//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: War of Understanding // by Kaffeina //------------------------------// The War of Understanding Prologue Twilight Sparkle One lavender unicorn, known as Twilight Sparkle, and Equestria’s protégé of Friendship gazed out onto the massive plains of this strange world. She, like her resident Displaced, had been brought to this world though she herself was merely observing whereas her resident Displaced was a fighter in this War, bolded for some reason. Twilight didn’t dare say what her fears were out loud, but this was her way to determine whether her resident Displaced was good for her home, or not. The plains, though massive, were impeded by two large fortresses and a variety of small outposts here and there. Yet, Twilight couldn’t help feeling that none of the outposts would see use, and that the fortresses were merely an aesthetic choice by whichever mad mare, or stallion, had set this entire thing up. As she watched, one by one little figures appeared in the window she observed from and met the two smaller figures on each end of the field. Some moved to the opposite side of that which they approached, and the rest moved into the fortresses. The air tensed as the person who had moved her here entered the room, followed by another. The man of shadows, or whatever he was called, muttered a few things to the cat-eared woman and disappeared with a strange noise, Vworple, to be exact. The cat woman approached her and peered out the window with one eye closed. Snapping her fingers, she disappeared and two more Twilight Sparkles appeared in the room with Twilight. They stared at each other for a moment before each went silent and looked out the window. “I don’t suppose either of you really get what this is about?” Twilight, an alicorn version, asked the other versions of herself. One of them, thankfully, had the scar on her face from awhile back and this allowed another differentiation between themselves. The shaking of heads clued her in. “Apparently Auric,” the alicorn princess said, “which is the Displaced from my world, is getting into a fight with some other Displaced called Makuta Teridax.” The hushed silence was the only response and the ponies looked back out the window as the small people kept moving around before their numbers finally dwindled out. It was a few more moments before the room darkened as did the sky. A second later, a very loud female voice began speaking. “I should like to welcome all to this battle between Auric Fulcrum, the Golden Bastard, and Makuta Teridax, Queen of Shadows,” a few of the figures on the ground seemed to be shaking their fists at the sky though a few of them were hunched over. “Suffice to say, the rules are placed inside the strategy room of each fortress. You get one life, and if you die you will join the observers. All reality warping powers are off limits, and lastly, your powers will not work for the next two hours until you either choose to get a jump on it, or work out a strategy. Enjoy the fight, refreshments are provided should you ask.” The light returned and the three Twilights raised their eyebrows in unison before the alicorn shook her head. “That woman…” The other Twilights looked even more confused before the cat-eared woman from before entered the room and began floating in a lawn chair whilst eating popcorn. “What?” both Twilights asked. “I should probably explain in greater detail,” the alicorn Twilight said, before getting a snap of fingers from the cat-eared woman and a chalkboard rolled up next to her. “Thanks Essence,” she got a nod and then began drawing on the board, somewhat crudely. “You both were accompanying your Displaced before you ended up here, right?” A nod and the Twilight began drawing a few circles along with some stick-ponies in them next to a stick figure. “These worlds are you,” she gestured at two of them, “this is me,” she tapped a third. “And this is where we are,” she tapped the fourth circle which had a bunch of stick figures. “Multiverse, right?” one of the Twilights offered. “Indeed, now. The Displaced I accompanied,” she tapped her circle again, “was Auric Fulcrum who has been challenged to a fight by Makuta Teridax. They both Understand, which apparently means they know how everything in the Multiverse works, not that I’ve ever seen them apply that knowledge if they can.” The cat-eared woman nodded again as the Twilight kept going, “As you can see, they got others involved through recruitment by various means. Auric primarily used Umbra, who has retired, according to Essence, and he refuses to have anything to do with this.” “There are two sides, in this war. Auric, with the heroes, and Teridax, with the villains. Its fairly simple, but they all seem to have agreed to not fight in their own Equestria,” the speaking Twilight looked skywards and muttered a soundless ‘thank faust’, before she went on. “So, we are here as observers, since we got pulled along.” “Why aren’t we fighting?” the original Twilight asked, “Certainly we could beat some of them.” “According to Essence here, it’s both for our safety and the Displaced’s. If we were to die, there would be quite an amount of repercussions from our Equestrias. Mine especially would have Celestia coming to kick the flank of whoever killed me, if she could,” Twilight had nearly started rambling and caught herself. She slide the chalkboard away and it vanished the moment it touched the wall. “I think you get it, right?” she asked herselves. They nodded and started watching the window again. The alicorn Twilight flew up to Essence and poked her in the side with her hoof. “Can we see what’s happening inside the fortresses? I think we all want to see what they’re doing.” “Very well,” Essence snapped her fingers and the perspective of the window changed, allowing them to see inside the strategy room which contained a group of people. Twilight watched as Auric stood up, and opened his mouth to speak.