//------------------------------// // 10 - I'll Be Okay (Tomorrow) // Story: Soft Reset - A Novice Chronomancer's Guide to Tempomancy // by Foxvolt //------------------------------// I'LL BE OKAY TOMORROW It's been two days since I collapsed after reanimating Goldfish, and I'm finally beginning to feel like a pony again. My mana network was drained to the bone after I exhausted my wellspring, (which in itself is something I've only managed to do a hoof-full of times,) leaving me without my magic for the better part of a day. It wasn't as much of a hinderince as I'd have expected, seeing as I was unconscious for most of it. Thankfully I wasn't admitted to the hospital again, but unthankfully I've been under the 'protection' of Luna's Night Guard ever since, which is a fancy way of saying house arrest. There's a pegasus stationed outside the front door, a unicorn in the Fiction section that I keep seeing eying the same cluster of sci-fi series', and a third bat pony who follows me room-to-room that's incredibly hard to keep track of, since she's quieter than a library mouse. The three changed shifts once about eleven hours ago, leading me to believe they work in 12-hour shifts. I tried to argue with Luna that it wasn't necessary, but she's absolutely livid with me about my stunt with the soulgem. Well, you know what? To tartarus with her approval! I saved somepony's life! or at least reinstated it, it's basically the same thing! I scuff my hoof against the floor huff defiantly, reassuring myself that I was, in fact, in the moral right. "Twilight, dear, are you quite alright? You look as though you're upset by something again." A mare's voice chimes from across the counter. I look up from the floor and see Rarity leaning forward over the counter, hooves crossed in the air to rest her head on. She raises an eyebrow after I don't offer a response for a couple seconds, and I shake the intrusive topic from my mind. "No, I'm just- Well, maybe a little, but it's something to do with the princess that I'm not sure I'm allowed to talk about yet." I gnaw on my tongue and we both turn our heads to the bat pony standing at the other end of the counter, making zero attempt to be subtle about the fact that she's listening to our every word. She meets our glances without even a flinch, and I sigh as I pick up a rag and plate in my magic, beginning to scrub away at the already-clean platter. Rarity leans a bit further forward and motions for me to lean forward. I comply, and she whispers "When whatever happened blows over, you will tell us exactly what's happened, won't you? Not whatever cover story they'll surely circulate." I suppress a conspiratorial giggle, backing off the counter and returning to idly washing the dishes. "You know I'd never lie to you, or any of the girls, Rarity. Pinkie promi- Ouch!" I gasp and brace myself against the sink as a bolt of pain ruptures my skull. There's a flood of unprompted information and memories surfacing, drowning out any of my own thoughts and senses. I hear Rarity's voice, but it's already so loud in my own head that it's impossible to hear her. I feel her wrap her hooves around my side to keep me steady, and she strokes my back up and down a few times before I feel a quick hornpoint jab at me somewhere in my lower neck. I let her support me and instead use my hooves to clutch uselessly at my head, hoping the pressure I'm putting on my own temples might drown out the pain that's wracking me from the inside. It doesn't. What does help, though, is the blissful numbing of all feeling that courses through my entire body after somepony casts an Aville's Cure-All on me. It takes about ten awful seconds, but the pressure and pain finally begin to recede from my head down to my neck, spreading out across my shoulders and withers where I'm able to roll it out of my system, shaking slightly and catching my heavy, ragged breaths. I let my head droop further down until I'm resting it on the edge of the sink, and I let my forehooves fall off of the sides of my head. I feel something damp dabbing at my withers, then doing its' best to wipe at what parts of my forehead it can reach. I crack my eyes open slowly as feeling returns to my head, and the light blue twinkle of Rarity's magic is dancing around a clean rag as it makes passes across my neck and face. There's a subtle push down on my flank, and I slip away from the counter to sit down on the kitchen floor at her suggestion. As soon as I do, I feel her hoof running up and down my back comfortingly again, and she parts my scraggly bangs to wipe away the sweat from my forehead. "Thanks..." I mumble, letting my head hang a bit more. This has happened a few times in the last couple days. Luna didn't have the mana to perform any healing spells of her own after I revived Goldfish, and Celestia's still been detained to the castle. Apparently she really went off the deep end when she found out what happened, they've had to call off Day Court for three days now, and almost anything flammable in the throne room had to either be mended or completely replaced. I haven't gotten an ETA for when Luna would return and undo this awful curse, but there's no time that would be soon enough. Every flare-up is absolute agony, I almost wish I were comatose in the hospital again. Almost. "Don't mention it darling, though I dare say you may want to consider your next dinnerware set in the near future at this rate." She gives a little huff through her nose, and I'm not entirely sure if that's a chide or a joke. I turn my head a bit to the left and sure enough there's a shattered plate neatly swept up into a pile against the cabinets where it probably fell after I lost concentration of my telekinesis. I sigh again and close my eyes, scolding myself for not having the sense to put it down when I felt the flare-up coming. A hoof forces my chin up, and Rarity's looking me over from my right. "Ah-ah, none of that, Twilight. I'm sure it's not your fault, and I won't hear a word in otherwise." She gives me a little sympathetic smile, and instead of a rag she has a hairbrush in her magic now, and she takes to my bangs with it, straightening the knots and frazzles from the mess. "Perhaps when you tell me the adventure you went on this time, it should be at Aloe's..." She muses. "Honestly, I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to tell it. A lot of it is pretty unbelievable." The bat pony clears her throat loudly, and we both glare at her. She doesn't seem to care though, which makes it all the more frustrating. I bite the inside of my cheek, and Rarity goes back to brushing, humming a gentle tune I don't recognize. "When did you make that, by the way? I noticed it when I first came in, it has... Well, it has 'Twilight' written all over it, if I'm being honest." She throws her head a bit to the right and nods at a knocked-over easel with my painting upside-down, propped against the wall. The curves and spirals are just as entrancing the wrong way up as they are top-to-bottom, and I look away a bit abashedly. "Oh, um... Well, you see, Fluttershy suggested that maybe I could try painting one of these days. I never tried before, so I figured I'd do something based on Melbourian fractals. I made some modifications, It's based on the Golden Spiral rule instead of direct integers." As I talk about it, the equations I spent hours solving for its' curvature are still fresh in my mind as if I were looking at the solution to them on parchment, and I can visualize exactly the outcome of the lines they would create in my head. It nips at my brain to remember more and more, but I'm able to press the spastic urges my mind keeps sending me back down with the help of the magical sedative. Rarity moves on to the top of my head, parting my mane and brushing the hair back. It feels nice, if a bit more intimate than I'm used to, even with my friends. I don't voice that concern though, I appreciate the moderate trickle of dopamine that numbs my mind in a better-feeling way than any cure-all ever could. I just focus on the soft bristles against my mane and fur, and I let my head rest against Rarity's chest beside me with a content sigh while she works her magic. "Where's Spike, by the way?" She asks, and the content trance I was just settling into is immediately shattered. The universe reminding me that I don't deserve any serenity in my life, I guess. I'm getting used to that. "We had a fight." I say, taking in a big breath as I regretfully pull myself back off of her and sit up by myself. She tilts her head a bit and stops brushing, and I let the breath out slowly. "Not really a fight, he just... I mean I just-" My brow creases as I try to think of how to word how exactly I've managed to upset him in the multitude of ways in the last week. "It's alright Twilight, not right now, I understand." Rarity interrupts my thought process and pulls me into a hug. It takes me a minute to realize I'm being comforted, but once I catch up to it I somehow feel even worse than before for being given such an easy out. I can't tell her what happened until the Guards are gone and Luna tells me so, but that's not what's stopping me from forming the words. Somewhere deep down I know he's trying his best to help me, but at some fundamental level we're at odds. I need to know more, I need to help, always, no matter what, even if it runs me into the ground. He sees that and wants me to look out for myself, but- Rarity squeezes me tighter, and I realize I've been sniffling into her shoulder. "S- sor-" "Ah, we agreed none of that, didn't we?" She interrupts me again, and wraps a forehoof around my neck and pats the back of my head. In my younger years I'd retort that I never agreed to anything, but in my infinite wisdom since meeting her and the others I decide to accept the act of sympathy and nuzzle into her chest fluff, holding my eyes closed and my face low. "He knows I love him, right?" I ask weakly, forcing myself to stay composed as I think of my purple draconic assistant. He's with Luna of all ponies, probably in Canterlot right now. He didn't want to talk to me after everything that happened, but Luna did tell me he'd asked her to tell me he just 'needed a bit' and that he was sorry to 'bail on me.' I tried asking her more, but she's about as upset with me as he is, and kept our discussion to a brief list of things not to do until I'd heard from her again before teleporting me and a hoof full of guards several miles away and straight to the library. "Of course he does, dear, you're the most important pony he has. Well, besides maybe myself, of course~" She giggles, but I'm not feeling it and I sink down a bit lower into my own thoughts. "Come now, dearie, I'm sure whatever happened you'll work it out. If he had upset you you'd forgive him, right?" I open my eyes as she asks, though for no good reason. I think about it seriously; If he'd somehow convinced Luna to not involve me even knowing what it would mean to me, would I forgive that? It's a harsh truth to try and eek out of a hypothetical like that, but I could understand what he was trying to do. I wouldn't have been happy, but... "Yeah. Yeah, I think I would." I mutter. We both sit there for a minute or two, before Rarity starts humming that calming rhythm again and returns to brushing my mane. - - - - "-OFFA' ME!" I bolt awake, jumping out of my bed and looking up and to the right, near the large window beside my bed. My heart's pumping and I feel a surge of adrenaline as I see two figures grappling at each other in the darkness, their silhouettes outlined against the starry night behind them. Without a second thought I send a flurry of hurried stunning bolts their way, hoping for accuracy by volume. I assume I hit at least one, because in the brief moments between the flash of my horn and the ensuing silence that followed, there was no movement from either of them. I cast a light spell on myself and the upper half of my horn begins to emit a soft white glow, illuminating my bedroom, and along with it a rainbow-maned pegasus and a bat pony tangled in a pretzel on my floor. I hear the pop! of a spell going off as the unicorn casts what I presume will be a Ziln's Haste or a featherweight spell and starts bolting up the stairs. The floor rumbles a bit beneath my hooves as the earth pony guard tramples over downstairs and takes a post somewhere in the middle of the library. They're not the same guards from this afternoon, they changed shifts as soon as the sun set, though the bat pony's personality (or lack thereof) was strikingly similar to the stoicism of her predecessor. I sigh and wrap the both of them in my telekinesis, pulling them apart less-than-gracefully. After they're separated I reach out with my magic and flip on my bedside lamp so I can get a good look at the multicolor break-and-enter pegasus with my best annoyed mother look; One eyebrow raised, lips pursed and one forehoof tapping at the wooden floor. It has the intended effect, and Rainbow's mouth hangs half-open for a few seconds, then closes as she awkwardly fidgets and casts her eyes downward. I keep it up for a few more seconds before the other unicorn reaches us, switching his gaze between them and me before he huffs his annoyance and returns to his post downstairs after casting a quick dispelling abjuration on the bat pony, who quickly marches over and starts to restrain Dash. "Stop, you're going too far." I say flatly as I walk up to the two of them. "Tch." Probably the first reaction I've seen from the mare, no doubt because of her bruised ego, but she stows the bindings and returns to her favorite darkest corner of the room, melding into the shadows. I wind together a weak Aville's Restoration and press my horn against Dash, and the magical paralysis drains from her body as she ruffles her feathers and shivers head to tail. A second later she flaps her wings a few times to get herself to a standing position, knocking a couple scrolls loose from my nightstand and rocking Owlowiscious's empty perch with the wind. "Heeeeey, I was just, uh, checkin' out all the latches, makin' sure nopony could break in! Looks like you left your bedroom one unlocked, big security risk, you're welcome!" She starts rambling, but the eyebrow raises again and she shrinks down under its' soul-piercing weight. "Alright, I maybe, uh, wanted to come see how you were holding up?" She followed up a bit less sheepishly, but it's still not the truth. The hoof starts tapping. "Alright, listen, I just wanted to make sure none of those freaky night guards were sucking your blood in the night or casting any mind-control rituals on you, alright?" She glances towards the dark corner of the room, but the shade inhabiting it doesn't even flinch. There is a pair of red eyes that peer back from the shadows, though, and for just a second I think I see her flash her fangs at Dash. "Nope, just me and my good friends, uh..." I remember that I only know three of Luna's guards names, and none of them are present. "...Yeah, just sleeping, which most ponies do in the middle of the night, especially when they're on rainstorm patrol the next day." I take a jab at her, knowing full well that she's responsible for keeping the skies clear on weekends. She winces a little bit, but I drop the hardflank attitude and give her a small hug. "Thanks for checking on me, sorry you got tackled breaking in." She laughs at that, returning the hug. Hearing her laugh makes me giggle, and hearing me giggle makes her laugh a bit more, so we sat there for a little while chuckling to ourselves in the moonlight. After a minute we calm down and take a step back from each other, letting the silence back in. She shifts her weight back and forth her two forehooves in contemplation, then leans back in, whispering as quietly as a lesser force of chaos like her can, "Really, do you need me to bust you outta here? I can totally get Pinkie and-" I start giggling again. She's serious, and I don't mean to make her feel silly, but the fact that she's serious is what makes it funny. Even knowing I was being watched by royal elite night guard, Rainbow waited until the dead of night and tried to sneak in through my bedroom window to help me escape as if I were a damsel in some fantasy story. "I never thought I'd say this, but you've been reading too much, Dash." I giggle again. She's got a confused, half-annoyed look on her face, but I pull her in for another hug. "Hey, I don't mean to make it weird, but... Why all the hugs?" She asks, but once again returns the hug, if a bit more awkwardly. "I was just thinking about your Element, and how much it suits you." I answer cryptically. I feel her head move around a bit as her critical thinking skills crank into overdrive, and I chuckle a bit again as I let her out of the second hug. She brushes a forehoof over the other and idly rubs them together, looking around the room for her next sentence. "I'm okay, Dash, really. You should go home and get some sleep, I'll be here when you're off tomorrow. Probably, anyways." I half reassure her. She gives me a hard look-over, but she sighs and lets her shoulders relax as she's reassured that I'm not under duress or in danger. She gives me a nod and turns back towards my window, pressing on it gently until the old hinges squeak open. Three guesses what alerted the bat pony? "I'll drop by on my way to HQ in the morning, if that's cool? And I'm totally checking for bite marks." She deadpans. "That's fine, I'm sure I'll be up by then, as long as nopony else wakes me up by breaking into the library after hours," I chide, shooing her. I'm not sure if she's serious about the bite marks thing, it's hard to tell with her sometimes, but with a showpony's grin and a flap of her wings she darts off into the night sky. I watch her quickly recede into a speck of Luna's night sky for a moment before closing- and latching- the window behind her. Really, would it kill her to use a door? I slowly canter over to my bed, picking up some of the scrolls and putting them back on the nightstand. One got tossed into Spike's bed, and I feel that longing sensation as I realized this is the longest we've been apart in years. It's only for a little while, he just needs some time to himself. Maybe I do, too. I deposit the scrolls and parchment back on their rightful nightstand and slide back into bed, ignoring the bat pony creepily watching me while I sleep. I turn onto my side and face the other way, and I let the fuzzy feeling of comfort Dash brought with her carry me off to sleep. Today was better than yesterday, maybe tomorrow will be better than today, and if it is, maybe things will go back to normal soon.