Chapter Text
It was a normal day for Ponyville.
Ponies were talking, ponies were working , and ponies were having fun. Mostly everypony was busy, with the only exception being the Bearers of Harmony, as they were on a Friendship Quest, though they should be returning some time today.
As everypony was doing their own thing, the doors of Twilight’s Castle was suddenly burst wide open by a certain prismatic Pegasus mare.
"WE'RE BACK!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, flying around in the hallway happily and relaxing in midair.
"Dash, must you throw open the doors like that?" Twilight asked her dear friend, who simply grinned at her.
"Hey Twilight, everypony!" Spike appeared from around the nearest corner and came to greet them, and in a magical *POP* Starlight also appeared, smiling at Twilight and then the others in greeting.
"Oh dear, it’s good to be back here after all that dust!"
Rarity said happily in relief. After a moment, the eight friends made their way to Twilight’s Throne Room, joking and laughing and talking about the stuff that had happened on the trail or in Ponyville over the course of the last few days and nights.
But then their eyes all widened, as they now all saw that none other than Princess Celestia herself awaited them.
"Ah, welcome back you all."
The tall Alicorn greeted them with a smile on her face, her voice melodious and gentle as ever.
"Princess Celestia! Wow, we didn’t expect you to be here, but you are the pony we were planning on coming to see.”
Twilight said, coming up to her mentor and exchanging a quick hug with her.
“We have something we want to look over with you.”
"What do you mean?" Starlight asked the other purple mare, wondering what her good friend was talking about.
Twilight didn't say anything as she cast a Spell and something flashed into existence. Everyone merely looked at the strange device. It looked like a sort of rock, perfectly round and crisscrossed with white lines that looked more like they were floating just a hairs breadth above the object then drawn on it or anything.
Needless to say, everypony (and dragon) who was not the Mane Six was confused.
"Hmm, Twilight, what is that you have there?" Celestia asked her faithful student, but something in her eyes seemed to have already flashed in suspicion, as if she had an idea of what it was. If Twilight noticed this, she didn’t mention it.
"We don't know exactly," The Princess of Friendship admitted, "We found it on our way back from our mission. We went exploring an old cave and found it in a chest, with a note saying that we should take it back and “Observe through this.” We brought it here in case it may be something important."
Everyone else was simply confused, as they don't really know what that weird device they found was or did. But that didn't mean they were interested to see if it could do anything. Celestia then spoke up once more, getting everyone’s attention.
“Let me take look it over for a moment, if you please.”
She took hold of it with her Magic, Twilight not trying to hold it back from her, and levitated it over to herself. Her narrowed eyes scanned it carefully, her power shimmering around the object of interest.
“Hmmm, I feel nothing hostile or threatening in this device at all, and I take that you had the same kind of result?”
Twilight nodded.
“Yes, Princess. I could detect nothing wrong with this thing.”
“Then, perhaps we should try and see what that note meant. This looks like some sort of communication storage device, something I and my sister have seen before in the past. It could hold some important information about any number of things.”
The assembled ponies and dragon all were now more excited at the prospect of learning something potentially important and valuable.
(A flash of light later…)
They were all in a big enclosed room with a large wide wall in front of them.
“What the?”
“Where are we?”
“This is a pocket dimension I created myself several decades ago.”
Celestia explained.
“Time flows very slowly here, and I don’t have to worry about wasting away my day or anything when I come here on occasion.”
“Wow, that’s some pretty advanced Time and Spatial Magic!”
Starlight exclaimed the same time as Twilight did. Both looked at each other, and then chuckled.
Before anypony could start asking questions about this place and so on, the device then started to make a noise, getting everyone to turn their attention at the orb-like thing.
"Uh, is that thang supposed to be doin’ that?"
Applejack questioned.
Before anyone could answer her, the lines on device then started to glow and spin slowly, and the machine suddenly grew a pair of metallic rods that attached themselves to the ground.
Everyone's surprise grew as the lighting in front of the machine lit up the wide wall in front of them. It only took a moment for the machine to cease making the noise, but now all their attention was now on the swirling mass of colors that just appeared.
"Wow…" Twilight managed to speak up.
"Ooo, looks pretty! It’s like all my favorite party colors ever mixed into one big bowl of icing!”
Pinkie exclaimed, hopping happily in place.
“Darling… such darling shades of color."
Rarity spoke up, her eyes taking in every single shade and hue of color she perceived, the artist designer in her working overtime.
"It really is nice.”
Fluttershy said softly, exclaimed as the blue Exceed pointed at the pink haired and dark blue haired males.
“Wow, it’s awesome! Although it probably could be about 20% cooler...”
Rainbow Dash said, hovering above them all.
“What do you think it’s going to show us?”
Starlight said, asking the real question. Spike nodded in agreement.
"Excuse me, Princess Celestia," Twilight started to say as she turned fully to the pony in question, "But do you have any idea how this particular magical device works? Truly?"
She asked, and her eyes pleaded for no more secrets.
Celestia smiled softly at her, and then at them all.
“It’s alright, my little ponies. I understand that you legitimately wish to know the truth. Indeed, I would extremely hesitant to show this to most others, but you all have proven yourselves more than capable of handling the most difficult situations and pieces of information on countless occasions. And so, I will not keep anything back this time from you.”
They all listened now with rapt attention. The Princess was not gonna keep secrets about this thing! Oh colt, this was already so interesting!
“As you know, artifacts like this one are used as a storage unit for valuable knowledge of all sorts. It is a highly durable, indeed nigh-unbreakable device, but this one is particularly exceptional. The Magic that it has been marked with is that of the heavens themselves, and stretches beyond the confines of Space.”
The two nerdier purple mares eyes widened at this point, understanding perfectly what she was saying. The others kept their peace, but barely. Rainbow Dash had by now landed and was standing next to Twilight.
"We can see certain pieces of information using a typical device like this one, and sometimes truly unique pieces of knowledge. But this particular tool? We are now able to look into other timelines of our world with it."
Celestia informed everybody else, getting them even more surprised and interested by what they were just told.
"Wait, you mean that we can actually see alternate versions of Equestria?"
Spike spoke up, and the others all let out little exclamations of excitement at this new info.
"In a word: Yes."
The celestial Diarch answered the young dragon’s question.
"Really?"
Applejack, Rainbow, and Starlight were interested as all three of them said the word simultaneously. This got the ancient Princess to look at them with a grin as she knew what they were thinking.
"Correct," she answered, before she then went on, "Would you all like to see for yourself? I believe it would be quite an interesting and maybe even educational experience to observe these other timelines and see what other worlds are up to, as we might gain some important insight into how to handle certain scenarios we face or will face eventually.”
This was food for thought for the others, as each member of the group here merely looked at one another, and Pinkie was whispering excitedly to Dash and Fluttershy. They were genuinely curious to see these other timelines. With a silent agreement, everyone was on board with this idea.
"Alright Princess Celestia, go ahead."
Twilight informed her with a smile. Celestia simply nodded as she then began to channel her Magic into the device, causing it to glow a little bit again as it begun to hum too.
"This is kind of exciting, I won't lie."
Fluttershy admitted to the others as she and the others waited for Celestia to finish her thing. Even the shy little Pegasus was truly curious about what the other timelines might be like.
"What do you all think we would be like in these other timelines?"
Rarity asked her friends, wondering what they own thoughts about that. She secretly hoped that she herself was not going to be a greedy pony, like when Discord had discorded her when they first met him.
"I bet that I am the leader of the Wonderbolts in one of these timelines!"
Rainbow Dash exclaimed loudly with confidence, doing a spinning flip in midair.
“Oh boy, I’m next! I bet that I’m Equestria’s Official Party Pony in another!”
Pinkie said loudly and excitedly. This got a few eye rolls and stares.
“Pinkie darling, aren’t you pretty much that already?”
Rarity asked. This got a “HAAAWWW!” gasping noise from the hyperactive pink pony.
"I just hope that I ain’t some no-good liar or lazy feller."
Applejack said next, and this got all the others thinking. What if they saw other versions of themselves who were… not good?
"Oh dear.”
Whispered Fluttershy.
A short discussion followed further where they proceeded to comfort each other and themselves about what they could see, and soon they were all better. If some other versions of themselves were better or worse than in this world, then there would be no point in getting upset over it.
"It is about to start. Do be aware that these timelines that we will be won't be in any order, so don't ask me to choose a specific timeline based on an idea, OK? I cannot do that."
The Solar Diarch warned them as the great wall/screen begun to start something.
Everypony merely looked in anticipation…