent blue sphere closed around her, sealing her off from the world.
Twilight increased the amount of magic she was channeling into the spell and felt the fabric of time begin to warp as the sheer force of gravity bent time and space around her.
o.o.O.o.o
Pinkie Pie sat bolt upright as she woke up, her front left fetlock was twitching, which meant somepony was leaving!
Without a ‘Farewell-We-Hope-You-Have-A-Safe-Trip-And-Come-Back-Soon-Party’?
Like Completely-Not-Fictional-Human-Tartarus they would!
Her right ear twitched forwards two times in quick succession, that meant it was somepony close to her, it twitched another two times. It was somepony really close. Why would one of her friends have to leave? It was night time.
Pinkie’s left eyelid closed completely for a full three seconds… That could only mean one thing. Somepony who was close to her was leaving! Leaving for a long time!
A very long time, Pinkie amended. She leaped out of her bed and darted out of the open window, seeming to defy gravity momentarily before dropping to the ground with a soft thud. She gave herself no more than a second before darting off again, the sound of a Boeing Airliner following in her wake.
‘Wait. What’s a Boeing Airliner? Ooh it sounds like a cake! I bet it’s a cake of some kind, a giant flying cake with wings that go… what? I like cake it’s all yummy wummy with-’
Pinkie’s disparate thought came to a bone grinding stop along with her body as she impacted the door of Twilight’s Library. She got up, rubbing her sore muzzle with a forehoof as she gazed up at the Library momentarily. A bright blue glow shined from every window in the building and nothing could be seen within.
Pinkie, knowing what Twilight was like, instantly knew what this meant and only had one thing to say before dashing inside, “whoo boy!”
o.o.O.o.o
Time began to bend around her and Twilight carefully molded it, she only wanted to jump five minutes into the future after all, magic like this was dangerous enough without making proper preparations. Her concentration almost broke when she heard her door burst open and a pink blur flashed in.
She made out the form of Pinkie Pie from the corner of her eye and her heart sank.
‘Pinkie Pie! What is she doing here? It’s the dead of night!’
Pinkie Pie hesitated before leaping at her, “Twilight! Stop! Leave the wibbly wobbly timey whimey stuff to The Doct…”
Twilight’s fleeting concentration broke completely as Pinkie tackled her and she lost control of the spell as it accelerated beyond her ability to control or direct. She felt Pinkie and herself being whisked away from their current time and she squeaked as a massive wave of vertigo washed over her. She felt the world slipping past her, changing and growing older, her view of it all was obscured by the solid blue sphere as the years flashed past. One year, one hundred years, one thousand years!
It kept going and she shouted at Pinkie who was giggling madly and clutching at her as they flew through time.
“Pinkie! What have you done?!”
Twilight squeaked again as the sphere shuddered under an impact, it was momentary and it passed however, and the winds of time gripped her again, whisking them both further into the future.
She’d lost count of the years that had passed at this point and simply held onto Pinkie, assuming the spell would run itself dry eventually. No spell could run itself indefinitely, even time spells had their limit… Starswirl’s spells certainly did.
Natural gravity took hold of Twilight again and she fell to the ground with Pinkie still holding onto her as a deluge of ice cold rain drenched the both of them.
Groaning from the disorientation, Twilight twitched feebly, still entangled with an unconscious Pinkie Pie. She must have blacked out at some point, which wasn't surprising, the spell was only meant to take one pony and it was a miracle that Pinkie had survived the trip.
Twilight disentangled herself from Pinkie Pie and got up, looking around. She could barely see anything in the rain and dark. The shadows of tall metal buildings loomed over her oppressively and the stone beneath her hooves was cold and smooth, without blemishes of any kind. The only sources of light were strange metal poles with what looked like glowing crystals on the top.
Twilight shuddered in the ice cold rain as she turned her attention to Pinkie, the storm clouds above her blotting out the sky. She nudged Pinkie with a hoof in an effort to wake her up and she stirred slightly, mumbling something about cake. Twilight abandoned her efforts for the time being and focused on finding some shelter from the icy rain.
Seeing what looked like a narrow alley, Twilight levitated Pinkie onto her back and made her way towards it, her legs still shaky from the spell. Twilight deposited Pinkie next to some strange metal cans and lay down next to her, the rain still fell here but the buildings on either side of them shielded them from the worst of the storm.
She watched from the shadows of the alley as strange metal carriages sped past them at obscene speeds.
‘Where are we?’
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This is mostly an experiment to see if i can, in fact, do sci-fi. The idea of it was born months ago and has been floating around in my head ever since. Tormenting me day and night with its strange concepts. There is one person i thank for finally giving me the kick i needed to, not only write it down, but publish it here for... well... public scrutiny and that person is Listic.
The catalyst? technical discussion about Pinkie Pie on the fic 'Friendship is Optimal' we were discussing how Pinkie Pie would interact with players and physics in Equestria online, the possibility of a Pinkie A.I (Designed to make people smile through friendship and ponies of course) and it turned (sort of) towards whether or not Pinkie actually breaks the laws of physics, or is simply not a part of said physics. Of course, none of this discussion has any major bearing or impact on the storyline of this at all... in fact... i have no idea where this will end up, and thus updates will be sporadic because this numbers as the third fic I'm working on and I'm working on them all... simultaneously.
So i hereby apologize in advance. I'm sorry... I'm so very sorry for any delays that will come in the future.
I have a lot of work ahead of me so... Allons-y!!!
Prologue is titled Forward Unto Dawn.
Am I sensing a soon-to-be Halo X MLP fic?
Before I start reading I'm going to predict that Twilight Sparkle of the future is either a tyranical ruler, or a rebel against a Tyranical ruler.
Twilight being the villain is awesometastic.
P.S. I hope it's the former and not something else.
(I'm just throwing my thoughts out there, I am betting that I'm wrong because I usually am.)
I can see why it's not popular. mostly because nothing really happened and there's only one chapter.
But it's cool!
yes but you don't really know anything about what's happening.
BUT IT'S COOL!!
I dont even know where this story going yet. What kind of Tone is it? What kind of feeling?
IT'S COOL
Yes but..
SHUT UP AND LIKE IT.
ok.
(If I was schizophrenic)
Oh and FIST TO LIKE! Take that Internet!
(I'm going to regret this later) *Add Comment*
*sigh* The description hooked me. After you upload a few more chapters and get a steady rate going, I shall begin to read. Wow me.
Another example of why Pinkie Pie is a danger to everyone around her. I'm interested so far and will watch to see where this goes.
Fascinating premise. Sign me up for the duration.
It looks like 802,701 — where is the sphynx? HG Wells Time Machine.
reads Chapter Name...... A Wandering Wizard likes where this is going.
1657145
I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... but NOPE! I put that chapter name in as a reference but i refer to 'Dawn' as enlightenment not the ship...
1657417
Oh you! I have some wibbly wobbly timey whimey stuff planned but future Twilight is not the antagonist
1657507
Thanks for the comment, it gave me the kick i needed to write the next chapter... and ima write it right now.
1657696
It will go places. wierd places
1657854
I hope i don't waste your time then.
1658046
802,701?
it looks like i have some googling to do
1658122
Note to self: never put a reference in a chapter name unless the story has a comedy tag.
---
Well, everything went better than expected the story got approved very quickly indeed (Wanderer D!) considering i wrote this in under three hours yesterday! this response is overwhelming to say the least, it looks like Listic was right. I should do more sci-fi.
Allons-y!
You have never read HG Welle's Time machine? Or seen either movie (both of which are much worse than the book).
1658785
well no, but that is about to be corrected!
I have seen the movie though... both of them actually, all those blonde people freaked me out
Another fic? Let's hope this is well received. If you need it I'll still be a proofreader
1658922
I've said it before and I'll say it again. You. You're awesome.
I like where this fic is going but i feel there wasn't enough dialogue. I can imagine Twilight having a few choice lectures ready for pinkie when they arrived.(
)->(
) Overall though, I look forward to the continuation of this fic.
The first half of this is written amazingly eloquently, and I was loving it. Then Pinkie had to go and ruin it.
Don't get me wrong, I love our delightful pink pony as much as the next person. However, I think she could be toned down just a bit and still keep her unique personality intact. Here's the one that really threw me off:
Funny? Yes.
Appropriately in line with what this fic seems to be trying to accomplish? Not so much, in my opinion.
Also:
Again, it's fun, but is it really the feel you're trying to illicit with this story?
The forth-wall breaking gag works well with comedy type fics, but for something that is tagged as 'dark' and 'adventure', it may be prudent to avoid it.
The human thing, of the three that I quoted here, is probably the only one that I would let slide, had I been a pre/proofreader on this. It's... okay, I guess.
The Doctor Who shout-out could be dropped completely and you would seriously lose nothing for doing it. In fact, I think just having Pinkie yell "Twilight! Stop!" would have a greater impact on the reader, as in: "Wow, Pinkie seems to be being serious about something... shit must be going down".
Don't want you to feel like I'm coming down on you, because this is a very interesting concept and so far, extremely well written. Just thought I would throw in my two bits on something that I really think would help the story as a whole.
NATOstrike ~ Pro-level proofreader/editor & TWE Railroad Maintenance Engineer
i.imgur.com/3lZia.png?1
PS: Tracking for now... I'll be back with a thumbs-up later if the chapters keep up with this level of quality.
edit: I went and checked out your userpage... I see you're following my boy, CookieMonstar. Expect awesome things from Five, I should have the rewrite in my hands for editing today or tomorrow, and we're hoping to have it posted by the end of the weekend.
1659320
Thanks for the review and I'll try to keep Pinkie's randomness in check.
It was originally supposed to be just Twilight but i couldn't help but put Pinkie there since it was discussion of her interactions with physics that made me write this. I'll go ahead and take that advice and tone down miss Pinks, because the... shall we say 'Future'... isn't quite the place for her antics.
There are no words that describe how i feel about getting a review from the TWE
(How is it that no one has seen the Quantum leap reference yet?)
1659433
Hulllllloooooooooooooo? I was promised a chapter a week ago! I couldn't help myself, I read the first chapter prematurely. God help me, I'm hooked.
1704430
I'd have had it out days ago but then i took a spike to the plotline and sweet celestia i hate spike
i hate him and i hate writing him and i wish i could omit him all together.
stupid dragon, i wish he was dead.
1705812 You hate one of the only characters with mustaches?!
On an unrelated note, when are you getting the next chapter of Priori Aevum in? It's starting to gather dust (so says the user who hasn't touched his story in 4 months at least)
1710452
It's mostly complete, there are just a few holes i have to fill in first and some dialogue tweaking.
Ponies can have mustaches! I've seen it!
and just to be an ass to you all! picture Gilda with a mustache and ungodly amounts of armpit hairs!