A Thousand Seconds to Save the World

Stellar Flare looks out the window of his habitat dome. In the black, starry sky, distant Equus seems mostly ocean and swirling clouds.

Suddenly, he sees a swelling ball of fiery light swallow Equus.

The whole world is burning up!, he thinks. Whatever this is...is everypony dead? Oh, Celestia!

Stellar runs to the Tachyon Project's experimental, faster than light communication apparatus, where he taps a warning in Horse code.

EQUESTRIA, EQUUS DESTROYED. PLEASE SAVE EVERYPONY. SENDER S FLARE MOONBASE. WORLD ENDED 11.14 CANTERLOT TIME

Once created, tachyons fly backwards in time. Stellar's message appeared approximately a thousand seconds ago, on slips of paper spat out by machines at Canterlot Observatory and several other physics labs. Stellar's warning even appeared within a relay receiver tray in the home of one Twilight Sparkle, nerd supreme.

Under ever-growing brightness, moondust melts, habitat dome bursts. As air escapes Stellar's lungs, he wonders

Did I save them