Don't Blank

by lunabrony

1 - Aliens. Why Did It Have To Be Aliens?

Author's Note:

1. This story is a SPINOFF to my 'Six Two Six' series, the events of which will be referenced but not directly interfered with.
2. This story is on hiatus due to my wanting to finish three other stories I'm working on, after which this will be a main project.
3. If you want to see more and approve of this random crossover, let me know of your approval in the comments so I have motivation to keep writing it!

The day started innocently enough, as so many of them did. Twilight Sparkle was a little bit behind on her work, which annoyed her to no end. She'd fallen a bit behind due to being turned to stone, and being that wasn't even the end of it. Discord would do such things such as periodically pop in unannounced with remarks such as "Now you know how I felt," at which point she would remind him it wasn't the first time she'd been turned to stone and was not against doing it to him again. That was usually the point at which he would suddenly realize he couldn't remember if the oven was off or not, and leave her alone.

The other factor regarding her tardiness was Spike. Now, Spike was a spectacular helper and would do almost anything for her, for which she was immensely grateful. But today was his day off, and the little dragon was out and about enjoying himself in town while she took the day to herself.

As it was, it was late in the afternoon. Twilight was surrounded by books of every shape and size and color, scrolls lay open and she was scribbling frantically on a scroll in an attempt to learn an extremely complicated new spell. She had finally gotten herself back on track and was making good progress on astronomical charts and star positions when the front door of the Library burst open with a violent bang. Twilight was so absorbed in her work that she jumped so high she nearly hit the ceiling.

"Twilight, Twilight!"

It was Spike. And he was not in a good mood. Nor was Twilight, for that matter, having just been scared out of her wits. But she held her tongue.

"Calm down, Spike," Twilight said. "Take a deep breath, and tell me what's wrong. You'll only make yourself sick hyperventilating like that."

"I was out messing around in the water fountain in the Marketplace," he explained. "Because it's late September and it won't be on for too much longer, so I thought one last swim of the summer was in order," he said.

"Go on?"

"And there were these lights, man. Not the good kind of lights like Wave Current sells in his shop, the weird kind of lights like we saw when you made that new recipe with the mushrooms Fluttershy gave you. Or when the spaceboat landed," he said.

"She promised not to do that again," Twilight reminded him. "And I doubt very much you saw another spaceboat, they're a dimensional anomaly and Princess Celestia promised to tell me if anything like that happened again."

"I know, but let me finish! There were these lights in the sky, and they disappeared somewhere over Everfree Forest. And I didn't think of it for another twenty minutes or so. But then ponies started yelling. Yelling and screaming and running in all directions. I asked Ocean Breeze what the problem was, and she pointed upward, so I looked upward..."

"And?" Twilight asked.

"And... well, you better look," he said, pointing out the door towards the sky with one of his claws.

Twilight frowned and rose from her work, moving towards the door. She stopped in the doorway of the Library and looked up, her eyes instantly widening.

"Do you see it?" Spike asked.

"I see it," Twilight said, staring directly at the moon which hung in the sky plain as day, right next to the sun which seemed to have frozen in its descent towards the ground. "Spike, what time is it?"

Spike checked a watch on his wrist that he'd drawn with marker. Twilight had playfully used her magic to let the hands move on their own. "Almost six," he said.

"The sun should be lower than that... it's not moving," she observed. "Spike, I'm very sorry, but I'm going to need your help. I'll make it up to you, I promise," she said gently. "Can you take a letter?"

"Sure," he said, moving to a pile of blank scrolls stacked neatly on the table. "Do you want a P, an H, or a Q?"

"Spike!"

"Everypony's a critic..." he mumbled, grabbing a quill. "To Canterlot?" He asked.

"To Canterlot," Twilight confirmed.
***

"I appreciate your taking time out of your day to let us visit you like this," Time Turner said. "I normally don't like barging in on ponies like this, but we've been in the mood for some decent tea lately, and everypony says yours is the best." He was currently visiting one particular cottage on the edge of town, along with a marefriend of his.

"Oh, it's no problem, really," Fluttershy said. "I'm happy to help, and I didn't have any major rehabilitation to do today. Sometimes some quiet company can be nice. And you two seem like very nice ponies."

"I am. I mean, we are," the mare sitting next to Time Turner said, and gave another sip from her teacup. Her companion had referred to her as Roseluck, although Fluttershy hadn't seen her before. "We do a lot of running, you see," she said. "It's very athletic, very tiring, but also... what's the word?"

"Fantastic?" Time Turner grinned.

"That's one, yeah," Roseluck said.

Fluttershy just smiled, rising up to refill the kettle when she became aware of being watched. She didn't like the feeling of being watched, didn't like it at all. It made her uncomfortable, and she shifted a bit on her hooves, opening the front door to dump out some of the stale boiled water along the side of the house. She was returning the kettle to the house when a squeaky voice that would have put Sweetie Belle to shame barked at her.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!"

Her eyes darted around, but despite persistent scanning, saw nopony in the vicinity that could possibly have barked at her so harshly. She took another step, and was met with another warning.

"Down here! Watch where you're going!"

Her eyes lowered in response, and fell upon a small green caterpillar creature glaring at her.

"Why don't you watch it, huh? You think you're so tough, just because you're big?"

Poor Fluttershy didn't know how to react to this. She'd been a bit more accustomed to strange things after her encounters with Experiment 626, not to mention any number of things in Equestria itself, but this was something else altogether.

"Oh, no. I really don't think I'm very tough at all," she responded. "Thanks for asking though."

The small bug waved her off. "Don't worry about it. Listen, maybe we got off to a bad start. Lemme take that kettle for you, it's the least I can do."

She blinked. There was no way that small creature could hold a teakettle this size. It might hurt itself!

"That's alright, I've got it, but I do have some questions..."

"Plenty of time for question later," it said. "C'mon, I insist."

"Well... alright..." Fluttershy said, and slowly lowered the teakettle. Surprisingly, the bug hoisted it up on whatever biologically passed for a shoulder, and gave her a soft smile. "Thanks," he said, staring into Fluttershy's eyes.

"You're wel..." She began, before being overtaken by a sudden severe chill. She shivered despite the warm evening air, a rush of swirling golden dust escaping out of her mouth. It tasted bitter, though she was so frightened by the experience she didn't pay the details of the event all that much notice.

Time Turner, who had approached to see what was taking so long, looked absolutely stunned at the golden dust swirling around her, and his eyes tracked their movements.

"I hate it when that happens," he remarked.

The small caterpillar seemed unaffected, and in fact suddenly seemed in a hurry. "Thank you very much," he said, and scurried off in such a rush that only once he was gone did Fluttershy realize he still had her teakettle.

"Are you alright?" Time Turner asked.

"Of course, I just... I feel funny," Fluttershy said.

"I would imagine so, considering your cutie mark is missing," he said.

"What?!" Naturally she whirled around to look at her flank, and for the first time in years, found her yellow coat unmarked by the butterflies which she had grown so used to seeing there.

"But... how..." She whispered.

"That's what I aim to find out," Time Turner said calmly.

"And you... think you can help me?" Fluttershy squeaked.

Roseluck came to stand beside them, and smiled knowingly.

"Of course," she said. "That's what he does."