The G.E.A.: Victor in Equestria

by InfiniteBrony

Awaken

The nothingness was absolute.

All around was an utter and endless blackness, impossibly cold and dark. This was no mere nothingness, not in the classical why in which Twilight Sparkle understood it. It was not as if something were simply missing, it was more than that. It was… was… an absence. An utter absence of everything, of anything. No light, no space, no warmth, no time, no magic, no anything at all, as if it weren’t even there in the first place.

How exactly Twilight found herself in this not-place she would not have been able to understand even if thought had been possible. Had there been a mind of hers with which to ponder the circumstances she would have considered the philosophical question of whether she was actually here at all, if by its very nature there wasn’t a “here”. This place couldn’t be real, because real didn’t exist here. Hell existence didn’t exist here. So that would mean there was no “here”. But if there was no “here” then how could she be here in the first place? If the not-place had been capable of allowing her to sustain emotions she would have been grateful she didn’t have a brain to hurt with the infinite logic loop.


After countless eternities, all of which happened in no time at all since there was no time in which for it to happen in, the nothingness ceased to be. Instead, it began to exist. And once its existence simply was, the absence of reality was broken. Things were now, time began to flow, space started to become, and all of Twilight’s thoughts, emotions, memories, spirit and everything she was coalesced together in a single-minded consciousness. And then Twilight was again.

She was not alive, nor was she dead, she simply was and that was it. She just existed, and nothing more. But slowly, she became more. Her thoughts came to her first. Her thoughts were basic, and raw, without language to structure them, and so she was able to do little else than wonder. Wonder about where she was, who she was, what this place was and plenty else.

But she was interrupted when her memories came, and with it her language. Before she could put words to the strange concepts of which she was imagining, she was distracted as the emptiness around her dispersed and became filled. But filled with what she could not say.

All around her were… things both utterly alien and entirely incomprehensible in nature. Everything she saw completely and openly defied everything she had ever known. Up was down, in was out, everything that shouldn’t have been was and everything that should have been wasn’t. Every part of her being rebelled against the sheer, utterly profane wrongness of everything around her. She could actually feel it as her sanity slowly left her in the face of this new and utterly alien reality. Her very soul was being ripped apart as she beheld these things that she was never meant to know. But even as it cracked and splintered, Twilight’s mind, in one last desperate attempt to save itself, did its best to reconcile what it saw around it into a form that it could understand.

And suddenly, everything was fine.

Looking around, now with the self-imposed veil pulled over her eyes, Twilight no longer beheld an eldritch landscape. Instead, she beheld something of sheer awe, and incredible beauty. All around her were stars, and everything that came with them. Stretching out beyond sight in every direction were points of light, glimmering like immaculate diamonds set against a gentle and infinite sea of inky-black velvet. Accompanying them were visions of beauty so extravagantly amazing, Twilight could do nothing but weep as she beheld them. They were like nothing she had ever seen before, not even in her wildest imaginings: swirling spiral structures made of the light of the heavens themselves, balls of crystal and ice that shot across her vision in the blink of an eye as the caught and reflected light in a dizzying spectrum, enormous, billowing pillars of dust and ice that towered above her, glowing with the gentle light of infant heavens and reaching up to the very vaulted ceilings of creation. Not even the beauty of the night-time sky could compete with the sheer resplendence of everything within her sight.

She felt like she could have sat in this very spot, simply observing the goings on around her for the rest of eternity, and never be happier. However, as much as she did not want to, she was forced to tear her gaze away as something else began to fill the infinite space.

At first it was un-recognizable, just the resplendent space around her had been, but before she could slip into madness just from seeing its form her mind did its best to protect itself once again, and allowed her to see something she could understand.

At first she thought that it was still incomprehensible, or that her mind was playing tricks on her. But then she realized that her mind was playing tricks on her, that everything she saw was technically a trick of her mind, and that it was only because of this that she was still sane. But still, even with her mind doing its best to comprehend what it saw, the thing before her made almost no sense at all.

She tried to make reason out of it, to describe what she saw before her, and perhaps it would make more sense if she could put words to it. But for the first time in her life, her words failed her. Even with her vast intellect she could find no way to accurately convey what it was she beheld.

Somehow, it seemed to both be and not be at once. It was indistinct, indirect, unintelligible, and utterly unknowable. Honestly, it hurt her brain just to try and imagine how such a thing could exist in the way it seemed to. Her eyes would ache as they followed the lines of its form as they flowed from one point to another, weaving into and out of time, existence and the fabric of whatever counted as space in this place. Its color was unlike any she had ever seen before, just as alien and perverse to her as anything else she had seen since being here, and she found she had no name for it either. For a while, she simply writhed in the pain of her ignorance as she gazed upon it.

And then, quite suddenly, it just sort of… shifted.

It didn’t move, or blink, or flash, or change in any way, at least not as far as she could tell, but it just simply… wasn’t the same anymore. And suddenly, she could understand it now. And almost immediately, she sincerely wished that she couldn’t.

The first thing she saw was the most obvious: it was enormous, utterly and absolutely so. Somehow, it seemed to almost fill the entirely endless and infinite space around her. She realized that she saw only a small part of it, even as she tried (and failed) to peer along the length of its body as it disappeared into the infinitely distant horizon. Any sort of physical scale she was familiar with was utterly useless for such a being. Just the thickness a single one of the lashes on its eyes was greater than the distance between Ponyville and Canterlot. Its size could only be measured in nothing less than a literally astronomical scale.

Once her brain had gotten over sheer, mind-numbing hugeness of it, she noticed other things about it, such as its composition. To her no doubt addled eyes, it seemed to be made of the very space around her, given life. Its body was an endless expanse of black, coating in the twinkling of far distant stars. Its legs were made incredibly similar to the pillars that held up the space she found herself in, holding up the great vastness that was its form. Its breath glowed, like the nebulae of distant stellar nurseries. The galactic spanning wings on its side, as well as the great monolithic horn upon its head were both somehow even darker then the blackness around them, seemingly made the dark void between stars. But strangest of all, were its eyes. Its eyes positively glowed, alight with the golden luminesce of the heavens. Staring into them felt like looking into the face of creation itself.

The more Twilight stared, the more awe-struck and enamored she began to feel, until all that she could conceive of was It. And then, right before her eyes, It stirred. Once more, it shifted, but It did not change this time. Instead, It created.

Twilight was not sure exactly how, or why, or even what exactly, but now, right there hanging suspended in the space before It, was a globe. And a strangely familiar globe at that. It was large, spherical, coated mostly in blue but with patches consisting green, brown, and white spread across its surface. And almost as soon as she noticed its existence, Twilight noticed something else about it: it had life on it.

Exotic creatures running through emerald glades, verdant savannas patrolled by roaming beasts, deep sea trenches inhabited by bioluminescent creatures, almost far too much for Twilight to take in at once. Everything about was just teeming, and vibrant, and alive. And then, almost as soon as the living globe had appeared, something else found its way to this strange space as well.

Somehow, another great being appeared, almost completely filling the endless space Twilight was in. It was almost entirely identical to the first one who had appeared, save for a single distinguishing feature. Instead of a gentle and reassuring gold, the eyes the second great being possessed were a dull and listless gray, seeming to suck out and drain the brilliance of the space around them.

For a long time, the two simply regarded each other. Neither of them spoke, or even moved. But then, without warning, a look of anger spread across the endless expanse of the Second’s face. In what seemed to be a fit of rage, it reached out and shattered the globe between them.

The First looked down at the wreckage of the globe. At first there was nothing, but slowly, its face began to betray a mix of emotion. Chief among them were sadness, and loss, mixed with a large amount of grief. Finally, anger came into its continence, and it turned to the Second. Without any further warning, they both lunged at each other.

They collided in the part of space the living globe had occupied, with such force and ferocity that they lost the delicate mask that Twilight’s mind had put on them. For an instant, Twilight beheld their true forms as they fought with enough force to shake the very fabric of reality. And it was then, just before the madness could set in, that she realized the true meaning of fear, and of awe.

An instant later, everything ceased to be once more, and Twilight was thrown back into a black nothingness. But this time, the nothingness was a little less absolute. With great relief, Twilight allowed her mind to drift off, into the depths of unconsciousness.

*~-/^\-~*

I awoke gentle and easily. The soft light of the sun filtered in through the shuttered windows and the sound of chirping birds reached my ears easily, even though the pane of glass. I smiled softly. Compared to many of the other situations I had found myself in, this was definitely not a bad way to wake up. Stretching, my limbs popped in a satisfying staccato, just as a sharp pain in my chest jolted me the rest of the way to consciousness. Doing my best to muffle a pained cough I held a hoof over my mouth, clutching my chest with the other. Grimacing, I held my hoof there until the pain faded. Thankfully, it was over almost as quickly as it began. I rolled my way out of bed, now fully awake and needing to stretch my legs.

Almost as soon I rose to my hooves, I felt a rather familiar sensation, one that brought a wry smile to my lips at the absurdity of it. Despite the massive beating I’d been through recently, the fact that I was in strange new world the for all intents and seemed to be that of a cartoon, and even despite the fact that I was in an entirely new body, one fact remained true; I was a man and it was the first thing in the morning.

Quietly, so as not to unduly disturb the room’s other tenant, I made my way to the room’s conjoining bathroom. After a brief moment of confusion over the nature of the alien plumbing, I managed to relieve my bladder, much to my own relief. Once my business was taken care of, I proceeded to wash my hooves in the sink, only to catch sight of myself in the mirror.

Needless to say, I wasn’t pretty. I had been through quite a lot since I got here, and it showed clearly on my face, neck, shoulders, and well, pretty much my entire body. Most of the wounds had closed and the bruises faded over-night thankfully, but dried blood, dirt and sweat matted my coat of fur over at least half of my body. My mane and tail weren’t much better, both of them completely frizzy and beginning to clump together in places; my mane was even starting to escape to confines of the ponytail I usually kept it in. My eyes were blood-shot, with heavy bags beneath them, despite the relative comfort in which I had slept last night. Perhaps most alarming of all however, was if I looked a little past all of the filth and grime I could make out a faint scar on my cheek where the possessed spider monster from last night had gotten a lucky hit, going all the up to my ear, which was now missing a triangle of flesh at the tip. It even appeared to still be bleeding slightly.

Having gotten a good look at myself, I decided against returning to the room. Instead, I turned around and began to run myself a shower. Undoing my hair from its usual style, I let it fall around my shoulders, and I noticed that it was becoming a little greasy as well. After giving it a few minutes for the water to adjust, I slipped a hoof into the rain of droplets. Suppressing a shudder, I tweaked one of the knobs slightly and stepped in.

I made no effort to restrain a small sigh of bliss as the warm water struck my skin. The gentle caress of the soothing liquid washed away the filth and grime from my coat even as it relaxed various muscles that until that moment I hadn’t even realized were sore. For a brief minute or so, as the water dug into me and washed away the stains the floor was colored brown and red as I once more became clean. Moving slowly and deliberately so as not to disturb the gentle and comfortable daze the warm water had put me in, I reached for the soap, and began to work it into my matted coat.

The process of actually bathing was slow going; being somewhat used to having opposable thumbs I found it rather difficult to manipulate anything with my hooves. In addition, whenever I would come into contact with one of the cuts that had yet to close all of the way with the soap it would cause a sharp stinging pain, forcing me wash area gently and carefully. Once I was finished washing my body though, my hair presented a whole new challenge, especially when it came to my tail. I was no stranger to having excessive amounts of hair, but I was somewhat accustomed to it only being on my head, not my ass. Simply reaching it in order to work up a good lather was proving somewhat difficult, a point that was made pointedly when I managed to slip and smash one of my knees against the side of the tub. Hard. Grumbling, I settled for sitting on my haunches and wrapping my tail around me in order to reach it.

About twenty minutes after I had gotten into the shower I was turning off the water and stepping out. This was not entirely my first time being a quadruped, and thankfully I was able to shake the water from myself fairly well, but unfortunately, it left me rather… fluffy. I was thankful nobody could see how ridiculous I looked as I patted my fur back down with the towel as I finished drying myself off. My mane was still hanging about my shoulders, dripping into and re-wetting my coat, so I threw the towel over my shoulders and to rub my hair as I stepped out of the bathroom and back into the room with beds.

A shiver ran up my spine as I came into contact with the comparatively chill air of room after having gotten used to the steamy air of the bathroom. Shaking slightly, and with my eyes still half-closed in a vain attempt to hold onto any piece of the mellow comfort the shower had given me, I made my to my bed. With a practiced motion that was far more deft then hooves should have allowed, I picked up the small rectangular box of toothpick I allows kept with me, knocked it against my other hoof so that a single round stick extended out of the box, and grasped the small splinter of wood with my teeth. Setting the small box down, I continued to dry my hair, feeling much more comfortable now that my toothpick was in its rightful place. A polite chough however, alerted me to the fact that I was not alone. Placing the towel round my shoulders, I turned to face my guests.

In addition to The Doctor being back in the room in order to check on Twilight, as I had expected, there were two other mares I didn’t recognize.

The first of them was a white unicorn, with an elegantly styled royal-purple mane and a trio of diamonds on her flank. From her the way she held herself and her general grace, along with her immaculate appearance, I deduced that she was a pony of some class. Despite this, I could still hear her utter a soft, “Oh my,” as she held up a hoof in a vain attempt to hide her face. Her cheeks were flushed a bright crimson, so much so in fact, that I could have sworn that her face was radiating some small amount of heat. One look at her quickly darting eyes told exactly why she was blushing so profusely. Despite holding up her hoof, I could easily see her bit the corner of her bottom lip as she drug her eyes all over my body, drinking in every curve of my wet skin and lingering perhaps a little over-long on my (apparently) well-muscled flanks. I couldn’t help but grin a bit smugly. It was nice to know that even in a new body I could still turn the ladies’ heads.

The second mare was much more composed then the first. She was taller too, but only slightly, and still nowhere near as tall as me. Her coat was a gentle indigo color, save for the area around her flank, which was covered in inky-black splotches around a silver moon. Her mane was a soft, lighter blue, like that of the sky just before the sun began to rise or set, and hugged the side of her neck in a soft curl. Her posture was somewhat timid, but bespoke no small amount of regality. Perhaps most interesting about her appearance was that unlike any other pony I had seen since I’d been here (as admittedly few as that was) she was the first I’d seen with both wings and a horn. She too had a small blush as she looked at me, but only a light dusting on her cheeks, instead of the full-blown tomato impersonation that her companion was attempting, and it seemed due more to the perceived awkwardness of the situation than anything else.

I made over to Twilight’s bed and stood next to them, where the white mare held out her hoof in greeting. “Well hello there, darling,” she said, still blushing (albeit not as badly) as she traced her eyes up and down my frame while she spoke, “it certainly is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Rarity, may I ask yours?” As soon as she spoke, any remaining doubt I might have had about her being anything but a high class pony was washed away.

Smiling deviously, I decided that it might be fun to play the part a bit. Taking her proffered hoof gentle, I dipped my head deeply before kissing the back of her hoof lightly, careful not to jab her with my toothpick. “Of course you may, Lady Rarity,” I said, adopting a silky quality to my voice. “My name is Vi-Dusk. Dusk Script,” I said, narrowly catching myself before remembering what The Doctor had said about names here. Rarity of course didn’t notice my near slip – she was far too occupied with the positively massive blush that had graced her continence the moment I kissed her hoof. I could swear I almost saw steam rising from her ears do to the sheer force of her blush.

“Ah, uh, y-yes, very good, my, uh, good g-gentlestallion,” she managed to stammer light-headedly.

Chuckling at the spectacle, I turned towards the other mare. Dipping my head deeply once more, I gently took her hoof in my own and lightly kissed the back of it as well. “And what, may I ask, is your name, my lady?” I asked, looking into her teal eyes.

Surprisingly, she was proving to be somewhat resistant to my charms. “Luna. My name is Luna,” she said with small smile. I couldn’t help but smile a little wider when she did; it seemed I was having at least some small effect. “Tell me, is it true that you are the one who rescued Twilight from the Everfree Forest?” she asked, looking me squarely in the eyes as she did.

Dropping her hoof, I answered, “Yes, Lady Luna, I am.”

“Then you have my thanks,” she said, smiling more deeply now, “it is most likely because of you that she still lives. My sister and I both would have been devastated should anything have befallen her.”

“Please, it was nothing,” I spoke, waving off the issue nonchalantly, “I couldn’t very well ignore a lady in need, now could I?”

“Regardless, you have my gratitude. Should you ever visit, you will always be welcome in my halls, Dusk Script.”

“I appreciate it. Thank you, my lady.”

“You are welcome. I apologize, but I can tarry no longer. I came only to check on Twilight’s condition and there is business to attend to in Canterlot. I must be on my way,” she said, turning around and leaving through the door, leaving me alone with Rarity, a slumbering Twilight and an otherwise occupied Doctor.

“Oh, how heroic,” the white unicorn cooed as I turned to face her. “A handsome stallion, bravely dashing off into the Everfree Forest in the middle of the night to rescue a damsel in distress. And not just any damsel, but our own Twilight no less! Oh, it makes me shudder just thinking about it,” she said as small tremors did indeed shoot up her spine. “Oh, you simply must tell me all about it sometime, darling.”

“I would love to, Lady Rarity, but I’m afraid the details of that particular escapade are a tad too, ah, ‘gruesome’ for a lady such as you,” I responded, chuckling lightly.

“Very well, if you say so I’ll take your word for it, Mister Script,” she replied with a hint of pout on her lips.

“Please, call me Dusk, Lady Rarity,” I said, chuckling a bit more heartily.

“Only if you will call me Rarity,” she quipped, smiling slyly.

“Very well, Rarity,” I replied, returning her smile.

“Good. Now I’m afraid I cannot stay much longer either, I only came to check on my friend Twilight before the business day started, and I have quite a few orders to complete before days end,” she explained as she walked towards the door. Stopping in the doorframe, she turned to me. “Oh, and Dusk? Please feel free to stop by Carousel Boutique after you are discharged, alright?” she said, fluttering her eyelashes vigorously.

“I will be sure to do just that, Rarity,” I responded, waving her off as she walked down the hallway.

Smiling smugly, I shut the door and finished drying my hair with the towel I still had draped across my shoulders. Once I had done so sufficiently, I carelessly tossed the used towel onto to my bed and gathered my hair to put it up into its usual style. Having done so, I turned to find the Doctor finished with whatever it was he had been working on and glaring at me disapprovingly. “What? What’d I do?” I asked, honestly not knowing.

“Do you have any idea who it was you just smooth-talked, you shmuck?” he inquired exasperatedly. “Those were two of the most famous and influential ponies in all of Equestria! One is an actual god-damn princess for pete’s sake!” he exclaimed angrily.

“Huh, really? I thought that white one was pretty regal,” I replied calmly.

“I’m talking about the blue one, you dolt!” he fumed. “If you don’t start thinking before you act I’m going to have to report you to HQ!”

“Geeze, just calm down,” I said, flicking some water at him with my still somewhat damp tail, “I didn’t exactly offend them or anything did? If anything I’d say I was on their good side now.”

“Well, yes that’s true, but the point remains, you can’t keep going around and doing whatever you want without thinking about the consequences anymore. You’re on thin ice as it is, one more major slip up and—“ Before The Doctor could finish his sentence he was interrupted by a loud commotion coming from Twilight’s bed.

I turned towards her immediately, only for my heart to leap into my throat when I saw her. Her entire body was twitching and shaking violently; she seemed to be in the throes of an intense seizure. I rushed to her side in an instant, reaching her at the same time as The Doctor and we both did our best to hold her down and prevent her from hurting herself. She kept shaking and shaking, and after several minutes in which she didn’t let up in her spasms, The Doctor turned to me and asked, “Victor! What’s wrong with her?” Gritting my teeth from the strain of holding her violently bucking body, I leaned down and touched my horn to her own, and scanned her magically. I didn’t like what I saw.

The best news was that the small streaks of corruption already in her laylines seemed to be driven out and cured. The bad news was why. Her carbuncle was reacting to the Blessing, and in an incredibly strong manner. It was actually beginning to deform from its natural shape, and mold to a shape more accommodating to that of the raw energy sustaining the Blessing. As a result, it was beginning to reach towards the Blessing, forming tendrils of auxiliary laylines in its direction and closing the distance between them. Unfortunately, it was doing this all while the shards of pure, dark corruption were still suspended between them. There was only one way to fix this without killing Twilight.

Jumping onto the bed, I lay on top of her and instructed The Doctor to try and hold her down. Without waiting for his confirmation or even any sort of reaction, I closed my eyes and once again my horn against her own. Both my horn and her entire body lit up in a silver corona, casting the room into a light pall, as I preformed immediate magical surgery.

Gently, but with a firm insistence, I grabbed ahold of the nexus of my Blessing, and began to twist it. Softly at first, but with increasing strength, I changed its shaped, splitting it into two conjoined halves. The first half was definitely the more complex of the two, I began to feel the sweat drip from my brow as I poured all of my concentration into shaping a crystalline lattice of energy networks, in hyper-geometric shapes not yet even conceived of one this world and using it to trap the Corruption Shards in a sub-dimensional magi-stasis field within. Once that was done however, making a 5-dimensional network of energy to match what Twilight’s Carbuncle had already formed naturally almost disappointingly easy. With a subtle amount of pressure I was able to merge the tapered ends of both energy networks together. My Blessing was now both holding the corruption at bay and connected to Twilight’s natural energy. Satisfied that I had done what needed to be done, I withdrew from our connection and allowed myself to become aware of what was going around me again. Thankfully, Twilight had stopped thrashing.

Gingerly stepping off of the bed and back onto the floor, The Doctor immediately began to shout. “What the hell was that?! Tell me what just happened to her, Victor!” he demanded.

With a sigh, I began to explain. “Her body was taking much better to the Blessing then I thought it would, Ok?”

“But wouldn’t that be a good thing?” he inquired skeptically.

“Normally yes, but because of the very dark magic I was trying to save her from, her Carbun—“ Before I could finish my explanation, we were once more interrupted by a noise from Twilight’s bed.

We both turned towards her instantly, prepared for and expecting the worse. Instead, there was only a loud gasp as her whole body bucked once, and then fell still. Slowly, tentatively, she began to open her eyes. But something wasn’t quite right, I didn’t remember her eyes glowing a solid white when I saw her in the Everfree Forest. Before I could take notice of the massive magical field gathering around her body, the whole world exploded.

And then everything went white.