//------------------------------// // 1. Together Alone (SigmasonicX) // Story: Strawberry Time: A RariTwi Exquisite Corpse // by SigmasonicX //------------------------------// The sun shined gently through Rarity’s blinds as she sat up and stretched her legs. Sighing contentedly, she slipped out of bed with more vigor than usual, smiling at how she felt so well rested this early in the morning. This would be a good day. She opened the blinds to greet the world, only to fall back in surprise at the sight before her. Staring inside with wide unblinking eyes and a friendly smile, a pink mare floated in the air right in front of the second-story window. “Pinkie Pie!” Rarity exclaimed as she slowly got up, calming her jackhammer heart. “What on Earth are you doing?” Pinkie Pie didn’t respond. In fact, she didn’t even twitch. Rarity squinted, then waved her hoof. With a shrug, she stepped away and moved on with her morning routine. While Pinkie was surely behind this, that was likely a balloon and not the real thing. Something along the lines of, “I just wanted my friends to wake up to a smiling face!” she imagined. Heading into the ladies’ room, Rarity turned the sink knob only to frown as nothing happened. She tried every knob and switch to no avail, as there was no water flowing anywhere. “Well never mind about this being a good day. I suppose I’ll need Applejack to take a look at this,” she said to herself. She checked the sunlight again. “It is early. I could sneak over to Twilight’s castle—and it is made of magic crystals, so surely there won’t be plumbing problems there too.” With a dramatic sigh, she trotted downstairs and toward the exit, only to do a double take at what she saw in the kitchen. Sweetie Belle balanced precariously on a stool in front of the stove with a flame lit and, above it, she was using her magic to upend a jug of cooking oil. She was going to set the whole room ablaze! Screaming, Rarity dashed forward and pulled Sweetie away from the stove, leaving behind a stream of oil from the jug. “Sweetie! How many times do I have to warn you?!” She blinked as she looked at the motionless filly in her magical grip, who was still squinting and sticking her tongue out in concentration. Not knowing what else to do, Rarity gently placed her upright on the ground. Hesitantly, she touched Sweetie’s face with her hoof. This was no balloon. On top of that, there were other oddities about. Now that she actually looked, the flame wasn’t flickering or moving at all. And all that oil… it was just hanging there in the air. Rarity’s neck stiffened. Something was terribly wrong. She fell onto her haunches, which startled her into scrambling toward the door. She pulled it open, but then with a second thought, she rushed back into the kitchen and used a rag to soak up all the floating oil. Then she ran through the door, fearful of what she’d find outside. “Twilight!” Rarity screamed as she hurdled through the door. “Twi—mmph!” A small blue bird floating in the air rudely interrupted her and the unicorn found herself coughing up feathers. Giving the uncaring and spit-covered creature an angry glare, she resumed her mad dash. The streets outside were frozen with scattered ponies going about their day—one or two appearing to be glancing at the airborne Pinkie Pie—and the sunlight indicated it was around seven in the morning. Ponyville looked warm and inviting as always, but as the only one moving in this photograph of a town, Rarity couldn’t help but be unnerved. Grunting in a way she didn’t care others heard, Rarity galloped toward Twilight’s castle. Once it came into view, Rarity breathed in deeply and resumed yelling out her love’s name. “TWIIILIIIGHT! TWI—” “Rarity!” a voice called. Rarity skidded to a stop and turned wildly to find Twilight Sparkle standing in a nearby field with a small machine of some kind floating in her magic. The princess looked a bit frazzled, but she smiled warmly and, more importantly, she was moving! Twilight’s eyes darted away from Rarity then back. “So, you’re probably wondering what’s going on, and—” Before the alicorn could continue, Rarity leapt toward her and the two mares embraced. “Darling, thank goodness! I don’t know what I would have done if I was the only one stuck like this. What in Equestria is happening?” Twilight pulled back from the hug and winced. “Yeah, about that. I was really hoping I could resolve this before you woke up, but, uh…” She scratched the back of her head. “I kind of messed up a spell.” All fear melted away from Rarity in an instant and she narrowed her eyes with an unimpressed expression. “Darling, seriously?” She played with the curls of her mane. “I thought you were past this sort of magical mishap.” Twilight’s head sank. “I did too. I really thought I had it under control, but this is an under-researched field, and I messed up. I’m really sorry.” Rarity lifted her chin with a soft smile. “Now now, enough of that. Tell me, what were you trying to do?” The princess’s cheeks turned red at the contact. “Well, you see, you were telling me about how you wished there were more hours in the day so we could spend them together. I realized actually adding more hours would be a bad idea, but I could instead make a pocket dimension where time moved more slowly. A place for just the two of us.” Rarity’s eyes shimmed and she put a hoof to her chest. “Aww, that’s quite sweet. Though this spell stopping time in our normal dimension is a bit less sweet.” Twilight shook her head. “Actually, time didn’t stop. It’s just really slow. For us, it’s been about five hours since this incident started, and for everyone else, roughly 25 seconds have passed. The world is moving at one seven-hundred-twentieth speed.” Rarity waved her hoof. “Yes, yes, slowing down time is less sweet.” She tilted her head. “I’m tempted to ask if you have a way to fix this, but from the way you spoke earlier, it sounds like that isn’t the case?” Twilight hummed. “Well, I do know how to fix this, but it’s complicated and there’s a very real risk of damaging spacetime itself.” “Not something we want, I assume.” “Indeed, buuuuut…” Twilight forced a smile “... Good news! It’s going to wear off on its own. These readings prove it!” She showed the device to Rarity as though she’d be able to verify the readings herself. “We just need to wait for three hours to pass in normal time.” Rarity put her hooves together. “Well that doesn’t sound so bad. Three hours… but wait, you said it would be that times seven-twenty…” “Yeah, that’s the bad news. It’ll be ninety days, or about three months.” Rather than looking perturbed, Rarity smiled and tapped her chin. “Three months… three months alone together… a three month vacation!” Twilight blinked. “Rarity, you’re really OK with this?” “Well I certainly would have preferred being able to prepare, but we might as well take advantage of the opportunity.” “Oh…” Twilight sat on her haunches. “Oh wow, so we’re really doing this, then. Three months, just you and me. Things within our general physiomagical fields will move relative to us, so food and water won’t be a huge issue. Well, water pipes will be a problem, but I have a spell for that. Oh, and we don’t have to stay in Ponyville! We can take this opportunity to tour Equestria. We can even go into dangerous areas without fear of danger! Wow, the possibilities really are endless! I don’t even know what to do first.” Rarity giggled and fluttered her eyelashes. “Well, I have an idea. How about we do what this spell was intended for?” Twilight’s face flushed red. “I, uh, what do you mean?” she said in a way that indicated she knew exactly what Rarity meant. “A pocket dimension just for us? So we can spend more time together? You and I both know the best way to use that.” The unicorn walked past Twilight and stroked her neck with her tail. Twilight laughed lightly, “Well, I can’t deny that.” She turned and kissed Rarity’s collar. “To the castle, then?” Rarity squeaked in response, neither a yes nor a no. Twilight’s kisses traveled up her love’s neck until their lips met, and then… A voice scoffed—a third voice! “Twilight Sparkle, what in Equestria are you doing in public? The Great and Powerful Trixie didn’t raise you to be so uncouth.” Frozen mid-kiss like the ponies around them, Rarity and Twilight slowly turned their eyes to see Trixie, newly married wife of Celestia and self-proclaimed stepmother to Twilight Sparkle, sitting on a bench mere feet away from them, shaking her head over a warm cup of cocoa. “I knew that Rarity mare was trouble, but your mother likes her, Celestia knows why.” Rarity was the first to speak. “Trixie?! How—what—how?!” “A mother has eyes on the back of her head, you know,” Trixie said as she serenely drank from her cocoa. Twilight frowned. “Trixie, for the last time, you are in no way my mother!” Disregarding the offended gasp she heard, Twilight continued, “What Rarity meant is, this spell is supposed to slow down everything except me and her! How are you here?” Trixie rolled her eyes. “Well, if that’s what this is, you didn’t do a very good job. I was on my way to your castle to make you some breakfast, and I saw at least one other creature moving.” Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Trixie, it’s past noon for us, why would you—no, never mind.” She waved her machine over the blue unicorn, making it beep rapidly. “Are you kidding me? These readings…” “Maybe if you weren’t busy smooching,” Trixie said with an extra dose of sass, “you’d have figured this out. But don’t worry.” She patted Twilight’s head, which the alicorn quickly pulled away from. “Mommy’s here now.” Rarity leaned over to Twilight. “So, what do we have to do to end the spell early?” Twilight snorted. “We find the spell’s locus somewhere in town, potentially defeat any time elementals drawn by the magic, untangle the strings of time woven into it, and hope we don’t end up in a reality where we’re all shrimp.” Rarity nodded. “Sounds like a plan.” The princess and her beloved set forth, followed closely by their self-appointed chaperone.