Prologue

On a dark night in Equestria, a shadowy figure approached a large rectangular building with various different banners hanging down from the windows. The pictures depicted that the Great Mage Meadowbrook had created a brand new enchanted item and had placed it on display in the museum.

The figure looked at the artifact being displayed on the banners with a smug grin creeping onto his face. "So, this is where Meadowbrook stored it?" he said to himself as he walked closer to the doors. Using his hoof, he felt that the doors were tightly locked so that no-one could enter. "A locked door, eh? These fools don't know what they're up against..." with that remark, he pulled back his hood revealing a unicorn horn.

He cast a spell which wrapped himself in a dark blue aura. Once he was satisfied with his little trick, he fazed straight through the doors and appeared on the other side. After that was all done, he pulled his hood back up and sneaked into a shadowed area of the museum in case there were any night guards on duty.

Slinking through the darkness, the unicorn finally came to a massive room with one artifact in the center of the room. It was a staff, protected by a glass case which was surrounded by red velvet rope. The staff itself was made of gold, and had a massive ruby gem at the top. This was accompanied by two white wings, both of which radiated pure magic. At the staff's bottom, there was a little clock with hands that turned on their own.

"With this staff, I can save these ponies from themselves, and safeguard their bonds for all of eternity..." the mysterious unicorn said as he moved closer to the staff whilst hiding in the darkness.

As soon as he got to a position where he could simply walk out and take the staff, he noticed that hoofsteps were echoing across the hall. The constant noise that repeated itself alerted him that security was approaching. Even so, he didn't lose his composure and simply camouflaged himself in the shadows.

He could see two guards arrive at the staff, both of them dressed in navy blue security uniforms. They were also using torches to search the darkness, in case anyone was sneaking around to plan a robbery. The guards tried every section of the shadows but found nothing.

Whilst the guards were searching in the shadows, the unicorn was cleverly disguised with an invisibility spell that was immune to flashlights. With this spell, he simply walked around the guards and arrived at the display case. From there, he crept underneath the red rope and slowly lifted the display case. He did it slowly, so as not to alert the guards with any sudden noise. Finally, he grabbed onto the staff and pulled it out. as quickly as he could. As soon as it was in his possession, he dropped the display case.

The noise of the display case landing was enough to grab the attention of both of the guards, who turned around to see the thief wielding the staff.

"Stop! In the name of the law!" one of the guards said charging on the suspect.

"Pitiful..." the unicorn said, using his magic to swing the staff with one swift flick. After he had done so, the guards were completely frozen in place. "The Staff of Time. Just what I needed to save everypony's bonds..." he simply fled from the guards and banged the staff on the ground once again. After he had done so, a powerful portal in the shape of a clock opened up behind him. "Now to make a hasty retreat, to a time where this museum never existed!"

He leapt through the poral and vanished without a trace. As soon as he did, time started up again and the guards noticed that their suspect had escaped.

"Contact the princesses now!" one of the guards said to his colleague. "Tell them that the Staff of Time has been stolen, and that the suspect is trying to change the future with it!"

His fellow guard complied with his order and ran from the display case. From there, he charged down the corridors in an attempt to make it outside. The sweat running down from his face accompanied his mood; he was desperate to contact Twilight, Luna, Celestia, and Cadence.

The mysterious unicorn appeared in a different time period in a bright flash of white light. However, his position hadn't changed since he had left the museum. The first thing that he noticed was that the museum wasn't even built, and that he was in the middle of a construction site.

Chuckling to himself, the mysterious pony walked away from the skeleton of girders and proceeded to exit the vicinity. But before he could, he was suddenly surrounded by construction ponies, seemingly outmatched.

"Hey! What are you doing here, kid?" one of the workers shouted at him. "This area is off-limits to all civilians! I don't know how you got in here, but I know that you're not going anywhere now..."

"On the contrary, boys, I'll be going right now, if you please..." he raised the Staff of Time once again and swished it. In doing so, he had stopped time once again. "So kind of you to allow me to leave without any bother..."

The unicorn walked out of the construction site with ease. Even though he was out of the site, time still hadn't started up again, and he was free. He rubbed the staff that he had acquired quite tenderly, feeling its' power envelop him and make him feel stronger.

"With this Staff of Time, I can save friendships from going up in flames," the unicorn said as he walked into the nearby town that was still frozen in time. "These ponies don't know it yet, but they're losing friends with each passing day... I must free them from their curse, and this was just the item I needed to fulfill my wish, and create an eternal utopia for friendship!" the pony wandered into town and looked at each of the ponies he crossed paths with. They all seemed to be happy as they were, but he was unmoved by their emotions. "Now I just need someone to test this item's power on..."

He started up time again, allowing the ponies to continue with what they were doing. Meanwhile, the unicorn blended in with the crowd and concealed his prize.

After a while of wandering, he eventually saw a trio of friends walking into a field with no-one around for miles. Seeing his chance, he walked up to the ponies and prepared his staff for his plan.

"Hello there, everypony!" he introduced himself with a more cheerful attitude than before. "Tell me, have you ever wished that you could be friends forever?"

"Well, yeah... I'd love that," a mare with silver hair and a blue coat said. She was a pegasus and had a Cutie Mark that depicted a hailstorm. "My name's Hailstorm, this is Second Wind, and that's Slipstream,"she pointed towards two other pegasi. Slipstream was white with grey hair, whilst Second Wind was pink with green hair. "So, what do you mean about being friends forever?"

"Had it ever occurred to the three of you that the more and more you develop, the easier it is to lose your friends?" the unicorn said in a prophetic style. "As I have grown up, I watched as all of my friends abandoned me for their work, and even found new friends that were also only interested in business. When I matured, I felt like I was my only friend, and that I would always lose any friends that I tried to make..."

"Aww... that's so sad..." Slipstream said, patting the unicorn on the back in sympathy. "We'll be your friends, mister..."

"No, no. There's no need, I only mean to preserve friendships, not make them my own..." the unicorn said, slowly pulling out the Staff of Time from his cloak. "And with this artifact that I wield, I can make a friendship last forever..."

"How does it work?" Second Wind tilted her head as soon as she saw the staff. "And how did you even get your hooves on such a pretty staff like this in the first place?"

"Questions should not concern ponies, at least not ponies that I aid..." the unicorn pulled out the staff and spun it counter-clockwise. "Now then, with the power of this staff, I shall free you from your curse, and let your friendship become eternal!"

As the staff spun more and more, the ponies were slowly lifted off of the ground by an ethereal force. The three pegasi friends felt some discomfort that only grew the more and more the unicorn was spinning the staff. They felt woozy, and began to feel weaker and weaker the longer he used the Staff of Time.

Finally, the unicorn had the staff fire some powerful white beams at the three ponies. The beams struck their chests rather violently, and made them scream with pain. Whilst he watched the ponies become consumed in a bright flash of light, he could hear their screams grow higher and higher in pitch.

Twilight arrived at the throne room of her castle and looked down at her map. As she looked down on her world, she sat down on her throne, she could immediately feel that her Cutie Mark was vibrating. A problem had surfaced, and she was called to answer it.

"Alright, so where am I going?" Twilight said as her throne generated a projection of it. She watched as the projection flew upwards, then darted out of the throne room altogether. "Huh? That's odd..." despite her reaction to such an occurrence, Twilight still dashed after the projection

Twilight thought that if it wasn't on the map, then it had to be somewhere away from Equestria. But then Twilight remembered that her map only showed Equestria and nothing else, so her emotion changed to one of intrigue and slight worry when she ran for another room.

"Hey Twilight," Rainbow Dash said, trying to greet Twilight as she ran down the hall. She was with the rest of Twilight's friends, all of who saw her look of determination. "What's going—" before she could even finish, Twilight's Cutie Mark flew right past her, with Twilight close behind "—on?"

"There's no time to explain, Rainbow Dash! My destiny's calling me to somewhere other than Equestria!" she briefly explained as she followed the projection into another door further down the hallway.

The six friends eventually walked into the room and saw a number of books on the shelves. This was Twilight's library, and at one of the nearby walls was the portal to the Human World. The Cutie Mark was also here, but it was now revolving around the portal, indicating that Twilight's next problem resided on the other side.

"Twilight? What in the hay is yer Cutie Mark doin' at the portal?" Applejack asked as she examined the portal.

"I'm not sure yet, but I think my next problem is going down in the Human World instead of Equestria," Twilight said. "There's just no other way the map would lead me to the portal. It looks like I'm going to be paying Sunset Shimmer and my other friends a visit..."

"But what could possibly be in the Human World that wants to threaten friendship?" Rarity asked as she stared at the portal's rippling entrance. "Last I recall, the threats in that world came from Equestria. And unless this new threat left like Sunset did, then maybe that map needs a little fine-tuning..."

"How would you even tune a portal anyway? It doesn't have any strings or anything like that." Pinkie Pie said, feeling the portal with her hooves.

"It's not that kind of tuning, Pinkie Pie," Rainbow Dash said, looking a little bemused. "I'm no egghead, but even I know that there's a difference between tuning an instrument and tuning a magical map..."

"Even so, if the map's calling me to the Human World, I suppose I should go," Twilight said. "If I leave the problem to fester, friendship could be lost there forever..."

"I'm guessing we have to stay back again?" Rarity asked. "I mean, if you say that we can come, we'd be glad to help out with whatever problem befalls your other friends..."

"No, it's fine. If there were two of us, there would be chaos and pandemonium that not even friendship could fix," Twilight reminded Rarity that only she could go through the portal. "I'll be back in a while, girls. You five can look after Equestria while I'm gone, can't you?"

"Uh-huh." her friends all said together.

"I promise, I'll come back." Twilight said as she stepped through the portal and vanished in a glow of light. After she had left, the projection of her Cutie Mark vanished from sight.

Chapter 1: The Thief

Twilight walked through the portal and examined her surroundings. The first thing that she had come to notice was that it was almost three o' clock in the afternoon, meaning that the students of Canterlot High School would soon be going home for the evening. With that in mind, she gingerly leaned against the portal and waited for the time to pass.

After ten minutes of waiting, she heard the school's bell sound. As soon as the doors opened, Twilight began looking for her friends in the Human World.

"I tell ya what, Pinkie Pie, if I ever had to see another algebra test, I'd probably kick it as hard as one of my footballs," Rainbow Dash was talking to Pinkie Pie as she walked out of the doors. "Honestly, whoever came up with that cryptic code for triangle math was definitely in over their head or something..."

"It's not that bad, Rainbow Dash. Once you get it down, trigonometry's one of the easier equations," Sunset Shimmer said as she began to give Rainbow Dash a short lecture on trigonometry. "After you learn SOC CAH TOA, you can blitz your way through those papers. I'm sure if Twilight were here, she'd say—"

"The exact same thing," Twilight said, showing herself to the group of friends. "Nice to see you again, everyone."

"Twilight!" all of the girls ran up to her and gave her a hug. Twilight have always been there for them, so seeing her back in the Human World was a delight for the six of them.

"Where's Spike, Twilight?" Sunset asked, seeing that Twilight had travelled alone this time.

"He's back in Equestria, spending the weekend at the Crystal Empire with Shining Armour and Princess Cadence," Twilight said with a smile. "He always loved the Crystal Empire, ever since he was praised for his actions against Sombra..."

"So, what brings you back again, Twilight? Has somethin' else crawled out from Equestria ta try and destroy friendship?" Applejack asked. "Ah swear, everytime ya come here, there's always some plot being hatched by some power-hungry maniac."

"Well, I'm unsure of that at the moment, but I can say that the map has called me to the Human World," Twilight said. "It tells me that there's some friendship problem here that needs fixing. You haven't noticed anything strange recently, have you?"

"Now that you mention it..." Rarity began to think. "A tenth of the students didn't even show up today. A whole tenth!"

"How many students go here on a daily basis, Sunset?" Twilight asked, seeing if she could get the answers for exactly how many students a tenth of CHS was.

"From my last count, at least two-hundred students," Sunset said, adding in Rarity's discovery. "Meaning that twenty students were completely absent..."

"Do you think it could have been some illnesses or anything like that?" Fluttershy asked. "That would be the most likely thing. Everyone gets sick, even us..."

"But that's the thing, Fluttershy. Twenty students don't suddenly get sick to the point where they can be off of school for the day..." Sunset's suspicions grew. There was something going on that she was unaware of, and she was determined to get to the bottom of it. "There's gotta be something odd trying to take them away from us..."

"Did you try asking Celestia and Luna for help in finding the missing students?" Twilight asked another question.

"We tried, but when she called each of their individual phone numbers, they didn't pick up," Sunset said with a little bit of concern in her voice. "Every time she tried, she got the same message, and it was a very strange one to leave for them..."

"What did it say?" Twilight asked.

"It always said, 'call them when they grow up again'..." Sunset slowed down when she recited the message. There was no doubt about it, something was messed up about that message. "But why would the message be about the missing students growing up again? They're quite mature for their ages..."

"Are there any other occurrences that befell this town recently?" Twilight asked yet another question. As this point, she was taking no chances whatsoever. "If there's anything that can relate to the missing students, then we can piece together the truth and find the culprit, and fast..."

"Well, I did run into this really scary hooded man one day," Pinkie Pie said out of nowhere. "He was using really big words and carrying some big stick around him. He kept talking about how he would save friendship from being destroyed," she told the story how she remembered it. "I tried asking him about it, but he was such a big old meanie pants that he just walked away, saying that I was too old to comprehend friendships..."

"So, we can ascertain that you ran into a hooded man, but that doesn't add up to some of the students going missing all of a sudden..." Twilight began to get a mental puzzle of the mystery. "But he kept saying stuff about saving friendship, and that he carried a stick of sorts..."

"We can talk about it later, Twilight, but right now there's a special offer going down at Sugarcube Corner and I'm not passing that up," Rainbow Dash said as the group all broke out of their discussions of the problem at hand. "Come on, Twilight. I'm sure that a little time with a milkshake will help you try and figure out this mystery..."

Once their discussion was done for the time being, Twilight, Sunset, and the Humane Five began to take a walk towards Sugarcube Corner. But they all had the same thing plaguing their minds; if this criminal wasn't brought to justice, there might have been more problems to come for each of them.

Once everyone had gotten their drinks, they were quite leisurely sipping on them. Each of the girls was savouring the flavours as they were given more time to process what was going on.

"So what did that map call you here for, Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I mean, come on, this can't be some sort of coincidence..."

Twilight sighed. "The last time I was called by the map, it was to a bizarre town where everyone had the same Cutie Mark. It was utopian on the surface, but at the heart of it all, a malicious pony named Starlight Glimmer was conning ponies into living their lives in her town, then stealing their Cutie Marks to add to her collection," Twilight told the story.

"I don't think I want to hear more, Twilight..." Fluttershy began to show fear.

"Had Starlight Glimmer had her way, the Cutie Marks of me and my friends would have been lost forever. But luckily for us, Fluttershy was able to find an even darker secret," Twilight's voice turned much more enthusiastic. "She discovered that Starlight had been lying to the town all along, and that her equal sign mark was a fraud. In doing this, she ran off in a fit of rage, and the townsponies got their Cutie Marks back all on their own," she then sighed with how long ago that event was. "So I have to come to the assumption that whenever I'm called, there's gotta be someone trying to disrupt friendship..."

"Sounds like you've been through a lot, Twilight," Sunset patted Twilight on the back. "I know that what you told me doesn't sound all too pleasant, but the fact that you and your friends were able to expose Starlight and run her out of town was a great thing to do. And I know that if you were successful back there, you'll be able to do this now..." she looked Twilight in the eyes, showing her hope. "Believe in me, Twilight. Believe in all of us, and you can find the truth and get our students back..."

"Thank you, Sunset Shimmer." Twilight smiled and took another sip of her milkshake. "I'm glad to know that even when I'm away from Equestria, I have such grateful friends here as well..."

After a while of gossip and drinking, each of the girls eventually pulled out their phones and began looking for news online. All except for Pinkie Pie, who was busy playing a game involving candies. They were all trying their best to help Twilight out. If any of them could find any leads that matched up with the disappearing students, as well as the cryptic voicemail that Celestia and Luna had received, then there would be a chance that they would be able to find the criminal responsible and bring them to justice.

Twilight eventually got up from her seat and began pacing across the room. She put her hand on her chin and began stroking it with each pace. There was an answer, and the look on her face was a sign that she was going to find out what was going on. The more she began to think about the events, the more she thought back on the mysterious hooded man, and the stick that he carried.

"I've got it!" Twilight said as soon as she got a feint idea of what was going on. "Pinkie Pie, when you saw the hooded man, did you notice something off about his stick?"

"Well, it was made of gold, had a clock at the bottom of it, and looked like it was something that had come out of the city's treasury," Pinkie said, thinking about the stick that the man had been carrying around. "But wait a sec, Twilight. What does a stick have to do with students going missing?"

"Are you sure that it was really a stick, Pinkie Pie? Because from the description it sounds a bit like a golden rod..." Twilight then thought about items that resembled a golden rod. "That's it! Meadowbrook's newest enchanted item; the Staff of Time!"

"The Staff of Time?" the girls all said together, unaware on what Twilight was talking about.

"The Great Mage Meadowbrook had made a number of enchanted items back in Equestria, with each one possessing colossal magical powers," Twilight began to explain. "There were eight when I first heard about her, making the Staff of Time the ninth enchanted item."

"So what's this staff gotta do with missing students, Twi?" Rainbow Dash asked with a little bit of scepticism.

"The Staff of Time enables the user to freely control time. The user's allowed to stop and start time at will, travel through time, and there was a third property that it had, but Pinkie Pie accidentally damaged the last part of that particular page, so I don't know what the last part does," Twilight said. "But I do know that there was a big robbery at the museum where it was being held at last night. They say that there was a mysterious unicorn who completely stopped time, then jumped through it the second he was away from the night guards. If that hooded man is the same pony who stole the staff, then we could be looking at a dangerous threat here, everyone..."

"Time is a dangerous thing to play with, girls," Sunset began to tell each of the Humane Five. "If used incorrectly, time can be used to severely alter the past and re-write the future. Imagine what it would have been like if someone leapt into the past and made Diamond Tiara into the President of the United States... The world around us would change instantly, and not for the better..."

"That pony could very well try to jump back in time to try and undo what we did at the Fall Formal and the Battle of the Bands..." Rarity began to see the severity of the situation. "He could try and erase us from history even as we speak! Every second that I live I now worry that my body will suddenly fade away, my voice screaming as I vanish and the present changes for the worst!" her voice got more and more dramatic, and she found herself gasping for breath afterwards.

"Nah, I don't think that he's that heartless," Applejack said. "If anythin, if he talked about saving friendship, he'd probably go back in time to worm his way into our hearts and make our battles that much easier for us..."

"We need to find this pony, and fast!" Twilight said, running out of Sugarcube Corner. "If he's not captured before he time-jumps, he could wreck the past and ruin the future for good!"

As Twilight ran out, Sunset Shimmer and each of her friends followed closely behind her. The six of them were quite concerned for Twilight, knowing that she couldn't face the holder of the Staff of Time alone. They had to be there for her, otherwise she could have very well met her final match.

Meanwhile, in an alleyway, three girls were walking with a hint of fear beginning to show on their faces. There was a girl with hair that started purple, but turned blue after a while. She was accompanied by a girl with a spiky headband making a ponytail out of her dark pink hair, and a girl with white and black striped hair.

"Are you sure that he's down here, Violet?" the girl with the sunrise hair asked.

"Trust me, Pixel, he's definitely here. Why else would he promise us eternal friendship?" Violet said with confidence in her smile. "You want to be friends forever, don't you?"

"Y-Yeah, but this really isn't the best place to discuss how to maintain a friendship," she then turned to the third girl of the group. "Don't you agree, Photo Finish?"

"While zis place is dark and secretive, the seriousness on zat man's face was undeniable," Photo Finish responded. "If he has a way to make friends into eternal friends, zen I'm willing to know his secret..."

As soon as the girls walked into the middle of an open area of the alleyway, the hooded man appeared from the shadows, brandishing the Staff of Time. He looked at each of the three girls and let out a smile of his own.

"Greetings, Photo Finish, Pixel Pizazz, and Violet Blurr. I trust you have been thinking about my offer?" he said as he introduced himself to the group.

"Yes. We've been thinking long and hard about it, and we've come to the agreement that your idea sounds wonderful," Violet spoke for the whole group. "If you truly have a way to make us into friends forever, then we'd be more than willing to see it..."

"You have chosen very wisely, Snapshots. Forgive my large knowledge on you, but you see, I've had all the time in the world to see your reputation at Canterlot High," the hooded man said as he held the staff out for all three of the girls to see. "You three grow old, and your friendship is beginning to crumble as we speak. I have forseen the future, and precisely in two years time after you leave CHS, you three will forget all about each other, and be doomed to spend the rest of your lives alone..."

"Is that for real?" Pixel asked suspiciously. "We'd never lose each other, not even when we leave CHS. We'd always stick by each other, no matter what."

"I have met many other ponies who said exactly the same thing, girls. And after seeing their futures, I saw that they were wrong," the man said as he began to spin the staff counter-clockwise. "Luckily for them, they were given salvation from their fates, and I gave them friendships that lasted forever and ever. And now, Photo Finish, Pixel Pizazz, and Violet Blurr, you shall join the others I have granted salvation, and spend an eternity with as many friends as you can possibly imagine!"

The staff suddenly fired three white beams at the girls, striking them square in their chest areas. Each one of them felt like they were changing altogether. They felt like they were losing their strength, and losing their mental capacities at the same time. To accompany their losses, they were also beginning to shrink down and get shorter with each passing section. The last thing that they let out before the transformation's completion were three deafening screams.

"What was that?" Twilight could immediately hear the screams of three girls echoing across the town. "It sounded like three innocent girls..."

"It came from downtown!" Sunset said, leading the group towards the screams. "Come on, everyone! If we're fast, we can bag this punk before he can mess up time even more!"

Each of the girls nodded their heads and charged off with Sunset towards the noise that they had heard. If Sunset's assumptions were right, and this criminal was altering the flow of time, then they were truly in grave peril.

After a while of running, the girls finally arrived at the dark alley where the Snapshots had walked down. The alley itself was quite large, big enough for the entire group to barely squeeze together and walk down as a group. Twilight and Sunset looked quite serious and began to lead the group into the alley.

"Alright girls, let's see if we can find this time traveller and give him a beatdown the size of an apple tree..." Applejack said as the group slowly but surely entered the dark alley to find the thief who had taken the Staff of Time.

"Umm, can we come back later, girls?" Fluttershy's shy attitude began to kick in when she saw the darkness of the alley begin to intensify. "There's all kinds of scary things in an alley like this, including spiders, rats, and drug dealers..."

"It's alright, Fluttershy. You can hold onto my hand for support," Rainbow Dash held out her hand and saw Fluttershy immediately grab onto it. "Whatever's down here is gonna be sorry it messed with The Rainbooms..."

At last, the girls arrived at the exact location where The Snapshots and the hooded man with the Staff of Time had been talking. They surveyed the entire area, but found nothing of use to them. Not even the shadows harboured a clue.

"This creep is much more dastardly then I thought," Sunset said, thinking about how evil the thief had become over the latest things that he had done. "I mean, stealing an artifact, possible disruption of the timeline, and now kidnapping Canterlot High Students? This guy deserves to go to the sun once he gets taken back to Equestria; or at the very least, sent to Tartarus for his crimes..."

"Ohmygosh, girls! Look!" Pinkie Pie suddenly pulled up a pair of glasses, a spiked headband, and two pigtail accessories with weird designs.

Sunset gasped with horror when she identified the items that Pinkie Pie had shown her. "Those belong to Photo Finish, Pixel Pizazz, and Violet Blurr! The thief stole them too! This is horrible..."

"Yeah! Without those three, who's going to write CHS's weekly newspaper?" Pinkie said.

"This isn't about newspaper, Pinkie. Someone's stealing our friends, and trying to scare us, but I can assure you that we'll find this creep, and we'll bring him to justice!" Rainbow Dash fist-pumped as she gave a motivational pep talk to her friends.

Meanwhile, the hooded man was standing on top of a roof, looking down at each of The Rainbooms with a serious glare in his eyes. He used the Staff of Time to stop it for a brief instance so that he knew what he was facing.

"Hmm... Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Sunset Shimmer," he said to himself. "From what I've seen, the six girls stopped Sunset Shimmer, then befriended her afterwards. Six and a half months later, Sunset joined their little friend group to stop The Dazzlings, the band name of the three sirens that Starswirl the Bearded banished eons ago..."

"This could be trouble..." the man said to himself as he rubbed the Staff of Time in his hands. "Those cretins are going to ruin everything, which is why I'll have to take them out. They don't know it yet, but their age is their greatest enemy. And once I eliminate it, The Rainbooms will be out of the picture, and friendship will be saved forever!"

The mysterious hooded man picked up three small figures and concealed them in his cloak. Then, he leapt down and looked at Twilight and Sunset, who were still frozen in time. "So run along now, my sweet little Rainbooms. Soon your curses will be broken, and I shall give you all of the friends you could ever want!" he opened up another portal and leapt through it with the three figures, starting up time again once his portal had vanished along with him.

Once time started up again, Twilight felt a chill in the air, as if it was foreboding that she would eventually succumb to the thief's power. She shivered and kneeled down slightly, grabbing the attention of all of her friends.

"What's wrong, Twilight?" Sunset asked, seeing Twilight's slight distress appear out of nowhere.

"I don't know, Sunset, I just got a little chill..." Twilight said, getting up slowly. "It's as if something just looked at me and told me that there's absolutely no hope for me or my friends..."

"We need to find this thief, and soon. He's got The Snapshots now, and it's only a matter of time before he strikes again!" Pinkie said, then laughed. "Get it, a matter of time?"

"PINKIE!" everyone shouted at her.

"This is no laughing matter, Pinkie Pie. If this thief isn't stopped, who knows? You might be his next victim, and then you'd never be able to throw parties or make your friends laugh ever again!" Twilight said, making Pinkie understand just how dire the problem was.

"That... time-warping... friend-stealing... JERK!" Pinkie's rage grew quite rapidly once the thought of her bringing no more parties of laughter sunk into her mind. "When I get my hands on that punk, he's gonna wish he never dared to threaten me, my friends, or my parties!"

"Good to know you're with us, Pinkie," Applejack said, putting her hands on Pinkie's shoulders to calm her down. "Time is of the essence, pun not intended, and this varmint has to show himself eventually..."

"Yes, but until then, we're stuck at an impasse," Twilight's expression grew dire. "We're dealing with someone who has complete control of all of time itself, and will probably try to use that to take away all of our friends!"

Chapter 2: Two Sides to Friendship

Later that night, Twilight arrived at Sunset's house. Since it was made apparent that sleeping in a library was bizarre for everyone else, Sunset and Twilight came to the agreement that the two of them could sleep together. The both of them were grateful to each other. Sunset, because Twilight always knew the right course of action, and Twilight, because Sunset had done a number of good things since her reformation.

"So, Twilight. How do you think you can deal with that hooded creep?" Sunset asked. "If he's got the Staff of Time, there's no telling what he could do..."

"I know, but we only know that he can travel through time and disrupt the past so far. And besides, none of the events he's done so far have altered the present," Twilight said back. "You, me, and the other girls are still here. And the world is still the same regardless, not to mention that he babbled on and on about safeguarding friendship..."

"But that's what really bugs me, Twilight," Sunset got very suspicious of the hooded man's goals. "Friendship is just fine as it is, why would he say that he'd want to protect it further? The voicemails that Celestia and Luna weren't much help either, saying that the missing students needed to grow up again..."

"Part of me wishes that I was here earlier to try and stop him, but I was unaware that he was doing such evil things before the map notified me again..." Twilight felt a little downhearted. "I feel like I've already failed, seeing as he's started to rob us of our CHS friends..."

"You haven't failed, Twilight," Sunset said, patting Twilight on the back to attempt to raise her mood. She was determined to help Twilight feel better so that she could save their friends. "I mean, come on. How can you fail something before it even starts? And I'm sure that not even some time hocus-pocus is gonna stop you from saving friendship."

"I know about that, Sunset. But if the unicorn isn't altering time with the Staff of Time, what is he trying to accomplish with it?" Twilight said. "If there is a third property to that staff, then what else is it capable of?"

"Maybe the third property is the most important one for this thief..." Sunset thought about what the mysterious pony was trying to accomplish with the staff. "If we can discover the secret power that that pony is running around with, then it could help us better understand what he means by saving friendship..."

"I'll try to work something out tomorrow, Sunset," Twilight said, letting out a little yawn shortly afterwards. "But right now, I think it's in our best interest to sleep on it..."

"If we sleep, then maybe we'll have a better chance of trying to figure out the thief's plan," Sunset said with a smile as she took Twilight up the stairs of her house. "Come on, you can sleep in my room for now."

Sunset's bedroom was rather presentable for what it was, but it had a bunch of clothes that was scattered around at certain areas of her room, such as the dresser, the bedside table, and over some doors. Besides the mess, it was all very well kept.

"I know it's a mess, but sometimes, I just need to get them off after a hard week of papers. I'm sure you had the same desires yourself when you were at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, right, Twilight?" Sunset said with a smile of content beginning to grow. It was true that ever since she had been at Canterlot High School, Sunset had been worked to the bone with the number of assignments that she and her friends had been given.

"Actually, I can see where you're coming from, Sunset Shimmer," Twilight said, returning the smile with one of her own. "I think everyone looks for some sense of relief when they're finished with their studies. Even I was excited to finally have some freedom when I finished my work back with Celestia. I was bouncing around like a schoolfilly, because I knew that I'd be able to spend time with my BBBFF after all of my hard work..."

"Your BBBFF?" Sunset was a little confused with the acronym that Twilight had just spelled out.

"Big Brother Best Friend Forever," Twilight told her. "Shining Armour back in my world is my brother, and the captain of Princess Cadence's new Crystal Guard. He shows undying strength, and continues to fight back, even against impossible odds. It was with his strength that he not only defeated the Changelings, but also protected us from King Sombra's villainous curse."

"He must really care about you that much to protect you from such foes like that..." Sunset felt more and more lucky to have Twilight as a friend. "To know that I'm friends with the little sister of such a high authority figure like Shining Armour is truly a great privilege. I know that if some of his bravery rubbed off on you, then we can take on this thief together..."

"Thank you, Sunset..." Twilight shed a small tear of pride when she was given time. Sunset had always looked up to her in the past, so the fact that she was now looking up to her and her resolve was a great step up from what she had been in the past.

Later that night, with the moon at its' peak in the night sky, Twilight Sparkle was having trouble sleeping. She lightly tossed and turned in her sleep, and made noises of discomfort as she did so.

She was having a nightmare, one that was too horrific for it to even take a physical form or make any sense to her whatsoever. But it ended with a frightening sight; her friends were taken away by the hooded man and his Staff of Time, and she let out a scream of utter heartbreak and defeat.

Twilight suddenly woke up with a gasp and quickly sat up. She looked around and saw that Sunset was still fast asleep, snoring quite lightly as she tightly clutched her pillow for comfort. It was still the middle of the night, so such a thing was something that Twilight expected to see from her friend.

As Twilight saw Sunset's peaceful state of mind, a part of her throat got dry all of a sudden. Noticing this, she walked downstairs to try and get herself a drink. Lightly tiptoeing out of the bed and towards the door, Twilight was very careful not to wake Sunset up at this hour. Eventually, she made it to the door and slowly opened it before walking out the other side.

Once she was outside, she slowly walked towards the stairs and descended each one with the utmost of care. The stair squeaked as her foot came into contact with it, but it wasn't loud enough for the whole house to hear. Slowly, but surely, Twilight made it to the bottom of the stairs and walked towards the kitchen.

When she arrived at the kitchen, she took a glass from the nearby cupboard and began filling it up with some water from the tap. However, she was unaware that the hooded man was suddenly behind her, watching her fill her glass with water. In fact, it was after she took her drink that she noticed the man's presence.

"Hello, Princess Twilight." he said to her once she had laid eyes on him. He held out the Staff of Time so that it was visible to both him and Twilight.

"You..." Twilight gritted her teeth when she noticed that the man was carrying the artifact from Meadowbrook's collection. "Me and my friends have been looking for you, you know."

"And I've been looking for you too, Your Highness. It's not every day that I get to be graced with someone who understands friendship just like I do," the man said whilst getting onto one knee and bowing before Twilight. "I came to warn you that the friendships of everyone, not just your friends, are all in danger."

"From what I've gathered, you stole Meadowbrook's Staff of Time, and are using it to steal innocent Canterlot High School students away from us," Twilight was disgruntled and refused to accept the man's hospitality. "Why would some thief and kidnapper tell me that friendships are in danger?!"

"Princess Twilight. I have come to notice that each and every one of us is afflicted with a curse unlike any other," the man said as he took off his hood and revealed his face. His skin was dark blue, but his hair was spiky, and black as a piano. "A curse that we all suffer, even though it does us no harm whatsoever..."

"First you steal people away, then you talk about friendships in trouble, and now you're going on about curses?! Explain yourself right now, and I might just decide to let you go..." Twilight's anger did not shift as she confronted the man.

"When I was a young colt growing up, I had many friends to play with. We spent day after day playing ball games, frolicking in the grass, and laughing at how fun our activities were," he said, smiling as he remembered that period of his life. "However, things quickly changed for the worse...

"When I grew up, I noticed that my friends began to play with me less so than usual; or that they would straight up abandon me for their work. But either way, I lost friends when I lost my childhood," the man spoke with his voice turning grim and foreboding. "My whole world spiralled into heartbreak and loneliness, but I wasn't the only one. I saw many other fillies and colts who became loners once they grew up. All of their old friends had completely forgotten them with age..."

"How sad for you. But still, that shouldn't lead you to committing crimes of this magnitude!" Twilight said, refusing to be won over by a sad story.

"If you would let me explain further, then you would know why I sought after the Staff of Time, and the plans that I have for the humans of this world, and the ponies of Equestria..." he said, showing no emotions of his own.

"Go on..." Twilight raised an eyebrow, but still crossed her arms nonetheless.

"When I stole the Staff of Time, I watched the children mature into mares and stallions. They would go on to do incredible things with their Cutie Marks on their flanks, but I saw a similar pattern with all of them," he spoke, thinking of the many faces he had seen. "Each one of them lost all of their friends as they grew up, so I came to the conclusion that it wasn't their fault that they lost all that they held dear...

"No, their friends weren't taken away by other friends, work, or any other means. The real culprit behind the loss of the ponies' friendship was..." he paused for a moment and locked gazes with Twilight. "Age..."

"Age?" that word struck Twilight like a sharp dagger. It was all making sense to her now. "You mean that..."

"That is right, Twilight Sparkle, I noticed that age was the cause of all of this heartbreak and loss of friends, so I decided to take decisive action. Using the newly acquired Staff of Time, I liberated ponies from their curses and gave them eternal friendships!" he spoke. "By stripping the friendless ponies of their age, I opened up infinite possibilities for them to make new friends. Now that they never age again, they now have friendships that last forever!"

"That's..." Twilight was lost for words.

"There are two sides to friendship, Twilight Sparkle. There are blind friendships that you see, and eternal friendships that I create. Blind friendships only lead to destruction, whereas eternal friendships are ones that remain in the minds of everyone I liberate with the Staff of Time," the man got prophetic again, telling Twilight his story in large words. "You have spread blind friendships, whilst I have been spreading eternal friendships. And I know that even you, Sunset Shimmer, and your friends in this world are at danger of losing one another!

"There is no choice, Twilight! Sooner or later, you will allow me to break the curse of your age, and create a world where there is nothing more than ageless newborns. They won't be able to think, I will admit. But at least they will have friendships that will retain throughout all of time!"

"You're a sick man, and I will defeat you and stop your plans!" Twilight's fury returned. "Even if it means snapping that stupid staff in half!"

"I know your game, Princess Twilight. I have seen you fight before. Every time you defeat your opponents, you combine the powers of each of your friends," the man said back, making her recoil once more. "I saw you defeating both Sunset Shimmer and The Dazzlings in this world, so I know that your power still retains, even without your alicorn magic. However, there is a saying that goes around these days; take out the weakest link, and the whole tower comes crashing down..." he then smiled as he looked at Twilight closer. "And knowing that you rely on your friends to unleash your true potential, it shall come to you as a surprise that I shall begin saving all of your friends as well! You might not be able to see my vision for a better world, but once I'm done with each and every one of your closest friends, I'll come after you," he opened up a time portal with a swing of his staff. "And when next we meet, I expect you to agree to my terms, and join your friends in salvation from the curse of age!"

Twilight merely watched as the portal closed as soon as the man disappeared through it. After it had vanished, her expression turned into one of fright. If what the man said was true, then he would be going after one of her nearest and dearest friends even as she thought. However, her mind ruled out the possibility of Sunset Shimmer, since Twilight would have been able to take him out if he suddenly came back and tried to take her.

"Twilight, I heard something down there!" Sunset came running down from the stairs to see that Twilight was standing in the kitchen, stunned after what she had just witnessed. "What happened?"

But Twilight was completely speechless, her blank expression was a sign of that. After the speech her guest had told her, she began to question a number of his powers. "How is it possible for someone who carries the Staff of Time to stop someone from aging...?"

"Aging? What do you mean by that, Twilight?" Sunset asked as she finally saw her come to her senses and turn around to face her.

"Sunset, our friends are in danger! You have to call each of the girls as we speak! The thief who stole the Staff of Time just came to me as soon as I came down to get a drink!" Twilight began to explain in a panicked voice. "He said that he was using the Staff of Time to save people by preventing them from aging, and said that he'd come after each of my friends here before meeting me again! He could come after you too, so you have to watch—" but before she could even finish, she was given a quick and painful slap on the face.

"Twilight! Calm down!" Sunset said, watching Twilight stop talking altogether. "I think you had a nightmare, and that you did some sleepwalking to get a drink. If this thief took The Snapshots out of the blue, what makes you think that he would walk right up to you and tell you his master plan in the middle of the night?"

"But, Sunset, I—"

"That's enough, Twilight. Look, nightmares come and go these days. You must have had a really bad one, and now it's causing you to hallucinate. We'll get you another drink, then you can use the bathroom before you go back to sleep with me, alright?"

Twilight wanted to tell Sunset more, but she had the feeling that she wouldn't believe her in the slightest. Even after she had told Sunset exactly what the mysterious man had said to her, she was partially worried that Sunset would try and argue with her and damage her trust in her. Reluctantly, she said, "Alright, Sunset..." and watched as Sunset poured her another drink.

Applejack slept quite deeply at Sweet Apple Acres. Even though there was the presence of a time-travelling, friend-stealing thief in the city, she still slumbered as if nothing had happened.

Suddenly, the mysterious man appeared in Applejack's room in the middle of a flash of white light, seeing his next victim sleeping without any signs of waking.

"That's right, Applejack..." he began to spin his staff counter-clockwise once again. "Sleep... sleep like the infant you were always meant to be..."

Applejack slowly woke up from bed and noticed that there was a mysterious man spinning his staff in her face. Her reaction was one of shock and horror, which was to be expected with such occurrences like this.

Before she was given any time to climb out of her bed and try to contact her Big Mac, Applebloom, or Granny Smith, her chest was impaled by a stream of white light, the same ones that the man had used on all of his other ponies and humans. With nothing else to do as she was being struck, and ultimately transformed, Applejack let out a loud scream that shattered the silence and caused a number of crows to fly off of the trees they were perched on.

The next morning, Sunset Shimmer was awakened by not only the alarm in her room, but also the phone that was vibrating beside her. Hearing these noises, she struggled to open her eyes, but did so nonetheless and turned her alarm off. Seeing that her phone was shaking, she stretched her hand out and picked it up with an adequate amount of effort.

"Who could be wanting to call me at this hour?" Sunset asked to herself as she turned the phone on and tapped on a little icon that showed a letter. To her shock, messages came from all of her friends except for Applejack and Twilight.

She opened one message and was horrified with what it said.

Sunset! Emergency meeting at the park! Applejack's been stolen, and her voicemail's turned into that creepy one from yesterday! Please hurry! :(

Seeing the message was a fright to Sunset. The more she looked at it, the more she thought about what Twilight had said last night. Now that it had been confirmed that the man was going after Twilight's closest friends, they were all at a grave risk.

"Twilight! Get up!" Sunset shook Twilight from her sleep, getting her friend to wake up feeling groggy. "We've got a problem!"

"W–What is it, Sunset?" Twilight asked.

"It turns out you were right after all. I just got a message from Pinkie Pie, and it said something truly terrifying..." Sunset's expression never faded from that of terror. "It's Applejack... she's been taken by the thief who stole the Staff of Time!"

"NO!" Twilight shot up from the bed in panic upon hearing what Sunset had said. "We've gotta save her, before that fiend does anything to harm her!"

"She said that there was an emergency meeting at the park going down now," Sunset said, quickly getting changed into her jacket and clothes. "We need to get together as quick as we can so that we can meet the others and figure out a plan of action!"

Sparing no more time to speak, Twilight got changed into her daylight clothes as well. Once the two of them were dressed, they charged out of the bedroom and ran down the stairs towards the door.

As they ran out of the house, they were too busy to notice that the man with the staff was observing them from the rooftops, looking rather disdainful as he watched Twilight and Sunset run off. He stroked a large object in his hands, but it was cloaked by his black coat, so it was hard to make out what it truly was.

"You can run all you want, Twilight Sparkle, but I will see you again soon enough..." he said to himself as he looked at how worried Twilight and Sunset's facial expressions were. "And after I taken down your other friends, I'll make you watch as Sunset is the last to be saved. Then you will have no choice but to join your friends and be freed from the shackles!"

Chapter 3: Losing Friends

Once Twilight and Sunset arrived at the park, they immediately saw Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. However, Sunset's messages had been confirmed to be true after all; Applejack was absent, as if she had vanished without a trace.

"Hi, girls," Twilight greeted the girls rather disappointedly. "I guess you've all heard about it as well..."

"Yeah, we know," Rainbow Dash wasn't mad or disappointed with the news. In fact, her emotions seemed to be non-existent. "We tried calling Applejack on the phone, but her voicemail was changed into the one Celestia and Luna kept getting."

"We then tried going to visit the poor dear in person, but when we went up to Sweet Apple Acres, she was gone completely," Rarity said. "All that could be seen were her garish hats and country clothes, and the bass she cherished..."

"How could Applejack possibly disappear?" Fluttershy said, holding back tears as best as she could. "She's one of our friends... who would do such a cruel and evil thing to her?" unable to hold it back anymore, she let out waterfalls of tears from her eyes. Her sorrow was met with hugs from Pinkie Pie and Rarity.

"Listen, Fluttershy, I know that it's sad. But right now, we can't lose hope," Sunset began to rub Fluttershy's cheeks in circular motions, causing the butter yellow girl to reduce her tears down to sniffles. "Applejack can't be gone forever, right? And if she is missing, then we'll just have to start looking for her..."

"But where do you think we should start looking?" Rainbow Dash asked once Fluttershy had calmed down.

"I'm not sure, but I'm certain that we can find some clues somewhere. Are there any sources of news in this world?" Twilight asked.

"There's newspapers and radio, but people these days just usually look it up on their phones and computers," Pinkie Pie said, pulling out a rectangular tablet. "And then you have these things. Just use your fingers and you can do all kinds of amazing things. The news is just one of them, but I usually download games where you have to match candies and bake cake." Pinkie then handed Twilight the tablet.

Twilight looked at the tablet with curiosity. She had never seen such a device before and peered closely at each different application. Taking in what Pinkie Pie had said, Twilight used her finger to tap one of the boxes. Looking at the one for newspapers, Twilight opened it up and saw a bunch of articles appear in front of her eyes.

"Whoa... incredible..." Twilight marvelled at how advanced the technology was in the Human World. "To think that Equestria hasn't seen devices like this yet..."

"So, what do you see, Twilight?" Sunset asked as her friends leaned in to get a closer look at the news. If there was anything that they could find together, then they would be one step closer to uncovering the truth behind the disappearance of Applejack and the other students.

"Well, all of the news does look enticing, but none of it ties into the mystery at hand..." Twilight said as she peered at each different event. "However, there is one that I have my eyes on right now..."

"Oh? And what is it, Twilight?" Rarity asked.

"Look here," Twilight tapped on the news that she was interested in. Once she had done, the news took up the whole tablet's screen. "In the wake of the kidnappings, a rather large number of newborns were delivered to the city's new orphanage. Though the person who gave these babies wishes to remain anonymous, they said, and I quote: Children of this age deserve all of the finest treatment, the best care, and the greatest amount of friends they could ever wish for..."

"How does reading about a generous person donating infants to an orphanage have anything to do with this mystery?" Rarity asked whilst tilting her head.

"Let's think back for a second here, Rarity. The voicemail said to call the students when they grow up again," Twilight reminded the group. "All of the students who went missing had this voicemail, and they were all involved in this kidnapping... And if I know anything about this wave of missing students, the man who stole the Staff of Time has to be at the center of it all. There's no-one else that could have stolen the students and made them disappear without a trace..."

"Unless that man's part of a really mean mafia group! Then there'd be perfectly good reason as to why the students would have vanished," Pinkie Pie spoke up. "That man could have made the students sleep with the fishes, or have them take a nap in a car."

"But then, why would there be a sudden increase in the number of babies at the city's orphanage?" Twilight found an interesting point in their investigation. "I'm no doctor, but I'm pretty sure that people in this world can't just have babies all of a sudden. Something's not right..."

Wait a second... The message said to call them when they grow up again, and the man with the Staff of Time told me that age was a curse that everyone was afflicted with... Twilight began to think to herself. Are these kidnappings and the baby donations related in a way? And if so, how is that mysterious man even doing it? I need to find out more before I come to an answer. But for now, me and the girls will just have to keep looking and finding clues...

"Do you think that there's something fishy about this article, Twilight?" Sunset looked at each different paragraph. "I mean it looks like a regular paragraph to—" when she used her finger to scroll down to read more, she saw a rather shocking picture. A mysterious figure was giving the orphanage a baby that bore a striking resemblance to Applejack "—me..."

"Applejack?!" the girls all looked at the picture with their eyes widened. The sight of one of their friends as an infant was a complete shock to them all.

"Why is she a baby? And why is she a cute one at that?" Pinkie Pie said, remaining slightly energetic, despite her reaction to the picture.

"When did this article come out, Sunset?" Twilight asked.

"Today!" Sunset pointed to the date of when the article was published. The date was clear as day: May 28, 2015.

"But how is that possible?!" Twilight looked shocked beyond belief, then gasped when she thought of an explanation. He must have taken Applejack, and regressed her age with something. Then, when he turned Applejack into a baby, he must have opened up another time portal and delivered her to the orphanage the night before. There's no other way!

"Girls, the situation just became dire. I think that this man will likely steal you away one by one, in the dead of night when we can't be together," Twilight said. "He spoke to me last night and said that he would see me again, when you've all been taken. He said that he would do the same thing to Sunset Shimmer right in front of my eyes, and that I would have no choice but to willingly accept his methods and be re-united with you all..."

"If we split up, it could very well be the last time we see one of us again," Sunset said, taking Twilight's statements into account. "This man could strike when we least expect it, and use the Staff of Time to stop everything else in place so that we can't help each other out. And before we'd even know, he'd steal us away..."

"So, splitting up's a big no-no now?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Yes," Twilight said. "Anyone's absence could very well leave them open to being stolen away by the mysterious man, robbed of all of their friendships and regressed to make new ones..."

"But how are we going to stick together if that man has time on his side?!" Rainbow Dash asked, throwing her hands out in frustration. "I can't believe that that stupid thing even works here!"

"Well, believe it or not, Rainbow Dash, we're all at great risk now, and anyone could be next. Even Celestia and Luna are in danger of losing their age..." Twilight told them. "If any of you split up, and you see a man with the Staff of Time, run away as fast as you can, and don't even bother listening to what he has to say. He'll only bait you into giving up your friendships so that he can transform you to an infantile state..."

"Alright, girls. We move as one now," Rarity said as each of the girls got into a tight group. "If anyone leaves, the man will take them away from us. So, if one person needs the toilet, then we all do. Understand?"

"Good idea, Rarity," Twilight smiled. "If we're all together at the same time, then that man won't be able to pick us off like cherries..."

All six of them walked together, moving towards another area of the city. With how dangerous the threat was becoming, they had every reason to be huddled to tightly together. However, they then wondered what the man's ambitions were, and the reason why they thought he was turning their friends into babies.

The group walked into a mall together. Seeing that there was such a large amount of space in a place like this, they thought that it was in their best interest to loosen up their huddle. Though the shops did look interesting to them all, they all had to decide that they would enter each one together, instead of splitting up to do their own personal business.

"I always love coming here, you know," Pinkie Pie sighed in content as she looked at the mall. "Shops for almost everything, crowds of people talking about stuff, and the food they serve in the food court is just heavenly... In fact, I can just smell the cotton candy right now..."

"We can get something to eat later, Pinkie Pie," Rainbow Dash said. "Right now, we need to make sure that we're altogether, and to make sure that that one incident with Applejack last night was just a one-off. If it wasn't, then there's a high chance that any of us, even me, could be next..."

"Twilight, do you think that the man's going to try and steal us away when it turns to night?" Fluttershy asked with slivers of worry beginning to show on her face. "We can't stay together forever, and we will have to go to our own houses eventually. So there's really no point in us being together forever..."

"We'll drag this day out as long as possible, Fluttershy. With all that's happened, we have to stay as close to each other as possible now," Sunset said, alleviating Fluttershy of her worries the best that she could. "Going home might be dangerous, but we need to make sure we don't lose anyone else before the day's done."

"Hey, check it out, girls..." Twilight said, looking at a mysterious tent in one of the parts of the mall. "What do you think that tent's doing there?"

"Hold on! If we're checking that thing, we'll do it together as friends," Twilight reminded them. "If just one person goes in there, it could very well be a trap for them."

"Alright. Let's do this..." Rainbow Dash said as the whole group began to walk towards the tent.

Once they got inside, a certain fragrance hit their noses. It was a scent of rosemary, tied in with another scent that smelt partially foul, but didn't ruin the scent too much for them. They could see a table and a number of cushions around the table. On the table was a crystal ball with clouds inside, being used by a man in a hood.

"Ahh... Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, and Sunset Shimmer... The stars told me that you would arrive here today," the man said as he pulled his hands off of his crystal ball. "I am here to tell your futures, and all for nothing..."

"A fortune-teller?" Twilight asked.

"Correct. My name should not be spoken, as it will go against my way and damage the futures that are laid out for each of you," he said. "Which of you wishes to know what the future has in store for you?"

"Tell our futures?" Rainbow Dash scoffed. "What a load of—"

"Me first!" Pinkie Pie's hand shot straight up and she quickly sat down on the cushions. Now she was sitting in front of the mysterious fortune-teller and his crystal ball.

"Pinkie Pie, what are you doing?" Twilight said through a closed mouth.

"Aww, lighten up, Twilight. He's just an honest man hoping to make us entertained by guessing our futures," Pinkie said with a smile. "I say that everyone should make people happy, not just me. And that's something you can take to the bank!"

"You have chosen very wisely, Pinkamena Diane Pie..." the man put one of his hands on the crystal ball, seeing the clouds return. "Now then, to know your future, I must ask you to hold my other hand, so that the stars can align themselves and allow me to see into your future..."

Without hesitation, Pinkie grabbed onto the man's hand and held it rather tight.

"Thank you, Pinkie..." the man then held out a third hand from beneath the hand on the ball, showing that the hand on the ball was a fake. "You will now be shown the future..." the man's real hand swung the Staff of Time, making Pinkie Pie gasp when she saw it.

"Girls! He's got that spooky staff!" Pinkie spoke to her friends, but was shocked to see that they weren't even blinking or gasping in fright. "Uhh? Hello? Girls?" she waved her hand in front of their faces, but there was still no response.

"Do not bother. I have stopped time," the man said, pulling off his cloak. "Your friends are still under the impression that I am reading your future, and they have been stopped at the precise moment when I was about to reveal it to them all..."

"What did you do with Applejack?!" Pinkie Pie remembered that he was the one who stole Applejack now that he wielded the Staff of Time.

"Relax yourself, Pinkie. I have done no harm to her whatsoever," he said in a serene tone. "Applejack has been saved from her curse. And once you listen to my words, you too will be freed."

"Nuh-uh! Twilight said that you were a big meanie pants and that I wouldn't even have to listen to you!" Pinkie said. "Not even cakes and balloons are gonna win me over, you jerk!"

"Twilight is a commoner who has no grasp on the concept of friendship!" the man said, making Pinkie gasp. "She believes in unstable friendships that will crumble away with age. Even now, you and your other teenagers will mature into adults, and when you do, your friendships will instantly be destroyed. The only real life-forms that can grasp the concept of age are babies, toddlers, and children. Teenagers and adults will only walk down a path of heartbreak and misery as each of their friends leave them!"

"Not gonna happen!" Pinkie said, pointing a finger at the man. "We'd never lose each other, not even when we're miles away from each other and too wrapped up in work to see each other!"

"That is what you believe in, but because of this, you have lost Applejack to the power of time," the man said, watching Pinkie's expression suddenly change to a mournful one. Seeing his acquaintance was about to cry, he walked over to her. "However, you can still have her back if you want..."

"What do you mean by that?" Pinkie asked through a sniffle.

"I mean, I have the power to not only bring Applejack back to you, but also the power to give you as many friends as you could possibly imagine..." the man said as he held up the staff. "I assume that Twilight Sparkle has already told you of the Staff of Time, correct?"

"She said that there was also a third property, one that was lost when my pony self accidentally damaged the book on it..." Pinkie said. "But what can a third property do with reuniting me with Applejack and the other students?"

"The Staff of Time's mystical third property is hard to understand, but in a long-story-short way, I can reverse or accelerate your age by manipulating your own timeline," he explained. "In your words, with a magical power, I can turn you into a baby, or make you an old lady with the power of this staff. This power will reunite you with Applejack, and bring back all of the students that were taken away from you and The Rainbooms..."

"But if I choose to be turned into a baby, you'll have to promise that you'll bring my real friends back as well." Pinkie Pie said, with as much honesty as she could muster.

"I promise you, Pinkie Pie. I shall bring all of The Rainbooms along with me once they too see the light..." the man said. "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye..."

"Twilight, Sunset, Dashie, Flutters, Rares... I'm sorry to do this, but he makes a good point..." Pinkie said to her friends, who were still frozen in time. "Do it. Youthen me and give me lots of friends, mister..."

"Excellent choice, Pinkie Pie. I'm glad that you saw it my way..." the man smiled and spun the staff counter-clockwise again. "And when you think about it, your new life as an infant isn't bad. There's always going to be someone to look after you and take care of you, whereas your teenage self had to fend for herself before all of this..."

"Yeah, and when I'm a kid, I'm no work and all play. It's pretty much my dream every day to have a life like that," Pinkie smiled as she envisioned what was about to happen. "Well, besides the dream where I was frolicking through the land of the cakes and trying to defeat the dragon of mouldy food with my dream party cannon..."

Both Pinkie and the man shared a laugh at that remark.

"Alright, Pinkie Pie. The staff is ready to begin warping your age," the man said once the staff glowed bright white as he spun it. "Now, you might feel a slight tingling sensation when the magic strikes you. And when it's all over, you'll suffer from loss of voice, balance, bladder control, intelligence, memories, and hair. But other than that, you'll be perfectly fine..."

The Staff of Time finally fired a white bolt at Pinkie Pie's stomach, making her giggle as it began to transform her. As she was laughing, she was levitated off of the ground, and she began to feel the effects of the staff already kicking in. As Pinkie Pie shrunk down, her clothes rapidly changed from one outfit to another, one that matched the age she was wearing it in. Her hair also shrunk as she changed, and her teeth began to retract into her gums. Pinkie's laughter could still be heard, but it was quickly silenced when a big flash of light enveloped her.

The man walked over to Pinkie Pie, seeing that she had been regressed to an infant. She was now wearing a plain pink t-shirt and a diaper, and didn't wear any shoes on her feet. Her eyes had changed as well, and were now nothing more than massive blue dots. Her youthened state was suckling on her left thumb, feeling quite content as she did so. Seeing that his task had been completed, the man picked up the baby Pinkie Pie and opened up a time portal.

"Come on, little Pinkie," he said in a calm voice as he slowly began carrying Pinkie towards the portal. "You've been freed now, and I've got a nice nursery with lots of friends waiting for you. Does that sound good? Yes it does..." as he made Pinkie giggle in her smaller state, he jumped through the portal with her and started up time again after he had left.

Suddenly, Twilight, Sunset, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash were hit with a bright flash of light, and they covered their eyes to try and readjust. However, when the light had disappeared, both Pinkie Pie and the hooded man had disappeared from their sight.

"Pinkie!" Twilight shouted in shock when she noticed that her friend had vanished.

"You got her phone number, Sunset?" Rainbow Dash asked. "If we can call her, then we might just know what happened!"

Sunset quickly turned her phone on, opened a contacts page, and tapped on Pinkie Pie's name. The phone rang for a while, but no answer came through.

"Hello, Rainbooms," the man's voice came through on the phone. "If you're looking for Pinkie Pie, call her when she grows up again..."

"You monster!" Sunset shouted back through the phone. "What have you done with—"

"I shall speak only to Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship. This is a matter that only she will understand." the voice said as Sunset put the phone onto its' speaker setting and gave it to Twilight.

"You have me now. What do you want?" Twilight calmly addressed the phone.

"Twilight Sparkle, now do you see what I'm trying to accomplish? Friendships are in jeopardy, and your friends blindly believe that their friendships will remain throughout their aging process," the man said so that all of the girls could hear him. "There are many things that friendship can be made eternal by, but you don't understand them yet," his voice was venomous, yet quite calm. "Tell me, are you familiar with a miss Starlight Glimmer?"

"I don't even want to remember that thief anymore," Twilight said to the man. "Why bring her into this conversation?"

"She and I share the same visions. Friendships cannot be blindly maintained by the friends themselves. They need to understand that there are certain principalities that ultimately leave their friendships in danger," the man explained. "Differences can destroy friendships, like she had envisioned. However, I envision that friendships are doomed anyways, because we are all cursed to grow up and become mature."

"Starlight and I have ways on making friendships last forever, no matter the consequences. You might have stopped equality, Twilight Sparkle, but can you stop the unstoppable process of age?" he said.

"No, but I can sti—"

"Then you and your friends are doomed to lose each other and your friendships along with them!" the man shouted back, making Twilight drop the phone onto the table. "Everyone has friendships that are only temporary in the end. Even your Rainbooms have friendships that will end with time. And if you can't see that for yourself, then I shall show you first-hand..."

"I don't follow." Twilight said back.

"You will know my suffering, Twilight. Just as I have lost all of my friends with age, you shall lose all of The Rainbooms with you and Sunset's age!" the man's voice got Twilight and Sunset to bare serious expressions of fury. "One by one, I shall take away Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity. Then I shall take you, Sunset Shimmer!" he made Sunset grunt with his remark.

"Finally, when you are all alone and friendless, you shall see what I have suffered, Twilight Sparkle!" the man was about to finish. "After you see all of your friends as drooling infants, you will be so torn apart by sadness that you will have to join them! And once my pain has been shared, I shall relieve you of your burden and give you youth, your friends back, and sustain your friendships for all of time!"

Author's Notes:

Honestly, I'm sad that this story has been getting less attention than my other stories. If it's not too much trouble, do you think you could send some of your friends and followers to this story? I'd appreciate that.

But anyways, if you liked this chapter, be sure to comment down below and tell me your thoughts on it.

I shall try to keep you entertained for as long as I can. But for now, just keep reading and commenting!

Until the next time, this is Shadowmane PX-41, signing off!