Feedback

by RQK

6 - Accuracy

Several scores of sparkling ponies moved about the streets below, crisscrossing each other in varied patterns as they went about their day-to-day activities. There were several visitors interwoven with the crowd, acting out tendencies more likened to tourists. It was easy to tell them apart from the locals solely by the fact that the former were not made of crystal.

The word pristine usually came to Shining Armor’s mind whenever he looked at the rest of the Crystal Empire. Today, that word had not come to him.

The city looked like it did on a completely normal day. As far as he could tell, not a single speck of dirt could be found within several hundred yards of the castle, and the population appeared as placid and carefree as ever. That was usually a cause for delight.

One of his favorite things to do, after all, was watch the citizens of the Crystal Empire as they carried on and built their lives, little by little; a definite contrast to how things had been mere years before. The prospect that the Crystal Empire had hosted the Equestria Games was just the cherry on top.

Princess Cadance stepped through the opening and joined him on the balcony. Like him, her mind was elsewhere. Nonetheless, one hoof came to rest on the banister while the other wrapped itself around his neck.

In response, Shining Armor pulled the love of his life in close. Affectionate strokes passed between the two of them as they continued to watch the city below.

Every so often, one of the citizens would look up and, partly out of sympathy, would wave at them with the quick and cheery wave characteristic of two neighbors on opposite sides of the street. Each wave given brought a smile to both their faces, and soon enough, they returned the gestures in kind.

“They know,” Cadance finally said, breaking a long silence.

Shining Armor cracked a small grin. “How are you feeling today?”

“Not as nauseous as the past few days. Ow,” she groaned, wincing as another fresh wave overtook her.

He pulled her in even tighter, though his touch remained a ginger and delicate gesture. “I’m sorry, honey.”

Cadance laid her head on his. “What about you?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Several more ponies waved in unison. They automatically waved in response.

“This feels all wrong,” he continued. “For the longest time, she’s always been there. No matter how far away I was, I always thought about my little sis and all the cool and amazing things she was probably doing.

“I’ve never even imagined this world without Twily…”

Cadance let out a dejected sigh. “I know, Shining. I know. I miss her too… I… Oh stars.” She grabbed at her face and held it there for a few moments before shaking it off. “I didn’t think it would look so… same-y.”

The Crystal Empire looked exactly as it did a week ago. And the week before that. And the week before that.

Shining snorted. She has a point... We’re the only ones that’ve really changed through all this.

“And I guess…” Shining Armor softly began, “nothing’s really changed.” He took several deep and composing breaths, slowly taking on a firmer and confident stature. “Twily or no Twily, the Crystal Empire will always keep going. And that just means they’re all still depending on us to keep going.”

Cadance grinned. “That sounds more like the Shining Armor I know.” Giving him a quick peck on the cheek, she pulled herself off the railing and began to saunter back inside.

Shining Armor took one last look out over the populace and smiled before following suit.

---

An airy whistle had been Rainbow Dash’s only companion for the past few hours. She normally tuned it out, but considering that the only other thing to notice was water, she had picked up on it quickly.

And, she decided, the constant whistle was actually fairly relaxing. The way the air caressed her hair, the way it swam underneath her, the way it fluffed her feathers, all were things she yearned for.

She couldn’t remember a time she had been airborne for such a length of time. In fact, there had never been a time where she had even come close. Another glance toward the horizon yielded nothing new. She saw water as far as the eye could see in all directions. She imagined that she was at least halfway across the ocean by this point but there was no way to tell besides baseless intuition.

The latest cloud finally disintegrated from under her and that left her on her own once more. Several hour's worth of cloud surfing had saved her wings, but there were no more clouds on the open ocean.

It would do for a while.

Rainbow Dash closed her eyes, brought her wings into her body, and then began to fall out of the sky. The listless sea far below slowly made its way up toward her. What it lacked in variety, it made up for in freedom. It was featureless and unobtrusive, two things she’d never find on land.

As she continued to fall, she tucked herself into a ball. Her body punched through the air as it flipped forward over and over. And the best part was that she was in complete and utter control. Whether or not she crashed into the water was entirely up to her. For a few brief moments, she even considered it.

Rather than dwell, Rainbow Dash took the opportunity to yank the buckle on her saddlebag. It held fast and firm.

With a smirk, she turned her attention back toward the water. Even as she continued tumbling, she remained acutely aware of how high up she was. She let herself fall even further, momentarily losing herself in the sensation.

And then, just before she hit the water, Rainbow Dash spread her wings again. Her wings caught against the air, pulling her out of the dive. And then she flapped them again, picking up even more speed. She sped across the water like a bullet.

The air resisted for a few moments. A cone formed, trying to collapse itself and push her back. Rainbow Dash smirked, driven to fly even faster. And then the air yielded.

BOOM!

The cone gave way and Rainbow Dash shot forward, now completely unrestrained. A large, multicolored ring expanded behind her, cutting into the ocean’s surface like a hot knife. The water heaved, thrown upward with tremendous force.

It wasn’t fast enough to catch up with her.

As Rainbow Dash, in a long streak of multicolored light, sped just above the surface, the water below parted, divided by the very air rushing over it. She glided over the water, riding the Sonic Rainboom for all it was worth with a huge smile on her face.

* * *

The wheels spun and spun as the train thundered along the tracks. The landscape galloped by at a breakneck pace. The trees that flashed by outside appeared to wave at the passengers as they swayed in the wind.

One of the windows slid down and a pink-maned pony stuck her head out. Feeling the breeze, Pinkie Pie let it flow through her. It met resistance as it got tangled in her mane, and in short order, a bug got caught in her teeth. That didn’t stop her, however. She gave a whoop and punched the air outside.

Rarity, meanwhile, relaxed against the opposite seat. The area around her eyes still felt moist from the cucumbers, but those eight hours were already over. Now placing her comb back into her saddlebag, she then reached into a pocket on the wall and drew out a pamphlet to do some very light reading.

The only reason Rarity recognized the name Equestrian 500 was that Rainbow Dash had been involved in that race at one point. Even as she read through the roster, she started to wonder how her friend was doing.

Rarity quickly decided there was nothing to worry about. If anything, Rainbow Dash was a certainty. She would do what they needed her to do or she would die trying.

Rarity frowned. Maybe there was reason for worry after all.

Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie had wandered over toward another booth. She was bothering a chocolate-colored colt but, judging from the fact his game box now lay forgotten on the seat, he didn’t seem to mind.

A vanilla-colored mare watched from her seat next to the colt, examining the scene with an amused expression. Briefly, she looked over and met Rarity’s gaze, and the two of them shared light-hearted chuckles and happy grins.

Rarity gazed back up at Pinkie Pie and nodded to herself. It beat traveling by herself by far. There were very few that she would rather be with.

At that point, she turned her gaze to the scenery outside. The car rattled as it rolled over a bumpy section of the tracks. They were traveling at a rapid pace after all. Her eyes wandered over the landscape as it flowed up and down.

Somewhere up ahead of them, the engine bellowed a long and drawn out whistle that resonated throughout the plains. It served as a reminder of how far away they already were, yet somehow it didn’t feel that way at all.

* * *

The early-afternoon sun filtered through the large window, directly hitting the chalkboard. Several equations and diagrams spread across its face with barely any room remaining. A layer of white smears upon its green surface held traces of numbers and strings of words.

Sunset Shimmer looked over her current work once more, ran the math one last time in her head, and then placed a hoof on the crystal ball. “I think we’ll want to integrate this function, Twilight,” she announced.

Twilight looked up at her own busy chalkboard. She hovered her piece of chalk between some of her own computations before she nodded sagely. “I agree with that. So, how should we bound it?”

Sunset stroked her chin in thought, trying to search over the data they had been going over together. Finding nothing, she flipped through the pages of what she had worked out on her own. “I say six seconds and… show me page thirty-four again?”

Twilight idly used her magic to shuffle through several pages in her master copy.

Sunset looked over Twilight’s (or rather, her future self’s) work and considered what she had. “When is A6’s kinetic energy six hundred and seven kilojoules?”

“Give me a second.” Twilight flipped her own chalkboard over and started writing a new equation on it. “Factor that out… then square that number…” The chalk danced furiously as she distributed and divided through.

“Sunset!” a voice from the stairs called. Spike then reached the landing with several bits and pieces of metal, including screws, nuts, and sheets. “I got those pieces that you wanted.”

“Great!” Sunset exclaimed. “Thanks, Spike.”

Twilight’s ears twitched but she ignored it, electing to stay focused on her calculations.

“Where you do want them?” Spike asked.

Sunset pointed toward the half-constructed apparatus in the corner. “Over there. I’ll be along in a sec.”

Spike nodded happily before walking over that way with the items he had collected.

“It’s going to be when t equals twelve point thirty-six seconds,” Twilight announced. “There’s a statistical error of twenty-three milliseconds.”

“Okay,” Sunset replied, turning back to the board, “well, that’s the general area where the upper bound is.”

“Okay, I’ll do integration up near there. It might take a little bit because I have to do this numerically, but we’ll get at least an estimate for now. I’ll improve that once we’re able to improve our numbers.”

“That sounds good. I’m going to go finish building our machine, so I’ll talk to you again later.”

“Will do!”

Sunset walked toward a small alcove underneath the upper balcony bookshelves. The beginnings of a machine the size of a dresser greeted her. Exposed boards and dangling wires lay orphaned across the fledgling device, all of which she was sure she would be able to consolidate into something that actually worked with the new materials.

Spike set the materials into a nearby corner and sat down to sort them by size and apparent use.

“How much was it?” Sunset asked, levitating the ball off to the side as she took stock.

“Oh, about two hundred bits for all of this,” Spike replied as he set some nuts into a small pile. He then produced a few receipts and handed them to her. “Had to go to a few places for some of this, but I got it.”

Sunset frowned at the numbers. “Oof. My bank isn’t gunna like that…”

“How’s work?”

“Uh… It’s going. I think we’re figuring some stuff out.”

“That’s good. How are Twilight’s readings going?”

Sunset paused in her step. Biting her lip, she doubled back on herself. “I haven’t checked in a while actually… Hold on.”

She levitated the ball back into her grasp. A glance told her that Twilight had gone into the zone. Rather than disturb her, Sunset instead thought movement commands into the ball. The scene shifted to the other side of the room to the very same alcove.

A similarly built machine chugged on in its place. Rather, it was the original machine nine days removed which Sunset had begun to repurpose into what was now going up. Twilight’s machine whirred and clicked, performing several calculations and crunching several sets of numbers as it scoured the entire band.

Sunset took her hooves off the ball. “It’s getting there. It’s not stuff we need to wait on, though.” She smiled, glancing back at Spike. “Thanks to you. I still can’t get over how ingenious that was.”

Spike chuckled and shrugged. “That was pretty good.”

* * *

The spacious window at the front of the hall offered a spectacular view of the ocean below. The constant hum of the airship’s engines whirred some distance away from them. The room’s simple architecture hid behind the lavish furniture, all clean and squeaky and not unlike the several guests milling about.

The journey was slow and listless, and that was fine in Fluttershy’s book. It allowed her to compose herself and reflect on recent days. This was not where had expected to end up after all that had happened; she wanted to be back home with her animal friends. She was positive that they were so worried about her, especially considering how she had stopped functioning in the immediately following days.

A glass of grape juice in her hoof brought her back around as she took a small sip. There were other ponies in the room, socializing with each other in flavors dictated by the small orchestral quartet off to the side. A small bar opposite the musicians showcased a large selection of fine wines and other drinks she was unfamiliar with.

“Hoowee,” a wonderstruck voice said from behind her. “If Ah’d known there’d be so many ponies here, Ah’d have brought my apple cart.”

Fluttershy giggled as her friend appeared beside her with a similarly looking glass in her hooves.

Applejack’s choice was a little stronger than her own, but not by much. “Enjoyin’ the view?” she asked as she swirled her glass.

Fluttershy nodded. “Yes, Applejack. It’s really… relaxing. The music’s nice, and nopony is giving me any mind… so it’s good. Are you doing okay?”

Applejack shrugged. “Nothin’ Ah haven’t seen before. But believe me, Ah don’t miss it.”

“Miss what?”

“This.”

Fluttershy shook her head and frowned, uncomprehending.

For a few brief moments, a sly smile flashed across Applejack’s features.

“Oh, Fluttershy,” Applejack began, a noticeable nasalness in her tone, “you simply must try the J’het la’tor, it is to die for. Anypony with the slightest bit of culture is drinking it.”

A long pause passed between the two of them. Applejack took the opportunity to grin and take a drink from her glass (which, just to top the whole thing off, she did so with graceful motions and a pompous smirk).

“That was pretty good!” Fluttershy exclaimed quietly, letting her mouth hang limp. “I thought you were Rarity for a second.”

Applejack chuckled. “Uh, that wasn’t a Rarity impression.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened for a moment before she giggled sheepishly. “Oh, that’s right. I kinda maybe sort of forgot about that part about you.”

“It weren’t nothin’, sugarcube. Ah left that life behind a long time ago.”

Fluttershy blushed. “I know. I’ll just have to remember next time.”

The two exchanged friendly giggles before they took a sip of their drinks in tandem.

“Speaking of Rarity…” Fluttershy said, adopting a more serious tone, “do you think her and the others are doing alright?”

Applejack didn’t even think about it. “We’ve all been through thick and thin. They’re all very strong.”

“And what about you?”

Applejack paused. “What about me?”

Fluttershy grabbed her foreleg. “I just hope that you’ll make it out okay too.”

Applejack let out a sigh. For a few moments, she scratched her muzzle. “Ah’ll be okay, Fluttershy,” she replied. “Ah feel really good ’bout all of this.”

“Are you sure?”

“That’s the honest truth. Ah believe in what Sunset Shimmer’s got us doin’.”

Fluttershy considered it. “You promise?”

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Applejack said, acting out all of the accompanying motion as she went.

Fluttershy nodded and gave her friend a wide grin. “Okay. Then I think so too.”

* * *

Sunset sat in front of the window, transfixed on the tower across the way where, with any amount of luck, her old mentor was currently at. She was so lost that she nearly didn’t register the ding that sounded throughout the room. “That’s probably Twilight’s machine,” she announced.

Spike, busy installing some switches and knobs on the opposite side of the half-complete apparatus, leaned into view. “Really?”

“Yeah. I think.”

Spike nodded happily. “That’s good,” he said nonchalantly before returning to his task.

She let her eyes fix on the tower. She had no way of telling how Celestia would react to her. Or maybe it was her own sense of shame that kept her from going over. All that she knew was that any facsimile of a conversation had not happened, not even when they had been in the same room during the funeral.

She couldn’t tell if she was staring out of longing or out of fear.

“Sunset! It’s ready!” Twilight called.

Sunset snapped herself out of her stupor. She used her magic to summon the crystal ball over to her and gave Twilight a token “That’s good,” before letting out a sigh.

Spike stretched his arms and then glanced toward the window. The golden glow outside told that Celestia was about to lower the sun. He almost couldn’t believe it.

There was a grumble in his stomach and the debate was put to rest. “I think we should grab some dinner soon, Sunset.”

“I agree with you there,” she said as her own stomach started to protest.

“How are you two doing?” Twilight asked as she orbited her machine, turning off several gauges as she went.

“Tired, Twilight,” Sunset said as she picked herself up from in front of the window and headed over to where Spike sat on the floor. “We’re almost done, but wow. I think I’ve lost my touch. I’m not as fast as I used to be.”

Twilight giggled. “I guess you don’t build machines in your world, huh?”

Sunset scowled. “Not particularly, though I know how to program one. Somewhat.”

“Really?”

“Well, how do you think I was able to fake those e-mails and texts that my friends… uh… yeah.” Sunset lost a little of her vigor as she spoke. “I can get around technology.”

Spike hummed. “Definitely,” he began dryly, “after all, those pictures of Twilight were pretty, uh, first-rate.”

She glared him down. “Hey, why don’t you go talk to Snips and Snails about that? I’m sure they’ll find a few coloring books for you.”

Spike rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

“Well, you’re doing some helpful stuff here, and that’s all that matters, Sunset.” Twilight flipped through a few pages in her book. “This set of parameters you included in the back of my book really helped.”

“...Oh?” Sunset stammered, pausing in place. “Well, that’s good. Uh…”

“Well,” Twilight corrected herself, “there’re lots of parameter sets here, but this one was the only one not crossed out. I’m assuming the others in this book are no good.”

Sunset blinked. “You mean, in the book that I gave you?”

“Yes. Of course, finding stones is easy. I could find about a score with any set of parameters. The hard part is knowing which ones we want…”

Sunset hazarded a glance. Several numbers and symbols took up an entire column, notating directions and ranges and other possibly desirable properties. From what she could tell, the page was one of a few, though not several. And, as Twilight had said, everything but the one was crossed out.

“But you took care of that. So thanks,” Twilight said.

Sunset chuckled nervously. “I see. I see. Cool.” However, unbeknownst to Twilight, she shot Spike an uncertain glance.

Spike looked like he had caught on. “Uh, does that mean you’re going to have to make those… uh, thingies that Twilight just said?”

Sunset shrugged nervously in a motion that said, I guess so!

“And then there’s these,” Twilight said again. She turned a few more pages, and the parameter lists disappeared. They were replaced by sets of coordinates. And there were pages and pages of them. Like the scores of parameters, the hundreds of coordinates were crossed out.

But what Sunset found especially odd (which was on top of a whole slew of odd things) was the word complete at the top of the page. Sunset scratched her chin. What does that mean?

Inside the ball, Twilight flipped onto another page. The coordinates within were not crossed out but instead had short notes next to them. Examples included Bugbear, Avalanche, and Changeling nest.

“Although I’m not sure what to do with any of this. There are a lot of extra coordinates here. Any ideas here?” Twilight asked.

Sunset let a drop of sweat meander down her face. “Uhhhhh, heheh, yeah.”

Twilight laughed. “It’s no big deal. I’m sure we’ll discover it later.”

Sunset gulped. “Yeah.”

At that point, Twilight turned her attention to the machine which was spitting out a long strand of paper. She funneled it through her hooves as it went, reading the numbers scrawled across it while her magic copied them down into a separate sheet of parchment. Eventually, she had twenty unique items.

Sunset guessed that the list would be thinned out later.

“Sunset?” Spike called, holding up a large metallic plate. “Where does this go real quick?”

After a moment’s consideration, she said, “Right there between those two panels,” and pointed at an open spot on the side.

Spike nodded, placed the piece, and then rose to his feet. “Alright. I’m ready to go and eat.”

“I’m with you there, Spike.” She turned her attention back to the mare in the crystal ball. “I’ll… think about those coordinate things later. I’m just glad to see you have your numbers, Twilight,” she said as she started to follow the dragon.

“Thanks, Sunset,” Twilight replied. “I’m pretty happy with this. These are good numbers.”

As Sunset descended the stairs after Spike, she looked into the ball to see what her friend had computed. She did have some curiosity after all. Her eyes ran across the parchment, taking in the digits. Twilight had already gone through the trouble of converting the computations into coordinates. Along her parchment were several values of latitude and longitude. Funnily enough, the numbers seemed unfamiliar.

Her heart sank.

She looked at them again, and then she looked a third time. In quick order, she concluded that what she had seen was not her imagination.

The numbers were unfamiliar.

“Uuuuhhhh, T-Twilight…” she quivered as she reached the landing and rooted herself to the spot.

Twilight froze, and then she looked up with a worried frown.

Spike, who was halfway toward the door, also stopped. He swiveled around, a half-confused and half-apprehensive frown on his face.

“I’m not sure t-those are good numbers,” Sunset stammered.

Twilight flinched. “What… What do you mean by that?”

Sunset blinked again, not quite sure what she was supposed to do. She had only taken a few looks and she hadn’t put her hoof on it yet, but the numbers that she had seen raised several red flags.

“Spike?” she called at length.

Spike gulped. “Yeah?”

“Where did you put those coordinates that we got in the box?”

After a moments’ hesitation as he tried to understand what was happening, Spike silently and uncertainly walked into the kitchen and fetched the sheet of paper off of the counter. “These?”

Sunset scoured their list up and down, taking in what they had been given. She immediately compared them to the numbers inside the ball. She took several back-and-forth glances between the two but was unable to form a connection between both papers.

“Twilight, we have a little problem here...” Sunset trailed off.

“What?” Twilight asked.

“None of your numbers look like what we have.”

* * *

The station’s glass awning shielded the whole platform from the nighttime rain. Rarity gazed at the architecture and smiled. I can spend an hour here before my train arrives.

“Well now, Pinkie,” Rarity began, trying to sound as formal and authoritative as she could, “I must be off.”

Pinkie Pie stood in the doorway to her train car with several tears in her eyes, and in short order, they shot outward, forming visible waterfalls. “Waaaah! Rarity, I’m going to miss you so much!”

Rarity chuckled, breaking the charade. “It’ll only be a couple of days at best, dear. Besides…” She pulled Pinkie Pie in for a hug. “I’m going to miss you too!”

The both of them shared sympathetic giggles as they embraced.

“I tell ya what, Rarity,” Pinkie Pie began cheerfully as they broke, “I’m going to throw us a big party when we all get back!”

“With lots of streamers?”

“With lots of streamers!”

Rarity smiled as the train whistled. “I’ll hold you to that then. Bon voyage, Pinkie. Best of luck!”

Pinkie Pie waved as she retreated back into the train car. “Bye, Rarity!” she said with a wave. The train car lurched forward, and it slowly but surely carried Pinkie Pie away.

Rarity stood there and waved for longer than necessary, even after Pinkie Pie was out of sight. Even as several train cars starts to pass by her, she didn’t move from the spot, content to see it completely pull away from the station.

She was sure it was going to be okay.

Even if one of her best friends was now increasingly out of reach, even if her other friends would be in similar situations, those situations were by no means light. She had no idea what to expect.

Yes, it was only for two days, but those were two days where anything was fair. Where she’d be all alone.

Was she ready for that?

“Byyyyeeee, Rarity!” shouted Pinkie Pie’s voice. Rarity snapped to attention once more as the caboose pulled by her, only to find that Pinkie had reappeared out on its rear platform, now waving at her. Again.

She laughed at Pinkie Pie’s antics and gave a friendly wave back. Somehow, that last act had done the trick, as Rarity dispelled those thoughts from before. Immediately feeling better, she gathered her belongings and headed toward the waiting room.

* * *

Fluttershy held onto the metal doorframe. The drop down to the ocean below was one step away. How far below was impossible to tell, and the lights from the rest of the dirigible polluted any moonlight she could have used.

Applejack held onto her stetson to keep it from blowing away. She blinked like a madmare all the while, occasionally trying to dig something out of her ear.

“Y’all ready!?” Applejack cried over the wind.

Fluttershy’s teeth chattered for a multitude of reasons. The cold night air was only one of them.

“You’ll do fahne, sugarcube!” Applejack urged. “Just remember to flap your wings when you jump!”

“…I don’t know, Applejack,” Fluttershy murmured. But even she couldn’t hear it over the cacophony of wind and engine.

“What!?”

“I mean, I’m really really really not sure of this.”

Applejack held a hoof to her ear, her expression even more curious than before.

Fluttershy paused, wishing that she didn’t have to say anything else. After a few moments of consideration, she sighed and then faked a wide grin.

“That’s tha spirit, Fluttershy!” Applejack exclaimed enthusiastically. She pumped a hoof into the air to drive the motion home before she swallowed and hit her ears again.

Fluttershy idly nodded, still keeping a smile. Turning her attention to the water below, she snuck in a gulp. The night sky wasn’t particularly inviting. But she had to.

Spreading her wings, Fluttershy let the rushing air catch her. Briefly, it tugged her at an odd angle and she tumbled, but she quickly reoriented herself. In short order, she came into a stable glide alongside the airship and looked up to the earth pony now standing in the doorway.

“See ya in a few days!” Applejack called out.

Fluttershy smiled warmly and waved. She then banked over and away, heading off through the night into parts unknown.

* * *

Ding!

Sunset nearly threw the chalk to the floor, abandoning her equation on the board entirely to scramble over to the ball. “Well!?” she asked anxiously.

Spike, who had been doing a little bit of reading near the now-completed machine, also looked up. He snapped his book shut and attentively stood up.

Twilight stirred but did not leave her current task. She hunched herself over her sprawling schematics, now wrinkled and torn in several places. After examining the front panel for the twentieth time, she all but threw the schematics aside in frustration. With that, her hairs split even further than they already were.

With a frown, she moved over toward the newest set of readings, now spilling out of the machine and into a small bin. “Nothing. I built this thing exactly how I designed it. I don’t know, Sunset…”

Sunset grimaced. “Well, maybe it was a fluke or something. What is it saying now?”

“I’ll know in a few moments.”

Sunset ignored her still-rumbling stomach and nervously glanced over at Spike. She couldn’t help but wonder how long the sky outside had been dark for (and she knew the answer to that question was past what she could measure).

Spike wiped his eyes and let off a yawn before folding his arms together.

Twilight’s eyes darted along the printed lines, again writing her interpretations down on her chalkboard. Sunset followed suit, immediately flipping the board over and, keeping her gaze fixed on the ball, performed her own breakdown of the data. Her chalk and Twilight’s chalk both dragged across their surfaces.

The last of the reads spilled out of the slot and Twilight immediately turned her attention to the numbers she had generated. “Same so far?”

Sunset glanced up her own numbers. “Yeah.”

Twilight immediately went to work on turning her numbers into actual coordinates, and Sunset swiftly followed suit.

The work was quick, and when it was done, Twilight scowled. “I’m getting the same numbers as last time, Sunset…” she grumbled.

Sunset looked over her own set of numbers. They were the exact same as the ones Twilight had calculated. They were the exact same ones from the first time.

And they were still not the same places that the others had traveled to. “But this doesn’t make any sense!” Sunset cried in disbelief. “Our methods were perfect! Everything is working right!”

Twilight frowned. “Same thing?”

“Same thing. I got the same numbers as you just now, but these are still not the numbers we need.”

Twilight reeled in disgust. “Ugggggh,” she groaned, grimacing as she rubbed her face.

Sunset frowned concernedly. “Are you okay, Twilight?”

Twilight shook her head. She silently gathered the papers containing the readings with her magic and started toward the desk. “The Nameless is still feeding off my energy, and I’m exhausted. I can’t really think straight now.” Twilight flicked the crumpled papers into a heap on top of the desk before she looked up to where she thought Sunset might be looking from. “I’ll... start a new set of readings with some different parameters. I’ll run it through the night, I suppose,” she said as she levitated the master book off of the desk and headed back over to the machine. “But, ugh… I think I’ll just wait until morning to get back on this.”

Sunset sat back with a look of chagrin. She glanced forlornly over at Spike to which his only response was to shake his head disapprovingly.

Twilight opened the book once more, took a cursory glance at the back pages, slid some dials on the machine, and then pushed a button. The apparatus whirred to life once more, whining as it went through its search.

Satisfied (but only just), she carefully laid her book beside the machine and then headed toward the stairs. “I’m going to bed, Sunset.”

Sunset sighed and let herself slump down dejectedly. “…Okay, Twilight. Go get some rest. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Twilight smiled weakly before turning toward the stairs. Silently, she drifted down and out of sight.

Without another moment’s hesitation, Sunset nearly threw the ball onto the floor beside her before retreating into herself, burying her face into her hooves and curling into a ball. “...Buck,” she muttered under her breath.

Spike shook his head. “Sunset?” he asked, walking over. “Are you okay?”

Sunset let out a long deep sigh. “…No.”

He rubbed the scales on the back of his neck, his expression uncertain. “What… what does this mean?”

“I’m really scared right now, Spike, because I don’t know what this means!” she blurted, throwing her hooves into the air. “Maybe it’s just Twilight is using the wrong set of parameters right now and she’ll use the right ones later, but that would mean that the book is wrong. Or maybe the book is right and she sent us the wrong numbers on accident. I just, I don’t know; it could be anything!”

“She has to be able to come up with those numbers, though!” Spike countered. “Because ‘Is, was, will be!’”

“How!?”

Spike flinched. “U-u-uh, I-I don’t know.”

“Yes!” Sunset snapped. “That’s the whole point! We should know how to do this! That was our way to do this and it didn’t work! We can’t say if our numbers are correct!”

Spike trembled. The thought seemed to hit him like a piece of cobblestone. His features contorted into an aghast expression, and his hands balled into shaky fists as he tried to contain himself. “S-so…” he said worriedly, “we might have sent them to the wrong places?”

“Yes, Spike…” Sunset trailed off, shuddering. “We have to deal with the very real possibility that we’ve sent Twilight’s friends out all by themselves to Celestia knows where for nothing.”

* * *

Several thunderclouds raged on beneath her, and Rainbow Dash knew she could use none of them. The singe marks on the bottoms of her legs attested to that. She could only see the faint outlines of ominous shapes against the light of the moon, though those shapes would occasionally flash with bright white lights.

She had learned her lesson from the last few times she had almost been struck.

The last she had checked, she was still out in the middle of the ocean, and she had not had a moment’s rest in hours. Her wings felt like they were about to fall off. The Rainboom was starting to catch up with her. With all of that considered, the harsh reality that speed was not endurance was starting to set in.

She briefly wondered what things looked like down below. The water had to be very uninviting from how the storm whipped it up. And she figured there wasn’t anything to be found down there anyway because nopony would possibly be out there.

Well, except maybe one.

Rainbow Dash flapped her wings as she approached another towering formation. It rushed up to meet her but, like every other that had come before it, she planned to soar up and over.

And then, at the most crucial moment, something pulled within her wing and then it stopped responding.

She gasped. “No!”

The cloud rushed forward and swallowed her. Wet rain, latent static, and severe winds barraged her body, the latter of which threw her every which way. Rainbow Dash tumbled about, crying out desperately as she tried to find something, anything, to stabilize herself. Her wings flapped about completely on their own, heedless of her will.

The wind slammed her pegasus body against the clouds, causing her to grunt and groan all the while. She ricocheted between several formations without much reprieve.

And then, to make matters worse, Rainbow felt a familiar sensation where all of her dropped simultaneously, and her rapid tumbling meant she could do nothing about it. She was falling out of the sky.

“Come on, darn you!” she exclaimed, but her wings still refused to cooperate. “Come on!”

Panicked, she tried to grab at a nearby cloud, but it crumbled in her grasp. The next one did the same. They managed to slow her down, but even then, she fell through them far too fast.

And then she suddenly couldn’t feel the clouds around her anymore. Rainbow Dash paled and twisted in the air. “Noooooooo!”

A bolt of lightning illuminated the water’s rough, churning surface for a few brief instants. Seconds later, in the shadow of darkness, Rainbow Dash crashed into it, and her entire world became a new black.

Comments

[EpicShadowz]

you better have not killed rainbow!

[RQK]

6000238 I know right? What a cliff-hanger!

Of course, I already know if she survives. Because, after all, "Is, was, will be".

[RowanSkie]

There goes the science part.

[viclouiis]

RAINBOWWWWWWWW!

[RQK]

6000494 I like to think of it more as setting up sciences that'll put those time loops to shame. They're several levels above and beyond.

I think you'll particularly enjoy these coming chapters~

[Csquared08]

Oh dear.

[BeeJay28]

This is starting to get confusing. So Twilight sent them numbers she didn't have herself? Twilight had numbers in her machine (9 days ago) that were NOT in the book? How does this make sense. The only possibility I know is that she tried to save her friends because she didn't want to go them to the locations of the stones, because they are either to dangerous or Twilight didn't want them to find the stones in the first place.

[Alchemystudent]

I love how this adventure i taking plae. We are seeing the two seperations from different points of views. Applejack is confident and adventurous, giving off an air of trust for her fellow mare. Thi helps burst Flutterhy as she makes her way to her detinatioin. Rarity's and Pinkie's feel more like two friends going away (I was thinking of goodbye from Muppets take MAnhatten here) and the worry that they may not see eah other again. Then Rainbow's felt like an adventure taking place.

The cold openings have been great, giving us insight as to how one pony's death an affect so many, from the villian to the family. Also, nice allusion to Cadence's coming foal...even if you didn't intend that.

But another thing I love is watching Sunset an Twilight work off one another, seeing the twin students of the sun work like this is very heartwarming indeed.

[Corejo]

Welp. That happened. Hope she can swim!

[ChaosDX1]

Well, Twi's friends did want the chance they were denied to die for her...

[Walabio]

Cadance should be nauseated. If she nauseous, she would make those around her vomit.

[RQK]

7028225 Actually, both usages of that word are correct; it can mean both to be afflicted with nausea or to cause nausea.

I appreciate that you thought to point that out, though!

[Csquared08]

Oh man. So many spots where "Oh dear." is super applicable

[BoJack Horseman]

I have a feeling that this isn't the first loop and that Sunset and Twilight have been working on these notes together through multiple loops. Also I understand that Sunset can only go back once but it seems like they could send back another unicorn with the time travel spell and grab a copy of the notes so that she wouldn't have to write them at all and they could just spend the whole time figuring out what they meant.