The Epochust

by GoldenChozo

1: The Approaching Perihelion

The light from the sun made it's way into my room, and landed on my face. I woke up instantly from this, as I did every morning. Although this day started out no different from others, it felt somehow special. I felt as if today would be significant in some way.

I got out of bed and looked at a mirror that was in my room. The mare that stared back was Peppermint Splash, a mint green pegasus with golden eyes, a blue mane and tail, and a peppermint with water splashing as her cutie mark. I looked at myself from several angles before I was satisfied and moved on. I reached for and put on a couple bracelets sitting on my nightstand before heading out for the day.

I wasn't going anywhere in specific; just walking about and enjoying the day. I passed many ponies, most of whom were so caught up in their errands that they gave me little notice. There seemed to be a great deal of activity, though. Many shops were having special sales, and many ponies were taking advantage of that.

I looked up at the many pegasi flying above Ponyville. There seemed to be some major activity up there, as well. There were high-flying races occurring. Three pegasi in particular were clearly dominating the current race.

Zephyr Lane, at the tail of the three, was doing surprisingly well keeping up with the other two. All that could be seen of her was a pink blur, with the occasional blue and purple from her mane or tail visible. Just ahead of Zephyr was Thunder Dasher, leaving a light blue trail behind him. Taking the current lead was Rainbow Dash, leaving rainbow trails that were quickly replaced by Thunder's blue trails, which in turn were broken up by Zephyr.

"Hi, Pep!" Somepony said, which made me aware that I wasn't even moving. I looked around to see Crescent Delight coming up next to me. Crescent was a navy blue mare, with a violet mane and tail with streaks of blue in them, and light blue eyes. She always loved the moon and hoped it would come close, and her cutie mark is a star surrounded by a crescent moon because of this.

"Morning, Cres," I replied to her. "How are you today?"

"I'm excited for the perihelion tomorrow night!" Cres said, barely containing her excitement.

"Perihelion?" I questioned. "What does that mean?"

"It's when the moon comes closer than usual," Cres said. I could see now why she was so excited about it. "It hasn't happened in over a millennium."

"Is that why all the shops are having sales?" I asked.

"Of course," Cres nodded.

Before the conversation got any further, there was the loud sound of somepony crashing into a tree. Cres and I both looked ahead to see Thunder Dasher on the ground. I ran up to him, followed closely by Cres. Thunder's silvery-blue eyes looked right at us as we came up to him.

"Are you alright?" Cres asked him. "That sounded like a pretty hard hit."

"I've been worse," Thunder muttered. He didn't appear to have any marks on him from hitting the tree.

"Let's get you home so you can recover," I said, pushing myself under his wing to lift him. Cres got on the other side, and we managed to lift him with his cooperation. We slowly made our way to Thunder's house, eventually getting him there. We carefully set him in his bed.

"Thank you," Thunder said to me and Cres. There was something about the way he said it, coupled with the fact that he had no marks on him, that made me think he planned to crash so we would do that. We left Thunder to recover to see what else the day had in store for us.

"Was it just me, or did it seem like Thunder intended to crash and wasn't hurt at all?" I asked Cres.

"I had that same feeling," Cres said.

"Why would he do it, though?" I asked, more to myself than to Cres. I had an idea, but I decided to keep it to myself.

After about ten minutes of walking around and talking, we ran into Ace Doughty. Ace was a brown pegasus with light green eyes, and a light red mane and tail. His Cutie Mark was a golden lion, representing how courageous he actually was. Ace loved adventure, though he didn't get to go on too many very often.

"Hey, you two," Ace said to us. He then looked at Cres and said, "So what do you think of the coming perihelion?"

"I wish I could speed up time so I could see it sooner," Cres said excitedly.

"We could always ask Twilight at the library," Ace said, chuckling a little. "If anypony knows a way, she does."

Cres seemed more excited than she had in the past hour. "Do you really think so?" She said before galloping full speed towards the library. We both stared at the location that Cres was just in moments before.

"I didn't think it was possible for her to go so fast," Ace said, breaking the silence.

"Should we follow her?" I suggested.

"Might as well."

We began trotting in the general direction of the library. Along the way, we passed a truck with an image of Vinyl Scratch, better known throughout Equestria as DJ PON3. There were several ponies who appeared to be building a stage in the Ponyville town square.

"Do you think they're here because of the perihelion tomorrow night?" I asked Ace.

"Of course," he responded. "It hasn't been so close for over a millennium. It's a once in a lifetime sight."

"I can't wait to see it, it has to be amazing."

We continued the trip to the library in silence. There may have been no conversation, but I enjoyed it. As we made our way down the path, I noticed that there were long lines to many of the shops. It seemed like this perihelion was very special indeed, since it was a few hours before noon and the shops were packed.

When we finally made it to the library, we could see Cres on her way out and talking to Cherry Sundae. Cherry was a light cream-colored earth pony with a pink mane and tail. She ran the dairy shop, and so her Cutie Mark was that of several ice cream scoops in a bowl.

"The Princess has been gone for that long, so she can do it again for the first time since before she was imprisoned," Cres was explaining to Cherry.

"So what did Twilight say?" Ace asked.

"She said she could get us access to the Royal Canterlot Archives," Cres said. "The Starswirl the Bearded section is where they keep time-based spells and such."

I looked around at the others, seeing two pegasi and two earth ponies, before saying, "But none of us are unicorns. How are we supposed to do a spell?"

"She said there would be more than just spells," Cres said. "There may be an object or something that we can use."

"How do we know this?" Cherry asked. She didn't seem too keen on going if there was a chance that there was nothing that we could use there.

"We might as well find out," Ace said, ready for adventure.

Just then, the window opened, and out popped a little purple dragon. He held up a scroll, blew an emerald fire onto it, and the flame went off in the direction of Canterlot. What just happened seemed very odd. None of us had ever seen it before.

Spike the dragon then turned to us and said, "You know, I don't see what's so special about this perriheelon. The moon's closer than normal, so what?" Seeing the look that Cres had on her face, it's no surprise that Spike instantly went back in and shut the window.

A moment later, Spike opened the window again. He opened it just enough that he could get his message out without Cres being able to reach him. "The Royal Guards will arrive this evening to bring you to the castle," he said nervously before quickly shutting the window again and latching it.

There was no turning back now; we were going to Canterlot Castle. I was nervous, not knowing what to expect. Cherry was also clearly shaking with fear of the castle. Cres didn't seem mad at Spike anymore, and was excited that she would be closer to seeing the perihelion. Ace, as always it seemed, was ready for the coming adventure, even if it was just a short-lived one.

Comments

[Silver Sea]

Seems good, tracking.