The Gift of Time

by Shadow Dragon


Chapter 4

Twilight Sparkle woke up to a usual site, had woken up in the Royal bed chambers, looking in the mirror she saw her much taller self, with the large wings and the flowing main she remembered. The Princess sighed in sadness, it all felt so real, she even felt pain but it was most likely just another part of the dream, it was fine though. She looked up at the moon and was vastly surprised when a pony came through it, it was Princess Luna in all her radiant beauty, Celesta of course was a great pony but Twilight would not forget or forgive what she had done. What really surprised Twilight was she was wearing her crown, Celesta and Luna of course had copies of their original crowns but only wear them on special occasions.

Twilight exclaimed “Luna, it’s a pleasure to see you again, is Celesta here?”

Luna looked slightly confused but answered “Not unless you wish her to be here as this is a very peculiar dream.”

Dream? Is this really all a dream? Is she really back in time? These questions swam around in Twilight’s mind before finally deciding to test weather or not if this really was a dream, she made herself a normal Unicorn, low and behold it worked so this definitely was a dream.

Twilight decided to play innocent and commented “Right this is clearly all a dream, which would explain why I looked like that.” She gave a forced laugh that sounded convincing, ruling for that long can do that to you but then realized something, because this was a dream, and she knew it was a dream, that meant she could do anything she wanted within reason, even though Twilight dose govern the dream realm after Luna retired Twilight would let Luna think she had all the power in the dream realm for now, but because this was Twilight’s dream there were no limits. So without thinking Twilight did the one thing she couldn’t do in the future waking realm she brought the main 6 to her royal chamber all as Alicorn’s.

Princess Luna was impressed for a moment at how Twilight used the fact she now knew it was a dream to her advantage to create a new dream as most ponies just woke up shortly after being told that they were dreaming, which spoke value over Twilight’s mental composition

Twilight looked over to her friends and realized something before stating “Wait, Pinkie Pie, as an Alicorn? Well now I know what my nightmare tomorrow night will look like, and Luna for your own sanity I advice not helping with that.”

Luna asked “Twilight, are we friends? Most ponies only ever see us as a Princess, do not get us wrong, we like the change but even now, at the party your friend Pinkie Pie through, no pony used just our name which leaves us confused.”

Oh right, Twilight got so used to speaking to the Princess’s on a personal level that she forgot for a moment that she was a citizen speaking casually to what some ponies concerned a goddess, or a demonic entity depending on the view point, Twilight desperately wished for a distraction as she couldn’t think of a clever way out, and low and behold the wanted distraction comes in, in the form of Discord, hay slightly unethical but she’ll take what she can get.

Princess Luna completely forgetting her previous conversation with Twilight and got in between herself and Discord and said “Of corse now I see why this nightmare pulled us towards it, now I know what’s really going on here as I’ve seen this before, Twilight Sparkle knows about Discord and fears him, so her subconscious created a nightmare version of him.”

Princess Luna charged up her horn but Discord did something Luna didn’t expect, he put his paw and claw up in surrender, this was vary confusing behavior for a nightmare so it confused Luna so much so her horn stopped glowing

Discord then explained “Your not completely off dear Lulu, their are a few kea things you missed, for example I’m no mere nightmares I’m the real lord of chaos, do not distress, my body is still acting as a lawn ornament, also I have no power here, remember the dream realm is your domain.” Now that Discord had told the truth now he now lied “As for the reason why I am here, well I have a semi connection to the elements of Harmony as I am basically their opposite, and once I synced it was Twilight’s destiny to become the Element of Magic, well I entered her mind to try and bend her to my will.” The next part wold be the truth but Discord being, well Discord, he joked “But she has mental defenses equivalent to that of a fortress, it’s almost as if she’s went mad but eventually got bored of being mad so decided to become the most well put together pony ever, but that’s impossible would take hundreds upon thousands of years, but that’s probably not it.”

Twilight rolled her eyes playfully and decided, as long as she was dreaming, might as well make it daytime in her dream
Twilight raised the sun with little effort, Luna was slightly confused but decided not to question it as this was a dream, but then suddenly the light the sun gave off became brighter and brighter until finally Twilight was in the middle of a white void
Twilight awoke in her bedroom of the Golden Oaks library, she smiled as all the memories of this place came back to her, she then used her magic to close the curtains as light was shining directly into her face. She would get up but needed just a couple of seconds

That time was cut short however when She felt something crawl up onto her face, as she opened her eyes it was none other than Moonlight Sparkle, her newly adopted daughter, she had light blue vest a round her body so no pony could see her wings, Twilight could’ve just used that same Illusion memory wipe combo she used back in Canterlot but she wasn’t thinking straight at the time, and even if she still wanted to it was too late now, the spell she used only worked on short term memories, she did know a more powerful version, but she didn’t want to use that, the version she originally used was a memory blocker meaning that the memories were still their and could be unlocked at any time but only when Twilight want’s, the other spell was basically a spell version of the memory stone but that had problems she didn’t even want to think about, so she and her friends came up with a creative solution, Rarity would make outfits for the foul to help hide her wings and Princess Celesta would let Twilight keep her as long as Twilight kept her up to date on the little one, this was mandatory weekly but Twilight could handle that, the incident known only as lesson zero would not happen again, mark her words! Or in this case thoughts. Twilight was still very much angry at Celesta but thanks to ruling equestria for a long time she had a few methods to deal with it.

Spike suddenly came into her room and yelled “Twilight, the Princess just sent a letter!”

Twilight still half asleep groaned “Read it to me please.”

Spike did so and read “My faithful Student Twilight, please come to Canterlot as soon as possible it is a matter of great importance.”

That got Twilight fully awake, the Celesta never sent messages that cryptic, she got out of bed, did a double check with a side glance to make sure the Illusion spell was active, it was, then she placed Moonlight Sparkle on her back while being carful not to wake her and immediately teleported straight to Canterlot.

Princess Celesta was pacing worried in her throne room thinking of an explanation to the problem she had when suddenly their was a pink glow in the middle of the room and suddenly without warning Twilight Sparkle appeared

Twilight smirked and commented “That wasn’t nearly as hard as I remember it being.”

Princess Celesta smiled and stated “Twilight, it’s good to see you again.”

Twilight fake smiled and replied “It’s only been a day.”

Princess Celesta then stated “I know, but that’s not why I called you here, we have a situation.”

Twilight mentality syed in annoyance at this, what now? She just wanted to hangout with her friends, was that so much to ask?

Princess Celesta continued “Something is terribly wrong, the sun was raised earlier that usual, I wouldn’t think that this was a problem normally but I asked and my sister hasn’t raised the sun herself and the only other being in equestria who can do that besides of course a large group of unicorns is Discord!”

Twilight then got worried, she had accidentally raised the sun in her sleep again, it was problem for equestria when she ruled, her solution to this was to simply wear a magic blocking ring to bed every night but she forgot she didn’t currently have one, it would be easy to get one but now she had to explain this mess without giving away the fact that Twilight Sparkle is currently an Alicorn and keep Celesta from blaming her friend Discord who was completely innocent without giving away she personally knows him, then she had an idea and asked “If Discord had escaped wouldn’t it be a lot more chaotic than just an early sunrise?”

Princess Celesta had confused look on her face and asked “How do you know about Discord, their are no books on him.”

Twilight answered “The Royal guard is taught about the ancient evils of equestria, my brother is Captain of the Royal guard, their isn’t anything my brother knows that I can’t figure out one way or another.” That was a half truth, wale her words were the truth, she was once again using future knowledge to her advantage

Princess Celesta accepted this answer and stated “That does make since, Discord would cause a lot more chaos than just this by now if he had escaped from his stone prison.”

The Princess was now frustrated, they were once again back to square one and Twilight was attempting to come up with a lie to explain the current situation they were in, but at that moment Spike asked “What if it was Moonlight? She is an Alicorn.”

Twilight mentality thanked Spike for that idea, she didn’t want to blame the foal she had grown to care about in the last day or so but decided this lie would actually make the most since for now and stated “Spike, your a genius, Moonlight must have some of Nightmare Moon’s power but doesn’t know how to control it yet.”

Princess Celesta stated “That does make since, you should probably look into something to help out with that.”

Twilight mentality syed in relief, that crisis was averted but she couldn’t help fell like something was bothering her, but she decided that she would figure it out later.

Twilight then said “If that is everything I’d like to get Moonlight back to bed.” Said foal cooed cutely in her sleep

Celesta finally noticed the foal and her eyes widened, she then whispered “How did I not see her?”

Twilight answered “You had more important things on your mind, Moonlight is important to me, and if anyone tried to take her away, well you already know what will happen.”

Princess Celesta rubbed the spot Twilight had blasted only 24 hours ago and stated “That I do.” The spot didn’t hurt, even right when it happened, she was more emotional hurt by the attack than anything

Twilight stated “If that’s all, I must be going.” Twilight then teleported back to the Golden Oaks library and tucked Moonlight in, she herself had just given up on getting more sleep knowing at this point something else would likely go wrong so she had breakfast thinking more about what was bothering her, she knew what was wrong of course, but didn’t know how to approach it, the fact Spike didn’t have any friends his own age, it was a difficult thing to bring up, especially this early, so she would discuss it with him on a later date that wasn’t today.