//------------------------------// // Noon 46, first fragment // Story: A mare and her dog // by cammera //------------------------------// Applejack woke up, the faint idea of time being around noon confirmed by a nearby clock. The door was knocked again. "Enter," she got up. Twilight entered, a clock floating besides her and Spike, fully armored, behind her. "I gave you as much time to rest as I could, but I need something" her face was a rictus of frustration "I need someone who can act as a proxy for my magic, and the others are in Equestria" "What for?" For all the things Applejack had found in her travels, she still couldn't help but step back when Twilight was truly angry. "No. First I'll offer you this," she put Applejack's bag, which had been left in a corner of the room, and put it in her back "I could teleport you out of this country" "What do you need me for?" insisted Applejack, taking out the bags. "It'll affect your judgement" Twilight put them back on. "No, being refused the whole picture is what affects it" she took them out again. Twilight stared at her, and Applejack could practically hear the ideas behind those eyes. "Fine" she conceded after a moment "Mariela told me that the dreamer has been building up energy from his monks to do something, and what you took confirms it. I need to disrupt the energy, but my horn would react violently to it, so I need someone who can proxy my magic without her head exploding in the process" "I'll do it," Applejack gave Spike a look "He's coming with me?" "Y-" she was completely paralized for nearly a minute "-es" "You did it again," said Spike. Twilight checked the clock, "Fifty eight seconds this time, drat. AJ, your equipment is in the barracks and Spike knows everything" she teleported away. "What was that?" Applejack asked Spike "What did I just see?" "Honestly, I have no idea. Come, I'll take you to the barracks" he started walking. -ยบ- Twilight appeared in front of Nanda. She and a few unicorns were discussing over a chalkboard in a scrambled combination of Tharatean, Lushido, and Dirila that her spell failed completely to translate, but she cared little. "It happened again, this time for fifty eight seconds" she said, and teleported away before they had time to answer. From over cloud level, Twilight overlooked the city. It took her a few seconds to remember snapping open her wings to stop the descent. Hlaoo's units remained in the same place, tight around the Church's entrance. There seemed to be movement around it, so she conjured a telescope. Golems were exiting the portics, turning unnoticeable almost instantly... ...and a stream of silver flew in, too fast for her to recognize. In her mind, a domino chain started to fall over. If anything rushed the attack, it'd be bad news at best, so she let the telescope dissolve into aether and herself fall, not wanting to waste magic with teleports now of all times. She fell like a purple comet, encased in a shield that few others than Rainbow could generate, jerked to a stop, and entered the palace in a run. Bad news travel fast, after all.