One
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Part One
Trials
In the early morning, Twilight noted that the life-enabling manifestation of Princess Celestia’s benevolent rule beaming down on all Equestria made it somewhat difficult for her to keep a schedule.
Instinctively, the drowsy mare turned away from the light peeking in through her windows. She pulled the covers over her head and snuggled deeper into her pillow. Ordinarily she would simply get up, but ere this Saturday morn she had decided, acting on the advice of a friend, to sleep approximately ten percent more than usual—she had even cast a special spell to make her covers extra comfy, but of course had to forget the all-important task of shuttering her windows. Her absent-mindedness now ended up disrupting her carefully planned sleep patterns for the third time this month.
Twilight Sparkle exhaled, trying to fold herself deeper into her comforter, but to no avail. She threw one sheet off of her body at a time, smacking her lips slightly as she tasted her own morning breath. After her limbs recovered enough will to respond to her mental commands, the librarian rolled out of bed, stretched, and rubbed her eyes.
Well, she thought, glancing at a mirror on the other end of her room, today’s my lazy day. She ambled over to her bathroom, brushing her teeth and patting down her cowlick. She thought to call and see if Spike had woken up yet, then remembered he was doing a volunteer project for Cheerilee and had left early in the morning. Since the library was closed on Saturdays anyway, she realized today was the first day in a while in which she had absolutely nothing to do.
Maybe... I should just sleep some more? she thought, but eventually decided against it. Now that I’m awake, I might as well have breakfast, she reasoned as she walked down the stairs to the kitchen.
After a quick bowl of oatmeal, Twilight began to revise her plan for the day. So Rainbow Dash suggested I take a ‘day off,’ a day where I don’t do anything with my friends or anything around the library. But... what else is there? She sighed in exasperation. Think, Twilight, think. You’ve already read all the books in the library on your own time, you’ve already written all those manuscripts to send out to Canterlot Drama; is there anything else you need to do?
She blinked. Wait... did I really finish all of those? She trotted over to her desk, which was a mess of ink, paper, and broken quills. That’s odd. I usually keep it so tidy, Twilight thought, peeling an ink-soaked feather off of her desk and making a face. Ugh, Spike must have spilled it. When she looked inside her desk, though, they were all there: Hundreds of pages of her own soul sat there, a six-book series that barely fit inside the tiny drawer.
For a moment, she beamed with pride at the physical manifestation of her brilliance, but then something occurred to her. How in the world did she find the time to do all this? She remembered writing a few pages, but nothing like the novels lying in front of her. Shrugging, she closed the drawer, thinking, Well, if that’s done, is there anything else? Maybe I missed a book or two.
She crossed a few rooms into the library portion of her home, scouring the shelves for any adventure she hadn’t yet delved into. After carefully scrutinizing her entire inventory, however, her search came up empty. She could count off all the main characters in each book by name, as well as quote several passages in ones that she found particularly well done.
Once again, though, this baffled her. I know I’ve been in this library for about a year, now, she thought, her mouth agape as she took in the volume of her achievement, but there’s no way I’d be able to read all this in twenty years, let alone just a few months!
A knock on her front door interrupted her thoughts. Twilight snapped out of her confusion and trotted over to answer it, and the door, once opened, revealed Rarity on the other side.
“Goodness, darling!” Rarity exclaimed upon seeing Twilight’s misshapen mane. “Battling manticores hardly seems a way to spend a Saturday!”
Twilight would have rolled her eyes, but the sunlight from outside was piercing. She cringed a moment and covered her face with a hoof before replying. “It just so happens that I was trying to take a suggestion from Rainbow Dash to sleep more.”
“Oh, did I wake you?” Rarity asked.
“No, I had just gotten up anyway,” Twilight said, closing her eyes arching her back a little bit in an effort to stretch out her weariness. So much for not spending time with friends, but I doubt I had anything better to do anyway. “Would you like to come in?”
“Thank you, but I was only here to see whether or not you had any spare fabric. I’ve been so busy lately that I seem to have run out just in time for my latest flash of brilliance! Picture this—” she began, rushing to Twilight’s shoulder and waving her hoof about in the air dramatically, “—a dress that completely captures the art of mimicry! Black and white stripes flowing beautifully, with a matching béret and face paint! Oh, Twilight, it would be simply glorious, but I just don’t have the necessary materials! It’s a travesty!”
“Well, I’d like to help you, Rarity,” Twilight said, stepping away from Rarity’s grasp, “but the best I could do would be sending an order to Canterlot Cloth, and you could do that yourself anyway. Why don’t you just go to the fabric store here in Ponyville?”
Rarity pouted slightly. “Well, I would, but they’re out of not only black fabric, but white, as well! It’s absolutely horrid! They say they won’t be in stock for another three days, Twilight! Three days! Oh, there must be something you can do!”
Twilight thought for a moment. “Well, if you have any fabric you don’t need, there is a transmutation spell I could use.”
“Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou, darling, this will save me so much time~!” Rarity squealed with glee. “I’ll return in mere moments, Twilight. Now hurry and prepare the spell before my inspiration fades!”
Twilight nodded and closed the door as Rarity scampered off. Today sure is starting out strangely, she muttered to herself as she located her spellbook by what seemed to be muscle memory. Before she could pull it from the shelf, though, she heard another knock on her door, followed by a soft ‘ting’ noise, as if somepony had hung a wind chime on her house somewhere.
“I wonder who that could be,” she wondered aloud. Sighing, she went to answer it, before once again seeing Rarity on her front porch.
Rarity gaped. “Goodness me! Did a manticore attack your mane, darling?”
“We went over this, Rarity, remember? I just woke up,” Twilight stated.
“Oh! Um, yes, of course,” Rarity said, though a look of incomprehension was clear on her face. “Well, Twilight, I was here to see if you had any fabric to spare.”
“...Fabric?” Twilight asked, feeling a peculiar sense of deja-vu. Didn’t this conversation already happen?
“Yes, of course! And not just any ordinary cloth, either; you know what standards I hold myself to!” Rarity said, bouncing a few locks of her mane up and down in her hoof. “You wouldn’t happen to have any available, would you?”
Twilight blinked. “Rarity... are you sure you’re okay?”
“The only reason I wouldn’t be okay, Twilight, is if I didn’t have enough material to bring my latest, greatest, most ingenious design to the world of high fashion! Oh, please, Twilight, there must be something you can do!” Rarity pleaded. Twilight saw a twinkle of light in her eyes, which wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary for the fashionista if it hadn’t been bright purple.
“...Let... Let me guess,” Twilight began. “You need black and white fabric, right? For your new dress?”
Rarity gasped. “Don’t tell me you had the exact same idea just this morning, Twilight!” She turned around, pacing in frustration. “Oh, I knew it wasn’t all that original an idea, but for you to have come up with it on your own, it must be one of the blandest ideas in all of Equestria! I mean no offense, of course; fashion just isn’t in your particular vocation, but honestly, I must be losing my touch if both of us have the same dress in mind! Oh, and I thought it was such a fabulous idea, too,” she finished, ending her rant with a slight pout.
Twilight looked at her, concerned. There was an odd glimmer about her friend’s mane, as if she had sprinkled glitter throughout it. “Look, Rarity, I don’t know what’s gotten into you all of a sudden, but—Rarity?” she asked, noticing her friend was still turned away from her. “Um, Rarity?”
“Twilight!” another voice called from down the street. Twilight gasped, shocked, upon seeing that it was, again, Rarity. “Oh, Twilight, I’ve gotten all the fabric~!” she called, bounding up to the front porch and levitating several rolls of silk at her side. She nearly dropped her precious cargo, though, upon seeing the second Rarity, who was sitting, frozen, on the steps.
Twilight felt something strike her upside the head. She staggered backward, the invisible force pushing her to the ground. She called for her friend as she collapsed to the hardwood floor, but no noise escaped. Why am... suddenly... sleepy? Twilight asked herself, trying to shake the fogginess from her mind and stand up, but her legs just wouldn’t obey. Her eyelids dropped down past her eyes, and she was lost to the world.
Twilight snapped awake. It was midmorning, and she found that her face was pressed into the side of a novel she was reading and her sheets haphazardly tossed over her back. The candle on her nightstand had burned down to a stub. Bleaugh... I must have fallen asleep reading ‘The Merry Misadventures of Mousey Mite.’ She picked her head up and noticed a thin trail of drool coming from the corner of her mouth. Eww...
Wiping it off on her hoof, she stretched, yawned, and swung herself out of bed. “What a dream,” she complained, levitating the book next to her head with her magic as she clambered toward the door. Heh. Two Raritys. I can only imagine the conversation that pair would have. Her musing was interrupted as she nearly fell down the stairs, dropping her novel.
Catching herself instinctively, she gasped and steadied herself. “That’s funny,” she murmured aloud. “I don’t remember this staircase having quite so many... stairs.” She had tripped on the third-to-last step.
She picked up her book and made her way over to one of the library’s many bookshelves, treading lightly in case any of her floorboards had suddenly become equally fragile. Oddly enough, when she went to put her novel away, she found a second copy of the blue volume on her shelf, right in the special nook where she kept whatever book she was currently reading. In addition to that inconsistency, Twilight saw that somepony had scribbled a letter into the bookcase in bright purple ink, one she didn’t recognize.
She leaned in to examine the letter, but could discern no meaning from it. She swiveled her ears around, trying to detect whether or not she was being watched. After she was confident she was alone, she attempted to place her latest-read novel on the bookshelf so that she could pick up a different one about magical lettering, but noticed it had disappeared from her telekinetic grasp.
Ooo-kaaay... Twilight thought. She glanced back at the shelf, though quickly stepped back in shock. The familiar blue spine of Mousey Mite greeted her from the rightmost portion of the bookcase, but somehow all of the hundreds of volumes on the shelves had been altered to be that exact same shade of light blue. The bookcase itself was now also covered in unintelligible lettering, though the color of the individual characters varied through all the hues of a rainbow.
As a test, Twilight picked a random book and opened it, finding the interior a patchwork of every single book in her library—each page corresponded to a different story. Grand adventures were suddenly interrupted by a recipe for red velvet cake, only to continue into step six of how to build a birdhouse. Every page number was replaced with a random series of brightly colored characters.
“This is... really weird,” Twilight muttered, placing the book back. As a test, she turned away, then looked back at the bookshelf. All of the books had vanished. She tried again, and though this time the books had returned, they were all upside-down, with the text on the spines replaced with a meaningless series of rainbow runes.
This seems a lot like one of Discord’s tricks, Twilight realized. She thought for a moment. But... those weird letters are a common thread, and probably not something he’d include. She sighed. I guess I’ll have to cancel my day of relaxation and see what’s going on. If Discord is behind all this, then he shouldn’t be too hard to find.
She felt a slight tremor at her feet, and looked down to see that her once-hardwood floor was now made out of smooth tile. Grass was lining the walls. “What is this, Wacky Wednesday?” she complained, exasperated. “Discord, if you’re behind all this, show yourself!”
The doorbell rang. After rushing to the door and pulling it open, she saw Rarity trotting toward her, looking as frantic as she had yesterday. The librarian did a double-take, though, when she saw a white hoof resting limply just behind the library’s sign.
Rarity took a deep breath, but Twilight preempted her. “Dresses. Black fabric. Got it,” she stated, brushing past her friend and peeking behind the sign. Rarity, slightly miffed, followed her.
“What in the world has gotten into you today, Twilight?” the fashionista huffed.
Twilight didn’t answer—her eyes were wide, and her hoof up to her mouth as she gazed upon what lay before her. In the shade of the sign was a second Rarity, its head turned toward the tree trunk and lolled slightly to the side.
“R-... Rarity?” Twilight breathed, tapping the doll on the shoulder.
She yelped and stepped back as the mock Rarity fell over, but the real Rarity screamed in fright upon seeing its eyes, or rather, its lack thereof. The second Rarity was no more than a porcelain doll, with a smooth, reflective surface, and no nose, or mouth to speak of. Instead of eyes, brightly-glowing shards of glass, shaped into the likeness of letters, formed two hollow spheres inside the sockets. As it lay on its side, it began to break apart, slowly dissolving into dust and leaving only a few strands of purple hair behind. A wind chime tinged in the background.
“Tw-... Twilight, are you all right? Who was that?” Rarity asked, cantering toward her friend. “I was about to remark on her excellent sense of fashion, too...”
Twilight sucked in a breath and stifled a shudder, trying to convince herself that what she had just seen didn’t actually occur. “Rarity, weird things have been happening to me all morning. Unexplainable things. Has anything like that been happening to you?”
“Well, yes, in fact; it was what I was coming over here to ask you about,” Rarity stated. “You see, I found that I had a painfully low supply of black fabric. Well, apparently a rogue fashionista broke into my house in the middle of the night and used all of it up!”
“Used it... up?” Twilight asked, giving Rarity a sideways look.
“Yes, in fact; I have no idea how he or she did it, but they managed to turn all my materials into thirty pairs of the exact same dress! I found my basement simply full of them!” Rarity exclaimed. “And that’s not even the worst part! Just to spite me and make certain I couldn’t use their work, they sewed odd little letters all over each dress!”
Twilight blinked. “Go on?”
“Oh, but that is not even the—worst—part! The thief must have been a rival from the Canterlot industry, because they copied the design I was going to use to a T! I hadn’t even made any concept art yet, Twilight! Oh, do you know what this means?”
“...You have no black fabric?” Twilight asked.
“Well, yes... But it also means that the thief is a unicorn, and a unicorn with excellent taste! I came to you because I knew you weren’t suspect, but Twilight, you simply must know somepony who would do something like this!” Rarity pleaded.
“Gee, thanks,” Twilight muttered. Putting it aside for now, she added, “Rarity, to me, it just sounds like somepony—or Discord, more likely—just did all your work for you multiple times.”
“Yes, Twilight, but it’s the principle,” Rarity complained.
“Well, tell me more about the letters. What did they look like?” Twilight asked.
“I... Well, I’m not certain, to be quite honest. I was rather flustered, you see,” Rarity said, bouncing a lock of her mane in her hoof and trying her best to look dignified.
Twilight shook her head. “Look, let’s just get to the center of town, maybe talk to the mayor about what’s happening. We’ll go from there, okay?”
“Well...” Rarity trailed off, unable to think of a suitable alternative. “Okay.”
A warm breeze was blowing on the dirt roads that linked the majority of the community, and the sun seemed much more glaring than usual. However, those details seemed minor compared to the fact that the town was absolutely devoid of ponies. Not a single soul was on the path leading up to the town hall, save Twilight and Rarity.
“I guess everypony’s inside trying to figure out what’s going on themselves?” Twilight guessed. She wiped her brow; the stark blue sky overhead was stifling.
“This wouldn’t be the first time,” Rarity said with an affirmative nod, “but one would assume that there would be more... panic.” She was about to say more, but just as she arrived at the town hall, a pale yellow pegasus slammed into her, gripping her tightly.
“Oh, Rarity! It’s awful, just awful!” Fluttershy sobbed, trembling with fear.
“Fluttershy, I appreciate the affection, but putting your friend into a headlock is most unbecoming of a lady!” Rarity snapped, just as Fluttershy realized what position she was holding her friend in.
Fluttershy released her grip on Rarity, then promptly curled into a tight ball. Twilight glanced around for anypony else yet wandering the streets, then asked her, “What’s wrong, Fluttershy?”
“The animals!” Fluttershy squeaked. “A-All I know is that I was giving Walter Rabbit an herb drink and th-then... he was ju-just shards of glass.”
“My goodness, darling, are you alright?” Rarity said, wrapping a limb around her traumatized friend. “What on earth could have done such a thing, and who?”
Twilight shook her head, trying to stave off disbelief, though she knew that the shards Fluttershy referred to were very likely the same pieces of glass that she had seen in the fake Rarity’s eyes. “This is the most complex magic I’ve ever seen. It has to be Discord; I know it.”
“But how did he escape? Y-You don’t think he’s after us, d-do you?” Fluttershy asked, turning her attention to Twilight.
“Hey!” the girls heard Applejack call from down the street. “Any y’all see Big Mac?”
Twilight beckoned the farmer over. “For some reason, everypony in town has vanished.”
“Along with all mah apples!” Applejack exclaimed, patting her stetson down on her head. “Bet’cha those vermin’ve been plottin’ this fer weeks.”
“Applejack,” Twilight began, stepping up to her, “did you see any letters, or glass on your farm? Things that weren’t supposed to be there. Bright colors.”
“You takin’ me for some kinda crazy pony?” Applejack asked.
“Did you or did you not?” Twilight demanded, though the look in her eyes coupled with her tone suggested that she was pleading, rather than ordering.
“Uhm... well...” She took a few moments of consideration. “The cider seemed kinda more orangish, I guess. Wasn’t really payin’ much attention.”
“Pardon my interruption,” Rarity said as she stood up and brushed herself off, “but is it just me, or is it sweltering out here?”
Twilight realized Rarity was right; what had started out as a cool day was now approaching an inferno. The sun’s piercing beams from overhead were growing stronger by the minute. Even more reason to stay inside, her instincts told her, but she knew that something bigger was at work here.
Soon enough, Rainbow Dash had landed next to them, her blue pelt dotted with beads of sweat. Pinkie approached from just a few meters away, her head covered in a parasol-shaped balloon.
“Is it hot out here, or what?” the weathermare asked, wiping her brow with a wrist. “There aren’t even any clouds to hide in.”
Twilight froze as a thought occurred to her. “Hey, Rainbow Dash... when was the last time it rained?”
“Just yesterday!” Pinkie chirped. “I remember it because it rained so hard I got to make paper sailers with Scootaloo and Mr. Cake’s newspaper!”
“Who did you organize it with?” Twilight asked, turning back to Dash. She fanned herself a bit with her tail as a bead of sweat dribbled past her nose.
“That’s easy, it was...” Dash raised a hoof to her chin, squinting. “It was—Look, I know this.”
“Why the hay didn’t you try’n deal with this heat?” Applejack asked of Dash, fanning herself with her hat.
“I tried, but there are no clouds,” Dash said, waving her hoof at the paralyzingly blue sky. “The ones I did find were covered in weird lights, and they dissolved when I went near ‘em.”
“Girls, my knee is pinching really bad,” Pinkie interjected, shaking out her right foreleg. One of her ears swivelled to the side. “Hey, do any of you hear that?”
Twilight was about to ask what exactly Pinkie heard when she heard a soft series of little clinks, as if shards of glass were colliding in midair. It sounded like it could have been musical, like wind chimes, but instead had resigned itself to an unsettling, dissonant noise—eerily rhythmic while still lacking a clear melody.
“Look up!” Rarity yelled, raising a hoof toward the sky. The sun’s light was too strong to look anywhere near it, but along the horizon, a thin, white line was carving its way upward, its path suggesting all of Ponyville was contained in some sort of massive dome.
Applejack heard Fluttershy shiver, and turned to see a luminescent piece of carved glass hovering by her cheek. It glowed faintly yellow, and didn’t seem subject to gravity.
Fluttershy leaned back as it floated past her cheek. “Wh-what is it?”
Twilight squinted. “Uhm... It almost looks like something from an old Equestrian alphabet, but I don’t recognize the character.” After a brief moment of consideration, she added, “I remember seeing letters like it in my house when everything started to defy logic. Maybe the letters are causing the chaos.”
“Girls, I do hate to interrupt, but I don’t quite think we should be ignoring the sky,” Rarity stated nervously, having pulled an emergency pair of frilled sunglasses out of her bag to better observe the situation. The mysterious line had already traced from one horizon to the other, threading itself directly through the sun.
“This reminds me of those dreams I get when I eat too much cream cheese,” Pinkie mumbled, the nagging sensation in her knee gradually increasing in intensity as time wore on.
A few more letters appeared, all of them sporting different designs and alternating colors. They were cold to the touch, and all seemed to drift from the left of the group to the right, gradually congregating in one central location in front of the town hall.
“I can’t wait to tell all of you about this dream tomorrow,” Dash jested, though she was shifting back and forth on her hooves. “...Right?”
“I know I’m not dreaming,” Pinkie replied as the glass letters converged into a small pile. From that pile, a small structure began to autonomously built itself, starting with what appeared to be four irregular cylinders, each of them about five centimeters high. Multicolored pieces continued to arrive.
A soft tearing sound resonated through the atmosphere, as if somepony was gently carving through a piece of silk. Twilight looked up to see the blue sky fall away like bed sheets, revealing a brilliantly clear night sky—whole galaxies could be seen, a picture of eons past swirling daintily an unfathomable distance away.
Twilight was almost awed before she detected movement. “I shouldn’t... how close are those stars?” she asked aloud. The entire sky seemed to be moving, shifting with the consistency of quicksand.
“Wh-what about the ring?” Fluttershy asked, craning her neck to look upward. The sun had dimmed, and was now possible to look at directly. What was significantly more interesting was the fact that a gargantuan metal track had been speared through it, following the same horizon-scaping path the initial thin line had.
The little dots of light had continued building, and their collective work was now starting to clearly resemble a pony. The torso was nearly finished, and the whole of the construct was starting to glow brightly, its patchwork of rainbow runes fastening in place.
“Whaddaya think we do?” Applejack asked, regarding the strange object cautiously.
“Let’s see,” Twilight said, circling the structure while being sure to keep her distance. “We all saw weird letters today. This is probably the source of the letters, and probably everything else.” She looked upward. “Since it’s impossible for the sky to split, somepony put an illusion over the whole of Ponyville.”
“So is Celestia just throwing a big surprise party for us? That would explain why she made everypony go and hide,” Pinkie suggested, immediately peeking inside a nearby shrub to check for anypony who might have been waiting for a signal within.
“No, it’s not a party, but if Celestia’s involved...” Twilight considered Pinkie’s mention of the Princess. Celestia had tested her before, but she’s always given her time to fit whatever task was at hoof into her schedule—Celestia always gave her time to prepare. “Maybe... it’s not Celestia, but Luna,” she murmured, more to herself than anypony else. She glanced up, checking the sky for a moon. There was none, just the sun, hanging like a lightbulb overhead. She shook her head. “None of this makes any sense. It must be some kind of test.”
“I don’t think mah question was really answered,” Applejack said, setting her jaw as the cylinders grew taller. “Twi, do you really think this is some kinda test? To be honest, I don’t really feel too safe out here.”
Nopony answered her. A faint voice was starting to whisper in their ears, though the tongue was too strange and the tone too distorted to communicate any meaning. Fluttershy felt another rune brush up against her, more forcefully this time, and she sucked in a breath—it was now much colder, so cold that it burned.
“What’s it trying to say?” Twilight asked as the strange pony’s head was finished. It resembled a stallion, though it had no mouth to speak of. His eyes were the only part of his body that were entirely symmetrical, both of them triangles that had a burning, golden appearance. The runes on the back of his neck and the dock of his tail glowed hotly before radiating their respective colors out into the newly night air, creating the semblance of hair, though it flowed weightlessly out into the air akin to ink in water before dissipating into the atmosphere. The last thing to form was the horn on his head, which manifested as a purple gem that radiated pure emotion—what emotion was specifically being radiated, Twilight couldn’t tell.
Some more words were whispered. The air grew distinctly chillier as the stallion regarded each of them, and though he was incapable of expression, Dash noticed that he stared at Twilight significantly longer than her or anypony else.
“Uhm... hi?” Pinkie ventured.
The construct’s head sharply turned to her. He stared a moment before returning his gaze to Twilight.
“Who are you?” Twilight asked, her gaze wary. She retreated a bit as the construct approached, arching an eyebrow.
The magical automaton raised its front hoof. A single purple rune radiated from the base of his hoof, drifting slowly up to Twilight’s skull. It hovered for a moment, giving her just enough chance to arch an eyebrow before burrowing itself into her skull.
Twilight felt herself knocked skyward, but in mid-flight, sound dimmed, and motion slowed. She heard the heavily distorted voice speak again, but this time, she could tell it was that of a stallion—even if he seemed to be speaking three sentences at the same time, two of them backward. Amidst the chaos, she could discern only this:
“My͟ ̀nam̛e͠ ̢̛is̵ Verba.̶̡̛C҉ommiţ ̷iţto̴memơy.”
After a few more moments, she landed flat on her back. Dazed, she sat motionless for a few moments, trying to catch her breath.
“Hey! You gotta problem, buddy?” Dash huffed, helping Twilight to her hooves.
“That may just be the only way he can say ‘hello,’ Dash,” Twilight grunted, feeling the rough impact particularly in her shoulders, which made it somewhat difficult to stand. She regarded the creature. “He says his name is Verba.”
“So why in Celestia’s name is he here? Is he the harbinger of all... this?” Rarity asked, sweeping her hoof across the sky.
Verba took a few steps toward Rarity, then raised a hoof. Another purple rune floated from the underside of his hoof, and he offered it to her.
She smiled anxiously, taking a step back. “Erm... no thank you, darling. I just had my mane and tail done yesterday.”
Verba tilted his head, but interpreted her withdrawal as refusal. He looked away for a moment, but when he turned back to the fashionista, the runes represented his eyes had faded to a light violet color. Some faint tendrils of energy flowed from them, reaching out to Rarity and tracing lines up her legs.
The sensation was odd, feeling a mix between a brisk breeze and a trickle of water, but Rarity, for fear of being thrown roughly onto her rump, stood patiently as the odd construct examined her. The smokey bands of energy stroked up her torso, then faded into nothing as they passed her cheeks.
Verba’s eyes flashed purple. Rarity sucked in a breath. “Well,” she stated, blinking.
“If I didn’ know any better, sugarcube, I’d say he’s checkin’ you out,” Applejack quipped. Verba proximately turned his gaze to her and stepping forward. Applejack stared at him directly. “Uhm... whadda ya want?”
Verba’s eyes flashed orange. Much to Rarity’s amusement, Verba began the same slightly invasive process with her.
“Allow me a hazard guess, darling,” the bemused unicorn began. “Verba is not a philanthropist, and all of these cosmic oddities are not merely the result of some creature wanting to feel us up.”
“Hey, I still think we’re dreaming,” Dash said with a shrug. “I mean, like, I’m dreaming.”
“I don’t think we’re dreaming, though, Dashie,” Pinkie said, seeming genuinely concerned as she gazed at her surroundings. Ponyville was starting to glow an odd, dark blue color, as if somepony had covered an enormous flashlight lens in blue flim and was now slowly turning its beam toward their hometown.
“Well, I can’t trust what you say. You’re part of the dream. Jeez, Pinkie, this is basic stuff,” Dash scoffed.
“Alright, well, if you know it’s a dream, shouldn’t you be able to do anything you want?” Pinkie replied with a huff.
Dash was about to afford her a retort when Verba took a patient step toward her, as well. She was not nearly as eager as Rarity, or even Applejack had been, and she did a sort of mid-air backpedal as he approached.
“Hey, buddy, get lost,” she said. “I don’t want you throwing me, or...” She trailed off—Verba had looked her directly in the eyes, and her motions slowed. She landed, dead-eyed, as the strange construct held her gaze. He repeated the process, his eyes flashing bright crimson before he broke eye contact.
As soon as the link was broken, Dash blurted, “—touching me, or being near me until I know what’s going on, okay? Okay,” she said, regarding Verba as he moved on to Pinkie.
“Hiya!” the confectionist chirped, sticking out a hoof to greet him. He took a step back, looking at her outstretched limb, before staring her blankly. Pinkie held her hoof up. “You’re supposed to shake it, silly billy.”
Verba’s eyes glowed, and he repeated the procedure on Pinkie, his eyes this time glowing blue. If he had even noticed Pinkie’s attempt to be friendly, he was either ignorant of her meaning, or apathetic to her cause.
After sorting through Pinkie, he moved onto Fluttershy. The pegasus quaked slightly as she approached, still significantly unnerved by the situation, stood up and turned her head away from him and toward the town. She noted that it was slowly being taken over by the blue glow, the horizon now completely absorbed and melting into the night sky. Only about a fifty-meter radius around the small group was visible—but she blinked as she saw a flash of something she didn’t recognize out the corner of her eye.
“Did... did you see that?” she asked Dash, desperately trying to ignore the slick sensation of coils on her coat.
“See what?” Dash asked, scanning the horizon. “I don’t see anything besides, like, the town disappearing. But this is a dream anyway, so I’m not too worried.”
“I’d exercise a small concern about that so that we don’t fall into some abyss, but honestly, darling, after all that’s happened within the past hour, I’m not surprised that Ponyville is dissolving,” Rarity sighed. “Though, I do wonder: Is this the real one? Are we dreaming? Nothing’s made to hurt us yet. This situation, though strange, seems more surreal than threatening.”
Fluttershy considered this a moment, though quickly came to the conclusion that Celestia or Luna would have at least shown up if something so destructive was happening to the actual Ponyville. For all she knew, Luna was intentionally playing tricks on them. This train of thought only lasted a moment, though, before she said, pointing behind Verba, “No, I saw some kind of... movement, just over there.”
“What did it look like?” Dash asked.
Fluttershy squinted, but saw nothing where she was certain something had been just a moment before. “...Never mind. I’m sorry for worrying you.” She looked back to see that Verba had finished with her, his eyes having just faded from pink and back to their original golden hue.
He stepped up to Twilight. As he looked her over, she did a similar inspection, trying to glean meaning from the text composing his body. She narrowed her eyes and squinted, some characters too blurry for her to even discern their shape. They almost appeared smudged, their colors blending into that of the surrounding runes.
This is the most advanced construct I’ve ever seen. Nopony alive should be able to make something like this, not even the Princess. She looked up as the tendrils stroked past her cheeks to see Verba’s eyes flashing bright purple, glowing so hotly that he took a step back, seemingly in surprise.
Twilight looked at him, confused. His reaction also garnered the attention of her friends, and she asked, “What’s wrong?”
Verba said nothing. Instead, he rushed up to her, pressing his snout into hers. Twilight’s friends rushed to her aid, but runes immediately broke off Verba’s shoulder and flew into their chests, completely inhibiting forward movement.
“Get off her!” Dash ordered, scratching at the green rune inhibiting her assistance.
Twilight, meanwhile, didn’t quite think she was threatened—yet. She instead watched Verba intently as he invaded her space, glaring at him as his eyes burned violet. She lit up her horn threateningly, and the air crackled with electricity as he stood over her. She could feel his warmth spreading across her as the standoff persisted. Verba’s horn sparked, too, though his burned with an almost blinding light.
There was a crackling noise reminiscent of a static shock. Twilight felt her magic fizzle just before it amplified several times beyond her threshold of control.
Dash watched in horror as a curved purple beam bounced between Twilight and her assailant. The resulting explosion smacked everypony present into the air, where they experienced much the same experience Twilight had earlier uninterrupted. Verba dissolved, fractured utterly into his component parts, which flew every which way.
The light cleared, fracting and refracting away into the darkness. Twilight slowly turned back to the group. Her eyes were wide and bloodshot, her horn shattered and leaking crimson. Her coat was split open, having a similar texture to sun-baked mud, and was rapidly losing its purple hue, turning to gray. She took a step toward her friends, stumbled, and fell.
Pinkie scrambled up to the crumpled form of her charred and bleeding friend. “Tw-... Twilight...?” She tried to reach a hoof under her body and lift her up, but the librarian’s skin broke on contact, coloring both parties crimson. Pinkie stared at the red on her forelegs uncomprehendingly for a moment before glancing back at Twilight, searching for the light that had always made a home in her eyes. Twilight didn’t make eye contact. Her gaze was dull.
Rarity raised a hoof to her mouth. AJ blinked, too shocked to speak. Fluttershy forced herself to look away. Dash was the only one who could even manage a thought.
“What happened to Twilight?” she gaped. She immediately turned to Verba. “You! What’d you do to Twilight?!”
The apparition, in the meantime, was slowly reforming. His hooves were covering his head as he knelt forward, his back legs quaking. He shuddered, his whole body made the desperate sound of a wind chime in a tornado.
The weathermare, her legs shaking but her will strong, took a few steps toward Verba as if to challenge him. “Well?”
She was about a meter away when he stood up and roared, his structured head now sporting a mighty jaw set with rows of jagged glass for teeth. The force of his bellow was enough to knock Dash away, but he didn’t settle for that—he grabbed her in midair and tried to grab her hind legs. He whiffed, thankfully, but his touch was numbingly frigid.
“Ow!” Dash yelped, ducking away and behind a building before realizing it was transparent. It had faded completely to blue, as had the rest of Ponyville, which was dissolving like wet tissue paper, collapsing into the darkened ground, which was rapidly crumbling to volcanic sand.
Verba bellowed, his voice painfully shrill, akin to glass grinding on glass. A blast of cold air pelted the girls, piercing them to their core. Thunder boomed, and a gale stirred in the vast void outside time and space. The sky churned, the sun obscured by clouds.
Applejack didn’t hesitate to beat a hasty retreat, and she practically dragged Fluttershy with her as she galloped away. Rarity leapt out the range of Verba’s swift fangs just in time for Dash to snag her in midair and carry her aloft, while in the meantime Pinkie helped Fluttershy find her wings and fly for her life.
The horizon was dim, the sun providing not nearly enough lighting to account for the increasingly ragged terrain—more than once did Rarity lose her balance as Verba barreled toward them, leaving a trail of white powder in his path. In the midst of all her panic did she notice the tips of her ears hurting, and how her face stung as she bounded forward into the unknown. It was then she realized she was absolutely frigid.
The air had chilled to levels either approaching or below freezing, and the thunder overhead roared as the air became obscured in the sudden blizzard of titanic force. The wind was indecisive about whether or not it wished to aid or inhibit the collective flight of the girls, but whether it chose to back or push against them was rather unimportant given that its mere presence burned them utterly.
Eventually, Rarity’s gallop was forced to slow to a canter, and both Dash and Fluttershy were forced to land, the wind proving too much for either of them to handle. Pinkie continued clawing her way forward, but Applejack was the first pony to trip on the now-jagged stones they trode upon.
Fluttershy was the only pony to hear the farmer’s exclamation upon her face hitting the now-arctic granite, and she was also the first to rush to her aid. Verba was nowhere to be seen, but that wasn’t saying much due to the fact that nopony could see more than two meters in front of their own faces due to the savage snowstorm.
It was a good thing, too, for just as Fluttershy stumbled up to Applejack in order to help her up, Verba pounced at them from out of sight. Having no other options, Fluttershy hissed in a breath and stared him directly in the eyes.
He paused.
Fluttershy’s will quickly diminished in the sheer cold of the blizzard, but for the few moments she looked at Verba, she saw only instinct—the same emotions she would see in an eagle, or a cat.
As her mental energy crumbled under the weight of the blizzard, Verba broke from his trance just long enough to swipe at her before Dash knocked her away. He roared once more, shooting cringe-worthy vibrations across the landscape, but they soon faded as the quintet fled.
They kept running as long as they could. They ran as the granite turned to dirt, and the dirt was covered with snow, they ran as the still-unseen sky slowly calmed to that which they knew and loved, and they ran even as hyperboreal wires crept up their limbs and into their torso, solidifying their bodies from the outside in.
And when they could run no more, they found their eyes frozen shut, their limbs unresponsive from the force of the storm, and they collapsed as a collective—as five.
The next morning, they woke up with four.
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This is cool. Definitely tracked.
I'm assuming something along the lines of 'to be Discord' was cut somehow...
Also: It's finally here!
Got it memorized?
Anyway, I read these two chapters as soon and as fast as I could. The wait begins...
...Ok...
I guess I understand what is going on...
No, No I don't.
The cover art is cool though.
Well, that was certainly...interesting. Enjoyable, even. Well done.
I'm somewhat split as to the quality of this fic. The word choice was fantastic, and the dialogue between the characters is sharp, not to mention the description of the surreal concepts embodied in this fic.
However, there are some things that irk me. The fable that Evening Embrace tells her sister is a blatant exposition dump if ever seen one. Now I'm no expert when it comes to writing, but I think it would be better form if the details that the fable conveys be staggered out a bit. Also, I dislike how cryptic this story so far has been. I don't mind a little mystery, in fact, I use it myself. But part of me wants to slap the story upside the head and say, "Get to the point." Maybe this is just a preference thing, but it grates nonetheless.
So that's three positives and two negatives. Not bad. I think I'll follow this fic. Why not? :P
Have a very nice day!
Ven
2787667
Ditto
Hmm...
Well, firstly, the beginning is about as confusing as the beginning of Envy and Arrogance, granted with more exposition with the early introduction of Obsidian.
However, I've noticed two key differences, one with the story format and the world itself: 1) the lack of music which, in my opinion, greatly set the mood throughout the first two stories, and 2) the timeline. At the end of every chapter of EA and GH, you constantly reminded the readers that it was set in-between season 1 and season 2 on the show, yet, here, the Mane Six seem aware of Discord's existence right off the bat. Now, I'm not sure if you're trying to convey whether they already knew of Discord but he hasn't escaped his original confinement, or if they've already encountered and trapped him themselves.
I also noticed a lack of a "Tragedy" tag on the story, so I can only hope that certain ponies won't die in this one.
Anyway, have a fave, mostly because I want to see Envy, Arrogance, Deception, Hate, and Guilt get their asses KICKED.
Before I read this I must know: is this continuation of Envy and Arrogance and Guilt and Hate? I don't want to start the last part of a series before reading the others...
2788162 It's a reboot of the whole series.
2787648
Half the fun is figuring things out as you go!
2788106
Unfortunately, the music had to be cut to due unforeseen circumstances. There are details there but I can't remember them.
Dissonance has arrived!!
This is getting off to a really good start! I am definitely looking forward to the upcoming chapters!
Can't wait for more!
i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/6934045952/h6BBB0FF8/
Is this a sequel to another story? The description kind of reads like it. I just wanna' know where I should start with this.
Well worth the wait. I don't suppose the background music from E&A will make a return?
Hell ya keep on writing
omigoshomigoshomigsh
Finally the long awaited addition to the saga has arrived.
Excellent so far, but the lack of music is murdering me. I was half-tempted to pull up E&A in another tab and use its BGM while reading. Good to see the story on the front page though, it certainly deserves it!
High ho chapter two~
Woo! Finally! Ive been waiting for this since..well..G&H went on Hiatus
Now I havent had a chance to read yet..but this is a reboot to the whole thing from E&A -> G&H..so new stuff, yes? Wondering if I need to go back and brush up on chapters or review things so I remember (since its been awhile, lots of stuff to read)
Is this going to be a re-write of Envy and Arrogance, and Guilt and Hate? Cause it's the same people, the same start and everything so far.
And what might THIS be?
I might just tag this for later...
~Skeeter The Lurker
2789463 From what I know about it it's basically that, but with some fundamental changes concerning the villains (Guilt and Hate will become less of a bunch indestructible machines of awesomeness, probably Vengeance too since the general power creep is reduced), less trigger-happyness when it comes to killing characters to make each one count and probably something about the heroes' plan to defeat the bad guys if I had to guess (mainly to give them some semblance of hope I assume because face it, there was no way they could walk out alive from the hole they were at the point where G&H was put on hiatus and later cancelled).
Shame that the music was axed, it was a cool idea.
well thats something you don't see often, a creature made almost entirely of runes and arcane energy (Verba)
I really miss the music, but I guess it couldn't be helped.
Another thing worth noting is that you overused italics for emphasis to the point where it became largely meaningless. I'd suggest toning it down.
Beyond that, I'm kinda disappointed I can't go on to chapter two like when I was reading Envy and Arrogance. I'm actually here for the start, and I'm not sure how I feel about that
A reference of Axel from KH? Instant fave.
2789579 Meh, I liked the way it was going with Guilt being both good and evil, and Twilight was starting to see in shade of gray instead of just black and white. I hope there is more of that in this one, instead of it just being Harmony is good, so everything they do is good with no gray thinking at all.
So let me get this straight. Equestria is a so-called 'perfect world,' and, as such, was completely fake. It was created to house the elements of Harmony and to contain them, right? And so the real 'Equestria,' which I infer is called 'Dissonance,' is a wasteland populated by few ponies. It is this wasteland because Order is the only one ruling, Harmony sacrificing herself and Chaos committing suicide not long after creating ponies. The elements should have been taught by this 'Obsidian,' but because of their imprisonment on the moon, the elements were unable to be trained.
Amiright so far?
2790419 I doubt there won't be grey, considering the synopsis says that the elements are war-enders and not peace keepers, also it seems most forgot why the hell they were fighting this war too.
What makes me glad about this rewrite is that Guilt won't be inconsistent as hell about his powers anymore, I also fully expect him working for the good guys this time again, and maybe Hate won't be such a childish tool and realize he can't hate a bunch of ponies that basically inherited powers but aren't the ones that messed up with him in the first place.
2791078 I'm new here. Who's Guilt?
2791159 One of the "bad guys" on the original version, in the begining was established that his power was basically a death stare (paralyzes you and tortures you mentally with it) but for some reason switched to space bending capabilities at some point with no explanation (warping, defying physics, that sort of thing). Don't know what he'll do now since the author made it clear he was completely changed in that regard.
2791171 Oh, thanks.
2790892
Holy assumption Batman.
2791272
Holy tight-lips Batman!
Lol. I like to guess what is happening in stories like this where either A I have no idea as to the background yet or B the readers as a whole don't. It's fun to see if I'm right or not.
I see a very white pony... I am intrigued.
I swear I've seen this before ages ago..?
2791977
This is a reboot of an old series that the Author made, so it is very possible you have seen something like it ages ago
.
There will be enough differences that mass editing wasn't enough. You can find the old version under the titles "envy and arrogance" followed by "guilt and hate" in the authors story list though I don't suggest you read them as it might just confuse you since this will not be following the same plot line, and character personalities are liable to be different.
Edit: Will there be music in future chapters or is the use of music as a way to set the mood going to be completely absent from this reboot?
Hmm . . . I wasn't that into Envy and Arrogance--the setting didn't really interest me, and some of the characters didn't seem like they were handled very well. But I loved The Story of My Life, so I guess I might as well give this one a try.
Really interesting start. I really miss the music though, is there any chance that you're going to add it later?
2793283 Thanks man, that was pretty damn informative
2788106 One of das editors made an outline for a book he never plans on writing, simply titled as that, with his take on what happened before this story takes place. If you had read that, you'd probably be rooting for the Inverse. 'Cept your favorite ponies would all die (like five times over), which would ... HNNGBRAIN
The outline I'm talking about will probably be uploaded as a standalone when Dissonance is finished.
This is looking much better than the original, as I only made through half of the original before giving up on it. I will watch and wait and hope that all the problems I had with the original have me remedied, because like I've told you with the original, the story has some great potential.
Tracking, because I'm confused and want to find out more.
You have succeed.
Note: Comments posted before August 5, 2013 were written before a Dissonance update, and may no longer be relevant to the current version of the story.
I've got to say that this revision is better. The repeated appearance of the strange letters really guided me along the first section, and as usual the fight scene was good. Then at the end, I'm stuck wondering about what happened to make one of the five disappear. Was it Verba, or did one just wake up and walk away?
This link is broken. Please fix it.
I was dissapoineted when you ended envy and arrogance series and began tio rewrite but i am pleassed with the results,
becasue you definitly need my approval right? RIGHT?