When the front door opened without warning, Twilight Velvet immediately looked down at the half-wrapped present in her hooves. Twilight isn’t supposed to see this until tomorrow! she internally screamed. Her eyes darted around the room before she settled on a wayward blanket to which she could cover it with.
But a tall, husky stallion entered the room instead. At that, Twilight Velvet sat back and let out a relieved sigh.
“Shining!” she exclaimed, standing up. “Welcome home!”
“…Hi, mom,” Shining Armor replied at a near whisper.
Another stallion poked his head out of the study, lit up as recognition washed over him, and then cantered out. “Shining Armor!” Night Light exclaimed, throwing his forelegs around his son. “My boy! Good to see you!”
Twilight Velvet’s eyes pushed past Shining for the moment (though not without noticing his guard uniform) to see Princess Mi Amore Cadenza right on her husband’s heels. “Cadance, good to see you too! I hope the train ride went well?”
Cadance smiled weakly. “Yes.”
But Twilight Velvet’s eyes had already passed over her as two more, grander than the next, emerged through the threshold. “…And Princess Luna?” She cowered. “And Princess Celestia!?”
The two sisters glided into the room with little fanfare.
Even Night Light suddenly jumped. The two each gave quick and respectful bows.
“You don’t have to do that, Miss Velvet,” Celestia said.
Twilight Velvet chuckled. “Oh, hahaha. Sorry, sorry. I just wish I would have known you were all coming over. I would have made us a dinner for six,” she said with a grin.
“It’s not too late; we still can you know,” Night Light suggested, rising to his hooves. “A little bit of pre-birthday action, hmm?”
At once, all four visitors cringed “…No,” Shining Armor replied, kicking at the floor, “that’s actually not what we came here for.”
Twilight Velvet paused. For the first time since he had entered, she frowned. She glanced between the four new arrivals, each of whom looked at her or looked at her husband. They seemed glued in fact. Like they were waiting for her to do something, or for something to happen.
She had every reason to believe he had other reasons for visiting, but only then did she notice the moisture around their eyes. The long and strained faces that they each wore. Something must have happened. After all, it wasn’t every day that her son returned home still in full uniform. With all four princesses in tow—
Three. Three princesses. One princess was missing.
It couldn’t be.
“Mom… Dad…” Shining Armor began, his voice crumbling by the second.
No.
A long and hard glance passed between the two parents and they gravitated toward one another. Night Light voiced it for the both of them: “Where is your sister, Shining?”
Luna stepped forward to speak, but a hoof by Celestia stayed her. Meanwhile, Cadance draped a supportive wing over her husband’s shoulder.
“Where is Twilight?” Night Light shouted, his voice cracking with worry.
Shining Armor swallowed. “There was a situation…” he began.
“What happened to Twilight?”
“Dad! I…” Shining let out a very long sigh as he tried to get the words out of his mouth. “Twily… Uh… I mean. There was a monster—”
“No...”
“She went up against it... and she lost—”
“No...”
Twilight Velvet’s world melted around her and she could hardly navigate it, much less remain upright. It couldn’t be true. She collapsed onto the floor, trying desperately to keep some sort of footing. She failed.
The tears flowed down her face before she could even tell what she was doing. Her legs refused to respond and her choked wheezes were the best that she could muster. It just could not be real.
The royal sisters, even though their expressions remained discerning, had let out a few loose tears of their own.
No, it was very real.
“I’m... so sorry!” Shining cried as Cadance sobbed into his shoulder.
“Oh my baby girl,” Night Light cried. “My baby giiiiiirrrl...!”
Twilight Velvet sank into the ground, intent on never rising ever again. In that moment, her world had surely ended.
It was late enough that all of the morning shift had already made their use of this dining hall, and that left them to eat alone. Nonetheless, the thick aroma of fresh soy eggs wafted from the nearby kitchen. Even then, the occasional servant would appear to take food to places elsewhere in the castle.
The long, finely varnished, and well-decorated table set the tone for the meal, and the room’s grand (although solitary) window offered a pleasant backdrop of the valley below, but the room itself was comparatively smaller than many of the others.
Sunset Shimmer shuddered. Years of compulsory dinner parties with plenty of prissy ponies left her feeling claustrophobic whenever she saw this place. She was thankful that the ponies (and dragon) around her acted nothing like that.
As she entered the room, she saw a couple others who had risen before her. Applejack was a given due to her life on the farm. Pinkie Pie and Spike had also beaten her there. A soft cough revealed Fluttershy arriving right behind her.
The crystal ball lay in the center of the table. Those at the table, when not taking food off of their plates, leaned over them to carefully glance into the ball.
“Morning, everypony...” Sunset half-yawned.
They responded with a mixture of responses and yawns.
She glanced at the ball. The view looked like it had been the day before: an overhead shot of the tower with nothing out of the ordinary. Sunset narrowed her eyes. No, the nighttime sky has turned back to day. So there’s a passage of time.
Sunset cleared her throat. “Anything?” she asked.
Applejack, who had taken the opportunity to stuff her face with a pancake, replied with a muffled “Nooo.”
The two newcomers took the remainder of the windowside seat cushions, which were positioned across from their companions. In short order, a pair of servants drifted out of the kitchen and wordlessly presented steaming hot plates to the both of them.
There was one thing the staff knew how to do, and that was cook. The eggs melted in Sunset’s mouth, prompting her to squirm in delight.
As silver clinked against china, Fluttershy looked around. “Where are the other two?” she asked.
Applejack spoke with an empty mouth this time. “Well, Ah knocked on their doors when Ah left. Not sure ’bout Rainbow Dash, but Rarity…?” She considered it. “She might be a while.”
The room grew silent once more as they returned to their meals. Spike contrasted them as he nearly plowed through an assortment of gems, a loud crunch punctuating each bite.
“We’re here!” a shrill voice shouted from just beyond the open door. “We’re here! Sorry we're late!”
Every one of them looked up as the final two ponies entered the room. The first, Rainbow Dash, teetered over to the table and took a seat between Applejack and Pinkie Pie.
Rarity, however, remained at the door as she took in the stares that they gave her. She then observed the numerous split ends and tangles present around the table and fluffed her glistening mane as she glided toward another empty seat. “Well, obviously, I refuse to be seen around Canterlot Castle looking like a ruffian. Some of us have standards, you know.”
“Mmhmm,” Applejack hummed. “An’ what’s yer excuse?” she asked, turning to the pegasus.
“Yeah, Applejack,” Rainbow Dash replied and slumped into her chair, letting out a long-winded groan as she did.
Applejack frowned in an irritated manner. After a moment, she reached up and grabbed her stetson before whacking Rainbow Dash with it.
Rainbow Dash jolted in her seat, revealing her bloodshot eyes. “Hah!? Wha!?”
“Up an’ at ’em, sugarcube,” she said as the servants arrived with fresh plates. She turned to the one serving Rainbow Dash. “Can ya bring this one some coffee?”
The servant nodded. The next minute Rainbow Dash dove in through sip after sip.
The meal recommenced in silence as the seven ate, each at different paces. The first to arrive finished their meals first but did not leave the table. The later arrivals took each finish as a reason to pick up the tempo but the vigor only lasted temporarily each time.
Rainbow Dash stretched in her seat. “Aw, yeah. That’s good,” she said, patting her stomach. She then turned her eyes to the crystal ball in the center of the table and rested her head on top of her hooves.
All at once, the six others turned their attention to the crystal ball and stared into it as well.
“I wonder if Twilight’ll show up again,” Rainbow Dash thought aloud.
Rarity didn’t even glance up from her plate. “I wouldn’t count on it, dear. Her appearing at all is… odd, as it is.”
“So maybe we should keep watching for if it happens again?” Fluttershy asked.
“We could, but…” Rarity set her fork onto her plate and met Fluttershy’s eyes, “I don’t think it’ll get us much anywhere.”
“If it’s anything to do with Twilight, I’ll take it,” Spike said with a snort as he flicked a few small gems across his plate.
Applejack nodded. “Exactly. We oughta keep lookin’ for Twilight’s sake. Ah know she’s… gone… and all, but all the more reason why we oughta pay attention.”
Pinkie Pie giggled. “Yeah! Besides, I’m sure she just went to bed is all. She’ll be back in no time flat.”
That’s right, Sunset thought. There’s so much more to this. She thought back to what she had seen the night prior. What all of them had seen. We could see Twilight writing in her book. Writing furiously even. We could hear her muttering too!
Sunset let out a thoughtful sigh as she idly played with a wayward fluff of egg. Twilight must have known what this crystal ball was all about, but… what possible use could she have had for it?
“You look so focused, Sunny!” said an energetic voice.
Sunset blinked. “What? Huh?”
Pinkie Pie leaned over until she was right in Sunset’s ear. “I said, ‘You look so focused, Sunny!’”
Sunset nodded. “Yeah, I uh… I’ve been thinking a lot about this since last night. Heck, since long before that really, that’s why I went in the first place. I’m convinced that ball is special.”
“Eeyup,” Applejack agreed.
“I can’t help but think that there’s a lot more to this thing than we’ve seen. I mean, Twilight must have thought it was important enough to have on her, right?” Sunset said with gusto. Then she thought about what she was saying and shrunk back into her seat. “Well... maybe not. I’m not sure what I think.”
“Makes sense to me,” Rainbow Dash said with a shrug.
“There’re just… too many questions,” Sunset said as she pushed some of her mane out of her face. “How is it that Twilight appeared at all? What reason would Twilight want it for? What was she writing about when we saw her last night? What was she muttering about even?”
Pinkie Pie frowned. “Couldn’t really hear it clearly, ya know?”
Sunset nodded. “All things considering, I’m kinda thinking right now that I might miss the train home.”
Applejack raised a concerned eyebrow. “Don’t ya have to go back to school?”
Sunset shook her head. “Not really. I’m pretty sure I have at least a 110% in at least three classes, plus I'm several assignments ahead.”
Applejack let her spoon clink against the plate. “You can do that?”
Pinkie Pie giggled, “She was Princess Celestia’s prized pupil!”
Applejack smirked and nodded in approval.
Sunset stood up from the cushion with a determined frown. “I am going to figure that thing out,” she declared as she levitated the ball off of the table. “And I will stay for as long as it takes.” And without another moment's hesitation, Sunset set her napkin over her finished plate and trotted toward the door.
“Wait up!” Spike called as he rushed to catch up with her with an enthusiasm in his voice that had not been heard in a long while.
* * *
As the two of them sauntered down the halls, Sunset took the opportunity to look out the window and into the city beyond.
Unlike yesterday, the square lay empty save for a small scattering of busybodies. Some lined the edges, which she guessed were engaged in business deals or friendly run-ins, while others walked across en route to destinations unknown.
The sun shined in a cloudless sky just like on any other day. The haphazard symphony of high-pitched chirps from the morning birds serenaded from the gardens nearby.
It was as if yesterday hadn’t even happened. But it had happened. So why do things look so normal?
“Weird, huh?” Spike said as if reading her mind.
“Yeah,” she replied as she continued to gaze out of the window. “Everyone is going about their lives.”
“Yeah,” he said as they rounded a corner, “And, I guess we’ll have to go back to ours too, eventually.”
“Maybe,” she said, “but the train doesn’t leave until tonight. And I think the others’ll come around.”
“Maybe.”
Sunset pursed her lips. The question she wanted to ask, she knew, was better kept to herself. But her mouth moved anyway. “And what about you?”
Spike withdrew into himself, wrapping his arms around his body and shivering. “Honestly,” he sighed, “I haven’t figured out what I'm going to do yet.”
“...Don’t you have any other family?”
“No,” Spike replied curtly. “Twilight was my entire family. She hatched me from my egg and everything.” He hugged himself even tighter. “Now that Twilight’s gone… well...”
The mare winced. I should have seen that coming. Good job, Sunset.
Spike reached up and grabbed the crystal ball out of Sunset’s magical grasp. He looked into it for long moments even though nothing worthwhile displayed inside. “What about you?”
She let off a small smile. “Well,” she began, glancing up toward the ceiling in thought, “I’ve found family in my friends, I guess. But, I’d never have gotten them if it weren't for Twilight.” She shook her head. “I don't even want to think about where I’d be right now...”
Spike nodded.
“She gave me my life,” she said. “Figuratively speaking.”
Spike raised his hand in response. “Same. Literally speaking.”
The two exchanged warm smiles and light-hearted chuckles and continued onward through the castle halls.
* * *
Fluttershy sat on the floor underneath an alcove in the bookshelves. She had hunched over the ball, poking and prodding at it every so often but to no avail. The image remained the same.
“Streamers, dear?” Rarity’s voice asked incredulously, “Really?”
Fluttershy looked up to find two ponies standing over a collection of saddlebags. Each saddlebag was, unlike the night before, now at capacity again, and all of them now lay near the study area’s desk. One of those bags, however, had several shreds of paper sticking out of it.
Rarity, who stood with the fresh aroma of several filled teacups emanating off a tray behind her, stared Pinkie Pie down with a piercing expression.
“Whaaaaaat?” Pinkie Pie wailed. “I had to bring streamers for in case of streamer emergencies.” She glanced at her saddlebags and then added, “Same reason I brought a trampoline and a sousaphone!”
Rarity deadpanned toward the saddlebags on the floor, looked back up to meet Pinkie’s innocent gaze, raised a hoof and sucked in a breath to voice her objection, then shook her head and backed off resignedly. “Just…”—she levitated the tray in front of her friend—“take your tea. Just take it.”
Pinkie Pie grabbed the cup (with her mouth) and trotted off with a carefree smile.
Rarity now lumbered over with a concerned scowl still on her face. “I say, I simply don’t know what goes through her head sometimes,” she mumbled to herself before donning a smile. “Tea, darling?”
Fluttershy giggled under her breath and nodded in response. “Thanks, Rarity.”
Rarity levitated the cup off of the tray, set it down right beside Fluttershy, and then wandered off to serve the others.
Taking a solitary sip, Fluttershy turned her attention back to the crystal ball in front of her and immediately drew a blank.
With a sigh, Fluttershy sat backward and took a moment to examine the room itself, trying to imagine Twilight Sparkle’s life before she arrived in Ponyville and the many days that she likely spent here.
When Twilight had been all but alone. Without friends, bar Spike. And, for a brief time, she had returned to that place of solitude.
Why?
Fluttershy took the ball in both of her hooves and idly fumbled with it. The ball spun in the air, with which her angle of the image changed, she but she was aware of that much.
Gosh, it would be very very nice if there was a way to move this view forward, she thought.
The scene within the ball, as if on cue, shifted in response.
Fluttershy let out a startled cry and briefly lost hold of the ball. The movement ground to a stop. She scrambled to keep it within her grasp.
Recovering, she looked again and noted the change. A contemplative grin washed over her muzzle and she took the ball in both hooves again, this time with a firmer grip. Forward. Stop. Backward. Stop.
The view in the crystal ball obeyed.
“I think I found something,” she announced.
Her four friends, one by one, gathered around.
“Sunset’s right,” Fluttershy began, holding the ball up in presentation, “there’s more to this thing than we thought. Look.”
Pinkie Pie looked straight into the ball and gasped. “Hey, yeah! Look,” she said and pointed, “the view’s near the wall!”
“It’s pretty simple when you think about it.” And then Fluttershy frowned and internally face-hoofed at her choice of words. “I mean, that’s… how you do it,” she said, slowly and carefully stringing her explanation together. “You think about… it. I thought the word forward and… it started… moving… forward,” she said before she retreated into a sip of tea.
“Fabulous,” Rarity said, jovially clapping her hooves together, “now we know how to control the view.”
“Gimme that,” Rainbow Dash suddenly interjected, snatching the ball out of Fluttershy’s hooves (which gained some raised eyebrows and one certain scowl). She angled the ball so that she was looking downward, and then she thought. The view crept toward the floor, then the scene briefly turned black. And then the crystal ball showed the first-floor living area.
Twilight Sparkle lay splayed out on the couch by the door with her head buried within an encyclopedia. Her bloodshot eyes searched through several pages per second, mumbling something about more coffee under her breath.
“Yes! Look!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed cheerfully as she set the ball back down onto the floor, “Twilight’s okay!”
Twilight’s ears twitched before she snapped her current book shut and levitated it over to a large and increasingly disorganized pile on the side. She then used her magic to grab the next book from her assortment.
Before she opened it, she rubbed a hoof down the length of her face and let out an unenergetic groan. She then consulted the journal that she had been writing in the night before, taking greater care with her consumption of contents than with previous books.
A second, empty journal right beside it went unheeded.
Fluttershy giggled happily and continued to smile even as her friends let out screams of delight. It was much like last night all over again.
Seeing Twilight again felt like watching Rainbow Dash perform a Sonic Rainboom for the first time. She wanted to jump for joy and scream whatever cheers she could think of. Strange how an image of Twilight could evoke such a feeling. I guess a lot has changed in four days…
Eventually, the five of them settled down and contented themselves to watch between sips of their tea.
And then Applejack gagged mid-drink and quickly downed her cup. “Hold on a bit. Ah want to see what she’s writin’ there,” she said as she took the ball in her hooves. The view zoomed in on where Twilight was scribbling.
A wind suddenly overtook the room, causing several books to whimper by way of their pages. It threw Twilight’s journal into a frenzy.
“Oh, horseapples!” Applejack yelled in disdain.
Twilight looked up with an annoyed frown, but she then registered the apparent light source from elsewhere in the room and shrunk back into the couch. She watched as sparks danced around before dying on whatever surface they found first. The wind grew and grew, sweeping several books and various other items off of the floor, and it finally got to a point where Twilight had no choice but to shield her eyes.
“What in the world is going on!?” Rarity cried.
“I can’t see!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, shielding her eyes.
The bright light disappeared without warning and the bedlam ceased with it, and Twilight cautiously looked up to observe the damage. Her eyes went wide. “You!?” she cried, shooting to her hooves. “What are you doing here!?”
“Who’s she talking to?” Rarity asked.
“Applejack!” Pinkie Pie said through gritted teeth.
“Yeah!” Applejack quickly nodded and moved the image into a better spot. She then readjusted her hooves on the crystal ball for a better viewing angle. And then she gasped.
A mare, who likened to a phoenix, stood up, tightly clutching what looked like a blue book within her foreleg, stood up. She shook off the sparks that still clung to her body. She flicked her red and yellow tail once to shake off some of the aftershocks and then did the same with her mane.
Pinkie Pie ground her teeth together and then all but leaped into the air. “Sunset Shimmer!”
* * *
Sunset hit her head against the underside of the cabinet, causing the glassware inside to clink in protest. “Aow!” she cried, rubbing her head. Even as her world momentarily spun, she flared her horn anyway. The first floor disappeared and her body felt like it stretched for a moment before she reappeared in the study area a mere second later with a light and airy pop.
“W-what? What?” she stammered, scrambling to find her footing as she landed.
“What in the hay is all this!?” Applejack barked, pointing to the ball.
“You—you’re not even possible!” Twilight cried.
“Listen, Twilight,” said a voice that sounded just like Sunset’s, “I have some very important things to give to you.”
Not possible.
Sunset’s ears drooped backward at the sound of her own voice. With trepidation, she slunk over to the ball, hoping she would not see what she thought she would see. But, lo and behold, there she was. An exact image of her had appeared inside the ball with Twilight.
Not possible.
“Do you even know what you’ve done!?” Twilight roared.
“I don’t understand...” Sunset said.
“I understand perfectly,” Sunset said. “Twilight, you know that spell that I just did. It won’t be able to tether off of me.”
Twilight paused, placed a hoof to her chin in thought, and then nodded. “Okay. ...I see. What do you need?”
“We need to copy what’s in this book,” she answered, holding up the blue book within her grasp.
“What’s going on!?” Spike called out, appearing at the head of the staircase.
Rarity turned to Spike with a frown. “Sunset Shimmer teleported into the ball,” she explained.
Spike nearly sprinted over to them. “But she’s right here!”
“And how much time do you have?” Twilight asked.
“Not long,” Sunset replied.
Twilight flared her horn, and the several discarded books in the area relocated across the room, leaving a clear area before them. “Then do me a favor and hold these,” she commanded, levitating over the empty journal from before and no less than two wells of ink.
“All right.”
“Of course, but she’s in there too,” Rarity replied, indicating with her hoof.
Spike peered into the ball. “Well that can’t be right,” he said, crossing his arms perplexedly.
The pages of Sunset’s book glowed, and even seemed to shake. Ink poured out of the wells that Sunset was holding and swirled about the empty journal, which squirmed and writhed about like it was a beast.
The ink, bit by bit, dripped onto the empty notebook before coalescing through the cover to their respective pages.
As they went, Sunset’s eyes drew to a spot on the floor within the image. There was a large sizeable burn mark, much like one that she had noticed downstairs. It was in the same spot and everything. She blinked. But… but… she thought.
Gritting her teeth, Twilight poured it on, trying her best to not let her knees buckle. Both books shook violently as she prepared ink-perfect copies. The original and the copy started to agree with each other and there was nowhere left for Twilight’s spell to go. Aside from the differently colored covers, for all intents and purposes, they were the same book.
“What is it that you were trying to do, dear?” Rarity asked.
Sunset’s mouth hung limp as she tried to fathom any sort of explanation, but none came. There was no explanation. There weren’t even the makings of one. This was not possible.
Twilight cut the spell off, and then clutched at her chest and panted heavily. She even wiped a few drops of sweat off of her brow.
Sunset took a cursory glance through the new notebook before galloping over to Twilight with both that and the original in her magical grasp.
The two ponies compared the books side-by-side. Their grins grew even wider with each page, blossoming into triumphant smiles by the time they reached the final set of text.
And then, without a single moment’s reprieve, Sunset Shimmer suddenly disappeared in another explosion of sparks, taking the original book with her.
And just like that, all eyes shifted onto Sunset. Discerning scowls bore down on her, and she could not help but cower.
* * *
Spike stroked his chin as he watched the scene within the ball.
Twilight Sparkle had since moved back into the study area. She poured over the new information, trying to find anything that could be useful. At times she turned to the green notebook she had worked on before the interruption. Every once in a while, she would make an intrigued “Hmmm.”
“So, first Twilight appears in this crystal ball, an’ now Sunset Shimmer,” Applejack thought aloud as she paced about deliberately. “This is gettin’ weird!”
“I don’t understand…” Sunset murmured, leaning against the hourglass for support.
“No kidding!” Rainbow Dash cried, doing her own form of pacing through the air above them. “The portal was closed the last time we checked, except somehow she was here!?”
“I’ve been at Canterlot High this whole time. I… This doesn’t make any sense.”
“She doesn't even have a way to open the portal,” Rainbow Dash continued. She paused and looked down at Sunset and raised an eyebrow. “You... don’t, right?”
“N-no,” Sunset tremulously replied, “and... even if I did...”
“You’d still need to go between Ponyville and Canterlot.”
“Plus I’d have to remember even doing it.”
Rainbow Dash grit her teeth. “Yeah,” she grumbled, “and then there’s that.”
“Well, Ah believe her when she says she weren’t here,” Applejack said, giving Sunset a calm and reassuring smile.
“Uhm, maybe the ball is a red herring?” Fluttershy suggested as she played with some dirt on the floor.
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash replied, “I think Twilight would have disagreed with you on that one.”
Pinkie Pie rolled onto her back. “Changelings?”
“No!” several of them shouted in unison.
“I sure hope not,” Rarity replied independently.
Twilight briefly disappeared into one of the alcoves below the bookshelves. She emerged again a few moments later, levitating a spherical object behind her.
Spike sat up with a huff, letting his expression fall. While the object that she carried looked like a pure white to him, he could tell it was made of crystal.
“Uh oh. Uh, girls,” Spike said, pointing, “she’s got a crystal ball here.”
The group packed themselves around the crystal sphere and let out a series of confused groans.
“And that’s another thing!” Spike yelled, throwing his hands into the hair, “Where did she ever get this… thing from anyway?” he said, pointing at the offensive object.
“So, there’s another thing we haven't figured out,” Rainbow Dash snorted, stamping a hoof against the floor. “Great.”
Pinkie Pie grabbed her temples and flared a grimace. “There’s too much that doesn't make sense! Make it stoooop!”
There was a long moment of silence. The seven of them looked between each other, trying to see if anyone would say it.
“I think…” Rarity finally hazarded, casting sorrowful glances at all of them, “this whole thing is over our heads.”
There it was. The stroke of death. In that moment, a pony had died, truly and effectively. Their best friend was gone.
“So then, I guess...” Sunset choked, “that’s it?”
Several frowns looked back but only one spoke, doffing her hat as she went. “That’s what it looks like, sugarcube. It’s over,” Applejack quivered.
Sunset backpedaled, looked forlornly between all of them, and then hung her head. “Okay. Okay,” she whimpered.
What could Spike do? There wasn’t any point in arguing it. Rarity was right. But then, that meant Applejack was right. He wasn’t ready, but when would he be ready?
Spike stood up, tears starting to form in his eyes. “I guess I’ll put this back then,” he said, reaching for the ball.
Twilight still sat at her desk, reading through the journal from before. Her crystal ball lay right beside it, but it did not have her attention.
Spike looked longingly at her for many long moments. The one pony that meant more than the world to him. She was there. And now it was over. There would be no more Twilight, because it was over. He wanted to reach into the ball if he could just tell her he loved her one last time. But it was over.
Finally, he sniffled. “I'm sorry, Twilight...”
Twilight Sparkle jerked so much that she accidentally bumped against the table. Her gaze immediately shifted and her facial features transformed into a horrified expression. “Spike!?” she called out.
Now Spike recoiled violently, so much so that the ball fell out of his claws. “Woah!” he exclaimed. A round of surprised cries from the others immediately rose up and added themselves in.
“Did she just talk?” Fluttershy asked.
“Did she just talk to you!?” Rainbow Dash beamed.
“Lemme see that!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, snatching the ball as it rolled past her. “Twilight!?”
“Pinkie Pie!?” Twilight cried out with greater urgency.
The seven of them exchanged glances, looking for an explanation. They turned their attention back to the alicorn within the ball, who was now looking wildly around the room.
“Hello!?”