Author's Note: Hey everyone! So, just a bit of a disclaimer, this entire idea came to me about halfway through a job at about 2 in the morning, and was a completely spur of the moment kind of thing, so that's why it's going to be so totally different from my usual style of writing. As such, I do want to make it known that this is entirely experimental and more of a test than anything else, though it really did come down to just being some random thought that popped into my head during a four-hour drive.
Be that as it may, I do sincerely hope you all enjoy this little one-shot short I came up with, even though it'll totally mess with any preconceived notions anyone may have had about the characters within. Also, please do note that this is not really officially tied in with my Guardian of the Sun story, but it sort of follows the same characters in a different timeline, thus; the different interactions. With that in mind, do not take any of these relationships as official, because they most definitely are not: I do not really plan on diving into any more romantic topics in as great of depth as I will in here.
So, yeah. . . hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!
- Hinterland Seer
Princess Twiggles Strongwing
(Twilight Sparkle's POV)
"Are you really sure you want to do this?" Starlight asked for what felt like the billionth time in the last five minutes since I explained my plan. I could only roll my eyes at her, offering an exasperated smile in hopes of calming her down with my assurances that this had been carefully thought out and planned. She had that same worried expression that she always wore whenever somepony did something questionable, and was trying her hardest to be serious. Though, in truth, it only made her look more adorable.
"Yes, Starlight. I'm one hundred percent confident that this is something I want to do: how many times do you get the opportunity to study an ancient culture with field research? This is every archaeologist's dream opportunity, and one that many will never get to experience: which means that the responsibility to properly and scientifically study the past of Equestria." I responded with a confident nod.
"But we already have so much information about all of that." Starlight countered, something that I already prepared for beforehoof. "What could you possibly hope to learn that we don't already know?"
"First, just about everything we know about ancient Equestria is either from stories or legends, and even what the Royal Sisters can offer us is skewed. As much as I adore and respect Princess Celestia, she didn't exactly spend a lot of time with the common pony. Which brings me to point two: I want to know everything I can about how everyday ponies lived their day to day lives. I want to see what they do, and how they interacted with each other. That is the kind of information that we can only speculate on right now." I said with an air of finality that I truly hoped with relieve her of her worries, though that look on her face told me otherwise.
"But this spell hasn't been used in centuries, at least! How do you even know that it's safe? The last time we tried time alteration magic, I nearly destroyed all of Equestria!" Starlight exclaimed, which I had to secede the point to, but I also had a counter to that.
"Starlight, what happened back then wasn't because of the spell, but it was just poor decision making, and a regret that you live with today. This is different because I'm not going to try to change the past; I merely want to observe and see what goes on. I know it sounds harsh, but I really am going to take the most scholarly, logical approach to this, because I do want to avoid changing the future: but the most important scientific discoveries weren't made by sitting back and avoiding every risk." I said, walking over to my valued friend and putting a comforting hoof on her shoulder. "I'm not taking any unnecessary risks here."
"This whole thing is an unnecessary risk." Starlight mumbled. Her ears drooped against her skull, and with that sad look on her face, I couldn't resist pulling her in for a hug.
"Starlight, I promise you; I'm not going to act stupid. I've even got a cloak that was common among many of the earlier pony cultures, and if it comes down to it, I'll always have that useful concealment spell to hide my wings. Nopony will ever know I'm also a Princess, so I'll be fine." I moved my hoof from her shoulder to her cheek, cupping it and pulling her gaze to match mine. "I'll be back in no time at all, I promise."
". . . Okay." Starlight finally conceded, which made me extremely happy about going forward, so I turned to my number one assistant, who was busy finishing up the chalk lines for the channeling circle.
"Ready whenever you are Spike." I stated proudly, stepping into the circle as the final curve was added to the artwork on the ground. I did have to take a second to admire the fine detail of the spell symbolism, it was quite refined for such an ancient spell; I suppose the most powerful spells did require the greatest attention to detail. "Let's get this show on the road!"
Spike gave me the all clear to start the spell, so I brought forth my full magical talent, the runes etched into the floor glowing a bright lavender. My horn got so bright, I could barely make out what was going on around me, though the whipping wind and roaring in my ears did inform me something was happening. I just hope I got the spell right. . . that last time was awfully embarrassing for Spike.
The magic poured out of me faster and faster, and the runes glowed brighter, pulling themselves off of the ground to circle around me as the wind got fiercer and fiercer, pulling at my mane and tail, while the cloak was barely able to remain attached to my body. There was a final surge, before the runes suddenly paused, everything coming to an abrupt halt, nearly making me tip over from the raw change, though the wind couldn't be bothered to slow, and just kept whipping into my ears, deafening me to anything else. The light had gone too, leaving a bunch of bright purple runes floating around me, though they truly couldn't hold my attention.
Everything outside of the circle of power seemed to have frozen, as if the time spell had malfunctioned and left everything stuck in stasis. That gave me a moment of panic before a slight shift in my vision caught my attention. I tried to look up to figure out what it was, but then the blinding bright light slammed into my skull, and I promptly blacked out.
You know, thinking back on it; I really shouldn't just keep messing around with ancient and powerful spells. I've started to notice a pattern where I black out after channeling immense reserves of magic, and I've started to worry that it might have permanents effects on my brain.
The moment the light started to return to my eyes, I breathed a sigh of relief, for it meant that I could finally see just what had happened. Unfortunately, when my eyes did open, and I could see again, I was surrounded by a massive open field, with rolling hills littered around me on all sides. There was a surge of worry, because the spell was certainly a time alteration spell, and just that: there wasn't anything in it that involved transportation or teleportation.
I turned around in a full circle, just trying to get a grip on where I was, until I noticed the mountains way off in the distance. They were exactly like the mountains that Canterlot was hanging from, but these ones definitely lacked the major city that served as home of the Royal Sisters and as Equestria's capital.
Then I got a good look at the surrounding countryside, noticing that a lot of this terrain seemed eerily familiar. Like, that hill over there would be exactly where my castle would have stood, and that lake over there was one of Fluttershy's favorite places to relax with her critters. And that cluster of hills looked exactly like the ones that Sweet Apple Acres was spread across. There were a number of other prominent features, such as the lovely little creek that ran through town, passing Fluttershy's cottage before leading to the. . . Everfree Forest.
Speaking of which, the dark woods seemed larger than ever, with massive, intimidating pines now growing where small, threatening oaks used to be. I know for a fact that the trees of the Everfree change fairly regularly, as it's part of the whole chaotic nature of the entire woodland, but these seemed, I don't know if angry would be the right word, but they definitely were not the passive, generally scary woods from my time.
That was about the time that I realized exactly what was going on, and that the spell had been extremely successful. I was certainly in the past, though the difficult part would be in figuring out just when I was, though the lack of Canterlot certainly did help narrow down the time frame a bit. I know that the Castle was built about a half a century before Luna turned into Nightmare Moon, so this is at least during their reign together, or perhaps before? The only real way to find out would be to see if the castle they used to live in was still hiding in the Everfree, next to the Tree of Harmony.
I ruffled my brown, patched authentically ancient cloak, attempting to free my wings from the fabric's grasp. But, just before I could release either, the idea that it would be best to remain a unicorn washed over me. I mumbled the incantation to conceal my wings from anypony that either looks my way or touches my back, and then set out at a brisk trot towards the northern entrance to the black, sinister-looking woods.
If I was lucky, there should have been a sort of trading path that carved through the dense underbrush and made a somewhat clear way towards the heart of the woodland.
Sure enough, after a short ten-minute walk, I had finally found that very same trail, though it hardly deserved the name of a path, as the plants were growing thick, though the absence of trees was noted as a positive. Anypony would have to be traveling in a large group to be able to traverse the woods during the olden days, unless they were as powerful as I was: another positive. I steeled my nerves and set a faster trot as I tried to pass through the worst of the trees before it got too dark. The sun was still in late afternoon, with a good three or four hours before sunset, so I figured I had some time.
Thankfully, I was lucky and didn't run into any trouble piercing the densest part of the forest, and several camping clearings were beginning to show up, though all were uninhabited. Figuring I was close enough to the city, I decided to take a little risk, and pulled off my coat, flapping my wings and taking to the skies. The forest canopy proved useless with so many pockets to the air above, and I was soon floating on an updraft as the city began to spread before me.
Honestly, I couldn't help but gasp in surprise, as I never truly understood just how large the old capital of Equestria used to be. The walls stretched for about a mile and a half before turning and enveloping a developing city proper, which meant my note-taking would begin in earnest as soon as I hit the streets.
Upon deciding to take things carefully, I dropped back to the ground, and used the cloak to cover my features as much as possible. I just wanted to appear as another weary traveler heading to the city for some rest and recuperation, which helped a lot with my ragged cloak. I'd have to thank Applejack later for allowing me to borrow it; had Rarity known what I was doing, she would have tried to dress me like a noble and have me paraded around the city.
Subtlety was not really her strong suit, as much as she loved those crime detective novels.
The walls were easy enough to reach, and the four guardsponies standing at the gate let me through with hardly a glance, thanks to me pulling the hood up over my head and concealing my face as much as possible. I figured I'd have to stay completely anonymous for the most efficient research, and a hood was as good an option as any.
I was soon trotted through a marketplace full of bustling ponies bartering for goods or sliding golden coins around to complete transactions. It looked so much like how we do trading and exchanges in Ponyville, though with significantly less weapons displayed so openly. It looked like just about every mare and stallion had at least a dagger, though many of the stallions either carried actual swords or other melee weapons.
Uneasy was an easy way to put how violent everything was was making me feel, though I supposed that I shouldn't really judge too much. The fact that the sun and moon weren't rapidly changing all the time meant that Discord wasn't in charge: a huge benefit to the time I was in. Oh, wow, the notes I were taking based off the simplest of observations were astounding: in less than an hour, I'd already filled several pages with notes, and most of that was just from the marketplace. I still wanted to try to get some more information about everyday ponies, and for that I knew that I'd have to actually interact with some of them.
That might have been a problem, had I not already thought of a solution, and a simple one at that: this little disguise, and the fact that nopony here knew who I was meant that I could just slip into a tavern or something and ask a few pointed questions. With luck, the ponies answering them might be too busy focusing on other errands to really process the questions. The fewer questions they ask me, the more that I can ask them, which was always useful when you're on a time crunch.
I tried to slip through some side streets, always keeping myself oriented to the main thoroughfare in case I had to make a quick emergency.
Unfortunately for me, my luck had just about run out when I saw a pony staring directly at me, with the most confused look on his face. He was an earth pony, brown coat and unremarkable brown mane, but he was staring at me like he knew who I was. He had barely opened his mouth to call out to me before I had bolted, diving behind a corner and teleporting as far away as I could, using the long street layouts to my advantage.
It took less than a second for me to escape him, though the fact that he seemed so confident he recognized me was extremely worrying. Why would he? He was just some random pony, living well over a thousand years in the past; there was just no way he recognized me!
Deciding to shake it off, I simply turned and continued on my way, hoping to find something else that would be worthy of my notes, now that I had documented the potential collapse of my plan. I hadn't even gotten three steps when a large, and I mean large pegasus landed in the alley to my right; his massive white wings were squeezed tightly together as he fell from the rooftops, as there was no way they would have fit in the wagon-sized space between the two housing complexes. I mean; this guys' wings were easily larger than Princess Celestia's, and by quite a bit.
Hay, this guy was larger than her. I'd never heard nor seen any reference of anypony being just that big.
It was so mind-boggling, that I dove behind the nearest corner and peeked around watching what he would do and why he was even in this small space to begin with. I had to use a true vision spell the moment he stepped into the shadows, because his large black cloak, black bracers and draping black hood all helped him blend in pretty well. The absolutely massive sword on his back did nothing to quench my curiosity, and I was stuck squinting into the darkness as he stood, silent as a statue, staring at some point above him.
I found out a minute later what that was; Rainbow Dash.
Well, I first thought it was her, as this mare had the exact same mane coloration and cyan blue coat, but there was just no way that Dash had made it all the way back here, over a thousand years ago. The mare was also wearing white and red robes, with a smaller sword belted under her left wing, which lent credit to this mare not being Dash. Funnily enough, she also had a bracer across her left forehoof, which I only assumed was a sign of nobility for them. It was noted with painstaking detail.
Also funnily enough, the two simply stared at each other for a solid minute, neither moving, or really breathing as far as I could tell. That was, until they both closed the gap and actually kissed!
I had to physically stop myself from gasping in surprise, simply from the insanity that was going on right before my eyes. They held each other gently, and the kiss was honestly something I would have expected my brother and sister-in-law to make; such a tender, compassionate locking of lips. . .
I shook my head and took studious notes, trying to figure out just what was going on here, until the guy leaned down and whispered something into her ear. Whatever it was, the mare blushed heavily, hesitated a moment, then nodded; the pair taking into the skies in unison, like a pair of flirting lovebirds. I found the exchange very interesting, as there was such a level of secrecy to it, that my curiosity was nearly overwhelming. I needed to know why they had to be so secret about it, but internally, I knew that this was likely something that I'd never figure out, so I resigned myself to yet another unanswered question.
I turned and started to sullenly walk out of the darkened alleys, slowly finding my way back to the main street, filling myself with hope on the promise of many more answered questions that others will appreciate.
That did seem to bring a smile to my face, and I renewed my adventure, a fresh spring in my step.
The winding streets were designed interestingly, and I never was really able to find out much about this city, so I filled my notes with as many details about architecture and whatever cultural designs I found relevant: all of them. I had a couple dozen pages of notes, and I feared that I would run out of ink before the day was through. All of the buildings I passed appeared to be housing complexes, or straight up houses, though there was the odd shop located here or there. I found a single park as I crossed the region, but dozens of abandoned or demolished buildings, with barely more than rubble in the piles.
It was a bit disheartening, so I made my way across the massive street, just down from the main market, or what I assumed to be such. That was when I ran into my next major dilemma.
I had taken a few more notes on the mood impressions I got from the majority of the ponies (largely disinterested, saddened, or determined), and had tried to find any way that I'd be able to pay for something to eat. There seemed to be nothing but dirt and dust on the ground, which left me with very few options, until a brown pegasus mare, with a bright green mane that curled at the end approached me.
She had a large, friendly smile that was so inviting and warm, that I couldn't resist approaching her. That was my first mistake.
The moment I was in striking range; she lunged forward, grabbing me in a huge crushing hug, squealing happily all the while. I was instantly terrified, but my panicked state prevented me from simply leaving the situation before it escalated. Which it did. The moment she pulled back, and I was able to open my mouth to get a breath of fresh air, she slammed her into it.
Needless to say, the shock I felt at such a brash, risque action had me completely and utterly blindsided, and the lack of air did nothing to help me break free from this situation. After what felt like an eternity, she finally pulled back, giggling like mad while I gasped for air. "Ha! I rarely get t surprise you like that anymore, Twilight! Oh, I just wish we could do things like this more often."
The moment my name was uttered, I froze, because being crushed then assaulted with a kiss wasn't bad enough? My identity had been compromised. And it was very obvious that I was in a state of complete shock, because this random mare just looked at me with a mixture of her own confusion, as well as a significant amount of concern. "Are-are you alright Twiggles? You look like you just saw Jace or, better yet, you just came face to face with a Reaper."
"I-I-I-" I was in complete shock by now, though the nickname of Twiggles seemed to instill a bit of common sense in me, because I was in control of my body, partly, and shaking my head. Best to play along with her for now. "Y-yeah, you just caught me off guard and I wasn't quite feeling okay."
"That's what you said earlier, and why you didn't want to go hang out with Blazy. Though I thought you were going to stay inside until you felt better. . . eh, now that you're out here, it's the perfect time for me to show you your surprise." She beamed, hastily wrapping a wing around my back, thank goodness for that concealment spell, and led me along before I could protest. Things were very quickly spiraling out of control, but I had no idea how to get out of this situation without causing a scene. "You know, it didn't seem like you enjoyed that kiss from your favorite marefriend. Or is it because Scale stole that title away from me?"
Marefriend? That meant exactly one thing, one absolutely horrible thing: there was a Twilight here, probably my ancestor, who looked exactly like me. And who was this Scale? Never mind, I had much larger problems to deal with than figuring out another mysterious pony in this time. "No, Scale didn't take the title away. . ."
Stalling for time under this kind of pressure is unbelievably hard.
"Good because I made this super special surprise for my favorite marefriend in the whole wide world, just please don't tell Scale I said that: she'd be furious with us both. And then she'd make us pay for it, if you know what I mean. . ." I really didn't want to think about what she meant.
"So, what kind of surprise do you have?" I wasn't really hoping to get anywhere with this, but you never know.
"Silly filly. You don't tell your special somepony what surprise you have waiting for them; that defeats the purpose of the surprise." Told you. "But. . I do have something for you now."
She followed that up by planting another kiss on my cheek, which caused an involuntary jerk away from her, and thus made the next big problem I have to deal with. The reaction I had seemed to go very poorly for her, because she stopped walking all together, and looked at me, those vibrant green eyes sparkling with pain. Pain that I caused her. Just a single look, without any words or gestures, was more than enough of a punch to the guy, but it was the tone that killed me. "Twiggles? What's wrong? You've never had a problem with us kissing before, did something happen between you and Scale? Sweetie-"
The absolute devastation in her voice was more painful than just about anything I'd ever felt before in my life, and it was killing me just to hear her in pain. This random pony, whom I've never met before, and who had kissed me without permission twice. . . such is the price we pay for friendship I suppose. At that point, I just did the first thing that felt right to do, which was to pull in this mare I've no idea the name of, and give her a good hug. It might not have been a kiss, but I'm sure she appreciated it nonetheless. "No, everything is fine with Scale, it's like I said; I just don't feel myself today."
Lying sucks, but I didn't have anything else that I could safely say. Thankfully, the gesture did the trick, and her happy smile returned, though a lot less joyful this time, more just glad that she had somepony by her side. "Then let's keep on going."
She led me in silence for another few minutes, and while I was dying to know what she had planned, there also a pit in my stomach from our confrontation. Something was going somewhere with her, and I really didn't want to be a part of it. I will forever consider myself lucky, despite the distress of earlier, that the 'surprise' she had for me was a beautiful picnic arranged in the enclosed garden of somepony. The sun may not have been directly overhead, but it was bright out, a beautiful day, and there was a lot of food on the blanket.
The mare motioned for me to sit, which I promptly did, as my growling stomach commanded. The noise made this mare giggle, and she made a point of laying down right next to me, cuddling up against my side while her open wing brought a sandwich closer. "Daffodils, your favorite, I believe."
Close enough. Daisies, but I suppose beggars can't be choosers. I tried to use my magic to grab the actually good-looking sandwich, but she snatched in clean out of my grip, grinning manically while doing so. I only sighed at the situation, but put on a fake smile for the sole sake of finally getting some food, as I forgot to eat before engaging in this endeavor. And so, this unknown mare hoof-fed me a daffodil sandwich, and I complied, somewhat humored by her attention, but also a bit flattered by the total compassion and love in her eyes.
This times Twilight sure was lucky. . .
"And how did my marefriend like her sandwich?" The mare asked me, though not in a foal-like tone, it was a legitimate question. I didn't answer immediately, as I was distracted by her pulling me closer and rubbing her torso against mine, though I was eternally grateful that the concealment spell lasted as long as I needed it to. Eventually, I realized that she had asked me a question, and I took a moment to answer them.
"It was delicious, and what would my very special marefriend like to eat?" I was really trying to focus on what was happening, offering my kindest, most loving smile, but her rubbing was starting to feel nice, actually. I never knew how nice it was to cuddle with another pony before, and as reserved as I was trying to be, I felt myself slowly leaning into it. Perhaps I'd indulge myself, if only to get her off of me as soon as I could: there were a few more things that I wanted to learn about before I went home. Unfortunately, the cloak came off my back for a moment, before resettling on top of the pair of us, and I looked over to see her staring at me with wonderfully glowing eyes.
"I'd like a strawberry, if it's not too much to ask." The sweetness of her reply was near Fluttershy-levels of softness, and it felt like she was trying to cozy me up.
If only it didn't feel so dang good. I glanced over the selection of lovely fruits and vegetables, various pastries and even a bottle of what I could only assume was spiced mead? I don't know, as I've never been allowed to drink anything alcoholic before. I found a small box of chocolate-dipped strawberries, because of course they were, and levitated one over to her awaiting mouth. Feeding another mare like this. . . felt extremely awkward, though she seemed to pick up on none of it, happily munching on strawberry after strawberry.
It came down to the last one, and as she took a bite out of it, she looked over at me, locking eyes and giving me a scary, but nearly attractive look of seduction. It almost worked-almost-but that did manage to prepare me for her moving in, strawberry still held lightly between her teeth. I should have seen it coming, and more importantly, I should have done something-anything-to stop it, but instead, my gut kicked me in the flank and I returned the gesture, gladly partaking of the forbidden strawberry.
This kiss was far shorter than the others she forced on me, probably because she could feel me finally getting into it, much against every part of my brain. Perhaps the food was messing with my cognition, but this mare was turning sweeter and sweeter by the second. Things were turning cheesy really quickly, but I felt powerless to stop them.
We sat like that for quite a bit, staring into each others eyes, my inhibitions being washed down by my first experience with an alcoholic beverage. The mead was honestly pretty good, it burnt just a bit, but was so sweet that you almost instantly forgot about it, leaving a honey and cinnamon aftertaste that begged for more. She told me about how things in the Royal Guard were going, and how Princess Celestia was so clueless to Goldheart's massive crush on her. I stopped trying to figure out who was who, and just decided to play along, pretending I understood what she was talking about. Whenever she laughed, I couldn't stop myself from chuckling along, and whenever she sombered up, I felt myself drawn into her, clutching to every word as she expressed her worry over this 'Blaze Burn' brother of hers.
The mention of a brother would have made me wary, but between the full belly and the mead, and between the warmth of a lovely pony at my side and the gorgeous colored skies above, I couldn't be bothered.
She kissed me again, and I didn't hesitate to return the affection, finding myself lost with every word, crazed by every touch. In my briefest moment of clarity, I had to wonder: is this was love actually felt like? Is this what Cadance had always tried to get me to understand when I had grown up? That I should wait to be with the pony who made me feel like this whenever I laid my eyes upon them?
She pushed her lips into mine a little harder, and I lost my balance, tipping over and trying to let out a squeal of surprise. Unfortunately, my muzzle was still being used, and she simply rolled herself on top of me. "Does the pretty pony Twiggles want wittle o' Asta to take care of her? To fill her every need? To sate her every desire?"
The way that Asta said that, desire, sent shivers of pure excitement up my spine. Perhaps I did, perhaps I wanted to know what kind of pony this Asta really was.
I guess I'll never really know, because just as she leaned in for another kiss, a pony stepped into the fading light from the doorway. "Asta Strongwing! Just what do you think you're doing with my mare?!"
The arrival of a newcomer to the party was more than enough to set my head on straight, and as my horn lit up, I could hear Asta above me raising her voice in alarm. I'll never know what she said, because my panicked teleportation spell slapped me right back in the open fields of where Ponyville will one day grow. My heart was pounding so hard I thought that it'd burst out of my chest. My head was starting to pound as well, though in a much less pleasant way, as adrenaline was not mixing well with alcohol.
There was a bright light, and the runes around me started to form, swirling slightly. I barely noticed them, too distracted by what I had almost done, what had almost happened to me: it was sort of shocking, but there was also a hint of pure excitement, and just the wildest dash of desire. Perhaps this was what love was.
Yes. In that moment, just before the runs and magic enclosed me in darkness, I came to the realization that I was, indeed, in love.
I opened my eyes to see both Spike and Starlight looking at me with surprised expressions. Spike jumped to my side when he saw my condition. "Are you alright, Twilight?!"
I held onto him for support while I rubbed my head, every effect running through me at once, though I knew that that completely blissful smile never once left my face. He smiled when he was sure that I was fine and well, and the mass of notes in my cloak were taken safely to a nearby desk, thanks in help from Starlight, who had a knowing smirk on her face. "I'm going to guess that the spell worked, and that those notes are some of your proudest works?"
"Something like that." I mumbled, my mind reeling back to that sweet, savory taste of spiced mead of that perfect mare's lips. "Spike, would you mind fetching a quill and paper? I have a letter to send."
The requested materials were already in his grasp by the time I had finished my sentence. "Dearest Sister-in-Law. . ."