The sound of her friends arguing was starting to grate on Twilight’s nerves, just a little.
“Oh, none of you girls know about true passionate romance. It’s not just about settling down in some cozy home and share a blanket by the fireplace.” The actual consideration in her friends’ eyes made Rarity pause mid tirade. “Though that might be a nice image, there is MORE to pure love than just a nice moment of shared camaraderie and confidence.”
“Sounds plenty to me.” Applejack deadpanned.
It had been going on in a similar fashion for a while now. The only difference was the fact that they were now walking down in the gardens, looking for Pinkie and Calx to inform them of today’s plans.
So far, the worst part had been, well, Rarity and Applejack going back and forth. Every time Rarity managed to invoke a sumptuously romantic image, something about candlelight and the watchful sunset…
“Oh no! It is MUCH bigger! Romance is a passionate, burning wild flame that stampedes all over your preconception and sets you ablaze with desire!” Rarity would say. “Your head will spin and your heart will soar!”
Golden hooves on her…
“Hon, if you feel that way, you ain’t lovesick, yer just sick!”
Her sneezing in his face.
And her bubble would pop so hard she would feel the backlash in her brain. This had gone on for almost an hour! She was sick of it!
“You will see!” The fashionista declared confidently. “If Prince Ventus truly loves her, then he will surprise her! He will barge in suddenly and whisk her away to carry her toward the sunset, to flee from all responsibilities and exist only for one another till the days grow old and the moon shines blue!”
Twilight pointedly looked away, ignoring Fluttershy’s attempts at making eye contact. Her face would flush so hard if any of them manage to capture her gaze for more than a few seconds. Rarity’s speeches were definitely setting her brain on fire, as the poor alicorn could not stop her imagination from switching the faces of those unknown ponies with herself and… perhaps Prince Ventus.
“That’s… that’s pure nonsense!” Rainbow Dash shouted, holding her hooves in front of her face, indignation clear in her voice.
Now she was definitely blushing.
“Twilight?”
She didn’t hear that! She really didn’t! Pinkie Pro-… alright, maybe not Pinkie Promise…
“Ah have to agree with Rainbow on that one, Rarity. That sounds like a load of horseapple.” The cowpony rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, AJ’s right. Come on, Rare!” The pegasus laughed, flipping in the air. “Whisking Twilight away? Like that? So suddenly Twilight wouldn’t get the time to react and plan the whole thing in excruciating details?”
The white unicorn winced, sensing a grain of truth tainting her vision of a perfect romance.
“Why, I never-” She cut herself off when Twilight came to an abrupt stop. “Darling?”
The lavender alicorn seemed to be staring into place, though her eyes were actually shifting slightly every few seconds. Her expression remained troubled however, her eyebrows furrowed together.
Before she could speak up, however, a violent burst of wind almost threw them off their hooves. Out of nowhere, a figure appeared with the burst, though one might be forgiven for not discerning his traits so easily with the barrier between them.
“Princess Sparkle!” Oh dear, she would recognize that voice anywhere. “You must come with me!” The stallion lunged at her, too quickly for her to react. A small part of her actively wondered if she wanted to react, though in the end, she pondered too long for the choice to remain hers.
Ventus’ hoof touched hers.
And with that, the two of them disappeared with a gust of wind.
Rarity savored her moment of triumph for a few seconds, before deciding to be reasonable and close her friend’s mouths, all wide opened with utter disbelief.
--
Not so far away, out of sight and out of pony earring range, a beige coated stallion grinned to himself, eying the perfect picture he had taken. Princess Twilight Sparkle’s shocked and secretly pleased expression was centerfold, with the Prince’s face obscured.
Only quick reflexes and pure instinct had allowed him to miss the desperate plea from the stallion.
“Colt, you are making my life so much easier…” He chuckled.
His thanks given, the stallion hurried off the castle ground, knowing his money could only buy so much time off the guards’ patrol schedule.
--
The winds died down as quickly as I had brought them up, fading away with the magic I had forced into my horn. It all dissipated harmlessly into the suite I shared with Tom, barely even shaking a flowerpot by the window.
Some warmth climbed up my hooves, even while my limbs started to feel less… ghostly again. A neat trick I had come up with three hundred years ago… or never, depending on which part of me one asked. Our bodies both became solid soon enough, the last lingering effect of my “pony-to-air” spell completely fading away.
“W-what was that?! This wasn’t a teleportation! There was no tunneling effect, nor a magical backlash! D-did you just use a completely new and exclusive method of travel to get me here?!”
“Yes,” I answered honestly, bluntly too to tell the truth.
Luckily, my reply seemed to have been enough for her to gather her mind, or perhaps it was simply picking up on my voice and the overall feeling of urgency that overflowed from my general person.
“Prince Ventus?” She eyed me with a frown, her breathing still more rapid and deeper than I would have expected at this point. “What is going on? Why did you bring me here like this?”
I remained externally calm, but inside my inner turmoil was reaching a peak. What I wanted was extremely risky, but it seemed like the best course of action, considering the urgency of the situation.
Still, my heart was beating so strongly it seemed Twilight’s words were overshadowed.
“I do apologize for my… unusual behavior, but I fear there is no time to lose.” My voice faltered, as screams of my human self almost deafened me. The propos however were neither mindless nor useless. A cold dread washed over me. “This is meant for your ears alone!”
For some reason though, Twilight took a step back, eyes shrinking and face paling. W-was she… no, she wouldn’t outright refused because of me whisking her away from her friends so suddenly, r-right?!
I felt my heart sink.
“Please, I need you.” I stumbled forward, reaching for her with one hoof.
“Whoa, whoa, whooooooa, this is way too fast for me! I’m not ready to leave my life behind me, my friends, my family, my whole career! In fact, I don’t get that!” Her expression seemed to become more frazzled, verging slightly toward hysteria. “Why should I do that? Why would I want to do that?!”
I blinked. Good question… what the hell are you going on about, Twi?
“Princess Sparkle,” I said with a calm, but firm and regal tone. It made her flinch. “I have yet to disclose the nature of my request. What are you talking about?”
For a moment, she remained still, unmoving, completely frozen with the exception of her staring eyes that were slowly widening with each passing second. Something of a blush seemed to visit her cheeks.
“Nothing.” Her tone was so mechanical I cringed.
“We both know that it is a lie.” I was almost sad for the poor gal. That was Applejack’s levels of bad lying.
A string of words left her lips, too quickly for me to make sense of them. Eventually though, as she started to run out of air, I presumed, she seemed to realize she was going about it way too fast and sunk down to her knees, squeaking in embarrassment.
She was so… freaking… cute…
The thought fled my mind almost immediately. I had much more pressing business than hitting on a mare. And one of them was regaining enough of myself to make that concept disturbing again.
Slowly, I made my way to her crouching form, being as gentle as I could.
“Princess Sparkle, I need your help.” I had no trouble putting the pain I experienced into my voice. She instantly caught up on it as well. “You’re the only one I trust enough to confide on this.”
For a moment, the poor alicorn seemed completely lost, so unsure… Her gaze would not meet mine. It seemed as if her wings were not closing simply over her sides, but rather over her own heart, hugging her for comfort.
My heart skipped a beat. She looked hurt, though also… flattered, ashamed, concerned, touched? I… I couldn’t tell…
“Yes?”
The word was so quiet I almost failed to hear it.
Upon taking this implicit acceptance, I sucked in my breath, feeling one last bout of hesitation before I could truly speak to her. “D-do you remember what I told you about the balance of Harmony?”
She nodded, but said nothing else. Her eyes were fixated on me and I doubted they could seem more piercing. I had her full attention.
“Do you also remember the part where I told you Celestia had managed to instate Harmony by releasing Discord while you ascended to alicorn status?”
Her silence was telling.
I sighed, feeling the corners of my lips slip downward into a grimace. My ears drooped down. “We weren’t supposed to come. We shouldn’t have been able to.”
“B-but then…” Her voice trailed off. She seemed unable to vocalize the rest of her thoughts.
No more words were necessary anyway.
“The spell I used to follow my brother…” I averted my gaze, preferring to focus on the window and the outside world it gave access to. “It was a forbidden one. Magic… of unknown origin…”
I didn’t have any other choice, not a significant one, not so quickly. And I was out of time already! The books I read from pages to pages had been of no help. While a true expert in the art of weather manipulation, my education was… lacking in subjects such as dimensional travel. It had been deemed unnecessary when I was studying under Magister.
Bitterness had literally permeated my body to the bones, to find myself so over my head whenever it was important. If I had learned anything at all from the last few days, it was that I could only make things worse.
Turning toward a well-versed magician and the personal student of Celestia herself was a logical choice second only to the Alicorn of the Day herself. Why not her then? Well, I suspected Twilight was more likely to do it for the sake of science and thus, ask fewer ethical question to me.
Flimsy, but it was that reason, alone. No other reason. Twilight could help me.
“W-what kind of spell did you use?” Said mare finally stuttered.
I steeled my heart to get the courage to say it. Even then, the words came out as hesitant.
“The kind that can alter reality.”
Dead silence.
A perfect environment for one’s fears to grow and his imagination to run wild, as mine did.
…Please. I know this is hard, but I’ve already wasted so much time… I can’t… I can’t afford to just… Just give us your help...
Twilight blinked, but remained otherwise stunningly silent.
I could not blame her, this was something big. It would be hard to process and digest the sheer scale of our actions. Parts of me were trying and failing to imagine it so, while I had two sets of memories to draw from.
“Wow… this is…” Twilight looked around, everywhere but at me. “Wow…”
“T-Twilight…”
“I…” She suddenly chuckled. “I just don’t know what to say…”
My voice got stuck in my throat.
“Has it… you know, altered anything?”
…
“I… ” Oh crap… what do I say to that? Do I tell her? Then what? Would she figure it out? We’ve – well, mostly me – already created discrepancies with this world’s history. Or at least about how threats arise, which is precisely what is supposed to be happening right now…
Her traits became slightly more precise, bigger, allowing me to see in perfect detail the more minute details like that small twitch beneath her lips she maintained in a firm line or the fact that her fur had started standing on its ends. Subconsciously, Twilight was leaning toward me.
“You see… it’s…” Something like Chrysalis might waltz in and try to take over, possibly causing the death of many of your fellow ponies.
The moment the thought had crossed my mind, I knew what I would do. There was simply no other option for me. Otherwise, Twilight’s cooperation might be lost forever.
Instantly, a cool… no, cold detachment erased all signs of hesitation from my mind. Though externally I projected the image of an unsure alicorn, my mind was an ocean of ice. Vaguely however, my conscience was screaming bloody murder.
“I don’t think it did…” Liar. “But who knows when and how it might start?” Liar, liar, hooves on fire… “We need to pinpoint the origin of the spell, perhaps reproduce it, to stop its effects and reverse them?” Hung by his wings with barbed wire… “The balance would be restored.”
She stared, the cogs of her mind turning so visibly I could hear them.
The corners of her lips twitched and suddenly it was my turn to lean closer, too fixated by the other to realize what I was doing. I needed help so badly! I needed her help so badly! Come on, Twilight!
Upward. A smile. She was smiling.
Immediately, I released a sigh of relief I hadn’t known I was holding in.
I knew I had won.
“Alright. I will try to help you to the best of my abilities.”
--
There was a monster in his chest. A strange crawling thing that had him uneasy, uncomfortable… on the verge of throwing up all over his keyboard.
Through some sort of strange miracle however, he managed to force his fingers down, enough to type a message, but without his eyes ever trailing off the screen.
“F-for real…? That’s their names?” No way, that’s just… how… why would they give alicorns those names?
“Well, nicknames actually, NightServant, but you get the idea. And the fandom pretty much universally agrees that this is really out of place and weird and no one knows why the writers went with that.”
He just stared at the screen.
That had to be a weird coincidence. Come on, those two new characters… one of them being an annoying mini-stu?
Phantom pain in his eye.
His heart jumped in his throat, threatening to up and outright leave his body. There was, in his mind, the memories of his friend glaring at him, so strongly for speaking like that.
Too strongly. It’s just a TV show’s…
“Tom and Sam, really?”
--
I didn’t want to squirm and get skittish, but I kept so nonetheless. Truly though, my situation was rather… peculiar, one might say.
“A-are you entirely certain it is necessary I strike a pose while you run your tests?” Not that I mind puffing my chest and extending my wings, looking all proud, Twi, but I can’t help feeling something is amiss here...
The mare, her nose in her readings, barely seemed to have registered my words. The blush her glasses couldn’t hide was the only concrete proof I had that she wasn’t as detached as she pretended to. “Oh, yes, of course, it… huh… helps the circulation of your magical aura and then I can… see if you’re ”
Even when not looking at me, she gave a ‘I’m-really-not-lying-I-promise’ smile. Even worse, my ears picked up some unusual words when she turned around. Perhaps I should try to inform her that as Alicorn of the Wind, I could pretty much hear anypony I wanted to, so long as we weren’t separated by solid matter.
“Be bold, Twilight, she said… ooooh, I’m so bad at this…” She whispered.
The strange phrase did not quite translate in my brain. Distantly, a part of me knew precisely what she was talking about. In itself, it would have been quite distracting, but…
Well, the dozens wires attached to my wings and the rest of my person made it a little hard to concentrate on much.
After I had made my request, Twilight had lead us to the castle’s laboratory. Strange as it had first appeared to me to have a lab, a place where one would experiment with magic, in the Princesses residence, this was Twilight Sparkle, student extraordinaire.
“T-this is all fascinating!” She exclaimed, tone breaking and pitched too high. “I’ve never seen anything like it before!”
“Yes, as I told you…” A sense of shame stirred in my guts. “Yes, as I already explained, the source of this spell is unknown…”
Her head turned toward me, yet she still didn’t look at me. Her gaze was fixated on the beeping equipment surrounding my body and the wires hooked up on me. Slowly though, awed discovery seemed to be replaced by perplexity.
Twilight quickly ran to my figure, making my heartbeat accelerated with paranoia.
“This should not happen,” she muttered, making a bunch of readings float toward her, glancing alternatively between each of them, inches away from me.
Less than her words, it was the frown darkening her features that had me worried.
“Twilight?” I called.
She did not answer, too immersed in her examinations of the strange colored lines displayed on the machine behind me. It did not change when she moved toward me again.
Without even a hint of her previous skittishness, the Alicorn of Magic honestly started to examine me from up close. I could feel her breath on my fur at this distance.
My tail twitched.
T-there was something… dehumanizing about being put on a pedestal and being turned into an object of observation and study. That I had made the request diminished the sentiment, but only very slightly.
Instruments were levitating around her head and she mouthed many things silently, to my dismay, as reading on lips was not a skill I had. Her train of thoughts was simply lost on me, even while the direction of her experiments became more and more evident.
A full blown glare at numbers stayed telling no matter the dimension.
“No, this HAS to be wrong! Magic doesn’t work like that!” She almost snarled at her scrolls, obviously displeased with the results she was getting. If anything, she looked about ready to…
Hit them… throw them across the room.
“I-I HATE YOU!”
I still don’t know… which one… which one said it? It’s all falling apart.
A muffled, hitting noise.
I can’t match a face with the voice.
“HAVE YOU GONE MAD?!”
Have you? Are you both still sane? Was that a fluke? Or just...
The sound of deep breathing, not unlike that of a yoga master, brought me back to my senses.
“Alright, Twilight, you can do this,” she told herself.
Completely to her thought process, the alicorn blatantly ignored the intrigued look I directed her way. Instead, she turned her head back to her desk and, before I had the time to ask anything, a black blur flew toward her at lightning speed.
My warning died in my throat when it flashed itself into Twilight’s hooves and revealed itself as tongs. Besides, my voice was extinguished the next second. A nice, warm, gentle touch registered in my brain.
However, Twilight still didn’t seem happy, brushing my leg like that.
“What is it?”
A sharp bout of pain in my hind leg made me bite my lips, to hold in the yelp that threatened to echo in the lab otherwise. D-did Twilight just pluck out a piece of me?!
She didn’t notice. Her eyes were entirely on her sample. “That’s… weird.”
“W-what is?” I asked, chest burning up with sudden fright.
“This,” Twilight said, carefully holding up the piece of me she had pulled out with her levitating tongs. “It’s all over you… and…”
There was nothing. Not even some golden fur.
Staring intently, something hit me as wrong, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. In the first place, I was no expert on such matters. Air was distorted around it, I could tell – of course I could –, but what I didn’t know was the reason for this distortion. I had some theories, but they were probably total crap.
Frowning, Twilight closed her eyes, making her horn glow much more intensively.
It did not take long. Whatever was in Twilight’s grip changed, slowly expanding, stretching into a thin line. That in itself was not notable, admittedly, but, as it turned into a white rift inside an empty space, it seemed to have an effect on me I could not explain.
From the rift, a pulse seemed to echo and, as soon as it reached me, I heard an ethereal neigh at the back of my mind.
Twilight started to speak, completely unaffected. “The further I move it away from you, from the caster and his reserves of magic.” She took a step back, ONE!
The string of light faded away.
“W-what does that mean?” I asked, mouth going dry.
“I…” Her eyes were wide open. “I think the spell is starting to... to run out…”