The first thing Twilight felt is a thin layer of ice matting her coat. The harsh wind made itself known next, all she could hear was the roar of it and the feeling of snow that it was pelting her with. When she tried to open her eyes the world around her was pitch black.
Growing up in Canterlot meant that she had dealt with cold before, Princess Celestia was the princess of the sun but even she couldn’t control the chilly winds that often escaped the weather ponies. Even in Ponyville, where Rainbow Dash had built up a team better than most of the larger cities, she’d been in winter storms.
As she tried to stand and felt the ice dig into her sides as it broke into sharp shards, Twilight knew that no pony had a hoof in making this storm. She must have miscalculated and gotten her teleportation wrong. Even at night, Ponyville was brightly lit. And while the winds were whipping up enough snow that she couldn’t see very far she should be able to at least see a building or a street lamp.
The snow was quickly burying her. Even though it hurt she stood and flared out her wings to shake out the snow and small bits of ice that had built between the feathers before she quickly snapped them shut because there was no way an inexperienced flyer like herself could possibly fly in these conditions. The winds were simply too strong, even if she managed to get herself in the air she could be knocked off course and with visibly so low she could fly straight into a tree or a building.
Her staddle bag was half-buried in the snow but when she tried to light her horn to pull it out she found that her horn only sparked weakly. Oh great, that's what she really needed right now. She must have drained her magic with that spell and her teleport. That hadn’t happened in a while but it wasn’t too surprising since teleporting from Canterlot to Ponyville was pretty draining on its own. Adding the other powerful unknown spell and she was lucky to have teleported at all.
She carefully unburied it, the snow and ice causing her face to burn, and it looked like her bags had opened either during her crash in Canterlot or when she teleported. Her Clover costume was still inside, thankfully kept dry by enchantments on the bag and the cloak.
Thank Celestia at least those held up. Twilight quickly put the cloak on, as hard as that was in the dark with the wind blowing around her. The soft fabric warmed her up with the light heating enchantments she’d placed. They wouldn’t warm her completely, they weren’t made to counteract this level of cold and it left her forelegs bare but it was better than nothing.
She began to walk, the snow up to her knees and her cloak pulled down so low that she couldn’t see. Even when she looked under the rim she couldn’t see anything. The black night around her showed her nothing, no lights from buildings, and not even the light from stars. She tried to keep as an even pace as possible. Too slow and she risked freezing while too fast and she could exhaust herself before she reached Ponyville.
Well, hopefully she was heading towards Ponyville and not away. Twilight couldn’t tell in this storm. If she was being honest with herself she couldn’t know for sure if she was walking in a straight line, her hoof prints were gone in only a few moments.
It didn’t matter. What mattered was she had to try. Laying down in the snow and simply waiting on someone to find her simply wasn’t an option. Everyone in Ponyville thought she was in Canterlot still, no one would be looking for her in the middle of the night on Hearth’s Warming Eve like this.
Twilight now admitted that perhaps her teleport home wasn’t the best idea she’d ever had. She of all ponies knew just how hard teleporting was. Let alone teleporting such long distances. Panicking while under a strange spell and trying teleporting miles and miles away was a recipe for disaster.
Yet… why was it so rough outside? This storm, which still hadn’t let up after celestia only knows how long of her marching, was much much too strong to be anywhere near Ponyville. Was the out of control weather part of a plan? Whoever had made Twilight cast the spell in Canterlot had to have a lot of magical power to make her cast against her will so maybe whoever or whatever it was was responsible for this storm as well.
Her forelegs were starting to ache deeply. Unlike Applejack or Rainbow Dash she was no athlete and her body wasn’t used to this. Even if she kept up her health as recommended by all major health books she simply wasn’t used to walking in deep snow after no sleep in the dead of night.
Her hoof tripped over an unseen rock that was buried deep in the snow. With a pained grunt, she collapsed, the snow and ice biting into her knees. After a moment to collect herself, she tried to stand only for her fetlock to not hold her weight and send her back down into the snow.
Alright... Deep breaths. What do you do when you are injured in the middle of a raging snowstorm, unable to fly, and don’t have any magic?
AppleJack’s voice sounded in her ears, you keep going until your friends showed up that’s what.
Every step hurt but Twilight kept walking. Her mind cleared of everything to push her body forward. The wind roared through her cloak covered ears and every bit of her coat that wasn’t covered was frozen, the soft fur caked by ice that shattered and bit into her skin as it did. Only to reform again in minutes.
The darkness seemed endless but when Twilight glanced up she saw that the sky had begun to lighten. Not much but enough that she knew dawn was coming. Every couple of minutes she glanced up, not caring that it let the snow and ice under the hood of her cloak. The sun meant Celestia and that meant safety. Even if the princess didn’t know she was missing, which was likely since Celestia had no reason to think she hadn’t gotten home safely, the sun would warm her.
A sudden gust of wind kicked up and it caused her hood to fall back. Twilight clenched her teeth against the chill, she felt her mane and ears being pushed back and then had to clench her eyes as well when the wind started to freeze the tears. Quickly she pulled her hood down again, the enchantments slowly heating the bits of ice and snow that had formed on her mane and face. Unfortunately, that water flowed down her uncovered chest where it froze again.
She took another step. And another. But as Twilight saw the sun finally cresting over the horizon, her knee gave out and then she felt nothing but the cold.
-----
“Stone!
“Keepeth moving Ivory, we needeth to arrive at Canterlot by at least midday-”
“There’s a pony! Thank the sun the lady still breathes. Quick, into the cart!”
“Wait, Ivory….What is a unicorn doing down the mountain? And in this weather?”
“Freezing by the looks. Doesn't matter, the lady clearly needeth our help. Tis no trouble to taketh her to the healer when we passeth through to the castle.”
“As you say, mine love.”
----
It was the smell of fire that woke Twilight up first. That smell could wake her faster than anything else in the world. When Spike had been growing up he hadn’t been able to control his flames very well and he’d set fire to so many of Twilight’s notes that he’d been banned from her room for ages. It hadn’t been until the princess had cast her translocation spell on him that he’d been allowed back in.
Still, while it had been years since he’d last set fire to anything by accident. But they lived in a library that was built into a tree. The smell of smoke woke her immediately, her eyes wide as she jerked up to search for Spike and the source of the flames.
A sharp pain ran through her when she did, her forelegs and chest burned at her very movement and her eyes clenched before she could see what was happening. With a grunt, she tried to stand again but was pushed down by a gentle hoof.
“You've woke up! Heigh-ho now, thee art hurt,” said a soothing voice. “ Thee wast out there in the cold much too long mine lady but me and mine wife got you out in time.”
Cold chilling winds and being so cold that it had burned. Then she remembered the spell that she’d been forced to cast and the dire need to get her friends. Twilight forced her eyes open, her body unwilling to move. “Thank you.”
The earth pony mare in front of her had a light grey coat but her mane and cutie mark were both covered in a beaten up cloak that was much thicker than Twilight’s own. What little she could see from her was bigger than what she would expect, she was at least the size of Big Mac. Yet the Mare had a gentle smile on her face as she carefully gave her a small water canteen. “ No needeth to thank me, I am glad to be able to help! Drink this. It should help thee warm up a little bit.”
Confused Twilight did as she was told, drinking the warm water. Unable to move she tried to look around, only to realize she was in a large wooden cart that was covered with thin canvas. There were small holes dotting it and large patch marks. The holes let in the cold air but the floor of the wagon was covered in a thick woolen blanket. It wasn’t large and what little there was taken up by Twilight and the other mare.
A traveler then? It was odd that a traveler would be out in this weather, let alone traveling on Hearth's Warming Eve.
“Where are you headed?” Twilight asked. She needed to get to Ponyville as fast as possible but asking this kind pony, who had already saved her life, to take her if it was out of her way would be rude.
“Canterlot,” she answered with a smile. “I and the wife has some work up at the castle. I am Ivory of Stonehill, may I ask what is thy name mine lady?”
She answered without thought.“Twilight.”
Ivory winced as she opened a small box. “A poor name in these times, hm? May I asketh why thee was out in the snow?”
“I was trying to get home but that weird ice storm stopped me.” Twilight answered before the way the other pony was talking sunk in and stopped her short.
The way she spoke was… off. It reminded her of It was when Luna had come to Ponyville for Nightmare Night. But that couldn’t be right, Princess Luna had been speaking a mix of Early Modern Equestrian and Modern Equestrain as EME had been the language spoken at the time of her banishment. This pony couldn’t be speaking in that dialect because no pony spoke Early Modern Equestrian anymore unless it was in plays.
Ivory looked confused at Twilight’s answer but after a moment spoke, though she was now hesitant. “The storm? Aye, was a pow'rful one wasn’t t? Was fortunate me and Stone found thee, I don’t bethink thee could had lasted much more.”
Her mind, quick and powerful it was, still had a hard time understanding what the other pony said.Thankfully it was easier to understand Early Modern Equestrian aloud than to read it. Twilight herself had learned that when she and the Princess had gone to see a play after Twilight, a young filly at the time, had a hard time understanding it. Understanding it was a skill she never had to use on demand though.
“Right,” she said, knowing that if this pony wasn’t faking her speech pattern, which why would she?, then it was probable that Ivory was having the same problem she was having in understanding her. Harder even because at least Twilight had some experience in the dialect. “Thank you so much?”
“ I hath said it’s nay a problem, I’m joyous we did see thee. I assume thy were way to Canterlot as well?,” Ivory asked. Before Twilight could answer though her gray muzzle flushed red, “That wast prying wasn’t t? I’m sorry, mine own Stone sayeth I got a habit of prying into things yond arn’t mine own business!”
Surely this pony wasn’t faking this dialect? There was no stutter or hesitation like there had been when Twilight and her friends had been performing last night. She spoke it as quickly and surely as someone who’d always spoken it, like Princess Luna still did at times.
Twilight felt her heart drop, her tried muscles screaming as she tensed up. She’d been forced to cast a spell more powerful than anything she’d ever done before and it’d been enough to drain her magic completely. That had been rare before she’d become an alicorn and while she hadn’t tested her new power limits yet she knew that it had grown. And Mixing spells was a dangerous thing. Mixing spelling when you don’t know just what spells your mixing was even more dangerous and something that Twilight knew not to do.
She’d tried to teleport to Ponyville as another spell was taking effect and there’d been no buildings in sight. Twilight had never been that far off with her teleportation spell before. And here was a native speaker of a dialect that had faded away completely almost 500 years ago.
“I was on my way to Ponyville actually,” Twilight said carefully. It couldn’t be, there was simply no way-
“Ponyville?” Ivory asked with a small tilt of her head. “I’ve never hath heard of Ponyville. We’re new to the area though, just did get in from Manehattan. There's more w'rk here for us earth ponies, you see. While the stones art being lay down at least.”
Twilight let her head drop down as the reality of what the other pony said ran laps in her mind, ignoring the pain that raced up her neck. There had been a flood of Earth Ponies to Canterlot Classical era. The two reasons most historians stated were lack of unicorn masons or that Earth Pony mason work simply better and Princess Platinum had enough gems to pay for it and the mind to spend them.
“But h're I am going on!” Ivory said with a shake of her head. She stood up and pulled her cloak closer. “We’re outside the walls of Canterlot anon and thee can rest in h're for as longeth as thee want while we waiteth for our papers to be seen.” She hesitated and lowered her voice, “If thee wanteth into the city yourself I'd bethinking of a new name. Twilight sounds… much too dark for Canterlot in these times.” With that she left, and Twilight head her muffled voice outside, talking with another mare before both of their voices faded.
The idea of naming your child after Princess Celestia came and went in cycles just like everything else did in Canterlot. It was the reason Solar, Glimmer, and Dawn were all very common. But the trend of light themed names truly kicked off in the Classical Era when artwork and literature based on Princess Celestia was at its height. But that had nothing to do with the name Twilight did it?
Princess Celestia, and everything related to her, were everywhere in the Classical Era. Princess Luna, the princess of the Night, was very much not. Because she’d become Nightmare Moon and tried to cast the world into eternal night.
Twilight meaning the soft glowing light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon.
So not only had Twilight somehow time traveled at least 900 years, when the Classical Era took place, but her name evoked Nightmare Moon. Who was probably a fairly recent villain for ponies if her math was right.
“Well,” Twilight sighed aloud to herself. “ Isn’t this just great Hearth's Warming ?”