Timeline Sparkle: Trails and Tribulations

by Symphonicdysonince

Chapter 1: And I Find Myself the Stranger

I flew as fast as I could through Ponyville towards where my castle should have stood, avoiding the main roads and the town square. (I wasn't sure, but the last time anypony saw a flying cloud of mana around Ponyville was when Luna was still Nightmare Moon.) Focusing too much on what wasn't there, I almost missed something that shouldn't be around anymore. Near the middle of town was a large, long dead oak tree. At its base was a boarded up door, and it had several windows set seemingly at random throughout the branches. There was even space for a balcony, though that looks like it had been removed a long while ago, possibly for boarding material.

What is the library doing here?! I thought this was destroyed by Tirek. I flew up to, then through, the loft window. This doesn’t look like how I had my room! All of my things weren’t even in the room, and there was a thick layer dust over everything else. The bed didn’t even have any sheets on it. It didn’t look like anypony had used the room for several years.

Just how far did that spell send me?!

Thunk

Somepony was moving around downstairs. I floated down through the floor and walls until I could see the floor below. There, I could see a hooded pony standing in front of a reading lectern, muttering to herself as she read from a book. Judging by the voice, she was a mare not much older than I was. Her cloak stretched down to her flanks. Several books already lay in piles on the floor. From what I could see, they were all about various farming and growing methods. I slipped down into the floor to get as close to the Mare as possible without being seen to get a good look at her cutie mark. Growling, the Mare violently knocked the book in front of her to the floor.

“No, no, no, no! Ugh, why can’t this stupid library ever have what I need to know?!” For a brief moment, when she knocked the book down, I could just see her right flank. It was blank.

The Mare stormed to a nearby bookshelf, grabbed a few books seemingly at random, and then stalked into the little kitchenette at the back of the library. I floated through the wall a moment after. The kitchenette was as I remembered it, save with more dust. The Mare was at the back door, shoving the books she grabbed into a beat-up set of saddlebags hard enough to make me wince for the poor book. The Mare took a moment to make sure the saddlebags were secure, then pushed the door open and stepped out into the night.

I floated up through the ceiling before I went through the wall. Floating in the dead branches, I watched as the Mare place a few boards onto the back door in a way to make it look like the door was boarded shut. She looked around like there might be somepony after her, then started galloping as quietly as she could through the deserted streets. Letting my curiosity get the better of me, I followed at roof height.

The Mare soon left the western edge of town. Only once she was passed the first hill did she start to slow down. A lack of tall trees forced me to stay close to the ground, shifting through the underbrush, as I attempted to keep out of her sight. We soon came upon the local school. This building, too, had been boarded up. There were several planter boxes filled with wilting plants set into the roof’s edge. The Mare walked up to the door, and, after ensuring that no pony had followed her, pulled off a pair of boards I had thought were securely nailed down. She shut the door as soon as she crossed the threshold. The loud cathunk of a heavy timber falling across the door sounded soon after. I floated through the wall near where I guessed the ceiling to be, taking the room in with a glance. The desks had all been pushed up against the windows to make it even harder for anything to get in. The larger teacher’s desk appeared to have been cannibalized into a makeshift ladder leading to a haphazardly made second floor. In the center of the room lay a pile of hay and a blanket. Most of the details of the room were lost on me, though, as the Mare had removed her cloak. There, standing by the door, was Cheerilee.

---

Cheerilee had finally fallen into a fitful a few minutes ago. I continued to watch her toss and turn on her pile of hay for a few minutes more until I felt sure she wouldn’t wake up. I floated down to the floor and flowed to where Cheerilee had left her saddlebags. I opened one of the pouches and carefully pulled out the books inside. Great. More farming books. What would Cheerilee need these for? I took a closer look at the titles. And they’re all about ancient farming techniques. I returned the books to their pouch, straightening out any bent pages as I did so, and quickly checked the contents of the other pouch. ....And even more farming books.

Curiosity for the saddlebags placated, I floated around the schoolhouse. I examined every drawer, cabinet, and desk still capable of holding something. I even floated up to the second floor. The only thing worth noting was that there was a door set into the side of the roof leading to a walk-around balcony. The balcony, in turn, lead to each planter box I saw coming in. Inside the nearest box, I could see a few wilting roses.

Odd, these should be thriving in this type of climate. Unless…. I let myself flow through the bushes and soil. (I had discovered earlier that passing through something to check on how much mana it has was easier than just touching it.) The roses barely had any mana, and the soil had none. I pulled back from the box. This is bad. Those roses won’t last much longer like this. I quickly checked on the other boxes. All were in a similar state of magical depravity.

If only there was something in the soil to help the plants. I know I read a book on this somewhere……. Ohhhh, I wonder if Applejack’s still on her farm, she’d know what to do. I look around at the dead and dying trees around the schoolhouse. Although, I doubt AJ would stay here no matter how attached and dedicated to her farm as she may be.

I flowed up into the air until I was a good fifteen hooves above the schoolhouse, then turned and flew back to the library. If there were any books that might tell me what I needed to know, they would be there.

---

A few days had gone by, and I had fallen into a pattern. Wake up at sunrise, tear through the library looking for every book on farming I could, break for lunch around four, put away every book I could before sunset, then hide in the walls when Cheerilee showed up at night, and then try and get enough sleep before I had to be up to do it all over again. If I had time, I would've made a checklist.

The first night Cheerilee came in, I had to fly into the pony bust in the main room, leaving a massive mess behind that scared Cheerilee out of the library. I made sure to clean up from then on, though I did miss a book or two now and then.

But of all the books we looked through, not one seemed to hold the answers we were looking for. Cheerilee seemed to be sticking to books on ancient farming methods earth ponies used before the unification of the tribes, while focused on more magical means. Cheerilee plants continued to wilt in the meantime.

Tonight, after Cheerilee had left, I decided to just take a break for the night. I nestled myself into the branches of the tree to do some stargazing. Flowing into the branches beneath me, I tried to pick out the various constellations. Soon, my thoughts turned to my friends, and found myself drifting off…..

And promptly found myself falling through the ceiling of me old room. What in Tartarus?! I gave myself a mental shake, and flowed back up to where I was resting. When I arrived, I found the branches I was resting in had vanished. There were still branches coming from the main trunk, but where ever they passed through where I had been, they simply stopped. There were even some loose branches that had been sheared off, their ends perfectly flat.

As I watched, the branches started to regrow. Over the next hour, the branches reformed where they had disappeared, the loose twigs even snapping up to reattach themselves to the ends of a few of the newly formed branches.

I just couldn’t understand what had happened. I was certain that nothing like this had happened in Equestria before. If it had, somepony would’ve studied it, written down their findings, and she would’ve read about it.

I let a part of myself sift into a newly reformed twig, it didn’t feel any different from the branches that I had been resting in before. There just didn’t seem to be any reason the branches would’ve disappeared like that. The only difference from the moment I first flowed into the tree to rest were my own thoughts….

I once again found my mind wondering to my memories of my friends, family, even the library itself. I was pulled back to the present when a twig fell from the tree, its end perfectly flat. I froze. The twig had fallen from the edge of my “cloud”, which was beside the other end of the twig still attached to the tree. The cloud itself was clearly visible, even though it was inside the branch a moment ago. I pulled back so that I wasn’t touching anything.

This time, it only took ten minutes for the twig to reform.

Over the next hour, I experimented on parts of the library. I discovered that I could make a part of the library disappear of I focused on how the building looked like before I had cast my time jumping spell. I even found parts of the lower floors that didn’t vanish, but instead became charred as if they had been a fire. It wasn’t until the sun had reached its zenith did I decide to finally get some rest, feeling like I used up a lot of personal mana.

---

A moon had passed. I had spent some of it experimenting on how I could affect things, and the rest using my newfound ability growing Cheerilee’s plants. I couldn’t just leave Ponyville without helping somepony. I found that, if I spent time in the soil of the planter boxes focusing on how things were before my spell, the soil would regain its fertility, which in turn caused the plants to grow again. I couldn’t explain it, but, even after the soil returned to its “dead” state, the plants stayed healthy.

I made sure to do this at night, when Cheerilee was either out or asleep, so that I wouldn’t be found out. Then, I would sleep through the day, so that I would have the mana to re-fertilize the soil. It’s odd though. Cheerilee forgot to close the balcony door tonight….

*^*

I didn’t know what had happened. One week, my roses were dying. The next, they seemed perfectly healthy. But I tried, for the most part, not to question why my plants were doing so well. That’s how things were: if something seemed off, you accepted it and moved on. It was safer that way.

One night, however, I had trouble sleeping. I had been hearing strange noises lately, and I had found something’s had gone missing or not being where I’d left them. Tonight, I figured I might as well find out why since I couldn’t sleep. If it’s mice, then I’ll need to get rid of them before they eat my plants…

The noises always seemed to come from the upper floor, so I stated to creep up the ladder. I only went far enough to peek over the floor. Nothing seemed out of place from how I left it that evening. Then I saw it. I don’t remember leaving the balcony door open….

I crept to the doorway, and carefully leaned my head out to look. There was a slight rustling coming from one of the rose bushes just outside. As I watched, a dark mist seeped out of that rose’s planter box, and drifted over to the next one beside it. I shivered as I watched the roses from the first box wilt, but I was worried even more when the flowers in the other box start to stand up straighter. This, this can’t be… I thought as I backed away from the door, She was banished, there’s-

Crack! .... Thumpf!

I had backed up to the ladder opening, and had put too much weight onto a loose board. The board had given way, causing me to fall through the opening. I looked up towards the opening, expecting the mist to come rushing down on her. When nothing happened, I carefully stood up, glad to have suffered only a few bruises from the fall.
Then I saw the mist seeping through the ceiling.

Comments

[Darinby]

Wake up at sunrise, tare through the library looking for every book on farming I could

Should that be "tear" through?

[Symphonicdysonince]

5175550
Fixed it, thanks for the catch.

[Mooncalf]

Ontological mystery, very fun. Will track.