The little purple unicorn had just appeared one day, bold as brass, watching the battlefield.
The Bushwoolie Wars would likely end up in some kind of history book - if Majesty made it through this brutal day. Majesty wouldn’t have even noticed the little unicorn. But she happened to be in the path of a group of hapless bushwoolies rolling to safety, and she’d cried out as they bowled her over. Majesty lifted her head, just for a moment, and one of the dog-beasts she battled went for her throat.
“Have at you!” Majesty reared onto her hind legs with a battle-whinny. She kicked at him with her front hooves, and the dog-beast fell hard.
“Go, begone, I’m tired of your trouble,
Blow away from here on a cascade of bubbles!”
Her horn glowed and blasted the prone dog-beast with her magic, transforming him into a foamy cluster of bubbles that blew away on the breeze.
See them try to turn that into an illustration!, Majesty thought with a harsh laugh, and turned to watch the other dog-beasts fleeing. Fleeing right towards the little purple unicorn! “Watch out!” she cried, but it was no use; the little purple unicorn was still on her back, and all she could do was try to scramble upright as the cadre of dog-beasts rounded on her.
“You’re bothering me now, leave us alone,
Be something more useful, no more will you roam.”
With a twirl of her horn, the dog-beasts were gone, replaced with a cluster of year-old saplings. Majesty cantered to where the little unicorn had been - but she was gone.
“Suspicious,” Majesty muttered to herself, and she gave the path one last glance before she turned and galloped back into battle.
The next time she saw the unicorn, she was sitting for her royal portrait; the stranger appeared suddenly in a window of the Dream Castle, and by the time she ran to confront her, she was gone again.
“Your Majesty, may we continue?” her royal portrait artist Painting-Time asked, brush held aloft.
“Yes, of course; I think I’m seeing ghosts,” Majesty muttered and returned to her throne, lifting her crown and scepter once more. It ended up that Majesty’s portrait required an extra session, as Painting-Time complained that she couldn’t get her expression looking ‘appropriately regal’ due to her frowning at the window.
She saw her, over and over again; it was months between the battle and the painting, but she began to appear more frequently. Majesty saw her the next week, watching her from across a field as she inspected the marching band. She appeared in her window a couple days later - which was impossible, given that her bedchambers were in the highest of the Dream Castle’s turrets. She was there, and then she was gone, every time. She was always too quick for Majesty to catch her, and she always stayed at a distance. But Majesty was not crowned Queen because she gave up easily, and so she began to devise a plan to catch this ‘ghost.’
Majesty got lucky only a day later; she was half-dozing on her throne, reading a treatise by the scholar Wind Whistler on the dangers of encroaching dog-beasts on their borders. Whistler, you don’t know the half of it, Majesty thought to herself, when she caught sight of something purple in her periphery. Majesty pretended to read for a few more minutes, and then let her cheek sag on her hoof. Slowly, gradually, her eyes fluttered closed, and she let the book fall from her grip with a little clatter.
And now, we wait.
Majesty didn’t have to wait long; the little purple unicorn was waiting for such a moment, it seemed, and she could hear her as she inched closer. What she didn’t know was that although Majesty was deaf in her left ear, her right could still hear a flutter pony wing beat, and it was easy to hear her hoofbeats as they trod lightly across her marble floor.
Majesty waited until she could hear her coming close, dangerously close, then snapped upright, whipping out a magical rope from her horn. With a cry, the purple unicorn went down, thrashing in the rope’s grip.
“Who are you!” Majesty demanded, standing over her. She cut an imposing figure, she knew; especially to an enemy who was currently laying on the floor, fighting against her magical rope’s grip.
“Stop! Let me go! You don’t - you don’t understand the danger!”
“What danger? The dog-beasts?” Majesty sniffed. “Routed them already.”
“No!” More struggling.
“Then who do you work for? The witches of the Volcano of Gloom? Katrina? The lava monsters? The Gizmonks? Queen Porcina? Sq-”
“I never realized how brutal you guys had it back th - now,” the purple unicorn interrupted, muttering to herself. “No, I don’t work for anyone!”
“Well you aren’t a ghost, like I thought. Otherwise my magic rope wouldn’t work on you. So how did you get up to my window?” Majesty glared at her, and watched as the purple unicorn finally gave up on trying to flee.
“Listen, just … don’t freak out,” she said slowly, and very carefully pulled off the plain brown muslin cloak she’d been wearing, revealing a pair of purple wings beneath.
Majesty’s eyes widened, despite herself, and darted between the wings and the horn. “I don’t freak out,” Majesty said at last, and gave her head a little shake so that she could resume her glare at the intruder. “Explain yourself.”
“Well, you … it’s going to be hard to believe.”
“Meeting a human was hard to believe,” Majesty informed her firmly. “At least you have hooves.”
“Wait, what’s a human?”
“My question first.”
The little purple unicorn stared up at her, considering, then finally spoke. “I have come from … the future.”
Majesty blinked.
“Very, very far in the future. My name is Twilight Sparkle - I’m a princess. I rule - I don’t know if I should say. Every single word I say to you is causing irreparable damage to the timeline!”
Majesty chuffed an amused sound through her nostrils, but before she could say anything else, a familiar figure, small and pink, came bounding into the throne room. “Majesty, Majesty!”
Majesty sighed, and dropped her glare. “Yes, Spike?”
“Spike…?”
“The princesses are arguing again over who gets to pick dinner! I told them you would make the final decision!”
Majesty groaned and rolled her eyes. Spike seemed to notice Majesty’s guest a little belatedly, and he stared down at the tied-up unicorn who had rapidly hid anything un-unicornish about her.
“Who’s this?”
“An uninvited visitor. What are the dinner options?”
“Candy, pizza, or cupcakes.”
Twilight Sparkle and Majesty both pulled a face.
“I suppose pizza is the least objectionable of the lot,” Majesty decided at last, and waved Spike away with her hoof. “Thank you, Spike.”
“Should I tell Chef Cupcake that we will have another guest tonight?”
“No need, Spike; she’s just leaving.”
Twilight Sparkle and Majesty shared an uneasy glance until the little dragon disappeared from sight, his scaled feet on the marble floor pap pap pap-ing into silence.
“Thank you for that,” Majesty said at last, gesturing to her little cloak. “I don’t know how I would explain that to Spike. He’s only a -”
“A baby dragon, I know,” Twilight interrupted her, and Majesty’s little glare returned. “I - guessed.”
“So, princess from the future; what brings you to my time?” Majesty asked, and finally removed the rope with another twirl of her horn.
“I can’t say, it might disrupt -” Twilight Sparkle began a little rapidly, and Majesty huffed out a frustrated sound.
“Right, the timeline. Well, I suppose you better be on your way, little princess; timeline, and all.”
Twilight Sparkle clearly wasn’t used to being sent on her way, and she gave her little tail (so strangely angular!) a little whisk across the floor. “Well, actually, I would like to hear about a human - the history books never said anything about -”
“Have a safe trip home, future princess!” Majesty called over her shoulder, already leaving.
Majesty was stubborn, but she wasn’t stupid; she came back a few minutes later to see if the future princess had remained to argue with her, but it seemed she hadn’t been bluffing about the timeline. She was gone, and despite the danger, Majesty was disappointed. And not only, she noted dourly, the promise of another pizza dinner, and more bickering princesses.