Auroras & Souls

by Blues Rider

7: Time to Investigate

Chapter 7

Starlight flashed into existence on a hilltop in one of many fields that surrounded the quaint town of Ponyville. She was right next to the same twig woven picnic basket she had been earlier.

Quiet surrounded her.

Pure, unabridged, non-movement.

She looked round. Then turned around.

In every direction there were no white, yellow, blue or pink ponies.

In fact there were no ponies anywhere.

She had been expecting the trembling worry that rose inside her from before she left Twilight, but now the reality was confirmed she was hit by a force heavier than she could have readied herself for.

“Applejack?”

She called down the hill towards Sweet Apple Acres. The orchard was a couple of miles from the hill, but she had a spark of hope that her friends were hiding in a nearby bush somewhere.

“Fluttershy?”

This time she scouted the side that faced the Everfree forest. It was only a few hundred meters away, she hoped Fluttershy might have run off to help a poor innocent creature. But there was no reply from the giant forest, only the distant rustling of the trees from far away where the forest's magic sustained itself.

Starlight proceeded to check the rest of the green hill searching for any sign of other ponies.

The sun glared at it’s funny angle from the west side. Starlight bought a hoof up to her head to shelter her eyes from the red-orange fireball.

“Anypony there?” she called once more.

She could see the tall blue roof of Rarity's boutique, which gave her an idea. A spell she would cast when she lost a book.
She ran down to the clothes store and knocked on the front door hesitating.

“Excuse me Sweetie Bell are you home?”

Realising no one would answer the door, it made her look around the world. And take in the stillness. Fear started to overturn her worry. She looked back at the boutique and faced the window of Sweetie Bell, calling once more for security assurances.

“Sweetie Bell, Rarity, it’s Starlight I’m coming in okay?”

A second later the door creaked open as the purple unicorn entered, carefully, treading on the hard crystal tile floor like it was thin ice.

Starlight explored the floors, calling out a couple more time to try and establish to herself that nopony else was in the building. She took the winding staircase to the second floor she noted the door to Sweetie Bell’s bedroom at the end of the corridor was a jar. Taking a peek inside helped her confirm once more that she was probably alone here.

A few doors down the landing she found Rarity's bedroom.
Opening the door with fragility, she took in the sight before her.

A multitude of dress plans and fabric cut-outs scattered the room in a chaotic manner. Starlight stepped back at the mess. It felt wrong to enter this room like this. They all knew Rarity could get stressed when big clients wanted more work from her, but she had never dreamed it could get this bad.

This was Rarity’s chaotic organisation she would be stepping into.
That one thing she knew her friend would try to keep hidden from everypony else until she met breaking point.

Which did happen.
'A lot.' Starlight thought to herself.

Then she felt bad for thinking that about her missing friend and her concern flew back into her mind. She needed to find her friends.

Still wanting to respect Rarity as a friend she cast a spell and floated over the floor mess to a sewing cabinet on the other side of the room with some white thread on it. She came across the canister she was looking for: Blossom White.

“I’m glad you’re always insistent on technicalities Rarity.” Starlight muttered as she uncoiled a small chunk of the threat and snapped the end off. Placing the thread reel back onto the shelf with all the other colours of white. Then she walked over to the desk.

She needed three things. A scrap of the item she was trying to locate, the last place she had touched the item in question and a continuum destabiliser. Not something big like the mirror portal although it would be ideal right now and make this so much easier to cast, but a small rune that pulls and warps the magic ethereal energies of the continuum into a brief paradox would work.

Twilight would hate her for casting this spell.

Rarity would hate her for carving runes into her desk.

Sunburst would be impressed by her ability to warp magic.

Casting a simple telekinesis spell, she carved out a rune in the wooden desk using Rarity’s hemming scissors as a carving instrument. Three triangles that connected together with a circle gliding through the centre of each of triangle. A septagonal polygon struck out two thirds of the rune which was intercepted by a square containing eleven dots in randomly fluctuating groups of 5, 2 or 4.

One of the ugliest runes to look at, it looked like chaos, but when activated it would pull all things weird into a mouldable state that then would continue to resonate with itself.

“Rarity would hate the look of the rune just about as much as she would me drawing into her desk” Starlight joked allowed to herself. She took another look at it. “Actually no scrap that.”

The rune was worse.

She prepared her horn and merged an energy beam with the rune laid out on the desk. For a second she felt very floaty but then it stopped and just her horn felt floaty.

She held her hoof out and lifted the small break of thread, placing it in the centre of the glowing lines of the rune.

'Here comes the tricky bit', she thought to herself.

Aligning her body with the second triangle she had drawn, she drew the paradox magic from the far tip of the triangle at the same time merging a memory spell of her own devising with the magic.

The paradox was affected by the string.

Her memories affected the rune.

In turn the string was affected by her memories.

Starlight envisioned herself yesterday stood in this room talking with Rarity about the new scarf that Rarity had just finished. Rarity was going to wear it to the picnic tomorrow morning. She put down the thread on the white thread shelf.
'It’s a nice white.' Starlight had mentioned carelessly 'It’s Blossom white darling, one of the finest whites there are, especially with my coat and mane complexion.'
She had chuckled to herself and that bought her back to the current time.

Before her, the rune now glowed a very blue shaded purple.
Turning around Starlight noted the blue aura that walked the floor and turned out the door. Instinctively she followed it.

Outside the boutique the aura waltzed the green grass and seemed to head back up the hill. Starlight considered the possibility that she had cast the spell incorrectly.

“Eugh, I just came that way.” She whined to herself but when she didn’t move the aura only glowed deeper. “Fine.” reluctance filled the air around her, “I’m coming, I’m coming.”

Back up the top of the hill, once again overlooking the boutique, Sweet Apple Acres, Ponyville and the Everfree forest the aura stopped.

“Seriously, I can’t even fin....” Starlight was interrupted by something floating in the air in front of her. A blue outline of a scarf that looked very much like Rarity's. About 4 feet off the ground, on the picnic blanket. She stepped forwards in curiosity.

This spell was meant to take her to the place she could find the object in question not...

Once again she interrupted her own thought process.

She stepped right next to the scarf. She felt like she could see a pony in stone wearing a scarf, no she felt like she could be with a pony, a unicorn, talk to it, understand it, like it was communicating with her but....

She cast a simple detection spell.

The outline of a unicorn pony flared into existence for a second and then vanished into black nothingness and was no longer. Then the aura tracking spell wore off.

She could not understand how this...

Twilight needed to see this.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Spike left the castle door wide open as he sprinted into town, having wings felt good, but he did wish he had that superior sense of smell and hearing right now. It would make searching for just anypony a lot easier.

He jumped off the ground and used his wings to glide just a few hundred meters above the first few lines of houses until he reached the centre of town. Taking in the dusty, empty streets as he did so.

He passed an applecart on his fly over.

'That must be Big Mac's' he thought to himself. But looking around the intersection it was set up on, he didn’t see anypony whatsoever about. Just a few apples that had been left scattered on the floor by the cart.

As he landed on the roof of the town hall, using his claws to give himself grip, he thought to the last games night they had had. Him, Discord, Big Mac, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.

Sugar Bell had been over the night before and they all had tea with her, including Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Starlight, Granny Smith and Apple Bloom (who had been very grown up for her age). They finally got to use the big dining room table for an inclusive meal.

It had been a blast. He loved the time they all had together. The expanded friendship group that kept getting bigger, everypony learning more off of everypony else.

As he brushed on the good times he had with his friends he noted that all of it could be gone. that made him well up.

“Not now, now I have to find my friends, and I will find my friends.” He confided in himself.

He looked around, the glaring sun insistent on blocking his view to the west. To the north he got distracted by the waving black magic that was spreading in the direction of the Crystal Empire. So he turned his attention to the east and south of the town.

Now the young dragon appreciated what having bystanders meant. Any form of company would be more welcome than the uncomfortable silence and the light headed sickness that came with loneliness.

“Hello Ponyville! Is anyone there? It’s Spike, I’m here to help!”

When nopony answered he froze, not sure what to do.

Then something big started to move. Spike shot back clutching tight to the centre column of the town hall before realising how weak that might make him look to any evil Equestria banishing invaders. Toughening his stance he used his claws to scratch into the roof tiles, they were hard and dusty against his scales.

Gripping his way down the roof, he peered over the side of the front entrance.

Metal cranked into place and wooden panels ground together below him. A ground shifting crunch of death cupping his ears. He nearly fell off the roof he located the origin of the sound.

The steps leading onto the first floor veranda of the old town hall and tax office had suddenly seemed to inverse. The light brown wooden steps were now replaced with blackened concrete stairs descending into a basement. A basement which Spike the Brave and Glorious had never seen.

He peaked over the side of the roof to the disturbance, keeping quiet as the creepy new discovery unravelled.
From the dark misty staircase emerged a fair brown pony with a long scarf that Spike recognised instantly.

“Hello, anyone out here?” Dr Whoves called out to the empty town square cockily.

“Dr Whoves!” Spike called back from the roof.

“Spike where is everyone? is the princess okay! What are you doing on the roof?” He shot the questions one at a time to the unexpected appearance of the dragon.

“She’s fine she’s at the school. Hang on.” Spike took a second to assess his situation, looking over the world of Ponyville in silence. Then he spread his wings and pushed forwards, circling twice on his glide down to the ground. He landed a couple of meters in front of the brown scarfed pony. "And that's what I'm doing on the roof, looking for anypony."

The scarfed, brown 'doctor' didn’t seem too phased but he did watch the winged dragon intensely on his decent, admiring the wings and newly established flying ability of Spike.

“Starlight has gone to find our friends and a guard pony has gone to search for Flash Magnus and some of Twilight's friends.” They both eyed each other and the world around them with equal curiosity.

“Where were you hidden? I mean you and the princess, the rest of this place is like a ghost town. It's very disconcerting” the doctor did not seem too concerned but he was analysing the situation.

“I don’t know, I just seem to be unaffected by whatever is happening here. Starlight cast a protection spell over herself, Twilight and the guard pony – Corporal Flash Sentry. How did you shield yourself? is anypony else with you?”

“I'm afraid not.” The doctor said, his curiosity trained on the environment around him and the aural movements in the sky. Spike started to follow the doctor’s gaze around the town hall plaza before going back to the pony. 'There is definitely something hiding under that scarf', he thought.

“Where is everypony then?” and with that question Spike snapped Dr Whoves out of his trance.

“I’d like to answer that question too. I’m afraid your friends may be in grave danger.”

“What do you mean?” And there was the big hitter, the most obvious statement of the day. The Doctor, however, seemed to be a consoling force with some hidden answers at the moment, Spike followed this new source of information.

“Here follow me, I’ll show you and then we need to find the princess.”

The only life in Ponyville disappeared down a staircase in the middle of town hall plaza.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

The purple that was Starlight Glimmer appeared in the entrance lobby of the grand purple building that was the School of Friendship. She scanned the room and disappeared in a blur that was so imperceptibly fast it would have impressed the Friendship Games Track Flyers adjudication committee, who had seen some pretty fast stuff in their time.

The lobby was now empty.

Starlight Glimmer appeared in a ferocious blur in the corner of Twilight’s office. She took in the new scene. A desk with draws in front of her, in front of which were the chairs for pupils, staff and guests, the walls decorated with Twilight’s 'official head teacher articles' that always made Starlight chuckle.

The sun was still at its low angle casting an orange glow around the room. Outside the doorway she saw Twilight giving commands to a couple of ponies outside of her office.

She noted a headachy pain on the left side of her head, but she left it alone for now.

“TWILIGHT!”

Maybe shouting was a bit too much, the filly Twilight was speaking to looked absolutely terrified.

“Oh sorry!”

Twilight finished up her instructions, calmly reassuring to the foals and then told another pony that appeared to her right to wait there for a minute. 'There must be a queue or something outside the doorway. Trust Twilight to be so organised', thought Starlight.

“Starlight what happened?” Twilight turned and closed the door behind her.

“I’m so sorry Twilight.” Almost in tears, the severity of the situation was clear.

The alicorn grabbed one of the pupil's chairs and instinctively sat down. Starlight took Twilight’s seat on the other side of the desk, which felt weird but she left that for the moment.

Starlight recounted her trip to the picnic hill and Rarity’s boutique, including the rune she had cast, the invisible scarf and the outline of their friends. Twilight listened and sank in both amazement at Starlight’s discovery and horror for her friend’s fate. But mostly horror.

“It seems like our friends have been hung in some kind... Some kind of like...”

“Oblivion.” Probably the heaviest word Twilight could have chosen at this moment. Twilight noted the shocked expression on Starlight’s face. “Or at least a limbo..... Wait, no, Limbo could mean. Starlight....”

Twilight’s brain was clearly calculating something, and something too fast, Starlight couldn't catch onto it yet.

“I don’t know what’s happened. We can’t even confirm if Sombra has returned or if this is some other unusual magic. It’s all assumption, but if this is linked to limbo, any magic that affects limbo could be linked.”

“Twilight...”

“Think about it Starlight.”

“I think it’s more like a tethered soul separation. It was as if their bodies are in limbo but consequently their souls are tethered to the point they were last connected within our world.”

“So that would mean......”

“Everypony is still surrounding us but we cannot communicate with anyone, and I imagine they can’t really perceive us either.”

They both paused for a moment to take all of this in.

“How are the students doing?”

“They’re fine. I’m keeping them all inside the school for safety. Nopony seems to have been affected in any way resembling that. A few unicorns reported headaches, I sent them to the Canteen and got a couple of our prefect students to serve them water and cook some basic food. For now I’m only letting seniors do work around the place, any of the younger classes, even with their special talents just need to be kept relaxed and calm. They don’t need incentives to be heroes and I think the seniors have all mostly passed those friendship lessons.”

Starlight gave an approving nod, noting the headache on the left side of her head again.

“Some have been asking for their councillor, so you might have a few students to see before we leave here again, if we need to.”

“Okay.” Starlight chuckled a half true chuckle, but the reality of their situation weighed down the room. “I’ll make sure to see them as soon as we finish up.” She pondered. “Were any students outside when the wave hit?”

“Not that I have found. It was dinner time when the wave hit, so they were all inside.”

“I think it should be safe outside now. But best to keep them inside for safety.”

“Agreed.” Twilight gave a nod and sat forward in her chair ready to get up. “Did you find anypony outside at all?”

“No... I think whatever soul separation spell affected our friends happened to everypony else too.”

Twilight noticed Starlight contemplating the wooden desk in front of her. She looked drained and disconnected from the world. Twilight lent forwards and put an offering hoof on the desk.

“Whatever happened to Trixie, I’m sure we will find her too. I wish we could contact Discord, but not being able to send messages on the magic ethereal plane means it's impossible, and without the elements of Harmony I can’t just summon him.”

“With magic on a scale this large, Discord would be really useful.”

“And Celestia and Luna, I wish I could know what happened to them too.”

Accepting Twilight’s hoof, Starlight lent forwards to comfort her. “I’m sure we will find them too Twilight.”

“I’ve never encountered magic on this scale before Starlight. Even Tirek wasn’t as destructive as this phenomena.”

Starlight got up and pulled Twilight to her hoofs as she did so.

“I will help attend to the students for now Twilight. Let’s get them settled into the dorm, and make sure the seniors can help take care of everypony for a day or two at least.” She trotted over to the door enthusiastically, the doorknob reflecting the orange light into her eyes as she went to open it.

Twilight stood by the desk looking over at the window.

“I’ll have to lower the Sun and raise the Moon Starlight.”

Starlight looked back at her and then down to the reflected sun in the golden mirror of the doorknob. It shimmered off the object. It was mesmerising in this moment, she had never really realised it before. Such a power, the overwhelming force that shed light over all of Equestria. She looked back at her thoughtful friend.

“I know Twilight.” She still had that headache, now was not the time to think, she would grab a glass of water from the canteen in a minute. “Let’s sort the students out. I’ll meet you here in an hour?”

“Yeah... No, on the roof of my castle, one hour.”

“Okay.”

Twilight turned and walked over to her colleague, student, graduate, friend. Starlight took in Twilight’s mood, turned and gave her a big hug, wrapping her hooves around Twilight in a tight grip.

“We’ll get through this.”

Twilight hugged back and then after a few seconds Starlight broke the hug.

Twilight looked at her with a smile, took a deep breath and exhaled, pushing her worries away from her with her hoof. Determination and a genuine smile had returned to her face.

Starlight returned her the same expression and opened the door to the corridor of worried students. Twilight followed just behind.