Threat Detected

Star slowly pushed his pawn forward to Twilight’s side of the board. Twilight gave him back a rook and put her head down in frustration.

“Checkmate,” Star said.

“Uh Twilight, don’t you think you’ve played enough for today?” Spike was asking from the steps. “Luna already brought up the moon.”

“I have to win at least once…” Twilight was saying to herself. Then, she looked up and saw Eclipse was lying on the floor with her eyes closed and Star was having to force himself to keep his head up. “Well alright, maybe another time,” Twilight gave in with a blush. She walked over to wake up Eclipse, but she lifted her head on her own.

“C’mon Star, you’ve had enough fun. Let’s get going,” Eclipse said slightly irritated.

Star responded by dropping his head and landing none too gently on the floorboards. Eclipse sighed and stood up. She started getting Star onto her back when Twilight intervened.

“Do you two have a place to stay?” Twilight asked. It sounded like they were planning to leave.

“We were just passing by the town to get some more food for our walk. It’s his fault we didn’t even do that,” Eclipse said.

“It’s my fault too, I shouldn’t have gotten caught up in the game, I’m sorry,” Twilight said.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll go see if there’s any open shops before we go,” Eclipse said.

“Actually, the stalls close before the sun goes down… why don’t you two spend the night here?” Twilight offered.

“That’d be great. I haven’t slept indoors for a while now,” Eclipse said.

“Really? What have you two been doing?” Twilight asked, curious.

“We’ve been traveling the world, Star’s request,” Eclipse said. She started following Twilight upstairs where the guest bed was.

“Really? Where have you two been so far?” Twilight asked.

“We’ve met griffons, zebras, even donkeys. The last stop on his list is the changelings,” Eclipse said. She noticed the look on Twilight’s face.

“But changelings are extremely hostile, why would he want to see them?” Twilight asked. They had made it to the bed and moved the covers for Star. Eclipse landed him gently on it and put the covers back.

“To tell you the truth, Star doesn’t have much time left,” Eclipse said in a quiet voice.

“What? What’s the matter?” Twilight asked.

“It happened a few years ago… at a laboratory in Canterlot,” Eclipse started. She hadn’t ever told this to anyone, but Twilight looked like someone that could hold a secret,“ Our mom and dad were the head developers on the project. They called it Project Horizon,” Eclipse paused, remembering the details again.

Twilight remembered that from something she heard while studying at Canterlot. Celestia never told her the details, just that it was a failure.

“The project was to ‘unify the races’ by testing to see if earth ponies could be changed to use magic on command. I was visiting my relatives in Detrot while my brother went with them to work one day. On that day, there was something wrong with the magic they obtained. It was unstable and it took all the professors they could find in the town to contain it,” Eclipse said. She paused again as she remembered again what Star told her.

“There were maybe a hundred of them in all that tried to stop it. But even then, the energy broke through the barriers and imploded on itself. It wiped out nearly five blocks around the lab, killing hundreds of ponies. All except one,” Eclipse said. She looked over to Star who was sleeping peacefully.

“But I’ve never heard about this, was it really that bad?” Twilight asked.

“Star said he woke up in the middle of a giant crater. The sky above him was black and the ground had no signs of ponies ever being there. The first thing he did was run away and go home. But there was something wrong with him. He said he could hear hundreds of voices in his head. They all belonged to him, but he said he had trouble keeping up with what they were saying,” Star said.

“Voices? You mean he was talking to himself?” Twilight asked.

“More than that. The reason you can’t beat him in chess is because he calculates everything. He told me himself that by playing you once he can predict a checkmate on every game after that. The voices tell him everything he should do and when. I didn’t believe him at first, but he’s proved it to me too many times,” Eclipse said.

“This is too much to take in,” Twilight said to herself.

“There’s more,” Eclipse said. “He told me that his lifespan was cut shorter too. He predicted the day he’ll die if nothing intervenes. To put it in his words… his mind is going to implode on itself the moment his magic develops enough by getting a cutie mark,” Eclipse said. She shed a tear, but wiped it away quickly.

“Isn’t there anything we can do?” Twilight asked.

“He already gave up himself, that’s why he wants to do everything he can before that. I’m not going to stop him, so the least I can do is help him see the world,” Eclipse said.

“Wait, maybe there’s something we can do to save him… maybe in one of my books,” Twilight said before leaving the room back down to the bottom floor. Eclipse knew that Star would have already found the answer and decided she should get some rest. They had a long day ahead of them.

Twilight closed the last book in her pile. Nothing. Not a single book that had anything to do with Star’s condition or even Project Horizon. What Eclipse said had to be true. There was no reason to lie to her. At a point like this, she needed help.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I’ve had a strange pair stay the night at the library. They mentioned something called Project Horizon. None of the books in my library have any information on this Project and I would gladly appreciate any information on it. The colt’s life depends on this.
Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle

Twilight woke Spike up from his sleep and he sent the message before dropping his head down again. Now, she hoped Celestia was awake and able to respond before the pair left in the morning. Anything Celestia knew about the project could help the colt, and she felt there could only be a positive outcome with this letter. She was wrong.

Celestia felt something hit her head as she was lying in her bed. She raised her head with a start and looked around. The room was quiet, and she waited for her drowsy mind to adjust to consciousness. She looked down at the scroll that had fallen onto the ground and turned on the lights. She levitated it up to her and opened the scroll. “This better be important,” She mumbled.

Celestia read the scroll. Her eyes widened. She dropped the scroll onto the floor and jumped out of bed. She teleported into Luna’s room where she was gazing up at the stars. Her face was scrunched up in concentration.

“Luna-,” Celestia started.

“Sister, please be silent for a moment,” Luna said. She activated her magic again in a pulse and her eyes opened suddenly. “Found you,” She said to herself. She turned to her sister with a smile.

“Lulu, can you do a check on the library in Ponyville for-,”

“We already have. We found a mare and a colt, as well as Twilight and Spike,” Luna said slowly. Her eyebrows shifted as she finished. Her horn pulsated magic again.

“The colt, I want to know everything about him,” Celestia said, her voice getting more impatient and her face getting closer to Luna. Luna put her hoof on Celestia’s shoulder. Celestia pulled her face away and gave an apologetic smile.

“We will do what we can,” Luna said. She closed her eyes and her horn gave off a steady flow of magic. Then, the glow intensified and she grunted. Finally she gave off a huge pulse of magic before her horn sizzled and she opened her mouth to gasp. Luna shook her head as she controlled her breathing.

Celestia activated her horn and touched Luna’s with it. Luna’s horn glowed again, but this time Celestia’s sizzled. Luna closed her eyes and tried again. This time, she had Celestia’s magic as well as her own. The path to Star was easy.

She used a global magic system from the stars and found Twilight. Then, she looked in the vicinity of Twilight and found the sleeper magic source of Star’s mind. This was the hard part. She snuck into his mind and attempted to enter his dream. When she realized he wasn’t having a dream, a thought came into her head.

Luna was going to force a nightmare onto Star. It wasn’t going to be pretty, but it’ll give her time to get into his head. She knew this wasn’t a normal colt they were talking about. She could feel the magic in his mind, it wasn’t pretty either.

After a second of hesitation, she let out a stream of bad thoughts into the mind to stimulate a reaction. She got one. The image of a crater. The moon’s crater to be more precise. But to Star, the crater wasn’t on the moon. It was in the pit of his mind, where his life became a ticking time bomb. This was the day he wished he died on.

Author's Note

Derp Derp, I'm a fish.

Next Time: I hear the Countdown, am I the only one?