//------------------------------// // 5 - Perfect Place to Hide Something // Story: Quantum Starlight // by Rambling Writer //------------------------------// Everfree Forest, October 9 11:21 PM — 3 hours after the Fracture in Time “Ridiculous,” Sunburst muttered as he climbed over a log. “Absolutely fricking ridiculous. If not for Princess Twilight, Ponyville, it, it’d barely be anything. So how’s it got not just the Princess, but all six Elements of Harmony, is right next to the Everfree, is home to the first flier to break the sound barrier, suffers all manner of monster attacks with no lasting damage, and has a sunblasted privately-funded time machine sitting right outside its borders?” Starlight and the Doctor exchanged glances. Eventually, the Doctor said, “Ponyville is a very odd place, to put it lightly.” “But… but you live out here,” said Sunburst. “How, how could you even begin to build a time machine? You’re miles from… from anywhere!” “With patience and great difficulty, let me assure you. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to acquire proper copper-clad neighobium conduits on a timekeeper’s budget?” “That, that’s not what I… forget it.” Trotting through the Everfree Forest in the middle of the night, horn alit, was most definitely not something Starlight wanted to be doing. But they didn’t have much of a choice; the Everfree was where the Doctor said his time machine was. “It keeps inquisitive eyes away, unless they’re serious,” he’d said. “It’s the perfect place to hide something.” Well, Starlight couldn’t deny that. In spite of the light she and Sunburst were giving off, she could barely see five feet in front of her; the darkness inside the forest felt thicker than the darkness outside. If not for the Doctor leading the way, she would’ve been completely lost. Especially with the sounds. The Everfree was loud at night. She didn’t see anything making noise, but she kept feeling like there something lurking just outside her ball of light. The Everfree wasn’t a nice place. “How much longer?” Sunburst asked as he pushed aside a bramble. “It’s, I don’t want to be walking a lot, an-” “Almost there,” the Doctor said, not even thinking about looking back. He was walking so fast, he was almost outside the perimeter of light. “It should be right he-” A metal wall loomed ahead and the Doctor had to stop short to not slam into it. “-re.” He frowned. “Or what’s left of it, anyway.” Even in the dark, Starlight could see that the building had seen better days. It was rusty, overgrown, and looked on the verge of falling apart. It was a hulk, a shell, and Starlight was amazed it was still standing. “Did… did you build this yourself?” Starlight asked. “How?” “Patience, persistence, and an awful lot of blowtorches,” said the Doctor. “Still use it as a lab every now and again, when I need to put some distance between my experiments and Ponyville. Door’s just a few feet to the right.” Starlight took a few steps to one side and, sure enough, her light illuminated a door set into the wall. “Now,” said the Doctor, “we ju-” Then he groaned and planted his hoof in his face. “Oh, blast it. I left my key at home.” “You- your key?” said Sunburst. “You forgot your key?” “Just go and rub it in,” said the Doctor. “I’ve got a spare, but it’s on the other side of the building.” Sunburst snorted and blew a lock of hair out of his eyes. “Well, come on,” he grumbled. “Let’s, let’s go get it.” “I’ll stay here,” said Starlight. “It’ll be easier for you to find the exit that way.” “Sure, whatever,” mumbled Sunburst. “Come on, Doc.” He began following the wall without waiting for a response. “Be back in a few,” the Doctor whispered to Starlight. He immediately set off after Sunburst with a, “Wait up, would you?” And so Starlight was alone in the dark in the Everfree next to a strange building. Just super. Out of curiosity, she tried the knob. It’d be a shame if they went all the way around to get a key when- No, the door was locked. Good to check, though. A stick snapped in the woods. Starlight whirled around, brightening her horn. Nothing. She took one, then two, then three steps out, scanning the forest. Still nothing. Jumping at shadows. (This being the Everfree, though, Starlight wouldn’t be surprised if even the shadows had teeth.) A sudden headache erupted, so sudden Starlight had to brace herself against a tree. It wasn’t particularly strong, just surprising. Then, just as suddenly, it vanished. It happened so quickly, Starlight barely had any time to think about it. Just what had caused it? It probably wasn’t natural, Starlight was sure of th- From the other side of the door came a thump and a grunt, as if someone had just run into the door. Starlight’s ears went up and she trotted to the door. “Hey!” she called out, knocking three times. “Somepony in there?” She thought she heard something. Like someone was about to speak, but cut themselves off before they could really get underway. Then the creaks of that same someone stepping on some old floorboards. “I can hear you,” Starlight said loudly. She knocked again. “Come on, open up. I’m not going to hurt you.” Something crashed inside. The lock clicked, but the door didn’t open. Starlight tried the knob again. The door slid open with a rusty groan. Somehow, the inside managed to be darker than the outside. Starlight pushed a little more light into her horn. “Okay,” she said, walking into the room, “who’s in here? I won’t hurt you.” Just outside the edges of the light, someone moved. They took a few hesitant steps into the light, and Starlight was so shocked she almost lost control of the spell. The pony was Starlight. An exact copy of herself stood before her, staring at her, jaw agape. Neither of them said anything. They simply stared at each other. Another headache came on, Starlight blinked, and her double was gone. No teleportation, no running away, just gone as if she’d never been there in the first place. Starlight pushed more light out of her horn and looked around. Her double was nowhere to be seen, and there was nowhere she could hide. “Okaaay,” muttered Starlight as she exited the room again, “that w-” She banged hard into the door. Somehow, it’d closed again. She took a few steps back, grunted, and rubbed her nose. Of all the stupid things she could’ve done, she had to run into a door? Ludicrous. Someone trotted up to the outside of the door. “Hey!” Knock knock knock. “Somepony in there?” The voice made Starlight freeze. It was her voice. She opened her mouth to yell something out, but she clamped her jaw shut and took a few steps back. The floor creaked beneath her hooves. “I can hear you,” the pony with her voice said. Knock knock. “Come on, open up. I’m not going to hurt you.” Starlight darted a few yards back, tumbling over a table she couldn’t see in the dark. As she got back on her hooves, she flicked the lock open with magic. The pony outside, a unicorn, walked into the room and said, “Okay, who’s in here? I won’t hurt you.” Just outside the edges of the light, Starlight kneaded her hooves against the floor and swallowed. Really, there was nothing to it. She stepped into the light and got a good look at the pony from outside. The pony was Starlight. An exact copy of herself stood before her, staring at her, jaw agape. Neither of them said anything. They simply stared at each other. Another headache came on, Starlight blinked, and her double was gone. No teleportation, no running away, just gone as if she’d never been there in the first place. No way. No way. That did not just happen. How… how was that even possible? Time travel didn’t just happen like that. It required magic, or a machine, or… or something. It wasn’t spontaneous. Right? Or was time so screwed up that stuff like that was happening? She stopped herself. Now was not the time to be thinking of that. She brightened her light. The room was extremely basic, not much more than metal sheets welded onto load-bearing columns. There was barely even a properly floor; no carpeting or anything like that, just a lot of old, old floorboards. There were a few tables around, all of them with some scientific-looking whatnots and doodads. No dust; evidently, the Doctor did come out here. “-ust think it’s, it’s kind of unreasonable to not bring a key!” Sunburst said from outside. “It’s, I mean, really.” “Hush,” said the Doctor. “Like you’ve never forgotten anything.” “Not like this! I mean, it’s- Where’s Starlight?” “In here!” hollered Starlight. The Doctor poked his head into the room, then looked at the key dangling from his hoof. He shrugged. “Ah, well.” He hit a switch on the wall and groaned when nothing happened. “Not again… Conflabbed wiring…” He patted his way along the wall to a wiring box and opened it up. “Give us a light here, would you?” Sunburst followed the Doctor to the wiring box, still staring at the door. As the Doctor began fiddling with the wires inside, Sunburst asked, “S-so, uh, how’d you get in here?” “W-well…” How exactly could she explain this? It was just so weird. “Um, not that long after you left, I suddenly got this headache, and…” She swallowed. “There was someone inside, and they unlocked the door. I went inside, and that someone was me. Then the other version of me vanished, and the door was closed and locked again, and…” She swallowed again. “I think I jumped back a few moments in time somehow.” Sunburst blinked a few times. “Okay, uh, the, uh, fracture might, might be worse than we thought.” “Temporary duplicative chronon emission,” said the Doctor, his head still in the wiring. “The Neigher-Joy field briefly emits chronons in the exact same manner, causing the same events to happen again. Starlight, separate from the timeline, sees it happen and slips through the cracks between the loop. You and I, in the timeline, get severe déjà vu, but don’t actually remember the loop. Simple!” “Not re-” Something sparked, and the light gems in the ceiling flared to life. “There we go!” the Doctor said, standing up. “Power’s back. Should be all set to go once we make a few adjustments to the machine itself.” “So, uh,” Sunburst said as they followed the Doctor further into the building, “exactly why do you have a functioning time machine and haven’t, uh, like, said anything? It’s, it’s kinda strange.” “To be honest, I thought it wasn’t working,” the Doctor said. “I turned it on for the first time to test it, and as I was recording things for posterity, it kind of buzzed a bit, sparked, then shut down. When I started doing maintenance, I found that several key components had shattered. I thought they’d overloaded and I’d made a mistake somewhere, but if you were right, then they shouldn’t have shattered, and everything should be good to go once we make a few adjustments.” Sunburst snorted and pushed his glasses up his muzzle. “And, and you just let it sit here? Didn’t try to fix it or anything?” “Technically, I did,” said the Doctor. “But then I reviewed my notes. I didn’t want to start it up just to break it again, see. At first, I couldn’t find anything wrong. I kept going back and back and back, trying to find my mistake. The one I found — thought I’d found — it was right near the beginning, meaning I was much, much farther off than I’d feared. I tried correcting myself, but, ah…” He rubbed the back of his neck and coughed. “I… got distracted by other things and never got around to finishing the theory.” “Ooo. Harsh,” said Sunburst. He sounded a bit less skeptical. The Doctor nodded glumly. “Indeed. Plenty of bits and plenty of time right down the drain. I never got to correcting the time machine. But it wasn’t all bad, at least. The complex I’d built to house the machine was relatively sturdy, and…” He flipped another switch, illuminating another set of light gems. “The crystal generator I’d procured proved quite useful, as you can see.” “But… if you were right…” Starlight said slowly, “why’d it break in the first place?” The Doctor shrugged. “Haven’t the faintest idea. We’ll have to find out later, when- Ah, here we are!” He entered a particularly dark room and flipped yet another switch. The light revealed a time machine. After seeing the Streamhaven machine, there was no mistaking it for anything else. It was cruder, to be sure, but it had all the elements. There was the circular corridor. The pincushion core. The entryway into the corridor. The complicated gauges. Everything. Even old, even with plants growing through the floor and stars shining through the holes in the ceiling, it looked magnificent. Starlight gasped in astonishment, and even Sunburst quieted down a bit. “You two wait here,” the Doctor said. “I’ll have the machine started up in just a jiffy.” He was off like a shot, running around the corridor to the other side of the room. After a moment, Sunburst coughed. “Um, just so you two know, I…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t think I’ll be going back with you. It’s, I just don’t think what you’re trying to do is possible. All the math says it isn’t, and… well, yeah.” He spoke loud enough for the Doctor to hear. “Wait, what?” asked Starlight, turning on Sunburst. “So you’re just gonna stay here and not even try?” “N-not really, no,” mumbled Sunburst. “It’s, I mean, I really don’t think we should, we should bother with this. I doubt it’ll do anything. If, um, if you want to go and try, I, I’m not going to stop you, but, but I’ll, I’ll just stay here with my notes and, and try to think this over, now that I’ve got a, uh, quiet moment.” “But-” Then Starlight cut herself off. Sunburst had a point. She still thought they could change things, but if they couldn’t, there wasn’t any harm in him staying. He wasn’t a physical pony, and he could barely cast magic. She didn’t like to admit it, but having Sunburst come along would probably only be a liability. “Sorry,” she said. “That’s okay. You go and… do your thing or… or whatever.” “Go out the door, take a right,” said the Doctor from the other side of the room. “Second door on your left, decent room with tables and pencils and paper and room to pace. Use it myself a lot.” “Alllllllright then,” said Sunburst. “Guess I’ll, um, see you around. Eventually. Heck, if it doesn’t work, it might not even be a minute!” He laughed nervously and turned to the door. An idea jolted Starlight’s mind and she dove for Sunburst, tackling him in a hug. “If we… if we succeed,” Starlight whispered, “you, you won’t exist anymore. So I-” She squeezed him. “I at least want your last memory of me to be a good one.” “Whoa, hey, easy,” said Sunburst, trying to pull Starlight off him. “It’s, I’ll be okay. It’s not like you’ll be erasing me from all time.” “But…” Starlight let Sunburst go. “I mean you you. The version of you I’ve been with for the past few hours. That you will be gone.” “…Ah.” Sunburst pushed his glasses up. “W-well, um, I, I- I think- I’ll still be okay. I mean, chased by soldiers, seeing one of the greatest things I’ve done explode, trotting way out here in the middle of the night?” He laughed nervously. “Those are a few hours I could live without.” “But, Sunb-” Sunburst put a hoof on Starlight’s mouth and sighed. “Look. Starlight. When, when you get into alternate timelines like that, it’s, things get really uncomfortable really fast. Just do what the best scientists do.” Starlight pushed Sunburst’s hoof away. “And that is?” “Don’t think about it,” Sunburst said with a grin. “Really, it’s, that’s all you can do. Bad stuff happens. There’s nothing you can do about it. So don’t think about it. Besides…” He nodded at the time machine. “If, if you’re right, saving the world’s more important than my past few hours.” Starlight swallowed. She still didn’t like the idea. But, well, Sunburst had a point. There was no way around it, not if this was going to work. “Alright,” she said quietly. She tentatively waved. “Be seeing you.” “Tell me all about it if I’m not me!” said Sunburst with far too much cheer. And then he was gone. Before Starlight could dive into the river of self-pity, the Doctor called out again. “Beg pardon, Starlight, but could you flip that lever right next to the time machine entrance? The timeon- the chronon conduit needs to be active for this next bit.” “What? Uh, sure,” said Starlight. She stared at the door for another second, then walked over to the only lever she could see and pushed it forward. For a second, nothing happened. Then, with an electric hum, it was like the world turned over. Starlight staggered as her head spun and she braced herself against the time machine. She began taking deep breaths, and the ground began to stabilize. “Ah! Perfect!” said the Doctor. “Everything’s… yes, everything’s quite stable. Give me a few seconds to make some last-minute adjustments and set the time.” “Sometime before 5 PM,” yelled Starlight, tilting her head back and forth. “The train to Streamhaven takes an hour and a half to get there, and we need some time to get out of here.” “Right, right. On it.” Starlight took a deep breath, and the ground finally settled down. She took a few steps away from the corridor and looked at the core. Active, the core had the same fishbowl-without-a-fishbowl effect the Streamhaven core had. In fact, it looked almost exactly like the Streamhaven core, now. It worked. Everything was fine. All they had to do was walk through th- “Hey. Starry.” Starlight’s blood ran cold. She knew that voice. But it’d changed; where once it had been light, easy, almost bouncy, it now had an audible undercurrent of hardness and stress. Starlight wasn’t sure she’d know the pony, not as they had been. Starlight turned around to see Serene standing in the doorway, grinning. Whatever had happened to her since she’d gone through the time machine, she’d become worn. Her coat and mane had lost some of their luster. She was thin, scrawny. She had bags under her eyes and her stance was tense. Her smile had a trace of bitterness in it. Her eyes, formerly bright, looked cold. Starlight and Serene stared at each other for a few moments. Then Serene said, “Won’t work.” “What?” “I know what you’re doing. And it won’t work.” Starlight almost asked Serene how she knew, but that didn’t seem all that important. “Of course it will. All I need to do is-” “Maybe,” interrupted Serene. “But you won’t. Oh, you’ll try. But you won’t. You can’t.” Her smile dropped. “Believe me,” she whispered, “I’ve tried.” “How?” Starlight asked. “Serene, what happened to you?” And the smile was back. “You’ll see. Just not yet.” “All set!” the Doctor called from the other side of the machine. He came running around the corridor and slid to a halt next to Starlight. “Got everything working again,” he said. “Assuming I was right the first time, it should work now, but even if it doesn’t, at least we won’t die horribly, and who’s she?” “Nopony of consequence,” said Serene. “You’ll see.” “Serene, what’re you doing here?” asked Starlight. “Where’s Sunburst?” “He’s alright,” said Serene. “Besides, he didn’t want to go back anyway. You’d be causing a paradox, remember? And he knows you can’t cause paradoxes, ‘cause he’s smart like that. He knows this is pointless, too.” There was just something about the way Serene was talking that rubbed Starlight the wrong way. She was too calm and, well, serene about everything. It was creepy, the way she just kept smiling through the whole deal. “He’ll be fine,” said Serene. “You need to get going. And I mean need.” The Doctor bit his lip. “Ah, Starlight, I don’t mean to be rude, and, yes, I do know we have a time machine, so time isn’t an issue on our end, but if we’re going to leave, can we do it soon and not waffle about? This conversation isn’t going anywhere, and I feel more than a bit lost.” “He’s right,” Serene said. She waved a hoof at the door. “Go on.” Starlight looked at Serene. At the time machine door. At the Doctor. All of a sudden, doubts nagged at her. What did Serene know? How? How was she back? If Starlight went through that machine, was she making some terrible mistake? Only one way to find out. Even if she couldn’t fix time, she had to try. “I’m coming,” Starlight said to the Doctor. Turning her back on Serene, she entered the time machine.