//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: A Tale of Shadows and Chaos 
// by cuddlyluna 
//------------------------------//

It would be roughly thirty years after Princess Twilight Sparkle has become the ruler of Equestria. Flurry Heart has been ruling beside her mother and father for a little more than a year, despite having the physical body of an older filly. Celestia and Luna claim that it is normal for alicorns to reach adulthood slower than normal ponies, so there was not any concern to be had.

At the moment, Flurry Heart would be entering the Crystal Empire's library, removing her royal accessories as she was not accustomed to wearing them all the time as of yet. Her teacher, Sunburst, would be sitting at a table reading a book as she entered. "Have you been practicing the amniomorphic spell like I asked?" not turning to look at her yet.

"I used it to make a mirror to the dinosaur dimension. Before you ask, I made sure no dinosaurs could escape into our world." Flurry responded, walking over to him proudly. Sunburst would close the book and look to her. "Very good, now, I hope you are prepared for today's lesson. We are going to be going outside to practice gravity manipulation."

"That sounds great and all, but I have something to show you first." Flurry Heart would pull a crystal looking shard out of a pouch she had on her. "I found it while in the other dimension. Like always, I immediately come to you when I find one. You still haven't told me what they even are."

Sunburst would look at her with a slightly worried expression, levitating the piece over to him. "That makes twenty-six, I believe." Sunburst would hesitate for a minute as he held the piece in front of his face. Flurry would eventually approach him and poke her head out in front of him. "You seemed pretty casual about it when I found that one a week ago, now you are all dramatic about it."

Sunburst took a deep breath and started to walk to his private study. "Come with me." Flurry Heart curiously trotted after him and closed the door behind them as they entered. The room was only lit by a single lantern and the rising sun that shinned through a lone window. The orange wizard set the piece on his desk, having to gather himself before he spoke. "This is a shard of time itself, I only know this because the time spell is the only spell that has a direct effect on it."

Flurry Heart just looked at the piece of time lying on the table. "How could that be true? Time can't break, right?" Sunburst would open a desk drawer full of them and insert the newly acquired piece. "I'm afraid that it can. Only the princesses and I know about this at the moment. Celestia has written to me that she attempted to travel to the past and see if any of the pieces were there long before we found them, but was only able to go a few weeks back and no further."

Flurry would angrily confront him. "Why aren't we doing anything about it then, why do you have me learning gravity spells and making mirror portals when time is falling apart?"

"Because there is nothing we can do, all we can hope is that it doesn't affect our daily lives, and we carry on living as normal," Sunburst said to her, not changing his expression. "Well I am the princess of hope and I say we do something." Flurry shot back at him, standing firm. The two stayed silent for a minute, until Flurry brought up a point. "Can't we ask uncle Discord for help?"

"You know as well as I do that he hasn't been seen since Fluttershy passed away." Sunburst would walk over to stand in the doorway, hanging his head as he was deep inside his own mind. "The princesses and I have already met to discuss the issue, but we will meet again tomorrow, and I will convince your mother to let you attend."

Flurry Heart walked up to stand beside him, showing a bit of worry as she looked up at him. Sunburst would form a smile on his face and put his hoof on her. "We will figure out something, as long as we keep our heads high. Now, it's important for every princess to know the gravity spell." He would say as he started to walk out the door, Flurry Heart felt a bit better and followed him outside.

After a few hours of practicing with rocks, the student and teacher were done for the day. As Sunburst was going over what he had planned for tomorrow, a glass-like shard fell from the sky and landed in front of them, having the two stop in their tracks. "Is that another piece?" Flurry asked as Sunburst went to pick up the piece fresh from the sky. As he was examining it, a piece would fall just behind him. "Get inside." Sunburst hastily spoke as the two dashed into the castle.

After the stair climb up, Cadence was waiting for them in the main room. As she spoke, more pieces fell from the sky as was visible through the windows. "What is happening, why are so many falling at once?" Cadence said as she was fully alert. "I believe we are witnessing a catastrophic event. We need to get to the glyph room." Sunburst replied, Cadence nodded and the two alicorns followed him.

They entered a room with a large blue magic glyph already drawn in the center, this was for intense spells and simular to glyphs that unicorns used to stand on while raising the sun and moon to enhance their power. "What's the plan here?" Flurry Heart spoke out as Sunburst ran to a shelf and snatched a book with his magic, hastily setting it down in front of Cadence and flipping it to the correct page. "Memorize this." Sunburst then turned to Flurry to explain himself.

"Regular, safe, Time travel is what we normally use when we need to do something time-related. There is an alternate unsafe method that should ignore the missing time gaps and send you to where I need you to go." Cadence had pressing questions for Sunburst, but had to trust his judgment and continued to memorize the confusing spell laid out in front of her as quickly as possible.

Flurry Heart responded with many questions. "Why are you sending me, where am I going, can't one of you come with me?" Sunburst slowly shook his head. "It's too risky to use it on more than one pony, and I don't know what will become of us, so it is best that you go. The first instance of this is too far back, but with an alicorn's help, we can get you close to the second instance, which you will then need to seek help from Star Swirl, the only pony with a chance to fix this."

Cadence's eyes were full of tears as she had been forcing herself to swallow her emotions and focus on the spell and only the spell. She closed her eyes and stood upright. "I got it." Flurry would turn and approach her, looking up at her mother. She had to find the courage inside of her to do this for Equestria. "Mom, I promise that I will fix this."

Cadence looked at her and gritted her teeth, quickly wrapping her hooves and wings around her. "We love you so much, I know that you will be alright." Flurry Heart had to stay strong and make herself not cry and worry her mother even more. Cadence pressed her lips against her forehead and smiled at her, doing her best to make Flurry feel at ease.

Flurry's legs got shaky, so Cadence had to levitate Flurry to the center of the Glyph. "On three," Sunburst said. Flurry and her mother locked eyes as Sunburst counted, Flurry's eyes getting more and more watery as Cadence held the smile. "One, Two, Three."

Cadence's and Sunburst's horns glowed as they shot a beam that formed into a circle around Flurry, the beams accelerated faster and faster until Flurry vanished into light.

Flurry would appear in the restricted section of the Canterlot library with a shockwave of energy, knocking down bookshelves and sending some of the group against the wall. Everyone would be wide awake instantly, only to see an older Flurry Heart standing there. Tears fell from her eyes as she started to sniffle.

Everyone was shocked to see Flurry appear before them. Celestia was the first to approach her and comfort her, assuring her that everything was alright. Between the sniffles, Flurry managed to tell the group her mission.

“We have to see Star Swirl.”