Maretime Bay
Sunny and her friends, as well as the rest of the ponies that had gathered, could only stare in surprise as the six forms suddenly emerged from within the portal. They looked like normal, everyday ponies, but most of the onlookers' eyes were drawn to the purple mare, who had both wings and a horn. Unlike Sunny's, which were made of solid magic and disappeared when she wasn't using them, this one's were flesh. Many ponies began filming with their mobile phones.
Twilight looked around at the assembled crowd. She took a deep breath, and began speaking in a formal voice.
"Hello, everypony. I want to start off by assuring you that myself and my friends come in peace. My name is Princess—"
"TWILIGHT SPARKLE!" screamed Sunny, making everypony else jump in fright.
There was silence for the next few seconds. Sunny had the widest possible smile on her face, surpassing even ones that Izzy had had in the past. Twilight froze in shock, but managed to compose herself.
"Yes, thank you," she continued. "I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle. I—"
"TWILIGHT SPARKLE AND THE GUARDIANS OF HARMONY!" Sunny screamed again. "THIS IS THE GREATEST DAY OF MY LIFE!" She began jumping up and down in pure joy, before falling onto her back, squealing all the way.
"Well, if they know who we are, I guess that means we're in the future!" Applejack shouted above the noise.
"Sorry about this!" Zipp yelled to Twilight and her friends. "She's a big fan of yours!"
Hitch, with his forehooves clamped over his ears, stomped over to Sunny, grabbed her by the tail with his mouth, and shook her back and forth as hard as he could. Sunny's constant squeeing finally stopped as she vibrated, and Hitch set her back down on her hooves.
"Thanks, Hitch," she said. "I guess I got a little carried away there."
"Gee, ya think?" Hitch muttered back, though the smile on his face betrayed him.
Rainbow Dash took a quick glance around at the crowd. "What are those square things you're pointing at us?" she demanded.
"Are those...phones?" said Twilight under her breath.
"Hello, Pippsqueaks!" proclaimed Pipp into her phone. "We're live here in Maretime Bay, where six ponies have just come through the strange portal, and—"
"Pipp, are you seriously live-streaming this?" demanded Zipp. "There are times when your phone isn't needed, you know!"
"Come on, Zipp! Everypony in Equestria's gonna wanna see this! Besides, we're gonna want to let everyone know what's going on with that whole portal thing!"
"Yeah, but everyone in town is already filming this! I think we can afford to let them—"
Everypony was suddenly silenced as Hitch blew into his whistle three times. He stomped his hooves for extra emphasis.
"Okay, everypony, show's over!" he shouted. "You can go back to your homes, your businesses, whatever you were doing. We'll handle this!"
"Do we have to?" complained Sprout. A quick glare from Hitch silenced his fellow earth pony, and the crowd soon began to dissipate.
"Thank you," said Twilight. "Are you the leader of this town?"
"Not really the leader, but I am the sheriff," he answered. "Hitch Trailblazer of Maretime Bay, at your service."
"Pleasure to meet you, sheriff," Twilight continued. "As I've said, my name is Princess Twilight Sparkle, but you can just call me Twilight. These are my closest friends, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy." She pointed to each pony as she named them.Then her ears swiveled towards a nearby source of noise, which turned out to be Sunny squeeing again, barely holding it in. "Uh, is she alright?"
"She's fine," responded Izzy. "She's just freaking out because she gets to meet her idols in the flesh!"
Zipp rolled her eyes. "Sunny, I think you'd better do the introductions. Otherwise, you might explode from holding it in."
Sunny wasted no time, rushing over to Twilight, grabbing her by the hoof with both of hers, and wringing it like crazy.
"Hello!" she said, smiling as wide as possible. She spoke so fast it was hard for anypony to understand her. "My name's Sunny Starscout, it's always been my dream to meet you, my Dad studied you for his entire life, and now I'm meeting you, and this is the greatest day ever, and I—"
"Sunny, priorities!" said Zipp.
"Sorry, sorry." Sunny let got of Twilight's leg, although the purple alicorn was still shaking. "Like I said, my name's Sunny Starscout. These are my best friends. You've already met Hitch. This is Izzy Moonbow."
"Hi, new friends!" said the unicorn.
"Hi, new friends!" replied Pinkie.
"Princess Zephyrina Storm."
"Ugh, just call me Zipp."
"And her sister, Princess Pipp Petals."
Pipp waved politely. Rarity stared at her, with an intrigued look on her face.
"That tiara goes wonderfully with your mane, darling," she commented.
"Thank you," replied Pipp. Then she whispered to Zipp "See? She gets it."
"Whatever," replied the white pegasus.
"Anyway," Twilight loudly proclaimed, drawing everypony's attention again, "as Applejack said, we can now say for certain this is the future. I'm assuming the stories of my friends and I have been passed down?"
"Oh, yes, definitely!" replied Sunny. "My Dad dedicated his life to studying your era of Equestria."
Twilight smiled. "I'll bet that has some interesting stories attached to it. However, first things first. We came here because that," she pointed to the still swirling portal, "suddenly appeared in Ponyville in our time. From our magical scans, we determined that it was caused by something in this time. Do you have any idea what could've created this tear in the time-space continuum?"
"Well, we do have an idea," admitted Sunny. She held up the stopwatch-like device. "Some fillies uncovered this at the beach. We have no idea what it is, but according to them, that thing opened as soon as they touched it."
Twilight's eyebrows shot upwards. Clearly, that wasn't the response she'd been expecting. She frowned as she took the object in her magic, floating it over so she could examine it.
"The Time Twirler?" she asked to nopony in particular. "But it was broken. I know Sunset gave me the pieces, but how did it get fixed? Plus, it didn't have the power to do this before..." She looked back at Sunny. "Do you mind if we take this? It'll probably help us in our efforts to deal with the portal."
"Of course! Keep it, it's yours!" replied the earth pony, some of the enthusiasm slipping back into her voice.
Twilight levitated the Time Twirler into her saddlebags and closed them. "That was easier than expected," she said.
"Wait a minute," said Hitch. "Are you saying that the portal thing is dangerous?"
"Not at the moment," replied Twilight. "Currently, it's stable. But, if left unchecked, in theory, it could expand and pull all of Equestria into it on both sides. We're working on a counter-spell to seal it shut now."
"Yeah, but while we're waiting for that, you know what we could do?" asked Pinkie, producing one of her confetti cannons from nowhere. "Throw a party!"
Sunny and her friends (except Izzy) all jumped at the sight of the party cannon. "What—how—where did you pull that from?!" demanded Zipp.
"It's Pinkie Pie. We've learned not to question it," answered Applejack.
"Uh, not to be a party pooper, but don't we have stuff to do?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Shouldn't we get this Time Twirler thing back to our time right away?"
"Aw, come on, Dashie!" said Pinkie. "We just made five new friends! That definitely calls for a celebration."
The other five all turned towards Twilight, no doubt expecting her input on the situation. Twilight put one hoof on her chin, apparently thinking.
"Well, I suppose it couldn't hurt to spend a little time here," she said. "Let's not take anything besides the Time Twirler and maybe some pictures, though. I don't want to mess with the timeline any more than we have to."
"Yipee!" Pinkie and Izzy yelled at the same time. Pinkie jammed down on the fire button of her party cannon, launching a spray of confetti into the air, which Izzy proceeded to dance around in.
"I think Izzy's found a kindred spirit," said Zipp.
Meanwhile, Fluttershy looked around, discovering a small crab was sitting behind her, occasionally punching her in the back of the legs. Luckily, it didn't seem to be hurting her. Hitch noticed this, and rushed up, scooping up the crab.
"McSnipsalot!" he scolded. "We talked about being aggressive towards strangers!" The crab turned to look at him, before making a few small vocalizations. "Yes, I know you have territory to defend, but they're not intruding!"
"Wait a minute," Fluttershy began, as a smile appeared on her face, "you can talk to animals, too?!"
"Well, yes," replied Hitch. "Though I seem to be the only pony who can do it."
Fluttershy took to the air with a flap of her wings, joyously clapping her forehooves together. "I've never met anypony else who could do that! This is incredible!" Then she took notice of Sparky sitting on Hitch's back, and gasped. "Another baby dragon! Just like Spike, only smaller!"
"Wow," said Twilight, as Hitch held out Sparky for Fluttershy to pet. "A group of ponies and a baby dragon? Seems like history actually does repeat itself."
"Oh, right! You had that little dragon companion! What was his name? Spike?" asked Sunny.
"That's correct. How far in the future are we, anyway? It seems like you were the only pony who recognized us. Are we not well-known historical figures?"
"Well..." Sunny fiddled with her hooves. "Nopony's really sure when the reign of Princess Twilight ended. It's one of those things that got muddled up in history. The best I can guess is that you've come at least eight hundred years into the future."
Twilight frowned a little, but her smile returned soon enough. "Well, I am interested in seeing how far Equestria has come. Technology has certainly advanced. I assume, with all the phones, ponies have the internet now?"
"Yes, we—" Sunny froze. "Wait, how do you have any idea what those things are?"
"It's a long story that involves travel through a magic mirror to an alternate dimension," replied Twilight. "I'll...try to find the time to tell you about it."
Sunny smiled back at her. "I'd really appreciate that. Oh wait, I just remembered! I gotta show you this!"
She closed her eyes, clearly focusing internally on something. Twilight watched with fascination. Suddenly, Sunny's golden alicorn wings and horn appeared on her body, and her wings flapped, lifting her a bit off the ground.
"WHOA!" Twilight yelled. "You're an alicorn?!"
"Sort of," Sunny admitted, as she drifted back down to the ground. Her wings and horn faded away. "They come and go, and I haven't figured out exactly how to call them out. I can get them out for a couple of seconds, but that's it."
"Wow," replied Twilight. "I've never seen wings or horns like that before! This could be a completely new type of alicorn!" She lit up her horn, magically scanning Sunny's body. Sunny didn't seem to mind at all.
At the same time, Zipp was recording some notes into her phone, and Rainbow trotted over to her, examining her wings. It wasn't long before Zipp took notice.
"You got some muscle there, newbie," she remarked, as Zipp stared at her. "Maybe even Wonderbolt material. The Wonderbolts are still around in this future, right?"
"Uh, not exactly," replied Zipp. "I know I uncovered some old Wonderbolt posters in Zephyr Heights, but that's it. Though, maybe we'll end up starting another team."
"WHAT?!" exclaimed Rainbow. "The most awesome flying team in Equestria's history breaks up in the future?! What the heck happened?!"
"If it's any consolation, I'm sure it was ages after your time. It didn't help that we lost the ability to fly for a while."
Twilight's sensitive ear swiveled towards Zipp, and she stopped her conversation with Sunny in the middle of it. She turned around to face the white pegasus.
"Pegasi couldn't fly?" she asked, her eyebrows raising. "What happened?"
"Well..." Zipp began, seemingly unsure of how to breach the subject. "Oh wait! That reminds me! Can you tell us the rest of the message you left in the Unity Crystals? The things glitched out and we couldn't get the whole thing."
Twilight's face was blank. "Unity Crystals? Message? I'm sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about."
Realization dawned on Zipp's face. "You're from a point in time before they were made," she said. "So you don't know!"
"Know about what?!" Twilight demanded.
"We have earth pony magic now!" said Sunny, her excitement palpable in the air. She raised one of her forelegs, and the hoof began to glow green. When she brought it down, the glow transferred from her to the earth, and a small patch of flowers suddenly sprouted up right next to her.
"WHAT THE—?!" Twilight shouted, leaping into the air at the sight. She flew down to the flowers and studied them, finding that they were definitely real. "How...what...I don't understand..."
"Yeah," said Hitch. "You guys can't do that, huh?"
"Not as far as we know," responded Applejack. "I mean, in our time, earth ponies always did have a connection to the land. We could purify soil, and had enhanced strength that made it easier for us to do farm work, but not grow plants spontaneously."
"We can also manipulate existing plant life," added Sunny.
"That's crazy," said Pinkie. She looked at her own hooves. "I wonder..." She closed her eyes, raised both forehooves, and stomped the ground. The same green glow dripped from her hooves into the ground, and out sprang several large vines. One of them wrapped around Pinkie's torso and started swinging her around. "WEEEEEEE!"
"Amazing," said Twilight. "Still, though, what's all this about Unity Crystals, and pegasi not being able to fly for a time?"
"Maybe it's best if we just show you," said Izzy. "Follow us! We'll show you to the Crystal Brighthouse!" She pointed with one hoof towards the building at the edge of the cliff. "We can explain everything on the way."
"Hold on a minute, darlings," interrupted Rarity. "Shouldn't we do something to block off the portal so nopony else goes through it? Just for safety's sake?"
"Already on it!" came Pipp's voice. The others looked to find Zipp and Pipp surrounding the vortex with traffic cones and "DO NOT CROSS" lines.
"That'll do," said Hitch. At Twilight's skeptical look, he added, "Don't worry, everypony knows not to disobey a direct order from the sheriff."
"Well, if you're sure," responded Twilight.
Unfortunately for the ponies, none of them noticed the pair of eyes watching them, hiding behind a bush, or heard the telltale clicking of a camera.
Misty galloped away from the site of the portal as fast as she could. Sunny and the other ponies had just departed for the Brighthouse, and activity was starting to pick up again in Maretime Bay. In one hoof, Misty held the digital camera she'd swiped earlier, filled with photos of the new ponies that had come through the void, carefully taken from her hiding place. It wasn't hard to guess what she was planning to do with them.
Misty finally came to a stop around the back of Mane Melody. Nopony ever came to that particular spot, so she was sure to be alone and safe from prying eyes. After a quick look around to make sure she was absolutely alone, she reached up and tapped the amulet hanging around her neck.
"Opaline? We've got a real problem here," she whispered.
The bright gold covering slid away like an eyelid opening, revealing a pitch-dark center. A trail of dark purple smoke flowed out of the amulet, floating upwards and coalescing into the shape of a pony's head. The projection of Opaline opened her eyes and yawned loudly.
"Misty, you know this is the time of day when I take my naps," she complained. "Now what have you called me for? Have you managed to capture that dragon?"
"Well, no," Misty admitted. "But I think—"
"Then there's nothing for us to discuss, is there?!" Opaline snarled. Misty shrank back. "Listen, Misty. You'd better retrieve that dragon, or you'll never get a real Cutie Mark from me."
"I-I understand, Opaline," Misty stammered back. "But there's something you really need to know—"
"Need I remind you that dragon fire is the one thing that can restore my alicorn powers?" Opaline demanded. "You're wasting time calling me instead of doing what I told you to do and capturing the dragon!"
"Opaline, I think you'll want to see this—"
"Next time, don't call me up unless—"
That was when Misty reached her limit. "OPALINE! WILL YOU PLEASE LISTEN TO ME FOR ONE SECOND?!" Opaline actually froze, surprise written all over her face, and as comprehension slowly dawned on Misty, she began to quiver. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I don't know what came over me—"
"Speak. Now," Opaline said, simply. "You'd better hope this is good. For your sake."
Misty, taking that as a good sign, began to relay information. "Okay, so this weird vortex thing opened in the middle of Maretime Bay, and Sunny and her friends were looking at it, but then these six ponies came out of it, and one of them is an alicorn."
"Wait a minute," Opaline cut her off. "Are you telling me there's another alicorn in Equestria?!"
"Yeah! But that's not all! Look!" Misty held up the camera with the screen facing Opaline, and began clicking through the pictures she'd taken. Opaline's eyes opened wider and wider with each passing photo, and her mouth morphed into an angry grimace. "See the purple one? It's exactly like you showed me! It's—"
"Twilight Sparkle," Opaline growled. "Misty, I've changed my mind. Report back to the castle at once. We have work to do." With those words, her projected head faded back into blue smoke, and drifted back down into Misty's amulet, which shut with a click.
Misty's face changed, becoming clouded with what an observant pony might realize was disappointment. However, she shook it off after a few seconds, and began galloping back towards Opaline's castle.
"So, let me get this straight," Twilight began, as the ponies pushed open the door to the Crystal Brighthouse, "not only did the three tribes of ponies grow to hate each other again, not only did they live in separate towns and fear each other, but because of that, all the magic in Equestria just disappeared?!"
Sunny smiled nervously as Izzy chimed in with, "Yep! That's a pretty good way of putting it."
"We did manage to bring it back," added Zipp. "It took a lot of effort, but the three tribes are all friendly with each other now. We have a lot of integration between Zephyr Heights, Bridlewood, and Maretime Bay now."
"Yes, I understood that part," said Twilight, "but how'd things get that bad in the first place? And for that matter, if you had no magic, how'd you move the sun and moon?"
"'Move the sun and moon?'" asked Pipp. "Don't they move on their own?"
"Actually, in ancient Equestria, the celestial bodies were moved by the magic of the princesses," said Sunny. "From what my Dad's research uncovered, when Princess Celestia and Princess Luna passed on, they used all of their magic to ensure the sun and moon would always move in the same steady orbit. As for your first question...that I don't know."
"Well, is there a chance I could examine your father's research?" asked Twilight. "I'm just...confused as to how that could've happened."
"Sure, I don't mind. But there are some things I wanted to show you, first."
Sunny led the group up the Brighthouse ramps, towards the sleeping quarters. Eventually, they reached the central chamber, where beds surrounded a central elevator in a circle.
"So you all live here, together?" asked Applejack.
"All except me," replied Hitch. "I had a home in town already, and my job as sheriff means I can't be away for too long. Still, I come up here whenever I'm not working."
"And you say these 'unity crystals' rebuilt the lighthouse into this building for you?" asked Rarity. "My, it isn't as marvelous as your castle, is it, Twilight?"
"Oh, you've gotta show me the Castle of Friendship before we close the portal!" insisted Sunny. "But first, look at these!"
She grabbed a book, ran over to her bed, and returned balancing six little wooden figurines on top of the book. "My Dad hoof-carved these for me when I was just a filly! I used to play with them all the time!"
Twilight and the others looked, discovering that the figures were, in fact, lifelike versions of themselves. Curious, Twilight levitated over the figure of herself to examine it. The disturbance at the future left her face, replaced with something that might've been pride. The other five mares followed suit.
"How'd your dad know exactly what we looked like?" asked Fluttershy. "You said we weren't that well-known in this time."
"I don't care, as long as he got my good side!" said Rainbow, triumphantly holding up her figure. "I just wish it was me wearing my Wonderbolt uniform!"
"Argyle-Sunny's dad-was crazy into researching you and your period of Equestrian history," said Hitch. "He was the only one who knew that earth ponies, pegasi ,and unicorns were meant to be friends. Everypony else thought he was crazy (and Sunny by extension, I'm ashamed to admit), but as you can see, he was right all along."
"But that's not the main attraction," said Izzy, stepping up to the elevator. "You gotta check out the unity crystals!"
"If you insist!" said Pinkie, as she bounced over to join the lilac unicorn.
Once everypony was on the elevator, Sunny pressed the button, and the platform was raised skyward. Soon, the eleven ponies (and one dragon) found themselves standing in the dome of glass atop the Brighthouse, where a massive rainbow beam emanated from the pegasus winged crystal, the earth pony diamond, and the unicorn pointed gem. Twilight took the initiative, stepping towards the crystals.
"They seem like standard magical artifacts at a glance," she noted. "I wish I'd brought some notebooks." She fired up her horn once again, and a soft raspberry aura surrounded the floating crystals. Sunny opened her mouth, presumably to ask what she was doing.
"She's doing a probing spell," Pinkie chimed in, before the question could even be asked. "She's trying to figure out what kind of magic powers the crystals!"
Twilight kept her focus on the spell for a few more seconds, before her horn powered down and she opened her eyes.
"It's a lot like the magic of the Elements of Harmony," she remarked. "Not exactly the same, but similar. Do you have any idea who made these?"
"No. We have yet to figure that out," replied Zipp. "We were kinda hoping you could tell us when you showed up here."
"What was this about a message in the crystals?" asked Rainbow.
"Let me show you," said Sunny.
She raised her hoof, pressing it flat against the crystals. As she did, her Cutie Mark, as well as the Cutie Marks of her four best friends, began glowing, and rainbow-colored magic began flowing from the marks into the crystals. Twilight and her friends looked down, seeing that magic was coming from their marks as well.
"Uh, what's happening?" asked Applejack.
"I don't know," replied Twilight. "It seems like the crystals are...responding to our Cutie Marks?"
Then, without warning, a massive, transparent image of a pony was projected from the Unity Crystals. An all too familiar looking pony.
"Oh my stars!" exclaimed Rarity, wobbling like she was going to faint. Izzy managed to catch her just in time.
Twilight could only stare in sheer surprise. Her eyes were spellbound, staring back at the image of herself. The same purple eyes, the same lavender coat, the same midnight blue mane with one magenta stripe through it. The same everything. The projection didn't even notice, of course.
"If you're seeing this, magic is now more powerful than it's ever been, and earth pony magic has been activated for the first time in the history of Equestria!" said the Twilight hologram. Applejack and Pinkie looked down at their own hooves, no doubt remembering the new powers they had available to them. "Magic is alive, always changing, growing stronger. There are evil forces out there who will want to exploit it. Once, a pony tried to steal all the magic in Equestria for herself, and almost succeeded." Twilight kept her eyes on the hologram, listening intently. Rainbow, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity all traded glances, looking nervous.
The speech continued. "I did all that I could to protect it from—" The hologram fazed, like static on a tv screen. "—by summoning all my magic to achieve placing the magic in the crystals—" The hologram sparked a few more times. "But the spell is broken. You are exposed to the world once again! You must watch out for Op—before she—I'm with you." With a little more static, the hologram faded away, leaving only the glowing Unity Crystals.
There was a blanket of silence hanging over the group. Nopony spoke up. Perhaps they feared what would happen if they broke the tension. Even Twilight could only stare at where the projection had been, her mouth hanging open. Eventually, Applejack got the courage to walk up to her, and place a hoof on her barrel.
"Twilight? You okay?"
"I...I..." Twilight breathed. "I can't believe it."
"Neither could I," replied Sunny. "When we first saw that message, it was like everything I'd been raised to believe in was validated, even more than when we brought magic back. Most ponies only believed you and your friends to be old ponies' tales, but this proved they were wrong!"
Twilight didn't respond. Instead, she lit up her horn once again, probing the depths of the crystals with her magic.
"The message has degraded," she finally announced. "The only thing I can think of is that it's been in there for so long that it's become corrupted. Whenever she-I-put that message inside the crystals, it must've happened a very, very long time ago."
"Like a computer file becoming corrupted as the system breaks down," said Pipp.
"Totally! I'm not sure what that means, but totally!" responded Pinkie Pie.
"But what was I trying to warn everypony about?" asked Twilight, talking to nopony in particular. "What kind of pony would try and steal all the magic in Equestria for herself?"
"I don't know," admitted Sunny. "I figure it must've happened sometime after you took over as princess of all Equestria from Celestia and Luna. I—"
"WHAT?!" exclaimed Twilight. "I-I take over from Celestia and Luna?! I rule all of Equestria?!"
Sunny blinked, as everypony's eyes turned to look at her. Her ears drooped down. "Oooh," she mumbled. "I kinda forgot you might not already know that. I'm sorry."
Twilight didn't respond. All she did was place her forehooves onto her head, staring intently at nothing in front of her, while panting furiously.
"Oh, no, Twilight's having another breakdown!" exclaimed Pinkie. She rushed over and pushed a paper bag into Twilight's face for her to breathe into. Where she got the paper bag was anypony's guess. Twilight began panting into the bag, after mumbling some thanks to her friend.
"Is she...alright?" asked Zipp.
"She'll be fine," replied Rainbow. "She just needs a minute to ingest this. She has...let's say a hard time with unexpected stress."
Twilight took a few more deep breaths into the bags, before setting it down on the floor.
"Is there somewhere I could lie down?" she asked. "I don't need a bed or anything, I just...I need a break."
"Oh, sure. We have a couple of couches. You want a blanket?" said Hitch.
Sunny could only stare after the pony she idolized, who was currently in the middle of a freakout, due to her actions.