Exit From Ponyville
“Twilight? Twilight! Wake up! Hey, we gotta go!” A voice, urgently insisting, roused Twilight from her slumber.
“Hmmm?” she mumbled, half conscious.
Winter spoke again, the urgency apparent in his voice, “Twilight, the library is collapsing!”
With a jolt and gasp, Twilight yanked herself off the desk she had fallen asleep against to observed her surroundings. It seemed Winter was correct, the walls of the library were indeed... melting away.
Winter grabbed Twilight and dragged her out of the study. As they made their way down the stairs they found it was little more than a ramp and rapidly warping. Sliding down it best they could they tumbled towards the exit.
Surprisingly, while it looked like it should, the melting surroundings did not stick to their hooves. In no time at all they crashed through what was left of the door and fell in a heap outside.
As she lay there Twilight wondered if the stallion would have simply left her if they weren’t, “joined at the flank”, so to speak.
Pushing themselves up they turned to look at the Library. It had stopped melting. They stared at it for a moment before Winter grunted and turned away.
“Must have stopped as soon as we got out.”
Twilight turned to stare at the retreating stallion. “Where are you going?”
“It must have stopped once we got out of proximity of the tree. My guess is: it, this world or whatever, doesn’t like us sitting around,” he called back.
Quickly catching up to Winter before her vision turned hazy she gave him an incredulous glance. “What makes you think that?”
Winter looked at her for a long moment. “It’s the only thing that makes, to me, as to why it stopped... melting.” He hesitated on the last word, trying and failing to come up with a better adjective.
“C’mon, let’s get moving,” he continued. “Canterlot isn’t going to get any closer standing here.”
Twilight reluctantly turned from her half melted home and followed Winter. But, as they walked up the street, any thoughts of the library were pushed from her mind as a building stood out from the surrounding town.
It had a roof that looked like it was made of chocolate and so many colors it almost hurt to look at. The proportions of the building were almost in direct conflict with the laws of physics as she knew them, but it still stood as it always had: A beacon of light and hope to those with an aching sweet tooth.
Both ponies glanced at each other before walking towards the door. It seemed they would have to actually walk inside the building to activate the memory. Before she could formulate anything to say, Winter had opened the door and stepped inside.
Twilight only hesitated a moment before entering the memory herself. Immediately she knew this was one of her memories as the feeling of the memory washed over her. She took a moment to savor the rush of color before heading towards the back where voices and sounds of banging pots could be heard.
Pinkie Pie was singing. Twilight immediately remembered the scene. It hadn’t been too long ago that she had scheduled a day to spend with Pinkie and they were currently baking. She began bobbing her head as the infectious song came back to her.
She watched, mesmerised, as the pink mare rambunctiously danced around the kitchen. Pinkie Pie flailed around with her cooking utensils yet never once spilled a drop of what she was mixing. Even watching it for a second time, Twilight couldn’t help but stare at the performance all over again.
The day was almost over and they were working on their last batch of cupcakes. Twilight saw the flecks of batter in her own hair and noticed the fatigued drag of her hooves as she stirred the mix. But, there was a smile there, as she watched Pinkie Pie dance.
It was a good tired, Twilight decided, as she watched her old self whisk away. The thought reminded her of all the other good times she had with her other friends. A warm feeling began to grow in her chest and she stood a little taller, and smiled a little wider.
She turned to Winter, he had an eyebrow raised and an incredulous smirk on his muzzle.
She frowned at him. “Oh, come on. Can’t you be happy about anything?” Twilight put hoof to her chin before adding, “or maybe entertained? Any positive emotion?”
Winter turned to her. “Of course, but this isn’t exactly what I’d find enjoyable.”
“Then what is?” she pressed.
“First, tell me why you think this is so... so good? Why does it make you happy?”
Twilight grimaced, but nonetheless tried to explain. “It’s an escape from the daily grind. It’s a chance to spend time with friends, ponies you really really like.
“When you help a pony with a big task it evokes a very warm feeling of companionship and accomplishment with that pony. Those feelings are what make me happy, knowing that I’m being a good and helpful friend to my friends.”
Twilight nodded in satisfaction at her description. “I know that my friends will help me with any problems I might need help with, it is only proper that I return the favor.”
Winter’s features darkened. “There were no favors for me a thousand years ago. Life was hard. The only thing that made me happy was knowing those I cared about were safe.”
They turned back to the kitchen scene as it began to fade. The two ponies in it were both sitting on the floor, laughing together as good friends should.
“Baking and laughing didn’t keep ponies safe back then.” Winter muttered, turning away.
He walked out, but Twilight lingered. She watched the color and ponies fade in the kitchen as she pondered Winter’s dark demeanor. But, she couldn’t wait long. With a final glance back at the kitchen, remembering the feeling she had moments ago, she followed Winter out the door.
With silent consent between them, they headed north towards Canterlot. It was easily a day’s walk for them and it was already getting late in the morning. As they exited town, thoughts of Nightmares and camping out in the dark began to weigh heavily on both of them.
“So, I know of a place that is between here and Canterlot that is rather important to me.” Winter began, breaking the silence between them. “A memory that I’ve kept with me for a long time.”
Twilight breathed easier and picked up her pace. “Where is it?” she asked.
They trotted across a small bridge, the water beneath looking unnaturally murky against their gray surroundings. It was the last sign of civilization on the outskirts of town. The dirt road stretched out in front of them before dipping behind the nearby foothills.
“It’s...” Winter hesitated. “It’s somewhere ahead. I’m not sure exactly. There are so many changes to the landscape since I last saw it.”
Silence again. Twilight lost herself in her own thoughts. She had plenty to think about: dreams, memories, new spells... Winter. It had been such a confusing past few... days... if that was what you could call this unhealthy twilight. First she was sick and tired of Winter and wanted nothing to do with him, then she was saving him, then he was saving her. They stopped arguing and made a truce only to explode at the very next unusual situation.
Winter was one very unhappy and disturbed individual, Twilight concluded. She couldn’t even begin to understand what he had been through when he wouldn’t talk to her. Every time she felt as though she was making a little progress in understanding him, he would clam up or get upset at something she said, or did.
It made her frustrated, even her friends, and her, had all eventually come to realize that talking about problems was much better than being upset with each other. Why wouldn’t Winter let her help? Or, more importantly, what did Princess Luna see in this unicorn?
“So,” Winter said, breaking the quiet. “You were trying to create a spell that made animals able to get nutrients from the air like plants?”
Twilight snapped out of her reverie and glanced appraisingly at Winter. “Not exactly. It’s far more complicated than that.”
“Then explain it to me.”
“You- I... What?” Twilight stuttered.
Winter raised his eyebrows at her as she tried to think of a response to his simple request. He wasn’t normally this cordial and it was slightly disconcerting.
“Okay,” she began. “Well, I was trying to take the same mechanics of photosynthesis for plants and apply it to--”
“What is... photosynthesis?” Winter interrupted. “I heard you talk about it in your memory at Fluttershy’s cottage.”
“Well it’s the process of...” Twilight trailed off. “You don’t know what photosynthesis is?”
“Twilight, realize I’ve only been in your world for a matter of months. There are a lot of things I don’t know that you ponies have given names to that I--”
“Okay okay,” Twilight griped. It did make sense, Winter was a pony from a thousand years ago, microwaves were probably the coolest thing ever to him.
She gathered her thoughts, deciding how to best give him a crash biology lesson. “Photosynthesis is a process that plants use to convert the energy from the sun into fuel that their... bodies... can use.
“You do know that when a plant is kept in the dark, it dies right? We all know plants need sunlight.” Twilight paused, waiting for Winter to nod before continuing. “We’ve deduced that the sun is a source of energy and that plants are somehow able to tap into and harness that energy.
“Photosynthesis is a process that plants use to convert the energy from the sun into fuel that their... bodies... can use. It is a rather complicated process that I won’t go into now, we have biology books for that...” Twilight paused, then added. “If we ever get out of here.”
“Anyway,” she said, getting back on track. “We have made a few forays into harnessing solar power through mechanical means, but they have not been very efficient, and that irks me. So, I was looking into adapting the more natural ways into something we could use.
“What if, I thought, if we could implement the more efficient method of photosynthesis used by plants and use that to power our trains and appliances instead of trying to use our mechanical solar panels, and the like, to barely ease the strain on smaller things?” Twilight was really going now, she had almost forgotten it was Winter she was talking to, intent on re-living her own enthusiasm. “Imagine if we could apply that to ourselves through magic? We could ease the strain on so many struggling towns or individuals by cutting down on time and water required to grow crops, travelers could go so much farther into uncharted areas, and this is all if it’s only applied to ourselves. What about being able to store up this energy, or at least harness it, for so many of our developing modern machines?
“There is so much potential energy coming from Celestia’s sun that is going to waste and I think with just a little more experimenting that we... could...” Twilight trailed off.
Winter clenched his jaw at “Celestia” but as Twilight went silent his attention snapped back to the mare. “So, what do you intent to try next?”
Twilight glanced away. “I won’t be continuing anything in that area of magic. It’s too dangerous.”
“Well, you could keep working on it without conducting dangerous experiments you know.” Winter suggested.
Twilight looked at him suspiciously. “Why are you suddenly so interested in what I do?”
Shrugging, Winter searched for an answer. “I was just curious, you seemed rather put out after leaving Fluttershy’s cottage.”
Heaving a dark sigh Twilight looked away with a frown. She didn’t respond when Winter tried to prompt her to continue. She didn’t trust him enough yet to lay out concerns that delicate and important to her.