Twilight Sparkle could feel the castle tower disappear around her, a disorienting sensation of motion taking its place. The light that still filled her vision seemed to flicker and pulse, and there was a howling noise like the frigid winds of the northern Crystal Mountains, but no breeze stirred her mane.
Somewhere in the cacophony of sensations, she could feel her friends were still around her. She reached out with her senses, and she felt like she was yelling to them that everything would be all right, and she felt a reassuring nudge return, but all of it felt like it was more inside her than around her.
Suddenly, the sound and light grew more intense, then instantly vanished, leaving Twilight stumbling in pitch black. Moving as if she had suddenly landed from a a running leap, it still felt more like the ground fell at her from above than it felt like she collapsed.
She heard her friends stumble into each other, and Fluttershy squeak nervously at the darkness. “Urahh...” Twilight's attempts to speak were thwarted, and she coughed slightly. Her throat felt parched.
“Where are we?” Rainbow Dash's voice echoed in the darkness. “This doesn't look like a castle to me.”
“Is it night?” Rarity's voice added.
“Too dark,” Applejack noted. “No stars, no moon.”
“Oh no, we went too far and nothing exists yet!” Fluttershy almost shrieked.
“Something exists, or where would we be standing?” Pinkie Pie said in singsong, a stomping sound accompanying her words.
“Hold on,” Twilight finally managed, lighting her horn slightly. The natural stone formations within the radius of her light answered their question. “A cave?”
“Iris Dash?” Rainbow dash said incredulously, pointing at her double. “But how?”
“You got me,” Iris shrugged. “All I know is I felt the Element of Loyalty tug at me when you started. I didn't want to disrupt the spell, so I was going to move further away, but Twilight seemed to think it'd be better to move in.”
“I wonder why-” Rainbow looked down. “Hey! Where's my necklace?!”
“Oh my, mine's gone too, and yours,” Fluttershy pointed to Pinkie Pie's neck, who was closest to her.
“They're all missing,” Rarity observed. “Even... Twilight? What happened to you?”
“What do you mean?” She looked up, trying to see above her horn, shaking her head slightly. “Yes, mine's gone, too.”
“I don't think that's what she means, sugarcube,” Applejack said, “I think she means that.” Twilight followed Applejack's hoof in a line to her own flank, where there was an hourglass symbol, the sand depicted as being mostly on top.
“My cutie mark!” Twilight exclaimed, puzzled. “It must be the spell.”
“Will it go back to normal when we return to our own time?” Rarity asked.
“I... don't really know. Starswirl's notes didn't mention anything about this.” Her head throbbed, and her light flickered slightly, then suddenly a bright blue light overpowered it.
“What are you thinking, Rarity,” the white unicorn asked herself. “Let me take care of the lighting, Twilight. You must be exhausted.”
“Well, we'd best work on finding a way out of here,” Applejack glanced around uneasily.
“This way!” Pinkie Pie was already bouncing in a direction.
“I don't understand,” Twilight said, following. “This should be the right place and time. Maybe I wasn't powerful enough, maybe we didn't make it all the way.”
“Twi, I never even thought to imagine what you tried,” Applejack reassured her. “I'm sure we'll get it sorted out.”
“Get us open sky and we'll get you where!” Rainbow Dash added, hoof-bumping Iris.
“There!” Rarity pointed ahead, the shape of Pinkie Pie's bouncing outline silhouetted against daylight. “See that wasn't so-” Suddenly, the opening seemed to vanish.
“What in Celestia-” Applejack began, but then fell speechless as the light returned.
“It's okay!” Pinkie Pie yelled back cheerily. “It just became nighttime, then daytime again!”
“That... uhm, doesn't sound okay,” Fluttershy stammered.
“Wait, does that mean what I think it does?” Rainbow said. They all turned to Twilight Sparkle.
“Well, we're in the right time, then, anyway,” Twilight Sparkle noted, smiling reassuringly despite the shiver that ran down her spine. “We were aiming for 1,348 years in the past, which would be.. in the year of the reign of King Discord.” She rushed the last part out, as if the sentence could sneak by undetected if she pushed it along.
“King. Discord?!” Rainbow Dash fumed. “We'll see about that!” She and Iris took to the air, only to have their tails enveloped by a rope.
“Hold on there, girls,” Applejack said, giving the rope a sharp tug. She'd long since developed a technique to wrangle them both at once. “I don't remember hearin' about Discord being toppled by a couple rainbow-maned pegasi, do you?”
“No, but-”
“Applejack's right,” Twilight Sparkle interrupted. “We have to leave him to the princesses if we want to recognize our world at all when we get home... That's it! The elements! Their magic is unique – they couldn't follow us to this time, because they already exist here!”
“Hey, Twilight, what were those things you'd said about the love poison story?” Pinkie Pie said as they caught up to her at the cave entrance.
“There was a prince who wanted to win the love of a princess,” Twlight began to recite reflexively.
“Not that part, before that!”
“Uh...” she focused around the knot that lingered inside her head. “There was a part about a wizard and a dragon, but-”
“Oh! Oh!” Pinkie hopped in place, “Then we're in the right place, look!” She pointed in the distance. In front of them was a barren stretch, and hills further away, on the other side of a distant road that seemed to rise up from a valley on their left. The valley was surrounded by jagged broken ground, so that the path was the only way through. Twilight Sparkle only had a few seconds to dedicate to the terrain, though, as all of her attention shifted to the scene where Pinkie Pie was pointing.
A large red dragon billowed plumes of smoke, swinging its head around towards the shape of a unicorn which was dwarfed by the reptile. Flames spouted from the dragon's mouth, and the air wavered with the heat, but the unicorn brought up a force field, holding it in place, even as he seemed to be galloping in their direction.
“Do we get involved in this, then?” Iris asked.
Twilight hesitated a moment, but the intimidating beast only loomed larger with each moment. “It doesn't look like we're getting a choice. Dashes, see if you can't provide a distraction.” Iris and Rainbow nodded, giving a fierce look as they launched into the sky. “Everypony else, get close! Applejack, Pinkie Pie, when we get there, try to keep his tail busy! Fluttershy, be ready for The Stare in case we can get him to a point where we can use it.” Fluttershy nodded, though still shivering uncontrollably and ducking behind Rarity. “I'll get to that unicorn and see if we can work some spells.”
“But-” Twilight wasn't sure which of her friends was going to object, because she interrupted them by teleporting them in before they could finish. Their sudden appearance startled the dragon, who was already confused by the swift pegasi buzzing around his head. He reared up and let out a roar that seemed to shake the ground, and only then did Twilight realize how massive the ancient beast was. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Too late now.
“How can we help?” She yelled to the unicorn.
“I'll admit, I'm not an expert dragon fighter,” he responded, continuing his gallop towards her. “I rescued this from him,” he nodded back to a bundle on his back, wrapped in a traveling cloak as caked in mud and dust as the unicorn himself was, “and I'm afraid he was none too pleased.” Twilight looked behind to where Applejack was trying to wrangle the dragon's errant tail, Pinkie Pie hopping over it each time he swiped with it. “I'm in thy debt.”
“'Tis nothing,” Twilight responded, mentally trying to account for the lingual shift. They'll all sound like Luna in this time. “Hast thou thoughts on besting this beast?”
“Twilight!” Rarity interrupted. The dragon had taken to the air in a short leap, and was darting right towards them.
“Hold on!” She judged the distance and quickly teleported them to where Pinkie Pie and Applejack had been left behind in a tangled rope when the back draft from the dragon's wings buffeted them. She stumbled as the painful knot throbbed.
“Impressive!” the unicorn noted. He began muttering to himself, drawing figures in the dust.
“He's pretty mad,” Rainbow Dash said, darting in.
“I don't think The Stare's going to work this time,” Iris added.
“Oh, good,” Fluttershy responded. She had been instinctively trying to fly in the opposite direction the entire time, her tail firmly wedged in Rarity's mouth.
“Hol sthill!” Rarity objected around the tail, her magic working to help untangle the earth ponies.
“Dost thou know any weather spells?” the unicorn interjected.
Twilight considered his sketches, then her face suddenly lit up. “I know this one, I've just been studying them of late. Rarity, might we enlist thine aid in this?” To the questioning glance she received in reply, she clarified. “I just have need of thine energy, we can guide the spell.”
Rarity nodded, dropping Flutterhy's tail. “Whatever thou hast in mind, make haste!” she replied, flawlessly taking up the accent, pointing behind Twilight. The dragon, momentarily confused by their disappearance, had located them, and was turning his bulk to renew his attack.
“Right! Everypony else... follow Fluttershy! I'd like distance between you and what we're trying.” Twilight smiled reassuringly before they could object, turning to face the looming dragon.
“Shall we, then?” the unicorn asked, his horn already aglow with a bright yellow.
Twilight stepped closer and carefully put her horn near his, pulling up her own magic and gently pushing it towards his horn. The purple glow arched like electricity across the gap. Rarity followed her lead and stepped up to the other side, adding her own blue arch of magic to the spell. Twilight looked back at the sketch in the ground, making sure she had her figures right. It was definitely like the one she'd seen in Starswirl's weather spells.
No. It is the sketch from his weather spells.
“Easy, now!” he warned, as her magic had surged with her sudden realization. “Thou wilt carry us all off at that rate!” Already, the winds were pulling the dragon's smoke and flame into a wreath around it, and its confusion at that only grew as the winds became strong enough to lift him from the ground with its wings still motionless. As it slowly ascended out of range, it made a single errant swipe at them, and Twilight felt Starswirl subtly split just a bit of energy away from the spell to create just enough of a force field to deflect it.
Momentum continued to carry the beast high into the air, and the pony-made tornado slowly moved off past the cave they'd arrived in, and further out of sight, dragon and all.
Starswirl exhaled deeply, then lifted his bundled cloak from his back, setting it gently on the ground, the bells trimming the edges of the cloak tinkling only slightly. “My thanks, fair mares. How might I repay thee?”