Just Blink

Digital_Hex

~.~.~.~.~.~

Dedicated and in memory to Aylaana Kitori, who will always be my light in the darkness.

Prologue

The young purple filly groaned as the tiny horn on her head spurted out a few sparks before going dim once again. The past fourteen attempts at the spell had ended similarly.

"Why can't I do this?!" Twilight Sparkle moaned aloud, pressing her face against her pillow before screaming, the sound muffled from the pillow material. When she removed her face from the fluffy cushion, her face was redder than before.

"Okay, spell, let's do this!"

Twilight took one last glance at the spell-book in front of her before she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, catching it in her lungs. She let loose her store of magical energy, funneling all of it into her horn, washing the energy through the motions necessary to complete the spell that had so furiously refused to comply with her.

It was another failure, as evident by the sparks. Again.

Twilight groaned, flopping onto her side as she stared at the closed door to her bedroom. Outside of it, she could hear the sounds of her family laughing and talking amongst themselves, enjoying a reunion of sorts. Apparently, her mom's cousin was moving away, back to hometown of the husband to the cousin. There was a big send-off and party, and of course it had to obnoxious.

Everypony in their family seemed to have showed up. There were cousin,s aunts, uncles, and grandparents Twilight had barely known, if not ever met. The house was cramped with ponies upon ponies, and the only place Twilight had to study was her room. Shining Armor had run off to play with some of their cousins, so she didn't even have her BBBFF to practice magic with.

And on top of that, she couldn't even complete one stupid spell! Princess Celestia would surely be so upset with her if she couldn't complete this simple spell! Twilight glanced at her flank, the light purple star supposed to represent her ability at magic. Right now, she thought it should represent her failing, whatever it would look like if it were to be true. Was there a cutie mark for failing?

Suddenly, a light pop blinked in front of her, a small form falling out of thin air in the middle of her room.

"They'll never find me now," the form snickered, letting twilight know that it was a colt, probably one of her cousins.

The colt suddenly perked up, ears twitching almost mechanically before he spun around to face Twilight, adopting a defensive stance. His hide with a faded tint of teal, his mane a short, disheveled mess of even darker blue with twin streaks of brilliant purple bursting across the left side of his head. He didn't have a cutie mark.

All of this happened in the course of, say, two seconds. The kid was on edge.

"Who are you?" he asked, looking as though he was about to roll to either side to avoid a tackle of some sort.

"The owner of this room," she huffed. "And who might you be?" She let a hint of annoyance seep into her voice, trying to tell the strange pony off for interrupting her.

"I won't tell you until you tell me!" he retorted, sticking out his tongue and blowing her a raspberry. Twilight growled, rolling so she could rise to her hooves. As soon as she had her hooves under her, though, the faint teal pony gasped, blinking out of existence. Twilight barely had time to cock her head to one side before he poped back into reality a few feet away from where he had originally been, failing at trying to hide behind the edge of her dresser.

Twilight gave a snort of amusement when he froze completely, convinced she couldn't see him.

"I can still see you, you know?"

He sighed a defeated sigh before rolling back into the center of the room.

Twilight then comprehended what he had done moments before.

"Wait, you can teleport?!"

"Yep!" the colt said cockily, puffing out his chest with pride.

She strained her eyes as she scanned the head of the colt. She noticed something seemed to be missing.

"But... how can you do magic if you aren't a unicorn?"

The entire demeanor of the unicorn changed immediately. His shoulders shrugged. His head hung. It was almost as if somepony had slugged him in the gut. His entire form shook violently once, twice, before becoming still.

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but was silenced as the colt raised a hoof, gently sweeping away a few strands of hair on his forehead.

There, hidden by the hair, was a small, stubby horn, tiny even for his age. Sudden;y Twilight felt horrible for what she'd said. Sure, she'd been made fun of for having such a small horn herself, which was only just smaller than everypony else her age, but his was...

"Oh my-" she breathed, realizing how mean she must have sounded with her snap question. "I'm so sorry! I didn't realize- I just- oh, I'm sorry!" she cried, hoping she didn't hurt his feelings too bad.

Instead, she nearly jumped out of her hide as he threw his head back, revealing that he was desperately trying to hold back a mighty roar of a laugh. He failed.

His cackling died down as he felt a heavy object headed towards him. He flashed over a foot, just barely seeing the book Twilight had been reading pass by where he'd been sitting. Twilight had on an unimpressed scowl.

"That's not nice! I thought I'd hurt your feelings!" she pouted.

"Not nice?" the colt countered, blinking up onto the opposite side of the bed.

"You're the one who insulted my horn!" he returned, making her once again drop her eyes in shame.

"But, don't worry about it. Consider it even for me interrupting whatever you were doing, 'kay?" he asked, sticking out a hoof.

Twilight studied it carefully before she bumped it with one of her own. Her horn glowed faint magenta as her magical aura enveloped the book she'd thrown, returning it to her.

The colt suddenly leaped to his hooves, excited.

"Woah, how'd you do that?!" he practically hollered. "I can't pick stuff up!"

To prove his point, he tried grasping the book with his own magic. A very faint light purple aura encased the book, but as soon as it began lifting it dissipated immediately.

"See!" he said, waving a hoof in emphasis.

"How can you fail to pick up a book if you can teleport?" Twilight asked him, arching an eyebrow in confusion. "I'm trying to do just that, and failing miserably."

The colt cocked his head slightly.

"It's not that difficult," the colt said, before blinking right next to her, peering at the pages open of the book.

"Although..." he trailed off, raising an eyebrow at the diagrams on the page.

"You might want to start with ignoring-"

He placed a hoof over half the page, leaving a few lines of text along with two pictures visible.

"Half the stuff here."

Twilight threw him an appalled look.

"You can't just tell me to ignore the instructions! I have to study all of it-"

The colt blinked away again, back in the center of the room. Twilight blew out an angry puff of air. His constant teleporting was getting annoying.

"You have to stop looking at each individual aspect and just try and see the big picture," the colt explained.

"If you focus too long on each individual question you have, you won't see the bigger answer. It's like blinking- for something so important to do, you never have to consciously think, and blink, and blink."

He smiled softly, an honest smile.

"I guess," Twilight considered, looking at the book again, covering the same information that the colt had covered.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Instead of trying to do each and every part of the instructions as perfectly as she could, she let her magic go. She felt the magic wash over her, and suddenly she felt very light before a cold wind swept through her, startling her.

She opened her eyes.

She was sitting right next to the colt.

A few purple sparks sputtered from the tip of her horn as her smile grew into a giant grin.

"See," the colt said with a smug look on his face, "just like blinking."

Twilight started hopping around, excited.

"I did it! I did it!" she squealed giddily.

"Yeah," the colt laughed along with her, "you did! Good job, Twilight!"

Twilight froze, throwing her gaze on the colt.

"I thought you didn't know my name?"

The colt finished his laughing leisurely.

"You said this is your room, and I was told we were going to my second-cousins' house, Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle."

The colt then raised his hoof.

"I'm Aural Blink, I don't think we've met before! Nice to see you!"

His smile was genuine.

Twilight couldn't help but smile as well, meeting his hoof for the second time of the night.

"Good meeting you!" Twilight said excitedly.

Blink disappeared, a light sheen of purple dropping from where he'd been.

"Find me!" he said, the direction his voice came from sounding like it was outside of her window.

She took a deep breath before letting her magic go, and Twilight Sparkle popped back into reality right next to her window.

Looking out, she saw Blink running behind the single tree in their small yard.

"I've got you now," she whispered, giggling as she teleported to the far side of the tree. She stuck out a hoof expectantly, ready to shout at Blink, but was surprised when she couldn't find him. He was gone.

"Blink?" she called out. Suddenly, she heard a rustling in the tree above her.

"SNEAK ATTACK!" he screamed as he fell out of the tree, landing flat against the ground immediately to Twilight's left.

"Guess I didn't measure my distances right," he grumbled, face dug into the soft earth.

Twilight giggled, helping Blink to his hooves.

A glint on the horizon caught their eyes, and the two turned to see the sun send out it's final rays of light.

"Looks like the Princess is making it night," Blink observed. Twilight noted a sad look in his eyes.

"What's wrong, Blink?" she asked, poking at his side.

"Nothing," Blink said, giving her a sad smile. Then he tackled her, tickling her stomach.

"ACK!" Twilight cackled, squirming beneath Blink as he vigorously assaulted her tummy.

"Stop! Please!" she breathed, unable to speak any more due to her insane laughing.

"Blink! Blink, where are you?"

Aural Blink paused, looking up. His eyes rested on a very dark purple unicorn filly standing at the door to the house, his age with a snow white mane.

Both him and Twilight rolled away from each other.

"Yeah, Dream, what''s up?" he asked.

"Mommy and Daddy said it's time to go," she said. With that, she turned hoof and returned inside the house.

"Well," Blink huffed, this time helping Twilight to her hooves.

"I guess this is good-bye," he said giving Twilight a sort of half-smile.

"Don't worry, I'm sure I'll see you again!" Twilight said with a big smile, wrapping Blink up in a big hug. Blink returned it, smiling to himself.

"I guess," he said, this time a single tear visible in his eye.

"But until then, work on your magic," he joked, lightly punching her in the shoulder. "I fully expect you to be better than me the next time we see each other, okay?"

Twilight nodded in a highly animated fashion, her mane bobbing along with her head.

Blink laughed again, an innocent schoolcolt laugh as he wrapped Twilight in another hug. Twilight was vaguely aware that he was slightly smaller than she was.

"And remember, if you have trouble with your magic," he said as he pulled away from the embrace, waiting for the prefect moment to finish what he was saying. Right as Twilight was blinking, right when her eyes were closed, he let himself fall away.

"Just blink."

Twilight never saw him disappear, he was there and then he was just... gone.

She felt her heart drop a little, but then felt the beat return when she thought about the next time she would see him. When was that going to be? She grinned to herself as she teleported to her room, mind set.

She would definitely get better at magic than him. She'd promised him.

Turning the page to the spell-book, she looked at the next diagram. It was a tricky spell, one she had tried and failed at in the past.

She furrowed her brow, taking a deep breath.

A determined smile was on her face. She was ready.

~.~.~.~.~.~

Chapter One

Twelve Years Later...

I took a deep breath before feeling the familiar tingling sensation coursing through my body.

"I'll ask you again," a massive griffon bellowed at me, tied up and hung upside down in front of him. We were in the inner courtyard of the griffon stronghold, and I was in the middle of a rather unconventional distraction. I struggled to keep from snickering as I watched one, two, three of my battle brothers sneak rather clumsily behind the backs of the five griffons stationed nearby.

Why? Because the guards' attention was solely on me, a light teal pony. My deep blue mane was flipped in my face, the back of my mane cut short but the front mop loose and lightly curled. They never saw what they had coming.

"Who are you," the griffon barked, taking an intimidating step towards me, "and why are you here?"

I snickered slightly as my Captain stumbled past the final column, out of sight. Step on of the mission was a success.

"What is so funny, pony boy?" the griffon asked, poking me not-so-lightly with a talon.

I flicked my head to the side, letting the griffon before me see my pearly blues. I wanted to make direct eye contact with him. It sold the entire thing so much better.

"What is so funny is that you honestly thought you could hold me."

With that, I blinked out of the rope that was wrapped around me. I was now standing square on the griffon's back, looking at the others. They had the perfect expression smeared across their faces: surprise.

I leaped off the griffon's back as he reared back, roaring. I had to duck and swerve as the others fell into similar responses, swiping my way with sharp talons. I cackled with laughter as I popped away, appearing next to a set of heavy doors. I bucked at the doors, attempting to close them. Apparently I wasn't fast enough.

One griffon, swifter than the rest, darted through the doors at the last possible second, tackling me before I could fully close the massive doors. I didn't suffer fully from the blow, teleporting a few feet away as soon as I felt contact, but it distracted me long enough for the other griffons to charge the doors as one, knocking them open.

I blinked out, reappearing far down the stone hall, up a flight of stairs and on the opposite side of the floor. It was enough for them, however, to know where I was headed.

"Defend the throne room!" I heard the bog one bellow from the courtyard, and immediately a bell began sounding.

I raced down the hallway, unable to teleport again. I needed to recharge for a few seconds.

Skittering around a corner, I was breathing heavily after my sprint. I'd covered half the floor quickly, but my lungs were on fire.

"Glad to see you made it," the large white unicorn down a shorter hall before me said as he noticed my arrival. With him was a gray pegasus, one of the Equestrian Nightguard, as well as a burly orange earth pony, a crackled set of power-bands pinned to his huge, meaty hooves. I knew the earth pony, he was Painful Authority. Why his parents named him that was quite surprising. Sure, he had murderous bouts of uncontrollable rage and he had an absolute hold on his soldiers, but other than that he was a great guy. Once asked me if I thought he should get his wife roses or tulips after work one day. Seriously, a real softy off of work.

Right now, though, he was smashing the aforementioned pony-run hammers into the thick wooden door, splintering it from the hinges. I counted three blows before it imploded into the room in a mighty hail of shrapnel.

Seriously, what a guy. He even opened doors for you.

The Nightguard, a female I believed was named Garnet, rolled in immediately, and I grinned as I heard the pleasant sound of her knocking a griffon head against the ground as I would do an egg to my counter-top. I saw her throw the griffon across the room, landing in a heap by the door.

I loved my friends.

The rest of us entered the room, which turned out to be nothing more than the bottom to a flight of narrow stairs. Seriously, considering the fact that griffons could fly, I was rather surprised by the sheer amount of stairs in the stronghold thus far. Judging by the apparent height of the staircase, it was quite a ways up. Good thing I was there.

"Alright, Blink, you're up!" Shining Armor, the large white unicorn said as he conjured up a shield around the two of us. I pulled out a charge cuff from the small satchel strapped to my shoulders, slipping one over the stub on my head. Yes, I had a rather compact horn. Don't judge.

"You two, hold the guards off for us! We'll make this brief."

Garnet nodded. Pain simple smashed his hoof down over the limp griffon's body, eliciting a sickening squish and crunch from the body. If it had been alive before, well, it wasn't now.

"Blink, now!"

Jeez, Shining Armor was sure yelling an awful lot today.

"On it," I grunted as I drew power from my own magical reserves, having to bleed more from the charge cuff around my horn. Turns out, I had to bleed just about everything from the cuff, as I had barely recharged any of my magic.

We flickered away before blinking back at the top of the tall staircase. I was breathing heavily, sweating while shaking. Teleporting takes a lot out of you!

"Who goes there?!" a distinctively feminine voice bellowed. I cracked open my eyes to see a cape-clad mare standing atop a mighty griffon, pinned to a circle I recognized as a transmutation rune.

"I am Shining Armor, Captain of the Equestrian Guard," Shining roared back, almost making the stone shake. Impressive, he was.

"And you are the arch-sorcress Marelin, correct?"

"Aye," Marelin acknowledged, a knowing smile playing across her face. I didn't like this already.

"Then you are henceforth declared a standing liability to the peace treaty standing between Equestria and the Griffon Kingdom, as shown by your illegal passage into out of Equestrian borders, and are to be executed immediately."

I raised a brow at Shining Armor.

"Executed?" I breathed. "Sounds a little... harsh, you know?"

"Orders," Shining Armor stated, waiting for Marelin to make her move. She had to make a move.

I didn't let her make a move. Straining myself against my empty mana pool, I flashed behind her and thrust my hooves under hers, pinning her while slipping a nullification cuff over her horn, effectively canceling out her magic.

"Well done," she snickered, making absolutely no attempt to fight me.

The mighty griffon literally nailed to the rune coughed weakly, bleeding out from a number of precise cuts across his form.

"My goddess," Shining Armor breathed.

"What's up?"

"She couldn't have- no, not even you would be foolish enough to try this!"

Marelin simply cackled madly.

"What was she planning on doing?" I asked. Hell, I was the one holding her. I had a right to know what I'd interrupted. I might have been contagious.

"It's what she was about to finish, actually," I heard Shining Armor call. I rolled my eyes.

"What was it?!"

"She was planning on resurrecting the essence of Nightmare Moon and corrupting the Griffon King with it!"

I felt sympathy for the griffon king that was nailed to the floor. He had to have been in great, excruciating pain, but instead of receiving help from my some-what simple-minded second cousin he got to hear a plan he probably had already guessed. I'm sure the transmutation rune beneath him, drawn in his own blood I was sure, might have given him a clue or two that it was BAD.

"So," I worded, trying to help both mine and Shining Armor's minds along, "If she accepted, it would spell disaster for the griffon kingdom. The griffons would be in an uproar over what had happened to their king, and would blame Equestria-"

"While Equestria would have no choice but to launch a full-on attack on the Griffon Kingdom." Shining Armor finished, as if he'd known all along. I loved the guy like family, but that's just because he was. He had a difficulty using his brain, sometimes. It was a good thing I'd been doing it for him for awhile.

Actually, not entirely true. He'd at least had enough sense to recognize the overlying disaster the return on Nightmare Moon would have spelled. Kudos to him. Finally.

"So what should I do with her?" I asked, shrugging with Marelin in my grasp.

"Hold on," Shining Armor commanded me, thinking. Must have hurt the big guy.

"Your breathing is erratic," Marelin observed, having her back flat against my chest.

"Wonderful deduction, ma'am," I said, amusing her.

"Along with the thickening of your blood vessels, the deep but uncontrolled breaths- you're an asthmatic, aren't you?"

I have to say, I was impressed.

"I guess you really are as creepy as they say you are," I said dryly, refusing to directly answer her question. She must have got the hint, though.

"And unless I'm mistaken, if you carry a nullification cuff on you, then that must be because you are unable to perform the spell yourself, leading me to believe you are also inept at magic, at least in that field. Interesting."

I scowled, not liking where this was going.

"Hey, you!" she suddenly shouted at Shining Armor, catching his attention. He turned towards her.

The first indication I had that something was wrong was when I heard the distinctive sound of metal hitting stone. The other was as everything slowed down following the sound.

The runes on the floor lit up, glowing a sickly purple. Marelin suddenly flew out of my hooves, straight up.

A beam charged around her horn, and with the direction she was facing, I knew exactly what she was doing.

She was finishing the ritual.

Soldier instincts are a funny thing. Sometimes, they make you faster, more agile and sharper in motions. Other times, they give you that extra juice to do one last spell.

This time, it did both for me.

The beam left her horn, and I had no time to even think before I simply reacted.

I jumped.

I teleported.

I blinked.

My body lit up as the witchfire engulfed me completely, burning at my hide. I lashed out with my front hoof, feeling it connect with flesh.

The two of us fell to the stone, one landing on hooves, the other impaled on a nearby pin used to hold the giant griffon steady.

Spoiler, I was the one on my hooves, though barely so.

I saw the last glimmer of life spark from the mares eyes, a determined grin still plastered upon her muzzle, and then she erupted into deep green flames that consumed her as well as the griffon king. I looked away, being so close to the flames. I heard the dying cry of the griffon, and then they were gone.

"Be warned, Shining Armor of Equestria," Marelin's voice suddenly boomed across the room, thick but distant.

"By meddling with my plans, you have brought a curse upon your newest princess. Wait, and you shall see."

And then there was silence. It felt as though a veil over the room had been lifted, the air lighter now.

Shining Armor threw me a dirty look.

"What," I countered. "You said execute her."

"And you were the one who had a problem with that," Shining Armor sighed, suddenly looking like the tired captain, I respected. The cousin I respected.

I trotted slowly over to him, weak all over my body.

"Eh, don't worry. She's gone now, mission complete."

"No, mission not complete," he said.

"What?" I asked, blinking. "She's dead, right? I thought she was the target."

Shining Armor swept a hoof across the room, indicating the rune drawn across the floor and the general lack of bodies. It clicked in my mind. My turn for a dumb moment.

"Oooh..." I mumbled.

"So what did that mean? Who is this 'new princess', anyhow?"

Shining Armor stopped breathing for a moment. If he could have gone any more pale than his coat already was, then he would have.

I waved a hoof in front of his dead stare forward.

"Shining, you there?"

"I have a new assignment for you," he breathed.

"Oh?" I asked, but lost my attention as Garnet rose above the lip of the stair chamber, struggling with Pain beneath her in her grasp.

"We have company incoming," she breathed.

I sighed before digging into my bag, pulling out the last two energy cuffs I had and slipping one over my own horn, replacing the dead one, and letting the other one slide down Shining Armor's horn. I doubted he even noticed, or if he would notice what I was about to do.

Taking a deep breath, I connected my horn to Shining's, and grabbed as much of his energy as I could before enveloping the four of us in a bubble, and in a flash of energy we disappeared.

Half the country away, we popped back next to our airship, hidden in the rocky bay of the south-western coast of the griffon kingdom.

I shuddered as I tore the burning cuff from my horn, Shining behaving in a similar manner. I was weak in the legs, and one quick look at Shining Armor proved he was as wiped as I was. Collecting the two cuffs, we wearily climbed the ramp of the airship, and was met by the small crew inside. The pilot instantly had us take off, heading back to Equestria.

"You used all of them again, I see," the deep green unicorn in the back of the shuttle commented as I threw the wasted charge cuffs down before him, flopping to the floor. I was finished.

"We needed a quick getaway," I stated.

"And then some," he mused, picking up the cuffs carefully.

"These aren't easy to make, and the gems used to concentrate as much energy as needed to fill these are rather expensive, I'll have you know."

"So push me out of this airship," I moaned, throwing my hoofs up in the air. The green unicorn chuckled wisely.

I felt a heavy hoof rest on my shoulder. Turning, I was met with a somber-looking Shining Armor.

"Cousin, what is the matter?" I asked, seeing the concern in his eyes.

"The message we received back there, that was a warning was it not?"

"It sounded like it," I agreed.

"Then you have a new mission," he sighed, looking away. He almost seemed upset about what he was about to do.

"What is it?" I asked him.

"I need you to provide... security to somepony."

"Is it your wife, Princess Cadence? I heard that the threat was directed against the newest princess in Equestria, so surely it must have been her she was referring to."

Shining Armor shook his head slowly.

"Aural Blink, when was the last time that you were in Equestria?"

I blinked in surprise, not expecting such a... random question.

"I would say... twelve years, before I left with my parents to Anville."

Suddenly a white-maned filly flashed through my mind.

"This doesn't have to do with Dr-"

"NO!" Shining Armor cut me off before I started making a scene. It was a touchy subject, one that I was secretly glad he was not referring to.

"No, it-" he stopped, sighing once more.

"It's for my sister."

I blinked again, now very confused.

"Why?" I asked innocently.

He pointed to a pair of chairs bolted to the walls, ushering me to sit down.

"This is going to take a bit of explaining."