//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: First Day // Story: Stopping the Future That the past Creates // by Yoshi1990 //------------------------------// Twilight started clapping her hooves, "You actually traveled through time! And not just a little! That’s amazing!" Celestia smiled as she looked at Luna, "Now we can mark another pony in the history books as a time traveler." Luna giggled, "Too bad we will not be able to tell anypony." Twilight looked over at the other two princesses with a curious face. "Can you tell me who else traveled through time?" Both the princesses answered unanimously, "We can tell you one of them. Star Swirl the Bearded figured out time travel." Twilight looked a little sad. "I should have known that. It was kind of obvious." "Who is Star Swirl the Bearded?" asked Lightwing. Twilight gasped, "What did you just say?" "I just asked who Star Swirl the Bearded is. Should I know who he is?" replied Lightwing. Twilight gasped again, "He is only one of the most important unicorns in history! It saddens me that he was lost from your history." Lightwing gave Twilight a pat on the back, "I’m sure I could find a history book with him in it from my time. I have a huge library that I can go to." Princess Celestia stood up. "Does anypony want to get some food to eat before I raise the sun?" She started walking to the doors. The other ponies all nodded and followed Celestia to the dining room. Lightwing noticed that there was only one table in this big room, but it was big enough to fit twenty ponies. The three princesses sat down in the chairs that were obviously made for them. Lightwing sat across the table from them. Food was already in the center of the table because there was a meal planned in twenty minutes. Lightwing looked a little worried about eating the food but chose to eat it anyways. "I’m so lucky to get to eat with the princesses!" A minute later, Lightwing frowned and her ears flopped down when she realized she was the only pony there who could not eat her food using magic. She was going to change that. She reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a potion labeled Levitation and she drank a little bit of it. "Time to impress you, princesses." She began to levitate her food using a green colored magic. As princess Luna and Celestia were eating, they looked shocked to see the pegasus using magic. Twilight almost choked on her food as she saw the amazing sight. "How are you doing that?" Lightwing sighed. "I make magic potions. I told you this in my story but using magic always has a price." Twilight flailed her hooves around. "But potions are not supposed to give you magic! They just mimic magic by themselves and don’t give ponies actual magic. And what do you mean by using magic has a price?" Lightwing levitated her cup over for a drink. She began to levitate it back. A feeling of fear took over her as she felt her magic fade. The green aura surrounding the cup faded and gravity pulled the cup toward the floor. Thinking fast, Lightwing dived out of her chair toward the falling cup. Her wing collided with her plate in this process. She grabbed the cup with all four of her hooves and landing nicely on the floor. A shattering sound was heard a second later. Lightwing saw her broken plate and food on the other side of her chair. The mess vanished in a purple light. Lightwing hovered back into her chair and forcefully put the cup on the table. Without thinking, Lightwing pounded the table with a hoof. The cup fell over and rolled off the table, shattering on impact with the floor. Lightwing growled like an angry dog, "Well that’s a nice example of a price for me using magic. I hate it when that happens!" I need to behave. I’m in the company of princesses. Lightwing took a few deep breaths to calm herself. "As you know, I’m a pegasus and we don’t naturally use magic. So using magic has more strain on my body than it does on unicorns and as a result I can’t use magic without deep concentration. So I can’t use magic in simple tasks without putting more effort into it than it’s worth... " Lightwing took another deep breath, "I also age faster than normal, but luckily for me I have an anti-aging potion. So I’m technically immortal, but immortality in turn has its own price." Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Interesting." Celestia still looked surprised. "I would not have expected a discordian to have been the reason you are here to save Equestria." "What’s a discordian? I think I heard that name somewhere." asked a confused Lightwing. Twilight facehooved in shock at the question. "A discordian is a follower of a creature named Discord that once ruled over Equestria." "Oh! I think I saw that name somewhere in one of my history books." she replied to Twilight. Celestia rose from her chair. "It’s time to raise the sun. You should come watch it, Lightwing." Lightwing smiled as she got out of her chair. "That would be amazing." The four ponies left the dining room and began their journey down the halls of the castle with the guards following behind them. Lightwing was looking at the nice hallways as she followed the three princesses. She would have gotten lost if the princesses were not there to guide her. Every pony that walked by would move to the side of the hallway and bow to the princesses. Lightwing found it a little weird. She only snapped out of her trance as her gaze fell upon the massive doors of the castle, engulfed in a purple aura opening to allow the four of them access to the bailey. The light from outside did not look like normal moonlight. It looked weird to Lightwing. Almost like there was some other light source as well. Lightwing didn’t notice that the princesses had stopped walking and almost bumped into Princess Luna because of it. She also noticed there were lots of ponies gathered around. Princess Celestia turned around to face the other three ponies, Luna in particular, "Are you ready, my sister?" Luna nodded her head. Lightwing raised a hoof to signal she had a question. "What is your question?" replied Luna. "Why is Princess Luna needed in order to raise the sun?" Lightwing said in a confused voice. Luna giggled at the young ponies lack of knowledge. Twilight facehooved yet again as Celestia began to answer the question. "Luna is not needed for raising the sun. She is needed for setting the moon. I move the sun around the planet and she moves the moon. Every twenty-four hours we both use a spell to move the sun or moon one cycle around the planet. It is far easier for us to only have to move one instead of having to move both." Twilight pointed towards a mountain range in the distance, "Lightwing, look over here, don’t look directly at the sun as it comes up." Celestia and Luna began to focus their magic energy. Magic began to radiate from them as they began to float up into the air. A radiant light began to appear from behind the mountains, and its interaction with the clouds began to change their colors. Ranging from red, purple, pink, blue and a few others. Lightwing was awe struck as she watched. She saw the amazingly beautiful sight in front of her, and it was as if the rest of the world was not even there anymore. Even reading about the sun had not prepared her for this. As the light from behind the mountains was increasing in luminosity, Lightwing put a hoof over the top of her head to make some shade for her eyes. However, the radiance of light continued to increase until it got to the point where she had to look in a different direction before going blind, sparking the memory of when she had first arrived in past and the light had blinded her. A few minutes later, Lightwing noticed that a purple hoof was waving in front of her face and it was shortly followed by Twilight’s voice "Are you there? Are you there? Say something. Are you there?" Lightwing raised a hoof and nodded, signaling she could hear Twilight. Twilight smiled. "Welcome back to reality." Lightwing giggled. "Thanks" Lightwing looked at Celestia and then back to Twilight. "Where did Luna go?" "My sister left to go to bed and you should go to Ponyville with Twilight." Twilight clapped her hooves. "Thats a great idea." The exchange was lost to Lightwing who was in her world of thoughts again. She was thinking about how beautiful the princesses’ manes looked in the sunlight, and I wonder how my mane looks right now in contrast.. Suddenly, a waving Twilight hoof was once again waving in front of her face as her sign to return to the conversation. It wasn’t long before she was caught up and the two went on their way. "You and I are going to Canterlot train station to see my friends." Twilight beamed. Lightwing seemed distracted, "Oh, that’s cool, but do you have a mirror?" Twilight looked puzzled for only a moment before she vanished in a flash of light and reappeared five seconds later with a small mirror. Lightwing looked in the mirror and was in awe when she saw that her green mane looked amazing in the sunlight but not as amazing as the princesses’. Celestia walked over to Twilight and giggled. "We lost her again." "I can see that. You better leave. You got a busy day today with me leaving." Celestia nodded and walked away with some guards. Twilight looked back at Lightwing and saw that she was still staring at the mirror. Twilight let out a sigh. "I wonder if this will work," Twilight said as she moved the mirror a little to the left. She giggled as she saw Lightwing’s head follow the mirror. She moved the mirror back to the right and smiled as a hypnotized head continued to follow it everywhere it moved. "Ok, time to bring her back to reality," Twilight said as she teleported the mirror back to her room. Lightwing looked around a little before realizing that the mirror was gone. Twilight signaled the slightly confused pegasus to follow her, and Lightwing followed. Two guards also followed them. Twilight put her head down in disappointment. "It’s annoying having guards follow me everywhere." The guards looked back and forth between each other but there was no reply from anypony. Lightwing was too busy enjoying the heat of the sun on her body. The warmth was amazing. In the future it was never this warm outside. She had even forgotten she was even walking. Twilight turned her head to look behind her to see what Lightwing was doing. She saw that Lightwing was just enjoying the sunlight. So she turned her head back to see where she was going. An idea came to Twilight. "We’re taking a small detour and going to Donut Joe’s," she said with a smile. Twilight began trotting toward her destination, dodging down a familiar sidestreet. They reached their target in less than a minute. Twilight turned to the black pegasus. "Lightwing, are you coming inside with us?" "No," she replied with a pleasant smile. "I’ll stay out here and enjoy the sun." Lightwing sat down at a table outside while Twilight went into the shop with her guards. Lightwing put her saddle bag on the table next to her and turned her chair to face the sun. With her eyes closed, she relaxed in her chair and waited for Twilight. A small sound caught Lightwing’s attention. She opened one eye to see what it was. Seeing nothing on the table next to her, she assumed her imagination was playing tricks on her and closed her eye again. Feeling around the table with a forehoof, she quickly opened her eyes and frantically looked around for her missing saddlebag. She zoomed into the sky. "Equestrian Golden Age, and still there are thieves," she muttered angrily as she hovered above the street. She spotted three ponies close by who had saddlebags. She dismissed one of them because there were fillies with the mare. Lightwing watched the two remaining carefully. "This is my chance," she said as one of the ponies sat down on a bench. Lightwing began a nose dive toward the pony still walking away. "Hey you! Wait for a second." The mare with the saddlebag turned toward Lightwing. "Can I help you?" Lightwing quickly responded to the question with one of her own, "Can I see what’s in your saddlebag? Mine was stolen and I’m looking for it." The mare opened her bag and Lightwing saw it was not what she was looking for. "Sorry to bother you," said Lightwing as she flew back into the sky. “Only one suspect left.” Lightwing quickly found her prey. She lined herself up behind the target pony and slowly glided down to him. "Hi," she said with a smile. The unicorn-stallion looked toward his guest but had no reply. Lightwing kept her smile. "Would you mind showing me what’s in your saddlebag? Mine was stolen and I’m trying to find it." In a nervous voice he answered, "Oh… I can’t do that. This is my friends saddlebag and she put a guard spell on it. Looks like we’re both out of luck, lady." The smile on Lightwings face turned into annoyance. "Sounds about right. That’s what I do to my saddlebag." Lightwing let out a sigh. "I’ll make a deal with you. Give me my saddlebag so I can open it. I won’t tell anypony you stole it." "Sister, you need to back off." With that, the unicorn began to nervously walk away. Lightwing blocked his path. Annoyance was making itself well known on her face. "I’m going to say this one time, so listen. Give me my saddlebag and I won’t hurt you. If you refuse, I will make you regret it." Lightwing could see the fear in her enemies eyes as he answered. "I… I can’t do that. Why would you challenge a unicorn? I have magic and you don’t." Lightwing sighed again. "Smart question. Here’s my answer." Lightwing smashed her fore hooves against the sides of unicorn’s horn. The force of the attack stunned the unicorn. Lightwing took this time to land in front of him. She twisted around and coiled her hind legs. With full force, she bucked her target in the face and knocked him clean out. Lightwing opened the saddle bag and saw her stuff inside. With a snarl, she hissed at the thief. "Better luck next time." She strapped her bag on and turned to her left. She was surprised to see two unicorn mares watching her with fear. She looked back at the stallion bleeding onto the sidewalk, then at the bag she’d just pulled from him, and finally at the mares staring at her with growing horror "This... isn’t what it looks like!" Lightwing could just about see the screams bubbling to the surface. She quickly cut them off. "I can prove this isn’t what you’re thinking. One of you should go to Donut Joe’s. Princess Twilight is there and she can help with this. I’ll even let you use your magic to hold me in place." The two unicorns glanced at each other and one used a levitation spell on Lightwing. The other mare slowly walked away. An awkward silence filled the air for the next few minutes. Princess Twilight, her guards and the other mare turned a corner. Lightwing smiled awkwardly. "Care to help me with this mess?" Twilight barely needed to glance at the familiar saddlebags to know the truth of the matter. "Release her. She’s telling the truth," Twilight muttered in disappointment. Lightwing was released from the magic. She smiled ruefully at Twilight. "Thanks for the help." "Lightwing, you can’t do stuff like this." Lightwing just shrugged and tapped a hoof to her saddlebag. "He stole my saddlebag." Twilight shook her head again. "That doesn’t matter! You can’t just knock out somepony because he stole something. This… this is not the place you came from. We have laws that must be followed." Twilight walked over to the unconscious stallion. She used a healing spell to bring him around, none too gently. She didn’t even wait for him to stand, hissing as she turned away, "Get out of here thief. You’re lucky this time." Twilight looked back towards Lightwing. "And as for you… I’ll let this be a warning. Next time you will not be so lucky." Lightwing looked from the thief skulking off, to the guards, to Twilight. Slowly, the weight of realization kicked in, and she hung her head "I understand. It won’t happen again. Let’s… just get to the train." The trip to the train station was quiet except for the ponies walking around Canterlot. It still annoyed Twilight how every pony she passed bowed down to her. So she walked on streets that were usually empty. Lightwing could hear the train and ambient noise of the station around her. She sped up her walking till she reached Twilight. "Did it bother you that I did not talk to you on our walk here?" Twilight looked over at her new friend. "Not one bit." "Oh thats good. I thought my complete silence would bother you." They approached the train station platform. Princess Twilight got some bits out to pay for two tickets but the ticketmaster had a strange look on his face. Twilight gave the bits to the ticket master. "Are we going to go through this again, or are you just going to take the money?" The ticket master took the bits without saying a word and gave the princess and her guest each a ticket. Twilight then realized that her guards were coming with her too, and she put more money in front of the ticketmaster. "I have to pay for my guards to come too. They don’t get on free either." The ticketmaster just shook his head in disagreement, but still took the bits and gave the tickets. Once the train arrived, they were the first to get on the train. Ponies on the train did not look as shocked to see the princess as Lightwing had expected them to. "I’m guessing you ride the train a lot." Lightwing looked around at the not-so-shocked ponies that were already in the train. Twilight giggled and started walking down the small plush path between the seats. "Well, more than any other princess. They know I like to ride the trains. So they built a special train car on every train because I’m a princess, but I don’t approve of it." "Where is your special train car?" Twilight pointed her hoof towards the back of the train. "It’s in the back because I asked them to put it there." "Why did you want it in the back?" asked Lightwing with a hint of confusion in her voice. "Ponies don’t usually bow down to me when they are sitting as you can see, and no pony walks through my car. So fewer ponies would bow down to me. Obviously." Oh, thats totally obvious," Lightwing said with sarcasm. "Other ponies can use my car in the trains since they are unused most of the time, but they do have to pay a little more for it." Lightwing had noticed that no pony was getting up out of their seat to get off the train and this was the third car that it was happening in. Twilight saw that Lightwing was thinking of something. "What are you thinking?" "Why is no pony getting up and off the train?" she replied. Twilight blushed a little "Oh that. They announce that a princess is going to come onto the train and tell everypony to stay seated till I get to my car. I usually go directly into my car from the outside but I forgot because I was talking to you. My car is next." Twilight opened the door and pressed a button to the right as she entered her train car. A voice came over the intercom saying all ponies could leave the train. Lightwing could see the purple-coated car, and it looked much nicer than the others. The front had three sets of seats on each side, four beds in the back, and a table in the back for eating food. Lightwing sat next to a window, Twilight sat down behind her, and the two guards went to the seats on the opposite side. A few minutes later, the train left the station. As the train went through a tunnel in the mountain Lightwing began singing a song to herself, and Twilight listened. "Every cloud in the sky, green leaf on a tree is reminding me, faraway dreams really do come true. “Come on, let’s go and run around, run around. What a beautiful feeling we finally found. A peaceful valley and everypony is having a good time now." Twilight liked the song but felt is was missing something. So she started singing too. “Sunsets and rises plenty of things to see. Every day surprises. Sneaking upon you and me as we go to and fro let sweet harmony flow. We’re having fun now. Sky’s so blue and our dreams really do come true. “Yeah, let’s go and run around, run around. What a beautiful feeling we finally found a peaceful valley and everypony is having a good time now.” Lightwing smiled at Twilight, "Nice job adding to my song. You did a good job. I might just keep that verse." Lightwing began to sing her song again. However, she didn’t get far before the train exited the tunnel and she saw the true size of Canterlot. She trailed off from her lyrics and into a low mutter. "It… it… it’s so much bigger than I thought." The true height of towers was awe-inspiring. The city was practically half the size of a mountain. Airships were docking at the towers. Waterfalls were coming down the mountain side and through the city. The group of buildings that made up the lower levels of the castle were also bigger than expected. The library and observatory stood out among the city due to their shapes and size. A little farther down the mountain was a whole residential area and shopping zone that Lightwing had never even seen. The arches and platforms that connected the city were breathtaking. Lightwing looked down and saw the underbelly of the city. There was no towers but there was still a lot of buildings and platforms for airships. As the train made its way around and down the mountain, Lightwing watched Canterlot fade behind the mountain and began to see the east coast and cities of Equestria. As the train continued, the Crystal Empire came into view in the far distance. The radiating light from it was almost as amazing as Canterlot. The crystal mountains were nice too, but nothing compared to everything else that could be seen. Lightwing continued looking out the window and saw Cloudsdale start to come into view. The only things Lightwing could really see of it were the the towers, race track and rainbow falls. Canterlot began to come back into view and the whole thing started again. Lightwing wanted to look at Twilight but was too mesmerized by the view outside. "I can see why you like taking the train to and from Canterlot. It’s simply amazing." Twilight simply smiled back.