//------------------------------// // Phenomenon // Story: You Can't Help Who You Love // by Feather Flyer //------------------------------// Shimmer and Twilight shot up the stairs to the latter's room, barely saying hello to Shining Armor and his wife. Spike, Twilight's dog, barked and followed them up the stairs excitedly. Only to be unintentionally locked out of the room they went into. Neither Twilight or Shimmer were really thinking about the canine to be honest. "Mom and dad have gone out for--" Slam! "...Dinner..." her older brother murmured. "I've never seen Twilight come home with a friend before," Cadence remarked. "I hope this means Twilight's gotten over her 'socially awkward' phase!" Shining Armor shook his head and sighed. He plopped down on the couch. "Believe me, Cadence. She'll always be awkward. Never was a social butterfly then, and still isn't now. I wouldn't be surprised if she befriended the books instead!" "...She kind of already did...buthat'sbesidethepoint!" Cadence said quickly. "That girl she came here with didn't look like one of the geeky kind. She must be popular!" Her husband grabbed the remote from the table and turned on the TV. "More than likely they're just working on a school project." Cadence frowned at how Shining Armor had absolutely no kind of hope for the better regarding Twilight's social life. "I was just looking on the bright side of things..." Meanwhile, Twilight and Sunset were sitting on the bed in Twilight's room. Shimmer looked around with a raised eyebrow. The room was so...void of personality. It seemed very boring. The only thing that seemed remotely interesting was the sliding glass door that connected to a balcony. White walls, no pictures, a writing desk, bookshelves...a lot of bookshelves...It was neat and organized, much to the contrary of Shimmer's own room: Makeup littered her desk and magazines were piled up on the floor. Stuffed animals were bunched up on her bed and posters of singers were everywhere. Twilight's room felt so empty and bare. Except for a large poster of the periodic table that had a corny science joke below it. Do you have 11 protons? Because you're Sodium fine! Shimmer frowned at the terrible humor. Only really nerdy people would laugh at that. And Twilight was one such person who happened to be chuckling as she walked over to the poster and pointed at it. Shimmer gave her her best fake smile and laughed a little while fighting the urge to roll her eyes. Carefully, Twilight slid her fingers underneath and removed it from the wall. Turning it over, she replaced it and stepped back so Shimmer could marvel at it. On the back of the periodic table poster was a flurry of pictures scattered all over. Pictures of strange light and odd things and even people were placed at random it seemed. Sticky notes were stuck beneath some of the photos with scribbles of theories and question marks. Graphs and seismograph readings were taped in the middle of all the clutter. Red yarn stretched across from one end of the poster to the other in zigzags...and it all led to one point. In the middle of the impressive mass of notes and photos was a picture of a school. Shimmer walked up close to it and squinted to read the words etched in the side of the building. "Canterlot High School..." Shimmer stood back for a second time and realized what all this was. She turned to Twilight with a look of awe and surprise. "This...this is a conspiracy web!" Twilight nodded. "I started it right away after the first strange occurrence at the school." Shimmer turned her focus back on the web. "This is amazing..." Twilight grinned and cleared her throat. "It's a work in progress," she said modestly. "So...how did this all start?" Shimmer asked. The girl sat on the bed and looked at her with wonder as clear as day in her eyes. Twilight smiled brightly. She sat down beside her and began to explain it all. It was the night of the Fall Formal. Girls applied facial cosmetics to their 50th layer of makeup, fussed over their hair, and then clothes to look their absolute best. Boys hurriedly slapped on some decent dress slacks and suit jackets, hoping they looked somewhat presentable in their half-assed dressing and jumped in their cars to pick up their dates. It was the night of what most high school students thought was important. Except, maybe, for a nerdy girl by the name of Twilight Sparkle, who instead of going stayed home. She never really liked dances. Twilight was awkward and couldn't dance to save her life. All she ever did was stay stuck to the wall like glue and watch the others jam to the music. Twilight sighed and laid on her bed. Looking around she frowned. There was nothing to do. Nothing to study. No one to talk to. Twilight scratched her nose and propped her glasses up. What could she do? All her school work was finished, and she had already played with Spike, who was sleeping at the foot of her bed...Reading was something she loved to do, but she read her books so fast that by the end of the first day she had them Twilight would've already read it four times over. Rereading the same lines over and over again can be tedious. Glancing at the heavy curtains that concealed a sliding glass door to her personal balcony she tilted her head. Not too far away from the curtains was a telescope. It had been a while since she stargazed. Hopefully it was a clear night. Twilight got up from her bed and shifted the curtains aside to look at the sky through the glass door. Stars glittered in the space above her head, beckoning her to come out and adore them. The girl grinned. She could already feel her bored mood fall away. She tugged at the door and it opened a crack every pull she gave it. A sharp screech pierced her ears and she grimaced. The wheels that moved the sliding glass door would have to be oiled. A cool breeze drifted into her room. Spike shivered and rolled over onto his back, pawing at the air. Carefully, Twilight lifted the telescope and moved it out onto the balcony slowly. It was a A9FW652-StarFinder Special Edition telescope. No doubt it was stupidly expensive. And quite heavy. Twilight had gotten it for her 12th birthday and still had it today in great condition. She blew the dust off the telescope and sneezed. Usually she cleaned it about once a month but school had gotten in the way. It had to be about three months since she last touched the thing! After getting all the dust off of it, Twilight sighed. Pulling the inner curtain over the door frame so that the light from inside no longer shone outside, she looked up at the sky feeling satisfied. The stars. They were diamonds suspended from invisible wires, winking at those below. The vast stretch of space extended outward, as infinite as infinite could be. Dark blues, purples, and midnight black streaked the sky. The only source of light was from the faint glow of the celestial orbs above. It was night. Twilight stood there and embraced the quiet, mysterious atmosphere. Night was a time of superstition. It was when the fictional ghouls and ghosts came out to haunt the unfortunate. When werewolves and vampires creeped around with blood red eyes full of hunger. When witches, goblins, and headless men ran amok causing havoc. At this time, all that was thought to be extinct or unreal...became reality. Twilight grinned. She loved reading about myths and legends as well as conspiracies. It was all around the genre of Science Fiction. It made her mind run amok, searching for answers. And night symbolized all that was supernatural. That was why she loved night. Adjusting her telescope, she aimed it at Orion's Belt. The sparkling stars grabbed her attention and she gazed at them with wonder. What was it like to be in space? Are there aliens? What exactly was space? Twilight spent a good thirty minutes thinking about all the possible answers to her questions when, without warning, a sudden blast of air hit her. Twilight jerked away from the telescope and it rocked on its tripod. She hurriedly placed a hand on it and steadied the precious equipment. The abrupt assault of air alarmed her. She lifted her head up and gasped. In the direction of Canterlot not too far away a huge column of cyan light shot from the sky to the ground in a singular beam. The beam surged with energy and disrupted the cloud pattern in the sky, causing them to swirl around it. A distant roll of thunder could be heard. Twilight gasped as more rushing air zipped past her. It was like an alien space laser trying to beam up earthlings from below. Quickly, Twilight bent down and focused her telescope on the phenomenon. Her hair whipped out of the messy bun and trailed behind her in curls. It was even more astonishing witnessing it from the telescopic lens. Inside this odd fusion of cyan and white, was a shadow...It was in the form of a person..? Jumping up, Twilight hurried inside to get a camera. She fumbled around and snatched one from inside her desk. In a hurry, she put it up to her face and focused the picture on the narrow view eye piece. This way, she could take a picture of the shadow in the beam through the telescopic lens. She snapped a few pictures before lifting the camera up to take pictures of it from where she stood. "...This is so crazy..." she whispered in fear, shock, and excitement. Suddenly, the energy level of the strange light flared and turned black so that she could not see it well. But in a few seconds a blinding flash of bright light burned the girl's eyes. She dropped the camera and cried out in pain. The energy beam seemed to have caught fire as it disappeared in a red haze. Twilight stumbled inside and tripped over Spike, who barked in pain himself. She fell on her bed and covered her eyes. The light had hurt her eyes! What if this caused her to be blind?! Without much thought, the distressed girl banged, tripped, and stumbled her way to the bathroom and splashed water on her face from the faucet after removing her glasses. She grabbed a bottle of eye solution and drowned her eyes in them until her eye sight began to come back slowly. Twilight sighed with relief. It had only been momentary blindness... Spike came in and whimpered. He rubbed her leg and she pet him. The girl rushed back into her room and looked at the balcony. Her heart raced with a deafening ring in her ear, her thoughts scrambled. As much as she didn't like risking her eyes getting burned a second time, she wanted to know what was going on. This phenomenon was extraordinary and she had to see, had to know about it, had to record it... Boldly, Twilight went out and snatched the camera from the ground. Looking through the camera lens, she saw...nothing. She lowered them and found the sky to be just as it was before the beam. "...What??" Before she could even say 'But how?' a rainbow--no, two rainbows swirled up into the air forming a double helix. Twilight wasted no time in stalling. Pictures were taken hastily. In a short time, the rainbow crashed down in a laser at something on the ground. Another flare of light happened and this time, Twilight covered her eyes. When she pulled her arms away from her face a few moments later, all was gone again. And this time for good. The girl stood there with her heart racing, eyes hurting, and breath taken. There were no words to describe what she experienced.