//------------------------------// // Realization // Story: Vault of Origins // by M_D_Quill //------------------------------// Vault of Origins Chapter 2 Twilight sat in silence trying to process everything she heard. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were at war? It was absurd, but she was just asked which side she is on... And the Princess was ‘adopted’ a few generations ago? How is that possible if she has ruled Equestria for over a thousand years? Star Swirl’s notes popped back into Twilight’s head... the time spell. She must have attempted to cast it to avoid the lightning, but the lightning must have struck before she finished the spell supercharging it and throwing her into the distant past, similar to what happened to Star Swirl during his experiments. Memory loss is a common side effect to being struck by lightning. But if she was casting the time spell to get away from the lightning, then there was a high probability that she didn’t use the fail safe... which means she was stuck somewhere in the distant past. This stallion inquired which Alicorn sister she was siding with, so Twilight could safely assume that she was stranded sometime during the Nightmare War. Twilight smiled to herself, realizing the solution to her predicament was quite easy. All she had to do was cast the time spell again and send herself back into the future. She gave the Doctor a nod. “I’m sorry, but I cannot answer your question. I am very grateful for your help, but I have to leave now.” She gathered some aether energy and concentrated it at the point of her horn. She weaved the complex designs for the Time spell and locked it on the day the storm hit the outpost. Releasing the spell, the magical weave wrapped around her. She could feel the fabric of time and space warp around her until she felt her body fit into a tiny hole. The spell unraveled itself and she knew that she was home. “Now that I’m back, I guess I should try and find my way back to Canterlot,” she muttered to herself. “You are not going anywhere until I deem you fit to leave young filly,” the shrill voice of the Doctor pierced through Twilight. “If you were trying to dazzle me into thinking you are healthy enough to leave with a light show, then you are sadly mistake,” he grumbled the last part. “Now, back to the task at hand, what do you mean you cannot answer my question?” Twilight’s heart raced and she felt a cold sweat on her brow. “Oh no! Did I bring the Doctor with me? This is bad, this is very bad!” she moaned. “I changed the past, which in turn changed my future... Did I just destroy Equestria as I know it? Oh dear sweet Celestia, what have I done!” “Dear sweet Celestia?” the Doctor pondered. “Then it is safe to assume that you are a follower of the Solar Mare.” Twilight heard the stallion stand up. “Wait!” she cried, jumping and grabbing hold of him. “You can’t leave! Not until I can fix everything.” “I was required to inform the Chancellor your allegiance,” the Doctor stated sitting back down. “Though, I am curious what you are babbling about. Please explain yourself.” Twilight sat back and took a couple deep breaths. “I know this will sound insane, but I am from the future,” she paused, waiting for an outburst. The Doctor was silent so she decided to continue. “I was traveling in search of an ancient library... but I got caught in a terrible storm. I was about to get struck by lightning, so I think I tried to cast Star Swirl’s time traveling spell to avoid it.” “And you cast it too slow and you were struck anyway, correct?” the Doctor interrupted. Twilight nodded. “Yes... at least that is what I think occured. I am not positive since I cannot remember doing any of it, but it is the most likely possibility.” Another pause. “I can’t tell you my allegiance because I can’t risk changing anything in the past... like the last time I used this spell...” She could feel blood rush to her face and knew she was blushing. “Then this isn’t the first time you traveled through time?” the Doctor inquired. “Um... no. But I need to send you back to your time before too much is changed.” Twilight began to gather aether. “Send me where? We have not gone anywhere.” The aether dispersed out of Twilight’s grasp. She gawked at the Doctor, not understanding what he said. “What do you mean we haven’t gone anywhere? My spell worked perfectly! We should be in the middle of the ruins of the Yew Outpost.” “I’m sorry Miss Twilight, but we are still in my office. Though you were semi-accurate in your location. I bid you welcome you to the of village of Yew.” She heard papers shuffle together and a drawer open. “I need to do some paperwork right now. You can roam around if you wish, but I do not want you leaving the building.” she heard the door open, “Oh, and if anypony walks in, do not greet them, do not talk to them. In fact, if you hear any doors open, go to your room and close the door. I’ll take care of them. You are excused.” “Wait! What do you mean we are still in your office?” Twilight stammered, “I cast my spell perfectly! It should have worked... Hold on a minute, I am going to try casting it again.” She reached for the aether but found it blocked. Something grabbed hold of Twilight and she felt herself lift off the ground. “Hey, what are you doing?” “Have a relaxing day Miss Twilight... Doctor’s orders.” The weave released her and she thumped onto the ground along with the sound of a slamming door right behind her. x.X.x Twilight paced back and forth in the lobby. Out of everything that had happened, one question constantly flashed in her head. ‘What did I do wrong?’ She was positive she cast the time spell correctly. Gathering the proper amount of aether and condensing it into a single point: check. Weaving it into the proper spell and casting it on herself: check. The fabric of space bending around her and carrying her through the timeline: check. Falling into her home time and landing in the ruins of Yew: not check. What went wrong? Where in her list did she error? She reached out for the aether again but the shield was still in place, though it did let her grab a trickle so she could weave her basic feeling spell. She probed around it trying to find a flaw so she could shatter the infuriating barrier, but alas she found none. Grumbling to herself, she plopped down onto the cold floor. She mentally pulled up all the notes and diagrams she could remember on Star Swirl’s research on time travel and began to analyze them. The clock in the lobby ticked away as she probed through her mental library. Finding it difficult to keep her mind focused when recalling a large number of pages at once, she condensed her magic into a small point. She began copying the pages into the air by moving the small point through the air, leaving a trail of magical energy for her to probe and read like a braille book. In a short time, she copied down and organized most of the notes she could remember. She read the ‘sheets’, pulling up each page to be sure she copied them down correctly. Nodding in satisfaction, she flipped to the first page and began to study. Time ticked by as she re-read each page. Nothing looked to be out of the ordinary. Every stop she took fit perfectly in each of the notes she copied. Twilight even redid each calculation that Star Swirl calculated to fold the timestream so two points would come together. It all equaled out to the same outcome: She should be back in her home time right now. “Everything was done perfectly! What went wrong...” she grumbled. “I am sure somepony with a brilliant mind such as yours can figure it out,” a voice spoke behind her. Twilight jumped up into the air and twirled around to face the Doctor. “How long have you been there?” she cried out. “Long enough,” the Doctor said with a chuckle. “I was worried that the lightning strike addled your mind, making you believe you were from the future. Though, seeing you work with magic so masterfully, and being a student of magic myself, I cannot diagnose you until we have had a ‘proper’ examination.” Twilight’s ears twitched at the Doctor’s last remark. “What do you mean by ‘examination’?” she asked. “Nothing too straining,” he replied. “Just a chat.” A chair scooted across the floor and stopped in front of Twilight, “Please have a seat.” Twilight glared at the doctor through her blindfolds and slowly sat in the offered seat. The sound of a another chair gritted through the room and stopped in front of her. She could hear pages shuffle and lower onto a table nearby. The Doctor released a soft sigh before he began speaking. “Ah, it feels good to sit down,” he breathed in relief, “Now let’s begin.” Twilight braced herself for the barrage of questions the Doctor was going to begin flinging at her. When they didn’t immediately come, she used the quiet to prepare a plan of escape if he attempted force another drug down her. Even if there was not much hope since he could use magic and she couldn’t, she would not go down without a fight. The silence between them stretched for half a minute, then a full minute, then five minutes. Even if Twilight couldn’t see him, she could feel the Doctor’s stare trying pierce through her. At the ten minute mark, she could feel her defences begin to corrode from the Doctor’s unending attack. Twenty minutes passed, and the could feel her legs begin to tremble. She started to fidget and shift her position trying to get more comfortable so she could renew her defences, but the Doctor’s glare wouldn’t give her the chance. After a half hour Twilight groaned in defeat; she had to break the silence so the Doctor would stop. She cleared her throat, “Sooo... what do you want to chat about?” she managed to croak, forcing a smile onto her face. He didn’t reply. Twilight could swear his gaze intensified after she spoke. Her ears twitched and her tail snapped in irritation. “Well? Are you just going to sit there and say nothing? You wanted to chat and I am willing to talk now.” She straightened up as she spoke, “What do you want?” She heard him shift slightly, but he still didn’t reply. She stood tall for a couple minutes, but soon the gaze pushed her back down. It felt as if the temperature in the room began to drop and Twilight started to shiver. She grabbed her tail and tried to find some comfort by stroking it. Why was he not answering? He wanted to do this chat, but all he was doing was watching. Twilight rummaged through her mind looking for all the texts that related to ancient customs. Maybe she had to do something first. Should she offer tea? No, that was only if he was at her home and she was at his. Maybe she was supposed to find the topic to start? But what topic did he want to hear about? It wasn’t like she was able to tell him about her world, because that might mess up the space-time continuum, altering the future to an unrecognizable point. If she did that then she would cease to exist, but in doing that making it impossible for her to mistakenly come travel back in time to do the mistake to begin with. A cosmic paradox would form and destroy all of creation as they knew it. Twilight whimpered slightly realizing how bad her situation was. She had to get home, but her magic was blocked and she was under the control of an ancient Doctor from who-knows-when. Not to mention the Doctor had a way of knocking her out whenever he wanted, and without her magic she was practically helpless. She could try and fight him off, but she was nowhere near fit enough to take out a stallion fully grown stallion. With a sigh, she looked up toward the Doctor. She took in a breath to start talking to him when he released a loud snort. Twilight sat there with her mouth hanging open and strained her ears. The Doctor's breathing was steady with light, nasally snoring in between breaths. Her eye twitched when it clicked that he hadn’t been staring at her the entire time, but sleeping. She quickly stood up, walked over toward him and turned around. With a quick thrust, she kicked one of the legs in his chair, causing it to crash onto the floor. The Doctor let out a pained yelp as he landed. With a satisfied snort, Twilight left to her room and slammed the door shut. The Doctor sat on the floor trying to figure out what angered his patent. After a second he shrugged and muttered something about mares being mares. He trotted back into his office feeling strangely refreshed and decided to finish up some leftover paperwork and call it a night. x.X.x Twilight awoke by the sound of something breaking. She quickly cast her ‘feeling’ spell and crawled out of bed. There was a chill in the air, meaning the fire had burned out some time ago. Maybe she had slept through the night and it was morning now. She could hear someone yelling, but the words were too muffled to make out through the thick walls. Twilight crept up to the door and placed ear against it. “I don’t care if you have not released her or not!” boomed a familiar deep voice, “She will tell me whose side she is on or she is going to-” “You will not lay a hoof on a single strand of her hair, Chancellor!” shrieked the voice of the Doctor, “I have not deemed her healthy enough to be released. I have not even deemed her SANE much less healthy.” “You are underestimating the gravity of the situation, Vial,” the Chancellor rumbled, “If you won’t release her to me, then I will be a visitor and talk to her myself.” The sound of stomping hooves sounded throughout the other room. Twilight jumped back as they neared her door and she crawled to the far corner of the room. As she neared the corner, her blindfold got caught onto the nightstand and was pulled off. The door clicked, and a stream of light began to beam into the room. Twilight recoiled back as the light attacked her dilated eyes and she screamed in pain. After a second, Twilight peered through the offending light toward the doorway. An enormous stallion stood in the doorway. Before Twilight could make out any details he began to glow and was lifted away. The door slammed shut and muffled shouting began again in earnest. Twilight quickly grabbed her blindfold and re-tied it around her eyes. She sat on the floor and waited. Seconds became minutes, and Twilight’s ears twitched as the argument continued. Eventually, Twilight grew tired of of the waiting, and cautiously crawled toward the door and placed her ear on it again. “I’ll give you until tomorrow at noon. If she has not announced the town whose side she is on, then I’ll assume she is a Solar emphasizer and will be treated as one.” The deep voice bellowed, followed by the sound of a slamming door. She cautiously opened her door peeked out. She could feel the Doctor very close to her, less than a foot away from the door. His form quickly turned and looked in her direction. “Get back in your room,” he growled. Twilight took a step further into the lobby, “What just happened?” she asked. The stallion snorted and his hoofsteps began, “Nothing for you to worry about,” he replied, “Now get back in your room.” Twilight stood tall, “It is about me, so I am invole-” A force grabbed a hold of Twilight and a glass tube was shoved against her lips. The Doctor’s hoofsteps stomped in front of Twilight. “Get back in your room before I put to to sleep and lock you in there!” he roared. Twilight eeped and struggled in the Doctor’s telekinetic grip. The stallion released her and she plopped down onto the floor, but the vial was still pressed on her lips. Twilight leapt back into the room and quickly shut the door. Inside, she ran to where the ashes of the fireplace was. Tears formed in her eyes, soaking into the blindfold. She collapsed onto the floor and cried. She wanted to go home, but she was lost somewhere in time. Her friends were not here to save her, Princess Celestia was not here to give her guidance, and she didn’t have her number one assistant to help her keep calm. In fact, nopony but Celestia were even born yet, and Celestia was too busy fighting her sister to help her student-to-be. Twilight was alone... and she was helpless. All of her studying, her years of research in the magic of friendship, were useless. She cried for a long time, but sleep eventually came and took her to dreams of a happier time when her friends were just a house away, and their laughter echoed throughout the streets.