//------------------------------// // Drink A Potion, Look Into Time // Story: Drinks of Time // by Rated Ponystar //------------------------------// It was rare that Twilight ever found herself time to do her own personal studies and academics. Being a Princess of Equestria was almost a full twenty-four-hour job, but she always made sure to make room in her schedule for some private time for herself, as was advised to her by her predecessors. So every few days, she would do something special such as read a book, hang out with one of her friends, see how her school was doing or experiment with something magical or scientific. In today's case, it so happens to be the last one. She had been teaching a lesson at the Friendship Academy about some of her adventures a few days ago. This included the one about how the vines of the Everfree Forest had always taken over Equestria. When she got to the part about the potion that Zecora made for her to see into the past, one of the students asked how it was made. That was a question that made Twilight pause as she actually didn't know much about it. She had trusted Zecora and just drank it without question or hesitation because she wanted answers so bad.  That led to Twilight looking up the potion in general and deciding to experiment with it to see if she could recreate it. It turns out it wasn't that hard to do, but the challenge came with the other two potions she made with it. Twilight had wanted to see if she could do more than just use a potion to look into the past. She wanted to know if it was possible to check out the present and future as well. Thus, Twilight stood in her own personal room with all three white-colored potion bottles ready for sipping. The excitement began to eat inside of her as she carefully put away her notes before getting some new paper to write down whatever experience she might have drinking the liquids. "Okay," Twilight said to herself as she carefully put the three potions in front of her. "I think I did everything the book said to do. I consulted Zecora for additional help. Plus, all the math and calculations were triple checked with the triple checking being double-checked." She levitated one of the potions to her eye level for careful observation. "Now, if this works? I'll be able to attend an event that ties to my past in the first drink. Something currently going on in the present that relates to me in the second one. And finally, something about my future with the third one." She then walked over to a large chalkboard that had three images on it that was to show what would happen if they didn't work. "Okay, if something does go wrong, then one of three things will happen." She looked at the first one, which just showed a stick figure of her being happy. "First, nothing will happen to me, and all I've just done is waste my time." She then turned to the next one, which happened to be a picture of a toilet. "Second, I'll have to spend some hours or days in the lavatory and possibly call a doctor." And the third one showed a gravestone with her cutie mark on it. "And the third worst-case scenario is that I break the record for shortest-lived princess ever." Taking a deep breath, Twilight levitated the first one for the past and chuckled. "Well, nothing ventured, and nothing gained!" She took a deep sip and let the cool milky liquid gently go down her throat before she smacked her lips. In an instant, her eyes began to glow white, and her mind began to feel like it was being warped beyond imagination... *** When Twilight came to, she found herself in a familiar place. It was a light blue-colored room with some stars decorated above while the walls were covered in photos of Twilight's parents from their youth, extended family, and even a few of a young Shining Armor who looked to be about five or six years old. There was a single grey and purple-colored sheeted bed with two pillows on it. "Wait a minute, this is my parent's room." Twilight walked around, and, sure enough, she recognized it as her own parent's bedroom at their house. "So the potion took me here? Why? According to the photos on the wall, it looks like I wasn't even born yet." Twilight's thoughts were interrupted when she heard hooves coming towards the door. At first, she panicked but then remembered that the potion only visually showed her past events. Unlike an actual time spell, she wasn't really in the past and instead was just seeing it unfold. Good thing too. I'd hate to tell my parents that I was their future daughter and cause a time paradox.  The door soon opened, and a much younger Twilight Velvet and Night Light entered into their room, smiling as the two nuzzled close to each other. Her mother was wearing a costly-looking snow-white dress, and her father was wearing one of his best suits. "Oh, Nighty. Tonight was so romantic. I can't remember the last time we ever had such a time to ourselves." "Before we had Shining," Night Light said with an executing sign. "I love that son of mine, but he can be such a hoof full to take care of." "Yes, but he's at that sleepover down the street," Twilight Velvet said as she turned her husband's eyes to her own and gave him a sultry look. "Which gives us the rest of the night by ourselves." "Oh, don't I know it," Night Light said as he brought his mare over and gave her a passionate kiss on the mouth. One that Twilight Velvet was more than happy to return as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "Blah," Twilight groaned as she rolled her eyes. She didn't spend six hours working on this potion just to see her parents make out. In fact, they were really going at it. Night Light's hooves slowly made their way down to his wife's haunches, and he gripped them tightly, which made Twilight slowly turn green. Then he started nipping her on the neck while the horn lit up, and his magic began to slowly undress Twilight Velvet by unzipping her dress. She giggled and blushed as she slowly fell to the bed, using her own magic to unzip Night's pants before tossing them away. Upon seeing this, Twilight began to go pale, and a horrifying thought came to her. "No! No! No! I am not going to watch my parents have sex! End potion! Escape! Reverse! Cancel!" Twilight shouted in a vain attempt to get herself out of this experience, but nothing happened. A pair of black panties and a white shirt sailed over Twilight's head as she turned around only to nearly puke upon seeing...her parents in a position that was not meant to be child-friendly.  It was then that Twilight realized why she was here and how it was related to her past. This was the night she was conceived. *** What took only five minutes in real time felt like two hours to Twilight, who had a look of utter horror on her face as she felt her mind flashing every position her parents had tried. Some she was pretty sure were physically impossible. Just the sight of watching her parents do it for nearly two hours only made Twilight wonder how she didn't have a dozen siblings along with her own birth. Rushing over to her drawer, she pulled out a wine bottle and drank it as fast as possible in a vain effort to get drunk and forget the next twenty-four hours. Unfortunately, alicorn biology prevented one from getting drunk unless they had an entire boatload of alcohol in their system. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't erase the memories and was sure that a part of her had just died right now. She levitated a quill and only wrote one sentence for her experience: "Use Memory Erasing Spell After Experiment." Taking a moment to calm herself down, Twilight walked over to the other two potions waiting for her. "Okay, so the first one took things a bit...too far...so maybe the present potion will be better." Levitating the second potion, Twilight made sure to drink only a small amount before it began to take hold of her... *** The location of which the potion had taken Twilight was an instant familiar one. She had been to Sweet Apple Acres, so many times it was practically another home for her. It appeared to be one of Applejack's many barns with tons of stored-up apples being cataloged by the earth pony herself. She was check marking them with a large red marker with different initials to prevent any mixup. "Hmm, so far, so good. Applejack and I did plan on meeting later tonight, so I know this relates to me. And I know it's accurate since this is around the time that Applejack and her family start storing apples for the winter," Twilight said to herself as she looked around. "Wow, so many crates. The Apple Family really went all out this year." Twilight's thoughts were interrupted when she heard a figure flying in and dropping one of the crates onto the ground. It was none other than Twilight's other friend, Rainbow Dash, flaring her wings up before landing on the floor. Placing a hoof on the crate, the pegasus asked, "Yo, A.J. Where do you want this one?" "Is it the last of the fuji?" Applejack asked, looking up from her marking. Upon seeing the blue pegasus nod, she pointed to a stack of crates labeled "F.A." nearby. "Place them over there." Rainbow Dash saluted before picking up her crate and plopping it down with a small throw. "There we go. That's the last of them." "Thanks for all yer help, Rainbow," Applejack said with a smile. "We managed to finish this all in a record time. Now I got plenty of time to meet up with Twilight later." Twilight couldn't help but smile. She was so happy that her friends were still helping each other and that all was well. Hmm, I could use this potion to actually check up on my friends since I don't see them as often anymore. "No problem," Rainbow Dash replied before giving a smirk. "Now about my reward." Applejack blushed and turned away. "Come on, now? Here?" "Why not? Apples are sweet, right." Rainbow Dash then leaned forward and kissed Applejack on the mouth, much to Twilight's shock. "And I want my sweet tasting Applejack." The earth pony grinned and then dragged Rainbow Dash to a nearby hay pile where the two proceeded to get...frisky with one another. On second thought, I think I should respect my friend's privacy, Twilight thought as facehoof while the two continued to fool around in the hay. *** "Okay, two out of three resulted in my having to watch ponies mating. First my parents, and second two of my best friends," Twilight said to herself as she slowly closed her eyes and sighed. "Do I dare take the third one?" Sighing, Twilight figured she came as far as she did, so she might as well go all the way. For all, she knew she was going to see an orgy next. "Although if the future shows me having sex with one of my future students or even Spike, I'm just going to burn my eyes out." Taking a deep breath, Twilight took a small sip of the third potion before entering deep into her mind. *** The future didn't look too different from what Twilight was seeing. She was in her current room, but it was clear that changes had happened in the amount of time that had passed. For once, there were photos of a Twilight that was now the same height as Princess Celestia. There were also photos of her future self with her friends, but they appeared to be much older. Not to mention the various other ponies looking friendly with them had to be their future families. It got to the point where soon her old friends became old and gray while Twilight was still the same. A number of them stopped appearing and then ended at some point. Twilight did her best to hold her emotions in upon seeing this. The six of them had a long talk about the prospect of Twilight outliving them all. While there were a lot of tears at the end, they were all prepared for the inevitable. Seeing her best friends, sisters in all but blood, old and passing on based on these photos was heartbroken, but at least they were still friends to the end.  Still, it looked like, despite her losses, Twilight was still smiling in the other photos without her friends. Other ponies, mostly younger ones, could be seen next to Twilight with smiles and cheerful expressions that the princess guessed were future pupils. Other than the visual memories, she had a bigger stack of books, a giant bed in a different design, some kind of weapon locker that made her wonder why, and in the nearby corner where her desk was. "Wait, is that a computer?" Twilight asked, remembering them from her time in Sunset's world. "Holy moly, we really advanced!" If there was one thing she had hoped to do in her time as princess it was advance the technology of Equestria to the point that they matched the level on Earth. And it looked like she succeeded. The door to the room soon opened, and Twilight was amazed at what was her future self. She was so tall, regal, and wise-looking that it was like looking at a purple version of Princess Celestia. Walking beside her was a royal guard, but what surprised her the most was that it wasn't a pony in the usual royal guard armor but a dragon. He was blue-scaled with a white underbelly and grey spines for his back. The armor was designed for his body shape, and it looked very heavy in thickness, but he was holding it like it was no problem. Twilight was both surprised and proud to see that the other races had managed to become part of Equestrian society well over the years.  "Honestly, that was a waste of time," Future Twilight said as she took off her regalia and sat on her bed. "Six hours of talking, and all we did was cut the bill down to a quarter of what every side wanted. No doubt the Senate isn't going to pass it." "Well, my father had a saying. When nobody is happy, at least it doesn't get worse," The dragon guard said with a smirk. "Besides, you and I both know this bill was just going to end up only benefiting a small percent of Equestria's districts. Mainly the city ones. The rural districts would have been having uproars if it went through." "I guess then I'll have to go back to the drawing board," Twilight said as she sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "Honestly, doing this for about two hundred and sixteen years makes me think running a library back in Ponyville was a walk in a park." The dragon guard then smiled before walking over and sitting down next to her. Taking off his helmet, he sighed. "Yeah, being the son of the dragon lord sometimes feels like an easy job when it comes to being a guard in Equestria." "Wait a minute. Son of a dragon lord? That's Ember's son?" Present Twilight asked with wide eyes. "Still, I'm glad you came, Azure," Future Twilight whispered as she looked over at the blue dragon and blushed. "I never thought the son of a good friend would end up becoming someone I've depended on for keeping me sane." "Well, Spike did often warn me about your tendencies to freak out over the smallest thing," Azure chuckled, which made both Twilights pout. "I haven't done any Twilighting in years!" Future Twilight cried out, folding her arms. "That last time that ever happened was at Flurry Heart's wedding!" "Are we also forgetting the time you forgot your student's birthday present, and you turned the castle upside down, literally, to find it?" Azure pointed out, making Future Twilight blush. "If it helps, she found it funny." The two looked at each other and laughed. Azure then sighed and was about to get up to leave when Future Twilight stopped him and smirked. "This is the part where you come into my bed and make great love to me, Azure." The dragon blushed as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I... I thought we agreed to do this only on weekends." "I know, but tonight is a special occasion," Future Twilight said as she dragged him forward and kissed him on the lips, much to Present Twilight's surprise. "Because I knew this was going to happen for a long time." "W-W-W-What?!" Present Twilight shouted with steam coming out of her ears. "Me and a dragon?! Me and guard?! Me and Ember's son?!" "Yes, you and Ember's son, Twilight," Future Twilight said as she looked in the direction of a surprised Present Twilight and winked. "Trust me. He's worth it." "Um, who are you talking to?" Azure asked as he got on top of Future Twilight. "Oh, myself. Literally," Future Twilight said with a wink before she allowed Azure to start having his way with her. Meanwhile, Present Twilight just stared at the two and realized that her future self had known about her present self checking the future out and...and... You know what? I'm not even going to bother thinking about it, Twilight thought as she sat down and watched the show. Might as well see what's so great about me and my so-called future looooooooohmyogoshthatisobig!" *** "Yo! Earth to Twilight?!"  "Gah!" Twilight shouted as her mind returned to normal, and she saw the big confused eyes of Dragon Lord Ember. Falling to her back, Twilight shook her head and looked around. "What? Where? I was just... Ember?!" "Yeah? Did you forget we were meeting today?" Ember asked as she held out her hand and helped the princess up. "You were spaced out for like five minutes as I tried to get you to wake up."  Ember then looked at the potion bottles and raised an eyebrow. "Were you drunk or something?" "Huh, no, I was just...experimenting...in more ways than one," Twilight muttered as she shook her head. "Um, just give me a few minutes, and I'll meet you in the gardens." Ember shrugged and made her way out of the room before Twilight stopped her again. "Um, Ember? Just curious. What are your thoughts on dating ponies and dragons?" "Um, not really against it. I mean, Spike's been pinning for Rarity, and nobody seems grossed by it." Ember then tilted her head. "Why?" "...no reason."