Who Your True Friends Are

I was making my way to Visual Spectrum's studio, when something quite unexpected happened. An earthquake struck. It was a pretty big one, too. I started to panic, as I had nowhere to protect myself, and didn't want to stumble when running. I just stood where I was, with my racing heart, and waited for it to be over. When it was over, I heard a loud shriek coming from the studio. If Visual Spectrum is anything like Mathew, his creator, he probably had something terrible happen in his studio. I rushed over there immediately, to see if I could figure out just what happened.

I peered through the window, and was devastated by what I saw. All the art in his studio had fallen, the sculptures smashed to pieces, the paintings in shambles, and everything else all messed up, but the worst part was how broken Visual Spectrum appeared to be. He had already created and fallen onto a fainting couch, as I expected of him, but even unconscious, I could still see tears flowing from his eyes. I had to rush in and see if I could help. I opened the door (which was also unlocked for whatever reason, like with Regal), and trotted right to Visual's side. It was even worse from the inside. I guess my gasps woke him up, because as soon as I looked at him, he came to, and said under his melodramatic tears,

"Why me? This is the worst...possible...thing!" Sure, Mathew tends to be melodramatic like this back home as well, but this time I could fully empathize with him. I also know what it's like to have all of your hard work be for nothing. Anyway, I sat down next to Visual on his couch, and told him,

"Look, Viz, I know this must be tough for you, but you have to realize that things like this happen sometimes." He continued his wallowing, and I couldn't understand a word he was trying to say. Then I realized a way to make everything alright again. "I know a way to fix this, Visual."

"Y-you do?"

"Yeah. You're going to have to trust me on this. See my watch here?" He looked at my TATTHoW, despite its appearance of a regular hoof watch, unimpressed.

"What about it?"

"Check this out." I tapped on it, and it transformed into the futuristic assistant I had become accustomed to in this world. "TATTHoW, this is Visual Spectrum."

"Greetings, Mr. Spectrum. I am the Teleportation and Time Travel Hoof Watch, or TATTHoW for short."

"Whoa! It can talk?" That's when I realized that I'm not the only one that could hear its voice, unlike in my fanfics.

"Indeed, I can," it replied.

"Anyway, here's my idea. If you grab my hoof, I can take us back in time to before the earthquake, and you can study every piece of art in here, so you can recreate it in the present. Sound good?" He happily nodded, and grabbed me by my left hoof. I closed my eyes, thought of this very spot a day ago, set the dial back an hour, and pressed the red button. When I opened my eyes, Visual and I were there, a day in the past. Visual was happy to see all his work each still in one piece, and he tried to touch them, but his body phased through it.

"What the hay? How come I can't touch anything?"

"It's a safety measure of the TATTHoW. It makes it so that everypony who travels with me becomes intangible to everything around us, so we don't alter the timeline by adjusting anything. I'm sorry, but you can't take anything with you, you'll have to memorize exactly how everything looks, so you can recreate it in the present." He looked disappointed that he couldn't bring anything with him, but it was for a good reason, so he spent about 5 minutes studying everything in the studio before coming back to me, where he said,

"I got everything, now we can go back." I set the dial back, closed my eyes, and pushed the red button again. I opened them and we were back in the present.

Visual quickly used his magic to restore everything in the studio back to the way it was. Soon enough it looked like that earthquake never happened at all.

"Everything looks perfect!" we both said in unison. I then thought about how the earthquake might have affected the town, and the same voice from before beckoned to me,

"Generosity."

"Visual, I think we should head into town. It might need some help after the earthquake."

"You're probably right. I could help out. Let's have the TATTHoW take us." As we both nodded in agreement, he grabbed my hoof again, and I closed my eyes, pictured town square, and pressed the blue button. We both arrived in town, and it was a mess.

"Sweet Celestia, this place got hit badly!"

"I can use my magic to fix this." Visual then started running through town, his horn glowing brightly. Everywhere he went, some wreckage was perfectly restored. As he was running, I saw a purple aura coming from his body, and when he returned to me, his eyes gave off a rainbow glow. Four of our elements had now awakened. As the others had, Visual then passed out. When he came to, I said,

"Visual, you did it!"

"I did? Wh-what did I do?"

"You fixed all the wreckage in town, Viz."

"Huh? Oh yeah, the earthquake. Well then, I suppose I should be heading back to the studio now. Still have some art pieces that I'm working on." I then realized that I still hadn't returned to Krystal to help her with the cottage, and since that earthquake happened, she'd probably need my help more than ever.

"I need to go, too. Helping another friend out." We both parted ways, and I trotted off to Fluttershy's cottage, where I could imagine Krystal could use another hoof with the animals right about now.