//------------------------------//
// Emergence 
// Story: Insurgence 
// by Rose Quill 
//------------------------------//

A jet black hoof touched the glass, probing it. The magic had definitely come from here, though it was dormant now. The Changeling Queen looked over at the apparatus, tracing each line to and from the device to the mirror, inspecting every detail.

Her roving eyes fell onto the book that she had initially thought had fallen from a nearby shelf, but on closer inspection, the bracket seemed too small to have caught a book. It was more like something designed to hold something. Something the size of the tome, in fact.

Her horn lit as she nudged the book back into place, and was rewarded with a swirling burst of magic as the device hummed to life, the mirror changing to show a swirling purple maelstrom within. With a shark toothed grin, she reached out again and her hoof sank through the surface.

And after chuckling for a second at how clever she was, Chrysalis stepped into the mirror, ducking slightly so as not to catch her horn on the edge.

The pain that flared through her being was more than she had ever before had felt, and it felt as though all her limbs were being torn from her body as the bone-chilling feeling of the void seeped into her. And just as it got to be unbearable, she was out, laying on a rough surface. Her body felt weak, but it recovered soon enough. She rose to her full height and glanced back, seeing a pedestal housing the mirror and the stallion statue capping it. 

With a leer, she shattered the sculpture. Her magic still worked here. 

Good. 





I stumbled and collapsed suddenly as a wash of weakness flowed through me, the energy drain that had become a background constant in my life growing even more demanding. My new sight dimmed for a moment before I grit my teeth and struggled back to my hooves. 

Something was wrong, very wrong. The link between me and Chrysalis had sharpened without warning and I felt a strong urge to turn southwest, but I didn’t know why.

My sight was still wavering, the mana drain between the increase of the spell and trying to see as far ahead as possible became too much. I narrowed my vision to the ground directly in front of me and tried to think.

Something had happened, but I wasn’t sure what. As I thought, I continued moving forward, but the further north I went, the sharper the pull to the south was.

I sat on my haunches. Whatever changes Chrysalis had placed on the spell, it had set a tether to it, a distance from the source that the caster could not range from. The spell was trying to pull its mana source closer to the caster.

I growled and started scratching my hoof in the soil, gouging out a rough circle. I may not have much choice in the matter now.

I had come across many lost and forbidden spells in my research while possessed. Many of them were necromantic rituals, spells that used the dead or were fueled by blood sacrifices. I knew of one communication spell, and it wasn’t something I wanted to use, but the Empress needed to know of the threat so she could warn everypony. I hadn’t encountered a single soul since leaving the Hive despite having passed through a small village some hours ago.

I dragged my hoof through the circle, completing the thaumaturgic circle and stepping into it, dropping my sight and directing the mana into my horn, powering the circle.

I then bit my leg as hard as I could, drawing blood. I felt it well up on my leg as I held it out over the circle. I felt the wetness slide across my leg, then pool and drip.

And when the first drop struck the circle, it flared to life.





Cadence was about to check in on her friends again when she was suddenly seized by a burning sensation, freezing in her steps.

Her vision went white, and suddenly she was in a cool, black void. Before her was the form of Sorla, her body displaying none of her wounds. The Unicorn held her head low, though in deference or shame the Alicorn could not tell.

“Forgive me, Empress,” she said. “I would not have used a communion spell unless I had no other choice.” She turned her eyes to the ruler of her father’s old dominion.

“Chrysalis has enacted a spell that has would have dire consequences if not ended soon.”

Cadence rose to her full height, anger momentarily flaring.

“It has already been dire,” she shouted. “My friends, my sister-in-law included, are near death and thousands more like them cover Equestria.”

Sorla shrank before the wrath and Cadence froze. Surely this wasn’t the same pony that had threatened her lands with an undead army not even two months ago.

“Forgive me,” she said. “Concern has left me overtired.”

Sorla nodded but didn’t raise her eyes again.

“The spell was intended to banish targets to an extra-dimensional void,” the mare said. “But it was a small, localized spell. This one has apparently covered the entirety of Equestria. I can feel it all around me since I escaped captivity.

“Chrysalis has used my life force to power the spell and used another spell to speed regeneration so the spell has a constant source of power. I can feel it pulling me to the south, for some reason. When I sever this link, you should be able to scry my location easily.

“Heed, if this spell isn’t ended soon, it could draw everything it affects into the space between worlds, and I’m not sure what would happen to it.”

“How do we end it?” Cadence asked.

“Either Chrysalis must dismiss the enchantment, which I doubt she will do. Madness has taken her mind.” Sorla hesitated. “Or the spell must be deprived of mana.”

“But didn’t you say she tied you to the spell?” the Empress asked.

“Yes,” the whispered reply came. 

“But you can’t mean what I think you do,” the pink Alicorn said, her mind rebelling at the thought. “Surely there is another way to sever the link…”

“This spell is consuming me from the inside out, Empress,” came a harsh declaration. “I’m going to die from this no matter what happens to Chrysalis.”

Sorla turned her eyes and locked them onto the pony that had once been her enemy.

“If it comes down to it,” she said. “You will have to do what I thought you would do after my defeat. You’ll have to kill me to save your friends.”