Though it was now early morning Ponyville was alive with activity. Pinkie had been the one to sound the alarm to get everypony awake, which was not a complicated task when you are your own walking orchestra pit. Every able bodied pony was gathering to the west of town, while the rest set up stations near the edge of town preparing rest areas under Twilight's instruction. Fluttershy, along with the help of Applejack and a few others, were helping to divert animals coming from the forest out and away from the town itself and from where the others were coordinating their efforts. Into this raised state of alertness careened the Tardis over the treetops of the northwest Everfree, once again flying through the air to preserve what precious time was left, a mere two hours until the world was consumed by the encroaching black and white horizon.
"Such an expansive space, all pressed into such a small frame," the Princess commented as she looked up at the high vaulted ceiling, "Truly, this puts my magic to shame."
"She may have what some would called a plain exterior," the Doctor said as he patted the control console, "but the Tardis has it where it ultimately counts."
In response the ship's engines seemed to make a slight rumble and purring noise.
"So," I exclaimed, "After we get the girls their...brooch things they'll save the world somehow?"
"First of all they're five necklaces and a tiara," the Doctor said as he began to set us down, "Second, they're going to need all the help they can get to close this hole. The Tardis will be helping to smooth things out from the other side of the rift, but we're still going to need every ounce of power we can squeeze from these-" he brought up one piece that had a lightning shaped ruby on it and twirled it around on his wrist like a hula-hoop, "-lovely little pieces." We felt a slight shift in the floor as the Tardis gently settled down onto the grass just behind the Emporium. "We need to get these to the Elements right now, as well as our findings to Ditzy Doo." He whipped his coat aside to reveal a hip mounted device that he activated with the push of a button. Within a few moments he was concealed by the equine persona that Ditzy Doo had constructed for him. "For right now Adam, just stay here until I get back: I'm going to need your help as a second pair of hands when we access the Tardis' higher dimensional functions."
"Alright, I guess," I said with a shrug, "No point in providing everypony with another source of panic, right?"
"Exactly," he said as he ran out the doors, then called back to Lyra and the Princess, "Whenever you're ready, you two!"
I leaned back against the railing and started to count the lights in the wall's structure. Though I didn't see it, the Princess' eyes narrowed, and she looked out after the Doctor as he went with a growing sense of distrust. She made hard eye contact with Lyra, who noticed her stare. Gesturing her to come towards her with a gentle waving of her wings, she began to speak in a hushed tone with the unicorn. Lyra's eyes grew wide and she glanced at me, all the while unaware of anything but the coral structures of the ceiling. With nothing of her own to say to the Princess, Lyra bolted from the Tardis and vanished into the night.
Turning back to me, the Princess cleared her throat softly. Suddenly alert, I whirled around to look to her, "Ah! Sorry. I was just settling in for the oncoming boredom for who knows how long."
"I know," she said, and I was concerned to hear an almost gentle tone in her voice, though I wasn't sure why.
"Oh right; telepathy. Should have figured. What's up?"
"I don't have time to waste words, and soon neither will you," she said, cutting me off before I went further, "You and I may have had only so much contact, but we have done much for each other; You've been instrumental in giving me a look into my past, one which I had all but forgotten. You even guided me back to my mother. For that, I thank you."
"Well, I can't really say that was because of anything on my part," I said with a shrug, "Frankly I feel like I've just been stumbling through everything here, pretending like I know what's going on."
"Well, you are not wholly a buffoon," she said with a smirk, "so perhaps it is more a case that you are a servant of Fate? Regardless, you have my thanks, and Equestria does owe you an apology." Her horn then lit up, and from out of thin air a crystal materialized. It was shaped like a half crescent moon and was deep sapphire in color. "This will be a sign of my power and authority for all to recognize," she declared, and she gave a smile, "and I hope a sign of our friendship as well. Please, present your left arm to me." Unsure of what she meant to do but trusting her all the same, I raised my mechanical arm for her. Gently grasping the arm by the wrist joint, she rolled it over so that the forearm plate was pointed up and gently brought the icon towards the surface of it. As they touched the gem merged and fused with the exterior layer of the arm, and it gently began to glow; a soft grey light behind a dark blue veil.
"I thought you might appreciate this more than a brooch as you so put it," she pointedly put an emphasis on the word 'brooch'.
I brought it up to look for myself, and remarked, "Well look at that; I'm worth more than I've ever been in my entire life!" Putting my bad joke away I did actually respond with gratitude, "Princess, you've done so much for me and I feel like I've barely done anything at all to deserve it."
"If there is one thing you can do for me, Adam the Human, it would be this: remember where you were, and then think to help others from their own plights." She wrapped her wings around me, put her head first on one shoulder, and then the other, before drawing back to look at me with serious eyes and a warm smile. "Remember the pariahs, and do well by them," she said solemnly before she flapped her wings to gain lift. With her peace made, she turned and flew out the doors of the Tardis, leaving me to wonder why I got the feeling that this was some kind of last goodbye.
Lyra had bolted for the edge of town, unseen by anypony and only known of because of the Princess. For all anypony else knew she had simply vanished from the face of the Earth. She was headed straight into harm's way, as the wavefront of the Void hole was dangerously close to the edge of the Everfree now, but there was a greater purpose that drove her, greater than even her own sense of safety. Time was running out in more ways than one, and she needed to head back to the one place that had everything she needed: home. Barging straight through the front door of the cottage she quickly began searching for all the items she needed, including her lyre, saddlebags full of sheet music and spare ink, quills, and paper. With what time she had she quickly took out a piece and scribbled a quick message on it. In her rush to head back into town the note she'd written rolled up and dropped onto the floor from the table side she had placed it on, but she was already gone from the quaint little homestead. Even as the mint colored unicorn rode hard back to Ponyville the back wall of the cottage was slowly consumed by the wavefront, until it now monstrously rose above the last of the tree line, leaving nothing to challenge its height but the mountains in the far north and east.
"And you're certain that the Elements of Harmony can do the job," Twilight asked as she placed her tiara on her head, adjusting it into just the right place even as she asked.
"Oh absolutely," the Doctor said with an enthusiastic nod, "Well, ninety-eight...more like seventy percent, but having more available power never hurt anything."
Ditzy Doo had just finished attaching a large metal ball to the back of the Space Cork, and with a wipe of her brow she called out to the others, "Alright, it's working! Using this giant magical conductor all anypony has to do is aim at the sphere and their magic will be channeled into sealing the hole; no more metal plates to worry about!"
"Where's the Princess," Twilight asked, but it was almost immediately answered by the mare herself as she serenely floated down towards them. "I am here," she said curtly, "Had to attend to an additional matter." She looked around expectantly, "Pray tell, is my sister near? Surely I'd think she'd be here by now."
"You mean she's not with you?"
Worriedly the alicorn looked back up to the east toward Canterlot, "Perhaps she needed more convincing than even I had." She then turned back to look at the other ponies and the Doctor, "We cannot delay; we must act now to stem the tide of this threat to reality, even if it must be without her." With that she took off once again towards the skies above, calling out below, "I will provide the signal. At the third count, we make our efforts as one."
"See you from the other side then," the Doctor said as he rushed back towards the Tardis.
It was all happening in such a rush that the six Elements only now became cognizant of the duty that was on their shoulders. They looked to each other, each silently nervous. If they failed...If all of Ponyville failed here, the world as they all knew it was over. The magnitude of it all was too great for any of them to bear. However, they then looked to each other, and then they knew; it was not about being too much for them alone, and it never would be. Each of them complimented the others. Each of them brought their knowledge, their strength, and their courage together into this. The task would not divide them, and it would not catch them alone or in need. If they faced annihilation, it would be together; friends to whatever end.
"Ready girls," Twilight asked, even with a thread of unease in her voice. They all heard it. They knew. They felt it too. They nodded. Looking up to the starry night sky, they awaited the Princess' signal.
Bon Bon was helping to finish the staging of one the rest areas with Vinyl's help. The two of them had seen some of the soldiers from the RSD helping out as well, but they had both decided to stay as far away from them as possible.
"Do ya think thes es gonna work," Vinyl asked as she hoisted a large water cooler into place.
Bon Bon looked up at the fast approaching wall of doom, and her ears folded toward her head. In the distance she could hear a child crying, their mother trying their best to console them, even as they surely looked up at the hideous light in terror. "I honestly don't know," was her quiet answer. After a few more silent moments looking up at the expanse she shook her head and growled a little, "I won't be caught doing nothing at the end. Come on, we need more blankets to put down."
Just as they were turning to go grab more supplies, a voice boomed out from above, "CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE, LEND ME YOUR EARS!" All eyes looked up to the Princess of the Night, her form illuminated by the background of the starry vaults above and the light of encroaching doom to her right. "YOU HAVE ALL PERFORMED ADMIRABLY THIS NIGHT, BUT THERE IS YET MORE WE MUST DO. CITIZENS...FRIENDS, I CANNOT HOLD BACK THIS FORCE OF DESTRUCTION ON MY OWN, BUT WITH YOUR HELP PROVIDING YOUR MAGIC, YOUR WINGS, AND YOUR STRENGTH, WE WILL PROTECT OUR HOMES AND LIVES." She turned to face the abyss, her eyes filled with steely purpose and resolve, "ON MY COUNT...1...2...3!"
Her horn lit up with an enormous power, and she channeled all of it straight into the Void. It's advance was visibly halted, and it buckled against her magical might. Six lights coalesced into a multi-chromatic beam that shot straight into the heart of the mass, and it slowly began to lose the territory it had already claimed. The crowd of ponies began to cheer, but that began to die out as they saw the massive columns of ozone forming where the two pillars of magic touched the Void hole, and that it was slowly returning to where it had been.
Taking command of the situation, Lieutenant Swiftfeet took to the air with the other pegasus member of his squadron, and they began to channel the ozone away from the interdimensional reaction. Seeing their actions, other pegasi now understood what the Princess had meant, and they too began to cautiously fly towards the building ozone to draw it away. The unicorns of the crowd also began to channel their magic into the hole or the Space Cork. The Void began to shrink even more, but with it came more and more ozone. The pegasi struggled to keep up but in time they began to lose energy, and they one by one began to fly back towards town in order to get some rest, water, and food at the stations the earth ponies provided. Some tried to tough it but, they just stressed themselves even more, and in time there were very few pegasi left to remove the ozone from the area around the hole. The unicorns had to pump more magic in just to keep up. The Elements were not faring much better, and their magic began to slowly wane to a trickle.
"Let's do it again," Twilight tried to cheer on enthusiastically, but even she was showing the signs of exertion and the toll their focused concentration required. As one they gave another burst of rainbow light, and while it was holding the Void at bay, it was not pushing back any farther. The event horizon slowly began to creep forward again even against their outpouring of might, as they had only so much left to give.
Alarmed by what she was seeing, Princess Luna poured even more magic into her enchantments. Even as she did so, she felt as if her bones were on fire, and her wings grew weak. Eventually she was forced to the ground by her weariness, but still she pressed on. Even if this act of sealing the hole would be the very thing that would at last kill her, she would give everything she had to do it.