When Applejack got up this morning, she found something going wrong.
She was woken by Big Mac. But the time on the clock showed 10:30 in the morning. However, the sun didn't rise because it was still dark outside the window. Did Princess Celestia forget to raise the sun?
"I-impossible..." she reflected. "It has never happened in more than a thousand years, and it definitely isn't going to take place today."
"What is going on?" She rushed out of bed in alarm and turned to the hulking red stallion.
"Earthquake."
"What?" AJ didn't know when the earthquake occurred. "When?"
"Just before!"
"Is it really an earthquake?" The orange farmfilly still hard to believe it. Panic surged through her, because there has never been an earthquake in Equestria.
Macintosh held his tongue, only to lift a forehoof pointing behind as the orange farmer realized her little sister Applebloom was shivering beneath him.
"Hum...Well, I must fell into deep slumber." AJ gave him a sly grin, but her heart was still filled with fear. "Something must be wrong. I'd have to check with Twilight. She should know what just happened."
She pulled her cowboy hat off her hallstand and threw it into the air. After rotating a moment it landed steadily on her head.
"Big Mac, keep an eye on Applebloom first. I'll go to the castle and come back soon."
Afterward, she rushed out of the farm door and left the Sweet Apple Acres without turning her head. She ran down the dirt road towards the Ponyville.
Because the sun came up later, the road was very dark, which caused Applejack tripped as soon as she left out of the apple farm. Through the faint moonlight, she found that a tremendous crack caused by the earthquake had tripped her. Cracks were everywhere, not only this one at her feet, but some of them even opened directly into the rocky floor in some places. In such an environment, any strong earth ponies must walk carefully step by step, or their hooves may easily get stuck in danger.
The farm pony tried her best to recognize the right way and avoid the dangers in front of her. She was about to reach Ponyville. Suddenly, a shadow emerged from the bushes. Applejack immediately stepped back and assumed an offensive posture.
"Who is there?" She shouted to the shadow. Although she left in a hurry without taking her rope, she had to be in a position that could deter her opponent.
A familiar voice got out from the shadow. "Applejack? It's me, Rainbow Dash."
"Dash? What the hay to bring you here?" The cowfilly returned to normal position soon.
The figure slowly approached. Through the moonlight, AJ saw the frustration and puzzlement in the eyes of the normally unruly blue rainbow-maned pony. "I don't know. I was asleep as I suddenly felt a sharp pain. I woke up abruptly and found that I had fallen out of my house, falling in the Bush just below my sweet abode. Fortunately, I managed to discover Tank around me."
Dash took out a black, round object that could barely detect the tortoise shell of Tank under the moonlight.
"Can't you fly? Why did you jump out of the bushes?"
"I still can fly, but it can't keep too high above the ground now. Damn! The propeller of Tank is completely out of order. He can't fly at all. After that, we only have ourselves to find the paths through the bushes, until now, I've found here."
"Wait...the propeller of Tank is out of order? But that thing is driven by magic... Is it true that....... MAGIC was missing again?"
"Maybe. By the way, AJ, what time is it now? Why do I feel this evening has been so long?"
"Well, because it's almost time for lunch now, and the sun hasn't risen since this morning. If this keeps up, I guess the dark night will last forever."
"Oh, this sucks. It must be a horrible disaster. Let's go and turn to Twilight for the truth."
"I think so too. Twilight must know something. Since the recent magic incident of Cozy Glow, all the six artifacts were locked in the basement and nopony, including us, have been allowed to touch them. This time its origin should be the same as the past."
"But this time it would even more terrible than before. It made us lose all of our magic overnight, even including... Princess Celestia! That would explain why the sun doesn't rise on time!" Although Rainbow is flying, it's just like a pair of wings hanging her body, casuing her move too slow to be herself, even to perform a Sonic Rainboom.
Pretty soon two ponies were amazed at the grand sight as they arrived at Ponyville: The streetlights fell over, spilled out the oil, and the flames burst out to light nearby houses; the streets were full of cracks, everypony fled in disorder. This scene is totally different from the peaceful ponytown. Two ponies looked at each other, and a look of panic came over their face.
At that moment, a pink pony jumped up to them faintly in the fire.
"Pinkie?" Rainbow shouted.
"Is that you?" Her partner then continued.
"It's me, of course it's me!" A familiar scream came, whose owner behind the fire drew closer and closer. Suddenly, something flew up, followed by a pink figure falling from the sky, weighing the farm and sport pony heavily on the ground.
"Pinkie!"
"Oh, I'm sorry for that," The voice of party pony was still optimistic, or relatively optimistic. She jumped back to the ground, the two ponies under her body just now then stood up and dusted themselves. "I don't know why. I wanted to start business after sunrise this morning. Who knows there has been no sunrise today. I considered it would be sunrise later, so I started to eat a cupcake and wait. I ate a box, the sun didn't come out; I ate a second box, it still didn't come out, I ate a third box...."
"Get to the point, Pinkie!" Applejack was a little impatient.
"When I ate up to 379 boxes, it was all very sudden, everything began to shake! The street lights fell down one by one, and then I ran out, and soon I met you two."
"It sounded like the earthquake is real. I slept too deep at that time. I hadn't know the earthquake until my big brother woke me up."
"Let's go and meet Twilight hurrily!"
"That's right."
Arriving at Twilight's Castle, AJ pushed the door straight in and Spike sat on the carpet in front of them as if waiting for them. Seeing them come in, Spike stood up with a sad expression.
"Twilight is up there now, calling me to wait for you in the hall! Fluttershy and Rarity came a long time ago, and now they're probably still discussing about it. It seems that something really serious. Not only didn't the sun rise, but the earthquake.
"Yes, today's situation is very unusual." The hat cowfilly added. "The earthquake cracked all the dirt roads and made a mess of the Ponyville, Equestria has never had such a big earthquake in such a long time."
Three ponies went to the main room, the Princess of Friendship was talking with Starlight at the front of round table, while Rarity and Fluttershy were sitting in their seats. Seeing them push the door in, the white unicorn gave a gesture to them to sit on their own seat.
"......Is that really no clue?" Twilight sitting on her throne, looking blankly straight ahead with her head in her hoofs.
"Yeah, as you saw just now, we thought over all the possibilities. Discord is reform, and Cozy and Tirek are under our control. I have looked it over that the relics are locked in the basement, which are all in good condition there. How weirdly the disappearance of magic this time!" Starlight sighed.
"Yes, I wanted to send a letter to Princess Celestia for asking the present circumstances, but Spike simply burned the letter into ashes, presumably failed, because up to now I haven't received an answer."
"Rarity... What's wrong?" Applejack turned and asked the unicorn next to her.
"I got up before dawn this morning to make clothes, and I suddenly found I couldn't hold on the scissor! I couldn't belileve that our magic lost again as I came to look for Twilight!"
"Day is being gone. That's why we're here. Something big must be going on."
"Girls, everypony's here!" Twilight raised her head she found that everyone arrived.
"Yeah!"
"It must be known to you all that our magic has failed."
"Yes." Dash added. "And the whole town is in a mess."
"Without further ado, now we have to go to Canterot to turn to Princess Celestia for help. It's estimated that only she knows the global view of the whole incident. Hurry up, I hope the old train hasn't stopped yet."
Author's Note
This fiction is a tribute to the comic of Recall the Time of NO Return
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