//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Weathering Winter // by Sasha Nein //------------------------------// Other Worlds She was inside her mind again. The orb that seemed so familiar surrounded her, it was comforting to be in such a familiar place again. It was something about the eddies of magic that flowed around her, they seemed so familiar. The more she looked, the more complex the patterns became. There must be an endless well of magic tucked away in here. It was clear that there were five separate types of magic intertwined into the base pattern, enhancing and strengthening it where it was weak or did not flow well. Without these extra types of magic the pattern would be flawed and she instinctively knew that using this magic without those supports would have catastrophic results. Why had she not noticed something like this floating around in her waking mind? Its power was overwhelming, you couldn’t hide something like this in the mind of a unicorn. Any unicorn worth their salt had some degree of mental awareness. You had to, if you wanted to perform spells. Unless... No, there was certainly no way... No way she could be ignoring it. How could she? It was so peaceful here, she felt like she belonged with this magic, that it belonged with her. Perhaps somepony had locked it away and forced her to forget about it’s existence. Twilight reached (theoretically) out and tried to tap into the swirling patterns around her. It resisted, or, was it her that resisted? It was hard to tell, but as soon as she made contact apprehension filled her. Who was she to have this kind of power? There was no controlling that much power and remain safe. She felt herself pulling away in fear and was astonished to see that the pattern snapped away from her. She was suddenly aware that the pattern had been shaped so as to flow into itself like a ball, effectively keeping itself from interacting with the rest of her mind. That was odd... If she could only- She felt herself suddenly being pulled away, Her subconscious telling her that she was needed elsewhere. This mystery would have to wait. Her body called, it needed attention. She drifted out of the vision and she blacked out, losing consciousness within her conscience as her mind desperately tried to wake up. * * * Pain is always an unpleasant sensation to wake up to. You are not yet in control of all your bodily functions but you can still feel everything. This was the first sensation that Twilight recognized as she regained consciousness. Her brain kicked into overdrive as it pumped adrenaline into her veins. The rest of her senses kicked in almost all at once as she tried to heave her body into a standing position. As she rose to her feet, she found why she was hurting. Her legs had been folded beneath her in a very uncomfortable position. Next, as she opened her eyes, she found herself in a large room. It was like a throne room, and very dark. Her last sensation was sound, or the lack thereof. It was oppressively silent, almost so quiet you could hear it. Twilight heard her heartbeat quicken as she looked around. Her surroundings were all in shades of Grey, as if all the colors had been bleached. The center of the room was much darker, the colors seemed a little more vibrant there, but that was all. She spotted cages, they were empty. What were they for? There were five of them lined up along the floor... odd, this did not seem like the kind of place for them. In the middle of a throne room, or was it a dining hall? Twilight shook her head trying to shake free of her sluggish thoughts. She had to find out where she was. A soft groan from the floor startled her, it was a pony, a male unicorn; she must have missed him, his color blended rather well into the floor. He stood and rubbed his head, Twilight opened her mouth to speak just as he turned his face towards her. Nothing came out. She suddenly remembered where she was and what she had been doing before she blacked out. “Winter...” She rasped, boy that hurt. She swallowed. “You, what did you do?” Winter said aghast, or was it disgust? His voice was a little throaty as well. “Me!?” Twilight’s rage rekindled. After all he had done, what with the kidnapping and all, he was blaming this on her? Twilight did not wait a moment longer, she shot Winter with all she could muster. Time seemed to slow as she realized that he was nowhere near ready to deflect her magic. His eyes widened and she could tell he was doing his best to concentrate through a haze she was sure his mind was swimming in. It broadsided him and threw him across the room and slammed him into the far wall. Twilight’s brain went blank, her rage drained in an instant. Now that she had actually hit Winter, she felt nothing but fear for his life. She never meant to kill anypony. She did not realize that when she was fighting him, but now that it had actually happened she was stricken. Twilight galloped over to him, the hope already draining, even an earth pony would have realized that her blast would have killed even a manticore. “No, no, no!” She thought frantically, this couldn’t be happening! What had she done? Twilight dropped in front of Winter’s prone form as panic began to set in. A small part of her mind registered the fact that he had not been blown to bits, but it was quickly washed away as hot tears began to drip down her chin. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He was supposed to have blocked, he should have been ready. Why did anger have to get a pony in so much trouble? She sobbed into his coat, previous grudges forgotten. It was not like she walked around every day killing ponies just because she did not like them. She couldn’t even remember a time she had tried to intentionally hurt a pony. Well, hurt them a lot, physically at least. But still. Suddenly, he moved! Winter’s groans pierced through her thoughts and she gasped. He wasn't dead? He opened his eyes and saw Twilight looking at him with a shocked expression. “H-huh?” She gasped. Winter reacted in an instant and blew Twilight off with his telekinesis, forcing her back as hard as he could. Which was pretty hard. Twilight crashed right through two of the cages and slid a few feet on her back. She screamed in pain, but she was on her feet in an instant. Winter did a double take, that should have incapacitated her. In the split second that he hesitated, he saw Twilight do the same. "She would have had me", he thought as his mind sprang into action and he blasted her with a bolt of magical energy similar to Twilight’s. Now it was Twilight’s turn to crash into a wall and leave an impression before she fell to the floor. Winter stood in silence, trying to comprehend what had happened. Again, it was Twilight’s turn to break the silence with a groan as she rose to her feet. “No way,” he thought. They both engaged again. While in each of their minds they were wondering about the lack of injuries, they gave it no priority during their battle. They ducked, dodged and weaved in between magic spells and general hoof to hoof combat as they each tried to subdue the other. Every time one of them failed to block a spell and was hit, they shrugged it off as if it was nothing. Their surroundings did not seem to be taking much of a beating as well. Many of the reflections and missed shots did little damage, but wherever a pony hit on purpose, or was thrown, the damage was clear. Finally, Winter hit Twilight and through her the main doors. As Winter walked out, he realized something was out of place... Okay, actually it was everything. The sun shone bright sure, but the land seemed much too dark for the amount of light it should have been receiving. Everything seemed to have had most all the color sucked out of it and was probably absorbing the light as well. The grass could have been mistaken for just being a dry brown... but the wooden structures, the castle walls, the road through the courtyard were all washed out in color. Winter ignored the world after an initial glance, his mind focused on Twilight. She was not focusing on him however, that was fine by him. He charged up his horn and pointed it at her, and fired. Twilight barely managed to erect a barrier just in time, but she did not retaliate. Winter fired twice more before Twilight was able to make her jaw work. “Winter STOP!” She yelled, screaming hurt to much. “Enough,” she watched the charge on his horn fade away. “Look around us Winter, something is wrong.” “Yea right Twilight. Try not to make your distraction seem so obvious,” Winter said as he prepared to cast more magic. “LOOK around you,” Twilight was still shouting, “The world is colorless! My friends are missing and you have hit me at least half a dozen times to no effect. Something isn’t right here Winter and I really think this fighting is going to get us nowhere. Please calm down?” “First things first here Twilight, I don’t trust you. After all, you shot first. Next, I may be as curious as you, but I’m not turning my back on you for one second.” Twilight groaned, “Fine!” she snapped irritably. She turned around and marched off towards a building while dropping her barrier. Winter followed slowly. His curiosity was definitely piqued, but he was more than a little suspicious of Twilight’s sudden change in behavior. Just as he gained the upper hoof too. It would be easy to catch her off guard, but he had a sneaking suspicion that what she said was correct. He would not be able to do more than piss her off. “Okay, this is weird,” Twilight said, almost to herself but it loud enough for Winter to easily hear. He walked towards her and stood close as she inspected the side of the building. He made sure it was a respectably safe distance however, she had just tried to kill him. She stiffened, probably at his precautions, but continued her inspection. “I have never seen stone manufactured in this way to create a building, but somehow I know it was done magically, and probably how to do it... weird.” She gave Winter a puzzled glance. He raised an eyebrow, “well its not like it is hard to do it, probably only took me half an hour to build the building. It isn’t much to look at, but I wasn’t going for looks. It takes much more work to create details on these kinds of buildings than just four walls and a roof, thats why you don’t hardly ever see the decorations on a building created magically. Its all done by hoof, easier that way.” He looked at the wall, “Either way, I don’t see the big deal, it’s an easy spell to learn, nothing spectacular.” “Yes but that is the thing, I haven’t learned it yet, I know I haven’t.” Winter shrugged, “Whatever Twilight, I have no interest in discussing this with you, five minutes ago you were trying to kill me.” Twilight growled. “Only because you deserve it, are you going to completely ignore what you have done and act as if I’m the only one at fault here?” “I don’t deny my actions, namely kidnapping your friends. But the point stands that you were trying to kill me,” he responded lightly. “You don’t even- GAA, forget it.” Twilight stormed off. Winter let her go, he was a little surprised that she had stopped fighting so suddenly, Equestrians these days were quite emotionally driven. It was odd how quickly their goals changed. Actually, it was more unsettling than anything. He would have been just fine in continuing the fight, he almost did too. It would have made sense in his day. These ponies were just plain weird. Twilight continued marching across the courtyard. She was sick of being around Winter, he brought out the worst in her. If he was going to act like a selfish brat she would just figure out what had happened on her own. She would probably work better without him around anyway, just the sight of him made her angry. However, it seems that fate, or perhaps chance in this case, had different ideas. Twilight was hardly a hundred feet when her vision began warping, distorting her surroundings. She stopped abruptly and put a hoof to her forhead... No, it wasn’t her vision, the world was warping. She blinked, trying to focus her surroundings, but it did not help. Twilight growled and continued walking which only increased the distortion. To make matters worse, she felt some type of force trying to pull her back from where she came. Winter, that son of a seapony. Fine, if he wanted to try and keep messing with her, by all means, let him exhaust himself. Twilight pushed forward, trying to break free of whatever was holding her. The world spun and her surroundings were quickly becoming unrecognizable, it was nauseating. “TWILIGHT” Winter called, he sounded strained, “TWILIGHT STOP!” Twilight fell to her knees as she tried to turn and catch a glimpse of Winter. He seemed to have fallen as well, but he was still struggling to move towards her. One thing was painfully obvious, Her direct vision to him was crystal clear, everything surrounding that however became progressively more distorted. She began to crawl towards him, trying not to throw up... The world quickly started becoming less warped. By the time she had made it half a dozen hoof lengths, the world had almost returned to normal. Her nausea remained unfortunately, but she was able to stand now and she quickly made her way towards Winter, who was struggling to do the same. He looked a little green, and was holding his mouth with a forehoof. Thankfully he didn’t throw up, but Twilight maintained a little distance just to be safe. He took a couple of steadying breaths and opened his mouth. Twilight beat him to the punch however, “What exactly were you trying to do Winter?” “I did absolutely nothing, jeeze Twilight, you sure are quick to lay blame on me for everything aren’t you?” “Thats because every incident that has happened since I’ve met you has been your fault.” “Thats not entirely... Ok maybe so,” Winter put a hoof to his chin, “But it wasn’t me this time. I don’t think we should go our separate ways.” "That's a load of horsefeathers", Twilight thought, narrowing her eyes. He was up to something, obviously some sort of mind... “Nnngh... Twilight, why in Equestria would I be lying to you? What’s more, why do I even feel a need to explain to you that I want nothing more than for us to go our separate ways? Your brain is as fuzzy as Pinkie’s mane and it is screwing with me as well.” Twilight contemplated this for a moment. Her brain flew through all of the possible explanations of why the world turned upside down when she walked away from Winter. Even at the speed of light it took a few moments for her to process all of the likely scenarios. As convincing as Winter sounded, he was still the one variable she had no grasp on for the complex equations of trust she had bouncing around in her head. “Walk backwards slowly Winter, if you really want me to believe you, then I’ll just watch and make sure you aren’t using magic. Then we will see if this, warping, happens again.” Winter put a hoof to his head with a groan. Why did he even bother? Now that he had observed his surroundings, albeit briefly, he was actually starting to get a little intimidated. He had no idea where he was, but he suspected that the magical explosion between Twilight and himself had something to do with it. The world was lifeless, colorless, and he had almost lost what little dinner he had remaining. He tried to feel happy that Twilight was walking away. Still, that did not justify why he wanted Twilight to believe him. Why did he care what she thought or believed? He sighed again and started marching backwards. Arguing would get them nowhere and he just wanted to figure out what was going on. As much as he hated to admit it, this was more Twilight’s area of expertise than his. She spent more time theorizing about magic while he had just spent his time refining what was already there. One would have to be naive indeed to ignore the fact that there had been more advances in magical understanding in the past hundred years than ever before. He had read up on Twilight Sparkle’s achievements while still in Canterlot, her discoveries were certainly impressive. But how in the world she was able to accomplish those things while being completely inept at fighting was beyond him. Most of that magic wasn’t really combat oriented either, it was as if she simply refused to learn how to handle anything that even related to the word “fighting”. That was hardly the problem though, what her problem was that she did everything by the book, and as a consequence, a lot of her spellcasting was impractical. Not paying attention to his hoof placement, Winter tripped and fell over backwards. As he tumbled, the world suddenly went out of focus. His stomach churned and he closed his eyes while he tried to orient himself. He felt a tug and he allowed it to pull him, hoping that it was towards Twilight. Opening his eyes was out of the question, he would certainly lose whatever he had still in his stomach. About a hundred feet away, Twilight watched Winter trip over himself. She would probably have sniggered, but as soon as he fell back that short distance her world turned upside down. She felt her stomach drop as her vision remained clear in a narrow corridor towards Winter, while the rest went out of focus. She stumbled forward, allowing some unseen force drag her towards the other unicorn while trying to quell her queasy insides. In moments, the world was back to normal. As soon as she was able she trotted the rest of the distance towards Winter. He was laying face down, looking sick. “I hope you are convinced, because I’m not doing that again." Twilight snickered, “You look kinda green there Winter, just don’t puke on me and we, well I guess its just me, will be fine. At least, until the vertigo passes.” Twilight paused as he groaned. “You know, it might help to-” “Twilight, stuff it,” Winter said irritably, his voice muffled by the ground, “I’m still finding it hard not to pummel you. It would be rather enjoyable too since I wouldn’t have to stop and wait for you to recover.” She gave an indignant snort. “Fine, I get it. You still hate me. Well that is fine because I don't like you either.” She paused as Winter rose up on his haunches and looked her in the eye. She continued carefully, “But, it would seem that we can't exactly part ways. So I suggest we just put our differences on the back shelf and try to work with each other until we get out of this mess.” Winter looked at her a moment longer before glancing away. “Alright, that sounds sensible. I don't want to be any longer than I have to be. Especially if I have to spend that time with you.” Twilight bristled, but said nothing. She had gotten him to agree, that was enough for her. If he needed to continually jab at her to make himself feel better, she wasn't about to call him out on his immaturity. It would have made herself feel better, but she had learned a lot in the past two years in Ponyville. Others did not respond well to that kind of reprimand unless they knew each other well. She decided right there to not let Winter get to her again. She would be the mature one and set the examples. Then, depending on how long they would have to work together, she might start having an impact. Hopefully it would not be for long. It was selfish of her, but she did not want to help Winter anymore. As soon as they got home, she was going to send him back to Princess Luna and wash her hooves of this. As quickly as those thoughts came, they were gone. Twilight was still staring at Winter who was pointedly looking away. She shifted her gaze. They were still in the castle that Winter had conjured. Was it still the same though? The colors were washed out, there was no sound or life that she could see. Something had changed, the world was different. Checking for life,that seemed like a good place to start analyzing as any. Her friends were gone and she had a nagging feeling everything else was as well. She sighed and closed her eyes before turning back to Winter. “Okay, we don't have any idea where we are. At least, if we are still in the real Equestria. I think we should start moving back towards civilization and check for signs of life.” “Fine.” Winter said tonelessly. He got up and began moving towards the mountains. Twilight scurried after him. He moved towards a wall of the castle, but it did not have a gate. She opened her mouth to warn him a wall was there, but he lit his horn up and she tensed. Winter continued to walk forward and applied his magic to the wall. It morphed to create a door shaped hole. Winter passed through and waited for Twilight, who had been staring. They began walking towards the mountains. Twilight quickly noticed that everything seemed dead. The plant life still had leaves, but they were not living, they were too Grey for that. It was not long before the path they were taking became familiar to Twilight. It was the same one that lead back towards the cave that had saved her life. Her face darkened as she recalled the reason why she had been running in the first place. Much sooner than she remembered, they reached the cave. As it came into view both ponies stopped dead in their tracks. The area around the cave looked exactly like it had when Twilight had first laid eyes on it.Exactly. Every color that had stood out to her when she had first seen the cave was there in all it vivacity. There was even the songbird that she had remembered seeing flitting about. She watched it for moment, remembering that it had held her interest the first time for a few moments longer. Just as she was about to pull her eyes away it flitted out of the area around the cave that was in color. It disappeared. She did a double take, as soon as it had left the picturesque area, it ceased to exist. Twilight got a chill up her spine as she recalled that was the exact moment it had ceased to be an interest to her the first time around coming to the cave. “Well, this is... odd.” Winter stated in a matter-of-fact voice. Twilight glanced at him before moving forward. “This is the cave my friends and I spend our last night together in. Every detail is exactly as I remember.” Together they walked towards the cave entrance. As they crossed the border of color, Twilight swore she felt some kind of magical touch? Resonance? She was not sure what to call it, but it was barely distinguishable. She quickly realized Winter had not followed her. “Can't you feel that?” He asked askance. He frowned. “It feels like... you. It feels like your magic.” Twilight blinked, was that what she had felt? Her magic? That would explain why she barely felt it at least, she was already used to feeling it all the time. It just so happened that her magic was not being fueled by her at this moment. “Well, I'm not aware of it at least,” she amended to herself. “It is harmless then, I know I haven't created anything magically threatening. Although I don't remember putting anything magical around the cave last time I was here.” She added the last as an afterthought. “Strangely enough, that does not placate my fears.” Winter said snidely. “Oh for Celestia's sake!” Twilight stepped out and grabbed Winter, pulling him into the circle before he could react. “Stop! You... On a stick!” He swore, his words garbled as he crossed the barrier. “There, that wasn't so bad was it?” Twilight said smugly. Before Winter could reply, the world shifted. There was no other word for it. One moment they were standing in the small entrance, next they had become apparitions. Twilight's eyes widened as Winter suddenly became see-through. His surprised face indicated she was the same. The world had come alive in that little bubble of color and they were no longer a part of it. Winter tried to back out, but a seemingly invisible wall kept him from passing the line of color again. He swore again before Twilight could hush him. “Listen!” She hissed. “Something is coming!” Sure enough, as Winter quieted they could hear cracking branches and a murmur of voices. Twilight looked around but she could see nothing. The voices were coming from the edge of the color in the direction they had been heading. Suddenly, Twilight herself came into view. This Twilight was not a ghost. Her voice quickly became clear, as if someone had opened a door to where two ponies were having a conversation. Before ghost Twilight could speak, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy all came into view as they moved with not-ghost Twilight. “-I'm sayin is we should keep moving.” Applejack said, clearly continuing a conversation they were having. “And then do what? Meet them in the dark? No Applejack, that makes no sense. None of us have even been on this side of the Everfree Forest, we have very little knowledge of what is out here.” not-ghost Twilight said. Ghost Twilight suddenly understood. This was her just a few days ago. It was her memory playing back right in front of herself... But how? “HEY!” Winter shouted. Twilight jumped, but her non-ghost self did not even flinch. “Winter!” She hissed. He paid her no heed and moved towards the five ponies. He moved a hoof out to shove Rarity, who was closest. But his hoof passed right through her. He sighed suddenly. “Of course it would be like this...” He trailed off. He whirled to Twilight. “What is going on Twilight? I can clearly tell you are doing no magic at this point and I seriously doubt you laid any type of weird trap for me. So what is this?” “I don't know what's going on, but this is a memory of mine. It is what happened when we first came this way looking for you and Pinkie Pie.” Twilight frowned, remembering why she was here in this situation. Winter raised an eyebrow and looked back at the scene playing out before them. He was silent as he watched the five ponies quickly set up to spend the night. Ghost Twilight watched as not-ghost Twilight sat down and explained to all of them what she was expecting to run into and what she wanted everypony to do. “You're not very good at this.” Winter said suddenly. Ghost Twilight glared. “It was very wrong of you to take Pinkie Pie and make us march out through the Everfree Forest you know.” She said, trying to get her anger under control. “Perhaps.” Was all he said. As soon as not-ghost Twilight finished outlining her plan, the memory quickly began to fade as she got up and stretched. Ghost Twilight was becoming more solid and not-ghost Twilight was fading away. Seconds later, the whole area around the cave began loosing it's color as well. Winter quickly made his way to the edge and stepped over back into the completely discolored area. Twilight inhaled sharply as she felt something in her mind tug away as the last of the color faded out of the area. “Did you feel that?” She asked. “I think I know what this is, or rather, where this is.” Winter turned to her, his face set, “This is the Equestria of our minds. Or rather, what our minds think Equestria is. Except that it was unable to recreate life.” “What.” Winter rolled his eyes. “Look, I think when our magic clashed, it began creating... well, another world, an alternate universe or something similar. But, it was creating a world from our minds. The only references it had to pull on was our memories. So naturally the world is going to be much like Equestria. However, magic cannot just create life like that, so everything here is dead.” “But what about that... memory, that we just saw? Wasn't that real?” Twilight asked as she tried to grasp what Winter was saying. “That is just it,” He said, excitedly explaining now. “Since it created this world from our minds, it must have recreated certain areas that held more meaning to us than others. So it pulled deeper from your memories for that particular spot because it was... special, or important, or something.” He ended lamely, unable to think of a better word. “But, it was just a memory, not life. Memory was all it had to work with. I guess when we got close it activated it the whole way... allowing us to watch it. Not sure why it did that though.” Winter scratched his head. “So... What was that, breaking feeling once the memory finished? And why is the color gone?” Twilight turned to observe the now colorless area around the cave. “I'm not sure,” Winter admitted, “But I think it might have had some extra significance to the creation of this world. We should find another area.” “Alright, well, all we need to do is find another place that is important to me.” Twilight said sarcastically. “I'm sure I could find a number of them, but not around here. I'm not very inclined to let you see many of them though.” Winter gave her a sour look. “Fine, we will see if there are any memories special to me around here. I know of one that is on this side of the Everfree. But it is about a day north of here.” He paused. “At least, it was important at the time, we will see though. Coming?” Twilight moved towards him wordlessly and they began trekking north.