//------------------------------// // 1 - Vacuum // Story: Out of Time // by ultra1437 //------------------------------// ‘Alright. Just a few more tweaks and… done!’ Twilight thought, pulling her quill away from the parchment she’d been working on. The moon shone brightly through the window, betraying the late night. Admiring her work, she internally preened at how clean and efficient the new spell was. Absentmindedly, the quill checked the current date, time, and wrote ‘Spell complete!’ before setting down next to a sealed inkpot. The mark was the third one this month. “Now, what do I dare test it on…” Holding a hoof to her chin, she pondered for a few minutes. “I know!” With a flourish of her horn, the matrix copied itself off of the parchment. Examining her spell as she crafted it, Twilight nodded, smiling softly. With a word, the spell’s matrix flared. “Chronos!” As the light died down, Twilight was gone. Emerging from her spell, her limbs felt as if dunked in liquid nitrogen. ‘What the…’ Despite blinking, all around her was blackness and stars. The air in her lungs escaped, and despite her struggles, she couldn’t take in any more. Realizing her predicament, she called the spell back up. ‘No. No!’ Her lips moved, but the spell would not fire. As the coldness seeped into her limbs, she curled up to try and preserve her warmth. A small beam of light crossed her face, showing her rapidly freezing body, her eyes glossing over. Reacting to the light, her eyes twitched toward it. Twilight lost consciousness almost immediately after. Spike woke peacefully. Almost immediately after, he hopped to his feet and dashed out of his room, rounding to Twilight’s chambers in record time. Knocking frantically Spike asked, “Twilight? You in here?” Nopony answered his knocking so he pushed the door open. Inside, he didn’t see Twilight. He checked over her desk and found a spell on a sheet of parchment. He didn’t recognize it, but left it alone. ‘She’s not here. First thing’s first. Check her schedule we created last week.’ Doing so, he found that she was supposed to help Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres. Dashing out of the room, Spike couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. “Applejack! Applejack! Where are you?” Spike slumped against the sign just outside Sweet Apple Acres proper. Taking a minute, he got his breath back. “Spike? That you?” Applejack’s voice carried from off in a distant orchard. Taking a few more seconds, he stood back up and dashed toward her. “Applejack?” Sliding to a stop, he smacked into a tree that Applejack was about to buck. “Spike! What’s going on?” The impact sent apples dropping from the tree dropping in the buckets. Smiling softly, she helped him back to his feet. “What’s up, Spike?” “Have you seen Twilight?” He seemed frantic. “She always wakes me up before she leaves. Her schedule said she’d be here.” Quirking an eyebrow Applejack replied, “Now that’cha mention it, I haven’t seen her.” “What? W-where could she be?” His pupils shrank and he seemed genuinely frightened now. Sitting down next to him, she pulled him close. “Woah, fella. Calm down. Maybe she got held up in town by some kind of friendship problem?” Shaking like a leaf, he stared at the apples in a nearby bucket. “Yeah, right. That’s all it is… I hope.” Leaning down, she nuzzled his cheek. “Hey, c’mon. Let’s go find her.” Grabbing his tail, she hefted him on her back. “A-alright.” Rearing back for a second, she took off galloping. Trotting into Sugarcube corner, Applejack preempted Pinkie’s greeting. “Pinkie? Ya’ll seen Twilight? Spike can’t find ’er.” “Nope! I haven’t seen her around all day!” Pinkie gasped. “Is, is she missing?” “Ah hope not. Maybe somepony had a friendship emergency and she had to help. We’re just tryin’ to find her.” “I can help!” She ducked down behind the counter and came back up with a detective’s hat and a magnifying glass. “Let’s go, Spike! We have a purple pony princess to find!” Almost three seconds passed before Spike shook himself. “Thanks, Pinkie.” Pinkie dashed out the front door, quickly followed by Applejack, Spike still on her back. Celestia’s balcony door almost blew open as the word “Tia!” flew through immediately after. Instinct causing her to roll from her bed, she looked up to see her sister sliding through the doorway. “Luna?” Seeing splinters and chunks of doorway crashing around her, Celestia sighed. “Did you really–” “I just felt something disturbing pass through Ponyville! I don’t know what caused it, but it wasn’t good.” “And you couldn’t tell me normally?” She brushed a wing across her room, now covered in fresh dust, glass, and wood splinters. “Now, I have to get my balcony repaired and a replacement set of doors…” Celestia groaned internally at the new paperwork this would produce. “But Tia…” Luna seemed to shrink under her sister’s gaze. Ears pinning back, Celestia continued, “Lu, I’m sure what you felt is bad, but you just blew in my balcony. Every guard in the castle will be storming my chambers shortly, fearing an attack on me. Can I go try to avert the crisis certainly about to begin?” Luna’s wings flared and her eyes flashed with a resolved fire. “Tia… I’m sorry, but this is important. I was patrolling over the Everfree and something washed over Ponyville. It… didn’t feel good.” Luna continued to meet her sister’s eyes, determined to make Celestia see her point. Relenting, Celestia seemed to smile. “Alright. I can see you mean business. I’ll write to Twilight to see if there was something that happened last night. Okay?” Luna nodded. “Please. I fear something may have happened in Ponyville.” “Now, let’s take care of this.” Luna surveyed her sister’s room and she cringed, ears folding back. “Sorry, Tia…” “You felt it was necessary. That’s all that matters, Lu.” Striding over to the door, Celestia pulled it open. Behind it was a seeming battalion of guards. Smiling softly, Celestia fell into her diplomat persona. “Ah, sorry for the scare. Princess Luna had urgent news for me.” Luna stepped up to her sister. “Aye. Sorry for causing such a disturbance, but it was something that needed my sister’s attention.”