Twilight opened her eyes. Immediately, she felt her head swim from the sudden change in... everything. The once vibrant colors of the world had been replaced with a grey scale. It was like somepony had sucked all of the beauty from the world, leaving a grey wasteland behind. Twilight looked at Pinkie Pie, and had to shield her eyes from the bright pink contrasting on the otherwise colorless world.
“Woah! What kind of spell is this? Everything looks so... icky now!” Pinkie thrust out her tongue as a sign of displeasure to the current scenario.
Twilight furrowed her brow in concentration. “I know this one... I was studying it a few months ago, I’m sure of it...”
Pinkie Pie was looking at Celestia, who was frozen in place, her head low. “Weird! How come we’re the only ponies who can move?”
Twilight’s eyes light up as she recalled the spell. “Ah yes, now I remember! This is the ‘Temporal Status’ spell! It allows us to stay in a sort of existence where almost everything is frozen in time but us. Of course, the spell isn’t perfect, so...” A single fly buzzed in front of Pinkie Pie in slow motion. She could see every single one of it’s wingbeats crawl at the speed of molasses dripping from a spoon.
“See, case in point,” Twilight confirmed as she gestured at the fly. “Also, I remember reading something about powerful emotions being free of the spell, so we should be able to observe them once we reach the place where they started. I’d brace yourself for some sad experiences, because the Infinite Sadness has most likely amplified sorrow to be the most powerful ones to transcend the spell.”
Pinkie Pie stared slack jawed at Twilight, who rolled her eyes and explained. “The sad events are stronger because of the infinite sadness, so we’ll see them when we reach the place where they started.”
“Oh! That makes much more sense then that weird sciencey thing you were blabbing on about.” Pinkie Pie smiled an innocent smile at Twilight.
“I was not ‘blabbering on’, I was explaining a manner I’ve grown accustomed to!” Twilight was very touchy about her large vocabulary. It was one of the things the other students at Celestia’s Magic Academy had teased her about.
“Woah, ok, Ms. Grouchy Pants!” Pinkie Pie backed away from the subject. “Anyway, let’s go and find this Corgan pony so everypony can be happy again! Then we can throw a ‘Yay-the-infinite-sadness-is-gone’ party!”
Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled. Pinkie Pie’s silliness would definitely come in handy if things got too depressing.
“Alright, I guess that Celestia wouldn’t have put this spell on us if she didn’t expect Corgan to go unaffected by it...” Twilight looked outside the window where a pigeon was frozen in it’s travel across the sky. “Let’s head into the main part of Canterlot, Pinkie. It’s as good as a place as any to start looking.”
Pinkie nodded, and tried to put on a serious face, but ended up smiling again in a few moments. The corners of Twilight’s mouth rose a bit, and the duo headed out into the streets of Canterlot.
Everything was still the depressing grey that the world tended to be now. But just as Pinkie Pie had stood out for Twilight, a couple standing frozen in time had color to them.
“Pinkie! Quick, over here!”
The unicorn and earth pony rushed to the two, and upon reaching them, felt the world shift.
“What’s going on?” asked the pink one.
“I think we’re being transported into the emotional event!”
The whole word was suddenly thrown back into color, and the two ponies groaned as their eyes had to adjust to this explosion of light. When they recovered, they were standing on a busy street, where the couple before them, one a dark blue unicorn sporting a long, thin sword for a cutie mark, and the other a lighter cream colored one with a shard of glass inscribed on her flank, were staring intently into the shop in front of them. They looked a few years older than Twilight, around twenty-five if she could guess right.
“What are they-” Twilight put her hoof in Pinkie’s mouth to silence her. She immediately removed it when Pinkie began rubbing her tongue all along the inner rim.
“UGH! Pinkie, seriously!”
“There was some caramel on it from yesterday when I spilled that bucket on you!”
Twilight shuddered, and turned her attention back to the couple.
“Wow, so that’s your armour set?” The cream colored one asked.
“Well, not my specific armour set, but yeah,” the male answered back. “That’s basically what I'll be wearing in the guard.” The unicorn stallion heaved a heavy sigh.
“What’s wrong?” the female asked.
“Nothing, it’s just...” the stallion looked over at his mare companion. “Silver Shard, do you ever get the feeling what you’re about to attempt is pointless?”
Silver Shard, as the mare was no identified as, looked over at the male. “What are you talking about, Estoc?”
Estoc sighed. “This... well, we can’t really call it a war, since there have been no official actions taken, but I don’t feel like this is right. We have no business trying to solve a problem in the Griffon Empire.”
Silver Shard gave her compatriot a look of disdain. “Those rebels could very well bring down take down the infrastructure of the government there! And then they threatened to attack the refugees in Cloudsdale. You’re doing a good thing, Estoc.”
Estoc looked down at the ground. “Am I? Come on, Silver... use your head. We’ll just end up escalating the conflict, and I’ll be gone for eighteen months at least... and I’d miss the foals!” Estoc put his hoof gingerly up to his mate’s underbelly, which now that Twilight took a better look at, was indeed heavy with foal.
“Ooh!” Pinkie bounced up and down due to this new development. “I can’t wait for the foals to be born! New birthdays! Yay!”
“Quiet, Pinkie,” Twilight said, in deep thought about the situation. “This memory only stood out in the Sadness because it was exceptionally tragic. Don’t celebrate yet.” Pinkie plopped down on her plot and stuck her tongue out. Twilight returned her attention to the couple.
“Come on, you’ll come back when in time for their first birthdays-” Pinkie Pie squealed in delight at this- “And you’ll be able to tell them all about how you’re such a brave war hero!”
Estoc sighed at this, and Silver Shard giggled. “Come on, I was kidding. You’ve got nothing to worry about over there.”
Estoc looked back at his mate. “Well... before I go, I was thinking...” Silver Shard cocked an eyebrow, intrigued. “We could have one more night together. Just me and you, out tonight.”
Silver Shard hugged Estoc, who blushed a bit. A teenaged stallion who had been loitering near the shop snickered.
“Where should we go first, handsome?” Silver Shard nuzzled against Estoc’s muzzle, and the same teenager pretended to gag. Estoc gave him a dirty look, then led his mate away from the armour shop.
“Let’s head out to Shaded Hill! That’s where we first met, after all.”
The two started to trot down the street. Pinkie was counting the number of cracks in one of the bricks that made up the wall of the armour shop when Twilight nudged her.
“Huh?”
Twilight gestured after the two. “Come on, Pinkie! They could present us some valuable information!”
“How will a mommy and daddy to be help us find Corgan?”
Twilight nudged her head into Pinkie’s side, and forced her up. “Well, if their story was enough to be preserved by the sadness, then they must be of some importance!”
In a bizarre role reversal, Twilight happily bounced after the couple while Pinkie Pie trudged behind her.
“Why don’t you want to know more about this couple, Pinkie?” Twilight looked back at her pink companion, who was currently neither happy nor sad, but rather staring at the ground.
“I don’t know, Twilight... something about this just doesn’t seem right... those two are so happy together, and it makes me sort of sad that he’s going away to the Griffin Empire...” Pinkie looked up, her face once again full of cheer. “But wait! When he come back, I can throw a ‘You’re Back From the Griffin Empire’ party!” Pinkie clapped her hooves together. “Come on, Twilight, I need to find out what sort of cake he likes!”
Twilight began to smile, once again filled with hope that her earth pony friend could help fight this infinite sadness. The two had caught up with the couple, who were both laying on their backs, gazing into the night sky.
“Oh, wow,” Twilight mumbled to herself in astonishment. “I didn’t know it was night time already. Then again, time does flow differently due to the spell...”
Shaded Hill was a part of the Canterlot Park. It overlooked Canterlot Lake, and was quite beautiful. Twilight remembered fond times coming here when she was little, and not so fond times, like when a baby lake kraken had attempted to make a meal of her, and Shining Armour and Orion had to rush in to kill the overgrown squid. Since then, there had always been a “Beware of Kraken” sign right next to the lake.
Pinkie Pie had snaked her way up next to Estoc, hanging on to his every word in hopes he might slip something about his favorite type of cake. Twilight hung onto every word, but for different reasons.
“The moon is so beautiful tonight,” Silver Shard remarked, pointed her left hoof up at the celestial body.
“Yeah, Princess Luna sure did a nice job,” Estoc responded. The moon wasn’t quite full, in fact the full moon had been three days ago, but it was still full enough to bathe them in a silvery-white ethereal glow. The two looked so peaceful, with Estoc laying on his back and Silver Shard curled up next to him.
Silver Shard nuzzled up against the stallion laying beside her. “I’ll miss you, you know.”
Estoc looked down at her. “Now I understand why the teenager was gagging back there. You get pretty sappy sometimes.”
Silver Shard giggled and swatted the side of Estoc’s head. Estoc smiled, as did Twilight. Pinkie Pie kept staring intently at Estoc’s face, as if the secrets of his favorite cake would be somewhere hidden there.
“Remember when we first met?”
Estoc looked taken aback by his female companion’s question. “Of course! I was skipping school, and I noticed you sitting under that willow over there.” The willow down by the lake swayed in the night time wind as if to acknowledge the fact that it was being remembered. “You looked lonely, so I sat down next to you, and you told me-”
“-that I liked to come down and feed the Kraken, yeah.” Silver Shard sighed. “He didn’t show up as much after the little purple filly nearly drowned that one year. I didn’t catch her name, I wonder what’s become of her? Hopefully she’s doing good things with her life.”
Twilight snickered at this. If only you knew...
“We still have all of tonight left...” Estoc rolled over, and helped his partner up before getting to his hooves. “Let’s head down to the Canterlot Lake! See if we can spot your little squid friend.”
Silver Shard gasped in excitement, and hugged Estoc. “I love that place!”
Estoc took his lover’s hoof, and the two headed down the hill to the lake. “Let’s go!”
Pinkie Pie walked sadly over to Twilight. “Nothing about cake! This party’s going to be harder to plan then I thought... maybe I should just combine ALL types of cake, and he can take a slice of his favorite kind!”
Twilight was also disappointed by the conversation. Nothing about Corgan at all...
“Come on, Pinkie, let’s follow them. We have no better leads at the moment...” Twilight and Pinkie Pie followed the two to the Canterlot Lake. The lake was beautiful, the moon reflected upon its surface. Twilight could almost swear that she saw some tentacles thrash around under the surface.
The couple walked down to the edge and peered deep into the water.
“It’s so nice and calm...” Silver Shard looked up at the sign. “Yup, that’s still there. He wasn’t really trying to hurt her, he only wanted to play. Me and him used to do that all the time, you Kraken don’t see very well, and I think they’re colorblind, so he probably mistook her for me.” Silver Shard gazed deeper into the water for a few moments before sighing. “Oh well. I guess he’s not coming around this time...”
Estoc looked into the water as well, the turned his head to look at Silver. “Didn’t you used to do something to let him know you were coming? I remember you telling me about that...”
Silver Shard perked up. “That’s right! Here, I think it was...” Silver Shard dipped her hoof into the water, and pulled it out again, repeating the process several times. Then, she picked up a rock from nearby and dropped it into the water.
“That’s a really odd way of getting his attention...” Estoc sounded as if he were beginning to question Silver Shard’s sanity. But sure enough, a long slimy tentacle emerged from the water and placed itself onto the mare’s shoulder. Twilight shuddered as she remembered the clammy grasp of the Kraken.
“Wow, you’ve sure grown up!” Silver Shard giggled as the tentacle retracted from her shoulder with a wet “slurp” noise. Estoc looked mildly disgusted. Silver Shard noticed his look, and scowled. “Oh, don’t be a pervert, Estoc.”
Estoc and Silver Shard both bust out laughing, and Pinkie Pie slid over to Twilight. “Um, Twilight? What’s so funny? I don’t get it.”
“I’ll tell you when you’re older, Pinkie.” Twilight couldn’t help but grin at this. Pinkie Pie was still so innocent... maybe she wouldn’t tell her. Still, the thought amused her. Pinkie might freak out a bit... then again, Pinkie Pie freaked out when there wasn’t any sugar left in the cabinet when there was some laying not two feet from her, so that could be expected. She was a spaz at times, after all.
The faint sound of hurried hoofbeats over cobblestone drew everypony’s attention. Looking up, the group saw the silhouette of a stallion up at the top of Shaded Hill.
“Estoc? Estoc, are you there?” The voice rang over the relative silence of the night.
“That’s Kite Shield,” Estoc explained to Silver Shard. “He’s in the same unite as me. We’ve be training together the last few months.” Estoc directed his attention back to the shadow of the stallion above them, and shouted back “Yes, Kite Shield! What’s the problem?”
“Oh, no problem, it’s just that we’re heading out in three hours, and the sergeant wants us all there!”
Estoc’s face fell. “Crap. Sorry, Silver, I gotta-” Estoc was cut short by Silver kissing him directly on the mouth. When she drew away, she whispered softly to him.
“Go on then, go. I’ll mail you every day.”
Estoc ran up the hill, turning back about halfway to shout “You know which squad I’m in, right?”
“Of course! The 7th!” Twilight’s mouth dropped open in horror upon hearing these words. Not the 7th...
The memory ended here, the world fading back into depressing grey.
Pinkie bounced over to Twilight cheerfully. “Well, did you find anything that’s gonna help us find Corgan-borgan?”
“No, Pinkie... do you by any chance read ‘Equestria Daily’?”
Pinkie Pie stuck her tongue out at this. “Nah, it's too boring! Why?”
“So you don’t know what happened to the 7th Squadron then, do you?”
Pinkie Pie shook her head. “Nope!”
Twilight began to ponder what to do next. Should I tell her the whole squad was wiped out in a rebel attack?
“I can’t wait for Estoc to get back! I’ll throw the best party for him, ever!”
Twilight decided against telling Pinkie. She had a feeling that news like that would take all the flair out of her, and that flair was something she was going to need.
“Come on, Pinkie, let’s keep going.”