Life was pretty routine for Spike: Wake up, eat some food, keep Twilight and Starlight in check, go back to bed. It was a simple life, if not a bit predictable.

All that changes when Celestia calls on him to defeat an evil force that threatens to tear Equestria to pieces. What's more, the only way to defeat this force is to travel over a thousand years into the past and prevent it from existing in the first place.

Things just got a bit more complicated for the dragon.

Check the theme song performed for this fic: If Only I Had Time by Among the Herd!

Edited by Soaring and Jack of a Few Trades
Preread by: Ice Star

Artwork commissioned by Alumx

Starlight succeeded in her plan for revenge against Twilight Sparkle. She prevented the pivotal sonic rainboom from ever happening, effectively destroying the timeline that lead Twilight on the path to befriending the rest of the Six. Which also kills the three of them. Because Starlight is an idiot blinded by a quest for vengeance. But before Twilight fades away, she tells a slightly younger Princess Celestia and Sunset Shimmer several things they will need to know to have any hopes of keeping Equestria safe from the many countless terrors that await it in the near future.

The story of Celestia and Sunset picking up the pieces of a mirror yet to shatter. Destinies will change. Fates will intertwine. Hearts will break. And forbidden knowledge will eventually come back to bite the Princess in the... Plot adaptation prequel of the original series.

/x/x/x/

Tags:
Death: Spike (sad), Starlight (violent), Twilight (eh sorta) but their story counterparts are still alive
Profanity: nothing you won't see on tv
Violence: one particularly brutal scene near the beginning but everything else is pretty mild

Genres:
AU: takes place in universe with with no sonic rainboom
Drama: focus is on the dramatic dynamics of Celestia and Sunset
Sad: melancholic themes concerning main characters throughout
Tragedy: major canon character deaths at the beginning ONLY
Romance: possibly a romantic subplot or two that isn't the main focus

Characters:
Primary: Celestia and Sunset
Secondary: Luna and Twilight/Spike
Tertiary: Rainbow Dash and Starlight Glimmer
Supporting Cast: Pinkie/Rarity/Fluttershy, Wind Rider, The Oranges, Maud Pie, Stormy Flare, Firelight/Stellar Flare/Sunburst

Mistakes.
Everybody makes them.
Not all mistakes are equal.
Some are far less costly than others, and some can spell disaster.
When mistakes have such disastrous effects that you know it was not meant to be this way, you try to fix them.
When alicorns make mistakes, the fate of the entire world can change on a whim.
I am Princess Twilight Sparkle. I know where it went wrong.
I may not be able to undo my mistakes, but I can prevent them from happening to myself again.

King Sombra has somehow revived himself, in such a short amount of time. He failed at the Crystal Empire, so his new target is the rest of Equestria! His strength and power has been gained to it's full potential... To far for the Crystal Heart to stop him and the elements of harmony are unable to stop him. Celestia has but one option...

She must send Twilight Sparkle back in time to stop him at the source. Twilight is unable to bring her friends, or anyone. She is in this alone. All of Equestria hangs in the balance, and going back in time is very risky...

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.

The Draconic Apocalypse; a war between the dragons and ejge, has practically destroyed the world. Only a few pockets of every species has survived and are dotted around the landscape, but these are hardened veterans and their resistance is mighty indeed, but not enough.

All the survivors have all day are sharp scales singing through the air as they traverse dragon bodies and ejge being crushed against mountain walls, and Twilight Sparkle has had enough. Being one of longest living ponies in terms of life expectancy in these times -the expectancy being maximum twenty-four years of age- she seeks to travel back in time about seven-hundred and eighty-three years. A month before the King Dragon and Royal Ejge awaken at the same time, but to do this, she must convince Princess Celestia to prepare their defenses or kill the two creatures in their sleep.

Why then, does Twilight go into a berserker's rage and try to kill the princess whenever she sees her?

The story's beginning happens during the same time period as the show's current season.

Image is an ejge of my design and drawn by Illiarovanna at DA. She improved their wing design.

Starlight Glimmer had the perfect plan: using Star Swirl's time travel spell, erase the Sonic Rainboom and everything it did. After failing to stop her, Twilight was returned abruptly to an Equestria that bears little resemblance to her home, where the other Elements of Harmony don't even know her name.

It should've been simple then: use Star Swirl's magic to return to the past and stop Starlight from changing things. Unfortunately for Twilight, all the magic in the Cutie Map is gone. She'll have to find another way to put Equestria right, and fast. After all, the Elements didn't stop Nightmare Moon...

This story is sponsored by Two Bit as a Patreon reward. If you'd like me to write your awesome story idea, that's the place. Cover by Zutcha.

Starlight had prevented the rainboom once again. To make matters worse, she also followed through on her threat to destroy the time travel spell. Now with no way to reset things back to the way they were, Twilight and Spike will have to seek out each of their friends in order to help them earn their cutie marks. However, manually putting history back on track is a lot messier than it first seems.

Edited by: Nebbie

Additional Editing/Proofreading by:
-Knight of the Raven and Berry Delight (Chapters 1-3)
-IAmADeliciousPotato (Chapter 7)

Cover Art by: Me (and Frown Factory for the Spike vector)

In the final future seen in S5, Starlight refuses to believe that it isn't an illusion just created by Twilight and tears apart the time travel scroll, trapping them. The world turns out to be a seared wasteland where everything they come across is burned to a crisp in unrelenting sunlight.

They find solace in Everfree Forest, where Luna has embraced her Nightmare side and allied (and more) with Queen Chrysalis in an attempt to at least save the lives of some her beloved ponies. The horror of the present they're stuck in sets Twilight on a course to try and figure out what happened and how to stop it. It turns out that she is no where near ready to face the enemy that took over that future. After all, how do you fight someone you love?

When Rarity is given an order for a dress, a series of unfortunate circumstances lead her to request the aid of Twilight Sparkle. When she discovers that Twilight has been studying time spells, she asks if she can help her recover some of her time. Reluctantly, Twilight agrees, but when she is performing her spell, something breaks her concentration causing the spell to become unstable, sending them 15 years into the future. What awaits them in a world where they have been missing for so long? Will they ever get back to their own time? Only time will tell.

*WARNING*
COMMENTS CONTAIN SPOILERS
(I LOVE feedback)

Art by Dreatos
- http://dreatos.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=24#/d47n304
Seriously, check out his work. He is one of my favorite pony artists.