"I don't think this is a good idea, Pippi," Mr. Nelison commented from his spot on the alicorn's back.
Pippi Longstocking rolled her eyes. "But it'll save us approximately thirteen to fifteen minutes of travel time with a margin of error of up to two minutes, due to slowing down to reason with you about which direction to take."
"I already told you; I mapped it all out before we left, and everything points to that path over there being the right one. We're not even in a hurry, so what's wrong with taking the scenic route across the other side of the hill?"
"You know, Mr. Nelison, not everything needs to be preplanned," Willie commented from above. Her head and legs swung loosely with every flap of her wings as she hovered overhead. "Sometimes you just gotta go with your gut—" she lost some altitude as her belly growled "—and my gut is telling me that if Pippi thinks this is the way to go, then it's the way to go! If it just happens to turn out to be the fastest route and we get to eat sooner, then so be it."
"Exactly!" Pippi smiled, a little smugness showing on her face. "I'm glad someone gets it."
"It don't matter which way we go, as long as it's safe and we don't just stand about," Anna said as she anxiously shifted her weight from one side to another.
Mr. Nelison leaned forward. "Pippi, I still think we should—"
"Ugh, you're getting heavy, Mr. Nelison." She stood up on her hind legs and stretched her forelegs out.
Mr. Nelison lost his grip and tumbled to the ground. "Ouch!"
"The road to the next town is just beyond the final bend. You can probably almost see it.
"Did I tell you that the town is famous for its extensive book collection?" Pippi trotted forward, leaving Mr. Nelison behind.
"Yes, you did mention that." He curled up his map. "Several times, in fact."
"You can ride with me, Mr. Nelison." Cassandra nodded to her back.
"I may?"
"But of course, Mr. Nelisony-wikey."
His smile widened as he mounted Cassandra.
"You will catch any dirt that happens to fall from the cliff, won't you?"
He retrieved an umbrella, which was sticking out from Cassandra's saddle bag, and opened it. "I've got you covered."
Tommy glanced in all directions as she stepped on the path before Cassandra. "It's awfully narrow, though." A pebble rolled down the hill and bumped into her hoof. She flinched and whimpered softly, but continued walking with small steps while biting on her lower lip.
Annika bounced backward, smiling at her. "Oh, don't be such a silly-willy," she said in her usual singsong voice. "There's more than enough room for one and a half ponies to walk side-by-side!" Her bouncing paused. She raised a hoof to her muzzle. "Hmm, but how are we going to halve ourselves? That might be a problem. Pippi!" She turned around and bounced forward on the path. "We have a problem!"
"A problem?!" Pippi stopped, and turned her head with a look of momentary panic that subsided into sobered concern. "Is it a real problem this time, Pinkie?" She raised her eyebrows.
"What?" Pinkie stood up on her hind legs. "Of course it is!" She crossed her forehooves on Pippi's flank and leaned most of her weight on it. "We don't have enough half-sized ponies in our group."
"Uh-huh." Pippi rolled her eyes. "I'll get right on that. Don't worry about a thing, Pinkie; I'll handle everything." She pressed forward on the bumpy path.
Pinkie dropped on all four legs and looked back. "What about my wiggly tail, can I at least worry about that?"
Pippi noticed a pebble fall from the wall onto the ground beside her and facehoofed. "No, Pinkie, just stay on the path, and you'll be fine. This solid igneous rock formation is as stable as time itself." To emphasize her point, she kicked the fallen pebble to the rocky wall. "See?"
She continued trotting as she magically opened her saddlebag and floated out a book titled, Running a Kingdom 101, by Sombra. Opening it in the middle, she was immediately entranced by the content and didn't pay any attention to the section of the wall which was hit by the pebble, collapsing behind her.
Debris poured in front of Annika, covering half of the path's width. "Actually, it's sedimentary…"
"I said I'll handle it!" Pippi raised her voice without lifting her face from the book.
Pinkie shrugged her shoulders. "Okie dokie lokie! I trust ya." She bounced backwards to babble at the others.
Spreading friendship seemed like the easiest of tasks. Most ponies in neighboring towns were getting along just fine even without Pippi's interference; they just needed a nudge in the right direction and a good example to step up to the next level of friendship.
With her friends escorting her, there was an ample amount of good examples. Whenever there was a mission, they would drop whatever they were doing just to join her on the quest. She was very grateful for that.
As she reached a widening of the path, she noticed a lack of Pinkie-babble in the background. Perking up her ears, she heard cracking of rocks behind her and was reassured by it. They must have been right behind her. She continued reading a chapter about establishing authority.
Getting bumped on her flank made Pippi wonder if it had started to rain. She looked over her back and saw a pebble fell beside her.
Her friends were further away than she had thought. They've only just stepped onto the plain under the overhang.
"Come on, girls, quit your lollygagging, and pick up the—ouch, my eye!" She bowed her head and cleared a sandy grain from her eye with a foreleg.
An ominous sound of thunder broke over them. Pippi heard all of her friends' voices at once, Pinkie screamed the loudest.
"What's going on?" Pippi looked up with her half-closed good eye.
A rock, twice her size, was heading straight for her.
She stood frozen for a moment as she watched the rock approaching in slow motion.
Her mind stopped; instincts took over. Magic burst forth from her horn, enveloping her body. Just before the impact, the fields connected in a flash of light, teleporting her to the safety of her inner dimension.
Floating motionless in the black emptiness of her subspace, she slowly exhaled.
There were no sounds anymore. No rumbling, thundering, or screaming. There was a perfect silence in the darkness. The only light emanated from her spherical entry portal.
Whew, that was close, she thought as she looked from below the looming orb and gazed through it to the time-slice of reality. The rock was fixated in place just above her. Almost too close.
I'll just exit this netherworld to where my friends are and cast a magic shell around us. That should protect all of us from any remaining debris that may break from the cliff.
She floated around the orb, looking through it, to get a sense of direction, so she could form an exit portal in her subspace on the right coordinates, matching the location near her friends in the reality. I should form another connection to real world right about—
She caught a glimpse of a boulder in the orb. It hovered just above her friends in the static state of reality.
Good grief, it's going to fall on them! I should have paid more attention. I should have noticed the big boulder over my friends. They trusted me… Stop it, Pippi! Focus!
If I teleport back, there won't be enough time for me to cast a shield spell around us. Blasting a stream of magic at the boulder would be faster, but still not fast enough. All I have is an instant. I can't even charge my horn in that timeframe. If only it would be possible to affect reality without entering it.
Knowing that was a theoretical impossibility, she clenched her teeth.
Don't panic, Pippi, you've handled much tougher situations than this before. It's just a silly boulder in a static state of reality. You've got all the time you want to find a solution. You've fixed every problem you came across thus far, so there really shouldn't be any reason to worry about this one. Think! You can save your friends, somehow…
"Positioning—checked. Corporal integrity—confirmed." Pippi Longstocking smiled and shook from enthusiasm. "I finally did it. Everything is precise." She took a deep breath. "Let there be time."
Anna cringed then looked around. "Everypony all right?"
"Oh, Anna." Pippi's pupils dilated. "Worrying about others instead of yourself, like you've always done. I really love that about you." She stood up on her hind legs and embraced her.
The six of her friends looked at one another in disarray.
She looked at them with love and adoration that masked a heavy weight of guilt. She had gotten them killed. No, almost killed, because here they were, standing before her very eyes. She had found a solution.
"Pippi, wait, we may not be out of the danger yet." Anna wiggled out of the hug and looked up at the rocky slope above the path they were standing on. Everything was still.
"Everypony panic. The rocks are trying to kill me again! The end is near!" screamed Annika as she ran in circles among her friends on the calm hillside clearing under the stable overhang.
Pippi shook her head. "Not an end, Annika. It's a beginning! We're all together, safe and sound. This is a happy time. It is!"
"Relax, Pinkie. It passed, somehow," Mr. Nelison said and looked to Pippi, narrowing his eyelids. "I told you we shouldn't take this shortcut. What just happened is exactly what I was warning you about."
Tommy stopped biting on her lower lip. "What did just happen, exactly? How come it's over?"
"Yeah, where did all the rocks go?" Willie flew up and looked around. "I swear, there was a boulder here about to crush us all."
"I know a rock slide when I see one, and I'm sure I saw one. This one was a doozy, tearing off from the cliff—thrhh"—Annika imitated the sounds as she shook her raised hoof—"just as we were passing under it and gushing on the hillside toward us with tremendous force—phooh, the rumblings echoing from every direction—bwam-wam, ground shaking—trr-tr, stones flying everywhere—"
"We all saw it, Pinkie." Anna raised one eyebrow as she looked at her.
"Oh, goody, because I must have blinked and missed it. Where did it go?"
"I reckon that rocks stopped—in an instant?" Anna closed her eyes and shook her head. "No, rolling stones don't just stop. I honestly don't know what happened." She shrugged her shoulders.
"Pippi, dear, did you stop the rock slide with your magic?" Cassandra asked, raising a hoof and pointing to her horn.
There was no reply.
Everypony looked at Pippi.
She swayed on her legs. With her jerking gaze, she switched from one friend to another. Her smile was almost reaching her ears.
"Pippi?" Anna tapped her on the shoulder. "Do ya know what happened?"
She bowed down her head, slipped it under Anna's neck, and brushed her mane against it. "It's okay, my friends. You're all alive!"
Anna looked down at her with eyelids wide open.
"Pippi!" Mr. Nelison stepped to her and gently tugged on her mane. "I saw you teleport just before that rock fell where you were." He pointed to the big rock imbedded in the ground. "The moment you appeared in front of Anna, all the rumbling ceased. What did you do with the debris?"
She hooked one forehoof over Anna's neck and dragged Mr. Nelison in a hug with the other. "Forget the rocks. We have one another. Our friendship is the only thing that matters."
"Pippi, what's wrong? Why are you acting this way?" Tommy asked in a soft voice, as though she were afraid of the response.
"There's no impending boulder here! Why are you assuming something is wrong?" Clenching her teeth together, Pippi put her forelegs on the ground and took a step back. "Nothing is wrong! Everything is certainly fine. Nopony is getting hurt by the boulder here."
They don't need to know, whispered her own voice, echoing in her mind. This is a happy moment!
"I love you all!" A tear slid down her cheek. She had saved her friends. She had saved them all!
Tommy stepped closer and bowed her head to the same level with Pippi's. "I can see that something is bothering you. Talk to us. We're your friends. We're here for you. You know that."
Pippi's tears broke forth, and she sobbed. "I'm sorry I suggested the shortcut. I should have acknowledged that it was dangerous." She lifted her head with a forced smile plastered on it. "But it's okay now. Everything is fine. Nopony died!"
"I didn't mean to upset you like that, Pippi." Mr. Nelison reached out with his claw and touched her on the cheek. "I just think you should have at least listened to me before rushing forward, that's all."
"Yes, I should have! Your advice has always been grounded. If only I'd listen to you. I should have talked to you more. You know I love you, Mr. Nelison, don't you?" I've always acted like I took you for granted, but deep inside, you meant the world to me.
He took a step back as if her gaze was pushing on him. His jaw dropped ever lower.
She raised her head. "I love you all. I should have spent more time with each and every one of you!" I've missed you all so much!
Anna leaned her head as she looked at Pippi. "We love ya too, hun'—"
Pippi gasped and smiled. She sat on her flank and clapped with her hooves.
"—but what ain't you tellin' us?"
"Nothing is wrong!"
"I didn't say anythin' was wrong, but now I know somethin' is amiss. What're you hidin' from us?"
"I—" Pippi looked away from her friends as she sobbed again.
Cassandra approached her. "Tell us, dear." With her dainty hoof, she gently moved Pippi's head so she could face her. She looked into her eyes. "We need to know."
"I—didn't stop the rock slide." Pippi bit her lower lip.
Annika kicked at the rock imbedded in the ground that Mr. Nelison had pointed to before. The rock didn't budge; only her tail twitched. "But it has stopped, right?"
"There's not enough time. I've been over it again and again. Nothing I do can stop the boulder above you in time. Not even replicating Shining Armor's shield spell would work. It takes too long."
"Sweetie, are you saying we're still in danger, somehow?" Cassandra looked up the cliff and across the clear sky.
"You're all here. We're together again. I want to hug each and every one of you!" She embraced Cassandra.
Willie plunged down. As her hooves connected with the overgrown path, dust scattered in all directions around her. "Enough of your rambling. You need to tell us what happened, and you need to tell us now!"
With a smile on her face, Pippi approached her.
Willie half closed her eyelids.
Pippi stood on her hind legs and extended her forelegs toward her.
Putting a hoof on Pippi's chest, Willie leaned her body forward and stopped her approach. "Talk now! Hug later!"
Dropping on all four legs, Pippi sniffled. "Your proximity to the boulder means you'll be the first one to—" She looked away. "Then, the rest."
"The first one to what?" Rainbow asked, her voice a little shaky as her confidence faded from the words.
Pippi bowed her head, and whispered, "To die."
Her friends gathered in a circle around her, silently looking at each other in disbelief.
"Are you saying I'm going to die?" She spread her wings, jerkily looking around.
Pippi clenched her teeth and said nothing. They deserved to know the truth, but it gripped her heart in pain just thinking about it.
"Are you saying that?" Mr. Nelison put his claw on her neck.
"Yes." She stomped a foreleg to the ground and raised her head. A smile forced itself on her lips again. "But you don't have to worry about that. You're safe from the dreaded boulder here!"
"Where is here, Pippi?" Annika waved all around her, then drew her pointing foreleg to her face and observed it.
Pippi turned to her. "Don't worry about it; it isn't important. Don't let anything get in the way of who you are. Enjoy yourself. You've always been good at that. I love you, Annika!" She hugged her.
"Ugh! I can't take this anymore." Willie fell on her back, extending her legs and wings outward. "Pippi, let me know when you decide to stop being so confusing."
"What am I?" Annika's mane flattened slightly.
"Oh, darn it! Now Pinkie's lost her marbles, also." Anna facehoofed.
Annika turned to her "Don't you get it?"
"Get what?" Anna sighed as she looked at her sideways from within her hoof.
"None of this is real. Even we aren't real." Annika looked at the ground.
"I feel real," Tommy whispered.
"You're all really precise! I made sure of it!" Pippi said.
"You—made sure of it? How exactly did you do that?" Cassandra asked, her voice laced with a tinge of distaste.
"I didn't know what else to do." She looked down at Willie, who lay at her side, staring blankly at the sky.
"I wanted to talk to you again…" She stepped over Rainbow's wing spread out on the ground then carefully moved her other foreleg forward, gently brushing against the feathers with her hoof.
Her wing twitched, but she kept gazing up, ignoring Pippi.
She stepped sideways over the lying pony.
Willie's ears pinned back as she lifted her head from the ground and looked at the silhouette towering above her.
"I wanted to touch you again…" Pippi crouched down and locked her forelegs around Rainbow's neck.
"What the—" Willie jerked and shoved her legs at Pippi's sides.
"I love you, Willie!"
She kicked, but couldn't get an anchor point on Pippi's body. "Help! I'm being assaulted!"
Anna jumped at their side and tackled Pippi off Willie. The pegasus immediately took flight.
As Pippi lay on her back, she smiled at Anna, slowly extending a hoof toward her.
"Talk!" exclaimed Anna as she slapped the approaching hoof away.
"We'll have a group hug after you tell us, Pippi, if that is what you want," said Tommy.
Annika clenched her teeth together as her entire body twitched.
Pippi looked straight up to the sky. "Oh, no! It's already happening."
Everyone looked up.
A black spot in the sky covered the zenith.
"What is that?" Mr. Nelison held his claw on Pippi's foreleg.
"I'll go check it out!" Willie flapped her wings and flew up.
"No!" Pippi pulled out of Mr. Nelison's hold and rolled onto her hooves. "Get down here now!" Her horn charged and illuminated the surroundings.
Enveloped in a magical field, the pegasus crashed on the ground.
"Willie, are you okay?" Pippi stepped over her and looked up to the black spot in the sky. It was bigger than before.
"I'd be better off if you hadn't slammed me down! What was that all about?" she hissed as she wiggled out from between Pippi's legs.
"Don't go up there again. It's dangerous to you!"
"Pippi," Anna raised her voice. "What in courses is that black spot in the sky?"
Annika crumbled to the ground. "The end," she whispered. Her mane and tail were completely flattened, ears floppy.
"I'll tell you. But I will want that group hug after!" Pippi smiled at Tommy, who seemed to be the only one who knew what the right priorities in this situation were.
Cassandra sighed. "You'll get it; just get on with your explaining."
Pippi approached the big rock imbedded in the ground. "This was my entry point."
It dissipated as she touched the hard surface with her horn. A glowing blue sphere hovered in its place.
"What in tarnation is that?" Anna asked.
"It's a portal to my nether-realm. The place where my magic comes from."
"I've heard about those inner dimensions before," Cassandra said. "Every living creature owns one. Most can't access it directly, though. Pippi, do you think yours is encroaching on reality somehow? Is it another Tantabus?" She pointed to a black spot that was now spread across a quarter of the sky. The sun was near the edge of it.
"No." Pippi shook her head.
Annika bent her hind legs, laid her forelegs on them, and leaned her head on top.
Pippi looked up. "It is the reality that is corrosive to all the matter I've conjured in my empty subspace. Just as magic scatters in reality, so does formed substance dissipate here.
"That's what's happening to the edges of my conjuration right now. The abruption will continue to dispel projected matter as long as time-flow difference and a connection between my inner dimension and the real world exists." She looked at the hovering bright portal in front of her.
"So, we're not in reality, and we're all going to die?" Willie thumped both her forelegs on the ground. "Is that what you're saying?"
"We're not even alive!" mumbled Annika from within her forelegs.
"No!" Pippi pointed her leg at her. "You're wrong! All of you are still alive, both here and there."
"There?" Mr. Nelison asked.
"Yes, in reality. You can see yourselves through the portal. Just don't touch it."
"What would happen if I did?"
"On contact, It would destabilise your cohesion. It's very dangerous to you."
Mr. Nelison slowly approached the bright translucent orb and focused his eyes on it. He gasped and took a step back, pointing his claw at it. "There is a boulder above us in the world on the other side. It's standing still, though. They—we all are."
"The inner time is separate from the one in reality. Since this subspace is bound to me, I'm also connected to its time-flow. I can speed up the time in my inner-space as a whole or slow it down just by willing it. I can even disconnect myself from the fourth dimension and stop time completely. It's the time-flow difference between subspace and reality that is causing the friction.
"After the conjuring, I initiated the inner-dimensional time to flow. That's when the corrosion of formed matter started as it rubbed against the static time in reality."
"Are you saying that you can stop the time whenever you choose to?" Tommy asked, raising her eyebrows.
Pippi closed her eyes, and the time in the subspace stopped. Even the soft breeze ceased ruffling her mane. The silence, she was all too familiar with, engulfed her inner world. She raised her eyelids and walked among her motionless friends, positioning herself right-angled to Tommy. Willing the time to flow again, she whispered in her ear, "Yes."
Tommy cringed.
"I love you!" Pippi embraced her.
Tommy clenched her teeth and pressed her wings close to her body.
Anna approached the glowing portal.
Willie stomped a hoof at the ground. "No more hugs! Just tell us what's going on."
The hole in the sky started eating at the sun. The land was darkening.
"How can we be here if we're there?" Anna asked.
"I wasn't ready to face it all."
"Pippi, what did you do?" Cassandra half closed her eyes as she looked at her.
"I didn't get a chance to tell you how much I love you."
"Tell me you didn't…" Cassandra leaned her head to the side.
"I couldn't even say my goodbyes."
Cassandra gasped as she moved her head back. "You conjured us up, didn't you? Is there nothing sacred to you?"
"I didn't conjure you. I copied you. Reaching into reality with my magic stream alone doesn't affect its time-flow. I can spread my channels to the other side and touch the matter in real world, feeling its essence without affecting it. You see, no effect can be produced without time, and I can't use the natural time-flow if I'm separated from the whole reality dimension.
"In this subspace, however, I have full control. I can recreate every structure, using conjured building blocks. Every single particle that you consist of is precisely placed in its exact mirroring position. I made sure of it. You're all exactly the same as in reality, functionality-wise."
"That's appalling. Creating us just so you can watch us all get annihilated by the rift." Cassandra pointed to the starless black sky. The only remaining light was coming from the horizon and the light emanating from the portal. "You had no right to do that to us."
"I'm sorry. I spent so much time looking through that portal, calculating every contingency. The result is always the same. You die, no matter what I do. There just isn't enough time. I cannot save any of you." If only there was an extra moment for me to charge my horn. I could do so much. It'd be easy.
"But we are safe here, right? As long as we don't touch the big black thing up above or this small shiny thingy." Willie flew just above the ground as she pointed to the floating orb. "What would happen if we did, though?"
"Despite consciously being yourself, your physical building blocks are still conjuration based. With no real matter to sustain your form, you would disintegrate on contact with reality. Only I, being from the material world, am immune to its effects."
"Couldn't you have stopped the boulder with your magic or teleported us all here when you were still in the real world?" Mr. Nelison asked.
"There are exactly forty-two different spells I could have used to save you—if I only had the time to cast any of them. Look from below the sphere, Mr. Nelison."
He bowed down and looked through the hovering window to reality from the bottom. "There's a rock on the other side, hovering just above this position."
"The entry portal stands on the spot of my teleportation from the real world. I was lucky to get myself here in time. Self-transferring is the only spell I can do in an instant, and that was all the time I had."
"Are you stuck here just as we are, sweetie?" Cassandra approached her. "It's your portal, so touching it wouldn't end you, but the rock on the other side would."
"No, that's not a problem. From my subspace, I can form an exit point to a different location and avoid that rock. This is actually how my teleportation spell works. I don't transcend space in reality, I traverse the coordinates through this inner dimension."
"What's the problem then?" Cassandra asked.
"If I leave this place and step into reality, the time will continue to flow. I would witness the ineluctable future moment when all of you die. I'd be the one ordaining it!"
"Is that supposed to happen here or there?" Willie pressed her forehooves against her head. "Ugh, this is so confusing!"
"Both, actually. Everything I create here is an anomaly. When I leave, the subspace assumes its natural state, which is nothingness. While in reality, there's not enough time to save you from the boulder."
"So, you've created another world without the boulder." Mr. Nelison leaned his chin on his claw. "You didn't teleport in front of Anna as I previously thought. You've only completed the first part of teleportation then formed a copy of reality, with us included, in your inner-space." Mr. Nelison looked at her and opened his eyelids widely. "That's a lot of conjuring. How long have you been in this place, Pippi?"
"It must have been over a year for me since I entered my subspace. I had to get every particle right in its place or it wouldn't be the same. It had to be precise, minus the boulder and the rest of the debris. I've worked tirelessly, surviving only on conjured nourishments.
"I want you all to know that I love you very much." She raised her head and shifted her teary eyes among her friends. "I'm sorry I killed you all."
The sky was black. Only the light emanating from the portal illuminated the surroundings.
"So, we're all doomed?" Willie tensed her body.
"I can only save myself."
"But I'm too awesome to die!" exclaimed Willie pointing her forelegs at Pippi.
She smiled at her. "I know, right?" She bowed her head. "I'm sorry."
"Everyone!" Tommy raised her voice and blushed right after. "I think we owe Pippi a group hug now!"
Mr. Nelison leaned both his claws on Pippi's leg. "It wasn't your fault! You know that, right?" He looked up to her face.
"You're wrong. I've been over this a million times already. The only reason we took this route is because I insisted on it. It is my fault."
"I would just like to make it clear that I don't approve of any of this." Cassandra sighed as she wrapped a foreleg around Pippi's neck. "You know very well that we would forgive you even if it was your fault. It's what you did after that I find disturbing. You need to let go, dear. Don't seal your heart within this void."
"Can't you do something, Pippi?" Willie wrapped both her forelegs around Pippi's body and pressed her head close to her. "What if you stopped time, would that make the darkness stop?"
"Um, it would also make us stop," whispered Tommy. "If there was any way to make it all better, don't you think Twi would have tried it?" She embraced Willie with one foreleg and Pippi with the other.
"Stop being sad!" Annika stood up on her hind legs and leaned both her forehooves on Pippi's flank. "You're the one who gets to live. You need to be happy for our sakes as well!"
"Pippi!" Mr. Nelison clenched on tighter on her leg.
Anna stepped to Cassandra's side, sliding a hoof on Pippi's coat among her friends' hooves. "So, this is it then?"
"I love you all so much!" Pippi cried out.
There was no reply. There were no friends touching her anymore. She was alone with the portal in the stillness of eternity.
Wiping her teary face with a foreleg, she raised her head. Pippi, it's time!
She floated in the vacuum some distance away from the entry point.
Her horn charged up. Spiraling fields of magic channels sprung the second portal from the nothingness in front of her.
She floated around it, looking through it into reality. The viewpoint was beyond the turn of the path. It was a safe spot. She couldn't see her friends from this angle. Their faith was set in stone, but not Pippi's. She could go on.
You can't hide from reality forever! She lifted a hoof toward the portal, almost touching it. You can save yourself! There's no reason not to.
Her body tensed. "Some Princess of Friendship I am…" Teeth clenched together.
She retracted her hoof, bowed her head and fired a blast from her horn.
Magic force shattered the exit portal. Pieces of it dissipated into the oblivion.
She turned and floated back toward the first portal. Her horn shone ever brighter. Eyes glowed white.
Spouting channels connected, forming two magical streams. She extended them in the opposite directions. One through the source of light and the other one into the darkness.
Facing the portal, she focused on the tree in reality jutting from the slope beside her motionless friends.
As her stream of magic touched one of the branches in the shadow of the impending boulder, a leaf started to form in the void behind her.
"I'll make it last longer this time around!"