Heart of Courage

“Somepony go get help!” Spike frantically swung his tiny fists against the glowing shield.

“I’ll get the Princess!” yelled Rainbow as she dashed off in a prismatic blur.

“T… T… Twilight, can you use your magic to get out of there?” Fluttershy asked quietly with a look of terror on her face.

“I’ve tried using every spell that I thought might work, but the shield is too strong. Every time I try to teleport, I just end up with a massive headache instead.” The purple pony rubbed her forehead with a hoof. “Whatever this thing is, it keeps overpowering me.” Twilight eyed the table with a frown on her face.

“Well, what in tarnation is that thing, Twi?” Applejack cocked her head to the side, gesturing to the hourglass with a foreleg.

“I have no idea Applejack, but I’m nervous of what might happen if I fight it too hard.”

“It’s so pretty! When we get you out of there, let’s use it as a strobe light at my next party!” giggled Pinkie Pie, though Twilight could read the concern on her friend’s face.

Twilight laughed a hollow laugh, forcing herself to smile weakly. The gravity of her situation weighed down on her, but she tried to not let it show. Her friends’ anxious eyes encouraged her to put on a brave face, and Fluttershy’s terror was almost tangible even through the solid barrier.

Spike, breathing heavily, abandoned his effort to break the wall. “Try to teleport again, Twilight! See if it will work this time!”

“Okay, Spike, hang on a second.” I’ll try putting more power into the spell. Perhaps that will let me overpower the device. Twilight closed her eyes and concentrated. She imagined standing on the other side of the shield and she poured her will into that image. Her horn began to glow as more power surged into the spell.

Right before it reached completion, Twilight felt all of that built-up magic involuntarily drain from her body and pour into the hourglass. The rush of energy leaving her sparked off a massive headache and made her wounded back hurt. “Ouch.” She rubbed her head with a hoof. “I'm not going to try that again.”

Luckily, that’s when she heard Rainbow’s voice call out. “Over here, Princess!” Twilight’s hope soared when realized that her mentor was here. Princess Celestia must know how to stop this thing for sure. I’ll be out of here in no time and we can all laugh about it at dinner. Rainbow Dash fluttered up with Princess Celestia right behind her. The alicorn trotted up to the opening and looked inside at Twilight.

“Hi Princess, I'm really sorry for turning this thing on but I can’t seem to figure out how to stop it or get out of here. Whatever this is, it keeps draining all of my magic. Do you happen to…?” Her voice trailed off as she saw Princess Celestia’s reaction to her situation. The regal alicorn’s expression went from one of concern to pure terror. Uh oh, this can’t be good, she thought. “Princess Celestia, are you okay?”

For the first time since Twilight could remember, the Princess was at a loss for words with a look of dread plastered on her face and it demolished all the defenses she put up in her mind to keep her own fear in check. “I'm not getting out of here alive… am I?” Twilight’s last hopes were shattered as her guide and mentor, the one pony she looked up to the most, became as frightened and shocked as her friends.

There was the faintest shake of the Princess’ head in reply as tears began rolling down her face. “I'm… I'm so sorry Twilight. In all of Equestria’s history, anypony who used the rift apparatus was never seen again, and if I broke the barrier; the resulting magical discharge would kill everypony here and destroy most of Canterlot.”

Twilight choked back a sob rather unsuccessfully. “I… I understand, Princess.” At that moment, the light in the room dimmed and the whining sound from the rift apparatus reached a new high. Its magic started coalescing together and Twilight could feel a strange magical tug on her horn. The air in the room began swirling and the dust on the ground crept towards the table. It seemed that whatever was going to happen would happen soon.

“Everypony,” Twilight did her best to keep her composure and not cry. “I'm so lucky to have been able to call you my friends. I had the best times of my life with you and my only regret is that I wish I could have spent more time here.” Tears rolled down her face and her lips trembled while she struggled to finish. “I love all of you so much and I hope you’ll never forget me when I’m gone.” Twilight fell back on her haunches and lost her self-control as sobs racked her body.

“Twilight, don’t say that!” Spike yelled. The little purple dragon sat down crying. “You can’t leave me!”

Twilight sniffled, wiped her eyes with a hoof, and managed a weak smile. “You need to be brave, my number one apprentice. I love you so much and I’ll always be there to watch over you.” Oh how I wish I could hug him one last time.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack cried out in frustration “No! Twilight!” They attacked the shield with ferocity, trying to buck and kick through it. Even though they were two of the strongest mares in Equestria, their desperate attempts to free her did nothing to weaken the barrier.

Fluttershy buried her face in Pinkie Pie’s shoulder while she cried. Pinkie lost her usual cheery self and watched Twilight with teary eyes while her mane slowly uncurled. “We will miss you, Twilight.”

Twilight turned to look at Rarity who also had tears running down her face. “I’m so sorry, Twilight! I didn’t mean for any of this to happen!” The white unicorn wailed in between sobs. Black mascara ran down her cheeks, leaving dark streaks on her otherwise spotless face. “I'm so, so sorry!”

“It wasn’t your fault Rarity, it was an accident! We had no way of knowing this could happen. I don’t blame you at all, so please don’t blame yourself.” Twilight tried her best to console her friend as quickly and forcefully as possible. She had no desire for Rarity to feel guilty and burdened by this mishap for the rest of her life.

Twilight put her hoof on the shimmering wall and all her friends mirrored her on the other side. For the last time, they looked into each other’s eyes, all shining with tears. “Please be strong, everypony. Equestria needs all of you if it’s going to survive.” She then glanced up at Princess Celestia. “Please tell my family that I love them.”

“I will. Goodbye, Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student.” Princess Celestia was the last to touch the wall as a tear dripped off her chin and landed on the stone floor; a glistening, watery diamond of grief.

Simultaneously, a deep base note sounded and an intense light exploded from the hourglass causing everypony to turn away and shield their eyes. Then, at the heart of the magnificent source of illumination, a dark orb formed. Void of any light, it was darker than the blackest night in the middle of the Everfree Forest.

The orb grew, and started consuming all of the magic and air in the little room. Twilight felt it dragging her, so she tried to dig her hoofs in to resist, but it was too strong. She whimpered in fear as she slowly slid across the floor towards the shadowy sphere waiting to pull her down into its hungry maw.

Meanwhile, Celestia jumped forward with a crazy idea in her mind. She touched the barrier with her horn and began concentrating, hoping that she wasn’t too late. Twilight would have to be the luckiest pony ever to survive this ordeal, but maybe it would give her a fighting chance. The others were still crying for their friend as they watched her being pulled away from them. Nopony noticed the Princess’ strange behavior.

Twilight screamed as her hooves slipped and she flew across the remaining distance towards the device. As she spun through the air, her last sight was that of her friends looking back at her tearfully. The instant before impact with the orb, a final thought rushed through her mind. I wish I could have found something to help save them. Then the unicorn mare fell into the sphere. She shrieked one final time before she vanished into darkness.

Immediately, the lights all came back on. The shield disappeared along with the orb, the bright halo surrounding it, and their best friend and companion, Twilight Sparkle. When the shield vanished, there was a loud pop as air rushed in to refill the room. All that was left was the table and the golden stand with a motionless hourglass. First to rush in, Spike looked around for the lavender unicorn but she was nowhere to be found. The little dragon fell to his knees and whimpered quietly.

Twilight’s soul ripped free from her body. Panic took hold as she frantically tried to scrape together some idea of her fate from her strange surroundings. Falling through a painfully bright, prismatic-hued tunnel, she followed its random twists and turns, unable to see beyond the walls surrounding her. I don’t think I’m dead, so where am I?

In rapid succession, the passageway burned through the colors of the spectrum from red to violet and then back to red as the sequence started over. Looking down at her hooves, she tried to scream when she only saw the walls of the flashing tunnel instead. Like her nonexistent forelegs, no sound emitted from her throat no matter how hard she tried. Where is my body? Where are my friends? Tears would have been brimming in her violet eyes if she physically had any. Twilight Sparkle could think of no explanation for what was happening but instead of losing all hope, she fought against her fear and despair.

Trying to keep calm, Twilight focused her attention on the tunnel walls. The time interval between color changes began to rapidly shorten, eventually reaching the point where everything blurred together into a white light. Maybe this is what death is like. She thought tiredly, bracing herself as the illumination grew from the end of the tunnel and enveloped her completely.

All she felt was pain. Pure, unaltered pain wracked her entire body. She kept on thinking, I'm dead! But this didn’t make any sense. Her eyes barely worked but at least she could tell that she had her body back again. A severe chill shook her, and Twilight opened her eyes to see her resting place; a snowy plain that stretched out far and wide. Wherever she happened to be also felt colder than the snowiest, iciest, windiest day of winter in Ponyville. This probably was the coldest she had ever been before in her entire life. I don’t think this is the afterlife. The unicorn mare shivered violently.

She tried looking around to determine where she was but there were no familiar landmarks in sight. Right about then, the cold faded away and she stopped shivering, a sure sign of severe hypothermia. This is bad. If I can’t feel how cold I am, then I am in a lot of trouble. I need to find shelter and some way to warm up right now.

Twilight tried to stand up but she couldn’t acquire enough oxygen from the thin atmosphere for her body to cooperate. As a result, the mare involuntarily collapsed back into the snow while her lungs burned from the frigid air. Hyperventilating, she fell down on her side as the rest of her strength left her. Eyesight dimming and heart fluttering weakly, the little pony slowly rolled her head over to gaze upwards. If I’m going to die, I don’t want to be staring at the ground.

High above, the sky shone a dark silky black, dotted with millions of silver jewels. While admiring the stars and reminiscing forlornly about her old home, meteors dashed across the sky. Twilight‘s eyed widened in awe, grateful for such a beautiful light show to mark the end of her short life. As the edges of her vision faded to black, she thought, Wow, the thin atmosphere really makes these showers beautiful. I wish my friends could have seen it.

Her eyes had just about closed completely when a large shape appeared overhead, blocking out the sky. A deep humming sound filled her ears and twin beams of light illuminated her body, partially blinding her. After a heartbeat or two, Twilight felt the ground shake as something heavy landed next to her. In her muddled mind, she wondered if a meteorite had impacted nearby, but before the darkness took Twilight Sparkle, something gently picked her up.

Princess Luna walked quietly by her sister’s bed, in which five multicolored ponies and a baby dragon slept fretfully, and made her way to the balcony. She stopped next to the Princess of Day and quietly spoke. “How are you doing, sister?”

Princess Celestia squeezed her eyes shut but Princess Luna noticed a glimmering of moisture. “I’ll be fine.”

“It wasn’t your fault, sister. Even I forgot about that room and that device.”

“How was it not my fault?” The white alicorn shouted, before quickly turning to make sure her guests hadn’t awoken. She then took in a deep breath and continued, “I’m sorry for that, Luna, but I failed my responsibility as a leader. I forgot about that horrible invention and it ruined the lives of so many ponies, and possibly this nation. Without the elements, I do not know how we will stop Moonclaw. I should have remembered why that area was sealed.”

“Celestia, stop! We locked up that part of the castle so long ago. We never thought that we might have to search all of Canterlot’s hidden records for something to help avert a disaster of this magnitude. Equestria has never had its existence in peril as much as it is today. If Moonclaw isn’t stopped, ponykind will be no more. It is no more your fault than mine. Sometimes accidents… just happen.” The dark alicorn mare put a hoof on her sister’s shoulder. “Don’t forget about you jumping in to guide her journey. It was foolish to fight against that kind of energy, but it was very brave of you.” Princess Luna turned to view her full moon rising above the mountains.

“Thanks, little sister, you certainly know how to make me feel better.” Princess Celestia lifted her head up to watch her younger sibling’s beautiful satellite slowly make its way across the night sky. “I ordered the guards to brick up that room with the rift apparatus first thing tomorrow and to put warnings on the wall. We won’t let the same mistake happen twice.”

After a few minutes of silence, Princess Luna asked “Big sister, how far away did she go?”

“Oh Luna, I don’t have the heart to tell you.” She did her best to hide the despair in her voice. “I only managed to catch the tail end of the spell. There was only so much I could do. She will be in a strange and dangerous world if she survives the journey.”

“But you told me you managed to guide her somewhere she would be saved though!”

“No, Luna, I only had enough time to make sure she was sent somewhere she might be saved. A lot can happen between now and when she will reappear in our universe. The odds are still against us but I gave her a fighting chance.”

Princess Luna thought for a second “But it won’t end there will it? She will have to figure out how to make a new life. Not many time travelers have returned to their original time period, and nopony has yet to survive that awful device.”

“Yes little sister, but I think she has learned much from studying friendship during her stay in Ponyville. She will need those lessons where she is going and I have faith that she will be able to adapt and prosper.”

“Then why not tell her friends?” The blue alicorn turned to glance at the room behind her.

Princess Celestia looked back through the doorway to the sleeping forms on her bed. “I was afraid they would believe she would return for sure, or that they might try and follow her. I didn’t want them to live the rest of their lives with a false hope burning in their hearts. I know it sounds heartless but with this war going on, I need their skills and focus to help save this country. I wish I could tell them but I feel like that would cause more harm than good at this time. Maybe after this is all said and done. I hope you can understand.”

Her sister nodded sadly then gazed at her hooves and kicked at the ground “I miss her too, you know. She went out of her way to help me acclimate to today’s way of life. She was my first real friend in a long while. We should consider ourselves lucky to have known such a pony, even if our time with her was so cruelly cut short.”

Princess Celestia nuzzled her little sister in agreement and they both looked up at the night sky. High up above Canterlot, a beautiful meteor shower rained down upon them. After the day’s events, it had a calming effect on the two alicorns. Both watched in complete silence except for three words whispered by the younger princess. “Good luck, Twilight.”

Twilight Sparkle gasped a huge breath as she shook awake. She tried to open her eyes, but a painfully bright light forced her to involuntarily slam them shut right away. After a minute or two of heavy blinking, a glass square in the ceiling overhead came into focus as the source of the brightness in the room. Wow, I had the worst dream ever. What were the princesses talking about?

Growing curious, Twilight forced her head to lift up and examine her surroundings. She lay on her back in a bed occupying a long narrow room with a dozen identical white beds in it. All of them empty except hers. I’ve never seen this room before. Am I in a hospital? What happened last night? Where is everypony?

Rubbing her eyes with her hooves, Twilight took in a deep, relaxing breath. Calm down Twilight, I'm sure there is a plausible explanation for all of this. Maybe I took a tumble on the way to dinner. Or maybe this is one of Pinkie Pie’s pranks. She tried to smile but it did little to convince her.

Her fears came back in full force when she made the realization that the walls and ceiling were made of solid metal and not stone or wood. Also, she noticed that the only door into the room had no knob or handle. Where am I? Twilight was on the verge of panicking when the metal door slid open to reveal a butterscotch pegasus pony. “OhhthankCelestia! WhereamI? Whathappenedtome? Whoareyou?” The questions poured out of her too fast to distinguish individual words. Trying to lean up further to face this new pony, something restrained her. She looked down to see several straps wrapped around her. “WhyamItieddown?” Her hyperventilation threatened to return.

“Please calm down, Miss. You need to relax now.” The pony trotted to her bedside. “Your body is still recovering from extreme hypothermia and breathing that terrible air. There were also several nasty hairline fractures in your spine. We were worried you weren’t going to make it but you sure are one tough little mare.” The pegasus had a large sincere smile on her face.

Twilight calmed her breathing down slightly and reiterated her last question at a more reasonable pace. “Why am I tied down?”

The pony walked around her bed and began unlocking the straps. “Just in case you woke up while nopony was in the room. We didn’t want you wandering off.”

Once the last strap unlatched and retracted to the far side of the bed, Twilight leaned up to better study the unfamiliar pony. She had a short cropped black mane and tail, butterscotch colored coat, and green eyes, but the rest of her body wore a uniform of some kind. The pattern on it seemed to be a type of camouflage, but instead of the green and brown patterns used by Celestia’s army, this one used blues and greys. On its front, a series of colored bars on one side made two parallel lines and a name tag reading Wrench lay pinned on the other. Twilight looked for her cutie mark, but on the uniform’s flank was a patch of a cloud with a tricolored lightning bolt coming out of it. Above the mark read PFDS-20.

“I am Lieutenant Junior Grade Socket Wrench!” The pegasus cheerfully hopped her front hooves up off the floor. “My main job is keeping an eye on our engines while we travel. When I’m on break though, I like to help Victoria around the medical bay if she is busy.” She glanced towards the doorway and shook her head side to side. “Somepony in the machine bay dropped a crate of spare parts on himself so she had to run down there very quick. She should be back soon.”

Twilight’s eyebrows knitted close together in thought, frowning at the strange pony before her. What engines is she talking about? Traveling? Victoria is not a common pony name. Machine bay? Am I on an airship? While each thought ran through her mind, something finally hit her. “That cutie mark is Rainbow Dash’s!” She yelled out and pointed a hoof at the pegasus’ flank.

Socket jumped back a little at the outburst, obviously not expecting that statement. “Well, yeah. We’re on the Rainbow Dash.” Then she leaned forward inquisitively “How did you know that? You were completely unconscious when we docked and brought you onboard.”

“On Rainbow Dash?” thought the extremely confused unicorn. “What do you mean on Rainbow Dash?” as she asked, Twilight looked down around her bed to see if Socket was being literal.

“You are currently onboard the Rainbow Dash, Patrol Frigate Deep Space Twenty and the fastest ship in the UEN fleet!” Socket Wrench’s suspicion conceded to pride as she bragged about her ship.

“What are you talking about? Are we on a boat or an airship? I don’t think Celestia named a boat or an airship after Rainbow, because if she had, then I’m sure I would have never heard the end of it. What do you mean by deep space?” Twilight’s brain started to hurt.

Socket Wrench now looked just as confused as Twilight, and as they both tried to figure out what the other was talking about, the door slid open again. A bipedal creature walked in wearing the same camouflage that the pegasus wore. Twilight’s heart leapt in her throat at sight of the creature. Wulven! Frantically she looked for an escape but the monster currently blocked the only exit. Panicking, Twilight lost all sense of reason and decided to try and bolt past it.

“Watch out!” She yelled to Socket tried to clamber off her bed, but to her surprise, the pegasus tackled her and held her down. “What are you doing? It’s going to kill us!”

“Calm down! It’s just Victoria! She is chief of the medical bay!”

Twilight slowed her struggles, taking a closer look at the creature and realizing it wasn’t wulven at all. This creature walked on two legs but stood straight up, unlike a wulven which hunched over menacingly. Standing up, Twilight figured her own head would come up to its belly. It had thin feet which seemed to be wearing boots, and its hands had four fingers plus a thumb, similar to Spike’s hands. The hands and face were furless with a light peachy skin. The creature’s face had a small mouth, nose, and rounded ears and its blonde mane was much thinner and finer than a pony’s. Twin glacial blue eyes on its face were very small but seemed to be full of life and compassion.

“Hi, my name is Victoria Schaefer,” the strange creature spoke with a unique, yet somehow familiar accent. She pulled a chair out from behind a desk along the wall and sat down at a respectable distance from the pony’s bed. “I’m not going to hurt or harm you and I will do my best to answer any questions you have.” She smiled at her and Twilight’s fear dissipated away.

“What are you and where did you come from? Are you from a country faraway from Equestria?”

“I am a human. My species originated from another planet named Earth. It is very far away from your pony home world Harmony. Humans actually live on Harmony now and I myself was actually born in Flankfurt.”

So that is where her accent comes from. I knew I recognized it, Twilight thought and before Victoria could continue, she interrupted her. “So are you an alien? Why is Equestria called Harmony? Why do humans live on Harmony instead of Earth? When did this happen?”

Victoria chuckled, unfazed by the interruption. “I guess you can technically call me an alien but I’m not going to eat you.” Her face grew somber when she added. “Earth doesn’t exist anymore. Long story short, my species was lost, destined to wander alone in space forever until we found Harmony and ponykind. Your Princesses were more than willing to accept us. That’s when the United Equestrian Nations was formed, or UEN for short. Of course the longer story is a little more exciting than that but I’ll tell you another time.”

Socket Wrench smirked next to her and added, “Humans have been living with ponies for over four hundred years now. Harmony was the name given to our home world a thousand years ago when Ponykind first reached the stars.”

Twilight had a sinking feeling in her stomach as her strange questions were met with stranger answers but that last line from the pegasus send a cold wave of terror through her. No, there is no way this can be possible, but I have to know for sure. Twilight cleared her throat and hesitantly began a line of questions she dread knowing the answers to. “Where are we right now and what is the Rainbow Dash?”

Victoria seemed to know exactly where Twilight’s inquiry was headed. “We are in the medical bay in the heart of the Dash. The Rainbow Dash is a frigate class warship that operates in deep space outside of a planetary atmosphere. You are in a spaceship, Miss.”

Twilight’s heart thumped in her chest, and cold beads of sweat formed all over her body. “How long ago was the Wulven War?”

Victoria turned to Socket Wrench who wrinkled her brow in thought and put her hoof to her chin. “The Wulven War?” Her eyes grew and she glanced at the human almost as an unspoken warning before facing Twilight. “Dear, that war ended over five thousand years ago.”

Twilight Sparkle leaned forward, breathing rapidly and feeling sick. Spots appeared in her vision and a faint ringing grew in pitch, seeming to originate from everywhere in the room. Her body trembled and she toppled backwards onto the bed before everything went black.