In Which the Universe said...Fuck you!
"Are you sure you have your project done?" my mom asks for the hundredth time as I gathered my school items, packing them away into my backpack.
"Yes mom. I told you I stayed up late last night putting the final touches on it." I grumbled, taking a quick gulp of coffee. I had only been awake for ten minutes and my mom was already nagging me about school.
"Hey, cut the attitude. I'm just making sure you got your shit done." she said, her voice carrying her own tone of attitude. I love my mom, but there are some days...
"Of course I got it done!" I snapped, gesturing to the opened sketch pad as it laid on the dinner table. On its surface, the image of a large scale still-life drawn in graphite, detailed in ink, showed itself to the world. In the still-life, Spartan figures conducted battle against Covenant figures of Brutes and Grunts with the occasional Jackal. In the background, an urban battlefield sat decimated and smoking, showing other battle occurring in the ruins.
"Give me attitude again, I dare you." my mom growled dangerously, her finger pointing sternly in my face. With a sign and rubbing of my eyes, I gently pushed her finger aside and closed up my sketch pad.
"Sorry...but what do you expect when you start harping on me as soon as I woke up. Christ, I didn't even finish my coffee and I have to go in five minutes." I said, giving her an apologetic look. With a pursing of her lips and squaring of her jaw, my mom sighed and nodded.
"You're right, sorry. Have a good day, okay? You got your dinner packed?" she asked as I finalized my packing.
"Yeah, grabbed that as soon as I got down here." I said, slinging my backpack over my shoulders and grabbing my sketch pad. "Okay, I'm off." I said, walking towards the front door. My mom followed me out, bidding me a good-bye and a good day. As I put in my earbuds and began playing Alex S.' remix of 20% Cooler, I looked up to the skies above me, taking in the mid-summers' day around me. As I walked, I couldn't help but feel like something bug was going to happen.
"Maybe War Thunder will finally get an update..." I thought to myself as I walked. The World War Two combat simulator really needed a redo of their matchmaking. This was painfully obvious when I was flying an American P-63C-5 Kingcobra and a German Me. 262 comes out of nowhere and annihilates my aircraft.
Needless to say, I wasn't a happy pilot as I watched my fighter spiral through the skies in a ball of fire.
Reaching the public bus stop, I began the process of waiting for the 103 bus from Rodney Village to take me to the Dart Transit Station. As I stood there, I couldn't help but begin to rock out and lip sync my music as it came through my ear buds, not caring if the passing drivers looked at me like I was a crazy person. But the feeling that something big was going to happen kept nagging at the back of my mind.
And it would not stop.
* * *
"Are you ready Spike?" Twilight asked as she double checked her equipment, making sure everything was ready to capture the magical output.
"Uhm...tell me again what you're trying?" Spike asked warily, looking over the sheer amount of machinery Twilight dragged out from the basement just to measure this spells' power.
"I'm attempting a teleportation spell I found while on my trip to Canterlot. Princess Celestia granted me access to the Star Swirl the Bearded section of the Royal Library, and that's where I found this teleportation spell!" Twilight chirped, her horn flaring up as she withdrew a tattered spell scroll from her saddlebags. Opening the scroll, Twilight examined the ancient writings and archaic symbols of Star Swirls' time. "It is a three-stage spell, each stage increasing in intensity." she explained briefly. Casting her eyes to the floor, she double-checked the spell circle shown on the scroll to the one she had drawn on the gem floor of her castle. Nodding, she rolled up the scroll and placed it back in her saddlebags, taking her position in the center of the spell circle.
"Ready?" she asked Spike. Ducking behind the sandbag barrier he built, Spike popped back up in an infantry helmet, but peaked up over the sandbag barrier. Taking this as a 'Yes', Twilight ignited her horn, casting a lavender sheen over the appendage. She she spell built up, Twilight stood her ground as the spell grew in power. There was a flash, signalling the first stage of the spell. All around her, items like papers and quills began to float on their own, caught in some mystical force as they began to swirl around the Alicorn. As the items began to swirl faster and faster, Twilight's horn sparked again, developing a dual-layered over sheen over her horn. This was the second stage, and the intensity began to show in Twilight's features. Her face was clenched in concentration, sweat beading over her forehead as her frame began to lift off the floor. Twilight grunted in pain, causing Spike alarm.
"Twilight! Are you okay?" Spike asked, worry evident on his face.
"Yes! Just let me get through this!" Twilight yelled, her horn sparking into a third over layer of magic around her horn, signalling the third stage. Her eyes shot open, the orbs enveloped in a while glow as the spells' intensity grew higher and higher, causing a torrent of flying items to circle around Twilight. With a scream, the spell suddenly exploded, and Twilight was sent flying into one of her walls, impacting with a smack! All the items that were flying suddenly dropped to the floor, and the air returned to normal.
"Twilight!" Spike called, running to his friend as she fell to the floor in a heap. "Are you okay!?" he asked, panic in his voice.
"I'm...fine...ow..." Twilight mumbled, rubbing her head with a hoof. "Did it work...?" she asked, wincing as she got onto her hooves with help from Spike.
"I don't know..." Spike said in an uncertain tone, looking to the measurement machines as they printed off graph papers at a high intensity. Approaching one of the machines, Twilight ripped the paper from the machines' mouth and examined the data.
"That's...impossible..." Twilight trailed off. "The data says I reached the spells' pinnacle and that it was casted, but...I didn't go anywhere..." she said, the feeling of failure creeping into her voice. Spike rested a clawed paw on her shoulder and patted it.
"It's okay Twilight. Maybe you weren't supposed to teleport." Spike suggested, giving a meager shrug.
"If that's the case, then what was the spells' purpose? Heavy lifting? Moving a home?" Twilight purposed, scratching her chin with a hoof.
"I don't know Twilight. What do you say we take a break and get something to eat?" Spike suggested, nudging his friends' side. At that moment, Twilight's stomach growled with agreement. With a giggle and slight blush, Twilight agreed to the baby dragons' suggestion and the two left the room, bound for the castles' kitchen.
Unknown to the Alicorn and baby Dragon, the spell was truly a success.
And what it brought will be the last thing they would've expected.
* * *
I walked into the house at 10:30 pm after two and a half hours of Intro to Business, and then four hours of General Psychology. Needless to say, I was simply exhausted and just wanted to go to bed.
"Hello Harrison!" my mom chirped from her recliner, laptop on her lap and open to Microsoft Word. I gave her a confused look.
"I thought you went to bed..." I said. "Don't you have work tomorrow?" I asked.
"Oh no, I got a call saying that I was off the schedule tomorrow. Thank god too, I need a break from that mad house for a bit anyway." she said, chuckling as she resumed her typing. "But I'm probably gonna go to bed after some writing here soon." she added, her fingers flying over the keyboard as she wrote her story. Shrugging and setting my backpack down, I unpacked my laptop and checked War Thunder.
"Damn...nothing yet..." I grumbled, hoping for the latest update to have come through while I was gone. After checking in on Facebook and Equestria Daily, I exited Firefox and shut off my laptop, my mind already beginning to grow drowsy and wanting sleep. Bidding my mom goodnight, I began to move my body upstairs and soon I entered my bedroom. Getting changed into my pajamas, I slipped on my 'Survival of the Craftiest' Minecraft shirt and some pajama pants, then flopped myself down onto my bed and immediately wrapped my arms around one of my pillows as I got comfortable. Within minutes, I was deep asleep and snoring, my mind producing dreams of colorful ponies and epic adventures.
However, unknown to my slumbering being, I was not going to be waking up to the familiar sight of my bedroom in the morning...