The starry night sky of Equestria was back to normal, the high winds slowed their speeds. The air was warm thanks to the fires on Equestria's soil. The whispering woods was no longer—all of the cities were no longer. But beyond Canterlot was where all the pain really resided. At the large silver disk stuck in the ground.
Private Smalls was the first to do something. The flash and blast sent everyone flying off their hooves into the dirt around them. So once she was back on her hooves, she slowly walked forward from her position to where all the guards were getting their heads together after clashing into the steel and whispered, "What... What just happened?" She was confused. What happened to the Queen?
Odega burst into flames next to her and urgently requested, "Ask if the Princesses know what this is! Maybe we can reopen it! I've never seen this before in the Centuries I've been alive!"
"They don't know, I heard them say it. Whatever it is, the Queen is trapped in there with that monster."
Odega stomped on it and blew fire in a desperate attempt by the time more personnel landed. Including the twins. They bumped their way up to Odega and asked, "What happened? What was that?"
Odega faced them and answered, "It was some type of spell. Something called a Mecrah Portal. Does that ring any bells?"
They shook their heads and Marloo answered, "I've never heard of that. Narmeelah would be the only one who knows. Any word from Psera yet?"
Odega sighed and shook her head. Then looked at the steel slab she was standing on top of. Based off the lines and runes, they were connected to each other. Possibly in the form of a puzzle. But even she knew don't mess with magic if you don't know what you're doing. And she didn't.
"Madun?... Madun... Your highness, can you hear us?" Celestia waved a hoof in front of Madun's face before his eyes blinked back open. Then focused on everything around him. Everyone in the room was staring at him. Awaiting for orders. As much as the generals needed to do that, this was his wife and the battle seemed to be over. The Queen was missing. Fresh Dawn had fallen back to sleep in his hooves. And her mother was missing.
Madun swallowed down his fear and stood back up to think. The only clue they really have over there in Equestria was of that steel slab. And they couldn't just go to a library and look that place up. That was the only clue they had over there overseas. But they had more than enough over here. Twilight creates all of her spells here.
Madun ordered, "I want a full investigation into that portal. I want an image of all of that printed off and delivered to the staff. I want Secretary Gardeen involved in this. She's with the Queen daily so I want her questioned. I want all of Queen Arcadia's books searched, I want all records of her visits to the library. I want her office searched, I want her laboratory searched, I want her Lavender Office searched. I want all of the Crystal Obelisks searched from top to bottom. If there's a lock, break it and search it. I want her office on Aquata Zero searched. I want the Code Base searched. Princesses, I want the best mages you know reading those books front to back. And finally... I want someone to explain to me... How I'm going to tell our daughter."
All eyes that could see moved down to the little filly sleeping away in his hooves holding a doll to her chest. So peaceful and innocent with no care in the world. With a mind to play and be happy.
Her mother may be dead right now.
A helmet was thrown down in anger onto the dusty ground at Private Smalls' hooves. Then she herself dropped down into it. The battle was won. The war was won. The previously infected ponies that Maheera had gotten her hooves on were now walking around normal, confused and devastated that all they ever knew was destroyed. But they were saved. Arcadia saved the, and sacrificed herself in the process.
Someone shuffled over and sat down next to her. Captain Gliding Sword. Her Captain. She sighed and said timidly, "Materials are being brought over from Psera by air, and Aquatas are on their way with more. We need to search and look out for anymore anomalies while an investigative team comes over to look at the portal more in depth."
Without looking up from the dark ground, Smalls assumed, "The Princesses?"
"Princess Cadance. She claims to know a few spells similar to the Queen's. I highly doubt she'll figure this one out." Captain Gliding took her own helmet off and wiped her forehead. Then looked around at the desolate landscape swarming with teams. At the dust and dirt. It reminded her of when the Queen first arrived on Psera. The Hippogriffs and a few freed Pegasi were doing what they could to help with first aid while other ponies were looking over the large steel circle.
She focused again on the Private next to her. Private Smalls was really young. Early twenties. All of this was new to her, but she was doing good so far.
Gliding wrapped her in a hug with her wing and pulled her in as close as she could. "You did great, rookie. Really great. You went deep into enemy territory, grabbed the Queen and helped get her here. Now... The war is won. All that's left now I'm sure is to rebuild."
"Then... Why do I feel like I failed the Queen?" Smalls whispered despondently.
Gliding reached out and raised her chin up to face her. "You didn't, kid. This was her decision. This was her Plan B. Her sacrifice was the Plan B. If there was another way that she could think of, I'm sure she would have. This was her choice." Gliding pulled Private Smalls into a deep hug and held her tight. She really needed one of these. "You fulfilled your duty, filly; and she hers."
The Queen did her job. Protecting her home. Protecting their home. Private Smalls took a deep breath and nodded her head into Gliding's vest. "Thanks, Captain."
"No problem." She let her go and tapped a hoof on Smalls' chest. "I'm motioning that a big fat pretty medal gets put right here for Bravery. There's no way anyone would have just walked through those streets up there to that castle alone. They're going to give you a medal. And I'm absolutely positive your mother would be proud of you." Captain Gliding threw her helmet back on her head and strapped it in place. Then picked up Smalls' and held it out to her. "Let's get these ponies home, kid."
The home of the King and Queen seemed empty now when Madun stepped inside. There was no sound. Twilight's library was empty. The kitchen was empty. The atmosphere seemed cold. He walked on silent and slow hooves to carry Fresh Dawn into her room. Once they were in, he leaned down and tucked her into her book bed. He really hoped they found some type of clue. Something that would help locate her. He doubted the Princesses would be getting any sleep right now.
Madun looked around at the magical walls displaying current activity outside. The Crystal Obelisk was glowing a bright purple and the city below it was calm and quiet. No more attacks. After a soft kiss to Dawn's horn he walked out of the room so he could get some sleep. But one side of the bed would remain cold tonight.
"Queen Twilight 'Arcadia Nova' Sparkle Missing In Action." The first thing on every single station in Psera the next morning. Images of the battle last night surfaced with horror as the response.
Rainbow Dash was the first pony to react out of Twilight's friends by literally throwing a random book at the wall, and storming out of her bedroom with Scootaloo and Applejack the next morning at six. Destination for the next floor up.
"Come on!" She yelled. "We're helping find Twilight!"
Applejack sighed and replied, "Yeah, but how? I don't know anything about magic and I doubt anyone else in here does either!"
Rainbow Dash climbed the staircase leading up to the third floor where all the action was taking place and replied, "I don't know, but we have to do something. Read all of her books, journals, anything." She brushed her way past the guards running back and forth through the halls and accidentally ran into Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer exiting a room on the left. Secretary of Royalty. Gardeen.
She was hunched down in there going over everything she could find on Twilight with Light Pink by her side. The LiVAM in front of her desk showed a report of the overnight action and zero progress on news.
These were just the ponies they needed to see. Rainbow quickly asked Sunset with a spirit of determination, "What can we do?"
Sunset had an idea. She waved a hoof and quickly walked further down the hall with them on her tail.
"Twilight's office is a little hard to navigate," she elucidated. "But we managed to find all of her books. We think. Secretary Gardeen has informed me that her office doesn't hold nearly all of her books on magic, and that she has wayyy more somewhere in Psera. She doesn't know where, but she does know it's around. If we can find that stash, we can possibly find that spell. But we don't know where to look, so we're searching her office for clues. Princess Celestia and Luna have been up all night. They haven't found much, but they did find something in her drawer."
Sunset Shimmer led them for the Throne Room and turned a right onto the red floors down into the Queen's hall. Guards were walking in and out balancing boxes of her books on their backs, then setting them down outside the door. Rainbow Dash glanced inside of them and assumed just more books. She's never been inside of Twilight's offices before. But Applejack has. And this room was a lot more empty than it was before.
All of her books had been taken down from their shelves and now sat in tall stacks on the green ground under their hooves. She recognized Starswirl the Bearded and a few others on the covers. Including some in Old Pseratopian that the Princesses were sitting around reading.
Celestia and Luna were using their magic like how Twilight would do to scan their pages rapidly before they were placed inside of new boxes. It was much faster and sped up the process. If they were doing this all night, then they were reaching maybe five hundred now.
Sunset walked around them and grabbed a small note from the top of Twilight's desk. Then teleported back over to Rainbow, "amazed" Scootaloo, and Applejack. "This was found in her desk in one of the lower bottom drawers."
Rainbow grabbed the sheet with her wing and looked it over. It was clearly balled up and discarded recently. Totally unlike Twilight. Being a Queen must've really gotten to her. But aside from that, this was a big clue. It was a perfectly drawn image of the "Mecrah Portal", as it's being called. Just on a sheet of paper. And above the drawing was a single number:
"Five nine one three eight?" Applejack read aloud.
Sunset nodded and explained, "Mages, such as myself, Celestia, and Luna use these as references to find certain spells in our libraries. It's a sort of ID in our Catalogues. If we can find this number somewhere, we'll be able to find the spell used, which will more than likely be an instruction manual in Twilight's case. Then we'll be able to figure out what exactly that is and how to get her out."
Rainbow passed the note back to her and assumed, "So Twilight's trapped in there."
"Yeah. And we need to get her out."
"Ugh!" They looked over to the Princesses and the familiar groan of frustration. To Luna who snapped another book shut which looked to be the last on her side. She set it down on the grassy ground and declared, "Nothing in any of these books hold a spell of any kind. Things that would help build a spell, yes. An actual spell, no. Not even a reference number."
Celestia closed her own book and sighed in frustration. "She is correct," she confirmed. "Not a single book in here holds a spell." She set the book she was holding titled "The Sanctuary" on top of her own stack and allowed the Guards to start taking them out. Leaving the room bare of any other readings that they could see.
Sunset Shimmer shut her eyes and stroked her face in confusion. "There must be a much bigger place in this castle," she groaned. Her hooves dropped back to the floor and she asked, "Did you check the library?"
Celestia rose to her hooves and answered, "Starswirl the Bearded is currently checking that area with Shining Armor. And a few other notable ponies in Equestria society is helping out all around us. Cadance is on Equestria looking things over from there. Hopefully, she is having more luck than we are here."
When Cadance landed back on Equestria, she was sure she would want to collapse and take a nap. But since the sky was clear and the sun was now shining, she got a good visual of all the destruction Maheera did to Equestria. The land was ruined. Entirely ruined. Just dirt and dust, all buildings were decimated and destroyed, and military were walking the scene looking over the creatures that were rescued. A few of them were covered in white blankets, which meant something else. But a majority were free and digging through debris and destruction. But the ponies under the blankets never left their minds. Out of all the creatures, around forty white blankets patched the shores to the ocean.
So no, she couldn't land on the coast of Las Pegasus and sleep. She swallowed her fear and continued forward through the barrier of destruction past Canterlot towards Ground Zero. Where the Mecrah Portal sat. Like a huge silver eyesore in the middle of a desert.
Psera's military, Hippogriffs from Mount Aris, and random ponies who were previously infected were on the scene. But Cadance ignored all of them so she could stride through to the place where Twilight was last seen.
The Mecrah Portal. She stopped at the edge of it and took a careful step on it to get a good feel. Steel. It sounded like it, and definitely felt like it. She made steel out of the dirt. Inly a true mage could pull off a spell like that. Twilight's magic was never to be tested.
Cadance diverted her eyes to Odega approaching in a hot blue coat of fur. Upon arrival she asked, "What are you doing?"
Without looking up, Cadance answered, "I'm getting a sense for how advanced this spell is so I can get an understanding of what I'm looking for. Twilight said it was a portal, but what kind of portal? It led somewhere but Twilight said to a prison. What kind are we talking about? Like Tartarus? To a cell of her own design? Or something even deeper in another dimension? Did anyone here get a good look at the portal when it first opened?"
"I did." Captain Dark Silver walked forward and stood on Cadance's left side. "It was black. Dark as the night sky without any stars. Dark as Private Smalls' coat. And they fell into it."
Cadance nodded and concluded, "So it was absorbing light. Whatever spell this was, Twilight poured hours upon hours of research into it to guarantee no escape of any kind. Not even light can escape."
Odega followed her sights to the slab and pointed to the lines and runes covering it. "I assumed this is a puzzle?"
Cadance shook her head and answered, "I'm not sure what these are. But they are connected to each other. See?" She pointed to the lumps sticking up like large rocks on the edges and dragged her hoof on the line until it hit intersections. The surface of the Mecrah Portal held indecipherable runes. But she could easily tell that whatever these stumps were, they were running a connection. But what could they... Why did this look familiar?
Suddenly it came to her. Cadance suddenly gasped and yelled, "Ahhh, okay!! I see what this is! Do any of you have those communication tool things that you—" Dark presented a Comm Block in front of her. "Why thank you very much. Where is this connected to?"
"It's connected to the Castle Staff, ma'am."
"Alright. How do you ummm..." Dark reached in and flicked a switch on the side of it. Whoo, Twilight has all the good toys. "Okay, uhh... Celestia, can you hear me?"
~✶~
When Cadance's voice swept through the Comm Block, Celestia beat Luna to it on Twilight's desk and held it up to her mouth. "Yes? Cadance? What did you find?" As serious as this was, she couldn't help but stick her tongue out at Luna's defeated face.
"So I have good news, bad news, and the worst news."
Sunset Shimmer strode in with other ponies and ordered, "Good news first. We all need good news right now."
"Alright, good news? I recognize the description of this. It's a prison portal that took years in the making. When Twilight would come visit me after Fresh Dawn was born for playdates, she'd tell me all about her plans of new spells. This Prison Portal that you all call 'Mecrah' is more than likely that portal she was telling me about as her super secret project. At first I thought it was all fun and games until she started to bring it up over and over. In which case I'd ask for more details and such. Bad news is, she never gave me too many details about it. Such as let me view it, what spell accompanied the tool, and how exactly it worked. But she did tell me a few things."
Celestia didn't realize this room crowded so fast. Even Madun showed up at some point with Her Majesty Molten Ice and Merry Fire standing next to her. And Queen Novo was coming to a stand beside Celestia. "What did she tell you, Cadance?" Madun inquired.
"She said that just like any portal spell and any type of prison, there was a way in, and there was a way out. Right now, based off of these runes I can make out, this is the 'IN' port. Which means..."
Celestia glanced up to Madun and answered, "There's an 'OUT' port."
"Correct. I don't know where it is because she never told me where she kept any of her spells' blueprints or anything else about her magical tools. But it's out there somewhere. Now..." Cadance sighed and said in a bland voice, "Time for the worst news."
"Lay it on us."
"You only have twenty-four hours to find it once the spell is cast. As a precaution, Twilight told me that she made the spell in the event it has been incorrectly cast, somepony could easily pull her back out by simply opening a regular portal on the 'out' port. She'd be able to cross through at the stomp of a hoof. But once the twenty-four hours are up, just like a regular cell, it's locked and sealed. And you will have to find the key to get her out. Have any of you found anything?"
Celestia looked around at all the empty shelves and answered, "The only thing we found was a small note with a rendition of the Mecrah Portal and a reference number. Five nine one three eight."
"Did you locate it?"
Celestia sighed and stroked her muzzle. "It's nowhere in her office, and since Starswirl is in here too..." Celestia referenced to Starswirl for a sign of hope. But he closed his eyes and solemnly shook his head from the side. "It's not in the library either. King Madun is here as well, so, it's not in her home library. Stars above."
"Yeah, you and I both know it will have to fall from the sky in order to locate that spell's blueprint. It's highly unlikely we'll locate it in a month, let alone twenty-four hours." Before Madun could rebuke her, she said, "Now before anyone blows up at me, I know Twilight. Celestia knows Twilight. Luna knows Twilight, and her best friends certainly know Twilight. And we all know this: If you cannot find a reference number in her library, then she... Hid it. No matter how smart Twilight is, she is a simple-minded pony. She doesn't make things too complex unless they must be. Especially for herself.
"If she wanted to locate a spell, she'd have it really close by within hoof's reach at her most visited locations with other spells possibly copied in different area; and if that room contains no spells, then I doubt you'd find it in there anyway. Not to mention the reference number is Five nine one three eight. Which means that spell would be hidden in a room big enough to hold over fifty-nine thousand one hundred thirty eight spells. It would take you all day and then some to find that number. Twilight took all of her spells from Equestria and hid them with those too. That would add hours of searching in one region."
Madun sighed and thought deep. That made sense. He remembered in the past when she just gave birth to Fresh Dawn, Madun asked what did Twilight do on her off time, she would answer coming up with spells and new skills. He asked where could he find these spells. Her answer rang like a fresh new bell in his mind.
"Oh sweetie... You'd have to look really really far and really really wide to find them." He knew then he might as well give up looking for all of these spells.
But he wasn't going to give up now. He nodded and said, "We'll continue looking. Thank you, Princess Cadance."
"You're welcome, King Madun. If you don't mind me asking... How is Fresh Dawn doing?"
He sighed and replied, "She... Doesn't know yet. I'm hoping to find her mother and bring her back, but... Looks like I'll have to tell her the news sometime tomorrow morning if nothing works out."
"I'm sure you'll find something. I'll stay here and help with the clean up. They uhhh... They have her crown and sword already packed up and ready to depart, I'm just waiting."
"Okay. Thank you again for your help."
"You're welcome."
Madun sighed through his nose and looked around at all the faces. They knew the situation was dire as much as it sounded: find the other portal within eighteen hours... Or Twilight is lost to them forever.
"Start looking," he ordered. "Send a message out over the networks that if anyone has seen anything, anything at all that may help, alert a guard at once. Or... We'll never see Queen Arcadia again. Set a National Alarm for twelve AM midnight. If it rings... She's gone."
Darkness. A chilling darkness. That was what was beyond the portal at first. Twilight could breath. She could see her body as light as day when she raised her hoof up to her eyes. But Maheera? Nowhere. She could be anywhere. Her coat matched everything in here. Black. Just... Just black. The worst Dark Magic wasn't Black Magic. And Twilight created Black Magic. The art of forging physical materials to bond with magical materials to create a magic so humongous, Narmeelah would have trouble staying in her seat just watching it all play out. A magic on the other side of Dark Magic.
The worst kind of Magic Twilight accidentally created. And was now hidden away. Never to be used. But just this once... "You fought my magic with your own version of it."
Twilight swiveled around and faced the evil red eyes of Maheera. Bound in endless chains, her hooves were spread out and a horn inhibitor was placed on her head. She had two forms: The Draconequus, and the Unicorn. But without the Unicorn horn, she couldn't change into a Draconequus. So here she was.
Stuck in chains in her hidden prison that Twilight doesn't even know all the details about. Was she scared? Absolutely. Was Maheera scared? Well she was chained up. If a snake decided to crawl out of nowhere, she was entirely defenseless.
Twilight sighed and admitted, "Yes I did. I didn't like it... At all. But it had to be done to keep you away from these innocent ponies."
Maheera let her head drop and admitted, "Then you and I? We both lose. Wanna know why? You're a novice at Dark Magic. It's uncontrollable, and entirely an accident. When Narmeelah created me, it was when she discarded all of her magical feedback to the side and accidentally created a chaotic version of herself. That chaotic version... It was me. It was dark magic. Everything I do it's thanks to the magic she created me with. In reality, if I wasn't created by Dark Magic, I'd be a Pseratep like everyone else in the very beginning."
Twilight could feel a story coming on. "When I was created, I looked around me and wondered why did all of these ponies get Narmeelah's pretty side. Why did she leave me behind? Leave the rest of her creations behind? I was her creation too, was I not? I was part of them! Why would she leave me behind?!"
Maheera took a deep breath and closed her eyes, shaking her head. "I learned the hard way that... Narmeelah favored Pserateps."
Favored. Twilight swam forward through this dark void to get closer to Maheera and repeated, "Favored? As in..."
"No," Maheera shot down. "No, not like that, but no one were as special as her personal creations, the Pserateps. They would never be. She spoiled those ponies. Giving them the biggest land any creature could ever want made of gold, the fastest of all fliers, minds smarter than anyone... Perfect in every single way. She loved the Pserateps and referred to them as her 'Chosen'. The race she loved the most. She could never say no to them." Twilight's mouth parted open slightly per word. "To reinforce this fact, she made sure to have everything 'Pseratep Only' by... Keeping other ponies away. Psera literally has the largest distance from any known country in the entire world. Five hundred miles is the closest. After that, six hundred. Three days per boat ride south of Psera for the Forgotten... Eh, it doesn't matter to you.
"But I didn't like that. So, to protest this, I created my own ponies out of her own and told Narmeelah that what she was doing was wrong. That all of her creations were perfect and they deserved to intermingle and not be neglected. Narmeelah swore that would never happen. So since she wasn't going to listen... I attacked her creations of Equestria and turned them into what you ponies call 'Infected.' My goal was to show her that no matter what they looked like, that they were all the same. Innocent lives. But, to prevent my tasks, she wiped them and the rest off the face of Equus and started the race over. Leaving Psera as the oldest race.
"I didn't really appreciate that either. I did it again once they were reborn and tried to attack Psera. I almost succeeded. But she was ready for me. She created the Legends of Psera to stop my movements and prevented me from moving forward towards my goal. Then they all fought and sealed me away.
"It happened again once I awoke and I lost, along with another time. But the last time before this, Narmeelah thought she could seal me away and destroy me by sealing herself away with me. When I broke out, she never did. Her wall remains. Is she dead? I don't know, nor do I care. She was nice to her ponies, but not so much to her other creations. Now you Pserateps know. But hey. We all smile to our subjects in public, but hide the darkest of all secrets from our real friends and family. Am I right?"
Twilight swallowed down her fear and whispered, "Is all of that true, Maheera Dark?"
"Every last of it, Queen Arcadia. What do I have to gain lying to you now? You put me in chains in the thickest of all darkness and disabled my magic. I'm not getting out of here and neither are you. " Maheera glanced up behind Twilight and whispered, "Especially now. Your prison's turning to gel."
What? Twilight looked over her shoulder and gasped at the find. All the way down there but can be clearly made out was a mass of purple goo. Spreading. Moving. Alive. And crawling right for them. What looked like bubbles were moving deep inside. The air was turning purple. Her creation. She forgot she put that in here.
She faced Maheera again and allowed that purple stuff to grip her wing and spread up her fur. "I appreciate you telling me the truth Maheera. But you're both wrong for what you've done."
Maheera nodded when a bit of that stuff gripped her cheek and crawled over Queen Arcadia's back. She whispered, "I know, Queen Arcadia. But... Which one of us is really the enemy?"
Twilight couldn't answer. Literally. Her smile was the last movement she felt before the gel crawled over her entire front and started to turn to a hard rock. The same with Maheera. Then she saw the darkness. With the truth at the top of her mind.