• Published 24th May 2021
  • 2,245 Views, 88 Comments

The Gift of Time - Shadow Dragon



On her 1,000,000th birthday Princess Twilight Sparkle receives the greatest gift she could ever hope for, a chance to see her friends again

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Best and weirdest night ever

Author's Note:

I’m baaaack~
Did you miss me? .
I’m really sorry this chapter took so long, my dog passed away recently so I needed some alone time but this story is back.
Also heads up I have a different dog that’s 14 Human years old, so if I go on another hiatus soon you’ll know why ahead of time

It was a very strange few weeks after Spike joined the Cutie Mark Crusaders, first Fluttershy became a model but then Twilight solved her problem for her, by telling her that Rarity was Jealous of her fame before Rarity could make her promise not to say anything about that and telling Rarity that Fluttershy was uncomfortable with being a model before Futtershy had the chance to make her promise not to say anything so that little crisis was averted and Twilight never told anyone this time around that Spike had a crush on Rarity but Twilight knew even back then that Rarity knew, the only reason she did all of that, Pinkie Pie haunted her dreams for the next week after in the original time, this time she was able to rest easily, next Rarity offered to make Twilight a dress for the Gala, as much as Twilight despised the very idea of going she would let Rarity make the dress for her, only one dress was made and Twilight was happy with the original design, after that Fluttershy brought Parisprites to town, Twilight helped Pinkie Pie gather up the instruments she needed as fast as possible, it was all she could do as she may have the power to teleport them somewhere else but that ran the risk of teleporting the entire town with them so this was the best solution and she couldn’t simply just tell her the truth, she couldn’t even think about breaking poor Fluttershy’s heart, after that was the time Rarity got mare-napped by the Diamond dogs but was able to get herself out of that mess, and finally was the time Fluttershy looked after the Cutie Mark Crusaders, even after all this time Twilight remembered what it was like being turned to stone and never wanted that to happen again, she could understand why Discord went on rampages after being released so for that part of this strange adventure Twilight made a fake stone statue of herself using her magic and made herself completely invisible with the cloaking spell that she originally combined with her illusion spell to make sure that now not even Trixie could see past it, it worked like a charm and that little adventure was successful, and finally Celesta officially came to Ponyvill, Twilight was able to prevent the whole fiasco with Philimina by informing Fluttershy ahead of time that Philomina was actually a Phoenix and that she was close to her burning day when she would burst into flames and rise from the ashes good as new

Needless to say that was quite a fun time, and the next was be another weird one, the day she first met Owllishis, but she was able to handle it, that day gave her the chance she was waiting for

Flashback to Spike meeting Owlishihs for the first time

Twilight knew Spike was jealous but Twilight had something she wanted to tell the baby dragon

Twilight declared “Spike, Owlishis may be my newest assistant, but you are something more, you mean more to me than you know, you’re family to me.”

Spike teared up slightly at the proclamation and the mater was resolved rather easily, Twilight honestly wished she could’ve said more but she needed to ease him into the idea of being her son

End flashback

During the running of the leaves/Iron Pony composition their honestly wasn’t much she could do due to Applejack and Rainbow Dash’s combined stubbornness and their need to complete against each other, Twilight found the whole thing rather beautiful knowing what she knew

Winter Wrap Up went off without a hitch as Twilight volunteered to organize everything for Mayor Mare and when they were able to clean up winter on time Twilight gained the title she still held to well in the future, best organization pony ever, given by Pinkie Pie herself in both timelines

Then was the day they threw a surprise party for Pinkie Pie, Twilight kept her busy that day to make sure the surprise went off without any issues and without Pinkie losing (more of) her sanity.

And finally was the Stage show of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Spike directed them to do what they were most skilled as, Sweetie Belle took lead singer, Applebloom designed the costumes and set and if Twilight didn’t know any better she would’ve assumed Rarity herself made them and finally Scootaloo was in charge of the choreography, it was perfect and they won, the only issue was despite being gifted in these subjects none of them received their cutie marks but Twilight already knew why

And finally now was the day of the Gala, the day the Princess in disguise was trying to avoid, it would be the worst night ever, the only reason why she didn’t get those extra tickets, she already knew Celesta’s plan to use her and her friends to turn it exiting but Twilight decided that she wouldn’t play that game, at least not by Celesta’s rules, she would shake up the Gala in a way only she knew how to do

First she teleported straight to where she knew Princess Luna was, she was just about awake and getting ready to handle her shift to guard the night when she noticed Twilight standing before her

Twilight asked “How would you like to help me pull the greatest prank of all time on Celesta?”

Princess Luna gasped exasperated and asked “HOW DOTH THYN KNOW OF OUR LOVE OF PRANKING DEAR SISTER?”

Twilight cleared her ear and answered “That’s not important right now, what is important is that I want to know if you want in or not?”

Luna pondered for a moment, on one hoof it was the grand galloping gala, on the other, a chance to prank her sister is not an opportunity that comes around often but needing one question answered she proceeded to ask “WHY ART THOUE PLANNING THIS? ARE THOUE NOT DEAR SISTERS PRIZED PUPULE?”

Twilight answered “Exactly that, I know Celesta hates how boring the gala is, she’s never voiced it out loud but I know, so I decided to help out by playing a prank their, that way the Gala is exciting and you get the chance to prank Celesta, are you in?”

Princess Luna agreed to help Twilight any way she could with this plan of hers

Later that night at the Gala Twilight was polite as she could possibly be until she finally sat down next to Celesta, all according to the plan

After a few minutes Twilight smirked as Celesta asked “So Twilight why didn’t any of your friends come?”

Twilight feigning ignorance answered “Well their were only two Tickets, I didn’t want to cause fighting between my friends, choosing one to give the ticket to would’ve been like asking me to pick my favorite friend and I couldn’t possibly do that, so I gave my ticket to someone else, they should be here any minute now.”

Celesta asked “Why did you not simply ask for more tickets? I would’ve been more than happy to send enough for you and all of your friends.”

Twilight inwardly smirked and replied “Well I didn’t want to bother you with that, you are the Princess after all.” She added under her breath “I’m honest surprised you never replaced me.”

Celesta caught that and asked “What do you mean by that?”

Twilight cringed to herself for that slip of tongue, but then smirked again thinking she could improvise this into the prank, and she always had questions about this particular subject but never had the time to ask

Twilight stated “Princess I know about Sunset Shimmer.”

Celesta was shocked and proceeded to ask “How?”

Twilight honestly answered “It’s a long story and you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Celesta challenged “Try me.”

Just as Twilight opened her mouth to convince the Princess otherwise a red portal opened up and Twilight thought to herself ‘Show time.’

Stepping out of the portal was Discord himself

Suddenly some music started playing out of nowhere, No pony questioned this as it was a common occurrence in equestria, but then Discord did something no pony, not even Twilight expected, he began to sing


(Au Note: this is my first attempt at a parody song I hope you like it but I can’t Promise their’ll be more)


“I’m sure your not a fan of Puppeteers.” He snapped his claw and puppet strings appeared in his paw
But you must have have a nagging fear.

That someone else is pulling at the strings.” Suddenly the strings attached themselves to Twilight and she was forced into a dance with Discord

“Perhaps something terrible is going down.

Through the entire town.

Wreaking anarchy.

And all it brings.

I won’t say I’ve been.

But you can’t move at all!

You shall curse the name!

The one behind it all!

Discord!” At this he snapped his tail, both his claw and paw occupied by forcing Twilight to dance like a puppet, or that’s what it looked like to an outsider viewer in reality the Stings weren’t real she was just dancing for fun, and suddenly a giant pie fell on top of Soren much to the pie lovers delight

Your howling at the moon!

And sleeping in the middle of a summer afternoon!

Discord!” He then made it daytime in an instant but then immediately turned it back to night in an instant

“Whatever did you do?

To make me take the world away?

Discord!” He then opened an inter-dimensional portal and transported Blueblood to an alternative dimension, Twilight kinda recognized it as the one he tried to banish Tree Hugger to that one time

Are you my prey alone?

Or are you just a stepping stone for taking back the throne?

Discord!” He snapped his tail once more and Celesta’s crown appeared on his head

You won’t take it anymore!

So I’ll take my tyranny away!

Discord!” He surprisingly gave the crown back and he and Twilight entered a long dance number not that diffident from the time Discord pretended to be sick but this time he was pretending to control Twilight with Puppet strings
After a few moments they stopped and Twilight reappeared next to Celesta

Celesta concerned asked “Are you alright?”

Twilight stated “I’m fine, I see my guest made quite the entrance.”

Celesta stuttered “D-discord!? He’s your guest!? B-but that’s not possible! Your still trapped!”

Discord declared “That I am Princess. That I am, you see I’m not the Discord you know, I come from the future simply to have a good time at the Gala I even have an invitation.” He pulled the golden ticket out of his non-existent pocket and showed it to the Princess who took the ticket in her magic grasp

After a moment the Princess stated “The Ticket is definitely a real one, and I can’t exactly kick out someone with an invitation, so you can stay for now.”

Discord took of his head and declared “Hat’s off to you Princess.”

Twilight chuckled at the bad joke

“So why would Twilight invite you?” Celesta asked curiously

“Because me and her are friends in the future, and I secretly spent a few days hanging out with her, eventually she invited me to the gala, she never even knew I was a Chaos God, she just assumed I was her quirky friend, which I guess you could say is true.” Discord half-lied. They had secretly spent a few days together, planning this exact scenario, they both eventually agreed that trying to preserve the timeline wasn’t going to work out, so they wanted to use this as a big opportunity to change something

“So what about the you outside?” Celesta asked

“That me is still evil and needs to be dealt with, I won’t tell you when or how, I wouldn’t be me if I did after all, but I come bearing a gift.” Discord declared truthfully

Twilight glared harshly at Discord and stated “Discord we talked about that, and my answer is no.”

Discord smirked and stated “Well I didn’t listen.”

He shaped his claw and suddenly Twilight’s Illusion spell disappeared, but it was done in a way to make it look like to even Celesta that Discord gave her the wings

Twilight growled “I warned you!” She suddenly summoned a giant ball of light in front of Discord and warned everyone around “Don’t look directly at it, for it will show your worst nightmares if you do.”

Discord declared “Bring it on, nothing you can possibly conceive can frighten me!”

He stated directly into the ball of light and nearly immediately let out a bloodcurdling scream which was Twilight’s Cue to dispel it

Discord balled himself up and rocked back and forth in the air sucking his thumb for a few moments before complaining “That was low.”

“Not lower than anything you did to me.”

“Fair enough.”

The remainder of the gala was, in a word weird, but Celesta loved all the Chaos Discord brought even if she was confused by the fact Discord became friends with Twilight, and after Discord went back to his time and after the Gala Celesta had a nice chat with Twilight about her current Alicorn status

“Princess I want to ask you a question, and please be honest with me, because I’m an Alicorn will I outlive my friends?”
She had asked this question in the previous timeline too, she knew the answer, but she wanted Celesta’s answer
Celesta gave the same lie she remembered from so many years ago “No you will not, just being an Alicorn dose not grant one immortality.”

And that was all the information Twilight needed to put her top secret project in motion, first things first…

A small portal opened up and Discord’s head popped out and he declared “Oh yeah almost forgot.” *snap* Twilight was once again placed under her undetectable Illusion “There we go, I had my fun with that but I refuse to be completely responsible for a forth Alicorn Princess being in equestria.”

Ironic considering Twilight was an Alicorn because of him currently

After that whole ordeal Celesta asked “I have but one question, where did you learn that spell you used on Discord?”

Twilight answered “Lu- Your sister Princess Luna taught it to me, it was mostly a safety precaution in case Discord got out of control.” Wale technically the truth Twilight only learned the spell to pay Discord back for leaving her as an Alicorn in this timeline but her secret was still protected and now she knew that no matter what celesta would always lie, was it to spare her feelings? She didn’t know and honestly didn’t care what mattered was that she was lied to and this lie could never be forgiven