After a few minutes of trotting from the faint memories of the view upon the wall, she found the Town Hall. It definitely wasn't like the rest of the structures here in Southern Earth. The rectangular building was a longhouse, reaching about sixty feet wide and was about a quarter block taller at the center of the entrance. And at the top of the center was a huge bell hanging below the roof platform, similar to the one at Ponyville's clock tower.
There was a balcony on the second story, and ponies came and went out of the huge archway door of the first story. Twilight blended in with the crowd and stepped into the halls of history with heavy hoofsteps.
The main hallway split into three, leading left and right, and the middle led to a stairway with left and right partitions to the second floor, and a path beyond it. Walking beneath the arc, Twilight found herself in a grand banquet hall. Against the wall was a stage where official ponies took their seats, while bleachers for viewing everything down below filled up above. The wide open windows streamed the light of the setting sun and brought a certain gloom to the atmosphere.
...I should head back to Celeste and Selene. Twilight wanted to share her knowledge with them, and she would probably start tomorrow with appreciating ancient earth pony culture. Well, ancient to her, anyways.
Before turning back to the main hall, she caught a glance at the wide banner hanging from the balcony. Focusing on it, she realized just what kind of treasure she had found.
It was a map of pre-Equestria!
Twilight trotted over to it. The map had all the locations of the earth villages and towns. There was also Unicornia and Pegasopolis, but not much detail went into them. But, although it wasn't much help to her since it only showed all the earth pony villages, she could nevertheless refresh her memories with it. Pegasi only settled on high clouds, or at least that was what she learned from the history books.
Twilight studied the map fervently, taking a few minutes to soak in its contents, until she was satisfied. Trotting back to the main hall, she spotted two familiar figures coming toward her.
"They never attack the northern tribes, don’t you think that’s a bit suspicious?"
"It kinda does, I already sent out a message to Chancellor Lake Frost to scout for any strange unicorn activities. In the meantime, you got an appointment with the surgeon tonight. That pony was blabbering about his newly-found cure— for the third time.”
"Tonight? Why can’t it be in the morning? Tell him to come tomorrow."
It was Ruby Quill and Chancellor Greyhooves. The mare, in a great show of skill, held a stack of papers as she shifted through them one by one. Well, a few pages slipped out in the process of doing so.
Twilight made herself as inconspicuous as possible, pulling her hood low as she passed by them. She was tired of lying all the time, and now she just had to bump heads with the Chancellor, of all ponies.
Just as she was about to heave a sigh of relief from passing by them—
"I don’t recall seeing you in this place." The Chancellor called out to her. Twilight stopped in her steps without a choice, pulling her hood away to stop seeming like a suspicious character.
Ruby leaned near her friend. "That's Twilight. A filly told me she came from Gem Front."
Mother of Celestia! She might as well scream that fact out loud to everyone with the Royal Canterlot Voice! If Twilight ever fixed her time spell, she would surely use it to go back to yesterday night and shut herself up with that conversation with Cookie.
"Really?" Greyhooves raised an eyebrow. "How'd you do it?"
And here we go. "...It's not true, just some foal's tale I tell ponies. I'm sorry for lying about it," said Twilight with a sheepish smile.
Ironically, those last words weren't a lie. She really was sorry about it and wanted to stop before everything was too late. But then, exposing her real form in front of the very pony who ruled the place, now that was something else. It was a worst case scenario that might ruin the timeline irreversibly. Lying could be forgiven as long as it was for the sake of Equestria's future, right?
"Aw shucks, and here I am, wanting to record the very first earth pony survivor who lived to tell the tale of Gem Front." Ruby dropped her stack of papers to the floor with frustration, earning an odd look from both Twilight and Greyhooves. "What? Those papers were already disorganized from the start."
Twilight caught a short glance, and read something that piqued her interest.
"What are those?" she asked, pointing to the paper about reports on crystals.
"Oh, this?" Ruby picked up the report and showed it to Twilight. "Just some research I've been doing for years now. Did you know there are a few crystals out there that can nullify certain magic?"
Twilight indeed knew about rare crystals, from what she studied in Celestia's School of Gifted Unicorns. And if she recalled correctly, certain crystals had different potential power. Most were used to store magic, while others used it as magical artifacts.
...But an earth pony shouldn't normally know of these things. "Oh, I didn't know about that."
"My associates from Northern Earth had brought me some crystals to examine a few years back. I figured only one, but it was worth it," Ruby replied, picking up the papers she littered.
"And what did you find?"
Ruby paused, adding weight to her next words. "A great discovery."
She turned to the chancellor, who then gave her a nod. "I figured out a way to amplify one of the crystals, by using the invention I made to negate teleportation magic. The distance of effect is wide enough to cover the entirety of Southern Earth, I tell you. That’s why not even their greatest sorcerer can just magically breach through the walls."
"And you placed in that giant bell," interrupted Greyhooves with a sigh.
"Well, it's the perfect spot to place it."
...Twilight misjudged this mare. Although she looked like a simple farm pony, her mind was that of a full-fledged scientist. Although unicorns of this time couldn't master the teleportation spell that easily, she still took the time to install this defense feature, accounting for the worst case scenario. Ruby wasn't Southern Earth's secretary for nothing.
"I did request the other four great earth pony villages to use her invention as a protective measure. But we haven't heard from Northern Earth ever since," the stallion added, "We've lost communications with them a long time ago. Chancellor Bittersweet told the earth councils that winter there barely stops."
"Good thing I still have some other spare crystals to work on, which might be even more useful," Ruby said, taking a specific parchment from her stack of papers. "This one weakens a unicorn's magical abilities— but that’s just my theory. I'm not even sure it'll work, since I doubt I'd find a unicorn to cooperate.. or at least volunteer."
Twilight looked over the parchment, and understood that Ruby's theory was right. Unable to hold her passion, she instinctively added a few points of her own. "I'm sure it'll work. If you combine the power crystal to the one that has a nullifying effect with the exact adjusted frequency, I think you'll be able to do just that."
"...Well, I did think of that, but hadn't found the right calculations. But I get your point, maybe just a few more tweaks and attempts will work. How'd you know about this anyways?"
Twilight mentally slammed her head against the wall. She couldn't help it— when discussing magic, the words simply flowed out. She had to think of a way to shake off her suspicious. "Uh—"
A guard stormed in the entrance with a distressed look on his face, sparing Twilight another lie. The chancellor and the mare turned to him and straightened their posture, seeing the seriousness of the situation.
"Something’s the matter?" Greyhooves asked, giving the guard a chance to catch his breath.
"It's urgent, your leadership," he began, lowering his head. "Unicorns are waiting outside the gate!"
Silence befell the three ponies.
"How many?" the chancellor asked.
"Hundreds."
Twilight felt the world shrinking in her mind. Ruby dropped her stack of papers and littered the floor once again.
"They have completely gone too far!" Chancellor Greyhooves' mind rushed to think of a strategy. "Alert all the sentries and get the residents to safety. Have guards garrison the gate. Hold position until I get there!"
Receiving his orders, the guard gave a short bow and galloped away to the exit.
Ruby stomped her hoof in frustration. "How on earth did they get so many? Reports from the villagers say that there were only dozens of them ravaging on previous towns. It’s impossible for them to receive reinforcement this far south. They must have some kind of gateway near the border— or maybe those pegasi are probably helping them. Whatever it is, they have literally gone too far!”
The chancellor glanced at Twilight, who was deep in her thoughts. "You should go back to the refugee zone. Ruby, you come with me. We're going to talk to them and see what they're doing here."
“If what those refugees were saying is true, this isn't going to be like last year,” Ruby said, and turned to Twilight as well. “You're staying with the Cakes, right? It’s better to stay with somepony you know. I'm afraid these unicorns aren't going to bargain.”
Leaving their words, the two ponies dashed out of the Town Hall and into the chaos outside.
...Are they going after us? Twilight didn't know what the unicorns were thinking, but she knew she and her fillies were involved somewhat.
It's too late, Twilight. You might as well revive Discord at this point— you've made contact with a chancellor and caused a unicorn raid. If that isn't messing with the timeline, I don't know what is. You can't help it, the longer you stay in this time, the worse everything gets. The only way to atone is to fix the time spell, get out of here and hope the damage isn't irreversible.
Twilight shook those thoughts away. Not this again. Those fillies need me now, and I'll protect them until the end of this journey!
She made her choice. Twilight ran out of the town hall and into a world of cacophony. Earth pony combatants hustled to their tasks while the residents boarded up their homes. She looked up at the twilight sky with determination. According to her memories, windigos would reign if the battle between the unicorns and earth ponies escalated.
The timeline might get tangled, but Twilight's only hope was to save Celeste and Selene from the coming danger.