Twilight - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoHTwilight - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH
Canterlot Palace Gardens - Equestria
The first thing I felt on the other side of the moongate was my face smacking into the ground.
Again. It happened again. Why? Why couldn’t this stupid thing include some quality of life enhancements? Why did it force your motor-cortex to change lanes without signaling?
I sighed and pushed myself up onto all fours. It was good to be a pony again! I never really cared for transformation magic, at least, not when used on me.
As soon as I could stand, I turned around to check on everypony else. The collective groans revealed they had suffered a similar fate to me before I even finished turning. Sure enough, all seven of them had immediately tripped after crossing through the portal too. Fortunately, nopony looked like they had smashed their face in on the stone pathway…
Wait a minute… Hadn’t the portal been in the central flower bed? Why were we in the center of the fountain plaza now?
Shaking that oddness off as merely ‘the primitive portal is primitive’ I cleared my throat. “Sorry everypony! Is anyone hurt?” I asked in concern.
“I’ll need a body cast,” Chrysalis moaned as she lay face down on the stones, her shape changed from having translated into a pony body successfully.
My ears raised in alarm at her words. How badly had she been hurt? It’s possible to fall a very short distance but still break a horn or fracture a skull. Was her disguise a unicorn pony, or-
“For my pride,” Chrysalis added a half second later as she sat up, immediately inspecting her ponified disguise.
“Is anyone ACTUALLY hurt?” I asked with an irritated narrowing of my eyes.
“Megan is,” Pine reminded. “Also, I’m a pony. Am I supposed to be a pony?”
I looked over at the old man, smiling as I saw that my theory had been correct! His pale red furred pegasus form looked to be about two hundred and twenty years old. Roughly equivalent to his advanced age as a human, but with a few decades left before his body started to wear out. A return to his prime!
And what a prime that was! He had to have a little Earth Pony in his bloodline, because no pegasus I’d ever seen had been that toned… Except for Dash that one time I’d pranked her with a spell of muscle growth.
Heh!
“Well, yes. Because you are one now,” I explained rather poorly.
Pine gave me a deadpan stare, then slowly clapped his hooves which conveyed more sarcasm than any words ever could.
Sunset sat up and shook her mane out of her eyes. “As far as anypony ever discovered, an inherent property of portal spells is transforming you into an appropriate species for whatever is on the other side. You’re ‘translated’ into what you would be if you had been born here, Mister Williams,” Sunset clarified. “Evidently, you’re a pegasus.”
“Pegasus?” Pine asked twisting to look at his back in surprise then giving his wings an intrigued twitch. “Are these for show?”
“No, pegasi can fly. If you’re here long enough, I’ll have one of my friends show you how. She’s an excellent teacher,” I promised as I continued to look over our group and-
“Why is the sky pink?” Nova asked as he looked upwards.
Pink?
I tilted my head back, immediately seeing the sky completely covered by the unmistakable pink of my brother’s Siege Shield.
“Oh no…” I whispered in horror as my ears fell and my eyes widened.
We had been too late. The disaster had already struck. I had to get Megan to Lily right away so we could salvage whatever remain-
The garden lit up as if a bolt of lightning struck the ground behind me. The triple crack of multiple entities teleporting made the fur on the back of my neck stand upright. I wheeled around to defend everyone, horn blazing as I readied my best shield spell, only to immediately fizzle out as I came face to face with Celestia, Cadence, and Cadence’s bodyguard, all three of whom were fully engulfed in blazing arcane auras, each ready to unleash a maelstrom of destruction.
Celestia, was clad hoof to ear tip in bright gold armor unlike anything I ever thought I’d see her in. I think her armor was properly called half plate, as the thick slab-like sculpted plates didn’t cover her seamlessly, but instead covered each vital area of her body, and bore embossed designs of sun and solar flare imagery. The armor also included an undersuit which looked and moved like cooling lava. The only way I could tell that this was Celestia was her ethereal mane and tail poking through the golden plates.
Cadence was also armored, but I’d seen her in her ‘kit’ plenty of times. Her pink and white crystal-like barrel plate crackled, hundreds of pale blue sparks dancing across its surface, showing the protective enchantments to be overcharged. The most surprising thing about Cadence’s ‘outfit’ to me had to be the fact that she was wielding her rapier. I knew she’d retired the use of that silver sword because she felt fighting with it had become too easy. The fact that she’d chosen to use it now…
While seeing Celestia dressed for battle definitely shook me the most, I still was a bit intrigued by Cadence’s bodyguard’s appearance. Sunset Breeze was known to change her appearance frequently, using body suit illusions for fun and as a prosthetic. I knew she had been burned, but I’d never seen beneath her illusion before. Apparently her injuries had been very bad, as she wore a full body leather jumpsuit, in layed with arcane hardening enchantments in a fine brass wire, concealed her lack of a tail with a billowing cloak, and hid her face behind a porcelain opera mask.
Her eyes were cyan. That’s all I could see of her. I’d have been more intrigued, but again, Celestia, my mentor, was staring me down, while dressed in armor I was absolutely certain had been scratched and scuffed in battle, not by dropping it down the stairs one time by accident.
“Thank the stars!” Celestia exclaimed as she lifted her visor, acting before I could, intimidated by her armor as I was. “Everypony, stand down! Twilight, you’re just in time! The enemy is only beginning to fortify their position. The siege hasn’t gone hot yet… Who are all of these people? Which one is Megan?”
I blinked. She didn’t know? “H-How don’t you know?” I asked as I realized I hadn’t looked at Megan myself.
“Because she’d turned herself back into a human by the time I met her. Only Clover knew what her pony form looked like,” Celestia answered casting her eyes over my little group of refugees, and settling on Chrysalis. “Megan?” She asked hopefully.
Chrys smiled and shook her head. “Nah… I um… I’m Chrys, you might know me as the exact opposite, morally speaking,version of a certain child eating asshole who may or may not be my counterpart here… Does she have a grave? Portals tend to make me have to pee.”
Celestia’s brow raised in stunned confusion. “Who?” She asked, turning to me desperately.
I smiled awkwardly, and scratched the back of my head with a hoof. “Uh… That’s Chrysalis,” I answered.
“Why?” Celestia asked, eyes narrowing angrily.
“Hey! I’m not the psycho the me native to this world was,” Chrys objected. “In fact, if you’d told me about her before she died, I’d have found my way here to help kick her ass! I saw her on Sunset’s scrying monitor, eating a goddamn child till it died from a full drain. That’s the exact antithesis of okay. I’m not that monster, I’m just a bug whose people are all but extinct who needs a new home.
“I um… I’m also sterile. So you don’t gotta worry about me starting a hive and causing problems. Honestly I just want a nice mare or stallion to bone and some evil things to exterminate. I’m a simple person.”
Cadence nodded to herself. “She’s good at heart, Tia,” Cadence said firmly before nodding her head towards the southern wall. “Good news for you then, Chrys. There’s a LOT of evil people to exterminate over there. How about you take my left flank when the action starts?”
“Sure, but I don’t do top,” Chrys said snarkily.
Cadence giggled. “That’s fine, my husband doesn't either. No but seriously, stick by me. I’ll take full responsibility for anything disastrous, Tia. We can’t pass up on a potential ally of her caliber. Have you seen that that rotary cannon? Seventy five caliber can do a LOT to large creatures.”
“Actually, it’s a laser weapon,” Nova corrected.
Cadence’s grin widened. Chrys nodded also grinning. You could feel the warrior’s friendship form between them, ponyfeathers, you could almost literally see it.
“Prove yourself a friend in this battle, Chrysalis, and I’ll make sure you’re more than happy in our world,” Celestia said decisively. “But if you are deceiving us, and are in truth like our Chrysalis was, I have the weapon which slew her in my possession.”
Chrys rolled her eyes. “I was serious about wanting to pee on her grave. No one sully’s my name. Look, we’re way off topic here. Megan’s the gray pony with the blond mane being held by that red pegasus who kinda looks like a rule sixty three Daring Doo if drawn by someone who was color blind.”
I looked at Pine, eyes widening as I saw it now that it had been pointed out. He DID look like the por- Er, fan art of Daring as a stallion. It could not be unseen! That was fine by me.
Celestia turned her head again, this time looking at Megan before taking a few steps over, immediately frowning in despair. “How badly injured is she?”
Pine sighed. “I have no idea. But she will need a doctor, fast. Uh, Twilight there. She recommended someone by the name of Lily,” he answered.
Celestia nodded once. “Ponyville has been… Devastated. But my scouts say his clinic is still standing. We can likely retrieve him. Twilight, we will need you to do that. Ponyville is.. Occupied. The main portal is there.”
I nodded, my eyes narrowing in determination. “I understand. I’ll go get him right away!”
Celestia spun and held up a hoof. “Wait! Not so fast! This needs explaining too. Twilight, why have you brought everypony with you here? I understand Megan and, well, I assume you are her father, sir?”
“Grandfather,” Pine corrected.
“Right,” Celestia agreed with a short nod. “I understand him. But Chrysalis? Sunset Shimmer? And… Whoever this stallion is? Why are they with you?”
I blinked, honestly confused by her question. “W-what do you mean? They wanted to come, and they helped me free Megan, so I felt like I owed them a favor,” I replied.
Celestia nodded slowly. “Okay… Perhaps this is just the stress of the impending battle, but I would like to remind you that you were on a critical mission. Are they here as payment for services rendered? Was that a deal you struck with them?”
Sunset cleared her throat. “P-princess… I know this is about me. Please leave them out of it. The mirror world is not the nice place it appears to be on the surface. My husband and best friend deserve a good life. They can get that here, but not there. Magic is…persecuted there.
“I know that my banishment still has several decades left to go. I’ll go back if you order me too. I’ll also willingly walk into the dungeons if you’d prefer that. Please let Nova and Chrys live here.”
OH MY CELESTIA! I FORGOT ABOUT HER BANISHMENT!
“Celestia!” I exclaimed as loudly as I could. “She’s not actually guilty of equinslaughter! I have first hoof evidence that Sunset’s counterpart is alive and living in Equestria. Remember the mirror world humans who arrived here days ago? They came here to visit her and have letters from her so she can’t possibly be dead.”
Sunset’s ears perked. “S-she DIDN’T die from falling into lye? That’s WORSE,” she exclaimed with a shocked look, which proceeded to twist into a perplexed frown. “Hold it, you mentioned this really briefly when we were on the phone but I was panicked and didn’t focus on it. Where is she? Do you know if she got any medical attention? I… I can’t imagine how bad that would have hurt…”
Cadence and Breeze shared a quick look, one with Cadence frowning urgently. What was that about?
Celestia took a deep breath. “The law is very clear on matters like this, Twilight. Sunset, I'm aware you didn’t intend to kill your counterpart, but unless proper positive proof of her survival can be presented, not even I can pardon you for the crime… But, I can reduce the sentence if you assist us during the battle. That’s the best I can do. Not even I am above the law.”
Sunset nodded. “I- understand. I’ve already accepted the fact that I can’t come back here to stay. Please, just let them-”
“Ever leave Nair on your legs for more than the fifteen minutes the bottle says to?” Breeze asked, looking directly at Sunset, her mask concealing her expression, but her voice sounding… Understanding.
Sunset blinked. “How do you know what Nair is?” She asked.
“Lye feels like the aftermath of that. But all over, and down to the bone,” Breeze said, ignoring Sunset’s question as she walked over to Celestia, reached up with her left hoof, and slipped of her mask. “Drop the charges. I’m fine.”
Celestia recoiled the moment Breeze took her mask off. Jade, and Nova also had an angle, and immediately looked like they were going to vomit, which made me extremely glad that her hood blocked my view and-
“WAIT!” I demanded, “YOU are Sunset’s mirror counterpart? But… But that… You should have known she was banished!”
“I thought it was self imposed,” Breeze replied flatly.
“I had my suspicions that you weren’t from Marelund,” Celestia said mostly to herself. “Why did you conceal your identity from- Twilight? Her aura, look at it for me and-”
I blinked, her aura had changed! When? When her mask came off I think, maybe with some fade in? The change was very radical in terms of how much stronger her arcane might was. If I didn’t know any better I’d say she was an alicorn.
“Because I don’t want to be a Princess. That’s not for me. And Cadence convinced me on day one that if you knew what I am you’d basically force me into that roll… And after living here for all these years, I can see why you would. Culture sort of demands alicorns be at the top of the nobility. They would force your hoof… It was best no one knew,” she answered with a weary sigh, spreading a pair of scar tissue ‘wings’ out from under her cloak.
Celestia and I stared at her completely stunned.
Sunset, our Sunset, laughed.
“You became an alicorn on your FIRST DAY in Equestria?” She asked.
“Yeah… It’s these horse shoes. They transform you into an Alicorn but, um, they don’t come off,” the mare who I was going to keep calling Breeze replied with a chuckle. “I remember you saying you’d come to my world because you saw a vision of you as an alicorn.”
“The irony is painful,” Sunset laughed, shaking her head slowly.
“So um… My wife doesn't have to go to prison now, right?” Nova asked hopefully causing Celestia and I to snap out of it.
“Um, well no… Not if Sun-” Celestia cut herself off and looked back and Breeze. “Can we just call you Breeze? Sunset is a very common name as it is, I imagine you’d go by that alias quite often.”
Breeze nodded. “Of course. And yes, I drop all the charges.”
“Okay,” Celestia replied with a short nod. “Sunset Shimmer, you’re banishment is hereby ended. Live where you will. Help out with the siege if you like… Otherwise, flee as soon as there’s an opportunity. Now, that’s everyone accounted for. We can move on to my next question, why didn’t you say you were an alicorn when Luna is missing and there’s an army of demons at the gate!?”
Celestia’s left eye twitched as her question hung in the air.
Breeze bashfully rubbed the back of her head with a hoof. “I- I was doing that when you sensed Twilight’s portal and we all teleported here,” she said defensively.
“She was,” Cadence confirmed.
“Yeah, preventing armageddon is a bit more important than me remaining free to live how I want,” Breeze explained. “Uh… And about that, if we survive this, I totally died. Heroically. Poor Cadence, she’ll have lost her best friend. At least she has her ‘scullery maid’ to support her through the emotional crisis.”
Celestia rolled her eyes. “If anypony here breaths a word about Breeze’s kind to absolutely anyone, including me, they will forfeit three years of their income to Breeze as compensation,” she decreed flatly. “Seriously, I can keep a secret, and you REALLY should have let me know that we have another alicorn… Not ALL of us have to be princesses. Especially one with your clandestine talents. How did you hide your aura’s real appearance for over a decade?”
“The mask, I picked it up in Starswirl’s lab. Also on day one,” came the reply. “It conceals your aura and blocks outward influences on your mind.”
“It’s good to see that someone who did Megan and I a good turn wont be punished for it,” Pine interrupted with strained politeness. “But need I remind everyone that my little girl is in critical condition?”
Celestia and I eeped in unison. “That’s right!” She exclaimed. “Twilight, you can slip through Shining’s shield, right? Am I remembering that correctly?”
I nodded sharply. “Yes! I figured out how to do that back when we were foa-”
“I don’t need the backstory,” Celestia chastised. “We need to get Lily here, as fast as possible. But before you go, we should think of a general plan. Not only is Ponyville occupied, but it’s the enemy's primary ‘beachhead’ for the invasion. On top of that fact, we need to remember that Lily’s clinic is constructed within a retired fortress.
“While that means he’s almost certainly still alive, well, need I remind you that a windigo can’t break into it?”
I shook my head. No, she DIDN’T need to remind me that a creature who can become intangible can’t penetrate the clinic’s walls. Getting into the clinic would be very hard, and I could only imagine how much harder the basement laboratory would be to penetrate.
“Yeah… We should probably at least find a way to get me into the lobby,” I agreed with a firm nod.
“Do you have any ideas? You have been to the place more than I have,” Celestia asked, her face contorting as she started to think of solutions.
Of course I had an idea! The defenses were very robust but there was… There was… The hay?
Why couldn’t I remember that detail? That made no sense! Five minutes ago I was realizing that trapping our escape route was a good idea to ensure the enemy couldn’t take it from us, and realizing that deals were necessary because nopony was going to heed the…
My eyes widened with the sudden horrifying revelation that I had been smarter in the mirror world than I was here. If I hadn’t experienced that moment of clarity and full potential… Would I have even noticed this…. This…
My magic. I couldn’t think well enough to cast magic like I had in the mirror world while I was here.
“What is it?” Celestia asked me with a worried look in her eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“I- I think I’m cursed,” I stammered.
“Cursed!?” Everypony asked with varying levels of confusion, fear, and surprise.
I nodded. “Yes. I- In the mirror world, I was making far better decisions. And in terms of finding a way to get into Lily’s clinic, I KNOW that I know of a way, but I can’t recall it. Every time I try it’s like I suddenly just don’t know it… And when I realized that I also realized that my magic is more… Dull here. In the brief time I had magic over there, I was casting with more complexity than I can ever recall casting here. S-something is limiting my power and intelligence, but only in this universe!”
Celestia didn't even blink. Her horn radiated golden light brightly enough to blind me for a solid ten seconds while I felt what had to be her full power flow through me, probing and pushing at every last part of my being.
“You are!” Celestia confirmed darkly. “And that counterspell didn’t remove it… This is bad. It has to be the Tartarians! Sabotage… We need to check every major spellcaster immediately!”
“Check me!” Breeze demanded.
I looked over at her, this time catching a glimpse of her face behind her hood as she hadn’t put her mask back on yet. The poor mare looked like she’d… Well, falling into a very potent caustic base solution. There really wasn’t any comparison for that.
Celestia nodded and cast a second counterspell, the gold light from the spell blinding me a second time even though it wasn’t directed at me this time. My vision cleared in time for me to see Celestia nod with relief on her face.
“You’re clean,” she announced.
Breeze smiled. “Then the mask protected me from whatever effect was used to curse us. If it is indeed all of us, and not just Twilight,” she said triumphantly. “Which means the mask CAN beat the curse, and as it isolates our minds from the outside world, and Twilight didn’t experience the curse’s effects when she wasn’t in this world… Twi, slip this on.”
Breeze passed me her mask, floating it over to within reach of my forehooves with her magic.
I smiled. “See, THAT’S the kind of thinking I was doing over there,” I said as I took the mask and slipped it on.
I couldn’t help but feel a little bit disgusted as I felt a little dampness on the inside of the mask. To be fair, the porcelain was pretty warm, enough where I would be sweating within a few minutes but it was still pretty gross to feel somepony else’s sweat on your face.
A heartbeat after the feeling of disgust bubbled up within my mind, I felt a fog lift from me. I could feel my magic in that full, detailed, precise way I had mere minutes ago in the other world. Excellent!
I smiled behind the mask. “It’s working! Thank you,” I said as I turned my thoughts to penetrating the security of Lily’s fortress turned clinic.
“Good! You can use it for as long as you need to, but I want it back after you’ve found a way to free yourself from the curse,” Breeze informed.
“That won’t take long,” I replied. “In theory, any mind affecting curse should-”
I stopped mid sentence, a sudden realization striking me like a brick falling from the sky.
“Celestia, the part of the Elements I need to retrieve is in the mines under Canterlot, right?” I asked, just seeking clarification. Celestia had only told me once.
“Yes, it i-” Celestia’s eyes widened in horror as she came to the same conclusion I had. “That’s why we’re under attack first! The Elements breaking, that had to be them. They somehow know what’s needed to repair them and-”
“And I’m getting a crystal and giving it to Megan right now,” I interrupted. “It won't take two minutes. Then I’ll go try my Tesseract Spell out to see if that will get me inside the clinic.”
“Tesseract?” Breeze asked, tilting her head.
“Yeah, an advanced version of a teleport spell which should theoretically work around any given ward or obstacle. I’ve been working on it for years but it’s always been to hard for even me to cast. Maybe that’s the curse at work. It’s worth a shot,” I said with a shrug since I couldn’t show them a smile. “Now, the mines below Canterlot. Arcanite crystal. Easy enough. I’ll be right back!”
I closed my eyes and focused my magic on transporting myself into the mines. An easy enough thing to do since I’d been there before thanks to old Chrysalis. My spell crackled in my ears as I felt myself shift, body position adjusting slightly as the teleport finished.
I opened my eyes, looking around to be certain I hadn’t accidentally teleported someplace I didn’t intend, and was relieved to see the shimmering silvery crystal covered catacomb-like mine shaft around me. A short distance ahead of me lay the pink shimmering barrier of Shiny’s shield, it extended underground as I’d thought, and didn’t quite enter into the deeper mines, again like I’d thought.
Prefect! I’d teleported exactly where I wanted to go! Exactly where I’d been standing when I’d found Cadence during the Canterlot Invasion. Normally I’d arrive a meter or so out of place, always in a safe spot naturally, but this precision meant that the mask was definitely working.
Unfortunately, the crystals around me weren't arcanite. This was mostly platinum group metals trapped within silica crystal. Nothing special. I’d have to go deeper into the mines to get to the arcanite deposits, meaning I needed to pass through Shining’s shield. But that wasn’t a real problem. Not for me.
The real question was how de-
A silvery blue glitter on the other side of the shield caught my attention and answered my question. There, seated in a gap between two larger crystals next to the entrance of a small room-like cave, was a small deposit of arcanite perhaps the size of a filly’s head. I frowned, looking more closely at the room and the shattered crystal around it.
That seemed suspicious. These parts of the mine were no longer used, as far as I knew the last time somepony had been here was during Chrysalis’s attack. If that arcanite had been exposed before then, somepony WOULD have harvested it.
I couldn’t use an identify spell on the crystal shards to try and determine how long ago that wall had been broken. But I could see the base of the crystal and the cracked faces of the shards had oxidized. That should take several years to happen at the quickest.
It wasn’t some sort of trap as I’d first feared. Unless somepony had oxidized ore laden crystal which matched the appearance of that from this mine laying around. Unlikely to say the least. Perhaps I’d broken that crystal with one of my spellbolts during the escape from the mines and simply hadn’t noticed the half a million bits worth of arcanite in the debris.
Because I would have taken that with me.
“Huh… Well, I guess I’m due for a little luck,” I decided.
I walked forwards, probing the shield with a simple identify spell. I already knew that it was a shield, and the exact properties of the shield. Shiny’s talent for defensive magic gave his work a very unique signature, unforgettably so if you knew much about the School of Abjuration.
The Identify Spell wasn’t to learn about the shield. It was to exploit a glitch in it’s spell matrix.
I followed the Identify Spell with a small telekinetic jab, and then hit that same spot I’d probed and poked with a spell I normally used to style my mane. The shield rippled, and pulled away from the spot, forming a small hole, less than a hoof wide.
Before the hole could close I focused my magic again, teleporting through the gap to the other side of the shield.
I smiled as I arrived on the other side. I never thought I’d be sending myself through the hole. I’d only ever launched pillows or plush toys through it when he had it raised to keep me out of his room.
Trotting over to the crystal, I started to think about the best way to break it off. I couldn’t use magic on it, goodness knows what breaking the stuff would do if it held a fresh charge! Maybe a sharp strike with the point of my hoof? That wouldn’t hurt the Arcanite, but the crystal it was attached too should break.
I drew back my hoof to try that sharp strike-
“Good afternoon,” a voice said behind me.
I cast a shield spell out of pure reflex, the shield raising before I even finished turning around to see the black furred Earth Pony standing behind me in the shadows.
“If you're with the people attacking Canterlot, you’re picking the wrong fight!” I snapped, hoping to intimidate the possible assassin out of attacking me long enough to find a way to retrieve the crystal.
The stallion rolled his red eyes. “I’m not with them, they are with me,” he corrected condescendingly.
Oh… I winced as I realized he meant he was the enemy's commander. This was not good.
Maybe I could quickly get the crystal and teleport away before-
“No need to quickly flee, I’m just here to chat. Catch up a little,” the stallion said casually, remaining a good four meters away in the shadows of… Of…
What the hay was the lightsource down here? Why is my brain going there of all places right now when I’m face to face with-
OH NO YOU DON’T! I quickly pulled my thoughts inward, doing my best to close off my mind. The mask may have protected me against the curse when it was just there, passively dominating my mind, but that had been an active attempt. By someone VERY powerful.
“Nice try, but I’ve got help resisting your influence now,” I said, narrowing my eyes aggressively, and hoping that the mask didn’t hide the expression too much.
The stallion odded. “So it would seem. Funny enough, you breaking through the limits I placed on you is one thing I anticipated. You’re rather hard to alter, my control was always shaky at best, I felt you slip free the moment you managed to shake my influence,” he chuckled. “You’ve caused me a LOT of grief, Twilight. I’m happy that now I have no choice but to destroy you.”
I knew it. This was a trap.
“Do you really want to have a fight in a cave full of arcanite?” I asked, hoping that knowledge would deter him long enough for me to work out a solution.
Any mage who could open the gates of Tartarus had to be very powerful, and he was an Earth Pony. That didn’t make spellcasting impossible, anything can cast a spell with enough effort, but for a non-unicorn to get good enough to open portals and let an army through, and also maintain control over them… He had to be phenomenally adept at magic. With more effort put in than any unicorn ever had to put into learning spells.
This was going to SUCK!
To my shock, he shook his head no. “I’m not here to fight you, Twilight. I’m enjoying a brief stretch of the legs before the upcoming battle. My current puppet being on my side means I can slip away for a few minutes. I’m certain you understand the need for a little privacy to contemplate the task at hoof,” he said casually, flashing me a sinister smile. “Do you know what I’ve decided? I want to feel Celestia’s anguish when she sees her beloved student die. That will be exquisite.”
“What kind of monster are you?” I demanded angrily, ears flattening.
Who intentionally enjoys the suffering of others?!
The stallion smiled. “I’m not a monster. I’m their king. Their creator. I’m responsible for almost all the suffering you’ve ever seen. Making you repress yourself, twisting Luna’s thoughts so she focused overmuch on how much more adoration her sister received, your friend Rarity’s brain-body mismatch, every foal who died from cancer they were born with, all my doing.
“You can’t possibly comprehend what you’re up against, Twilight.”
“If you’re not talkin out your ass, why!? Why would you do any of that to anypony?” I demanded half because I needed an answer, and half to buy more time to plan my escape.
The stallion paused, considering something for a moment before nodding to himself a few times.
“Because it’s funny,” he said decisively.
My attempts to plan an escape evaporated at that statement floored me.
“FUNNY!?” I demanded as my mouth pulled back in rage. “You’re attacking a city, intending to destroy it just to cause as much suffering as possible, because you think that’s FUNNY!?”
“Humor is subjective,” the stallion said simply.
“You’re a psychopath!” I snapped, wings twitching.
He shrugged. “Perhaps, but enough about me. Let’s talk about you. Specifically your future.”
Here it was. He was going to attack now!
The air in front of me warped, twisting as magic formed a clear picture of an alien civilzation. Reptilians of some sort. I’d never seen them before.
“While this particular operation has started out a little rocky, I’ve destroyed many worlds across the eons,” the stallion casually informed. “The saurians, humans, the Equinites that’s the First Kingdom, FYI. All dead. All because of me. Equestria will join them soon.”
The picture flashed and warped, showing me a hundred different pictures of each civilization as he mentioned them. I rolled my eyes at his claim.
“My brother uses those same illusion spells to illustrate his O and O game,” I said flatly. “You won't intimidate me with a spell that’s included in the Game Master’s Hoofbook.”
The stallion blinked in surprise. “Huh… I guess she was right. I didn’t anticipate the reactions of a species used to magic correctly. Well, that’s not much of a problem in the end. I already have to exterminate you all manually. Believe what you will, Twilight.
“But know that your world is doomed. I have trillions of demons at my disposal and had ages to prepare them for war, I’m only limited in that only so many can get through the portal at a time. As much as I hate you, I do enjoy watching people stumble around the ruins of their worlds until they perish without the systems they once relied on. Surrender, and I’ll ensure you live through the end.”
“Not a chance,” I laughed. “If you really could just kill us all without effort you wouldn’t ask us to surrender.”
“Meh, suit yourself,” he replied with a sadistic smile. “I think I’ll use your remains in a quilt.”
“What did I even do to you?” I asked, genuinely curious at this point. “You go through all the effort to assemble an army to kill me, you put a curse on me to fog my mind and limit my magic, you claim to be responsible for my friends suffering. What did I do?”
“Oh I’ve done FAR more to you than that,” he cackled. “I’ve done every single last thing that I possibly could. You are the seventy sixth version of yourself in this timeline. I tried every last trick in the book to alter your personal past and prevent you from reviving one of my ancient enemies and releasing my sister’s mantle from its prison. Not a one of them worked.
“But I could make you a lesser version of yourself, and keep you from having a happy and loving relationship with Rainbow Dash. So I did.”
Revive an ancient enemy? The only two people I’d help revive recently were Queen Ji’la and Emperor Prance… Prance! He’d mentioned having been cursed into undeath because of an ancient enemy.
“Ah, so you’re the Dawn that Prance told me about,” I said with a slow nod.
Dawn rolled his eyes. “Took you long enough,” he mocked. “Even unfettered by my curses you’re still a bit slow.”
“And you’re a complete idiot,” I countered. “You just admitted that a single pony was able to take you on in single combat with such even power that you could only win via trickery and with outside assistance. In other words, now I know you can be defeated with a little teamwork.”
“I’m far more powerful now than I was when I fought him,” Dawn laughed. “And I imagine he’s extremely out of shape after laying half dead on a dais for six millennia. Besides, did he mention his own immense power comes from him having stolen power I had to rid myself of to acquire more free will for myself? He’s boosted beyond what any mortal could achieve on their own.”
I rolled my eyes. Dawn was a fool. I’d seen Prance in person. His Aura was about on par with Celestia’s…
“Look, I’m going to go,” I said turning around to break the crystal off the wall. “You don’t have to do any of this you know. You can just stop and go home.”
“Oh but I WANT to do it,” Dawn countered. “It’s funny, and I have plans for this place. Would you like some help getting that crystal off the wall? It hardly matters. Your friends won’t make it back in time to save you.”
Okay. That was the first genuinely worrying thing he’d said. It was also a pretty good point. Especially since with Shiny’s shield up, they couldn’t get inside the city.
CRAP! I should have thought of that before.
“I don’t need your help,” I said, smashing a hoof into the crystal. The silvery mineral shattered like glass, showing itself to be even more brittle than I remembered it being as the arcanite broke free from the wall.
“Fair enough,” Dawn remarked as I picked up the crystal. “Oh! Before you go, how’s your sister doing?”
“Really? You’re going to insult my brother just because he likes feminine things more than masculine things? That’s really pathetic stu-” I blinked as I realized what I was saying. “WOW! You definitely did a number on me. I recall hating him for that.”
Dawn giggled. “See? It’s hilarious, isn’t it?”
“I’m a good pony, Dawn… You're removing any ounce of sympathy I normally feel for even my enemies. The last person to do that was Tirek, and I would have killed him without any regrets if I had the power,” I warned, my ears laying flat as they could.
Dawn smirked. “Oh yes, the purple unicorn is very intimidating. But no, I’m talking about your actual sister. Not Shining Armor.”
“I don’t have a sister,” I said, rolling my eyes at his stupidity. “I know some ponies think that Moondancer and I are related, but we’re just friends.”
“So my meddling hasn’t been entirely undone then? Good,” Dawn said with a ring of satisfaction in his voice. “Well, I’ll be going now, goodbye.”
…
He said he used time travel to alter my past. He said he did a lot of things. My sudden reversal of disgust for my brother’s taste in relationship rolls proved that. Was it too much of a stretch to-
No. No it was not.
“You know that Shining really likes Moondancer, right? He’ll be ecstatic when I tell him that the three of us are related,” I rebutted, just to let him know he hadn’t shook me with that revelation.
He failed to intimidate so he wanted to mess with my head. That’s what he’d been hoping for, right?
“Humm?” Dawn asked, looking over one shoulder back at me. “Oh, no. No Shining wouldn’t be related to her. Nor is Moondancer your sister. You think I’d just tell you who she is? Please.”
“I know for a matter of fact that my parents have been exclusive for their entire lives,” I laughed. “You’re not going to make me think that one of them had me and somepony else through an affair.”
“No. They didn’t. But Shining isn’t your brother. Well, legally yes, but not biologically,” Dawn replied, turning back around. “You’re adopted. They aren't your family.”
I rolled my eyes. “Ponyfeathers,” I mocked. “You’re just trying to distract me from my mission. And it’s not going to work anymore. Bye.”
I turned my head towards Shining’s shield, readying the three spells I needed to open the breach, but hesitated. Maybe THAT’S what he wanted. I should teleport to another part of the shield first, then go inside.
“Actually, I’m trying to make you have a freakout about just how much of your life is fabricated,” Dawn corrected. “And even telling you that I’m still going to win because…”
The sharp crack of a long range teleport echoed through the cave, accompanied immediately by the muffled scream of a mare.
“Wah, but- PUT HER DOWN OR SO HELP ME I’LL-” A stallion roared.
My eyes shrank to pinpricks as I recognised my father's voice.
“Tell Twilight where she came from or I’ll make you eat her entrails while she watches,” Dawn ordered with grave seriousness.
I spun, immediately firing a spellbolt the moment I saw an Dawn, reared up, holding my mother up by her muzzle, his other foreleg holding a serrated dagger raised to gut her like a fish. Dawn’s eyes brightened, glowing a deep red. My bolt stopped dead in the air.
“Now now, Twilight. We’re not fighting. I’m just getting these two liars to tell the truth,” Dawn mocked. “Night, tell her now, or become a cannibal. Your choice.”
“Dad! Block his line of sight to me and I’ll be able to shoot him!” I called.
“She won’t,” Dawn chuckled. “You have six seconds. Five… Four…”
Dad’s ears twitched angrily. “Twilight, your mother and I adopted you. We wanted a second foal, she can’t have anymore. But that doesn't matter. Family is more than blood!”
This had to be an illusion!
I narrowed my eyes, probing at my ‘father’ with my magic and… And he was really him. No illusion. That was my father. But…
“Tell her all of it,” Dawn ordered calmly.
“All? But… What else is there?” Night asked worriedly.
“Tell her how she was found lying in a gutter, unwanted and unloved. How her true parents never cared about her,” Dawn said, smirking as his eyes locked onto me.
“Twi, that’s bullshit. You were found in a gutter in Canterlot, but you were wrapped up in an old threadbare cloak. It looked like you’d fallen out of a foal carrier. The orphanage searched for weeks, nopony was found. Then we adopted you,” dad corrected. “Whatever is going on here, don’t let this monster get into your head. As far as either of us care, we are your parents, and we love you. We never told you any of this because it’s not important. Not one bit.”
Dawn nodded. “See? He corrected a lie about the situation. It’s all true. These are not your parents, you have a sister somewhere out there in the world, and you have no idea what I have in store for her,” Dawn said, flashing me the single most evil smile I’d ever seen. “Think about surrendering for a while. If you forfeit this battle, I’ll spare her life. If not, well, I do like playing with my toys. Farewell.”
Before I could reply, Dawn vanished. No magical discharge. No gesture or look of effort. He simply vanished, letting my mother fall to the ground in a heap.
“Velvet!” Dad exclaimed, immediately picking her up and holding her close. “I’m so sorry, I-”
“He could have crushed me if he wanted… You couldn’t have stopped him. It’s okay,” mom soothed before turning to look at me. “Twilight, sweetie, I… None of that was a lie but please, just forget about it. Heaven knows we never think about it.”
I bit my lip behind the mask. “I… You really should have told me,” I said quietly.
Dad turned around, and shook his head. “Why? It changes nothing, and you had no genetic diseases at birth. You’re our filly. Just because she didn’t give birth to you doesn't change that. Also, why the mask?”
I nodded. “I agree. I’m not going to throw away fifty years of memories just because I was adopted. That would be stupid,” I informed ignoring the fact that I was pretty sure I would if Dawn’s curse was still affecting me. “But it is important because apparently I have a sister who is now in danger, whom I could have protected.”
“Ah, well… Yes,” Dad admitted, clearing his throat awkwardly. “But you can’t blame us for not knowing something we couldn’t possibly have known.”
“Exactly!” Mom agreed. “What could we have done? Cross referenced every orphanage for foals found wrapped in threadbare moon and star cloaks? Located the manufacturer of them and asked for the full list of customers who had bought one then ask them all if they’d lost somepony?”
I sighed, and nodded once. “I know. I know… But we have a problem now. That guy knows who she is and is possibly in a situation to hurt her. Yeah, I don’t know a thing about her but… Well, I’ve saved total strangers from harm. I can’t just let him…”
BUCK! He was right. He had won. This was going to pull on my heart. Hard.
“We’ll do what we can, sweetie,” Dad said, walking over to give me a quick hug. “But could you please get us out of this… Um… Serial killer repository?”
I laughed. “We’re in the mines under Canterlot. I can take you to the palace garden, I need to get this crystal to somepony right away and then immediately find somepony else. I can’t take you home. There’s no time to waste after… Well, this.”
“That’s fine,” Mom said as she gently grabbed my shoulder.
“You don’t need to touch me for me to teleport you mom,” I reminded, shaking my head slowly.
“Oh,” she replied, blushing as I transported the three of us to the very top of the shield’s dome.
“Wait, what? Why are we-” Dad asked.
“I’m not opening a breach in a shield where the enemy just was seconds ago,” I explained as I quickly opened the necessary hole and teleported the three of us again.
“Oh that makes sense,” Dad replied as we appeared in the garden, just a few meters away from Celestia. “Woah! Twi you got way better at this than I remember.”
Celestia looked up at the sound of my father's voice, her face bearing an expression of extreme surprise. “... Uh… Where did your parents come from?” She asked.
Cadence looked up as Celestia mentioned my parents. Her motion revealing she had been sitting down to tend to Megan. A good idea, the poor girl would definitely have emotional wounds to tend as well as the physical ones.
“She brought her parents here?” Cadence asked in surprise.
“No. The enemy did. I just brought them inside the shield,” I informed with a weary sigh. “Long story short, Megan, here’s an arcanite crystal. Please hold onto it for me,” I said as I passed the somewhat more lucid looking pegasus pony the large crystal. “Celestia, two things. First, they know about our plan to repair the elements, and my friends won't get back here in time. I need to go and fetch them because well… How will they get in with the shield up without me?
“Second, I have a sister, because I’m adopted. Which is fine. But the enemy has threatened to hurt her if I don’t surrender.”
Celestia nodded. “I see… So your parents were summoned to confirm the claim you were adopted?”
I nodded. “Yes. W-wait, did you know?”
“Yes. I did a full background check on you when I made you my personal student,” Celestia replied politely. “Your parents asked me to keep quiet about it, and I respected their wishes. It was not my place to say anything… Though I’d assumed they were simply waiting to tell you when you were old enough. It would seem the never intended to tell you at all.”
Dad nodded. “Right. That was the plan. We just wanted to spare Twilight any emotional pain. You know how sensitive she can be to certain things,” he explained.
Ah. Well… Fair enough, Dad.
“Regardless, Twilight, I promise you that the first second of free time I have after this battle will be spent helping you find any living relatives you have,” Celestia vowed. “In the meantime, we need to get the elements here… But that’s a problem because, well, do you know where they all are right now?”
“... Ponyfeathers,” I cursed, stamping my left hoof angrily.
“Twilight! Language,” Mom chastised.
“Hon, it’s war and she just got bad news. Honestly, she didn’t swear hard enough. Twi, sweetie, this calls for a good old fashioned cry of ‘buck’,” Dad corrected.
I rolled my eyes. “I know that humor helps in a crisis, but this is serious, Dad,” I replied. “I need a way to find the Bearers. Right now.”
Jade’s ears suddenly perked up. “Oh my gosh! Twilight! I was going to tell you this right when this all began, but while I was looking through Cover’s library I found a family por-”
“Elements,” a week voice croaked, managing to be heard over Jade only thanks to being closer to me.
I snapped my head in the direction the sound had come from to find Megan having rolled slightly, her eyes open and looking at me.
“What was that?” I asked her, focusing as hard as I could on her since her voice had been so hard to understand.
“Elements,” she repeated. “Bond. Feel them.”
“Are you saying that I can actually find them through the bond?” I asked, tilting my head curiously.
I knew that when using the Elements power I could feel their emotions, but could I actually just search for them at any time? I closed my eyes tightly and calmed myself as much as I could, deciding to try and sense Rainbow since she should be the closest pony to Canterlot.
Nothing.
It didn’t work. There wasn’t-
Oh! No, there was. I could feel fear that was not my own. But very very faintly. This would probably work better if the Elements were not damaged and-
And I was feeling fear. From Dash.
“Thank you, Megan, that is extremely useful to know,” I said to her as thankfully as I could before turning to everyone else. “I’ll be right back. We’ll bring them in one at a time.”
“Silly Clover, you knew that already,” Megan murmured.
I blinked. “Huh?”
“You’re aura, it’s similar to Clover’s. I think I’ve mentioned this to you before,” Celestia said. “Megan knew her too. She probably thinks you're her.”
“Ah,” I replied, turning my mind to the much more important task of focusing on Dash’s location via what little emotion I could sense. “As I said, right back.”
I closed my eyes tightly, gathered my magic, cast a shield spell, then teleported. After all, this was Dash. And she was afraid.