//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: Incarnate // by Revel Montaro //------------------------------// Once the journal was in place the portal sprang to life. Magenta magical essence passed from the artifact, through the machines and pumps that Princess Twilight had assembled, and finally the smooth glass of the mirror rippled with energy, changing color. For a moment, Sunset could see the kaleidoscope of colors and patterns, a glimpse of the world beyond the transport corridor, before it settled to a familiar ripple like a pond. Three unicorns and two alicorns nodded to one another and took up positions and prepared their magic, each horn glowing a different aura color. “I just want to go on record saying I have a bad feeling about this,” Starlight said, glancing to Twilight and Sunset. “Is no pony else going to acknowledge the huge cliché we are tempting right now?” “It will be fine, Starlight,” Twilight reassured her with a smile. “Besides,” Sunset added, “If this is the only way to save my friends then there is no turning back now.” Starlight nodded, hardening her resolve. Anything for a friend and loved one. That was something she could understand and focus on. “Focus your matrix, see the individual threads that connect to the apparatus,” said Star Swirl who stood in the center of the group. “Once we begin to disconnect the flow we will not be able to stop. The blowback could be devastating. Be aware the magical coalescence will fight us as we begin to disassemble the connection, but it is vital we hold onto the flow streams once disconnected. Celestia, as the strongest, will need to collect the threads in order to tie them off so they do not flail and pull additional magic in from across the source. That would be disastrous for both our worlds. Once sealed, the magic should subside over time.” Celestia fired her magic first, connecting to a corner of the mirror frame. “Let us begin.” ---------- Much to Twilight’s surprise and pleasure the rest of their friends had indeed taken the time to join her and Pinkie at the impromptu picnic by the statue. Rarity had been the first to arrive, her small car coming to a skidding stop before she speed-walked most of the way to the checkered blanket with a feral grin on her face. A few yards away she stopped, checked herself in the hand mirror, fluffed her hair, and reigned in her toothy grin to a composed, Sunset-like smirk. Pinkie and Twilight glanced between one another knowing what was coming. “Darling!” Rarity beamed, “I’m so glad you called!” Twilight smiled politely, pushing her glasses back up her nose. “It was Pinkie’s idea actually. I was just going to sit here with my EMF detector because Sunset was not sure how long this was going to take. I'm of course glad you came, but I didn’t want to bother everyone.” “Oh, nonsense. Both you and Sunset are precious to us and we gladly stand by your side. She is, afterall, doing… whatever she is doing for all of us, correct?” Rarity sat down and grinned while placing her face in her hands. “That being said, I assume you two had a wonderful ‘talk’ last night?” Twilight fiddled with her hair, unable to control her blushing face. “We watched a movie, talked, obviously there was a lot to talk about, but there was also a lot of cuddling.” Rarity’s eyes were approaching an anime level of large, round, and glassy shine. “We woke up several times last night and she sang to me in the middle of the night after finishing up on the original song she had been working on. It was beautiful.” “Plus, there was sex, like a LOT of sex. I can still smell Sunset aaaaalll over her,” Pinkie said with a sly grin. Twilight had been expecting another Pinkie Pie spit take moment and simply rolled her eyes, but also took a moment to smell her shirt collar. “Cupcake?” Rarity squealed happily. Twilight took the cupcake and shoved it in Rarity’s face. The fashionista gasped, but then just giggled while chewing the desert and cleaning her face. “Sweetie, there is nothing to be embarrassed about! You two have been ogling one another for quite some time. This is a time for celebration.” Pinkie gestured to the blanket and spread of snacks. "Well, duh!" “Was I really that obvious about it? I was trying not to be, I mean it wasn’t all bad with Timber, he taught me quite a lot about being in a relationship and I hope we can still be friends, but yes Sunset is… amazing.” Twilight sighed and giggled, a dreamy expression on her face. “Ugh, I’ll be honest, I am not going to hang with you if I have to hear about your sex life all the time,” Rainbow Dash sat and retrieved a cupcake of her own. “Seriously, this is what? Twice in less than a week? Is this one of those, ‘it’s always the quiet ones,’ sort of things? Are we next going to have to hear about how Fluttershy is a huge dom and likes roleplaying and pegging her boyfriend or something?” Fluttershy gasped and hid behind her hair before she could sit down. “I, I don’t have a boyfriend,” she said barely above a whisper. Rarity gave Rainbow Dash a light slap on the shoulder. “It’s romantic! Self-discovery! Love conquering cross dimensional borders and years worth of repression and confusion! We should all be so lucky to discover a love so enrapturing.” “Hey, what ever gets your rocks off. As long as it doesn’t break up the circle of friends, I’m cool with it. I’m tolerant and open like that.” “Eloquent as always, RD,” said Applejack. The group shared a laugh. Pinkie fell back with a gasp and began to shake and convulse. She jumped to her feet as if she were trying to shake ants from her limbs. Everyone gathered stopped talking immediately and sat with looks of confusion and concern. “Pinkie!” Twilight was first to regain her voice and wrapped her arms around their friend the moment she stopped shaking. “What happened? Was that a seizure? Do you need an ambulance?” Pinkie’s hair began to flatten, her skin felt cold and clammy, even her bright blue eyes began to take on a greyish color. She wiped the tears from the corners and pointed a shaky hand towards the stone plinth portal. “That… that was a heck of a doozie. I’ve never felt… something’s very wrong.” “What’d ya mean, ‘wrong’?” Before she could reply to Applejack, Twilights EMF device began to beep, the needle gauge twitched then danced wildly. All eyes turned to the polished surface of the stone plinth as it began to glow. ---------- Sunset concentrated on her matrix, forming the complex calculations with her magic. Despite being rusty, she was pleased with her control and how easily she fell back into the groove of unicorn magic. It took a moment to find the flow point she was assigned, but when she did the feedback made her flinch. A moment later she heard Princess Twilight gasp as well. Star Swirl and Starlight grunted and growled. “It’s… like sticking my horn into an electrified mana well!” Starlight said, fighting to keep her eyes open from the discomfort. Sunset nodded slightly in agreement. It wasn’t pain exactly, just lots of tingling and pressure as if the world itself was beginning to press down upon them as the threads began to unravel. “Ahhh!” Twilight exclaimed as her thread came loose. Celestia had been ready and quickly seized it in her magical grasp. The swirling vortex of the mirror changed from a magenta color to blue then to green. What startled everyone in the room however was the sudden pull that caused all five ponies to dig their hooves in. A moment later some of the defensive runes Princess Twilight had been working on flared to life and the pull subsided. “One down, four to go!” shouted Star Swirl. His thread soon broke loose as well. “Make that three! I’ll start preparing the last…” The pull returned, but was more intense than before. Starlight and Sunset both nearly lost hold of their threads as more runes flared and a few burned out. “This is not good, the defenses I planned for were not enough! We haven’t even broken through to the in between and have already lost a third of the deflection shield," said Twilight, her voice cracking a bit. Star Swirl watched carefully as the vortex changed multiple colors again, lines like purple lightning beginning to form on the wavering glass surface. “We have to keep moving forward. If we stop now the feedback whiplash may shatter the mirror and cause a singularity, collapsing our entire universe!” Sunset and Starlight finished both their threads and Celestia let out a painful grunt as she fought to control the four conduits of magic that thrashed about like headless hydras. “We need to finish this! They are fighting me as if they were alive!” “Magic is part of life, it grows, ebbs and flows. It may very well be alive, how fascinating!” Celestia grunted again, nearly falling to a knee, “Not now, Star Swirl!” “Celestia!” Sunset shouted, reaching out to the sun princess. Celestia smiled at her daughter’s genuine concern and doubled her effort, regaining her footing. Once sure of her hooves under her, Celestia nodded to indicate she was in control. Sunset took that moment to scan the defensive shields Starlight and Twilight had crafted and balked at the numerous cracks and holes that were shifting about. Twilight was right, the defenses were crumbling too quickly. “Only one left,” Star Swirl shouted over the near hurricane force winds that were swirling about the protective dome. “Prepare to jump through, child, the princess will follow behind and pull the magic with her. If for some reason the exit portal slams close before Celestia exits, focus all your remaining will power and magic on thoughts of her. Those thoughts and emotions will act as an anchor for Celestia to find you and add to her strength to pierce the veil.” Sunset nodded, stepping up to the mirror. The once pristine surface was now covered in angry purple cracks that should not have been possible given its more viscous state of matter. Sunset turned back to Starlight Glimmer and Princess Twilight and smiled. “Thank you both, for everything. The journal should still work and I’ll message you once we are on the other side.” “Prepare to jump.” Sunset turned next to Star Swirl. “I’d like to say it has been a pleasure and an honor, but that would honestly be a lie. You have been a pain in the ass, but still, thank you for doing this for me.” Star Swirl rolled his eyes but still kept a thin smile. He had been called far worse over his many years. He was about to reply when the vortex caught his attention. The color having gone out of it, now appearing completely black. Sunset caught the sudden change in his demeanor and turned to see what caught his attention. She jumped back with a shriek when two glowing red eyes with black slits for pupils and greenish sclera appeared before vanishing into the pulsating black mist just beyond the mirror veil. “What the hell was that?!” Sunset shouted, looking to the other ponies, but none had answers either. “Is… are you still going to jump through now?” Starlight asked, clearly concerned, her horn glowing with a prepared spell to unleash. Hesitantly, Sunset took a step forward when the veil shattered and the black mist broke through. Sunset was thrown back nearly knocking Star Swirl over who had already began unraveling the last flow thread. A bestial growl erupted from the cloud as it tried to spread through the room but crashed into the defensive spells and dome before retreating back into the confines of the mirror casing. The eyes reappeared, scanning the room. Twilight helped Sunset back to her hooves and the three mares prepared spells to defend themselves. Celestia gasped as a toothy maw with fangs broke across the cloud. “THERE YOU ARE!” Sunset had to fold her ears back from the harsh gravel and acid that dripped from the voice that she felt as much as heard. It sent a shudder through her entire body like ice in her veins. While her natural fight or flight instincts were torn between wanting to survive and not wanting to destroy the mirror, two black tendrils shot from the mirror and latched onto Princess Celestia. Celestia screamed in pain, unable to defend herself as she tried to hold onto the conduit magic. Twilight and Starlight who had already charged up spells blasted the two tendrils in half and a growl escaped from the cloud that once again began to invade their space reality. Sunset prepared her own spell in case the formless monster tried to attack again. “I… can’t hold this… much longer.” Sunset took her eyes off the mirror just long enough to look towards Celestia who was still fighting to hold the mirror magic together and with obvious signs of pain in her expression. The tendrils had left small burn welts where they had wrapped around her forelegs. As she turned back, more tendrils shot forth. One smacked Starlight across the horn hard enough Sunset was afraid it had broken it. She fell to the ground with a scream and curl up in pain. Another dodged around Princess Twilight's blast, wrapped around her barrel and slammed Twilight into the defensive spells causing them to discharge though her body. Twilight fell to the floor as well with smoke coming off her spasming body and wings, fur badly singed in places. Sunset screamed in defiance and let loose a stream of fire that forced the dark appendages to retreat once more before they could further harm her friends. Sunset gasped, canceling her follow up attack as the mirror once again began pulling everyone in the room towards it as the dome collapsed and the last of the defenses failed. Star Swirl lost his concentration and his spell matrix failed. A tendril slithered out of the shadow cloud and wrapped itself around his throat, the mage’s eyes bulging from the constriction. Sunset did not hesitate and sliced the tendril off with a blast of crimson magic. Star Swirl fell to the floor, coughing and gasping for air. “Sunset.” The unicorn turned to the white alicorn who had called her name. It had been said in a weak, pleading tone, desperate to convey as much sympathy as she could with her eyes as she did with the simple calling of her name. Sunset understood the expression. They were losing and the mirror portal was collapsing with all their defenses gone. Sunset understood it in her head, but her heart wept. They had come so close and she had promised her friends she would come back, but now? Sunset glance about the room. Twilight and Starlight were still down, Starlight in tears in pain and Twilight twitching and fighting to stay conscious. The mirror was hidden behind the smoke and creature, possibly no longer connected to CHS and Earth at all. The situation was dire and needed to be contained or millions if not billions of innocents could die. Celestia could have made the decision without her consent, she could have destroyed the mirror without hesitation, but her eyes said she wanted Sunset’s permission. She wanted her daughter to know in that wordless expression how sorry she was and was begging for forgiveness. Twilight… I’m so, so sorry. A tear ran down her cheek and Sunset nodded. She could not risk all of Equestria for her happiness. She knew what had to be done. These were the kind of world shattering choices Sunset had once been trained to face as Celestia’s student, but even with those old lessons in mind Sunset’s heart broke. She could only pray her friends would be safe and would understand in the end. Sunset found the partially unraveled thread and began tearing it apart as quickly as she could. Two new tendrils shot forth again. One wrapped around Celestia’s horn, canceling her magical hold on the portal magic, the other wrapped tightly around her neck, cutting off her larynx. The grip Celestia had on the flow was lost and magical sparks began to explode all about the room, one caught Starlight in the face, knocking her against the far wall. Despite her alicorn strength, Celestia was dragged towards the portal, eyes bulging and going bloodshot from the vice grip upon her throat, golden hoofguards leaving gouges in the crystal floor. “Let her go you son of a bitch!” Sunset roared in anger. She released her spell matrix and once again attacked the tendrils but this time with a flaming red longsword she had not known she could conjure. The blade cleanly cut the tendrils and carved a molten groove into the crystal floor. In her hesitation of admiring the weapon she had created the flailing tentacle tendrils recovered and wrapped around Sunset's legs and body. She tried to use the blade again, but lost the spell when another tendril wrapped her horn so tightly Sunset thought it might rip the protrusion from her head. Her teal eyes went wide and she screamed in pain as two more tendrils shot forth and wrapped around her neck and hindlegs, pulling Sunset into the black cloud. “SUNSET!” Celestia choked out, fighting to get back to her hooves. She spread her massive wings about to jump into the cloud as well when a spell energy whip smashed through the cloud and mirror frame beyond, collapsing the portal. The pulling sensation inverted and sent out a massive shockwave of explosive energy, shattering every window in the room and destroyed several of the book cases. Celestia shook her head, the ringing still playing through her ears, but her eyes had returned to focus on the elderly unicorn who was using the last of his magic to collapse the singularity that had tried to form upon the mirror’s destruction. It was then that her mind had finally processed what her eyes were seeing. The shattered remains of the Lunar Lock mirror were in a smoking pile, while the last remnant of cosmic tears to the veil faded to the ether where her daughter had been pulled through and was now trapped between worlds. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?”