//------------------------------//
// Chapter Six: Complex Term 
// Story: Nightmare to Earth 
// by bobdat 
//------------------------------//

In the end, I had nothing to think about. The only reason I didn't say yes straight away was because I wanted to get a good night's sleep. 

By nine o'clock the next morning, I was stood in the strange room with the strange machine on the table in front of me. I felt cold; the morning was a chilly one. The Professor looked at me with that look that meant he was pitying me.
“Ready?”
“As I'll ever be.”
He picked up the thing and aimed it like a gun at me. I held the photograph, contained in a brown paper document wallet, in front of me, over my heart. The Professor fired the gun thing and at first nothing happened.

“Did you forget to take the safety off?” I asked, a nervous smile on my face. He didn't reply, just looked intensely at my face. Actually, he wasn't moving at all. Then I discovered that the gun had worked, but I was simply staring at a totally still version of the world. I tried moving my arm and found that I could. I walked around the room. It was a little like being in a museum exhibit, where everything is set up in an action scene but nothing is moving.

Heading outside, I noticed that even the candle flames were still. I could put my hand in one and not be burnt, which was a novelty which soon wore off.
The outdoors were no longer cold, rather just an adequate temperature. There was no wind. I started to wonder whether I was going to be permanently stuck in some kind of glitch, when I noticed something that was moving. But it was black and moving towards me.

I was stuck in the middle of the courtyard, with paving slabs under my feet, so there was nowhere to hide as it descended from the sky and clattered to a halt in front of me. Then I discovered it wasn't an it, it was a she.

“I know what you're doing. It won't work.”
Her voice was what I'd expected. Somehow regal, yet sinister.
“Nightmare Moon?”
“Indeed. I am your ruler, and you are daring to defy me?” Her eyes were fearsome.
I could only smile, though. “Of course.”
“I'm sorry?”

“Sorry... Nightmare Moon. But we had to.”
“We? There is no we, only you. They were all too cowardly to go with you.”
Her words were stingingly close to the truth, but I tried a feeble riposte. “No, they knew only I could achieve it.”
“Everyone knows those guns can send two individuals back. The more the better, surely?”

Her laugh said everything it needed to.
“You're pathetic, believing their lies. Not even a worthy adversary.”
“Do you know why the world is frozen?” Changing the subject seemed a good way of avoiding her taunts.
“I froze it. Once I knew you had my technology, I couldn't allow it to continue. So time's frozen, you see. Or, more scientifically, the moon is frozen. Since it has sufficient gravity, it can stop time. Or make it move very slowly, which is what's actually happening.”
I nodded.

“Once I unfreeze it, you'll go back in time. I won't be able to stop you, and I can't hold the moon still forever. It's the source of my power.”
“So you're going to have to let me defeat you?”
“Oh, no. I'm going to let you go back. But you won't be able to defeat me.” She laughed again “That just wouldn't do.”
“Why did you stop time, then?”
“To give you this warning.”

She leant close, her long neck bringing her coal-black head within inches of mine. 
“You cannot win, and I will kill you when you lose.” A smirk formed on her lips, and it suited her.

Her long wings unfolded and she began to take off. “Good luck” she cackled, then the ground gave way to a black abyss. I tripped backwards and fell like a stone, grasping for the ground that should have been supporting me. I spun around in the air and got a look at the perfect darkness that was swallowing me. It was like looking into the summer's sky – there was no depth to it. It simply went on forever.

As I fell, I looked upwards at the rapidly disappearing light. It was a pinprick within seconds, which winked and went out moments later. Then I must have blacked out, but it was too difficult to tell because I couldn't see anything anyway.





I came round in a perfectly white hospital. I looked at the white ceiling and tried to pick out details through my blurry eyelids. I could hear voices speaking English, which was a relief. Suddenly something appeared in front of me. I was expecting a pretty nurse or a knowledgeable doctor, like in the films, but it was entirely different.
“Hello? Are you okay?” Her voice was female, but...

“You looked shocked. What's the matter?” The nurse (she was wearing a hat with a red cross on it) said, backing away slightly.
“Oh, I imagine he is shocked. Let me handle this, Nurse Redheart” came another, more confident voice. This time the thing was purple, and had a blueish mane.
“He's shocked because he's never seen a pony before. Am I right, sir?”

I shook my head, which caused the purple one to look a little perplexed. 
“I'm not right, or you've never seen a pony before?”
My voice worked. “I've seen a pony before, but she was as black as night.”
“Ah, I was afraid of that.”
“So you're all... ponies?”
“Yes we are!” The purple one said cheerily. “I'm Twilight Sparkle. I brought you here.”

“Where's here?”
“This is the hospital in Ponyville, which is in Equestria. This is where Nightmare Moon is from.” She explained quickly. “I think you've heard of her.”
“Yes.” I sighed a little and sat up. Now I could see the rest of the room, which was sparsely furnished and contained nobody except Twilight Sparkle and myself. 
“Before you get upset... in order to be in Equestria, you have to be in a pony form.” Twilight Sparkle said warily, looking at me in case I suddenly snapped.

My body was certainly pony-like. The hooves were a big adjustment. “Why did you bring me here... like this?”
“We're under the rule of Nightmare Moon just like your world. But when we found out something was travelling through the time continuum, I used my magic to pull you out. I'm magical, because I'm a unicorn.” She added, pointing to her horn. “So now you're here, but you're not safe. Nightmare Moon can get you because you don't have the protection you had in your world.”
This Twilight Sparkle was certainly very clever.
“But why do you want me? I was supposed to do something in my own world, in the past.”

“That's the key thing. Nightmare Moon only exists once, so she'd travelling to and from your world and our world. If you defeat her there, she's defeated here too.”
“So you want to help?”
“I want to go with you.” The soft smile on her face said everything I needed to know about her.

I was discharged from the hospital because there was nothing obviously wrong with me, apart from my total lack of knowledge about anything. I even tried walking on two legs, but fell over and suddenly found four to be a better option.
“Before we can go anywhere” my purple companion began as we reached the door to the hospital, “I have to check you're not a spy, or someone working for Nightmare Moon.”
“How do you check that?”
“I need you to tell me something you learnt in your world that's the same as in ours.” Twilight said carefully. “Something I can verify to be true, but that would be impossible for one of Nightmare's minions to find out.”

My mind was blank.
“Er, we have ponies in my world too? They don't look anything like you, though...”
“No, it has to be something better. Like a fact.”
“A fact?”
“Something you learn at school.”
Suddenly, everything I'd ever leant at school left me.
“E equals m c squared?”

Twilight thought for a moment.
“The energy mass equivalence formula?” She eventually asked.
“I think so... it's definitely got the speed of light in it.”
“We have different physics here, so our equations are different.” Twilight said, her face looking strained. “Anything else?”

For the first time in two years, something floated to the surface of the mist in my memory. It was strange – I'd always looked through my memory like looking through mist, but it suddenly revealed itself to be a pool of liquid. My perception changed and in an instant, I had the answer.
“I've got it!”
“Got what? What is it?” Twilight asked, desperate for a breakthrough.
“Wait... tanch squared theta plus one equals... um... shech squared theta. Is that right?”
“I don't know what tanch, theta or shech are.”
“It's maths! Hard maths, I never did it at school.” If this didn't work, I had no chance.

“Maths is the same in both our worlds... wait. Advanced mathematics, I'm not actually familiar with it.”
She hurried away and spoke to one of the nursing staff, who left the hospital.
“I've gone to get someone who does understand. They'll be here soon.”

It took about five minutes until the red-maned nurse returned, followed closely by a strange looking grey pony with a blonde mane.
“Miss Hooves, can you confirm something for us?” Twilight asked, smiling politely.
“No prob Twilight, so long as it's not practical.” The pony replied, laughing slightly. 
“Can you repeat it?”
“Tanch squared theta plus... no wait, minus one, equals shech squared theta.” I repeated, trying desperately to hold on to it.

Miss Hooves just laughed. “I've no idea what tanch, shech and theta are, but it's an identity. Something squared minus one equals something else squared. Assuming he's remembered it correctly, the minus will be a result of the squared complex term not being present, which occurs in the 'shech' thing. Sir, is theta an angle?”
“Yes... in a triangle.”
“No, not in a triangle. This is hyperbolics, not trigonometry, which explains the minus. What he said is exactly true.”

I didn't understand anything about what she'd said or why it was true, but Twilight was satisfied.
“Thanks so much!” She gushed, causing Miss Hooves to blush slightly.
“No problem. I'll get back to the weather.”
The grey pegasus left, flapping the wings I hadn't previously noticed.
“Okay, so you're not a spy. I'll take you to meet the other pony who'll be going with us.”
To say that I was relieved was something of an understatement. 

“I think you'll like her. Everypony is her friend, so you'll probably find her easy to get on with.”