//------------------------------// // 04: Nuts and Bolts // Story: A Tear in the Fabric // by Cold Bolt //------------------------------// “…and the spare key should be on the nightstand. If you need anything, the intercom is on the wall here.” Twilight fiddled with her glasses. “Um… thanks.” “Sleep well!” With that, the attendant left the room, the door closing quietly after. Twilight’s eyes scanned the sparsely decorated room. It reminded her of a college dormitory: a bed, a nightstand, a desk, and a dresser were all the furniture provided. She wandered into the attached bathroom. Like the room proper, it was fairly small, but at least featured everything essential. She glanced over the bathtub and briefly considered taking a shower, but decided she wasn’t all that keen on changing back into her dirty clothes afterward. Instead, she settled for looking herself over in the mirror for a moment, confirming what she had already assumed: yes, she did look just about as tired as she felt, her hair askew and her smudged glasses only barely hiding the dark color under her eyes. Sighing, Twilight flopped face-first onto the bed. She wasn’t sure whether it had been the journey through the portal, everything that had happened afterward, or some combination of the two, but she couldn’t remember the last time she had felt nearly this exhausted… and it would be several hours yet before Sunset arrived, so spending at least some of the intervening time asleep sounded like the best idea she had heard all day. With a subtle wave of her hand, her glasses floated off her face and came to rest on the nightstand as she settled in on top of the covers. …As it turns out, trying to sleep when you’re not used to having wings poking out of your back is somewhat difficult. It took several moments of tossing and turning for her to find a suitably comfortable position and close her eyes. “…” The only problem: she couldn’t sleep. To be fair… after all that had just happened, how could she? With nothing else to focus on, Twilight’s mind raced, still trying its best to process the events of the past few hours… “611! Repeat, we have a code 611! Doctor, report to the portal room immediately!” Still disoriented from her trip through the void, Twilight struggled to shake the fog from her brain and take stock of the situation. Information trickled over her consciousness like water from a leaky faucet. She looked to be inside a very large building, one that reminded her of a warehouse with its painted brick walls, corrugated metal ceiling, stacks of wooden crates here and there, and some large machinery here and there. She was a few feet off the ground, but how? Oh, wings, okay… but how was she all pony-ified already? Her hazy brain couldn’t seem to tell her when that had happened. “What is it? What’s it doing?” “Look at those wings! That’s so cool!” “Protocol, people! Stay back! This could be dangerous!” Several people began yelling things, which immediately drew her attention. Looking below, she spotted four humans nearby, watching her intently. Each one held something in their hands, various objects pointed at her that looked - WAIT IS THAT A GUN In a panic, Twilight swung her arm upward in an arc, a purple glow enveloping all four of them as telekinetic force lifted them into the air and ripped their weapons from their hands. In the same motion, she closed her hand sharply, causing each of the confiscated weapons to snap in half with the sound of splintering wood and creaking metal. “Marvelous…!” Standing before a set of double doors thrown wide open were two people in lab coats. The taller of the two looked quite strange - his skin was pale as a ghost, his ears were strangely long and pointy, and his thick glasses must have been obscuring his eyes in some way because Twilight could have sworn they were entirely white, featuring neither irises nor pupils. He seemed to be staring at her in awe, oblivious to anything else in the room. The second was a girl with dark skin whose curly hair was tied back in a ponytail - not unlike Twilight’s own, but significantly shorter. Unlike her companion, her eyes shifted rapidly around the room, quickly noticing the people Twilight still held in midair as well as their ruined weapons on the floor nearby. “Simply marvelous,” the pointy-eared man repeated. “I’ve never seen such powers before… Oh, where did I leave my clipboard? I simply must begin taking notes immediately!” “W-Who are you? Where am I?” Twilight demanded, finally finding her voice. “What happened to my friends?” The pointy-eared man gasped, suddenly beaming. “It speaks our language? Oh, this is unprecedented!” “Uncle, focus!” his companion snapped. “Save your gawking for later - we have a situation to defuse!” As Twilight watched, the girl straightened her collar a bit and began walking slowly and purposefully toward her, her demeanor completely different; where she had been all business just a moment ago, she now seemed much… softer, for lack of a better word. “Don’t worry… I promise we’re not going to hurt you.” Now that she was a bit closer, she looked barely older than Twilight herself. “My name is Penny. What’s yours?” “T-Twi… Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight found herself making eye contact with a nearby crate much more readily than she could manage with this girl. “That’s a beautiful name.” Penny’s smile grew. “Miss Sparkle, I’m here to help you… but I’d like you to do a favor for me first, okay?” Twilight hesitated, still glancing about the room. “I need you to put our guards down,” Penny explained, her hands folded in front of her. “I’m sure they’re sorry for scaring you.” Now it was Twilight’s turn to gasp; she hadn’t meant to hold onto them this long. As slowly and gently as she could manage, she lowered them back to the ground. “Thank you!” Penny stepped closer. “Do you want to come down so we can talk? I’ll do my best to answer any questions you may have, but this isn’t the best place for it.” Twilight descended one wingbeat at a time, landing somewhat clumsily on the floor below. “Ah, and before I forget… this man here is my uncle, Doctor Darian Mobius.” At this, she sighed quietly and turned toward him. “That is how you handle a 611, uncle. Now it’s a much more manageable 619 instead.” “Hoho! Splendid work as always, my dear Penny. What would I do without you?” Dr. Mobius chuckled, poking the bridge of his glasses to adjust them. “In any case… now that our guest has been sufficiently mollified, perhaps she would like to accompany us to the conference room? I have ever so many questions to ask!” “Are you hungry, Miss Sparkle?” Penny asked, largely ignoring her uncle. “If you tell us about your diet, perhaps we can accommodate.” “Thank you, but…” Twilight rubbed her elbow and looked back at the portal, swirling ominously in the air behind her. In spite of the hospitality, something felt very wrong. “My friends… W-We all got pulled into the portal together,” she explained. They had to know something, hadn’t they? “Has anyone else been through here?” The two scientists stared at Twilight for a few seconds before exchanging blank looks. Penny shook her head. “I’m sorry… you were the only one.” “Oh.” Twilight’s heart sank. “But… is that really true? You all entered the portal together, but didn’t end up at the same destination?” Penny looked worryingly over at her uncle. Twilight swallowed hard. “Y-Yes… why?” Dr. Mobius adjusted his glasses again. “I’m afraid that’s… impossible.” Impossible… The word echoed in Twilight’s mind. Obviously that couldn’t be right; Sunset was already on her way to prove them wrong… but what did it mean? Thinking about it only made her worry more. What if something catastrophically bad was happening that even these experienced scientists wouldn’t be able to solve? Groaning, she sat up and raised a hand to her head. Trying to sleep was getting her nowhere, obviously. Maybe a walk would help her clear her head? Assuming no one minded her wandering about, that is. Slipping the spare key into her pocket, Twilight snuck through the door, closing it behind her as quietly as she could. “Can’t sleep?” Startled, Twilight whirled around to find Penny leaning against the wall. “Y-Yeah… sorry.” Twilight fidgeted with the end of her skirt. “I was hoping a walk would help calm my nerves.” “I guess I can’t blame you. It’s been a pretty eventful few hours.” Penny approached her slowly. “You really shouldn’t wander the lab by yourself though. Would you like me to show you around?” A smile slowly grew on Twilight’s face. “Yes please! I’d love to learn more about what you study here.” “Great!” Penny motioned for Twilight to follow her down the hallway. “Let’s start with the senior offices, they’re just down here…”