Chapter 1 – First Contact Redux
The day had started out so well. Twilight Sparkle had been looking forward to this day all week. The library was to be closed all morning, and she would be able to spend the time putting her mind once again towards researching that mysterious chest she and her friends had found by the Tree of Harmony, with no distractions.
Or at least she had thought there would be no distractions, but after waking with the sun as usual, completing her morning checklist as usual, eating Spike’s amazingly well prepared breakfast as usual, and settling down under a blanket with a pile of books as usual, she had been rudely interrupted. As usual.
This interruption came in the form of a blast of noise as three of her best friends in all of Equestria came charging into the room at exactly the same moment. Twilight barely even needed to look up to identify who they were. By the resounding crash of the library door, it could only have been forced open by Applejack, the strongest mare Twilight knew and the cause of the loss of seven previous library doors when the orange earth pony had been too agitated to be careful, as it seemed was the case now.
Similarly the sound of a smashed window could only be because Rainbow Dash had decided nothing, and particularly not Twilight’s protection from the elements, was more important than speaking to Twilight at this exact moment, and the groan from the other side of the room was probably the reckless pegasus re-evaluating that decision as she pulled herself out from a pile of books.
That only left the presence on the bench right next to her, and seeing as there was no rational way anypony could have got there in such a short space of time, it could only be Pinkie Pie.
They all started speaking at the same time.
“Heya Twilight, something really funny is going on, and I don’t mean laugh your head off that’s such a great joke funny, but reeeallly weeeeird funny. I know the differences between different types of funny.”
“Twi, Ah’m glad Ah found you. Me and Big Mac jus’ saw somethin’ real strange down at Sweet Apple Acres. Ah don’t like it one bit. Y’all should definitely check it out.”
“Hey Twilight, I saw something really suspicious in the Everfree Forest and thought we could go take a look! Maybe it’s some monster that needs to be taught a lesson!”
Twilight blinked a few times as she tried to interpret the flood of information that had just been directed at her. She then shook her head and levitated up the books from around Rainbow Dash, who was still flinging her hooves through the air as though beating up an invisible foe. After directing them back into the shelves they came from she stood up and eyed the three ponies in the room with her.
“Okay girls, slow down, one at a time. Pinkie you said there was something funny going on?”
Pinkie bounced up and down excitedly. “I did Twilight! And not laugh your head off funny, but reeeeaa-”
“Hey wait,” Rainbow interrupted, saving everypony from a repeat of Pinkie’s explanation of the intricacies of the word funny. “My news is way more important than anypony else’s!”
“And how’d you figure that?” challenged Applejack, narrowing her eyes and walking forward to butt foreheads with Rainbow. “Ah reckon mah news is way more important than anythin’ you dreamed you saw in the Everfree while nappin’!”
“Napping!” Rainbow exclaimed, apparently outraged. “I was flying, and you know just how awesome I am at spotting things when I’m flying, or have you forgotten that?”
“Wait wait wait wait.” Pinkie sprung up between them and held them apart with her forelegs. “I’ve just remembered another bit of news that I think might be more important than everything else.”
“Oh come on! I was just-”
“GIRLS!”
The three ponies stopped grappling and turned to face a very impatient Twilight with sheepish looks on their faces.
“One. At. A. Time.” The lavender alicorn slumped back down on the bench. “Please.”
The three guests shifted on their hooves and glanced at each other, none of them wanting to deal with an angry Twilight, before Pinkie eventually stepped forwards to take the floor.
“Well okay Twilight, I’ll go first:
“So it was late last night, and I was giving Gummy a wash because he had been a veeery naughty little pet yesterday and had gone stomping in all the mud puddles on the way back from our walk. Or, well, actually I think I was the one who stomped in them, but he got splashed with mud and so he needed a niiice hot bath, and I was just giving him one when I felt it!”
There was a few seconds of silence and Twilight was just about to speak when Pinkie continued.
“It started with an ear twitch, and then another ear twitch, and then an itchy knee, and then another itchy knee, and then my tail shook, and then my head shook, and then my ear twitched again, and I thought ‘I hope my other ear twitches next’ because that would mean that I’m about to find some surprise cupcakes, and I love surprise cupcakes, but I since I was washing Gummy I knew it probably wasn’t that and really I just didn’t want to feel my nose itch because that’s the saddest combo ever meaning the worst possible thing has happened to one of my friends, and I was hoping so hard but then it did happen, and my nose did itch and I was so sad that I don’t think even surprise cupcakes would have cheered me up.”
“Wait, what does that combo mean?” Rainbow dash asked, but Pinkie continued regardless.
“And I was sad all the way through the night until this morning when I went to see her family, and even though I knew that surprise cupcakes wouldn’t be enough to cheer them up I thought I might give them some anyway, because nopony would ever say no to surprise cupcakes, and I had a recipe I’d been wanting to try for ages, so I quickly whipped some up and headed out but when I got to the Silver household I saw her!”
There were a few seconds of beautiful silence which Twilight didn’t even consider interrupting, before the Pinkie train started rolling again.
“She was there in their house just fine! So I gave them the cupcakes anyway, because why waste good cupcakes, except I thought that because nothing sad had happened maybe they didn’t need aaaalll the cupcakes, so I had a couple myself and because I hadn’t been expecting them they were like surprise cupcakes to me too, which made me really happy until I realised ‘oh no! My Pinkie Sense is broken’, and so I ran to tell you that ‘oh no! My Pinkie Sense is broken!”
The silence lasted only until Twilight was sure Pinkie had finally finished, and then the alicorn mare let out a long groan. “Urgh, Pinkie, I’ve told you before I just don’t understand your Pinkie Sense, so if you have nothing else to say-”
“No wait, I do have something else to say, because I remembered an even more important bit of news! I upgraded my party cannon, and now it can hold five more streamers than it could before. Isn’t that great! I’m so excited I just needed to get all my friends to come and watch me try it out.”
The silence lasted far longer this time. After almost a minute Applejack and Rainbow Dash simultaneously held their hooves against their faces and Twilight sighed and levitated a quill and paper towards her.
“Well we’ll put that on the maybe list for now Pinkie, but I’ll just check what Applejack and Rainbow want first, on the slight off chance that what they have to say is more important.”
“Okay then,” Pinkie replied cheerfully, leaping back to the bench and settling down with some popcorn. “Applejack! You’re up!”
As Applejack stepped forwards Rainbow lay back in the air with her hooves crossed behind her head. “Please don’t tell me your news is you’ve upgraded your buckets and they can hold five more apples.”
Applejack grinned, “Naw, its way more serious. You’ll like it, we saw a pony who said he’d come from the future, and then he shattered into pieces like Twi’s door when Ah buck it too hard.” She grimaced. “Actually, it was sure creepy.”
Rainbow’s ears perked up and she spun around in the air, staring wide eyed at Applejack. “That sounds awesome! Who cares about my story, it was probably just some timberwolf or something, I’m sure it’s gone now. I want to hear about the time-traveller. That sounds way cooler!”
“I don’t know,” Pinkie said thoughtfully, “I think my new party cannon might be a little bit cooler.”
“No way, this is gonna be epic,” Rainbow continued happily.
Twilight was also intrigued and moved her quill back to the paper in front of her ready to take notes. “That does sound fascinating Applejack. What exactly happened?”
Applejack tapped her chin with her hoof. “Well…”
---
Applejack swept her hoof across her forehead, wiping away the sweat that had already gathered. She had been up since before dawn working to fix the broken barn wall which had fallen over in a particularly strong wind the previous day. She would have to remember to get on Rainbow Dash’s case about that. Now that the sun was up she had started her apple bucking, and had made her way through a third of the southern orchard. Nearby she could see Big Mac pulling the plough diligently through the cornfield, not looking tired in the slightest.
Sighing, she turned back to the trees she had yet to tend to. Whenever she worked within sight of her brother she always worked harder than normal, her competitive streak forcing her to work at least as hard as he was. She doubted he noticed, but she still felt a sense of achievement if the great red stallion was the first to take a break.
Grabbing another stack of empty buckets to collect the apples in, Applejack turned back towards the trees and was almost out of earshot of her brother when she heard him speak.
“Uh, Applejack?”
Applejack almost dropped all the buckets she was carrying in surprise, before dropping them intentionally and rushing back towards her brother. It was relatively unusual for him to address her while they were working, but there had been an edge to his voice when he had spoken this time that she did not think she had heard before.
“What is it Big Mac?” She raced towards the field where he had been working and saw that he had extricated himself from the plough and was standing a few feet away staring at something at the other side of the field. She pulled up next to him, followed his gaze, and then took an unconscious step back as she identified what had made him so nervous.
Running along one of the furrows in the field was a collection of small fragments of some sort of dark crystal, and a strange black mist was emanating from them. At the head of the line of crystals, as though leaving them behind like a snail trail, was a pony. At least, Applejack assumed it was a pony, but it was a kind of pony she had never seen before. From his hind legs up to the middle of his back the pegasus’ body was completely translucent and rough, as though he were made out of jagged glass, and the same roiling mist that was surrounding the fragments behind him was visible inside. His wings were limp and looked almost as though they were welded to his sides. The front half of his body looked more normal, as though he were a regular black pegasus, but upon closed inspection Applejack could see that the black colouration was not natural and that it was covering his natural olive fur.
The stallion was sprawled on the ground, and it was clear that he had been pulling himself towards them for some time, based on the distance the trail behind him spread. Pulling herself together after her shocked first reaction, and ignoring the chill the sight of the mysterious looking pony sent down her spine, Applejack stepped towards what was clearly an injured pegasus in need of help.
“Hey there sugarcube, y’all look mighty tired. Ah’d be happy to help you out, why don’t you rest yourself a spell.”
The stallion’s eyes had until now been unfocussed, but at Applejack’s words his ears perked and he stared directly at her, sending another shiver down her spine, before he turned his eyes towards Big Macintosh who had stepped forward beside his sister.
“C… Captain…” he wheezed, coughing harshly. “And… and Miss Applejack.”
“What’s this about a captain now?” Applejack tilted her head and glanced sideways at her brother. “You ever been a captain Big Mac?”
“Nnope.”
Applejack turned back to the strange pony with concern mixed with caution in her eyes. “You sure don’t look well, Ah’m guessin’ you’re some sort of crystal pony? Ain’t never seen a half crystal pegasus before.”
“No… I’m just a pegasus, this is what the Infection does to us… it turns us like this.” He pointed at himself and as if in response his hoof crystalized in front of their eyes, the crystals slowly starting to spread up his foreleg.
“Ah’ll get Fluttershy,” Applejack decided. “She knows all about weird diseases and she ain’t too far from here. Don’t worry sugarcube, we’ll get you better.”
“No…. wait.” He crawled another step forwards and instinctively Applejack and Big Mac both took a step back. “It’s too late for me.”
“Aw, don’t say that,” Applejack replied automatically, but although she had absolutely no clue what was afflicting the poor stallion in front of her it certainly didn’t look good. Even as she watched, the strange dark crystals covering his body were spreading up his chest.
“No, it is. Please listen. I’ve come from the future, I-” he stopped as a hacking cough overtook him and Applejack blinked rapidly as she tried to take in what she had just heard. From the future?
“Is this some sort of prank?” Applejack asked warily, although part of her knew that this seemed too real for a prank.
“No… not a prank. Lots of us have been sent back. I’m Nimbus and I’m originally from Cloudsdale. But I moved to Canterlot after-” Once more he was interrupted by a wheeze and he gulped for air as the strange infection spread closer to his head. “No time… please, you’re an Element, you know Princess Twilight…”
Applejack nodded and stepped forward to better hear Nimbus’ fading voice.
“You have to tell her… there are others coming back, she needs to talk to them, the future is… so bad… we need to avoid the Infection… please…”
No more words would come as the crystals finally reached and covered the stallion’s face. Applejack looked on with wide eyes as the pegasus’ body became stock still, and then she leapt back with a yelp as there was a splintering explosion and Nimbus’ form shattered into hundreds of small pieces, each of which fell and embedded themselves into the mud. The black mist that had been contained inside dissipated slowly into the air as Applejack looked on in horror at what had become of the pony she had just been speaking with.
---
Applejack looked at the faces around her in the library as she finished explaining. The expressions she could see mirrored the expression she had seen on her brother’s face when they had watched it happen first hand.
“After that Ah didn’t rightly know what to do. Ah was gonna look closer at the shards he left behind but Big Mac pulled me back and said Ah weren’t to touch anythin’ until Ah’d talked to you first.” She couldn’t help herself from shivering. “Twi, Ah think Ah just saw somepony die.”
The silence after that statement was broken by Rainbow dash slumping to the ground. “Aw, AJ, that was so not a cool story.”
“Sorry, Ah guess Ah was trying not to think about how awful it was.”
Pinkie hadn’t moved from her seat on the bench, although her popcorn had fallen to the floor forgotten and her hair was somewhat deflated. Twilight meanwhile was rereading the notes she had taken while Applejack was speaking.
“Twilight?”
“Hmm?” Twilight looked up. After seeing her three friends staring back at her waiting for some sort of explanation she sighed. “I’m sorry, but I can’t give you any answers. I don’t know what any of that means. A disease that infects you with crystals? Never heard of it. A spell that would allow a pegasus to travel through time? Never heard of it.” She looked directly at Applejack. “Do you think he was telling the truth? I mean, I’m not doubting what you said, but really, time travel seems just so unlikely. After what we all went through when I used a time travel spell I recommended to Princess Celestia that those spells all be shut away so nopony could use them again, and I’m pretty sure she followed my advice.”
“Ah don’t know Twi. He certainly seemed to come from nowhere. That trail he left began out of nothin’ and so unless he somehow teleported… And anyway, why would he lie?”
“I just don’t know how a pegasus would travel through time at all!”
“It’s not important how he did it,” Rainbow said, re-joining the conversation. “What about why he did? He said the future’s horrible! That’s what we should care about!”
“I don’t want the future to be horrible,” said Pinkie, sounding so morose that Twilight couldn’t help but sit back down and wrap a foreleg around her.
“Don’t worry Pinkie, I’m sure everything will be fine.” Twilight had no idea how it would be fine, but that didn’t matter right now. “SPIKE?” she yelled.
“Yeah?” came the reply from right next to her, causing the alicorn to shriek and fall inelegantly onto the ground. She had not noticed the baby dragon arrive. How long had he been there?
“Spike! I need you to take a letter to the Princess. If there’s any chance this is true she’ll need to know about it. How much did you hear of Applejack’s story?”
“Most of it, it all sounded far-fetched to me.”
“Yeah, I know.” Twilight pulled herself to her hooves. It was time to take charge of the situation. “Right then. Spike, you write a letter with as much of Applejack’s story as you can remember. Pinkie, you stay here and help him fill out the bits he missed. Rainbow, you find Rarity and Fluttershy and bring them here, I have a feeling we’ll want to work together for this. And Applejack, you take me to see these strange crystals.”
Everypony got down to work immediately, Spike grabbing a quill and Pinkie trotting up beside him, Rainbow saluting and launching herself out the still broken window, and Applejack charging back out the door with Twilight in pursuit.
---
It wasn’t long before the library filled up once again with ponies, plus one dragon. Twilight and Applejack were unsurprisingly the last to return, although their task had not gone as Twilight would have hoped. By the time they had reached the cornfield in Sweet Apple Acres that Applejack had lead them to, the crystals had all but disintegrated and all that remained was a fine dust from which Twilight could conclude nothing. She was not too keen on touching it without knowing more about what it was, and so for the time being they had left it and returned to talk with the others, and hopefully get a reply from Princess Celestia giving them some indication of what a good plan of action would be.
As Twilight entered she caught the end of the recap Rainbow Dash was giving to Fluttershy and Rarity, both of whom were just as open mouthed about the situation as the others had been.
“Oh that sounds truly dreadful,” Rarity exclaimed, turning to face Applejack as she entered. “Darling I can’t imagine what it must have felt like to witness that. Most unpleasant.”
“That poor pony.” Fluttershy seemed close to tears. “Imagine if he hadn’t found you in time. And he said that there were others out there. Just think how many might be suffering all alone…” She shrank behind her mane as though that would protect her from the harshness of the situation. “Maybe dying all alone,” she mumbled with a sniff.
“That’s a good point Fluttershy,” Twilight said, stepping back towards her desk and trying to inject authority into her voice, ready to take the role of leader once more. “If nothing else, our priority must be to find more of these ponies. We need more information from them before we know what to do, or what to avoid doing.”
“But where should we look? Just Ponyville? I don’t think we can exactly search the whole of Equestria.” Rainbow spread her wings wide. “It’s a big place.”
“I don’t know Rainbow. Like I said, whatever magic sent this pony, and potentially others, back in time is not magic I am familiar with. The only time spell I know of is very complex, and all other research into time spells concludes the same way: that it is generally too unpredictable to be of use.”
“Well maybe I am going out on a limb here,” began Rarity, “but maybe it was unpredictable magic that was used, hmm? If the future is truly so awful, then perhaps this magic was used as a last resort.”
“You might be right Rarity. I wish we knew for sure.”
The conversation was suddenly interrupted by a belch from Spike and a scroll materialised in the middle of the room, falling towards the floor before being caught in Twilight’s magic and rapidly unrolled.
“A response from the Princess!” she said excitedly, pulling it towards her so that she could read it aloud.
Dear Princess Twilight,
This is grave news indeed. I too have heard rumours of ponies claiming to be from the future, although reports were vague and contradictory, and so I had not realised the severity of the situation until now.
I would appreciate it if you could find the time to come to Canterlot to report to Luna and me directly. I am sure that you are planning to study time magic after this, and I would suggest that the Starswirl the Bearded Wing would be a better place than any to do so.
Princess Celestia
Twilight finished reading and almost immediately flared her wings.
“I need to go to Canterlot as soon as possible!”
“Whoa there sugarcube, don’tcha think you might be rushin’ things?”
“But Celestia confirmed that the stallion you saw was right. There really are more ponies returning from the future! How are they doing it? Do you think they’re all infected in the same way?” On autopilot Twilight started pulling books out of shelves with her magic, before catching herself and placing them back. “And Celestia is right that the Starswirl the Bearded Wing will be the best place to study this. I need to go there now!”
“Okay then Twilight,” said Spike, “but we’ll come with you.”
“Actually I think you should all stay here. Applejack I’d like you to collect the fragments of crystal and get them examined if you can. Try not to touch them in case they’re toxic. Maybe Zecora could tell you something.”
“Of course, Twi. Ah’ll get right to it.”
“And I’ll take a look too!” shouted Pinkie, bouncing up and down. “I grew up on a rock farm, so I know all about rocks and that includes crystals. I may not know as much as my sister Maud, but I still might be able to help!”
“Well they’re not really crystals so much as dust now Pinkie,” Twilight began, but as Pinkie visibly deflated she changed track. “But I’m sure you can help Applejack out.” She turned back to Spike as Pinkie cheered and cartwheeled around the room in success. “You should stay here so you can get messages to us in Canterlot.”
“Okay Twilight,” Spike said, saluting smartly.
“But why can’t I come? This sounds like a cool adventure!”
“Uh, actually Rainbow, I think you’d find it really boring. I’ll be mostly sitting reading complex books about magic. I don’t think you could really help.”
Rainbow groaned and floated to the ground. “Fiiiine. Maybe I’ll fly around Ponyville and see if I can spot any other creepy ponies from the future.”
“Good idea. The rest of you can do that too if you want.” While Twilight was speaking she levitated the last few items she would need for her trip into her saddlebags and rested them across her back. “Okay then, good luck everypony, I’ll see you soon. Hopefully.” And with that Twilight leapt into the air and, taking a leaf out of Rainbow Dash’s book, launched herself out of the splintered window frame.
Spike looked after his adoptive sister and groaned. “I’m going to have to fix that window aren’t I?”
“Eeyup,” answered Applejack as she walked back out of the library, her friends following behind her.