//------------------------------//
// Seal of Conflict 
// Story: Knights of the Realm 
// by Kinni 
//------------------------------//

The form that Twilight beheld could have passed for normal at a glance, it was a quadruped being with a somewhat cylindrical main body. It also had a head-like shape attached to it at one of the edges. Or rather, at the center. Or, no, there were actually two such shapes, one at each edge, or maybe there was just one huge hat-shaped mass hovering above the main body.

And speaking of the main body, it was indeed cylindrical, but instead of being a singular mass, it was more like a configuration of rings loosely attached together, or... actually, it was maybe more akin to a three dimensional jigsaw puzzle with countless pieces of varied shapes... But maybe that was just a trick of the point of view, and there were actually three separate "main bodies", each of which shaped in a different way.

And then there were the legs. Twilight was pretty sure there were four of them, but their arrangement didn't seem to be quite normal. Were they in a line? A prism shape? Stacked on top of each other? But in that last case, would that really be considered four legs instead just one very long one? Well, there were differences between all four of them and-

"KHH!" Twilight grunted, feeling like someone had just bucked her in the head.

Shaking her head in an attempt to clear it, Twilight almost instinctively did a self-analysis to figure out her condition, and her discoveries were enough for the Knight to understand how bad the situation really was:

First, the feeling on her head? That had been the Shard of Self acting automatically to bring her back to sanity, because the state of her mind had become as bad as when she used her chaotic release for a long while. Second, while she had a bunch of mental defenses and contingency spells, they had all failed to bring her out of that abnormal state, despite having activated.

Third, due to the way her Shard of Self worked, it would be very difficult for her to use any sort of chaos magic for a while, severely reducing her options for the current challenges. That was, in a word, unoptimal.

Still, it wasn't like Twilight would give up. She still needed to somehow deal with that seal, and that meant dealing with the... "sealing entity".  She decided to refer to it as such in her head. Not being able to look at the entity would only make it harder, so Twilight thought for a bit and came up with an idea.

Then, she infused her own mind with magic and twisted. She twisted her own point of view and perception before looking at the entity once again. That time, she was only able to see its shape as "a quaduped body", so Twilight sighed in relief before approaching it.

It didn't take quite as long to cross the distance as she expected, and nothing jumped out to attack her, so soon enough Twilight was free to examine the sealing entity from close range. Of course, what she examined wasn't the appearance of the entity, but simply its connections to the sealing magic that had been cast over the entire universe.

And after a few seconds of that, Twilight finally discovered something that could be considered good news. It was the fact that for all of its power, the sealing entity didn't appear to have a corresponding level of resilience, meaning Twilight would probably be able to kill it.

Initially, she thought that was strange, but upon further inspection, Twilight realized that this was simply because the entity had devoted essentially all its power to the seal, making its actual body relatively defenseless.

The question was, did Twilight really want to attack? She had very little information regarding the situation, specifically the reason for the creation of that seal. What if there was some utterly dangerous and malicious thing being suppressed by the Eternal World Seal? Wouldn't breaking it be the same as releasing that evil?

Twilight was a Knight of the Realm of Equestria, but even though she was far from home, that didn't mean her responsibilities had vanished. Simply doing whatever it took to go back home without thinking of the consequences was not a path befitting of the role she had taken.

Shaking her head, Twilight decided on an alternative. Since she didn't have information, the only thing to do was getting some, though it wasn't as easy as that made it seem.

Considering the way most analysis spells worked, Twilight would end up running into the same problem she had when merely looking at the sealing entity. Still, there was a possible alternative: The magic of empathy.

Twilight had received some instruction about said magic while growing up, and researched it even more after accepting Fluttershy as an apprentice, given the pegasus' obvious talent for said art. Because of that, Twilight actually knew quite a bit regarding empathic magic.

At its core, said magic was based upon understanding.

It was not the same type of understanding as that of the Eyes of Truth, for example, as it was based more upon feelings than straight information. However, that made it perfect for dealing with the very alien nature of the sealing entity.

Having made a decision, Twilight did not dawdle, and quickly closed her eyes to begin the preparations for attempting contact. It was more an art than a science, really. Twilight had to focus on her own feelings to be able to open her heart, before creating a trail of magic to establish a connection. And that trail was less like an arrow and more like a pillow, waiting warmly for the other to reach out.

It... didn't quite work. Twilight had expected rejection, been prepared for it, but what she hadn't expected was for there to be no reaction at all, like the other party weren't even aware of her. It was almost like the sealing entity was completely empty.

But of course that couldn't be the case, as long as it wielded magic, that meant something had to be inside to serve as the source of that power, so Twilight reached even deeper inside herself and offered a connection with even more insistence, like she was screaming "let's be friends!" with a megaphone.

Deeper and deeper, her magic and feelings echoed through the metaphysical space where the sealing entity's sense of self should be. She kept going despite the sense of screaming into a void, reaching out with everything she had... Until she found something.

It was small, minuscule even. It was certainly the smallest sense of self Twilight could imagine, and she barely dared to think about what it would feel like. Twilight could sum up the entire self of the sealing entity in just three words: Keep Them In. Everything that she (Twilight decided to refer to the entity as such) was and everything that she thought was reduced to that single idea.

Twilight was horrified and wondered what could cause that to somepony, and in wondering, she was directed to the answer, because on the other side of that sense of self was another connection, similar to the one Twilight had made and yet completely different. While the Knight's connection was based on understanding, that one was based on dominion, it was more like a curse sinking its fangs on the sealing entity.

And that curse was a message that repeated itself over and over again "You're nothing.", "You're worthless.", "Your actions have no meaning." and more and more without ever stopping, a constant stream of negativity and aggression.

Twilight understood what had happened. The sealing entity had erected that universal seal in order to block a truly evil existence, but that left a connection between them, allowing her to be bombarded by the negative thoughts of that existence nonstop for millions, billions of years, to the point where her very sense of self was worn down little by little.

Without realizing it, Twilight began to cry.

And she knew that it wasn't over. Even that last bit of the essence of the sealing entity was slowly being grinded away. It might take millenia upon millenia, or even more time than Twilight could conceive of, but eventually the powerful sealer would become no more than a puppet for whatever evil she had been trying to stop.

Twilight shook her head and terminated the connection. Now it was clear what she needed to do. The Knight needed to kill the sealing entity. This had completely ceased to be about returning home, and in fact, even if a passage back to her world opened up right that second, Twilight would still insist upon giving mercy to that woeful existence.

Because she could not call it anything other than mercy. If the evil managed to corrupt such a powerful being, not only would that cause trouble in a scale beyond imagination, but having the sealing entity become a puppet to that evil would go against all the sacrifice she had to endure.

Twilight understood that there would be consequences to that action. The evil thing would be freed from its seal to be able to cause terror somewhere. She knew that it was possible there was some other way she wasn't seeing, that maybe somebeing or other could potentially arrive and solve the situation in a better way.

But those were only possibilities, and Twilight decided that her best option was preventing the worst case scenario. On her honor as a Knight, she would not run away from that responsibility.

As soon as she made that decision, something changed. A figure appeared above the sealing entity in utter silence, but its presence was such that it was impossible to ignore. That figure looked somewhat hazy and misty like a mirage, but otherwise it looked exactly the same as the entity below it.

Twilight was startled by its appearance, but it only took a few moments before she realized what it was: Said figure was actually something similar to her own Shard of Self, an autonomous piece of awareness dedicated to a singular purpose, and in this case said purpose was to protect the main body.

Yet, despite its powerful presence, Twilight could not feel even a shred of magical power coming from it. The Sealing Entity had truly devoted everything of itself to the seal, but in this case how could its shard protect anything? The answer came as soon as Twilight had asked herself that.

The shard looked up, and then it remembered.

It was no actual attack or magic. There was no trickery involved. The only thing that shard could do in truth was bringing the memories of the sealing entity to the forefront.

But those memories had power in and of themselves. As the sealer of the world, her memories affected the world as if they were one and the same. And merely recalling a memory caused a reaction on the very fabric of existence. Said memory rippled through space and Twilight felt its meaning on her very soul.

It was a brief image of the sealing entity in her previous form declaring something in a language Twilight didn't understand, but the meaning of it was clear as a cloudless sky, and could be summed up as:

'If this is the true nature of the world, then I shall become the monster that opposes this world!'

And then it appeared, as if manifested by the very world itself. It was a figure that brought terror to all who beheld it instinctively. There were countless mouths, inside them an endless abyss, and their teeth sharp enough to cut space itself. There were paws, hands, tentacles and tails, all of them with claws, stingers, blades and other instruments of pain. There were wicked eyes that looked at everything as if it was either prey or nothing of value.

That figure was the perfect embodiment of the word "Monster".

As soon as it was complete, the monster attacked. It moved in a way that was half-pounce, half simply growing towards Twilight, acting at a speed that was much higher than anything of its size had any right to.

But it was not too fast for Twilight, who responded with three words:

"Magical Time: Retribution."

An immense amount of magical power exploded outwards from Twilight's body and then contracted back inwards like a heartbeat. The contracting power grazed on the leading edge of the monster, washing Twilight away and making her flow together with the attack, perfectly avoiding harm.

The Knight had already resolved herself, and a new opponent wouldn't make her waver in the slightest. So after avoiding that first attack Twilight prepared to counter attack. It would be difficult to use chaos magic, but she was good enough for the magic she had been perfecting for a long time already.

"Hero Time." She declared in a low voice.

All of Twilight's energy condensed into an aura of golden power that enveloped her body completely in an explosion of magic that was enough to cause the monster to retreat a bit. From nothing, Twilight condensed a pair of enormous and magnificent equipment: A sword taller than a house with a pommel of shining wood and a blade so sharp the air itself tried to evade its edge. And a round shield with the size matching the sword, made of a black metal deeper than the abyss, with the edges being silver strips that seemed capable of containing existence itself.

Both of them floated next to Twilight, the sword on the left and the shield on the right.

Twilight's retribution technique was sister to Fluttershy's World Standard, which was understandable, given they were master and apprentice, but despite both being designed to take "the opposing stance" they were actually quite different. While Fluttershy tried to channel the world and bring forth what it lacked, Twilight manipulated the concepts directly, forcing her power to take on the opposite concept of the opponent. So of course, what could oppose a monster, if not a hero?

There were other differences, of course, but Twilight could not show them off immediately. Instead she dashed towards the enemy, which had not stopped extending towards her. The monster had a nature that beckoned fear, but Twilight's hero form was immune to the mind shattering effects of that fear. The monster's very existence was noxious to everything, causing death and decay to all life, but Twilight's hero form rejected all evil, making even the strongest poison useless.

All that the monster had left was simply overwhelming physical power, and Twilight responded to the enemy's charge with one of her own. She moved her shield to parry and the sword to counter-attack, using the best fighting technique, bolstered by her aura and magic in order to challenge such a dominating opponent.

The hero and monster met. And Twilight was blown back, her aura flickering, cracks appearing on her sword and shield.

"Ghh!" Twilight grunted as she forcefully stabilized herself in the air.

That single collision had been enough to tell her that she was completely outclassed the way she was now. Her only hope would be actually completing her spell, and for that she needed time. Twilight forewent offense completely, focusing completely and utterly on defense. The shield was reinforced with every defense spell she thought would help, and the sword was placed to support it.

The monster clashed against the shield with the momentum of a superstorm and the hardness of compressed space. It had been even more powerful than the first attack, and even Twilight's improved defenses weren't enough to endure it. Her repaired equipment regained its cracks, her aura flickered even more fiercely, and her energy was already starting to show signs of depletion.

The situation was clear. The monster drew power from momentum, and would just get more powerful in face of a passive defense. That was untenable, but splitting into attack and defense hadn't worked either. A shiver ran through Twilight's heart at the notion that a full-on attack was the only option left. Yet, fear would not petrify the Knight. She let the shield disappear and focused all her energy into the sword, giving it an even more majestic appearance.

She then slashed at the monster that advanced once more.

That collision was almost too much. Twilight's aura had been completely broken, and her body had endured internal injuries that would give pause to even a Knight. On the other side, her full out attack had actually managed to dissipate some of the monster's momentum. If she could keep attacking, she might actually be able to turn the tables.

However, Twilight might as well wish for the monster to spontaneously explode. That single slash had taken literally every bit of energy she had. Doing a follow up was impossible without using an Overdrive, and she was quite sure even her biggest overdrive would not be enough to defeat such a powerful opponent before the backlash hit and she went unconscious.

True to her thoughts, the monster unleashed another attack before her energy returned, forcing Twilight into another clash that further aggravated her internal injuries.

The clashes continued, and the Knight was courageous and stalwart, refusing to give up even in that desperate situation. She used illusions, she used chaotic magic, she used every spell she thought could help, and exploited every strategy she could think of, but nothing came even close to overturning the situation.

At the same time as she fought, Twilight tried to complete her spell. Her goal was fully channeling the opponent's concept through the idea of action and reaction. That was an unimaginably difficult thing to do, which would be impossible without the aid of her chaotic magic, but she could do it.

Sadly, she couldn't do it fast enough. That was her first use of the technique, and the opponent was exceedingly powerful and full of hidden complexities. And even as Twilight refused to give up the fight, a part of her began to grow frustrated, and then hopeless, at the chances of achieving success before death.

Finally, despite her heart standing strong, Twilight's body faltered. Her magic stopped circulating and her sword vanished. The unicorn looked at the monster's final rush, desperately trying to complete her spell, even as she knew it was already impossible.

+0+

"DASH!!" Rarity screamed, and activated her telekinesis to catch her fellow Knight in the air.

Bringing the pegasus down to her level, Rarity used magic to scan the condition of her body, and the feedback from such was so strong that blood started leaking out of her right eye, but the unicorn barely cared. While the outside looked spotless (besides the marks from the battle they had just waged), her insides were being ravaged by powerful chaos magic, twisting and turning and breaking apart ceaselessly.

Before she knew it, Rarity found that Sunset was also besides her, examining the pegasus.

"This is bad. The seal magic is chaining Rainbow's soul, preventing her from saving herself." She shook her head and addressed Rarity "I'll try to break the seal in her soul, you fix her and get rid of the chaos magic."

Rarity nodded almost without thinking. She then focused every scrap of energy and awareness she had into preparing for her spell. She knew that her Restoration magic might be the only chance of saving Rainbow's life.

"You shall not take my student this day! BREAK!" Sunset shouted.

Sunset unleashed an awe-inspiring amount of power and injected it into Dash like a tsunami flowing into an abyss.

Rarity felt the seal shatter in front of that overwhelming power. It was her chance.

"Restoration!" Rarity shouted, and infused her magical power into Rainbow Dash.

Her magic quickly sought out problem areas, fixing the most crucial parts of the pegasus' body into a semblance of their former shape, and exterminating any bit of chaos magic that it happened to meet.

Rainbow Dash breathed in for the first time ever since being hit, proof that Rarity's repairs had been quite through.

Yet, they weren't enough.

That one breath was expelled back in a bloody cough, and Rarity's heart fell as the chaos magic seemed to leap out of nowhere, instantly multiplying inside Rainbow's body and ravaging it once again. And along with it the seal came back into existence.

"Tch! That wasn't enough! Pinkie, Fluttershy, support!" Sunset ordered, then turned to her fellow unicorn "It's okay, Rarity. We can still do it."

Said Knight nodded grimly. She knew the failure was hers, but falling into self-recrimination was not going to help, so she forcefully stabilized her emotions and recalled her previous spell, trying to figure out how to do better.

"Rarity, I have an idea." Pinkie spoke as soon as she got close "Fluttershy can connect my magic to yours, so you can feel and understand the chaotic energy easier." The pegasus nodded.

"Let's do it then." Rarity agreed immediately. She would agree to anything that had a chance of helping.

They did not waste any time. Fluttershy extended her wings and placed their tips on the cheeks of the two ponies. She did not declare any magic, and neither did Pinkie, but their souls flared up with power as  the great magic they were preparing was far more complicated than its subtle nature would suggest.

Rarity allowed their combined magic to infuse itself into her body, and as such was done, Rarity's perception of the world started to change, and that change was far more drastic than whatever she could have imagined.

Rarity's usual level of perception was already very out of the norm when compared with most ponies. From the constant training and battling, as well as her experiences in the Samsara of Ten Thousand Lives, the way she saw the world had become both broad and minute to an exceedingly high level. She was constantly aware of every single particle of matter and every single spark of energy in her immediate surroundings, with the scale of perception decreasing at higher distances.

And yet, Rarity found herself almost unable to endure the sheer information overload that this new point of view had given her. She instantly found herself with a new respect for Twilight and Pinkie, for being able to live normally despite seeing the world like this. Or at least in a similar way to this.

What Rarity saw was possibility. She could tell than any of the endless particles of dust that composed the ground could spontaneously turn into gold at any moment. She could tell that by taking a normal step forwards in the right way she could move backwards for dozens of paces. She could tell that every single second of time could be expanded or contracted just by thinking about it.

Yet, Rarity barely took a moment to get her focus back. Her current goal was too important to be distracted. She looked back at and into Rainbow Dash's body. Using her new awareness she analysed the two interconnected spells that were the source of the current crisis.

The problem became obvious immediately. She already had an inkling that the main part of the spell was the chaotic energy, which could remake the soul seal as long as it existed. However, that closer look made Rarity aware that the chaos magic was phenomenally hard to get rid of.

It's existence was tied to the concept of cause and effect. As long as any effect of it existed, the chaotic magic would reverse the order of causality, resulting in the effect producing the cause.

She had to get rid not only of the underlying causes, but also of all the effects and essentially "reset" Rainbow Dash's body back to its previous condition. Having taken note of this, she nodded to Sunset, who once more unleashed her magic to destroy the seal.

"Restoration!" Rarity shouted again, but this time the effect was far different from before. Thanks to her chaotic point of view, Rarity's magic had changed slightly, and her spell did not infuse itself into Rainbow's body as before, instead it seemingly congealed itself out of the very space which her form occupied, then extending back towards Rarity's horn to allow for more direct control.

The spell manipulated the very matter that composed the pegasus, bringing it back to the state just before she was hit by that dreadful spell, when she had been patched up from her limit breaks but had injured herself back a bit with the magic she contributed to their combined strategy.

The spell connected with the remnants of the broken seal spell, using that connection to target the chaotic strands that were trying to once more undo Rarity's work, as well as the ones that were concealing themselves by mimicking Rainbow Dash's very cells.

But then things started going wrong. As if sensing that it's previous passive approach wasn't going to cut it that time, the chaos instead began actively fighting against Rarity's efforts. The magic shifted at extreme speeds, throwing energy around in such a wide spread that any particular point of magic was barely enough to affect a single cell, but there were so many of them doing so many different things at once that even Rarity was hard pressed to keep them under control.

It was like trying to catch every single drop of rain from a storm at the same time.

And yet, Rarity actually appeared to be suceeding. Slowly but surely her magic gained ground while the chaos was dissolved... But then her spell was broken all at once.

"Wha..." Rarity started to say, but then she realized. It had taken too long and the seal magic had time to reappear, thus stabilizing the chaotic magic and booting her out.

'This is not enough.' Rarity thought 'I need to be faster, more accurate, use my power in the most precise way possible. I need to be...'

'Perfect'.

+0+

A certain conversation had occurred between Rarity and Trixie in relatively recent times, after one of their lessons. It started with Rarity asking a question.

"Trixie, I've been wondering about it for a while, but why do you rarely use Perfect Illusions and similar magic anymore?"

The showmare looked at Rarity for a few seconds while trying to formulate a response. Rarity found it very surprising, and wondered whether she had unknowingly touched upon something deep.

"The short answer to that question is that I'm actually still using such magic, but in a new way." Trixie eventually answered "I created the Perfect Illusion when I was a child based on the idea of focusing all of myself into making a spell as perfect as possible, which turned out to be a lot more demanding than expected, and caused me to attract the Princess' attention.

"I developed it further and further with time, but after acting as a Knight for some time, I ended up developing my magic in such a way that made declaring Perfection less important, and sometimes even detrimental. Because my current style of magic is essentially like using complete focus for every spell and every action and always seeking the absolute best results. That's what I call the Path of Perfection." The Knight spoke clearly, in a very serious tone, making it clear how much importance she gave to it.

"The Path of Perfection..." Rarity was surprised that the reason would be something like this.

"Do I detect some interest?" Trixie asked, with a hint of teasing in her voice "That was the way I found to develop myself as a Knight. All of us have to find paths to strength that are suited for us, and maybe this one would be adequate for you." Then she became serious again "However, I must ask you to not make a decision on that without the appropriate level of determination."

Rarity nodded firmly, and waited as it seemed that Trixie had more things to say.

"The Path of Perfection is extraordinarily demanding." Trixie spoke "All paths to strength on the level we need are difficult, but this one is unique in that it essentially means constant effort. You need to strive for perfection in everything. Not just spells and combat, but also walking, breathing, and even thinking. You must never allow yourself to settle for anything less than the best you can do, otherwise you'll fall off the path, and lose everything."

Trixie's words stunned Rarity. She could never have imagined that her teacher's increase in strength had come through such an extreme method. Even imagining what it would take to achieve what was described made Rarity feel tired, much less actually doing it.

Their conversation shifted to other topics, but although Rarity was discouraged from following in Trixie's steps, that conversation became engraved in her mind, and a small desire appeared in the depths of her heart.

+0+

In the extreme situation where Rainbow Dash's life hung in the balance, Rarity's small desire resurfaced, and her determination could not possibly be greater.

She made her decision.

That all had taken only a few moments, and the other Knights had been looking at Rarity and preparing for the next attempt. And so they felt the sharp change that occurred on her.

Her magic stood still, perfectly controlled despite her raging emotions. She stood up straighter, correcting the position of her legs. She took a breath that was neither too long nor too short. She opened her eyes, which had been closed during her previous spell, and Sunset could see that they seemed deeper in a way that was hard to describe, but very familiar.

Somehow she reminded Sunset of Trixie.

That was all a moment of preparation, following which Rarity looked at Sunset and nodded, her meaning clear.

For the third time on that day, Sunset unleashed her power to break the seal. And Rarity cast.

"Perfect Restoration!"

This time it was noticeably different from the others, though none of the Knights present truly understood to what extent that was the case. They could tell that the flow of Rarity's magic was far more uniform and smooth than before, and despite apparently using less magic, it seemed to be more fuller, or more condensed than before.

If one were to look deeper, the true extraordinariness of that magic became apparent. Rarity's control of every single strand of power was absolute, the magic power having reproduced a portion of her consciousness into a multiplicity of controlling wills that worked together flawlessly, almost as if a million Rarities were casting the spell at once.

It was just a small portion of her that was copied, though, more like a bunch of autonomous spells than anything else, but even that was already an astonishing feat, and one that was perfectly suited for the current problem. And yet, that wasn't all.

As before, the chaotic magic fought back, but this time the situation was far different. Each of the controlling wills of the spell sought out an opposing strand of chaos and bound itself to it. None were left behind, and the Knight had created the exact amount of wills such that there were none left over.

And though a few of the pieces of chaotic energy tried to take advantage of that exactness, either by splitting apart or fusing together, Rarity's own magic replicated their actions perfectly, not because she had already predicted it would happen, but because she was capable of reacting instantly and precisely to even unexpected occurrences.

The magic of the Knight captured every single bit of chaotic energy inside Rainbow Dash's body and suppressed it, before doing the magical equivalent of turning it inside out, forcefully changing the very nature of that power. And without missing a beat, she directed that new power into fixing the body of her patient.

Rarity's previous attempts had left some residual energy inside Rainbow Dash, and so trying to use more of her magic in such a way would be met with interference. And although in her current state Rarity would easily be able to compensate, it was not the most optimal solution, and in the face of that, the Knight opted to hijack the enemy's magic instead.

That part was something two of the other Knights present were capable of perceiving, Pinkie due to her ability with chaos magic, and Fluttershy due to currently sharing that perception. Both of them could barely believe that such a malicious chaotic spell could be turned into healing magic so quickly.

And yet the truth was clear to their senses, and soon to those of Sunset, as Rainbow Dash's magic stabilized and her body started looking much better, until her expression calmed down and her eyes opened.

"Rarity..." She spoke in a voice almost too low to be heard, since her sore throat had been there before being hit, and so Rarity could not fix it immediately.

"Rainbow Dash..." Rarity replied, her voice containing a trace of deep joy, to the point where it would not feel out of place were she to burst out into tears.

However, the Path of Perfection was relentless, and the Knight was unable to simply let herself go. Instead, she was thinking over the previous spell, finding quite a lot of mistakes and places where she could have done better. That could be said to be the hardest part of the Path of Perfection. Accepting one's own mistakes while never losing the drive for improvement.

Still, it was not a heartless Path, and Rarity showed her emotions by dropping down her head and nuzzling her fellow Knight lightly.

A moment was passed in silence like that.

"Yes!" Sunset shouted in joy, standing on her back legs and punching the air.

"We did it!" Pinkie Pie seemed even more exuberant than usual, ballons bursting out of her body.

Fluttershy did not react vocally, but her smile was enough to tell of her current feelings.

Rarity looked up with a smile, and suddenly felt the urge to talk to her master about what she had achieved, but then her expression changed to one of confusion.

"Where is Trixie?" She asked.

+0+

"In the Realms of the Unreal, Reality and Illusion... Are the Same." A voice resounded throughout space, one that Twilight recognized.

The voice did not spoke hurriedly, and the approaching attack also did not slow down to wait for it, but all those words were somehow still said in the short interval of time before Twilight was hit.

On the same moment as those words finished, the chaotic Knight experienced a strange but not unfamiliar sensation. She had gained a second point of view, one who could see her own body and the advancing enemy at a distance.

That double vision only lasted for that one moment, however, as the Twilight close to the monster got utterly annihilated, leaving the distant vision of the scene as the only one left. And in the following instant, Twilight became aware that her body had changed, and came to understand exactly how she had been saved.

A familiar looking unicorn appeared close to the monster, seemingly out of thin air.

It was Trixie. And Twilight knew that her fellow Knight must have secretly followed her inside the portal, in order to act as backup in case of problems.

"Here comes Trixie Lulamoon, Knight of the Realm of Equestria!" She declared grandly "Are you ready?"

And with a wave of her horn, she cut the monster in half.

Twilight's heart skipped a beat, and her thoughts came to a halt. She could not comprehend what had just happened.

The monster's two halves forced themselves together, and with a roar that shook the air, they pounced upon Trixie once more. But the unicorn disappeared from their path and appeared below, unleashing a wave of pure motion that forced the huge monster quite a ways away and flattened his body.

"Hihihi... Looks like you're quite eager for your participation in this show." Trixie giggled in a way that was fairly unusual for her.

And at that moment, Twilight hit upon an explanation of what was going on. One that chilled her to the core.

The strange phenomenon that saved her life was easier to accept: Trixie had turned her into an illusion, truly shifting the entire nature of her body. She could briefly recall some magic flowing into her at the last moment, one which she did not fight off instinctively, due to being Trixie's own magic.

Even then, it would not have been possible were she not already quite weak from the fight. And at the same time as Trixie manipulated her body, the illusionist also created a second illusion that was so similar to her transformed body that even Twilight's very soul got confused as to which of them was the real body, thus it connected to both, leading to the double-vision phenomenon.

And then, with one of those bodies having been destroyed, the soul snapped back to the other one, effectively making it the new "real" body. Although it sounded unreasonable, the original trio had already discussed that possibility, though only in the most theoretical terms.

First because there were simply too many demerits. Twilight's current body was made of illusion, and it was so fragile that trying to use any advanced spells would destroy it, meaning that for her to go back to her job as a Knight would take a large amount of effort and magic in order to rebuild her original form, and more than anything, it would take time.

Trixie could go around it because she had the spell and her dreamsoul to "anchor" her soul and "store" an image of her previous material body she could then shift back into. In a certain sense it was like her flesh was a piece of clothing she could take off and leave somewhere else.. On the other hoof Twilight was now effectively a bystander in the current fight.

But the second reason why they had not truly planned on using it was because it was simply too complicated and costly for Trixie to do on short notice.

She had obviously done it, but there were many ways she could have made it possible, starting with her having been secretly preparing the spell for quite a while before.

However, the only explanation that could also cover her current fighting abilities was that she could do it because her power and magic had explosively advanced in an incredibly short time. And the only way Twilight could imagine that could happen would be...

"Hey, I'm sure you're wondering what I'm doing." Trixie spoke in a lighthearted tone that sounded just a slight bit off "You see, I had been using this magic to create things that actually exist, but one day I realized that I did not need to do that."

She kept speaking while fighting against the monster, and the more she spoke, the more Twilight's heart fell as she realized that her conjecture was right.

"So I decided that since this is my world, I don't need to be limited to the material. I can create... Concepts." Trixie continued speaking "Like the concept of cut, or the concept of shove. Those are only pale imitations of the real ones, but they're still quite good, don't you think?" She smirked.

Twilight shook her head. No, Trixie was not supposed to be like that. She was showy, but she could control herself, while the current Trixie appeared to be drowning in her own existence and actions. This Trixie was somepony who had lost sight of everything but the spotlight.

The Knight who was watching her sister fight forced herself to accept the truth. Trixie had lost herself.

Princess Celestia had long before spoken to them that sometimes gaining power was like sinking into the depths of a murky black lake. If you were lucky, you could swim back up to the surface, but sometimes the water was too cold and you would be unable to swim. And sometimes the water was too dark and you would lose sight of which way was the surface, swimming aimlessly until you lost strength.

And sometimes you would be so focused on diving deeper that you would entirely forget that you were supposed to go back up.

Twilight felt like crying when she realized that the likely reason why Trixie would go so far was because she felt there was no other way to save her.

But Twilight did not cry. She did not forget that Trixie had still saved her, even while in such a state. That meant her sister wasn't completely gone. Trixie was still in there somewhere, and Twilight would not forgive herself if she failed to pull the illusionist back up.

There was only one thing Twilight could do. Trixie's presence had provided the time she desperately needed, and while the illusion body would limit her magic options and make it more difficult, Twilight would still be able to complete her supreme spell, one which could turn around the entire situation.

Soon after she thought that, there was a change in Trixie's battle. The monster stopped, and the shard of the sealing entity appeared above it, heralding a new development.

Once again, the shard remembered.