What you see before you is nothing more than an illusion crafted by a spell."
Selene looks at his mother with a soft smile. [ "It's all we've ever seen of the stars since her rule over the night."
Luna returns the favor as the map stops for a moment and zooms in on what looks like earth but different. The map focused on what looked like a white tree…? It was unlike anything Day and Bliss had ever seen before, its roots spiraling out of control, complete discord yet it still seemed orderly somehow. It seemed like the tree was embedded into the world itself, like it was supporting it on its roots. "This is Yggdrasil, the world tree."
"Or the root."
The princess and the prince paused for a moment. "It's where all magic comes from."
"Even beings you might consider 'divine' such as us don't understand it fully yet. But let me tell you this, all living beings come from and return to the root."
Yggdrasil…? The root…? This still all felt like some wild dream to Day and Bliss but they let the two continue anyway. They were probably too stunned to speak anyway.
"Magic may work off mystery here but it's still a force as natural as any other." Luna zooms the map out once more as the roots of Yggdrasil can be seen everywhere with all these brilliant white sparkles.
"And magic can come from almost anything, not just the root, but definitely not like that." Selene comments.
"No matter where it comes from though, magic is a source of life and harmony." The white sparkles begin to swirl as a tiny little "tree" is born, its roots growing. It was so mesmerizing to Day and Bliss, they couldn't take their eyes off of it.
A bit hard to explain too but everything swirled, joined together as one and then a spark hit what was once an empty world, giving birth to life. "And all life on all worlds, like Equestria, that's what we thought before at least…"
Selene and Luna step aside as they let the magic flow to Day and Bliss and through the whole room. Despite its intensity it doesn't make a monstrous roar. No, no, no. It was something quite different. It was far more peaceful…
They saw all sorts of colors, combining, joining together, flowing through them. It felt like it touched their souls. It didn't hurt though, it made them feel at peace.. Like all their worries were lifted off of them.
"As you saw there, life is special, it's one of the things that interacts with the thaumic field."
Luna goes silent to let Selene add on his own comments once more. "Rare" forms of life with a body and a soul don't just slow it down, they absorb it."
Luna and Selene's horns light up practically in unison as the projection zooms out… Far, very far… Not just past the planet, the galaxy, or anything like that it zooms out for practically thousands of light years away until all that's left is a single bubble. The partners swore they could see another smaller one but that wasn't important now.
"Many, many moons ago Starswirl The Bearded made a spell that could…." Selene trailed off for a moment. "Just think of it like a semi-gate between worlds, kinda like that mirror but not quite."
Bliss and Day cared naught to ask what he meant by "mirror" ; they were far too focused on everything happening before them.
They both leaned closer to get a better view at the projection, with both Selene and Luna moving out of their way. Heck, Bliss even picked up Day again so she could see better. Day didn't even notice to care, again they were far too mesmerized by everything…
It zoomed in until they both saw another world. They knew exactly what it was, Earth. Their home. Even if it looked almost exactly the same. One thing was different about it though… "The magic…"
Bliss finished Day's sentence for her. "It's all gone."
They almost wanted to call it a sad sight, it seemed so empty… So lifeless, even if they knew that wasn't the case.
Even so, it was a better look at their home than anything they'd ever seen in their lives. They both wanted to ask Luna and Selene how they could see all this at the same time but that would be silly.
Luna is the Princess Of The Night, and as such she has domain over it. Selene is the Prince Of The Stars but he doesn't hold domain over just the stars, since the sun is technically a star as well, you could say he holds domain over it too.
He was the bridge between Celestia and Luna, the in-between of Dawn and Dusk.
"We thought your universe was lifeless. Without magic, how could anything live there?"
Selene looks at Bliss and Day with a smile. "But, we were obviously very wrong."
"You've heard the story of my-" Selene continued where his mother left off. "Our banishments, correct?"
Bliss and Day nodded.
"There are no records or anything of the sort of your universe doing that time."
And as usual Selene added on his share to the conversation. Seriously, were these two in kahoots or something? Well, that's just mother and son for you… "And since I disappeared too, I couldn't gather them for her."
It's not like anything changed that much though, is what Selene would've said if. Well…
Selene zoomed the image in on earth and the same white sparkles as before could be seen just fainter. And something else was much like "Yggdrasil" began to form…
"It was faint but we knew it was surely magic."
Luna would've treated this as a good thing but her grim expression contradicted that. Selene moved closer to her to try and attempt to comfort her. "Maybe we just didn't see it before, but we saw it now, and that's all that mattered."
Magic randomly appearing out of nowhere, it definitely shouldn't be possible. That (probably) wasn't something even discord could do. "We were both surprised when we saw this. Magic just can't come out of nowhere, especially in a world already devoid of it."
"But maybe, just like how ponies can influence magic with their emotions, your kind did the same."
Over thousands, millions of years, or who knows how long of human invention and expertise all led up to this. Happiness, sadness, everyone's experiences contributed to this.
"I gathered enough power so I could hastily open a gateway into your world."
"When we made it public knowledge, or well semi public knowledge at least. Ponies here debated on whether we should contact you." Selene pauses for a moment. "While some things showed us we could live without magic, like that Tirek, it was too risky."
"But there was no reason for why you couldn't come here, that's what we thought until…"
Lunas ears visibly droop as her expression gets worse. Selene turns to her as if to express concern, she simply turns to face him and makes a soft smile as if to say "she's okay" and goes back to what she was saying. "We opened a gateway, made contact and they came."
Selene's horn lit up as he made a projection of a human. "But when they did…" The projection begins to break like glass. [color=a69cdc]"The magic here was far too much for them to handle, and they returned to the aether whence they came..."
Instead of the shattering and breaking part like it though the projection simply vanished without trace as if to mimic what happened to the humans they contacted. A quick and painless death. What the HPI thought was a human becoming brain dead was their soul itself being overwhelmed and lifted from their bodies.
"We expected that to be the end of everything, no more contact, no more nothing."
Selene spoke with bitterness in his voice. "Our worlds could never coexist, we're too different…"
"But as you can see now, that wasn't the end of it, because…"
"We're here." Bliss and Day spoke almost in unison. Both were equally shocked. They could never imagine something like that, one minute you're living the next, poof. Nothing. No matter how "quick and painless" it was it didn't stop them from shaking in horror from the sheer thought of it.
"Correct. Any ponies with the knowledge of that spell withheld from using it, aside from me…"
"And a few obvious ones."
"We decided to simply observe your world from a distance, see how magic would affect your development."
"And maybe your world would become just like ours."
[color=#a69cdc"But one day, upon checking your universe..."
"It was then that we saw something."
The illusion zooms into earth once more but what looks like it at a later date. The "tree" looked far more lesser than Yggdrasil. But something was off about it, it looked like it was pouring into Earth's core… No, the world.
"Your equivalent to the 'root' was fusing with your planet. No, the world itself."
"Your kind most likely couldn't handle magic on that sort of scale.
"Couldn't you stop it?"
"No, something like that is beyond even our power.
"Equestrias radio technology had progressed a far amount since the doorway first opened, largely because of the observations we made and the things your people brought here."
Luna takes out a laptop, obviously older. Looked it was taken apart too. Not just a laptop, she took out all sorts of things: clothes, a bag, some books… A sad sight.
"And I have gone through a number of things since then too…" The Prince looks down in silence for a bit as his mother brushes him with one of her wings, reassuring him everything will be okay.
"So, we contacted your government in an attempt to find a way to stop it."
"Once they figured out we were 'aliens' they had a lot of odd requests, like demonstrations of magic which we gave through the doorway."
"More lives were lost in that time frame… In the end they told us there was nothing they could do, they didn't have enough time or resources to attempt to stop it."
"We didn't give up though."
"We refused to just let your kind die like thay so we gathered Equestrias greatest minds, pony and non-pony alike. Together, we were able to make a spell."
"The one that made us ponies…"
"So the magic wouldn't kill us…"
"Precisely."
"Not just ponies though. Our world's magic is balanced by many species. We made sure to recreate the same thing in yours so it would flourish. Each person received a body that best matched their soul and our world."
Lonely Day felt anger quelling up inside of her. This princess… She practically killed everyone they knew and loved, she took everything from them, she was the one to blame for everything! Rash or impulsive it might've been, but it was how she felt at the time.
On the other hoof, Bliss wasn't angry. She was confused, conflicted, frightened. So many emotions she never felt before… She understood but… She couldn't accept it…
"Simply transforming you was not enough, we learned much about your society through your government. In the chaos your civilization would surely tear itself apart so we…" Luna stuttered even she knew it wasn't the best decision.
"We split your numbers across time. Those the spell matched with perfectly would be forgiven and remain in your world."
"Over the course of many, many, many… Years, missing people and the generally less ideal matches would return to a world that could care for their needs." Selene couldn't hide his rather somber tone. He just wanted to help and yet… He failed at protecting those he cared about yet again.
"The spell changed you to forms that could survive on magic, the majority of you were sent to a future that would be able to feed and tend to your psychological needs."
"And that is how you're here now."
Their explanation made their emotions worse. They were the reason why they lost their families, who knows when they'll come back. One hundred years? Thousands? Millions?
Both of them equally confused.