Time is a constant. Always has been, and always will be. It moves by every moment, never stopping nor slowing down for any of us, until eventually it kills us. That's why we have to live our lives to the fullest before our time runs out. No one quite understands it, yet we still yearn to learn about it, and perhaps even control it. Though controlling time seems far too complex for us, traveling through time is a possibility. Many have tried, and failed. But alas, none give up hope.

Then one fateful day, a young stallion by the name of Starswirl the Bearded had accidentally crafted a spell that allowed him to travel back in time, much to his excitement. Though the spell only went back a few hours and lasted no more than a minute, who wouldn't be happy they invented a way to travel through time?

However, he knew that if he was to announce this spell to the world, everyone would take full advantage of it. Time would be messed and meddled with until nothing remained but a cold, empty world. Saying his farewells to the spell, he placed it in the Canterlot archives, hopefully away from the prying eyes of ponies.

That is until one thousand years later, when two mares and a baby dragon found the time spell to use to warn a past version of impending doom, even if that doom happened to be herself, funny enough. You'd think that would be the end of the spell, right? Well, this one pony took it home. She had hoped to finally complete the spell and travel through time with her friends at last. Little did she know this seemingly small choice in her life would affect the world as she knew it.

Ponyville was always a tranquil place filled to the brim and bustling with ponies of all sorts of shapes and colors. The birds sung beautiful songs everywhere they went, and the wind never seemed to be discomforting. Well, most of the time, perhaps. However, something big was about to happen today; something not even Princess Celestia could see coming.

Of all the days Twilight had to be late for something her friends were planning, it had to be today. She was right on the verge of a major breakthrough in her secret experiments when she got the call she was supposed to meet with her friends at Sugar Cube Corner half-an-hour ago. Her test was in the final stages as well, much to her dismay. However, nothing could separate her and her friends, and she was more than happy to let go of her experiments for a bit to join them.

"C'mon... Don't be more late than you already are, Twilight..." she muttered to herself as she ran through the busy streets of Ponyville.

Her purple mane and tail, as well as lavender coat felt the cool summer breeze blow on past her when she finally extended her wings and began flying ever faster. She had begun to become exhausted from all the running and flapping of her wings. But she was determined to make it to whatever event her friends were planning for her.

"Good morning, Princess!" called out a voice that halted Twilight in her tracks over the town hall "Sorry for intruding, but I have some documents here that I would like you to read over and-"

"Mayor Mare! Lovely day today!" Twilight let out an exhausted huff at the older earth mare with a tan coat and wavy white hair whilst still in the air "How about you file those away for, um... Spike to look over?! Yes, go and get Spike!

"Princess, are you okay?" Mayor Mare asked "You look absolutely tired!"

"Just running... and... flying..." Twilight had begun to droop back down onto the ground, finally collapsing onto the floor and letting out a disappointed sigh "...I need more exercise... maybe Rainbow Dash will be able to help me?"

"Um... Perhaps I should just let you be on your way?" Mayor Mare suggested "I'll just go and speak to your assistant about this matter. Farewell, princess."

"No, no, wait..." Twilight reached out her front hoof "What are the documents about?"

"Oh, they're just about the upcoming festival this week" explained Mayor Mare "I was hoping someone with a bit of authority could look them over and sign them before we got the show on the road."

"Eh, why not?" Twilight shrugged "I mean, how long could it possibly take m-"

A giant pile of papers was placed right in front of Twilight, causing her to gasp a bit from shock and stand back on her hooves. She looked at the stack of papers that was nearly as tall as she was, which caused her eyes to widen. She then turned her head back to Mayor Mare and let out a sigh.

"I'm sorry, Mayor, but I can't do this today" she shook her head, much to the disappointment of the mayor "I have to meet up with my friends for something, and I'm already pretty late. Maybe I can do it tomorrow though?"

"Oh, of course!" Mayor Mare immediately cheered up again "It's not like this is the due-date or anything, right? You go on ahead and enjoy your time with your friends."

"Thank you" Twilight nodded before spreading her wings and flying away from the town hall and over to Sugar Cube Corner. Mayor Mare watched her leave before finally letting out a sad sigh.

"This WAS the due-date though" she slowly walked back inside "But I suppose Twilight should still be with her friends. You're only young once, and she IS the Princess of Friendship after all. Well, time to start signing, I suppose."

Finally, Twilight reached her destination; the building that looked like it was made entirely out of giant pieces of candy and tasty treats. Low and behold, all of her friends were awaiting her out front, including Rarity, the white mare with the the curly, purple mane, Fluttershy, the cream yellow mare with soft, long, pink mane, Rainbow Dash, the cyan mare with the shortish rainbow-colored mane, Applejack, the orange mare with the blonde mane tied up in a ponytail with a stetson on her head, and Pinkie Pie, the pink mare with a darker pink, extremely bubbly mane.

Twilight landed on the ground and immediately greeted with her friends, who were more than excited to finally see her after waiting so long. Rarity was the first to speak.

"Darling, good to see you again" she smiled "Now we will finally be able to see my surprise!"

"By surprise, she means a pendant she found in some weird jewelry store" Applejack rolled her eyes with a smile, causing Rarity to pout "But anyway, mind if ah ask why y'all we so late?"

"I'm sorry, you guys" Twilight apologized "I was pretty caught up in something back at the castle, I completely forgot we arranged something today."

"Well, you're here now, right?" Rainbow grinned "Now we can finally do whatever we were gonna do."

"YES!!" Pinkie ecstatically shouted "I have so much stuff planned out for us! Well, this is sorta a meeting about what we're gonna do during the festival, but same thing, right! Anyway, I was planning on doing some of the rides and games, but I'm not sure what you guys will like doing, so I decided to host this so we can talk about the stuff you want to do as well! Oooh! Oooh! What about the apple dunking for Applejack, the raceway for Rainbow Dash, and the intense, ultra, super-amazing sewing competition for Rarity, where you use your sewing skills and race for the top!"

"Ooooh, that does sound very interesting!" Rarity's eyes sparkled.

"But that was a lot of words you just said there, Pinkie" Rainbow pointed out "Not quite sure if I got all that."

"That's okay, I can repeat everything I just said!" Pinkie smiled before taking a deep breath in "I have so much stuff planned for us! Well, this is sorta a meeting about what we're gonna-"

"Thank ya kindly, sugar cube," Applejack stopped Pinkie from continuing her speech "but ah think ifin Rainbow Dash missed somethin' 'cause she was zonin' out, that's her loss."

"H-Hey!" Rainbow called out, appalled Applejack would say that.

"Girls? Maybe we should just, um, settle down for a moment" Fluttershy quietly spoke up, thankfully falling on listening ears "Thank you. Now, why don't we head on inside and have something to eat before we talk about what we're going to do at the festival?"

"Sounds like a plan to me" Twilight nodded "Thanks, Fluttershy."

"Of course, any time" she kindly smiled.

"So Twi, what were you so caught up in that you barely made it today?" Rainbow asked "Was it some sort of experiment in your secret underground lab or something?"

"Actually, yes" Twilight nodded.

"Truly, darling?" Rarity questioned "Well, that certainly explains why you were so kept up..."

"What were ya experimentin' on?" Applejack wondered.

"Ooh! Ooh! I know!" Pinkie jumped up and down "Is it the spell that we found in the Canterlot archives made by Starswirl the Bearded that allows him to travel back through time a few hours that we used when you were trying to warn yourself about not worrying about an impending doom but instead was the one who made you worry about an impending doom?!"

"I, um..." Twilight looked shocked her friend knew and remembered all that "How did you..."

"Just a hunch" Pinkie shrugged.

"Um... okay then" Twilight shrugged "Anyway, yes, that's what I've been working on. I've been trying to extend its time limit and reach so we can eventually travel through time as we please!"

"Sugar cube, don't ya think that might be a bad idea?" Applejack brought up "Ah mean, ah have no idea how time really works, but somethin' in mah gut jus' tells me yer doin' somethin' ya might regret."

"Indeed" Rarity agreed "Messing with time could result in drastic changes to our world. Good or bad, I prefer the world as it is, thank you very much."

"Relax, you guys" Twilight giggled "I'm not going to go around time and start changing whether or not Nightmare Moon wins when she and Celestia fought each other. Besides, the machine isn't even complete yet..."

"Machine?" Fluttershy wondered "Ohhh... that sounds dangerous..."

"Not really" Twilight shrugged "It's more along the lines of a teleporter-like thing. Spike helped make the rough design... and despite being as rough as it was, I was able to make just what he thought was right for the time machine. All I have to do now is put the time spell into its memory somehow, and I would be able to travel through time!"

"Awesome!" Rainbow's eyes sparkled with interest "Do you know what we could do with that thing? We could fix all the mistakes we ever made! I could fix all the times I fell asleep in school, and I would be a Wonderbolt for sure!"

(Music Stop)

"Now hold on, Rainbow" Twilight began again "Even I'm not oblivious to the butterfly effect, so no changing time for anyone."

"Butterfly effect?" Rainbow wondered.

"Basically, in a story I read once, this guy used a time machine to travel back in time" Pinkie remembered "He was told to stay on the path and not mess with anything. But of course he didn't and just went about his day until he actually stepped on a butterfly!"

"Oh my..." Fluttershy nervously shrank down.

"But the weirdest part was when he went back, everyone spoke a different language! OOooooOOOOooooo!!" Pinkie made noises a typical ghost would.

"...I don't get it" Rainbow shrugged "How can stepping on a butterfly change something as big as that?"

"I think it's more along the lines of a metaphor, Rainbow" Twilight pointed out "It means that if we had the ability to change the past, a seemingly small thing we do there could seriously affect the future of the world, be it good or bad. True, you could change if you slept or not in class, but it could also affect the conversation we're having now. In fact, we might not even know each other!"

"Okay, point taken..." Rainbow sheepishly chuckled.

"Hey, that machine Twilight has sounds pretty cool!" Pinkie excitedly said "Let's go and check it out!"

"But Pinkie Pie, didn't ya say ya wanted ta find out what we wanted ta do at the festival?" Applejack wondered "Then again, somethin' dangerous like that WOULD attract Pinkie Pie's attention..."

"I see no harm in observing the invention" Rarity shrugged "Very well, we shall head over to Twilight's castle and see this machine for ourselves. That is, of course, Twilight is okay with that. I wouldn't want to be intruding on the privacy of someone else."

"It's fine, Rarity" Twilight nodded "I was going to show it to you sooner or later, so why not now?"

"Alright! Let's go!" Rainbow grinned and fist-bumped the air.

"And no, you're not using it, Rainbow" Twilight caught onto her friend's unnaturally cheerful disposition, causing her to become disappointed very quickly. Nonetheless, the six friends began walking back to Twilight's crystal castle in the center of Ponyville. They never quite saw the pair of eyes watching them from the shadowy alleyways as they trotted along.

"Spike, we're back!" Twilight called as soon as she reached the basement level of her castle filled with electrical wires and various devices Twilight's friends had never seen before "Did you make sure nothing happened to the time machine while I was gone?"

"H-Hey, Twilight!" Spike called over from the other side of the room "Y-Yeah, nothing happened while you were away! Nothing at all! Nope! Haha!"

"Spike... what did you do?"

"IT WASN'T MY FAULT!!!" Spike cried out "It just did the thing and then something else and then this happened!"

"This?"

"Come and see for yourself, I guess..."

The group all navigated themselves around the messy floor to where Spike was awaiting them. Immediately they saw what Spike was talking about: the nearly-built machine had somehow turned on despite being incomplete. The machine looked exactly how Twilight described it, what with the teleportation pad on the bottom and some sort of semi-sphere thing overhead it with blinking lights around the rim. Next to the machine was a giant lever with a red ball on the top.

"Twilight, ya said yer machine didn't work yet" Applejack reminded her.

"Because it didn't" Twilight confusingly looked at the machine, running a few circles around just to make sure she wasn't dreaming "But that's impossible... I hadn't even put in the spell's words yet, and yet here it is already turned on..."

"Looks good to me" Rainbow shrugged with a smile "So, now that it's kinda, y'know, working, how's about we-"

"NO!" all her friends shouted.

"Aww..."

"But I can't deny this is a very intriguing device" Rarity praised "Is there any way we could test it out, darling?"

"Well... I don't know..." Twilight sighed "Since, y'know, this happened, I haven't had a chance to test out the machine to see if it both safely transports ponies to the destination, and safely brings them back... but I suppose it never hurt anyone to try something right away, right?"

"Ah dunno, sugar cube..." Applejack skeptically said "Ifin ya say this thing hasn't been tested yet, y'all should really test it first before givin' it an actual run."

"Oh, come on, Applejack" Twilight rolled her eyes a bit "My inventions are second to none! What's honestly the worst thing that could happen, hmm?"

"Um... what about your automatic toaster oven?" Fluttershy spoke up "I'm still cleaning all the jelly off the roof... Maybe Applejack is right though, Twilight. Maybe you should just turn it off and give it a test before you try it yourself. Um... if you want to, of course."

(Music Stop)

"...well, maybe it wouldn't hurt to try it out first..." Twilight shrugged "Spike, could you get me something I don't need from this lab? Maybe a piece of paper?"

"Here you go, Twilight" he handed her a sheet of paper with a random scribble on it. She smiled and took it with her magic before placing it onto the machine. Walking over to the lever, she pushed it down and started the machine up.

The blinking top half starting spinning around, eventually creating what appeared to be some sort of blue dimensional rift. Papers lying around the basement began flying around and even into the rift as well before it finally closed with a sudden and rather disappointing finish. Everyone looked over at the teleportation pad only to see the piece of paper was gone.

"How far back did you send it, Twilight?" Rainbow wondered.

"Back? Oh, nonono!" she shook her head with a small smile "If I sent it back through time, we would have already seen it before we even found the machine here activated. No, I sent it a few seconds into the future, which means the paper should be appearing right about..." another blue rift opened back up on the pad, pushing out all the absorbed papers before finally disappearing "...now."

"WHOA!!" everyone gasped in fascination as they saw the very same scribbled on piece of paper

"So cool!" Pinkie tried her best to contain her excitement "Me next! Me next!"

"Sorry, Pinkie, but inventors first" Twilight giggled, much to the slight disappointment of Pinkie Pie. She perked right back up again when Twilight stepped onto the pad.

"Should ah pull it?" Applejack wondered "Still time ta turn back, y'know."

"I know, Applejack. Thank you, but I'd like to test this thing on a live subject" Twilight explained "What better subject than its creator, right? The paper seemed fine, and obviously it must be okay for organic things to travel through because, well, the paper seemed fine!"

"...alright, sugar cube" Applejack nodded "Ah trust ya... Alleyoop!" she pushed down the level all the way to the ground and sent a surge of power into the machine like last time.

Everything went as per normal, but when the time came for the rift to open up, the time machine suddenly began shaking and beeping. The blinking lights on the top turned red as more and more electricity began entering the machine, eventually starting to overload it.

"Twilight, what's happening?!" Rainbow Dash shouted over the noise.

"I-I-I don't know!!" she shouted back. Before she could run away from the scene, a red rift then opened up and sucked Twilight into it before quickly closing back up. Twilight had now disappeared.

"Twilight!" Spike shouted "No! This can't be! I set it to 30 seconds! Twilight! TWILIGHT!!!"

"Ah knew that machine was bad news" Applejack shook her head "Now Twilight's somewhere in the past or future, and we might never see her again..."

(Music Stop)

"Don't say things like that, Applejack" Rarity scolded "But you are right... The question is..."

"...where is she now?" Rainbow wondered.

Author's Notes:

Ready for a grand adventure? But, be warned, like the actual game, this story may be short! And I cannot stress this enough, the title is pronounced "Pone-oh", not "Fone-oh". This story is unfortunately not about phones. The Matrix is, though. Go watch it! It's good!