Mark of the Hourglass

by Starsong

Vanishing Point

We immediately knew that something was wrong. I'd no memory of Fluttershy's home but still thought that something was amiss when we crested the final hill and found the glade next to the Everfree as empty as could be. Twilight stopped and stared.

“No,” she said. “Where is it? Where is she? What is going on!?”

She broke into a full run and I came behind as fast as my wounds would allow me. Where once the cottage had been remained only a flattened dirt foundation and scatterings of animal tracks. The occasional twist of wire fence. It was as if her home had simply been erased from existence. We feared the worst.

“Twilight!”

We both looked up. A rainbow blur arched out of the forest and skidded to a halt beside Twilight Sparkle. Rainbow Dash was breathless, shaking out her mane. “I can't find Fluttershy anywhere, Twilight. You have to do something. Please.”

The mare's ragged breath wasn't from exhaustion so much as holding back sobs. Even I felt a twinge of panic for this friend I'd never met, suddenly disappearing into the aether. Twilight, ever the center of rationale, forced herself to take a breath and started towards the empty space where the cottage used to stand.

“It doesn't make any sense for her to up and vanish. But there's no reason to assume that she disappeared, too.” Twilight scanned her horn about, a purple beacon washing over the air. As she swept, an outline of Fluttershy's house appeared in translucent lines and then vanished again. “It's possible that she got spooked and went to hide somewhere. But where would she be?”

“I don't know.” Rainbow Dash flapped her wings in irritation. “I checked all of her usual spots. Can't you use some sort of spell to find her?”

Twilight thought about this a moment. “It's a huge taboo to scry on other ponies, but given the situation...”

Rainbow Dash snorted a breath. “Who cares if it's forbidden or whatever? This is Fluttershy we're talking about. If something happens to her, I'll...”

“I know.” Twilight cut in, twisting about. “I need to go back to the library and get the right spell.” She glanced aside at me. “Sorry, but can you take care of yourself for a while? This is...”

I wave a hoof. “Way more important, yeah. I'll catch up to you later.”

I tried to make her smile but the most she could muster was a courtesy before galloping back to Ponyville. And who could blame her? The possibility that her friend had been erased... the thought was unbearable.

“You.”

A mess of rainbow tail swatted my shoulders and Rainbow Dash loomed over me. “I don't know who you are, but if I find out that you have anything to do with this, I'm taking you down.”

“I want to help in any way I can,” I said, then frowned. “I'm not sure how something like this would even happen.”

“Uh-huh.” Dash backed off and took a few strokes backwards into the air. It was getting harder for her to hide her tears. The only choice was to leave.

“You'll find Fluttershy,” I said.

She turned away and flared her wings. “Whatever. Just don't mess this up.” Then she flew back to Ponyville in a flash.

I did want to help. But walking back to Ponyville was going to take me some time, and even then, as an earth pony with no memory, the best thing I could serve as would be a paper weight. Instead I decided to turn my attention to the non-existent cottage and see if I could turn up anything on my own.

Some of the outlines left by Twilight's spell still glinted in the sun, from the right angle. “I'm coming in,” I whispered to myself, and stepped through where the door seemed to be. The ghostly lines of the cottage met me with a familiar splash. It felt so much like the strange magic on the road. It couldn't have been a coincidence.

A wind brushed my ears, making them twitch. It sounded a little too close to a whisper, somewhere deep beneath water.

I stepped further into the house. The ground beneath my feet webbed with a strange light. Then as if from nowhere, wooden planks began phasing

“... you... that.... like it?”

The voice became stronger. Strange, yet somehow familiar. I kept going. The whole cottage seemed to flood into reality around me. A yellow pegasus sat upon a sofa draped by the opposite window. Tea simmered on top of a stove nearby. A white bunny tugged insistently at my hindhoof, but when I looked back, all I saw was green empty fields.

“If you don't want any tea, you can just say so,” said Fluttershy. “I don't mind. It's just that so many of my guests expect it, I'm used to making it... I'm sorry if you thought you had to have any.”

I smiled. What else could I do? I wasn't even sure if she was there or real but that was no reason not to return a little bit of kindness. “Oh, I would love some. Sorry. I just got a little distracted...” I shook a leg, carefully dislodging Angel. “Have you seen Twilight?”

The yellow pegasus blinked twice and then giggled. Something about the way she laughed seemed to suggest she knew something I didn't. But then, any foal over five probably did, at this point.

“Twilight is running a little late,” she admitted. “It's a little strange. She never misses anything. Not until you showed up, anyway.”

I stepped forward. Reality seemed to sink in even harder, with its own gravity, as if anchored to the yellow filly herself. “Er, I'm sure it's a coincidence,” I said. “Tell me... is everything alright?”

“What?” Fluttershy squeaked and looked up. “Of course it is. Why would you ask that?”

“It's just...” I glanced over my shouler at the fragments of the cottage entrance splitering into oblivion. “Don't you see that?”

“It's just a little bit of rain,” she said, in spite of the fact that it was bright as could be out. “Rainbow Dash helped me get over my fear of thunder, so it's all better now. Thank you for asking though.”

Again I inched towards Fluttershy. Now the weight of the place threatened to pull me to the floor. My feet itched incessantly with an unknown heat and I felt a migraine coming on. Whenever I looked at her, or got closer, it was getting worse.

“Oh, Twilight! I'm glad you could make it.”

I looked back again. Bits of purple and lavender coalesced from the void as Twilight stepped into the cottage and set her bags down.

“Sorry I'm late,” she said, nosing under the flap. “I wanted to pick something up, but the lines were way longer than I expected.”

I stared at Twilight. There was no way that this was the same pony who had just run home in a flurry to find her friend. Was I in another time? Another space? Maybe Twilight would know. If only I could show her this. If only...

I took another step towards Fluttershy, but something stopped me. The other Twilight pulled something from her bag. She touched my head with a hoof. Then with the sound of earth cracking, the whole scene exploded into ethereal mist and fell down the hill and into the earth.

Alone in the remains of Fluttershy's cottage, I tried to bring myself to my senses. Twilight had to know about this.

#

She couldn't have gone anywhere other than the library. I pushed my body as hard as I could and managed a good gallop towards Ponyville. The whole town seemed strangely apathetic to the disappearances in the countryside, as if nothing at all had happened. Yet I couldn't escape the inkling feeling that everything was about to burst at the seams.

The streets were quieter than they should have been for a late afternoon. A few denizens in the background. Playing. Buying. Living their pony lives. Was I like that, before the accident? Did I have a house here in Ponyville? Was there, somewhere, an empty room waiting for me to return.

Or worse. A family. Parents. Siblings. Some friend as terrified about my disappearance as the others were worried about Fluttershy.

Yet no one seemed to recognize me. No one was looking for me. Or if they were, they weren't doing a terribly good job at it. Ponyville was more than a modest village, but it wasn't that big.

One mystery at a time. I was alive and well, and I had Twilight Sparkle to thank for that. Now, I wanted to return the favor by helping find her friend.

I found the library and pushed my way inside. While our studies earlier had been something of a pile, the library was a total mess now. Spike pointed out shelves while Rainbow Dash zipped back and forth between them, gusting up quite a clutter. Then she dropped another one in front of Twilight, who was frantically scanning through page and volume trying to find some sort of answer.

“Any luck?” I asked.

Both ponies looked up at me with trepidation. Only Twilight responded.

“No. The spell should have worked if Fluttershy was anywhere. Even if... even if she was...” she shuddered and swallowed. “Even if something happened to her, I should have been able to find her. But it's like she's utterly gone.”

“I tried asking some ponies.” Dash dropped to the floor. “They acted like they'd never heard of her. This is... it's just too cruel.”

I winced. There was no way that it could have been my fault. How could an earth pony bend the universe in ways that seemed unimaginable even to a unicorn? And yet, when I had walked into her cottage, I saw fragments of another reality. Another place where she was safe in sound.

“I have to tell you something. I don't know if it'll help, but it might.”

“What are you waiting for, then?” Dash scowled. “If there's ANYTHING you can do, you'd better do it.”

I sat down. I explained the whole story, brief though it was, of finding Fluttershy safe and sound in some strange vision. Something that felt out of reality. Out of sync. I tried to figure out what was going on, but something threw me out of it. And the magic... whatever it is, it's been around Ponyville for a while now.

“Are you sure you didn't just hit your head extra hard?” Rainbow Dash grimaced. “Sometimes a pony can see funny things.”

I looked up at her. At any other time, I would have laughed. She was quietly trying to hide her own tendency towards, if nothing else, a few solid head traumas.

Our conversation came a halt at the sound of one young dragon belching up a scroll. Twilight immediately grabbed it with her magic and unrolled it.

“Thanks, Spike,” she said.

“Who's it from?” I wondered.

“The princess.” Twilight frowned and tilted her head. “I sent her a letter before you came back. It's urgent enough I couldn't wait.” Then she tilted her head the other way. “I thought she'd know, but... this is all wrong!”

I leaned over, not sure what to expect. The scroll contained two words written in hasty script:

“It's Time.”

“It's not like her to be so mysterious,” said Twilight. “It almost looks like it was written in a hurry.”

Rainbow Dash raced to a window. She did a double take, then looked back again. “Twilight, you need to see this.”