Minutes to Midnight
She sighed for the fifteenth time that day; the shaking was really getting on her nerves as she tried to pay attention to what she was reading. The geologist had done their jobs remarkably, pinning the source and giving an estimate on how much longer they had before everything crumbled. The problem though was not with the report, but with the earthquakes that were continuously going on. She signed again and looked at the report, it started clearly enough stating the core temperature had dropped so much that the center was shrinking; this was causing all of the tectonic plates to start moving. Though she knew little about the tectonic plates she did know that they should not have moved at such an aggressive pace, and when she asked the Princess about it she was told to follow her. And so here she is, finding out that the planet is dying and they possibly only have a few days left to enjoy themselves. She first though about the Pegasi, if they could find a way to stay on clouds until the earth settled then they may be fine. But the Princess had made a point that without any agriculture everypony would soon starve.
They should have investigated this sooner though; all around Equestria and beyond the plant life seemed to be dying. They attributed it to too much heat and they responded with more rain, though the results were minimal, they were results. And so now they’re figuring out that the magic that was holding the planet together was going down the drain at an enormous rate and there seemed to be no way to reverse it. While this was being said to her, she felt like something was pressing on her head, but when she put a hoof to it nothing was there. Now with an itchy head and information that would normally cause her to freak out she excused herself.
“Twilight?” asked a calm voice that she knew all too well.
“Hello Princess, did you need something?” Twilight responded, trying not to show her former teacher her panic.
“Not necessarily, though I can’t help but notice you seem to have a new aura surrounding you, have you been altering your magic?”
“Huh? No I… No I have not, and I can’t say that I feel any different either. The only thing that has changed today was the fact my head feels like I have a thirty pound weight on it with fleas acting as the base.” Twilight said with a somewhat annoyed voice, truth be told she was beyond stressed out and was trying her best not to show it to Celestia.
“Twilight where is your Tiara?
“My tiara?”
“Yes, your tiara that represents the element of magic.”
“I… I have not seen it since…” she trailed off remembering her adventures with her friends. She missed them terribly and if it were not for Rainbow Dash and the Princesses she probably would be insane right now.
“Princess do you think Discord has anything to do with this?”
Surprised by the question she responded “You six defeated him thirteen years ago, if he were part of this I think it would have happened sooner.”
“I suppose you’re right, I am going to head home and hopefully get some rest. Last night had far too many earthquakes that kept me up and Rainbow had a suggestion to sleep on a cloud tonight. I think I am going to take her up on that offer”
“The Elements are vital to this world and I have a theory that may just be our salvation, but this will not be easy and I am not even sure it will work. The reason I asked you where your tiara is well they are not in the armory as they’ve always been.” She responded with an annoyed tone.
“What? Where could they have gone? Who could have taken them? Why would somepony take them? What abou-“ Celestia cut her off
“Twilight I have already gone through the questions myself, and no I do not believe Discord is involved because the new location he is in is still sealed. While I am concerned about the Elements I fear that they may have dissipated as a direct result of your friendships lingering.” She responded with bored tone.
“Now I still have one more theory to test and if that will not work I will send a scroll to you in the morning. Go home and see your friends, Rainbow is still living with you correct?”
“Yes, it seemed so sensible at the time that neither one of us moved out after that. Plus it is nice to see a friend everyday versus during a holiday or birthday” Twilight said with an almost nostalgic tone.
“So about Rainbow… how do you feel about her?” Celestia said with a small smirk.
“Oh she is a great friend and still just as loyal as sh... wait.” She looked up to see Celestia’s smirk and then blushed.
“NO! No I mean… No nothing has happened. In fact I never even considered that an option.” She replied quickly.
Celestia let out a small chuckle, “Twilight dear you do amuse me sometimes, I simply asked because you are always talking about her and you have been living together for over ten years. It would not hurt you to resolve a few things before this is over, who knows you may find love at the end of the world”
Twilight turned her head away in shame “Right… Love…” The truth is she was very lonely and ever since spike went to training she had only Rainbow.
Celestia noticed this and decided to change the subject, “Twilight why don’t you head home, as I said I will inform you in the morning if anything comes up. Also how about you try and contact your friends tonight and see if you can spend a little time with them. Oh and say high to Rainbow for me” Celestia winked before trotting back to her office.
Twilight continued staring at the ground with confused emotions. She told the truth when she said she never considered Rainbow more than a friend, but now she wondered if she would have looked past her books and found somepony that would love her. She scoffed the idea years ago saying that she did not have time for that special person, but now that she was sure her time was up, she was scared. What has she missed?
She slowed stood up and with her horn glowing teleported back to her dwelling; if not for her reinforce enchantments the building would have collapsed with the frequent earthquakes. She sighed as she started to clean the place up; while she was doing this she started remembering the days when the world was not ending.
________
“I can’t believe I am actually here! Twilight sparkle the Arch-mage for Princess Celstia. How about that title Rainbow?”
“eh… it could be cooler, but congrats Twi! Hey I have an idea we should totally move in together, my landlord here sucks and you were given this huge house” Rainbow said with pleading eyes.
“ I don’t know Rainbow… Don’t you think that Twilight the mighty bookwork would slow The captain of the wonderbolts down?” She said sarcastically.
Rainbow was about to retort when the door slammed open and confetti exploded everywhere “SURPRISE” Yelled the bubbly pink maned mare.
“Pinkie! I didn’t know you were in town” Twilight rushed to her friend with a hug before she noticed a buldge from her stomach. ‘How much have I missed…’
“You think I would miss throwing a ‘Rainbow and Twilight are moving in together party’!?” She said while seemingly hovering in the air.
“Huh? We were just discussing that how would y… nevermind” Twilight remembered that questioning Pinkie Pie’s logic would mean many therapy lessons.
“Woah Pinkie you got fat!” Said Rainbow blunty
“DASH! That was not a nice thing to say.” Replied twilight who then turned to an even cheerier looking pinkie.
“Ooh ooh you noticed! I am going to be having little Pinkie Pie’s running around here soon!”
“Wow congratulations Pinkie! We are invited to the shower correct?” Twilight looked with pleading eyes.
Dash was still in a state of shock, she was actually a bit hurt that she did not know of this sooner, how had she grown so distant from her friends? Sure she left them a year ago for the wonderbolts but Pinkie was still single and Twilight still had Spike. ‘Twilight will not say no, I need her friendship more than anything now’.
“Of course silly-filly! I wouldn’t dream of not inviting all of my bestest friends!” Her tail twitched as soon as she said this.”Ooh, it looks like I won’t be able to throw the party today, maybe tomorrow! I will see you gals tomorrow!” and with that she zipped away before either of them could say goodbye.
Twilight turned around to see an almost depressed looking Rainbow Dash.”Rainbow? what’s wrong I thought you would be happy for her.”
“I am Twilight, it’s just that… I have missed so much and I didn’t even think it had been that long. And here you should up with an impressive new title and pinkie with a foal. I think I have made a mistake…”
“Dash don’t think that way, you followed your dreams and at least attempted to keep in contact with us, if it is any consolidation I did not know about Pinkie’s situation either. I have been in Canterlot for about six months in private study and it was quite lonely.”
“I am accepting your offer to let you stay here, at least this way we will not grow apart. And I also think we need to start getting together with our friends at least once a month to catch-up, this was too much of a surprise even for me.”Twilight said in a motherly tone
“Yeah, that sounds great! Hey let me run back to my place and start packing, want to meet for dinner later?”
“Sure, I think I can find a cheap mover for you as well.”
_____
A large Tremor shook Twilight from her reverie; she was not quite sure what made her think of that but it definitely made her remember that they never did keep that promise to see their friends. Sure it started out fine, but then schedules conflicted and plans were changed. Soon enough they started just seeing each other on Holidays. Now everyone but her and Dash had a growing family, Rainbow had a few coltfriends but they never seemed to stay with her long.
It was evening by the time Rainbow came home, and as she walked in she noticed Twilight on her haunches staring at the floor and rushed to her.
“Twilight are you alright? What’s wrong?” Asked a panicked Rainbow Dash.
“I’m fine, just remembering when things were not so complicated.” She looked up and saw concern in her friends’ eyes. She felt a small tug at her heart from remember what the Princess has said earlier and mentally filed it away. Then looking back at what she had just ‘cleaned’ she let out a groan.
“Why am I even bothering to clean this place when it just falls back down twenty minutes later!” she said a bit louder than she meant to.
Rainbow sighed, “Let’s go get some food and clear our heads”
“sounds good to me… By the way I am taking your offer up on that cloud, last night was dreadful”
“Oh darn, I wish you would have said that earlier. There are literally no clouds in the sky and the only one that is here is already in my room, it should be big enough for the both of us though so if that’s fine with you it could be another sleep-over type deal.”Dash said nonchalantly.
Twilight’s heart rate started up for some reason “I think that would be fine, let’s go get some food now”.
_______
Pinkie you gotta stand up tall
Learn to face your fears
You’ll see that they can’t hurt you
Just laugh to make them disappear
So, giggle at the ghostly
_______
“Twilight!” Yelled a concerned Rainbow
“Huh what? Oh we’re home”
“Alright you’re going straight to bed, no late night studying for you, I know this whole situation is hard on us all but when you are literally sleep walking than it is time for proper rest.”
“I really need to keep loo-“she met the glare from the Pegasus “alright fine let’s go to bed…”
Ten minutes later they were on the rather large cloud, and she was quite hopeful her cloud walking spell would hold up for the duration of the night.
Something was bothering her though, her head still felt like something was sitting on it and it was getting annoyingly itchy.
“Rainbow? Are you still awake?”
“… Am now”
“Sorry… Listen, do you feel like you are wearing a necklace even though there is nothing there?”
To Twilight Sparkle’s surprise the rainbow maned Pegasus jumped straight up and look her straight in the eye.
“You feel it too?!”
“Well no, but I feel like I am wearing a Tiara and it itches like crazy.” … “The Princess asked me earlier if I had seen my Element Tiara lately and when I said no she said they were missing from the Armory.”
“She theorized that the elements are dissipating and taking the magic from the world with them”
Rainbow looked at her with wide eyes as she continued.
“I think… I think we are the cause of this happening; we are not the representatives of the elements as we used to be Dash.”
Epiphany
Rainbow Dash awoke groggily, they stayed up talking half the night when she really wanted to get some sleep. The good news is that her duties had been suspended from both the wonderbolts and the Air guard for the circumstances at hand. When she tried to roll out of her cloud she found herself being squeezed. She looked down to see Twilight with all four hooves wrapped around her in a very tight embrace, almost as if she was clinging for life. She could see moisture around her closed eyes she figured she must have been having nightmares or just crying in her sleep about the problems at hand.
Rainbow was never really good at comforting people, she was usually one to just up and say things without regard to their feelings. This was a trait she has always had and probably always will have. While she really wanted to get out of bed, she sensed that Twilight may need the sleep more than anything and proceeded to lay her head back down. Her friend was an emotional mess right now and she would help her anyway she could. She was trying to analyze what was discussed the night before.
_______
“What do you mean we may be the cause of all this?” queried the anxious Pegasus
“I mean since we have broken apart as friends the harmony between us is no longer there. Since we are the representatives of the elements themselves it kind of makes sense that they would be affected by our lack of friendship together.”
“But Twilight I thought we as individuals represented it, you have your magic and I am still Loyal as can be! This is not making any sense!”
“Dash calm down, yes we represent them individually but without the harmony between the elements they lose their power.” Twilight responded with a sad tone
Closing her eyes Dash let out a loud sigh “Sorry I didn’t mean to yell like that, it’s just… frustrating me that this actually could be our fault. I never meant to fade away from seeing our friends it just was so inconvenient for all of us to meet that we just… forgot.”
“You are not the only one feeling like that Dash, and I feel it was my fault more than the most. If I would have spent some time at my desk and worked out a schedule that we could all continue meeting regularly than we wouldn’t be discussing this right now.”
Dash said nothing but gave Twilight a look that said she was wrong, she then looked out the window towards the moon, “What do you think the princesses are doing to solve this?”
“I am not sure, Princess Celestia said she would be sending a scroll first thing in the morning if what they are attempting to do fails, and if it does would you mind coming with me? I need someone there that I can talk to that I can completely trust.”
“Yeah I can come with you, but tomorrow is going to be chaotic. I heard some of the guards asking when they will be able to tell their families, after that we were all dismissed with paid leave from the palace to be with them. While we were told not to speak a word until the Princess made a statement I think that most will, and it is going to be a mess when that happens… I hope they have a plan for all of this.”
“Yeah… me too.”
They stayed in silence, both looking out the window and listening to the slow rumble of the ground shifting beneath them.
“I’m scared…” she said in a whisper just barely audible to Rainbow
Rainbow pretended she did not hear it, she too was afraid but this kind of fear was completely justified and that is what terrified her.
“Yeah… me too…”
_____
Twi's Dream
“Princess! Thank you so much for visiting!”
“Twilight Sparkle my most Faithfull student, of course I do not mind visiting. Afterall I was told there was cake!” She gave Twilight a big smile.
“Yes I am sure Pinkie Pie will have made a number of cakes, Oh that reminds me did you get my letter about the tax code adjustments?”
Celestia’s smile turned to a frown “Yes I did Twilight, very good work on noticing the issue in Hoofington… But I am curious as to what made you search through that, you should be enjoying yourself here not working.”
“Oh it was no problem princess I was just a little bored, and saw some books on tax code one day. So I decided to request the current tax code from the Royal Library and went to see if I could S-“
Twilight was interrupted by a scream, She whipped her head around to see Pinkie Pie laying in the street with what looked like a spear coming out of her. She looked past her a bit and there sat Nightmare moon in all her terrifying glory, she turned to ask Celestia what was going on and was slammed to the ground by her very mentor.
“Twilight Sparkle you are a disappointment to us all, you have ignored your friends and now allowed them to die in front of you and you look to me for help? You are no longer worthy of being my student or being anywhere near me”
"Every action has a consequence... remember that."
Celestia reared up and struck her hoof straight down on Twilights head, all went black”
_____
Twilight screamed and immediately was sobbing, she squeezed her pillow even harder to try and hide the tears and muffle her scream.
“Twilight… I would like… to breathe again please” Rainbow said in a semi-sarcastic tone.
Twilights eyes snapped open to realize her pillow was in fact Rainbow Dash and yelped in surprise releasing her. But she could not stop crying, the nightmare that kept repeating night after night was taking a toll on her sanity. She could always feel her hoof on the side of her head even after she woke up screaming, but this time she could not hide her secret from everypony.
“Twilight… I… I woke up a few hours ago and noticed you squeezing me for dear life, I know I should have woken you up but I figured you needed rest more than anything right now. And although I am not the greatest person to talk to about problems… What is going on, you were writhing and crying for the past few hours and now you wake up screaming your head off as if someone just stabbed you.”
“ I…” she didn’t say it
“Twilight tell me, I am your friend what is wrong.” She said calmly
“I have had the same nightmare for the past two months… It feels so real even though it would never happen, but… I can’t seem to put enough logic into it to make it stop.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Twilight sighed “I suppose, but I do not think it will do any good for me…”
-half an hour later-
“And then she kills me, I don’t get it. It is always Pinkie Pie and it is always my fault that it happens…” Her eyes were tearing up again, “I would never hurt my friends why does this nightmare keep returning!”
Dash recoiled at the volume Twilight just produced, she had no idea that the dream was that vivid and she was kicking herself for not noticing how Twilight was doing the past couple of months. How could she not see her best friend in pain, even when she is living with her? She wanted to smack her head against something hard but figured the ground was doing enough damage to their home.
Twilight shakily started to get out of the cloud and noticed that the house was at a funny angle. After stepping down onto the floor she confirmed that the house was definitely angled. She figured the foundation must have started to sink at one side since everything was being shifted. She sighed… this was probably the last night they would be sleeping in their home.
“Rainbow let’s go see if the Princess sent us a letter… maybe everything can be fixed today and I can just go back to sleep.”
Once downstairs and finding everything in the corner of the room, they opened the door and wished they hadn’t. There were no buildings left standing in their neighborhood and she mused that if it wasn’t for her magic holding this place up than they may have been gravely injured during the night. The rescue ponies were everywhere searching through the debris and since they figured the post office to be closed they decided to head to the castle unannounced.
“Twilight… please don’t take this seriously… but what if your nightmares were trying to warn you about what is happening. Like since your dream Celestia was saying it was all your fault than what clues inside the dream do you think we can use to fix this. You said Nightmare Moon was there but her essence was obliterated when we freed Luna, but you said it was always Pinkie…”
“It was always Pinkie and I think you are onto something, I wonder…” she trailed off into thought while they trotted to the castle.
Halfway there something clicked in her mind; Pinkie Pie was always the one who got them together for parties or other events to just be together. She realized now that the dreams and memories that were centered on Pinkie Pie were trying to tell her to seek the mare out. It made sense now that to attempt to fix this world would mean starting with Pinkie Pie, she needed to tell the Princess this immediately.
“Let’s pick the pace up Dash we need to get this done”
The Palace was a mess, and it took them a while to find the Princess in her conference room with some other ponies and strangely other species. I guess when the world is ending everyone turns to the Princess for answers…I guess when the world is ending everyone turns to the Princess for answers…
“Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash please have a seat this discussion will save me time explaining it to the two of you later.”
“Who are these mares Celestia, I do not want strange ponies listening in on our problems! They could go and start spreading rumors and false information the minute they leave here!” Yelled an obviously upset gryphon.
“Ambassador please calm down, Twilight Sparkle is my Arch-mage and is on this council, she was hoof-picked by me for the position. If anyone in the room is trustworthy or has a right to be here I would choose her before any of you.”
The gryphon Grumbled a bit before responding “I apologize then, surely you can understand I am beyond stressed out at the moment.”
“Now, let us get down to business, the magic amplifier did not work as we hoped. We had over a hundred Unicorns giving their all to feed magic back into the planet, it did slow it down some but they tired out too fast. This is going to be irreversible if my next plan will not work, I cannot tell you what it is just yet due to the safety of these ponies. But I can tell you that they are going to try their best.”
“What the hell are you talking about you cannot give us their names, the world is ending! What does it matter! This whole thing is just a ploy to waste our time! You are deliberately doing this and even though I have no proof I will find it!” the gryphon yelled at the princess.
He soon found himself enveloped in a dark pink aura and was floating over towards a very pissed off looking Arch-Mage.
“Put me down this instant!”
“SILENCE” The amplified voice of the little pony almost made him wet himself.
Rainbow who had sat next to her was slowly backing up; she had never seen Twilight this angry before and did want to be anywhere near her at the moment. And were her eyes glowing?
“I forgave your first outbreak ambassador but directly accusing her for something like this is unforgivable, you forget we are in a state of crisis here and disrespecting everyone in this room by shouting against the only plan on the table makes you look like a terrified little humming bird.”
“DO NOT test my patience today and another outbreak like that will find you back at your king’s feet with no answers. I am sure he will enjoy that greatly.”
The ambassador gulped knowing full well that if he came back with no answers his wings would be clipped.
Twilight dropped him to the ground and gave him a glare, she did not lie. She had no patience today for anything that was not straight to the point and this bickering was getting them nowhere.
“I am sorry, please continue” said the purple mare who had everyone’s eyes on her.
“Yes as I was saying…” Celestia started.
“Twilight” whispered Dash
“That was awesome!”
She couldn’t help but grant herself a little smirk with that statement.
______
The meeting was over and the Princess had requested they follow her.
“I have sent four carriages to your friends homes, and as I said in the meeting this is all we have left. Your input from your hypothesis seems sound so we are going to go with that. But do you think you will have enough time to regrow the bonds that are broken?”
“We have to try… if only… wait where is Luna?” asked the Unicorn
“She is in Trottingham helping them get ready for the worst, now stop beating around the bush what is going on with you. No lies Twilight you are horrible at them anyway.” She looked at Rainbow who returned a look that signaled she asked the right question.
“As I explained what we concluded with my dream and other memories we both are having, it is just guilt stacking up on me. This could have been prevented with my intervention if I would have sought help when the first nightmares began.”
“Stop, I already told you to stop blaming yourself. We are ALL at fault Twilight, none of us took the time to plan these things and so we are all to be blamed equally. Princess how long do you think your carriages will take? I know they are fast but they need to be here tonight for us to start on this.”
“They hopefully will return before the evening begins, in the meantime would you two like to join me for a walk? I would like to spend time with you two, mares to mare.”
“I guess since we have only waiting to do, it may help us get some more ideas together for when our friends do get here.”
Celestia smiled and beckoned them to follow her.
“Twilight have you taken though as to what I suggested yesterday?” Celestia smiled as she watch the Unicorn start to flush.
“N-no I… ye… maybe?” She shot a quick glance at Rainbow who was looking extremely confused at the moment,” Yes and no Princess.” She said dejectedly returning the gaze back to Celestia
“Twilight call me Celestia, we are speaking as just friends right now, and don’t worry Rainbow she can tell you one day what I am talking about” She smiled to the rainbow maned Pegasus who was trying to figure out what they were talking about.
“Oh okay, I do have one question though. At the council why did you keep from mentioning either the plan or who was involved? I think letting them know would have put some comfort in their minds that we do have a plan.”
Celestia though for a moment before responding “I kept that information from them so the public would not know, I am not stupid they are telling their people now and if word got around that you were involved then I am afraid an assassination attempt would be made.”
Both mares yelled in confusion”WHAT?!”
“You see, we all know that there are some ponies who just want to watch the world burn, I am afraid one may try to stop you from saving it. That is why I withheld the names and the clarity of the plan.”
“I guess that makes sense…” She said, but she was feeling discerned about knowing some ponies would try to kill her for attempting to save the world.
Deciding to change the subject “Rainbow Dash, are you enjoying your jobs? I honestly was terrified and excited when you took a part time job in the guard, but since the wonderbolts pay so well I know it was not for the money… so why did you join?”
“I never really thought about it before… I just wanted to do something more than a few shows, I guess I was just bored. But I also got a sense of accomplishment since I was able to protect ponies like you two from the things that go bump in the night.”
“At least you are enjoying it, so how is the love life going? I heard through the grape-vine that you’re a real heartbreaker.” She said with a wink
Twilight seized
Rainbow was blushing at this point and rubbing the back of her head “hehe well they started off fine but I just never made that connection I was looking for, plus I was never good with that emotional stuff.”
“Ah I see, have you ever though going to the other side of the field? Mares I mean”
Twilight choked on her own air and then proceeded to be extremely interested at the ground, she knew full well where Celestia was going with this.
Rainbow noticed this but shrugged it off, still blushing “Well… No actually I was teased so much in flight school that I never though about being with another mare… but maybe it would be worth a shot? Maybe when we get out of this mess I would give it a whirl”
Twilight stared at the sky now
Celestia was beaming” So what type are you into?”
“Princess!” Twilight interjected
“Oh I don’t have a specific type but I guess anypony who interests me”
“What about ones who are smart?”
“Oh look girls it’s a cloud!” Twilight stated
“Uh I guess?
“Ever thought about what type of pony, a Unicorn perhaps? Just imagine all the… Fun you could have” she made extra emphasis on the ‘fun’ part
Twilight’s heart beat was pounding, she could not believe what Celestia was doing to her. But tried to interject once again “Is that Luna?”
“Hmm I had always been with other Pegasi… Never thought about being with a unicorn”
“Oh there are so many advantages! Just think with what the magic could d-“
“OH would you look at the time I think our friends may be here, Let’s go meet them!” she laughed nervously and started trotting out of the garden.
Celestia started to laugh at the flustered Unicorn, all the while Rainbow was starting to put the pieces together about what just happened and followed after them.
All she wanted was her former pupil to be happy, and if she kept trying she may just get her wish.
