//------------------------------// // Orbit // Story: Parachronal // by Mare Macabre //------------------------------// Luna stirred. Her mind was foggy with the remnants of an interrupted dream. Her body was sluggish and hot abnormally so, she realized as she began to stretch. Her satin sheets were stifling and wet, clinging to her unusually sweaty body with uncomfortable tightness as she moved beneath them. The air she inhaled was muggy and unpleasant; the cool relaxing atmosphere of her private chambers had somehow been completely ruined. A flick of her horn threw the suffocating sheets off of her body, and she stretched her wings to allow the sides of her body a breath of desperately needed air. "Princess Luna!" The alicorn's eyes shot open and focused on a hysterical Twilight Sparkle. "What is the meaning of this rude awakening?" she demanded, sitting up in bed. "It is... one o' clock?" she snapped after a glance at her bedside clock. "I'm so sorry, Princess!" Twilight cried, throwing herself onto the bed. "I tried! I did! I did exactly what you said! But I missed a digit in my calculations or set the wrong point as an axle or " "What are you talking about?" Luna cut her off. "And what have you done to the enchantments on my closet?" "I..." Twilight gasped for air, mutely moving her jaw as she tried to push out her confession. "I...I set the sun on a decaying orbital path!" The lunar princess stopped rubbing her eyes. "What?" "I-I made the gravity vortex, but... I don't know what went wrong!" the purple princess explained, turning to follow Luna as she leapt from her bed and rushed to her balcony. "I-I must have set the wrong trajectory or... I don't know, something!" Luna threw the blinds open and staggered as a blinding wall of light struck her and invaded the room. A quick tinting spell over her eyes made the ambient luminescence bearable, though only just, and she looked out at the looming and ever brightening ball of plasma. Luna stared dumbly at the approaching star, silent, then threw the curtains closed and turned back toward her distressed visitor. "Hast you Have you contacted Celestia?" Luna asked, rushing back into her room. "I've sent at least thirty letters, but it's night in Neighpon! I don't think she's awake!" Twilight cried. "I'm so sorry, I don't know what went wrong!" "Where and when did you cast the gravity spell?" Luna switched topics. "What?" "Where were you and when did you cast it?" Luna barked over her shoulder. "G-Th-In the garden!" Twilight squeaked. "Around... nine thirty? I didn't have the spell ready before then so I was just pushing it with your method." Luna ripped a panel off of the floor that concealed her chest of old belongings and threw the dusty trunk open, emptying it onto the floor in a panic. "Where specifically in the garden?" she asked, sifting through the assorted objects. "And are you certain of the time?" "Beside the statue of Princess Platinum, near the fountains. And...maybe a little later?" Luna found what she was looking for, a silver yoke inlaid with a large sapphire similar in design to her sister's regalia, and threw it over her shoulders. That set, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply, drawing from a store of power in the gem over her chest, and channeled the raw magic into her horn. A gleaming white aura enveloped the bony wand, crackling with a familiar energy, and Twilight timidly stepped closer to her. "Luna?" The alicorn opened her eyes and focused a shining white gaze at her younger companion. "I cannot stop it now, Twilight Sparkle," she said firmly, her voice layered with an ethereal echo. "I have doubts that my sister could either. But rest assured, it will be corrected." Light wrapped around her form, bending into vibrant colors and odd shapes before exploding outward and blinding the poor purple pony. Twilight shielded her eyes from the flash. Once it had died, she blinked the bright spot from her vision and looked around for her senior princess, but the mistress of night was gone. The young alicorn breathed slowly as she recognized the sensation of time magic that lingered in the air, relief washing over her and sapping the strength from her legs. She dropped onto her rear with a sigh, a small grin lighting up her previously distraught face. "Luna will fix it," she nodded, a hoof over her chest. "She's going back right now to..." A shard of ice stabbed Twilight in the chest. She blinked her eyes wide, the relief and calm melting away instantly to dread. She turned to look at the curtains, her face slowly twisting into a look of pain and fear as she saw and heard and smelled the thick fabric crackle and hiss and spark into flagration. "But if she changes..." the purple princess thought aloud, watching the flame at the center of the drapes eat a hole in them. "Then this would never have..." Twilight collapsed under the weight of her realization. Silent tears streamed down her stunned face and sputtered as they struck the hot stone floor. The drapes fell off of their dowel, letting searing light and heat flood into the room and scorch the little lavender alicorn's fur. 'You can't change the past...' "Are you sure we're allowed to be here?" "Dad, we're fine. If a princess having brunch in the royal garden is a crime, obviously the laws therein are too strict and need rewritten. Not that I'm going to volunteer to try and fix them," Twilight mused, spearing her fork into her salad. "It's a nightmare trying to get anything done regarding statutes of law. I guess the prince- er, the others have their reasons though." "Well I don't think your father was concerned about your right to be here," the lavender alicorn's mother murmured, glancing nervously toward a guard on patrol. "But... well it feels a little... invasive. On my part at least." "Mom," Twilight groaned, rolling her eyes. "You have two princesses in your family. Technically four. And a prince. And Shining and Cadence are going to be King and Queen of the Crystal Empire at some point. You are absolutely in your right to be here." "Well that's a fair point," her father shrugged, shooting the older unicorn a smirk. "I suppose," Twilight Velvet mused, rocking her head. "Still, the timing makes it seem a little sketchy, doesn't it?" "Celestia being in Neighpon has nothing to do with it," the purple princess argued in mock defense. "Well, aside from the fact that I'm picking up what slack of hers Luna can't handle. But really, when else would I be in town? There's so much happening in Ponyville nowadays that I can hardly blink before someone's demanding my help with something." She dipped a slice of cucumber in the dish of dressing beside her small meal and popped it into her mouth. "It's nice to be get a little time to do magical work again, even if I'm still keeping busy doing it." "Speaking of," her mother began, looking up at the sky. "How much help does Princess Luna need exactly? It seems to me, no offence intended," she added quietly, anxiously glancing around, "that she's... well, kind of dropping the ball on the whole sun thing." "Mm," her husband nodded, swallowing his food. "It's been almost an hour since I've seen it move at all. Is she... distracted by other work?" "Uh... Something like that," Twilight mumbled, rolling a hoof. "Actually, she's so busy that she entrusted moving the sun to me." The young princess's parents dropped their utensils. "T-To-To you?" her mother stammered. "You've been moving the sun?" "Well, yeah," Twilight grinned, blushing slightly. "I've been uh, using a method Pri- eh, Luna taught me." "Wow," her father breathed. "Welp, it's official. We're allowed to be here. Garcon!" he called to a passing guard in a horrible French accent. "A bottle of your finest wine!" "Night Light!" Twilight Sr. snapped. "Cancel ze order," he waved at the now very confused officer. "Just ignore him!" his wife called. "Sorry about that!" The guard glanced at Twilight for direction, and the alicorn rolled her eyes and waved him away. The guard saluted and returned to his patrol, Night Light turning back to his daughter after watching the exchange. "You're really settling in here, aren't you?" he smirked. Twilight cocked her eyebrows, glancing at her still raised hoof, then set it down with a blush. "Well, it's... an ongoing process. I'm still learning how to not act like an awkward idiot when someone asks me for directions." "Seems like you're learning well," the stallion nodded. "Say, just a thought, when do you think you're going to be fitted for one of those ceremonial yokes?" Before the young alicorn could muster a flustered response, her horn began to sputter and spark. Her parents reared back, worried, but a raised hoof calmed them. "That's just a timer," Twilight explained with a sigh. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean let it go off." "That's fine, Twilight, but what's it for?" her mother questioned. "And why not just have an egg timer or something?" her father added. Twilight Velvet elbowed him in the ribs without looking his way. "It helps if my magic's already flowing," the younger mare explained. "Don't want to try moving the sun from a cold start." Her parents perked up. "You're going to do it now?" her mother whispered, looking around. "Like you said, it's been almost an hour," Twilight shrugged. "Plus I've been studying up on how to properly set it in motion. No more of this 'throw-catch' method Luna taught me." "'Throw-catch?'" Night Light parroted, making his daughter flinch. "That sounds... interesting." "Ahem, well," Twilight started, moving to her hooves, "As I said, I'm done with it. I'm going to cast an advanced gravity vortex and weave it into a temporal displacement spell Luna set up before she went to ssssssee a visiting dignitary." Her parents beamed at her, nodding proudly as she let out a relieved sigh at having not given away what really had the lunar princess preoccupied. She looked up at the tower, but another passing guard caught her eye with a quick wave and a mouthing of the words "Nice save." Twilight couldn't help but shoot him a smirk while her parents remarked their pride to each other before turning her attention to the sky. Silence fell over the garden as Twilight's horn began to glow. The subtle whisper of magic radiated from her body, reaching out toward the heavens and filling her mind with light. Her aura touched that of the sun. A swell of warmth rushed into her being. Twilight breathed long and deep, forming the symbols for her spell in her mind's eye and channeling them through her horn with silent incantations. The air became thick and heavy, an ethereal wind sweeping through the picnic and sending chills up the spines of all present. The lavender alicorn let the magic build in her horn, developing into a powerful orb of arcane energy, before opening her eyes and letting the magic free. A brilliant white crack split the air before the young princess, firing out a blast of hot air and a deafening BOOM! Twilight recoiled from the shattered space, digging her hooves into the ground to avoid being thrown backward into the statue behind her. Wisps of fire lashed out of the shining portal, scorching the ground at Twilight's feet, before the crack exploded out into a blindingly bright sphere of energy. "Is this supposed to happen?" Night Light yelled over the rush of wind. "No! Something's wrong!" Twilight called back, throwing up a force field between them and the sphere. "This feels like time magic..." As if in answer, the ball of light pulsed and shrunk before exploding again. The picnic goers shielded their eyes from the great flash of light, and Twilight strengthened her shield as arcs of lightning buffeted her hastily-cast barrier. The crackling gradually grew quiet. The light faded. Twilight and her parents uncovered their eyes and looked to where the crack in spacetime had appeared to find a sparking, glowing Princess Luna. Before questions could be asked, the princess of night spun in place and threw her head back, firing a cobalt burst of magic into the sky. The bolt struck the sun, the great ball of light dimming and flashing a brilliant sapphire color as the similarly colored alicorn took hold of it. With a great burst of magical power Luna leaned her head, dragging the sparkling blue sun across the sky to its proper place in time. Once set, another layer of energy enveloped her horn, this one glowing a fainter blue than her hold on the sun, and another bolt of magic was fired at the sky. Twilight watched in awe as a visible vortex of swirling gravitational force manifested just before the sun, appearing as a single disc at first before Luna's earlier temporal framework stretched it into a massive tube that arced across the sky. The spell complete, Luna let the magic leave her horn. She watched the vortex for several seconds, ensuring that the job was done properly, then nodded firmly and turned to face her stunned subjects. "P-Prin-Luna," Twilight started. "This is my decree," the lunar alicorn stopped her. "From now onward you shall not cast magicks relating to time, gravity, or the sky without supervision by myself or my sister. You shall not touch the sun or moon without permission or express need. Finally," she continued, teleporting a scroll out of Twilight's bag and holding it by her head, "You are forbidden to study Partiki, or experiment with magicks derived from it, without my express authorization and guidance." Luna finally opened her eyes and found Twilight in a scared, prostrating position, which her parent mimicked close behind her. "Is this understood?" she finished more quietly. The young alicorn nodded emphatically, afraid to look up. "Y-yes princess!" Luna felt a pang in her chest. She had not intended to use the Traditional Voice, but her message had to be made clear. She motioned to comfort her young peer, but the movement was instantly regretted. Luna swayed, throwing out her forelegs to steady herself, but was still forced to her knees by her fatigue and disorientation. Time magic was no simple feat, even for an alicorn, and to use both that and Old Cornish Magicks so quickly after each other was a drain greater than she'd expected her tired mind would need to bear. Twilight cautiously watched as the Night Mother struggled to her feet and staggered to maintain her balance. "D-did I do something wrong?" she asked nervously, flinching as Luna fixed her with bleary eyes. "Nothing that could not be undone," the elder princess assured her, forcing a smile onto her face. "I am sorry to have yelled. Please enjoy your picnic." Luna took a deep breath and forced herself to move, starting to awkwardly shuffle her way back to her tower. "What happened?" Night Light asked before he could be stopped. Luna paused at an exit to the garden and looked back with a serious face. "All you need know is that a great tragedy has been prevented. It no fault of yours though, Twilight Sparkle," she added, looking at the younger princess. "The blame lies with me. Celestia was right to withhold the Magicks of the Sky from you." She turned and continued out of the garden. "You are not ready." More than once the stairs felt as though they were truly endless. Longer, even, as a total lack of magical and physical strength made every step a mountain. By the time she'd reached the great black doors to her domain, the princess of night looked like anything but. Her mane and tail had lost their starshine; the ethereal flow of wind that kept them aloft had disappeared and left them flat and ordinary. Her dark coat had lost its shade, the darkness of night replaced by a bright cyan. She stumbled as she peaked the endless stair, the jewel in her neckpiece crumbling to dust as the last of its energy was expunged to open the doors. Inside the dark of her lair, the lunar princess regained her breath. The cool, rejuvenating light of the cosmos that hung above her head filled her with a needed surge of strength, which she used to lift the silver yoke from her shoulders as she trudged her way to the bed. The heavy regalia clattered to the floor as her shaking hooves pulled her onto the plush mattress. With a considerable effort, the blue alicorn pulled the thick downy sheets over her body and shuffled herself flush with the warm silhouette behind her Luna's tired eyes flew open. She adjusted her wings, discreetly using them to feel behind herself, and blinked as they assured her that there was somepony else in her bed. She silently turned her head, shaking it gently to move her mane out of her line of sight, and found herself face to face with a mirror. 'Or... wait...' Luna looked the other pony over with wide eyes, as her copy did the same to her. They blinked in unison, adjusting slightly to put an inch or two between them. Luna, the Luna that had just laid down, reached for her magic to examine the other, but another wave of exhaustion hit her instead as she reached into her empty reserves of energy. Instead, she looked forward at the clock on her nightstand, then turned back. "It's ten fifteen in the morning," she yawned. "We can try and figure this out now or sleep on it and come up with ideas at a sensible hour." The other Luna, having searched her new bedmate for traps, disguises and any other forms of magical trickery, yawned as well. "I motion for the latter," she murmured sleepily. "If this is a dream, more sleep should solve the problem." "Right," the first Luna mumbled. "Best not to... dwell on... odd dreams." The Lunas adjusted once again, one settling herself comfortably against the other, and magical exhaustion and ordinary fatigue pulled each into a much needed and well deserved rest.