The Princess of Nature

by Pinkie Pie Sweets

Chapter 30: Time Travel Mayhem Part 2

Throughout the conversation with Starlight, Tiger Lily tries to explain to her that traveling in time and altering it, is to dangerous, and it's not just for Twilight and the others. Starlight does like Tiger Lily so she doesn't hold anything bad against her, but sadly, she kind of refused to listen to her about it. After having another experience in the other future, Twilight and Spike return to the past before the Rainboom. She also hit Starlight with the same spell that is performed on her. Just then Starlight break out of the crystal and she and Twilight gets into a magic fight. That ends up stopping the sonic rainboom again. The portal open and Twilight and Spike are sucked into it. Tiger Lily comes along with them and hopefully to help Twilight. When they reach the other side, they find themselves in another future, but it's very different. In fact, the whole place is dark.

"Where are we this time?" Tiger Lily asks.

"I don't know, but why is it dark out here?" Spike replies.

"Yeah, usually the map sends up to the future in the day, why did it sent us here at night?" Twilight replies looking confused.

Just then, they start to hear some strange noises. They turn to see the source of the noise and are starting to get very scared.

Then Spike scaredly says, "Uh, I think we better figure that out later."

But Tiger Lily says, "Wait, I think I can handle this."

"Are you crazy, these are timberwolves?!" Twilight shockley replies.

Tiger Lily nods her head and says, "Don't worry, they may be made of wood, they're still animals, and… I think I can talk to them to help us."

"If you say so," Spike replies, looking unsure about it.

Tiger Lily simply smiles and walk up to the timberwolves. When she reaches them, she uses her horn to make a bright glow, and then start to talk in their language. Twilight and Spike are astonished to see this, the timberwolves are not attacking her. In fact, Tiger Lily and the timberwolves are talking to her. After the conversation, Tiger Lily returns to Twilight and Spike to tell them what the wolves says.

Twilight asks in an awkward tone, "So… what did they say?

"They said that they will help us, and that they'll take us to the castle through the forest," Tiger Lily answers.

"A castle in the middle of the forest?" Spike questionably replies.

"I kind of didn't understand either, but they said they'll take us there so we can get help," Tiger Lily replies.

Twilight and Spike look at each other and towards Tiger Lily with confused looks on their faces. Of course, they agree to go along with this. One of the wolf shows Tiger Lily and her friends the way through the forest. After some time walking through the forest, the wolf leads them to the castle it mentions. The castle seems so new, and yet so dark. The castle is light blue, normal, blue, dark purple, and have moon shape and crescent moon shape at certain parts of the castle.

Twilight surprisingly says, "Well, what do you know, there really is a castle in the forest?"

"Let's go inside and see if anypony here," Spike suggests.

Agreeing to the suggestion, Twilight, Tiger Lily, and Spike make their way to the castle. When they open the door and head inside, the torches on each side of the wall light up in blue fire in a line. They are interested to see the castle looks very, nice, but in a dark kind of way. It seems the place is the same color and moon likeness on the inside as well.

"This place looks like the old castle of the two sister," Twilight clarifies.

"Only cleaner," Spike adds.

"The castle looks very nice, but who does this castle belongs to?" Tiger Lily asks.

Twilight is about to suggest something, but before she can say anything Spike gasps and exclaims, "Rarity!"

Twilight and Tiger Lily look to where Spike is screaming at and to who he is seeing, to their shock, they can see Rarity. However, Rarity is dressed different that the usually clothes she loves to wear so much. Both her hair and tail are in buns, and she is wearing a glittering dark blue and purple shirt with a indigo blue collar, and a light blue crescent moon in the middle. Since she is the only one in the castle, they decide to ask her some question. They walk over to her to see she is busy setting up and straightening the tapestries on the walls.

Spike happily says to Rarity, "Rarity, it's so good to see your beautiful and wonderful face again, you remember me, it's Spike."

"Sorry darling, but I'm very busy and have no time to socialize with young dragons who I don't know," Rarity firmly explains concentrating on her work.

Spike becomes sadeen that this Rarity doesn't remember him at all. Tiger Lily gives him a hug to make him feel better.

Twilight comes in and says, "Listen Rarity, we really need your help to make sure the future saved from Starlight's crazy plan."

"I don't know who you are or how you know my name, but I'm too busy," Rarity says who isn't listening to Twilight at all.

Tiger Lily and Spike can see Rarity is not going to listen. In fact, unless they show some proof to her, there might not be any chances on getting help.

Tiger Lily quietly says, "Um, Rarity, I understand that you're busy right now, but we can really use your help with this, and it's very important that we know who the ruler of the castle and talk to them."

Rarity doesn't say anything at first. In fact, she is in a state of shock.

Pulling herself together, she bows at Tiger Lily presence and says, "Tiger Lily, I didn't realized you were with the other alicorn and young dragon. I hope you can forgive me."

Tiger Lily starts to blush a bit that Rarity is treating her like a princess. Twilight and Spike are also confused.

"Okay, this is getting weird," Spike whispers to Twilight.

Twilight whispers back saying, "I know, it's almost like Rarity thinks Tiger Lily is royalty or connected to someone royalty in a way."

Tiger Lily is able to calm herself and says while her cheeks are blushing, "It's okay Rarity, I understand that you're busy with your design, but you don't need to address me like that, but I do like to know who this castle belong to and why you address me for that matter,"

"Of course darling, I sometimes forget you like me to treat you as equal, but as to your question you know this castle. In fact, you been living here since Nightmare Moon took you as her student and adopted you as her child," Rarity answers.

"Nightmare Moon!" Twilight and Spike exclaims with a shock.

"Yes, you all really didn't know," Rarity adds.

Twilight and Spike rapidly shakes their head. Tiger Lily is kind of surprised to hear that in this time plane she's been adopted by somepony else. In fact, they think it will be best to explain to her what is going on.

"Rarity, I know I look like somepony you know, but to tell you the truth, I'm not the same Tiger Lily that lives here," Tiger Lily explains.

"But how can this be, I'm seeing you right now?" Rarity asks looking confused.

Twilight comes in and says, "That's because she is Tiger Lily, but she's from a different time plane. We really need to figure out a way to stop Starlight Glimmer from changing the past, because every present we travel too is worst than the last."

"Well, this one doesn't look that bad so far, maybe this Nightmare Moon will be nice, and I'm sure she can help us if we just ask," Tiger Lily replies with a calm smile.

Twilight is about to say something that will kind of prove Tiger Lily wrong, but an unfamiliar vice says, "Time travel you say…"

The three friends look behind them with a shock, with the exception of Rarity bowing at the pony's presence. They look around and can see Nightmare Moon's silhouette around the castle. They can tell they are in a bit of trouble, and are now being surrounded by guards in armor that involves their faces to be unseen.

The pony sitting on the throne comes out to the shadows revealing to be Nightmare Moon, the pony who been imprisoned in the moon for a thousand years.

She shows an evil smug on her face and says, "Now that's something I would like to see."

Twilight, Tiger Lily, and Spike are shocked to see what kind of futures this is. This future has been ruled by Nightmare Moon and has scrawled the land at an eternal night, like the prophecy predicted.

Nightmare Moon flies towards the three still surrounded by guards and loudly asks in a firm tone, "Tell me how you came by this magic to travel through time, and how is there another Tiger Lily here?"

Twilight and her two friends are not responding. In fact they're are scared of it.

One of the guards says in a familiar tone, "The princess asked you a question…"

She takes off helmet, and revealed to be Rainbow Dash and says, "And unless you wanna end up in the dungeon, you'll tell her what she wants to know!"

Tiger Lily shyly answers, "Um, well, this is going to be hard to explain, but it might get… confusing, and… where's Princess Celestia, if you don't mind me asking?"

Nightmare simply laughs loudly at Tiger Lily question. She then shows them the moon and answers, "My sister has been imprisoned in the moon for years!"

However she also sternly says, "But it is no less a fate than she'd sentence me to! Now, reveal to me the source of this time magic!"

Before Twilight and her friends can say something, a new yet familiar voice come into the room along with some hoof steps, saying, "Princess, I'm back, is there anything you need me to do right now."

To everypony's shock to see that the one has come into the room is in fact the Tiger Lilly of this time plane. The guards, including Rarity bow to her. Twilight, Spike, especially Tiger Lily are shocked to see two of her right now. This Tiger Lily is wearing a indigo blue blouse with a white crescent moon and a moonflower in the middle, a dark blue skirt, and shimmering blue shoes, and her hair and tail is in a braid. The Tiger Lily of this time plane look to see the other her and her companion, and looks confused seeing this.

She turns to Nightmare and asks, "Um, princess, why is there another me here, and who is the other alicorn and the small dragon.

Twilight holds her head and says, "This is getting ridiculous."

"You can say that again," Spike mutters, holding his head as well.

Nightmare Moon can see the confusing of the subject and says, "I think it will be best to continue our conversation in private. Tiger Lily, both of you will be joining us along with this one's companions.

"Rarity, have Applejack to have some tea and mooncakes made for us, and bring it to my private studies," Nightmare Moon informs.

"Of course princess," Rarity replies.

"Now, Tiger Lily, and you mysterious travelers, come with me," Nightmare Moon firmly informs.

With that Nightmare Moon and the Tiger Lily of this time beging to walk to the private studies. Twilight and the others simply follow them. When they reach their, Twilight and the two friends explain to them about Starlight and her tampering in time, along with the things goes on at their time. They also explain Tiger Lily's story. Nightmare Moon and the Tiger Lily of this time shared their own story. According to the two, a few months after Nightmare Moon has taken over Equestria. The fire that has took Tiger Lily parents and her away happen. After the fire, she and the guard look around to see any survivors and Tiger Lily is the only one remained after the incident. Seeing her being an alicorn, special magical abilities, and sorrows within her eyes, Nightmare Moon decides to take Tiger Lily in and raiser her as her own. The kingdom of Equestria prosper with her help, because Tiger Lily special abilities help some unicorns to use that magic to grow food, especially those who are connected with nature and the earth. After hearing each other's stories, they are surprised to hear it.

Nightmare Moon says, "I do have to admit, you sure have experienced so much being a new princess."

"I'm just as surprised to see that in this time plane, Tiger Lily was raised by you after her parents died," Twilight replies.

The Princess Tiger Lily, "Yes. I'm also sorry that my counterpart had a long time to live among pony kind."

"I understand,a nd at some point, I'm still a bit scared to get too close to ponies I don't know," Tiger Lily replies.

Tiger Lily sighs sadly and says, "I just wish there is a way to get Starlight to stop this time traveling before something happens."

"It is true tampering with time can lead disastrous results, even the most tiniest act can change the lives of many others," Nightmare Moon says.

Then Spike says, we really like to get back to the past to stop Starlight from changing it, and there is no way I'm going back out there with the timberwolves around."

Nightmare Moon chuckles and says, "Those Timberwolves are nothing to be afraid of. Tiger Lily has been able to communicate with them with her magic.

"We saw our Tiger Lily did the same thing, they lead us to the castle," Twilight replies.

"And with two Tiger Lily's, we'll be double safe from those tooth picks.

But the princess Tiger Lily says, "You might not want to say that around them. They really don't like being insulted like that."

Spike blushes in embarrassment about it, and decides she is right about it. Agreeing to take them, the two Tiger Lily are able to communicate to the wolves to leave them alone, and not attack them, it's a piece of cake to get through the forest to find the map in the woods. When they reach the map, Nightmare Moon and the Tiger Lily here are amazed to see the map, and a unicorn is able to use it for a tool.

"So this is the map that's been used to help you travel through time?" The Princess Tiger Lily asks.

"Yes. Starlight manage to use Starswirl's spell and the map to get to the past," Twilight explains.

Nightmare Moon looks at the map and says, "And combined with her own magic, traveling through time was no trouble at all. This Starlight has no idea what she is tampering with."

Tiger Lily nods her head and says, "Yes princess, but we need to get her to stop, for Equestria's sake."

"Then I wish you all good luck, and you, Tiger Lily," Nightmare Moon says, then looks at Twilight's friend.

"Yes?" Tiger Lily asks.

"Make sure you continue to bond with others and to work on your magic. Who know, you might be able to prosper Equestria more with your type of magic," Nightmare Moon says.

Tiger Lily and says, "Yes princess.

When Twilight, Tiger Lily, and Spike are on the mag, she then uses her own magic to get back to the past and stop Starlight from causing anymore trouble. After returning to the time of the sonic rainboom, Twilight tries to stop Starlight from changing the past, but it's not working. She alter the past and got them sent to the future again. Twilight then uses the magic on the map and her own to return to the same one. Before long, The three has traveled the present and the past multiple times. Some of them are very scary and are dangerous. Though, Tiger Lily does think the present with Discord's ideal world is a bit strange and confusing, especially seeing him riding on Celestia and Luna like they're some kind of ride or something. As a result, it seem that the time traveling tampering doesn't seem to end, and Twilight along with Tiger Lily and Spike have enough of this, and know it has to end before something worse happens.

Tiger Lily can't take this anymore and shouts, "Stop, you have to stop!"

Twilight and Starlight stop hearing Tiger Lily scream.

Then Tiger Lily exclaims, "Starlight, if you and Twilight keep this up, then we're all going keep time traveling for eternity, and we'll end up with something worse than Twilight or having friends!"

"What do you mean? Starlight asks.

"What Tiger Lily means is that what you're doing goes way beyond cutie marks! Everything we do here in the past even the smallest change can snowball into an avalanche of trouble for the future!" Twilight explains.

Starlight becomes angry at Twilight and says with annoyance, "Oh, next I suppose you'll tell me that 'the fate of all of Equestria hangs in the balance'"

"It does!" The three friends yells.

Starlight ignore this and says, "Spare me Twilight's overblown ego! No group of friends, not even Princess Twilight's, is that important!"

She then uses her magic to stop the young Rainbow Dash from racing. Luckily she falls onto a cloud that save her from hitting to the ground.

Scared Tiger Lily says, "Starlight, you need to stop, this isn't worth it!"

"It seems to for me," Starlight says like she doesn't care.

The portal starts to open up again, and is going to take them to the future. Twilight ends up with an idea to get Starlight to stop.

Twilight looks at the portal and says, "I don't know how important other ponies' friendships are to the future, but I can show you what the world is like without mine!"

With that, Twilight grabs Starlight and they fly into the time stream. Tiger Lily and Spike follow them. When they reach other side, they can see that nothing is here, just a wasteland.

Starlight turns to Twilight and angrily asks, "Where are we?!"

"The future. Or rather, the present," Twilight sadly answers.

"But there's nothing here!" Starlight replies looking at the scenery.

"I wish I could say I was surprised. But every world I come back to is worse than the last. I don't know why my friends and I are so important to Equestria, but we are." Twilight sadly explains.

Starlight looks around to see all of this wasteland. Seeing this is making her feel scared.

However, caring too much for her pride, she spats out, "I don't believe you!

"But Starlight, you're seeing this with your own eyes," Tiger Lily calmly says.

"She's right, Starlight, just look around," Spike adds.

Then Twilight sadly says, "Like I said, everything in the past affects the future, even the tiniest act. And what you're doing leads here. I know I can't stop you, but I thought showing you this might change your mind."

"Change my mind? You don't know anything about me! I was perfectly happy before you and your friends ruined what I built!" Starlight angrily shouts.

However Tiger Lily comes forth and says, "Maybe you are, but from what Twilight told me, nopony else was happy for what you were doing to them, and from the looks of it… I… i think you're jealous of Twilight because she has something that you don't have,"

"I am not jealous!" Starlight shouts.

"Then why, why are you doing this to Twilight and her friend? Why are you so resentful of cutie marks so much that you lied and manipulate ponies into believing the same thing. I don't know what you've been through, but it seems you cared more about what you want… than what the friend you want to work so hard for," Tiger lily asks and crying for scolding Starlight like that.

Seeing Tiger Lily shedding tears, Starlight wonder what Tiger Lily is saying is true.

With a sigh, Starlight says, "If you really want to know, then I'll show you what happened, but you won't like it."

Starlight jumps on the map and use her magic to send them to another time stream. After the quick travel, they all find themselves in a small town. There are houses, ponies, and other places, unlike Starlight, this place is not familiar to Twilight and the others.

"What is this place?" Twilight asks.

"That map of your is shows all the places of Equestria, and this part is my home," Starlight firmly answers.

"It does seem like a nice place," Tiger Lily complement.

"Thanks, but we won't be here for sightseeing," Starlight replies with a smile, but still sad to show her and the others the truth.

Starlight show them one of the houses and escort them to see the window. When they look through it, they can see two small ponies playing. One of the is a unicorn filly, while the other one is a unicorn the looks of it the young unicorn filly is Starlight Glimmer when she's young. The colt is bright orange with light orange patches on his hooves and on his nose, he has dark orange like mane and tail, and and blue like eyes. From the looks of it the two young ponies are playing together by stacking books. Tiger lily is shocked to see the young filly and it resembles the one from the photo she has back at how.

In her thoughts, Tiger Lily says, "That filly, she looks like starlight, and the filly from the photo… could that mean that Starlight is really…"

However her thoughts has been interrupted when Starlight explains her story, "Sunburst and I did everything together. In fact, I don't remember us ever being apart. Until today."

Seeing the two playing together, it seems the two are very close together. As the two are playing making a stack of books, The books is starting to lose it's balance. The young Starlight becomes scared and the books around about to fall on top of her. Young Sunburst uses his magic to stop the books, and use so much of it, he starts to glow. The young Starlight is astonished to see this. When the light is gone, Sunburst can see he ends up with his cutie mark, and it looks like a sun. He runs outside to show everyone his mark and everypony is happy about it. The young Starlight becomes sad and just walks back inside while her friend enjoy his glory with the others.

Then Starlight says, "And just like that, my friend was gone. His family recognized his magical talent and sent him off to Canterlot."

"You mean the magic school?" Tiger Lily asks.

"Yes, and I never saw him again," Starlight answers.

After hearing this, Tiger Lily and the others are shocked to hear this. Tiger Lily is mostly sadden by Starlight's sadness. She understands what it's like to lose the ponies she cares about so much that it's hard to beare and more on in life. Tiger Lily starts to think about this, and wonder what she can do to help Starlight.

However, Spike makes things worse by asking, "Well, why not?

"Because of his cutie mark! He got his, and I didn't! He moved on, and I didn't! I stayed here and never made another friend because I was too afraid another cutie mark would take them away, too!" Starlight exclaims in tears.

"That's ridiculous. A cutie mark can't take your friends away," Twilight replies.

"But Twilight…" Tiger Lily tries to explains.

But before Tiger Lily can say anything, Starlight becomes furious and says, "Not everypony's lucky enough to get her cutie mark at the same time as her friends!"

Starlight then uses her magic to send them to the moment before the sonic rainboom. They all can see Starlight is still set on her goal, not thinking on what can happen.

On the cuds, Starlight angrily says, "You don't know what it's like to lose a friend because of a cutie mark. But once I stop the rainboom, you will!"

Starlight laughs a beam at them,but she misses. In the processes, Spike accidentally dropped the scroll that has been in his bag the whole time. They all turn around to see Starlight has it.

"And when I destroy this scroll, there'll be no way for you to change it!" Starlight explains in anger as she starts to rip the scroll containing the spell.

Twilight, Spike, and Tiger Lily are stunned to see starlight taking her personal problem too far. If the scroll gets destroyed there is nothing they can do to get back to their own time. Tiger Lily is more scared since her friendship and earning herculite mark is connected to them. If that's taken away, she'll never be able to be with Twilight, her friends, and all other other friends she'll make, but most of all, she'll never be able to see Starlight again. She know she has to do something to bring the friend she has made back her senses, but doesn't know what, and time is running out.

Author's Note:

Next time: Tiger Lily steps up to not only help Twilight and Spike save Equestria, but to help save her friendship, and find something else as well.