“I saw huge buildings rise up faint and fair, and pass like dreams.”
H.G. Wells
“Maple syrup, corn syrup, raspberry and blueberry coulis, apple butter, whipped cream.” Twilight rolled over, and pulled the blanket closer to her. “Orange Juice, Apple Juice, tea, coffee, lactose free milk.” She continued to talk in her sleep. “flour, baking soda, brown sugar.”
Spike put a paw to his mouth, trying to hold in a giggle. Twilight had planned her day out to the smallest detail, she had done so with so much thought that now she was reviewing the plans in her sleep.
The day in question, today, was to start with a farewell breakfast between her and all of her closest friends. Together they would feast on pancakes and waffles; ( why force anyone to choose ). Afterwards the girls would see her off on a train to the Crystal Empire. Young Flurry heart is approaching her first birthday, and the best aunt ever had no intention of missing it.
“We’re out of eggs!” She awoke in a startled state.
“Don’t worry Twilight. Fluttershy brought some from her cottage.”
Twilight looked at the clock and realized she had slept in. Now she didn’t have time to prepare breakfast. She was about to scold Spike when Applejack called out from the kitchen. “Soups on!” Which is just an expression, they weren’t having soup.
Twilight sleepily stepped out of her room. “What’s going on? I was going to make breakfast.”
“You’re not supposed to cook your own farewell breakfast silly.” Pinkie bounced up and down to be seen over the others. “That’s like having to plan your own birthday party.”
Twilight looked around. It was an impressive spread. “Spike,” she asked, “what about my checklist.”
“I gave it to AJ.”
“Do you have pancakes and waffles?”
“Yes, and apple turnovers, muffins, cinnamon rolls, donuts, brioche,” Pinkie turned and whispered to Rarity, “I don’t even know what brioche is.”
“You were the one who baked it darling.”
Twilight fretted and looked at the clock. “Spike, we have to be at the train for 8:15 am.”
“Yeah, about that, I got word this morning that the train was delayed. It’s 10:00 am now.”
“Why didn’t you wake me up and tell me?”
“Tell you what, that you have time to sleep in.”
“This means that we’re going to get to the Crystal empire later. I can’t eat now. I have to replan my whole schedule.”
“Already done,” the dragon proudly announced. “See your old schedule had us going to the Crystal Palace, then going out for dinner. I figured it would be more efficient if we just meet at the restaurant, which is on the way to the palace.”
Twilight went over her schedule. Spike was right. This not only made up the lost time, but bought them an extra ten minutes, which Spike had already added to the interval she allotted to play peekaboo with her niece. Aside from the changes being made in crayon, Spike was on top of everything.
Eventually she relaxed and enjoyed her breakfast, though being taken care of was something she did not believe she would get used to.
At the train station, Twilight anxiously reminded her friends of one thing after the other. She told them which day was trash day, how to appease an ursa minor, what to do if the cutie map summons anypony.
“Relax egghead, Ponyville was here before you came, it’ll last one week without you.”
“Yeah,” Pinkie added, “It’s not like somepony really powerful will appear in a magical vortex the instant you leave because he’s purposely scheduling his arrival to coincide with your departure.”
Twilight stopped for a moment. She knew that when Pinkie made oddly specific predictions, they had a way of being right. She checked the sky for vortexes, before stepping onto the train. Spike followed with baggage in tow. So did Starlight Glimmer, who was planning to visit Sunburst. The Princess of Friendship waved as the train departed. Everyone waved back. Pinkie even chased the train for a bit.
When she was gone, everyone but Pinkie gave the sky another look for magical vortexes, then turned to head off.
Applejack was the first to stop. The ponies all noticed that the fur of their coats was spreading out, as though trying to escape them. The sensation reminded Pinkie of what happens when she trotted across Miss Cake’s shag carpet. It was fun until she dared touch anything metal.
Paper began to levitate out of the nearby wastebasket and float in spirals, as though dancing around it. Rainbow Dash looked up and saw that the clouds were dancing in the same spiral pattern in the sky above. Far in the distance, there was a burst of light, emanating from the location of the old Golden Oaks library, the place that Tirek had destroyed. The ponies all rushed to the source of the commotion. Rainbow Dash made it ahead of the group by way of her great speed. She maneuvered around buildings and pedestrians, flying low.
In the spot where the library once stood, there was a mass of scales. The creature was curled into a ball, bony plates protruding from its back. It slowly began to stir. First it uncoiled the 5 foot tail that was wrapped around its body. Next it extended its 6 foot wings stretching them outward. Clawed hands, that were cradling its head, let go and the creature stretched out its arms. It had a large snout with fangs protruding on both sides. Finally the creature stood up at an imposing 8 feet tall. The shorter arms indicated it was a creature who walked on two legs, though the muscular hind legs had a rabbit like quality, as though meant for leaping or pouncing. Rainbow Dash saw that it was protecting a large satchel.
Ponies gathered around, frightened yet somewhat astonished at the creature that appeared as if by magic.
“Who are you,” Rainbow Dash demanded to know. “What are you doing here?”
The creature looked at the mare, then smiled. “Whoa, it’s really you.”
“Yeah I’m me; Rainbow Dash, member of the Wonderbolts, element of harmony, idol to millions. Now who are you?”
“RD, don’t you recognize me.” The creature seemed a little amused at Rainbow’s mild gloating. “Me, I’m right hoof of the princess, hero of the realm, on and off dragon lord, and idol to billions.”
“The dragon lord is a girl named Ember.”
“Right now she is. Haven’t you figured it out yet? Rainbow Dash, it’s me.”
“Spike.” Rarity called out. The other elements of harmony had just arrived.
“Rarity,” he spoke like in a dreamy haze, yet with amazement in his voice. Spike had long accepted going days and even months without seeing her beautiful face. Even the photos he had were terribly faded.
“It is you isn’t it?” Rarity asked. “You’re Spike."
"Yes, from the future."
"From some future. What happened? Are you here to prevent some catastrophe?”
The dragon shook his head. “Naw, it’s all good in my time. Besides, the method of time travel I used makes sure everything is predestined. I can’t change the past anyway.”
“The method?”
“Yeah, we understand time travel better in the future...well...in my present. See, time is always moving forward, so you can just stay still and let the present pass you, or you can go back and forth to places where time moves different relative to other places, or you can create portals between places like that.” Spike stopped and looked at Rarity, wondering if he was sounding like a nerd. “Anyway, the method I used makes sure everything I do is predestined to happen, so I can’t mess up the future.”
“So you’re just visiting?” Pinkie asked.
“Not quite!” Spike opened his satchel and started handing out letters. At this point all of Ponyville was gathered, and he seemed to have letters for more then just the Mane Six.
Every letter was personalized in some way or another. When Pinkie tore the paper on hers, sparks and confetti flew out. Applejack's seemed to be written on vintage paper with superb penmanship. Fluttershy’s letter just had a little bunny drawn on the envelope. Even the town ponies were admiring the various personal touches. Octavia had a card shaped like a Cello. Lily, Daisy, and Roseluck had letters scented to match the flower of their individual cutie marks. Lyra’s card played harp music. Rainbow Dash ignored this, and opened her own.
Dear Rainbow Dash
Your are cordially invited to attend the 1000th birthday of
Princess Twilight Sparkle.
The party is to be held in party city,
In the year…
The last part was smudged. Rainbow Dash couldn’t tell what year it was. Oh well, take the year Twilight was born, add 1000. Rainbow Dash could figure that out.
The ponies were impressed with some of the personal touches on the letters, and soon began asking to see each other's. After looking at all her friends' letters, Applejack noticed something odd. The year was smudged on all of them.
“Where’s Party City?” Pinkie asked.
Spike paused before telling her, as though trying to build tension. Finally he faced her and spoke in a booming voice for all ponies to hear. “It’s in outer space.”
“Outer space. you have a city in outer space.”
“We will. You see, about two hundred years ago, well, for you it’s almost 800 years from now, Twilight built a robot.”
“A robot!” Everyone gathered around in wonder. “What’s a robot?” Some pony from the crowd asked.
“Yes, she built a robot. The robot spent about ten years building more robots while Twilight made up a dream journal for her ideal city. Then she gave first robot the journal and him and his friends started building the city. The birthday party is the grand opening of party city, and after the party, Twilights going to turn it into an amusement park for all ponies to enjoy.”
“Have the robots ever tried to have an uprising and conquer Equestria?” Pinkie asked.
“Once but we worked it out peacefully. Now they get Sundays off.”
“Now hold on, Spike." Applejack cut in. "You wanna just take the entire town to some experimental space city, in the future. Isn’t that really dangerous?”
“Remember what I told you. With the method of time travel I’m using everything is predestined. I know how it’s going to turn out, and this was always going to happen anyway.”
“So we’ll all come back, safe and sound?”
Spike took a moment to answer. He had hoped nopony would ask so direct a question. Behind his back, two clawed fingers were crossed when he answered yes.
Two Weeks Later
“How is she?” Cadence asked.
“I used a sleep spell, and Luna is working on her dreams.” They could give her peaceful rest, though at this point Twilight was dependent on the treatment. When she awoke, she would go back to working around the clock, trying to solve the mystery of the mass disappearances. The loss of so many weighed heavily on her shoulders.
“Cadence, we may have made a breakthrough.”
Cadence practically jumped. It was rare to see her lose her poise so completely. She pounced on Starlight, though not necessarily in a violent way. “Tell me!" she demanded.
“Remember the potion Zecora once made to give Twilight visions of the past?”
Cadence remembered. There was an overgrowth of black plants which came from the Everfree forest and threatened to overtake Ponyville. Twilight drank a potion to see the past, and search for answers. She wasn’t there personally, yet had heard the story.
“Zecora disappeared along with the other ponies, so we searched her cabin, and found a recipe book open to that very potion. It’s like it was waiting for us.”
Cadence didn’t put it past Zecora to have some idea what was coming and be prepared. Neither suspected that it wasn’t the Zebra who left the spell book for them to find.
“It took us awhile to decipher, the spell was in a foreign language.”
“So you can find out what happened?”
“Hopefully. Twilight wanted to use it right away, but she’s been awake for days; she’s really stressed. Also, I asked Sunburst to look over my notes.”
“And it’s a good thing you did,” came the voice of the Unicorn. Though Sunburst hadn’t been awake as long as Twilight or Starlight, his coat was more dishevelled then either. Spectacles sat half way down his nose. As he spoke to them he also read to himself some piece of ancient parchment. He was the very image of the work obsessed academic.
“What do you mean Sunburst? Is my formula wrong?”
“No, your math is flawless, and yet you made the same mistake you always make.”
“Stop being cryptic!” Starlight scolded.
Sunburst put down his scroll and smiled. “Sorry, didn’t mean to be. It’s just that the potion you made is seriously overpowered. You’d have to dilute it with goats milk or it will be too potent to use.”
“Too potent?”
“Yeah, but it’s an easy fix. I’m just figuring out how much it should be watered down.” It was actually a harder calculation then he let on. He could figure out what was a safe dosage easily enough, the question was how strong a vision would Twilight need and what is an unacceptable level of risk to get that strength.
Spike, who had been sitting on the couch of the room they occupied, asked “What would happen if someone used it without diluting.”
“That’s a very interesting question. If it were not so unethical I would be highly tempted to test the potion in its current overpowered form.” He put a hoof on his brow and pondered. “The visions would last the same length of time, yet there would be more of them at greater intensity. Who knows what that would do to a ponies mind?"
A guard marched into the room. “Apologies Princess. You told me to tell you if Princess Twilight awoke. She has and she’s in the potion lab right now.
There was a collective gulp, then everyone rushed towards the lab.
Starlight had wanted her to wait, to sleep. How could she do that? Her friends could be starving in a dungeon somewhere. They could be freezing in an arctic climate, dehydrating in a desert, or drowning in an ocean. What if monsters where chasing them? What if they were being brainwashed to harm one another?
Twilight took the potion, the overly potent potion. What if saving them was a time sensitive matter? Everyone could be teetering moments from a horrible death. She brought the vial up to her lips, and she drank it, every last drop. It was bitter, like medicine, still she did not even flinch.
Her eyes turned white, the pupils disappearing. Yes, she saw it. She saw it all. No! She saw too much. She placed her hoofs over her temples and screamed.