Caught in the Clutches of Time
Chapter One - A Big Mistake
~Twilight's PoV~
Starlight scoffed. "What's so special about your friends?!" she argued, tearing the scroll more than it already was. It wasn't the scroll that was important, but what was written on it; it held the only spell I'd be able to use to get back here: the only way to stop her again. But she wasn't listening to me. "How can a group of ponies that's so different be so IMPORTANT?!"
I cautiously trotted closer, aware of how close she was to breaking the bond between the timelines. Soon, I would be stuck somewhere in a distant, unworldly present. Every one after another had gotten worse. Sombra. Chrysalis. Nightmare Moon. And the one I had just seen? A barren wasteland composed of nothing but rotten trees, decayed by the sands of time.
I hold no doubt that it was Starlight's world.
"The differences between me and my friends are the very things that make our friendship strong," I replied as Rainbow Dash made another zip through the obstacle course.
"I thought Sunburst and I were the same, but we turned out different - and it tore our friendship apart!" she yelled in rebellion, tearing the paper even closer to the edge. Last chance, I thought to myself.
I don't know what happened. Or maybe I know all too well, and I just had less control over it. That or I just hate admitting it. The latter is probably the closest to truth, but what's true anymore? After everything I'd been through, I had a hard time distinguishing past from present. Either one was a nightmare. All I can remember was feeling an overwhelming sense of fear as I realized how close I was to losing my friends. To losing my home. To losing everything, save for Spike and a bucking table that would no longer be of any use to me. It didn't matter what destination time had in store for me; I was done waiting to be sent there.
I swooped up into the air. "NO!" I cried out defiantly, and I did the only thing I could think to do. I dove for the scroll, knocking Starlight over in the process. She was still cradled by magic, but she hadn't expected this. I knew this because I could see the wind push out of her gut as my torso made contact with hers.
There was an almost silent sound of ripping paper as I felt the weight of Spike leave my back. I would not be back around to catch him this time.
There was a distant yelling, and I knew that it had to be him, but a roar of thunder from somewhere else had grabbed my attention first.
Soon there was nothing to be heard.
Darkness. Darkness, and a cold feeling: these were the things I first noticed. My body did not hurt, yet it ached at the same time, as if gravity were acting upon it with a somewhat greater force. This effect subsided very little as I pushed myself up from the floor of... wherever I was. The cold feeling rushed through my limbs. It was like that of a refrigerator to food.
The scroll, I thought. It ripped; I knew that much, but that was all I could remember beyond the context of the situation.
My first feelings of regret came as I recalled the screaming I had heard. It definitely wasn't Starlight's, and there was no weight beside me or on top of me to cue that Spike was there. I called out for him. In response, I heard a groan.
It was not Spike's. I knew exactly who it was, and I needed no assistance determining that it was Starlight.
The tip of my horn illuminated, casting a small radius of light around my location. I turned around to face the groan's origin, and there laid Starlight Glimmer, slowly getting up as if carrying the same cumbersome weight I felt on my own body. She complained that I was too good a tackler, but that talking point soon changed as she looked around, seeing nothing just as I had. Or had not, to be more precise.
Her horn now illuminated with the same faint glow of mine, and she finally asked - after scrutinizing every inch of distant darkness for any sign of life or movement - where we were.
I told her I didn't know where and that she probably did; "Why don't you tell me, Starlight?"
"I got here exactly the same way you did, Sparkle! Don't try to blame me for this!"
"Blame you for putting us here, or blame you for ruining the original timeline over and over and over again, there and back and there and back?" I motioned with my hooves, showing the cycle she had kept me and Spike going through. That reminded me.
I looked around, but there was absolutely no sign of Spike as Starlight trailed on: "I tried to tell you that things wouldn't be any different for me, and what a great boost in confidence you gave by attacking me, Twilight. Do you do this with all your friends?"
I ignored her and kept looking around, daring to move from the spot I stood in. My hooves did clop against the floor, but they had an echo unlike any other I've ever heard. It was as if I were walking on the pendulum of a grandfather clock; every step lead to not just the echoes of the step itself, but also the echoing of a clock's ticking and tocking. It gave me both a sense of timelessness and mindfulness of time. Words are insufficient in describing what I felt in that place.
Was this... time itself?
The only thing that was sure was that Starlight Glimmer and I had gotten here by some means of the scroll tearing apart, and we had gone here without Spike, who had probably fallen to his doom by now. It was one of my worst fears, picturing him dead, but now it was a very possible reality. As Starlight's interrogating, accusing voice continued to assault my ear drums, I pounded on the floor and shouted at her to stop. "Just stop already! I need to find Spike!" I called out once more: "Spike!"
No answer but the deafening silence of the place that we were in. I needed to find him and make sure he was okay. I had no care for Starlight, until I took quick note that I would need her spell to travel back. One way or another, I was going to get it. But as for this place, I was still left wondering to myself what it was and how it worked. Why we were here, more specifically. Although it kept me paranoid and materialistic of time, it did not make me want to rush into anything. The place didn't even make me want to move. Instead, I was left with a calling to sit and wait (though I did not follow this urge). It felt like a diverging stream of events: separations of timelines.
Surely we messed with something we shouldn't have; this was no alternate timeline.
