At some point, Twilight noticed she had stopped falling. She had trouble standing up on her hooves – namely, she couldn’t quite tell where the ground was. Then she saw – there was no ground. She was floating, adrift in space, with not a soul to see anywhere. Panic immediately set in – no air, no air pressure, no sound! She was as good as dead!
And yet she was not. Twilight had to remind herself that she was still breathing some sort of otherwise intangible aether; she was not about to suffocate anytime soon. She breathed out a sigh of relief – and she could hear it. Not just through her jawbone, but in her ears.
“Okay,” she told herself, “stay calm. You know perfectly well how to cast teleportation spells, so it’s just a matter of figuring out where you need to go.” A point B to go with this point A. In her head, she started visualizing her dorm room – and once she got a good enough spot by her bedside, she lit up her horn and cast a teleportation spell.
It did not work. She reappeared in the exact same spot as before. She tried the dorm kitchen, the School campus, the bookshop, none of them working. Like it or not, she was stuck here, stuck floating freely in the cosmos alone.
But perhaps she wasn’t alone. She felt a small something bump into the frog of her left hind hoof. When she looked, she saw that the object Spike had found in Canterlot had somehow been ‘brought’ with her to wherever this place was. It was a very small object, easily lost, so before she could lose it again, she cast a ballantine spell on it, keeping it firmly attached to her side. Perfect, she thought. That’s not going anywhere anytime soon. She then shrugged. “Now, while I’m here, might as well look ov – wait. Where. . . .”
She looked in front of her, squinting to see in the darkness. She turned her head this way and that, but couldn’t find anything resembling what she was looking for. The book was missing. Evidently, unlike the object, it had not traveled with her.
That was when Twilight truly started to despair. “Oh no. . . oh no no no!” Alone, adrift in space, far away from her family, Spike, Princess Celestia, Canterlot, Equestria – and absolutely nothing to read in sight. What horror indeed!
Then out of nothing, something. Namely a sound of roller skates coming from. . . somewhere. It was hard to tell at first, but then she heard it coming up behind her. Once she figured out how to rotate herself around in a weightless ‘vacuum,’ she could see some strange-looking figure approaching her on what looked like some sort of pathway. What or who it – she? – was, nopony could say.
Then they made eye contact.
“Hello out there!” the being called out to Twilight. Definitely sounds like a filly. . . . “What are you doing all the way off the pathway? Oh!” She gasped. “Is that a pony?”
Before Twilight could muster an answer, she leapt off the ‘pathway,’ grabbed the unicorn, then hooked her boot on the edge of the pathway, letting her swing right back onto it. Twilight could finally feel her hooves touch sold ground. “Thanks. Um. . . .”
It was then that she decided to get a better look at her rescuer. She was tall, pale, and very skinny – dare she say, impossibly so, were she in an environment with actual gravity – with a navy shirt and skirt, studded with stars, including two star-shaped earrings, and star-shaped pupils to boot.
“Oh my word, it’s a unicorn!” she exclaimed. “And it can talk! I’ve never seen a talking unicorn before!” Clearly giddy, she started hopping from skate to skate. “Name’s Milky Way. What’s yours?”
“Twilight Sparkle. Listen – ”
“Well hello, Twilight!” Milky Way shook her hoof quite vigorously. “A pleasure making your acquaintance!”
Twilight looked around her. Nothing but empty space around her. “. . . what are you doing all the way out here?” she finally asked.
“I was about to ask you the same thing.” She knelt down to her, somehow without falling off her skates. “We don’t usually get horses out here, and certainly not unicorns, and certainly not the talking variety of either.”
Twilight put a hoof to her chin. “I don’t know, actually. I remember sitting down with a new book to read, I flipped it open to one particular page, and when I read it – gah, it’s just so crazy!”
“And it flung you out here, didn’t it?”
“How’d you guess?”
Milky Way put a finger to her chin. She then shook her head. “I can’t really think of another way how you could’ve gotten here.” She shrugged. “I guess it’s not really that important.”
Twilight laid down on the pathway. “Still not sure how it all works. . . .”
“Anywho. . . .” Milky Way was twirling a lock of hair in her fingers. “I was skating around this system – ’cause I like exploring the universe, don’t you know – and I was looking for, um. . . asteroids! That I collect.”
“Really?” Twilight was dumbstruck. “Collecting asteroids? What for?”
“Oh, no reason. Hey, you wanna come along? I could use the company!” Before Twilight could object, Milky Way scooped her up and, with a thrust of her skates, took off into parts unknown.
Twilight started looking around her, wide-eyed. “Where exactly are we going!?”
“Don’t worry, it’ll be fun. Just you wait and see!” Milky Way picked up her pace. All Twilight could do was look on as she skated on to. . . where? Twilight looked to her, but Milky didn’t notice. Instead of her stated excitement, her face looked more serious, with her starry eyes pointed dead ahead on her path. Does she look. . . worried? Twilight wondered. And about what?
Whatever it was, Twilight too was now worried herself. She held on even tighter to Milky Way, screaming as the two shot down the pathway at unbelievable speeds.
After a good five minutes or so of sheer terror for Twilight, Milky Way found a bench in Hubble Park and sat the pony down with her.
Twilight took a deep breath, relieved that she somehow survived. “So,” she began, “mind explaining what that was all about?”
Milky Way sighed. “Look,” she explained, “I wasn’t going to tell you, but the universe is in grave danger as we speak.”
“The galaxy?” Twilight peered around her. For the first time, now that she was on solid ground – could it be called that? – she was able to look around her and take in the sights of a vast and awesome universe. All around her were more stars than she could count – likely more than in Equestria’s night sky. “Woah. . . .”
Then she remembered something else. “Actually, I’ve been wondering,” she asked. “If we’re both out here, and neither of us have helmets, then. . . how are we breathing, exactly?”
Milky Way just waved her hand. “Eh, don’t worry about it. If you weren’t suffocating earlier, you won’t anytime soon. But listen!”
Twilight looked up at Milky Way.
“I. . . may have accidentally caused all of this. But I didn’t mean to! Honest!”
“Milky Way.” Twilight’s tone turned cold. “What exactly did you do?”
She sighed. “I may or may not have touched one planetoid that I shouldn’t have, which may or may not have contained this one super-evil being who may or may not now be trying to suck up everything in the universe into a vortex.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. Probably should’ve been a warning somewhere. “So, a black hole?”
“Yes! Black Hole!” Milky pointed at Twilight. “That’s exactly what he is – and if we don’t stop him quick, he’ll have the entire universe in his hands, concentrated into a single point. That means everything and everyone – and even you too, now that you’re here!”
Twilight smacked her face with her hoof. “Please tell me you didn’t just drag me into your wild goose chase.” She looked up to Milky Way with a sullen glare. “I really don’t have time for whatever you’re trying to do to solve your problem.”
“No, you’re unrelated to all this.” Milky patted Twilight’s head. “As for what I’m doing, I’m not exactly collecting asteroids so much as I’m collecting fragments of the planetoid that kept him held back. The trouble is, I don’t know how many there are, or the first place to look!”
Milky Way slumped over on the bench, looking glum. Then she turned back to Twilight. “But, I’ll tell you what: if you can help me re-contain Black Hole, I’ll find you a way back to. . . where did you come from, anyway?”
Hmm. . . that’s promising, Twilight thought. “I come from Canterlot – a city in Equestria. I don’t expect you to know where that is, and right now I don’t either.”
“Nope, but now I want to!” Milky seemed genuinely excited to hear more. “What’s it like there?”
“Well, uh. . . .” Where do I start with her? “Our ruler is Princess Celestia, who every day raises and lowers the sun and – ”
“Okay, sounds fascinating and all, but you just gave me an idea on where to look first. Thanks a lot!” She got up and zipped off, but came right back. “Erm, wanna come with me? Better not be stranded out here.”
“Maybe,” Twilight bluffed. “Where exactly are we going?”
“To the center of this solar system.” She pointed to a brightly-glowing patch in the sky. “I bet the Sun would have something that can help us – or at least know something. You coming or what?”
Well, if this helps me get back home. . . . “Sure, let’s go, Milky Way!”
Without another word, Milky Way scooped up the unicorn and, with a strong shove of her skates, took off to the light. “Wheee!”
Brave, adventurous. . . with cheer? Twilight was starting to see a tenuous connection to her and the poëm she read. Am I going to see all eleven of these girls before facing Black Hole? She hoped they wouldn’t become friends with her, especially since it would only be a temporary affair.
Milky Way looked behind her, to see Twilight clutching her shoulder. “Hey, on our way there – can you tell me more about yourself?”
So much for that line of thinking. “Like I said, I live in Canterlot, with my pet dragon, Spike. I attend Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, though we’ve just let out for the summer.” Hey, while I’m on that train of thought. . . . “So I thought I’d get myself some summer reading. When I got back to my dorm, I opened it up to one page in particular, which had this poëm, but when I read it aloud, it just. . . brought me out here. I really can’t explain it, because even I don’t know how it worked!” She looked into Milky Way’s eyes. “But maybe you might?”
“Nope,” she said. “That’s no magic I’ve ever heard of. But that does sound amazing! I wish I could use magic.” She looked ahead, her glee fading. “Would be nice to have right about now.
“But enough about that!” She turned her head back around. “Mind if I tell you about myself?”
“Well, I can’t stop you.” Twilight sighed. “At least it’ll pass the time. How much further is the Sun?”
“About fifteen minutes out, I think,” she answered. “Anyway, my name’s Milky Way, though you already know that. I have a younger sister, named Andromeda, who just looks up to everything I do.”
“Kinda like Spike,” Twilight said. “Well, whenever I do notice. Usually I’m studying something.”
“Spike? Oh, your dragon – woah!” Milky ducked out of the way of a rather large planetoid. “That was close. Anyway, I spend my time exploring the universe. The things I’ve seen – you wouldn’t believe them!”
“I believe it,” Twilight snarked. “I’m one of them, after all.”
“Yes, well – oh!” Milky Way snapped her fingers. “I just remembered. You’re going to need skates to get around the universe. You want me to get you some?”
“No, that’s alright.” Four fewer things to keep track of. “Just tell me how yours work. I can use some of my magic to imitate them.”
“Okay, it’s simple.” She pointed down at her feet. “They roll along these pathways you see here, but you can also use them to push off of them and jump. You can even walk on them yourself, probably without magic.” She quickly braked. “Want to try it yourself?”
Twilight’s horn lit up – with Milky Way looking on in awe – and cast a glow onto the wheels of her skates. Once she got a proper feel of the material, she cast it onto her own horseshoes. Confident that her spell worked, she leapt off of Milky Way’s shoulder and hit the pathway – and actually hit it. Tangibly, as though she were on land.
She took a moment to feel around. The sound reminded her of linoleum, even though by all accounts it should be intangible. Still, she thought, in a universe where I can breathe in no atmosphere, it’s best not to question minor details like this – lest I jinx something I don’t know about.
“Okay, I think I’m good to go,” Twilight told Milky Way. “Where were we headed?”
“To the Sun!” Milky Way pointed to the now much brighter patch of light ahead of them.
Twilight hopped back up onto Milky Way’s shoulder. “I don’t think I can run as fast as you want to go,” she told her.
“No worries!” And with a strong thrust of her skates, she took off towards the star. “Though now I wonder how you’ll handle being next to a star.”
“I think I can keep my distance,” Twilight reassured. “How hard can it – ” Suddenly Twilight had to start squinting, as the brightness of the star started to get to her. “Is this it!?” Twilight asked.
“Yep, it sure is,” Milky Way answered. “Let’s go and meet the Sun.”