//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9: Halftime 
// Story: Half Minute Horses 
// by Thunderbug80 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 9
Halftime
World Destroyed: 7 Times
Dark Lords Defeated: 1





"Hang on, Spike!" Twilight yelled. Her horn glowed briefly as she teleported the baby dragon onto her back.

The two of them rushed through the Everfree forest, darting to the left or right to avoid trees and other obstacles. Every now and then Twilight would teleport them to a spot further ahead to save time, and the few slime creatures who stood in her path were dispatched quickly and barely slowed her down at all.

"Uh, Twilight?" Spike asked. "Isn't Canterlot in that direction?" He pointed a scaled claw off to the right.

"Mm hm," was Twilight's short response. She leapt over a rock, then squeezed her eyes shut with concentration before teleporting them to avoid the tree they'd been about to collide with.

"So where are we–" Spike began.

"Pinkie," Twilight said.

Spike frowned slightly and scratched his chin, but remained quiet. A few seconds later, they emerged from the forest at a full gallop. After a couple short bursts of magical energy, they had arrived at Sugarcube Corner. The proprietors of the shop, Mr. and Mrs. Cake, looked to be closing up for the night. They both seemed surprised to see Twilight and Spike appear from out of nowhere, but quickly put on welcoming smiles.

"Well hello, Twilight. Spike," Mr. Cake said. "Late for an appointment with the princesses again?" He chuckled nervously at his own joke, his eyes shifting back and forth.

Twilight knew that look. That was the look the Cakes had when they'd just had a long day and really didn't want to be bothered with another last-minute customer. She thought quickly.

"Can I have a sleepover with Pinkie?" She practically shouted the question.

The Cakes looked at one another uncertainly. Mrs. Cake lifted a hoof and shrugged.

"Well, I don't see why not..."

"Thank you!"

Twilight didn't waste another second. She teleported Spike and herself directly into Pinkie's room above the sweet shop, leaving the Cakes to just shake their heads in confusion.

"Hey, Twilight! Hiya, Spike!" Pinkie Pie cried the moment the two of them appeared in her room. She bounced circles around the room as she talked. "Are you two here to get some cake and chocolate so you can give them to the princesses, and then they'll stop time for you so you can have more time to go to Canterlot and defeat the Dark Lord, and then you can retrieve the Spell of Destruction and stop the endless loop of world destruction that happens every thirty seconds so you can finally go more than a few minutes without dying, because you're really tired of dying and it really, really hurts?" When she finished, she produced a platter full of cake and chocolate from out of nowhere and offered it to them.

Twilight's jaw dropped for a moment, but she remembered why she was there and shook her head to clear it.

"No, actually." She reached for the platter, which disappeared in a puff of yellowish smoke the moment her hoof touched it.

Pinkie held a hoof up and looked at the watch that was on it. "Well, you managed to stop time anyway. It looks like the princesses have their sweets." She then bounced away, humming a merry tune.

Spike looked up at Twilight. "But... we're supposed to be saving the world!" He held up both arms, his shock quite evident on his face. "If we're not doing everything that Pinkie just said, then what are we doing here?"

Twilight smiled and patted Spike's head. "The princesses said they'd stop time if I got them sweets, and I did. Though they didn't specifically say so, I believe time will remain stopped until we leave Sugarcube Corner." She trotted over to Pinkie's closet, opened it and, after some rummaging, found a blanket. "If time is going to remain stopped until we leave this place, then we simply won't leave."

Spike's eyes bulged. "B-but... that's not what we're supposed to be doing! Won't the princesses get angry? What if they're forced to restart time?"

Twilight gave a coy smile. "What's the worst that could happen, Spike? We all die?" She and Pinkie both chuckled at that, but Spike was quiet. "Come on, Spike. I told the Cakes we'd stay the night, and that's what we're going to do." She watched Pinkie bounce into her bed, then set her own blanket up on the floor and turned out the light. "It's time we had a well-deserved sleep. Sweet dreams."

Spike looked around at all the shadows in the room as if Princess Luna herself might emerge from one of them and strike them all down. After a moment, however, he shrugged, laid down, and went to sleep.