The Failed Spell

by silverspawn

Chapter 2

“No. Nonononononono.” Twilight eyes watered, her bleary mind all too quick to catch up with what was happening. “Nononononono. I messed up. I messed up. Celestia be with me. I botched everything.”

“At ease, Twilight.” Rarity took a step closer, her eyes squinted, visibly suppressing the effect of the consumed alcohol. “Surely there’s a way to fix this.”

“There’s not.” Twilight turned her head towards her friend, whose mane was quickly being ruined by the falling water. “You don’t... don’t understand. We could be anywhere. Literally anywhere. Outside of Equestria. Half a world apart.” Sobbing uncontrollably, she slowly collapsed onto the ground. “I messed up. I had all... all... Celestia has taught me everything I needed to know to avoid this. I knew with which kinds of magic you can safely mess around with, and with which you can't. It’s all my fault.”

The landscape was blurred, her mind dizzy, the moment surreal. Desperately, she raised a front limb, hitting the ground with as much strength as she could muster up, welcoming the pain it caused her. Then she closed her eyes, squeezing them shut, as if hiding from world for a while was all that was necessary to revert her spell. “A dream. I need to... I can’t... I-I-I... this can’t be happening. It can’t. It just can’t.”

The percussion of rain onto the earth was the only sound, a constant staccato among her unknown surroundings. After a while, Twilight could feel something touching her shoulder, short-lived at first, then a continuous poking. Before she knew it, she had surrendered herself into Rarity’s embrace, incapable of doing anything besides crying.

“I did this to you,” she said, the words hurting herself more than anything she had said before. “A part of me has always been afraid that I would someday mess up a spell and get myself killed, but I... I did it to you. I dragged you with me.” She big her lip, feeling miserable beyond depiction. For a moment, she wanted to scream, to shout out as loud as she could, but then it passed, and instead she did nothing.

Neither of them said anything, while the rain kept pouring down above their heads, until at last, Rarity pushed her away at hoof’s length.

“Twilight? I am cold. If we don’t want to freeze to death, we need to do something.”

“Right.” Twilight tried to stop herself from crying, but it was no use, so she just nodded and lit her horn, creating a purple dome to shield them from the rain. “I can... I could do something to warm us, but I shouldn’t. It takes too much strength. If we want to survive, we need to be efficient.”

“Very well.” Rarity cast a look around, but there was nothing to be seen beyond earth and rain. “You can not teleport us back? Is it too far?”

“It’s not about distance,” Twilight said numbly, a heavy shiver running over her body. “Teleportation always pulls, you can only teleport by preparing it on your destination. I didn’t prepare it before we left, so I don’t have an anchor.”

“Can you tell how far we traveled, then?”

“Only the direction.” Another spell, a small tug, and she turned around and a little to her right. “It’s this way.”

“I take it we have to walk?”

Twilight nodded, then remembered that Rarity might not be able to see her. “Yes.” She bit her lip, her body wincing in another series of sobs. “I will do everything I can to get you home, Rarity. Everything you want me to. But there is no guarantee. We could die before we reach the first source of food.”

“I guessed as much, yes.” There was no anger in Rarity’s voice. “Come on then.”

As an answer, Twilight began to trot forward, the simple task of walking in a straight line taking most of her effort. Her intoxication was stupid, a poor joke of destiny, and it was harmful. She tried to bring her mind on common ground, to find back to her usual analytical mind, but all she managed was for another series of sobs to escape her lips, no matter how hard so sought to keep them away. She did not stop in her walk and Rarity said nothing, perhaps caught up in trying to fight her own drunkenness, or perhaps resisting to urge to lash out at the pony next to her.

The landscape didn’t forgo the slightest change as the minutes crept by, the reality sinking in deeper with every moment, and it stayed the same as they slowly, slowly bled into the first hour. Every once in a while, Twilight would redo the spell, confirming that they were indeed still going in the right direction.

“We need to make a few decisions,” she said at last, when her mind had finally snapped back far enough for her to draw these conclusions. “I know a spell that would cause us to last longer without food. Or, at least I know the theory behind it. If successful, it might buy us a few days... or more. But we’d live on borrowed strength. As soon as we get something to eat, we will have to pay it back in food and sleep, and it’s also said to cause strong nausea and sometimes pain. Even if we end up finding food so soon that... you know, it would have been enough anyway, the spell will still make us pay.” She paused, leaving the words hanging in the air. “The sooner I cast it, the more time it will buy,” she added quietly.

“Well...” Rarity’s voice was flat, weary. “That hardly seems to be a choice, I’d say.”

“No...” Twilight cast her friend a look. “... no, I guess it’s not. I’ll cast it as soon as I can think straight again. Rarity...” She made a pause. “What do you know about the world we live in? The whole world?”

At first, Twilight didn’t get an answer. Walking ahead, Twilight began to wonder if Rarity had finally decided to stop talking to her. A lump formed in her throat when she thought about how grim this place would be if she could no longer call her a friend. Talking would be the only thing possible to distract them from their hideous situations.

But when she spoke, her voice sounded just like before, suggesting that she had merely been thinking, and nothing more.

“I know there are other lands around Equestria. And the world is an infinite plane, is it not?”

“I don’t know if it’s infinite,” Twilight said, “but it goes on in every direction. Above us are the stars. Below us seems to be endless amounts of soil. And around us...” She took a short pause, mulling the words over in her head. “Equestria is the center point of all populated land. Even though it makes up only about a ninth of the overall area and a quarter of the population, it is virtually the heart of everything. There's always been harmony and order in Equestria, whereas the surrounding lands... there is often turmoil, unrest, political disputes, sometimes there is war. Celestia once told me that Equestria is like a legend to many, a mythical land of eternal peace that's said to exist, but you're not sure if you really believe it."

Having almost forgotten where they were, Twilight's mind suddenly snapped back into consciousness. She bit her lip, focusing for a moment on the taste of blood that resulted. It wasn’t like her to get so absorbed into a simple geography lesson, and being made aware of her current situation one more time was not something she welcomed. The alcohol was still clouding parts of her mind, narrowing her focus.

“Ponies are creatures who love their homeland, most earth ponies, least pegasi. Many don’t want to leave their homes for the promise of a distant land that might not even exist, but others still do, especially the ones who live close to the border. And so, Equestria is slowly expanding in both population and size, and while it grows, the rest of the world grows with it. It has always been that way, very slowly, but steadily. Imagine... imagine a drop of water hitting a pond. Equestria is an inner circle, the populated lands are an outer circle... and the pond would be the plane.” She gulped, lowering her eyes when she finally reached the unpleasant part of her metaphor. “But the parts of the pond that haven’t yet been reached are completely flat. It’s said to be a neverending stretch of brown land, with nothing there, no hills, no life... and no food. I believe that’s where we are.”

“But then...” Rarity spoke up, and for the first time, Twilight thought to hear fear in her voice. “If the world is infinite, do we even have a real chance of being near the borders? Isn’t it much more likely that we’re thousands of miles away?”

“Not necessarily. The spell didn’t just put us in a random position in... teleportation without an anchor can bridge large distances, but distance is still a factor. It’s like... like a fish who swims into a random direction from the center of the pond. At some point, he will become tired, but there is no telling how long that will take. We could be too far away to reach the borders before we starve. Or... we could not even be outside. There are probably stretches of land that look like this, outside of Equestria but surrounded by population.” She sighed, a sad, weary sound. “I don’t know.”

“I see.” That was all. No frustration in her voice, no cynicism, no reproach. “I suppose this means there is no point in splitting up either, to find food or shelter?”

“At least not yet... no. Actually...” Twilight looked down while she spoke, almost as if she found herself unworthy of saying this. “We should walk as close as possible. Over half of our energy consumed is used to warm ourselves, barring magic. The closer we are, the less of it will go to waste, and the longer we’ll be able to go on without food. It’s not a huge factor, but... it does matter.”

Rarity didn’t answer, but only a moment later she stepped closer, just like Twilight had suggested. She could feel the warmth on her side, and now that she was this close, she could even see her figure clearly. Tightening the purple dome that still hovered above them, Twilight felt another wave of tears dwelling up inside her, but she swallowed it down, determined not to let Rarity see it this time. She had no right to cry.

And then Rarity leaned her head to the left, gently nuzzling Twilight’s shoulder. It was a brief gesture, only lasting a few seconds, but Twilight thought she had to die of shame within its every moment.

Comments

[LeatherPancakes]

Bacon.