It was a magic lesson unlike any other. Twilight stood before a rather plain, nondescript door, trying to attune herself to its hum of magic. She was somewhat distracted, which didn’t help, but how could she not be? This whole adventure had left its mark. She had seen things, some of which could never be unseen. Plus, there was the fact that Celestia was trusting her with the safety and the very future of Equestria with this lesson in door magic. Celestia was trusting that she, Twilight Sparkle, would not betray her and all life on Terra Prime.
It left Twilight giddy.
“Once you are attuned to the door,” said Celestia in her most patient teacher voice, “you have to home in on Moon Rose’s magical signature and get a lock on it. That’s hard, Twilight, hard like nothing else, but you have to keep yourself in attunement with the door at the same time. If you slip up, even just a little, the end results could be worse than fatal.”
Twilight gulped and redoubled her efforts so that she might achieve perfect focus.
“It’s like trying to jump from one wagon to another while they are moving at different speeds, in different directions, at different elevations,” Dim remarked from where he sat on the floor.
“Why, Dim, that’s quite insightful.” There was nothing patronising in Celestia’s words, only kind, sincere praise. “Time moves differently as you jump from place to place. Part of the attunement process is making adjustments for the differences in time. Fail to make that jump from wagon to wagon, and it is possible to fall outside of time. Which is bad.”
Celestia was horribly distracting at the moment, Twilight thought.
Clairvoyant viewing was tough, Twilight realised, when one tried to focus across dimensions. She could sense Moon Rose, but could not see her. She had to find some kind of door that was near the filly’s location so that a portal could be projected there. Opening the door randomly might lead them anywhere on the world, including over or below the ocean. Or some vast, inaccessible distance from Moon Rose’s location.
Twilight had never quite discovered the knack for astral travel, which would make this so much easier, but she was determined that she would accomplish this somehow. This world wasn’t very magical, and she knew that when she did open the door, it would have to stay open so that a trickle of magic from this place would flow through, otherwise, well, Twilight didn’t want to think about the outcome.
“Celestia…”—Shining Armor sounded hesitant—“after some thinking, it seems to me that you’ve done everything you can to cut our world off from these other worlds. I get that isolation keeps us safe, but what are we missing out on?”
“The dangers and the risks are too great, Shining Armor. Already, great and terrible evils from our world have crept into the world of Sunset Shimmer’s exile. It is like a transmitted infection. That world is ill-prepared to deal with that manner of evil. As for our own world, think of the demilich. Imagine that coming to our world. The dangers that roam these halls come from unsecured worlds, Shining Armor.”
“But surely there are good things—”
“Those good things are not worth the risk.” Celestia’s tone went from soft to firm and by the end of her sentence, there was almost an unkind hardness. “When I was younger, I made mistakes. Our world paid for my mistakes, as did other worlds. Now I try to preserve lives, to make up for the ones I’ve inadvertently taken.”
Shining Armor bowed his head in submission, but said nothing.
“Why then, do we save Moon Rose?” Dim asked. “Why put so much at risk for just one life? How many worlds are we risking with this venture? Why do this?”
“I have my reasons.” Beyond this, Celestia did not elaborate. “Dim, you seem to be doing better.”
“My sanity is quite elastic,” he replied in a wheezy, nasal drone. “Though I worry if bananas and citrus fruits require a champion.”
Reality all around her stopped when Twilight touched a door…
With great caution, Twilight Sparkle poked her head through the door and her nostrils crinkled from the smell of hay and manure. The door swung open into a barn, overlapping an existing door in the barn. As magic flowed into the world, everything took on a distinct look, one of oversaturated, exaggerated colour. A few goats watched with great curiousity, dumb goats, mute goats that showed no real signs of intelligence.
“A horse,” Shining Armor said as he shoved his sister aside and plowed through the doorway. “It’s hideous—”
“Shining Armor, don’t be rude,” Celestia commanded.
In silence, Shining Armor stared up at the horse that was more than three times his size. Twilight kept herself from staring, but allowed herself a look. The horse wickered, a friendly sound, and Twilight, the Princess of Friendship, offered up a polite whinny in return. In response, the horse bellowed, and there were several loud thumps as it banged its hoof against the wooden floor of its stall.
“I feel kinda inadequate.”
“Why’s that, Shiny?” asked Twilight.
“That horse… is hung like a horse.”
Twilight felt her cheeks blaze and her brows felt twitchy. She tried not to look, but it was too late, her eyes betrayed her, and she was terrified by what she saw. Even worse, she could not look away, and she allowed herself to feel a very reasonable and justified hatred for her brother. For just a little while, at least. He did this; he caused this curse.
“That… is a magnificent penis,” Celestia said with bold appreciation. “Freckled.”
Somehow, Twilight tore her gaze away. The big barn doors were open, and beyond them, she saw what could only be a farmhouse. This was a farm, after all. What else could it be? It had a barn. In the corner, she saw a plow, and tack hung on the far wall. Moon Rose was here, probably in the farm house. At least, she wasn’t in the barn, which was rather a relief.
“I am reminded of the countryside of Fancy,” Dim said, wheezing and hacking out each word. “The plow is crude iron. See how the edge is notched? They are either very poor or they haven’t delved much into metallurgy. The farmhouse has a thatched roof.”
“Ponyville has thatched roofs,” Twilight said, suddenly defensive.
“Disgusting primitives,” Dim muttered with a sneer.
Fuming, Twilight ignored him. She stomped for the barn door, eager to find Moon Rose, and she was more than a little curious about this world. Chickens scattered before her, and some of them moved too close to the secured doorway. Magic touched them, transformed them. It made them brighter, gave them colour, and they became more appealing to the eye.
The sun overhead was quite unlike Celestia’s sun. It wasn’t as bright, for one. It was rather blue in the sky—a blue star served as the sun—and Twilight sensed that this world revolved around this pale blue star. The sky was still sort of blue, but also a little green. White fluffy clouds drifted by overhead, feral clouds that lacked magic.
“There is magic here,” Celestia said as she stood in the grass. “It is faint. Most of it is dream magic. This place is rich in dream magic, but not much else. I can sense two moons and the way they tug on one another generates strong magic, which is stored in this world’s tides.”
“I can sense Luna’s equivalent on this world.” Dim adjusted his goggles and the brim of his hat. “But not yours,” he added while angling his head upward in Celestia’s direction.
Squinting, Twilight glanced up at the sun, but did not look directly at it.
The farmhouse door opened with a squeak and Twilight—her attention turned on it now—watched as a tall, bearded hominoid figure emerged. He was pale, an odd colour, and nothing at all like the hominids that existed on the world of Sunset Shimmer's exile. He wore a blue, faded, somewhat dirty garment that covered most of his body. On his left hand, he was missing two fingers, the pinkie and ring fingers.
A woman came out next, and her skin was chocolate brown. She had colour—but did not seem magical. Her colour was not oversaturated like the hominids that Twilight was familiar with. She was more rounded, heavy-set, and visibly pregnant. Twilight could sense the life growing within her, and could also detect a faint spark of magic. Why that magic was there was anypony’s guess, but Twilight felt fearful about it for reasons she could not explain.
Then, Moon Rose came bounding out the door. She was a bit faded, her coat had lost some colour, but other than that, she appeared to be in fine health. The excited filly pronked about, and as she bounded to and fro, the kindly female stopped and smiled. Twilight, realising her face was covered, began the complicated process of opening up her helmet.
“Little Moon said you would come,” the male said.
His words were different, but also similar. Familiar enough to understand. His voice was pleasant enough, he sounded kind, and Twilight felt a delightful warm squishiness when he wrapped his forearm around his wife’s shoulders. Moon Rose was still pronking around them, bouncing through the grass, beaming splendiferously.
After much struggle, Twilight got her helmet to open.
“I am Caldus Brown, and this is my wife, Meridia Brown.”
“They’re super-nice!” Moon Rose shouted as she continued to bounce and boink about.
“I am Princess Celestia, of Equestria.” She bowed her head and then continued, “This is Princess Twilight, Emperor Shining Armor, and Prince Dim. We would like to thank you for your kindness. Words cannot express our gratitude.”
“Words might not, but these will,” Dim said as he pulled his hat off.
Twilight watched as he pulled something out and she realised it was the gemstones looted from the squid-headed monster. Caldus’ eyes went wide, and his wife’s did the same. Both stared in shock, and neither one of them moved. Celestia sighed, a soft, pleasant sound, and she caressed Dim with her wing.
“Take them,” Dim said to the Browns. “I mean, no doubt you could have sold her to some circus or put her on display. You turned aside from base greed and cruelty. Kindness is to be rewarded, just as greed and cruelty is to be punished. Otherwise, what balance is there?”
Caldus did not move, he didn’t budge, but his wife did. She came forward, plucked the gems from the air, and stuffed them into the pockets on her smock. As she secreted them away, she said, “These are bigger than the crown jewels!”
“She came about a fourth of a season ago,” Caldus said to Celestia. “The door opened, and there she was. It turned part of the house… different. Almost haunted.” Caldus scowled. “She said she needed a safe place. I told her she was safe here. I try to be kind to my animals.” The male blushed., and then reached up to rub the back of his neck with his two fingered hand. “Are you offended if I call you animals?”
“Not at all,” was Celestia’s pleasant reply.
“It was really very nice of you to take in Moon Rose.” Twilight watched as the female, Meridia, stuffed a ruby almost the size of her fist between her impressive, pillowy mammaries. “You have my thanks and my gratitude.”
“Moon Rose”—Dim pulled something else out of his hat and held it out to the filly—“I brought something for you, so that you might be comforted.”
It was a stuffed diamond dog, rather pink in colour, with big black button eyes and a toothy maw made of stitched yarn. Dim didn’t hold it for long, as Moon Rose snatched it away. Her magic was weak—feeble—but functional even if a little sparky. The little filly wept as she rubbed the stuffed toy against her cheek and Twilight felt the need to wipe her eyes.
“I saw that when I was searching your hat,” Celestia said to Dim. “I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to embarrass you. Who am I to judge what a vizard keeps in his hat? In a way, I was relieved that you had a pink stuffy to snuggle.”
In response, Dim sneered a truly impressive aristocratic sneer up at Celestia.
“Time to say goodbye, Moon Rose.” Shining Armor’s words were kind, but caused the filly to sniffle. “Dim, I’m telling Cadance about the nice thing you did—”
“Don’t you dare,” Dim snarled.
“You brought a stuffy,” Shining Armor said to Dim. “That showed remarkable foresight and kindness.”
“I packed a hat. Regrettably, I was surrounded by incompetents who did not pack a hat.” Dim was about to say something else, but Moon Rose’s sudden sobbing robbed him of speech.
Meridia knelt down to comfort the small filly and Twilight watched as her brother approached. The kindly farmwife gestured for Shining Armor to come closer, and then he too, was there to comfort Moon Rose, who sat in the grass, bawling whilst clutching her stuffed diamond dog.
“She’s leaking,” Dim grumbled, “fetch a plumber before the leaks spread like unbridled contagion amongst the rabblery.”
Such was the way of foals; happy one moment and melting down the next. Almost gushing, Twilight watched, uncertain of what to do with herself during this moment. Caldus appeared miserable, though it was somewhat difficult to tell. His face wasn’t all that different though, and sad eyes were sad eyes, no matter the species.
Twilight wished that Fluttershy was here, so that her friend might see that kindness was universal. Meridia hugged Moon Rose, fairly squishing the little filly, crushing her against her bountiful bosom. Then, out of the corner of her eye, Twilight noticed that Celestia held Dim beneath her wing, shielding him from the blue sun.
“Guhbye!” Moon Rose blurted out.
“She cries sometimes,” Caldus said whilst he stared down at the grass at his feet. “Misses her parents. I’m sad to see her go, but I am happy for her too. I would want my daughter returned to me.”
Meridia knelt, weeping and squeezing little Moon Rose, who clung to her stuffy. For Twilight, this was all the proof she needed to reinforce her belief that creatures were generally good. Sapiance had been respected here; Moon Rose had been treated with kindness and dignity. What Dim said held a grain of truth to it, awful as it was, and Moon Rose could most certainly been exploited as an oddity.
How different things might be, had they come here to find Moon Rose in a cage. Why, this world might be burning right now, purged in flames—or worse. Twilight knew from experience that no matter how vivid her imagination, it could be worse. But goodness prevailed, just as Twilight believed it would.
“May the Queen of Tides bless and keep you,” Maridia said to Moon Rose. “May you always know safety on your travels. May the seas rise to greet you, but never capsise you. May your journey be long, full of wonder, and may your companions on this journey be a blessing.”
“I don’t wanna go, but I hafta go!” Weeping, Moon Rose reluctantly pulled away from Meridia and went to Shining Armor. “I wish… I wish you could come with us.”
Twilight saw the terror in Meridia's eyes, but said nothing. It lasted but a mere moment, and then was sadness again, along with the pain of loss. They had to go. Twilight could feel the residual magic in her body slowly leaking out, fading, and if they stayed here much longer, the weakness would become significant. They would fade, just as Moon Rose had faded.
Shining Armor lifted Moon Rose and set her upon Dim’s back. Twilight had to think about why, and concluded that sitting on articulated armor might be mighty uncomfortable, and maybe a bit pinchy. Dim was almost clean after Celestia’s efforts to ‘scrub the balrog away.’ Casting her gaze upon Caldus, she saw that he was now holding hands with his wife.
“Twilight, escort us through the door, if you please.”
She nodded at her mentor and then waved at Moon Rose’s kindly caretakers. “Goodbye,” Twilight said to them.
Clinging to her husband, weeping unabashedly, Meridia waved goodbye one final time.