Alluvion

by journcy

IV - Stop; Library II; Discovery

+ + +

Shlshh, Shlshh, Shlshh

+ + +

“Everypony up!” Twilight yelled.

She was standing in the hallway that their rooms all branched off of. Princess Celestia and Pinkie Pie were beside her.

Twilight suddenly became conscious of the fact that Princess Celestia was standing right next to her, and she had just shouted as loud as she could. Twilight looked at the Princess and took a few steps back, blushing.

“No, you may wake your friends, my faithful student,” the Princess said.

Nodding, Twilight continued walking down the hall, knocking on doors, yelling, and generally being as loud as she could. Pinkie Pie soon joined in, and together they quickly had a collection of four ponies (and one dragon) standing in the hallway before them.

“What is it?” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “It’s way too early to be wakin’ up!”

“I’m afraid I must concur with Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said, her voice falsely chipper. “A lady does require her beauty sleep, after all.”

Applejack and Fluttershy were silent, both seeming relatively at ease with the time; Spike merely glared around through half-closed eyes.

“Guys! It’s no time for being sleepy-heads, the Princess needs our help! There’s a big problem in Manehattan and-“ Pinkie Pie began to spew forth the events of the past twenty minutes, only to be cut off by Twilight.

“As Pinkie was saying, the situation in Manehattan has worsened to an unbearable degree, and flooding in other cities around Equestria has also become a problem. The Princess wishes for us all to attempt to help through the Elements of Harmony,” Twilight said.

Twilight’s summing of the situation seemed to wake the less-than-willing of the group; Spike shook his head around and the two grumbly ponies grew quiet.

“Well why the hay didn’t you say so?” Rainbow Dash said.

+ + +

Standing in the glass-walled hall of the Elements, the six friends each wore their respective piece of jewelry.

“I know this will be different from when you have previously harnessed the Elements of Harmony,” Princess Celestia said, “as you do not have a direct target upon which to focus.”

“Why don’t we just target the clouds?” Rainbow Dash broke in.

“Rainbow, how the hay do you expect us to get every cloud in Equestria?” Applejack retorted, silencing her friend.

Princess Celestia resumed speaking. “Instead, Twilight, you should think of the rain as a more…abstract concept. Think less of the clouds, and of the water; think about the problems it is causing the ponies of Equestria. Do you understand?”

Twilight nodded. “I do, Princess. Now let’s do this, girls!”

Princess Celestia stepped back, and Twilight closed her eyes. She felt her friends around her, and she thought, as the Princess had told her, of the ponies the rain was affecting. A familiar feeling welled in her gut, and she felt herself rising into the air just as her eyes reopened, glowing white with power.

As the Princess watched, a rainbow issued forth from the union, creating a circle around the six just before exploding in every direction, passing without prejudice through everything it touched—or rather, didn’t touch—and looking not unlike a Sonic Rainboom.

Everything froze.

+ + +

Sitting up, Twilight had the strangest sensation of calm. Of absence. Of stillness. It was strange to her not because she had never felt it before, but rather because of how complete it was. As if everything had…

“…stopped,” Princess Celestia said. Twilight suddenly realized the Princess had been saying something to Princess Luna, who had apparently arrived in the hall.

“What were you saying, Princess?” Twilight said, getting up.

“The Elements seem to have frozen time,” Princess Celestia said, a strange look on her face. Or rather—not strange, just strange for the Princess. Because the emotion Twilight saw was unsurety. Almost confusion. The Princess was many things, but the Princess was never confused, at least not openly. Twilight suddenly became afraid.

“H-how? How could they do that? And why are we still normal?” Twilight asked.

“I do not know,” Princess Celestia said, Twilight’s fear replacing itself with a cold dread.

+ + +

Twilight stared at Spike.

All of her friends had woken up, over time, and the Princess had explained the situation—or what she could explain of it, at least—to them.

Spike, however, had not.

Seeing him standing stock-still—mid-blink, even—at the side of the hall brought back all of the initial strangeness of frozen time, plus a healthy topping of worry for her number one assistant.

“Do you think he’ll be okay?” Twilight whispered. She wasn’t sure who she had meant it for, but Princess Luna had heard her.

“I am not sure what the fate of young Spike will be, Twilight Sparkle, but I know it will be no worse than that of all of us if we do not find the solution to our troubles.”

Twilight’s eyebrows creased. “But wasn’t the point of using the Elements fixing the rain?”

“That was your intent, perhaps, but even the Elements cannot do everything, especially when lacking in specific direction. They have given us time, nothing more,” Princess Luna responded, the wordplay apparently unintentional. “I am sure my sister has realized the same at this point.”

The two looked from Spike over to Princess Celestia, who stood off to the side of Twilight’s five friends.

“Come. We should resume our studies; we mustn’t squander this gift,” Princess Luna said, walking towards the door.

Twilight followed her, looking back at Princess Celestia and her friends as she left.

+ + +

“This is impossible!” Twilight cried, slumping to the floor. Another shelf checked, another shelf empty of any relevant information regarding magical storms. Or mass time stoppage, for that matter.

“It does seem rather unlikely at this point that we will discover anything that will aid our purpose,” Princess Luna said, stepping up behind her. “But what other choice do we have?”

+ + +

One week. That was how long Princess Celestia said it had been. One week, with no hunger, no exhaustion, with the absolute silence of stopped time, with nothing to do but read. Twilight found the irony amusing in a twisted way; before she had come to Ponyville, such a world would’ve been nirvana. But now, under the circumstances…

The best she could do was wonder how her friends were surviving.

+ + +

Another three days had passed, but what Twilight stared down at over Princess Luna’s shoulder made it all worth it.

”…it is entirely possible, upon the occursion of two separate and distinct planes, on a universal scale, that they may become latched together at some specific, probably central position, and in doing so will push continuously their unique conditions upon each other.”

As Twilight comprehended the meaning of the passage, she began to grin at the Princess beside her, she began to muster herself for a joyous jump into the air, and somewhere in the back of her mind, almost unconsciously so, she began to twitch in cold, terrified recognition.

Comments

[journcy]

Annnnnnnd here we have it! Weird time stuff, studying and more studying!
And I wonder what Twi's realizing...

Unfortunately not edited by Web of Hope; he's away at the moment and I wanted to maintain my one-chapter-a-month minimum. Still, I did my best!
I hope you all remain interested and intrigued by where we're going... Things are about to start happening!

Thanks for reading!
Journcy Out.

(so proud of that from-the-book passage btw)

[Web of Hope]

2918128
Sorry guys :/ will be back for next chapter.

But, since I'm out of the loop, I feel no compunction against throwing theories around...
Ponies are about to start dying.

[Mitsubishi Colt]

Let's see...I don't think the elements really can stop TIME itself. I think they more or less slowed everything down to such a crawl that it looks like that. And because all of them are basically freaking out (who wouldn't in such a situation?), they simply don't notice.

I think that the overlapping dimensions is going to be really dangerous for all ponies involved. And who knows how happy Dischord will be if everything gets destroyed but him? Nothing to say chaos on?

I think that's enough gibberish to last for some comment, don't you?