Chapter 99: It's About Time 6

Twilight Sparkle could only stare blankly at the scene in front of her, her mind going through hundreds of different possibilities as to what might come next, what the disaster her future self spoke about could be!?

Cerberus wasn't tearing through the streets of Canterlot, He was licking a very angry-looking Prince Blueblood, who was busy walking around and shouting orders at the guards.

The monster that seemed to have escaped from his cage wasn't the disaster either, seeing as he was thrown back into a much thicker cell, the magical metal bars replaced with heavy plates that seemed to isolate the creature from the outside world even more than simply being in Tartarus.

Twilight was getting shivers just thinking of that creature, when she first laid eyes on it, watching its horns glow in a malevolent red light as its hand rested on Prince Blueblood's shoulder, the Unicorn's eyes wide open yet unblinking, staring into the ceiling as if in a trance, Princess Luna knocked out on the ground beside them, Cerberus growling at it yet refusing to step closer lest he put Luna in danger.

For something that looked so old and fragile, just being reminded of its appearance made Twilight's fur stand on end.

"I want security tripled- no, Quadrupled! I want actual fucking guards down here! We can't have Pooch run all the way to Canterlot whenever something happens, We need a quicker response! Don't try and stop this Celestia, I am not relenting on this decision!" Twilight watched Blueblood yell loudly, his authoritative voice betraying his current appearance, being covered in drool and laying on Cerberus's stomach, the large dog hugging him as if he were a giant teddy bear.

"When you say Pooch, do you mean Cerb-" One of the guards lifted a hoof to ask a question, only to get picked up in the Prince's Telekinesis and thrown across the floor.

"Don't fucking Interrupt me!" He yelled before he returned to angrily rant at the guards, making Twilight turn her attention elsewhere, trying her best to ignore the scene in front of her.

"Princess Luna? How are you holding up?" Twilight asked as she trotted towards the second Alicorn in Tartarus, her ears briefly flicking as the sound of one of the many caged monsters roared loudly, only to be smacked on the head by a living statue, followed by the Prince yelling at it to simmer down.

"Friend Twilight? What are you doing here?" Princess Luna turned to look at Twilight, blinking away the tiredness in her eyes.

"Princess Luna, A few days ago I received a message from a me from the future who told me that a horrible disaster was going to happen before next Tuesday Morning and-" Twilight started to speak, her words going a mile a minute as she told Princess Luna of all that happened to her before reaching Tartarus.

"So let us get this straight, You received a vision from the future-" Luna started.

"A message from a time traveler, actually, she was physically in my house,"

"-And instead of letting the Time Traveler pass on her message, you cut her off, multiple times, and now you're stressing out because you do not know what the disaster she wanted to warn you about was?" Luna finished, raising an eyebrow at the Element of Magic.

"Well... When you put it that way, Yes! That's exactly what's happening! At first, I thought Cerberus leaving Tartarus was going to be the Disaster, but all he did was get you and the Prince to come over, So then I thought that whatever Cerberus was trying to warn you about was going to be the Disaster, so I asked to join Celestia in coming here to stop it, but then the creature that escaped got stopped by the guards that came along, so it can't be him, And Tuesday is only five days away and-" Twilight stopped her talking and took a long and deep breath, letting the air slowly exhale from her nose as she calmed herself down.

"You do not know what to do now?" Luna asked, Twilight nodded silently, her head hanging down.

"It's just- Whatever is coming is so impactful that I had to travel back in time to warn about it, but everything that could have been somewhat related to the Disaster seemed to just solve itself without my involvement, so now I'm lost," Twilight sat down on the rocky floor beside the Princess.

"What do I do now?"

Princess Luna lowered her body to the ground, turning to lie on her side, her cheek being held in her hoof, before she opened her mouth and told Twilight, "Have you tried to relax?"

Twilight paused at that, turning her head to look at the face the Princess of the Night was making, "I- I don't have time to relax, whatever is coming is going to be horrible, I need to figure out what it is before-"

"No, Twilight, listen to us, Being stressed doesn't help anypony, look at Blueblood over there for example," Luna pointed with a wing at the Prince, causing Twilight to turn and look, Seeing Blueblood marching around, his face red in anger, the few guards that dared get close to him suddenly finding themselves several meters in the air before gravity took its hold once more and they plummeted down to the floor.

"For as long as we've known him, Blueblood has always worked himself to the bone, so it's our duty as his friend to remind him to relax and not let the stress of all his work consume him, otherwise you end up with Mr. Grumpy over there," Luna chuckled at the childish name she came up with, "Whenever he's not working, Blueblood is full of life and vigor, always having these modern words of wisdom that we haven't heard before, throwing his playful banter at everypony around him, he really made Bantering into an art-form let us tell you, but just like you, Blueblood doesn't like leaving things half done,"

"What do you mean by that?"

"What we mean is that whenever Blueblood starts a project, he doesn't stop until he's finished it, which usually leaves him as a stressful mess who gets angered by the smallest inconvenience," Luna smiled at the memory of dropping Poison Joke on him, "Today, we wanted to bring him to a Spa visit, get rid of all the accumulated stress, help him relax, but then Cerberus came and whisked us away," Luna shook her head before she returned to look at Twilight.

"You should try going to the spa, it seemed to really help Blueblood, at least before Cerberus came up, Do something to relax, take your mind off the Disaster, It'll help you, we're sure of it," Luna stopped talking before letting out a long and tired sigh, "Sorry Twilight, we're not much help with Prophetic visions,"

"Time travel,"

"Same idea," Luna rolled her eyes before closing them, her still tired body deciding it was nap time, leaving Twilight with her thoughts once more.

"Maybe... Maybe I should take a day off, just one, before returning to stopping the Disaster," Twilight nodded to herself, "I mean, I still have five more days, there's plenty of time to figure out the Disaster in four of those, yeah!" Twilight kept nodding, agreeing with her decision.

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Somewhere else in Tartarus, a black blob of Magic with a single blue eyes tapped a tendril of magic on the glass walls of her cage.

"Do those Imbeciles not hear me?! I heard everything! I know what Tirek talked about! HELLO!!! I'm a Nightmare for crying out loud! I was listening to the dream! HELLO?! DO YOU IDIOTS HAVE A HEARING DISABILITY?! OVER HERE!!!!" Nightmare Moon was furiously trying to grab the ponies' attention, her small body barely audible over the sounds of the guards being thrown around by an angry Prince.

"IMBECILES!!!"

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Spike the Dragon stretched his back, enjoying the popping sounds that escaped his spine as he lifted his arms above his head and let out a relaxed sigh.

"I wish Twilight would go on epic adventures more often," A relaxed smile graced his face, "Best night's sleep I've had in weeks,"

He slowly climbed out of his bed and walked down the stairs, entered the kitchen and peered inside. He debated between taking a glass of Apple Juice or a glass of milk, before deciding that a glass of regular tap water is all he really needed.

Grabbing himself a nice bowl of crushed Onyx and Topaz, Spike sat down at the kitchen table, shoved a spoonful of crushed gemstones into his mouth, and started to eat a quiet and relaxing breakfast.

Only for the few minutes of peace of quiet to suddenly disappear with the sound of the front door opening, signaling Twilight's return.

Quickly finishing his breakfast and dropping the bowl into the sink, Spike went to greet his big sister.

"Hey Twilight, How'd it go with Cerberus?" He asked, before freezing at the sight in front of him, "Umm, Twilight, are you okay? You don't look so... Umm, What's the correct word to use here?"

Twilight Sparkle turned to look at Spike after a brief delay, dark circles under her eyes, she looked like she hadn't slept in days.

"Oh, hey Spike, Sorry I didn't come back sooner, Princess Luna told me to take a day to relax so I stayed in Canterlot for a night," Twilight yawned, not bothering to hide her mouth behind her hoof, too tired to care.

"Did- I mean- You don't look relaxed at all, are you sure you're okay?" Spike walked up and held his claw to Twilight's shoulder.

"Me? Oh yeah, pfft, of course, I am totally relaxed, no stress here, haha!" Twilight gave a stiff, before cringing backward a bit as Spike's stomach started to rumble.

"Oh, Right after breakfast?" Spike groaned before he opened his mouth and belched out a magical flame, a rolled up piece of paper flying out and hitting Twilight in the face.

Twilight's eyes widened, "Oh no!" she exclaimed before running to the nearest mirror, tripping over herself along the way, resulting in her skidding on the floor using her chest as a board, before her head landed face to face with her reflection on the mirror, tiredly lying on the ground and staring in horror at what stood before her.

"What's the problem? It's just a skin cream recommendation from Princess Luna, it says here that both she and Prince Blueblood use it," Spike read out the letter, "Hey, How is Prince Blueblood anyway? We haven't really interacted with him at all, even at Hearth's Warming we only exchanged greetings and that's it, Isn't it weird that we know three out of four Royals here? I think It'll be cool to know the only Stallion Royal, There's a bit too much girly stuff in your life, maybe you two will get along,"

"No Spike, It isn't cool at all!" Twilight turned to look at him, most likely having ignored whatever the Dragon just said as she pointed to a small paper cut on her face from where the letter hit her.

"Rude, I really think you need more Colt friends, maybe even a Coltfriend, you're an adult now, it's about time and-"

"Spike look!" Twilight pointed at the paper cut once more, "Future Twilight had a scar exactly like this one on her face, You know what this means?"

"...That it's not an actual scar?" The Dragon tilted his head in confusion.

"It means that whatever Disaster future Twilight tried to warn me about is still going to occur! Nothing I've done has changed the future at all, the Disaster is still coming!"

Spike stared blankly at the sight of the purple Unicorn mumbling to herself about a future Disaster with a capital D and resigned himself to a few more nights of bad sleep.

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"I've done everything I could think of to try and change the future, but none of it worked," Twilight talked to herself as she walked circled around her house, "So if nothing I do can change the future, I'll have to use everything I Don't do!" With a purple spark of magic, Twilight Teleported herself to a corner of the room, "I'll just have to not do anything, If I stay here in this spot until next Tuesday, I won't be able to do whatever it is Future Twilight warned me not to do!" Twilight gasped as she said the idea out loud.

"Why didn't I think of this sooner?!" Twilight exclaimed before going rigid, her body barely moving a muscle.

"Oh really?" Spike raised an eyebrow at the statuesque Twilight, "No matter what happens, you won't move a muscle?" A smirk climbed onto his face, "Then I guess you-" He disappeared in a cloud of smoke as he ran to the kitchen before reappearing with a recognizable container in his claws, "-Wouldn't mind if I eat an entire tub of Ice Cream?"

Twilight's eyes turned to look at Spike, before quickly returning to their previous position, The Unicorn trying her best to ignore the sounds of her baby brother swallowing spoonful after spoonful of strawberry-flavored goodness.

"Spike Stop," She said through grit teeth, trying her best to speak without moving a muscle, "Think of the stomach ache,"

"Hehehe? Stomach ache? That's future Spike's problem," Spike smiled before taking another large chunk out of the Ice cream container.

Twilight didn't have the time to attempt to reorient herself when three knocks sounded on her door, followed by a Blue Pegasus walking inside.

"Hey Twilight, Another Pegasus just sent me the all-clear from Baltimare, so the Disaster isn't-" Rainbow Dash paused as she saw a baby dragon shoving his head into a bow of Ice Cream, and one of her best friends staring at him in horror, her body not moving a muscle.

"Haha, What's going on?" Rainbow Dash laughed at the sight before her, "Are you gonna' stop him?"

"She sure isn't," Spike laughed as his head popped out of the Ice Cream box, strawberry Ice cream covering his face, "In fact, she isn't gonna' move till next Tuesday. She thinks it'll prevent the Disaster from happening!"

"Oho, This is too rich!" Rainbow Dash chuckled before her eyes widened in shock, her leg pointing at something, "Oh no Twilight, there's a mouse right behind you!"

Twilight's eyes widened as her body flinched, only to relax once she noticed her two friends laughing at their annoying and juvenile prank, Don't they know the future of Equestria is at stake?!

"Wait wait! Let me try!" Spike cheered in laughter as he grabbed the Quill from the nearby bottle of Ink, before starting to tickle Twilight with the feathery end of the writing utensil.

Twilight Struggled to stop herself from laughing, her friend knew her body was sensitive to these kinds of things!

Twilight couldn't handle it, without thinking, she picked Spike up in her magic and threw him away from her, only for the impact of the Baby Dragon against the wall to produce a blast of magical green fire, flying out of his mouth and crashing into Twilight.

Rainbow Dash's eyes widened as she moved to stand beside Spike, "Oh no!"

"What happened?" Twilight asked, finally giving up on not moving after the longest minute-and-a-half of her life.

"I'm so sorry!" Spike said, "I didn't mean to, It was a total accident!" He cowered away from Twilight's stare.

"Show me," Twilight told the prankster duo.

"Ehh, I'm not so sure that's a-" Rainbow Dash tried to dodge the situation, only for Twilight Sparkle to repeat louder.

"Show me!"

Spike swallowed his worry before he grabbed a hand mirror and lifted it up so Twilight could see.

"Oh no!" Twilight exclaimed as she saw her reflection, "This is the same manecut as Future Twilight!" Her hair was frazzled and burnt, looking as if she was a survivor fighting in the apocalypse.

"You know," Rainbow Dash started, "It really doesn't look too bad..."

"I don't care how it looks! It's just another sign that the future hasn't changed!" Twilight returned to walking in circles, "Not doing anything didn't work either! Oh, I wish there was a way to know what the Disaster was!"

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"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Spike asked Twilight as the two siblings stood outside a tent, "You know most of these are fake tourist traps, right?"

"We're not here for some any Future Reading, Spike, we're here for one in particular..." Twilight furrowed her brows in readiness before she pushed the tent flap aside and walked in, Ignoring all the colorful trinkets that would be associated with Future Reading, such as the dream catcher and deck of cards, She sat in front of the Crystal Ball in the middle of the tent, waiting for the Hoof Reader in front of her to speak.

Spike's eyes moved to a pack of Tarot cards before he shook his head and sat beside Twilight, "Hey, Madam Pinkie!"

"Oooh, You have come to the wonderful tent of Madam Pinkie Pie!" The Pink Earth Pony dressed in mystic garb said as her hooves moved over the crystal ball that sat between her and Twilight, "For the answers you seek, Let us consult the mystical orb of Fates and Destiny! Oooh!" Pinkie Pie moved her legs over the orb a few more time before she dropped the act and smiled at her friends, "Do you like my mystical orb of Fate's and Destiny? I just got it, Cool huh?"

"Yeah, Eh, Best one I've seen," Twilight smiled at her friend.

"Look deep into the crystal ball! For soon it will reveal all!" Pinkie Pie returned to speaking with an echo, her legs once more moving around the Crystal ball, "Ah yes, I see something... It's a vision of the Future~ I see... You, Twilight!"

Twilight's eyes widened in astonishment, hope rushing into her as the identity of what the Disaster might be was making itself known to her.

"You will get a really cool birthday present next year~" Pinkie Pie said.

"Yes! And?" Twilight urged her friend to continue.

"That's it!"

"...Are you sure?" Twilight urged her friend to keep going.

"Yep, Really cool birthday present," Pinkie said while popping the P.

"Pinkie! I need you to use your Pinkie Sense to tell me about the impending Disaster that Future Twilight was trying to warn me about!" Twilight complained loudly.

"Oh, My Fortune telling has nothing to do with my Pinkie Sense, Silly," She smiled at her friend, "It's only good for vague and immediate events," As soon as Pinkie Pie finished, her tail started to quiver, before a potted plant fell on Twilight's head, the ceramic breaking apart and covering the Unicorn in dirt.

"Like that, see?" 

"Where did that come from?" Spike asked as he scratched his head, looking for any place that plant could have fallen from.

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"La Lala Lala La." Pinkie Pie was bouncing towards the Golden Oaks library, "Gosh, I haven't seen Twilight since the flower pot incident, Hope she still isn't mad," Pinkie Pie said with a carefree smile on her face, really showing off her attributes as the Element of Laughter.

Walking into the Library, Pinkie Pie went up the stairs to the Living Room, before pausing at the sight of what seemed to be a laboratory, graphs and papers littered the walls, several giant telescopes poked out of the many windows of the floor, tubes and pipes seemed to connect everything together as more papers moved around like a vacuum cleaner.

"Four point six degrees off from yesterday," Twilight said as she looked through a Telescope, dashing over to a graph to look it over once more, "Carry over the fifteen," She then moved to a notebook, a quill held in her magic as she wrote down something about the moons of a distant planet.

"Hiya Pinkie," Spike waved hello to his Pink friend, the container of Ice Cream still held in his claws.

"Wow, Twilight's really trying hard to figure out what her future Birthday Present is, isn't she?" Pinkie Pie nodded to herself as she kept watching Twilight Teleport around the room, noting down different discoveries in many different notebooks scattered around the room.

"Who cares? As long as I can keep eating Ice cream, sorry future spike," Spike smiled as he took another bite from the Strawberry-flavored treat.

Pinkie Pie walked up to Twilight, a slight look of worry on her face, "Are you okay?"

Twilight lowered the quill as she turned to look at her friend, her mane was frazzled, the paper cut on her face hadn't healed yet, and now a bandage was wrapped around her head from where the flower pot fell on her, "Ah, Pinkie, I'm glad you're here," She grabbed her hooves and dragged her to one of the telescopes, "Can you help me recalibrate the apertures on the Nine-and-quarter-inch Catadioptric telescopes?"

"Sure!"

"So I was thinking, After I came to see Madam Pinkie and the Flower Pot landed on my head," She pointed at the bandage on her head, "See the bandage? Just like the bandage from the future,"

"Nice!" Pinkie Pie smiled, the words leaving Twilight's mouth going straight through one ear and out the other.

"I had an epiphany after the flower pot, Doing things didn't work, not doing things didn't work, and I couldn't predict the future either, So I only had one other choice!

Monitor Everything!"

"Makes sense to me," Pinkie smiled along.

"That way, no matter what happens in the future, I'll be ready! I thought I saw something last night in the Horse-Head Nebula, but after staring at it for three straight hours I realized I was wrong!" Twilight chuckled to herself.

"Three hours?" Pinkie Pie repeated the word, "But when did you sleep?"

"Oh, I didn't sleep, I haven't slept since Future Twilight was here! There's only three days left until next Tuesday, I can sleep all I want after that!"

Spike opened a new container of Ice cream, dropping the old container into a growing pile of ice cream containers, "You've been awake too long Twilight,"

"Yeah! Tuesday's not three days from now, Tuesday's tomorrow," Pinkie Pie pointed out.

Twilight gasped in shock before teleporting over to the Telescope in a flash of purple magic, "Pinkie, did you finish recalibrating the apertures on the nine-and-quarter-inch catadioptric telescopes?" She asked as she popped next to the Telescope.

"I have no Idea!" Pinkie Pie said with cheer, not understanding a word of the science mumbo jumbo Twilight tried to tell her.

Twilight looked into the Telescope, only to be greeted with the Sun, "Ah! My eye!" She yelled as she fell backward, her hoof covering her eyes.

"Don't worry Twilight!" Pinkie Pie hurridly said as she rushed to Twilight's hearth, "I have eye patches stashed all over Ponyville for situations just like these! Or in case Pirates invade!" She grabbed the hidden eye patch from behind the dusty hearth and wrapped it over her friend's eye.

"There! Now you look like a Pirate, a sleepy pirate with a really weird manecut," Pinkie said as she pushed a mirror over for Twilight to look at.

"The Eyepatch... Another sign!" Twilight exclaimed for what must have been the hundredth time this last week, "Nearly all the signs have come true, and I haven't done a thing to prevent the catastrophe!" She cried before running to a blackboard.

"If Tuesday's tomorrow, and the Disaster happens before Tuesday Morning, that only leaves one solution!"

"That you're overthinking it? Princess Luna told you what to do since the beginning, didn't she?" Spike raised an eyebrow, only to frown when he saw that neither of the two ponies in the room were listening to him.

"I'll just have to stop time!" Twilight turned to Pinkie Pie, "We're going to need to break into the Canterlot Castle Archives Starswirl the Bearded wing! Can I count on you?"

"Yep! I always have sneaky ninja outfits for situations just like this! Let me go grab them!" Pinkie Pie nodded in excitement at the idea of breaking into Canterlot Castle before she dashed out of the library, intent on returning with the perfect sneaking setup.

Spike could only sigh at the knowledge that he'd likely not be sleeping tonight before he stood up and went to grab some more ice cream.

The inevitable stomach ache was going to be a problem for Future Spike.