• Published 13th Jul 2013
  • 21,854 Views, 607 Comments

Past, Present, and Future - Bpkyle777



Name's Zack. After apparently having vanished 3000 years ago, I returned to Equestria, only this time I'm actually in the same time period as the Element Bearers. I just hope Tia isn't upset that I disappeared...

  • ...
40
 607
 21,854

Chapter 6: All Is Revealed (Well, Mostly)

“So let me get this straight. You’re a Democracy?”

“Yes, Knight, a Representative Democracy. The ponies of Equestria vote for the council members every few years to make the big decisions for this new country.” Celestia explained.

I was released from the hospital about an hour ago, and Celestia offered to get us all something to eat at a local diner for lunch. The food here is pretty good, but that may just be my new body talking. I wish I still had my hands, though. And maybe my phone… After we ate, we wandered around the city. It looked really warn down, considering it’s only been standing for ten years so far. I had decided to ask about how things were run around here. I could tell these two were not princesses since one lacked a cutie mark and neither had their fancy manes or jewelry.

I scoffed. “Let me guess, the whole council is comprised of high ranking nobles who have their muzzles so far up their flanks that they don’t consider the common ma- er, pony; they only do what’s best for them, and not all of Equestria?” I’ve read about too many governments back home that fell into that category and ultimately failed.

Celestia glared at me. “You realize we are on the council as well?” Luna snickered.

I stopped, my eyes going wide. Oops. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean you two. You are by far the nicest peo-ponies I’ve ever met!”

“Haha. Well, unfortunately,” Luna said, as we continued along, “aside from us and one of our closest friends, what thou hast said is all but true.”

“Luna!” Celestia reprimanded.

“Well, it is true, Sister!” Luna retorted. “Those nobles couldn’t care less what happened to these poor ponies,” she gestured around the mostly empty street, “as long as they were taken care of.” Celestia just sighed.

“Hmm, if only there were just a couple ponies with power higher than the council who genuinely cared for their little ponies,” I offered.

Celestia raised a brow at me. “What you’re suggesting would be some form of Diarchy. It’s bad enough with a whole group of elected nobles. Imagine what they would do if any one or two of them held that much power. These ponies would never go for that.”

“Well, if I heard Luna correctly,” I said, “Not everypony on the council is like that.”

Celestia and Luna both stopped and looked at me. I kept walking, ignoring their glances. “Just something for you to chew on,” I called back to them.

---------------------------

After walking for a few more minutes, I asked if I could see the outer wall. Tia agreed and we walked across the city to the entrance to Canterlot. What I saw was… breathtaking.

We stood on the wall right next to the drawbridge entrance. A beautiful waterfall cascaded down the side of the mountain Canterlot was built on. It flowed into a small river beneath the drawbridge before falling again to the plains below. In every direction, the grass and trees were a beautiful green and I could see luscious flowers growing along the mountain face.

The plains were not nearly as large as they appeared in the show, though. A grim-looking jungle consumed over half of what I could see in the distance. Is that… the Everfree Forest? No, they called it the Everfree Jungle. Creepy.

“So you ladies found me out there?” I asked, pointing toward the edge of the jungle. Celestia and Luna both nodded.

“Yes,” Celestia said. She glanced at Luna, “If Luna hadn’t been slacking off on her homework and playing with her new telescope, I doubt anypony would have found you.”

I turned to Luna. “Well, thank you, Luna. You bring great honor to fellow slackers everywhere,” I said, giving an exaggerated bow.

The dark alicorn giggled. “Thank you. We try Our best.”

Celestia just rolled her eyes. “You certainly do, Lulu,” she mumbled.

Luna immediately blushed and glared at her sister. “Tia, what’d I say about calling me that in front of other ponies?” she whispered harshly. Now it was Celestia’s- pardon, Tia’s turn to blush.

“Haha. Well, Tia, Lulu, where to now?” I asked. Luna glared daggers at me. Take the hint: Don’t use ‘Lulu’ around her.

Clearing her throat, Tia turned to me. Oh my gosh, I am so using that for now on. “Since you’re new here, I guess you’ll need a place to stay.” Tia said.

“Oh, don’t worry about me. I’m sure I can just rent-” a motel room? No, you don’t have any bits, remember? “uh… n-nevermind.” I rubbed the back of my head.

Tia smiled at me. “Don’t worry. I’m sure I can get you a guest room at the castle.” She started walking back into town.

“W-what?” I was shocked. Me? Living in Canterlot Castle? With Celestia and Luna? I ran to catch up to her. “I-I don’t want to be a hassle for you two. You’ve already done enough for me as it is.”

“Quit whining,” Luna said. “There is plenty of vacant space at the castle for one more guest. Plus, Sister here could get pretty much whatever she wished, seeing as how the council allows her raise the sun by herself now.” Tia blushed.

Thinking back to the show, I remembered that was a big thing. “Really?” I acted surprised. “That’s incredible! I thought it took a large group of powerful and expertly trained unicorns to do that! And you do it all on your own?”

Tia smiled as her blush deepened. “Well yeah. As a naturally born alicorn, I hold a great deal more power than any unicorn alive today.”

“That’s awesome,” I said.

“But Luna here holds nearly as much power as I do,” she said, obviously trying to shift the attention away from herself. “If the council is correct, Luna may take over the raising of the moon one day.”

“I doubt it,” Luna said dejectedly. “So far, I can’t get anything right. Nearly every spell I cast blows up in my face somehow.”

“Hey, don’t put yourself down like that,” I said. “Not everypony can just make greatness happen. Most have to work hard to get where they need to be, and the payout ends up much greater than to those who don’t. I’m sure you’ll get there.” That seemed to lift Luna up a bit. “Besides, with a name like ‘Luna’, what else would you be destined for?” She laughed at that. Wow. Since when have I been one for encouragement?

“Thank you, Knight,” Luna said. “That means a lot coming from somepony other than my sister.”

“No prob. I meant every word of it.” I turned to Tia, who was smiling warmly at me. “So, to the castle, then?” I asked.

*SMACK* “Ow.” I should learn to watch where I’m going. The empty cart I slammed into barely even shifted. Luna started laughing at me… again.

“Oh my goodness.” Tia rushed over to me. “Are you alright, Knight?”

“Y-yeah,” I waved her off, “don’t me about worry.” I may have been a little dazed. I shuffled back to the middle of the road. “I’ll be fiiIIIIiiiiii-”

I was interrupted by an open manhole- ponyhole? -in the street. Seriously, who neglected to close that?

---------------------------

About twenty minutes after I was fished out of the sewer by Tia and a hysterical Luna, we finally made it to the castle. It was smaller than I thought it would be, but a second glance showed scaffolding in place for expansions.

Two guards were standing at the front gate of the wall surrounding the castle. They wore the familiar suits of golden armor and each had a spear at their side, but one was a short grey Pegasus with a black mane and tail, and the other was a red Unicorn with an orange mane and tail. Either they only hire identical white stallions in the future or their armor eventually gets enchanted.

Tia greeted them as we approached. “Good afternoon, Smith, Flare,” she said, nodding at each.

They saluted. “Good afternoon, Miss Celestia,” the grey Pegasus said.

“My sister and I have a guest who will be staying at the castle.” She motioned to me. “This is Sapphire Knight.” The Unicorn remained stoic, but I could see the Pegasus smirk at my name. “Knight, these are Bright Flare,” the Unicorn saluted, and I returned it, “And Silver Smith,” the Pegasus just kept smiling at me.

I raised a brow at him. “Sup,” I said.

“Sup,” he replied. He took a sniff and immediately regretted it. “Ew, you reek!”

I glared at him, and before Tia could scold him for being unprofessional, I retorted. “And you’re short!”

We glared at each other for a few more minutes… before laughing it off and hoofbumping. Tia rolled her eyes at us. "Stallions."

I like this guy. Dunno why, I just do.

“Well we had best be on our way,” Luna said, almost hurriedly. I looked back at her and saw she was blushed and looking away from Smith.

“Quite right,” Tia agreed. “Goodbye, gentlecolts.”

“See you around,” Smith said to me as we passed through the gates.

“No doubt,” I called back.

We walked through the open courtyard leading to the castle entrance. “So I’m gonna be staying here?” I asked. They were still building some walls, and most of the plants were only just blooming.

“Yes,” Tia replied. “I’m sure you’ll enjoy your stay until you get your memory back.”

Oh, yeah. Amnesiac. “It’ll be perfect,” I grinned at Tia, “as long as I get a room close to-” I’M DOING IT AGAIN! DON’T FLIRT WITH THE SUN GODDESS! Luna was giving me a glare that would kill if it could.

Tia just looked at me questioningly. “Close to… what?”

“Ahem. C-close to… a kitchen! Yeah, a kitchen,” I lied. “I like to midnight snack so having a kitchen close by would be nice.” Well, that wasn’t a lie.

Tia chuckled at me. “I’ll see what I can do,” she told me. Luna softened her glare a bit. “There’s actually one close to my room,” Tia said.

I blushed and stumbled, nearly hitting an incomplete wall. I quickly sidestepped it, though. “Ha! Stupid wall! Not this time!” I gave it a light kick, but before I could continue walking, a loose brick fell on my head.

“Lights out,” I said, and then hit the ground.


After my little show earlier, Tia had summoned some tea to help everypony relax a bit. Then I explained my origins as a human and that I had somehow been transported here. Understandably, most of the girls were skeptical. The only ones who believed me were the Princesses, since I had already told them this before, and Pinkie Pie. Don’t ask why, she just did.

Luckily, Tia was able to suspend their disbelief. “Shortly after Zack told me about where he came from, he allowed me to view his memories,” Tia explained to the girls. “He is indeed telling the truth.”

“But isn’t that a little invasive?” Twilight asked, concerned. “Viewing all of somepony’s memories like that?”

“Not entirely,” I said, putting down the tea I was drinking. “I was still able to keep her away from anything I didn’t want her to see.” And boy, was it hard to hide everything about MLP. “Besides,” I continued, “I trust her completely with anything she might have seen.” Tia turned a light shade of pink.

After that, I told everypony, and dragon, about my first day here in Equestria. You know, minus the hints at my preexisting knowledge of them.

“Wow. Rough first day,” Twilight said, taking a sip of tea as I finished my story.

“Told you I’m used to head injuries,” I grinned at her.

“I could see why if every day was like that one,” Rarity said.

“Well, aside from my history of head trauma, does anypony have any questions on what I’ve said so far?” I asked everypony.

Rarity was the first to speak up. “I simply cannot imagine how dreadful it must’ve been to be pulled from your home and dumped in the middle of an unfamiliar world,” actually a bit more familiar than you think, “and on top of that, being transformed into a different species entirely! I guess my question is, based off what you’ve told us, how did you deal with it so well?”

I chuckled a bit. “I actually got a similar question from Tia a long time ago. I’ll tell you what I told her. I’ll admit, when I first arrived, it bugged me a bit, but at the end of the first week, realization finally struck me that I may never return home. That I might be stuck here as a pony for the rest of my life. Of course, I became a little depressed, but after a couple more weeks in Equestria I realized something important.” Everypony was leaning in to listen. Pinkie fell on her face. “No matter how my body or mind changes, I will always have that little spark of Humanity in here.” I touched my chest and looked toward Fluttershy. “Let’s say you were transformed into a dragon.” She gasped. “Hypothetically, of course. Just because your body may look different, and your mind changes to fit the body, like learning about how you move and what you eat, inside you will still be ‘Fluttershy’. Inside, your heart and soul remains the same, unless you let that change too.” See? Ever since I got here, I’ve been so ‘philosophical’ and ‘deep-thinking’. Hmm…

After the girls thought on what I said for a moment, Twilight spoke up. “That’s how you dealt with the transformation, but what about your home? Surely you have friends and family that miss you.”

I just shook my head. “Nah, not really. I never knew my father, and my mother…” I sighed. “She died a few years ago. I have a big sister, but she’s happily married to a man that loves her very much. I’m sure she’ll be fine.” I looked around the room to see everypony looking sad. Hehe, I chuckled to myself, why the long faces? “As for friends, I didn’t have many, and the few I did have, I rarely got to see.” I grinned at Tia and Luna. “Besides, I’ve already made some great friends here, and I wouldn’t give them up for the world.”

Rarity and Fluttershy looked like they were about to break down. Dash was trying to look unfazed, but I could see the sadness in her eyes. Tia, Luna, Twilight, and AJ were all smiling at me, and Pinkie…

Awww!” Pinkie said. “That’s so sweet.”

I blushed a little. “Hehe, uh, any more questions?”

“Yeah I got one,” Dash said. “If you were a Unicorn 3000 years ago, how did you get here as a Pegasus?”

“That,” I frowned, “I’m not really sure about. Unfortunately, yesterday still seems like such a blur…”


“Come on Tia! Let me go, please?” I begged.

The Princess shook her head, her ethereal mane blowing in a non-existent wind. “I’m sorry, Zack. I don’t want you to go by yourself. The Everfree Jungle is just too dangerous.”

We had just left the dining hall and were walking down a long hallway toward our rooms. The last orange rays of sunlight came in through the windows along the hall as Luna prepared to raise the moon for the night. There were guards stationed every twenty yards or so, all white with golden armor.

“Tia, you know me. I’ll be careful,” I said. I then tripped over a maid running down the hallway, causing her to drop the towels she was carrying on her back.

“Yes, I do know you,” Tia said as I helped the maid pick her stuff up. “I know that if you’re left alone for more than ten minutes, you’ll end up unconscious somewhere with another bump on your head. And the Everfree is the last place I want you to be when that happens. You could end up injured, or worse!”

After I finished helping the maid I turned back to see Tia almost in tears. “Look, Tia, I know you’re worried about me, but I’ve been here for, what? Nearly five months now? And I have yet to investigate the area near the Everfree where I was found.” I wiped a tear off her muzzle with my hoof, a little awkward when she’s about 1.5 times my size. “I just want to see if whatever force brought me here is any threat to the safety of Equestria. You know somepony needs to investigate it and who better than the one that was sent over? If you’re so worried, then just come with me.”

“You know I cannot come because my newfound duties tie me here at the moment.” Tia sighed and nuzzled me. “At least let me send a group of guards with you, just to be safe.”

I gasped. “So I can go?” She reluctantly nodded. “Yay! Thank you so much, Tia! I promise you won’t regret it!” I ran off to my study to plan the expedition.

“Just be careful!” Tia yelled after me.

---------------------------

The next morning, I went to the entrance of Canterlot to find over twenty guards lined up for me, all appearing identical and ready to move out. Are you serious, Tia? I don’t need this many!

I approached one of the guards. “Lieutenant Light, do we really need this many guards for a short expedition?”

The lieutenant saluted me. “The princess enlisted all of us to ensure your safety.”

I rolled my eyes. “Well, I don’t need the whole army at my side.” I walked to the front of the group. “Listen up; at most I’ll only need about eight of you on this trip. Lieutenant Light, you’re with me.” He trotted to my side. I looked out at the group and saw my best friend. “Smith, you too.”

Silver Smith trotted up to me with a grin on his smug face. “I knew you’d need my help. Or am I just that irresistible?”

I jabbed his shoulder. “Aw, shut up and fall in line.” I looked back at the other guards. “I’m also gonna take… Star, Mills, Rich, Green, Songs, and… Flare,” I said, pointing out each guard as I called their names. “The rest of you may continue your previous duties back in Canterlot.”

“I still don’t understand how you can recognize each of us,” Light told me.

“Well,” I said with a smirk, “I invented the enchantment for your armor. I should also have a way to see around it, right?”

The guards I called out gathered around me as the rest cleared out. “Alright,” I said, “We are investigating what could be a potential threat to Equestria, near the border of the Everfree.”

Everypony saluted, except Smith, who was shifting on his hooves. “Are you alright, Smith?”

“Well, it’s just…” He paused to think about it. “If what we are investigating is a possible threat, why did you send away the rest of the guards?”

“You sure you’re not just scared of the Everfree?” I prodded him.

He just scoffed. “Like anything could scare me.”

I just laughed. “Well, truthfully, we don’t know what this could be. It could very well be nothing at all! Besides, after so long of nothing bad happening, why would something happen now?”

Smith glared angrily at me. “Thanks for jinxing us, idiot!”

---------------------------

We approached the edge of the Everfree Jungle, right near where Luna said she had found me, and I began to scan for any abnormalities with my magic, the guards forming a perimeter…

I was working for a while…

Uh…

There was a loud growl and somepony screamed “Knight, look out!”

Umm…

There was a flash of light…

A tall dark figure standing over me…


“That’s… all I can remember,” I said. “Wow, repeating all that out loud, I realize nearly every word that came out of my mouth was ironic, wasn’t it?”

Dash looked restless. “That’s it?!”

“Sorry Dash, that’s all I got.”

“Augh! I hate cliffhangers!” She laid back on her pillow with her hooves to her face.

“Well, the next thing I know, Nurse Redheart is waking me up in a field just outside Ponyville, and I’m an orange Pegasus.” I frowned when I saw Tia and Luna looking upset. “But, maybe the Princesses can fill us in on some of the aftermath.” Dash immediately shot back up to attention.

“Seven of the eight guards that were with you came back.” Luna told us. “Lieutenant Light informed us that you were all attacked and outnumbered by Timberwolves. He said that after fighting them off for about ten minutes, the Timberwolves retreated, only for him to find both you and… Silver Smith missing.” Luna’s voice broke a bit at his name. Oh no, not Smith too…

“We sent search parties out every day for months, in hopes of finding you,” Tia spoke up. “After a while, we gave up hope of ever finding you or Smith again.” She was about to tear up again.

“Look, Tia,” I said softly, “I’m sorry. I should have listened to you. But right now, it’s all in the past, and I am here, safe and sound.” I gave her a hug. “I promise I’ll listen the first time you say ‘no’ from now on.”

She returned the hug. “No, no. You were right. I shouldn’t have kept you from doing what you thought was right for Equestria. I’m just sorry for not being there when you needed me.”

After a few more moments of hugging, we were interrupted by a cough from Luna. We immediately looked around to see everypony staring at us, wide-eyed. We quickly separated, our faces blushed.

“So,” Rarity broke the silence, “were you two, ahem… an item, then?”

“W-well,” I tried to answer, rubbing the back of my neck, “We, uh, I-I mean, she was, u-umm, we were really close, b-but between her running a new country and my approaching magical breakthrough, we never actually, you know… dated, per say.”

Twilight’s eyes brighten at my mentioning my breakthrough, but I could see her hold back her questions for a more appropriate time. But then she grew confused again.

“Wait,” Twilight said, “there isn’t any magic where you’re from, right?” I nodded. “Then how did you get better at it in five months than most do their entire lives?”

“Ah,” I said, “there are actually three reasons for that, two of which you might have guessed already, natural talent, and a great instructor.”

Twilight smiled at her teacher. “I sort of thought of those two.” Tia returned Twilight’s smile.

“The third reason,” I continued, “is human intuition.”

AJ looked offended. “Are you saying humans are better than us ponies?”

“Nope. Quite the opposite, in fact!” I said. “Because humans lack the incredible traits you ponies have, it gives most of us a chance to think outside of the box with it.” AJ looked at me confused.

“Oh, you mean like how we’ve grown up with these things all our lives,” Twilight explained, “we take for granted all of the small things we see every day as normal, and don’t give them a second thought.”

“Yes, exactly,” I said. “And to a human, everything here is new, so I can find ways to use those small things to my advantage.” Well, that and a little FiMfic magic theory.

“That’s… ingenious! You’ve got to show me some of your spells sometime.”

“Do you still want that transfiguration teacher? I’d be happy to help.”

“Yes, of course!” Twilight was giddy with excitement. “Oh, this’ll be so cool! Magic lessons from the Sapphire Knight.”

“Uh, I’m sorry for interrupting your ‘egghead’ moment, Twi,” Rainbow Dash cut in- No she’s not -“But Blast, Sapphire, Zack, whoever the hay you are, still hasn’t explained how he knows all about us. If he’s only been here for less than a day, where’d he get his information from?”

I smirked and looked away for a moment. “Here’s the hard part, I guess,” I mumbled to myself and turned back to face everypony. “Yes, well, that brings me to my next major point of interest. I haven’t even told Tia or Luna this part yet.” The Princesses looked at me confused. “Tell me, Twilight. What do you know of the Multiverse?”

“Uh, that it’s basically a theory that states that there are an infinite number of universes parallel to our own,” Twilight said.

“Correct. And by the very definition of ‘infinity’, anything could exist in some universe somewhere, right?”

Twilight thought about it. “Yeah, I suppose so.”

“That means that it’s possible for there to be a universe so different from yours, ponies don’t even exist!” Some of the girls looked shocked. “There may be one that’s similar to yours, except everypony was born the opposite gender, like, I don’t know,” I motioned to Twilight, “You would be Dusk Shine, faithful student of the great Prince Solaris.”

“That’s kind of disturbing,” Dash said.

I just laughed. “Yeah, just a bit. But it could exist somewhere. Then, there might even be a universe so identical to this one, the only difference between the two is the fact that Pinkie decided to eat a muffin instead of a cupcake earlier!”

“How’d you know I had a cupcake?” Pinkie asked me.

“Uh, one, you’re Pinkie Pie, of course you’ll snack on a cupcake.” She smiled and rubbed the back of her head. “Two, you still have some frosting on the corner of your mouth.” I motioned to the smudge of blue frosting on her face.

“Oops.” Pinkie licked her whole face clean. Okay, even a pony’s tongue shouldn’t be that long.

“My head,” Dash complained. “This ‘infinity’ stuff hurts.”

“Well don’t think about it too hard,” I said. “Even I still get headaches on occasion from it.”

Luna had been thinking about what I’ve said since I started. “I still don’t get what this has to do with your knowledge of our little ponies.”

“Hold on, I’m getting to that.” I looked at Twilight again. “So going off of the Multiverse theory, every work of fiction you have ever heard or read has indeed happened in a universe somewhere, yeah?”

Twilight just stared at me, the gears in her head clearly turning. “Based off what you’ve said so far, yes.”

“Now flipping that, every piece of non-fiction here could very well be a work of fiction somewhere else.”

Rarity, AJ, and Dash were all clearly lost. “What?” Rarity asked.

I looked over at Rarity. “Okay, if you wrote a book about your life, it would be considered a non-fictional autobiography, correct?”

“Yes,” Rarity said and flicked her hair, “and it’d be fabulous!”

I smirked. “Well, fabulosity aside, because of ‘infinity’, said autobiography could have also been written word for word by somepony, somewhere, in a universe you don’t exist in. And since you don’t exist there, it would be considered fiction.”

“Ah’m still not gettin’ what this has to do with anythin’,” AJ said.

Fluttershy suddenly gasped. “I-is that how you know us?”

“Pardon?” AJ asked.

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Are… are we a work of fiction in your world?”

I beamed at her and Fluttershy. “Bingo! Yahtzee! You’ve got it! Blast, tell them what they’ve won!” I stopped, seeing everypony’s shocked stares directed at me. I guess the luxurious beach vacation and new car will have to wait.

“Ahem, well,” I attempted to reboot the conversation, “Tia, do you remember how when I first woke up, I said I was ‘too early’?” She slowly nodded. “That was because my knowledge of this world is mostly focused around this time period.” I looked back at the Mane 6. “More specifically you girls and your adventures over the last two years. That’s how I knew everything that had recently happened.”

“Prove it.”

“Huh?” I asked. Looking around, I saw Dash glaring at me again.

“I said prove it!” she practically hissed. “Prove you know something that isn’t on a window somewhere in this castle! I still think you’re lying!”

I sighed. Well, time to take a page out of Bruce’s book. “You sure about that?” She just glared harder. “Luna, you know how I like to prove stuff. Should I?” Luna came out of her musings to look at me wide-eyed. She quickly glanced over at Dash and shook her head. “You still want me to prove it, Dash?” I asked.

She suddenly looked a little nervous, probably from getting such a terrified reaction from a Princess. “Y-yeah,” she gulped. “I still want you to prove it. I mean it’s not like you cou-”

“Dash, did you ever tell your friends what number you were in the Best Young Fliers Competition?”

“She was number 15, was she not?” Rarity asked.

“Oh, so you didn’t, then.” Dash looked a bit more scared. I continued talking to the other girls. “She wasn’t number 15 originally. When the whole thing was about to start, she was actually number 2.” The girls gasped. “Her nerves got the best of her and she kept switching numbers with the other contestants until she was last.”

“Is, is that true, Dash?” Fluttershy asked.

“… I… I’m not a coward!” Dash yelled at me.

“Hey, I never said you were,” I said defensively. “You just got nervous is all, and I can totally understand that. Just ask Luna about the first time she had to raise the moon in front of the Council.” I chuckled a bit. “I think Tia and I were more nervous than she was and nearly blew it for her.”

Tia giggled and Luna just rolled her eyes. That made Dash cool down a bit.

Tia grinned at me. I guess she believes me. I mean, with everything that’s happened, why wouldn’t she? “So, that’s how you knew about my little ponies?” she asked.

I snickered and Tia looked confused. “Oh, sorry,” I said. “I usually laugh when a book or show mentions its own name inside it.” That got a few more confused looks. “‘My Little Pony’. That’s the name of the work of fiction based on y’all.”

“Sounds too frilly to me,” Dash huffed.

“That’s because it used to be super frilly before you girls came along.” I shuddered at the thought of G1 ponies. “Anywho, are there any more comments, questions, or concerns?” I asked.

“Just one,” Tia said. “Is your knowledge only limited to the last two years,” Oh boy, I see where this is going, “or do you know more than you’re telling us?” And it went there.

Author's Note:

Yes, that was a reference to 'Bruce' of Minalkra's FiMfic, 'Oh to be Old Again'

Edit May 24th 2017: IMPORTANT! I am currently rewriting the entire story and with that, many details and aspects are set to change. As such, it will essentially be an entirely new story, meaning this version of Past, Present, and Future is technically Cancelled. There will be no more chapter updates until I finish the rewrite, meaning that this version will not have a proper ending. If it's requested enough, I may do some kind of Cliffnotes version of how the rest of the story was meant to play out, but for right now just know that if you start reading this version, you will not get an ending. I will post an announcement chapter on this story and Blog on my profile when the writing nears completion and I'm about to start uploading chapters. Thank you for all of your interest in my first public work of fiction. It really means a lot to me.