Desires and Expectations: Unreachable Dreams and Heavy Duties.

There was a throbbing, annoying, unbearable pain in my head. The thought of shoving my hoof into my skull to take out whatever dared to disturb my brain crossed my mind, but I knew the only thing I was going to achieve was killing myself by transforming it into soup.

I was lying on an uncomfortable, cold and hard surface. Humidity could be smelt in the air and a very little amount of light passed through my firmly closed eyelids, indicating the room’s illumination was actually very dim.

Wait, why am I sleeping?

I was supposed to be doing one of the most important experiments of pony history at the laboratory, seeing the whole process right beside Princess Celestia! Why was I sleeping in such an uncomfortable bed? Why was I even sleeping in the first place?! The headache was the only thing that kept me from getting into freak-out state.

Probably it was all over already and it was nighttime, judging by the little light. Maybe I was very disoriented for not having any memories… Or maybe I became fatigued and fainted, and was carried to my room so I could rest.

I needed to find anypony that could tell me what exactly was going on… after dealing with this headache. I groaned, trying to get up with the pain in my head. It was tempting to simply lie back and sleep until the pain faded, but I needed to know before my brain could build up the craziest possibilities.

“T-Twilight, be careful” my heart jumped in both joy and fear when I heard the princess’s voice. She spoke in a hushed tone, but her voice… echoed? Her words made me feel a little confused; probably one of my theories was right and I had fainted due to fatigue… Still, I needed to make sure.

“Be careful…? With what?” I finally opened my eyes slowly and found the most painful sight I could have ever laid eyes upon.

The princess was sitting in front of me with no intentions to move from her spot, her body covered in wounds and bruises. There were even places where she lacked her alabaster coat, her skin exposed and it did not quite have a healthy color. I swore I could even see shards of glass sticking out of her skin… Blood covered her face, which seemed to have been coming from a wound on her head, right beside her horn. Her wings looked awful as well; feathers were burnt and there were some areas that even lacked them. Her mane was a complete mess and her expression seemed very tired and pained; probably because of her terrible wounds… I just wondered where her regalia were.

Just by looking at her like in such condition made me feel awful as well. I did not want to throw up, or felt disgusted, but it hurt to see her like this… I immediately felt the need to do something about it, whatever was needed to replace that pain from her features with… that gentle smile I’ve always loved. No, not the fake princess smile she always gave to her subjects, but the real ‘Celestia’s’ smile that I had only seen a very scarce amount of times. And every time I’ve wondered if I had been the cause of those rare expressions of genuine joy.

“Princess…” I muttered out of shock, and she turned her head away in… shame? “Wh-wha… Are you alright?!” the princess thought for a little bit and answered…

“…Yes” I felt as if I was being lied to. No, probably I was. How could somepony be like this and say that they were okay?! I had to do something, definitely. The princess was everything but okay.

“L-let me- AUGH!” I tried using my magic, but only pain came in response.

“I told you to be careful” she scolded me, still with a hushed tone since she was too tired to even care about raising her voice, but her gaze was still stern “Your horn is burnt.”

“Wh-what?! My horn?! How am I supposed to-“ my panic ceased when the princess gave me a ‘calm down’ look. I sighed in exasperation and lowered my head in defeat “H-how am I supposed to… treat your wounds? If I don’t do something…” I muttered between sobs; now I not only felt nervous, confused or scared, but I also felt helpless and utterly useless! The princess couldn’t use her own magic because probably that would worsen that awfully looking wound on her head… but then, what other choices were there?

“With your hooves” she responded calmly to my inner turmoil. I felt as if I had been put to another test; using my hooves when I had relied on my magic for my whole life?

Silence came afterwards, only interrupted by my sobs which subdued with time. I finally dared to look at my surroundings and saw we were inside a cave, not very small, fortunately. Probably there would be a few resources scattered around. In the middle there was a small crackling fire, its light created shadows that flicked with the flame itself.

“A-alright… I’ll need some herbs…” I stood up and began pacing through the cave until I realized: if the princess was like this, in what sort of condition was I? She did warn me about my horn but she didn’t say anything else about any other wound so probably I wasn’t that bad.

“You only have some bruises. Nothing to worry about” she answered my thoughts “And I strongly advise against going outside.”

“Why?” more questions had risen. Princess Celestia’s warning made me curious about what there could be out there… Probably we were in a deserted place with dangerous and unpredictable creatures. The Everfree Forest? How could have we gotten there in the first place?

“Just… don’t go out there, Twilight”

“Alright, princess…” I lowered my head and lost myself in my thoughts, looking for some solution to this ordeal. I had read enough books about medicine when I had nothing to do so I possessed enough knowledge to do this, but if I didn’t have the resources needed then it didn’t help… If her wounds weren’t treated and bandaged then they could get infected and… We needed help, but…

Wait, how will she get out to public light?! It would be chaos!

I turned to look at the princess, and she was already lying on the cold surface, fast asleep. Just what happened? What could have left her so tired? I wasn’t going to bombard her with questions now, however. I had more important things to take care of than bothering the princess to fulfill selfish desires of subduing my own torturing curiosity, with or without medicinal herbs. The princess was surely going to explain everything later so we could think of something together.

I explored the cave and saw a couple of things scattered across it. They seemed to be form the laboratory, and some of these things were completely destroyed. I found a piece of white cloth which was half burnt and some sort of bucket that probably used to be something else. I perked up my ears in an attempt to catch the sound of water dropping… Placing the cloth inside the bucket and taking it with my mouth, I followed the sound and found the small puddle I was looking for.

I took the cloth out of the bucket and submerged the latter into the puddle, filling it with water. Awkwardly, I took the cloth with my hooves and tried washing it; I wasn’t going to worsen the situation by infecting the princess’s wounds with a dirty cloth. While doing so, I thought of how we could actually grab things with our hooves… and that both Applejack and Pinkie Pie were amazing, having to deal with everyday tasks without magic aiding them…

I paused when I saw my reflection; the tip of my horn was black which indicated it had been burnt just as the princess had told me, but the rest of my body only had minimal bruises here and there that could heal within a span of a couple days… Nothing at all compared to the princess’s condition. Why was this? Weren’t we in the same place at the same time? It was completely logical that we had both taken the same damage… but we didn’t.

“Twilight!”

A voice… a familiar soothing voice in the middle of the chaos of dancing lights.

Something big, soft and warm obscured the chaos.

I tried casting a spell, but something incredibly powerful countered.

I shook my head, waking up from the trance I was in and felt the previous headache coming back even stronger than before. Closing my eyes shut, I waited until the pain faded and decided to focus fully on the current and more important tasks at hoof, which was proving itself to be... challenging.

After washing the cloth, I walked towards the princess’s sleeping body and began to carefully wash the blood and cinders out of her, before perfectly white, coat. I poured my whole heart into those awkward and unstable movements, trying to avoid hurting her by approaching a wound too much; but also, though difficult to admit, fantasizing about how it would feel like to actually caress her tenderly.

I admired her form; she was simply beautiful, even in this state. I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen the princess sleeping, and seeing her in such a weak state… It was adorable. Yes, adorable. Adorable and fascinating. Her every breath, her every movement. It was fascinating.

Yet, I felt that I was betraying her somehow; I was staring at her whole body, marveling at it, and even touching it even if I actually had a good reason. It felt forbidden somehow…

“Twilight… there’s no need to do this…” the princess muttered, half asleep. Suppressing a yelp, I kept going silently and ignoring the princess’s masked complaints. My heart pounded against my chest, the sudden waking of the princess had scared me to death; I felt as if I had been caught stealing from the cookie jar by my mother. Then, she flinched and I knew I had touched one of her wounds.

“I-I’m sorry” I apologized in a whisper and then saw one of the various shards of glass piercing the princess’s skin “Princess… if we leave the shards like this…” I trailed off, not daring to finish the rest. She sighed in understanding.

“…Go ahead”

It was a very slow and awkward process, and I knew it was painful for the princess. I knew she wanted to rest more than anything, but this had to be done or else we would regret greater things later, and the princess acknowledged this.

I pulled the glass out slowly and carefully using my mouth, ignoring the metallic taste of the princess’s blood as much as it discomforted me. Being aware that I could worsen her wounds with a bad movement and that I could hurt myself as well didn’t help at all; the nervousness could make me shiver, reducing my precision and increasing my chances of error, so I tried distracting my thoughts.

Remembering a certain book I had read ‘out of curiosity’, I had to do my best to restrain from chuckling which could have been catastrophic, considering I was working with my mouth. ‘That book’ said something ridiculous about the princess’s blood tasting like the sweetest honey. Some other books even claimed her blood… was blue?

Feeling the need to chuckle unbearable, I spit out the shard I was currently holding between my teeth into the bucket and giggled as low as I could; it seemed like my attempts to shift the direction of my thoughts to relax my movements proved to be counterproductive. The princess looked at me, confused, but she still seemed to be half asleep, the constant pain of the shards being pulled out of her flesh being the only thing keeping her from her desired rest… I felt really guilty about this.

“I’m sorry, I just remembered something…” I apologized, my smile whipped away, but in return I saw how the princess’s lips curved up into a small smile…

Her lips… n-no…

“Care to tell me about it? I’d like to have a laugh as well” I immediately blushed and began sweating bullets. Did I really have to do this? Probably it would make her smile even more, but it could make her uncomfortable and angry as well…

Should I take the risk?

“Well…” I began, taking the cloth again and cleaning the new blood that came from the wounds “There’s… this book and somewhere it said something about your blood tasting like honey…” I sheepishly said with words not worth at all of an important essay to be delivered to the great ruler of Equestria herself. This is what nerves do to you. I also avoided doing eye contact and tried to hide the blush across my cheeks.

“And what does my blood taste like?” a cryptic and somewhat obvious question was delivered at me and even though I knew the answer I didn’t know if this was what I was supposed to say. I could sense her grin without having to look at her face.

“It tastes… I-it has a metallic taste… It’s warm and red too… Just like anypony else’s” my eyes widened and my cleaning halted; I had an idea of what the princess wanted to hear. I finally looked at her in the eye and restated my answer “It’s like anypony else’s” she nodded, and once again I felt different. An odd feeling I had a few days ago…

“What else did those books say?” she asked, her grin even bigger than before. Something inside my head told me she had read each and all of them and that she had laughed heartily at their contents. It seemed she was enjoying seeing somepony else laugh at this foolishness as much as she did and for the same reasons.

“That your coat couldn’t be penetrated even by the sharpest of swords, or cut by the purest of diamonds” I dramatically repeated the book’s entry, imagining how Rarity herself would do it, even if I couldn’t do it half as good as her. Glancing at the shards of glass inside the bucket I started formulating my answers.

“And what does my current situation tell you about this?”

“That this statement is the product of the vivid imagination of a pony deprived of any form social life.” I joked “In other words, it’s completely false. Your coat is like… anypony else’s”

“Anything else?”

“’Such was her wisdom, even death bowed before her in fear, because she would flawlessly and easily bring the end upon her enemies with a single blow, no matter how powerful. Those who dare to besmirch her name by using the loathsome word ‘mistake’ in the same sentence shall be brought to justice’” alright, even I wanted to laugh at this. Every entry I spoke made much less sense from the other and went further and further apart from reality.

If she can kill anypony so fast then how come they even had the opportunity to lay a sword or anything sharp on her coat? And if she can’t be cut, how do they know how her blood tastes like?

“Alright, princess. This is just ridiculous” I deadpanned and that odd feeling in my chest intensified. Something had changed again… The princess’s melodic giggles reached my ears and filled me with delight.

“Yes, my dear”

I stood up, knowing I had to clean the cloth and the bucket and get more water to keep cleaning the princess’s coat. I turned back to tell the princess something, but once I saw a certain sparkle in her eyes...

“W-why…?” the princess kept smiling and that certain feeling hit my chest again. The princess was expecting something… but what? This feeling…

I see…

But before I could answer to this shine in the princess’s eyes…

“Oh, just one more question, Twilight. Why were you reading those books?”

Touché.

“I… uh… ha, ha… I’ll be right back, princess…”

“Twilight!”

A voice… a familiar soothing voice in the middle of the chaos of dancing lights… in the middle of the roaring explosion.

Something… white and feathery embraced me.

I tried casting a spell, a barrier, but some strong magical force seemed to have been attracted to my horn, almost as if it was a magnet.

I gasped in pain, but the feathery thing embraced me tighter and a pair of hooves joined it.

“Time Stop!” a voice boomed from the heavens, rivaling the Royal Canterlot Voice itself, and everything around Princess Luna froze. The princess of the night could do nothing but to carefully watch her surroundings as she prepared herself for anything that may jump out. Whatever it was, it must’ve been incredibly powerful… First, an explosion. Now, time was stopped… This could be in Luna’s list of biggest threats to the universe’s stability.

“Who is this?!” Luna demanded using her Voice, but the only response she received was her surroundings’ colors draining away, replaced by a grayscale. The princess looked down at herself and noticed she still had her indigo color on her coat.

“Easy there, Your Majesty!” a female’s voice spoke from above, echoing through the castle. Her tone was mocking and nonchalant “I’m no enemy! If I where I would have killed you all a long time ago! …Unless I wanted to see you squirm in agony before bringing you to your ultimate end. By the way, forgive my mannerisms. I’m… well… call me Mello. Goddess of whatever you want to call me Goddess of.”

“A goddess?! Stop this foolishness! I would have known—“

“You’re not supposed to know” Luna cringed in frustration. Probably this ‘goddess’ really didn’t have any bad intentions. Perhaps she also knew what was happening right now… “Luna, Princess of the Night, mighty Co-ruler of Equestria. Yes, I know.”

“Ho-“

“I know a lot of stuff…” the princess sighed, trying to keep her composure. “Now, if you wanna know what happened to your dearest sister and her student, please follow…” suddenly, a ball of darkness appeared before Luna “this… thing. I never came up with a descent name for it…”

“Something happened… The experiment!”

Luna flew out of the window and watched something that would probably witness only once in a very long time. All of Equestria was frozen, standing still, painted in shades of black and white; very different from the usual colors that provided the visage with every color of the rainbow.

Every animal was completely still, even birds and butterflies hung in midair. From the air, she could see guards standing like statues which could adorn the gardens, but their expressions were somehow alarmed. She also spotted a white coated mare, with a very familiar cutie mark design, and her body with the contexture of a model… hadn’t she seen her somewhere?

As Luna neared the tower where she had been told the experiment was taking place, she could see the gardens were a complete mess, and the tower’s window was broken… And she felt something strange in her whole being the more she approached it.

“There has been a rip in time itself. Celestia and Twilight have been… sucked in by that crack.” Mello explained a bit more seriously.

“So… ‘Tia and Twilight Sparkle are somewhere in the past? Or future?” Luna asked, landing inside the laboratory. Once she laid her eyes on the place… “Goodness…” she muttered. It was definitely total chaos; luckily there was actually no pony there. Probably Celestia had teleported them outside. However, that wasn’t exactly what took out Luna’s breath…

In the place where the experiment was supposed to be standing, there was literally a crack. There was a light coming out of the crack and the space surrounding it looked… distorted, almost if the time surrounding it was moving, but irregularly and slowly. If she looked at her surroundings, she would notice the frozen, black and white fire and sparks.

“Don’t get too close.” Luna gave a few steps back, obeying the unseen owner of the voice. A few feet away from the crack, she could see stains on the floor… If it weren’t because of the lack of color she could have been one hundred percent sure that stain was… blood. Whose? She had no idea.

“They are in the past. The future is… let’s not talk about that. Anyway, I still have to locate them; I had to act fast since a rip in time is not something very common and it has to be dealt with as quickly as possible.”

“Why can I still move?” Luna asked dryly.

“I allowed you to move. Figured you could help me with this. We need to maintain the crack open for a while but must be ready to close it once those two come back. Might take a while for them to return so this temporal stop in the flow of time will save you a lot of trouble of ponies saying ‘Oh, the Princess disappeared! It must be Nightmare Moon!’” her dramatic tone did not amuse Luna at all. She just wanted to get straight to work and get her sister back.

She began thinking… if this was the experiment’s fault… had she made the right decision with Twilight? A pony who blindly pursued dangerous dreams which could bring Equestria to chaos? If that blood stain belonged to her sister… if something had happened to her… Oh, that Twilight was going to hear her.

“What do I have to do” Luna demanded her answer drily, approaching the bookshelves and readying herself for the sleepless days of research she’d have to go through to get her beloved sister back… if there was really anything to recover.

“First of all, don’t blame stuff on poor Twilight. The experiment was going to go completely fine if it weren’t because of… Nevermind, that’s another story I might entertain you with later on.” The princess was not going to make any promise of this kind; she was angry, who else could she be angry at than the owner of the experiment herself? She hadn’t been careful enough… “Second, promise me that whatever I tell you here, whatever you see here, and even my existence will not be known by anybody else that belongs to this universe...

Or else...”