• Published 9th Oct 2016
  • 1,872 Views, 91 Comments

Quantum Starlight - Rambling Writer



Time is breaking down, and it's up to Starlight and Sunburst to fix it.

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2 - Project Promenade

Streamhaven University, October 9
7:56 PM — 21 minutes until the Fracture in Time

The physics building of Streamhaven University was sleek, shiny, and ultramodern, with lots of long, smooth curves and even more chrome. (Why did “futuristic” always seem to mean “chromed”?) Thanks to the late hour on the weekend, it was mostly empty, aside from one or two other ponies who looked to be leaving. Serene led Starlight and Sunburst through a labyrinthine series of corridors, humming to herself as she walked and carrying a small jewelry box on her back.

As Starlight examined the halls, she couldn’t help but notice something. “Exactly how new is this place?” she asked Sunburst. “It barely feels used.” The floors were way too smooth to have been walked on much, the walls were pristine, and she didn’t hear any of the doors squeak.

Sunburst scratched his head. “Um, uh, I think a year,” he said. “There was, uh, this really generous donation from Monarch Solutions — do you know who they are?”

“Kinda. I saw billboards, but they weren’t very specific on what they did.”

“They’re this, this cutting-edge technology and magic company. Years ahead of the curve next to everypony else.” Sunburst pushed his glasses up. “Anyway, since they’re so big into innovation, they heard that a project at Streamhaven U had, had discovered the Neigher-Joy field, so, so they gave the team a bunch of money to pursue it as far as they could.” He shrugged. “And now, well, here w-”

“And here we are!” Serene interrupted cheerily. “Prrrroject Prrrromenade.” She could roll her r’s like nopony else, except maybe Trixie.

They were standing in front of an airlock-esque door: a steel-framed glass box around a very heavy-duty steel door. Serene placed her hoof on a red panel to one side of the entrance to the box. After a second, the panel changed to green and the door opened. Starlight guessed it was reading her personal magic field and comparing it with some collection of similar. If you were in the list, the door opened.

Starlight looked at the second door, the one that looked more at home in prison than in a college, then stared at Sunburst as they entered the box, flicking her ears.

Very high security,” Sunburst said. “We don’t want anypony getting involved who isn’t involved. Just for starters, that door’s as magic-proof as we can make it. And-”

Serene unlocked the door by means of another panel. “Cool it, Sunny, can’t have you rambling again. Anyway, Starry, long story short, you ain’t getting through here with anything short of military-grade explosives or an alicorn.”

“That’s one heck of a budget you’ve got.”

“You ain’t seen the half of it.” Serene pulled open the door. “Welcome to Project Promenade.”

Behind the door was a large, circular room, sterile white from floor to ceiling. Most of it was taken up by a large machine in the middle, over fifty feet across. A thick ring the size of a hallway circled around a central point. At that central point stood a device that resembled a spherical pincushion over six feet in diameter. Wires came out of the “pins” and dropped to the floor, where Starlight couldn’t see them. Light warped strangely around the core, like looking through a fishbowl without the fishbowl. A couple of techs were scattered around the room, doing last-minute maintenance on machines both mechanical and arcane. Starlight, Sunburst, and Serene were standing on a catwalk ten feet above the floor, with stairs dropping off to a large workstation-type area on their left.

Starlight whistled as they headed down the stairs, around the machine. “Wow. Some operation. What’s up with that… thing?” She pointed at the device in the center of the room.

“That’s the, uh, the core,” said Sunburst. “Pretty much what makes the time machine go, for lack of a, uh, better term.”

“It looks pretty… set in place.”

“It’s a time machine, Starry,” Serene responded, “not a space machine. It doesn’t move. It just pushes you forward and backward in time.”

“Although-” Sunburst pushed his glasses up. “-if, if you did move it between entering and exiting the machine, you’d, uh, stay right where you were relative to the, to the core. Time is relative, and location is relative, so-”

“Complicated time stuff,” said Starlight. “Got it.”

Sunburst coughed. “Um, yeah.”

Most of the ponies, about six or seven of them, were clustered on one side of the machine, which looked like a control area of some kind. There were displays showing (what Starlight assumed was) the status of the time machine, along with plenty of switches and dials and what have you. None of them , except for a younger one (possibly a student) who extricated herself from the mass and galloped over to them. “Ma’am,” she said, “we ran the startup sequence early, just like you said. Everything’s in order, and we just need a few last-minute tuneups to reduce data noise.”

“Poifect,” said Serene, setting her jewelry box on an empty counter. “Everything’s smooth. Anyhoo, this…” She suddenly draped a foreleg across Starlight’s shoulders and yanked her close. Starlight folded her ears back and shrank down a bit. “…is Starlight Glimmer. She’s the spectator Sunny’s bringing in.”

“Mmhmm. Great.” And the student was gone without even looking in Starlight’s direction.

Starlight shoved Serene’s leg off her and stepped away. “Could you, um,” she muttered, “not do that? I’m not that good around ponies.”

“Ah, calm down,” Serene said nonchalantly, “you’re doing fine.”

Which wasn’t at all what Starlight was talking about, but better to just let the matter drop. Instead, she took a closer look at the time machine. For the first time, she noticed a door set in the outer ring. It was glass, so she could see through it to the inside, to a small room within the ring itself. Two more doors, these ones steel, were on both of the side walls, like they were entrances to the ring itself; it almost looked like an airlock. “Hang on… is that ring thing hollow?”

“Yeah, it’s um, uh, it’s a corridor, and, It’s, it’s how you go through time,” said Sunburst, pushing his glasses up his muzzle. “Turn the core on and, and walk in a circle around it. The corridor just keeps things, it keeps them isolated.”

“Why do I need to walk to travel through time? That’s… weird.”

“That’s easy,” said Serene. “It’s beca-”

“Serene, ma’am?” said one of the scientists. “We’re ready.”

“Tell you later,” whispered Serene. “Got a project to direct.” She stepped onto the platform in front of the airlock and turned to the assembled group. “Fillies and gentlecolts, we stand on the cusp of a leap forward in the understanding of the universe.” She paused. “You wanna listen to my speech, or wanna just do the thing?”

“Do the thing,” whispered Starlight. Fortunately, the crowd seemed to agree with her; she caught several mutters of “do the thing” and one yell.

“Good!” Serene said with a smile. “Cathode, please set the machine for two minutes to the past.” As the relevant tech started adjusting dials, Serene rolled her shoulders and took a step towards the airlock. “Alright,” she muttered, “here goes…” She stopped talking, her leg frozen mid-step.

Another Serene stepped out of the airlock, smiling. “Nothing?”

Starlight’s jaw dropped. She’d seen changelings mimic ponies before, yes, but there was something… holistic about this she’d never seen in changelings. They looked weirdly synchronized as they moved. Serene 1’s face was slowly growing a grin exactly identical to the one already on Serene 2’s. Even in the few words she’d heard, the cadences and timbres of them sounded identical. There was looking exactly like a pony, and then there was being that pony.

The crowd exploded. Starlight couldn’t hear herself think over the noise. Sunburst all of sudden was whirling her around in a hug. It looked and sounded more like a frat party than a scientific experiment.

“We did it!” Sunburst squealed. “It took all this work, but we did it!”

Starlight hadn’t even been involved for 99% of it and her mind was reeling. Sunburst’s giddiness was infectious, and she was soon laughing. “It’s incredible!”

“That’s putting it lightly!” said Sunburst, releasing her. “It’s-”

“Hey!” Serene yelled to the group. Both of them. “Simmer down!” They looked at each other and laughed.

“How’s it feel?” asked Serene 1.

Serene 2 rolled her shoulders. “Vujà dé all over again. Just wait a little, you’ll get what I mean.”

“And-”

“Physically, you don’t feel a thing,” Serene 2 said. “Just like walking down the street.”

“So-”

“It is indeed.” Serene 2 chuckled. “You should see the look on your face. Oh wait. You will!” She laughed again. “Trust me. Going through this is even better the second time.” She nodded towards the time machine. “You better get going, or else I won’t have come.”

Serene 1 coughed. “Right. Yeah.” She grinned at the scientists, yelled, “See you in negative two minutes!” and sauntered into the time machine.

Silence reigned for another moment before Serene said, “Right! Phase one complete. And we’re all very, very, very excited, but it’s time for phase two. Cathode please set the machine for five minutes in the future. Now, since I’m going forward in time, I could theoretically just hang out in the corridor for five minutes and come out. Of course, you know I wouldn’t do that, and I know I wouldn’t do that, but just so we have a bit more data…”

She flicked open the jewelry box and held up its contents. “Two watches, synchronized to the second, with no way for me to adjust them,” she announced (a bit unnecessarily, as everypony could see that). “This one stays here-” She laid the watch back in the box. “-and this one stays with me.” She wrapped the other watch around her foreleg. “You all know what comes next.”

Even if it was unnecessary, given the company, Starlight couldn’t help but be a little impressed. That was a good idea. Not mind-blowing or anything, but kind of clever. She wondered if she’d come up with something like that, in these circumstances. Probably not. But then, that was why Serene was the project director in all this.

Serene turned toward the airlock and rolled her shoulders again. “Here goes everything.” She stepped into the corridor, and the airlock door closed behind her.

An electric burst sounded from the core. At the same time, one of the techs frowned and leaned in to take a closer look at her meter. “Sunburst, sir?” she asked. Starlight could detect a subtle, but definitely present, hint of nervousness in her voice. “Could you take a look at these readings? I’m not su-”

“Let me see,” said Sunburst. He lightly nudged the tech aside and began examining the output.

Serene hadn’t moved into the corridor yet. “Something wrong?”

“I don’t think so,” Sunburst called out, “but don’t…” His eyes went wide. “Oh, no,” he whispered. He began flicking switches, slowly at first, then faster and faster. “No no no no NO!” His voice grew louder with each word.

Ponies around the room began muttering. Starlight, not sure what to do, started chewing her lip and shuffling from hoof to hoof. She coughed. “Um, Sunburst?”

Another discharge came from the core, and a high-pitched hum filled the room. Starlight felt like needles were being driven into her ears and nearly fell to the floor.

“Not happening,” mumbled Sunburst. He didn’t seem to have heard her. He was jumping from control panel to control panel, flipping switches and turning dials. “This is not ha-” His head snapped up. “Somepony get Serene out of there now!”

Starlight bolted for the airlock. She wasn’t sure what made her jump so fast. Maybe it was the panic in Sunburst’s voice, the sheer terror that never was there. Maybe it was Twilight’s friendship lessons, the ones that had taught her empathy and shown her that each and every pony was important. Maybe it was just a desire to have something to do. Whatever. Starlight bolted for the airlock.

Beyond the corridor, the light distortions around the core vanished. Another discharge came, then another, and another. Alarms began blaring. Sunburst whirled from the control panel and began shoving techs towards the exit. “Everypony out! Everypony out!” After maybe an instant’s hesitation, everypony in the room started moving towards the door.

Except for Starlight. She wrapped her forelegs around the handle of the airlock door, trying to yank it open. But it was too tightly sealed. Inside the airlock, Serene’s eyes were wide and she was battering at the glass. “Hey! What’s goi-”

Something blasted out from the core. Starlight wasn’t sure what, but it felt like she was being roasted alive. A wall of force slammed into her like a freight train; she was hurled from the airlock and smashed into the opposite wall. It was too much. She blacked out.


Streamhaven University, October 9
8:17 PM — Fracture in Time

“Hey? Starry!”

Starlight blinked a few times, but the world still refused to come into focus. At least it was quiet. She coughed.

“Can you hear me? I can see you moving!”

Her limbs. Did she have them all? She tried moving them. One, two, three, four. Barring phantom limbs, yes. She tried flicking her tail. It didn’t work, but only because it was pinned between her body and the floor. Good sign. She blinked again. The visual world slowly began to cohere.

“Get up! C’mon, get up!”

It was Serene’s voice, but it was echoing weirdly. Half there, a quarter too early, a quarter too late. Better take a look at that. Starlight groaned and tried to push herself to her hooves. Her skin screamed in agony, like she’d jumped into way-too-hot water. Her flesh throbbed and her joints ached. But she did her best to ignore it and got to her feet, wobbling.

“Yes, that’s it. Keep working. You can do it.”

Starlight groaned again and rubbed her head, keeping her eyes shut. “Serene?” she mumbled as loudly as she could. Her voice was echoing the same as Serene’s was. She could’ve sworn she heard the words before they exited her mouth.

“Oh, thank Celestia,” sighed Serene. “How you feeling?”

“Let’s just say I’ve been better.”

“Yeah. Me too. But I’m up and I’m talking. That’s something.”

Starlight snorted and looked up. “So what hap- haaaa…”

She finally got a good look at her surroundings. And what she saw left her speechless.

Everything had just… stopped. It was like looking at a still life of an explosion. No, wait, it wasn’t like that, it was that. Debris hung motionless in the air. Sparks were flying from the core, but they weren’t going anywhere. Lightning was frozen mid-arc. And yet it wasn’t silent; Starlight heard brief, incoherent snatches of voices and noises, sounding like they were coming through a tiny metal tube. Sometimes they repeated themselves, sometimes they sped up, sometimes they slowed down, sometimes cut in or out at random.

And then there were the ponies. They were panicking, heading for the exit. But they were just as frozen as everything else. At the end of the line, pushing the last pony up the steps in front of him, was Sunburst. He was staring at the time machine with big eyes and a dropped jaw.

Some dim part of Starlight’s mind, one of the more logical parts, wondered just what in Celestia’s name was going on. But her head hurt too much for it to gain much ground. The part that had control told her to go over and help him. She almost started towards him when she remembered Serene was still trapped. She turned to the airlock.

But evidently, Serene knew what she was thinking. “Go ahead,” Serene said. “I’m fine.” It sounded like only half a lie. “But…” Her voice dropped to the tone of one thinking out loud. “…how could this happen? It worked before, why not now?”

As Serene kept up her nervous muttering, Starlight lurched towards Sunburst. “Sunburst?” she asked. She knew it was futile; time was frozen. But she asked anyway.

She nudged Sunburst. He didn’t move and nothing changed. This was hopeless. “Come on, Sunburst,” she whispered. She planted both hooves on his shoulder, trying to will him to move. “Please, don’t leave me like this.”

Then he started up again.

“-ove!” yelled Sunburst, tripping up the steps. He looked up and saw the ponies not moving, but he was still too panicked to notice everything else not moving. “Don’t just stand there!” he yelled. “G-”

“Whoa! Sunburst!” Starlight pushed him a little to draw his attention. “Quit it!”

Sunburst turned to her, eyes wide. “Starlight! You’ve gotta-”

And then he finally noticed the time stop. He stared at the room, mouth agape. “Oh, no,” he whispered eventually. “Zero state. No. No. No. No. No.

Starlight cleared her throat. “Sunburst, just what in Celestia’s name is going on? Why’s time…” Her voice trailed off. She couldn’t say the words. It was too bizarre.

“Starlight, I…” Sunburst swallowed. His voice somehow dropped even more. “I think we just broke time.”

What? He did not just say that. Starlight blinked. “Huh?”

Sunburst pressed his hooves to his forehead. “We broke time, we- Where’s Serene?”

“She’s still in the airlock,” said Starlight, pointing.

“Gotta get her out of there,” Sunburst muttered, and bolted for the airlock. “Come on!”

“It’s stuck,” said Starlight as she followed him, “but ma-”

Someone hit “play”, and the world started up again. Sparks and debris flew. Alarms blared. Ponies scrambled and panicked. And in that exact moment, less than a second after time was flowing again, an explosion blew the exit door off its hinges.

Ponies covered head to hoof in dark blue armor stormed into the lab. Most of them were strapped into repeating crossbow harnesses. A few were brandishing pikes that sizzled and popped with magical effects. The pikeponies either placed themselves at the top of the stairs or, if they were pegasi, flew to the bottom to block the scientists in. Several of the marksponies drew beads on Starlight and Sunburst and chomped on the trigger bits.

“Down!” yelled Starlight. She dove at Sunburst and tackled him to the ground. Quarrels flew over their heads and clattered against the metal floor beneath them. One bolt hit the glass of the airlock. It didn’t crack, but Serene recoiled. Panic overtook her and she staggered into the time machine’s corridor to find some cover.

“No!” screamed Sunburst. “Don’t-”

But Serene was already gone, vanishing around the bend.

The archers were pulling on their loops, recocking the crossbows. Starlight scrambled to her hooves and looked around as fast as she could. She needed to find some way out.

There. Right ahead of her, right in the middle of the floor, was a maintenance hatch. “Sunburst!” she yelled. “Hatch!”

Sunburst’s eyes snapped to her. “Hatch?” She pointed, and his gaze snapped to the hatch. “Right! That!” In a glow of magic, the hatch burst open. The two of them dove for it. The archers fired.

There was a ladder below the hatch. Starlight didn’t take it. She just jumped blindly down as the bolts streaked over her.