Pantheon

by criticalmess


Chapter One: The Time

--PANTHEON--
Chapter One: The Time

It's burning.

There was no other way to describe it. The purple unicorn backed away from the writhing mass in the center of the lab. Like a living star, the anomaly was similar to a burning mass of plasma, consuming everything in reach. She could feel wind whipping around her as the very air was being absorbed by the mass. The room was filled with a roaring, like the continuous cries of a maddened manticore. The wooden floor was scorched, turning a deeper and darker shade of black. Light seemed to warp around it, making the room appear to be bending at odd angles, or were the forces around the mass actually bending reality? Whatever was happening, Twilight could feel the overpowering heat radiating from the object and the raw magical energy writhing in its midst.

Upstairs, the door slammed open. Twilight looked up to see Spike staring down in shock. "Twilight!" he screamed, "What did you do?!"

"I don't know!" Twilight screamed back, keeping her focus on the mass in front of her.

Really, she didn't know what caused this destructive anomaly to appear in her laboratory. A minute ago, she was conducting a perfectly safe, perfectly controlled experiment. Ever since her run-in with time travel not too long ago, Twilight became fascinated with the mechanics behind it. Certainly she had vowed against using time travel again for very obvious reasons, but that did not stop her from delving into temporal theory and other such experimental works. It was only today that she finally built up the courage to try her own experiment.

It was basic enough: use her magic to make a dimensional map of her segment of time and space. It was a difficult task, to say the least, but Twilight felt she was more than capable. After all, she had performed feats of magic that outstripped some of the greatest unicorns in history. All she needed to do was to reach out and, "touch time," nothing more. And she did it. It went perfectly. She felt how time and space were interacting.

Then it burned.

She still couldn't tell what it exactly was, but it clearly wasn't good, and probably shouldn't be burning.

Twilight backed away even further as the anomaly suddenly rumbled, filling the air with a terrible screech. Slowly, the writhing mass of energy began expanding, filling up the room and devouring everything it came in contact with.

"Twilight, it's growing!" Spike yelled from the stairs.

"I know!" Twilight yelled back. Determinedly, she raised her horn and focused. A purple sphere appeared around the anomaly, sealing it in. It reached out for the sphere of magic, trying to consume it as well, but Twilight squeezed her eyes shut and held the anomaly back. Through gritted teeth, she cried, "Get out of here! Tell everypony to stay back! And get the Princess!"

"Which one?"

Twilight looked up at Spike incredulously for a moment before turning her full attention back to the matter at hand. "Either of them, both of them. Just hurry!"

She was satisfied to hear the slamming of the door moments before she finished her last sentence. Twilight winced as a force pressed itself against her shield momentarily before disappearing again. Her heart, already hammering in her chest, was going into overdrive. That wasn't the anomaly, she thought, having felt the magical imprint of the force.

"Hello?"

Twilight's eyes darted around the room fearfully. "Get out of-" but her voice cut off as she saw nopony else in the room with her. Confused, she stared back at the mass, still writhing against the shield.

It's burning and it's talking....

"There!"

The voice returned, distorted, echoing, and so similar to the one before. Before she could muse on the meaning, the alien force returned, slamming against the shield with a massive blow. It took all of Twilight's strength to hold on to her magic and repel it. The force vanished again just as suddenly as it appeared.

"No you don't!" Twilight cried fiercely, squeezing her eyes shut and forcing everything she had into the shield. But the mass started boiling and bubbling, its motions becoming more energetic and chaotic. At once a slew of voices shot from out the anomaly.

"...happy!"

"War...."

"I can't...."

"We're under..."

"...a traitor!"

"I'M SORRY!"

The last voice was booming and filled with magical energy, the force of which nearly knocked her off her hooves. It was like the Royal Canterlot Voice, only a million times more powerful. The anomaly stopped writhing under her shield. Curious, Twilight opened one eye.

The anomaly had collapsed into a single point, brilliant and white. She stared for only a second before it exploded in a flash of intense magical energy, stronger than any she had felt before. The entire universe fell out form around her as the energy from the anomaly consumed her. With the last of her magic, Twilight threw up a shield and allowed herself to be pulled out of reality.

It's burning.

Twilight squeezed her eyes closed against the rolling flames that consumed her vision, much like the unstable anomaly in her laboratory. A fire more powerful than any she had witnessed before roared around her. She felt as though she could feel her fur singing, her skin underneath scorching. Magical energy assaulted her shield, but Twilight held firm against the alien energies around her. Instead she felt herself be pulled through the flames, a strange feeling she couldn't exactly describe.

It wasn't like moving through space, at least not like she was used to. It was more like her body wasn't moving, but her mind was being tossed across vast fields of flame. The light started to die out. The flames fell back from her shield. The magical energies withdrew. Still she was pulled through this void outside of reality. Cautiously, she offered herself the chance to open her eyes again.

All she saw was reality suddenly warping around her in an entirely disconcerting fashion and herself falling to the ground with a splat. The silence rang in her ears. The complete lack of light blinded her from the world. Her skin felt numb, yet she could faintly feel a wooden grain underneath her. She breathed heavily, each intake a hoarse gasp. As she started to fall unconscious, drained by her experiences, one last thought crossed her mind.

It's freezing.

- - - -

Twilight woke to find herself shivering on the floor. Her breathing shallow and shaky, she opened her eyes. The room was just as dark as when she lost consciousness, giving her no indication of how much time had passed. She rubbed her eyes sleepily and rose wearily to her hooves. As she started moving around the chill in the room become more bearable, though her body still shook with both weakness and shock.

"Light." Twilight muttered and raised her head into the air. She reached with her magic only to find it drained and inert. After several tries and much grunting and wheezing, she finally managed to support a glow from her horn, which she used to examine the room.

It was definitely her laboratory, but what storm trashed it she had no....

...oh wait, never mind.

The floor was covered in burn marks radiating from the center of the room. There the wood actually buckled in like a giant ice cream scoop cleanly carved out the center. Her scientific equipment was tossed around the room; some lay broken on their sides, some were shattered into a million pieces, while others were actually warped beyond recognition. The walls were covered in pock-marks, chips of wood gathering where they met the floor. The stairs were bent out of shape by some massive explosion. But otherwise, Twilight could identify this definitely as her laboratory.

The unicorn reached out a hoof and stroked the wall, examining the layer of dust that had built up on it. "All right Twilight, calm down." She muttered, shaking the dust off of her hoof. "If you start panicking, you'll get nothing done. First: figure out what happened." Twilight sighed and looked around the laboratory wreckage. "I think it's safe to assume whatever happened pulled me... somewhere in time. But what caused...?"

"Get out of-!"

Twilight jumped, heart racing. She spun around, trying to find the source of the voice. "Hello?" She tentatively called out to the darkness. Suddenly she remembered something from before. "Wait a minute...."

"No you don't!"

"It's what I said...." Twilight gasped, her voice trailing off. "I was hearing my voice on the other side of time. HEY, TWILIGHT!" She cried out desperately. "IF YOU CAN HEAR ME! RUN! JUST GET OUT OF THERE!"


Seconds passed. Nothing happened.
Twilight sighed. "I don't think I'll ever get how time travel works. Oh well," Twilight glanced up at the stairs, "let's see if I can get any help." With that, she crept up the stairs, ears open for any sign of life.

The library was largely as she had left it. Some books had fallen off the shelves while some were pulled off and placed in stacks around the center table. "Looks like somepony was doing research." Twilight muttered and sorted through the books. All of them were advanced magical tomes, every one of them dealing with some aspect of magical travel. "Interdimensional Theory," Twilight read off the titles, "Time Travel for the Mighty Mage, Exploring the Aether for Fun and Profit." Twilight sighed. "Let me guess, they're all here because I disappeared, aren't they? So that would mean this is the future?"

Turning around, she examined the rest of the room and was surprised to find a dull light outside her window, illuminating the word outside. Frowning, she trotted over to the window and looked outside. "Sweet Celestia...." Twilight gasped, eyes wide.

There was no sun.

There was no moon.

Only light.

It was like the world was frozen right at the beginning of sunrise. A pale blue strip of light ran across the horizon, a simmering orange beneath it. Twilight read about this effect in her early studies; a brief moment during sunrise that became Twilight's namesake. Since Celestia raised the sun quickly, such stages were never examined closely, but now it awed and frightened her.

"Okay, worst case scenario," Twilight muttered, backing away from the window, "something happened to both Celestia and Luna which stopped them from raising the sun or moon, leaving time frozen. That's probably what happened," Twilight added, chuckling nervously, "but still, I need to ask somepony about this."

She stepped over to the window again and peered out into Ponyville. The streets were deserted with no sign of any life whatsoever in the once vibrant town. Nary a scrap of trash blew by in the bitterly cold wind. No lanterns of candles illuminated the windows of the houses, despite the relative darkness outside. The light cast off from perpetual twilight gave the buildings an eerie blue glow, making them appear even more cold than before.

But a glimmer of light at the edge of her vision caught Twilight's attention. Quickly, she craned her neck up and pressed her face to the window to see what was responsible for the light. Twilight groaned when she spied the only building mysteriously unaffected by the dead atmosphere.

Sugarcube Corner.

The candy-covered building was glowing vibrantly as if it were high noon. The building seemed to sparkle though no reason for this was apparent. It was as though some magical force was keeping the candy shop bright and, surprisingly, delicious. The cupcake on top looked moist and delicious, the gingerbread roof glistened mouthwateringly, the icing decorations even looked like they were dripping, freshly applied. It was a dream house, and entirely unlike anything else in Ponyville, even more so than usual.

Twilight turned away from the window and ran for the door. If anypony knows anything about what's going on, it has to be Pinkie Pie. If not she can at least point me in the right direction. With that, she flung open the library door and ran out into twilit Ponyville. Though I can only guess why Sugarcube Corner is more bizzare than usual....

- - - -

Pinkie blinked, the strange feeling fading away but not actually disappearing. She shook her head and nervously looked around the giant hall she stood in. The feeling was definitely close, and familiar, but her Pinkie Sense just couldn't track it.

"Pinkie?" Mr. Cake said, peering up at her nervously, "Is everything all right?"

Pinkie looked back down at Mr. Cake's worried face. She beamed, "Of course silly! Everything's always right! But my Pinkie Sense is acting up something fierce..." she examined her hoof and watched it shake side to side, "...I think I'm forgetting something."

"Er, is it time for another dance party?"

Pinkie prodded her head with her hoof, "No, that's not it, but good idea Mr. Cake!" Pinkie bounced into the air. "It's the perfect time for a dance party!"

Mr. Cake smiled, "Of course, Pinkie. Do you want me to...?"

"No, I'll do it!" Pinkie smiled and spread her wings, taking off into the air. All around her ponies looked up, smiling and expectant. The pink alicorn raised her horned head and proclaimed, "All right everypony! LET'S DANCE!"

And the crowd rejoiced.