//------------------------------// // The Last Few Hours // Story: Two Days Before We Graduate // by LateToTheParty //------------------------------// Between Rarity’s previous measurements and Twilight’s stagnant body size, her fitting lasted a quick 20 minutes. A tightening around the waistline and upper arms later, Twilight found herself back downstairs making a beeline for the yellow notebook, a pacing Rainbow Dash watching her all the while. She picks it up in a tight, white knuckled hold. Despite her original reservations, Rainbow can’t help rolling her eyes at the sight. “Come on, Twilight. You already took the trouble of getting it,” she states before darting out a hand to grab the notebook. “Might as well go all the way.” Twilight blinks, her brain taking a moment to notice the emptiness in her hand. “Hey! Give that back!” She yells. Rainbow turns her back to her protesting friend. She flicks between pages, the gears in her head jamming until she can practically feel smoke coming from her ears. “The heck is this?” She asks. “Is Sunset studying pyramid pictures or something?” “You’re talking about hieroglyphics and of course she’s not.” Twilight places her hands on Dash’s shoulders, leveraging her position to look over the athletes taller form. She raises a brow at the confusing markings that litter across the surface, tempted to retract her previous statement, before narrowing her eyes in concentration. “Hold on. I could have sworn Sunset told me about,” she points to a section in the bottom portion of the picture, “that.” “Well, what does it mean?” “It…means nothing.” Rainbow frowns. “That makes no sense. Why would Sunset draw a circle that means nothing?” Twilight takes Rainbow’s confusion as an opportunity to take back the notebook and traces the other familiar patterns on the circle. “It doesn’t mean nothing. It means nothing.” “I’m confused.” “Look at this?” Rainbow complies as the notebook is shoved in her face. As she suspects, she finds nothing that enlightens her amid the squiggles. It figured that Twilight would understand arcane writings from another dimension but baffles at common emojis. She levels the nerd with a blank look and Twilight sighs. “Simply put, it’s a very complicated spell matrix, much more complicated than anything Sunset’s ever shown me before.” Rainbow nods. “Okay.” “This bottom part right here, assuming it follows the rules for spell configuration that she’s briefly taught me, denotes the primary function of the matrix. This symbol denotes nothing, as in a void.” Rainbow blinked. “Essentially, it seems to function as some kind of giant vacuum to create a space of nothing.” “So you’re saying that Sunsets making some spell to make like...a black hole?” Twilight shakes her head. “That’s highly improbable, not to mention inefficient. The magic required for that doesn’t exist in Equestria, much less here. She’s probably drawn some kind of limiter or perimeter to restrict its effect. I just can’t understand because I have no clue how to read this.” She pauses in her ramblings. “Oh wow, saying that made me light headed.” Rolling her eyes, Rainbow begins to flick through the rest of the notebook as Twilight holds it. “Chill out, Twilight. It’s not like that’s the only thing she’s written. Maybe she’s actually got something in English.” As if Rainbow had summoned it, Twilight looks back at the note in time to notice a page written like a journal entry and reaches down to stop Dash from turning the pages. “Wait.” She examines the page and the delicate script within. “This was written almost a month ago.” Clearing her throat, she reads the passage aloud. “‘Princess Twilight has reviewed the matrices that I’ve sent her. She believes the Ut Redi Domus might be our best option, however it’s still incomplete and none of the workarounds have been effective. With the “how does magic in this world work” answered in the most tenuous fashion, maybe it’s time to change the question. It being based on the Elements of Harmony and friendship magic, maybe the better question should be, how do friendships work?’” Rainbow’s brow quirks. “Okaaaaaay…so, I have no clue what I’m suppose to do with that information.” Twilight ignores her, flipping forward closer to the newer entries. Rainbow sighs as she draws back, bored with the notebook. She still felt groggy from the drinks that flowed through her system but being properly hydrated and medicated did wonders for the pain. She still wasn’t looking forward to the manual labor but at least she still had a few minutes before Applejack came looking for her. Speaking of minutes… She swivels her head to gaze at a hanging clock. “I wonder where Sunset is. She should be here by now.” She turns her gaze back at the snooping bookworm to find her normally purple pallor leaning towards the paler spectrum. “Woah, Twilight. You look like you’ve seen a ghost. What’s going on?” Twilight didn’t seem to hear her as she looks up. “I…” Blinking, she shoots to her feet, shoving Sunset’s notebook into Rainbow’s chest. “I need to borrow Rarity’s car! I’ll be back!” Rainbow folds her arms over the notebook and hesitates, not quite sure if she should stop the frantic girl’s quick movements from the hanging key rack to the homestead’s doorway. Rainbow barely has the wherewithal to contemplate the blazing inferno that engulfs Twilight’s eyes before the front door slams to a close. Her eyes linger on the ornate, wooden carvings of the purple doorway before looking at the book in her hands. Twilight hadn’t closed it from the most recent entry. It was a simple picture of the memory stone before it had broken into a million tiny pieces, an accompanying equation etched into the margin. “Memories of pleasant encounters create affectionate bonds.” Rainbow reads before scratching at her head. “I really don’t understand.”