//------------------------------// // 03: A Sparkle in Time // Story: The Princess that Equestria Always Had // by rillegas08 //------------------------------// The magic of the two alicorns hit Twilight’s chest. She flinched slightly and winced at the somewhat painful brunt, but the discomfort quickly dispersed as she felt the magic flow around her whole body. There was a snap, the familiar sound that indicated time travel and teleportation. She opened her eyes, expecting to find herself where she was supposed to be, but was surprised to find that she wasn’t even in a physical plane of existence. She was in a tube that appeared to be made of pure energy, a place where gravity didn’t exist. The energy appeared to consist of white, black, and every color of gray in between, but when she looked closer she found that what she thought was gray was actually very miniscule spots of color which blended together at a distance. The tube had seemed bland at first glance; these colors turned that blandness into beauty. She floated quickly along against stagnant particles, not realizing that all of the particles of energy were, in fact, flowing in the opposite direction she was going, but at a much slower rate. This is the flow of time, isn’t it? she thought to herself. Last time I traveled through time, it was instantaneous, though I only traveled a few years in the past. It makes perfect sense that going back a thousand years would take much longer. She didn’t move, trying to estimate how long she would be traveling. She counted the seconds in her head, but each guess turned out to be incorrect, and when the guessed times passed she had to recalculate. Her estimations were hindered by the fact that she couldn’t see specific moments in time, but unexpectedly there was a flash of bright light and a snap as she was sent to the time she needed to be. Twilight stumbled as her hooves touched the solid ground, and she tripped over the hem of her cloak, falling hard on her side. She groaned and lay on the ground for a few moments while she got used to her new surroundings. She took this time to think, estimating that she had traveled for just about six minutes through the flow of time. She stood back up, brushing some dust off her legs and her cloak, and looked around her. All the buildings around her were a single story tall, nearly all of which appeared old and unkempt. Behind every third house or so were larger buildings that resembled the barn at Sweet Apple Acres, although they were much smaller and didn’t have nearly as many embellishments. The sound of her travel must have been louder than she thought, because a few of the windows were lit. As she looked around, most of the lit windows quickly darkened. Taking a short detour between two of the houses, she looked behind the barns and saw nothing but fields for a long distance and trees beyond them. “I must be in an earth pony town.” She made her way back to the main street and walked up to a house that still had its lights on. She knocked on the door, and soon an earth pony mare with mustard fur, a pale blue mane, and clothes that were clearly very old opened the door, rubbing her eyes. She looked at Twilight and frowned. “I’m terribly sorry for disturbing you this late at night, but would you by chance know where I might find a unicorn known as Star Swirl the Bearded?” “You’ll find your kind that way.” The mustard mare pointed her hoof down the road, the opposite way Twilight had come. She closed the door somewhat loudly. “Oookay then. Good night!” She started walking the direction the mare had indicated. “That was kind of rude.” She thought back to what the earth mare had said about “her kind.” The way the earth mare had said it made it sound like she didn’t care much for unicorns. Twilight suddenly remembered that for much of his life, Star Swirl lived in a land that wasn’t Equestria, when there was much dissent among the three pony races. “I thought I’d be sent to a time when he lived in Canterlot. I must have been sent back farther than I realized.” She continued walking along the road, looking from house to house for evidence of unicorns, finding nothing unique about any of them, and finding no clues as to where she could find other unicorns. Soon she caught a glimpse of light between two of the houses. It was nearly hidden by trees, but she knew what she saw. She hurried across the field toward the forest’s edge, hoping the light came from a house. Sure enough, the light was from a first-story window of a rather large house. It was easily twice as tall, twice as long, and twice as wide as one of the houses along the main road. The house was position away from the forest’s edge, but not so far as to require an unusually long path to get there. This house must belong to somepony important, she thought as she knocked on the door, perhaps even the leader of this town. Soon the door opened, and in the light she saw a tan-colored earth mare, whose coat was covered in several dark spots, with a mane the same color as the spots. Twilight felt a little disheartened from her last encounter with an earth pony, but kept a smile on her face. She started to speak, but the spotted mare put her hoof to her mouth, and looked around before quickly beckoning Twilight in. The interior was expectedly more furnished than the previous house, which further confirmed Twilight’s suspicion that this mare was somepony important. The floor was wood, covered with a simple-patterned rug. The walls were covered in plaster, in contrast to the plain wooden walls of the house she had had a glimpse into a few minutes before. There were even some pictures on the walls. “What are you doing out in the open?” asked the mottled mare after she closed the door. She spoke with a faint drawl. “All of the ponies in this town resent the unicorns, and as far as I know I’m the only one who doesn’t.” “What do you mean? What’s going on?” “You been living under a rock or something?” “Let’s just say I’ve never been to this part of the country before.” She gave Twilight a quizzical look momentarily, but shrugged it off. “All right then. This has been going on fer years now. I’m sure you know the unicorns raise the sun an’ moon an’ expect us earth ponies to give them a portion a the food we grow. It makes sense, since we need the sun fer our crops to grow in the first place, but I’m concerned most of them use their race as an excuse to get free food. An’ the pegasi ain’t much better.” The sun and moon weren’t raised by Celestia and Luna but by unicorns demanding food as payment? It’s no wonder Twilight didn’t recognize where she was; Equestria hadn’t even been founded yet. “Anyway, now you gotta answer my question.” “Right. You did ask first, after all,” she chuckled. “I’m looking for Star Swirl the Bearded.” “Yer looking for Star Swirl? Shoot, even most earth ponies admire his talents, even if they also resent yer kind.” “Great. Do you know where I can find him?” “Yeah, he’s in a valley to the north past some hills with more unicorns. He was kind enough last evening to come by an’ let me know they’d be in the area before trotting off. Probably told me so I could prevent too much unnecessary interaction between them an’ the townsponies. In fact, it’s almost morning. You caught me just after I woke up.” “Did I? Sorry about that. I think I woke up another pony earlier too. She... wasn’t as lively as you.” “I gotta be up earlier than the others. I’m this town’s emissary to the Chancellor, an’ that comes with a lot a responsibilities.” “If you hurry you can probably watch them raise the sun.” Twilight opened the door with her magic and started to leave. “By the way, I’m Smart Cookie. I never got yer name.” “Nice to meet you, Smart Cookie. I’m –” she suddenly stopped speaking. Twilight couldn’t tell the earth mare her real name. Smart Cookie was the advisor to Chancellor Puddinghead, the figurehead of the earth pony tribe, and if she told the mare her real name, there could be record of her a thousand years before she was born. Twilight knew all sorts of forgotten history, but had never come across her own name. She had to come up with something, and quickly. Smart Cookie was already starting to look at her funny. “Actually, would it be wise to give you my name? If somepony were to figure out who your mysterious unicorn guest was, there could be come political consequences.” “Perhaps yer right. Star Swirl an’ his group tend to be exempt from the racial tensions because of their daily contributions. Actually,” the tan mare touched her hoof to her chin, “there might be more than one group. Aside from Star Swirl, I’ve never seen the same unicorns twice.” “That would be accurate. It takes a lot of effort to raise and lower the sun and the moon that most ponies can’t handle doing it more than once.” “What do you mean by that?” “It takes so much effort that their magic is depleted forever.” Smart Cookie softly gasped. “I think I maybe been a little too harsh on unicorns. I always thought most unicorns were taking advantage of the accomplishments of the others so they didn’t have to earn it themselves. Uh, no offense.” “None taken, but I’m sure you’re not completely wrong about freeloaders.” Twilight opened the door with her magic and went out. She turned her head back to the other mare. “To the north, you said?” “Mhm.” There was a pause as Twilight started walking. “It was nice to meet you. Will I ever see you again?” “I don’t know, but if we do, let’s hope it’s under better circumstances.”