//------------------------------// // Goddess of Day and Sunlight (Night and Moonlight) // Story: My Little Pony: Friendship Beyond Worlds // by The Psychopath //------------------------------// The six found themselves no longer hurdling through the swirling water painting that was the void. Instead, they found themselves pulled towards the core of this place, passing by a multitude of rifts and the threads connecting them. The center mass, a mixture of blackened shapes, writhed and thrummed with movement, and much to the dismay of the six, they made contact with it. It was like falling through seas of cotton. Engulfed by the core, the mares found themselves robbed of their sight, their hearing, their touch, and their smell before reemerging several seconds later. To them, it felt like an hour had passed, but at least they were finally out. Everyone flew so fast that they didn't have the time to register where they had finally landed. Rainbow, however, was extremely grateful to finally be done flying through the air. "Oh. Finally!" she cheered. "No more flying randomly while tumbling about," she sighed. "But Rainbow, I thought you liked flying," Pinkie stated. She was met with a one-eyed glare by the rainbow pony. Applejack and Twilight were both tapping the ground and trying to get an idea of what it was. Every touch created a small rippling across the white surface that didn't reach very far before disappearing. Rarity, meanwhile, looked around, curious and suspicious. "Why is the inside white when the outside is completely black? I thought everything would be like what it was when we went into it?" Rainbow shrugged. "No idea. As long as we don't end up being chased by some monster because of these two," she said while gesturing to the earth ponies. "Oh no," Fluttershy worried. "I hope it doesn't eat us because it's hungry." She checked her mane and tail. "I don't have any food on me." The four looked at her, incredulous. "What? Every creature is important." The white unicorn observed every little detail of the white void they had fallen in and gasped in realization. They weren't just on a path surrounded by blinding white light. The others started to notice as well the details surrounding them. Strange, twisting columns leaning over at various angles and different sizes. Some seemed to soar high into the white sky beyond sight, while others were so short and fat that the ponies towered over them just by standing next to them. The walls waved and bent, and as they imitated the columns they pulled and forcibly stretched the windows that were within their bodies. The six looked and observed silently as color started filling the white void as the windows started to color in, becoming stained glass. Most were too distorted to be able to make out what was meant to be depicted, but a few were still decipherable: One of them showed two ponies, back-to-back, looking over a bunch of tiny ponies beneath them with their forelegs outstretched and a serene smile and closed eyes. The one on the left was pure white, and behind it was an assembly of halos with varying patterns, from the atypical flames to differently sized, hollow circles. The outermost one caught Twilight's eye as it resembled the flames that would emerge from her own star's surface. Applejack picked up on her intrigue and put a hoof on her shoulder. Where the six found a strange sense of warmth from the pure white, the pure blackness from the one next to it instilled into them a sense of foreboding. While identical to the one beside it, albeit flipped, it was surrounded by a strange miasma of stars, nebulas, and colors in waving silks of night. The ponies beneath them were all bowing in reverence to the pair. "Who're those meant ta be?" Applejack wondered. She turned to face Rarity and Fluttershy. "Say, y'all seem to know yer fancy watchamacallit thingy ya do with yer horns. Ya know anythin' 'bout these two?" Rarity looked at her with a sour expression. "You mean 'magic'?" she sighed. "Yeah. That." "Well, unfortunately for you I'm not a scholar. I'm a couturier," she stated with a hoof placed proudly on her chest. "I don't know anything outside of what I was taught in school and the general public knowledge." She looked to Fluttershy. "Maybe you know, honeydew? You're quite...savvy with the creatures of the wild. Maybe they've shared a bit of string with you?" The yellow unicorn shook her head. "No. Nothing." The two pegasi floated around the stained glass, darting from one spot to the next. While Rainbow was busy contemplating the artwork, Pinkie was bouncing around excitedly. "No idea what they are, but they look real cool if they can do stuff like that to ponies," Rainbow said. Pinkie, meanwhile, had another theory. "IbetIbetIbet they're some kind of 'super gods' that we forgot aaaall about because it's been too long!" She focused super hard, rubbing her temples like her head was going to burst. "Like alicorns!" The five stared at her, slackjawed. "That's just silly," Twilight said with a chuckle. "Alicorns aren't real. They never have been. They're just a legend from books." Pinkie's ears drooped in response. "But our books and stories mentioned they'd soar through the sky and bring life and sleep to everypony," she whimpered. Applejack raised a brow. "I heard that they took care of every living creature fairly and did their best to separate everypony so no pony would get hurt accidentally," Fluttershy added. "Now that just cinches it," Applejack blurted. Twilight was taken aback by the sudden words of her friend. "What are you talking about?" "Twi, Ah figured that there wasn't no reason ta dismiss the ahdea the pink one had." She looked to the pegasi then the unicorns. "After all, we ain't never seen each other before, then some weird rip in the air pulls us into places we ain't never seen before and with ponies sportin' goods we thought was fairy tales. What's to say them alicorns ain't real too?" "And look where we're standing," Rarity added. "Seems a bit farfetched to dismiss...um..." She looked at Pinkie Pie and shrunk away. "Pinkie Pie," the pegasus said with a bow in mid-air. "Rarity. Charmed," the unicorn added. "It would be farfetched to dismiss Pinkie Pie's claims." Twilight looked at the five then back at the stained glass and rubbed the back of her head as she looked down apologetically. "I have to admit it's been a turbulent day for me," she lamented. "You're right. I should try to keep an open mind." Proud of her friend, Applejack patted her on the back and accompanied her further. There was nowhere else to go, after all. A second stained glass window had been 'repaired' with plain, dark-blue glass, but the bits that could be seen above showed the heads of the two ponies glaring at each other, still with their eyes closed. The ponies beneath were gone. Instead, one could only see the base of the halos. Finally, the third and final depiction was of many worlds in an arc being embraced by the white pony. They were all interconnected with each other through a white line, save two on the right whose links had been severed by a black fire eating at the strings. Behind the white pony was the immense figure of the black pony, its starry halo taking up the background as it reached to embrace the white one. Twilight gulped. "That's...foreboding." "It was to be my greatest work," a voice boomed out across the void. An 'end' started to take shape. A small chapel-like interior as warped and twisted as the rest of the corridor and sporting a torn-down, featureless throne in its center underneath its dome-roof. 'Sitting' on it was an immense, blindingly white figure made of pure sunlight. The halos behind her rotating opposite each other save the outermost made of two overlapping halos that rotated inwards. While she looked vaguely like a pony, her body was featureless save for two golden arcs with three lines coming from the extremities meant to represent eyes with eyelashes. Her mouth was also just a simple golden line in a 'smile'. Her lower body didn't seem to exist. Rather, her upper torso seemed to be part of the broken throne itself. From her forehead jutted a sharp spike the length of a foreleg, and two wings came out of her back and mixed into the halos. When they passed them, they turned into a wavy nebula of orange and blues that her immense mane joined. The ponies felt the need to bow in reverence to this strange, otherworldly being, but somehow resisted the temptation. "I am so joyous that you have heeded my call, my little ones," the creature stated. It spoke with a calm, serene voice, almost like a loving mother cooing her upset baby into slumber. "I have been trapped here by my sibling for so long..." she continued. "Who are you?" Rainbow asked. "I've never seen you before." Seemingly shocked by the revelation, the creature put a hood to her chest and frowned, although the sounds of whimpering came from it. "Have we been separated for so long that you have forgotten who we are? I shudder to think what has happened in our absence..." "You didn't answer the question," Rainbow said with a pout. The creature bowed. "I am Celestia: Goddess of the Day and Sunlight. I haven't much time to explain everything, but long ago I had planned to join every world together permanently, but my spiteful and jealous sibling refused such a thing, and with the work of her and her servants, I was imprisoned here." She dropped a hoof onto the remaining legrest. "She remains here, keeping me trapped and tormenting me forever." "That sounds oddly petty," Rarity noted. Rainbow started boxing in the air. "You haven't tried knocking their lights out?" An echo reverberated through the white void. It took a while for the six to realize that it was Celestia laughing. "Unfortunately, there's not enough 'light' in her to 'punch out' as you say," Celestia giggled. "But I digress. Their actions destroyed the connection to every world, ruining my plans, but her power has weakened, and now the worlds are reconnecting, but the connections are unstable. They appear randomly and suck anything around them in. Creatures trapped on one side remained so for the centuries we were sealed away." "How do we unseal you, then?" Twilight asked. "We all want to go home before we remain trapped." Celestia nodded. "Normally, I would just need three ponies of the three worlds to aid me. I would require the magic of my sibling, but I have already stolen a teensy portion off of her when she kept me here the last time I reached out to you, and with six ponies the seal should break almost instantly." "Not if I have anything to say about it!" a voice boomed and shook the void. "Quickly!" Celestia panicked. "Simply place your hooves against my chest and I will be free! Please!" She dropped. "I have been trapped here for so long..." The six hesitantly looked at each other and nodded in agreement before they all reached out and touched Celestia's chest just as the night seeped in through the roof. The six felt something course through their bodies and their hooves when a massive blast tore away the prison everypony was trapped in, causing it all to be sucked into the newly unveiled, colorful void. Celestia's form grew massive as she enjoyed her newfound freedom. "Thank you so very much, my little ponies," she said as she looked at them with a smile. "It is much to ask, but you need to keep my sibling contained as I stabilize the connections before I join the worlds permanently. Without my intervention, we may all be trapped here, and I will not allow my saviors to suffer like this." "You heard her," Applejack said. "Ah know it feels like we were thrown inta somethin' we weren't meant ta play with, but ah reckon she'll help us each back home." The six stood tall in front of the amorphous shape solidifying before them. It was tall, looming over them, but much like Celestia, its body was devoid of features and its face sported only silver lines across its black surface. The silk sheet of night flowed around it as moonlight illuminated the ponies standing before it as they appeared in the scrolling scenery of the cosmos that was behind the entity. Unlike its sister, it had hind legs and a mane and tail that wrapped up into its mane as they both collapsed into each other when passing the halo. "You foals," she cursed. "Do you have any idea what you have done?! I need to reseal my sister," she said as she looked up. She made to fly up but found herself blocked by Pinkie and Rainbow. The blue mare shook her head. "You aren't going anywhere," she said. "You imprisoned your own sister? Why? You wanted control over everything?" Rarity shook her head. "Sounds like petty jealousy." "You don't understand!" the alicorn screamed. "Now move out of my way!" she ordered furiously. "We won't do it," Twilight refused as she stepped forward. "If we let you do that we'll never be able to get home, and who knows who else got taken into those rifts? We can't let them suffer such a fate as well." The sound of gritting teeth filled the six's mind before the alicorn rushed forward. The nebula behind her parted the pegasi as she bolted forward, but Rarity and Fluttershy held her back with their magic and pulled her back. A grunt followed her using her magic to whip at the two unicorns with whips made of tiny comets. Twilight and Applejack were there to tank the strikes and counter by grabbing the comets and jerking the sibling down to them. Said sibling turned herself into an amorphous form to flow between the ponies and reform further away. Twilight found herself rooted in place while the other five continued to hold back the goddess, if only because they all shared the common goal of wanting to return home. Looking down, she noticed her bangles were glowing. The further the other five went, the dimmer they became. She looked to Celestia then the other goddess and furrowed her brow. "Why didn't she just take us out immediately? It's like she isn't even trying to hurt us..." "It is done!" Celestia cheered. Twilight felt her heart fill with joy. "Then you can send us home!" "Of course!" the white alicorn responded. "Once your home has been joined with the others, everypony will be able to meet each other whenever without needing to go through those awful rifts ever again! Thank you once again for allowing me to accomplish my dream." "No!" the sibling protested. "Celestia! What you think is going to happen won't! You'll just end up destroying all the worlds and creating a single new one!" "We've talked about this before, Luna," the alicorn stated firmly. A transparent image of her appeared around the colorful void, seemingly engulfing it despite her body still being in front of the seven. "The world will simply be greater, larger, and more fantastical. Everything will reshape to allow it all to fit together." She turned around and smiled. "It will be just like a puzzle box." The five, confused, started trying to figure out a new course of action. Who was telling the truth? What was the right course of action? Twilight thought deeply of the words used and the stained glass they had seen, then a realization kicked in and she paled. The mare was quick to run to the others. "Girls!" she shouted to quiet the brouhaha. "The stained glass windows we saw." Rainbow raised a brow. "What about it?" "It wasn't...Luna attacking her sister for trying to join the worlds. It was her stopping her from destroying everything." She turned to the tired alicorn having trouble standing up. "Am I wrong, Luna?" The tired creature looked down at her and nodded. "For too long have we been locked in this struggle. A fight that could destroy everything." She sighed. "Her heart is in the right place, but Celestia is mistaken. She refused to listen to reason, so our ponies used the power of unity to seal us away, leaving me as the sole guardian...but in doing so they condemned everypony separation. There was never a 'one last time'..." The rifts all started sparking and rapidly shrinking and expanding in every direction. "How can we trust you?" Rainbow said. "You imprisoned your own sister!" She gestured around her. "All of this is like a story. How can we trust what's essentially a 'dark lord'?" "Ya cain't just accuse somepony because they're related ta somethin' ya don't like," Applejack rebutted. "That ain't how the world works." Rainbow pushed her head against the farm pony, teeth bared. "Are you the prince charming of this whole fairy tale? I don't want to see myself trapped here forever." Applejack pushed against her. "So ya'd rather just see everything get destroyed?" Twilight slowly approached the exhausted goddess resting on the 'ground'. Luna noticed her and slowly raised her head to meet her. The two exchanged silent words, but when Luna noticed Twilight's glowing bangles, she slowly rose higher. "Where did you get those?" Luna asked. Twilight looked at her bangles glowing intensely. "They're a family heirloom." "Hey wait!" Rainbow shouted when saw Luna raising Twilight's legs. "These belonged to the ponies meant to uphold unity." She looked at the six and 'smiled'. "Your unity was broken when I was sacrificed by the ponies to save your worlds, even if it cursed you to separation for what we believed to be all time." "Girls, she isn't evil," Twilight said. "So the goddess of sunlight is?" Rarity asked with a raised brow. "Neither is she," Twilight slowly began to realize. "Neither of them are. They were both misguided," the lavender earth pony continued. "They have no equal. They have no one to guide them." Luna's 'mouth' visibly scrunched at the words. "We need to help guide them, and we need to stop Celestia." "But--" Rarity tried to speak but Twilight interrupted her. "I think Luna is right," the lavender earth pony said. "If the worlds are all fused, everything will overlap and implode. What is left wouldn't be our home, and everypony we knew would vanish." Applejack nodded. "Ah'd listen ta her. She knows her sciencey stuff, even if she makes everythin' explode," she said while looking at her friend with a grin and a raised brow. "How do we stop her, then?" Pinkie asked. "We could sing?" "You need unity," Luna explained. She looked in awe at the six. "Not yet familiar with each other, but together you allowed Celestia her vaunted freedom. Together you can reseal her with the magic of unity." Twilight shook her head. "We won't reseal her, but she can't be allowed to leave this place or join these worlds." She looked up at the rifts that had taken on the shape of vertical rectangles. "I know it's asking a lot, but we need to work together on this." "Alright. If it's to protect the animals," Fluttershy said quietly as she hesitantly stepped forward. Pinkie dropped to the floor and bounced eagerly towards Twilight. "I'm always happy to make a new friend, so count me in!" she said happily. Rarity used her magic to recurl her mane and tail and grunted. "Fine. I'll agree to this. I'd rather be safe than sorry." Applejack looked between the two goddesses and heaved a sigh. "What Rarity said," she said firmly. Rainbow hesitated but threw her forelegs into the air. "Fine! What do we have to do?" Luna stepped forward, her strange body seemingly vanishing in and out of existence as she moved forward. It was hard to focus on her ghostly body. "Join hooves with her," Luna said. "With my power your unity should be enough to keep her sealed here." "No sealing!" Twilight insisted. "She just needs to understand that her idea is too dangerous." The goddess scoffed. "It has been hundreds of years. She will not listen to reason." Twilight smiled softly. "Then we'll force her to see everything." The six joined their hooves into a circle and, before they knew it, Luna's forelegs were on Twilight's shoulders. The six started floating as a strange power flowed out from Twilight's bangles and into their bodies. The goddess' nebula wrapped around them all as they rose into the air and a transparent gray aura started to glow around them all. "What is this?" Celestia wondered as she felt the change. She turned to see the gray ring growing in the distance. "N-no! Not again! You won't take me from them again!" She had no time to stop her spell when the goddess noticed something in the aura that wasn't her sister. "What the...?!" Five clawed hands appeared around her and clamped down on to her, cutting her magic off. The image of her in the background dissolved as her body shrunk and was gradually chained to the 'floor' everypony was standing on. The goddess jerked her leg, expecting resistance, only to throw herself forward by surprise. "What? What's happening?" Twilight stepped forward and helped Celestia up, even if contact with her made the lavender earth pony feel like her soul was freezing. "You're allowed to go where you want in the void, but you can't join the worlds." "But--" "You will watch and learn, sister," Luna said as she flew in. "They will be teaching you-us. Both of us, lessons that we have been disconnected from. Perhaps then you will understand that your dream is dangerous." "Is not!" Celestia protested. "We have to teach you something now?!" Rainbow complained. "Oooo! I can teach you how to make balloon animals! With just one wing!" Pinkie said. Luna tilted her head. "What is a balloon animal?" The pink pegasus stared, shocked. "This is going to be harder than I thought." "Um...will you give them bangles like mine?" Twilight asked. Luna shook her head. "No. We were not the ones to forge such artifacts. If there are others, free of possessors, then you are free to take and distribute them among yourselves." Several immense planets flowed through the silk cloth behind her and she stiffened. "I realize I have not introduced myself. I am Luna: Goddess of the night and moonlight." "The night?" Rarity repeated. "That would explain your appearance. I was wondering why Celestia was just bright light but you were more...decorated." "What is that," Celestia said as she pointed behind everypony. The gray aura remained in the air after the spell of unity had dissolved. The six could just barely make out a vague shape in it but had no time to decipher any other details. It washed over the six and slipped into every stable rift gate, surprising everypony. "What was that?" Applejack exclaimed in shock. Luna laughed. "Look upon your flanks. Unity has been returned to you first. The core of your essence for all to see. A mark of pride of the ponies of old," she explained. "Unity Marks, or Cutie Marks as some would call them." Upon Twilight's flanks were the stars of her bangles. Applejack's was an apple from which a green stem emerged and covered her legs with green, vine-like lines. Rainbow's was multiple rainbow-colored lightning bolts, the largest of which ran down to her knee. Fluttershy's was three crystal butterflies flying upwards. Pinkie's was balloons floating up in a rain of confetti. Rarity's was a blue, lozenge-shaped jewel straddled in purple silks. The ponies looked at them with intrigue, unsure of what to make of it. "You have reawakened the magic of unity," Luna explained. "I think ponies will start to reawaken their own marks." "So how do we get home?" Twilight asked. "Yeah. I'm ready to go to bed," Rainbow sighed. "Well, just will it, or I take you to the rifts corresponding to your homes if you wish." Luna explained. She stepped over to her grumpy, pouting sister and sat down, a melancholic expression on her face. "Meanwhile, there is much mending to be done between my sister and I." "You could come visit us!" Pinkie said. "It'd be fun to see you experience everything we have." Luna contemplated the idea and nodded. "When we need moments of peace, perhaps." She looked to Pinkie, 'smiling'. "I would like that. Thank you." "I think you still need to take us back home, though," Twilight lamented. "Can't get back on our own."