"Can we hurry this up?" asked Rainbow Dash. "I still have half a nap to finish." Despite her claim of needing rest, her wings were flapping wildly as if she might burst into a marathon at any moment.
"You literally just woke up, darling," Rarity said as she stared at her.
"Speaking of waking up," Pinkie blurted out. "Last night I had a weird dream where I gave Dashie a sleepy cupcake and-"
"What'cha call us here for, Twi?" Applejack asked as she casually put a hoof in Pinkie's muzzle to quieten her. "We're all ears!"
"I'm hoping it's fast too... um... not to be rude," Fluttershy admitted, then ducked slightly as soon as Twilight glanced in her direction. "It's just that Trixie has me taking care of her manticore this weekend, and I'm trying to find food it can eat without asking for volunteers from my other animal friends... or pony friends."
The group currently sat around the large map table, as they often did. Twilight was in the largest seat at the front of the table, with Spike curled up on his seat next to her, already napping and hugging a Rarity plush as he did. It would have been cute if Rarity didn't keep glancing at him as if it creeped her out.
"Oh this won't take too long," Twilight was confident. "I just had to show you this new spell I figured out! Oddly enough, Time Turner helped me make it."
"An earth pony helped you make a spell?" Applejack head-tilted. Nopony else said anything because if a non-earth said that, it might sound racist, and Pinkie's muzzle was still full of Applejack's hoof as a precautionary measure.
Twilight explained. "Well he had this idea that instead of traveling back in time, we could bring time forward to us! I've expanded this idea until I believe I can create a temporal window to show us the past without interfering! I've made various improvements, so it should be very detailed, as if we were actually watching it in real time. Their time, obviously. If successful, it could be a boon to historians. What better way to settle debates over how past events occurred?"
"Doesn't that sound a little risky?" Fluttershy asked, her voice pitching up to a squeak at the end of the sentence.
"Like more than usual," said Rainbow, but had her head still on the table. "Like Starlight-using-time-travel levels of risky."
"Is that why you didn't invite Starlight?" asked Pinkie after extracting Applejack's hoof form her muzzle.
"You have 'tested' this spell, right Twilight?" Rarity asked, a slight quiver in her voice.
"Oh I just came up with it last night," Twilight said. "So I guess this is the test! But no worries, I'm quite confident that there shouldn't be any side-effects, paradoxes, or alternate realities created. Anyway, this isn't a big event, so even if it were slightly altered, the elasticity of time should ensure no big changes happen. And it will be super cute!"
"Aw," said Fluttershy, immediately convinced with the promise of cuteness. "Maybe a peek won't hurt."
"That's right!" Twilight continued before anypony else interrupted. "We're going to go see my first birthday party!"
"That sounds fun!" Pinkie blurted out, seeming to assist Twilight in cutting off complaints from the others. "And no worries, even if you destroy time in this story, it won't affect the canon timeline!" It worked to silence the others, as they took a moment to stare at Pinkie's nonsense.
Since they did look a bit nervous though, Twilight figured she would just go ahead and cast it so they'd feel better when they saw the flawlessly adorable result. As she concentrated, the time portal opened above the table so that they could look upwards into it. They all did so, at least aside form her loyal but sleeping assistant Spike.
Opening the portal went well, as did connecting to the proper time as an image slowly formed inside the portal. However, when Twilight attempted to put her own spin on it by projecting them ethereally into the scene so they could invisibly observe in person, things went less well.
In a flash, Twilight found herself in another place, in a much tinier and very non-ethereal body.