The Wandering Anomaly

The Recife Incident

It flows between your hands, runs through your spine and right before your eyes. Cannot be seen, touched, or heard. Its strings are thin but strong, and no living creature has ever escaped from the grasp.

Pulling and pushing, connecting and parting, shaping the world as a living sculpture. Small acts, huge consequences, the good and evil screaming inside your head; paradigms always trying to divert the mind from the truth.

Live, for in the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take.

Equestria, Crystal Empire

6:37 am

She shifts under the covers, another day rises out there; thick blinds slowly moving with the wind like a noiseless dance. Yet, Cadance is too tired to notice this insignificant ballet.

Indeed, she has a good reason for being this way.

Running her hoof through the silky bed sheets, hoping to feel something livelier than another pillow; he's not there anymore. A sad sigh leaves her lungs, at the same time; an unexpected gust of wind threw the curtains away.

'A maid must have forgotten to lock the window.' She presumes

Trying to ignore the sun rays as much as possible, the princess finally gave up. She couldn't sleep anymore after all.

Trailing her lonely body across the large royal bed, Cadance tries to magically lock the window. Several unsuccessful attempts later, she just groans in frustration.

“What's wrong with my magic!”

As an alicorn, she had a born aptitude to magical arts. Even though her talent was focused in love, Cadance could feel as any other princess when something abnormal hovered near the magical force field.

Slowly, she hopped out from the bed, walking towards the window, Cadance tried to close it halfway there; no results. Only when she was close enough to shut it manually, her magic decided to work.

The curtains were lifted back to its right place, and with a faint click, the window was locked.

Since a couple days ago, prior to her husband’s travel to Canterlot, she started to sense peculiar fluctuations in the harmony field, at first it was nothing to worry about; things like these tend to happen from time to time, sometimes due to a natural change, or unusual unicorn activity.

As a normal pony, Shining Armor couldn't feel the subtle changes that her wife told him about. As the days went by, the strange interference gave no signals of retreat, Cadance handed him a letter destined to Celestia, and he should deliver it personally, since it contained a delicate subject.

Unfortunately, the stallion had military affairs to deal, and shouldn't return home until next month or so. In the meantime, the Princess of Love just merely observed day by day the cold northern winter covers the city under a thick blanket of snow.

"Good morning Princess." A maid politely bowed when Cadance stepped inside the dining room.

"Good morning my dear pony" She smiled.

The Crystal Castle was naturally cold due to its own geographical position, the huge number of crystals and stones applied on the walls and floors made the whole place appear to be built with pure ice during the winter. A problem eventually solved by the Crystal Heart. The Heart causing heat that filled the entire place with a comfortable warmness.

Cadance shivered.

"Why is this place so cold?" She asked while heading to her chair. The room was unusually empty and calm today, only a few nobles scattered around the large table and a small group of soldiers.

"My apologies, Your Highness, this terrible weather is messing with the entire kingdom..." The chef placed a plate with fruits and fresh hay, together with a glass of water; nothing very refined, only what Cadance enjoyed to eat by the morning.
"...the whole train system is down, and now the crystal heart is-"

*Crash*

The entire room turned to the unicorn chef, which desperately tried to apologize for the broken dishes.

"I'm s-so sorry Princess; I don't know what's happening with me!" He tried to levitate the broken shards only to lose his grasp and drop everything on the ground again.

"Great, now my magic is failing! Excuse me your Highness; I'll get a sweeper to clean this." The unicorn left, but Cadance remained still, staring at the broken shards scattered around the floor.

Turning her attention to the food again, she decided to ignore the strange coincidences; it wasn't worth of worrying since she couldn't do anything aside from wait for Shining's return.

Moments passed; somepony finally came and cleaned the porcelain shards from the floor, the room around her slowly emptied. Luckily for Cadance and the remaining group of guards, one of them somehow managed to light up an old and dusty fireplace. It wasn't enough heat for the entire castle, but at least, they could have their breakfast comfortably.

At least for a while.

With half of her plate of fruits, mostly composed of sliced peaches eaten, Cadence boringly fiddled with a piece of apple, while her mind drifted deeper and deeper into her thoughts, mostly related to the magic malfunction and the unusual feeling building up inside her.

"Princess... Are you okay?"

The unexpected question snapped her back to reality; she dropped the apple slice and moved the plate away. Turning her head to the left, Cadance spotted the pony in question, her personal bodyguard; Flash Sentry.

"Oh... Y-yes, I am" She said hastily, exactly the way ponies do when they're 'Not Okay'

"Well, you don't seem okay." The pegasus said. A concerned frown in his face. "You barely touched your food." He added, pointing to her plate.

Cadence sighed.

'I can hardly levitate the food to my mouth.'

"I'm not hungry." Hopping out from the throne-like chair, she moved past him with a weak smile artificially stamped in her lips.

Looking to the stallions across the table, and back to the princess, who now walked towards the fireplace, Flash discreetly nodded to the remaining group of guards; they nodded back, and left the room silently.

Now alone, he sat by her side in front of the hearth.

"Flash you don-" As if expecting what Cadance would say, he interrupted her words; in normal conditions this could be considered as disrespect against the princess, but she was more than just a princess for him, above all, she was his friend.

"You know you can tell me everything, don't you?" He said, diverting his eyes from her, and focusing on the burning fathoms inside the fireplace.

Taken aback from his response, the alicorn fell silent. Cadance knew very well that Flash was one of the few ponies with whom she could share her worries. But would she want to do that? Wasn't enough to make herself and Shining worried about their magic?

"What's happening Cadance?" His words were sincere and his question simple. The concern within the pegasus voice was easily perceptible, even though he tried at most to hide it.

She thought about many ways to answer him, one more complex than the other. But if Cadance could state something, was that simple questions required equally simple answers.

"The magic is dying Flash." Cadance's words left her mouth as an omen. She expected him to be astonished about her words, or at least react somehow.

But no, he just stood there, staring at the flames.

"I know." Flash finally said. "I've noticed it too."

Cadance gaped at the Pegasus’ statement. 'How could he know about it? Did Shining tell the palace guard about this?'

"You know, unicorns aren't the only beings affected by magic." He stood up from the floor, Cadance next.

"Of course I know, but what do you mean?" The princess followed Flash as he slowly walked close to the tall crystalline windows of the dining room.

Finally stopping when he reached the middle panel, the larger and also the one with a wider view of the city.

"The pegasus are worried Cadance, the guards are afraid of flying, they fear for their lives. We can barely fly anymore."

"And why didn't you tell me this before?" Turning her gaze from the city below to the pony by her side, she asked.

"Why? The same reason that prevented you from doing the same, I knew you and Prince Shining Armor were already worried about something, and I wouldn't let my problems get in your way."

She blankly stared at him.

"I- I... Flash it wouldn't... “ She sighed. "For how long has it been this way?"

Flash, who shifted his glance between the snow pilling up on the window ledge, and the floor, turned again to look at her.

"A few weeks, it got worse two or three days ago." He sadly looked to his wings.

"What are the others saying about this?" As the snowstorm worsened at the outside, they could no longer see the city nor the own castles nearby towers.

"They say many things. But most agree that the problem seems to decrease when you move away from the Crystal Empire, things are still fine in Cloudsdale and Canterlot." Flash retrieved a small envelope from his armor. The paper was slightly smashed, and you could notice at least six or seven stamps.

"I thought it was something related to Crystal Empire itself, maybe a curse or something. Until I received this letter." He placed the letter over the table and motioned for Cadance to read it.

She was hesitant at first; still, she grabbed the piece of paper and started to read;

Amarezonia, HaylenVille

Hello Flash,

As I don't expect you to reply this letter, I'll skip formalities and jump directly to the point. Things here are finally returning to normal, it seems that the anomaly has moved again, we don't have idea whither though...

I believe you already know that this thing was wandering around Amarezonia for some time, it was not the first time it happened, two months ago I received reports from places as far as Saddle Arabia, and Neighpon; always the same thing. Unicorns are the first ones affected, followed by pegasus and even earth ponies, the symptoms are similar; magical weakness, flight problems, crops grow slowly; even the weather seems to be somehow affected.

The events tend to happen at a middle sized area, no larger than a country, but not as small as a city. Its effects usually last for about a week or two, prior to deescalating and finally vanishing altogether.

However, every new event also brings new consequences. I was there personally when the last reported anomaly happened, and Flash... I've never in my life witnessed such a thing. Remember what I said in previous letters about the Neighponese event? Forget it. The Amarezonian was far worse than any previous incidents, and look that we have around five or six recorded events.

I can't even try to forecast where or when the next one will take place, but I'm sincerely worried about it. These things happen randomly around the globe, and nopony knows what for Celestias sake is causing it.

We're leaving again, the guys decided to head south, since our wings finally decided to work again, there should be no big problem. At least we hope so.

Take care Flash, and keep your eyes wide open. I'll make sure to contact you as soon as possible.

- Golden Compass

"It came to my hooves yesterday." Flash said.

Cadance was frozen in place, unresponsive. The information still sinking inside her head.

'Its effects usually last for about a week or two.'

"But- it's been this way for almost... A month." She muttered.

She let the letter fly from her grasp, and it limply fell on the table polished surface.

"P-princess I'm so sorry. I-I should have informed you earlier-"

"No," she said, turning again to face the windows, snow already piling up on its frames. "It's not your fault. It's mine."

Flash was about to reply, when an unexpected sound echoed through the room. A faint, but deep noise, a strange hiss, as if some kind of cloth was tearing apart.

The noise came from nowhere in specific; it was just there, in midair.

"We must leave" She muttered. "Everypony must leave"

Looking to each other and back to the storm outside, both of them said in unison;

"But how?"

Author's Note

Thanks again for KaBar41 for editing this chapter!

This would be a pile of ellipses without him.

• PedroHander