Twilight landed with a soft thud on the lush grass. She proceeded to remain motionless on said grass for several minutes, before deciding that she had spent enough time unconscious to make a point in her relatively small drop.
Besides, she did just travel four years into the past, right?
The mare quickly spun around, taking in what was supposed to be the view of a pleasant day in Ponyville. The problem is, there is no Ponyville. Or really, for the matter, an Equestria, either.
But she didn't know that. All Twilight knew was that perhaps, she had traveled a bit too far in the past, maybe... just a year or two before the founding of Ponyville? Either way, she was now blankly staring into the sky.
Would you just shut up, already? I can hear you, y'know.
...
...
In short, the narrator was never heard from again, aside from the note below. Something about not being paid enough to narrate beyond the fourth wall.
Note: From here on, it'll be first-person. Otherwise, give me an immediate raise.
-Mister Sir Narrator Guy Jr. (Definitely doesn't have Morgan Freeman's voice.)
Well then. Aside from that booming voice from the sky, I'll pretend that that never happened. Now, where am I...
I reached into my saddlebag for the scroll I had recovered. I happened upon it when I was working with the time travel spell I had used before, of which turned out with a disastrous outcome. I began rummaging through the bag after noticing the lack of any scroll-shaped object. I proceeded to turn the bag over, shaking vigorously in hopes for any loose papers resembling a scroll to float out.
Unfortunately, the scroll just wasn't there.
My mind went into overdrive.
What happened to it? Did a stray gust of wind blow it away? Did I drop it without noticing? Did that voice in the sky take it?
Now, I didn't actually ask myself if some voice in the air took it, 'cause I highly doubt that it would have the physical capability to reach down and grab the scroll.
Anyhow, the scroll was lost. I was trapped. Trapped in... whenever I happened to be taken to. I must've read something wrong...
I guess time travel back to the present isn't an option anymore. I'll just have to find another way. And maybe also find somewhere to stay during the time I work on my own time travel spell, as it'll likely take quite a while to complete.
I'd have to ask myself, though, where the buck am I? If I've really traveled only four years into the past, then what happened to Ponyville? Did I somehow manage to find another one of those alternate universes created during my battle with Starlight Glimmer?
Those questions continued to swirl about in my mind as I took to the air, hoping to find any signs of civilization. That 's when I saw it in the corner of my eye: Ponies. They looked rather odd at first, but I just left it with the reason that I was far away, allowing for atmospheric distortion of the image, but as I flew closer to the ponies, I realized that they were, so to say, different.
So different, in fact, that they appear to have more of a resemblance to the horses in the human world, than any modern pony I've ever seen. They were gathered in a small semicircle around what appeared to be a large, red gem. On top of that, they seemed to be singing in worship of said gem. I'm starting to wonder if I really have gone too far into the past, if I'm seeing rituals such as this.
I watched in the distance, when I noticed that up high, on a cliff, were two human-like figures. From up here, they both appear to be female, and-- lemme just get this written down... there! So, two of what appear to be humans, both of which are female. And they seem to be... reading a book?
Hovering mildly closer out of curiosity, I made sure to cast myself a cloaking spell for safe measure. Up close, the two humans, or at least, what I think are humans, were reading out of some sort of spell-dictionary. And from what I read over their shoulders, it contained the most basic of spells that I could imagine. That is, until they flipped to an excerpt on artificially triggering a landslide.
They were trying to kill the poor things!
It was already too late to prevent them from casting the spell, so instead, after they initially triggered it, I slowed the fall of the rocks using a minor anti-gravity spell. Why didn't I simply catch them all with my levitation? Simple, they tossed down the equivalent of a large hill worth of rocks. It would be far too much for even Celestia to manage, considering how both she and Luna failed to even prevent a storm in the Crystal Empire, though "storm" was more like "apocalyptic blizzard". Either way, that was snow. This was rock. I wasn't going to take any chances.
Luckily for the (somewhat primitive) ponies, nopony was hurt. As for me, I dropped my spell, and scampered off into hiding. I didn't want to risk changing the past more than saving a couple of lives, as I still didn't know whether or not I had happened upon an alternate universe. I'm just hoping that I haven't changed the present too much with saving those ponies.
For shelter, I stumbled upon a small cave surrounded by several large trees, which would serve excellently for camouflage. The cave itself was fairly small, but still larger than the Golden Oak Library, so naturally, I began setting up shop. I started out by carving a crude table from the soft limestone walls. Next, I began gathering soft materials for what hopefully would feel like a bed. I continued onwards, recalling tips and various excerpts of information from wilderness survival guides, until I found myself standing in front of a fully-functional wilderness shelter.
Now then, for my next concern; food.