Breaking the 4th Dimension
The marketplace was beginning to thicken as more ponies joined the afternoon outlet. Harvest season had just begun, and there were a lot of fresh supplies to buy. The mud had been trampled flat by a successful day full of activity. The ponies examined the stalls, occasionally making a few deals. There was sacks of apples, grain, flour, and other goods behind the stalls, precautious guarded by the merchant ponies. Mr. Cake was walking through the market, hoping he was able to pick up a few bags of flour and sugar for a nice offer. Suddenly a loud whooshing sound broke the quiet atmosphere, and a rainbow could be spotted briefly above the town. Rainbow Dash was rocketing through the air. A stopwatch attached to a string around her neck was jumping up and down, occasionally hitting her stomach. Her mane and tail were fluttering viciously in the air as if they had a will on their own. She was wearing goggles to counter the air that otherwise would be showering her eyes. As she reached a big apple tree just outside the boundaries of Sweet Apple Acres, Rainbow Dash came to a full halt. She fiddled with the watch for a second or two, clicked the stop button and looked at the time. The smile on her face disappeared and was replaced with a straight horizontal line. Her eyes were half closed. “Darn it,” she whispered. She breathed rowdily and discordantly. How was she supposed to go any faster than that? She removed her goggles and felt the sweat pouring down her forehead into her eyes. There was a lake nearby, and Rainbow Dash dipped herself in the cold water.
Inside the library Twilight Sparkle was standing by her desk, busy organizing her quills in color and size. She verified their functionality on a blank piece of paper. The door was opened downstairs, and Twilight could hear Rainbow Dash’s voice. “Twi! You home?”
Twilight came down the stairs to greet her friend. “Oh, hello Rainbow! How did it go?”
Rainbow snorted. “Terrible. I still need to cut three minutes off my time.”
“Wow, three minutes? That is pretty impressible.”
“Yes, but it’s still not enough to beat the record!”
“I’m sorry, Rainbow, but I guess you just need to practice more. There is nothing I can do to help you.”
“Actually, there is a way that you can be of assistance.” Rainbow Dash lifted herself off the ground by flapping her wings. She pointed at Twilight’s horn. “You can use your magic to enhance my speed!”
“No!” Twilight backed away. “I can’t do that. You know that. And what have I been telling you about flying around in my library? You will blow away all my carefully ordered paperwork.”
Rainbow Dash looked around. “There are no loose papers in here.”
“It’s the principle that matters.”
“Please, Twilight, I’m begging you.” Rainbow fell to her knees, putting her front hooves together.
“What you are suggesting is cheating.”
“No one will have to know.”
Twilight shook her head. “I can’t do it. It’s unethical.”
Rainbow got up. She rolled her eyes. “Fine …”
“But perhaps I can be helpful in some other way.” Twilight was looking around at the bookcases that were covering all of the walls in the room. They were all neatly placed on their correct position. None of them were too far out or too far in the bookcase. “Hmm … I don’t think I have it here. Maybe down in the archive.”
Rainbow scowled slightly. “Have what?”
“A book that will help you fly faster. Now, come on.” Twilight disappeared behind a door that was leading to the basement.
“You’ve got a book for everything, don’t you?”
The upstairs library was a neat freak’s paradise compared to the basement. There were books everywhere: in boxes, on the floor, and all over the tables. Weird machinery was hidden away in the corners. A chemistry set, which contained compounds in all sorts of colors, dominated the space on the biggest table in the room. “Sorry about the mess. I didn’t have time to clean up yet. Now, let’s see.” Twilight began going through a box of books, while Rainbow walked to the most interesting thing in the room.
“What’s this?” She pointed at a beaker containing a light blue liquid.
“That is Thalydisiumglatibariumchlorid. It’s a very strong acid.”
“Aha.” Rainbow looked around and a jar of bright colored fluid caught her attention. “What is this yellow stuff?”
Twilight was picking up a few books on the ground with her magic before she said, “That is just a sample of urine from one of Fluttershy’s rabbits that came down with a strange disease a while back. I’m analyzing it to determine the cause of the illness.”
“You have pee in a jar?” Rainbow Dash kept her distance.
“Well, yes. For medical purposes.”
“Sure.” Rainbow walked in circles in front of the table. She spotted a bottle with a long neck containing a red liquid. The content was so bright that it almost looked like it was glowing. “So, Twilight, are there any other animal fluids you’re collecting? This looks too thin to be blood, but maybe it has gone sour.”
“An excellent observation, Rainbow.” Twilight had her head turned towards the bottle. “This is something very special that I have been working on, and I think it’s almost finished. It is a mixture of a number of performance enhancing substances and my own magic. If I have done it correctly, it will affect the muscles of a pony directly, causing it to improve the efficiency of the muscles with approximately twenty per cent. If my calculations are accurate, that is. The idea came to me, because I wanted something that could make me read faster to better my productivity when I’m studying. It still needs to be tested, though, but I’m very excited about the result.” Twilight went back to searching the books. As her head was all the way down the bottom of a box, she found what she was looking for. “Look at this, Rainbow! ‘421 ways to make a pegasus fly faster’. This is definitely the thing you need.”
“No thanks, Twi. I think I will do without.” Rainbow Dash was already walking up the stairs.
“But, Rainbow, don’t you want to beat the record?”
“Of course … I think I just need some rest now. Thanks for the help, Twilight. See you later.”
Applejack was waiting in the shade of the apple tree, eyes pointed towards the sky. It was close to twilight, and the sky was wearing an orange color. She was tapping her hoof with exasperation. Suddenly she heard Rainbow Dash calling her name in the distance. “Hey, Applejack!” Rainbow was running towards her with a big smile on her face.
As Rainbow approached, Applejack said, “Why do ye want to see me? Ye know ah got apples to buck.”
“It’ll be over in a jiffy, I promise.” Rainbow Dash reached the tree. “Besides, this is far more important than your apple-bucking. Those apples aren’t going anywhere. Unlike me. I have a better job for you, Applejack. You are going to help me beat the record for the fastest pony in Equestria!”
“Gee, Rainbow. Ye have been obsessed with that record for quite a while.”
“Yes. But today is the day I’m finally going to beat it.” Rainbow Dash handed over the stopwatch to Applejack. “This stopwatch is a pain to wear while I’m flying. I think that is what’s keeping me from performing my best, so you are going to stand here and measure my time, while I fly to Saddle Lake and back again in under 9 minutes and 37 seconds. You got all that?”
“9 minutes. 37 seconds. Okay.”
“Don’t press the start button until I tell you to and make sure you don’t stop it until I’m back at this exact spot. We need to get the most accurate result.”
“Hold on for just a minute.” Applejack had trouble putting the string around her neck while wearing her hat. “Ah thought ye already tried out for that record earlier today.”
“I did. But it went horribly.”
“Then why do ye think ye got what it takes to beat it now?”
“Because now I’ve got this!” Rainbow Dash revealed a tube of red liquid that she had been hidden within her wing.
“What is that?” Applejack was looking at the tube as if it was ready to burst into flames any second.
“A little something Twilight has been working on. It’s going to improve my speed.”
“And she just gave you permission to use it?”
“Well …” Rainbow Dash was touching her neck with a hoof. “Technically she doesn’t know that I took it.”
“Rainbow …” Applejack spoke in a lower octave, preparing to reprimand Rainbow.
“It’s not like I stole it. Okay, I kind of did. But Twilight’s got lots of the stuff, and she can always make more. I just poured a few drops into this tube while she was looking away. She would never have given it to me voluntarily.” Applejack had a suspicious look on her face. “What? Oh, come on, Applejack, stop being so sulky and help me out.”
A sigh escaped Applejack’s mouth. “All right, fine. But make it quick.”
“I always do.” Rainbow emptied the tube down her throat and made sure that all of the red liquid was gone. She burped. “Ew … It tastes like rotten tomatoes.”
“Ye sure it’s not dangerous?”
“Of course.” Rainbow arose from the ground. She put on her goggles before raising a hoof to signal Applejack. “You ready? One, two, three … go!” Rainbow Dash shot like a cannonball away from the apple tree. With her front hooves stretched parallel before her she flew as fast as she was able. She was flying into the town. The marketplace was full of movement, but almost all of the supplies were gone. She navigated between the houses and waved to Pinkie Pie, who was standing on the balcony of Sugarcube Corner. Rainbow was flying closely pass the windmill, making the wings of the mill move a little faster. The sheer nature and open landscape was stretched in front of her now. The ground shifted appearance underneath her, from a meadow to a forest. Everything flew past her quicker and quicker as she accelerated. She started to soar higher and felt the pressure building. There were not many clouds that day, so she had a wonderful view. The setting sun was behind her, and the scenery beneath her was illuminated in a warm orange light. The rivers reflected the sunlight and looked like streams of melted gold. She was following one of the rivers that would lead her to Saddle Lake. Canterlot was shining bright on the top of the mountain like a gem, overlooking everything. Rainbow Dash did not feel any difference as resulted by the red mixture. It seemed to be just another regular flight to her, but she figured that it would take some time before the elixir kicked in.
She reached the lake without experience any noticeable change. She was right above the far shore of the lake, before she turned around and made a home stretch towards Ponyville. There was a tall mountain on her way back, and Rainbow decided to smoothly glide towards it. She tilted herself and flew right pass the mountain while whooping. She nearly touched the rocky cliff of the mountain. The sound of air blowing pass her ears grew, but it disappeared once she entered supersonic speed. The world was silent. The sun was in her eyes, so she squinted. She could feel herself speeding up, and then something strange started happening. Rainbow’s field of view expanded and was zoomed out. It looked like she was travelling backwards, but it didn’t feel like it. She was able to see the things that she had just passed. She spotted the mountain again. It only lasted a few seconds before the sun suddenly started to move closer to her in a tremendous speed. She closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she was stunned. It was apparent that she was no longer flying over the lands of Equestria. There was no ground underneath her or a sky above her. She was traveling through a dark tunnel towards a single point of light. It didn’t fell like she was flying. There was no wind in the mane, no air pressure. Straight beams of lights in all the colors of the spectrum escaped the light at the end of the tunnel. It looked like there were going to hit her, but instead they just flew passed Rainbow. Her eyes were fixated on the bright light at the end as it became bigger and bigger as if Rainbow was closing in on it. More and more colorful beams of light were shooting from the end of the tunnel until the only thing she could see was a mixture of every color of light.
Shortly after, a setting was displayed before her. It looked like Equestria, but also very unfamiliar. A thick layer of black clouds was hovering over a village in the distance. Everything was colorless. The trees were naked and looked dead. Dash crossed a meadow where the grass had turned gray. She was hurrying back to Ponyville. There was a dense mist just above the ground. It looked like heavy smoke. She was flying above the town, but she could not see the streets because of the mist. Rainbow Dash located the spot where the apple tree stood. The original apple wearing tree was gone and a leafless dark tree had taken its place. She landed near the roots. The scent of summer that had dominated the air when she left was gone. She could only smell a slight touch of ashes. What had happened? Maybe a bomb that only attacked leaves and grass had exploded, leaving darkness in its wake, and the black clouds were a reminder of its power. Rainbow could not think of a better solution. “Hello! Applejack?” Whatever had happen in the short period of time Rainbow was gone had caused Applejack to prematurely dismiss her obligation. It was understandable, though. Rainbow had a feeling that something terrible had been going on. She couldn’t see very far before of the mist. The atmosphere reminded her of the one inside Everfree Forrest, only this one made her feel isolated instead of being watched.
She crossed the fence to Sweet Apple Acres. There was not a single apple in the apple orchard. The bare branches looked like hands of skeletons. Trees rose high above Rainbow, making her fell trapped and alone. The wooden sign over the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres was rotten and the words barely readable. The barn was unrecognizable. The painting was gone; there were giant holes in the roof and the walls, revealing the barn’s structure. It was amazing that it was even standing. The double doors were gone, so Rainbow walked straight inside. Hay mixed with dirt and ashes were lying all over the floor. There was quiet as a cave. “Applejack? You in here?”
Rainbow Dash saw a haystack in the middle of the barn moving. A crispy voice arose. “Who is that?” A pony stuck its head out behind the haystack. The face was winkled and the eyes bloodshot, but there was no doubt. Applejack dared to move a few steps towards Rainbow. “I think I have seen you before.”
Rainbow Dash chuckled a bit. “It’s me. Rainbow Dash.”
Applejack’s eyes grew wider. “No … Isn’t it bad enough that ye are haunting my nightmares? Now ye have to come when ah am awake too?” She disappeared behind the haystack.
“What’s going on, Applejack? Why do you look like that?”
Applejack started humming a song. The tune was unharmonious, and the volume was rising and falling like someone was constantly turning the volume button on a radio. Rainbow Dash came closer. “Stay away from me! You ain’t real!” She was humming louder. Rainbow peeked around the haystack and saw Applejack leaning against the stack while swaying back and forth with her front hooves on her ears. Her mane and tail were messy; her body was covered in pieces of hay and dirt. She was so skinny that Rainbow could see her ribs. “It’s all right, my sweet little apples. She can’t hurt us. Mummy is here. Y’all are Mummy’s little sugar cubes, aren’t ye?” Applejack’s hat was lying in the hay in front of her. It looked very worn-out. It was flat, dirty, bleached, and had multiple holes and scratches. Rainbow was able to spot three tiny apple seeds inside the hat.
“Are you talking to … them?”
Applejack was swaying quicker. She was humming what appeared to be a lullaby and occasionally talking. “There, there, my apples. She is punishing me because of what I did. And that’s understandable. I deserve it. She promised she’d come back. I swear. She never did. But she can’t hurt y’all, my angels. Y’all just go to sleep now. Y’all need to grow big and strong. Someday y’all will become Mommy’s big apple trees. That’s right. Y’all will grow big beautiful red apples. Like the ones on my cutie mark.”
“Applejack, what happened after I left Ponyville?”
“Rainbow Dash! You’re back!” Applejack stood up, her face was millimeters from Rainbow, and she had a large smile on her face. The sudden change of mood nearly knocked Rainbow off her feet. “I’m so glad you are here, Rainbow.” Applejack walked to a corner of the barn, knocking over her hat. “I have something for ye.” Applejack came back with the stopwatch. The glass was fractured and the string broken. “Let’s see. Ye flew a time of … two minutes and ten seconds! Ye did it, Rainbow! Ye broke the record! Ah am mighty proud of ye.”
“Please, Applejack. I need to know what is going on.” Rainbow was going to put a hoof on Applejack’s shoulder to comfort her, but she jumped.
“No! Ye can’t touch me. You ain’t real!”
Rainbow Dash was rolling her eyes.
“My babies!” Applejack saw her hat, which was now enrolled in hay. “What happened to my little babies?”
“I’m sorry, Applejack, but I gotta leave you. I need to speak with somepony who isn’t crazy to find out what happened.”
Applejack was fumbling in the hay to find the apple seeds.
Walking through the streets of Ponyville was a strange sensation. Some of the windows and doors in the houses were shattered and there was only emptiness inside. Grass had overtaken the roads. Ivy was crawling up the side of the houses. A crumbled statue of Celestia in front of the town hall was lying face down. The colorful flowers that once decorated the town were now withered. “Hello!” The only thing Rainbow could hear was the sound of her own hoofsteps. “Anypony?” Her voice echoed through the stillness. All of a sudden she heard the sound of another set of hooves trotting monotonically on the ground. She immediately ran towards the source. It was close by, and soon after Rainbow saw the silhouette of a pony through the fog. “Pinkie, is that you?” Pinkie Pie’s head was hanging low and her otherwise bright pink coat and mane were stained. She was as thin as Applejack. The mane and tail used to be puffy and curly, but now they were completely straight. Her face was wrinkled, and she was wearing a frown. “Pinkie?” She didn’t notice Rainbow Dash, but just passed her when walking slowly down the street.
Pinkie Pie was mumbling something. Rainbow Dash needed to place her ear extremely close to Pinkie’s mouth in order to hear what she was saying. “No more sugar or spice. Say goodbye to everything nice.”
“Where are you going? Pinkie?” The last word was trapped by the emptiness and was both very present and completely absent. Almost like Pinkie Pie herself. “Do you know if Twilight’s home, Pinkie?”
Pinkie Pie didn’t respond. She just kept walking. Her body was disappearing slowly by the mist.
“Don’t worry. I’m going to fix this. Everything is going to go back to normal again, I promise.” Rainbow ran towards the library. She hoped that Twilight had a solution. She always had.
The door to the library was creaking. This couldn’t have been the same library that Rainbow had left just moments ago. The room was a maze created by stacks of books, papers, scrolls and quills. Most of the loose papers were soaked in ink and books had had multiple pages torn out. The stacks were the height of at least two ponies. In the center of the maze, a dim light could be seen. The bookcases were filled with piles of dust and old books. Spider-webs hang from the celling like garlands. “Is that a visitor?” A dry and hoarse voice emerged from within the maze.
“It’s me. Rainbow Dash.”
“Rainbow … Dash?” The voice spoke the words were carefully and thoroughly like they were containing some kind of great power. The light from the middle of the room got brighter. Twilight appeared behind a pile of books. A jar of fireflies was levitation and illuminating her face. “I have been waiting fifty years for this.”
Rainbow Dash was astonished. Twilight looked as old as anyone could get without being dead. Her mane and tail were gray, her face wrinkled and liver spot infected. Her legs were holding her upright unsteadily. Thick glasses were covering her squinted eyes. “Twilight … What happened to you?”
To Rainbow’s surprise Twilight smiled. “The better question is: what didn’t happen to you?” Twilight repositioned her glasses with her magic. “You look as young as the day you left. Or perhaps you are just a fragment of an old pony’s fragile and disoriented mind.”
“No, no, I’m really here,” Rainbow said quickly. “I have to know what happen to Ponyville after I left.”
“Hold on now, young lady, there is plenty of time to talk. Do you want some tea?”
Rainbow Dash was sitting by a table in the corner of the library while Twilight was pouring tea in her cup. “Do you have any idea how we get Ponyville back to normal?”
Twilight sipped her cup of tea loudly. “I am afraid you are fifty years too late for that.”
“But I don’t understand. Why is the town so empty? Why are there no apples on the trees? And what is with this fog?”
“Do you want a biscuit, my dear? You look skinny.”
“I don’t look skinny.” Rainbow Dash was obese in comparison to Twilight. “I met Applejack and Pinkie Pie. They were acting very strange.
Twilight leaned back in her chair. “Ah, yes. Applejack is still blaming herself because she didn’t stop you the day you flew away. She was the last pony to see you. After her family disappeared she has been very lonely. That poor thing. Still, she is doing a lot better than Pinkie Pie. She hasn’t been the same after you vanished. She went into some kind of depression, and nopony has seen her smile since. Today she is only able to mutter a few words. But Fluttershy way be the worst, though. She hasn’t come out of her cottage in years, and her animals left her after she was unable to feed them. It’s a terrible tragedy.”
“Well, why aren’t you doing anything?” Rainbow nearly slammed her teacup at the table in anger. “You seem normal enough. Why don’t you help them or talk to them?”
“I admire your moxie. It must be wonderful to be young and hopeful, but after a certain number of years trying to lift the spirit of your friends without any results, you kind of loose hope.”
Rainbow scowled. “You still haven’t told me what happened to Ponyville.”
“You still haven’t told me where you went in all those years. I think I deserve an explanation.”
Rainbow was grinding her teeth. “Fine.” She looked out the window in the direction of Saddle Lake. “I’m actually not sure what happened. I drank some of that red speed juice that you created. It all went well at first, but when I was flying back to Ponyville, things went very bizarre. I have never experienced anything like it before. It felt like I was going faster and faster and then suddenly it felt like I wasn’t flying at all. I was weightless in some sort of … nothingness. When I returned to Ponyville, everything was all dark and empty.”
Twilight nodded. “The princess had a feeling about this. Many decades ago there was a science pony who suggested that it’s possible for an object to travel through time if it’s going fast enough. The fundamental substances of the universe are space and time, and the two things are practically bonded to each other. The theory suggests that an object, which is travelling at a high enough velocity, not only compresses the space that it’s travelling through, but also time itself. It basically means that a certain period of time that affects the surroundings will seem less to the object, because it’s travelling through compressed time. The object would have to travel faster than light speed in order to achieve this velocity. But the theory has previously been rejected as a scientific fact since nopony has been able to prove it.”
“So you’re saying that I have been travelling through time?”
“Fifty years to be exact.”
It was true, then. She had really been time travelling. Rainbow Dash was short of breath. Under any other circumstances she would have been proud of herself, but this futuristic Ponyville was a world that she would not enjoy living in. “It would explain a lot. By how could I have been travelling in time? I can’t do magic.”
“You don’t have to. It’s all scientifically.”
“How do I get back? I need to return to my own time period.”
“I’m sorry. The theory only states that an object it able to travel faster than time, meaning traveling forward in time. It doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to travel back in time.”
“Isn’t there a way to make me go back in time?”
Twilight sighed. “There is only one solution I know of. But you’ll have to go to Canterlot to do it.”
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go to Canterlot.”
Twilight just stared at Rainbow like she was looking at an innocent child who was about to get her dreams crushed. “Canterlot is not an option this day and age.” Twilight finished her tea. “After you disappeared we started searching for you. At first it was just us five. Then all of Ponyville joined. Then Cloudsdale. Of course, we couldn’t find you. After a few days Celestia herself offered her help. The Royal Guards and Celestia were looking all over for you. Luna took over the throne in her sister’s place. We looked in the Everfree Forest, we asked every town around the area if they had seen you. But there was no sign anywhere. Then, a dark force invaded Canterlot in Celestia’s absence. Luna was powerless against it, and after Canterlot had fallen to the enemy, Celestia could not reclaim it. Nopony knows where the princess is today. Perhaps her sun is shining somewhere above the clouds, but we don’t know. We have never seen our new ruler, only his bat-like guards, who are controlling this country with an iron hoof, but we do know that he is responsible for the dense layer of black clouds and that everlasting mist. The clouds are never raining, and they are keeping the sun out, so that nothing will grow other than weeds. It’s a curse that he has laid upon us. Some ponies turned to religion in the hard times. Isn’t it silly? What do ponies need with religion? Soon after a lot of ponies were fighting over which made believe creature was the most powerful. Needless to say, there were many unnecessary deaths. We have been getting food and other requirements by trading values with other countries, but now we don’t have much of anything left. A lot of ponies have left Equestria, but some of us still stay behind. I’m still wondering why. Are we thinking that things are going to get better? Or maybe we believe that our joyful memories associated with this place are the only thing worth living for. I’m sorry. You are not interested in hearing an old pony rambling.”
“Why didn’t you use the Elements or Harmony?” Rainbow Dash already knew the answer to that question before she asked it.
“How could we? You weren’t there. We tried finding another Element of Loyalty, but in vain.”
“I’m here now.”
Twilight grinned. “Forget it. The Elements are gone. Destroyed. It’s dangerous to get your hopes up. I have accepted the hard truth a long time ago, and that is what’s keeping me sane.”
“There is only one option, then.” Rainbow Dash got up. “We need to get me back to my own time period to change the course of history.”
The door to the library opened and a large figure walked in. “Hello, Spike. You remember Rainbow Dash, right?”
“Whatever.” Spiked knocked over a stack of books with his long tail. He used razor sharp claws to scratch his back and a layer of green scales snowed on the floor. Rainbow stared at the dragon. Was that really Spike? He was as big as Big Macintosh times two. Deadly spikes decorated his back. Sharp fangs appeared from his significant upper jaw. His arms were long, and he had red spots all over his face. Spike walked to the kitchen. The floor vibrated every time he took a step. He opened the refrigerator. “Why don’t we ever have anything good to eat?” He slammed the door close with an amazing force and walked upstairs with a bucket of ice cream in his hand.
“I’m sorry, Rainbow, but there is nothing I can do.”
“Stop saying you’re sorry all the time! You’ve got to think of something.”
Twilight smacked her libs. “Perhaps there is one more option … No, that’d never work. Forget it.”
“What?”
“I just had a silly thought. It’s nothing.”
“Please, tell me. We need to consider every opportunity.”
“Well …” Twilight giggled. “I feel stupid even talking about it, but maybe you could travel back in time if you were to hit the same spot in which you compressed space and time with the same velocity as before, but from the other side. That would possibly stretch out the space-time continuum, sending you back to the point in time where you initially created the compression.”
“I don’t think I fully understand what you’re talking about.”
“Look at this.” Twilight found a sheet of paper lying on the floor. She made it levitate with her magic between her and Rainbow. She lifted her right hoof. “Pretend this hoof is you back in your own time, before you travelled faster than time. Imagine that the paper is the space and time of your time period.” She touched one side of the paper, making it bend in the middle. “This bending represents the compressed space and time. Notice that it’s away from the rest of the paper like a part of your time period is forward in time. Your time period still exists in this time. It’s at the same place where you entered our time. The bending is not lined up with the rest of the paper as you can see, but if I apply the same force with my left hoof …” Twilight touched the paper from the other side, “… the paper lines up. Your time period in this time and your time period become one and the same like it’s supposed to.”
“So I just fly as fast as I did earlier, but from the other side, in order to return?”
“Theoretically, yes. But that’s my theory. There are no scientific laws backing it up.”
“It’s worth a shot.”
Twilight sighed. “There are a few other things to consider. First of all the compressed space and time will in time stretch itself out. But I don’t think fifty years of compressed time will go away any time soon. Though, possibilities are that it’s accelerating, so the more time we wait the faster it goes, and we need to get you back before Celestia leaves Canterlot.”
“And second of all?”
“Well, changes are that you’ll not be able to travel back in time, but instead be ripped apart by the compressed space and time.”
Rainbow gulped. “It’s a risk I’ll have to take. Not only for myself, but for Equestria.”
“There is just one more thing.”
“What?”
“There is no way that you’ll be able to travel faster than time again.”
“Don’t you have more of that red stuff?”
Twilight shook her head. “I’m afraid I don’t have any chemical substances left. I sold them all in exchange of food.”
“What about the recipe? Did you write it down?”
Twilight looked at the stacks of books and loose papers in the library. “I’ve got everything written down.”
“Then where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
Rainbow slammed a hoof on the floor with frustration. She tried to calm herself by breathing deeply. “Can’t you remember how to make the speed juice without the recipe?”
“I made that thing half a century ago. I can hardly remember my own name.”
“Then let’s look for it.”
Rainbow Dash dashed towards the center of the library. She was going through a pile, reading the title of every book, analyzing every scroll and paper. Most of the papers were unreadable, but Rainbow threw them away the moment she noticed that they were not in a recipe-like format. Twilight hadn’t even left the table before Rainbow was done with the first stack. “It’s going to take forever, Rainbow. I have even more stuff downstairs.”
“We can’t give up.” She was throwing a few books around before thinking of something. “If you can’t remember where the recipe is then how did you remember all that science stuff?”
“I have had a long time to study.”
“Oh. I see.” Rainbow Dash looked at the corners of the room where mountains of dust were lying. “Seems like the only thing you did was studying.”
“I have an idea. What if I created some kind of compound that would allow us to read faster? Some sort of muscle improvement substance. That way it’ll take us much less time.”
Rainbow looked at Twilight with a resentful expression. “Seriously, Twilight?”
“What?”
“Are you senile?”
Twilight frowned and pointed a hoof at Rainbow. “Don’t be impudent, young lady. It’s going to happen to you some day as well.”
“Whatever.” Rainbow kept searching. She threw all the stuff that she had already been through in one end of the library, but she soon forgot which of the piles were unchecked and which ones stilled needed to be searched.
“Hold on, I think I remember something about the muscle improvement elixir.”
“Yes?” Rainbow Dash turned away from a book to glance at Twilight.
“I remember testing it. On a frog. I recall concluding that the elixir was way too powerful. I think the frog died. After that I destroyed the elixir because it was too dangerous.”
Rainbow Dash frowned. “That leads us nowhere!”
“I know. But why did I remember it, then?”
“Just help me search.”
The hours passed and the fireflies died out slowly. It was getting harder to read. Twilight’s horn grew a bright light, but it faded before long. “My magic isn’t as powerful as it used to be.”
“This is pointless!” Rainbow rubbed her eyes with her hooves. She flew around the room in frustration, and the loose sheets of paper twirled around. “Oh, I’m sorry. I know you don’t want me to fly in your library.”
“I don’t?”
“No. You used to make it very clear to me.”
“It was one of the last things I told you before you left, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, it was, actually.”
“Hmm …” Twilight put a hoof under her chin. Her eyes became a thin line. It looked like she was concentration on something.
“So … do you want to keep searching?”
“Wait,” Twilight walked a bit faster than she used to. It was probably old Twilight’s way of hurrying. She climbed the stairs leading upward, which looked very troublesome, while cursing under her breath.
“Do you me to help you up the stairs? I could lift you.”
“No, these stairs are the only thing that is keeping me young and agile.”
“Okay.” Rainbow observed Twilight’s awkward gait, which looked anything but agile. Rainbow was flying upstairs just behind her.
When she finally conquered the stairs, Twilight was breathed heavily. The room was like the library filled with dust and books everywhere. Spike sat in the corner, eating ice cream with his hand on top of a bed made of old paper, while listening to an old timey radio. There were darkened patches all over the carpet. “Spike still snores. It wasn’t a big problem when he was younger, but now it causes a small fire hazard each night.” Twilight walked towards her bed. The mattress had been replaced with a pile of hay. “It’s true that I decided to destroy the compound, but I had a feeling that your disappearance was linked to the elixir, which is why I saved it someplace where nopony would stumble upon it.” Twilight punched a board in the floor by her bed. The board broke loose, revealing a secret room. A bottle of red liquid with a note attached emerged from the darkness. The note read ‘In case Rainbow returns’. The bottle was covered in dust, but the liquid had the same red shine that Rainbow remembered.
“Do you think it has gone bad?” Rainbow sniffed the bottle.
“I don’t know. I can’t force you to drink it …”
“I want to.”
Twilight nodded. “Do you remember how much you initially drank?”
“About a quarter of one of your test tubes.”
“That is not a lot. This stuff is really powerful.”
They walked downstairs. Twilight filled the button of a tea cup with the compound. “Make sure you recreate exactly what you did the day you vanished, only in reverse. Remember you have to hit it from the other side.”
“What is ‘it’ exactly?”
“It should look like a black hole, but not as dense of course.”
“Twilight …” Rainbow looked into Twilight’s eyes with a serious expression. “If I succeed, it means that your life the last fifty years will be completely different … and it probably means that this version of you will never exist. Or something …”
Twilight smiled, and her face grew even more wrinkled. “That’s what I’m hoping.”
Rainbow hugged Twilight. “Thank you.” Then she left the library.
Outside the boundaries of Sweet Apple Acres there was a lonesome apple tree without apples or leaves. The point where Rainbow had been travelling through time was about halfway between Saddle Lake and Ponyville, so if she started at Saddle Lake, Rainbow was hoping that she’d hit the spot of compressed time and space with the same speed as before, only this time from the other side. Rainbow Dash was flying back from Saddle Lake. She was about to hit the tree, but spread out her wings and made a soft curve through the air, turning around. The elixir was going to kick in soon, she knew. Her eyes widened. It was going to be hard to spot the point of compressed space. She had seen the grayish patch of what appeared to be some kind of smudge in the sky while travelling back to Ponyville. It was not big, roughly the same size as her. The black background provided by the clouds didn’t make it any easier to spot. The fact that her journey could possibly kill her didn’t worry Rainbow Dash. The massive amount of adrenaline that was shooting through her body erased any sign of anxiousness. She was well aware, though, that she was only going to get one shot. If she missed, she would travel fifty more years forward in time; to a point in time where Twilight wasn’t alive anymore. Her wings were flapping faster. The pressure was building. She felt the sound barrier break. She was gaining speed. It was now or never. Her hooves were pointing in the direction where the semi black hole was going to appear. She was not going to be able to change course once her speed accelerated even further. It was too late to do anything now but fly straight forward. Like before her vision was all of a sudden zoomed out, so she could see the things she had just passed, and then it zoomed drastically in. The grayish smudge of compressed space was flying towards her in an immense speed. Rainbow closed her eyes. To her surprise she didn’t feel anything. There was no impact. She hadn’t felt a collision between her and the compressed space like she expected. In fact, she couldn’t feel anything. Was she dead? Rainbow opened her eyes and looked through the tunnel of darkness at a spark of light. It looked very similar to the light she had been seeing the first time she had been travelling forward in time. But she had also heard that ponies who had almost entered the afterlife had experienced travelling through a tunnel with light at the end, so she didn’t give up on the dead theory entirely. When the colorful beams emerged from the light at the end of the tunnel, Rainbow didn’t feel completely relived. She knew that she was in fact travelling faster than time now, but was she travelling back in time? She had been flying directly towards the compressed space, but what if she had entered faster-than-time speed before hitting it? What if Twilight had been wrong? Rainbow closed her eyes once again while she was being carrying weightlessly through the tunnel. Through her eyelids she saw the light shine brighter.
After a while the sensation of wind around her and gravity pulling her downward overwhelmed her. She flapped her wings in response to the change. She dared to open an eye. The sun was almost down beyond some tree tops. And the tree had leaves! Rainbow looked around. She saw a forest underneath her and the red sky above her. The clouds were white and the smell of the late summer carried by the evening breeze filled her nostrils. She turned around and there was no smudge of grayness or anything in the sky. The hole between her time and fifty years later had been closed. “Woo-ho!” Rainbow was flying in circles while laughing. She cheered and punched the air. A nearby cloud provided a comfortable substitute of a bed. All she needed right now was a nap. She lay on her back, neck resting on her front hooves and hind legs crossed. But suddenly she remembered something.
Applejack spotted a multicolored pegasus in the sky and looked at the stopwatch. “Oh, dear. She’s not going to be happy about this.” One of the hands of the stopwatch was well over the ten minutes mark. When Rainbow was within hearing range, Applejack opened her mouth in order to provide comforting words, but instead Applejack found herself lying on the ground after Rainbow had tackled her. “What did ye do that for?”
Rainbow Dash was hugging her friend, whispering into her ear, “I’m never leaving you again.”
Author's Note
This fanfic was inspired by a Powerpuff Girls episode
