Princesses Twilight Sparkle and Dawn Twinkle rematerialized just outside Castle Canterlot’s drawbridge. The two mares immediately dashed inside, receiving startled and perplexed looks of varying degrees from everypony they passed, including the otherwise-stoic guards. Dawn asked, “What do you think our odds are?”
“I don’t know. I can’t even guess! I don’t have a clue why it pulled me half out of phase, too,” said Twilight as they pushed through the front door, still running down the hallway.
Shoot...I never got around to telling her….
Dawn slowed a bit as her face hinted at guilt. “Well….”
Twilight stopped and looked back at her with growing irritation. “‘Well’ what?”
“Um….”
“Dawn, what did you leave out?”
“I’m sorry,” Dawn sighed as she hung her head. Twilight studied her face pointedly as she continued with closed eyes, “I should have brought it up, but it didn’t fit into conversation anywhere.”
A few passing nobles paused, muttering to each other if they really wanted to know why there were two partially transparent alicorns in the great hall. Twilight sighed. “That doesn’t tell me much.”
“I know. I just feel bad that—”
“Stop beating around the bush,” Twilight interrupted with a stern expression and tone.
Please, Twilight, this is hard enough as it is.
“Sorry,” said Dawn as she sighed. Twilight gave her a hard look, and rotated a hoof broadly and impatiently. Dawn pursed her lips, and confessed, “Princess Galactia sent a letter that said our world was in competition with another world, just to exist.”
Most of the nobles wandered off dismissively, or even disappointed. Twilight pursed her own lips. After a marked delay, she slowly said, “Dawn….”
“I’m sorry, Twilight!” Dawn burst. Her eyes started welling up. “I don’t know if it’s this world or another! There’s no way I could know until you slipped half out of phase! I’m so sorry!”
Twilight stared at her counterpart imperiously. Dawn’s head remained low with flattened ears. Twilight sighed long and low. “Dawn….”
...can’t blame her if she despises me now, but….
“Please don’t hate me…,” Dawn pleaded meekly. Silence occupied the hallway for a few moments as Dawn’s gaze slowly dropped from Twilight’s face to the floor right in front of her.
“No. I don’t hate you,” Twilight said curtly. “Nor can I say I’m very happy with how this is turning out, but I don’t blame you. But you’re right. There was nowhere in our conversation you could’ve told me that without it interrupting. You probably should have simply broached the topic anyway.”
“I was about to, when you noticed I was fading.”
“Ah.”
“Twilight!! What happened!?” Twilight and Dawn both turned to see Princess Celestia hurrying over to her beloved student with an expression her pupil had never seen on her face, nor heard in her voice, until now: worry...maybe even a bit panicked. Twilight tried to hug her mentor, and found it didn’t quite pan out as it had every other time. Partially out of phase meant she could only partially touch Celestia…and if she was patient, she could slowly push through her completely. Twilight discovered this only after her head had moved into Celestia’s neck just enough for her to get a more intense blood and tissue lesson than she ever wanted.
Twilight was right; she does look an awful lot like Princess Galactia.
“Your Majesty,” started Dawn, bowing with proper etiquette, “I’m afraid both Princess Twilight and I are halfway out of phase, and in danger of phasing out of existence entirely.”
Twilight looked squeamish as her eyes emerged from the interior of Celestia’s neck. The sovereign princess stood mystified, blinking rapidly for a moment. “...how…??”
This will not be quick….
“Well…,” Dawn trailed off as the passed through the double doors into the throne room.
The junior princesses explained their tale to the best of their ability as the three headed upstairs towards the orrery. Once Dawn mentioned that her world was in competition with theirs, Celestia decided to call for Luna to join them. Twilight was annoyed they had to start over, but rolled with it. Luna had a similar reaction the transparency. As they went into what caused it, Luna sent a servant after half a dozen volumes from the old athenaeum.
Celestia opened the door, and flicked a magical switch. Running lights along a walkway’s banister lit, ending in a round area. As the four princesses stepped in the round space, the room lit with a blue glow from its spherical walls. A small panel sat at the far side of the end of the round platform. Both Twilight and Dawn looked around in expectant excitement and wonder. Celestia kept a sad smile to herself as she shook her head at them.
Whoa...did Starswirl build this?
Luna walked over to this control console. “Sister, when was the last time either of us were in here?”
“I showed Twilight this room once, still fairly early in her studies, to give her a greater glimpse of the world of magic. Before that, I believe it was before...that sad millennium,” Celestia said, hinting at lament.
Luna gave Celestia a long, tight-lipped stare before looking back at the series of dials, buttons, and levers. She levitated up a hinged iron plate, and pushed up on a sliding switch as wide as her hoof. The plate clattered back into a closed position as an odd sound echoed from the panel. A greeting shown on the wall, followed by many points of light projected around the room. As Luna fiddled around with the dials, they moved and focused, zoomed in, and moved some more. As the points became coin-sized, they did not look like points, so much as discs. Most of them were a pale blue, especially at the current magnification. One such pale blue disc became highlighted with a yellow aura.
Oh wow. Yeah, there’s no way this wasn’t done by Starswirl himself.
Luna said, “This is our plane of existence, the proverbial ‘you are here’ sign. I wonder...sister, does it look different to you? I thought ours was shaped different from the others.”
Celestia pensively answered, “I think you’re right, Luna...I thought it was more of an X in shape.”
Luna turned to Twilight and Dawn with a wistful smile. “This was how we know that was our home, whenever Starswirl brought us here to—”
“You knew Starswirl the Bearded personally!?” Dawn burst, a smile breaking across her face. Luna took a step back with a craned neck, wide eyes, and one raised eyebrow. Twilight tried to not chuckle, but failed. Celestia merely blinked a few times slightly agape, and closed her mouth.
“Um...yes, child. We did know Starswirl the Bearded, and learned much from him. Is there something you wish to share on the matter?” Luna asked as her composure returned.
Yes I do! I just don’t know where to start!
“I’ve read a ton of Starswirl’s treatises on magical theory and practice!” Dawn cheered. As the sisters looked at each other perplexed, Dawn rattled off, “‘Circles and Dweomers,’ ‘Small-Scale Ley Lines,’ ‘Woven Spells,’ ‘The Power of Holes,’ ‘Intersecting Realities,’ which seems particularly relevant at the moment, but I can’t remember it right now….”
Luna smiled and shook her head. “A deepening of the mystery. It would seem Starswirl occupied both worlds, as his texts are found in both by the same names. ‘Intersecting Realities’ should be delivered here shortly, along with other relevant materials.”
Ooh...been way too long since I’ve read that one.
Dawn’s smile widened. Twilight walked over to Luna. “Ours still doesn’t look as disc-like as the others. Can you increase the magnification?”
“We can indeed,” Luna grinned.
The highlighted disc grew large enough to be a cart. At this magnification there was an obvious burr jutting out from the middle, at maybe a twenty-five degree angle. On the disc’s flip side was little more than a nubbin. Twilight frowned as she looked it over repeatedly, as did Dawn. Luna pursed her lips, then turned to Celestia. “Forgive me, but it seems ours has...grown, and significantly, since my last visit here.”
“You may be right. We should check again once these two are satisfied with the current view,” Celestia answered.
The two half-transparent ponies continued fervently looking over the medial disfiguration of the disc. As Dawn scratched her chin, Twilight asked, “Luna, can the orrery differentiate specific other planes of existence by their baseline magic waveform?”
Luna looked over the panel closely. As fidgeting with a few of the control gizmos, dials, and buttons, she stopped and stared at it again. After a moment’s pause she replied, “I believe so.”
“Good, good. Can you isolate one whose waveform is the reverse of ours? Not inverting the peaks and valleys, of course,” Twilight asked.
Luna smirked as she worked the device. “Naturally. If what you say about Dawn is true, I scarcely wish to imagine the destruction that would cause, were it the latter.”
Dawn scratched at her ear again. She looked at the other three as Luna grimaced and hurriedly did something else. When Twilight met her gaze, Dawn said, “I presume you refer to what Starswirl the Bearded said canceling wave forms?”
“Correct,” began Celestia. “We saw it once. A unicorn named Lux, not even a year after Starswirl passed, tried to prove that he was wiser on such matters. He was brash, arrogant—”
“—and most other imaginable ways, a genuinely unpleasant fellow,” Luna interrupted, shaking her head. “Without giving thought to consequence, he thought to dismantle Starswirl’s theories of magic, beginning with Waveform Theory.”
“Lux thought a show of a flower petal on an inverted waveform would be sufficient proof. So he created the flower petal,” Celestia lamented, shaking her head. “If it weren’t for the practice Luna and I had with barriers after defending the land from Discord, and already having one cast, we too would have been evaporated by the explosion.”
Luna added, “That is not to say we had no injuries. Everypony else fared far worse. We take solace in that they had no time to experience any sort of agony, but that hill was still leveled.”
Dawn blinked. She softly squawked to herself as she looked at Twilight, then back at the sisters. Scoffing, she said, “I guess that only cemented Starswirl’s theories as the paradigm.”
Celestia said, “Yes, and others have since built off of them, refining them into more exact methods, especially with ‘The Power of Holes,’ ‘Woven Spells,’ and ‘Power vs. Willpower.’ Very little of anything he wrote has been wholly disproven.”
“We have a match,” Luna announced.
The growth on their dimension’s disc was highlighted with a flashing white light. Luna further increased the magnification and walked over to join the others, looking at the marked addition. The four occasionally glanced at each other as if to size up what the others were thinking. Each showed their own pensive mannerisms in silence. A servant pony entered the orrery, particularly perplexed, with six books in his telekinetic aura. He set them down at Luna’s feet, bowed, and departed, never once showing any expression apart from totally baffled. Twilight took two books as did Luna. Dawn’s face melted into a nostalgic smile as she looked at which one was left for her, after Celestia made her pick.
After several minutes of reading, with Twilight flipping through pages the quickest, Dawn spoke up. “I forgot this part of the text. ‘In the rare event that two dimensions intersect with mirrored, but not canceling, waveforms, balance betwixt the two must be preserved at all times.’ Most of what he has here is hypothesis without any solid tests, though he say he did not experiment due to ‘obvious ethical and potentially catastrophic dilemmas.’ Huh. I suppose this...nebulous disclaimer is why so many theorists leave out this section. Should’ve listened to the Old Colt of Buckingham.”
“The what now?” Celestia asked, perking up as Luna set her book down and turned her ears toward Dawn.
They never heard that before? Weird….
Dawn met the other three’s gazes, and guardedly reiterated, “The Old Colt of Buckingham? Starswirl’s nickname?”
“Never heard that one, and there aren’t many here to know as much of the obscure Starswirl trivia as I do. At least, in this world, anyway,” said Twilight, ending sheepishly.
Dawn muttered, “Well, it’s where he was born….”
Dawn continued reading, and promptly noticed two pairs of front legs just past the book, one pair dark blue, the other white. She looked up to see the sisters casting highly interested yet stern faces at her. Celestia’s voice was amiable in spite of her expression. “Please, continue.”
“Uhh...as you wish, Your Majesties,” Dawn answered uncomfortably. She felt a caring rub at the base of her wings, too solid to be anypony other than Twilight. Blinking, she resumed, “Um, Starswirl was born in Buckingham, and the only foal of two of the most respected professors of magic of that time period. He was inundated from birth with magical instruction, but beginning during his adolescence, he was known to disappear—”
“—for months at a time, usually between two and three. Am I correct?” Luna finished.
Dawn sat there in shock. “Um...yeah. Yeah, that’s right. Why? Do you have no record of his birth?”
Luna bluntly said, “There is no record of his birth, tutelage, nor lineage. He simply showed up one day.”
“And then never returned after he disappeared for the last time, when he was well-on in years,” muttered Dawn.
“That’s...not how it played out here,” Celestia said cautiously.
Dawn looked between the royal sisters. “I guess that means he passed away here….”
“Millennia ago, at about quarter ‘til three in early winter, seven stories below where we’re standing right now, doing what he loved best,” Luna answered sadly.
Doing what he loved best, huh? Guess that’s the ideal way to go, but still...sad. Guess there won’t be a glorious return.
Celestia said, “His body was interred in the Great Mausoleum. We can go there if you’d like, once we’re done here.”
Dawn shook her head. “I’m not sure my heart could take it. There are some unicorns who want to believe he’ll return one day, since we never knew about his death. Part of me secretly wished it would happen, but...guess that dream was never more than a flight of fancy.”
“I am sorry to hear that, for many reasons,” said Luna. “But we should get back to work on discerning what can be done about yours and Twilight’s condition. The two of you are both still fading, but slowly.”
Dawn and Twilight shot each other scared looks. Celestia turned her eyes back to the model, and scrunched her brows. “Dawn, you said it was a ‘grey wave’ that overtook Ponyton?”
“Yes, why?”
“You’d want to...no, you don’t want to see this, but you need to,” Celestia urged.
Oh no...please, no!!!
The other three looked at model, and gasped, or in Dawn’s case, screamed. Something grey erased the outer edges of the burr. It then continued toward the middle. Dawn hollered, “NO!! PLEASE, OH GODS, DON’T DO THIS!!!”
The grey line continued to erode at the edges of the dimensional model as Dawn broke down into wailing sobs. Twilight held her close and tight as she screamed and stared through thick tears as the last vestiges of the model slipped away and were gone. The grey marks blinked out when Twilight’s dimension appeared to be nothing more than a flat disc like the others.
...but...we did everything the gods asked of us…why…?? Why can’t all this just be a terrible nightmare?
Dawn wept bitterly in Twilight’s embrace, desperately hugging back. Celestia’s ears drooped. Luna ran over to the panel, looked over several things, and then slowly hung her head.
As she came up to Dawn, Luna lamented, “I’m terribly sorry, Dawn. The orrery can no longer find a world that matches your magical waveform. My deepest condolences. I know it does nothing, but….”
I’m...all that’s left? I’m the only survivor from my world, the only memory of at all…?? I’m all there is?? What do I do? What can I do?? Can’t believe this is happening….
Dawn could not form words yet. Twilight rocked her side-to-side, gently stroking Dawn’s mane while her own tears leaked out. Celestia walked over to them, shaking her head slowly. Luna looked over at her sister, then back down, and wiped away a tear. Celestia pulled her sister into a side-hug, to which Luna nodded. Twilight murmured, “I’m so sorry, Dawn...I’m so sorry...I’ll still stay with you….”
“Twilight, Dawn, we should go,” said Celestia.
“Where?”
Luna looked at her sister, then at the two half-transparent princesses. “Downstairs. To Starswirl’s lab. If there’s anything anywhere that can help, it’s down there.”
Dawn looked up at Luna, closed her eyes and slowly nodded. Twilight helped her to her feet. They trudged their way back out of the orrery as Luna turned off the device and the lights behind them, and closed the door.