The Time Thief

by Reading4HalfMyLife

Prologue

Monday

Astral Plane was not having a good day.

First off, her mother, Twilight Sparkle, had gone off to Canterlot early in the morning to visit Astral's brother Alchemy. Now, that was not a problem by itself. It would be a little lonely of course, but there was Astral's other mother, Twilight's wife Starlight Glimmer, and they could manage being on their own for a while.

But Twilight usually woke Astral up so she wouldn't be late to school. And without her . .

Yeah, Ms. Cheerilee wasn't exactly impressed her. And, since just last week she had forgotten her homework for a third time (she had done it, honest, she had just left it on her desk. Again) she had been given a detention.

Which meant she hadn't been able to hang out with her two best friends, Apple Jam, Rarity and Applejack's daughter, and Butterscotch, Braeburn and Fluttershy's son. Instead, she had sat in a stuffy room while those two went crusading for cutie marks.

But mom promised to make it up to me, she thought, and brightened as she rooted around for her saddlebag. It was a sunny week, so Starlight suggested they go out for milkshakes, which Astral appreciated.

"Astral! You ready?" Her mom's voice rose from downstairs just as she found her saddlebags.

"Coming!" She called, and flung the bags over her barrel, she gave herself a quick once over in the mirror, just in case she had a comb in her mane (again.)

She had always been surprised whenever she looked in a mirror. What was on the outside was always so small compared to what was on the inside. She was small, even by filly standards, and took after her mother Twilight in looks, right down to the long unicorn tail, a sign of pure breeding among unicorns.

"Astral!" That time the name has a tinge of impatience in iy.

"I'm coming!" She repeated, as she hurryied out the door. Trotting downstairs, she joined her mom by the door.

Starlight gave her daughter a once over, before narrowing her eyes. "You have a scarf in there, don’t'cha?" She deadpanned, gesturing to the bags, and Astral blushed. It was a well known fact that the unicorn had a strange obsession with scarves.

The trot through town was pleasant enough, though Astral stuck close to Starlight, and kept her eyes on the ground. Most ponies would throw out greetings to Princess Starlight Glimmer and Astral Plane, and Astral has learned to ignore them for the most part.

Sugarcube Corner was packed full of ponies with the same idea as Starlight and Astral. Thankfully, they had an in. "Heya Starlight," Pinkie Pie greeted, as she came over to the mother and daughter. She tilted her head at Astral. "Heya Astral," she says, adding "wow, you're so small, I didn't see ya' there for a second." And gave a large, exaggerated wink.

Astral smiled weakly. In truth, Pinkie's boundless energy and enthusiasm had always scared her a bit, as did her penchant for suddenly bursting into songs. But she was a good friend of both her moms, and always seemed to know when somepony was in need of a good cheering up.

As if to prove it, she squinted at Astral, then raised an eyebrow. "That's not a smile," she said, looking put out.

Astral's shoulders rise as her eyes trailed down to the floor. "Astral's had a bad day," Starlight said, putting a hoof on the fillies shoulder.

Pinkie's reaction surprised Astral, she lets out such a loud gasp that she could see the candles on the tables start to go out, before she pulled Astral up into the air, and spun her around. Frozen, Astral stared into Pinkie's eyes as she plopped her down at a table, with an amused Starlight following behind.

"Misty!," Pinkie called over her shoulder, and Misty Rose, Pinkie's daughter, appeared at the door.

"Yeah?"

"Serve up Starlight and Astral's regular's, will ya?"

Instantly, the little filly snapped into action."Yes mam! Won't let you down mam!" She fired off a snappy salute, and vanished, leaving a white streak in her wake.

In less than a minute, one Strawberry vanilla milkshake was slammed down in front of Astral, while Starlight was already slurping up her chocolate cherry milkshake. Quietly thanking Pinkie, Astral took a long sip from her drink, and watched ponies come and go.

---

Tuesday

"Today class, we are going to be learning about flight or fight," Ms. Cheerilee said, pointing to a diagram on the board, while the class feigned interest. "Every living being has one or the other, otherwise they would completely die out! The fight-or-flight response is a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival. . ."

As the teacher droned on, Astral focused on finishing her stick drawing of her friends. It was clear she wasn't getting a cutie mark in art, but it was far more interesting than a lecture on responses. "Astral Plane!" Startled, she jerked back in her chair, nearly tipping it over in the process.

Upon steadying herself, she stared up at Ms. Cheerilee, who frowned down at her. "So glad that you have decided to rejoin the conversation, Astral," she said, and Astral's ears burned at the giggles from the class. Astral meekly nodded her head and let out a relived sigh as the teacher turned back to the board.

She risked a glance at Apple Jam and Butterscotch, and both of them gave her sympathetic looks. Jam mouthed 'tough luck' at her, and Astral smiled, before she turned back to the board.

---

Wednesday

"Today is the day we get our cutie marks!" Under normal circumstances, this might of have been inspiring, but considering this was the end of an hour long speech on Apple Jam's part, it was a lot less so. The yellow earth pony has a habit of rambling when excited, which was a lot.

Butterscotch, meanwhile,frowned up at the list of things they'd already tried. "I think we've done almost everything there is to do in Ponyville!" He said, dramatically flopping down to the ground.

"Unless . ." Jam trailed off suggestively.

"No!" Butterscotch and Astral said in complete unison. "It was a dumb idea, and you shouldn't of talked us into it."

"Yeah, well, we all agreed that the hydra was perfectly well trained at the time" Jam said, as she rolled up a map and put it away, before she clapped her hooves together. "Now! Who's up for some hang gliding?"

Hang gliding was a bust, as it ended with no cutie marks and a whole load of tree sap. Astral was also officially banned from ever touching another wrench again.

---

Thursday

"Hello class!" Ms Cheerilee greeted, and a chorus of "hello Ms Cheerilee"'s followed by soon after. "Now, today is Thursday, and you know what that means" she lifted up a stack of paper, "tests." Reactions from the class were mixed. Some groaned, while others realize they did absolutely no studying for the History of the Wonderbolts Test today. Astral had fallen into the second category.

Once the papers were handed out, Astral turned the page over and glanced over it, ears flopping down as she does so.

What was the name of the guard formed to protect Celestia after Nightmare Moons Banishment?

Who gave the Wonderbolts their name?

Describe, in detail, how they got their name.

Who's flight choreography do we still use today?

Who founded the Wonderbolt Academy?

What were the effects of the Wonderbolts founding?

Stifling a groan, Astral picked her quill between her teeth- her magic was not yet strong enough for telekinesis, and starts writing.

As always on a Thursday, Astral's mom Twilight was there to walk her home. On the way, she told her how Alchemy was doing (very well, as he had a fair chance of being promoted) and Astral would tell her about her school day. Nothing that was important, mind you, but it was nice to know that if she wanted to she could talk to her about it.

Once she got home, she did her homework for the next day, then went to bed, soothed by the sounds of her cat clock and the light breeze outside.

Author's Note:

Not a very exciting first chapter, I know, but I was setting it up for how it's supposed to be. The actual loops will be weirder.

Astral Plane was originally a Mary Sue, with being incredibly powerful, and shy and kind, and also being bullied, but I scrapped that in favor of this.

Instead, Astral is a shy introvert who had to deal with the attention she's always given for being Twilight Sparkle's daughter. She's an absentminded klutz, and is forever getting into trouble because of it.

She also loves scarves. Like, a lot.

Comments

[Twilight Connor]

I like the scarves bit. Keeps Astral from being a bland Sue-esce character.

[Reading4HalfMyLife]

8953978
Thanks, I honestly have no idea where the scarf came from, it just kinda, appeared in my head.

[silverspawn]

I noticed a bunch of technical errors

Ch 2

While delivering this short speech, Astral glanced at the clock, and saw she was five minutes late now.

refers to the wrong pony

In response to acute stress, the body's sympathetic nervous system is activated due to the sudden release of hormones__"

"No, last week we tried swimming__"

from her mom's

(moms, not mum’s, there’s no possession here.

Feeling sick, Astral picked up the pen in her mouth, and started to write the answers she already knew__

Ch3

mother__s

here you need a ‘ since there is possession.

lot's of pictures and not enough facts. The fact that it nearly toppled Astral from it's

drop both ‘

generally you have to watch punctuation in direct speech. There must be some symbol before the closing quotation marks.