Twilight was really confused. She had been preparing herself for what she would find when the Elements of Harmony had completed her spell, but what was now before her was beyond anything she had even remotely expected.

All of the studies and research that she had accomplished had pointed to the theory she had told her friends; the Elements recorded the world when they had bonded themselves to the new bearers. She was positive of her findings. She had double and triple checked her conclusions so many times that what was currently before her seemed… fairly impossible. Yet here she was, facing the evidence that she had apparently been wrong about at least one part of the equation.

Twilight had figured that she and her friends would find themselves standing in the ruins of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, facing off against Nightmare Moon. That was when she had first felt the ‘spark’ of friendship and activated the magic of the Elements with the aid of her friends. That was when she had bonded to the Element of Magic… wasn’t it?

“Twilight Sparkle.”

The words were not angry, and instead held a strong warmth which gently coaxed Twilight out of her mental racetrack and out into the open. She realized she had been tensing her entire body and felt incredibly rigid. However, she looked up into the eyes of the pony who had said her name and, despite the confusion she was currently experiencing, felt that things might be okay.

After all, it was Princess Celestia herself standing before her.

“Princess, what happened? Why am I here?” Twilight was surprised by how much different her voice sounded. She put a hoof to her throat and coughed slightly. I’m not sick… What happened to my voice? …And why is Celestia so much taller now?

“What do you mean, my little pony? Can you not recall why you came here?” Princess Celestia asked, her regal poise not breaking in the slightest. Twilight, however, had been around the princess long enough to know she was unnerved by something.

“No, I should be in your old castle, facing off against Nightmare Moon. Rainbow Dash is supposed to be there. Why did my spell drop me here?” Twilight’s eyes widened slightly as something dawned on her. “Oh no! My spell didn’t drop me off with my friends! They must all be there facing Nightmare Moon right now!”

Celestia’s calm facade broke, if only for a second, at the mention of Nightmare Moon. She stared at Twilight for a moment – who had begun to panic – before she turned and spoke to somepony else in the room, somepony that Twilight had not realized was present until now.

“I must speak with Twilight and her parents alone. Please attend to your other duties for the rest of the day.”

Twilight turned to look at who Celestia was talking to and noticed four ponies sitting in the top row of a small set of wooden bleachers built into the room she was in. Each of the four ponies wore a look of similar shock and were incredibly slow in following out their Princess’ order. Once they had vacated the room though, the rest of Celestia’s order sank in.

My parents!?

She turned around quickly, scanning the room for anypony else that was inside, and found that near one of the doors stood her mom, Twilight Velvet, and her dad, Night Light.

“P-Princess… What happened?” Velvet asked, taking a tentative step towards her daughter. She briefly looked at Celestia only to immediately glue her eyes back on Twilight.

“I can only speculate… We must ask your daughter herself.”

Twilight meanwhile was mentally connecting the dots. Somewhere in the deep recesses of her mind, it bloomed on her why this room felt so incredibly familiar. Yes, her spell had worked, she was in the past, but something had changed. Somehow, instead of landing during her confrontation with Princess Luna’s altered-self…

This is when I had my entrance exam to Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns…!

She gasped as she spun around, looking for a nearby window. If her spell had somehow dumped her at this point in time, then luckily she already knew where Rainbow Dash should be.

She galloped over to the nearest window as soon as she spotted it and eagerly looked out into the distance. Her heart soared at what she saw: the remnants of a sonic rainboom were spreading throughout the sky, tinting everything in their path a vibrant hue that reflected the very happiness she felt.

So what if this wasn’t the moment when she was supposed to arrive? Rainbow Dash was alive, and that had been her only true goal! Her friend was there, just on the horizon, waiting for Twilight to come over and-!

Something was wrong. Twilight remembered from Rainbow Dash’s own retelling of her cutie mark story that after pulling off the sonic rainboom, she did a skyward lap around all of Cloudsdale.

That was not what Twilight was looking at right now. She was looking at a half rainbow that went straight up and began it’s curve over the floating city, but then it… stopped. It fizzled out into nothing near the zenith of it’s flight path. Dread filled her gut, shoving out all the happiness that had swelled inside of her.

“Oh no…”

She turned to run for the door, deciding that she had to get to Cloudsdale, now. However, she didn’t even make it two steps before a strong set of hooves – which Twilight idly noted were bigger than she remembered them being – caught her and held her in place.

“It’s okay Twilight, daddy’s here…” Night Light cooed, attempting to calm his daughter.

“What? No, I need to go! Rainbow needs-” Twilight began before being cut off by Princess Celestia, who had walked over to stand beside her.

“Twilight, please be calm. Everything is okay. We just need to figure out what happened.”

“No, everything is not okay! I didn’t come all this way just so that you can stop me from going to Rainbow!” Twilight squirmed in her father’s hooves, attempting to get free. Surprisingly, she was having absolutely no luck. Instinctively, she flexed out her wings and-

Wait. I still have my wings?

Twilight stopped struggling and relaxed in her father’s grip while simultaneously turning her head around to look at her back. There, sticking straight up as if in mid flight, were her two purple alicorn wings.

The room was silent for a moment as Twilight sat thinking. Nopony else spoke either. Both her parents stood gaping at Twilight, confusion flickering over their features, while Celestia merely exuded contemplative concern.

Twilight’s eyes turned from her wings and looked right at Celestia, whose countenance was once again stoic and nigh unreadable. She swallowed briefly as she noticed her mouth had gone dry. She looked back to her own body before she spoke aloud the question that was burning inside her mind more than any other.

“Why am I still an alicorn?”

Instinctively, she knew neither her parents nor Celestia could answer that question. Twilight was aware they were past versions of themselves, ones who had not yet experienced the next fifteen years in which Twilight had become an alicorn. From their perspective it would appear that she had only become an alicorn just now, and that the word ‘still’ should not have been in her question.

Twilight was mostly asking herself, for she was the only pony in the room who knew about the time travel spell she had just cast. Regardless, no matter how much she mentally reviewed her theories and data, she could not explain why her wings were a part of her now. None of the data in regards to what she had learned pointed to this being even remotely possible.

Celestia was the first to respond. “Twilight, you seem to know more about what is going on. Please, share with us what you are thinking.”

What I’m thinking…? No, this doesn’t matter right now. Twilight looked up from her back and once more saw her true destination through the window. If I am still an alicorn, then that means some of what I was in the previous present-time must have made it here into the new one. I wonder…

She began concentrating really hard, focusing on bringing magic into her horn. It ended up being just as easy as it used to be. So I still have all my magic from before! This is… perfect!

“Twilight, please…” her mother said, worry etched upon her face. “What happened to you? Please, just tell us.”

Twilight looked at her mom and could practically feel her pain. The look her mother had was that of fear, as though she was worried she was losing her little filly. Though I suppose that right now, I am a filly again… This will take some getting used to.

"I’m sorry Mom. I have to go,” Twilight said, quickly looking away. She couldn’t bear to see the shock and anguish she knew would be in her mother’s eyes. For all her parents knew, she was their little filly who had suddenly sprouted wings after a magical explosion. They were confused and scared for their daughter, and Twilight couldn’t bring herself to meet their gazes.

“Twilight, please, just-” Night Light chimed in before Twilight suddenly released her magic and teleported quite easily out of his grip. Normally he would have been able to stop her without much trouble due to her much smaller body. However, he hadn’t counted on her having access to such complicated magics.

“No, I’m sorry,” she said after she reappeared next to the exit furthest away from them all. “I will explain later, don’t worry, I will come back… But right now, I need to find Rainbow Dash. She’s the reason I did all this, and I won’t let anything happen to her this time!”

Twilight could have sworn she heard Celestia and her parents begin to reply but did not hang around to listen. By the time they had even uttered a single syllable, she was already out the door and teleporting as far as she possibly could.

“Hey!” That was it, the last straw! No more going easy! Rainbow Dash decided right then and there that anypony willing to cheat didn’t deserve to win. After all, she never would have knocked him off the track like that!

She began to fly as fast as she could, putting all of her strength into her wings which was only made easier due to the near vertical descent she was attempting. There was only one more hurdle for her to make it through and after that… straight to the finish line!

Before this final hurdle, she hadn’t been able to put all her strength into flying. There were curves and pin-point turns that she had to make, causing her to slow down and be more precise. Amusingly enough, one of her two fellow racers had crashed near the beginning by plowing right into a cloud column. The other one, however…

Rainbow Dash easily passed him, already going faster than she’d ever flown before. The interesting part was, she knew she could still push herself further; she hadn’t reached the edge of her limits yet! Sparing not even a second to watch the jerk get blown off course by her slipstream, she barreled ahead ever faster, daring herself to find that sweet spot, the point where she could not accelerate any further.

The wind was blowing her mane into a chaotic stream of color, and her lips were being pulled back painfully. Still, she had only one thought on her mind, and that thought was winning! She began to see a cone of energy appearing around her hooves, and it only expanded and grew bigger when she yet again increased her speed. She could feel it pressing against her, like some sort of weight. In some ways, it felt almost like she was flying into a wall, albeit a wall that bent around her.

Is this it? Can I not get any faster? She began to think that she had reached her limit, that this was the max speed she could possibly attain, when suddenly the pressure of the mach cone tore away from her body. Or, more accurately… she tore through it, dissipating it and shredding it into oblivion.

A massive boom resonated from her right as she tore through the cone, so loud she was sure it could be heard in distant cities around Equestria. Accompanying the sound was a vibrant display of color, spreading out in a gigantic horizontal ring from where she had been. The ring spread for miles, stretching so far in every direction that it could be seen from many neighboring cities and regions.

With the mach cone gone, Rainbow Dash found herself flying twice as fast as she had been going when she hit it in the first place. It seemed that the cone had been acting as a physical deterrent, for she had to push herself incredibly hard to break through it. Once she had done so, all her strength was pushed to the edge, and her speed and agility instantly doubled.

The explosion tore apart the final hurdle as she rocketed through it, where she then instantly changed her direction and began heading for the sky. She glanced behind her to see the results of what she had done.

That’s… That’s a sonic rainboom… That’s a sonic rainboom! I pulled off a sonic rainboom!

She snapped her head forwards, the world’s biggest grin ever spreading across her face. She could feel her life falling into place. This was her dream. Visions of her future began racing into her mind, showing her the road that this one event would lead her down.

Wait a minute… Rainbow thought, immediately concerned. Visions of her future were genuinely racing into her mind. She was suddenly finding herself confronted with memories of a future that she had not yet lived, and it hurt.

Her mind tried to sort through it all, but couldn’t. She wasn’t able to absorb these memories for some reason, and she couldn’t look through them easily either for they were all appearing at once. Her head started pounding, feeling as if somepony was hitting it with a hammer, repeatedly.

She cried out in pain, her mind locking up instinctively. She lost track of her thoughts and just let the memories flood in. She couldn’t handle them, but she also couldn’t get rid of them. Her flying also locked up as she suddenly found herself in so much pain that she couldn’t even flap her wings.

She began to free fall, just as she was nearing the top of her curve over Cloudsdale. The sheer momentum from her post-sonic rainboom continued to carry her however, causing her to fall forwards almost faster than she was falling down.

Scared, she tumbled over and over, the sky mingling with the earth as memories flooded her sight. Up and down became confused with past and future and she had no idea where she was anymore. Her mind… had seemingly shattered.

All of a sudden the memories stopped flowing, and she was forced to look at the most recent one. It’s presence caused her to mentally tremble, and she found her mind slipping away from it. Her breathing slowed and darkness slowly overcame her vision. She knew she was blacking out, but she still couldn’t help but think one last thought before the comfort of unconsciousness took her.

I… died…?

It had taken around three hours for Twilight to arrive at Cloudsdale, and they were some of the most stressful hours of her entire life. The first thirty minutes alone had been spent simply trying to relearn how to fly with her filly-sized wings. It wasn’t easy, but it also wasn’t as difficult as the first time she had learned to fly.

In half an hour she had mastered the mechanics of flight once again, doing so while she was already traveling towards Cloudsdale. At first she was using her magic to help keep herself aloft while she relearned the basic necessities of flight, but once she was comfortable with her wings, her magic became a boost. She used it to increase her speed and travel further in a shorter period of time.

Overall, three hours was still pretty impressive for a flight from Canterlot to Cloudsdale, particularly for a filly. Rainbow would be proud of me…

During the flight, her mind had wandered around her new situation, beginning to truly take in the truth about what her time travel spell had done. At the worst of times, it merely felt surreal to her, as if she had somehow wound up in a dream rather than her past. However, dream or not – and she was certain it wasn’t – it still felt weird to be a filly again, particularly with wings and the magical know-how of an adult.

She had wondered about her friends whom she had brought with her to the past as well. She knew all their stories about how they had received their respective cutie marks, so she knew where they were at this very moment, but it didn’t make their absence any less worrisome. On top of that, she was still having trouble disassociating the adult friends in her memories from the ones that she would no doubt be meeting in this new timeline. After all, she had never known her friends when they were fillies; this would all be fairly new for her.

Such thoughts were forced from Twilight’s mind as she set hoof in Cloudsdale. She had much more important things to handle. Like, the whereabouts of the very pony she had time traveled to find, for instance.

She began her search by finding the side of the city that Rainbow Dash’s flight trail had broken off. While she couldn’t explain why it had happened, she could tell that it looked as if Rainbow had suddenly lost her momentum and begun to fall. This would then put her trajectory for crash landing somewhere south west of the center of the city, though how far away Twilight couldn't be certain.

Twilight flew as fast as she could go, ignoring the looks from the assorted pegasi who lived in Cloudsdale. They couldn’t believe their eyes when they witnessed a filly alicorn flying through their streets. She realized what a commotion her very presence could be causing, but at that moment she could have cared less. The political status of alicorns was the furthest thing from her mind as she scanned the streets, looking for any signs of where a filly pegasus might have crash landed.

If she had fallen somewhere around here, you’d think there’d be a crowd… At the speed she’d have been falling, she would have left quite a crater, she thought to herself as she continuously scanned the streets and buildings around her.

Her search seemed to be in vain as she was finding no signs of anything out of the ordinary. On top of this, if any ponies had been discussing the sonic rainboom which had just happened around their city, they weren’t now. Every alicorn in existence was royalty, and here was one that nopony had ever seen before, a filly no less, flying around at high speed. As soon as she entered an area, all the nearby ponies stopped discussing whatever their idle chatter had been and started eyeballing her like she might explode at any second.

Her attempts to ask the ponies around her about the sonic rainboom yielded even less results. Whenever she went up to a pony in specific, he or she would get wide eyed and incredibly anxious. Some of them tried to bow off of the assumption that they didn’t know for sure if she was royalty or not, so it’d be better to cover all their bases, and others just stared at her like she was insane.

Twilight was getting more and more worried with each passing second that went by without her learning anything about her friends condition. Frantic, her mind started going on autopilot. Can a pony even leave a crater in a cloud? Might she have just broken through and crashed into the ground!? I just need somepony who saw something to tell me about it!

Beyond frustrated to the point where her feathers were ruffling uncomfortably, Twilight had had enough. She stood in the center of a large bustling street and yelled at the top of her lungs, “Somepony tell me where the Governess of Cloudsdale is!”

At first no ponies responded to her query, though she had the attention of everypony on the street. It was the first time in her life that Twilight had ever witnessed a massive crowd go completely silent. It was fairly unnerving.

“... Governess?” one pony timidly asked, stepping forwards from the ring that the onlookers had naturally formed at a safe distance.

“Yes, thank you! Where is the office of the Governess? I need to speak with her!” Twilight responded, a strained smile beginning to cross her face.

“... We don’t have a Governess…” the pony stated, confusion spread upon her features. Her legs were shaking slightly, and her wings were twitching as if she was preparing to hop away.

Twilight’s smile died on her lips. Her mind came to a stand still as she tried to figure out what she had just heard. “Th-thats preposterous! Of course you do! Cloudsdale has had an autonomous position of office which has presided over their parliament since the late fifth century!”

“What? No, we… We have a Governor…”

“... Oh.” The gears in Twilight’s mind ground to a halt. “... Where is the Governor’s office then?”

“It’s located in the Cloud District… at Third and Pine.”

“Thank you… um… for the directions.”

Twilight felt incredibly embarrassed. Her eyes felt like wherever she looked could not escape the humiliation she felt, so instead she closed them and charged up her magic. With a soft popping noise, she teleported away and reappeared high in the sky away from the confused faces and silently judging eyes.

Okay, she admitted that maybe they weren’t judging her... but she still felt embarrassed! In the past the Governor of Cloudsdale had been a female.

Or was that in the future...? Ugh, whatever.

Using her wings to hover at her high vantage point, she scanned the city until she located the streets that the pony had mentioned. She gently tilted herself forwards and down, causing her to glide towards the ground.

Wait, this is a cloud city, so would the term ‘ground’ still apply? Twilight thought to herself. Her mind was up and running again, and she knew full well that it was in high gear. She didn’t want to stop it though, because whether she admitted it to herself or not, her gut was churning and threatening to throw up.

Twilight’s heartbeat had begun to beat erratically, and not from the exertion of her flight. Her body was tired, but her ears had slicked back in nervousness. She was beginning to feel stressed that her search through the city had unveiled nothing. Sure, it’s a large city and finding a single pony inside it would be difficult without assistance, but this was no ordinary situation. A sonic rainboom had gone off below the city, followed shortly by a massive rainbow that only half way made it through the sky before it petered out. The whole Celestia-forsaken city should be buzzing about it!

She landed softly in front of the building which she now knew contained the Weather Parliament, the autonomous democracy which was responsible for Cloudsdale. She galloped up to the front door and, using her magic like a blast wave, slammed it open a moment before she would have run into it.

Ponies shouted in surprise and a few apparently had fallen over out of shock. When everypony in the room had finally turned to take stock of the arrival that dared to make such an entrance, the room went silent.

Twilight ran right up to the front counter which was a whole hoof taller than she was. Curse my shortness…

“I’m here to speak with your Governor,” she said after she teleported up on top of the counter. “I am not expected, but I refuse to wait. Your Governor will see me immediately.” She knew it was incredibly rude, and also a little underhanded to use her political anonymity as an alicorn in such a way, but she had no choice. Rainbow Dash might be in trouble and could need her help.

Technically, there are no laws in existence which state that alicorns are automatically royalty. Honestly, it’s a bit of a grey area for Equestria’s legal system seeing as the amount of alicorns in existence – before Twilight of course – was three, and each one was already royalty. Twilight knew this and decided that it would be best to just use it to her advantage for the time being. As long as these ponies weren’t sure if she was royalty or not, they would have to treat her as if she was just off the possibility that she might not be.

The secretary who worked the counter Twilight was sitting upon adjusted her glasses and let out a few squeaks which sounded oddly like a field mouse. Her eyes were blinking quickly as her jaw opened and closed repeatedly.

“O-of course. Whom should I say is requesting his presence?”

“Who,” Twilight said.

“... I-I’m sorry?”

“You said ‘whom’, but that was not the proper word. It’s ‘who’. Don’t worry, a lot of ponies get them confused, so it’s okay,” Twilight said. The secretary stared at her, just that much more flustered than she was before.

“... His office is through that hall, third door on the left,” she said, before she pointedly set herself to ignoring the filly on her desk. Twilight smiled again before giving her thanks, and then flew right over the mare’s head. The secretary, for her part, continued paying her no mind and merely set about reorganizing her desk and straightening the papers that Twilight’s teleportation had sent flying.

Twilight went straight to the door and opened it without preamble. Inside the office it was incredibly lavish; art, awards, and fancy furniture were tucked into every space possible. Despite this, the office still felt fairly open and did not create a feeling of claustrophobia as Twilight had at first expected.

Behind the ornate desk sat the Governor of Cloudsdale, a decent sized pony with a tan coat and white mane which had several greyish streaks running through it. His wide blue eyes stared unblinkingly at Twilight as she crossed the threshold and positioned herself before his desk. She did not sit down in either of the two red cushions which were for the ponies who were meeting with him to sit upon and instead chose to stand.

To his credit, he quickly covered the minimal surprise which had showed itself on his facial features. He regained his posture and looked to the pony who had barged into his office, though his friendly demeanor showed that he did not care much about that. Twilight briefly wondered if it was due to her being a filly or her being an alicorn.

“So what can I do for you today, young miss…?” the Governor prompted, attempting to coerce Twilight into stating her name.

“My name is Twilight Sparkle. Your city–”

“Twilight Sparkle, a wonderful name! And where are your parents, Twilight?”

Twilight’s left eye twitched ever so slightly. “My parents are in Canterlot. Now, tell me, your ci-”

“Canterlot? Oh dear, did you get left here? I’m terribly sorry Twilight, let me just– urp!” Twilight’s magic had forced his jaw closed in an effort to stem his incessant adult chattering.

“I may be a filly, but I am here for a reason!” Twilight released her magic on the Governor’s jaw. “Your city recently had a sonic rainboom go off beneath it! Where is the pony that caused it?”

“T-the sonic rainboom?” He blinked. “Yes, we have a few search and rescue teams out looking for her. The flight academy reported it was a trainee by the name of Rainbow Dash. She has not been found as of yet.”

Twilight’s pupils had shrunk to pinpricks when she heard him say the words ‘search and rescue’. She knew immediately what that implied. “... Where are they looking?”

“Well… We had some of our best fliers inspect the rainbow trail and the slipstream that young Ms. Dash left behind her, and from several eye witnesses we know she was going too fast to land in the city. Her free fall carried her far past the edge of Cloudsdale and…”

“She fell to the ground below!?” Twilight’s worst fear came true. And if she fell far enough to be carried over the edge of the city, heading South West, then that could only mean…

“Yes. Our search and rescue pegasi are searching the entire area from directly below the city to as far as fifty miles south west. They can’t determine how far she fell based off what little data they have. We did send a message to Canterlot requesting unicorn assistance. With magic it’ll be much easier to find her… if she’s still–”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence!” Twilight shouted, cutting him off with a furious glare. “She’s alive! I know it! I didn’t come all this way just for her to die again!”

“Die… again?” The Governor rubbed his temple briefly in thought. “Uhm, Ms. Sparkle, what do you–”

“Do you have a map of Equestria in this office?” Twilight asked as she spread her wings and flew up on top of the desk. She quickly activated her magic and, in a quick flash, all of the items on the desk disappeared and reappeared on the floor, tucked away in a spot where invading hooves would not trample them.

“Uh… yes, in that cabinet,” he responded, pushing himself backwards a bit, causing his rolling chair to move a ways away from his desk.

With a quick flare of magic, Twilight had brought the map out of the cabinet and spread it over the entirety of the desk. She scanned over it, doing quick calculations. The Governor watched her as she muttered to herself about flight, wind factor, and some numerical values that he did not understand.

After about twenty seconds, Twilight abruptly stood up and her horn flared to life once again. With a quick spell, the map was back in the cabinet and she was back on the ground. The Governor’s desk even had all it’s arranged items upon it once more. Without even glancing backwards, she galloped for the door which she magically opened.

“Wait, where are you–”

Twilight could not hear the rest of the Governor’s sentence as she had already made it back out into the lobby. She had no time to chat and no time to waste. Dash was alive, of this she knew. She wasn’t sure how, but she could just tell. But there was one thing else that was certain.

Rainbow might not be for much longer.

She landed in the Flame Geyser Swamp!

Author's Notes:

For those of you who might have forgotten, or have not seen season 4 yet, the Flame Geyser Swamp is in:

Season 4 Episode 17: Somepony to Watch Over Me