Minutes to Midnight
She sighed for the fifteenth time that day; the shaking was really getting on her nerves as she tried to pay attention to what she was reading. The geologist had done their jobs remarkably, pinning the source and giving an estimate on how much longer they had before everything crumbled. The problem though was not with the report, but with the earthquakes that were continuously going on. She signed again and looked at the report, it started clearly enough stating the core temperature had dropped so much that the center was shrinking; this was causing all of the tectonic plates to start moving. Though she knew little about the tectonic plates she did know that they should not have moved at such an aggressive pace, and when she asked the Princess about it she was told to follow her. And so here she is, finding out that the planet is dying and they possibly only have a few days left to enjoy themselves. She first though about the Pegasi, if they could find a way to stay on clouds until the earth settled then they may be fine. But the Princess had made a point that without any agriculture everypony would soon starve.
They should have investigated this sooner though; all around Equestria and beyond the plant life seemed to be dying. They attributed it to too much heat and they responded with more rain, though the results were minimal, they were results. And so now they’re figuring out that the magic that was holding the planet together was going down the drain at an enormous rate and there seemed to be no way to reverse it. While this was being said to her, she felt like something was pressing on her head, but when she put a hoof to it nothing was there. Now with an itchy head and information that would normally cause her to freak out she excused herself.
“Twilight?” asked a calm voice that she knew all too well.
“Hello Princess, did you need something?” Twilight responded, trying not to show her former teacher her panic.
“Not necessarily, though I can’t help but notice you seem to have a new aura surrounding you, have you been altering your magic?”
“Huh? No I… No I have not, and I can’t say that I feel any different either. The only thing that has changed today was the fact my head feels like I have a thirty pound weight on it with fleas acting as the base.” Twilight said with a somewhat annoyed voice, truth be told she was beyond stressed out and was trying her best not to show it to Celestia.
“Twilight where is your Tiara?
“My tiara?”
“Yes, your tiara that represents the element of magic.”
“I… I have not seen it since…” she trailed off remembering her adventures with her friends. She missed them terribly and if it were not for Rainbow Dash and the Princesses she probably would be insane right now.
“Princess do you think Discord has anything to do with this?”
Surprised by the question she responded “You six defeated him thirteen years ago, if he were part of this I think it would have happened sooner.”
“I suppose you’re right, I am going to head home and hopefully get some rest. Last night had far too many earthquakes that kept me up and Rainbow had a suggestion to sleep on a cloud tonight. I think I am going to take her up on that offer”
“The Elements are vital to this world and I have a theory that may just be our salvation, but this will not be easy and I am not even sure it will work. The reason I asked you where your tiara is well they are not in the armory as they’ve always been.” She responded with an annoyed tone.
“What? Where could they have gone? Who could have taken them? Why would somepony take them? What abou-“ Celestia cut her off
“Twilight I have already gone through the questions myself, and no I do not believe Discord is involved because the new location he is in is still sealed. While I am concerned about the Elements I fear that they may have dissipated as a direct result of your friendships lingering.” She responded with bored tone.
“Now I still have one more theory to test and if that will not work I will send a scroll to you in the morning. Go home and see your friends, Rainbow is still living with you correct?”
“Yes, it seemed so sensible at the time that neither one of us moved out after that. Plus it is nice to see a friend everyday versus during a holiday or birthday” Twilight said with an almost nostalgic tone.
“So about Rainbow… how do you feel about her?” Celestia said with a small smirk.
“Oh she is a great friend and still just as loyal as sh... wait.” She looked up to see Celestia’s smirk and then blushed.
“NO! No I mean… No nothing has happened. In fact I never even considered that an option.” She replied quickly.
Celestia let out a small chuckle, “Twilight dear you do amuse me sometimes, I simply asked because you are always talking about her and you have been living together for over ten years. It would not hurt you to resolve a few things before this is over, who knows you may find love at the end of the world”
Twilight turned her head away in shame “Right… Love…” The truth is she was very lonely and ever since spike went to training she had only Rainbow.
Celestia noticed this and decided to change the subject, “Twilight why don’t you head home, as I said I will inform you in the morning if anything comes up. Also how about you try and contact your friends tonight and see if you can spend a little time with them. Oh and say high to Rainbow for me” Celestia winked before trotting back to her office.
Twilight continued staring at the ground with confused emotions. She told the truth when she said she never considered Rainbow more than a friend, but now she wondered if she would have looked past her books and found somepony that would love her. She scoffed the idea years ago saying that she did not have time for that special person, but now that she was sure her time was up, she was scared. What has she missed?
She slowed stood up and with her horn glowing teleported back to her dwelling; if not for her reinforce enchantments the building would have collapsed with the frequent earthquakes. She sighed as she started to clean the place up; while she was doing this she started remembering the days when the world was not ending.
________
“I can’t believe I am actually here! Twilight sparkle the Arch-mage for Princess Celstia. How about that title Rainbow?”
“eh… it could be cooler, but congrats Twi! Hey I have an idea we should totally move in together, my landlord here sucks and you were given this huge house” Rainbow said with pleading eyes.
“ I don’t know Rainbow… Don’t you think that Twilight the mighty bookwork would slow The captain of the wonderbolts down?” She said sarcastically.
Rainbow was about to retort when the door slammed open and confetti exploded everywhere “SURPRISE” Yelled the bubbly pink maned mare.
“Pinkie! I didn’t know you were in town” Twilight rushed to her friend with a hug before she noticed a buldge from her stomach. ‘How much have I missed…’
“You think I would miss throwing a ‘Rainbow and Twilight are moving in together party’!?” She said while seemingly hovering in the air.
“Huh? We were just discussing that how would y… nevermind” Twilight remembered that questioning Pinkie Pie’s logic would mean many therapy lessons.
“Woah Pinkie you got fat!” Said Rainbow blunty
“DASH! That was not a nice thing to say.” Replied twilight who then turned to an even cheerier looking pinkie.
“Ooh ooh you noticed! I am going to be having little Pinkie Pie’s running around here soon!”
“Wow congratulations Pinkie! We are invited to the shower correct?” Twilight looked with pleading eyes.
Dash was still in a state of shock, she was actually a bit hurt that she did not know of this sooner, how had she grown so distant from her friends? Sure she left them a year ago for the wonderbolts but Pinkie was still single and Twilight still had Spike. ‘Twilight will not say no, I need her friendship more than anything now’.
“Of course silly-filly! I wouldn’t dream of not inviting all of my bestest friends!” Her tail twitched as soon as she said this.”Ooh, it looks like I won’t be able to throw the party today, maybe tomorrow! I will see you gals tomorrow!” and with that she zipped away before either of them could say goodbye.
Twilight turned around to see an almost depressed looking Rainbow Dash.”Rainbow? what’s wrong I thought you would be happy for her.”
“I am Twilight, it’s just that… I have missed so much and I didn’t even think it had been that long. And here you should up with an impressive new title and pinkie with a foal. I think I have made a mistake…”
“Dash don’t think that way, you followed your dreams and at least attempted to keep in contact with us, if it is any consolidation I did not know about Pinkie’s situation either. I have been in Canterlot for about six months in private study and it was quite lonely.”
“I am accepting your offer to let you stay here, at least this way we will not grow apart. And I also think we need to start getting together with our friends at least once a month to catch-up, this was too much of a surprise even for me.”Twilight said in a motherly tone
“Yeah, that sounds great! Hey let me run back to my place and start packing, want to meet for dinner later?”
“Sure, I think I can find a cheap mover for you as well.”
_____
A large Tremor shook Twilight from her reverie; she was not quite sure what made her think of that but it definitely made her remember that they never did keep that promise to see their friends. Sure it started out fine, but then schedules conflicted and plans were changed. Soon enough they started just seeing each other on Holidays. Now everyone but her and Dash had a growing family, Rainbow had a few coltfriends but they never seemed to stay with her long.
It was evening by the time Rainbow came home, and as she walked in she noticed Twilight on her haunches staring at the floor and rushed to her.
“Twilight are you alright? What’s wrong?” Asked a panicked Rainbow Dash.
“I’m fine, just remembering when things were not so complicated.” She looked up and saw concern in her friends’ eyes. She felt a small tug at her heart from remember what the Princess has said earlier and mentally filed it away. Then looking back at what she had just ‘cleaned’ she let out a groan.
“Why am I even bothering to clean this place when it just falls back down twenty minutes later!” she said a bit louder than she meant to.
Rainbow sighed, “Let’s go get some food and clear our heads”
“sounds good to me… By the way I am taking your offer up on that cloud, last night was dreadful”
“Oh darn, I wish you would have said that earlier. There are literally no clouds in the sky and the only one that is here is already in my room, it should be big enough for the both of us though so if that’s fine with you it could be another sleep-over type deal.”Dash said nonchalantly.
Twilight’s heart rate started up for some reason “I think that would be fine, let’s go get some food now”.
_______
Pinkie you gotta stand up tall
Learn to face your fears
You’ll see that they can’t hurt you
Just laugh to make them disappear
So, giggle at the ghostly
_______
“Twilight!” Yelled a concerned Rainbow
“Huh what? Oh we’re home”
“Alright you’re going straight to bed, no late night studying for you, I know this whole situation is hard on us all but when you are literally sleep walking than it is time for proper rest.”
“I really need to keep loo-“she met the glare from the Pegasus “alright fine let’s go to bed…”
Ten minutes later they were on the rather large cloud, and she was quite hopeful her cloud walking spell would hold up for the duration of the night.
Something was bothering her though, her head still felt like something was sitting on it and it was getting annoyingly itchy.
“Rainbow? Are you still awake?”
“… Am now”
“Sorry… Listen, do you feel like you are wearing a necklace even though there is nothing there?”
To Twilight Sparkle’s surprise the rainbow maned Pegasus jumped straight up and look her straight in the eye.
“You feel it too?!”
“Well no, but I feel like I am wearing a Tiara and it itches like crazy.” … “The Princess asked me earlier if I had seen my Element Tiara lately and when I said no she said they were missing from the Armory.”
“She theorized that the elements are dissipating and taking the magic from the world with them”
Rainbow looked at her with wide eyes as she continued.
“I think… I think we are the cause of this happening; we are not the representatives of the elements as we used to be Dash.”