A Thousand Seconds to Save the World
Twilight Sparkle vanished in a flash of light and soft 'poof!' of teleportation. Less than a second later she reappeared, clutching a pink alicorn princess whose mane and tail were covered in soapsuds.
Twelve seconds later, Twilight's rapid teleportation from and back into the room had deposited Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, Twilight's brother Shining Armor, the official Crystal Empire crystaller Sunburst, Starlight Glimmer, and vagabond magician Trixie Lulamoon.
Seven ponies, gathered into the Castle of Friendship's throne room, stared and blinked in confusion.
Princess Celestia recovered first. "Twilight? I hope you have an explanation--"
"Hello, everypony!" Twilight said with a slightly manic looking smile. "I'm sure you're wondering why I've gathered you here today."
"Indeed," Luna remarked.
"The Grrrreat and Powwwerful Trixie DEMANDS--"
Twilight interrupted, "We have less than seventeen minutes to answer your questions, AND implement an effective solution, before the end of the world."
"Oh," Shining said. "Is this about that 'tachyonic communications project' of yours?"
"Not just mine! Physicists, engineers, even the Equestrian Space Program, everypony has done their part."
Sunburst's eyebrows quirked. "'The Equestrian Space Program?'"
Luna explained, "A secret project. A few scientists thought ponies should investigate outer space...more closely than through a telescope. So naturally, they asked the one alicorn princess whose magical connection to moon, stars, and similarly distant objects enables her to banish anypony to the moon...or even farther."
Trixie's jaw dropped. "You can DO that?"
"Naturally I don't talk about it much, because I don't want ponies to...worry unduly, about what I could do. But yes. Not only can I banish ponies to the moon, but I can bring them BACK."
Celestia sighed. "Bringing them BACK promptly always eluded me."
"Forgiven, sister." Luna's turquoise eyes transfixed Twilight. "If time be precious, Twilight, explain FORTHWITH."
Twilight blushed slightly. "Ahem. Yes." She cleared her throat. "An astronaut on the Moon can look down and see what's happening on Equus."
Trixie snorted. "So what? We already know what's happening on Equus. We're right here."
"But an astronaut on the Moon can view much of Equus all at once." Twilight cleared her throat again. "Also, tachyons travel faster than light, so they go BACKWARDS in time. When an astronaut on the Moon sends a tachyonic signal to our relay on Planet Mares, which then sends the message back to us...based on the planets' current orbital locations, we can find out what was happening on Equus nearly seventeen minutes ago."
Shining pursed his lips. "You know time travel magic can be...tricky."
"It's time travel SCIENCE!" Twilight replied.
Shining sighed. "Close enough."
Celestia said, "To avert a disaster, we need to know what the disaster IS. About that, you've told us very little."
Twilight levitated a slip of paper. "This is the message." She read aloud:
EQUESTRIA, EQUUS DESTROYED. PLEASE SAVE EVERYPONY. SENDER S FLARE MOONBASE. WORLD ENDED 11.14 CANTERLOT TIME
Luna grimaced. "How...vague. Knowing naught of what ended the world, how are we to save it?"
"Truly," Celestia agreed. "This astronaut didn't even tell us what part of the world to look at for the source of our disaster, let alone what or who might cause it."
Starlight asked, "How much longer do we have left, Twilight? To talk and plan and bicker, before disaster strikes?"
As Twilight mentally calculated, the tip of her tongue barely protruded between her lips. "I estimate we have time for about a thousand words of 'talk, plan, and bicker,' before the end of the world. If we're lucky."
Sunburst said, "So time is of the essence."
Trixie harrumphed. "What a useless meeting. A bunch of ponies who know nothing about the problem, pretending to try to solve it. Just a waste of time."
Twilight blinked. "That."
"Excuse you?" Trixie replied.
"That's the answer! It's a matter of TIME! I KNEW that gathering all of Equestria's alicorn strength mages would be helpful!" Twilight's horn glowed, telekinetically ripping the capes from Trixie's and Sunburst's backs. "Sorry to expose you two as secret alicorns, but we don't have TIME for me to try to be tactful."
Trixie and Sunburst stared at each other. "You're an alicorn?" Sunburst said weakly.
"YOU!" Trixie shouted. "You're like ME."
"Well, yes," Sunburst cleared his throat. "Any unicorn who's always wearing a cape...isn't that at least a LITTLE bit suspicious? I mean, if you're looking for secret alicorns, what could even BE a more obvious clue?"
Twilight asked, "Does everypony here remember the time bubble spell some unicorn students use, to get extra time to cram before a test?"
A blue alicorn mare snorted. "Trixie was expelled for it."
"If we all cast it together, we in this room can have as many extra minutes or hours or days as we need."
Celestia nodded. "This seems our best plan."
The alicorn's horn glowed brightly, and other hornglows joined hers.
A Thousand Seconds to Save the World
"This feels weird," Trixie whined. . . Celestia replied, "You SHOULD feel a bit odd, Trixie. While we're inside this time bubble spell, every word we speak, every action we take? They are subtly reshaped, squeezed and warped and folded a bit to fit them into spacetime which, by the universe's normal rules, hardly exists at all." . . "And who turned off the LIGHTS?" . . Celestia sighed. "Didn't you ever notice, my little pony, when you used this spell at my School for Gifted Unicorns--" . . "Trixie admits NOTHING!" . . "My little pony...even when a relatively unskilled CSGU student casts a time bubble spell at low power, ponies within the bubble get...maybe two minutes inside for every minute that passes outside. So if the sun shines for a minute, while somepony inside the bubble gets TWO minutes...?" . . Shining said, "When the sun shines for only one second OUTSIDE a time bubble, but multiple seconds pass INSIDE the time bubble...the sun seems less bright to ponies inside the bubble. The sunshine is...diluted, you might say, spread across our extra seconds." . . Trixie grunted. "So THAT'S why that spell always seemed to make Trixie's vision go a bit dim. Trixie means, when SOMEPONY was doing the spell, and Trixie just HAPPENED to be there. Inside the bubble. The bubble that WASN'T TRIXIE'S FAULT." . . Celestia tittered. "Yes, my little pony. The seven of us, having cast the spell TOGETHER at a SEVEN ALICORNS level of power...guided by me...are getting as much time as we may need, while in the outside world only a few seconds shall pass. Our being plunged into utter darkness just means the spell is working at full strength." . . Twilight cast a simple hornlight spell. "We might as well get to work." . . "Yes," Cadance agreed. "So...what do we have to work with?" . . ~~***~~ . . "We know NOTHING!" Trixie whined. "Trixie was right! This IS a stupid meeting by ignorant ponies who are only pretending they know how to solve an impossible puzzle." Trixie whimpered wordlessly. "For the first time in Trixie's life, Trixie doesn't LIKE being right." . . Sunburst grinned. "There's always a first time." . . "Trixie says, the useless orange alicorn can just shut his stupid face." . . Shining levitated Twilight's message slip. He read it aloud, just as Twilight had. . .
EQUESTRIA, EQUUS DESTROYED. PLEASE SAVE EVERYPONY. SENDER S FLARE MOONBASE. WORLD ENDED 11.14 CANTERLOT TIME
. . "We know one thing," he said. "Something VERY important. It's a matter of...scheduling. And something my sister never understood the value of: procrastination. Strategic procrastination." . . "Yes...?" Cadance said uncertainly. She smiled. "Oh." . . Twilight hopped up and down with impatience. "What do you mean? Tell me tell me tell me!" . . Celestia laughed. She rolled over on her back, wings spread out to either side, as she chortled. "Of course." . . Watching her sister, Luna nodded. A serene smile spread across her face. . . "Trixie doesn't like being left in the dark," a blue alicorn complained. . . Cadance said, "The world ends at eleven fourteen, Canterlot time." . . Trixie pawed the floor with one hoof. "But what if Twilight is just overreacting to something silly? Trixie doesn't think the end of the world is even real. Trixie has a rehearsal to get to this afternoon. Trixie can't just wait around inside this stupid time bubble until Trixie dies of old age." . . Celestia said gently, "But what if Trixie COULD wait inside this time bubble?" . . "Preposterous. Someday, we'll run out of food. And before that, maybe air too. Just to stay alive, we would have to expand the bubble--" Trixie's eyes widened. "Oh. Seven mages. Five are alicorns. Of the other two mages, each is just about as magically powerful as an alicorn. Trixie supposes that's enough magical strength to expand the bubble. To expand it a LOT." . . Twilight nodded. "With seven alicorn strength mages, we can bring the entire world of Equus within the time bubble. And, for sunlight, if my math is correct...?" . . Celestia answered Twilight's thought. "I can dim the Sun a bit and bring it down closer to Equus, which would let us expand the bubble to include the Sun as well. All ponykind, and the sunlight that lets us grow food. We need only make certain we keep the time bubble strong enough, so that we inside NEVER reach the disaster that happens at..." . . "Eleven fourteen Canterlot time," Twilight supplied. . . "I notice you didn't mention the Moon," Luna said. . . Celestia laid a wing over Luna's back. "I'm sorry." . . "No Moon?" Luna pressed in towards Celestia's flank. "Why no Moon?" . . "Because, my dear sister..." Celestia sniffled. "The pony who warned us of the world's end is on the Moon. 'S. Flare,' which I believe stands for Sunny Flare. If we interfere with time on the Moon, bringing the moonbase within our time bubble--" . . "I see. We would not receive the warning," Luna said bleakly. "Or, no, something even worse would happen. We already know the pony on the Moon will see the end of the world at what he believes is eleven fourteen Canterlot time. When he sees it, he will send his tachyonic message. If he's in the time bubble with us...the world being destroyed will be US. All of Equus, destroyed right in front of him. We would fail to cheat our way out of the apocalypse." . . Celestia wrapped her sister in both wings, and hugged her. "I am so, so sorry." . .
A Thousand Seconds to Save the World
The End of the World: An Eyewitness Account
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
