Twilight Sparkle was at The School for Gifted Unicorns practicing for an upcoming lecture about cutie marks. "If somepony had told me when I was a blank flank that one day I'd give a speech to a class at Celestia's School of Magic, I wouldn't have believed it, but I hope that I have been up to the task, because I can tell that all of you are and that the future of Equestrian magic is in good hooves." Spike and Ryan were sitting in the audience, clapping.

"Twilight, the speech is great." The teen said. "And I'm sure you're gonna nail it. But one problem I see is you constantly shifting through your cue cards."

"I'd like to be able to get through the whole speech without looking at the cards, but I'm not sure I can." Twilight told him.

"I'm sure it's gonna be fine." Ryan assured her. "I mean, everyone knows you're one of the smartest ponies in Equestria."

"Come on, Twilight! You can't be nervous about giving a speech to a bunch of magic students!" Spike assured her.

"Not to mention you've spoken in front of crowds before." Ryan added, referring to the speeches the Alicorn had made during her coronation as Princess, and the Grand Equestria Pony Summit.

"Its not that I'm nervous, its just that I do have to set a good example, especially for magic students. That's why this speech has to be…"

"'Perfect?" Ryan groaned.

"Exactly. Let's go through it one more time." Twilight shuffled the flashcards. Later, when Twilight was really giving the speech, Ryan noticed one thing: Their friends weren't there! Twilight had noticed this as well.

"Why do you think Pinkie and the others didn't show up?" The teen asked Twilight as they headed back to Twilight's castle later. "You don't think Starlight Glimmer or someone else had something to do with it do you? Wait...what am I saying? That's not going to happen." But when they entered the throne room, there was Starlight Glimmer, smiling smugly!

"Or I could be dead wrong." Ryan sighed.

"Welcome home Twilight." Starlight said in a snarky tone. She levitated a scroll, zapped it, and disappeared through a portal.

"What was that!?" Ryan shouted.

"I don't know!" Twilight exclaimed. Suddenly, Ryan heard what sounded like a gong being hit underwater. Looking around, he saw a Police Public Call Box.

"Oh...You're kidding me! No way!" He said in a mix of awe and disbelief.

"What in Equestria is that?" Twilight asked.

"Something I thought didn't exist here." Ryan explained. "It's called a TARDIS."

"What does TARDIS mean?" Twilight questioned.

"What does it do?" Spike inquired.

"The Time And Relative Dimension In Space," Ryan said. "Traverses space-time by dematerializing from one place, flying through a time vortex, and dematerializing at another point. In short, it's a time machine."

"A time machine!?" Spike exclaimed.

"What she's doing here is beyond me." Ryan said. "Like I said, the TARDIS doesn't exist here." The teen walked up to the TARDIS, and circled around it. "Alright, if you're the real TARDIS then you should be-." Ryan opened the doors and walked inside. "-Dimensionally transcendental." There was a massive room inside. Round holes were cut into the wall, where glass made them window-like. In the center of the room, there was a white, hexagonal console with various switches, levers and buttons. "So you are the real TARDIS." The teen breathed. "What are you doing here?" Twilight and Spike entered the TARDIS. Their eyes widened at the interior.

"No way, my mind is officially blown!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Its bigger on the inside!" Spike exclaimed. BAM! The doors suddenly closed by themselves, and the cylindric,l glass Time Rotor pumped up and down. With a VWORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP! VWORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP! VWORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP! The TARDIS dematerialized.

"NO-NO-NO-NO-NO!" Ryan cried, but it was too late. The TARDIS had already materialized in a different point. The teen peeked outside. "Huh." He said, exiting. "It's Cloudsdale."

"Cloudsdale? Starlight Glimmer doesn't even have wings! Why would she come here?" Spike asked. FWOOSH! A cyan blur rushed past them. "Was that Rainbow Dash?" he asked.

"Looked like it." Ryan said. "But almost...not at the same time."

"She looked really young, and I didn't see a cutie mark." Twilight said to the dragon.

"Time...machine..." The teen mused. A GONG! from the TARDIS made something click in his brain. "We're back in time to the point where RD first preformed the Sonic Rainboom!" He shouted.

"But only Star Swirl The Bearded could do something like that, and even his spell just went back a week! How could Starlight Glimmer do more than the greatest wizard in Equestria?" Twilight asked. That's when Starlight appeared. "YOU!" Twilight got into fighting stance.

"Why did you come back here?" Ryan asked.

"I wouldn't wanna ruin the surprise!" Starlight told them before teleporting elsewhere.

"Oh no." Ryan got her intention instantly. "She want to stop the Rainboom from ever happening!" Suddenly, another portal appeared and Twilight, Spike, Ryan, and the TARDIS all got sucked into it. "Ow!" Ryan cried upon landing. He had wound up falling into Applejack's 'throne'. The TARDIS was a foot or so away. Once he got a good look around, Ryan realized something was wrong. Very wrong. "Uh, Twilight?"He asked. "Where's your castle?"

"The map pulled us back, but whatever Starlight Glimmer did in the past changed things here!" Twilight told them.

"Yeah, no kidding." Ryan said. Then he looked at the map. "Wait…The map doesn't even make sense anymore." He said. "Why does the Crystal Empire cover half the map?"

"Starlight altered Star Swirl's spell, then somehow used it on the map to travel into the past and change something! Once she did, the map pulled us back to the present!" Twilight told them.

"We'd better find the others and sort this mess out." The teen affirmed.

"Right! This is too big to handle on our own." Twilight agreed. But when they went around Ponyville, they saw that the buildings were broken and boarded up.

"I'm gettin' a bad feeling about this." Spike quivered as he and his friends trudged through Ponyville.

"This is Ponyville. How bad could things be?" Twilight asked.

"Is that Sugarcube Corner?" Spike asked as they passed the now-closed down bakery.

"Ouch." Ryan said, cringing.

"Carousel Boutique!" Twilight exclaimed, passing by what used to be Rarity's home. Ryan let out a low whistle.

"Let's see if we don't have S.A.A anymore." He said, running in the direction of the apple farm. "Huh, seems normal." The teen said when they arrived. As they rounded the barn, they saw a familiar orange pony. "Applejack?" Ryan asked tentatively.

"What can I do for you?" Applejack asked. Just then, Ryan noticed AJ wasn't wearing her trademark hat, but rather a hair-net.

"Uh, this may sound completely nuts, but do you ever remember wearing a stetson?" He asked

"Not that I know of." Applejack replied.

"Okay, how about seeing me before?" The teen continued. "I've known you for a while, but judging by the way you're looking at me, I've either never met you, or something bad happened to me. Most likely the former, am I right?"

"Did you bump your head on a crate of cider or somethin'?" Applejack asked.

"What about Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash?" Ryan continued, despite what AJ had just said confirming what he thought.

"Nope. Honestly, the only name I recognize is Rarity, but she left for Manehattan years ago." Applejack told him.

"Why?" The human asked.

"She went to help with the cause like everypony else." Applejack told him.

"'The cause?'" The trio echoed. It was then Ryan realized why the map had changed.

"King Sombra." He breathed. "What happened?" The teen asked AJ. "What's 'the cause'?"

"The war against King Sombra and The Crystal Empire?" Applejack reminded him.

"Uh..." Ryan kind of figured Sombra was involved, but he didn't expect that. "What?"

"Where have you been?" Applejack asked, fixing them with accusatory looks.

Look, it's too complicated to explain." Ryan said. "We just want to know more about this 'war' and what happened to everypony." The teen explained.

"That's easy enough." Applejack sighed. "When The Crystal Empire returned, it brought King Sombra back with it. And it didn't take long for him to force every one of his subjects to fight for him against Equestria. it didn't take long for him to force every one of his subjects to fight for him against Equestria."

"Wow." Ryan said sadly. "Don't worry Applejack. Twilight, Spike and I will put this right." Applejack sighed.

"I hope you do." She said dejectedly. VWORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP! VWORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP! VWORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP! The TARDIS materialized not that far away.

"Like I said AJ," The teen comforted. "We'll put this right. The trio entered the TARDIS, and Ryan shut the door. Applejack watched as, with another VWORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP! VWORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP! VWORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP! The TARDIS dematerialized.

"So... How are we gonna set things right?" Spike asked.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Ryan panicked. "Wait...yeah I do." The teen flipped a lever, and the TARDIS landed back in past Cloudsdale. "We just stop Starlight from stopping the Rainboom!" he said happily as the trio left the TARDIS. But...POWMF! Starlight zapped them, and the TARDIS, freezing them in crystal.

"Now it's my turn to take something special from you! Without the Rainboom, you and your friends will never form your special cutie mark bonds! Cutie marks for cutie marks! Sounds like a fair trade to me!" Starlight Glimmer then pushed the crystal off of Cloudsdale. Ryan looked to Twilight, pleading with his eyes for her to do something. Luckily, Twilight was able to free them from the crystal with her magic. The problem now was they were free falling from a thousand feet up! Twilight managed to use her wings, but the TARDIS, Ryan and Spike were still falling.

"I've got this!" Ryan called. The TARDIS passed by him, and he grabbed the lamp on the roof. After that, he found a cubbyhole above the P in 'Police' on the Police Public Call Box sign. He found a key inside it. "The TARDIS will hone in on this key!" He shouted. The key glowed with yellow energy. Suddenly, the TARDIS turned sideways, the side with the doors facing upward. Ryan reached over the roof of the TARDIS with one hand, and pushed the doors open. "Twilight!" He called. "Grab Spike and come on!" With that, he climbed over the roof and fell inside. Twilight caught Spike before he could hit the ground and flew into The TARDIS with him. The TARDIS was still falling, but jumped back to the present, landing with a hard bump next to the 'Cutie Map'. The trio exited the ship. "Whew." Ryan said. "I never want to do that again." He looked to his alicorn friend, and saw she was worried. "You okay Twi?" he asked.

"I don't want to live in that awful future we saw!" Twilight exclaimed. Ryan, feeling like he was being watched, turned.

"Um..." he said, finding a spear point inches from his nose. "I don't think we have to." Twilight was shocked to see two very familiar ponies standing in front of them.

"Pinkie? Fluttershy?" She asked, gawking at them.

"Ow?" Ryan said. Pinkie had stabbed his nose with the point of her spear.

"Silence, changeling!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

"Changeling!?" The teen shouted.

"All servants of Queen Chrysalis found in these woods must be... Destroyed!" Fluttershy shouted.

TO BE CONTINUED!