Final Frontiers

"Spike?" came a soft whisper, "SPIIII-IIKE~?"

A rather disheveled young dragon poked his head out from under the covers of his basket bed. "Bleh," was all he could manage before his head was back on the little pillow and the blanket pulled back up around him.

"Oh, Spike," the violet unicorn exclaimed, the concern very evident in her voice as she lay down next to the basket, "are you feeling any better at all?"

"Ugh. Sowwy, Twiligh," Spike croaked, one half-lidded eye cracking open to look at her, "I feel a libble bebter, buh myh snouwt is stiww awl stuffed uhp. I pwomish tow helb twibce ab hard onbce I'hm back tow norble."

Twilight patted the top of Spike's head, "Aww that's okay, Spike. With all the help you've been so far on this project, I think my Number One Assistant has earned a few days off," she threw in a big smile in at the end to try to cheer the little dragon up. "Oh! Pinkie dropped off some cookies and a card, I'll leave those here in case you get hungry," she levitated the platter of still-warm cookies and the get-well-soon card closer to the basket.

A garbled response that Twilight assumed was one of acknowledgement came from the basket.

"If you'd like some soup or anything else I'll be downstairs in the study," Twilight gave Spike a quick nuzzle before trotting out of the room, quietly closing the door behind her. Through the door, a faint POP! - undoubtedly accompanied by confetti - and party noise maker could be heard as a certain card was opened, which brought a relieved smile to Twilight face.

Feeling slightly less worried about her little assistant, Twilight stopped to glance out the window at the Weather Team moving dull rainy clouds into the morning sky over Ponyville.

Rainbow Dash did say the Weather Team had a storm scheduled today, but hadn't been clear on just how much of a storm it was going to be. "They needed to make up for two days where unscheduled sunny weather had been required," was what the pegasus had said. I'll have to ask for a more in-depth weather schedule the next time I see Dash, Twilight thought with a nod, It had been really nice of Pinkie to swing by with a fresh batch of cookies, especially in this weather, though seeing her happily bouncing from puddle to puddle was probably a sign that Pinkie didn't mind or hadn't noticed how dreary it was. How she had kept the platter of cookies both dry and in a perfect pile through the trip, however, was still a mystery.

Working her way down the stairs, Twilight continued to think to herself. All of my friends had shown concern when Spike had gotten sick, and throughout the week they'd managed to do something nice for him in their own way - noon on Monday Rarity had shown up with a set of freshly-sewn embroidered pillows to fluff up his basket, Tuesday evening Fluttershy brought some soup and tea she and Zecora had brewed up that should speed his recovery, early Wednesday morning AJ and Big Macintosh came around with an apple pie and some fresh cider meant to help wash away the taste of the soup and tea, Wednesday afternoon Rainbow Dash had given him a copy of her favorite Daring Do book, and today Pinkie had stopped by.

Twilight disembarked from this train of thought when she arrived at the tower of books and reference material she and Spike had been set up in the middle - and on every other available surface - of the study. It had been a rough few days without Spike's assistance but Twilight felt she needed to keep making progress, tired as she was. Pushing the lectern Spike had been using a few inches closer to her own, the unicorn sat herself down and began scanning the text from the tomes she deftly levitated around her, all the while scribbling equations and jotting down notes on the piece of parchment in front of her.

The sound of her quill tapping against the bottom of an empty inkwell snapped Twilight from her focus. With a sigh, she levitated the writing implement back to the lectern and tried to look out the nearby window to get an idea of what time it was, only to find she was unable to focus on anything farther away than her parchment. Rubbing the stubbornness out of her eyes, she tried again.

"Wow, the weather team really brought in a lot of cloud cover for this one," Twilight whispered as light rain pattered at the glass pane. "It almost looks like it's night out-" she nearly finished saying before a short-lived break in the clouds revealed a sliver of moon.

"Oh sweet Celestia! Have I been here that long?" she said aloud, pacing around the study with a slight bit of panic edging its way into her voice, "I still haven't gotten anywhere near enough data to send to the Princess in tomorrow's report!" Glancing from page to page of the parchment, Twilight plopped her flanks down on the carpet and closed her eyes, taking a few deep breaths in the process.

Okay Twilight Sparkle, it's crunch time. You're probably going to have to pull an all-nighter, but you're going to get this report done! she told herself, opening her tired eyes and clopping her front hooves together determinedly. "You have your hypothesis," she stated, levitating a page as she did so, "you have the procedure," - up floated another - "and you have the consolidated research and cited sources list," - a ream of pages lifted into the air - "all that's left is to follow the equations you worked out and have Spike send the report in the afternoon." She spent a moment taking in the massive amount of papers floating around her before her shoulders slumped a small fraction.

"I'd better start brewing some coffee..."

The transcription of the rough scribbles and short-hoof notes into the finalized rendition of the report that would be sent to the Princess took her until just slightly before dawn, but the weary Twilight was finally ready to start the casting portion of her project.

Twilight gave one equation that popped out on the page a quick glance, "Hmm... this thaumaturgic equation looks to indicate the differentiating levels of inducements might cause an audi-" a yawn briefly interrupted her monologue until she fought it back, drowning it with what was left of her mug of coffee,  "...an auditory discharge. The corresponding frequencies are similar enough and woven together so that it shouldn't be too loud-" she glanced quickly at the stairs through the study door "-but I should do this outside so that I don't wake Spike." Checking in on her recovering dragon revealed a floor covered in confetti, one snoring bundle of covers using an open Daring Do book for a pillow, and a nearly-empty platter of cookies. Twilight snagged one of the cookies as an impromptu breakfast before heading back to the study. Gathering up the pages she'd need to reference and a few pieces of equipment, the unicorn donned a bright yellow rain poncho and set off into the drizzle with the perfect spot to cast the spell in mind.

Despite the weather and the time of day, the street wasn't completely empty; a few ponies had begun the process of opening up their shops for the day and greetings were exchanged as their paths crossed. On her way out of town, Twilight encountered Applejack pulling her cart in for the morning market.

"Hey sugarcube, ya sure are up early," Applejack greeted, giving her friend a once-over and spotting the dark bags under her eyes, "or... are ya up late?"

Twilight let out a weak laugh which tried to turn into a yawn, but she fought it back, "Heheh, the latter, AJ. I'm on my way to conduct an experiment so I can finish writing this report for the Princess. We had been talking about how convenient it would be for me to be able to check out required books from the Canterlot library without having to wait two to three days for them to be delivered."

"Wait, can't Spike-" Applejack started before Twilight cut her off with a shake of her head.

"Large volumes of pages have proven to be an issue - both sending and receiving" she clarified. "Spike being sick is another reason to look into the thematic of setting up a long-range two-way system, which could potentially have more uses across Equestria. For now I'm just seeing if I can send an inanimate object to a pre-determined location without leaving the portal open for any significant length of time. Conceptually speaking, the spell is feasible, provided the caster have a familiarity with unicorn teleportation mechanics-" the unicorn was explaining when an orange hoof pushed against her snout, effectively shushing her.

"Twilight, I wager a few bits yer 'bout ta start using big words from those thick books a yers, an' fer today I reckon I'd like ta keep mah eyes from goin' crossed jus tryin' ta keep up," Applejack said after Twilight had broken from her lecture, "an' besides, got ta get the cart set up: Dash was sayin' early mornin' the weather team s'possed ta be gettin' all this cleared up, so me an' Granny got an inklin' it'll be a good day fer business."

"Oh!" Twilight exclaimed, quickly peering around AJ at the cart she was pulling, "Could I be your first customer of the day?" she asked, levitating a single bit from her saddle bag towards Applejack.

"Sure thing, sugarcube! Nothin' like startin' the day with a good apple!" AJ said before plucking one of the juicier-looking apples by the stem off her cart for Twilight to put in her saddle bag. "Lookin' like me an' Granny were right ‘bout today!" she remarked with a confident grin.

After the two had parted ways, it only took a few minutes for Twilight to reach her destination: a quiet spot atop a hill overlooking Ponyville from the south, with shelter from the rain provided by a small white gazebo. Twilight had thought it better not to mention to AJ that she intended to teleport the apple back to her laboratory in the basement because the farmer probably wouldn't be too thrilled about her beloved produce being used as a test subject. I don't want a repeat of the apples-into-oranges incident. That had taken quite a bit of talking to smooth over.

The sun had already broken over the horizon, evident by a small patch of cloud cover the Weather Team had cleared in the short time they had been at work, when Twilight had finished her preparations. The apple had been placed on a pedestal made using an ordinary garden rock she had moved from the grass, a video camera on a tripod pointing at it, ready to record. Pages of notes lay on one of the benches near her, should she need them for reference. She checked her watch; the camera in the laboratory will have started recording a few minutes ago. She made a mental note to include a copy of both viewpoints with her report. Pressing the record button on the camera in front of her, Twilight stepped into its view.

"Well, here we go..." she said aloud, giving the camera a rather uncertain smile.

Twilight's horn glowed as she focused the necessary magic. The first step was infusing the target subject with a small amount of magic that the caster could then hone in on as an anchor for the next spell, something she and Spike had worked on before (and that was pretty basic stuff, as far as Twilight was concerned). With that step out of the way, Twilight started seeking for that little node of magic she had attached to the apple. Finding it, she began the more complex process of tailoring the usual teleportation spell to bind to the target as a form of proxy. It took a little bit of tweaking for the magician to get the base of the teleport spell to mesh with the infused apple, but the magic held after Twilight had relinquished her connection to the spell.

"The energy seems to be remaining in a constant state of equilibrium - I'm not getting any spikes toward one polar extreme or another. So far, so good!" she stated for the camera, this time the smile was purely genuine.

Opening her eyes for the first time since she started, Twilight turned to look for her library home in the town below her. Finding it, she closed her eyes to focus again, this time seeking out the distinct magical aura she had left as a beacon to guide her to the destination of the test subject. It took a few minutes to sort out her target from the various magical signatures in the town, but once she was certain she had the right one she was able to lock-on and tune out the rest from her concentration. With two definitive points now identified, Twilight began linking the two, connecting the strands of magic of the point of origin to the corresponding strand of the destination - it was much like braiding a mane, but doing so one hair at a time. It was an arduous task, but it became easier the more intertwined the magic became. As the last strand was joined, Twilight opened her eyes to try to catch a glimpse as the spell was completed.

A wavering shimmer around the apple could be seen, almost as if there was a sheet of flowing water between it and the viewer. Half a heartbeat after opening her eyes, a faint-but-audible THWHIP! and the apple, along with the stone, were gone.

"HAHA! IT WORKED!" Twilight cheered gleefully, prancing about on her two hind hooves before calming herself down and addressing the camera once more, "Right. *ahem* Test subject no longer present at origin point. Data note: will need to refine the infusement process as a small amount of additional matter was transported. Initial weaving of teleportation spell into subject's anchor mesh-"

CRACK!

Twilight was cut off when a loud explosion - too loud to be from thunder or lightning - emanated from somewhere in the distance behind her. Spinning about to identify the source, it didn't take her long to find it.

Where there had once been a sky full of clouds, a donut of clear sky had appeared above the town, with the only cloud now above Ponyville situated directly above her library. Looking closer Twilight could see a shimmer identical to the one that had surrounded the apple and stone had started to form on the surface of the now-darkening cloud, angry arcs of lightning reaching out to the lightning rod on the top of her home and sending Weather Team pegasi scattering in every direction.

"Oh buck..." Twilight swore absentmindedly as she took off for the library.