Test of Time: Arc 1: Awakening

by NoPonysLand

Chapter 11

Chapter 11 – Twilight
Tuesday, 25 June 1003

“What time is it now?”

Twilight sighed, looking up at the moon and the stars for a moment before turning back to Rainbow Dash. “3:30 AM, give or take five minutes. About two minutes later than it was two minutes ago when you last asked.”

“Sorry, sorry. I'm anxious, you know?” Dash said, bobbing up and down restlessly in place in time to her wing-strokes. “The signal is going to come any minute, I can feel it.”

Twilight saw the twenty-eight unicorns standing in a circle outside of their little group of six nudge each other awake again. They were Celestia's idea. A teleport team, so she didn't have to spend half her power just getting the six of them to their destination. That had completely slipped her mind, of course. These battle preparations, even when dealing with a simple plan like theirs, had a lot of parts that all needed to work in order to succeed. She was just glad she wasn't the only one coming up with the plan.

The sea was calm, its surface clearly reflecting the waning gibbous moon. They had decided against a boat, as there was plenty of shoreline which was almost exactly half-way between the two, and the hassle to get a large enough boat to the position in time was deemed not to be worth the chance of having to teleport about one kilometer farther than optimal. So Twilight looked out over the bay, in the direction of Manehatten. It was beyond her horizon, but she could make out a little of its glow reflected on the clouds above it in the distance. Dash was right. She could feel a sharpness of anticipation in the air, and knew, somehow, that it was about to break. Though, she had felt that way for about two hours, so perhaps it was just nerves.

Pinkie was bouncing around, seemingly anxious to get started. “Oh, this waiting is the worst part! You know that the conflict is inevitable, and you can't do anything about it, yet nothing is happening! It's so frustrating!”

“You won't be saying that when the battle starts.” Rarity said. “Then you'll wish that the wait had been longer.”

“No, I won't. It says as much in three and a half thousandish words.” Pinkie said, bouncing another lap around the others. “'Hey, at least it's over with, right?' That's what I'll say.”

A shooting star crossed over the sky. “Luna's loosing control, I'd wager.” Applejack said. “She's concentratin' on preparation, I'd guess.”

“Or...” Fluttershy said, “she could have started the battle.”

The ponies grew silent.

“I mean... that could be.” Twilight said, looking over the bay again. She laughed nervously. “We'll know in one hundred fifty seconds, I guess.”

“So, uh, one last time...” Rainbow Dash said slowly. “What, exactly, are we doing?”

“We'll teleport in at the edge of the city. Then, we'll locate the fight. I'll teleport us right in, only twenty meters from it. Then, you and Fluttershy rush her. Your only goal is to make physical contact of any kind. Pinkie will use her cannon filled with smoke bombs to make it impossible to see. Rarity will place a shield around you. As soon as you touch her, yell out. I'll blast exactly where your scream is, so get out of there instantly. Then, if everything goes well, you five sit out for the rest of the battle and watch us kick her ass.” Twilight said. “If everything doesn’t go well, you'll be more running away than sitting out, but the basic plan from there remains the same.”

“Okay. So, body-check a goddess. Sounds like a plan.” Rainbow Dash said, breathing out sharply. Nopony followed up for a little while, lost in their individual thoughts.

Rarity looked up at the sky. “How much time is left?”

“Thirty-two seconds.” Twilight said. “Maybe.”

“Ugh...” Rarity shivered. “It's so... tense here now.”

“Well, duh!” Pinkie said. “We might be jumping to our deaths and the doom of all of equestrian civilization! Of course it's a bit tense!” She laughed. “Isn't it great!”

“Weren't you the one complaining about how uncomfortable the waiting made you feel?” Twilight said questioningly.

“Yeah, but then the atmosphere got charged with energy! I feel really psyched for this now.” Pinkie said. “It's so... so.... wonderfully important.”

Twilight sighed. “Well, at least somepony's having a good time.” She looked at her friends. “Fifteen seconds.”

They stood up straight. So to did the circle of unicorns, some of their horns beginning to glow.

“Eight.... Seven.... Six....” Twilight counted methodically. “Five.... Four.... Three.... Two.... One...”

Nothing happened. Rainbow Dash relaxed. “False alarm, then.”

“Not necessarily. They could be late with the signal, or tied up for some reason. They don't exactly have a clock with them in battle.” Twilight said. “Give it thirty seconds or so before we-”

There was a blaring sound, and the unicorns began to chant, their horns glowing.

“That's it! Here we go!” Twilight yelled over the sound. “Teleporting in five!” She drew the others in close to her. There was a hum of magic, and the air grew warmer as the magic circle lost heat to meta-friction. Twilight felt a tingling sensation spread though her body. There was a flash of light, and then everything faded. They found themselves in a city, which one they could not tell. Twilight looked around, trying to get her bearings.

And turned into an aquamarine coat.

It was not a soft impact. Spring had been traveling down this way at at least half the speed of sound, and Twilight felt the harsh blow reverberate through her entire body. Of all the times to get unlucky with a teleport, this has to be the literal worst. She felt her body launch through the air. Good, she guessed. If her whole body was moving, then the torque on her neck might, if she got lucky enough, not be enough to break it. She felt a wall, probably of the nearest building, halt her path through the sky suddenly and painfully.

Against all odds, she hadn’t lost consciousness. Nor had any of her friends, who all seemed to be startled but otherwise unhurt. Spring had been deflected by Twilight's body and had found a wall in her path, also coming to an abrupt halt about fifteen meters away. She was getting to her hooves too, and appeared to be stunned, but not too hurt. Something ticked at the back of Twilight's mind, but she couldn't place what. It was going to come to her, she knew, but it was just out of reach right now. She looked half uncomprehendingly at Spring, who slowly turned around and looked half uncomprehendingly back at her. There was something she was missing here....

Hit her with a blast. Now!

Oh, yeah. That.

Drunkenly, Twilight let a burst out at Spring, who dodged out of the way with little trouble. She seemed to still be confused, but she was recovering much faster than Twilight was. Dash snapped back into action too, jumping up and tackling her. Which was a problem, because she ended up pushing her out of the path of Twilight's second blast, which missed wildly. Twilight trained a third one on her, but stopped when it occurred to her that there was no way she could aim well enough to miss Dash in this state. So she sat their numbly, trying to get her facilities back, as Rainbow Dash wrestled with a goddess ten meters to her right.

Spring struggled for a few moments with Dash before overpowering her. She kicked Rainbow Dash in the face, a crunching noise telling Twilight that her nose was now broken. She winced, and felt her mind clearing. The shock must be bringing her out of her daze. She shook her head twice, training her now focused eyes back on her target. It might not have been exactly as planned, but Spring was distracted, and she did have a shot. Twilight powered up a quick blast, far less powerful than she would have liked but her best option given her time frame, and let it loose at Spring. At a distance of only a few meters, even if she had seen it coming, she wouldn't have the time to get out of the way.

Not that she didn’t try. Spring obviously must have been expecting something like this, because she dove quickly to the ground, the bolt brushing against her back. Or, that's what would have happened, if Twilight hadn't accidentally shot a bit low. As it was, Spring fell right into the blast, taking it not quite full in the side, but pretty close to.

The shock on her face was nearly priceless. The only thing that kept it from being perfect was, well...

Where the heck are the others! I've preoccupied Spring for at least thirty seconds now! They should have been here almost immediately, let alone after this long!

Twilight spared a quick glance to the cityscape, seeing no sign of the other alicorns around. Spring was hurt, clearly, but hardly taken out of the fight. She was already getting up, her horn aglow with terrible light.

“Buck.” Twilight said flatly. “Buck.”

“Indeed.” Spring said flatly in return. Her horn flashed, but Twilight was already in the air, spinning around to face her from above, charging a defensive shield. There was no way she could get an attack in on her, she knew, but if she was very smart about it, she might be able to defend herself and her friends for long enough for the others to show up. If they show up.

Spring fired wide, a cone of energy engulfing Twilight's shield and collapsing it in from the edges. Twilight resisted with her magic, the wave clearing in time for her to see the three balls of aquamarine energy curving around to her undefended back, far to near to block. She flapped her wings hard, streaking upwards. The attack missed, but it cost her her composure and bearings. She tried to orient herself wildly, just managing to find the ground before Spring's barrage of blasts found her. Her shield happened, by shear luck, to be in the right position to block about eighty percent of them, leaving her exposed to only six of the strikes. They felt like brands, searing her skin and physically pushing her backwards nearly eight meters. She lost her flight pattern, barely managing to keep conscious through the pain. I stand no chance against her. I thought she was hard to beat before? She wasn't even really fighting then. I was right, she was playing with me back in the Everfree. Ten seconds. That's all it took.

Twilight hit the ground a lot harder than she would have liked. Her vision went red, black spots appearing on the edges. Her body crumpled below her. If she hadn't broken at least four bones, she would be surprised. At this point, she wasn't sure she could move anymore, let alone go another round with a goddess at least three leagues above her.

She heard Rarity scream her name. Her vision flared red again, this time with anger. This was no time to slack off. If she couldn't keep Springs attention, it was all over; she wouldn't hesitate to kill her friends. She needed to keep Spring's ire trained on herself. It was her only option. She got to her hooves, groaning through the pain, and ran straight at Spring, her horn aglow. Fueled by anger and fear, she tore down the street at incredible speed, closing the distance quickly. Spring seemed to be bemused, looking at her with a smirk, rolling her eyes at the obviously telegraphed attack. Twilight drew in. She was screaming, the pain building with every step, but she ran on, building speed, building power.

Twilight saw Spring put up a defensive shield, smirking. Perfect. Spring, you might think you're real smart, but as they say, fool you twice -

Twilight passed within a few meters of her friends, releasing her group teleport spell, transporting herself and her friends away with a flash of light.

- shame on you!

The flash faded, and Twilight looked around, trying to figure out where they had ended up.

Only to find herself still standing in front of a now laughing Spring.

“No. No, no, no, no, NO!” Twilight screamed. “That has to work! It...”

“Have thee never heard of teleport locks?” Spring said. “An alicorn always places them on any opponent they face at the first opportunity.”

“You...” Twilight stopped thinking, running at Spring in a blind rage, her magic beginning to bubble inside her. Her eyes flared red, flashing briefly.

Spring easily dodged out of Twilight's way, her magical and physical attacks both laughably easy for the elder goddess to defend against. “Oh, don't throw a tantrum.” she laughed.

Twilight's eyes flashed again. She began to radiate heat, her coat becoming visibly paler as her attacks became less directed and more and more instinctual.

Spring sighed, easily incapacitating Twilight with a few simple blasts. She stopped moving, panting hard, tottering on her hooves. Spring let a final blast loose, knocking her to her rump hard. Spring sighed, turning to face the other five ponies. “Who's next?” she asked cheerily.

With a feral scream, Twilight's mane erupted into flames. Her eyes became solid red, her coat turned white, and she buzzed with undirected power. The force of her transformation lifted her bodily off the ground, the rock directly below her melting from the heat. She growled deeply at Spring, her wings shedding flames, her whole form cocooned in magical energy.

To say Spring was surprised would have been an understatement. Her eyes widened, and she took an instinctual step backwards before steeling herself.

Twilight wasted no time. She was in Spring's face in an instant, already slamming her into the ground with the force of a thousand ponies. There was a crash like thunder, her hooves breaking the sound barrier as she bashed Spring over the head as hard as she could. Her head hit the ground so hard that it sent cracks through the pavement. Twilight's horn glowed, blasts of red power hitting Spring in a flurry. Ten a second, then twenty, then thirty...

Eventually, Twilight stopped. The light finally cleared. Of Spring, there was no sign. Twilight screamed again. “WHERE ARE YOU!”

“Uh, Twilight...” Applejack said quietly. “I think you killed her.”

“No.” Twilight said. “She must be here somewhere.” her body still aglow with power, she leaned in towards Applejack, singing her coat. “She isn't dead.”

“Twi...” Applejack said. “They said it was real hard to kill an alicorn, but it ain't impossible. Now, I believe a lot of things about you special ponies, but that -” She pointed to the ten meter wide pit of slag left from Twilight's attack. She had destroyed most of the nearby building, shattering it with just the shock waves from her blasts. “-that is where I draw the line. She's dead. There really ain't two ways about it. You killed her.”

Twilight's mane began to sputter. She looked at the molten rock. She had pumped an awfully large amount of power into that, hadn't she? Her mane gave one last lick of flame, then died, her body resetting to normal. She hit the ground softly, looking at Applejack, smiling. “Yeah, I think I did.” Twilight tipped over, falling onto her side. “Oop.” she said. There was a brief pause. “You know, I was sure that I would fall unconscious at some point here.”

“Must be the adrenaline.” There was the flapping of wings, and Celestia landed next to her. “You put on quite the show, Twilight.” she smiled warmly.

“Where... were you!” Rainbow Dash screamed. Celestia took a step back as the angry pegasus approached her. “You nearly got Twilight killed! You have better have a good explanation for this, or so help me, Spring won't be the only dead goddess tonight!”

“I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation.” Twilight said, looking at Dash worriedly. “And I'm fine, Dash. No need to get into hysterics.”

“As it happens, I do have a good reason.” Celestia said. “I assume you know about her teleport locks?”

“First hoof.” Twilight growled.

“We were on the other side of the city, looking for her. She had teleported away, leading us on a chase. We weren't having any luck finding her, until, well, the sky lit up.” she said. “From your attacks, presumably.”

Twilight smiled lightly. “Yeah, I think I did pretty...” she paused, her face falling. “Good.” She closed her eyes. “I killed her. I. Killed. Her.” she opened her eyes, seeing Celestia's shock reflected in them. “Oh, no. No, no, no. I really screwed this, didn't I?”

“You...” Luna said, arriving and landing next to Celestia. “Killed her?” Luna sighed. “Then our battle has just begun.”

“I didn't mean to!” Twilight said, panicked.

“What's the fuss!” Rarity said. “Wasn't killing her a better option, we just didn't think we could?”

Luna shook her head. “No, perma-death was the better option. And that is still very far away. Actually...” She looked at the pit of molten rock. “Were she less formidable, I would believe that the fact that she will respawn in a pit of lava would have sealed her fate, but I have seen her escape a situation almost exactly like this before. Not only will this not permanently kill her, it will provide a screen, a barrier, and easily allow her to escape.” Luna sighed. “Twilight, nopony blames you for this. It was kill or be killed for you. But, even that being true...” She looked around at the others. “We have to prepare now for a much harder fight. Before, we won when we beat her into submission. Now, we have to play for keeps. It is to the death.” She closed her eyes. “And I fear it will end in ours.”

“Why?” Twilight asked. “We still have the advantage on her. We can still win!” she began to panic. “Right?”

“There are three of us and one of her.” Luna said. “But she has eleven friends still sealed, Twilight. She'll call all her allies now. It's no longer a family power struggle. We have stepped up the stakes. We will be outnumbered four to one. They will have more experience, more power, and fewer constraints then us. Our only chance, really, was keeping this small enough that she did not think she needed help.”

Twilight looked down. “So that's it, then. I just destroyed the modern world.” she laughed lightly. “Fancy that.”

“Hey, uh...” Applejack pointed to the molten pit. “I ain't sure on this, but don't lava pits, like, cool down pretty quick? Shouldn't this stuff be rock already?”

Everypony turned their attention numbly to the pit, which continued to bubble away.

“Um, well, they do cool down fairly quickly, I guess.” Twilight said slowly. “Unless, of course, they were being heated by some external source...”

Twilight's horn flashed and she dropped to the ground hard, covering the party as a spray of lava exploded from the pit. Despite the obvious issues surrounding the fact that Spring had somehow managed to survive that, Twilight couldn't help but feel much better about the fact that she hadn't, in fact, destroyed the world. She felt a smile cross her lips. Even in this harsh reality she had been thrust into in the past three days, fate wasn't quite that cruel.

Get that grin off your face. Twilight frowned. The voice in her head sounded angry at her today. You're running on pure adrenaline, remember? It's surprising you managed to stay conscious as long as you have – almost unbelievable, actually. Any second now, you're going to collapse. You only have a couple seconds left at best. Make it count.

Twilight lifted her head, taking in the scene as quickly as she could. That, at least, was one perk of a purely adrenaline based conscious state. She was in full overdrive now. Her shield was still up, but beginning to fail in patches from the heat. Celestia and Luna were moving into combat stances, already beginning to realize what was happening. The other five had dropped to the ground, covering their heads and screaming, from what Twilight could tell. Through the wall of spewing flame, Twilight could make out Spring. She didn't look so good, large sections of her fur missing, her front left hoof held limp. At least she had done some damage, it seemed. Cadence was still nowhere to be found.

Twilight steeled herself, and the world seemed to un-pause around her as she began to prepare her attack. A hemispherical shield ballooned out in front of her as her hooves began to push her forward. Her first barrier collapsed fully as she passed through it. Spring's first beam touched down next to Celesita, almost twenty centimeters off target. Drawing in closer, Twilight could see that she was really, really injured. Her eyes flashed towards Twilight. They shook lightly, mirroring her own semi-lucid movements. Spring was running on empty too, Twilight could tell. She felt a pit drop in her stomach. She was thinking five times as fast as normal now. If Spring was doing what she was...

A small patchwork of aquamarine shielding rose to protect Spring's underside from the lava sprayed at her from Twilight's charge. Twilight watched as the covered sectors deflected perfectly and exactly every droplet, predicting their movements with millimeter precision.

Why, then, did she miss Celestia by twenty centimeters?

Twilight turned back to warn the others, but it was too late. She saw the aquamarine webbing spreading out from the point of contact. Celestia and Luna's legs went numb, and they began to collapse to the floor. Twilight passed directly below Spring. She saw the elder goddess's bloody hoof dropping towards her, but she couldn't react fast enough. It came into contact, and she felt a shock pass through her body. Her eyes were sliding close before she had even fully passed through to the other side of the spray. If any of the lava hit her, she didn't feel it as she passed into unconsciousness.

## ^ ##

Twilight groaned, waking up to a wall of pain. Fluttershy let out a happy sigh as she woke up. “Oh, you're waking up.” she said kindly. “Does it hurt anywhere?” Pinkie Pie leaned in, smiling sadly down at Twilight. She and Fluttershy seemed to have been watching her, and Twilight was once again taken by the simple kindness of her friends. Then the pain hit her again, and she winced.

“It hurts everywhere.” Twilight said. She looked around at the sunlit city surrounding her, then shook herself awake. “Wait, the sun...” she looked around frantically, seeing it half way to apex. Her heart sank. “It's nearly ten o'clock, isn't it?” she sighed. “I've been out for six hours.”

“Six hours, thirteen minutes.” Luna said, walking up to her. She gave Twilight a small smile. “You will be glad to hear that we suffered no casualties, despite...” Luna looked away. “the other complications.”

“She got away, though.” Twilight said. “Spring escaped.”

“Yes.” Luna said. “And I fear that she's getting serious. You may not have pushed her as far as we initially thought, but Spring now knows that we do have the ability to defeat her. Her intelligence will be overtaking her pride by now. She won't call them all, but I fear she will be gathering her allies now.”

“Why do you two always seal away your problems?” Twilight muttered. “And why set them all on 1000 year timers?”

“We did not have much of a choice.” Luna said. “Many of the things we face, Twilight Sparkle, are not trivial to kill. As for the thousand year timer, it is not as if we designed it that way. Spring's seal should have held for thirteen thousand.”

“So, great.” Twilight said. “We showed Spring all of our cards, shocked her into trying even harder, and got ourselves injured in the process.” she sighed. “This is just perfect.”

“Hey, at least it's over with, right?” Pinkie said.

End Chapter 11

Author's Note:

The footnotes! Oh, the foot...
Wait. There aren't any. Success!

Comments

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

okay seriously .How did spring pull that off? She was fairly injured and Luna and Celestia were still fresh.

[NoPonysLand]

5798107 What, stun and then immediately teleport away? That isn't really that hard to do. She put teleport blockers on them, not the other way around. All she needed was a good two seconds or so to beam herself out of there. It's not like she went and beat them. She just sort of ran away.

[Jay-155]

5798107 She used an immobilization spell on them

She saw the aquamarine webbing spreading out from the point of contact. Celestia and Luna's legs went numb, and they began to collapse to the floor.

[SuperSaiyanTeemo]

This is a very interesting story, should have more popularity even with the hiatus. Hope to see more eventually!