Gifts and Curses

by flamevulture17

13. Blackout

[Chapter 13]

Blackout

---

With the formal stuff out of the way, every pony in the fairly sized living room shuffled off their seats to begin their task at hoof. Lyra's parents borrowed their daughter for a private conversation in the kitchen. Twilight motioned towards Princess Luna, whom was waiting patiently for the family reunion to finish. Pinkie Pie, having nothing else to do, went on to bother Spike.

It was about time Twilight got some answers, but it all came to her as waves of surprises. She was also unprepared for many of the things that happened in the past several hours, from discovering Lyra's notes on her theories of humans, to finding out that Lyra apparently exhibits genetic traits from another species. All because of some form of mysterious magic that could not be explained with the level of knowledge available to them. She had other things to attend to back in Ponyville, but thought Lyra could use her help more than ever now. Regardless, she'd have to reschedule the activities she had planned for the following day, if not the next couple days. So far, her day had been one of the most unbelievable and unveiling days of any day in her short list of eventful days since the beginning of days. She just had to keep her cool and go with the flow, as the kids would say.

Twilight stood before Princess Luna.

“Um, Princess? Do you have somewhere to start with uncovering this extremely difficult mystery?”

“I have my doubts, Twilight Sparkle, but I think it depends on how far we want to investigate. I'm especially interested in these human type creatures that Lyra seems to know much about.”

“Do you think we might have a chance to find where they are? Humans, I mean. There is no evidence for them other than her most distant relative and her limited knowledge of them. Besides, most of it is just speculation.”

“I hope so. I worry not about what we do know, and spend a little more time on what we don't know.

“You really think we'll succeed?”

“It depends on how your view success. I'll be satisfied if we can fill only one page of information. Either way, I believe it's worth the time.”

Twilight got a significant confidence boost from how optimistic Princess Luna appeared to be. Their quest was more than just a search for scientific answers and theories in magic, but a road of discovery on things based on family heritage and Equestrian history. As difficult and different as it sounded, Twilight became more confident they would uncover more than that already have. All they had to do was dig a little deeper.

“Theses humans sound like they could be advanced beings,according to what you heard from Granny Smith,” Twilight said. “I'm curious to know just how Lyra knows so much about them if there are no books about them. At least, not that I know of.”

“I am more curious about them than I was a couple hours ago, and I did not know anything about them before that. Now that I'm capable of safely investigating this subject apart from having to worry about my sister's approval, we can expand our range of exploration. What if Lyra-”

…

Luna was cut off by a sudden strong sensation searing in her brain. She became dizzy and lost focus. The delicate waviness in her blue mane went sporadic for a second before returning to its original form. It wasn't painful, but the power of it was undeniably strong. It was powerful enough to cause her to wobble out of balance and stumble, but too weak to cause any psychological damage. Luna temporarily lost consciousness, hit the wall behind her, and fell to the floor with a thud, dodging a sharp wooden table by mere inches.

“Princess!” Twilight was quick to react. Her cry bounced off the walls of the house. She quickly ran to Luna's side, but hesitant to touch her. “Oh no! A-are you okay?”

Luna regained her mindset and was slow to get up when Lyra came running into to living room followed by her parents. They found a shaken up alicorn, moderately struggling to get back to her feet.

“What happened!?” Lyra said, rushing to Luna's aid in the same manner and Twilight.

“I don't know, she- she just collapsed,” Twilight replied.

“I'm alright, my little ponies,” Luna said as she finally got to her feet. “No need to worry, it was just a precaution.”

All the ponies looked at the Princess in horror as if it was a sign that something horrible had happened, or was about to happen. Twilight was the first to ask.

“Is it something terrible, Princess?”

Luna appeared to recover shortly after having a sort of magical breakdown in front of Twilight. A strong discharge of magic had triggered the unique portion of her brain where an acute detection of powerful magic served to notify her of unusual levels of magic. For a Princess, part of her duty was to monitor large quantities of magical energy if and when they occur, typically in the one place and lasting longer than ten seconds. Rare instances have occurred when energy that strong was separated by an enormous distance from the point of origin to the destination. This instance wasn't exactly rare, but was extremely odd for lasting only a couple seconds. Definitely a first for Luna.

“I'm not sure. I felt something really strange. It came so suddenly. I usually feel a gradual increase before a peak in magic, but I did not see this coming.” Luna paused to evaluate the spell that struck her. “I do not know exactly what it was, but I believe it was the result of a unguided teleportation spell that came from Ponyville.”

Pairs of eyes of both Twilight and Lyra widened when Luna was able to name the location of the sharp discharge. They almost immediately recognized that it had to be connected to the powerful magical anomaly the night before. Maybe they were directly related.

“Do you think-” Twilight turned to Lyra, already nodding in agreement with the same idea. “Then that means...” she trailed off to think of the situation more clearly.

“But how will we get there in time?” Lyra asked to no pony in general.

“We teleport,” said Luna.

The Lunar Princess considered her words before she spoke. Since they were all thinking the same thing and Ponyville was quite a distance from Canterlot, Luna suggested the fastest method of travel that could only be used by alicorn magic. She has used it a few times in the past, but never with company.

“You can do that?” Twilight said, puzzled.

“It is a difficult spell to maintain, yes, but my sister and I are the only ones who are capable of such magic. It can only be preformed by an alicorn, however, I've only used it on myself. I have yet to try it with other ponies.”

Luna started to doubt her own idea since it might be too high of a risk. Teleporting that far on her own took a lot out of her in the past. She didn't want to hurt Twilight or Lyra in the process, nor did she want to come up short of their destination or somewhere else entirely.

“I think it might not be such a good idea after all,” Luna continued. “I don't think I have the power to bring us all. We will need a solution to get there as soon as possible. This might be our only chance.”

After waiting for an opportunity, Lyra's parents walked up Princess Luna and bowed.

“Thanks you for you visit, it has been most delightful,” said Dewey.

“You are most welcome,” she replied softly.

They turned to face Lyra and each gave her a hug.

“Be safe, my Heartstrings.” Cirrus nodded.

“I will.”

Right then, the couple turned and headed down a hallway that ran under the staircase and disappeared out of sight, resuming the conversation of how to get to Ponyville in just seconds.

---

“Floating down
As colors fill the light
We look up from the ground
In fields of paper white.”

---

With the sun high in the sky and the relaxing warm weather to add to that, it was a perfect day. Down at the Apple farm, however, two hard-working Earth ponies shared intense labor throughout the day with hardly any rest.

Applejack tried to make up for the work that she had lost the previous day while helping her friend Twilight with something, but hadn't heard anything from her all day. It wasn't like Twilight to just disappear without saying where she was going. The only pony that came to Sweet Apple Acres was Princess Luna, oddly enough, to speak with Granny Smith. That was no more than three hours ago.

“Ah wonder what the Princess wanted,” she said to herself in her natural Southern accent.

Big Machintoch didn't seem to have any trouble harvesting his area of apple trees for the day. In fact, he was almost done, compared to Applejack. She could see a dozen barrels full of apples while the daily task of filling fifteen barrels was a day's work, which was a lot of work.

Her little sister, Applebloom, having no school on the weekends, was off with her two little friends, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, for some Cutie Mark Crusading. The last thing Applejack heard from them before they ran off was, “Cutie Mark Crusaders, Costume Makers!” As fun as it sounded, Nightmare Night was still several months away. At least it's safer than skydiving.

It was still treading to be a long day with all the work that needed to be done. Applejack thought she was working too hard like before, but this time it wasn't her stubborn strive for prove her diligence. She could have taken break whenever she wanted, but she felt compelled to get everything all done and over with.

“One more, then ah'll rest.”

As she was about to buck the last tree ripe with apples, a sudden tremor knocked her a little off balance. Thankfully, it wasn't enough to knock her to the ground. Tree leaves and apples shook on the branches above her head for a moment before going still again. Some apples fell off the tree, into the basket Applejack had placed beneath the tree.

“What in tarnation!?” she said, frantically scanning her surroundings for anything out of the ordinary.

- - -

A dark sphere of nothingness encased with brief flickers of light lasted for couple seconds, but it felt like a lifetime. The first bright light flashed right before the eyes of a disproportional turquoise unicorn, suddenly thrusting the poor thing backward. Expecting to hit the wall behind him with great force, the time elapsed took far too long. The familiar touch of a soft fabric of bed sheets instantly vanished, visual receptors no longer functioned, and a numbing sensation ran all along the length of his body. As if his body was changing back to his original form or another convenient vanishing act that saved him from yet another dire situation, Andrew had never felt so void of reality, far stranger than what he previously experienced. What-

*ZZZAAP!*

Andrew's body suddenly threw itself horizontally. He impacted the ground, kicking up dirt in a cloud of dust as he violently rolled and began sliding across a rough surface before colliding with something. He came to a stop on his back with his head facing upwards.

Not a second went by after laying beneath whatever it was he hit for his mind to come back online. After a moment to realize what happened, he came back to his senses with pain being the most dominant of all. He was hesitant to move a muscle, afraid to have to endure a world of hurt if it could have been avoided by staying perfectly still for while.

“Uggghhhhhhh...” Andrew groaned as he moved head, and to his surprise, didn't hurt as much as he thought. Except for when the turn of his head slightly tugged the hairs of his disheveled mane.

He tried opening his eyes, but the intense light from the sun, in addition to temporary blindness, caused him to squint very tightly as a reflex. He slowly motioned his head side to side to minimize the flow in sunlight to his eyes, but Andrew still could not see anything. His first thought of appearing in his own backyard again came to mind with no other realistic alternative on where he'd end up. After looking around a couple times, he sighed and rested his head back on the ground, closing his eyes and putting his body to sleep.

- - -

Applejack carefully followed a line of trees that significantly displayed more apples knocked off their branches, trying to reach the epicenter of the tremor. She didn't think it had something to do with the earth itself, shaking deep underground from an unknown quake. She did hear a faint, distinct sound that closely resembled unicorn magic, ruling out an earthquake. Besides, earthquakes in Equestria were extremely rare within any part of the country, especially Sweet Apple Acres.

She walked along the tight rows of trees that with each one she passed, the more apples she found on the ground. So much for those apples. They probably weren't good anymore. At least they're useful for seeds, but with another task in mind, apples were the least of her worries.

From the very sight of so many apples, they all seemed to converge into a cloud of dust. She took greater caution in advancing forward while avoiding stepping on any of the apples scattered all over the place. Her only hope was that nopony was hurt.

- - -

Oddly enough, the sizzling headache a minute earlier had completely disappeared. Andrew felt so mentally healthy that it almost made him feel smarter. Attempting to verify his location, he opened his eyes to find that his eyesight was returning at a slow rate, only to make out fuzzy shapes and colors. Since he was inverted and staring directly at the sky, he was able to see a dark blotch of green and a hint of red.

“Hm, an apple tree,” he said, sighing in relief. “Perfect.”

Andrew started to worry about the time it took for him to come to a stop under a tree and to finally notice it to be an apple tree. However, too much time had gone by. Certainly Dale would have figured he teleported again and found him in the backyard by now. It was even enough time for his brother and the rest of his friends to follow Dale outside. With unpredictable reactions from Peter and Steven still in mind, he took the time to lay still and enjoy only time he had left for them to show up, enduring the pain of being thrown some fifteen feet across solid ground.

The pain in his back didn't go away, but grew slightly in the position he remained in after coming to a stop. To ease the pain, Andrew slumped down on one side.

“Aahh, much better.” He exaggerated his pleasure when the back pain almost went away.

What was odd about the ground was the fact that it wasn't grass. He started to cough from breathing in particles of floating dirt that entered his mouth. He squeezed his eyes tighter, mentally telling himself that he was in his backyard, but had one or two thoughts that his assumptions weren't false.

Moments later, he could hear subtle footsteps of someone nearby, approaching from the side he was facing away from. They got closer in his direction. Andrew wanted to wait for them to speak first, but couldn't help it but to quickly explain the situation as briefly as he could, assuming his new arrivals were who he was expecting.

- - -

A few more trees to the place of origin and she would find the cause. Applejack slowed her pace down as she the dust cloud grew larger, still lingering in the air. Assuming it was disturbed by somepony in the area, she stopped for a minute to let the dirt particles settle.

While waiting, everything immediately became quiet. Applejack could not hear a single chirp from a bird or the ruffling of leaves in the trees above her. Because she was completely still to let the dust go away, any noise from nearby Ponyville could be heard. It wasn't long until a particular sound met her ears. Somepony coughed.

Without another second to wait, Applejack's eyes went wide and sprung into action. She rushed ahead to find the source of the rheumatic coughing. When she arrived at the edge of the light brown cloud, nothing became visible. Hesitant to enter the cloud blind, she waited a couple seconds. Then she heard somepony's voice inside the thick cloud.

“Before you guys ask, it's not my fault,” said a noticeably male voice.

Regardless of Applejack's failure of voice recognition, she took a few steps inside the cloud.

“Hello? Anypony in there?” she called out. Before long, the dust thinned out quickly and faded away. What she found was a completely unexpected.

A blue-green unicorn stallion with a light blue and white mane was laying on the ground, injured by some unknown means. A familiar image of contrasting colors. He was a mess in both the condition of his mane and a face covered in filth. The only odd thing about him was the weird clothing covering his body. He began shuffling to his feet, having a hard time after what he had been through by the mere sight of him.

“Oh mah!” Applejack quickly ran to the his side. “Are ya hurt?”

At that moment, the stallion stopped moving. From lack of body movement and a sudden silence that fell upon them, Applejack thought she might have provoked him in some way, even though he was trespassing on her farm. Forgetting about property invasion, Applejack saw that he was in pain from having to move around, but when she spoke and he stopped abruptly, she sensed a bit of fear from the unicorn.

He jerked back a little in a panic shortly after the female voice just spoke to him. He knew someone was around, but his blurry vision kept him from seeing any detail other than an indistinguishable figure standing before him. It scared him to no end to thinking that he might have teleported somewhere else other than his backyard. He stumbled on some fallen apples and fell to the ground again.

“Whoa!”

“Oh, ah'm sorry, ah didn't mean to scare ya like that,” Applejack said gently, trying desperately not to make it worse. “Ah jus' want to know if yer okay. Y'all don't look so good.”

Applejack advanced toward the frightened stallion. Instead of running away, he sat still and breathed heavily. She got up right beside him and very carefully put a hoof on his shoulder. To her surprise, he didn't resist, nor was he startled. He simply had his head down and eyes closed. For a moment to regain himself, he sighed heavily.

“Are you the only person around?” he said.

“The only what?”

“Are you alone?” he repeated.

“Ya.”

The stallion took a long deep breath, lifting his head and slowly opened his eyelids. An array of colors penetrated his retinas as he was instantly met with an endless field of apples trees as far as the eye can see. Just as he suspected, not the place he was expecting. He looked to his left to see more trees and a wooden-railed fence in short distance, then looked to his right to find something that made him jump.

He jolted off the ground and stepped away limping, kicking some apples back and catching the orange farm pony by surprise again.

“Who- who ARE you!?” he said in between a breath, almost shouting.

“I'm Applejack,” she replied, almost hesitant to answer. “What's yers? Where it is ya came from?”

The stallion kept his eyes looked onto the orange pony with blonde hair and a brown hat. Before that he noticed a mark on the pony's hip area that resembled three red apples in a triangular pattern. Maybe that was just his eyes deceiving him because it was either incredibly fake or just dirt smudges. They both started at each other with mixed feelings: fear, confusion, empathy, worry, and curiosity. With his yellow eyes locked on to her innocent green eyes, Applejack still had high concern for his injuries.

“Y- you look like... well, me,” he finally said, avoiding the question.

“Of course ah look like ya. Ya ain't the only pony 'round these parts.”

“I'm not the only-” His eyes widened and then he shook the crazy thoughts out of his head. “It can't be, I mean you- … and I- … we-… this place, … WHAT!?” His gaze shot all around like an curious cat.

“Whoa, slow down there sugarcube, what are ya blabberin' 'bout?”

“Who are you?” he said again.

“Ah already told ya who ah am. Ya still haven't told me what yer doin' here.”

“How did you get here?”

“Ah live here. This here is the Apple orchard. Ya knocked all them apples down. Somethin' go haywire with yer magic?”

“You... could say that,” he said slowly.

“So where is it ya came from?” Applejack asked.

The unicorn looked less frightened than before and checked his surroundings again to confirm that they were the only ones around. No crowds of people, no mediocre houses, and no one to save him from himself. He hesitated to answer the question, but thought it wouldn't matter if he was admitted insane by the orange pony in front of him.

“Am I, uh, anywhere near the state of Missouri?”

“Yer in a state of misery?” Applejack cocked her hear. “Ya don't look miserable to me, jus' hurt real bad.” Applejack leaned forward, examining him more closely.

“No no no, not-” he lowered his head, snickering at what was a lame joke. “The Midwestern city right smack down in the middle of the United States?”

Applejack simply stared at him without a word to respond.

“So, um, are you... like me? Human in a pony body?”

“What?” Applejack slumped he head back, noticing his legs shaking.

“Oh, never mind. I lost my mind this time,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Oh well, so much for my insanity. So that means I'm communicating with a talking pony in some place I don't know where. I can throw reality out the window now.”

He struggled to walk properly, slogging and limping his way towards the confused pony. Applejack stood still with more confusion than security, realizing that the stallion was not a threat from the sight his injuries, and even if he was, no pony dared mess with a member of the Apple family. On the contrary to that notion, Applejack felt more sorry for this strange unicorn than hostile. He was in bad condition and couldn't just leave anypony to deal with physical pain by themselves.

“As if you can already tell, I'm a... unicorn,” he said, breaking eye contact.

“Ah can see that.”

“Wait, you're not surprised?”

“Why would ah be? Yer not the only unicorn 'round these parts either.”

“I'm not?”

“Nope. Jus' take a gander at Ponyville, ya find lots of 'em. Most ponies are unicorns.” She paused to find him shaking again. “Are ya sure yer okay?”

“I'm great,” she said after he sighed, stopping before Applejack. “I'm just hallucinating, that's all. You're not really a small horse and I'm just imagining things around here, including you. Or I'm dead, in which case, and I'm some afterlife for which I don't believe in.” He gestured a hoof to emphasize his alleged assumptions.

“If ya just tell me what went on here, maybe ah'll see if yer bein' honest.”

“Lying is easy. If I tell you the truth, you probably won't believe me.”

“Test me. Ah can prove that yer not looney. Ah'm the Element of Honesty ya know.”

The clothed stallion blinked rapidly with a confused look in his eyes, then shook his head to drown out whatever thoughts that confused him.

“Okay, here goes.” He took another deep breath and continued. “I'm a human from planet Earth, at least I was human yesterday. I was turned into a unicorn last night after a loud noise scared the hell out of me. Where I come from unicorns don't exist. Just a few minutes ago, I was in my bedroom with my brother when all of a sudden I get thrown here, which now I'm assuming is not on Earth anymore, or at least the United States for the most part. By the way, where am I?”

“Y- yer in, uh, Equestria.” Applejack refrained from asking about everything his just laid out for her.

“Eequueesstria?” he said slowly, making sure he heard it right. “I'm pretty sure there's no such place, and I almost flunked Geography class last year,” he laughed.

Applejack cocked her head yet again. She could not detect a sliver of dishonesty in the stallion's voice, nor from his facial expression. From her strong sense of lie detection, she had a hard time believing herself that the stallion was telling the truth. As crazy as it sounded to her, she had no other choice but to help this pony out by taking him to the hospital in Ponyville, and maybe a therapist.

“Let's get y'all to the nice ponies at the hospital.”

“Wait wait,” he began waving a hoof around. “We're going out in public?”

“Ya had some kind of accident. Ya need the help.”

“I'm not hurt that ba- AHHH!” he screamed as he tried to stretch his shoulder muscles, which turned out to be more sore than the thought. Struggling to regain his balance after wobbling in pain, he began to breath heavily to rid his mind of said pain.

“Can't wait, ya need a doctor. Nurse Redheart will fix ya up.”

Right then, at the corner of the his eye, the unicorn spotted a familiar solid gray bag laying lifeless behind the tree he landed under.

“What is that?” he leaned forward and started to limp towards it. Applejack didn't have time to answer because a second later, he recognized it at once. “My duffel bag!”

“Yer what?”

“Oh, I hope nothing is broken,” he said, plodding right up to it. Since he had no fingers to open it, and was extremely sore on top of that, he'd have to wait to find out if anything survived the same beating he himself endured. The bag was slightly punctured on the back, but not enough to tear the whole thing open. He lifted the bag with care, but had difficulties without any hands. As weird as it was, his hooves felt like solid gloves over where his hands used to be, struggling to break free.

“Apparently it came through with me.”

He put the bag over his shoulder, almost collapsing in the process of getting it around his neck. He stumbled around and accidentally bumped into Applejack.

“Oh, sorry, my bad.”

Thankfully, the orange Earth pony did not retaliate in annoyance. She saw it coming anyway. She merely shrugged it off and continued with her pursuit to help him get him to Nurse Redheart.

“C'mon, ya ain't getting' any better standin' out here.”

Applejack moved closer to him to provide assistance to walk the distance. Fortunately, they were closer to town than to the house back home. Sweet Apple Acres was definitely a large stretch of land that spanned a couple miles in every direction. They just happen to be on the edge closest to Ponyville.

“Here, ah'll help ya. Put yer leg 'round mah neck.” She lifted his left foreleg and her own foreleg around his neck. He had enough strength to hold himself up on only three limbs, but with the help of Applejack, it became much easier to walk.

The clothed stallion hopped a little before they headed off towards the gate he saw earlier, his bag swinging side to side as they walked. He was beginning to believe everything that had happened since teleporting again. Finding out that it was not the place he wanted, discovering another pony with a distinct accent that corresponded with the American South. But how did she know how to speak like that if he wasn't anywhere remotely near the southeastern part of America? Maybe he was.

More questions assaulted his mind as the slowly made it to a white fence. They managed to reach the closest gate and made their way to the other side without too much hassle. They continued along an unpaved, dirt path leading over a hill towards a small village. It reminded him of further west in Missouri and up north to Iowa where farming was huge and city life completely disappeared.

As they pressed on, both of them took some time to think. On occasion, they stopped to rest, but continued the journey shortly afterward. Applejack felt much better for helping the poor unicorn, whereas her companion thought of it to be a little bit awkward. Quite understandably for the most impossible situation he'd been in since discovering he was a unicorn several hours before. Nevertheless, their highest priority was getting to the hospital. Applejack felt that he was in no shape to preform a simple teleportion spell to get them to Ponyville faster, so she didn't ask. Though, because it was quite the distance to the hospital at their pace, she felt compelled to make small talk.

“So, what's with them robes and lil saddle bag ya got there? We don't normally wear clothes.”

“I was already wearing after them when I was turned into a unicorn. Wait, did you believe everything I said?”

“Ah'll admit, ya ain't lying, but ah ain't sure if ah can believe ya.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot. My friend was like that at first, but he finally came to his senses. My brother, well, didn't make a great first impression when he saw me like this. That boy be crazy,” he said, laughing as he spoke, remembering it happening less than an hour earlier.

Applejack, regardless of the very little understanding on what he said, joined him in laughter just to cheer him up. After all, he was enduring a lot of physical pain from being thrown to the ground somehow. Even though he still did not explicitly say how he got hurt, she thought the extent of his wounds had something to do with being hurled at the ground in a violent manner. Not knowing the reason why and not the time to ask, she pushed that aside for another time.

“Ya didn't answer mah first question. Ah didn't quite catch yer name.”

They stopped to rest for a few seconds before pushing forward into town. A short silence followed as Applejack waited patiently for an answer.

“Thanks for helping me, Applejack,” he began. With each intake of breath to compensate for his weak body, every word took some energy to say. “I'm sorry for being weird. I'm not used to any of this and it seems like I'd be a waste of time if I keep telling myself that none of this is real. To tell you the truth, I still don't believe how any of this is possible.”

They finally made it to the edge of town, where they stopped on last time to rest. They sat down a bit longer for him to finish what he was saying without struggling in between breaths. He slowed down his heart rate with controlled breathing, slow enough to let Applejack speak.

“Yer welcome. Ya don't think this place ain't real?” she asked with a confused face.

“No, it's most definitely real. The pain makes it so. I'm probably in the afterlife or something. What I mean is, I just never thought this could happen to me, or anybody really. It just doesn't make any sense.”

He shook his head while staring at the blue sky.

“The name's Andrew Fera. Sometimes my friends call me Drew.”

“A pleasure making yer acquaintance, Drew,” she patted his back. “Now, up and adam, the hospital is jus' 'round the corner.”

They stood up off the dusty path and made their way several more steps until they were greeted with the front of a fairly large, old-style building with pink tinted windows and a dark-brown shingled roof. Off to the side was a white sign painted with a symbol consisting of four pink hearts in each of the corners of a white cross superimposed on a red circle.

---

“And floating up
You pass us in the night
A future gazing out
A past to overwrite.”

---

“I have an idea,” Lyra said. “It just might work.”

“What do you have in mind?” Luna asked.

“Twilight and I are unicorns, right? So, I propose both of us contribute to the long distance teleportation spell as it is preformed.”

For once, Lyra felt confident for her idea to be taken into consideration. From Lyra's proposal, it was a wonder how intelligent the little green unicorn really was. Fortunately for Luna, Twilight and Lyra were more powerful than most unicorns and they had a better chance to increasing the energy output for the spell.

“You think you can do it?” Lyra turned to Twilight.

“Yes, it should work. Even though it might be better to do a little more research on this, we won't have enough time. We could try it, but what about Pinkie and Spike?”

“That's okay Twilight,” Pinkie said. “I can join you later. I can bring Spike back to Ponyville on my way there. It'll be fun.”

“I might need him though.”

“Don't worry about me Twi, I'll just go along with Pinkie Pie here. You go ahead, I'm sure you'll survive without me.” Spike crossed his arms as he finished with a smirk on his face.

“Well alright, just don't get into any trouble,” she replied. Then she eyed her pink party friend. “That mean you too, Pinkie.”

Pinkie Pie giggled, then she bounced out the front door into the streets of Canterlot with Spike following close behind, shutting the door on his way out.

“Shall we proceed with the spell?” said Princess Luna. Both Twilight and Lyra nodded simultaneously. “Great, then we must-”

“Wait,” Lyra interrupted. “Let me get some things upstairs, be right back.” Before anypony could reject, she quickly ran up the stairs and out of sight, but her hoofsteps were still audible in muffled thumps. Luna and Twilight looked back at each other after watching the mint green unicorn leave.

“Um, Luna? What about our other things? We left those back in the Mysterious Magic wing of the castle.”

“Hmm, now that you mention it,” Luna closed her eyes as her horn started to glow. “Worry not, Twilight. I will have those sent to Ponyville. Of course they will take a time to get there, but we need to be there faster than the time it takes by chariot or by train. When Lyra returns, we must step outside to give ourselves some space and minimize property damage.”

“Is it that dangerous?” Twilight said with concern.

“Our instantaneous journey won't be subtle, I know that much. With the two of you coming along, I'm assuming the more energy will cause an extra distortion of space that will follow right after the spell is completed.”

“Oh. I haven't considered that out boost of power will be significant enough to warp space that much. I read that it's risky to teleport in large crowds of ponies. The sudden change in pressure can have effects on anypony too close. Where are we going exactly? Surely we can't arrive in spot with ponies around. Do you know the more specific place in near Ponyville where you felt the magic?”

“Fortunately, I do. We are going to Sweet Apple Acres. I never thought I'd have to visit the Apple farm twice in one day. There aren't any ponies around at this time. We should be alright.”

For once, Twilight didn't ask any more questions. She really wanted to continue, but felt the need to conserve her strength when they reach their destination, saving just enough energy to recover from blackout after teleporting the long distance. It was obvious to Twilight that the space between Canterlot and Ponyville was far greater than any other distance she traveled with her own teleportation spells that only brought her from one side of Ponyville to the other. The shorter the distance, the shorter time delay of travel. Twilight expected that they'd experience a loss of consciousness for a little over a second.

She heard low-pitched hoofsteps get louder and louder till finally Lyra came running back down the staircase with a personal saddlebag with a few things.

“Okay, I'm ready. I'm gonna need my other stuff though.” Lyra panted from slight exhaustion.

“There is no time for that,” Twilight stated. “Luna will send them to Ponyville by chariot. While they're on their way, we'll investigate Sweet Apple Acres with ourselves. Besides, I have some books in the library that I didn't bring with me that I want to take a look at.”

“Sweet Apple Acres huh? That's where we're going?” Lyra looked away to rearrange a few things in her saddlebag.

“That's correct,” Luna nodded. “I only hope that somepony was around to witness what happened.”

Lyra and Twilight looked at each other, then back at the Princess.

“Princess? Is there something more we should know about what DID happen?” Twilight asked. The two unicorns felt a little guilty for their sharp awareness of Luna's tone of voice. Luna never lied, she just had trouble explaining everything, leaving the most important information to herself until somepony asked.

“I'm sorry, girls. I'm not entirely sure if what I felt was, well, normal. That is why we must go there immediately in hopes to confirm my suspicions.” Luna ended swiftly, not giving the unicorns time to respond as she started toward the door, directing them outside.

Both mares remained concerned for the amount of internal struggles Princess Luna appeared to be dealing with. It was most evident in the way she spoke and a careless choice of words. Luna was never really good at keeping herself free of stress. Twilight knew this by experience. She also avoided personal conversation with other ponies besides her sister, and Lyra wanted to be the first, waiting for the right opportunity.

They both wanted to help Luna, but first they had to find a way to further their knowledge of mysterious magic. To do that, getting to Ponyville as soon as possible was their first step of their mission. They obeyed Luna's command by proceeding outside to, finally completing a most satisfying visit to Lyra's old home.

Luna called for two pegasi from the Royal Guard to have Princess Celestia retrieve and transport the belongings of Twilight Sparkle and Lyra Heartstrings. The full order only took a minute to explain and the armored pegasi quickly flew off toward the castle. From where they were standing, Luna turned and looked down at to her unicorn companions.

“Shall we proceed then?”

---

“So come down, far below
We've been waiting to collect the things you know.
Come down, far below
We've been waiting to collect what you've let go.”

- Linkin Park, “Blackout”

Comments

[Northwest Brony]

it took long enough.

was worth it

[The Slending Angel]

Nice reference. You have good tastes, my good sir.

[KvAT]

1594595
Barely worth it. The pacing needs serious revamp.