Lightwing could feel the warm grass on her back as A noise roused her from her slumber. She could tell that the noise was a group of ponies talking to each other from Fluttershy’s balcony. She could recognise some of the voices, but others sounded less familiar. She could also smell the soup she’d had earlier; they were clearly eating the leftovers. Lightwing thought about getting up, but decided to rather secretly listen to the conversation without them knowing.
Lightwing could hear Twilight talking. “We are going to Canterlot tomorrow to make a plan with our new friend on how to save the future!”
Lightwing was surprised to hear the Princess call her a friend. Why does she think of me as a friend? I hardly know her.
Her thoughts were interrupted when a sweet and elegant voice replied to Twilight. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to blindly trust a random pony from the future? If that’s even true in itself...”
“Don’t be so critical, Rarity,” Twilight snapped back tersely.
The elegant voice became a little more forceful. “Do you realise who your talking to, dear Twilight? Of the six of us, it’s my duty to be the critical one when the rest of you refuse to see reason.”
Twilight’s reply was muttered in a whisper but loud enough to be heard from the ground. “Says miss melodramatic... What do you think, Rainbow Dash?”
Rainbow Dash’s words were a bit harder to hear because of the food she was chewing on. “Do you think we will travel to the future? That would be sweet!”
Rarity smiled condescendingly back at Twilight. “Quite.”
“Oh shut up…” Twilight muttered, but she couldn’t help a small giggle. Then Twilight put a hoof on her chin thoughtfully. “I honestly don’t know, and I won’t speculate.” Twilight took a breath of air. “To your disappointment, I would actually be against traveling to the future. Seeing your own future could make you totally different and completely change your future for better or worse. Just seeing a pony from the future here to save it already tells us that bad stuff will happen in the future. I would rather travel to the past. At least I know what to expect and I can avoid changing it.”
Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs. “You can’t deny that it would be so cool to see the future before anypony else. You could be like a hero of time by saving ponies before they die from some unseen event. I’m sure that would make lots of families happy.”
Twilight let out a big sigh. “Saving ponies that are going to die is the last thing a time traveler should do because that would change the future in so many ways for better or worse. Once you start changing the timeline it will be impossible to change back.”
Lightwing found Twilight’s logic to be very interesting. She almost flew up to the balcony to say something, but chose not to out of curiosity to where the conversation was going.
Rainbow Dash glared at Twilight. “So you would not save me or anypony in this room if you knew we were going to die?”
Twilight put her head down and answered in a quiet voice “I would have no choice but to let you die. I know it’s not what a true friend should do, but time travel has side effects like that. If I never knew you were going to die, then I would not have stopped it from happening and, as such, I have to act like I don’t know the future even if I do. It would be the most painful thing in the world to let a friend die.”
“I...guess I understand where you’re coming from. I may not like it, but...hang on, what does that mean for Lightwing? Is killing an evil dragon that took over the world wrong? I promise you that she is saving a lot of ponies from death and completely changing history.”
Twilight raised her head up a little. That question was interesting but she had no answer. “I don’t have an answer to that, but from what I just said I would have to stand by my logic and say yes. But she is saving the world from a time of darkness and pain, so that makes it the right thing to do. So I don’t know.”
Lightwing almost got up in order to reply to Rainbow Dash’s comment, but she stopped herself out of curiosity again. Is Twilight right about this? Am I doing the right thing or the wrong thing? This was not the first time she thought about this. Changing history was a big deal and not to be taken lightly. Maybe I should just live my life in the past as a restaurant owner.
Rarity raised a hoof signaling she had something to say. “So are we going to help this future pegasus or not? I for one would hate living in a world ruled by an evil dragon and would want somepony to change history if they could. And Rainbow Dash, how do you know that a dragon rules over the world in the future?”
Rainbow Dash looked over to Rarity. “First, I vote yes to saving the future, and second, sleepy pegasus told me, before our lunch, that an evil dragon ruled her world.”
“You were here for lunch and not at Twilight’s home?” Rarity asked in confusion.
“You got that right, and it was awesome. We had a great time.”
Twilight let out a giggle. “You were also a great attraction to my party with the awesome show you put on over the Everfree Forest.”
“You saw that?”
“I would not be surprised if everypony in Ponyville saw that. I mean, eighty percent of the town were at my house watching your race with Lightwing, and the rest could probably hear the rainboom from wherever they were. I wanted there to be two sonic rainbooms.”
“You won’t have to wait long for that,” Rainbow Dash said with a smile. “With a little more practice, she will be as good as me.”
Twilight tried to hide her smile. “She never told you...did she?”
“Told me what!”
Lightwing grew bored of not being in the conversation and flew up to the balcony. “So how is everypony?” she asked.
Pinkie Pie started bouncing around the balcony. “I don’t have to be quiet any more! It’s so boring being quiet.”
Twilight looked over to Lightwing and smiled. “I’m glad you are awake. I've been wanting you to meet the rest of my friends.”
Lightwing nodded her head. She called me a friend again. It was indirect but it was there. Lightwing bowed. “It would be an honor to meet and see all the Elements of Harmony in one place.”
Every pony laughed, and Twilight rolled her eyes in slight annoyance. “You just had to bow to me.”
“Of course I had to,” Lightwing chuckled. “It’s so much fun knowing you don’t like it.”
Twilight turned back toward the table. “If you look at the round table, you can see my closest friends. First there is Rainbow Dash.”
Rainbow Dash raised a hoof. “I’m so cool that she met me first. After Twilight, of course. And what did you not tell me during our race?”
Twilight continued. “Second, there is Fluttershy.” Fluttershy gave a smile.
“Third is Pinkie Pie.”
“We already met at Twilight’s party,“ Pinkie replied.
Twilight pointed a hoof at the regal looking unicorn. “Fourth is Rarity.”
The white unicorn waved a hoof. “I made you a gift. We can pick it up later.”
Twilight pointed a hoof at the orange earth pony. “Fifth is Applejack.”
The orange earth pony tipped her hat toward Lightwing. “Nice ta meet ya, sugar cube.”
“And last but not least is, Twilight Sparkle. Also known as me, but you knew that already.”
Lightwing looked around for a few seconds and asked, “Where’s Spike?”
“He’s at my home, cleaning. I helped with the party cleaning, but he can handle the rest.”
Rainbow Dash stood up, grumpy about being ignored repeately. “Lightwing, I asked you a question!”
Lightwing giggled as she replied, “Fine. The big news that Twilight was talking about is…I can do a sonic rainboom. I just failed during our race. I don’t practice sonic rainbooms, so I can’t perform them too much. The sonic rainboom is how I time travel.”
With slight annoyance Dash replied, “That’s... cool.”
“So what do we do now?” Lightwing asked conversationally in the stunned silence.
Rarity replied, “We could go to my place and get the gift I made for you. It is getting late and I need my beauty sleep if we are going to Canterlot tomorrow.”
“That’s a great idea, but I have no idea where to go,” replied, Lightwing.
Rarity put a hoof over her forehead. With a voice of dramatic-worry she said, “Whatever shall we do?” She smiled with pride. “Oh, right. Just follow me, dear.”
The seven ponies left Fluttershy’s home and began walking towards Ponyville. Ponyville looked nice from this place. Lightwing also noticed that the lighting of the sky had changed again and was different from anything she had seen. She figured it had to do with the sun again, something she had never been able to see in her own time. Lightwing could hear Rarity talking to Twilight and Fluttershy about fashion stuff, and Rainbow Dash was talking to Applejack about farming stuff. Pinkie Pie was nowhere to be seen.
Lightwing shivered as the cold air surrounded her, but the cold was nothing new to her. This temperature was actually warm compared to what she was normally feeling.
They were now at the town. The town was much more active now compared to the first time Lightwing was here. Ponies were in the market and in shops, mostly cleaning up. Lightwing started thinking about what this gift for her was going to to be. She thought it would probably be something really nice, because Rarity seemed like she had expensive tastes. Lightwing noticed Twilight’s house said Ponyville Library as they passed it. Was that there before? She thought to herself.
“We are almost there,” said Rarity.
Lightwing looked off into the distance and saw a building that stood out from the rest, with its circular shape. “I’m guessing that fancy place over there is yours.”
Rarity smiled. “Yes it is. Isn’t it lovely?”
Lightwing nodded her head. Two minutes later, they reached Rarity’s home, and all the ponies went into the home. The lights were off, making it hard to see.
“I shall go get your gift,” Rarity purred as she walked upstairs.
Some noise could be heard from upstairs as Rarity was going through stuff. Rarity came back down the stairs with a necklace floating next to her. However, she hid it from view until they’d all dutifully trooped outside again.
With a smile of pride Rarity said, “I made you a necklace to match our necklaces! Now you look like one of the other Elements of Harmony. So tell me what you think.”
Everypony looked amazed at the beautiful necklace. Twilight was the first to speak up. “It looks nice."
Lightwing walked up to the floating necklace. “It’s beautiful! it has my cutie mark on it.” The necklace floated onto her neck and sat next to the pendant she already had on. She admired who the two complimented each other, and glinted in the evening sunlight.
Rarity giggled. “That is kind of the point. Amazingly it only took half an hour to make it.”
Lightwing held back a laugh. “Now somepony might mistake me for a new Element of Harmony.”
Twilight raised a hoof. “It’s time for us to leave. We should all go home and get some rest. Tomorrow is going to be a big day and I need you all in good working order. Be at my place by nine in the morning.”
Everypony nodded their heads in agreement. The ponies left and began heading toward their own homes. Lightwing started following Twilight to her home. They could see the sun starting to set in the sky. Lightwing noticed that the sunset was just as beautiful as the sunrise, and she was in awe of the beauty once again. Twilight saw this and smiled. She was laughing on the inside. Twilight stopped at her door and used magic to open it. Lightwing almost bumped into Twilight because she was paying attention to the clouds and not Twilight.
Twilight turned around. “You need to watch where you are going.”
“Sorry. I’m just too mesmerised by the beauty of this light world. It’s so amazing, but the dark world that I am from is amazing and beautiful too. Just in a different way.”
Twilight smiled. “The dark world is coming here for a few hours, and I need my sleep. You should probably do the same.”
Lightwing had a slightly annoyed look on her face. “Where am I supposed to go?”
“Oh...I forgot that you have nowhere to live. So you can stay here. Spike cooks good breakfasts, and you don’t have to give him a tip.”
A voice from inside the house replied, “I heard that!”
The two ponies went into the home and Twilight informed her friend. “You can sleep in the guest bed upstairs.”
“OK. Why do you live in a library?”
“I love to read books, so there is no better place to live than the town library.”
Lightwing let out a sigh. “I never got any dessert from Fluttershy.”
“Do you want some ice cream?”
“That would be nice,” replied Lightwing.
Suddenly a container of ice cream appeared next to Lightwing. She blinked at the random appearance, but replied, “Thanks, Twilight.”
Twilight grinned and whispered in passing. “Don’t let Spike know. He’s been hoarding that tub for three days now. It’s better for you than him, anyway. Goodnight, Lightwing.”
Lightwing took the ice cream up to where she was going to sleep. The light in the hall turned off, and Lightwing turned the light in her room off after she finished her ice cream. She put her cloak on a table, put her saddlebag under the bed, and got into the bed too go to sleep.