New World(view)

"Just a few more adjustments and it should be ready!" Twilight mused to herself.

She adjusted her cactus-leather cap, used a small threading hook in her teeth to pull at the strings tightened around the pulley, and changed the flexibility of the wooden wing made from refuse wood and thin pieces of linen. The noise of her work on her contraption was absorbed by the farming equipment laying about her family's barn. Most of the irrecoverable equipment laid in a pile in a corner. They had been stripped for parts and set to be sold to a scrapper whenever they came by, but it was a rare occasion, judging by the exorbitant amounts of dirt and grime covering the plows, tractors, and manual tools.

To anypony else, the stench of manure and rust mixed together would burn away the nose hairs, but to Twilight, it was a magical scent that made her think of home. A claim nopony else would make, for sure.

"All done!" Twilight proclaimed.

She turned off the many oil lamps hanging from blunted hooks affixed to the support beams of the barn and opened the doors to the bright sun outside.

"Let's do this!" the mare said.

The pony put on her harness and started pulling the flat cart outside, giving it its first sun bath. The mare looked up at the sky and squinted at the intensity. There were a few clouds, but nothing indicated they were heavy and laden with rain.

Twilight smiled. "Guess I can take a break and stretch my limbs." She scratched her shoulder and looked at her neighbor's home. "I wonder if Applejack needs any help today."

Twilight removed her harness and placed her cap on her new, winged contraption. With a smile, she moved her mane out of her face and wiped her forehead of sweat. Her vaguely purplish dark-blue mane and tail were accentuated by two vertical lines of fuchsia and purple. The earth pony and her family stood out among most farmers in the area due to their vibrant coat that deviated from the usual yellows, browns, and oranges of the area. Twilight tapped her hooves on the dirt scraped clear of life by the massive wooden doors, freeing most of the dark purple crown draped by the fuzzy lavender of her fetlocks. The lavender pony checked her leg accessories for damage. She wore two golden bangles just above her ankles - Heirlooms, as it were, inherited from some ancestors long, long ago. Embossed on them was a six-pointed star, something whose meaning had long been forgotten by her family, much to Twilight's chagrin.

The mare frowned despite herself as she gently rubbed the heirlooms. "Well...can't think about that too much." Twilight looked at the immense fields of apple trees stretching all around the Apple family's fields as far as the eye could see and spotted something orange shifting about.

She hopped over the low, wooden fence and galloped through the field, ignoring some of the rotted apples that fell to the ground crunching under her hooves and splattering juices everywhere. The lavender pony snuck up behind Applejack analyzing a rather large tree and hopped onto her back.

"Hi, Applejack!"

"Bwah!"

The apple farmer bounced backwards, sending Twilight flying and making both ponies fall onto their backs.

"Twilight!" Applejack yelled angrily as she got back onto her hooves. "Ah told ya ta stop doing' that when ah'm workin'!"

"Hey! I work too," Twilight responded with a huff. "I just finished flight project number twenty-four!"

Applejack blinked. "Ya what?"

"I finished the next project."

The orange mare facehoofed and shook her head. "Another one? Ah thought ya liked just workin' on the farm equipment of ours 'n the others."

Twilight brushed dust off her coat. "Sure I do, but what's the point of having all this knowledge if I can't use it to create things?"

The farm pony grunted. "Alright, alright. No need ta get in a tizzy."

Applejack was a somewhat bulky pony thanks to extensive manual labor every day. Her pale orange coat made her stick out from her trees to somepony like Twilight, but even she didn't understand how a pony could sport white freckles across their face when they had fur. The farm pony's orangish black hooves were almost entirely covered by her fetlocks, causing the tips to be caked in dirt. Her blonde mane had been fashioned into a long, braided ponytail that hung over her right shoulder while her tail had been divided into four sections; Three resembled balls of hair and the last one was just the splayed end of her tail. The mare sported a wooden headpiece that wrapped around the back of her head by wooden beads. The front was divided into four rectangles of wood and three, green, apple-shaped ornaments carved by hoof. Finally, around her right foreleg's ankle was a strap of cactus leather that formed a cross pattern.

"Dagnabbit. Can't find mah cutters," Applejack complained. "Put it in mah laces." She grumbled. "Trees growing where they ain't s'posed ta."

Twilight frowned. "Doesn't your grandpa or grandma help you with that?" She looked around. "What about your brother and sister?" Twilight smirked. "Ah, excuse me. I didn't ask it correctly." She cleared her throat, and Applejack slowly stood up while staring at the earth pony with wide, unblinking eyes. "Ain't yer grandpappy 'n mammy s'posed to hulp ya with yer fermin' 'n stuff? What 'bout yer sibbins?"

The farm pony pushed her lower jaw forward in irritation, pursing her lips harder. She jumped on Twilight, got her into a headlock, then started to noogy her. "Ah told ya ta stop makin' fun of mah accent ya metal sniffin' idjit!"

"Ah! Stop! It was just a joke!"

Applejack let her friend go and sighed. "Mah family's gone ta the town nearby to sell our produce. Grandpappy Snappy was mighty excited, too." The mare gestured to an apple tree whose bark was bluer than any tree trunk should be. "Says his new apples'd be the best dern thing anypony's ever tasted." She sat down and leaned against a tree, letting her sore muscles rest for a moment. "What's yer project again? Somethin' ta help with harvestin' apples, ah hope."

Twilight shook her head. "Nope. Another flying machine."

AJ stared at her friend, dumbfounded. "Ah, consarnit, Twi! Ya've gone 'n crashed all the others. Why would this be any diff'rent?"

"Security features, Applejack. Security features," Twilight stated while tapping her head. "You want to come and see?"

AJ scoffed at the idea and stood back up. "Why would Ah? Ah've got apples to harvest, Twi. Ah can't go playin' around all the time lahk y'all're doin'."

"I'm not playing!" Twilight retaliated. "If I can invent a flying machine, then you and your family could go back and forth from the town and cities in a second! Plus, haven't you ever wondered what flying would be like?" She looked longingly at the sky. "To soar through the skies. Feel the cool wind flow over you?" Twilight melted in place with a silly look of satisfaction.

She looked into the distance and just barely made out the village where Applejack's family had gone. It was quite wide, and two rivers flowed through it, letting the townsfolk to gather water whenever they needed it and which served as a great source of water to use in the cooling systems implemented in the red brick walls of the large settlement. Twilight had never really been there, but Applejack's family often spoke of it when they came back. It boggled the young mare's mind.

"No," AJ said bluntly. She kicked the tree she was inspecting, knocking most of the apples into a large wicker basket waiting underneath. "A sayin' mah great great...six times great grandma said was that ponies always envy others of what they have 'n never appreciate what they do have that others don't. A saying our family has kept since." Twilight's ears flattened slightly and she looked away, melancholic. Applejack realized her mistake. "Ah..b-ah!...Pffff. Ah'm sorry Twi. Didn't mean ta bring up mah family's history."

"It's okay, Applejack. I'm not mad at you," the lavender pony reassured. "Just frustrated that I can't find anything on them."

The farmer rubbed the back of her neck. "Ah'd lahk ta say that you'll find some eventually, but...ya know ah hate givin' false hopes 'n the like."

Twilight nodded. "Sure, sure. I'm...going to check on my project. See you later, Applejack."

"Ah'm sorry, Twi!" Applejack insisted. She watched Twilight walk back home and heaved a sigh. "Times like these Ah wish Ah knew how ta fix muh hat ta hide mah face." The orange farmer shook her head and got back to work.

Several minutes later, the farm pony saw something take off from the Sparkle's barn's roof and heard a voice celebrating. AJ saw that Twilight had launched herself from the roof with her newfangled contraption.

"Wh-Twilight!" AJ shouted in panic.

Terrified for the well-being of her friend, AJ hopped over the fence and started galloping as fast as she could to follow the pony. The lumpy terrain didn't make galloping any less exhausting when trying to follow Twilight Sparkle. It was made all the worse when the farm pony realized the contraption was flying further than any of her friend's previous attempts.

"Aw no. She's headed fer the forest!" AJ realized.

Far from the farmlands was a wide forest sitting at the base of very tall and thin mountains that protected the area from a lot of storms but made winters harsh. The forest kept to itself, however, and was easy to manage if it started growing further than it was 'supposed to', but the monsters in it were anything but friendly. If Twilight ended up crashing loudly into it... Something she was just now doing. Several birds fled the trees, chased away from their homes by Twilight's 'flying' machine.

Twilight removed the round, partially rusted helmet from her head and the brown, cactus leather suit she was wearing and put them in a pile next to the broken device.

"I was so close... I went so far...What went wrong? What am I forgetting?" the mare muttered angrily to herself. A small sense of satisfaction crossed her face, however. "But I did go so far already."

Twilight started thinking deeply about how to perfect her device further, but the mare just couldn't understand what was wrong. She was quickly pulled from her reverie by the groans of the forest around her, making the earth pony realize just where she had landed.

The trees were tall and twisting as they rose high into the sky. The most prominent bark was a bright orange hue of a tree wider than three ponies standing side-by-side. The earth pony gulped when she saw the spade-shaped leaves of a nearby bush twitch and shake, loosening some purples and greens onto the dirty forest ground. Everypony knew to keep away from this forest. Fully illuminated during the day and glowing with color at night, but the inhabitants...Somehow, light never felt so unsafe.

Twilight quickly dove onto her destroyed invention and pried loose a wooden beam with her hooves and held it in her maw. "Who is it? Come on and show yourself!" The mare looked around, her heart beating against her ribcage. "P...please?"

"Twi?" a familiar voice called out.

Applejack passed between two bushes and shook herself loose of stray leaves and tiny sticks. "Consarnit, Twi! Ah told ya a thousand times ta stop usin' yer contraptions!" she reprimanded her friend.

Twilight sighed in relief and slumped down. "Telling an inventor to stop won't make them stop, Applejack," Twilight wheezed. She pointed to her safety equipment. "And I'm unhurt thanks to my other inventions."

The apple farmer trotted over to said equipment and hummed, irritated. She put a hoof to her chin and gave Twilight a side glance after noticing the helmet had dented in on one area. "Well, can't say that didn't work. Could prob'ly make a decent few coins with that, rather'n tryin' ta off yerself." She noticed Twilight staring at her, perplexed, taking her aback. "What? Ain't the first time ah've told ya this. Why're you so baffled now?"

Twilight pointed behind the apple pony. "What is that?"

"Hm?"

Right next to the crashed invention was a strange sliver floating in mid-air. Its contours were silvery and its interior red, whenever it could be spotted through the undulations. Applejack slowly backed away from it and stared in awe at the light it was creating that only seemed to intensify as time went on. The air around it shifted the appearance of everything into a rainbow hue seen through glass. Everything seemed to undulate as though a heat haze was coming from the rift itself.

"Yer invention went 'n broke reality, now," Applejack stated nervously. Twilight frowned and slowly got up. "What're you doin'?" Applejack whisper-yelled.

"Do you hear that?" the lavender earth pony asked.

"..."

"Ah can't hear nothin', Twi. Get away from that thing," the farm pony said.

"I can hear somepony from the rift," Twilight insisted as she moved closer.

Applejack was too gripped by a variety of emotions to be able to move properly. "What're you doin'? What if it-Put yer leg down!"

"...t..m..er."

Twilight reached forward, and the embossing on her bangle started to glow faintly. "But somepony--"

Suddenly, the rift ripped itself apart and revealed a tumultuous sea of pinks and blues mixing together violently. It angrily started pulling in everything around into its dangerous waters to vanish who knew where. Due to her proximity, Twilight was unable to get away and was partially sucked into it.

"Applejack!" she cried out. "Help!"

The farm pony scampered clumsily from shock to grab onto Twilight's forelegs and strain to pull her. "Ah've got ya, Twi! Ain't lettin' you get eaten by no weird hole!"

Try as she might, Twilight was still slowly getting pulled deeper in. Her body had been half devoured already, and Applejack's attempts to keep herself in place only created divots along the ground. The farm pony was already feeling her muscles tiring from the stress and the colossal effort she was putting into pulling Twilight.

"Ah ain't...gonna let ya g--"

She was interrupted by the rift widening and the hazy effect stretching around them and warping the colors of the forest into a cascade of an everchanging rainbow.

"Wha--" Twilight blurted out before the two ponies were immediately pulled in.

The lavender earth pony felt both hot and cold in this strange space where she soared through. She and Applejack were rolling about the air uncontrollably, and any words they tried to make only came out as an echoing noise which started softly then exploded in intensity, hurting their ears. This dark-blue space thrummed with energy, and the distant blues were sometimes decorated by white spots, flowing white veins, or both. Tendrils of wispy white and blue light flowed throughout this place, sometimes converging into a single point, creating a bright light tinted with a very faint yellow.

"What is this?" Twilight thought.

She and Applejack were pulled and spun around towards the largest ball of light in the rift space, and some shapes started to emerge, as though everything was trying to remake itself for the visitors to understand what they were seeing. Other rifts started appearing and disappearing in small numbers, but the ponies couldn't see through them.

"Is that...?!" Twilight pondered as she continued to tumble.

She could see...something in front of the immense, wispy ball of light. Getting closer to it, the lavender pony realized that the figure seemed as big as the mountains and only grew the closer she got to it.

"...me...th...light from..." a voice echoed in Twilight's mind. "...onsum...imbalanc...the dark..." it continued.

"What?"

Applejack caught up to her friend, somehow, and grabbed ahold of her foreleg, scaring Twilight. As relief settled in, another rift opened right next to them and pulled them downwards. They felt the temperatures and air pressure change the moment they went through, making their ears 'pop'.

First (New) Friends

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Applejack landed atop Twilight heavily after being ejected from the rift in reality and hurried back onto her hooves.

"Ah! Y'okay, Twi?" she asked the lavender earth pony.

"Ah...I think the tractor fell on me..." Twilight muttered.

"Ah ain't that big!" Applejack protested. She picked Twilight up from beneath her forelegs and started shaking her. "Ah told ya not ta get close ta that weird thing! Now look what happened!"

"Stop shaking me so muuuuch!" Twilight begged. "I'm so dizzy I'm seeing flying ponies!"

"Hm?" The farm pony looked around and dropped her jaw. "No, Ah'm seein' 'em too."

The ponies had landed in a hilly area where the grass was white in some patches and brown in others. A tree or two stuck around, but the bark was white and the leaves brown as well. The perplexed mares looked at an immense city stretching out before them. The houses were as colorful as the ones they knew, but the designs were...wrong. Rather than tall, cubic-shapes, these ones all sported arcing shapes and sat atop each other. Several slides and ladders led from the ground to the various floors of the overlapping and piling buildings. Flowers decorated the windows and the black, cobblestone floor from which they peaked through the cracks. Elderly ponies were seen around these buildings, and quite a few were having discussions with adults and playing around with young foals hopping around eagerly.

High, high above, however, is what caught most of the farmers' attention: Buildings. In the clouds. Clouds being walked on by ponies and pushed around. A group of flying ponies with rustic expressions were moving very dark clouds into the distance while one in uniform would yell at them and point aggressively. The buildings high above were made from the same clouds they sat on and almost disappeared in the sea of white illuminated by the sun and the sky-blue peering through the holes left behind. Unlike the ones on the ground, these structures had shapes that followed no engineering rhyme or reason. They would split off into two or three different shapes. Twilight spotted one that curved like a banana and possessed a twisting spiral growing from the upper tip. Applejack spotted one that was short and fat and topped by two half triangles that just barely didn't touch each other.

"There's...there's so many different types of clouds up there," Twilight realized. "Cirrus. Cirrostratus. Cirrocumulus! Altocumulus, Strato cumulus!" The lavender earth pony darted left and right. "They're too low! They can't form at this height! Not all at once."

"And the ponies that're flyin'." Applejack winced. "They got wings." She looked at Twilight. "Ah ain't never heard-a no pony with wings! Ain't a regular pony 'round none at all!"

"Did that rift pull us into a hidden city or something?" Twilight pondered.

Applejack shook her head. "Ah'm pretty sure somepony'd've noticed this kinda thing, fer sure. All them clouds ya mentioned mixin' tagether 'n movin' about like that? Ain't no way no pony'd've noticed."

"You're right...But then what?"

"Ah reckon the best thing we can do right now is try ta get home."

Twilight nodded. "Well, no way to get to those...cloud buildings up high..." She dragged a hoof across her face. "Even saying it sounds absurd." She gently moved her hoof back and forth while grumbling to herself. "Sorta envious now..."

"Cause they were born with the ability ta fly?" Applejack asked with a grin and a raised brow. Twilight responded with a grunt. "Well, let's hope they don't react ta our lack of wings."

"Shouldn't we disguise ourselves?" Twilight wondered.

"Ah thought of it, but then we'd have ta steal somepony's clothes." Applejack stood up straight and frowned. "And no way this pony is gonna steal somethin'."

Twilight smiled and shrugged. "Okay. Let's go and see if we can find anypony who can tell us where we are and get us back home."

The streets were, unsurprisingly, very crowded. Elderly ponies paced about, working at stores and receiving deliveries from younger ponies flying in from above. As they trotted, scouting everything around first, the pair noticed that ponies around were giving them strange looks. One such elderly pony intercepted the two just outside of a carpentry workshop. They were a rather large mare while fur had turned a faded orange shade. Their mane and tail followed the same pattern, but a vibrant green stripe still passed through them, unaffected by time.

"Oh my oh my. You poor things. Come, come! Into my shop," she invited them.

The mares looked at each other and shrugged. The entrance was relatively clean, although the wooden benches and tables covered in a bit of dust left something to be desired. Applejack noticed several misshapen wooden constructs lining the right, gray wall and frowned. The large pony noticed and chuckled nervously.

"That's...failed projects." She sighed. "Us pegasi aren't too good with working hard materials. Better at shaping clouds." She grimaced. "Although, it seems you two were dealt a worse lot in life than I was." She opened her wings and stretched them, producing a few cracking noises that made Twilight cringe.

"What do ya mean, old timer?" Applejack asked.

The elder leaned over the counter of her shop towards AJ. "Quite an accent you have there. I've never heard such sounds before. Where are you two from?"

"I don't really feel comfortable telling somepony we don't know yet. Sorry," Twilight explained.

The mare raised her hooves, in understanding. "No, of course. Of course. I understand." She looked at the lavender pony with a closed eye and grin. "But that just confirms to me that you don't come from here. Would be mighty strange that you do considering your strange fur color. Rare around these parts. More common in the southwest near the mountains," she mused.

"Ah see ya got some wood workin' done 'round this store," Applejack noted with a tinge of annoyance.

"Well, this is a carpentry workshop." She rubbed the back of her neck. "But us pegasi aren't that good with wood, as I mentioned already. We just don't have a feel for the material."

The farm pony approached a block of wood on a work table and inspected it closely. "This ain't how ya carve wood," she said quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"Twi, come look'it this."

The lavender pony acquiesced and noticed several signs of 'spalling' with the wood that had already been carved away or into.

"It looks like you were trying to make a chair?" Twilight asked the elder.

"I was trying to make a small table, actually. The leftover wood was going to be cups."

Applejack clicked her tongue. "Yer carvin' 'gainst the grain of the wood," she stated. "Ya do that 'n yer gonna split apart the cellulose 'n destroy what's in there, then ya can go ahead 'n grab another block 'a wood. Twi, pass me them tools."

The mare in question grunted in disgust. "They're all dirty." She narrowed her eyes on the carving blades. "They might be blunted." Twilight looked at the elder. "You're using tools not designed for the wood you're working with. The metal might be too soft or too hard."

The elder leaned against the counter and rested her head against a propped-up foreleg. "You two have an uncanny affinity with wood, like you have been working on them for a really really long time." There was an awkward pause as the two ponies checked the state of the carvings and removed any stray shavings still attached. "Is it because you two were born without wings?"

The two froze.

"How do ya know we didn't just lose them?" Twilight asked without turning around.

"Oh, my dear. Even a pegasus with a lost wing still has some signs that they were there. No need to be ashamed," the elder reassured. "We're all in Lower Cloudin because we're too old to fly or some ailment prevents us from flying, but we aren't rejected just for it." She gave the ponies a warm smile.

"So that's why they were all looking at us strangely," Twilight whispered to Applejack.

"Plus, I think you two could help our city benefit from your knowledge of woodworking."

"Well--" Twilight started before being interrupted.

The doors swung open violently, slamming into piles of straw on either side of the entrance. They were accompanied by a multi-colored blur and a gust of wind so powerful it pushed everything toward the back of the shop. The elder hung onto the counter, but Twilight and Applejack only had each other and the sculpture. They couldn't hang on forever and went flying into the workshop proper in the back, landing amidst the sawdust and unfinished craft.

The elder pegasus grunted while she struggled back onto her hooves, using the counter as a support, and grit what was left of her teeth. "Rainbow Dash, I told you to stop doing that! You keep destroying my shop with your stupid antics!"

"Aw, come on, Twirly. You know I need to go fast! I can't stay the fastest pegasus in the world if I don't use every moment I have as a way to train."

"Did creating a gust of wind that blew away every. Single. Thing. Is my store part of that training process?!"

The hovering pegasus looked around and put a hoof to her mouth. "Uh...oops?" she said with a sheepish smile.

Twirly glared at her with wide eyes and a huge frown. "I'm going to--" They were distracted by the sound of ponies grumbling in pain and moving some heavy things off them. The elder gasped in horror. "Oh no! The wi-visitors!" she corrected herself.

"What in tarnation?!" Applejack cursed. "Was that yer doin', ya uppity lightning bug?!"

She had rushed over to the flying pegasus in question and had jabbed her in the chest with her hoof.

"Who're you calling a lightning bug, roly poly?!" Rainbow responded angrily.

The two butted heads and started pushing against each other in an attempt to overpower one another. "That's what ya are, cuz yer makin' a bunch of fancy colors what don't add up ta nothin'!"

Twilight hadn't noticed it before, but the differences between them and the pegasi went down to even the finer details, such as their fetlocks. Where hers and Applejack's dropped down over their hooves, Rainbow's poked up into three parallel steps of sky-blue fur that looked like feathers. As for her actual feathers, they were insanely long compared to those of the elder and very colored as well. They seemed to change in gradients, somehow, as well, from red for the outermost feathers, to orange, then yellow, green, indigo, blue, then purple. Her mane, styled in a punk-rock mohawk fashion, and tail followed the same rainbow pattern: Front-to-back for the mane and top-to-bottom for the tail. She sported a pair of goggles made from polished wood for the frame, reinforced glass for the lenses, and more false leather for the strap holding in place on the pony's head. The lavender pony realized that her eyes would be completely hidden behind the tinted glass.

"I hear fighting!" a voice blurted out from the entrance. The sudden loud noise caused the two ponies to freeze in place and Rainbow to fall onto the floor.

"Oh. Pinkie. You startled me," Rainbow sighed in relief.

"What in blazes is wrong with y'all ponies here?!" Applejack asked angrily. "Ya go throwin' others left 'n right 'n then bang outta doors ta give 'em heart attacks?! Y'all're insane!"

The elder groaned and passed a hoof through her mane. "I'm sorry about that," Twirly apologized. "They're some of the more...uh...energetic ponies living here."

Pinkie bolted up to Twilight, upside down. "Hiya!" she blurted while waving her hoof. "Hiya!" she shouted again when meeting Applejack sideways."

"Pinkie!" Rainbow shouted. "We told you to stop flying sideways!" she whined. The mare shivered. "It's really creepy."

The pink pegasus giggled to herself. "But it's easy to do!"

She froze in place, floating in the air while consternation hardened her features. Twilight inched forward and waved a hoof above and below Pinkie Pie. When she couldn't find anything, she turned to Applejack and shrugged.

Pinkie's right wing moved forward, and with a strange motion enacted by two feathers, created a 'snapping' noise. "I'm forgetting the most important thing!"

And then she rushed out of the workshop as quickly as she came in.

"Uh--" Applejack started.

"Don't mind her. She's always like that," Rainbow said dismissively. She eyed the two mares, and her eyes slowly widened in realization. "You were born without wings?" she blurted out.

"Rainbow!" Twirly yelled angrily.

"Why're ya yellin'?" Applejack asked. "It's true. We ain't born with no wings."

"To be honest," Twilight added. "No pony is like all of you from where we're from." She rubbed her neck. "I didn't want to mention it because I was afraid of what might happen, but--"

"I totally knew that," Rainbow bragged. The two earth ponies stared at her, perplexed. "It's true! I-I have to go around working with the weather, so I meet other pegasi, and none of them talk like you!" She paused. "Well, none from around here at least." AJ gave Rainbow a 'look'. "Hey! I'm being serious!" the mare insisted.

"Ah'm sure ye are."

"Here it iiiis!" Pinkie shouted through the doorway.

Everypony froze in place from the party pony's sudden entrance. "A big welcoming present!" She grunted as she pulled a small wagon with a giant, roughly sculpted crystal with colors flowing within it.

"Pinkie!" Rainbow shouted. "That's your favorite decoration!"

"I knoooooow," the party pony cheered as she performed a loop in the air. "Buuuuut, if my friends have it, I still get to see when I visit them." She tapped her head. "It's better to see it brightening somepony else's home than just sitting in mine among all the stones."

"I'm still here..." the old mare sighed quietly.

Pinkie raised a hoof and looked at the others with excitement. "And look what happens when I tap it here!" she said.

The mare poked a part of the crystal and immediately looked worried. "Oops."

"Oops? What does 'oops' mean?" Rainbow asked hurriedly. She grabbed Pinkie's cheeks. "Why are you saying 'oops'?"

"I poked the wrong spot," she muttered with a smushed face.

The crystal started vibrating violently, and the group noticed that afterimages were appearing in quick succession, overlapping each other as the stone grew brighter and brighter.

"Get that thing out of my shop!" Twirly exclaimed angrily.

It was too late. A rift had opened up, much to Twilight and Applejack's surprise. While they and Rainbow Dash screamed in terror as they were sucked in, Pinkie just let herself go, giggling the whole way in. When Twirly stood up from behind the cover of her counter, everything in her shop had been thrown about from the rift sucking the ponies in.

"But I just organized everything..." she trailed off despondently.
--
"What is happening?!" Rainbow shouted. She was waving her legs wildly and trying to right herself, but in the swirling void the four found themselves in, she could find no purchase in the air. "Pinkie, what did you do?!"

"I don't know! It never did this before!" the pink pony said excitedly. "I thought we were going to be flash-blinded!"

"We don't know what this is either, but it's where we ended up last time," Twilight exclaimed. "That's how we ended up in your world."

Rainbow covered her mouth with a hoof. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"...ur help," a voice echoed.

"What?" Rainbow said.

"Ya heard it too?" the farm pony asked.

The four looked around for the source and saw some form of vaguely pony-shaped light standing on a floating platform of transparent, red material. It was reaching out towards them as a wave of black came out of the white light.

"I need your help!" it said. "Free me from this curse! Ponies need to be together!" It looked behind it as the wave of darkness grabbed hold and pulled it back into the orb of light. "Please, my little ponies! Come back here as quickly as possible!"

The four didn't have time to react when another rift tore open and took them in.

(Un)Familiar Sight

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Rainbow Dash shifted in place after everything finally stopped spinning. She continued to shift more and more until she realized that she couldn't move nor see.

"What's happening?!" she asked. She started to panic. "Help! I can't see or move! Aaaaaa-!" Her screaming stopped when the three mares that had piled up on top of her got off, awoken by her screaming. "Oh." She smiled sheepishly and stood up, clearing her throat. "Sorry."

"Now where in tarnation 'r we?!" Applejack exclaimed. "First some crazy place made-a clouds 'n now this?" She pulled off her stetson hat and patted it down. "Feels like mah fur 'n mane're on fire."

Unfortunately for the group, while Applejack and Twilight had luck in landing on the outskirts of a city, this time they had landed in the middle of a busy one, and everypony was staring at them and the statue that used to be where a tremendous statue used to stay. Twilight could only vaguely make out the base of it from the 'scar' overlapping it. She risked touching it under the eyes of everyone and grimaced when she realized it felt like touching a window made of unbreakable glass.

"Woah! It's like there's a party in the sky!" Pinkie grabbed Twilight and forced her to look up. "Look look!"

The sky PInkie was so enamored by looked like colored ink spreading through water. There was a base white shade that the 'ink' would flow through until a huge wave of energy flowed through the sky, wiping it clean before it started anew. The buildings of the city the four had found themselves in were actually floating high in the air on segments of enormous crystals bigger than all the buildings they held up put together. Several transparent tubes of energy of various sizes could be seen interconnecting everything with each other in what could have just been regular pathways, but some massive ones easily the width of a house led down below past a storm cloud that could be seen through some holes in the ground. All the buildings were seemingly made from polished and reshaped wood, making Twilight think of top-quality wooden furniture that had been carefully and meticulously hoof carved. There was an odd warmth to them while in their presence, but it threw the ponies off. Said construction had been mathematically calculated to be as straight and rectangular as possible, with arched windows at what Twilight and Applejack could only surmise as to being a hundred and thirty-five-degree arcs at their tops, or both sides, or the bases, depending on what was wanted. Multiple different colors, usually shades of brown and yellow mixed with grays, acted as the surface of these places.

"Twi, they've got horns on their heads," Applejack whispered to her friend. She pointed to the two pegasi behind her with a hoof. "These two've got wings. Why do these ones have horns? Ah thought we just went ta another place with 'em."

"How do you know they're not from the same place?" Twilight asked. The farm pony pointed to the unicorns looking in awe at the wings of the pegasi as they hovered close to the ground. "Oh..."

The two immediately panicked when they felt the ground shaking violently. Rainbow and Pinkie flew up to them immediately, using only a minor bit of familiarity in the two wingless ponies as their way to keep calm.

"What's happening?" Twilight shouted in a panic. "Is the island collapsing?"

Rounding the corner came a tremendous, armless, bipedal colossus of black stone. Multiple yellow crystals jutted out dangerously from its body, and floating above its head was a rapidly spinning, yellow ball of light emitting white coronas and tendrils of energy directly into the golem's body.

"No, Twilight! No!" AJ chastised her friend.

It was too late. Twilight was already hyper-fixated on what she was seeing, and the farm pony grabbed her stetson to yell into it.

"It's a golem! I knew they were real!" Twilight shouted enthusiastically.

Rainbow fluttered close by, unsure of herself, and frowned. "And, uh, what's that?"

Bouncing eagerly in place, Twilight dug into her memories as the thing got closer and the unicorns in the path casually moved aside. "It's a creature made to move under its own power. You can make it with stones, rocks, metal, anything!" the lavender pony explained. "I thought it was only theoretically possible because there's no energy source strong enough to power them!"

"It's gettin' closer!" Applejack shouted. She made an attempt to turn and run with Twilight, but the horned ponies were in the way. "Move it!" she commanded. They didn't budge.

With a low rumbling, the golem started bending over. Its side popped and two large arms ending in three digits emerged, casting off some loose material. Said arms started reaching for the non-horned, prompting Rainbow to fly in front of it and wave her forelegs like she was going to box it.

"Don't worry. I got this!" she exclaimed confidently.

Twilight tapped her head several times with a hoof. "No you don't! This is a golem! It's made of a rock!"

"Then I just have to chisel it!" Rainbow rushed forward and punched what would be the torso if it had a head. She blew on her aching hoof on the ground next to the other three. The pegasus glared at Twilight looking at her with bemusement. "Shut up."

"Stop!" a voice shouted out.

A pale, golden blur broke through the ring of observers and skid to a halt in front of the four. It was another horned pony. Her mane and tail were both thick, flowing streams of pink that touched the floor but didn't seem to get dirty from it. Along the surface of them and her body were thin strands of green vines with a few leaves on which perched multiple blue butterflies seemingly made out of sky-blue light or crystal. Her fetlocks were draped in sizeable amounts of smoothed fur that were free from the vines, at least for the time being. Her teal eyes were glaring ruthlessly at the animated stone that had frozen in place.

"You don't need to harm them," she said softly. "They're not a threat. They're just..." She looked behind her and quickly shied away. "Th-they're just lost. See? They aren't...They aren't unicorns," the mare continued nervously. "They don't have magic and no magic tools."

The yellow crystal glowed and dimmed in rapid succession as the golem evaluated the new information given to it. With a loud creak, it retracted itself and moved to the statue where it tried to remove the rift or move the statue repeatedly unsuccessfully.

"Well, that was quick 'n easy," Applejack noted.

Pinkie approached the yellow unicorn while spinning in the air and popped up in front of her. "Thanks a lot!" she said loudly and enthusiastically. "I don't know what we would've done without you!" She looked around at the unicorns slowly starting to disperse. "And these big meanies that don't want to move!" The pale-gold mare retracted from Pinkie and started to shrink behind her elongated mane. "Hey, you know you have plants stuck in your mane, right? Need help getting them out?"

"No. She needs my expertise in the matter," another voice stated. "I'm roused from my work by a crowd and a golem and now I get to see that there's a giant crystal thing in place of our statue? And th..."

The mare was fully white with large amounts of fur growing from her fetlocks, much like the yellow 'unicorn' that floated mere millimeters above any surface on the ground. They changed towards a light gray in gradients, making them seem both dirty and artificial in a way. Near the shoulder on her left foreleg was an ice-blue bracelet that shared its color with a crystal crown that hung from her elongated, sharp horn and clasped a night-blue gem in its clutches. Her mane and tail's roots were just as white as her coat, but they gradually shifted to a strong, purple hue. The four had moments where it felt like the purple hair was just floating in place near the pony, but they knew it was just an optical illusion. Where the yellow unicorn's mane and tail were smoothed out and flowed down, the white one's were professionally maintained and undulated in the air: Her mane was wavy and her tail twirled in a corkscrew pattern onto the floor.

"Good heavens," the white unicorn exclaimed with a hoof to her muzzle. "Unicorns with wings?" She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head somewhat. "But you have no horns?" She clasped her hooves together. "Such a splendor! To see such uniqueness is marvelous! You simply must come with me to my boutique and let me take your measurements!"

"What for?" Rainbow asked in disgust.

From the corner of her eye, the white unicorn noticed the savior trying to sneak away through the dispersing crowd. The four saw her horn glow with sparkling, royal purple light and lift up the yellow mare that waved her legs frantically in protest. "And you! You're that hermit or druid or something-or-other that lives on the faraway island of Jarnvithr, aren't you?"

The floating unicorn struggled again then muttered. "Maybe."

The white unicorn leaned in closer. "What?!"

"M'am, maybe ya should leave her be?" Applejack suggested. "Ah think yer scarin' her a touch."

She was met with wide, incredulous eyes by the white pony and the unicorns around that heard her. "I've never heard such an accent before." She waved a hoof. "No need to fret. I've been trying to find her for a while now. She needs care for her body and soul!" she exclaimed. "She's been cooped up in the forest surrounded by those dirty animals for too long."

"They're not dirty! They clean themselves regularly," the yellow pony protested.

"With their tongues," the white one stated with disgust. "Come then, my unique little treasure doves," the white pony said. "I'll invite you to my boutique just for today. It's closed normally, while I design new clothing and fashion styles, but I'll make an exception."

Twilight scratched the back of her head and looked at the rift. "Well, I suppose we should follow her. It's not like we have a way to get back to our homes for now."

"We don't know who she is!" Applejack protested.

"I agree with the smelly one," Rainbow Dash said as she swooped in. "I don't even know you two all that well."

Twilight shifted in place. "We don't know anything about this place, and Applejack and I were tossed through two rifts in quick succession. These two have been helpful to us while the others just waited for us to be crushed by that," she said with a hoof pointed towards the golem smashing its body against the rift.

"I say we follow!" Pinkie exclaimed gleefully. "A stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet!"

Rainbow tried to grab her friend before she zoomed off and groaned. "I can't leave her behind," Rainbow said and followed.

"And we can't leave ponies that've been dragged inta this 'cause 'v us," Applejack added.

The two earth ponies shrugged and followed after the unicorns and pegasi. They ended up walking up a hill of cobblestone to a tunnel of light that the unicorns entered and shot up through. Hesitant, the four visitors stepped in one by one and screamed as they flew through and piled atop each other at the exit, much to the amusement of passersby.

"Never used a tunnel?" Rarity asked. "Huh." She levitated them all back onto their hooves and nodded with a smile. "There we are. No pony hurt? Then let's continue."

This island was covered in a plethora of different, weirdly designed buildings. A saloon, a barn, a mishmash and random shapes and 'zoobles', and then there was Rarity's store. It was shorter than most of those surrounding it, having only two floors. It resembled a merry-go-round, but only the second floor appeared to be spinning with crystal ponies and creatures Twilight didn't recognize moving up and down on their own as they orbited a central axis. The walls of the store were painted pure white and decorated with pink frills of an unknown material that lined the door and window frames and hung off the two circular roofs of the shop, creating a sort of 'cake icing' pattern.

The four were invited inside where they were met with a floor completely subsumed in cloth rolls and holders, tables, and sewing instruments. The mare moved most aside and brought forth a small, circular platform which she laid her 'victim' on. In seconds a tremendous amount of bottles full of products unknown by the four and hygienic utensils were brought in.

"W-wait, you don't need to--" the yellow mare tried to protest, but it was too late.

"Welcome to Rarity's Boutique," the white unicorn stated. "I take it you're all lost?"

The blue pegasus fluttered forward. "More than that," Rainbow shouted. "I'm pretty sure we aren't even in the same world," she stated.

"We were pulled in by those rifts and thrown into different worlds," Twilight explained. She looked around and noted a distinct floral scent in the air. "I thought that maybe they would be stationary, but apparently they're attached to shiny crystals as well? At least some form of geode."

"Really?" Rarity said in surprise as she started furiously working out all the knots in the mare's mane and tail. "Gross. Even have some in your coat." She dug into the mare's fur, causing her 'victim' to giggle until a gigantic beetle the size of a hoof was pulled out. It wriggled its six legs around, trying to escape Rarity's magical clutch. She went from white to green. "I'm going to be sick."

The yellow pony grabbed the beetle and held it close, shrinking in to keep it safe as she glared at everypony behind her drooping mane. "He's not a bad bug. He helps keep my fur clean of parasites in the forest."

"But...but not of knots or dirt," Rarity heaved.

Applejack laughed. "Ain't never see a pony keep critters on 'em in some kinda symbibottle way," she said.

"Symbiosis, Applejack," Twilight corrected with a roll of her eyes.

"Can I have one?" Pinkie asked eagerly. "Oh, please let me have one!"

The yellow unicorn shied away and remained silent.

Pinkie grabbed her hoof and started shaking it wildly, scaring the beetle. "I'm Pinkie Pie and I'll be the best beetle owner ever!"

"Fl-Fluttersh-sh-shyyyyyyYY!" the unicorn squirmed. "And you can't own a beetle," she said as she let go of Pinkie's hoof.

Pinkie looked down at the ground and passed a hoof through her curly mane. "Oh. Oops...sorry," she said with a guilty expression.

"Done!" Rarity declared.

Fluttershy could only mutter a half-spoken 'wh' before the vines across her body became invigorated and grew immense and wrapped around the unicorn's body. Several fat leaves emerged from its stems, leaving a perch for several more of the strange blue butterflies to land on after appearing from a small, blurry, blue cloud.

"Woah!" the four visitors said in unison.

"What?" Rarity asked, looking at them incredulously. "She was simply cleaned, allowing her magic to refresh itself more easily." She looked to Fluttershy and wagged a pair of scissors at her. "Honestly, sweetie, you should come by often. You definitely need a new coat of paint every once in a while if you want to be able to stay in the forest so easily." Her eyes drifted down to the red beetle nuzzling itself in the yellow unicorn's fur, enjoying the extreme softness that it now had. The white unicorn couldn't help but drop her tools. "Glad it...urp, likes my work too."

"Thank you very much, R-Rarity," Fluttershy forced out.

"So, now what?" Rainbow asked. "How do we get back home?" She looked around and felt some of the loose fabric lying around. "I mean, this place is nice, but I can't stay here forever. I need to get back to training and attend the clouds."

"And ah gotta help mah family tend ta the crops," Applejack added.

Rarity perked up. "You mentioned that weird rift thing, right?" she asked. "There's one in the back." The four stared at her, their faces blank. "We used our magic to seal it, but more have been popping up and we don't know why. Want to see?"

The four looked at each other and shrugged, but Fluttershy was the first to rush forward through the curtained door. When the quintet finally got outside, they noticed that Fluttershy was reassuring a bunch of small bunnies and centipedes in the ground stressed out by the immense, colorful rift floating just above their homes. The area was accessible to anypony, but no pony was present save for the six. The others they could see through the spaces between the buildings were giving it a wide berth.

"Don't know what they are, but every time we seal one more pop up elsewhere, and they keep getting brighter every day," Rarity explained.

Fluttershy leaned in and listened to a group of blue centipedes and nodded at some imperceptible 'voice' they were making.

The lavender earth pony slowly moved forward, curious. "What are you doing?" Twilight asked.

"O-oh." Fluttershy stood up and shifted nervously in place. "They're telling me the rifts don't stay sealed. They reopen on their own."

The five froze in place.

"They what," Rainbow stuttered.

A flash of colorful light inundated the area, followed by a clashing aura of black lined by white that fought the colors for control of the rift.

"That's new!" Twilight shouted.

"Not again!" Rainbow protested as she and the other five were sucked into the rift space again.

Goddess of Day and Sunlight (Night and Moonlight)

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The six found themselves no longer hurdling through the swirling water painting that was the void. Instead, they found themselves pulled towards the core of this place, passing by a multitude of rifts and the threads connecting them. The center mass, a mixture of blackened shapes, writhed and thrummed with movement, and much to the dismay of the six, they made contact with it. It was like falling through seas of cotton. Engulfed by the core, the mares found themselves robbed of their sight, their hearing, their touch, and their smell before reemerging several seconds later. To them, it felt like an hour had passed, but at least they were finally out.

Everyone flew so fast that they didn't have the time to register where they had finally landed. Rainbow, however, was extremely grateful to finally be done flying through the air.

"Oh. Finally!" she cheered. "No more flying randomly while tumbling about," she sighed.

"But Rainbow, I thought you liked flying," Pinkie stated.

She was met with a one-eyed glare by the rainbow pony. Applejack and Twilight were both tapping the ground and trying to get an idea of what it was. Every touch created a small rippling across the white surface that didn't reach very far before disappearing.

Rarity, meanwhile, looked around, curious and suspicious. "Why is the inside white when the outside is completely black? I thought everything would be like what it was when we went into it?"

Rainbow shrugged. "No idea. As long as we don't end up being chased by some monster because of these two," she said while gesturing to the earth ponies.

"Oh no," Fluttershy worried. "I hope it doesn't eat us because it's hungry." She checked her mane and tail. "I don't have any food on me." The four looked at her, incredulous. "What? Every creature is important."

The white unicorn observed every little detail of the white void they had fallen in and gasped in realization. They weren't just on a path surrounded by blinding white light. The others started to notice as well the details surrounding them. Strange, twisting columns leaning over at various angles and different sizes. Some seemed to soar high into the white sky beyond sight, while others were so short and fat that the ponies towered over them just by standing next to them. The walls waved and bent, and as they imitated the columns they pulled and forcibly stretched the windows that were within their bodies. The six looked and observed silently as color started filling the white void as the windows started to color in, becoming stained glass.

Most were too distorted to be able to make out what was meant to be depicted, but a few were still decipherable: One of them showed two ponies, back-to-back, looking over a bunch of tiny ponies beneath them with their forelegs outstretched and a serene smile and closed eyes. The one on the left was pure white, and behind it was an assembly of halos with varying patterns, from the atypical flames to differently sized, hollow circles. The outermost one caught Twilight's eye as it resembled the flames that would emerge from her own star's surface. Applejack picked up on her intrigue and put a hoof on her shoulder.

Where the six found a strange sense of warmth from the pure white, the pure blackness from the one next to it instilled into them a sense of foreboding. While identical to the one beside it, albeit flipped, it was surrounded by a strange miasma of stars, nebulas, and colors in waving silks of night. The ponies beneath them were all bowing in reverence to the pair.

"Who're those meant ta be?" Applejack wondered. She turned to face Rarity and Fluttershy. "Say, y'all seem to know yer fancy watchamacallit thingy ya do with yer horns. Ya know anythin' 'bout these two?"

Rarity looked at her with a sour expression. "You mean 'magic'?" she sighed.

"Yeah. That."

"Well, unfortunately for you I'm not a scholar. I'm a couturier," she stated with a hoof placed proudly on her chest. "I don't know anything outside of what I was taught in school and the general public knowledge." She looked to Fluttershy. "Maybe you know, honeydew? You're quite...savvy with the creatures of the wild. Maybe they've shared a bit of string with you?"

The yellow unicorn shook her head. "No. Nothing."

The two pegasi floated around the stained glass, darting from one spot to the next. While Rainbow was busy contemplating the artwork, Pinkie was bouncing around excitedly.

"No idea what they are, but they look real cool if they can do stuff like that to ponies," Rainbow said.

Pinkie, meanwhile, had another theory. "IbetIbetIbet they're some kind of 'super gods' that we forgot aaaall about because it's been too long!" She focused super hard, rubbing her temples like her head was going to burst. "Like alicorns!"

The five stared at her, slackjawed.

"That's just silly," Twilight said with a chuckle. "Alicorns aren't real. They never have been. They're just a legend from books."

Pinkie's ears drooped in response. "But our books and stories mentioned they'd soar through the sky and bring life and sleep to everypony," she whimpered.

Applejack raised a brow.

"I heard that they took care of every living creature fairly and did their best to separate everypony so no pony would get hurt accidentally," Fluttershy added.

"Now that just cinches it," Applejack blurted.

Twilight was taken aback by the sudden words of her friend. "What are you talking about?"

"Twi, Ah figured that there wasn't no reason ta dismiss the ahdea the pink one had." She looked to the pegasi then the unicorns. "After all, we ain't never seen each other before, then some weird rip in the air pulls us into places we ain't never seen before and with ponies sportin' goods we thought was fairy tales. What's to say them alicorns ain't real too?"

"And look where we're standing," Rarity added. "Seems a bit farfetched to dismiss...um..." She looked at Pinkie Pie and shrunk away.

"Pinkie Pie," the pegasus said with a bow in mid-air.

"Rarity. Charmed," the unicorn added. "It would be farfetched to dismiss Pinkie Pie's claims."

Twilight looked at the five then back at the stained glass and rubbed the back of her head as she looked down apologetically. "I have to admit it's been a turbulent day for me," she lamented. "You're right. I should try to keep an open mind."

Proud of her friend, Applejack patted her on the back and accompanied her further. There was nowhere else to go, after all. A second stained glass window had been 'repaired' with plain, dark-blue glass, but the bits that could be seen above showed the heads of the two ponies glaring at each other, still with their eyes closed. The ponies beneath were gone. Instead, one could only see the base of the halos.

Finally, the third and final depiction was of many worlds in an arc being embraced by the white pony. They were all interconnected with each other through a white line, save two on the right whose links had been severed by a black fire eating at the strings. Behind the white pony was the immense figure of the black pony, its starry halo taking up the background as it reached to embrace the white one.

Twilight gulped. "That's...foreboding."

"It was to be my greatest work," a voice boomed out across the void.

An 'end' started to take shape. A small chapel-like interior as warped and twisted as the rest of the corridor and sporting a torn-down, featureless throne in its center underneath its dome-roof. 'Sitting' on it was an immense, blindingly white figure made of pure sunlight. The halos behind her rotating opposite each other save the outermost made of two overlapping halos that rotated inwards. While she looked vaguely like a pony, her body was featureless save for two golden arcs with three lines coming from the extremities meant to represent eyes with eyelashes. Her mouth was also just a simple golden line in a 'smile'. Her lower body didn't seem to exist. Rather, her upper torso seemed to be part of the broken throne itself. From her forehead jutted a sharp spike the length of a foreleg, and two wings came out of her back and mixed into the halos. When they passed them, they turned into a wavy nebula of orange and blues that her immense mane joined.

The ponies felt the need to bow in reverence to this strange, otherworldly being, but somehow resisted the temptation.

"I am so joyous that you have heeded my call, my little ones," the creature stated. It spoke with a calm, serene voice, almost like a loving mother cooing her upset baby into slumber. "I have been trapped here by my sibling for so long..." she continued.

"Who are you?" Rainbow asked. "I've never seen you before."

Seemingly shocked by the revelation, the creature put a hood to her chest and frowned, although the sounds of whimpering came from it. "Have we been separated for so long that you have forgotten who we are? I shudder to think what has happened in our absence..."

"You didn't answer the question," Rainbow said with a pout.

The creature bowed. "I am Celestia: Goddess of the Day and Sunlight. I haven't much time to explain everything, but long ago I had planned to join every world together permanently, but my spiteful and jealous sibling refused such a thing, and with the work of her and her servants, I was imprisoned here." She dropped a hoof onto the remaining legrest. "She remains here, keeping me trapped and tormenting me forever."

"That sounds oddly petty," Rarity noted.

Rainbow started boxing in the air. "You haven't tried knocking their lights out?"

An echo reverberated through the white void. It took a while for the six to realize that it was Celestia laughing.

"Unfortunately, there's not enough 'light' in her to 'punch out' as you say," Celestia giggled. "But I digress. Their actions destroyed the connection to every world, ruining my plans, but her power has weakened, and now the worlds are reconnecting, but the connections are unstable. They appear randomly and suck anything around them in. Creatures trapped on one side remained so for the centuries we were sealed away."

"How do we unseal you, then?" Twilight asked. "We all want to go home before we remain trapped."

Celestia nodded. "Normally, I would just need three ponies of the three worlds to aid me. I would require the magic of my sibling, but I have already stolen a teensy portion off of her when she kept me here the last time I reached out to you, and with six ponies the seal should break almost instantly."

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" a voice boomed and shook the void.

"Quickly!" Celestia panicked. "Simply place your hooves against my chest and I will be free! Please!" She dropped. "I have been trapped here for so long..."

The six hesitantly looked at each other and nodded in agreement before they all reached out and touched Celestia's chest just as the night seeped in through the roof. The six felt something course through their bodies and their hooves when a massive blast tore away the prison everypony was trapped in, causing it all to be sucked into the newly unveiled, colorful void. Celestia's form grew massive as she enjoyed her newfound freedom.

"Thank you so very much, my little ponies," she said as she looked at them with a smile. "It is much to ask, but you need to keep my sibling contained as I stabilize the connections before I join the worlds permanently. Without my intervention, we may all be trapped here, and I will not allow my saviors to suffer like this."

"You heard her," Applejack said. "Ah know it feels like we were thrown inta somethin' we weren't meant ta play with, but ah reckon she'll help us each back home."

The six stood tall in front of the amorphous shape solidifying before them. It was tall, looming over them, but much like Celestia, its body was devoid of features and its face sported only silver lines across its black surface. The silk sheet of night flowed around it as moonlight illuminated the ponies standing before it as they appeared in the scrolling scenery of the cosmos that was behind the entity. Unlike its sister, it had hind legs and a mane and tail that wrapped up into its mane as they both collapsed into each other when passing the halo.

"You foals," she cursed. "Do you have any idea what you have done?! I need to reseal my sister," she said as she looked up.

She made to fly up but found herself blocked by Pinkie and Rainbow. The blue mare shook her head.

"You aren't going anywhere," she said. "You imprisoned your own sister? Why? You wanted control over everything?"

Rarity shook her head. "Sounds like petty jealousy."

"You don't understand!" the alicorn screamed. "Now move out of my way!" she ordered furiously.

"We won't do it," Twilight refused as she stepped forward. "If we let you do that we'll never be able to get home, and who knows who else got taken into those rifts? We can't let them suffer such a fate as well."

The sound of gritting teeth filled the six's mind before the alicorn rushed forward. The nebula behind her parted the pegasi as she bolted forward, but Rarity and Fluttershy held her back with their magic and pulled her back. A grunt followed her using her magic to whip at the two unicorns with whips made of tiny comets. Twilight and Applejack were there to tank the strikes and counter by grabbing the comets and jerking the sibling down to them. Said sibling turned herself into an amorphous form to flow between the ponies and reform further away. Twilight found herself rooted in place while the other five continued to hold back the goddess, if only because they all shared the common goal of wanting to return home.

Looking down, she noticed her bangles were glowing. The further the other five went, the dimmer they became. She looked to Celestia then the other goddess and furrowed her brow.

"Why didn't she just take us out immediately? It's like she isn't even trying to hurt us..."

"It is done!" Celestia cheered.

Twilight felt her heart fill with joy. "Then you can send us home!"

"Of course!" the white alicorn responded. "Once your home has been joined with the others, everypony will be able to meet each other whenever without needing to go through those awful rifts ever again! Thank you once again for allowing me to accomplish my dream."

"No!" the sibling protested. "Celestia! What you think is going to happen won't! You'll just end up destroying all the worlds and creating a single new one!"

"We've talked about this before, Luna," the alicorn stated firmly. A transparent image of her appeared around the colorful void, seemingly engulfing it despite her body still being in front of the seven. "The world will simply be greater, larger, and more fantastical. Everything will reshape to allow it all to fit together." She turned around and smiled. "It will be just like a puzzle box."

The five, confused, started trying to figure out a new course of action. Who was telling the truth? What was the right course of action? Twilight thought deeply of the words used and the stained glass they had seen, then a realization kicked in and she paled. The mare was quick to run to the others.

"Girls!" she shouted to quiet the brouhaha. "The stained glass windows we saw."

Rainbow raised a brow. "What about it?"

"It wasn't...Luna attacking her sister for trying to join the worlds. It was her stopping her from destroying everything." She turned to the tired alicorn having trouble standing up. "Am I wrong, Luna?"

The tired creature looked down at her and nodded. "For too long have we been locked in this struggle. A fight that could destroy everything." She sighed. "Her heart is in the right place, but Celestia is mistaken. She refused to listen to reason, so our ponies used the power of unity to seal us away, leaving me as the sole guardian...but in doing so they condemned everypony separation. There was never a 'one last time'..."

The rifts all started sparking and rapidly shrinking and expanding in every direction.

"How can we trust you?" Rainbow said. "You imprisoned your own sister!" She gestured around her. "All of this is like a story. How can we trust what's essentially a 'dark lord'?"

"Ya cain't just accuse somepony because they're related ta somethin' ya don't like," Applejack rebutted. "That ain't how the world works."

Rainbow pushed her head against the farm pony, teeth bared. "Are you the prince charming of this whole fairy tale? I don't want to see myself trapped here forever."

Applejack pushed against her. "So ya'd rather just see everything get destroyed?"

Twilight slowly approached the exhausted goddess resting on the 'ground'. Luna noticed her and slowly raised her head to meet her. The two exchanged silent words, but when Luna noticed Twilight's glowing bangles, she slowly rose higher.

"Where did you get those?" Luna asked.

Twilight looked at her bangles glowing intensely. "They're a family heirloom."

"Hey wait!" Rainbow shouted when saw Luna raising Twilight's legs.

"These belonged to the ponies meant to uphold unity." She looked at the six and 'smiled'. "Your unity was broken when I was sacrificed by the ponies to save your worlds, even if it cursed you to separation for what we believed to be all time."

"Girls, she isn't evil," Twilight said.

"So the goddess of sunlight is?" Rarity asked with a raised brow.

"Neither is she," Twilight slowly began to realize. "Neither of them are. They were both misguided," the lavender earth pony continued. "They have no equal. They have no one to guide them." Luna's 'mouth' visibly scrunched at the words. "We need to help guide them, and we need to stop Celestia."

"But--" Rarity tried to speak but Twilight interrupted her.

"I think Luna is right," the lavender earth pony said. "If the worlds are all fused, everything will overlap and implode. What is left wouldn't be our home, and everypony we knew would vanish."

Applejack nodded. "Ah'd listen ta her. She knows her sciencey stuff, even if she makes everythin' explode," she said while looking at her friend with a grin and a raised brow.

"How do we stop her, then?" Pinkie asked. "We could sing?"

"You need unity," Luna explained. She looked in awe at the six. "Not yet familiar with each other, but together you allowed Celestia her vaunted freedom. Together you can reseal her with the magic of unity."

Twilight shook her head. "We won't reseal her, but she can't be allowed to leave this place or join these worlds." She looked up at the rifts that had taken on the shape of vertical rectangles. "I know it's asking a lot, but we need to work together on this."

"Alright. If it's to protect the animals," Fluttershy said quietly as she hesitantly stepped forward.

Pinkie dropped to the floor and bounced eagerly towards Twilight. "I'm always happy to make a new friend, so count me in!" she said happily.

Rarity used her magic to recurl her mane and tail and grunted. "Fine. I'll agree to this. I'd rather be safe than sorry."

Applejack looked between the two goddesses and heaved a sigh. "What Rarity said," she said firmly.

Rainbow hesitated but threw her forelegs into the air. "Fine! What do we have to do?"

Luna stepped forward, her strange body seemingly vanishing in and out of existence as she moved forward. It was hard to focus on her ghostly body.

"Join hooves with her," Luna said. "With my power your unity should be enough to keep her sealed here."

"No sealing!" Twilight insisted. "She just needs to understand that her idea is too dangerous."

The goddess scoffed. "It has been hundreds of years. She will not listen to reason."

Twilight smiled softly. "Then we'll force her to see everything."

The six joined their hooves into a circle and, before they knew it, Luna's forelegs were on Twilight's shoulders. The six started floating as a strange power flowed out from Twilight's bangles and into their bodies. The goddess' nebula wrapped around them all as they rose into the air and a transparent gray aura started to glow around them all.

"What is this?" Celestia wondered as she felt the change. She turned to see the gray ring growing in the distance. "N-no! Not again! You won't take me from them again!" She had no time to stop her spell when the goddess noticed something in the aura that wasn't her sister. "What the...?!"

Five clawed hands appeared around her and clamped down on to her, cutting her magic off. The image of her in the background dissolved as her body shrunk and was gradually chained to the 'floor' everypony was standing on. The goddess jerked her leg, expecting resistance, only to throw herself forward by surprise.

"What? What's happening?"

Twilight stepped forward and helped Celestia up, even if contact with her made the lavender earth pony feel like her soul was freezing. "You're allowed to go where you want in the void, but you can't join the worlds."

"But--"

"You will watch and learn, sister," Luna said as she flew in. "They will be teaching you-us. Both of us, lessons that we have been disconnected from. Perhaps then you will understand that your dream is dangerous."

"Is not!" Celestia protested.

"We have to teach you something now?!" Rainbow complained.

"Oooo! I can teach you how to make balloon animals! With just one wing!" Pinkie said.

Luna tilted her head. "What is a balloon animal?"

The pink pegasus stared, shocked. "This is going to be harder than I thought."

"Um...will you give them bangles like mine?" Twilight asked.

Luna shook her head. "No. We were not the ones to forge such artifacts. If there are others, free of possessors, then you are free to take and distribute them among yourselves." Several immense planets flowed through the silk cloth behind her and she stiffened. "I realize I have not introduced myself. I am Luna: Goddess of the night and moonlight."

"The night?" Rarity repeated. "That would explain your appearance. I was wondering why Celestia was just bright light but you were more...decorated."

"What is that," Celestia said as she pointed behind everypony.

The gray aura remained in the air after the spell of unity had dissolved. The six could just barely make out a vague shape in it but had no time to decipher any other details. It washed over the six and slipped into every stable rift gate, surprising everypony.

"What was that?" Applejack exclaimed in shock.

Luna laughed. "Look upon your flanks. Unity has been returned to you first. The core of your essence for all to see. A mark of pride of the ponies of old," she explained. "Unity Marks, or Cutie Marks as some would call them."

Upon Twilight's flanks were the stars of her bangles. Applejack's was an apple from which a green stem emerged and covered her legs with green, vine-like lines. Rainbow's was multiple rainbow-colored lightning bolts, the largest of which ran down to her knee. Fluttershy's was three crystal butterflies flying upwards. Pinkie's was balloons floating up in a rain of confetti. Rarity's was a blue, lozenge-shaped jewel straddled in purple silks.

The ponies looked at them with intrigue, unsure of what to make of it.

"You have reawakened the magic of unity," Luna explained. "I think ponies will start to reawaken their own marks."

"So how do we get home?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah. I'm ready to go to bed," Rainbow sighed.

"Well, just will it, or I take you to the rifts corresponding to your homes if you wish." Luna explained. She stepped over to her grumpy, pouting sister and sat down, a melancholic expression on her face. "Meanwhile, there is much mending to be done between my sister and I."

"You could come visit us!" Pinkie said. "It'd be fun to see you experience everything we have."

Luna contemplated the idea and nodded. "When we need moments of peace, perhaps." She looked to Pinkie, 'smiling'. "I would like that. Thank you."

"I think you still need to take us back home, though," Twilight lamented. "Can't get back on our own."

My Little Pony: Friendship Beyond Worlds

by The Psychopath

New World(view)

First (New) Friends

(Un)Familiar Sight

Goddess of Day and Sunlight (Night and Moonlight)