Time is up, Twilight

by Dream Whisper

Chapter 1: The experiment

“Don’t leave me! I don’t know how to live without you!”

“Twilight, you have ruined everything. Stop trying to be our friend. We don’t like you, we never did!”

Why did they say that? Twilight was not only perplexed, but completely unable to do anything. They didn’t mean it, they couldn’t mean it. How was she supposed to react? Should she deny it, should she confront them, should she just do nothing? Instead of leaving her the decision, however, they started to surround her. What was this all supposed to be? Twilight felt fear slowly rising in her stomach. Her breathing stopped for a moment, when Rainbow Dash actually thrusted towards her, throwing her down to her side. Her heart was beating faster and faster, while her stomach started to rumble. It almost felt as if her organs were fighting against each other.

Applejack bucked her while she was lying on the ground, but she was unable to defend herself. What had she done to them? She felt the pain, but there was no clarity coming to her thoughts. Her mind was trying to grasp something, but the thought was always fading behind the massive wall of pain. She was coming back to that thought. What was it? It had the weight of importance on it, almost as if it would decide her life. There was a sizzling sound, far in the distance, but clearly hearable through the insults of her friends.

Twilight opened her eyes. The world she had believed to be in just had faded from second to second. Where was she actually? A wooden ceiling, books, and a comfortable bed. The thoughts only slowly returned. A distant call from something she had wanted to do entered her mind. What had it been? Oh no! Not the cauldron. Another sizzling sound was verifying her idea. This was bad. No, this was terrible. She had supposed to stay away. She ran down the stairs, her body still craving for sleep but her mind fully awake.
Nononono. Not again! She had wanted to watch the cauldron! The particular potion Twilight had wanted to create was nothing less than a potion to decrease the stimulus threshold for the electromagnetic receptors in the horn of an unicorn. That would theoretically decrease the amount of concentration required for keeping up a certain amount of magic, thus increasing the overall possible power of every unicorn.
Let us just call it “doing science that is beneficial for unicorn magic”.

However, now that she had been asleep, this whole experiment had gone to waste. She should just stop it all - Okay. Another try, another time. Although... The sizzling sound had been a good indicator for a reaction of the carbonate ions with the surrounding fluorescent substance. You could call it science. Only if that lamp on the ceiling would keep on shining, the reaction would actually have a chance to continue. It was a special light. Although clearly emitting heat and consuming her magic stored in her batteries, it didn't shine brightly like any other source of light. It was some strange invisible light she had discovered. That light would transport the required energy into the substance as long as it didn’t run out of energy after all. How could she have slept on such an important part?

She would just check the machines for their energy levels. For five long months now, she had tried to finish the potion, and this was the critical stage. She has had some good tries already, which had always failed at this stage - either to wrong calculations or wrong theory.

There had been one potion, which had just caused her horn to become one giant bruise, which had hurt incredibly. For days, every spell she had cast had caused a noise that had sounded like farting. Out of shame, she had not come out for days. Twilight Fartle. That is how she would have been called. Poor Spike had had to do all shopping for her, while she had kept the household. In that week however, she really had experienced how hard Spike’s work really was.
The next one had destroyed her home in a rather strange way: Over night, right in the middle of the house, a giant beanstalk had grown through the ceiling up into the clouds. It took almost a week to remove it from her home. Meanwhile everypony had guessed, what was on top of that beanstalk. Pinkie Pie had guessed it would be a giant castle. How ridiculous. Applejack had guessed it would just be giant beans, it was a beanstalk after all. Twilight had to agree on that point, taking her low gardener skills into consideration. In the end, Rainbow Dash had been too impatient to guess and had flown up there. Although there had been nothing special up there, it had been a fun time guessing.

This experiment however was ruined due to being too lazy to stay awake. How could she have allowed herself to be lazy? Lazy ponies were those who never succeeded in anything. Now she had become a lazy pony. She could almost hear Celestia faulting her and sending her back to... Not now, Twilight. Now was the time to check the machines.

Most of the displays were still shining green, but the indicator was already at 160 mu. The lamp was almost out of energy, as she had already expected. She reloaded the battery with her magic, causing her to be a bit more tired than she already was, but more importantly causing the indicator to turn to 240 mu again. Calculating the average loss of 10 mu per hour over the last days, this would be the last time she had to refill the battery.

The brew started sizzling again, almost as if it had waited eagerly for her to finally refill the battery... Or maybe she was just still really tired. She decided to drop into her soft, comfy bed once again, and once again vowed to herself to not drop into sleep again. As if it had been destined, she broke that vow once again.

When she woke up again, it was morning already. It took her less than a heartbeat to grasp the situation. The potion! She flashed through the room as there was no chance, she would be lazy again. As she had already thought, the indicator on the top right corner of the massive instrument paneling had already turned red. She threw the massive lamp away, which had been her only concern for days now. She knew, that she had overslept at the critical point. Twilight scolded herself. It would be impossible for her to make great discoveries if she would fall asleep each and every time.
Should she still try to finish this potion, or should she abort? Well... she could not really abort now. Not after so much effort put into it. She started to fill a bit of the brew into a test tube, which she capped of by a small cork. Now she put the test tube into that huge apparatus, which would finish the whole process. It was actually just a giant box with some buttons and an insert chamber, in which the potion would be imbued with her own magic, calibrating it for her own body. It was almost works like a vaccination, only a bit more complicated:

Inside the machine was a fluid containing the exact opposite of her magic aura. She had used King Sombra's crystals to create it, so it was extremely hard to come by. She didn't want to spend hours again, trying to get her magic to be sucked up by what remained of the crystals. Furthermore, it was still dangerous to imbue the enemy's weapons with her own magic. What if there was anything left of King Sombra? Twilight shook her head. She did not even want to finish that thought.

This exact opposite of her magic would react with the potion, causing it to create something very similar to antibodies. Those antibodies would be close enough to her own immune system, hopefully causing the whole potion not to fight her. If it all worked, the potion would be able to spread throughout her whole body, also reaching into the horn, where it would hopefully have the desired effect. The whole process was incredibly difficult, but if there would be an easier way to get the antibodies, the potion would be able to apply to all unicorns in Equestria. Imagine if everypony had the power to do good, to help each other, to fight even the biggest creatures, to finally have a weapon of their own against such foes as Discord or Queen Chrysalis. Most unicorn’s magic wasn’t even strong enough to create a decent shield. With the help of her potion, Ponykind would be forever safe.

The machine took longer than usual, which already made her wonder if there was something wrong. As the dark-green blistering potion came out, shining in a red light, she knew that something was different. She could not decide if it either was fully messed up or, maybe finally perfect. In theory, this was exactly what it was supposed to look like. Nevertheless, in practice this was looking pretty badly. Should she just go ahead and drink it? She remembered the pain in her horn due to her last fail, the destroyed home. She shrugged - There was only one way to find out, if it would all fail again: She downed the whole potion without further hesitation. It was just utterly disgusting and left an aftertaste of mildew. She almost choked on it, but she had to get it all down. The taste was nothing that you couldn't fix with a tablespoon of sugar next time... or maybe better, four tablespoons!

It was time to put it all to the test. Every second, every day, every month could have been wasted on this very failure. This time, she swore to herself, she wouldn't fail. Twilight had already prepared one of the rooms for the testing. Instead of being filled with books about all sorts of topics, this room was filled with lots and lots of pillows. Why? There had been minor problems with her magic throwing everything loose around, including herself. She didn’t want her face to be literally stuck in a book again.
However, it would definitely not go wrong, would it? She just had to stay focussed and do her best. She closed the heavy metal door- also covered in pillows of course - behind her, sealing her inside the small chamber. There was just one spell mighty enough to actually use as much magic to trigger the initial effects. By now the liquid should have spread throughout her whole body, but it not hurting right now did not mean, it couldn't hurt later. She could not actually feel anything at all. Was that the potion? Had she been numbed? She poked herself with her horn. Ouch! She definitely still felt something. So, did the potion work or not?
She had to try to travel through time to really verify the effects of this potion. Only that one spell would be strong enough to do it. Of course not into the past, which was rather easy, but instead into the future. Something, that already required all of her strength, when she wanted to go seconds into the future. With this potion, she hoped to at least have a minute or so. She took a deep breath in. Concentrate Twilight, concentrate! She was the pony! It wasn’t just coincidence she had become an Alicorn. She could do this! Without wasting more time on boosting confidence, she had started to channel this one spell, which would determine the practicability of this whole project.

No matter how good the potion had been, she would not have been able to see it coming. Through the door burst a mare all in long black robes. Her face was veiled by some kind of mask. Without giving any reason, she just jumped Twilight down, holding her to the ground. Not now! In all of the darn moments that mare could have selected, why this one? She needed to finish this spell and this mare would not stop her.

"Your time is up, Twilight!"

As if the whole situation had not been ridiculous enough, another mare jumped through the opening. This time, Twilight was able to identify the other pony. It was herself. Not herself herself of course, but future herself. What the actual horse apple was going on here? First some random mare bursting into her room and now future Twilight. It was still a strange feeling to see her though. Her mane was messy and jumbled. Her face told stories of worrisome hours in the future. There was something else, though: pure determination to do whatever she was about to do. She leaped through the room, jumping the other mare down.

"No! Yours is up!"

Future Twilight just teleported herself and the mysterious mare out of the room. Although she was unsure, if future Twilight would even need her help, Twilight ran after them, trying to find them somewhere outside. As she finally stepped outside, the battle already seemed to be decided. The future Twilight was holding the mare down, who had some bruises. Usually magic fights are not supposed to be dangerous, but sometimes ponies do not follow the rules set by Celestia. Breaking those rules is sentenced with banishment, so usually only the ponies who would be imprisoned anyway do it. Neither of both seemed to care though. Upon seeing her leaving the house, the mysterious mare slipped from future Twilight’s grip. In a matter of moments, the mare teleported behind Twilight and took out something shiny. Her heart was stopping for a moment. Would it end like this? No! She tried to evade the hit, but what seemed like a blade still managed to cut a shallow wound.

"You don't understand. If you do this, then..."

However, she did not get any further with that sentence, as future Twilight had already teleported next to her, ramming the masked mare to the ground with her shoulders. Then, future Twilight used some magical chains to keep her to the ground. Future Twilight didn’t stop there however and faced towards the defeated mare. An evil grin rose on that face, fully distorting it. She lowered her head and rammed her horn into… nothing? In the last second, the mysterious mare had saved herself.
Had this just happened? She could never harm anypony. So who was that pony she had thought to be future Twilight? Was it really her? Twilight was utterly confused. She shot her twin a look of accusation and disgust.

"I don't understand. What have you done?!”

"I tried to kill her. She had almost killed me, when I had been in the same situation! The future Twilight, that had saved me at that moment had also tried to kill her. I don't know, what would have happened to you, if I would have not..."

Twilight was furious. Her stomach which had just calmed down again started rumbling again. How could she ever become such a disgusting monster? You should never kill a pony, no matter what the cost of it is. Always try to stop the other pony from fighting, but never kill them! It was the basic rule of Ponyhood not to kill each other. Every foal in Equestria knew that. Even the thought of ponies fighting was already disgusting her. She could not even imagine herself to become so... insane. Her stomach was definitely having a fight with her intestines.

As the future Twilight was about to say something, she disappeared into a purple orb, taking her back to her time. Well, if there was nothing to stop her anymore, it was time to finally test out her potion. Thinking about that future Twilight, if it even had been a future version of her, would have to wait. Maybe it had been an imposter. Why would an imposter help her against the mare though? She would most definitely search Celestia’s advice later, but she could not ask for advice without presenting her results, could she? There was still a potion to be tested.

Comments

[mlpfanficismagic]

Please, please, pleeeeeaaaaase try to finish it... please :(

[mlpfanficismagic]

please

[Dream Whisper]

3296729

Of course I am going to finish it :D

However, I will only be able to update it daily since I am not incredibly fast at writing.
~1500 words per day will have to be enough at first.

And you are awesome :D
I love your avatar, that derpy really enjoys her muffins

While you wait, you might (!) want to read Dream Whisper, my other story. Only if you might want it, though. I don't want to force you to anything
My other story: "Dream Whisper"

Thank you for commenting, you are awesome
Tomorrow is the next part, so prepare yourself

[lmagine]

Now, being honest this isn't the best writing I've come across. Better than Theater Critic for sure... but it does need a little work. I found it hard to read in some places...

Let us just hope, it doesn't turn out to be one. Twilight positioned herself in the special room for this occasion. It was filled with pillows all over the ground, walls and ceiling.

That line bugs me, IMO. You don't have to change it but I didn't exactly like it.

[EnderBlaze]

Hello!

Call me crazy for understanding this, but...
" The particular potion, Twilight wanted to create was nothing but a mere potion to decrease the stimulus threshold for the electromagnetic receptors in her horn. Theoretically, the potion should decrease the amount of concentration required for keeping up a certain amount of magic, thus increasing the overall possible power of every unicorn."
(i know this is just a story, but im confused.)
If the magnetic receptor threshold is decreased, wouldn't that make her more sensitive to magic, allowing her to manipulate very small objects with precision, as that would only require a small amount of magic, too small to manipulate normally? In which case, she could be able to find crystals better, by following the feint aura of magic that surrounds them (similar to rarity)?
Also, does it increase the overall power by allowing her to detect and gather faint magic, or is it harder to concentrate on compressed energy, rather than more spread out and abundant energy?
Also, "Carbonate ions" dies that mean magic is somewhat related to electricity?
"She reloaded the battery with her magic"
That also kinda supports that.

Or am I all wrong?

Please excuse my strange rant.

Back to English:
I just finished chapter one, so I'm not sure if these are the holes you're talking about. Sorry if I made no sense.

Although... If you like not making sense and/or strange logic, wanna read my story 'The Shimmering Truth'?
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/135383/the-shimmering-truth

Html test (I'm new here)
<a href=" http://www.fimfiction.net/story/135383/the-shimmering-truth" > Link..? </a>

Good day sir, keep up the good work.

[EnderBlaze]

Ok I guess html doesn't work :/

[TheTobacconist]

I just finished reading Chapter 1. I noticed a lot of comma splices, and I understand that those can be difficult to pick up on while writing. Good note: I like your cliffhanger, and the setup for a larger plot is quite nice. I think I will continue reading this, but I will go ahead with giving it a like and fave. Because it deserves it.

[Izarra Kiania]

3342245 No, but BBCode does.