8:06
8:06 a.m.
Twilight sat in her study reading a book.
She pored over its pages, taking in every detail. Every miniscule concept, every word and every letter. With each full stop, she re-read it another before turning the page. All around her, dozens more books on teleportation and time were stacked. Some were suspended in the air, the appearance of being thrown evident in their fluttered pages and open covers. Never falling, never moving.
Nopony knows too much about teleportation, or blinking as some would refer to it…
Twilight read, her eyes darting over the line. She had already read this book seven times over along with every other book in her library, but she persisted in absorbing every single word.
And its arcane mana constructs have been lost to time. There is not much known what happens when a pony transports from point A to point B, but this much is known; the spatial and temporal dimensions are affected and distorted with each casting of the spell. As spatial points collapse to tunnel matter from one space to another instantaneously throughout time, a theorized phenomenon by the name of superposition collapse failure may occur…
“Collapse… failure…” Twilight whispered, her hoof running along the pages words. She felt it’s grainy texture, sliding to soft stop right below the words. “Caught between time and space…”
With a resolute frown, her lips quivering ever so slightly, she sighed. With the gentle glow of her horn, she floated the book into it’s proper place into the bookshelf. Plucking the other books out of the air as well, she hummed a jolly tune, her whistle cracking with every note, and everything was organized.
Everything was as it was.
Suspended.
Silent.
Still.
And Twilight sat in her chair a little longer, facing the doorway with solemn regard. Closing her eyes, she let herself calm down.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Breathe in.
Breathe…
Twilight went into the hallways of her palace, a careful trot piercing the silence around her. Each step clacking against the crystal floor. Each of her thoughts rebounding like a boomerang on an unfelt wind. With each step, she was reminded of the silence that pierced the halls. The quietness.
And Spike.
Spike was where he always was now. Mid-stride, awkwardly positioned as he was making his way through the palace. A baby drake, no more than 14. Twilight stood there for a while, as she did these days. Watching, waiting. Waiting for an answer that would never come. Watching for that moment when he would finally move, and she would finally be free.
He was looking in a direction. One that she had never really bothered to look in as well. She still had no reason to, but the way his eyes remained fixated on a point behind her… She couldn’t help it. She turned around. She almost expected something to jump out and attack. And though she would be loathe to admit it, some part of her wished for that. At least that way, she wasn’t alone in this goddess-forsaken twilight-
Twilight’s ears swivelled, catching what she thought was a noise. She turned around to face Spike again, but looked beyond him. She could feel her pulse quicken, and she searched the shadows. She had heard something. Something. She knew it.
“Hello?” she called out, flicking her ears back and forth. “Is anypony there?”
She dared to take a step. A step past Spike. Towards the shadows that lay beyond. She lit her horn with mana, a simple spell for light. Just as simple as teleportation was. Just as trivial for an alicorn like her. Just as common for all unicorns alike.
Just as harmless.
Twilight could nearly hear her voice waver with slight desperation. “Please?” But, just as always, there was no response. No nothing. Just another sound she must have imagined up. Her head drooping and her horn fizzling out, she closed her eyes. The light she had produced remained in the nooks and crannies of the hall for a little longer, before it too reverted back.
She wandered the halls a few moments more, unable to stand beside Spike any longer.
☙ ⏰ ❧
8:06 a.m.
“Hi Pinkie,” Twilight whispered, sitting against a cupboard. Pinkie stood beside her in front of an oven, waiting ecstatically for a timer that would never go off. “How are you today? If relativistic terms for time even apply anymore…” Of course, there was no response.
“Anyways, I just wanted to thank you for the treats you make in here,” Twilight continued. “I never really got the chance to before… all of this. It’s ironic, you know? The things you take for granted become the things you long for most once you finally lose them…”
Twilight looked up into Pinkie’s unblinking eyes, searching for any sign of cognizance. “I hope you finish your baking. I would hate for it to be left too long and for it to burn. I know you would never do that... and you would do everything in your power to make sure they didn’t, but now...”
Twilight sighed, waving a hoof. “You might never get to.” With a shuffle and a grunt, Twilight picked herself up from off the floor and stood for a few seconds, enjoying Pinkie’s exuberance. With nothing left to do, she turned to leave.
Not being one to exit her friend’s store without buying something, she paused, and tentatively picked a donut from behind the counter. Turning to Pinkie with the pastry in her hoof, she frowned. “You wouldn’t mind if I put this on my tab, right? I’ll pay for it later, if I ever get to…”
She mentally set a reminder to write down all the things she would need to pay for when she finally got out of this mess. Nothing like positivity, right? Maybe her thoughts weren’t so happy-go-lucky, but she hoped for better. In any case, she stepped out of Sugarcube Corner and onto the street outside. With the sun shining, Twilight closed her eyes, unfurling her wings and soaking up sun.
“Thanks, Rainbow, for making it a clear day,” Twilight said. She felt the warmth wash over her and she smiled for what seemed like the first time in ages. Wherever Rainbow Dash was, she hoped her gratitude would reach her ears. Maybe, if she said it enough times, something would happen. After all, the earlier tribes of pre-Equestria made it a habit to pray and their innate magic in turn reacted by granting them what they wished for most-
“Back on track, Twilight,” she scolded herself, bringing her wings back in. With one glance at her horn, she nearly teleported.
Nearly.
“No,” Twilight murmured, her gaze falling to her wings, “We fly.”
With a flap of her wings, she took off from the ground. She had other places to be.
☙ ⏰ ❧
8:06 a.m.
Alone.
Being alone was the worst part.
Slicing through the air above Ponyville was no easy chore; not because of her lack of experience, but the silence of it all. There was nopony to talk to as she idly flew above the houses. Nopony to fly with as she made her way across town. Of course, there was the occasional pegasus in the air, but they never did anything. Just as still as the rest of the world.
Maybe there was a beauty in the way Golden Oaks was burned. The townsponies of Ponyville never bothered to remove the tree after it was destroyed in Twilight’s battle with Tirek, and for good reason. It had become a symbol of something more in Equestria. Especially to Twilight. As she landed beside it, she found her nightly assistant Owlowiscious perched on one of it’s scorched branches, resolutely staring into the burnt tree, and unmoving. She could only stare at her beloved pet, not having realized that one of the places Owlowiscious visited in her spare time was their old home. But of course, if Twilight herself did, why not her?
It looked the same as it had the days and weeks previous when she visited it after it’s destruction. The same scorched greens, forever tainted by magic. The same peeling bark, the same ashen floors, the same blown-off door. Outside of the tree itself, the remnants of the tree that had been scattered were all long gone, carpentered into a memoir in the center of what was the Golden Oaks Library.
“Why is it always me?” Twilight asked the monument, daring it to answer. Pleading it to respond. “Why was it me who became Celestia’s student? Why was it me who became the next Alicorn Princess? Why was it me who had to beat Tirek, and lose my library? Why was it me who had to reignite the flames of the Elements of Harmony?”
Twilight could feel her heart burning. Her vision was beginning to blur, and she sniffled. “Why was it me who got stuck in between split seconds?”
Twilight couldn’t bear it anymore, and she turned away, running out of the ruins. She stumbled into the streets, falling to her legs and crying out. Wiping her eyes with a hoof, she took off once more, not wanting to be left alone to her own thoughts. She needed somepony to talk with. Anypony.
Even in this silent world.
But there was nopony. Noone. Nobody. Not a single soul in this purgatory.
With one more glance at the clocktower that towered over Ponyville, Twilight closed her eyes.
8:06 a.m.
Of course.
If Twilight was to ever get out of here… she would need all the information she could get. She would need flowcharts, data tables, experiments! Different iterations of the same spell, something could be worked out!
“Come on, Twilight,” she said to herself, making a beeline for the castle, “You’ve got work to do. Think positive! There’s gotta be something… Let’s go to the lab and figure something out. You always do, Twilight, you always do… Let’s get out of here… fix everything! There’s always a solution, something to be done. Nothing like a new… day… to figure things out...”
With that thought, Twilight landed in front of her palace, and she walked straight for her studies. There was not time to waste, and time was something she had. After all, she had all the time in the world. All the time in the world…
She needed to find a way to get to 8:07 a.m.… before she ran out.