Station
“Canterlot?” Twilight Sparkle asked. “Why do you need to go there?”
They were in the tent; Sunset had just arrived and voiced her intentions.
“Because Princess Twilight was trying to get there,” Sunset explained. “She said so in the journal. Remember the telescope in Twilight’s castle? It was pointed straight at Canterlot. And I found Twilight’s body in the hills between Ponyville and the Canterhorn. She was definitely headed in that direction for some reason. I want to know why.”
“How far is it from Ponyville to Canterlot?” Twilight asked.
“It’s far,” Starlight said. “I don’t know how many miles, exactly, but it’s definitely too far to walk. It would take weeks to get there. And then you have to climb the tallest mountain in Equestria…”
Twilight looked back at Sunset. “That’s way too risky! The Everfree expedition was bad enough, but if Canterlot is as far away from Ponyville as Starlight says it is, then you would be on your own for months!”
“That is a problem,” Sunset said. “But I need to get there. There might be something up there that can explain all of this! We can’t afford not to go.”
Twilight bit her lip. “Well, you can’t walk… Maybe with some kind of vehicle?”
“We’re not getting a car through the portal,” Sunset said. “Maybe a motorbike? But there’s no way I’d make it all the way up the Canterhorn and back with a single tank of gas. I’d have to bring refills… a lot of refills. There’s gotta be a better option.”
“You could take the train,” Starlight said. “If it’s still in working condition, that is.”
Twilight and Sunset turned their heads towards Starlight, who seemed to recede a little.
“The train?” Sunset asked.
Starlight nodded. “There’s a direct line to Canterlot from the Ponyville station. If the train’s still there, it could take you straight there. Metal seems to survive the magic drain better than organic materials, right? The engine is almost completely metal; it may have survived. And even if it didn’t, we might be able to repair it.”
“Starlight, you’re a genius,” Sunset said. “Okay. We investigate the train.”
“I still don’t like this,” Twilight said.
“We don’t have a choice,” Sunset shot back. “This is our only lead, and the pony-siders are depending on us. Summer break ends soon, too; we’re running out of time.”
Twilight pursed her lips. She could feel the desperation in Sunset’s words, but she couldn’t argue with her logic.
“Let’s at least see if the train is working,” Starlight said. “We can decide our next move then.”
Twilight relented with a sigh. “Okay. Fine.”
“Thank you,” Sunset said. “When’s the soonest we can go?”
“How long does it take to get from Twilight’s castle to the train Station?” Twilight asked Starlight.
“About fifteen minutes,” Starlight replied. “It’s not very far.”
Twilight went to her desk and leaned down over her keyboard. She typed a few commands in and was rewarded with a report on the Can-Opener’s capacitor’s charge levels.
“We can probably go later this afternoon,” she said, standing back up. “Assuming you’re quick.”
“Perfect,” Sunset said. “We’ll just wait until then.”
A few hours passed. Twilight kept herself busy by running through every test she could think to do on the Elements. She was running her thaumometer over the Element of Loyalty when the flap at the front of the tent opened, spilling bright sunlight across the ground.
Two figures entered; the tent’s flap fell closed behind them. One was Ember, right claw gripping her scepter as always. The other…
“Rainbow?” Sunset said, standing up. “What are you doing here?”
“Pony Rainbow Dash, here” the girl in question said.
Sunset’s demeanor cooled. “Oh.”
Rainbow rubbed the back of her head. She looked away from Sunset and scowled.
“Rainbow…” Starlight said.
“I know, I know,” Rainbow said. She looked Sunset dead in the eye.
“Look,” She said. “I’m only gonna say this once, okay?”
“Whatever you have to say, just say it,” Sunset said.
Rainbow took a deep breath in. Let it out slow.
“I’m sorry.”
Sunset blinked. “…What?”
“I said I’m sorry,” Rainbow said. “For treating you the way I have been.”
There was a moment of silence. Sunset seemed to relax a bit.
“You don’t have to apologize,” Sunset said, her voice gentle. “I understand.”
“No,” Rainbow said. “I want to apologize. Just let me do it, okay? Please.”
“Okay.”
“I’m… sorry. For the way I’ve been acting,” Rainbow said. “None of it was your fault. I just needed someone to blame, and you were the easiest. I’ve been acting like a snot-nosed foal, and you don’t deserve that. All you’ve been doing is trying to help us. So…”
Rainbow paused.
“So I’m sorry, okay?”
Sunset smiled. “Apology accepted.”
Rainbow let out a breath. “Phew! Glad that’s over. I’ll get out of your way now. Oh, and, uh…” She looked sheepish. “If there’s ever anything I can do to help,” she said. “Let me know, alright? I hate doing nothing all day.”
“Will do.”
Rainbow left the way she’d came. Sunset looked at Starlight.
“You had something to do with that, right?”
“I might have,” Starlight said.
“Huh.”
Their other visitor cleared their throat. They all turned to look at Ember.
“So,” the dragon said. “When are you guys planning on opening your weird portal thingy again?”
“In a few hours,” Twilight explained.
Ember nodded. “Good.”
“Tired of this world?” Sunset said.
“Hungry,” Ember responded.
“Fair enough.”
Ember grabbed a folding chair and sat down in the corner of the tent. Everyone else went back to what they’d been doing before the interruption, including Twilight, who resumed her investigation of the Elements.
Time passed.
“Okay,” Twilight said aloud. “I’ve run every test I can think of.”
Everyone turned to look at her.
“And…?” Sunset said.
Twilight shook her head. “I still have no idea how to awaken them.”
Sunset seemed to deflate slightly.
“B-but!” Twilight said, “I think I might be able to answer a few of the questions we’ve had.”
“Go ahead, Twilight,” Starlight said, after a moment.
“Well,” Twilight explained, “the first thing that’s important to understand is that the Elements haven’t been consumed by the magic drain. They still have magic; I picked up six distinct magical signatures when I scanned them with the thaumometer, and each one matched the signatures of our friends that I took before you all lost the ability to ‘pony up’.”
“So they still have magic?” Starlight asked.
Twilight nodded. “It’s faint, but yes. They’re still ‘active’.”
“That’s great news,” Starlight said. “That means they really were safe from the magic drain!”
Twilight shook her head. “I don’t think that’s exactly true.”
Sunset tilted her head to the side. “What do you mean?”
“Well, we know that the effects of the magic drain seem to be stronger the more magical something is,” Twilight said. “That’s why it affected Rarity—a unicorn—the fastest. So if the Elements were able to minimize their magic level…”
Twilight swallowed. “Well, it’s just conjecture on my part, but is it possible that the Elements could have gone dormant, or been made to go dormant, to protect themselves?”
Sunset crossed her arms, one hand going to her chin. “It’s… certainly a possibility. No one really understands how the Elements actually work, but that would make sense.”
“It might also explain why you and the others have lost your magical signatures,” Twilight said. “When they went dormant, that must have cut your connection to them. That’s why you can’t ‘pony up’ anymore.”
“I see,” Sunset said, arms still crossed. “That would explain things…” She sighed. “But it doesn’t get us any closer to awakening them.”
“There is… one thing I can think of to try,” Twilight said. She put her hands up. “I have no idea if it’ll work, though!”
“What is it?” Sunset asked.
“Well, if the Elements went dormant to avoid the magic drain,” Twilight explained, “then what would happen if we exposed them to a strong magical pulse? The pony-siders mentioned the elements being awakened by a ‘spark’ before—what if a magical spark is all we need?”
“That… could work,” Sunset said. “Maybe.”
“We can at least try it,” Starlight said. “How long will it take?”
“I’ll need a while to put together a device that can do it,” Twilight said. “A few days, maybe?”
“Alright,” Sunset said. She uncrossed her arms. “Sounds like a plan.”
The portal sparked to life. Sunset (in full gear) and Ember stood before it.
“Alright,” Sunset said. “How long do we have?”
“About an hour and a half,” Twilight said.
“Great.”
She breathed in, took a few steps forward, breathed out, and crossed through the portal. Ember followed close behind her, and shortly they emerged into Princess Twilight’s library. Sunset took a few steps towards the door; Ember did not follow.
“Alright,” Ember said, and Sunset turned to look at her. “ I guess this is goodbye.”
“Goodbye?” Sunset asked. “You’re leaving?”
Ember nodded. “Yeah. I need to get back to the Dragon Lands. Everyone gets riled up if I’m not around, and I’ve been gone too long already.”
“But your gemstones—”
“We’ll figure something out,” Ember said. “I don’t think I’d be able to do much from here. You guys keep working on your Elements of Whatever. I’ll try to come up with something for us.”
As if to punctuate that statement, she reached out to the wall of the castle and dug out a large chunk of crystal from the wall with her claw. She took a bite out of it and began to chew.
“Flight provisions,” she said.
“Well… if you’re sure…” Sunset said.
Ember swallowed.
“I am,” Ember said. “It’s not easy for a dragon to leave things behind.”
With that, Ember spread her wings and lifted into the air.
“Goodbye, Sunset Shimmer,” she said. “Good luck.”
“You too,” Sunset said.
And just like that, Ember flew out the balcony. Sunset could only watch as she disappeared into the dust.
“It’s still here!” Sunset announced.
She’d walked all the way to the train station, through the decaying streets of Ponyville, at Starlight’s direction. And she’s been rewarded for that trek.
“The train?” Twilight said through Sunset’s earpiece.
“Yep!” Sunset said, allowing herself to smile. “And it looks mostly intact!”
The train’s engine stood there, looking to all like the last bastion of the world before the dust. It had outlived the train station itself, the roof of which had collapsed, presumably some time ago. It had outlasted its own cars, too, whose walls had buckled under their own weight. Its pink exterior stood out against the endless grey.
“That’s great!” Starlight said through the radio. “Check inside, see if it has coal.”
Sunset walked up to the engine and pulled herself up into the cab. It was a little cramped, for her; it had been designed for ponies, after all. But she could fit if she ducked her head.
She looked into the bunker. It was filled with coal.
“Looks like it was just restocked,” she said. “We got lucky.”
“Super lucky,” Twilight said.
“If it’s full of coal, you should be able to take it straight to Canterlot without having to stop anywhere,” Starlight said. “It’ll take about a day. We’ll probably need to refill the water tank, but that’s easy.”
“Y’know, I always wanted to be a train conductor when I was a filly,” Sunset said.
“…Really?”
“Not really,” Sunset said. “I wanted to be a princess.”
“Oh.”
Sunset stepped out of the cab and jumped back to the ground. Her boots hit the dirt hard.
“Alright!” she said. “Looks like we’re taking the train to Canterlot.”
She breathed a sigh of relief.
And then…
Beep beep beep.
Sunset put a hand to her ear; the sound had come through the radio.
“Twilight?” she said. “What’s that noise?”
“Hang on, I’m not—”
“—sure,” Twilight said, her vision snapping up to the computer monitor in front of her.
A warning had popped up on the screen, along with the beeping. Twilight scanned its contents.
“What the…”
“Twilight?” Sunset said. “What’s going on?”
“Something’s wrong with—”
“—the portal, you need to—”
Suddenly, abruptly, Twilight was cut off.
“Twilight?” Sunset said, then again, “Twilight!?”
No answer. Just static.
Sunset called out to Twilight a few times more, but there was no response.
“Crap,” she said. She turned away from the train and ran, back through the streets of Ponyville towards the castle’s shadow. She threw open the castle’s doors and leapt up the stairs, ran through the corridors until she reached the library.
Panting, she approached the mirror. She saw immediately why she couldn’t reach Twilight.
The cable was severed.
And the portal was closed.
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ono, o.o
Oh hell
Well, f**k.
And the tension grows. Can’t wait to see what happens next. Oh, and RB_? You should consider adding a [Mystery] tag.
And then she proceeds to say it four times.
Man, Rainbow, you are really bad at this.
right magic mirror portal and magic-eating plague don't mix.
Is the dust es Equestrians?
Well, that’s definitely not good. Especially with Starlight stuck on the Equestrian side. This could go very poorly indeed; we’ll see just how bad it gets.
As for the Elemental reawakening… hard to say there. It’s a shame they don’t know about the Stump of Harmony in the human Everfree; those crystals might be able to jump-start the Equestrian elements.
Do you think those geodes are in this world
That's not good.. 😥
Midnight Sparkle, the long ago mentioned detail that wasn't touched later on! Me smart
You know, Sparkle, that's one of the reasons why any warnings get logged in a file, so you can look them up and see what the problem was
But hey, maybe a reopening of the portal works and it's just impossible to keep the portal up