Princess Celestia turned to Princess Luna and nodded before lighting her horn. A small orb of light flickered in the middle of their throne room, brilliant even in contrast with the sun’s bright rays that streamed through the windows. And then, in a dramatic flash of light and an electrical crack, a hole appeared and held steady as a ring of energy clamped down on its edges.
The two walked through that hole and emerged into a copy of their room. In comparison with the bright colors of their chamber, this one was bathed in browns and bits of dust, although the holes in the wall had been sealed. They could hear the wind’s whisper as it steadily coated the tall windows with dust at a constant pace.
On a small table in the very center of the chamber sat a lonely crystal ball. It showed what it always showed: an exact copy of the very chamber they now sat in.
A few other tables ringed around it. Each of six of the tables had at least one or both of Celestia and Luna (with most having both rather than just one). Nameplates gave both their name and their timeline designator, and colored metals fused with the tips of their crowns also identified them. The already-occupied tables, representing the alternate timelines, had the labels C, D, I, N, S, or T.
The seventh, empty table (notated with an R) was their own, and the two of them approached it. “Thank you for waiting for us,” Celestia (or, as she was known at these meetings, Celestia R) said. Her eyes drifted toward one of the tables in particular where a Luna (who had been Nightmare Moon once) stood, now joined by a Celestia.
Luna (known as Luna R here) looked as well and smiled. “Ah, I see you have finally made it off the moon.”
Celestia N chuckled. “Indeed, I have. I have many ponies to thank for that, but especially my own sister,” she said with a smile. “She championed the efforts, after all.”
Luna N blushed and averted her eyes but her smile made it out all the same.
“Anywho, I suppose I answer to ‘Celestia N’ in these cases?” she continued. “This is my first time at these meetings.”
“Yes,” Celestia D who sat at table D replied. “Just so that we have everything organized. Same with everypony else here, although we do typically drop the Rs. They are the prime timeline, after all. Anywho, let’s get this meeting started. We went first last time, so I suspect that we could get an update from Equestria I first this time.”
Celestia I and Luna I shifted and the former cleared her throat. “Certainly. Thank you. In the two weeks since we last met, we’ve continued our cleanup of the Everfree forest. We’re working on replanting trees in the southeast corner now. The parts that we’ve replanted are coming along quite nicely.”
“We intend to reintroduce some fauna in a few weeks,” Luna I said. “We want to start with smaller creatures first and then move up in size.”
“With any luck, we will correct the environmental damage that the Flim Flam brothers did to the area in their bid for industrialization.”
“Excellent,” Celestia D. “It sounds like you are putting our seeds to good use.”
“Yes,” Celestia I replied with a nod. “They have been very useful. That said, we will have to tend to the Everfree from now on. In other news, we’re seeing a decline in trade between our textile industry and Equestria S. Certainly, we attribute that to the reprisal of your fashion industry,” she said as she turned toward table S.
Celestia S, who stood at a table by herself, nodded. “We just recently had a fashion show right here in Canterlot. Actually, if you would believe it, wartime vogue is popular.”
Celestia laughed. “Well! That is a surprise, considering you spent quite some time fighting King Sombra off.”
Celestia I chuckled. “Well, still, it’s good to hear that there is still recovery. That said, we find that, on the whole, cross-dimensional trade is still flourishing. Hopefully, it will for quite some time.”
Luna I straightened up, even placing a hoof on the table. “We continued our investigation into the unponies. We, of course, looked into that cavern that they occupied in your reality,” she said, motioning toward Celestia and Luna. “We haven’t found anything else, and we more or less concluded our investigations in the other places we had looked into.”
The pair at table C shifted and Celestia C cleared her throat. “I hate to speak out of turn, but… as we speak about the Nameless and its effects…” They produced a crystal ball identical to the one on the central table. “There has been a development that we find somewhat troubling. Take a look at this.”
Several eyes turned toward the crystal ball in question. A picture of the throne room lay within, lit by moonlight alone.
And several bodies around the room shot to their hooves amidst sharp gasps.
“Yours too!?” Celestia T cried.
Luna exchanged uncertain glances with Celestia and frowned. “Ah… I am sorry?”
One by one, the other tables produced their own crystal balls. While the locations within varied wildly, one feature remained the same: the night skies in each of them.
“Observe,” Celestia C said.
Celestia frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“It is daytime in our timeline,” Celestia C said. “Or, rather, it was daytime at this time nine days ago.”
“The same with ours,” Luna T said. “And yet, all of our balls show night.”
“About two in the morning, to be precise,” Luna C said.
Celestia N banged the table. “That’s what we measured as well,”
“What madness is this!?” Luna growled. “The balls are… desynced?”
Celestia N blinked and then lit her horn before levitating a crystal ball of her own onto the desk before her. It too showed a throne room with a night sky outside. She frowned and tentatively looked up. “We don’t know. I was told that these things abided by a nine-day rule. I guess that is no longer the case?”
A silence pervaded the room as everypony exchanged uneasy glances.
Luna shook her head. “How?” she asked. “How did this happen?”
“I do not know,” Luna I replied. “Does anypony have any ideas?”
Several heads around the room shook in response.
“This is an ill omen, surely,” Celestia C mused.
Celestia I cupped her hooves across her mouth and stared into the distance. After a moment’s thought, she sighed into her hooves. “I am not as versed in these matters as the two of you are,” she said as she glanced at Celestia and Luna in particular, “but I get the sense that we will know soon enough.”
Celestia shuddered and stood up. “Yes. I agree. Whether or not we want to.”
Sunset Shimmer scrutinized everyone else’s faces, watching for the most minute changes in expression. Most changes were the deepening of frowns, the shrinking of eyes, and the quivering of lips. Twilight Sparkle herself presently did most of the talking but Sunset had no doubt that she too was watching.
With the nighttime blackness doing nothing to help light the room, the chandeliers (thankfully up to the task) did so by themselves. A few half-eaten snacks lay spread across the dining room table, but no one presently made for them. Celestia and Luna sat at one end of the table. Starswirl the Bearded, clothed in his robe and wizard’s hat, sat next to Sunset herself (which, even with Twilight speaking, she couldn’t help but steal glances at him), with Sunburst flanking her other side. Starlight Glimmer, Spike, and Tempest Shadow sat across from them. And Discord the draconequus floated above them.
Finally, the last words passed out of Twilight’s mouth and she assumed a tall stance. A long silence followed.
“This…” Luna said as she wiped her brow, “is incomprehensibly terrible.”
Discord snorted. “How right you are. How am I to wreak chaos without magic?”
“W-what are we gunna do?” Spike asked.
Twilight shook her head. “I don’t know. This missing Nameless fragment could be anywhere.”
“It would seem that, in this situation, we will need to raise the rest of the Pillars,” Luna said. “And perhaps the other Elements.”
“Yeah,” Starlight agreed. “Pretty sure they’d want to know about this.”
“They won’t be happy about it, though,” Spike dryly said. “I know I’m not.”
“No one is,” Sunset said.
Starswirl stroked his long, white beard. “Aside from what all of you have told me,” he said, his voice deep and throttled, “my knowledge is limited. But I think that this is a situation which should be approached with the highest severity.”
Tempest frowned. “You really think so?”’
Discord rolled over. “That seal is so powerful that it blocked even my magic just like Chrysalis’ throne did. I couldn’t even budge the thing, much less plop that seal someplace where it can’t hurt anypony. Plus, there’s that aspect of it where it’s tangled across several realities, which I can’t resolve.” He glanced at each of their faces and added, in a firm voice, “If it can shrug me off so easily, then I don’t doubt that the seal can and will do what it’s advertised.”
Starswirl pointed. “That says it all.”
“Then it is settled,” Luna said as she stood up. “Guards!”
The room’s tall double doors burst open and a pair of armored guards stormed in. Their eyes immediately fell on Tempest (and she too stood up at their approach), but after nothing happened, they saluted Luna. “Your Highness!?”
“Place immediate summons for the rest of the Elements of Harmony and the Pillars of Equestria. Priority one.”
“Tell them that the Nameless is back,” Twilight added.
After a moment’s silence, the two guards saluted and then left through the doors again.
Discord disappeared and appeared as a smaller version of himself on the table. He walked down the length of it, approaching Twilight in the process. “How long until it is ready to soak up the magic?”
Twilight lay her hooves on the table. “It… it didn’t say anything explicit. But with how the chamber reconfigured itself, there’s a central pillar that… It’s hallow, but there are supports. And there is this tubing in these supports that is filling up… I spent some time measuring it and… it will fill up in about seven days.”
“And will it fire once it’s charged?”
Twilight shuddered. “I… I don’t know.”
“Then we must start talking about where we might find this fragment,” Luna said as she straightened up. “And we must do it quickly.”
“Did you pick up any clues while you were down there, Twilight?” Starlight asked.
Twilight shook her head. “Nothing. The seal didn’t say anything like that.”
“What would it look like, Twilight?” Luna asked.
“Black slime or something similar, I would guess. But this is a fragment, apparently.” Twilight groaned. “So I also think that it could look like something other than that.”
“Such as?”
“I don’t know!” Twilight exclaimed, throwing her hooves into the air.
“There should be some way of tracking it down. An energy signature or something like that,” Sunburst suggested.
Celestia stepped forward and cleared her throat. “Let this be a discussion for when everypony has arrived. In the meantime,” she said, looking between Starswirl, Sunburst, and Discord, “let’s have you look at Sunset. Twilight, you may stay if you wish. The rest of you, remain on castle grounds. We’ll reconvene soon.”
Twilight and Sunset exchanged glances and then the former gave a solemn nod.
* * *
Twilight trotted toward the double doors that made up the castle’s main entrance. The carpet ran right up against the doorframe and it was there that she stayed. A hoofful of guards lined the sides, but she paid them no mind.
The doors opened and a guard walked through. Twilight glanced behind him and spotted the ponies that she wanted to see. Her five best friends trotted toward her in a tightly-packed blob. Two more ponies trotted beside them; the first, Flash Magnus, sported a suit of knight-ish armor; the second, Somnambula, wore a headdress and a transparent cloak.
Twilight’s five friends gasped and practically flowed around their escort and ran up to her.
“We heard what happened!” Rarity exclaimed.
“This is awful,” Fluttershy said. “I would never have wanted the Nameless to return.”
Twilight glanced between them, noting the constant frowns across their faces. “Neither did I, but it’s where we’re at right now.”
“Twilight Sparkle,” Somnambula greeted as she approached with her companion.
“Hi.”
“Your friends told us all about this Nameless on the way over,” she continued, her accent lengthening her vowels as she spoke.
“It sounds pretty serious,” Flash Magnus added. “Are the others here yet?”
“Yes. They’re all waiting in the throne room,” Twilight replied.
Flash Magnus nodded and looked at Somnambula. “Let’s go,” he said.
Twilight’s friends all stepped forward and she let them swallow her up. They then all followed the guard further in.
“Who all else is here?” Applejack asked in a low voice.
Twilight shifted. “Well, Sunburst, Starswirl, and Discord came here to look at Sunset—”
The others raised their eyebrows.
“—and Spike, Starlight, and Tempest followed me here too.”
Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and flew over Twilight. “Twilight? Did you just say Sunset?”
Twilight nodded. “Yes. She’s here too.”
“Well, that’s fine and dandy,” Applejack said with a nod as she swept her eyes over the others. “Ah was just about to say that we oughta get her in on this.”
“But how the heck did she beat us here?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“She came over yesterday for something else and then the Map called the both of us down to the chamber. That’s how we found out about all this,” Twilight explained as they rounded a corner. “There’s something going on with her, and she’s getting looked at.”
They continued through the halls and eventually reached the tall double doors that led into the throne room. The aforementioned ponies all stood near the center of the room with Sunburst and Starswirl hovering around Sunset. Starswirl had his horn lit with his grey magical aura wrapped around Sunset. Sunburst held some papers in his own light yellow magic. Sunset stood in silence, watching the both of them. Discord stood at a distance, stroking his goatee all the while.
And then Sunset looked up and saw the new arrivals. She smiled and waved but otherwise remained rooted to the spot. And the new arrivals smiled and waved back.
Flash Magnus and Somnambula, meanwhile, drifted toward a group of four ponies standing to the side. Mage Meadowbrook, with her hair in a tall bun, stood closely with Stygian, who wore his mane in a bowl. Meanwhile, the forever-wilted Mistmane stood next to the tall and brawny Rockhoof. As the two newcomers approached, the other four turned and stretched forward to collect them.
Starswirl quit his spell and whispered to Sunburst who responded by jotting some words into the last pages of his notes. He held then held the papers up for Discord. Discord snapped his fingers; a pair of eyeglasses appeared on his face and the several pages began flipping through on their own. His expression remained unchanged but he nonetheless nodded once he reached the end. He, in turn, then floated the papers over to Celestia and Luna.
Twilight and her friends approached the group around the same time that Starlight, Spike, and Tempest approached. “Did you find anything?” Twilight asked.
Discord floated over and shook his head. “We did, but we can’t resolve it. None of us have ever seen it before. I know I haven’t.”
Twilight shuddered. “So… there is something there?” She pursed her lips. “What could it be? And why?”
“I doubt we’ll get very far speculating,” Starswirl said.
At that, Applejack stepped forward. “Howdy, Sunset.”
Sunset turned to face Applejack and the four others that stepped forward; she scanned their faces and smiled in return. “Hey! It’s good to see all of you!”
Pinkie Pie zipped forward and practically tackled Sunset. They rolled across the floor amidst screams and laughter. Rainbow Dash then threw herself on top of them while Rarity, Fluttershy and Applejack gathered around them.
Twilight exchanged giggles with Starlight and then Spike soon after. Tempest, meanwhile, raised an eyebrow and smirked.
The three picked themselves off the ground and Sunset dusted herself off. “How have y’all been? I haven’t seen any of you since Starlight’s graduation party.”
Rainbow Dash blew a raspberry. “Yeah. You really oughta come around more often.”
Sunset shrugged. “I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash. I’m busy with school back home. You know how it is. I mean, I have to save the world over there sometimes too.”
Rarity cooed. “Oh? Do tell?”
“Well, I mean, recently, my friends and I got sucked into a magic mirror. But I’ll let Starlight tell you about that one; she came over and helped us out big time, after all,” she said, shooting Starlight a smile.
Starlight blushed and waved.
“Meanwhile, I haven’t been inside your new school yet,” Sunset continued. “It looks really nice from the outside.”
Applejack chuckled. “Ah, well, Ah’d be right happy to give you the grand tour sometime. Eh, you know, when Equestria ain’t at stake or somethin’.”
Sunset nodded. “Sure. That sounds really nice.”
“Oh, of course,” Fluttershy said. “The students are all really nice and we enjoy working with them. I’m sure they’d love to meet you.”
Starswirl cleared his throat at that moment and stepped forward. “I hate to break up this happy little reunion, but we should get down to business. We need to come up with a plan to track down this missing Nameless fragment.”
While Celestia kept her face practically buried in the report, Luna stepped forward. “Indeed. We know what it will physically look like for when we see it, but it would be best if we could narrow down its location first. If the seal has a way with which to detect this fragment, then certainly we will be able to develop something as well.”
“Yes,” Starswirl agreed. “We should conduct further study into the workings of the seal. It will be of great importance to understand precisely how it works.”
“Of course. We can get some ponies together to look at the seal.” Luna looked at the rest of the Pillars and said, “I think you all can help us on that front.”
“Will you be down there with us?” Stygian asked Twilight.
Twilight shook her head. “I don’t think so in this case.”
Stygian glanced between his friends. “Well, I’m sure we can keep everything there organized.”
“What about the other Equestrias?” Starlight asked. “Should we get them in on this?”
Sunset slapped the floor. “Yeah, you’re gunna wanna do that. The seal spans all the Equestrias, so this is just as much their problem as it is ours,” she said.
“Sister and I can talk to them after we’re done here,” Luna said.
Celestia nodded without looking up from her papers.
“Twilight, tell me, what do you plan to do in the meantime?” Discord asked.
Twilight kicked the throne room’s long rug. “I have to think about what we’re going to have to do once we find the Nameless fragment.”
“Ya reckon we can destroy it with the Rainbow Power?” Applejack asked.
Twilight nodded. “Of course I do.”
“But I can’t imagine that whether or not you can destroy it is the problem, now is it?” Luna asked.
“Right. It sounds like the seal won’t be satisfied unless the fragment is placed inside it. And right now, satisfying the seal is our top priority. So, whether we like it or not, we have to just seal the fragment and whatever it might have tethered onto away, hopefully forever this time.”
Celestia glanced up.
Twilight hung her head. “That’s all I have figured out right now.”
Sunset stepped forward. “What happens after that?”
“I’m not sure,” Twilight replied. “The layers are not as reliable as they used to be and the stones are all dead. Practically all of the safeguards—well, other safeguards—have broken down. I don’t know if I’ll have to do anything then.” She shuddered. “Or if there will be anything I’ll be able to do.”
“So… we might have to spend some time setting things up is what you’re saying?” Sunset asked.
“Yes.”
Celestia sighed and closed her papers back together. Her face was whiter than usual. “Well, it would seem that this is enough to get started. The Pillars will head into the chamber while my sister and I contact the other worlds and set up things with them. Sunburst, Discord, you’re with us for now.”
Starlight frowned. “Princess? What about us?”
“I will leave you to Twilight’s charge. For now, Twilight…” she trailed off.
Twilight swallowed. “Yes, Princess?”
Celestia’s expression quivered for the briefest of moments before she tentatively said, “I would like to have a private word with you in my chambers.” She turned. “Please follow me.”
At that, Twilight and Sunset exchanged glances and held those stares even as Twilight began trotting after the departing Celestia.
* * *
Sunset hung with the rest of the girls and Spike. All of the others had left, leaving the nine of them alone. The throne room remained otherwise empty with the large double doors at its foot still closed. Most conversation carried itself out in hushed tones as they tossed theories around where the Nameless fragment was and how it had come about. But with the mentions of “Maybe it just leaked out or something?” going about, it was guesswork at best.
Sunset was thinking in a different direction and, from the way Tempest was frowning, so was she.
“They’ve been gone a while,” Tempest said.
“Yeah,” Sunset said. “I wonder what they had to talk about?”
Spike came walking up. “Eh. Who knows? She’s probably trying to find out more about the Nameless for herself.” He shrugged. “Twilight is the expert on it, you know.”
“I don’t know. Something doesn’t feel right,” Sunset said as she scratched her chin.
“She was looking at that report very closely,” Tempest said. “Maybe they’re talking about what’s in it?”
Spike shrugged. “I dunno. I mean,” he said, looking at Sunset, “that’s what you came over here for in the first place, I guess?”
Sunset shrugged in return. “Yeah…”
Applejack raised an eyebrow as she looked back at them. She then trotted over. “Ah’m sure it’s nothin’,” she said reassuringly as she laid a foreleg on Sunset’s withers.
Pinkie Pie zipped over. “Yeah, what she said. Besides, they’re princesses! They’re probably just talking about state secrets or some other top-secret stuff!” She cracked a maniacal grin and said, in a ghoulish voice, “Nopony knows what world-changing secrets lie behind those closed doors.”
Sunset smiled and reached up to touch Applejack’s hoof with her own. “Thanks, girls. Maybe I am just overthinking it.”
Fluttershy smiled. “Of course, Sunset. I know we’re all going to get through this just fine.”
“Well, with all of you to help me, I’m sure it’ll work out,” Sunset said.
The double doors opened at that moment and everybody turned to see Twilight, her saddlebags wrapped around her midsection, stalking into the room, levitating what looked like a crystal ball behind her. Smiles faded as they lay their eyes on Twilight’s tall expression and further still as they noticed a certain lack of color in her face.
Sunset could see some puffiness around Twilight’s eyes. Her own heart sank.
Starlight voiced it first. “Twilight? You okay?”
Twilight looked up, briefly glanced at Sunset, wiped her eyes, sniffled, and then finally nodded. “Yes. I’m… okay.”
A small round of gasps flew around and they quickly congregated around her, shooting various expressions of “Are you sure?” and “You don’t look okay.”
And Twilight batted them away. “No, please. I’m okay.”
“What all did you two talk about up there?” Starlight asked.
“Oh,” Twilight replied, “some things. This and that. Don’t worry about it.”
Pinkie Pie nudged Sunset in the side. “State secrets.”
Twilight straightened up and held up the crystal ball with her magic. “One thing we did talk about was the crystal ball. It’s started acting up and we don’t know why.”
Sunset narrowed her eyes. “Acting up? What do you mean acting up?”
Twilight hummed. “Apparently, it’s desynced and no longer obeying the nine-day rule.” She looked around, taking in their wide-eyed expressions (briefly stopping on the confused shriveling of Tempest’s expression) and then continued, “We don’t know why it’s happened or how it’s happened, but the other timelines noticed it a day ago at the latest.”
How the… how is that even possible? Sunset thought. That’s… stupid. It’s always been nine days.
Applejack voiced it a moment later: “What the hay…?”
Sunset pushed her way to the front of the pack. “So…? Wait? All of the balls?”
“In all of the timelines,” Twilight replied. “I’m taking all of us back to Ponyville for now, so I’ll explain more of it on the train. This is something we’ll have to look into on top of everything else.”
While the others sounded their affirmatives and nodded in response, Sunset shook her head. “Why? Shouldn’t we be here where everypony else is trying to track down the Nameless fragment?”
Twilight shuddered and then stared holes into Sunset’s eyes. She said simply, sharply, “We are going back to Ponyville.”
“Twilight—”
Twilight stamped the floor. “That’s final.”
The whole room fell silent as all eyes fell on Twilight. Many of them exchanged uncertain glances. Tempest, who remained in the rear, wore an acute frown while stealing glances at the others.
Sunset, meanwhile, gained some redness in her face and some quiver to her features, but she otherwise said nothing. Eventually, however, she sighed and nodded.
* * *
Tempest followed the others as they filed into the library. The magic mirror stood at the far end of the circular room. That mirror was a doorway that led to another world as far as she understood—a world inhabited by strange creatures called humans. Everyone else in the room had been to that world at one point or another; she was the only one who had not.
Maybe she would ask to see it later.
No one spoke under the current atmosphere. Even Pinkie Pie walked in silence with the others. Twilight herself stalked to a lonely table and set her saddlebags onto it. Spike peeled away from the group to walk up to her; he placed a claw on her and she looked over at him.
Tempest drifted toward Starlight where she leaned over and asked, in a whisper, “She’s… not normally like this, is she?”
Starlight shook her head and whispered back, “No. I don’t know what’s going on either.”
“Other than this business with that crystal ball you have,” Tempest whispered, pointing to the ball in Starlight’s magic, “she was pretty silent.”
“Yeah.”
Sunset ambled over at that moment. “I think so too. I think this is fishy.”
Starlight narrowed her eyes. “You and me both.”
Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash looked over their withers and drifted toward them. Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy soon followed.
“This is pretty messed up,” Rainbow Dash said. “We should be out there looking for this piece of the Nameless already. We’re wasting time!”
Sunset shuddered. “Exactly,” she grumbled.
Rarity furrowed her brow and leaned in. “You all saw her after she spoke with Princess Celestia. Something has her acting strange.”
After a few moments of silence, Sunset looked up and took a few steps toward Twilight and Spike. “Twilight?”
Spike looked back at her. Twilight did not.
Sunset narrowed her eyes. “Why are we really here?”
Spike stood there for several moments and then looked at Twilight who remained as still as before. Twilight tilted her head toward them but not even enough to see Sunset out of the corner of her eyes. At that, Spike got caught glancing between her and them.
Without a word, Twilight turned toward the apparatus surrounding the mirror and flipped a switch on the side. The machine grumbled to life as the pumps fed condensed magical energy into the tubes. The compressor sputtered and kicked into gear, thumping away.
Twilight sighed. “Sunset, I’ve been thinking about it, and considering the episodes you’ve been having and what you’ve otherwise been experiencing… I think it would be best if you went home for a while.”
And then, after it had funneled magic through all of its parts, the apparatus shot several magical beams into the mirror, creating a bright vortex on the portal’s surface.
“What?” Sunset blinked. “What are you talking about?”
Twilight turned to face them but glued her eyes on Sunset in particular. She motioned to the portal face. “Just for now, I want you there. I’m going to give you the crystal ball so that you can figure out what’s going on with it.”
Sunset narrowed her eyes. After a moment, she said, “Oooookay. Uh, Twilight, I could just as easily do that here.” She threw a hoof at the portal face. “Also, no! The problem is here.”
“And you’re not safe here,” Twilight countered.
The others shared hushed gasps.
Sunset reeled. She then snarled. “To hell with that! You know as well as I do that, besides you, I’m the most capable of dealing with this problem. There’s no point in me going back home right now. Not until we get this all under control.”
“Ah’m afraid I have to side with Sunset on this one, Twilight,” Applejack said. “She knows her way all around this and Ah reckon we could use all the help we can get.”
“Same,” Starlight seconded.
The others nodded in agreement.
Twilight, now twitchy and wide-eyed, glanced between their many faces. Those looking directly at her raised their eyebrows in response.
Sunset backtracked toward the doors. “I’m going to go wash up and then get down to business.”
And then, as Sunset actually turned to leave the room, Twilight lit her horn. She wrapped her magic around Sunset and lifted her into the air. Everyone else in the room sharply gasped in response.
“Hey!” Sunset barked. “Put me down!”
“Twilight, what the hell!?” Starlight exclaimed.
“I don’t think you understand that this isn’t up for debate. If you won’t go willingly,” Twilight warned, “I will drag you there myself!”
Tempest squared up. This couldn’t end well.
Sunset squirmed from within Twilight’s magic. Everyone else flip-flopped between staring at Sunset and staring at Twilight with wide-eyed shock.
“Twilight!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.
“Not cool!” Rainbow Dash yelled.
Tempest kept her eyes glued on Sunset in the meantime.
It was only when Twilight drifted Sunset toward the portal that Sunset flipped over. She lit her horn as she lined up with Twilight. “Get. The buck. Off me!” she screamed as she threw a strong gust of wind right at Twilight.
The moment that wind knocked Twilight off her hooves was the moment that Sunset fell out of her grasp and also the moment that Tempest charged forward. Sunset’s hooves hadn’t even touched the ground before Tempest bowled into her and sent her tumbling.
A half-dozen cries and screams sounded and resounded throughout the room as everyone else jumped.
“Stop it!” Starlight cried.
Tempest rammed Sunset again just as the latter flipped over. Tempest then slid and paralleled Sunset on the ground. She wrapped her forelegs around Sunset and held her there.
Twilight then found her footing again and turned and saw the two squirming on the floor. “Hold her, Tempest!” she barked as she wrapped her magic around Sunset again (and did the same with Tempest in this case).
Spike ran up to her. “Twilight! This is insane! Why are you doing this!?”
Twilight looked away from the pair for a second. “Spike, just trust me!”
Spike balled his claws. “This isn’t like you!”
It was when Sunset and Tempest were within a couple of meters of the portal’s surface that Sunset lit her horn again. A wave of energy exuded from her body which hit Tempest square in her everything, including and especially her chest. She felt the wind rush out of her and her grip around Sunset loosened.
And then she felt a second magical aura as Sunset tried to take Tempest into her own. She caught Twilight’s expression just long enough to see it go wide-eyed and she then caught a shift in Twilight’s magic. But it was at that moment that Sunset’s own magic rotated the two in space, placing Tempest closest to the portal. Something between her and Sunset burst, likely the intertwining magical auras snapping against each other, propelling Tempest backward.
She caught a flurry of gasps and cries before she passed through the portal’s surface.
Reality turned into a kaleidoscope and stretched in every direction around her, including some she could not discern. Everything up to and including her own body twisted and turned in ways she was sure it was not supposed to. Tempest screamed and even that, especially as her own consciousness faded into a white light, dissipated into infinity.
And then Tempest felt herself tumbling across the ground. This ground was especially hard. The world continued spinning for several moments as she forced herself to breathe.
Her entire body felt strange. Her senses told her where her parts of her body were; she knew where her body and her head were. The same should have held true for her limbs; all four felt so much longer than before and their ends seemed so uncharacteristically dispersed.
She lifted her head and checked herself for damage and found herself forcing her breaths again. Her body had changed shape! Gone were her hooves and tail with now strange arms and legs and no tail in their place. Her hooves, at least on these strange forelegs, had turned into claw-like appendages. Her clothes had changed too; while they kept the black color palette, she now wore a tank top, some camo jeans, and some heavy-duty boots.
Her eyes widened. This...! Is this a human body?
She took quick stock of the surroundings, discerning the brick building that horseshoed around her position and the concrete that stretched around her. She then turned toward a statue of a rearing horse directly in front of her.
Its large base flashed and another human fell out. This one had red and yellow hair and had amber skin. She looked a lot like the pony she had just been wrestling with. And the human before her immediately curled up and folded back out and let out a blood-curdling scream.
Tempest gasped. This scream was familiar. “Sunset Shimmer!?”
Sunset wriggled and writhed and continued crying out in agony.
Tempest couldn’t help but try to roll over and stand. Sunset’s screams pierced her ears and Tempest wanted to go and calm her down and figure out what was wrong (though, inwardly, she remembered). But this alien body didn’t comply like she needed it too. Her claw-like appendages were balled into fists (as if they could be anything else) and, while she managed to get onto all-fours, they wobbled and slipped.
It was only when she managed to center her eyes on Sunset’s writhing form that the statue’s surface flashed again. Another human came through, this one actually (apparently) sticking the landing. She stood on her hindlegs (or perhaps they were just legs now) and she quickly scanned the immediate space and laid eyes on her.
“Tempest!?” Twilight cried.
“T-Twilight! Help!”
Twilight’s eyes briefly glossed over Sunset rolling over and she ground her teeth together. She instead ran past Sunset and knelt down beside Tempest. “Come on!” she exclaimed as she lifted Tempest to her feet. “We’re getting you out of here!”
Sunset’s cries began to die down and she found the strength to look up at them. The expression on her face, despite still shuddering between a grimace and a snarl, spoke of a fire in her eyes.
“What about Sunset?” Tempest asked.
Twilight opened her mouth to say something but stopped when Sunset suddenly leaped forward. She bowled into Twilight, knocking her off her feet and subsequently causing Tempest to lose her balance.
The statue flashed again and several more humans and a diminutive dog jumped out. They all hobbled over to the three of them with varying degrees of finesse.
Sunset and Twilight rolled across the ground, trying to pin the other beneath them. Just when it seemed like one had pinned the other, the one on the ground shifted their weight and threw them off. They exchanged these roles for a few moments.
Tempest rolled over to find what had to be Starlight kneeling next to her, clutching a crystal ball in her arms. The dog, too, had a lot of Spike’s features. “Are you okay?” the former of the two of them asked her.
Tempest nodded. “I’m fine.”
“Stop this madness this instant!” Rarity squealed as she bent over the two combatants.
Both Twilight and Sunset managed to break their cycle long enough to grab hold and fling each other about. One of Sunset’s flailing legs kicked Rarity in the face causing her to yelp and fall backward. The others cried out, and while Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy rushed to her aid, Applejack and Rainbow Dash threw themselves onto the combatants and tried to pry them apart. Rarity groaned and clutched at her nose.
The school’s front doors opened and a few figures emerged. One of them ran at such a speed that she was a blue blur. “What the heck is going on here!?” she cried.
Tempest glanced up and observed the new arrivals. While even more hung in the school’s glassy doorway, and while some hung out the many courtyard-facing windows, the six that ran up to them, aside from the clothes they wore, were the spitting images of six of the humans already around her. They had the be the counterparts, surely. Each of them wore gems around their necks.
Strangely enough, they matched Sunset’s.
“We heard screaming!” Pinkie Pie’s counterpart exclaimed.
Twilight and Sunset rolled over, taking Applejack and Rainbow Dash with them. Tempest saw Sunset’s hand clamp onto Twilight and, for a couple of moments, Sunset’s eyes became an eternal white.
Twilight, for her part, glanced up at the new arrivals and exclaimed, “Girls! You have to take her from us!”
The native Twilight gasped. “Sunset Shimmer!?”
The white in Sunset’s eyes faded and she actually quit squirming. She now wore a dumbstruck frown and lay there seemingly frozen in place.
The native Rainbow Dash and native Applejack bent over and, with the help of their Equestrian counterparts, pulled the two apart. They then pulled Sunset away, lifting her to her feet in the process, all while Twilight shakily stood up.
Two more humans, these ones looking taller and older than the rest, ran up at that moment. They had to be Celestia and Luna’s counterparts.
Sunset finally met Twilight’s eyes and swallowed. “T-Twilight…”
The Equestrian counterparts, meanwhile, picked themselves off of the ground and drifted back toward Twilight.
Twilight straightened up. After a moment collecting herself, her expression firmed up. “Please, Sunset, just understand… all I want is to protect you. That’s why I’m leaving you here.”
Sunset narrowed her eyes. “Twilight…” she wheezed, forcing the words out, “you realize that if Equestria dies… it’s because of us, right?”
Several hushed gasps erupted from the crowd. The eight that had rushed up to them visibly jumped. The two holding Sunset even loosened their grips.
“I’m not going to let it get to that point. I will fix this.” Twilight closed her eyes and then used her arm to push out a long sigh. The features in her face loosened up as a result. “I will figure out this business with the Nameless fragment. I will sort this out. I promise. I just…”
A long moment paused as most everyone held their breaths. The faintest whispers passed between those lingering on the edges of the area. Tempest could see the students standing in the doorway passing those words between each other; she even spotted an utterance of the word Nameless on their lips.
Twilight swallowed. “Please. Be here. For me. Okay?”
All eyes shifted toward Sunset.
Sunset herself kept her eyes glued to Twilight and the snarl on her face remained. However, the longer she looked into Twilight’s solemn expression, the more her snarl faded.
She eventually stood up straight and sighed. “Fine. We’ll do this your way,” she said as she broke herself out of the hold. She then pointed a finger at Twilight and said, with a sharp tone, “But if you find anything out…” She pointed to herself and said, “You let me know first.”
After a moment’s pause, Twilight nodded.
Looking drained, Sunset turned on her heels and slunk toward the school’s front doors. Those standing in the doorway and on the steps parted so that she could pass through. Sunset’s six friends glanced back at Twilight and company and then chased after Sunset. That just left the counterpart Celestia and Luna.
Luna turned and addressed the crowd. “Alright, the show is over! Please go back inside!” she barked.
As the crowd at the front entrance shied away and those watching from the school windows ducked back inside, Celestia walked toward the Equestrians.
Twilight lowered her head. “I’m sorry that everyone had to see that.”
Celestia crossed her arms. “Princess Twilight, what is this we hear about a Nameless fragment?”
Luna turned and joined her sister, her expression equally pale.
Twilight straightened up. “It’s… I can’t really get into it… but…” She took a moment to pause and sigh. “There’s… a fragment of the Nameless that has survived until now. And Sunset isn’t safe until we take care of it.”
Celestia and Luna exchanged glances and shuddered.
“And? Is there anything we can do?” Celestia asked.
“Yes. Look after Sunset, please. I’m…” Twilight said, “I’m closing the portal behind us. I need her here for now.”
Luna rolled her eyes. “Goodness knows we don’t get paid enough to do it already,” she mused. “But we will do our best.”
Starlight chose that moment to walk up. “Uh, Twilight?” she said. As Twilight turned, Starlight presented the crystal ball.
Twilight gasped and then turned. “Oh, and can you also give this to Sunset?”
Celestia’s eyes widened. “Is this what I think it is?”
Starlight nodded.
“Certainly,” Luna replied. She reached forward and received the crystal ball from Starlight. “We will get this to her.”
Twilight cracked a smile. “Thank you. Thank you so much.” She turned toward the others. “Let’s go back home and get to work, okay?”
While some of them gave some fleeting glances toward the doors (noting that Sunset had already disappeared inside at this point), most of them started toward the portal. Celestia and Luna turned toward the school. That left Starlight and Tempest standing there.
And Starlight looked over. “Are you okay?” she asked.
Tempest looked down at her strange alien body, but considering that her friends had taken it in stride, it had to be okay. She nodded. “It is strange, but…”
Starlight chuckled. “Yeah, I know. It’s really weird at first. I don’t think I’m used to it either.”
Tempest smiled back. “I’m okay.”
“That’s good.” She then lay a hand on Tempest’s shoulders. “Let’s go.”
And then everyone parted ways. The Equestrians all walked toward the portal and, one by one, they disappeared through it. Tempest wobbled and even nearly fell at one point, but with Starlight’s guiding hand, she thankfully kept balance.
But her mind still kept playing the last few minutes in her head. She even thought about the train ride over. While she didn’t know Twilight as well as anyone else there, her gut told her that what she had seen had been very uncharacteristic. And, from the way they others had emoted during the entire altercation, she wasn’t the only one who thought that way.
As Starlight and Tempest reached the base of the statue and the former passed through it, Tempest glanced back at the school. She imagined Sunset who now walked its halls. And then she too walked into the portal amid one final thought:
Something isn’t right.