Chapter 5: The Twilight Hours

As the library came into sight after almost an hour of walking the ponies from the past all froze in place, awestruck by it's brilliance. It was nothing like the library they had been in that morning, it didn't even look like it belonged in Ponyville for that matter. The old tree was replaced with a small palace, complete with golden spires and shining stone walls that shone in the light of the setting sun. All of them were completely mesmerized by the beauty that was in front of them, which made future Rainbow laugh.

"We forgot to mention that didn't we?" future Rainbow said with a grin, "Twilight became a Princess, like Celestia, Luna, and Cadance" When she finished speaking everypony slowly turned their heads to face her at the same time, all of them wearing a look of disbelief on their faces.

"Twilight got to become a Princess, but not us?" Rarity asked, looking as if her dreams were slowly being crushed right in front of her. Future Rarity giggled a bit which changed to focus of attention to her, catching her completely off guard.

"Don't worry, Spike will treat you like a Princess, trust me" future Rarity said with a wink, making both the Spikes blush. Meanwhile Twilight was busy trying to figure out why she would become a Princess, and what she was going to be Princess of. She easily imagined Rainbow saying that she's "Princess of the Nerds", but that would just be a joke, or so she hoped. Seeing that Twilight was thinking about it future Rainbow decided to go and get the Twilight that was inside the majestic library, to answer any questions they might have. After a minute or two Rainbow emerged from the library with a tall lavender Alicorn next to her, the cutie mark matching Twilight's.

"So Rainbow tells me that you're from fifteen years ago, yes?" future Twilight asked, actually being forced to look down at her old self because of the height difference between them.

"Yes" Twilight replied, "Do you have any idea how this could have happened?" Future Twilight thought for a moment and then her eyes snapped open in realization.

"You may have accidentally ripped a hole in the fabric of space and time, and then your teleportation spell sent you, along with everypony else, through it into this time period" future Twilight explained, getting a confused look from everypony, including her former self.

"Can you explain that again, um, simpler, please?" Twilight asked sheepishly, not wanting to come off as stupid in front of her future self. With a loud sigh future Twilight began to go over what she had figured out in her head, trying to narrow it down to a few simple points so that they would all understand.

"Basically, you created a time travel spell, but you weren't able to choose when you would appear" future Twilight said, getting some "Oh..."s from everypony as it began to make sense to them. Future Twilight rolled her eyes and turned around to head back into her own little castle. Since no pony had anywhere else to be right then they headed inside after her, finding out that the exterior looked like a castle, but on the inside it was still a library.

"Are all of these books yours?" Twilight asked, getting a happy smile from her future self.

"Yes, in fact I've written a few of them myself" she replied, getting an amazed look from Twilight, who has always wanted to write her own book. Questions of what the subject matter was, how long they took to write, why she wrote them, and how did she get them published began to pop up in Twilight's head, her eyes starting to glaze over as they began to overload her mind. Applejack noticed this and quickly decided to ask future Twilight if she knew a way for them to get home as soon as they could, she didn't quite like seeing the future versions of her friends, and definitely didn't want to run into herself.

"So, future Twi, got any idea how we can get home?" Applejack asked, snapping the Twilight from her time out of her trance.

"Yes, that's why we came here" Twilight said, "We were hoping that you would know of a way to get us home" Future Twilight thought for a moment and then pulled multiple books with her name on them from the shelves. After flipping through them at an amazing speed she put them back, a somber look on her face.

"Nothing that I've written, or studied, has the answer to that question" future Twilight said with a sigh, "I don't know how to get any of you home" A depressing silence fell over the library as everypony realized how pointless it had been to come here in the first place. They could have spent the day looking for a way to get home, but instead they followed a different path right into a dead end.

"Wait, what if we just tried to same spell again, it might-" Rainbow started to suggest, but both Twilight's shook their heads, telling her that it was pointless to even suggest such a thing. As silence fell yet again the sound of excited hoof steps could be heard from the second floor, making future Twilight's eyes shoot open. She frantically ran to the stairs, hoping to stop whoever was upstairs from coming down, but she was too late, he was already there.

"Woah, who are all of these ponies?!" the young stallion asked as he looked around, his face soon contorting into a look of confusion, "And why do they all look like my mom and her friends from the old pictures?" The young stallion began to back away from the group and straight into future Twilight, who was looking at him angrily.

"Orion, I thought I told you to stay upstairs" future Twilight said flatly, watching every movement the young stallion made.

"I wasn't trying to, I just heard the familiar voices so I thought that it was okay for me to come down..." Orion said slowly as he lowered his gaze to the floor. Future Twilight sighed and walked past Orion to Twilight, a sad smile on her face.

"Twilight, this is Orion, our son" future Twilight said, a heavy hint of depression in her voice. Orion turned around when his mother said "our son" but what his eyes ending up meeting was his mother's past self, now the same age as he was. The two of them looked at each other in complete silence, both of them silently searching each other for anything that would let them know about the other.

"So..." Orion started to say slowly as he looked at future Twilight, "She's you?"

"Yes, she's me, from before you were born" future Twilight said calmly, finding it hard not to laugh at how her son and her past self were acting. Orion took a tentative step forwards and looked deep into Twilight's eyes for a moment, and once he was done he smiled, satisfied that the pony in front of him was indeed his mother.

"Why is she here, and not back in the past where she belongs?" Orion asked, getting an annoyed look from future Twilight.

"There was a mistake when attempting to use an extremely high level spell, that is all you need to know for now" future Twilight replied, giving Orion a short look before turning to face future Spike. He seemed to understand why she was looking at him before she said anything, so he ran off, coming back within a minute with a pen and paper.

"Princess Celestia" future Twilight began to speak, making all of them look at her, wanting to hear what she was sending to Celestia, "As of right now the past and present are mixing, as the Elements of Harmony, as well as Spike, from fifteen years ago have arrived in this time period. I do not have any knowledge on how to rectify this problem, and as such I am asking for your assistance. Princess of the Stars; Twilight Sparkle" With that future Spike sent the letter off, but instead of blowing magical fire onto it he simply snapped his fingers, creating a spark that lit the letter on fire, sending it to Celestia in a green smoke.

"Woah..." Spike said as he watched the letter his future self sent off float away, amazed by how the way he sends letter changed, and by how cool it looked.

"Now what?" Twilight asked her future self, as she was eager to return to her own time now that she was reminded of Celestia's summons that caused this entire fiasco.

"We will wait for Celestia to respond to my message, and it should come quickly knowing her" future Twilight said, a proud smile coming across her face, "She always responds to my messages with haste, deeming them to be extremely important when I do send them"

"You don't send her letters as much as you can anymore?" Twilight asked, not being able to think of a future where she doesn't communicate with Celestia through letters on a common schedule. It seemed almost impossible for that to happen, but then again, she also saw it as impossible for herself to become an Alicorn like her beloved teacher.

"It isn't common, as I am able to go directly to her when we wish to talk now" future Twilight said, slightly flaring her wings to remind her old self that she has wings due to her being an Alicorn. As they waited for Celestia's response they began to look around Twilight's future home, eager to see how much has really changed. The two Rainbow Dashs talked about their hopes and dreams, and how they've changed in fifteen years, as well as the loss of the future Rainbow's wings. The two Pinkie Pies talked about their favorite foods and treats, as well as had a small conversation about Braeburn and Surprise. Both Raritys and Spikes talked about how they ended up getting together, with their future counterparts happily reminiscing about their early love life, much to the past counterpart's surprise.

"Dear, if you had told me that I was going to end up with Spike, and that he was going to become my personal Romeo, I wouldn't have believed you!" future Rarity said as she nuzzled against Spike's side, "But here I am now, and I couldn't be happier"

"So, why did you give him, or uh, me, a chance?" Spike asked future Rarity, wanting to find out what was going to put him in that position fifteen years from now. The two future counterparts laughed and smiled before looking at Spike.

"You'll figure it out, don't worry" future Spike said with a short chuckle. Just then future Spike stood straight up like someone had poked him in the side, and with a snap of his fingers a scroll appeared in his hands, so he began to read it. His face slowly dropped as he got through the letter, and when he was done he turned to face everypony.

"Bad news" future Spike began to explain, "Celestia doesn't have any idea how to get them back to the correct time period, but she says that her and Luna are going to search through the Starswirl the Bearded wing of the archives to see if he had anything that would help"

"Great, now what are going to do?" Rainbow complained as she turned to face the two Twilights, "We can't just go outside like nothing, we have to hide somewhere, and I hate hiding" The two Twilights looked at each other for a moment before they got the same idea.

"We'll split up, and we'll stay with our counterparts" Twilight explained.

"Like how she, the Twilight from the past, will be staying here" future Twilight finished, causing Rainbow and Applejack's mouths to drop open. Neither of them wanted to have to stay with themselves, let alone have to meet the family they're going to end up having. Without taking no for an answer the two Twilights sent them all out, towards their homes for the time being, with Fluttershy being directed towards her home by the two Pinkies.

"Think it's going to work out?" future Twilight asked as she turned to her past self.

"I sure hope so, because we don't have very many options" Twilight answered, turning around so she could look at the books on the walls. With curiosity she pulled the books her future self wrote off the walls and began reading them intently, wanting to know everything they contained. In the meantime future Twilight and Orion went upstairs to get ready for bed, which in future Twilight's case, meant creating the night sky. Next Chapter: Chapter 6: Meeting the Family Estimated time remaining: 16 Minutes