//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 - My Two Most Faithful Students // Story: My Two Most Faithful Students // by Flaeirye //------------------------------// “Are you ready, Spike?” “No, Twilight. Can we just stop this?” On a cold, moonless night in Ponyville, a pony and a dragon continued to argue inside the library. Twilight’s room was a cacophony of papers, books, quills and ink splotches, which had been created from the unicorn’s week-long research. Despite Spike’s efforts, he could not dampen her determination to try this one spell. “Oh come on, Spike. You know that nothing’s going to go haywire, right?” He gave his warden a look of concern. “But you say that every time something goes wrong!” Twilight could not resist a chuckle. He was probably right about that. “But this time, I triple checked the formula. And besides,” she said as she tapped the dragon’s skull. “You remember me doing this before. And nothing went wrong.” “Except for maybe breaking inside the Star Swirl the Bearded wing and causing your past self to freak out for a week.” The spell in discussion was a modified version of Star Swirl’s time spell. In theory, Twilight knew she couldn’t attempt this anymore, since she already cast it last time when she wanted to warn herself not to worry over nothing. But after a few alterations on the parameters, she removed the limit of how many times she could cast it. After a week of straining herself to break down the spell, it was the night she was going to try it out. When would she appear? That part she hadn’t really thought about. “Spike, when do you think I should go? Maybe in the Pre-Equestrian era? Too risky. What about the time I became Princess Celestia’s personal student? That’ll just be asking for trouble…” Spike hesitantly backed away to give the unicorn some space while thinking on when she would appear. His dragon sense constantly told him something would go wrong, but he knew that he could trust Twilight. Trying to shrug it away, Spike gave her a go signal. Twilight smiled at him excitedly. “I got it, I’ll go back to the time when I met my friends! This will be great!” She patted his head reassuringly, not oblivious to her friend/brother/son’s worry. “Here’s the deal, Spike. If I’m gone for more than a day, you can give Princess Celestia a message. But if not, you must NOT tell her about this. Who knows what punishment she’ll give me for time traveling?” She gave him a cold stare, showing just how serious she was. Spike sighed, knowing that this was it. No argument, not even Princess Celestia’s, would stop her. The lavender pony couldn’t bear the excitement any longer. “Here it goes,” she said as she planted her four hooves firmly to the ground, knowing the amount of energy she would be dealing with. The placid background became so still that a dropped pin would’ve sounded like a sonic rainboom in their ears. The room suddenly glowed in a bright shade of magenta as wisps of magic and electricity surrounded Twilight. A low hum filled the dreaded silence, energy beginning to build up all over her body. Around her, papers and books danced in a symphony of chaos as she glowed brighter and brighter. Twilight’s horn began to glow as bright as the sun, grunting every time she gave the spell more magic. The wisps of magic merged with the unicorn’s body, silencing everything for a split second. Spike could do nothing more than to shade his eyes from the light. “Twi—” His shout was cut short by a blast of blinding purple magic shockwave that erupted from the unicorn, a noise which was heard by all of Ponyville. --- Twilight groaned as the extremely annoying static noise in her ears wouldn’t stop. It was like somepony had crammed some Parasprites inside her skull, and they were multiplying every second. She was lying down on the ground, dirt now sticking at her once vibrant lilac coat. Her head felt like lead. She wanted to vomit, yet decided to hold her previous dinner from seeing the world. Her vision was blurred to the point that she could only see splotches of yellow and gray. The magical recoil from the last spell wasn’t this bad. Maybe I gave the spell too much magic? she reasoned to herself. As her body slowly started to recover, her mind began to spin its gears. Okay, Twilight Sparkle, time to analyze the surroundings. The sun is just directly above me, which means that it’s somewhere around noon. Wait, is that smoke I’m smelling? Shaking her head, she cleared her muddled thoughts as she stood up. At first the unicorn thought she was still in a trance. It was true that too much magic makes you imagine things. But a too-realistic shriek from afar confirmed her fears that this was indeed very real. She was standing outside a small village composed of several primitive huts she recognized from some of her history books. Though that fact was strange on its own, it was not what troubled Twilight’s mind. Instead of laughter and joy that were usually heard in Equestria, the air was filled with ghastly screams of ponies running away from the village for their dear lives. Most of them, she noticed, were earth ponies wearing sackcloth similar to those at the Hearth’s Warming play. Houses were burned, their smoke towering high above the heavens. Another cry in the distance removed Twilight from her stupor, deciding that the best action for now was to brave the dangers and save the poor village ponies from whatever had attacked them. Whatever it was, it must be something dangerous to cause this much destruction. As long as she didn’t attract too much attention, the timeline should be preserved from any more tampering she would be causing. Twilight set aside some spells in her mind, prepared for everything. Well, almost everything. She entered the town, ready to save it, when she ran into a small group of ponies. Seeing that this was the best place to start looking for answers, Twilight asked them the biggest question in her head. “Excuse me, what’s goi—” A brown stallion as big as Big Macintosh quickly snapped his head to the direction of the voice and slightly backed away. Without saying a word, he went into a bucking stance and prepared to buck the life out of the purple pony. Twilight instinctively conjured a small barrier which shattered from the strength of the kick and sent her flying unto a stack of hay nearby. That move was so fast that she was not able to restrain him with magic. Twilight hastily stood up and faced the pony who attacked her for no reason at all. “Go! I’ll take care of this one!” he commanded the rest of the group. As they ran without even looking back, his full attention quickly returned to Twilight. “Before you’re going for my family, you’re going through me.” That sentence left Twilight dumbfounded. “What do you mean by that?” The earth pony backed away some more, his stance still ready to spring into action. “You ungrateful unicorns are raiding this town again! We'll see how you like dealing with this the earth pony way.” Both unicorn and earth pony stared at each other, the tension between them rising. Though confused, Twilight would not let her guard down. The brown stallion unexpectedly jumped towards Twilight, intending to use his weight to pin her down. It was a useless attempt however, as an aura of magenta surrounded him in time, freezing him midair. You’re not doing any surprise attacks to me this time. “Why are you stereotyping unicorns? And who is raiding this town?” Twilight’s tone became much more serious. This must all be one sick joke. What is wrong with this time? Ponies constantly bickering about races. Hold on, isn’t that… The earth pony spat at her. “Are you an idiot or something? You know winter is coming soon, and so here you are taking more than what we give. Typical for snobs like you.” Twilight didn’t need to answer that, for she knew it would be pathetic. His skull was as thick as Applejack’s, maybe even thicker. If my observations are true… no, I can’t assume that I am indeed at that particular time. I flawlessly performed the spell without fail. This may be a region far from Equestria, for all I know. Her train of thought abruptly ended as a high filly-like scream pierced through the collective noise of terror. Thinking that she was done with this pony, she roughly landed him on the ground and shouted, “Go, follow your family! I’ll help whoever that was.” After a stone-cold stare from Twilight that would have scared a dragon, the earth pony ran away from her. Even he knew that this mage was not somepony to be trifled with. All he could do now was silently thank her for sparing his life, after all that he did. She didn’t even spare him a look as she went straight for the source of the voice. --- There! Twilight thought as she spotted a hut being surrounded by a group of unicorns wearing armor. She could detect harsh words being thrown and a faint cry inside. That gave her extra energy to sprint faster than her body could allow. I would’ve finished the Running of the Leaves in seconds at this speed, she silently commented to herself. In the middle of the commotion were two small unicorn fillies. One was standing bravely, levitating a stick. Her white coat and pink mane were horribly stained with brown and red. Her magenta eyes were filled with anger and determination, ready to inflict pain on whoever went too close. The smaller filly cowered behind her, with a dark blue coat and light blue mane that were as frazzled as her sister. Clinging tightly to the older filly’s legs, she wished over and over again that somepony would just appear and take them away from here. The white-coated filly waved her stick in the air, challenging the unicorns. “You’re not hurting my sister, you monsters!” she cried out. The group laughed at her vain efforts, like this was all some kind of a comedy act. The biggest unicorn stood among the crowd, his patience nearly breaking up. “If you will stop this foalish attempt, I won’t hurt you.” His grey coat and yellow trimmed mane were as pristine as he first arrived in this town, unlike the others who had a hard time battling the earth ponies that stood their ground. He had this frown at his face, ready to burst into anger anytime. That fact did not wipe out her courage for defending her younger sister. “You won’t do that. You always hurt us. Die in Tartarus, you worthless jerk!” She quickly regretted saying that as the grey unicorn charged his horn with yellow magic and pointed it at the two. When a yellow beam of magic blasted out from it, the filly closed her eyes and prepared herself to block the shot with her own body. Surprisingly, she felt nothing hitting her. She gradually opened her eyes, and stared at the unexpected scene with disbelief. The yellow beam evaporated upon collision with a purple bubble that had somehow surrounded both her and her sister. After a flash of blinding light, a purple pony stood between them and the unicorns, facing the group with anger. The crowd broke into murmurs, until the leader silenced them all. “Get out of the way, rogue unicorn. Don’t you know who I am?” The unicorn dramatically placed a hoof in his chest. “I am High Knight Sir Aura Gleam, head of the Knights of Unicornia. Step aside or follow their demise.” He pointed at the two scared fillies. Twilight did not move an inch at his words. She had a steel resolve to defend the fillies. Their acts to torment these two were immoral, and she could not leave them alone here to suffer more of their stupidity. “No, they should not be treated this way. Leave these two in peace, or you’ll get a live demonstration of my magic.” Twilight knew this was an empty threat, however. She couldn’t take all of these unicorns on her own, they were just too many for her to handle. This called for her special signature magic spell, the one spell that had fooled Nightmare Moon in all her glory. “Everypony, fire at will!” Aura barked without hesitation. Twilight grunted as she hurriedly forced as much magic as she can into her horn and swiftly teleported herself along with the two fillies. The lingering sparks of magic that remained left the group dumbfounded, still trying to comprehend what just happened. The High Knight angrily stomped his hooves at the ground and screamed at the top of his lungs. “All of you, scour the whole village, find those two brats and teach them a lesson!” He snorted, thinking again about the purple mage. Nopony would dare humiliate him in front of his troops. “And if you find that rogue unicorn, bring her to me alive!” --- The trio appeared in a forest just outside the village. Twilight rubbed her head, soothing it from the pain caused by long ranged teleportation. She always hated to do it suddenly, and now she just pushed her limits to teleport as far as her magic can take them. These recoils just keep getting more and more annoying every time. After moments of contemplation, she looked at the fillies she just saved. The white one was still waving that stick of hers like a sword. The younger filly actually seemed happy at what just happened. She poked her older sister to grab her attention. “I think my wishing worked, sis. Somepony did appear and took us away from them.” She looked at Twilight and smiled with enthusiasm. “Did you hear my wish, miss unicorn?” Twilight smiled back as she continued to analyze the events that just transpired. “I dunno, maybe? Anyway, where are we?” The white filly refused to drop her guard. “I think we’re in the Trote forest, which is just at the outskirts of Trote.” Then everything clicked inside Twilight’s mind. The stereotyping ponies and the unicorn raid, stuff she remembered on a certain play. Aura Gleam and Trote, names she read on a very old history book. All of those facts supported her theory on when did she truly appear. I overshot the spell, and now I’m in the Pre-Equestrian period. What’s more, with the distance of my time travel, I should’ve been brought back to my own time by the time I arrived. Why am I still here? “Um, miss unicorn, are you okay?” the blue filly asked with worry, although it failed to register in her jumbled thoughts. Don’t worry Twilight, you can fix this. Just check the spell… which I left at the future. Then recreate the spell! It’ll take time, but it is still possible. Just don’t mess up the timeline, and things will be fine. “Miss unicorn?” the filly repeated. Twilight look at both of them, and realized her mistake. Saving these two fillies just messed up the timeline. Was it even worth it? Why don’t they have cutie marks at their age? They’re still fillies, of course. “Miss?” Twilight shook her head, trying to straighten out her thoughts. These fillies need my help now. “Sorry there, I just zoned out for a while. If I can ask, why were those unicorns pursuing you?” The white filly snorted from that question. “We escaped from Unicornia, since we were treated like rags there,” she exclaimed with anger, saying the word ‘rags’ like it was something she loathed her whole life. “We decided to travel to the Earth Villages. Wherever we go—” she released her hold of the stick, her mind now consumed with emotions “—everypony always forces us to work! All those just because we have magic, and I…” Her eyes were now sheathed in tears, with all those painful memories resurfacing. She sniffed and tried to hold back from crying. “I couldn’t protect my sister from them! And now you’re going to drag us back to Unicornia, to those greedy jerks. Please… leave my sister. Take me instead!” She finally gave up resisting and cried her heart out to the ground, her sister trying her best to comfort her with a hug. The sight tugged Twilight’s heart. So these two were unloved and abused by everypony they knew. That’s… horrible. She stepped nearer to the poor fillies and wrapped them both with a tight hug. When the older sibling looked at the unicorn’s face, she was greeted by a warm smile which calmed her heart. Inside her very core, she longed for that kind of smile to be given to her. And now all she wanted to do was to bask from its radiance. “Don’t worry. I won’t force you to do anything,” Twilight said with love. Then a brilliant idea occurred to her. It was silly, in a sense, but maybe they can use it in the future. And this won’t do any major changes in history. “If you want, I can teach you what I know about magic, so that you can defend yourself when the time comes.” The fillies gasped at Twilight’s idea. They both looked at her with mirth in their eyes. “Really?” Then the white filly’s ears dropped. “But we don’t have anything to pay you with.” Twilight chuckled at that. “You don’t need to pay me. It’ll be enough for me to know that you’re both safe.” “Thank you, thank you, thank you…” they both repeated as they buried their muzzles into Twilight’s chest. Twilight hugged them closer, like a mother protecting her child from the dangers of the world. I need time to recreate a counter spell, so I can pass some time teaching them. Releasing them both from the hug, she was happy that their faces now showed a big smile, excited at the prospect of somepony teaching them for free. It was very rare for a unicorn to teach without expecting payment. Back at Unicornia, nopony cared to teach them about simple levitation, since they did not have anything to give. Never in their dreams have they expected this. “Oh yeah, we forgot about the introductions. What are your names?” Twilight asked as she looked at them curiously. The older filly chortled. “My name’s Celeste, and—” The younger filly quickly interrupted her sister. “I’m Selene!” Somehow, those names rang a bell in Twilight’s mind. Choosing to ignore it, she replied, “And I’m Twilight Sparkle.” Celeste looked at Twilight with thrill. “So, Twilight, does this mean that we can go with you? We don’t really want to go back at the villages anyway.” How do I support these two when I don’t have anything myself!? Oh well, I’ll think of a way. “Sure. I don’t have a home here too, so we can brave this world together, right?” The filly sighed in content. Young Selene suddenly jumped for joy upon hearing that somepony would take care for them now. “Yes! Yes! Yes! This is like, the best day ever!” She burst with glee as she looked at Twilight with her innocent olive eyes. “Thank you, Twilight.” She gave her the only thing she could give: A big hug. Celeste joined her sister, thinking the same thoughts. “Thank you, Twilight,” she repeated. “You’re welcome, girls.” Twilight internally laughed at her next words. Won’t Princess Celestia laugh at these events? If I ever see her again. “Anything for my two most faithful students.”