An Adventure in About 14,000 Words
Stars twinkled in the brilliant night sky and all of Ponyville was asleep save for one light brown colt. Sunshine Napper was staring at the moonrise, the slight shifts of blue that accompanied the rising moon were a beautiful sight missed by many ponies. However, Sunshine Napper was, as his name implied but no one every seemed to get, nocturnal in nature, so he almost never missed a moonrise or moonset, just as no other pony would miss a sunrise or sunset. It wasn't that he didn't want to spend time with the normal ponyfolk, in no way was he trying to avoid them, but the sun just seemed to sap the energy out of him, and every time he tried to remain awake into the early morning he would pass out in the most inconvenient of places.
It made certain things easier, living by the moon and sleeping by the sun, however it also made other things harder. For example, shops and stalls closed well before sunset, forcing him to ask favors of his few friends, or even raid their pantries while they slept. The good thing though was the quite and the stillness. It gave Sunshine more time to himself, the way he liked to spend most of his time anyways.
Sunshine fancied himself an adventurer. After years of sneaking around the town during the moonlit hours he could do almost anything as silently as a mouse. Sunshine's keen sneaking abilities, love for adventure novels, and incredible imagination, led to imagining Ponyville as an entirely different location: the fictional Lost Temple of Melancholy. Every night he imagined that instead of raiding his friends' pantries, he was descending into the entrance of the temple. Wielding nothing but a finely sharpened sword, he evaded every trap, memorized every ancient inscription (for translation at a later date), and escape with the treasure. Sometimes his friends wondered how he knew so much about their personal lives. Once, maybe twice, they accused him of snooping, but he would always deny it, claiming it was written on an ancient inscription in The Lost Temple of Melancholy because, and in a way, it was.
Sunshine still remembered where he was, on the night the sun didn't rise. Dawn was mere minutes away, the temple's guardians soon to wake, but he had almost finished memorizing the inscription he had found beneath the golden idol. He heard the sound of groaning joints as the mega-beast began to awaken from it's slumber.
Backing slowly out of Berry Punch's (his friend's,) bedroom, he deposited the diary back on top of her bedside table. Just the slightest misstep and she would awaken. He had a hard time imagining how he would explain what he was doing in her house, let alone reading her diary. The floor moaned beneath Sunshine's feet, and he instantly froze. Berry Punch did nothing more than roll over. He let out a relieved sigh and then exited the house.
Oddly enough, it wasn't dawn. The moon stood exactly in the center of the sky, the same position it had been when he'd entered her house, but it was hours later, the moon should have been on the horizon. Was Berry Punch's house magic?!? Was that how she managed to spend so much time clubbing and so little time sleeping, or doing anything else for that matter.
Then the alarm clocks began to ring. Most ponies couldn't here the gentle buzzing of half the towns alarm clocks, but Sunshine, adjusted to the silence of the night could hear even the most quite of noises. The alarm clocks shouldn't have begun ringing until well after the sun had risen. The only time the clocks rang before the sun rose was winter, and if the birds that had occupied the air as the sun set were anything to go by, it was still spring. Grumbling ponies began to exit their houses, bleary eyed and mostly confused they found themselves clumping together in the center of the road. As soon as Bon Bon (the local confectioner) appeared with a pitchfork it became apparent what it was. An angry mob out for the kill.
Sunshine wondered why the sun not rising was a cause for an angry mob. If anything it was more of a cause for fear and panic, or in his case, delight. Needless to say, curiosity got the better of him and he followed the mob. They gathered around Sugar Cube Corner (the bakery that oddly enough did not seem to sell bread, only sweet pastries of one kind or another), several other groups merging together as if the entire population was clued in. Bon Bon, who by sheer chance had taken the leadership role, began to pound on the door relentlessly. When it was answered by the owner of the establishment, Mrs. Cake, he began to apologize profusely, requesting a conversation with some mare called Pinky Pie.
"Pinky up to another one of her pranks again?" she asked, receiving a chorus of yeses she continued, "Well, I'll go fetch her then."
Mrs. Cake had hardly turned around when a pink blur appeared in the doorway, "WHO CHANGED MY ALARM CLOCK!" the blur squealed in an incredibly high pitch and at an incredibly loud volume. Then, as abrupt as she had entered the outdoors, the pink mare stopped bouncing, her cotton candy mane deflated, and she seemed to darken a shade or two in color. Suddenly serious, she stared unflinchingly into the crowd. "It was you wasn't it." She began to push her way into the crowd, then right out the other end, staring Sunshine straight in the eye. Sunshine backed away nervously, making himself look even more guilty. The crowd turned to him, a stranger to most despite the fact that he had lived in Ponyville his entire life. Their grimaces deepened as the pink pony circled around him, never taking her eyes of his.
"You changed, my alarm clock didn't you? You snuck into everyponies house and changed their alarm clocks... And I know why you did such a horrendous thing-- Why you prevented everyone a good night's sleep! It was because-" her mane blew back up like a balloon and the painfully bright shade of pink returned to her coat, "-You were so sad you slept through your last birthday party, and you wanted everyone else to be awake when you were so you could have another!”
The mob collectively sighed, used to the pink ponies crazy antics and her unorthodox ways of escaping blame. “It was her!” a voice shouted, and they began to close in on the pink mare, surounding her so as to eliminate and chance of escape.
There was another disturbance in the crowd as a purple unicorn levitating at least three different books, a piece of parchment, and a quill, pushed her way through the crowd muttering, “No, this isn't right... The sun should have risen "exactly two minutes and twenty-seven seconds ago." She greeted Pinkie Pie as she passed through the center of the crowd, not noticing her friend's predicament. However, instead of passing on through the crowd as she intended, she was accosted as Pinky Pie clung to her legs, preventing her from continuing.
"You gotta help me Twilight," she pleaded in an incredibly loud whisper, peering into the unicorns downcast eyes. "They all think I changed their alarm clocks!"
"What?" Twilight said, "That's simply not possible!"
The crowd looked confused, and it appeared as if Bon Bon was going to inquire how it was not possible when Pinky Pie shrieked, "You think I can't change every clock in Ponyville before midnight! You must be out of your mind! I bet you I could-"
Twilight placed a hoof over Pinky's mouth, barely muffling her outraged claims, before elaborating, "No, I mean you couldn't have because all the clocks are accurate, it is literally three minutes fifty-seven seconds after sunrise."
"And how do you know she didn't change your clock too!?!" someone yelled from the back of the crowd.
"Because, you can't change my clock, my clock is a spell I wrote myself. You can find a copy of it in the latest edition of the Standard Equestrian Spell Book." Her horn began to glow and the image of a purple analog clock appeared high over the crowd, reading the exact same time as every other clock in Ponyville. "If my theory is correct, and it isn't just Luna acting up again, the reason the sun hasn't risen is because time itself has stopped."
At first Sunshine Napper loved the eternal night. Life was perfect. He didn't have to rely on friends any more for food, or other necessities such as adventure novels, he actually got to see his friends while they were both awake, and best of all, he discovered he didn't need to sleep. The only logical conclusion was that the sun actually did sap the energy from him, and otherwise he was filled with endless hours of consciousness. Or, he thought, the moon could have been filling him with energy. Either one worked for his purposes. It took two weeks before the lead magical researches managed to pinpoint the exact cause of the time blockage. It turned out to be even worse than mere inconvenience of the side effects of eternal night (failing crops, plummeting temperatures, and messed up sleep patterns). Most of the side effects could be solved with magic.
When Sunshine Napper found out, he was having the time of his life. Pinky had decided that now that there was eternal night, they needed to redo Sunshine's birthday party. Not only did they need to redo it, but the NEEDED to redo it. At least that's how it worked in Pinky's head. Sunshine had imagined a small party, with Berry Punch, the one night guard positioned in Ponyville, and maybe Arched Bridge if he wasn't working on another architectural diagram. That was until Pinky had blown it out of proportions. Either she really wanted to make it up for him, or she was just due for another massive party.
In the end it became a rave with the entire town attending and DJ Pon3 providing the music. Sunshine Napper really didn't care. He loved raves. As pretty much the only party in Equestria that started after the sun set he was very well acquainted with them. He spent at least a couple of hours dancing and taking in the music before setting out to find Berry Punch. Unsurprisingly he found her by the bowl of hard punch, leaning on the refreshment table for support.
Seeing her friend she staggered over to him, and placed a hoof over his flank to stop herself from falling over. Berry Punch's breath emanated so much alcohol her breath itself was almost intoxicating. Muttering incoherently for a bit, she suddenly began to speak in an understandable manner. "Someday," she said, "Someday were going to see the world." She held her other fore leg out before her, gesturing wildly at the stars as she leaned on Sunshine for more support. "Someday, we're going to see those stars up close, and then we'll burn." She descended back down into nonsense as she talked about how much burning to death in a star would hurt. After she had finished her monologue, she returned to the punch bowl and passed out, luckily her head out of the bowl.
Sunshine returned to the dancing, absorbing the music like a sponge. Then, the music stopped with the cliche sound of a record scratching to a stop. There was the sound of a microphone being adjusted. "Testing testing, one two three four," a voice rang out. Sunshine looked up to the stage and saw the purple unicorn, Twilight, standing so close to the microphone she might accidentally eat it. "I have some very bad news. Well it's good news for science... But to everything else, it's bad," she quickly added, "We have pinpointed the source of the time stop and it's um... Not good. There is a rift in time, and it's growing larger. In fact, due to the duality effect, there is also a rift in space, about just as big. Already books have begun to disappear off my shelves, as the authors themselves are being consumed by the rift in time," she said this as if it were the worst thing to ever happen to anyone, future, present or past, "Oh yeah, and the rift in space has already taken Manehatten. Every moment, more land disappears into the void, and more time vanishes before our eyes, and the rifts are picking up speed, growing at an exponential rate. If my calculations are correct, Ponyville will be engulfed by the rift in space in a mere month, and our point in time will take only two weeks."
"We're all going to die in two weeks!?!" a pony let out a panicked scream.
"No, no, Just cease to exist. Sort of like if you were never born," Twilight said, although Sunshine was unsure she was saying to calm the crowd, or provide correct information.
A Pink blur appeared on the stage, as of from nowhere and began shouting her own concerns, "If I was never born, I would have never eaten anything sweet, or had fun, or... TWILIGHT YOU HAVE TO FIX THIS!!!"
"I'm sorry Pinky, but there is nothing I can do to fix it. There is only one pony in all of Equestria who can we don't know who she, or he, is." She hung her head with a sigh. Apparently to her, failing the world was also as bad as loosing a book.
By now, pandemonium had engulfed the crowd. Almost every single pony was screaming, or running in a circle, or hyperventilating, or any combination of the above. Sunshine, however, was standing completely still, being utterly silent, and breathing completely normally. Sunshine, instead of panicking at the end of the world, was far more curious in how to save it. In who, or what was required. He began to work his way to the stage. Pushing and shoving several panicking ponies aside, he was nearly trampled by a gigantic colt, and by the time he reached the stage he was bruised in several places and had a small cut on his flank, thankfully missing any important arteries.
"I need to ask you something!" He yelled over the crowd, trying to tear Twilight's attention from the sobbing Pinky Pie. After the third or so try, and a gentle tap on her shoulder, she noticed him.
"What is it that you need to know?!?" she asked, yelling over the crowd.
"I want to know how you know there is a pony who can fix the time rift!" Sunshine yelled.
"What did you say!" she screamed.
"I said!" he shouted into her ear, "How do you know there is a pony who can fix the time rift!?!"
"Oh! I read it in an ancient book before it disappeared. Apparently this is the result of a failed time spell that took place over 5,000 years ago! The author refused to include the spell, as it was enormously dangerous, but mentioned that the rift in time could be repaired by one pony he needs neither rest nor time!"
Sunshine froze with a mixture of doubt and fear. Although in his conscious mind he was almost sure he wasn't the pony she was speaking of he screamed, "I don't know if I don't need time, but I haven't slept since the eternal night began, and not because I was scared! I just didn't need to!"
Her eyes widened, and her horn glowed. Suddenly the sounds of screaming and overall panic disappeared, and Sunshine found himself, and Twilight, in the library. The library was a lot more empty than it had been last time Sunshine had been there. Twilight must have been right about the books disappearing. The rift in time really was some nasty business.
Twilight was rifling through a stack of papers which was, oddly enough, shelved. She muttered under her breath discarding paper after paper in a neat pile by her hooves. "Found it," she exclaimed and began to read from the sheet of paper, "Although the spell hasn't been printed since the catastrophic failure, and almost every known copy of books containing it burned," she shuddered at the thought of burned books, " The knowledge of how to revert the effects of the spell are included here. Should the spell be used, the following instruction contain the methods of reverting it:"
"Should a rift in time be rent,
The one of legends must be sent;
Requiring neither rest nor time,
The world will turn on a dime."
"Don't you see!" Twilight exclaimed, "You can walk in the rift, you don't need time to exist! All you need to do, is step into the rift in time and figure out what is wrong, it can't be that hard."
"Wait a minute," Sunshine said, "One, how are you sure I'm the pony, two, how are you sure I'd know what to do, and three, even if I was the one, how would I get to the hole in time if it doesn't get here until two weeks from now?"
"Oh, that's easy. The rift in space should have a link to the rift in time, touching that one should take you to the one in time. You just have to get to Manehatten before the two weeks are up. Travel can't be that hard. You can just take the train. Oh, and as for you being the one, of that I'm not completely sure, but we have no other options. Still, it's completely your choice if you want to go or not, I could never make you," she had apparently ignored question two.
"I want to go," he said, making a snap decisions he knew he would regret when he died, or ceased to exist because of all of this. "However, I'll need another form of transportation. You think trains are still running after the news broke about being gone in two weeks? You need to learn something about normal ponies."
"Hey... Are you saying... Oh never mind, we don't have time right now. We need to get you to Manehatten! I can open a portal that will get you close enough, but it'll take at least an hour. Why don't you go say goodbye to your family or something, just in case." She ended the conversation with a nervous whinny that Sunshine took to be close enough to a dismissal.
Sunshine didn't have a family, in fact he didn't even remember having one. As far as he knew, he was never born, he just... Existed. So, Sunshine did the next best thing to saying goodbye to his family, he said goodbye to Berry Punch. It was easy enough to find her, still passed out at the punch bowl, but it was anything but easy to fight his way through the crowd. Reviving Berry Punch, they stopped at Sugar Cube Corner before he told her of the news. It was a very tearful goodbye, Sunshine because he was convinced he would never be returning, and Berry Punch, because she was still overly drunk.
In the end she decided to see him off, if only to delay their parting that much longer. They had been friends ever since they had met in a local bar, neither quite remembered which one, and gotten into a fight with each other over a bottle of ketchup they thought was beer. Afterwards they became probably the fastest of friends.
Time passed as time does when around friends, and the hour was up before they knew it. Scientists would argue that time did not in fact pass at all, and they would be correct, but the metaphorical time every pony was living on while actual time had stopped felt like it had passed faster (even though it hadn't) to Sunshine and Berry. Never the less, they stood before the portal when the hour was up.
"Why can't I see the other end?" Sunshine asked Twilight, "All I can see is the folds of space."
"Well, it's a one way portal, so the photons that allow you to see are not passing to us from the other side, only the other way around. Anypony standing near the exit can see, and hear, us, but we can't see them," she seemed truly excited to share the physics of one way portals, but finished with, "That's enough science, it's time for you to be on your way."
Sunshine took a step towards the portal before turning around to say one last goodbye to Berry Punch. "Goodbye, if I make it out of this, you're buying the drinks." He showed a weak smile, but it's effects were null, as the tears in his eyes gave away his true emotions. Berry Punch was doing nothing to keep her composure, sobbing openly and spilling enough tears to wash your hooves with. Then, much to Twilight's dismay, Berry Punch ran at Sunshine, enveloping him in a flying tackle hug that sent them flying... straight into the portal.
"I do hope that doesn't mess with the coordinates," Twilight worried, wiping nervous sweat from her eyebrows.
Sunshine and Berry found themselves beneath a massive tree clearly no where near the rift and equally clearly with no idea where they were. Had they known even the slightest bit of magic theory they would have known somewhere around they location they found themselves deposited was a magical node point, a high concentration of natural magic.
Standing up, Sunshine shivered in the cold. He regretted that he hadn't thought to wear a sweater outside of the magic induced warmth that surrounded towns and any congested point of habitation. Of course he hadn't know it would be this cold. He also hadn't know the teleportation spell cast by that damned purple unicorn would have failed.
He heard a soft moaning nearby, reminding him of his unexpected companion. Sunshine looked around for Berry's punch colored coat and found her half buried in a pile of fallen leaves. She stirred again and began extricating herself from her leafy prison. It wasn't until she was almost completely standing that she opened her eyes, and then she immediately fell down again.
Startled, Sunshine spoke, “Are you okay?”
Berry Punch said, muffled by the covering of leaves, “I've woken up in quite a few odd places in my life, but never at the base of a gigantic tree in the middle of nowhere. How did I get here?”
Sunshine explained the night before and the overburdened teleport spell. She seemed to accept it immediately, as if she was expecting something just as strange or even stranger.
When Sunshine finished she asked another question, “Where exactly are we?” Sunshine found himself unable to answer this question.
After about an hour of attempting to discover their location based upon various methods that involved the stars, the moon, or pretty much anything in the sky, they remembered that the celestial objects were in fact, motionless and offered no help in relieving them of their lost state. It wasn't until Sunshine noticed a startling lack of stars in a rough hemisphere on the horizon that he remembered how obvious their goal was. Unfortunately, it also appeared to be very, very far away.
“We have to walk to that?” Berry groaned, already feeling the soreness in her muscles that would no doubt be there for the next who knows how long until they got there.
Sunshine was just as despondent at the notion of walking that far. The farthest he had ever really walked in one go was when he had hiked up a mountain. A small mountain. Feeling as if he was responsible for Berry's place in the journey, he tried to put a positive spin on things, and of course miserably failed to do so, “Just think, we'll get plenty of exercise, and the increased cardiovascular health could extend our life span by two, no three minutes.”
“I know you don't like this as much as I don't, stop trying to seem happy.”
Sunshine's false smile melted of his face, to be replaced with a very similar from to Berry's. She all too right, there was no way to see the upside of this. “Well then,” he muttered, “We better get going, no sense waiting to die when we get there.” Then they began to walk.
Tripping of a tree root, Sunshine stumbled into a clearing. It had been three days since they had begun their journey, and nothing he had seen so far compared to what now stood before him. What he saw before him was probably the most magnificent thing he had ever seen. The only thing he thought he would never see. The carvings were in perfect condition, even after centuries of weathering. Sunshine knew it would detour them greatly but he needed to go inside, he needed the enter the ancient temple. Berry however, adamantly refused to go in
“No-o-o,” she stammered, quaking in fear. “We c-c-could die, or-r-r worse.”
Sunshine sighed shaking his head. She never would know the wonders of exploring long lost ruins and uncovering their secrets for the world to find. However, he wasn't going to let her stop him, he was going in no matter what. “Well then you can wait out here.” Before Berry could reply he took the first step into the darkness.
Wall torches flared to life, burning a strange blue color, and despite lacking a horn, Sunshine could feel powerful enchantments awakening. He grinned manically. The first corridor was long and decidedly bland. As if the architects had spent all their effort on the exterior, and almost none on the entry way.
Sunshine found evidence of the first trap. There was a web of paper thin cracks lacing the floor, a sign of repeated impact, and an almost invisible rope stretching across the corridor. He stepped over the rope, knowing cutting it would do the same thing that triggering it would, and continued down the corridor.
It opened into a magnificent room, the walls plated in gold and carved with depictions of ancient battles. On the other side of the room, in the center of a pedestal was a silver chalice. He knew it was the artifact that the temple was guarding, the were always guarding artifacts.
Sunshine looked to the floor to check the room for traps before proceeding. The floor was covered with a massive mural that showed what must have been an ancient god, riding a horse of into the sunset. However, Sunshine noticed something off with the mural. Some of the tiles seemed to be entirely disconnected from the rest. He picked them out as the trapped tiles and stepped out onto the mural.
The entire mural sank, except for the disconnected parts. Sunshine grinned madly, the trap was perfect, although he still wasn't quite sure what the killing part was. Then an arrow fired from the wall, narrowly missing Sunshine's neck. Not wanting the next arrow to hit he took a step back onto the stone floor. With the sound of grinding stone the mural raised back up to floor level.
Then, with a running start, Sunshine leapt to the first safe spot. Not anticipating the lack of traction on painted ceramic he nearly slid off, stopping himself just an inch away from triggering the trapped plate. He wiped sweat from his brow that he didn't know had formed. Taking another leap he made it to the next one, now almost half way across. He leapt to the next and final safe haven from the arrows. The only jump he had left was the safety of the stone floor. Sunshine jogged in place, somehow hoping it would grant him the same bonus as running before jumping, and jumped. He flew through the air much further than he had on any previous occasion. He almost made it without incident, almost jumped the far enough, but one of his rear hooves bumped the trapped mural, and the floor opened up beneath him, the darkness swallowing him instantly.
Berry Punch shivered outside the temple entrance. What was taking Sunshine so long? It wasn't like there were more than three traps or anything. She debated with herself, about starting a fire, but knew she would just have to put it out as soon as he got back. She glanced back into the temple, her eyes lingering on the blue torches that were more than likely heating the place up to a nice toasty warm. She imagined being warm without one side of her burning, something that she hadn't felt since they had left Ponyville at least three days before.
She took a small step closer to the temple, her mouth watering slightly. She took another step closer. Glancing back to see if anyone was there to see her enter the temple despite her obvious fears of doing so. Seeing no one she broke into a gallop, closing the distance between her and the entrance in under a second. Much to her delight it was warmer within the entrance corridor, although it didn't seem as if the torches were radiating heat, more as if the stones themselves were warm.
Then she heard a crash from deeper within a temple, and a muffled scream she would recognize anywhere. Her blood froze, and she ran deeper into the entryway.
It felt as if he had been falling forever, but looking up Sunshine discover the pit to actually be quite shallow. It was only seven feet deep, instead of the never-ending infinite he had expected. He could probably even reach the edge if he jumped bipedally. Sunshine tried to stand up, but a piercing pain cut through his back right leg, and he fell back over, whimpering. He couldn't tell if it was broken or merely sprained.
What was he going to do? There was no way he would be able to get out of the pit with his leg hurting so much, in fact he was lucky he wasn't already dead, what if there had been spikes at the bottom, waiting in the darkness to pierce a ponies heart and end their lives. Berry Punch had been right... Realization struck him as he remembered the reason adventurers never travel alone.
“Berry,” he called, blushing as he realized what he must sound like, “I think I hurt myself.” There was an audible release of breath and Berry Punch spoke from out of Sunshine's vision “Where are you?”
“In the hole!” he called back. Remembering about the mural he added, “Oh, and don't touch the mural!”
“What do you mean don't touch the mural, there's no other way across!” she responded.
“No, you can touch the mural, but only parts of it. The rest is trapped. See the bits of the mural the look disconnected from the rest? Those are the safe spots, the rest are trapped.” Sunshine heard the sound of hooves impacting ceramic at regular intervals, and then he saw Berry's head peeking out over the edge of the hole.
“That's not the deep, you could have gotten yourself out.”
“No, I um... I either sprained my leg or broke it, I'm not quite sure, but it hurts too much to stand on.”
“You sprained it,” Berry said matter of factly.
“Wait, what? How do you know?”
A smug look crossed her face and she answered, “Because you aren't crying. Now let's get you out of there.” Her head disappeared from the side of the hole and he heard the sound of her crossing the room again.
“Where are you going,” Sunshine asked.
“You'll see,” she called back. There was the sound of stone grinding on stone and then a loud crash. “Oh, that's not right, not right at all.”
“What did you do Berry?” Sunshine called out, alarmed.
He heard the sound of her crossing the room back to his side. As she crossed she spoke, “Well, I might have gotten us trapped here just a little. Who knew that rope was trapped?” Sunshine groaned inwardly. Berry reappeared at the edge of the hole and dangled the near invisible rope over the edge. Sunshine pulled himself over and grabbed the rope with his teeth.
Hoisting him up Berry muttered something. Sunshine didn't know weather it was an insult to his weight or her telling herself she needed to go to the gym more often. Nevertheless, he found himself out of the hole and face to face with Berry Punch within a matter of thirty-seconds.
“Now what?” She asked, raising an eyebrow in a quizzical expression.
Sunshine for what felt like the thousandth time grinned madly and said one word, “Treasure”
Berry couldn't help but be affected by his infectious glee, and they quickly approached the pedestal holding the silver chalice. Up close it looked fantastic, the silver was untarnished and encrusted with emeralds that were greener than the deepest green grass. It contained a water the looked clearer, and more pure than the highest mountain spring.
“What do you think it does?” Sunshine asked.
“What do you mean, you think it does something?”
“Well, yeah. Ancient artifacts at the center of ancient temples are always enchanted with some ancient and forgotten enchantment.”
“Well then, let's find out, why don't you take a sip.” she suggested.
Sunshine stepped forward and grabbed the chalice with his hooves. Lifting it to his lips he took a sip, and for the first time in nearly two weeks, the world went dark.
The colors of the forest swirled around Sunshine Napper's head, speaking truths dripping with the venom of lies. He knew he shouldn't listen to him, his mother had told him never to talk to strangers, but they comforted him, told him everything would be alright. He didn't need to complete his woeful journey, he could stop within the depths of the stone paradise.
Something was nagging him at the back of his head. No, not something, somepony. She shook him around in the plush world of the speaking colors. He grinned manically as Green whispered a suggestion in his ear.
“You should take a break young mare, you've been working all night, why not take a drink from the chalice and relax.” She screamed something in response, but Blue blocked it out. He didn't need to hear it, it wasn't important. Then black came, he didn't like Black came, he didn't like Black. Black was scary and unknown. It told him to rest, to embrace the darkness of the night and sleep. He closed his eyes, nodding off.
He jolted out of his near slumber. Darkness wasn't the color of rest, he slept through the day, not through the night. The colors began to fade to the edge of his vision, being pushed out by the one solid thought. The world sharpened, the obscuring fog of the poison gone. He was lying limp against the temple floor, Berry Punch was pressed against his body, tears staining his light brown coat. Her chest heaved with fresh sobs.
Sunshine moved his legs to embrace her. As soon as she realized the he had moved, the sobbing stopped and she looked at him intently, staring into his eyes looking for any remnants of the madness. Finding none she hugged him back, burying her face in his mane. Her eyes were still glistening with tears.
It felt like they embraced forever before she stood up, clearing her throat and saying, “Well, we seem to have established that you have recovered from whatever poison that the chalice was tainted with, however we do have one more problem. I um... I kind of... I sealed the exit when I retrieved the rope.”
The mad grin returning to Sunshine's face, he said, “Looks like we're going to have to find the secret passage!”
“What secret passage?” Berry asked.
“There's always a secret passage right about...” Sunshine hopped behind the pedestal and the sound of stone grinding on stone was heard, “Here!” The pedestal began to slide to the right revealing a spiral staircase. Sunshine jumped back around the pedestal and noticed something off about the staircase. It was made of metal grating. “That's rather... Odd.” Never hesitating, Sunshine began to descend the stair well, and Berry followed close behind him.
Despite having walked down at least seven floors worth of stairs the light level had not begun to diminish. It was as if the metal itself was releasing a dim light. Sunshine lost count of the number of stairs by the time they stopped, leaving them at a heavy metal door. There was a small name card at the center of the door that read, Control Room. Sunshine twisted the knob and pushed the door open.
Behind the door was a rather small room, a bank of gigantic monitors mounted high on the wall, and an incomprehensible bank of buttons beneath them. Frozen on the monitors was a single image, an overhead view of Berry crying into Sunshine's mane. They both blushed, Berry's darker coat hiding it better than Sunshine's light one. They entered farther into the room, taking in more of the surroundings. At the center of the curve of monitors and buttons was a lone chair, inside a cup holder on the arm was a single cup of steaming coffee. There was a banging sound and Sunshine whipped around, only to find himself face to face with a pink mare, dangling upside down from the ceiling.
“Hello!” she said, “I'm a robot!”
The pink mare was known as Watchful Eye and had been manning the temple controls for over two-hundred years, recording all it's raiders in her massive memory banks. She wore a weird silver tracksuit to cover the mess of ports and wires that ran along her back.
“How long did you say you've been here again?” Sunshine asked.
“Two-hundred-seventy-three years, eighteen hours, forty-seven minutes, twenty-eight microseconds-”
“Okay, that's enough. We get the idea,” Sunshine interrupted. “So, umm... Could you show us the way out?”
“Sure thing!” Watchful Eye dropped down from the ceiling and began to move towards a door in the corner that neither Sunshine nor Berry had noticed before, talking the whole time. “You know, normal I wouldn't do this, but your the first pony to survive the poisoned cup thingy. In fact normally I don't open the entrance to the control room either, but you seemed so adamant about showing of to your marefriend-”
Sunshine and Berry both blushed looking away from each other. “She's not my marefriend, just a very good friend.”
Watchful Eye glanced back at them before continuing, “Alright then, you seemed so adamant about showing of your knowledge of secret passages to your very good friend, so I opened it up when you touched that random stone on the floor.” They emerged into the moonlight, at the base of a massive oak tree. “Oh, here we are. And that brings up a question I have for you. Why hasn't the moon set? My central processing unit projects only a twenty-seven percent chance of the return of nightmare moon.”
Berry Punch answered, “There's something wrong with time, and space too I think. Neither of us know much about it, but he needs to fix it. I guess there’s a prophecy or something, and him not sleeping makes him the number one candidate to fulfill it.”
Watchful Eye gasped darting over to sunshine and attaching herself to his leg as a child might. “Take me with you!”
Berry Punch said “Wait, you were talking to me, why not ask me?”
“My CPU predicts a fourteen percent chance of acceptance from you and a seventy-eight percent chance from your very good friend.”
After much arguing, Berry agreed to have the robot join them, but she didn't agree to be happy about it. In fact, she made it very clear that she would be as miserable as possible. After leaving the clearing that housed the artificial temple the trees, ever so slowly, began to thin, and the terrain, ever so slowly, began to become more and more hilly. Sunshine, a bit ahead of Berry and Watchful Eye, had just reached the crest of a shallow hill. He stood still, waiting for his companions to catch up, and looked around.
What he saw was gorgeous. The trees swayed in the gentle moonlight, the leafed trees just beginning to develop signs of leaves coloring, despite it still being early spring. Once as a chilly breeze wafted across the top of the hill, Sunshine once again wished for a sweater, or anything with which to cover his freezing flank.
He heard the sound of rustling leaves behind him, and turned around to see Berry struggling up the hill, a sleeping robot draped across her back.
“What happened to the robot?” Sunshine asked, wondering why Berry was carrying what she had just deemed her arch nemesis no less than five minutes ago.
Berry, let the robot drop to the ground, shrugging, “I don't know, she just stopped moving, and said 'Time equals 1800 hours. Sleep mode engaged.' Then she flopped to the ground and didn't move no matter how much I kicked her.” Berry grumbled under her breath, “I knew we shouldn't have brought her.”
“So wait, that robot goes to sleep at six o'clock?”
Berry chuckled, “Yeah, she really is quite a child.”
“What time do you think she'll wake up at?”
Berry rubbed her chin with her hoof, turning her eyebrows down in mock concentration, “I'm gonna say... Sometime around two hours before anyone actually wants to get up.” She laughed heartily at her own joke, but Sunshine just stared at her in confusion.
“So she gets up two hours before I was born?”
Berry ran the sentence around in her head a couple of times before realizing the source of Sunshine's confusion. She playfully punched Sunshine in the shoulder, saying, “No silly, two hours before normal ponies want to get up.”
A smile reformed on Sunshine's face and he asked, “Are you calling me weird?”
Berry pulled him into a hug and whispered into his ear, “In the best possible way.” Giving him a gentle noogie she pulled back and said, “Now let's set up camp, I don't think either of us want to carry that robot anywhere.”
The next day, in the loosest sense of the term, began with the robot powering up with a startlingly loud notification message, “Wake up sequence initiated. Centeral cortex, online. Sensors, online...”
Berry groaned, pulling herself to her feet.
“...Nuclear reactor, online...”
Berry was instantly awake. “Did the robot just say, 'Nuclear Reactor'!?!?!” she screamed, running over to Sunshine and shaking him violently, “Please tell me that the robot isn't a nuclear bomb just waiting to go off.”
Sunshine, dazed from being shaken so quickly lost his chance to answer when the robot finished powering up. “Well yeah, how else do you think I'm powered? Sunshine and happiness? If it makes you feel any better the reactor is at ninety-eight percent stability.”
“Ninety-eight percent! Are you saying there's a two percent chance you could explode any second now!?!?” Berry began to hyperventilate. Curling up into the smallest ball possible at Sunshine's feet.
Sunshine chose now to break into the conversation, “No. Actually that means two percent of the stability cores have been depleted. she's not going to explode any time soon.”
Berry froze, calming almost instantly. “Why didn't you tell me sooner?”
“Well, in case you hadn't noticed, I nearly had my brains turned to mush, you were shaking me so hard.”
Pulling herself to her feet, Berry blushed, “Umm... Yeah. Sorry about that.”
Stamping out the flickering fire they began to travel again. It was only minutes before they encountered a roadblock. Stretching across the terrain, as far as the eye could see was a gigantic chasm. Leaning as far as he would dare over the edge, Sunshine looked down. The drop was easily enough to kill a pony, although there was a river at the bottom.
Luckily enough the only bridge in sight was near by, unfortunately it seemed to be missing every other wooden slat and the rest were rotting. Sunshine didn't like the looks of the bridge. Berry made her opinion vocal.
“Well, we're going nowhere fast.”
“Yeah,” Sunshine replied, looking rapidly between the bridge and the massive drop below, “I guess our only choice is to use the bridge.”
Sunshine gulped, wiping the sweat he didn't know had formed from his brow, and took the first step across. The board groaned slightly beneath his hoof as he steadily put more pressure on it. As soon as he was sure it wasn't immediately going to fall he took the next step. Berry Punch and Watchful Eye followed close behind him, wanting the ordeal to be over as soon as possible.
They were almost across when things started to go horribly, horribly wrong. First, Sunshine's hoof went straight through a board, tipping him off balance and causing him to lean more heavily on the ropes on either side of him. Then the right hand rope snapped, causing the bridge to tip alarmingly on it's side. The three ponies on the bridge, along with screaming in crazed fear, wrapped their forelegs around as much of the remaining rope as possible.
Unfortunately, this rope, as decomposed as it's partner was unable to hold one pony, let alone three, and they began to plummet. Sunshine screamed louder, although the sound of wind rushing past his ears drowned it out. Falling next to him, Berry Punch had curled up in a ball, and Sunshine was sure he would hear her whimpering if he could hear anything at all.
Before him flashed Sunshine's life. Every cherished moonrise, every eaten cupcake. Sunshine braced himself for the impact that would end his life instantly. Then he found himself slowing considerably. He opened his eyes, not realizing they had been closed, and discovered both himself and Berry being held by Watchful Eye who's legs had been replaced with what looked like rocket thrusters. They were still falling too fast, and impact with the ground would result in a little more than a broken bone.
The childish robot poured on more power, the flames shooting from her legs nearly doubling in length and they began to slow faster. As soon as it became obvious they would survive, Sunshine let out a sigh of relief. A couple of feet above the ground the flames flickered, before fully disappearing, and they hovered comically in the air for a full second before falling into a heap at the ground below.
“Fuel reserves at zero percent, please locate nearest confectionery in order to refuel.”
Sunshine extracted himself, from the pile wondering out loud, “What exactly do you use for fuel?”
Watchful Eye was quick to answer, “Custard!”
The chasm was definitely too deep to climb out of, and as far as Sunshine could tell, lacked a source of custard. It looked like there used to be a ladder, but the entire first half had rusted and fallen off, and to make matters worse, Berry was hungry.
“Why didn't we eat food before we tried to cross the chasm, why isn't there any custard left?” Berry grabbed Sunshine by the shoulders and began to shake him, “We're going to starve to death!”
Sunshine tried to calm her down, although he was feeling rather hungry himself, “We're not going to die, I'm sure there's a way out somewhere.”
Looked around and then turned back to Sunshine. Narrowing her eyes she spoke, “I don't see a way out... Although I do see a tasty meal.”
Berry probably wouldn't try to eat him. Probably. But Sunshine still didn't want to find out so he quickly improvised, “There's a way out that way.” Pointing towards one end of the chasm, he began to walk, leaving no time for Berry to question his judgment.
Watchful Eye began to slowly follow them, eying the water cautiously, as if it could leap out and get her at any moment. There weren't many things Watchful Eye was afraid of but, other than zombie cheese, water was the most terrifying. When Watchful Eye had been powered on for the first time, she hadn't known the dangers of water. She hadn't known what it would do to a fully submerged robot. She still had nightmares about what the water had done to RoboPony 2-87, in fact even his name could cause her to freeze up, knowing what few actions on her part had resulted in his permanent deactivation.
Suddenly a static filled Watchful Eye's ears. Her ears immediately perked up, she hadn't heard static in decades, but still knew what it meant. Twisting her ears she tried to tune into the radio signal, but the most she could get was pieces of garbled speech. Deeming she was too far from the origin of the radio signal to hear anything clear she tried to disclose the location of the source, but could only get a general direction.
“Umm... Are you okay?” Sunshine asked Watchful Eye. Behind Sunshine, Berry Punch was slowly sneaking forward, her legs ready to pounce. Sunshine looked back at Berry and she was instantly standing once again.
“I was most definitely not going to eat your legs off,” she said whistling a cheery tune.
Watchful Eye dropped her focus from the radio signal long enough to utter a single sentence, “This way.” She proceeded to run straight through the stone wall of the chasm.
Sunshine approached the wall tentatively, as if he was afraid it would lack out and bite him. Placing a cautious hoof on the stone surface, he discovered it wasn't really stone. It felt more like the surface of an incredibly large bubble. He pressed his face through the surface and was unprepared for what he saw. On the other side was a massive cavern, stretching high into the sky. The fact that the roof was higher than the depth of the chasm itself would have confused him, had he not been captivated by the centerpiece of the subterranean pocket.
It was a massive metropolis, that was the only way to put it. Buidlings that looked carved out of the cave itself were clustered towards the center, and he could just barely see creatures moving around it in the distance. Noticing for the first time that he actually could see every inch of the cave that should have been dark, Sunshine stepped back into the chasm, puzzled. There had been no notible source of light, and there wasn't a shadow in sight.
He shrugged his shoulders and walked back through the wall, this time without hesitation. Stalking behind him was a very hungry Berry Punch. She could already smell how Sunshine would taste smoked slowly over an open fire. A meal that size could feed her forever. She ready herself to pounce, knowing every second he could notice her, and with a leap she flew at Sunshine.
Sunshine turned around at the last second with a rather stern face, “No. Bad Berry. Ponies are not food.”
Berry Punch fell to the ground, having frozen in mid-air, “But Berry is hungry...”
Sunshine gestured to the city in the center of the cave and said, “There'll be food there.”
The subterranean city was much farther than it looked, and the trio of travelers found themselves walking much longer than expected. By the time they arrived at the foot of the nearest skyscraper Sunshine had stopped Berry over a dozen times, as she tried to cook him for food.
Having stopped at the base of the skyscraper to look up, Sunshine found Watchful Eye and Berry Punch far ahead. In normal conditions Sunshine would be afraid of loosing them, but despite the fact that he was sure he had seen ponies in the distance, upon arriving at the city they had discovered it empty. The emptiness was eery, and the lack of sound odd.
Sunshine looked back up. His companions were even farther ahead and he galloped to catch up with them. The robot was muttering under her breath, “I don't understand, where-” Watchful Eye was interrupted as Berry spotted the first lit building they had seen the entire time. A diner.
“Food!” she screamed and began running straight for the door. Sunshine took off after her, a bit peckish himself but more worried for her safety, the building looked rather rickety. Inside was just like any other diner he had ever been in, cramped and a ridiculous amount of chrome. Quite and dismissable music was playing from the speakers.
Berry immediately seated herself at the counter and began flipping rapidly through one of the menus left lying around. Sunshine, however, began looking around. There was something off, the lack of ponies dismissed. Then, Sunshine spotted a steaming cup of coffee haphazardly placed on the counter.
“That's odd,” he said.
“I know, all they sell here is hot oil and custard.”
“No,” Sunshine said, pointing at the cup of coffee, “That coffee is giving me a weird sense of Deja Vu.”
The sound of metal screeching sounded behind them, and they turned around. Outside the diner was a crowd of ponies. A deafening blast of noise filled Sunshine's ears, “HI! WE'RE ROBOTS!!!”
Berry shouted from behind Sunshine, “I don't care! I just want some food!!!”
“This custard tastes horrible,” Berry grumbled. The three travelers sat at the counter of the dinner, and the sounds of life had returned to the city. Sunshine could hear the sound of a sizzling grill as the owner of the Dinner worked frantically to keep up with Berry's voracious appetite.
“Well duh!” Watchful Eye said, “It's fuel grade custard, it's not supposed to taste good.”
Berry grumbled again, pushing away an empty bowl in favor of a full one, “But it doesn’t have to taste so bad!”
“Well sorry, Miss Has Taste Buds. Robots are horrible chefs.”
Just as the owner of the diner was returning with another twenty bowls of custard, Berry pushed away a half-finished bowl and belched, “Well, I'm full now.”
The owner froze and his face fell, he hadn't had this good a customer in years. He sighed and returned to the kitchen to dispose of the extra custard.
“So,” Sunshine asked Watchful Eye, “What is this place?”
“This,” she said waving her forelimbs around, “Is a diner. However the city that it's part of is the great Robotropolis. It's where I was first activated! In fact, it's the home for the largest population of robots on Equis and it's the only robot city easily accessible from every location on the planet.”
“Wait? Did you say any location on the planet?” Sunshine asked.
“Yep, any location! What did you think that stone wall was? A fake wall?”
“That explains the ceiling I guess...”
“Yeah, it's actually about four miles below Canterlot.”
“Huh, so could we go anywhere from here?”
“Well, almost anywhere. We don't have linked teleporters set up everywhere yet. There's still a massive hole in the everfree, and Stalliongrad is too cold for the technology to function, but yeah you can get almost anywhere you need to go.”
“So... Could you go to the edge of the rift for example?”
“Well, seeing how big it is, there is probably a teleporter within a mile of it's edge.”
“Yes!” Sunshine pumped his hooves in the air, “Looks like we're going to have to do a lot less walking than we thought.”
The sound of the words less and walking in the same sentence caught Berry's ear and she awoke from the custard induced stupor that she had not known she had slipped into. “What is this about less walking?” she asked.
Sunshine turned to her, “Watchful Eye here just informed me that this city can teleport us anywhere at any time!”
“Let's go!” she said, leaping out of her chair and out the door. Within seconds she was back inside, “Which way is it?”
When Berry had found out that the teleporter was in fact where they had entered the cave, she had grumbled a little bit, only a little bit. Having received a massive goodbye from the entire population of the city, and a promise to be forever known as the Great Eater of Custard through, had put her in a good mood.
They had arrived at the ingeniously hidden teleporter only minutes beforehand and Watchful Eye was currently looking over a massive map that had flipped around from the wall, trying to find the id of a location close, but not within the rift.
“I've been wondering,” Sunshine thought outloud, “What will happen when we get there? Will you guys be fine as long as I'm touching you, or will you need to stay outside the rift?”
“Huh,” Berry Punch said, “I never thought of that. Either way, I think I'll wait outside, I'll be fine as long as you fix things fast.”
“What about you Watchful Eye?”
Watchful Eye had located a satisfactory teleporter and was not busy punching in an incredibly long code on a panel that had materialized out of seemingly nowhere. “Oh, me? I'm staying here.” Sunshine was about to gasp out loud, or maybe even ask why when she continued speaking, “I thought they wouldn't welcome me back from my self-imposed exile, but I was wrong. They've welcomed me back with open arms.”
“May I ask why?” Berry asked.
Watchful Eye punched the last number in before continuing her story, “We were friends since before we even had names. We were activated just days apart he was... Different. Even before experience began to change the other children robots away from their basic programing he behaved oddly. We grew close. In fact he even gave me my name. One day, we were playing in a cavern located not far from this one and he fell,” she shook her head, “No. I pushed him, it was just a practical joke, but I didn't know the dangers of the flowing river. I didn't know what water did to my people. I killed him. Guilt ridden, I applied for a station out in the wilderness, and began my exile. I haven't even thought about coming back since, but no I think I'm going to stay.”
Sunshine and Berry were awestruck. The childish robot they had been traveling with had that dark of a past.
“Well,” Watchful Eye said, her voice regaining it's cheery demeanor that it had unwittingly lost over the course of the tale, “It's time for you two to go!”
Leaving the robot didn't seem right after being privy to her past, but Sunshine knew there was nowhere to go except out. Sunshine placed his hoof on the surface of the soap bubble like surface, Berry plunging herself straight through to his right. Without looking back he said, “When this is all over we'll visit you.” He plunged himself through the portal.
Standing at the edge of the forest, the rift was no more than a mile of open field away. A knot was tying itself into Sunshine's stomach as he once again began to consider the likeliness of him getting out of there alive. The darkness of the void was unimaginably deep, and had a gravity about it that seemed to pull Sunshine's gaze in, leaving his eyes fixed on some unknown center. Other than the ground before him, and one or two outlying stars, it filled his vision and threatened to swallow him up.
“I guess this is as far as I go.” Berry said, not taking her eyes away from the void.
“Yeah,” Sunshine tried to lighten the mood with a nervous chuckle, “Wouldn't want you to stop existing.”
“Well, I guess you better get going,” Berry said.
“Yep,” Sunshine turned around slowly and began walking away, every few seconds glancing back at Berry Punch.
Catching him mid-glance Berry shouted, “Go save the world for me you psycho!” Sunshine didn't look back again, and began to trudge in earnest to his ever closer destiny. Sitting down on the roots of a nearby tree Berry Punch began to wonder: What would happen when Sunshine fixed the problem? Would the rift cease to exist, leaving all the damage it had done behind, or would things somehow fix itself? Maybe they would even be sent back in time to the moment of the rifts creation.
Setting aside her rather interesting quandary, Berry habitually looked to the horizon, wanting to trace the stars that had grown more familiar over the last few weeks. Her vision was instead filled with the dark void that had been their goal the whole time. More like Sunshine's goal, she thought, she was just along for the ride. Thinking of Sunshine she tried to find him on the stretch of land before her. He was nearly half way at that point. His pace had sped up once he thought he was out of Berry's mind. Her eyes began to wander once again, before settling on another creature heading straight for Sunshine. Without hesitation, Berry began to run towards Sunshine.
With every step Sunshine grew closer the dark void that was the rift. After leaving Berry Punch's presence he had barely paid attention to his surroundings, instead choosing to loose himself in a list of all the ponies he would say goodbye to if he could. The list was very short, he didn't know many ponies. After that he became engrossed with reciting every diary he had memorized. He was so involved in his menial task that he never could have noticed the soft sound of hoofsteps working their way through the grass behind him. He never could have noticed the frantic breathing or even the panicked shouts or his best friend. In fact, he didn't know he was being followed until he found himself face first in the tall grass, with a heavy weight pressing down on his back.
Berry whisper shouted into his ear, “Sunshine, there's a monster after you. I don't know where it went but it was really close last time I saw it.”
Sunshine was about to dismiss her frightened words as drunken antics until he remembered that she hadn't had a drop of alcohol in days.
Whispering back to her just as loudly, he said, “Did it look dangerous?”
She nodded her head definitively.
“This is bad, this is very bad.” A shadow fell across Sunshine's back- which he found very odd do to the lack of sun -and he slowly began to turn over to face whatever creature was looming over him and Berry. It was... nothing. Dismissing it as a trick of the light, Sunshine was about to turn back to Berry when he felt himself flying through the air. The feeling of being thrown into the air was rather peculiar, at least before he hit the ground. It was almost as if he was flying. Of course the impact with the ground was anything but peculiar, it was downright painful.
Groaning he stood up, nothing seemed broken. Looking around he tried to find the source of his impromptu flight lessons. What he found was a creature from the depths of his nightmares. Looming over Berry was a towering being made entirely of shadow. It's very presence seemed to suck the light away, as it re-purposed the darkness to take any form it deemed fit. At that moment it resembled a towering timberwolf, slowly lowering its gnashing teeth into a position most suitable to take a bite out of Berry's prone body. The creature seemed to relish in the feeling of absolute terror it was creating in Berry, as if it lived off the volatile emotion.
Sunshine, in a desperate gambit to save his friend's life, ran straight at the creature, leaping on it's back. Sunshine felt his hooves connecting, only for the creature to disappear beneath him, reforming into a small puddle of darkness at his feat.. “Run!” he yelled.
Berry needed no further motivation, and forced herself upright almost instantly. They began to run towards the rift, knowing no other place they could be safe from the menacing creature. A claw lashed out at Sunshine's head, seemingly coming from nowhere, and with a split second reaction time he didn't know he had, he ducked beneath it. The creature took another swipe at Sunshine, catching him on the leg and sending him sprawling on the ground.
He was mere feet away from the rift, and it's (albeit small) chance of safety from the terrifying beast. Berry had stopped inches away from him, turning around to see him fall. Now it was his turn to beneath the looming gaze of the nightmare shadow. Sunshine's muscled seemed to turn to jelly, and he squirmed backwards, lacking the strength or stability to stand up. The monster seemed to laugh. To it the chase had been fun, but the time for games was over. Now was the time for death, and the monster knew it wouldn't be it's.
Berry flew over Sunshine's head, tackling the fiendish creature, and giving Sunshine the momentary respite to escape.
“Go!” Berry shouted, on her hooves before the beast. Sunshine began to back away slowly, not willing to leave Berry Punch there to die, but knowing he had to leave all the same. She took a wild swing at the monster, having learned well from her frequent bar fights. Her hoof connected with a resounding thump, and she wound up for another swing. For the first time the monster seemed to be afraid. Releasing her left forelimb, he hoof seemed to go straight through the monster. She turned around to find it reforming behind her, and didn't feel the dark claws slicing through her until it was too late.
The monster deformed around her, letting her body drop to the ground. Sunshine could see the light slowly leaving her eyes, but when she moved her mouth to speak her dying words her voice was surprisingly strong, “Go fix time for me, you psycho.” Sunshine wasn't there to see the last spark leave her eyes, he had already plunged himself into the oblivion of the void.
Sunshine awoke in a white void atop an engraved stone tablet. The light was absolute, shadows entirely absent, and the complete absence of sound was consuming. He wondered what he was doing there. Had he died? Was this heaven? Then the events of the previous night hit him like a punch to the gut. His legs gave way and he collapsed to the ground.
Inside he laughed, it was so ironic. In the end he hadn't died, she had died. The laughter threatened to consume, to leave him a hysterical mess of tears inside a tear in time for the rest of his endless life. He didn't know how long he lay there replaying the events in his mind, over and over. Looking for something he could have done. He just wanted to curl up and die.
Sunshine felt a hoof press into his shoulder, startling him out of the bog of self inflicted pains and sorrows. Looking up he saw a smiling unicorn and instantly hated him. How could he be smiling so soon after the death of his friend. Sunshine wanted to punch the pony, to smash his skull into the ground and end his pitiful existence so he could never smile at Sunshine again.
The unicorn's horn began to glow a light cyan and words began to form out of cyan fire. It's okay. You'll be safe here.
“No! I don't care if I'm safe. I- only-” Sunshine stumbled for words, but he couldn't find any through the deep cloud of rage the occupied the front of his mind. He sighed, hanging his head. “I don't care if I'm safe. My friend just died in front of my eyes, I have nothing left.”
A quizzical expression crossed the unicorn's face and the words reformed, She sounds like more than a friend.
Tears threatened to resurface on Sunshine's eyes and once again to plunge him back into the depths of depression, but he fought them and managed to form a coherent sentence, “Yes, she was more than a friend, but it doesn’t matter anymore.”
The words retreated back into the unicorn's horn, his face one of deep thought, before reappearing. Come with me, I'll make some tea and you can tell me about your journey. Sunshine, for lack of a better thing to do than lay on top of the stone tablet for the rest of eternity obliged and began to follow the unicorn.
As the autonomy of walking set in, Sunshine's mind began to drift back to the night before. The look of disbelief on her face as the claws stabbed through her chest. In that moment, something had broken in Sunshine. Something vital that everypony took for granted. After that moment he knew he would never be happy again. He would never enjoy a sunset or the glittering peacefulness of the stars at night.
The unicorn stopped walking, but Sunshine, lost withing his mind, continued walking, bumping his muzzle painfully into a tall stone wall. Sunshine jumped with a start, looking around. They were at the base of a massive stone tower. It looked as if it had come straight off the castle in Canterlot, instead of standing lonely in the middle of blank nothingness. The unicorn opened the wooden door, beckoning Sunshine inside.
The interior of the tower was cozy, a fire burning in the mantel despite the tower lacking a chimney, and the walls covered in shelves stocked full with jars of various liquids and crystals. The unicorn gestured for Sunshine to take a seat on one of the chairs placed in front of the roaring fire. The chair was softer than any he had ever sat on, the cushions apparently stuffed with the highest grade clouds available.
The unicorn's horn lit once again words appeared, I shall return in a moment with a pot of tea. Not bothering to look behind him Sunshine heard the sound of hooves retreating up the stairs. The unicorn was absent for little more than a minute when he returned levitating a steaming pot of tea, a pair of tea cups, and saucers. The unicorn set the tea down on a table and began to pour cups, giving one to Sunshine.
The unicorn conjured more words as he sat down in the nearest chair. Now about your journey? Telling of it will relieve you of some of the pain. Giving in to the unicorn's request, Sunshine set his tea down and began to talk.
When Sunshine finished he was on the verge of tears again. Not even sure if he was still talking, only sure of the images flashing through his head. Reliving the events in sequential order was even worse then brief flashes of the worst parts.
The unicorn offered him a sandwich interrupting his flashbacks. Sunshine ripped it from the startled unicorn's levitation field and ate the whole thing in little more than two bites. Then Sunshine began to laugh again.
“You know, if it hadn't been for this stupid time rift she'd still be alive. We would have never needed to journey through the most dangerous part of Equestria either. I wouldn't be stuck here alone trying to figure out how to fix things.” Sunshine paused, realization striking his face, “I wouldn't be stuck here alone. What are you doing here!?!” Sunshine yelled glaring in the unicorn's general direction, “There's supposed to be nopony else here, I thought I was the only one who could exist in this place.”
The unicorn sighed, I didn't want to tell you this, because then I'd have to do something drastic in order to protect myself. I thought I could convince you to just forget your quest and live here eternally with me, but it appears that some ponies can not be distracted from their quests so easily, The unicorn paused before reforming the text once again, I am the reason the rifts exist. I have created them in order to extend my lifespan virtually infinitely, so I could study the art of arcana for all of eternity. Just think of all the progress I could make!
Sunshine barely comprehended the text. Before him was the pony responsible not only for millions of ponies deaths, but for Berry Punch's as well. The unicorn sitting before him for the past hour had killed Berry Punch. Sunshine stood up, ready to punch the unicorn until he no longer stood up. He was the reason both himself and Berry Punch had spent the last week suffering and journeying towards an uncertain end.
The sound of hoof slamming into face at high speeds rang out across the cozy room. Sunshine began to wind up for another punch, but he found himself wrapped in a levitation field. Words formed in front of his face, I told you I would have to do something drastic, and then the world went dark.
Sunshine awoke in darkness, which was a little out of place in the giant white void, but frankly Sunshine was just surprised that he awoke at all. His eyes adjusted quickly to his surroundings, revealing him to be hanging upside down in some form of alchemy lab. His legs appeared to be fastened to the ceiling with some kind of iron rope that didn't look like it was going to budge anytime soon. The rest of the lab was a mess. Bottles of various substances overflowing from the shelves and into groups and piles on the floor. Despite the mess though, almost every bottle was labeled in the same careful, flowing cursive text he remembered from the unicorn's messages the night before.
Sunshine needed to get out. Not only did he desperately crave revenge, but he needed to complete the task he set out to complete in the first place. Taking a closer look at the bottles on the shelf closest to him Sunshine found almost every bottle to be some substance he had never heard of. Among those that he recognized only one was an acid and it was about as strong as orange juice. Sunshine sighed and began the menial chore of pouring every bottle of liquid on the iron rope.
In the end he was wrong about the acid having the strength of orange juice. It turned out to be much, much stronger. In face he was lucky he hadn't tasted it to find out if it was orange juice. When the rope finished dissolving he fell to the floor with a huge thunk and directly into the puddle of liquids he had been trying on the chain. He hoped none of them were harmful.
Sunshine stood up, looking around for a door. There were none, however there was a glowing another on of those glowing portal things unicorns seemed so fond of. He stepped through it and into the cozy room he had told his story in.
The chairs were overturned and a large crack was running down the wall, as if an earthquake had occurred, but that was impossible. Could the unicorn have wielded that much power in a fit of rage? Sunshine doubted it, but then again, it was the same unicorn who had created the time and space rifts. On second thought, yes, the unicorn could have done this.
The tower began to shake and Sunshine ran for the door, escaping only moments before the entire thing collapsed. Outside the world was in constant turmoil, contrasting greatly to the peaceful emptiness of before. Trees were popping in and out of existence, birds were existing long enough to make the first note of a song. Volcanoes were erupting in reverse. At the center of everything Sunshine could see a lone unicorn, the unicorn, inside a floating chunk of house. Sunshine began to walk towards the chunk of house, wondering how he would get up, when a staircase began to materialize before him, somehow staying in existence longer than everything else around him.
He began to climb the steps, talking to himself under his breath, “Your only going to have to defeat, and possibly destroy the most powerful unicorn in all of time. It's okay, and when your done everything will be alright again.” Sunshine stepped up the last step and took the doorknob in hoof. Counting silently to himself he opened the door.
The inside was larger than the exterior by quite a bit, in fact the door opened into what looked like a massive dungeon, the walls arching up into the darkness above. In the center of the room was the unicorn, pouring what looked like massive amounts of energy into a force field that surrounded both himself and a magnificent crystal.
The crystal was of amazing purity, at it's thinnest points nearly invisible. It seemed to pull his gaze in, as if there was something living in the depths of it's multifaceted surface. Shaking his head Sunshine took a step forward, focusing his gaze on the unicorn responsible for Berry's death. He heard the door shut behind him with a resounding thunk, but payed it no mind. The unicorn glanced up, seeing Sunshine in the corner of his vision and, gasping, went back to pouring energy into the shield.
Now inches away from the force field Sunshine spoke, his normally optimistic voice laced with menace, “Care to let a lost pony in?”
Words formed on the other side of the shield, sputtering and fading as the unicorn tried to maintain both them and the shield at once, I'm not going to let you stop me. I can not let anything or anypony get in the way of progress.
“Oh really? Sunshine chuckled, “Placing the acid so close to my bindings, and even building that staircase? It seemed almost as if you wanted me to get in the way...” Sunshine's words died in his mouth and he spun around, a dagger missing his flank by inches. Sunshine rolled to the side, now a good yard away from the unicorn.
Seeing the ruse was up the unicorn cast aside the illusion, his horn loosing it's aura of magic. The unicorn looked like a mess, his mane was matted and his eyes bloodshot. He began to advance on Sunshine, brandishing the knife like a sociopath. Sunshine backed away, leading the unicorn in circles around the room. He needed a weapon, lacking experience in any form of combat, he couldn't do much against most knife wielding sociopaths, let alone ancient and powerful knife wielding sociopaths.
The unicorn lunged at him and Sunshine ducked to the side, miserably failing at slugging the unicorn in the jaw. Glancing around, not daring to let his eyes leave the unicorn for longer than half a second, Sunshine spotted a second knife at the center of the room. Breaking eye contact with the unicorn he galloped over to the knife scooping the handle up in his mouth.
The dagger seemed to leach the warmth from his mouth, as if it were made of ice, but he disregarded it, turning his attention back to the unicorn who had in the brief moment he had his back turned, advanced nearly within hooves reach. Sunshine slashed wildly at the unicorn, hoping to drive him back, but the unicorn proceeded to advance on him. A few of his wild strikes hit, tearing deep gashes into the unicorn's side only for them to heal themselves as the unicorn's horn lit.
This fight wasn't going as well as Sunshine had anticipated. If the unicorn could heal himself every time he was injured then it would just be a game of who tired last, and Sunshine didn't like the idea of that, not being the most fit stallion in existence. He needed a new course of action, the hopefully didn't involved being skewered by a dreadfully sharp looking dagger.
Then Sunshine remembered the crystal. Sure the one he had seen earlier was an illusion, but it had to have been inspired by an original, and the illusion unicorn was working very hard to protect it. Sunshine deemed it probably did something important, before leaping backwards, inches away from loosing his neck to the unicorn he had completely disregarded.
Backing around the room again Sunshine began to look for exits. The door he had entered through was gone, and in it's place there were three more, each more threatening than the last. As Sunshine neared a door during his circles around the room he darted to it, dropping the dagger in favor of twisting the knob. The door he had chosen seemed to be made entirely from bones, carved with the most intricate depictions of ponies dieing. It was mild in comparison to the other doors. Stepping inside he pulled the door shut, moments before a blast of magic hit it, vaporizing it in an instant. Then Sunshine began to run in earnest.
The room he had run into was as much a room as the previous room in the fact that it wasn't. It was a massive graveyard. A blast of magic scorched the stone nearest to him, and looking back to see how close his pursuer was he saw the unicorn wince. Most of the graveyard was dominated by a large hill towards the center that Sunshine found himself galloping furiously up, the unicorn in hot pursuit. Another blast of magic shot past him, reducing another gravestone to ashes. If he didn't find that crystal soon, there would probably be a gravestone for him as well.
Suddenly Sunshine tripped, falling head first into an open grave... and into a hospital. He didn't question the sudden transition, instead opting to run. He ducked into the first door he saw, finding himself inside a random street in Canterlot, completely devoid of life. There was something odd about the street that he couldn't place, other than the lack of living creatures. Then he realized what was off, all the buildings were old timey, as if out of a history book, or an old fashioned movie.
A blast of magic landing dangerously close to his hooves reminded him of what he was here for and he began to run again. The street seemed to stretch on forever, as if in a dream. Glancing back he saw that the unicorn was closer than he anticipated and Sunshine looked for cover from the powerful laser the unicorn seemed so fond of emitting from his horn. A door to a nearby building was slightly ajar and Sunshine ducked in, pulling it tightly closed behind him, not that it would make much of a difference when the unicorn blasted it into nothingness.
Inside was what looked like a child’s play room, although a lot bigger than Sunshine remembered most child's play rooms being. Dominating the center of the room was a massive version of the crystal he had seen earlier, this time pulsating a deep red color and shaking so fast Sunshine could barely see it. He took a step closer, hearing the door explode behind him. He took another, a laser narrowly missing his head. Sunshine took another, now within hooves reach of the crystal. He turned to face the unicorn.
The unicorn's eyes were pleading now, words barely managing to appear in front of him, Please, I don't want to die. Sunshine almost gave in, but remembering Berry Punch he hardened his resolve and turned back to the crystal. Reaching up with his hoof he touched it, and the world faded to gray.
Stars twinkled in the brilliant night sky and all of Ponyville was asleep save for one light brown colt. Sunshine Napper was staring at the moonrise, the slight shifts of blue that accompanied the rising moon was a beauty missed by many ponies. A beauty he hadn't fully realized until now. He stretched his legs, yawning. The strange mixed up world inside the rift was gone, and as far as he could tell, time was moving as normal.
He began to walk into town, a spring in his step. His ordeal was over, everything had worked out in the end. The world was back to normal. The word normal rang out in his head as he realized something. Galloping as fast as he could he snuck into a very familiar house, owned by a very close friend.
Pushing her bedroom door open he saw Berry Punch snoring peacefully in her bed. Overcome with joy he leapt onto the foot of the bed, startling the mare awake as well as launching her high into the air.
“Your alive!” he shouted.
Realizing that she was under no immediate threat Berry Punch defaulted to annoyance, “Of course I'm alive. Why would I be dead?”
Sunshine stopped bouncing on the nearly destroyed bed, seemingly hovering in mid-air for seconds. “You mean? You don't remember?”
“Remember what?”
Dejectedly Sunshine hung his head, walking slowly towards the door. “You don't remember the forest, or the temple, or the robot, and the chasm, or the caves? You don't remember dieing,” his voice faded out for the last sentence.
“No, I think I would remember something like that.” Sunshine went through the final motions of opening the door, almost fully outside the modest bedroom before Berry added, “Although I do remember a purple unicorn and a failure of a teleport spell.”
Author's Note
Well, I guess you read it now. Some of the bits probably seemed pretty forced, and others very obvious plot devices. You probably also found some of my pseudo-science rather dubious. I hand-waved quite a few things and others were left dangling. So... Um... Yeah. Please give me some feedback in the comments.
