A Shadow of a Whisper

Dear Princess Celestia,

This week so far has not contained any lesson of friendship so I am apologizing for being late, again. Although I am going to inform you that I will be helping my friends all day tomorrow so I hope to learn something by then, I do hope you can forgive me. I have made a list on the various activities I will partake in with them:

1. Bottle cider with Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres.

2. Help Fluttershy take care of her animals.

3. Give Rarity some inspiration for her new dress.

I really hope you can forgive me for being late on my friendship report.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle

The sun hung over Ponyville when a lone unicorn stumbled over a hill, admiring the apple trees that had just lost their precious fruit, and were preparing for the chilling winter ahead. Twilight was beginning to start her activities for the day, reading off a mental check list of all the promises she had made to her friends.

"So, first I have to help Applejack with cider bottling, then I should go and help Fluttershy with her animals..." Twilight mumbled to herself. She was walking through Sweet Apple Acres on her way to help the farm filly. It may have been boring work, but she thought she might've been able to learn a lesson in friendship from it. She was still Celestia's student, so any opportunity to learn was a blessing for her.

"Oh, I'm early. Well, I guess I could rest a little." Twilight said, leaning against the barn. It had been a long and tiring walk, especially for a pony that had woken up an hour earlier than usual. Even against the hard wood of the barn, the young unicorn fell asleep quickly.

"Wake up. Come on Twilight, Wake up." said a voice.

"Where am I?" Twilight asked. She was surrounded by black. It was a cold black, growing ever closer. It was slowly devouring her. It was like a dream, but she had never had a dream like this.

"How does it feel to be dead?" the voice asked. It was soft, soothing, and inviting. Almost too much so.

"What do you mean? I'm not..." Twilight trailed off. She became aware of the cavity that had been dug out of her chest. As she looked down at the rough opening, she could see scenes from several biology books. She could see her own heart, nestled between several eggshell white ribs. Her heart was weak, barely throbbing. Twilight screamed and vomited at the sight, some of it dripping into the wound. The acidic vomit only made her scream again, this time in agony, not shock. Tears flowed endlessly from her eyes as she realized that she would never see any of her friends, or anypony else, ever again. "Who are you? Discord?" She pleaded.

"No, no. I am not the one you call Discord. I cannot tell you much about what happened to you, but I can tell you that your death was not accidental. No, you were not the victim of some freak farm accident." The voice calmly said, reading her thoughts. "You were attacked, and then you bled to death. I believe the first laceration started near the top.”  A dark figure began to emerge from the darkness, bringing with it a bright white light. There was something strange about the light though. Twilight couldn't put her hoof on it, but there was something familiar about it.

"What do you mean? Who are you?" Twilight asked, growing more and more fearful of this creature. She began to back away from it, not wanting to be hurt by it.

"Why, my dear child, you should know by now. You were murdered. I want to play a little game though, it's been so long since I've had any fun." the voice replied. Twilight stopped her retreat to listen. She was frozen in fear of what exactly the creature meant by 'Fun'. "I want to share some of my power with you. I can give you the power to change your fate."

"Change my... fate?" Twilight asked in fear and disbelief.

"Yes, I want to see if you can outwit Destiny. Be warned though, Destiny doesn't like to be tricked. Here, take it." As it said this, it tossed her a small necklace. It was golden, adorned with small rubies that shone in the creature’s bright light. "Just think of when you want to travel to, and you will go there. It only travels through time, so if you want to be somewhere else, you'll have to travel there yourself. I know you have a spell for time travel, but this doesn't have such a short time limit, and won't cost you magical energy."

Twilight began to scream, partially because magic like that was unheard of, but mostly because one of her lungs was now sitting in front of her hooves, still slightly throbbing as the cords linking it to her body pulsed with what little blood she had left.

"Don't think you can just live out your days in the past though." The figure calmly proceeded, as if nothing had happened. "The necklace has a clock concealed inside the center gemstone. It measures time on the day you were murdered. If you don't return in time to be killed, you'll die. Even I can't bring you back then. It will sound an alarm when you have five minutes left, so you won't forget. If you manage to save yourself, the clock will shatter."

"What's the catch?" Twilight weakly laughed, beginning to lose her sanity from the intense pain coursing through her nerves.

"Catch? There is no catch." The figure said, confused as to why the decomposing unicorn would ask such a thing.

"But, why are you helping me?" Twilight asked, bursting into tears. She had finally accepted that she was dead. She stood in awe at the kindness and mercy that this stranger was showing her. It had given her a new lease on life, and a chance to live again.

"Hm, you're no longer dead, so you can't stay here. I'll put you in your house the morning of your death. Stop it as best you can." It said with a chuckle.

Twilight awoke in her room, a small golden necklace around her neck. The early dawn light made the rubies on her necklace shine. She had hoped that everything that happened was just a nightmare from Luna, the guardian of dreams, and notorious prankster, but the necklace around her throat convinced her otherwise. That meant she would be dead tomorrow.

Twilight tried to remove the necklace from her neck, but as she did so, she realized it had become part of her. Her wound had closed around the metal jewelery, forcing it to become one with her own flesh. She could not remove it, at least not until she solved her murder, for then it would demolish itself. That's what the figure had said, at least.

"Twilight, Are you awake yet? Rarity needed you to bring her those books on embroidery, remember?" Spike called from outside Twilight's bedroom door.

"I'm awake, Spike." Twilight replied. She had to act normally, lest everypony become suspicious of her. She knew two things: she had been murdered, and she had the power to travel through time indefinitely. She quickly thought of all her enemies, and if they could have murdered her. Trixie would never go that far, and now that she thought about it more, neither would Discord. Sombra didn't really know who she was, or where she lived. Chrysalis could've, but she had taken refuge in Saddle Arabia after the invasion’s failure. Nightmare Moon wasn't around anymore, ever since Luna had returned from the moon. The list went on and on, but Twilight couldn't think of who would've done it.

Twilight made her way into the Library's main room, and was greeted by breakfast, courtesy of Spike. After she ate, she made her way to Rarity's boutique, with the requested books in her saddle bag. It was then that she decided to use the necklace. All she had to do was think of a time, say one week ago...

"Hey Twilight!" Rainbow Dash called. The cyan pegasus had just finished clearing clouds, and was hoping she could have some fun with her egghead friend.

"What is it Rainbow?" Twilight asked her friend. Rainbow Dash had just burst through the doors of the library, waking up Owlicious, who had just fallen asleep. This was strange, it hadn't happened the first time Twilight had died.

"I found this great new spot to chill! I was flying over Saddle Lake, and I found this great little clearing, want to go?" Rainbow Dash asked. She spoke hastily, as if something was planned there.

"Sure, to be honest, I could use a change of pace. I need to clear my head." Twilight sighed. A thought rushed through her mind, but it was crazy. There was no way Rainbow Dash would ever murder her, right?

"Woah, what's with the jewels?" the eager pegasus asked, looking down at Twilight's chest. "Did Rarity give you those?"

"What? Oh, um, it's nothing. Just a family heirloom." Twilight lied. She was glad she wasn't the Element of Honesty. "Why were you looking at my chest anyways?"

"No reason!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, her wings bolting upright. "Anyways, it looks good on you." A streak of red crossed her face.

"Thanks" Twilight replied. She knew that her friend was fond of her. Extremely fond, but the pegasus never admitted it.

"So this is the place?" Twilight asked, looking around. It was perfect, a clear lake, as smooth as glass. White statues glistened in the reflection of the sun off the lake. Nearby, a small choir of birds were chirping. Twilight quickly glanced at her clock, she had fifteen minutes left.

"Yeah... do you like it?" Rainbow Dash asked, crossing her forelegs as another red river flowed over her face.

"Like it? I love it!" Twilight exclaimed. She had read about them, but now she was standing in front of one of the ancient divining pools.

"Yeah... love." Rainbow quietly said, walking closer to Twilight. "About that word..."

"What? The etymology?" Twilight asked. She loved etymology, it combined two of her favorite things: literature and history.

"Not exactly." Rainbow Dash sighed, brushing shoulders with Twilight. The two mares stood side by side, watching the lake for an instant that seemed to last hours.

"What then?" Twilight asked. If she could do something for her friend, she would love to be of service. She might even gain some information on her future death.

"Well, we're good friends, right?" Rainbow Dash asked. She refused to make eye contact with Twilight.

"Yeah, we're great…” Twilight was cut off by her friend, or more precisely, her friend’s tongue. Twilight could feel Rainbow Dash inside her mouth. She knew it was strange, but she didn't pull away. She felt enticed by her friend. After a few minutes, Rainbow Dash stopped and pulled back.

"Um... sorry, I... I..." Rainbow Dash stuttered. The river of red that was on her face quickly grew into an ocean. She flew off, leaving only a quickly receding rainbow trail behind her.

Just then, Twilight's necklace began to sound. Twilight thought of the time and date of her murder, and found herself still at the lake. The only notification that time had passed was the sun, as it was directly overhead. The fact that her alarm had gone off told Twilight that her 'experience' with Rainbow Dash had not changed her fate, at least not to a future where she lived.

Twilight began running back to Sweet Apple Acres, the scene of her murder. If she didn't want to die for good, she needed to get back there. She would just barely return in time if she ran as fast as she could. It was roughly a four minute run back to the farm, and she had four minutes and thirty seconds. She was going to make note of her murderer's face, and confront them the next time she went back.

A rustle came from behind one of the trees, but Twilight couldn't pay it any attention, she had to keep pressing forward. A silver tube peeked out from between two bushes behind Twilight. A dart came rushing out of the end of it, and found its target. Twilight felt a sharp pain in the back of her neck, and collapsed on the ground.

"So, you still haven't solved the mystery?" The voice asked. Twilight found herself awaking in the same black void as before. This time, she had a small hole in her neck that was dying the back of her mane scarlet.

"I don't get it, I didn't make it back to the farm, so why am I here?" Twilight asked, shocked at her lack of permanent death.

"My dear Twilight Sparkle, you don't understand it, do you? You have to return in time to be murdered, but the place has nothing to do with it. Where you are determines where you killer is, don't you see? You will die at that time no matter where you are." The voice explained.

"Well, at least I can go search for clues in farther away places, right?" Twilight asked. She was beginning to grow accustomed to the creature's calm, relaxed way of toying with her.

"Sure, if you think you'll find any. Your stench of death has worn off, so you can't remain here. I'm going to send you back." the voice said.

"Fine, but tell me one more thing, who are you?" Twilight tried to ask, but she found herself awaking in her bed before she could finish.