Perception

Chapters

"Sync"
“Split-Second”
“Days Gone By”
“Blink of an Eye”
“Jumping Into Eternity”
“Deeper Into the Night”
“As Time Goes On”
“The True Adventure Begins”
“Surviving Until Tomorrow”

"Sync"

Chapter One: "Sync"

Rarity opened the libraries' door and walked in. She was the last one to show up to Twilight's gathering. Nopony knew why Twilight had called all of her friends for a meeting, but one thing was certain, she was anxious. The letter she had written them was frantic, scrawled by Twilight in a mad rush to deliver them.

Rarity was just finishing some dresses as the letter appeared before her, delivered by Spike's fire. She read the letter, and finished her last order. She didn't know what this was about, but she was curious, she walked to Twilight's house promptly after finishing.

Once inside all of her friends sat around chatting anxiously. Fluttershy was the first to notice Rarity walking in. "Oh Rarity, do you know why Twilight asked us here?"

Rarity shook her head. "I'm afraid I have no idea, is she here?"

Pinkie Pie nodded. "Yeah, but she told me to tell everypony to wait out here."

Rainbow Dash jumped in the air. "I was practicing a routine, I only came here because I thought this would be important." She said loudly, looking at the stairs.

Just then Twilight came out and began walking down the stairs talking hastily. "I'm so glad you could all make it so quickly, we have a problem."

"What kinda problem Twi?" Apple Jack asked.

"I have been doing a lot of studying on time magic lately, and well..." She hesitated, unsure how they would take the news. "I noticed something unusual, something I couldn't explain." She paused again.

Rarity stepped closer to her. "Well go on."

Twilight looked at her and smiled, but then let the smile fade. "There is something going on with the flow of time."

Everypony stared at her. Finally Rainbow Dash broke the silince. "Huh?"

"It's really hard to explain, but, when I started understanding the flow of time, I began to notice that it has been moving out of sync."

"Out of sync with what Twilight?" Rarity asked.

Twilight looked away from them for a moment. "Well that's the strangest part, apparently, it is with parallel universes to our own."

Everypony stared at her for a moment, not sure weather or not to laugh, or take what Twilight was saying seriously. Apple Jack took the calm approach. "So your saying that there is other universes out there, and that our time is running differently then theirs?"

Twilight blinked. "Well yes, that is exactly what I mean."

Rainbow Dash sighed heavily. "You mean to tell me you stopped my practice for other universes? Who cares how our time runs compared to theirs? It works fine for us."

Twilight's face became serious. "It is very important, our time is running thousands of times faster than theirs, if we can't fix that, then our universe will expire far before any of the others. I'm not sure if dimensional travel is possible, but if it is, we at least need to be in chrono-sychronocity with these parallel universes."

Apple Jack nodded. "So you want to travel to these places, but you don't think you can with the timing being out of sync?"

Twilight blinked again. "Precisely, but I'm not sure my magic is powerful enough to slow all of time down."

Rarity looked at her curiously. "What could all of us possibly do? I'm the only other unicorn here, and my magic isn't quite as powerful as yours Twilight."

Twilight looked down at the ground. "Well, I was thinking..."

Apple Jack shook her head. "No way am I gonna help you use the elements like that Twilight."

Twilight looked at Apple Jack in shock. "AJ, how did?"

"It was written all over your face."

Twilight's head dropped again. "I was afraid you may not want to help, but please think of all the things we could learn from these other universes!"

"Think of all the problems we could cause if we did something wrong."

Twilight looked away. "The possibility for failure does exist, but is the risk not worth the reward?"

Apple Jack shook her head solemnly. "You of all ponies should know the answer to that. You messed with time once before, and you liked 'ta have driven yourself crazy. Do you really want to go through that again?"

"This is different AJ, this isn't time travel, this is just manipulation of its flow. I looked at all of the other universes and observed how much slower they move compared to us. The difference is immense. I'm not trying to do anything but fix something that is broken."

"How do you know it's broke? How da you know that isn't how it's s'posed to be?"

Twilight looked adamant. "Because I looked at hundreds of other universes, and I carefully measured each one, we are the only one moving at such a rapid pace, and they aren't very far behind us. Whatever caused this must have happened recently, something changed our flow, I know it!"

Both Twilight and Apple Jack stared at each other, practically seething. Rarity stepped between them. "Perhaps it's best if we all calmed down."

Apple Jack turned away. "I'll calm down back at the farm, I ain't gonna be any part of this plan!"

Rarity looked at her walk out hopelessly, then turned to Twilight, whose head had already been hung in defeat. “Please can't we talk about this?”

Apple Jack said nothing as she slammed the door on her way out. Twilight turned to look at the rest of her friends who all stood around in shock. “Without cooperation, the elements of harmony are useless. I'll find another way, you can all go home now.”

Everypony began to walk out, without saying anything. Everypony but Rarity. “I'm sorry darling, I can tell how important all this was to you.”

Twilight looked at her with sad eyes. “They're right though Rarity, as long as our time is consistent, who really cares that its out of sync with all the other universes?”

“Well obviously it matters to you. Is there anything I can do to help?”

Twilight sighed. “I suppose if I can't use the elements, then I could use some help, your magic is definitely stronger than average.”

Rarity smiled. She never thought she would here Twilight of all ponies complement her on the strength of her magic. “Thank you Twilight, I will help in any way I can.”

Later that day Twilight came out of her room after reading deep into time and space theory. Rarity had spent the majority of the day with Spike, knowing she was there more for moral support, and couldn't grasp the books Twilight was reading.

Twilight came out smiling. “I think we can actually do this!”

Rarity smiled back. “Let's get started!”

Twilight began walking down the stairs to her basement. When they arrived at the bottom she turned to face Rarity. “This could be dangerous, I'm not quite sure what could happen, are you sure you are ready to help me?”

Rarity nodded. “I have absolute faith in you Twilight. How do we start?”

“Well it is a good thing that I have you, because I certainly need to be able to have another consciousness to focus on, to keep me grounded in our flow of time. Otherwise, I might just slip myself into their time flow.”

Rarity lightly swallowed. “And what exactly would happen then?”

“Well... I would probably begin thinking at a much slower rate compared to the rest of our universe, and would appear not to move at all.”

“You would freeze in place?!”

“No, no. My body would keep moving, my mind would just be slower. Time flow is based on our consciousnesses' perceptions, I need to sort of 'connect' myself to another dimension, and then use your consciousness as a base to begin slowing down all of our time.”

Rarity relaxed slightly. “Oh I see, will it take long?”

“If I'm right, the entire process should only take ten seconds.”

Rarity took a deep breath in, and slowly exhaled. “What do I need to do?”

“Split-Second”

Chapter Two: “Split-Second”

Twilight smiled. “I need you to concentrate really hard on keeping time. Close your eyes and start counting. Try keeping it even.”

Rarity closed her eyes. “One, two, three...”

“In your head.”

She began to think the numbers. One, two, three, four, five. Twilight began her spell she had been working on all afternoon. “That's great Rarity!”

Rarity smiled and continued to count in her head. Ten, eleven, twelve.

Twilight said something else but Rarity couldn't make it out. She continued to count, thirty one, thirty two, thirty three. It had already been longer than ten seconds. She was starting to wonder what was taking so long. She mentally scolded herself for getting distracted and continued to count. Twilight needed her to focus. This must be taking longer than expected.

After a while she couldn't help herself. Curiosity got the best of her. She tried to open her eyes. At first nothing happened. She began to panic. She tried to open her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She tried to move, but her body felt stuck. What was going on, was she frozen? Had Twilight's spell frozen her in time? No that couldn't be, Twilight said it was all about perception, so was she moving slower than the rest of the universe, was she thinking so slow that she just couldn't move her body?

It was in the middle of that though that a small glowing line began to show in front of her. Was this some sort of time tunnel? Or maybe she was staring at the afterlife, was this the end? Had she died because of Twilight's spell? All these thoughts ran through her mind. Then she looked at the light, and realized it wasn't just some far off object, it was a line of light from her eyes opening.

She payed close attention to it. At first it was a dull glow, but then, after what to her seemed like minutes, she could begin to see the white of her own fur. She was beginning to see the sides of her own nose.

She wasn’t sure what to make of this. If she was moving slower than everything else, shouldn't the light be constantly changing, shouldn't she be in a hospital bed? The sun certainly would have went down by now.

Her thoughts grew more and more frantic. What if Twilight had wanted to hide her failure, and didn't tell anypony? What if she would spend the rest of her life in Twilight's basement, no one knowing. How long could she hide her there, days, months, years? How much time had already past if she was thinking so slowly that it would appear to others that she wasn't even moving.

She was beginning to panic. Would Twilight even hook her up to life support? Or would she rather just bury her alive, so no one could find her when they went looking? How little time did she already have left, if each of these thoughts might take hours to complete.

She noticed the light again, she could more clearly see now. She could just make out Twilight's smiling face. How could Twilight remain still long enough to let Rarity see her? Maybe it was a picture of Twilight, put there to mock her. Why else would be Twilight smiling at Rarity's demise?

She pondered that for a moment. Maybe it was a picture with a message on it, she left to apologize to Rarity. How else could you communicate with someone thinking so slowly? Maybe she has been working on a cure this whole time, and has set up a picture to explain the situation to Rarity.

Excitedly, Rarity wished her eyes would work faster. Why was it taking so long. It was as if they were opening incredibly slowly. But that couldn't be right, could it? How could her eyes be opening slowly to her? Rarity's body should be moving faster than her with the rest of the universe. They should have opened faster than she could have imagined. Unless her body was slow to. What if Twilight was wrong, and her spell did slow down her body after all.

Rarity once again panicked. If her body was moving slow to, then Twilight was even more wrong about her spell. How could Twilight possibly undue the spell if she didn't even know what all was wrong? She would jut assume Rarity wasn't moving because her mind was so slow, not her body as well.

Then another thought occurred to Rarity. Why would her body be moving slower than her mind? Shouldn't they both have been slowed down to the same speed if they were both affected? Or had her body been slowed even more than her mind. What if she was thinking at normal speed but only her body had been slowed? No, then why would Twilight be standing there not moving at all for the last several minutes?

None of it was making any sense. She then began to notice Twilight's horn coming into her vision. She could only see the base, but it appeared to be glowing. Twilight was casting a spell? Was she trying to fix her mistake?

Rarity thoughts went another direction. No, that is where Twilight was standing when she started casting the spell to re-sync time. Rarity could tell by the wall behind her. Twilight was still casting the same spell. But how could that be? Unless Twilight's body had also been slowed down to slow speeds. Where they both stuck like this?

Desperate again, she wished her eyes would open faster. She wanted to see what was going on. She wanted to get a better idea of their surroundings, then maybe she could figure all of this out.

But if Twilight was stuck like this too, how could they possibly get out of this situation? Could they be stuck like this forever? No surly Spike would wonder about them and come and find them. Then Celestia would come and get them and fix this.

Then the question from before came back. If they were both moving so slow, how long had it actually been? Surly it would have at least been several hours by now. If Rarity's mind was moving at normal speeds how long had it been? She thought back on all the things that had been running through her head. Ten minutes? Thirty? One hour? It was impossible to tell without any outside reference.

She noticed she could no longer see Twilight's horn. How could that be? Unless... She suddenly realized she had been so busy thinking that she had neglected to keep trying to open her eyes. She immediately began to try and open them again. Though considering the slowness of their assent, keeping up the concentration to do so was tiring.

She thought about that for a seconds. She wasn't getting tired from standing here for so long, but then again her body was moving slow, so how long would it take for her muscles to get tired? It was then she realized she had not even been thinking about the rest of her body. She payed close attention to her hooves on the ground, and the orientation of her body, and every muscle all over. It was amazing being able to feel every muscle in place, but yet not be able to cause any significant movement.

She payed attention once more to her eyes. She could once again see Twilight, and more of her horn this time. Perfect, she thought. Soon she would be able to get a better look at Twilight, and look around. Well, that would be relative, because turning her head might prove difficult.

Then she began to wonder how Twilight was handling this. If she was in the middle of casting this spell, when would she realize that it had gone wrong? She must have by this point realized that she was moving so slowly. Her eyes were open, so she had that advantage. But her body hadn't stopped casting the spell yet. Perhaps she didn't want to stop it, maybe she had already figured out that she needed to finish the spell in order to stop this?

In that case Twilight has been concentrating this entire time. The poor dear had to keep up an immensely powerful spell over a huge period of time. The concentration that must take is amazing. Unless perhaps she was going somewhat faster than Rarity, then she might be having a better time of it.

On the other hoof, Twilight could be going even slower than her. What if Twilight had not even yet realized the situation they were both in? The poor dear wouldn't be able to stop casting if her brain was moving so slowly as to not be able to process her bodies slowness. As far as Rarity knew Twilight's mind-body speed difference could be the opposite of hers. What if Twilight's body was fine, but her mind wasn't?

That wouldn't work either, because if Rarity's body was slow, and Twilight's body wasn't, then Twilight would have fallen down by now. There is no way she could keep her body standing if her mind couldn't keep up.

On that note, Rarity went back to concentrating on her own hoofs. Had she been paying adequate attention to her legs this whole time? Has she been trying to keep her balance? She felt out each leg one by one, they all seemed as tense as when she felt them earlier. She hadn't seemed to have moved hardly at all.

She could now see more of Twilight's face. It didn't seem as if she had moved any at all either. Her face still in the same smile it had been when Rarity had just started opening her eyes. How long ago would that have been for them now? The hour must have surly past by now.

But where was Spike, and Princess Celestia? Why weren't they already here to snatch them up and undue this horrible mess?

She sat there and thought for another hour. Going in circles with trains of thought on how she could prove any of her many theories. She went around and around time and time again. Nothing was immediately provable. And after every train of thought led back to that same conclusion, she would wonder were Spike was, and keep trying to open her eyes.

Finally she was getting close to her eyes being fully opened, when she noticed the clock just above Twilight's head, just out of her vision. Frustrated she began trying to turn her head to see it. She knew this would take a long time, but any change in the scenery before her was welcome.

She was already being able to notice the slight change in her field of vision. Was she moving faster, or had she become so acquainted to her current view she noticed the changes that readily?

None of these questions mattered to her, but she kept asking them anyway as a means to pass the time.

Finally after several minutes of willing her head to move to the right, she could see a small part of the clock. After a few seconds of focusing on that, she realized it was not just her head, but her eyes had moved as well. That would explain why looking at the clock seemed so fast.

A few more minutes and she was looking at about the bottom right quarter of the clock. It was then she spied the second hand of the clock. It wasn't moving. She realized then that she hadn't seen anything moving past her on the clock. Surely she would have seen the minute hand go by at least once by now. And why wasn't the second hand moving? Could it be broken?

Another terrifying thought then went through her head. What if the second hand was moving so fast that she saw it in the same place? But then where would the other hands on the clock be? She pondered this for several minutes. What if they had already been stuck slow motion for so long that the clock had already wound itself down?

That would take months though. Surely Spike and Celestia would have already came and rescued them from this nightmare if that were the case. Then again the battery could have already been low on the clock, or worse yet, dead before Twilight even began casting the spell. Once again she was in a loop of logic would lead her to the same conclusion of none of her theories being provable.

She then payed attention to the second hand once more. Wasn't it on thirty nine seconds earlier? It now seemed as if it was on forty seconds. She continued to stare at the clock. After what seemed like a maddening time she could definitely see it had moved off the forty second mark, and had begun making its way to the forty one.

That couldn't be right, why would the clock be moving so slow as well? Can the battery of a clock get so slow as to keep pace with her incredibly slow body? What where the chances that it would be moving just as slowly as she was?

She then thought back to what Twilight had said to her before starting the spell. She would be the reference point for their time. Not the slower time of the other universes. If she had begun to slow down our universe, but was using Rarity as a reference point, did that mean that Rarity was actually going faster than the rest of the universe? Or at least her thoughts?

“Days Gone By”

Chapter Three: “Days Gone By”

Twilight smiled. “I need you to concentrate really hard on keeping time. Close your eyes and start counting. Try keeping it even.”

Rarity closed her eyes. “One, two, three...”

“In your head.”

She began to think the numbers. One, two, three, four, five. Twilight began her spell she had been working on all afternoon. “That's great Rarity!”

Twilight was almost finished. “A little more!”

Twilight finished and looked over at Rarity who was staring at the clock behind Twilight. “That was perf...”

Before Twilight could finish the sentence Rarity snapped her eyes and head toward Twilight, and her mouth flew open. She began making several strange sounds in rapid succession, her mouth never closing, and her tongue moving rapidly.

Twilight began to walk towards her, unsure of what was happening. “Rarity are you...”

She was interrupted again as Rarity began making more long drawn out noises, but still each one lasted only a second or two.

“Rarity, your scaring me.”

Rarity turned her head around wildly and quickly, as if frantically looking around the room. She then made a dash for a table across the room. Grabbed a pen and paper, and began scribbling something at high speed.

Alarmed but curious, Twilight walked over to take a look at what she had written. By the time she had taken even a few steps Rarity had already finished and turned to stare at her as she walked over.

When she got there, she carefully past Rarity and leaned down to read what was written. Somehow despite Rarity's insane haste, the penmanship was near perfection. The note read:

“Twilight, it worked, I'm still fast, help!”

Twilight stared down at the letter for several seconds before it clicked what it meant. Rarity's thoughts were still moving at their universe's previous speed.

She turned to Rarity. “Oh Rarity, I'm...”

Rarity furiously wrote more on the paper. “To slow, cant understand”

Twilight nodded, and wrote down. “I'm sorry, I will get Princess Celestia.”

Twilight teleported up stairs and frantically wrote a letter to Celestia explaining the situation. Spike sent it immediately seeing Twilight's rush, then asked what was going on.

Twilight teleported them both down to the basement and had Spike read the note's written by her and Rarity.

“Oh my gosh, Rarity hang in there!”

Rarity quickly rapped her forelegs around Spike, but only for a brief moment, before withdrawing. Rarity wrote once more. “Glad your here.”

Spike grabbed another pen himself. “I can't believe what is happening, are you OK?”

Rarity's pen was touch the paper before Spike had finished his question mark. “Waiting was painful, so alone.”

Celestia burst through the doors at the top of the stairs. She ran down and read the paper they had been writing on. “Twilight? How could you do this without talking with me?”

“Princess, I...”

Rarity was writing something and held it up to the Princess before Twilight could speak. It read: “You are angry, fix this first.”

The brevity of the message was more than sufficient to distract Celestia from the scolding she was about to deliver. She levitated the pen, and quickly wrote. “Yes of course.” Then teleported them all to her castle. She ran and awoke Luna, quickly explained the situation, and then ran back with her to fix this mess.

“Blink of an Eye”

Chapter Four: “Blink of an Eye”

It had been a long and painful endeavor just to get Twilight to understand her situation. Talking was practically impossible both ways. Writing was the only option Rarity could think of. After searching the room for what seemed like forever. Rarity saw a pen and paper, and immediately began moving her muscles in her body in an attempt to get there as fast as possible.

But for Rarity fast was very relative. Each step she took would take hours by her perception. Each real second that passed could see hundreds if not thousands of thoughts go through her mind.

After she reached the paper she tried to summon her magic to grab the pen. She quickly found this to be of no use, as the amount of concentration it took to use magic over such a long period of time was far to great for her in this state.

She instead resorted to using her hoof. Her penmanship with her hoof had always been horrible, as magic was far easier. Hopefully Twilight would still be able to read it. As she wrote she realized how much easier it was to focus of the details of each letter, considering her current abundance of time.

When she had finally gotten done she began to turn around, hoping to see Twilight already there. After the eventuality of her turn was realized, she was disappointed to see Twilight still almost all the way across the room, although she had begun walking.

When Twilight was finally near her she began to turn to look her in the eyes. No! No! Read the paper, don't look this way. Rarity couldn't possibly fathom why after such a long walk she would take the time to stop a look at her. What could possibly be going through Twilight's mind?

Rarity had already started growing accustomed to the wait though. She knew that Twilight would eventually look at her message. She had to. How long could she possibly look at Rarity? Surly it had been at least a few seconds in real time by now.

Finally Twilight's head began to turn back towards the table, and the note. She took the last final two steps necessary to reach the desk fully and began reading. After an eternity of reading Twilight's head rose. Once it had hit it's peak, it began to turn slowly towards Rarity.

Rarity knew what was about to happen and dreaded it. As Rarity expected Twilight began to open her mouth and let out a low drone. Judging by the shape of her mouth she was either saying an 'ah' sound, or an 'oh' sound. Either way, there would be no way for Rarity to understand her.

Rarity began moving her hoof wielding the pen back towards the paper. She needed her to know not to try talking, that it wouldn't work. Writing was dreadfully hard moving so slow, and tedious beyond belief. She thought about what words she could write to keep the message as short as possible to convey her message. Each extra letter was another hour of agonizing concentration on the incredibly mundane task of writing at such a slow speed.

She choose to write. “To slow, can't understand.” Understand was such a long word compared to the rest, especially the beautiful contraction can't. She truly couldn’t think of a better word, at least until she had already started on the N in understand. At which point she realized she probably would have been able to get away with the word hear. It was to late for that however, and taking the time to scratch out the UN in understand then write hear would have taken just as long as finishing.

Most of the time Rarity was writing the first word, Twilight continued to drone on whatever she was trying to say. It was about the time she finished the first O of too that she realized she could shave off the second O, and the same time Twilight finally stopped talking.

After she was done, Rarity quickly began withdrawing her body, giving room for Twilight to begin reading. Twilight turned her head and began to read the new sentence. After a long time Twilight's head nodded, and her hoof began to raise from the floor.

It took a long time, but Twilight finally managed to grab another pen, and begin writing something. She slowly formed an I, then an apostrophe. Rarity knew she was writing I'm almost as soon as her hoof went up above the I, but could do nothing but wait for her to complete the sentence.

After an agonizing amount of time, Twilight finally finished her A in Celestia, completing her note that read. “I'm sorry, I will get Princess Celestia.”

Overjoyed Rarity could feel her lips wanting to make a smile. That could take a while though, but she didn't care. She now knew that help was on the way. Twilight's horn began to glow, slowly and starting from the tip.

A spell? Now? What could she be doing? Does she have more to write and wants to levitate the pen to make it faster? She could be getting ready to write her letter to the princess. That has to be it.

Rarity shifted her eyes down as the spell slowly engulfed Twilight's horn. She was looking at the pen in Twilight's hoof. It was not glowing however. If she wasn't levitating the pen, then what was she doing? Rarity let her eyes move back up to the horn, which was now fully engulfed in a magical aura. Now it was beginning to spread to the rest of her head.

She was casting a spell on herself? But why, what reason could she have to do that? Then it became apparent. She must be trying to teleport herself to save the trouble of walking. But there is a pen in paper right here. Can't she just write the letter here now? Why would she need to go somewhere else.

It was far to late to stop her. She was mid-teleport. Now more than ever Rarity wished she would just hurry up. Watching magic spread across Twilight's body was disturbing at such slow speed. Rarity could watch each and every hair get caught up one by one as the magic's spread. This was certainly faster than anything else she could have watched though. It was at least moving a speed she could appreciate.

After Twilight's entire body was covered she could see a bright light beginning to shine from the middle of the aura. Rarity then remembered when Twilight teleported, there was a near blinding flash of light. She immediately began to close her eyes, something she then realized she hadn't done since she first opened them all that time ago. She was amazed that she hadn't felt the need to blink in all that time.

The spot of blinding light around Twilight got bigger as Rarity's eyes raced it to shut out all the light coming their way. Before her eyes were fully shut the light had gotten bright enough to hurt Rarity's eyes. She should have thought about this sooner. Her eyelids were closing at a rate much slower than she cared for. The light was blinding now, she could feel her eye's pain intensely. The pain remained uninterrupted until her eyelids finally closed shut fully

When her eyelids finally closed, she could still see the light to some degree. She could also hear a small almost whirring sound starting. After a while the sound grew louder and more high pitched. Is this what Twilight's teleporting usually sounds like? Finally the sound peak, as did the brightness through her eyelids, and then almost at once they were both gone. She began to open her eyes.

When they finally where open she realized how dark the room seemed. Her eyes had still not recovered fully from the brightness of the flash of Twilight's teleport spell. She stared at what was before her, a dark empty room in Twilight's basement.

Suddenly she felt very alone. Twilight hand only been gone for what in real time must have been only a fraction of a second, but to her it already felt like an hour. As more and more time past she quickly became depressed. She let her eyes shut once more. Finding some comfort with them shut, compared to staring at the loneliness of her prison. Prison being relative. She could leave if she wanted to, but her situation was more a prison than any building could ever be. The isolation of the time Twilight was away was unbearable. She would rather be locked away in any normal prison than be subject to such torture.

Her eyes were closed for so long she didn't even realize when she had gone asleep. It wasn't until her muscles in her front legs began to relax, and her head began to descend did she wake up. She regained consciousness and began to asses her situation. Where was she? Why was it so dark? Was she falling? No, she could feel the ground beneath her hooves, but her head felt as if it were falling.

It was then that her eyes opened enough to see a small sliver of the light given off by the basement. She then remembered everything that had happened up to this point, and began to feel her body, and open her eyes. It took her a while, but she eventually straightened her head and forelegs, and had her eyes wide open again.

It wasn’t but a few more real time seconds did she regret opening her eyes all the way. She saw the blinding light of Twilight's teleporting beginning in front of her. She began to close her eyes. This time they made it shut before she was blinded.

When the light and sound finished peaking, Rarity began to open her eyes. It didn't take her even a quarter of the way open to realize that she had brought Spike with her. Rarity was so happy just to see Twilight back, but she brought Spike to? This was too perfect. Spike glanced over at the paper that Rarity and Twilight had been using to communicate and read it.

Rarity noted how much faster he read than Twilight. He turned to Rarity and began to try and speak. He was definitely beginning to form the 'oh' sound. Rarity was sure of that. She was getting better at being able to tell vowels. She still didn't feel like piecing together what he was trying to say, but she let him speak anyway. She was still happy just to have him here.

After he seemed to have finished speaking she began moving her body in to hug Spike. Hearing him, seeing them both, she was glad, but she was also feeling greedy. The amount of time it took to reach him and grab him was worth it. She held him tight. She savored the hug. The warmth of the little dragon, even the roughness of his spikes. She enjoyed it all, and took it all in. Touching someone else was just what she needed to calm herself during this nightmare. After a minute she finally let him go, although reluctantly. She wondered to herself how long the hug actually lasted, and if it seemed at all awkward.

She moved over to the paper, and began to spell out another short sentence. She wanted to express how happy she was to see them both. What words would suffice to express her joy? She settled on writing “Glad you're here.” before she even touched the pen to the paper.

She knew they couldn't appreciate how much effort went into such a sentence, but she felt like she had to at least do that much.

After reading what she wrote Spike's hand went for another of the pens on the desk and began to write. His sentence seemed painfully long, but Rarity took pleasure in enjoying each stroke. “I can't believe what is happening, are you OK?”

She knew as soon as he had began to right the O in OK what he was going to ask. Rarity began moving for the paper then, and choose to express the intense loneliness that she had felt with no one around her for so long. She wrote: “Waiting was painful, so alone.” That was one of her longest sentences yet, but somehow she had already began to get used to writing them out.

She finished writing and withdrew to let them both read. Their eyes began to scan the words. Rarity heard something from up above. Her head and eyes began to turn to look, the sound grew louder very quickly. She couldn't turn her head fast enough. Was it some sort of explosion? What kind of sound could get so loud so fast?

When her head finally looked up and far enough to the left she saw the door at the top of the stairs had begun to open, and could see a small amount of gold poking through. It was Celestia! She was going to be saved. She could feel her mouth begin to turn up in a bigger smile.

After a while Celestia was in clear view as the door swung open. Celestia had in her haste knocked open the door. Celestia almost immediately began to bound down the stairs. At what Rarity could only surmise as her full sprint.

Rarity curiously began to turn her head and eyes back to Spike and Twilight. Wondering if they had finished reading, and if they had had the time to process Celestia's sudden entrance.

They had already started to turn their heads Clestia's way as Rarity's eyes finally could see them, knowing this satisfied her curiosity, and she began turning back to the oncoming Celestia.

When Celestia finally arrived in-front of the trio, she stared intently at Rarity for what Rarity could guess was a brief second, and turned her granite gaze towards Twilight. Twilight was already beginning to look pale, her eyes moving down and to her right to avoid Celestia's gaze. Celestia began to open her mouth to speak. This time Rarity entertained herself by attempting to guess what Celestia was trying to say. She had a feeling it would take a while. She managed to make out 'Twilight', 'do', 'out', and 'me.' All the other words just didn't have enough accent on the syllables to make them out well.

Twilight began to speak, and Rarity didn't think she could take another full sentence. She moved to the paper and began writing. She simply wrote: “You are angry, fix this first.” She hoped it did not seem to rude to the Princess, but she was getting tired of writing these long sentences, and was cutting words wherever she could.

The Princess read the message as Twilight stopped talking. When she finished reading she levitated the pen from Twilight's hoof and wrote: “Yes, of course.” Then began to cast a spell. It was similar to how Twilight's spell started, except it encompassed her horn much quicker, but then spread out in a spherical fashion from there, engulfing all four of them in its aura. The bright light Rarity had grown to expect from teleport spells shown from the middle of the orb. It also got brighter much faster than Twilight's spell, and thus she had no time to close her eyes, before the pain of the flash set in.

When she had finally recovered from the blinding light, she slowly began to make out the shapes around her as the castle. Celestia had teleported her to the castle, along with Spike and Twilight.

Celestia almost immediately ran off. Rarity wondered what she was doing as Celestia slowly turned towards a hallway, and then proceeded to almost jump that direction. Is that what sprinting looks like in slow motion?

After an eternity of staring at Twilight's concerned face, Celestia could be seen running back down the same corridor she had exited through. Behind her Rarity could make out the flowing black hair of Celestia's sister, Luna.

“Jumping Into Eternity”

Chapter Five: “Jumping Into Eternity”

Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, and Twilight all sat around Rarity staring at her for a fleeting moment before the discussions began.

Luna spoke first. “So let us make sure we understand the circumstances here. Miss Rarity has been put in an accelerated state of mind, is that correct?”

Twilight shook her head. “Not quite, she helped me slow our universe's speed down to match that of all of the other universes, but she is stuck at our old speed.”

Celestia frowned. “The details of it do no matter nearly as much as the simple fact that, to her, we are moving at a very slow speed.”

Twilight's head shied away. “I suppose that's true.”

Rarity, whom up to this point had been remarkably still, began looking around wildly. She snapped her head back to Celestia. “Paaapeeeerrrr.” She said in a very long drawn out fashion.

Shocked, everypony else in the room stared for several seconds. Before anypony could speak Rarity said it again. “Paapeerr.” Her speech was slurred, and had an unusual calmness to it despite the circumstances and the struggle to make even a simple word.

Celestia nodded and teleported away, and back again in an instant. She was levitating paper in front of her, on which she quickly wrote: “Here you go.”

Rarity snatched the quill and paper out of the air and furiously scrawled: “You can speak, I will write.”

The Princess and Twilight were all hovering around the paper reading what she was writing on the floor. Twilight looked at Rarity in the eyes. “You can understand us?”

Rarity wrote again. “Some, the rest I work out.”

Luna looked at her after reading. “Please describe to us just how slow we seem to you.”

Rarity paused for a second, and then began writing. “So slow I cant tell.”

Luna looked troubled. “This is most disconcerting. We have to deal with a similar problem at night while in dreams, as time moves slower than we do, but not nearly on this scale.”

Twilight looked at Luna curiously. “You mean how dreams are about one and half times faster than when we are awake?”

Luna paused to think. “That would be fairly close to the number, yes.”

“So you mean when you are in dreams you speed up to match the person dreaming?”

Celestia eyes widened. “Twilight that is a great idea!”

Luna nodded. “You want us to go into her dreams, but why?”

Twilight was getting excited. “You can talk to her normally, and we can get a good idea of the time difference!”

“Of course. Perhaps we can stay for what seems like an hour and see where we are at.”

Rarity began writing again. “Sleep, Its midday!”

Twilight nodded. “That's fine, we can simply cast a sleeping spell on you.”

Rarity nodded furiously, then wrote quickly. “Please now.”

Celestia stepped up. “Yes, lets begin.”

Celestia began to cast her spell, and almost immediately Rarity's eyes shut and she began to fall to the ground. Luna caught her in her hooves and lowered her gently. “We will enter her dreams now, what will happen we do not know.”

Celestia placed her hoof on Luna's back. “Please be careful sister.”

“We will sister.”

Luna's eyes closed for a few seconds, then opened again, shining with the radiant glow of her magic. Several seconds passed while Celestia and Twilight stared at the two lying on the ground. Twilight looked at Celestia worriedly. “Do you think they will be OK?”

Before she could answer, Luna's eyes opened again. “This may prove difficult, we are having trouble entering her dreams, she is not even close to the normal speed of dreams.”

Celestia looked concerned. “Is there anything you can do for her Luna?”

Luna got a serious look on her face. “Yes, there is a more powerful version of our spell that lets us enter dreams. However, it will force us into the dream with her, and we will not be able to wake up until the dream is over.”

Celestia shook her head. “No, we will try something else, I can not risk you being lost in her dream.”

Luna smiled. “No sister, we will willingly do this. We would be asleep now if not for this, so this will only feel like a longer slumber.”

Celestia lowered her head. “There is no way to talk you out of this, is there?”

Luna shook her head. “We have already put her to sleep, the least we can do is give her some company in her lonely world.”

Luna lowered her head and her horn began to glow. “We will be in our chamber.” She then teleported herself and Rarity to her bedroom, and gently laid her on the bed before laying by her side. She began to cast the dream spell, and after several seconds her eyes closed. She could almost feel time slowing down around her, or perhaps what she was feeling was herself speeding up.

After a minute the spell was almost complete, and she could no longer hear or see anything, she was getting very close to Rarity's mind. She slowly began to see blurring colors, the sun was rapidly rising and falling continuously in the distance. It quickly became apparent she was outside, as the only static thing in her view was trees. The sun and moon began to slow down, and finally the sun hung above her in the sky.

She blinked, taking in her surroundings. It seemed she had found herself in the middle of a vast forest. The sun was close to setting above her, it appeared to be somewhere around six o'clock in the afternoon. In the distance she could see a large hill, or perhaps a small mountain. To her left she could see a creek with water slowly trickling through the rocks.

She had only been looking at the beautiful scenery for a moment when she found herself suddenly face to face with Rarity. “Princess Luna! Where did you come from?”

“Deeper Into the Night”

Chapter Seven: “Deeper Into the Night”

The next morning Rarity awoke and found her self surrounded by buildings. She shot up and looked around. “Princess Luna?” She asked, fright showing in her tone.

Luna descended from above. “Ah Rarity, we are glad to see you have finale awoken. We apologize for our absence, but when we awoke we were here in Canterlot, and felt we should explore.”

Rarity surveyed the buildings. Luna was right, they were indeed in Canterlot, but something felt off. “It certainly looks like Canterlot, but... I can't help but feel something is wrong.”

Luna nodded. “Yes indeed. Canterlot does not feel the same without its populace crowding the streets.”

Rarity nodded in turn. “Yes, it almost feels... dead.”

Suddenly, as if on cue from Rarity's words, she saw a lone pony enter the street from a nearby building, behind Luna. Rarity watched for a second as the pony slowly turned and began walking towards them. “Luna, look, somepony else!”

Luna looked towards the pony as he slowly shambled towards them. “That is no mere stallion.” Luna said firmly.

Rarity looked closely at the on coming creature. Luna was right, its eyes were sunken in and very gray. It also appeared to have several wounds across its body, most of which appeared to have never healed in the slightest. As Rarity stared at the creature, Luna turned to see another one behind Rarity. “Rarity behind you!”

Rarity didn't have time to turn all the way around, before another similar mare was on top of her, struggling with Rarity. It opened its mouth inches from Rarity's face, she could smell the rancid decaying breath of it. Luna sprang forward. “Rarity!”

Luna collided with the creature shoulder first, knocking it away from Rarity quickly. Rarity jumped to her feet. All around them more of the half-dead ponies were exiting the surrounding buildings, it wouldn't be long before they were totally encircled. “Luna, please get us out of here!”

Luna nodded and wrapped her fore-hooves around Rarity. She spread her wings and hunched on her back legs, preparing to spring into flight. Just then the creature she had shoved off Rarity grabbed her right wing and bit into it. Luna let out a scream of pain and fell over to her left. Rarity fell from her hooves, but quickly got up. Luna wrestled momentarily with the creature before shoving it off, sending it flying towards a nearby wall.

Luna got up and spread her wings again, but a twinge of pain crossed her face. The bite had seriously injured her wing. “We do not think we can fly like this!”

Rarity ran over to her an inspected the wing. It was not bleeding, but it had definitely had a bite taken out of it. Even if she could get off the ground, flight for more than a few seconds would be impossible. Rarity looked into Luna's eyes with desperation. “What about teleporting us?”

Luna stood tall and closed her eyes. Nothing happened. She opened them again. “No, we have no magic either.”

Rarity began to panic. “What are we going to do?”

Luna's eyes became defiant. “When cornered, with no other option, one must choose between fighting and dieing.”

Rarity looked at the seriousness in her eyes. “But... this is all a dream right?”

“The spell we used to get here makes this more than a dream, while we cannot truly die here, make no mistake you can be harmed.”

Rarity turned to face the hoard of creatures surrounding them. “How ever can we fight all of these things?”

Luna sighed. “If you cannot vanquish them with your mind, at least give us the tools to do so with our own hooves.”

Rarity understood, she closed her eyes and focused. When she opened them she found herself holding a sword. She turned to Luna to see her wielding a similar, but larger version of the same blade. Luna smiled. “This will do. Rarity! Today we fight for our lives.”

The creatures were all nearly on them now. They were boxed in all around, with no hope of running. Rarity swallowed. “Here goes nothing.”

Luna charged fiercely into the group nearest her, sword in mouth. She began viciously swinging, chopping many of the hoard to pieces. The first of the creatures was only a few steps away from Rarity, at which point it lunged.

Rarity stumbled back for a second, sword in mouth, and holding the creature back with her hooves. It chomped its teeth at her, at which point she let out a small scream, and turned her head, taking off the creatures. As it fell to the ground blood spattered Rarity's face. She had no time to panic about the blood as four more creatures were on her before she had the chance.

She swung at the first one, but only managed to get her sword stuck half way into its neck. The other three surrounded her quickly. She pushed the creature that her sword was stuck in off her, and pulled her sword out. The creature to her left was closest and made a lunge. Rarity stepped back and to her right, and barely dodged as the creature fell in front of her. Then, less than a forelegs length away from the other, she quickly swung her sword, hitting the creature but only injuring it.

Rarity back pedaled some. Behind her a creature grabbed her. She squealed and turned around, quickly beheading it. Another lunged at her from the crowd. She held her sword pointing towards it head preemptively. It impaled itself with the force of its own charge.

The fight continued on for over an hour. Panting and covered in blood, both Rarity and Princess Luna stood back-to-back in the middle of the street. The last creature came towards them, which Rarity quickly dispatched it with a single silent blow.

After several seconds of standing there, they both fell down to the ground, dropping their swords. Luna looked over her shoulder at Rarity laying behind her. “For the future, please refrain from saying how something appears 'dead'.”

They both looked at each other for a moment and began to laugh. Despite how much they had both struggled over the last hour, neither of them could help but laugh now that it was over.

After she stopped laughing, Rarity smiled and turned around to face Luna. “Normally I am against violence, but I have to admit, there was a certain degree of fun in all of that mess.”

Luna nodded. “Long ago we wielded a sword as a warrior. We have not felt the joy of a true battle for over two millennia.”

Rarity looked at her. “Two millennia? I knew that you were... or should I say I knew you have lived a long time, but I'm starting to wonder just how long is long.”

Luna shook her head. “Apologies, but we think it is best if you do not know.”

Rarity paused and thought. “These three years... they won't mean much to you, will they?”

“The years themselves will not bother us, for whatever they may hold three years will be nothing to the time we had spent locked away on the moon. However... there is a degree of joy we feel, from being able to so closely bond with another.”

Rarity blinked. “You consider this bonding?”

Luna laughed. “Believe us, several thousand years ago, there were no greater friendships than those forged on the fields of battle.”

Rarity smiled. “I'm not quite sure what I would have done in this nightmare without you.”

“Tis nothing. The realm of dreams is our domain after all, we could not let you suffer through alone.”

“Thank you, truly... thank you.”

The rest of their day was spent gathering food from buildings around Canterlot and looking for a new place they felt safe to sleep. That night the monster that had stalked Rarity did no appear, and they slept soundly.

“As Time Goes On”

Chapter Eight: “As Time Goes On”

After months of fighting countless different types of creature, and after several encounters with stranger things, such as a giant Twilight, Luna and Rarity found themselves on a beach. Luna stared off into the horizon and across the seemingly endless ocean before them. “I think we may have finally reached the end of your fears dear friend.”

Rarity walked up beside her, staring off at the same beautiful scene. “Indeed, but somehow I feel as if things may get boring from here on out.”

Luna smiled. “I can think of a way to make it more fun.”

Rarity smiled and nodded. She reached behind are back and pulled a sword from nowhere. Luna smiled and did the same. Rarity crossed her sword with Luna's. Luna shook her head. “No, better than that.”

They suddenly charged by the creature that had stalked Rarity from her first days in the dream world. Both Rarity and Luna jumped back apart to allow the beast to charge between them. It turned to look at them both in turn, then charged towards Rarity.

Rarity smiled from behind the sword she gripped in her mouth, and mumbled. “Figures.”

It took them no more than a minute to slay the monster. Rarity walked over to its dying corpse and gave it a swift kick. “Well that wasn't very fun.”

“My... huuuhhh... apologies miss.” The creature rasped.

Luna walked over shaking her head. “I remember the day were he would give us trouble.”

Rarity laughed. “We will need to be more creative if we need a challenge huh Luna?”

“Indeed, for now away with you.” Luna swept her head, gesturing for the creature to leave.

The creature stood up, bowed, and quickly vanished into thin air.

Rarity walked over to a pair of beach chairs that had not been there moments ago. She plopped down on one and began sipping out of a small glass that was filled with a pink liquid and had a miniature umbrella sticking out.

Luna walked over and laid in the chair next to her, pulling out a similar drink filled with a blue liquid. “Done for the day already?”

Rarity pulled down her sun glasses to look at Luna and smiled. “You do know me too well.”

Luna returned her smile. “What else am I suppose to do in this place?”

They both laughed. In only a few short months they had grown closer than they had ever been with anyone in the waking world. It only took two months before Luna stopped using the royal we, and only a little longer for Rarity to completely stop calling her princess.

They had fought dragons, battle hoards of demons, and enjoyed relaxing days at the end of the universe. They had been through more in a few months than most ponies go through in their whole lives. Yet they were only one sixth the way through the entire dream, but they didn't mind.

Luna leaned over and whispered to Rarity. “You know, when we finally awaken, I think we will have to do this again tomorrow night.”

Rarity looked at her with a sad expression. “Sometimes I forget that this isn't real. I forget that I will wake up, and then I have six years of being stuck in a slow world again.”

“Don't fret, I will help you in anyway I can dear Rarity.”

“You could start by knocking me out again as soon as we wake up.”

“As tempting as that would be, you still need to eat.”

“So let me eat and then knock me out.”

Luna looked at her with a serious expression. “I know it will be hard for you Rarity, but we really can't stay here forever.”

Rarity sighed. “I know, but sometimes I think about just how long my life will be, at least in my eyes.”

Luna sat back and sipped on her drink again. “And yet I will live longer than you still.”

Rarity took a sip as well. “How do you do it? How do you continue on, knowing that you have so much longer to live, knowing that even as fun and interesting things happen, eventually their novelty will where off and you will be left with nothing but your own thoughts.”

“That is easy. I merely don't think about it. I take each day as it comes, and the years pass me by faster and faster.”

“Somehow I think that won't be as easy for me.”

“It is true that I have never had to deal with sheer slowness that you feel, but try to think of what one thousand years spent on the moon would be like.”

Rarity chuckled. “Touche.”

Luna smiled. “Keep heart, and remember that for every six years you spend out their, you will have another three with me here.”

Rarity jumped up. “I changed my mind, let's fight that dragon again.”

“To easy, let's fight the dragon blindfolded.”

“With no weapons?”

Luna smiled and stood from her chair. “And I shan't fly.”

“The True Adventure Begins”

Chapter Nine: “The True Adventure Begins”

Twilight and Celestia stood next to Luna's bed, slightly before the eight hour mark of Luna's spell. Twilight's face gave away her concern and Celestia looked at her with a bit of pity. “It's OK Twilight, my sister can handle herself.”

“I can't help but think of this as my fault.”

“I told you, accidents happen, and fixing it is the only way to make amends.”

“Yes, but...”

Twilight was interrupted as Rarity and Luna stirred at the same time. Rarity leapt from the bed first, landing perfectly straight while Luna slowly rose behind her stretching. Twilight levitated some paper and began to write, but Rarity shook her head and raised her hoof. “No need for that Twilight.” Rarity said, slightly fast.

Twilight and Celestia stared in shock. Luna stood up tall and smiled at them. “We have been working on her ability to speak at normal speed.”

Twilight blinked. “But... I mean... how?” She stammered.

Rarity smiled. “Let's just say we had a lot of time to develop some interesting skills.”

Celestia nodded. “I would imagine that three years would give you some practice.”

Luna shook her head. “Actually by my count it was almost five, it seems that the length was extended by the same amount normal dreams are.”

Twilight still stared at Rarity. “So Rarity... you are OK?”

“If by OK you mean back to normal, then no, not one bit, but if you mean am I able to function in this state, than most definitely.”

Celestia looked to Luna. “You seem to have done a wonderful job sister.”

“Indeed, though I must admit it was quite a journey.”

Celestia stared at Luna as hard as Twilight had been staring at Rarity. “You... you said 'I'.”

Luna smiled, then blushed as she bowed her head slightly. “Oh yes, I may have picked up some habits from Rarity.”

Rarity smiled. “Some?”

They both erupted in laughter simultaneously. Luna wiped away a tear and looked at Celestia. “Sorry, five years in somepony else's head will do that to you. I assume you two have been working on a spell to fix dear Rarity?”

Twilight nodded slowly, still in shock. “Yeah... I... uh... I had an idea that could work. You see, a large part of traveling to other dimensions is syncing yourself to your destination. I think that if we sent you to another dimension, you could, theoretically, be back to normal speed. Then you could come back with no problem.”

Celestia shook her head. “I think that would be too dangerous, if we just take some time we can isolate which part of the spell...”

Rarity interrupted. “Dimension hopping? What do you think Luna, up for some fun?”

Luna laughed. “Always the adventurous one.” She turned to look at Celestia. “Dear sister, allow me to go with her, I am more than capable of bringing us back if a problem arises.”

Celestia looked between Luna and Rarity. Rarity's face never broke from the smile she had worn since she had awoken. Celestia sighed. “This is against my better judgment.”

Rarity smiled broadened. “You heard her Twilight, that means do it.”

Twilight walked a little closer to Rarity. “Are you sure about this? I'm only going on a hunch here, I'm not sure what will happen.”

Rarity looked directly into Twilight's eyes. Twilight nearly shuddered from the intensity of the stare. “Any chance is worth taking to escape a never ending nightmare.”

Twilight stepped back and took an uneasy breath. “OK, so you want me to try and send you both?” She said looking towards Luna.

“Is that doable?”

Twilight sighed. “Actually, I think I could send us all, four shouldn't be difficult.”

Celestia nodded. “I would feel better going with you sister.”

Rarity looked around impatiently. “We all want to go, so let's just go.”

Twilight nodded and began to cast the spell. A small bubble engulfed them all in a shroud of purple, before a bright flash blinded them all. Twilight slowly opened her eyes to see Luna still in front of her, and Celestia still beside her. They were still in Luna's bedroom, but Rarity had vanished.

Luna looked around. “Twilight, what happened?”

“I don't know... that should have sent all of us, not just her.”

Celestia looked intently at Twilight. “Try again, we will help.”

Twilight began casting her spell again, as Celestia and Luna aided her with their magic. Another bright flash. Still they remained in Luna's bedroom. Twilight was breathing heavily. “I don't... understand... it's like... something is... blocking us out.”

Rarity began to open her eyes, from having shut them in preparation for the spell. She seemed to be on the outskirts of Ponyville. Midway through opening her eyes she could make out the shapes of four ponies standing in front of her. It only took her a moment to identify the silhouettes. Standing in front of her was a beaming Pinkie Pie, a inquisitive looking Twilight, a serious looking Apple Jack, and a sad looking Rainbow Dash.

Slowly Rarity's ears adjusted and she began to hear Pinkie Pie's voice “...she would be here.”

Twilight shook her head. “Fine, I'll admit you got this one, but how you knew she would end up here at this exact time... I wish you could just tell me.”

“It's pretty hard to describe, I just kinda know... ya know?”

Twilight looked over at Rarity. “So if the pattern holds true, she is the only element to the glitch from that world?”

Pinkie Pie nodded enthusiastically. “Yep! It was the whole world, but it corrected itself to her! Kinda like you.”

Twilight stared at Rarity. “Well... do you speak?”

Rarity nodded. “I do, but would you care to explain who you are?”

Twilight shook her head. “Forget everything you just left behind. I'm not the Twilight you know, these aren't the friends you know.”

Rarity stood up straight. “I've been through a lot today, I'm pretty sure I can't be surprised any more.”

Twilight took a step forward. “I am the combination of a Twilight Sparkle from another dimension and the remnants of the creator of the multiverse in which all of our universes preside. Behind me is a collection of glitches caused across reality by a massive destabilization in the grand machine that is our multiverse. In an effort to prevent a total breakdown in the machine, and the destruction of what remains of reality, I hunted each of them down and brought them together .”

Rarity smiled. “And I'm one of these glitches?”

Twilight looked towards Pinkie Pie. “Do I have another telepath here or what?”

Pinkie Pie shrugged. “Not a clue, I can't read her mind at all, it's all buzzy.”

Rarity laughed. “No, I'm a little more complicated than a mind reader. I perceive time at three thousand six hundred times the rate of normal ponies.”

Twilight mouth hung open. “And you can still talk?”

“Admittedly it took a few hours to master.”

Twilight shook her head and looked back at Pinkie Pie. “All right, two more, which one next?”

Pinkie Pie frowned. “That's a toughy, both of these next ones are real doozies!”

“You said only the last one was going to give us trouble.”

“Things have... changed...”

Author's Note

I would like to thank my editors. Without them this wouldn't be nearly as polished as it is now. Special thanks to Adam and Alice, the dynamic editing duo. Without Adam my dialogue would be clunky, and without Alice my grammar would be atrocious.

I would like to take a moment to talk about the upcoming crossover I have all but slapped you in the face here. Yes, I am, and have been for quite some time, intending for several of my works to crossover together. Actually everything I have published so far (except the ESP) will be included in this crossover. I have been hinting at it in the end of my other works, but now I'll finally come out and say it.

If you are interested in the story arc of the multiverse series, here is the links to the others in chronological order:
Breakdown: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/72683/breakdown
Discord's Resignation: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/52102/discords-resignation
Commutatus and Retexo: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/45955/commutatus / http://www.fimfiction.net/story/45960/retexo
Time Dash: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/131296/time-dash
Perception (What you just read)
Fluttershy's story (Name TBA)
My Little Multiverse (The Crossover)

“Surviving Until Tomorrow”

Chapter Six: “Surviving Until Tomorrow”

Luna stumbled back, surprised by Rarity's sudden appearance in front of her. Rarity stared at her for several seconds, waiting for an answer. Luna gathered herself and stood up straight. “Do you not remember? We discussed putting you to sleep in order to talk more freely, and address the speed of your thoughts.”

Rarity blinked, the memories coming back to her. “I remember now, but... that has been four days ago at least.”

Luna eyes widened. “That... we joined you in your dream no more than a minute after you had fallen asleep, and you say that has been four days for you here?”

Rarity closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. “And what a frightening four days it has been! There has been a monster chasing me all through this dreadful forest every single night.”

Luna looked around. “Is the beast here now?”

Rarity shook her head. “No, I haven't seen it during the day, only at night.”

Luna nodded. “All right, for now let us think. If you have been here four days, and I took a minute to arrive, that would mean each second spent in the waking world would be over an hour here.”

Rarity nodded. “I can vouch that time certainly seemed to move that slow when I was awake.”

Luna shook her head. “We think you do not understand how dire this situation is. If that estimate is right, then this eight hour sleep will take us over three years to wake from.”

Rarity stood shocked. “I... I didn't even think about that. Three years?!”

Luna nodded solemnly. “There is no way for you to wake up from this sleep spell, and there is no way for us to leave your dream.”

Rarity began pacing. “No, no, no, no, no, that won't do. This thing stalking me at night, I can't escape it! I have barely managed to survive these four days, but a year? No, three?!”

Luna walked in front of her. “Please calm yourself Rarity. You need to remember that this is a dream, your mind controls what happens here.”

Rarity looked up and smiled weakly. “Thank you Princess, that does makes me feel better.”

Luna smiled. “It is nothing, and considering our current situation, we believe it would be best if you called us 'Luna'.”

Rarity nodded. “So where do we go from here... Luna?”

Luna looked off into the horizon, at the now setting sun. “Night is fast approaching, we think it would be best if you took us somewhere where it is day.”

Rarity looked over at the setting sun. “What, you want me to teleport us somewhere else? Forgive me princess, but I have never learned a teleport spell.”

Luna shook her head. “No you misunderstand us, this is your dream Rarity, this setting is a reflection of your thoughts and fears. You must close your eyes and think happier, then you can change what is around us.”

Rarity nodded. “OK, I'll give it try.”

Rarity closed her eyes and began to focus. She began thinking about her shop, and making dresses, and how happy she is when she finishes an order. She thought about the last project she just finished earlier that day, and how long ago that felt now. When she opened her eyes she was standing in the middle of her shop.

Luna smiled. “Good, at least here we are safe.”

Rarity walked over to the window and looked outside. She could still see the sun setting in the distance. “Um... princ.. Luna?”

“Yes?”

“The sun is still going down, nothing changed but where we were.” Rarity said, panic beginning to rise in her voice.

Luna walked over to the window and looked outside. “Everything is fine Rarity, please try to calm yourself, look around you, we are in your shop, your sanctum.”

Rarity started taking in deep breaths. “Yes of course, we are inside and that creature is out there. He can't possibly hurt us in here.”

Just then three loud knocks were heard on the door, each hit sounding almost a whole second after the last. Both Rarity and Luna froze, staring at the front door. Three more knocks sounded, louder and more quickly. Rarity and Luna looked at each other nervously. Rarity's breathing became faster. “Luna, we need to run.”

Luna was beginning to worry herself. “We need you to calm down, nothing here can hurt you unless you allow it.”

Three more incredibly loud bangs in rapid succession came from the front door, coupled with the sound of cracking wood. A small splinter-filled hole was forming in the middle of the door, through it you could see a dark silhouette of something. Suddenly a deep wheezing sound came from the creature. “Raaaariiiiityyyy!”

Rarity squealed and began running up the stairs nearby. The creature then proceeded to destroy the remainder of the door in three more blows. It stepped into the boutique slowly. It was a bipedal creature that was incredibly tall, with no face. The creature was broad, but with even thicker, disproportionate arms, and was wearing a black suit with a red tie. Luna quickly noted that Rarity's fashion sense even leaked into her nightmares before turning and running up the stairs behind Rarity.

Rarity was in her room crying under her bed when Luna walked in. “Rarity please, we need you in order to escape this place.”

Rarity wiped away tears from her eyes. “I caaaan't! I'm too scared to think of anything else! That thing is going to catch us and then... well I don't know what, but I'm scared Luna!”

Loud thumping was heard below them, the creature had begun to climb the stairs. Luna looked around, hoping to find something to help them out. She found hope in an open window. She grabbed Rarity by the hoof. “Then we shall fly out!”

She dragged Rarity to the window and grabbed around her waist. She spread her wings and leaped out. Outside was nothing but endless forest again. Rarity's boutique was the only building in sight. Behind them Rarity's bedroom door burst open, the creature running towards the window as they ascended. It stuck its head through the window, unable to fit it's arms through, and craned it's neck to see them flying away and began to scream, still with a menacing wheeze. “Rarityyyyyy!!!”

Rarity's breathing slowed as she saw it fade into the distance as they continued to fly away. She sighed in relief. “Thank you so much Luna, I don't know what I would have done without you.”

“No, it is us who should be sorry. That was not a normal manifestation of fear, that was something deep within you.”

“Deep within me? Some sort of fear I have buried away? But would could it be?”

“We are not sure. It is hard to be certain of such things with so little known. We rarely see such a manifestation, and they are often easy to deal with in time, but this may prove different given the circumstance. We are afraid it may even worsen with time.”

“Worsen?! What could be worse than that thing?”

“We would ask of you not to think of it, for you may get your answer, and you may not like it.”

Rarity swallowed. Luna was right, if that thing was a product of her imagination and fear, then thinking about worse alternatives could only make things worse. “I understand, but what are we going to do for tonight?”

Luna looked around and spotted a cloud. “We were told you once walked on clouds with the rest of your friends, do you remember that day?”

Rarity nodded. “Of course how could I forget? The wings I had were absolutely gorgeous.”

Luna hovered just over a fairly large cloud. “Think of that day, and the feel of the clouds on your hooves.”

Rarity closed her eyes, and remembered how soft clouds felt, and how springy they were to walk on. “I remember.”

“Then open your eyes.”

Luna had descended enough to have Rarity's hooves touching the clouds. Rarity could feel the solidness of them waiting to catch her. Luna let go, and Rarity gently fell down onto the cloud. “I did it!”

Luna smiled. “Very good, let us sleep here for the night.”

Rarity laid her head down on the soft cloud, it was very comfortable. She began thinking of all the times she had seen Rainbow Dash asleep in a cloud. Now Rarity understood why that lazy pegasus was always falling asleep up there, they were just that comfortable. It wasn't long before she fell completely asleep.