A Slip in Time

by canonkiller

Prologue

The castle is particularly drafty today. You pull the hem of your nightgown closer around your neck, checking the sundial on the windowsill as you do so. It's very dimly lit, but the shadow falls directly on the I scratched in white chalk on the outside ring. You frown at it. Was that the number you lined up wrong? Nobody made sundials for the night, ever since...

Your ears press back, and you bite your lip. Even thinking of her recent betrayal makes you feel like a threat to the Princess. You listen for a moment, but nopony seems to have detected your treasonous thoughts. Even so, when you glance up at the moon - comparing it against your horn when you hold your head level to the scales on your desk, huh, it is one in the morning, what number was the one that needed fixing? - and see the craters making up her dark muzzle, you shiver. The cold night air is suddenly bitter in your lungs.

You back away from your desk, taking in your room. It had been pretty dull when you first moved in, but a few lavish (and cheap) banners and paintings had done well in covering the cracked walls and dark corners. You looked up towards the ceiling, looking at the flickering candles hung above you. Their wax runs over the dishes they are suspended in, but nothing has reached falling point. The creamy red stalactites were starting to hang low, though. Maybe the Princess's phoenix would like another wax bath soon. The last one did make her feathers gleam quite nicely last time.

You jump as there is a knock at the thick door. Visitors for you? At this time of night?

Frowning, you trot over to the door. "Who goes there?"

"Who else?"

"Oh!" You struggle to open the door with a thick rope tied to the handle, but give up and use your magic instead. "What are you doing up so late, Miss?"

"The nightmares again. I thought they would end after she... she was gone, but they've only gotten worse." A young mare, only slightly taller than you, trots into the room. For the power she exudes, you can almost see her as being much taller and prouder, but now she seems to be weak. Feeble, even. Her pink mane, long and knotted with the tossing and turning of her feverish dreams, hangs limply around her neck, and thick gray bags hang under each dull pink eye. She has a horn, too, but it barely sticks through her bangs. Her wings are equally small for her age - at least, what her age seems to be - and the feathers are ruffled horribly.

"P-Princess Celestia! Have you been taking the potions the shaman has been making up for your dreams?"

She rolls her eyes, shambling towards your bed. "The honey disagrees with me, but he won't leave it out."

"Oh." You don't quite know what else to say - the Princess looks to be nearly asleep on her hooves anyway, and she's nearly pulled her back legs up onto your mattress. "What are you doing?"

"She tore up Mister Spike," Princess Celestia muttered, curling up on the other side of the bed and pulling the heavy blankets over her back.

"I had almost forgotten." It was true - you had never given much thought to the Princess's raggedy old plush dragon, even when her sister had torn it in half with an icy band of magic - but you still didn't quite understand. "But why...?"

"Mister Spike was the last thing Momma gave me." She whispered. "Gave us."

"Oh."

She nods, but it's a very small movement. She looks even younger, bundled up in your blankets. You realize that you're not sure how old she is; the current generation still remembers a time before her rule, but her age (or her appearance's age) spiked when she took control of the Elements to banish Discord. Her sister's had too, but...

"I need to keep the nightmares away."

"You need a cuddle buddy?"

She glares at you through a curtain of pink mane. The edges of it still shimmer with green, blue and purple, remnants of her daylight power. "I will banish you to the-"

She drops the sentence, burying her muzzle in a pillow. What used to be a commonplace threat whenever you skipped a lesson has now become a lasting wound. Hesitantly, you jump up into the bed beside her. The spell you were working on lies forgotten on your desk, the edges of the pages lifting slightly in the wind.

You whisper a goodnight to the Princess before wrapping your nightgown around your body, letting her keep the blankets. She scoots over to press her back against yours. She drops off to sleep quite easily, her snores muffled by the pillow. You wait for a moment, wondering if you'll have any other unexpected visitors, but sleep claims you quickly too.

Above you, above your room, above the ramparts of the castle and above the sky itself, a single pony stands in a white wasteland, singing soft notes of sleep to be carried along the arcane winds to lull a distraught princess to sleep and keep the nightmares at bay.

The only one awake to hear them is soaring around the castle ramparts, wings blazing. The young phoenix lends an ear - she has not yet learned to not heed unknown magics - and instantly grows drowsy. Her wings grow limp as she tumbles towards the castle's ramparts, only saved from a fatal fall by a window you have left open. She plummets through, still blazing, and your table goes up in flames.

You jolt awake as the phoenix crashes into your desk, setting your work ablaze. You yell, picking up the bird and tossing it into the hearth with your magic as you look around for something to put out the blaze. Wind laden with golden sparks kicks up as the fire hits the runes you had inked out, making them glow a brilliant blue. You stare at the Wild Magic in fear, dimly aware of Celestia screaming behind you. The runes are all you can see. Everything else is dark.

With a shudder, it feels as if your spirit is pulled from your body. Almost as quickly, it is slammed back in. Colors and noises ring in your head. The world is spinning. Something is moving nearby - a lot of somethings. Where are you?

Author's Note:

Upvote the blue or green option below to decide on the next chapter's events!

Comments

[canonkiller]

Upvote this comment if the color you see first is blue.

[canonkiller]

Upvote this comment if the color you see first is green.

[nacatcrazy]

I will always like a good story keep at it

[rip4thwall]

Upvote this comment if you think it should just be a dream, and the mage should go ask Celestia if she wants waffles for breakfast.

[The Great Derpsby]

Now this—this looks interesting!

[Jonathon Smythe]

Dammit, Philomena.

[Ace of Kings]

I like it so far but one question;what time period is this set in?

[Fallen Knight]

3462142>>3462144

Kinda cheating when the first color one sees is green from the Adventure tag.

[canonkiller]

3463063
You'll figure it out.
youchew.net/wiki/images/thumb/e/ed/R16066_MLP_Applejack_Spooky.gif/200px-R16066_MLP_Applejack_Spooky.gif

3463907
Mneh mneh

[Fluttersyke]

This chapter; it is good. Another! If that's okay with you.
The upvoting of comments is also cheating when the upvote numbers for both options are green, the color of everyone's name boxes are green, and I choose not to look at all the 's in the emoticon box.