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// Sonic Rain...Bust? 
// Story: My Little Mages: The Remarking of Time 
// by Foxhelm 
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Twilight and Spike screamed as the scrolled pulled them the tunnel that the sphere seemed to be the end of. All the while they heard the tick-tock of clocks as the passed white circles with hourglasses in the center. This lasted a few seconds until the tunnel open. The two continued to scream as they found themselves in the sky. After a second Twilight remembered her wings and started to flap them which ended her fall as she took to flight. It, however, took her another second to recall that Spike lacked wings as he continued to fall. Before he could meet his end on what looked like a runway on clouds, Twilight was able to cast a spell that allowed him to levitated and slowly drift to the runway safely. Twilight then flew down and landed next to Spike. The two started to look around and saw many Skyborns, structures made out of clouds and saw none of the other main races. “Cumula?” Spike asked as the two began to connect the dots of where they are. “Why are we here? Starlight doesn't have wings!”

“I don't know, Spike,” Twilight answered as she thought back to what happened before Spike touched the scroll and attempt to understand why Starlight would come one of the few Skyborn dominated cities. She gasped with as her eyes widened. “She was able to levitate just by her magic! She just learned some advance spell to do that.” Twilight then held her chin and tried to think what spell would allow a person to levitate to the point of something comparable to Skyborn flight. Spike gave a groan and caused Twilight to break her focus from that particular observation. “Oops, sorry about that tangent. But, keep your eyes open. We don't know what Starlight has plan....” Twilight was cut off when a nine-year-old Skyborn girl with rainbow colored hair flew between Spike and Twilight at a rapid speed, especially for a nine-year-old girl. She, the little girl, was flying at about the speed to be expected from a twelve-year-old boy. But since neither Spike nor Twilight were expecting the flyby the wake caused them to spin around like tops for a second.

Spike was both the first to recover and recognize the girl that flew past them, as he spotted her fly ahead. “Was that Rainbow Dash?” he asked.

Twilight took a little longer, but she saw the similarities, it looked like Rainbow Dash, but Rainbow Dash was a year younger than Twilight and her hair was done in a high ponytail, this girl had the red, orange and yellow of her hair facing forward in a very boyish way much like Rainbow did in the photos that showed her first sonic rainboom and what lead to the six discovering their aura marks, "I think that was Rainbow Dash, she seemed really young. And I don’t see her hairpin, the one that shows her Aura Mark.” Twilight then gasped as she turned to back to Spike, “You don't think…”

The two then turned to see where Rainbow Dash flew towards and saw two boys about ten-years-old one with had sea green eyes, almost invisible under his brown bangs, on his shirt sleeve was a collection of three basketballs on his orange shirt, the other had azure blue eyes, also almost invisible under his bangs of gray hair with a set of hand-held weights on his dark brown shirt, these were two of the three bullies that have plagued most of Rainbow Dash’s, Fluttershy’s childhood and even Gilda’s childhood during her time in the exchange program (which led to Rainbow’s and Gilda’s friendship), Hoops and Dumb-Bell. The two were picking on a taller thinner girl about eleven years old with light pink hair and teal eyes who wore a yellow and green dress. Spike connected the dots, “We traveled back in time to when Rainbow Dash raced the bullies who made fun of Fluttershy and performed the first sonic rainboom?”

Twilight gasped in terror at the implications she made at that observation. She then grabbed Spike by his shoulders and pulled him up to look him in the eye, surprising the dragon before he recalled that demigods are not just people with metallic wings, but have a paragon-level power of all three of the main races, Earthborn, Skyborn and Magicborn, and had other abilities that made them a league of their own. “Spike,” Twilight addressed the dragon as he recovered from her grip. “only Star Swirl the Great could do something like that, and even his spell just went back a week! And you couldn’t alter anything!” Twilight then let go of Spike as she hyperventilated “How could Starlight do more than the greatest wizard in Mystican history?”

It was then that Spike saw a scroll after the two finally heard it rustle in the wind. Spike picked it up and looked at it. At its core, it was Star Swirl’s spell, but there were a lot more markings on it. He couldn’t read it but it was clear that this was the handwriting of some sort, most likely Starlight’s. He turned it to show Twilight, “With this, Starlight seemed to have altered Star Swirl’s spell, not sure how.”

Twilight did a quick read of the scroll, she gasped, “Oh, no!” as she turned away and searched for Starlight.

Spike happen to still have his backpack on and put the scroll in it before he started to walk in the direction the young Rainbow Dash flew, “Come on, let's go!”

“Go where?” Twilight asked confused, as she failed to follow her familiar’s thought process.

“Um, the race.” Spike asked as he turned back to face Twilight with his eyebrow raised as if to say ‘what else’. He then turned back the way he was going, “I don't wanna miss the rainboom!” Twilight sighed as she flew over and grabbed Spike, holding him from under his arm. “You know, you demigods are surprisingly strong.”

“You really need to cut back on the rubies, you weigh a ton,” Twilight said as she strained to fly with Spike.

“Wow, only that. I am not getting enough diamonds.” Spike joked was smacked on the back of his head.

A couple minutes later, as Twilight was able to find a cloud she and Spike could hide in and watch the race. Also among the witnesses were many young Skyborn, all between Rainbow Dash’s and Fluttershy’s age. At the starting line were Rainbow, Hoops, and Dumb-bell. Slightly in front of them, on a cloud near the center was Fluttershy with the black and white checkered flag used to start a race by waving it. The timid girl waved it and the three racers were off. As they flew by her, Rainbow Dash was a little too close and caused Fluttershy to spin around on the cloud she was on like a top, as she spun she fell off the cloud as she yelped. Twilight was about to fly and catch her when Spike tapped her on the shoulder and waved his right index finger like a parent or teacher saying ‘no, no, no,’. Twilight rolled her eyes as she wanted to help Fluttershy, but they were at the day and the event that led to the six discovering their aura marks. Even if she could change things, she had to let things be.

Along the race Rainbow Dash was barely able to keep pace with Hoops and Dumb-Bell, they were just that much faster than her. But she had an advantage, she was driven, focused, she cared if she won or lost, neither Hoops nor Dumb-Bell seemed to take the race seriously. So lacking in seriousness, Dumb-Bell went too fast and missed a turn, and flew off course and crashed into one of the cloud-made barriers.

The nine-year-old Rainbow Dash could not help but chuckle when she looked back over her right shoulder at what happened. However, this blinded her to Hoops’ attempt to knock her also off course. She narrowly recovered as he got in front of her with a “Whoa!”

Hoops could help but give a chuckle as he took the lead, “Heh.” and with a mock salute, “ Later, Rainbow Crash!” he flew ahead, no longer fooling around.

“Hey!” Rainbow exclaimed as she picked up her pace.

Unbeknownst to Rainbow or anyone for that matter, Starlight Glimmer, surround by her turquoise magic hovered out of cloud she used to hide as Rainbow and Hoops flew past. Once she saw Rainbow Dash start to take the lead, "Aw, sorry about this.” Starlight lied, not that Rainbow could hear her as before she sent a bolt of magic at Rainbow Dash.

As the nine-year-old Rainbow Dash built speed, the Mach cone around her shrank almost to the point when she would puncture the sound barrier, all the while her hair was blown back and what seemed to be a rainbow formed behind her, at the last second before she would finally break the sound barrier she was struck by the turquoise magic Starlight cast at her. The spell caused her to stop mid-air and held her in place. “Hey! What gives?” She asked as she tried to break free,  but it was no use. Near the end of the race track, Hoops completed the race, and won by default and was greeted by the cheers of the other children.

On the ground about where the eleven-year-old Fluttershy fell, she was surrounded by the various animals that have been part of breaking her fall and that have comforted her. She giggled happily as the various animals; squirrels, rabbits, birds, etc, critter. However, without the boom from the sonic rainboom, the animals were not frightened and thus only left Fluttershy when it looked like she was alright. She sighed as she looked at the ground slightly depressed.

At that same moment, a ten-year-old Applejack looked out one of the windows of her uncle and aunt family, the Oranges. Without the sonic rainboom, there was no rainbow for her to see that appeared to end back in Magiville, back at Sweet Apple Temple. Applejack sighed, as she almost resided herself to the unhappy life that the Oranges had planned, and to take on the name, Applejewel.

At that moment a ten-year-old Pinkie Pie took a second break from moving small rocks around so that they would be properly eroded in the upcoming storm, one of the many things done as part of her family’s rock farm. She exhaled as she wiped the sweat from her brow and looked at the cloudy and gray sky, and saw nothing. The sonic rainboom which would have cleared the sky and exposed her to an explosion of color as well as cause the practical permanent puffing of her hair didn’t happen. She sighed and went back to her chores.

At the moment a ten-year-old Rarity was on a ledge next to a giant boulder, the boulder that housed the gems that would be the key to her   inspiration and nothing happened, without the shockwave of the sonic rainboom the bolder didn’t break in front of her, providing her with the first gemstones she worked with. She gave a humph and pushed the boulder off the ledge, it fell and landed with a loud thud. Rarity, however, elected to go back home to Magiville.

And at the same time, a ten-year-old Twilight Sparkle was in the middle of her entrance exam, mainly the magic demonstration. She strained to impose her magic onto Spike’s egg and cause it to hatch, but without the audible boom of the sonic rainboom she didn’t turn to the window and without the wake of the actual boom hitting her, her magic was not unleashed, thus she didn’t hatch Spike’s egg. Her magic fizzled and nothing happened, save for the proctors of the exam to scribble down the results, it was clear to her she was not likely to be admitted. She hung her head in shame and started to walk to her parents in tears, deaf to words of encouragement to make another attempt next year and other such parental words with the intent to comfort and help heal.

Back in Cumula, while Rainbow Dash while was held in place in the air surrounded by the turquoise magic. Twilight, while Spike clung to her back, flew up to the high levitating Starlight, as the latter smirked in her victory, “What did you do?!”

Starlight gave a sinister smirk as the bubble that brought Twilight and Spike opened up above the two, “You’re about to find out.” The bubble then sucked Twilight and Spike as the two screamed.





The bubble that took Twilight and Spike opened as the two fell and landed on the table. Twilight was the first to recover, “Ugh…” She and Spike got off the table, Twilight’s attention was on the map and the scroll. After she took her seat on her throne, “I don't know what Starlight's up to yet, but we'd better figure it out before it's too late.”

Spike, however, looked around and was horrified to see that the castle was gone and that he could see was ice for miles, even with his dragon eyes there was nothing but a layer of ice over the ground, no grass, no trees, no buildings, no signs of life. The only things were the moon and stars of the bluish night’s sky, devoid of the light pollution that Spike grew up with, and while a clear night sky was something to behold, the absence of everything else and fear that it installed made the dragon tap Twilight’s shoulder, “Um, Twilight? I think it already is.” Twilight turned from the map to what was around the two and gasped in horror.

“What do we do, Twilight? Where's your castle?” Spike asked as he ran around the table. He started out at his normal running pace, but if one was to look closely, with each second passed, he grew slower and slower.

This reduction in speed was not noticed by Twilight as she looked at the map. “I don’t know, Spike,” She answered as she stopped Spike and had him take his seat on his throne. As she focused his attention on the table-map, “but for whatever reason, we were pulled back here. Other than that, all I know is that whatever Starlight did in the past changed things here!”

“But why?” Spike asked. “And how did we get here?” He then looked around for some reason he was not able to process the information around him with his movements became slower and slower, “Where's here?

“Not where, Spike, when.” Twilight answered before Spike could ask her to clarify, Twilight took the scroll out of Spike’s bag and placed it on the table for the two to see. Twilight knew Star Swirl’s mannerisms, even with the spell not written in Bullion, the old language of Mystica, named after the Magicborn king Bullion himself when he unified the three founding tribes of Mystica in the hostile but interdependent peace before the Kindling and the actual founding of Mystica, but she also knew Starlight’s writing, there were a couple copies of her manifesto for her ‘equalization’ cult, “Starlight altered Star Swirl's spell, then somehow used it on the map to travel not only into the past but anywhere in it and change something!” Twilight then began to read the spell, it wasn’t just one powerful, it was actually multiple low-level spells. It took her a second but she was able to piece some of the spells used. “Once she did, this hybrid spell made the map pull us back to the present.”  Before Spike could question her assessment, given the vast difference between the present they were from and this one. “I know we’re not exactly when we started, but that’s a result of something that has happened between Starlight’s arrival to the past and this very second.” She didn’t hear a response as Spike slowly opened his mouth and tried to exhale fire, but he was not fast enough. The cold had caused his exothermic body to start to shut down. “SPIKE!!!” Twilight shouted as she cast a ring of white fire around Spike. In a matter of seconds Spike was back his normal self, indicated with a blissful sigh of relief. “Sorry, I forgot you’re exothermic, even with your fire-breath, you don’t like the cold.”

“We’re not fans of excessive heat either.” Spike countered as he huffed onto the fire to cool it. “I know as a demigod, you don’t need heat, air, water, an atmosphere, food, etc, to survive, but we need to find shelter before we can come up with a plan to…” Spike started, only to stop when the two heard what sounded like some sort of engine attempt to start and rev-up. They turned to see not far from the castle, about where Dr. Time Turner Who’s house would be a large blue phone-booth-like box appear phase in and out until it became solid. All the while, Twilight flew over to it, as she carried Spike. When the arrived at the box, just as it finally became solid, they both noted that it was not unlike the phone-booth style police boxes that the young lad Pipsqueak, described from his birth city.

The box opened and the postal clerk that gave them the message from Rarity, known for blonde hair and golden atypically oriented eyes, stepped out, however she was not in the blue postal uniform, but wore brown boots, light pink shorts with a brown belt with a golden belt buckle, a magenta long sleeve shirt that with the pants exposed her midriff and a bluish-gray cloak with a dark brown strap that had a series of bubbles of various sizes over her left shoulder. “Um, Doctor, are you sure we’re one second after we left where we left and where we actually left because this doesn’t look right.”

“Why wouldn’t we be, Brighteyes? It’s not like…” came a male voice as a man stepped out. He had brown hair down in a slight spike with blue eyes and wore tan brown pants, light brown shoes, a dark brown trench coat with what looks like an hourglass if it was buttoned, over a greenish-blue vest over a white shirt with a green necktie. On his left arm was a series of three watches with a pocket watch in a pocket in his vest as hinted to by the watch chain that went from his trench coat into his vest.  As he looked around the wasteland where his house was supposed to be, as he failed to notice the presence of Twilight and Spike “Well, um, this is very odd. I could have sworn….” He turned to the mail woman, “Brighteyes, did you touch any of the controls.”

“No. They are exactly as you set them, Doc.” the recently identified Brighteyes countered. After a second of thought, “I think,” She flew back to the panel, “the green light next to the purple switch in the center-left square is supposed to be flashing?”

“Yes, Brighteyes.” the identified ‘Doc’ replied calmly as what Brighteyes just said dawned on him. This made him step out of the box and actually look around him very much terrified at the site of his hometown.

“Dr. Time Turner Who!” Twilight shouted as she got his attention as she and Spike were about to enter the area of where the house was. “What happened here?” She asked as she placed Spike down on his feet. The dragon’s claws were sharp and he curled his toes slightly and used them not unlike the spike on shoes designed to walk over ice as the two closed, the distance.

“I don’t kno…” the recently clarified Dr. Time Turner Who, Time Turner for short, started but when he saw the vacant moon, “oh no!” He then grabbed Twilight and Spike and rushed them inside of the blue box,  “Get inside, quickly now. Now. NOW!”

“What are you…” Twilight started until she was actually inside the box. From the outside, the box had to an area of 1.4 meters square for its base and was 2.75 meters tall, suggesting a maximum volume of 3.85 cubic meters. But the inside was about the size of one of the halls in her castle. In particular, it was somewhere between an average room and the throne room. In the center was a large control circular console that went from the floor to the roof, that had all the controls above hip-level. Also in the room were various contraptions in various states of completion, tesla coils, plasma balls, blueprints, tools, random parts, etc. In one corner was a table with several chairs, in one was Brighteyes.

Before Twilight could finish her question Time Turner had sat her and Spike in one of the chairs each before he took the seat opposite of Twilight, “Did someone do unsupervised time travel to a past event?” his voice was stern, not unlike a father that had caught his child not in the act but so soon after the act that it was clear he already knew the answer and at the same time was not happy about the situation in any manner.

Twilight had never dealt with a father in such a state, she was … well, a good little girl, daddy’s little princess, etc. However, she has been in a similar situation with Spike more times than she wanted to count. “A woman by the name of Starlight Glimmer broke into the Castle of Friendship and using a modified version of Star Swirl’s time travel spell and the Aura Map,” before Spike or Brighteyes could ask. “It’s a working title for the map of the world that is projected on the big circular table in the throne room used by my friends and me.” Time Turner gave a nod for her to go on. “Using the two she was able to go back almost thirteen years to when Rainbow Dash performed the first sonic rainboom and she stopped it. Somehow the spell took Spike and me back as well and after the Rainboom was stopped we were pulled here. And everything is…”

“Different,” Timer Turner finished. He gave a sigh as he turned to Brighteyes, “This is why you should always use a chronomancer to deal with time.”

“Wait, how did stopping one event in the past change the present? I thought the past was immutable. Star Swirl’s own spell could only send you back a week and be the reason why you went back in time, it can’t change anything.” Twilight didn’t seem able to follow Time Turner and his comment, aside from the fact that it didn’t address the situation at least to her satisfaction.

Time Turner leaned back into his chair and thought for second as he took out a pair of glasses,  he then picked up a string and laid it on the table, “You see most people, even Star Swirl the Great, assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect,” As he spoke he moved his right index finger to his left with periodic stops to emphasize his point. As he finished with the string, he picked up a sphere the size of a basketball, “but actually” he paused for a second as he tried to articulate the next part, “but from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint,”

“So from at least a fifth-dimensional point of view.” Spike answered which surprised Brighteyes, Twilight, and Time Turner, “You know the zeroth dimension is a single point, you connect all points in a row to form a line, the first dimension, length, you connect all parallel lines together to get a plane, thus the second dimension of width, you connect all planes in the same space, thus forming volum, the third dimension, you connect all spaces with  time, thus the fourth dimension of space-time, you then can, at least in theory connect all space-times into the fifth dimension of multiverses.” Spike explained as he took on his own Twilight-voice, which got a laugh from Brighteyes. “I’ve lived with Twilight for over a decade, those kinds of things tend to rub off.” He concluded with a slight sigh.

Time turned paused for second before he continued, “Well, yes. Now where was I… oh yes, time is more like a,” he took the sphere with both hands on opposite sides and as he spoke he rocked it back and forth, “... big ball of wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey… stuff between any two given points.” Time Turner then placed the sphere on the table.

“That didn’t answer the question.” Twilight pointed out.

“Well, if I were to hazard a guess, and since you said this Starlight Glimmer… hum… that name sounds familiar…” Time Turner paused as he tried to remember who that name belonged to, however when he couldn’t recall as quickly as he wanted he elected to press one, “never mind, well she stopped Rainbow Dash from completing the sonic rainboom. Now because of that, Rainbow Dash didn’t reach the speed necessary to puncture the sound barrier and activate her magic or discover her love of racing, Applejack didn’t see the rainbow that pointed her to Sweet Apple Temple, Pinkie Pie didn’t see the rainbow in the sky, the animals that comforted Fluttershy didn’t need her to comfort them after they were frightened by the boom, the boulder Rarity found didn’t crack showing her the gems that lead to her first costume design, and you didn’t get to tap into your hidden power to hatch Spike. Thus the timeline you know doesn’t exist. Instead, we are currently in a different timeline. One in which you and your friends didn’t become friends.”

“Wait, there can be more than one timeline?” Twilight questioned as she didn’t seem to follow Time Turner and the point he made.

“He just went over the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey ball, Twilight. Think fifth dimensionally,” Spike commented.

Twilight wanted to give Spike a deadpan glare, but she didn’t have time, she had to get back to the past and stop Starlight. She got up from the table, “We need to go back,” and headed towards the door and out of the blue box, “We need to set everything right. Come on Spike!” The dragon nodded and ran to catch up with his master as he pulled out the scroll.

Time Turner barely got a glimpse of the scroll but he was able to see enough. He saw his notes he dictated to… He froze as he remembered to whom the name ‘Starlight Glimmer’ belonged to, “no, she actually…” he whispered. He got up from the table and followed after the demigod and the dragon. “WAIT!!!” He ran out of the box, in attempt to catch up with Twilight. “STOP!!!” Twilight and Spike arrived at the table and Twilight’s focus gem started to glow, “DON’T USE THAT…” too late. Twilight had cast the spell and she and Spike were sent back to the past. “Quick Brighteyes, start the old girl up.” Time Turner ran back in, passed Brighteyes and went to the control panel in the center of the box.

“But I thought Nightmare Moon was destined to be defeated, wasn’t it all a fixed point in time?” Brighteyes asked as she hovered over to the controls.

“Well, yes and no. You see, Brighteyes, Nightmare Moon’s escape was foreseen by all prophets, soothsayers, etc, hence why it is a fixed point in time, but only Pythia predicted her defeat. Also, only Pythia foresaw the sonic rainboom.” Time Turner then went over to the panel of the switches, buttons, knobs, etc and started to flip, push, press and turn some. “We need to travel to one second after we they left.”

“Why?” Brighteyes asked as Time Turner ran around as he pressed various buttons, pulled various levers, switched various switches, turned various knobs and wheels.

“You’ll see,” He answered when it looked like everything was as he wanted. He took out what looked like a weird screwdriver, and used it to turn a particular screw. “ALLONS-Y!” he shouted as the blue box seemed to hum to life.