(Arc 1) Where It All Began
The storm raged across New York City and its trees swayed with great ferocity as they tried to fight the brute force of the wind currents. A random metal pole was uprooted and sent flying somewhere in the center of the city and had found its place at the central power station of New York, cutting the distribution of electricity across the metropolis.
Meanwhile, in a small subdivision in the suburbs of the city, the whir of a small motor could be heard as a generator powered on a certain strange machine. The swinging of hammers and the screeching of shifting gears echoed throughout the basement of a colorless, abandoned house. After a few clicks from a wire-cutter and resounding echoes from falling screws, a large CLING! came from the impact of a monkey wrench with the ground.
A teenager had just built the first ever inter-dimensional traveling machine in the world.
As he pressed a red button and pulled some levers from the main control panel, the machine lit up and generated what seemed to be a shimmering blue field of energy.
"Finally, it's finished!" The boy laughed hysterically over his newest invention.
Gripped tightly in his hand was a lock of purple and pink hair alongside a small golden pendant with a purple stone embedded on its center. He stared at the shining jewel and smiled. Faint memories of the past danced in his mind. "Twilight, I'm coming back. I made a promise, didn't I?" He laughed a bit more before he stepped back and watched as the blue coat of plasma reshaped itself into an image of a city he knew far too well.
"Just a little bit more..."
Nine years ago...
In front of more than a thousand distinguished scientists around the world, five of the best known biologists who specialized in cancer research were positioned in a table stationed on top of the stage in the auditorium. In their hands were thick stacks of papers held together by paperclips. As they eyed the documents, more than a few eyebrows were turned up; the others merely stared blankly at their contents. One of the five raised a hand and gestured to the emcee of the event. He whispered something to the emcee before sending him on his way.
"May we call on August Winters for his thesis defense," the emcee called out as he read from his card.
The auditorium went silent. Thousands of scientists watched as a young boy in a neat tuxedo walked over to the stage to face the five judges. The air became still as everyone froze in anticipation of what was going to happen next. In their minds was a single question: what could a young boy such as this one possibly be able to contributed to the scientific field?
"August Winters?" One of the Judges asked.
I bowed in respect and replied, "Yes."
"Very well then, let us get straight to the point." The judge, who seemed to be somewhere in his sixties brought my thesis close to him and adjusted his eyeglasses. "'Methods of Cross Examining Oncogenes Through Horizontal Gene Transfer to Drosophila Melanogaster'... the thesis you wrote here could potentially cure cancer. Did you know that, boy?" He asked while rubbing a white stub on his chin.
I nodded confidently. "Given the methods I have introduced in my thesis, if any animal has a possible cure for many forms of cancer, then scientists can efficiently test whether the results are positive or not within a couple of weeks—days even depending on the facilities of the research laboratory."
The white-haired judge nodded and leaned back on his seat, queuing the other judges to ask their questions. One of the five, a Chinese judge, leaned forward and again looked at the paper in his hands. "Mr. Winters, I confess that many of the thesis reports I have received in the past few years of my life have not reached more than three pages before I dropped them. Remarkable ones get me until the tenth page." He placed the paper down and closed his eyes as he leaned back on his chair, "But your paper— your paper has piqued my interest like no other. The amount of scientific relevance that your paper contains is just... extraordinary. I've read this forty page report from start to finish all in one sitting as I was afraid that if I stopped, I would have been missinging out on valuable knowledge that could potentially lead to a major breakthrough in the biological sciences."
The other judges nodded in agreement with the Chinese Judge. Silence filled the room again as the leader of the five, a man who wore a monocle and had won a Nobel prize back in the nineties stood up and extended his hand towards me. "Mr. Winters, I believe—and I speak here for all of the judges-" he looked sideways at his nodding acquaintances "-that what you have discovered here not only warrants the first perfect grade given by this university but also the first thesis defense that requires no 'defense' at all as your paper clearly answers all of the questions that could have been given to you. Furthermore, this is a discovery that deserves a Nobel Prize for its creativity and extravagance. I, on behalf of all the judges here present today, would like to nominate your work for this year's Nobel Peace Prize."
When I shook his hand, claps surrounded the auditorium as people stood up and cheered for me and the recognition I received from the Judges. The cancer patients and their close relatives at the corner of the area jumped with joy and hugged each other with tears streaming down their eyes. One of the Judges patted me on the back and muttered something about surprising the world more with my discoveries. Some scientists even brought out white flowers and threw them at my feet to celebrate the wonderful occasion. For everyone, this truly was a glorious day.
Everyone except me.
I did not share the same sentiment that everyone seemed to have for the event. Amidst the joyous atmosphere, I felt insipid. I felt neither the happiness of my success nor the depression of... whatever I should even be depressed about. Emotions that I was expecting to be there simply weren't. My heartbeat remained steady. I couldn't sense any supposed rush of adrenaline even as I accepted my diploma from the head judge.
My mother and father stepped onto the stage and took my hand. After smiling a few times for the cameras of the research world, we went straight to out car and rode back home to our house. Being a small area, it did not require great effort to maintain, which led to it being surrounded by plant life despite being situated right in the middle of New York.
As I got down from the car, a cool breeze blew past my arms which sent a shiver down my spine. I hugged myself with my hands and proceeded up the steps of my house. It was neither extravagant nor downright garbage; it made it special from the rest of the houses in the subdivision was a small lever found on the side of my bed which, when pulled, reveals an entrance leading to my self-engineered laboratory.
The very first thing I encountered when I descended was a big brown box which contained a variety of medals, certificates, and trophies I won as (and still am) a child. For some reason, awards and achievements never made me feel accomplished and proud. Whenever I received them, I could only view them as either circular aluminum necklaces or scratch paper for my calculations. Of course, I completely understood the practical point of awards. They were either to create a distinction between mediocrity and superiority or to inspire mediocre people. However, for me, it was none of the above After receiving the supposed physical manifestation of my achievement, it immediately goes whoosh down the trash chute.
I walked towards a circular machine situated at the center of my lab. Connected to it were various cables directly linked to the main computer at the far right of the room. I pressed a few buttons in the machine and twisted a few knobs before rotating the whole device one hundred and eighty degrees to view the results. Squiggles and lines were projected on a glass screen on top of the machine. I scanned the graph for any irregularity before rotating the device halfway back to its original position and turning it off.
"Still no signs of any distortions in the dimension," I sighed, walking towards my working table to write down my progress.
The device I had at the center of the lab was a simple machine I invented which could detect spatial rifts or distortions in the dimension from across the galaxy. So far, it had successfully located rifts in both the Andromeda galaxy and the edge of the Milky Way in the span of a single year. Even though spatial rifts were extremely rare and unpredictable, I was at the very least curious of the possibilities they carried along with their anonymity. One of the theories I am currently working on involved the possibility of alternate dimensions—that the only reason they haven't been discovered yet was because people had no way of travelling though the fabric separating the dimensions.
Day by day, I would check the progress of my machine hoping that it would have landed a hit on a distortion in a nearby planet. At the very least, I hoped it would be near Neptune where I could observe it with the telescope I'd crafted.
"Let's call this a night," I stood up from my chair and subconsciously put my hand on my mouth and yawned. I realized that my eyelids were beginning to grow heavier with every minute that passed.
As I climbed up the bed and rolled in my blanket, I wondered when the day would come that I'd actually feel excitement and passion for something... for anything really: in or out of this world.
Click, click, click, a sound echoed from somewhere to my right. I looked over in an attempt to locate and subsequently shut down the alarm clock responsible for the awful noise. This effort was sadly in vain as I remembered that I didn't even own an alarm clock. Waking up early was just a part of my daily routine. I brought my hands to my eyes and rubbed them to remove the drowsiness that I usually encountered in the morning.
Click, click, click— wait, if an alarm clock isn't the one making the sounds, then what is? I rummaged through my mental folder for any machine I bought or created that was capable of such a feat. Jumping off from my bed and running straight to the lab, I remembered only one machine with the ability to produce clicks.
"The rift detector," I muttered as I ran towards the machine. This sound was both familiar and unfamiliar as I've only heard it twice in this house, and during those times it usually meant that it had discovered an irregularity somewhere in this universe's physical space.
Upon reaching my lab, I immediately analyzed the chart the machine projected and tried to single out the specific coordinates of the irregularity. I jotted down every last bit of data that could help me determine its location. After finishing, I immediately went over to my main computer and tabulated the results.
The screen suddenly displayed a large area in the universe that contained the different galaxies surrounding the Milky Way. After a few moments, it zoomed into the Milky Way followed by a close-up of the solar system.
A spatial rift in this specific solar system? This is an event that only has a one in a million— no, a one in a billion chance of occurring. I zoomed in the scan on Earth, focusing the magnification on the United States of America.
No, no, no, this can't be right. It was much too convenient. A rift in my home country? The chances of that happening are incomprehensible.
Finally, the machine opened a tab which read "maximum scan obtained" and marked down the exact coordinates of the irregularity with a marker. I squinted, trying to identify the location marked on the screen. I did a double take and nearly fell off of my chair when I realized that the dotted mark was situated exactly at the center of a certain subdivision. My subdivision. In a playground to be exact.
Wasting no time, I immediately grabbed my bag and threw a couple of chips in it before proceeding towards the door. A large BOOM! followed by the sounds of dripping water stopped me on my tracks.
It had begun to rain. I could see the flashes of lighting outside from my window. The trees swayed as the wind tried to tear them from the ground. Based on normal protocol, I would usually abort the mission and wait for another time to observe whatever I was going to observe, but not this time. I decided that, no matter the circumstance, I will gather information about that rift.
I stepped out into the raging storm wearing only my raincoat to protect my body from the rain. I instinctively shielded my eyes from an oncoming twig carried by the wind. The streets were beginning to flood as the canals overflowed with water. Usually, rains around this area would only consist of light drizzles. Storms of this magnitude very rarely, if ever, happened. I had no idea what was causing this much disturbance in the skies. The distortion maybe? I can't tell unless I go back to my lab and examine the phenomena.
I perished the thought. I had no time for that now; I have something I need to do. I emptied my thoughts and set my body to auto, running towards the center of the subdivision completely ignoring everything else around me.
I finally reached the center of the area after sprinting for three full minutes. It was an abandoned playground. Leaves were scattered across the slide and the ground underneath the playground flourished with plant life. It was clear that people barely used the place.
I brought out a mini-GPS and took note of the exact position of the dot. It was right beside the broken slide.
Bringing out my camera, I carefully approached the assumed site of the irregularity and circled it a few times, noting the smallest of details which could lead to the rift. The slide was intact, no external force had ripped it apart into a million pieces and the foundation of the whole playground set was solid. The four legs that supported the structure seemed to be standing strong on its own. I couldn't sense any stress from the environment other than from the winds trying to topple it over. It was unnatural because if there were any rips in dimensional fabrics, like black holes, their gravity should be massive. They should be causing at the very least some type of disturbance in the area.
I stood on the point where, according to the GPS, the irregularity was present. I looked up into the rain and wondered whether the reason I couldn't see or even feel the rift was because it was situated in high altitudes in the sky or the atmosphere.
No, that wouldn't be right, if that were the case, the pattern of the rain should be extremely unpredictable and the clouds would be forming a concentrated pattern in the sky.
I ran my hand on the base of the slide. Was there even a rift to begin with? What if the machine I created simply malfunctioned and gave me false data? What if some wire in my invention had just short circuited and tricked itself into believing that space time was distorted in this particular area near my home?
As I questioned my current situation more and more, my excitement died down and I was beginning to accept the fact that everything here was just far too convenient for me to actually exist. Well, it wasn't that I was excited to actually discover something for the betterment of the world. Earth and everything in it all fall on the same category to me: colorless. I was conscious of my apathy towards everything in this world and I was not afraid to express it given the chance.
Everything I do is for the sake of self-interest. While people worry about natural disasters and their dying family members, I'm anxious about my being unable to remove this apathy I have inside me. I feel as though throughout the rest of my life, I'd live like a machine whose sole purpose is to exist.
My parents noted that my capacity for thought far exceeded that of a regular nine-year-old. However, they personally couldn't determine whether I actually cared for anything in my life. I heard them conversing with a teacher of mine back in kindergarten how my weakness was my inability to become completely illogical and forget about the limits of the objective universe. It didn't bother me. I saw no importance in that statement anyway.
And now I'm here, bracing the heavy storm with my essentially frail body; waiting for the perfect opportunity to discover something that will at the very least reduce this "weakness" of mine. But for some reason, I know it most likely never will. A rift on the human solar system is already rarer than winning the lottery using sheer luck seven times. In a row.
Sighing, I returned my camera inside my bag and left the playground. I ignored the puddles and mud distributed along the road and continued walking disregarding whether or not my feet landed on them. It didn't matter anyways, the GPS had stopped beeping. The rift had already disappeared.
*****
I stepped into my room with my shoes covered in mud. Normally (according to my parents), a nine year old would cry out "Mom!" to clean up a mess like this. However, I knew that microorganisms don't magically die with a dry rug. Just because the floor looks clean doesn't mean it is. I grabbed a bottle of alcohol and sprinkled it across my room, wiping the surfaces clean with a piece of cloth. I know it's a waste but the government funds most of my stuff anyway.
After fixing the mess I created, I immediately went to my worktable and pulled out a cyan notebook labelled Work Entries. On page forty-seven of the notebook, I recorded the events that happened today. This wasn't an ordinary journal where I write adventurous content or emotional stresses. This journal served the function of a logbook more than anything else. I wrote down numbers, dates, times, and the false coordinates of the rift.
On a small portion at the bottom, I described the events of the nonexistent irregularity.
The machine located a rift at the old, abandoned playground. According to the GPS, it was located somewhere around the broken slide. My assumptions—
My writing was halted when my pen suddenly slid out of my hand and dove straight behind me. It was followed by my marble paperweight and a few other pens that were laid out on my table. I ducked down to evade an open soda can from smashing right into my face. As more objects flew past me, I felt my chair slowly accelerate towards the same direction.
This isn't good.
I looked back and my eyes widened at the sight of a black globe surrounded by some white aura at the center of my room. It was about as big as an exercise ball and seemed to be magnetically attracting various objects around the room: hangers, light bulbs, old toys, calculators, and a plethora of other objects surrounding it. What happened to the objects sucked inside? I don't know, nor do I know why there's suddenly a large rift at the center of my room. Streams of questions entered my mind as I tried to think of what could have made this event possible; I shrugged them off when I realized that I was getting closer and closer to the black globe.
Crap, I stood up, grabbed my bag, and ran to the wall farthest from the rift. I observed my chair instantly levitate and fly towards the center. Instead of feeling rather sad at the fact that the chair was imported, I grabbed the nearest thing that was firmly attached to the wall: a metallic clothes hanger. As the strength of the pull increased, i felt my legs point towards the black globe while levitating.
By this time my room looked like a complete mess of objects, big and small, trying to reach the rift. The paint on my wall was beginning to rip and my wooden table had already been sucked into the shimmering vortex. My closet was toppled sideways on the wooden floor with a large thud and started sliding, along with the other large objects in the room, into the rift. The ripped paint from the walls were sent flying towards my face and covered my vision for a split second, much to my dismay.
As much as I hung on for dear life, my hands released their grip, and I felt my body fly backwards towards the rift. My vision was quickly reduced until only darkness surrounded me. I realized that my arms and legs were freely moving. I could tell that none of them made any contact with anything which meant that I was floating in a sort of space.
My capacity to think was overcome with my sense of fear. One of the common, universal things that humans were frightened of had always been the unknown, I was no exception. In a place where darkness was dominant and the air was filled with silence, I couldn't help but imagine the possibility of being stuck in a place like this for all eternity.
It was only a matter of time before I felt a large force hit me on the forehead and made me lose consciousness.
"Ugh," I grunted as I put a hand on my forehead and checked for signs of concussion. Standing up, I looked around the area that the rift had supposedly sent me to.
It was dark, the only source of illumination from the area seemed to be coming from the silver moon above and the dimly lit lanterns that hung by the walls. I squinted at the shimmering lights and tried to make out a rough outline of the structures surrounding me. From what I could tell, a narrow pathway formed by two parallel lines of houses led forward into the darkness. Yet I when I looked back, a tall wall obstructed the pathway to the other side of the road. This kind of setting reminded me of dark alleys encountered in the 90's movies.
In a way, the area around me felt very unnatural. It looked extremely similar to what you would expect to find in certain areas of Earth, but something in my gut was telling me otherwise. I could have been transported by the rift to another dimension, but there was also the possibility that I was just relocated to another part of Earth.
I jumped up a few times and noted the amount of time it took for me to land square on my feet. About a little less than a second, seems the same as my time on Earth. From that alone, I determined that the gravity of this planet had similar strength to the one back home.
Grabbing a small wooden box from the sides, I ran my hand against its surface and compared its texture to a block of wood I had stored in my bag beforehand. They're nearly impossible to tell apart.
After running a few more tests, I came to the conclusion that this planet was extremely similar to Earth— in terms of elemental composition and structure— yet I can't shake off the feeling that this wasn't Earth. The aura was different, pollution seemed non-existent and most of the doors in the houses were about my height, which meant that they were far too small to accommodate even the smallest humans.
I felt my heart start beating faster at the thought of being stranded in an alternate dimension for eternity. Conflicts arose between my desire to search for excitement and my running instinct of survival. I felt like I needed to find out more about this world, yet at the same time felt that I needed to hunt for food. Yes, hunt, I wouldn't want to encounter the inhabitants of this planet without knowing a good deal about them first. Which means I can't allow any interaction or trade between me and whoever— whatever species lived here.
CLICK! One of doors opened and a a small figure slowly walked outside into the road. I squinted at the figure to construct a better outline of the organism approaching from the door. It was a small horse, a small...purple pony? Moreover, I could clearly hear the words "thank you" coming from the animal's mouth as it exited the building. I stepped back, a little disoriented from the weird occurrence.
To add more to my confusion, the purple equine had a little stub on its forehead— like a horn of some sort.
As I tried to process the things in my mind, the pony shifted its gaze towards me and dropped the basket it was carrying on its mouth. Its jaw fell open and it started to take in a deep breath. Instinctively, to prevent some sort of scream from coming out of the equine's mouth, I lunged towards it and covered its muzzle with my hand.
Based on its interaction with whatever was behind the door, it knew how to talk and communicate with the use of words. I felt like it could at minimum understand a portion of what I say to it.
realizing that my grip was too tight on the pony's muzzle, I lessened it when it shut its eyes in pain.
"I'm as confused as you are right now, one moment I was discovering a spatial rift and the next thing I know, I'm right here in this...world" I slowly guided my hand away from its mouth and hoped that it wouldn't suddenly scream or call for help. "Try to understand it from my point of view."
I felt stupid for trying to establish some sort of verbal connection with a horse, but I really didn't have a choice. If my words weren't the ones which sent the message, I hoped that the tone of my voice along with my gentle actions did.
At first, the pony remained perfectly still, and for a second I thought that it had not understood any of what I have just said. But after a few seconds, it slowly nodded its head. A purple aura started to envelop its horn and generate multiple sparks from within. Suddenly, I felt searing pain spread across my skin as my surroundings flashed white.
*****
When I opened my eyes, what lay before me wasn't a dark alley but an open field covered in grass. Burn marks were etched on the floor of where I sat and I realized that some part of my hair and my skin were singed. Taking out an ointment from my bag, I carefully applied it to my burns and allowed the cool breeze to brush past it to reduce the pain.
I looked behind and spotted the purple pony panting with its forelegs holding its body up for support. Like me, it had burn marks around its body and black spots on its purple hair. Seeing it twitch as it rubbed some of the marks, I slowly approached exhausted equine and extended my hand which held the ointment. "Place this on the burn marks, they help."
The pony squinted at me, then at the ointment before grabbing it and applying it around the marks. I could see from its face that the ointment helped relieve the searing pain. I was surprised at the figure of the equine on front of me. It's back was really short and its head was very round. It's mane, or hair, was dark purple but contained two streaks of pink and violet. I know that this is a horse, but it was alot smaller than the horses back on earth. Maybe it's still at an early age? or... a filly?
I scrapped the thought as more important questions circled my mind. What just happened? Did we just teleport? How?
Before I could open my mouth, the equine stood up on all fours and met my gaze. "Twilight Sparkle."
"Huh?" I scratched my head. What did it mean by that?
"My name, Twilight Sparkle." the pony repeated. She was now pointing to herself with one of her hooves. Well, assuming from the name and the tone of her voice, I think she is female.
"August Winters" I replied, putting a hand over my chest. "That's my name."
"That's a very weird name," Twilight chuckled. She walked closer to me and sat down, extending her neck to observe my physical appearance. "Where did you come from? And, what are you? I don't think I've seen your species in any of the books I've read." I could see her round pupils expand as she examined my body. It seemed like wonder filled her more than the fear of me.
Ignoring the fact that I'm having an intellectual discussion with a purple equine who can speak perfect English, I decided to answer her questions before asking mine. "I'm from a planet— or dimension — called Earth. It's in a solar system located in a galaxy known as the Milky Way. So far, the only planet discovered that contained living organisms is Earth, where my species— generally known as "humans"— are found."
"Humans..." Twilight tried to say the foreign word.
While Twilight was busy attempting to imitate my dialect, I took the initiative to ask a question. "awhile ago, what just happened? the last thing I remember was a purple glow from your forehead and then we suddenly ended up here— like magic."
"Well, it is magic," Twilight responded. "I used all of my strength to generate a teleportation spell in order to bring us into a deserted field right outside of my city, Canterlot."
I gave her a questioning look, "magic? isn't that just a fairytale? or a myth?"
Twilight looked surprised at my response, "A fairy-what? Wait, never mind that, you don't have magic in your world?" after shaking my head, she began to give me a lecture on the existence of magic in this magical world of "Equestria". She explained to me the four different types of ponies and the different abilities they possess as well as a short insight of the lifestyles that this world had grown accustomed to.
I sat down and absorbed everything she said. After all, this was a new world, it would only be disadvantageous for me if I had missed the essential parts of her talk.
"—and that ends my lecture of 'A Brief History of Equestria Volume 1." Twilight looked at me, anxious at what my response would be.
Having almost all of my major questions answered, only one thought remained in my head. "Just how old are you?"
"I'm turning ten this year," Twilight replied.
Ten what? Years? Were years here in "Equestria" even similar to the length of years back on Earth?
Never mind that, I'm simply going to assume that "ten" in this world is about as young as the "ten" on Earth. "Then why did you teleport yourself along with a stranger to a deserted place far from help?" I raised an eyebrow, "Didn't it cross your mind that I might have actually wanted to hurt you in some way?"
Twilight gave me a reassuring smile. The word "cute" passed through my thoughts for a split second as her mouth widened. I shrugged it off and gazed at her purple eyes.
"Of course I was scared at first. I thought you might actually try to hurt me, but after you spoke to me and told me about your experience with the spatial rift, I just knew that I could trust you." Her smile widened even more as she raised her head and put her hoof on her chest. "And I was right to do that."
"What's so special about a spatial rift?" I asked, then realized how stupid my question was, "I-I mean why did it get your attention? For alot of people,an alternative name for my species, Physics is boring and bland."
Twilight's eyes drooped down as she played with a few blades of grass with a hoof. "The reason it got my attention..." she repeated, "Well... I'm not exactly what you would call an average student or pony. When I was young, I tried to make friends, but whenever I would try to discuss the things I liked, like derivatives or integrals, they would either leave or just feign interest. So I decided that making friends wasn't a special talent of mine and spent my time on books."
I chuckled at her explanation. "They thought derivatives were complex? Back in my hometown, people the same age as me couldn't even accomplish the simplest algebra problems."
Twilight laughed and edged closer to me. "That seems pretty horrible, is that why you were treated as an outsider by other po—humans?"
"I guess— wait, how did you know I was an outcast?"
"It's written all over your face, silly. I may not have many friends, but I have a big brother that plays with me and takes me away from my studies." Twilight pointed at my fingers that fiddled with the straps of my bag and then at my face," You can't look at me straight in the eyes and most of the time you look at the ground when you talk. I do that as well when I'm with my classmates, which is why I can clearly tell if you have friends or not." She concluded.
Ouch, that explanation was blunt and straight to the point. I realized that even when my brain was focused on her, the other parts of my body involuntarily found an interest in the environment. My hands twirled the laces of my bag, my foot was constantly exercising its ankle, my eyes continuously shifted from left to right, and my face was pointing downwards most of the time.
Twilight put both of her hooves on my face and aligned it with hers. In reflex, I immediately dashed back and returned my gaze to the grass below me, hugging my legs in the process.
Twilight laughed, "See?"
I nodded sheepishly, focusing too much on brain control left me none in my body. I nervously grabbed a fistful of dirt with my right hand and dropped it on the hole I got it from. My fingers started drawing lines along the earth which soon escalated to the four kinematics equations.
Awkward silence dawned between me and Twilight, and being isolated most of the time, I didn't think I had it in me to break that silence. Did I even need to? What's the use of even talking to her? I mean, I have have my priorities, maybe I should find a way to generate a spatial rift in this world using the element of "magic". It's possible, but who knows how long—
"You're overthinking things right now aren't you?" I felt a short foreleg rest on my shoulder. "I do that sometimes too, but whenever it becomes serious my brother would usually break me out of my trance."
As twilight rubbed her hoof on my shoulder, a sense of relief and relaxation overcame my body. I guess that's because when I was younger, maybe four or five, my parents forgot about the importance of proper emotional nursing and focused on improving my mental capabilities. It was the first time that I felt a touch so sincere without any expectation or judgement.
I let out a breath of air and looked up at Twilight, "Then, can you tell me about the 'magic' in this world?"
Twilight gave me a gentle smile, and at that moment I couldn't believe that I was interacting with someone— somepony the same age as me who didn't roll their eyes or fall asleep whenever I spoke. I remembered by the time my preschool classmates sketched undefinable drawings on their notebooks and showed it to their happy teachers, I had already listed down Newton's three laws of motion on mine. When I tried to explain my essay about those laws to the teachers, they immediately walked me to the office to take an IQ test— which according to the staff, I perfected in the shortest time recorded for that exam.
Twilight's horn lit up and produced a few sparks from the base. She raised her hoof and pointed at the glowing stub. "This is the horn, the source of magic for all unicorns and alicorns. This is what they use to bring out the essence of magic to use to their advantage..." Twilight continued on, explaining to me the different concepts of magic in their world. She told me how magic was still mostly a mystery, like how no one knows how it had even started or whether or not it was here when the first pony arrived. Following that, she gave me a short insight on its proper uses and mostly the extent of its abilities. Some included proper harvest, levitation, teleportation, and alot of other feats impossible on Earth.
One aspect of her talk caught my interest. "So...based on what you just said, no unicorn's magic is identical. Like, everyone— *ehem* everypony here who is either a unicorn or an alicorn have different magical abilities?"
"Yup!" She giddily replied, "You're starting to get it!"
I scowled at myself for feeling a bit accomplished at her small remark. "And these magical abilities are determined based on a pony's special talents?"
"M-hm" Twilight nodded.
"Then what's yours?" I pointed at her glowing horn. Judging from her previous actions like the teleportation spell, her magical ability should amount to something big. I don't think a teleportation spell is something that anybo—pony can do.
I immediately regretted asking the question when Twilight's smile suddenly faded to a small frown.
Twilight stood there in silence for a moment before she looked away from me and turned around to face the oak tree behind her. Her mane, along with her tail, was flowing with the wind. Twilight silently stared at the body of the oak then closed her eyes as she looked down. I started to worry whether or not I had hit a nerve.
The atmosphere around us suddenly became heavier as the tension from her movements grew. The silence was beginning to deafen the sounds of the floating blades of grass and dirt that collided with the leaves of the oak tree above us.
"Twi—"
"Nothing." I was cut off. Twilight grabbed a leaf with her hoof and sent it flying into the breeze. Her stare followed it as it disappeared into the plane. "I have nothing..." I saw a glimmer in her cheeks as a teardrop rolled down her face.
Normally, when I saw acquaintances of mine shedding tears and sobbing loudly, I'd simply walk away and find someplace quiet to spend my time. I wondered why people even bothered to cry during an emotional lapse or whatnot. Was crying a choice? or was it something you just couldn't control? I've never cried before, maybe when I'd hit my toe the corner of the bed, a tear or two would drop from my eyes, but I've never actually cried with my "philosophical" heart.
But this time it was different.
I stood up and walked around Twilight. I turned around and extended my hand to wipe away her tear. She tried to turn her face away but I held on to a side of her cheek and softly resisted her push to look at the ground. After a short struggle, she stopped resisting and a few more tears came out of her eyes. "I know that I have magic, I know that I can make my horn glow and levitate small pieces of candy and maybe even a small toy but—" She brought both of her hooves up to her eyes and covered them. "— compared to the other ponies who could lift tables and chairs, I couldn't even make a flower vase budge."
Seeing her face wince in pain of the thought, I gently rubbed her shoulder in an attempt to bring the comfortable feeling it brought me awhile back, "but what about the the spell— the one you used to bring us here, I don't think anypony could have done that."
"That was just a chance occurrence, I felt that my life was in danger so my control of magic disappeared and it just started going wild up there." She pointed at her glowing horn. "Young fillies are known to contain a large amount of magic when they're still young which dissipates as they grow older. That spell there was just another outburst of the magic I have." More tears started falling from her purple eyes. "I've been trying so hard to hide it from everypony because everypony's expecting so much of me. If they realize that I'm not what they expect me to be, I'll be thrown out, away from my own family. I won't even be able to attend the best school of magic in Equestria! I'll be a laughing stock"
"What do you mean?" I asked.
Twilight sighed and dropped her hooves on the ground, "A few years ago I found out that I really liked magic, I was really happy whenever I could conjure little sparks with my horn. I would read books about magic everyday and even have a poster of the greatest wizard who ever existed— Starswirl The bearded— in my room." She grabbed the basket and brought it beside her. "When my parents saw me trying so hard to be really good at magic, they were inspired to find me the best school they could get. Just a few weeks ago, it finally came. Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns had opened slots and were accepting fillies of my age. My parents instantly filled out my application form and now I'm scheduled to take the test in a week."
"Isn't that good then? In a week you'll be able to study there and pursue what you want." I pointed out.
My statement seemed to make Twilight's eyes grow darker. "That's the problem, I've been practicing for weeks— months and I still can't improve my magic!" She stomped her hoof at the grass, sending a bit of mud flying over to my shirt. "Everyday I tried to find new ways to improve my magic. I checked my diet and even controlled my sleeping habits, but in the end, the best I could accomplish was lift a book."
Twilight sighed and waved her hoof, "One day, I guess I just decided that I needed help. So I—"
"—Went to a amulet shop and got an accessory which you believed would help you in the exam." I pointed at the basket in her hooves. Based on the sign hanging from the side of the store she came from back at the alley, I assumed it sold necklaces or special charms.
Twilight's mouth hung open after my interruption, clearly showing that my assumption was spot-on.
She was desperate enough to actually try and break the rules, that drive was something unfamiliar to me.
I've never cheated or tried underhanded tactics to achieve my goals, but that's mainly because I never needed to. However, given the chance, I would definitely break a couple of rules and ethics to complete the task at hand. Based on what I learned from the failures of others, the idea of cheating— or the drive to "bend laws" isn't what causes the failure of people who actually cheat. Failure is caused by doing it (cheating) the wrong way. When a person's drive surpasses his morality and values, he will do whatever it takes to achieve that goal. But, he must learn how to do it the "right" way or else the results will simply be failure.
The foundation of this idea stems from the Italian philosopher Machiavelli who stated that:
The end justifies the means.
Breaking the rules is a part of one's journey to self-discovery. This was no different for such a young filly like Twilight. I wanted to share with her that the results are all that matters, Even on Earth, where betrayal and adultery often occurs, it was always the results that really mattered and not the process. If I were faced with the "dilemma" of killing one for a thousand, then I would not hesitate to do it seeing that it is obviously the better choice. I've saved a thousand, it wouldn't matter whether I killed one.
I guess these thoughts are the long term effects of my apathy towards human culture in general.
I scratched my head in confusion. Twilight was right, I was overthinking things.
"Twilight, hand me the accessory." I opened a hand. She stared at it for a moment before putting her hoof in the basket and bringing out a large silver necklace. It had the shape of a pony hovering its hands over a red crystal. As she handed it to me, I felt a strong presence enshroud the area. I felt like vomiting out my breakfast at that moment but didn't because I never had any breakfast this morning. I had run to my lab without taking in food because of the immediate clicking noise.
I grabbed a piece of cloth and wrapped it around the amulet then threw it at my bag. I'm going to make sure that goes somehwere it won't be found, but then again, I'm jinxing it.
Twilight's face was still frozen in a frown, like she had lost all hope of passing the entrance exam. "Twilight, don't get me wrong, but I want to ask you a question. From what you've told me, I can see how determined you are to finish this exam with flying colors. You are so driven that you would try to break the rules just to pass. Where do you thing this path will bring you? " Twilight stayed silent and lowered her body to the ground. She laid her head on the grass and slightly opened her eyes.
"I—I don't know."
"Nowhere, Twilight. I can feel from the tone of your voice and the emotions you try to express to me that you want this, but I don't think you're doing it correctly." I felt Twilight's shoulder's tense up at my words. " You're trying to increase your chances by relying on something that you aren't sure is even safe."
"But what can I do?!" Twilight shouted, tears streaming down her cheeks and dripping onto the ground. "I've worked hard, practiced all the spells, read all the textbooks which taught unicorns how to use their magic, but nothing works! This is the only way, I have to break the rules, and I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to pass the test!"
It was like time had suddenly stopped dead on its tracks as Twilight uttered her words of determination. The birds had paused their chirping, and the wind, which blew ever so softly on the leaves of the great oak produced slight, audible rustling sounds. Our eyes were locked in an unbreakable stare. Twilight refused to let my mind escape until I had given her a response to the event that had just occurred. I felt the intensity of her gaze as she seemed to forcefully withdraw the answer from my soul.
"If that's the case, then go ahead." I said blankly.
Twilight's gave me a questioning look. "What?"
"The cause of your failure won't be because you "cheated", but because of the way you cheated. To be honest, I would do the same if I were put in your position. It didn't matter what I had to do to get what I wanted; as long as I get it in the end, that makes everything else worth it." I knelt on one knee and inched closer to her face."I don't see why you shouldn't do the same."
"But...isn't that wrong? Doesn't that make me a bad pony? Won't ponies around me hate me for doing it?" Twilight asked.
I reminisced the time I was shunned by my acquaintances at a lab one day because I displayed a sharper scientific mind than theirs. At that time, I was still unaware of the competitive nature of science. Who discovers what first gets the prize— which comes in the form of the Nobel Prize or your name in an equation. During that time, I still felt hurt and sad that people couldn't share my happiness, and I saw my past self in Twilight over here.
She was afraid of being shunned, having nopony to lean on when she needed them the most. I could see her legs shaking, she was still unsure whether or not chasing her desire was more important than what others thought of her. Right now, Twilight needs someone who will never ever turn their backs on her, she needs assurance that someone will always be there her when she's in a tight spot.
And I think I know who can fill in that exact position at this moment.
I sighed and extended my hand outwards to Twilight. "How about we make a deal, even if everypony in the world— no, everypony in the whole universe hates you, I would still be your... friend." The word sounded more foreign than how I thought it would be.
Twilight's frown suddenly turned into a large smile which became a small grin. I saw most of the burden in her eyes vanish. My hand, which was still on top of Twilight's shoulder, relaxed as she slowly fell to the ground and covered her face with both her hooves. "Are you sure?" She asked, face still obstructed by her front legs.
"Of course." I said, "No matter what you do."
She slowly extended a foreleg and shook my hand with it. "Then that's a promise" she whispered, head still buried in one of her hooves.
"It's a promise" I repeated.
"Then will you help me?" Twilight asked, "can you help me find a way to pass the test?" Her tone sounded shaky, like it was the first time she had actually asked for help from someone else.
"Isn't that already a given?" I chuckled, then stood up and grabbed my bag. Pulling out a pen and a stack of papers, I walked over to Twilight and laid down the items in front of her.
"What's this?" she asked.
"It's a pen and paper, we're going to invent a spell." I said, refusing to take my eyes off the blank sheet.
Confused Twilight inched closer to me and tilted her head. I smelled a faint scent of Jasmine from her mane, but I shrugged it off and continued searching my mind for some sort of "solution".
"To be honest, the moment you explained to me most of the theories about magic, I realized that magic, although it was random at times, exhibited behavior similar to that of science." Like how Physics and Chemistry were defined by solid equations and unbelievable theories, I believed "magic" could definitely be defined by them as well. The control that these ponies have shown over magic just supports that hypothesis.
My pen suddenly stops scribbling as a thought enters my mind. I'm surprised at my ability to accept the concepts of alternate dimensions in which "magic" exists. From my experience, others would be completely alienated from an environment like this. Maybe my scientific background is to blame for this. When you're working with intangible concepts such as gravitational waves or chemical compounds, "magic" becomes an understatement to the phenomena which usually happens in a lab.
"August?" I felt a hoof land softly at my back. "Why did you stop all of a sudden?"
I chuckled a bit, even my dialect was already paralleling this dimension's. "It's nothing," I went back to scribbling Greek symbols and and letters onto the paper. "Say, can you tell me more about the magic books you've read?"
Twilight looked up for a bit, as if trying to remember something. After a moment, she gave me a smile and her face began to beam with confidence, "Ok!"
"Good!" I yelled as Twilight uprooted the oak tree and returned it, roots and all. She also snapped a few branches with her magic and perfectly combined them to form a pony out of wood.
Twilight was already panting heavily at this point. She had just lifted something over a hundred times her own weight and created a piece of art with the use of her magic. I observed her tongue come out as she tried to catch a breath.
"I think it's time for a break," I called out.
Twilight suddenly dropped down to the ground, I think she was more than happy to agree.
It shouldn't be a surprise that she was very exhausted from executing those spells. After all, they were one of a kind. Just a few hours ago, Twilight and I had invented a few spells which contained similar effects to already existing ones but were completely different in terms of execution. I realized that the problem might not be Twilight's affinity for "magic" itself; but her affinity for specific types of magic. The spells written on books that she read, weren't designed for her. They were designed for the majority of the pony population but were completely inaccessible for someone like her.
In the few hours I spent with Twilight developing the spell, I questioned her about her own experiences with her magic and what the books in her library explained. From that,I determined the problem at hand. A few moments later, I had combined both elements from Physics and Chemistry with the science of "magic" and created an equation which followed Twilight's affinity from magic. From then on, it was smooth sailing as we discovered how to "convert" the different types of magic she couldn't use to the ones she could use.
I ran up to Twilight and sat down beside her, I brought my hand up her mane and started petting her. "Great job. Not only were you able to increase the power of your magic, but also the accuracy and precision of your spells."
I swear I saw her blush as I ran my hand up and down her neck. She laid her head down on the ground and closed her eyes in thought. I'm guessing she was still too exhausted from practice to reply.
I stared at the sun as it peeked above the horizon. It was a beautiful sight, like the beginning of something new. Its warm rays spread across my skin and gave me a sense of satisfaction and bliss. The wind was less ferocious as well, its gentle breeze brought upon slight movement from my hair as it passed. Nothing felt wrong, it was like the previously tense atmosphere had dissipated and was instead replaced by a relaxing wave of serenity.
I laid my head on Twilight's back, it was a bit moist from her sweat but nevertheless comfortable because of her smooth fur. Twilight twitched a bit at my action but relaxed after a few seconds. The exhaustion began to overcome my body's will to stay awake. I remembered that I haven't slept in a long time, and that I had already been awake for one whole day.
I noticed my eyelids were starting to grow heavier— which was only supported by the relaxing touch of the wind and Twilight's soft back. As time passed, my vision started growing dimmer and dimmer until my eyes were completely shut. I decided to let go for a moment and drifted onto sleep.
*****
I woke up to the sound of boiling water and a sweet aroma of apple under my nose. When I opened my eyes, the sun was still peeking from the horizon, but this time it was to say goodbye.
Dusk was approaching, which meant I had been asleep for over twelve hours— or not, I still have no idea whether this world followed the same "twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week" schedule. On a normal basis I would ask, but right now my body felt sluggish and I wasn't in the mood to open my mouth.
I realized the my head still lay on Twilight's soft fur, she probably hadn't moved since I slept. It was a kind gesture that I appreciated.
"Oh you're awake?" Twilight asked, turning her head towards me. I noticed that her horn was glowing— which, according to her, meant that she was in the process of using magic. "I'm making apple soup and sandwich, they're the main staples here in Equestria. You know what an apple is? It's a red—"
"Twilight, I know what an apple is," I said bluntly. "We humans eat it too in our world."
"Great!" Twilight yelled, "we can share the soup I made, I made enough for the both of us— probably. I still don't know how much your stomach can handle."
Ah so that's where the aroma was coming from. Wait, how in the world is she cooking outdoors if she didn't leave me here. I looked to my side and saw a cauldron made of grass that was enveloped in a purple aura. Bubbly sounds came out from withing the drops of hot soup escaped from the cauldron.
I see, she used her magic to heat the cauldron and prevent the leaves from burning from the extreme heat. Wow, she learns really fast. Even if I provided the "formula", no one should be able to grasp its whole concept in one day, more or less even apply it. She had done both without any problem at all except the lack of endurance to continue on.
Twilight brought a leaf bowl over to my face along with a nicely carved wooden spoon and waved her hoof, motioning for me to get it. Hmm, so humans and ponies use the same utensils. I started to wonder how natural selection occurred in this environment. Normally ponies shouldn't be able to grab spoons, more or less produce them for convenience.
As I slowly extended my hands to reach out for the bowl and the spoon, Twilight suddenly brings it away from me after seemingly coming up with an idea. "Oh! umm, the bowl and the spoon are still probably too hot for you to touch." she began to blush as she talked. "A-and since you're tired and all, maybe you should rest your hands and let me do the feeding. O-of course as payback for what you did for me." She turned away and covered her head with her mane, which was still too short to completely cover her red cheeks.
Why is she blushing so hard? I don't think I'm stupid enough to not notice that she's flustered, but why? I don't think she actually has romantic feeling for me— I mean, other than the clear difference in species, I don't think it's just possible to fall for someone in such a short time—
I glanced at my sides and saw Twilight giving my bowl, along with the spoon, a light blow to cool it. I felt my heart beating a bit faster as I observed her lips form a slight "O" to let the air escape. I could sense my blood rushing to my face at that moment and my body starting to get warmer.
"H-here you go." Twilight brought the spoon close to my face, waiting for me to open my mouth. I looked at the pale, yellowish contents of the spoon. I couldn't remove my thoughts from the water molecules in this soup that mixed with Twilight's air molecules. Nevertheless, I opened my mouth and the spoon came driving in. As soon as I swallowed the soup, Twilight gave a light chuckle and turned back.
I'm guessing we both had the same thing in mind about the molecules.
"Thank you." I heard Twilight say from the side. "—for everything."
I was suddenly caught off guard by the sudden expression of gratitude. Raising my head from her back, I sat up straight and looked at her purple eyes. I felt like a hitch-hiker expecting a random minivan but got an 18-wheeler instead
But for some reason, I can't seem turn away from her. It was like her eyes were drawing me in to her soul.
No no no, bestiality is not something I will be proud of in the future. Even if the feelings are mutual and probably consensual as well for future...actions; even if this is the first time I've had a friend; even if I'm starting to feel attracted to this gorgeous filly in front of me.
Our stare lasted a few seconds before Twilight slowly approached me and brought both of her hooves behind my neck. "Can I hug you?" She asked me. I was surprised at her initiative to take action. Based on what she told me, she didn't really seem like the type who would do something this brave.
I gave a small nod. Our faces were just literally pi inches apart (yes, pi), I could smell the apples in her breath as she breathed in front of me.
She laid her head on my shoulder and strengthened her grip on my back. I could feel her smelling the rainy scent I was giving off from the experience at the playground.
Twilight carefully brought her mouth to my ears and whispered. "I know I just met you today, and that I am still a filly who probably doesn't know what she's doing. But you make me feel really...nice and comfortable"
Okay, now Twilight was beginning to sound more and more weirder (but definitely not worse) than how she was awhile ago. But I felt the sincerity of her words. She really believed what she was saying, and she was trying to make her voice reach me, her sincere voice. I guess that's one thing you won't find in the human world, purity.
Twilight pulled back and shaped a purple aura into a pair of scissors. She used the magical scissors to cut pink and purple strands of her hair and twisted it at the end to form a lock of hair. She grabbed a golden pendant out of the basket and placed the lock of hair inside it.
"This is for you," She said, handing me the pendant using her mouth. "Think of it as a gift." She smiled.
I grabbed the pendant and twirled its laces with my fingers. It was soft and beautiful, like a jewel of some sort— but not the one that shone because of it physical beauty, but one that shone because of its superior sentimentality, and of course, quality.
I went for my bag and got a pair of old glasses and a single picture. I handed those out to Twilight and said, "Here, I used to wear these glasses everyday back when I was a younger, but I got laser surgery sooner or later and didn't need them anymore. Also, this is a photo of me standing at the beach. It was a beautiful sunset that time and I just felt like it was one of those times I felt genuinely happy. So I'm giving these to you in exchange for your 'gift'."
Twilight got both items and held them close to her chest. She muttered something inaudible and placed them in her basket. She blushed a bit and looked down to hide the expression.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! a sound came from my bag.
I immediately rushed to my bag and pulled out my GPS, which was vibrating furiously as a red dot repeatedly blinked on its screen. It detected another spatial rift near this area. Usually, a normal GPS wouldn't be able to tell, but I set it such that it would indicate the presence of a spatial rift within a hundred miles.
Being in an alien world, the GPS could only tell me whether or not there was an irregularity nearby but not its exact location or its coordinates. the ferocity of its vibration informed me that the rift was nearby. I had only one speculation of where it could be.
"Twilight, can you bring me to the dark alley where I first saw you?" I asked her. For a moment, I saw her frown at the thought. I could sense her refusal just at the tip of her tongue.
"I-I don't know" Twilight said, "I don't think I'm capable of replicating that spell yet without ripping us to pieces."
She's lying, definitely. Twilight bit her lower lift and broke away from my gaze.
"Twilight, I know you can, you've done way harder spells since the time I taught you the formula. If you want I can help—"
Twilight put a hoof on my lip. She sighed and then brought her eyes to mine. "I know, but, what happens if we go there and you get thrown into the rift and transported back to your world? I mean, I've just met you, and I don't know who you are that well yet. I want to spend more time with you, and make jokes, and talk about theoretical physics. I want to know why you wear clothes all the time and why we're similar yet we're not."
Twilight leaned in closer to me until her muzzle was just an inch away from my face. "I-I don't know what I'd do without your help, guidance, and company."
I blushed profusely at the proximity of our faces. "There are others who can—"
"No! I've met alot of ponies in Canterlot, some were sweet, some were kind, other were bullies, even adults seemed very childish at times. But you're different from the rest— I can see that— which is why can't let you go!" Twilight stomped hard on the ground. A tear started to roll on her cheek as she smashed her hoof on the grass. She may be smarter than most kids— or fillies her age but by the end of the day, she's still a child. Tantrums like these are just part of their behavioral patterns.
I brought both of my arms behind her back and pulled her towards me in a closed embrace. I traced lines on her back and ruffled her mane a bit with my fingers. I could feel her twitch and let out a small moan at my movements. "Look, Twilight, I promise you this. One day somewhere in the future, you and I are going to sit down and have a cup of tea. Then, you and I will talk about our respective lives. How does that sound?"
I continued caressing her back, "I also want to stay here, it's great, the environment, the way you described the system, even the lifestyle is amazing— but I have to finish what I started. If I don't find a way to close the rift, it might expand and swallow up the whole of Equestria. And the two of us can't really have that now right?"
I could feel Twilight slightly nod at my shoulder. In a few seconds, I heard sparks emerging from her horn and a bright flash surround us.
I braced myself for the incoming burns that the last "trip" had given me, but to my surprise, there were none. Twilight had completely mastered the spell. Instead of painful sensations crawling up my skin, a wave of calmness washed around my body in the brief moment that we teleported to the dark alley. By the time I felt my feet touch the ground, most of my anxiety had completely disappeared.
However, there were other matters I had to face. The vibration of my GPS could be felt from deep inside my bag, signalling the unmistakable proximity of the rift. Although I was still a few meters away from it, I could already feel its strong pull. Twilight's pendant, which hung around my neck, started levitating towards the center of the rift. I grabbed Twilight's shoulders and gently pushed her away from me. "Stay here, I don't think going near the rift is going to make it any safer for you."
"What about you?" She asked.
"It's okay, I've dealt with this before. I promise you Twilight, I have no plans of returning home now. I still have a promise to keep right?" I gave her a smile. She received it warmly and offered a smile back in return.
"I'm counting on you for that." Twilight said.
I let go of her shoulders and started walking straight to the black rift. My thoughts began to process the information that I've gathered from the rift as I stepped closer and closer into area. I could feel the force exerted by the irregularity trying to grab me and suddenly haul me towards its center, but it was still too weak to completely carry me over there.
Why was I walking towards it in the first place? To gather samples? To explore its mystery? The questions passed my head as I walked closer to the center. Why do I need to figure it out? Is it for the sake of "excitement?"
No, I didn't want that anymore. I had already found it, here, in Equestria, with Twilight. Right here, I don't feel the pain of boredom, the torture of feeling like a machine and only being appreciated because of your capabilities and not your personal essence. Earth has no use to me anymore, and walking to this rift will only increase my chances of being brought back to Earth, to my plain old life.
Forget it, I'm not taking the risk.
I turned back and called out, "Twilight! I think my study here is done, we can leave now." She waved back at me and smiled to show that she heard my message.
A different set of thoughts started clouding my mind, where will I stay? Will I become an outcast here? How will I be treated? I began to worry about my stay in Equestria. I thought about how its inhabitants will react to my culture as a human. But, I will try my best to—
Suddenly, I felt it, the strong pull from the rift as it increased in size and the intensity of its gravitational force. I grunted at its heavy touch, I quickly shouted "Twilight, quick! Use your magic transport me there, we don't have much time!" Twilight got the message and a purple aura enveloped me and dragged me towards her with ease. Once I was beside her, I motioned her to run after me and started sprinting towards the opposite direction of the pull.
The force became weaker and weaker as we increased the distance between the rift and us. I stopped on my tracks once the pulling force had completely dissipated.
"That was close," Twilight said, wiping some sweat on her forehead. "Let's go back to my house before the rift catches up with us."
I was about to walk away when a thought crossed my mind.
"No, I'm going to have to stay."
Twilight's round eyes suddenly widened at my statement, "W-what?"
"Twilight, I've discovered how to close the rift." I said grimly.
"If that's the case, then just close it then we can go back—"
"No Twilight, we can't go back, I can't go back. There's only one way to close the rift, and that's by disrupting its core with nanoelectric charges from a living being. That means someone has to get sucked inside to close it." I said, I looked down on the ground and felt the small pull of the rift on my body. It was starting to catch up.
"Then let somepony else get absorbed! It doesn't have to be you!" Twilight shouted. Tears started forming at the bottom of her eyes.
Letting a pony inside the rift wouldn't guarantee it closing, the physiological difference between a pony and human may just be to wide. Taking that risk will only increase the number of casualties. "I'm sorry Twi—"
"No! don't tell me you're sorry for something you shouldn't be sorry about. I'm the one who should be saying sorry here for being selfish. But I don't care if it means getting you to stay here. All of Equestria can burn if it that's what it takes." Twilight stomped her hoof on the ground. Her eyes displayed fiery determination and bloodcurdling aura of ambition. At that moment, I knew she wasn't joking and was completely honest to the last letter.
I turned away from her, ashamed and hurt by the amount of pain I'm causing her. My heavy heart seemed to slow down my steps as I slowly walked to rift, accepting my fate. Tension was rising again, its the only source wasn't the large irregularity that was about to swallow Equestria, but also the mental strain it was giving to both me and Twilight. To be honest, I'm sure that the rift will shut down if anypony else went into it— I mean, we are all still biological creatures, but then what happens to that pony when they get transferred to Earth or to who knows what dimension that rift is connected to.
I'm surprised I actually cared. Usually my only objective was to do what was profitable to me, but since when did I consider the fate of others when I decided on things? Only one person— pony came to mind.
Twilight.
I sighed and grabbed on the straps of my bag. Here I go—
Two hooves suddenly grabbed my face and turned it around, Twilight took a good look of my face before closing in on it. She opened her muzzle and said, "At least let me give you this," then gave me a small peck on my lips.
My knees wobbled at the sensation. It was brief, but it was soft and the intensity of the emotions it brought forth were massive. My whole mind went blank, and in that moment, nothing else mattered except me, and the filly in front of me. She carefully circled her hoof on my cheeks and gave me one last hug before running to the opposite direction.
A tear formed at the base of my eye and rolled down my cheek. I hate this idea as much as you Twilight, but I have to do it. I really don't have a choice. My heart was crying out loud, telling me to stay, but I knew if I did, I would just sacrifice the life of another pony. I couldn't do that, even if it meant hurting Twilight.
I shrugged off the idea and ran straight towards the rift— whose area had already expanded to a few meters. I'm surprised that nopony has been sucked in yet.
Whatever, the only thing that matters is that I'm the only one that gets in, and gets out.
I dive towards the black center with my backpack, as I traveled within its contents, my vision becomes blurrier and blurrier until it ultimately becomes black.
*****
I drop down from the ceiling of my room with a large THUD! as I slammed into the wooden planks of the floor. The scent of the old antique lumber drifted across my nose which confirmed that I was indeed back at my house in New York. Standing up, I examined my surroundings. The whole area was a mess, fragments of wood and plastic were drilled into the floor. My closet, which previously collapsed due to the presence of the vortex, still lay on the ground. My clothes were scattered across the room with some finding their places under my bed or on the shrapnel of wood that protruded from the walls.
However, none of that mattered now. Only one thought circled my mind. "Twilight." I muttered.
Without bothering to organize the room, I ran straight to my working table and pulled out a brand new sketchpad from a stack of old ones. Grabbing the nearest writing tool from my surroundings, which was a worn out permanent marker, I immediately wrote down the name of my next project. At that very moment, I decided to drop all of my current projects and concentrate all of my efforts into completing this new one.
I re-read the title of my project to ascertain its function, "Induced Atomic Transmission through Distortions in Dimensions by Gravitational Waves" I drop the sketchpad on the floor along with the marker and stared outside my window. My eyes veered towards the gray clouds that hung over the atmosphere. "Yes, this will work."
It should
(Arc 1) What She Means To Me
Present...
I stood there, staring at the pinnacle of all my inventions. What man had deemed impossible I built for the sake of passion. Nine years ago I wouldn't have had the determination nor the motivation to create something that only existed in works of fiction or in the imagination of great scientists around the world. However, it all changed when I had that chance encounter with Twilight. I finally found something that I was willing to sacrifice everything I had in order to get— something that had kept me going these past nine years in building a machine which was the first of its kind. A device which could change not just the world, but the essence of reality itself.
I had built the first inter-dimensional travelling device.
My eyes examined every part of my invention, making sure that all was in place before I activated it. I ran my hand through the different sets of wires that were neatly set apart from each other. The steel door, which served as the area where a rip in the fabric of the universe would be forcefully generated, glistened with sweat as my fingers dragged themselves through its surface. I carefully eyed the red button on top of the master control system before heading over there and pressing it once I had made sure the preparations were done.
Suddenly, a blue field of energy started forming in the middle of the steel door, its area grew until it had completely covered the corners of the door. I instinctively evaded the sparks of plasma which jumped from the generated rift. The field shimmered as waves of energy continuously rippled inside its surface.
"Finally, it's finished!" I began to laugh, all my sacrifices have not been in vain. Everything that I've let go, everything that I've thrown away for the sake of this day, it was all accounted for the moment the first particle of the rift appeared at the center of the door.
In my hand was a golden pendant which shone as the light projected by the plasma field was reflected on its metallic layer. I twirled the laces of the jewel before opening it and holding up a lock of purple and pink hair neatly clipped with a high-quality hairpin. I stared at the strands of violet for a few seconds before looking back at the rift. Memories of Twilight raced through my head: her lavender coat, her overprotective personality, this certain scent she carried, and the taste of her lips. Yes, those memories along with a few others gave the the determination to finish what I had started. The scenery I was experiencing now was only the product of my efforts.
"Twilight, I'm coming back. I made a promise didn't I?" I stared into the depths of the energy field, it was shaping up perfectly. Once it has reached its natural form, it will soon transform into a portal which would lead into the exact coordinates that I set beforehand. The only coordinates that my GPS had recorded since my coming to Equestria— the oak tree.
The field was accelerating its rate of formation, it would now only be a matter of time before I'll be able to go through it.
"Just a little bit more..." I muttered.
While the generator whirred to support the enormous power amount of power that the machine consumed, a couple footsteps approached from the door which led from the basement to the living room. I could hear a loud BANG! as someone slammed the door at solid concrete.
"August!" Chloe shouted, "What the hell is that?!" She ran up to me and stared at the magnificence of my creation.
Chloe, a co-worker I had met while I was working part-time at NASA (because government money wasn't enough to fund my project), was a person who had the connections to gather the materials I needed for my device. I told her that I was planning to build a machine which would finally allow man to travel at light-speed in so inter-planetary travel would actually be feasible. Of course, I lied, but it was in order to gather sufficient amount of rare material such as radium, gallium, uranium, and a few other crystals. She was about three years older than me, probably a "child genius" as well, but did that mean anything to me?
Of course not. Only Twilight mattered as of the moment, and as long as my goal to reunite with her is achieved, it didn't matter what process I used to make it happen.
"It's a portal," I summarized. "It leads to an alternate dimension in the universe." I might as well tell her now what it was. She won't be able to activate it anyway once I pass through. I had set up a self-destruct mechanism which would destroy all of the essential parts which I never weaved a blueprint for and simply built with a self-generated "mental" blueprint.
"I thought it was a machine to travel at light speed?!" Chloe shouted, the crackling of the energy field became louder such that verbal communication would be impossible without increasing the volume. "Wait, forget that, what are you doing with a portal like that?!"
"Isn't it simple?" I chuckled, "I'm leaving Earth!" I laughed hysterically like a mad scientist. After all, I was abandoning my home planet to live in another one.
"B-but why?" She stuttered, "what about your other projects? what about the people you can save from diseases? What about the other discoveries just waiting to be uncovered by you? August, you're the smartest man in the world, you can help make the world a better place. A mind like yours doesn't deserve to rot somewhere far away from Earth." Chloe clenched her fist in frustration. I guess she was always annoyed by my antics, but she was only given the pleasure of expressing it now that the situation was dire.
I looked at her straight in the eyes and blatantly said, "Earth doesn't matter to me, it never did. I did what I did because I could do it. Up until nine years ago, I worked like a machine—giving whatever I could to appease the scientific community but only getting enough to be able to function normally. All that time, I simply gave what I could because I never wanted anything in the first place. Now, this here, this is my future." I pointed towards the shimmering field of plasma, which was now ninety-five percent completed in generating the image of the oak tree. "What lies past that door is the one thing— no, one pony that I care about."
Chloe stood there, silenced by my bold revelation. Her body started to wobble as she lost some balance from the force of my words and the meaning they held. She knew I was serious, I always was ever since that day.
While Chloe was busy contemplating on what I had just said, I grabbed my bag from the sides and hurriedly ran to the portal. The rift was now completely covered with the undying image of an oak tree that Twilight and I spent a day together with, except this time, it was nine years older. I stopped on my tracks one feet away from the shimmering image, taking the time to examine the contents of my bag before zipping it and preparing my mind for what was going to happen next.
I couldn't help but feel a sense of worry crawl up my brain. What if it doesn't work—
"No, it has to." I sternly said, "I can't take no for an answer."
I place my hand inside the rift and instantly feel a soft blanket of energy wrap around it. As I slowly brought my whole body past the portal, the layer extended to accommodate the sheer size of my body. Unlike my previous encounters with rifts, I had designed this one to be safe and pain-free.
When my whole body had gone past the door, the blanket formed into a white sphere which surrounded me and seemed to be taking me far away from the entrance of the portal. I observed the "window to Earth" shrink as my machine activated its self-destruction sequence and began disintegrating every essential part that I had uniquely designed. I had the choice of staying awake during the time of travel because there would be no pebble to sucker punch me at the forehead or rock to hit me square at the belly, but ironically, the soft, feathery blanket was coaxing me to sleep.
I tried to fight the urge to fall into a light slumber, but my tense muscles couldn't help but relax at the smoothness of the layered sphere. Soon, I realized that fighting to keep my eyes open was pointless, the more I prevented my eyelids from falling, the heavier they got. I probably forgot how tired I was from all the work I've done in nine years. Come to think of it, I've never given myself a day's rest since that day, all I've ever done was work towards completing this machine. I guess all the built-up stress from creating this machine came back at me with full force.
Unable to hold off the urge to just let go, I finally surrendered to the relaxation that the blanket of energy provided and slept.
A particular scene unfolded before me as I drifted off to "dreamland." My mother and father were arguing at the dinner table while I stood hidden behind the staircase. In my father's hands were a couple of papers which were crumpled due to the sheer force of his grip. My mother, who was staring in disbelief as my father slowly read the contents of the paper, sobbed uncontrollably while using a napkin to wipe off the stream of tears on her face.
"He what?!" My mother shouted, "Why would August drop all of his future projects?!'
"I don't know, but it says right here in the papers that he himself asked to be removed from the particular assignment," my father eyed the words carefully, making sure he didn't misread them.
"Right after winning the Nobel Prize..." my mother trailed off, "what is that boy thinking, throwing away his future like that. Doesn't he know that the most powerful companies in the world are willing to give him money for just about anything as long as it involved science?"
"It's very unusual, I agree," my father said, "I just hope he knows what he's doing."
The scene suddenly shifted to another event in the past. This time, it was at a company building at California. A man in blazers approached me while I sat down in a reclining chair, he had a mug on his left hand and a phone on his right. He sat opposite to me and placed both of his elbows on the table, keeping track of every movement I made and probably tried to guess what was running in my mind.
"So, August Winters right?" He asked,
I nod.
"Well then, I'm a straightforward man, so let's skip all the introductions and get right to the point," he said, lowering his hands and inching closer to me. "I want you to help me develop—"
"I'm not interested," I stood up from my chair and went towards the exit. If I remember correctly, what ran through my mind at that time was the time I could have been using in constructing the machine wasted in conversing with this money launderer.
"W-wait! I can help you, you want money? This company has it. You want fame? We'll make you famous!" He stood up and ran to me, placing his hands at my shoulders. "C'mon, what do you say huh? You and me, making the world a better place."
I chuckled a bit, I remembered exactly what I thought at that moment. Huh, money and fame, two of failure's greatest lures. You won't be making the world a better place for everyone in this world, you'll be making it a better place for you. If you want to make other people suffer for your own profit, go ahead, but don't include me in any of your worthless shenanigans.
"I have all the money I need and I really don't give a damn whether I'm famous or not. If you want someone who will aid you in your path to 'success' get someone who consistently shows off all of his creations. Maybe the similar traits between you two would help in increasing the rate of your downfall." I blatantly said before shaking off his hands from my shoulders and exiting the room.
The scene faded into total darkness after that, and my mind resumed its undisturbed slumber as I lay down asleep on the sphere.
I suddenly wake up to the sound of a weak explosion surrounding me. The layer of energy which surrounded me had capsized and hadproduced an outward burst which could probably be heard over a few miles away. However, the direction of the explosion was opposite to me and away from its interior so everything that lay inside the white sphere before it collapsed remained intact, thankfully including me.
I could smell the scent of burning grass below me, it was singed due to the high-energy release of the blanket or particles.
Wait, grass?
I immediately stood up and looked around at the environment around me. It was dark because only the moon was active in what seemed like a one mile radius. However, despite the low intensity of illumination that the area received, I was able to construct an overview of the land around me.
It was a grass field, and not just any grass field that existed anywhere on Earth, it was the grass field where Twilight and I first conversed about the essence of magic and other Equestrian topics. Beside me was the oak tree which Twilight had uprooted nine years ago with her new found skill in magic, and lying on its side was a collection of hard wood which had the rough form of a pony. The same pony which Twilight had shaped before lying down from exhaustion.
The air was still as fresh as ever and the rustling sound that originated from the leaves of the oak never sounded more beautiful as the breeze ran past them. When I looked up, stars were covering every inch of the sky, it reminded me of the time I realized that pollution was non-existent in this dimension.
Tears started forming at the base of my eyes as I relished the beautiful scenery and my undoubted success. It worked, I was back, all the opportunities I threw away and the unbelievable sacrifices I'd made for the sake of this day had suddenly become all worth it as I stretched up my arms to feel the stream of wind that passed by the field. The scent of this land, the aura that surrounded it, this place was without a doubt the very location that had been running endlessly around my mind for the past nine years.
Equestria.
"Beautiful..." I whispered to the wind.
I would have stared much longer at the wonderful view, but I had my priorities the moment I decided to travel between dimensions. I needed to find Twilight as soon as possible, and although my trip to Equestria was successful, who knows how long it would take to locate one mare in this large continent. Traveling here was the least of my worries, looking for Twilight seemed to be harder than finding an actually needle in a haystack.
I grabbed my bag and pulled out a small chart. On the small piece of paper was a list of cities arranged in the order that I would search. Beside each name was a compilation of methods I believed would help me in efficiently finding clues about Twilight's whereabouts.
Of course, I didn't blindly enter the portal in desperation to reunite with her. When I went through the rift, I came in with a bag, a couple of gadgets, and a plan.
"Canterlot," I said, pointing at the top of the paper. Written in black ink was the city's name and beside it lay a couple of instructions. "Look for Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns" I read from the chart. That seemed like a good start, with the "formula" I gave Twilight, she definitely would have passed whatever test they let her take. Which meant viewing the list of students who had graduated from the school would be my first step in finding her.
As I worked through the list, a couple of thoughts went through my head. How long would it take to find her? Based on her descriptions when she gave me the lecture about Equestria, each city was extremely large and filled with busy ponies who couldn't spare a single second to chat with a stranger— no, an alien like me. Even if I did find Twilight's name in the list of alumni, it wasn't like I could just ask anypony where she could be staying. Nine years is a really long time, and there were a lot of possibilities that could have actually happened during my absence.
What if she transferred cities? What if she had failed to pass the test? What if she died? I cringed at the thought, then would that mean that my whole trip was pointless? All the things I've done to accomplish this would have been for nothing. Not only that, what if in the end, Twilight's feelings for me had changed? It shouldn't be a surprise because she was just a child at that time. What she had for me could have simply been "puppy love."
No, I'll cross the bridge when I get there. Right now I have to find out where Twilight's—
"Halt!" I heard a shout behind me, in a matter of seconds, I felt a sharp object pressed towaards my back. "Stop what you're doing and face us slowly"
Bandits? No, their manner of speech was too formal. If bandits were the ones "holding me up" they would have asked for the money right then and there without having to ask me to turn around.
"Thank goodness it's not Discord again," I heard another voice, "Imagine what the princess would do if he showed up again for the thousandth time."
I had no idea what they were talking about, but I did gather some information based on the few lines the other one said. First, they were sent here, they didn't go here on their own volition. Second, it seemed like finding me was counted as a success on their part. Lastly, they were connected to royalty— unless the word "princess" referred to a noble's female child and not one of the sun or moon princesses Twilight had spoken about.
"Hey! We ordered you to stop what you're doing and slowly face us with your hooves up!" I felt the pressure of the sharp object on my back increase.
I thought about the situation for little while and realized that if my guess was right and these ponies behind me were related to royalty, I could probably present myself as a peaceful "alien" that posed no threat to the land of Equestria. If I could get the favors of the princesses by promoting peace instead of war, they might actually help in my search for Twilight. It was perfect, hypothetically, it could reduce over a couple more years of search to a few months, even weeks depending on how hospitable these ponies are to extraterrestrial life forms.
I only had a few seconds to think about my decision. I could either submit to them and be delivered and see where I can go from there or resist and follow my pattern of search. The clock was ticking inside my head, in my hand was a small device which could teleport me a few hundred meters away once activated. I invented it as my method of escape from any "unwanted" encounters such as this one. In case I decided to run away, my thumb was firmly pressed on a button in the small machine.
"Do you not hear us?!" one of the voices boomed, my grip on the teleportation device strengthened as I weighed the consequences of both my actions.
Finally, I made my decision.
I sighed and slowly turned around, I let go of the device and set aside in my bag as I faced the guards. Raising my hands up high, I gave the guards a blank stare. Well, you got me.
As light from a unicorn's horn was projected onto my eyes, I squinted and tried to determine who were the ponies interrupting my search.
There were three of them, each wearing golden plates of armor with helmets that looked like the ones Spartans wore. One of them had a spear attached to their sides and was using that very weapon to threaten me to submitting. The other two were carrying shields that probably served as protection from this "discord" thing they were talking about awhile ago. If I'm not mistaken, these outfits were meant to be worn by guards belonging to some sort of castle or royal shelter.
Relief flooded my body, thank goodness I gambled right. They looked like they were connected to some very rich and popular lord or vassal. If things go right, I'll be able to find Twilight in less than a year.
Two pegasi and one unicorn, I confirmed their race. Behind them was a large chariot which was extremely similar to the ones found on Earth. I wonder what they're after— or what the pony who sent them is after. Wait, how did they even know where to find me?
I shook the idea off my head when I realized that the guards were shocked and maybe a little bit disgusted at my appearance. Their disgust was probably aimed at my physical form and not the clothes I wore or my sense of fashion.
"Think this is it?" One of the guards whispered to the other, "Do you think this creature here is what the princess is looking for?"
"That's impossible," the other guard grunted, "I don't remember Celestia asking for something like...this." He pointed one of is hooves at me.
"Quiet you two!" the other one exclaimed, "The longer the two of you talk over there the more time it would take us to return to the castle."
Both guards suddenly shut their mouths and stood firm on their positions. "Right," one of them said, "I still want to eat dinner with my family."
"We all do," the third guard said, "now let's get this creature over to the palace and call it a day."
The two others agreed. The unicorn-guard levitated a rope from the chariot and wrapped it around me, tightly binding my whole body. After that, the other two pegasi continued to haul me to the carriage. I wanted to ask questions, but I didn't think the guards would entertain them.
The two pegasi guards, now connected to the chariot's harness, flapped their wings and lifted the chariot above the sky. I couldn't see much of my surroundings because I was positioned at the chariot's floor right below the unicorn. After a few failed attempts at moving to get a better view of the land below me, I gave up and accepted my fate as a prisoner.
I chuckled a bit because I hadn't the slightest clue at what this was all about. Many parts of this event didn't even make sense or allow time for a formal analysis. A few of the major questions I wanted answered was how they found me just minutes after I had landed on the oak tree, why they seemed to be expecting my presence in that area, and who in the world would be looking for an alien in these lands.
I looked at the guard on top of me, but he gave me a solid stare which seemed like a solid "No" to any sort of question I was going to ask,
I guess he's not talking, I squirmed until I had found a comfortable position. I can only wait now before I make my next move. In my pocket was the teleportation device that I hid inside my bag a few moments ago. Once I sense any form of danger, I'll activate the thing and escape through the forest— if there is one.
Once we arrived at the castle, the guards hurriedly got me out of the chariot and started dragging me across the hallways of the large building. The friction of my clothes with the floor felt uncomfortable due to the large amount of heat building up at my back or beneath me. Without even giving attention to my pained grunts, they continued to pull me along the red carpet until we had arrived at the end of the hall where a ten-meter door stood tall.
"We're here," the unicorn guard said, "I think we can leave him here until the princess decides to pick him up."
"Sounds good," one of the pegasi guards confirmed, "then we can all have— " he stops abruptly and points to an orange stallion that wore the same golden armor as the three guards but had blue bristles on top of his helmet instead of red ones,"—look, it's Flash Sentry!"
The other two looked at the stallion who had just arrived and saluted him, "sir!" they shouted.
The orange stallion nods at them before opening his mouth, "Well, what do we have here?" he asked, inching closer to me.
"Its a creature we found at the outskirts of Canterlot city, in the grass field." The other guard answered. "And, uh, it was the princess's orders, she told us to search in that area for any abnormalities."
The stallion eyed me carefully, I could see from his eyes that he was both disgusted and at the same time interested at my physical appearance. I could see him examine the patterns of my clothes, the pale color of my skin, and the uniqueness of having fingers on my hands. However, his only solid reaction came from seeing the pendant that hung around my neck.
"What's this?" he asked, then in a flash, he grabbed the object before I could stop him and opened it, revealing the lock of hair Twilight had given me. His eyes went wide at the sight, "how did you get..." he muttered.
A few seconds later, he glared at me and openly announced, "This creature here is stalking princess Twilight, take him away into the dungeons. There, we will give it the proper punishment."
As he said those things, I remained steady at my place. The only thing that entered my mind was the fact that someone had just taken away one of the most important things in my life. Forget escaping from this place, I refused to leave until I had retrieved what was mine and punished the one who did me wrong.
With the teleportation device still in my hand, I pressed a button and teleported myself a few feet away from my original spot. The ropes that were binding me were left there while I stood away, free from it.
The flash of bright light that came from the activation of the machine made most of the guards around the hall cover their eyes at the blinding sight. I used that moment to run straight up the the orange stallion and give him a sucker punch right at the nose. He fell straight to the ground where he covered his now bleeding nose with two of his hooves. While he lay there, stunned, I grab the pendant from the spot where he dropped it and quick-stepped a few meters away from him into the center of the hall.
I heard more footsteps approaching from the other end of the hall, more guards were streaming in to surround me after the bright flash of my teleportation had attracted their attention. One by one they each positioned themselves at my sides to prevent any means of escaping. The only exit now was blocked by over ten guards with wings equipped with what seemed like razor blades.
"You can't escape now," Flash laughed, he looked over at the guards and shouted, "unicorns, bind him with your magic while the earth ponies subdue him!"
Huh, I had no intention of escaping. After what he had done, there was no way that I would let that incident go unnoticed. I will get you back even if it meant fighting all of these other ponies.
I pulled out a small circular object from my pocket and raised it high using one hand.
"What's that—" the unicorn who spoke suddenly put his hooves to his chest and fell down to the ground. He wasn't unconscious, but was fiercely grasping onto his chest, like something was constricting him from the inside.
The other unicorns soon followed, one by one they collapsed to the ground, each holding their chests with two hooves. The glow in their horns faded as they suddenly lost control of their legs.
"W-what?" Flash stuttered in surprise, he stared at the round object I was holding up on my hand, "w-what did you do?!"
Without answering his question, I further twisted the bottom half of the device on my hands. The intensity of its color increased the more I spun its other parts around.
The device in my hand was something I invented to counter any magic-user in this land. When I returned to Earth nine years ago, the memories of my conversation with Twilight about magic stayed fresh in my mind. The different formulas, concepts, and principles of "magic" that Twilight had taught me did not disappear through the passing years. With that knowledge, I created this small gadget which could instantly cut off a pony form the "mana pool" inside its body. The main reason why only the unicorns were affected was due to their magical capabilities.
I left the device turned on and placed it back at my pocket. Seeing from Flash's face that it won't be long before he orders the earth-pony and pegasus guards to attack me, I pulled out small oval bean from pocket and extended it to a baton over one and a half feet long.
During my time back at Earth, I realized how incompetent I was with regards to physical capability. It was true that I could conjure ideas which could revolutionize the world, but there was no way I could protect myself if someone had tried to attack me using physical means. To solve that problem, I had joined a school which taught mixed martial arts. Two hours a day, six days a week for five years, I enlisted myself under the care of an experienced master who only took in one student at a time. It was only during that time that I was able to realize the importance of physical fitness as well as the major advantages it had when you're in a very unfamiliar location.
Of course, all of that was for the sake of finding Twilight. Only my memories of her could have given me the strength to go through the extremes.
"What are you waiting for!" Flash shouted, "arrest the thing!"
The earth ponies and pegasi gathered themselves in a small group and charged at me, probably hoping to gain an advantage with their large number.
I heard a pair of wings flapping behind me, a guard was diving towards me with a spear pointed straight at my heart. I quickly dodged him right before he landed and brought my baton right behind his head. It made a loud CLANG! with the metal plate protecting the guard's head, however, despite it reducing the force of impact, the damage was still enough to knock the stallion unconscious. He fell to the floor with a thud the moment my baton connected with the helmet.
The group of ponies suddenly charged at me with blinding speed and proceeded to surround me. Together, they attempted to stick their spears into my body but failed. I deflected a few other spears that could have grazed me and used my baton to knock the them out of their owner's sides.
With my hands, I grabbed a spear attached to a guard and gave it a really strong pull. The spear immediately detached from the armor and ended up in my hands. I whirled the wooden part around and made sure to hit as many heads as I could before I throwing it down to the ground and switching to my baton.
The fight lasted over half an hour with the royal guards being mercilessly beaten (but not killed) with the baton I had in my hand and a few spears that I salvaged from them. One guard at my left, then side-step to my right and hit the one at the back, and then follow up with an upward strike to hit the pegasus diving towards me directly at the chin. The magic negater in my pocket served its purpose by incapacitating the unicorns whose magic I couldn't counter with physical skill.
Soon, heaps of guards who were either unconscious or were groveling in pain were scattered across the great hall. Reinforcements had run out, and the only pony who remained capable in the room was the one who had started all this mess.
"Flash Sentry..." I muttered, I myself couldn't tell whether the "kill intent" I had were expressed in uttering that pony's name, or whether my murderous eyes gave it away. Either way, it didn't matter, I was going to give him what he deserved. "You shouldn't have taken that pendant," I said.
His whole body shriveled in fear as I approached him with my baton. At that moment, I had lost majority of my ability to think logically and act based on what my mind predicted. Only my "animal" instinct was reflected on my actions.
Every step I took towards him, the stronger I gripped the baton. I for one knew that stealing isn't something that should incur anger of this level, and I would have been fine had he taken any of my other gadgets I had with me, but it was Twilight's pendant that he stole. There was absolutely no way I could forgive something like that.
Flash was slowly walking backwards towards the ten meter tall door. He kept his eyes on me to make sure that I wouldn't suddenly lunge at him with my weapon.
BOOM!, a deafening sound came from above me. An explosion had taken place at the roof of the castle, what once was occupied with stone ceiling was now filled with the winds of the night sky. Fragments of shattered rocks rained from the roof as a dark-bluish aura started to surround the top area. I was knocked a bit backwards by the bare strength of the burst of magic that had demolished the ceiling.
"Princess Luna!" Flash shouted. I looked at the site of the blast and noticed a black mare standing tall on the remains of the roof. The glow on her horn signaled that my magic negater was far too weak to prevent her from accessing her magic source. However, what surprised me was the pair of wings that extended from her sides.
So she's one of the alicorns that Twilight had mentioned, which means that she's a princess. No wonder she can surpass the strength of my device, she simply overcame it with brute force. Instead of seeing this as my chance to ask her about Twilight, I saw it as a threat to my existence. I could sense the hostility that this mare had towards me. I'm not sure if she had some sort of grudge at humans or just misinterpreted the situation, but either way, she looks like she's willing to fight me head on.
The sight of the guards around the hall probably initiated her intent to subdue me. I could only imagine what went on her head as she glared at me with those violet eyes.
"It's Princess Luna!" a guard shouted,
"Now we're saved!" another one chimed in, "with her abilities, there's no way any creature can stand against her!"
A blanket of magic suddenly escaped from the body of Luna and began to form five separate snake-like creatures. I could see in her eyes the anger that came from harming her own kin. I doubt logic would have had much more effect on her than it did on me.
She opened her mouth, "Submit!" her voice echoed in the hallways. The sound that came from her mouth boomed as it reverberated across the area. If it was any other day I would be intimidated by the sheer volume of hr shout, but not today. I had a mission I needed to accomplish.
"No reply? Has thou parents not taught you how to speak? Very well then, if I must resort to using force, then I will not hesitate in doing so!" She shouted again, this time however, it was louder and contained more power than the previous one.
She launched the snake-like auras orbiting around her at me with blinding speed. In an effort to evade them, I dove left and right and sometimes used the unconscious bodies of the other ponies to shield myself from their attack.
If it keeps going on like this— I jumped to my side to evade a diving snake and ducked to escape the grasp of another one —this will just end up being a game of cat and mouse.
Luna retracted all of her magical "whips" and stared at me. She noticed how tired I was from continuously evading the five weapons and proceeded in attempting to force me into unconditional surrender. "I see, thou hast skill with thy body, but it will not last long!" The five snakes soon split into two and ended up with a total count of ten. The sheer aura that they carried around them made me want to vomit out my breakfast to the ground.
She was right about one thing, there was no way I could beat her with just my physical strength. I needed something that could match up to her limitless power.
"I guess I don't have a choice do I?" I chuckled.
Luna probably misinterpreted my laugh as a sign of disrespect, "you laugh at the face of your own doom?! Very well then, I will grant this world a favor and rid it of your very existence." Her horn glowed brighter and the aura surrounding it expands to the base of her horn, until the horn itself was covered with shimmering, raw magic. The blanket of ether surrounding her grows larger until it reached the size of a school bus.
Without as much as a flinch from Luna, the energy automatically shapes itself to a couple more snakes which were pointed towards my heart. After a few seconds, she launched the massive army of dark-purple magic at me.
I raise up my right hand and a large red barrier suddenly appears in front of me and deflects the oncoming dark magic. Sparks flew from the contact of two extremely powerful magic forces. The ground beneath me shook as the waves produced by the collision bounced around the hall.
When Luna saw the red barrier I had put up and the way it deflected her magic, her jaw suddenly fell open, "w-what?!" she stuttered. She wasn't sure what she would prefer to believe more, that there was magic powerful enough to completely repel hers, or that something that initially had no control over a magic source was holding up a barrier which needed mountains of mana to execute.
A red glow started emanating from the middle of my collar bones while I held up my hand. At that very spot, I could feel the levels of pain rise as the orb inside started to glow brighter.
"No... that can't be, this aura," Luna pointer at the red spot at my chest, "the Alicorn Amulet!"
I gave her a pained smile, "I guess you really are one of the princesses," I chuckled and spit out a few drops of blood. With modern-day technology combined with my creative thinking, I managed to reprogram the gray amulet that I had confiscated from Twilight and implant it right between my collarbone I removed most of the harmful side effects of the jewel and harnessed the raw energy of the accessory.
"B-but the jewel that the amulet possesses only serves as a pool of magic for any user, how hast thou controlled it?!" Luna shouts at me, the volume of her voice had increased once again and the sound coming from her mouth echoed in the hallways.
"That's why I have this," I said, revealing the pendant Twilight gave me, "traces of her remained in the pendant that she had carried her whole life, with that, I was able to harness the energy of the amulet and force it to follow my will."
Luna was silenced by what I had just said. Her eyes went wide as I started to perform some sort of ritual-like dance to use a spell.
With this, I can subdue even the strongest being on this land. I waved my hands around and weaved a large blanket of red energy. I continuously channeled whatever magic I could into the layer until it had become so dense that it had turned opaque.
Without hesitating for a second, I launched the red blanket at Luna. She tried to counter it by summoning a seemingly larger aura and directing it towards the oncoming projectile but instead, gets "eaten up" by it. Her face finally showed fear as the large dense magic envelopes the whole of her body except for her head, binding her.
From the rooftop, Luna fells to the ground with a large THUD! along with a couple of rocks. She grunted at the force of the impact but didn't seem to realize that the fall was cushioned by the density of the soft energy around her
I walked up to the bound mare and knelt down to face her, "I never wanted any of this," I shake my head at the thought of all the guards I'd physically injured and the unicorns that were separated from their magic cores. "All I wanted was to see Twilight again."
Suddenly, the jewel in my collarbones glowed brighter until I felt a sharp pain coming from my heart.
No, its trying to take over my consciousness.
Its true that I had "purified" the contents of the jewel, but I had failed to remove the worst side effect that the amulet contained— corruption.
I fall to my knees as my vision starts going red with the amulet's magic. It was losing control, if that continued, then I could unintentionally kill everypony in this building.
I can't— I bring both of hands up to my chest and try to grasp the amulet, hoping to dig my fingers deep into my own flesh and claw the jewel out.
I was about to begin the "surgery" when my hands suddenly stopped on their tracks. My pupils shrunk in fear as I realized what had just happened. I lost control of my body, the amulet had completely taken over every part of me except for my brain.
Run everyone, run
Everything within my line of sight was completely red.
The pillars, the once purple doors at the end of the hall, the motionless bodies of the scattered guards, even the red carpet underneath me became a darker shade of red as I felt my control over my body lessen. I could feel my hands and feet shuffling and trying to get up, but my brain was not the one consciously giving orders to the other parts of my body. The magic coming from the amulet itself was beginning to manifest a life of its own.
My mouth wouldn't open, or rather, I had lost the power to control my it. I couldn't warn the other ponies of the upcoming danger that they were about to encounter if they stayed within the vicinity of the castle any longer. It's true that the magic the alicorn "jewel" was able to subdue a powerful being like Luna with ease, but the power I used was only a very small fraction of the amulet's true power.
In short, the power I used only amounted to about one percent of its total potential; If by some miracle the jewel was able to somewhat transfer itself to the body of a pony, its strength would definitely increase a hundredfold.
"I," or the the body that used to belong to me, was now standing upright surrounded by the unconscious and exhausted ponies that I fought with awhile ago. My vision kept shifting from left to right non stop, every time my vision became steady, it was focusing on a single pony. It was examining the ponies around the room one by one.
It's looking for ponies that can contain its magic more efficiently.
Suddenly my vision shifted to Luna, who was still bound by the blanket of energy that I had previously used to immobilize her.
Crap, it found it
"My" body started inching closer to Luna. Its movement was sluggish and it often tripped as it tried to walk on two legs. The being inside the jewel probably got used to controlling ponies, which meant that it had no experience walking with two legs.
It bought me some time to think about a way out of this predicament. I thought about overcoming the control of the amulet by sheer magnitude of willpower, but I doubt that would work. Magic doesn't work like science—
I paused for a moment, actually, that's the point, magic has a lot to do with the uniqueness of the being that controls it. Which means that it is definitely not limited by what ever laws science uses to govern what we call "reality."
While I collected my thoughts, a loud cry came from Luna as "my" hands grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up. Her shout was strained because of the strong grip I had on her larynx. Her voice turned raspy as the crushing hold on her neck cut off the supply of air coming from her lungs.
I could feel my fingers digging deeper into her neck as small drops of her blood started trailing down my thumb and onto the floor. Luna couldn't do anything, she was still too tired from the battle we had a few moments ago. Her horn had lost its luminous glow and she winced as pain resounded throughout her body.
It was only a matter of time before her life would end.
No, Luna, you have to do something, if this jewel possesses you then it's the end of Equestria. I tried channeling every bit of willpower I had left into regaining control over my body, but failed due to the sheer power of the amulet itself.
However, in the blink of an eye, a large wave of energy suddenly came from the rooftops and hit me square at the chest. I was thrown back a few meters along with a couple of shattered rocks blasted by the energy surrounding the beam. My eyes focused on the being that had just launched the powerful attack at me.
Flying on top of the castle was a purple mare who, like Luna, had wings and a glowing horn. Her eyes shone bright pink and on top of her head was a golden crown whose center contained a pink jewel. Her mane had two streaks of pink and violet which seemed to continue on to her tail.
The moment I had a clear view of the pony flying above the castle, I felt my heart suddenly stop.
There was no doubt about it, the dark-purple hair, the pattern if her flowing mane, the bright purple glow of her horn, and the essence of the magic that emanated from her entire being. There was only one pony in the whole universe that contained all of the features that I had mentally noted down as we interacted nine years ago.
Twilight
I felt the rate of my heartbeats increase as I stared at her figure. The crown on her head and the wings on her back meant that she had become a princess of this land.
It was as if time had stopped the moment my eyes met hers. In the split second that we spent connected by each other's gaze, all the memories about our previous encounters suddenly flooded my mind. The soft fur surrounding her whole body, the smiles and laughs we shared as we talked about the properties of magic, and the kiss— the softness of her lips that pressed onto mine before I we parted. It seemed like it was just yesterday that I had last seen her leaving the area of the rift.
Twilight probably had similar thoughts. The raging glow that presided over her eyes dissipated and the great aura of energy she released seemed to disappear. She gently flew down the the hallway where I stood steady. She looked around and saw the scattered bodies of the ponies around the room— including Luna's, but Twilight ignored them and looked directly into my eyes.
That was when I saw it, the little filly who conversed with me under the great oak. Inside the body of this mature mare was the pony that I had been looking for for over ten years. Her eyes displayed a mix of concern, anxiety, and joy as she slowly walked towards me. She was speechless, her mouth was steady in its place.
She didn't need to speak to show me how she felt. The tears that streamed down her eyes clearly expressed the intensity of her feelings.
"A-August?" Twilight asked, walking towards me, "Y-you're here, a-and... you're here." she said softly, refusing to take her eyes off from me.
This is bad, if Twilight gets too close to me, the amulet might use all of its energy in targeting her while she's off guard. s
I could see Twilight getting closer to me every passing second, her pacing accelerated every second that we spent separated from each other.
No, Twilight, don't—
"— come near me." I said. To my surprise, I was able to say exactly what I thought— well, half of it. I tried to move my fingers along with my hands and realized that my whole body was starting to resist the control of the jewel inside of me. Twilight's aura seemed to be inhibiting the overall effects of the alicorn amulet.
At the sound of my voice, Twilight's ears perked up and increased her pace. She paid no attention chaos surrounding the area. Even Luna, who was lying on the floor did not faze her as she focused on me.
If she comes near me, the being might make one last attempt and use all of its remaining energy to subdue Twilight and transfer its control over to her. I can't let that happen.
I could move my whole body now, my proximity to Twilight allowed me to suppress the malicious control of the jewel. I wasn't prepared to take any chances that risked Twilight's safety, I would risk my own if it meant securing hers. She was the only reason that kept me going in a world— or universe— that had no meaning. I couldn't even imagine the possibility of her death, the thought itself was far too terrifying to consider. The only ideas that flew around my mind were ones that could ultimately ensure Twilight's well-being.
"Hahaha..." I laughed softly, it was ironic how the world worked. The very thing that I designed to allow me to find Twilight will be the very same thing that will separate us. Nevertheless, I had made up my mind and decided that no matter what, the show must go on.
"Sorry Twilight, I'm going to have to go for a bit again." I could freely move any part of my body and channel immense energy through it now. I generated a large ball of energy on one hand and shaped it into a magical drill with a max radius of about one inch. I brought the energy drill close to my sternum where the jewel lie embedded in between the bone.
In one quick flash, I drove the drill into the are where the jewel was. I shouted as the drill made contact with my sternum and began grinding the bones to reach the amulet. Even if the process was short, the pain I felt was like having my arms and legs beat until they were broken and shattered and finally, cut off. I ignored the painful encounters because I was certain that this pain was worth Twilight's life. This won't make a difference as long as she doesn't get into danger.
Finally, I pull out the drill and stare at the shattered contents of the amulet outside of my body. I felt the magic of the amulet dissipate along with the breaking of the jewel inside me.
However, as successful as I was in performing my "manual" surgery, the side effects were massive. Pools of blood surrounded me as the hole in my chest gave way to loads of flowing blood. I had no magic to negate the release of blood. I could only stare as my life force was drained out of me.
"No!" Twilight shrieks the moment she saw me stumble into the ground.
Twilight wastes no time in hurrying up to me and scooping me up with both of her hooves and looking me straight in the eyes. "August, I don't understand! What's happening? You're here, you're finally here, the one thing that I truly wished for in my whole life had come true. I've been wanting to see you ever since we separated nine years ago— b-but not like this." More tears streamed down her face.
"...I'm happy..." I said, I was limited to only two words at a time because the effort in doing more was just too much. I slowly bring my hand to her face and wiped away her tears. For a single moment, I ignored the pain that reverberated throughout my body and focused on the softness of her face. I brushed my hand through her mane and stared at her purple eyes.
Yes, this was the Twilight I'd spent half my life searching for.
"No! There's still so much for us to do!" Twilight shouted, "Places to go, houses to visit, food to eat— all of them...together! I still haven't told you about everything that's happened while you were gone. The things I did, the pony I've become, I want you to hear all about it, how you've changed my life for the better." She pulled me closer into a strong embrace. "We're only at the tip of the iceberg..." She whispered softly, I my shoulders were wet now with her tears.
I could feel my consciousness slipping out of my grasp. Before I blacked out due to the loss of blood, at the very least I needed to tell Twilight the phrase I've been wanting to tell her the moment I'd landed my feet on Equestrian ground.
"I'm back," I said, my voice so faint that even dogs probably won't be able to hear it. But Twilight did, and she responded by hugging me even tighter, as if to prevent me from blacking out. However, despite her efforts, I closed my eyes and allowed my consicous being to escape from me.
I open my eyes to the ticking sounds of water droplets as they collided with glass. The area was dim, only moonlight served as the source of illumination.
I noticed that my whole body was laid down in something soft, like a bed of some sort. There was a spring-like motion whenever I tried to bounce my body up and down, and the surroundings were extremely comfortable and covered mostly in smooth fabric. My head even sank into the fluffy pillows that were placed underneath my neck.
Sitting up, I realized that I was undressed save for the boxers I had worn on my trip here, but thankfully, the blanket on top of me was more than enough to keep me snug and warm. I quickly bring my hands up to my chest area and felt thin cloth wrapped around my upper body to cover my wound. The cloth was dry, which meant that the bleeding had stopped, and the fabric wrapped around me had a similar texture to the bandages on Earth.
I glanced at the window beside the bed and looked into the glowing moon. Thoughts began entering my head as I reminisced on what had just happened a few...hours? days? months? I'm not sure, who knows how long I've been out. I had my doubts about the situation, but at the very least, I was glad that I seemed to have survived the ordeal.
I can't waste any more time here, Twilight's out there, and I have to go find her. I prepared to stand up by firmly pressing my feet on the ground. However, the pain coming from the wound prevented me from moving my body any further. I grunted at the sharp feeling of discomfort which originated from my chest. Even if the bleeding had stopped, the pain was still undoubtedly there, and It was more than enough to forcefully bring me back into the bed with my hands on top of my chest.
Suddenly, I felt two hooves gently pull me up and embrace me from behind. the hug brought me to lean on a soft layer of fur that rested at my back. "Don't push yourself too hard, " I heard a soft whisper emerging from the back of my head, "Y-you've done done more than enough already." I felt droplets of water land on my bare shoulders as the words were uttered.
Twilight
I could feel her bring her muzzle closer to my ears from behind, "Why would you go this far? You designed all those...machines, forcefully ripped a fabric in the universe, and risked your life by embedding the alicorn amulet— an unstable accessory which greatly endangers the user's life— in your own chest. I don't understand, why would you do that all? I thought that maybe you'd forgotten about me, that you'd find someone else in the your world that was better suited for you, but instead you put your life on the line and risked many more years of solitude just to find—"
I turned around and brought a finger to her lips. The moonlight was dim but it was enough for me to see the glimmering tears created a river that flowed down her face. She was blushing, her lips felt hot due to the amount of blood rushing into her face at the moment. I also felt my heartbeats increase at the sight of her in front of me, she wasn't wearing any clothes— I know that they normally don't— but in my case, both our bodies were exposed to the open air.
She was breathing heavily, looking into my eyes like she was desperate for something that only I could give her. Her eyelids started falling down to the base of her eyes, and she inched her muzzle closer to me. I could feel her hot breath from the distance that separated our faces.
I gazed into her eyes for what seemed like ages, from what she told me, she couldn't believe that my loyalty to her never faltered since the day we separated nine years ago. I needed to show her that she had nothing to fear, that what I felt inside truly paralleled the actions I've done for her. I searched my mind for the right words to say, the right words to express, the right words to show her how much I—
—how much I cared for her.
I slowly opened my mouth and whispered softly into her ears, "I love you,"
Twilight's ears suddenly lowered and her eyes quickly turned to face the bed. She brought both of her hooves to her face to cover her obvious blush. I could see her turning redder and redder until I could clearly distinguish it just by looking at her ears.
I brought my hand over to cup her cheek, forcing her to lower her hooves and stare at my eyes as I examined her blushing face.
I gently pulled her head closer and closer to mine until we were only an inch apart, our gazes were still locked on to each other, like there was something that each of us wanted to say— and we both knew exactly how to say it.
I slowly pulled her closer until her muzzle finally reached my lips. At that moment, I felt something inside me break. All the emotions that I had stored over the past years that I'd saved just for Twilight had come rushing out all at the same time. Without wasting any time, I quickly wrapped my other arm behind her back and pulled her closer to me. I traced her soft back with one hand and ruffled her mane with the other. Twilight also brought her arms behind my bare back and tried to pull me closer with her hooves, like she was desperate for the person right in front of her.
In the heat if the moment, I felt Twilight's lips part as she let out her tongue and lead it to the entrance of my mouth, asking for permission to enter. Without hesitation, I gave it to her. However, I couldn't let myself be dominated by her initiative, I brought my tongue over to hers and wrestled with it until the battle was brought over to Twilight's mouth. I pinned her body into the bed and continued to subjugate her tongue inside her mouth. When I pressed down on it, her wings suddenly spread out wide from her back and stayed stiff from excitement.
I grinned inside my head at the new opportunity given to me. Extending one of my hands outwards, I laid it on one of her spread out wings and slowly dragged it across the surface, making sure to touch every feather as it traveled along its path. This made Twilight moan from the pleasure that I was giving her, I brought my other hand over to her sides and held it firmly as I ravaged her mouth.
Twilight pulled off for a bit, "I've...b-been waiting all this time for... that," she panted, "All these years... I only thought of you and nopony else... even if you'd have loved some pony else, I would never had let you go. If I couldn't belong to you... then I wouldn't belong to anyone else..." She said.
It finally triggered my pure animal instincts of lust, Twilight's body, untainted by any other pony, was right here beneath me. She had been keeping herself this way because she was just as loyal as I was to her. This is what I was fighting for— what I was chasing after, the one pony that would love me like no one ever could.
With that, I gave her what she wanted and brought my mouth against hers more fiercely this time. I didn't ask for permission to enter her mouth, it was already inviting me the moment my tongue reached her moist lips. I felt the grip of her hooves behind me tighten, like she never inteded to let me go ever again.
That was when it happened, something hard began to rise at the base of my shorts. It slowly made contact with Twilight's rear while I pressed myself against her. It was too late for me to realize that Twilight's face had suddenly shifted to one that was full of lust, she knew what I was hiding in the thin piece of cloth covering my lower body. She moved her leg over to that area and gently touched it with her knee.
I flinched at the feeling of pleasure her her soft touch gave me.
If that's how you want it, then—
"Twilight darling! the princesses have called a meeting in the Can...ter...—" A white pony suddenly entered the room and saw both me and Twilight in our game of "domination." She dropped the basket she was levitating with her magic and stared at the two of us as we both panted and breathed heavily with our faces red from excitement. "—lot," She suddenly fell to the floor with her face turning red as well.
Twilight suddenly got up and looked at the fallen pony. "Rarity!" she shouted, running straight up to the white mare. She put one of her hooves on her forehead and compared it to hers. "Are you okay? Ohhhh I'm sorry you had to see that"
"I'm...fine darling," Rarity stood up and wiped her brow, "Just... give me a second to cool off. I didn't know that you were so—" she brought her muzzle close to Twilight's ears and whispered, "—brave."
Twilight couldn't get any redder than what she already was, so she simply looked down at the floor.
"Well, you simply MUST tell me about the...experience sometime darling, and I would love to hear it. However, duty calls and the princesses have summoned you over to their throne room in Canterlot Castle." She said, nodding at both twilight and me before exiting the room.
Twilight looked at me and smiled sheepishly, "Maybe we can continue this sometime else?"
I gave a pained smile, the wounds were starting to feel painful again, but the taste of Twilight's mouth made everything worth the wait. "Sure."
Author's Note
Just in case you missed all of my notes in the comments, the description and somewhere in my userpage...
This fic is not over yet, I'm just moving it to a new story so I can put in tags which didn't exist before in this story (because the next arc contains elements which the first Arc does not). You can find the link to the sequel in the description when it is released.
