• Published 24th May 2021
  • 2,232 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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Reunions are Magical Part 1

The Princess of Friendship awoke underneath a tree, one thing she noticed right away was that she felt shorter than she was a few seconds prior. She then noticed the book in front of her, an accent artifact to pony kind from her time, this particular book was famous because this book in a way was the first thing that led to the Princess of Friendship making her first real friends, but something was… off about this one, this one looked brand new, a couple years old at most. It was too similar to the originals to just be a copy some creature made to honor the artifact so the creatures of Equestria can learn of the ancient legends of equestrian history, no this one was one of the original copies of the book.

The book was even turned to the legendary page that some would say was the one that started her long rode on her path to become Equestria’s ruler. The one that told of how Celesta used the Elements of Harmony to banish Nightmare Moon to the moon

The Princess of Friendship looked around and noticed a few more things, first her main and tail were back to the way they were in the past. She was apparently still in Canterlot but not the one she recognized right away, the new Canterlot had so many different creatures living there you almost never saw just ponies anywhere in Equestria, ponies and other creatures yes, but never just ponies anymore, but now, Unicorns as far as the eye could see, there was a hoof full of Earth Ponies and Pegasi but mostly Unicorns, it was then she finally figured it out.

She had gone back in time.

Her first thought was to hurt Discord because he knew how against time travel she was, until she realized when she was, this book plus a canterlot full of mostly Unicorns times her small body could only equal one thing, she was back when it all began, and if she was right then that could only mean one thing, she could see her friends again! She didn’t know weather to hurt or thank Discord for this gift, she needed to double check, so after packing the book in her saddle bag she rushed to her old room, on the way she was stopped by a few faces she was hoping to see, it was none other than her Canterlot friends

Twinkleshine, who had a light gold/gray coat, arctic blue eyes, and a pale pink mane

Lemon Hearts, who had a brilliant yellow coat, raspberry red eyes, and a light blue mane

Minuette, who had a light blue coat, sapphire blue eyes, and a dark blue mane with gray highlights.

Twinkleshine exclaimed "There you are, Twilight!" She was currently balancing three presents on her back and said "Moon Dancer is having a little get-together in the west castle courtyard. You wanna come?"

Twilight starred at the three in shock and asked “One of you do me a favor and please slap me, I think I’m dreaming.”

Despite the weird request Lemon Hearts did as asked and slapped Twilight right in the face. Twilight yelped in pain and rubbed the sore spot on her cheek, she needed to check, it wasn’t a dream!

Twilight then said “Thank you, and as for the party, tell Moon Dancer that I’ll be there, but first I need to check something.”

Lemon Hearts grew concerned and stated “Um I may have slapped you too hard.”

Twilight said “Well if you did, it knocked some since into me, as their is more to a Ponies life than just studying.”

The three Unicorns gasped in shock and Minuette asked “Who are you and what have you done with Twilight Sparkle.”

Thinking they were joking Twilight chuckled and said “Good one girls, see you at the party.”

Twilight walked away to check on her old room, so far everything else had been the same but she needed one more peace of evidence to be sure.

Slowly opening the door she saw a sight she very much missed, Spike, a foot tall purple and green baby dragon

Spike hadn’t noticed her come in yet so he was currently finishing wrapping the gift he had gotten for Moon Dancer. Not completely believing her own eyes Twilight asked “Spike?”

The baby dragon yelped in surprise until he looked over and saw Twilight and said “Oh Twilight, you startled me.”

That confirmed it for her, after that Twilight couldn’t help herself seeing him again, especially this small, she suddenly hugged him, she wanted to do much more. She wanted to kiss his forehead, she wanted to tell her she loved him like the son she never head, she even wanted to tell him that she was from the future, but she didn’t. She wouldn’t go any further for now, she would ease Spike into the idea of being the son she never had, she had wasted the opportunity the first time, Spike only ever acted like her adviser, friend, at times shoulder to cry on and even on occasion acted like a little brother, but she always saw him as more, she herself didn’t realize it until after Spike took his last breath, Twilight wouldn’t waist this chance.

Spike asked “What’s going on?”

Twilight didn’t explain, she couldn’t come up with a good enough explanation so instead she let go and changed the subject by saying “Hay Spike, I need to find a book. Predictions and Prophecies, do you remember where it is?”

Spike pointed to where the book was and Twilight pulled it down and opened it to the legendary page that truly was the start of her journey, she did of course pretend to find the section on Elements of Harmony to make it more believable before turning to the page on The Mare in the Moon

Twilight thought to herself “This is it, I will finally see them again, but first there are some things that need to be taken care of.”

The first thing she did was find that copy of Perfection: The Impossible Pursuit, despite it not being as bad as she thought when she realized it was late Twilight actually planned to buy the book, to keep it as a constant reminder that Perfection was not something she wanted anymore.

She went to the library and was able to buy the book with ease because a new copy was available.

The next thing she did was get back to her old study to git her old copy of Treatise on Ponies and gift wrap it. Spike noticing this asked “Why are you wrapping one of your books?”

Twilight answered “I already memorized this one, it’s a gift for Moon Dancer.”

Spike gasped in shock that Twilight Sparkle would be willing to give away one of her books, but the he realized something else so skeptically he asked “You mean we’re going to Moon Dancer’s party?”

Twilight though the answer was obvious but answered “Of course.”

Spike was in shock and awe at this point, he hadn’t even realized that Twilight put him on her back and the two headed to Moon Dancer’s party, he hadn’t even realized he had been moved until they were already at the party.

At the party everypony was sitting around, until Twilight showed up. Moon Dancer cheered “Twilight! I’m so glad you decided to come to my party!”

Twilight said “I’m glad I decided to come as well, instead of say leaving Canterlot without saying goodbye for example.”

Her friends all chuckled not realizing this was not a joke.

The two gave the present’s to Moon Dancer who was shocked to see that Twilight gave her one of the books she loved so much.

During the party Lyra Heartstrings, a Unicorn with a Mint coat, brilliant Cyan mane and tail with a White streak, sunglow eyes, and a Cutie Mark of a lyre had asked “Hay Twilight why are you still wearing your saddlebags? This is a party!”

Twilight Sparkle had a very good reason for still wearing them, in all the fun she honestly forgot she had them on, explaining this fact to her friends they gave good hearted laugh

Twilight said “But now that you mentioned it, my saddlebags has been felling unusually tight for some reason.”

Twilight proceeded to take off the saddlebags but when she did the party practically stopped as all of her old Unicorn friends just started at her in shock and awe

Twilight asked “Why are you all staring at me?”

Her Unicorn friends looked at each other for a moment, then back to her, blinked a few times, tried to speak but couldn’t for some reason

Twilight was now growing concerned asked “What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Moon Dancer was the first to respond, but not verbally, instead she only pointed to the nearby fountain. Deciding to go along she got most of the message: check your reflection.

Looking into the waters reflection of her she saw nothing out of the ordinary, her mane and tail were like how she remembered, her eyes were normal, her horn was normal, her wings were folded, her Cutie Mark was still the same.

Wait…

Her wings were folded?

Her wings?

HER WINGS?!?!?!

It finally clicked for her, Twilight finally realized why her friends were acting this was, Twilight herself almost had her first mental breakdown ever since becoming the ruler of Equestria. She wasn’t supposed to have wings yet! She blamed Discord for this!

Spike asked “Am I seeing things or dose Twilight have wings?”

Moon Dancer answered “Not unless we’re all seeing things.”

This was it, she was an alicorn much earlier than before, Princess Celesta would find out about it and Twilight would probably never go to ponyvill because that would be where nightmare moon would first strike and Celesta wouldn’t risk the safety of her own sister as an Alicorn plus the Elements of Harmony probably would’ve lead to another banishment to the moon or being petrified in Celesta’s mind, not that Twilight would’ve blamed her because she would have to Celesta’s point of view be new to this power and not knew my own strength add the Elements in and it’s kinda unpredictable, that’s if you didn’t factor in the fact Twilight was from the future, in a split second she considered telling her friends everything, even about her being from the future, but she wasn’t as close to them, as much as she hated to admit it she honestly didn’t trust anypony or creature for that matter with the information stored inside her head yet so she decided to use a solution she learned from Starlight Glimmer, use magic to solve your problem, while that shouldn’t be the solution to every problem, it would work here, first she cast an illusion spell on herself to hide her wings, after successfully obscuring them to make herself look like a normal Unicorn she then used a Memory eraser spell to make them forget she had wings a moment ago.

Moon Dancer asked “What happened? The last thing I remember is Twilight taking off her saddlebags and the rest is a blur.”

Twilight lied “You all just all somehow blacked out at the same time, don’t worry, you’re fine now, I woke you all up with my magic.”

Nearly all of them accepted this as the truth, except for Moon Dancer, to her something didn’t add up, all of them except for Twilight blacking out at the same time? Not likely, she knew what was really going on, Twilight Sparkle was hiding something that she didn’t want any pony to know about and she intended to find out what, but not now, now their was a party.

After the party Twilight wrote her letter to the Princess explaining about Nightmare Moon, it was the exact same letter as last time, only difference was Twilight herself wrote it so she was able to use words that Spike wouldn’t have been able to. Spike sent the letter to Celesta without question this time as he didn’t know what it was. Twilight nearly squealed with glee as Celesta’s reply came, especially after reading it, upon obtaining her chance to finally see her friends again she couldn’t believe it but it was happening.

Twilight was able to leave Canterlot and on the way to Ponyvill Twilight herself didn’t know how she had kept herself from cheering with glee

Once they arrived at Ponyvill Twilight Sparkle nearly couldn’t take it, all of the favorite memories were made in this small town

The Twilight saw the pony who started it all, the pony that baffles the very laws of reality on a daily basis, the first pony she met, the future element of Laughter, the pink party pony with her pink and puffy main and tail, this 2 second greeting that was about to happen just now was forever engraved into Twilight’s mind

Twilight said to the pink mare “Um hi?”

The Pink pony gasped and ran away faster than physically possible for an Earth Pony, but Twilight honestly knew this would happen

Twilight continued to re meet her old friend’s from long ago, she was able to use magic to stop herself from crying the tears of joy that were building up as she was introduced to the future element of Honesty, the Orange and blonde farm mare that Twilight once knew as Applejack, the meeting went about the same, except Twilight was the one who originally suggested staying for brunch rather than Apple Bloom’s weaponized cuteness, she really needed to remember to help set up the CMC’s sooner, the CMC’s for those who don’t know were once this legendary group, they were so legendary every creature has their own version of the CMC’s in her future, the goal of the CMC’s were to help others creatures find their purpose in life, even those without cutie marks, in fact the The day of Loyalty even has a whole event to decide which CMC team was best, but no creature was ever half as good as the original’s, but for now she would enjoy her food.

Heading back into town Twilight was slightly overstuffed, she knew she shouldn’t have eaten that much pie but it was just too good to resist, and this was another familiar scene, but she’d rather not get muddy this time around, nothing against being dirty, it’s just the Rainbow maned cyan Element of Loyalty’s “Rainblow dry” made her too dizzy to ever want to go through it again so right as the Pegasus was about to crash into her Twilight teleported out of the way and even used magic to grab the speedy Pegasus to stop her crash landing into mud.

The Pegasus who was now hovering in midair right above the mud pit she honestly expected herself to crash into was now confused, she was no egghead but she was pretty sure that this was supposed to be the part where she got covered in mud, until she finally noticed that her body was incased in a purple aura, she looked to se the source was Twilight herself
Twilight let the Cyan mare down on the ground and the two introduced themselves, so after Rainbow Dash mentioned wanting to join the Wonderbolt’s instead of calling her out or doubting her Twilight said “Wow, the Wonderbolt’s? You must be a great flyer, you could probably clear this entire sky in 10 seconds flat.”

Rainbow smirked and said “I like the way you think Twilight.”

Rainbow then proceeded to clear the entire sky

After the sky was cleared Twilight said “I guess I was wrong, you couldn’t clear the sky in 10 seconds flat.”

Rainbow Dash yell-asked “Ah what!?”

Twilight nearly couldn’t keep her excitement in check but was able to say “Yeah.” She now couldn’t keep her excitement in any longer and cheered “You cleared it in 8.33 seconds! Which is even better!”

Rainbow Dash gasped ”I got faster!?”

Twilight then headed to town hall in order to see the Purple maned White Element of Generosity herself Rarity, the two were able to talk for a short while, Twilight mentioned herself being from Canterlot but explained it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, Rarity understood that nowhere is perfect, not even Canterlot, Spike still got his crush on Rarity but Twilight would make sure to deal with that soon, for now she would go see the Element of Kindness, she found the Pink maned Yellow Pegasus practicing music for the show, Twilight approached her this time quietly to not startle her, the Pegasus only found out she was here when one of the birds pointed out Twilight, Twilight introduced herself and made sure to introduce Spike as well which got the Pegasus to open up and introduce herself as Fluttershy.

Spike told Fluttershy his life story on the way to the Golden Oaks Library, oh how she missed it after all these years, this time she wouldn’t let Tirek destroy it.

Twilight went inside full expecting what was about to happen next, and low and behold, the second the light’s turned on Twilight saw that half of ponyvill was in the library

The Element of Laughter introduced herself to Twilight, and it was all too much for her, she never got something to drink as even though she knew the hot sauce was their all her focus was on keeping herself from bursting from all the tears of joy that were welling up, willing herself not to let it out until the right moment.

As soon as Pinkie Pie said “Lots and lots of friends Twilight decided that was the absolute perfect time to let it all out, first she hugged her “new” friends so hard she was almost afraid they would pop, then she started laughing from pure joy and finally she canceled the spell that was keeping her from crying and her eyes nearly turned into waterfalls with how much she was crying

Noticing all the crying Rarity asked “Darling, is something the matter?”

Twilight only said “I’m just so happy!”

Pinkie Pie said “That’s great! I don’t think I’ve ever seen any pony that looks as happy as you do right now, and that includes when looking in the mirror. You must really like making friends, or you really really like us!”

Twilight along with her “new” friends party the night away where Twilight decided to mention how she got her Cutie Mark to Apple Bloom as she mentioned it in passing while she was having some apple pie which got her curious enough to ask for more details, when she mentioned the part about hearing an explosion and seeing a rainbow, Fluttershy and Rarity also mentioned they heard an explosion when they got their Cutie Mark, Applejack and Pinkie said that they saw a rainbow when they got theirs, Rainbow Dash didn’t say anything but Twilight expected this.

Twilight said “Wait a second, now that I think about it, Fluttershy you said you and Rainbow Dash are originally from Cloudsdale right?”

Fluttershy nodded her head yes

Twilight said “Okay, after getting my Cutie Mark I did some research and learnt that the explosion originated from Cloudsdale, so that means Fluttershy probably heard that same explosion, maybe even Rarity. One more thing I figured out it was no normal explosion, that rainbow plus explosion could only mean one thing, the legendary Sonic Rainboom, which probably means that Pinkie and Applejack also saw the same rainbow, and if the Rainboom originated in Cloudsdale that can only mean one thing. Rainbow Dash definitely saw the Rainboom as well, or, maybe, she was the cause! Yes it all makes since, Rainbow must have caused the Rainboom, I mean she’s the fastest Pegasus I’ve seen, and don’t forget the rainbow streak when shy flys so it all works! Just to be sure Rainbow, how did you get your Cutie Mark?”

Rainbow had her jaw dropped, she wanted to argue, deny her statement, anything, but she couldn’t, everything Twilight Sparkle said made complete since, the look on her face said it all though.

Twilight said “It’s true then, you must have gotten your Cutie Mark when you created the Sonic Rainboom, Rainbow you truly are awesome, me, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, we all owe you for helping us find our Cutie Marks, I guess the six of us had a connection long before we even met.”

Rainbow Dash said “Okay, that is mind blowing. But you’re right Twilight, I did create the Sonic Rainboom.”

They continued to party the night away and eventually they went to town hall where Mayor Mare announced the start of the Summer Sun celebration, she introduced Princess Celesta but to everypony except for Twilight’s surprise she was gone and Nightmare Moon appeared soon after and she was laughing maniacally.

Author's Note:

To be continued in part 2