Traveling to the future isn't as ideal as most ponies think it is.
"Traveling to the past? Heh, it's actually not as bad as everyone says it is, so long as you follow certain restrictions you'll be fine. Now, traveling to the future? That is a whole other ball game. Because now you're dealing with inevitability."
Through some polite prompting on the part of Dr. Whooves, Twilight and her friends willingly travel to the future for fun and adventure.
Disclaimer: this story is nonprofit and the author has no ownership over the characters or setting.
Knowing Your Future
“Wait,” said Twilight evenly, her princess-minted wings giving off slight twitches of barely restrained irritation for the stallion in front of her, “are you telling me, that you conducted this whole thing,” Twilight gestured her purple hoof broadly to the happenings that were going on in the interior of her library, “this whole thing, just because you got a letter?”
After straightening his tie, Dr. Whooves put a hoof to the underside of his brown-coated chin in thought and contemplated on whether or not if Twilight’s rather brief accusation was an accurate, if not an entirely content-filled, description of what lead up to this event. After a few seconds of silent contemplation and fur scratching, Dr. Whooves smiled brightly as the answer came to him.
“Yep,” he said cheerfully.
“Hmm,” uttered Twilight, who, of course, took the Doctor’s answer and responded in the manner she deemed most appropriate.
With a loud THUNK she slammed her fore-hooves onto the library’s wooden floorboard and gave the Doctor her fiercest stare.
“WHEN WE GET OUT OF HERE, YOU AND WHOEVER SENT THAT LETTER ARE SO BANISHED!” she screamed from her imprisoned position inside of a magical barrier, a fate shared with her friends who each had their own personal prison. These violet, bubble-shaped imprisonments were located at each corner of the hexagonal shape ritual that was drawn on the floor. Said ritual was made up of archaic runes that glowed a pure white and was filled with so much raw arcane energy that bolts of magical lightning would lash out of seemingly nowhere.
“Banished!?” Dr. Whooves looked positively aghast at that statement, “aren’t you overreacting a bit? I mean it’s not like I saved you from an alien werewolf or anything.”
Twilight’s expression became momentarily befuddled at the Doctor’s words, “Why would you be banished for something like that?” The Doctor opened his muzzle to answer, but he was interrupted by Twilight, “Wait, never mind, that’s not important. You’re forcibly imprisoning royalty and five Equestrian citizens against their will, you are getting banished no matter what you say.”
“Forget banishment! He’ll be lucky to still be alive once I’m done pulverizing him!”
Looking over, Twilight saw Rainbow Dash fiercely trying to escape her own magical imprisonment. Banging her cyan hooves against the barrier, magical energy riveted through the bubble at each point Dash’s hooves struck it.
Applejack was taking a less direct approach than Dash was. Instead of bashing against the barrier itself, Applejack was using her superior strength to break the floorboards under her in an attempt to dig herself out under the barrier. A futile attempt as the magical barrier adaptively lengthened its size to fill out the space that every broken floorboard left. A fact that Applejack seemed to notice.
“Ah, horse-apples!” she cursed.
Great, so not only were they stuck, but Twilight will have to call for a carpenter once this was all over.
She was so looking forward to the sound of banging hammers in her library.
Fluttershy on the other hoof was simply curled up in a ball and shivering slightly in fear, not that Twilight could blame her, the poor mare. She didn’t have the strength or agility that Applejack and Rainbow Dash had respectively, so bashing her way out was a moot point considering they can’t even get out through that method. She also didn’t have any of her animal friends nearby to bail her out. Which was a shame, because Twilight could think of a great activity that Mr. Bear and the Doctor could play.
She didn’t want to give anything away, but she will say that it involves Mr. Bear’s claws and the Doctor’s hindquarters.
The only thing that Fluttershy could possibly do was give the Doctor her infamous Stare. If she could accomplish that, then she could convince the Doctor to free them. Unfortunately, the Doctor, the insufferable genius that he is, has discovered a way to make the Stare not affect him in any way whatsoever. A feat only previously accomplished by a powerful spirit of chaos.
“I’ve got to say, I’ve never been in a tree-library before, or is it library-tree? Libtree? A treebrary” the Doctor blathered on as he pondered over the bookshelves, “Hah! Treebrary, what a delightfully funny little word.”
He simply wasn’t looking at her.
…Not the most impressive strategy, but hey, it works.
Still, Fluttershy was keeping a close eye on him in case he ever crosses eyes with her, so Twilight couldn’t say that she wasn’t doing anything.
Rarity was poised in a dignified posture inside her own barrier. Not bothering to bash her way out for the same reason that Fluttershy isn’t, one of the few options she could do would be to use her own magic in an attempt to escape. But she didn’t bother to try that option either because of the simple fact that she saw what happened when Twilight attempted to do so.
Channeling as much magical energy into her horn, Twilight had released a magical beam in an attempt to escape her prison. The reward for her efforts was the barrier bouncing the beam back at Twilight’s face.
So yeah, considering that Twilight is an alicorn, not to mention one of the most magically gifted ponies that she’s ever met, Rarity wasn’t in any rush to use her own magic to escape. Instead, always having a talented eye for detail, Rarity was scanning the barriers, the room, and the Doctor for literally anything that could be exploited for their advantage.
Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was…
Twilight did a double-take.
Where the buck did Pinkie Pie get an ax!? Why does she even have one!?
Oh, that explains it ...kind of. Still, Twilight should probably take care of that ax before Pinkie hurts somepony with it.
Well, no matter, so long as the barriers held, everypony should be safe for the moment.
Back to the matter at hoof, Twilight focused on the Doctor.
“So tell me Doctor, who was it exactly that sent you the letter?”
“Me,” he answered.
Twilight blinked, “I’m sorry?”
Dr. Whooves held up a letter, “This letter was sent to me, by me from the future.”
Silence.
Everyone was silent. Rainbow stopped thrashing herself against her barrier, Applejack stopped trying to dig her way to freedom, Fluttershy stopped trembling in fear, Rarity stopped looking for some kind of advantage, and even Pinke stopped wailing her ax around.
They all stopped to silently stare at the mad Doctor.
Mouth agape, Twilight silently uttered what everypony was thinking, “You’re mad.”
The Doctor smiled, SMILED!
“That’s what everyone keeps telling me,” he said joyfully as though it was some sort of achievement worth celebrating for.
“Alright, forget banishment,” Twilight announced, “you’re obviously not well in the head, so it’s Luna’s Lunacy Asylum for you!”
The Doctor scrunched up his face in confusion, “I’m not familiar with that establishment.”
“It’s also more commonly known as THE MOON!” yelled Twilight as she unleashed a magical beam on the barrier to accentuate her anger.
With said barrier bouncing the beam back to hit Twilight in the muzzle, “Ah, buck! Not again!” she cursedly exclaimed, bringing up a hoof to tend the bruised snout.
“Hey Twilight!” called out Rainbow Dash, “can’t you just teleport out of these things?”
Blinking in realization, Twilight channeled the necessary amount of magical energy into her horn and with a bzzzap, teleported a few feet away from the ritual.
“Hah!” laughed Twilight mockingly as she pointed a hoof at the Doctor.
…which hit the violet magical barrier that had teleported with her.
With a near-silent shlick, the barrier slid back into place at one of the ritual’s corners, and Twilight’s smug face became one of subdued surprise at the realization.
“…Oh.”
AppleJack facehooved, “Darn varmint really thought of everythin’ didn’ he?”
“Tell me about it,” remarked Rarity, as she tried to maintain her elegant posture as magical lightning danced around her, “he even got rid of poor Spike before he even knew what was happening.”
Meanwhile at Canterlot, in Celestia’s private study.
Princess Celestia has been around.
As a royal, near-all-powerful goddess that has lived for a thousand years (much more than that actually, but a mare’s age is no business for any rude historian to know), she has seen quite a few things. From upstart nobles to a deity-like being of chaos who thought that he was “all that” and everything in between.
So, no. When a baby, purple dragon appeared before her in a flash of green flames and landed on her desk while she was signing some important document, she wasn’t that surprised.
Using her magic, Celestia threw said document into the trash bin near her desk on account that she had accidently punched a hole through it with her quill.
To reiterate her previous statement: she wasn’t that surprised.
"Ugh... where am I?" groaned the little dragon as he held his claws up to his head to help sway off his dizziness. After a moment, he finally shook off the dizziness and looked up in surprise to see the pony that made up one-half of Equestria's diarchy.
“Hello Spike,” she greeted the little dragon, and with a slight shuffle of her left wing she silently messaged the royal guard behind Spike to stop pointing his spear at the unexpected intruder, er, guest.
“…Hi… Celestia…” Spike returned the greeting, albeit in a daze.
“I didn’t know that your DragonFire could transport living beings,” said Princess Celestia curiously.
“Neither did I,” he replied.
Well on the bright side, at least Celestia finally figured out why she had found a bunch of torn up pieces of changling corpses in her room after the changling invasion. Using his DragonFire during a fight, Spike had been transporting them to her room piece-by-piece during the invasion and …wait, no that doesn’t make sense. The changlings would have been transported to herself when she was being hanged upside down from the ceiling, not to her room, and she was pretty certain that Spike’s flames didn’t tear apart the changlings. And that still doesn’t explain why the changling corpses weren’t blasted out of her balcony window when Cadence and Shining Armor used that love spell to repel the invasion.
Drat! That mystery is still left unsolved, which was a shame because she really wanted to figure that one out. Finding a bunch of unexplained corpses in your room can really draw out the paranoia in anyone's psyche, no matter how (possibly) ancient you are.
“Hey, I don’t mean to be a bother, but could you send me back to Twilight’s library the same way you send her letters?” requested Spike.
Princess Celestia thought about it for a second before replying with, “Considering the fact that those letters arrive through your stomach, I wouldn’t recommend it.”
Spike’s face cringed at that, “Eww, yeah, good call,” he then let out a dejected sigh, “great, now I’m gonna miss Twilight open that locked chest.”
Celestia’s eye’s widened just ever so slightly in surprise, “The one from the Tree of Harmony? Twilight has found a way to open it?”
“Actually, it was that doctor that you sent to help Twilight figure it out,” answered Spike, “He’s got her, Rarity, and everyone else doing some kind of ritual that’s supposed to summon the keys for that thing. Seems a bit weird to me, but Twilight said he’s got credentials so I guess that means he knows what he’s doing, or whatever.”
Celestia blinked. Doctor? She didn’t send anypony to help Twilight.
“I was about to send you a letter that would tell you all of this,” Spike continued his explanation, “but something weird happened. Right when I was using my flames, a great big burst of wind appeared out of nowhere and blew the flames into me. Weird, huh?”
“Quite,” agreed Celestia, “Now Spike, what was this doctor’s name?”
Back at Twilight’s library.
“You know what I find curious?” announced Dr. Whooves as he shoved a mechanical fan into a much-too-small duffel bag, “In comes a prestigious doctor who says that he’s going to help you open this mysterious chest that you have, through a summoning ritual of all things, and yet not a single one of you questions why he also brought in a giant mechanical fan. Not one of you questioned it. I mean, I could understand why no pony would look inside a big blue box in the middle of a street, but a giant fan in a treebrary? Right when we were about to do said ritual too? Surely that would have raised some eyebrows, wouldn’t it?”
Because his back was turned to them, the Doctor couldn’t see the hate-filled stares that were drilling into the back of his skull.
Twilight was about to reply in a very unprincess-like manner, but stopped herself when she noticed that the frequency of the magical lightning dancing around her and her friends seemed to be increasing in fervor.
Also, they were now floating.
“So, uh, what exactly is this ritual going to do?” asked Twilight nervously. The magical bubbles that she and her friends were imprisoned in had now started to slowly rotate in the air around the perimeter of the ritual markings.
The Doctor turned to them and smiled, “Oh, I’d be happy to tell you.”
They were starting to spin faster.
“But unfortunately,” the Doctor continued, “I’ve been informed that I should not tell you anything about it.”
And faster.
“Yeah, by you!” yelled Twilight angrily.
And faster.
“Well, what am I supposed to do?” questioned the Doctor, “Not listen to my future-self? That seems very unwise.”
So fast now.
“HOLD UP!” yelled Pinkie Pie suddenly, to which both the Doctor and Twilight stopped their argument, and even their magical imprisonments seemed to have stopped in mid-spin at Pinkie’s command. She then focused her stare at the Doctor and pointed a pink hoof at him.
“Are you even a real doctor?” she asked inquisitively, oblivious to the facehooving that was going on around her.
“Yes,” he answered immediately, “I have a doctorate in quantum mechanics, so I’m technically a doctor.”
“Oh! Okay, then!” smiled Pinkie.
The Doctor returned the smile, "Well, if that's all then, I'll see you all again in a few seconds."
And then the magical bubbles containing the six mares converged into a singular point in the middle of the ritual and they disappeared in a flash of bright light.
And the library was silent with its sole occupant.
Dr. Whooves waited with a smile.
And waited...
And continued to wait.
Eventually, that smile was gone.
A whole minute had passed and the library was still lacking the return of any of the mares.
The Doctor stared expressionlessly at the empty space above the ritual markings.
Disclaimer: this story is nonprofit and the author has no ownership over the characters or setting.
Knowing Your Future
Her leg was very warm.
Specifically, her left, rear leg was much warmer than the rest of her body.
It also felt a bit numb.
Opening her bleary eyes just slightly, Twilight turned her head to look for the source of her leg’s warm numbness.
Ah, it was just her friends. They were sleeping together in a big pile in the middle of her library and her leg was just squashed under Rainbow Dash’s stomach.
No biggie.
With a little force, Twilight managed to extract her leg from under her athletic friend. She then curled up into a ball for comfort and tried to get back to sleep. A somewhat difficult task to do on the library’s cold hard wooden floor, but she was sure that if she simply cleared her thoughts, she’d manage a small nap in no time.
Just clear her thoughts.
Listen to the steady breathing of her friends…
And…
…
Twilights eyes leaped open and in a flash she remembered all of the events prior to waking up.
Danger.
She and her friends were in grave danger.
Now fully awake and alert, Twilight jumped up to a standing position. She turned to the pile of her friends, channeled her magic for a levitation spell, and…
Promptly threw Pinkie’s ax into one of the kitchens cupboards, which she then locked.
“Whew,” Twilight breathed a sigh of relief as she leaned against the kitchen counter. Well, now that everyone is good and safe, she should go and wake up her friends and try to figure out what kind of situation they’ve gotten into this time.
“Girls!” Twilight called loudly as she walked back into the main interior room of the library, “Girls, wake up!”
Always an early riser, Applejack was the first to yawn herself awake, “I’m up, I’m up, those apples ain’t gonna buck themselves.” Taking a moment to shake off her drowsiness, Applejack was able to take note of her surrounding, and after another moment, remembered why she was in Twilight’s library, “Oh, right.”
One by one her friends slowly woke up and shook off their drowsiness, except for Pinkie Pie. Because of the fact that her bloodstreams were chock full of caffeine and sugar, she simply woke up wide awake without any sense of drowsiness whatsoever. With a body like that the doctors still don’t know how she was able to live to marehood. Of course, they also incorrectly predicted the lifespan of that special-needs colt down at the Grape’s farm, so what the buck do they know.
Anyways, now that most of her friends were awake, Twilight turned to a particular pony who was lagging behind in the awake department.
“Mmm… five more minutes Twi,” mumbled Rainbow Dash sleepily, “or… twenty.”
Rolling her eyes at that, Twilight lightly prodded Rainbow Dash in the stomach, “C’mon, wake up. A mad doctor just used us to conduct some sort of powerful ritual and we need to figure out what it did.”
And in an instant, Rainbow Dash was off the floor and in the air.
“Oh, yeah!” she yelled out, “Where is that smug-filled doctor!? He’s gonna be pounded grain once I’m done with him.”
“He’s not here,” said Twilight, who was helping Fluttershy stand up.
“Tch, must have run off scared when he saw that his magical ritual thing didn’t work,” commented Rainbow Dash as she crossed her forehooves.
“I’m not too sure about that,” replied Twilight, with hints of caution in her voice, “I mean, we don’t even know what it was supposed to do, let alone if it even worked. For all we know, it could have used us to open the gates of Tartarus and give Cerberus a bone to chew …or three.”
“They do like their bones,” added Fluttershy.
“Either way, this will require some extensive researching,” continued Twilight, as she turned to look down at the ritual markings still present on her floor, no longer a burning white in color, but instead a charcoal black. Turning back to face her friends, she gave them all a warm smile, “I’ll take care of that, why don’t you guys go out, I’m sure that you’ve all got your own responsibilities to take care of, not to mention family and friends who are concerned about your absence.”
“Oh my!” exclaimed Fluttershy, “Angel must be worried sick right now. And all those sick and injured animals! Oh, they’ll never forgive me for leaving them unattended.”
“Hey, don’t worry Shy, I’m sure they’re all fine,” Rainbow Dash assured her concerned friend, “I mean we’ve probably only slept for just a couple of hours, tops.”
“Few hours or not, I do have chores that need doing,” said Applejack, “so come on ya’ll, let’s leave Twiligh’ to do her thing.” And with that, she started trotting toward the door with friends in tow. Right as she was about to open the door, she turned her head back with an eyebrow raised, “Uh, Rarity? You commin’ or what?”
Standing over the ritual marking with a perceived stare, Rarity couldn’t help but feel that there was something out of place. As if something was missing from this picture.
She then blinked in realization.
“Applejack, could you come over here for a minute, please.”
Eyebrow still raised in confusion, Applejack nevertheless complied, leaving Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie to exit the building without her.
“What’s on your mind?” she asked Rarity.
Turning toward Applejack, Rarity said, “When we were imprisoned by that nefarious doctor, didn’t you try to dig your way out?”
“Ah, shucks,” Applejack turned and addressed Twilight, “sorry about breaking your floor, Twiligh’.”
“It’s alright,” replied Twilight, waving a hoof dismissingly, “you were just doing what you could to escape, so it’s understandable.”
“Still, I wouldn’ feel righ’ if I didn’ offer to help fix it.”
“And how exactly do you plan on fixing the broken floorboards, when there are no broken floorboards that need fixing,” questioned Rarity.
“What ya’ll talkin about?” asked Applejack, “they’re right over… there…?”
Applejack was pointing at finely-furnished, if somewhat dusty, floorboards.
“…Oh.”
“That’s weird,” commented Twilight. She was sure that she saw Applejack break her floor.
“Do you think the ritual’s magic fixed it somehow?” asked Rarity.
“I’m not familiar with any rituals that would do that,” responded Twilight. Putting a hoof under her chin, she gave the matter some thought and said, “I should probably consult my Guidebook to Archaic Rituals just to be sure though.”
Channeling her magic, Twilight levitated the book from its rack and brought it over to herself to read.
BONK!
…or tried to at least.
“What the…?” Twilight turned to her shelves of books in confusion. Rows and rows of books were lined across the library wall just as they’ve always been. The book that Twilight wanted, currently levitating and wrapped in a purple magical aurora, was just a few inches away from where it had originally been resting.
And where it stayed.
Because it had hit a glass wall.
Trotting up to the location of her confusion, Twilight saw that every single one of her book shelves were encased behind glass windows, blocking her access to her books. At each bottom left corner of these glass cabinets was a keyhole which was most undoubtedly used to lock and unlock the glass container it was attached to.
This was quite odd to Twilight, who didn’t ever remember having any of these new additions in her library.
In fact, now that Twilight really looked around the room, she could see that there were quite some differences to her library. The Trojan-style horse bust in the middle of her table was also encased in glass, there were gold plated plaques posted under each book shelf that listed the titles of each book, and there were even red velvet ropes positioned in front of the stairs that led up to her bedroom and the stairs that led down to her basement, as if they were put there to prevent ponies from accessing those parts of the building.
It was almost as if her library had been turned into a museum.
Twilight was very confused.
“Uh, Twiligh’ did you install all these glass boxes when we were all sleeping?” asked an equally confused Applejack, “’Cause I don’ remember these being in here before.”
Twilight shook her head, “No, no, I wouldn’t do this. It’s too much of a burden to have my books behind glass. I mean, sure they would be safe, but it would be such a hassle to deal with when I’m retrieving my books. Not to mention, Spike would have an even bigger fit than usual when I ask him to rearrange the books…” Twilight stopped what she was saying.
“SPIKE!” shouted Twilight with an expression of sheer worry on her face, “Oh Celestia! I can’t believe I completely forgot about him!”
Sprinting franticly towards her front door, Twilight, with concern in her heart and in her tone of voice, said, “I have to go to Canterlot to make sure he’s safe and sound!”
Charging out of her doorway, Twilight took off in flight and headed straight for Canterlot.
…or she would have been, if she hadn’t collided with Pinkie rump.
“Oof!” Twilight exasperated as she fell back on her own rump. “Pinkie! Why are you standing in front of my door like that?” asked a somewhat irritated Twilight.
But Pinkie didn’t answer.
“Pinkie…?”
Pinkie Pie just stood statuesque, her back to Twilight. On her left and on her right, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash stood just as still as Pinkie.
Confused, Twilight trotted up to their side and got a look at their faces.
Their jaws hanged open in shocked awe and they were staring in wide-eyed confusion at something before them.
“What are you girls staring… at…” Twilight started to ask, before the question died on her lips. She had turned to see what they were looking at and she had immediately adopted the same expression that her friends had. Not long after, Rarity and Applejack trotted out of the library and they too were shocked and awed at what they were seeing.
Ponyville.
Ponyville was different.
The small town still had its wooden buildings and dirt roads, but there were subtle differences. There were more buildings that they could see, and some of those buildings were also quite bigger than the rest of them. A lot of the buildings that they were familiar with had different paint jobs or added-on porches and balconies that weren't there before. Gardens still dotted household yards, but they were all in different places than they used to be. There were public fountains where there should have been empty space.
But these types of things were not what were holding the six mares’ attentions.
Not at all.
The things just listed would most undoubtedly give them all an expression of confusion and worry.
But not the shock and awed faces that they currently hold.
No, what has them so enraptured is not anything from Ponyville itself, but rather what they saw in the horizon.
Tall gray skyscrapers reaching toward the large blue ocean that was the sky.
They saw a city.
A city that wasn’t there before.
“Oh…” whimpered Fluttershy.
“My…” Rarity exclaimed dramatically.
“Buckin’…” Applejack cursed.
“Celestia…” exclaimed Twilight.
“DIMENSIONAL CAKE ON A STICK IN A PARRALEL UNIVERSE!” Shouted Pinkie.
“Shi-wait, what?” Rainbow Dash was about to do her own personalized expletive, but was just so floored by what Pinkie had said that she just couldn’t finish it. And as one, the whole group turned to Pinkie Pie.
“Isn’t it obvious!?!?” Pinkie Pie was franticly swinging her head around to look at each of them.
Slowly, and quite cautiously too, they all shook their head in the negative.
“That crazy doctor used his magical ritual thingy to transport us to an alternate dimension!” explained Pinkie, “Just like in all those stories that comic book writers write when they want a flimsy excuse to do a crossover with another comic book series!”
“Like in Marevengers Vs. Justice Guild of Equestria!” exclaimed Rarity.
Now everypony turned to Rarity with surprise on their face.
Seeing the looks she was receiving, Rarity explained, “Sometimes Spike accidently leaves his comics behind at my boutique when he comes over to help with a task that I need done, and besides it’s not exactly a bad read if you can get past the cheesiness of it all.”
Their curiosity fulfilled, they all turned back to the matter at hoof.
“So, Twilight!” said Pinkie Pie excitably, now mere inches from Twilight’s face as she hopped up and down in excitement, “Do you think we’re in another dimension!? Huh!? Huh!? ...Huh!?”
“Uh… I… er… well,” Twilight was absolutely flabbergasted at Pinkie’s question, and also a little bit uncomfortable at her personal space being invaded by the pink pony, “um… I… guess it’s possible?”
“OH! MY! GOSH!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed so loudly, “We’re in another dimension! We’re in another dimension!” She chanted as she jumped around them all in celebration.
“Wait!” she said suddenly as she stopped in mid-jump, “But which dimension are we in?”
“Uh… which?” Fluttershy dared to ask.
“Of course!” said Pinkie who was now suddenly beside Fluttershy.
“Eep!”
“There are a million-bajillion-kazillion kinds of universes out there and we could be in any one of them!” explained Pinkie seriously, she then got a dastardly look on her face, “In fact, maybe…”
Out of nowhere, Pinkie had suddenly appeared right next to Twilight, and with a shake of her rump she hit Twilight’s cutie mark, which… somehow caused Twilight’s horn to cast a spell on Pinkie’s face.
So now she has a mustache.
“We’re in the evil alternate universe! Muahahaha!” Pinkie Pie laughed manically as she twirled her mustache all evil like and such. “Where the evil versions of us hold the Elements of Disharmony and a team of Diamond Dogs, Griffons, and Breezies have to defeat us in order to save the world!”
Rubbing her violated horn tenderly, Twilight looked at Pinkie in confusion, “How did you…?”
“Or maybe…” interrupted Pinkie as she masterfully avoided any sort of explanation. Sans the mustache, Pinkie had let her hair, um, deflate and was now speaking in a monotonous tone, “we’re in the opposite dimension. Where I’m all serious and boring, Fluttershy is rude and reckless, Rarity is ugly and unpopular, Applejack is an aristocrat, Twilight is a dumb athlete, and Rainbow is not.”
“Hahaha-hey!” argued Rainbow, cutting her laughter short.
Rarity raised her hoof up to stifle her giggles.
“Or maybe…” Pinkie was at it again, only this time her face had an even more dastardly appearance than she did when she was talking about the evil universe, “we’re in the gender bent universe where we’re all stallions! Hehehehe, if that's true, then I sure wouldn’t mind partying hard with Bubble Berry.”
“Uh… what?” asked Twilight.
Sidling up to Rainbow Dash, Pinkie put a hoof around her neck, “You know Rainbow, I’m sure that you would love to try a double Rainboom with Blitz.”
“Blitz, huh?” Dash pondered the name.
Now Pinkie was next to Twilight, “Twilight! I bet you and Dusk Shine will have all sorts of books that you two can read, together.”
“Dusk Shi-wait, what?” blanched Twilight.
Pinkie was now curled up next to Fluttershy, “And Fluttershy! I’m sure once you got to know Butterscotch you’ll find that he is just the sweetest.”
Fluttershy did her very best to hide her blush behind her mane.
Rarity soon found Pinkie standing next to her, “My turn now?”
“Yep!” answered Pinkie with a smile, “and since you and Elusive own a boutique, I bet that you two will have all kinds of garments that the two of you could try on together.”
“I suppose it would be nice to be in the company of somepony with a sense of fashion in them for once,” replied Rarity mischievously.
“And Applejack!” Pinkie popped up next to the orange apple farmer, “I bet you and …uh…?”
Applejack was now sporting a smirk at seeing Pinkie try to think up of a name.
“Um… Apple… john?” Pinkie tried.
“Hehe, nice try there sugarcube,” Applejack assured Pinkie, “but, I’m pretty sure it would just be Applejack.”
Pinkie just shrugged at that, “Meh, either way, I’m sure the bucking will be nice.”
That was it.
“Bwahahah!” laughed Rainbow Dash, who was soon followed by the rest of her friends. After all the crazy things that have been happening to them, they all needed a good laugh.
“Heheh, thanks for that Pinkie,” Twilight said with a smile.
“No problemo Twilight!” Pinkie saluted her friend. A job well done.
“Alright, but in all seriousness, I don’t think we’re actually in another dimension,” said Twilight.
“What!? But how can you be sure!?” questioned Pinkie dramatically.
Twilight glanced back toward her library where the ritual markings were still present before turning back to address her friends, “I’m not that familiar with archaic rituals, but from what I do know, that ritual doesn’t seem to have anything to do with crossing interdimensional boundaries.”
“But then why is this place so different?” asked Rainbow Dash, and to accentuate her point she pointed toward the city in the distance.
“And where is everypony anyways?” questioned Applejack. A very good question indeed, as they have yet to see a single pony walk the streets.
“I have no idea why this place is so different,” answered Twilight, “but for where everypony is though…” Looking around the area for something, Twilight spotted a rolled up newspaper. Using her magic to bring the paper to them, Twilight unfurled it and read the headline.
“Tomorrow is the Summer Sun Celebration,” Twilight read off of it.
“Oh! That explains it,” said Applejack, “the townsfolk must be in another part of Ponyville fixin’ up the decorations. See, this area is already all done up.” Applejack pointed toward all of the decorations hanging from the buildings, like the sun ribbons, the rainbow streamers, the ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ banners, and all of the stalls.
“And I, uh, I think I did hear some construction earlier,” added Fluttershy.
“Hey, yeah! I think I can hear some construction going on right now,” said Applejack, putting a hoof to her ear to hear better. Sounds of banging hammers and the grinding of saws reached her ears. “It sounds like it’s coming from over there,” Applejack pointed down a road that went by the Mayor’s office.
“Well, c’mon slowpokes! Let’s go say hi!” Pinkie was already cheerfully bouncing down said road, with her friends following her.
Except for Twilight, who stared at the decorations in confusion. The Summer Sun Celebration? But didn’t they already celebrate it just recently? Twilight looked back at the newspaper to check the date.
“Bouncy, bouncy, bou-woah!” Pinkie shouted as she tripped over something in front of the library.
“Pinkie! You okay?” asked Rainbow Dash as she helped up her hyperactive friend.
“Yeah, I just tripped over this rock,” she answered.
Rarity looked at said rock and said, “Pinkie, that’s an engraved plaque.”
“Really!? What does it say?” Pinkie asked enthusiastically.
“Hmmm,” Twilight hummed. According to this newspaper, the day and month was correct for the Summer Sun Celebration, but what’s with the year…?
Rarity started reading from the plaque, “This library was the home of Princess Twilight Sparkle during her stay at Ponyville from the date of-aaaugh!” Rarity screamed as she was suddenly levitated off the ground by a purple aurora.
“Don’t read that!” Shouted Twilight, her horn glowing with magic and her face filled with terror.
As one, the rest of her friends were lifted off of the ground by way of Twilight’s magic.
“Everypony back in the library!” commanded Twilight, as she hurriedly floated them all through the doorway. Herself trailing behind to lock the door.
“Twiligh’ what’s gotten into you?!” asked a worried Applejack.
Twilight threw the newspaper that she’s been holding down to Applejack’s hooves, “Read the date,” Twilight’s voice was frantic.
Her friends all crowded around the crumbled paper to see what all the fuss was about.
“We’re not in some alternate dimension or anything like that!” said Twilight.
Their eyes widened in surprise as they saw the date, specifically the year.
“We’re in the future!” Twilight exclaimed with fear in her voice, “A hundred-fifty years in the future!”
“The future?” Celestia asked.
“Yep,” Dr. Whooves nodded, not really looking at Celestia, but instead presiding over the white ritual markings that still covered the library floor. His enchanted screwdriver glowing a blue glow as the Doctor used it in unknown ways on the ritual.
Celestia and the Doctor were alone in Ponyville’s library. When Celestia heard what happened from Spike, she flew him back to Ponyville, but asked Spike to wait outside, so that she could confront the Doctor alone.
“You sent an Equestrian princess and her five friends, all of whom are national heroes I might add, into the future?” Celestia asked more specifically.
“Yep,” Dr. Whooves confirmed again.
“And you didn’t go with them?”
“…Nope.”
“How far into the future did you send them?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“And why not?” Asked Celestia in a tone that told the Doctor that he better be careful of what he said.
“I don’t know,” he responded.
“Doctor…” warned Celestia.
“Look,” the Doctor said sternly as he finally looked up to talk to Celestia face-to-face, “the letter I got said that everything I’m doing right now is related to a fixed point in time, and you know how dangerous and how wrong it is to try and change them, so I have to do exactly as the letter said or very, very bad things will happen.”
“…Alright,” Celestia relented, “but may you at least tell me when they will get back?”
The Doctor smiled, “Oh, don’t worry. They should be back in a day or so.”
Celestia gave the Doctor a pleasant smile, “Oh Doctor, of all the ones that I have met, you are one of the most amazing and wonderful ponies this universe has ever seen.”
The Doctor’s smile faltered as he was suddenly levitated off the floor by Celestia’s magic and he found himself just above eye level with the princess, except that he was floating upside-down.
“But…” uttered Celestia, her smile gone and her voice serious, “I am not that mischievous Princess that you courted all those centuries ago.”
“I did what!?” the Doctor exclaimed, surprise evident on his face.
With a small smile back on her face, Celestia leaned forward and gave the doctor a peck on his nose.
“Spoilers,” she whispered mysteriously.
“Uh…?” The Doctor responded intelligently.
The smile on Celestia’s face stayed there just a bit longer than she intended, simply because of the look on the Doctor’s face.
But that smile did eventually disappear.
“The point is, Doctor,” Celestia continued in her grave voice, “is that I’ve had millennium of experience with politics…”
The Doctor was brought closer, to gaze into Celestia burning eyes.
“So I know when somepony is lying to me.”
He couldn’t help it, a long lifespan of self-control be damned, he gulped nervously at the powerful goddess before him.
“And I also know that you are not the perfect being that so many ponies confuse you for. Just like they confuse me for the same,” admitted Celestia, still giving the Doctor a burning stare, “So I know that you make mistakes just like everypony else does. The difference with you though, is that your mistakes are much, much more costly.”
The Doctor stayed silent.
“And I am speaking from personal experience, as I am sure that many of your own friends have had something similar,” Celestia’s mane became almost fiery, “but sometimes when you say a couple of minutes or a day, what actually happens is that ponies end up waiting for years or more.”
Dr. Whooves was sweating, and it wasn’t out of nervousness, the temperature in the room had been steadily rising at Celestia’s words.
And Celestia’s burning stare pierced him immensely.
“Twilight and her friends do not deserve that.”
“I’ll fix this. I’ll fix this. You have my word that I will do my best to fix this,” assured the Doctor in a tone that somehow sounded both nervous and courageous.
“Do your best?” repeated Celestia, a smile slowly appearing on her face, “failures do their best. Ponies that actually succeed at what they set out to accomplish go to the castle and…” Celestia leaned forward and whispered words into the Doctor’s ear that he thought he would never hear coming from a princess. The fact that Celestia was currently soaked in raw, burning magical power only enticed the situation ever more.
But then the moment was over. Celestia withdrew her power, the temperature in the room went back to normal, and the Doctor was dropped unceremoniously onto the floor.
“Ooof!” Dr. Whooves let out a pained grunt as he landed on his back. Setting himself upright, he found Celestia nuzzling his cheek.
“So please, make sure they return,” she said quietly. And with that, Celestia exited the library, but not before turning around to give the Doctor a wink and a few more words, “because if you succeed, well… let’s just say that I learned quite a few tricks since you’ve been gone.”
And the Doctor was left alone in the library, his expression utterly flabbergasted and his jaw hanging slack as he tried to come to terms with what just happened.
