The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi


The Nightmare's Beginning

Starlight's vision swam as she slowly regained consciousness, her head pounding more like she had hit it than overused her horn. Everything was dim. Everything was quiet. Everything felt badly wrong.

"Nnngh..." She grunted, trying to move her legs, too out of it to wonder if she should be stealthy about being awake. Not like she wouldn't have been attacked already if she was in danger... or had she, and this was the aftermath? She had been... in the hospital with Maple, getting her horn looked at... There had been a doctor, and she had a bad feeling, and now she was here. Wherever here was.

Her eyes focused, bringing bricks into focus she couldn't decide if were gray or red. Hard floor. Small room. Bars. Complete silence. Was she in... a prison?

Starlight sucked in her breath, stumbling off the bench that served as her bed and running to the wall of her small room that was replaced by a grate. It was a jail! Her brain matched it to the Flame District, in the area where she had woken up with Maple after Valey knocked them out in the Earth District, the architecture dark and brutal and her cage lonely and compact, only instead of looking dirty or rough-wrought with the motifs of fire and stone, this place was new. She felt the concrete beneath her hooves, fresh and not scarred or worn away, and all the bricks were uniform in color and spaced with calculated precision. Whoever built this place was important.

She narrowed her eyes at the grate locking her inside. The holes between the bars were invitingly wide, almost begging her to try fitting her head through and climbing out to escape... but upon carefully squinting, something seemed to flicker between them like an invisible field. She lit her horn to probe it with her telekinesis.

Her horn wouldn't light.

Starlight blinked and tried again, but it was like the air suddenly pressed against her, whisking away any magic she tried to conjure. She might as well not have had a horn; fighting it seemed to go nowhere, not even producing resistance or leaving her drained. There was just nothing.

Quickly feeling her horn to make sure it was actually still there, Starlight relented and swished her tail toward the wall. It bounced right off as if the holes in the bars were filled with glass, a tiny ripple in the air telling her someone had thought of that, of course. And she couldn't teleport without her horn. She huffed. Time to... ponder what had happened? Worry about her friends? Really, there was nothing she could do that would help at all.

"Kind of lonely by yourself, isn't it?"

"Wah!" Starlight gasped, jumping and spinning at the sound of her own voice... and blinking, a perfect copy of herself sitting on the uncomfortable bed where she had been a second ago. Memories slowly surfaced of a similar encounter on the deck of Shinespark's ship while they were sailing down the river to catch Shinespark and Valey, and she frowned. "You again?"

"Me again. Or you again." The other Starlight shrugged. "Depends on what you want to say I am, really."

Starlight frowned. "That's a weird answer. Am I hallucinating again?"

"It's possible," her mirror admitted. "Your mind could have gotten bored and dreamed me up. If you're okay with hallucinating, of course. A lot of people get unnerved by that." She looked away. "If I am, though, I promise I'm a friendly one. I just figured you could use someone to talk to."

"And if I'm not okay with hallucinating?" Starlight tilted her head. "You sound like you're making an excuse."

"I could also have been following you around for a while," the other Starlight pointed out, tone slightly deadpan, "and you can just see me now because it's hard to turn invisible when horn magic doesn't work in this place. But that's not very comforting either, is it?"

"You have?" Starlight blanched. "Then why do you look like me? Who are you!?"

The other Starlight shrugged again. "I didn't say that. I said if you're looking for ways to rationalize me, there's another. I promise there's a way that's much more satisfying if you think about it. One that doesn't involve you going insane or me being a creeper. Or you could just not worry about it. I did tell you that you put too much on your shoulders last time we talked, didn't I?"

Starlight bit her lip, folded her ears, then squinted. "You're weird."

"Thanks. Just trying to return the favor."

Starlight met her duplicate's eyes again, then sighed. "You know it's really weird thinking of you when you look just like me, right? Can I at least call you something different, if you're here to stay?"

Her other thought for a moment. "No promises on whether I'll stick around. If you're worried about weirdness, it's certainly weird to talk to yourself in public, whether others can see who you're talking to or not. But if you really want to call me something..." She grinned. "It's darkly ironic, but you have another half of your name you never use, don't you?"

Starlight winced. "Yes, but..." There was some reason it was very important she didn't go by it, and she struggled to remember what that was.

"Glimmer. Starlight Glimmer." The other filly gave her a look. "You could just call me that..."

"But..." Starlight trailed off, unable to remember why.

"Well, I'll call myself it," Glimmer decided. "Sooo... what do you want to do?"

"I don't like this!" Starlight squeaked, voice cracking even though she was quiet. "It feels wrong in here. Something I can't put my hoof on. And how did you know about my name?"

Glimmer got up and paced over to her side. "Maybe I'm just you. You're welcome to test me and look for something I don't know about yourself, if you want, but I'm telling you right now you're better off not thinking about it. I'm just here because this is a bad place and I thought you'd appreciate the company." She stared off into the wall. "As for why it feels wrong, that's probably the magic repressing your horn. Ever felt that before?"

"Uhh..." Starlight tilted her head and thought. Had her magic ever just been snuffed out before? Denied precisely by the place she was in? It sounded familiar but didn't feel familiar, like she had heard someone discussing it but not lived it herself...

Her eyes widened in realization. "The crystal palace in Ironridge! Everyone else's horns didn't work there, only mine did. And I think they started working again later, after we did something? Or maybe it was still only mine. I don't remember."

"Good guess!" Glimmer gave her an encouraging pat on the back, which Starlight still found distinctly weird. "That's what I was thinking, too. But this time affects you too..."

Starlight frowned and looked away. "If you know where we are or what's going on, you could just tell me."

Glimmer shrugged apologetically. "Sorry! I'm doing the best I can, here. Just trying to help you think. Maybe there's something else in this room worth looking at? There's this thing on the wall, here. It looks interesting?"

Starlight turned, realizing she hadn't actually checked out the room's far corner... and blinked, then blanched. A box with a hinge sat on the floor, and above it, stuck halfway out of the wall, was a stone sculpture of a batpony, its forelegs splayed and mouth stretched open in an agonized scream. She recoiled, the effigy's wings halfway in and halfway out of the wall, its barrel and hindquarters completely sunken into the bricks. "What's that supposed to be here for?" she snorted, trying to steel her nerves. "It's hideous."

Glimmer had nothing to offer.

Frowning, Starlight paced up to the statue, its mouth wide open to face her... and realized with a start that there was a tiny metal grate in its throat, along with a scrap of parchment tucked under its tongue. Thoroughly unnerved, she reached up and prodded with a hoof, edging the paper out until it was finally able to fall free, then unfolding and unrolling it several times to see if it said anything. It was notably covered in text, but all in a language she couldn't read.

With her duplicate looking over her shoulder, Starlight flipped it over to find more text, brightening slightly as she noticed she could read it and instantly paling once she saw what it said.

You are going to die.

"Uhhh..." Starlight tried not to let a tremble run down her legs, feeling Glimmer beside her. She swallowed and kept reading.

You who have strayed from Garsheeva's light, judgement awaits you. The penalty for breaking the ultimate laws is death by sacrifice. These are your last rites.

You may have unfinished business in the living world. People you hate you won't get to see perish. Revenge that was never taken. Grief over a task left undone. You who do not wish to take your pain to your graves, STANZA is listening.

Speak your jealousy into the effigy and STANZA will hear. Voice your grief, your rage, your lust and despair. You who wish to mark the world beyond your death, STANZA will remember.

For those who wish to deny Garsheeva her due of their souls, the tools to do so are contained below.

Starlight's ears pressed back, her voice shaking as she swallowed down a lump in her throat and let the paper fall to the floor. The batpony statue stared at her with its empty maw, the grate inside revealing nothing but darkness behind. She couldn't hear anything over the sound of her own heartbeat.

"T-This place is evil." Starlight swallowed again. "I don't want to be here...!"

"It sure seems that way." Glimmer gave the dropped paper a disdainful scuff with her hoof. "Kind of disheartening to see how much a mess people make of governing themselves, isn't it? Anyway, what are you going to do?"

"What can I do?" Starlight squeaked, eyes locked on the statue's dark throat.

Glimmer just shrugged.

Slowly, Starlight pulled herself together. Whatever was listening could probably hear her, after all, and it wasn't about to hear her giving up. A stubborn frustration burned up in her chest, and she stepped forward, gave the statue a cold look... and punched it squarely in the face.

Nothing happened.

Nursing her hoof a little, Starlight growled, then turned her attention to the box beneath it. What was this supposed to be? Tools to deny Garsheeva someone's soul? She lifted the lid, uncertain what she was intending to find.

"That's a knife," Glimmer muttered, looking in over her shoulder. "And..."

"Moon glass," Starlight finished. "A knife and a piece of moon glass." She looked up at her other. "Those aren't for..." She swallowed. "Are they?"

"It's not about how hard it is to guess." Glimmer's ears fell. "It's about how willing you are to admit it to yourself. Those are tools for killing yourself before Garsheeva kills you. A knife works on everyone, and the obsidian is... another way for batponies, I guess?"

Starlight kicked the box, tipping them out, careful not to touch the moon glass. That would send her back into the gray space she had been after touching the Nightmare Module and was heading for after White Chocolate's piece, she guessed, and without horn magic she couldn't even blow out her horn and spend a month recovering to get back to normal. The knife, though? If she was going to escape, maybe that would help.

"Got a plan?" Glimmer asked hopefully as she took the knife in her teeth, striding toward the magic barrier reinforcing the grates and keeping them in.

"Nmmph," Starlight grunted around the handle in her mouth. She looked at the barrier, inspected it, thought she could see a hazy presence where it blocked her, and stabbed, the knife bouncing off completely ineffectually.

She spat it out. "Pteh!" That didn't work. "Come on, you stupid thing!" She banged it with her hooves several times, finishing with a powerful buck and then a growl, also to no avail. Despite all of her training with Valey, every time she had exercised and however much stronger her kicks had gotten, nothing happened. "Ugh! This isn't helping either. I need to be more powerful!"

Glimmer shrugged helplessly, grabbing the dropped knife and taking a few stabs of her own, also getting no results. She dropped it too, looking over at Starlight expectantly.

"This place is cheating," Starlight grumbled. "Not being able to use my magic isn't fair. Nnnnngh..."

She started pacing in a circle, looking all over the room and combing it from corner to corner. Nothing else she had missed like that stupid statue. Everything she had amounted to herself sans magic, Glimmer, the bed, the statue, the paper, the empty box, the moon glass and the knife. The moon glass... she trotted over and gave it a second look. Maybe it could interact weirdly with the barrier, if only she could safely move it?

That might be possible. She had the knife to push it with. Starlight started tapping the black chunk across the floor, thoughts of accidentally touching it floating across her mind. It only would hurt her if it was empty, right? Just like with batponies? This piece would be empty, of course, but why was that? How come she was more similar to Valey in how she interacted with the stuff than anyone else, but still distinctly different? Having the Nightmare Module had made her uncomfortable and scared, but it hadn't forced her through an irreversible transformation. She had even overpowered and blown up the module. Memories traced themselves like thread through her head, some internal voice telling her it was a backup that was no longer needed and asking her if she wanted to destroy it.

She stopped pushing, staring completely at the moon glass as an idea entered her head.

Glimmer stood back and let her think, not interrupting. Valey said the Nightmare Modules were just information, right? Some sort of instructions to make batponies do something? Like they were weapons or tools. And if they were information and she destroyed a backup after interacting with it... Starlight's eyes widened, and she looked down at her forehooves. Did that mean she still had it? And that if she touched this stone, she'd be able to use it again?

"Nngh..." Starlight shuddered, realizing there might actually be a way right before her to become more powerful. She also knew she had no idea what Puddles' Nightmare Module actually did. For all she knew, it wouldn't help her escape at all. She wasn't even sure what kinds of things could help, unless it made her strong enough to break the walls. "Um... other me?" she asked, teetering. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Probably." Glimmer nodded at the dark crystal. "And I'm not going to weigh in on whether it's a good idea. We'll both come to the same conclusion if you think about it yourself, after all. And if it goes badly and you try to blame me for it, you'll technically be blaming yourself, only abstractly, and that's... not healthy. That said, think about the alternative to getting out of here."

Starlight winced, closed her eyes, and didn't leave herself any further time to think about it. She reached out and touched the moon glass.

Scrrrrrrrkkkkk...

With a feeling like a hiss of static in her ears, a pressure intensified in her chest, something feeling like it was being attracted inward and outward all at once. Part of her wanted to resist, like a flame that refused to be snuffed out, and Starlight's ears went back from the almost-painful sensation, but she didn't fight it. A crackle of light danced across her vision, and then everything was gray, and she suddenly wasn't sure whether she'd be able to identify colors even if she could see them.

The moon glass clung to her hoof like a parasite, sticky and liquid and melded halfway into it, and Starlight's heartrate rose as it kept pulling, dousing, dampening. The sensation of standing in a rising tide swept across her, and she whimpered, suddenly unsure if she could go through with this, feeling like something was lost and she didn't know what... and then with a final wave, the moon glass liquified entirely against her and was swept inside her hoof.

External boot procedure activated, a cool mare's voice informed her in her head. System is already running. Switch to Nightmare Module emulation mode?

"Y-Yes." Starlight swallowed, trying to measure exactly how her body felt. "If it's safe?"

Nightmare Module emulation mode activated, the voice informed her. Notice: system error log is full. This may be a sign of further instability. Running system diagnostics... Core functionality running at 14.3%. Attempting to run certain features may result in instability. System restore from backups is advised. Ending activation sequence.

The voice disappeared, leaving Starlight alone. The temperature in the compound had dropped by several degrees, and she suddenly felt the need for a scarf to wear or a back to ride on. All in all, she didn't feel too different, but wasn't sure if that was due to her being unchanged, or forgetting something she had lost. In fact, the biggest difference was Glimmer.

She stared across at herself, suddenly getting the impression that there was something immeasurably valuable about this filly. A wave of longing briefly passed through her, though it was easily weak enough to control. She wanted to hug her or hold her or... or even just be near her. Like she was brighter, almost.

"Did it work?" Glimmer asked, and Starlight determined from that she could still hear just fine.

"I think?" She looked at her hoof where it had touched the moon glass again, unblemished and just as it had looked before. "I... I'll see what I can do, I guess."

Starlight swallowed, feeling herself again for what she could do. She had no idea how to use a power she had never used before, but somehow, it came instinctively, like the module or the moon glass had planted knowledge of how to use it in her mind. Just like a spell, but without lighting her horn, Starlight stretched her power... and her shadow rippled around her like a pond, constricting and drawing closer around her hooves. Then it started to climb, like she was a towel dipped in water and the shadow was soaking up her, flowing and crawling and covering her limbs from the bottom up. It could have looked disturbing, Starlight realized, but for some reason the feeling was the opposite: it was like a shell, being wrapped into a blanket, retreating into a cave. She kept concentrating until the spell felt finished, and then it held itself in place.

Glimmer reached down, picked up the knife, and held the flat of it up like a mirror.

Starlight's eyes widened. She was still there... except she wasn't. Like her old form had been replaced by a flat cutout made solely of shadow, yet as she moved, every bit of her body still worked as intended. It was a disguise? Camouflage? She felt like she could stand still against a wall or in relative darkness and feel completely invisible, like anyone looking for her would be unable to pick her out against her surroundings and unable to recognize her or even tell what to make of her if they could. Like she had stepped halfway out of the world, and was able to go where she wanted without a trace. This wasn't a bad spell! It could be exactly what she needed for trying to sneak out of a hostile place! Checking her hooves, she noted with satisfaction that she didn't cast a normal shadow anymore, making it even easier to avoid standing out... and then she wondered if the barrier's magic would notice her or try to stop her, too.

With a delicate hoof that was only recognizable if she spent time studying its shape, Starlight poked the space between the cell door grates. Her touch went right through.

"We're out," she whispered, fitting her head without too much difficulty between the bars, the rest of her quick to follow. "Or... I'm out. You-"

Glimmer teleported without lighting her horn, suddenly standing next to her outside the cage and offering her the knife. "Don't forget this. It might come in handy."

Starlight felt her eye twitch. "You're definitely a figment of my imagination."

"Whatever you say." Glimmer shrugged, dropping the knife and sitting back. "You lead the way out of here."