Hours Once Gone

Rainbow sat across from Scarlet on a bed in a hotel room. Scarlet was sitting in a chair by the window. This was where she'd been staying during her time in the human world. Before anything else Rainbow made sure to clarify that she wasn't Light Speed, and that was when Scarlet suggested they go to her hotel room. Scarlet sat with one leg over the other. While her aura gave off the impression of confidence, her facial expression was bashful and self conscious.

"First things first…" Rainbow started. "That amulet, hand it over."

Scarlet's eyes widened in surprise. "You're just asking for it?"

Rainbow's eyes swept back and forth with self doubt. "Yeah, what about it? I mean… that's why I'm here."

Scarlet smiled, in a mocking way. "You really didn't come with any other plan? You know I'm not going to give it to you, right?"

True, she wasn't going to hand it over. Rainbow didn't know what she expected, but this was just the way she was. Straightforward and to the point. That's how she'd been since she was a filly and it wasn't changing anytime soon.

"How about a trade," Scarlet continued. "I know there's something special about those goggles, so can you tell me what? After that I'll hand over the amulet."

Scarlet was being surprisingly reasonable. It was a simple request and a favorable trade. It was almost suspiciously simple.

"That's it? I mean, I'll do it, but why that of all things," Rainbow said.

Scarlet's eyes drifted to the window. The sun had gone down now, and so moonlight poured past the curtains. "Light Speed never would tell me what those goggles did, and it frustrates me to no end that she took that secret to her grave. But as her successor, you would know, right?" Scarlet glanced back to Rainbow.

"Her successor?" Rainbow felt butterflies in her stomach when she said that. It was a pretty cool title, but now wasn't the time to get distracted. "Right, well, if that's all you want to know…"

The room filled with silence after that, an eerie silence. The only noise came from the air conditioning unit in the corner of the room. Rainbow Dash sat on the bed in complete silence.

"Go on?" Scarlet said.

Rainbow looked around the room in confusion. Didn't she just say? The goggles were used to travel back in time. Was Scarlet hard of hearing?

"Yeah, I just said…" Rainbow paused.

She paused. Why was she pausing? Wasn't she talking? She was about to tell Scarlet about her time traveling, but her mouth wouldn't move. She tried to speak, but her vocal chords were completely unusable. Why couldn't she talk?

"So you won't tell me after all," Scarlet sighed. "I guess you're no better than Light Speed."

Rainbow's eyes narrowed in annoyance and sweat started to trickle down her face. "Aren't you listening? I…"

Again, her lips wouldn't move. She felt as if she was speaking, but it was obvious that none of the muscles on her face were working to vocalize what she'd decided to say in her head.

Then, a moment later, everything stopped. There was no sound, no movement. Rainbow Dash couldn't move any of her limbs. She couldn't even look around with her eyes. Something was very wrong. All she could see was Scarlet and her disappointed frown, stuck there, frozen in time.

Rainbow quickly realized something bad was happening, but she couldn't do anything. She couldn't move, and neither could anything else. But she was still conscious. She could see, hear, feel, smell and taste, but there was nothing. Nothing was happening. Reality was a void, set in one single moment that never moved forward.

An event horizon. Rainbow had heard Twilight ramble about such a thing and even though it was boring science talk, Rainbow remembered because of how chilling the concept was. She was stuck. There was no escape.

Rainbow tried to scream, but nothing came out. She didn't even feel any vibration in her vocal chords. Nothing occurred. All that existed were her thoughts in this space and the room that was present. Scarlet kept staring at Rainbow for a long time, too long. It started to make her feel uneasy, with those piercing red eyes staring directly into hers. The worst part was, she couldn't look away.

Time did pass, but only for Rainbow's thoughts. Everything else was absent from the flow of time. Rainbow was completely alone with herself. The longer it went on for, the louder Rainbow tried to scream. Nothing.

Eventually, it had been hours since time had stopped and Rainbow's mental state had been the only thing moving. For every second that passed, Rainbow sunk deeper and deeper into a coiling insanity. Was she going to be stuck like this forever? When would it end? Why was this happening?

The goggles. They must have been why this was happening. Were they cursed with dark magic like the Alicorn Amulet? Rainbow thought of all the possibilities for what felt like hours. It was all she could do. Think, as Scarlet kept staring at her. Her face was burned into Rainbow's memory now. That black hair swept over her right eye and those bright red irises.

Why, why was this happening? Rainbow kept repeating that same question in her head. What did she do to deserve it? Then, something broke the silence.

A voice, other than Rainbow's, started to cackle. It sounded as if it was flying back and forth through the room, just above her head, but she couldn't see. It started to speak, but Rainbow couldn't understand what it was saying. It's speech was jumbled and nonsensical, swirling above her head. Despite how indecipherable it was though, Rainbow Dash finally understood what it was trying to tell her.

This was her punishment. Her punishment for trying to reveal the secret to someone else. Then she realized the voice was coming from the goggles strapped over her forehead. They were speaking to her and laughing at her, like she was some kind of poor fool.

As the cackles grew louder and louder Rainbow Dash wanted to cry, but she couldn't. Then, as the laughs built up to as loud as they could possibly be, another voice snapped Rainbow back to reality.

"Rainbow Dash?" Scarlet said, her mouth moving as she leaned forward. She was actually moving.

Rainbow screamed and jumped backwards onto the bed, startled from Scarlet suddenly moving. She thought this was her imagination playing some sort of sick game with her, but she was able to move and scream. Rainbow looked around the room, her eyes wide and pupils shrunk from terror. Her heart was pounding, something it hadn't done in what felt like hours.

"I'm… I'm alive?" Rainbow felt her body with her hands, looking down at herself. "I'm still here?" She couldn't believe it. She was back. The punishment was finally over.

"Are you… okay?" Scarlet looked genuinely concerned, but also confused.

Joy took over Rainbow, every inch of her body feeling like it needed to move to make up for all the lost movement. Instead, Rainbow simply started to tear up, grateful that she still existed. Whatever just happened, it changed her from the inside out.

"You don't look okay…" Scarlet looked her up and down. "Forget what I said, we don't need to trade anymore."

Deep down, Rainbow was grateful. There was a sense of unimaginable horror ingrained into her, not wanting to ever disclose the secret of the goggles ever again. The curse was working.

"Thank you…" Rainbow Dash whimpered, before standing up from the bed. "I… I need a minute," she said before rushing out of the room and closing the door behind her.

Rainbow leaned against the door in the long hallway, feeling a sense of dread that hung over her like a spirit. She exhaled deeply, sliding down onto the floor and putting her head in her hands. She didn't want to be anywhere near Scarlet right now. Not after staring at her for hours on end against her will.

What just happened? Was any of that real? It had to be. Rainbow bit her own arm to make sure she wasn't dreaming. She really was stuck in time, but it was over now. She could breathe again and pump blood through her veins. The stillness was gone. Rainbow's whole body was shaking and her skin had gone pale. If that curse had lasted any longer than it did, she was sure she would've died from pure fear.

She let out another exhale, before laughing quietly to herself. She stood up and now that she was calm again, she entered the hotel room. Scarlet still sat in the corner of the room with the Alicorn Amulet firmly strapped around her neck.

Rainbow closed the door before speaking. "Listen, I…" she shook her head, stopping herself before she'd say anything triggering the curse. "I have reason to believe… you're in danger. That amulet, it's only going to corrupt you more and more until well, you're beyond saving."

Rainbow couldn't be certain why Scarlet was killed in the first place, but she had to make a guess if she wanted to sound convincing. Thinking about it though, Scarlet hadn't shown any signs of corruption at all. She was about as non threatening as somepony could be.

"You don't understand, I need the Alicorn Amulet," Scarlet said. "I have no horn, don't you see? It's only with this amulet and in this world that I'm able to regain my horn."

Scarlet exemplified this as the amulet lit up, and from her head sprouted the horn that Rainbow saw in the Canterlot palace. It had all the same features, curving backwards with a blood red tint.

"You see? Without this amulet I have nothing," she said.

Rainbow could only imagine it would be the same if she'd lost her wings. A unicorn's horn was their most important feature.

"Then why was the princess so adamant you were an old enemy of her's?" Rainbow asked.

Scarlet's gaze drifted to the floor. "If you really want to know, I'll show you."

Rainbow didn't have time to react before a bright red glow emanated from Scarlet's horn, enveloping the entire room in magical light. Color swirled around her horn before spreading outwards and Rainbow's vision was completely cut off. When her vision returned, she stood in front of a filly. A filly with a mane as black as coal and eyes as red as rubies.