Quantum Vault

by WishyWish

1.5 - What Goes Around

September 30, 2008

Sweet Apple Acres

Tuesday

Tuesday.

Quantum awoke with a cry and a start. She looked at herself in the mirror and splashed some water on her face from a basin. Only Applejack stared back. No white pony. No menacing silhouettes.

A moment ago they had all been right there with her, even if she didn’t exactly know where ‘there’ was. They had edged closer and closer, so that she could feel them pawing at her flanks and rump; tearing at her mane and pulling her tail.

They were eager.

The minty mare remembered her mother and ventured a small smile through the thickness in her throat. Hal had said that a potential consequence of the apple famine would be Twilight Sparkle never coming to live in Ponyville at all. Maybe now, Trixie would never encounter Twilight in the first place. Maybe now, Quantum’s mother wouldn’t be consumed with vengeance and spend twenty-five years hiding her true feelings from her daughter. Maybe now she wouldn’t even find time to have a daughter.

Quantum decided that if erasing her own birth was the only thing she ever accomplished before the end, it would be enough. She swiveled her ears towards the beeps and boops coming from behind her. There was no need to turn around.

“Anything new?”

“Nah,” Hal said weakly. “You?”

“…nah.”

The two classmates stared at each other, trading helpless, worried looks. After several minutes they each blushed a color slightly darker than their coats and looked away. Hal buried his face in his control pad. Quantum sat on the hope chest, rubbing her foreleg timidly with her opposite hoof and staring out the window into the pretty, yet somehow empty morning sky.

“…how’s my mom?” She ventured.

“Fine,” Hal replied blankly, never looking up from his screen. Quantum’s brow rose with concern.

“Is she still in prison?”

“Of course.”

“Is she still okay?”

“I wouldn’t know that.”

“Does she…still hate me…?”

Hal’s expression darkened. He flexed a wing and trotted to the center of the room, booping away lazily at readouts he’d already checked moments before. “That’s none of my business. Cutie, I’m sorry but…I don’t want to talk about Trixie Lulamoon. I hope you can understand.”

“Oh,” Quantum whimpered, bowing her head. “….okay.”

Hal let out a breath and squinted, slipping his panel back into the safe confines of his pocket protector. “They’re still looking for you, you know.”

“They are?” the minty mare replied nervously, trying to distract herself with a view of the barnyard.

Hal didn’t mince words. “I’ll tell you the truth. The only reason your mother isn’t public enemy number one in our time is that she’s behind bars. You inherited that title, when you vanished even beyond Princess Celestia’s ability to locate you magically. Ponies spread rumors, and the popular one right now is that you’re a master criminal who orchestrated a daring escape.” He smirked sharply, “Pretty soon they’re going to be telling foals scary stories about you to get them to go to bed at night.”

Quantum didn’t return Hal’s sarcastic demeanor. All she could think about was the white pony, and its cryptic warning should she fail to pay her debt. She gazed out at the countryside, wondering if at some point it would all just fade away into white light, and be the last thing she ever saw.

“Ninety-three point one percent, huh?” She mused allowed. Thinking he was being questioned, Hal retrieved his control device and beeped at it some more.

“Ninety-one point four, actually.”

Quantum blinked and perked her ears. “What? Last night you said Tissy calculated a ninety-three point one percent chance the apple harvest would fail.”

Hal shrugged. “So? Ninety-three, ninety-one…what difference does it make?”

Quantum persisted, “Why did the percentage drop?”

The robust, toasty orange pegasus stallion beeped and inspected, finally giving up. “Dunno. Who cares? You know how Tissy is – she can run advanced calculations through her head like anypony else can get a song stuck in their brain, and she’s always checking her numbers; probably even in her sleep. It was probably just a margin-for-error adjustment.”

Quantum fixed her companion with a look. “Hal…Tissy’s blown stuff up before, but when it comes to numbers have you ever known her to voluntarily give out an incorrect figure?”

Hal didn’t look impressed at his classmate’s reasoning. “One time I told her to spike the blackberry punch at a party with six ounces of turnip rum, and she used six quarts. Best dorm shebang I ever went to.”

“I mean when it’s important!” Quantum snapped, pretending to poke buttons with her hoofs. “Go beep-boop some more rainbows up on that thing you’re holding. Something has to have changed!”

Hal raised his brows in suspect, but chose to humor his friend. A few seconds later, he shook his ebony, frosty-tipped mane from side to side again. “Nothing’s changed. I’m telling you, it was a fluke.” When he looked up, he found the minty mare standing in front of Applejack’s vanity mirror, fitting the cowfilly hat around her horn. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Quantum checked Applejack’s face in the mirror as if it were her own, “Something changed. I’m going to go find out what.”

Hal stood on his hind legs and folded his forelegs over his chest. “We talked about this. Every minute you spend wandering around town like everything is hunky-dory is another minute, hour, or possibly even day Applejack will remain sick. You can’t save these ponies. At least make things better for your host.”

The minty unicorn wasn’t listening. She had a hoof stuck in one ear, and the other ear pressed up against the door. “They locked it last night so I’m going to have to make some noise to get out. You’re a hologram – go through the wall and check to see if the coast is clear.”

Hal didn’t move. Quantum narrowed her eyes.

“Fine Hal, don’t help me. But you’re not stopping me. If you don’t like what I’m doing than just stay out of my way.”

In a single motion, Quantum spun on her hooves and bucked the door as hard as her scrawny body would allow. She wondered just how closely interconnected her physical being was to Applejack’s when the door flew clean off its hinges and landed in a clattering heap halfway down the hall, taking a few pictures from the wall with it. Wincing an apology to the earth ponies still staring at her from photographs, she trotted down the hall and took the steps two at a time. When she was outside the house, a white pane of light appeared before her just long enough to deposit a floating, angry, burnt-orange pegasus directly in her path.

“You really are coltcrap crazy!” Hal fumed. “You said you wouldn’t make any more trouble for anypony, but you still don’t understand the consequences of your actions! Think of the—look at the numbers!” he sputtered and held up his colorful control device, “The chance of the harvest failing is down to ninety-one point three, but the chance that Applejack will die is up to seventy-four point eight! It’s rising too fast! Whatever you think you’re going to do, it’s not going to be enough!”

Quantum kept on coming. “Numbers are just numbers,” she stubbornly insisted. “Can’t live your whole life worrying about the numbers.”

Hal, who was of a significantly greater girth than his classmate, stayed in her path. “You’re going to have to go through me first.”

Shrugging, the minty mare calmly cantered right through her toasty, holographic companion.

“Oh for the love of—!” Hal spat. He flexed his wings and fluttered to keep pace with Quantum’s rapidly increasing gait. After failing to get her attention several times, he pulled out his device and examined it aloud. “Seventy-four point nine…seventy-five…seventy-five point two...point six…Cutie, please, stop this…”

But Quantum Trots would not be deterred. A breeze caught the cowfilly hat and sent it spiraling from its precarious balancing act atop her horn. Ignoring it, she sped to a trot and then a modest gallop towards the back forty. When Hal pled for Applejack’s life again, Quantum spoke up.

“I don’t know her personally Hal, but I’m willing to bet her life…and mine…that she wouldn’t want it to end this way any more than I do.”

Hal called out numbers for a few more seconds…and then gave up. He glanced at his device only long enough to note that the percentage chance of the apple famine had again slightly decreased. Worry gave way to curiosity, and soon enough Hal found himself wearing an expression as inlaid with steely determination as his classmate. He followed her to the edge of the orchard, plunging beyond it towards the clearing where the single apple tree had been felled the day before.

Both minty mare and toasty stallion stopped dead at the scene before them. No less than seventy ponies of all colors, sizes and ages, had descended upon Sweet Apple Acres. Stallions and mares alike were bucking trees and pulling all manner of carts and wagons intended for dozens of different purposes around the fields. Colts and fillies were sorting produce, while foals were grinning away, carrying single stray apples in their teeth to the waiting wagons. Hal fumbled for his control device, nearly dropping it, and booped away furiously while checking his display in shock.

“Eighty-one point four,” he stammered. “Eighty…seventy-four point one…sixty…thirty-nine…Tissy says, Tissy says…” The grin that split his face would have made a watermelon explode. “Seventeen point one and dropping! Hot dang Cutie, you DID it! Tissy says the whole town gets together to complete the apple harvest successfully!” Huffing out excited breaths, Hal went on, “No famine, no blaming, no economic depression…and Twilight Sparkle arrives in Ponyville in 2010 right on schedule!”

While Hal sped up into the air and did a somersault, Quantum looked on in utter amazement. “But…but I didn’t do anything…I had nothing to do with this at all…”

Hal pointed towards a group of fast approaching ponies. “Like Celestia you didn’t!” He chuckled. At the head of the group was Rarity, wearing a wide-brimmed sunhat and an elegant yet sturdy looking shawl. A look of concern marred her trendy features as she reared herself to a stop.

“Applejack dear!” Rarity huffed, “Whatever are you doing out of bed? You could get hurt!”

Quantum fumbled to re-establish her accent, and then just let it drop. “What…what in Equestria is everypony doing here…?”

“Well darling,” the white fashionista began, grinning broadly, “I overheard your sister talking to my sister about the trouble with the harvest, and I just had to let everypony know about it. I mean, however could we not turn out to repay you after all you did for us the other day in town? Why, I personally would never have made my deadlines that day if not for you!”

Quantum made a face, “But...your deadlines, didn’t meeting them just make things wor—”

“Ix-nay!” Hal cut in, making a cut throat motion with his hoof from above the crowd. “Applejack isn’t supposed to know about that!”

Rarity’s smile faltered, just for an instant, but she quickly reestablished it. Other ponies moved in to surround Quantum, all expressing their thanks for her help, their desire to return the favor, and other positive comments such as the honest labor being good for themselves and their families. Quantum felt a warmth surge through her that she hadn’t known in years – the warmth of family that had since been cooled by the antiseptic nuances of her everyday life. She grinned stupidly, picturing the white pony and its dark companions.

Take that! Quantum thought to herself, and then out loud: “Yeeee-haw! How’d ya like them apples, demon-shadow pony thingy!?”

The crowd, satisfied with their expressions of thanks, dispersed back to their work. Only a small, pale yellow filly remained. She looked up at Quantum with curious eyes.

“Demon shadow pony thingy, sis?”

This time, Quantum would not be tripped up. She only smiled, and ruffled Applebloom’s mane with one hoof. “Nawwthin’ sis. I’s just funnin’ wiff yuu.”

Applebloom scrunched her muzzle up at the strange words, and then just shrugged, smiling broadly. “Sis…lissen, ah..ah’m real sorry ‘bout yesterday.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“Naw,” Applebloom insisted, “Ah dunno what’s come over ya lately, but what y’done back in Ponyville…well, it was right sweet, real neighborly, and well…” she indicated the apple trees with a wide sweep of a foreleg, “Just lookit what’s come of it! A-ah didn’t wanna tell ya, but…but Big Mac an’ me…we could never have done it all by our lonesomes.” She grinned, “Ah’m glad y’all are here, even if it does mean ya went back on yer word from yesterday.”

Quantum smirked. “All you said was to ‘git’. You didn’t say for how long.”

Applebloom giggled and wrapped her faux-big sister in a warm embrace. “Y’done real good sis, an’ ya did it in a way that done brought the whole town t’gether. Ah’m real proud.”

Quantum snugged Applejack’s little sister as if she were her own. She mingled with the crowd for a time, pretending to inspect the work as though she knew what she was doing. Hal fluttered up.

“Look sick,” he called down.

“Eh?”

“Look sick,” Hal repeated, grinning. “Did you forget about that part? I think poor Applejack’s body has done enough, don’t you?”

“Oh!” Quantum cried. When she accidentally drew too much attention, she quickly looked away from Hal, forced herself to stagger, and emitted a nasty string of deep, fake coughs she hoped would sound real. The ruse worked. Several ponies absolutely insisted Quantum ride back to the Apple house in a cart, and were more than happy to oblige taking her. Smug and sure of herself, the minty mare waited until her litter-bearers weren’t paying attention before turning to her classmate again.

“Does Tissy know how long it will take for Applejack to get better?”

Hal beeped, booped, and furrowed his brow. “Actually…no. No she doesn’t…” he smacked the side of his device and frowned at it, “wait, that can’t be right…”

Quantum raised her brows with concern. “What?”

“The percentage chance of Applejack exhausting herself to death hasn’t changed. But that doesn’t make any sense. With all that’s happened, there’s no need for her to exert herself anymore.” Hal examined his display, “Why wouldn’t the numbers drop?”

Quantum pondered an answer, but her train of thought was derailed when she noticed something on the horizon. The sun was past its apex and beginning its descent, but just in line with its light – so well aligned that Quantum couldn’t be sure from squinting – was an outline of a pony. Its entire body was covered in a white garment that now looked to the minty mare to be more like a sheet or shroud, with an empty face so black, it seemed to suck in and devour everything the afternoon sun touched. Ponyville pegasi fluttered back and forth past the being, going about the apple harvest without taking any notice of the newcomer. The pony’s ‘face’ was aimed directly at Quantum.

Quantum yelped.

Hal looked up, “What? Did you figure something out?” The look on his friend’s face gave him pause. He pondered a moment, and realized in four years of friendship, he’d never once seen her sporting a look of such abject horror. He followed her gaze and held up a hoof to shield his eyes from the sun. “What’s the matter? Did you see something weird?”

Quantum never took her eyes off of whatever she was looking at, but she tapped at Hal’s pad forcefully, her hoof going right through it each time. “Applejack! Does she live or die?”

The ponies who were seeing to the pace of Applejack’s cart glanced back. Hal typed away, Quantum’s sudden severity quickening his pace.

“I don’t know. The number just…won’t change. Though…something else is happening,” he looked directly at Quantum, “something to you. There’s a surge in your molecular structure. Maybe…maybe you’re about to—”

The white pony reared, spun his forelegs, and galloped directly towards Quantum. A sheet of two-toned blue fire enveloped the minty mare, invasively blocking all of her senses.

The flames returned to nothingness as quickly as they spawned. When they were gone, everything was different.

Sweet Apple Acres was gone.

Comments

[Frission]

*zegasp*

[Xaxu-Slyph]

Now that I think about it...Hell, Tartarus, The Underworld, and all the other versions of such are most likely all lore in Equestria just as much as it is in our world. Maybe Tartarus is just the most prominent. Just as a Christian would say hell vs a Jew saying Sheol, or anybody else with a version of 'Hell'. Keep up the good work. I am curious as to where QT will be 'Vaulted' next. I think I might have missed something, but why is Tissy so quiet? I mean why is everything she says relayed through Hal?

[WishyWish]

5441846

Tissy isn't actually there when Hal is speaking - he's just relaying the data she is feeding him through his device - physically, Tissy is back at the Accelerator room in 2039. When Hal uses the phrase 'Tissy says', the 'says' part is kind of a misnomer...it's just that's what Al said whenever he ways relaying information from Ziggy in Quantum Leap itself

Tissy will get her time in the sun, though. As for chapter two, well...it'll be a little different from chapter one

[DerpTape]

I loved the flubbed contryism!