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// Prologue: Time Capsules 
// Story: Pony Pop 
// by Vanilla Melody 
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A teenage blue and aqua pony trotted down the road to Ponyville's centennial "History Ain't A Mystery" Festival, a cellphone in her saddlebag and a scowl on her face. I don't see why I have to give up my phone for this motherbucking thing. What's wrong with taking a doll or old clothes or something I never even use? Tartarus, I don't even get why Ponyville has to take part in this buckin' time capsule manure. Her glower grew as she recalled her mother's words from earlier:

"Marina, this festival won't ever happen in your life again! Take something special! Make it worth."

"Ugh, but I need my phone, Mom!"

"Time capsules are especially interesting to open if they contain some form of technology. Think of the sacrifices ponies one hundred years ago made so that ponies now can see what civilization was like back then. Do your part in conserving history. If ponies back then didn't need cellphones, then neither do you."

"But it's. My. Buckin'! PHONE!"

"Excuse me, young lady, I will not be spoken to that way."

"Sorry."

"Besides, we can always just get you another one, even though you spend way too much time on that thing either way. Don't be selfish, Marina. Let ponies in the future find out what life is like right now."

"It probably isn't all that different but whatever."

Marina tossed her hair and let out a small humph. "Aren't history books supposed to teach us history?" she grumbled, continuing down the paved road. "Not some dumbflank 'throw away your phone for absolutely no good reason' festival?" Off in the distance, she could hear the loud music and happy voices. Just over the hill and she'd be there.

The filly sighed. "I just don't want to give up all my awesome music that I had to bucking buy! Like, as in, with real money." She looked from side to side, checking to see if any potential eavesdroppers were around. Spotting none, she lowered her voice and growled, "Buck you, Mom."

Marina trotted up to the top of the hill and stopped, for a breather as well as to catch a sight of the view. The festival itself was nothing special, just a large, flat patch of land where all the time capsules would be buried. The previous set of capsules had been dug up and placed on top of the dirt filling up their holes, practically begging to be opened and discovered.

The blue earth pony gave a slight smile. "I guess it could be pretty cool to see what are in those boxes." She made her way down to the event, her nasty disposition temporarily gone.

After getting to one of the booths, she said, "Hi."

The registration pony dressed in sunshiny yellow looked up from her laptop and smiled. "Hello there, would you like me to register a time capsule spot for you?"

"No thanks, I already did that online yesterday," came the polite reply.

Typing something on her computer, the mare asked, "Can I have your name please?"

"Marina."

After a couple of moments, the older pony said, "Your capsule was buried on V7. If you need anything, just give one of us yellow ponies a holler." She smiled warmly, gesturing at several other ponies clad in bright yellow. "Enjoy your discoveries."

Marina thanked the mare and walked up to V7, nearly all the way across from registration. A large red violet box sat in front of her, covered in a red, a purple, a blue, a pink, and an orange jewel forming a circle around a magenta, star-shaped gem in the very center. Marina ogled at the pretty box for a moment, but quickly slipped out of her awed trance, as curiosity got the better of her. 

The earth pony sat down and pulled the time capsule closer to herself, peering at the name of the owner. Twilight Sparkle and friends. She'd heard that name before. She scratched her head, but the knowledge of who the pony actually was evaded her. Shrugging, she pulled the top off and stared at the colossal number of scrolls and papers. The sheer amount of words slightly intimidated her and she decided to read them later. Blue hooves scooped the majority of the parchment away to reveal several trinkets. A filthy dress covered in jewels, a crimson cape, a bottle of vintage, hard apple cider. Marina shifted through the dirt covered objects and at the very bottom of the time capsule, she found an old photo.

The picture depicted quite a few ponies standing in front of a very old and rustic-looking Ponyville, nothing like the suburb she lived in today. The lavender one in the center caught her eye, though, even more so than the rainbow haired pegasus with all her bright colors. 

An alicorn.

The teen whipped the lid of the box in front of her eyes to verify the name. Twilight Sparkle and friends. Her green eyes sparkled. I know where I've heard that name! Must have been when I was doodling in history class and Mr. Marbles was saying something about democracies versus monarchies. She was one of the four princesses! I wonder which item the princess added! She giggled. I got the time capsule of a princess!!

After a little squeeing, Marina scanned the old belongings, but nothing looked special enough to have been owned by royalty. A slightly disappointed Marina turned to the piles of papers. The young mare sifted through them until she found a letter Twilight had left for her.

Dear pony, (or whoever's opened this time capsule)

My friends and I have each left a little something to remind you all of the our pasts. While everything we've left inside may not seem remarkable at first glance, I can assure you that every single item enclosed is significant to it's respective former owner. You might be the tiniest bit confused about some of the items in here, but never fear. I will explain everything in this letter.

Marina read on, about how the bejeweled dress had been the unicorn Rarity's hit design. How the red cape belonged to the earth pony Apple Bloom as a filly and was only worn by members of the 'Cutie Mark Crusaders.' How the vintage cider was fifty percent alcohol. (Being her rebellious teenage self, Marina had made note to drink it all when she was alone. To Tartarus with being underage! she thought, cackling.)

There was tons more too, about feathers and deflated balloons, and even an unfinished novel. Marina looked over to the large stack of paper, easily being more than half of all the parchment. Apparently, the princess had left it for Marina to finish. But at the very end of the letter, there was something about having written many songs with her friends . As soon as the filly's eyes glimpsed the 's' word, her excitement peaked. Being a music lover herself, she beamed when she read that the songs had been tucked away into the box as well.

Tossing everything back into the box, the earth pony pulled out a time capsule of her own, stuffed her phone and a pre-made letter inside regretfully, and buried it. It was painful for the girl to see her best friend drown in dirt, but if Princess Twilight could do it, so could she.

Once the deed was done, the teenager slipped Twilight's time capsule into her saddlebag, albeit with some difficulty due to it's large size, and began to head home.


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Once safe and sound inside of her room, Marina pulled out one of the song papers from the box. Something called "Twilight's Twilight."