Future Endeavors

Summary: While doing a project at Royal Prep, Sofia and Vivian discover a strange spell in a forgotten library book. Despite Ms. Flora's insistency not to recite it, Sofia does so anyway and is in for quite a surprise.

Disclaimer: I don't own Sofia the First.

A/N: Well, I've done the past, I've done the present, and now I'm tackling the future…sort of. I suppose it was only a matter of time. ;) Let's see how this goes! By the way, I apologize if this seems short. The next two stories should be longer. :)

*Story*

"All right, children," Ms. Flora announced as she flew from one side of the classroom to another. "Today we'll be doing some research on your projects I assigned you last week. What better place to do so than in our library?"

The students chattered amongst themselves about their projects.

"Don't forget: you and your partner must find an appropriate book to back up your research, so choose wisely. Let's go."

The class transferred from the classroom to the impressive library. Sofia smiled as she breathed in and out. She loved the smell of books. There was something inviting about them. She glanced to her left as Vivian tapped her on the shoulder.

"So for our project," the dark-haired girl began excitedly, "since we're researching time travel, do you think it's possible there's a book on it?"

"Oh, I'm sure," Sofia assured her with a nod. "Time travel is just a part of advanced magic, and I'm almost positive there would be something on it here." She glanced around as all the other students were pulling books from the shelves. "I mean…how hard could it be?"

About twenty minutes had passed, and the girls were growing weary. They'd found plenty of books on advanced macrobiotics, the Mayan influence on mathematics, the mysteries of the Aurora Borealis, but still nothing on time travel.

Vivian sighed as she shelved another book. "Maybe we should change our topic, Sofia," she suggested sadly. "I mean, there's nothing here about time travel."

"Time travel?" Ms. Flora asked curiously as she appeared next to the students. "You two are researching time travel?"

"Yes, Ms. Flora," Sofia responded happily. "It's technically a part of magic, right?"

"Oh, it's much more than that, my dear. Time travel has fascinated many people over the course of several generations. In fact, it is a subsection of science. It's, eh… It's rather complicated." She smiled. "I look forward to seeing what you two come up with. Oh, and if I were you, I'd try looking in that section." She gestured toward one of the easily overlooked bookshelves before away to help a few other students.

"Ooh, let's see what's over there," Sofia told her friend excitedly as she grabbed her hand and hurried to the suggested area.

The girls skimmed the titles of the books before finally coming across one that looked rather promising.

"Looking Forward: The Theory of Time Travel," Sofia read aloud as her eyes widened. "This is it, Vivian! This is what we were looking for."

Vivian grinned. "It only took half the class," she laughed. "Let's take a look at it and see what we can use for our research.

They looked through the book together and found many theories and suggestions as to the idea of time travel. Of course, as Ms. Flora had indicated before, many scientists as well as those in the magical field had expressed interest in and had admitted to dabbling in the field of time travel.

"In fact," Vivian read as Sofia gathered their notes together, "one wizard by the name of Zoliandro insisted that he had crafted a spell that would enable one to view the real of the future for a temporary timeframe. Wow. I wonder how credible this Zoliandro guy is."

"I'm not sure. I wonder if Mr. Cedric has ever heard of him." She took the book from Vivian and read a few more pages in before coming across a passage that looked interesting. "Hmm. This looks like Zoliandro's spell, Vivian."

"Oh?"

"Well, girls?" Ms. Flora asked, startling the two friends as they looked up at her. "Have you found what you were looking for?"

Sofia nodded as she held the book up to her. "Ms. Flora, a wizard was quoted in here saying that he'd found a spell to show people the future. Do you think it works?"

The fairy examined the written spell before frowning in thought. She then handed the book back to the girl. "I wouldn't if I were you, Sofia. I know at such a young age, you're curious about the future. However, and take my word for this, sometimes it's better not knowing what the future holds. There are so few surprises left in our world today. Let your future be one. Hmm?" She looked up toward the class. "All right, boys and girls. Prepare your things. Class will be ending shortly."

"I'll see you tomorrow, Vivian," Sofia announced later that afternoon as she pushed her part of the research into her bag and ran off to catch up with her brother and sister.

"Bye, Sofia!" Vivian smiled and waved. "Bye, Amber and James! See you guys tomorrow!"

"So, how's the research coming, Sof?" James asked as he snacked on a cookie. He grinned as a few crumbs flew at Amber's face as they rode through the air back home. "Sorry."

"Ugh." Amber rolled her eyes and wiped the crumbs from her dress. "Yeah, Sofia. Time travel, right?"

The younger royal smiled. "It's going pretty well, I think. Well, actually, it's going better now since we actually found a book on it. You'd be surprised how little information is out there about it."

"Really?" the older blonde girl asked with a curious look. "Huh. You'd think more people would have talked about it."

"I know. I guess next time we'll stick to an easier subject, but it always fascinated me… Just think: traveling through time—especially getting to see or know the future? How neat would that be?"

"Just be careful, Sofia," Amber advised her as she swiped the second cookie James had taken from his bag. She wasn't about to have crumbs flying in her direction again. "You don't know what may happen with something like that."

Sofia smiled as James whined and attempted to grab his cookie back from his twin. "I know, Amber. I'll be careful."

James laughed in victory as he finally pulled the cookie away from Amber. His celebration was short lived when a bird flew by and swiped the cookie from his hands. "Hey! Get back here, you cookie thief!"

That night, Sofia had placed her materials on her bed and was sorting through things and organizing them. She liked to keep things in a certain order so she wouldn't spend several minutes searching for something particular. When she was satisfied, she pulled out the library book and opened it again to the passage from earlier.

She read the description, the spell situated below, and the warning at the bottom of the page. She inhaled before sighing. What could it hurt? No one had ever proven or disproven Zoliandro's theory of time travel, right?

She scanned the now-familiar language of the spell's words. It didn't necessarily look like anything out of the ordinary, but then again…most spells usually don't. She grasped her amulet, sighing. Elena wasn't around anymore to encourage her to do right or wrong, so maybe she wouldn't get cursed… Maybe. But still, her curiosity was strong with this one. She just wanted to get a glance of the future…

"It's just for a minute," she reasoned with a nod. "Yeah. Just to see if anything is different." She smiled, having come to her conclusion. She then read the spell.

Praeteritum iam non est.

Diei currentis semper est paratum.

Ostende mihi futurum.

Aperite portas prohibitus.

Demonstrare viam meam.

Sofia gasped when her amulet began to glow, illuminating the room. Suddenly, the room around her began spinning, her current surroundings swirling and changing. The very situation made her feel dizzy, and she closed her eyes so she could will away the headache that was forming.

She breathed slowly as she felt that the spinning had stopped. Carefully, blue eyes opened and looked around. She gasped. She was still in her room, but it certainly didn't look the same. Her bed was covered in a large purple blanket with an intricate gold symbol in the center. The toys she'd had in her room seemed to be missing, or hopefully at least stored away. The room just felt…older. She gasped. "It worked!"

"Who's there?" a voice asked from near the entrance to her room. "What are you doing in my room?"

Sofia blinked at the question. "Uh, I…" She reached forward, grabbing the book she'd been reading. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—wait, your room? This is my room."

"Um, no, I'm pretty sure this is my room." The figure began walking forward and into Sofia's line of sight.

The young girl gasped. "A-Are you…?"

The other person froze. "…Me?"

Sofia observed the other girl. She looked a bit like her…except for some changes. She was taller and obviously a bit older than she was, she had on a purple and pink gradient-styled dress, and her auburn hair was much longer. But her eyes were still the same, and the familiar pink amulet still rested around her neck, so there was no denying who she was. "You're me!" She laughed. "It worked!"

"Uh, what are you talking about? Oh, great. I'm talking to myself. Amber always said this would happen…" The older Sofia sighed, dragging one hand down her face.

"How old are you right now?"

"I'm seventeen. And you—you're not supposed to be here." She gasped, lowering to Sofia's eye level. "You recited that time traveling spell, didn't you?" she chided.

The younger Sofia shrugged. "Well, I…"

"SOFIA! That is so dangerous. You know as well as I do…or you do…or whatever: when someone tells you not to recite a spell, or if it's been hidden away for a while, there's usually a pretty good reason for it." She pulled out her wand and aimed it at the girl. "I need to send you back to where you came from, before someone else sees you."

"But wait! I wanted to see what everyone's like in the future."

The older girl faltered for a minute before considering this and shaking her head firmly. "Sorry, Sofia. I know how tempting it is to want to know what will happen to you, but believe me when I say that it's for your own good." She smiled. "I promise that you're going to love your future…but for now, just live your life. Besides, the best part of the future is being surprised, wouldn't you say?"

"Well…I guess so." She sighed. Before she could react, the older Sofia spoke an unfamiliar spell and cast her into darkness.

The young princess sat up in her bed, gasping and looking around. Everything was back to normal. Had she just dreamed the whole thing? She noticed the book from the library lying open on her bed. She picked it up and noticed that the spell she'd originally recited was no longer there. Instead, in its place was a simple statement: "The future is a mystery even unto itself, and life without mystery and uncertainty is certainly one absent of wonder."

"Huh…" Sofia had to agree with the statement. Sure, she would have liked to explore the future a little more, but…maybe her future self was right. Maybe she was better off not knowing. She sighed. "Sorry, Vivian. Looks like we'll have to do a little editing for our project." She yawned and went to sleep.

"…And so, according to research, there are many theories out there about time travel," Vivian recited to the class a week later. "There have been rumors of potential time travel spells from wizards around the globe, but to our knowledge, one doesn't physically exist yet."

"Yeah," Sofia added with a nod. "But really…when you think about it…maybe that's a good thing, right? I mean, say you did see the future and then you spent your whole life waiting for that moment…and then it doesn't happen. Why? Is it because you changed your future reality?"

"Ugh, my brain hurts now," James admitted as he held one hand to his head.

Sofia giggled at her brother's response. "The past is always going to be behind us, the present is always going to be a current reality, and the future…will always be just out of reach." She nodded toward Ms. Flora, who smiled proudly.

"Well done, girls. Well done." She winked.

The end