When a freak accident leaves everypony lost in the pages of time, only one stallion, with the help of a certain lavender mare that started this whole mess in the first place, can get things back to normal.
When a freak accident leaves everypony lost in the pages of time, only one stallion, with the help of a certain lavender mare that started this whole mess in the first place, can get things back to normal. But this stallion must ask himself one question: How far is he willing to go to save all he cares about? He knows there will be Griffons, Ursa Majors, and other hostile creatures he must confront on the way. But above all, he knows for certain that one thing will happen... Blood will be shed, but who’s blood, is uncertain. He can only hope that it won’t be his...
Note: This story happened before the alicorn incident. If we were going in between episodes, this story would happen between the episodes "Games Ponies Play" and “Magical Mystery Cure”.
The sun shone on another brilliant day in Ponyville, and the white clouds moved whimsically in the sky. It was as if the day was stating to the whole town that the weather team was doing its job, and doing it right. Ponies were trotting around in the streets, if one could call Ponyville's small grass strips between houses streets, and shopping at the market. Stands lined the road in a many places, ponies behind them selling their wares. Applejack was there as always, selling her Equestria-Famous apples and apple treats. Judging by the pile of bits on the counter, sales were up today.
Up the road a little ways was a tree. Yes, I know what you are thinking, 'A tree?! You spent half the morning talking about a market and now you're talking about a tree?!' Well, this tree is important, because it's not just any tree. Somepony lives in this tree. A lavender unicorn, by the name of Twilight Sparkle. This mare is important, because she is what our whole story is about.
This certain lavender mare was preparing for one of her biggest magical experiments yet. A time travel spell. It was always a dream of hers to try time travel, and another to impress the princess beyond measure. This was a chance to do both. Kill two birds with one stone as it were. The only problem was, the spell required maximum concentration, and as we all know, Twilight isn’t the greatest concentrator in Equestria.
“Alright, Spike, do you have the checklist?” Twilight asked.
“Right here Twilight.” Spike said, handing her the checklist of necessary items for the spell.
Looking over the stiff musky parchment, she confirmed she had all of the items, she decided she was ready. If only she knew that she wasn’t... Her poor sleep the previous night, coupled with the minor distraction that was about to happen in 5.7 seconds would be just enough to tip her over the edge of the concentration barrier, causing her to miscalculate her values of magic and mess up the spell. Twilight, oblivious to all this, beckoned upon her magical reserves and with a spark of her horn started the spell. The spell that would cause so much trouble, it would go down in history as “The Forbidden Spell”.
At first her concentration was flawless, and a golden aura surrounded her. From there, everything went south. Spike, unknowing that the front door was coming off of its hinges because of poor maintenance, opened it to get the mail causing it to fall off.
Twilight, who had closed her eyes to get max concentration, opened one eye and plainly stated, “Spike, the door has been out of order for weeks.”
This minor distraction caused her not to notice that the aura had stopped surrounding her, and her to overestimate how much magic to use. Nor did she notice the sky darken. she felt a slight pull on her and her magic, like a power outlet using slightly more power. Within half a second, it dissipated, and she opened her eyes. Although, when she did, she noticed the she hadn’t gone anywhere. And even worse, she realized that Spike was gone...
A blue pegasus stallion walked through the cobblestone streets of Canterlot. He was on a mission he knew, and he knew that this was one he couldn’t cock up. Once again the fate of Equestria was in his hooves, and he loved it.
He was traveling to Manehatten to dispose of the largest pimp, and in turn put an end to the largest crime ring in the city. How did this affect the whole of Equestria? The pimp was planning on attacking Canterlot and taking control of the government, and he had he resources to do it. Especially considering that some of the higher ranking officials knew this pimp. Hey went to the same bars, Triple X clubs, and even hung out at his mansion.
He looked up as he walked past a unicorn stallion, who stopped to shake his hoof.
"Hello, Fancy Pants, Fleur." The blue stallion said, nodding at the stallion and his trophy wife, then shaking the unicorns stallions hoof.
"Hello, Mr. Strike. Fleur and I were going for some tea and biscuits, would you like to come?" Fancy Pants asked.
"I'd love to, but, I'm going into the country today to watch for nightingales. Won't be back for a week." Mr. Strike said staring into the stallions eyes.
"Oh, well then, be safe." Fancy said leading Fleur away with him down the streets immediately, as if nothing ever happened.
Looking up, Strike noticed the the sky was very dark and cloudy. Way too much for a regular thunder storm, Especially considering it was sunny not five minutes ago. And the Storm of the Century wasn’t scheduled for another year.
Deciding to take cover just in case, he entered a small magic shop.
“Some storm brewing, eh?” The shopkeeper asked, whilst organizing a shelf.
“Yeah... some storm...” He said, not believing this was a weather related incident.
Being an educated pegasus he knew weather like this didn’t just "form" in five minutes. He pulled out his phone and decided to make a call. Dialing the number, he couldn’t help but notice swirling clouds in the sky, and ponies gathering in the street.
“Please state your operating number.” An automated voice stated.
“Ugh... November Niner Seven One Five.” he stated.
“Welcome Mr. Strike. One moment. Connecting.” the same voice stated.
Strike waited until a real pony came on the line. “Hello, Mr. Strike. Checking in on the mission objectives already? You really are as fast as they say!” a stallion stated.
“No, actually, uhh... I was wondering... Is the military doing any unannounced weapons tests today, or is Luna playing with the dark magic again?”
“I don’t think there are any weapons tests today... Why?”
“You might want to take a look out your window...”
“Alright...” There was the creaking of an office chair, then deafening silence, but a few moments later the silence was broken. “My God... What the hay is that?!”
“I don’t know... That's why I called you.”
“Let me guess, you want to talk to the princess?”
“If it’s not too much trouble, yes.”
“One moment.” The stallion said, and the scampering of hooves could be heard. After a few minutes the princess herself was on the phone.
"How do you uses this thing? Hello? Hello... Is this thing on?" Celestia asked someone nearby.
"Yes your highness its on. Now, I have a question. Have you noticed the weather?" Mr. Strike asked.
"I've seen it. I'm trying to figure out whats wrong. I only know of two spells that can do that, and I hope it's not the second..."
Strike waited for a moment, watching the clouds. Suddenly he noticed that a golden aura was surrounding everypony. Everypony that is, except him.
"Alright, it's the second. But don't be upset, I know how to fix it. Or rather, you can fix it."
"Me? I'm just a-a pegasus..."
"Just listen I don't have much time. You need to get to the northern most point of the planet... There's an orb there, alright? And you need to put it in the Canterlot Crystal Caverns in its special place. It's near the center of them." The princess stated.
"Yeah, but, what's going to happen to you and everypony else?
"They'll be fi-"
But before she could finish everypony including her had disappeared, the swirling clouds had dissipated, and there was nothing but eerie silence (save for static coming from the phone), and a stallion standing in the doorway of an empty magic store looking at a deserted city in utter confusion.
He asked himself, looking at the sky, “What the hay is going on here...”
(I hate it when I accidentally press the publish button instead of the edit button.)
Considering everypony had just dissapeared, Strike was pretty confused. One minute ago he was standing in a street full of ponies and now he was, as far as he knew, the only one left alive. "The Last of Us" you could say. But, strange zombie, best seller video game puns aside, he needed to figure out what was going on. And he knew just the mare to ask. If she was still on this planet.
Twilight didn't know what had happened, but all she knew was that Spike was gone. She hoped he was ok. She stepped outside the library door, hoping to see him walking up outside, like she had only teleported him out there. She looked around and didn't see him. Come to think about it, she didn't see anyone...
"Spike? Spiiiike?" Twilight called. But no answer came. "Anypony?" She was getting concerned. "I wonder..." She said as she galloped full speed toward Sweet Apple Acres.
Once she reached the farm, she called for Applejack. After she didn't answer she called for Big Mac. Then Apple Bloom. Then Granny Smith. Then she sat her plot down in the grass and thought. "I know!" And she galloped for Sugar Cube Corner. Her legs where getting tired and starting to feel like noodles, but she reached her destination. "Pinkie?!" No answer. "Pinkie!" Still nothing. She immediately thought of Carosel Botique, and rushed there. After failure there, she checked every cloud in Ponyville for Rainbow, Fluttershy's cottage, and started knocking on doors. But she never got an answer. Twilight was devastated. She didn't know what she had done... She sat on the ground heavily, as a tear dripped down her lavender cheek. She tried to hold them in, but the inevitable happened... She started crying.
Strike had reached the castle and looked around but no one was there. Cursing under his breath he looked over to the castles small runway for taking off and landing military planes. Fighters only were allowed, but they were planning on making it bigger so small transport craft could land.
Spotting the Princess's luxury jet that she sometimes used to travel to speech locations, Strike smiled. Galloping over to the door, which was open, he looked around at Canterlot one last time.
"This is madness..." Strike stated, then entered the jet, the door closing behind him.
Twilight didn't know what to do... She had ruined Equestria. Possibly forever. What had she done?! If she was the only pony on the planet she would kill herself. She already knew that. It had been two hours since she had sat and started crying. She had sent a letter to the princess and got no reply. It could be she was busy, or it could be she was gone. She sent Luna a letter as well, but still got the same result. Nothing. She truly was alone now.
Strike was approaching Ponyville at 3,000 feet. As he started his decent he couldn't help but wonder, Who did this, Was it only Canterlot that was effected, was Twilight and the other elements still there, and would Celestias method of fixing this work?
He found a nice wide straight street to land on and lined the plane up.
Twilight's pity party was interrupted by the roaring of jet engines. Looking behind her she saw a jet lined up to land on the road behind her. She simply turned around and sat waiting for the plane to land and run her over. If she was lucky she'd get hit and fly into the engines. At least it would be fast. The plane started to veer left, so she trotted into its path. Then it veered right, so she trotted right. Then left then right. She knew the pilot was trying to dodge her, but she wanted this.
Then it hit her like a ton of bricks. Somepony HAD to be flying the plane! So there was somepony on the planet besides her! Hence she didn't want to die. Twilight frantically ducked, and saw the pilot had turned on the windshield wipers, no doubt to wipe the blood and guts off of the windshield. She then heard the engines turn up to full throttle as the plane pulled up and seemingly "hopped" over her.
The jet hit the ground not ten feet behind her. Although three times as hard as it should have. As soon as it hit, the rear landing gear sheared off and the plane slid on the ground like a sled. The weight of the front of the plane hitting after the rear gear failed caused the front gear to tear off as well. Now a ten ton sled traveling at an excess of 150 miles per hour, the wings had started clipping buildings. One wing crashed through a wall of a house, but was too weak to go through the second wall and tore off. One of the planes engines detached from the side of the plane and fell to the ground tumbling 100 feet before exploding into a fireball.
The plane had slowed to around thirty miles an hour, but before it could slow down any more, it hit a house at the end of the road and exploded into a massive fiery cloud.
Twilight was even more distraught than before. If there was Somepony driving that thing, it was dead now. But Twilight hoped against hopes that they were alive. Galloping to the wreckage quickly, she held her breath.
