Feedback

by RQK

9 - Interval

Two dozen fillies and colts filled the playground with idle laughter and playful screams. Some kicked up dirt as they ran around trying to tag each other while others traded crayons at the picnic table and subsequently returned to their doodles.

Three fillies sat under a tree on the outlier of the grounds, huddled around a notepad containing a few choice words.

The pegasus shrugged. “Chimney sweeping?” Scootaloo suggested.

The earth pony shook her head. “Coal shovelin’,” Apple Bloom said.

“Hole digging?”

“Uhh, minin’?

The unicorn shook her head. “No. That’s not it,” Sweetie Belle said.

The three collectively glanced toward an ash gray colt as he, instead of riding the seesaw like the colt across from him, stood next to it and pushed it up and down with his hooves. The soft grunts he made with each push gained a playful giggle from the seesaw rider.

Sweetie Belle grinned, banged the ground in excitement, and then stood up with a huff. “I think I know what Hard Whack’s special talent is!”

Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow. “Ya do?”

“Sure! I think he’d be a metal worker!”

“An’ why’d you say that?”

Sweetie Belle pointed. “Duh, because he spends a lot of time working with really tough objects. You remember two weeks ago when the printing presses got all messed up because some metal parts went bad? He went home and made some new ones.”

Scootaloo hopped to her hooves. “Hey, yeah! I remember that! Miss Cheerilee said that they were working much better than they were before!”

Apple Bloom nodded. “Metalworkin’, huh? That actually sounds good and all. Write that one down, Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom said.

Scootaloo nodded and jotted it down on the notepad. “And what about Rumble over there?” she asked, pointing toward a grey pegasus colt as he caught a frisbee and threw it back.

“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle said, “good question.”

“If he’s anythin’ like Thunderlane,” Apple Bloom said, “Ah’d guess Rumble’d be good at storm clouds.”

The other two fillies gave affirmative hums as Scootaloo wrote down another line on the paper.

Scootaloo traced a hoof down all four lines and then nodded. “Yeah, I think this is what we’ll be able to get to this week.”

“Gosh,” Sweetie Belle said, “do you girls think that Twilight would think we’re doing the right thing here?”

The other two shrunk down. “Yeah…” they sighed in unison.

“Ah think she’d be right proud of us,” Apple Bloom said.

“She was all over our thing with Troubleshoes,” Scootaloo added.

“I can’t believe she’s gone!” Sweetie Belle squeaked before burying her face into her hooves.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked across the playground once more. Even then, the fillies and colts continued on, oblivious to their devices. A group of colts from the class below them, none of whom had cutie marks to call their own, started a game of foursquare in the corner.

Scootaloo snorted and jammed a hoof into the air. “Come on, girls, what’s say we get started? For Twilight!”

Apple Bloom nodded and met her hoof to Scootaloo’s. “Fer Twilight!”

Sweetie Belle looked between the two, giggled, and met her hoof to theirs. “Yeah. For Twilight!”

---

Sunset Shimmer pushed her mane out of her eyes as she looked at the four ponies before her. While they made idle conversation, dropping hints and teasers at their escapades of the last few days, she glanced back down at the small collection of parchments on the floor.

Sunset took the opportunity to add a few lines to the page before glancing over at Spike as he grasped at his stomach.

Spike heaved and nearly keeled over when a large burp escaped him. The discharge also let off a large, green ember that swirled about the air. The flames condensed into the form of a pony. A second later, Pinkie Pie landed on the floor with a thud.

Pinkie Pie gagged and pressed a hoof against her mouth to suppress something in her throat. As she undid her saddlebag, she scanned the room, focused on the crystal ball, and snatched it up. “Augh! Twiliiiight! These taste like baked bads!”

Twilight Sparkle, who hunched over a small, lacquered box, laughed between coughs. “It’s teleportation gum! Were you expecting it to be strawberry flavored!?”

Pinkie Pie massaged her tongue. “My poor taste buds… Ick!”

Spike scowled, clutching himself. “Your taste buds? Try my stomach…” He splayed himself across the floor and let out a long and pained moan.

Sunset frowned for a moment before turning her attention back to the new arrival. “So,” she said, “Pinkie Pie, do you have anything for me?”

Pinkie Pie gave Sunset a wide-eyed stare before leaping into the air. “I do! I do! Here, lemme see…” She reached back into her saddlebag and grabbed two purple orbs. “Here you go!”

“Nice.” Sunset grinned and magically grabbed him. “Thanks.”

Rarity gave her mane a quick fluff and then cleared her throat. “So that’s all of us back now,” she said before narrowing her eyes. “What’s the damage?”

Sunset swirled Pinkie Pie’s stones around her own head. “Well, with these two, we now have ten stones… out of the twelve that we set out to get.”

Pinkie Pie’s hair all but shot into the air. “What!?”

“Oh good heavens, no,” Rarity muttered.

Fluttershy hid her look of surprise behind both of her forehooves. “Oh Celestia…”

Sunset glanced over toward Rainbow Dash and Applejack, who each did their level best to hide themselves behinds hooves and hats.

Sunset shrugged. “I’m not worried,” she said.

The five mares met her with close variances of “Huh?”

Sunset met their stares. “I’m... I’m not.”

Rarity gave a nervous chuckle. “I don’t know how you can even say that, dear. We’re short. We don’t have everything that we need. I don’t know how you can say you’re not worried.”

Sunset brushed her mane out of her face again. “Well, because there’ve been some really big developments here over the past three days. The game’s changed. Not entirely in the best of ways, but...” She stomped the floor, “Either way, it’s not so much that we have to collect every single one we come across, we just… have to do our part. We’re ten stones further than where we started.”

She glanced between them as she backed up toward the stairs. “I think I can make it work. So really, girls,” she said, focusing her attention on Applejack and Rainbow Dash, “don’t let yourselves get beat up over this, okay?”

The two mares yielded enough to engage again but kept to their shelly postures.

“Waaaaaaaait a darn second!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, waving her hoof in the air like a schoolfilly. “How are you gunna make ten work?”

Sunset shrugged. “Have Spike explain it to you,” she said. She glanced over at him. “You think you can do that?”

Spike groaned and rolled across the floor. “I’ll do it already. Gosh,” he said, still grasping at his stomach.

Sunset giggled. “Thanks. You’re the best.” She turned back to the mares. “I’m going to go upstairs and put all this together.”

“But what should we do, dear?” Rarity asked.

The others looked up at Sunset expectedly.

She shrugged. “Hang out? Relax? I dunno.”

“But there must be so much left to do!” Rarity cried. “Surely, there must be something—”

“All that’s left to do,” Sunset interrupted, “is record the information on this stuff, and I can do that on my own. I’m… probably the only one that could do it anyways, haha.”

The roar of a coughing fit rose from within the crystal ball. The six mares and dragon craned their necks to look at the object with several worried frowns on their faces. Twilight draped herself over her book, letting out short, muffled cries as she massaged her temples.

Spike crossed his arms. “She’s getting worse…”

Applejack adjusted her hat. “Today’s the last day, ain’t it?”

Rainbow Dash appeared to melt into grayscale at those words.

Sunset nodded solemnly. “It’s do or die time.”

Applejack grimaced. “Auh, could’ja not say those words?”

Sunset cringed. “Oh crap. Sorry.”

Snorting, Applejack turned to the rest of them, “Then, Ah think, maybe we oughta be there for her today. Especially since we been out who knows where.”

“I’d like to spend some time with Twilight too,” Fluttershy said.

“Me too,” Rarity seconded.

“I think she really needs you today too,” Sunset said, casting another glance on the ball.

Rarity suppressed a gasp. “Say, Pinkie, do you recall what we discussed when you left the station?”

Pinkie Pie gasped so hard that even her mane gasped. “Oh! Uh…” And then she gasped again. “Yes! Yes! I remember now. Lots of streamers!”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Throw Twilight a party?”

“I could figure it out!”

“Ya sure?”

Sunset nodded “It’s not a bad idea.”

Spike rolled over. “I could go for that.”

“I’ll be up there if you need me,” Sunset said. She then turned and crept up the stairs.

* * *

Spike folded his arms together and studied the five mare’s expressions.

Applejack, who had removed her stetson, placed it back on her head. “So… it’s kinda all or nothin’, huh?”

“That’s what Sunset’s saying,” Spike replied.

A silence passed between the others.

“Well, Ah guess Ah get it. Or not. Ah don’t know about all this infinite stuff. This whole thing’s mighty weird, but…” Applejack scratched her head.

“Twilight being in an alternate world is kinda cool,” Rainbow Dash said. She then frowned. “Uh, I guess that’s not so cool for our Twilight though.”

“But hey!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. “We could totally save their Twilight. She’s not dead yet, you know.”

“But ours could very definitely be dead,” Rarity said.

“Mmmmyeah. But ours doesn’t have to be either,” Pinkie Pie said, “if what we’re doing right now works out.”

Rarity shook her head. “What we’re doing right now is a monumental gamble. And I simply don’t know how I feel about that.”

Fluttershy sighed. “I don’t really know what’s going on. I mean, the idea of saving every Twilight, especially ours, sounds great and all—”

Rainbow Dash chuckled. “Yeah. And this does it.”

Fluttershy frowned. “It seems… It seems like a bit of a stretch.”

“Quite right,” Rarity agreed. “Now, I stand with all of you when I say that I want it to succeed, but Fluttershy’s right. This is a long shot.”

Spike shrugged. “Yeah, well, it’s what we have, I guess.”

Applejack nodded. “All we gotta do for now is trust Sunset to know what she’s doin’. Ah know Ah do.”

* * *

Rainbow Dash batted an unused streamer, sending it to unfurl itself across the floor. She then took a seat, shook some of the water out of her mane, and glanced back toward the apple-bobbing tub. Finally, she looked over at Applejack who leaned against the wall with a half-eaten apple and a proud smile.

And Rainbow Dash frowned. I’ll beat you next time for sure!

Her gaze wandered over the decorations. Several long lines of colored paper wove from wall to wall, perimetering several balloons that clung to the ceiling.

Pinkie Pie pronked toward the haphazardly put-together punch table nearby and poured herself a cup. In one fell swoop, she downed it and tossed the paper cup into the trash bin before moving on.

Rainbow Dash’s gaze drifted toward the crystal ball on one of the cushions. “Hey! Pinkie Pie!” she called out.

Pinkie Pie landed on a point. “Yeah, Dashie?”

“Can you roll Twilight over here?”

“Yup yup!” Pinkie Pie replied as she steered over to the ball and rolled it off the pillow.

Rarity came by at that moment and the ball rolled right into her, prompting her to trip and subsequently smack the ball away. She landed with an audible “Oof!” She then stood and dusted off the offended area. “What the deuce just happened?”

Rainbow Dash sprang to her hooves. “Woah! Easy there!” she cried and scrambled over to retrieve the ball.

“Why, whatever are you doing?” Rarity asked, narrowing her glare.

“Pinkie Pie was just passing me the ball. You got in the way.”

Rarity scowled. “That is no way to treat Twilight Sparkle.”

Rainbow Dash frowned. “We weren’t throwing it or anything.”

“None of that! Now, I’ll just take that right off your hooves,” Rarity said, enveloping her aura around the crystal ball.

Rainbow Dash hopped on top of the ball. “Hey! I had it first!”

Rarity jiggled the ball. “Get off it, you ruffian! I am confiscating it from you!”

Rainbow Dash pulled against Rarity’s magic, furiously flapping her wings. “As if!”

“Ugh! Let go, Rainbow Dash!”

“No way!”

“Tug of war! Tug of war!” Pinkie Pie chanted. “Tug of war!”

“It’s mine!” Rarity barked.

“Mine!” Rainbow Dash roared back.

Pinkie Pie scurried over with a shrill “HereRarityletmehelp!” before she all but threw herself on top of Rarity.

Rarity’s yelp was the only thing that Rainbow Dash heard before all resistance disappeared. The next thing that she knew, she had careened headfirst into the wall behind her. The vague feeling of an object flying out of her grasp registered before she landed on the floor in a heap.

“What’s going on here, girls?” Fluttershy asked, emerging from the kitchen area with what looked like two muffins tucked under her wings.

The ball careened right into Fluttershy’s face and she fell backward with an audible yelp, scattering her delectables across the floor. The ball soared over her for a few moments as small and imaginary breezies danced around Fluttershy’s dazed muzzle.

Rainbow Dash grimaced as she watched the ball begin its downward descent. But, to her relief, Fluttershy came to quickly enough to catch it.

“What…?” Fluttershy said, blinking as she tried to comprehend the object in her grasp.

“Fluttershy!” Pinkie Pie called, leaping off Rarity. “Roll the ball over here!”

“Huh?” she asked before looking down at said ball. She then smiled innocently. “Oh, okay,” she said and let it go.

Applejack walked over at that moment and intercepted the ball mid-roll. “What in the hay are y’all doin’?” she asked with a firm and demanding tone, casting a cross expression between all ponies.

Spike appeared next to her and crossed his arms.

Rarity scrambled off the floor. “These buffoons are being all-around disrespectful to Twilight!”

Rainbow Dash snorted. “It was an accident!”

“I helped Rarity play tug-of-war with Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie Pie chimed in gleefully.

Rarity snorted. “Helped!?”

Fluttershy raised a hoof. “Was I helpful?” she slurred.

“All of you settle down right now!” Applejack barked. “What’d you think Twilight would say if she knew what y’all were up to?”

“Up to what!?” the mare in the ball exclaimed.

The room collectively groaned to varying degrees of distress.

“Aw shucks,” Applejack grumbled. “Twilight, they’re all throwin’ this here ball you’re in around and stuff.”

Twilight deadpanned. “Girls! I am not a toy!”

In a single fell swoop, the entire room grew silent. Uncertain glances passed between the six of them as Twilight’s choice of words circulated.

Spike blinked and then touched his claw against the crystal ball. “...Did you really just call yourself a ‘toy’?”

“I—” Twilight frowned as some color disappeared from her face. “Oh no…”

Rarity narrowed her eyes and laid her hoof on the ball as well. “Why ever would you say you’re a toy, Twilight?”

“No... You said you dropped me and—” Twilight stamped the floor. “No! You dropped the ball.”

“That you’re in.”

“Yes.”

Rainbow Dash felt several pieces of water well up in her eyes as she struggled to contain the torrent building up from her chest. She fell backward, unleashing it in all its fury. “Bwahahahahaaha! Twilight’s a toy now!”

“Maybe she was always a toy!” Pinkie Pie blurted.

“She’s not a toy!” Applejack barked.

“I am not a toy!” Twilight seconded.

Spike threw his hands into the air. “Seriously? Since when were Twilight and the ball the same thing?”

“Twilight started it,” Rainbow Dash pointed out.

Applejack shook her head. “Well, fahne. Ah guess we all sorta dropped the ball on this one,” she said.

A long silence passed through the room. Pinkie Pie raised a hoof. “Uh, Applejack?”

Applejack threw her stetson to the ground. “Oh, hayseed.”

Twilight snorted. “I hate all of you.”

“Oh poo,” Rarity replied, placing her hoof on Applejack’s withers, “you don’t mean that.”

“Of course she doesn’t hate us,” Fluttershy replied cheerfully, “she just really really really really dislikes us.”

Twilight blew her mane out of her face and buried her face in her hooves with a defiant huff.

Rainbow Dash squinted and stared the alicorn in the ball down. She laid a hoof on the ball and thought it near Twilight’s face, and there she spotted the smallest upturn on the corner of her lips. Ha! She’s actually trying not to laugh. I bucking knew it.

“How the hay did all this start anyway?” Applejack asked.

“I had Pinkie Pie try to roll it to me because I was going to say something,” Rainbow Dash explained.

“And?” Applejack asked. “What were you gunna tell her?”

At that, Rainbow Dash snapped to attention. The gears in her brain whirred and clanked about as she worked to rewind herself to her thoughts from before. A second passed. And then several. She realized that, even after that, she hadn’t found it.

Rainbow Dash chuckled. “…I forgot.”

* * *

Sunset held an ear to the large, cylindrical machine and listened to the thumps and whirs. She perked her ear, imagining the airy whine of several lasers shooting into the stone somewhere within.

Nodding to herself, she trotted over to the desk. Her attention landed on a rustled blue notebook filled with pages upon pages of fresh ink.

Sunset sat down on the velvet cushion and summoned over a stack of paper containing several readings and results. Her eyes scrolled across the several numbers and figures within the text. As she did so, she used her magic to turn the blue notebook to a blank page.

She then levitated a quill over and jotted down her findings, keeping a careful eye on the readings themselves, only looking over occasionally to check her transcription. She went line by line, number by number, and bit by bit.

She reached the final page of readings and gave her notes one last glance before she gave an affirmative hum. She set the stack of readings off to the side and then turned to a small slip of scratch paper on the corner of the desk. She looked down the list of coordinates on that paper, half of which were crossed out.

She located one of the remaining ones and ran her quill across it once. And then only five remained.

Sunset hummed. What should I do about the two that we missed? she thought. I should go ahead and figure that out.

She located the two items in question on the list and decided to start with the top one first. Applejack missed one because of monkeys, she thought. She was attacked not far from her destination. Might be safe to assume they were acting territorially? That’s definitely a danger spot.

She hovered over the set of coordinates in question, hummed in thought, and then wrote the word Monkeys next to it in a similar manner to the notated ones found in the book. Now those that come after me will know to take care over there.

Sunset shifted in her seat. And what about the one Rainbow Dash missed…? She missed that because… She glanced up at the desk and shook her head. …Because she tried to fly across an ocean all by herself.

She felt a vessel pop in her head. “Typical,” she growled.

She sighed. I’ll just leave that unmarked. Some other version of us can get that.

With that, she folded the book shut and nodded. Well, that’s all for the moment. There’s not much else I can do right now…

Sunset heard a fit of laughter from the room below. With curiosity, she stood up and trotted downstairs.

She found the six others gathered on a circle of cushions with what looked like a collection of cards spread across the carpet in the middle. It was an organized collection of cards, even. Sunset craned her neck to look through them and, upon seeing the design of the cards, recognized that it was, in fact, a card game.

Only Pinkie Pie remained standing. She looked heavily engaged in a grand tale of intrigue and suspense. The very air swelled as she rose up, holding the crystal ball with one hoof and making increasingly broader gestures with the other as she neared the climax.

“…And so,” Pinkie Pie said, “he shouted to Sammy as he pulled the steering wheel on the carriage, ‘Better Nate than lever!’ before running the snake over.”

Most of them erupted into roaring laughter and fell backward in their seats. Those next to each other leaned on each other for support as they attempted to belay the tears from sliding down reddened faces. This only served to provoke Pinkie into a celebratory backflip.

Fluttershy was the sole exception. She flip-flopped between a smile and a whimper, shifting uncomfortably in her seat all the while. Eventually, Fluttershy placed a hoof to her mouth, trying to hide the full-on grin that had appeared on her muzzle.

Sunset heard Twilight’s laughter through them solely because she had been looking for it. Then again, that was the clever thing about the crystal ball; even a pony nine days behind them could enjoy Pinkie Pie’s grand joke, and enjoy it she did.

It was as if Twilight was with them. Like today was just like any other regular nothing-was-wrong day. How things were before the mess. Twilight was with them.

Twilight was with her friends.

“Don’t lie, Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash said, pointing, “you thought that was funny too.”

“Ooookay, I guess it was a little funny,” Fluttershy said with a small giggle.

After a few more moments, Spike cleared his throat. “So Fluttershy, are you two going or what?”

The pegasus nodded and motioned for the ball. Fluttershy looked at the cards in her hand, whispered into the crystal ball, and then looked out at each of them. “Okay, so Twilight and I are going to move our Surprise to Applejack and Pinkie Pie’s problem,” she announced, moving a card around the board, “and then we’ll also play our Firefly there. And then we’re going to put a troublemaker on Rainbow Dash and Spike’s problem.”

Several exclamations rose up as the mares and dragon took in the end result and threw around several variations of the phrase “double solve.”

Rainbow Dash lay a hoof on Fluttershy’s withers. “For buck’s sake, Twilight.”

“What?” Twilight asked as she sat with an innocent smile on her face.

Rainbow Dash looked down at her hand. “I have to discard half my cards now. Thanks a lot.”

She snorted. “Oh, you didn’t stop us? That’s too bad.”

“Pffft,” Rainbow Dash snorted, “smack-talk is not very princess-y, Twilight.”

“Oh no. We’re usually much subtler about that. I don’t think you’d even be able to tell that we’re doing it.”

Sunset smiled as the two of them, soon three when Rarity joined in, continued to bicker onward, discussing the move in full. Her eyes glazed over the other four who happily watched from their seats.

Somehow, the prospect that Twilight was supposed to die did not even exist. It was as if they had forgotten all about it. Sunset watched as the seven of them lived in the moment, enjoyed each other, jested at each other, comforted each other, laughed with each other, and many other things she couldn’t put her hoof on.

It was the way things were supposed to be.

Cracking a grin, Sunset silently began retreating up the stairs.

“Hey, Sunset!” Pinkie’s voice called out to her.

Sunset paused in her tracks and looked back. She found the six of them looking over at her expectedly. “Hey,” she said tentatively.

“Whatcha doin’?”

Sunset blushed uncertainly. “I uh, I just had a moment. I just thought I would check up on all of you.” She took a few more steps up the stairs.

Rainbow Dash scratched at her face. “Do you still have a moment?”

Sunset paused again. Her heart skipped a beat. “Yeah. Why?”

Rainbow Dash waved her over, “Then get over here already! We’re playing four teams to thirty victory points and Rarity needs a partner.”

Sunset blinked. They weren’t inviting her over, were they? “What?”

“Come on, Sunset!”

“Yeah, come on over! We even saved a seat for you!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, patting an empty cushion.

The rest of them remained silent behind warm and inviting grins.

Sunset blushed, taken aback. Her thoughts flip-flopped back and forth between the machine upstairs and the friends in front of her.

Sunset paused. Friends in front of her. Was it really possible? Her mind ran back to what Spike had said two days prior: ‘But they still consider you a friend.’ Twilight’s friends considered her a friend.

They are my friends too.

Sunset smiled. “Yeah, I’d love to,” she said and walked over to them.

* * *

Sunset’s eyes skipped across the sheet of paper in front of her. She flipped it over and examined the contents on the back as well before she nodded to herself. “Hey, Spike!” she called.

“Yeah?” he replied.

“You remember that thing for cheering up Twilight that you asked me about?”

“Yeah.”

She presented the paper to him. “I just finished it.”

Spike gasped. “For real!?”

She nodded.

He pumped his fist. “That’s great! Thanks, Sunset!”

Applejack turned her head at that moment. “You what now?”

“I just wrote a small spell,” Sunset said.

“Yeah, what kind?” Applejack asked as the other four mares converged.

Sunset gazed toward the nearly setting sun outside the window, judging the time. Out of the corner of her vision, she could see some pegasi outside already moving a few rainclouds into place in preparation for the coming rainstorm.

“Well, it’s a spell in two parts,” Sunset explained. “My spell takes a snapshot of what I’m seeing and converts it into sound; the other half of the spell takes what you hear, converts it into an image, and then displays it in front of you.”

Rarity stepped forward with a small frown. “I see what you’re getting at. So, you would use your spell to have somepony on the other side of the room perhaps be able to see what you see?”

Sunset nodded reluctantly. “…Something like that. I mean, you can’t do like a continuous thing. It’s only one picture at a time.”

The mares looked at each other with uncertainty. “Uh, yeah,” Rainbow Dash said, rolling her eyes. “That sounds very useful and all…”

Sunset grinned. “Well, wait ’til you see what we do with it. Where’s the ball at?”

Fluttershy held up the object in question. “Here it is.”

Sunset levitated the ball out of Fluttershy’s grasp. “Hey, Twilight!”

Twilight rolled over. “Yes?”

“I have a quick spell that I want you to learn.”

Twilight blinked, and then she stood up with an enthusiastic huff. “Sure! Okay. What is it?”

Sunset adjusted her view. “Grab that paper on the desk over there.”

Twilight cantered over to the desk and summoned a quill from its holder. She dipped it into the inkwell. “Ready.”

Sunset cleared her throat and turned her eyes to her own sheet of paper. “Tau beta gamma epsilon tau tau pi alpha omega thirty-six…” Sunset continued down the sheet of paper as she read the instructions.

Twilight dutifully wrote down each sigil. She stopped once to cough and nearly fell against the desk another time, but she recovered each time and eventually transcribed the spell. She eventually began nodding. “Oh, I see what this spell does. It’s going to take what I hear and turn it into an image.”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Sunset replied.

“Huh. What’re you going to do with that?”

Sunset smiled. “Stay where you are and you’ll see.” She flared her horn and summoned a mirror set within an intricately sculpted golden frame. Sunset set it in front of the seven of them and then motioned for them. “Gather around, everyone.”

Rarity gasped. “Ah! Are you doing what I think you are doing, Sunset?”

“Yup.”

“Good heavens!” Rarity exclaimed. “You are an absolute genius, Sunset Shimmer!”

“I see it too,” Fluttershy seconded.

“What’s she doin’? What’s she doin’?” Pinkie Pie asked, trying to climb over everypony.

Rarity smiled. “You’ll see, darling.”

The six of them gathered around Sunset and looked into the mirror. Sunset held the crystal ball against her chest as the other ponies clung to her in kind. Spike took a position in front of them. She could feel them as they brushed about and tried to get comfortable. Soon enough, they settled into a definite pose.

Keeping her eyes on the mirror, Sunset thought the ball’s view so that she could see Twilight’s face in the crystal ball’s reflection. “Eyes on me, everyone. Are you ready, Twilight?” Sunset asked.

Twilight flared her horn and smiled. “I’m ready!”

Sunset grinned and flared her own horn. “Say cheeeeese!”

“Cheeeeeese!” they all said.

Sunset’s horn produced a short but deafening shriek that made even Sunset herself wince. The form faltered as they reeled about, but they recovered shortly after.

Inside the crystal ball, Twilight also winced at the sound, but then her horn flashed in response. Twilight glanced up as her horn shot a beam of light out, creating a small screen in front of her. She blinked once. “This is…”

She saw the image of six mares and a dragon huddled intimately together, all with broad, toothy smiles on their faces. An eighth face, her own face, looked out from within a crystal ball.

It was just like she was with them, her friends.

Sunset looked into the ball and silently motioned for the others to do as well. The seven gathered.

“Woah,” Rainbow Dash cooed.

Twilight approached the picture. She reached out for it, only to pout when her hoof passed right through it. At that, she stepped back and decided to gaze at it in earnest. And then she giggled.

Pinkie Pie slapped herself in the face. “Oh my gosh! Wow!”

Twilight’s eyes welled up and she hid a smile behind her hoof. “It’s… it’s beautiful. I… I don’t know what to say.”

Spike chuckled. “That’s pretty sweet. Better than anything I coulda come up with,” he said, giving Sunset a pat on the back.

The other mares hugged each other as they watched, letting some loose tears fall down their faces.

“I wish I could save it,” Twilight cried. A tear slid down her muzzle and she giggled. The more she giggled, the more tears she shed.

“Thank you, Sunset Shimmer,” Twilight said.

Sunset giggled along. “Y-you’re welcome, Twilight.”

“I hope all of you don’t mind if I,” she paused to let off a cough, “just stare at this picture for a while, do you?”

The seven of them nodded. “Take yer time, Twilight,” Applejack said. “We’ll be here when ya want us.”

“Talk to you in a bit!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

* * *

Spike twisted himself further into the couch cushion and let off a contented sigh. He pat his belly and gave a satisfied burp as he glanced at the crumbs on the plate beside him.

He glanced toward Applejack and Rarity who debated over a small assortment of wines in front of them. He watched as his favorite unicorn explained the taste of each and who might be apt to drink them while Applejack would occasionally acknowledge.

He then blinked as Applejack launched into a long-winded explanation of wine culture and what determined which wines were popular and where they would be kept at parties and dozens of other things that Spike (and, by her flabbergasted expression, Rarity as well) hadn’t even dreamed of considering.

Rarity had nothing to say in response. That caused Applejack to chuckle.

Spike turned his head as he noticed Sunset descend the stairs. She looked around the room for a moment before setting her eyes on him.

Spike sat up in his seat.

She continued to stare him down and then motioned him over.

Spike gulped. It’s time.

He hopped off the couch and ran over to fetch the crystal ball off of its cushion. He then met up with her and they ascended the stairs together.

“I’ve pretty much put all the numbers in,” Sunset said, “and I’ve done as many calculations as I could. But what we have isn’t enough to save Twilight.”

Spike grit his teeth together. “Uhm, so does that mean...?”

“Not yet,” she said with the shake of her head. “Remember that I figured this was going to happen. We’re still on track.”

The two arrived in the study area, to which he followed her over toward the machine in the back corner.

He scratched his head. “That… reaching into the universe thing that you talked about?”

“Accessing the omniverse,” she corrected.

“And how does that work?”

“Well, we have more information than she does. And the layer above us will have more information than we do. It’s a feedback loop.” She scanned through several pages of her book, checking that everything had been accounted for.

Finally, Sunset snapped the book shut. “It’s just a matter of sending the complete set of information back down to us.”

Spike twirled the crystal ball in his hands as he watched.

“There’s only one more thing to do,” she said as she trotted back over to the desk, “and that’s to time travel and have Twilight copy this book.”

He nodded. “And then what?”

“We’ll either get The Answer from the layer above us… or it never existed in the first place.”

Spike picked up the scroll containing the time spell off the desk. “And we’ll either be able to get Twilight back or… we were never gunna get her back.”

“Yup.”

Spike nodded. “Moment of truth then,” he said as he unfurled the scroll.

“Yeah. I can only use this spell once in my entire lifetime.” Sunset gulped. “I sure hope I can make this count.”

Spike glanced back over the desk, mentally checking each item that he thought she would need. Yet the question he had escaped his mouth anyway. “You sure you have everything?”

Sunset let out a long breath. “…I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Then let’s do it.”

Sunset flared her horn. She scanned the lines of the spell before her and a ball of ethereal energy appeared above her head. Spike watched as the pre-cast took form, spawning several sigils within the vortex much like the ones he had seen a day prior. He even tried to double check the spell itself, even though it was an entirely foreign language to him.

Sunset glanced at the spell above her head and, with another sigh, she tapped her horn to it.

Her horn sucked the orb of light into itself before it began glowing a bright white. It was the sort of light that suddenly brought back memories of Twilight in the Starswirl the Bearded Wing. The time spell. The white light grew brighter and brighter, and as it did, a wind overtook the room. It threw the several papers on the desk back into the shelves and sent several nearby books tumbling across the floor.

Sunset disappeared in an explosion of sparks.

Spike crossed his arms and leaned against the desk. He took the moment to glance at the dark clouds outside the window. Drops of water slid down the outer face of the glass; new drops joined them every so often. The first clap of thunder boomed in the distance, signifying the beginning of a shower that would last at least a few hours.

He then glanced around the room again; first at the centerpiece hourglass and its golden construction, then at the tall bookshelves that orbited the room. For a moment, he tried to remember some of the books just by their bindings. The machine in the corner sat without so much as a sound, a day’s worth of work completed.

He then grabbed the crystal ball off the desk again and juggled it within his hands. He whistled a short and jaunty tune but, to his chagrin, found that it ended sooner than he would have liked.

He had seen the spell before. Even if those memories contained large amounts of ice cream and a stomach ache that he had not forgotten, he could also remember that Twilight had been gone for a minute. From the looks of what he had seen a few days before, Sunset had managed two minutes.

Spike scowled. This is the longest two minutes of my life, he thought.

The air in front of him began to glow again, and Spike shielded his eyes. With a loud pop, Sunset reappeared in a shower of white sparks.

Spike stood at attention. “Well!?” he hastily asked.

Sunset let out a long, deep sigh of relief. She chuckled once before levitating the book onto the desk.

She then looked upward. “Okay!” she yelled, “it’s done!”

Spike looked up. Even though the patterned ceiling was the only thing above them, he looked all the same as if he would see somepony watching from above.

Sunset stepped forward. “We’ve done our part! We’re done! Pass The Answer down to us!”

Spike expected to hear a voice. Any voice. Some sort of confirmation. A set of instructions.

The answer to everything they had worked on.

Their salvation.

“We’ve done our job, okay?” Sunset called again. “We need The Answer right now! We’ve done our part!”

Spike blinked as nothing happened. His scales stood on their ends and he took labored breaths. No.

A worried look spread across Sunset’s features. “Do us a solid!” she cried. “Please! It’s time! And we’ve done our part! Give us something!”

The crystal ball remained silent.

Spike started to shake. There was just no way. It wasn’t happening. It wasn’t.

Sunset didn’t register herself backing into the desk. “We… we’ve done o-our part… W-we… w-w-w-we… Ah… A-Ah…”

Spike held his head. “No way… we didn’t fail.”

“Ahhhhhhhhh…! A-Ah! Ah-hahaha…”

“Please Celestia no…”

No response. None came.

Comments

[AceRevolutions]

The feels m8
The feels.

[Ruby Rose]

no

[EpicShadowz]

WHAT!? WHAT.
Actually, on secomd thought, im not surprised. Twilight died for them, and if there are several universes tied together, she would have lived. The alternate universe would have been able to set things right, unless there isnt a multiverse to do so. Or they are an alternate timeline, and twilight was saved, because saving twi would cause a paradox or something. Then they were doomed from the beginning.....

My brain hurts.

[BeeJay28]

You have to think that if there is an infinity of universes, the only way they would receive it would be, that starting from the universe which had all the information each one sent this information down to the next one. Otherwise there's no way they could receive it.

[LordNobady]

6346060

But but, infinite universes works both ways. So then the book should contain all the info already. Since there are a infinite number of stones found already.

[Alchemystudent]

The emotion of this story, the heartbreak and the warm feeling of this whole chapter was marvelously done.

[Corejo]

Bad to worse. Always bad to worse. Down the spiral we go. How far? Lets find out.

[Silver Flare]

You've got errors, mate. Mostly tense issues. Nothing that's pulled me away from the heartfelt spiral of your story, mind you, but finding an editor would help your stuff take on a lovely, polished shine.

I loved the picture scene, it stood out quite vividly in my brain. And I love that you worked the CCG into the story! Headcannon accepted.

[MustacheMerlin]

I love this story, for the simple reason that it did time travel right. Other stories that deal with time pass it off as wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff, but this one keeps an internally consistent model of time. It probably helps that it's so similar to the model of time I think exists.

[Walabio]

¡Those morons throw around the Crystal Ball! If the break it, ¡they will loose communication with Princess Twilight Sparkle!

[YoshiOfADown]

“Okay, so Twilight and I are going to move our Surprise to Applejack and Pinkie Pie’s problem,” she announced, moving a card around the board, “and then we’ll also play our Firefly there. And then we’re going to put a troublemaker on Rainbow Dash and Spike’s problem.”

As someone who plays the CCG, this caught me way off guard.

[Enix]

It's not over till twilight is "dead" there is still time.

[Csquared08]

NotLikeThis