Quills and Sofas Warehouse Sale

by Zontan

Twilighting Time

Author's Note:

Another PANIC! Fiction entry. Written in thirty minutes. The prompt was "Quarantine."

Tags: Twilight, Spike, Fluttershy, Starlight, Comedy/Slice of Life

“Twilight, what’s this about?” Spike called through the door.

“Go away! You can’t come in! It’s too dangerous!”

Spike paused. “Uh… why?” Twilight locking herself in a room for days on end wasn’t exactly unheard of, but usually that was because she had a new book to read. And those weren’t dangerous, usually.

“It’s… complicated! Clover’s transjunction is highly unstable! Anything could happen! Even to dragons. Just… stay away until I come out, alright?”

“Twilight, are you alright?”

“Oh yes! I’m fine! Perfectly fine!” Twilight’s voice sounded a little crazed, but then again, had anypony ever said those words with a straight face?

Spike frowned. “Alright, fine. I’ll come check on you later.” He turned and let Twilight be, ignoring her continued protests.

---

“Twilight, you need to eat something.” Spike said, tapping one claw impatiently. He had a bowl of potato soup and a cup of tea with him, but the door to Twilight’s study was still locked.

“It’s fine! I can… conjure something! Probably!” Twilight’s voice was higher than usual, even considering the circumstances.

“Twilight, you can’t just stay in there forever, and you haven’t eaten anything all day. Whatever’s wrong, you can’t get better if you don’t eat.” Spike still wasn’t sure what was going on, but operating like Twilight was sick seemed the most reasonable to him. Let her rest, feed her soup, and wait for it to blow over. Even if Twilight refused to cooperate.

“You can’t come in!” Twilight repeated. “Not even for food. It’s very important. Very important.”

Spike sighed. “If I leave the food here and go away, do you promise to eat it?”

There was a pause, as the alicorn on the other side digested that. “...that could work.”

“Promise, Twilight.”

“Fine! I promise!”

Spike shook his head, set the tray down, and walked away.

---

“I’m worried, Fluttershy,” Spike said quietly, sipping the tea the pegasus had offered him.

“How long did you say she’s been in there?” Fluttershy asked gently.

“Three days. Won’t come out for anything, and barely lets me drop off food for her. I swear, if she was left to her own devices she’d have starved.”

“That is worrying. Did she say what was wrong?”

“No. Just vague warnings about danger and stuff. I think she’s exaggerating. It’s obviously not dangerous enough for her to leave.”

Fluttershy hmmed. “Perhaps you could ask Starlight? Surely if there was something dangerous in there, Starlight could handle it. Or at least check on her safely.”

Spike nodded slowly. “That could work. I was kind of hoping you could talk to her, though. See if she would tell you what was going on.”

Fluttershy smiled. “If you think that would help, of course I will.”

---

When Spike approached the door this time, he had backup. Fluttershy followed on one side, and Starlight on the other. He rapped on the door with one claw. “Twilight, it’s time to come out. It’s been days.”

“What? No! I can’t! I haven’t—It’s still too dangerous.”

Spike gave the two ponies with him a ‘what did I tell you?’ look. “That’s why I brought Starlight this time. Whatever the issue is, I’m sure she can deal with it.”

“No! She can’t! Trust me!”

Starlight rolled her eyes. “Come on, Twilight. You know my magic is just as strong as yours. If it's safe for you, I’ll be fine.” She lit her horn, and tilted her head. “There’s definitely a magical field in there,” she murmured to Spike. “It doesn’t seem that strong. Whatever it is, if it’s dangerous, I’m sure I could shield us against it.”

Fluttershy nodded, and stepped up. “Twilight,” she said softly. “Why aren’t you telling us what’s wrong? Surely there’s a reason you cooped yourself up in there. We just want to understand, so we can help.”

There was another pause before Twilight replied. “It’s… uh, it’s very complex, and explaining it would take… well, it’s very theoretical, you see, and I wouldn’t want to bore you—”

“Come on, Twilight!” Starlight huffed. “When has anything theoretical ever bored me? If you’re not gonna tell us, we’re coming in!”

“NO! You can’t, I think it’s contagious—”

“That’s what shields are for. Come on, guys.” Her horn lit up again.

Fluttershy shrank back slightly. “Are you sure we should—” she began, before there was a pop of teleportation.

---

The study was a mess. Books were scattered across the floor, and papers lay haphazardly across the desk, spilling off the edges. Twilight was nowhere to be seen. At least, at first glance.

Instead, crouched on the desk, was a tabby cat with a distinctive streak of purple in its hair, desperately struggling with a large tome that was clearly too heavy for it.

“Twilight?” Starlight asked incredulously, staring at the cat from behind the magical bubble. “What in the world did you do?”

The cat yelped and dropped the book. “No no no you can’t be in here!” it spoke with Twilight’s voice. “The transjunction is very unstable, you have to leave—”

“Come on you’ve had me do transfigurations in my sleep, I don’t know why you haven’t reversed this yourself—”

“NO!”

Starlight’s horn lit, and she sent a blast of magic at the cat. There was a flash and a screeching sound, and when their eyes adjusted, Twilight-the-cat was gone.

Instead, in her place was a small canary, again with the same distinctive streak of purple down the back of its head. There was a confused meow. Spike looked down, and next to him was another cat. This one looked distinctly like Starlight. With a flicker, the shield around them died. Cautiously, Spike took a step back, even as Fluttershy bent down to examine the cat.

“I told you!” the Twilight-bird yelled. “It’s unstable! Everything I try just turns me into something else! I’ve been dozens of different animals these last few days, but none of them ponies!”

“Why didn’t you just say that?” Starlight growled back.

Twilight had the grace to look ashamed. “I was… I was embarrassed,” she muttered. “I was sure I could figure it out myself.”

“Uh. Girls?” Spike looked down at the new voice. Standing next to the cat was a new animal—a squirrel with bright yellow fur. “I don’t think this is good.”

Twilight shook her head. “Spike, get out of here!” she yelled. “Before it affects you too!”

Spike hesitated, then shook his head. “No. I’m not gonna leave. You need your number one assistant to figure this out. Until then, we’ll all be in quarantine together.”

“But—”

“Nope. Made up my mind. Which books haven’t you checked yet?”

Twilight paused, then softly smiled and fluttered over to him. “Thanks, Spike,” she murmured, before pointing to one of the nearby shelves.

Spike walked over to the shelf, even as he felt the magic in the room start to seep past his natural draconic resistance. This, at least, was going to be an interesting study session.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

I'm a little surprised that there aren't more chapters.