//------------------------------// // Chapter 23 // Story: The Collapse // by Lightwavers //------------------------------// Twilight couldn’t probe the Domains with magic because of the Everfree’s whole ‘black hole’ effect on the substance, but she could still establish a connection through touch. So she bent her head down and touched her horn to the orange gem. It was shockingly well designed. The best and oldest Domains still had golem-level intelligences, like the Everfree. Every decision it made was filtered through the lenses of its commands, and communication was more like constructing a thought pattern than conversing with another pony. But this...this was on another level altogether. Foreign thoughts, opinions, even emotions swirled through Twilight’s mind, too large and too fleetingly glimpsed for her to understand them. But she got flashes. It was assessing her. Judging her. And eventually, it came to a conclusion. No. That was it. It didn’t throw her across the room, or try to destroy her, or anything. She could still interact with it, but it didn’t respond to any attempts at discussion. After what seemed like an eternity of interfacing with the vast mind of the Domain, she withdrew, and let out a huge gasp. Huh. She hadn’t even realized she’d been holding her breath. “It doesn’t like me,” she admitted, hanging her head in defeat. “Forcing it will get me nowhere.” “Well, try the others,” Rainbow Dash said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Twilight stomped over to the next one, this one a light blue. “That’s not how it works, Rainbow! These are obviously connected. One of them refusing a connection is like them all refusing.” “So? Try anyway.” Twilight huffed. Fine. She’d try this one too. It wouldn’t work, but if she didn’t try then she’d look like a stubborn idiot. Why was no one here a unicorn mage? Besides Radiance. And maybe Rarity and Lyra. Everypony who might’ve understood was gone. Ugh. She touched her horn to the opaque blue crystal. FZZZZZZ Energy. Thoughts. Energy. Emotions. Energy. Judgment. Energy. And then the Domain unceremoniously rejected her, sending her skidding across the floor in a flash of light. What? Much as she hated to admit, she might have been wrong. If these Domains were that different from each other, one of them could let her in. “Twilight? You okay?” Pinkie Pie said, leaning over her. “Gah!” Twilight scrambled to her hooves. “Yep. Fine.” She was. Her body felt all tingly and jumpy, and her brain felt exhausted, like she’d solved an exam worth of extremely strenuous questions. But she felt surprisingly okay for being shocked and thrown across the room. She’d been expecting it with the first Domain. Misleading pieces of rock… Next one. It was a pink one, and although it was no less bright than the others, it seemed softer somehow. Twilight brought her horn to it… A wall of goodwill crashed into her consciousness. She had not been expecting that. Then it just...lingered. The massive amount of benevolence she felt masked anything else the Domain might’ve been thinking about. Then, without any sense of judgement, she felt a gentle but firm no. Twilight blinked. She felt...happy. Her head felt clear and any lingering exhaustion had been washed away. She smiled as she walked over to the next one. This one was purple. She touched it. Magic. The world was made of magic. How could she not have seen it? It was frozen, and frozen more solidly and compact than, well, what she’d before considered solid magic. And it was different. It wouldn’t consent to being shaped like real magic. But it was, at its core, magic. Assent. The Domain granted her access. Yes! Twilight drew on the power held in the small glowing stone. It streamed out and filled her, suffusing her until she was so magically dense she could probably become pure magic without dying. Not that she would test it. Or at least not until she could get to a lab. She kept drawing on the Domain’s stores, pulling and pulling until she was sure it would be empty. But it didn’t seem like she’d taken anything. Twilight shivered. What were these things? A question for another time. Twilight instead turned to the Everfree’s core, the intricately carved tree that would have taken a team of hundreds of the most skilled ponies in Equestria years upon years to create. Then she cast the most powerful ‘move’ command in recent history, even more powerful than Celestia’s raising the sun. If she even did that. The night was a big data point in favor of it, though. The command drained all Twilight’s borrowed magic to nothing, all of it used up to change every manipulable variable of the tree. She’d simultaneously torn it apart, inverted its very structure, scattered it across time, and thrown it into alternate dimensions. For a few seconds after the command took hold, nothing happened. The tree was still there. Then something seemed to radiate through the air, an invisible ripple of pure change. And the world was different. Instead of a tree, the center of the cavern held a swirling vortex of energy that led to...somewhere. Twilight studied it for a second. She’d been an idiot. She’d had power, and then disregarded the most basic rule. The most essential rule. The one that had been drummed into her and every other unicorn’s head when she was a filly. Don’t change what you don’t understand. Then she realized she was in the air, and the gaping thing of wrongness she’d just opened in midair was sucking her in. She turned her head toward her friends. “Run!” she screamed. Everypony else was thankfully quite close to the cave exit, apparently guarding against a surprise attack from the Everfree. Rainbow Dash gathered up Fluttershy in her forelegs, then bucked against the ground and threw her out of the cave. Not bad for a mare without magic. Pinkie Pie and Applejack, meanwhile were both at a far enough distance and had enough strength to combat the pull and were straining against it as they slowly trudged out of the cavern. Either they’d run out of magic, or Talents didn’t work against reality holes. At least they’d be safe, she thought. Then Rainbow Dash scrabbled at the ground and rose into the air. Not her too! Did I get it? Is the Everfree gone? I hope so. Then Twilight was sucked out of her world.