In Starswirl's experiments he stumbled across a spell that created a stable time loop. Though initially unintended, he decided to take on some experiments.
Anything that was within the same room as him would not reset along with the loop, including ponies. And once Starswirl spends the end of a loop in a room to which somepony resets, well... poof. That pony's gone, forever, never to be heard from again.
But what if that's not the case? Maybe they're not gone forever, just, somewhere else. Clover the Clever happened to be one of those unfortunate ponies. ... I wonder where he is now.
Just a short little idea I had. I thought I'd just write it up and see where it goes.
It had been ages since that fateful day. Cover The Clever could not fully remember exactly how it had happened. One moment he had been standing in his room, reviewing his notes for the next day, checking figures and ticking boxes for his master, Starswirl. The next, he was suddenly here, falling through a vast column of swirling energy.
At fist he had been afraid. He feared for the inevitable end to his fall, but it had never come. He just kept falling.
As the minutes turned to hours, the hours to day, days to- He became over taken with boredom, though his surroundings were beautiful, and indeed he entertained many fantasies about their origins, he eventually drew tired of the ever unchanging landscape.
And so, the soul-crushing boredom began. It slowly ate away at his mind until there was nothing left but insanity. But even that, after a while, becomes boring. There is only so many ways one can imagine death. Though, by far his favourite was the most amusing in his eyes; a sudden splat after a many centuries long fall. The pavement, or what have you at the bottom of this magic pit, would be painted crimson. Starswirl would be standing nearby, covered in a visceral splattering and watched in horror as there was nothing left except, perhaps, for two eyeballs bouncing his way as Clover had long since decided that, should he see such a thing coming, he would angle himself such that his head were the last thing to meet.
Thus the boredom resumed; Clover chose not to be insane any further, choosing a more constructive pursuit of his time. He began to study what was around him, which after many years, and many long calculations, he identified to be not a simple hole, or a path through simple space. Instead what he found was far more profound, this ‘tunnel’ he had chose to call it was in fact a type of temporal rift. And the swirling energies around him formed a very distinct pattern, one that would repeat every so few centuries.
For example, he twisted himself around and caught the glimpse of a ring of energy around the tunnel as it passed him by. That was rung one-hundred-and-twenty-seven-B.
Clover rolled back over to look to the other side and continued his thought, That means we should be seeing Princess Celestia’s inauguration coming up on the left right about... Now!, and so there it was, a brief flash as the image of a young Celestia standing in front of her throne kneeled before a noble-mare. Not even a moment and the image was gone, carried away as the walls of the tunnel whipped past.
Of course that’s not all, with every cycle a new rung is added, a new moment in time. But none of it is really unpredictable, with a simple thirty-six degree polynomial integral he- Wait, something’s different. Clover had caught something out of the corner of his eye, That was rung one-hundred-thousand-eight-hundred-and-forty-seven. That’s not right, and indeed, there it is again, and again.
The temporal vortex had become compressed, severely. Clover watched as the cycle repeated itself in quick succession, not the hundreds of millions of years like it had always done, but on the matter of minutes. Every pass was different but it always returned to the same moment.
Clover swung himself across the time-stream inspecting the rungs. There was a powerful magic at work here, one he had not seen since- Starswirl, that fool. What has he done this time?
Indeed it was the same spell he had remembered from before, the one that had trapped him here outside of time. But this was slightly different, likely modified in some way since its initial trials.
Clover twisted over himself and swung down a side tunnel, and floating near the wall he ran a hoof through the energies. An image quickly appeared and Clover struggled to see what was inside. He made some adjustments and the image cleared, it revealed a brightly lit bedroom, the walls were pink and mostly bare. A small satin dressing table stood against the wall to the right, on the left was a rather luxurious bed, and in it laid a small form. A filly slept soundly curled up in the covers, but the magical energies swirling around her was very strong. She was clearly the focus of the spell.
“What are you doing... She is but a filly.” Clover dismissed the image and sped forward. He once again turned to view. This time he had a vantage point outside; it was night, and they were surrounded by a dark forest. The filly had erected a tent near the entrance to a large cave and was walking inside.
From this point Clover could not see inside the cave, so all he could do was to wait. After a short few minutes he felt another surge of energy and saw the filly get flung out of the cave into her tent, and then the zipper was shut tightly locking her in. Then the image came to an abrupt end, and Clover felt the streams shift once again. She was returned back to the beginning of the loop.
Clover flipped back through the tunnel and returned to the main stream to resume his thoughts. Whatever Starswirl is doing it cannot be good. Messing with time is a dangerous pursuit and I can’t let him subject one so young to his experiments.
But what could he do? Clover had been trapped in this space of millennia, even with what he had learned he’s never been able to do more than just observe. Then something occurred to him, something he’d considered many a time.
Clover took a sharp turn down a nearby passage, and then one more to the left. He came upon another tunnel and watched the moments as they went by. One particular moment caught his interest, rung zero, he likes to call it. The exact moment he was ejected from the normal progression. At that exact moment the fabric was weak and allowed the minute possibility of returning.
He’d done the calculations many times before, the chances of a paradox were immense, and he may well wipe himself from existence if he were to attempt such a jump. But it was certainly worth a try, for if he remained here it would be just as good.
Not wanting to wait for the moment to come again, Clover took a side route back some and returned to the tunnel. Now, I just have to… Clover watched the rungs closely as they flung past, minus-three-thousand, two, one. He jumped at the rung and plunged a hoof into the stream. His entire body began to burn forcing tears to his eye but he pushed through. The resistance of the tunnel suddenly broke away and turned into a surging pull. No turning back now.
Clover’s entire body tumbled through the wall, a torrent of energy washed over him as he passed and came into a new space. Unlike before, the tunnel was nowhere to be found, just a mass of chaotic static assaulting his sense. He dared a glance and caught sight of what might be a teacup floating past him before it was instantly gone, and Clover came through the fogs into a vast empty space. All around him he saw streams of energy twisting and turning indefinitely, each one carrying a different version of himself, some twisting and retching in insanity.
There was a bright flash and Clover was overcome with a slight weightless feeling, the tunnels around him retracted and fell away into blackness. Then Clover felt something he hadn’t experienced for a long time, his lungs were burning aching for air. Air bubbles floated past him in the darkness and Clover thrashed around to get his bearing. He swam upwards, he hoped, and came to a hard surface, some kind of rock blocking his way. Fighting off the slight light headedness, Clover lit his horn and focused on moving the rock. It shook slightly and began to roll out of the way. Unable to wait any longer Clover burst through the surface and crawled to the shore letting the rock tumble to the side.
He lay there for ages breathing heavily, it had worked, but Clover did not know where he was, or when. After catching his breath, he turned to look at his surroundings. Clover was in some sort of cave, overgrown with vines, and lying beside a small lake.
Cover got up and looked into the pond to inspect him self; he looked ok, wet, but ok. He’d long since lost his robe, either torn off or eaten in his fits of insanity but it was hardly a big loss. A new one can easily be acquired should the need arise.
There is now a far more important matter at hoof than fashion. He had to find the filly, the subject of Starswirl’s experiments before it was too late, Sweetie Belle, he faintly remembered.
After taking a short moment to catch his breath and, shaking what water he could from his mane, Clover set off to find the exit. The cave proved to be far smaller that it initially appeared. Other than the main cavern with the pool there was just one small tunnel leading to the surface.
After a fair bit of wheezing, puffing, and struggling against gravity Clover was eventually met with the light of day. He stuck his head out of the cave but was immediately sent ducking back in by a loud buzzing from behind. There was a loud flutter and Clover was shocked to witness a large flock of flying apples and oranges whipping past the cave opening.
“What the hay!?” Clover crouched down just inside the entrance for a moment and waited to see if there were any more surprises for him outside. After a couple minutes of silence he stuck his head out once again to observe his surroundings.
It was day, no it was night, no, right the first time, day, wait, night, either one of the two. Whoever was in control seemed to be unable to make up his mind as the sun and moon both dance around each other in rapid succession. After a very disorienting display they settled for something in-between, with both hovering just off the horizon bathing the land in a combination of blue and orange.
To his left Clover spotted a small settlement, or what was left of one. Many of buildings that were still standing were painted in garish colours and many more were in the process of floating away from their foundations.
As he got closer into town the faint screams of panicked ponies became apparent and Clover noted several groups running past as he got closer. Clover took this as his que to break into a gallop and head in the direction they were all coming from.
In town square there were yet more panicked ponies, “Somepony help!” One shouted.
“It’s the end of the world!” Another continued, all the while running past each other not noticing Clover’s presence.
Clover shouted all he could but none of them so much as gave him a glance. Eventually getting sick of the ponies ignoring him, Clover jumped into the path of a brown and green Unicorn as she dashed past. But instead of slowing or swerving out of his way the pony simply continued straight through him. She stumbled and stopped a few feet behind him, shivered, and shook out her mane, and then continued on her way.
“Hm” Clover watched as the ponies ran around. He seemed unable to interact with them in any way. They couldn’t hear him, nor could he touch them. He was like a ghost.
Clover decided to take refuge in one of the discoloured houses; a small quill shop tinted his favourite colour, green. The doors and windows were boarded but they proved no hindrance to him as he quickly discovered that it wasn’t just ponies he’d phase through.
He walked through the front door, quite literally. He mentally noting the subtle tingling sensation as he seemed to break every know law of physics and sat down in the middle of the empty shop. Okay, let’s see here…
I’m definitely not in the right time period, that much is certain. I also can’t interact with, well, anything. Clover absentmindedly scuffed a hoof against the ground as he though androlled onto his side to get more comfortable against the hard wood floor, But how did I move the rock before? It must be limited to some materials.
Clover looked around at the contents of the shop. It was dank and musky, the shelves around them were all bare save for the occasional cobweb and the over abundance of dust. Nothing here I can determine the current date, but, given the state of affairs out there… I’d have to put this somewhere during Discord’s reign.
But now how do I get to the right time then? I presume by retrying the spell but I’ll have to fix my predicament first. I know I was able to move that boulder, I used my magic so maybe… Clover looked around the shop for something to test his theory on, he settled for an empty crate in the corner.
He lit his horn and watched as the box took on an emerald glow, and as expected began to levitate across the room. Right, so I can’t interact with physical objects directly, but I can use magic.
“Discord!” The sounds of more ponies screaming broke Clover out of his thoughts. He jumped to his hooves and rushed to the window. Outside there was the god of chaos himself, Discord.
Clover jumped back to his hooves trotted to the window to get a view of what was happening outside. He couldn’t see much, due to the planks across the window obstruting his view, but he did catch a glimpse of more ponies running around. They seemed to be looking at something in the air but Clover couldn’t tell where it was from his vantage point.
He leaned forward against the window to get a better view, but was caught unaware as fell forwards and landed in the dirt outside. His entire coat tingled for a moment. ... of course Clover mentally kicked himself for forgetting what he’d learnt literally seconds ago.
He slowly got back up and was dusting himself off when a large shadow was cast over him. “Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Discord’s voice rang out behind Clover and he spun around to find the Lord of Chaos floating in the air, upside down.
Clover did a double take, “Wait, you can see me?”
“Of course I can!” Discord sneered. “I’m Discord, the Denizen of Destruction, the Master of Disaster, the Crafter of Chaos, the Lord of Ludicrously, I am sensitive to all things magic; and I can feel the fabrics of space and t-”
“That’s great!” Clover shouted excitedly cutting Discord off, “Then perhaps you can help me with my little problem?”
Clover looked up waiting for Discord to respond, he simply floated there in silence, his eyes narrowing. “I can’t believe you interrupted me, not cool man.” He huffed and folded his arms, as he tried to float in such a way that put his back to Clover.
“Oh, uh, I’m sorry” Clover apologised, “You can start again, I won’t inter-”
Discord shook his head, “No, no, it’s too late now. The moment has passed. Quite a shame too, I had a whole speech prepared and everything.” To illustrate his point Discord pulled a scroll out of nowhere and promptly tore it up. “Now what was this problem you were talking about?”
“Well I can’t touch anything, for one. My magic works fine but my body just phases through anything, or anypony I touch.”
“Oh, sounds like you’re stuck on the wrong dimension, the aether by my guess. Yeah, I had that problem my first time as well.”
“Well can you fix it?”
Discord smiled, “Well there’s nothing simpler! I could show it to you in a heartbeat.”
“Really!?” Clover’s entire face lit up and his ears perked forwards as he waited for the draconequus’ directions.
And he waited.
Discord continued to nonchalantly float on the spot. He lay back and conjured up a nail file and began tending to his claws.
“Um...”
Discord looked up, “What?” he asked.
Clover dead panned, “You were going to help me?”
“Oh no, I said I knew how to do it. Not that I would help you.”
Clover sighed and face hoofed. “Fine, then I’ll find my own way out.” and he turned to leave.
Discord simply gave a friendly wave and smile, “I wish you luck then” and returned to cleaning his claws.
Clover rolled his eyes and ignored him. Clover was trotting back to his ruined book store when he cursed under his breath and commented, “I’m starting to get why the Princesses blasted him.”
“They blasted me?”
“Gah!” Clover jumped in fright, a tiny version of Discord had spoken up from beside his ear. He twisted around to where the voice had come from, but in doing so lost balance and toppled over.
The mini Discord simply jumped off Clover’s shoulder and, with the assistance of a tiny umbrella, slowed his descent in the air as the pony fell. “My, my, an excitable one isn’t he?” There was a white flash and Discord returned to his full self and stowed his umbrella in a rather convenient hole in reality before zipping it closed. He then snapped his fingers and another flash returned Clover to an upright position. “Now tell me,” Discord pulled Clover to his side and pointed his ears, all six of them, towards the pony. “What is this about blasting?”
“Hmf” Clover pushed the Draconequus away, “I shouldn’t tell you” Was his only remark, and resumed walking.
Discord took flight and trailed alongside Clover. “Oh come now, you’ve peaked my interest. I simply must know!”
“Well how about a trade?” Clover stopped mid stride and turned to face Discord. “You tell me what I want and I’ll tell you something you want. Do we have a deal?”
Discord paused and considered this for a moment, “All right. You have a deal.”
“Tell me how to get back to the physical plain.”
“Fine, do you see these rifts in space-time?”
In all truthfulness Clover did, all the time. He’d learnt to see them and many other non-euclidian constructs during his time outside of time. Why right at this moment he saw hundreds of them swirling around Discord, a new swath of them formed every time the Draconequus does so much as lift a claw. Discord’s magic is constantly ripping space apart and stitching it back together in ways that it would assuredly object to if it had a voice. Clover nodded.
“Good. Then all you have to do is find one big enough to fit through, and I recommend you take a note”- Snapping his fingers, Discord summoned a notepad and ink quill into Clover’s hoof. “Take three lefts, a right, another left, two rights” Punctuation each direction with a wave of his arm, “and then you snazzle down the wiggluwamp and you should be there.”
“Snazzle?” Clover questioned.
Discord waved a claw, “You know, North, South, East, West, Up, Down.” As he said this he pointed a claw in each direction to illustrate, “Snazzle, Wazzle, Google, and Fruggle, all the ten cardinal directions!”
Clover wasn’t sure where Discord pointed for those last four, but he was certain he broke something in the process. “… you just made that up.”
“Well what do you expect? I’m Discord.” He leaned closer and rapped his claws together menacingly, “Now tell me about this blasting.”
“Well, have you heard about the Tree of Harmony?”
“Bleh” Discord stuck his tongue out and made a show of gagging, “Sounds dreadful.”
The dark mass of swirling energy pulsed menacingly as Clover the Clever approached. Tiny tendrils of darkness lapped around its edges as reality threatened to snap shut upon itself. Clover hadn’t expected a large enough portal to be this easy to find, all of his previous calculations had deemed it a near impossibility, one in one-hundred-billion to be exact, and yet here it was. Clover was standing outside the ruins of an old bakery. The portal was safely tucked away in an empty corner near the back, just to the left of the building’s back exit. It stood wide enough across to fit an entire apple cart and tall enough to fit the apples inside said cart; more than enough for his purposes.
He cautiously stalked around the behemoth. It appeared to be stable, but Clover’s common sense told him this wouldn’t be the case. Reality itself resists this kind of fracturing. For a hole this big to even exist, for but a second, would take vast amounts of energy; many pettawats of magical potential would have to be poured into it every second, and the best he could tell this thing had been there for weeks, maybe even longer.
Clover stalked towards the portal and cautiously reached through with a hoof. His fur tingled slightly, and the inside felt mostly normal, a cool breeze blew from inside. Unfortunately, Clover didn’t have much longer to ponder on this. There was a large explosion on the far side of town and Clover had no opportunity to pull himself out before the shockwave hit. He was blinded by a bright flash of prismatic light, lost his balance, and tumbled through. As he fell he thought he heard the distinct, pained screams of a particular Draconequus being turned to stone.
Clover could feel himself falling for what felt like ages, before he came down hard on a large pile in the darkness.
“Ugh.” Clover groaned. He could feel several sharp objects poking him in the back, and rolled onto his side in an attempt to find some kind of relief. He sat up, careful not to hurt his back any more, and took stock of his surroundings. The interior of the portal was pitch black, save for a faint light from the opening above and the enchanted glow of Clover’s horn.
The area around him appeared not unlike a junk yard. There were piles of random objects strewn all over the place. In his short observations Clover spied several piles of apples, kites, eye patches, art supplies, many, many boxes; he vaguely saw some books underneath another pile, and even the odd javelin sticking out at a dangerous angle.
“Hey, what are you doing in my Hammerspace!?” A cheery, yet accusing, voice sounded from behind making Clover jump.
He fumbled to get back to his hooves and spun around to find the source, the head of a pink mare sticking out from under a pile of apples, giving him an odd look. Her curly mane almost made it look like there was a mound of pink candyfloss floating there. “Your what now?”
The mare raised an eyebrow in confusion, “You don’t know what a Hammerspace is?”
“Well... maybe. I’ve never heard it mentioned before.”
“A Hammerspace is like a personal dimension, where a pony can put anything they want and access it from anywhere. Everypony has one; you must know what it is!”
Clover shook his head, “No, we never had anything like that where I’m from. ... although” Clover remembered something, and paused to try to recall, “...I do remember something similar to that— a long time ago.”
He could remember a concept described in a paper published by the Equestrian Daily, back when he still worked with Starswirl. It was a new field of magic being explored by a Dr. Charles Neighwhinny. He theorised that there could be a type of pocket dimension accessable by any race using nothing but their latent magical potential. He didn’t have any evidence to support such a claim though, and the idea of a spell so basic even an Earth Pony could use it seemed ridiculous, so they all just assumed him to be a crackpot.
“Heh” Clover chuckled to himself, “I guess Charles was right.”
“Charles?” The pony was staring.
Realising he’d zoned out for a moment, Clover waved a hoof dismissively, “Oh, nothing.”
“Okiedokie!” The mare chirped and went back to looking round. “Say, could you pass me one of those eye patches over there?” She pointed with a muzzle towards where a pile of black eye patches lay, on the far side of Clover. “I have a bit of an eye patch emergency and I really need one of those.” She fluttered her eyes, pleadingly.
“Sure” Clover shrugged and trotted over to the pile. He reached down and picked on up in his hoof, but as he lifted his foreleg, the eye patch phased through his grip and landed back on the pile, much to Clover’s embarrassment.
The mare rolled her eyes, “Never mind. I’ll get i.” and a pink hoof popped out from under the pile, grabbing an eye patch, and then retreated back. “Bye, Clover! Nice seeing you again!”
“Wait!” Clover made a move to stop the mare, but was already too late. Her head had already disappeared into the pile. Searching through the apples, Clover couldn't find any signs of her. Hm... What a strange mare.
Deciding to dismiss... whatever had just happened, Clover turned back to what he was here to do. He thought back to Discord’s directions. Three lefts, a right, left again, and two rights. Then he had to figure out what the other things meant.
Clover glanced around once more time at the massive pile of objects that he lay among, which he now presumed to all belong to that pony from before. He groaned again, and rubbed a hoof down his face. “This will take fore-” Wait, did she know me?
Meanwhile...
3,000 YEARS LATER
“Thanks, girls!” Sweetie Belle squeaked her thanks as they arrived back at the boutique.
“No problem, sorry we couldn’t get our cutiemarks this time.” Apple Bloom apologised as Sweetie separated from the group to reach her front door.
She turned around with a warm smile, wiping away the dribbles of tree sap that had begun to drip down into her face, “That’s ok. We’ll get them next time, I’m sure of it.” Of course there was more truth to this than what Sweetie Belle was letting on. She already knew they would have gotten them. They’d done it before in the last loop, and this time she had only sabotaged the catapult to see what would happen.
However she hadn’t meant for Scootaloo to hit the tree like that, of course, but everything should be fine in the next loop, right?
“Heay! Le’wl tatoyll gte tehm xent mite!” Scootaloo babbled incoherently as she wobbled on her hooves, almost knocking Apple Bloom over. She seemed her normal self at least, with that usual grin she gets when she’s hopeful about getting a cutiemark. But neither of them could bring themselves to mention the way her eyes sat at almost right angles.
“Come on Scoots, let’s get ya’ to the doctor." Apple Bloom began to usher her friend away, turning to wave goodbye as she did so. "See you tomorrow, Sweetie!”
Scootaloo frowned, “Tub I heat hte odcotr! M’i nefi!” but allowed herself to be lead away regardless.
Sweetie Belle stayed on her front porch, waving until her friends were far out of sight, and then went inside, “Rarity! I’m home!”
“Welcome back, Sweetie.” Her sister’s voice came from the kitchen and Sweetie could tell there was something delicious cooking. The smell of fresh casserole pervaded the entire boutique. “How was crusading?”
She dutifully slipped the ‘open’ sign to ‘close’ and shut the door before answering her sister. “Uh...” Sweetie Belle glanced at herself, and then at the hoof prints of sap leading up from the door. “It was... Great!” She lied. I'm totally not covered in sap right now. She knew how much Rarity hated when she came back covered in tree sap.
“That’s good.” Rarity seemed to buy it for now, “Dinner will be ready soon, why don’t you go wash up and we can eat?”
Sweetie Belle nodded, “Okay!” and did her best to rub her hooves off on the door mat, though the stickiness only caused her to pick up more dirt. Eventually satisfied she would, at least, not be tracking sap all over the carpets; Sweetie Belle dashed upstairs as quickly as she could.
She headed straight for her room to drop off her saddlebags and threw them onto her bed. Sweetie stopped to give Philomena some food, and was just about to leave to go shower when she noticed something amiss on her dressing table.
Rarity’s clock was still resting against the mirror as it was when she’d left, and so were all of her books, but she didn’t remember leaving any of them open. The book on Starswirl was lying open to page 37, or at least it would have been if the page wasn’t missing “... uh, Rarity?”
“Yes, dear?”
“Did you come into my room?”
“No. Why?”
“Uh... No reason.” Turning back to the book, Sweetie Belle ran her hoof along the rough edge where the page had been torn.
By this point Clover the Clever was starting to think Discord’s directions were a load of hogwash. He’d spent several hours searching that pony’s hoard top to bottom for anything that might be a clue as to how he might get out. He tried jumping, leaping, twisting, even yoga— which had done very little for his still aching back mind you— but nothing proved useful.
It’s when he slipped and almost impaled himself on a javelin— a chill ran up Clover’s spine as an image of the piece of metal poking through his side conjured itself up in his mind. It didn’t hurt, thank Celestia, but it still felt wrong having it pass through him like that.
A faint rumble sounded over the horizon, bringing Clover back to the present. It was getting dark and the sky had become thick with deep crimson clouds that lit up and roared brilliantly every so often. There was a faint breeze picking up as well, and Clover could feel the distinct tingling near the end of his horn that indicated a storm was brewing. Whatever weather this place had, Clover knew he didn’t want to be caught in the middle of it.
He checked back the way he’d come. Most of what he’d passed in the last hour was nothing but empty dirt, and the mounds were but a hazy silhouette on the horizon now. He certainly won’t be going back, but there was one place he could go.
The landmark he’d originally set out towards, a mountain only a few hundred feet ahead. There he should be able to find shelter in a cave.
There was another clap of thunder, and the faint pattering of drops reached his ears.
A few more minutes of walking and Clover was almost to his destination. The thunder was becoming more frequent and the constant roar of rain sounded all around him, though all he could feel of it was the tingling as the water passed through his coat and splashed to the ground beneath him.
He bolted into the cave and collapsed heaving in the entrance, then turned over to watch as the storm assaulted the world outside, “Okay,” Clover’s voice echoed loudly throughout the cave. He winced, and continued in a softer tone, “Let’s try this again.”
He sat up on his haunches and began recounting Discord’s directions, “It was three lefts, a right, a left, right twice more, and then a ‘snazzle’.”
Clover frowned, “But I don’t know what a ‘snazzle’ is.” A crack of lightning flashed through the cave, and the rain redoubled its efforts. Clover tried to block the noise out, folding his ears down and shifting a few paces further into the cave, “But he did say something about it being a direction, so maybe it’s something in a higher dimension?” Clover’s frown deepened and he shook his head, “But then how am I supposed to move in a direction not my own? No, if I know anything about Discord, he wouldn’t have it make that much sense.”
“... although.” Clover lit his horn and cast out his magic to sense the surroundings, something Starswirl taught him to do often. One can never know enough about the hidden reams, after all.
He began by inspecting the top level mana, the ones most commonly used by Unicorns. Everything seemed normal at this level, it was mostly flowing westward, with the occasional eddy forming in the cave due to his own presence.
He then moved on the next level, the trae-mana, the life giving force. It, too, seemed normal given the situation. This place seemed thoroughly devoid of any life forms.
Finally, he skipped the third and fourth levels, and went straight to the quart-mana. This is where he noticed something off. The flow was completely wrong; portions were flowing rapidly to the south, whilst other large regions were being sucked straight up, and there were waves of some force rumbling through—
The sound of the rain turned from a constant low roar, to a deep rumble that reached Clover even in his meditation. He opened his eyes to find the entire cave shaking and a gale force wind blowing through from the storm outside. Several rocks had also fallen on him, though he hadn’t noticed due to his condition.
Clover galloped out into the open. As he approached the opening to the cave, he was instantly hit by the strong winds, and stumbled and stopped to brace himself. He shielded his eyes from the storm and tried to form a spell to protect him.
He settled on a simple shielding spell, though it would take a lot of his energy to maintain. He quickly formed the parts in his mind and cast the spell. A thin green membrane took form covering the front half of his body, with flaking edges around its perimeter. Not much, but it would have to do.
He headed out into the storm, being sure to keep the shield between himself and the winds, and turned around to look up at the mountain. It had already grown dark outside, but, in the brief flashes of lightning, he could make out several cracks forming near the peaks.
Clover gulped and backed away from the cave, moments before another tremor shook the mountain and threw the entrance down upon itself in a deafening crash. But the quakes didn’t stop there. The ground shook more violently and cracks started to spread from the mountain into the surrounding area.
As Clover watched in horror, patches of ground broke loose and began tilting. Other areas dropped away around him revealing a black abyss below.
He backed away slowly as the cracks progressed, then started moving faster, then slightly faster. Pretty soon Clover found himself running full tilt from a wave of breaking up and disappearing land.
The destruction quickly overtook Clover and he had to teleport on multiple occasions to keep ahead of it.
Over the course of fifteen minutes, Clover had covered the space he’d done before in an hour and was already approaching where the mounds should be though he didn’t pay much attention to that as he watched over his shoulder every few seconds to check the progress of the deterioration.
Eventually, Clover arrived at the location he’d originally fallen through the portal, but was surprised to find large areas of the plane hollowed out and the mounds completely missing.
He stopped at the edge of a cliff and looked around in add directions. Behind him the ground was shaking and tilting, and breaking apart. Before him was a large gap, and to the left and right were thing pieces of ground that wrapped around for several hundred paces.
He didn’t have time to double around though.
“Clover! Over here!”
A familiar voice called out from behind Clover. He looked back over the gap. Far off, near the centre, he though he saw something flicker.
There was the flitter of light, and a hoof poked through a hole floating in the air. A head followed, and he instantly recognised the pony from before. She waved at him and called again, “Clover, get in here, quick!”
Clover glanced around himself one more time. The destruction was almost upon him. He looked over the gap and picked out several stones still floating across the space.
“Well, it’ll be now or never” He gulped, put all his magic into his shield to keep the wind off, and leapt for the first step. He left the edge moments before the last pieces of land broke away behind him, and scrambled with his hooves onto the floating piece of stone.
He steadied himself, and jumped to the next, which immediately began to fall forcing Clover to hop to the next.
He did this four times before he made the final jump for the portal.
He held out his hoof as far as he could and grasped for safety as he plummeted into the abyss.
Just as he thought it was too late, a pink hoof reached out and grabbed him by the fetlock, and pulled him inside.
The portal zipped closed behind them, locking the storm out for good.
Clover immediately pulled the mare into a rough hug, momentarily forgetting everything else, “Thank you; thank you so much!” He could almost feel himself tearing up as he nuzzled deep into the mare’s curly mane. He didn’t know how or why, but he didn’t care. Somehow this mare was able to touch him and it had saved his life, “I don’t know how I can repay you for this and I don’t even know your name.”
“Hold on now, Casanova.” She pushed the distraught stallion away, “Firstly, it’s Pinkie Pie.” Clover nodded, adding that piece of information to his vault, “Second, where not out of the woods yet. We only have about ten minutes before this hammerspace starts to fracture as well, so we’d better move fast.”
“Right, of course,” Clover nodded and looked around. Unlike the one from before, this space was a lot simpler. It didn’t have any landmarks or any sense of up or down. Both the ground and the sky were featureless seas of darkness, “So, where is this?”
“This is one of my emergency hammerspaces. I keep them stashed all over the place in case of a hammerspace emergency.”
“... so this is inside your regular hammerspace? Isn’t that dangerous?”
“Nope” Pinkie shook her head, “Not at all! You only have to worry about things blowing up when you’re mixing different types of pocket dimensions, like putting a hammerspace into a bag of holding.” Pinkie paused, and Clover thought he saw the faintest hints of a blush come over the mare. She continued in a much quieter tone, “I, uh, kind of found that out the hard way.”
Before Clover could ask any further the mare returned to her previous bubbly disposition, “So let’s get moving.” She pulled out a notebook from her mane and paged through it for a moment, before stopping on one page and prodding it with a hoof. “Okay, the first thing we have to do is teach you to Snazzle.”
“How do you—“
“Shh,” Pinkie shoved a hoof in Clover’s mouth, silencing him, “I’m working here.” Then resumed reading her instructions, “It says you should take my hoof,” She held out a hoof to Clover.
Clover stood still, his eyebrow raised, and staring at the pink mare looking to him expectantly with her hoof held out. In the short moment, Clover realised there was something different about this Pinkie Pie. She somehow seemed older, and there was a strong magical presence around her that he couldn’t place. Every few minutes another pulse would pass him making the end of his horn buzzed. Pinkie bobbed her eyes, hinting to her hoof, and held it out slightly further, “Come on now. I won’t bite.”
Clover relented and grabbed onto her hoof, “Fine, but no— Woah!” Pinkie suddenly pulled Clover up to her, lifting them both up into a standing position on their hind legs.
He felt the fur on their barrels brush together momentarily and Clover felt a blush coming over him. Pinkie Pie’s face was filling his vision and she gave him a quick wink before taking the lead into the most awkward version of the waltz that Clover had ever experience.
She spoke out the steps as she went through them, “Left, left, left, right,” She turned them around and continued in the other direction, “Right, left, right, right, and—” Pinkie winked and pulled him to her side, then sent him spinning in a pirouette, “Snazzle!”
The room spun around frantically, and Clover felt like his stomach had turned itself inside out. He stumbled, collapsed to his haunches, and stared at the ground as he tried to recover from his dizziness, “Wh—what was that?”
“That, my dear Clover,” she produced a pipe and detective’s hat. Pinkie clenched the pipe between the teeth and eyed the fedora in her hooves, Hm... that was supposed to be a Searlock Holms hat, She shrugged and returned it to her hammer-hammerspace, Oh well, and continued, “That, my dear Clover, was a Snazzle. Don’t worry, the feeling will pass. Believe me when I say that my dance is the easiest way.”
Pinkie motioned with her hoof, “Now, let’s get out of here,” and began trotting in a random direction.
“Right, where are we going?” Clover hurried to keep up with Pinkie Pie.
“Hold it” Pinkie stopped, holding up a hoof for Clover to do the same. She took a step forwards and began inspecting something Clover couldn’t see.
“Um,” Clover stood back and watched as Pinkie waved her hooves around in the empty air. For the first moments, he was beginning to wonder whether he’d be better off outside, when there was a loud knock as Pinkie’s hoof came into contact with something solid.
She trotted around to the other side, facing Clover, and knocked again. It was a low hollow sound, almost like something made of wood, “Here we go.” She continued patting down the invisible object, until her hoof found something to grab a hold of, and Pinkie pulled the door open.
There was a rush of air, a sudden explosion of noise, and the waves or magic returned now much stronger than before. Reality itself seemed to split open before, revealing a doorway into another dark space.
“Here you go,” Pinkie stepped around the portal, “This should take you closer to where you need to go,” she shouted.
“What?” A loud thrashing was filling Clover’s ears, and he could barely make out what Pinkie was saying.
Pinkie Pie wrapped a hoof around Clover and pulled him closer to the edge of the portal, pointing with the other hoof,“It’s getting closer, you have to go now.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll be fine,” she reached into her mane and pulled out a small satchel, that she pressed into Clover’s hoof, “Take this. A friend told me you’d need this.”
“Will I see you again?”
Pinkie giggled, “You already have.” And shoved Clover through the portal moments before the black void around them began to crack and fume, wisps of red clouds invading the space and obscuring Pinkie from view as he fell away.
“I see,” Twilight nodded, half listening to Sweetie’s explanation as she looked over the torn out page. Both she and Sweetie Belle were stood in the foyer of the Friendship Castle, Twilight standing agitated with her saddlebags ready to leave, and Sweetie Belle in the doorway blocking her exit. They were just about to lock up when the filly approached, out of breath and waving an old tome in her hoof as she screamed for her to wait. Naturally, as Ponyville’s premier librarian, and devote follower of the written word, it was her duty to ensure the book was well taken care of, “And you’re sure it wasn’t like this before?”
Spike joined them shortly with his own bag slung over his back, stopping next to Twilight to watch the conversation as it carried on. “I’m certain,” Sweetie Belle nodded; adamant.
“Well if I did give you this book like you say I did, then there’s a good chance that you’ll find another one in my library.” Twilight snapped the book shut and levitated it back down for Sweetie Belle to take, “However, I don’t have any time to help you right now. I need to—“
“Meet Applejack at the market,” Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes as she completed Twilight’s sentence for her. She’d already been through this how many times. Every loop it was the same thing, waffles on Monday, Rarity heads out for Manehattan, and Twilight leaves early to go to the market. It was something she could set her clock to, if that even mattered right now. “I know,” she added with a huff and the tipped the book back into her saddlebags. Turning around to follow Twilight as she crept around towards the exit “Isn’t there something you can do?”
“Well,” Twilight paused, midway through the door. She kept one hoof pressed against the frame, waiting for Spike. She tapped her chin with other as she considered, “I could leave the library open for you to look for yourself,” Her gaze hardened, and she quickly snapped, startling both Spike and Sweetie Belle, she pointed a hoof, “but you have to promise me you won’t cause any damage.”
“Oh!” Sweetie’s face lit up, and she nodded frantically, “Yes, I can do that.”
“Good,” Twilight nodded to Spike, motioning to Sweetie as she spoke, “Stay here and help Sweetie Belle find what she’s looking for; I’ll be back in an hour or so.”
“Aye, aye, Twilight,” Spike saluted and waddled over to Sweetie’s side. They shared a glance and both watched in silence as Twilight disappeared from view, the door clicking silently as it closed behind her.
Sweetie Belle sighed, “Finally,” She turned to leave, calling Spike after her, “Now let’s go find that—”
They were about to leave when the door suddenly cracked ajar and Twilight’s head poked through to shoot the filly a sharp glare, “And if you do find it please don’t tear out any pages.” She begged.
Sweetie Belle nodded, rolling her eyes, “Okay!” and once again Twilight was gone.
She made to trot away when suddenly the door opened again, “And don’t replace it with your own copy either!”
“All right!” Sweetie Belle screamed. Rushing up to the door, she grabbed it with a hoof, “Princesses, who do you, take me for? Spike?” She shouted at the Princess and slammed the door, this time with a loud click as the lock was set in place. She huffed and turned up her nose, turned away from the door, to trot past Spike.
Spike waggled his eyebrows, watching Sweetie Belle as she trotted past him with an upturned muzzle. “... so?”
“Not a chance.”
Spike deflated, utterly destroyed, “Oh...” was all he could say. He dragged his feet and trudged after the filly, keeping his eyes to the ground.
“Okay,” Spike waved for Sweetie Belle to follow him as he trotted across the library, “The Starswirl section should be back here.” He led the two to a shelf at the far left, and pulled a small stool closer to climb on top. Sweetie Belle watched patiently from the base, holding the stool steady whilst Spike looked through the row of old tomes, “Since when are you so interested in Starswirl anyway?” He asked, not bothering to look back as he ran a claw across the bindings of books,
“Oh,” Sweetie Belle paused, “It’s, uh, for a school project. I just found his work in time travel really fascinating.”
“Interesting,” Spike commented. There was a momentarily pause, before Spike spoke up again to add, “Don’t tell Twilight I said this, but I’ve always found Starswirl to be a bit of hack.”
“What do you mean?”
“So much of his work was lifted from other scholars,” Spike paused to look back, “Why, his Tempora Porealus spell was taken directly from the works of Summer Shine the Little Known. All he did was change the wording and swap out a couple of the old Sigmas for his own.”
“... I had no idea.”
“What? You think I’d spend my entire life living in a library and not know something about magic?”
“No, I mean it’s—”
“Aha,” Spike suddenly shouted, startling Sweetie Belle. He pulled out an old battered book, with a brown cover and tattered pages, holding it in triumph, “Found it!”
“Great!” Sweetie belle squeaked, her voice cracking an octave out of excitement. Releasing the ladder, she made to do a jump for joy, but was stopped short when the ladder wobbled and reminded her why she was holding it. Blushing, she wrapped a hoof around the left leg and held it steady for Spike, then stepped up on it with her other to get a better look at the book, “Open it up, and let’s see what it says.”
“Okay,” Spike nodded and turned the book on its side, “What page was it?”
“Hold on,” Sweetie turned to pull her own copy out of her saddlebags. She quickly paged to the torn out page and noted the number of the previous one, “Page 37,”
“Okay.” Using his claws as a kind of wedge, he cracked on the book close to where he’d imagine the page would be, but before going any further his eyes widened, “Oh, wow.”
“What is it?”
“Cdzf Qwgjgd Fdzcf”
Sweetie Belles eyes glazed over, her mouth turning down into a frown, “Uh, what?”
“It’s complete gibberish!” Spike stated, and held up the book for Sweetie to see. Indeed the pages were covered in nothing but garbled words.
“But...” Sweetie Belle stepped away from the ladder to let Spike climb down. He sat at the base whilst she paged through her book, “That’s not right!” She finally came to the same page Spike was showing, “Mine’s in plain Equestrian!” and held up her book for Spike to see.
“Why’s this one different then?”
“I don’t know, did you check the missing page?”
“Hold on.” Spike resumed paging through the book, eventually coming to the page number in question, “Yeah,” Sweetie Belle sat down next to Spike, dragging the book sideways so they could both see. Indeed the page was there, however it seemed like it had been torn out and then stitched back into place. Its edges were badly ruffled and it was covered in symbol and etchings she’d never seen before.
As the book tilted in their hold, the ink on the page seemed to almost shimmer with a faint silvery glow. Sweetie belle frowned and turned the page. The back was blank, but the next page had more symbols, though this time more familiar to her.
They were arranged in a grid, four to a line with eight lines. No two identical. Before she’d passed them up as nothing but, given this new page, they had to mean more.
“Uh,” Spike spoke up, reminding Sweetie Belle that he was sitting beside her, “So what does it mean?”
Sweetie Belle huffed, “I’m taking this.” She tossed her own book back into her saddlebags and made to pull the other out of Spike’s claws, however he held firm.
“Wait, you can’t!” Spike protested. He pulled the book back, hooking his tail around the back of the ladder for some hold before Sweetie could pull him all the way over, “You’re not allowed to check out any books unless Twilight’s here, and she’ll kill me if she finds out you’ve taken one of her Starswirl collection!”
“It doesn’t matter, you won’t even remember this.”
“What do you mean I won’t—” Sweetie Belle pecked Spike’s cheek with a soft kiss. The dragon was instantly frozen solid, his eyes wide as dinner plates as he stared at Sweetie Belle, “... y- You—” and before he could utter a single word he was hit by a hibernation spell, knocked back against the shelf and slumped to the ground, unconscious, under an avalanche of books.
Turning her back to the dragon, Sweetie Belle rekindled her magic. She winced, stumbling slightly, and slapped a hoof to her forehead. The room spun as another shot of pain rang out through her temples. Taking a moment to steady her nerves, Sweetie Belle adjusted her shield and turned her focus back to the task at hoof. With a loud pop she teleported away and back to her room.
Upon arriving she was welcomed by the flutter of feathers and Philomena’s incessant squawking, “Philomena, I know,” She rolled her eyes, trotting past the cage and over to her vanity. She pushed the other books out of the way and laid out the two volumes next to each other on the same page, “It’s Friday, as of tonight none of this will even matter. I have” — she glanced to her clock, “Two hours, thirty one minutes to figure this out before Twilight gets back.”
She was answered by another squawk from Philomena’s cage. Rolling her eyes, “Yeah, you’re right. Without Spike to slow her down Twilight likely won’t stop at the café for her usual hay sandwich and a soda. Which means I have two hours, ten— nine,” She corrected herself, “minutes before somepony comes stomping at my door.”
Falling backwards, Clover watched as the portal sped away from him, growing smaller as the walls of the portal closed in around him and his ears filled with the thrumming of time magic. Pinkie Pie was still visible in its entrance, vaguely, for a moment before she trotted away and out of view, dissipated into the thrall of a red mist.
Once again Clover was alone, with nothing but his thoughts in the familiar surroundings of the time vortex; the rungs of time passing him by as he tumbled backwards through the ages. He clung hard to the bundle in his hooves and used his legs to regain some semblance of balance.
Spinning around, he looked ahead to see where he was going. By the shape of this tunnel, the lack of side passages, and how the rungs pulsed with energy, it had to be leading somewhere. He turned his gaze down towards the distance and froze, his eyes widening at the view ahead.
Far off, and rapidly approaching, the tunnel came to a sudden and dramatic end. At this distance, he couldn’t see what it was but he could already tell that it was not somewhere he intended to go.
“Oh no, no-no-no-no—” Clover panicked, flailing wildly for some sort of hoof hold. He grabbed at one of the rungs passing by in hopes he could jump the portal the way he’d done before. In passing he saw a flash of Princess Luna—though she was significantly darker there and seemed to be standing over Celestia. The view was too short for him to make any sense of it, as it was gone within seconds and replaced with another: a vision of Discord in a bath tub, talking to his rubber Celestia whilst scratching his back with a Luna-themed loofah. The Draconequus hummed a slight melody before he froze in his tracks, staring wide eyed at Clover before that image too was gone.
He was falling too fast, there was no hope he could get out of this in time. In these moments of panic, the satchel worked its way loose, and spun free from Clover’s grasp. It twirled slightly out of the side of his vision, arcing upwards as Clover’s descent quickened.
Clover’s breath caught in his throat and, leaving the walls of the tunnel, he swam after the bag. He lunged for it, wrapping his hooves around the small bundle and pulling it close to his chest. The thrumming around him grew louder, faster and more urgent. He was falling faster than ever and, looking up; Clover had only a second to scream before the end of the tunnel hit.
Suddenly silence.
The thrumming broke in a crescendo of splashing water. Everywhere around him, Clover heard his own heartbeat quicken and the bubbling of water passing his ears, then his lungs began to burn and he thrashed about.
He was thrown into the depths, some kind of dark pool. The only light he could make out a blue shine from somewhere above, the shimmering of water’s the surface.
Clover puffed out his cheeks, holding onto what last breaths remain, and began the long journey towards the air he held so dear. He began to swim upwards, kicking his hooves and putting all his energy into reaching the top, trying with all his might to ignore the urgent burning of his lungs.
The seconds dragged on, turning to minutes, and then hours. With every thumb of his heart in his ears, the ache in his chest grew al the strong. His lunges were screaming in his head, their need for oxygen, and Clover could feel himself slowly slipping away.
But he was almost there. The shimmering surface was only just out of reach. Only a few more inches, a few more kicks of his hooves, and he would breach the surface.
Pushing the feelings to the back of his mind, Clover forced himself to focus and gathered his strength for one final, mighty kick. He pushed upwards, stretching his hooves out in front of him, trying with all his might to break through, but found himself coming up short.
No Clover silently pleaded, and kicked again, and again he didn’t make any progress. He was drifting back down, falling to the depths as fast as he could swim. His limbs were losing their strength, and the screaming in his mind was beginning to take over.
A kind of fog befell him, clouding his mind, and his vision. The light, shimmering and shaking above, became unclear and then broke up completely as Clover slowly began to drift away from it. The burning in his lungs growing greater, Clover could feel himself becoming light-headed. He was only inches from the surface when he felt the strength leaving his limbs.
As his vision darkened, Clover felt himself slowly slipping away. is this the end? The thought crossed his mind, and with it the feeling of dread that his mission might never be complete. Was this some kind of cruel joke on the part of destiny?
The last thing he saw was a dark angel, a black mass passing above the surface of the water and something draping past him.
~ ~ ~
In his befuddled daze, Clover sensed the flicker of motion, lights dancing across his closed eyes, and the buffeting of his lifeless body. Hushed whispers surrounded him in the darkness, cut of snippets of a conversation in a tongue he never knew.
And then silence.
At length, Clover’s eyes slowly began to drift open. His vision was blurry and his head was pounding with the echoes of his fall. The world around him was dark and bathed in shadows, save for one beam of light that danced across his chest, illuminated from a single round opening in wall to his left.
Clover blinked and squinted, shifting slightly and feeling the ground beneath him: it was soft and plush, slightly scratchy against his coat, and unusually warm for having just been in the drink.
His bones creaked with stiffness—as did the springs of the bed and the struts of wood above him. He could make it the vague outlines of struts running across the walls, and support beams crossing over him where another bed lay, hulking, inches from his muzzle.
The faint scrawling of a unicorn’s hoof, scratched and scuffed among the dusty markings stood out against the old wood.
S’it Dush x Sunghine Spakel, he read.
The lettering was basic, vaguely reminiscent of Equestrian, though the lettering was completely off. The edges were adorned with several hearts of varying sizes, hinting at the intent of the writer.
Judging by the amount of haste that went into it, this was either a couple scholar-ponies declaring their fleeting crush, or it was the markings of two lovers who wished to leave their sign in a place that wouldn’t be forgotten, either as a reminder when they got back, or...
There was a faint cough in the room, the shuffling of clothes, and Clover tensed up.
He hadn’t realised it, but he’d been reading his forehoof up to inspect the working more personally. His magic had already begun to read the leylines, when he sensed another presence—a weight pressing down on the bed, causing it to depress with her shifting.
Clover’s eyes narrowed. He carefully, quietly, pulled his hoof back below the covers and turned his gaze to the other mare—just able to see her out of the corner of his vision.
She had her back to him, her vision obscured behind a swath of deep red mane, and an orange coat that stuck out against the muffled brown of her trench coat. She was still and quiet, though Clover could sense her, her could see her ears pricked in the darkness, as if listening, waiting.
He sucked in a deep breath.
She was small and lithe, couldn’t possibly be over eighteen, and her mane was damp. The smell of saltwater was heavy in the air, and the distant screech of a gull caused Clover to flinch as the room around them seemed to lurch and groan with the agony of stressing metal.
The memories from before—it felt like it was a lifetime, maybe two years ago—started to creep into the back of Clover’s mind. That weird mare, the space between spaces, Discord and—
He swallowed.
Careful not to draw any attention, Clover quietly transitioned to a sitting position. The space ws cramped, just enough room to sit up below the second bunk, but enough for his needs. He turned his hoof over in the light, watching as the dust danced in the moonlight in front of his face.
It looked solid.
It felt solid.
The bed and the covers had responded to his touch. Could this mean he was finally back, or was it another cruel trick by that lord of chaos? He could just as well been sent to his death, and this was his punishment.
There was only one way to find.
Without thinking very much of it, Clover reached out and pressed his hoof into the side of the mare. He fully expected it to pass right through her, to be faced with the sad reality that was his existence. It never was that easy, was it?
“Yah!”
She gasped, and then squealed, practically sprinting off the bed. The mare instantly rounded on Clover, a snarl on her face and a look of terror in her eyes. “H-Hey!” He voice cracked. She backed to the corner, knocking against the knight stand as she affixed Clover with a steely gaze. “G-Get off of me y”—her hoof scrambled for the light switch, and a harsh, bright blue light flooded the room.
Green and white gems flared to life around them, and she went silent. Her eyes were like a pair of deep, black pools, sparking in the torchlight as she stared at Clover.
Clover’s ears tilted upwards slightly. He turned his hooves over in front of them, inspecting them now properly in the bright light. Something felt different here, like there was a force hanging over them all, sucking the air out of his lungs.
Also he was glowing.
“I...” Clover slowly whispered. He looked from his hooves and to the mare’s startled face, then pointed at her, smiling as he said. “...can touch you.”
