Prolog: Revival Sequence Initiated
Twilight Sparkle let out a happy sigh as she turned the open sign over to closed on the library door. Not that she was glad to close the library for the night, although it did guarantee she would have peace and quiet for reading. No, she was just happy in general. How could she not be? She had the perfect life: she was the personal student of Princess Celestia, she saved Equestria twice, assisted in a third, and had five of the best friends a mare could ask for. Oh, and she was connected to an ancient and powerful source of magic that symbolized one of the six Elements of Harmony, that was cool too.
Twilight let another content sigh escape her lips before closing the door. Tonight she might start on that new Daring Doo novel, or maybe go over the most recent magical theory papers from Canterlot University. Either choice was tantalizing. she closed her eyes and turned around, imagining a night of black ink on white pages. But, upon opening her eyes, Twilight nearly crapped herself.
The inside of the library was gone. Instead, all Twilight could see was... black. It was as if the whole universe had disappeared and all that was left was an infinite void. Actually that’s not true, it looked like there was a fuzzy blue ring at the edge of Twilight’s peripheral vision. Weird...
“Twilight!” came Pinkie Pie’s voice ”I have something important to tell you!”
Thats odd... what’s Pinkie Pie doing in the infinite void of nothing? Did she have something to do with it? As Twilight thought this, Pinkie took a step back, revealing that the infinite void of nothing was just her pupils.Twilight jumped back and yelped in shock, breathing heavily for a few moments
“Pinkie, you really need to work on giving other ponies personal space.”
“Thats not important right now, I’ve got another d-d-d-d-d-d-doOOoooOOOooo-” was all the pink party pony was able to get out before being completely overtaken by a violent fit of shivers.
“A Doozy?” Twilight asked “Where is it?”
Pinkie suddenly stopped shaking “I don’t know, I think it might happen to all of Equestria...” she then promptly resumed shivering like it was 100 degrees below 0.
“All of Equestria...” Twilight repeated to nopony in particular. She shivered a little herself as she had flashbacks to the time she tried to disaster-proof Equestria after receiving a vaugue warning from her future self. But on the other hoof, last time the Pinkie sense picked up a doozy it wasn’t exactly a bad thing, just... unexpected.
It was at this point that Twilight noticed Pinkie had stopped moving. Not simply stopped the shaking, stopped moving entirely. No idle swaying from side to side, no rise and fall of the chest to indicate breathing, no blinking, no eye movement... nothing. Pinkie was just completely and utterly frozen. Twilight was about to ask if something was wrong when she noticed that she couldn’t move either.
After her run in with a cockatrice, this was not a sensation that Twilight was glad to be experiencing again.
“Please do not be alarmed, there has been a malfunction within the station and the simulation has been paused to save power while repair drones locate the problem. We thank you in advance for your patience.”
That sounded strangely like Princess Luna, but Twilight wasn’t informed of any royal visit. Moreover, it sounded like her voice came from all directions at once. And what was Luna talking about anyway? Malfunction? Simulation? Repair drones? Twilight pondered these questions for what felt like hours before Princess Luna spoke again.
“Damage is beyond repair. Other life forms have been detected entering the station. Shutting down simulation. Initiating revival sequence. Disconnecting and unlocking cradles for retrieval.”
Twilight could only watch as the walls of her her library faded away into nothingness as the world around her turned dark. She could still see Pinkie, but after a few seconds even her friend disappeared as well. Now she really was floating in an infinite void, and not just an illusion of one this time. This was a little too much for one night. Twilight was expecting a small dinner and a good read, not sensory deprivation and an omnipresent Luna talking nonsense.
Speak of the draconequus...“Tia... is there anything you wish to say before we let them out? It is highly likely that we will not see any of them ever again.”
Never see the Princesses again? What was Luna trying to say?
“Y- yes.” Twilight could hear the sadness in her mentor’s voice “My little ponies, I know this is short notice, but we don’t have much time left together. Soon you will all wake up, and be in a world very different than Equestria. I do not know much about this world, save for the fact that when we left it, it was a very dangerous place. I can only ask of you to all stay strong, try not to let this new world change you for the worst. I have instructed these new ponies and griffons to look after you all...” her voice trailed off as Twilight heard Celestia’s sobs all around her. “I love you all so much,” the princess said quietly “I’m so sorry.”
Sorry? for what? Twilight felt very confused right now.
Suddenly the world exploded with light.
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“Hey cappy! You need to see this!” Crackled a voice over the space suit’s radio.
Captain Solar Flare glared over at the unicorn stallion waving at her from across the room.
“Lieutenant, members of the Unicorn Federation do not call their superior officers ‘cappy.’” She seethed at him “Furthermore, there are a lot of things I ‘need to see’ right now, what is so damn important about what you have found?”
“Uhh..” the stallion stumbled over his words, wary of being chewed out again “well, this one woke up.” He said, shining his his light into the glass cover of one of the pods lining the room.
“What?” exclaimed Solar Flare as she galloped across the room towards the indicated pod, dodging other suited unicorns examining the pods. Inside was a purple unicorn mare, a pink streak in her mane and a starburst cutie mark. She was holding a hoof over her eyes and shivering like crazy. Solar reached over to the lieutenant and gave him swift smack on the horn, causing him to drop his flashlight from his magical grip.
“Star Charts! Do you want to blind her? Keep the light out of her eyes! She’s probably scared enough even if we didn’t just knock a huge hole in her station!” Solar sighed and looked down at the pod again, this time noticing a screen at the bottom. It had a single line of text on it.
TWILIGHT SPARKLE
Star Charts followed Solar’s line of sight.
“Huh...must be a name.” he said.
“I guess so.” Solar Flare said looking back up at the pony in the pod “Well miss Sparkle, welcome to W-space, or wherever the hell we are...”
